We are a Deloitte Technology Fast 500 EMEA Winner!
December 9, 2016
agency:2 is thrilled to be ranked the 144th fastest growing tech companies in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). We would like to thank our amazing clients and hard-working team for helping us to achieve this fantastic recognition by Deloitte.
The Deloitte Technology Fast 500™ EMEA award is a prestigious acknowledgement of the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and energy tech companies across EMEA.
“Innovation is more than technological advancement; it’s also a state of mind,” said Paul Sallomi, vice chairman at Deloitte LLP and global technology, media and telecommunications industry leader. “The winners of the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 program in EMEA recognize that this new type of thinking is essential for business success. We look forward to your continued leadership in introducing new tools that can enhance the personal lives of consumers, and drive growth for companies worldwide.”
Joel Davis co-founder of agency:2 commented on another great achievement. “We’re excited to be placed alongside the most innovative and fastest growing companies in EMEA as it’s a real compliment to our team. To also be recognised as the 3rd fastest growing company in the UK media sector is an incredible testament to our ability to deliver game-changing results for our clients and a recognition of our drive for achieving innovation in social media marketing. I’m immensely proud of everyone at agency:2.”
About agency:2
agency:2 is an award-winning social media agency powered by audience insight technology. Our leading social media advertising technologies and expertise enable us to deliver results that far exceed expectations. As innovators for the social ad industry, we work with world leading brands such as Barbie, Worldpay and Sony to deliver the best social media results.
Additional resources
Learn more about agency:2 here: www.agency2.co.uk
Learn more about our Social Insight Engine technology: www.socialinsightengine.com
Contact Joel Davis: 00 44 (0)203 567 1381
#TheDollEvolves
February 25, 2016
Mattel | Barbie
In January 2016, Mattel revealed the evolution of their iconic doll Barbie with the announcement of three new body types – tall, curvy and petite. The response has been exceptional, with social media leading the conversation.
Having worked with Mattel for over a year establishing their social media presence on Facebook across seven European countries, agency:2 was responsible for activating the social campaign for the launch of the new range, providing responsive and always-on social advertising, community management and sentiment reporting.
To elevate the campaign, agency:2 promoted content on Facebook across relevant markets, using their proprietary Social Insight Engine ad technology to hyper-target specific audiences and extend reach.
Joel Davis, Director of agency:2 says ”agency:2 prides itself on pushing boundaries and leading the way in social media. My team and I are proud to be part of this momentous moment for the Barbie brand, supporting the next innovative step in the brand’s evolution.”
Cookie Best Practice
April 20, 2012
From 26 May 2012 websites operated in the EU will be required to inform their users that they are being tracked with cookies, and to ask users for their consent. There’s much that brands can do to support site architecture changes by reviewing how they relate to their B2B and B2C customers in two areas:
1. Transparency
Businesses using cookies must be completely transparent in how they collect, store and use data.
Make sure your privacy policy is up to date and that you’ve provided information on how to reject or delete cookies. By making it clear you’re using them, what they are being used for and how users can control them, you’ll educate people about how they are essential for personalisation.
2. Responsibility
Data must be used responsibly. There has been very little misuse of cookies by B2C and B2B companies and this must continue.
Businesses must be aware of all cookies utilised within their website – the legislation includes both your own cookies as well as cookies set by a third party. So remember, you are responsible for all cookies on the site and ensuring they comply with the legislation.
Ultimately, when used responsibly and effectively, cookies are an invaluable way of enhancing the user experience and customer satisfaction, as well as providing marketers with a vital tool to improve conversion rates. Transparent and responsible use of such data will safeguard these benefits for both parties.
Ask The Experts: agency:2 interview with MDC Magazine
February 28, 2011
As part of their Ask The Experts feature Mike Filsaime of Marketingdotcom.com interviewed agency:2’s Joel Davis for MDC magazine. The interview covered a range of topics concerning social media marketing, including how to successfully utilise social media, best practice and the future of the industry. Here are Joel’s answers:
1) What should an online marketer’s primary goal be when utilising social media?
The primary goal when creating a successful social media strategy must be to maximise ROI. Social media is uniquely positioned to provide businesses with measurable results – allowing them to spend less and invest smarter. At agency:2 we believe that driving ROI must be at the heart of all social media activity.
Another fundamental principle of social media is the need to follow strict legal and ethical practices. Being honest and open is not only ethical and legal but will protect the client’s brand and online reputation. That is why all the social media marketing campaigns that we run are completely transparent.
