CLICK AND DRAG ON IMAGE TO ROTATE

Hey, this is cool, don't you agree? Being able to show your customers your product without them having them come to you, or you having to send them your product. Think about how awesome is it to be able to send them a link to your site where they can look at your product and rotate it freely and view all 360 degrees of it? Very cool and professional…

…and, as a customer, I love checking out the product in store before I buy it; I want to make sure it’s exactly what I want before I go throwing my hard earned money at the cashier. However, this isn’t always possible when shopping on the internet as… well; you’re sat at a computer and not in the store. Duh.

Using 360 Degree product photography you can show off your products in all their exciting, rotating, interactive & stylised glory. Oh yes, back of the net. By bringing your product(s) to us here at Studiowide, we can turn it into a fully interactive 360 degree image. we take a series of 32 images in our photography studio, stitch them together to create an interactive image and then format the file ready for you to embed in your web page; allowing visitors to click and drag to rotate your product a full 360 degrees!

We've recently just finished compiling a 360 degree photography project for a client who has developed and Patented a simple, low cost and easy-to-use solar LED Ophthalmoscopes (Say What!) You can read about the product here at arclightscope.com.

Our client wanted to enable visitors to their site to be able to freely rotate the unit and look at it in it's entirety to get a better idea of the features it has and it's compact size.

If you want to find out more, or get in touch with us about taking some 360 degree photography for your website, visit our ‘Product Photography’ page or contact us on 0151 708 5678.

Our feeling for this year is that although it will remain ‘tough out there’, there are telling signs that budgets within a variety of private sector industries are now being released for product and marketing projects.

Our current clients have already committed to some very interesting campaigns this year – which we are now involved with. Additionally, we continue to attract new clients through a mixture of our own outbound marketing activities and increasingly, through referrals. 

As a result of our steady growth we are extremely pleased to announce that Michelle Hird has recently joined the Studiowide team as a Graphic Design Creative.

Michelle is an Artist, Illustrator and Graphic Designer from Merseyside. She graduated from Liverpool John Moores University in 2008 with a BA Honors in Multimedia Arts.

When leaving university Michelle went straight into her first job as a Web Designer for TheHut.com based in Northwich. During her time at TheHut.com her work had been featured in The Times Newspaper, The Metro Newspaper, Inside Soap Magazine, the London Underground, The FX Channel, Burnley Football Stadium and her Jinxsy Bunny character has been spread on billboards across the UK.

After a few years working in the creative industry Michelle embarked upon an inspirational quest to Las Vegas, Nevada. On her return she landed a job as a Graphic Designer in Leyland, Preston working for Bee.com. She worked to maintain the Bee.com online store whilst also creating the Bee.com entertainment stores in Manchester, Bury, Blackburn and Birkenhead.

Inspiration

“I get inspiration from books I read, the music I listen to, the media I watch, the environment I find myself in and the people I’m with.”

Travel

“I love to travel and explore new places and cultures. My dream is to one day visit Tokyo and Japan with a big suitcase to pack full of their manga and anime cartoon comics!”

Relaxing

“During my free time I read, draw, go out with friends and watch movies with my sisters.”

Pet Hates

“I would describe myself as quite an easy going person, however I do get slightly annoyed with being stuck in traffic and when people talk to me through a good movie. Other pet hates would have to be people who don’t actively listen when I’m talking and people starting arguments for the sake of it – what’s that all about!”

Philosophy

“Be braver than you thought – you are braver than you think!”

Background 

Our client, Flexachem UK Ltd is the UK division for the Flexachem Ireland group. The company manufactures and distributes a range of engineered products for the chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries.

In 2011 the company set about creating a dedicated UK website at Flexachem.co.uk, whilst leaving the main ‘group’ site hosted at Flexachem.com. The objective of creating a dedicated site was to allow the UK based team to target and promote specific areas of the business aligned to the needs of their local domestic market. 

Studiowide were not only given the task to develop a new website – based on the original format, but we were also commissioned to provide an introductory Search Engine Optimisation  programme in order to establish the new domain name within search engines. 

The challenge

The challenge was getting on page 1 of Google for five chosen keywords. At this stage of the project it was unclear as to which segments of the business would be targeted and by which keywords until a full keyword analysis was undertaken. From doing such an analysis we quickly establish the level of hours required in order to get the new website onto page 1 of Google search results pages.

