apt blog

apt Team Member Cooking for Royalty!

Our very own Business Development Manager, Jules, will be helping to supervise the preparation and service of food for The Queen by representatives from her daughter’s school, as one of the winners of the ‘Cook for The Queen’ competition.

The competition was bought to Jules’s attention after her daughter read about it online. Asking for her Mum’s help, Jules was quick off the mark to agree it with the school and help to pull together a supervisory team. 

The competition was open to schools all over the UK and Eastington Primary School in Gloucestershire won, along with 3 other schools out of a whopping 208 entries!

With a bit of adult supervision from Jules and the teachers, the pupils enthusiastically sourced local produce for their recipes. Sample ideas were produced and judged by a panel of 60 people including some of the local producers and suppliers before ‘qualifying’ for presentation to The Queen.

The winning pupils and teachers will be helping Royal Chef, Mark Flanagan, to prepare, cook and serve their meals at a special reception attended by The Queen and The Duchess of Cornwall as a tribute to The Queen for the Diamond Jubilee.

The winning menu from Eastington Primary School is as follows:

Savoury:

Camilla's Cucumber Crowns filled with Wye salmon smoked over tea
Asparagus Encrusted Diamonds - asparagus with a lemon hollandaise served in a diamond shaped vol-au-vent
Rarebits of Diamond - Godsell Gloucester diamond shaped cheese rarebit sandwiches with local homemade apple chutney
Beefeater's Delight - Duchess potatoes with seasonal horseradish and Gloucester beef
Will's Spot of Windsor - Gloucester Old Spot shredded belly pork served on a courgette and potato rosti with Windsor apple sauce and apple jus.
Harry's Hungry Hunt - wood pigeon skewers served with spiced beetroot and pomegranate molasses chutney.

Sweet:

Luv’lee Jub’lee Bub’lee - elderflower strawberry and champagne soup
Royal Rhubarb Trumpet - English rhubarb syllabub cream trumpets
Buckingham Biscuits - lemon shortbread with apple and lavender sorbet
Queen's Crumble - Gooseberry crumble with elderflower and gooseberry ice cream
Union Jack Pudding - Rice pudding layered with raspberries, blueberries, and Gloucester honey served in shot glasses
Royal Mint Princess's Pudding - Chocolate pound cake covered in royal mint icing

Well done to the school and good luck with cooking your goodies to perfection! (... And, of course, enjoy the day Jules!)

 

QR codes: not just for Christmas?

Since apt took a look at HMV’s latest venture to draw in more customers over the Christmas period, John Lewis and eBay have both stepped up and revealed a similar Christmas marketing campaigns using QR codes.

Waitrose in Brighton has set up a window display of the 30 top-selling John Lewis Christmas gifts where customers can view items that are not usually sold in store. By scanning the QR codes that accompany the products on their smartphones, customers will be taken to the appropriate product page on the online John Lewis site and will be able to buy their selected items on the spot and collect them from the store the very next day.

Similarly, eBay have launched a five-day QR experiment that goes live today. If you visit Dean Street, Soho, you will now find a special eBay shop complete with 200 products that can be purchased via QR codes.

QR technology means that customers don’t even have to talk to a sales advisor to make a purchase whilst they are actually in or standing next to a store. It is certainly not the most sociable of shopping experiences but if these two campaigns prove to be popular, we could see the click and collect service being rolled-out all over the UK and by increasing numbers of sellers.

But how many people actually use QR codes? We have all seen them dotted around the place but is it a small group of technology fans that make use of them? Are they merely a novelty that will wear off? Or will more and more people catch on? Yet again, we will have to wait and see!

Buying an Apple product? There’s a US app for that!

The apt team are impressed by how Apple has increased the speed and convenience of its shopping experience once again. The existing floating staff present in Apple stores already allows customers to avoid queues at the till by buying products on the spot and now customers will be able to order products via a new iOS app wherever they are and collect them from their nearest store ... after just 12 minutes!

This click and collect service is already available in some US stores but as of last week, the app is going to be available across America. If Apple reaches its predicted sales increase we will expect to see the new convenience app roll out in the UK before long and we can’t wait to see this new technology put into practice.

Apple is continuously innovating new ways to push business to the limit and this new app couldn’t make it any easy for Apple customers to get what they want and fast. The news of the new app follows the announcement of a recent collaboration between Apple and Starbucks whereby Starbucks customers are eligible for a free weekly download from iTunes. It is clear to us that Apple are doing their utmost to make their customers happy and are dedicated to providing efficient and ever improving services.

