Our January Masher of the Month is Hannah Lord….Sheffield based but a real ‘nationwide’ Mash trouper.

A fantastic and consistently high standard of Mashing….

She has really excelled on the ongoing Lavazza campaign and now feels like the main challenge is “keeping the standard high”

Good work Hannah.

A short video encapsulating the fantastic Mash Culture that exists and has grown over the last 5 fantastic years and is fundamental to how we work and play. Enjoy

Blogging is almost the grandfather of social media. There are millions of blogs and bloggers worldwide, some read by millions, others by only a few.But, done properly, blogs can be a very important part of social media marketing for small businesses. Here’s why:

Convey your brand personality - even the best websites can be a bit dull. The best way to spice up your site is to include a blog. Here you can be more informal and get across your personality and the personality of your brand.

Demonstrate your knowledge, experience or expertise - blogging is a great way to demonstrate that you know what you are talking about. By going into greater depth on a subject you will engage with your visitors and demonstrate your knowledge

Make your website feel alive and up to date - static business websites can often feel as though they are ignored and are rarely updated. A blog will give regular, dynamic content that is changing on a frequent basis.

Give your customers added value - by blogging regularly, you can give visitors yet another reason to come back and visit your site, especially if you are using RSS or Twitter to send out updates about your recent posts
Help with search engine optimisation - a blog is a great way to build extra visibility with the search engines. Make sure your content is relevant and includes plenty of your popular search keywords.

Give visitors a reason to buy - whilst your website will give visitors lots of information about your products or services, your blog will offer a way for you to demonstrate why they are important or valuable. This could be through tips, guidance or possibly even case studies.

Become a thought leader - by blogging on a regular basis, you will build up a following in your industry and this will improve your recognition and publicity far and beyond your traditional customer base.

Valuable content for other social media channels - with so many social media networks out there, the challenge is often knowing exactly what content to share. Having regular blog posts provides a vast array of new, fresh content that you can tweet or share to your heart’s content!

Show you care - the time and effort that you dedicate to blogging will show to your website visitors that you really care about this business and are happy to go that extra mile

Embrace the blogosphere - blogging isn’t the end of the matter. If you are really going to make a blogging strategy successful, you need to be out there in the blogosphere commenting on other blogs and joining in the conversation. If you do this, your blog will be better known and your traffic will really start to grow
What else is there? What other reasons do you have for why small businesses should blog? Let us know in the comments!

By Social Small Biz on November 29, 2009

He may not be the youngest kid to write an iPhone app, but 11-year old Cameron is wise beyond his years. He is donating a substantial part of the proceeds from his drawing app iSketch to the Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA.

Writing to Crunchgear, Cameron’s father explains the situation:

My son Cameron is 11 years old and, last year, he had a medical problem that prevented him from participating in the physical activities he otherwise enjoys. (He is nearly fully recovered.) During that time, Cameron became interested in computers, and he began to read anything he could get his hands on. He watched Stanford University professors on iTunes, scoured the web for articles on programming and taught himself several different programming languages. (Neither my wife nor I have any idea how to program.)

Cameron began to focus on the iPhone and iPod touch devices as the “apps” offered for sale for use on those devices seemed really cool to him. He began to work on a few different apps. After completing some summer camps on programming and continuing to read and learn, Cameron finalized an app, which he calls iSketch, and submit it to Apple. The app, which is a painting/drawing program, was approved by Apple for sale on its App Store in December. (He has since updated it several times..)

Inspired by the care he received at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center and Orthopaedic Hospital, Cameron has dedicated a substantial portion of the proceeds from his sales to purchase entertainment and electronic items for Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA’s Child Life/Child Development programs in Westwood and Santa Monica so that pre-teens and teens will have additional age-appropriate options available to them during their Hospital stays. Cameron’s sales so far have been good, but he hopes to accelerate them so that he can donate even more to the Hospital.

source: www.gizmodo.com

Ali Ali joined Mash in August 2008 and quickly became a consistently top performer in his first ever year in the field. Highlights include:

o Top performer on Thorntons Sept ‘08

o Stepped in last minute and travelled all the way to Kent as last minute replacement for Maddie on Virgin trains

o Didn’t make a fuss when we asked him to dress up in some ridiculous costumes.

o Received the following feedback on his first job in a supervisory role (Aviva): “Many thanks for the merchandising staff you supplied for Crystal Palace - all were fantastic but especially the supervisor Ali Ali. I was very busy running around the large stadium, and Ali kept everyone fully informed and under control - a real credit to your agency!”

o Dressed up as Rochdale FC’s mascot Desmond the Dragon

Our Mashers of the Month also take part in our new charitable initiative we are running here at MASH.  For each Masher of the Month award, we are going to be providing an interest free loan to an entrepreneur in need, on our client’s behalf. The way it works is that we provide an interest free loan of $50 to a low-income entrepreneur somewhere in the world, through our friends over at KIVA. The Masher of the Month chooses who to lend to - whether a baker in Afghanistan, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or a tailor in Iraq, and WE provide the loan.

It’s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty.

