We've just further strengthened the Iris team by appointing Digital Designer Anthony Anderson. 30-year old Anthony joins us from Atomic Media in Nottingham, where he was a Senior Designer. Now he's already applying his considerable web/design skills to our clients' online communications and bringing an added level of creative continuity between digital and studio. In his own words he sees himself filling the role of resident 'chic geek'.
Taste and smell are the two senses that are usually ignored in marketing communications. Yet, used with a bit of imagination and flair they can be incredibly powerful. Catch the whiff of an aroma or a familiar taste and you can be instantly transported back to a specific time in your life. So, when our clients at The University of Sheffield wanted to mail out something a bit different to their alumni we suggested they send a little bit of Sheffield in a bottle. Our solution was a neat ‘A Taste of Sheffield’ box containing a bottle of the sublimely spicy Sheffield delicacy, Henderson’s Relish, together with a dinky little Henderson’s Relish recipe book. The idea was to capture their attention with a whiff of nostalgia about wintry Sheffield student nights, bags of chips and steaming hot pies enlivened by a splash of Hendersons that would make them want to stay in touch with the university and support their ongoing alumni campaign. The pack also serves a secondary purpose as a quirky giveaway to important visitors to the university and as an unusual gift at international events.
The new menus we designed for Little Chef are hot off the press. We’re currently working on a review of the Little Chef brand and the new menus are a taste (see what I did there!) of what’s to come. We wanted the menus to start to reflect some of the personality of the direction the brand is moving in. It’s about Britishness and being playful, which is what Charlie (that’s the name for the character in the logo) stands for. We chose to have different images on the covers to evoke what the British summer means to people. Inside, a series of menu icons have been designed to highlight key new dishes and provenance. Lots more to come on this as the brand begins to roll out.
After gaining a coveted place on Business Link's roster of agencies for the first time last year, there's been a flurry of 'WOOHOO!' style emails round the office after we heard our re-tender to be on their roster for the next 12 months has been successful.
The news means the government funded business support, advice and information service can call on Iris for a wide range of services, from direct marketing and online to photography, events, print buying, mailhouse services, telemarketing, literature and stationery supplies.
You know how it is. The sun peeks out from behind a cloud on a Friday morning and someone says "anyone fancy having a barbecue for lunch?". But somehow it never happens. Except this time, thanks to studio manager Nug’s infectious enthusiasm and organisational skills, it did. The lads from the studio made a trip to Tesco and came back laden with burgers, baps and beer (swiftly transferred to a sink full of ice) and a couple of those tray barbecues and we all pretended we were on a sunkissed beach in Cornwall instead of in the courtyard of Cornish Place (okay, the plastic chairs did spoil the effect slightly). Nevertheless, the whole spur of the moment event was a great success and even our Design Director, Nic Shuttleworth was observed to tuck into some proper Yorkshire high cholesterol fodder instead of her usual half a tiny sushi roll and fresh air lunchtime fare. The only person to miss out on all the scorched meat and beer based fun was our Business Development Manager, Paul Lenihan (Lenny) who was "working from home" that day. Lenny says that rumours about the whole event being staged to keep him in the office on Fridays with the lure of burgers and sausages for lunch have been greatly exaggerated.
Many marketers are preaching about the death of advertising as we know it, and in particular the failure of interruption advertising. It’s fair to say that this is partly true. Indeed, you don’t need to be a genius to spot it. Just look at the statistics for tv, press and web. It’s abundantly clear that the only people who are currently making any money out of advertising are the media owners themselves.
I used to work with Joe McCambley, who wrote the copy for the first ever banner ad, an ad for AT&T, and it achieved a 60% click through rate. These days you’d be lucky to get 1%! Joe doesn’t create banners any more. He says they’ve lost their effectiveness. So what are the alternatives – and indeed, are there any alternatives? Or am I simply talking myself out of a job?
I have to admit there isn’t a definitive answer. However, it’s clear that in order to succeed in an environment over-saturated by ads and messaging (some experts estimate that the consumer is exposed to more than 3,000 advertising messages a day) we need to come up with something different, eyecatching, involving.
