The notorious yellow toy has a special place in the hearts of children, the Queen… and Bluestep!

January is not all bad. Despite the gloomy weather, diets and no more Christmas, there are some exciting things happening. The 13^th, for example, brings a very special day indeed: National rubber ducky day.

Originating in the 1940s, the rubber duck was sculpted by Peter Ganine, over 50,000,000 of them were sold as a floating toy around the world.

It is said the Queen keeps a rubber duck by her bath, complete with its very own crown, which caused a spike in UK sales at the time of 80%.

And who could forget about Sesame Street’s Ernie, with his dedicated ‘Rubber Duckie’ song, reaching #16 on Billboard’s ‘Hot 100 Singles’ in 1970! It is no wonder then that these little fellas sit in the Toy Hall of Fame.

But how did the Bluestep duck come to be? We thought today would be the perfect occasion to tell you.

Merchandising is a big part of what we do, and we are always looking for ways to grow our offering. Back in 2017, the team had a bright idea to pitch duckies as an option for personalised products, and they have been a hit ever since.

We didn’t want to miss out, so our very own blue duck was born. The little guys now live at Bluestep HQ, sit in on our meetings and are almost like a mascot to us.

Our talented designers can create bespoke ducks, whether it’s rocking your brand’s logo or impersonating a famous icon. It is just one example of how we can create unique products for our clients.

Look out for our little blue friends on our future marketing, and however you choose to celebrate, have a quacking national rubber ducky day! Sorry , we couldn’t resist…

We’re at it again. And this time we’re expanding our marketing team with our new Marketing Manager, Paul!

We’re on a bit of a roll at the minute with all these new starters, but with every new starter joining it means our team grows even larger, developing our skillset and improving our offerings to old and new clients.

Lucky for us, Paul popped up at just the right time as we’d been on the hunt for a Marketing Manager for a while to help guide and lead us Bluesteppers through an innovative and thriving digital market.

Paul hasn’t always worked in marketing though, as he originally had a keen interest in motorsports and worked in engineering for F1, developing engines for Jaguar Racing. Deciding to take things up a gear and chase his creative dreams, Paul left F1 behind and joined Volkswagen where he found himself a creative marketing role, allowing him to use showcase his many other talents.

After a long stint working for the car giant, Paul took a different route away from the world of motoring and joined BBH advertising agency, where he would be working with an eclectic range of clients to deliver some major advertising campaigns.

When Paul isn’t working, he opts for a more fast-paced and adrenaline-fuelled lifestyle by showing off his snowboarding skills on the slopes and jet setting across the world. As a keen traveller, Paul has a pretty impressive passport with a collection stamps from the likes of Thailand, Africa, Mexico, Sri Lanka and plenty more. Fancy squeezing us in your suitcase next time?

Paul’s down-to-earth manner and great sense of humour make him the perfect fit for Bluestep and we can’t wait to see what the future holds now that Paul has joined!

Congratulations to Harley, Aron and Chris who are November’s Employees of the Month!

It’s that time of the month again! It’s also that time of the year again too. I know I said before that it was Christmas, but this time it’s definitely proper Christmas. December is in full swing, our tree is decked to the nines, our screens are framed with fairy lights, we’ve got a steady stream of mince pies on the go and we’ve already dished out our Secret Santas!

But despite Christmas quickly approaching, nothing slows down here at Bluestep and we’ve been stacked with projects to finish before the big day. And over the past month there have been a few colleagues who have really stood out thanks to their efforts.

So let’s get to it…

1st: Harley Jacquest

Since Harley joined just over 6 months ago, she’s got stuck right in the thick of it and hasn’t shyed away from some of our larger clients like Aritco and Whittlebury Hall. She’s an incredibly hard-working and talented member of the design team and has taken every challenge in her stride. You can always count on Harley to help you out, no matter which part of the business you work in! A true team player. Congratulations Harley!

2nd: Aron Marriott-Smith

We’re pretty big on web and mobile design in case you hadn’t noticed, and we’ve had a hoard of projects through recently including the mobile-app design for Referment. With so many digital projects coming through our doors, it’s easy to forget that we only have 1 web developer! From proposals and quotes to coding websites and apps, Aron is incredibly hard-working and self-motivated, and you’ll often find him staying late to get the job done! Your hard work has not gone unnoticed – great job Aron!

