The new Play Button from Spotify allows any website or blog to embed songs, albums, and in our case playlists, with the simple addition of some HTML code. You do need to have already downloaded the app to enjoy it, but we assure you it’s worth it.

Already in use by sites such as The Guardian it’s a great way to add a bit of personality to your website, and of course Spotify also reimburse any artists and labels for plays of their songs. So independent artists such as our very own Tom Chillcott of Peter & The Harmonics and Nova Saints will be very happy too.

With a diverse, and in some cases very ‘specialist’ musical taste throughout the True team we look forward to sharing our audio delights with you.

If you would like to contribute any of your own favourites please do get in touch.

Our brief was to boost the number of engaged likes for the English Heritage Facebook page, providing a larger audience for the new season launch on 1st April.

We articulated the excitement around the launch of the new season through a sophisticated geographically and demographically targeted ad campaign incorporating Social Stories to ensure we made the most of the social connections.

Alongside this we ran a Sponsored Stories campaign that reached out to friends of the existing users of the page, and promoted their interaction with the page to encourage more interaction and likes.

This was all incentivised by a competition to win an annual English Heritage family membership through a competition app where the user had to tell us which English Heritage property they would love to visit and why.

The campaign was a huge success with over 100% increase in likes at a cost per like well under target and a 956% increase in daily visits to the page during the campaign. However, more importantly than this, once the campaign finished we saw a 325% increase in reach and 233% increase in ‘people talking about’ the Facebook page showing how engaged the new users were with the brand.

After demolishing targets it is needless to say, we have a very happy client. Tamsin Burwell, Digital Marketing Manager at English Heritage said, “We’re delighted with the results not just in the volume of likes but the legacy we are seeing of a truly engaged audience. This is in no small part down to True’s excellent strategic targeting and consistently engaging creative.”

If you’d like to find out how we achieved all of this, please do get in touch.

This season saw us develop a brand new site for Cheltenham, aiming to widen the attraction of the famous racecourse to a broader audience masses, and make all 4 days of their famous Festival a roaring success through a media campaign delivering increased ticket sales.

Cheltenham wanted to create a head of excitement around the world’s finest Jump racing event and attract new faces to horse racing and to the Cheltenham Festival in particular. Also part of the brief was to make the Festival more accessible – a must for your social calendar.

The Festival campaign was fully integrated, working with Cheltenham’s other agencies, and included direct mail, posters, TV and radio working in tandem with digital media, including social channels such as Facebook and LinkedIn.

The website provided a hub for all of Cheltenham’s marketing efforts. A new Kentico CMS helped create bespoke user journeys, allowing everyone from novices to seasoned race goers to find exactly what they were looking for, from a beginners guide to racing or travel information to race entries, videos and results – with a compelling drive to buy tickets and hospitality packages throughout. News feeds and twitter updates keep the site live and current and improve search rankings.

In the run up to the Festival, bespoke homepage feature areas and dedicated landing pages (e.g. Ladies Day) promoted each of the 4 Festival days: Champion Day, Ladies Day, St Patrick’s Thursday and Gold Cup Day. An online countdown clock added to the anticipation. Cheltenham TV on the site allowed people to view last year’s event for a taste of what’s to come.

Meanwhile, sophisticated behavioural targeting and PPC campaigns were aimed at attracting racing virgins to the first 3 days of the Festival (Gold Cup Day is almost always a sell out), while retargeting display and email campaigns helped retain existing customers, up-sell hospitality packages for those days and encourage people who had already bought tickets to add more to their party.

Basket abandonment emails proved phenomenally successful in converting waverers.

An affiliate program promoted the campaign through hundreds of sites on a CPA basis while the use of social media helped boost Cheltenham’s appeal to B2B and B2C consumers in a tough market place.

The creative direction for the new site was focussed on delivering a strong emotional engagement for Cheltenham Racecourse. We used stand-out imagery and energetic copy to convey a sense of drama, excitement and anticipation, presenting Cheltenham 2012 as bigger, bolder and better than ever.

Cheltenham’s Twitter feed keeps the content live and current and Cheltenham TV and radio gives the user access to more insight, more expertise, more voices of the people behind racing.

While the site celebrates Cheltenham’s history and heritage, it also embraces people new to racing too, with a simple beginners guide and a prominent links throughout to Facebook and Twitter, where people can share their experiences.

