NovaLoca Blog

They think it’s all over – well it is now, as we can reveal that the winner of MJM Marketing’s World Cup competition is Julie Hobbs at King Sturge.

Everyone who requested a quotation from MJM Marketing during June had their names entered in the competition – and on July 1 we pulled Julie’s name from the hat.

Julie, who manages the marketing for the industrial team at King Sturge in London, wins the fantastic Artsportique limited edition signed picture of Geoff Hurst scoring his third and England’s fourth goal to win the 1966 World Cup.

The less said about England’s performance this time round the better, we feel – but well done Julie, who declared: “I never win anything!” as Miranda Munn presented her with her prize this week.

NovaLoca’s site developers, the mapping specialists Earthware, have produced something special for the World Cup – and you can try it out for free here!

Earthware believes its World Cup Stadia Experience is the first interactive mapping experience that uses cutting-edge technology to combine smooth-streaming HD Silverlight video via cloud hosting.

All you have to do is go to www.theworldcupmap.com (you may need to download Microsoft’s Silverlight software to use the map if you don’t already have it, but don’t worry – the site will show you how to do this). Then just click on the arrow to go on tour!

The tool will take you on a tour of all the stadia being used in South Africa for the World Cup, including aerial and 360 degree views, with mapping that swoops down through the clouds to pinpoint the precise location of each venue.

We think you will find this pretty cool – even if you are not into football! – and it shows the great power of Earthware’s interactive mapping solutions, as harnessed by NovaLoca.

MJM Marketing  is so excited about the forthcoming soccer extravaganza in South Africa that it can’t wait until kick-off to bring you its fantastic FIFA World Cup competition. You could win a piece of World Cup history with just one phone call!

Between now and the end of June, every time you request a quotation from MJM Marketing you will be entered into a prize draw to win a limited edition framed Artsportique print, signed by Sir Geoff Hurst, showing him scoring his third and England’s fourth goal to secure World Cup victory in 1966.

This strike is one of the greatest moments ever for English sports fans. This very collectable piece of sporting history could be yours, along with a certificate of authenticity. Simply contact MJM Marketing on 01767 313332 and ask Robbie for a quotation.

The draw will take place at 9am on July 1 at MJM’s offices. Remember, the more quotations you request, the more chances you will have to win this piece of World Cup history. Good luck!

While Nick Leslau and Gerald Ronson won major awards at last night’s Property Awards at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, congratulations also go to all of you who enjoyed free ice-creams from the NovaLoca team during the evening!

Miranda Munn and her colleagues say they “thoroughly enjoyed” the awards last night although they report that this morning is a “little fuzzy” for some. The intrepid crew got a lift home in a stretch Hummer branded with the NovaLoca logo after handing out free ice-creams from the vehicle while parked outside the awards!

Munn says: “Great entertainment and food as ever and my congratulations to all the winners, but to be honest my favourite bit had to be the lift home…”

“We had loads of great comments and managed to get a prime spot right outside the entrance to ‘The Great Room’. Thanks to all those who stopped to enjoy ice-cream and a chat – great that a number of you managed to join us in the Hummer for champagne.”

“Mention must go to James & Kirsty from Jones Lang LaSalle for their words of encouragement, Mark Nash of Nash Bond for appearing through the roof (and those of you that chose to exit through the roof), and to Mark Gill of Lambert Smith Hampton who even helped with handing out ice-cream.”

Returning after 4:30am, there are a few tired eyes at NovaLoca HQ this morning, but Munn declares: “Two hours’ sleep is not really enough: but SO worth it!”

Let us know what you thought . . . some thought two flavours of ice-cream was just not enough . . . but it was good ice-cream. 

Finally, an award for the Hummer driver, who had to negotiate his way down the farm track toNovaLoca HQ, seen here on Google Street View. His reversing skills were pretty impressive!

There are lots of sayings that encourage loyalty, including “better the devil you know than the devil you don’t”, but are they necessarily true?

If you are not using MJM Marketing as your direct mailing company, we don’t think such idioms apply.

MJM Marketing’s prices have not risen in three years and the company has now frozen its costs for a fourth year – this includes postage costs, as Royal Mail have not raised its prices to business customers. MJM also offers a price-beating scheme whereby it undertakes to beat any like-for-like quotation.

MJM is also the only direct mailing company that is able to offer you a free listing on NovaLoca when you carry out a direct mailing campaign with them.

So if you are a believer in the grass being greener on the other side, or indeed don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket, give Sarah or Robbie a call on 01767 313332 and see how MJM Marketing will let you have your cake and eat it!

Calling all agents! Did you know that you can use NovaLoca to advertise your expertise and areas of specialist knowledge, free of charge, by completing the agent profile on your company’s section of the website?

