HGA Creative - Blog

"I want it all, I want it all, I want it all and I want it now"

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 11:21:57 GMT

Had Freddie foreseen it, the impatient, throwaway society we live in today or was the finest moustache ever to take to the stage really just that greedy? We suspect the latter, as in 2012 it is rather a case of 'man waits for no time' than 'time waits for no man'. This has never been more apparent when discussing today's all media consuming culture and society; and this reworked phrase couldn't be any more relevant than it is to the film and video industry.

Decreasing value

The days of justifying online piracy as a legitimate pastime are over, and rightly so. The time an effort required to frantically download the latest Radiohead track with a painfully slow 56k modem meant that users felt they’d earned it; and would be forgiven for robbing the industry and the creators.

The knock on effect this has had on the mark ups of entertainment goods such as CDs, Blu Rays and DVDs has also been significant – they are now all selling a fraction of their worth. You can pick up 'The Assassination of Jesse James', by the Coward Robert Ford on Blu Ray for £2.99 on the high street, less than your average price for a pint of watered-down beer. Let's not forget that this is one of the finest examples of Noughties cinema we are talking about here. It all comes down to time and money.

On-demand

Of course illegal downloading is still prevalent but times are changing and it's not the only activity that is having an impact upon how we consume content and its decreasing value. The emergence and rise of streaming services such as LoveFilm, Netflix and the multitude of on-demand services means that users can access pretty much whatever entertainment content they want, at any time, at very little cost or in many cases, for free. Netflix recently signed deals with major film studios to delay new release rentals by 28 days in exchange for rights to stream more films online; and since its inception in 2005, LoveFilm now boasts over two million subscribers. Why wait to hit the shops or for your online purchase to be delivered if, for as little as £4.99 a month, you can watch the film, and countless others, with the click of a mouse?

Lasting value

We live in an age of dwindling attention spans, immediacy and never-ending content, so an audience needs to be grabbed with quality content. Why should they waste time on something they might not enjoy? When it comes to online video the results are telling and the story is an obvious one. Keep it short, keep it engaging and get it right - communicate your messages succinctly, add some value to the viewer's experience and make it look good. Your video is essentially there to save the viewer the effort of reading what you have to say, so why not pull out all the stops and give them something even more memorable than that YouTube clip of a dog salsa dancing, or a walrus playing a toy saxophone? Create content with lasting value.

Oh and enjoy those last two hyperlinks.

Main image by Carl Lender

HGA Creative edit suites get a facelift

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:16:16 GMT

Good news! The HGA Creative edit suites have had a serious facelift, what's more is that we've added an extra one too, which means we've now got three HD, broadcast standard edit suites at our disposal to produce more great Film & Video work for our clients.

Kitted out

Each suite is kitted out with a Mac Pro (8-core), all with dual displays running the last version of Final Cut Studio for editing, After Effects for creating motion graphics and Maya for impactful 3D work.

Safe and sound

We’ve also got broadcast quality speakers for monitoring audio and LCD flat panel TVs for accurate colour grading. To ensure that the projects we work on are free from disaster, they all have secure back-up drives (2 Terabyte RAIDS to the techies out there) and all projects are also archived offline too; making sure that everything we produce is safe and sound.

Anyway, enough of the technical jargon – check out them out for yourself in the pictures or get in touch to see how we could produce an engaging video solution for you.

DC redesigns with appeel

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:24:22 GMT

Oh yes, we said it...appeel. Only six years after The DC Spin logo (below left) was launched, DC comics have changed their mind once more with a shiny new, animated, peel logo. Since it’s airing last week, debate around the new design has been rife. So, why the change and what does it bring to the table?

A design for digital

Whereas previous designs were more a safe and a natural evolution of the original logo, this new “peel” design takes a completely different direction and clearly underscores DC’s intentions within the digital market. With more and more people reading comics via their laptops or tablets, the more you think about it, the more an animated ident makes sense.

