I-Ride have chosen ActivelyOutdoors to design, build and manage all the distributors digital advertising after being impressed with the companies portfolio of work for cycling and lifestyle brands.

Launched at the beginning of 2018 the creative business has overseen campaigns with leading publishers such as TI Media, F-At and Dennis for clients including Bianchi with the ambition of bringing premium brands to life through the use of cutting-edge ad technology and creativity.

With 24/7 digital engagement becoming more and more important to people who consume media researching their next purchase at any time of day or night, ActivelyOutdoors will use their know-how to better engage with I-Ride’s customers. Their work will see all brands from the distributor receive time and attention in order to deliver a great customer experience.

Adam Glew, I-Ride Marketing Manager commented: “We are excited to have ActivelyOutdoors on board, we really want to showcase our prestigious brands in the best way possible and this will help us achieve that. They have some great ideas already and we look forward to running some interesting and successful campaigns this year.”

James Hamilton, ActivelyOutdoors Owner commented: “I-Ride commit to huge sums of advertising activity each year with all the right publishing brands and we hope to just enhance these relationships by maximising the potential of advertising space for their brand portfolio and giving their customers the best experience and choice. Our work is hugely satisfying and bringing a brand and products to life via digital advertising is something we love doing.”
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https://www.i-ride.co.uk/

ActivelyOutdoors will launch two new competitions in January 2019. The ‘Wall Of Fame Bird Photography Competition’ and the ‘Wall Of Fame Wildlife Photography Competition’ will be open for entries from 10th January 2019 and will be hosted on Birding247.co.uk and Wildlife247.co.uk respectively.
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The innovative bird and wildlife competitions will be sponsored by leading optical instruments manufacturer, SWAROVSKI OPTIK and will be open to all UK residents, aged 18 years and above.
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Entrants will submit images featuring birds and wildlife in their natural habitats via social media with the aim of encouraging others to engage with the natural world around them. The winners will receive new binoculars from SWAROVSKI OPTIK and the Wall Of Fame awards 2019.
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James Hamilton, Founder of ActivelyOutdoors, said: ‘What a great way for everyone to start 2019! Taking part in a competition that encourages a healthy lifestyle, to walk outside in the fresh-air and to enjoy and observe all that nature has to offer. Photo sharing on popular social media platforms is inspiring young and old to get more active outdoors and to enjoy the natural world around them, that is why we wanted to create something that people of all amateur photographic abilities could partake in. We will be displaying the best images on our websites for all to see - in the Wall of Fame. I must say a BIG thank you to SWAROVSKI OPTIK for tagging along for the ride and providing some tremendous prizes worth nearly £3,000 - wow!’

Peter Antoniou, Country Manager UK & Rep of Ireland, SWAROVSKI OPTIK said: “I am really pleased to announce the sponsorship of the Wall of fame on Birding247.co.uk and Wildlife247.co.uk. This competition I hope will encourage people of all abilities to pick up their camera and be inspired by the wonderful British countryside. We sometimes take for granted the diversity of the wildlife we have in the UK, so I am really looking forward to seeing the variety of the images submitted. I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all the best of luck, but more importantly to encourage you to get out and enjoy the British Countryside.”

bit.ly/WOF2019_Birding247
bit.ly/WOF2019_Wildlife247

Oculus - Facebooks VR hardwear and software - is gearing up for the festive season by debuting a new ad campaign starring Jonah Hill, Wiz Khalifa, Adam Levine, Behati Prinsloo, Leslie Jones, and Awkwafina.

Dubbed “See It in VR”, the series of TV spots shows how each entertainer prefers to experience VR as they’re taking in their favourite movies, shows, concerts, and live sporting events.

We see Jonah Hill and Adam Levine court-side at an NBA game, Wiz Khalifa watching himself in concert, Awkwafina diving into The Handmaid’s Tale, and Leslie Jones enjoying a love scene from The Shape of Water.

In addition, the new Oculus Go campaign delves into the co-watching feature which allows viewers/friends/loved ones to experience VR together like never before, even when they’re not in the same room! Begging the question, how quickly will features like this spread to other forms of hobbies and interests, such as watching wildlife or cycling in a grand tour?

As Bianchi UK's exclusive digital ad agency - we recently made and launched a new rich media ad campaign using AO's MarTech to raise new product awareness, promote social accounts and drive test ride requests of Bianchi's astonishing new disc bike range across desktop and mobile devices.

Using rich ad media has enabled Bianchi UK to promote four new bikes in the same ad unit - each with their own unique URL embedded into the creative while allowing potential customers to watch and enjoy a teaser video with leading pro rider Primož Roglič. Very cool stuff. We suppose this is the equivalent to an inside front cover, back cover and fancy pullout thing in paper form, all in the same issue - but without all that cost!

If you would like to discuss how AO can help your brand, feel free to drop us a line.

AO can confirm we will be at the Cycle Show 2018 and look forward to meeting old and new friends on the trade day (Thursday 27th). 

If your brand are attending and would like to hear more about our growing reputation in the MarTech space for premium advertising experiences alongside high quality content from publishing partners - please feel free to drop us a line for a meeting slot.

Ciao! 👌 

Last friday (17 August 2018), we saddled the horses (packed the car up, basically) and made the trip to England's smallest historic county of Rutland for Birdfair 2018.

We where there to help our various customers with their marketing strategies and produce more branded content for their respected product blogs and web pages.

A well run and enjoyable show it was too, and along the way we met some great people/staff from leading brands, fellow publishers and tour operators. We even managed to consume one of the largest and best full-english breakfasts known to man at Hungry Birds cafe in Oakham. If you haven't been to either, we would highly recommend!

Until next year Birdfair - adieu.

