IceBlue

The Importance of Branding - What is a Brand?

2009-03-05T04:53:00.000-08:00

In the current economic climate, branding and reputation are becoming more important than ever, as more and more companies are cutting advertising spend and marketing budgets. Even where budgets aren’t being cut (as many companies realise the importance of marketing at a time like this) efforts are being re-directed into different methods and mediums, including the utilisation of social media websites and blogs to generate online PR, branding and communication opportunities. Before looking at how you can use social media optimisation to help your business I thought it would be a good idea to explore the concept of “branding”.

"Brand", "branding" and "brand values" are all terms that are banded around a lot but we don’t often stop to think about what they actually mean. Before you can establish a brand for your company it’s necessary to understand what a "brand" is, and what "branding" entails.

A “brand” is a set of perceptions made by a large group of people about a product, company, organisation, individual, service or even a place. These perceptions might have been created intentionally by active promotion using marketing methods, or they might have been unintentionally created through negative associations, for example created by poor press reviews or common bad experiences.

“Branding” is the process of attempting to generate and control people’s perceptions, or to lodge the name of a business, product or individual in people’s minds, to help them grow or maintain their market position. Any company, organisation, product or individual can benefit from having a brand that presents itself as having characteristics that are appropriate to that particular business, for example reliability, quality, trust, excitement, being cutting edge, distinctive, innovative, friendly, etc.

In my next post (which will be soon I promise) I’ll think about how to create a brand and why you need one…

Snow and Flu

2009-02-05T06:08:00.000-08:00

It seems the Gods just keep conspiring against me to prevent me from getting into work – first the God of health and now the weather God. I arrived home from my snowboarding holiday with trillions of fluey germs and was confined to the sofa for a few days of recovery, too weak to even lift my pen (well may laptop actually but as a writer pen sounds more melodramatic) and now I’m snowed in. And as we all know the UK just doesn’t cope well with snow. Scrub that last remark….the UK just doesn’t cope.

I did manage to lift my laptop to send one email to Emma and Jenny (the Ice Blue bosses - see our Team Page profiles) as my voice was too croaky to be understood on the phone and Emma thought it was quite funny so I thought I’d publish an extract of it as a blog post (as I've been so lame at writing any others for a while now. I promise to rectify that with a little help from the God of blogging). See below:

“I'm so sorry to have gotten ill after my holiday - actually I got ill ON my holiday, oh joy!! The law of the great God named Sod struck again by allowing me to go on holiday, relax and therefore get ill. I had been feeling a bit run down for weeks but refusing to give in and then it all came out I think. Of course it didn't help that I decided I was going to ignore it and dose myself up on super-strong cold and flu tablets, Vitamin C and lots of caffeine and go up the hill still. I think the final straw was the freezing cold air rushing at speed down my throat as I surfed the beautiful fresh, virgin powder (don't cry).......for one day at least. I was actually happy that the next day was rainy as I stayed tucked up under a duvet looking at the mountains out of the window from my position on the sofa with a DVD for company.

Then came the day from hell which I think pushed me over the edge into the dark depths of the pit of fluey illness - the journey home, aaaahhh! I have never had a bad journey from Geneva before so I think this one balanced out the many, many good ones I've had, as it was an absolute nightmare. The rain had turned to snow and it had dumped heavily all night so we left Morzine early to get to Geneva on time, again heavily dosed up with hardcore French medication, only to make it safely down the mountain and arrive at Geneva to find the airport closed due to technical problems caused by bad weather!! I then spent the next couple of hours lying on the floor of the airport on Andy's coat, covered by my coat, praying that some flights from UK would be able to land so we could get on one out of there. Luckily our flight made it and we left the growing hoards in the arrival area only to have to wait on another, equally uncomfortable, floor by the Gate. We then celebrated as we made it onto the plane until we discovered we had to wait another 2 hours to get a slot to take off!! I managed to clear a whole row to lie down on by having an almighty coughing fit - I recommend it to get people to move away from you! We eventually made it to Gatwick but discovered that our bags hadn't and they were still in Geneva - oh the joys of flying Sleazy Jet.

So when I eventually made it home I was totally exhausted, feverish, coughing, snotty, achy.....you get the picture! I can honestly say I haven't felt this rough in years, I think I actually have flu rather than a bad cold but I feel terrible about not making it to work. So massive apologies…..” blah blah, etc.

