Some fresh creative thinking could bear fruit for your brand. We’re a creative agency that’s passionate about squeezing the full potential out of our client’s brands. There’s no point having a great product or service if no one’s aware of it. Our specialty is connecting you with your target audience and facilitating conversations that sell!

You bring your aims and objectives, we bring the creative know-how to make them a reality. Together we take over the world maximise your brands potential.

Our team harbor a wealth of creative skills, from web design to photography, copywriting to PR, illustration to e-mail marketing. We love what we do and are passionate about visual communication that oozes not only style, but substance too.

If you’re interested in what we can do for your brand then get in touch and NOW.

What are you waiting for?

Fine… you win!

Super Special Limited Offer: For the month of January ONLY, we’re offering a free consultation, marketing strategy and in some cases a visual proposal (subject to availability). To get involved, just complete our short quote request form now and we’ll get started right away!

We start the year by launching a new website and brand for Surface – a company specialising in providing bespoke surfaces for building design.

“At Surface, we gather together the most exciting, fresh and beautiful surface technologies and designs from across the globe into a one-stop destination website for those looking for the ultimate stand-out feature for their projects”

The website is powered by the WordPress CMS, allows the creation of new ‘brand’ pages as their portfolio expands and the ability to add news and case studies. Samples of materials can be ordered and paid for online via the website.

View the website: The Surface Gallery

We kick-start the month by launching a new website that demonstrates a product that will change the face (or surface) of Britain’s roads to come!

IRMAC – the name behind a revolutionary piece of technology are set to target highway contractors, councils and road maintenance crews with this amazing kit that allows the quick and permanent repair of asphalt road surfaces.

It’s impressive to see it in action, how quick the whole process is and it’s even eco-friendly, recycling up to 99% of existing material on the road surface.

Check out the video we produced to demonstrate the product in action.

Northwest Air Conditioning secialise in the installation of Air Conditioning in Manchester, Cheshire and Nationally and cater for commercial, retail and domestic customers.

We have provided a brand new, bespoke site that demonstrates the wide variety of air conditioning products they supply, services and now offers the ability to have a portfolio of past projects and case studies.

The site is build using the powerful WordPress content management system, enabling the client to easily update the website, add news or new photography.

Our favourite suppliers of cool have launched a new website. They secialise in the installation of Air Conditioning in Manchester, Cheshire and Nationally and cater for commercial, retail and domestic customers.

Site design and development by Contrast Creative.

Get your brand message across through stunning images and words!

Distribute your chosen image direct to picture editors in all the UK’s major media:

• Via Press Association PhotoWire distribution
• Increases your chance of media exposure and brand visibility
• Targeted at additional (unlimited) named picture editors and editors, via e-mail distribution
• Includes 40 word photo caption on the Press Association PhotoWire, written for you by trained photo journalists
• Includes up to 300 word press release accompanying your photograph when e-mailed to unlimited named UK media contacts
• Press cuttings service to monitor the success of your photo and release for up to 3 months
• Web trawl service to monitor the success of your release on the web for up to 3 months
• Daily updates and evaluation at the end of the campaign

Contrast Creative specialise in:

• Professional Commercial Photography
• Design for Print & Web
• New Media
• Social Media

Beyond PR specialise in:

• ePR
• Traditional PR
• Unique Daily Newsfeed Services
• Specialist PR for the following sectors:
• Legal, Professional & Financial Services
• Charities, Public Sector and Health
• Security
• Food, Drink & Hospitality
• Engineering & Manufacturing

£749.00 + VAT

£999.00 + VAT including photo-shoot up to 2 hours and retouching of 4 images.

For more information contact Ed on 0161 660 1973 or contact us here.

The product was all about great taste, without the guilt, and the client wanted a look that screamed fresh, healthy lifestyles. Contrast Creative managed the entire process form start to finish, from planning the shoot through to placing the ad’s. The shoot was directed by our good friend Matt O’Connor and shot by photographers High Contrast.

The campaign is currently running in a range of popular national women’s magazines such as Grazia and OK and will continue throughout January.

With the service garnering so much attention, it simply cannot be overlooked by anyone wishing to maintain a well-rounded online strategy. It is important to keep in mind however, that Facebook is not a standard, stoic marketing channel and cannot be used as such. For clients to gain real benefits from Facebook, it must be something they are willing to nurture, engaging with customers in order to build a community focused around their product or service.

For those willing though, Facebook offers a powerful and versatile promotional too. A tool that can facilitate a direct channel of communication to a loyal, consenting customer base, specifically interested in your product or service. Here are six of the finest corporate Facebook pages that we have come across. Make no mistake, these are finely tuned machines for building brands, targeting consumers and most importantly, generating sales.

BLACKBERRY
[www.facebook.com/Blackberry]

Blackberry have gone to great lengths to make information readily available without users being navigated away from the page. This is an important factor when it comes to design for social media, as users are bombarded by constant distractions such as advertisements, notifications and instant messages. We want the user to find value in the page and consider returning to the page, if not purchasing a product or service listed. If the page holds sufficient value the visitor will hopefully ‘like’ the page. This profile does a great job of offering up the information needed by potential customers to quickly and easily make informed decisions about products in which they may be interested.

EA Games
[http://www.facebook.com/ElectronicArtsUK]

As Facebook introduce additional functionality, we’re seeing more opportunities opening up to businesses with their finger on the pulse. Facebook ‘places’ which was introduced last year, allows users to ‘check-in’ or update their status with location information. This can be used to great effect in social media strategies as was shown by Electronic Arts in the run up to Christmas 2010. Electronic Arts introduced a competition in which only users who had checked-in at one of their tour events could enter. This is a great way of attracting larger numbers to physical locations via online incentives. Not only did it boost footfall in stores, but it also served to promote the EA brand to the entire friend list of anyone who checked-in at one of their events. This is a great way to expand a fan base and generate impressions with very little outlay.

