New animation tool not just a Flash in the pan

Idealogy heard yesterday that there looks finally to be a good product for rich, timeline-based animation that will do "Flash…but without the Flash!'.

A lot of people probably wouldn't see the need for such a tool - Adobe's stats are impressive, as is a lot of Flash content on the internet…but probably not if you're browsing on your phone. A lot of mobile phones still don't fully support Flash, the iPhone for one.

Sencha Animator is still in Beta at the moment, but from the screenshots that we've seen of it, any Flash developer would be very comfortable using it; it's a visual tool, outputting HTML5 and CSS3 in the background.

Chrome, Safari, and mobile WebKit browsers such as Android, Blackberry Torch, Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod touch are all supported so it could be a very interesting piece of software to watch, we'll certainly be looking forward to using it for our clients.

Posted by Paul Skinner

YOUTUBE – Broadcast channel creates demand for Idealogy ‘moving pictures’

Over 30 TV ads, digital video and viral productions. A creative mix of ‘talking heads’, CGI, animation, studio and outside production. Subjects ranging from fitness to kettles and from make-up to squid!

Idealogy’s presence on the world’s most popular self-broadcast site is gathering momentum. Having now been ‘on-air’ for almost 18 months, Idealogy can claim almost 8500 views of campaign productions created for many of our key accounts – names like Fitness First, Lifetime, KENWOOD, Simple, ABB and METTLER TOLEDO. All of who get the additional exposure generated from this exciting channel.

So keep watching this space – to quote from The Carpenters, “We’ve only just begun!”


Posted by Idealogy

Mettler Toledo Product Inspection. Getting up close and personal by using Microsites as the hub for Integrated Campaign communications.

Frequently Asked Question! What is a Microsite?

Wikipedia says “an individual web page or cluster of pages which are meant to function as an auxiliary supplement to a primary website. The microsite's main landing page most likely has its own domain name or subdomain. They are typically used to add a specialized group of information either editorial or commercial”. Nice!

Idealogy’s take on the ubiquitous microsite is that it provides a powerful but intimate communications hub for integrated communications campaigns and our client Mettler Toledo Product Inspection Division have chosen it as the tactical heart of each of their Technology, Product or Service based forays into B2B marketing.

Working effectively alongside Mettler Toledo’s PI SBU Marcomms teams with development schedules often in days and weeks rather than months, Idealogy have used compelling imagery and content to build a series of highly functional microsites that utilise animation, web-enabled information links, with publication downloads, product technical data and offer-based incentives for database refreshing. It’s a  combination that has been used successfully on a number of key Mettler Toledo marketing events;

Glass in Glass Inspection  http://www.glass-in-glass.com
Pharmaceutical http://www.mt-onecure.com
Harsh Environment http://www.mt-adapt2survive.com
and Ready Meals http://www.mt-dontspoilit.com

Each microsite provides a vivid shop window for Mettler Toledo’s broad technical offering, covering their X-ray systems, Metal Detection and Checkweighing capabilities, and linking disparate techniques in a seamless, totally integrated and multi-lingual way. Conventional campaign tools like PR, Direct Mail, Brochures, Advertising and E-mail releases are used to drive traffic to the microsite domains. And the concept is working. Visitor numbers and lead generation are significantly up on more conventional marketing routes and the microsite, as a cornerstone of Mettler Toledo Product Inspection’s communications strategy, looks like it is here to stay.

Posted by Paul Wright

Don’t like yours much

Simple recently asked Idealogy to come up with a campaign to promote the benefits of it’s products in fighting the signs of ageing, so we started thinking and bounced ideas around in one form or another for over 6 months.

From our initial ideas the project went through several iterations; we finally decided upon illustrating how someone with a poor quality lifestyle would age quicker and more harshly than someone with a healthier lifestyle. Simple products would obviously help this improvement too of course and we would promote the New Repair Anti-Wrinkle Range.

Then someone came up with the idea of showing a young, beautiful woman ageing (time-lapse style) from 25 to 75 very badly. We could do a quick rewind and then show the young woman ageing more ‘gracefully’. Some shock-factor tactics that we could use on the Simple website.

So about a month ago we started to put the piece together. The first thing to do was to cast two models who could feasibly be the same person at different ages of their life. Once chosen we arranged for them to attend a photo-shoot on the same day, enabling us to have the exact same lighting and feel for both.




Some additional Photoshop and a couple of pieces of animation software later it was looking pretty scary; a time-lapse video with 2 very different endings.

Initially the video was promoted through the national press (Heat magazine doing a massive article showing celebrities aged badly), health & beauty blogs and traditional PR via press contacts. Secondly, Simple’s quarterly email newsletter had a feature on it which also tied into a competition to win a photo of yourself aged. Then finally a version was seeded via a network of social media sites, blogs, forums and of course YouTube.

The Simple website itself had special landing pages that traffic was driven to and an interactive version of the video that allowed the user to pause the ageing process whilst reading skincare do’s and don’ts

First responses are good, with traffic up 800% on the first day of release and 1700% on the second and holding steady at 1700% on the third.

Take a look and tell us what you think – we’d love some feedback.


Posted by Paul Skinner