BIMA - Member News

Digital training helps non-profits improve online fundraising efforts - Box UK

Mon, 13 May 2013 12:27:31

Really insightful afternoon at @boxuk Lots of ideas of how @OsteoporosisSoc can build on social media levels - Tom Lacey, National Osteoporosis Society

Getting so many good ideas from @boxuk's digital workshop for charities - thanks @Andrew_Isidoro @steviephil @ffion_sian #boxuktraining - Katie Chappelle, St John Wales

Box UK have recently opened their doors to local charities and other non-profit organisations for a free “Digital Marketing for Fundraisers” training workshop. Participants from brand-name charities such as ASH Wales, Tenovus and Air Ambulance Wales joined members of the Box UK digital marketing team for an afternoon session covering numerous techniques to help attendees increase online engagement with their cause.

Born through recognition of the many charities in need of digital consultation, the training session was tailored toward equipping organisations in this key sector with the skills needed to succeed online. Along with practical recommendations and best practice examples spanning search, social and content considerations, attendees had the opportunity to speak directly to Box UK’s expert team, who offered personalised guidance on how charities can get the greatest benefit from their digital presence.

Speaking after the event, Box UK search strategist and workshop trainer Andrew Isidoro said: “It’s been a fantastic experience offering our knowledge and expertise to so many brilliant causes. We’ve had some great feedback from the workshop with many people telling us how it’s given them new ideas they want to implement straight away; this has been great to see as it’s exactly why we put the session together.”

If you’re interested in finding out more about Box UK’s bespoke social media, SEO and PPC training sessions please get in touch with a member of our team today by emailing training@boxuk.com.

About Box UK
Box UK is a team of thought leaders, consultants and application developers engaged in the rapid and precise design and delivery of high-performance software products and services for progressive enterprises worldwide.

Established in 1998, Box UK’s client list includes BBC, LAN Airlines, Investec Asset Management, the National Gallery, Chartered Institute for IT, EDF Energy and Severn Trent Plc.

Interview with Manchester United Ambassador, Bryan Robson OBE - Ve Interactive Ltd

Mon, 13 May 2013 16:47:35

This week, Ve FC player/manager/captain, Jamie sits down with former England and Manchester United player and current club ambassador, Bryan Robson OBE, to talk about footballers' lives after the beautiful game, how technology has influenced the sport and those within it and what aspects of entrepreneurialism can be found in football.

Was it hard making the shift from a professional footballer to something else?

It wasn’t too bad. Obviously you miss football as that’s what you’re brought up with. You grew up with it. My transition wasn’t too hard as I had the benefit of moving into management fairly soon. Half the time you’re playing, half the time you’re managing. Management and coaching is probably the next best thing compared to playing. However for a lot of players it’s extremely difficult to adapt to life outside of football as it’s a whole lifestyle, you especially miss the camaraderie and banter.

What skills do you think transfer from a player to post-career life?

One of the key skills a top footballer will have to possess is a strong mentality. You have to have an aim in life to what you want to achieve. A lot of these top footballers have a winning mentality and that’s passed on when they move into other areas of life. There are some skills you’ll develop whilst being a player and others you’ll have already.

You can have a successful career outside of football – quite a lot of players have proved that such as Robbie Fowler who went into the property world, Gary Neville also property and punditry. And then you’ve got people like David Beckham who was really shrewd in the way he portrays himself in the public eye; he has this unbelievable image right in the fashion and media world.
You do have a good mix within the game with lads who look after themselves and go on to other careers outside of football.

What are your thoughts on the evolution of football, harnessing more digital technology?

I think in any sort of business you have to move along with technology. Football has to move along with the technology to stay successful. Not just to promote the game, but technology related to player fitness, the medical side of things. Everything does move on with tech and football has to move with the times. At this moment of time, football is successful, especially the Premier League, as people within the game are able to harness that – companies such as Sky TV a catalyst.

Manchester United, a club close to your heart, are one of the pioneers. Is there anything in particular you could share?

