It wasn’t too long ago that I joined Digital Annexe and was soon thrust in to a meeting with Ludo Bennett-Jones, a young 21 year old man who is circumnavigating the UK with another person in a 16ft two-handed Wayfarer dinghy – all in aid of Sport Relief and The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust, while under the guidance of sponsorship from Digital Annexe, BT and Gill Clothing.

As time was of the essence two of the team had been previously briefed and managed to prepare some mock-ups and logos for the challenge, but all the hard work was yet to be done. With a short timescale of only 4 working weeks (and a bank holiday weekend to compete with) we were expecting a few late finishes twinned with plenty of coffee and the effects of any mention of sailing or the sea to cause some form of inherent illness.

The idea? We wanted to make a website where people could track every little bit of progress Ludo makes, and update people with active content. How were we delivering this active content? Twitter. Twitter acted as the content management system for this entire site and, using a handy bit of code, we wanted to map these against the exact location he tweets from. To add a little bit of media in to the mix we opted for the use of Instagram, the widely spoken about social photo sharing iOS & android service recently purchased by Facebook, which allowed us to let Ludo add some extra depth to his imagery on his journey.

The site, the build, the designs – they came easily to the team behind it all and the site came together nicely. Along the way we had the pleasure of working closely with the team at Sport Relief and The Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust in order to raise the exposure of the entire challenge, as well as working strongly with the team at Yellowbrick Tracking to produce a live tracking map within the website that people could actively watch to see exactly where Ludo is on the planet.

With plenty of work still to be done, on both the part of Ludo and Digital Annexe, there has been over £15,000 raised for charity in a matter of days. As far as the site goes, we will constantly be adding features across the next few weeks to allow you to use the site in better ways and allows you to interact with the challenge.

To know more about the challenge, to track Ludo or to donate, simply head to Loveludo.com.

Jonathan Denby

Account Manager

>> Follow Digital Annexe on Twitter: @DigitalAnnexe

I recently designed and art directed a campaign microsite for the launch of the beautiful new
Mercedes-Benz M-Class. During the early conception, as with any project, we brainstormed and bounced ideas around the room. The tag line for the new M-Class is ‘Big on power, Small on fuel’ which led me back to something which I (and 99.99% of people in design and advertising) revere as one of the best ads of all time. The 1962 Volkswagen “Think Small” campaign by Doyle Dane Bernbach (DDB).

VW had plenty of success in the European markets during the 60’s with the Beetle, but America was always going to be a hard nut for them to crack. They had a car that in principle went against everything the American consumer wanted at the time. The U.S was in a ‘Baby Boom’ era, and (as is still the case today) was very much in love with big vehicles and muscle cars.

Another issue for DDB was the fact that the vehicle was manufactured in Wolfsburg, Germany, at a plant built by the Nazis. There was still a lot of post-war tension between the U.S and Germany, so DDB had its work cut out to convince the U.S consumer that the Beetle was the right choice of automobile.

DDB’s radical approach of using wit, coupled with emotive and informative facts about fuel consumption and running costs helped connect with consumers on a more emotional level.

This was pretty much unheard of at the time. Fans of TV’s Mad Men will be aware of the approach taken by American advertisers in the late 50s and early 60s where they gave consumers traditional gender stereotypes, aspirations of the American dream and of course the odd pin-up girl on a bonnet.

Quite apart from the design of the ad, which encompasses elegance and simplicity in its purest form. It is the ground-breaking approach, wit and subtle connotations that are carried in the visual language and supporting copy that makes this ad a real trail-blazer.

So going back to my earlier reference about the brainstorming of the new M-Class campaign site, using one of the most influential ads of the 20^th Century…well it doesn’t seem like a bad place for me to start for inspiration. Thank you Helmut Krone, Julian Koenig and DDB.

Rob Freemantle

Design Lead

>> Follow Rob on Twitter: @RobFreemantle

>> Follow Digital Annexe on Twitter: @DigitalAnnexe

Recently I undertook some research into successful blog layouts and design. The research required analysing not only the surface attributes – things like colour palette, layout, overall look and feel and written content– but also the overall functionality, user experience and integration of  CTAs (calls to action) and social media call-outs.

