New Forest, new site

Quick recap for you: Rocktime, the digital agency (one of our partners), asked us lot at Idealogy to create a fresh look for their client, New Forest Hotels.

After much research, a workshop or two and many butterflies, we created a new brand for the hotel group. This wasn't the end of our work, more like the beginning. Or possibly the middle. You get the general drift. We needed to put the brand into action.

A big task was to redesign the website so that it reflected the group's new motto of 'True quality, naturally delivered' and, of course, included the new logo. The copy had to be welcoming and not stuffy, just like the hotels themselves, the pictures had to be gorgeous, the information needed to be updated and we wanted the site to get lots of visitors.

We got the basics together and handed them over to the Rocktime bods, because they rock (it had to be done, don't sigh) at creating sites that search engines love. Not only has traffic to the New Forest Hotels site increased, but the cunning design has also resulted in increased dwell time, and made the folk at New Forest Hotels rather happy.

Posted by Anna Ecuyer

The experience of a Lifetime – and don’t it feel good!

It’s great when you re-kindle a long-standing and successful client relationship from within the Idealogy network, carry out an innovative and fruitful BrandPrint™ analysis, then develop an evolved logo, proposition and new brand guidelines that demand a major leap of faith for all involved.

So, experience tells us that it’s all pointing to a fresh and innovative new web experience for Lifetime and it’s customers. As the UK’s No.1 training provider in the active leisure sector, Lifetime trains and qualifies more people than any other provider. And the new site had to reflect just that – layers of experience delivered through the offer, the environment and the information.

Working alongside technical partners and full service digital agency Solid State Group, Idealogy have designed a web experience that clearly represents Lifetime and it’s values, the new branding, the new visual language and the unique benefits delivered to their diverse targets. Audiences ranging from learner level 16 - 18 year olds looking for funded training, self-funded individuals from 16 – 60, Managing and Operations Directors to General Managers running active leisure establishments.

The very latest CMS technology allows easy and topical management of the restructured site and provides logical information delivery, with illustrated training/results journeys. The new site is an altogether more comprehensive, informative and rewarding user experience, while still retaining it’s user simplicity. And for good measure, the site also incorporates data capture with information and analysis feeding directly into Lifetime.

The site will have a phased roll out - Phase 1 structures information into 3 logical and distinct audience areas - FOR YOU (Learners), FOR BUSINESS (Potential Partners), ABOUT US (Lifetime Corporate). Next steps in the initial phase include new venue information, newsletter templates and a Press Centre.

Then onto Phase 2, which will see the site move into the world of E-commerce and the capability to book and pay for courses on-line.

It’s a major step for Lifetime as the active leisure sector gears up for serious growth in the next decade. The site has been designed and developed with the future of the industry clearly in mind – and doesn’t it look good!

Posted by Simon Johnson & Anna Ecuyer

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