Oops

You may notice that our blog looks a bit broken at the moment. We're sorry, but we are in the process of transferring all the content over to our brand new sparkling website. We'll have this done in a few days so please come back soon and see the new stuff. There's going to be a lot more stuff to feast your eyes on!

We Love New York

So we get a few requests for the artwork for the "We love New York" image. So, as we like to share, here it is: weloveny.eps

Out of interest, we used this in a marketing campaign for Hurricane Restaurants:

Xtend-Life Branding

We've been working with Xtend-Life for the past four months on a complete company rebrand. Already a successful vitamin/supplement company based in New Zealand, Xtend-Life wanted a younger, more energetic brand that would improve their marketing positioning and open up new markets and sales.

Working with a company who puts quality first, we were excited to be such a key component in their rebrand.

Our work for Xtend-Life includes:

Corporate identity and branding
Bottle labeling
Packaging
Business cards and stationary
Product photography
Copywriting and editing
eCommerce website redesign
Xtend-Life Blog
eMarketing newsletters

We will be showcasing this work over the next few weeks, starting with their new identity.

Below shows a before and after - from their original branding to their new.
We had the following aims when we set out to create the new Xtend-Life brand:

A more modern looking logo that would appeal to a wider market
Representation of nature
Unique

The final result works well on a number of levels. We designed a unique logo font to enable uniqueness and with the "mark" of the logo (the shape which sits above the words), we not only created a form made of up natural elements, but created a "X" to fit with "Xtend-Life". The finishing touches to this mark saw the addition of the inner negative area in the middle of the mark that created an "inner X". This was to reflect the company's philosophy of taking natural supplements and giving benefits to yourself from within.

We also devised a new strapline for Xtend-Life. Previously the company used "Leading the way in health and longevity", which didn't really fit with the new direction Xtend-Life were taking. "Love life. Live longer" perfectly captures the essence of the brand. Xtend-Life products reflect these core values.

In a couple of weeks we will post some packaging and product work, plus their new online shop should be through the final testing stage and live, so we'll post that too... You might just find yourself wanting to try some of the world's finest vitamins!

How important is good copy?

We stumbled over this article recently A Rant (Mostly) About Web Content by Keith Robinson, which bought a wry smile.

Many people don’t realise that a website needs good content to work and it is one of the reasons why we have a qualified and dedicated copywriter, editor and journalist on board. We know how important good copy is.

The three main guidelines for writing for the web are:

• Be compact and to the point
• Write for scannability
• Use hypertext to split up long information into multiple pages

So, how is writing for the web different to writing on paper?

Reading from computer screens is about 25 per cent slower than reading from paper. People don't want to read a lot of text from computer screens, so you should write 50 per cent less text than usual. Users don't like to scroll down endlessly long pages, which is another reason to keep pages short. (This page, obviously, is the exception to that rule. After all, we're trying to help you!)

On the web you will need to split long documents into a number of shorter pages that are linked together. This means your users will not be presented with long pages of information that they don't want to trawl through.

A website is not like a printed publication in that you cannot guarantee where a user will enter your website. You can also not assume that they will move through your site in a lineat order as they would if they were reading, say, a book. They can enter at any page and move between pages as they chose. As such, every page will need to be independent and explain its topic without assuming the user has seen any of the other pages in the website.

Keep in mind that users may not have the necessary knowledge to understand or use a page. Proving a link to background or explanatory information will help.

Always put the most important information at the top of the page, as users do not like to scroll through lots of text in search of your key "point".

Always remember that web users are generally impatient and critical. They have chosen to visit your website because they have something they need to do or find, and they want to find the information quickly. Write in a style to allow users to do this.

Credibility is important on the web. Trust is rapidly lost if you use subjective claims or boastful statements like “best design studio in Brisbane”. Avoid "marketese” and use a more objective style.

To increase the credibility of your pages, link to other sites that contain supporting or relevant information.

Compared to many forms of print media, the web is informal and immediate in nature. Users appreciate an informal writing style.

Users will rely on scanning text to determine it’s meaning and content. You should avoid using clever headings that have no real meaning, as users may miss important information if they skip past non-informative heading.

Simpler is always better. Long sentences and confusing words are harder to understand online than in print.

The web is a fluid medium. Print is not. Pages should be updated to reflect any relevant changes. Credibility will suffer if articles show incorrect or out of date information.

Don't feel you can crack the perfect web copy on your own? Contact us and let one of our trained writers do it for you. You'll be amazed at what a difference it will make!
Email: hello@hellomedia.com.au

The Ten Digimmandments

Courtesy of Wheel:

1. Thou shalt not create banners that flash and tell you how much you have won.

2. Thou shalt not knowingly encourage spam.

3. Thou shalt not indulge in techie-speak no one understands.

4. Thou shalt avoid the words "Click here".

5. Thou shalt not promise what thou canst not deliver

6. Thou shalt make thy sites accessible

7. Thou shalt not ignore thy customer's views.

8. Thous shalt place digital at the heart of the marketing mix.

9. Thou shalt architect a site according to customer needs

10. Thou shalt give digital the respect that it deserves.

Nomis Running Shoe Leaflet

Hot off the press!

We recently produced a fold out leaflet for our favourite Australian sports company, Nomis, with the aim of creating awareness of, and raising interest in, a forthcoming product release. The leaflet highlighted the key performance aspects of Nomis' new Excel 3000 running shoe.

This leaflet was printed, folded and shrink wrapped and placed into 40,000 Nomis shoe boxes carrying Nomis' existing boot range.

The running shoe is a new market area for Nomis and, as such, it was particularly important to target current Nomis customers as they would be most likely to purchase the running shoes. By adding the leaflet to the football boot boxes, we ensured guaranteed target audience saturation.

Further promotion work for the Excel 3000 is currently in production.

Other work for Nomis:

- Branding
- Creative campaigns
- Ecommerce websites
- Sport websites
- Catalogue/Brochures
- Print adverts
- Email marketing
- Search engine marketing
- Photography
- Copywriting and editing
- Packaging
- Point of sale
- Posters/flyers

If you want to find out what we could do for you, just drop a line to hello@hellomedia.com.au

Email Marketing

Are you considering email marketing? Not sure where to start?

An effective newsletter design is not just a great big ad for your business or your products. It should include information of interest and of value to the recipient, whether or not they use your services or buy your products.

Why is email marketing so popular with our clients? Well, because:

- It is much cheaper than other forms of marketing
- It offers a high return for a relatively low investment
- It can be delivered instantly and at a set time on a set day
- It lets you send your message direct to your target audience
- It's easy to track
- Most people check their email regularly
- And we do great designs too!

Of course, we like to think we do a good job for our clients and below are some examples of recent email campaigns we have created. We've even had a little bit of industry recognition for some. Of course, we prefer the praise from our clients for delivering great campaigns but a pat on the back from them is also appreciated!


Our Nomis newsletter has been featured in the Campaign Monitor Gallery and here's what David Greiner had to say about it:

"The design team behind Nomis have been at it again, this time with a fantastic looking monthly newsletter. We featured their launch email design a few months back and we're equally as impressed by their newsletter design.
As well as promoting their own products, the newsletter also includes a competition, customer feedback and an interesting concept called the 'control freak' scheme. This unique program aims at getting the customers themselves to contribute to the design direction of future products.
Cool concept and cool newsletter."

Here are some more recent newsletters we have produced for our international clients:





If you want to find out what email marketing could do for you, just drop us a line to hello@hellomedia.com.au and we'll be happy to discuss.