Paul Leybourne is head of sales for Greater Manchester-based Vodat International, a supplier of managed networks and IPT solutions to the UK retail market.

Vodat’s clients include Jaeger, Beaverbrooks, Fat Face, White Stuff, Karen Millen, Lush, Reiss, Dune, 99p Stores and B&M Bargains. Vodat has not lost a client in more than seven years.

Paul started working with Pixel8 in Manchester 17 months ago…

“I think truth, honesty and really engaging an agency to understand the goals and core objectives of your business are the most important things in a great client-agency working relationship.

“The more an agency understands, the more they can give. I think too many sales and marketing people keep agencies at an arm’s length out of fear. They don’t want to lose control of any aspect of the business. And I think insecurity can play a part too – if your agency is coming up with all the ideas, then what is your role?

“We see both Pixel8 and our PR agency as business partners, and that’s not just rhetoric. We have bought into Pixel8 and they have bought into our business vision.

“I think poor client-agency working involves the client being too directive and the agency just running around to their orders. But we brought Pixel8 on board for their design and marketing expertise, so we’re not going to just leave them with the donkey work. Pixel8 adds value to our company and they do a lot of the creative thinking that we just don’t have time for. They allow both me and our MD Mike Bielinski to concentrate on running the business and generating sales.”

Jamie Watson, joint managing director of Pixel8 said, “Vodat are excellent communicators and invite us to a monthly meeting which is always very productive. They are honest with us about any issues their company is facing and encourage us to really get involved with ideas and solutions.

We originally started working with Vodat’s MD Mike Bielinski then as their company expanded Paul took over the sales department. We are really pleased to have developed an excellent working relationship with both Mike and Paul.”

For more information please visit Vodat International.

Manchester Design and Marketing Agency Pixel8 have won an international pitch to work with the largest hotel group in the world.

Pixel8 was the only UK agency on the four-strong pitch list, beating competition from top USA branding agencies for the six figure contract from InterContinental Hotels Group.

The contract is for a brand refresh for InterContinental Group’s international boutique brand Hotel Indigo, ahead of three UK hotel launches in 2010.

The six figure win has led to the appointment of three new members of staff for Pixel8, which was founded 11 years ago by joint managing director Nigel Daws, former lead graphic designer at Manchester United Merchandising Ltd.

Pixel8, which is based in Manchester’s creative Northern Quarter, will report to Ed Thorne, Director Global Brand Management for Hotel Indigo at InterContinental Hotels Group’s Atlanta offices.

Speaking about how a small Manchester agency ended up on a pitch list with three major US players, Pixel8 joint managing director Jamie Watson said, “Ed Thorne was previously a Global Brand Manager for InterContinental Hotels & Resorts based in London, he was impressed with our portfolio but at the time there was no immediate need for our services.

“Four years later, we got a call from Atlanta asking us to pitch. We didn’t know at the time that we would be the only UK agency on the pitch list.”

On selecting Pixel8, Ed said, “Hotel Indigo is an international brand and it was vital that the agency we chose could think globally. Pixel8 demonstrated a more outward looking focus than its US counterparts and gave us greater confidence that they could align our brand all over the world.

“Pixel8 has a proven track record in design and branding and was able to demonstrate a greater degree of flexibility than the larger agencies. Their ability to tell the brand story of Hotel Indigo through identity design was exemplary, and their reasoning for making the branding changes was a clear winner.

“I have a personal preference for smaller branding agencies as they offer better access to the senior figures. Once I showed Pixel8’s proposal to the Atlanta-based senior management team, I had no trouble convincing them that this Manchester agency would deliver the highest calibre of work.”

Pixel8 joint managing director Nigel Daws said, “Pixel8’s background in working for well known brands was integral to demonstrating that we fully understand the guiding principles behind brand development.

“Working with InterContinental Hotels Group gives us the credibility we need to engage with other global brands. This win has already led to more work from other US companies and will lead to other exciting opportunities within the InterContinental Hotels Group.”

