HGA Creative - Blog

Are you our new Lead Developer?

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 13:17:35 GMT

A vacancy has been created in our digital team for a talented hands-on Web Developer. This permanent role is a great opportunity for a highly motivated individual looking to progress their career within an award-winning, integrated communications agency.

The Lead Developer will deliver diverse digital marketing activities and is responsible for the development and management of digital strategies and solutions for HGA Creative clients.

The successful candidate will be required to:

Manage development of in-house platforms to support digital activities at live events
Communicate with and support commercial/account managers with solutions to client work
Interface directly with clients to fulfil updates to existing projects
Manage the workflow and output of the digital team
Overseeing projects from a commercial and technical perspective
Mentor to junior developers where required
Maintain and update department procedures and development environments

Technical Skills & Understanding

PHP, MySQL, JavaScript
HTML(5) CSS(3)
Mobile Web Apps / Responsive
MVC, CodeIgniter, jQuery
LAMP Server admin

Advantageous:

Email Marketing, SEO, Virtualisation, Native App Development, Touch screens for exhibition space, Social Media Platforms.

The right candidate will enjoy the variety of projects/campaigns generated by our client list that ranges from global megabrands to more modest SME organisations. You will appreciate the creative/integrated environment in which we deliver our solutions.

Relevant qualifications and agency experience are highly advantageous. You will need to demonstrate a passion and understanding for all things digital.

Send your CV along with your website/ blog or portfolio to Michael.Henderson@hgacreative.com

You must be eligible to live and work in the UK to apply for this position and be able to attend an immediate interview.

Salary and benefits: We offer all our people an extremely attractive remuneration package with a very competitive salary as well as a range of other benefits including pension, life cover, private health and RAC cover.

We're looking for an ambitious Online Marketing Executive

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 15:54:39 GMT

£20,000 – £22,500 + great remuneration benefits

HGA Creative are looking for an all round digital marketing expert to help us with our own promotion as well as working on projects for clients.

Our ideal candidate will have at least 1 year’s broad-based and hands-on experience of business-to-business online marketing from either client or agency side. You need to understand and have experience in conducting SEO campaigns as well as a great knowledge of bringing social media marketing plans to life.

Reporting to the Head of Business Development, you‘ll be looking to grow your role and responsibility. You will work with a team of energetic, highly creative and technical people, will enjoy the endless opportunity to produce intelligent and well written content as well as life at a busy and fast-growing agency.

HGA is a successful integrated communications agency specialising in events, film and video, digital and design. We’re celebrating our 25^th year in business – working with everyone from global brands to local SME’s.

The job is full time, permanent, based in our offices in Manchester and open to anyone eligible to work in the UK.

Please contact us with your CV and a covering letter/email to gemma.mccall@hgacreative.com

Need Video? Of course you do…

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 09:13:34 GMT

Understandably, here at HGA Creative we are passionate believers in the power of video as a communication medium. It’s a form that everyone can easily relate to whether you are an avid film fan or soap addict. Its ability to elicit an emotional response from an audience is unparalleled and the impact it is having in the online space is nothing short of staggering.

The annual US Digital Video Benchmark Review is a study that draws data from all online content including just under 20 billion video plays, 10 billion video ads, and 450 million facebook posts and that concludes “video content has twice the social engagement of text, links and static images.”

On the back of this report, Adobe have put together an infographics film which does a great job of summarising the impact video is having online.

Mobile video in particular has seen huge rises in the last 12 months, with views increasing by 300% throughout 2012.

An interesting point is the impact video content is having socially, with viral reach accounting for “77% of ALL reach via social networking sites”; proof if ever it was needed that video is becoming a requisite part of an effective online presence/campaign.

Still not convinced? Then sit back for 76 seconds and let our infographics film do the persuading…

We’ve harnessed the power of video for some of the biggest brands in the UK as highlighted in our new Film & Video showreel and would love to do the same for you.

To see how we can help your business stand out from the crowd- get in touch.

Prolific North Award Nomination

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 17:04:05 GMT

The Best Event I’ve Been to...

"I have been in the business for over 30 years and this was the best event I have attended"... so said one of the delegates at Shop Direct’s Christmas Conference.

The judges for the inaugural Prolific North Awards must agree because we’ve been nominated for 'Live Event of the Year'!

Naturally we're delighted about it, and our client is too! To be fair they are even more delighted about their Christmas Trading performance which was up 5% over the previous year, and they maintain that the success of this event had a critical role to play.

So watch this space for more news and in the meantime if you'd like to talk to us about maximising your return on your next event, we'd be delighted to hear from you.

Irn-Bru gets you through!

