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…

http://isparade.jp/

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.

One of the pieces receiving praise at the CiB awards was the Evidence of Our Achievements booklet. Designed to inform local people about just what a police authority is and explain the work they do, it was named Communication of the Year, gained a prestigious Best Publication award and also received a merit for Design.

Produced in partnership with Lancashire Police Authority’s Head of Community Engagement, the booklet, which was sent out in a clear envelope to replicate a forensic evidence bag, innovatively brought to life the importance and responsibilities of a police authority.

With the start of Manchester Jazz Festival (http://www.manchesterjazz.com) only 2 days away, it was great to see the arrival of the 6 sheet posters all over Manchester city centre.

As well as making it easy for people to find out about the festival, we wanted to make it easy for people at the festival to find out what’s going on. So, if you point your mobile’s web browser to (http://www.manchesterjazz.com/mobile/), there’s a simple cut-down what’s-on for each day designed specifically for mobile screens.

… Nice!…

Given just three weeks to produce three highly detailed booklets for a key client, many agencies would be forgiven for feeling the pressure. However, when Bolton Council’s brief to produce their CPD (Continued Personal Development) documents for 2010/11 landed in June 2010, the Portfolio team simply took it in their stride.

The booklets, which each focus on a particular area of educational expertise, are designed to give all staff, including teachers and school governors access to events and training aimed at improving performance and enhancing careers.

For Portfolio’s part, the CPD programmes allowed us to showcase our ability to take large volumes of highly detailed information and present it in a creative way. The finished booklets featured attractive colour combinations and subtle illustration, bringing together elements of functionality and design to give the documents real fluency.

Led by Portfolio Account Manager Debbie Green, the project proved the perfect opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to client satisfaction and quality by producing three high quality, high volume documents on deadline and to specification.

Just how far should you go to keep clients happy? In the case of a recent project for Timberland, we headed over the Himalayas and into the heart of Asia.

Having been tasked with sourcing some high quality shoehorns for this global fashion brand, Portfolio’s adventurous Account Manager Karen Flaherty set off on her quest. Searching the four corners of the globe, Karen found just what she was looking for in India.

After tracking the shoehorns down, the next step in the journey was to produce labels in the native language of each of the nations where they where going to be made available.

Once we’d got our heads (and tongues) around this challenge to bring the Timberland brand closer to its customers’ right across Europe, the maple shoehorns could then be shipped out to stores in Spain, Germany, Portugal, Italy, France and the UK.

The unique nature of this project and the way we handled it perfectly demonstrates Portfolio’s dedication to meeting even the most challenging brief. It also proves how flexible we can be, adapting the way we work and going further to provide a truly full service offering to our clients. After all, why let borders be boundaries?

To win the pitch, we took the normal Portfolio approach of getting under the skin of the job and hit the streets to ask people what they thought of Jazz and the festival:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMWHZ1UyVq0

From our research and a day with jazz on Spotify, we came up with the * concept: using an asterisk to challenge people’s perception of jazz, alert them to the wide varieties of music that falls under the jazz banner and say to them: find your jazz*

With a brochure, website, t-shirts and stationery already in the post.. it’s time to knuckle down to the final banners before the saxophones start!

More information:

http://www.manchesterjazz.com

Keen to promote itself as much more than somewhere to go to the gym or play tennis, Bolton Arena wanted to tell everyone within a 10 mile radius about all it had to offer. So to position the £15m state of the art complex near Horwich as the ultimate leisure and business venue for all the community, Portfolio created the Access All Areas campaign.

Targeting local people with a B2C approach, we produced a targeted mailshot with voucher book worth £350 to encourage footfall, advertising in public sector titles and an update of the Arena’s website. External banners, staff t-shirts and branding for the reception area were created to really pull the campaign together.

Alongside this, a B2B mailer took the Access All Areas message to local companies sourced from the Top 500 Businesses List.