Google recently introduced a new feature to their search interface called ‘Search, plus your world’. It’s the latest in a fairly long, yet recent, line of updates to push the search giant’s social network, the feedback is mixed.

The feature will only be present for those who have and are signed into a Google+ account, when this is the case, the search experience will differ by

• Showing user profiles in drop down search bar
• Returning more personalised results relevant to your history
• Increasing links to prominent Google+ profiles
• Linking to profiles related to search query
• SSL security to all signed in users

There has been the usual SEO industry uproar about how “SEO is Dead” again but that’s common for any significant update that effects the results returned for any search. There has been increasing evidence over the past couple of years to suggest that social networks are impacting search results more and more, now Google has cemented this theory but with their own network. There is no doubt that a user could receive better results if they were personally tailored to them but since Google+ isn’t the only social network people user (and certainly not the most popular), how can it really benefit the user.

The common criticism of this latest change is that Google is making use of its industry leading search product, to promote another, its social network. Users are feeling that their use of the web is being restricted to the services provided exclusively by Google, with other offerings such as Facebook and Twitter being ignored all together.

There is also the impact on SEO, as usual the update is intended to provide better results, but are the best results really so reliant on data from one of the least used social networks? Will websites lose out on clicks even if they naturally rank 1st if above them lies several Google+ pages? Another implication of the update is that the search data for every user that’s logged in will not contribute to keyword data available on Google Keyword Tool, possibly the most important tool for SEO keyword research. If we cannot see this data we will not know which keywords are the most popular and therefore what to optimise for!

Anyway, as it is early days for Search plus your world, we must give it time and wait to see what effects it has on the use of the search engine, search results and SEO. Stay tuned for updates.

In true Movember spirit, some of the boys at Pixel8 decided to sacrifice the dignity of their top lip in order to raise awareness of Prostate and Testicular Cancer. They put on a splendid effort and earned Kudos from their bald lipped colleagues. There’s not much else to say other than good effort guys, now go fetch that razor, you look daft.

Katy, our beloved Creative Artworker has finally given birth to a bouncing baby boy. Yesterday morning at 10.08am Alfie James Webber was born at a healthy 8lbs 6oz after a tremendous 41 hours in labour (phew). Katy is doing great and looking to leave hospital very soon, in her own words “Katy and Alfie are wicked…. Daddy is walking on air!”

Our congratulations go out to Katy and her family and we can’t wait to see pictures of the little fella. We can’t wait to have Katy back either but we suppose we will have to wait a while.

Congratulations!!

Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine, based in Atlanta, United States is one of the top US parenting magazines, found on news stands and in waiting rooms across the America. P&N Magazine approached Pixel8 to help them redesign their existing website as well as integrating an easy to use CMS and a blog. They were also keen to increase visits to the website as this means greater ad revenue, after in-depth research we agreed to perform a comprehensive SEO campaign.

The new website was a hit straight away but the real benefits came shortly after when our SEO campaign began to really take off. Traffic soon started to increase as we worked on increasing it’s rank for a variety of search terms. Since then, our friends at Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine have expressed their appreciation with a glowing testimonial for our SEO, we look forward to a long and prosperous relationship with such a great publication.

“After launching our website pnmag.com in early 2010 we thought little about SEO but as we realized we were losing traffic to competitive sites we needed to address this.  Pixel 8 quickly identified the scope of work that would be needed and held our hand through the development of keywords, tags and various other SEO tactics such as purchasing links on web directories.  For minimal cost and disruption we optimized our SEO and in a couple of months saw our page views increase month over month by 130% ultimately allowing us to generate more online ad revenue.  We are needless to say thrilled with the impact Pixel 8’s SEO tactics have had on our online business.”

Joanna Pritchard, VP Marketing and Insight, Pregnancy & Newborn Magazine

For more information about how Pixel8 can help drive traffic to your website through SEO please call us on 0161 228 6489.

As we mentioned earlier in the year, we’ve been awarded four prestigious 2011 Hermes Creative Awards for our work in design, social media and animation.

The Pixel8 team are thrilled to be awarded a Gold and three Platinum trophies as judged by judges from the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP) from over 4,400 international entries.

Our awards arrived in the office today and we couldn’t wait to get them on display. It’s the most recent in a series of great achievements by the Pixel8 team and a good sign of things to come. Our biggest thanks go to all those who worked so hard and gave it their all. The awards are as follows:

• Gold Award for Web Design: Accident Compensation Website (Design/Illustration/Graphic Design category)
• Platinum Award for Video/Corporate Image: Pixel8 ‘Powered by Smart Pixels’ animation
• Platinum Award for Social Media: Hotel Indigo Facebook & Twitter Campaign
• Platinum Award for Video/Internal Communication: Hotel Indigo Brand Refresh Journey Animation

Ed Thorne, Director of Global Brand Management for Hotel Indigo and Crowne Plaza at IHG spoke of the awards in relation to Pixel8’s brand refresh, “We’ve had great feedback from customers and our hotel colleagues alike, winning these awards not only confirms this feedback but it’s also a great boost for the team.”

