Today's New Media Age (NMA) reviewed www.liverpoolfc.tv in its site inspection, awarding it a very respectable 76/100.
NMA's Anna Richardson reviewed the website, giving it a score of 20/25 for content, 17/25 for usability, 19/25 for branding and 20/25 for monetisation.
The site, which was developed in conjunction with Liverpool F.C.'s in-house development team has been a great success since launch breaking several previous records - you can read more about that in a previous blog post.
You can read the full site review on the NMA website, but you'll need to be a subscriber.
Showing posts with label NMA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NMA. Show all posts
Thursday, 30 September 2010
Wednesday, 22 September 2010
Bluhalo/GyroHSR is an NMA Top 100 Digital Agency
Another year and the results of the renowned NMA Top 100 Interactive Agencies report were revealed at another memorable event last night.
Bluhalo/GyroHSR came in as 19th in the top 100, ranking as the 11th largest digital marketing agency in the UK. The industry as a whole has grown by 10% on last year's figures, demonstrating that despite difficult economic times, the industry remains buoyant. The growth, likely to have been bolstered largely by reallocations of marketing budgets to digital marketing, thanks to its measurability and ability to accurately measure ROI, bucks the general economic trend of the country and pays testimony to the hard work committed by the agency sector.
You can read the results summary here, with the full table appearing in tomorrow's edition of New Media Age.
Jocelyn Kirby
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Twitter @JocelynKirby
Bluhalo/GyroHSR came in as 19th in the top 100, ranking as the 11th largest digital marketing agency in the UK. The industry as a whole has grown by 10% on last year's figures, demonstrating that despite difficult economic times, the industry remains buoyant. The growth, likely to have been bolstered largely by reallocations of marketing budgets to digital marketing, thanks to its measurability and ability to accurately measure ROI, bucks the general economic trend of the country and pays testimony to the hard work committed by the agency sector.
You can read the results summary here, with the full table appearing in tomorrow's edition of New Media Age.
Jocelyn Kirby
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Twitter @JocelynKirby
Thursday, 8 October 2009
Digital Agency - behind closed doors - part II
Rather incredibly, it has been almost a month since my last edition of Behind Closed Doors and what a month it has been!
We were ranked 8th largest digital marketing agency in the UK and 17th largest interactive agency, by the respected New Media Age Top 100 Interactive Agencies Report, also identifying us as the largest interactive agency in the South East.
We are now eagerly awaiting the results of Marketing’s Digital Leagues, which are due out towards the end of the month – we’re expecting great things!
Moving on from awards and we’ve had two really exciting new client wins this month; another case of ‘watch this space’ before we make the formal announcement, but both part of great new projects that will almost certainly become a part of your everyday lives in the not-too-distant future. Thanks to these new clients wins, we're also expanding our team - to find out more about our current vacancies, check out our careers page.
Moving on to the people behind the machine… Last month, I introduced you to Ewan, Creative Director and Bluhalo’s newest recruit. Rather aptly this month, I am going to introduce you to Kunjnita Udeshi, our longest running employee and Head of Production.
What Kunji doesn’t know about the web probably isn’t worth knowing, and with almost ten years behind her at Bluhalo, she’s definitely one of our long-termers! Having started her career at Bluhalo as a Web Developer, Kunji has filled a number of shoes in her time here, including Producer, Studio Manager, Director of Web Services… to name a few.
Interested to hear what Kunji has to say? I presented her with a few questions:
What have you been up to this month?
Lots! Travelling to Paris, working on an exciting project for a big global brand and building up to my annual leave next week!
What sites are you loving?
That’s a tough one - I’ve been so immersed in my current projects that I’ve done less of my usual web exploration! My most recent top find is dotspots, which is a universal annotation system for the web – capitalising on the wisdom of the crowds. Another site I’m currently loving is Vark.com - fancy joining my network?
What are you listening to?
Recently I’ve been listening to Akon, Dizzy Rascal, Kings of Leon and La Roux.
What’s the next big thing?
The next big thing – there’s so many things I could say! But for me it’s got to be the semantic web. We’ve started to see elements of it filtering through into everyday use, but it’s not yet hit the mainstream. When it does, we can expect to see a big change in the way we use the web.
That’s it from Behind Closed Doors today, I hope you’ve found it interesting - we’ll be back soon with more insight into the daily workings of digital agency Bluhalo. In the meantime, if you need a bit of digital magic working for your brand, give us a shout – we love a new challenge and have a few tricks up our sleeve to put you one step ahead of your competitors.
