This month, though, there’s only one campaign worth mentioning and that’s that of the Cadbury UK team. As official treat provider to the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, they’ve been gearing up for the events in impressive style.

The Goo Games campaign actually launched on January 6th, will run until April according to Marketing Week and features TV ads, PR, sales promotion and digital events. It’s the latter we’re interested in, of course.

At 11am on Saturday 28th January, utilising YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Google+, Cadbury UK launched the Cadbury Creme Egg Goo Games to promote their goo-filled chocolate eggs.

Featuring an opening ceremony, a host of events that will take place at the Olympics, some impressive video and photography and a whole slew of prizes for you to win by participating, the event was as wide ranging as it was engaging.

The #GooGames Opening Ceremony video was published on Cadbury’s “Creme Egg GooTube” channel and promoted on Twitter using the hash tag. Yes, there was a LOT of wordplay involved too. Here it is in all its glory.

Even before that, anticipation was built by having ‘celebrity’ Creme Eggs arrive for the premier of the #GooGames – like this:

Cel-egg-rities arrive for the opening ceremony

With the Opening Ceremony out of the way, the main events got going, split across the various social media platforms to try to maximise engagement. The hurdles were featured exclusively on Cadbury UK’s Facebook page (and shared across to the Creme Egg page too), while the javelin and cycling events were shared on Google+. Twitter, meanwhile, provided a running commentary and the opportunity to join in with the egg-related word play and win prizes for retweeting.

Videos of the vents were posted YouTube (or GooTube if you prefer) and shared on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ where appropriate, with ‘photographs’ of the events featuring heavily on Google+ in particular. Here’s an album of some of the best:

The #GooGames Velodrome fills up for the cycling.

The #GooGames Cycling is underway...and the pressure begins to tell...

Hurdles competitors line up for the off...

...but there's disaster at the second hurdle as several come to a sticky end!

That was bad, but it's genuine tragedy at the #GooGames javelin event!

As all-encompassing campaigns go, this was one of the most ambitious and well thought out efforts I’ve ever seen. To take in the number of social media channels it did was no doubt quite a challenge for the Cadbury social team and Social Media Manager Jerry Daykin, who was kind enough to reply to me when I praised CadburyUK for their Google+ work recently.

As with anything though, it’s about results. So how did the #GooGames campaign go over this particular weekend? It’s quite hard to tell not having access to Cadbury’s analytics but we can get a rough idea from the amount of public engagement there has been since the build up began on Friday 27th January to Monday 30th January.

The Cadbury UK Facebook page has 79,676 Likes at the time of writing. Posts relating to the #GooGames got a total of 206 acts of engagement in the form of Likes, shares and comments. Not bad. Not great, but not bad.

The Cadbury Creme Egg page has a remarkable 2,111,834 Likes. A total of 745 acts of engagement were gained on #GooGames-related posts. Not good. But if you consider each Facebook user has an average of 130 friends then the reach was potentially great.

How many people interacted with the weekend’s event on Facebook was low, but only Cadbury will know how many views it got – I suspect that was incredibly high.
On Google+, where the Cadbury UK page is in 138,074 people’s Circles, engagement was much better. In fact, just a week earlier they had only hit the 50,000 Circles mark. The #GooGames and the build up to it through the week seems to have more than doubled that figure so right there you can say it was a success.

Between Friday and Monday #GooGames related content garnered 748 interactions via +1’s (426), shares (103) and comments (219). For Cadbury on Google+, the #GooGames was a hit, no question.

On Twitter, which played very much a supporting role anyway, it’s much harder to judge the success of the campaign. A check on hashtracking.com shows 122 tweets generated 205,986 impressions, reaching an audience of 57,623 followers within the past 24 hours (report generated at 14.07, Mon 30th Jan).

Given this is very much after the event and @CadburyUK has just over 12,000 followers it’s probably safe to say those numbers were much, MUCH higher for Saturday.

Cadbury were utilising the ever popular ‘retweet to win’ tactic with this:

@CadburyUK: Retweet the #GooGames Opening Ceremony for a chance to win a box of 48 Creme Eggs – it’s Goo-d to share!

It’s still being retweeted now…so imagine how much it was retweeted on the day in question.

Conclusion

Cadbury’s Goo Games campaign is a long running bid to market their Creme Eggs as part of their overall Olympics partnership. This particular use of social media marketing does really need to be viewed as part of the overall campaign, but from a pure social media standpoint it was fantastic.

