Bear’s have been seen at The Mall Wood Green Shopping Centre this week promoting the start of the Just Rewards Campaign. But before they went to The Mall Wood Green they popped into the office to say hello to all the team.

Adam and Sam are limbering up for an exciting ride next week when they take part in a Reverse Bungee Challenge to raise money for the Children’s Renal and Liver Units at the New Children’s Hospital, Leeds.

On Sunday 25th March the brave twosome will be seated in a spherical metal cage attached to bungee cords while they are catapulted skyward, reaching a height of 200ft in less than 1.4 seconds (the acceleration is greater than a Ferrari and they will experience a gravitational force of 4.8Gs!).

If you would like to witness the dynamic duo’s terrified faces in flight we need to help them raise over £200 so they qualify to receive a free DVD of the experience, which we can put online to share with you.

If you would like to support our fearless friends and make a donation to a worthy cause, you can send cheques made payable to: The Dr Joe Jaffe Hospital Support Charity (or it’s initials DJJHSC) to us at Allen Design Group, 9 Claycliffe Office Park, Whaley Rd, Barnsley, South Yorkshire, S75 1HQ.

Now we know how he manages to be in two or even three places at the same time It turns out that “our” Andrew is a Time Lord!

Seen here attending the BCSC seminar on social media last night with Anthony, who confirmed his presence in the following statement:

” I know he was there cos I truly have never seen anyone scoff as may canapes and down so much red wine in such an amazingly short space of time”. Lisa (Andrew’s long suffering wife) swears that as far as she was concerned he was “clearing out the attic ” at the time in question”, honest!

Watch out for Dr Andrew’s next adventure where he gets what’s due to him! (LIsa the next one’s for you)

Here are our latest testimonials from the Recommended Agency Register (RAR) Posted during the course of last week.

Testimonials

“Can’t recommend allendesigngroup.com highly enough. They have changed our focus and fortunes and made us realise that we are in the business of marketing whatever the product might be! Anthony for his strategic thinking, ideas and time spent holding our hands. Andrew Brown for his supporting role, he makes everything happen on time and turns Anthony’s ideas into effective campaigns. Peter Wyatt for his production back up, does he ever go home!”
Leisure based client

“Allen Design Group are a pleasure to work with. I have found them very creative with design and concept and they always think out of the box. Very efficient, great communicators and deliver on time and budget. I would strongly recommend Allen Design for all your creative design needs”
Alhambra Shopping Centre

“I would Highly reccomend The Allen Group. They are always there for the client and alway listen to the the client and their wishes. They always deliver what they promise, on time and on budget”.
The Mall

“Individual qualities and the strength of the whole Allen Design Group team ensures provision of the highest standards of service”.
Charter Walk Shopping Centre

It’s good to know that our clients appreciate us as much as we do them!

UK users “bored” with social media

LONDON: Almost two-thirds of UK web users now regularly utilise Facebook, but more than 40% of the country’s internet audience are becoming “bored” with social media.

YouGov, the survey firm, conducted an online poll of 1,275 people, a 65% share of which used Facebook in the month before the study, rising to 95% for 16–20 year olds and 74% of 21–24 year olds.

It also found that 50% of respondents had accessed YouTube during the same period, ahead of Twitter on 23%, Windows Live on 14%, LinkedIn on 13% and Google+ on 12%.

More specifically, 23% of Facebook members today utilised this platform less often than was the case 12 months ago, and 19% expected this to be the case when looking forward one year.

By contrast, 53% of LinkedIn’s audience had increased their activity on its pages over the last year, and 30% believed this would be the case when projecting ahead the same amount of time.

According to YouGov’s research, some 41% of the UK’s internet population were also becoming “bored” of social media services.

In a possibly related trend, a “new phase” may be developing favouring sites based around a “purpose”, rather than merely “connecting to people for the sake of it”, YouGov suggested.

The study pointed to the fact that 10% of web users access Spotify, a music site that has added social tools via a tie-up with Facebook. A 10% share of this group listened to 14 hours of music a week.

