Mar 21 2012

A panel of experts, specialised in developing the “perfect apps”, presented at the Mobile Forum to an audience of marketers and product managers. As eloquently put by the organisers, “mobile applications have become the holy grail of one-on-one marketing”. The event’s aim was thus to put together those behind the best practices in mobile applications. Among the presenters was Emakina’s Head of Digital Applications, Michaël Totta who spoke of ways to turn an iPad into a “lead generation machine”. His comments and insights were greatly appreciated by the audience, who was eager to learn about the great potential of this exciting new medium.

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Mar 16 2012

The European Commission has picked Emakina to promote the importance and benefits of energy efficiency.   An Emakina-produced video clip, released today, illustrates the European Union’s objectives and upcoming regulatory measures in the energy field for the next decade. It also offers viewers concrete and practical ideas on how to reduce their energy consumption. In doing so, the video addresses both private-household consumers and large corporations in presenting future energy saving technologies.

Click here to view the full version of the video (4’32”).

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Mar 15 2012

This question was raised by DM Institute’s journalist, Eric Van Vooren, who met with Brice Le Blévennec for an interview. The following are excerpts, translated from Dutch to English, of the original article, published in the March 9^th edition:

QR Codes: you can’t avoid them. You see them popping up everywhere; sometimes very prominent as the roof tiles in the Axa ads, but also on bus stations, product packaging, posters, and even on the backs of city buses.

Are these Quick Response Codes really the modern replacement for the reply coupon or the toll-free 0800 numbers? Are they the missing link between offline and online marketing? We put the question to Brice Le Blévennec, the passionate founder of Emakina, voted by Marketing Media as the leading Digital Marketing Agency in Belgium.
I had barely asked Brice my first question when I was flooded with an avalanche of words. “For me, QR Codes symbolise the stupidity of the agencies! It’s a useless, customer-unfriendly gimmick. First, you already have to own a smartphone. But that’s not all. Smartphones do not come with a standard app to scan QR Codes so the consumer has to also choose to install such an application. Afterwards, she or he has to try to scan a code on the back of a moving bus, or on a billboard three meters high above. You need to capture the code very precisely in the frame with your camera, or the scan will fail. Damn hard.”
“I have conducted a survey with the Emakina staff. We are certainly not representative of the average consumer, because all our employees have a smartphone, but less than 10 per cent have an app installed to scan QR Codes. Using QR Codes for commercial messages shows little respect for the audience. Besides, one is usually limited to printing a code, without any call to action. If you give no clear motivation with the QR Code, why would people go ahead and scan the code? And if you go into the trouble to do so, you often find a generic web page, which adds nothing to the initial message. ”

Sometimes useful
“A QR Code can be useful, for example, in a museum to allow the visitor access to more information, via voice and video, on a specific work of art. That is the proper context. Another example for appropriate use of the QR Codes is the Tesco application for the Metro in Japan. There, the commuter can buy everyday products directly online, by scanning the QR of a specific product from a photo with shopping items on a shop shelf. Then, the QR Code offers a tangible benefit. A QR Code may fit well with certain games or contests. Because you never know what you will get to see, such a code can offer something mysterious. This perfectly fits the atmosphere of certain games.”

A better alternative
“For more traditional marketing applications, there is a much better alternative: the shortened URL. It is now possible to link readers directly via a simple web address in your offline message to a custom landing page. And a shortened URL is easy to remember and can be typed in on any PC or smartphone without the user having to install a separate application. An additional advantage is that the offer can be integrated in the name of the URL so the customer already has an indication of what they will get to see.”

100% connectivity
“The QR Code, however, is in line with a broader, general trend in marketing, that all communication should be interactive. The boundary between direct mailing and other marketing applications is becoming blurred. As a good communication manager, here you particularly have to take into account the uniqueness of each medium. A mobile phone (or smartphone) is a device that people almost always have on them. It stands for 100% connectivity: everybody, everywhere. Not so with a tablet PC. In that sense, the two are complementary devices. Moreover, I expect that the tablet PC, just by its ease of use, will catch on especially with seniors. This is a trend the younger diginatives sometimes overlook. So yes, our profession has a bright future!”.