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 16:56:04 GMT

We were at Urbis in Manchester last night launching the new Irn-Bru commercials to over 200 staff and customers.

Comedian Kevin Bridges provided entertainment and guests enjoyed dinner and a video showing the history of Irn-Bru created by the HGA video team which our client described as ‘the best video they had ever seen about the brand’.

Great news for us as we are now developing the concept further.

This all comes ahead of the AG Barr Annual Conference at St Andrews in April where we are really excited about our creative ideas and plans for what should be an amazing event. More details soon!

Live Events Success!

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 09:49:06 GMT

We’re delighted that our relationship with Phones4u goes from strength to strength – we have been commissioned to produce a series of UK roadshows in March and over the summer months, and planning ahs already started on the Sales Conference for 850 delegates in September 2013.

We’re also working closely with Shop Direct on a number of projects – a one-day strategy conference for 700 senior managers and head office staff in March and the annual sales conference, involving plenary sessions with breakouts and a gala dinner for 850 in September. This is in addition to creating lots of online video content for the Very and Isme websites on an ongoing basis – something which has had our video team very busy for the last few months.

Regarding Shop Direct and Phones4u’s conferences in September, HGA Creative live events director Ian Grime said: "Both will be one-day events, and are key events for Christmas trading. Both will use our new event app called Event Pulse and lots of new technologies such as augmented reality and projection mapping. New ideas and technologies are vital to the lifeblood of events, and we make it our business to be at the forefront".

We are also continuing our long and successful relationship with AG Barr with a launch event in Manchester and Glasgow over the coming weeks and their Annual Conference in April. We’ve got some great plans and ideas on the table for both events and look forward to sharing them once we’ve made them a reality!

What can live events producers learn from the demise of hmv and Blockbuster?

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

It’s not been a great start to the year for some of the big names on the UK’s High Streets has it; but according to the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), HMV and Blockbuster only have themselves to blame for their demise after failing to recognise the shift to online spending for digital content.

IMRG claim the current boom in e-commerce and the decline of high street retailers are the consequences of a wider social shift that has changed the way people shop.

So, what are the implications of that for companies that stage conference and other live events, either as a client or as a production company? Our view is that the same trends are already impacting on our market place, and that the ways in which digital, mobile and ecommerce have transformed much of retailing will only increase in the way that we create and deliver live events.

We also agree with IMRG’s view that "The internet isn't killing the high street. The internet is altering customer expectations. Customers' desires have changed. This is more the result of a changing the broader social picture and is not just about technology."

The last 6 months have seen growing numbers of our conference clients adopt the many benefits that our digital and mobile technologies bring to their events – not killing off the conference, but making it more engaging and social, meeting the changing expectations and creating events in which the technology has done so much to deliver content and to deliver the clients’ objectives.

And we’re not talking about voting pads and laptops – that’s so Event 1.0!

HGA Creative believes “There’s a whole exciting new platform of social, mobile and digital engagement that starts before the event is even launched, adds massively to the experience on-site and also builds and delivers legacy returns on the goodwill and excitement generated on the day for months afterwards.”

This solution is called Event Pulse – developed and built by the Live Events, Digital, Video and Design teams here at HGA Creative – and we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve created.

You can find out a little more by watching the video in this post – and if you like what you see then we’d love to tell you more about what it has achieved for the clients who have already used it – and discuss what it can bring to your next events.

eBooks for 2013

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

As a part of continuing the conversations about the ever developing world of Internal Communication we published 2 eBooks last year – with some very generous contributions from leading figures in the sector, together with our own research and opinions.

To say they have been a success is real understatement, with thousands of downloads from across every English speaking continent.

We’ve really enjoyed the conversations and have met some great people as a result of the introductions the books have made.

It’s no surprise that we are planning to continue the series throughout 2013 and would love for more people to become involved, ideally as contributors and as readers too.

If you haven’t read the first 2 books then please download them here and we’ll be sure to let you know the plans for the next edition in the next month or so.

We’re looking for a Middleweight Designer

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 16:49:15 GMT

We have an excellent opportunity for an ambitious, creative designer to work alongside the Head of Design to help grow the design team’s reputation.

You will be working across a wide range of channels - producing concepts and graphics for our award winning live events, creating engaging print and branding solutions, working with our developers to design cutting-edge digital solutions and helping our film & video team produce motion graphics.

You will need to be a real creative all rounder, full of ideas and able to work from initial brief to finished artwork. We’re looking for someone with at least 4 years experience in a creative environment and educated to degree or HND level.