Disney Pixar
[www.facebook.com/DisneyPixar]

Pixar focus on the core interest of their fans, by utilising a Facebook profile filled with video content. fans can watch trailers and behind the scenes videos from the studio whilst posting to a discussion board. This discussion board fosters a community based around the brand and associated products, in this case films. The design places social networking links as a key feature of the header, making it easy for fans to spread word of Pixar releases in which they may be interested.

Twilight: Eclipse
[www.facebook.com/Twilight]

The Twilight Saga Facebook presence is an absolute machine for converting page views into ‘likes’ and stimulating sharing of Twilight branded content. The user is given a plethora of ways in which to share content and tell friends all about Twilight. This social focus has no doubt contributed to the Twilight Saga gaining over 18 million Facebook fans worldwide! These pages do not just flaunt their huge Facebook fan base though. The pages pull in social networking conversations about the brand from Twitter too, culminating in a real time ‘discussion’ thread in which fans can clamour for attention.

As is the case with aforementioned pages, the Twilight Saga Facebook page hosts a wide array in order to satisfy visitors and captivate it’s audience for as long as possible before they browse elsewhere.

Oreo
[www.facebook.com/Oreo]

This playful design from Oreo breaks away from the often uniform nature of Facebook pages. This particular tab serves up a range of recipes, offering information of value to their visitors and giving them a reason to both ‘like’ and the share the page. Oreo also encourage fans to tag the Oreo Facebook profile in photographs of themselves enjoying the products. Oreo choose one of these user-submitted photos each week to feature in their main profile picture. This is a great way of getting fans to openly display their affiliation with the brand, developing social proof and keeping Oreo in the minds of consumers. This is also a great way for Oreo to cast a wider net in terms of social networks, as each time a user tags one of their photos in this way, the Oreo brand gains exposure to friends of their fans too.

iTunes
[http://www.facebook.com/iTunes]

Our final example of excellent Facebook integration is delivered by Apple iTunes. This profile is a great example of how to offer loads of functionality within a very small screen area. iTunes also offer free downloads and content exclusively for fans of their page, a great way of getting people to ‘like’ their page and broadcast affiliation across their own social networks. With attention spans so low and bounce rates so high on the web, these little incentives for converting vistors into fans are key. Once an individual has liked the page, we can then communicate with them again and again, greatly increasing the likelihood of generating sales.

So What Does All This Mean?

Looking through even a small cross-section of the more popular Facebook pages will reveal a number of key design features and behaviours that convert visitors into fans and fans into customers armed with hard cash.

1) Give people a reason to stick around for minute or two. Offer content that is of real interest to visitors, not just the hard sell, but something people can infer some value from. Invest in well designed, well thought-out material. First impressions count, and these pages are an ambassador for your brand. Try to keep content within the bounds of your Facebook pages. If we send visitors to external links they may do so before liking your page and there’s a chance they might not come back.

2) Make the best, most interesting, most desired content available only to fans… and make it as obvious and easy as possible to become a fan. Most of the time, just a small incentive is enough to convert a page hit into a ‘like’. Once you’ve got that ‘like’ you’ve opened up a direct channel of communication with an individual that is specifically interested in your brand. Not only this, but all of their online friends are made aware of this affiliation, driving further traffic towards your profile and improving brand awareness.

3) Engage in discussions that nurture your fan-base. We’re not talking about having a chat with each individual fan, but updating regularly with content that provokes a positive reaction and allows brand based discussion to flourish. Ideally we want a friendly, positive atmosphere in which fans can discuss information pertinent to your brand. You want fans to feel like they can connect with your brand but that they can also enjoy contact with others based on a common appreciation of your products or services.

4) Deliver relevant, attractive offers and start converting your fan base into a customer base. You’ve done the legwork, you’ve cultivated a network of Facebook users that are interested in your brand and that have consented to a two way discussion with it. Take full advantage of this, massage the network and deliver attractive offers with convenient, simple methods of purchase. All that remains it to watch the sales pour in, or else evaluate your interactions and make the necessary adaptations.

Here at Contrast Creative, we take pride in understanding the subtleties of social media that facilitate this conversion of visitors into loyal customers. Customers that not only generate revenue, but that also work as a promotional platform, drawing in more and more leads as a result of solid social networking.

If this is a process that you want to get to grips with, if you want a social media profile that is guaranteed to generate sales, if you want a loyal, informative and accessible customer base, then get in touch now and speak to us about getting connected.

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In collaboration with the artist, Fiona, we honed into a specific style for the album artwork, before getting into the studio to bank some solid images that we could use as the back bone of the album visuals. Working with these we created a clean, cohesive design that pulled together all of the necessary copy without making things look too busy.

When it came to social media, we struck upon the idea of using Facebook as a platform from which to sell records. The key to making this work however was finding a way to make to purchasing and distribution process as simple as possible. Our solution to this was to create a custom tab that houses a Flash based console which allows visitors to view album information, listen to sample tracks and purchase either a full album or individual songs with ease. Payment is made via PayPal to keep the entire process as simple and secure as possible. The beauty of this system is that it keeps the artist in full control of their distribution process and sidesteps the fee’s associated through other channels such as iTunes. At the same time, any fans of the artist can quickly and easily preview and purchase the artists music with just a few clicks.

We provided the following services for ICM: Identity Design, Stationary & Print Design, Social Media Strategy, Online Presence (including independent online job board), copy-writing, photography, cinematography & post-production

For more information about ICM Professionals, view their beautifully crafted website here.