Outsource Digital

Outsource Digital – Part of Outsource UK Ltd. We're committed to bringing you the most interesting headlines and latest industry insight.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Phones 4 U: High Street Assassination?


Last week it was announced that Phones4U went into administration, putting 5,596 jobs at more than 700 outlets at risk, after Vodafone, EE and O2 did not renew their contracts with the company.

Original founder, John Caudwell, described it as an "unprecedented assassination" as he believes the mobile giants may have congregated about ending their contracts with Phones4U. Are they under any obligation to continue trading with Phones 4U though?

However, EE argued that its decision to end its relationship with Phones 4U was strategic, as they look to focus on their own shops and cut out intermediaries. They seemed to of hugely benefitted from the Phones 4U collapse as they have strengthened their position and bought out 58 Phones 4U stores.

Can the middle man survive on the high street now? Being a middle man can be a very profitable role but also highly risk as there is a lack of power. With EE looking to 'cut out intermediaries', will this relate to other retailers such as Carphone Warehouse in the future? This move seems to open up many questions regarding trading in the mobile environment.

While private equity firm BC (that owned Phones 4U) has been criticised for loading the retailer with more than £200m debt. Unfortunately Phones 4U staff will pay the price for this irresponsibility.

In hindsight it seems like a mess, it also shows just how fragile a reputable high retailer is in the 21st century. Could this have a knock on affect to other industries as they look to cut out intermediaries and increase security in a fragile environment? Only time will tell.

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Saturday, September 27, 2014

Outsource UK broadens expertise with acquisition of Chrysalis Digital Recruitment

Outsource UK, one of the country’s largest independent recruitment businesses, has broadened its area of expertise with the acquisition of the Manchester-based digital recruitment consultancy known as Chrysalis Digital Recruitment.

The deal will see the Chrysalis name disappear and the organisation rebranded as Outsource UK. Chris Crawford and Harriet Sanders, the former owners of Creativesrus Ltd (trading as Chrysalis Recruitment) and all of the existing staff at the Manchester consultancy will transfer to Outsource. Crawford will lead what will become Outsource’s new digital division.  

Paul Jameson, MD of Outsource UK said, “This is another great strategic acquisition for us.  The businesses are very complementary and this new digital division will expand our IT expertise and broaden our area of reach.  Chrysalis specialise in recruiting staff for the digital sector so this acquisition complements our IT specialism and provides new opportunities for growth.”

“This is our third acquisition in three years and is another important step in expanding the business and strengthening Outsource’s competitive position.  We plan to continue to grow through strategic acquisitions as well as continuing our period of growth as the economy recovers and the demand for staff increases.”

Chris Crawford said: “I’m really pleased to be joining Outsource UK.  Chrysalis are specialists in an expanding market so becoming part of a much larger group will allow us to develop and to gain more market share.  When I met Paul Jameson and Outsource, it soon became apparent that we have shared ethics and real synergy in how both organisations work.  Like Outsource, Chrysalis was built on a foundation of developing relationships with our clients and focusing on investing in our staff in order to provide a first class quality service.”

Outsource UK Ltd is a national staffing business specialising in the supply of contract and permanent IT and engineering resource to businesses across the UK.  The company now employs 60 people and this year has a projected annual turnover in excess of £40 million. MD Paul Jameson created the business in 1991. It is headquartered in Swindon, Wiltshire and has offices in Midlands, Manchester and in London.



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Monday, September 15, 2014

Another month goes by and Facebook release another update. They take the expressions "Staying on top of your game" to another level!

"Why don't you like the adverts?"

This week Facebook announced that it will start asking users for more information after they click to hide an advert. With the new feature, users will be presented with a number of options for why they are hiding the ad, including:

  1. It’s not relevant to me
  2. I keep seeing this
  3. It’s offensive or inappropriate
  4. It’s spam
  5. Something else

The purpose is to try and improve the experience for users, and will also use the information to better target ads to other users on the site.

This may seem a little frustrating for users as its obvious that no one likes adverts! But this will be really beneficial for brands as it increases the effectiveness of targeting ads on the social platform.

Facebook; Power Editor Update

 Facebook plans to roll out a number of updates to its Power Editor this month, which will make it much easier for advertisers to prepare and also preview adverts before launching them.

 Facebook said the following on their planned changes; “In the past, since these ads were anchored to page posts, they were not changeable. With this change, advertisers can now create News Feed ads at scale, preview them during creation, edit them at any time, and bulk import/export them.”

Facebook is also updating its objectives, and will provide a number of new options for advertisers to choose to help Facebook optimize their ad performance.

These options include:

  1. Clicks to Website
  2. Website Conversions
  3. Page post engagement for photos
  4. Video View

These changes should simplify the process greatly for advertisers, particularly first timer users. It also makes it more accessible for people who are daunted by technology, especially when it involves parting with cash.

 Facebook is Sharing King!

