It was a challenge that the Gencia team relished. The launch site includes a large amount of streaming video content and Gencia employed the services of a professional actor to get the best out of a difficult script.

The end result has received a great deal of praise from within the industry and prompted Verbatim's Managing Director to make the following comments to the Gencia Team:-

"Looking over the website, brochure and videos I am absolutely stunned and excited by what you have produced. You have given us the very identity we aspired to and the production is of such high quality. I believe this will really set us apart from the competition as I have yet to find another site which comes close to what you have produced. Thank you to everyone who has put so much time, creativity and effort into producing applications and material of the highest quality. You really are such a talented bunch of people who I know work really hard to hit our almost impossible, at times, deadlines.

Take a bow everyone and thank you sincerely for all your support."

Matthew Timmins
Managing Director
Verbatim Asset Management

Back before the New Year Google announced a possible change in the way it 'may' display the URL snippet within each search results. Google has always advocated 'Accessibility' and 'Usability'. Breadcrumbs (a means to keep track of a user location and/or hierarchy within a website), promotes both of these philosophies. Google has been experimenting with an improvement that replaces the standard website URL's in 'some' search results with a hierarchy showing the precise location of the page on the website.

My guess is not only will this reward sites using best practices, but aids usability and gets rid of the long and often unreadable URL's found deep within a sites hierarchy.

There is no way to say for sure if Google will prefer sites with breadcrumbs or even decided to use the 'location breadcrumbs', but it's good news for advocators of web standards like myself. It shows Google is indeed looking at websites with properly built navigation.

All SEO aside, good navigation and the use of breadcrumbs is much better for the user/customer experience anyway and it's going to be interesting to see how much Google uses this improvement over the next few months and how sites perform.

Just when we were starting to get our heads around websites and emails, the naughties came along and challenged marketers to reach customers on previously unimaginable levels.

Who would have thought that terms search engine optimisation, blogging and social networking would take priority in marketing planning sessions that previously debated the combined merits of advertising, direct mail, PR and telesales?

Time to run with the beast…

If the past decade has taught us anything, it’s that marketing is an ever changing beast that should be embraced and not tamed.

Yes there will always be a time and a place for advertising and print, but the clever kids are staying ahead of the game by looking at the trends and getting there before their competitors.

So with this in mind, here are 5 things to embrace in 2010…

Social Media

Social Media got an old song to Christmas number one this year and maybe (just maybe…) marketers will finally now begin to build Social Networking into their communications plans.

In 2010 Social Networking will continue to dominate as the Facebooks, Twitters and Bebos up their games in a bid to fend off increasing competition from the emerging sites and the profile raising opportunities resulting from such exposure.

So how can you have a strategy for something so spontaneous you may ask? The answer lies in the ability to create time, budgets and topics that will resonate with the customer and drive positive outcomes – in fact the very reasons we have enjoyed so much success this year!

To discuss a social media strategy for your business, contact Tony on (0)161 214 5214


Microsites

If the question of the early naughties was “Does you company have a website?” the question of next decade will surely be “How many?”

The recession has challenged businesses to demonstrate their value, relevance and relative competitive advantage to the customer and a ‘catch all’ website simply doesn’t do it.

Let’s take a catch all IFA website offering services around Ethical Investments, General Investments, Retirement Planning, and Property Management against a company who appears to be focussed on Ethical Investments.

If I (the customer) am searching for Ethical Investments, who am I going to find first/contact first/choose to do business with first?

In summary if you have 3 or 4 key products for 3 or 4 key markets, then why not give yourself 3 or 4 bites at the cherry by exploring one or more microsites in 2010?


Mobile Marketing

The mobile phone has become our media companion of choice.

Mass, unsolicited and untargeted text messaging is likely to annoy and offend so marketers must be clever about how they interact and engage with their audience.

For the past 24 months, Gencia has harnessed the very best Bluetooth technology and married it with clever, engaging marketing campaigns designed to grip and tease recipients into wanting to request content.

Forget the hard sell with this media…It’s very much a value exchange… turn your Bluetooth on and receive 25% off or ‘who’s your perfect match?’ Download your free game now.

At Gencia we’re pushing the boundaries with Bluetooth and other types of mobile marketing campaigns and our clients are reaping the rewards!

To find out how mobile marketing could work for you, contact Gary on (0)161 214 5214

Mobile Apps

Apple’s line “there’s an App' for that” is now up there with the very best of them.

The rise of the app' and importantly, the sophistication of android technology and its ability to receive apps, presents a real marketing opportunity that should not be overlooked.

Gencia has itself become a specialist App' builder and experienced first hand the power of this media in the marketplace.

So if you looking to do something different in 2010 Gencia may well have an app' for that.


