Ally Simpson

Local Food Hero Rob Curley

Posted by Ally Simpson | Mar 17, 2016 |

The Ballymena Today team were really excited to see that the Irish Restaurant Awards recognised Local Food Hero Rob Curley this week. The Local Food Hero award recognises the individual that promotes food culture in their locality and stirs up the passion in people to explore various cuisines. They are inspirational foodies – from artisan producers to local chefs, to healthy eating advocates throughout Ireland. Rob is all of the above. Along with Slemish Market Garden Rob Curley has been doing a beautiful thing, promoting local produce and inspiring others to pay attention to what they eat and where it comes from....

Who killed the British high street?

Posted by Ally Simpson | Mar 9, 2016 |

In 2015 it was a parlour game; but by 2020, it was a serious worry, the subject of Commons debates. Who killed the British high street? What analysts had long warned of had finally come to pass. Outside big cities, British shopping streets had more gaps than Gaps. Once-handsome town centres were now a collage of pound shops and boarded-up fronts. Their only visitors were the elderly and the teenage: those without broadband on tap, or cars to get out to the A-road retail parks. _ …ultimately the British high street died of neglect, with no agency willing to map out a different future for it. The result was town centres standing desolate, even as former customers gave their cash to internet retailers rather more sophisticated in their tax planning than their sales advice. However convenient, shopping in 2020 was a cheerless business – and one in which more money ended up in fewer hands. I originally blogged the above quote here. It’s an excerpt from an article which you can read here. What about our town Can an agency map out a different future for our streets? Or are there are too many agendas and motives pulling in too many different directions for anything more than quick fixes and sticking plasters? Does anyone really believe that the surface we walk on around our streets is more of an issue than the...

Poseur

Posted by Ally Simpson | Mar 2, 2016 |

‘Poseur’ is probably at the top of the list of accusations you can make against a brand in today’s world. That label means instant death. On the other hand, if your brand is anointed as The Real Deal, you are on the road to success because you have a strong platform on which to stand. The lesson here is simple. Authenticity can’t be bought; you either have it or you don’t. If you do have it, if you’ve earned it, you have something incredibly powerful; a story, a position, a mission, a reason for someone to believe and buy. In the all-knowing media society, if your story is manufactured, you are dead in the water.” [John Andreliunas, @quoddyshod] A dictionary definition of the word Poseur will say something like this; a person who behaves affectedly in order to impress others. It’s easy to be this person in business. In some circles it is positively encouraged. Tell the real story instead, don’t manufacture a sales pitch. Don’t be dead in the...

Our intuition for Ballymena

Posted by Ally Simpson | Feb 29, 2016 |

Seth Godin said this about Intuition on his blog recently. That’s what people call successful decision making that happens without a narrative. Intuition isn’t guessing. It’s sophisticated pattern matching, honed over time. Don’t dismiss intuition merely because it’s difficult to understand. You can get better at it by practicing. Our intuition for Ballymena isn’t guessing. Here at Ballymena Today and, in the wider team of are collective we have years and years of experience working with local ballymena based businesses and organisations. We watch the news, read the newspapers and pay attention to what is going on around us. We shop local as best we can. Our experience in all of the above informs our decision making every single day. Our intuition for Ballymena helps us to approach the needs of new clients, long-standing successful businesses, struggling small businesses, organisations who can’t get to grips with social media and the web, retailers who believe they need to be selling online… Our intuition for Ballymena is just as important for us as it is for you. Are collective is collectively working alongside and dedicated to helping other businesses and organisations succeed. Nobody takes any of this for granted. It’s our job. We all live within the Ballymena borough so, this community matters to us. Our intuition for Ballymena compels us to do this. Why not come and talk to us. As the audience grows, we are able to help more people. We’d...

What is are collective?

Posted by Ally Simpson | Feb 15, 2016 |

Yes. First things first. We can all see that are collective is a mis-use of the word are. That’s just for fun. But, what is are collective? Technically speaking it’s us, the folks who are bringing you Ballymena Today. We are part of a team that is and has been working on a wide variety of projects over many years. Collectively our client base stretches across lots of industries and business types. The website says this; We are an established Ballymena based team. Our strength is the wide variety of well considered solutions we offer for every aspect of your business and...

Author: Ally Simpson

Local Food Hero Rob Curley

Who killed the British high street?

Poseur

Our intuition for Ballymena

What is are collective?

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