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Get Social is the official app for Palm UK's Get Social This Summer campaign. The campaign is all about trying to encourage people, with their Palm phones of course, to get out and about in the UK this summer. Palm has been pushing the campaign fairly hard, with adverts, this app, a Facebook push, and even a custom web portal. If you check out the portal here, you will see it's all based around the 'Palm Pixi Events Generator', which is basically a big list of events taking place around the UK. The site is nicely designed and pleasing on the eye, with nice Facebook features to fill it out, but how does the app version stack up? Quite nicely, as it goes. First of all, it works on both the Pre and Pixi, in case you were wondering. The main promotion may be for the Pixi but if you have a Pre or Pre Plus, the app works just the same. Upon first boot-up, the app asks you for your Facebook credentials and you will need to give them, as Facebook integration is a major part of the app. When you have done this, you are presented with a list of the events taking place from the current date. You can scroll up and down, all the way until the end of summer, and even scroll back to see events you may have missed. When you click on an event, a screen pops up with a picture of the event, a brief description with location, and a little line that tells you how many people like the event, how many people intend to go see it and a list of comments people have made about it. You also have the option of sharing via email, adding a Facebook 'Like', the ability to RSVP and also to place your own

comment on the event. The only other option is a toggle on the main screen for seeing the events in a month view like WebOS' standard calendar. Speaking of the calendar, whenever you RSVP to say you are attending an event, that event is automatically placed in your phone's built-in calendar; a fantastic use of WebOS' capabilities. So, you may be thinking that it's a pretty simple app, and indeed, service? Well, you would be right, the app is simple, if fast and smooth. The thing that makes the whole thing stand out is the sheer variety of the events used. Yes, many of the standard summer music festivals that happen in the UK are there, but also other, smaller, dare I say it, weirder events that you may never have heard of. Examples? Well, how about the world gravy wrestling championship for an extreme starter? Del Camino, with Latin DJs and live Salsa, The Film4 Frightfest, The Bob Dylan Festival, DaVinci – The Genius, the Eden Projects Summer Survival, the Gorilla Circus, Monty Python's Spamalot in Cardiff, and a whole lot more. As you can see from these few examples I have given, there is a staggering amount of variety on offer, and this is what makes the app, and the service, what it is. The only problem with the app from a technical level is that, when you scroll down and click to view an event, and then go back to the list, instead of taking you back where you were, the app takes you back to your current date which is annoying when you are trying to look at lots of events far down the list. Aside from that little hitch, this is all in all a great app and idea from Palm; I don't see why they don't make this a permanent service for UK WebOS users.
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Brand Advocate, the integrated creative communications agency has bolstered its team with senior hires in client services and creative, following their recent run of international new business successes.

Recent wins include top brands in the airline, DIY, smartphone and estate agency sectors.

The new hires establish a senior level of client service and creative expertise to the three-year-old agency that bring scalability to its offer. The result is reinforced expertise for existing clients while ensuring that new and future ones benefit from the service model and creative talent that they’ve hired the agency to deliver.

Gregor McQuattie has joined Brand Advocate as Client Services Director from DDB London where he was managing the global and multi award-winning Philips account. Working closely with Tribal DDB and the Consumer Lifestyle division, he was responsible for all aspects of both digital and offline campaign delivery from strategic development through to creative execution in local markets. Prior to this, Gregor was with RMG Connect, where he was responsible for the Vodafone business, integrated across all channels including TV, radio, print and digital, as well as managing the global CRM programme for Shell.

Gilles Rollestone joins Brand Advocate as Head of User Experience. A PhD in Interaction Design, Giles brings over 17 years of experience in the conceptual design and development of innovative user-centred digital media experiences. He has worked with agencies such as EMC Consulting, Meta Design, Scient/SBI & Co (now LBi) and Sapient amongst others, as well as with academic interaction design research at the Royal College of Art. Giles has new media awards from I.D. Magazine and the Art Directors Club in New York amongst others for his multi-media projects.

Jocelyn Deborne joins Brand Advocate as senior digital project

manager. Coming directly from JWT, he will be managing and overseeing the Brand Advocate global digital accounts. At JWT, he was responsible for all aspects of managing large-scale integrated brand campaigns for clients such as Shell/Ferrari, MotorSport, HSBC, Johson&Johnson and Kellogg, and developing new digital processes, brand monitoring and reporting services.

Gavin Howell has joined the Brand Advocate creative team as a Creative Designer, bringing with him extensive experience in design and art direction, having worked with major brands such as Nokia, HSBC, Sky, Vodafone, Shell and Rimmel.

Tom Sturman joins Brand Advocate from DLKW where he worked on the Burger King account. Prior to this he worked at Publicis Dialog with clients such as Visa, COI and Zurich Insurance. Tom is also an ex-England gymnast!

