Armadillo create designs for award-winning Summers Inman

Armadillo has just completed the latest quarterly publication for award-winning construction and property consultants, Summers-Inman. The 24-page Business Update has a circulation of 3,000 and showcases the company’s diverse range of services to clients nationally and internationally. This quarter’s lead story is on Roseisle Distillery in Moray which has been named Scottish Building Project of the Year 2010 by RIcS Scotland.

The new distillery is Scotland’s first for 30 years and is also the largest-ever built (3000 sq m), costing £40m. The energy generated by the distillery’s £14 million biomass plant (a separate project) is used to generate the steam that charges the stills and a water reclamation plant recycles liquid for potable water.

Armadillo Director Rachel Burgess said “We’re delighted to be working with Summers Inman and helping to highlight their prestigious work. The Business Update is rich with architectural imagery and we’re able to design pages around great shots for many diverse and prestigious projects. For instance, this quarter’s update includes the new Haymarket Metro Station in Newcastle and a new, world-leading medical research building for Newcastle University.

Summers Inman send the Update direct to their subscriber list and have it available for download from their website. www.summers-inman.co.uk

Sanctuary House website build

Armadillo is currently working on the design and build of a new website for North Shields hair and beauty spa, Sanctuary House. Although the business has been running for many years it has never before used a website. Armadillo MD Berry Burgess said “Sanctuary House is a real gem of a place, a quirky, friendly salon in beautiful premises with a great range of services. Although it’s a thriving business, so many people, even locally, don’t know it’s there. The challenge of the web build for us is to capture all the quality and charm of Sanctuary House but to deliver the key messages and allow a fully functional, e-commerce website to boost both on and off-line sales.”

Advertising and Design B.C. – Before Computers

When I first came into this business at the time when Kate Bush was warbling Wuthering Heights and Grease was the word, the marketing business was fairly simple. Advertising co-existed with Design under the same roof quite happily and designers and artist worked with a smile on their faces happily living off the fumes of Magic Markers. Memory was something you lost with age, an application was for employment, a virus was a flu that happily kept you off work for a week, a hard drive was a trip up to Glasgow and a 3½-inch floppy was something boys wouldn’t admit to girls or their mates.
Every young marketeer had on his shelf a Pantone swatch book, drawers full of Letraset transfer sheets, a copy of Ogilvy on Advertising, and some severely dog eared D&AD annuals. Life was simple. Client rang; agency took a brief, copywriter and designer/visualiser mocked up a concept or scamp. Client the said Yes or No, and the concept then went into production, art direction photography, typesetting and final artwork. And so the big Ad world turned, the tills rang and the lunch tabs grew bigger.

Armadillo Talk

Armadillo MD Berry Burgess was one of the 3 keynote speakers at the ‘Supercharged – Marketing for Success’ event on 23rd November at Nautilus House, Royal Quays. The free event gave over 100 local entrepreneurs an opportunity to learn how to ensure their marketing remains strong in changing and challenging times. Berry commented, “Events like these are great for local business people to network in an informal and informative environment. I’m always delighted to be invited to talk at these evenings and hope I can share a little experience and expertise.”

One of the other features of the evening was a collection of informal ‘flip chart’ workshops. These sessions connect and encourage local business people to meet and swap information both as providers and consumers.

The event, attended by over100 people, is part of a series organised by North Tyneside Business Forum. The Forum was established by North Tyneside Council following extensive consultation with different employment sectors and is aimed particularly at medium, small and micro enterprises. It creates networking opportunities and provides support and business development advice. All local SMEs are encouraged to attend and a Forum newsletter is available for anyone interested in more information.

Berry Burgess said “The Business Forum do a great job running these events and there’s always a lot take away. These are tough times for a lot of businesses and there’s a lot to be said for keeping things local and working together wherever we can”.

