Turn Key Blog. Things we've done and the things we love.

Designed and developed by Turn Key, Great Lengths’ website has been named as one of prestigious Net magazine ’s “sites of the month”. Here, the experts behind the sleek new site, Web Designer Oliver Harris and Web Developer Dave Walker , explain how they did it.

Design, by Oliver Harris

“Enhancements beyond expectation”

That’s the Great Lengths motto, and my aim was to incorporate that ethos into its new website. In order to do that, I got out my sketch pad and began to develop a concept that would push the boundaries of a traditional website, waving goodbye to the typical grid layout used by so many sites. I came up with a style guide which incorporated a flat user interface, beautiful large headlines using the Feijoa font family, and an original way to wrap the content around the striking Great Lengths imagery.

My aim was to ensure that the site was funky, fun and functional. The importance of having an easy-to-navigate desktop website cannot be overstated and as more and more people are using mobile phones to access web pages, sites need to be adaptable for multichannel browsing.

With this in mind, it was important that the design ensured that the site was adaptable to all screen sizes, including mobile and tablet. Once we had an approved desktop version, I turned my attention to the smaller devices.

Although I was able to draw on my experiences of creating responsive sites, the sheer amount of content I needed to use made this quite a challenge. After a lot of rearranging of the layout, reducing the font sizes, simplifying the structure of the site and countless on-screen mock-ups on various devices, I finally came up with the fully functional, multichannel site you see today.

I couldn’t be happier with the finished product, and after receiving industry recognition from Net magazine, I couldn’t be prouder either.

Development, by Dave Walker

Our brief was to deliver a website which focussed on outstanding design, whilst also incorporating complex functionality to achieve the best possible user experience. This meant developing a site using the latest HTML, CSS and Javascript techniques.

Prior to the development of the site, three key areas were identified as essentials; a salon locator, social network feed and a protected Professional area.

The client wanted to make the user’s experience as easy as possible, so for the salon locator function I used the effective yet simple Google Maps Geolocation API to determine distances between points and deliver a list of salons closest to the users’ location. When it came to mobile devices, I decided that for ease, it would be most efficient for these devices to automatically detect the users’ location.

The social feed is another of the site’s essential components, producing an aggregated list of Great Lengths’ activity across its main social networks. The main challenge here was that the feeds had to be pre-fetched and cached in order to be able to serve the page content instantly. To ensure that the feed would work regardless of the device, I used Masonry Javascript (a Javascript grid layout plug-in) to arrange all the items in an aligned grid and used an infinite scrolling functionality for these devices too, which adds to the experience of the feed.

Given the visual subject of the site, my main challenge as a developer was to ensure it would function on all devices, without compromising the quality of the images or the user experience of essential functions. By utilising caching and image optimisation the team managed to deliver a site that has surpassed the expectations of the client, received incredible recognition from experts in the industry and is as stylish as the brand it represents.

More to the point, it’s working. The stats from last months’ viewing figures are in and we’re proud to reveal that the site is not only holding its own in the style stakes, it’s also proving hugely successful among regular and new users alike. Monthly unique visitors have more than doubled, reaching a whopping 9,873 – 40% of these are returning visitors and an amazing 60% are first time visitors. What’s more, the average visit time per user has risen from four minutes to just under five.

And don’t just take our word for it – here’s what Carol Leo, MD of Great Lengths had to say: “ The feedback we’ve had from our clients has been nothing but positive and we’re all so proud of our new website. It gives me great pleasure to know the hard work Turn Key put into its development is being recognised”.

From social media sites to radio conversations, office canteens to school playgrounds everybody’s talking about Christmas adverts, so our Marketing Account Director, Nicole Levings , has delved a little deeper into which ones are her Christmas crackers.

As a nation we’re now well accustomed to waiting for the inevitable explosion of Christmas adverts to appear on our screens. Will John Lewis out do itself again? Or will this be the year another brand steals its crown? One thing’s for sure, gone are the days of the Coca-Cola trucks signalling the start of Christmas!

Here are my favourite festive three and why I think they’re so effective.

1.John Lewis. The bear and the hare

A touching tale told in a way that’s simultaneously epic and understated, bolstered by a key music choice, making the soundtrack as important as the visual. In keeping with the precedent set over the last few years – it is free of the products you might expect to see – successfully focusing on ‘giving’ and the emotion behind that feeling. It’s not done Lilly Allen any harm either!

