The Fairy Tale of Alvis Way

Here it is folks - it's the annual Steam Traction World Christmas film - The Fairy Tale of Alvis Way (based on The Pogues Fairy Tale of New York).

It's December 24th and there is a very special delivery en-route from Steam Traction World to our hero - Dave. It's the very last delivery of his...oh, we won't spoil it for you, we'll let you watch it for yourself.

Your can watch it here: The Fairy Tale of Alvis Way.

Rugby Web Design

Logo Prices - the Highest!

A list of logo prices - needless to say we offer them at a much, much lower price!

Pepsi logo price tag: $1,000,000
The new Pepsi logo was designed by the Arnell Group in 2008. The listed prices include a complete branding package unless otherwise noted.

Australia and New Zealand Banking
Group logo price tag: $15,000,000
New Zealand Banking Group logo was redesigned in 2009.

Accenture logo price tag: $100,000,000
The new Accenture logo was designed by Landor Associates in 2000.

BBC logo price tag: $1,800,000
The BBC logo was redesigned in 1997.

British Petrol (BP) logo price tag: $211,000,000
The BP logo was redesigned in 2008.

Glasgow 2014 Games logo price tag: $95,000
The Glasgow 2014 Games logo was designed by Marque Agency and this price only includes the logo design.

London 2012 Olympics logo price tag: $625,000
The 2012 Olympics logo was designed by Wolff Ollins in 2007

The most expensive website

The £105m website – The Most Expensive Website Ever?

Now that’s a project, right? Wouldn’t mind getting your hands on that little beauty I bet! £105 million for a website build…sounds impossible doesn’t it? Well, it’s not and the Cabinet Office are up in arms about it. In an article covered by the BBC, the website businesslink.gov.uk cost exactly that over a 3 year period.

Business Link is an official government website that offers free business advice and support service, available online and local advisers. In fact, Online Design have had their support in the past – though I would have preferred the support to the tune of a £105 million contract for their website!! Judging by the comments on the article, its a bone of contention but the fact remains that £105 million on a website is an awful lot of money especially when the contractor – Serco, who have also just announced winning a £415 million project to build a new Belmarsh Prison, sub-contracted the project back out to BT. It’s good to talk!

The COI report has some detail on the £105 million invoice – £6.2m on strategy and planning, £4.4m on design and build, £4.7m on hosting and infrastructure, £15.3m on content provision and £4.5m on testing and evaluation. But the kicker is that cost is repeated every year. How the hell does that work??!! Incidentally, its not the most expensive website. The NHS Choices site comes in at a cool £21m – but it does get around million unique visit a month compared to the Business Link site that only attract around a million.

Steam Traction World Christmas 2016

Launch day: 24th November 2016. EXCLUSIVE
Here it is folks - it's the annual Steam Traction World Christmas film.

It's December 24th and there is a very special delivery en-route from Steam Traction World to the hero - Dave. It's the very last delivery of his...oh, we won't spoil it for you, we'll let you watch it for yourself.

As fans of Christmas adverts - you may notice a couple of special characters from this years seasonal offerings, see if you can spot them. Plus a couple of characters from our previous festive films Bear, Hare and Coalaff, the loveable, friendly fella from Frozen, er we mean Brazen, made from Coal; and who knows Dean and Steve may also appear again this year!

We'd love this years film to break the 'viewing' count record currently held by Bear and the Hare, from a couple of years ago, their John Lewis. Let's see how close they can get.

Let them know what you think in the comments on Youtube or over on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/steamtractionworld

#DiddyDave #KevintheCarrot #JohnLewisChristmas #SainsburysDave #SteamTractionWorldChristmas #TheFairyTaleofAlvisWay

The previous films can be seen here:
Piling on the Calories (2015) https://youtu.be/FIUJeMQFliU
Brazen 'Do you want to build a Showmans?' (2014) https://youtu.be/pWxC25XPXCs
(8,375 views)
Bear and the Hare (2013) https://youtu.be/KnyGkMTwcgM (8,719 views)

Beans Advert Canned!

