Latest News From Targeting Innovation Ltd

Continuing to win through innovation in 2012

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

After another notable year of being involved in Scottish Enterprise's Winning Through Innovation programme, especially with the organisation of two higly successful headline events, Targeting Innovation is looking forward to continuing our involvement in the programme in 2012.

We are set to deliver a series of workshops throughout Scotland in early 2012, with the majority of dates already fixed for January through to March.

For more details on workshops, please go to http://www.scottish-enterprise.com/events.aspx.

Targeting Innovation passes ISO 9001 re-accreditation

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:00 GMT

We are pleased to announce that Targeting Innovation has passed the quality management assessment without major issues and will continue to retain the ISO 9001 certification. As one of only a handful of innovation consultancies to have this certification, we are very proud of this achievement.

To celebrate the re-accreditation and highlight our commitment to quality management the ISO9001 certification logo can now be found in the bottom right corner throughout our website.

Success at MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival

Mon, 3 Oct 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The city's entrepreneurs and SMEs have reaped the benefits, having had the opportunity to rub shoulders with global experts, government ministers, TV stars and like minded individuals - all looking to network, learn and grow.

Numbers were up 100% on last year and most of the events were a complete sell out, showing a growing appetite for MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival in years to come.

Tim Barraclough of Enterprise Europe Network in Yorkshire along side other entrepreneurs and blue chip organisations such as Siemens successfully participated in the Accelerate@ MADE panel session. The session was very well received undoutably contributing to the MADE: Festival's success.

A Yorkshire Star in Europe

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

The competition was strong. Competing in the category of “New Horizons” which showcased inspiring stories of how the Network has helped companies to branch out into new countries or fuel new ideas, were an Icelandic-French collaboration in improving the shelf-life of fish and fresh food, and a British-German undertaking in ecology-based applications for iPhones and iPads.

However, it was a Yorkshire-Danish joint-venture in offshore wind that took the crown at the award ceremony during the Annual Conference of the Enterprise Europe Network in Warsaw, Poland. Members from the 600+ offices in 49 countries of the Enterprise Europe Network took part in the voting and chose the story about how Grimsby-based COSALT came to launch a joint venture with Danish engineering company APRO as the most inspiring success story.

The Joint-Venture, COSALT Wind Energy Ltd, created 30 jobs in the UK and Denmark and landed their first major contract with Siemens involving the supply of engineers to their offshore wind operations around the UK coast and is set to grow further in 2012.

Targeting Innovation has been working closely with the offshore wind sector since 2009, helping local Yorkshire and Humber companies connect with European counterparts. A lot of effort has gone into this with the Network organising company missions, seminars and one-to-one company introductions. Tim Barraclough “It feels good to see that our efforts in Yorkshire have been recognized and validated by our peers”.

You can read the success story here. To learn more about the Enterprise Europe Network in Yorkshire and the services offered by Targeting Innovaiton and its partners in the Yorkshire and Humber region, please visit www.ee-yorkshire.com.

Conference to Help Borders Businesses Join On-line Revolution

Tue, 13 Sep 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Tourism and hospitality businesses in the Scottish Borders are being urged to sign-up to attend a free one-day conference on the growing benefits of social media and internet marketing and we are delighted to be working with Business Gateway Borders to help deliver the event!

Taking place at Dryburgh Abbey Hotel on October 19th, the event will feature top-line speakers including Luke Brynley-Jones, one of the UKs leading social media experts and consultant to world-renowned organisations from British Airways to Christian Aid. Through a combination of presentations and interactive breakout sessions the conference has been designed to help businesses understand the opportunities that social media tools including TripAdvisor, Twitter and Linkedin offer to build relationships with consumers and other businesses.

The conference is being organised by Scottish Borders Council South of Scotland Creative Clusters Project, as part of its events programme.

