The ground-breaking campaign for JWT's client Shell is a winner at the RAD Awards for best online marketing and innovation. Bluegrass provided development, email markting, managed hosting consulting and project management for the innovation recruitment based digital campaign.

The interactive, clue-based online game allowed players to interact with Google Earth with weekly clues released via email and sms. Players were given six challenges over a sis week period using different techniques to identify secret codes which users loaded back into their profile via the website which was recorded and tracked.  There were integrated flash games which allowed players to boost scores. The website was a bespoke .NET web application created by us including game and content management.

For more information view the case study or the full campaign material.

ETV Capital is one of Europe's leading providers of debt financing solutions for venture capital backed technology and healthcare businesses. The new website provides the business with a more professional "shop-window" showcasing their portfolio of clients and deals.

Bluegrass was selected through a pitch process to design and build the new website. The entire website is powered by Umbraco CMS allowing designated members of the ETV staff to keep the content up-to-date and fresh.

We provide ongoing hosting and support services.

More glory for our client was seen recently when the Portfolio Collection Travel Blog won Best Travel Blog at the South African Blog Awards.

As part of the overall online strategy for Portfolio Collection, the benchmark for the best holiday accommodation in South Africa, we recently launch a Travel Blog for the company to help increase traffic levels and the overall business profile for the organisation. We are currently business with the design and build of a new online accommodation and booking website which will launch later this year. As the leading travel blog in the country, this will form part of the ongoing online strategy together with Search Engine Marketing and Email Marketing plans.

Evidence of its success was seen at the South African Blog Awards by taking Best Travel Blog 2009.

Watch the awards show below or visit SA Blog Awards website.

We've just launched a new colourful website for The Safari Collection, a portfolio of East Africa's finest destinations. The website provides for beautiful photography to showcase the different locations available. The website is powered by Umbraco CMS and includes features like maps, image gallerys, news and press sections, property showcase and weather feeds.

It was real pleasure working with Juliet and her team, a project that involves a subject we are passionate about adding to our portfolio of clients in the african tourism industry.

View the case study

Bluegrass Digital won the pitch to design and build a new website for the South African Business Club in London. Our pitch combined a practical design ideas, functionality and good value for the client.

The new website will include a usable design based on the established corporate identity and include features such as event management, event booking, member database management, member application forms, RSS news feeds, a member directory and an administration module to manage the website content and functions.

The website will be built using the Umbraco CMS platform and a number of membership modules we have developed for other member organisations.

In recent months, we have been working with one of our agency clients providing exciting new flash games which have been successfully used for client campaigns. Games include an online quiz campaign and pairing games. Both games contain content management and database functionality to provide leaderboard and user personalisation.

Talk to our new biz team if you are interested in something similar.

Aer Lingus operate a General Sales Agency which was recently awarded to BlueSky Aviation to run and maintain marketing operations in South Africa. Bluegrass Digital was awarded to design and build a brochure website to market the operations of Bluesky Aviation.

www.bluesky-aviation.co.za

Manthano Institute of Learning is a South African consortium of integral, experiential, work-based practitioners grounded in learning, research and practice.The company creates, crafts and facilitates work-based learning solutions.

The new website's fundamental objective is to market Manthano Institute of Learning to prospective clients via the digital medium. It is important that the new website will showcase the company's attributes and present the credentials of the key executive coaches. The site will include information of course material and importantly how customers go about connecting with Manthano's solutions.

We will report back when we launch the new website.

 

Silver Saints has launched its new new Online Booking System. Seamus Graham says, "This will allow customers to create their own 'to-do' list and select an appointment time yourself. It's just like shopping from Ocado, but for a Handyman rather than your groceries.

The new web-based system interfaces with their inhouse ServiceCEO platform, the leading software solution for the service industry.  We believe this is the first time that a web application interface has been developed directly around ServiceCEO database and opens the door for future implementations for other service companies.

We have won the pitch to develop the new Sturrock Shipping website. The PO is signed and now it is down to work! We are under tight deadlines to deliver the new website which will form part of the relaunch of the new corporate identity.

The project will focus on a fresh website design incorporating the new corporate identity which will launch in the coming months. The site will include a cutting-edge content management system (CMS) pioneered by Bluegrass Digital in South Africa using Umbraco. The CMS will manage the website content along with implementation of Google Maps Geomapping Tools.

Bluegrass Digital will also provide email and search marketing campaigns following launch of the new website.

Following the successful launch of the marketing website for Dunlop Safety Foowear, Bluegrass is producing a new B2C focused website for the business.

The website will be designed in conjunction with in-house Creative Director Andy-Patterson Jones and the site will include typical online shopping features including a dynamic product catalogue, shopping basket and checkout facilities. Bluegrass will integrate with SagePay as approved partners

Construction giant Costain launched their new website which aims to become the leading website in the UK construction industry and improve communications.

Bluegrass worked closely with College Hill to deliver the new website for the communications team consulting on design and build, content management implementation and website hosting.

Bluegrass has for years been part of the BNI network. We are members at BNI Putney Riverside and helped the BNI group with a new design for their outdated website. The website has evolved over the years but looked tired and lost its structure. Our design team injected some new ideas and a simple new template which organised their information better.

