• It's YPAC time!

    It's YPAC time!

    The Young Pavement Artists Competition (YPAC) is Muscular Dystrophy Campaign's annual contest to find the best young artists in the country, raise money for the charity, and have some fun. This year's awards were at the Natural History Museum, and I popped along to meet some of the lucky prize winners, and see some fantastic works of art. It's a little disheartening to realise your drawing is worse than a five-year-old's, but they really are very talented kids!

    Erstwhile X Factor contender Chico was in attendance, and presented some of the prizes. He insisted on cosying up for a picture... at least I think it was that way round.

    tictoc designed the YPAC website with interactive online drawing tool: see this year's winners and have a go yourself at pavementart.muscular-dystrophy.org

    By Jo Kerr
    Published: 24 July 2009
    2 Comments

  • Breakfast with Biggins and Muir Maxwell Trust

    Breakfast with Biggins and Muir Maxwell Trust

    Just a quick thank you post to Ann Maxwell and all her team at the Muir Maxwell Trust for inviting us to host a table at the Glasgow leg of their Breakfast with Biggins event.

    The event in Glasgow's Radisson Hotel, was one in a series of Breakfasts around Scotland and was an opportunity for Ann to tell the story of her son Muir, why the trust was formed and to demonstrate the incredibly inspirational work they're doing in the fight against epilepsy.

    Kaye Adams hosted the Glasgow event (there were different local celebrities hosting each event) and Christopher Biggins spoke about how he came to be involved with MMT and his long term support for the trust.

    For more information on the trust and the work they do (or even better, to support them) check out the MMT website but thanks again to Ann and all her team for a fantastic event (and the beans and sausages went down a treat!).

    By Melanie Russell
    Published: 19 May 2009
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  • Digital marketing works, and here's the proof

    Digital marketing works, and here's the proof

    Comic Relief's website saw a 100% increase in traffic to its Red Nose homepage which the organisation has attributed to digital marketing initiatives. The campaign used social media initiatives including networking websites, blogs and Twitter to publicise the site, and gain appeal from people who didn't watch the TV show when aired.

    Red Nose fact :

    Over 50 million Red Noses have been bought over the years – remember The Hands Nose, The Tomato Nose, The Colour Changing Nose, The Shaggy Nose and The Nose That Grows?!

    By Melanie Russell
    Published: 23 March 2009
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  • Crikey, what you can do with a bit of chalk (online)!

    Crikey, what you can do with a bit of chalk (online)!

    I thought I'd have a quick look at what's been happening on the Pavement Art microsite we developed for Muscular Dystrophy and was amazed to see some of the incredibly creative designs people have posted. I was expecting the odd stick man or 5 legged cow but had no idea how detailed people were being!

    Have a look here.

    By Melanie Russell
    Published: 24 February 2009
    1 Comment

  • 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
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  • If the hat fits

    If the hat fits

    I have always knitted but without any real focus. I have inflicted (mainly) scarves on friends, family and myself over the years. So I was excited to hear about a Save the Children appeal which wooly hats you knit and send are given out to mothers and babies in developing countries. Donations of matinee jackets or blankets etc. would also be more than welcome.

    Wooly hats are part of my repertoire (well, just hats and scarves really) so even with my limited skills a difference can be made.

    Click here for appeal info
    Click here for your knit kit

    By Fiona Dorman
    Published: 26 March 2008
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  • More restaurants, less hunger!

    One of the main objectives for our work with charity Action Against Hunger was to increase the number of restaurtants participating in the Restaurants Against Hunger scheme. We've just had word from our client that we succesfully helped them achieve a 100% increase in participation over the previous year. We feel good about this as it means less hunger in a small, but nonetheless, rewarding way, and it shows the benefit of good design. Well done Paul and Fiona.

    By Super Administrator
    Published: 26 September 2007
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