Go Big or Go Home!!

It is quite easy to maintain a decent ranking with SEO. People put in some effort for a short period of time get some results then stop. But what if you went above and beyond? You pushed the boundaries and went further than just creating a Blog. “Big Content” as it’s called takes time and effort but you can reap the rewards at the end because the people who have gone for the easy and safe option may have a constant measure of traffic heading to their site, but it won’t really drive sales.

Google's new algorithms Panda and Penguin are providing us with great opportunities to rank higher through creating great content that people love and share. Yes you still need to do the standard on page SEO and yes back links will still be part of your strategy, however brilliant content is what Google and your prospective customers want to see.

Big content doesn't sound easy. If it was everyone would do it. Singling yourself out from the rest of the boring, steady traditional SEO techniques will stand you head and shoulders above the competition.

Like general content; big content increases traffic but big content can provide more loyalty because people will come back to visit the site. Eskimosoup Web Design in Hull work with a number of clients providing this type of big content - exciting content that is shared throughout the Internet. With time and effort put into your big content it makes it unique to anything else on the web.  It creates a widening gap between you and your competition. If you set a high bar for your SEO then it is much tougher for you competitors to jump over.

Big content means big ideas, general content just depends how much of the same message you distribute across the web. Big content is the quality of the content as well and it is not as expensive as it seems. You have to put more thought, creativity and effort in but that will not always increase the costs you pay.

In most cases there is a risk of failure. With marketing we try something, we test it and we make a decision on how to improve it for next time.

Pushing yourself will bring benefits you do not want to be going through the motions. Putting yourself one step ahead of SEO trends will improve your position and minimise the amount of fierce competition you will have. The interest from users will be much more regular and demanding with big content. Eskimosoup Graphic Designers In Hull  are the people you can trust in  terms in SEO.

Visual Social Marketing: Heading In The Right Direction

Smaller, local businesses still need to continue with their traitional SEO and done Marketing, but also include work with social media, local SEO and Pinterest. To target small businesses; using this new mix of marketing will help local businesses find suitable targets.

The rise of Visual Social Media

The Internet is still growing at an incredible pace and to keep up with modern marketing techniques  local businesses should consider visual social marketing from social media. Applications like Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram is now the next high priority in online marketing. More and more we are seeing purchase decisions that have been influenced by online referrals, that is people like you and me who have rated or made comments on the product and service, rather than big spend messages from corporate , branded marketing messages.

Clearly companies want to ‘hang-out’ were their target market is, so for example if you are targeting women, then Pinterest is the place to be with 79% of the total usage is by women. 

Phones dominating the market

Mobile phones are key to marketing. Most people have their phones with them or within reach every day and most text messages are read within a couple of minutes of receiving it. Businesses need to have a “responsive” web design that helps websites work equally well on every platform and device such as PC’s, laptops, tablets and smart phones. A responsive web design from Eskimosoup Graphic Design in Hull uses media queries to figure out what device it is being displayed on and thus the images and content will adjust to fit the format it is on, for example if you decrease the size of your browser window, the images and text will not stay the same size, the layout will shrink which still allows the content to be seen.

To Compete in the future

For small businesses to compete in the future there are a few key things they need to do:

1: If you haven’t already started using Pinterest get going otherwise you will be playing catch up and that’s something small businesses can not afford to do.

2: Businesses need to experiment with social media and see what works and what doesn’t for their company

3: If people can relate to you and your brand they are more likely to use your company.

4: Visual Media is so important: We have so little time these days to read huge amounts of text, most of don't even want to. We want information quick and it has to be easily absorbed. It makes sense that marketing efforts should be moved in to a visual medium as so many us can process visual information so much quicker than pages of text. It is evident that video is already being ranked more highly in search results and can often be seen ranking higher than text results. With videos comes great brand awareness and a sense of trust with potential clients. By creating a 2 minute clip using an HD camera or webcam companies can produce excellent online video content. Eskimosoup SEO Hull can be a great help to your company in terms of SEO marketing your content.

Our blog has moved!

Hi there - just in case you wondered why activity on Souper News has dramatically halted, fear not we are are busy as ever and now hosting our new on our main website - please do check it out. Thanks!

Souper celebrations!

Souper Friday is live just in time for a lovely long Diamond Jubilee weekend!

This edition looks at a "farm to fork" philosophy, advice on how giving back is the new way forward, a sneaky peek at our new look website, and a competition to win something very sweet indeed.

Read Souper Friday here and please do share with anyone who enjoys all things awesome. If you'd like it sent direct to your inbox from now on, simply email Account Manager Rich Sutherland.

Now we'd like to wish you a souper weekend and a right royal Diamond Jubilee celebration. And if you're in the Cottingham area, perhaps we'll see you at the eskimosoup stage at the Springboard Festival - we'll be the ones singing along and pretending we know all the words. ;-)

See you again soon!

Click to enlarge

A shared journey

We at eskimosoup offer top-notch marketing solutions, design, websites, events, copywriting and business strategies, but we still learn things along the way thanks to the projects we manage and the clients we work with. Time to Change Hull is an excellent example. 


Communicating the message that 1 in 4 of us will experience mental health problems in our lifetimes, this NHS Hull campaign encourages people to know the facts, to support their friends, family and coworkers, and perhaps most importantly, to talk about the subject openly and free of social taboo.


We're currently having videos produced that look at mental health in different ways. One that's available to watch now is an interview with Pete Haslam, a local writer and radio presenter, who shares his experiences of mental health problems and explains the actions he's taken in order to still enjoy his life. Meanwhile, 'The Pub Chat' has a humorous script written by eskimosoup's Rich Sutherland, which sees two everyday Hull blokes demonstrating how a simple conversation can achieve more than you may think.