I think what Manchester United have done under Sir Alex Ferguson – we went on a pre-season tour to Seattle in 2010. We went to the Seattle Hawks training ground and it was an unbelievable facility, the technology and everything they had within the ground.

It was all taken on board – what was brilliant about their ground and what was more advanced than our own training facilities (Carrington). They quickly drew up plans upon returning and the new facilities have now just launched – such as the new Human Resources centre and the Medical centre.

The manager (Sir Alex Ferguson) always wants his staff to go on courses to improve and so he’s always aware of that and furthermore, he always tries to give his players the best preparation he possibly can.

A lot of people at the top of their sport do go around to other successful sports and try to learn from them. Sports such as cricket, rugby and the American sports.

An entrepreneur is defined as someone who creates and manages a business, taking on financial risk to do so. Would you agree that could be applied to a professional footballer?

If you want to be successful you have to take a few risks. If you sit on the fence and play it safe you could easily make a bit of money but you won’t be in the top bracket.

In your opinion who is the most entrepreneurial character in football?

In my opinion you’ve got to say David Beckham, just in the sense of the fashion and modelling world. Now he’s looking into part ownership of a football club. The people behind him and David himself seem to enjoy these challenges. You’ve got to say that he’s right up there, always willing to take a bit of a risk and always willing to better himself.

In regards to social media and in particular Twitter, what are your thoughts?

I think Social Media has to be there to some degree, to keep people informed of everything going on around their football club and their favourite players. In my opinion, I don’t think players should get involved in Twitter. I think they should leave it to the club Twitter sites and concentrate more on their

Communicator Award for Careers Wales site developed by Box UK - Box UK

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:51:33

With judging recently completed on the 2013 Communicator Awards, Box UK are pleased to announce that together with Careers Wales they have received the Silver Award of Distinction in the “Websites – Education” category. The awards, which are now in their 19th year, seek to recognise work that transcends innovation and craft to make a lasting impact in the marketing and communications industry as well as the wider online community.

The winning website, launched in December, furthers Careers Wales' core objective to support individuals in developing and applying career management and employability skills that will empower and sustain them throughout life. Featuring in-depth information on a variety of career options, the site offers planning tools, CV builders, multimedia resources and more to help jobseekers and those in education identify and progress along their ideal career path.

The site has been praised by the Deputy Minister for Skills, Jeff Cuthbert, who noted: “For the first time now via the Careers Wales beta website, young people can access fact sheets which provide complete information on careers, including career pathways, job vacancies, course availability information and past trends on salaries and job availability.”

Commenting on the list of winners Linda Day, executive director of the International Academy of the Visual Arts, who sanction and judge the awards, said: “We are both excited and amazed by the quality of work received for the 19th Annual Communicator Awards. This year’s class of entries is a true reflection of the progressive and innovative nature of marketing and communications. On behalf of the entire Academy I want to applaud this year’s Communicator Awards entrants and winners for their dedication to perfecting their craft as they continue to push the envelope of creativity.”

Speaking in response to the announcement Tom Brewer, Online Manager for Careers Wales commented: "We are delighted that careerswales.com has received this award. A lot of thought has gone into developing an informative and intuitive web user experience that integrates careers information and planning tools with facts and statistics about job trends, in addition to live apprenticeship and job vacancies, to assist the career decisions of those in education and within the labour market."

Box UK’s Managing Director Benno Wasserstein added: “We’re incredibly proud of what we have achieved working with Careers Wales; the new website provides individuals with the knowledge and skills vital to successfully step into employment and allows them to explore the full range of careers opportunities available. Receiving the Silver Award of Distinction from the Communicator Awards is a great recognition of the hard work and dedication to excellence shown by the entire project team.”

About the Communicator Awards

The Communicator Awards is the leading international creative awards programme honouring creative excellence for communication professionals. The 2013 Communicator Awards received thousands of entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest awards of its kind in the world.

About Careers Wales

Careers Wales is a publicly-funded body dedicated to helping individuals move successfully into education, training and sustainable employment. With 80 Careers Centres and Careers Shops across Wales they aim to be acknowledged as the high-quality market leader in lifelong career planning and education-business links.

