The iPad finally arrives in the UK

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Before it even went on sale in the UK, demand for the iPad was so intense that people tried to order it by using forwarding companies with offices in the US. Last Friday saw the UK launch of the iPad which was delayed by a month as Apple could not keep up with demand, having sold 1 million units in just 28 days - making it a faster seller than the iPhone.

The iPad which allows users to send emails, read books, draw pictures and play games has already attracted a cult following among Apple enthusiasts. Stephen Fry said that he was “not prepared for how instant the relationship I formed with the device would be” and he also queued in the rain with other Apple enthusiasts outside the company’s Regent Street store when the gadget went on sale last week, even though he already owns a device.

The British launch also came as the iPad went on sale in eight other countries on Friday - Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland - with tens of thousands lining up from the early hours, with some waiting up to 40 hours to purchase the device. It marked the end of a great week for Apple, where the company’s market value hit more than $222bn (£152.5bn), edging it ahead of Microsoft at $219bn (£150.5 bn).

If you want to know how your organisation can maximise the potential of the iPad then just drop us
an .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)or call us on 01706 373440.

£20 billion of savings in the NHS might not be enough

New Home Secretary Andrew Lansley last week hinted that the NHS may have to make more savings than have been planned for and that an efficiency drive is ‘necessary’.  In an Radio 4 interview,  he said the health service and may have to improve productivity beyond the £20billion figure being planned for.

The NHS had been working on the expectation that it should make £20bn of efficiency savings by 2014. But Mr Lansley said: “That implied something like three to three-and-a-half percent, probably about three percent efficiency savings each year in the NHS.

“Of course we may need to do that. And we may need to do more because we have increases in demand in the NHS and a need to improve the outcomes.”

The new health secretary said this would help the NHS keep pace with rising demands from the ageing population.

Finalist Global Social Marketing Awards 2010

Perfect Circle are delighted to have been selected as a finalist at the Global Social Marketing Awards 2010.  The nomination is for the Most Effective Creative Communications Campaign, for which we submitted our Burnage Media Arts College Social Marketing Campaign.  This highly prestigious awards event will separate the mediocre from those of truly outstandingly high caliber achievers, people who can really claim to be at the forefront of changing the world we live in

This award will be presented to the agency that is best able to demonstrate the most effective communications campaign- Hopefully that will be us!!! The Burnage Media Arts Campaign was a stand out campaign that possessed a strong focus on creative execution, pushed the boundaries of communications to achieve its objectives, including creative bus shelter wraps, to Bluetooth SMS, Interative Sonic Bus Shelters and ‘Real Life learning’ activities that involved the students of Burnage Media Arts College in Manchester.

Please keep your toes, fingers, and eyes crossed that we scoop the award so that we can continue to deliver our dream of successful people, living healthier lives in a sustainable world.

Reporting the tell tale signs of cancer

Bowel cancer survival rates have doubled since the 1970s but there are still 16,000 deaths per year in the UK. According to the latest statistics from Cancer Research UK regarding the 5 year survival rates for people with bowel cancer, the figures show a significant disparity between survival rates for early and late-stage diagnosis of the disease.

When caught in its earliest stage the five year survival rate is 93%, when the disease is diagnosed late becoming advanced bowel cancer it is just 7%.  There is also is also an advantage of between 5% and 9% in five-year relative survival for the most affluent patients compared with the most deprived groups. If this deprivation difference was removed so that all groups had the highest survival, then over 2,000 deaths would be avoided in the five years following diagnosis.

Currently, the Department of Health is providing £8m for PCTs across England to fund campaigns to raise the profile of the UK’s three biggest cancer killers – breast, bowel and lung cancer. Between them these forms of the disease account for 63,400 of the 155,000 cancer deaths in the UK each year.

PCT’s will be able to bid for up to £100,000 to spend on advertising campaigns, outreach work, and ensuring that more information about these cancers are available. The proposed campaigns are to urge people to report tell tale signs of cancer to their GP in an attempt to reduce the 10,000 deaths caught by late diagnosis of the disease each year.

As a social marketing agency with a proven track record working with PCTs, we can provide you with the support you require to access the available funds. 

The support package includes a strategic social marketing proposal and utilises the support of leading nationally recognised professionals within Psychology, Mental Health and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Our experience of social marketing has reinforced the importance of applying recognised academic theory to the scoping and evaluation stages of a social marketing campaign.  We provide a unique social marketing approach through our team that includes leading professionals within Psychology, Mental Health and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.  This ensures that our campaigns deliver significant levels of behavioural change and the results that our clients require.

For more information please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

£8m of DoH funding to help cut local cancer deaths

The Department of Health is providing £8m for PCTs across England to fund campaigns to raise the profile of the UK’s three biggest cancer killers – breast, bowel and lung cancer. Between them these forms of the disease account for 63,400 of the 155,000 cancer deaths in the UK each year.

PCTs will be able will be able to bid up to £100,000 to spend on advertising campaigns, outreach work, and ensuring that more information about these cancers are available. These campaigns are to urge people to report tell tale signs of cancer to their GP in an attempt to reduce the 10,000 deaths caused by late diagnosis of the disease each year.

As a social marketing agency with a proven track record working with PCTs, we can provide you with the support you require to access the available funds. 

The support package includes a strategic social marketing proposal and utilises the support of leading nationally recognised professionals within Psychology, Mental Health and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

Our experience of social marketing has reinforced the importance of applying recognised academic theory to the scoping and evaluation stages of a social marketing campaign.  We provide a unique social marketing approach through our team that includes leading professionals within Psychology, Mental Health and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.  This ensures that our campaigns deliver significant levels of behavioural change and the results that our clients require.

For more information please contact .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Wind farm puts region top of the league

On the rolling West Pennine hills, a stone’s throw from Perfect Circle’s HQ is Scout Moor Wind Farm. With turbines spinning in perfect circles of their own, it is the largest onshore wind farm in the country and produces energy to power 40,000 homes. This is helping to put the North West at the forefront of the UKs shift to low carbon. The North West has 140 sites generating renewable electricity, more than any other English region, with Scout Moor Wind Farm alone preventing the release of 160,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year.

Energy Minister Lord Hunt said recently The plans we are setting out today include how we are going to reach our target for 15% renewable energy by 2020 and if these resources are harnessed the North West could continue to be the top region for renewable energy sites. The North West is also home to four of the potential sites for new nuclear power stations. Moving from high carbon fuels to low carbon green energy is an opportunity for us all.

His comments came as the Government published the UK Low Carbon Transition Plan setting out how the UK will become the first major economy to convert to low carbon living, and the first to reap the benefits. Regional Minister for the North West Phil Woolas said The North West of England was the world’s first industrial area - that revolution was based on carbon fuels. The new green technology revolution must also start here. It is a big challenge and one that all of us in the North West need to respond to - from making small changes to how we live to embracing the opportunities that it offers us.