Update, Expansion and New Clients

Okay it’s been a while so I thought an update was due.

Over the last few months we have been working with a number of clients from the UK, USA and South Korea helping them with their strategy and how to engage their consumers in a digital world.

In addition to this we have also been doing a huge amount of ‘housework’ to help us with the expansion of Bletchley Group over the coming months. We have launched a new website at http://www.bletchleygroup.com but are working on a update to the content to better reflect what we do and the services we offer clients going forward.

We have finally found our PR team although this took us significantly longer than we hoped or expected but we pride ourselves on giving a first class service and so it was vitally important that we have the correct team in place to achieve this. I’m glad to say we now have this in place. Look out for some press releases in the near future.

Also I’m extremely please to say that News International specifically The Sunday Times are now a client.

Unfortunately I can’t mention the project just yet but we are working to help them launch a new initiative. Our remit is very wide ranging, we are currently preparing a full scoping document including; the proposition, positioning, the brand, the supply chain, fulfilment partners, e-commerce, legal and finance. It’s a brilliant project and will be an excellant case study to show our full range of services, once we can tell everyone about it.

We’re Looking for PR Professional to help us grow.

As part of our London expansion we are looking for a PR professional

Excellent opportunity for an enterprising, freelance PR professional to help develop the PR strategy and build this small but highly regarded Digital Marketing and e-Business Consultancy reputation and profile in the UK and internationally. This is an initial 6 month contract (part-time) with the possibility of being extended based on results.

The role:
•    Build awareness and brand recognition for Bletchley Group and work with the Managing Director, to reach key audiences: trade, business communities and media
•    Raise Bletchley Group’s profile and secure a dominant media share of voice
•    Provide direction to position the consultancy as Digital Marketing and e-Business experts and develop market positioning and messaging for different geographies
•    Research and secure opportunities to comment on Digital Marketing and e-Business issues in the Press, Radio and TV, as well as speaking engagements
•    Support organic growth by attracting new business and potential employees
•    Create a Media file and distribute to key press contacts
•    Advise on Media Training, press release writing and distribution
•    Develop thought leadership topics and writing/selling-in articles, case studies and white papers
Your Experience:
•    Digital, professional services or business-to-business PR experience
•    Proven national (and ideally some international) media relations experience
•    The ability to assimilate complex information, identify key issues and communicate to key audiences
•    Excellent writing skills
•    Positive, self-confident and able to work on your own initiative
The successful candidate should be a strong and credible relationship builder who can instil confidence in key stakeholders, a clear communicator and thinker; show a passion for PR and a real commercial understanding of the impact PR can have on sales demand and revenue.
This is a freelance position with the possibility of becoming a long-term partnership.  Applications to talk@bletchleygroup.com stating experience and salary expectations.

Please feel free to contact us should you or anyone you know be interested!

The FWA Website of the Year Awards 2007 – Results

The FWA Website of the Year Award 2007 have been released, the winner, “Get the Glass!”.

As well as the FWA Website of the Year Award 2007 the FWA have also announce the FWA People’s Choice Award 2007, sponsored by Adobe which was also “Get the Glass!”.

Here are the press releases for the FWA Website of the Year Award 2007 and the FWA People’s Choice Award 2007, sponsored by Adobe.

The “Get the Glass!” website is phenomenal, the highest quality animation and graphics, it’s like having a Pixar movie you can play with, the ability to have true interactive animated movies has arrived!

This site was not our first choice although to be honest our first three choices were all equally good for different reasons, so were happy they won. Our choices were:

1. Halo 3: Believe by AKQA
2. HBO Voyeur by Big Spaceship, BBDO NY, HBO
3. Get the Glass! by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners & North Kingdom

Here’s our reasons.

Halo 3: Believe by AKQA

This website is great, it got our first place for a couple of reason, the quality of the images is outstanding, although the interaction is poor. The main reason that we gave it first place was that it is one of the few websites which we could actually see the business objective coming through into the website. We assume the campaign objective is to engage consumers into believing the war was real and this is almost a documentary of the aftermath, so encouraging them to purchase. We think the website while not overly interactive achieves this marketing objective.  The music selection, which is often overlooked, is also fabulous.

HBO Voyeur by Big Spaceship, BBDO NY, HBO

Again this is a great site, what we liked about this is the possibilities it has, imagine when your TV and your PC are the same device, Windows Media Centre actually works or Apple TV lets you do more than just watch iTunes.

The HBO Voyeur website has the potential to be the next step in content for PC/TV Convergence, the way all entertainment will be!

Get the Glass! by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners & North Kingdom

We have mentioned above why we like this site, the highest quality animation and graphics, it’s like having a Pixar movie you can play with, and all over an internet connection, what more can you ask for.

Anyway these were our choices, let us know what you think!

The FWA Website of the Year Awards 2007 – Results Due 15th January

We have now submitted our vote for The FWA Website of the Year Awards 2007, the results will be published on the 15th of January.

If you haven’t already voted in the Peoples Choice Awards sponsored by Adobe you can still do so here, http://www.thefwa.com/pca2007/, but time is running out fast!

Happy New Year 2008

I wonder how many “Happy New Year 2008” posts there are and how many more there are this year than last?

Happy New Year for 2008

We wish everyone a very Happy New Year, may 2008 bring all your wishes true.

ad:tech London Success

Our Managing Director, Jim Stevenson has just returned from Ad:Tech London where his speech was so successful he has been invited to speak at a conference in Barcelona.

More details to follow.

Speaking at ad:tech London

Our Managing Director and Principal Consultant, Jim Stevenson, has been invited to speak at ad:tech London – The UK’s Premier Interactive Marketing Event.

Jim will be discussing Digital Amplification of Experiential Marketing along with Marcel Engh, Vice President, Brand Entertainment, SONY BMG Europe, Jean-Paul Edwards, Head of Media Futures, MG OMD and David Day, CEO, Europe, Lightspeed Research.

The conference is on Wednesday and Thursday 26th and 27th of September at the Olympia 2, Hammersmith Road, London W14 8UX. Here is some useful information.

Hope to see you there.

Invited to Join the FWA Website of the Year Award 2007 Judging Panel

Our Managing Director and Principal Consultant Jim Stevenson has been invited to sit on the Judging Panel for the FWA Website of the Year Awards 2007.

The FWA website is run by an amazing guy, Rob Ford. It receives over 1 million visits per month and is a very highly regarded award website by many, if not all, in the Website Design and associated industries.

The Judging panel is a ‘who’s who’ of Creative and Designers in the industry and therefore we consider it a huge honour to be asked to join this panel and bring a Digital Strategy, Business and Marketing view to the awards.

Marketing Magazine’s Seamless Customer Journey For A Sticky, Winning Website Conference.

Our Managing Director and Principal Consultant, Jim Stevenson, has been invited to Chair the Marketing Magazine’s One-Day Conference, Seamless Customer Journey For A Sticky, Winning Website. The objective of the conference is to “ensure a smooth, user-friendly and seamless customer journey for a sticky, winning website”

In addition to chairing this conference, he is also presenting ‘Optimising Online Amplification of Your Brand’, which will allow him to explain the digital strategy we have created and implemented at Bacardi Global Brands, and also challenge current thinking on how brands should view their digital strategy and what they could expect their ROI to be.

The conference is on Monday 17th September in London.

Hope to see you there.