2) What, in your opinion, is the most effective way for online marketers to use social media?
We are obviously big believers in what social media marketing can help brands achieve. It means we can provide businesses with unique insights into their customers so that they have a clear picture of how they relate to their brand.
There are a range of highly effective ways in which online marketers could – and should – use social media to interact with consumers at every stage of the buying cycle. By listening and engaging in a timely and useful manner with the target audience, brands can enhance their proposition and drive leads.
3) Facebook and Twitter are often cited as the two primary social media sites that online marketers should use. What other social media sites are also worthy of attention?
If you have an international brand with a global reach then an understanding of the social marketing landscape within each country is crucial. Whether it’s RenRen in China, Mixi in Japan or Orkut in Brazil and India, you need to know the big players in each country so that you can reach these netizens in the most effective and efficient ways.
4) What tools and software would you recommend for assisting with social media management?
We use a mix of our own in-house tools together with best of breed monitoring tools to ensure that we know exactly what is going on. Workflow and project management tools are also vital in streamlining your processes and ensuring that you are able to track and respond to all opportunities.
5) What new social media opportunities can we expect to see over the next 12 months?
With social media continuing to grow and develop so rapidly, and in so many directions, it is always difficult to predict whether there will be a new, big start up just around the corner. However, recent developments suggest that the existing industry leaders – such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – will refine and develop their offering, incorporating new technology, such as geo-location, into their existing offering and cementing their dominance of the market. Facebook’s development of Places and a messaging service, together with other innovative features, are prime examples of this.
Why your social media monitoring needs the human touch
January 21, 2011
As brands have discovered, with social media there is nowhere to hide. Whether opinions are positive or negative, your brand is now fair game for everybody to talk about it. Social media monitoring has given businesses the ability to identify everything that’s being said online about their brand, products or services in real time. This knowledge is invaluable to marketers looking for a clear picture of how your brand is perceived.
Social media monitoring, then, has transformed marketers’ understanding of their customers. However, while it’s obvious monitoring is an invaluable part of an effective social media strategy, the question is, how much can these tools actually tell you and how much is left to human analysis?
The answer is that it takes both. Social media monitoring tools gather information through spidering and indexing the conversations that are occurring on social media platforms, providing a wealth of data on what is being said about your brand. However, without the insight provided by human analysis this data could prove worthless.
That’s because truly effective social media monitoring isn’t just about listening – it is about using this information so that you are in the ideal position to effectively engage with customers, develop insights that will shape current and future campaigns and manage any crises that occur, quickly and efficiently. Only expert human analysis can provide the solutions to these challenges.
That’s not to say that there are not excellent free to use and paid for social media monitoring tools on the market. SM2, Radian6 and Sysomos are the industry leaders and offer the most accurate and comprehensive results. However, while these are all high-quality tools and are essential in providing vital information about your brand, the bottom line is that none of them are even 90% reliable.
One of the central points of discussion when it comes to monitoring is over sentiment. Many have questioned whether there is a tool on the market that can accurately put messages into context, understand sarcasm, irony and slang or give a completely true picture of the conversations people are having.
Making the most of monitoring
This means in order to gain an accurate picture of the industry landscape for your brand you must use a range of these tools – as well as the best free to use tools such as Google. However, even with all this in place it is not precise enough to trust without human analysis.
That is why at agency:2 we have developed our own methodology, one which relies on both human analysis and best of breed monitoring tools, in order to gain the most precise and relevant results. At the beginning of every social media monitoring campaign we use our expertise to make decisions on what channels to monitor and which search strings will provide our clients with the most valuable information.
We then use monitoring tools to collect the statistical data and hand this to our analysts for human tagging, interpreting and uncovering the unique insights that provide the real value that brands are looking for. It takes time and effort to sift through the data and interpret the findings. However, the unique benefit gained at the end of this complex process make it more than worthwhile. It allows us to understand where conversations are taking place (and, equally as importantly, where conversations are absent), prioritise the urgency of issues raised and devise a relevant strategy.
Social media monitoring tools are fantastic for collecting information. However, they only do half the job and the information they provide won’t count for much unless it’s in the right hands. It takes specialist intelligence to make sense of this data and know exactly what to do with it. It is the combination of data, technology and analysis which will ultimately maximise the effectiveness of your social monitoring.
