acuity made its TV debut this Thursday on BBC 1’s ‘Look North’ programme. acuity’s very own Liam Walsh provided a short interview on why the business decided to ‘set up shop’ at the Piece Mill in Halifax.

The segment was focused on the recent resurgence and renovation to old Yorkshire mill buildings and how technology and digital start-ups were opting for office space there rather than new purpose-built offices.

acuity moved into the recently renovated Piece Mill building in Halifax earlier this year. The building is part of Leeds Beckett University‘s enterprise programme, helping start-ups access services such as mentoring, funding and high-quality office space. Liam told Look North,

“We didn’t want to go for a new build, we didn’t want to go for something that was just a bit drab and didn’t have any character. We wanted to be part of the renaissance that’s happening in the town.”

Since moving into the Piece Mill, acuity has been able to go from a business set up in a back bedroom to providing a stunning office for a growing team, first-class meeting facilities and access to an ultra-fast gigabyte broadband connection.

acuity founder, Sean Walsh, stated,

“2018 has been a fantastic year for the business with our new premises and substantial turnover growth. We’ve also been able to welcome Liam on board as a co-Director, relocating from London with a strong background in digital operations having previously worked at the likes of The Telegraph and Videology.

We’re been working hard on our digital intelligence platform and have already delivered several digital performance audits to help clients better measure and understand their performance. 2019 is already shaping up to an incredibly exciting year for the company.”

If you’re thinking about your digital strategy for 2019 or want to better understand what worked (and what didn’t!) across all your digital performance channels, give us a shout and we’d be happy to show you how our forensic digital audits could help your business.

‘Only 61% of County Cricket clubs have HTTPS’ What are the risks?

The first record of a cricket match in known history is the 16th century, thus making it one of the oldest team sports in the world and is currently only second to football as the world’s most popular sport. In the UK the elite club competition is the County Championship which has a passionate following around the country with many of the players representing England internationally. A huge benefit for fans is that the cricket season runs throughout the summer unlike Football & Rugby and therefore fans are constantly engaged in following games online or even attending matches when they can, to enjoy a day with friends and family whilst cheering on their county.

However, with the evolution of the internet and the growth in methods through which fans can connect with the clubs, it has become vitally important for clubs to protect their fans who visit their website for news, tickets or merchandise. The digital age is brilliant for connecting with fans on a daily basis – which wasn’t possible in the past however it comes with risks such as identity theft and online hacking.

County Cricket clubs have embraced this change in the majority however 49% of clubs are still using non-HTTPS sites which can cause future problems with fan confidence as well as SEO strategy.

What is HTTPS?

HTTPS is a method of ensuring your website remains secure and encrypts the information that is sent between the browser and web server. By doing this, your website is protected from any outside interference, such as hackers who may try and hijack data such as passwords and credit card information. Secure and protected connections prevent this from occurring. Whilst, historically HTTPS were associated with sensitive websites, in the last four years, this has become modicum for most pages across the internet. However, just because your site is HTTPS, doesn’t mean that the site is secure – far from it. HTTPS status does tell search engines and customers that you’ve considered their security and data. Fans may think twice about purchasing tickets on a non-HTTPS site, thereby killing conversion rate.

So what does the current landscape look like?

Why should clubs embrace HTTPS?

Outside of this obvious security, there are a number of alternative reasons why clubs such as Yorkshire & Middlesex have secure sites:

Google Rankings – Google has pushed websites to adopt HTTPS as they want to ensure their users have the best experience on the Chrome browser and consequently this has led to Google recalculating their ranking algorithm to prioritise HTTPS websites over other similar sites which are not secure. Whilst clubs such as Worcestershire have a secure ticket and merchandise sites, only being partially secure can still cause a number of potential problems and have a negative impact on the club’s Google ranking. This could potentially cost the club new fans, who may be interested in the sport but come across another club first. It’s vitally important that clubs build their sites 100% secure, due to the fact that nearly 60% of all online traffic comes from the Chrome browser. Adopting HTTPS can support your club in the long terms by improving your SEO strategy and allowing for more fruitful optimisations. 

Additionally, with the release of Chrome 68 Google is now going to start naming those sites which aren’t HTTPS by replacing the warning exclamation mark, with the words ‘Not Secure’ as well as warning users not to share their personal data on the page, as hackers may be active. If a user is warned about this on your homepage, it may mean they leave the page immediately and therefore may never have the chance to navigate to the secure ticket page. This is why it is so important to ensure your entire site is HTTPS.