About Box UK

Box UK is a team of thought leaders, consultants and application developers engaged in the rapid and precise design and delivery of high-performance software products and services for progressive enterprises worldwide.

Established in 1998, Box UK’s client list includes BBC, LAN Airlines, Investec Asset Management, the National Gallery, Chartered Institute for IT, EDF Energy and Severn Trent Plc.

Google Knowledge Graph: Answers Not Pages - Ve Interactive Ltd

Wed, 8 May 2013 15:59:50

In May 2012, Google announced a new feature to its search product: a knowledge base that would contain verified information that could answer search queries directly. They called it Knowledge Graph.

The logic was sound. When people search for Benedict Cumberbatch, they most likely aren’t looking for a page about the Sherlock Holmes star- they’re just looking for information about him. The movies he’s acted in, that show you saw him in last night and if Alan Rickman really is his dad.

By providing users with that relevant information immediately, Google could tap into the value offered by answer engines of old, like Ask Jeeves, or more pertinently, that friend of yours who always seems to know way too much about celebrities.

But how relevant is the information turning up in Knowledge Graph?

While bigger stars like Cumberbatch have accurate information about them in their knowledge graph entries, some of the comparatively smaller stars who’ve earned knowledge graph entries still have to contend with occasional moments of misinformation.

World renowned drummer Gary Husband for instance, has a vast list of Level 42 songs attributed to him in spite of the fact that he wasn’t involved in writing, producing or even performing most of them during his tenure with the band. For an independent, far-reaching and original artist like him, this somewhat major miscalculation of his temporary relationship with Level 42 could have a big impact.

He explains: “Google's Knowledge Graph is gravely misrepresenting a large number of artists that I know, myself included, by frequently presenting misinformation as "factual" information (more akin to Wikipedia). Since Google is widely perceived as a trusted source of intelligence, such widespread errors have the potential to be highly damaging to artists' careers and of course wholly misleading to anyone searching for accurate facts - journalists, booking agents, producers, promoters or fans. But for me, the most alarming part of all this is that we seem powerless in our efforts to get Google to rectify the errors. This is totally unacceptable. The lengths I have gone to over the past nine months to set my own 'record' straight with Google have been in vain: it would seem that nobody there is remotely interested.”

So where exactly is Google getting the entry wrong? It would appear they’re misunderstanding some of the information they’re collecting and the quality of relationships between them.

All the data in knowledge graph comes from four sources: Wikipedia, Freebase, The CIA World Factbook and interestingly enough for brands, Google Plus. All 570 million objects, 18 Billion facts and the relationships between all these different entries are based on the information available in these four sources.

The algorithms traversing this massive amount of data appear to occasionally misinterpret the quality of some of this information. In the case of Husband, it might be Wikipedia’s separated section about his relationship with Level 42 being misconstrued for greater involvement.

Where the algorithms are misfiring, is something that will only ever be clear to Google.

What is clear though, is that Google are aware their algorithms aren’t perfect just yet. Hence their repeated removal and re-entry of different Knowledge Graph sections from time to time.
With some interesting competition from Bing’s knowledge base Satori, Google are certainly being kept on their toes when it comes to making sure their knowledge graph entries are always relevant and useful.

More importantly, if Google are to keep up the incredible momentum they’ve worked up in their march towards semantically indexed, socially relevant search results, then they’ll be desperately keen to make sure the entries for Husband are as accurate as the entries for Cumberbatch.

Dadaism and Data - Ve Interactive Ltd

Tue, 7 May 2013 17:56:41

My leap from space back to cyberspace always was going to be a surreal one. However, without being fantastical, DADAISM does exist in the e-commerce and data industries. In several formats:

DADA is actually the acronym for Data Analysis Decision Action. Something we do every day at Ve.
Then there’s ‘Dataists,’ modern day seers, who indentify facts hidden within noisy observational data.
And finally there’s Dadaist spin, when facts can get distorted in the digital narrative.
The key is in finding sophisticated data insights and inserting them into a feedback loop, both at client and development level. Another Ve routine. Once data is unpacked, analysed and externalised, not only are we contributing to the infinite stream of the stuff 'out there,’ but more importantly, we can start to really understand the symbiosis and connections between the evolving social, behavioural and technological aspects of our clients’ customers’ lives.