It was nice to be asked by our friends at trade cycle mag, Cy​cling Industry News to contribute to their myth busting feature on affiliate marketing this week. ?? Along with industry leading figures in consumer special interest mags / publishers such as Immediate Media, daily deals and Singletrack, ActivelyOutdoors was asked to contribute: How to succeed in affiliate marketing if you’re an IBD: 6 tips ?

Follow the link below to read the full feature... oooh yes!

ActivelyOutdoors have created and launched the new Country Innovation social media ad campaign aimed at scaling the companies reach and engagement with a HNW specialist audience of outdoor hobbyists, such as birdwatchers, bushcraft enthusiasts, wildlife photographers and people who enjoy wildlife viewing on safari/travel. A

The Spring campaign is part of a long-term plan to scale Country Innovation's market leading products such as their Linnet Jacket - which has been acclaimed by TV's Simon King as one of the best outdoor jackets available to maximise reach and performance across key social platforms with an older demographic such as Facebook and Twitter. Well done to all involved, early results look phenomenal! 🤓 🐾 🦅🦁

Widely respected cycle trade publications BikeBiz and Cycling Industry News have published stories on ActivelyOutdoors over the past week 👍✊ with our web design and marketing work alongside cycling client Bianchi UK in particular being highlighted. Which is awesome stuff! Have a read through the links below and see what you think... 🥇

https://www.bikebiz.com/news/activelyoutdoors-opens-for-biz
https://cyclingindustry.news/james-hamilton-launches-actively-outdoors-digital-marketing-business/

Some might say perfect timing with London Cycle Show just around the corner... 

Opening up your laptop to begin your content marketing strategy can be a daunting task - but don't worry, it needn't be as headache-inducing as you think. All you need is a solid content plan to follow and as we're a nice bunch at ActivelyOutdoors, here are six top tips to follow in order to make your life that little bit easier.

Tip #1: Do a quick audit
Before you start your content plan, it is well worth doing a content audit of your current assets. Does your current content include the following: Product brochures? Blogs? E-newsletters? Website copy? Podcasts? Infographics? You may only have a little content to audit, but do spend some time looking over what you have. This will include your tone of voice (are you pitching to the right audience?  Birdwatchers, not cyclists for instance - are you meeting their expectations?). Also take a look at keywords you are being found by and the audience reaction. Then look at where you want to be, whom you are trying to reach (which platforms are those people using and how to reach them), what are your key messages and what are your overall objectives? Once you have done this, you are ready to get started.

Tip #2: Be sure to add value for your target customer
Its imperative that your content should be relevant to your target customer - otherwise you may as-well just pack up and go home. This is even more relevant when talking to people who are looking to invest in a new product or trip away for their chosen hobby or special interest. You need to make it interesting and add value – is it something your customer will be interested in or learn from? “Open” content is becoming increasingly popular; this is content that gives away knowledge or showcases the credibility of the company in question. What can potential customers learn from you and your brand? In the long term, is this going to be profitable and build sustainable relationships with your customers? This will help you build solid and lasting marketing foundations.

Tip #3: Use online tools to help you manage and plan
If you had to manage it all in real-time yourself, you would likely never leave your laptop. Several online tools are out there and widely available to help you pull together a piece of written content and turn it into audio, publish a video, change images, add effects and create seamless presentations or e-marketing campaigns. Make sure you check out software such as Trello for helping you to plan your content and Hootsuite for scheduling social updates across multiple platforms at times when your customers are most likely to be active.

Tip #4: Don’t do it alone - share tasks
If you don’t have the luxury of an appointed content position within your company or an external agency like ActivelyOutdoors to take away the strain, make sure your plan outlines roles and responsibilities with the resource you have available. Content can be very time-consuming: you have to take into account time for planning, research, curating, creating, editing, distributing/promoting, interacting and reporting across several pieces of content – that’s a full-time job so be sure to share the tasks with others to make it more manageable and therefore less likely to go wrong when somebody takes annual leave or is off sick.

Tip #5: Work around your calendar
Work into your plan events that are specific to your industry. Is the UK summer trade important for you? If so, you should be preparing summer content a good few months in advance. When are your industry events? Build up to these and highlight them in your plan. If you know something is happening or you have a new product or service launching, include these in your plan.

Tip #6: Analyse your audience
Reporting is absolutely crucial and you should set aside time for this as often as you can. Analysing what content your audience are spending time consuming or interacting with and responding to this by adding more of this content into your plan - will see you go a long way in marketing terms. Even before you start your plan, look at any content you have had as part of your audit and analyse the response to this, which will help inform you of customer preferences or popular topics to work into your strategy. The best tool for this is Google Analytics and be sure to pay attention to your social metrics (what people liked, favourited, retweeted or talked about).

Special interest media has for many years held an unbreakable reputation for delivering loyal, engaged and sustainable audiences. A dedicated readership, with plenty of advertising appeal and easily obtainable audience data and insights - means special interest brands did and still do provide plenty of advantages in the magazine media industry.

Of course though - in the here and now, as with all traditional magazines, special interest titles have had to adapt in recent years. Mainly to consider the opportunities provided by a multi-platform approach with digital at their heart.

​It is through using a 360 degree approach to multi-platform assets that can lead to big gains for both publisher, advertiser and consumer.

Taking and tying big pools of content together and blowing them out across all platforms gives selling parties a much better chance of success in terms of making an impact on consumers. This experience makes sure people really engage with content, compared with just a one-off interaction with an article or simple ad unit.

In the past, maybe a publisher and brand have been a little bit too siloed in their approach and what all brands should be doing now is to look at these content platforms together and seeing how they can work together to educate and inform better buying decisions.