Dungarvan Enterprise Centre Hosts Information Session on exciting EU Grants worth up to €150,000

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre were delighted to partner with Go Dungarvan to host an information session on frontierCities on Tue 20th Jan. this  new EU fund is available for the development of smart mobility apps for cities using FIWARE technology.

Through the frontierCities grant found, €3.920.000 in grant financing has been made available for SMEs, Start-Ups and Web-Developers to develop and deploy smart mobility applications in cities. Successful applicants will get between €50.000 and €150.000 in grant funding , with no equity requested. the application process for this funding is a simple two-step online application through an open competitive Call for Proposals process. "There is approximately a 1 in 3 chance of your application being successful," said Sean J Burke, project manager for frontierCities ,who travelled from Brussels to attend the session, " You can tap into a wealth of technical and business support from our project partners at each stage of development. The initial application is just five sections covering areas such as the problem you've identified, your proposed solution, the technology and the people involved."

Technical Support will be available for successful applicants to help develop and deploy their smart mobility application. business and commercialisation support will also provided to help successful SMEs reach a critical mass of end-users and deploy their smart mobility application in other cities and countries.

Smarter Travel have already long been working toward developing Dungarvan as a smart mobility hub. Now the arrival of frontiesCities is a fantastic opportunity for local web developers and programmers to access huge funds and develop pioneering technology that will be at the forefront of European smart mobility development. Johny Brunnock of Go Dungarvan has made himself available to provide information to any applicants on the work of Smart Travel Dungarvan should they need it for their applications.

The closing date for the callis 10 th Feb, if you missed the session you can contact Mags at Dungarvan Enterprise Centre for details on how to apply by emailing:  dungarvanec@gmail.com.

How To Use Facebook Ads to Promote Your Blog Content

Facebook is no longer the dream marketing platform it was when it was first created.

As well as changing their algorithm to drastically reduce the reach of your posts, Facebook is also cracking down on like-baiting and like-gating in the New Year.

A recent post by Social Media Examiner explains how promoting blog content can help improve your Facebook reach.

Update your marketing tactics:
Focus on the results of your blog's content rather than the reach and number of engagements of your Facebook posts. If you concentrate on quality blog content, your Facebook reach will automatically see an improvement. Quality counts. Its a supply and demand mindset.

Amplify content with ads:
Facebook ads will put your content directly in front of the people you want to see it. You can precisely target your audience right down to their gender, their age, their location, even their hobbies. Given the specificity of these ads, they are extremely cost effective in content promotion and extended reach. They are an excellent way to build momentum by boosting content that is already performing well and generating further comments, likes, and shares.

Attract attention with video ads:
Native videos (videos loaded directly to Facebook rather than shared from sites such as Vimeo or YouTube) are performing extremely well on Facebook. To encourage this latest addition Facebook as incorporated video tools and feature pages to help guide users through the process of uploading directly to their site. Also, when you upload a video through Facebook you get the option to include a Call to Action which links to a URL at the end. This feature heavily increases your reach.

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre examines 2015's Marketing Trends

A recent Forbes article has earmarked 11 marketing trends to look forward to in 2015.

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre takes a look at the main talking points:

• Transparency will become the main tool of marketing
• CMOs will become Chief Simplifier Officers
• We will witness the emergence of marketing technologists
• The winners will be adept at agility marketing
• Media agencies will step up and lead
• Hispanic agencies will go mainstream
• Marketing will shift from globalisation to personalisation
• Procurement will become more powerful
• There will be a growing focus on Internal Communications
• Holding companies will start divesting assets
• The economics of marketing in a digital world will challenge marketers

Dungarvan Enterprise Centre finds the following three points the most interesting: 

There will be a growing focus on Internal Communications.

Companies will be focused on internal communications as a marketing asset. They will look at it as a key challenge and opportunity to create brand ambassadors and make sure that employees and vendors understand and live “the brand,” as well as the vision and strategy of the company. For example, we have already seen Coca Cola  re-brand their corporate website into the amazing Coca Cola Journey website. Here they promote their company through consumer friendly, first person stories and have made it their mission to eliminate press releases entirely from their marketing strategy.

Transparency will become the main tool of marketing

Consumers are going to continue to exert power and influence. Next year the best brands will be those that will give an accurate and real time picture of what they are doing in the interest of the consumer, at any given time. For example in 2014 we already saw how McDonalds combated rumours that there chicken nuggets were made from "pink slime". There behind-the-scenes video garnered over 3 million views and the company was lauded for its transparency. The McDonalds rumour showed how the internet can try and tarnish a brand. Therefore, transparency is the best form of promotion. The trend should explode in 2015.

Media agencies will step up and lead

Media agencies have been built to give strictly narrow media recommendations. But today creativity is key for effective media. Media agencies will begin to produce content that their viewers want and not what big corporations want. This will lead to the power being put back in the hands of the consumer. We already saw this cool media experiment in 2014: New media experiment allows you vote what reporters cover. 

For more insights into 2015 marketing trends why not check out this short YouTube video: