It’s a pioneering campaign which has been very well received in the media – have a look at some of the coverage:

Marketing magazine

Mobile Marketing Magazine

Mashable

Contagious magazine

iPhone app cafe (5 star review!)

Recombu

 ‘China and Brazil, the eyes of the world are on you’.

Strategy Director Gemma Mahoney-Jones says: ‘Given the level of talent and experience we have in both our Shanghai and Sao Paulo offices, we’ve got a lot to say about the growth of social media in both China and Brazil. We’re delighted that we can take our place and share our knowledge at Social Media Week.’

If you would like to know more about the social media landscape in China, read our insight

The aim of GOV.UK is to eventually replace the aging Directgov website as the single destination for everything the government has to offer. It is clear from the beta that the designers have focused on predictive search as the main method of navigation and, by their own admission, browsing is something that may need to be improved. Page clutter has been kept to a minimum throughout and a simple system of colour coding and icons helps wayfinding – or at least it would if the meaning of those colours and icons were made a little clearer.

Feedback has been invited through a number of channels including Get Satisfaction, Twitter and email. Early responses seem generally positive with a mixture of praise and constructive criticism. A couple of users expressed disappointment with the accuracy of search results when compared to Directgov, some were unhappy with the use of serif fonts and others suggested changes to background colours and contrast. The design team have already acted on a number of these comments and have promised ongoing improvements.

Meanwhile, the BBC has been on a mission to redesign all of its digital services across web, mobile, IPTV and tablets to fall in line with a Global Experience Language (GEL) that was introduced at the start of 2010. The design philosophy that underpins this language aims to ensure that the BBC delivers an experience that is distinctive and consistent.
The BBC Sport website is the latest product to receive the GEL treatment. As has been the case with other high-profile BBC redesigns such as News and most recently the Homepage, a lot of the feedback from users has been negative or even angry. Everything from the colour palette and page layout through to the underlying information architecture and content strategy has been criticised. Are any of these complaints really justified or is this just another example of people disliking change?

While I am a fan of GEL, I have to concede that this particular implementation has some issues. The yellow and black colour combination, while consistent with existing BBC Sport TV output, hasn’t translated well to the web and is just too overpowering and distracting in such large quantities. The application of the GEL grid system is awkward in places too with headlines on the homepage squeezed into a column down the middle and content on article pages flowing awkwardly around pull quotes and other inserts. Information density on landing pages is high and a lack of clear structure makes it hard to separate signal from noise.

It is unfortunate that an apparent lack of finesse in some areas is distracting from the underlying positive changes. The new horizontal navigation does certainly make it easier to switch between sports and brings the experience in line with other BBC sites. Support for live coverage and commentary is better and the light blue signposting for these features is helpful. The addition of statistics – if you can find them – to the football tables is a nice touch, too.

BBC redesigns will always attract a lot of criticism. In this case, a combination of BBC Sport branding, the GEL framework and huge amounts of content have been forced together at the expense of usability. The lack of a beta hasn’t eased the transition either.

Both design teams are actively collecting feedback from their users and it will be interesting to see whether they can use these comments to improve and evolve their products in ways that will make a real noticeable difference. GOV.UK is of course still in the early stages of development which means that users have a real opportunity to influence the creative direction.  The challenge for the BBC will be to listen to its users and try to separate signal from noise. Those who dislike change will I’m sure soon grow to love the new BBC Sport website but it would be foolish of the BBC not to take a good look at all available feedback and be humble in making changes where necessary.

GOV.UK

BBC sport

This blog post was written by Matt

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Topshop, the leading name in high street fashion retail, had already recognised the immense potential of their mobile channels, with a significant percentage of their online sales coming from mobile devices. Topshop required a bespoke approach to the project and a flexibility that is afforded by the Red Ant platform.

Using in-house expertise in delivering market-leading apps, Red Ant worked closely with the Topshop digital team to deliver:

• A new channel for sales and engagement, with opportunities for significant growth in the mid-to-long term
• A highly polished, market-leading interface and featureset
• Enhanced in-store and social engagement features including scanning, sharing and favourites
• Exclusive implementation via the existing eCommerce setup, requiring minimal work from Topshop systems teams

Working in collaboration with the team at Topshop, Red Ant used its robust technical expertise to deliver the brand’s strategy and vision – helping to identify the best and most customer-appropriate featureset and creating an exciting roadmap for future releases. Keeping Topshop’s brand identity and customer experience at heart, the result is a feature-rich, user-focused app which:

• Uses barcode and QR scanning and location awareness to bridge their on- and offline marketing activities in a brand new way
• Draws together their various digital and social media channels (blog, videos, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and one-off campaigns like London Fashion Week)into one place
• Offers seamless product sharing to generate customer buzz
• Delivers fully transactional shopping to their app users and drives impulse purchasing by offering daily catalogue updates as a way to keep up with the 300+ new pieces Topshop introduces every week
• Offers a completely flexible and future-proofed platform for new developments

Within just 4 weeks of launch, the app has already seen more than 280,000 downloads, an average 4.5 star rating in the App Store, and an overwhelmingly positive response on social media channels.

