Mark Easby Update

Over the last 3-4 months, things have moved pretty fast here at Better. We’ve brought in two new members of staff - Sam Lamcombe, our Project Manager, and Simon Scarfe, who is now our Senior Web Developer.

Simon, an experienced and versatile front-end web developer, came to us from TH_NK in Newcastle, and we’re extremely excited about what Simon can contribute to the business and play a major part in shaping the Better direction.

Sam is a University graduate who studied Graphic Design at Cleveland College of Art & Design, Middlesbrough, before gaining an honours degree at University of the Arts, London. Sam’s background means she can contribute to the design process whilst being responsible for delivering client projects through the studio.

With project wins increasing, as well as Simon and Sam we’re looking to further our web development resource ideally with a graduate, therefore we’re looking at local graduates from Teesside University, and to utilise Codeworks’ Digital Placement Scheme, which is a huge benefit for small businesses in growth.

We’re fortunate that in the North East, and in particularly in the Tees Valley, there is a hotbed of graduate talent coming out of the colleges and universities and it is critical that these graduates are given the chance to build a career in this region, rather than having to move away.

We are also committed to working with the universities and colleges across the region and through organisations such as Codeworks, to help make sure that the graduates are coming out of their courses with the right skills, and level of commercialism, to give them best chance of finding jobs.

In terms of our recent work, we’ve won major projects in Newcastle and Tees Valley, as well as working with a number of smaller established and start-up businesses. We’ve been hard at work over the summer delivering these and some are about to go live very shortly.

To mention a few, we’ve been helping University of Teesside, Chapters Hotel and MIMA explore social media strategies, and are working on creative and web strategies for Cornerstone Business Solutions, Selwyn Hedgley and The Enterprise Team within Redcar & Cleveland Council.

We’re also chuffed to announce that we have just launched a new website for best selling author Philippa Gregory which is now live (http://www.philippagregory.com/), and are also doing work for national companies such as NDI, Freshfayre, Onyx Group and MPI Offshore, as we aim to establish our reputation further afield.

On that subject, we were able to demonstrate the power of organic SEO as we were contacted by Sky News to provide expert opinion on the ongoing debate surrounding the Michael Jackson ‘brand’. They did a search on Google for ‘brand agency’ and they found us 4th out of 22,700,000 results, unfortunately they didn’t notice our Stokesley address and we couldn’t get down to London in time.

We’re also really excited about leading the ‘Twestival’ local events on the North East after being heavily involved in the first one, held up in Newcastle. There is a website set up for the Tyne and Tees events (http://middlesbrough.twestival.com/) and http://newcastle.twestival.com/) that link to the twitter accounts where there is already quite a buzz being generated.

The Twestival supports a social cause by bringing awareness and raising funds collectively. The charities involved this year include Teesside Hospice and North of England’s Children’s Cancer Research Fund, and we’re extremely proud to be part of it.

So… lots to be getting on with! We’re been moving at a pretty fast pace but the Better team and I are really excited about our projects, future plans, and ambitious ideas. Exciting times ahead…


To read Mark's If we can, you can story please click here