2.M&S. Magic and Sparkle
This is such a fun advert and the clothes are spectacular. It’s a fantasy treatment, which references Alice in Wonderland and the Wizard of Oz. It’s beautifully made as you might expect, with exquisite production values, but I’m not sure the sight of Miss Rosie Huntington-Whiteley floating along on a magic carpet in her underwear will appeal to ‘all ages’!

I also really like how the retailer has managed to create a campaign at a brand level and used it to produce a shorter, product focussed advert for their food offering. The use of music plays a huge part in linking these differing adverts together.

3.Sainsbury’s. Christmas in a Day
I have to include this one, as I love the rawness of this genuine documentary style ad. Crowd-sourcing people’s home movies to put this together must have been SO much fun!

You can’t help but smile when you watch this advert as you recognise all the familiar things you do with your own family. I especially like the look of horror on the woman’s face when she states, “you don’t like it!” and then rolls her eyes…we’ve all been there! Plus, who didn’t have a tear in their eye when Dad arrived home from serving abroad. Overall a completely genuine, feel good advert.

The great thing is, in 2013, consumers don’t have to wait a few days to see their favourite ad on TV again. They can rack up as many views as they like on retailers’ YouTube channels and share it via social media with their friends. Check out the viewing figures to date for my favourite three adverts below.

John Lewis – 9,051,098
Marks and Spencer – 905,647
Sainsbury’s – 503,363

What’s more, for the first time ever, this year social media has launched a handful of Christmas ads. Twenty four hours before John Lewis’ prime time Saturday night TV slot, a sneak preview appeared on YouTube, closely followed by which was premièred on Twitter. Proof that the great British public is no longer prepared to wait for the iconic Coca Cola truck to roll onto our screens to kick start the festive season!

We love nothing more than discovering the secret talents and hidden passions of the people we work with every day, and here at Turn Key, we’ve got a lot of talent to shout about.

Our Creative Director, Richard Colvill , talks about his passion for Porches and how the design devil never really leaves his side…

Since as long as I can remember, I’ve loved beautifully designed cars.  One of my earliest memories is helping my dad to build his iconic AC Cobra, and from that moment, I was hooked.

Over the years I’ve restored nine porches and owned countless other super cars – each one has allowed me to cathartically combine my love of design with my boyhood love of motors.  Of all the cars I’ve brought back to life, my biggest project to date has been the latest one…a Porche 92 Carrera 4 finished in a striking shade of amethyst. What’s more, having featured in many magazines, including this month’s glossy Performance VW magazine as a 12 page spread, it’s also my proudest achievement to date too.

The ironic thing is I never really intended for this car to become a full restoration project. I bought it covered in bird droppings, cigarette burns, and rust, with the intention of sticking on some wheels and suspension and selling it to somebody who would give it a good home.  But, as anybody in the creative industry will understand, the quest for complete and utter design perfection knows no bounds and soon enough this was a complete restoration project.

I’ve stripped it, tuned it, custom-built it, re-sprayed it, and colour coordinated things like gold wheels with gold seatbelts. I even questioned my own obsessive design tendencies when I found myself re-producing the original warning stickers in gold as well just to stay in keeping with the overall design.

Working in a creative industry, we find that our eye for design and quest for perfection is limitless and so the challenge to restore this beautiful prestigious motorcar was just too hard to resist, I’m so proud of the result…but I also have a short attention span – I’ve sold it and have now bought a really old Classic in even worse condition than the Carrera.

And so it begins again…

Last week, our social savvy, Senior Account Manager, Samara headed down to London for a course on Content Marketing and Editorial Planning held by leader in digital marketing and insight, Econsultancy. Read on to see what top tips she picked up…

Training is really important here at Turn Key, so when I was given the chance to expand my skills in Content Marketing I jumped at the opportunity. The course was run by Econsultancy and presented by Dan Fielder, the Co-founder of . The full day course was geared around content (in all shapes and sizes) and was designed to inform and educate marketeers on how it’s more important than ever for a brand to share engaging, thought provoking content online in order to stand out from the crowd.

