If you didn’t know this - Vicky – The Brand Surgery boss is also Vice-Chairman of West Sussex Credit Union. Do you know what a credit union is? No? You are not the only one! Vicky has been so frustrated with the lack of knowledge of credit unions – until recently when two good things happened. The first is that thanks to The BBC One Show’s, Dom Littlewood saved the day! Click on the link to view the TV footage! The second thing is that whilst Vicky has been slaving away training for the launch of West Sussex Credit Union – The Brand Surgery’s creative expertise was spotted by East Sussex Credit Union, who couldn’t wait for us to market their shiny brand new offices. We are proud to showcase our latest print project which is printed on recycled paper using sustainable inks of course! Together we will beat the credit crunch!

Whilst hob-knobbing at the Microbiz networking event in Worthing two weeks ago (as you do), I found myself talking to someone about our new online image library Trigger Snappy, which, if you didn’t know it yet, offers amateur photographers the chance to sell their images online. I was explaining that the site aims to provide extraordinary images of ordinary towns and sights, which are often missing in larger image libraries – Try doing a search for ‘Worthing’ in iStock, you’ll know what I mean! The few images you do get have been over-used already and almost all of them focus on the beach.

This particular person told me he was in constant need of images of cars, and this triggered an AHA!-moment in me when I came up with the following: Why not provide a section on the site where users can specify images they are looking for, thus providing amateur photographers with different challenges. The result? A selection of images to your specifications, at a fly price. It’s good for everyone, because it increases the chance of a photographer’s work being used, provides a more personalised service to the designer and creates more traffic on our site. Any thoughts? We are quite excited about this and would love to know if you would want to use it?

Annelies

Here’s my own image of a ‘local sight’, taken on my cycle home after work one day between Lancing and Shoreham. This was during the ‘Weather From Hell’ period we all had to endure a few months back!

Good news all round! We won the award for THE BEST EXHIBITION STAND AT MICROBIZ 2008. This is the third year we have exhibited at MICROBIZ – and this year was by far the best in terms of quality opportunities. We also gave a seminar called THE POWER OF BRANDING which was extremely popular. If you would like to book this seminar for your organisation - contact Vicky on 01903 824229.

Microbiz was officially opened by the Mayor of Worthing, Heather Mercer, and Tim Loughton MP.

Many thanks to Jim Cunliffe of Face Media who looked after us so well on the day. If you would like to find out further information about Microbiz - go to www.worthingfirst.org.uk.

Our brand doctors and nurses have witnessed a few near-death brand experiences recently. We would take this opportunity to share with you, just how we breathe the life back into these brands – to make them nice and shiny, and hence create happy people enjoying huge profits!

You will be seeing more of this excellent photography on our website and promotional literature very soon. We would like to thank Eddie Boldizsar for his excellent creative photography skills. Eddie’s website is being redeveloped, so we can’t advertise it at the moment, because Eddie realises the importance of brand development and how a website can make or break a sale. Remember – your website is your shop window and your first chance to make an impression. See our range websites and branding to see how we can help your business to grow healthily.

We re-learned an extremely valuable lesson during the making of this photoshoot. NEVER EVER UNDER ESTIMATE THE POWERS OF A CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHER! Now we know how a TV weather presenter feels when they have to point at nothing!

Welcome to the TriggerSnappy Challenge Competition!

Introduction
We have launched The Trigger Snappy Challenge because we believe this will support both amateur photographers and offer design agencies stunning photos of ordinary towns. Amateur photographers can upload their stunning photographs free of charge – and then get paid every time a design agency or other person purchases their photograph(s). Photographs can be purchased for £10 and the photographer earns 50% of fee, and we use the other 50% for marketing the website and photographers.

The TriggerSnappy Challenge Launch Competition is a nationwide competition to photograph and upload amazing shots of your local normal town to our website. Your photographs can be as abstract as you like, but stunning and saleable – remember that this competition is based on how many photos you sell.

