Seanpaul Walsh

This morning, I had the pleasure of participating in the judging session for the UK Search Awards, once again reviewing an impressive array of high-quality campaigns from across the Search Marketing industry highlighting that our industry continues to overflow with exceptional ideas and results. Now, this year marks a milestone for me, as it’s the 10th consecutive year that I’ve supported Don't Panic Events as a volunteer judge. Over the past decade, I’ve had the honour of judging several Don’t Panic Events awards, including the UK and EU Search Awards, Ecommerce Awards, and Agency Awards, to name a few. Each time, I’ve carefully reviewed countless entries, diving deep into campaign strategies, execution, objectives, and results to ensure that the most deserving work gets recognised. This process has taken quite literally hundreds of hours of my time over the years, unpaid, but I’ve never hesitated to contribute. And that got me thinking. Why do I continue to do it? I’ve heard all sorts of misconceptions over the years about awards, from claims of influence to “pay-to-win” setups, often from those who haven’t experienced the process firsthand. The truth is, as a judge, there’s a HUGE amount of work that goes on behind the scenes. We scrutinise every detail, validate results using industry tools, and benchmark campaigns against one another – all with rigorous attention. Multiply that across numerous judges and no single judge can sway the outcome. It’s a truly robust process and I am proud to help ensure honesty and impartiality continues to exist within these prestigious awards for our industry. I also remain committed to giving my time because I believe that great work deserves recognition. Beyond the marketing benefits for the winners, it’s about seeing the genuine excitement and pride on the faces of winners - knowing their hard work is being celebrated. It’s incredibly rewarding to be a part of that moment. It’s also rewarding to know that the winners will leave the awards ceremony incredibly motivated to keep pushing their work and our industry forward. For me to be able to play even a small part in contributing to the growth and support of our industry, as a judge, motivates me to keep doing my part. Best of luck to all the entrants in this year’s UK Search Awards, the shortlist will be announced this Friday! 🏆 #searchawards #uksearchawards #seo #ppc #sem #digitalmarketing

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This new study "The new business case for advertising" brings together the vast insightful econometric databases of Gain Theory Ebiquity plc EssenceMediacom Mindshare Wavemaker to create the most comprehensive analysis of advertising effectiveness to date. Collectively it has examined £1.8 billion worth of media spend across 141 brands and 14 categories. This study is an update and expansion on Gain Theory and Ebiquity's ground-breaking Profit Ability study from 2018. The world has transformed since that original study in almost every respect – from consumer behaviour to media consumption to the socio-economic and political contexts we now live in. Reach out if you would like to know more about the insights from the session. Matthew Chappell Claudia Sestini Justin Nel #roi #marketingeffectiveness #marketingdrivengrowth

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What a brilliant way to start the week with THREE #ukdigitalgrowthawards wins for Metis and MediaVision 🤖 Best Use of AI in Digital 🤖 For our Metis Accelerate product, which supercharges hashtag #SEO growth for large hashtag #ecommerce brands 📊 Best Use of Data 📊 For helping New Look make the biggest SEO gains of any ecommerce brand in the market 🔬 Innovation Award 🔬 For our ability to unlock the potential of market hashtag #data using our flagship platform, Metis #proudmoment #opportunitieseverywhere

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SEO insight: Over 50% of keywords used are four words or longer. Tailoring to long-tail searches can be your gateway to better visibility and conversions. #UKBusiness #LongTailStrategy www.ruddledigital.co.uk

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🛎 Our Latest Mini Blog is out now!! 🛎 Packed with the latest news, information and Amazon gossip, grab a brew, sit back and enjoy! #ventureforge #amazonexperts #amazonagency #amazongrowth #amazonstrategy #amazonseller #amazonvendor #amazonchargebacks

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Pret's subscription model wasn't about loyalty, it was about customer acquisition 🫴 I keep seeing Pret's £30 a month subscription referred to as a loyalty scheme; including in their own financial reports. Now, with their latest move to change it up there's a sense that this was a failed loyalty scheme. But if I flip it on its head, I see it as one giant sampling campaign, partly invested in by the UK population! If you want to get people to pay money for something that they're not quite sure on the quality, value, taste, then one of the ways to get it into their hands is to offer it to them for free or at a low price. And if you want them to continue enjoying your product regularly, you can aim to create a habit around your product. You could do this by giving away lots of your product around the same time every day to embed this ritual into your customers' lives. Brands are leaky buckets, and following the pandemic Pret had a mostly empty bucket! To grow, brands need to aim for light buyers, and continuously bring more people in to your brand than your competitors. I see Pret as looking to get a competitive advantage over other coffee shops by getting competitors' customers to make the switch to Pret, thus stealing market share. When they make the switch to their cheaper subscription but with less 'payback', I imagine there's an assumption that all these 'loyal' customers are so invested in Pret that they'll continue to visit and buy. Yet coffee is a commodity. People will generally go to the coffee shop closest to them in their moment of need! Unless Pret has coffee filled with magic, there's very little reason to choose one coffee chain over another. But, I'm optimistic. I imagine Pret will keep plenty of customers, many of whom were not Pret customers before, because of a successful initiative in driving trial. And if I'd like one thing to come out of this, I'd love to see the next financial report refer to this subscription as a customer acquisition strategy, not a loyalty one 😉

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Rediscovering Profit: The Marketing Mistake Everyone Makes From my talk with Seb Mackay on Brand, in a world obsessed with volume, marketers often neglect the core principle of profit. Join us as we explore the UK marketing landscape and discuss why being a true profit center is crucial for brands' success. Let’s shift the focus back to what truly matters! #Marketing #Brand #BusinessGrowth

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Did you know 45% of people say they are more likely to notice a catalogue sent in the post than a marketing email? If you're in the planning phase for your Christmas activity take a moment, grab a cup of tea and discover more fascinating more stats and benefits for catalogues in our blog. ➡️

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How does a global brand keep customers at the centre of everything it does? 🤔 On this episode of Inside Retail, our very own Grace Hill chats with Gymshark Chief Brand Officer, Noel Mack, about how combining customer and competitive data, plus social media insights, drives their strategy. Plus, hear how Gymshark’s voice-of-customer team and Noel’s personal engagement in fitness culture contribute to their success in minute ten of the episode. 🎧 Listen here: https://hubs.la/Q02Q3Y5g0

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5 Best Pharmaceutical Brand Strategy Decks GSK - this is the most comprehensive brand guidelines we’ve seen in the health category. St John's Ambulance - introduces the two types of copy to help you write — talking to the head and the heart. BlueCross - one of the biggest problems with strategy in healthcare is we make the language too complicated. The list of words to avoid from their Language Simplification section is of great help. Omnipod - the simplicity it brings in solving diabetes is brought through in the simplicity of their brand guidelines design. Time To Change - this gives great descriptions of the specific steps, so if someone has never seen a brand guidelines document before, they can easily follow along. 👉Next week I’m doing a workshop on how to get to great healthcare advertising if you’re interested you can sign up here: https://lnkd.in/gbnmATc9

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Something you might not know about Mischief: we have access to all of MHP Group's behavioural science insight and expertise. Our work may be a little bit naughty, but at least its backed by science 😈 #strategy #prstrategy #behaviouralscience

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