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Mar 13 2012

Patrick Acken, the renowned photographer of Pub.BE and a one-man institution of commercial advertisement, is working on his first exhibition, presenting some 70 leading figures of Belgium’s communication world. Titled, “Face2Face: A Sample of Belgian communication personalities”, the new exhibition will present extreme close-up photos in black and white of Acken’s communication “dream team”.

Emakina’s Xavier Bouillon and Brice Le Blévennec are among the lucky ones to have their photos presented to visitors of this exceptional artistic initiative. The exhibition will be displayed at Seed Factory starting this Friday, Mars 16^th and will remain open until the end of May.

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Mar 6 2012

Right at this moment, Apple employees are making final preparations for what  will probably be the launching event of the iPad3. The mysterious, yet, very-intriguing event will be held at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco, exactly one year after and at the same place the iPad2 was introduced to the world. According to the press invitation, tonight’s event will present the successor of the iPad2, without specifying much information about it, thus leaving a lot of room for speculation. The excitement revolving around the promised product has created quite a buzz throughout the international tech community despite, perhaps because, of its ambiguity.

Final preparations at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco

This is why RTL’s web-magazine, “Les Teknophiles” has decided to dedicate tonight’s show to the Apple event, inviting Brice Le Blévennec as a special guest speaker. Brice will share his vision on the way the iPad will soon replace conventional computing, only two decades after the birth of the PC. “Apple is once more writing the book” as he puts it. Further guests on the show include Frédéric Feytons of TappTic, and Bruno Kesteloot, general manager of MacLine. The show will be aired (in French) today, March 7 at 18:45 Brussels time. Click here to watch it live.

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Mar 6 2012

In short, no. Surveys, published earlier this month by SodaHead and CNet, show that the vast majority of users do not appreciate the new Facebook interface and that they miss their good old Walls.  But this doesn’t mean that brands should refrain from switching to the Facebook Timeline. For a start, they don’t have much choice. As of the end of March, Timeline will become mandatory for all Facebook Pages; so instead of complaining about it, marketers should better yet learn how to make the most out of it. This article will help you prepare to the Timeline tsunami right before it hits your brand!

Let’s start with the good news. With its new ’cover-picture’, Timeline is much more design-oriented, allowing companies to visually express their brand identity, using a logo, a product, or a personality. Moreover, the chronological nature of the Timeline facilitates a very rich presentation of brands’ histories, especially for those that have been out there for quite a while. The ability to dig out some old information made many individual users uncomfortable, yet, on the corporate Page level it has great potential. The New York Times and Manchester United, for example, use Timeline to tell their stories, dating back to the 19^th century, in a very compelling way. Even younger brands can still use the Timeline to illustrate their major milestones like launching a new product, issuing stocks, or winning a prize.

In comparison to the old Facebook Wall, Timeline is also much easier to administer, featuring new options to enhance communication with clients. It is now made possible to respond directly to private messages without having to alternate among various pages. In order to distinguish between the various posts, new Timelines features allow ‘pinning’ a post so it remains on top or ’starring’ it for a double-wide appearance. At least as important is the improved Activity Log, featuring analytic tools which allow much more strategic use of social media.

But your marketing strategists are not all going to fall in love with Timeline. They might very well complain and rightfully so. Their biggest concern will be the fact that, unlike Wall Pages, Timeline Pages do not allow setting a customised application as the default landing tab for non-fans. This was an extremely popular feature for promoting special content like coupons or contests. Without this feature it won’t be as easy to reach the same numbers of Likes or email subscriptions. On the other hand, to make things somewhat less gloomy, only 10% of Page traffic is generated by the default landing tabs. The remaining is owed to published links and ads which, of course, still play a central role on Timelines.

Despite what Facebook officials may claim, Timeline was designed for individuals to share their stories; it was not intended to serve as a marketing tool. Certain marketers may see this is a challenge, conflicting with their brand philosophy. Yet, brands too have their life stories to tell. The new Timeline interface will make their stories come through as more personal interactions than the traditional brand-consumer relationships.

The new infrastructure should thus change the way you think of your Facebook Page. Instead of message-board-like Walls, use Timeline as a means of viral communication.  If the Wall’s purpose was to serve as a destination point of as many users as possible, Timeline sees itself as a communication station, from which users can spread ideas by sharing them with their friends.