Search Engine Strategies (SES) 2009 London Conference and Expo

2009-01-30T05:17:00.000-08:00

Not long now, and we can jump on a train down to the big smoke (ironic to call the capital that as we live in the heart of the Midlands, possibly the most industrial region of the country, and more specifically in the Black Country, so called because of the smog that once came from the factories) but anyway I digress, down to London to the highlight of the year so far – the SES Conference and Expo at The Business Design Centre in Islington. It’s a 3 day conference from 17th – 19th Feb 2009, with an SEM Training Day on 20^th and very useful indeed to anyone in marketing wanting to learn more about online marketing and advertising, including Search Engine Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation. Marketers, consultants and industry leaders from the world’s leading businesses gather there to review the very latest SEM and SEO techniques, and it is a chance not to be missed to pick their brains and hear their thoughts. Don’t worry if you can’t make it though we’ll bring back all the tips we learn and if you’re very, very nice we’ll share them with you.

Search Engine Strategies (SES) 2009 London Conference and Expo

2009-01-30T05:12:00.000-08:00

Acorns Children’s Hospice Trust

2009-01-08T09:09:00.000-08:00

We received a phone call on Friday from Acorns Children’s Hospice Trust, a registered charity providing a network of care to life-limited children and their families across the Midlands. We were asked for a small donation, which we gave willingly, but it drew to our attention the plight of the many children and families in the Midlands in need of their help and felt that a donation was the very least we could do. We’d like to appeal to every business locally to give a little something to help fund such a worthy charity.

Acorns cares for children who are “life-limited” - which means they are unlikely to reach adulthood - and offers support to their families. They cover a defined catchment area including the counties of Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Gloucestershire and the West Midlands. They have three hospices situated in Birmingham, Walsall and Worcester as well as a community team that offers practical and emotional support to families in their homes.

Acorns offers respite, emergency and end-of-life care and on average one of the children they care for dies every week. They rely on the community to fund the majority of their activities as only 10% comes from statutory funding. That’s why it’s really vital that you help in any way possible as the job they do is amazing.

To support them visit http://www.acorns.org.uk/At_work.asp and help by giving a donation, through staff fund raising or any of the other ideas you’ll find there.

Search Engine Strategies 2009 Conference and Expo – Not to be Missed!

2009-01-08T02:43:00.000-08:00

I am now getting really excited about the Search Engine Strategies Conference and Expo 2009 being held at The Business Design Centre in Islington. It’s a 3 day conference from 17th – 19th Feb 2009, with an SEM Training Day on 20th.

It’s an industry event definitely not to be missed if you want to network with your peers and learn more about SEM, organised and hosted by leading search engine marketing expert Mike Grehan.

There are loads of excellent speakers with years of experience in their respective areas and lots of training seminars. It’s well worth the registration fee so if you are a chief marketing officer, an SEO consultant, an SEM specialist, a PPC campaign manager, a web developer or designer, an internet marketing specialist, or a beginner in any of the above you should get yourselves to London for this event in February.

http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/london/

See you there…….

Excellent Article on SEOmoz.org

2009-01-08T02:36:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year and welcome back. It’s been a while, what with the hecticness of the festive period generally and moving house at this time as well…..doh! I recommend not doing that, ever. I just doesn’t work and when you come back to work after the New Year you just feel like you need another holiday so that you can actually relax.

Hey ho, we’re back and in full swing so the painful memories are quickly receding. Being at work is actually a get away from the remaining boxes and unpacking that will probably never get done, as if it’s not unpacked already then it’s not really needed.

But enough of my personal woes and back to the subject at hand. I just want to mention a blog post by Randfish on SEOmoz.org about “Best Practices for Content Optimisation” as it’s really useful. And as it’s so well written I’m not even going to try and explain it just send you there via this link….

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/best-practices-for-content-optimization

It’s a great place to read daily blog posts as they are written by an industry expert who obviously knows his stuff and he writes really clearly for us relative newbies to understand. So a big thanks to Randfish and SEOmoz.org for all their help so far and keep up the good work.

Go and check it out.

How Important is Marketing during the Credit Crunch?

2008-12-02T03:05:00.000-08:00

That’s a fairly vague question I admit as it is open to many answers but to be completely black and white I’d say it’s more important than ever.

Cuts are being made in budgets all over the place, jobs are being lost and departments merged, the boundaries of roles are being blurred in some instances and people are being expected to do two jobs instead of one. Basically most companies need a pound to do the work of a fiver and they need to find more and more innovative ways to do so.

