Last Exit is very proud to announce the launch of a brand, spanking new website for Inlet Technologies. Inlet develops cutting edge video encoding technologies and methodologies and needed a digital strategy partner to lead their online asset planning and development.

Video encoding has moved from a darkened-room, heavily technological function to something that now touches many different types of businesses.

Our initial insight was that the buyer of Inlet’s services is no longer purely technical, but may hold commercial or marketing responsibility within an organization.   This presented a challenge insofar as we couldn’t find a common language to adequately satisfy the purchasers’ completely different need for how the products’ benefits should be described.   Compromising between the two languages would seriously compromise the site’s main purposes — to inform the audiences and generate qualified leads.  Thus all product information is presented in the guise of ‘real talk’ for those uninitiated in the bits and bytes of video encoding, and ‘tech talk’ for those how want the precise technical details.

The secondary effect of this is SEO.  The product disambiguation leads to more relevant content which again is practically impossible to achieve through a compromise of natural language, therefore increasing the chances of the real or tech talk matching the prospective purchasers’ search term.

Easy job done! Now we’ll be using analytics tools to track user behavior and continue to refine the persuasion/conversion process of the site to ensure we meet, and hopefully exceed, our brief.

Click the above image to go to the site or the following URL: http://www.inlethd.com/

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Last Exit is very proud to announce the launch of the new Piaggio USA website.

Following the framework of the Vespa USA website launch in November ‘08, the site’s design has been custom tailored to suit quite a different proposition. Where the Vespa range follows a common style, the Piaggio range of scooters is far more diverse; from the small, light zippy Fly 50 through to the intensely innovative MP3 series Piaggio seemingly has something for everyone whilst avoiding any canabilization of the Vespa brand itself. The site has been steered in the same direction and will continue to develop the independant characteristics of each model.

http://www.piaggiousa.com/

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In conjunction with Canon USA and Dentsu America, we recently launched the My Story Facebook application.

The app allows you to quickly and easily prepare a graphical slideshow that tells a story about you, your friends and the great times you share.

You can import photos, either from your desktop or from your or your friends’ Facebook albums (yes you can really do that!), edit them and add text and graphics.  You can then add up to another 5 slides to tell your story, post to your Facebook wall and share your story with your friends.

Enjoy the app and don’t forget to become a fan.

Canon My Story Facebook Application .

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We’re very happy to announce the launch of the Vespa USA website. It’s been a thrilling ride to get to this point and we’ve worked with some amazing people at Piaggio Group USA. Our team has been exemplary throughout the process and the results reflect the skill and commitment from the Last Exit team. Congrats to all.

Be sure to check out the scooters as well as the Community Rides section.

VespaUSA.com

A few of the first press articles:

AdWeek

Creativity Online

ClickZ

Media Post

How Magazine

Speed TV

Alternative Consumer

Tree Nation

Motorcycle.com

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I believe that one of the highest accolades must be for a creative agency or design company to ask us to conceive, design and produce their website. This is no more pronounced than in this instance. McCann Ericksons New York business has been a client/partner of ours over the last year or so and being asked to develop ideas for their portfolio web site left us speechless. The process was not straightforward though. The ideas we conceived with creative partner SuperFad were ambitious – at the time, were had no higher option in technology that Flash 8 and attempted to build a 3D site using the ActionScript 2 programming platform. The first version was good but wasn’t a 100% match for our capabilities or the quality of work produced by McCann New York. Without approval of any budgets, we decided to experiment with AS3 in conjunction with the PaperVision3D engine. During that time, Flash 9 / AS3 gained acceptable user penetration and when we presented our experiments – basically a fully redeveloped site – McCann were blown away. Budgets were quickly approved and with some final design direction from the Agency we were done.

Total development time was fraction of that in AS2 – further evidence that whilst AS3 and PaperVision3D demands a higher level of programming skill, it remains a more efficient development tool for spatial Flash projects, whilst providing vastly improved site performance and lower processor draw.

The site displays floating assets representing a selection of McCann NY’s creative output. Rolling over these thumbnails draws connections between related assets, Selecting one will bring that family into a new layout. A further selection will play/preview that piece. In the bottom left, you can select work by media or client and drill down to specific works. IN the top right, you can change the display configurations from random to a grid arrangement and also toggle to and from full screen mode.

