Thursday 20 October 2011

An essential ingredient... ID of course!



About 3 months ago we were contacted by Essential Cuisine, a high-quality manufacturer of stocks, jus and glace to the food industry.

Their products are used all over the UK in Michelin Star rated restaurants and the best gastro pubs.

They have a great b2b business and felt there was a market to sell to consumers so they could enjoy their amazing stock at home, when entertaining or just cooking that special dish. Foodies around the country were in for a treat!

They had to develop packaging, a business model and an eCommerce website in less than 3 months, so the team they worked with had to be capable and efficient. The Hive were contracted to look at branding and packaging, and they did a fantastic job, see below:



Essential Cuisine took care of the business model and pricing. And the product of course!

Then Preston's digital agency Interactive Dimension took on the website. It needed to be an elegant eCommerce solution which was more than 'just' a shop. Essential Cuisine wanted to become a hub of information so we developed a recipes section and a tips area where they could post fantastic recipes for their customers and give that invaluable professional chef insight on how to deliver top-class food at home.

The content needed to be as prominent as the 'shop' itself to give the right feel to the site. It was important that the site attracted users who were there for information as well as to buy stocks.

We leveraged the Worldpay payment gateway (which has it's own challenges!) and needed to integrate with the Royal Mail labeling system Essential Cuisine used already.

It's a small site in terms of products featured, but the capability is there to grow via the content management system behind it all, and as Essential Cuisine bring new products to the consumer from their fantastic food industry range the site can easily accommodate them and allow them to feature in prime spots on the site.

As well as the eCommerce site, we also developed an email newsletter for them which will be delivered using our Campaign Monitor based system, and we created their social media presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Which is all starting to take shape. We advised on the social media strategy and empowered Essential Cuisine to take ownership of the social media rather than pay someone else to do it, which after all, is what social media is about! They're already running competitions on Facebook too!

Now it's about driving traffic to the site, Essential Cuisine already have a large user base on their food industry site, and a marketing strategy in place for the retail offering... we're supporting them with digital marketing services and are confident that the foodie community will quickly get on-board, after all, who wouldn't want to use the best stocks that up to now only the best restaurants could get hold of?

Most interestingly of all to the customers, is that Essential Cuisine's stocks work out significantly cheaper than the current gathering of 'quality' stocks you can buy in the supermarket. The equivalent amount of Truefoods chicken stock compared to £3.95 of Essential Cuisine chicken stock would cost you around £18.00, and wouldn't be as tasty or versatile either!

We think they're onto a winner, and we're glad to help make it happen.

Monday 3 October 2011

NST Group are going places!



We've just launched a new site for NST Group, a long-standing client.

New business is amazing, but there's something to be said for a client who recognises service and capability from their existing digital agency and doesn't judge them on what they have done 4 years ago... that said, the old site was still working really well for the UK's leading school trips and tours company.

A re-brand and new product portfolio along with high SEO competition in their sector made the decision to rebuild the site an easy one, and working with their existing partner, Preston's digital agency Interactive Dimension, made it far simpler for NST Group as we already knew their business and goals.

The site is a complex matrix of tours offered on a number of different user journeys including subject and destination. And we are bringing back taxonomy driven content on the tour pages using bespoke controls we developed into the Wordpress back-end.

It's a very ambitious site to deliver in Wordpress, but we believe the core product is an ideal starting point for most sites and offers a powerful engine on which to build and tweak to meet the clients exact requirements. And Wordpress offers a really usable CMS interface which the clients love to use.

There are hundreds of products on display, clear user journeys, bespoke forms, secure areas for teacher downloads and lots of other features.

The site went live Sunday night and was attracting inquiries at 7am the next morning... So we're happy with that, and so is the client!

The next phase is integrating reviews and comments and a rigorous SEO activity to make the most of the sites well structured and search optimised code.

You can visit the site on www.nstgroup.co.uk


Following on from this release, here's some client comments:

Hi ID,

I just wanted to drop you all an email with some feedback we’ve had on the website from people in the office. It wouldn’t be fair to keep all this from you!

‘Can I just say WOW! This absolutely blows all the other school travel company websites out of the water. It’s very clear and user-friendly.’

‘Well done – it looks fantastic!!! Worth all the hard work!’

‘Nice looking site’

‘Looks great’

‘I like it - a web site that’s easy to follow’

‘Wow! It looks awesome! You must have been working so hard on this!’

‘Looks amazing – you must be really pleased (and relieved!) to see it live. Brilliant job’

Thanks for all your hard work so far.

Helen






Thursday 16 June 2011

Latest Projeqt for Staniforth



Yesterday we launched Staniforth's new website. An elegantly simple but effective site based on TBWA's Projeqt product.

It was a challenge to take the storytelling platfrom and create user journeys and website'esq content within it, but the end result is an original site which embraces an unusual approach yet feels easy to use and tells the Staniforth story well.

It's the second in a three site launch Interactive Dimension, Preston's digital agency, are involved in for Staniforth and we're looking forward to growing our strategic relationship in teh coming months.