You must be comfortable brainstorming ideas with the wider team as well as working under your own initiative to hit deadlines and exceed expectations. A portfolio full of engaging solutions across print, branding and digital is a must, with experience of live events and motion graphics a bonus.

We offer a competitive salary dependent on experience, as well as a bonus scheme and other benefits. If you think you’ve got the drive to join our fast paced team send a CV, covering letter and samples of your work to matty.joyce@hgacreative.com

Ringing in the changes for conference venues

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Always one to step up to the plate when a dirty job needs doing, Ian Grime, our beloved Director of Live Events made time in his hectic schedule to attend the EIBTM exhibition in Barcelona last November to see what the world has to offer in terms of new conference venues.

There’s often an appeal in visiting new venues, particularly when they are relevant to events we have coming up and Barcelona proved that there are some extremely exciting and surprisingly affordable venues new to the market or that have invested to make themselves more attractive.

We are delighted to have teamed up with one of our strategic partners – All About Venues, and are going to be offering some exciting and informative trips to a few of these venues that we believe are of interest to our clients. The trips will be for a selected small group of clients and plans are in place for several visits to UK venues and an overseas trip for later in the year.

More details will coming soon, but if you are interested in attending any of these trips please let us know and contact Ian – ian.grime@hgacreative.com

Couch Commerce

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 15:00:00 GMT

The past few years have seen an increase in the number of major brand shops unable to remain profitable and indeed open on the Great British High Street! We have seen the demise of Habitat, Game, Peacocks, JJB Sports, Comet, Jessops and most recently HMV and Blockbuster. These movements once again confirm that online is king! It seems consumers no longer want to trawl the high streets looking for a bargain but instead prefer to sit in the luxury of their own home, smart phone/tablet/laptop in hand! (I could somewhat disagree when on Manchester Market Street last Saturday!). Retailers have to ensure their business model adapts quickly enough to the changing behavior of consumers or they face going down the same route.

Morrisons were somewhat guilty of not adapting to consumers needs in the run up to Christmas 2012. With no delivery service and a severe lack of ‘online facilities’ they saw a 2% decrease in sales. In comparison, John Lewis saw online sales increase by almost a third year on year in the run up to Christmas 2012, proving once again how effective online can be for business. Their Christmas ad may have had something to do with this too…who can resist a snowman!

Social media also has a major part to play in boosting sales, with more people pinning, tweeting, blogging and uploading videos about products, it’s importance cannot be overlooked. This was reiterated recently when Alexa Chung tweeted about a Nails Inc Nail varnish (Bling It On Rebel Kit to be exact!). She tweeted a picture of her manicured hands before the British Fashion Awards, along with the caption 'thanks @nailsinc for my leather nails! #kinky', which prompted an 800-strong waiting list in the UK. (Mail Online, Sadie Whitelocks). It caused a social frenzy and when it went on sale online and in store, it incredibly sold out in an estimated 2 seconds! Now that’s some tweeting power!

There has also been an increase in the number of online videos appearing on websites. A study by eMarketer shows that online video increases the consumer confidence when purchasing. It seems if we can look at our new TV in a 360 degree angle or see a model walking down a catwalk in those shoes we are considering, we may be more inclined to press the ‘add to basket’ button!

Although there is and will continue to be a need for some high street shops, retailers must remember to leave no ‘online’ stone unturned!

Author: Jenny Jones

HGA Creative’s biggest ever video and live events wins

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

2012 ended with us being confirmed as the winners in pitches that have awarded us our biggest ever video project and a Live Events contract for the next three years that has the potential to significantly transform this key area of our business.

The video teams are already in the thick of delivering the first part of the video project and we are building up to start delivering the first events as a result of the new contract win.

Unfortunately we can’t announce who they are with just yet – but, as soon as we can do will be shouting from the roof tops.

Watch this space for more news.

Putting their money where it matters

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 00:00:00 GMT

Here at HGA Creative there are a couple of facts that we gratefully acknowledge: firstly that we are incredibly fortunate to work in an industry that we love, with great clients and that is able to give us a reasonable living. Secondly, we all love beer and going to the pub – some love this perhaps a little too much.

That’s why, when we were looking for a way that we could combine these 2 facts – and give something back to society, we were delighted to get involved with our favourite not-for-profit organisation – Pub is The Hub (PiTH).

We’ve supported PiTH for the last 8 years – producing websites, leaflets, social media campaigns, videos and events whenever they are needed and working within PiTH’s budgets.

As PiTH is funded entirely by voluntary donations it has been a constant battle for them to secure the funding they need to keep delivering what is an incredibly valuable service that simply isn’t available anywhere else.