Enjoy the site by clicking here: McCann NY

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So as not to waste a good site, we thought we’d post and host the ExpressJet site we’ve recently done for Dentsu. The site was designed to allow people to submit their stories in/of ExpressJet destinations. It’s a lovely site with a small dose of 3D Papervision thrown in. Check it out and let us know what you think – hey, why not submit a story. The competition isn’t active but you might discover something about yourself in the process. Or not.

http://www.expressjetmicrosite.com/

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As a digital agency, one might think it odd that we’re producing our reel as a hard media, DVD. In deed, it has been a bone of contention for some time and thats why, several months after completing our 2008 Design Reel
, we are only just approving the production. After laboring over the reel itself, we’re spending a fair penny on mastering, duplication, packaging and distribution. So I’m still asking why? when we’ve done a great job encoding at different sizes and serving. Electronic distribution is easy and basically free and above all: immediate. As a digital agency, perhaps we should be committed to the channels we predominantly work within? The answer is punctuated by a single word that my partner at Last Exit often heralds “RELEVANCE”. On top of that, I would like to add “penetration” and “visibility”. Our in-boxes are, unfortunately crowded with enough spam to fill a million cheap sandwiches and whilst we can use many different creative tactics to draw attention to a mailer, we believe in a multi-channel and relevant approach that taps into the the behavioral characteristics of our audience. Ours is splie between CMOs at the brands themselves and producers/CDs at ad agencies. Both sets have spent much more time in TV/Radio than in interactive and whilst the transition is happening it’s important to bridge the gap, speak the right language and not to be too disruptive.

So, our belief is that receiving a well designed, beautifully produced DVD (spot glossing and all) will, at the very least, leave an impression in the recipients mind (even if they never actually load the disk into a player) backed by the appropriate and well timed follow up. This is a tried and true and simple tactic that has worked for many reps and EPs in the advertising and motion business and whilst there’s not model for reps in interactive, we’ll give this a go.

Here’s a few screen shots. You can view the reel here, or let us know if you’d like to receive DVD.

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We are immensely proud to announce the launch of a cracking piece of work for the JSF UK industry team – comprising BAE Systems, GE Aviation, MartinBaker, MBDA and Rolls Royce.

Fantastic result reflecting phenomenal innovation in the form of the Joint Strike Fighter which will replace the iconic Harrier Jump Jet in 2012.

Check out the site by clicking HERE.

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Lucy Woodward has just (finally) launched her latest, self written, performed, produced and managed album. Away from the overbearing management of a large record label, Lucy has spread her wings and found a groove that not just suits her but suits the audience just nicely thank you very much! A rollicking mixture of styles rooted in a soul groove. Go buy it at Barnes & Noble.

But what I really wanted to say was how fantastic it is that artists have access to many vehicles for self promotion, though a balance of new world and old world techniques is vital. Lucy has utilized the internet to great effect (and and we designed/built her website) whilst keeping a more traditional promotional manager busy and networking like crazy! What a studio album and most marketing tools can not convey though is how fantastic Lucy is live. So, I think it would be great for her to build out a HD video video player and to capture as much live content as possible. Perhaps she can use MOLI’s platform to do that?

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After enjoying a lovely weekend in the Hudson Valley with my wife, we stopped by our old Friends Sean Nutley and Gregory Triana at their kitchen accessories store ‘bluecashew – Kitchen Pharmacy‘, tucked away in the beautiful town of High Falls. I first met Sean and Greg back in ‘99 when we were sharing a space in Chelsea Market; me with my old company Deepend and Sean and Greg as SBN, an event production and PR company. We got along instantly and decided to barter services; they threw our launch party, which was awesome, and we helped re-brand them as bluecashew and develop their first website. They still use the logo that my best designer of the time Angela Lidderdale created.

So, as usual, our vist turned into a shopping extravaganza. We’re no different from many people in modern day America, we take great pride in the stuff we own and enjoy the shopping experience itself, granted, but the fact is that every time I visit bluecashew, I find products that I have longed to find but couldn’t as well as many products that are simply better than the bulk standard utensils I’ve purchased from Bed Bath & Behind. Viking products are not easily come by in my local stores and are bloody awesome. Beautifully designed and built to last. But, Joseph Joseph, being from my home country and fantastic, utilitarian designers create true objet d’arte for the home. I almost don’t care what ‘it’ does, I just want it!

Sean and Greg have assembled a phenomenal shopping experience for all kitchen fiends out there by assembling the very best products based on functionality,durability and quality and of course, beauty. They’ve recently launched their inventory online and are currently wading through the sea of search engine optimization. Go check out the online store and let me know if you agree. Better yet, take a short vacation and drive (just 2 hours) up to the Catskills and see the store for itself, while enjoying one of the country’s most beautiful national parks.

OK, like the car posting not strictly in market but, Hey, I mentioned their website didn’t I?

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