HGA Creative - Blog

Present to engage at your next conference production

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Thu, 03 May 2012 09:55:01 GMT

In a world where you can share information almost instantaneously and interact with audiences using a multitude of channels, presentations have taken on a new level of significance in their ability to deliver a message. PowerPoint just doesn’t cut it anymore and new contenders such as Prezzi, Slide Rocket and Keynote highlight this hankering for a new and more engaging format of delivery. However, these are just the new shiny tools – so what actually makes an engaging presentation?

The perfect presentation

We work alongside clients on a whole spectrum of different events, award ceremonies, conference productions and roadshows. As a result we’ve begun to see patterns emerge and as such, our understanding of what makes a truly engaging presentation has become comprehensive. With this in mind, here’s few tip bits of insight…

Engage with video

Making sure the audience is emotionally connected is essential and using video is a simple and cost effective method of doing this. A study that the university of Texas (Metcalf:1997) found that 20% of people remember what they hear, 30% remember what they see but 70% remember what they see and hear. Enough said.

Impactful idents

The ident (title slide) of the presentation is an integral part to a good presentation. It needs to be designed to reflect what the conference is about and it needs to be impactful – able to get across to the audience in seconds what the event is all about.

Know your audience

People are the key part in any presentation; they will come to a presentation not knowing what is expected of them and your job as the presenter is to clearly outline the objectives and convey what they need to learn. Do your research, immerse yourself in their mind set and review your presentation objectively as they will.

The winning element is you

The thing that will win the audience will be yourself. So, ask yourself - do you have to stand behind a lectern? How about using headphones so you can take advantage of the stage and use your hands, be more expressive; make changes to the speed and tone of your voice. Do you need a clicker to control your slides? What about using an iPad that’s linked to your slides on screen?

Remember the best presentations works when it changes the behaviour of the audience- when it gets them thinking, developing ideas, planning, understanding and embracing change. The last thing you want is another ‘Death by PowerPoint’ presentation.

Want us to help you create a winning presentation at your next conference production? Then get in touch, or if you’re still not convinced check out some of our latest work.

Build your own community

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:40:14 GMT

The value of an online community is priceless to both a community and its creator. They can influence your output with crowdsourcing, generate peer to peer advocacy and present the ultimate market research forum; in short they can be the most valuable asset to your business, providing direct access to your target market. Yet, it's easy to get caught up in the all-conquering, public facing world of social, when really, there is another option.

Socially enhanced environments

By exploring how to create a niche, socially enhanced environment for your community, you can offer something bespoke; something relevant to your audience, something that isn't just Facebook. Giving you full control and visibility over your project as well as the ability to change behaviours and engage simultaneously.

This can be the perfect option for localised projects as well as internal communications initiatives; we've seen this first hand with Kingston University and Wirral Partnership Homes. Both small projects created to engage communities in the digital world and real world, subsequently changing behaviour.

Changing behaviours with digital

Kingston's on-going Smart Communities project, aims to spread awareness and change how users consume energy on a localised level within a small ring-fenced area of Kingston. The site and custom-built CMS we created to enable community members to record their energy consumption and pledge new ways to save energy during everyday activities. So far, over 3,500 gas and electric, weekly readings have been entered online with over 300 registrations, helping to decrease energy consumption.

Real world community impact

Similarly, the WPH Bridge Court project incentivised users to become involved, pledge their support and consult on plans for the development of an affordable homes scheme with a health centre. By uploading their competition submissions to a bespoke website, this streamlined the logistics of the projects and also allowed users to vote for the winner; resulting in 250 uploads in just three weeks.

Both online projects have impacted upon the real world significantly with users scheduling their own meetings and events, giving real meaning to their activities. These projects are prime examples of how you can engage communities with a view to add value to the community experience, and at the same time, add value to your project.

Calling all talented freelancers with a passion for film and video

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:45:49 GMT

We are on the lookout for talented freelance camera operators, editors and motion graphics artists to support our Film & Video team on a range of exciting projects for our ever growing list of clients.

Enthusiasm, passion, experience and technical ability a must. Knowledge of the latest equipment (C300, Canon DSLR range and Sony cameras) and software (After Effects/Final Cut Pro) essential. Please send CV's, day rates (with and without kit) and showreels to Dan.

Live Events branch out across the North West

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 09:57:24 GMT

As part of our on-going commitment to constantly improving the service we offer to our clients, we have opened a brand spanking new live events office in Preston, in addition to our first base in Manchester.

Going live across the North West

Ideally situated next to the M6 and the motorway network of the UK, this new office will allow us to be even more flexible and responsive with our live events delivery; whether it’s a conference production, awards dinner, exhibition or roadshow.

Live Events Production Team all under one roof

We now have all of our staging and technical equipment under one roof and that provides a number of new opportunities for us as we continually develop our live events offer. The new design solutions we are developing for our set and staging elements will soon be launched and the Live Events Team are incredibly pleased and excited with the new materials and techniques they’ve been experimenting with. They will no doubt be able to produce even more outstanding live event productions, as a result.

