Archive for category Uncategorized
The Images Group Awarded Innovation Support Provider Status
Posted by James in Innovation Support, Internet Marketing, Uncategorized on February 9, 2010
The Images Group software and systems development expertise has been recognised by the award of NE Business Link Innovation Support Service Provider status allowing us to provide Business Link funded support to local SMEs for eligible projects.
As part of Business Link’s aid package for small-to-medium sized enterprises there are opportunities to benefit from 100% grant aid for innovative R&D projects assisting product or service development via the Innovation Voucher scheme.
The Images Group has now been added to the Innovation Service Provider register which allows the company’s software and systems development expertise to be made available to local businesses. This effectively gives the company the same Innovation Provider status as the five Universities in the region.
If you are interested in exploring how this award can be used in your product or service development, or wish to learn more about the Innovation Voucher scheme, contact James on 0191 5197279.
Over £2m has been made available to help North East firms boost their competitiveness by working closely with the region’s colleges, universities and other innovative organisations.
Accessed via Business Link, the £2.4m Innovation Vouchers project will encourage collaboration between SMEs and academic and engineering institutions, allowing businesses to use the vouchers to purchase support services and improve their competitiveness and efficiency.
The vouchers are being made available as part of the Government’s overall Solutions for Business framework – a streamlined portfolio of business support products that are easy to identify and simple to access.
For the first time all government help for business will share an easily identifiable ‘Solutions for Business’ banner and can be accessed mainly via Business Link. The aim also is to rationalise the vast array of support on offer with over 3,000 separate schemes targeted to be reduced to 30 by March 2010.
Innovation Vouchers aim to encourage small and medium sized companies to engage with Higher Education institutions such as the region’s five universities, Innovation Connector projects, Centres of Excellence and other Knowledge Base providers. Businesses most likely to attract support will be in the process of developing or testing a technology, product or service.
The project is being part financed by the European Union’s ERDF Competitiveness Programme 2007-13, securing £1.2m ERDF investment which has been matched by regional development agency One North East.
The total value of any one voucher will be at least £3,000, through to a ceiling limit of £7,000, depending on the project.
One North East Director of Business and Industry, Ian Williams, said: “Innovation Vouchers will stimulate productivity and economic competitiveness by increasing innovation and the exploitation of new ideas within businesses.
“The North East has a lower number of businesses per head of population than the average for England. With a clear need to increase the region’s business stock levels, Innovation Vouchers will provide much needed support and growth for businesses in deprived areas of County Durham, Northumberland, Tees Valley and Tyne and Wear.
“As such, it is another important way that we are helping North East businesses address the challenges of the economic downturn and come out of it fitter and stronger.
“Ultimately, Solutions for Business will make it easier for companies, small and large, new and existing, to find the right products to help them with common business issues such as getting started, growing, finance, export, skills, innovation and the environment.”
Alastair MacColl, chief executive of Business & Enterprise North East, which delivers the Business Link service in the region, said: “Increasing innovation in North East England will be crucial to the region’s long term prosperity, so continuing to invest in the ongoing generation of great business ideas is vital.
“At Business Link we want to ensure that the North East is the best place in the UK to run an innovative business or service. Encouraging innovation and maximising its potential will both help to develop new areas of opportunity and also protect and reinforce those areas in which the region already excels. The new Innovation Vouchers represent an outstanding example of how this region is helping SMEs and knowledge based institutions to work together, providing the catalyst for the development of viable new products and services.
“Solutions for Business has been designed to make key business support products easier to access and I urge firms in the North East to contact Business Link in order to find out how their enterprise can benefit from the range of support that is now available.”
Minister for Business, Ian Pearson said: “To succeed in a competitive global environment UK businesses need ongoing access to help and support. The streamlined Solutions for Business portfolio makes it simpler for businesses to access the help they need, providing long term, sustainable support to business.”
Innovation Vouchers will be distributed via the North East England Investment Centre (NEEIC) following initial business needs analysis from Business Link
FTC Warns Endorsers
Posted by James in Uncategorized on November 3, 2009
Changes Affect Testimonial Advertisements, Bloggers, Celebrity Endorsement
The Federal Trade Commission recently announced that it has approved final revisions to the guidance it gives to advertisers on how to keep their endorsement and testimonial ads in line with the FTC Act.
The notice incorporates several changes to the FTC’s Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising, which address endorsements by consumers, experts, organizations, and celebrities, as well as the disclosure of important connections between advertisers and endorsers.
The Guides were last updated in 1980.
Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.
The revised Guides also add new examples to illustrate the long standing principle that “material connections” (sometimes payments or free products) between advertisers and endorsers – connections that consumers would not expect – must be disclosed. These examples address what constitutes an endorsement when the message is conveyed by bloggers or other “word-of-mouth” marketers. The revised Guides specify that while decisions will be reached on a case-by-case basis, the post of a blogger who receives cash or in-kind payment to review a product is considered an endorsement.
Thus, bloggers who make an endorsement must disclose the material connections they share with the seller of the product or service. Likewise, if a company refers in an advertisement to the findings of a research organization that conducted research sponsored by the company, the advertisement must disclose the connection between the advertiser and the research organization.
And a paid endorsement – like any other advertisement – is deceptive if it makes false or misleading claims.
Celebrity endorsers also are addressed in the revised Guides. While the 1980 Guides did not explicitly state that endorsers as well as advertisers could be liable under the FTC Act for statements they make in an endorsement, the revised Guides reflect Commission case law and clearly state that both advertisers and endorsers may be liable for false or unsubstantiated claims made in an endorsement – or for failure to disclose material connections between the advertiser and endorsers. The revised Guides also make it clear that celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media.
The Guides are administrative interpretations of the law intended to help advertisers comply with the Federal Trade Commission Act; they are not binding law themselves. In any law enforcement action challenging the allegedly deceptive use of testimonials or endorsements, the Commission would have the burden of proving that the challenged conduct violates the FTC Act.
The new guidelines afect those under the jurisdiction of the FTC, so presumably offshore bloggers or affiliates aren’t affected by the ruling. Those who make a living from this form of marketing are up in arms, and understandably so. If a product purchased from a reputable internet marketer or promoted via an affiliate doesn’t live up to expectations, the purchaser can ask for a refund, which is invariably given.
This is probably a knee-jerk reaction to the plethora of over-hyped claims for certain TV offers that purport to make the buyers of specific programs millionaires within weeks.
Where stating ‘Results not guranteed’ or ‘Results not typical’ satisfied the 1980 guidelines, it seems our gullibility factor is now so high that the State has to protect us from ourselves.
Where the US leads…. Can we now expect similar reactions from International Governments who like to control their citizens’ every move and ensure that they do not even attempt anything remotely entrepreneurial, which by nature is inherently risky?
Probably, except for those regions where the spammers, hackers and virus writers rule the land. They will be planning now for the next big push from their own unregulated domains.