Going the Distance with Drew Barrymore

There is no doubt Drew Barrymore is a gorgeous girl; I’ve been a long time admirer and hell was in the artists village with her when she was at T in the Park in 2007 with Fabrizio (Strokes Drummer).  Drew’s in the UK doing the rounds promoting her latest flick “Going the Distance” which is about a long distance relationship.

 

The rest of the article can be read here

Admorspace Modular Buildings get a Digital Face

Admorspace Modular Buildings have never before had a web presence and yet have been trading for a number of years - an unusual phenomenon in this day and age. Admorspace design and deliver both bespoke and readymade “Off-Site” modular buildings. They construct the buildings in the comfort of their own factory in Hull.

Admorspace Modular Buildings Website

Blog activity moved

Hello all - just a heads up - my blogging activity has more or less moved to The Drum Marketing Magazine - although admittedly it's subsided of late :(

If you're interested in knowing what is really good at Edinburgh Fringe Festival - the following Twitter aggregator tells you!

I'm liking Digital Face!

If you're wondering, I'm just testing!!

Iron Baby - the shizzle.

But seriously, who's got the time... Clearly you do if you see an opportunity to promote what you do for a living 4.5 million views and counting:

The Durex Baby App

Although a mock-up still inspired, not that I'm thinking about my 17yr old or anything...

Durex Baby from Peter Ammentorp on Vimeo.

Part of a lost generation?

This video is doing the rounds, clever and moving.

Scottish Top Track Private Companies

The Sunday Times list came out today for the UK; I always make a point of checking out the Scottish contingent - so here goes:

Arnold Clark, Glasgow, £2,139,000 - Automobiles (went from 12th place to 15th)

KCA Deutag Group, Aberdeen, £1,016,000 - Drilling Contractor (went from 54th place to 44th)
Kwik-Fit, Edinburgh, £968,000 - Car Repair Centre (went from 48th place to 47th)
Miller Group, Edinburgh, £783,000 - Housebuilding (went from 38th place to 61st)
PSN, Aberdeen, £716,000 - Oil Services Provider (went from 76th place to 68th)
William Grant and Sons, Banffshire, £598,000 - Distiller (went from unlisted place to 96th)

Last year there were 10 Scottish listed companies in the top 100, 6 this year and one of which was unlisted last year.

Make of it what you will, if I were a teacher... "Scotland, could do better."

As someone that stays in touch with entrepreneurial start-ups and investment partnerships there are some exciting businesses emerging, however our strength, financial markets have taken quite a beating...

Have you any opinions on the state our country's business?

As prepared by Digital Face using Fast Track in association with The Sunday Times

Social Media Monitoring - Future?

Is this the future for businesses that want to monitor their own brand?

St Margaret's School, Edinburgh in Liquidation!

St Margaret's School for girls in Edinburgh has been put into provisional liquidation by the RBS appointed KPMG - a sad day indeed. 

My association with it is limited, my sister went there, some previous girl friends (ahem) and so I have some fond memories (some very fond...) but it occurred to me they were missing a trick in generating some positive PR or generating a higher intake of pupils. Over the years they've done all sorts of things, joined up with other schools, created some PR and marketing exercises but nothing that has really made them stand out.

I didn't go to Edinburgh Academy but my brother did and say what you like about them, they've produced some great rugby players, some great academics but they're latest export is this guy Alex Gardner - I've only heard of him because he knows my daughter.  But I'm guessing there is a trick to be made by abusing the talent that lives in private schools to generate interest (and pupil numbers) by not the explotation but along those lines.  Abuse people's fixation with Celebrity - approaching a well known local celebrity and offer them rates to send their offspring to the same school for example... Now tell me you wouldn't want to know more about the school if you knew Madonna's kids were going to it?

Update on Digital Face

I thought I would bring you up to date on activities at Digital Face - it's been a while for some of you.

Website Activity:

We have just recently been commissioned to replace RB Farquhar's Manufacturing website - it will also sport translation services care of Christian Arno and his team at Lingo24 -  into Czechoslovakian, Dutch and German. Their website for the operation in United Arab Emirates (UAE) will remain as is.  We look forward to working with the RB Farquhar team in Huntly, Aberdeenshire. The old site can be seen here - with the new site going live at the end of June.

We have also been commissioned to build a number of small sites for an as yet to be named Leisure group in addition to applying a social media marketing strategy, through both staff training and retained support. The sites are to support a number of very well known Edinburgh Bars and Restaurants.

Marketing Activity:

I (Colin Gilchrist) recently returned from Leeds as a speaker for the Marketing Industry Network for an event organised by Caroline Lotinga for Marketing and PR professionals. There were two other speakers, Kate Wooding from Tictoc and Adam Gordon from Winning Work - the event was centred around social media, sharing our knowledge and case studies.

Also working with two Advertising Agencies and one Digital Agency as their social media support on a consultancy basis one is The Lane the others (I haven't asked their permission so wont name them).

Client side we are working with a number of FMCG businesses both training and out sourced supply of social media marketing one of whom is Go FAST! Sports, it's early days for them but some Facebook activity can be seen here: http://www.facebook.com/gofastsportsuk - go on Like it, you know you want to ;)

Social Media Policy

Social Media Policy Document on The Drum!

Believe me, you'll be glad you read this my latest piece for The Drum Marketing magazine.

Michael Birch sold Bebo for £420m, would you like to know more?

Michael Birch, Bebo | Smarta

Edinburgh 10's a tremendous day out

Do you know an event that needs some publicity - I came across 'Chris Bain Video Productions' page on facebook - it's not the slickest production in the world, but hell they know how to make you smile!

Edinburgh Rugby 10's 2010 from CHRIS BAIN VIDEO PRODUCTIONS on Vimeo.

Great effort.

Linkedin is rude!

People are now beginning to realise that Linkedin is an amazing business development tool - that cold calling is almost no longer required and compared to using an introductory email you are 25% more likely to achieve a response.

I learned fairly recently that when you approach new contacts on Linkedin the stats are largely thus:
25% will accept you whether you are a serial killer or a trapeze artist
25% will ignore you because they just don't know or like the look of you.
50% will go either way.

The automated form for connecting makes people rude (see image) and I find that people who don't change the wording are generally lazy, don't know how or are in the business of collecting names for their profile rather than considering a polite approach.  So if you wish to invite a connection from an individual that you have never met can I offer some free advice: take a couple of seconds to change the text, you are likely to be considerably more successful.

Linkedin

Have you yet to add a profile picture?  An individual who shall remain nameless did not have a profile picture for 8 months and struggled to connect with people that she knew - the minute a picture went up she was getting almost daily approaches (not just because she's hot...) people often remember faces before names - there are also photographers that specialise in creating the right profile picture for Linkedin - it's just a case of being professional and approachable. Oh yes, and using a company logo, if you are... good luck with that one (yawn), it's very impersonal.

The real success through Linkedin however is the follow-up call.  If you are using it to grow a database of potential new clients can I suggest you make a note of who you have approached, follow up with another message and then a phone call (all being well).

So is Linkedin rude? No not really but it does make people rude.