Project co-ordinator, Hugh Williams said: “Social media is growing at an incredible rate and can not be ignored. Consumer review sites such as TripAdvisor are becoming increasingly influential and tourism businesses can really benefit if they understand how these work and the role they play in reaching potential customers. This event has been developed to be of particular relevance to those who run hotels, guesthouses, B&Bs, restaurants or sell products via the Internet to consumers. Courses on social media and on-line marketing can be very expensive to attend and we are offering this free of charge to give even very small businesses in the Borders the chance to learn more and gain a competitive edge.”

The event will also feature networking opportunities to enable conference attendees to meet creative professionals working in the Scottish Borders who have skills relevant to on-line marketing activity.

Hugh continued: “The Scottish Borders is home to dozens of creative professionals including web designers, copywriters, photographers, graphic designers and marketing agencies. They are ideally placed to help local businesses that decide they want to put aspects of what they learn on the course into practice but don’t have all the skills necessary to do this themselves. The conference will enable attendees to make new contacts in a relaxed setting.”

Places at the conference, entitled “Customer Engagement and the Evolution of Online Marketing” are limited and businesses interested in attending are being encouraged to book early by completing the on-line booking form at the Business Gateway Borders website www.bgborders.co.uk/smc.

Hugh concluded: “There are hundreds of businesses in the Scottish Borders that this course could benefit. It is a one-off chance to hear and learn from some of the UK’s leading online marketing experts and so it’s well worth making time to attend, particularly as it is being offered free of charge.”

The course will run from 9am – 3.30pm and includes tea/coffees and lunch.

Can Social Media Help Businesses Deliver What Their Customers Really Want?

Mon, 8 Aug 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Summing up consumer psychologist Dr Michael Solomon’s leading textbook on the subject of Consumer Behaviour (Consumer Behaviour: Buying, Having and Being), a recent Social Commerce Today article purports to reveal “The Truth About What Customers Really Want”. Distilling Solomon’s research into 50 “actionable insights”, the article concludes that, first and foremost,

“Your customers want a relationship, not a one night stand.”

In other words, marketing success is all about building mutually beneficial relationships with potential customers. Social Media can be powerful business tools to engage with consumers and build up a community around brand or products.

One very impressive example Targeting Innovation has come across recently is how the citizenM Hotel uses Social Media channels to create a buzz and get people talking about and with the brand. Key to the citizenM’s approach to Social Media is sharing relevant and valuable content and providing excellent customer service by reacting to customers’ comments and enquiries. This, quite literally, helps the citizenM to convert “one-night-standers” to repeat customers and ambassadors for the brand, leveraging the viral nature of Facebook & Co.

Targeting Innovation is using the citizenM example as one of many case studies of how businesses have developed successful Social Media strategies in our Social Media Cookbook workshop series. The series re-launches after a short summer break with two FREE “Introduction to Social Media – What the Fuss Is All About and Why You Should Be Doing It” workshops:

Click on the links above for more information about the workshops and to secure a place!

Targeting Innovation Nominated for Network Stars Award

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Since the inception of the Enterprise Europe Network, the European Commission’s technology transfer and business support network, in 2008, Targeting Innovation has been delivering the service in the Yorkshire and Humber region in collaboration with its consortium partners.

During this time, we have provided support to hundreds of companies in the region, helping them to find commercial and technological partners in Europe and beyond through the network’s partner database of 13,000 profiles and the organisation of seminars, company missions, and matchmaking events.

One of these companies was Grimsby Cosalt based, the leading safety and workwear company in the industrial, marine and offshore oil & gas markets. Through the support provided by Targeting Innovation, Cosalt launched Cosalt Wind Energy, a Joint Venture with Danish company Apro ApS, a specialist in the construction and maintenance of wind farms.

A £200,000 investment and having created 35 jobs, this success story has now been nominated by the EACI, the European Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation, for a Network Stars Award.

This award honours inspiring stories of how European small businesses are making the most of opportunities in the single market and will be awarded during the Enterprise Europe Network Annual Conference in Warsaw this fall.

For more information on the Enterprise Europe Network in Yorkshire and how Targeting Innovation can support Yorkshire and Humber companies, please visit www.ee-yorkshire.com.

