Winners of 2010 Social Marketing Awards

Perfect Circle are delighted to have been named as the winners of the Global Social Marketing Awards 2010.

We were awarded the Most Effective Creative Communications Campaign, for which we submitted our Burnage Media Arts College Social Marketing Campaign.  This highly prestigious awards event was designed to 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.

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.

Thank you to everybody that supported our campaign and we will continue to deliver our dream of successful people, living healthier lives in a sustainable world.

Why not lease your new website?

If you can lease a computer, a machine or any other business investment, even software. Why has it taken so long for anyone to think creatively about websites?

Well the good news is that Perfect Circle has done just that. For a small monthy fee you can lease your website instead of paying a large lump sum to buy one.

The website market has been traditionally split into two parts.

In the first customers are offered low cost sites that they often populate themselves for a small monthly payment. The disadvantage of this approach is that although the online software provided to customers is very slick, customers simply don’t have the creative skill level to present and position their business at the right level to get the best from the online medium.

The second route is the agency route. A customer engages a creative agency to develop a premium website for them that really drives their business forwards. An agency will be able to ensure that the visual appearance of the site is eye catching, that the site is designed with the most effective layout for your product and sector. They can do this because of their skill level and because they will have built hundreds of sites before yours and they will know what works and what doesn’t. (We have check out our portfolio of work!)

So where is the catch when a company chooses to work with an agency on a website development project. Put simply the answer is cost. You will need to pay a significant amount of money in one go. Your website will need to be paid for by the time it is complete, and more importantly before it has started to earn a profits for your business. In other words it is an upfront investment, probably a significant one and in todays climate one that you may not be able to afford.

So there in lies the problem facing most small to medium businesses. How do you develop a website that delivers substantial profits to your business without breaking your budget. Simple, your lease a custom designed website from Perfect Circle for a small monthly payment. You can choose to own the website at the end of the lease and you can upgrade at any point. But do you want to hear the best news of all?

Well the best news is that not only will you get a highly effective website, designed at a premium level specifically for your business, you also get exceptional agency service. Yes that’s right, you get the same level of services as the business that is paying for their site in one go. Now that has got to be worth talking to us about.

For a no obligation discussion please call us on 01706 373440 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

My blog week two on the Marketing Internship

This week on my internship I started by developing a site map for one of perfect circle’s clients. I then reviewed this with the designer Simon.

Another task of mine was to find the most appropriate places for the organisation to advertise its marketing internship as they are keen to keep the position running, so if you know of a great place to advertise the scheme then send us an .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)and let us know!
I have also used the competitor gap analysis I did last week to review Perfect Circle’s new website which will be coming soon….....!
As Perfect Circle are a social marketing company that work within heath and education there are all sorts of events going on, this week it is UK Myeloma Awareness Week, National Breastfeeding Awareness Week and Learning Disability Week.

The future of e-mail marketing- Free guide

E-mail marketing is no longer just about sending e-mails.  With the recent advances in web analytics, e-mails can now be targeted to specific customers and integrated with campaigns across multiple communication channels.

So what is the future for e-mail marketing? As communication channels increase people will access their messages from a range of computerised on-line devices, so if you can’t deliver to them you won’t have a relationship regardless of your content.  Take social networking, as it expands there is the possibility that people will start to use closed social networks such as Facebook as their primary e-mail address.

So how can your business stay ahead of the trends? 

At Perfect Circle we work with our clients to provide strategic direction and support thats ensure that their online communications continue to reach their target audience. 

And as part of our ‘giving back’ philosophy try to help more businesses to become successful online we’ve produce a range of free eBooks. 

To help you, we’ve compiled a free guide to the future of e-mail marketing.

Access the eBook to learn:

  • If you need to appear on film
  • Why social media is impacting on e-mail
  • How to maximize mobile marketing

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or call us to find out how we can help you with your e-mail marketing strategy.

My first week at Perfect Circle on the Marketing Internship

My name is Katie McCreavy and I have just started a marketing internship at Perfect Circle social marketing agency. I have recently graduated from Leeds University and wanted to get some practical experience in marketing, in particular social marketing.

I met Perfect Circle whilst working at NHS Bury’s public health department; Perfect Circle was the social marketing agency working on the HPV vaccine campaign. To get the marketing placement I then .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) Perfect Circle to see if they had any graduate opportunities. I was then made aware that the organisation has a continual marketing internship position that they offer throughout the year. I applied for the position, had an interview, got the job, and here I am now.

During my first week here I have worked on a number of different things, Oliver the MD has given me objectives and tasks to fulfil each week. I began the week by doing a presentation about social marketing and I reviewed social marketing campaigns that I thought were particularly effective. The two campaigns that I chose were the Department of Health’s “Condom Essential Wear” campaign and the national “Alcohol Know Your Limits” campaign, in particular the “You wouldn’t start a night like this, so why end it that way” campaign.

My second task was then to do some gap analysis work and produce a report that prioritised required actions. This was particulary interesting as I hadn’t done this before.

I then began to look at social networking and explored how organisations use social networks effectively. I also searched for relevant opportunities that would enable Perfect Circle to connect with related organisations via social networks.

As Perfect Circle specialise in Education Marketing I then began to work on Perfect Circle’s current education project. Finally this week I had website training, this was to enable me to post my blog and become familiar with how to update the company’s website.

If you want more information on the internship then you can .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)and find us on Twitter and Facebook.

iPad to kickstart 2bn tablet market with 2 million units already sold

An industry expert predicts that Apple’s iPad will kick-start a computing revolution that will see the tablet market worth more than $2bn by the end of next year, according to Paul Lee, Director of Technology at Deloitte. He said that tablet computers would “thrive” this year, despite enjoying only modest success over the last decade.

Apple yesterday said it has sold two million iPads, less than two months after launching the touchscreen tablet in the US, much faster than predicted. On Friday, the iPad, finally went on sale in the UK, and also launched in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland. The original UK launch date had been set for late April.

Lee also said that the success of the iPad will spark interest in tablet computers, turning it in to one of the most lucrative consumers and that the most successful tablet vendor will be the one with the best app store, which puts Apple in a strong position. Its App Store is already integral to the iPhone and iPod touch, and looks set to be as crucial for the fortunes of the iPad.

Apple’s iPad has already proved a hit in the United States, with more than a million units sold in the first 28 days of release resulting in the European launch being delayed by a month. Last week gadget fans queued through the night at Apple stores across the UK to ensure they were among the first to get their hands on the device.

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.

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.