It’s always nice to be able to spend time studying and comparing other people’s designs – especially those of a more complex nature – and it opened my eyes to some particularly well-constructed blogs. One blog in particular caught my eye, and I have found myself returning to it again and again (not least because it merges two of my favourite topics; travel, entertainment and design, yee haaaa!) I thought I would give it a nod on our own blog because it’s definitely a site that deserves to be shared!

According to the people who should know, “We Heart is more than a blog. We Heart presents ‘another view’ on style blogs – originally written articles, unique features, honest opinion and retina-busting visual content…” I can promise that from my experience of the blog, these statements are pretty accurate; the site is full of lush photography, cracking content and beautiful design. So get over to We Heart (www.weheart.co.uk) now and you’ll see what I’m talking about…

If, like me, you’re a big fan of complimentary colours (none of that Dundee United tangerine and black for me thanks!), then one of the first things you’ll notice when you arrive is probably going to be the gorgeous colour palette (muted pastels and earthy colours versus vibrant pinks and charcoal greys). I’m not going to lie, it’s overtly feminine, but it is stylish, refreshing and very much goes hand in hand with the subject matter so it all works brilliantly.

In fact the colour scheme is so well thought through, they even use it to distinguish between categories, thus making it easier for the user to immediately recognise areas they are interested in while also creating a consistent approach to the classification.

The grid layout of the homepage is beautiful. Across four columns (of differing widths – nice to see a little deviation from the usual symmetry of blog sites!), a variety of content is logically displayed throughout inside a series of cascading boxes.

A large photo slider beneath the header rotates through mouth-watering photography, then we have the latest posts tiled across the two main columns, initially starting nice and big and chunky, and then gradually decreasing in size the further down the table they go. (Check out the simplicity yet effectiveness of the post titles and subtitles. They don’t say too much – the photos say it all – but they definitely tease the user and pull you in successfully).

In the smaller right hand-side columns you can see teasers and CTAs. This is something We Heart do really well; despite being side-lined and subtle, the CTAs are very much prominent – they don’t jump out and scream at you with a mass of colours and text, but through solid backgrounds, large text and succinct content, they make you want to read and do what they’re asking which is something I’ve definitely taken note of.

Likewise, the social media links are plain text placed at the top and bottom of the page. They are unobtrusive, simple and easy on the eye – because let’s face it, nowadays, most users know where to expect to find social media links, they don’t need to be smacked in the face by them. This approach keeps the design fluid and complimentary, and also allows the user to focus on the important stuff without being bogged down by external CTAs – though each post does have a ‘like’ button, but as you might’ve guessed, it’s still subtle…

Last but not least, the photography on this site is spot on – particularly for a lifestyle based blog. If you want imagery that’s going to tease and entice readers to want to read every single post, then you need to get on the blower to We Heart’s photographers.

And if you’ve actually reached the end of this rather long and over-excited blog post, then not only do I salute you, but I also urge you to stop reading and get ‘we-heart-ing’ quick! Go on, you won’t be able to help but love it!

Lucie Agolini

Junior Designer

>> Follow Digital Annexe: @DigitalAnnexe

A few weeks ago, if you had said the name to ‘Joseph Kony’ to a great number of us, the chances are all you would have received in return would be a blank stare – but what a difference a few weeks can make!

Thanks to ‘Kony 2012’, the film from charity Invisible Children, awareness of the Ugandan rebel leader has risen to quite an astonishing level. It has been reported that the video has become the most viral video in history, hitting the 100 million views mark in just six days – beating out the previous records of Susan Boyle’s Britain’s Got Talent audition video (9 days) and Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance video (18 days)! And it’s really not all too hard to believe – if your Facebook feed was anything like mine it would have been overrun with people sharing and commenting on the video soon after it was released.

The hard-hitting video has provoked emotional responses by highlighting a world that many may have previously been unaware of, or may have at least found pretty hard to believe existed. However, this isn’t the first time a viral video has been released in the attempt to highlight atrocities taking place across the world.