A simple description of Content Marketing is as follows:

“The art of creating, curating and distributing valuable content combined with the science of measuring its impact on awareness. It’s business-relevant without the selling, so instead of pitching products or services, good content marketing is all about sharing useful content at the right time to ultimately raise brand awareness to result in a sale.”

To put the increased demand for Content Marketing into perspective, over the last few years, the online world has massively evolved and gone are the days where a company can rely on good SEO (search engine optimisation) to rank at the top of Google’s organic search engine. Nowadays it’s all about the content, I guess you could use the phrase ‘style over substance’. Once upon a time styling, or embedding your website with loads of keywords to rank higher would have cut it, but not anymore. Content is now the substance and style, which is required by Google in order to gain more exposure online.

Without going too deep into the science of it all, Google has changed the way in which it ranks websites and now applauds companies regularly sharing content by ranking them higher in the organic search engine. To break it down further, more content driven companies are those that are sharing rich and engaging content regularly, either through their social media channels or on a blog.

So, as you can imagine with this shift, it’s increasingly important to create content that Google deems interesting – interesting enough to rank you higher than your competitors!

I picked up loads of great tips and techniques on how to create, curate and re-create content that will get noticed online. Here are my 5 top tips from the course:

1)      Planning content is essential – creating an editorial calendar of content will help you to create topical content that people are searching for

2)      Create content that counts – don’t post content for the sake of it!

3)      Time is of the essence – create and share content when you know your end-user is looking for it online

4)      Stock Vs. Flow content – create one main piece of content, the stock content and then create smaller pieces, such as tweets (flow content) to leverage the content – COPE – c reate o nce p ublish e verywhere!

5)      Share and share alike – share other peoples content – they will in turn share yours which will deem your content interesting in Google search engine

As an agency, Content Marketing is a service we’ve been offering for sometime. Clients who benefit from this include leading boiler manufacturer, Ideal Heating and leading 100% human hair extension brand, Great Lengths .

If you want to discuss how Content Marketing could help your business boost its online presence, feel free to get in touch!

Our PR Account Manager Victoria Bartram tackled the first ever Plusnet Yorkshire marathon , here she tells us how it went:

Don’t be fooled by this blog post, I’m not a runner.

When I ran 20 miles for the first (and only) time during training, I used Colin the Caterpillar sweets as fuel and my post-run recovery included gin, tonic, and a bag of salt & vinegar crisps.  In fact, I only really started running so that I could eat a share size bag of M&Ms for dinner and not feel too bad about it.

Unfortunately for me, I got carried away with my New Year’s resolutions back in January and flippantly signed myself up to take part in the inaugural Yorkshire marathon, well…it was ten months away so I could live in denial about the whole thing for at least seven and a half months.

The months quickly passed, and my training fell by the wayside at times, so it’s safe to say I was a quivering wreck on the morning of Sunday 20 ^th October as I headed to the beautiful city of York to take part in my first ever 26.2 mile race.

Before I really had time to think about it, my number was pinned to my jacket, my headphones were in and I was standing at the start line gripping a bottle of Lucozade like it was the flimsy safety bar on a fairground rollercoaster.

Working in PR, we like to plan for every eventuality, we like to have a strategy, we do our research and we respond to things quickly. We like to see results, but most of all we like to ensure a hefty Return On Investment for our clients, which is exactly what I was looking for as I questioned why I was doing this.

Having done months of research, poured over blogs, magazines, and chatted to marathon runners, I decided my strategy would simply be just to run. It worked because I don’t know where the first 18 miles went – before I knew it I was running towards my friends and family as they waited in one of the spectator zones. Feeling a massive rush of relief at seeing familiar faces, I burst into tears, but they gave me the boost I needed to get to the miles 23 and 25 where I knew I’d see them again.

It’s a funny thing, running a 26.2 miles. The physical pain in your legs and feet goes with the 21-mile territory but it’s the mental pain that I wasn’t prepared for. Every ounce of you wants to stop but that’s the real challenge. I had no idea how to get past that stage, so I put one foot in front of the other and carried on until the end, literally step-by-step.

Crossing the finish line in 4 hours 29 minutes and 42 seconds I got my ROI: An enormous and overwhelming sense of pride. After hobbling to the finishers’ zone and soaking up the amazing atmosphere, it started to sink in that I was officially a marathoner.

