IOS9

Every minute of the day something interesting somewhere around the world happens. However, instead of focusing on news like who Donald Trump is going to offend next or One Direction splitting up, we are going to be focusing on news related to technology and computer related news.
Firstly, IOS9 is almost here! Bringing you a better Siri, enhanced multitasking, better Apple maps, and new built-in applications. But the one thing that really caught my attention was, the long awaited power saving mode! IOS9 will give the users the opportunity to enable low power mode and which will award them with longer battery life. Now that’s what I call an update!

Ashley Madison hack

In other news, some people just got caught red handed after the Ashley Madison hack. If you don’t know what Ashley Madison is, it’s basically a website where married people sign up for “internet dating”. A few weeks ago it was hacked and everyone’s details were revealed. The hackers responsible for the hack are known as the “Impact Team” – and what an impact they made. This must teach everyone a lesson, always be careful with what social media websites you are signed up to, because one hack and all of your information will be leaked, leaving you exposed. Apparently these hacking groups can get through to anything!

Bionic hand

Lastly, 3D printing has gone the extra mile and actually printed an artificial limb! Joe Oxenbury was born with upper limb deficiency, but now has a fully functioning left hand thanks to a charity who specialised in 3D printing where a kind soul named James Holmes-Siedle crafted the hand. The charity which created the 3D printing took measurements of Joe’s right hand and designs inspired by George Lucas’ Star Wars (Darth Vader’s hand). The future is here, the bionic hand!

From longer battery life, to hacks, and bionic limbs, the past few months sure have been hectic! Who knows, maybe next up is flying cars and fully functional hoverboards (a boy can dream).

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Digital is Human

We launched recently and already have a tonne of responses (and we haven’t even started boosting properly yet!). Digital is Human will be a series of free lessons on marketing for humans and two lessons will be uploaded in the form of blog posts every week. We kick off on the 2nd of June with Rik’s post which will be an introductory one. This is going to be a huge team effort and is the first of it’s kind on this beloved rock of ours.

 

^ Jus’ sayin’

BeeWits

If you haven’t heard, BeeWits has pretty much exploded thanks to the Hourly Rate Generator Tool
We’ve also got over 1000 subscribers to the BeeWits newsletter (1663 to be precise) … that’s not quite over 9000 but we’re getting there! We’ve been mentioned on LifeHacker.com, FastCoDesign, CreativeBloq, DesignTaxi and Contently and it generated more than 2000 shares over Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn etc and @BeeWitsApp got mentioned and retweeted hundreds of times

also here’s a lovely blog post which will give you great resources if you need some contracts.

The Office Bloggers

Simon’s blog post has just been published and you can find out what he has to say about client/agency relationships – really worth a read! Teri will be up next with hers.

The A-Z of Digital Marketing

We’ve gone back to primary school and started a new series of blog posts (no more 10 before 10:00) called The A to Z of Digital Marketing. Monday’s blog post was on A for analyse, next Monday’s will be B for Brand, the week after that will be C for Content, the week after that will be D for Devel- you see where this is going.

 

The Intro Series

Here’s Richard’s guide for writing a Digital Brief, part of the Intro series – a series of blog posts served to provide an introduction to digital marketing and which explains particular topics in more detail.

Aaaand that’s it.
Quite a productive week if I may say so myself!

Of course we do more than send out office e-mails in order to improve our office spirits. We emphasise team work in everything we do, “Stop collaborate and listen” is more than just a Vanilla Ice lyric for us – it’s policy. That’s why every Friday we meet in the boardroom for a brain storming session where each week a different member of staff puts together a presentation, game, or team building activity.

Apart from that we’ve got The Office Bloggers series where every week a different person from the office writes a blog post about what it is that interests them about their job. This shines a light on everyone’s work and shows the dynamic characters found in an industry like ours while giving a voice to even the quietest person in the office.
If that’s not enough we’ve got the ultimate secret weapon which brings us all together – a love of food. To some of us food is functional, to others it’s a passion – either way, the quickest and easiest way to get us all into a room for a chat and a laugh is through food.It’s also the best way into our hearts, so if you ever show up on our doorstep please bring cookies.
So what do you think – is it time for you to focus more on the people behind the work? Is it time for you to become more human?

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Results

The site was ready to launch within a couple of months, and once the offices opened for business we received very positive feedback on both projects. All in all, a great project to work on – and thanks to everyone at GX4 Projects for being such great clients!

The post Client spotlight: The Hub appeared first on Switch - Digital & Brand.

The Challenge

We had one job: Make the Facebook page work for the brand, while sticking to the Global Brand Guidelines.
Max Factor has an incredible history, excellent products and a reputation like none other.  The brand has been around for decades (100 years, to be precise) and is well known locally among women who have used them for years. Ask your mothers and grandmothers about their favourite make up brand and there’s a good chance that Max Factor will spring to mind. What the company needed to do next was work on making the brand relatable to teens and young adults while maintaining the interest of their current loyal customers.

Our work was cut out for us: build brand awareness among a younger audience, and generate engagement to boost the organic reach of the page. All without spending a penny on promotion.
A worthy digital challenge? Definitely — those are the best kind.

The Work

Strategy & Planning

First, we scanned every post that was published so far. We identified what worked and what didn’t, what fans loved and what turned them off. Next, we built strategy that would work in tandem with Facebook’s news feed and reach algorithms to slowly, but surely, increase the percentage of fans that would see the post organically.

Content Creation

We then set to work on building a content calendar for the job. It was vital that we included not only product information and special offers, as many brands do, but also throw in plenty of curated, relevant content from all over the web. Blogger content, product reviews, magazine features, catwalk news and updates from the world of make up artistry all made the list. Each post was accompanied with carefully crafted copy, designed to elicit a response.

Contest Development

The client regularly offered fans the chance to win products through the Facebook page, but none of the contests seemed to benefit the company in any way. So we tweaked the strategy behind the contests to match our original plan of action. By asking fans for their opinions, we encouraged thoughtful engagement (and also learned a lot about what makes them tick!) By choosing a winner by random draw, we set no limit to the number of participants who wanted to enter.

Blogger Management

Beauty bloggers who write posts about Max Factor products soon became fast friends of the page. It’s a simple system, really. They promote the brand, and we promote them! Local blogs and vlogs provide excellent material for Facebook pages, which is why we value these relationships with everyone on our blogger network.

Client Management

Last but not least, we took over every aspect of customer management on the Facebook page. Whether they’re asking about a product, looking for their nearest store or just want to share an opinion, we always do our best to respond within a few hours. The way we see it, if they wanted to wait, they would have sent it by post.

The Results

It was the end of Month 1. We held our breath as our analysts drew up the report. Did it work? Did we manage?
You tell us:

We’re now well into the second month of the job, and we’re determined to improve on those results with every report.
If you’re curious about what we’re up to, follow the page on Facebook!

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