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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 The site you designed full of pride last year, has now been superceded by the new creative 'imagining', relegating your shot at the big time to the pages of digital history.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?