Welcome to the Escape Blog

From Advertising Goodness comes this cool campaign from South Africa for Toot-N-Scoot.

Mate, you look how I feel….

Campaign by Tequila.

See that photo right, it’s Debbie and Adam going through some web amends with Escape client, Laila at Advanced Inc, in Canada.

We are really blown away with our new toy - Lifesize Video Conferencing and have had two meetings already this week with Laila in Ontario and it’s amazing how convenient and easy it is to use. Also, saves a fortune on the phone bill because it runs over the internet. The quality is amazing. If you are local and need one to use, why not call in? If you’ve got one and want to chat, get in touch.

Adam, pictured in the green shirt and glasses, has since decided to go on a much needed diet after seeing himself on TV. We give the diet ’till Tuesday (when the new tuck box arrives)..

Craig’s off to The Escape in Cyprus this week, where he’ll be topping up his tan (It’s easier than stealing his wife’s St Tropez- she’s beginning to worry)- he’s taken his camera, which, is by no means going to be used to take photos of young ladies on the beach. Oh, no.

So, asides from chatting to Canada, flying off to Cyprus, and Adam deciding that he’s too fat, we have also been creating some lovely websites.

One of them being for our previously mentioned Canadian client, we created their website www.apgdisplays.com, which went live this week, and it looks really rather nice, wouldn’t you agree? So well done Andy, Steve & Gary, who all had a hand in creating the site.

We’ve also been quite busy with the Basingstoke Live website, which is still looking really nice- we’ve added a programme, so all you pop-pickers can find out who’s playing what, where and when! - If you’re on Myspace (Who isn’t?) then why not visit our page, and be our friend?

And we’re working on loads of other things for our friends in Canada, and a little closer to home in Basingstoke, we’re creating a website for the lovely people at Brackenwood Windows, that’s looking good as well- but more on that at a later date.

If you’re having a Barbecue this weekend (the weather’s nice, I think you should!) Don’t burn those sausages, and try not poison your guests, and if you do- get them very very drunk, and blame the alcohol- thus leaving your reputation as a culinary genius in-tact.

An article on Search Engine Land, written by Galen De Young, takes an interesting look into B2B search engine marketing asking the question: Pay per click or Search Engine Optimisation?

And, there is no defined answer, as such. It depends on what you are selling and who you are selling to - product or service, simple, or complex sell? Well worth a read.

The higher the level of risk associated with the purchase of your product, the more you’ll want to focus on achieving strong organic search results. Ubiquitous high-ranking results can create the perception of industry leadership, regardless of your actual standing. And perceptions of leadership can get you included in the buyer’s consideration set.

Friction comes in all shapes and sizes. It can be hard and grating, or so soft you don’t even notice it until it either builds up or fades away. Sometimes, it’s not even where you think it is.

For instance, in my quest to ride longer distances for an upcoming charity cycle ride, I have noticed that it’s not the cycling that could potentially stop me from completing the ride, it may be the saddle soreness, the back-ache after 30 miles, or as Rob pointed out to me the other day, one blister in the wrong place could make it all very difficult.

My point? Well, sometimes, we focus so much on the main aspect of a project that we miss the areas of friction that could potentially make just as much difference to the success.
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Stationery printing is dying (I can’t remember the last time I wrote a letter), but business cards continue to create a good (or bad) first impression and, as a wise designer once said to me “Everything Is What You Make It”. Indeed, business cards are no exception.

I love giving my business card out because it creates discussion from the personal touch. People are more interested in the back, than the front, asking about my favourite escape in the world, or my personal aspirations for the year.
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Have you ever looked at a slogan on someone else’s tee shirt and read what it says? Of course you probably have, along with everybody else.

So, this idea from Reactee (via Springwise), of a service where you can create a tee shirt that ‘texts back’ the person reading it  takes that interaction one step further.

The use of different types of media (in this case a tee shirt and text messaging) interacting creates more of a brand experience, and depending on the message you choose, a great way of engaging with a potential audience.

I am starting to feel incredibly guilty after I have new business meetings for websites. A potential client will come in, sit down with (sometimes) a fairly clear idea about what they want from their own website.

Then, we hit ‘em with the “This is what your website really looks like” behind the design. Then we move onto “this is how it could be” and they tend to leave feeling rather shell-shocked with overload having learned that there is more to a website than the way it looks on a PC running Windows XP and Internet Explorer.
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I think there is a serious marketing and sales lesson to be learnt in this post, so this rant is on the company blog and not my personal one….

I am really p*ssed off. During my day to day job, I like to think I understand marketing to a fashion and I am a big believer in getting permission and creating a relationship with clients. I also subscribe to the fact that advertising and interruption based marketing and selling, such as cold calling, is become less effective.
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I found a free tool today that checks the EMV of your web page. “Emotional Marketing Value” analyses the words that you use and how they tap into the emotions of an Audience.

There is no doubt that great web copy does sell, especially a headline, and spending a little time on crafting an effective headline of a web page, blog post, or news story can have a massive impact on traffic and take-up, especially if the page is being submitted to social news sites like Digg, Netscape and Reddit. (more…)

The power of ten was in full effect this week. It’s part of our drive to be even better as a business and culminated in a seminar for Escapees this morning. Craig revealed that the this years company away day is going to be in a tent - should be fun!

That means we will be closing the office on 27th June. Aaaaah, what will you do??? It’s still internal at the moment (ouch) but you should begin to see the fruits of our work in the coming month.

We are also looking at ways we can improve out business efficiency. I could blag it and say it’s all to do with reducing carbon emissions, and it would only be a small fib, as this will be just one of the advantages of our new video conferencing facility coming next week. We already have a meeting arrange with APG in Canada. Ooooohhh, new toy, new toy.

Lisa and Joanna can finally get their evenings back after suffering three and a half days of solid exams for their CIM Marketing qualifications this week. After a year of heavy studying we all say well done girls… sit back, relax and breeeeeeathe.

Craig learned how to design a web page in MySpace - not for the faint hearted - as the Basingstoke Live sponsorship really began to kick-in. Poor old Steve has been hounded all week for updates and the studio have been busy knocking together collateral. The new website is already getting hammered (as in visitors).

Following on from the success with the Pass Plus campaign for Hampshire County Council, we also won the Older Drivers Assessment project this week and kicked off a couple of new projects for new clients, including a new website for Brackenwood Windows. We went down to the showroom yesterday and learned all about self-cleaning glass. It’s a whole new world.

Jacqui returned for The Escape in Cyprus and the holiday fever soon wore off after she (nearly) lost our accounts. She’s nothing if not resourceful though and soon found it all behind a bad, bad Sage bug.

Dan has been getting down with the students this week, checking out some of the local graduate exhibitions. Looks like we are having some work experience designers in after he met a couple of hot prospects! Could they be the next Andy Russell? Watch this space….