This goes for the marketing departments too as while marketing budgets get cut ideas need to become more creative to get better results. More thinking outside the box is required to beat the competition as things are getting tough out there and only the fittest will survive.

This survival attitude and the need for more innovative marketing solutions will probably force designers to become more competitive too and perhaps even allow many the freedom they always craved to open their true creative channels. I say let the creative juices flow freely and the credit crunch may just create a by-product of visually stimulating commercial and retail environments.

Perhaps that’s the positive that will come out of a dire financial situation or perhaps I’m just clutching at straws for a positive, either way marketing and design departments will weather the storm better than some departments as they are possibly more necessary in a financial downturn than in boom times.

Blogging for Blogging's Sake

2008-11-26T08:04:00.000-08:00

I just want to jump back a couple of blog posts first of all to thank Matt for my Globehead experience, it was truly memorable – possibly the most annoying flash site ever and yet I feel strangely fond of it now.

So back to today and my musings…I have read lots of other blogs recently about the phenomenon of blogging itself and whether you should blog for blog’s sake, or not?

I’ve since actually spent a few days thinking about whether you should blog only when you have something to say or whether you should think of something to say to blog. What a dilemma!

A lot of the time people blog for SEO purposes but I think the most interesting blogs really are those that are written to express an opinion or thought about something. Writing something for the sake of it usually sounds contrived and unnatural – unless you are an exceptionally gifted writer I suppose. For the rest of us minions it is surely better to wait and write naturally or just write nothing at all.

Luckily I don’t have to worry too much about this blog as Matt is brilliant at posting interesting little snippets – mostly useless – but loads of fun!! And now you can even watch him work (or not) by watching our webcam.

So while I haven’t got anything to say I’ll just sign off and leave you with Big Bro.

We got Big Bro'd

2008-11-25T06:19:00.000-08:00

http://www.icebluemd.co.uk/webcam/default.aspx

ascii converter

2008-11-25T06:04:00.000-08:00

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nice and ASCII

cool image converter from http://asciiconvert.com/
try it out.

here's my face too... isnt it lovely?

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Big up for brushes

2008-11-19T05:20:00.000-08:00

Big up to www.noupe.com

Who via StumbleUpon provided me with some very nice Photoshop brushes.
Some odd some very cool indeed.
Just a few clicks in the right place produced the image here.

Get loads of them from...
http://www.noupe.com

Just for Kate

2008-11-18T04:30:00.001-08:00

Hope you like it.

P.S did you see Globehead?......... just be patient.

Flash versus SEO

2008-11-14T03:55:00.000-08:00

One of our web designers Matt asked me to write a post about Flash versus SEO and he basically wanted me to fight the corner for Flash as he thinks there should be more of it about on the world wide web. I said I’d see what I could do knowing that it would be a hard job but thinking that some thorough research may throw up some arguments supporting the Flash team…….Sadly this hasn’t really been the case, sorry Matt!

All my research has done is reinforce my initial belief that Flash is bad for SEO. Bad as in avoid it at all costs unless you are a huge brand (huge like in the realms of Coca Cola or Nike) and then you don’t need to really worry about writing your content for SEO purposes. Everyone else should avoid Flash like the plague. Don’t listen to your creative web designers who like to make things look pretty, it doesn’t matter how pretty your website looks if it can’t be found.

Now I realise that this is a subject pretty much discussed to death, over and over at the very least, but I promised to look into it some more so here we are. And it is still a subject worthy of attention as some camps claim that Flash can now be indexed by search engines (news and comments on this welcome) and it still creates a chasm between web designers and SEO consultants - who let’s face it are two very different kettles of fish. As different as chalk and cheese, like “lipstick on a pig” (the most used phrase in our office since Hannah thought it was a good concept for a marketing campaign following the recent coining by Mr. Obama).

But back to Flash versus SEO, I accept that Flash can be useful for “progressive enhancement” and there are ways to get your site indexed still when using Flash but I still stick to the opinion that less is more – I personally can’t stand waiting for Flash to load and I am definitely one of those users that immediately hits the back button before a site even loads if it is built entirely in Flash (they shouldn’t even be allowed to exist they’re soooo annoying).

So not a strong defence I realise but a little Flash here and there, a banner or two I would argue for as it makes daily life on the internet a little more pleasant. And more to the point does exactly what it is supposed to do – it “progressively enhances” a website built to web standards. That way if a browser doesn’t support Flash a website’s functionality and the availability of it’s content won’t be compromised. So no problems or annoyance.

