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.

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:

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.

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.

Brands rely on visual differentiation to stand out amongst their competitors.  An icon needs to be functional and evocative, engaging with consumers whilst also being flexible enough to be applied to a variety of different media formats.

Formerly known as ‘Sweet Express’, Kingdom of Sweets  is  a sweet shop for adults, one that relies on the classics from the past to make the consumer feel like they are investing in a memory.  They came to Pixel8 with a dated logo that didn’t reflect the desired direction of the brand for 2011. Visually, their ‘Sweet Express’ logo was colourful, however the font alongside the simplistic use of colours and shape did not sell the brand to full effect.

In many cases, you can measure the success of a brand if you can recognise it from its graphic symbol alone, e.g. Nike is renowned for its ‘tick’, Starbucks for its ‘mermaid’ etc.

As it was, the Sweet Express icon didn’t feel like it could hold its own in an extremely competitive market place.  We asked if the text was removed would the graphic alone successfully represent the brand? The answer was no. This was something we knew that we could help the client with.

The graphic design team at Pixel8 provided a number of logo design concepts that gave the guys at Kingdom of Sweets enough variation and choice to select a new logo that they felt would take them forward, and allow them to stand out amongst the competition.

Having had a website redesign to bring them up to date, the task now was to assign a logo to their brand, whilst also not losing the brands already established reputation.  In terms of brand consistency it’s a brave decision to re-name a young brand.  The risk is losing the current brand recognition losing market resonance.

Kingdom of Sweets settled on a final logo. The fonts reflect the informal and fun element of the brand with bright, eye catching colours to maintain a strong visual presence.

Last week on a visit to London, some of the Pixel8 team saw how the logos had been used on their stand in Euston train station. It’s great to see our work doing exactly what it is supposed to once it leaves the studio!

If you would like more information about how Pixel8 can help your brand, just call us in Manchester on 0161 228 6489 – 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail

Reviber, part of Zen Lifestyles Group, works with sports scientists, physiotherapists and biomechanical professionals to design health and fitness equipment that utilises vibration exercises originally created to prevent astronauts losing muscle and bone mass in space.

Reviber supplies over 1,500 distributors in 12 countries and sells direct to consumers worldwide. Reviber approached Pixel8 to refresh the brand and to design a new website to wow new customers.

Pixel8’s extensive experience in graphic design, brand development and implementation enabled us to quickly get under the skin of Reviber’s requirements to provide a creative online solution.

Paul Rudge, Managing Director of Reviber said, “After consultations with several design and marketing agencies we have been delighted with our choice of Pixel8 for the branding of our Reviber range of health equipment. Pixel8 took the time to really understand our business, the market sectors we supply and the customer demographic; enabling them to create tailored and very effective branding and web design solutions”.

After the Pixel8 brand design workshop to understand Reviber’s vision, Pixel8 began by designing new logo options, the aim being to create an overarching logo that can be used as an umbrella for new products and sub brands going forward.

When the new logo design and branding were established, the next stage was to design and build the e-commerce website which also offers opportunities to inform and inspire new customers.  The website design utilises the colour palette established in the brand development process, together with a simple template to promote the key products.  Visit the new website now at Reviber.co.uk

The Sunday Telegraph’s opinion described the Reviber Original as “one of the hottest exercise machines of the year.  It will leave you tingling all over as it stimulates muscular activity and circulation”; and The Independent on Sunday gave Reviber 5 out of 5 Stars!

Jamie Watson, joint MD of Pixel8 said, “We’re very excited to work with Reviber and look forward to supporting the brand over the coming years”.

Pixel8, which recently developed new global branding for two of InterContinental Hotels Group brands Crowne Plaza and Hotel Indigo, offers complete brand design and development solutions, along with web design and CMS driven e-commerce websites.

For more information please contact Pixel8 in Manchester on 0161 228 6489 – 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail.

The Pixel8 team enjoyed a glittering night out at the respected Marketing Society Northern Awards 2011 this week.

Sitting amongst the best marketeers in the North and indeed the UK, we were thrilled to be nominated for such a prestigious award in the Leisure and Tourism category for our brand design refresh for Hotel Indigo, the IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group) boutique brand.

Up against stiff competition we were proud to be nominated as finalists!

We’d like to congratulate all the winners, especially Karen Gee, Managing Director at Journeys of Distinction, Kuoni who was awarded Marketing Personality of the Year. Also congratulations to the winners of our category, Liverpool Biennial for their ‘Touched’ campaign.

We had a great time at the Awards and enjoyed being involved in acknowledging truly outstanding branding and marketing achievements. Great for marketing and great for the Northwest!

As part of this campaign Pixel8 are supplying all Crowne Plaza Hotels worldwide with new on-brand images for every piece of in house branding collateral. To assist the project we organised and managed a two week photo shoot at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Manchester city centre; conveniently located just around the corner from our studios!

Pixel8 executed a global photo shoot in one location. We took over 20,000 photographs using amongst others, 15 models, 3 make-up artists, 2 Middle-East advisors (one of whom advises the United Nations), a food stylist, 2 art directors and 4 photography assistants.

