Here at Portfolio, we are always interested in seeing the latest in social media mashups, and so an amusing diversion in the inbox this morning was the “IS Parade” powered by Twitter.
Simply add your TwitterID or a keyword and see your followers, following you…literally…
The last couple of weeks have been rather frantic in the Portfolio office with the Manchester Jazz Festival rebrand, print and website launch. Then as the festival kicked off, we jumped back into the saddle to help out with social media management (Flickr, YouTube, Twitter) and some last minute print requests.
In fact, the print has gone down so well that with brochure stocks diminishing, we had to produce an extra listings leaflet for the final big weekend:
Hi all, just to let you know that I’ve just been catching up with Lee at Stick Up, who has told me that the print for 2010 has gone phenomenally well, they have been whizzing through boxes, had the biggest pick up rate so far and people have even been nicking posters. He says it’s been really well received…
Rachel Bartholomew
Marketing Manager
Manchester Jazz Festival
Friday 23rd July saw the launch of the 2010 Manchester Jazz Festival. Steve Mead, Artistic Director (Pictured) invited Portfolio to say a few words at the launch about our rebranding of the festival and the “find your jazz” concept.
A cornerstone of every successful marketing campaign, product or brand launch is understanding the target market. This means not only understanding the key industry drivers – what will make the audience buy the product, pick the phone to ask for the service etc. – but also knowing how best to communicate with that audience.
Here at Portfolio, we have to frequently virtually put ourselves in the place of anyone from a teenager wondering what to do with their summer, through a young professional buying a Timberland jacket to an elderly lady wanting to take up exercise.
So it’s vitally important we keep up to date with the latest language, trends and attitudes. Cue, a fantastic web discovery:
The Urban Dictionary – http://www.urbandictionary.com
Today we’ve learnt the meaning of:
A great thing about the website is also that whatever the definition, with 1 click you can become seconds away from owning a mug with it on – definitely Web 2.0 at its best!
Let’s just hope the recipient of the Imba mug in this year’s secret Santa Santa doesn’t take it too personally!
One of my colleagues found this great article about debunking the myth of the page fold online – definately worth sharing:
Above the fold is a graphic design term that refers to important content being on the upper half of the front page of a newspaper. It’s commonly used on the web to describe the area you see on a web page before you have to scroll down the page.
With many designers moving from print and offline to the web, there’s been a general assumption you should restrict the main calls-to-action and content to above the “page fold”, i.e. above the scroll point on a browser viewed at a screen resolution of 1024×768 (although this is soon to drop off as the base for monitors continues upwards).
However research indicates people don’t mind and major brands such as the BBC, Play, Amazon and the New York Times are showing similar disregard for the fold.
Whilst we certainly shout in studio about projects we’re proud of, it’s always great to take our voice to a wider audience. With entries on Typecast growing, yesterday saw a snapper from the Bolton Evening News to take pictures of Jasper and Jennie for their business section.
Together with our parent company Delineo (http://www.delineo.com), we’re talking part in a sponsored walk at the beginning of October to raise money for a charity supported by The Co-operative Group.
The event is ‘The Journey to the Centre of the Kingdom’ basically a 17K walk in the Ribble Valley. We will be split into mixed teams and do some good old fashioned orienteering with a map and compass, no gps devices. (Tony, leave your iPhone at home!)
With an anticipated pub stop at the end, it should be an ace day out!
Like plumbers who never quite find the time to fix the leeky tap in their upstairs bathroom, here at Portfolio we’ve just been far too busy with client projects to sort out our own website.
However, with innovative and creative projects flying out the door, we felt it was really time to start shouting again!
(Plus as you can see from the pic below, our website had the dreaded “shrinks”)
