25 years old – I know… we're looking good aren't we!

After 25 years at the helm, we cast off our lines and headed for the Cowes to celebrate our birthday at the end of regatta festivities.

The red arrows display and impressive fireworks weren’t dedicated to us specifically but they certainly added a sense of occasion. That and the countless Dark and Stormy cocktails and slices of delicious birthday cake!

The drizzle did nothing to dampen our spirits and a great time was had by all. Roll on the next 25 years!

Our beautiful cake was created by Kelly's Cakeaway in Hamble:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Where’s Your Work? Part 7

Well, it’s that time of year again. Students are returning to campus like the proverbial bulls in china shops, overflowing with creative ideas. So for their benefit – and that of all creatives out there – here’s our pick of the best portfolio sites…

Our Verdict

If you’re just after a quick and easy portfolio shelf… Choose Behance. It seems to be the most popular, and with good reason. Double it up with a nifty LinkedIn profile, and you’ll be flying…

Comment without Responsibility – (or how The News Of The World came to the rescue of journalistic standards)…

Let’s begin with what many believe to be the lowest common denominator where research is concerned – good old Wikipedia.

“Journalism is the practice of investigation and reporting of events, issues and trends to a broad audience in a timely fashion. Though there are many variations of journalism, the ideal is to inform the intended audience.”

Welcome to ‘the family’

As a close-knit team of 15 or so (we expand and contract if we need specialist skills see) it often feels like a family here; we can certainly tell you which of us is the embarrassing uncle, the nagging wife and the grumpy old grandfather! So the coming few months are especially exciting as both Simon J (our Digital mastermind) and Nick H (Client Liaison something or other) are both expecting new additions in their, and that means our, lives. Best of luck to them both, but more importantly may they be back at work in one day, and not at all affected by sleep depravation, there’s still plenty of work to do fellas!

A picture sells a thousands words

We’ve worked, over the years (more than 20 now, but we’re still oh so young… honest!) on a massive variety of projects. As part and parcel of helping engage audiences for our clients we’ve had to take, source or commission high-quality pictures of industrial technology, kitchen machines, fitness fanatics, mobile phones, beauty products and even super posh yachts.

Now we know all of the above won’t fit into the Idealogy headquarters for photographing, but for the things that will we now have in-house facilities to help us turn these projects around more quickly, more cost-effectively and with a greater creative control.

Friendly Fire

After trying for almost 2 years to get the business to take the process seriously, and following the installation of a state-of-the-art Fire Alarm system, today Idealogy broke their record for completing a Fire Drill. Everyone was safely recorded at the Muster Point in 1minute 13 seconds. Which is great, and well done to Karine for managing the whole event.

The really good news is that we beat our previous record by almost 2 hours. On that occasion several people didn’t show at the meeting point and several more slept through the alarm – which is why we had to replace the old Cow Bell; it wasn’t really working!

The Health & Safety Executive will be impressed and so will Hampshire Fire Brigade – at least we hope they will when we learn how to switch it off!

Earphones anyone?

Posted by Simon Dover

20 years old. So why do we have an Anniversary crisis to cope with?

Typical!

It didn’t escape our notice that, as we approached our 20th birthday in August, we had a few difficult decisions to take. Which I suppose, as adults, shouldn’t present too many problems but it has become symptomatic of a life spent in a shifting landscape, ducking and diving, trying to flesh out an approachable personality and identity.

And that’s hard for a small business, especially one that opened as Selling Ideas the very day the headline read “it’s official, we’re in a recession”. There’s a beguiling symmetry there don’t you think?

Back in 1989, we could have been accused of recklessness, and indeed, the early years were tough as we learned to balance the rigours of running the new Selling Ideas business, with the needs of a demanding client base. But we soldiered on and we grew, putting on weight and muscle in all the right areas, developing our vocabulary, learning how to walk confidently amongst our peers. The family album had lots of attractive portraits and group pictures as we gazed, clear eyed, beside our friends and colleagues, at the flashing bulb.

We were standing tall and learning how to work well and play with others. And we were becoming independent.

But, like all adolescents, we weren’t 100% sure of who we really were. Life was so much easier in the early days, when all anyone wanted to talk about was good ideas, and we had plenty of those to sell.