A new report from Fractl shows that over 8 in 10 shares on social sites are on Facebook!

Fractl analysed the one million most-shared articles from the first six months of 2014. Collectively, these articles generated more than 2.6 billion shares, and 81.9 percent of these happened on Facebook!

To put this into perspective here's the rankings of the other social sites; Twitter  (8.6 percent), Google+ (4.3 percent), Pinterest (3 percent), and LinkedIn (2.2 percent).

Social sharing has become a crucial part of online marketing and this information should be at the forefront of your mind when creating content. Every post should have a clear goal and be tailored to the social site(s) you (or your followers) plan to share this content on.
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Saturday, August 30, 2014

Homeaway - The online holiday rental company took the decision to appoint former Visa and Vodafone marketer Mariano Dima as chief marketing officer. A newly created role that will oversee all global marketing, corporate communications and brand initiatives. Dima's CV includes 20 years of marketing, product and business development for brands that cinlude PepsiCo, Vodafone, Levi Straus and Visa.

Regus - Eva Eisenschimmel has become the latest senior marketing executive to join Regus. She follows Rick Vlemmiks who joined as their most senior marketer last year. Eisenschimmel, who left Lloyds earlier this year after three years as group marketing director, joins in september and has been tasked with looking after the company’s global marketing efforts.

Ryanair - Ryanair has appointed John Hurley as its first chief technology officer, this move comes as Rynair attempts to forge its 'online travel revolution' that will ‘change the world of online air travel’.
Hurley will be responsibile for developing its fledgling digital and technology strategy, with the company in the process of recruiting a team of up to 200 people across marketing, content and strategy that Hurley will oversee. Hurley joins from educational publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt where he was vice president of software development.

Instagram - James Quarles has made the move from parent company Facebook to his new role as global head of business and brand development for Instagram.
Quarles will be responsible for the overall growth of Instagram as well as “building a broad asset of solutions for brands of all sizes on Instagram”.
The move means he will have to relocate from London to Instagram’s US headquarters and report into the company’s founder and CEO Kevin Systrom.
Instagram has been “deliberately” slowly rolling out advertising on the app since it first began trialling ads with a small group of brands in the US last November. Read more about Instagrams new features.

National Trust - Jordan replaces Clare Mullen, who left 4 weeks ago to move to India. She will take over towards the end of the year, although a date has not yet been set. Harry Heeley, previously commercial director at the Trust, is running the marketing department in the interim.
Jordan’s appointment comes as the National Trust renews its focus on digital. It will relaunch its website and mobile app at the start of next year to shift away from just providing information about its properties to offering more engaging content personalised to visitors based on where they live and their previous visits.

Buzzfeed - BuzzFeed has appointed ad sales veteran Greg Coleman as its new president with the task of ramping up its social advertising offering to brands. He joins from Criteo, where he was president. His other experience includes being a former president and chief revenue officer at Huffington Post and vice president of sales at Yahoo. Coleman replaces Jon Steinberg who left last month to join the MailOnline.
In addition to overseeing sales, creative services, marketing and products and business development, he is tasked with securing a greater share of brands’ ad budget for Buzzfeed’s social advertising offering.

Apple - Musa Tariq has been hired by Apple as they are set to increase their social media activity, something that has been discipline it has been slow to embrace. They hope that Musa, who is viewed as a pioneer in the social media world, will help push the brand on through community management and viral content.
The former Burberry social media director reunites with the fashion house’s previous chief executive Angela Ahrendts, who became senior vice president of Apple Retail in May.
Apple has very few social media accounts with the company discounting the need to engage fans constantly to buy its products until recently. Tariq is tasked with resolving the limited presence, an area chief executive Tim Cook has looked to address through a string of high-profile hires and acquisitions.
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Thursday, August 28, 2014


A recent report from the CMO Council has given us an insight into marketers thoughts and plans for next year.

The most common theme; improved targeting. When asked, “What steps are you taking to maximise the impact and value of your marketing in the next 12 months?” over 60 percent said improving customer segmentation and targeting was a priority.

What else is on the horizon for marketers in 2015?

  • Localising strategies (38%)
  • Further investment in digital and online relationship building (33%)
  • Testing campaigns to validate potential impact (31%)

What does this mean for your business?

Is there anything worse than receiving a text message or email from a brand that is completely irrelevant to yourself? The opposite can be said when you receive a well thought out one, it makes you feel special. Segmentation offers you the chance to create a personalised experience for your consumers. Improved targeting can go as far as you want it to, but the more time and effort you put into it the more likely you are to improve your chances of people engaging with your brand. Demographics, geographic, buyer frequency, behavioural; these are just some of the categories by which you can segment your audience to create a relevant message.

This is really important for smaller businesses as well. With inferior marketing budgets to global brands; its important to make every penny spent as effective as possible. Local businesses normally compete on a local level which makes geographic segmentation particularly important.
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