The end result of the photoshoot will be a Pixel8 hosted and managed collateral builder. The images will be used in pre-design and on-brand templated artwork with pre-defined fields that can be accessed online and fully edited by the user to create on-brand and print ready high resolution PDF artwork. Crowne Plaza employees will be able to access the templates and create on-brand artwork from anywhere in the world in multiple languages; all were translated by Pixel8.

As Crowne Plaza Hotels are located across the Americas, Asia, Europe and the United Arab Emirates, Pixel8 needed to provide imagery that is relevant and appealing to each region. So, we employed models of appropriate ethnicity and created photographs that are sensitive to indigenous customs around the world, recognizing religious differences and using appropriate dress. We employed specialist stylists and advisors to ensure respectful and accurate representation throughout the campaign.

The two week photo shoot drew to a close with a day filming offsite to provide all the leisure imagery such as swimming pools, gyms and golf courses. Cue lots of excuses for the Pixel8 team to speed around the course in the golf buggies!

Hot on the heels of receiving 4 Hermes Creative Awards, Pixel8 are proud to announce that we have been nominated for a Marketing Society Northern Award in the Leisure & Tourism category.

We have been shortlisted for our Hotel Indigo brand design refresh for IHG (InterContinental Hotels Group).

Examples of the work included over 100 complete and editable collateral artwork files, in U.S. and metric formats to speed up implementation across all the hotels globally. It enables quicker decision making between managed and franchised hotels by eradicating the basic creative approval process.

We developed, designed and printed bound copies of the brand guidelines, which embody the new brand personality. Online these are split into separate digital sections for quick download from IHG’s central resource library.

Pixel8 also designed advertisements and supporting collateral for the ‘Locals Know Best’ contest in the USA featuring Natasha Bedingfield. The competition was open to inspire locals to sell their neighborhoods by outlining what makes them great. The winners attended an exclusive VIP event and performance by Natasha Bedingfield at Hotel Indigo New York City, and were featured in a Hotel Indigo advertisement in People® Magazine.

Pixel8 manages worldwide Social Media operations for Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts and Hotel Indigo. As all Hotel Indigo hotels in the Americas are pet friendly, we initiated and managed Facebook and Twitter campaigns to donate funds to U.S. pet charity Adopt-a-Pet.com. Results from the campaign included a $10,000 donation to Adopt-a-Pet.com, hundreds of positive comments for the brand and over 4,000 Facebook fans.

To be shortlisted for a Marketing Society Northern Award has made us very happy indeed. The awards were launched to recognise and reward excellence, and we are thrilled to have our hard work and achievements recognised.

The awards dinner will be held on 29 June at The Point, Lancashire County Cricket Club.

Fingers crossed!

Crowne Plaza currently has 388 hotels open in 60 countries and 123 new hotels are in the pipeline.

Within just four working days the Pixel8 Social Media team launched the Crowne Plaza global Facebook with 43 elements including:

A custom-application microsite listing all hotels that works within a single page on Facebook.

All Crowne Plaza campaigns including PGA TOUR and BMW Motorsport sponsorships.

Hotel photo albums, worldwide special offers, latest news and two charity donation campaigns.

“Room Nights for the Brave” is the Crowne Plaza campaign supporting “Birdies for the Brave”, a PGA TOUR supported military outreach initiative assisting U.S. Armed Forces and their families. Crowne Plaza is donating one room night to Birdies for the Brave for every Eagle made at 8 PGA TOUR golf tournaments between 19th May and 3rd July, 2011.

Room Nights for the Brave launched on Facebook and Twitter at the moment play began at the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial, on 19^th May. An “Eagle Counter” on Crowne Plaza Facebook displays the number of free room nights accrued to date. By close of play at Colonial, 231 free room nights had been accrued!

Pixel8 launched a second campaign to further support Crowne Plaza donations to Birdies for the Brave. The Crowne Plaza Facebook “Likes” campaign will donate up to $20,000 to the charity, one dollar for every “Like” on Crowne Plaza global Facebook until 3rd July, 2011. In week one of this campaign, over 1,000 people “Liked” Crowne Plaza’s Facebook and many positive comments were posted about the brand.

Please join Crowne Plaza in supporting the great work provided by the dedicated people at Birdies for the Brave, just visit Crowne Plaza Facebook and click the “Like” button.

Pixel8 are very pleased to win Platinum in the Social Media category at the Hermes Creative Awards for our Hotel Indigo Facebook & Twitter campaigns. We’re also proud of the Facebook and Twitter campaigns we delivered in record time for Crowne Plaza Hotels & Resorts.

Charles Yap, Director of Global Brand Communications at IHG described Pixel8’s achievements as “Epic work!”

One advantage of having the same agency provide both brand design and social media, is that the agency is already up to speed and on-brand before social media marketing begins. Advantages which IHG enjoys working with Pixel8 include our ability to provide immediate expertise across both traditional and new media platforms, staff that work out-of-office hours to accommodate Eastern Standard Time and quick turnarounds on custom campaign graphics.

For more information about Pixel8 please visit Pixel8ltd.com or call us direct. In the UK please call 0845 230 1336 – From the USA dial 011 44 161 228 6489 or contact us by e-mail today.

Crowne Plaza, PGA TOUR and BMW are trademarks of their respective owners.