Alastair and Kate will be speaking at this year’s Ad:tech London, at 12.30 on the first day (Tuesday 21st) – come along and see them! 

They’re giving the following presentation:

Discover the benefits of having a digital agency as your lead agency
Are you guilty of bolting on your digital strategy as an afterthought once the big idea has been agreed? Why? Digital marketing is about to dominate offline forms of marketing and your digital agency can tell you more about your customers and their responses to your brand than traditional above the line outfits. More and more clients are asking digital agencies to take the lead and inform the strategy from the outset. Join us in this session to find out why, and how, and what the benefits of this approach can be.

More info on Ad:tech and how to attend (for free) can be found on their website: www.ad-techlondon.co.uk  

Hope to see you there…

Group Account Director Alastair Boyle is looking forward to presenting at Figaro Digital’s SEO & PPC event at London’s The Hospital Club this Thursday, August 4th.

His session ‘All search and no marketing?’ will cover the following:

In a world dominated by technology and algorithms, search marketing can often be all search and no marketing. In this session, Steak goes beyond the buzzword ‘integration’ and draws on real world examples to show how best to use search as part of the marketing mix. We’ll look at how search can integrate with brand campaigns as well direct response, how it can inform and assess offline strategy, and how to maximise the potential of universal search.

Swiftcover.com is set to become the first insurer to use in-game advertising. The new brand campaign will feature virtual billboards in games such as Pro Evolution Soccer; Guitar Hero, Tiger Woods PGA Tour and Blur (a racing game).  The ads will run through August and September on Xbox Live.

The in-game ads will tie into Swiftcover’s “Get a Life” advertising campaign theme featuring Iggy Pop and the “Little Iggy” puppet.

Tina Shortle, Marketing Director for AXA Insurance and swiftcover.com, commented on the initiative, “Swiftcover and Steak have worked closely together over the past five years to stay ahead of the competition. We were the first online only car insurer in 2005, we launched the first car insurance mobile site back in 2007 and have pioneered emerging media channels including Video on Demand and Spotify. Most importantly, we’ve capitalised on early-adopter advantage and have seen some fantastic results.”

The idea was conceived by Steak, who brokered the deal with Massive, the leading video game network, on behalf of swiftcover.com. 

Alastair Boyle, Group Account Director at Steak added, “In-Game advertising is a perfect fit for the swiftcover.com brand and their target audience. This is the latest in our drive to use innovative ad formats for the right reasons, rather than jumping on every new media trend.”

Chris James, EMEA Manager at Massive concluded, “We’re very pleased to be working with Steak to select the right in-game placements for swiftcover.com. In-game ads have been shown to have some of the best recall rates around so it’s fantastic that more and more advertisers are now realising the potential of this medium.”

Studies have shown 72% of gamers recall seeing ads for brands in-game. In 2009 there was a 20% increase in average ad recall from the year before and the average brand recommendation lift scores were 29% ahead [MICROSOFT, 2009] 73% of gamers agreed that “ads enhanced the realism of the game” [INTERPRET, 2008]; and that across 600 gamers on Xbox 360 and PC showed that brand familiarity increased by 64%, brand rating increased by 37%, purchase consideration increased by 41% [NIELSEN, 2007].