May 13 2013

It’s been almost two and a half years since we started working with Bavaria, the largest independent brewery in the Netherlands, founded in 1719. Since then the Emakina Group has developed the brand’s 59 local websites, serving the public of no less than 49 countries! Soon we’ll simply count the countries for which we did not build a website (currently 144 in case you were wondering…).

The sites are based on a ‘glocal’ branding, having a very strong global identity while adapting to the local specifications of each market. Such adaptations go from editorial and copy-writing, through ensuring coherence with cultural codes, to respecting local regulations.

But it doesn’t end there! After we covered most of the Western world with localised sites, our latest versions targeted the Israeli and Kazakh market. Their respective sites needed to take into consideration a different alphabet and even direction of writing (in case you’re not a regular reader of the Old Testament, Hebrew goes from right to left).

An international project of such complexity involved the various agencies of the Emakina Group; including Design is Dead (which took care of the… design),  and Emakina.BE (strategy, development, and management).

The sites are ‘geo-targeted’, automatically presenting the local version from wherever you are. So in order to see the new versions, you simply need to buy a ticket to Tel Aviv and Astana. For the very lazy ones, we’ve added some screenshots…

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May 9 2013

…and never knew who to ask – is available on the Nuclear Forum website!

The debate about the use of nuclear technologies is vital in many democracies including the Belgian one. However, only few citizens are adequately familiar with the omnipresence of nuclear technologies in our daily lives. This created the need for an online platform, which can offer a clear overview of the many applications of the nuclear technologies.

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Apr 25 2013

The all-time Belgian classic, published since 1938,  is now more than just a comic-strip journal! Emakina joined forces with Dupuis Editions, creating a digital extension of the comic strip in the form of the Spirou.Z mobile app. In doing so, Dupuis is targeting the children of 2013, using their preferred language: the touch screen.

The Spirou.Z app presents new editions of Spirou but not only! First, users can choose viewing ‘caption by caption’ (using TurboMedia technology), horizontal and vertical scrolling, or a digital flip book. Second, the app features original games and fun activities. Finally, users gain access to extracts from Dupuis’s multimedia archives, unveiling unedited content of the past 75 years!

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Apr 23 2013

This is exactly the question, raised by La Chapelle Saint Martin, a luxury hotel and restaurant offering its guests a premium experience, in accordance with the renowned French tradition.  Of course, no one could better answer this question than Emakina.FR, the digital-native agency, famous for its French flair.

Following its proposal, the agency was assigned with defining the digital strategy of this prestigious brand. As part of its solution, Emakina.FR developed a new website (entirely in HTML5), featuring a responsive design for multiple devices. So whether visiting the site from your desktop computer, mobile, or tablet – you will be inspired by the brand’s ‘Art of Living’ from the very first click!

But there’s more! In order to create a holistic digital ecosystem of elegance and style, the digital experience of La Chapelle Saint Martin now includes social networks, like Facebook, YouTube, and TripAdvisor. Other than appreciating the brand through its digital presence, visitors are offered some essential information and are even invited behind the scenes of Gilles Dudognon’s famous kitchen!

*Inspired by a post, written by Romain Dehaudt for the Emakina.FR blog.

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Apr 12 2013

This week, global research firm Forrester launched its two yearly WCM report, titled “WCM for Digital Experiences”, presenting an in depth look at the 10 WCM vendors, identified as the “most significant providers in this field”. As a leading European agency, we are very pleased to see that our partners are doing so well!

No surprises at the top of the ranking: Adobe clearly the leader. Their web content management solution is rich, sexy and very user friendly. It features integrated digital asset management capacities with enhanced personalisation features and has a very strong focus on mobile and multi-channel delivery. In combination with their analytics offering, Adobe really has a killer platform that is surely there to stay for the coming years.

After years in which SDL, with Tridion CMS, was in the top category of ‘leaders’, it now shifted to the ‘strong performers’.  No real surprise here either; the market has become much more competitive with several vendors from the middle segment moving up (e.g., Sitecore), as well as open source solutions gradually entering the enterprise market. With the last two releases, SDL made a big step forward with regards to general usability of their platform. However, the integration of the acquired solutions, Fredhopper (now known as SmartTarget) and Calamares (for media asset management), did slow them down.