Jocelyn Kirby
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Twitter @JocelynKirby
We were ranked 8th largest digital marketing agency in the UK and 17th largest interactive agency, by the respected New Media Age Top 100 Interactive Agencies Report, also identifying us as the largest interactive agency in the South East.
We are now eagerly awaiting the results of Marketing’s Digital Leagues, which are due out towards the end of the month – we’re expecting great things!
Moving on from awards and we’ve had two really exciting new client wins this month; another case of ‘watch this space’ before we make the formal announcement, but both part of great new projects that will almost certainly become a part of your everyday lives in the not-too-distant future. Thanks to these new clients wins, we're also expanding our team - to find out more about our current vacancies, check out our careers page.
Moving on to the people behind the machine… Last month, I introduced you to Ewan, Creative Director and Bluhalo’s newest recruit. Rather aptly this month, I am going to introduce you to Kunjnita Udeshi, our longest running employee and Head of Production.
What Kunji doesn’t know about the web probably isn’t worth knowing, and with almost ten years behind her at Bluhalo, she’s definitely one of our long-termers! Having started her career at Bluhalo as a Web Developer, Kunji has filled a number of shoes in her time here, including Producer, Studio Manager, Director of Web Services… to name a few.
Interested to hear what Kunji has to say? I presented her with a few questions:
What have you been up to this month?
Lots! Travelling to Paris, working on an exciting project for a big global brand and building up to my annual leave next week!
What sites are you loving?
That’s a tough one - I’ve been so immersed in my current projects that I’ve done less of my usual web exploration! My most recent top find is dotspots, which is a universal annotation system for the web – capitalising on the wisdom of the crowds. Another site I’m currently loving is Vark.com - fancy joining my network?
What are you listening to?
Recently I’ve been listening to Akon, Dizzy Rascal, Kings of Leon and La Roux.
What’s the next big thing?
The next big thing – there’s so many things I could say! But for me it’s got to be the semantic web. We’ve started to see elements of it filtering through into everyday use, but it’s not yet hit the mainstream. When it does, we can expect to see a big change in the way we use the web.
That’s it from Behind Closed Doors today, I hope you’ve found it interesting - we’ll be back soon with more insight into the daily workings of digital agency Bluhalo. In the meantime, if you need a bit of digital magic working for your brand, give us a shout – we love a new challenge and have a few tricks up our sleeve to put you one step ahead of your competitors.
Jocelyn Kirby
Marketing & Business Development Manager
Twitter @JocelynKirby
Thursday, 13 August 2009
Twitter Hashtag Competitions - Just Spam?
The recent increase in popularity of the use of hashtags on Twitter (used as a way of creating groupings for Tweets based on keywords), has given rise to an increase in the use of hashtags for ‘spam’.
Not limited to the domain of the stereotypical spammer, we have seen significant numbers of reputable brands falling prey to the attraction of hashtags, only to be shot down and their attempts labeled as spam.
One of the most recent high profile examples was Habitat’s less than thoughtful use of trending hashtags to gain following and exposure on Twitter, even using hashtags related to the Iran election to gain coverage. Not a clever move, and one which left Habitat reeling from the criticism and #habitatfail comments that flooded the Tweetsphere.
So, if a brand as respectable as Habitat can be so unethical in its use of hashtags, it is no wonder that a recent NMA poll showed that 61% of us feel that Twitter competitions by brands which ask users to retweet hashtags are just spam.
So, before you launch a competition on Twitter using hashtags, think again…
Jocelyn Kirby
Marketing & Business Development Manager
@jocelynkirby
Not limited to the domain of the stereotypical spammer, we have seen significant numbers of reputable brands falling prey to the attraction of hashtags, only to be shot down and their attempts labeled as spam.
One of the most recent high profile examples was Habitat’s less than thoughtful use of trending hashtags to gain following and exposure on Twitter, even using hashtags related to the Iran election to gain coverage. Not a clever move, and one which left Habitat reeling from the criticism and #habitatfail comments that flooded the Tweetsphere.
So, if a brand as respectable as Habitat can be so unethical in its use of hashtags, it is no wonder that a recent NMA poll showed that 61% of us feel that Twitter competitions by brands which ask users to retweet hashtags are just spam.
So, before you launch a competition on Twitter using hashtags, think again…
Jocelyn Kirby
Marketing & Business Development Manager
@jocelynkirby
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Awarded Place in Top Digital Leagues
We're delighted to announce that we have been ranked in one of the UK's most prestigious league tables - Marketing Magazine's Digital League.