Moreover, Moneysavingexpert.com, a platform offering consumer advice, now has as many active UK users as Twitter. It also provides forums allowing users to creative profiles and leave comments.

Turning to advertising, 47% of social network members in the UK were not comfortable with seeing ads on these sites based on their profile activities, an area of particular interest to marketers.

A further 44% of respondents stated they would not be more inclined towards goods and services that their friends “like” or “follow” on sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Similarly, 43% agreed that were not likely to discuss a brand on a social media platform even if they had heard positive feedback about the specific offering concerned.

Data sourced from YouGov; additional content by Warc staff, 22 February 2012

Through an impressive show of hard work, dogged determination and oodles of natural ability Scott was offered a full time position with us this month. Congratulations Scott!

New Kid on the block Scott Wrightson has joined the team as a junior designer. Scott is the perfect example of a graduate eager to show he’s got the talent to be a designer.

Scott had his first taste of life in the studio when he first joined us on work experience from school aged 15, at that time he was very shy and tea making wasn’t his thing! But all that was to change, he contacted us last year after graduating from University, a very confident young man and was first in the kitchen to make the tea thus clinching the deal!

The Alhambra Shopping Centre (Formerly The Mall) have appointed us to provide design and marketing support for in centre promotions throughout 2012.

Working closely with the marketing manager, Allen Design Group have created a calendar of events planned to create a sense of fun and giving customers a reason to visit in 2012.

What better way to start than St Valentines Day? The team came up with the concept – ‘Create the Cheesiest Chat up Line’ the winner will enjoy a meal for two including wine and flowers. The free to enter competition was promoted by the retailers via a simple mechanism and on the centre's facebook page.

We like to encourage students to be part of a working team. The majority of students don’t realise the pressure element of being a successful designer, most arrive and can’t believe what’s involved in creating an award winning piece of work and the time constraints that go with it.

Visiting students work along side our designers on live projects to get a good understanding of  the whole process.

Beth Heath from Leeds University recently joined the team here for a four week placement during which one of her designs was chosen by a client and will feature in a promotion later this year.

We have a programme of placements planned for this year so if you’re interested, please contact Andrew on 01226 292921 or email ab@allendesigngroup.com for more information.

What an amazing quarter it’s been, finally it feels like things might be moving again, I do hope that it’s the same for you.

This month alone we have tendered for more projects than we did during the past three months! The highlights being an Olympic campaign for Docklands Light Railway, two new shopping centre accounts, two universities, a new pet food distribution concept and an energy advisory body! Yesterday we presented our first campaign to Saga Holidays and when we returned to the office a brief from a Saudi Bank for a complete re-brand pinged in to my inbox! Two years ago we designed a new range of credit cards for a Qatar Bank so looks like the word is spreading!

Anyway back to Christmas and you….

I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone that we have worked with this year (and previously of course) for your ongoing support. We appreciate everything you do for us and nothing is taken for granted so THANK YOU!

As some of you will have already realised I have been taking a much more active role in account direction and this is something that I will continue to do next year ( I finally realised what it is I like doing most!!!). So If we haven’t caught up recently we will very soon.

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year I hope that together they bring all you wish for!

Anthony Allen

The following presents some results from the RAR survey completed by our clients. Clients were invited to provide ratings and commentary about the service provided by our agency. The survey has been completed online and the identity of clients completing the survey remains confidential.

“Anthony Allen for his personal support & leadership of the whole team and Andrew Brown for his direct involvement from concept to implementation of ideas.”

“Stephen Delaney always provides New Nordic with excellent communication and service.”

“Anthony Allen, my initial point of contact. After our first meeting I was assured that the project in mind would work and that he had a full understanding of it.”

“We worked closely with Anthony Allen and Peter Wyatt on the strategic planning, brand creation and website. Stephen Delaney the senior designer worked closely with us to ensure  our expectations were always met.”

“I successfully completed projects with Steve Riley, Andrew Brown, Mark Farrell and Behrooz Saeed. Their entire team are warm, friendly and most of all reliable.”

If you would like further information about the RAR survey please contact Anthony Allen on 01226 292921 or email aa@allendesigngroup.com