The solution

Keyword research is the cornerstone to any search engine optimisation (SEO) programme. By conducting some industry analysis and keyword research we were able to determine the competitiveness of certain key word phrases within the industry and target those keywords that had a sufficient level of web traffic. 

Keyword Phrases

There are 7 steps to finding the right keywords:

1) Brainstorm
2) Categorise
3) Research
4) Compile
5) Winnow
6) Determine competitiveness
7) Select

Once we had selected the right keywords the task was to now get the final chosen keywords into the website content. This can also apply to images by way of the image Alt attributes (alt tags).  

We initially conducted our on-page optimisation across the Flexachem website to ‘creatively’ weave in the specific chosen keywords. There is a fine line when conducting search engine optimisation relating to the insertion of keywords. Too many and the main communication and overall message of the website gets affected and watered down, too few and the process becomes futile.

So often we hear this part of the optimisation process referred to as the ‘sprinkling’ of keywords or even worse keyword ‘stuffing’. Getting the right on-page optimisation done, in particularly using keywords in content, is all about the user. Users come first, the final content must make sense to people, not just to search engines, this is why we approach this part of the process whilst inserting the keyword content, with an element of creativity in writing.

Search Engine Optimisation in HTML tags

There are many tags used when coding webpages and there are some tags that when keyword phrases are used within them can help the search engines determine the relevancy of the web page. Such tags are; 

·        Title tags – these are the most useful of all html because search engines give them lots of weight
·        Meta description tags – These should describe the page so that it entices users to click on your listing in the search engines
·        Header tags – These are great places to use keyword rich headlinesAnchor text – this is the words you use in the clickable part of any text link
·        Image alt attributes (alt tags) –  Used when you have image navigation on the website

With the Flexachem website we did not place keywords in all of the potential tags above – we recommend that just because you can put keywords everywhere, it doesn’t mean that you should. Therefore, in this project and in all of our projects, we only use the keywords where it makes the most sense for each page.

Once we had conducted effective on page optimisation we then turned our focus to further content. As part of our web development project for Flexachem we included a news and information feed which could be picked up by newsreaders as a RSS feed. 

RSS feeds are one of the best methods of getting fresh content out to the search engines on a regular basis – this is our number 1 tip for building web site authority within the search engines. Having someone internally who can do this part of the website maintenance is a great advantage. 

However, with this project we opted for the traditional method of backlinking, where we post content onto relevant websites with a URL link back to the Flexachem site.

The results

As with any search engine optimisation project that we undertake our client receives a monthly snap-shot report of how the programme is performing. Within 1 month we had hit one of our objectives with Flexachem. We had achieved a page 1 listing for one of their 5 chosen keywords. Over the 6 month period we achieved listings on page 1 of Google for 4 out of 5 keywords.

At the end of the 6 month project we have firmly established Flexachem within the search engines and provided a platform for further on-going promotions. Our overall objective was met and the client was very happy. 

So, it's the end of one year and the start of another (funny that, who'd have thought that's how it worked!?). 

2011 has been a good year for Studiowide, a lot of interesting and fun projects to work on and keep us busy! We've put together a showreel that displays some of our best video work from 2011! Check it out!

With the start of the New Year comes the start of many more exciting video projects. If you're planning a video, or even just thinking about it; don't hesitate to get in touch and see how we can help you!

We were recently asked to go along to the Clothes Show Live 2011, held at the NEC in Birmingham, to film a set of videos for our client, Beautiful Brows. Our client was there exhibiting their unique make-up product line and required on-location promotional and demonstrational videos.

We had to be at Birmingham before 9AM in order to miss the mohassive crowd whilst filming, this involved getting up at silly O’clock to make sure we were all packed up and on the road on time. The sacrifices we make… oh, and it was a Saturday, A SATURDAY!

The sheer scale of the venue was awesome; there were 100’s of stands from top brands such as Benefit, Superdy, Rimmel and Paul’s Boutique. Once we’d managed to find the Beautiful Brows stand we started to set up our equipment to begin filming.

The first video we were going to shoot was an instructional video to demonstrate how to use the eyebrow make-up. We set up our lighting, audio equipment and microphones and cameras ready to start filming the demonstrator and model. A crowd started to gather as we clearly looked like we were about to film the next Star Wars!