Social Norms

Social Norms is increasingly becoming the chosen way to educate, inform and challenge perceptions around young people and key subject matters, with the primary aim to positively and verifiably affect behaviours by revealing key facts from survey findings.

In simple terms, marketing messages will increasingly demonstrate relevant statistics to positively (or negatively) shatter misconceptions or alter perceptions, depending on the situation or intended purpose.

An alcohol awareness campaign that previously said:-

“Drinking under 16 can seriously damage your health” may now read

“77% of under 16’s don’t drink…stay in the majority. 

At Gencia we’re passionate about Social Norms to the extent that we’re even developing our own website to help our clients to collate, analyse and promote their findings on higher reaching levels in 2010.

For more information about how we can help you with your campaigns, please contact gary@gencia.co.uk  
 

After a recent post I've had a few emails asking questions about PageRank, most making over exaggerate claims and misleading assumptions on its impact in relation to their search engine rankings.

The truth is many Webmasters often obsess over the importance of PageRank in relation to their Page Rank. Note two words, "Page Rank" not PageRank (PR), two different things. PR is just one of the many factors that Google uses to determine a page's actual Page Rank on their search result page (SERP) for a given search query.

So why does everyone bang on about PageRank? More than likely because it's the most visual algorithm of Google complex Page Ranking system. It's free to download the PR Toolbar for Firefox and Internet Explorer but its open to misleading interpretations. It's also even easier to get pulled into an obsessive world of link building and SEO pitfalls. I once heard an SEO guru state PR is a way of making people look at one hand whilst the other hand does something else. I still think this is very true today.

This unhealthy obsession with PR is possibly being felt at Google HQ, as Google Chrome   currently does not offer this visual PR tool and Matt Cutts as gone on record stating that he would like to remove the PageRank indicator altogether from the current Toolbar. So then does this mean PR is dying? Of course not, PR has just been given far too much focus in SEO community. My opinion is that Google shot themselves in the foot with PR helping to create an industry of link farms and PR advertising merchants they didn't want. Most of Google efforts and patents now seem to focus on eradicating this manufactured phenomenon.

It's important to remember that PR is just one of many algorithms Google uses to determine the relevancy of pages. There are many more publicly known algorithms known to us mere mortals such as Hilltop, TrustRank (used in PR) and Hypertext-Matching Analysis with it's many more algorithms.

To quote: The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine by the founders of Google Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page. A paper if you have read this far you should read in full

"Google maintains much more information about web documents than typical search engines. Every hitlist includes position, font, and capitalization information. Additionally, we factor in hits from anchor text and the PageRank of the document. Combining all of this information into a rank is difficult. We designed our ranking function so that no particular factor can have too much influence."

Now I have that out of my system, to recap, PR is not the same as Page Rank, and PR is NOT the single most factor in Page Rank (two words). If I write the words PR I always mean PageRank I will explicitly say Page Rank when referring to how a page is ranked in the search engines. Think of it as ColdFusion, I actually mean the markup language CFML and not ColdFusion Server, does that make sense?

If you have not already heard of the two other algorithms I mentioned above Trust Rank and Hilltop, chances are you just Googled them, right? If not then you should. They are just as important as PR and one of them was actually invented because of a flaw found in PR and works along side it, but by no means the only factors in Page Rank (two words). If you cannot be bothered to Google them then here is summery

PageRank: The basic definition of PR is that PR determines the authority of a page in general.

Hilltop (patent in February 2003): determines the authority of page related to the search term used.

TrustRank: harder to explain in one sentence for me anyway, it's to do with links from a seeding page. It's not to be confused with Yahoo's Trust Rank so we are told Trust Rank Explained by Matt Cutts
Conclusion SEO is full of people that remind me of the Principles of Adaptive Behavior. Just because something changed for the better its attributive to just one factor or something you did different at one point in time. It's the blind leading the blind when it comes to SEO. I will never write or tell my clients I can get them top ranking results, if you do then you're lying to your customers. I can tell you what Google is looking for and its hard work not black magic, good content, updates and a site people want to visit. That's not what most clients wants to hear, and yes there are tricks you can use. I have done many of them myself. For example some years back .NET magazine asked me to get a site to the top of Google in six weeks and write about it. I did, not ethically and it did not say at the top for long. Something all webmasters should remember when saying links and PR is the most important factor in SEO, is not it's just one!
 

Manchester agency Gencia is supporting the ‘Calling Time on Violent Crime’ in Wrexham this weekend, a campaign commissioned by The Wrexham Community Safety team in Partnership with the Home Office and Wrexham Council.

Gencia’s Bloowire proximity marketing tool is set to engage hundreds of young revellers with key alcohol health and safety messages during the festive period.

