Interesting take from Micro Persuasion on the next big thing to hit our homes:

"The TV is undergoing a renaissance. In five year's time, 50% of what the most coveted audiences watch on their sets will come off the Internet. However, it goes beyond the changes in video content. Television will run widgets and other connected software applications. These will be different from, yet complementary to what runs on a PC desktop or webtop. That's just the beginning."

Ron Oddy from our accountants, Greenhalgh, was put in the stocks for Comic Relief. I was one of a long line of clients having a go...

Great post from David Wethey with plenty of advice on clients looking to put their business out to pitch....

1. First things first, let’s get this one out of the way. It’s often the first thing I am asked by new clients. Why is it so hard choosing an advertising agency and what are my Top Ten Tips for Pitching? Second point first:don’t go to pitch unless you have to

2. take independent advice

3. lean over backwards to be fair to all the agencies involved – particularly the incumbent

4. spend as long as it takes to firm up on the criteria – don’t be diverted onto anyone else’s agenda

5. deliver a terrific brief. be very clear about what is wanted at every stage, and whether you are looking for a long-term marriage or short-term fix

6. define the process and ensure that it is tailored to your individual needs as off the shelf solutions tend not to work

7. work out a realistic timetable and stick to it (often harder for clients than the agency)

8. keep the judging team consistent

9. it is never too early to talk about money – leaving it until after the pitch can spell disaster

10. the pitch process won’t be a night at the opera, but aim to become your chosen agency’s favourite client and they won’t hesitate going that extra mile for you which is how you get brilliant campaigns that empty warehouses and kill competition

Any good communication has a strong proposition at it's core. Just what is the single most important point you want the reader to understand about your product or service and why. Focus on that key point alone and then justify it and you'll win your readers over. Get to the heart of the proposition by understanding what gives you your competitive edge. Talk to people within the business, talk to your customers, look at what the competitors are doing and saying, and you'll find that golden nugget. Then exploit it for all it's worth.

This cracking image was part of a teaser campaign for one of the partners involved in the Manchester bid for the super-casino licence.

Marketing is too often viewed as a cost rather than an investment which is partly why it's seen as being peripheral, as opposed to core, to the business. I came across this insightful post from John Dodds which makes the point very succinctly:

"Marketing belongs at the heart of any business. Yet, all too often, it sees marketing goals where it should be looking at business aims and many marketing departments spend their time outsourcing tasks and administering the processes, rather than connecting their role into the business as a whole. Consequently, businesses disintegrate into a series of fiefdoms and underperform; the quality of the marketing suffers; and the reputation of the discipline is mocked internally by other departments and externally by pretty much everyone."

Insightful post from Dave Chaffney on how to get the most out of Search Engine Optimisation:-

First Law of SEO. The more pages on your site that are indexed by Google, the more visitors you will get. So make sure your index inclusion is 100% and Google’s robots can find ALL of your relevant content.

Second Law of SEO. If you create more pages with unique keyphrase rich content, you will get more qualified visitors, leads and sales. So make sure you identify target keyphrases and create additional content themed around them.

Third Law of SEO. If you create more quality internal links you will get more quality visitors, leads and sales. So make sure that link-building isn’t only an external activity – you will need to refine your internal link architecture. This may require a new web design and any site redesign project should have SEO as a key objective.

Fourth Law of SEO. If you create more quality external links you will get more quality visitors, leads and sales. So a proactive approach to link-building will pay dividends. Great content will also lead to more natural links, but it will only get you so far. You need to be proactive also. Most SEOs say this is THE most important factor for improving your listings, but it is perhaps the most difficult to achieve, so you need to be proactive.

Fifth Law of SEO. If you spam, you will be found out eventually. So don’t spam – Google’s quality will find you out and drop you from their index as they did for BMW last year. You need to ensure that an ethical approach to SEO is used. So, you need to work through with an agency to work through how ethical you are since there are many shades of grey