Pro-Care appoint Armadillo for full rebrand

Armadillo is excited to announce the acquisition of new client, Pro-Care Group. Pro-Care Group are national specialists in the design, development, manufacture and installation of glazed and specialist façade treatments for the construction industry. Based in Northampton, Pro-Care Group have clients nationwide, meeting demand requirements for large scale technically installations, remedial and renovation works, one-off service calls and investigative and planned maintenance programmes.

Armadillo have been tasked with a complete re-brand across web, print and various brand collateral. A professional photo-shoot with Andrew Heptinstall, over two days in London and Northampton, has captured some of the Group’s more prestigious projects such as City of Westminster College and Guildford School of Arts. These new images will be the main focus of the design work both on and offline.

Armadillo’s Account Manager, Vaughan Di Mascio commented, “Our brief is to accurately reflect the company’s current business activity and its future ambitions. We’re creating brand identity, a new website and on and offline brochures and case studies.” The new website will be clean and more modern in appearance than the current Pro-Care Group site. A narrative style, use of original images and the development of key brand messages and straplines will present the company in a more focused and professional way. The website will be much more interactive and user-friendly than before.

Vaughan continues “We want the new Pro-Care work to clearly distinguish the company from its competitors. Our main focus is to help Pro-Care communicate its professionalism and experience in delivering the services it offers. The new marketing is very engaging and image-led. The website is very easy to navigate and handles a lot of initial enquiries for the company. Clearly, converting these enquiries is crucial so the content has be accessible and relevant.”

Does my bum look big in this?

The way in which people shop is always changing, but now a computer generated version of you could take over when it comes to trying on a new dress. Macys the US department store has recently devised a 72-inch mirror display that enables you to superimpose clothing on to your reflection. Shoppers have the opportunity to select the garment of their choice and then virtually dress their reflection. Shoppers will now be able to ask themselves… does my bum looks big in this?

Did you feel like a caveman when you started Twitter, Blog, and Facebook?

At Armadillo we’ve been tweeting and blogging for our clients for sometime so we thought we’d share some positive reasons why you should be using social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. You can now interact with people you would probably never get to see normally using standard prospecting techniques; this may be because they live in a different country, time zone, are too senior or have too many gatekeepers.

Twitter and Facebook are great listening tools, you can follow whoever you want and people are genuinely happy to have as many followers as they can get. In this Internet, Facebook and Twitter era there is no excuse not to have found out something about the person you are about to meet. Our lives have become increasingly public as people add information on line, information you would struggle to glean on a first appointment.

Social networking websites like Twitter are more important than family to children, a survey has found, commissioned by National Family Week. The survey reveals the influence of technology on youngsters – and the extent to which parents underestimate it. Some 28% per of the 8 to 15-year-olds questioned cited websites such as Facebook, Twitter and MSN as the most important thing to them. Use these social marketing tools, after all your competitors are more than likely doing so.

So if you want to keep up with the latest Armadillo news, videos, photos whilst on Facebook join our group
No matter what you call them these are tools you can’t go anywhere with out these days, as I mentioned earlier in a blog post social marketing sites such as Facebook are more important to children these days than their family. Social networking is now a commodity to add onto phones, and is now part of the marketing plan and advertising staple.

Engaging in some form of social networking, media marketing is now a necessary evil. However there are different communication strategies to consider in the social media arena.

Digital Designer & Web Developer

Immediate Vacancies at Armadillo

With rapid new business gains over the past few months, Armadillo are currently looking to strengthen the agency with new staff. We currently have immediate vacancies for a Digital Designer and a PHP web Developer. Contact Berry Burgess on 0191 2578380

HMS Ark Royal floats past Armadillo

The HMS Ark Royal sailed past Armadillo on it’s way up the Tyne. I waved from my office window but the Captain didn’t see me. Shame.

Nice to see a bit of England float past your window on a Friday.

Bobbies on the tweet

It appears that the police have discovered yet another use for Social Media. Greater Manchester Police have taken to updating Twitter to report every incident they deal with during their working day. Will this make minor celebrities out of criminals? Will tax payers feel reassured that their money is being well spent? You be the judge!