How to win the TriggerSnappy Challenge Launch Competition
It is very simple – simply upload your most stunning photographs of local towns via www.TriggerSnappy.co.uk and the photographer who sells the most photos will win £500 of camera equipment vouchers and we will give them 80% commission for the following year for all photos they sell on www.triggersnappy.co.uk. You can help to increase your chances of winning by telling your friends and colleagues and possible purchasers about your entry, although we will also be marketing the website to UK design agencies.

Hints and Tips
• Remember that your photo will be purchased by a local designer or advertiser - so although it can be abstract, it should be attractive to encourage visitors to your town and to local businesses - which in time will improve your town because of inward investment.
• This competition will also help you to gain ‘keyword’ experience as you will need to add ‘commercially attractive’ keywords if purchasers are to buy your photos. You can download our keywords tip sheet from www.TriggerSnappy.co.uk.
• The winner of this competition will be the photographer who sells the most photos.
• Add a link to www.TriggerSnappy.co.uk on your blog or photographic club website to encourage photo purchasers to see your work.

Closing Date
• The closing date for this competition is Thursday 31st July.

Rules
You must read and agree to TriggerSnappy Ltd terms and conditions before uploading photos. There are competition rules for entering The TriggerSnappy Challenge which you can read on www.TriggerSnappy.co.uk.

After receiving a wonderful comment to one of our blog posts, we have decided to join www.technorati.com as the commenter found us on the technorati website. If you would like to look at this website yourself, please visit www.technorati.com

The Brand Surgery exhibited at the Federation of Small Businesses ‘Power of Promotion’ event which took place on March 6th at The Charmandean Centre, Worthing. Splash FM and The Herald were amongst the exhibitors giving FREE seminars to visitors of this event.Visitors to The Power of Promotion event were invited to place their business cards in our box to enter our draw prize to win a gorgeous bar of Liberty’s chocolate.

The competition took place on Friday 7th March at The Brand Surgery. The lucky winners – Alison and Katherine – daughters of Terri (from Essentially Worthing) were invited along to the surgery and presented their gorgeous chocolate.

The Brand Surgery has been nominated for “The Best of Worthing Most Creative Business Award 2008”. The award is decided by online public vote and we would really appreciate your support.

When you have a spare moment before 31st March 2008, please vote by visiting www.thebestof.co.uk/worthing/awards. Simply click on the “The Best of Business Awards logo” on the home page and follow the on-screen instructions. It is very quick and simple, and your contribution could help raise the profile of The Brand Surgery.

If you have an additional few minutes to spare, I would also greatly appreciate you adding a review. Again, this is very simple – select the appropriate blue bubble, and add some text which describes your experience of using our services.

We are proud to announce the launch of www.coverheat.com. Even if you have recently had a new central heating system installed, and/or your current system has never given you any problems, maintenance cover is a matter of necessity and you need to look no further than www.coverheat.com.

Coverheat is a database driven ecommerce website which allows deferred payments by direct debit or credit card and can handle very heavy traffic. www.coverheat.com compliments a range of other printed products that The Brand Surgery have designed as part of CoverHeat’s rebrand.

If you like the look of Coverheat and would like us to give your business website the same TLC that Coverheat received, then call us on 01903 824229.

The year has kicked off with a series of food-related designs that have positively teased our taste buds, and gently awoken them from their feeble detox attempts. Oh you only live once! And when you read what culinary delights we have been pouring into readable and browse-able formats, you too will succumb to their yummyness!

We are proud to announce that the Countryman Inn website is now live. Click here to read all about this fantastic rural award-winning eatery with a mouth-watering menu that is dripping in countryside charm, where you can even book a table online!.

Back to sunny Worthing … We don’t let a few planks of wood on the beach get in our way! The new Fish Factory and Food menus are fresh off the press. Keep your eyes peeled for their new website which is in our creative hands as we speak. If you can’t wait for the website to go live, then phone 01903 227780 (Food) or 01903 207123 (Fish Factory) to book a table so you can take a look at what’s on offer in Worthing’s most renowned restaurants.