Bigmouthmedia has been shortlisted for two awards at the prestigious 2010 Travolution Awards. Judges at the awards – which recognise excellence in the travel marketing industry – handed Europe’s largest independent digital marketing company nominations in two critical categories.

Bigmouthmedia’s work with British Airways has seen the industry-leading campaign placed amongst the front runners to carry off the 2010 trophy for Best Use of Search Engine Optimisation, while the agency’s successful strategy for Macdonald Hotels has seen it named amongst the contenders for the Best Use of Affiliate Marketing prize.

Anneli Ritari, senior travel strategist at bigmouthmedia, said: “We’re delighted to have been nominated in two categories. The team has worked closely with both BA and Macdonald Hotels to deliver what have been two extremely effective strategies and we’re very pleased that all their effort and innovation has been recognised in this manner. It’s a real boost for everyone involved.”

For their winning campaign bigmouthmedia and British Airways partnered again to launch an ambitious search campaign integrating SEO and PPC aimed at improving SEO rankings, reducing PPC spend and ensuring PPC budget was used tactically to drive incremental sales volume. Their strategy, which carefully matched business objectives, achieved, cross-channel synergies to maximise ROI and budget efficiencies and delivered excellent results, including 31% reduction in paid search CPA, 87% reduction in PPC spend for certain keywords and 400% increase in number one ranking positions for “flights to <destination>” keywords.

The proactive affiliate marketing campaign which bigmouthmedia put together for Macdonald Hotels based around the use of bespoke offers and improving coverage of hotel name and brand-hybrid terms achieved equally strong results. In addition to improved ROI across all online channels the strategy saw average booking values increased by 13.9% and drove a 110% year-on-year increase in revenue from the affiliate channel for the group.

Bigmouthmedia has called upon the Financial Services Authority to introduce new rules to govern the selling of finance products online.

Speaking at the annual bigmouthmedia Finance Summit in London, finance strategist Chris Cathcart unveiled the results of a new consumer survey showing that 77% of web users believe that online financial advertising is neither honest nor straight-forward. The research – conducted in partnership with Financial Marketing UK – revealed that a clear majority of respondents mistrust the sector.

“The Financial Services Authority has to recognise that the web marketplace presents a unique range of challenges for the finance sector and that continuing to ignore the issue is no longer an option. They must step up to the plate and help organisations by providing a detailed set of guidelines governing selling online if we are to avoid what could end up as a compliance nightmare,” said Cathcart, bigmouthmedia’s senior finance strategist.

Consumers also displayed similar levels of mistrust and suspicion when it comes to the financial figures such as interest rates and potential savings gains displayed on websites. A resounding 65% of respondents categorically stated that they do not trust such numbers and cannot make decisions based upon them.

When asked to identify the product categories they found troublesome to research online, consumers identified the most significant challenges as arising when investigating investment opportunities. A compelling 65% said they found researching investment products either “fairly confusing” or “very confusing”, whereas 80% said they had little or no problems evaluating car insurance deals on the web.

Results from the research indicate that language could play a significant role in the confusion. An overwhelming 98% of respondents believe that the terms and conditions governing products and services sold online should be in plain English rather than the complex legal jargon currently used in the majority of contracts.

“The evidence couldn’t be any clearer: the majority of consumers distrust the finance sector and there is a lot of work to do to win that confidence back. Wording terms and conditions in a manner they can understand would be a major step towards achieving this,” added Cathcart.

Via EPR Network
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Bigmouthmedia has again been named the UK’s number 1 SEO and PPC agency in the New Media Age Marketing Services Guide for 2010.

This is the second year in a row that the agency has topped the prestigious chart, widely regarded as the definitive guide to the UK’s digital marketing landscape. The NMA league table is ranked on the basis of income, with bigmouthmedia’s range of big brand client wins, cross-channel expertise and experienced management team cited as being key to the company’s industry-leading status.

“Like every industry the search sector has faced a lot of challenges recently, but despite difficult economic circumstances the blend of effectiveness and measurable ROI that online marketing provides is still proving a winning combination,” said Phil Gripton, Managing Director of bigmouthmedia UK.

“We’re delighted that the company’s continued progress has been recognised. It is a tribute to the dedicated, skilled and passionate team that underpins everything we do at bigmouthmedia.”

Highlighting the international expertise offered by bigmouthmedia’s offices both in the UK and across the US, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, France and Spain, New Media Age attributed the company’s success, despite challenging trading conditions, to its reputation for digital marketing expertise and a strong social media offering.

Moving forwards the agency’s digital, technological and creative capacity is set to expand following bigmouthmedia’s merger with LBi, which is due to be completed in July. The combined agency will be the world’s largest marketing and technology agency. Announced in February the deal was brokered to address a changing climate where clients are increasingly looking for best in class agencies with the capacity to cover all aspects of digital marketing.