Photo: "Offshore Wind Farm Turbine" by phault on flickr.com

Online Social Networking - Reaching out to New Customers

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Targeting Innovation is delivering another set of Social Media themed workshops on behalf of Business Link Yorkshire over the summer months. The workshop is called "Online Social Networking - Reaching out to New Customers" and will be attended by small and medium sized businesses from across the Yorkshire region.

The workshop has been developed to

help attendees understand the development and growth of social networking
give them an overview of the main tools and platforms and how they might be used to business benefit
provide hints and tips to develop an action plan to get started in the world of Social Media.

One of the main lessons of the workshop is that Social Media are not stand-alone, but need to be embedded in the wider context of a business' strategy and objectives.

The presentation slides used at the workshops have now been made available for download:

What Does It Take to Develop a Mobile Strategy for Your Business?

Tue, 21 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

About 15 Glasgow companies braved the Glasgow rain today to attend Targeting Innovations Brown Bag Lunch on “iPhone & Android Apps for Business”. The session was hosted by Steven Calder, the founder of Streamba Ltd, a young, energetic iPhone, iPad and Android software company based in Glasgow.

Steven talked about questions to consider when developing a mobile strategy for a business, such as

What customer problem are you trying to solve?
What goal is the business trying to achieve?
How do you measure success?

He argued that a good mobile strategy is based on what the customer wants and expects, one that constantly adapts to new business challenges and technological advances and one that is clean, simple and withstands the temptation of trying to do everything at once. Steven then went on to introduce the different platforms and technologies and shared some very useful tips and tricks with regard to the development of a good, user-friendly app:

Don’t spam
Make it fast
Make it a thing of beauty

The presentation was followed by a very lively discussion and Q&A session – which is exactly what Targeting Innovation’s Brown Bag Lunches are all about. Follow us on Twitter or drop us an email if you would like to be added to the mailing list and be among the first to find out about upcoming Brown Bag Lunches!

110621 Brown Bag Lunch - iPhone & Android Apps for Business

View more presentations from crassi.

Targeting Innovation Supports Successful Inbound Marketing Event in Glasgow

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 GMT

Targeting Innovation supported Scottish Enterprise’s successful “Let New Business Find You” event in Glasgow last week. The event was part of the Winning Through Innovation series and was designed to help delegates make sense of the concept of Inbound Marketing, learn more about the benefits of Blogging & Social Media and showcase how other small and medium sized companies have used Inbound Marketing techniques to business benefit. Here are a few of the highlights:

Kirsten Knipp, Hubspot

55% more website visitors for companies that blog
57% of companies who blog have received new revenue as a result
72% of companies who blog weekly have acquired customers through this channel

Chris van der Kuyl, brightsolid

Brilliant case study on how indie building game Minecraft used Social Media to build up a loyal and engaged customer base
Apparently, Friends Reunited will have a big announcement to make soon...!

Luke Brynley-Jones, Our Social Times

96% of Facebook fans like your page once and never come back
“happiness is the currency that is shared through Social Media"

If you missed the event, you can now watch the webcast here.

The event was attended by approximately 200 delegates from Glasgow and surrounding areas. It was also broadcast live via web stream to round about 50 companies from further afield. Judging from the comments on the very lively Twitter feed using the #WTIInbound hashtag, the event was very well received:

“At #WTIInbound great turn out and buzz around the room”

“Our class leading "contact us" button on the website will need to go after today's revelation at #WTIInbound event!”

“Really enjoyed hosting the #wtiinbound Inbound marketing conference today several hundred Scottish companies about to go inbound!”

If the event inspired you to "go inbound", why don't you come along to our "Creating Headlines through Social Media – Influence Your Audience!" workshop on Thursday, 23rd June, to learn more about creating that perfect blog post?

Or how about our "A Practical Guide to Setting Up a Social Media Presence" workshop on Wednesday, 29th June, to help you get started in the world of Facebook and Twitter?