Showing posts with label digital technologies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label digital technologies. Show all posts

Friday, December 20, 2013

Digital Transformation 2014



Words that best describe important business developments at Rocktime
Words that best describe important business developments at Rocktime

The Rocktime Team and Rocktime Clients have compiled an informed group of words that best describe our perceptions about important business developments currently affecting us in 2013 and that will continue to have a direct impact on us going optimistically into 2014.


  • Innovation
  • Responsive design
  • Social ROI
  • Digital Transformation
  • Conversions
  • Social Workplace
  • Mobile
We have some really great clients and we appreciate the challenges to remain innovative.

You know where we are if you want to chat about your marketing and development plans; we are all 'hands on' and 'consultants', so you are in good hands, whoever you work with at Rocktime!

Here's to plenty more great integrated digital strategies in 2014!

Author: Fiona Anderson

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Is NFC the next big thing




NFC stands for “Near Field Communication”,  it is a set of standards for (NFC enabled) smart-phones and similar devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity.   It is known in the mobile market, predominantly for mobile payments. 

NFC technology is not new and the first NFC enabled phone was released back in 2006, since 2011 we are seeing more and more reports on the opportunities available of using NFC in marketing campaigns.  

The above image is from a 2011 campaign run via Nokia with Proxama (NFC and Mobile Commerce Specialist) in Vox Cinemas.  Details of the campaigns were widely reported; The Drum online magazine covered the campaign here We feel that this ‘mobile content delivery’ is less clunky than the traditional QR Codes for engaging with offline information. How Stuff Works: What is an NFC Tag?

Mid January our favourite Internet Marketing Blog Econsultancy, reported five trends from CES that marketers need to know.  Guess what? NFC made the list. 

This month’s geek video comes via the Hybris Software channel, titled: Shopping Gets Sexy with Hybris” the video includes technology such as in-store NFC tags, gesture-based product navigation and geo-fenced alerts.  The video highlights that "window-shopping" need not be a low margin activity and shows how window shoppers can socially engage with a product, even when the shop is closed. We love this approach. We are watching trends in NFC Smartphone adoption with interest and noting those using the technology within their digital marketing strategies.  

Mobile/Social Marketing is becoming a lot less about broadcasting information in a more succinct way, it is moving more towards engaging customers in digital experiences with your information. 

NFC allows the tech savvy consumers to engage, interact and communicate with brands. We will keep you up to date with others using NFC on this blog.  Should you wish to help your company stay ahead of the digital, mobile and social news, talk to our sales team today about our Integrated Marketing Services. 

Author: Sarah Griffiths

Monday, January 21, 2013

Geek Video of the Month



Google has defined the definition of 'Geek' as a person with eccentric devotion to a particular interest.

So it seems fitting that this month's Geek Video gives praise to the 22 year old Digital Film Design student 'Kaleb Lechowski'.

Lechowski received attention from Hollywood executives after they viewed his six minute sci-fi animated film, titled 'R'ha'.

Thanks to his impressive work, he is now headed to Hollywood and there is talk of the potential of making a full feature movie from his ideas.

View the talked about short above and find out more over at Mashable about; what the experts say, the films that inspired the short movie and what's next for the talented student.

Mashable Entertainment Article: 22 year olds sci - fi short gets Hollywood attention

Congratulations Kaleb, we are looking forward to seeing your name in the credits list, when the time is right for you to launch your full featured movie.

Author:  Sarah Griffiths

Friday, June 08, 2012

Geek Video of the Month



The GPU Technology Conference (or GTC12 for short), which ran in California last month, aims to highlight advances in computing advances and their importance to the future of science and innovation.

With an agenda like that, it's no wonder we're finding technology that looks like it's straight from a science fiction film!

This month's Geek video courtesy of Andy, our Technical Manager, feels very Minority Report. Built by Eyesight Mobile Technologies, the firm's software uses a regular web camera and allows you to control a laptop with hand gestures. The software works regardless of the camera hardware, computer power and light; maybe before long we'll be seeing this Touch Free user interface technology.


Author: Alice Cheetham, Andy Clarke



Monday, January 09, 2012

Tech Trends of 2012



Happy New Year readers, hope you all had a lovely Christmas break.

We thought to share with you some of the best posts we have spotted on the WWW about tech trends people expect to emerge in 2012, enjoy:


We will also be joining in conversations with the IEEE (the world’s largest technical professional association) Facebook page next week as they will be posting news from the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and providing updates in the form of video interviews with IEEE experts about the top consumer electronics trends in 2012.

Our Technical Manager, Andy, also pointed out a few personal top items to keep an eye on;

  • The increasing use of NFC as it becomes available in more mobile devices. This has many uses including sharing web addresses from posters or paying for items with a “wave” of your mobile.
  • Glasses-free 3D TV which will be shown as CES.
  • More mobile focused sites using frameworks such as JQuery Mobile, Kendo UI Mobile and responsive design.
  • 4G mobile network

If you have spotted any further posts on technical trends that you would like to share with us, feel free to leave a comment below.

