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

We’re well into January now and 2013 is looking to be a busy one for the creative industry. Our team of design, PR, marketing and digital experts have put their heads together to predict the future trends that will be coming our way this year.

Jude Turner, Head of Digital

“My prediction is that data will become increasingly important – not just what we do with it but how we analyse it.

“As clients become more and more demanding regarding ROI for their marketing spend, we will have to show them how to understand their customers better – using social media, web analytics, email stats and search results – so they can give them more relevant and targeted content and better convert stats into sales!”

Leanne Bayston, PR Account Manager

“The digital sphere is changing the way we consume news and how businesses engage with their audiences. This will continue to evolve in 2013 and PR agencies which don’t embrace this will be left behind.

“We’ve already been working closely with our digital team to develop strategies for our clients. PR will continue to become more about two-way communication and engaging with an audience rather than pushing messages at them.”

Richard Colvill, Creative Director

“I’m starting to see a massive shift of interest into user interface design. This has come about since the iPhone etc and is a great way to showcase attention to detail and to make apps much more appealing. Our designers are all spending more time designing, crafting, shading and texturing user friendly graphics. This is something that all designers are putting their skills to, not just digital designers. These gorgeous buttons and elements are right up our street as they always utilise light and shade along with texture and depth, which is part of our house style.

“A bit of a digi prediction but I’m thinking that all web sites will be as exposed as possible, what I mean by this is that they will have all the options open to the viewer, similar theory to the iPhone. I’m noticing a lot more mosaic, grid and blog style sites. I predict that single page sites which utilise the scroll action only will come in to effect.

“Old-school print techniques have also come back in a big way. Foil blocking is almost a given on print jobs now, everything I see has a foil shine somewhere. I’m predicting that flat foils will start taking the crown. Other traditional print techniques like letterpress are also grabbing the designers spec sheets, with the options of many more colours than foils but still with the seductive impressed depth finish and fluo options.”

Mike Robinson, Head of Marketing

“With the market still in economic uncertainty, businesses are facing many challenges and making tough calls on budgets. In 2013, clients will no doubt continue to look for value, trust and real partnerships from their agency.

“Brands also need to think smarter about their customers – truly understanding their world is key to communicating effectively. Bringing this insight together with engaging messaging, content and creativity which truly connect people to the essence of your brand, will drive your business forward. So it’s those brands who strive to combine planning, insight and creativity that will no doubt come out top this year.”

Our PR and Social Media Account Manager, Samara , shares her top five tips on how to use social media to benefit your business.

1) Be Selective

With over 900 social media channels whirling around the web, it’s important to select the right channels for your business. Don’t just follow the crowd, take time to understand your audience, identify where they ‘hang out’ online and develop a clear and concise plan of attack – a great campaign is wasted if it’s not targeted at the right people.

2) Patience is a virtue

Gaining thousands of followers, hits or likes doesn’t just happen overnight (unless you’re Justin Bieber!) Take time to understand your market, what they engage with, what gets them excited and then use these insights to create rich and engaging content.

3) Content is KING

Social media is a beast that needs feeding. And now, due to the rise in smartphones and the introduction of 4G, if you don’t push out the right content at the right time, your message will be lost in cyberspace.

A well-managed social media channel is one that is regularly updated with engaging and interesting information. Content will vary from one brand to another, but it’s the interesting stuff that makes people come back for more!

4 ) Nobody likes a social climber

Social media takes no prisoners. Don’t be THAT person who always talks about themselves, listen to your followers so that they continue to engage with you. If you’re seen to be self-promoting it is likely that your followers will start to disengage with you.

If you’re in a position to respond individually to each person, do. This will work wonders for you – the powers of word of mouth are as strong today as they were before the social evolution.

5) Invaluable insights

Unlike some forms of traditional media, social media can be monitored based on a number of factors. Look at your objectives and work out what success means to you. Historically (well, two years ago), success was measured by the amount of ‘followers’ or ‘likes’ a brand had, however this has changed quite significantly, today it’s more about the level of engagement and positive sentiment.

My tip would be to track your tweets and use Facebook’s free insight tool to understand what kind of messages your audience is engaging with. Use these insights to create even more engaging content based on what your audience wants, not what you want!

