Soak News

Julie is our new office manager and brings a wealth of experience and financial know how to the agency having worked for HM Revenue and Customs for many years. Not only good with numbers Julie also has an MA and BA in English Literature and will no doubt be picking us up on our poor grammar and spelling mistakes.

An animal lover (especially cats) Julie spent several years closely involved with the local RSPCA and is on hand for any pet related problems. In her spare time she is addicted to costume dramas and films as well as being an avid reader and gardener.

Emily has joined the client services team as marketing manager, having previously managed high profile affiliate campaigns for some of the UK's leading financial brands. With extensive expertise and experience in Affiliate and Social Media marketing, Emily will help develop Soak's own social media proposition (watch this space) as well as working closely with both new and existing clients.

With a BA in Film and Television Studies from the University of East Anglia, Emily chose to pursue a career in new media but looks forward to reengaging with digital video production, teamed with her enthusiasm for YouTube, as part of her new role at Soak (again, watch this space).

In her spare time Emily enjoys world cinema, getting addicted to the latest high budget TV series, skiing, surfing, and practicing her love of photography on her favourite subject...her young son.

We are pleased to report that we successfully teamed up with Norwich University College of the Arts (NUCA) to win a competitive national four way pitch to secure the web design and development that will act as the key media platform to showcase a diverse range of archived films from East Anglia and Upper Normandy.

Norwich HEART’s Digital Heritage Project is bringing the archive alive by working with two major film archives from both sides of the channel, the East Anglian Film Archive and Rouen based, Pôle Image Haute-Normandie. The Digital Heritage Project’s main objectives are to research and select for digitisation films from as far back as 1896 and to showcase these East Anglian and French films which are an important part of our social history and heritage.  

The creation of a dedicated bi-lingual website will launch in 2012 and will showcase a state of the art timeline of East Anglian and French films from the last century.

Between now and the launch of the website there will be a programme of Digital Heritage Project events and screenings planned throughout the region. Please visit www.heritagecity.org for further information

Based in the City near Blackfriars, Isadore Goldman is a niche law firm specialising in insolvency (personal and corporate), bank recovery, property and commercial litigation. The firm has undertaken insolvency and recovery work since 1885, and is now rated within the top band of insolvency firms in London (Chambers).

The new content managed website will deliver the firm a state of the art platform that will not only attract new businesses but also take on-line client servicing to a whole new level. 

Isadore Goldman Senior Partner Frank Brumby Comments:

We selected Soak because we were confident that they could deliver exactly what we needed. From our initial meeting with Jim it was apparent that Soak had a good understanding of our business sector as they quickly gauged our particular needs giving plain advice and great ideas. Very refreshing!

It’s essential that the candidate has demonstrable understanding of key digital marketing channels, especially social media, combined with solid commercial awareness.

Being innovative and able to confidently present and articulate new ideas to both clients and our internal development team is a must.

The ability to understand and develop thorough and rational briefs is also a pre-requisite, along with solid project management skills.

On a day to day basis the role will be integral to the client services team, being involved with many aspects of the business. This can range from new business proposals, product marketing, developing strategic relationships, research and intelligence gathering, management of social media and search activity, along with managing and delivering relevant projects.

This full time role, based at Soak’s city centre studio in Norwich offers the chance to join a growing agency with big ambitions and a reputation for producing top-flight work.

Salary is £DOE and comes with a generous holiday allowance.

If you’re interested, please send your CV and covering email to info@soak.co.uk

Chris is a seasoned designer who studied at Norwich School of Art & Design before gaining a degree in Architecture at Lincoln School of Architecture (BA Hons Architecture). His early career saw him move away from Norwich to work in Lincoln and Newark for 10 years, but his family and Norwich City's promotion to the premiership proved too hard to resist.

Chris has worked for a wide range of public and private sector clients, and has been responsible for numerous design projects, from album artwork to websites, architectural masterplans to heritage restoration schemes.

Passions include; classic car/scooter restoration, playing guitar in blues bands (playing at BBC Maida Vale studios, the Waterfront, etc), NCFC, photography and cookery.

