At the end of January, BCU student Leila, joined our team for some work experience here at Digital Glue. Currently studying Fashion Business and Promotion, Leila has developed a strong interest in Marketing and PR. For her placement, she was taken under the wing of our latest team member, PR Account Director, Nikki. The following blog will be a reflection of Leila’s time here at DG. Why Digital Glue? As a third-year student, I am constantly looking for any opportunities ahead of my graduation this Summer. Digital Glue caught my eye after a job advertisement I had seen advertised on LinkedIn. After looking into the company some more, I had to get in touch to see if they had any openings for students in terms of part-time roles/internships. I thought that it looked like a great company to work for as it has a great set of values but also looks like a vibrant and fun place to work. First impressions of Digital Glue As with any first day, I was a little nervous arriving at the office. Upon arrival, I met with Greta whom I had arranged my placement with, she offered me the first of many cups of tea and introduced me to Nikki who would be looking after me throughout my internship. It was extremely easy to settle in as everybody was so welcoming. The office is really laid back with a lovely sociable atmosphere. After I had met everybody, Nikki had arranged a meeting with the rest of the PR team. They talked a little more about the company and gave me some details about the key clients I would be helping with. My experience I worked on several jobs during my time, including a few different blog write-ups. I love writing so I quite enjoyed this task. However, it was weird writing on behalf of several different companies as each one has a completely different style of writing/tone of voice. Digital Glue has a wide variety of clients from the investment sector to photography brands. Each client approaches blog posts differently but it was definitely interesting and beneficial learning how to adapt. As I come from a creative background, I love the ideation process of PR. Another aspect of my placement that I enjoyed was the brainstorming ideas for our clients coming up with fun and innovative ways to promote their companies. One thing that really stood out to me whilst I was working at Digital Glue, was how keen they were to make sure I was learning. Nikki would sit down and talk through my day and the different tasks I took out. With 12 years of experience in the industry, I find her so interesting to talk to as she has a lot of good advice that I know will help me in my career as well as my final term of studies. Reflection of my week Overall, my time at Digital Glue has been a wonderful experience, I couldn’t speak highly enough

First, let’s start with why you should read this. Admittedly as a Brand Strategist, one of the key things my clients will remember me preaching about is the importance of a good brand strategy versus just looking at the aesthetic. That’s a foundation I am still proud to stand on, however, once you’ve solidified that strategy you have to make adjustments to both elements to stay strong among the competition. Think of your brand as a car. The strategy is the engine, it’s what is going to actually drive you to your end destination. Your look and feel is the body. The reality is, no matter how much of an affinity you have for a “classic”, all cars age into extinction If you don’t put the time in to make adjustments along the way. These forecasts will guide you on what you need to “tweak” and “polish” in the current year. Not every forecast is relevant to every business, but this is your rest stop to take a good look at the car and figure out whether or not it needs tending to. Stay aware and stay afloat. Author’s Note: As much as I’d love to take all the credit for the information we’ll explore, I’ve collected these insights from a range of sources, including: Shutterstock, Interbrand, Saatchi & Saatchi and other design and brand research databases.  Forecasted Trend:  Roaring 20s Renaissance If there’s one thing we can count on, it’s that trends always come full circle. From the comeback of acid wash jeans to the return of Opal Fruits, the past has a funny way of showing up to haunt us. And arriving at the station right on time 100 years later as we enter the 2020’s, is a major nod to Art Deco and the original Roaring 20s. Geometric elements, rich colour palettes, motion graphics and film mimicking that glamorous old Hollywood style are set to take centre stage. If your brand is known to indulge in a foil embossing this is your year to shine as Shutterstock estimates an 4,223% increase in gold patterns. Though adjusting your brand’s visual identity to mimic an art deco style may not be a viable option, you can explore these elements through campaigns, social media and other applications where you are free to use a more “creative license”. If none of this applies, simply enjoy the rise of new brands cropping up in this era that bring a fresh take to art deco. Who should take notice? For fashion and product brands, you’ve officially been given the go ahead to kick up your social content a notch, incorporating the blend of retro and modern in one elegant twist. However, B2B brands don’t have to shy away from the mix. Patterns, illustration and a bold colour palette can add personality to what some may consider a mundane topic. Note: don’t try this at home without expert advice. If you have a brand agency or internal brand guardian, discuss your plans with them