By far the most successful platforms were Google+ and Twitter in terms of engagement, but the brand awareness it must have generated across all platforms, especially their Creme Egg Facebook page with its two million plus fans, cannot be ignored.

More importantly, the whole thing was great fun and can only have left feelings of positive sentiment with those who viewed it. Sure, I’d like to take a very close look at their Facebook Insights, Twitter stats and more to get a better idea of the actual numbers but, frankly, I loved it.

Rachel originally went to college to do a hairdressing apprenticeship but decided it wasn’t for her, and after working in retail for a few months she gained an apprenticeship with Salford City Council to work with us! And boy are we glad she did, here’s a few of the questions we asked… And all of the answers are serious.

Rachel, you’re often quoted as being in the area. What does this mean and how does one become it? Asked by James (@_Chappers_).

Well, you have to be Manchester born and bred and a bit of a chav – but an awesome chav. There’s no precise definition of ‘the area’. You’re either in it, or you’re not.

Who invented the iPad? Asked by Scott (@splurj).

First answer: Fairies in an iPad workshop.
Second answer: Mr Apple Man?

What is your favourite Fluid website? Asked by Martin (@martindownton)
Lucile and Fighters Only.

Nando’s or Gabbot’s? Asked by Sarah (@LadySarahOz)
Gabbot’s because it’s cheap. Nando’s if Lee’s paying.

What did you make for your #freefoodtuesday? Asked by Nicola (@nicolafred)
Mini Battenberg cakes and rocky road cakes.

What pipe does soup go down? Asked by Nicola.
If it’s chunky homemade soup then it’s the food pipe, and if it’s a thinner soup then the drink pipe.

How do you keep yourself sane at work? Asked by Martin.
I hum and sing in my head. This morning I was singing the ‘we buy any car’ song.

A big well done to Rachel from all of the team at Fluid, and also to Mike who came second! Rachel’s now finished her apprenticeship and has been working with us full-time for over a year.

Mobile commerce (mCommerce) is on the up, there’s no question about it. 2011 was even touted as the year of mCommerce…and so it proved to be.

We took a sample of our ecommerce clients from a number of industries (food and drink, fashion, wedding accessories and personalised gifts) and looked at their mCommerce performance in 2011 against 2010. The results are incredible.

• Visits to websites from mobile devices grew by an average of 236%
• Revenue from mobile devices grew by an average of 228%
• One client saw a 650% increase in visits from mobile in 2011
• One client enjoyed a 219.5% increase in revenue from mobile in 2011

We then looked at mCommerce performance over the last 30 days in relation to overall traffic and revenue. Again, the numbers are impressive and indicate a growing trend in mobile purchasing.

• The same clients saw an average of 23% of their visits come from mobile devices
• They saw an average of 21.2% of revenue come from mCommerce
• In two cases a 1/4 of all revenue came from mobile devices

No business can afford to ignore a revenue stream that accounts for one fifth or more of overall revenue. The question is, how do you take maximise it, grow it?

First, you need to know where it’s coming from. We looked at the various devices being used to visit our clients’ sites and make purchases and discovered this:

• On average 83.8% of mobile visits came from an iOS device – iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch
• 89% of all mobile revenue came from an iOS device
• Generally the iPhone accounted for twice as much traffic as the iPad, with the iPod Touch a distant third
• Conversion rates were significantly higher on the iPad than the iPhone or Touch – presumably due to the bigger screen and therefore ‘easier’ experience

It’s clear that if a business is to maximise their revenue from mCommerce then iOS is the one to target – in spite of the fact that Android dominates global market share for smartphone OS with 52.5% compared to iOS’ 15%. For whatever reason, consumers find it far, far easier to buy on an iOS device than an Android, Windows Phone or other device.

A mobile optimised site is one way to go (none of the clients in our sample have one, by the way, which makes the results that much more impressive) but it is surely worth considering developing an iPhone and/or iPad app to create an enjoyable, memorable and, most importantly, simple way to purchase via mobile.

And as an app can be developed over time more and more functionality can be added at a relatively low cost, ensuring your business never falls behind the times – something that is commonplace with websites, especially on mobile devices.

That’s not to say you should ignore the growing Android app market, not when it does dominate the smartphone OS space, but right now the statistics clearly show that you are going to get the most benefit developing for iOS and providing those users with a seamless, enjoyable shopping experience.

We’re already talking with our clients about iPhone and iPad apps for their businesses. If you’d like to talk to us too, get in touch.