Think of Facebook as your brand’s online reality. When you decide to have a baby, you know you won’t bring her or him into a perfect world. Yet, you do your best to give your child the best tools to succeed in life. Timeline is no perfect either; in fact, it’s quite far from it. But if you do a good job in preparing your brand to its digital life, chances are it would mature into a popular and successful Page. Facebook is big enough to redefine social networking every time Mark Zuckerberg has a bad hair day. It is up to your strategic planners to adapt and learn how to leverage the new Facebook whim.

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Mar 5 2012

The Delhaize Dream Job Website, created by Emakina, won the ‘Best in Class’ prize under the ‘Recruitment’ category, in the 2011 competition of the Interactive Media Awards (IMA). This announcement comes shortly after Emakina was bestowed six other awards in this year’s competition. The IMA recognize the highest standards of excellence in website design and development and honour individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievement.

The ‘Best in Class’ award is the highest honour of the competition, representing the very best in planning, execution and overall professionalism. In order to win this award level, the Delhaize website had to successfully pass a comprehensive judging process, achieving very high marks in each of the judging criteria – an achievement only a fraction of sites in the IMA competition earn each year.

The judges utilised a points-based scoring system which allows each entry to receive up to 100 points for each of five criteria, adding up to a maximum of 500 points. By adhering to the specific guidelines and criteria of this system judges were able to maintain the highest degree of fairness, accuracy and integrity; competently and effectively evaluate entries; and, deliver clear results.

Websites receiving an overall score between 460 and 479 receive the Outstanding Achievement award. A score of 480 and above entitles the prestigious ‘Best in Class’ award. Our website scored a total of 489 points (96 on Design, 98 on Content, 100 on Features Functionality, 97 on Usability, and 98 on Standard Compliance & Cross-Browser Capability), making it a ‘Best in Class’ laureate. This is the seventh IMA Emakina wins in 2011 and our 24^th IMA since 2008.

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Mar 1 2012

What is GTUG? A GTUG (Google Technology User Group) is an informal meetup open to anyone interested in Google’s developer technologies: ranging from Android and App Engine, to product APIs like YouTube.

Programme:

18:30 Welcome
19:30 Using the USB debugger with Chrome and Chrome for Android to debug a mobile webpage on device.
20:00 Open discussion on the past Android Hackathon on Feb 18-19 (GADC).
20:30 Together set up and play with a Google TV
21:00 Massive peer hands-on hack: add 1 feature into one of the apps done at the hackathon. No preparation required.
22:00 End – Information about upcoming events in March-April

If you want to attend this meetup, feel free to register here

Where? Emakina, Rue de Middelbourg 64A, 1170 Watermael-Boitsfort

When? Thursday, 8th of March, starting at 18:30

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Mar 1 2012

Thanks to the new Emakina-developed mobile App, launched today at the Batibouw fair, Electrabel customers can now follow their energy consumption and expenses using any smartphone or tablet device. What’s even more exciting about the new App is that users can use it to switch on and off their home appliances. So on your next vacation, while sunbathing on a tropical island; you could easily verify if you have left your electric heating on before leaving your home. Or while at work, you could check whether your innocent-looking pet is not throwing a huge house party every time you are out (as brilliantly suggested in the new service’s ad).

But wait! If you’re on vacation, or busy at work you probably have other things to do than checking your energy consumption five times a day. We, at Electrabel and at Emakina, also thought about those with less time to spare. The new service can automatically send you an SMS or an email whenever irregular energy consumption is spotted. This way, if you really did leave your heating on before catching your plane, you will be notified right away, and not by discovering your next monthly bill…!

As a longstanding digital partner of Electrabel, this is the third mobile App we have developed for the Belgian energy provider. We are also highly involved in Electrabel’s website development; web communication; mobile and personalised applications. Our high level of mutual trust allowed us to even come up with a multiple-player tablet game which we offered visitors at the Batibouw fair to play simultaneously on a giant screen.

What makes this product so unique is that it goes further in redefining home automation technology. The App can produce separate statistical analysis on each appliance’s consumption, displayed per hour, day, month, or year! This is of real economic value for responsible consumers who try to lower their energy consumption and their consequent expenses. These are smart features, but above all we made sure the App is so easy to use that even your grandmother could get addicted to it.

