And Digital is recruiting again!

So, we carefully plotted out our projected growth forecasts for the next 6 months including revenue streams, potential clients and staffing levels. We lovingly printed these forecasts and gave them pride of place on our desks. They have come in handier than we thought though...as increasing large volumes of client work has come through our doors we've been able to turn them over and use the flip sides to take down job briefs.

This means that only a week after appointing another full time staff member we are once again looking for digital creatives. Exceptionally creative digital web designs can apply to us directly at jack@andmail.co.uk. The rest of the averagely ordinary pack can save themselves the heartache...

Big names we've known and loved...

Let's be honest. Sometimes you do some potentially award winning work for a big-name client that you want to shout about from the rooftops. In your mind it's an open and shut case of 'shower us in plaudits and show us the secret pathway to digital enlightenment'. Other times it's a case of 'great client name, shame about the restrictive brand guidelines and the design by committee approach'; a project run dry through the mangle of conservatism until it falls into the safe middle ground.

There are also the cases of marketing campaigns which are either seasonal or product based which disappear without a trace once they have passed their shelf life. The site you designed full of pride last year, has now been superceded by the new creative 'imagining', relegating your shot at the big time to the pages of digital history.

So, without any corresponding current work to show for most of these clients, we thought we'd highlight some of the global brand names we have worked with over the years - we're quite proud of some of these clients and we thought we'd shout about some of them. Each client on this list has an interesting story regarding the work we've carried out for them and if you'd like to hear some of them, then give us a shout.

Panda Cola, Bensons Crisps and business web sites from £99

I'll start with a quick tale from my childhood.

When I was 15 my parents took me shopping for some new trainers. After getting some sound advice from my best mate Andy's older brother (who we all thought was as cool as Tom Selleck at the time), I decided I wanted some Adidas Gazelles. No other trainer would do in my mind. However, my ever-practical parents took me to the market and got me a pair of own-brand trainers under the assumption (on their part, not mine) that they were exactly the same as the expensive Adidas I craved. However, when I turned up at school wearing said shoes, I was roundly turned on by all of the lads who were wearing Adidas and derided for my cheap, nasty looking trainers. In truth they were the same in a lot of ways. They had rubber soles, leather uppers and even had 'go-faster' stripes down the sides. But what my parents hadn't taken into account was consumer perception, quality and brand values. They had opted for a cheaper alternative based solely on price and we both paid the price. Me at the school gates, and them when their 'cheap alternative' fell to pieces within 3 months.

The point is that we all find cheaper, less established brands as an alternative to spending the required money but they never quite live up to expectations. Anyone who was unfortunate enough to find some Panda Cola or Bensons crisps in their lunchbox will testify to this. Not quite inedible but not quite Coca Cola or Golden Wonder.

So to websites. Is And Digital a cheap option? No. Are we exceptionally good at what we do? Yes. Will a Ferrari out perform a Peugeot? Every time. And this is the point. In a world where the digital markets are saturated with shady backstreet companies selling 'magic bean' solutions we don't claim to be pricing ourselves on the same model as Panda Cola. We don't even model ourselves around price - we offer an intelligent solution at a price that delivers.

If you are looking for a digital provider who does think like the marketing whizzes over at Benson and Panda then feel free to contact:

Manchester Business
0161 237 1234
www.manchesterbusiness.com

They do business websites from £99. And as their ad clearly states, all solutions come with free email addresses!

And Showcase July 9th

In the first of a new series of articles, I'll be spotlighting some of the most recent work we have undertaken and giving a brief overview of the creative process, project briefs and solutions we created.

Stanian


Stanian is a business and ICT consultancy that recently tasked us with delivering a digital campaign aimed at reaching the IT directors of FTSE 350 companies based in the North West.

We created a campaign based around a boxing theme presenting Stanian as 'The New Heavyweight Contender' and allied these to some creative eshots which were sent out at regular intervals.

Above is a selection of the designs we put together.

We also carried the theme and messaging into a DM campaign which involved sending out boxing gloves to our top targets. They recently received a right handed boxing glove and will be informed should they want the left one, they will have to meet with our client and he will deliver it in person. The first meeting has already been confirmed...



Go-style


Go-Style is an online fashion site run by the Golden Square Shopping Centre at Warrington which in turn is owned by the Lend Lease group. The site is predominantly a membership based site which is aimed at female fashion shoppers. It comprises a flash based style builder, fashion articles, latest offers and in centre events and promotions. We have recently launched Version 1.0 of the site and are currently working Version 2.0.