Comics go mainstream

Comics aren’t just printed on paper anymore and not bound to stay within their mother industry. Toys, games, food and film are now all part of the comic world orbit and are becoming firmly established into the mainstream consumer/entertainment marketplace. When Captain America was killed off a few years ago (he has since made a full recovery), it made headline news on all American news channels and even more recently when Spiderman was killed off and replaced with a brand new character it received equal coverage worldwide. Plus how many of us are going to see the new Batman upon its release?

Relaunching

It’s the perfect time to launch the new logo, with their recent decision to wipe the slate clean, starting classic stories from scratch and a host of films on the horizon for cinema release. Whilst opinions have been varied, with critics condemning it as soulless, lacking tradition and adopting the appearance of a condom manufacturer; we still think it’s rather good.

Being able to adapt the shape and colours to mirror a specific DC character or storyline is a smart move and will work across all mediums, especially in digital and film. It’s different, fresh and purposely breaks away from tradition. In other words, anything goes in the DC universe and in an industry where men no longer wear underwear over lycra tights and death is actually a revolving door, shouldn’t it that be the way?

Need to revamp your brand identity or logo? Get in touch and see how we can engage your audience through design.

Why you should optimise your website for mobile

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 11:58:52 GMT

Mobile internet usage in the UK has risen consistently in the past few years, so the opportunity to capture customers whilst they are on the move is ever increasing. If recent trends and reports are anything to go by, then mobile sites could produce much higher conversion rates than standard desktop visits. Yet a massive 70% of company websites are not optimised for mobile browsing.

Why optimise for mobile?

Aside from the appealing conversion rates, creating a site optimised for mobile offers a better experience for the user. Images and text aren’t squished into a space so small they can’t display properly and navigation is much easier. You only have to think about previous experiences of visiting sites not optimised for mobile to realise how frustrating it can be for a user and how it ultimately serves as deterrence.

Who has a mobile site?

So, which clever companies are utilising this medium? A wide range of businesses, from big retailers like M&S, to online publishers like The Boston Globe and service lead businesses alike are all optimised for mobile. We have seen the popularity of mobile sites first hand; by designing and building one for past client Zenos (optimised for both mobile and tablet devices) we managed to generate over 450 applications for the training provider. The mobile site was responsible for 15% of all applications from the six week integrated campaign.

How can it be achieved?

There are two different strategies to consider when creating a mobile specific website. The first is to create a separate mobile site and redirect traffic to it. This is the strategy that M&S have adopted; a user is redirected to m.marksandspencer.com if they visit the site on their mobile. The mobile site has been specifically built with mobile devices in mind, this gives easy access to the menu and your shopping basket.

The second strategy is to scale your website to fit almost any device, which has been adopted by the Boston Globe. When you visit the Boston Globe you are served exactly the same website regardless of the device you are using, but the site itself looks different. On a mobile device, only the most important links in the main navigation are visible and the lead news items are still at the top of the page, while other items are pushed down to the bottom. The site remains pleasurable to use on any device.

So, which strategies should you use?

Well, it depends on your content. The second strategy (scaling content) works best if most of your content is text with a few images where your users are browsing at leisure. If you have lots of product categories or video, a dedicated mobile site may be more suitable.

Whichever strategy you choose (and our Digital Team can help with this), a dedicated mobile strategy is a wise investment, and will show your users that you are a modern company, willing to create media suited to their needs. And if you want to know exactly what we mean, then just visit our site from your mobile device.

How we engage with personality profiling

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 12:07:40 GMT

Recently, we took part in a training and development course which covered a number of different areas, half way through the course the trainer showed us a video which he had used to inspire and gear people up at events.

Audience reactions

Andrew, the trainer found the film very inspiring, my reaction, however was a mixture of amusement and boredom as I found it very cheesy and clichéd. Looking around the room I could tell most of my colleagues felt the same. Yet as the film ended our trainer had been so moved by it, he had welled up with tears.

