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Netdecisions wins highly prized VisitBritain contract

The British Tourist Authority has handed what’s expected to be one of the most lucrative contract in new media this year to netdecisions to redevelop its network of VisitBritain.com Web sites.

“It’s also one of the biggest contracts out there in the agency market at the moment. We’ve invested heavily in new backend systems, including Tridion and Autonomy, and we needed an agency that could help us best integrate them with our Web applications.”

Phillip Smith BTA VisitBritain

The deal, worth around £500,000, coincides with this week’s rebranding of the BTA after its merger with the English Travel Council. The new group takes the name VisitBritain, in line with the BTA’s existing Web presence.

CLIENT : VisitBritain / WEB DESIGN : Jonathan Porter / AGENCY : Agilisys

Netdecisions was chosen from a field of 320 agencies who responded to the BTA’s original notification of its intentions to overhaul it’s web sites (NMA 26 September 2002).

It was one of 12 firms the government agency invited to tender and along with JKD, Wheel and BTA’s incumbent agency Euro RSCG Circle, was shortlisted for the final selection process.

Phillip Smith, BTA VisitBritain project manager, said all four agencies were more than able to do the job but the work had been handed to netdecisions because it offered “the most interesting proposal” in terms of added extras.

“this is a very big project for the BTA,” said Smith. “It’s also one of the biggest contracts out there in the agency market at the moment. We’ve invested heavily in new backend systems, including Tridion and Autonomy, and we needed an agency that could help us best integrate them with our web applications.”

Smith added that online travel brochures, holiday and itinerary planners, together with increased personalisation, were all elements that would be added to the new BTA Web sites.

BTA currently operates around 40 sites promoting Britain abroad. Netdecisions will be responsible for overhauling these by the end of the year and will also create new ones serving China, Poland, Russia and South Korea

Brand Experience Replaces Broadcasting

Online Communities And User Engagement
Are The Access Keys

I am having a bit of a ramble around the demise of mass media, why it happened in the first place and how our digital world is impacting on what we consume and how.

So I came across an interesting book by Lizabeth Cohen – Mumford Jones Professor of American Studies, Dept. History Harvard University. Entitled A Consumers’ Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America.

Media companies back ChildLine for gift ringtones promo

Gringtones Online Advertising for NSPCC by Jonathan Porter

Client: NSPCC / Child Line / Gringtones

Agency: New Brand Media

Animation: Jonathan Porter

Project Scope: Flash Online Advertising

by Alex Donohue, Brand Republic 15-Aug-07, 14:40

Youth charity ChildLine is to launch a gift ringtones fundraising service, which is being supported by 20 media companies, including IPC Media, GCap, Universal McCann and Trinity Mirror.

The mobile ringtone gift programme, called Gringtones, has been set up by ChildLine to raise money for the charity’s work and has so far created downloadable ringtone messages from Ant and Dec and Simon Cowell.

The Gringtones website, created by digital company DX3 and Bear Design, will aim to raise money to train volunteer counsellors to deal with the 4,500 children who call ChildLine daily. The Gringtones can be downloaded from the website for £3, with all profits going to charity.

Disney Pixar – Text a Monster Microsite

Client: Disney Pixar / McDonald’s Text a Monster Microsite

Agency: Agilisys

Art Direction: Jonathan Porter

Project Scope: Online SMS Mechanics & Text-a-Monster Microsite

The four-week campaign, which began February 8, was McDonald’s United Kingdom’s first foray into mobile marketing. It tested the waters with a partner, Disney’s Pixar, which was promoting its “Monsters, Inc.” animated flick. The online campaign was created by the Agilisys design team, headed up by their Creative Director, Jonathan Porter.

One of the panelists, J. Sandom of Rapp Digital, turned me on to this second campaign, billed as “the largest retail-based mobile marketing promotion ever carried out in Europe.” It also involves a brand that’s quintessentially American – McDonald’s.

J. Sandom, Rapp Digital

The McDonald’s UK effort happened in the real world, not a pilot situation. It involved all 1,200 of the restaurants in the country. All large and super-size boxes of fries were emblazoned with a “Monsters, Inc.” peel-off window, revealing one of six characters, a code number, and a text-in number. Customers used their phones to send the code to the text-in number and instantly received a message telling them if they won a prize.

The company is supporting the promotion with TV advertising, in-restaurant signage, and a promotion microsite.

“It tested the waters with a partner, Disney’s Pixar”

Online Luxury for the Masses

Perhaps with the exception of the high-end auto industry, the discriminating nature of “luxury” and the openness of the Internet seem to clash, leaving most luxury brands trying to figure out how to harness the Net’s incredible reach to consumers while still maintaining a presence of exclusivity.

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