Emakina launches Emakina/Agency

Sep 1 2010

Emakina announces the launch of Emakina/Agency, a new team that will focus on strengthening the brand management skills of the agency.

Emakina is a full-service Digital Native Agency that wants to build brand experiences that get the attention of consumers and incite them to interact with brands via a multitude of touchpoints (sites, applications, e-mail, social networks, television, radio,…).
The brands of today are the synthesis of all these experiences.

To meet this objective, a multidisciplinary and experienced team was put together. They are called Emakina/Agency. Strategic planners, planners, analysts, creative people and brand keepers will develop innovative brand experiences and make sure these experiences are coherently executed throughout all different communication channels.

Emakina/Agency will work in different fields: concepts, strategic brand advice, brand positioning, strategic planning, develop brand stories, create long-term dialogues with consumers etcetera.

Each brand will be managed by a brand keeper who will guide the client throughout all new media, will support him in his tactical choices and allow him to focus on his strategic objectives.

More information in our French and Dutch press release.

Design is Dead monsterscore at IMA

Sep 1 2010

Design is Dead’s KIDsite for deFilharmonie keeps on hitting the jackpot! After scoring an “Official Honoree” distinction at the latest Webby Awards, the childfriendly website now won a “Best in Class” award and the maximum jury score at the recent Interactive Media Awards.
With a score of 500 points out of 500, the jury made it quite clear that this educational and entertaining kids site about classical music stood out in the categories “arts & culture”, “kids” and “music”. Let’s keep those trophees coming!

Yunomi wint de grootste onderscheiding op de Interactive Media Awards

Aug 31 2010

De internationale jury van de IMA bekroonde Yunomi met maar liefst 480 van de in totaal 500 te winnen punten, waarmee Yunomi de ‘Best in Class Award’ won in de categorie ‘Community’. Deze prijs werd eerder toegekend aan Facebook.

In het continu veranderende medialandschap wordt het steeds moeilijker om een duurzame relatie met de doelgroep op te bouwen. Daarom introduceerde Unilever Benelux een multi-brand community platform waarmee op basis van relatiemarketing wordt gebouwd aan trouwe klantrelaties in de Benelux.

Emakina ontwikkelde dit multi-nationale platform door en voor vrouwen: elke vrouw kan zelf haar steentje bijdragen. Het belangrijkste onderdeel van Yunomi is de online community waar vrouwen ontroerende, interessante en inspirerende  verhalen kunnen lezen of zelf schrijven. Ze kunnen er ook persoonlijke ervaringen, recepten en praktische tips uitwisselen. Uniek aan Yunomi is dat de leden worden beloond voor hun deelname: door actief te zijn (artikels schrijven, reacties posten,…) sparen ze Nomi’s die ze elk kwartaal kunnen inwisselen voor een leuke prijs. In de dagelijkse rubriek ‘Vrouw van de dag’ deelt een lid haar persoonlijk verhaal met alle Yunomi-leden uit Nederland of België.

De Interactive Media Awards worden elk jaar in de Verenigde Staten georganiseerd en bekronen de meest creatieve internetcampagnes ter wereld.

The campaign for the MIXX Awards 2010 is not a scam

Aug 31 2010

Emakina has made the communication campaign for the next MIXX Awards 2010. It is a humorous campaign based on Internet scams.
The campaign consists of the visuals of 3 personalities of the Belgian web. Each character has special make-up and is disguised in order to bribe the jury, using Internet scam techniques that must help them to win the precious trophy. You may recognize some of their techniques, such as scam 419 (the so-called Nigerian scam), the Russian girl who wants to become your partner or the hoax of the little sick girl who needs your help.

An original concept to remind us that only the quality of the campaigns will succeed in seducing the jury.

Yunomi receives summa cum laude from IMA

Aug 30 2010

Yunomi has just won the highest award at the recent Interactive Media Awards. By attributing a dazzling 480 points in 500, the international jury of the IMA awarded the Yunomi platform with a ‘Best in Class Award’ in the category ‘Community’.

This online community, created and updated daily by Emakina, allows users to consult practical articles, share personal experiences and discover new recipes to save time or to be more efficient in their professional lives. Every day a member is put in the spotlight and gets an opportunity to share her experiences with the other visitors. For each type of interaction with the site, visitors receive loyalty points that can then be exchanged for product vouchers or gifts.

Gefeliciteerd Becel!

