Fiona Beauchamp, Director of Activation at marketing agency, Bray Leino explains how activation can master the crucial last yards of the customer journey, the point where the consumer assumes a hunter-gatherer mind-set and becomes the shopper

The thrill for me in working with challenger brands is tackling the unique obstacles they face, not only in breaking into the retail environment, but in staying there and remaining competitive against leading brands with existing retailer relationships and bigger marketing budgets.

The marketing landscape has seen some big changes in the last year.

But both marketing agencies and clients need to understand C2C is here to stay, says Adrian Cory, Business Development Manager for the Clay Group

It appears ‘communications agency’ is a common misnomer these days.

Somewhat puzzling given the designation of a communications agency appears relatively straightforward: an organisation that offers valued clients the best possible routes to reach out, connect with an audience and begin (or continue) meaningful and long lasting relationships. Sounds simple enough, but the reality is a little different. The way we communicate has undergone the most radical change since a man named Bell asked a man named Watson to pop in and many brands still haven’t adapted despite the over-bearing attentions of ‘experienced’ communications agencies.

By 2020 over £28 billion in UK online retail will come from international consumers, reveal paid search marketing agency, Net Media Planet.

This is the staggering figure predicted by recent research from OC&C Consultants and Google, says Marketing Manager, Carolyn Seaman

For UK businesses with strong brands and high export potential, expanding into new territories offers great potential for growth.  

However there are many obstacles - to the point where my Paid Search and Display marketing agency decided to publish our very own Whitepaper on the subject.

As we're always looking for the upcoming marketing agency trends set to shape the ways brands and consumers interact, we turned to Caroline Margolis, Marketing Director at digital creative agency, Somewhat_ for her predictions.

Here, she looks at IPS and at how smartphones are enabling greater connectivity, experiences and customer services for brands in 2014 and beyond

So what is IPS and why is it important?

IPS (Indoor Positioning Systems) is similar to GPS, in that it uses location based services via smartphones to allow individuals to be located within a few meters accuracy and sometimes even less than that. However unlike GPS, IPS works indoors, without the needs for satellites, using wifi or bluetooth technologies.

2013 has seen the rules shift for both marketing agencies and clients when creating brand comms campaigns.

Here, Shay Boyd, MD and Creative Director for communications and marketing agency, Clay Group provides us with a snapshot of how customers will be dictating the pace and rhythm for brand comms in 2014 and beyond

If you are starting to develop an agency brief or are about to embark on the agency search and selection process, you may want to consider how to navigate through the process effectively as the market place is continuing to evolve.

Emailing marketing is still a hot marketing trend that when done right can transform the way your business attracts new business.

But if you don't have a marketing agency at your beck and call never fear, for we at FindGood have compiled this short guide to writing and planning effective email marketing campaigns

Who is it going to?

You don't need to be a marketing agency to know choosing the right audience for message is vital. Have they registered interest in your company are are you going in cold? Have you have previous contact or is this an introduction? Will they have a vested interest in what you're saying, i.e. is it relevant to them? All these things should be considered before moving forward, otherwise you are at risk at alienating warm leads.

Facebook’s well publicised initial public offering (IPO) transition has had it is ups and downs. But as Twitter files for IPO, will they be able to avoid the mistakes Facebook have made?

Here Shelley Martin of PR agency, Neo PR discusses what the move means for Twitter's biggest competitor, Facebook, as well as the businesses and PR agencies that use it

Facebook and Twitter are obvious rivals and with Twitter moving to their IPO, both companies will be competing even more publicly. The competition between the two is also hotting up in terms of the advertising with both companies growing their sites advertising functionality.

Facebook only last month increased the size of the images that can be included within their adverts and are aiming to increase ad clicks, with users now able to click on any part of an advert to reach an advertiser’s website opposed to the previous hyperlink method. Whereas an ex-Facebook executive was quoted saying that Twitter’s s $350 million acquisition of mobile ad company MoPub makes Twitter a superior product, potentially in terms of mobile advertising, so the war rages on.

Simone Moretta is the co-founder & new business director of IMS, a boutique marketing agency, incentive and prize promotion specialist. Here she explains how to find solutions to current marketing challenges.

“Did You Just Double Dip That Chip?”

Budget over Money Can’t Buy

After the stresses and strain of the past couple of years we now all know that double dip doesn’t just refer to a person popping a crudité into the sour cream more times than is strictly polite, but actually is the current economic buzz word describing a worldwide recession.

Clients more frequently want something to suit their specific budget whilst retaining that exciting and memorable experience. After over twelve years in the promotional marketing business and founder of my own promotional marketing agency, I can say with confidence it’s now more important than ever to maintain fantastic relationships with suppliers and a little (massive) black book chock-full of luxury contacts.

That is the key to the budget challenge and our personal secret weapon in the double dip society.

Agency search and selection sure does keep us busy at FindGood towers, and while we're always working hard to find clients that perfect PR agency, or marketing agency, or design agency (we really could go on), Infographic Fridays* are slowly becoming our favourite day of the blogging week.

SEO is a tool that when combined with others, for example, PPC, PR, inbound or outbound marketing, etc, can blast a company wide open. However, some companies have both the firepower and expertise to rip most of us to shreads, in particular, these brand leaders, who have cornered the market on 'Single Letter SEO'. That means Google prompts searchers after just the first letter typed, helping the brands ramp up their traffic.