A Heinz beans advert showing how to beat out a song on tin cans has been banned for health and safety reasons.

The advertisement featured young people and adults using empty or full tins to make the rhythm of a song, with the catchline "#Learn the CanSong".

The Advertising Standards Authority ruled that mistakes might be made that could lead to people cutting their hands or fingers.

Kraft Heinz denied that the advertising campaign posed a risk.

Steam Car Driving Experience

With gleaming, highly polished brass, luxurious leather - and the glorious bursts of white steam - steam cars are, quite simply, show-stoppers. They are ideal with the top down but available with full weather gear for use all year round - and their large size enables you to travel in complete comfort.

How would you like to drive a vintage steam car? It is the ultimate vehicle to drive - how many people have ever done so? Here's your chance to get behind the wheel. Following on from a comprehensive demonstration, you'll see how a vintage steam powered car works and how one drives as you are transported back to the good ol' days. Your adventure is complete with a nostalgic trip, in a steam car, to a local pub for a bite to eat.

HIRE STEAM can now offer this amazing opportunity to drive one of our steam cars - with you being fully hands-on and driving a unique, nostalgic car of yester-year; a truly unforgetable experience and one that is not available anywhere else in the UK. We have a choice of two cars and your experience will include an introduction to how a steam car works, you actually driving the car and lunch - an informative (and tasty) treat for both steam and automotive fans.

We are located on the Northamptonshire/Warwickshire border and your Steam Car Experience enjoys some amazing scenery with rural roads and picturesque countryside, driving in the grounds of a 14th Century stately home and alongside a Warwickshire reservoir.

With flexible packages and prices from £149, including both driving and passenger experiences - it is a fantastic new adventure and available NOW!

Triumph Herald Book

A brand new book is now available for fans of the Triumph Herald.
New Triumph Herald Book

Shipping

UK £24.95 GBP USA/Canada £32.95 GBP Australia/New Zealand £32.95 GBP Mainland Europe £30.95 GBP Other £34.95 GBP

A beautifully presented brand new book available for 2016 documenting the development, launch and production of ZOBO - the Triumph Herald. Featuring over 150 rare period photographs, articles and memorabilia this Limited Edition 48 page book takes a look into the incredible journey of the Triumph Herald - against all the problems of suppliers, cashflow, management and disruption - the popular Triumph Herald came out on top!

The book follows a month-by-month timeline from the initial concept through the first years of production and up to the takeover by Leyland Motors in 1961. Featuring key dates and cars this is a fantastic resource and must for fans of Triumph and the Triumph Herald.

Limited to just 948 copies worldwide. In stock and available NOW!
Once sold out it will NEVER be available again.

Testimonials: "Got mine today and I have to say, WOW, it is a fantastic publication and a lot of work gone in to produce. Thanks for doing this. I am delighted with the book and I cannot recommend it enough, all Herald owners should get a copy. Well done to all concerned." Ken Nolan, Dublin

"Brilliant bit of work. Love this book." Angus Hart, Somerset

Update: Pleased to announce the first book have been shipped - and sent out all over the world including: Australia, New Zealand, USA, Ireland, Finland, France, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Sri Lanka and Italy.
Triumph Herald Book

Sainsbury's in Camden 'sorry' for free artist advert

Sainsbury's has apologised after one of its London branches placed an advert in a local paper seeking an artist to decorate its canteen for free. The store in Camden Road took out an advert for "an ambitious artist" to "voluntarily refurbish" the facility. The company was shamed on social media by people who pointed out the successful supermarket chain should pay its way. A spokesman for the company said the advert was an "error of judgement". Artist Conor Collins attacked the supermarket's attempt to hire someone for free and suggested the store deducted some money from its bosses' salaries to "pay someone to do work for you so that the concept of 'starving artist' wouldn't have to be a thing."

He wrote on Twitter: "Dear Sainsbury's, I am looking for a company worth £150,000,000 to feed all of my artist friends in Manchester." Others read: "@Sainsbury's Awful. You can afford to pay an artist their worth." While another said: "So @sainsburys let me get this straight. You turnover £26bn yet want an artist to voluntarily decorate your canteen?"

