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

Wing UK. Onwards, upwards, online, out there!

Wing UK is a nationwide service provider for the Care Industry, and a brand totally committed to offering its Customers a first class experience. As a division of Millbrook Industries’ Ultimate Care Group, Wing works alongside the NHS, Social Services, Mobility Retailers, Internet Retailers, Direct Sales Companies and High Street Retailers by providing Direct Delivery, Repairs, Servicing, Decontamination and PAT and Loler Training from it’s 4 UK locations in Southampton, Barnsley, Ayr and Cookstown in Northern Ireland.

In the early Summer of 2009, Idealogy were asked to provide a new brand name and logo for this important Nationwide Care Service provider, which in turn has developed into vehicle livery, product and care labelling, commercial stationery, collateral, and now a contemporary, CMS based online presence which speaks directly to Wing’s 3 key UK customer groups – Care Customers, Network Engineers and Care Retailers.

The site itself – www.winguk.com - is a bright and optimistic web environment, designed to communicate quality, confidence and reassurance to all site visitors. Supported by the strapline ‘Onwards and Upwards’ and some eye-catching visual themes, Wing UK is all set to become the largest direct delivery and service provider for the UK Care Industry.

For more information about the website contact Simon Johnson at Idealogy, Southampton, 02380211642

Posted by Simon Johnson

“Change is inevitable - except from a vending machine.”

One of the blessings (or is it a curse?) of being the Operations Director for a Branding Consultancy like Idealogy, is that you never know what the day will throw at you.

But whatever it is, you'd better be ready!

Paul Wright has had 20 years of being ready, and the one constant is that, around his robust flexibilty, “…the times they are a changing!”.

20 years ago the marketing and communications landscape was one of brochures and trade shows and stationery and press advertising. Today, that landscape is full of terms like websites, experiential and ambient media, e-campaigns, social media, customer experience and the ‘B’ word.

So how does someone like Paul deal with that kind of far-reaching change? After all, it’s not as if he can just transfer the skills of one era and transplant them into the current milieu. For Paul, his greatest asset is his matter-of-fact approach to all things – ‘let’s not get excited here!’. And it’s a mindset that has served both him and the business well.

Whatever the question, whatever the challenge, his unruffled perspective keeps projects on the rails, long after many of us would have jumped off the train. His ability to combine a generation of traditional production skills with the competencies required to deliver complex multi-media projects is a lesson in sangfroid – he remains composed and self-assured under extreme pressure.

Which brings us neatly to our headline.

Paul’s attitude to his changing universe is one of crushing inevitability. Just don’t ask him difficult questions when he’s trying to get a can of drink out of a machine. It’s surprising how quickly that calm veneer crumbles. And the language isn’t far behind.

Pepsi anyone?

Posted by Idealogy

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

Green Idealogy given a boost

The slightly better news for Mother Nature is that desire and virtue are no longer at odds in our minds. That said, the bandwagon effect of ethical consumerism on marketers is plain to be seen. It's obvious that ethics is affecting our culture - showing we care has become highly appealing as well as fashionable and brands ignore this at their peril. The problem is that not all embrace it fully. The resulting effect is higher prices, too much ethical noise and little substance to support it. This means that consumers get bored, feel patronised, stop listening and eventually stop buying. This is bad news for Mother Nature.

Along came New Earth, who not only have a very grown up and contemporary view of all things ethical, but also have managed to join profit and principles at the hip. Eco warrior Bill Riddle and investment guru Mark Scobie have invented a completely unique business model and radical brand architecture to go with it. Where have you seen waste treatment through composting (New Earth Solutions), the recovery of energy from waste (New Earth Energy) and an investment fund wrapped up by one brand?

These very clever boys have a very powerful proposition - so simple it hurts. Revenue stream 1: Local authorities pay to have waste biodegraded through very smart composting chemistry and technology. Revenue stream 2: the bi-product happens to be a really good fossil fuel substitute, but there's a problem; to enable the conversion of waste-derived fuel into renewable energy you need a power plant in the first place!...and these plants are capital intensive a pop so Bill and Mark have set up an investment fund so they can do just that – build their own - and they've already predicted a return of 12%-16% on the investment.

Don't you just wish you'd thought of that!

As brand consultants on the Investment side, we are very privileged to be advising on and producing collateral for the launch of the Eclipse and Premier funds. This is a great addition to our green credentials, already strong with Biottle, a bio-degradable and crushable 500ml water bottle, already attracting interest from some very big and scary brands. Right on.

Posted by James Surridge