So that’s my conclusion – use Flash on well built websites when necessary to show videos or for animation to illustrate something already in text form or use sparingly for design enhancement, beyond that that I can’t find an argument for Flash if SEO is required – I hope that’s a fair comment Matt? (please feel free to respond, just don’t be too horrible to me)!

Doh!

2008-11-11T02:01:00.000-08:00

I must apologise and point out my own incompetence at blogging as I have been logging in as Duncan Bloor who isn't a newbie to Ice Blue at all as I made out in my first post, he is in fact our SEO expert - sorry Duncan! I now have my own blog log in as you'll see below so onwards and upwards, and just to clarify the last three posts were by me and any comments welcome.

I'll be back soon........

Web Design versus Content

2008-11-10T03:46:00.000-08:00

There is an on going debate about the need for good web copy versus good web design and there are two very different schools of thought. In fact there are probably several different schools of thought but to simplify things here the two main trains of thought are as follows.

1. Web design is less important than content as copy sells.
2. Web design is the most important factor to create a good website.

I would say that both factors are equally as important, for SEO as well and the overall user experience.

If you are hoping that visitors find your website through a search engine then it must have well written, content rich copy. If visitors are finding your site because they are already aware of your brand name SEO factors may be less important and logo, branding and design elements of your site may take priority over content.

Having said that we live in a very visual culture saturated with television, videos, magazines and other daily forms of visual media so we are used to identifying with images. We even communicate visually through signs without words – road signs, door signs, airport signs, etc – signs that cross cultural and language boundaries. Therefore I would say design is extremely important in all areas of our life including the internet.

Remember the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words”? The graphics and design of your website should be used to put your chosen message across to reinforce the needs of your audience. But the design should not be used as a stand-alone statement or become style over substance, it should instead work in conjunction with and enhance your content which after all actually gives the audience the information they require.

Once a visitor arrives at your site you have a few seconds to keep them there or loose them so your website needs to combine appealing design with clear, scannable copy and simple navigation. (Navigation is not the place to get creative, but that’s a whole other post I expect). In fact the internet favours simplicity so good design should also embody simplicity to keep your visitors on your well designed site. It is equally important to make your keywords very visible as when people arrive via a search engine they will automatically scan for the keywords they used to find you in the first place, and this is where the use of headlines and bullet points (as discussed in the last post “Top Tips for Writing Copy for the Web”) comes in.
Headlines can be used effectively with images and extra keywords can be included in heading tags. It is also worth remembering that design isn’t just about appealing graphics it’s about form and that includes the use of text. Your content needs to be sized appropriately and laid out in a manner pleasing to the eye and easy to read. Back again to laying out text similarly to a newspaper with short paragraphs, headlines and images to break up the text.

So my conclusion is that design and content are equally as important and must work together hand in hand to work successfully. You can’t separate the two as the design must facilitate the flow of the well written content and enable people to move effortlessly around your website whilst reinforcing the message of your brand and together they must enhance the overall user experience of your website.

Top Tips for Writing Copy for the Web

2008-10-28T06:33:00.000-07:00

So Day 2, first day at school nerves gone as I didn’t get my lunch money nicked or my pig tails pulled yesterday and all the kids talked to me in the playground. There aren’t even any Hitler teachers and definitely no bullies….result! So my regression to childhood has ended (why is it that a perfectly competent and confident 30 something turns into a gibbering wreck, a school bag of childish nerves the night before a new job?......Answers on a postcard please, or just post a comment), anyway I have returned to adulthood (age doesn’t necessarily equate to maturity or seriousness by the way, just more wrinkles) so on with the Top Tips.

I thought I’d start with something close to home - how to write good copy for the web.

As you probably know people read web pages differently than printed pages. They don’t really read, they scan, stopping only when something interesting catches their eye, therefore writing successful web copy means writing scannable web copy.

5 Ways to Write Scannable Copy for the Web:

1. Use bullet points to summarise content.

2. Highlight selected keywords using bold, italics, or by underlining.

3. Use sub-headings.

4. Present one idea per paragraph.

5. Use the pyramid style of writing – that is to present key points and conclusions first followed by less important and background information.

That’s all for today folks. Comments welcome.