Steam Traction World Set to Re-release the Lykamobile Steamer

Lykamobile Steamer

NOW AVAILABLE for you TO BUILD!
The Lykamobile Steamer - Series 2 from Steam Traction World

A series of self assembly kits at the rate of one kit per month over a twenty four month period.
The Lykamobile (pronounced 'Lie-ka') is a full sized Steamer based on the original Locomobile of 1898 - updated, utilising modern materials, machining and components. We have introduced practicalities too, such as disc brakes and modern, treaded tyres. The modified 3 stroke Hackworth valve gear offers forward and reverse and the Ackerman design tiller offers responsive steering.
The Original Lykmobile Steamer (Series 1) proved to be very popular with sixty five selling worldwide. The Lykamobile has been 'out of production' with a 5 year break in manufacturing and is, only now, being re-introduced due to customer requests. This brand new batch will be limited to only thirty across the globe with production starting in July 2016 - or sooner once ten confirmed orders are achieved.

We drove our Series 1 Lykamobile from John O Groats to Lands End - to prove the build quality, reliability and raise heaps of cash for charity too!
The Lykmobile Steamer Series 2 will have a number of improvements - This will include much ‘beefier’ valve gear (beefier is a technical term!), valve gear running on bearings, use of oil impregnated bushes throughout and stronger leaf springs. We are also considering changing the electrical water managing system gauge system and redesigning the boiler so it is more like a Stanley Steam Car.

Lyka a Lot.
An Early Bird discount is available currently. To qualify for this offer simply be one of the first ten customers to secure one of this batch and you will save £1,756 on the advertised list price. So far 7 deposits have been received in the last week.
Further pricing as follows.
Deposit: £823 (normally £995)
Kits 1 - 24: £549 (normally £615)
Total price: £13,999 (normally £15755 saving £1,756)

All we are asking at this moment in time is a holding deposit of £195. This then secures the special offer price for you. The balance of the deposit payment of £628 will only be required when we confirm we have received ten firm orders and issue you with a commence date. We are estimating starting production around July.
All the above prices include VAT at 20% but excludes delivery. Please contact me for international costs and a shipping estimate if relevant.

Size:
Length: 2.2m * Height: 1.6m * Width: 1.4m * Weight: 410kg

A bit more info.
All our products are uniquely designed to be assembled using hand tools only, such as spanners, files, Allen keys etc. Electric tools like hand drills or hand grinders assist with speeding up the build process and cleaning up of the parts up but are not necessary. No machinery should be required as each kit comes fully machined and requires de-burring, hand finishing, assembling and painting in your choice of livery. All our boilers come fully assembled and hydraulically tested and come complete with CE mark to full European standards. Detailed and comprehensive assembly instructions and Isometric drawings are supplied with every kit plus we also offer a full telephone and email support service to all our customers. We are located in the UK - check out our Facebook page (or website) for more details.
‪#‎KitBuild‬ ‪#‎SteamCar‬ ‪#‎BuilditYourself‬ ‪#‎Lykamobile‬ ‪#‎ILykaaLot‬

Go on 'Lyka' this post and the Steam Traction World Facebook page!

Facebook New Emotions

After more than a year of working to build alternatives to its trademark ”like” button, Facebook has globally launched emoji “Reactions.” Users can still respond to a post or comment with the traditional “like” button. But starting Wednesday, holding down the “like” button on mobile or hovering over the icon on desktop, gives users an expanded menu allowing them to choose from six different animated emoji “Reactions”: Like, Love, Ha ha, Wow Sad or Angry. “Reactions” are designed to be an extension of the “like” button as opposed to a full-on replacement. Users will be notified when their posts receive ”Reactions” in the same way they’re notified about “likes.”

Moneysupermarket.com 'strutting man' advert is most-complained about

An advert featuring a man strutting down a street in hotpants and high heels received the most complaints in 2015, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has revealed.

The Moneysupermarket.com ad attracted 1,513 complaints, with viewers citing its "overtly sexual" content.

The ASA did not uphold the complaints.