When I started running three years ago, I couldn’t run further than 0.3 miles without having to collapse in a heap on the side of the road but I made it my goal to run 1k, then 5k, then 10k, then a half marathon, and finally, a full 26.2 mile marathon.

This experience has taught me two things: 1. No matter how much I try to tell myself I do, I really don’t like running and 2. When you really genuinely believe you can’t do something that’s the time to prove yourself wrong. It’s the best feeling in the world.

For the last three years, we’ve been creating stand-out campaigns and initiatives for High Wycombe based shopping centre, Eden . Last month, we were tasked with refreshing its ‘Discover Eden’ campaign, a creative concept we launched to attract more shoppers to the centre.

TK’s marketing Senior Account Executive, Leanne Seward , talks about the process of evolving the concept and reveals the new look marketing material…

Our objective was to create a new campaign for Eden that was inviting, intriguing, aspirational and reflective of the centre’s premium range of shops, food and entertainment outlets. It had to be flexible enough to adapt over two years across a range of collateral and it needed to make them stand out from their competitors with compelling creative to encourage first time visits.

Our challenge? To find a way to move the original ‘Discover Your Eden’ campaign forward. After developing a range of concepts, we whittled them down to one firm favourite which ticked all our objectives – the model floating and being surrounded by a range of beautiful products from Eden. Creative idea complete, it was now time to execute.

With photo shoots there’s always a lot to consider – the photographer, the model, the stylist, hair and make-up, props and most importantly, the snacks throughout the day! The team loved the concept of the shoot, so for us the challenge was taking the idea we had on paper and turning it into a reality.

As you can see from our behind-the-scenes snaps, the model needed a little time to warm up. Trying to recreate our concept meant asking her to jump, move and fall off a block whilst maintaining her pose and still looking beautiful. This was pretty complex, so our designer Sean decided to show her how it’s done! See his perfect first attempt in our montage below.

After securing a number of shots that captured the pose, we then took these back to the design studio where the magic of retouch happened. On this occasion, it was about combining elements of a number of different shots together, to get the perfect image.

We’re absolutely delighted with the final images and so is the client. The whole process just goes to show how much work goes into creating just one great image – from the photo shoot to the final retouching.

The new marketing campaign has been rolled out over six sheet, bus rears and ATM machines all over High Wycombe, followed by in store posters to accompany it using a similar look and feel.

Happy days!

The Internet as we know it today has changed a great deal from the “Information Super Highway” of the 90’s. Our web developer, Steve Duffin , explains how it has evolved and why the web rocks in 2013.

Here at Turn Key we strive to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to trends in the digital and creative world. That’s particularly true of web development – the Internet is changing, advancing, and refining itself at a rapid pace; it’s a really exciting time to be developing websites and using advanced technology that’s within reach for everyone.

Here are four reasons why we love the web in 2013 and some of the challenges we now face:

1 #Pace

Most modern Internet browsers now update without you even noticing. Chrome and Firefox release a new version roughly every six weeks. When you compare that to the five-year gap between Internet Explorer 6 and 7, you can begin to grasp how quickly advances are being rolled out.

2 #Collaboration and Openness

We’re a friendly bunch in the web world, and collaboration and openness are two of our best traits. With the pace of the Internet moving so rapidly, it can be easy to get left behind so you’ll find lots of web developers work together to discuss solutions to common problems and share their experiences, both on and offline.

3 #Technology

HTML 5 and CSS3 are powerhouse technologies when it comes to animation, graphic acceleration, and visual effects. The ability to achieve more in code makes for an increasingly flexible and adaptable platform.

4 #Reach

There are 5.2 billion people on the planet who own a mobile phone and 51% of all phones being sold this year are internet enabled *. This means millions of people are walking around with a powerful, web-connected computer in their pockets and that’s an incredible potential audience for a brand, product or message.

Turn Key’s approach

From iPads to androids, and kindles to a million other different types of mobile device – designers face the issue of a huge variety in device capabilities, screen sizes, and even the context in which websites are being viewed.

So, in order to stay sane in such a fast-changing industry, we have begun to implement web-building strategies that are not only able to adapt for this varied landscape, but that will also hold up on devices that have yet to come to market. Here’s how we’re doing it:

#Responsive design

Site’s that adapt to a device’s size are really useful but when developing a new site, we don’t just focus on the number of pixels on the screen; we also work hard to ensure they respond to context and capability.

