Santa Paws

Surprisingly Oscar seems to have taken to his Santa hat.......reindeer antlers next!

Place your orders now for next year's christmas cards.

By Kerry Reid
Published: 23 December 2008
0 Comments

Say no to popular culture

While driving in this morning i was enraged to hear the news (as read by some idiot) on the radio that X Factor winner, whatever her name is, is having her bid for the christmas number one threatened by another version of HER song........ HER SONG, i'm sorry, as Jo rightly said in her blog entry "surely this is blasphemy". Anyway, i'm on a personal crusade and would urge everyone to buy the Jeff Buckley cover of the original currently at No3. It's only 70p to download from whatever internet music outlet you prefer but think of it as a vote against the idiots of the world.

By Paul Mowat
Published: 17 December 2008
4 Comments

We wish you a Merry Christmas!

The halls are decked, the chestnuts are roasting, and we’re all hoping Santa knows we’ve been good boys and girls in 2008. tictoc’s come over all Christmassy this week.

To embrace this Christmas spirit, we’ve created beautiful flash Christmas cards for some of our clients, like this one for Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering. Flash cards are a great way to save on stamps, beat the post, and spread some festive magic.

Deliveries have been flooding in as we frantically order presents for family and friends. I had the wonderfully DIY Christmas Tree In-A-Box delivered, rekindling memories of craft-happy Christmases of yore. If you’re inspired to get creative, and build your own Chrimbo tree with origami, check out http://tinyurl.com/5qkhwr. Another big hit was Tea Cozies, a book that shares some essential wisdom on how to, erm, make your own tea cozies. We’re planning to keep our next brew warm with the woolly mammoth. http://tinyurl.com/6gcwtw.

As for the Christmas songs, new tunes from Gabriella Cilmi with Warm This Winter (let’s leave her out in the cold), and George Michael with December Song (a long way from Last Christmas) are being snubbed in favour of the old classics. And don’t even talk to us about X Factor’s take on Hallelujah... surely it’s blasphemy? Guaranteed we’ll be Rockin’ Around The Christmas Tree, and having a Wonderful Christmastime by next week. How have you been getting in the mood this year?

By Jo Kerr
Published: 16 December 2008
4 Comments

tictoc toilet trailer

We have a slight problem at tictoc today, the lights have gone out in the toliets!

This makes for some interesting trips to the toilet and for the more nervous of us it can be quite reminicent of the Blair Witch Project as you can see from the video below.

Toilet movie

By Alan Masterson
Published: 15 December 2008
2 Comments

Great piece of eMarketing

It's Alan's birthday this month (all together now, Happy Birthday to you...) and on the first of the month (yes, that's today, this blog really is hot off the press) he got an email from Waterstone's (he's a loyalty card customer with them) saying that as it was his birthday this month they'd treat him to £5 off his next purchase (when he spends £25 or more) before 14th December.

This is a great piece of eMarketing, we love it. OK, so they had to collect his date of birth as part of the loyalty card application process, but then they've used it in a brilliant way - he feels they've remembered his birthday and he's being given a present, they get a £20 purchase (within quite a tight timeframe) that he probably wouldn't otherwise have made... everyone's a winner! And everyone feels good.

Tip for all of our clients, particularly in eCommerce - if you collect data about your customers, make sure you use it to market to them, and do it imaginitively!

By Kate Wooding
Published: 1 December 2008
1 Comment

An early Christmas present from the tax man!

As of the 1st December, new rules come into play, and online consumers won't have to pay customs duty on purchases bought outside the EU for less than £105 (at the moment, you have to pay customs duty on non-EU purchases over £18, so they've increased the duty-free limit quite considerably). VAT will still be chargable on non-EU purchases over £18, so will be unaffected by the changes.

Essentially, it means that if you're doing your Christmas shopping online you'll avoid customs duty on purchases up to about $150.

By Kate Wooding
Published: 20 November 2008
0 Comments

Lessons for charities

I came across this article on eConsultancy about the many ways in which Obama harnessed the power of digital in his campaigning, and how charities could use these simple strategies as part of their campaigns, fundraising, marketing.