Little known fact... he originally studied an RICS accredited degree - BA Hons in Valuation & Auctioning Fine Art and Chattels, so he's a bit of a David Dickinson minus the perma tan!

Sravanthi is a seasoned PHP programmer with a degree in computer science from a reputed university in India. For the last 3 years she has been working in America for a variety of well known technology companies, but decided to relocate to Norfolk at the start of the year.

She is proficient in a wide range of technologies and programming languages, although her primary focus and passion is working with  PHP, MySQL and Linux. In addition to this she also has extensive knowledge and experience in J2EE, Websphere and Sql server.

Even in her spare time Sravanthi enjoys coding and loves experimenting with new technologies other interests include Photography, Jet skiing, Playing Chess, Cricket and Cooking.

The team are currently busy working on a number of new projects for the University of East Anglia and The Economist Group.

One of the exciting things we're doing for the UEA is developing a series of custom micro site templates that will be first used for the Norwich Business School. The micro sites will run on the Java based content management system (CMS) Liferay. When complete the project will deliver the UEA an efficient means of creating attractive and usable individual micro sites that will help improve ongoing management.

Soak's Jake Hithersay Comments:

It's great to be working with the teams at the UEA across such a broad number of projects. Their brand certainly adds huge weight to our regional client list.

We are also pleased to report that our relationship with The Economist Group continues to go from strength to strength, with several exiting projects currently in the studio.

Working closely with the Economists Intelligence Unit (EIU) we will be delivering a number of highly bespoke, content managed, multi language research based sites for a number of their international blue chip clients.

In addition to this hardcore programming, our creative team are also creating some cool interactive rich media ads for the Economist Group....watch this space!

The right candidate will need to hit the ground running so will demonstrate proven experience with the following:

PHP5
MySQL
Object-oriented design and development

Ideally, fully conversant in the use of:

Subversion
Linux
Apache web server

Experience of the following would be advantageous:

HTML / CSS
Zend Framework
Magento
Java
Polopoly and Velocity Templates

Please note that we are looking for a thoroughbred server-side developer with a positive attitude and for someone who can take the lead on projects but work as part of the team.

One of our targets for all our developers is to attain Zend PHP5 Certification, so if you're not already qualified, we'll be looking for you to sit the exams within a few months.

Salary is dependent upon experience.

Applicants should send their CVs through to info@soak.co.uk

We are looking for someone with several years agency or freelance experience that has a thorough understanding of the creative design processes required for today's diverse digital environment.

Beyond the stunning examples of interface design you should be able to confidently present your work and ideas.

The ideal candidate will possess the full creative vocabulary and demonstrate innovation and initiative.

This is great opportunity for the right candidate to join a highly ambitious growing agency!

If you think you've got it, then we'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email to creative@soak.co.uk introducing yourself, including links to / examples of your top 5 pieces of work.

Submissions by Thursday 24th February
£DOE + generous holiday

We are working closely with Archant Dialogue who produce the H.O.G printed magazine, to deliver a highly integrated strategy that will seamlessly link traditional magazine editorial to a range of dynamic mobile content.

Soaks Jim Havers Comments:

The latest statistics say that by 2013 more people will be browsing the web on their mobiles than on traditional PCs, so it makes extremely good business sense to ensure that your content is optimised and delivered in the most usable and efficient way.

As an agency we are keen to exploit the latest technologies and have made significant investment in our mobile proposition over the last year.

Washington Green unites some of the finest painters and most collectable artists in the contemporary art world. As an award winning art publisher, the company specialises in representing the very best art through a network of nationwide art galleries.

Both websites will be powered by a bespoke Soak content management system with Richard Denyer's website offering fully integrated e-commerce. Development has already started and both sites will be live within the next few weeks, so watch this space...

And Finally...

We have neglected to mention the arrival of David Bumpus to the development team (apologies David) David joined the team back in October as a server side developer and has hit the ground running, working across a number of high profile accounts - including the two above!

Julian studied for a computer sciences degree at the UEA, specialising in application development using C++ - He also well versed in PHP, Java and Python.