We are also marketing the site through a variety of social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Our Twitter campaign is beginning to gather a head of steam and is proving to be a useful communication tool between us and the prospective customer base of Golden Square.

Above are a selection of the site visuals and examples of the supporting digital collateral we have released over the last few weeks.

When is a blog not a blog?

There was a time when blogs were the breeding ground for techies, Trekkies and Hogwarts fans exclusively. There were trainspotters excitedly announcing they had spotted the new Virgin rolling stock at Macclesfield, geeky fanboys talking about the continuity errors in Star Wars and all manner of crazy David Icke wannabes selling their crazy theories to those who would listen.

Nowadays, the blogging landscape is somewhat different.

Being an A List celebrity is no longer determined by the takings of your most recent summer blockbuster - it increasingly seems to depend on how often you blog and how interesting your cyber musings are.

Likewise, blogs are playing an increasingly important role within the business world and companies are flocking to blogging in their thousands. Our very own new And Digital site which you are currently reading is entirely based around a blog. Why put up a page of stale, lifeless text which is probably amended once a blue moon when you can have an interactive blog full of depth, resonance and varying points of interest to your clients? A blog allows companies to more effectively communicate with their customer base and more importantly, personalises their offering allowing their customers to get much closer to the people driving the company.

We recently completed a new site for a local print management company called Print Image Network. They initially discussed the idea of an "Ask us a question' section whereby users could fill out a form containing their question and submit it to the MD to answer via email. Instead, we suggested they did it as a blog. So the same mechanism would be used to capture the question but the answer would be posted along with the question on the blog. This way, all users of the site could view all relevant questions and see the answers. They could also comment on answers and posts and in theory, initiate a a conversation with anyone else using the blog including Print Image who could both monitor and moderate all of the postings. This seemed a much more proactive and modern solution and allowed a conversation to be more than a two way exchange. This suggestion has been very well received and we are in the process of putting together their branded blog.
I will feature the finished article complete with real time postings in a future article.

So in conclusion, if you are looking for a cost effective and innovative way to reach out to your customers, then a blog is a fantastic starting place. Why not comment on this blog entry if you would like to discuss blogs with me in more detail?

Say hello to our little friend...

It seems we live in a world of firsts.

First man on the moon, first man to climb everest, first manager to win the domestic treble in the UK and now the first employee proper of And Digital.

Tom and I would like to introduce you all to Oli Marsh who just joined And Digital after a brief but successful stint as a freelancer. We have yet work out his full and proper job title so are sticking with 'Web Wizard' until we can conjure up something better (do you see what I did there?).

He has some fantastic experience with a range of companies and industries from big blue chips and banks through to consumer based brands and everything in between.

He will be an outstanding addition to our team and we're sure that as the team grows larger, he will prove a valuable asset in helping shape both the technical and cultural side of the business.

Creative account managers and strategic creatives???

Over at And Digital we bring a fresh new perspective to digital marketing (that's what we call web design and the bigger picture of marketing your new website and company profile in the digital arena).

Let me explain how it normally happens at a run of the mill integrated marketing agency who claim to 'specialise' in and 'embrace' digital media.

You'll get contacted in first instance by the young dynamic sales person. He'll bamboozle you with repeated rounds of buzzword bingo, tell you he 'loves' your current site but can help you improve it and then offer to sell you the moon on a stick as he is being judged on converted phone calls and the subsequent sales meetings rather than the actual delivery of the behemoth he's just promised you.

Then you'll meet your account management team. This will normally consist of a senior account manager and a junior trainee. The account manager (if a dyed-in-the-wool digital head) will undoubtedly be a failed and therefore opinionated creative, and the junior will be lost in a sea of technology they claimed they understood at their job interview. They will share a few in jokes in front of you to establish their youth, creativeness and general urbane coolness before listening to your job brief. Except they won't be listening. They will be listening to what they want to hear through the ears of the senior account manager. As a failed creative deep down they will feel that they have never had the chance to truly shine and show off their creative chops...until now. The brief they'll be taking back to the creative team may as well be written in Swahili for all the sense it will actually make. Neither person has a real eye for creative solutions or really understands how to apply a creative solution to a staid and unrealised brief.