You can imagine how delighted we were when we staged a 10 year anniversary event for PiTH at the start of December and Paul Walsh, the Chief Executive of Diageo pledged £50,000 to start a national fund to allow PiTH to kick start projects across the country that will help pubs expand their services to the local communities to make them more viable.

Even more remarkable was the next presentation – from Brandon Lewis, the Minister for Rural Pubs (I didn’t know we had one either) who matched Diageo’s £50,000 and also pledged a further £100,000 towards Pith’s running costs.

What a result – and very much deserved too.

HGA Creative 2012 Round Up

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Thu, 20 Dec 2012 09:00:16 GMT

It is safe to say 2012 has been one of the busiest and most rewarding years for HGA Creative. It has been challenging from time to time but we have loved every minute.

We’ve travelled the length and breadth of the UK, from Newquay right up to Scotland. We produced five events in 72 hours, a first for HGA Creative, now that’s a lot of man power! We integrated a 100ft screen requiring eight HD projectors into an event in the summer and all without a glitch. We’ve filmed everything from celebrities to goods packaging and created work for multinational clients and even the local pub (obviously testing the local specialties, purely for research purposes!) It’s now time for a well-deserved Christmas celebration but before we break up for a short time here’s a few other highlights...

Pastures New

As part of our on-going commitment to constantly improving the service we offer to our clients, we opened up a brand spanking new live events office in Preston at the start of the year. This in addition to our first base in Manchester has allowed us to be even more flexible and responsive with our live events delivery, which in 2012 has gone from strength to strength.

Let's Get Digital

Exciting developments within the agency has seen us produce events seamlessly integrated with the digital world. Throughout 2012 the team has been working hard to deliver the ‘Event Pulse’ to some of our largest clients. ‘Event Pulse’ goes beyond delegate registration and management to help enhance, amplify and measure communications, through the use of digital technologies. It’s great to see our clients as excited as we are in harnessing digital to take their events to the next level.

Print, wonderful Print

Alongside our digital offerings, 2012 has also reiterated that traditional print still has a major part to play in marketing and engagement. The work we completed for Wellingborough homes is a prime example of this. From resident magazines, reports, leaflets and newsletters we kept the print dream, alive and kicking!

Power of Video

2012 has been a busy year for our video team here at HGA Creative. The increasing demand for this platform has enabled our team to work on a variety of projects ranging from video for Online, Internal Communications, Live Events, Promotions and much more. Our recently updated showreel gives you a sneak peak at some of our best bits. We’re really excited about the possibilities for video moving into 2013, so watch this space!

Internal Comms across the Globe

It has been rewarding, fascinating and informative to see the global uptake of our recently produced eBooks. From more than 1,000 IC professionals who have downloaded them we have representatives of 15 different nations that consist of most of the English language speaking countries but many European and Asian states too. If you haven’t got copies of them then please download them now. Having received some very positive feedback we are now putting plans together to create more eBooks in the New Year.

Here’s to 2013!

Internal comms across the globe

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 13:32:21 GMT

It has been rewarding, fascinating and informative to see the global uptake of our recently produced eBooks.

From more than 1,000 IC professionals who have downloaded them we have representatives of 15 different nations that consist of most of the English language speaking countries but many European and Asian states too.

If you haven’t got copies of them then please download them now.

Having garnered an international audience we are debating the value of trying to chart the similarities and differences in IC challenges and strategies across the world, but wonder what the views of the professionals are. The majority of the people who have downloaded the books work in organisations that operate in only 1 country, but the fact that they are downloading content from a UK based agency would imply that their perspective is much broader.

Can you please inform our debate with your much valued views and opinions?

We’re keen to continue to facilitate and contribute to the conversations that appear to have found a ready and growing audience – but we want to make certain that we are discussing the most valuable topics.

We’ll be contacting the people who have downloaded and fed back to us for their views on where we go next – but please don’t wait for us to do that if you want to get in touch now.

EIBTM 2012

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 14:27:05 GMT

It seems the Events Industry is still alive and well! I’ve just returned from EIBTM in Barcelona. This was the event’s 25^th Birthday and the organisers were expecting more attendees than ever – building on the record numbers of over 15,000 last year.

It is the first time I have attended (as a hosted buyer, courtesy of Perception Sales and Marketing), and it was a fascinating and worthwhile event.

It was great to catch up with some familiar faces from various UK venues as well as meeting up with an ex HGA employee who now works in Dubai. I had also had some European destinations to make contact with regarding some events for 2013.

The Technology Village was particularly fascinating, and it was gratifying to see that HGA are right up there with the latest technology with our ‘Event Pulse’ software which we are now using and constantly developing for future events.

Oh and it helped that Barcelona served up some great wine and tapas!