We love the idea of cutting the queue at the till, but it will be interesting to see whether other shops catch on.

The Queen is coming to visit!

At apt we are very excited. Next week on Friday 23rd October the Queen is coming to Gloucester and Cheltenham!

Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh will sail into Gloucester on the canal to be met by Lord Lieutenant for Gloucestershire, Sir Henry Elwes. They will visit Gloucestershire College in the morning and GCHQ in the afternoon.

We will be there to give her a wave!

Friends Reunightmare

When ITV acquired Friends Reunited back in 2005, I remember thinking 'what on earth are they doing?!'

There had already been a clear shift in momentum towards Facebook and MySpace who did (and continue to do) so much more that FR.

So, little surprise then that the value of FR has dropped...considerably. Having picked up the business for a staggering £175m, it's rumoured ITV could now be selling for as 'little' as £40m.

Nice bit of business then for the already struggling ITV, who announced pre-tax losses of £2.73 billion last year!

Having said all this, ITV have raked in some decent revenue from the Social Networking dinosaur; reportedly £22m in 2007.

Story via SouthWestBusiness.co.uk

The 'cost' of Swine Flu

Swine Flu: a scary outbreak, signalling a global red-alert or a happy distraction, helping the government to divert public attention away from the floundering economy?

Whatever your viewpoint, one thing's for sure, the cost of Swine Flu is potentially huge in many ways, with lost staff hours, lost customers, lost time and lost revenue for starters.

There are some significant winners though, as there always are. We've been particularly impressed with the rapid flurry of activity to spread the word.

As if the attention of the world's media wasn't enough, a massive cash injection has been administered to fuel an extensive marketing campaign.

Newspaper, radio and TV ads have been running for a week now, and most of us should have received a leaflet through our doors. Just do the math on those print costs alone!

This text book, integrated approach should ensure that people will grow sick of the advertising, even if the virus has little chance of catching up with them!

Far from criticising the ethics of cashing in on the 'outbreak' though, we are just jealous we didn't get the job of running the campaign. Ch-ching! :-)  

Message on form

 

Race Week is here again(!) and swarms of gamblers (A.K.A racing enthusiasts) are descending on the modestly-sized town of Cheltenham.

Advertisers are embracing 'festival frenzy' and tailoring their campaigns accordingly. One such example was spotted by an apt team member on the bus this morning.

The clever crime prevention poster (above) was designed by students Matt Hall and Tim Jamieson from the University of Gloucestershire.

This is one of several designs popping up across the county this week, as the National Hunt Festival reaches fever pitch.

There's a serious message though, as pickpockets will be targeting money-laden race goers. Zara and Mike better watch out!

Read the Gloucestershire Constabulary press release here

Fab Mash is now open!

 

Meant to post about this on Monday but we've only just got our breath back! Fab Mash is now open to the Cardiff public, following a very successful launch on Sunday 1 March.

The event attracted a swarm of locals, who brushed shoulders with invited guests, united in their quest for top-quality mash! So far, reaction has been as fab as the mash!

Check out pics from the launch here, some fabulous food shots here, and the brand new Fab Mash website here!

Amazing twignorance!

Twitter-bashing seems to be all the rage at the moment. Collectively with other platforms, it's being blamed for pretty much everything, even exposing children to pornography and drugs! 

BBC blogger Rome Hartman is the latest to put the boot in, wheeling out the seemingly age-old 'what I had for breakfast' cliche. It's such a tired, one-dimensional argument. Really, what proportion of twitterers actually tweet like this?

The comments on the post contain some fantastically funny (and ignorant) criticism of the platform. I just had to share a couple...

"...anyone with a little expertise with Google anyone can 'eavesdrop' on what's being posted..." (Oh no! Lots of people will read my personal thoughts and insights. Err...isn't that the point?)

"Once folk begin to realise that life and real news is passing them by...they'll give it up." (Where exactly is this "real news" you speak of? Oh sorry, you mean in newspapers obviously. Silly me.)

So, why is it currently so popular to be negative about twitter? Personally, I think it's a mixture of lack of understanding and fear of the unknown.

We are in the middle of a communication revolution and people will have to get on board sooner or later. That is if they want to stay in business...or even stay in touch for that matter.

Picture courtesy of Geek & Poke

The first 'online' newspaper?

For many of us, the internet is our primary news source. Clearly, things haven't always been this way, as this amusing 1981 San Francisco news report shows.

Richard Halloran is hailed as an early adopter of news via home computer, albeit through a two-hour telephone download! Amazing to think how far we've come...