Aug 28 2010

Becel bestaat dit jaar 50 jaar. Vanaf 1960 is het merk al actief met initiatieven en producten om Nederlanders bewust te maken van het belang van goede voeding en een gezonde levensstijl. Wij kennen Becel al jaren en werken met veel plezier samen aan mooie projecten, waaronder deze bijzondere verjaardag. We laten de kans daarom ook niet aan ons voorbij gaan om ze op deze plek nog even in het zonnetje te zetten. Gefeliciteerd Becel!

Social Media voor Kluwer

Aug 25 2010

In juni hebben we voor Kluwer een succesvolle game seeding campagne gedaan. Via verschillende social media kanalen hebben we de ‘wie-zei-wat-quiz’ aangejaagd en voor Kluwer een bredere doelgroep bereikt. Met trots kunnen we nu vertellen dat we op korte termijn meer met Kluwer gaan doen op social media terrein.

Location-based social networks: an opportunity for real-life retailers

Aug 6 2010

Make no mistake about location-based services. There’s more to consider than their current low number of users, especially when you take into account the potential they offer to retailers who can learn much, much more about their customers.

At the beginning of this week, Forrester published a study on LBSNs or Location-based social networks. Only 4% of adult US surfers have already used an LBSN service, and only 1% uses it at least once a week.

Although it is connected to Facebook and Twitter, the real interest of Foursquare is limited to the ego boost when one wins points and badges.

But back now to the enormous potential of LBSNs, especially when it comes to click & mortar strategies. We see two reasons for that. First of all, the mobile phone is gaining field in the buying process and context. In its 2009 study, called The Emerging Opportunity in Mobile Commerce, Forrester found that of all Americans having used their mobile to buy a product, 62% have used it to find a shop nearby with the product on stock. 42% used their mobile to look for information on a product in the shop and 39% used it to compare prices within the shop itself.

To those who can’t see what this may lead to in the near future, we would recommend they have a look at this demo by Pattie Maes of the MIT.

Read the rest of this entry »

iButterfly: a surprising poetic application!

Aug 5 2010

iButterfly is an iPhone application from Japan that mixes gaming, retail coupons, social status, badges like in Foursquare, and enhanced reality. All according to an exceptional poetic approach.

post by Manuel Diaz

FlipBoard: the killer App on iPad!

Aug 3 2010

And what if FlipBoard was the killer App for the iPad? We haven’t seen anything as interesting to use since Foursquare!
It’s quite easy: FlipBoard is YOUR OWN magazine on your iPad. It aggregates all your favourite fluxes: RSS, Facebook, Twitter, etc. All in just one simple, nice and rather impressive interface.

post by Manuel Diaz

Design is Dead and Emakina/Motion creates a movie for Nuance

Jul 30 2010

Design is Dead and Emakina/Motion have joined forces to create a movie for Nuance, the largest speech recognition company worldwide.

Nuance is launching a set of fantastic new applications, including an iPhone and iPad application (already live in US, UK, Germany & France), a speech recognition software for Mac (MacSpeech) and a new version for PC (Dragon NaturallySpeaking). Nuance also provides technology for navsystems like the ones from Ford, BMW, Mercedes and TomTom.

Nuance wanted Design is Dead and Emakina/Motion to bring all these technologies together in one movie. See the results bellow…

The new “I love radio” has arrived!

Jul 19 2010

Emakina has recently put online the new version of the I love radio advertising platform for media house IP Radio.

The site, which targets everybody who is passionate about radio, creative people and agency managers, is now equipped with a series of new functionalities:

-   It has new categories such as Backstage and Anthology

-   Best of the month brings each month the top favourites of the IP Radio team.

-   Vintage takes you on a trip down the memory lane of radio advertising.

-  Users can now share lists of their favourite commercials, articles and interviews. All via a simple copy/paste link.

Emakina has also given a new look to the design and has built a new interface in order to make the navigation experience even more accessible.

Today, I love radio advertising reviews over 67.000 radio commercials. It allows surfers to listen to and download the icons of radio advertising. All free of charge.

What’s so good about the Brussels Airlines website?

Jul 14 2010

As you may know, Brussels Airlines has been crowned “Belgium’s most user-friendly website” by the Usability Awards.

The Web Usability Blog has post an article that analyses the solutions implemented by Emakina for this website in terms of usability. Click here is you want to know “What’s so good about the Brussels Airlines website?