Have a look at the site and you'll quickly grasp how to use the platform, and you can sign up for a beta account too on www.projeqt.com.

Today we will be launching their new company blog, keep your eyes peeled for that one.

Tuesday 14 June 2011

PR Media Blog goes live... part 1 of 3!



We're working on a series of projects for Staniforth, part of the TBWA group of companies. Staniforth are one of the leading PR companies in the UK and their PR Media Blog site runs a commentary on the PR and Media industry as it happens. It's a really popular site and the task for us was to bring it up to date whilst maintaining it's excellent positioning in Google and other SEO factors.

The next two launches we'll be doing are Staniforth's own web presence and their blog which will be covering different subject matter than the PR Media Blog of course.

The partnership between Preston's digital agency Interactive Dimension and Staniforth PR has been announced on How-Do and other online media blogs and signals a new set of opportunities for both companies.

Keep an eye out for the follow releases :-)

Monday 9 May 2011

Time for something new!



We've just launched a new website in partnership with the great team at The Hub in Manchester supporting their 'This is Your Time' campaign.

As ever with the work we do with The Hub, we're extremely proud to be making a difference to people's lives rather than just commercial sites trying to sell something. We like those too, and are great at them, but the type of site which encourages people to better themselves or offers them the support they sorely need is rewarding on many other levels.

if you need a new website, get in touch with Preston based digital agency ID and talk to us about your requirements, we'd love to help.

Monday 4 April 2011

Very nice site for Very Nice Things!



ID have just launched a new eCommerce site for Very Nice Things, an online retailer for all those lovely finishing touches on your home.

We've kept it really clean and simple, making it all about the products.

Very Nice Things is the brainchild of Emma Blackman and something she's been thinking about launching for some time.

We'd worked with Emma before and she knew working with ID the Preston based digital agency, she'd get excellent value for money and an eCommerce platform she can control herself easily and quickly to post new products as and when she gets them in stock.

The system has PayPal integration, top sellers, guest checkout, related products and all the features you'd expect from an online store.

We wish Very Nice Things great success and look forward to developing the site in the future with more new features as they are required.

Friday 1 April 2011

Rewarding work? We like that!



We've just launched a new site http://www.the-last-time.co.uk in partnership with the lovely guys at The Hub in Manchester.

It's a blog based site with all the help you might need if you are trying to give up smoking in the Greenwich area. Along with the site we're running a highly targeted Facebook campaign also to drive visitors to the site.

There's something to be said for work which actually helps real people in real ways. We're very proud to do this type of work. Check it out, and if you're trying to give up the evil weed and you're based down south, hope it helps you!

Tuesday 8 February 2011

A unique site for a unique event… Preston Guild 2012 website is live



As the countdown to Preston Guild 2012 starts to gather pace, the new website has been launched, created by Preston's digital agency Interactive Dimension.

The new website is closely integrated with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter and will make it easier for users to have their say about events and announcements in the run up to the Guild.

The website will include information on volunteering to work on the Guild, opportunities to get involved and historical images from past guilds. People will have their photos featured on the site using Flickr, and there is a meet the team section so users can see who is working on coordinating the Guild and get in touch with them for more information. Street party packs will also be available which will help people to plan their own events for the Guild or even to celebrate the Royal wedding. It is also planned that the site will be used to sell Guild merchandise in the future.

Councillor Ken Hudson, Leader of Preston City Council and Chair of the Guild Committee, said: “The website is our international shop window for Preston Guild 2012.

“This is the first ever Preston Guild in the internet and digital world and we have to make the most of new technology. As well as finding a whole host of information about the Guild, people will be able to use the website to follow the Guild scrolls around the world, apply to be a Guild Burgess, register for one of the Guild processions and even buy 2012 Guild branded merchandise.

“I’m delighted that in the great enterprising and entrepreneurial spirit of Preston Guild, Interactive Dimension a dynamic Preston company has designed and created the website which will serve Preston well in 2012 and beyond.”



Jonny Wilde from ID commented - "This site was a major win for us, selected from a competitive pitch process we went in with ideas we'd not seen done before and an enthusiasm which obviously won the day! We're seamlessly integrating the site with the Facebook page so comments and attendees for each event are pulled into the site you can actually RSVP the event on the Guild site which will then let all your Facebook friends know, and of course this means the events themselves are fully synchronised. For us this was a perfect project to leverage Facebook for what it does best… People use it to talk about events and parties, get opinions about things and let people know what they are up to. The Guild will be all over Facebook in 2012, and we aim to make the official site the hub for that activity, it's a step change in how event sites should work in our opinion. There's also other cool bits like sms reminders, add to calendars, eNewsletters, video blogs, and all that good stuff. All the other social networks are catered for of course, but to some people moving forward Facebook is their 'social internet' so we really focussed on that".



The site will continue to be developed, including a mobile site and there's big plans to integrate Facebook Places and Deals for the Guild events…

Visit the site on www.prestonguild2012.com and check out what's coming up for Preston Guild 2012.