Without re-inventing the wheel, we simply re-skinned and launched with a few drops of social media and a new Facebook fanpage!

We have got straight to work with our new client Dunlop Safety Footwear and helping them get their launch event up and running. We help implement a email campaign which has already resulted in over 100 signed up buyers for their special preview event in a few weeks time.

We helped implement an E-invite micro website which allowed users to register and receive an automatic HTML email response. Users were stored in the site database for safe and easy access for the sales team. We also provide our email marketing platform BluegrassMailer to drive the campaign.

The Guild of Builders and Contractors has recently been launched to provide an improved platform to enable The Guild to grow their membership base.

The new website is powered by Umbraco CMS system which includes a membership module which allows The Guild staff to manage their member database directly. Other features include a blog and member search tool with integrated geo-mapping to locate builders based on your nearest postcode.

There is more in the pipeline and after just a few weeks we saw improved traffic levels and an increase in membership enquiries.

After many months of hard work (and some tears), the new website for Portfolio Collection launched. This is no ordinary brochure website, but a stunning website driven by a powerful online booking and management system. The website include a number of tools both for visitors and clients to both book online and manage bookings. Yes, there is plenty more in the pipeline, so watch out!

Liz Wesby-Nunn:

"Brilliant, well done. The new site looks terrific and we have already had much positive feedback.  And just in time for the radio advertising campaign next week, so everyone wins.

My sincere thanks again Jeremy and your team.  This has been a long road, with many obstacles along the way, but now the journey really begins!   And hopefully our stunning new website will establish Portfolio right up there with the best on the net!"

Check it out.

The recent economic downturn has certainly boosted the rise of Social Media and there has been an increase in the enquiries at Bluegrass Digital about the subject. Most companies and individuals are struggling to understand how to measure the ROI for social media.

It is not surprising when a recent survey by emarketer found that 84% of social media programs don't measure return on investment (ROI). The comments in that post indicated that a lot of individuals and businesses want to be able to measure the ROI of their social media strategies and campaigns, but they don't know where to start. Despite widespread adoption of social media, measurement still lags.

Companies and executives are finally beginning to really jump on the social media bandwagon, and that's fantastic. However, for social media to fully work (for everyone), businesses and brands need to be able to evaluate the impact their social media use is having, both positive and negative. Measuring social media ROI isn't impossible, but it can be difficult because many of the pieces that need to be evaluated are difficult to track. This guide is designed to help you track down those pieces and determine the ROI you're getting on social media.

Read more at http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/social-media-programs-roi/

Other related articles:

http://mashable.com/2009/10/27/social-media-roi/
http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007286

A recent article on eMarketer points to the rising trend of combining email marketing and social media between email and social media. More than four in 10 business executives said integrating the two tactics was one of their most important e-mail marketing initiatives for 2010, just after improving performance and targeting and growing opt-in lists.

Email marketing, social media and SEM are on the top of the list for marketing tactics in the coming year.

Read more about this article http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007412

CAPE TOWN - Please join us in welcoming our new eMarketing Manager, Mark Hawkins from PhotoBox, Europe's leading digital photo printing site.

A South African, Hawkins moved over to the UK 7 years ago to travel and develop his career. The cold horizontal rain finally got the better of him and his wife, and they decided to move back to sunny Cape Town in December 2009 after a brief stint travelling around SE Asia for 3 months. He brings with him a wealth of online marketing and project management experience. At PhotoBox he was Marketing Operations Manager and responsible for CRM, web analytics, social media and new web project initiatives.

2010 has started with a bang here at Bluegrass and we are all very positive that this new appointment will bring some added firepower to our existing digital marketing arsenal! Please contact us on 021-671 1966 (SA Clients) and 0845 688 3361 (UK Clients) to discuss any marketing ideas you may have.

2010 has started with a bang. It's known as the 'Year of the Tiger' according to the Chinese zodiac, but we all know that last year was the year of the Tiger... (Woods). As usual everyone is talking about their predictions for the year ahead and we thought we'd share some of our own.

Our Top 5 predictions for 2010:

1. Facebook continues to grow and surpasses Google to become the most actively used website on the web. The result is that businesses that are not actively using Social Media as another marketing channel will fall behind. Watch this interview with Tony Mandarich, ex NFL football star and now very successful online marketing expert, as he talks about growth in Social Media marketing and internet marketing areas in 2010.

2. Twitter launches a paid service for businesses, allowing them to setup commercial accounts and access Twitter 'marketing tools' to target the masses. We'll also see advertising creep into the sidelines.

3.  Bafana Bafana make it through to the knockout rounds of the FIFA World Cup. They will be hard pressed in Group A however, as they have to go through Mexico, two-time champions Uruguay, as well as 2006 runners-up France!

4.  TV technology goes to the next level and consumers use their TV sets for accessing the internet and browsing online as the norm. It may not become the norm in South Africa, but in more advanced countries like the UK and the US, this is going to be an area of strong technological growth.

5. Internet in South Africa vastly improves and becomes a lot cheaper as more competition arrives and more fibre optic cabling is laid down. Wouldn't it be fantastic if we could finally say goodbye to dialup and put the nail in that coffin!