Required Skills

• Strong experience creating interactive web applications and interfaces using HTML5 and appropriate technologies including CSS3, Canvas, Offline Storage, SVG, Audio/Video media

• Strong experience working with MooTools, jQuery and/or other JavaScript libraries including AJAX.

• Strong working knowledge of Photoshop; able to slice up concepts provided by the creative team in PSD format.

• Experience in developing accessible solutions.

• In depth knowledge of creating maintainable, scalable and cross-browser layouts supporting all major browsers (IE6-9, Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Opera).

• Ability to work in a team environment, you will be required to work well with the existing development / creative teams.

• Familiar with source control principles and comfortable with Subversion.

Experience

We’re looking for somebody who has at least 3+ years of experience within the industry with at least some of it working in an agency environment. We will require example work that showcases your skills with HTML5/Canvas.

Fluid are always open to new ideas, new people, new talents and new concepts, so if you’ve got ideas and want a job where you can have a real impact, you’ve come to the right place.

To apply please send a covering letter and CV detailing experience and sample code/websites that demonstrate your skill set to careers@fluidcreativity.co.uk.

Strictly NO agencies

Fluid Creativity do not accept speculative CVs from recruitment agencies

Web development applicants MUST be eligible to live and work in the UK and may be required to attend an interview based in Manchester, UK.

That opinion has improved further now that they have launched a Google Analytics Configuration Tool at www.gaconfig.com.

Basic set up and installation of a new Google Analytics (GA) account for a website is simple enough, certainly for any SEO worth his or her salt, and it is sufficient for tracking the most basic visitor. GA, though, is capable of far more than that. Most webmasters are either unaware of this or don’t have the knowledge to take advantage. That’s where GA Config comes in.

The brainchild of Raven’s Taylor Pratt, GA Config assists with initial set up for single or multiple domains, Site Search tracking, 404 tracking and, perhaps most impressively, tracking KPIs and Goals, which is where most non-GA savvy people struggle.

Raven are offering this tool up for free, presumably with the aim of signing more people up to Raven Tools, and created it because, as Pratt explains in his blog post:

I dreamed up GA Config because I found there were two topics I constantly needed help with: Setting up my Google Analytics account and Setting up goals and KPIs. With the wrong code, you can miss important data that would have helped you make decisions for better conversions or sales online. That’s what makes GAConfig.com so valuable. It simplifies what can be very confusing for marketers who want useful data but don’t want to spend every day with their analytics.

So true. So how does GA Config work?

Right at the start all you need is your GA account number. Enter that into the GA Config, complete the following fields and grab your code. Install that where instructed and you’re done. The set up of the likes of KPIs, goals and Facebook tracking are a little more involved but far easier than trying to do it in GA itself.

Take a look at this example, where we set up a contact form (from the Event Tracking section):

It really is as simple as that. Fill in a few fields, grab the code, install it where instructed and then follow the easy steps for when you do have to go into GA. It’s the same for any other kind of event or goal tracking you want to do, and there are many options.

Once you’re set up you will have to teach yourself how to get around GA and find the data you’ve just started tracking, but that’s a lesson any webmaster, SEO or marketer should take anyway.

Considering this is a free tool it really is comprehensive and should be in the armoury of everyone involved in tracking website traffic, even experienced and knowledgable SEOs, even if they use it as ‘just’ a time saver.

KLM Meet & Seat

Dutch airline KLM will soon be introducing its Meet & Seat app on Facebook – it will allow passengers who have opted in to choose who they sit next to based on their social media profiles. I’m guessing the majority of us have had a bad experience sitting next to someone we’d rather not – my most prominent was when I sat next to a nervous flyer who shouted, ‘WE’RE GOING TO DIE, WE’RE GOING TO DIE!’ every time there was a bit of turbulence. Although the journey was ever-so-slightly disturbing, it still wouldn’t be enough to push me to use KLM’s Meet & Seat service – to me, it seems a bit too set up, and if you end up disliking the person, there’s no escape. I’ve had some brilliant conversations with interesting people on flights, but I also like the time to sit back, read and relax – the idea of being forced to talk to someone doesn’t appeal to me. The campaign has a lot of potential though, and I think the number of people in the mile-high club would increase significantly.