3rd: Chris Mayes

Chris is a man with many fingers in many (mince) pies right now and has recently transitioned into a bit of a hybrid role, picking up clients from the corporate and sexual health sectors while Becky is on maternity leave. His proactive approach and enthusiasm has seen Chris develop strong relationships with his customers – just one of many reasons as to why Chris is making a positive impact here at Bluestep. Keep at it Chris!

We’ll see you in 2018 to announce who has made December’s Employees of the Month!

We want to say a huge THANK YOU to our Senior Designer Ollie, who has been with Bluestep for 5 years this month!

We’ve had a string of milestones lately that we can barely keep up! First we had Becca promoted to Senior Designer, then we saw Carlene promoted to Office Manager, Sarah has just reached her 1-year anniversary and now we’re celebrating Ollie reaching his 5-year milestone. High-fives all around!

And we thought what better way to celebrate 5 years than with an animation for our longest-serving animator?! Take a look below at our custom animation featuring Ollie himself (thanks Carl!).

Not only is Ollie a design guru but he’s also one of the original Bluesteppers and has seen the company grow from the small and promising start-up it was back in 2010 to the multi-million-pound enterprise that it is today.

As Ollie’s been here for 5 years we decided to keep the blog on the theme of 5. And a lot has happened since he joined, as Ollie will know, so with that in mind here are 5 career highlights about Ollie’s time at Bluestep:

1. Ollie started Bluestep as an intern in June 2012 and was offered a permanent position in September 2012.
2. His office initiation was a trip to Alton Towers! (We’re seriously jealous)
3. He joined Bluestep when they were a small team of 6 and has seen those numbers grow to nearly 30!
4. He’s worked on a variety of different projects ranging from pathology forms, campaigns, branding to animation, websites and apps.
5. Since joining Bluestep he has seen 2 office moves, plus an office expansion of our current office.

So, who is Ollie?

Ollie is one of Bluestep’s Senior Designers, lending his countless creative skillset to our client base, offering graphic design, illustration, animation, web design and much more for some major national campaigns including Choose Well, Patient Voice Panel and Referment – pretty impressive right? But he’s not just a design master, he plays an important role in keeping the cogs of the design studio running smoothly and keeping us Bluesteppers smiling!

Still not sure who Ollie is? We’ve got 5 facts about Ollie that you probably didn’t know:

We can’t quite believe it’s been 5 years already, but we want to say a huge thank you for your years of hard work and dedication to Bluestep and hopefully even 5 more years! We don’t know what we’d do without you!

Yep, we’ve bagged ourselves another new starter and this time it’s in the form of enthusiastic and experienced Dario!

We had a hunch from his interview that Dario was going to take the charity team by storm and fit in effortlessly here at Bluestep, and guess what – he has! It’s only been two weeks and we can already see the value that confident and driven Dario will bring to the team.

Originally studying a diploma in sports development fitness and coaching at college, Dario decided to jump ship and quench his undeniable thirst for sales by moving to Spain to work as a club promoter. Returning to England, Dario jumped straight in at the deep end and has been working as a Senior Negotiator for an acclaimed estate agent for the past 4 years, with a recognised talent for smashing targets out the window.

Born in Croatia, Dario likes to head back to the homeland every year and is a dedicated veteran of Hideout Festival, hosted on the party island of Pag. To get himself hyped for work, Dario enjoys listening to motivational speakers like Tony Robbins, meaning he’s always on the ball!

Welcome to the team, Dario!

Working in the design and marketing industry means you need to be on top of your game and a creative block is the last thing you need!

We’ve all been there, you find yourself staring blankly at the screen wondering what to write (like me right now) and can’t seem to shake off that annoying block. It may not happen often but it’s awkward when it does. Luckily, we’ve got 5 ways to stay creative and find the inspiration you were craving.

Here are just a few ideas to help you get back to smashing your projects:

1. Follow inspiration feeds

By giving yourself a constant stimulus of work to look at every day, you’ll discover a new wave of inspiration that will help you with new ideas. Some popular creative sites include Dribbble, the Hubspot blog, Behance and Pinterest. Sometimes it helps to see what other people in your industry are creating and it can often lead to sparks of new creation.

2. Change your routine

It’s easy to get stuck into a comforting routine of the same tasks every day, but simply switching it up could give you the change you need to find new creativity. Offer to use your creative skills to another department in the company or get stuck into a task that is out of your comfort zone.