First Day at School

2008-10-27T02:12:00.000-07:00

Well I’m the newbie here at Ice Blue MD, officially the new copywriter and part of my job is to be the spokesperson for this bubbling melting pot of creativity by writing this blog. My intention (Note: Intention isn’t the same as a Promise!) is to bring you regular Top Tips on all the services we offer here from graphic design, web design and SEO to writing killer copy in the hope that you’ll get hooked and keep coming back for more. And just to keep things flowing I’ll try to throw in a few interesting, although sometimes irrelevant, snippets to brighten your working day.

Today’s totally fun tool comes courtesy of our web design guru Matt, in his words "an amazing online graphic editor creator, check it out, especially the symmetry tool. See the attached file it cunningly says iceblue blog if you look carefully" Obviously!

http://www.sumo.fi/products/sumopaint/

Have a play with your logo if you’re feeling bored of "real" work and you never know you may be on track to creating a new logo and re-branding your entire company! Having said that don’t try too hard as I don’t want to do us out of business (my job won’t last long if that happens), remember we have our very own super duper graphic designer Colette on hand to do that re-branding for you….So I should stop now before I dig a very big hole for myself.

More tomorrow……..all comments welcome.

Anyone game?

2008-08-12T02:23:00.000-07:00

An event which commands the media focus and the attention of the entire planet for 2 weeks, reaching billions of people in over 200 countries; it’s safe to say the Olympics are one of the most effective international marketing platforms. The record 63 sponsors this year have got it made with their logos splashed over every event, athlete and venue. They also benefit from use of all Olympic imagery, as well as appropriate Olympic designations on products, hospitality opportunities at the Olympic Games, direct advertising and promotional opportunities, including preferential access to Olympic broadcast advertising, on-site concessions/franchise and product sale/showcase opportunities, ambush marketing protection, and acknowledgement of their support though a broad Olympic sponsorship recognition programme. But how much does it cost? I suppose it’s one of those questions we’re not sure we even dare ask, but while researching this, I discovered that of the Olympic Movement’s revenue, 53% is from broadcasting, 34% from corporate sponsorship and just 11% from ticketing (the remaining 2% from licensing).

Furthermore, nestled amongst all this interesting info, I found this gem; “Commercial partners also provide vital technical services and product support to the International Olympic Committee, Organising Committees and National Olympic Committees”, which of course is very noble and impressive; I just can’t quite see how MacDonalds fits in with that.

What’s in a name?

2008-07-28T05:49:00.000-07:00

Matt’s wife has finally given birth to a bouncing baby boy (hurrah!). The happy parents have come up with a lovely name, but it reminded me of a news story where I read that a girl has changed her hated name, 'Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii'. It brought to light that previously officials refused permission to name twins Fish and Chips. However, other parents have been allowed to name their offspring Midnight Chardonnay, Number 16 Bus Shelter and there's even a set of twins called Benson and Hedges!

It got me thinking again about names and their importance; this but time it’s domain names. Most company names will easily ‘slot together’ when you remove any spaces, for example Price Pearson becomes pricepearson. Nice, tidy and simple; but have a look at the link below which shows the unfortunate domain names some companies have ended up with!

Unfortunate Domain Names (Please be aware some of these names may cause offence)

So when it comes to domain names… think before you buy!

The proof is in the pudding...

2008-07-25T01:44:00.000-07:00

Your marketing material is very important. It’s out there, working for you as a salesperson and as we all know, first impressions are very important. Therefore, it’s vital that it’s perfect and gives exactly the right first impression.

Here at IceBlue we believe in proofing everything. We know that aoccdrnig to rseearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae, so it's easy to miss little mistakes. Therefore we check, check, and check again; and maybe once more for luck. While we have proofers on site, most items get passed round the whole office to be double- and triple-checked.

Last night I spotted something which (aside from making me laugh out loud) proved my point about checking and double-checking things; an advert in my local paper which boasted

“Free 5kg bag of charcoal when you buy any of the above packages *while socks last”

Did you spot it? Well, what socks have got to do with anything is beyond me but be warned - once they run out of those, you can’t have any charcoal!

Another prime example occurred a few years ago but is most definitely still worth a mention; a Christmas hamper supplier somehow managed to release thousands of copies of their annual catalogue without spotting the huge bluebottle fly perched on top of the turkey in the main picture. How that one slipped through (the picture, not the fly!) is beyond me, but I would put money on the fact that it probably didn’t do their sales or reputation much good!

Howdy Doody!

2008-07-23T07:50:00.000-07:00

The office has undergone a bit of a shuffle around recently, moving over the road to a building with a real roof, stairs and everything; so it’s quite literally onwards and upwards. We’ve also now put all the creative heads in one space which means the ideas are flying around thicker and faster than ever – along with the office banter!