Marketers often say they want to “create a two-way dialogue with consumers”. Whilst this is a tired old cliché, it still holds true. We need to involve the consumer, give them a story, make them interact with your brand, entertain them for **** sake. It’s not rocket science – they’re bored and are looking for stimulation!
“Where are you going with this?” you may well ask. To be frank, I’m not sure, except to say that the best example of marketing and product placement I’ve seen recently was created by the IT geek in the agency, not the creatives (sorry creatives):
Why does it work? Simple. It’s believable, it tells a story, it has compelling content for the right audience, it’s user generated, it’s a video and it has succeeded by word of mouth to create brand ambassadors.
Isn’t this the Nirvana we’re all trying to reach?
So next time you have a marketing problem (or a creative block) why not phone IT support?
From the eclectic sonics of studio to the far eastern drawls of digital, Iris is a varied place when it comes to music and so you know we’re not bluffing, we’ve set up a Last.fm group to showcase just some of our tastes. You may occasionally spot the odd 90’s “classic” in there – sometimes we just can’t help ourselves on a Friday afternoon. Read the full post…
Iris are about to embark on creating a new online experience for Sheffield Hallam University's Training Foundry website. As well as visually improving the site, we will ultimately be looking to increase online sales. Based in Sheffield City Centre, the Training Foundry is one of the region's premier ICT training organisations offering Microsoft, Adobe and Cisco authorised training in internet and web authoring, project management, databases, wireless networking and office applications. Work on updating the look and functionality of their existing site begins next week.
Imagine going 40 whole days without chocolate. Not a Bounty, not a Mars Bar, not a fun-sized Milky Way (and everybody knows they barely count as chocolate), not even a single chocolate button. That's the impressive feat of self-denial that designer, Nic Hearnshaw and Design Director, Nic Shuttleworth have pulled off. In a rash moment, both decided to test their combined willpower for Lent to see if they could go for a full 40 days without chocolate. Apparently, the side effects were the worst part. Nic S reports having felt 'ill' and 'slightly mad' for the entire 40 days. In fact, the whole experience nearly sent them both a bit fruit and nut. Thankfully, Easter's upon us and they're already planning a return to sanity with a chocolate binge of epic proportions, starting with this Thornton's Easter Egg.
Iris is on the hunt for an experienced Digital media/web designer to help us plan and design websites, digital campaigns and other screen based media projects.
To be successful you’ll need demonstrable experience of taking a client brief and turning it into a content plan (or information architecture) together with wireframe visualisations of templates and associated interface and content. Experience of both public sector and commercial web projects would be a definite advantage.
As well as excellent design skills, you’ll need a sound working knowledge of CSS and XHTML coding practices, an understanding of accessibility guidelines and an up-to-the-minute knowledge of current trends and solutions in web development. The role will give you ample scope to apply your creativity to a wide range of projects, from campaign microsites to large content managed information websites. Although the role does not require direct knowledge of web development languages and technologies (e.g. PHP, .NET etc.), a general understanding of how content managed sites are structured and built would be useful. Self-assured and comfortable in dealing with clients, you’ll also need to be able to work closely with a development team and be confident in briefing technical people on technical projects.
Naturally, you’ll need a full working knowledge of Adobe Flash and experience of using Flash to create animated web banners and online advertising, full flash websites and other interactive rich media interfaces. You’ll also need experience of encoding and integrating video into websites, a good knowledge of ActionScript 2 and 3 for Flash and will be comfortable writing ActionScript code using classes and OOP techniques for more complex projects.
Experience of video editing or video motion graphics would be a definite advantage.
Software: Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash. Programming: Hand coded CSS and XHTML, Actionscript 2 & 3.
The rewards? The chance to join our merry band of designers, writers, web types and account handlers. Ample opportunity to flex your creative muscles on some very nice digital projects across a wide variety of clients and sectors. Your very own big desk in pleasant surroundings in a great part of Sheffield.
Sounds interesting? Talk to (or email) David Wood our Creative Director.
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