If you have an urgent enquiry you can contact us, as we will be checking emails and voice messages regularly over the holiday period.

In the meantime, we wish you a very Happy Christmas and prosperous New Year!

An extremely diverse range of businesses attended including publishers, designers, IT experts and financial firms.

The morning was led by Soak Business Development Manager James Reeve.

The highly informative and interactive workshop brought an in depth insight into the ever changing world of digital marketing, demonstrating the various opportunities open to businesses to develop and succeed online. The workshop delivered insight and strategy in channels from Website Design and Usability, through to best practice Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, Social Media and more

In addition to providing a comprehensive overview of digital opportunities, Soak were available to provide one-to-one guidance, and answer questions from individuals on their own requirements and business challenges.

Feedback was hugely encouraging, with many businesses commenting that they feel better equipped to review and plan their digital marketing strategies.

"Relevant and informative content"

"Very beneficial to my business and I'm looking forward to more"

"This has helped us identify the many needs in our business"

"I thought I knew enough - clearly I don't"

"The speaker showed a phenomenal and in-depth knowledge of the subject"

James added:

"I enjoyed delivering the workshop immensely and believe it was a great success. There was a very diverse audience spread across multiple business sectors, meaning the level of interaction and questions was strong and varied. With so much content to cover in a short space of time it is sometimes difficult to know the level of detail to pitch at, however there was fantastic community feel amoungst the group which seemed to deliver something for everyone"

The workshop entitled - "Digital - What works best and what's good value for your business?" is designed to help provide local businesses with the insight and confidence to effectively plan and deliver a successful marketing strategy.

This has followed the re-launch of NAME (Norwich Action for Marketing and Exhibitions) which is a unique marketing support programme lead by Norfolk Network to benefit local SME's.

There will be demonstrations of a wide range of technical and creative issues with popular topics including:

• branding online
• usability and best practice
• website design and build
• organic and paid search marketing
• email marketing
• analytics

All demonstrations will be based on solutions to real business growth problems.

Soak will be encouraging active participation in Q & A and networking sessions to try and understand the individual challenges and deliver expert advice around the best strategies for them moving forward to develop their business and achieve high levels of ROI.

James Reeve, Business Development Manager at Soak says:

"In a rapidly changing digital world it can be difficult to stay focused and really understand and define what the best online strategy is to fit your goals and often limited budgets and what will provide an effective return on investment for your business. This interactive half day workshop we will be offering clear and practical advice for anyone needing to acquire the skills and knowledge to confidently plan and improve their online marketing"

For more information on the workshop please contact Soak Business Development Manager, James Reeve at james.reeve@soak.co.uk or visit http://www.norfolknetwork.com/a.php?cat=12107&article_id=3507

We are a young and ambitious digital marketing agency who offer an array of digital services for a range of different clients, including some of UK's biggest companies such as Harley Davidson, The Economist and AXA. We take pride in delivering solutions that exceed expectations and push the boundaries of each project.

We offer the opportunity to work in a dynamic environment with a high quality development team who will mentor you through the projects you will be working on.

We're looking for someone with exposure to, and a firm interest in the following:

PHP5
MySQL
Object oriented design and development

Your application will benefit from having used any of the following:

Subversion
Linux
Apache web server
Smarty
HTML/CSS

Please note that we are not looking for an HTML/CSS coder who's done a little bit of PHP. We're looking for someone who's core interest is in server-side development.

Your PHP knowledge will be tested in an interview.

What will be more valuable to us than any of the skills above is proof of a clear ability and desire to learn new skills. A positive attitude and ability to work as part of a team are essential.

One of our targets for all new developers is to attain Zend PHP5 Certification within 6 months.

Salary expectation should be between 12k-15k dependent on experience (no agencies).

Applicants should send their CV's through to info@soak.co.uk

Jake Hithersay, one of Soak Digital founding directors is urging small businesses to have the confidence to say 'NO' to a new website unless they are positive it will offer a good return on investment and make a real difference to the company's profitability.