KLM isn’t the first airline to embrace social media, Malaysia and Delta Airlines both have Facebook apps that allow users to purchase tickets, check in, view seating plans and share their itineraries with friends. Virgin America is using Foursquare to promote brand loyalty by asking fans to check-in and post geo-located photos in return for loyalty points. People naturally post holiday photos and check-in at exotic destinations so this is a brilliant idea to build brand loyalty and also gives the user money off a future break.  The loyalty campaign is run by Topquest and also includes the Hilton and Best Western hotels.

Strada uses user-generated content to drive sales

Strada is encouraging Facebook users to share their dining experiences by posting photos or writing reviews on popular social networking sites in return for promotional vouchers. Tragus Group own Strada, Cafe Rouge and Bella Italia, and all three are using this user-generated content strategy to help drive more foot traffic into their restaurants. Bella Italia recently ran a Facebook campaign where users were able to make their own personalised pizza and share it with friends in return for a money-off voucher.

Levi’s uses Instagram to find a model for upcoming ad campaign

Instagram is a popular photo-sharing app currently only available on the iPhone but still has over 10 million users. Levi Strauss has opened worldwide casting via Instagram to find a new model for their September 2012 campaign. Users are to take a photo of themselves with the tag #iamlevis to be in with the chance of becoming the new face of Levi’s.

It’s not the first time the brand have used Instagram as a marketing tool, Levi’s Brazil set up an Instagram account ‘levisbrasil’ to keep users visually updated with their latest items. The Brazilian campaign didn’t reach a huge audience but as the number of users on Instagram keeps increasing so will its popularity. It’s interesting to see how brands are choosing to use the application for marketing, and I hope other brands follow suit in the future.

There are a few reasons why you should try to code to the highest possible standard. The cleaner, tidier and more valid your code, the more search engine friendly and accessible your website will be.

So what are the best ways to make sure your website is up to scratch? First of all, as touched upon above, make sure your code validates. The easiest way to do this is visit http://validator.w3.org and see how many errors or warnings you get. Some errors may be small, such as having images without an alternate (alt) tag. These are some of the errors you can easily get rid of and will make your website more accessible for someone who, for example, is hard-of-sight and may be navigating your website using a screen reader, which can’t process images. Having an alt tag on your image means the screen reader can process this and tell the person what the image is about.

Another point to bear in mind is the speed of your website. If your code is buggy and full of errors, it’s going to have an effect on the speed of your web browser and may take longer to process the code. Even if your code is valid, semantically it might not be correct – for example, you may start wrapping lots of elements in div tags and end up with a case of far too many divs that you don’t actually need. Even if the difference is minute, by removing unnecessary code it’s still an improvement.

The key points to remember are that you should write code that is as clean as possible. Plan the website build from the very beginning and see what you can use, re-use and make sure you know how your website will be structured from the start. This way, you can be sure you know what element is needed where and what you need to do to code it in a lean and efficient way.  Also, keep checking to make sure your website is valid (through the validity checker) and soon you’ll be in the habit of picking up on what may cause a problem and naturally start coding to avoid the error itself.

For those new to our little blog every Christmas we play our own version of Secret Santa.  Being the creative lot that we are, Secret Sketch Santa has a slight twist on the traditional secret santa format.

1, Each staff member picks another staff member’s name out of the hat.

2, Draw them in such a fashion that their likeness will be suitable to place on the blog without causing widespread offence.

No one (apart from me) knows who has drawn whom and it is down to you, our plucky readers to vote on which is your favourite – we will reward one of you witha lovely bag of sweeties at the end of the day for your efforts.

To be in with a chance of winning, cast your vote and tweet a link to the post, including a #SecretSketchSanta hashtag.  A random voter will be drawn out of the hat just after voting closes and a bag of Haribo will be promptly stuffed into a jiffy bag and put in the post.

Voting will close at 3pm at which point all of our artists will be revealed and the picture with the most votes will earn some sort of prize for it’s artist.

*********** VOTING CLOSED – WINNER IS NICOLA! ***********

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

MARK was drawn by JO

JAMES was drawn by PETER

MITHUL was drawn by CLAIR

RACHEL S was drawn by JAMES

MARTIN was drawn by ADRIAN

MIKE was drawn by CHRIS

SCOTT was drawn by RACHEL S

BEN G was drawn by LEE

CLAIR was drawn by RACHEL A

SARAH was drawn by BEN E

CHRIS was drawn by MITHUL

NICOLA was drawn by MARK

GRAHAM was drawn by MARTIN

ADRIAN was drawn by BEN G

BEN E was drawn by SARAH

LEE was drawn by MIKE

RACHEL A was drawn by NICOLA

JO was drawn by GRAHAM

PETER was drawn by SCOTT

The web design was carried out by our hugely talented creative team over a number of weeks and the site was developed on a flexible, easy to use content management system.

