For an online retail store the top spot of a search engine results page for any product you sell is the holy grail of online marketing, it is like having the prime spot on the high street or the biggest and best shop in the mall. Of this lucrative cherry there are also two bites, organic and paid listings.

One online company seems to have achieved this lofty goal in fairly short order, namely one worldstores.co.uk.

In an apparently shrinking market of home and garden furniture Worldstores.co.uk is thriving and last year boosted revenue by 70%. So how did they do this?

First some background information.

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As I approach the end of my placement year with Red C, I would like to emphasise how much I have enjoyed being part of such a dynamic and innovative company. Being at the forefront of marketing development and seeing an idea put into practice is an experience any marketing enthusiast would envy. The knowledge and skills I have acquired will undoubtedly prove to be a valuable asset in my final year at University.

From the moment I started my placement to the final week I genuinely felt part of the Red C team, rather than just a student having to be kept busy for the duration of her placement. The friendship, co-operation and genuine concern for one another became apparent as soon as I started working at Red C and something I will always remember.

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Music videos have always been a source of cutting-edge creativity and have often been where some of the world’s finest Directors have cut their teeth and built their reputations. And the latest music video from Canadian band Arcade Fire continues this tradition thanks to their music video done in collaboration with Director Chris Silk and Google.

Basically, they have created a music video for the song The Wilderness Downtown that allows the viewer to have a place of their choice featured in the video. To create this personalised music video experience, the video uses Google Maps and has been created in collaboration with Google who have used the project to demonstrate the capabilities of the modern web.

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Here at Red C towers it’s safe to say there are plenty of cake lovers. Now that’s not saying we have lots of fat people here… no it’s just that we appreciate a good bit of cake with a cuppa now and then. Out of all the cakes we love here one type goes down better than most… and that’s the lovely cupcake.

So we were really chuffed to bits when one of our regular freelancers went into business for herself making cupcakes. Top freelance designer, Sarah Wilson, has applied all the wonderful skills she used to show when designing things for print and for the web and applied those same talents to making the most scrummy cupcakes we’ve ever got our gobs round!

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Last week Account Handling provided a shock to Creative by putting a halt to the winning streak we had strung together against the suits. This week saw the return of Red C’s Creative Director to the team and a return to winning ways… despite a very, very impressive display by Account Handling.

Now you only have to take one look at star Artworker, Keith Pleasant, to see how hard Creative had to work for this victory. His ‘drowned rat’ like appearance at the end of an hour of silky skills on astroturf clearly shows a man who had the desire, determination and the ‘right stuff’ to turn over Account Handling.

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It’s fair to say that here at Red C towers we’ve been a little bit miffed at England’s poor World Cup displays over the last few weeks. So miffed in fact that at one point the other day we actually turned the TV over to watch some tennis!

Luckily, we got word to Capello that we were having a bit of a bash at The Purple Pussycat in Manchester to watch the final group game and since some clients and suppliers were coming it may be good if England actually ‘turned up’, put some effort in and bagged us a win.

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The great Johan Cruyff

Johan Cruyff was the most famous exponent of the football philosophy known as ‘Total Football’, which is the theory that any outfield player can take over the role of any other player in the team, save the goalkeeper. It’s safe to say then that this evening, Red C’s Copywriter, Stuart Clark, gave Account Handling a right damn good lecture in the art of ‘Total Football’… meaning that Creative emerged yet again victorious against the ‘Suits’.

Yet it certainly was by no means a one man show as Red C’s two new Creative hirings proved themselves very handy on the football pitch. Andrew Campbell produced a display worthy of the great Lionel Messi as he dodged, chipped, turned and danced his way through the Account Handling midfield. And Junior Designer, Dean Spicer, let loose a few deadly shots and produced a string of fine saves.

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Like all good Finance Directors, Mark Dowds loves to keep a tight grip on any money that comes his way. So it’s good to hear that this weekend he’ll be doing his best to give some cash to some other people… by walking the three peaks of Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Scafell.

Together with eleven other people, he will be spending the weekend up in the hills trying to raise £5000 in aid of Christie’s Hospital.

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On a recent scouring of the web for marketing news, I stumbled across this fabulous story about copywriter Alex Brownstein. Fed up of not being able to get in front of some of New York’s finest Creative Directors, he devised a PPC strategy to get himself noticed by the likes of Scott Virtrone and Ian Reichenthal… by playing on that egotistical moment when these guys would Google themselves!

Marketers have for a long time now realised that by focusing on long-tail keywords that have less competition, not only will you pay less per click, but you will also have a higher conversion rate. In fact this conversion rate can be as high as 200% when compared to short-tail, or generic, keywords.

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After undertaking the successful  rebrand of High and Mighty we were tasked with producing a weekly e-newsletter that would be sent to the High and Mighty database.  The newsletter needed to reflect the new look and feel for the brand, as well as promoting the range of products and services available both instore and online.

Red C created a template that incorporated the key elements of the brand which included informative style tips, quirky quotes and added value pieces such as comical Youtube clips. These, combined with a range of products that linked directly to the website created a hardworking yet visually appealing e-newsletter.

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