Here’s Ali’s response to the great news…

“Well I am shocked…I didn’t expect it at all. It has been a pleasure working for MASH since I joined, you guys are a great team there..can you send my thanks to the whole team please.

The jobs I have been involed in have been a great laugh, I just try and do my best when booked in.

Its great news that MASH are involed in helping provety.I would like to pick ZAIN AL ABDEEN in Lebanon

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=167507&_tpos=1&_tpg=1

Good work Ali - here’s to a cracking 2010.

Are you a poet/novelist/songwriter? Maybe you’re in a band? What about a fashion designer? Are you a graphic artist? A filmmaker? A photographer?

Yes?  Keep reading.

Are you emerging, fearless and enquiring?

Yes? Pull up a chair. Let’s talk.

REMIX is fascinated with the idea of adaptation: in how content transfers but also how forms and skills translate. Why do we, as practitioners, choose the mediums we do to tell the stories we tell?

REMIX is looking to bring together a creative team of exciting emerging practitioners who have asserted themselves as innovators in film, theatre, fashion, music and the digital arts but who have never created a piece of theatre before. We’ll collaborate and communicate, creating a live performance with an ensemble of actors.

It doesn’t stop there. Each creative will be tasked with adapting the play into a bespoke adaptation for their own specialism. The REMIXes - the play in its five incarnations - will be launched at a live event on 29 and 30 April 2010 - alchemizing the theatre, visual art, virtual media, fashion, music and literary industries.

REMIX will steal all the best bits of all the mediums whilst leaving behind the constraints/rules. If Carlsberg made theatre…. It would be REMIX.

Where do you sign up?

If you want to play your part in creating 21st century multi-disciplinary performance for the iPod-listening, Vogue-reading, blog-writing, YouTube-watching generation then email Natalie Ibu : Artistic Director at natalieremix@googlemail.com by Friday 15 January.

In your email, detail

· Who you are and what you do.

· What you’ve done and what you want to do.

· What and who you like.

· Attach an up to date CV and portfolio.

· Include details of where and when we can see you doing your thing - whatever it may be.
… And we’ll take it from there.

Is none other than the mighty Paul Hanson a.k.a. Frog.

Frog has delivered to the highest level all year round and consistently goes that extra mile for us. Not least when recently he stepped in last minute to help avert a bit of a van and stock crisis at some very unsociable hour on the M6.

It really is appreciated by us all here at Mash and this award is in recognition of someone who truly appreciates the teamwork and partnership focus we need throughout our campaigns.

Frog informs us that he has already started work on building a trophy cabinet.

We love a confident Masher…

Mash were out in force at the Annual Field Marketing and Brand Experience Awards at the Marriot Mayfair last night.

We received a ‘highly recommended’ Silver Award once again. We felt we were in with a really strong chance of Gold but no matter, it was still an awesome night and we’re over the moon at the success of this year.

We have delivered over 235 projects this year alone, working with some of the coolest brands on the planet at gigs, festivals and events all over the UK and Europe. We have a lot of work in the pipeline for 2010 already, some of which we will start planning and booking very soon. We’ve also got an awesome new development on the database front and hugely improved interactivity in the new phase of the website.

Lots to come, and lots to celebrate.

Not least our Mashers themselves. Without them nothing would be possible and as if to prove this very point - a team of our girls and guys did us immensely proud at the awards last night effortlessly hosting the guests and presenting the awards - with class and professionalism that only Mash can offer!

Here’s to a fantastic year ahead.

Congratulations to Vicky Parkinson who has consistently impressed everyone at Mash Towers and team-mates and clients alike through her continued dedication and positive attitude.

When interviewed at a top-secret Sheffield hotel, Vicky gave us the following response…”Thats fantastic news! Eeek Im’ so excited and it is so nice to be rewarded for my efforts, thanks to all the team!”

…and in response to our seasoned questions put to our top Mashers…

You know me as a Masher but in another life I would have been….. a sportsperson, I love sport, so it would have to be a sky sports news reporter, a professional golfer, playing centre midfield for Sheffield United (!?!) or a super hero, banana man was always my favourite.

Im not a politician but if I was….there are far too any things to comment on! Well, I would scrap higher education fees, lower the price of petrol, introduce more sport into schools, scrap the obvious taxes, grant everyone 3 genie-esque wishes and many other controversial things!

In a nutshell,my philosophy is….”The world always look brighter from behind a smile!”

With regard to work - “Today, give a stranger one of your smiles. It might be the only sunshine he sees all day and of all the things you wear, your expression is the most important.”

July’s winner of the coveted prize is Martine George who is based in Leicester and has produced a string of fantastic performances over the last few months and over the 3 years she has been a true and loyal Masher.

Masher of the Month :: July 2009 :: Martine George

Recent highlights include; consistently great work on Anchor (praised by some hugely influential clients at RAF Waddington (Lincoln) and Lambeth County Show!) and Samsung Jet.  Martine managed to work consistent 12.5 hour days in Canary Wharf then drove up to Derby immediately after to do 12 hr days on consecutive days.

All with a fantastic smile on her face. A worthy winner - well done!