Before we start building a site we need to boil elements down to a set of core components. Defining the context and use of each element allows even the most basic interpretation of a site – so that even when stripped of all design – they still have meaning to a computer.

#Progressive Enhancement

We start with a core experience and build up from there. This enables users on less capable devices to reach essential information, but then offer an enhanced experience for those viewing from a more proficient device.

#Mobile First Development

Whether watching twerking clips on Vine or playing Candy Crush Saga, mobile phone users have limited screen space and little time to concentrate on their web experience. The solution – we often build websites with a focus on the mobile experience first, and then scale that up for tablets and desktops.

What does the future hold?

Websites can have a relatively short shelf life, so it’s important for developers to create a lasting impression. Utilising our skills and creativity, we can realise the vision of the granddaddy of the Internet, Sir Tim Berners Lee:

“ The web’s primary design principle is universality… it should be accessible from any kind of hardware that can connect to the Internet: stationary or mobile, small screen or large ”

So let’s embrace the flexibility of the modern web and make it work for us!

Everyone loves an excuse to eat cake and over-indulge as the cold weather creeps upon us. And here at Turn Key, we’re no different. So as a part of National Baking Week, and inspired by this years’ gripping series of The Great British Bake Off , we decided it would be fantastic to hold our own version of the culinary contest, and raise some money for a local charity in the process.

We briefed and challenged the whole agency regarding the upcoming competition and 13 budding bakers stepped forward, ready to fight for the title of champion and raise some money for the Leeds Children’s Charity .

The Leeds Children’s Charity work untiringly to help underprivileged children in Leeds, such as those suffering from illness or injury, neglect, or even child carers that need a well-earned rest. Given the remarkable efforts of this local charity, we thought it would be great to raise as much as we could from our bake off fun, that would go to helping children in difficulty in our own city.

Last Friday 23 ^rd October, our bakers donned their chefs’ toques and trusty aprons and put their creative minds to good use by producing baking masterpieces to rival this year’s British Bake Off finalists. More importantly, their fabulous cakes encouraged generous donations from colleagues and neighbouring businesses alike, to raise an impressive total of £115!

The sheer amount of cake on offer was incredible, with a huge variety of treats to suit every taste including chocolate fudge cake, Victoria sponge, banana muffins and coffee cake. The picnic table in the office was sweet-tooth heaven, and not a single person could resist temptation, allowing the donation box to be filled to the brim.

The all-important taste test was carried out by our Managing Director Nik Entwistle , AKA Paul Hollywood, and Turn Key’s Head of Finance Vikki Atherton , acting as Mary Berry. The star baker, PR Account Manager Victoria Bartram , was chosen as the winner for her Oreo Chocolate Cake, which the judges favoured for its original flavour and impressive appearance.

Of course there were some great quotes along the way from our very own Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry, with certain recipes receiving less than favourable comments as our resident judges took their roles very seriously indeed. It is safe to say there were a lot of laughs and full stomachs towards the end of the day. So with one full pot to be sent to such a worthy charity, the Turn Key bake off was a huge success and we’d like to think the Queen of cakes herself, Ms Mary Berry would be proud of us too!

Two of our designers, Carl and Paul , visited the 25 ^th annual Sun Awards, showcasing the best in professional photography generated in the north of England. Here they talk about some of their favourite pieces…

Whilst we spend our working lives creating, retouching, and identifying beautiful brand concepts here at Turn Key, we also love nothing more than expanding and building upon our creative knowledge in our free time.

What’s more, we also love free beer.

So when we were invited to the 25 ^th Anniversary of the Sun Awards and Exhibition, we jumped at the chance. Attended by creative directors, commercial photographers, art directors and designers, this year’s exhibition took place at Leeds Gallery, and with the free beer flowing, the creative folk of Leeds set about networking.

The calibre of award entries was sensational, and a real credit to everybody who made it to the final round. We spent a couple of hours wandering around the exhibition talking to the photographers and soaking up the atmosphere before the official winner was announced.

We spend a lot of time editing photos and putting together creative identities for the brands we work with here at Turn Key – so it was fascinating to see the different editing techniques used by the award entrants and how they used them in ways we’d never seen before. We’re used to seeing commercial photography, so to be able to dissect other kinds of  creative photography and understand the case studies behind the images was a refreshing change.