Apparently this was also the reaction when the film had been shown to a group of sales people to motivate them. The reason for this completely different reaction to the same film is the very different audiences. What moves a room full of sales people is not the same as a group of cynical creatives.

Tailored communications

This event perfectly illustrates a key element of the course - personality profiling. The original theory, by William Moulton Marston has evolved into different models and variations, however all essentially group people together into one of a number of different personality types. For example, a room full of accountants are likely to have a more analytical approach and mind set, therefore would be searching for more fact driven information. As such you would approach them entirely differently than you would approach a team of marketeers.

Understand, engage, deliver

Personality profiling can be an incredibly useful tool when pitching projects or delivering creative solutions, if used in the right way you could essentially profile an audience or individual and orchestrate a campaign and its delivery based upon their collective profile to have a real impact.

Since our training, we’ve tried to consider this in everything we do and it fits in perfectly with our process; understand, engage, deliver. By taking the time to understand a client, their business and their audience, we are able to deliver the best solution possible. By combining this theory with the traditional view point of segregating target markets, A, B, C1s, which are based on people’s socio economic background, how much they earn and their level of education; potentially we are able to create a far more impactful solution.

The Design Team deck the hoardings for Bridge Court

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:24:10 GMT

Over the Christmas period we took part in the launch of a fantastic new project which aims to engage and bring together a local community; the project was Bridge Court.

Drumming up support

For some time now, we’ve been working with Wirral Partnership Homes and NHS Wirral to help them drum up support and promote their work on a £10 million development project, which will see the local area revived with a brand new NHS centre and 58 new homes.

Wednesday the 21^st December 2011 saw the unveiling of the 370 meters of hoardings which surround the soon to be built, development – as created by our fantastic Design Team.

Community involvement

The hoardings which featured ‘stained glass windows’ created by local children as part of an art workshop on the site also showcased the winning entries from a community photography competition.

The competition really engaged the local community with over 250 entries submitted in just three weeks. Local MP, Esther McVey was on hand to announce the winners in the Primary School, Secondary School and Adult categories and award them their prizes.

WPH Chief Executive, Brian Simpson, said: “The event has been a great success with over 250 entries received that have been used along with the stained glass window art to create a wonderfully vibrant gallery that has transformed the Bridge Court site.”

HGA Creative recruits some Festive Friends

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 10:03:11 GMT

If you’ve found this blog post then you’re about to channel your inner Neil Buchannan and create one of our fantastic Festive Friends.

Simply print off one of the templates by clicking on the downloadable PDFs below – or all three if you like and start folding to create your very own Christmas chum.

If you upload a picture of your newly created Festive Friend to our Facebook page or Tweet it to us @hgacreative then you’ll automatically be entered into our special prize draw to win yourself a fantastic ‘New Year Hamper’ packed full with tasty treats!

You will need:

Festive Friend template
Some glue (optional)
Some festive cheer (essential)
Happy folding and happy Christmas!

Download the templates:

HGA Creative nominated in Social Media Awards 2011

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:32:44 GMT

Good news, we’ve been nominated for Computer Weekly's Social Media Awards 2011!

The awards, sponsored by IBM are now in their fourth year and recognise those who have demonstrated exceptional use of social media within the IT industry. Our work for Zenos, the UK’s leading IT apprenticeship provider earned us a nomination for ‘Best use of Social Media in the Private Sector’.

Richard Whitehouse, Head of Digital here at HGA Creative said: “We’re so pleased to be considered for the award, the team worked tirelessly on the project and we achieved great results for the client - it would be fantastic if we won.”

The awards take place on the 29th of November in London - wish us luck!

If you want to see why we’ve been nominated for the award, then click here to see the work.

Or if you want to challenge us to creating an award worthy strategy for you, then get in touch and let us engage your audience through social.