Then come the creative team. Exceptionally talented and brimming with creative ideas - the only problem is that their solutions are always the same. 'Let's make it cool and contemporary...like the Nike or Diesel site.' This is fine if you are Nike or Diesel. If you happen to manufacture the little widgets that sit in the bottom of cans of lager then a cool site that reaches out to the disenchanted youth of today is probably not the solution you are looking for. They don't care though...strategy is just one of the big words that 'suits' use and they don't give a fig for how practical and applicable their creative baby is.

So the creative team took their ill-informed brief from the account management team and turned it into a completely ineffectual creative solution to an entirely different problem. The account management team in turn took their brief from the client without really listening to what they were looking for and the sales team booked the whole job by downsizing the costs to the client whilst upsizing them to their boss in a effort to earn some extra commission.

At And Digital we are made up differently.

We have creative account managers who can help clients visualise their goals from a creative point of view and can open up client penned briefs to really harness the power of modern digital marketing mediums.

We also have strategic creatives who can understand the business needs behind a creative brief and can tailor an exciting and visually appealing solution to the needs and goals of a digital campaign.

As I said earlier, creative account managers and strategic creatives.

Buzzword Bingo...

Buzzword bingo is a phrase that is now entered the standard lexicon of And Digital and is used primarily to describe the overuse of trendy industry standard phrases - especially those that reference digital technologies and social media platforms.

But when is a buzzword merited and when is it simply an exercise in ego massaging by its user?

I remember when I first started in web design, we all referred to website designs (and I mean flat visuals such as jpeg's) as GUI's. It sounded very exotic and impressive and no client knew what we meant when we used the phrase. Now we refer to website designs as website designs.

I also recall going to a meeting some years ago with a very pompous account manager who tried his damndest to completely bewilder the poor client with a stream of nonsensical buzzwords and even more confusing explanations of each term. I think his stupidity reached its peak when he referred to a 'vortal'. When questioned he explained a vortal was a vertically integrated portal. The client not knowing what a portal was asked for further clarification to which the account manager said that a portal was a 'homogenised collective of interlocking doorways that sat within cyberspace'. I was confused and I was presenting the brief alongside him.

I guess the point of this entry is to question when a buzzword adds to or detracts from a subject or piece of technology. To describe entries on Twitter as Tweets makes sense and seems to be a natural progression of the language of social media. Likewise Mash-ups as a term does what it says on the tin. Take two pieces of content and mash them together to make something new. The ones that get me are the confusing or needless ones such as SERP (which stands for Search Engine Results Page) and Blogosphere which somehow seeks to exclude bloggers from the real world and place them into an artificial made up world with it's own title. I think every buzzword should have a defined purpose and should make both the user and recipients' lives easier from its use.

At the end of the day And towers is on the Northern Riveria in the republic of rainy Mancunia so when I hear some 'suit' talking about 'Blue Sky Thinking' I can only conclude he is daydreaming about his summer holidays.

Introducing And Digital

It seems weird and almost inappropriate that I am writing an introduction to this blog as I am the lesser scribe of the two directors here at And Digital - however, as a mark of our immediate success and generally hectic levels of new business meetings and proposal writing, Tom has found himself locked away from direct sunlight for days and weeks on end churning out high quality creative pitches, proposals and briefs leaving me to introduce us to the world.

We are Tom Cheesewright and Jack Carpenter and we are the founding directors of And Digital. Sure we used to be The Lever and yes we have joined the And family in name and partial ownership but the good ship And Digital is now being ably captained by the two of us.

I'm sure that Tom will wade in on seeing this posting with a much more eloquent comment on the new state of things but I would like to introduce myself as the Digital Director and creative half of the partnership. That's not to say that Tom is not creative (and I am not strategic) but with the best will in the world, you need to draw some lines of distinction if only for the clients' sake.

Our aim is very simple. We want to open up a two way conversation between all of our clients and their prospective customers. It is that simple. If we can open up a valid, compelling, timely and most of all appealing conversation then our client's want and needs will be met be they monetary, market share or simply making their message heard.

The way we do that is very simple. We understand the digital world and likewise we understand how to decipher what our clients want to say and how best to say it. We then implement a digital marketing campaign which fulfills these objectives and hey presto...job done. It's obviously not quite that simple but Tom has warned me against overly long blog entries.

We intend over the next year to fill this blog with all manner of weird and wonderful news, views and articles on the digital arena and related subjects. I'm sure they'll also be some rogue articles in there which bear no relation to anything online but I'll wait until United have secured the Treble next year before posting that one...