"These days you don't actually need to have a website to run a modern and well-connected business," says Jake. "Depending on the sector that you work in and what your business objectives are, you could realistically operate in the digital world using a variety of social media tools, online business networks and third-party blogging platforms."

Jake continues; "That's not to say that a great website can't be a fantastic tool for many businesses and not for profit organisations. But if you commissioned your site ten, five or even three years ago and haven't touched it since, the chances are that it is virtually value-less. Unless you are committed to keeping your site fresh, newsworthy, interesting and optimised to encourage search engines to find it, you basically have a very expensive, and probably out of date, online brochure that only a very few people will bother to look at."

"The majority of organisations in Norfolk have spent money on building a website at some point. However because most of them cannot afford a dedicated website or online manager, the site gets left to its own devices or is updated on a very occasional basis," continues Jake. "We spoke to one business owner who was disappointed that her company wasn't coming up in Google searches; it turned out that she hasn't updated her site for three years!"

Soak is hosting a free Digital Surgery on Thursday 15 July at The Cube, in Norwich's Forum. From 12noon - 7pm, businesses, charities, schools and not for profit organisations of any size can obtain free advice on any aspect of their web design, site development and digital marketing activity.

"From the recent conversations we've had with businesses, we're expecting to cover a wide range of technical and creative issues on 15 July; from pay per click advertising and search engine optimisation, to content management, e-commerce and social media," says Jake. "Our team is hugely experienced, knowledgeable and creative and our aim is for visitors to leave the surgery with practical tips that will help their business succeed without costing them a fortune."

Everyone who attends the Digital Surgery will leave with a copy of the Soak guide to avoiding 'Digital Disasters'; a list of top tips to make sure that your online activity works for you and doesn't fall foul of regulations.

The Digital Surgery starts at 12noon on 15 July and there's no need to book. To find out more please visit www.soak.co.uk/surgery or call 01603 630631. For further information about The Forum, directions and parking information, please visit www.theforumnorwich.co.uk.

Quentor Ltd are the UK's leading manufacturer of lightweight flight cases and transport solutions. They have achieved an enviable reputation by supplying top quality products and a first class service to their customers for over 30 years.

Users of Quentor cases can be found in many fields, including offshore oil and gas, instrumentation, audio visual, the military, police forces and all levels of motorsport from Karts to Formula One.

Soak's Jim Havers Comments:
We are really pleased to be working with Quentor. We are confident the new website will not only reflect the exceptional quality of their products and manufacturing processes but also generate the company a far higher degree of market presence moving forward.

From its humble beginnings in 1843, when The Economist newspaper was founded by a Scottish hat manufacturer to further the cause of free trade, The Economist Group has evolved into a global media company and are now one of the world's leading sources of analysis on international business and world affairs.

Soak will be working closely with 'The Economist Intelligence Unit' on a new research based website along with supporting media and marketing collateral.

The Economist Intelligence Unit is the world's foremost provider of country, industry and management analysis. Its extensive international reach and unfettered independence make it the most trusted and valuable resource for international business throughout the world.

Soak's Jake Hithersay comments:
We are extremely pleased to be working with such a respected worldwide brand. The project will make use of a number of different technologies and media channels so all the team are really looking forward to getting started.

Immerse Image Manager is being used to manage and organise their digital assets.

SEEDA selected the Immerse system after a five way pitch with other software providers.

The new system will allow SEEDA to consolidate and easily manage 1000's of digital files across the whole organisation. Assets can be easily categorised, shared and tracked with their internal workforce, agencies and partners alike - ensuring better brand consistency and improved workflow.

Soaks Jim Havers comments:

It's pleasing that our Immerse system stands up to such thorough scrutiny. We are really looking forward to working with SEEDA on this project.

They will add more valuable skills and resource to an already experienced team.

Eugene joins us from May Gurney where he worked as a Senior Applications Developer. He was pivotal to the ongoing development of May Gurney's work order management systems which is used nationally to track and expedite May Gurney's workflow.