Even with the pressure of the crowd and a few technical problems, we were able to get all the footage we needed and more. We had two cameras filming this as we needed a steady tripod mounted wide shot of the demonstrator and model and also, close up shots of the make-up being applied. 

The second video was the promotional video. The brief for this was to show off the stand that Beautiful Brows had set up; and obviously include a few clips of all the other companies that were at the show alongside them.  So we were left to our own devices and went around filming people using the products and trying the make-up on, trying to capture the excitement and hustle and bustle of the whole event. 

It was a little awkward at times trying to set the tripod up to get certain shots, due to how busy the event was,, particularly the fashion catwalk shots – around the stage was jammed. It was also a little tricky to get a shot because of the people in front of me too – luckily I had a go-go-gadget-super-extended, well… a tripod. We must have made the models feel a little uneasy, seeing a camera floating above the crowd’s heads 7ft in the air!

Between ignoring texts from my girlfriend demanding I grab as many free samples as I could and trying not to KO people with the tripod, I had to make sure we got the right shots for the promotional video; we had to get across to the viewers, the scale of the place and just how busy it was. In addition to this we captured close-ups of people using the products and their reaction when they first discover that they can have perfect eyebrows quicker than you can say ‘Ireallyshouldn’thavedrankthatredbullat6AM’. 

Once we had more than enough footage it was time to jump into the car and get back on the road to head home. As it was the weekend we got back to Liverpool quite quickly, and then spent the rest of the day keeping ourselves busy doing nothing, the video editing can wait till Monday!

You can watch the final edit of the promotional video below;

Thomas Knowles is a local Liverpool based artist that creates simplistic, earthly and fragile narratives with an ambiguous content. Working with real issues, scenarios and contexts, and process them within a playful and fictitious method, applying flares of fantasy, melancholy and myth.

 We were approached by Tom who told us that he wanted photographs of his art to use on his website and to send to galleries to raise general awareness of his work and establish himself as an artist. Tom’s work is something that has to be seen to fully appreciate it, the works are painted onto objects and so having a single image to showcase the work wouldn’t do them justice. The works stretch around the object a whole 360 degrees, so a series of photographs were needed to try and show the full extent of the work. 

Tom is looking to display his work in galleries. The photographs are something that would be featured on his website and then viewed by galleries. Tom wanted the pictures to try and show off his art as much as possible without having the person look at the piece directly in person. Due to the size of some of the pieces, this would be almost impossible to be sending out or carrying around. 

Tom was looking for the pictures to raise awareness of the art that he produces. The pictures need to show the attention to detail that Tom undertakes when painting each of his pieces.To solve this problem, we proposed a series of each photographs for each piece. Three main ‘establishing’ shots that show the piece as a whole from different angles and then a further three macro shots that will show the detail in each of the paintings.                        

At some point in the future Tom has stated that he would be using our 360 degree photography facilities so that people are able to rotate his pieces virtually and experience them almost as if they were viewing them in a gallery. 

In total we took 39 photographs of Tom's art work, all ready to be put in his website. Tom is hoping the photographs will raise more awareness for the art that he produces. The photographs are also helping Tom sell his £2,000 artwork pieces. 

Testimonial;

“I recently worked with Studiowide to complete a portfolio of product photography, capturing my artwork.  I found working with Studiowide a real pleasure.  On a personal level they showed genuine interest in both myself and my work, and went above and beyond to provide me with an excellent service, practical guidance and technical help.  With regards to the photography work; I approached them with a difficult task as my artwork is very challenging to photograph due to its 3-Dimensional shape, its size and lacquered finish.  These factors did not cause a problem for the Studiowide team who expertly, professionally and innovatively tackled the brief.  As an artist it was fantastic to work with a creative team who understood art and my product, and how to show it at its best.  I could not recommend Studiowide enough to any artists wanting to develop a portfolio, or anyone with a product that needs to be shown to its full potential.” Thomas Knowles, Artist.

Cooking Demonstrations – I love events like these. I always leave so inspired; wanting to get back to my own kitchen to try all the recipes for myself! However, by the time I get home it’s a different matter as I’m racking my brain just to remember the correct measurements and ingredients!

In response to a brief from our client; Celebrity Chef Paul Da-costa-Greaves, we had a little think back here at our office in Liverpool about how to overcome a similar lull of inspiration, regarding the audiences at his cooking demonstration – it was a no brainer – to create the recipes which are demonstrated at his events,  as an online digital book!