A Festival countdown clock, bespoke hero areas and tailored landing pages capture the spirit and passion of the four individual Festival days and inspire prospective racegoers to be part of them.

Each of the four days (Champion Day, Ladies Day, St Patrick’s Thursday and Gold Cup Day was given its own distinctive badge and style to reflect the personality and appeal of the day’s entertainment.

Thankfully all of the hard work paid off, with a record attendance for the four days of The Festival, Website traffic was up 33% for the season, and up 53% over the four days of the Festival and online ticket sales rose 34%. We almost doubled our conversion rate from paid media, whilst halving the CPA. In fact, most media KPIs had over 100% improvements.

If you’d like to find out how we achieved all of this, please do get in touch.

Unless you’ve been living in a cave of late, you’ll know that Pinterest (Pin-ter-est), subject of fawning coverage on and offline, is the new darling of social media.

Pinterest has been around for quite some time, with an established US user base of around 12 million. Of those, 80% are female, aged 25-44, interested in interior design, crafting and event planning and creating pinboards full of images about their perfect homes, dreams and ‘projects to do’.

In the UK, though, Pinterest is currently dominated by bloggers, PR types and SEOs – all exploring the marketing possibilities it offers. While we can expect the UK audience to start reflecting that found in the US in time, for now the majority of the UK’s 250,000 or so users are men aged 25-34.

For most non-marketing users, Pinterest’s popularity lies in its intuitive extension of the ‘bookmarking’ meme popularised by services like del.icio.us and carried into Facebook ‘Likes’.

Pinterest allows people to create curated pinboards of pictures on any theme they choose. Whether you’re planning your wedding, decorating your lounge or shopping for summer dresses, you can pin things you like onto a board, make notes, share with friends and followers and repin things you like that others have found. It can be quite addictive and a great way to discover new things that interest you.

Pinterest discourages boards created to promote a single company or product range, and boards which aren’t interesting, thoughtfully created and filled with beautiful, inspiring, helpful or unusual images won’t inspire users to follow you or repin your items. Pinterest is certainly not a ‘push marketing’ arena.

So what is the opportunity for businesses?

If you do have the time to invest in curation, and the willingness to link out generously, active involvement on Pinterest could help you reach out to this target audience.

You can encourage pins on peoples’ boards by adding a Pin button to images on your website, but as the majority of active Pinterest users Pin via a toolbar, you may find you’re already being pinned.

Find out if you already have some Pinterest fans by search for your domain name (e.g. http://pinterest.com/search/?q=www.etsy.com)

If you’re hoping to be pinned, make sure your images have the ‘wow’ factor.  Standard product shots that can just as easily be found on other sites won’t create a Pinterest buzz – you need to stand out from the crowd.

Pinterest users agree to only pin images if the copyright holder approves. If you use images under licence, check the owner is happy to have a pin button on the pictures. By proactively inviting a pin, you are implying that consent has been given.

Pinterest is definitely one to watch, and if you like to be ahead of the game, it’s definitely worth a closer look. You’ll need time and great photography to succeed in a big way, but there’s no harm in creating few boards, identifying active pinners in your marketplace and making some friends now. Then, when you do have a show-stopping item to promote, you’ll have a fantastic network in place to help.

Want to know more? Get in touch with Denise.

Aspen Opinion was launched in 2011 as a way to share their people’s insights into market topics and trends. More than 30 Aspen Opinion articles have been published from a number of Aspen underwriters and experts. Topics include the impact of the Eurozone crisis on (re)insurance and, most recently, an article covering increased earthquake risk in the Tokyo area.

The app will give the global (re)insurance industry a new way to access these opinions and help extend the reach of Aspen’s voice in the market.

The app enables users the ability to personalise the topics, authors and business lines they wish to follow, along with looking up contact details of Aspen’s underwriting teams. They can also share content across LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.

Richard Mavers, responsible for digital media at Aspen comments: “The iPhone app is a new way to help position our people in the market as a key source of industry commentary and opinion. True’s experience, expertise and professionalism has ensured we’re delivering Aspen Opinion with a professional user experience and intuitive design.”

Lindsey Richardson, Account Director on Aspen at True adds: “Aspen is constantly looking to innovate and bring forward-thinking solutions into a very competitive market. We are achieving some great results together.”

