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2009 draws to a close with trio of account wins
Piranha advertising and marketing, the regions leading full service communications agency, finished off an impressive 2009 with a further 3 major account gains.
Piranha, who were established in 2001, provide a one source solution to clients marketing requirements delivering cutting edged new media, marketing, creative and strategic solutions to businesses across the UK and Europe.
Usually December can be a quieter month for new business as clients focus on looming end of year deadlines and usually Piranha are working to capacity delivering 4 weeks of marketing work in a 3 week month, however 2009 saw this work load increased with the studio producing 3 campaign pitches, all or which were confirmed as client wins before the 24th December holiday break started.
The first client to Join Piranha was a Warrington Based provider of hair care products looking to expand their national market share of sales to hair and beauty salons. Piranha has been commissioned to provide a complete marketing solution which will include corporate branding, corporate literature, sales literature, newsletters, direct mail, PR, a new website, e-mail marketing, Search Engine Optimisation, adwords management, promotional video production and a wide selection of corporate promotional items.
The second mayor client gain was the UK’s leading manufacturer of specialist NHS steam cleaning equipment. Piranhas brief is to increase sales to key industrial markets including the NHS, cleaning contractors, retail and priority. It is envisaged that piranha will unleash the full range of marketing tactics to achieve these goals.
The final client win is a more modest client called The Boat 17th Century Riverside Inn and Restaurant. This campaign was a quick turnaround project and has initially started with a new corporate identity, new menus, sales leaflets and a new website which went live within 2 weeks and can be viewed by visiting www.boat-erbistock.com
Green Shoots lead to recruitment drive at Piranha
Piranha, one of Lancashire’s leading full service creative, internet and marketing agencies based in Preston has just announced it is to embark on a recruitment drive for the first time in almost 12 months as the company sees confidence returning to many sectors of the market.
Piranha is looking to fill a number of positions before the end of the year including the recruitment of a Search Engine Optimisation Manager, SEO Executives, Website Designers and New Business Development Executives. All the jobs will be advertised in the local press, national trade publications and can also be viewed by visiting the careers section.
Although growth last year at Piranha grew at 32% and this year’s profits look to be exceeding last years, confidence in growing the company in terms of personnel was fragile due to media coverage of the downturn and the pending gloom. However, following a great deal of positive feedback from clients over the last few months on the state of their industries, Piranha has decided to act first in preparing to take advantage of the growth in expenditure on marketing the company expects see in the run up to Christmas.
Some of the markets that Piranha has seen growth in include sectors that nationally have seen a huge downturn such as the automotive industry. One client of Piranhas’ that provides CV and Steering Rack Boots for cars has seen growth grow by 16% in the last year, another that provides industrial and commercial lighting is inundated with commercial contracts on an unprecedented scale.
Since March, Piranha has added a total of 11 new clients to its client list with agreed annual consultancy fees of over £91,000. This bedrock of business gains combined with client optimisation and strong financial results has been the catalyst behind the growth plans.
Paul Airey Account Direct said "In November 2008 we were on the verge of expanding the company but the constant bad media coverage convinced us that it was a bad move. After a short period of time, in reality only March and April, in which clients slowed their expenditure, we have noticed an upturn in activity to a level where we are back up to pre autumn 2008 and recruitment is becoming a real issue for us now".
Piranha provides a full marketing service covering traditional and new media and has been established since 2001 working with many household name clients including the Chamber of Commerce, Lancashire County Council and Golden Wonder to name but a few.
Bing ads "Visual Search"
Software giant Microsoft has introduced "visual search" to its Bing search engine to try to further set itself apart from market leader Google.
The new feature will allow users to browse results using pictures instead of text.
Visual search will initially concentrate on four main areas: travel, health, leisure and shopping.
"The whole concept is that the world of search is going to change," said Microsoft's Yusuf Mehdi.
"There will be a more graphic way people will search, and it will pivot how people search," said Mr Mehdi, the firm's senior vice-president of online services.
'Search battle'
Microsoft unveiled the beta, or test version of the feature, at TechCrunch 50, a conference being held in San Francisco for start-ups to pitch their ideas to investors. "Competition breeds innovation and this nice little battle between Google and Microsoft is having a huge benefit to consumers," said investor Ron Conway, who has previously put money into Google, PayPal and AskJeeves.
Microsoft launched Bing in May and promoted it as an improvement over Google's "10 blue links" for tasks like shopping and travel.
New figures by net analysts Nielsen showed that Microsoft's share of US searches rose to 10.7% in August while Google remained dominant with 64.6%. Yahoo, in second place, was used for 16% of searches.
In late July, Microsoft and Yahoo signed an agreement to work together to better take on Google. It still has to pass anti-trust scrutiny.
At the launch, Microsoft claimed Visual Search allowed users to conduct certain searches faster than the "traditional image search" offered by rival Google and other search engines.