In addition to defining the brand identity, Pixel8 has been contracted to prepare guidelines for all in-hotel materials and develop tool kits to help deliver the look and feel across the internationally franchised brand.

The other competing agencies on the pitch list were Boston and Los Angeles-based Design Continuum, San Francisco’s Marshall Strategy and Brand Logic, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles.

About Hotel Indigo and InterContinental Hotels

Worldwide 33 Hotel Indigos have opened since 2004 and most of the hotels are pet friendly. Several Hotel Indigos host Canine Cocktails events where local residents, hotel guests and their pets get together and enjoy treats for all! Cocktail selections for pet owners may include “Salty Dogs” and “Greyhounds”, whilst the four-legged visitors get to grips with canine bacon treats.

Hotel Indigo offers boutique accommodations in an unconventional and unpretentious setting. Cozy, airy and inviting guestrooms with oversized beds, plush bedding, pillow top mattresses, throw pillows, area rugs, signature murals and spa-inspired bathrooms with walk-in showers, vessel sink, hair dryer and Aveda products.

London’s Paddington is home of the UK’s first Hotel Indigo and three more UK hotels are scheduled to open in London, Glasgow and Liverpool in 2010. A further seven hotels launches are planned this year including Vancouver and Shanghai, and additional hotels in New York and Atlanta. One night’s stay in a Hotel Indigo costs between £110-£170.

InterContinental Hotel Group’s other brands include Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn and Holiday Inn Express, Candlewood Suites and Staybridge Suites. Its portfolio currently offers over 621,000 rooms worldwide.

For more information please visit Hotel Indigo on Facebook, twitter or at HotelIndigo.com

Manchester design and marketing agency Pixel8 has been selected to take part in a £10million high growth programme which aims to generate 2,000 jobs in the North West of England over the next three years.

The northern quarter-based agency was chosen because judges believe Pixel8 has the capability to expand by at least 20 percent a year. As part of the programme, Pixel8 will receive intensive coaching from an experienced mentor, high growth workshops and networking opportunities.

Pixel8 has already demonstrated its strong growth potential, increasing sales by over 30% during the recession of 2009 and taking on three new fulltime members of staff.  The agency is also relocating into larger offices in the northern quarter this summer.

Working with both multinational global brands and small business owners, Pixel8’s new clients include 2ergo, the Global Mobile Technology Provider, the Vertex Group of International Outsourcing Companies, and SME’s such as portrait photographer Rebeka Fiona, and the motorbike lawyers at SorryMate.com

Joint managing director, Jamie Watson said “the high growth programme offers us the chance to take an outside view of our business, considering longer term goals and how we can best work towards them”.

For more info please visit www.Pixel8ltd.com or the www.HighGrowthProgramme.co.uk

Many small business owners find that when they need to update or fix a problem on their website, that the web design company doesn’t respond, or they want an arm and a leg to fix a problem or to simply add a few new pages.

When wedding and portrait photographer Rebeka Fiona contacted Pixel8, her website needed some immediate technical support, a little clean up work and a few minor updates.

We’ll let Rebeka tell you the rest of the story……

“I needed some work doing on my website urgently and my previous web developer had left me in the lurch.  I discussed the work with Jamie Watson at Pixel8 and he gave me one of his best web developers to fix the problems, and to update the website the way that I wanted.

I have been working with this developer at Pixel8 for some time now and have already ordered three more pieces of work.  I’m a very particular person, who works in a visual industry, I know exactly how I want my website to look and work.  Working with Pixel8 is a pleasure. They always get the work done to an extremely high level and are very quick and speedy to get back with answers to any questions, which I think as a client, is crucial.

The staff at Pixel8 in Manchester are also extremely knowledgeable about their subject.  Which is wonderful as when as a client you are looking to move your business forward in a certain way, they have the expertise and ideas with which to do so.

I would recommend Pixel8 to any business without hesitation.  And in fact I have done so.

Great Work Pixel8!”

Rebeka Fiona
Photographer

www.rebekafiona.com

The Pixel8 design and marketing agency in Manchester is proud to announce the appointment of Alan Woods to the new position of Creative Director.