And that’s when the real artists then come in – our solution development team at VeLabs.

Ta DaDa!

Top 10 UX CV tips - Futureheads Recruitment Ltd

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:41:42

My name is Andrew Rogers and I recruit for user experience jobs here at Futureheads Recruitment. I recruit for User Experience Directors, Consultants, Interaction Designers, UX Designers, User Researchers and User Experience Graduates for my clients.

In my role I get to meet all levels of user experience professionals and have interviewed 100s of UXers. This day to day research informs my top 10 tips. A CV should help you document your experience in a clear and informative way. Take a look.....

1. Who is reading your CV?

Your CV will be read by 5 people at least – A managing director or CEO, a line manager or subject matter expert, HR, Internal Recruitment, us and possibly SEO (if you choose to use an online tool).

Most of these people will try to read your CVs thoroughly however they can be busy so may be guilty of scan reading. It is important therefore to make your resume clear, concise and informative. Use headings, clear content areas and avoid acronyms.

2. Iphone or Android?

Some people may be reading your CV on the train home on a device – make sure it's fit for purpose, platform and concentration spans.

3. A good introduction or personal profile

Your personal profile is a synopsis of your past, present and future. This ideally will be 3-4 sentences eg. I have 3 years experience of working in digital agencies as an information architect. I am currently working in the retail mobile space and looking to work within a larger agency with more complex projects.

4. Your most recent experience – your real estate

It is likely that you will be paid for what you have been doing in the last 18 months – commercial experience in addition to a qualification is likely to take precedence in this space. A recent graduate should list the modules and practical and theoretical elements of their qualification.

5. Don’t confuse the reader – it’s not a puzzle

Important stuff like a job title, company name and employment dates including month and year are all essential. Some people miss these key bits of information and it can really confuse the reader. Nobody should have to be a detective to solve the mystery of how long you have worked somewhere. Try to keep the layout consistent throughout your CV.

6. Context

Not everyone is fortunate enough to work for named brands like Apple or Google, so you might need to give some background information on the nature of your current employer's business. A quick overview of the company will be helpful to the reader. Helping the reader to further understand the team and your role will help explain more detail and context around your deliverables.

7. Bullet points

When you are detailing a project and you notice it’s over 30 words including a number of clear concise bullet points is very helpful. Using bullet points to break up your responsibilities including projects, documentation and length of project will help the reader navigate the detail.

8. Tell my why you are great.

I meet lots of people who come to an interview and talk to me about a brilliant, proud moment in their career, but sadly they often omit this detail from their CV. Always outline your key success, awards and recognition.

9. Tell us a story

The best CVs are the ones that tell me a story, and I want to read them. I’m not talking about poetry or realms of text. I am looking for an engaging journey, full sentences with a clear narrative.

10. Portfolio

In my space, 100% of people expect to see a CV and a portfolio. Your CV opens the door, your portfolio keeps it open a little bit longer. For portfolio advice please look at my colleague David’s recent video http://tinyurl.com/cmamcvq

If you are currently looking to revise or create a CV from scratch, I would be happy to help. Get in touch with me at andrew@wearefutureheads.co.uk or 0207 776 9744

The British Heart Foundation and Precedent join forces to revolutionise the BHF’s online presence - Precedent

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 13:57:29

The nation’s heart charity, the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and digital communications agency Precedent are delighted to announce their new partnership, working together to completely overhaul the BHF’s digital assets. This project will lay the foundation for the BHF’s ambitious plans for growth over the coming 5 years.

