Thursday 30 June 2011

The Screensaver is alive and well…

Screensavers are very popular; thousands of people download them everyday and some of the biggest companies in the world use them to promote their brands in difficult channels.




Idealogy have gone a bit screensaver crazy this month too, making a couple of our own for internal use and experimentation (here and here) and and one for the mighty ABB, the global leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. (here)


Wednesday 29 June 2011

Go West – life is peaceful there

In a blog about pushing our business efforts towards the (South) West of our marvelous country it would be great to start with how we’re all ultra-thin, shaggy-haired surf types, up early to hit the beach before some casual branding and consultancy after a pasty and a pint. So having painted that image I’ll destroy it, because we’re not any of these things… except we do like a pasty.

Monday 27 June 2011

Training for the future – HTML5 & CSS3

The prospect of two days hardcore programming would fill most people outside the Web world with dread! Luckily, the digital team at Idealogy ‘lives to programme’ and ‘programmes to live’.

“Hmmm” they say in their robotic little voices!

For those who don’t know it yet, HTML5 is the long awaited revision to HTML and we could spend all day trying to write a description of what it is, what it does and how differently it does it, but trusty old Wikipedia says it best:

Wednesday 22 June 2011

Idealogy INSIGHT - A new look for The New Forest Hotels Group

New Forest Hotels

Welcome to the first in a series of idealogy INSIGHT project studies, taking you through the thoughts and processes that have shaped a successful piece of work for a client. Each story will look at the rationale behind the recommendations we made, explore the history of the client-side input, the conditions of engagement or touchpoints with specific audiences, all the way through to how the ideas and themes have been implemented.

Monday 20 June 2011

3D or not 3D, that is the question…

I love films – but I don’t love going to the cinema. There’s something missing from the heady days of my youth when queuing around the block for an hour to get in was all part of the experience. So, to try and enhance the soulless multiplex cinema experience we now have 3D to bring the WOW factor back to the big screen.

Now, I had managed to avoid this up until recently, finally buckling with the prospect of a new Tron film popping out the screen. So after paying twice the normal price for the privilege, and donning a pair of large shades that even Bono couldn’t work with, I sat down for an hour and a half of sensory overload.

Thursday 16 June 2011

Positive PMT from Idealogy - Idealogy Training Day

Initiation triangles, plants, shapers and implementers – all sound a little like the plot from a Harry Potter movie? Well you’re right, yes it does, but for the Idealogy Project Management Team it’s all in a day’s work – well a day away from work anyway.

Our mission is to offer a lot more than brand, or business development consultancy. A service not just confined to inspirational creative, but to enabling a more effective way of working, for us and for our clients. With a group of six of us, with backgrounds as diverse as it’s possible to achieve, one thing’s for sure – none of us manage a project in the same way…

Monday 13 June 2011

Sign of the Times - Elmtree Signs new website launched

Here’s a heart-warming tale of an experienced Southampton signage business that knew how to read the market signs (no pun intended!).

During 2009, Idealogy worked with Elmtree Signs to rebrand, bringing their 25+ years of local and national signage heritage, screaming and kicking into the 21st century. The results were a demonstration of the old adage ‘evolution not revolution’, moving the business gently forward without losing touch with it’s huge and loyal client base, established over a quarter of a century of ‘above and beyond’ customer experience.

And they really loved the results – so much so, that the next step was to translate the new look into a sympathetic web presence, at the same time moving them from their old, static, fixed content site to an editable, open source CMS with ECRM functionality – and that’s a big leap for a local Southampton company.

But here’s where Elmtree’s ability to read the landscape came in – call it wisdom, call it foresight, but whatever you do, call it ‘a good call’. In late 2009 the whole world slid into, arguably, the most painful and far-reaching recession in recent memory. Rather than press on, Elmtree did the smart thing. They pushed the web project onto the back burner, but they didn’t ever stop creating content, generating new case histories, and generally learning about what managing a living, breathing front-line communication platform was all about. So they learned about ECRM, content management and text/image editing, and now, with the site live, they’re good to go. Ready to take over the site management and all the responsibilities that come with it.

See, that’s what more than 25 years in the signage industry does for you. You learn to read the future indicators, and you learn to bide your time. Because there’s no point pressing on when all the signs say stop!

View the website:- http://www.elmtreesigns.co.uk/

Posted by Idealogy




Thursday 2 June 2011

Don’t mention the ‘B’ word! - BrandPrint™

BRAND. How can a 5-letter word trigger so much positive and negative emotion – all at once?

Business people understand the importance of how their products and services are perceived, but often dread the process of fixing something or aligning themselves to make the most of their opportunities.

Why?