What we've been up to this month
19 July 2010
In January 2010, CIVIC was appointed to lead the development of sportscotland's digital communications strategy across 10 individual websites. We've now been appointed to design and develop the new website for Scotland's national outdoor training centre, Glenmore Lodge.
Located in Cairngorms National Park, Glenmore Lodge aims to inspire adventure by teaching beginners, coaching intermediate/advanced and delivering training and assessment courses for leaders and instructors. The new website will convey the personality and experience of Glenmore Lodge's instructors while also looking to increase interest and bookings from a wider audience.
Glenmore Lodge can be found on Twitter @Glenmore_Lodge
13 June 2010
Recently CIVIC received a commendation for Best Use of Visual Design at the Scottish Design Awards, hosted by The Drum.
The website was done in conjuntion with and for RR Donnelley, to redesign www.rrdcreative.com. We are very pleased and proud of everyone who worked on this project and throughly enjoyed working alongside the team at RR Donnelley.
28 May 2010
The NHSScotland Event is one of the leading annual health events in the country. While the event’s offline promotional material was rebranded in 2010, there was still a need for the new look and feel to be integrated into the website. The site also needed to be moved to a more modern Content Management System (CMS) to make it easier for staff to manage, and to enable better integration with third party content.
We were commissioned to undertake a full redesign of the NHS Event Scotland website, drawing on material supplied in other branding. We upgraded the CMS to the latest version Content Control, our open source java platform that provides a host of features that are designed to ensure ease of editing, compliant workflows, and distribution of content.
With a bold new design ensuring users can find the information they require quickly and easily, clear calls to action and the ability to share content on social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter, the website launched at the end of April ahead of the event taking place in Edinburgh this June.
5 March 2010
Just in time for our colleagues trip to SXSW Interactive, we have launched our CIVIC Digital blog!
The news page will still be on our site to infom of new work and what we will call, the 'serious stuff', while our blog, Inside the Fishbowl, will focus more on events, colleagues, inspiration, technology and ideas from the brains behind the work at CIVIC.
Beginning on 12 March 2010, our colleagues will be filling the space with information and events direct form SXSW in Austin, Texas.
So pop on over, have a wee browse and please feel free to leave comments.
25 February 2010
This month saw us launch the digital flagship for our latest client’s national PR and marketing strategy, RMD Power and Cooling’s rmduk.com
In an industry often driven by and saturated with technical detail, we recognised that RMD’s success lies in its mix of people and its relationship with clients and partners. Excellent customer service is the foundation on which RMD has built a reputation as one of Europe’s leading power and cooling specialists.
RMD appointed us to help them maximise this unique position and establish an online presence, designing and building a website. Only a handful of agencies have design and technology under one roof and are able to bring creative design to life and make it work on screen.
John Smykala, RMD’s MD comments on the website: “Working with a partner who would take the time to understand our business was absolutely critical. CIVIC definitely succeeded in positioning ourselves clearly and communicating a clear message to the market, delivering on extremely tight timescales.”
It was clear to us from the outset that a simple, stylish and people focused approach would be key to achieving ‘stand out’ in the marketplace. After an initial user profiling exercise, we designed a site architecture that focused on their key audiences and the company’s core products and services.
The site content was carefully planned to avoid using any technically heavy information. The design, imagery and functionality of the site was also designed to simplify and maximise on impact.
The end result is completely different to any of RMD's competitors and will help position the RMD brand where it wants and needs to be. The enhanced online presence reflects RMD’s aim to raise brand awareness across multiple markets and its positive outlook for growth in 2010.
CIVIC MD, Greig Tosh, explains: “We hardwire brand thinking into our code so our websites perform their primary function as a communications tool. There is nothing glamorous about power and cooling and our challenge was to understand RMD’s business and simplify a complicated technology - making it accessible and engaging to a corporate audience.”
Visit www.rmduk.com to find see our work in action and feel free to get in touch if you’d like to discuss this, or any new projects, in person.
15 May 2010
We've been very excited to work with the SportScotland Institute of Sport as one part of our digital strategy with SportScotland. We conducted a review of the SISport site in order to improve the way that users received and accessed information.
We recommended a new site map, homepage design and page structure to improve the probability of users finding information and reaching their goal.
We're very happy with the results and hope you will be too.
You can follow announcements from SportScotland and their partners via their Twitter stream on @SportScotland.
03 March 2010
We have launched a new support form for you to log any issues with us. We are always working to imporve our client support and we request you make this your first point of call when you have an issue.
Click on the link about or simply go to www.civicuk.com/support.
Thanks,
The CIVIC team
24 January 2009
sportscotland, Scotland’s national agency for sport, is launching a major new digital communications strategy aimed at promoting the benefits and potential of sport to a wide audience including governing bodies of sport, local authorities, high performance athletes as well as the people of Scotland.
We have been appointed to lead the development of this three year strategy that will bring together 10 individual websites under one digital roof. Our aims are to bring in cost and time efficiencies and help deliver sportscotland’s corporate objectives of increasing participation in sport by investing in and uniting the people, places and thinking that make sport happen.
Central to the strategy will be a new sportscotland website that will act as an arena for anyone in Scotland to find out how they can get involved in sport and also help to forge stronger links at a community level between sports clubs, schools and councils. The site will be a database made up of thousands of events, venues, people and information. Presented in a creative and engaging way it will draw people in and give them reasons to return again and again.
Critically, social media will form an important element of the site, allowing users to personalise the site, defining and configuring their view of the site depending on their interests.
We are very excited about this new opportunity and are looking forward to working alongside the sportscotland team.
You can also read about this on Design Week and Kable.
14 January 2010
We recently added a new member to our team, Darcie Tanner Condie, who is our in-house digital and social media madame. Coming to us from Channel 4, she is here to provide Civic and our clients with advice, strategies, training and implementation to help meet the needs of the ever growing and demanding digital world. Darcie is experienced across the core disciplines of online marketing, including SEO, PPC, online advertising, social media marketing, viral and PR.
To throw her in at the deep end, Darcie is one of the delegates providing a workshop at Scotland’s Social Marketing Conference 2010, on 5 February at the Grosvenor Hotel here in Edinburgh on the topic of using social media for social change.
We are now offering a variety of packages for our clients ranging from social media seminars (introduction or bespoke), social media and digital strategies, team training, consultancy and strategy visualisation.
If this sounds like something you would be interested in or just want to find out more about how we can help you get involved more online, just drop an email to darcie@civicuk.com.
5 August 2010
Last week Advocates For Animals launched their Snare Free Scotland campaign at the Scottish Parliament alongside a viral email campaign by CIVIC.
The emails, branded as ‘Animails’ for the campaign, were sent out to current supporters and can also be reached on the Advocates for Animals homepage. Each Animail gives users the opportunity to share through their social networking sites, such as Facebook and Twitter.
We've been sending several out because the animals, by local designer & illustrator Kate McLelland, well they're just too cute. However the real ones are even cuter, so the Snare Free campaign is close to our hearts. Donating as little as £2.04 (the price of a snare) can help make a big difference.
To learn more about the Snare Free Scotland campaign and to send an Animal to your friends and family, visit the One Kind website.