3. Attend talks, meet-ups and join communities

There are loads of free events focusing on design, copywriting and digital marketing across the country that are great for getting some fresh insight. Our personal favourites are Glug, BrightonSEO and The London Design Fair, so check them out!

4. Practise new hobbies

Focusing on activities outside of work is an important way to remain creative and keep your ideas fresh. Often, it’s when you’re out of work that you’ll find the most inspiration and spending more time on your hobbies will help you find motivation for your next project.

5. Be spontaneous

Explore that forest behind your work at lunch, go for a road trip, buy that flight that’s on sale to that place you’ve always wanted to visit. Ignore your to-do lists and look at your wish list for a change! Spending time away from your screen is not only a nice break but it’s also healthy for your mind and will help you get a fresh perspective.

The best way to fight your creative block is to stop thinking about the task you’re working on and immerse yourself in other ways of thinking. It’s totally okay to give yourself some space from your work and focus on something else until you find that spark again. We hope these ideas will help!

Congratulations to Josh, Sarah and Janos who are October’s Employees of the Month!

The clocks have gone back, Halloween is over and it’s now November 1^st, which means it’s officially Christmas right? We believe it’s a legal requirement to have Mariah Carey blasting from the office speakers until 2018.

As we see in another month, we have another set of Employees of the Month to announce! And the hard work and perseverance of October’s Bluesteppers hasn’t gone unnoticed.

1st: Josh Crawley

Josh has completely smashed his targets this month reaching 318% to target, which is an incredible achievement. It’s not just his amazing sale margins that have been noticed, but his ability to build strong and lasting client relationships is admirable and has even helped him bag VIP tickets to the England vs Brazil match! His commitment and hard work with the FA shows that Josh is ready to go above and beyond his role. Congratulations Josh!

2nd: Sarah Kilgannon

Yesterday was Sarah’s 1-year anniversary since joining Bluestep, so congratulations Sarah! This month Sarah has really stood out, as she’s been making huge progress with building her client base and expanding our corporate sector. Sarah is incredibly enthusiastic and proactive, reaching out to potential new clients, organising calls and meetings to find ways Bluestep can help other businesses. It certainly hasn’t gone unnoticed! Great work Sarah!

3rd: Janos Geczi

The Bluestep warehouse has grown rapidly over the past year and although Janos works behind the scenes, he is an integral part of the business. This month Janos has provided exceptional support to the expansion of our warehouse and has been incredibly busy the past few months ensuring this goes as smoothly as possible. His regimented organisational skills and consistent effort have helped our warehouse operations get back to normal after the expansion and has been a major influence in our success! Well done Janos!

Round of applause for Josh, Sarah and Janos for another great month of work. Keep your eyes peeled to see who’ll win November’s Employees of the Month!

Our partnership with Kingswood has seen Bluestep get our foot firmly through the door of the e-commerce world.

After 7 months of development and testing of the Kingswood e-commerce shop, their online store is now live, allowing their customers to head online for Kingswood merchandise.

With a vast offering of branded products including cuddly teddy bears, stationery and camp kits, they were on the hunt for an external agency to source, store and distribute all of their online stock.

They reached out to Bluestep and loved what we could offer. Thanks to our expansive Grendon-based storage facility, we’re now storing and distributing over 100,000 items for their online and retail shops.

Kingswood are just one of a few outdoor & education centres we work with and see over 165,000 children visit their activity centres every year from over 75 countries.

With 10 locations across the UK and Northern France, they are one of the smaller activity centres in their industry, however, their growth in retail continues to grow year-on-year and we’re excited to continue our work with Kingswood as they develop.

It’s undoubtedly the biggest charity fundraiser in the UK and we’ve finally been able to debut our Macmillan charity fundraising pack! Plus, it gave us a good excuse to bake cakes…

We’ve been counting down the days until Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning, as this year we had the pleasure of creating promotional products for their charity fundraising packs – one of our most exciting projects to date.

The order involved 1.7 million units including branded miniature cake bunting, mini cake flags, ‘Best Baker’ badges and a tablecloth printed and stored at our Bluestep warehouse facility. And we’re no strangers to orders of this size, just see our order for the FA Cup Final!

Not only did we want to use our fundraising pack and get our quintessentially British bunting up, but it also meant we could show off our second-best set of skills – baking.