Conversion Uplift – Whilst the ins and outs of HTTPS will be better understood by digital professionals, the average user is still aware that exclamatory icon warning them that a site isn’t safe is troubling. In some cases, the ticketing section of a site is secure however leaving the rest of the site non-secure still creates the impression of risk and a dangerous environment. Clubs want their fans to feel safe and secure on their sites, in order to ensure return visits as well as individuals spending more time navigating the site. An HTTP site, may cause anxiety for visitors and they may exit the site more quickly than expected. 

Fan Confidence – This leads on from the conversion uplift, but it is important to remember that any club wants to gain and keep the loyalty of their fans, and therefore if you have a site which isn’t secure you risk presenting yourself as a club which doesn’t take it’s fans safety seriously. Secure your site, and you will inspire confidence and trust.

Google Analytics – Using HTTPS also improves a club’s Google Analytics, which all but one club in the County Championship uses. One of the great benefits of GA, is the ability to see where site traffic originated and therefore allowing a brand to build a strategy around targeting these areas or investing more money into advertising within these spaces. However, if you don’t use HTTPS, referral traffic will be categorised as ‘direct traffic’ which means any marketers will have more difficulty in utilising this data.

So what can cricket clubs do to improve their security and SEO?

Our platform and team specialises in analysing a brand’s entire digital activity to help identify opportunities, threats and return-on-investment.

Get in touch with us if you have any questions on this or you want to know how fiacuity can be used to provide strategic recommendations on securing your websites or suggestions on how to improve your users online experience as well learn from what competitors are doing. Our platform and expertise can help you review your site, to help you improve user engagements and your own digital analytics.

How has La Liga’s ‘Saudi Arabian Experiment’ impacted Twitter Growth?

La Liga has a number of strings to its bow with some of the most passionate fans on the planet, two of the world’s biggest clubs and perhaps the greatest duo in history. Consequently La Liga sees a huge number of fans follow their clubs’ official Twitter accounts, eagerly consuming any news about their favourite players or upcoming matches. With such an enthralling league you would expect to see this reflected in a fervent Twitter fan-base that is constantly growing and immersing themselves in their club’s social media.

Therefore fiacuity’s analysts have studied La Liga’s growth across Twitter, between January 1st & June 1st to discover exactly who grew as expected in the first half of the year and who saw above average growth, which for La Liga was 1.73%. However, before we get onto the fascinating results it is worth bearing in mind that the makeup of La Liga’s overall followers is starkly different to the EPL. Real Madrid & Barcelona for example make up 89.99% of the overall followers of La Liga clubs with their closest rival Atletico Madrid having 3.89%. Comparably, Man United & Arsenal make up just 43% of all Twitter followers in the EPL, despite having the most followers. Moreover, as you will discover this average benchmark is influenced by a certain anomaly that has impact the league’s, and more important certain clubs growth rate massively..

What does La Liga’s Growth Rate look like?

As you can see between January & February there was a huge spike in follows for La Liga clubs, which boosted the overall growth rate of the league to 4.76%. It’s not uncommon to see a spike in January, due to a proliferation of matches or transfers being announced and this is reflected throughout Europe. However, 4.76% is the highest growth rate for a single month across all of Europe’s top 4 leagues, as well as Portugal & France, and there is a very good reason for this.

On January 25th, Villarreal, Leganes & Levante all announced that they had agreed a deal for three Saudi Arabian internationals who would be heading to Russia for the World Cup: Fahad al-Mulwallad, Salem al-Dawsari & Yahya al-Shehri. Six others arrived in La Liga as well, but it’s these signing which had the biggest influence on La Liga’s growth rate that month, with Villarreal posting a growth rate of 27.60%, Leganes was 9.91% and Levante 24.60%.

The table above gives a full breakdown of the clubs during this period and categorical shows that the acquisition of Middle Eastern players had a huge impact on the league’s following. This course of action was received negatively in some quarters, as a cynical attempt by La Liga to expand their influence into a previously untapped market (the contracts and salaries were paid for by Saudi Arabia’s General Sports Authority). Whilst these loan moves didn’t particularly work-out with the only appearance being a ten minute cameo by Fahad Al Muwallad playing in La Liga, it’s clear that they had the desired effect on the club’s social following. Levante took full advantage of this by promoting the player on Twitter and then expressing their delight at the huge effect it had had on their follower count.

The tweet received thousands of engagement, however it did also provoke debate on the thread with arguments arising between fans, some of whom argued the club were more interested in signing players for commercial potential rather than their ability. 

How does this affect La Liga’s Growth Rate?

The only issue with these transfers and spikes, is that they inflate the club’s overall yearly growth rate and based on the January-June period, appear to be the exceptions rather than the rule. This results in some clubs appearing to have better results than they may actually have in terms of ‘consistent growth’. Villarreal increased their rate to 27.60% after signing Salem al-Dawsari however, they then saw negative growth from March to June. The argument should be made, that ‘growth is growth’ Villarreal have more followers than in 2017, but it should be argued it skewers the overall league benchmark for other teams and as a result, in this case it has led to only six teams achieving above benchmark results in La Liga, in spite of many of them being more consistent than the clubs who signed Saudi players.