Chief executive Guy Parker said matters of offence can "grab the headlines" but most of their work is focused on "tackling misleading advertising".

'Distasteful not offensive'

The body acknowledged some viewers might have considered the TV and web advert, featuring a man called Dave dancing to Don't Cha by the Pussycat Dolls, to be "distasteful".

But the price comparison site commercial was not judged to be offensive or in breach of the advertising code.

A company spokesman said the public feedback to the ad was "overwhelmingly positive".


Three adverts for hotel website Booking.com, where the word "booking" was seen to be used in the place of a swear word, were the second, fourth and seventh most-complained about ads of the year - with 683, 407 and 201 complaints respectively.

The complaints were not upheld, with the ASA saying "it was a light-hearted play on words that couldn't be mistaken for an actual swear word".

The third most-complained about ad was a campaign for online payment site Paypal, which showed two children concerned their parents had not been shopping for Christmas presents.

It received 464 complaints from people who "expressed concern that the ad revealed the truth about Father Christmas". They were not upheld but Paypal independently changed the scheduling of the ad.


In fifth place was a poster campaign advertising a Protein World weight-loss product with the slogan: "Are you beach body ready?".

The poster, showing a woman in a bikini attracted 380 complaints, and the ASA told the company that due to "concerns about a range of health and weight loss claims" it could not appear in the same format again.

The ASA concluded the ad, which was defaced in Tube stations and sparked a petition calling for it to be banned, was not likely to cause serious or widespread offence, however.

Mr Parker said: "Our top 10 for 2015 will no doubt get people talking about whether the ads are or aren't offensive, but there are important issues at stake here.

"Advertisers must take care not to cause serious or widespread offence, but we don't play a numbers game.

"And while matters of offence can grab the headlines, the bulk of our work is the less glamorous task of tackling misleading advertising. That's why we're taking a more proactive approach to address the issues which affect consumers the most before complaints need to be made."

Bitcoin - doomed?

A high-profile Bitcoin developer has said the crypto-currency has failed and he will no longer take part in its development.

Mike Hearn, a Zurich-based developer and long-time proponent of Bitcoin, surprised many this weekend when he published a blog calling Bitcoin a "failed" project.

Mr Hearn, who had until recently been working on new software for the currency, says he has now sold all of his own bitcoins and will no longer take part in the crypto-currency's development.

Ferguson's Restaurant, Rugby

Ferguson's Restaurant Rugby

Nick Price Creatives were contacted by Ferguson's restaurant in Rugby at the end of November and we met Elaine at Ferguson's on 26th November. The venue was great however, Nick Price Creatives had identified that not many people knew where Ferguson's was or, indeed, how good it was. Ferguson's restaurant had been listed in the Michelin guide for 2016 (the only one in the Rugby area), yet apart from a small stickered sign on one of the doors, there wasn't much else to promote this great feat. There was certainly no mention on the Website or Facebook page.

Nick Price Creatives clearly went through a number of measures to improve the exposure of Ferguson's - from improvements to the website (it wasn't Mobile friendly, particularly good in search engines and it had spelling mistakes - 'restaurant' being one on the index page), to Facebook advertising (saying what we could do to target people better), mailing the current database, consolidating all the social media (Ferguson's Twitter account was more a personal account than business). NPC said a competition would be good early in the new year - to win a meal with wine, something really special, to add exposure in January. We proposed all of this via email to "Essentially, Nick Price Creatives would consolidate all your marketing together to ensure it looks better and works better, increasing the numbers of likers, followers, visitors, commentors, reviewers etc - ultimately though more bums on seats in your restaurant." During the initial meeting we also met the restaurant chef and namesake David Ferguson too.

It was all happening pretty quick from the initial phonecall and meeting with Elaine as she was 'jetting off' for a couple of months from the Sunday - so the full report, full of ideas and initiatives was completed and presented on the Friday, so that the restaurant owner Stephen Barnard could respond - he did so on 27th November with great comments such as "I am most impressed with and agree with much of the comment in Nick’s proposal." and "Accordingly, I am willing to cancel programmes that are currently invested in by Ferguson’s for the purposes of Marketing and to take a punt in this direction for a three month trial period, with options to extend then for a further nine months."