It did make me think about how we all (not just charities) need to be monitoring, responding, engaging online - and yes, I do know how time-consuming and resource-intensive it can be! I also know that it can be very effective, and very powerful.

tictoc has done lots of digital work for charities: we've created virals, Facebook apps, developed websites and campaign microsites, ensured sites elicit donations, run eNewsletter campaigns, carried out Search Engine Optimisation and Pay Per Click marketing campaigns... but I don't think we've done the whole lot for one client. Which just goes to show how at the moment, charities are probably not being quite as joined up and coherent online as they could be.

Let's not forget that some of these lessons can be learned by businesses and brands too. Online reputation management is becoming a hot topic, and it's something we're starting to work on here at tictoc.

If you've seen good or bad examples of businesses, brands and charities doing stuff in the digital world, tell us about it!

By Kate Wooding
Published: 13 November 2008
0 Comments

Bird brained

After a tense weekend we are still on tender-hooks as we await confirmation of Iran's latest world record attempt. Roy Castle eat your heart out: this bid to grace the pages of Guinness was for the world's biggest ostrich sandwich made by 1,500 people over two days at a Tehran food fair. Unfortunately, onlookers started munching on the 1,500m long snack before the record could be confirmed, chomping through 1,000kg of ostrich meat in a matter of minutes. Organisers proved unflappable, claiming they have video evidence of the event (you can see some here), but we've had our heads in the sand ever since.

Not a fan of physical exertion I can see the appeal of a record earned by making the biggest possible version of a tasty snack. It beats wing walking, bouncing up the Empire State Building on a pogo stick, or the myriad other difficult and dangerous spectacles Record Breakers was famed for. However, a giant ostrich sandwich does seem a little specialised to earn a footnote in history. Will anyone ever get round to challenging the record? Like the bird itself, this attempt just doesn't fly.

Moving swiftly on... I'm going to devote some time to the creation of the biggest ever Mint Aero. Who's with me? Or why not suggest your own weird and wonderful record breaker?

Published: 20 October 2008
3 Comments

Using Social Media to launch your website

A new handbag website launched on the Internet recently. Nothing unusual about a new e-commerce website launching you might think, but the people at Handbag Planet had a great idea to publicise the new site.

Every hour for the first 24 hours they were giving away a free handbag and they made it easy to enter the competition.

There were several ways to enter, you could visit their website and sign up, refer a friend and you got another chance to win. Or you could enter using a Social Media website.

If you added Handbag Planet as a friend on MySpace or Facebook or write about them on Twitter you got 10 chances to win a prize. And if you had a blog you could write about them to receive 25 chances to win the handbag of your dreams!

Now while I may not be into my handbags, honestly I'm not, I do like their use of the social side of the Internet. For very little work on their part they managed to get people to mention the new website across the Internet thus building up links to it.

This shows the power of Social Media website as part of website marketing and how to get your customers to work for you.

How would you use Social Media websites to market your website?

By Alan Masterson
Published: 20 October 2008
0 Comments

The art of blogging

People keep talking about how you should have a blog on your company website, but they hardly ever explain why. So here goes:

1. Blogs can give your company a bit more personality, provide a behind-the-scenes peek, make you seem more individual to your web visitors.
2. You get a chance to air thoughts/opinions or talk about subjects that either aren't directly related to your company, or that you might not be quite ready to bill as the 'company line' - it depends how far you want to take your blog into the realm of the 'personal view'.
3. Most importantly, blogs can be very good at driving traffic to your website. Especially if they are quoted by other bloggers, who then link back to them - search engines think sites that are well-linked are more trusted, and so you'll come higher up the rankings.
4. Because you should update them fairly regularly, they help keep your site fresh. New content encourages repeat visitors.
5. They give visitors to your site a chance to interact, by commenting on what you've written. Sometimes the arguments that go on in the comments are more interesting than the blog post itself!
   

Here are some questions you might want to ask yourself if you're thinking about having a company blog:

• Whose blog is it? At tictoc any of the staff can add to the blog - some companies keep it as a personal view from one of their staff, usually someone at the top.
  