The all new Fighters Only site incorporates a dynamic breaking news section, ecommerce functionality for the sale of print magazine subscriptions and Fighters Only merchandise the world over, a dedicated TV section featuring MMA-related videos including fights, interviews and analysis and extensive galleries of the fighters and the world famous Fighters Only Babes!

We wanted to set a new benchmark for MMA websites with a really vibrant, engaging and dynamic website. Fighters Only is renowned for its speedy reaction to MMA news breaking 24/7 around the globe so we needed to ensure they could publish and update news stories as they break, quickly and easily. We have used a content management system which allows easy editing and updating and we have kept ease of use and functionality at the forefront of the whole site design.

A lot of hard work went into the new Fighters Only site as there were very tight deadlines to meet and a number of technical challenges to overcome. Both the client and us are delighted with the results and as you can see from the banner on the screenshot above, we’re now hard at work on Fighters Only’s sister site, Train Hard, Fight Easy.

It started when I made cupcakes for everyone in the office one Tuesday, it’s the day of the week that usually is the most stressful, not Monday and not quite the middle of the week, so as a fun way to share a little joy a week later Martin made some yummy flapjacks and coined the phrase ‘Free Food Tuesday’. We posted to Twitter using the hashtag #FreeFoodTuesday.

The rules of Free Food Tuesday are simple.

1. 1. Items MUST be homemade, not from a packet or shop bought.
2. 2. Items can be anything you like, savoury or sweet.
3. 3. Items must be shared on a Tuesday. (This rule has been broken a few times!)
4. 4. There must be enough food for everyone to try.
5. 5. You must write on the list what you intend to make at least 1 week before.

We’ve had everything from cakes to trifles and here’s a look back over the last 6 months at the ones we managed to get photos for.

After my cupcakes and Martin D’s awesome flapjacks we decided to open the floor and ask people to sign up to a list! So Rachel S (well her brother since she spent the night in A&E) made chocolate crispy cakes, and plenty of them! We then saw shortbread from Iain, and chocolate brownies from Clair that were eaten so fast we didn’t get a photo!

We had lemon drizzle cake from Mike and two types of cake (fruit cake and vanilla sponge) from Ben E. Scott wowed us with his raspberry & white chocolate cookies while on my second round, I made fruit mini pies (pictured above on left), a spin on the new fad of pie pops. After that Graham treated us to a pineapple and cherry upside down cake which got us in a fruity mood for James‘ genius trifles (pictured above in centre) which had us all ooooooing and ahhhhhhing followed by yummy vanilla and chocolate cupcakes made by Sarah (pictured above on right).

September said hello to a cake made by Martin P and a late entry from Rachel S with some melt in the mouth shortbread. We were then all in cake heaven when Martin D stole the show with his coffee and walnut cake (pictured above on left and centre) which he transported to the office in a frying pan because his cake tin wasn’t quite big enough. October was finished with Jo’s double chocolate cupcakes, Rachel A’s brownie muffins (pictured above on right) and I made some Halloween inspired cupcakes, cinnamon and apple topped with apple and caramel (pictured below on left).

Lee swooped in with a triple surprise. Three cakes, and yes, all three were yummy. He made (well Hayley his talented wife made shall we suspect) a chocolate brownie cake, a lemon drizzle cake and a cherry loaf cake (all pictured above in centre) Mike took another go and gave us a lovely soft marble cake and Clair gave us another delight of her chocolate brownies. For my final attempt in 2011 I made lemon biscuits for my birthday (pictured above on right).

Finally in 2011 we have the last stars of the show. Chris broke rule 3 and decided to treat us to his cinnamon buns on a Monday (pictured above on left). They were good so we let him off. And if one rule breaker wasnt enough, Hayley also broke rule 3 with her stain glass window biscuits and Gingerbread Cake with Orange Festive Icing. Made by Hayley, decorated by Iz (age 5) (pictured above on left and right).

We have one more week for this year and so we’ve already started a list for 2012 and we’re hoping to have a few savoury options next year too. We have names on the list to fill 2 months and a few beyond that. So go on, try it in your office, see who bakes like a king, and who can barely bake a cookie. Get a calendar printed up with a name and food column and get baking!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!