“I am very excited about joining Brand Advocate at this stage of their growth,” commented Gregor McQuattie. “They are in a unique position, focusing on measurable ROI and fully integrated creative delivery across a multitude of channels. It is refreshing to be part of a results-oriented team with a continuously growing roster of great global clients. I am looking forward to getting stuck in and moving the agency forward in its growth.”

“This is an exciting time for Brand Advocate, “ said Paul English, Managing Director of Brand Advocate London. “We continue to win fantastic category-leading international clients on the strength of our balance of strategy and creative, along with our focus on delivering work that works, and we have now further strengthened our client service and creative teams in order to keep that momentum going.”

“We have doubled down on our promise to deliver world-class, insight-based, creatively driven work that meets and exceeds our clients’ business and communications goals,” he added.

Hugh Jordan of brand-e-biz has noticed there’s a real symmetry to Brand Advocate London. The UK offshoot of a French independent, it was started by traditional agency men who were looking for something new but without turning their back on the old. They wanted to move from big to small and to reconnect with creative work.

“2008 wasn’t the ideal time to be starting a business,” laughs partner Paul English who alongside creative director Trefor Thomas set up the shop. “And we had a slow couple of months to start with, but in retrospect that time helped us to decide what kind of agency we wanted to be. It was one thing to say ‘We have all the skills’ and quite another to say ‘What makes us different? How are we going to make our mark?’”.

“The first thing we said was that senior talent should be put on client work,” said English. “It sounds simple but, at big agencies, the senior team is there at the beginning, making all kinds of promises to the client and then won’t be seen again until it’s all falling apart. Secondly, there is far more qualitative accountability in marketing departments today in terms of results… we are happy to enter into performance-based models. The third thing is what we call ‘reinventing the art and science of traditional marketing.’”

And what does this rather grand phrase actually mean? English explains:

“Our focus has always been on getting clients who are trying to build something, or to reposition themselves,” says English. “We’re not interested in conquering the world, or making vast amounts of revenue. We’re interested in attracting the right clients and keeping them for life.”




“As an agency, we have embraced digital and new media, but that doesn’t mean we should immediately forget about all the stuff that has been successful up until now. CRM, brand storytelling, direct response – these are all really important things.”

You can see how this approach pans out in Brand Advocate’s portfolio of clients. Luxury brands like Montblanc and Sarment sit comfortably alongside more mainstream companies like Palm and Star Alliance.

According to English, huge and complex marketing schemes were assiduously avoided from the outset. Instead, ideas are trialled, then measured and finally backed if they prove to work.

When a leading ISP publishes its own style guide, it’s a signal that if you want to achieve maximum impact online, copy is as important as design. Anna Richardson talks to digital specialists who appreciate the power of the written word.

Writing content for the web is a very different beast from writing for print. Online audiences expect more information, in less time and in less space, and their attention spans are much shorter. And, as the internet has become more complex and sophisticated, the importance of writing for online has grown.

Yahoo! has just published its first style guide (“the ultimate sourcebook for writing, editing and creating content for the digital world”) – a clear reflection of copywriting’s rising status in the online realm.

“Elevating content creation to the level of craft benefits everyone on the web, and clear communication and high editorial standards are important, no matter where or why you write,” writes Srinija Srinivasan, Yahoo! editor-in-chief.

“Writing good, targeted copy is a real skill and also quite time-consuming,” says Budd. “Many websites have hundreds, if not thousands, of pages, and all of those need to be reviewed.”

When budgets are tight, writing is one of the first elements to be brought in-house, agrees Jon Melville, content analyst at Civic. “There is little recognition of the fact that writing for the web

requires not only an understanding of different audiences, but of usability, search engine optimisation and decent grammar.” Without quality content, the design becomes irrelevant, he adds.

When writing in the digital landscape “the trick is to frontload your information so it’s immediately clear what you’re talking about,” says Robin England, senior writer at Brand Advocate. “People scan-read online, searching for key words and phrases that leap out and attract their attention.” Another way to engage the reader is by speaking to them in their own language – here, tone of voice is key. There are typically many different types of users for any website, and designers have to think about all their content needs.

“In print, it was all about the publisher having a tone of voice and talking at the reader. Now on the web, there are different tones and different voices, often in one place,” says Greg Hatfield, director of strategic projects at digital design consultancy Cogapp. “You also have to have an authentic voice. You cannot fool an interactive and engaged audience.”

While tone of voice is essential in attracting and retaining visitors, paying attention to a site’s micro copy is also vital. “The way you word something can have a massive effect on conversion rates, “ explains Budd. “It can be a matter of just changing a few words.”