16
Aug

UNION APPOINTED TO THREE SCOTTISH GOVERNMENT MARKETING FRAMEWORKS

The Union has been successful in gaining a place on three of the new Scottish Government marketing frameworks, also referred to as the ‘marketing rosters’. The rosters are tendered every four or five years; although this latest framework was delayed a year due to the pandemic. Agencies on the frameworks gain the right to tender for Scottish public sector marketing contracts, but are no guarantee of work. The Union has been appointed to three lots; 1) Creative Services above £50K, 2) Creative Services below £50K, and 3) Digital Marketing Services. Each framework is limited to five or six agencies.

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30
May

‘LOVE ME!’ WAIL THE FRANKENSTEIN MONSTERS OF INTEGRATED DIGITAL CAMPAIGNS

Flirting with pretension, some marketers describe themselves as storytellers.  Advertisers, professional influencers, PR pros, videographers and SEOs have all said it.  It’s a lofty claim, but is it accurate?  Advertising campaigns must be fantastically creative and compelling but also commercial.  Our work, art, science and efforts push towards a goal, or we must look again at the brief and bill. So, we’re no Mary Shelley, and we’re not publishing anonymously just to get the story told.  After the optimistically hoped TV campaign budget failed to materialise, Shelly never grudgingly made a 15-second social media cut of a novel, and I doubt Shelly thought much about distribution and media channels. But we do make Frankenstein monsters.  Often, that’s tragic, but it does not need to be that way; later on, I’ll quickly discuss some artificial people who found love.

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25
Sep

WHY UX IS A VITAL ELEMENT OF SEO

Generally, when most people hear the term ‘SEO’ in passing, they regularly assume there are either a load of hidden technical tricks into turning Google into your best friend, or that it is a skill far too complicated to pick up. However, frequently when I speak to clients about the basic rules of thumb to keep your website in a strong position to rank well, they all share a similar response of “it’s not that complicated”. It really isn’t that complicated. When you boil it down to the main cogs that turn the wheels to help you rank better over time, it simply becomes common sense and gives you another couple of checkboxes to tick when you’re working on your own business.

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7
Jul

WHAT GOOGLE’S BERT UPDATE MEANS FOR DIGITAL MARKETERS

If you’re a bit of a Google geek you may have stumbled across the term ‘BERT’ being mentioned online since October 2019 in various articles and forums. However, as is often the case with Google algorithm updates, though the basic principles are usually well understood, often digital marketers fail to work out how to respond to make sure their own websites are up to speed whilst taking advantage of the opportunities they present. [Consultant Chris Ayliffe from Arctic Meta writes for Union Digital.]

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