With maturity comes a fresh set of beliefs and intellectual fog. We weren’t afraid of the questions we were being asked or where those questions came from – and our world had clearly become a more consumerist and commercial place. What we were scared of was our ability to consistently come up with the right answers – because that meant we had become something else, something quite different from the persona we knew and had grown comfortable, arguably too comfortable, with. Idealogy had become a comprehensive vision.

So we changed, and in all honesty, we’ll continue to adapt as the world changes around us. Today’s incarnation as Idealogy may be quite different again in another 5 years, but that’s life and, as we all know, change is good!

Now, back to the crisis!

Is a 20th anniversary a China or a Platinum, because that will make a huge difference to the party theme? Are we going to drink tea from a saucer or are we all going to show up in blonde wigs? Decisions, decisions…….

Answers and comments please.

Posted by Idealogy

A real first for Idealogy! FIRST CLUB. Helping Fitness First make fitness pay for itself!

Here’s a breakthrough moment!

How much more regularly would everyday fitness enthusiasts go to their clubs if they also had access to a basket of other great benefits on top of the obvious health improvements? The more you train, the better-off you feel!

That’s the theory behind Fitness First’s FIRST CLUB and the cue for Idealogy to get involved with the online function for this powerful Member Benefits programme.

FIRST CLUB provides committed members with value-based offers, discounts and rewards at many High Street, Travel, Energy, Insurance & Lifestyle brands that soon add up. All Members are entitled to FIRST CLUB member benefits and those members who have been with the club for over a year are automatically upgraded to FIRST CLUB + where they will benefit from another level of rewards.

Working with initial concepts from the Fitness First internal team, Idealogy were tasked with creating a sympathetically branded web environment as a home for this fantastic campaign.

The Fitness First UK site already attracts over 100,000 visitors per month and FIRST CLUB has been designed from the ground up to say ‘Thank You’ to all members and to reflect membership needs as they migrate through the benefits offer.

Idealogy, already the creative and management resource behind www.fitnessfirst.co.uk, has huge experience in web-based customer experience marketing and the FIRST CLUB challenge went live in record time, due to fantastic cooperation from the Fitness First internal marketing and digital teams.

Is that what they mean by being first to market?






Posted by Simon Johnson

Don’t make Chop mad – he’ll only turn green!

Part male model, part environmentalist, part man-child, Steven (Chopper) Barnes is a complex mixture of raw emotion and rock-solid dependability; and if you believe that lot, you’re no closer to understanding the complex make-up of one of Idealogy’s most popular, sensitive and hard working recruits – a character who embodies the spirit of this business’s customer experience and it’s responsibilities to not leaving behind a mess for others to clean up.

But for someone who harbours a (not so) secret desire to be a Transformer, Steve won’t change his unique approach to his role as Production and Traffic Assistant at Idealogy. If a project needs to ‘get out the door’ and there’s enough daylight left, it will get done. And if he has some new environmental targets to meet in his guise as Captain Planet, he’ll find innovative and compliant ways to tick all the boxes. And then there’s the modelling…….

He’s been the subject of countless photo shoots for some of our key B2B clients. The ladies say it’s his eyes. The guys suggest it’s because he’s cheap. Either way, his face has appeared on any number of campaigns for serious businesses and it hasn’t done the campaign response levels any harm. So, we’ll keep sticking him in fluorescent jackets, site helmets and rough weather gear to get the shot – unless of course he objects. Or he protests, “That’s not my best side”. But then we’ll just do it anyway!

This is a picture of a man who loves his work, quite likes a few of the people he works alongside, laughs even when the situation demands tears, and who lists music, film, playing the guitar, cycling and Star Wars as his main interests. And when we say film, we mean the real stuff – Steve is a Producer for two local Film companies one called Amber Pictures the other Steeple Productions, both have some heavyweight horror movies in their portfolio, and some interesting celebrities amongst their cast lists. They’ve even had screenings at the Cannes Film Festival.

So, Steve isn’t a person who does things by halves. His interests, like his work, get his full commitment, and to suggest otherwise would only make him mad. You see, with that kind of drive, it’s not easy being green!



Posted by Idealogy