Turn Key designer Sean has been busy with some exciting graphic motion projects over the past few weeks. Here he talks about his work with metalcore band, Bring Me The Horizon, on the teaser video for their upcoming album, Sempiternal.

When we first heard about the opportunity to work with Bring Me The Horizon , we couldn’t wait to get stuck in. The band wanted to create a dynamic video for the forthcoming album Sempiternal, using the symbol of the cover’s artwork. Having such an open brief gave us a lot of creative freedom over the project.

To design an engaging two minute video that was basically just made up of circles, we had to be very creative and carefully plan each stage so that the viewer wouldn’t lose interest. This was the main obstacle for us and we relished the challenge.

From listening to the music we broke the animation up into three sections. The beginning needed to be slow and mystical to reflect the opening of the song, then progressively speed up, becoming more aggressive as the beat kicks in and singing starts. It all builds up to the ending when the symbol forms together just before the final bass drops.

Having the circles appearing gradually and slowly building up the symbol throughout the animation gave a feeling of depth and space. We managed to capture the mood and intense build-up of the music with the animation, which really grabs the viewer’s attention and doesn’t let go, fulfilling our brief perfectly.

For a project that was such a quick turnaround, we had a lot of creative freedom which gave us an opportunity to really show off our talent. Overall the client (and their fans) gave amazing feedback, everyone at Turn Key loved it and the internet hits have been phenomenal!

Check out the video here:

No day is ever the same for our Digital Account Director, James Wray . Here’s a little update on the sights he’s seen recently, including Ideal Heating’s stand at this year’s Retro Expo…

Sometimes working at a creative agency, you find yourself in places you never dreamed you’d get to.

Last week I was working on the latest album website for metalcore band Bring Me The Horizon one day the next finding myself at an onshore gas drilling rig near the Lancashire coast! The following day, Rachel Phipps and I attended Retro Expo at the Birmingham NEC, otherwise known as the UK heating industry’s event of the year.  Ceaseless glamour!

We were there to meet our client Ideal Heating and to see Turn Key’s artwork and animations for the Magnificent 7 campaign come to life on their amazing new exhibition stand.

As a career-long digital marketer, I’m used to seeing the fruits of my labour exist in the virtual world. However, it is still something really quite special when I get the chance to see work in a physical environment, particularly for me when it consists of an outdoor digital element too!

Ideal’s stand was the cream of the crop at Retro Expert, the most stand-out by far! Consisting of statues of huge rotating 7’s (marking the ‘7 year warranty’ campaign), a bar (always important in attracting visitors!), and beautiful canvases with the campaign messages. There was even a giant LED video wall (the kind you see at rock concerts) playing a specifically created animation including a timer, counting down in real time to the end of the 7 year warranty offer.

Take a look for yourself…

As many marketeers and creatives will know, The Drum recently launched a Pussy Riot campaign in support of freeing the Russian punk band from jail. As part of its continual quest to promote freedom of speech, the publication called out for designers and creative professionals to invent a quirky piece of merchandise to support the appeal.

At Turn Key, we love a challenge and our Junior Designer, Carl , quickly got to work. He came up with the incredible app, Angry Bitches.

The app takes on the legacy of the popular Angry Birds, aimed at the ever-growing demand of the casual gamer. The objective of the game is to wreak havoc for your rights in the name of feminism, using the ’slinky shot’ (cleverly entitled by Emma from PR!) to fire band members and disrupt the opposition. As the game develops you gather more power as you race through levels unleashing accumulated ‘Pussy Power’ in the form of speed, strength and other abilities.

As soon as we submitted the artwork to The Drum, it was uploaded onto the website as their ‘Pick of the Day’ and needless to say Carl was grinning like a Cheshire Cat for the rest of the afternoon!

The winning piece of merchandise will be transformed into an actual product and sold with all proceeds going to the Pussy Riot appeal. Voting opened on The Drum’s website last week and closes this Friday (28 ^th September) so PLEASE support us and vote Turn Key. Tell your friends, tell your family and tweet it to anyone who will listen and let’s bring Angry Bitches to life!

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

We all like to muck in at Turn Key, so when we were asked to complete a photo shoot for innovative mobile accessory company, MyBunjee, our team literally jumped at the chance to get in front of the camera – as well as behind it! Throughout the shoot the team were jumping about on skateboards and snowboards and we finished the day not just happy we’d got some cracking action shots, but that everyone was still in one piece!