The new App is already available for iPhones, Androids, and three other platforms. An iPad version is being developed and will be available shortly. To read more or order your own Smart energy box, check out the Electrabel website.

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Mar 1 2012

Data News magazine, organiser of the annual Data News Awards for Excellence, has announced its final list of candidates for this year’s awards. Every year, the magazine selects the most promising companies, products, and individuals of the ICT industry, awarding them for their outstanding contribution in one of twelve categories.  The magazine additionally recognizes one individual as the “ICT Personality of the Year”. This year’s list of nominees for the prestigious ICT Personality award includes Brice Le Blévennec, Emakina’s  President and Chief Visionary Officer.

Candidates were selected based on a series of interviews with ICT specialists, university professors, and presidents of professional associations. Le Blévennec’s nomination was justified by the fact that he is “a self-made man”. He started his career at the age of 16, and now serves as president of Emakina – “by far the largest web company in Belgium”. The company’s multi-national profile and its ambitions to become among Europe’s top five – were equally emphasised by Data News’ editorial staff.

Data News has assembled a specialized jury to select the winner in each category. The jury is made up of representatives from the academic world, business, and the magazine’s editorial team. Final winners will be announced at the Data News Awards of Excellence ceremony, to be held on April 26^th at the Tour & Taxis venue.

 Le Blévennec among some of the other candidates for the ICT Personality prize

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Feb 28 2012

Emakina and ING have worked together for the implementation of the bank’s new website, dedicated to careers. ING Belgium is always looking for new talent, especially for its IT and commercial departments. In collaboration with Emakina, the company now upgraded its careers website. The site is like a brand new suit, tailor-made, including twenty videos to strenghten the key messages.

With the renewed site, ING Belgium once more confirms its innovative vision, while adressing the wishes of its future collaborators in a more precise and direct way. In 2012, ING Belgium wants to hire about 135 IT profiles and over 300 sales staff for its Retail department. Last year, the company already hired more than 300 profiles both in IT and commercial jobs.

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Feb 27 2012

Inside Digital Media’s new annual digital communication ranking, made with Feweb, once again places Emakina in the number one position in the Belgian agency list. Investments in marketing in 2011 were influenced by the financial crisis, shortages in human resources and reluctance of advertisers. Inside indicates in its February special issue that not all interactive agencies have reacted as successfully to this second crash test in a decade in the market.

For Emakina, the trend clearly had a positive effect. The 375 staff members generated new growth with well over 20 %. The market confirmed that digital marketing has become an unavoidable necessity, and the digital native agency benefits from this conclusion.

Brice Le Blévennec, CVO of Emakina, further states in Inside Digital Media that companies are entering an era of mature online marketing and promotions. Digital budgets went up, replacing spending in traditional advertising, with a swing towards social and mobile projects.

Large companies are rationalizing their approach. A series of large accounts have decided in 2011 to reduce the number of authorized agencies that can work for them, often on a European scale. Others have opted to work with partners who could offer a portfolio of services, improving the coordination of service providers.

Brice Le Blévennec concludes: “Emakina now harvests the fruit of its investments in strategy, creative, social and mobile competences. As a real digital native agency, we are well equipped, staffed and organized to handle the new market demands. We understand the pressures and challenges our clients face and we can help them to respond with smart, efficient communication solutions”.

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Feb 17 2012

Emakina is one of the big winners in the Interactive Media Awards, with 2 ‘Best in Class’ and 4 ‘Outstanding Achievement’ distinctions. The jury of this worldwide contest follows the highest standards of excellence in web design and development and honours individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievement.

The Interactive Media Council (IMC) who created the awards is an international association of leading web designers, developers, programmers, advertisers and other web-related professionals.

International Crisis Group and Evolta City, Best in Class

The ‘Best in Class’ award is the highest honour bestowed by the Interactive Media Council.

This year, Emakina’s The Reference receives the prestigious award for the International Crisis Group Website. The project successfully combines the serious nature of this worldwide organisation with its dynamic, open communication style, while emphasizing ICG’s values and strengths.