HGA Creative acquires Northwest Football Awards & Northern Sports Awards

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 11:44:58 GMT

We are proud to announce that we have just acquired the Northwest Football Awards (NWFA) and the Northern Sports Awards from online publisher How Do.

Branching out

We’ve more than 20 years of experience creating, developing and delivering conferences and exhibitions for a long list of high profile clients including Phones4u, BAE Systems, Shop Direct and Kellogg’s; so taking ownership of these established events was a natural progression for us and we’re really excited about it.

Ian Grime, our Director of Live Events said: “We are delighted with our acquisition of the Northwest Football Awards and the Northern Sports Awards. It has been a strategic objective of ours to strengthen and expand our presence within the live events industry through ownership; it’s great to be doing so starting with these events. When the opportunity was presented by How Do, we were immediately interested and excited at the prospect of developing them from their strong foundations.”

How-Do launched the Northwest Football Awards in 2007 and each year the dinner has grown and has now firmly established itself in the region’s sporting calendar as a must-attend event.

Event highlights

Backed by the likes of FIFA, The PFA and The Football Foundation, this year’s event took place on Monday 14^th November and was a huge success with an audience of approaching 450 guests. The event celebrates the region’s thriving football scene and those who make it a success on the pitch – and with their off-the-pitch expertise in marketing and various sponsorship and community initiatives.

Highlights included a speech from PFA Chief Executive, Gordon Taylor OBE, who was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Goal of the Year awarded to Wayne Rooney.

We look forward with anticipation to next year’s awards and would like to say a huge thank you to all who attended.

For a full list of the winners click here or alternatively if you want to see how we could bring your event to life, check out our latest work or get in touch.

Zenos Conference evolves yet again

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 12:07:56 GMT

We’ve just returned from the latest and greatest Zenos Staff Conference and Awards Dinner. Held at the Birmingham NEC, the event is an inspirational conference and awards ceremony celebrating the company’s progress and awarding its outstanding learners.

Successful campaigns

Zenos, the UK’s number one provider of IT Apprenticeships, offer young people the chance to further their careers and passion for the IT industry by taking part in an apprenticeship scheme. With a 98% pass rate they’ve certainly got something to shout about which is what we helped them do at this year’s conference.

Progress and evolution

The theme for the event focused upon progression and evolution, hence its title - Evolve: The Next Generation. With a presentation from the esteemed Vice President of CompTIA, Matthew Poyadgi and over 400 members of staff in attendance the event was a huge success and really highlighted the company’s progress over the last 12 months.

Recognition

The evening also included the presentation of the Microsoft, CompTIA and Zenos National Apprentice of the Year Awards, awarding a handful of the exceptional learners who completed their Apprenticeships this year.

HGA Creative gets hairy for Movember

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 12:08:23 GMT

Forget November, the HGA Creative chaps will soon be embarking upon the Movember challenge. Movember was set up in order to raise vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer and other cancers that affect men.

Capturing the action

What’s more is that our Head of Film and Video, Dan will be immortalising this wondrous event by taking a picture each day of the hairy progress made; the images will then be made into a short time-lapse film.

Make a donation

If you don’t fancy the idea of sporting a Dali or Magnum PI yourself, then why not show your support for the boys by visiting the site to make a donation.

In the meantime, happy tashing to Matty, Jansen, Nick, Rich, Adrian & Sean!

Life in HD with Kellogg's

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 11:25:33 GMT

Our Senior Video Producer, Adrian Hawtin is passionate about photography and film much like the rest of the HGA Creative Video Team. He’s been using digital single-lens reflex cameras, or DSLR's to shoot video for a few years now. The 7d was his first camera, a model which delivers stunning high quality imagery. It’s been used frequently within the HGA Creative studios to produce some breathtaking work for our clients.

