New FLICKR Group hosting

We are pleased to announce that we are now hosting a Group on FLICKR dedicated to Church Marketing. You can find it at - www.flickr.com/groups/churchmarketing.

It is a group for all those people who have an interest in the marketing of churches & church activities.

The need for churches to market themselves, has probably never been greater that at the present time, and this Group will draw together church publicity officers, charities & commercial organisations alike.

Botellas Españolas is our latest project and is about photographing bottles for use by companies in advertising, promotion & digital media.

The idea was unashamedly copied from a similar project in the UK and which was featured on the Springwise website.

The difference between our project and the UK one is that whereas in the UK the idea is to photo the bottles on a pure white background and then cut them out for insertion elsewhere, we are going to add an additional feature that is about photographing the bottles in a series of different settings.

The project is new, exciting & developing in its range day by day, so if you have a bottle (or a jar) that needs photographing, then get in touch with us and we can talk the project through.

New internet listing

We are pleased to tell you that we are now listed on alibaba.com

Follow the link below to have a look -

http://www.alibaba.com/member/es107552873.html

Scotland Yard issues new photographer search rules

Scotland Yard has issued new guidance to officers about the use of terrorism laws against photographers following criticism of how police have applied the rules.

The new guidance has warned officers to be cautious about using stop search powers under sections 43 and 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 to demand to see video film or photographs captured by journalists as a court order may be required to see material if it’s "created for the purposes of journalism".

The guidance says officers are not allowed to delete digital images or destroy film at any point during a stop and search exercise.

It also reminds them members of the public and the media do not require a permit to film or photograph in public places and police have no power to stop them filming or photographing incidents or police personnel.

Police officers were also reminded that section 43 of the Act only gives an officer the power to stop and search "a person who they reasonably suspect to be a terrorist".

The changes come after an earlier version of the guidance was criticised by the National Union of Journalists for suggesting police and community support officers had greater powers than they were actually granted under the law.

In June, Lord Carlile of Berriew QC, who reviews anti-terror legislation, warned that police were wrongfully applying anti-terror laws to stop photographers taking pictures of officers, adding that officers who used force or threats against photographers to make them delete images could themselves face prosecution.

Roy Mincoff, NUJ legal officer, said: "It is good to see the police have listened to some of what we've been saying and the new guidance is certainly an improvement.

"We still have significant concerns about the way counter-terrorism legislation is being used to impinge on media freedoms, so it is vital that any guidance issued by the police is accurate and recognises the importance of a free press.

"Let's hope that this marks recognition on the part of the police that they must take the concerns of photojournalists seriously. We will be monitoring to see if the changes are reflected in practice."

Source: Press Gazette - 5th August 2009

The Growth of Mobile Marketing

With marketers all a twitter about Twitter and other social networking sites, an additional communications segment is growing quickly that will provide the same opportunities for business outreach.

The mobile marketing industry has seen exceptional growth over the past year. Increased partnerships between brands, wireless carriers and digital advertising and marketing agencies has led to numerous mobile success stories.

One of the major remaining challenges for the mobile industry, however, is building faith among consumers that mobile marketing is a positive way to engage with their favorite brands. Since the consumer is solely central to the mobile marketing experience it becomes a very individual way to communicate.

Because mobile devices are so highly personal, to make marketing messages powerful and valuable, there must be an underlying element of trust; otherwise, marketing messages get diluted and could be viewed with suspicion and mistrust. Consumers must have confidence in the mobile marketing experience. One small blip and a consumer will react to mobile messaging like they respond to unsolicited phone sales calls.

Brands and advertisers must be able to provide positive and valuable experiences. If consumers don’t truly buy into and understand the rules of engagement for the messages and marketing programs they’re receiving, chances are they’ll hit the delete button without even looking at the content.

Brands using mobile as a marketing channel need to project and deliver messages that consumers believe are positive, highly relevant, somewhat entertaining and of specific value to them individually.

Recently, Mike Wehrs, president/CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association released his “6 C’s” of mobile marketing -

The 6 Cs for a positive experience

The trick is knowing how to build and develop this level of trust, and developing a true dialogue of interaction with customers. Education of both consumers and marketers is crucial. Marketers must make customers aware of all the policing mechanisms in place to ensure that the mobile marketing experience they receive is a positive one, and provide them with a way to report any behavior that they question.

Most of all, marketers need to move away from traditional push — or interruption-based — advertising and adopt the six central tenets of a positive consumer experience: choice, control, customization, consideration, constraint and confidentiality. These form the basis of the Mobile Marketing Association’s global Code of Conduct and Consumer Best Practices. Here’s a more detailed look at these tenets:

1. Choice - Consumers must opt in to mobile marketing programs. Once that’s done, include clear directions on how to unsubscribe from communication should it become unwanted. This ensures consumer pull rather than consumer push.