The project will focus on the implementation of an enterprise-level CMS – Sitecore. The system is scalable, feature rich and will enable cross platform content delivery. It will also be used to craft a customised iBHF system to manage fundraising events. Integrations with internal and external systems will allow for better data capture and a more seamless user experience, which will help support the BHF’s fund research into heart disease.
Whilst the focus of the project will be largely technical, there will also be important work done to enhance the front-end view by freshening the user experience’ and design. Enhanced user journeys and features for supporters and other audiences will make the site more user focused, leading to improved engagement and interaction.

Preparations for the implementation of a new site have been underway at BHF since early 2012, and key to making these a success was finding the right partner. After a rigorous selection process running from August 2012 to February 2013, Precedent shone out amongst several excellent contenders as the ideal agency to work with the BHF due to their extensive experience working with charities and implementing full website solutions. In addition their strength in user experience, creativity, and strategic thinking were key.
Dr Charmaine Griffiths, Multimedia Programme Director at the British Heart Foundation, said:

“Digital engagement is increasingly at the heart of the Charity’s work. We are excited to be creating a new platform packed with potential to transform how we connect with people in our life-saving work.
“We are delighted to be partnering with Precedent to deliver a new content management system that will form the bedrock of our work to support heart patients and BHF supporters alike.
“Precedent demonstrated that they had the creative skills and strategic thinking to turn this project into a reality.”
Lindsay Herbert, Head of Digital Marketing at Precedent, said:

“The BHF are already a driving force in the charity sector with its life-saving campaigns like Hands-only CPR starring Vinnie Jones. We can’t wait to help them extend this power to online. And it’s not just exciting from a digital perspective but a personal one too. Of our 100+ staff there isn’t a one of us whose life hasn’t been touched by heart disease – l’ve lost two loved ones, one when he was only 18 years – so we can’t wait to help BHF fight for every heartbeat and put an end to premature death from heart disease forever.”

Taking a leap out of Felix Baumgartner’s book - Ve Interactive Ltd

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 14:02:00

If like me, you were one of the 8 million people who were captivated, watching Felix Baumgartner’s live Space Jump from 24 miles above the earth online last October, you’ll probably ‘get’ why having the opportunity to hear him speak at the Adobe Summit in London yesterday, was just un-miss able.

Yesterday’s interview went beyond purely discussing the spectacle of his sound barrier-smashing feat. Dazzled as we all had been by the contrast between the beauty of the curvature of the earth that he was relaying back to us and the implicit danger of what was about to happen, Felix revealed a fascinating five year back story to the Red Bull Stratos challenge, involving intense planning and disciplined preparations. The interviewer drew parallels to risk taking in business, but Felix drilled this down further to expose the entrepreneurialism behind the project; the convincing of partners that it was a serious operation, of trying to keep the program up to date with the latest technologies, of the mental challenges and set backs, the complex learning process and the sheer volume of teamwork. Base jumping, stratospheric or not – involves covering a lot of bases.

Of that extraordinary day in October, Felix went on to say: “We (Red Bull) owned the Internet” and amongst the records that were set that day, was the one for live stream with the most concurrent views ever on YouTube. More people watched the Free Fall, than watched the inauguration of US President Barack Obama!

And whilst sitting in comfort and safety at Excel London yesterday morning, listening this inspiring, mind-boggling story, it struck me that the exiting takeaway has to be…

That imagination and technology make for very powerful bedmates.

Ve vs In-House - Ve Interactive Ltd

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:23:42

In an industry where the impossible is becoming a reality, it's no wonder that businesses are considering building in-house cart recovery solutions to reduce the cost of outsourced services.

As a result, we are frequently asked what our cart recovery and remarketing solutions can do that an in house solution cannot, so let’s take a look…

With VeCapture, pre-submit data is captured even before the user has clicked 'submit' or 'ok' to take them to the next page of the form or check out process. In other words, we are not waiting until the form is complete to take a snap shot photo, we're tracking the user’s keystrokes from the moment they type their first character! The asynchronous JavaScript solution is cookie-free and will not affect page load times. We have full behavioural marketing capabilities; our criteria filtering is complex and our enterprise architecture can track hundreds of fields and set criteria to each one, and all data is hosted on a Tier 4 Enterprise-level infrastructure – government level for security and reliability. This has 24/7 tech support.