Striving for quality

As an agency we’re constantly trying to up our game, we’re always looking to produce output that is fresh, innovative, striking aesthetically and engages the client’s brief. Shooting on a DSLR gives us the means to do this, along with a few creative ideas of course. The equipment’s capabilities enable us to infuse an incredible “film like” quality into the work we create; this was never quite possible with a traditional a “small sensor” camcorder.

Launching with Kellogg's

If you want to see what we mean, then look no further than the project we did just a few weeks ago. Kellogg's, one of our longest standing clients, came to us recently with a demanding yet exciting new brief to create a promotional film to support the launch of their brand new children's cereal, Mini Max. The shoot called for multiple locations, many with low light, and some locations with very limited space. We realised that the only way we could get the shots we wanted and still retain the HD quality, was by using a 7d. So, after some careful consideration and meticulous storyboarding, taking into account the client’s objectives we created Mini Max.

Exploring film and video

The film perfectly reflects the direction we’re heading in here at HGA Creative. The production values of the film are creative, professional, innovative and in the coming months we’ll be exploring what else is possible with some of the latest cameras that have come to market; most notably the Sony NESX-FS 100E.

So, watch this space and in the meantime check out the video or browse the rest of our work to see how we can engage your audience.

Home Group appoints HGA Creative to spearhead new project

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 15:59:09 GMT

You may have seen one of our previous blog entries entitled 'Right at home with Bob.' Ambiguous as it was to those not in the loop (everyone outside our studio) there was a reason for it. We had some very exciting news under our hats which unfortunately we couldn’t really tell anyone about it at the time. The good news is now we can!

Home Group, one of the leading providers of supported housing for people in the UK have just appointed us to spearhead their latest communications project.

The HGA Creative Live Events, Digital, Design and Video Teams will all be pitching in to produce a series of outstanding roadshows on a grand scale.

We've already started work on the integrated project in preparation for the launch in 2012. Director of Live Events and Co-founder Ian Grime said: “We’re delighted to be working with Home Group on such a large scale project and can’t wait to get to work producing some impactful solutions for them.”

Home Group are a £310m turnover organisation, managing 51,000 homes and providing care and support services to more than 20,000 people across the UK each year.

Looks like ‘Being Outrageously Brilliant’ at pitches works for us - nice work everyone.

Right at home with a new client

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 16:10:13 GMT

We’re thrilled to announce that we will soon be starting work on a fantastic integrated campaign for a brilliant new high profile client. We can’t say too much at the moment, other than it concerns “Bob” and we cannot wait to get to work bringing this exciting project to life.

Ambiguous yes? Keep an eye on us to find out more soon.

HGA Creative bring Shop Direct to life

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 13:20:05 GMT

Last month our Live Events Team put on another fantastic show on behalf of one of our biggest clients, Shop Direct, the UK's largest online retailer.

Live fashion shows

The Shop Direct Conference 2011 was their biggest event yet with live fashion shows, talent competitions and guest speeches from the likes of Ranulph Fiennes; the renowned explorer.

The conference itself was developed in order to offer employees visibility on the company's progress from the year so far, as well as highlighting their goals and objectives for "the golden quarter".

Showcasing shop Direct

Alongside the main conference delivered by keynote speakers, there were five break out rooms focusing upon the primary drivers for Shop Direct over the coming months. These included Christmas product launches, live fashion shows, digital enterprises and brand showcases.

The evening celebrations involved a live talent show featuring Shop Direct employees – the winner walked away with a £4000 all-inclusive holiday. Overall the event went down a storm with both the attendees and the key stakeholders within Shop Direct.

Another job well done, not bad for a days work.

Steve Jobs: A true visionary

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 13:12:47 GMT

Our Director of Film and Video, Dan, woke up this morning with a very strange hollow feeling, the cause being the sad news that Steve Jobs had passed away. Strange, given he'd never met the man; however the way in which Steve has influenced and touched his and all our lives here at HGA Creative is perhaps the reason behind it.