In summary: 2012 seeks to be a rather exciting year with more emphasis on sophistication on the tools we currently use. The Rocktime team are most excited about mobile-social opportunities for our clients, as well as increasing collaborations with niche communities and gaining access to a whole lot of channel data.

Integrated Digital Marketing campaigns with a targeted focus is a must to achieve true ROI. As a team, along with sharing updates on our activities, we are looking forward to sharing further insights with you on further technical trends, devise use, channel strategies and ROI this year, watch this space.


Author: Sarah Griffiths

Friday, August 12, 2011

C4L Talk Cloud Computing

Introduction to this month's guest Blogger: Laura Bentham from C4L (Bournemouth Offices).
C4L offer secure, 24/7, high speed connectivity to 26 data centres across the UK and Europe.

Rocktime and C4L have a very close working relationship; developed through years of partnering on colocation projects together, helping clients to choose the best Internet Infrastructure and connectivity solutions.


C4L Talk Cloud Computing

Like renting a room when you need it, rather than buying the hotel.


When Rocktime kindly asked if we’d like to do a guest blog for their August takeover, we jumped at the chance. What’s always been strikingly apparent about Rocktime is their passion when talking about their current interests, and indeed industry themes.

Because of this, we chose to talk today about one of our passions: virtualisation, and why technology consumers should learn to love the cloud.

Not only has ‘cloud computing’ become a fashionable phrase among IT professionals, but the cloud computing market is also estimated to contribute £25 billion to the British economy by 2015.

Despite this, so many people remain unaware of what ‘the cloud’ is, and even more so, what it actually does.

In short, anytime you are using IT, which is not on your own physical computing device, you are using the cloud. If you upload data as a backup to a storage location, via the Internet, you've just used the cloud. Equally, if your work station is simply a screen, a mouse and a keyboard, you may well be connecting to the cloud for your personal computing. There are hundreds of different ways of using cloud technology, and in fact, most people will have already used the cloud without even realising.

So why do we need the cloud, and how can it benefit businesses?

As technology advances and physical servers become more and more powerful, in terms of their capacity and reliability, there is less often the need for a dedicated physical server. Using a virtualised, or cloud based alternative, clients are able to run their IT infrastructure at a much cheaper cost, yet still take advantage of all the same benefits provided by a classic server model.

You see, to us, the beauty of the cloud is in its convenient application. One of the key benefits to organisations is that virtualisation technology allows servers to be dynamically scaled up -or down, to suit requirements, providing a much more flexible environment than ever experienced before.

What’s more is that the security within a virtualised environment is second to none. Using hypervisor technology, virtualised servers are created as entirely self-contained environments, inaccessible to outside parties. Virtualisation also removes the need for organisations to operate physical servers from their office, meaning they eliminate the risk of damage or destruction, that can so easily be caused by those inevitable office accidents.

If you’d like any more information on C4L’s cloud computing solutions please contact our sales team on 08000 470 481 or visit our website www.C4L.co.uk.


Author: Laura Bentham, C4L

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Digital Media & The Haiti Appeal

The rise in usage of digital media technologies and increase in consumers being hyper-connected (Facebook, Twitter, Google Voice, Skype) has lent a helping hand to the opportunities available to share ways to help with the Haiti Earthquake Appeal. Through New Media image, print and text it has also helped us all feel a lot more connected to the situation.

Along with the sense of feeling connected, digital media has allowed people to:

• Easily donate
• Family members to connect with one another
• Locals to share their eye witness accounts via image and video and text
• Send relief to the right parts
• Share stories on Haiti to spread the word and convince others to donate

There are a number of digital brands also helping spread the word of the appeal including:
Apple, which allows people to donate directly through their iTune stores. Google have helped by providing a one stop resource for all things connected to the Haiti relief, with links to major charity organisations via their Google Checkout. Google have also teamed up with GeoEye a satellite imaging company to make available the most recent satellite imagery of Haiti.

The BBC have produced an online interactive map to show the routes that aid is getting into Haiti, view the interactive map here (also shown in above image), which illustrates each of the main routes for aid, from sea to air together with a short explanation on what is involved with each supply.

For more information on how social media has played a key part in the news from Haiti, we suggest you read this article from the Guardian.

The important part of writing this blog post is to point out, how much everyone in the digital age can have a huge impact on historical world events, whether it is sending out a tweet of the latest article you just read; encouraging your friends on Facebook to donate or sharing real time images from Haiti. We are certain that as digital media technology adoption increases the impact for future world events can only be greater.

For information on donating from the UK, we recommend you visit the UK Disasters Emergency Committee, an umbrella organisation for 13 humanitarian aid agencies.

Along with uniting agency efforts in times of disaster - such as flood, earthquake or famine - wherever it happens in the world and maximising funds raised to ensure they are spent in an effective and fully accountable way, we would also like to praise the DEC for their use of Social Media. The Haiti Earthquake was just a week ago and they are spreading their charitable good will via appeal on YouTube, images on Flickr and they are providing the charitable with the ability to connect with them on Facebook and Twitter.

We hope this blog post has helped spread the news further.


Author: Sarah Griffiths