The report, containing some of the country's most respected digital agencies, which include design and build, digital marketing and digital media agencies, ranks agencies based upon their digital turnover.
Alongside the Marketing Digital Leagues, Bluhalo has also recently featured in Deloitte's Tech Fast 500 EMEA and Fast 50, NMA Top 100 and Media Momentum's fastest growing technology companies, all of which confirm Bluhalo's continuing success and pedrigree in delivering exceptional digital projects.
The report, containing some of the country's most respected digital agencies, which include design and build, digital marketing and digital media agencies, ranks agencies based upon their digital turnover.
Alongside the Marketing Digital Leagues, Bluhalo has also recently featured in Deloitte's Tech Fast 500 EMEA and Fast 50, NMA Top 100 and Media Momentum's fastest growing technology companies, all of which confirm Bluhalo's continuing success and pedrigree in delivering exceptional digital projects.
Thursday, 26 February 2009
NFLUK.com awarded NMA site of the week!
NMA landed on my desk this morning and this week contained a rather pleasant surprise... our work on NFLUK.com has been awarded NMA site of the week.
We really love the NFL UK site and the entire team at Bluhalo is delighted to see our work recognised in this way.
NMA site of the week pitches three sites against each other and rates their content, usability, branding and monetisation to give a score out of 100. NFLUK.com scored as follows:
- Content - 25/25
- Usability - 22/25
- Branding - 20/25
- Monetisation - 10/25
- Total - 77/100
To read the full article, click on the image below.
Monday, 29 September 2008
NMA Top 100 Results are in…
Bluhalo has been ranked amongst the UKs top interactive agencies in a recent report by New Media Age, published on Thursday last week.
The report, based upon UK fee income from digital saw us appear amongst some of the biggest players in the industry as 25th largest design and build agency in the UK, and 66th largest interactive agency – both improvements on last year’s positions.
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
No prizes for coming second – an agency’s view of the pitch process
A few months ago, one of our new clients, Shortlist, wrote an article in New Media Age about the journey they had gone through to choose an agency to plan, design and build their website. The pitch process for clients is a tough one. No matter how in-depth you make the process, there is still an element of faith in the final selection. Similar to a job interview, where you often need to make a decision based on a couple of interviews, you can’t really be sure of knowing if you’ve made the right decision until you’ve had time to work closely with your new agency. The proof, as they say, is firmly in the pudding. It can be a tough process for agencies as well, as increasingly the pitch process is becoming more demanding and more competitive.
Pitching is an agency’s life-blood. An agency that doesn’t pitch is either incredibly lucky (to be able to generate enough business from existing accounts) or incredibly unambitious (doesn’t want to grow). Generally, pitching is a process all us agencies go through and at Bluhalo, we’ve got a pretty good success ratio. What’s is like though to be part of a pitch team and what do we do to give ourselves the best chance possible?
Firstly, an agency and its staff shouldn’t be scared of pitching. It can be a daunting task from start to finish, as you normally begin with a complete blank canvas. The most successful agencies are the ones who truly embrace the situation and see it as an opportunity to show that they are the true digital experts.
The process normally begins with a client sending a Request for Proposal (RFP). This is essentially a brief for the project/campaign and is what you respond to. Unfortunately, the quality of RFP’s vary wildly. I’ve seen some that are incredibly detailed (some far too detailed) through to some that may have well been written on the back of a fag packet. Somewhere in-between is usually best! The clarity of the business objectives is by far the most important detail a client can give us. What are they looking to achieve, what do they want the user to do, how do they gauge success? Also, what is the business problem that is driving the requirement for the work? There usually is one (gone are the days where companies commission websites just because ‘so and so’ has got one!). At the very least, this information should offer us enough insight to develop a digital strategy that will meet and exceed the client’s expectations.
Sounds simple? Well, it should be a relatively straightforward process (though not without a lot of hard work) but the pitch process sometimes gets a bad press in the agency world. Most good agencies are constantly busy and the pitch process only adds to this. Sometimes you politely decline the invitation to pitch (an act only decided upon after a strict internal qualification process) but often it’s a case of rolling up your sleeves, accepting you are going to go through a series of very long nights and getting on with it. You just hope that the client is fair and clear in their selection criteria and that they manage the agency’s expectations with regards to the stages they want you to go through. There have been stories of clients supposedly setting up false pitches in order to get free ideas/strategies from a number of different sources. Does this really happen? I’m sure it has and you can imagine how we feel about it!!