His vision was to change the world and make it a better place through technology; we believe he did just that. The beautiful simplicity of his products has played a key role in peoples lives and how we adapt to technology as users. They are elegant, logical universally appealing and desirable. How many people have ever needed to read an instruction manual before using an iPod?

Steve once said: "That's been one of my mantras — focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex, you have to work hard to get your thinking clean, to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains." This sentiment is very true. It's the reason why Apple strives to make their products simpler in form, yet more complex in function with every iteration they release.

Jobs took a company that was on the brink of extinction to one of the world's most iconic brands and an industry leader. He did this despite conducting no market research, or focus groups, achieved purely through his passion, desire and instinctive knowledge of consumer needs. As Job's once said: "A lot of times, people don't know what they want until you show it to them." You need look no further than the iPad for an example of this.

This way of knowing what consumers want before they know it themselves extends to Apple's marketing too. They position each product emotionally in our hearts before we've even bought one. When the iPod was released, rather than lead with the headline of a 5Gb portable music device, Apple simply said – "iPod, 1000 songs in your pocket'. Emotionally this creates a connection straight away, it's simple and resonates with, well anyone with a pocket and music.

It is his pioneering philosophy and instinctive passion, which sets Apple apart; the focus is always on the consumer. When asked how he would describe the company, he would say: "We don't make computers, we make tools to unleash human potential."

Working in the industry we do, we wouldn't be here without the tools Steve Jobs has given us. It is through these tools and using a similar approach, that we are able to produce creative work for our client's.

A very poignant quote in light of today's sad news came from Jobs back in 1993: "Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn't matter to me, going to bed at night saying we've done something wonderful, that's what matters to me." There will never be another Steve jobs, but his legacy will live on and the many ways in which he has done something wonderful will surely help him sleep well.

HGA Creative gets social at NMA Live London

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:54:26 GMT

Our resident Social Media Strategist, Charley Caines set out for London last month in search of some nuggets of expert social knowledge from some of the industry's finest digital and social players.

Social media strategy development

Held in the swanky Mayfair Hotel in the heart of central London, New Media Age hosted the event; aimed to address and add value to the debate continuing around developing a successful social media strategy.

Among the keynote speakers offering insight were O2's Head of Social, Alex Pearman, Sophie Brendel, Head of Digital Engagement for the BBC, David Parfet, Head of Sales for Facebook and Chris Buckley, Head of social agency Headstream.

Each offered case study examples of successful high profile social media campaigns and shared some tips of their own as to how they manage their social issues. From how many tweets to put out a day, to how to reputation manage in a crisis. If you're wondering – there is no magic number but O2 aim for seven good ones.

Chris Buckley showcased Nike's Marty McFly trainer campaign, giving more detail into how carefully constructed and well executed the project was; drawing upon what we could learn from the example. Sophie Brendel highlighted the pitfalls of managing dialogue and reputation across a brand as vast as the BBC, whilst David Parfet offered an unwanted yet impeccably well delivered sales pitch for Facebook.

Social media monitoring tools

During the Q&A sessions the same question kept popping up – "What social media monitoring software do you use and what would you recommend?" It seems that this is an area that many Social Media Specialists are struggling with, the most common complaint being that Radian 6 is too expensive and the alternatives just don't have the capabilities to cover all bases yet. The panel couldn't really offer an applicable response purely down to the fact that their substantial budgets allowed them to pay the high costs of Radian 6 or better still, build their own in-house solutions.

There was a sense of covering old ground with tired topics and basic tip sharing being high on the agenda as well as the obligatory ROI debate. However, overall the presentations were insightful; Brendel's and Buckley's being highlights. There was certainly some expert knowledge gleaned that our Digital Team plan to apply to the development of future strategies for our clients.

HGA Creative Advances in the most Positive Way

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:13:01 GMT

Last week was a great week for us. We were given the opportunity to experience a fantastic two day training and development programme delivered by our friends at Advance Performance all the way from the USA.