We love an excuse to get our hands stuck in cake mixture (and our faces), and we like to think we’re pretty good bakers if we do say so ourselves – just see how our Bluestep bake-off turned out. We can categorically confirm that there were no soggy bottoms in the office on this day. Mary Berry would be proud.

Our freshly-baked goods selection included Mia’s deliciously delicate Viennese Whirls and creamy sandwich biscuits, Alice’s crumbly white chocolate and raspberry cookies and Yasmin’s tasty Oreo truffles.

After devouring the lot, it was up to us official “taste-testers” to see whose bakes were fit for the ‘Best Baker’ award. It wasn’t an easy decision, but after much deliberation, we chose Mia as the Best Baker for Macmillan’s World’s Biggest Coffee Morning!

We hope everyone across the UK had a successful World’s Biggest Coffee Morning and enjoyed their cake bunting as much as we did! We’re already looking forward to next year’s event, so stay tuned to see what we have planned…

Congratulations to Carl, Ollie and Chris who are September’s Employees of the Month!

At the end of each month, our senior management get their heads together to mull over who has gone above and beyond their role, who’s made the extra effort and smashed their targets way out of the ball court to be awarded employee of the month.

But, we’re a pretty hard-working bunch and we can never just choose one, so we choose 3 instead!

And this month was a tough one, as with every month, however it was clear to see why Carl, Ollie and Chris have won this month’s employee of the month award.

1st Place: Carl Lewis

With his boundless enthusiasm and ability to keep everyone smiling and motivated, Carl manages to keep everyone in the office on a thriving positive note. His innovative approach and incredible talent with animation has seen Carl bring in some great projects recently, including Coventry University and the NHS. Congratulations Carl, we can’t wait to see what the rest of the year has planned for you!

2nd Place: Ollie King

Ollie has been with Bluestep since the early days and forms part of the backbone of the business. Always dependable and hardworking, Ollie showed real qualities that Bluestep look for in employees. Throughout September, Ollie stepped up in David’s absence, helping to keep the design team working smoother than Lionel Richie and keeping ongoing projects running seamlessly.

3rd Place: Chris Mayes

September saw Chris receive his first tangible target to which he not only welcomed but completely smashed! His enthusiastic and positive personality has allowed Chris to develop a strong database of corporate clients and has even seen him helping other areas of the business by taking on some healthcare clients.

Well done Carl, Ollie and Chris for a cracking month of work! Keep your eyes peeled to see who’ll win October’s awards.

Hear what our Bluesteppers are shaking their hips to this month with our September playlist.

We like to think we’re a pretty hip bunch at Bluestep – every day is dress-down Friday, most of us are millennials, we’re up-to-date on the latest pop culture references and our music tastes are unparallelled – or at least we think so.

This month we’ve pestered everyone in the team to give us their favourite song of September, or a song that’s helped their motivation and got them through the day.

After a few surprises and a couple of cheesy ones, here’s our pretty eclectic September playlist. Enjoy!

Aron – Torre Florim – Firestarter

Ollie – Odesza – If There’s Time (Kodak to Graph Remix) and La Ciudad – Odesza (He couldn’t decide which he preferred)

Shanice – Earth, Wind & Fire – September

Sarah – Avril Lavigne – Sk8r Boi and Miley Cyrus – Party in the USA (Also couldn’t choose!)

Josh – Russ – No Turning Back

Tom – Bonzai – I Feel Alright

Alice – Paul Simon – You Can Call Me Al

Carl – Michael Jackson – You Rock My World

Chris – Bruce Springsteen – Thunder Road

Lauren – One Direction – Steal My Girl

Mia – Dua Lipa – New Rules

Ben S – Marc Cohen – Walking in Memphis

Carlene – Charles & Eddie – Would I Lie to You

Andrew – Pigeon John – The Bomb

David – The Kingsmen – Louie Louie

Ben J – Kings of Leon – Around the World

Harry – Camelphat – Cola

The London Design Fair saw Bluestep head to hipster paradise Brick Lane to support Aritco at Alexander Lervik’s stand.

Us Bluesteppers know good design when we see it, which is why we couldn’t miss the opportunity to visit the prestigious London Design Fair at the Old Truman Brewery in sunny Shoreditch.

London is without a doubt the design capital of the World and this year’s event saw Alexander Lervik display his ‘Scandinavian Light Senses’ exhibition, featuring the Aritco HomeLift, which Lervik designed himself.