• What's it for? Sometimes it's about issues that are relevant to your company, sometimes it's about a whole load of other stuff that has no direct relevance to what your company does. Sometimes it's a mixture of both.
• Who's going to make sure you blog regularly? There's no point having one if it's rarely updated. Make a commitment, and give someone the time and responsibility to make it happen.

And here are some other things to bear in mind:

• If you use a blogsite for your blog (i.e. blogger or wordpress) your own company site will not get any of the benefit of having a blog. All that traffic will be driven to another site - it won't help your own rankings at all. It's not difficult to get a blog built in to the Content Management System of your own site.
  
• Do be a bit careful about the content on your blog. Don't be defamatory, be careful if you're going to be provocative - remember, this reflects on your company, and technically your company could be liable for what's said on it.
• Know how you're going to deal with comments. Not all comments will be supportive, and you should make a decision about whether to allow comments or not. If you do and someone makes a comment you're not happy with, make sure you respond to it (calmly) rather than ignoring it.

By Melanie Russell
Published: 17 October 2008
0 Comments

winter warmer

It's that time of year again when the nights are fair drawing in and thoughts turn to cosy nights in, woolly jumpers and comfort food.

What can be more comforting than a steaming bowl of soup.
Here in the admin office we have been discussing our favourite winter warmers.

Mine is Sweetcorn Chowder...

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
4-6 spring onions, white parts only, sliced
½ a sweetcorn, kernels only
284ml/10fl oz chicken stock (vegetable stock can be used to make a vegetarian chowder)
splash of milk
salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the croutons
2 tbsp olive oil
85g/3oz soda farls, cut into chunks

Method
1. Heat the oil in a medium saucepan and sauté the spring onion for a few minutes, to soften. Stir in the sweetcorn kernels and then pour in the chicken stock, milk and seasoning.
2. Bring to the boil and then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 8-10 minutes.
3. For the croutons, heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the chunks of soda farl for a few minutes, until crisp and golden.
4. Using a hand held blender, blend the chowder until smooth.
5. Ladle the soup into a serving bowl and scatter the croutons over to serve.
----

What's yours?

By Fiona Dorman
Published: 8 October 2008
2 Comments

The ups and downs of selling online

Recently e-consultancy has done a couple of stories about selling online and I thought I'd pull out some of the most relevant stats for you, and point you towards the original articles.

The first stat that I thought was interesting was that online sales are generally estimated to make up 7-15% of a brand's sales. e-consultancy was averaging it at 10%. Although that may work very well for high street brands, we think the story's very different for small independent retailers - if you're in a niche market and online suddenly opens you up to customers without a geographic boundary, you can suddenly reach a whole lot more people. We know that one of our clients is currently taking more than 50% of their sales online.

Interestingly, a number of the brands that e-consultancy originally noted (Feb 08) weren't selling online still have no plans to go online in Sep 08. Whether that is because they figured they'd already lost the battle (I can see that Morrison's and Somerfield may feel that Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's have already beaten them and pilfered all their potential online customers) or because their sales are such high-volume and low-value (though with Asda's George going online, Primark and H&M have more to lose) that they figure it's not worth it, I am surprised that such big brands are still unable to take advantage of online selling.

And then finally e-consultancy summed it all up in a lovely little article that pulled together the drawbacks of not selling online - apart from the loss of a revenue stream that most retailers would be very pleased to have in today's economic climate. Two in particular stick out for me - the obvious one that without online you're limiting your customers to buying from specific geographic locations where you have stores, and to your trading hours - online neatly leaps these two hurdles. And the second one is that you are immediately losing out to your competitors - who can bid on your brand name in an effort to snaffle your customers, or where your customers choose to shop from them because your brand isn't available online. Very few brands have such customer loyalty, or such brand exclusivity, that a customer would refuse to buy elsewhere. Online makes is so easy to search for particular products and compare prices that brands who aren't online are definitely losing out on sales.

By Kate Wooding
Published: 29 September 2008
0 Comments

Hot off the press

Our very own Tom Beddard wrote a letter to NMA ages ago (in response to an article back in July about Ruby and Rails) - so long ago in fact that we'd given up hope of seeing it in print. And yet, yesterday, there it was in all its full colour glory. We thought we'd share our pride (and his opinions) with you.