Michael Henderson and Ian Grime, our Managing Directors and Founders have wanted to share the benefits of this fantastic material with everyone for the last couple of years now and last week saw this desire realised.

The course is a compelling mixture of material, encompassing practical, scientific and purely inspirational elements; all contributing to help you release your potential and make the best of it.

It is this programme that helped Darren Clarke achieve his famous win at The Open earlier this year; we're hoping that it will have the same impact here too.

The feedback so far has been great, with everyone saying not only how much they enjoyed the programme, but also how much they got out of it on a personal and business level too.

We can't wait for the final part of the programme, taking place in November and we'd like to say a big thank you to Andrew from Advance US for coming over and leading the programme. See you in a few weeks for some more inspirational and positive coaching.

HGA Creative Rock Wembley with another Spectacular Live Event

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 17:13:53 GMT

Rather than the "HGA Creative rock band" making it out on tour and performing at Wembley (although there is still hope), last week we delivered another fantastic event, by organising a graduation ceremony for our good friends at the Football League Trust (FLT).

An FLT graduation

FLT had run a series of 8 pilot programmes over the summer as part of the National Citizen Service scheme – and wanted to recognise the amazing achievements of the 600 or so young people who had taken part.

With multiple projectors, amazing lighting and a superb sounding PA system – as well as the seamless production from the Live Events Team, it was a first class event that did the FLT, the 1500 strong audience and the legendary venue proud.

A happy client

According to Dave Edmundson, the FLT's General Manager, "Whenever we need to deliver the most professional presentations the HGA Creative team are always the first people we call. We had Ministers of State, the top brass from the Football League and many of the clubs present – and a very tight time frame. They have delivered this inaugural event in a way that made everyone so proud of what they had achieved. It was exciting, stunningly staged and flawless delivery – but that is what we have come to expect of HGA Creative."

In a really busy week for the company we are working with the FLT again – staging a 2-day CPD workshop, and there's another event planned for later in the year too.

HGA Creative Boost Zenos's web traffic by 400%

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:10:11 GMT

We are proud to announce that we have helped Zenos, the UK's number one provider of IT Apprenticeships and one of our longest standing clients, increase traffic to the website year on year by a massive 400%. What's more is that they are now bounding ahead in the social media stakes too.

The brief

Zenos wanted to move away from a traditional marketing strategy, and instead use a mix of both on and offline media resources to better reach the 16 to 24 year old demographic, increase submissions for the current intake and have a more significant impact upon ROI.

The strategy

Our solution was to create a fully integrated digital campaign, utilising a multitude of resources, including mobile/web banner, SMS geo-advertising, targeted Facebook ads, bespoke Apps & Spotify audio ads. These assets were then combined with a refreshed creative, transferrable across all platforms and high quality video content, produced in house. All of which were used as part of a highly targeted social media and content strategy within the campaign.

By harnessing these tailored methods of promotion and communication Zenos were able to reach their target audience on a much more effective and localised level, reducing their expenditure.

Head of Digital, Richard Whitehouse said, "The great thing about digital campaigns is the flexibility and visibility you get. You can monitor and tweak campaigns accordingly to get the best result. This was perfect for a nationwide client like Zenos, it allowed HGA to create a highly targeted campaign, which in-turn has resulted in the generation of quality leads and achieving high conversion rates."

The results

In order to drive key incentives such as referrals and establish a rapport with prospective students, a significant amount of time was also spent engaging with both new and potential students across social media platforms. The results of this combined with the overall strategy have shown a dramatic increase in response compared to the channels used previously. In just four weeks the number of active users on Zenos's Facebook profile by grew by 104%; comments shot up by 260% and visits increased by 114%.

Year on year traffic to the site has grown by 400%. What's more is that over the course of the most recent campaign we've seen traffic grow by over 70%, with 78% of referral traffic coming from social media.

There's still a couple of weeks left until the campaign draws to a close, but already HGA have exceeded the client's expectations.