I often feel surrounded by people who do their job without care. Rude waiters, laid back shop assistants, together with arrogant managers, can prompt me to blacklist a shop or a restaurant for the rest of my life. I can’t stand someone who executes his tasks without courtesy and interest.

Author: AD Communications

Am I the only one who stands there for a good 5 minutes squeezing my avocado to determine whether it’s ripe? No? Just me? Too often has my kitchen knife doubled up as a saw as I’ve battled my way into this fruit. Cue the produce sticker. Short of saving my arm muscles a much needed workout with their ‘Ripe!’ shout out, these stickers benefit us in several ways. Not only do they save the cashier that inevitable sigh as they punch in a product code, they also inform the buyer whether what they’re buying is organic, non-organic or genetically modified. For those of us who are conscious about what we eat, these pesky little stickers are enormously important. Pesky because, like the infamous hair band, they always seem to turn up in strangest of places. And if it wasn’t annoying enough having to prise the sticker off your shoe, the place we least want to find it is in our compost heap.

Author: Fabien Jusnot

“I know all those words, but that sentence makes no sense to me.”
― Matt Groening

If you’re running marketing campaigns that are targeted at customers in multiple geographies, the cost of professional translation can prompt some marketing managers to look for cheap alternatives, such as free online translation services.

Author: Richard Allen

AD Communications’ founder Richard Allen reflects on thirty years in the business

Peering into the well of my memory I’m struck at how much has changed in my 30 years working alongside the print and packaging sectors.

Author: Ellie Bunce

Moving house is meant to be one of the most stressful times in life, which I have recently found out! However, once the stress of signing contracts, packing and unpacking boxes and moving furniture ends, the fun can begin.

Author: Abigail Munroe

The first day of my work experience was certainly eventful. Having been let down by my SAT NAV, which was defiantly informing me that I had reached my destination despite the fact I was outside an Indian takeaway, I reverted to calling the reception to ask for directions.

Recently, I came across Melbourne Remote Control Tourist, a campaign devised by Tourism Victoria, the leading government tourist agency for this state in Australia, to engage with, you guessed it, tourists! This is not a common travel website where you can find a list of city highlights, but an interactive platform where social media plays a key role.

Author: Michael Grass

In one of the chapters of his controversial biography, rock & roll legend Keith Richards felt the need to get something off his chest and voiced his suspicions about TV. “I’ve always found music and video to be an uneasy marriage,” he confessed in reference to the advent of MTV in the ‘80s. Funnily enough, you will find a few company owners who feel the same way about video and marketing today.

Author: Kerry Rice

It’s just over one year since my wedding and I was reminiscing on when my wedding album arrived as I was poring over it the other day. (Yes, I am talking about weddings again, but this should be my last wedding-related blog.) When it initially arrived I was as excited as a 20^th century photographer peering through developing fluid in a darkroom, but  as I was tearing through the reams of Border Agency tape that were wrapped around the package a thought occurred to me – why was I more excited about the printed album than I was about the online photographs?

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.