Top marks for new Lifetime Awarding Web site

Lifetime Awarding is part of the Lifetime Training Group. This innovative awarding organisation works with employers, training providers and FE colleges of all shapes and sizes. Their ‘raison d’être’ is the development of off-the-shelf, customised and bespoke vocational qualifications for candidates building their careers in Administration, Management, Childcare, Hospitality & Catering, Customer Service, Sales, Health & Social Care and Active Leisure.

It's Simple....no, really!

What do you get if you combine a top-rated TV programme with the UK's number one over-the-counter skincare brand? The Simple Wellbeing Challenge.

It all started last year on ITV's Tonight show, when teenagers agreed to rid themselves of all make-up, fake tan, fashion and gadgetry for a social study by Emma Kenny, GMTV's resident psychologist. The marketing team at Simple saw the programme, called Make My Kids Happy, loved it and knew it was a perfect fit for the Simple brand. They nabbed Emma and came up with the idea of using the massive Simple database – carefully developed over the past few years by many, many on-line campaigns created by our team at Idealogy – to target teenagers in schools across the country and challenge them to see if removing lippy, binning the mobile and taking up volunteer work would lift their spirits. And then they handed the brief over to us.

We say us, we actually mean Simon Johnson, Idealogy's digital media director. He and Shelley managed the project, creating a new promotions page on the www.simple.co.uk site with downloadable leaflets and flyers, an area for teens to take the Rosenberg test (the measuring tool for the experiment) as well, of course, ways for users to share the information with others, such as via Facebook. It looks clean and simple (and Simple) thanks to Shelley's superior design skills and the talent of our web developers.

So, job accomplished, and in a very fine and dandy way too. Now we're just waiting for the Simple team to take inspiration from Top Gear. It will happen. We're just waiting for the call.


Posted by Simon Johnson

Rabbit, rabbit, bunny jabber, yup, yup!

A psychologist might say that a young lady who spends excessive time playing with her little bunny, and with a track record of many midnight trips with a prone Oscar (the Dwarf Lop Rabbit!) to Pet A&E, is a strong indication that things are not all well in the hutch.

Despite her lapine tendencies, one of Idealogy’s newest recruits, Shelley Crouch, is hardly ‘hopping mad” – which is exactly the point! Getting her to come out of her shell has been the biggest challenge.

Her work, as one of our cross-media designers, is high, high quality. Her willingness to learn new disciplines, such as web based design and HTML and CSS coding – no worries! And her strange passion for Trance music makes her fit right in with the, let’s just say, eclectic musical oeuvre of the Idealogy Design team. And she loves the slightly ‘bloke-ish’ humour that glues the whole thing together.

But now, well into her 2nd year, things are changing – she’s become a strong defender of her design principles and a regular contributor to a broad range of digital matters. And we’re waiting for the moment when she tries to recruit a few of the lads to dress up in wigs and prance around the IOW Bestival. Perhaps more to the point, she’s not afraid to have a dig at her managers. In fact, to quote Chaz and Dave, “now I don’t mind ‘avin a chat, but you have to keep givin’ it that”

So, to put the psychologist in his place, we’re all very happy that Shelley is now well and truly out of her shell.

The problem we’ve got is getting her back in it!

Posted by Idealogy