That means that UK-wide readers of the Metro newspaper learned about our stair-climbing NFC competition and work for the Mayor of London’s Summer Like No Other.

Interest in FloorD is building rapidly; enquiries are coming in and there have been some great write-ups in trade press like Digital Buzz, Campaign and The Drum. Here’s the clipping, in association with the highly respected Contagious Magazine:

FloorD in Metro, May 8, 2012

FloorD’s first winner is Eve James, who won a Nike Fuelband for the 1,077 flights climbed since FloorD’s launch.

www.floord.co.uk

“Of course, email is all very well. But if you want to create true impact, you need to do a printed piece. Print is the most premium way to convey a message. But as digital marketers, you wouldn’t understand.”

Now this led me to think a couple of things. The first probably isn’t it printable. The second thought was, “Great!” Because it really is about time that print DM came back in fashion.

Of course, we’re never going to produce as many DM packs as we used to. The cost-effective nature of emails has put paid to that. But introducing more print back into the marketing mix can only be a good thing. And as someone with quite a lot of experience in print, thank you very much, I couldn’t be happier about that.

By: Jimmy Thompson, Associate Creative Director

We’re proud to unveil  FloorD, a new competition incorporating the latest technology to get EHSers to step up to a ‘Summer Like No Other’ in London 2012.

We’ve given all our staff NFC (near field communications) computer chips embedded into stickers that they swipe against card readers installed in our stairwells. Every time they swipe, a signal is sent to a central server which keeps track of the number of stairs climbed. And if they swipe too many times or too quickly, the computer smells a rat, assumes they have taken the lift and deducts points for cheating. Each month, prizes are awarded to the departments and individuals with the most points.

This innovative use of technology to drive behaviour change using gamification was conceived by the agency team working on the website and social media platform for ‘A Summer Like No Other’, the Mayor of London’s £90m programme of free sports and cultural events in London in 2012.

“We want our ‘Summer Like No Other’ programme to inspire every Londoner and it’s great to see our digital agency, EHS 4D, bring together creativity, technology and good old good fun like this”, said Daniel Ritterband, Marketing Director for the Mayor of London. “I’m sure this will be the first of many examples of the UK’s creativity that will be showcased to the world this summer.”

“It’s amazing how quickly you can bring an idea to life by finding the bits you need on Google, solder them together, hack some code and work up some design ideas to get a prototype running.” said Nigel Clifton, Head of Creative at EHS 4D. “Moreover this is a great example of the use of ‘gamification’ to drive behaviour change, something many of our clients are now looking to do to with consumers who want to be entertained, engaged and inspired by their relationships with brands and not just sold to!”

For an up to date league table, images and movie of the project see: www.floord.co.uk

“The agency is as well-known now for its digital capabilities as it is for its direct marketing credentials, making it an attractive option for brands”.

“Effectiveness and CRM are the agency’s bread and butter”.

“EHS 4D should be applauded for its continued impressive new-business performance and, with a new leader in place, 2012 could be a year for further growth.

And they agreed with us, saying we’re worth 7 (out of 9).

But must and will try harder. Watch this space.

MASSIVE props to our Volvo team who picked up BEST Creative Direct Marketing at last night’s MAA BEST Awards!

The Volvo Winter Tyres campaign has been a massive success, with the car giants actually running out of winter tyres at one point!

The MAA represents the best in joined up integrated thinking, great work AND results not just luvvy creative in isolation or clever use of digital widget thingys so it’s a real testament to the team to have picked it up!

Find out why the MAA judges voted it Best Creative Direct Marketing here.

Check out the campaign here

A recent piece in Marketing magazine by our very own CEO, Tash Whitmey on the changing challenges and opportunities for marketers posed by data.

Yes, in response to popular demand, we’re bringing data out of the dark ages and the clutches of the IT department and into the hands of marketers by talking about how it can informal all aspects of marketing from deriving killer insights to creating custom user experiences in real time.

As well as a dedicated data consultancy in EHS 4D Discovery, we have unbeatable data skills, across both our London and Cirencester agencies. The main point Tash makes though is that it’s not just about doing data but using it to craft compelling strategy and creative, 1+ 1 = 3 if you like.

Not many people can say they do that.

Do a have a read and tell us what you think:
http://bit.ly/ehs4ddrmktg

But with such an impossibly huge influx of content (Facebook has over 48 hours of video content uploaded per minute – you can only imagine how many images are uploaded in the same period), how does the very best of the crop stand out from the undifferentiated ocean of duckface Facebook profile pics? Enter social image sharing sites to provide a peer-reviewed filter on what’s hot and what’s not in whichever category you’re interested in (which, let’s be honest, is probably funny pictures of cats).

One such site (currently in private beta) is Pinterest, which has aimed itself squarely at being to images what Twitter is to text (even to the extent of including a small PinIt! Button for potentially ‘shareable’ content and the ability to RePin other users’ content)!

Pinterest works like this: users upload pictures to ‘Boards’ which anyone can create. Boards are like an area of shared interest – you might have one dedicated to adorable animal photos, for example – where Pinners post pictures related to the theme. It’s also possible to create more private boards – the example given on the site is helping to plan a wedding by the bride and groom uploading pictures of potential elements like dresses, while the wedding guests comment on which ones they like best.

More popular (and newer) pictures move to the top of the page (it’s possible to ‘like’ pictures), so you’ll tend to see the cream of the crop on whichever topics you follow. Tagging images with additional data about what they contain is also encouraged on the site – like tagging a cool present with how much it costs and where you can purchase (with a URL link) it, so it’s possible to use the site to shop for the current ‘coolest’ items directly.

Notably, the site bucks the general trends of the internet by having a majority of female users, giving the site a fairly unique community with unique behaviours – users have discussed having ‘wedding’ boards (despite some being single women!), where they collect pictures of the best Dresses etc. for the Big Day^TM itself. More universally, it’s common to have ‘wishlist’ boards of items that you’d like to eventually buy (or have bought for you as a gift).

In all, with an Alexa rank of 36 in the US, Pinterest seems to have gone from the ‘yet another startup with potential’ stage to being a credible contender in the addendum to the less specialized offerings from other social sites, and it’s certainly one with applications for marketing –it seems likely that it’s only a matter of time until a larger brand (perhaps one with particular appeal to women) dips its toes into a more pin-or-be-pinned world.

But for now, I’ve just seen a picture of a life-size edible stormtrooper cake, and I just HAVE to share it.

By Oliver Horner, Social Media Executive

Call to arms by Daniel Ritterband, the GLA’s Director of Communications in this weeks’ Campaign: “So if London doesn’t already have a reputation as the global hub of innovative digital communication, 2012 is our chance to ensure we capture the crown” – read the article and watch this space: www.molpresents.com