Opinion
Time to take content seriously
Why are agencies and clients ignoring content? After all, content is the business bit of a website. The bit of a website that does something, communicates something, delivers value.
Representing Universities
Has Higher Education gone brand crazy? A recent article in the Times Higher Education (Makeover Mania, 6–12 March) suggests that ‘more than two thirds of institutions are undergoing some form of rebranding'. For institutions that have really only got to grips with modern marketing in the last decade or so (before which many didn't even have marketing departments), this seems like quite an extreme case of image consciousness.
Keeping up appearances
Images can literally make or break a website. They set the tone, enhance written content, add visual impact and even help with search engine optimisation. But used incorrectly, they can stop pages from loading, detract from the content, make the entire site look less credible – and potentially prevent users from visiting your site.
The writing's on the web
Whatever happened to engaging, well crafted content? In the midst of Web 2.0, second life and the wealth of emerging technological development across the internet, many organisations seem to have forgotten the absolute golden rule for any good website: “content is king” – and it must deliver business value.
Peeling back the myths of SEO
In recent years there have been a plethora of companies offering a service called SEO: but what is SEO and do you actually need it? Well, SEO is another one of those three letter acronyms that we in the industry like to use, and make other people remember. It stands for Search Engine Optimisation - so there is one layer gone!
Blog the Builder -Just who is managing your brand reputation?
Sat on a packed commuter train pulling out of London Bridge last week, I read a ‘City Spy' article in the Evening Standard about Tom Glocer - CEO of Reuters and inveterate social networker...
The true cost of websites
If you're asking 'how much will my website cost?' then you're asking the wrong question. And yet that is precisely what many businesses do when they make decisions about redesigning their website writes Neil Davis, Director of Strategy at Precedent Communications
Why we're launching digital marketing services
Web audiences today don't want to be preached to; they are fed up of having information forced on them. They're less trusting, don't like having their time wasted and really want the opportunity to engage; with you and within likeminded communities.
Why be conventional?
When the first illuminated script was painstakingly created by a devoted monk in his cell by candlelight convention began to be established. Was it him, lets call him Gregory, who decided that we would read from left to right? Was it him who decided that books should have a title page with illustrations of the story to follow, page numbers, chapters, indices, content pages?
Putting communications at the core
Organizations must communicate to survive. Continuous, day-to-day interactions with stakeholders are as essential to the functioning of an organization as breathing is to a human being. Indeed, one might say that if the finance function is one of the essential, life-sustaining corporate systems, communication is the other. The two are as interdependent, and as inseparable, as the lungs and the heart.
Does the public sector need branding?
In a recent episode of the BBC's animated comedy series 'Monkey Dust', a brand consultancy called Labia renames the fire brigade 'Icarus' - insisting that they combat their image as an 'essentially reactive organization' by going into the frothy coffee business. Like all the best satire, it's the percipience of Monkey Dust that makes it so wickedly funny. If one of our best loved institutions could be relaunched as the hated 'Consignia', is giving a pretentious, ill-omened Classical name to the disputatious fire service such a far-fetched idea?
Seven principles of communication
Fashion may be turning its head back to the 80's. Thankfully, the same can't be said about corporate communications. Image isn't everything. Style won't substitute for substance. Modern organisations are finally starting to define themselves by looking inwards, chasing authenticity instead of the latest fleeting trends. It's as if we've learned to be more comfortable in our own skins, more self-aware than self-conscious. These seven principles are the creeds of a thoroughly modern approach to corporate communications.
Seven habits of highly effective web sites
An expedition is making its way through the jungle. A production team are cutting their way through with machetes. A management team are behind them sharpening the machetes, holding muscle development seminars and setting up work schedules. A single individual stops, climbs to the top of the tallest tree, surveys the entire situation and yells "WRONG JUNGLE". The busy, efficient production team and managers respond "Shut up! We're making progress"