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Week of the Stars

Google Chrome to Highlight Unsecured Webpages

By | Featured, News

You may have seen this tweet from the official 7Stars account yesterday:


As we expected, Google has now officially announced a deadline of July 2018 for when its web browser, Chrome, will begin highlighting unsecured domains to users. From July, Chrome users will be displayed a prominent warning upon reaching non-secure (http rather than https) web pages.
How exactly this will look is unconfirmed, but I imagine it will look something like these examples:

50% of web users around the globe use Google Chrome. This is a huge deal.

How will Google Chrome affect non-secure http domains?

This change will have a significant impact on brands that have not switched to a secure protocol (hint: it doesn’t take long to find examples in the fashion industry). Google has previously stated unsecured domains receive less prominence within its search results, thus many have already experienced decreases in traffic and overall visibility.
However, the negative impact of running unsecured webpages will now carry through to on-site performance metrics too, impacting performance across all channels & activity that drives users to the website.
Some areas brands can expect to feel the pain are:

  • Significantly increased bounce rates on unsecured pages
  • Decreased conversion rates
  • Reduction in advertising impressions & affiliate clicks
  • Reduction in overall digital sales
  • Possible reduction in brand loyalty and consumer confidence

How do I get a Secure SSL Certificate for my Website?

These days, securing your web content is easier and cheaper than many people expect. There are now numerous solutions of varied complexity that can ensure you provide a secure environment online for your site users.
SSL is it’s simple to set up, and once it’s implemented, all you or your developers need to do is direct people to use HTTPS instead of HTTP. It’s as simple as that. There really is no excuse anymore for not running a secure domain.
To get an SSL certificate, follow these 5 simple steps:

  1. Host with a dedicated IP address
  2. Buy a SSL certificate here for less than £50
  3. Activate the SSL certificate – or ask your web host to do it for you
  4. Install the certificate
  5. Update your site to use HTTPS

All brands should be moving to HTTPS as a matter of urgency if they haven’t already. Remember July 2018 is the deadline. We advise you not to miss it.

Our News

A Day with Supernova, by Rachel Courtney

By | News

Each morning usually begins by catching up on my emails with a strong coffee, I’m an early riser so take advantage of a nice quiet office at 8am. Working in team Supernova means each day is different as projects develop and new briefs come in, so I start the day making sure everything from the day before has been covered off and understanding what the key tasks for the day ahead are.

I will usually sit down with the partnerships team to discuss our live projects. A big part of what we do is project management; with so many moving parts in any partnership, from licensing deals to talent to media delivery, it’s really important that we catch up as a team regularly so we can ensure every project runs as smoothly as possible for our clients! One of our big projects at the moment is working on an AFP (ad-funded programme), so after we catch up we will sit down and review the latest rough cut of an episode, feeding back our notes to the client and the production team- the project is starting to feel very real now!

Most mornings involve a status meeting with clients, either face to face or by conference call. Status meetings are a must with so much going on, they give us the opportunity to discuss live projects and keep our clients completely in the loop. We pride ourselves on working transparently and collaboratively with our clients, so keeping them up to date with each element of a partnership project is really key, even if they are tricky conversations around talent demands!

After we’ve caught up with clients, the afternoon typically consists of meetings with media owners to discuss any projects we have with them, but also on any briefs we have, both from clients and also proactively discussing anything exciting or client relevant in the market. We have great relationships with media owners which means we are able to work closely to create some great plans for clients. As a team, we work across all media so meeting with media owners gives a great arsenal of opportunities for clients, and allows us to challenge briefs with cross-media partnerships.

If we have a brief deadline, we will sit down as a team and go through each response. We create score cards based on the client’s key objectives for the campaign, and go through each response scoring the idea against the criteria. This process allows us to assess if the idea will work for the client, where the weak spots may be, and to give clear feedback to both media owners and clients as to our recommendation.

Towards the end of the day I am usually making sure all the actions outlined for the day have been covered off. This can range from ensuring a contract has gone over to clients or making sure talent has posted the right image to Instagram! I live by my to do list so the last part of the day is devoted to making sure everything for the day has been ticked off, and proactively starting my list for the following day.

Rachel Courtney

the7stars wins 5 awards at this years Media Week

By | Featured, News

We are absolutely delighted to have won 5
3 x MediaWeek Golds
• Media Idea Launch – Atlantic Records/ Ed Sheeran
• Best Use of Audio – Atlantic Records/ Ed Sheeran
• Long Term Media Strategy – Suzuki
1 x Media Week Silver
• Research Insight – Podcasting: Niche no more
1 x Media Week Bronze
• Media Idea Medium – My Taxi
Full list here: http://www.mediaweekawards.co.uk/results-2017/

Our News

Top 10 Brighton SEO Tweets

By | Featured, News

The7Stars SEO Team attended Brighton SEO last week, and we consumed our share of valuable information, comical memes and delicious cold refreshments (gin). For those who weren’t fortunate enough to attend, or if you’ve not heard of The Twitter™, we thought we would take you through some of the highlights in 140 characters or less.
Read on for our top tweets from the day…
10 – 8: The Funny Tweets
10. The Pub Trap:
@ChrisLDyson sums up the main temptation of the day. Of course there is drinking, while we do not want to cheat on Brighton SEO too much.


9. Embracing the Day:
@TheTechOff captures those who get a bit carried away. Full marks for committing to their outfits.


8. We Start Young:
@staceycav has her son in training to take over the family dynasty already.


7-6: The OMG Stats Tweets
7. The New Dream?:
@SophieAHollands reminds us just how much aspirations have changed in the digital age…


6. Nerdy Time:
@aysunakarsu nails it with something that SEO people cannot resist: doing dorky things with stats, always.


