Shortlisted for the Irish Web Awards
Posted 28 Sep 2010 in Activate , Events , Social Media Marketing |
Hotel Deals Ireland
We’re delighted at Activate Marketing that our hotel booking website Hotel Deals Ireland has been shortlisted in 3 categories in the 2010 Irish Web Awards.
- Best (Guerilla) Social Media Campaign – Sponsored by ebow
- Best eCommerce / Services Website – sponsored by OnlineAdvertising.ie
- Best SME/Small Business Website – sponsored by Pivotal Communications
Thanks to the organisers, judges and sponsor who make these fun awards possible (and affordable!) for the Web Industry in Ireland. Best of luck to all shortlisted, if 2009 was anything to go by, we can look forward to a fun evening.
Irish Web Awards 2009: A Great Night.
Posted 12 Oct 2009 in Activate , Events |
Congrats to Count Me Out on winning the Best Social Media Campaign at the Irish Web Awards on Saturday night! A worthwhile winner and great to see a smaller budget make such a big impact. See the full list of winners here.
The evening itself was greatly enjoyed by myself and my client Joanne Grehan of LookWest.ie. Compliments to Damien Mulley for organising it and Rick O Shea for presenting with such style. The focus was on fun and informality. The giant bags of all things ‘crispy’ (e.g. Wagon Wheels, Taytos, Chickadees, Onion Rings) and the t-shirts thrown by Rick into the audience caused much swapping and passing along. I didn’t see any fights, but I can’t vouch for what went on behind me.
I can also reveal here that there was almost a Kanyeesque moment. Sitting half way down the room, as the shortlist for the Best Practice website was announced, I spied a screen shot of what I thought was my brother’s website. My brother however had texted me a few hours earlier asking if I fancied joining him for few bevvies. So I thought that we had a situation whereby he was shortlisted and didn’t know about it. I wondered what would happen if his website won. Should I go up on stage and accept the award on his behalf? I texted my brother “What is name of your cars website” (yes I know I am a bad sister for not remembering). Before I got an answer CarsIreland.ie was announced as the winner. I scanned the room and initially didn’t see any takers. I steeled myself for walking right up there and making some excuse for my brother. I looked around one last time for good measure and saw the rightful owner of the award making his way to the podium. Stage invasion narrowly averted! My brother says CarsIreland.ie were worthy winners of the award by the way, but he thinks an invasion of the stage would have been a great guerilla marketing campaign for his site.
I got the opportunity to meet loads of people with whom I’ve communicated via Twitter but never met. Sabrina Dent, the offer of a meal, bed and lift from station was geniune, I will get in touch. Joe Scanlon amazingly remembered that I threatened a sulk if he didn’t make good on his promise to link to my blog. It worked well and I’m wondering if sulking as part of my overall link-building strategy has legs to it. It was lovely to meet Damien Mulley and I was very encouraged by his words about the LookWest campaign. I also met @IDAIreland who very deservedly won the Best Government & Council Website category.
At some silly hour of the night I found myself heading home in a taxi with many packets of tayto stuffed inside my handbag. The taxi driver was very appreciative of a late night snack. I myself placed a packet of Chickadees beside my pillow. You wouldn’t want to be overcome by hunger in the middle of the night.
Putting the Internet to Work: June 12, Cork
Posted 26 May 2009 in Activate , Events , Online Marketing Training |
I’m delighted to collaborate with Sabrina Dent to bring you this two-part training day entitled Putting the Internet to Work. This full day seminar is designed to help SMEs build a comprehensive and integrated online strategy for their business. The course will cover Blogging, Social Media, SEO, PPC and Google Analytics, full course outline is available here.
Building Business Through Social Media
The Social Media seminar runs from 10 AM to 1 PM and covers:
- The Whys and How-Tos of blogging for small and medium businesses
- Understanding and leveraging social networks including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook
- Tools and metrics for quantifying results from blog and social network campaigns
Putting Google to Work for Your Business
The Google Tools seminar runs from 2 PM to 5 PM and covers:
- Safe and effective SEO strategies to improve natural search engine results and rankings in Google
- Using Google AdWords to run cost-effective PPC (Pay-Per-Click) campaigns
- Utilizing Google Analytics to pull it all together, monitor results, and calculate ROI.
Designed to be hands-on and personal, we have limited each seminar to 8 participants.
Cost: €150 for full day. €80 for either half-day session
When: Friday, 12 June 2009, 10 AM – 5 PM
Where: Lancaster Lodge, Western Road, Cork
Register: Registrations are now open here
Course Outline: Available to download here
As mentioned by Sabrina, we’d like to make this day available to everyone who’d like to attend, so if you need a bursary, drop us a line and we’ll do our very best to accommodate you.
Bizcamp Limerick
Posted 24 Mar 2009 in Events |
I attended Bizcamp Limerick on Saturday, or most of it anyway. I was impressed with the energy and enthusiasm around the place, both organisers and participants. I know the question has been raised of how many businesses will be formed or radically changed as a result of the two Bizcamps. The Bizcamp events are geared towards start-ups and early stage businesses. These are the benefits as I see them:
- Contacts, contacts, contacts. Activate is in business over 2 years, a huge amount of our work comes via contacts, word of mouth, and who we know.
- Exposure to new thinking, ideas, products. If you sit in your own little bubble, you run the risk of limiting your knowledge about new technology, developments, methodologies & key players in your field.
- Enthusiasm is infectious. Current media output could make you think that 90% of Ireland is jobless and depressed, it is good to recalibrate your sense of reality.
- Start-ups generally start up small. This can easily lend itself to a sense of isolation. These events help you realise that there is a whole army of people out there just like you, plugging away and getting things done.
- Access to free advice on start-up admin/legal issues
Activate is over 2 years old. We have gotten through the initial hairy stages of wondering whether the phone will ring. We have our contact list, we are busy, happy and focused. Had I stayed in bed on Saturday morning, I don’t think I would have missed anything life changing. I enjoyed the motivational talks I attended, and will work a little harder at some of those things.
However, there will have been people for whom this was the first such event they attended. And it might just spark them to take the leap of faith, or keep them motivated when days are tough, or provide them with a crucial contact who manages to solve an issue or refer a client down the line.
The fallout from Dell in the Limerick area will be huge. The wind-down is only just starting. An estimated 9,500 jobs will be lost, and these people are emerging out into a very unfavourable jobs landscape. Starting out for themselves is a new idea that some may be just getting their heads around, they haven’t done the so called ‘blow-job circuit’ before. This practical and emotional support is crucial to them.
Because let us not minimise the emotional impact of lay-offs. At Bizcamp, Joan Mulvihill, spoke about feeling miserable, wretched and an utter failure after being made redundant in late 2008. A career driven person, a huge amount of her self worth and identity was tied up in her career achievements. In the dot com crash of 2000, a colleague of my husband’s, who was laid off from a semiconductor company, responded with suicide. He was middle aged with a family and a large mortgage. He didn’t believe he had any job prospects at his age, and he didn’t see any way forward.
The talk of same old faces, same old talk on the circuit is a very subjective one. People will naturally drift away from these events once they feel they have nothing further to gain. And new people will come along, and hear this stuff for the first time, and be inspired and energised and delighted to meet like minded people.
Just because your time at Bizcamp type events may have naturally come and gone, that doesn’t mean Bizcamp’s time has come and gone.
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