I'd like to echo David Heinemeier Hansson's words that Ruby on Rails is great for developing more than just community sites (NMA 10.07.08). At tictoc we've used it to develop more than 200 websites, including ecommerce, and it has won us over. We now use it exclusively and are convinced it has advantages over .Net and Java. We've never experienced problems with scaling and the open-source background has been a benefit, not a problem. We find that Ruby (and Rails) allows us to be the organisation we want to be - a real mix of creative and technical - and to produce sites that don't compromise on design or functionality.

As the biggest Rails agency in Scotland, we're keen to foster the community. So if any fellow Rails enthusiasts want to drop in for a chat, please do, or find us at the next ScotRUG meet. We want Rails to take off and would urge more clients to consider it, and more developers to experience the flexibility it offers. For now, it's a chance for specialists to get ahead of the big boys.                            Author: Tom Beddard, technical director, tictoc Family  Published: 11.09.08

By Kate Wooding
Published: 12 September 2008
0 Comments

The patter of tiny wellies

It's been such a horrible Summer (I use that word in the loosest sense) that one of the best investments has to be a good pair of wellies so couldn't resist sharing this fascinating pic with the world.

These are our very own, Kerry's dog walking wellies that are not much bigger than a bic pen! Just remember, good things come in small packages isn't that right Kerry!

By Melanie Russell
Published: 9 September 2008
3 Comments

Online Reputation Management is the new PR

Online Reputation management, buzz management or brand management are all names for a growing area of website marketing linked to social websites, and is fast becoming the new PR.

Old school PR companies may have trawled through the tabloids to discover any stories relating to you. But what about the vast resource of the Internet?

Before buying a product or selecting a service the vast majority of Internet users do some research wither it's searching on Google or reading posts on forums.

But do you know what people are saying about you on the Internet?

With the rise of social websites like Facebook and Myspace, blogging services like Blogger and twitter and many companies having there own blog, there is an increase in the chance of something negative being written about you.

A classic example of this is Starbucks. If you search on Google for Starbucks you will find several sites with negative feelings towards the giant coffee company. (We quite like their coffee!)

Online Reputation Management services can scour the Internet to find any mention of you or your brand and help you to counter any negative publicity.

It's not all doom and gloom. Online Reputation Management will also find all that positive feedback about you. If you do find negative content about your company or brand what can you do?

If the information is true don't ignore it or hide from it. Participate in the discussion by posting a reply or leaving a comment so you can get your side of the argument across. And on your own website issue a statement or correct the issue.

If it is not true contact the owner and request, politely, that they remove or retract it. If that doesn't work it may be time to call in the lawyers.

By Alan Masterson
Published: 6 September 2008
1 Comment

Aaah the old ones are the best!

I was reading a wee article recently and it made me smile so I thought I'd share it with you all!

A man walks into a butchers and says "is that yer Ayshire Bacon?" to which the butcher replies," Naw, it's ma hands a'm warmin'!!!!

For those who don't get it, pop up a reply and I'll explain!!

Here's another one my Mum rattled off over dinner:

Did you hear the one about the Sea Scouts?   .....their tent sank!!!

Sorry, I know these are childish but those of you who know me will know that's me!!!

By Melanie Russell
Published: 3 September 2008
1 Comment

the count

Hemingway once wrote a story in just six words ("For sale: baby shoes, never worn.") and is said to have called it his best work.

Some of the top creative minds in tictoc got to work on writing their own six word story...

- wii wanted, can only spend penny.

- Groundhog Day.  What again!

- To escape quicksand, reach for bottom.

- I saw you. You ignored me.

- He hates her: she always wins.

Believe me it's harder than it looks...

By Fiona Dorman
Published: 28 August 2008
4 Comments

Wall of Websites

The developers were feeling that there was something missing from the room and so we decided to print homepage screen shots of our websites. We started with just the most recent projects, but quite liked the result so ended up printing most of the sites from the last two years, over 80 screen-shots!

We've reached such a height up the wall that not even Tomek could stretch to and so we will be continuing to wallpaper around the room as new sites are launched.

By Tom Beddard
Published: 22 August 2008
5 Comments