The British Red Cross has pulled in the support of actor Dougray Scott to launch a new campaign for Refugee Week.

As well as using the Brit actor, the charity is harnessing the power of social networking sites by calling out to for people to pledge their support to help refugees by collectively ‘changing their online status’ across their social networks, instant messenger and email accounts during Refugee Week, which is from 15^th-21^st June.



The charity said that refugees arriving in the UK are commonly labelled as a group, and not regarded as individuals.

In attempt to stress this issue, and get others to empathise with the feeling of loss of identity, the British Red Cross are asking citizens to sacrifice their online identities and change their status to ‘label’.

 The campaign idea was formulated by LBi and opens with a teaser film presented by Desperate Housewives star Dougray Scott.  

The viral film, which will be released on 26^th May, depicts the stories of refugees who have been helped by the British Red Cross.

 The viral will be available for viewing at www.lookbeyondthelabel.org and will run in conjunction with an email marketing campaign calling for everyone to alter their online status. 



The campaign can be located on Facebook, Twitter, MSN, Yahoo and Bebo, enabling users of these sites to get involved.

The British Red Cross will also be making history as the first charity to create an online movement to accrue support and fight prejudice via online profiles.  

 The campaign will be supported with a survey of public attitudes towards refugees, seeking to diminish negative beliefs around those who seek sanctuary in the UK. This will be targeted at newspapers, and Refugee Week events at Red Cross centres across the country.  

Search Engine Optimisation

The statement made by David Hallerman, senior analyst at eMarketer, suggests that SEO is the “best customer acquisition tool in the online space.

Through studies it has been shown that customers dislike paid search advertising and prefer organic search listings which SEO can improve.

“Furthermore search optimisation works across all search engines and an optimised site does not drop off the first results page even when marketer spending slows or stops – as it can with paid search,” Hallerman added.

However, he did point out that it may take time for the full advantages of SEO to take shape, as developing a successful SEO takes time and is often a long process.

Patricio Robles from Econsultancy revealed recently in a blog post that website security should be an important consideration for SEO.

He explained that if websites are hacked into by cyber criminals, the consequences in terms of search engine rankings can be extremely serious.

Another key feature of improving a business success online is linkbaiting, which experts have urged companies to invest in.

Editor of Econsultancy, Chris Lake, recently wrote on his blog explaining that linkbaiting can boost search rankings by attracting inbound links.

“Everyone involved in SEO (and marketing and content creation) should constantly be thinking about new opportunities for linkbait which will work best in their market place,” Lake said.

He added that linkbaits often consists of content that will be useful to the target audience, such as informative articles, free tools and a list of links.

Linkbaits can also come in the form of how to guides, viral marketing, reviews and comparisons and blogs.

A recent survey by Guava and Econsultancy found that 55 per cent of firms plan to increase their SEO spending in 2009.

For more information about SEO and/or linkbaiting visit Custard Media or Linkbaits.

A report led by Guava and Econsultancy found that around 55 per cent of companies have increased their budgets to invest in to Search Engine Optimisation (SEO or natural search) in a bid to attract people to their website and increase business.

The research also found that 45 per cent of responding organisations were to increase their budgets for paid search.

The report is the third annual UK Search Engine Marketing Benchmark Report, and is based on more than 800 company and agency digital marketers. The reports gives a comprehensive overview of the search marketing landscape, and also includes reasearch about the use of social media.

Linus Gregoriadis, Econsultancy’s reseach director, said, “UK search marketers are still getting strong return on investment from paid search marketing despite the recession, increased competition and click cost inflation.

“This research provides more proof that companies are turning to digital channels such as paid seach and search engine optimisation where there is a demonstrable return on investment.”

A large proportion of company respondants said that they are  tracking paid search return on investment effectively has increased from 33 per cent last year to 45 per cent in 2009. For SEO there has been an even bigger increase from 20 to 35 per cent.

Custard Media is an online marketing company who thrive upon providing business solutions to help businesses make it to number one on Google. They offer a wide range of services from search engine optimisation, content writing, pay per click, link building, viral marketing and branding, with 100 per cent flexibility in meeting your exact requirements.

Custard Media have successfully helped companies, such as Shoplaptop, Protouch and Robinsons achieve number one Google results in their field, and are on call to help you target your customers on the World Wide Web.

For further information visit www.custardmedia.co.uk

Cadburys has become notorious for their TV ads recently attracting some great publicity from their drum playing Gorilla and airport trucks commercials, the next in line is a TV ad will be launched tonight during the final of Celebrity Big Brother on Channel 4. It features two siblings waiting to get their pictures taken. When the photographer is called away due to a ringing phone the siblings break into choreographed dance with their eyebrows.

This minute long commercial has a background soundtrack of the 1980s classic ‘Don’t stop the rock’ by Freestyle.

A partner at Fallon, the company that created the advertisement said that this campaign will spark the imagination and attract conversation offline as well as online.  The idea behind any creative ideas in todays world is to encourage imitation and connection from the public.

The marketing director of Cadbury, Phil Rumbol added a statement saying that the 3rd instalment of their new ad campaigns will definitely live up to the ‘Gorillas and Airport Trucks’ standards in raising some smiles and hopefully some eyebrows!

He also stated that the theme behind this creative remains exactly the same, it suggests that you should just lose yourself, embrace each moment and be happy.  This time round there is just a little hint of mischievousness thrown in. 

Cadburys will be using this ad throughout February in the attempt to sell branded coffee mugs for just £7.99 to the public, people can also visit www.photobox.com and upload a picture of themselves or a friend and include some comedy eyebrows with relation to their new ad campaign.