De Agostini is one of the world’s leading publishing groups and specialises in the production of partwork magazines or other printed collectibles such as game cards.

The Brief

Upon acquiring a license for Beyblade, the popular Japanese animation series and Hasbro toy franchise, De Agostini wanted to create an online destination for fans to register physical card collections, battle one another internationally, and find comprehensive character details.

The client’s two principal aims were to foster a deeper engagement with the Beyblade brand and to drive newsstand sales of the cards, which were due to launch in September 2011. The new website and game had to initially work in five languages – Russian, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Spanish – to support the main launch markets for these new cards.

It was crucial to remain true to the Beyblade universe which meant the new site and game must be able to marshal complex character details and adhere closely to style guidelines.

The timeframe from receiving the brief to supplying a fully tested solution was just 90 days.

The Solution

The key to this complex project was to quickly develop a robust content management system (CMS) that could contain huge amounts of information or artwork and then be easily updated by the client as the Beyblade ecosystem evolved.

The next step was to spell out how the interactive elements of the website and game would ensure young fans enjoyed their experience enough to spend time online. The Activate team immersed itself in the Beyblade universe to understand the brand and why battling is so popular.

Activate proposed that the online game be based on a virtual Beyblade stadium, built in Flash, which enabled up to four players to battle simultaneously with their own cards. This involved close collaboration with brand stakeholders around the world in addition to De Agostini. The final stage was to ensure that the site was W3C compliant and, crucially, that real fans loved it.

The Results

The website and its integral game were both successfully tested by the client and then went live on schedule and within budget. Both elements have proven to be an immediate hit with Beyblade fans.

Seven Dials is a historic self-contained village within the heart of Covent Garden in London. The village is owned by Shaftesbury PLC, which has a portfolio of prestigious properties around London’s West End that are prudently managed as a set of individual districts, each with its own strong identity.

The Brief

Convey the area’s distinct cultural legacy while also communicating Seven Dials relevance as a cutting-edge destination where shoppers can escape the homogeneity of the high street.

Provide practical tools for visitors such as interactive maps that provide an instant overview of the are yet also enable them easily see richer information about a retailer at a chosen location.

Create a genuine sense of topicality on the website with a simple and reliable means of then being able to then refresh this material on a regular basis.

Engender a deeper level of communication between the target audience and the client with tools, such as a newsletter, that are easy to operate and sophisticated.

The timeframe from receiving the brief to supplying a fully tested solution was just 90 days.

The Solution

Activate worked closely with the client and its PR agency to create a sophisticated yet accessible site that is as stylish as it is practical. This was partly due to the careful choice of creative assets but largely a result of the judicious use of technical tools – such as a calendar that showcases events or offers within the village. A crucial aspect here was fusing all these disparate elements together to create a coherent whole that functions as a living entity.

Once the messaging and overall design was agreed, Activate built the site around our own powerful content-management system (CMS) which enables Shaftesbury to easily manage any facet of how their new website works or to update the images or information within it.

To foster engagement with visitors, Activate designed elegant interactive maps. Here, viewers simply roll their cursor over the icon of a property to see details about it – they can also create an instant customised directory of local stores arranged by any chosen category. Our newsletter tool enabled the client to offer topical updates and manage who receives these.

The site was, of course, optimised to appear clearly within search-engine results and carefully tested to ensure it complies with the latest W3C standards.

The timeframe from receiving the brief to supplying a fully tested solution was just 90 days.

David Clulow Opticians is Britain’s leading retailer of contemporary eyewear. It has over fifty stores in prime locations such as Kensington plus a clutch of concessions in, for instance, Harrods that provide a deluxe in-store experience. The firm recently became part of the global Luxottica Retail Group, which owns premium optical brands including Oakley and Ray-Ban.

The Brief

Create a website to convey the core appeal of David Clulow – namely to provide discerning customers with desirable eyewear in a slick and professional retail setting

Provide information about the company with the aim of guiding online shoppers towards its broad array of upmarket physical destinations.

Enable the client to easily update the website content and create an email newsletter to showcase its continuously changing promotions

Work alongside the David Clulow team to refresh these creative assets on a regular basis and evolve its customer relationships into a deeper level of retail engagement

The Solution

Activate liaised carefully with the client to ensure that its brand proposition was successfully communicated by the new website. This was built around Activate’s tried-and-tested Content Management System and Event Promoter newsletter tools which have enabled the David Clulow marketing team to update the site without fuss and create a bespoke newsletter

Activate continues to help marshal these materials and provide consultancy with regard to development of new website features. These include an innovative ‘Book a Look’ facility — a sophisticated tool for shoppers to view optical products online and then try on their selection at a David Clulow venue near to them.

