Digital Marketing and Behavioural Economics

by Barry on 20/05/2013

I’ve been subscribed to the Wired UK magazine for years, as it nearly always delivers great articles and insights. Our designers love it too, not so much for the content as for the exemplary print design evident in the magazine. Wired UK us definitely a case of practising what you preach.

In the June edition of the Wired UK magazine (on the shelves since early May – Wired maintains this strange futuristic naming scheme where magazine editions are named for the month after they’re actually published) there is an article from Ogilvy’s Rory Sutherland that once again proves the magazine’s entirely annual subscription fee worthwhile.

nial-toner-digital-marketing-executive-pierce-communications

My First Two Months at Pierce

How time flies when you’re having fun. My first day at Pierce seems like a long time ago and as the days and weeks have passed I have found myself settling into my new role very quickly. Everyone has made me feel very welcome and there is always a great vibe around the office which is great. My first week at Pierce ended with a team night out and quiz which was a nice way to finish the week.

The business case for responsive web design

by Derek on 09/05/2013

A (very) brief history of Responsive Web Design

Responsive Web Design (RWD) is a term coined by Ethan Marcotte for a technique he invented in 2010 that has rightly been hailed as the most important thing to happen to web design for many years.

RWD means that a website will work on many different devices; from a small screen phone to a smart TV, and everything in between, including the printed page, screen readers that read out what is on the monitor for blind and visually impaired people, text-only browsers, and anything else that can be used to access the web.

It does this by building on a solid base, then re-arranging and resizing parts of the page so they fit in any medium and can be viewed on smaller screens without zooming, panning and two-way scrolling.

OFFSET 2013 – We came, we saw, we were inspired.

by The Design Studio on 18/04/2013

It really doesn’t feel like 2 weeks ago that the whole of the design team were at OFFSET2013 for 24 solid hours of inspiration, dancing and a few drinks. It was great to see so many faces for the Northern Ireland creative industry make the journey down to soak up what was on offer and share ideas.

Google+, what is it good for?

by PierceComms on 09/04/2013

Since its introduction in 2011 a lot of fuss has been made about Google+, Google’s latest attempt to break in to social media. Google has been trying hard to make people use it, and is migrating Gmail and YouTube accounts to Google+ accounts. Google has also merged Local with Google+, so that every business that had a Local business page in Google Maps will have seen that change to a Google+ business page.

On top of all this, there’s a lot of speculative writing and commenting out there from technologists and digital marketers about the uses and advantages of Google+. But much of this writing is based on theoretical uses of Google+, with few concrete and actionable insights. Many who have tried using Google+ say it’s as quiet as a graveyard and has almost no user interaction, but others claim it’s a vibrant social media platform with millions of active users.

Google Local dashboard upgrade coming soon

by Barry on 04/04/2013

For most businesses that operate locally, getting visibility in Google’s local search results is very important. Over the years Google has been increasingly localising its search results to be relevant to where the searcher is based.

So for a query like ‘pizza’, Google will show you pizzerias in your area without you having to specify a place in your search query, because Google knows where you are and will show you relevant local businesses first:

Queen’s University Belfast launch Institute for Global Food Security

by The Design Studio on 18/03/2013

On Thursday 14th March, Queen’s University Belfast launched the new Institute for Global Food Security at an event at Riddel Hall, attended by guest speaker Philip Clarke, CEO of Tesco.

We were delighted to design the brochures for the new Institute, which included photography of Professor Chris Elliott, Director of the new Institute, surrounded by grain and feed, and Grainne McGovern, a former student at Queen’s, who was a great sport agreeing to be photographed in a field of cows.

Quick File Naming Tip when Dealing with Dates

by Toby on 11/03/2013

I love things that make my life easier, make me faster or make me more productive, and I think this file naming tip can potentially save you a tonne of time when trying to find and sort old files on your computer when dates are involved. This tip is Operating System agnostic, easy to roll out as a policy if working in a team, and can really cut your file browsing time down.

The Big Wet Fish Donut Drop

by PierceComms on 05/03/2013

Yesterday, in a Pierce first, the design team were all silent! The reason for this momentous occasion was that all their mouths were full of delicious donuts that were hand delivered by our hosting provider Big Wet Fish.

Facebook introduces Graph Search

by Barry on 16/01/2013

Yesterday, after much speculation, Facebook introduced its latest feature: Graph Search.

Summarised, Graph Search allows you to find stuff people have shared on Facebook through search queries with a lot of built-in social intelligence.

For example, you can search for photos of your friends from a particular time and place, or restaurants that are Liked by your friends who live in the same city as you.

Testing mobile sites with bandwidth throttling

by Toby on 11/01/2013

At Pierce we are lucky enough to have a pretty good (and growing) collection of mobile devices that we are using to test all our new websites on, but one of the potential issues is that we also happen to have a pretty good internet connection, so the speeds we get on our phones might not be the speeds that users will get when using our websites.

One month in at Pierce Communications

by Derek on 10/01/2013

One month ago today I took up a new post as a web developer here at Pierce Communications in Belfast.

Thankfully I didn’t have to walk into a room full of people I had never met before as I have known everyone on the web team here for a while one way or another, and knowing them actually provided me with my main motivation for moving.

The Perceived Value of Digital Marketing

by Barry on 03/01/2013

It’s a common phenomenon for any agency or freelancer working in a digital marketing discipline: a prospective client that quibbles about a few hundreds of pounds on your proposal, but at the same time is spending countless thousands on ‘classic’ above-the-line marketing.

For some reason, the perceived value of digital marketing is significantly less than that of classic marketing. A well-executed TV advertising campaign is expected to cost, at minimum, several tens of thousands of pounds, but companies are often loathe to even remotely consider similar expenditures on digital marketing campaigns.

Pierce Communications is gripped by Secret Santa fever

by Toby on 20/12/2012

With only hours to go before the good folk at Pierce unwrap their Secret Santa presents we wanted to take the time to wish everyone reading this a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Pierce’s elves will be working right up until Christmas eve bringing you world class Design, Digital and Print solutions.

NI Hospice Sale

by PierceComms on 27/11/2012

Every year Pierce Communications sets aside a morning to raise some Christmas cheer and some money for the very worthy charity NI Hospice.

Beyond

by Louise on 22/11/2012

On Friday 19^th October, Queen’s University Belfast launched an ambitious fundraising campaign. The aim of the campaign was to raise £140m over the next five years.

Build 2012

by Colm on 20/11/2012

Ever since the tickets for Build 2012 went on public sale away back in April 12th, I had been eagerly anticipating a week full of inspirational people. And I don’t just mean the speakers, I mean the attendees both travelling from the US and Europe as well as the local Northern Ireland contingent. I could not wait. (In all honesty, I had been waiting since the previous year as I missed out on getting a ticket for Build 2011).

Armed with my Student Pass, I was ready to attend each and every event open to me. The Fringe events, the later-scheduled, Shopify Workshop and of course the Conference itself… obviously the After-Party too.

So let’s get stuck in!

Build Conference Talks 2012

by Toby on 19/11/2012

The week long design event known simply as Build is a series of events that build up towards a main set of talks that has attracted the attention of some of the best people in the business, not only with regards to speakers but also with the calibre of attendees and has really helped to put Belfast on the map as the creative hub of Northern Ireland and puts us on par with the rest of the UK in regard to places currently breeding lots of creativity.

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