Towards the end of last year, activists Save the Congo released a film entitled ‘Unwatchable’ which aimed to put the horrors taking place on a daily basis in the Democratic Republic of the Congo into a Western context. The plan was to make the suffering of the Congolese people relatable to more people around the world in the hopes the issue would start to garner worldwide attention.

‘Unwatchable’ really does make for uncomfortable viewing, so be warned if you do choose to watch it! Based on the experience of a Congolese woman, the video begins with a small blonde girl picking flowers in her garden, and ends with her running away from the scene with horror after she has witnessed militia soldiers land in her quiet family home in the countryside and proceed to rape her teenage sister and brutally murder her parents.

Using such strong visuals has provoked negative reactions from some, but can using shock tactics like these actually help hammer the point home? If this kind of behaviour would be so incredibly unacceptable and hard to stomach in this country, why can we tolerate it happening elsewhere in the world?

Before watching ‘Unwatchable’ I know I never really thought that such things could be happening in the world, let alone be a very real every day danger in certain countries. What I found to be even more shocking is that these things could have been happening, and have been happening for a long time, but have almost been swept under the carpet – with the issues being all but ignored in the mainstream media. The issue can’t simply be ignored, or written off as somebody else’s problem – these are after all still innocent human beings that are being tortured and suffering.

Shock tactic videos have also been accused of oversimplifying the situation, but really the point of these types of virals isn’t to explain the whole history of an issue – more to just highlight a snippet of the awful things taking place in a format that is easily digestible and able to appeal to the widest audience. If videos like ‘Unwatchable’ and ‘Kony 2012’ are able to provoke strong enough reactions from a viewer, it can inspire them to find out more details about the issues on the organisations’ websites, or through other sources. It can also encourage people to get involved in any way they can with charities to help the cause, whether simply through donation or by actual volunteer work.

Getting more people involved with the charities that work to help solve these issues and help the victims is a really positive outcome of the viral videos, but can they have a more significant impact in real terms? ‘Liking’ a video on Facebook can help raise awareness of an issue, but is the simple action of clicking ‘Like’ or ‘Share’ really likely to cause anything to change in the world?

Perhaps creating hype around an issue and raising the level of awareness to a level that simply cannot be ignored really can force the hand of politicians to actually take action and put a stop to these things. ‘Kony 2012’ hopes to make a real difference by encouraging people to come together worldwide on the night of April 20 to make their combined voices impossible for those in power to ignore and to bring Kony to justice.

It’s still early days with these viral videos, so it’s too soon to know what impact they could really end up having on the world – such longstanding and complex issues won’t be solved overnight. But at least these videos have opened the eyes of millions of people to the horrors that take place in countries that may seem incredibly far away from their own, showing that human suffering is unacceptable no matter where in the world it takes place.

Emma Caswell

Content Manager

>> Follow Digital Annexe: @DigitalAnnexe

Two things that have interested me throughout my life have been trainers and the web. My interest in trainers roots from growing up around hobbies such as sports, street fashion, music and art. My interest in the web has developed as I have worked with it and started to understand the power and creative aspects that come with it. Working with clients such as Mercedes-Benz and Massey Ferguson I have worked with certain tools that allow users to configure the object they are looking at without leaving the comfort of their own home.

Something that has impressed me for the last few years has been a combination of both trainer design and a configuration tool. This leads me to the very creative and remarkably imaginative trainer configuration tool from Nike, called ‘NikeiD’.

NikeiD allows users to customize trainers to the users own individual tastes. It allows the user to change the colours of everything from lace colour to logo colour and even adding your name onto the tongue or back of your trainers for that extra piece of personalization. The trainers are slightly more expensive than the normal ones off of the shelf but hey…you’re the only ones with them in the world!

If you like trainers then give it a whirl….

http://store.nike.com/gb/en_gb/

Anthony Hurst

Web Content Team Manager

>> Follow me: @NorfHursty
>> Follow Digital Annexe: @DigitalAnnexe

Very often just the mention of fashion is met with an eye roll and an audible sigh. It’s one of the few art forms that is frequently treated with disdain and contempt, being waved off as frivolous and elitist. However, the ever-growing popularity of social media is helping to open up fashion, and in particular high-fashion, to a much larger audience who in the past may have dismissed it or been put off by the eccentricities of the industry or the ‘soulless’ characters that surround it.