Creative Director Emma is back in the office after giving birth to the lovely Summer (who can often be found in her cot in Em’s office happily gurgling away). Now we’re all on edge every time Matt’s phone rings as his wife is due to pop any day now too!

With all these babies around the place, it got me thinking about the importance of names; in particular, product and company names. One product which has been getting a lot of press recently is the new energy drink called ‘Cocaine’. The controversy and media surrounding its release has simply served to provide free publicity for a product which so far I haven’t seen one advertisement for – and yet everyone I know has heard of it. In short, though there will be those who are very much against the product and will probably boycott stores selling it, it also perhaps proves the expression “there is no such thing as bad publicity”.

Happy webby things

2008-03-11T08:39:00.000-07:00

Some more online treats we noticed and talked about this week …

Improv Everywhere are New York-based creators of “organised fun”. In these videos and pictures, they explain what happened when, on a chilly Saturday morning in Grand Central Station, they synchronised 207 “agents” to freeze simultaneously – some mid-walk, some eating, some texting on their phones, one couple kissing ...

Speed up, slow down and change the direction of these footsteps in the sand, but don’t make yourself feel travel-sick like I did ...

We have no idea what this Interactive Elm is supposed to do, but it's compelling anyway.

Specky Boy rounds up 25 free icon resources for web designers – ta!

Clever comic thing

2008-02-25T08:48:00.000-08:00

Aaargh, where has the week gone? We’re all dashing around like mad things here – not least Creative Director Emma who is gearing up to have a baby any day now. It’s true what they say about the nesting instinct – never has the office looked so TIDY.

Kudos this week to the Institute of Direct Marketing for sending me the best mailshot I’ve ever seen. They’ve used people’s names, job titles and office location to send out a personalised comic advertising the next International Direct Marketing Fair. OK, I know it's all to do with laser printing and databases - not really a magic comic at all - but nevertheless it still felt very flattering for little me to be the star of my very own cartoon strip.

Love it. But then you’d expect the IDM to be at the forefront of direct mail campaigns, wouldn’t you?

How did they know I was blonde, though? And white, come to think of it? Would love to hear from someone who’s received a mailout that’s gone a bit wrong …

Useful fun things

2008-02-18T09:24:00.000-08:00

Oops ... good intentions never last, do they? We’ve been so busy here in the creative team (opening Valentine’s cards, of course!) that I didn’t have time to update this blog last week.

So. Here are some treasures the IceBlue magpies have picked up lately ...

Matt was drawn to those freebie cards you get in stands at the cinema, distributed by Boomerang Media. We love John McGlynn’s “Yellow” and “Freckle Face” by illustrator/ceramicist Lucinda Grace. They’re not displayed on the Boomerang website, unfortunately, but the e-cards are sweet if there’s someone in your life who’d appreciate a little hello this week.

Talking of postcards, Emma spied something tasty by the Vegetarian Society (also via Boomerang): their Seedling Showcase. It’s to promote their Seedling symbol of approval on vegetarian food. As a committed (but not militant or holy, I hasten to add) veggie myself, who unwittingly ate some lard last week on holiday in Poland*, I’m all for the Seedlings. Check out these creature-friendly postcards.

* Don’t ask.

Finally, here’s an example of a company that perhaps doesn’t have the biggest marketing budget, but who are doing good stuff with their marketing nevertheless. We got a nice leaflet from ovenu.co.uk last week, showing a leopard-print legging-clad lady with her bottom sticking out of the oven, and logged on to their website to see a video of their oven-cleaning people in action – plus a funny feature on the dirty truth about self-cleaning ovens. Just goes to show that you don’t need the most expensive website to make your marketing attractive.

That’s all for this week. Feel free to send me your thoughts and links for next time. x

Creative pretty things

2008-02-04T09:38:00.001-08:00

Hello you. From now on, we’ve decided to use this as a bits-and-bobs drawer for all the things the IceBlue team has seen, liked, collected or admired in the past week.

Happy distractions

* Photos from a crazy Lego artist with a lot of time and bricks on his hands.

* Some engaging Tim Burton-esque urban art. Who cares if it’s Photoshop’d as some may claim – doesn’t mean it’s not clever.

* An intriguing and addictive swirly thing to play with.

Friendly online shop

* Nigel’s Eco Store has a clean design and green products – we want a Moon Jar.