Al provides a real boost to Pixel8’s management team and will be fundamental to business growth.  The new position has been created to ensure that Pixel8 maintains its high quality standards as the agency continues to expand.

Al spent 10 years as studio manager at Manchester United Merchandising Ltd, overseeing a wide variety of projects ranging from product range design, right through to events and store concepts.

Most notably was his work researching and designing the style guide documents that were used to direct over 50 licensees with their creation of products spanning over 150 categories. His work creating and art directing the Manchester United Premier Cup events, the largest under 15 football tournament in the world, showed his ability to create a strong visual style and oversee its use throughout the tournament on various products, event signage, website design and event launch video, meant Pixel8 knew he was the right person for the Creative Director role.

Pixel8 already has over tens years expertise creating corporate branding, logo design, packaging design and web design projects for sports related clients including Manchester United and Manchester Sport and Leisure Trust.

Nigel Daws Joint Managing Director of Pixel8 said, “Al brings a wealth of experience, further cementing our credibility within the sport sector”.

As part of our ongoing web support services for our client, the Expert Patients Programme, our web design and online marketing teams provided them with access to our easy-to-use email marketing system.

First, we designed and developed an HTML email template for their Self Management Division and integrated it into the content management system (CMS) of our email broadcasting system.

After an initial email marketing training session with the client, they were able to insert the text into the email campaign using the content management system which features a simple to use WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor with the ability to edit text and images, insert banners and links to their website or to other organisations such as the NHS.

When the email content had been added, it was a simple case of uploading the mailing list as a CSV file and using our email broadcasting system to send the email out to members of the Expert Patients Programme and the Self Management Division associates.

Once the email campaign had been broadcast, the client used our live email reporting system to browse through analytics and statistics including the number of times the email had been opened, which links had been clicked on and which email addresses caused a bounce back.

Pixel8 recently provided website redesign and web development services for the Expert Patients Programme website, to find out more please click here.

For more information visit our web design or our email marketing portfolio pages, or call the Pixel8 design and marketing agency in Manchester on 0161 228 6489, 0845 230 1336 or contact us today by e-mail

Several graphic design agencies in Manchester have very good web design skills, but few have in-house expertise in web development and web server technical support.

This was the case with the website for the Expert Patients Programme. Our web design and web development teams took the existing web design and developed it into a fully functional website with an easy to use content management system (CMS), which allows the client to update the website themselves.

The new web design is now hosted on a Linux server and we provide routine maintenance including installing patches to the CMS system, Linux server software updates and patches and website traffic reporting.

For more information about Pixel8’s web development and web server support services, please call us in Manchester on 0161 228 6489, 0845 230 1336 or contact us by e-mail

In addition to providing web design services for the Tullis Russell Group, we also provide web hosting and website support services.

Part of this work has recently involved updating their website with additional product information and stockist information. We also carry out routine maintenance on their Linux web server including downloading and installing the latest server software updates and patches. We now also provide Google analytics consultancy.

We look forward to our continuing our web support services for Tullis Russell in 2010 and to increasing visitors to their website through our search engine optimisation (SEO) and SEO copywriting services.

The problem with a lot of website contact forms which then email the contents, is the problem of SPAMBOTS which crawl through the web, looking for forms and filling in the fields with junk before sending them to the recipient.

One way of battling this problem is with form validation one form of which is the CAPTCHA method whereby the user has to fill in the image shown to them at the end of the form. SPAMBOTS cannot “read” this image so the contents of the spam is not forwarded on and only human responses are received.

So to reduce SPAM for our telecom client Vodat International, we have just implemented the CAPTCHA form validation which should dramatically reduce their SPAM and wasted time. This has been undertaken as part of our ongoing website maintenance, online marketing and search engine optimisation (SEO) services for Vodat.

As part of our continuing service for the Tullis Russell Group, we  are now providing web hosting and support for the Tullis Russell website, which is now hosted on one of our dedicated servers.

As well as transferring the current website to our servers, we have also integrated the new web design for the Papermakers section of the website, gradually bringing the look and feel of the site up to date.