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Archive for the ‘Digital’ Category

Social Media and The Future of Television


October 3rd, 2011 by Stuart McMullen

Recently I stumbled upon a 2010 BBC video which focussed on what features we would likely see in future televisions.  Surprisingly, none of the TVs mentioned were about 3D capabilities, but instead ranged from the environmentally friendly to the socially connected.

One prototype demonstrated the idea of a Wifi connected split screen TV, with one half showing the programme you want to watch, and the other a Twitter feed featuring real time discussions about it.

twittertv

Now this got me thinking.  While the obvious purpose of this is to connect with other viewers with similar interests and share your opinions about the programme, considering that viewers will be constantly connected to each other throughout the episode’s duration, it seems almost inevitable that viewers will also discuss the adverts shown in the breaks.  I could only imagine the amount of Twitter-love Aleksandr would receive during each ComparetheMarket advert.

aleksander

If this idea takes off in the mass market, it could potentially offer brands the opportunity to monitor the reactions of a large amount of viewers’ about their adverts in real time, to see if their adverts are being noticed, how they are influencing brand opinion, and examine how annoying people find them on a ranking scale I like to call the GoCompare-O-Meter.

To me this was an interesting example of how innovations in technology can become innovations in marketing and brand analytics, how social media has the potential to continue to shape promotional efforts, and mostly why this is such a fascinating industry to be involved in.

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Fylde Coast YMCA – Changing and enhancing lives


February 23rd, 2011 by rich

After a thorough scoping meeting with Rowan and Emma of the Fylde Coast YMCA the plans were drawn up, the troops put in place and the date set. That day has now arrived and the new look website is live! A lot of time and effort has been placed in making this happen and we’re chuffed to bits with the new site.

Fylde Coast carries out some vital work in the community that adds real value to the lives of the people who use their services on a regular basis. It was essential we made the new site as informative and useful as possible whilst also being engaging and fun to use.

Given the different audiences Fylde work with we needed a cohesive online platform that would provide opportunities for personal and social development through various community based and social initiatives. The new site will ultimately increase brand awareness, act as an effective resource tool for existing and potential clients and create an online information portal.

Not only are we extremely happy with the result, the project has also been a thoroughly enjoyable one to be part of. Have a gander and let us know what you think!

YMCA

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New website for Trafford Community Leisure Trust


December 17th, 2010 by Nick

Trafford Community Leisure Trust operates the major leisure facilities in the Trafford region as a not-for-profit organisation. Building on the success of their previous website we’re now proud to announce the launch of the next generation site. As well as a great new look the site includes features such as online bookings, a members area, interactive golf course maps and activity search tools. Visitor numbers are already on the up!

tclt_home_page

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My Favourite 5 iPhone Applications


December 5th, 2010 by Gareth

Things (£5.99)

Things Application

It’s a little expensive, but it’s definitely my GTD application of choice on both iOS and OSX. Things, like most to-do applications helps you organise your tasks effectively, enabling you to categorise by ‘project’, ’scheduled’ or ‘area of responsibility’, and also features a logbook which stores all of your completed tasks.

Compared to other GTD apps I’ve tried, Things has the right balance between ease of use and powerful features, and the best syncing ability with my computer.

When Cultured Code figure out a way of being able to sync devices across 3G, I’m sure it’ll be the to-do application to beat.

Gowalla (Free)

photo

Gowalla is one of the new breed of social networks based on user location. Users ‘check in’ to locations, describe what they’re doing, and pick up badges / stamps based on their progress and contribution to the network. A bit like a passport really.

I prefer Gowalla to the more popular FourSquare simply because the interface is that much cleaner and usable; I found FourSquare convoluted & too feature packed for what I wanted out of a location based social network.

Like most social networks, Gowalla supplies an awesome API for users to integrate their services into their applications & sites.

Reeder (£1.79)

Reeder App

I’m a big fan of RSS but I’ve always had trouble finding the perfect aggregator both on OSX and on my iPhone. I stumbled across Reeder in the app store, and quite honestly, purchased it on the basis of it having the best looking icon. However, turns out it’s actually a very capable RSS reader.

It integrates with stacks of news sharing tools, and features a handy way to tag your favourite articles.

Awaken (£1.19)

I’ve used Awaken on the Mac for a few years now so was pretty excited to hear about it’s iPhone equivalent. Put simply, Awaken is my alarm clock. Sure, the built in iOS clock app does the job but Awaken’s rich user interface, extensive functionality and gorgeous clock displays really make it worth it’s £1.19 price tag.

There’s a tonne of settings to further customise your wake-up call and plenty of different clock styles. My favourite of the clock displays is the flip clock, it’s pretty elegant and isn’t too bright in the early hours.

Awaken Flip clock

Awaken Flip clock

Color Stream (Free)

Color Stream

Color Stream’s a handy little tool I use for creating effective colour palettes. I can automatically generate a combination of colours from my iPhone’s photo library or camera or use it’s built-in colour schemes. Palettes can be renamed, rated, and the application will specify each colour’s hex value, which is infinitely helpful when I’m tinkering with CSS.

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MyParasol interactive demo goes live


May 6th, 2010 by Michael

We rather like this stylish interactive demo we have produced to explain how Parasol’s contractors should use MyParasol, their online portal. The whole demo has been carefully crafted by the Studio North digital team with brand guidelines firmly in mind. Everything from the actual script  to the voiceover and animations have been created with an absolute respect for the brand we created last year.

Have a look and see what you think click here

mime-attachment-1

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