The shoot went really well and you will be able to see the fruit of our labour on a brand new website and a host of marketing collateral very soon. However, in the meantime, here’s a sneak peek behind the scenes.

Thank you to our models, Oliver and Olivia for doing a great job!

This week at Turn Key we’re celebrating #CreativeWeekUK , a national awareness initiative sponsored by Adobe that celebrates all things creative.

We like to think of ourselves as creative experts here at TK Towers! Whether at home or at work, we express our creativity in multiple ways across hundreds of channels; from writing blogs to designing websites, taking photos to baking cakes. In honour of Adobe’s week-long campaign , some of the TK team from our creative, marketing, digital, PR and operations departments are giving you a little insight into their creative thought processes and how they interpret and express creativity!

Paul Hainsworth, Designer

Creativity for me is being imaginative and original and applying that into something visual or tangible. I feel there is no structure, form or process to creativity; it’s not something you do – anyone just can’t sit down and ‘be creative’ – it’s something you are born with and nurture over time, it’s about paying attention to every detail around you, from the moment you wake up to getting into bed at night.

I get inspired by pretty much everything; if I see a piece of advertising that I really like it pushes me to want to do something better or if I see work I feel is poor, I remember the mistakes other people have made and try not to make them in my own design. My ultimate creative hero is Steve Jobs; his vision has given the world some of the most beautiful and amazing never-seen-before products.

Samara Bott, PR Account Manager

I think creativity is anything which evokes some kind of emotion. I can look at a piece of design, a headline or just a passer-by wearing an interesting coat and think how creative he/she has been to grab my attention and subsequently evoke an emotion or response of some kind. Marmite is a brand I’ve always admired for pushing creative boundaries in marketing and PR, the recent Marmarati campaign was fantastic and inspired me to try more new things with social media moving forward.

Other peoples’ creativity inspires me to be creative. My best friend took an incredible photograph whilst travelling in Mongolia and it is still my favourite photograph ever taken! You can learn a lot from the people you associate yourself with; my colleagues inspire my creativity daily, along with a sugary tea to get myself in the zone!

Tess Eaton, Marketing Account Manager

Creativity for me is looking at the world in different ways and noticing interesting things, then passing these onto other people through things that you do. Creativity is about not accepting the ordinary or the usual, but digging around to find something special, more colourful or unusual and looking at life from a different view.

I get inspired by everything; the world around me, other people, things that I see in magazines such as Oh Comely! or sites such as Pinterest , nature, my friends, books, visiting new cities, great independent cafés, restaurants and art galleries.

James Wray, Digital Account Director

I think creativity is the ability to learn, soaking up knowledge from many different sources and across different aspects of life, and then applying this knowledge to the task at hand. It is creating freedom of thought and expression, within a disciplined environment that is your work. As a digital marketing specialist, I express creativity through developing digital marketing strategies, search engine optimisation, exploring web development techniques and delivering marketing campaigns that work. There are so many websites and designs that I feel are rich in creativity, recently I’ve admired http://www.newzealand.com and http://goodsie.com/ .

Music has to be the best form of creativity in my opinion, although I do love Malcolm Gladwell !

Nik Entwistle, Managing Director

I think, no matter what channel in which it is being expressed, creativity is something that makes you go wow! Turn Key is a hub of creativity and we all express it in countless ways. A good environment is key to this process, having the freedom to express your thoughts and opinions without preconceptions or limitations. The team inspires me everyday to be more creative!

Carl Holderness, Junior Designer

For me the studio environment is very important; whether at work or university. Interaction with fellow designers at TK is one of the main aspects of this environment that provides a boost to think conceptually and not stagnate. This social interaction is extended especially as a young designer through the internet, as vast and broad as it is, it is a constantly updated visual reference for what is going on in the world of design. Sites such as the Behance network and showcase a fresh and broad range of creative work by inspiring designers, providing a good talking point in studio.

The recent really caught my attention. It’s an incredible idea in terms of visual and online engagement and leverages Superga’s customer base of creative, technological and social people. As a creative and an avid user of Instagram, I couldn’t wait to get involved in the concept. Needless to say, there were hundreds of entries submitted internationally.