Belgacom’s intranet wins the first prize

Jul 9 2010

On 24 June, the ABCI (the Belgian Association of Internal Communications) has awarded its Grand Prizes. And the number one winner for the best Intranet is Belgacom’s new intranet portal.

This new portal has been conceived and integrated by Emakina. Employees of Belgacom use it on a daily basis.

The portal is an integrated toolbox, a one-stop shop for all different functionalities. Before, the information had to be found on the different intranet sites.

Particular points of interest were the ergonomics and the information structure.

The homepage has become a single point-of-entry which allows users to easily find the information they are looking for.

Harley-Davidson: Rebel for a cause

Jul 8 2010

Emakina.NL is door Harley-Davidson gevraagd om een campagnesite te ontwikkelen en daar omheen een social media en seeding strategie neer te zetten. De doelstelling: exposure voor een tourrit naar de Noordkaap voor het goede doel MDA, en daarnaast het verhogen van het aantal testritten en brochure aanvragen voor Harley-Davidson. De website Marcus Kingma’s North Cape Quest staat sinds 2 juli live. Deze is ontworpen en ontwikkeld in samenwerking met Design is Dead van Emakina Group.

Homepage North Cape Quest Join the Journey North Cape Quest

Facebook pagina North Cape Quest

Emakina nabs five new awards at the Communicator Awards

Jul 1 2010

The Communicator Awards have given their verdict and Emakina went home with a total of five awards.

Three Awards of Excellence (equal to Gold) respectively crowned the viral campaign ‘Serious Quitters Arcade’ for Pfizer in the ‘Pharmaceuticals’ category. This new award for ‘Serious Quitters Arcade’ brings the number of international awards received by Emakina for this campaign to 11.

The website of singer Axelle Red won in the ‘Music’ category, while the site of chocolate maker Pierre Marcolini won in the ‘Food and Beverage’ category.

Two ‘Awards of Distinction’ were given to the websites of Brussels restaurant The Wood, already nominated for the Webby Awards, as well as the campaign ‘Lion Deposit Account’ for ING.

The Reference is looking for 13 new talents

Jun 30 2010

It looks like it’s going to be a hot summer at our Ghent agency The Reference. New clients and interesting projects are coming on their way.

To meet those growing expectations The Reference is recruiting 13 (thirteen) new employees: six developers (.Net, Java, PHP/Drupal, iPhone/Android), a web business analyst, two sales/account managers, one project manager, a gifted graphic designer/HTML expert,… Complete profiles and descriptions can be found here.

Welcome to BiFi City!

Jun 24 2010

This year, BiFi is launching its new packaging in Belgium and the Netherlands for its entire range of products. The crazy BiFi character will also be presented to the Dutch market for the very first time.

To mark the occasion, Emakina has developed a mini-site featuring all the varieties of BiFi. Although the original BiFi is well-known, the cooky world of BiFi has many other specialities as well! In BiFi City, visitors can discover every product thanks to an amusing character, evolving in an environment full of fun and adventure.

Presentatie IAM’10: Social Media is Social Business

Jun 22 2010

In een overvolle zaal werd door Paul de Gooijer de Social Media balans opgemaakt, en de Social Business van morgen gedefinieerd. Want Social Media is hot! Consumenten, leden en burgers willen meebeslissen. Ze willen dat bedrijven en organisaties luisteren. Ze willen meepraten over de producten en diensten. Ze willen altijd persoonlijke service. Ze willen dat we ze nooit vergeten. Niet voor een uur en niet voor 10 jaar. Merken, bedrijven en organisaties worden gedwongen hierop te reageren, soms gehaast, soms onvoorzichtig, een enkeling verstandig. De eerste balans wordt opgemaakt. Wat draagt Social Media bij aan je merk? Wat levert het op voor je business? Wat voor bedrijf moet je zijn of worden om de komende jaren succesvol te blijven? Gebaseerd op onze jarenlange ervaring en succesvolle projecten voor bijvoorbeeld Unilever, ANWB, KLM en vele anderen maakten we samen de balans op en definieerden we de Social Business van morgen. Heb je iets gemist? Absoluut! Bekijk de presentatie Social Media is Social Business

And CRM becomes social

Jun 16 2010

Today most companies use Customer Relationship Management programs (CRM). Purpose: to get to know their customers better by getting a broad-spectrum view of the entire cycle of interactions that have already taken place with the various contact points of the company. Centralised in a common database, this information is then fed to the sales and marketing departments so that they can offer products and services in line with customer expectations. Read the rest of this entry »