5. Who, what & where?:
@jlhdigital scares us while flagging the fact that the future is Voice… Seriously though, that is nearly 1 in 3!


4-2: The Vital Info Tweets
4. The Future Really is Voice:
@ronan_henderson leaves the jokes behind, and lets us know how to compete in Voice Search


3. Getting Serious About YouTube:
@DoriaAdigoun focuses our minds on why we are here. Ranking factors help us to map out our strategies.


2. Cross Channel Collaboration:
@brightonseo promotes a useful reminder that PR and SEO work together, and that not everyone has a bottomless pit of money…


1. The Official Winner:
@steviephil. It’s the sheer thrill in the tweet that makes it stand out, combined with genuinely useful information. First, I laughed, then I made a mental note, and that’s Brighton SEO all over.

Our News

BaByliss For Men has teamed up with Jungle creations

By | Featured, News

BaByliss For Men has teamed up with Jungle creations to create a content series that showcases their male grooming products while moving away from the everyday How-To video. The hero concept is a light hearted yet poignant video featuring brand ambassador Freddie Flintoff turning his hand at being a barber and offering up advice to the men in his chair. The campaign will run with three videos across Viral Thread Facebook and the Jungle network, driving male audiences to purchase BaByliss For Men grooming products featured.

Our News

A Week in the Life of the7stars Grad Katy

By | Featured, News

MONDAY
I must admit, I had breakfast before I left this morning, but I am a little peckish after my walk from the station so I head up to our bar for some fresh fruit. We are super lucky here at the7stars to have an abundance of seasonal fresh fruit daily (including avocados, it’s true), all the cereal & porridge you could wish for, yoghurts, nuts, snacks and a full-on barista coffee machine.
I head back down to my team and, as we do every Monday morning, we get together for our Team Panda meeting. We have animal team names here, and of course a ‘Zoo Keeper’ to head up each team (it becomes normal very quickly). After catching up on the weekend’s events, we discuss the week ahead, sharing client briefs, chatting through ideas and helping each other out with workload if necessary.
I have a couple of competitive reports to get out this morning and I need to send some papers off to our clients; we booked adverts for them in a selection of weekend titles and they are keen to receive extra copies to share internally.
My friend over in Team Giraffe has just got back from holiday today, so a few of us head to the park at lunch for some chill time and catch-up.
This afternoon’s focus is on preparation for a client meeting tomorrow; we will be presenting a Post-Campaign Analysis followed by some fresh ideas for the next campaign. I nip to have quick chat with the TV and Data teams to make sure we a on track to deliver the information we ned to include tomorrow. Meanwhile, I work with my manager to make the final tweaks to our brand partnership recommendation, before collating all of the information into a sleek presentation. I print off a couple of meeting agenda’s for tomorrow before heading to the gym (another company perk).
TUESDAY
We have a WTF?! session every Tuesday morning. These are really insightful and great for grads, but of course anyone can come along. They cover a new topic every week, offering a bitesize overview of what the different teams do across the agency. For example, WTF is Digital?! WTF is Data?! WTF is TV?! Today, I am going to WTF is Programmatic?!
When I get back to my desk I respond to a few emails and call a couple of media owners to negotiate rates for some upcoming media activity, before heading into the client meeting.
When I get back to my desk, a further client brief comes through; this client is interested in advertising on the London Underground, so I work on collating availability and costs into a plan.
After lunch, I have a meeting with my Project Team. Here at the7stars, our day job in only 80% of our time, we spend the other 20% working on our Project Team and there are over 30 to choose from. We have a People Team, Health & Well-Being Team, Events Team, Social Media Team – the list goes on. I am a member of the Do-Gooder Team and we are currently organising a charity bake-sale so there is lots to organise.
WEDNESDAY
Wednesday is home to our weekly Company Meeting. At 9am, the whole company piles into the Penthouse, and with teas and coffees in hand, we discuss everything from new business we are pitching for to ‘Cool Shit We Like’. We clap new starters in and each team shares exciting client updates.
After today’s Company Meeting, I head over to Google’s London offices where I have a grad training day; Google’s offices are enviable to say the least. After a super hands-on day getting stuck into a brief to launch the new Google Chromecast, I leave a little wiser (awesome learning opportunity), a little richer (having won a £50 Amazon voucher in the pitch challenge) and maybe also a little heavier (they have free food everywhere).
THURSDAY
This morning, I am briefed on a £200k press and radio plan for our client. We need to turn this one around pretty quickly, so I make this a priority. With some great audience analysis tools at our disposal, we put together a recommendation of newspapers, magazines and radio stations based on the campaign objectives and the audience we are targeting.
After a busy morning, I am thrilled to be taken for a lovely lunch with a media owner, who we recently booked a cinema campaign with.
When we are back from lunch, we jump on a quick call with a client to talk through our London Underground recommendation. Before I know it, 5pm has rolled around, which obviously means it’s time for the weekly Team Panda Quiz. I grab some team prosecco and beers from the fridge before we start; this escalates and we soon find ourselves gathered in the7stars bar, before heading to a media party in Soho.
FRIDAY
I come in at 8am today which means I can leave at 4.30pm – it’s Flexi-Friday of course! On a Friday, we can start any time between 8am – 10am and finish any time between 4.30pm – 6.30pm. I get a few reports out early and then have some capacity to help my colleague find some hot stories for the Media Flash we send out to clients.
After a strong ‘Media Thursday’ last night, we decide to head for a nice team lunch at our local pub but I can’t stay for too long as I have an important job to do this afternoon…
I’ve seen the7stars win a bundle of amazing clients since I’ve joined and today we are making a video for another upcoming pitch! Earlier, I agreed to be the hair stylist for this video so off I go to style some hair, taking care not to burn Jenny Biggam’s ear with the straighteners.