There are many books defining the techniques, approach and state of mind you need to get into to ensure you are successful more times than not. To me, everything boils down to one thing. Preparation. Corny as it sounds, if you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail. Once you have the RFP, a meeting is needed to plan the response. The pitch process is in essence a microcosm of a project in itself. Firstly, you need to get your planners, researchers, creatives (geeks), copywriters, tecchies (freaks) and account management in one room. A far from easy proposition. You then need to assign roles and responsibilities to each. Everyone has to be very clear what is expected of them and when they need to deliver. Everyone has to be totally committed to the process and Senior Management need to give total buy-in. This is where the most important person in the agency pitching process comes into it. At Gyro, they call this person the ‘Ayatollah’, and this person (for the time at least it takes to prepare the pitch) is king. No wavering, no excuses, no ‘lets start tomorrow’….the Ayatollah is the person who ensures that the agency produces the best possible response to the client. They are the person who organises the work in progress (WIP) meetings, tissue meetings, rehearsals and checks and double-checks the brief has been met. It is the Ayatollah that often has the biggest bags under their eyes at the end of the process!
The actual pitch should be something both the client and agency look forward to. For the agency (or me at the least!), there is always a sense of nervous excitement. You have to remember that a client may well need to sit through 4 or 5 pitches in one day, so bringing your recommendations to life is key (death by PowerPoint is a very real thing). There are some great stories in the agency world about the lengths agencies have gone to in order to win pitches. One agency turned a floor in their office into a supermarket aisle when pitching to a major supermarket; another presented the Marketing Director of a High Street bank with a share certificate showing it had purchased half a million pounds worth of shares in the group. The agency had originally been asked to demonstrate how it was committed to the future of the bank (don’t get any ideas!). The list could go on. It’s all about having empathy with the client’s requirements/problems, wowing them and getting them to trust you.
Win or lose, it is essential to ask for and get back decent feedback from the client. It is incredibly disappointing when you lose a pitch, especially when the agency as a whole has put its all into it, but you must learn from the process each time. This is the sign of a truly great agency. And if you are one of those people who believe in fate, everything happens for a reason!
Michael Brandreth
Senior Account Director
Pitching is an agency’s life-blood. An agency that doesn’t pitch is either incredibly lucky (to be able to generate enough business from existing accounts) or incredibly unambitious (doesn’t want to grow). Generally, pitching is a process all us agencies go through and at Bluhalo, we’ve got a pretty good success ratio. What’s is like though to be part of a pitch team and what do we do to give ourselves the best chance possible?
Firstly, an agency and its staff shouldn’t be scared of pitching. It can be a daunting task from start to finish, as you normally begin with a complete blank canvas. The most successful agencies are the ones who truly embrace the situation and see it as an opportunity to show that they are the true digital experts.
The process normally begins with a client sending a Request for Proposal (RFP). This is essentially a brief for the project/campaign and is what you respond to. Unfortunately, the quality of RFP’s vary wildly. I’ve seen some that are incredibly detailed (some far too detailed) through to some that may have well been written on the back of a fag packet. Somewhere in-between is usually best! The clarity of the business objectives is by far the most important detail a client can give us. What are they looking to achieve, what do they want the user to do, how do they gauge success? Also, what is the business problem that is driving the requirement for the work? There usually is one (gone are the days where companies commission websites just because ‘so and so’ has got one!). At the very least, this information should offer us enough insight to develop a digital strategy that will meet and exceed the client’s expectations.
Sounds simple? Well, it should be a relatively straightforward process (though not without a lot of hard work) but the pitch process sometimes gets a bad press in the agency world. Most good agencies are constantly busy and the pitch process only adds to this. Sometimes you politely decline the invitation to pitch (an act only decided upon after a strict internal qualification process) but often it’s a case of rolling up your sleeves, accepting you are going to go through a series of very long nights and getting on with it. You just hope that the client is fair and clear in their selection criteria and that they manage the agency’s expectations with regards to the stages they want you to go through. There have been stories of clients supposedly setting up false pitches in order to get free ideas/strategies from a number of different sources. Does this really happen? I’m sure it has and you can imagine how we feel about it!!