Sitecore has proven to be a very strong performer in the middle segment, competing with even top vendors in some scenarios.  They have a very powerful product suite, offering web content management, marketing automation, analytics and e-commerce – all from the same platform!

Microsoft is still in the ‘contenders’ category, as it was in the previous 2011 version of the Forrester WCM report. Sharepoint is an enterprise content management platform, mainly focused on document centric collaboration. When using the platform for building public-facing websites, it is highly common to develop intranet and/or extranet systems (on the same platform) as well.  This allows companies to have one platform for all their environments i.e., intranet, extranet, and web.  Sharepoint 2013 is very powerful, yet, you can’t expect it to be competitive with the ‘pure players’ of the WCM field; they clearly lack the marketing tools.

The newbie in Forrester’s report is Acquia with Drupal CMS. Drupal made, and still is making, huge improvements in its platform’s usability. More importantly,  it is getting more and more traction in the enterprise, thanks to Acquia as a driving force within the huge community of ‘drupalistas’. Acquia was the fastest growing company in the US in 2012. It recruited several key players from other CMS vendors and is building a well-organised partner channel. If Acquia can fulfill its vision for web engagement management with Drupal, it will definitely be in the ‘strong performers’ category soon.

Anyway, the future is looking bright! If you want to renew your digital platform, need strategic advice, support on vendor selection or implementation. Do not hesitate to contact us!

Cheers,

Steven Volders.

Technical Vendor Manager Emakina Belgium

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Apr 11 2013

The Reference, a proud member of the Emakina Group, has recently announced its partnership with TapCrowd, a ‘self-service’ app building platform.

The collaboration between the two Ghent-based companies completes the offering of The Reference/Mobile to a 360° mobile agency  and supports TapCrowd in the further expansion of its success story.  As partners, The Reference/ Mobile  will integrate mobile apps, developed on the TapCrowd platform with the possibility of adapting these apps to the specific needs and demands of each customer.

Frederic Schroyens, Head of Mobile & Tablets at The Reference/Mobile: “For some of our customer segments (mainly for concerts, festivals, conferences, seminars, retail, amusement parks, cities and police) a thoughtful choice of TapCrowd modules is the ideal, affordable solution. Starting from the TapCrowd platform,  We are very happy to be able to complete our offer with the modular mobile solutions TapCrowd. This is a great opportunity for both The Reference, as well as, for Emakina Group within an international approach.”

Joost van ’t Hullenaar, VP Sales with TapCrowd: “We are  very happy to welcome a renowned party like The Reference as our new partner’. We very much look forward to working with The Reference to create cost effective high quality mobile apps for customers in Belgium and to introduce our product on a European level via Emakina Group later on.”

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Feb 20 2013

Forget everything (you thought) you knew about banking, blogging or blogging about banking!

We tend to associate banks with old-fashioned websites, offering (some) financial services. Conversely, blogs are supposedly for young trendy people who look for the latest innovations. We thus don’t expect many people to start their day by checking their bank’s blog… Yet one bank succeeded in challenging this assumption and created a lively online presence which is followed by thousands in the financial sector and beyond!

Bank Degroof is Belgian-based, offering investment services through its representations in 7 countries. The bank invited Emakina to build its new corporate blog in which its experts post their views and insights. Visitors are equally invited to post questions on their own topics of interest, which are then answered by the bank’s bloggers.

The blog is highly active with several posts a week, which go out to a pre-registered mailing list. Since its launch, the bank has been receiving excellent feedback from the blog’s loyal followers, who are growing by the thousands! We are now looking into integrating new features and expanding the bank’s social media presence.

Here’s your chance to follow on what’s happening in finance, and learn from those who know it best!

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Dec 14 2012

The extravagant pan-European production of The Spiral might be officially over; but the way in which it redefined public engagement through  multiple media is still to be studied and explored! Our latest analysis indicates the critical role of the online platform in this international success story. Developed by PKA Wanabe, a member of the Emakina Group, the platform allowed various levels of online engagement, depending on each user’s preferences.

