Here’s some amazing rock photography made even better by the use of very clever headlines.

No. 7 gets my vote.

You’ve been great.

Thank you and good night!

Paul Gibson
Art Director

HubSpot have recently published their annual report on the progress of inbound marketing. Now in its fifth year, the 2013 State of Inbound Marketing report is based on data from over 3,300 participants in 128 different countries, including CEOs, marketers and agencies.

Here are 10 learnings from the report:

1.  Inbound Marketing is here to stay, and it shows remarkable traction for such a new industry.

2.  Inbound delivers on ROI, providing cheaper and higher converting leads.

3.  While inbound marketing is on the rise, traditional marketing is fading.

4.  There is still a need to better define, measure, and track inbound marketing.

5.  Aligning with Sales is as important as measuring the ROI of inbound marketing.

6.  Inbound has shifted where marketers spend resources – it helps them work smarter.

7.  Content is a critical, but not standalone, inbound marketing component.

8.  Inbound marketing is not a channel, tactic, or technology; it’s a philosophy.

9.  Now is a good time to be a customer

10. It’s also a great time to be an inbound marketer!

You can download your free copy of the report here.

Gary McLoughlin
Managing Director

Not so long ago, surveys indicated widespread resistance to proposals for national identity cards. Unlike many continental countries, the Irish and British appeared to value their privacy; today, however, this issue doesn’t appear to be as black and white as it once was.

For a period of time, social media’s popularity seemed to herald the death of traditional notions of privacy. But a new survey commissioned by Dialogue’s client Amdocs has put a slightly different spin on this.

Conducted globally in April using a 3900-strong sample, this shows that most people are willing to share their personal data – at a price. Focusing mainly on the telco market, the figures indicate that customers have now attached a value to their personal data.

• 65% were willing to share personal information in exchange for better price plans.
• 61% would hand over details if their connection was improved.

Since the information willing to be traded included family information and social network profiles, we don’t exactly put a high price on our privacy and that of our friends and family. Other rewards that customers would happily sell their nearest and dearests’ details for include:

• Cash rewards (44%)
• Loyalty programme rewards (38%)
• Coupons/exclusive deals (39%)

Most surprisingly, 36% were content to give away information in return for nothing at all. (Yes I know this all adds up to 157% but I’m assuming that some of the sample said they were happy to take whatever’s going.)

Of course this investigation was conducted before Edward Snowden’s revelation that the Project Prism was listening into billions of phone calls around the world. Will this news change attitudes?

My guess is that most people really aren’t that bothered. Consequently, a valuable and potent commodity like personal data is – for now – a far cheaper commodity than anyone ever expected.

Let’s see how long it stays that way.

Des Columb
Creative Director

In a recent blog article – Tim Williams from the Ignition Consulting Group asked “How long can agencies survive on the old agency model platform before we die or maybe jump?” We know that agencies in the last 10 years have all developed new forms of setting themselves up to deal with the issues that their clients face. The old agency model that emerged from the Industrial Revolution was all about creating scale. The Digital Revolution has decimated scale adding layers of complexity to our business model. Agencies as a group, are finding it hard to keep up. Forbes recently printed an article where it wrote that agencies are struggling to change their business model. “Clients do not see traditional agencies adjusting well in an era of rapid technological changes.”

Some commentators firmly believe that there are two models of agencies developing at present in what they call the New Agency OS (Operating System).  1) Outcome Agencies – focussed on effectiveness, delivering ideas, innovation and intelligence to grow client profit over time. 2) Output Agencies – the ones that will continue to generate big ideas and create fame for Clients but will also develop new revenue streams for those ideas, thereby beating their addiction to short term Client Cash.

But are these two the only game in town? Forrester recently wrote that “No Agency Type is perfect for the New Era.” This can be seen in agencies that are placing less emphasis on the concept of “Advertising” but all about being a “Communications Agency”… think of media agencies developing creative services. Production Companies now pitching themselves as creative content developers and consulting firms like Accenture acquiring agencies and selling their connected thinking. PR agencies now selling themselves as creators of earned media content.

One thing for sure – the agency structure and services of the future may not have been created yet but clients are now seeking experts in paid, earned and owned media on a daily basis – will they really care what discipline provide them – merely the fact that their communications experts know that they have a client with a business issue that needs to be solved. Communication Experts need to focus on the business strategy and to concentrate on what they do best to deliver on the business strategy. Saying that an agency does everything isn’t a strategy. This is what we are doing with our own Clients – Sales over night – Brand over time.

Peter Mahon
Client Service Director

As some people are incapable of putting their phones down and not checking it every minute, this invention takes the decision out of their hands.   I’m one of those people that think smartphones are killing the art of conversation, so I really love this idea. But isn’t it telling that something like this is needed in the first place!

Click here to find out more…

Karen Neary
General Manager

I was thinking about the use of the phone in my house when the last phone bill came – upon looking at the call patterns over the last two months, I noticed that the use of the landline in my house was only being used by my kids to phone a friend, parent or grandparent. On deciding if we needed to have a phone in the house, I asked a few friends to see if they felt the same. Questions were asked – what if you didn’t have one – how could your grandparent phone you? Or a relation living somewhere in Australia wanted to call you – how would they contact you? What if you wanted to check an address in the telephone book? Not one person, when they thought of their mobile as a means of contacting people, could come up with a reason to keep a landline.

While not being old enough to ever receive a telegram, one grew up with movies using them as a way to spread news from locations throughout the world to far flung locations. News of national and international importance were relayed to far flung towns and villages throughout the world. In 1836, Samuel Morse developed the first method of sending telegrams that was to become part and parcel of communications. For decades and centuries, it was the only way of communicating. Now on the 14th July of this year, the last telegram will be sent in India by a company called Bharat Sanchar Nigam. It has become commercially unviable to send them with the general public now using SMS, email, social media networks and smartphones to relay instant news around the world.

As the pace of technology develops, with new forms of communicating at levels of speed never witnessed before, what other devices and services that we have grown up with will cease or become naturally extinct in the next 20 years? Will TV’s as we know them be replaced with multiple viewers in our sitting room with all members of the family sitting down plugged into their own personal devices either watching brand new content or on Skype to a friend living half way around the world? Will desktops cease to be built or will tablets with ever-increasing power be our mobile workplace? Will our car or means of transport allow us to be completely in contact with the world without ever coming to the office?

Think back to a scene in an old Western – when the telegram operator would hear a message come down the line bringing news of national importance and how the locals would hear of this news, how the news would spread so fast that by the time people on the outreach of the town would hear, the news would have been tweaked and distorted to have a different meaning or was embellished to tell a way better story. Think how people would look up to the operator as somewhat of a god – keeping them in touch with the world outside of their own town. One thing for certain, people waited for the news and this played a central role on the conversations of the day.

How will our communication methods still hold that key aspect – NEWS – and the effect on their lives? Will we keep the key aspect of what inventions like the Morse Code brought us – communicating directly with each other in a conversation sharing our views. One thing for sure, the pace of development will be a multiple of what it was over 170 years ago.

Watch this space! Or should we say – watch and listen?

Peter Mahon
Client Service Director

You care about lead generation, acquisition and retention of customers and we care about bringing you the best ways to go about doing that. Content Marketing helps you build an audience to build your business. As you know that’s what we are about here at the growth factory, sales over night, brand over time. With that in mind we have put together this short introductory presentation: “Content Marketing, tell me more” – please feel free to share this with your own contacts and networks.

Conor Byrne
Head of Digital