In a blog post, the company said a study it conducted found that consumers could process results with images 20% faster than text-only results.
"It's like searching through a large online catalogue," Microsoft said.
As users enter search terms, a link at the top of the first page of results allows users to "visualise" what Bing has found. Clicking on the link displays a gallery of related images.
'Money maker'
At the moment only a small number of topics will return a visual display. These centre on popular categories like entertainment, famous people, shopping and sports.
Google gives users control of results
Google has launched another search engine application in America which gives users control over the results.
Whether you're curious or bored, looking yourself up online is one way to discover exactly how much other people can find out about you.
The results can be surprising, but also a little depressing if you find yourself clicking through several pages without as much as a mention.
But that could be about to change.
Google, the world's most popular search engine, is giving people in the US the power to control some of the results given when someone searches their name.
The company has started showing Google 'profiles' at the bottom of the page on name based searches.
It's announced on its official blog that it wanted to improve searches and give users "more of a voice".
Anyone can create a profile with information about themselves, including links to MySpace, Facebook and other social networking sites.
Google software engineer Brian Stoler wrote: "In just a few minutes, you can create a public profile that represents you, and that appears when people search for your name on Google."
A Google profile can contain any information a user chooses to share, including links and pictures.
Currently the facility is only available to users in the US.
Piranha "bucks" economic trend with impressive growth figures
Piranha, one of Lancashire’s leading full service creative, internet and marketing agencies based in Preston has just announced a leap in turnover for the year ending in 2008 which goes against the current economic doom and gloom.
Piranha comprises of two separate limited companies, Piranha Advertising and Marketing Solutions and Piranha Internet and between them growth has grown 32% from £747,349 in 2007 to £988.238 in year ending 2008. Piranha advertising and marketing was established in 2001 and Piranha internet was launched in 2002.
The biggest growth has come in the division dealing with new media, web development, search engine optimisation and on-line marketing where turnover has almost doubled in the last two years to £224,000. Early indications show that the growth in new media business has accelerated during the first two months of 2009.
Much of the growth has come as a result of a number of large industrial client wins at the beginning of 2007 including Crane Valves, a world leader in the manufacture of HVAC and Industrial Valves and CE Services one of Cheshire’s leading IT support companies.
Piranha has grown steadily every year since 2001 and in 2003 won the North & Western Lancashire Chamber of Commerce Outstanding New Business award.
Director Don Fryer said "These are undoubtedly challenging times and we have noticed a squeeze on margins and new business opportunities but our strategy of focussing on quality and providing a one stop all encompassing marketing support service has paid dividends. We have an excellent client retention rate and most of our new business is coming via recommendations which is testament to the quality and value we provide".
March 2009
Piranha at Ecobuild Exhibition 2009
Piranha advertising and Marketing has just completed the design of a major exhibition for one of its sustainable energy clients at Ecobuild 2009. The client who markets a range of air source, ground source and geothermal heat pumps was exhibiting at the exhibition for the very first time.
Having outgrown the original venue, Ecobuild moved – along with its sister event, Futurebuild – to London’s Earls Court in 2006 where it has more than doubled in size and attendance every year since. Over 500 exhibitors and nearly 26,000 visitors took part in 2008, making Ecobuild the biggest event dedicated to sustainable design, construction and the built environment in the world.
In additional to designing and managing the exhibition event, Piranha also designed and produced a selection of brochures targeting the residential heat pump market and the commercial heat pump market supported by a dedicated heat pump website.
Brochures were also developed that could be digitally printed with partners details on them so heating and plumbing contractors could use the brochures for their own promotional use to target trade and consumer customers. Each partner was also provided with an own brand heat pump website to assist with their promotion.
An e-mail campaign was used alongside direct mail to create awareness of the presence at the exhibition and to promote the partner installer scheme.
In total, over 1,000 sales contacts were generated at the exhibition for the heat pump company providing a fantastic return on investment.
Piranha lands NO-GO security account
Piranha has landed the account to bring to market a range of window security devices for NO-GO security products.
The contract will consist of marketing consultancy work, website development, direct mail, trade advertising, Search Engine Optimisation and e-mail marketing. NO-GO currently have their own brand which will be used throughout the branding exercises.
The first product that Piranha will be assisting in bringing to market is the NO-GO Glass lock. The No-Go Glass Lock is a security device easily fitted to the glass panes of a double glazed unit that prevents unauthorised removal from the outside, but still allows removal of the glass unit when needed. Fully adjustable to fit any frame profile, the NO –GO Glass lock is designed to make every house secure from entry through a closed double glazed window.
The strategy will be to promote the product directly to end users and to make the product available to households via an e-commerce website. In addition, a parallel campaign will be taking place to recruit a network of approved installers who will retro fit the products to existing externally beaded windows. These will be both glazing companies and security companies. Piranha will also be working with NO-GO to establish a network of wholesale, retail and online distributors.
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