The team behind Celebr8mk set to work last night plastering 30 city locations with it's logo. The innovative street art aims to promote  the parade on August 29, which has been billed as the city's answer to the Nottinghill Carnival. It's environmentally friendly and will create intrigue. That's how Graymatter create brand awareness!

So, yet more health and well being goodness in development by the team at Graymatter HQ.
This time developing a suite of NHS health centre web sites being setup by UnitedHealth.

Now pull yourself together.

NHS UnitedHealth GP Healthcare

When Chevrolet entered the British Touring Car Championship there was naturally a need to keep their fans up to date with the latest action and results. And the new BTCC site doesn't disappoint - Graymatter have created a site that reflects the excitement of the sport and through social media integration allows fans to keep in touch with the action as it happens! But don't take our word for it - with the first race under way on 4 April check out the site for yourself at chevroletbtcc.co.uk

A lesson in grammar and typography, as defined by Design Week.

We love being featured in Design Week, all agencies do. It’s nice featuring alongside your peers for critical comparison and receiving the metaphorical pat on the back for work well done. We’ve had quite a lot of press coverage recently, which is all fab, and I know how the game works. You provide a story, they pull out the sticky nugget they are interested in, wrap it in flour and dip it in deep fried journalistic goo. I was fascinated to see another article just recently, in a local paper that had me quoting things I can’t ever remember saying. I’m not complaining, I sounded very intelligent – anyone who knows me would immediately guess a PR pro had to step in on my behalf.

Design Weeks odd refusal to spell our name correctly is extra-strange though. Apparently it is editorial house style to break up words into their different bits. So Graymatter became Gray Matter – and no they won’t change it, even if it is our name.

We still love you Design Week. We forgive you.

After numerous cups of coffee, internal meetings and discussions Graymatter have been successful in securing the New Chevrolet Advantage marketing programmes account. A big pat on the back to everyone involved :-)

Want to know more? Call Jay on 07834 271 258 or email: jason@graymatter.co.uk

Not that we are boasting. Much. In fact our client, the NHS is struggling to cope with demand following the launch of our Facebook led campaign.



So Facebook said that the average take up for a homepage ad is about 0.1%. We are hitting about 0.3% takeup - one of the most succesful homepage ad campaigns they’ve ever run.

We can’t pretend that we are not just a little excited by that nice little endorsement from Facebook, and our friends in the NHS. Oh, and be sure to check out local newspapers for press releases...

Want to know more? Call Jus on 07510 304721 or email jus@graymatter.co.uk

…everything about Milton Keynes! If you live, work or socialise in Milton Keynes you’ll already know what the place has to offer. Celebr8mk is a brand that’s been designed by Graymatter for the community. There’s some very passionate people who want to tell their story and celebrate MK their way. The sense of civic pride is contagious and we’re really looking forward to seeing the brand grow and thrive over the coming year. There’s already some guerilla marketing and experiential branding planned – so look out! Celebr8mk has arrived and will be hard to ignore.

Visit: www.celebr8mk.co.uk

Watch out for the press release in tomorrow’s MK Citizen and the name drop on BBC3CR at 7.20 in the morning (for those early risers).

Every place needs ‘a sense of place’ – a focal point for people to gather, celebrate, commemorate, remember and share. TrustMK is the organisation that will make this happen. The first project will be a Cenotaph in Milton Keyes that will give the community a place to meet. Our approach to the brand was simple: embody the philosophy of bringing people and community together. To give depth to the brand we’ve created a ‘brand stencil’ that can be overlaid on iconic shots of Milton Keynes to reinforce ‘a sense of place’. See you there….

Meet the team! An eccentric and mildly mad professor. A militant chef. And a very fit fitness instructor. We get to work with all sorts here.

I get stereotypes. As in, I get the fact that often stereotypes can be there for a reason – hence them being stereotypes. Oooh – controversial. I guess the trick is to not judge a book by its cover, although we all do don’t we? Human nature. It can get extra tricky when delivering communications aimed at certain groups, take our BMW ad above. Placed in a magazine aimed at women, littered with references to girls, the colour pink with articles explaining the basics of looking after your car with useful acronyms like P.O.W.D.E.R. (can you guess what that stands for?).

Of course there is no right or wrong, we consume and purchase media we relate to, which reflects our personality. So how then to deliver BMW’s brand and message in this context? We think we got it bang on.

The one thing I love about this job is seeing your ideas and creations bought to life. I say ‘one thing’ like there is only one thing. Tsssk. So we needed three characters to bring something to life, help our client communicate stuff to Joe Public in a fun and engaging away.
 
We knew that we needed three types of people – one brainiac type intellectual, one firm ‘JFDI’ type and one softer, gentler person who would be more sympathetic.
 
Not quite there yet, it’s work in progress – we think our professor needs to be a bit more mental (think ‘Back to the Future’) and our Militant effing and jeffing Chef (who said Gordon Ramsay?) needs to be a little less… well Militant. Our seductive and sexy fitness instructor however is bang on brief…

It seems to me that the last year might just have made us all just that little bit more cynical. Bankers acting like bankers, governments bailing them out – to then carry on acting as bankers – and poor old you and me, the average everyday jo and joannes left picking up the pieces. This isn’t just another rant to add to the chorus of global rants – I have a relevant point to make.

Maybe we have all wised up, had things pulled sharply into focus – maybe we are concentrating on the basics. I’ve noticed a distinct trend in clients willing to be decidedly different, brave and bold in their approach this last few months.

Getting back to the nub of it, selling the proposition, concentrating on the main selling point (I refuse to use the USP acronym). And saying it how it is, being more direct, brave, honest and genuine. Not patronising our customers or colleagues.

Case in point. Vauxhall. We’ve just worked up a beautifully simple campaign with all the above in mind. See what you think…

How can you be an agency that thrives on creativity whilst adhering to process? It’s a no-brainer if you consider design in commercial terms  – we call it ‘talking business through design’. Demonstrating a real commitment to quality tells our clients we never compromise. The Quality Management System we have in place  conforms to the internationally recognised quality standard ISO 9001: 2008 (which means we have documented processes for every aspect of the business from project inception to delivery, and all key stages in between). We even go as far as asking clients to recommend the performance criteria they want us to benchmark ourselves against. Now there’s commitment!

You’ll be disappointed if you are expecting to see what the accreditation looks like – it’s really quite dull if the truth be told.  I’d rather show you a picture of the awards submission pack we produced for our client Pure Mobile (the pop-up card engineering results in angelic wings spreading out when you open the submission box). That’s quality.