There are many books defining the techniques, approach and state of mind you need to get into to ensure you are successful more times than not. To me, everything boils down to one thing. Preparation. Corny as it sounds, if you fail to prepare, you are preparing to fail. Once you have the RFP, a meeting is needed to plan the response. The pitch process is in essence a microcosm of a project in itself. Firstly, you need to get your planners, researchers, creatives (geeks), copywriters, tecchies (freaks) and account management in one room. A far from easy proposition. You then need to assign roles and responsibilities to each. Everyone has to be very clear what is expected of them and when they need to deliver. Everyone has to be totally committed to the process and Senior Management need to give total buy-in. This is where the most important person in the agency pitching process comes into it. At Gyro, they call this person the ‘Ayatollah’, and this person (for the time at least it takes to prepare the pitch) is king. No wavering, no excuses, no ‘lets start tomorrow’….the Ayatollah is the person who ensures that the agency produces the best possible response to the client. They are the person who organises the work in progress (WIP) meetings, tissue meetings, rehearsals and checks and double-checks the brief has been met. It is the Ayatollah that often has the biggest bags under their eyes at the end of the process!
The actual pitch should be something both the client and agency look forward to. For the agency (or me at the least!), there is always a sense of nervous excitement. You have to remember that a client may well need to sit through 4 or 5 pitches in one day, so bringing your recommendations to life is key (death by PowerPoint is a very real thing). There are some great stories in the agency world about the lengths agencies have gone to in order to win pitches. One agency turned a floor in their office into a supermarket aisle when pitching to a major supermarket; another presented the Marketing Director of a High Street bank with a share certificate showing it had purchased half a million pounds worth of shares in the group. The agency had originally been asked to demonstrate how it was committed to the future of the bank (don’t get any ideas!). The list could go on. It’s all about having empathy with the client’s requirements/problems, wowing them and getting them to trust you.
Win or lose, it is essential to ask for and get back decent feedback from the client. It is incredibly disappointing when you lose a pitch, especially when the agency as a whole has put its all into it, but you must learn from the process each time. This is the sign of a truly great agency. And if you are one of those people who believe in fate, everything happens for a reason!
Michael Brandreth
Senior Account Director
Thursday, 17 April 2008
ShortList Press Coverage
It seems that the press is in our favour today with a second mention of Bluhalo in this week's New Media Age. The article is an interesting and humourous insight into the agency selection process embarked upon by Phil Hilton of ShortList. It concludes with the rationale behind Phil's choice of agency;
"We opted for Bluhalo, which seems plugged into every new forum and social-networking trend on the planet, has a clear and honest approach to time management, and a light and airy office in Farnborough. They will lead and I will sit quiety munching the Choco Liebniz."
Here's a copy of the full article:
Hi-Tec Press Coverage
Following our recent press release and blog article, the Hi-Tec website launch has been well received by the industry, with press coverage today in New Media Age.
Here is the article featured in NMA, 17th April, 2008.
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Press Coverage
New Media Age recently covered a story discussing the online strategies for some of the UK's leading football clubs. Liverpool F.C. has recently appointed Bluhalo to redesign and redevelop its website and plans to incorporate user generated content and social networking into the site. Tottenham Hotspur, a client of Bluhalo is also mentioned in the story.
Article in NMA. (click image for a larger view)
Article in NMA. (click image for a larger view)
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
ShortList joins our list
ShortList, the free men's magazine that launched last year has joined our growing client list, now featuring an impressive array of household names and big brands. Joining the likes of Sony, Sky Digital Media, Tottenham Hotspur and more, ShortList will benefit from our wide ranging industry knowledge.
The website will focus on interactivity and building traffic levels.
Here's some recent press coverage in NMA on the redesign:
Here's some recent press coverage in NMA on the redesign:
Monday, 25 February 2008
9th Largest Digital Agency Website
So, you know we love our website, we've embraced web 2.0, social media and the latest design trends (as you'd hope a digital agency would!). So when we worked out that we have the 9th largest website out of NMA's Top 100 Interactive Agencies, we couldn't resist telling you about it!
Our ranking is based upon Alexa's traffic rankings, (ours is currently the 320,066th largest site) a good position for a B2B company and a great position for a digital agency! Our site's traffic levels have increased by over 140% in the last 3 months thanks to the launch of our new website.
If you'd like to find out your own website's Alexa ranking, visit Alexa, enter your website address and hit 'get traffic details'. If you'd like to see your ranking improve, then we can help! Give us a call on 01252 70 11 11.
Our ranking is based upon Alexa's traffic rankings, (ours is currently the 320,066th largest site) a good position for a B2B company and a great position for a digital agency! Our site's traffic levels have increased by over 140% in the last 3 months thanks to the launch of our new website.
If you'd like to find out your own website's Alexa ranking, visit Alexa, enter your website address and hit 'get traffic details'. If you'd like to see your ranking improve, then we can help! Give us a call on 01252 70 11 11.
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