The popularity of social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram has resulted in fashion designers, editors and style icons all embracing these platforms as a way to connect to their public on a more personal level. This breaks down the barriers of a previously closed-off industry to anyone with internet access, allowing them a sneak peek into what goes on behind-the-scenes and to communicate with the brands directly.

The fashion world on Twitter…

Some of the most well-known names in fashion now have active voices on Twitter including Diane Von Furstenberg, Paul Smith and Anna Wintour. However, it seems it is the biggest and most outrageous style icons of our time that have embraced Twitter the most – Daphne Guinness and Lady Gaga.  Their regular communication through tweets allows fans to see behind the curtain of the unusual clothes (and the outfit choices these girls make really can be quite bizarre!) and really humanise these individuals who can often be quite polarising.

The fashion industry has also been opened up through Twitter in a slightly different way too… Last summer, @CondeElevator took the Twitter universe by storm – unveiling some snippets of conversations overheard in the lift in the Conde Nast offices (publisher of Vogue), allowing both insiders and outsiders to join together and have a laugh at the more absurd side of the industry.

Fashion Week: Live streaming and Pinterest…

When Fashion Week comes around each season, getting an invite to see the runway shows live may be as likely as getting chosen to be the new tooth fairy, unless of course you work in the industry or are an A-list celeb. But now, the fashion world is making sure that everyone can be a part of the experience and see the clothes walking down the runway in real-time with the use of live streaming.

New York Fashion Week this February saw the vast majority of shows streamed live via YouTube (amongst other sites). The LiveRunway Channel broadcasted many of the biggest names in fashion, and as well as offering live streaming, it also brought behind-the-scenes videos so fans could get even closer to their favourite brands, including the likes of Vera Wang, Hervé Léger and Betsey Johnson.

Fashion Week has also found itself another home this season – Pinterest. Pinterest is the fastest-growing social networking site of the past year, and allows users to ‘pin’ items they find interesting (such as pictures or videos) to share with others. Fashion has become a prominent use for Pinterest and a visit to the site’s homepage will show many users sharing their wardrobes and favourite collections with others. However during this Fashion Week it was the Wall Street Journal who really took advantage of Pinterest’s increasing popularity by creating a New York Fashion Week pin board on the platform. This pin board gives an insider view by sharing exclusive photos, videos and commentary from shows like Oscar de la Renta and Marc Jacobs. Users can then view the coverage and ‘repin’ items they like to share with even more people.

Through embracing digital and social media, the fashion industry is opening up their world that has long been known as an exclusive club restricted to invite-only access… well now it seems this is changing and everybody is invited to come on in and be part of the fun!

Emma Caswell

Content Manager

>> Follow Digital Annexe: @DigitalAnnexe

I know I’ve posted about the “smart cover creator” before being featured in New Media Age but now we have the campaign results… And to say I was pleased is an understatement.

For those of you who haven’t heard of it (shame on you), in a nutshell we developed the “smart cover creator” to capitalise on the latest Timeline profile layout in Facebook, with the iconic smart UK brand. The result was a Facebook app reflecting smart’s brand values that enables users to create their own personalised profile cover image featuring aspects of their Facebook life in the style of either a mosaic or infograph. To keep it fun and smart (see what I did there…) like the brand we allowed for “colourise” effects, funky “borders” and quirky load screens.

Now for the best bit, the results…
With the help of some clever PR with New Media Age and an effective Facebook paid search campaign (managed by Maxus Global) we were able to smash all the objective’s set by smart UK.