2. Control - Consumers should have control of when and how they receive mobile marketing messages, and must be allowed to easily terminate or opt out of unwanted programs.

3. Customization - Any data supplied by consumers must be used to personalize content — such as restricting communications to categories they specify.

4. Consideration - If consumers allow you to communicate with them on their mobile devices, offer them something of perceived value, such as product and service enhancements, requested information, entry into competitions, discounts, and more.

5. Constraint - Manage and limit mobile messaging programs to a reasonable number of campaigns.Confidentiality. Make and clearly communicate a commitment that you won’t share consumer information with nonaffiliated third parties.

6. Confidentiality - Make and clearly communicate a commitment that you won’t share consumer information with nonaffiliated third parties.

The ideal ambassadors for the mobile marketing cause are consumers. So brands trying to reach them via this medium should make sure their communications are interesting, relevant, valuable and, above all, requested

If you want to find out more about mobile marketing - email us on office@imageandprofile.com with your contact details

Source: CEOWORLD Magazine

Simply Swing at St. Georges Malaga

Last night we were at St. Georges Church Malaga, where they had an evening of modern jazz classics performed by multinational group - Simply Swing.

Image & Profile was pleased to be able to photograph the evening for the church, and the photo set - which is on our FLICKR page - is reproduced below.

If you are having an event & would like it photographed or a video made then email us on office@imageandprofile.com and talk to us about it.

Photo shoot at El Acebuchal, Spain

Yesterday we went to El Acebuchal to do a photo shoot as part of our new Photography service at Image & Profile.

Why not have a look at some of the pictures, and see the quality of work that we produce.

33% of small companies neglecting their website

Small and medium-sized companies are neglecting their websites in the recession, according to new research by web hosting company Fasthosts Internet.

The survey revealed that 33% of SMEs are not updating their websites because they do not have enough time, even though just under 70% of small firm owners are aware that websites require regular attention to be successful.

"In challenging economic conditions, business owners are more stretched for time and resources than ever," said Steve Holford, CMO of web host Fasthosts Internet.

"However, it is important to remember that often the simplest improvements to a website can make a noticeable impact on sales conversion rates. Even a modest business website must receive regular attention to fulfil its potential."

Source: www.newbusiness.co.uk

Advertisers shun tradition for the Web

For being able to offer better targeting and return on investment, advertisers will give their money to the Web by taking it away from traditional channels like print and TV.

Such is the finding from the European Interactive Advertising Association, which found seven out of 10 advertisers have increased their online spending so far this year.

The Web was rated ‘essential’ to marketing for almost half the responding companies, compared with 38% and 17% saying the same in 2008 and 2006 respectively.

As a result, online spending was projected to rise by more than 21% next year and by 15% in 2011, the association’s internet advertising barometer shows.

To make the investment in digital, companies will pull their budgets from TV (37%), newspapers (32%) and magazines (46%), indicating traditional channels will suffer.

Yet interestingly, budgets for direct marketing and radio were only cited as being reallocated to Web campaigns by 24% and 12% of the respondents, respectively.

The same shift in advertisers' priorities was picked up in the latest Bellwether report by industry body the IPA, though it said internet spend took a record cut this year.

However, underlining the comparative resilience of the Web, the IPA said the cut was at a much weaker rate than the slump in total marketing spend in the first quarter.

In spite of also saying ad budget cuts appear to be over their peak, as advertisers were increasing their optimism, the IPA believes UK ad spend will fall by 9% this year.

The budgets hardest hit so far this year were for main media advertising and ‘all other’ promotional channels, defined as PR, events sponsorship and market research.

The brightest future for ad personnel appears to be at US-based B2B firms focusing on social media, as Forrester predicts their budgets will increase by 34% in 2009.

The forecast implies B2B firms took the analyst’s earlier tip that spending in the space is vital to reach the 77% of decision-makers whose jobs involve social networks.

© Copyright Freelance UK Ltd

How TWITTER can make you a better writer

By now you’ve most likely joined Twitter(and if you haven’t, you need to, pronto!).

Twitter is not only a great place for businesses and, but it’s also a great place to spruce up your writing skills.

Yes. You read that correct.

Twitter can make you a better writer. Here’s how.

Twitter forces you to be concise

If you’ve ever used Twitter, you know that you have 140 characters to say whatever you want to say. Now keep in mind, I didn’t say 140 words—or even 140 letters—I said 140 characters.

That’s not a lot of room. Letters, numbers, symbols, punctuation and spaces all count as characters on Twitter.

What all of this means is, you have to be concise. You have to know exactly what you want to say, and say it in as few words as possible.

Many writers, however, are “wordy” and often have long, drawn out descriptions and sentences, so it can be pretty difficult to create a message that’s only 140 characters.

Here’s where Twitter comes in again.

Twitter forces you to exercise your vocabulary

Since you only have 140 characters to get your message across, you’re forced to dust off your dictionary and thesaurus and find new words to use—Words that are shorter, words that are more descriptive, and words that get the job done in 140 characters or less.