Lee previously ran his own web agency where he took on a variety of key roles - the main of which was lead server-side developer. Lee also has an excellent knowledge of SEO and has already helped make a number of improvements to our existing SEO offering.

James Thomson head of server side development at Soak comments: "The growth of the server-side team allows us to continue to respond and react quickly to our client's requests. Eugene and Lee both bring unique skills to the team which only help to grow the wealth of knowledge that already exists within the team."

Park Resorts offers UK family holidays at a choice of 37 Holiday Parks on the UK coast, providing holidays for over 500,000 guests a year.

The new image management system will allow Park Resorts staff to efficiently manage and distribute thousands of images to supporting agencies and affiliates, for use across the groups on/off-line publications.
The custom built solution will be tailored to the clients exact business requirements, ensuring their is no wasted functionality and unnecessary licence fees.

Soaks Jim Havers comments: "It's another great account win and we are pleased Park Resorts selected our system from a list of strong contenders - It continues our steady progress into the tourism and leisure sector".

The new site is being produced in partnership with Archant Dialogue who design, publish and distribute the printed HOG magazine to more than 100,000 members across Europe.

As well as including all the latest Images and Video from European events and members across the region, the new content managed site will also feature a number of innovative social media modules; including an interactive ride planner and that will allow users to submit, share and download their favourite riding routes using a custom built Google Maps application.

Soak’s Jim Havers comments: "It's fantastic to be working with such an iconic and well respected company. The new site will provide users with a rich, interactive experience, allowing them to participate with the brand in a new and exiting way - the team can't wait to get started!"

The new site will launch in August in preparation for European Bike Week which takes place in Austria 8th-12th September.

The good news is that one month later the new site has launched and is generating record levels of business!

5 DAY operations manager Richard Minkler comments "Working with Soak has been painless and all work has been delivered on time, on budget with minimum fuss. The new site is already generating more visitors and enquires have increased by over 30% - not bad in a recession".

Following the success of the new site, Soak will be working with 5 DAY on all their online marketing activity moving forward.

See the site at: www.5day.co.uk

An appreciation of Object Oriented programming is advantageous, along with a knowledge of programming design patterns. A reasonable knowledge of HTML would be beneficial too.

Although commercial experience is an advantage, it is not essential if you can demonstrate your PHP skills through examples you've developed in your own time. Above all we're looking for someone who has a passion for programming.

You'd be working on a variety of projects from small website builds taking only a few days to larger more complex sites lasting several months. You'd be working with a team of highly skilled coders who will act as mentors in order to develop your skills and ensure you're exposed to a wide range of related technologies.

Salary dependent on experience (no agencies)

In the first instance please send your CV and examples of your work to info@soak.co.uk

Alan brings with him expertise across a broad range of digital media. After a number of new account  wins he will certainly be kept busy and is looking forward to the challenge.

Soaks Jim Havers comments:
We had been on the lookout for a talented designer for some time, so we were naturally pleased when Alan's CV came through the door. He has impressed everyone with his energy and enthusiasm and I am sure he will be a valuable addition to the team.

The company behind brands such as Littlewoods, Ben Sherman, Kays and now Woolworths.

Shop Direct Home Shopping Limited is the UK’s leading online and home shopping retailer, with annual sales of around £1.5 billion and five million customers. The re-development is a part of the company's objective to shift to 70% online sales by 2010.

The new platform will be based on ATG's state-of-the-art ecommerce technology. The ATG Commerce application suite is the top-rated platform by industry analysts for powering highly personalized, efficient and effective e-commerce sites.

Soak's James Thomson comments:
"Having worked with EMC Conchango in the past it's extremely pleasing to have been asked to join their team on such an enormous project. I have the utmost confidence that we'll deliver our requirements on time and to the same high standard as all our other projects."

5 Day are one the UK's leading driving schools and offer intensive driving courses to people from all walks of life. They have even had a few celebrity clients through the doors including Jamelia, and more recently Big Brother winner Brian Belo.

The new site will provide comprehensive information on 5 Day's services, and also feature online booking and payment plus a video diary that charts a students progress through the course.