Objective: Grow the number of people on the smart UK Facebook page by 1,000
Result: Increased fan base by 4,457 fans, a 88% increase overall

Objective: Increase the awareness of the brand measured in viral reach by 20%
Result: Increased the reach from 2.5k “impressions” to 4.2 million – a whopping 163,814% increase

Objective: Increase the website visits by 10% (YOY reflection)
Result: Contributed to an overall 137% YOY increase

Objective: Brand to be seen as innovative and up-to-date targeting a younger audience
Result: A difficult one to measure but with a dwell time of over seven and a half minutes, the extended fan-base and viral reach (as mentioned above) and the fact that the Facebook audience demographics saw a 2% increase in the number of males aged between 18-24 and a 5% increase in the number of females in the age group 25-34 (stats compared to the previous month), I think we can say we were pretty close to achieving this.

Our learning’s…
>> Piggy-back on a high-profile launch and reap the benefits of free publicly (in this case, the new Timeline layout)
>> Support your campaign effectively (in this case, paid search and PR)
>> Build to ensure the “shareablility” of the app between users, friends, the Facebook “News Ticker” and “Facebook Recommendations”
>> Capitalise on support from further channels including a Press Release, Twitter(#, RT and tweets)

Clients thoughts…
“Grabbing the opportunity to be the first to market with a new Facebook App to support the launch of Facebook’s Timeline, the cover creator reflects smart’s individual style helping you personalise your own profile.” Martine Edgell, Social Media and Search Specialist at Mercedes-Benz UK Ltd

That’s all from me.

Sam Francis
Account Manager

Follow me: @Sam_SP4
Follow Digital Annexe: @DigitalAnnexe

Last year social entertainment service GetGlue – a service which lets users check in and share what they are watching, listening to and reading with friends, passed the 1 million users mark. It also reached over 100 million data points which included check ins, likes and comments representing a powerful connection between social media and the people.

The finger ultimately points at the increasing interaction with television programmes via social networks, with Twitter providing a real-time online experience often referred to as a ‘virtual water cooler’ – a place where people meet to discuss the events or in this case the TV programme, from last night. Programmes in the UK such as ‘The Apprentice’, ‘The X Factor’ and more recently ‘The only way is Essex’ encourage an engagement with their programme which can be a great source of qualitative data for networks, who claim that off the back of their audience’s increased social interaction, show ratings went up by more than 10% last year. But ratings are only a small part of the bigger picture.

Word of mouth enables networks to forward think and influence program development; in 2011 this technique was used to promote adverts such as the Alicia Dixon & Weight Watchers campaign – Do it our way. The add finishes by pointing potential consumers towards YouTube and other social channels, aired on New Year’s Day to help inspire women to join, a perfectly timed campaign.

Another example of this happening is the Yeo Valley ‘The rapping farmers’ campaign which had a huge viral impact. Heavily planned and influenced by ITV, it helped raise the company retail value growth by 15% that year. Overall, over 10.8 million social impressions were calculated as a result of the adverts’ placement during the X Factor breaks, the single they released alongside the campaign also sold 2,638 units making the campaign an overwhelming success.

In 2012 television networks will undoubtedly be taking this into account, tapping into the behaviours of the people and engineering real-time conversation and social activity into their basic road map. Naturally networks will need to watch out for negative behaviours by playing their cards right, word of mouth can easily be turned sour so they must make sure they think smart in order to drive audience participation forward. Ill-thought social campaigns can quickly become a PR nightmare, something the recent McDonalds ‘Mcfail’ campaign illustrates perfectly.

Liam Atkins
Account Executive

>> Follow me: @Liam_SW4
>> Follow Digital Annexe: @DigitalAnnexe

Far too often people seem to get themselves in a muddle when it comes to basic web metrics; people confuse definitions all the time and in doing so, fail to realise the significance, or lack thereof, of the data they collect. I often find myself talking to people who run their own websites and don’t know the difference between page views and visits, or bounce rate and exit rate. In an attempt to tackle this problem I have collated a few of the basic terms and provided some definition and context. My future posts will start to take the basics and develop them a little further. So here it goes:

Page Views
A page view is counted every time a page on your site loads.

Visits
Sometimes called a session, a visit is counted every time your site is accessed. A single visit ends when the user leaves the site or is inactive for 30 minutes.

So what is the difference between page views and visits?
A visit is only counted once when a page (or group of pages) is accessed during a session. Page views count the number of times each page is accessed.

