July 15, 2008

AI Digital Ltd (www.ai-digital.com) officially launched as the new name and brand of Academy Learning Ltd with new customer announcements and a quality improvement programme

AI Digital launch party sponsored by Courvoisier the Future 500Brighton, UK, 11th June 2008: AI Digital Ltd (www.ai-digital.com) officially launched today as the new name and brand of Academy Learning Ltd with new customer announcements and a quality improvement programme.

AI Digital Ltd incorporates SiteVisibility (the 34th largest Search Marketing Agency in the UK according to the NMA Marketing Services Guide 2008*), Academy Internet (which is one of the UK’s leading e-learning consultancies) and AI Digital which specialises in web, social media projects and campaigns for charities and brands which practice “responsible business”.

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July 11, 2008

10 Top CSR Tips for Responsible Business

Filed under: CSR ResourcesJason @ 3:59 am 
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Ever since our e-learning division Academy Internet won the 2007 Business in the Community “Small Company of the Year” award, our people have been helping other businesses to introduce or extend Corporate Responsibility practices in their organisations. Getting started with a CSR strategy is easier than you think, especially if you partner with our local Business Community Partnership and ‘Business In the Community’ as we did. It’s likely that your company is already involved in various CSR activities but these are not aligned to any particular sector, therefore not providing you with the impact you could achieve with a focussed strategy. Hopefully these tips will help short cut your journey to CSR success.

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CSR at AI Digital

“AI Digital has a negligible impact on the environment and society so why bother”. Our approach is a little more positive than that! We believe that we can improve society and our environment through our work and we actively seek out opportunities to do so. In our own modest way, we encourage others to do the same and hope we can help to create momentum amongst our customers, suppliers, partners, employees and their families.

So what does AI Digital do?; we’re about building long term digital relationships and providing multiple award winning services for clients including the National Trust, Fujitsu, Stannah, Specsavers, Cancer Back Up, ECPAT, Home Office, UNICEF, Department of Health, Damovo and others who share our values.

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July 9, 2008

The environmental impact of eCommerce

Filed under: Marketers and CSRJason @ 3:57 pm 
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My instinct tells me the environmental impact of eCommerce is more about the logistics such as sourcing, packaging and distribution of the products sold, rather than the actual online selling process. We need to measure the energy and resources used in the supply chain as well as the eCommerce hosting setup.
Factors to consider are: (more…)

May 23, 2008

13 simple ideas to help Marketers to engage with CSR in order to achieve their marketing and business goals

1. Be inspired - Watch Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth”
2. Do some research. Speak to the person responsible for CSR in your company, or the Chief Executive and identify your most significant environmental or social impacts and what you’re already doing about them. You might be surprised how much unrecorded work is already taking place.
3. Take ownership over CSR. If no-one owns environmental, social or ethical issues in your company, this is your chance to own CSR. (more…)

May 12, 2008

Digital CSR

AI Digital www.ai-digital.com won the prestigious BITC Small Company of the Year / Business Impact on Society Award last year for the best CSR strategy in the UK amongst SMEs. We have since developed a comprehensive multi-channel CSR communications package called “Digital CSR” which might be an interesting proposition for ethical businesses, CSR consultancies, charities and not for profit organisations including: (more…)

Marketers are the natural owners of Corporate Social Responsibility

Filed under: Marketers and CSRJason @ 11:25 am 

The big problem is that marketers are the cause of the problem….

Over the years, I’ve met many marketing people who would have me believe that marketing (as a professional discipline) is entirely value-free and entirely neutral… I have difficulty with this, from a sustainability perspective, in as much as it may be true, on a case by case basis, but the cumulative impact of billions of corporate dollars spent marketing their products, year after year after year, stimulating, reinforcing and exacerbating people’s consumerist fantasies, is almost wholly pernicious – especially when it’s directed at children.

Jonathon Porritt, Founder Director of Forum for the Future & Chairman of the UK Sustainable Development Commission

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e-donation & e-fundraising ideas for Charities & Advertising Agencies

Filed under: e-donation & e-fundraising ideasJason @ 11:19 am 

Charities spend enormous amounts on marketing in order to generate sufficient donations to deliver their aims and sustain their organisations. Upon further investigation, we found charities spending upto 50% of their income on marketing and interestingly, upto 80% of that marketing budget on tried and tested leaflets, doordrops, direct mail and stands at shopping malls. Amazingly only a few are spending time working out how they could drive membership volumes and donation revenues online.

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CSR Definition

Filed under: Corporate Social ResponsibilityJason @ 11:15 am 

CSR Definition: Give me a definition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)? What is CSR?
Mallen Baker who is a Director of Business in the Community as well as being a writer on business ethics provides this definition: “CSR is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society.” (more…)

Internet tools for “CSR Brands” and Advertising Agencies

AI Digital defines “CSR Brands” as companies who have engaged with and invested in Corporate Social Responsibility. Often these businesses are represented on CSR or Sustainability indices such as Innovest Global 100, Jantzi Index, FTSE4Good, Dow Jones Group Sustainability Index, Corporate Responsibility Index or they are members of CSR membership organisations like Business in the Community (BITC).
Like my own experiences at Tarmac and Carillion where we related to sustainable construction and improving the environment, CSR Brands have usually recognised and engaged with an issue which impacts on their supply chain or marketplace and seek to make a positive impact and report on progress made in achieving their objectives. (more…)