Center Parcs provides family short breaks in forest settings in the UK, with a variety of outdoor and indoor activities and the famous Subtropical Swimming Paradise.

There are 4 UK locations (Whinfell Forest – Cumbria, Sherwood Forest – Nottinghamshire, Longleat Forest – Wiltshire and Elveden Forest – Suffolk), each is set in a forest environment, typically 400 acres in size, providing high quality accommodation in fully equipped apartments and lodges, set amongst trees and streams.

Each village offers an extensive range of sports and leisure activities plus numerous restaurants, bars and retail outlets.

Make It Rain won the SEO account for centerparcs.co.uk following a competitive pitch process. Make It Rain’s expertise in developing online strategy for leisure, retail and travel brands won the brief to improve the efficiency of its web campaigns through SEO.

Simon Jarratt, Online Acquisition Manager, Center Parcs comments: “We wanted to take our SEO acquisition strategy to the next level to help drive efficiencies and reduce our reliance on PPC. We had great chemistry with the team at Make It Rain who demonstrated excellent commercial acumen, technical expertise and creative ideas that we felt would benefit our SEO strategy. We believe they are the right partner to take our SEO to the next level and we already feel like they are an extension of our online marketing team.”

Justin Hayward, Managing Director at Make It Rain comments: “We’re delighted to be working with Center Parcs.  They have a great brand and a unique proposition, with our successful experience of travel and leisure SEO we believe we can drive greater customer acquisition through SEO and reduce their reliance on heavy PPC spend throughout 2012.”

Celebrating their 125th anniversary this year, Whittard have recently launched a new website with numerous improvements and improved usability as well as features that uniquely represent what Whittards are all about, such as enabling customers to specify exactly how they would like their coffee beans ground and allowing users to blend their own tea – a modern take on the Whittard tradition of creating bespoke blends for customers.

Make It Rain will focus on driving traffic and increasing sales through the new site by ensuring the right messages of quality, heritage and British-ness reach the right audience.

The US campaign will initially focus on both East and West Coasts where Whittard have experienced a rapidly growing demand for the quintessentially British product.

Justin Hayward, Managing Director at Make It Rain comments: “I’m really excited to be working with Whittard, a brand with such heritage and rapid global growth. It is a great opportunity to use our latest multi-national SEO techniques to help Whittard achieve their online sales goals. ”

Having launched as a shirt specialist of some repute in Glasgow back in 1987 Ted Baker quickly became the place to buy some of the very best contemporary clothing around. Make It Rain is now charged with promoting Ted Baker’s wide range of collections including: Menswear, Womenswear, Global, Endurance, Accessories, Fragrance, Skinwear, Footwear, Eyewear and Watches across paid search platforms.

Ted Baker’s alternative approach by choosing not to advertise through traditional channels, means they focus on more innovative and fun ways to promote their ranges of products. Make It Rain will focus on maximising the UK PPC strategy enabling Ted to reach a wider audience and driving increased sales through tedbaker.com with the first focus on the new Autumn/Winter 2011 range.

Justin Hayward, Managing Director at Make It Rain comments: “Ted Baker is a fantastic brand to work with, by fully implementing Ted’s quirky style into our PPC campaigns, coupled with our retail experience, this will make for a very strong and successful partnership.”

Why so smart?

It’s smart because it’s a TV with Internet capabilities, similar to the new wave of Internet capable ‘smart phones’. The Smart TV moves the focus away from broadcast television, towards online interactive media. It allows the user to browse the Internet and directly access on-demand media streaming.

Why is it in our meeting room?

The Smart TV facilitates meetings that require video conferencing, Skyping, discussions concerning web pages, or referring to a large range of media such as graphics, videos, photos, music and television.

The onscreen Smart Hub gives users direct access to all these sources. You can access your files via the inbuilt USB ports, go directly to online TV streams (such as Freeview), connect to any PCs networked (either via Ethernet or the 55D8000′s built-in Wi-Fi), or delve into Samsung’s new apps-driven functionality.

Why a Smart TV and not something else?

The smart TV is ideal for our snug meeting room, as its flat screen takes up very little space, offers a crystal clear image and is cheaper than a projector and screen.

How easy is it to use?

The TV can be controlled either by connecting it to a laptop or via an iPhone app. The laptop is definitely the easier option if you’re going to be switching between lots of different sites/apps, although the iPhone app is usable, after a bit of practice! This is the first such device that we’ve trialed here however – so it would be interesting to see how its competitors fare.

Tasked with driving a significant increase in both traffic and sales whilst maintaining CPA and closely managing cannibalisation from a strong natural search position, Make it Rain will develop a PPC strategy that targets different customer segments and different points in the path to purchase. Understanding consumer behaviour will underpin the strategy and full integration with other marketing channels will be key in terms of optimisation.

PPC activity was previously managed in-house and the appointment comes following a competitive seven-way pitch process including Latitude, iCrossing and Harvest Digital.

Justin Hayward, Managing Director of Make it Rain comments: “We’re delighted to be working with Prescription Eyewear Ltd on these two great brands. This campaign is about understanding what consumers want and most importantly getting it to them in their window of need. To achieve this we’ll be monitoring the latest trends in fashion, lifestyle and optometry to ensure that both Glasses Direct and Sunglasses Shop extend their positions as the leading players in their respective markets.”

Rick Duncan, Head of Online at Prescription Eyewear Ltd said: “We have done a great job of managing our paid search activity internally, but now want to take it up a gear and properly integrate with the multitude of other channels in our mix. This is an exciting time for the business following our recent acquisition of Sunglasses Shop and the expertise Make It Rain will bring to the table will allow us to be more agile and realise quicker results. We felt that Make it Rain best reflected our ethos of being innovative, entrepreneurial and fast moving. The agency already feels like a natural extension of my internal marketing team and I look forward to building on that relationship.”

