Archive for the 'Websites' Category
10 February 2012 at 06:54
As The Beatles once wrote, "It's been a long time, now I'm, going back home. I've been away now, oh how, I've been alone".
It's a lovely song, really it is. But I only meant to quote the first 5 words...I just got carried away...the music in my head replacing the voices....er...
Anyway, it has indeed been a long time since last we met. How are you? Really? Well, you should get that seen to. Meanwhile, our apologies for radio silence, we've had a crazy few months and there's no let up.
What's new?
Most of our time....what am I thinking...ALL of our time (and then some) is being spent on the wonderful Bath Festivals.
All? Well, not all. The web brigade (those Hostpipe boys are like skirmishing Rifles circa 1814, so keen eyed and dynamic are they, just with fewer bayonets and more cross browser compatibility) continue to support Stewart Signs with all things technical. And there are some other bits and pieces.
A shameless plug
Do you like words? Do you like festivals? Do you like the glorious city of Bath? Well, you'll love The Independent Bath Literature Festival - 2nd to 11th March, with 200 events featuring:
William Boyd, Jim Al-Khalili, Stella Rimington, Sandi Toksvig, Lynne Truss, Nadine Gordimer, Tony Parsons, Alain de Botton, Claire Tomalin, Ali Smith, A.L.Kennedy, Carol Ann Duffy, A.N.Wilson, Salley Vickers, Jeremy Paxman, Evan Davis, Alan Titchmarsh....and that fella Charlie Dickens will make his presence felt.
Quick sticks - it's selling out!
Book your tickets: 01225 463362
Tags: The Independent Bath Literature Festival | Stewart Signs | Hostpipe | Utopia Communications
Posted in Websites | PR | Bath Festivals | Events | Fundraising | No Comments
28 January 2011 at 10:05
Avelo, the market leading providers of technical solutions for the financial services industry, appointed Utopia as their creative marketing agency to deliver 3 campaigns.
Campaign 1: Wealth Optimiser
Design and deliver the launch of Avelo's new wealth management product, Wealth Optimiser.
Utopia's brief included devising the campaign concepts - One Stop. All destinations - for a product that will, for the first time, enable financial services practitioners to access all their clients' assets and information from one, single place.
An integrated solution
Avelo, branded 1st - The Exchange at the time, wanted to keep the campaign marketing and implementation under one roof, so Utopia's integrated service was the natural choice. Speed, creative quality, technical competence and reliable communication gave this campaign the success it demanded, for which we provided:
- Creative design and product branding
- Copywriting
- Campaign website with online registration
- Video production
- Email marketing
- Banner adverts
- Trade Press advertising
Experience the campaign website, visit www.wealthoptimiser.co.uk
Campaign 2: RDR Countdown Programme (Retail Distribution Review)
Avelo required a creative concept / campaign idea together with associated marketing collateral to communicate the RDR Countdown Programme to a wide range of distributors in the financial services market.
Again, Utopia provided a full range of services underpinned by our design, copywriting and web skills to deliver:
- Campaign creative
- Email invitation
- Jump page
- Online banner advertising
- Branded print materials
Campaign 3: Avelo Roadshows
Avelo required a creative concept / campaign theme together with associated marketing collateral to promote the Joint Roadshow to a target audience of their key financial services clients. This would also be one of the first opportunities for Avelo to promote their new name and brand.
Utopia presented a range of creative ideas, combining our strengths in copywriting and design, to produce:
- Campaign theme and creative
- Email marketing and jump pages
- Direct Mail
- Online banner advertising
- Trade press advertising in Money Marketing magazine
Posted in Design | Copywriting | Branding | Websites | Email marketing | Advertising | Video | No Comments
14 June 2010 at 11:18
Whelford Group website live in under 2 weeks!
From design sign off to a live site with functionality – slide show and downloads - plus testing, checking and initial SEO to boot…the words ‘pulled out of the bag’ could readily be applied to this project.
Utopia’s web designer, Jamie McColm, is known for his magic tricks (and also an array of hilarious voices…seriously, call him, it’s quite astonishing, sometimes a bit scary..) but this one was a little slice of genius.
Flexible and Fast when you feel the need, the need for….cue the music
Jamie wasn’t sitting around twiddling thumbs or flying jets, he had all sorts of projects underway. But one of the many (U-rated) words you can use to describe Utopia, is: Flexible.
And that’s how it should be. If we can, we’ll do everything to reprioritise so that an urgent client need is delivered. (Our lawyers / families wish us to insert a ‘within reason’ caveat here!)
Holding Page? Ugh, no thanks
We’d already produced The Whelford Group’s new sales and marketing brochure and, with the regional business awards looming, we were asked to redesign and build a new website in time. Can’t have inconsistency with your touch points now, can you? No, you can’t.
With only 2 weeks to the awards, the obvious solution from the client was to slap up a holding page. But we don’t really like holding pages, so we came back with: “Nah, forget that – let’s see if we can do a bit more”…for ‘”we” came back with’ read Utopia’s MD, Owen (and um, yes, it is me writing this…possibly by way of an apology to Jamie). But did he flinch? No. Well, not that I’d know, I just left a hurried message on his voice mail and ran off.
Did he deliver? Absolutely. www.whelfordconstruction.co.uk
Posted in Design | Copywriting | Websites | No Comments
28 December 2009 at 11:14
What have we been up to in Utopia?
Don’t give me that look. I know it’s been ages since the last post, but we’ve been busy. Since the launch of the MASCo rebrand, their marketing activity has grown and grown, culminating in the Christmas-lights-style-switch-on of their new website.
Designed with the customer first, it’s already had lots of positive feedback. So what’s the focus for our marketing of MASCo in 2010? PR, email, and internet marketing. I want to bring that advertising spend down and hike up their exposure with a combination of traditional editorial and clever online activity. We’ll keep you posted.
What’s new?
Word of mouth has so far been the winning formula for our own client wins, but with the new Utopia Communications website about to launch (yes, finally!), we’ll be pushing more. The site includes a showcase of our recent work, which you can also navigate by service criteria (marketing, creative, web, PR), and there’s a client area that will keep communication flowing on individual projects.
A flurry of quotations and commissions ended the year (including two requests for copywriting arriving on Christmas Eve), so we look forward to leaping into spring (we don’t like winter) with all sorts of new challenges and interesting clients…apart from a new travel company coming on board in November, the construction industry seems to have taken a shine to Utopia. Resist urge to weave in building puns.
Happy New Year!
To all our clients, suppliers and friends, we wish you all every good fortune for 2010.
Utopia Communications
Posted in Design | Copywriting | Branding | Strategic Marketing | Websites | Email marketing | Advertising | Social Media | PR | No Comments