Paul Da-Costa-Greaves is a Masterchef and creator of the gourmet fine food range ‘Feeding Your Imagination’, Paul has been busy lately, appearing at cooking demonstrations up and down the country. When it came to creating a range of recipe books we felt it was perfect for him to tap into the digital age of consuming information.

We created all recipe books online using our interactive publishing software. A simple, easy to read graphical solution that enables the recipes to be displayed in a familiar page turning format, just like a book only online. Paul’s recipe books specialise in seafood, desserts, alternative Christmas nibbles and even how to use your BBQ for yummy food all year round! These are all available exclusively to those lucky viewers of his cooking demonstrations.

Now that Paul has all of his recipes digitally published he can email the content after a show, instead of his audience trying to remember the exact method in which to cook his famous jerk chicken or seafood pasta. These digital books have been a huge hit with his fans and are great for referring back to in the kitchen. We have now completed four booklets with more to come I’m sure.

So I guess those dirty and thumbed Delia books can stay on the shelf, now that there is a much easier way to take recipes to the kitchen with you! Do get in touch if you feel you could benefit from our publishing services to turn your reading digital.

Campaign background

Our most recent video production project has just been completed for a company called Plastic Closures Ltd based in Warrington. They are specialists in the supply and manufacture of caps, closures, temper evident caps, snap caps, beverage caps, closures caps, cosmetic closures, flip top caps, screw caps, sports bottle cap and diary caps… phew; almost forgot to breathe there.

The Challenge

Studiowide was asked to produce a promotional video that would be used at an exhibition in early 2012, with the intention of gathering interest and giving potential customers an insight into what Plastic Closures Ltd do. The video would also be displayed in the reception area for customers to watch while they’re waiting.

The main objective for the video was to communicate a variety of key messages such as; ‘we do as we promise’, ‘develop the relationship – deliver the promise’, ’55 million closures produced annually’, ‘fast friendly service’ and that they have ‘eco credentials with the introduction of all electric machines’.

The Solution

To achieve this objective, we proposed to our client some suggestions for the video to have a slight narrative. Now, we’re not talking Coronation Street with the standard affair being followed by a bloody murder of the cheating partner with the aid of a rusty spoon; we’re talking more along the lines of a super simple ‘story’ (so to speak). One that follows the customer from the very beginning; starting with the introduction and initial meeting and ending with a shiny new plastic closure (lid). The client was excited with this angle and agreed to focus on the production journey of a Galaxy hot chocolate lid. With this brief in mind we then set about showing the viewer exactly what to expect when working with Plastic Closures Ltd.

After un-leashing my amazing drawing ability (Ha!) to storyboard the video, it was time to go to Plastic Closures Ltd and begin the filming. This is where it got really interesting; we crawled all over the production process with our HD cameras then John (the M.D. of Plastic Closures Ltd) asked if I wanted to see the robot. “Hell yeah! A robot!” I was over there before you could say ‘all electric injection moulding machine incorporating the LRX50 Linear Robot’. If you’ve ever seen ‘How It’s Made’ on the Discovery Channel – that’s exactly what it was like!

The Results

Following some hours of on-location-filming it was once again back to the nerd cave to begin the editing process. After liaising with the client with a few iterations we arrived, quite quickly I must say, with the final video.

The total process, from filming to final cut, agreed and signed off was 5 days. What! 5 days I hear you say! Yep – we don’t hang around. After this first video was finalised the client also requested two other specific videos to help promote the use of two machines which they are particularly proud of in the factory. 

Overall, the client was very pleased with the end videos, and even sent us some nice feedback to brighten our lovely grey winter’s day.

“Superb, well delivered from story board to final cut, understood our intentions and developed them into a very professional video, we are happy to have found Studiowide and would not hesitate recommending to other businesses. The proof is in the pudding and they delivered on time and in a very courteous manner.” – John Hargreaves. M.D. Plastic Closures Ltd.

Over the past few weeks we’ve been busy snapping pictures to help promote ‘Beautiful Brows’;

‘Beautiful Brows is a specialist Cosmetics Company based in the UK. We manufacture and supply a unique brow makeover product, to retail and trade outlets across the UK. Beautiful Brows is a revolutionary system that creates perfectly shaped and coloured eyebrows in just minutes!