Example

A user enters your site via page A. They click on page B and then go back to page A. They are inactive for 30 minutes, then refresh page A before leaving the site.

Your site has had 1 unique visitor, 2 visits and 4 page views.

Page A has had 1 unique visitor, 2 visits and 3 page views.

Page B has had 1 unique visitor, 1 visit and 1 page view.

Unique Visitors
This is the number of unique people who visit your site. However, this cannot ever be 100% accurate.

Why can the number of unique visitors never be 100% accurate?
Repeat visitors are recognised by the cookie they received the first time they visited your site. Some people may have cookies disabled, or delete their cookies since last visiting your site. These people will not be recognised and will be counted as another unique visitor.

The number of unique visitors can also be over-inflated by users accessing your site from different devices. For example, a user may access your site from their home computer, their work laptop and their phone. Each of these devices will be given a different cookie and this user will be counted as 3 unique visitors.

On the contrary, multiple people can use the same device to access your site eg. a shared family computer. If cookies are enabled, they will all be counted as one unique visitor.

Entry
An entry to a page (or group of pages) is counted every time a user enters your site via this page (or one of these pages).

Entry Rate
The entry rate is the percentage of total visits to a page (or group of pages) that were entries.

Exit
An exit from a page (or group of pages) is counted every time this page (or one of these pages) is the last page to be accessed during a visit.

Exit Rate
The exit rate is the percentage of total visits to a page (or group of pages) that were exits.

Bounce
There are different definitions for a bounce but the most common is the same as a single access visit. This is a visit to your site during which only one page is viewed.

Bounce Rate
The bounce rate is the percentage of entries that were bounced.

What is the difference between exit rate and bounce rate?

Exit Rate =         Exits / Visits                             Bounce Rate =     Bounces / Entries

The exit rate of a page (or group of pages) considers the total traffic to this page (or group of pages); the bounce rate only considers traffic that entered your site via this page (or one of these pages).

For more web analytics definitions, see Google’s list of metric definitions.

For more information and advice on how to improve bounce rates, look at this infographic: Bounce Rate Demystified.
 
Laura Dadds
Junior Web Analyst

The New BBC Sport Online Homepage

After noticing that the ‘New BBC Sport’ site was trending on Twitter I was quite excited to see what their first major design update in over a decade had to offer. I was promised a site that would “put live coverage at the heart of its output in what is poised to be an unforgettable year of sport” and one that would place “the changing needs of sports fans… [who] go online to get up-to-the minute updates on the biggest sporting events, as they happen” at the core of its design.

The initial response to the design has been mixed to say the least, which one Tweeter succinctly summarised; “’I love the new BBC sport site!’ ‘I hate the new BBC sport site!’ Please delete where appropriate.” I have to say that my initial response is anything but mixed. Without trying to appear too critical, to me the new BBC Sport site looks like a subconscious advert for German title challengers Borussia Dortmund or a new site for flailing rivals Setanta Sports – which I thank God it’s not as I can barely deal with having to go to the pub every time Arsenal are on ESPN. The overwhelming use of bright yellow has meant I have had to lower the brightness on my screen as I write this post – in fact, I just opened up a new tab to shield my eyes – and the sheer amount of content has left me not knowing where to look first.

Ben Gallop, Head of BBC Sport Interactive, in his Editor’s blog claims “we have to embrace change – but we need to do so in a considered way; by listening to our users; by researching and analysing; and by using our editorial, design and technical expertise to make the best decisions we can.” He couldn’t be more right, no matter what industry we are in we all need to accommodate change and none more so than the digital industry. But whilst doing so, we must do something that, to me it seems, his design team may have overlooked – remember the basics. I am a huge advocate of simplicity in design and to ensure BBC Sport users have a smooth user experience the site must be logical and easy to navigate. As it stands there is simply way too much going on and it is difficult to know where to look first, and second for that matter. To be fair to him, Gallop does go on to admit that the work on the site is far from complete; to be honest I couldn’t agree more.

Daniel Webb
Account Executive

Follow me: @Daniel__Webb
Follow Digital Annexe: @DigitalAnnexe