Email we look forward to receiving

* StyleWillSaveUs’ self-titled Digital Magazine for a Peachy Green Lifestyle.

* Who could possibly forget old favourite Popbitch?

Stuff we got in the post

* TSG’s IT Jargon Buster booklet – Geek Speak Explained. Some of us identified with the geeks, I'm sad to say.

Singin' the IceBlues

2008-01-11T07:02:00.000-08:00

‘Tis the month after Christmas and all through the UK,
People are wishing their tummies away.
Loosening belts, we’re not looking good
Cursing that turkey and cold Christmas pud.

The mood in workplaces is equally grim
But no one’s quite ready to get to the gym.
The post-Christmas blues have made us so low
The phones have stopped ringing and days go so slow.

But wait – what is this? Something new for ’08
To brighten the balance sheets and make life feel great.
A spangly new website or marketing campaign
To win you big clients with chequebooks again.

And who should it be to deliver this dream …
… but IceBlue’s very own get-fit-quick team
We’ll kick out bad logos and fonts that look shabby
Eliminate copy that’s waffly and flabby.

And all you need do is give us a shout
We’ll look at your market and help you work out.
With IceBlue on the case, there’s no fear of the bulge,
So buy bigger trousers and let’s all indulge …

- By Marie (proud winner of this week's BNI trophy)

Carbon reducing search engine

2007-09-06T09:06:00.000-07:00

We always like to find ways that we can help our environment at IceBlue. Every so often we use our design and marketing skills to do something a little bit special. Jamie, our newest programming recruit, has recently built the (beta) version of a carbon reducing search engine to help make IceBlue and anyone who uses it carbon neutral. It's called Yamoogle and has been launched in its Beta version to a select few clients so that we can get feedback on how it's doing. If you'd like to test it, just go to the Yamoogle homepage and set it as your homepage.

It works by having the same search power as Google and using all of its profits to reduce carbon emissions which means that using it as your homepage will quickly reduce your own personal carbon emissions as you surf the internet. The aim is to raise £1,000,000 in 1 year by getting 1 million users! ou can help by telling all of your friends about it or adding it to your own webpage.

Mini soundtrack June 2007

2007-07-18T11:00:00.000-07:00

Mini soundtrack June 2007

You will find here month by month the Mini Soundtrack playlist.

Living Is a Problem Because Everything Dies - Biffy Clyro
Motorway to Roswell -Pixies
Inertiatic Esp - The Mars Volta
The Warning - Hot Chip
Blue Monday - Joy Division

Lovestain -Jose Gonzales
Get a Move On -Mr Scruff
Smoke Stack Lightning - Howlin' wolf
Numb -Sia
Magic Carpet Ride -Steppenwolf
Cold Water Music -Aim
Sweets -M. Craft
Charlie Patton Song -Gomez
Aqueous Transmission -Incubus
Natural Anthem - The Postal service
Circles - Adam F
Dayvan Cowboy - Boards of Canada

Ok Ok so I am a bit late with Junes Mini one. Being a new blog and all, im sure you will forgive me and stay hooked......

The real reason that the soundtrack is late is because of FACEBOOK being so damn addictive.

Most played tune from playlist:

Smoke Stack Lightning - Howlin' wolf

Favorite lyric: The Warning - Hot Chip

Hot Chip will break your legs,
Snap off your head,
Hot Chip will put you down,
Under the ground.

(nice eh!)

Compiled by

Matt Peace June 2007

Canal boats are cool

2007-07-06T10:00:00.000-07:00

I love Canal boats!

IceBlue @ Chinwag Big Summer Party 07 Review

2007-07-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

Well I have just got back to the office on return from our jaunt down to the capital yesterday, where we were kindly invited to Chinwags Big Summer party, and I am knackered and have a sore head!
I was impressed as the hosts agency.com provided us free food (mmmm luvly Burgers) and free beer (mmmm luvly beer). I must admit that I was not sure what to expect at the party. I did expect, as Channel 4 and Adobe had been sponsors for the event that their presence maybe felt a bit more than it actually was (which was pretty much nil).
I had expected also maybe more of an opportunity to see some of the "new media" that is available and being buzz worded about in the industry..... I don’t know, the geek in me wanted to see some clever, cool, techy graphics and interactive gadgets on parade, but if there was any I think myself and everyone else got side tracked by the shear amount of free bar.
There were games... big inflatable ones and casino-esk games, as you can see form the photos on chinwag website http://moblog.co.uk/blogs.php?show=15382
We did meet some interesting and cool people, we had a nice chat with Alison from Wikkimedia and journalists now turned to marketing, also some software programmers (nice to of met you all).
In the Big Chill Room where the tunes tantalised my musical taste buds, gifts were presented to attendees on the hour.
I went to the Big Chill Fest in Malvern Worcs last year and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the DJ sets last night. It was (short of my first Glasto) the bestest festival I have experienced..... Which, not to blow me own festival experiences trumpet, is now too many.
I love the big chill and was glad to see the promotion for the festival last night and enjoyed the sets. Unfortunately I don’t think any of us were the lucky few to win tickets to this years festival, we did miss some of the anouncements though. I will have to pay like the rest I guess as my fence jumping days are over (because of morals rather than capability I might add).