TV monitors attached to promotional staff will encourage revellers to download a free Beer Goggles game, which demonstrates the effects of judgement following drinking.



An alcohol units calculator quiz can also be downloaded to remind young people to drink responsibly and personal safety messages encouraging young women to travel home safely will also feature in the wider campaign.

Clubs such as Liquid and Envy are also supporting the ‘think before you drink’ message by wearing t-shirts behind the bar and on the door.

Leading the Crime reduction element of the campaign is North Wales Police Sergeant Dave Marsden who says:

“Knowing your limits is about being safe, looking after friends and getting home safely.

“Bluetooth offers us a modern and measurable way to engage young people with key messages around alcohol and Gencia were chosen because of their experience of delivering full campaign strategies rather than just the technology itself”.

Home Office Adviser for North Wales Tim Nunn added that they were proactively supporting the partnership to ensure ‘people could enjoy the festive period safely.’

Apart from addressing the issue of alcohol related crime, key aims include communicating the health problems and consequential behaviours that can result from excessive drinking.

Partnering the project is Health, Social Care and Wellbeing Strategy Manager for Wrexham Council Gillian Cowan who commented:

“Health Challenge Wrexham is about encouraging individuals, organisations and local businesses to take ownership around health and wellbeing.

“It’s proven that alcohol can induce risky behaviour such as unprotected sex which itself can lead to further health consequences. 

Alcohol is one of six key areas where we need to engage young people and this is the media of acceptance within this target age group.”

The latest campaign completes a range of successful 2009 bluetooth projects for Gencia across within the area of health, crime and education.

Teen Life Check – the NHS Choices lifestyle web quiz for 12-15 years – is now available on the mobile phone.

Gencia has been commissioned to pilot a Bluetooth version of the game in schools in January with the aim of rolling out wider campaigns towards Spring.

Key advantages downloading the game to handsets include greater privacy, measurable participation, repeat visits and an ability to automatically save local services numbers into the directory.

If you are a TLC co-ordinator and would like more information about our work in this area, please call us on: 0161 214 5214.

Gencia supported Rotherham's Hollywood S-Word campaign by providing life sized paparazzi, bouncers, pop up displays and a Hollywood Hottie quiz game via bluetooth, which enabled students and the general public to receive advice and links to local services.

The 'S-Word: We Need To Talk About Sex' uses themed imagery and word-plays from films such as PS I Love You, Mission Impossible, and The Bourne Trilogy to convey sexual health messages. For more information visit www.s-wordrotherham.co.uk

Free condoms were distributed and several hundred young people took part in discreet Chylamdia Screening tests throughout the week.

He may be the ghost of Christmas Past - but Birmingham’s IMAX launch of Christmas Carol on Saturday is turning to techniques of the future to bring in the crowds.
 

For the first time, promoters are using Bluetooth or proximity marketing to engage with local shoppers – with savings of 25% for anyone choosing to receive the free message voucher to their phone.

Saturday’s Millennium Point promotion forms part of an integrated worldwide marketing campaign for the movie and coincides with Birmingham’s Christmas lights switch-on and the estimated 40,000 expected to attend.

Bluetooth works from a nearby ‘Bloowire’ transmitter, offering shoppers within a 100 metre range the opportunity to receive a free voucher to their phone which they can then take to the desk to receive their discount.

PR Manager Caroline Durbin explains:

“The Christmas lights switch on represents a unique opportunity for us to engage with large concentrations of people which is where Bluetooth works really well.

“The content is completely free to receive to phones and we’re offering those taking part a special 25% discount on the door if they show their digital voucher.”

Unlike SMS or text messaging alerts, the actual names and numbers of those participating remain unknown and therefore privacy is retained.

The chosen partners for the campaign are Gencia, who have now been running Bluetooth campaigns throughout the UK for over 2 years.

Gencia Managing Director Tony Braide says that techniques are becoming more widespread due to increased mobile usage rates and the introduction of more sophisticated phones.

“Bluetooth is increasingly more popular as a promotional tool due to the amount of mobile users, sophistication of phones and range of uses this now brings to both the sender and recipient.

“The organisers have already done a sterling job in promoting the film in other ways and the 25% offer by Bluetooth will give them a measurable way of attracting even more people through the doors.”

Gencia this week successfully launched a Bluetooth mobile marketing campaign urging young people to act with Dignity when it comes to Alcohol.

The campaign - aimed at 13-18 year olds - uses Bluetooth to relay video messages of people compromising their personal safety and losing their dignity in public following excessive alcohol consumption.

The first in a series of campaigns was launched in Pembrokeshire this week in an event that included key partners within the police, health, education and youth services.

Bluetooth or proximity marketing is growing in popularity due to interactive way it engages young people and the validation it offers the sender in terms of how many people have received messages.