The lowest level of participation (other than that of passive TV viewers) was that of users searching the masterpieces on our online mapping game. Many users, however, went a step further, creating their own MySpiral profile so they could take part in the game’s indoor and outdoor creative challenges. We now know that within the 36 days of the game, the map was searched almost 1.3 million times by over 140,000 users across Europe! In addition, almost 20,000 images were uploaded, some of which were even incorporated into the TV series.

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Aug 21 2012

PKA Wanabe, a member of the Emakina Group, was selected to set up the web platform of The Spiral, a cross-border and cross-media interactive game. You might have not heard of it yet but this is about to become the new buzz across Europe!  The Spiral is a television programme, aired simultaneously in eight European countries: Belgium, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, France, Germany, and the Netherlands. Produced by the international Brussels/ Los Angeles based Caviar Films company; the series tells the story of an art community, centred in Copenhagen, and its charismatic leader – who conspires to steal six of the most important paintings held in museums across Europe.

Yet, being a cross-media action series, The Spiral is not like any other TV programme you’ve seen before! Viewers in all participating countries are invited to compete over finding the stolen masterpieces, through a game involving both online tasks and off-line challenges. As for the group of rebellious artists, they also have an online presence, in the form of a Facebook group which follows the developments and sends out challenges and instructions. Apart Facebook, the fictitious story universe of this project includes numerous other websites.

Due to the fact that PKA Wanabe is based in Waterloo, the production was entitled to financial support from Wallimage, a public fund which supports Walloon audio-visual productions.

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Jul 26 2012

In order to better serve our current and future clients, Emakina is committed to a never-ending learning process through Research and Development (R&D). Such a research project was recently executed in cooperation and with the generous support of Innoviris, the Brussels Institute for Research and Innovation.

Based within the region of the Belgian capital, Emakina was entitled to public funding, which covered 50% of a year-long study conducted by our employees on all levels. The study analysed the effects of new mobile technologies in general, and the development of optimisation for tablets and smartphone devices, in particular. Thanks to this study (and hopefully future ones to come) Emakina is improving the quality of its services. In fact, the application of the study’s results on incoming projects has already proven to yield great added value.

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Jul 17 2012

Life Capsule is a start-up company which offers individuals the possibility to save their precious and confidential information online. In the event of death, this information and personal memories can be made available to (certain) relatives through a secure website. The Emakina Group was involved in this initiative since its early conceptualisation, through assisting the founders and developing its strategic plan. Emakina is currently launching the company’s stylish website, built in OpenCMS (Java).

Even a sensitive issue as one’s plans for after death has now gained its place on the web; a development which was well-noticed by the two Life Capsule founders. Having dealt with a personal loss of a family member, the two founders searched for a practical way to commemorate their loved one over the Internet. Once they realised that such solution did not yet exist, they decided to create Life Capsule and to materialise their idea.

Life Capsule offers a web platform on which subscribers can preserve personal data which they would like to leave to their chosen ones once they pass away. Each subscriber thus designates those who will have access to their digital material. Such “life capsule” may contain various documents such as: photos, videos, PDF files, but also texts or even musical playlists. This approach also allows transferring confidential information such as access codes for social networks, last wishes, or address lists.

A central part of Life Capsule’s homepage is dedicated to subscribers’ commemoration sites which are made public after they pass away. The company offers various subscription packages, and donates a part of its revenues to the King Baudouin Foundation. Each year, the sums which were donated to this charity organisation will be published on the Life Capsule website.

Complete discretion and high security are among Life Capsule’s top priorities. In order to guarantee that the data are safely secured for many years, the company has sought the help of Emakina’s experts. Being the first digital agency in Belgium, Emakina has proved its broad expertise through its numerous large-scale clients from the financial sector (banks and insurance companies). Furthermore, thanks to the security audit, conducted by Zion Security, Life Capsule can guarantee that its site is immune to online piracy.

The site equally offers its visitors a full range of interesting information on dealing with death, including: writing a testament, last wishes before death, and even delicate issues like euthanasia. Last but not least, the company is establishing a fund, with sufficient funds to maintain its servers and software for the next 50 years, regardless of the financial future of Life Capsule.