Anyway thanks for the Party Chinwag, shame about the weather, hope its better for the Big Chill festival.

Pass me the Hedex will ya!

Matt Peace

Chinwag Summer 07 party

2007-07-05T03:33:00.001-07:00

The office is excited this week as we're all going off to the chinwag party in London next Thursday for their annual networking bash! Normally we would try to steer clear of anything with the word networking attached to it however this event also has the words free beer and barbeque attached so that more than won us over. It's sponsored by channel 4 and Adobe and over 2,000 people are attending so it should be a good chance for everyone to let their hair down and meet up with contemporaries from this strange industry we call new media.

Photos will of course be posted ...maybe some video and other new media too.

New Tornando Video

2007-06-19T10:02:00.000-07:00

The Latest footage!tornado.swf

Tornado Cradley Heath Twister!!!

2007-06-15T09:46:00.000-07:00

Scroll down to see photos of the tornado that ripped past our offices at IceBlue this afternoon!!! There's also a video below!

Tornado Video

2007-06-15T09:44:00.001-07:00

Below is a video of the tornado that went past our offices this afternoon, for images scroll down the page and we'll post some more up later!

Tornado damage west midlands

2007-06-15T07:45:00.000-07:00

This is the view from our office seconds after the tornado tore down the tree in the adjacent yard!!

If you have pictures of the todays tornado then send them to duncan@icebluemd.co.uk and we'll post them up here!

Tornado cradley heath west midlands

2007-06-15T07:25:00.000-07:00

News flash!! We've had a very strange event this afternoon, a tornado has passed literally 10 metres from iceblue's offices in the west midlands!! First there was the darkening skies, then the torential rain and then a huge swirling mass of cloud and debris came towards us! Very frightening especially as the west midlands isn't known for it's tornado's!!! We'll post more photos and news as it comes in!!

May Mini Soundtrack

2007-05-29T16:37:00.000-07:00

Mini soundtrack May 2007

You will find here month by month the Mini Soundtrack playlist.

Yirra-Kurl - Xavier Rudd
Treat Yo Mama - John Butler Trio
Have Love Will Travel -The Black Keys
Diamond Day -Vashti Bunyan
Trains To Brazil -Guillemots
On/Off -Snow Patrol
Cellphone's Dead -Beck
The Magic Number -De La Soul
Sheila -Jamie T
Saturday Superhouse -Biffy Clyro
Dimension -Wolfmother
Black Swan -Thom Yorke
The Staunton Lick -Lemon Jelly
The Test -The Chemical Brothers
Breathe Me (Mylo remix) -Sia
It's Not Over Yet -Klaxons
Inside My Love -Minnie Riperton
Let's Stay Together - Al Green

May was fun! May always is because its always my birthday in May.

Even this year as all the cards had 30 on the front of them.

Good fun was had by all on the night out. Snobs in Brum played some crackin tunes, some of which indie classics have been featured.

Other tunes included, have been played to death in my car, and most of them were sourced from my buddy Phil in Oz. I eventually got round to listening to the masses I nicked from him a couple of months back….cheers bud.

Layla discovered her liking to dancing around with mom and dad to Al Green’s Let's Stay Together. It must have been something about my dancing, which made her laugh uncontrollably harder than we have ever seen previously.

I think there will be more Biffy in Junes playlist as the album ‘Puzzle’ is out on June 4^th and I got my copy on pre-order….. Roll on June!

Most played tune from playlist:

It's Not Over Yet – Klaxons

Favorite lyric:

Don't call me hippy cause the way that I look,
Cause I got a recipe and you know I can cook.

Treat Yo Mama - John Butler Trio

Compiled by

Matt Peace May 2007