Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

OK, so admittedly, we had to remind ourselves exactly what a ‘Zeitgeist‘ was. Once we’d done that, we headed over to Google to view the most popular web searches for 2008. Why they didn’t just call it ‘most popular searches 2008′ is beyond us, but nevertheless it’s an interesting indication of what people around the world are thinking about.

Marketeers might want to pay special attention to the amount of searches for web 2.0 sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace.

Google Zeitgesit

Once upon a time, tele-marketing used to be reputable (well, almost reputable)… if you told someone not to call you again, they generally didn’t. Nowadays it seems to be the scurge of the marketing world… silent calls, mysterious foreign call centres, pre-recorded ‘are you in debt?’ messages and calls at all times of day or night. In fact sometimes it’s actually a surprise to receive a call from someone you know, rather than from someone trying to flog something you don’t want.

And that’s kind of the point… whilst there some a valid argument for tele-sales, we feel that this is one form of marketing that the world could do without. The reason is simple… it’s an interruption to your already busy and stress filled day (why is it these calls tend to happen when you are in the shower for example?).

To reduce annoyance calls, you could of course subscribe to the Telephone Preference Service and that certainly seems to help, but many unscrupulous companies are circumnavigating the rules, by basing their call centres abroad.

We particularly hate those pre-recorded messages, asking us if we would like to “save money” on our utilities. We also loathe it when the patronising voice informs us that “this is a free call” (yes we know… you called us remember!). But what do you do in this instance? Do you listen to the message and get put on hold (to find out who is calling and tell them to stop)? Or do  you simply hang up, knowing darn well they will be calling you again in a few days?

One free solution is a service called ‘Whocallsme‘. Providing you can establish the callers number (by dialling 1471) you can do a search to find out who it was calling. Admittedly, some nuisance calls use a withheld number, but we’ve been surprised by how many that actually don’t (maybe they’re hoping you will see their number as a missed call, and actually call them back!).

If enough people complain to the company that originated the call… then the message actually might get through, and if it’s a UK based company, they may have a legal obligation to comply (see the TPS site for further details).

The best solution of all though, is something called ‘Truecall’ which screens calls for you (a bit like having your own full time PA!). We won’t explain the device in detail here, suffice to say it’s a great piece of kit (if a little pricey at £97.50). Head over to the Truecall website for an introductory video.

So in summary, if you’re serious about marketing, and you’re still making unsolicited calls, then maybe it’s time to ask your customers what they think about them? The reality is that it’s probably far more effective to communicate with them in another way.

Things might have appeared a little ‘wonky’ at ‘pick n mix’ over the last couple of weeks. It’s because we have been migrating from one web host to another. If you already know what that means, we hope you understand the enormity of the task in hand … and if you don’t, then don’t worry… just think of it as us moving house, packing up all the boxes, transporting them, and unpacking them in a new location (a time consuming and stressful experience!).

Anyway, the upshot of all this shenanigans, is that the site should now load a lot faster than it did previously, meaning an improved user experience (well that’s the plan anyway).

During the process of ‘migration’ we also spotted a few dead links, which should (hopefully) now be fixed. If you click on a link to something and it doesn’t work however, then please let us know, and we will do our best to fix it!

When it comes to storing data, high capacity USB memory sticks seem to be taking over from CDs and DVD. There are some instances where the latter are invaluable though (music and movies, backing up, and sending large or multiple files on to others). Often blank media comes supplied on a spindle of 10 or more discs, and jewel cases or sleeves need to be purchased separately. This is usually fine… until you realise you have run out of cases! Fear not though, as there is a handy solution… make your own from a sheet of paper!

Whilst this won’t be for everyone, we like it because it is a good temporary solution,  and is more environmentally friendly than plastic cases. It also means that discs will fit in to a slimmer envelope that can be posted as a ‘letter’ (rather than ‘large letter’) in the Royal Mail’s postage system … saving money on stamps too!

PaperCDcase.com

Can’t see the video? Click here to watch it at Metacafe

Via Lifehacker

If you’re in the market for a website, and need a new web address (a.k.a domain name) then you might be interested in a new suffix, that will be available in a few weeks time. From 3rd December, trademark owners will be able to apply for a website address ending with .tel e.g. mycompanywebsite.tel

General applications (for businesses without registered trademarks) will be processed from 3rd February 2009. The .tel domains are aimed at businesses who simply need a contact page website that can easily be viewed on mobile devices, without the need to build or host a site.

You can learn more about .tel domains (and watch an introductory video) at the Telnic website.

Have you ever visited a website and been greeted with the following message “404 error – file not found”?

Congratulations! You’ve encountered what’s known as a ‘dead link‘… or a page on a site that is no longer available. Think of this as an undelivered parcel… the postman attempted to deliver your package to the address on the label, but when he got there, the building had been demolished!

So how does this relate to your ‘favorites‘ folder?

If (like us) you’ve accumulated hundreds of favorites (a.k.a. ‘bookmarks’) over the last few years, it would be nice to know which of these are still ‘alive’ and which are ‘dead’. Obviously, it would be too time consuming to trawl through the list and visit each of these sites manually (just to see if they were in fact still working). Wouldn’t it be nice then, if there were a piece of software that did this for you automatically?