Our unique eyebrow powder is made in the UK, ensuring the highest quality – the product has fast become a UK top seller. Proven to quickly transform thin, short and pale eyebrows into the perfect shape, every time!’

We were asked to take a series of product shots that would be used both online and in a shiny magazine that would be available in Dubai. The product shots were all taken here at our Studio in Liverpool; using professional studio lights and a white backdrop we were able to create a stylish looking product shot for each of the products in the line-up. Once the picture had been taken and we were happy with the positioning of the light and the composition; it was time to take it to the next level! Well, into Photoshop. This is where we do all our post-production work to make an image come alive. Once the image has been touched up and enhanced, it’s ready to save for the web. This is where we will save the image at a specific resolution and file size so that it is easily viewable for everybody on the web, regardless of internet speed or monitor size.

Not only are we able to take photographic images in the confines of our own studio, but also out and about in the real World, aaawwwwhhh yeah! You heard correct. We’ll come to you and provide a location based shoot. This is something that was also required as part of the Beautiful Brows brief. We were given media passes to the ‘Professional Beauty North 2011’ show in Manchester. Armed with our go-anywhere-and-photograph-anything badges we made our way over to the Beautiful Brows stand and started snapping as customers continuously queued up to try the new products out! Making sure we showed the beauty of the product and the sheer excitement of the customers trying it out.

Overall, our client was very happy with the photographs we produced and has them proudly displayed on their website. Success.

If you’re interested in any of our photography services then don’t hesitate to get in touch!

We are currently working on an exciting marketing campaign for a local environment / charitable organisation, in partnership with Wirral Council. Studiowide was selected from a number of companies to provide a 4 month marketing campaign, aimed at raising awareness of a Government grant, free home insulation scheme. 

The project is a complete single sourced campaign encompassing; micro website, video production, PR, logo design, posters, direct mail pieces, digital marketing – including online and offline response devices. 

The Warmer Wirral campaign is one of those exciting projects which we love to get involved with where we have 100% responsibility for all marketing and creative activities – this is where we shine. 

Our campaign angle was to create a strong creative visual to which we could anchor the original idea of a Polar Bear mascot. Our client had originally been running this programme without external help, and now felt that professional assistance would bring the additional exposure that was needed. Our overall objective for the marketing campaign was to increase online applications for the free loft and cavity wall insulation scheme.

First off we needed a good logo. The previous company logo had been used in the campaign materials prior to the revamp. We felt that this didn’t present a uniform identity and was contributing to an overall confusing message. 

The new Warmer Wirral logo was created along with a main graphic. At first glance, the graphic appears to be an iceberg, supported with the tagline ‘Heating Bills are the Tip of the Iceberg’. On a folded page the top of the iceberg is visible, then, by unfolding the piece the revealed iceberg is actually a roof top. Below the roof top lays the lower two thirds of a house. 

When we presented this idea to our client they immediately liked the ‘houseberg’ concept. Having such a quick approval of the logo and visuals meant we could get on with creating the basic assets required for the four individual videos and the website.

Once the visuals and logos had been ‘tweaked’, we transferred this across all pieces, including poster and postcards. The direct mail was designed to be shown folded, which could then be pulled open to reveal the ice/houseberg concept.

We finished the direct mail letters and leaflets following additional briefing and review meetings. This part of the approval process was critical and involved senior representatives from Wirral Council and Energy Projects Plus. 

Whilst working on our offline materials we were simultaneously creating our online assets. For the Warmer Wirral website we utilised a JQuery slider function to create the ice/ houseberg effect – this worked really well and provided the perfect landing page, bridging off-line communications with the on-line environment.

In addition to the website we wanted to add a greater visual element to the campaign – video lends itself perfectly to this project. All footage was filmed onsite over a number of days and culminated in short videos which were based on the customer journey. This included; the campaign mascot, Lofty the Polar Bear, including survey, installation and testimonials.

We’re extremely excited about the Warmer Wirral campaign being launched this week. We’re now beginning our promotional activities and hope to report back some exciting results in the coming months!

Testimonial;

“The strength of this company is its creative visual talent. We have gone from our own homemade look to a completely re-branded look that is totally professional, topical, fresh and, well, just plain gorgeous. We have seen an immediate increase in web traffic. Nothing has been too much trouble for these guys to do. Thank you.” Sandra Manning. Energy Projects Plus. Wirral.