Arguably one could dispute the long term success of the ‘Saudi Deal’, with overall follower count on Villarreal’s Arabic account already decreasing from 43k in February to 35k by June. That being said some of these clubs prefer a short term approach to their growth and it’s indisputable that it has worked in acquiring new followers, however a more prudent approach may be to develop and gain fans in a more organic manner as this could result in more sustainable fan loyalty.

So what can football clubs do to improve their Twitter growth?

Our platform and team specialises in analysing brand’s entire digital activity to help identify opportunities, threats and return-on-investment.

Get in touch with us to find out more about how fiacuity can be used to provide strategic recommendations to actively improve your growth rates as well as learn from what competitors are doing to achieve higher rates and success. Our platform can help you review your entire season’s digital marketing activity (social, email, content, paid advertising) and help you make smarter decisions on where to allocate more time and investment.

Twitter Growth Rates for Premier League Clubs in the last 6 Months

The English Premier League is the pinnacle of European league football, with the highest attendances, astounding transfer fees, revered managers such as Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho as well as TV deals which net the EPL nearly €2bn more than any other European league. This has given the clubs in the league the opportunity to expand their profile and therefore one would expect this to be reflected in a growth in their followers on social media and in this case Twitter. social media growth.

Therefore the analyst team here at fiacuity, decided to do a little digging and take a look at the growth for these hugely lucrative clubs on Twitter and determine who was seeing exceptional growth rates versus those who below the league benchmark. Understandably, growth rates aren’t the only metric for measuring the success of a club’s social media as engagement is also a key method of assessing success. However, audience numbers and growth reveal an interesting story about a brand’s ‘reach’ which can play a pivotal role in galvanising content in sponsorship.

Who has seen the best Twitter Growth over the last 6 months?

As you can see the growth rate for the Premier League in 2018 so far has been 1.74%, the highest of Europe’s top four leagues, with nine clubs achieving growth which was above this benchmark:

The Top 4 in the league this season all performed above benchmark, suggesting that positive league performance correlates to strong growth, whilst Arsenal & Chelsea fell short. However, it’s worth noting that all four of these clubs were also incredibly inventive with the Twitter strategy this year with content ranging from updates on Tottenham’s stadium to City’s moving piece charting Gabriel Jesus’ journey from struggle to the World Cup. Success can breed growth, but it’s imperative that clubs also take advantage of it.

Which club has maintained consistently great growth?

Clubs managing to sustain above league benchmark growth continuously is a telltale sign of an excellent social strategy, however it is difficult to achieve. Growth consistency, is challenge for a club and our analysts used Everton as an example of this. The club signed striker Cenk Tosun in January and produced some reactive, high quality content to announce this which led to their growth rate jumping to 5.63%. 

Clearly this was well above the monthly benchmark for January of 2.66%, however this was a short term spike, rather than a long term increase and the following month saw a drop to 1.33%.  Arguably, a new signing energises unknown fans and can create short term results but organic growth is more preferable as it is more likely to result in longevity.

Importantly, there is nothing wrong with boosting growth in the short term, however Tottenham’s Twitter strategy has been exemplary in achieving constantly high growth.  It’s currently a very exciting time to be a Spurs fan, with a radical young manager, an entertaining youthful team made up of world class English player such as Harry Kane, establishment in the Champions League as well as new stadium due for completion early in the 2018-19 season. Consequently, the club would expect to naturally see their profile rise, and yet they haven’t taken any chances and have produced excellent content for social media, which has supported their exceptionally consistent growth on Twitter:

Arguably there’s been a few methods by which Spurs have taken advantage of their on the field success to leverage it on Twitter. Primarily fans will follow an account to show their support, get updates on matches and transfer activity as well as interviews. Therefore it’s important to engage with fans regularly to maintain relevancy and ensure the club run account, is the hub for knowledge. Tottenham do this extremely well by tweeting daily and posting ‘Twitter-friendly’ video content, usually between 1-2 minutes’, such as Mauricio’s Minute. Furthermore, even during the World Cup, the  account is still informing their fans about their players’ exploits in Russia which keeps them invested in the postseason, in spite of the natural decline during this period hence the club’s ability to remain above the benchmark between May & June.

Moreover, producing behind the scenes material is a powerful tool in maintaining consistent growth and creating a sense of trust with the supporters, with the stadium updates offering a level of transparency that connects with fans and invites them to join the club on this exciting journey.

