AQ Bottled Water

This week, the new ".london" domain name went on sale to individuals and businesses alike.

According to BBC News, over 50,000 people have already expressed interest. Applications will be considered for the next three months, and after that- it's on sale to everyone.

This new alternative to the classic .co.uk or .com follows the recent .nyc in the USA and .berlin in Germany.

The new domain names are seen as a way of helping your customers associate your brand with where you're based, or, as the ad below so aptly puts it, 'Tell the world where you do business with a .london web address'.

How much of an impact these new names will have on brands, and indeed on the internet itself remains to be seen - will we see a .manchester domain popping up in the near future? Or could it be more specific than that? Could your business's domain name eventually become your town, your street, maybe even your building?

Would that in turn impact how your customers perceive your brand? On sales?

Only time will really tell, but put us down on the .cheshire list, just to be sure.

- Team AQ

Have you seen these new Topshop Coca-Cola t-shirts when out and about on your local high street?

Thinly disguised as a 90s nostalgia themed fashion item, this is basically a sneaky bit of brand promotion.

Clever though, eh?

Of course that is what we do here at AQ, except your clients and customers of the future carry your brand in their hand rather than emblazoned across their chests.

Still, we can’t help wondering what an AQ t-shirt would look like…

It's not so long ago that the word 'selfie' was added to the Dictionary. Since then, however, all sorts of companies have used the craze to their advantage.

The #nomakeupselfie campaign, for example, raised £8m in just six days for Cancer Research, although interestingly, they did not actually set up the campaign themselves.

Recently, this viral craze has seen men, unlike their female counterparts,  nominated to wear make-up to raise awareness and donations for cancer charities.

Here at AQ, we'd like to lend our support to a slightly different make-up based campaign! Friend of a friend of the company Clare at All-Inns  is part of a competition to get their page to 1, 200 likes. If she does, her colleague Olly will wear make-up on Monday.

Let's help her get there!

https://www.facebook.com/AllInns

A change is as good as a rest, or so the saying goes. But how does that saying apply to changing your website?

According to the small business advice website bmighty2, there are 7 reasons you should re-design your website.

These are as follows:

1. To make it more friendly to mobile devices.

2. To incorporate your social media channels.

3. To add new functions.

4. To make it more user friendly.

5. To re-brand.

6. To stay up to date with the latest trends and developments.

7. To shake things up a bit.

Here at AQ, we've been re-designing our own website. It's not quite ready yet, but we thought we'd give you a bit of a sneak preview. What do you think?