The Aritco-sponsored stand featured some of Alexander Lervik’s most iconic work, including his contemporary Scandi-style sofa designed for furniture manufacturer Adea, his mesmerising Light Swing designed for Swedish light designers Saas and the Artico HomeLift.

After a couple of tests in the swish HomeLift and a quick go on the Light Swing, we decided to venture into the abyss of the design fair and get lost in inspiration.

In what seemed like a maze of design stalls, we managed to soak up a load of ideas for future projects and discover some hidden gems…

WEAR SUNSCREEN as commanded by Baz Lurhmann, which always serves as a nice reminder for the few days of nice weather we have in the summer!

We’re big fans of stationery and greetings cards, with one of our very own Bluestep designers creating her own stationery website – Louie Prints!

A lot of stalls focused on interior design and the Scandi-style that’s popular within the industry right now. We’re trying to persuade Ben to let us have that light in the office.

There’s no escaping millennial pink at this year’s Design Fair which is safe to say we’re all a bit partial to. We are millennials after all?

We were pretty fascinated with these tiny ornamental vases, fit for a blade of grass! We had to be held back from buying the whole lot.

At the end of a long day getting lost in London Design Fair, we found a photo booth equipped with tropical-themed props! Spot the photobomber…

We've been saying goodbye to the blues with our new Secret Buddy system!

Thanks to our wonderful new Office Manager, Carlene, our Bluesteppers have been beating the office blues with the much-beloved introduction of her new Secret Buddy system.

So, each month we get all the employees to fill out a questionnaire with questions like ‘what songs do you have memorised?’ and ‘what do you wish you knew more about?’ plus a few others like your favourite food and drinks. We then pick a name from a box and the person we choose is our secret buddy for the month.

Nobody knows who has each other. The idea is that we can get to know our secret buddy that little bit better and brighten up their day with little gifts and thoughtful surprises throughout the month.

Then come next month, we do it all over again with a different secret buddy. It’s the little things!

Secret Buddies is just one of the many ways we try and boost employee happiness in the office; we’re also partial to an office bake-off. Eat your heart out Mary Berry.

Here are just a few of the surprises we’ve had so far…

Here’s Shanice looking pretty pleased with her new mini gin set!

Andrew was ungnomingly left a football-themed gnome at his desk when we distracted him away from it. Sorry for the pun. Couldn’t resist.

We can barely recognise Tom as he fits in so perfectly with the Kardashian clan. Although, not for much longer once he finishes off this haul.

Becca was left with a phone case and notebook with the logo she’s using for her new stationery business.

Olives, herbal tea and a tearible dad joke for Sarah’s birthday.

Carl’s 2 favourite things! “Sunshine” and a brandy lemonade! It is England after all…

Chris’ love for music saw him walk into the office on Monday morning to a brand new Ukelele! Best secret buddy ever?! We’re patiently waiting for a Bluestep jingle.

These were just some of the secret buddy gifts from August and September. It’s like secret Santa, but without the wrapping paper. Stick around for our next secret buddy blog to see what everyone has hiding up their sleeves for October!

It’s our first time at BrightonSEO and we’ve got our top 5 tips to get your rankings higher.

Twice a year, the hipster capital plays host to over 3,500 digital marketers, SEO experts, and social media wizards to catch up on what’s been happening in the digital world at Europe’s largest SEO conference: BrightonSEO.

You can expect market leaders from Google, Moz, BrightLocal and other marketing agencies to dish out some secret tricks and common practice tips on how to take your digital marketing to the next level.

Not only is it great to hear from industry experts, but you get loads of free swag too – free bags, ice-cream, sweets and even beer! Plus, you can meet thousands of friendly, self-proclaimed digital nerds who love the industry as much as you do. What’s not to love?

We’ve put together our top 5 takeaway tips from our first ever BrightonSEO to help you keep up-to-date on your SEO knowledge:

1. Focus on your backlinks!

We know backlinks mean a lot to Google (they’re very sentimental over them) and this year it was reported that backlinks are the number #1 ranking factor when it comes to local SEO. Yet so many businesses are ignoring these and missing out on vital backlinks that are so easily acquired! If you’ve helped another business out by sponsoring their event, or have been involved in a community project or just shared an amazing blog, then reach out to the right audience and get a link to your site – it’s that easy. Each backlink improves your internet dominance and in turn, your ranking.

