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Archive for March, 2010

Studio North enjoy How-Do and RAR success


March 24th, 2010 by Michael

The last 24 hours have seen Studio North enjoy a double slice of industry recognition.  We are proud to announce we have been shortlisted by the judging panel for the How-Do 2010 Design Consultancy of the Year award alongside seven of the regions other leading firms.  The awards are due to take place at the Palace Hotel in Manchester on 29 April.

We’ve also made the official Recommended Agency Register which is a unique online resource that enables marketing professionals to choose proven creative suppliers. This recognition is based on client feedback alone.

A good couple of days.

UPDATE - We’ve also been shortlisted for Best Integrated Agency at their annual awards.

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SN Cup: The Inside Story


March 23rd, 2010 by Michael

20 March 2010. 1000hrs Ardwick, Manchester, England.

Cometh the hour, cometh the SN Cup. As promised, liquid football, in the name of a great cause, AuKids Magazine.

Ronaldo, Messi and Rooney take a backseat. Step forward Buckley, Butterworth and Lowe. This is your time. Use it wisely.

Manchizzle was the only weather on the menu, setting the atmosphere up nicely and getting the adrenaline going. As the crowds gathering at Powerleague Ardwick reached fever pitch, approaching half past the hour, it was evident what a tremendous turnout we had on our hands. Every single player had turned up. Not one cry off, not one dodgy excuse.  Unheard of in my football organising lifetime. I was then faced with the almighty task of keeping a huge squad of ‘insurance’ players happy. Tricky this rotation management style lark. Thanks to Mick Greer for agreeing to his last minute transfer!

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Why brands should push digital boundaries


March 18th, 2010 by Michael

A colleague passed me the brand guidelines document of a potential new client today. More of a logo usage manual to be honest, a good looking piece of work, certainly well-crafted by an obviously competent design firm and definitely rigid enough to prevent any dilution of their visual identity.

However, like most brand manuals in 2010 it could quite easily have been produced in 2000 given the content and lack of consideration of digital media. I think the goalposts have now well and truly moved to the point where even organisations who have traditionally existed in an offline arena need to make far deeper consideration of their brand in a digital environment. Yes, we still need to know where to put a logo on a letterhead and how many millimetres we should leave as an exclusion zone and so on. But what we really need to know is how the brand is going to live and breathe online.

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Studio North speak to EN magazine


March 16th, 2010 by Michael

Operations Director, Michael Di Paola speaks to EN Magazine, the magazine for entrepreneurs (www.enforbusiness.com), about the recession, marketing budgets, emerging media and a client success story…

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Studio North & Parasol scoop three UK branding awards


March 4th, 2010 by Michael

Well, we bloody did it! One gold and two silver awards against some mighty fine competition. A mixed agency and clientside northern contingent travelled down to London on Tuesday to attend the hotly contested Transform 2010 UK rebranding awards. The setting the rather grandoise Tabernacle in Notting Hill. With nominations in three categories, ordinarily we would have high hopes of winning something, but given the opposition, realism rather than optimism was the order of the day.

However, the judges begged to differ and took the accurate view that the quality and impact of the rebrand work deserved some appropriate recognition. The gold award was given for ‘Best use of copy/tone of voice’. A firm reminder that a brand’s verbal identity is as important as the visual, something many businesses don’t consider. The silvers were awarded for ‘Best corporate rebrand to reflect changed mission/values/positioning’ and ‘Best rebrand in financial services sector’. Citroen and Grant Thornton were the respective winners in these categories and Aviva and Rothschild took the bronze awards – a tremendous benchmark for us and the client. Click here to view all the award winners.

So a great night and a big thank you to the Parasol marketing team for being superb clients and copywriter Carol for her tremendous contribution. View the case study here.

Also worth a final mention is that jointly flying the flag for the region, the Co-operative Group won the Grand Prix award picking up several awards along the way for their exhaustive nationwide rebranding program. Agency-wise, the big London firms dominated the awards with Pentagram picking up seven themselves and as far as we can work out Studio North were the only consultancy to break the capital’s stranglehold.

Chuffed to bits and as drunk as lords.

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Louis Rocca, Manchester United’s original brand consultant


March 1st, 2010 by Michael

I’ve strayed onto local history once or twice before in these pages but in a week when the Evening News decided to launch it’s first paid for digital content to promote the Dream Factory (a celebration of 100 years of Old Trafford) one can’t help but think back to those magical days at the beginning of the 20th century. Nowhere more magical in fact than Little Italy right here in Ancoats.

Another unknown milestone we reach this year is 60 years since the passing of the remarkable Louis (Luigi) Rocca, the unsung hero and kingmaker of Old Trafford and an Ancoats Italian to boot, relevant to me three times over. While modern day football overlaps nonsensically into the world of business and celebrity, the more nostalgic aficionados cherish these stories and struggle to benchmark the 2010 vintage of association football with the romantic sport of yesteryear.

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