The dedicated VeLabs tech team here, means that Ve Interactive takes the hit in software R&D costs and time, and our subsequent feedback loop with our portfolio of now well over 2,000 clients, means that this team is able to continually expand our range of products, in response to the fast evolution the e-commerce industry is experiencing. We also have an in house general counsel and a Data Compliance Manager, who work closely with the ICO, removing the need for you to navigate the complicated field of data privacy regulations, both in the UK and abroad. (Especially when one size does not fit all countries).

But we want to do more than just recover abandoned transactions. Our team works to reduce the issues causing them in the first place, to maximise our clients’ sites overall online efficiency. VeChat for example – is an AI-enabled, multilingual chat agent, that we developed to re-engage the 80 percent of web traffic that abandon sites without leaving any kind of contact details. And this solution is able to not only re-engage, but can blend marketing messaging in with it’s customer service help too, working 24/7 to reduce bounce rates.

And with eight offices worldwide, our dedicated team of account managers and analysts are able to benchmark your campaign and websites’ performances against industry averages, giving you valuable insight into the trends of your vertical (without disclosing specific client details). And thanks to this multinational presence, Ve Interactive is able to offer our merchants cross border remarketing capabilities, with local assistance, whilst ensuring they are adhering to all local compliance regulations for data privacy protection. VeCompliance is our software solution that will ensure that all cart recovery and remarketing campaigns are not exposed to the risk of legal breach.

So by the time you've read this blog and considered hiring, training and building your own remarketing solution, and getting legal advice, you could have been recovering transactions with us. And on a CPA/CP model too.

Win:Win.

Top 10 tips to ace a UX portfolio - Futureheads Recruitment Ltd

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 20:02:17

My name is Giorgia Rossini, my role at Futureheads is to advise the consultants on the best user experience candidates available in the marketplace. As a result I have already seen many portfolios.

A more experienced consultant, Andrew Rogers, has recently written a very popular piece on CV tips and I wanted to follow up with something on creating a good portfolio, so here are my top 10 tips:

1. A good portfolio is simple and brief. You have to summarise large quantities of information to keep the reader interested. Sum up and make it easy.

2. The portfolio is being viewed by creative and other UX people - Show attention to detail, like style, colour and spelling. Treat your portfolio like a ux project.

3. Our clients like to see popular brands and products across business and consumers. If you are fortunate to have worked in this space, show off about it.

4. Your portfolio is likely to be shared across a number of agencies and clients direct. You need to make sure it appeals to them all – without being too tiresome to read.

5. It’s tempting to share ALL of the work you have put into a project. Use graphics and break up the content to make it digestible.

6. Be prepared to talk through your portfolio at interview and give credit to the colleagues and teams that worked with you.

7. Depending on where you are in your career, you will have a different number of work samples to add. Every single time you decide to add a new sample or project, justify how it differs from something else you have included.

8. Tell a story and show your process. David Mitchell told me that a simple way to do this is to remember S.T.A.R. = Situation, Task, Activity, Results – This gives you an easy template to follow so you can include all the relevant information.

9. Respecting NDAs while not limiting your chances to secure the right role, it’s tricky. 100% of our clients want to see a visual portfolio to move to the next stage of interviewing - so it is necessary. I would suggest you rebrand, password protect, blur key imagery or use imagery to highlight the project, rather than use actual screen grabs. I have seen a couple of instances (usually in telecoms) where clients have agreed to see the majority of work samples in a face to face interview – but that is such an anomaly so try and have something to get your foot into the door.

10. The digital industry moves fast with new trends in methodology and technology, makes sure you are happy with the samples in your portfolio and keep it fresh.

If you are keen to learn more about portfolios, there is lots of information on the web. I particularly like this piece by Sjors Timmer which includes an excellent reading list.

We have also interviewed some of our key clients on portfolios and this is what they say…

You can contact me, giorgia@wearefutureheads.co.uk, or connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter. I look forward to hearing from you!