2. Voice search is increasing

It’s no secret, voice search is slowly catching up with text searches with Google announcing that nearly 25% of queries are voice-searched, and this is increasing. Nearly half of adults use voice search once per day thanks to Siri starting the trend back in 2011, and we’ve since seen Amazon’s Alexa join the market along with Google Home and Cortana. So, what does this mean for SEO? It means you need to start producing content that will communicate well across these voice-control devices. Using long-tail keywords, giving detailed answers, providing a NAP, having a clean and accessible website that’s mobile-responsive, having rich snippets and moving to HTTPS will help them give their users the right answer.

3. Ditch the clichés

We realise that saying ‘ditch the clichés’ is cliché BUT, it remains true. Amy Harrison’s talk ‘How Inside-Out Copy Makes You Invisible’ looked at avoiding forced transactions in email marketing and offering something that customers want. Something that would benefit the customer, rather than pushing a product in their face. Pull back on the ‘BUY NOW’ ‘FREE’ and ‘DON’T MISS’ headlines and really offer them something that could benefit them.

4. Move to HTTPS and HTTP/2

Want a website that’s faster? Uses fewer resources? More secure? Seems like a dream, right? Well HTTP/2 is the answer and it’s what all sites need! HTTP/2 is the latest update to the HTTP protocol. It’s a complete refresh of the internet, bringing the security and efficiency the internet is currently lacking. However, the likes of Google Chrome, Mozilla etc will only allow support HTTP/2 if your website is using HTTPS – another protocol that secures your site and protects all data communications. Google wants a secure web and they’ve even announced that HTTPS is a ranking factor and that they’re indexing secure sites over unsecured sites, so it’s well worth the move.

5. Optimise for mobiles!

We hear it time and time again and for good reasons. Mobiles have swiftly become the most used devices when it comes to searching online. Gary Illye’s keynote speech mentioned that some important news about the mobile-first index will be announced soon and the best way to prepare for it is to make your website fully responsive. The mobile-first index is nearly here and we’ve already started to see some ranking fluctuations between searches on mobile devices and desktops.

We can see why it’s such a hit with marketers across the country and we’re already looking forward to BrightonSEO 2018!

If you’re looking for a flashy, SEO-ready website or just need a hand with your search engine rankings then give us a call or drop us a message! We’ll be happy to chat over coffee about how we can help.

Congratulations to Carlene who has just been promoted to Office Manager/Director’s PA at Bluestep!

Our Bluesteppers are on a roll at the minute, after Becca was just promoted, we’ve now had Carlene promoted to Office Manager/Director’s PA!

Carlene started just 3 months ago when Ben was on the lookout for a personal assistant and office administrator. Thanks to Georgie’s recommendation, Carlene had an interview, got the job and has slotted into Bluestep so smoothly it feels like she’s always been here.

It’s been amazing to see her progress to a more senior role in such a short timeframe, but it’s not been easy! Carlene has brought so much to the Bluestep team in that time and we honestly don’t know where we’d be without her. She’s introduced the secret buddy system, the office recommendations box, BrightHR, and an abundance of organisation and structure to the office!

After popping some champers to celebrate, we sat with Carlene for a quick chat on her time at Bluestep so far:

It’s been a busy few months and you can really feel the difference in the office since you started. What’s been your favourite thing you’ve introduced to the company so far?

Some kind of organisation and hopefully some much-needed support for Ben Skinner.

What’s been the most memorable task you’ve worked on?

I have too many to count! This is what I love about Bluestep, the business is so varied I get involved in all sorts!

What have been your highlights in the role so far?

The Bluestep social events have been great fun, I enjoyed our afternoon tea party a bit too much! The people I work with are the main highlight, the team are amazing!

What makes Bluestep unique and keeps you wanting to work here?

The opportunity I have been given to grow and develop. The creativity and enthusiasm each individual holds, the variation of projects we do and how well everyone works together and supports each other. It’s never boring and very fast paced!

We love seeing our colleagues develop within their role, and it just goes to show that if you really put the effort in, you’ll see the rewards. We’re so happy for Carlene, it’s truly what she deserves and we can’t wait to see what she’ll bring to the Bluestep team in the future!

At Bluestep, we take real pride in our heritage and the work we’ve done over the years with the NHS, which ultimately, has helped us to become the company that we are today.