Red Ant’s Director of Mobile Dan Hartveld said: ‘We're really excited about the opportunities that this app opens up for Topshop. A fully transactional app is now what users expect from a major retailer's mobile presence. The Topshop iPhone app’s social integration and in-store crossover features also mean Topshop can truly integrate with consumer lifestyles and create seamless multi-channel experiences - something many fashion retailers have been unable to achieve. All this, with minimal impact on their existing infrastructure.’

Topshop’s Head of E-Commerce Kate Walmsley said: ‘We are thrilled by the enthusiastic response from our customers. Thanks to Red Ant’s technical prowess and mobile expertise we have been able to deliver a truly bespoke experience that reflects the Topshop brand and supports our mobile strategy. We look forward to delivering the exciting roadmap of new developments and features to come.’

Preview the Topshop app here:

iTunes store

Brief

3663 wanted to:

• Develop a unique iPhone-based mCommerce platform to reflect feedback from its customers who are looking for more choice in how they can place orders
• Take advantage of the cost benefits afforded by a fully integrated mCommerce platform as a channel to the SME market as well as enterprise clients
• Provide new channels to business which recognise customer wants, needs and service experiences
• Deliver increased sales through securing new customers and encouraging loyalty in existing ones, demonstrating leading edge mobile technology within the industry

Brief

Hornby wanted to:

• Rejuvenate the brand and reintroduce the product range to younger people, highlighting the ‘family‘ appeal of the product
• Increase revenue while keeping the retro brand feel for the enthusiast modeller/collector
• Harmonise the user experience over all of its brands, including eCommerce

www.scalextric.com

• 30% of complaints (5,531 out of a total of 18,369) and 36% of cases fell under the new remit, leading to record figures for 2011
• 86% of the cases related to misleading advertising claims (compared to 65% for all cases in 2010)

Some things don't change…

Despite predictions that regulation of websites would lead to complex adjudications and multiple warnings across the board, the ASA reports that, broadly speaking, complaints about online campaigns fall into the same categories as those offline – pricing, availability and performance of products in:

• Retail
• Leisure
• Telecommunications
• Travel

Key issues appear to be:

• Omission of full costs – offering cheap flights, for example, without making it clear that there are substantial charges for ‘extras’ such as paying by debit card and baggage handling
• Misleading information about availability – offending travel sites tend to headline very low-cost holidays which are only available within an extremely limited timeframe, making it highly unlikely that customers would be able to take advantage of them
• Dishonest or ambiguous claims about the qualities or effectiveness of the products on offer – one telecoms company was taken to task for making claims about its broadband services which it was unable to substantiate when challenged by a competitor.

Two special cases

While it’s clear that the ASA pretty much got what it bargained for – albeit in slightly bigger numbers than expected – the new online remit did bring to light a couple of special cases:

• Complementary medicine – thanks in part to orchestrated complaint campaigns, alternative therapies (Reiki, reflexology, chiropracty) and medicines (homeopathy and some ‘natural’ remedies) have received a great deal of attention. On the whole, complaints against them have been upheld, particularly when they make claims for proven medical effectiveness.
• Groupon – the daily deals website breached the ASA code a total of 50 times in 2011, leading to a referral to the Office of Fair Trading. It’s an interesting case – while Groupon accepts that some of its deals may be misleading (covering all of the areas highlighted above – hidden costs, unavailability and unrealistic product claims – as well as exaggeration of the discounts available), it has maintained on a number of occasions that ultimate responsibility lies with the individual companies offering the deals. It has the potential to open a whole new can of legislative worms for the ASA – nevertheless, this hasn’t stopped the authority taking action where necessary. See its statement about Groupon here.

According to the ASA, most companies which have had complaints upheld against them have immediately complied with the ruling by changing or removing the offending campaigns, adverts or websites. But, true to its word, it has ‘named and shamed’ persistent offenders. There are currently 14 companies on the list, among them sites for alternative therapies, discount holidays and online gambling.

Overall, it appears that the ASA is very satisfied with its progress – in its own words, ‘a regulatory gap has been plugged and the principles of legal, decent, honest and truthful advertising are now being more widely and comprehensively applied’.

It remains to be seen if its regulatory stance will have an impact on companies’ behaviour before they make their claims or run their campaigns online, or whether they will continue to take risks in the belief that, if they get caught, they can simply remove the non-compliant material and move on to the next promotion.

http://www.asa.org.uk/

This blog post was written by Steph

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Brief

Iceland wanted to:

• Move its current websites to a new ASP .Net platform for long-term stability and growth.
• Have access to a user-friendly, fully compatible CMS which would give colleagues control over content on the sites.
• Develop a new microsite which reflected the brand and the benefits of its Bonus Card reward scheme.

www.iceland.co.uk

And 2012 looks like it’s going to be just as exciting – watch this space…

Thanks to everyone who has worked with us, supported us and followed us over the year – here’s to a very special festive season and a prosperous New Year!

This blog post was written by the Red Ant team

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