Well the good news is… there is! AM Deadlink is like a spring clean for your favorites folder. It looks at all of the addresses you have saved, and highlights any ‘dead’ or ‘duplicate links’.

Not only is this a great little program, but it is also free to download and use!

AM Deadlink via PC World

Image by Canon Snapper

We’ve just come across this interesting article on the Daily Mail’s website:-

‘Vanishing’ colour gives schoolgirls chance to beat ban on nail varnish

We love this idea…(not because we wear varnish!) but because it embraces one of the fundamental principles of marketing… identifying a consumers’ needs and/or desires and developing a product or service to fulfill them. There are two potential learnings here:-

1. You can gain a massive amount of (free) PR by developing a unique product or service.

2. This product will probably sell itself through ‘word of mouth’, needing little or no advertising.

Image by Twenty Questions

We’ve been posting quite a lot of TV ads recently, but we came across this one for Cartlon Draught (an Australian beer) and couldn’t resist including it. The ’slapstick’ style reminds us of some of the Carling Black Label Ads of the 1980’s , but when it comes to beer, we think the use of humour is still a great formula. The only criticism we might level, is that the ad may suffer from early ‘wear out’… consumers get bored very easily these days, and it is sometimes more effective to produce a variety of smaller ads along the same theme, rather than one ‘big hitter’.

Carlton Draught

Carling Black Label

They say ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery‘. Sometimes this can be a risky strategy for a brand, but we think the two examples below (one new, one old) do the job extremely well. Not only do these commercials build on the awareness of an existing campaign, but they re-enforce the ‘cheeky’ positioning of the brands in question. If you haven’t yet seen these ads, we won’t spoil the ending by telling you which products they’re promoting.

The Original (Guinness)

The Spoof (?)

The Original (Sony Bravia)

The Spoof (?)

Mars have revived their famous ‘work rest and play’ tagline… in a new TV commercial.

How times have changed from this 1986 version…

Via the guardian

Have you ever received an e-mail from a friend or colleague that contains an ‘attention grabbing’ story, photo, or video… and wondered whether it was actually true? Here a few examples we received recently:-

Man takes death defying leap across Grand Canyon (see photo above).
The world-famous Red Arrows have been banned from appearing at the 2012 London Olympics because they are deemed “too British”.
Scammers are attempting to obtain CVV2/CVC2 security numbers by phoning credit card holders and posing as Security staff at Visa.
Barn full of old cars found in a barn in Portugal.

These e-mails are often sent in good faith, and at face value seem feasable… but they seldom contain any supporting information or documentation. We’re optimists here, but we can be sceptical too, so we often like to check out the story’s validity. We could of course use Google, but this might involve a bit of time and effort. A nice alternative is a website called ‘The Hoax-Slayer’. As well being a source of entertainment (helping us to settle a few debates down the pub) the site has an educational value too:-

“Hoax-Slayer is dedicated to debunking email hoaxes, thwarting Internet scammers, combating spam, and educating web users about email and Internet security issues. Hoax-Slayer allows Internet users to check the veracity of common email hoaxes and aims to counteract criminal activity by publishing information about common types of Internet scams. Hoax-Slayer also includes anti-spam tips, computer and email security information, articles about true email forwards, and much more. New articles are added to the Hoax-Slayer website every week.”

So if you want to find out which of the above stories were in fact true, you will need to visit the site for yourself!

The Hoax-Slayer

Image by Hans van de Vorst

A week or two ago, a client (and also a good friend) asked us if we might be interested in attending a local business networking event. If you have read the ‘about‘ section of ‘Pick n Mix’ then you will already know that we’re great believers in ‘word of mouth’ as a marketing tool… so we thought ‘sure why not?’ At the very least, we could rate the experience for ourselves, and form our own opinion on the subject.

He then informed us that the event would be held over breakfast, and that we should aim to be there for 6.30AM! We often work evenings… so the idea was suddenly a little less appealing. We succumbed to the temptation of ‘a good fry up’ though, so duly accepted. Even if this was going to be a complete waste of time, we would still be back in the office at a normal business hours, so our work would not be affected.

This turned out to be a good decision. Earlier today, we attended the event, organised by the Woking chapter of BNI

As well as meeting some really nice ‘like minded’ business people, we were highly impressed by the structure of the networking session, and the way in which members interacted. We were also given the opportunity to promote blue sky and offer our services to BNI members (local businesses).

So whether you’re a smaller business looking for a cost effective local marketing solution (or perhaps a local branch of a larger organisation) we recommend that you give business networking a try. It might not be for everyone, but we’ve already picked up three quality business leads which we will be following up.

Finally, since BNI kindly gave us the opportunity to promote our business to its members, it seems only fair that we reciprocate! The BNI Woking chapter meets every Tuesday, 6.45am to 8.30am, at Pyrford Golf Club. We plan on attending future events (and yes, we are considering joining!)… so who knows, we might even see you there!

PS. Many thanks to Ruth Williams and Alex van Oortmerssen for organising our invite.

When using Microsoft applications (including Internet Explorer) you can press and hold the ‘CTRL’ key, followed by the ‘F’ key to bring up a search dialogue box. We’ve been using this ’shortcut’ for several years, and we assumed that most people already knew about it. A recent meeting with one of our clients however, revealed that they were unaware of the command (they stated that they will find it really useful in the future). The trick works particularly well when searching through long lists (such as in Excel or Word).