For the third year in a row, our healthcare team ventured up to Manchester for the highly acclaimed NHS Health and Care Innovation Expo to exhibit our work and network with industry contacts, old and new.

So, what happened at the Health and Care Innovation Expo this year?

Besides being able to have a good catch up with our clients from across the country, the team had a great time meeting with new contacts and key NHS decision makers. The 2-day exhibition was the perfect opportunity to find out about how the NHS is working to stay ahead of the curve. We shared best practice and chatted about the digital future of our national health service with the delegates that came and visited our stand.

There was a very nostalgic feel to the expo too, the #NHS70 Hub focused on the evolution of the NHS and how it’s progressed over the past 70 years, as explained by the longest-serving NHS patron, Ethel Armstrong. Very heart-warming!

Other key event highlights included the much-anticipated talk from the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, who revealed his predictions for the NHS and how services will be progressing to better patient journeys and improvement for frontline NHS staff. He confirmed our discussions around the future of health being digital.

We had some great feedback about our stand, all thanks to the amazingly talented Harley and the rest of the design team who offered a creative hand, the stand sure did look top notch. The creative flair of the stand and rolling animations on screen really complimented the team’s enthusiasm about the projects we have been working on over the past year.

Did you go to the expo or do you work in the healthcare sector? If you need some advice about the best ways to promote your service, need innovative ideas or need a helping hand with your digital challenges, drop us a line at healthcare@bluestepsolutions.com or give us a call. Our healthcare boffs would love to have a chat with you!

We’re excited to announce that we’ve been chosen as the design agency to create the rebrand for Whittlebury Hall & Spa!

Anyone who’s local to Northampton would have heard of the renowned Whittlebury Hall & Spa. The impressive hall sits atop the highest point in Northampton, covering 700 acres that overlook the vast countryside and is the go-to when it comes to relaxing spa treatments and business conferences.

Since opening in 1990, Whittlebury Hall has run separately to Whittlebury Park, which is situated directly opposite the hall and features a golf course and wedding venue.

After the acquisition of Whittlebury Hall by the owners of Whittlebury Park in late 2016, the Whittlebury team were looking for a design agency to help create and devise a new brand that embodies their new ‘One Team, One Goal’ attitude, uniting the two businesses.

After a couple of meetings and an initial brand concept, Whittlebury Hall & Spa chose Bluestep to help them on their rebrand journey, and we’re so pleased to be able to announce the news!

Brand development is well underway and we’re already discussing potential new names that represent the entire estate, while designing a fresh new logo that exhibits their well-established reputation.

The rebrand will not only see them change their name and logo but will require a complete overhaul of anything featuring their old branding, ranging from flyers, brochures, uniform, internal and external signage and much more.

The new brand and name will be debuted in early 2018 to see the new year in, so keep your eyes peeled for more…

Challenge accepted!

The hotly anticipated Pacesetter’s Sports Day came around quicker than Mo Farah!

The day saw us head to Wellingborough School in convoy to compete in the Pacesetter’s Sports Day to win the 1st place cup in the scorching August heat.

The healthy competition included Pacesetters, Stronglines and the Wellingborough School sports teachers. All of which were fitness and sport-related teams, except for Bluestep! But we rocked up in our Bluestep-branded sports gear, squeezed a few stretches in, and were ready to take them head on.

We’ve totally got this.

By no means was this day going to be an easy one. One of the teams literally dressed up in army gear. They meant serious business.

It wasn’t intimidating enough that they were professional sports coaches, so they dressed up in army gear too!

First up was dodgeball, pretty easy, right? That’s what we thought. If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a dodgeball!

After some pretty intense matches and even more Dodgeball film quotes, we were left with Chris and Sarah at the end, taking us to the win.

Although we were smashing it at first, we did leave with quite a few bruises on our thighs…

Next up we had football, which luckily for us, Bluestep is blessed with plenty of staff that are big football fans and players.

Don’t mess with Carl, he’s coming for you…

We were gutted when we lost a player after a knee injury, meaning we were a player down. But, the games must go on.

Netball was a total breeze for us as we had Becca who plays netball in her spare time and Harry who was basically just dropping the ball through the hoop!

Carl once again reminding us who’s boss.

After a grueling athletics round including javelin, long jump, a relay race, an 800m race and another player down, we were convinced our efforts wouldn’t leave us in last place. We’d given everything we’d got. We absolutely weren’t coming last.

