As part of my new role at Online Ventures Group in Manchester, we have formed a partnership with Brushstroke Media, who are pretty handy at website design and are banterific in the office.
Simon and Warren are a bundle of joy to be around, even though Simon plays Megadeth incessantly, followed by Queens of the Stone Age. I try to be fair back though by ensuring I play Party Fears Two twice a week.
Warren has decided to become a dab hand at SEO in his short-time here and has a striking resemblance to a leading character from the film The Shawshank Redemption.
Simon spends most of his time quietly, making clients websites look beautiful and has a keen interest in usability.
They are genuinely a pleasure to work with and I look forward to seeing their growth within the business
Once upon a time in Online Ventures towers, I had quite the passionate rant about how much of a dick Marilyn Monroe is. What was the issue? I’ll tell you my issue and you’ll probably just chuckle.
Every time someone has posted a quote about Marilyn Monroe on Facebook or Twitter, they’ve tended to use it as their own personal mantra and this seems very misguided to me. This is where the hatred starts because they’ve not really thought about how these quotes look to others.
My good friend James Welch has started a new blog on SEO and his life. He is a serial mentor of people, exceptional at spotting talent and has a complex about teabags.
If there was one piece of advice I could offer to any internet marketer or SEO, you must look into hub link building. There will be many examples on James’ site and there is zero jargon to go along with it. It’s EASY for anyone to learn the concept.
Susan Ma from The Apprentice asks the question that wasn’t on our minds – Are the French very fond of their children?
By Matt | June 23, 2011
Last night was time for The Apprentice, one of the very few programmes I go out of my way to watch on TV. There are others of which I am fond of too and I’m sure you can guess one of them, go ahead try! Yes! You are right, it was Dragon’s Den! A big gold star to whoever got there in the end.
Suzi, one of the candidates for Lord Sugar’s investment, made quite the impression on the British public by asking out loud one of the strangest questions whilst investigating products for the teams latest task, “Are the French fond of their children?”.
iOS 5 announced features may mean that the next iPhone 4S will have dedicated LED notication
By Matt | June 9, 2011
The big news from Apple’s WWDC was that iOS 5 is coming in the fall (Autumn to us Brits out there) and that we are finally going to get better notifications, be able to use the volume button to take a picture and full Twitter integration.
Now that our trusty developers have got their latest SDK and beta, we can see a more clearer picture of what is available on iOS 5. The list of features that Steve Jobs and Scott Forstall decided not to tell us about are 1080p playback, custom vibration alerts, FaceTime goes 3G and LED flash notifications.
Increasing footfall via social media handled by Burger King Status Trader and Yo! Sushi Social Tuesday Secret Word
By Matt | May 23, 2011
Two fast food giants have attempted to increase brand love and footfall at their restaurants with quirky social media campaigns.
Burger king have gone for a smartphone app that promises to trade the use of facebook or twitter status update for a code that will enable you to claim the deal of the week.You can check out the Burger King ad as featured on one of my favourite websites Ads Of The World here
Yo! Sushi have gone for a more organic and simple approach with an update on their Facebook page detailing a secret code to use with your server.
Kevin Davies announces he is leaving Twitter after suffering many abusive tweets for too long
By Matt | May 1, 2011
A familiar story broke today that a celebrity was leaving Twitter due to receiving so many abusive tweets. In this case, it’s everyones favourite target man Kevin Davies of Bolton Wanderers. Like many footballers on Twitter is no stranger to critcism or abuse but he believes things went too far recently, particularly after tweeting this about Blackburn’s approach to football.
The ex-Blackburn player is not even the first footballer to leave Twitter after finding the crowd too hot to handle, Manchester United’s Darren Gibson threw in the towel after being on the social networking site for just two hours, more details on that story are here.
Ad nostalgia gets the better of me with Gino Ginelli and where it all went wrong for them
By Matt | April 18, 2011
I love ice cream. Don’t challenge me on this, I really do. Unless that challenge involves you saying something like “Bet you can’t eat all of this ice cream” then maybe I can make an exception. There was no other ice cream I loved more than the great and now defunct Gino Ginelli, particularly Toffee and Fudge. Those little squares of fudge just seemed to taste better because they were tiny.
I was having a bowl of ice cream and it was ‘caramel flavour’, nice but it didn’t inspire the same feelings as Gino Ginelli. Ah nostalgia! It gets us all sometimes and I found myself singing the theme tune from the ad. Thankfully someone has uploaded the advert in full on Youtube, meaning that the classic theme tune is not lost! I then had a ponder about what happened to Gino Ginelli.
William Hill offer world first market for Frist Goalscorer! Advertising agency fail
By Matt | April 7, 2011
You may have been one of the vast millions who watched the Champions League quarter-final 1st leg between Chelsea and Manchester United last night. I’m sure you may have noticed a few ads and switched off your attention like many others during the pre-match build up. However, there were many people who were paying full attention and saw a spelling mistake that stood out like a sore thumb.
William Hill or rather I suspect their Ad agency have dropped a massive clanger by running an ‘in-play’ ad that offered the audience a great price on Wayne Rooney to score the first goal, except they had put Frist Goalscorer. Oh dear me! In this uber-competitve market and at such a prime time, the last impression you want to leave your audience with is sloppiness.
Getting your drivers licence online? Would you like to donate your organs with that?
By Matt | April 6, 2011
It’s been way to long and I’m sure other would agree but I’ve finally realised now is the time to get driving. Why I didn’t already have a provisional drivers licence is another question others may have but now that they’ve made it so easy to get one online I couldn’t make any more excuses!
What took me by surprise though, after wading through the personal questions and tak-tak-taking it all in without much thought, I was presented with one question I just wasn’t expecting. Would I want to join the organ donors list? Made for a quite a sombre turn I’ll tell you.