We have had a fair few questions recently about the new cookie law due to be enforced on the 26th May, so we thought it would be worth pointing out what our recommendation is and how it affects our customers.

Cookies are a type of file stored on your computer, phone or tablet and are used by most websites for things such as tracking users’ movements to social media integration. As most of our clients use Google Analytics all our sites use cookies, in this way, at the very least. What the law stipulates now is that site users must be made aware of this and give their consent for their cookies to be stored.

However there are a hundred shades of grey in terms of how people are interpreting this law and, as very few of the big companies have yet to make any changes, most smaller businesses are pretty complacent about updating their own site – especially when the addition of a clunky opt in box on the homepage could affect the end user experience and create a barrier between the customer and company/brand.

Our recommendation would be to update your website’s terms and conditions / privacy policies to include information about what cookies are and how they are used by the site in question. This, for at least the short term, should be obviously linked to from the homepage. This could be a designed graphic, if you wanted to do something personal / amusing (our approach – see www.turn–key.co) or a discreet pop up box which appears the first time someone visits your site and links them to the updated information.

As highlighted in today’s BBC article though most Government sites are also going to miss the deadline, let alone private businesses, so the general consensus seems to be that as long as you show you are making some kind of effort you will probably be ok.

Quick Response (QR) codes have been around since the early 90’s and have been used to great success in some campaigns (Radisson hotels use them on their menus to send users to videos of dishes being prepared) and clumsily forced onto others with embarrassing results – QR code on your gravestone anyone? However, as highlighted in today’s , they have remained relatively popular with consumers, ever-eager to kill boredom with downloadable, quick content.

Their shortcomings, however, are many. The limited amount of content that can be stored means anything much more than a link to content stored elsewhere is pretty difficult and the fact that an Internet connection is required, to access anything online, means their use is limited to locations with connectivity. However most notably, from a design perspective anyway, is how unattractive they are. Ask a designer to shove a bar code on their carefully-constructed poster or website and they won’t be impressed.

Augmented reality is a much more accomplished piece of technology. Content can be more interactive and detailed and used to spectacular effect with 3D animations launching in front of your very eyes. Also the initiation of the content is hidden within the picture so no ugly mark needs to be added to the finished design to make it work.

As the technology people keep in their pockets improves so does the ability to see, download and consume more exciting content. I can’t help but think that, because of this fact, QR codes are ready to collect a pension and move to Florida for some sun.

1.  Technorati – It’s been around for years but as I’m been working on a social media listening piece recently, I’ve rediscovered how useful it is. Essentially it is a directory of most of the blogs out there in the blogosphere and a search engine to peruse each of them. What’s most useful is that it gives an ‘authority’ and ‘rank’ to any blog, both against the whole of the Technorati listings, and within its own specialists sector e.g. sports, medical, travel, etc. ‘Blog Authority’ is based on an algorithm of popularity, links, relevancy and frequency of content and is particularly useful when researching which blogs within a sector one might engage with to do a spot of online PR.

2.  Goodsie – This ‘create your own online store’ eCommerce platform looks just amazing and is inspiring us all to set up our own eCommerce businesses! For just $15 a month it provides small businesses with a great platform for their online store. Plus, I love the simple, modern design of the Goodsie website. Nice large font as live text, simple but clever navigation which keeps all the key info on the homepage … beautiful.

3.  Pinterest – Yes I know this was the flavour of last month but I finally got my Pinterest invite through and I think it’s fantastic. It’s now easier than ever to store all the beautiful and interesting images you might come across on your day to day web browsing, in your own personalised categories. It looks great too (even if it is a bit girly!).

4.  Responsive design – This is the next level in the technique of web design and build for multiple devices. By using some nice HTML5/CSS3 wizardry, and most importantly designing the best user experience for each device the website will be viewed on, means we can create a single website, laid out so as to be easy to read and navigate, whatever the device and screen size.My favourite example right now is Smashing Magazine . To see what I’m harping on about, grab the corner of your browser window and resize to smaller and larger screen sizes, right from smartphone, to tablet, to huge iMac type screen and watch in awe as the navigation and content moves to fit the screen size perfectly. We’re currently employing this design on some of Turn Key’s own upcoming sites.