Honing skills to produce quality live event productions

We also have new sound, lighting and audio visual equipment which we’ve been using and refining on a weekly basis. Furthermore, the new space allows the Live Events Team to set up kit and learn new programming skills when using the equipment, enabling them to produce an even higher quality output during the execution of the live event productions themselves.
The office has now been up and running for three months and already we are seeing many advantages for HGA Creative and clients alike.

Lights, camera, action! On location with the new Canon C300

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 13:56:25 GMT

At HGA Creative we are big fans of using DSLR’s to shoot video. Until recently, our weapon of choice was the Canon 5D Mark II; a superb stills camera which also shoots stunning “film like” full HD video. However, now there is a new kid on the block, the all-new Cinema Eos C300. We managed to get our hands on this incredible and rare piece of quality equipment for a recent client shoot in Scotland.

Quality HD solutions

As big a fan as we are of these cameras (5D), there are a few drawbacks; most notably the inability to record high quality audio. Whilst we have developed ways to overcome this obstacle (all in aid of the glory of the shot) it is however a frustrating additional and time-consuming step in our process. So for onsite edits and projects with very fast turnaround times, this is one additional workflow that we could do without.

Thankfully Canon realised this too and with the release of the all-new Cinema Eos C300 may just have delivered the Holy Grail for filmmakers; a camera that combines stunning DSLR style visuals with traditional video camera functionality. On paper the camera’s specifications speak for themself: a large sensor to provide the “film look” we crave, coupled with pro- audio inputs, 50mps data rate and a totally tapeless system. Just like Indy, we simply had to get our hands on the Holy Grail!

We opted for the EF system so we could utilize our growing collection of beautiful Canon L-series lenses that had served us so well on the 5D.

We had a demanding shoot on the horizon; a multi-camera high-octane cookery competition in Scotland where we would only be afforded one take to get it right. Whilst some people may have agued that it’s best to stick with what you know, our philosophy is to always push the boundaries and embrace new technology so naturally we thought otherwise. Never ones to shy away from a challenge we threw ourselves in at the deep-end and got to grips with our new ‘toy’. So following some pre-shoot testing and a lot of manual cramming we were ready to rock…

First impressions were fantastic. The feel and form factor of the camera were good, albeit different to any other camera we’ve used before. The build was very solid and the camera felt great, with all the main controls placed in intuitive positions. This camera is first and foremost a video camera and consequently the information displayed in the viewfinder is so much more informative and useful to us than that of a DSLR. For example, it lets you know how much recording time is left on the cards and battery. Basic but invaluable information, you take for granted as a filmmaker, albeit something we’ve learnt to live without on a DSLR shoot. There’s also no 12 minute recording limit and although we’ve learnt to work around this obstacle, it comes as a real blessing when it’s not there. The icing on the cake for us was to be able to monitor and record great audio, via XLR directly on the camera, saving hours in post-production. Time we could spend refining and grading the finished edit.

Post production perfection

Our philosophy for film and video is to provide the highest quality, most creative solution for our clients for the best budget. We always want to push the boundaries of what is possible and admittedly the geeks inside us can’t wait to get our hands on new equipment. On paper, the C300 ticks all the boxes but we retained a healthy measure of skepticism as we were one of the first people in the country to use this new camera on an actual project. As soon as we got the footage back into the edit suite we realized that this camera really is something special. The image clarity and colour is stunning - noticeably better than anything from the 5D. To say we were impressed (and relieved) is an understatement!

As a company we pride ourselves on our commitment to produce the highest quality, creative output for our clients at a low cost and this piece of fine equipment enabled us to do it once again. DSLR’s will always have a place in our hearts - and kit bag - but the Canon C300 is at the top of our list for many shoots now. We’re all about creativity and we’re constantly aiming to raise our game. With the Canon C300, we’ve done just that.

Check out the results for yourself...

Join the Digital Team

Charley Caines (charley.caines@hgacreative.com) — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 15:38:10 GMT

Web Developer opportunity

Good news – a great opportunity has just become available within our growing Digital Team for a Web Developer here at HGA Creative. This role presents a chance for a highly motivated individual looking to progress their career within an award-winning, integrated communications agency.

Should you be successful, you will be part of the team that delivers diverse digital marketing activities and will be responsible for the successful development and management of digital strategies and solutions for HGA Creative's clients.

Sound good? Here’s what we’re after…

Essential Skills:

PHP, MySQL, JavaScript
HTML(5) CSS(3)
CodeIgniter, jQuery
Database design

Advantageous:

Understanding of…

Mobile/app development
SEO
Email marketing
Social media development

What next?

The right candidate will enjoy working in a highly creative and integrated environment, working on a variety of projects/campaigns for an exciting client list. Relevant qualifications and experience are highly advantageous and you’ll also need to demonstrate a passion and understanding for all things digital.

If you think you’re the right person for the job, then simply send your CV along with your website/ blog or portfolio to Richard.

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: We offer all our people an extremely attractive remuneration package with a very competitive salary as well as a range of other benefits.

"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.