Ciao

Author: Ian Grime

Paper and digital get cosy

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Tue, 06 Nov 2012 16:31:43 GMT

Here, we’re all about embracing digital design; it offers a great deal of flexibility and an even bigger toolbox. But our designers are big fans of good old fashioned paper too. Its limitless and tactile nature can in many cases, offer greater freedom and creativity.

Beyond the fold of design

Born out of the meeting of traditional material and the digital age is paper art, which sees old school, origami influenced techniques evolving with 3D printing and more. Paper is stepping out of the background and becoming the main event.

Snip snip snip

Of course paper art isn’t a totally new idea; origami has been around for centuries. However, this new generation paper art trend takes cutting, folding, bending, shaping paper to a whole new level allowing artists and designers to carefully craft their own signature style, and we love it. Here are some of our favourites:

Jen Stark (left) uses paper to sculpt, by layering and building to create striking abstract shapes and patterns, which look like they could almost continue growing off the page. Artists like Yulia Brodskaya (right), have created texture by building up lines with strips of paper - it’s a stunning graphical style with clean lines and curves.

Bert Simons’s 3D portraits are fascinating. This ultra-realistic approach created by folding digital photographs into polygons and sticking them together is breathtaking.

NaniBirds (left), created in New York by Josh McKible (aka Mckibillo) brilliantly quirky folded sculptures became a worldwide movement.

Teleporting toys

Many designers have also started a trend of 3D paper toys. With an urban influence there’s anything from popular characters to animals, food, mythical creatures, machinery, buildings, and more. All of which are available to download online and build. Matt Hawkins, a custom paper toy designer said “You can send a 3D object anywhere in the world. It’s like a low-rent teleporter.”

There are even burgeoning online communities that discuss and share paper art designs worldwide creating truly interactive experiences.

It's amazing that such a simple material like paper can be manipulated and enhanced in so many innovative ways to create amazing visual work that gets people talking worldwide. Even in a digital generation, paper is never far away from the creative heart.

Are you harnessing the power of video?

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Mon, 05 Nov 2012 10:54:11 GMT

Are you using video to engage with your audience? If not, you should be. It is fast becoming one of the most impactful and favoured forms of communication. It is also an integral element to any content strategy on account of its increasing impact on search and its viral capabilities within a social media setting.

Furthermore, in today's overcrowded market place with competitors vying for your customer’s attention, you need to get your message across as succinctly and as engagingly as possible. What better way to do it than by harnessing the power of video?

If you haven't already, find out more about the power of video by watching this one we made earlier or get in touch to find out how we can help you use it in your marketing strategy.

You can also check out our latest showreel too.

We're finalists in the UK Event Awards 2012

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 16:20:59 GMT

That’s right; we’ve been shortlisted as a finalist for Best Conference at the UK Event Awards 2012 for our work with Shop Direct. Their 2011 Christmas Conference was packed with keynote presentations, live talent shows, celebrity guest speakers, fashion shows, exhibitions from suppliers and was a huge success.

Shop Direct were so pleased with the conference production we delivered that they appointed us to deliver their 2012 Christmas Conference too, including all the collateral. Dare we say it was even bigger and better than the 2011 event so who knows what’s in store for next year, we might get lucky with another nomination!

Picture perfect in .net magazine

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Thu, 13 Sep 2012 10:00:06 GMT

Our very own Designer and Art Director, Mr Matty Joyce, has managed to get himself a spread in .net magazine for his web design gallery!

Designer profile

The leading industry magazine challenged Matty to think about what he would want to see in an inspirational resource, and present it in an original way. They loved his idea so much, that they featured him alongside other industry professionals in their October 2012 issue.

The brief

The brief was to mock up the homepage for an online gallery showcasing the best new designers’ websites. Matty's solution was to create a website style like an art gallery. Inspired by a recent trip to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Matty designed a sleek and chic theme with soft, pastel colours so as not to distract from the sites on display.

The homepage features a ‘site of the day’ which can be collapsed to give the showcase images their turn in the limelight. To further maximize his minimalistic approach, titles only appear when a visitor hovers over the thumbnails, to avoid bombarding the viewer with information.

Rereshing the gallery

In order to ensure each visitor to Matty’s gallery finds what they are looking for, he created a filter for the site content. Matty adds an element of playfulness to his filter by animating the thumbnails so that they get larger, the higher the rating they receive. You are even given the option to add the site to your own personal gallery with just one click so that users can collect their inspiration and review it later.

Want to find out more about our star Designer and Art Director Matty? Then check out his profile. Alternatively if you want to see what fantastic work we've been doing for our clients then have a browse here.