Finally, Spurs also have a Twitter account that is infused with personality rather than just being a outlet for data. They do this by posting about matters outside of football, ranging from Mother’s Day well wishes to a ‘Jokes Battle’ between Moussa Dembele and WWE wrestler Finn Balor. Additionally, humour is derived from  posting GIFs to liven up the feed, for example replacing the football in Wanyama’s goal against Liverpool with a fireball. Fans and casual viewers alike, want to be entertain when they are on social media and therefore providing alternative content is an easy way to engage a wider audience and entice more followers.

So how do clubs improve their Twitter growth? How do they beat the benchmark?

The fiacuity platform specialises in analysing a brand’s digital footprint to help identify threats, ROI and opportunities.

Get in touch with us to find out more about how fiacuity can be used to provide strategic recommendations to actively improve your growth rates as well as learn from what competitors are doing to achieve higher rates and success. Our platform can help you review your entire season’s digital marketing activity (social, email, content, paid advertising) and help you make smarter decisions on where to allocate more time and investment.

acuity open first office in historic Piece Mill

acuity are delighted to announce the first phase of expansion plans involving new premises at the Piece Mill in Halifax. The Piece Mill has recently been refurbished by a partnership between Leeds Beckett University and Calderdale Council. Situated next to the iconic Piece Hall (which has been subject to its own £20m renovation), the new Unversity business hub has been completely converted into modern open plan business offices aimed specifically for start-ups.

The big move is acuity’s first dedicated office space after months of continued growth and aspirations for expansion.

“It’s finally time to expand our office space and head count at acuity as I look towards the future of the company. The Piece Mill business hub is ideal for our digital business and will see us move into a wonderfully converted piece of history that is conveniently located the stunning Piece Hall in Halifax. As a Halifax lad born and bred, I’m delighted to be one of the many digital businesses investing in the town to try help bring more digital talent to our area.

Our partnership with Leeds Beckett University gives us a great platform for nurturing young talented graduates in digital and keeping them in Yorkshire. Having seen the offices at various stages of refurbishment it is so exciting to be one of the first tenants into a state-of-the-art facility like the Piece Mill.

There’s a real buzz about Halifax at the moment with the Tour de Yorkshire set to depart literally outside our window on the final day of the race (6th May) and the recent renovations to the Piece Hall is a huge bonus to the town. Our new offices are so conveniently located with the train station just 100 meters down the road. We’re surrounded by bars, shops and restaurants in the Piece Hall. Having the support of the University will prove invaluable to a start-up like us”

– Sean Walsh (Director)

acuity will be opening the office 1st May and is expected to be making first hires throughout the summer months. Our thanks go to the Leeds Beckett University team – especially Jesse Stott – for all their hard work in getting the business centre up and running.

acuity helps launch business travel app

Last week acuity was delighted to be part of the digital strategy launch for automotive technology client Fleetondemand. For the last 3 months, we’ve been working alongside the Bradford based technology provider on their website, content and digital strategy.

Fleetondemand are one of the leading providers of enterprise Cloud technology applications to vehicle leasing, rental and automotive service providers in both B2B and B2C markets. Fleetondemand boast a hugely impressive client roster including the likes of RAC, Hitachi, Inchcape and Europcar. Mobilleo is Fleetondemand’s latest piece of technology catered exclusively towards Mobility as a Service.

As a B2B application, Mobilleo’s target audience ranges from corporate financial controllers through to self-employed business travelers. Mobilleo brings together all aspects of business travel – finding transport methods, booking comparison, individual preferences and even local attraction discovery – in one single app. As the world’s first truly integrated Mobility as a Service app, Mobilleo promises to change the way businesses consider their travel policies and strategy.

Our approach

acuity first undertook a digital audit to best understand the Mobility as a Service landscape as well as key competitors. We looked at how other brands were competing both via SEO and PPC as well as identifying key content themes and influencers on Social Media. Insights and data from this audit then formed a 6 month strategy activity plan that we went through and developed over 2 x digital workshop sessions with the Mobilleo team.

Workshop sessions allow both parties to go through the strategy in detail and start to identify potential risks or opportunities. With buy-in from the entire team, we could then progress with mapping out our 6 month plan against other marketing activity such as industry events, PR and development release schedules.

This activity plan then helped form a weekly schedule for us to work with the internal marketing team so that when we came to work in their offices, we were all ready to go. Weekly activities that we consulted and worked with Fleetondemand on included;

• Digital Brand strategy
• Website content plan & creation
• Internal reporting
• Social media strategy
• Website heat-mapping
• On-site SEO technical recommendations
• Digital PR
• Social Media influencer outreach
• In-house training

If you’re a business looking to define and implement a digital strategy, or perhaps are looking to enter the marketplace get in touch to see how acuity can help on info@acuitydigital.co.uk.