In a crowded market, standing out is one of the biggest challenges, and brands operating in the photography industry will know this all too well. Whether it’s cameras or lenses, paper or tripods, the choice of brands for photographers is vast. If you’ve been operating in the industry for a long time, how do you survive amongst the increased competition? And if you’re a new brand trying to break into the market, how do you make your voice heard? Based on our experience delivering PR and marketing strategies in the photography industry, here are three trends that brands should be looking out for in 2020. The ‘right’ type of influencers Influencer marketing has seen a meteoric rise over the past few years. In fact, the bubble has become so big, experts have suggested it’s close to bursting point. The influencer market has become so over-saturated that consumers have lost trust; many don’t know whether influencers are offering genuine recommendations or simply raving about a product or a service because they’ve been paid to. We’re now starting to see a lot more brands and influencers (or more likely their managers) getting savvy to this. Brands are selecting to work with influencers that truly represent what they stand for, rather than selecting them simply based on follower count and engagement statistics. Likewise, many influencers are now only collaborating with brands that they genuinely love, rather work with whoever offers them the most cash. This has certainly been the case in the photography industry, with a rising number of ‘micro-influencers’ who are carefully selecting the brands they work with and creating genuine, engaging content featuring the brand’s products. Don’t select to work with influencers based on follower count alone. Instead, focus on building a network of real photographers who represent your ideal client, and work with them to create content that will engage their dedicated audience. Reviews have always, and will continue to be, hugely important for brands in the photography industry. With 71% of consumers more likely to make a purchase based on a social media reference, brands simply can’t ignore the power of influencer reviews in addition to reviews in more traditional media. Making the complex understandable One of the biggest things we help our clients with is making the complex understandable. Many photography consumer brands are built on innovative tech and they want to talk about it, but more often than not, their customers don’t really care. With so much noise, brands need to cut through with messaging that clearly demonstrates the problems they solve, before they get into the technical detail. For photography brands, this message could be as simple as making their customer a better photographer. We’ve already seen a huge growth in video content over the past few years – a massive 81% of businesses now use video as a marketing tool. Video is the ideal medium for making the complex understandable, allowing brands to get across their key messages quickly in an engaging format. For the

The digital marketing industry is constantly changing and evolving, new things are coming our way constantly. If you are not aware of the current trends in the industry you might be losing out on a lot of things that can help your business or your brand reach a new growing audience.  There are a lot of trends in the digital marketing industry but in this blog post, I am going to share my view and opinion about the most important things that are going to shape digital marketing in 2020 and what I believe is going to be the most popular. Voice search  Everyone is talking about voice search and that you should start optimising your website to include voice search. That was a digital marketing trend of 2019 and in my opinion, your website should be optimised for long-tail keywords which work great with voice assistants such as Alexa, Siri and Google Home. Nevertheless, a lot of people are saying that voice search is going to be relevant again in 2020 and I think the same, a well-optimised website should be found and rank on either voice or good old manual query search. Users ask more direct queries, to get more relevant answers, this is where long-tail keywords in your content come in handy. Using these keywords helps increase the chances of your content ranking in voice search engine result pages. Smart bidding Smart bidding strategies are going to be mainstream in 2020 in the digital marketing industry mostly on Google Ads. Google has already changed all the bidding strategies on its platforms to include smart bidding where conversion tracking is installed correctly. Smart bidding uses machine learning to recognise and analyse different signals in order to determine if a user is going to make a conversion, that enables the bidding to be higher or lower, based on the outcome. Smart bidding is going to evolve with the help of AI in 2020 and more marketers are going to use it instead of manual or enhanced bidding on Google Ads, it is surely one of the most interesting of the digital marketing trends. Animation 2020 is going to be the year of animation. You can use animated videos to share a story or explain the purpose of a product. Animated videos are eye-catching and users engage more with video and animated images. Animations can increase a user’s engagement with a business or a brand by: Boosting social media engagement  Creating explainer videos that engage even the laziest of buyers  Increasing brand awareness with ad-recall Improving search engine rankings 95% of people have watched a video explaining their products or services, businesses who use animated video share personalised stories, challenges, and successes. All of which helps to humanize the brand, connect with their target audience, form authentic relationships, and grow their business. Animations are going to be widely used in 2020 by more and more marketers and business and why not, the benefits of using animation are great. SEO A