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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Like it or not, your website is a living breathing entity that courts many visitors (hopefully) and much opinion. It lives out there for many months and even years and often sits there festering by not responding to moving trends and user behavior.

OK, this maybe stating the obvious but we are still a little surprised that many of our clients’ briefs do not include on-going maintenance and support. We endeavor to empower our clients with robust content management systems and most often opt for externally supported technology so that our clients’ are not encumbered by a dependance on us based on proprietary/legacy systems. Great! Of course we’re happy to continue to develop our relationships by providing valuable support in terms of design and technology resource but more importantly, these extended relationships should be based on research, analytics and strategic response.

It’s a blessing and a curse in many ways, that we have the opportunity to constantly fine tune a website or web-based campaign and it’s important to understand that for most ‘projects’ the goal posts are constantly moving: company information/portfolio/people, user behavior in terms of site interaction and in how people use search engines, competition, technology etc. etc. etc. All of which should be monitored and responded to in order to be as effective and as relevant as possible and to achieve constantly ascending success.

Beyond the website, it is also important to understand the greater conversation about your brand. Run a search for a recent campaign and you might be surprised by the number of results. We recently completed a site as part of a broader campaign by a large electronics manufacturer, with no-little follow up. For our own purposes we constantly ran reports and discovered that almost all the top search results were not controlled or influenced by the brand and a few were extremely negative responses. Your website must have tentacles!!

So, make sure that any design work you undertake is underpinned by a sound digital strategy targeting success criteria that will make your campaign or project pay for itself. And be sure to not let your site collect dust on some shared hosting environment. For many, it’s the first part of your brand that is seen and for customers, prospects, employees and potential employees it will leave an impression.

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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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I finally brought myself to go check out Applebee’s Real Videos campaign. In light of some press we’re putting out about Control Freak , I wanted to put together a few case studies of brands utilizing a social media aspect, of which there are many of course. So, it all seems pretty straightforward, video yourself and your friends having a good time at one of Applebee’s many locations and submit via a nicely prominent section on the main website. That’s it! I assumed there was some competition aspect where I might win a year’s supply of Applebee’s coupons, or a party for me and my friends or something. Nope, just to be part of a growing community of similar subscribers and the chance to appear on their homepage and maybe, just maybe TV. Yes, simply that: to be on TV. OK, this appeals to a certain audience but this audience is a large chunk of America and the rest of the world. I kind of like that it represents a simple pleasure/payoff and not one based around winning more stuff. So, while the masses jockey to be on TV, the medium in it’s most basic form is not for the knackers yard yet and it’s refreshing to see a brand change the game a little whilst taking advantage of producing extremely low cost ads!

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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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Last Exit has just (soft) launched a new campaign for our clients MOLI. The campaign is based around a series of 5 short films about a character called Marcus - an insufferable control freak - who runs a young ad agency. Though he’s rather hateful, the aim was for us, the creative class, to see something of ourselves in this insidious person. The question is, whether we rejoice in this or bow our heads in shame. Well, the site goes some way into celebrating control freaks. Yes, it’s something we have to learn to let go of and ultimately chill out as our companies grow but in the early days it may be seen as essential.

So, the site is hosted by the good doctor, Dr. Zizberg - the foremost authority on control freakism. He has developed an elaborate brain scan test which reverse engineers your computer monitor to scan your cranium when pressed against the screen. Amazing!!

The site was a lot of fun to work on and a lot fun to use. And, MOLI are giving away 25 iPod touches as part of a sweepstakes competition. So go in, create a profile, take the test and GOOD LUCK!!!

http://www.controlfreaktv.com/

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OK, so I’m a little behind the times on this one but the campaign for the Dark Night Batman movie is really bloody good. Seeded by dropping “I Believe in Harvey Dent” cards into comic book and around comic book stores, the campaign focuses around the Harvey Dent campaign for DA site, where users gather clues that slowly reveal the emerging second face of the guy and help set up the next movie.Cudos to 42 entertainment. I believe do you?I BELIEVE IN HARVEY DENT

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Over here at Last Exit, we talk about it all the time; how any campaign has a number of objectives to meet and should certainly be relevant. The campaign for the HBO mini series about the second president, “John Adams” starting Sunday March 16th, seems to have an abundance of it. Naturally supported by the usual suspects in media buy, TV, Outdoor, Print and display ads, etc it’s the Sweepstakes component, called “Power of the Letter” run by the USPS, that really strikes a chord. Unusual for any large organization, they’ve actually customized their homepage to promote the campaign. Interestingly, they’re also offering ‘free’ customized greetings card sent through the mail, to further support the campaign efforts and promote the potency of the written word. www.thepoweroftheletter.com/

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