Panasonic Evolta City, a project by Design is Dead also received this highest honour, in the category  ‘Community’. The collaborative social media game brought together players from across Europe to build the biggest Zero CO2-emission City on the World Wide Web.

The jury declared both winners excelled in all areas of the judging criteria and achieved a perfect or near perfect overall score. Both sites represent the highest standards of professionalism, compliance, impeccable planning and execution.

Four Outstanding Achievements

The ‘Outstanding Achievement’ awards are the second highest prize bestowed by IMA. Emakina was selected four times out of the international pack of competitors.

The Schweppesonality campaign won in the ‘Lifestyle’ category. The Schweppes brand is working on a global rebranding, together with Emakina. Schweppesonality is an original activation campaign about the fans of the brand and their charismatic, unexpected and inspiring personalities, true Schweppesonalities.

SamsungWorld received the award in the category ‘Community’ and ‘Consumer Services’ website.  This new online meeting point for Samsung clients channels all opinions and discussions on Samsung and its products towards one, dynamic environment. Visitors exchange ideas and discover promotions, goodies and news items, in a tailor made CRM system.

50 Lawyers last but not least is the winning campaign for Test-Achats, in the category ‘Professional Services’. In a web centric campaign eco system, consumers were invited to file their complaints online and share their experience in social media. The original campaign showed TestAchats/Test-Aankoop lawyers in a military training camp, preparing to fight for the rights of their consumer clients.

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Feb 16 2012

The combined positive energy of Electrabel, Group GDF SUEZ and Emakina truly starts to create communication sparks. Electrabel launched its new consumer website, introduced a new version of the Electrabel Energy Manager and produced a practical new mobile application for this Energy Manager service.  All ‘signed’ Emakina.

Electrabel, the first energy provider in Belgium, is a long-standing client of Emakina. About one year ago, a new pitch was launched and Emakina came out of this contest as the winner: the agency was named preferred supplier of Electrabel. New in this relationship was that the mission would include social and mobile media, besides web activities.

• Energy Manager

Electrabel helps its customers to reduce their energy consumption and environmental impact. So it wanted to offer its customers a new service that could make them true partners in this valuable effort. The Energy Manager allows them to fine-tune their energy actions and reduce gas and electricity consumption.

In the application, customers fill in their gas and electricity consumption. They then receive a clear analysis, with state-of-the-art bar charts and graphs indicating their energy history. They can also opt for data in a list format, of course. This information is the starting point for improved energy management, with a coaching support, offering practical tips and insights.

The Electrabel Energy Manager is also available on iPhone and Android. It targets both residential and small office/home office clients. For users on the move, the Energy Manager app is the perfect addition to the Energy Manager website.

• Spreading the word

Emakina is also the partner for Electrabel’s web activation campaigns, including promotion and bannering actions. The campaign now starting will highlight the launch of the new online application for residential customers. It will also introduce the other mobile applications, Electrabel Mobile and Electrabel Energy Manager for Professionals. Banners in different formats are placed on key Belgian portals and news websites. Objective is to generate traffic to the different Electrabel websites and apps. The tools are really handy and valuable, so this promotion really is worth the energy!

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Feb 10 2012

Clinique, the leading American brand of dermatologist-developed cosmetics and its digital agency Emakina once more offer a nice surprise to beauty lovers. Clinique introduces its new tool for women, that helps them select the best suited foundation for their skin type. Each beautifully crafted Clinique skin care and makeup product is allergy tested and 100% fragrance free.

The website allows users to connect via their Facebook account. Once the visitors provide access to their pictures, the Clinique ‘advisor’ asks two quick questions about their skin type and possible makeup problem. The answers help to define the perfect foundation, matching the different characteristics of each beauty. The tool now proposes the ideal foundation solution, together with a beautifully adapted picture, adjusting contrast and light, and nicely framing the result in a real star lodge setting. The ‘star photo’ offers a glimpse of the beauty effect the correct foundation will create.

This original campaign already proves to be a great success, with over 3000 registered participants. Clinique’s pages on Facebook for the Netherlands and Belgium have already attracted more than 18.000 members, making it a real beauty forum. Clinique believes that every skin can be great skin. The new tool is once more a new step towards that goal!

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