For further information please contact Lindsey Richardson on 0117 927 7750 or lindsey.richardson@truedigital.co.uk

And you can download the app here

You’ll be the friendly, welcoming face of True, and often the first experience someone has of our business.

Ideally you’ll have office admin/management experience, and some experience of finance admin. Be well presented, professional and have a good telephone manner.

Able to take responsibility for own workload and get on with tasks without close supervision.

Interested in or experience of working in a dynamic, fast-moving, creative environment. We’re not accountants. Well, only one of us is, and he’s quite interesting for an accountant.

For further info about the role please call and ask for Tim Jones on 0117 927 7750 or email info@truedigital.co.uk

It was at art school that Stefan first began creating projects for the web, this was at a time when DVDs were called ‘new media’.

In his spare time Stefan loves flying down muddy hills on his mountain bike and rock climbing. However you’re more likely to bump into Stefan at a DIY store, which he admits to visiting at an alarming frequency.

On a visit to Germany as a child, Stefan fell into the Rhine, luckily he survived, and he’s at True to tell the story.

In his spare time, Jim is a silent animal activist. He’s currently compiling a book of illustrations, the premise of which is that silent animals have a hard time in this world and need a voice, Jim is that voice.

Prior to life at True, Jim almost found fame playing the drums in folk band ‘Toyface’. However the rest of the group upped sticks and left for the Hollywood Hills. Thankfully Jim stayed.

Jim will be working across a number of True Clients.

This is a challenging and stimulating role where you can discover and develop your specific talents, with a view to specialising in the future. Enthusiasm, willingness to learn and aptitude are the most important qualities for this position.

Essential:

• Enthusiasm and willingness to learn new skills
• Understanding/experience of the Internet, including social media
• Good grasp of marketing basics
• Methodical, analytical approach to your work
• Good organizational skills
• Literacy and numeracy to level 2 (GCSE A-C)
• Proficiency in the use of Microsoft Office applications e.g. Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint

Beneficial:

• Experience of simple copywriting and/or journalism
• Basic html skills
• Experience of running your own website or blog using open source or bespoke software

If this sounds like you and you like the idea of working in a vibrant agency environment with a range of top notch clients, get in touch with Denise.

THIS ROLE IS NOW TAKEN

February 14^th is almost upon us and at True we’ve been taking a look at some of the great Valentines campaigns out there this year:

1. 02’s ‘Love Cloud’

If, like us, you’d always imagined Cupid to be a cherubic child, then you’d be wrong.  According to O2, Cupid is in fact ‘Cupids’ – one hairy, overweight, camp, middle-aged bloke complete with moobs and an attractive, non-identical twin brother.  This year they’re hanging up their bows and matchmaking via social media.

Just tweet @02 your valentine’s message and Cupid will read it out on 02’s Love cloud Youtube channel.

2. Heineken’s ‘Serenade’

For all those Casanovas who can’t sing, Heineken’s offering to do it for you! With the Heineken Serenade Facebook app, just choose your special someone, why you fancy them, what the plan is for Valentines day and why they’re so special.  Heineken will turn it into a musical serenade and post it to your potential date’s wall. Then it’s over to you.

3. Women’s Aid ‘Cabinet of Dreams’

If you’d like to send something a little more unique to your requited love, why not browse Women’s Aid ‘Cabinet of Dreams’. This virtual charity shop window in Soho features nine bell jars depicting priceless gifts including ‘a stolen moment’ or ‘the moon on a stick’.  Passers-by can send their darlings an image of a gift by texting a number next to each item. The virtual piece of artwork comes through to their phone, allowing them to forward it on.  The text generates a donation to Women’s Aid.

Cabinet of Dreams

4.Innocent smoothies ‘Love label’

For all you ‘smoothies’ out there, this Valentines you can personalise your sweetheart’s favourite drink.  Simply find your inner Poe and customize your own ‘love label’.

Add it to your Valentine’s lunchbox or leave it on your work crush’s desk and wait to see their reaction. http://valentines.innocentdrinks.co.uk/label/

If you’re still stuck on something to share with your Valentine, nothing quite says I love you like a flesh-eating zombie…

http://selfishmeme.tumblr.com/post/17160160012/this-valentines-day-show-that-special-someone

However you decide to express your burning desires this Valentines Day, just remember its True Meaning.

Kiki & Elton, take it away….

True Love music video