Aqueduct helps M&S launch green campaign

Aqueduct launched a new site for Marks & Spencer today to mark the beginning of a major new campaign.

Your Green Idea is part of M&S's "Plan A" initiative, and the bid to become the world's most sustainable major retailer by 2015.

The Your Green Idea competition invites anyone to submit the ultimate green idea. The winner will get their idea seen by 21 million people every week at over 700 M&S stores, and awarded £100,000 for their chosen organisation to invest in the idea.

The competition opens on 15th March, remaining open for two months.

Aqueduct designed and developed the new site.

Right, let's get thinking on that ultimate green idea..

Food for thought

Is it just me, or are restaurants missing a trick? They come and they go, the décor changes, the food styles go through fusion and then separate out into rustic traditionalism. It’s like a great big game of okey-cokey, with everyone playing to the same rules, not wanting to break the circle and, at the end of the day, all about the metrics of menu and bums on seats. But, this is a restaurant. What about the experience?

With so many bars and restaurants copying one another on décor menu and logo design, why is that no one has realised that the one thing that can distinguish them is the way they behave. Brand behaviour, even in the twittering, social interactive world we now live in, has always been more important than what the brand’s logo looks like. I can’t remember what came first: Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Hamburger Union - they all have similar typefaces and neutral blonde wood interiors (bit like the burgers).

As with burgers, so with dim sum restaurants – out with the blonde wood and in with lots of glossy black décor and modernist fleuro typeface logos – different flavours, décor, but same blank behavioural landscape. Our work for Ping Pong sidestepped talking about the menu and sets up more of an expectation and promise of the lunch or dinner ahead. We featured the food in such a way that it ticks the quality/style boxes straight away. Once the food was sorted we were freed up to set up the brand behaviour – owning sociability and conversation, and creating a reason to come back to Ping Pong that’s as sticky as their traditional sticky rice parcels (No.37, in case you’re interested).

With a campaign like this you can both meet the metrics and put bums on seats, but start a buzz that will get people ping ponging till the cows come home…

Now where shall I go for a burger? GBK? BGK? Errr…

Written by Andy McLane, Aqueduct's Creative Director.

Our Tech Dir Guillaume wins prestigious Sitecore award

Sitecore announced this week their 2009 Most Valuable Professionals (MVPs) list, which included our very own Guillaume Buat-Ménard, Technical Director.

The programme recognises exceptional technical community leaders who encourage free and objective exchange of knowledge by actively sharing their real-world Web CMS expertise.

Individuals were nominated by Sitecore employees from around the world, and were reviewed by a board of Sitecore executives.

The program offers members a number of benefits including access to technical resources such as alpha versions of Sitecore software, first release modules and full access to the Sitecore Developer Network and download section and invitations to major events. The term for Sitecore MVPs is two years, after which time, individuals can be nominated again.

Well done Guillaume!

How agencies price a job

It’s the first thing clients look at when an agency proposal lands in their inbox – the price. We’re not expensive, we know this from our rates – compare us with other London agencies in Econsultancy’s latest rates survey – Aqueduct’s rates are on average 20% below other London agencies. Furthermore, we don’t charge for overheads. Many agencies add a percentage to their basic costs to cover for holidays, sickness, general disbursements, laziness and poor project management. We don’t. Despite these factors we sometimes find we lose out on price. Why is this?

There are a number of factors that go into putting together a price for a job. We believe that there are three types of agency when it comes to pricing:

1. “We’ll give you the best price” agencies – usually very small outfits, can afford to do a job for lower than average rates, attractive in price but often poor quality solution – takes longer, cuts corners, fails on business objectives, or ends up costing more to get what you want
2. “We’ll do what we have to to win this job” agencies – will offer a low price for initial piece of work, or sell in a low price at the start then rack up additional charges whenever the opportunity arises
3. “We will give you an honest price for quality work” agencies – like Aqueduct. You may not be presented with the cheapest price, but it’s an honest estimate based directly on scope and quality delivery

Prices often go up. We hear it from client side time and time again. Why? If you’re with agency type 1 or 2, then you can see why. If you’re with agency type 3, it’s most likely down to scope under estimating. Unstated, unrealised or (worse but most common) overlooked assumptions all contribute to rising prices.