The Results

The client is delighted with the relationship it has built with Activate in terms of our ability to deliver on the original brief and offer practical support while also helping to plan for the future.

Sunglass Hut is the globally renowned specialist retailer of sunglasses with almost 2,000 stores in prestigious high-traffic locations around the world. As part of the Luxottica Retail Group, the firm maintains a staunch commitment to premium levels of customer service.

The Brief

Create a website that outlines the essence of the Sunglass Hut retail experience, which offers early access to desirable fashion eyewear in an environment that is deeply convenient

Help to drive online traffic towards the firm’s physical retail venues by showcasing its promotional offers and enabling these online materials to be easily updated by the client

Improve communications with customers by means of an email newsletter tool and provide assistance with refreshing the creative assets that underpin this

The Solution

The key to this project was to understand the Sunglass Hut brand proposition of presently using its online presence to promote its offline retail destinations. Activate has deftly enabled the client to largely maintain the site itself and create a hugely successful weekly newsletter.

The Results

Sunglass Hut is extremely happy with the manner in which Activate has helped it to present itself online and provide the means for it to manage these marketing processes internally. We continue to offer technical support and act as a trusted advisor with regard to the client’s next steps into eCommerce. Chief among these is development of an online-accounts system and helping foster a closer relationship between the Sunglass Hut website and its retail locations.

EPC is a specialist consulting company in the oil, gas, and petrochemical industry that produces highly respected international conferences and training seminars. They provide an annual series of well-established international events in key regions worldwide.

The Brief

Activate was asked to update the company branding and logo while keeping the essence of the companies past look and feel.

We were also asked to enable EPC to produce its own websites to promote their exhibitions and then manage all aspects of these events, such as delegate registrations or secure online payments. Each site needed to be viewable in two languages and be able to invoice in multiple currencies with the correct tax.

Lastly, we needed to empower the client to manage its events online without them requiring external support. This included the ability to alter the appearance and content of these sites and to create customised web-based forms whereby delegates can register for several events simultaneously.

The Solution

EPC was the ideal candidate for Activate’s Eventware software, which provides everything needed to run exhibitions in one flexible and cost-effective package. At the heart of this is Activate’s content management system which allows a client to control exactly how their own websites look or function.

Each site shows visitors a derivation of EPC’s online address rather than Eventware itself, which gives the impression of them all being operated by the client as opposed to Activate.

Despite the modular nature of Eventware, Activate ensured every request was satisfied. For instance, viewers switching between English and Russian or that the new delegate booking-system acts as a smooth conduit between EPC’s various event websites.

The Results

The client is delighted with its newfound ability to market and administer its events online in such a professional manner and especially with the level of control it has retained. Eventware has saved EPC a huge amount of time and provided a powerful suite of customisable tools.

Heathgate is a boutique property agency, based in the prestigious Hampstead Village area of north London, that specialises in sales, lettings, and the management of residential dwellings. Despite fierce competition, the agency has flourished since its formation in 1990 due to a successful combination of sensible advice, a high level of personal service and the adoption of high-tech marketing tools.

The Brief

Build a property website as sophisticated as that of any other agency. This should offer potent search tools that lead to richly formatted information about each property, which can then be saved or printed as elegant PDF documents.

The site must automate the process of marketing a property so as to make it simpler for agency employees and prospective clients to conduct business. For instance, the details of any newly added properties should be automatically uploaded to the main property portals as soon as these are placed onto the Heathgate system and if any satisfy the specified search-parameters of a registered client, they must be instantly emailed to the appropriate people.

The Solution

Activate listened carefully to this wish-list of features which the client. Considerable time was spent understanding the nature of the property market, assessing the websites of rival firms, and researching the global availability of relevant tools or resources.

Vast experience of marshalling similarly complex sources of information and the sheer versatility of the content management systems that Activate has created over the years enabled the creation of a website that satisfied each of Heathgate’s requests. The challenge was to dovetail this technology into the client’s existing IT systems and to ensure it worked smoothly with external tools such as Google Maps or the main property search-engines.

The timescale from initial briefing to delivery of a fully working solution was 16 weeks

The Results

The client’s aims were all achieved both on time and within its original budget. At the time of its launch in late 2010 this website was as powerful as that of any property agency yet it was built for a mere fraction of the cost. The new website has enabled Heathgate to continue to punch well above its weight and to thrive commercially.