One of our favourite photographers and a regular at Turn Key, Steve Sharp exhibited some of his work at the awards, and although he wasn’t placed as one of the winners – we loved his solitary car image below.

Events like Shot Up North are great ways to showcase the talent in the north, rubbing shoulders with creative and design experts who are producing thought-provoking and game-changing work really resonates how Leeds is regarded as a creative hub of the country.

We had a great time – thanks for the invite guys!

After weeks of speculation, hints and rumours about what the day was to hold in store for us excited and somewhat anxious Turn Key’ers, we finally set out on our annual away day on Friday 27 ^th September.

As our Business Support Executive, Lucy, who had planned the day in its entirety, sat smug knowing full well what was in store for her colleagues, we set off with a bus full of excited employees amidst cries of “Erm, will there be bacon sandwiches when we get there?”

When our coach pulled into the Camp Hill Estate at Bedale, North Yorkshire we were none the wiser as to what was in store for our team building day. But after lining our tummies with tea and bacon butties, we were ready to rumble, whatever the activity…

For the morning session we were told we would all remain together rather than be split into groups right away, with the more competitive members of the team – mentioning no names – being assured that the afternoon would be their chance to shine.

After an inspiring presentation by Nik and Rich about the incredible future in Turn Key ’s sights – stay posted for exciting news! – and a reminder that the day was all about kicking back and having fun, we were led to a large grassy space just in front of a huge, seemingly wild forest. Upon seeing the numerous harnesses laid out on the grass, we realised exactly what we were going to be doing, but were clueless as to how hard it would be on our minds or bodies!

The Camp Hill instructors helped us all into our harnesses and showed us how the course, aptly named Aerial Extreme, would work in terms of safety. Once fully prepped and ready to go, we marched on together, making our ascent up the first enormous tree one-by-one. The course had us balancing on suspended logs, shimmying across high-wires and hanging upside down on ropes, but we spurred each other on through every challenge until we finally clapped and cheered each person as they flew down the zip-wire at the end.

After a well-earned rest, trays of sandwiches and enough biscuits to feed the agency for a week, we were back on our feet and being split into five teams, each selecting creative yet cryptic names for themselves in the forms of; ‘The Lindy Hoppers’, ‘My Lovely Horse’, ‘Infinity & Beyond’, ‘Fantastic Team Four’ and the rather original ‘Team Three’.

Each team was directed to a different site in the camp’s impressive grounds, where we all completed five incredible challenges including Rage Buggy driving, which saw us driving full throttle on a grass circuit in buggies as featured on Top Gear, a Quad Biking Technique challenge, and the thrilling Bob- Sleigh Push-Start challenge, which had us practicing on an Olympic training facility – not too shabby!

Of course the day wasn’t all about motorised sporting fun, there were some mentally demanding tasks to complete that saw us all pull together in our teams. The first of these being the Plane Crash Rescue Mission, and the other the notoriously difficult Swing Bridge task which had every group scratching their heads and forming a plan to transport each person safely across the course, using only two barrels, a plank of wood and a swinging tyre – all against the clock! It is safe to say there were some interesting techniques adopted for this challenge, which saw us all getting up close and personal (as you can see below).

After a quick shower and change into our glad-rags, we huddled together in the main hall and awaited the results of the afternoon’s competitions. The Camp Hill staff faced a sea of serious faces, none more apparent than that of Mike, our Head of Marketing and the most competitive person in the agency by far.

Unfortunately for Mike, his team didn’t pip the post, instead ‘The Lindy Hoppers’, claimed the winners’ title, with ‘My Lovely Horse’ coming in at the rear of the competition, proving that no amount of admiration for Camp Hill’s beautiful ponies would bump their scores up.

Banter in full swing; we hopped on the bus and were delivered at the most unassuming little pub for what turned out to be some fantastic food. With wine and laughter in abundance, everyone soon got into the annual award-giving spirit to honour the most embarrassing, memorable and hilarious moments of the trip, a good old giggle to end a fabulous day!

A week on and we’re all finally over the aching muscles, back in the agency with a fresh sense of team spirit and admiration for each other, not to mention a  few new nicknames we’ll probably never shake off, ‘Wheezy’ you know who you are…