Let's get going!
28th November we confirmed all the current stats so we knew where to build from with Facebook being the key target the figures were: 852 Likes, 621 had been with 4.7 of 5 stars from 45 reviews.
Firstly, we redesigned the look of the Fergusons Facebook page - adding a festive feel and, of course, the Michelin award - plus the TripAdvisor logo.

Tripadvisor was performing quite well with consistent high ratings, however no-one was being informed of the reviews - so it made good sense to post these reviews on Facebook too.

Prior to December 2015, the 'average' post reached 300 people. November 30th saw a post about new curtains (348 reached), a Facebook review share (252 reached) and the New Years Eve event post (only) 306.

Nick Price Creatives first post (we later back-dated some) was the profile pictures which achieved a reach of 369. NPC designed a mock-up Christmas Menu which, through our promotion, reached a new high of 737. Subsequent Tripadvisor reviews - December 15th shown below with the new header 'You Said' achieved 873 and December 17th saw another new high of 869 - it was all moving in the right direction.

Ferguson's Restaurant Rugby

By January 1st the Facebook likes had increased to 892.

January 2nd this latest TripAdvisor review posted on Facebook, ""I was slightly concerned that my jaded post Christmas appetite would struggle but the sea bream was so delicious I cleared my plate and my tastebuds having been rejuvenated I even managed Christmas pudding! Totally recommended for great food and lovely service." Jane W, Yelvertoft via Tripadvisor. You can see our vert latest Tripadvisor reviews HERE" achieved a reach of 977.

Each time the increase of 'reach' was achieved without paying (Facebook Boosting) so the potential was there. We had recommended boosting the posts in our initial proposal - imagine what a competition/prize draw for a Meal for two, boosted on Ferguson's Facebook could do?!

Restaurant Rugby.

Lotto Potto

A record National Lottery jackpot of £50.4m is expected to prompt a surge in ticket sales, Camelot has said.

The operator said it expected to sell 200 tickets a second in the hour before ticket sales close at 19:30 GMT ahead of the draw at 20:30 on Wednesday.

The previous largest jackpot was £42m, which was shared between three separate ticket holders in January 1996.

If no-one wins the jackpot it will roll over and either be won or shared on Saturday, Camelot said.
Wednesday's jackpot is the result of 13 consecutive rollovers and follows the number of balls in the draw increasing from 49 to 59 in October.

This reduced the odds of a player getting six numbers from about one in 14 million to one in 45 million, mathematicians say, but Camelot argues its rule changes have increased the chances of becoming a millionaire.


If no-one gets six lottery numbers on Wednesday or Saturday, new Camelot rules mean the jackpot prize is shared out in the first draw after the prize reaches £50m.

This means if no player matches all six numbers on Saturday the prize will be shared between winners in the next tier where there is at least one winner - most likely those who have five main numbers and the bonus ball.

Camelot said this would make it "some of the best odds players have ever had to win a multi-million pound life-changing jackpot".

Dr Rob Mastrodomenico, a statistician and founder of the consultancy Global Sports Statistics, said the record prize was the result of the increased number of balls, which had reduced the odds of people selecting winning numbers.

A National Lottery spokeswoman said Wednesday's jackpot had the potential to make one of its biggest winners in the lottery's history.

Twitter10k? Surely Not

Twitter plans to increase the tweet character limit from 140 to 10,000. And here's their new logo: #Twitter10k

Melanie Webb Flower School

The Melanie Webb Flower School

The Melanie Webb Flower School pride themselves on top quality tuition for professional florists and absolute beginners.

All you need to bring is your enthusiasm and an interest in flowers!

Melanie is a multi award winning florist and floristry tutor. Her career in flowers started at the tender age of 15 and she has been creating beautiful floral creations and training the next generation of florists for the last 29 years.

Melanie was crowned “Floristry Tutor of the Year 2014” at the British Florist Association annual awards ceremony. A true testament to the hard work and dedication she puts into her training.