In response to the success in the Hermes Creative Awards, Jamie Watson, Pixel8’s Joint Managing Director said, “These awards are testament to the way that the clients trusted us to deliver creative and effective marketing communications that reflect their overarching values and vision for the future.”

Hermes Creative Awards recognizes outstanding work in the industry while promoting the philanthropic nature of marketing and communication professionals. Judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talents exceeds a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry. To see all Gold and Platinum Winners in 2011 visit Hermes Creative Awards.

It has been an very eventful, very cultural bank holiday weekend for Manchester starting with Manchester City Council’s official I Love MCR day on Thursday, one of the world’s largest Gay Pride festivals and the beginning of Eid al Fitr as well as a very special guest appearance of Jenson Button tearing through the streets of Deansgate in his Formula One car.

A three day motoring event hosted by mobile giants Vodafone culminated with the F1 star fresh from his podium finish in Belgium at the weekend. Despite miserable weather, Button took to the streets in the latest Vodafone Mclaren F1 car and entertained the huge crowds with a deafening engine and speeds of up to 105mph on one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares.

One of our resident motor enthusiasts Al Woods managed to snap a few shots of button in what was a great and eventful weekend for our great city.

In the wake of the riots something much more important than a little social disorder emerged in this great city. An amazing community spirit seemed to develop like never before, Manchester City Council were quick to respond with their “I (heart) MCR” campaign, echoing the iconic New York slogan that was embraced by New Yorkers, tourists and fans the world over.

The campaign has taken off on a large scale and shops, bars, restaurants and cafes are adorned with the rapidly growing slogan. People are wearing the T-shirts, tables are covered in the drinks coasters and windows are full of the posters. Just like New York, Manchester is undergoing a branding revolution. The city is making a name for itself more than ever before and it’s residents are at the very forefront of this movement, happy to show that they really do ‘love Manchester’.

Although we don’t have a high street window to show it, the Pixel8 office has also become decorated with this great slogan, our very own Al Woods decided to take to the streets to capture his love for the city, take a look and see if you can recognise where he is:

Once upon a Smile approached Pixel8 Manchester about a logo design for their charity along with an icon character style/illustration which would represent their charity at fundraising events. Once upon a Smile wanted a fun character that would appeal to everyone, so we created a cuddly bear called Sidley. The charity will be featured on this Saturday night’s Celebrity Who Wants to be a Millionaire by Emmerdale actor Danny Miller.

This is a classic example of the importance of brand conveying a single, clear message.  On the one hand we have Subway – a company with very focused branding designed to sell subs.  Subway do slightly deviate but only within the category, for example, the Breakfast Sub and with sides, for example, meat balls.  If you were to ask a consumer what Subway exists to sell they would be able to tell you straight away.

It’s competitor next door was not so clear- an Indian Takeaway that had resorted to crossing into completely different categories, for example, English breakfasts, diluting the brand and sending a mixed message.

With so many brands targeting consumers every day, brand focus is essential to creating a proposition that has longevity and clearly differentiates itself from the competition.

Pixel8 recently won an International Hermes Creative Award for our animated Brand Development Journal illustrating the journey we travelled with USA based, global boutique brand Hotel Indigo.  Pixel8 were appointed by IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) to refresh the Hotel Indigo brand ahead of major international expansion.

We created the animation for IHG’s Atlanta based Director of Global Brand Management, Upscale Brands, Ed Thorne. Ed wanted an atmospheric and bohemian internal presentation about Hotel Indigo’s development that was still completely on-brand. Lasting just 90 seconds, the animation begins with the image of a hand scribbling a Hotel Indigo logo in pencil on a napkin; reflecting the humble beginnings of the brand.

The animation then shows Pixel8 flying across the Atlantic to Atlanta, Georgia and embarking on a global journey, stopping off along the way to conduct focus groups, select Pantone references, commission photography and create tone of voice. The animation illustrates just some of the research, analysis and prep work that we carried out for Hotel Indigo.

Pixel8 Art Director, Al Woods explains, “The brand we developed for Hotel Indigo was relaxed and low key, and our on-brand presentation reflects perfectly. It deliberately raises more questions than it answers and doesn’t force a corporate message. Its gritty, quirky and illustrative feel is totally new to its U.S. audience and is key to its success. From top level internal corporate presentations to trade fairs, IHG has used our mixed media, stop frame style animation to great effect; it has really pulled in and held onto audiences’ attention. It also worked well as a catalyst for discussion.”

Feedback from IHG’s Ed Thorne included, “From the choice of music to the edgy graphical style, this clever and characterful animation really sums up the developmental journey that Pixel8 has travelled with the Hotel Indigo brand. It further underlines for me the reasons why I chose a UK-based and globally-looking branding agency to deliver a worldwide brand strategy.”

We strived to create something distinctive and warm to communicate not just the Hotel Indigo brand, but also the personality and technical skill of Pixel8. The International Hermes Creative Award shows that we succeeded!

Watch Pixel8’s Brand Development Journey for Hotel Indigo

For more details about Pixel8’s brand design and development services please call us in Manchester on 0161 228 6489 – 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail today.