Welcome to the Escape Blog

Marketing, indeed business, is getting harder - or easier - depending on how you look at it.

So, when people moan about Prince giving away his latest album free, are they right or are they clinging onto the traditional way an industry works?

Prince also plans to give away copies of his album to fans attending one of his 21 concerts at London’s O2 arena next month. That means it will reach many more listeners than the artist’s last album, 3121, which only sold 80,000 copies in the UK on release in 2006. (more…)

Thought I’d start posting some links that catch my eye and leave you to follow the scent if it is to be…

• Proof that attention is shifting to user experience as companies put more budget into usability testing.
• Europe-wide online advertising set to double by 2012.
• Online shoppers won’t by rushed when buying online. E-Consultancy Article.
• Brands online and how to gain trust from users.
• Could banner adverts start cutting out the middle man - Tailgate transactional banners

Well, your saw last Sunday’s report on Basingstoke Live - let’s put that to bed. Well, after letting you know how pleased everyone is with the result, specially Basingstoke & Deane Council.

It’s fair to say the office has been a little subdued this week - we’re not as young as we used to be and technically Sunday night is a school night.

So, this week, we have been mostly eyes down for a (half) full house. We finished Marine Diplomas Feeder Website, which went live and also got some creatives in for a varied brain storm on a new brand we are working on. Lou and Simon met the guys are RRG to talk web, who left suitably impressed, we’d like to think.

Craig and Rob met the guys are Remarkable down in Southampton about possible collaborations on future marketing and PR project, which would lend even more weight to some of the more hefty projects we are beginning to attract.

This afternoon (don’t tell Rob) we have been playing this amazing (and easy) game - Racing Pitch - bringing much hilarity to the studio. It goes a little something like this.

As you may know we sponsored Basingstoke Live last week (a local music festival) and ran our own ‘branded’ campaign of “supporting creative talent” across the event.

Part of the campaign involved taking some famous song lyrics and having them on banners around the various stages… “we bet that you look good on the dancefloor”, “it’s only rock ‘n’ roll but we like it”, etc. to add a bit of fun to our message.

One of my fellow Escapees showed me a forum post on the Basingstoke Live website with someone mocking it:
(more…)

If you don’t know, Pantone is a colour system used by designers and printers to tie specific colours to a design, such as a logo. It’s a bit like those strips you get in the DIY store for choosing paint colours but, with many, many, many more colours.

So, I’ve always seen my Pantone Colour Swatch book as a tool-of-the-trade when I need it.

Up-steps this article on Click Opera about the way the Pantone ‘brand’ and colour system is being used to full effect in Japan. Well worth a read.

Saw an advert for these guys in Grafik magazine and didn’t understand it. I do now though and can’t wait to use it for something.

If you like type like I like type, go check out Via Letter, where you can buy letters.

Can’t and shan’t take the credit for these statistics that highlight reasons why people abandon online shops at the checkout stage. They came via E-Consultancy and I have tidied up the graph, which combines data from Marketing Sherpa and Web Credible.

If ever you needed a checklist on ways to improve your online shop, these make a very good start… (click on the image to make readable)

We often discuss the importance of increasing the amount of relevant traffic you can get to your website - relevant being the important part. But what about the next step? It’s even more important, as highlighted by this one comment from Randfish on SEOmoz:

If Google sent SEOmoz 10,000 extra visitors per day, it wouldn’t be nearly as valuable as increasing our current conversion rate by 1/2 of 1 percent.

It’s worth reading the whole article - Landing Page Optimization - Potentially More Rewarding than SEO.

Read this article on the Google Webmaster blog about using Flash on websites. Nothing new but worth repeat-repeating.

There was a time when most design agencies - and some still do - created entire websites in Flash with the dreaded ‘Skip Intro’ page. The problem being that search engines can’t see the stuff inside. So a website created in flash is one image - with no content. (more…)

Just like Crowded House, we brought the weather with us yesterday at Basingstoke Live. Believe or not, about 10 minutes after the music ended and the crowds dispursed… the skies opened. But, if you missed it, this is what we got up to in Tent Tropicana - our back stage paradise…

A rush for the bar..

Let’s go outside…

Chillin’

Out Front…

Rocking To The Searchers…