Crafting a message for Twitter requires you to “pump up” your verbs (replacing adverbs and adjectives with them), and discover a better, clearer and more concise way to say what you want to say.

Now most people won’t hit 140 characters right away. No, they’ll end up with 160 or 148 characters to start out with (Twitter tells you how many characters you need to remove to make your message fit).

This is the final way that Twitter makes you a better writer.

Twitter forces you to improve your editing skills

Every writer needs to be able to edit their work. And by using Twitter, you can really hone your editing skills and make them top-notch.

It’s almost like playing a game; trying to write a 140-character message and still get your point across in a way that inspires your followers to take action, to click on your link or to “retweet” your post.

I like to think of it as a brainteaser, forcing me to think hard and dig deep down into my vocabulary to find a way to shorten my message.

Yet another reason you should be using Twitter. Not that you needed one.

Source: Copyblogger.com

Social Networking attracts 3/4 of European internet users

Of the 282.7 million European internet users aged 15 and older who went online via a home or work computer in December 2008, 211 million (or 74.6%) visited a social networking site, according to the results of a study by comScore on social networking site usage in Europe, with a particular focus on France.

Source: New Media Trend Watch

3 Things To Make You Look Smarter This Month

1. In February, Twitter.com became one of the 100 most visited websites in the UK for the first time. It ranked 91st within All Categories.

2. Micro-bloggers are just as likely to consume other media as the average internet user, but more likely to read or view it through a mobile format.

3. The average age of a Twitter user is 31. That compares to an average age of 27 for MySpace users and 26 for Facebook users.

http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/

PR for small to medium businesses

PR or public relations is all about enhancing your reputation. PR aims to earn understanding and support, and influence opinion and behaviour. It can be particularly effective at local and regional levels and therefore, especially useful to people in small business. Small businesses can exploit opportunities and forums beyond the usual advertising and networking options and can learn to be their own best promoters. Featuring in an article in the local press, television or radio station is an extremely powerful marketing tool, because editorial coverage increases your credibility and helps potential customers get to know you. However, good PR requires some research, thought and planning.Which media should you approach?Your list of publicity prospects should include the local daily newspapers, weeklies, the local business journal, trade journals, the free tabloids, and the neighbourhood and university papers. The media, particularly at local and regional levels, are on the lookout for a new story, a different angle and a fresh approach. Find lists of possible publications to target by using directories such as BRAD, Willings Press Guide, or Hollis UK Press and Public Relations Annual.What’s your story?Reasons to mail out a press release to an appropriate reporter or features editor could be when your business gets an important new order, contributes or takes part in a local event or charity, launches a new product, wins a community award or comes up with a solution to a community problem. Look through the paper or magazine and see who writes what and phone the publications switchboard if you want to find out the names of the news or features editor. Think of a fresh angle or human-interest link. You may not always get coverage but you will have nothing to lose by cultivating these relationships. You could also create your own publicity by commissioning a survey on a topical issue and sending the results to the press, give your expert advice and volunteer quotes or send letters to the letters page using your business address.Press releasesYou could mail out or email press releases on the same story to a number of outlets. But you’ll need to tailor each release to the audience.

There are some golden rules when it comes to press releases:

Print press releases on company letterhead. If this is not feasible, adding the company logo is essential. The company’s name, web address, location address and phone number should be printed clearly at the top of the page. PRESS RELEASE should be spelled out in caps and centred in bold. The press release contact person’s name should be underneath the wording and all contact numbers printed clearly underneath. If the press release is for IMMEDIATE RELEASE, say so, on the left margin directly above the title, in capitals.

The Headline or title.

This should be centred, in bold and be short and snappy, so that it hopefully grabs the attention of the journalist and impresses them enough to read on.

The body of the press release.

The first paragraph of the press release should contain in brief detail what the press release is about. The second paragraph explains, in detail: who cares; why you should care; where one can find it; when it will happen. Also, included in the second ‘informative’ paragraph is generally a quote that gives the release a personal touch. Press releases and news stories need a ‘human interest’ or a clear ‘hook’ to make journalists want to write or broadcast a feature or news story about your company. The third, and generally final, paragraph is a summary of the release and further information on your company with your contact information clearly spelled out.

Press releases should be followed up by emails and/or phone calls, offers of images, an invitation to your event or product launch, samples of products, further information and alternative angles.Non-media PRYou can also raise your profile in your community or in your business sector by giving talks to local schools and colleges, becoming a figurehead in a local organisation, sponsoring events such as a school fete or exhibition, donating to raffles or a promises auction, sponsoring a local sports team, helping with or donating products/services to charity, and teaming up with suppliers or customers to work on attracting joint publicity.

Thoughts from Image & Profile

Welcome to the world of public relations, marketing & event management

In the coming days we will be bringing you news, information and food for thought