Two weeks ago I completed 13.1 gruelling miles of the Sheffield Half Marathon making just under £1,100 for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in the process. Make It Rain donated £500!

Here’s a picture of me post-half marathon struggling to stand for your amusement:

Read all about the incredible work that the JDRF are doing to find the cure for Type-1 diabetes by visiting their website: http://www.jdrf.org.uk.

The strategic move will provide Indicia with the additional depth and scope of Make It Rain’s specialist skills to expand its digital media offering in its tailored marketing solutions for clients.

Make It Rain will utilise Indicia’s vast experience of customer driven marketing into its search and social media campaigns and allow it to offer fully integrated solutions to its luxury client base. The agency will continue to operate under the same name with Justin Hayward remaining Managing Director.

The move follows the acquisition of Linnaeus Consulting, a customer engagement agency specialising in digital and mobile channels, in June 2010.

Ian Stockley, Managing Director, Indicia comments: “The direct marketing industry is evolving rapidly with social media playing an increasingly important role in the way brands build and shape one-to-one customer relationships. Make It Rain’s specialist digital expertise will further strengthen our understanding of the multiple touch points customers now have with brands and continue to grow our customer intelligence offering.

He adds: There is a natural fit between the two agencies, with Make It Rain having a proven track record of delivering highly responsive search and social media campaigns for its clients, planned and underpinned by a deep understanding of customer behaviours. We are really excited about the benefits this will bring to our clients.”

Justin Hayward, Managing Director at Make It Rain says: “We’re always looking to push the boundaries in everything we do. A greater breadth of customer intelligence is key to continuing our offering of the best service and results in the market. Indicia’s customer intelligence focus will provide additional insight into our delivery of highly targeted campaigns, for all our clients, and keep our digital services at the forefront. Joining Indicia will really serve to aid our growth in 2011.”

David Lloyd Leisure, the leading premium Health, Sport and Leisure business has appointed Make It Rain, the search and social specialist, to manage all of its PPC (pay-per-click), and SEO (search engine optimisation) on behalf of its 10 European Clubs in Ireland, The Netherlands, Spain and Belgium.

The pan-European campaign follows a successful two-year search marketing campaign by Make It Rain on behalf of David Lloyd Leisure’s 78 UK Clubs. During this time David Lloyd Leisure has climbed from number four to number one in its competitive share of search traffic.

The European brief aims to further strengthen the David Lloyd Leisure brand online, driving new membership sales growth in its European territories. Make It Rain will focus on delivering cost efficient, quality sales enquiries on a CPE (cost per enquiry) basis, through a geo-search strategy supporting all of the David Lloyd Leisure Clubs.

David Brosse, Head of Digital & Marketing Communications at David Lloyd Leisure Group comments: “Our online performance in the UK has been completely transformed by adopting a geographic search strategy to drive traffic directly to the relevant club. Making it really straightforward for customers to search, find and click-through to their local David Lloyd Club sounds simple, but it’s made a world of difference.

“Through the sophisticated ongoing measurement and monitoring that Make It Rain has introduced, we’ve been able to apply real-time insight to maximise efficiency by making small changes to website structure and page content in line with the PPC and SEO keywords and terms. Make It Rain has been a key supplier in enabling our online success and we’re looking forward to working together on developing our European markets.”

Justin Hayward, Managing Director at Make It Rain comments: “Expanding our brief with David Lloyd Leisure is a fantastic endorsement of the success we’ve been able to achieve with the company in the UK, and we hope to be able to boost performance in a similar way in Europe. Our approach with David Lloyd has always been to deliver CPE results, but to do it in a way that builds the online brand in a consistent way over time; we’re offering more than a series of campaigns and the results we’re seeing prove the need for continuous management of search and social.”

3 September 2010, London

Shaun Leane, UK Jewellery Designer of the Year for the fourth year running, has appointed Make It Rain, the search and social specialist as its SEO agency to support the launch of the celebrity jeweller’s first e-commerce store.

The London-based designer is well known in celebrity circles for his catwalk collaborations with Alexander McQueen and creating bespoke jewellery pieces for Sarah Jessica Parker and Daphne Guinness which have graced the pages of Tatler, Vanity Fair and Vogue.com. The recent launch of shaunleaneshop.com is part of the brand’s web strategy to bring a new range of fine Shaun Leane jewellery to discerning consumers around the world.

Make It Rain landed the SEO account for both shaunleane.com and shaunleaneshop.com following a competitive pitch process. Make It Rain’s expertise in developing online strategy for premium and luxury brands won the brief to build the brand online beyond bespoke commissions, reach a wider audience and to improve the efficiency of its web campaigns through SEO.

Shaun Leane, UK Jewellery Designer of the Year 2010 comments:

“The opening of our online shop represents a great opportunity for our brand as we look to grow our audience, but it’s absolutely critical that we maintain the reputation we’ve earned offline for high-craftsmanship and premium pieces in the online world. Our SEO strategy has to deliver results sensitively for our business and brand and we believe Make It Rain is the most specialised agency at working with high end brands to deliver this on our behalf.”

Justin Hayward, Managing Director at Make It Rain comments:

“Shaun Leane is a talented designer with a niche following of high-net worth clientele. Our expertise in working with premium brands means that the SEO strategy we adopt will ensure the brand maintains its integrity online whilst delivering access to new audiences and new customers.”

Video courtesy of Business Zone.