Messages are free to transmit and receive and unlike traditional text messaging, content is received only when permission is granted by receiver.

The official launch follows a successful pilot in which just under 60% of young people with compatible phones within range downloaded content that was offered to them.

At the event, Rhys Sinnett the Principal Public Health Officer in Pembrokeshire explained that the aim of the campaign is to reach and engage more people around potentially sensitive issues.

“Mobile phones are not just young peoples main means of communication but probably all of our main means of keeping in touch and so it seemed natural to move towards looking at ways of using this to our advantage”.

Jamie Adams deputy head of Pembrokeshire Council added in his speech that it was the first time the technology had been used in the county and discussed the importance of using digital media that could engage with as many young people as possible.

Dignity was chosen as umbrella brand name for a number of different strands of an ongoing campaign which will focus key issues such as drinking, personal safety, sexual health and bullying.

Gencia is now in talks with 20 other local authorities around the country about bringing Dignity and Bluetooth into schools to address key messages around drinking, personal safety and sexual health.

Managing Director, Tony Braide explains why many are now opting for the medium.

“Local authorities and schools are increasingly exploring Bluetooth as a more cost effective and environmental alternative to distributing leaflets and sending out letters.

“We are using Bluetooth differently to turn it into a pull technology, in other words inviting recipients to request content without the pressure or obligation often associated with traditional marketing techniques.

Where the content is particularly engaging or humorous as elements of Dignity are, content is often shared with friends spreading the message even wider.”

For more information about Dignity or Bluetooth marketing, contact (0)161 214 5214
 

Schools (with some justification) will point out that they are often competing with behavioural ‘values’ instilled by peer groups such as parents, siblings or friends and evidence suggests that where dysfunctional circumstances exist, cases are typically more prevalent.  

However the question remains - are schools really doing enough to challenge these behaviours, influence them and affect them in a positive way?

It certainly isn’t through lack of trying. PSHE is on every local authority curriculum in the country and the introduction of healthy schools a few years ago has certainly raised awareness of key issues such as healthy eating, obesity and substance misuse within schools.

However while intentions remain strong and the messages may be right in most cases, my belief is that schools are still in the dark ages in terms of how they are communicating with young people.

The truth is that young people are bombarded with messages from friends, family, businesses, printed and digital media on levels far greater than we have previously experienced.

How many young people want to take a drugs awareness booklet home with them to discuss with parents when there are 80 TV channels available to watch when they get home, 200 friends on facebook to catch up with and new music and applications on download on their I-phones?

The answer is they usually don’t and this critical information simply tends wash over them.

Unlike other competing message providers however, schools do have a significant advantage in that they have a captive audience for 1 or 2 hours at a time. This is a teacher’s time to shine; their time to create a lasting impression on the 20-30 young people sat before them.

So what can schools do to overcome the rising communications bar?

Ironically the very medium often blamed for the scourge of issues such as bullying, drinking and anti-social behaviour may now be the key to their ability to change for the better.

Mobile phones have been banned in schools since their popularity began 10 years ago on the basis that they are noisy, distracting and downright disrespectful.

However developments in sophisticated applications within Smart Phones (I-Phones/Blackberry) presents a new opportunity for schools to better communicate with young people and engage with them in ways previously unimaginable.

Of course there is a balance to be struck and there will always be a place for certain traditional methods (and against this new media Internet is now classed as ‘traditional) but if we are to gain the respect of young people isn’t it about time we started to communicate on their level?

I’m sure there are an incredulous proportion among you screaming back with concerns about misuse, data protection and infringement of privacy rights.

But we’re not talking about text messaging here. We’re talking about proximity marketing or Bluetooth, the start of mobile media revolution within schools.

Instead of a one hour lecture on the danger of drugs young people can be invited to test their knowledge using a fun and interactive game situation which they can play whenever and wherever they want – completely free of charge for both sender and receiver.

In summary, Bluetooth presents content to young people in a way that intrigues them, in a way that invites them to explore issues for themselves and in a way that speaks to them on their terms and with their permission only.

Unlike the internet a mobile phone always stays with the individual, responses can be measured and educational games can be passed on to friends, virally spreading the message even further.

Furthermore campaigns happen at a fraction of the price of printed resources and its better for the environment.

Recently successful pilots within forward thinking schools, who now allow controlled dispensation of usage, suggests a mobile digital revolution is on the way within schools.

It is far from mainstream but attitudes are changing and the results are astounding.

So in the next 2-3 years schools may well be faced with one critical choice – stand still or get mobile.

To find out more about how Gencia is successfully working with local authorities and schools using Bluetooth, email gary@gencia.co.uk or contact 0)161 214 5214