What’s our recommendation to clients? Work with an agency or agencies to refine the scope of a job as much as possible. Take their advice on strategy and be honest about budgets and resources available. Invest in getting to accurate scope before committing to the full job with any agency. Accurate, clearly bounded scope results in an accurate, clearly bounded price. Otherwise it’s an “estimate” that may be closer to what you would like than what it will be. Trust honesty and quality, not just the price.

Predictions for 2010

We're looking forward to another year of fantastic achievements in 2010. Here are 10 predictions for the digital world next year:

1. There will be less software running on our computers, more on the web but with offline caching
2. More organisations (including governments, corporates, social networks) will open up their data for others to use in increasingly smart and valuable ways
3. Bing will make gains through default/forced integration but Google will remain the all powerful search engine of choice
4. Chrome OS will launch with partner manufacturers, gaining appeal with students, geeks, mobile workers and light users
5. Microsoft Silverlight fails to gain traction over Adobe Flash and Flex
6. Increasing mainstream market share of phones running Android, boosted by more apps as developers are attracted to the Android’s open app model vs iPhone’s - Apple still wins favour with a new generation of devices including iTablet though
7. Twitter will attract revenue from direct services to businesses and will trial advertising through the platform – consumer and API use will continue to be free
8. Media publishers will continue to seek revenue from consumers by offering more niche and premium content
9. By Christmas, e-book readers will be the must-have, but book publishers and traditional sellers will fail to take advantage of the rapid change in consumer behaviour
   
10. Google Wave will still be no-where big by the end of 2010 but will have its day in 2011

What do you think? Do comment..

Merry Christmas from Aqueduct

Once again Christmas is upon us and this year we've decided to do something different... something we may regret..

We introduce to you Aqueduct's Jukebox Purgatory - your chance to play the music in our office remotely.

Merry Christmas from Aqueduct.

Aqueduct wins Econsultancy Innovation Award

We've just won an Econsultancy Innovation Award for our work on the Manchester City FC website!

It was clear to the judges that the site built by Aqueduct and designed by Poke was leagues ahead of other football club sites.

We used Sitecore CMS and a range of other tools to integrate personalisation, extensive video content, live in-game data and comment from journalists, ticketing integration and full e-commerce capability.

The judges said “The agencies responsible pushed the boundaries of what’s possible on a football website. The use of rich media, in-game visualisations and personalisation combined to make this a stand-out entry.”

Well done team.

We're building the new lloyds.com

Three-hundred year-old iconic insurance institution Lloyd’s of London has appointed Aqueduct to develop a new website, following a competitive pitch.

The site lloyds.com will feature rich resources, personalisation and web 2.0 integration to enable users of the site, who visit from all over the world looking for news and resources, to more easily access the information they require. The first phases of the new site are due to launch in 2010.

Peter Hambling, Head, Lloyd’s Information Technology Group , said: “Digital is becoming, in the financial world as everywhere else, an increasingly important channel. As the internet makes the world smaller, we are competing more than ever before on an international stage and Aqueduct through a tender process demonstrated they had the optimal capabilities to implement Lloyd’s creative designs on our chosen platforms.”

Rob Oubridge, our managing director, added: “Lloyd’s is making a great push in the digital space and is ideally placed to be a global information hub for the sector. We’re delighted to have been chosen as a key partner to support Lloyd’s website”.

Our video promo for AlertMe Energy launches on YouTube

We've just launched a 4-minute video promo for AlertMe Energy on YouTube. AlertMe provides affordable, easy-to-use home management systems that allow customers to track and reduce energy use, as well as protect their home even when away. We're proud to work with them to achieve their goals.

This video also shows on AlertMe's homepage as part of their marketing push to UK consumers. See it here:

Manchester City FC awarded Sitecore Site of the Year

Manchester City FC just won Sitecore's UK Site of the Year! It now goes on to the European and then world finals. Well done MCFC, one for the trophy cabinet.

Aqueduct implemented MCFC's site onto Sitecore earlier this year to rave reviews, and we're continuing to use Sitecore for a number of projects in the coming months. Look out MCFC, you're gonna have some more competition soon, not just on the pitch.