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Jul 13 2012

Emakina was hired by the AXA to develop a new website for the Belgian market, based on SharePoint 2010. The goal was to establish a system which facilitates better content distribution between different divisions. This was meant to enable communications teams at AXA to centrally create and maintain the website’s content, while guaranteeing decentralised dissemination across the various distribution channels.

The new solution is revolutionising the way of updating and changing content, with further simplicity. A central content catalogue was created, available for all to see, and facilitating easier distribution. In addition to improving the existing services, Emakina created a new part of the site dedicated to lead generation. Here, clients’ data are collected, and sorted for future reuse, as well as for generating potential prospects or new customers.

The site was the first fruit of close collaboration between Emakina and AXA. This project is a success on many levels; including its technical level, and the user-interface of AXA’s administrators and end-users. Now that the site is online, all the elements and features are in place for visitors, customers and prospects to enjoy.

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Jul 12 2012

In exercise to align the Electrabel’s corporate website to the company’s new B2C and B2B standards, Emakina was hired for building a new upgraded version. The main purpose of the new site was to present general information about Electrabel to well-defined target groups. Such information includes the company’s Corporate Sustainable Development approach, career perspectives, nuclear issues, and more. To ensure coherence of the new approach, even the existing texts were updated and adapted, so they are more readable and fit the new structure.

The result is not only aesthetically refreshing but it is also focused on optimising visitors’ convenience through a user-friendly interface design. The combination of tab-navigation, based on an intuitive hierarchic structure; as well as broad use of multimedia -makes the site enjoyable to visit, and its content easily accessible.

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Jul 9 2012

Following the great success of previous collaborations between Emakina and Test-Achats, the Belgian consumer-protection organisation has contacted us again. This time, we were asked to promote the organisation’s “Best Buy” service, offering Test-Achats members, access to a comprehensive data base of product analyses. So before spending money on buying a new camera, phone, television, or even a bicycle – it’s worth checking what the Test-Achats experts have to say about your product’s value-for-money. As opposed to other comparison sites, the Best Buy platform is not based on subjective consumers’ impressions but rather on a series of extensive scientific tests, conducted in laboratory conditions.

This was a key element of our approach when Emakina was asked to promote the new service. In a set of print ads we presented various electronic appliances disassembled into their smallest particles in order to illustrate the thoroughness of the testing process. We know this was a huge success, not only because “Media Marketing” magazine  chosenit as “campaign of the month” (in its May 2012 edition) but also because this campaign was subsequently exported to the Test-Achats branches in Spain, Brazil, Portugal and soon Italy. What started off as a local campaign to assist Belgian consumers is now expanding all over Europe and has even crossed the ocean!

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Jun 28 2012

As a leader and expert of social TV in France, TVcheckhas an intimate understanding of this medium; its DNA and its internal codes. TVcheck is ranked among the top five tweet generators for TV shows’ hashtags (as measured by Tweatreach), making it a significant player among digital audiences

In the context of the Euro 2012, TVcheck, in partnership with Emakina, found an exciting  way to combine classic football and sports betting with the use of Twitter and livetweet, for creating an enriched sports experience. Specifically, Emakina produced for TVcheck a specialised website, allowing visitors to follow the teams, forecast match results, and win prizes!

Game forecasts are now open

Since June 21, internet users are invited to visit the Euro2012.tvcheck.com website in order to forecast match results. The positioning of each online participant is updated daily, according to the points she or he gains for accurate bets.

In order to win more points, participants can check their forecasts by using the TVcheck iPhone app, once the match is on. The top 10 participants, who have accumulated the highest scores by the end of the tournament will win prizes including: an iPad, gift vouchers, Euro 2012 goodies, etc.

Get to know the most popular teams on Twitter

Apart from facilitating forecasts, during each match the website monitors which of the two rival teams generates more tweets on Twitter. All remaining teams, not playing at the given moment, are also classified and analysed according to their respective Twitter hashtags.

*Translated from a post in French, written by Jérémie Gentien for the Emakina.FR blog

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