5 Day operations manager Richard Minkler says " We selected Soak to re-develop the site because they showed a great understanding of our business and came back with a range of excellent ideas that will help move the business forward."

The new site will launch at the end of this month.

NUCA is a dynamic, modern and creative community providing a wide range of art, design and media education for both national and international students.

The new website supports a complete rebrand for NUCA (formerly Norwich School of Art and Design) and coincides with the end of its first year with full degree-awarding powers.

After a detailed review of their requirements, we developed the new website using a flexible and well supported open source Content Management System (CMS) Joomla 1.5.

To ensure a smooth, cost effective and expedient delivery we made full use of the extensive range of standard modules that form a large part of the Joomla CMS - some of which we customised/extended to better suit NUCA's requirements.

NUCA's David Girling Comments:

" We asked Soak to build a 100% content managed site using 3rd party php software working with templates designed by our branding agency, hat-trick design. We have been extremely impressed with their professionalism, advice and attention to detail. They have delivered the project on time and to budget in a very short timescale. We have subsequently appointed them for online marketing support and look forward to working with them in the future."

The research house expects online sales to grow by 6% a year from its current level of £37bn as consumer spending continues to shift online.

According to the research, which is due out later today, fashion was the fastest growing area of online retail during 2008. Books, DVDs and travel were the most frequently bought items over the period.

The Forrester research, which places the UK's online spend ahead of that in France and Germany, expects the number of UK online shoppers to grow from 30m this year to 37m by 2014

(Source NMA)

The objective of the project was to improve response rates and apply a new contemporary look and feel to the emails reflecting the quality of the products and services on offer.

Bernice Willson, Marketing coordinator said "I'm so happy with the work that Soak have done and the new email has received the highest response rate recorded so far in comparison to the other divisions"

Our clients are important to us and the new suite will ensure that whoever comes to visit is kept comfortable and entertained. We are still deciding on a definitive theme.......but with our limited DIY skills it's more likely to be Jackson Pollock than Pablo Picasso.

The new suite will be ready in the next couple of weeks, so if you fancy popping in let us know and we will make sure the kettle is on!

Steve has a broad range of skills having previously worked for a number of high profile agencies on a number of key accounts. He has extensive experience in planning, building and maintaining enterprise-class web applications, web sites and content management systems and will form and integral part of our expanding development team. Steve says "I am very excited about working for Soak, and am delighted to lend my skills as a web developer to their already talented team."

Soaks Jim Havers comments "We are pleased to be in a position to hire new talent despite the economic downturn. Steve has a great deal of experience and expertise, we certainly hope he lives up to his name!"

Some 3.8m consumers spent a total of £102m - an average of £26.80 per shopper - on Christmas Day, up 21% on the same day last year.

However, the number of people shopping online on Christmas Day was 14% lower than in 2007.

James Roper, CEO at IMRG, said, "The volume of transactions was 26% higher, and the value rose by 21%, indicating that serious bargain hunting was the order of the day."

On Christmas Day etailers such as Marks & Spencer, John Lewis and Play.com were running online sales.

Statistics from online digital research firm eDigital Research found online traffic increased by nearly 100% between Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

Chris Russell, director at eDigital Research, said, "We noticed that most traditional retailers commenced online sales when stores closed on Christmas Eve, with pure play retailers starting after last delivery day deadlines were reached. This means that the increased purchases on Christmas Day and the huge surge in traffic on Boxing Day could have been as a result of this."

(Source NMA)

We might be a new agency but it certainly doesn't mean we're inexperienced. Our team have a proven track record delivering award winning digital solutions for some of the UK's leading brands.

Why Soak?

Quite simply we like to immerse ourselves in our clients businesses and come back with bold, sophisticated, business focussed solutions that deliver exceptional return on investment.

Creativity is our passion; it's at the heart of everything we do. It's this, combined with our excellent technical capabilities and flexible approach to business that sets us apart, and enables us to deliver above and beyond the original brief.

If you are looking for exceptional quality digital solutions at unexceptional prices, please get in touch, we'd love to hear from you.