Category: Packaging

Author: Lucy O’Dea

It’s not until you experience bad customer service that you really appreciate the good!  Working in a service industry, you come to take good customer service for granted.  Having worked in PR for far too many years to admit, I think I have a pretty good idea of what is expected of myself and my colleagues in terms of customer service.  And therefore, I have an expectation of how I as a customer should be treated.

Author: Patrick Anderson

A lot has happened since the conception of the AD blog, and having just passed our third ‘blog’ birthday at the end of November, it seemed like the perfect time to take a closer look at the rapid ascendancy of blog publishing as an effective content marketing platform.

Author: Susie Culhane

Google’s shift in focus

For the past few years, Google has been updating its search algorithm and introducing new products in support of its aim to provide relevant, quality, ‘rich’[1] content in search results. We have seen the buy-out of YouTube; the launch of its own social network Google +; the growth of its Knowledge Graph[2] database, along with numerous algorithm updates.  These factors, amongst others, are evidence of Google’s shift in focus away from keywords, towards a deeper understanding of search intent and the context in which those searches are made.  This understanding is gained in part from Google’s knowledge of a user’s personal search history and preferences, click behaviour, social connections, content shared, and so on.  The latest update, Hummingbird, is Google’s attempt to educate the search algorithm so that the same typed search query and mobile voice activated search (the latter often location specific and in question form in contrast to a typed phrase) both receive the same relevant search results.  The proliferation of secure search[3] and subsequent disappearance of natural search keyword data in analytics, and the emphasis on content sharing in Google Plus are also evidence that Google is turning its back on keywords, and focusing on the importance of fresh content.

Author: Alexa Mills

It’s that time of year again when the big retailers introduce their Christmas TV ads and we begin to hear the soundtracks seep through the airwaves – ones that we will, no doubt, forever associate with the ad.

Author: Kerry Rice

Whether you love them or hate them, despite speculation about (and desire for) their demise, according to research by comScore, the number of European smartphone users who scanned QR codes using their devices grew by 96 per cent in the year to July 2012. Granted, that it is still only 14.1 per cent of the total smartphone audience across France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK, but it is nonetheless an impressive growth rate.

Author: Joanna Muggeridge

Have you thought about implementing Google + into your marketing and social media activity? If you haven’t, then you really should. Google + is more than just a social platform, it’s an online identification system, and being owned by Google it naturally has some ‘Klout’ when it comes to helping your visibility on that search engine behemoth. In fact, one of the key reasons for a B2B brand to be present is just that – by linking posts with trusted Authors or ‘spokespeople’ then your – and their – search visibility automatically goes up. Yes, this might sound like blackmail, to get you to join the Google + ranks, but it does have its advantages: