DNA to launch recession busting car website: UsedCars2U

25th February 2010

South Devon marketing and design agency, DNA Advertising, has been awarded the contract to deliver an innovative used car sales website, UsedCars2U.com, which it believes may revolutionise the used car sales marketplace. DNA won the contract when UsedCars2U Managing Director read about them in a local newspaper, and the agency is collaborating with two local partners – SGA Marketing and Formoda - to have the site fully operational for the New Year.

 DNA’s Head of Digital Services, Simon Farrow, said this is a project the agency is very excited about: “The DNA team is lucky enough to work with a number of very desirable and well known brands, but we all have great expectations about the success of UsedCars2U. It’s such a simple concept – the benefits of buying from a dealership combined with the price of buying privately. We can’t wait to see how it takes off.”

 UsedCars2U is the brainchild of entrepreneur Shaun Cunningham, who previously made headlines with his UK vehicle rentals business. Having launched with a small loan from The Prince’s Trust in 1994, Chief Rentals is now one of the country’s largest independent rental companies and is the leading supplier of accident replacement taxis in the whole of the UK.

 Mr. Cunningham, told us: “What makes UsedCars2U so special is the price. There are no costly showrooms, as the business is operated entirely online, which means discounts of up to 20% off forecourt prices. Unlike buying privately, however, all UsedCars2U vehicles undergo a 120-point pre-sale inspection, are delivered free-of-charge to your door, and come with a complete service history, a manufacturer’s warranty and a 14-day money back guarantee.”

Useful links:

www.usedcars2u.com

www.dnaadvertising.co.uk

www.chiefrentals.com

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Notes to Editors

DNA Advertising Ltd is a team of 12 marketers, designers and programmers with a studio in Torquay and an office in London. The provides branding, marketing and design across all types of media including print, multimedia, radio and exhibitions, for the likes of Subway, Princess Yachts International, WKD and Ascari.

 

Safer Internet Week

9th February 2010

This week is Safer Internet Day (or SID) and is a landmark in the SEO and internet marketing calendar.  The aim of this event is to raise awareness among young people to act more responsibly and protect themselves online.

The continuous growth of internet and mobile technology is leading to the need for a greater understanding of how to protect commercial and personal digital identities. SID's prupose is to educate young people through regional events taking place throughout Europe and is something that we hope will continue to gather momentum each year.

For more information visit the Safer Internet Day website. 

Media Training - and we thought we were experts!

10th November 2009

In the last week or so we attended a great media training course, hosted by Parsley Media at Dartington Hall.

One of the first interviews that we took part in was for a supposed regional paper.  Easy - or so we thought - the first question was fired at us - and we fell down at the first hurdle!  Being online PR specialists and social media experts we dont often get into situations where we are "grilled" by a fairly sharp journalist (ex Express - nuff said!)

We are used to developing key messages for our clients and putting them across to a targeted audience to get coverage so this element wasn't too tricky - and we firmly believe in developing solid relationships with the right blogs and forums as supposed to giving them the "hard sell" - it simply would not work in our industry.  Then on to developing our skills through a radio discussion - now that was entertaining (and I have to say we really enjoyed this).

The course was run by Parsley Media and we were joined by an impressive team of journalists from leading trade publications and also radio presenters.

We came away from the day with a broader understanding of what today's more traditional PR's need to do to promote their clients companies, profiles - and products.  But more importantly I think we were able to gain new techniques that we can use for our clients moving forward.

We enjoyed it so much infact - that we have signed up for next year - marvellous! Let us know if you need any details - they have a huge thumbs up from our team!

Gardening Gifts for the Gardener Who Has it All

10th November 2009

Finding that perfect gift for the enthusiastic gardener has been made easy this year thanks to the range of gardening gifts from Hopeful Gardener.

 

The team at Hopeful Gardener, a group of garden novices themselves, have found a number of fun and useful products for “the gardener who seems to have it all”; from quirky pink wheelbarrows, featured in Horse and Hounds through to Luxury Gardeners Kneeling Pads and Nubuck Gloves, offering protection to the forearms. 

 

Those looking for something a bit larger – the Globo hanging chairs are simply beautiful, offering indoor and outdoor comfort with thick cushions for those lazy days.  If the Globo chair is out of your price range – then the Organic Hanging Chair offers comfort and an affordable price.

 

Sam Gilson, Marketing Manager at Hopeful Gardener explained, “Hopeful Gardener is about putting the fun back into gardening. Here at Hopeful Gardener, we all love our gardens but are all novices, we are looking for products that offer quality – with that bit of fun, things like our pink wheelbarrow and luxury items such as our wonderful log carriers just give that extra bit of flair to a great pastime.”

 

For further information on products that are available this Christmas from Hopeful Gardener, visit the website at www.hopefulgardener.co.uk.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dreaming of an Organic Christmas

23rd September 2009

Planning for Christmas 2009 has already started and online retailers are now launching their seasonal range.  Those looking for an organic Christmas pudding or gluten free Christmas cake will benefit from online retailers such as Greenlife Direct.

 

Greenlife has been providing customers with vegan and vegetarian products for nearly twenty years and was first formed as a whole foods co-operative.  In July 1990 Greenlife’s first store was opened in Totnes Devon and whereupon the team worked hard to build its regional awareness. Today, its online presence now supplies customers around the world with natural cosmetics, supplements, vegan and vegetarian foods – and Christmas products specifically sourced for this market.

 

Liz Marriott of Greenlife Direct explained, “We revamped our website in 2008, during our the Christmas period we experienced high levels of sales for our organic and gluten free Christmas puddings, mince pies and our Yorkshire Punch; many of our popular products will be returning this year as well as gift sets from our natural cosmetics range such as Elysambre and Weleda.

 

Healthy living and green lifestyles will continue to be high people’s agendas in 2010 and we will continue to expand our range in order meet demand from natural cosmetics to our more traditional range of vegetarian and vegan foods.”

 

Interesting Christmas products this year include dark chocolate advent calendars, gluten free luxury iced Christmas cake and even organic milk chocolate ladybirds.

 

To visit our range of products this year – visit our website at http://www.greenlife.co.uk/greenlife-direct/

 

CRM Student Accommodation in London Continues to Meet Student Demand

23rd September 2009

Student accommodation in London continues to grow in order to meet the market demand from UK and overseas students.  With increased demand comes an ever growing demand for quality student accommodation that has good green credentials.

 Hive student accommodation in Hoxton is an example of today’s modern accommodation offering landscaped rooftop gardens with an ideal view over London and the many bars and restaurants of the Hoxton and Shoreditch area and modern facilities to support the needs of today’s student population.

 The property has easy routes into other parts of London being close to Old Street tube station (the Northern Line) and within walking distance of one of London’s main rail and tube stations, Liverpool Street Station.

 With 220 student rooms available, Hive feels more like a small neighbourhood with a close community of students.  Within the building, there are two bedrooms studios as well as flat shares of six en-suite rooms available.  The many communal areas contain plasma TV’s and modern furniture to help maintain the community feel of the residence.

 Great thought has gone into the personal living spaces with each area having its own super fast 20 MB broadband with a helpdesk, flat screen TV with IPTV feed, modern furniture and a hideaway double bed.  All the studios are equipped with a fitted kitchen and a smart shower room. 

 Living in London is not cheap, and the fact that all utility bills are included in the price of the accommodation can help students with their finances during their studies.

 Heriberto Cuanalo, Director of Student Services explained, “Student accommodation in London is an incredibly competitive market, in order to compete, property needs to be modern, well priced and high standards within the personal living spaces and the communal areas.  The fact that Hive has a landscaped garden rooftop, bicycle sheds, CCTV and an in-house management team, helps to give the place a real sense of community.

 Building the community spirit is really important to our team here at CRM, it helps us to ensure we continue to deliver the high standards required in today’s student accommodation market, whilst ensuring that the building and its assets are maintained to the highest possible standards for future students.”

 Hive also has strong green credentials and has a 23% carbon reduction energy performance through solar water heating and bio-mas boiler which is powered by burning wood chips and can play an important factor to those looking to stay in eco-friendly accommodation where possible, a growing trend in today’s climate of environmental uncertainty.

 For further information visit the CRM student accommodation website at http://www.crm-students.com/student-accommodation/uk/london/ or call a member of the team on 0207 490 2878.

 Wednesday 23rd September 2009

Growing Demand for Online PR Training

11th September 2009

Search Engine Optimisation has become an integral part of the development and planning of websites.  Web developers, on the whole, check for usability and accessibility as standard and ensure a site has clear navigation with the inclusion on an initial keyword strategy across the site.  Once completed, typically, an SEO and/or Online PR and social media agency becomes involved in the marketing of the site.

As SEO is now becoming more of a mainstream skill - undertaken by web development and design agencies, there continues to be a growing demand for Online PR. 

Our team is frequently being asked to define SEO and Online PR, (the difference being that Online PR promotes a site, whilst SEO helps to define a sites through keyword usage and good accessiblity).  Think of the website as a brochure - once you have paid to have a brochure produced, then it needs to be distributed in order to be an effective marketing tool - hence the need for Online PR (and possibly a good social media strategy).

Online PR is yet to be truly embraced by traditional PR agencies, however interest from agenices and clients is experiencing significant growth in 2009 and is set to grow at over 500% year on year for the next two years at least.

Online PR is more than simple press release distribution and media relations - however, it is similar to traditional PR as good relationships with key audiences and opinion formers still need to be developed as part of any online reputation programme.

The growing take up of Online PR has led to agencies such as SGA being inundated with training requests.  We are amongst a handful of UK agencies that specialise in Online PR and social media with many succesful campaigns under our belt.

We are now offering training programmes as part of our fully managed one year package to large organisations that are looking to develop their own in-house campaigns.  By working alongside their team for a period of one year, we are able to ensure that they are able to develop and execute their own strategy moving forward - saving their budgets for other online activities.

Our bespoke training days are also proving popular and by offering a number of modules from Online PR, social media strategic development courses for budget holders to tactical training for activities relating to Facebook and Twitter we have successfully supported over 80 companies in the last six months. 

For further information contact our business development team headed up by Sam Gilson - sam@sgamarketing.co.uk.

11th September 2009