Your agent profile page on NovaLoca (see http://www.novaloca.com/agent-directory.aspx then search your name) is like your personal shop window, telling visitors about who you are and what you do. You can enter contact details, descriptions of your services and the areas you cover.

This information can help to generate direct leads for you as it will help occupiers to find you easily and give them some knowledge of your areas of expertise, encouraging them to contact you. It will also be searched by Google and other search engines, directing occupiers to contact you by showing them your agency profile on NovaLoca.

You have a maximum of 3,000 characters for your biography, split equally between a section about you and your experience, and a section about what services you offer, your areas of expertise and a list of the areas you work in.

If you include plenty of “keywords” this will make your biography even more valuable to your business, as it will help your profile to appear in relevant search results. Keywords include phrases describing your business, the region in which it operates, and your areas of expertise.

For help in determining your keywords and making them work for you, see our helpful document "A guide to completing your agent biography on NovaLoca.com". This also contains step-by-step details of how to add your profile to the website and get it running straight away!

You may remember the recent court case that resulted in a €100,000 fine for Drivers Jonas after it hired a Cannes restaurant down the road from MIPIM to entertain delegates on the way to the conference venue. The judge agreed with organisers Reed Midem that Drivers Jonas was guilty of “parasitisme”, ruling that its hiring of the Pavillon Croisette cafe, five minutes’ walk from the official venue, constituted a business stand.

Drivers Jonas, which has since agreed its merger with Deloitte, has not commented on the case, but NovaLoca MD Miranda Munn thinks it would be interesting to know how a UK court would deal with something similar. “I really hope this is not the end of guerrilla marketing. Surely innovation is to be encouraged?” she asks.

“Pipped at the post by a competitor, I was unable to pay to sponsor the recent North West Property Awards so wore a branded necklace as a mini-protest and managed to get a great shot published on the Property Week website. (Have a look at the images on the Property Week website – the necklace is photo 47 of 48.) Where is the line to be drawn? Would parking a branded car outside an event or flying a banner overhead be considered parasitic?”

“I can’t say I have read every detail of the case but can’t help feeling supportive of Drivers Jonas . . .  How would this affect companies across all industries that often rely on PR stunts to give them a chance to get noticed? Should publicity only be offered to those that can afford – or choose to afford – to go down more conventional routes?”

“I am sure that there are many companies that benefit from the traffic brought to Cannes by MIPIM and I doubt they all pay the organisers,” she concludes. What do you think?

 Just back from the FSB conference in Aberdeen, where we enjoyed really great weather (well, considering we went North not South, it was better than expected…)

I made a good deal of great contacts and even met Lorraine Kelly (as you can see below) – I guess a large number of the businesses searching for commercial property to buy or to let on NovaLoca would benefit from knowing more about the FSB.

Likewise at some time or other most FSB members will have to look for property – listening to stories of members’ property traumas I was reminded why NovaLoca began in the first place… to provide an easy solution for businesses to find a new location, saving them time.

I was also inspired to continue with the quest to make our marketing as effective as possible without costing the earth, as I was faced with the reality of business owners desperate to sell their property before it is seized by the banks and then sold for less than their loans amount to. 

Although I have been an FSB member for some time, I was impressed with the ever-growing number of discounted or free services being offered as part of membership – we must write a blog on them all!

Miranda

The Technology Studio has released the results of its survey of more than 100 significant players in the online commercial property marketing sector, demonstrating that success depends not only on getting as many of the right people as possible to visit a site, but also on making it as easy as possible for them to find what they are looking for.

NovaLoca does well on both counts, with analysis using Websitegrader.com placing NovaLoca top in the portal category for marketing effectiveness and Google page rank. It also appears in the Top 10 sites for UK web traffic using Alexa.com data. Combining all these factors, NovaLoca has demonstrated that bigger is not necessarily better when it comes to providing the most effective and easy-to-use service for users – it comes in at number 3 in the list of the Top 100 UK Commercial Property Websites, and is the highest-placed portal in the list.

You can find out more details of the survey or simply contact Chris on 01767 313 380 for more information on how NovaLoca can help you.

NovaLoca does it again – we are the first UK commercial property site to release Street View nationwide. After managing to beat Google to release the first Street View images in the UK, we are now the first to release nationwide Google Street View images in our property details pages.

Released by Google only this morning, our developers were on the ball and it went live on our site at 4:45pm today.

The images speak for themselves – covering 99% of the country. Have fun! Here, to set you off, are the surroundings of NovaLoca HQ…

To find Street View in your property pages, scroll down to “Property Location”, then “Click to view Street View”.