We want to get as many views as possible in order to spread this valuable message, so please do view, like, share, post and/or tweet if you get a spare few minutes.


Once you've done that, perhaps you could also take a moment to think about whether someone you know might benefit from a chat over a coffee or a pint. Even a phone call, email or text message can make a huge difference to a person's life, it's being there for them that matters.


Let's end mental health discrimination together.

Très sophistiquè - A Brand Spotlight by Craig Cawkwell

Stella Artois has a rich advertising history, having produced some of the most memorable campaigns in recent years. However, negative connotations with the brand in 2007 led to a complete reform in communications targeted towards UK consumers. The turnaround was impressive and has resulted in a brand image that can only be described as ‘très sophistiquè’ (my attempt at French).

From 1982-2007, all Stella Artois communications within the UK centred on the slogan ‘Reassuringly Expensive’ – a campaign produced by Frank Lowe. This in itself was an extremely bold and clever campaign, choosing to turn a substantial negative (a higher price due to the greater duty on high-alcohol beverages in the UK) into a positive, by assuring customers that the higher price represented greater ‘quality’ than cheaper alternatives.

Early communications were primarily print ads, but in 1990 a chance viewing of Jean de Florette (a French historical drama) led one of Lowe's creative directors to pen a script based on a similar concept. The resulting television and cinema advertisement, Jacques de Florette, proved immensely popular and formed the basis for a series of award-winning adverts produced between 1991 and 2001, including Good Samaritan, Last Orders and Returning Hero.  These ads were extremely popular due to their successful fusion of humour and beautifully shot imagery and remain extremely influential today.

Despite the long running success of the ‘Reassuringly Expensive’ campaign, Stella Artois’ image started to drastically change in the eyes of British consumers. Due to its higher alcohol content, Stella Artois developed a reputation for making its drinkers aggressive. This, coupled with the brand’s popularity amongst football hooligans and binge-drinkers, meant that violence soon became associated with the brand, eventually earning Stella Artois the unwanted nickname of ‘Wife-Beater’. This was of course extremely detrimental to the brand and highlighted the necessity for Stella Artois to produce a campaign which would remove these negative associations.

The brand’s initial response was to drop the word ‘Stella’ (the UK’s adopted slang term for the lager) from its communications and remove the slogan ‘Reassuringly Expensive’. In 2008 the brand then chose to release a campaign aimed at informing customers that only four ingredients were used to make the lager. However, this did fairly little to remove the negative stereotype associated with the product.

As a result, the ‘She is a thing of beauty’ campaign was produced, which helped reposition the brand as cool, elegant, and sophisticated – a far cry from anything associated with angry drinkers and wife-beating. The first set of TV ads focused on the Stella Artois chalice, something which now personifies the brand ethos. Throughout the campaign, the importance of preparation was highlighted, with the nine-step pouring ritual being likened to a beautiful woman getting ready before an evening out.

As new products were launched within the Stella brand, a similarly elegant, sophisticated styled advertising strategy was used, helping to sustain this new found ‘chic’ personality. This is demonstrated no more so than in the ads for Stella Artois 4% which have firmly established the brand as being too-cool-for-school. These ads all generally follow the same story – everyday guy (although he is always ruggedly handsome) is ‘filtered’ three times, each time becoming more suave, debonair and cool. However, it is the way in which these ads are created which has made them irresistible to the audience. The sixties aesthetic provides the visually stunning, ultra-sophisticated theme (which works extremely well both on TV / Cinema spots and Outdoor) whilst the lavish locations and excessively attractive leads serve to keep the audience interested. Finally, this is topped off by the sexy French voiceover which delivers the metaphoric tagline ‘Triple Filtered with a Smooth Outcome’.

More recent Stella Artois products have also adopted the overarching brand’s smooth and sophisticated personality. Firstly, the campaign for Stella Artois Cidre once again utilised a sixties feel, this time presenting the ultra cool Le Président cheekily explaining to British consumers that it is not Cider, it is Cidre. These ads are again extremely strong visually, carrying forward the now well established tradition of Stella Artois communications.

Another of the brand’s new products, Stella Artois Black, has taken the idea of strong visuals one step further by staging a number of live role-play events, the latest being ‘Black Diamond’ – a live version of a classic film noir movie set in sixties Paris, engaging attendees by making them part of the story

It can be safely assumed that despite very few negative stereotypes ever fully disappearing, the recent campaigns by Stella Artois have proved how influential well-thought out communications can be in altering public opinion.

Now that’s a smooth outcome!

Opportunities to work with eskimosoup

eskimosoup are recruiting to help us deliver on a range of exciting marketing campaigns. Specifically, we are looking to appoint for the following positions:

Social Media Marketer A charismatic communicator with a keen interest in social media and marketing. Flexible working hours. Pay rate dependent upon experience and ability.

Events Team Leader An enthusiastic customer facing team player capable of working independently, making decisions and managing a small team of colleagues. Flexible working hours. Pay rate dependent upon experience and ability.

Direct Marketing Coordinator A well organised and driven candidate with the strong written and verbal communications skills required to develop and deliver marketing campaign work. Flexible working hours. Pay rate dependent upon experience and ability.

To express your interest in these roles, please email John Gilbert and provide a summary of why you feel you would be an awesome addition to the eskimosoup team by 12pm on Friday 18th May.

We hope to hear from you :-)