We took a well-deserved break and once we were back to our normal selves (it took a while) we made our way to the award ceremony. The announcer took center stage and was ready to reveal who came last.

“In 8th place… The Bluestep Ballers”

We came last. BUT, we did win a branded Pacesetter wooden spoon, which has taken pride of place in the Bluestep office.

Better luck next time guys…

Congratulations to Becca who has just been promoted to Senior Designer at Bluestep!

There’s nothing more we love than seeing our fellow Bluesteppers do well for themselves, and with such a tight-knit and supportive team behind all of us, it’s hard not to!

Starting just 3 years ago as an intern from Northampton University, Becca has shot to Senior Designer, proving that with hard work and dedication to the role, climbing the Bluestep career ladder can be achieved with sheer determination.

After Becca was finished dancing on the tables and popping bottles to celebrate her promotion, we grabbed her for a quick chat to find out about her experience at Bluestep so far:

You’ve really helped a lot of clients to turn their brand vision into a reality over the years. How varied is your role at Bluestep and what is the typical type of project you work on?

I think every project is different and brings different challenges. Some of the projects we get here include Blue Cross’s fundraising pack that I’m currently working on and the rebrand for Whittlebury Hall. I’ve also loved creating the Tower Hamlets Together illustrations and #MyPetMadeMe for Blue Cross. And not forgetting the photos for Make Time. I had a lot of fun sourcing the actors and art directing the photo shoot!

What’s been the most memorable project you’ve worked on?

Probably some sexual health condom sleeves (they had some really interesting slogans on them!) or MooLoo’s – I had to draw a client’s stuffed toy cow as an illustration for her new shop branding. As the project went on she wanted the cow to look like her – this was hard!

What have been some of your highlights of the role so far?

I think every year just keeps getting better. I think my promotion to Senior was a big milestone for me and being awarded Bluestepper of the year. I am a fan of the Bluestep socials, they’re just full of laughs, banter and having a genuinely good time. There are a few videos of me singing floating around from these socials in the office and I also had a trip to minor injuries after one of them too (after falling up some stairs – yep, up not down!)

What makes Bluestep unique and keeps you wanting to work here?

I think it is the culture. Everyone’s drive to better Bluestep every day and the fact everyone is on the same page. I feel like I have made genuine friends at Bluestep and being able to do what you love and be surrounded by amazing people – you can’t get better than that.

You’ve certainly made an impact here Becca and we’re chuffed that your hard work and perseverance has paid off. We can’t wait to see some of the projects you’ll be working on as Senior Designer! Keep on at it, Becca.

Google is renowned for keeping its users on their toes and they’re at it once again with a big shift to their mobile-first index!

When we’re not making pets decide their owner’s fate or supporting the FA cup final, we like to get stuck into the latest SEO tips and tricks on how to cheat Google. Google recently announced that users are now searching on their mobiles more than any other device and will soon be pointing their algorithms at your mobile first rather than your desktop.

We’re experts when it comes to SEO and web-design (just take a look at some of the sites we’ve made) and we follow closely in the footsteps of the internet giant.

It’s not just about your website looking the prettiest and loading the quickest when it comes to getting that golden #1 hotspot on Google, but it’s about how it works. Google is already in the experimental phase of making their main algorithm mobile-first and so many websites just aren’t cutting it when it comes to mobile!

You might have (painfully) come across them before, but many sites have mobile versions of their current ones that normally feature a lot less content than the desktop version, and this can affect your rankings in a major way. We all know Google loves words.

The new mobile-first index will now favour your mobile site so it’s important your website is fully responsive to all devices, of any shape and size, be it a mobile, tablet or desktop. They want to be able to present its users with the best content on the internet, and if your website is holding you back then it’s time to step into 2017!

BrightEdge’s latest report shows that 57% of all online traffic is now coming from mobiles and tablets – meaning that nearly 6/10 consumers are now searching on a mobile device.

An image showing the difference in ranks between mobile and desktop searches thanks to google's mobile-first index

(Source: BrightEdge)

Their press release sheds more light on the research; when searching the same query on the same search engine, it generated different ranks on mobile and desktop 79% of the time, which could suggest their mobile-first index is already in place.

If you’re on the hunt for a new, flashy website that will help you get those ever important CTR’s and ROI’s then get in touch with us today to see what we can whizz up.