Studio Skylab Portfolio

Skylab Launches Hasselblad tv

2012-02-09T14:55:00+00:00

The Brief

Hasselblad is a global leader in manufacturing medium format cameras for the world's best professional photographers. Their heritage defines the history of photography itself, including Hasselblad cameras being used to photograph man's first steps on the moon. As a forward-thinking company, Hasselblad wanted new ways to engage its global network of photographers. Skylab was briefed to develop an innovative digital solution to inspire and educate photographers worldwide.

The Solution

Hasselblad tv (HTV) - a multilingual online video platform built with our MediaTank technology. We’ve been working with Hasselblad for nearly two years to bring this project to fruition. HTV allows Hasselblad to broadcast its exclusive archive material as ‘Stills in Motion’, giving users a rare, behind the scenes glimpse into the world of cutting-edge photography. Highlights include footage of photo shoots with A-list celebrities, including Martin Scorsese, Christopher Walken, James Blunt and Tom Jones, and material from photo shoots for prestigious global companies such as Bugatti and Ferrari and Chanel. The site also houses educational and training videos for aspiring and professional photographers, who want to learn how to use Hasselblad cameras, lenses or software. As well as designing and building the platform, Skylab, together with the Hasselblad team, created an enormous 240 films from scratch to populate HTV. The films were created in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish and Chinese. Developed for Mac, PC, iPhone and iPad devices, HTV streams HD video across a massively scalable, global content delivery network. This means it can withstand very high levels of activity and sudden traffic surges. To ensure global reach, the platform offers multi-lingual channels, including French, German, Italian, Spanish and Chinese, making HTV an awesome multi-lingual showcase for Skylab and MediaTank. A bespoke user upload facility also allows photographers around the world to submit their own videos and join the community.

The Result

The results speak for themselves. The impact in the first couple of days since launch has been dramatic; HTV has attracted extremely high traffic levels from over 4,000 cities in over 140 countries around the world, with very deep levels of engagement. Chris Russell-Fish, Hasselblad's Global Sales and Marketing Director, described the project as “extremely exciting for Hasselblad, our customers and trade partners. Skylab has produced a comprehensive, state-of-the-art, standalone education and research tool for Hasselblad enthusiasts around the world.” http://htv.hasselblad.com/

2012 British Gas Swimming Championships

2012-01-11T14:29:00+00:00

The 2012 British Gas Swimming Championships promise to be the most exciting selection trials for the London 2012 Olympics. As such, British Swimming, sponsored by British Gas was eager to promote the event and invite swim fans to live the drama, share the journey and feel the glory. Skylab delivered a vision that focused on the athletes themselves, inviting swim fans to get up close and personal with their favourite swimming stars. We designed and developed ‘The Locker Room’ – a high impact, interactive microsite that delivers stats, facts and personal information about the stars, including athlete blogs and Q&A sessions. Additionally, visitors are encouraged to relive champs' past glory in a dedicated video archive section delivered by Skylab's innovative video platform, MediaTank. For those with Olympic aspirations, the site acts as a gateway and information point for all swimming athletes interested in joining the team. The site also has a strong commercial function, encouraging visitors to purchase tickets for the event. Barry Wade, web manager, British Swimming, comments: “The response to the microsite has been phenomenal with over 43,000 unique visitors in the first three months. The microsite has really helped us bring this event to life and engage with more swim fans across the country.” 2012 British Gas Swimming Championships

sk:n E-Commerce

2011-07-19T17:15:00+00:00

Skylab are very excited to announce the launch of "www.sknclinics.co.uk":http://www.sknclinics.co.uk. The Studio have been busy creating a truly innovative web platform that we believe will catapult sk:n ahead of their competitors! Our first task was to conduct an initial period of Discovery getting to grips with sk:n, their competitors and the wider industry. We held a series of interviews, web surveys and applied social media listening techniques to understand the needs of sk:n's audience and draw insights that would steer the project in the right direction. We then got to work on revitalising the brand, developing a bullet proof SEO strategy, and creating a cutting edge, cloud based content management system - a first of it's kind! The new website has gone down a treat with both sk:n and their customers. The numbers speak for themselves, a combination of great design, content and SEO has increased traffic, engagement and enquiries! sk:n's infrastructure costs are also significantly down due to our expertise in cloud hosting solutions. And we're not done yet. The E-commerce module was launched only two days ago allowing sk:n to promote and sell their own brand of skin care products, generating further revenue through the website. So, next up our sleeve... well, watch this space! Check out the new website at "www.sknclinics.co.uk":http://www.sknclinics.co.uk.

Skylab Makes Big Splash

2011-05-11T12:31:00+00:00

Skylab is proud to announce the launch of "Big Splash":http://www.swimming.org/bigsplash/ a new website created in partnership with British Swimming and the BBC. After beating off stiff competition from some of the UK’s biggest agencies, we were chosen by British Swimming as their digital partner, charged with delivering the Big Splash website and other digital tools. A mass participation campaign, the ‘Big Splash’ is the world’s biggest celebration of swimming. Stretching over 10 months it aims to encourage new people into the pool and to help those who already swim to do so more often. The campaign launched on Saturday 7th May with cross channel promotion on the BBC directing viewers to the ‘Big Splash’ website. A host of BBC faces including Gary Lineker, Gabby Logan and Alan Hansen joined sporting stars Freddie Flintoff, Ian Thorpe and Rebecca Adlington to promote the initiative. Throughout the year the BBC will highlight swimming as an important life skill and gateway to a host of fun activities through a range of well known programmes across TV, radio and online. “Skylab were commissioned by British Swimming to create a website to support a campaign we are running with the BBC to get the UK into the pool. The high profile project demanded a site to match its status. In all respects, Skylab did not disappoint” says Big Splash web manager Barry Wade. “With very tight deadlines to meet, a fluctuating brief, multiple stakeholders to consult, and a challenging budget to work within Skylab has created a superb site that stands out from the crowd. Speaking after the launch Skylab MD Nigel Collier said, "Skylab is extremely proud to have been chosen ahead of some big names to work with British Swimming and the BBC on this major national initiative. After our recent nomination for the 2011 Big Chip Award for Best Not-For-Profit project for the Swimfit application, our appointment on Big Splash underlines Skylab's expertise across websites, apps and social media with an interesting niche developing in the sports sector. “The timing is perfect for Skylab, as the BBC move into Media City, we will be working very closely with BBC Sport to deliver one of the biggest mass participation sporting events the BBC will be involved in prior to the Olympics.” Over the coming year, Skylab will be working with British Swimming and the BBC to help get the UK fitter, healthier and more active ahead of the 2012 Olympics. Why not take the plunge and join us at "www.swimming.org/bigsplash":http:www.swimming.org/bigsplash to create some ripples of your own...

Swimfit Web App

2010-11-11T20:16:00+00:00

Skylab are delighted to announce the launch of "Swimfit":http://www.swimming.org/swimfit, a new web app developed as part of a long term relationship with British Swimming and The ASA. Sponsored by British Gas, Swimfit actively encourages users to improve their health and overall fitness by targeting their specific workout goals. The app supports British Swimming's key strategy of increasing levels of swimming participation and delivers training tips and advice through video tutorials hosted on "MediaTank":http://www.mediatankhq.com, Skylab's innovative white label video platform. As part of the project we developed and built MySwimfit, an exciting new interactive web application that acts as an online swimming coach, allowing members to set themselves swim challenges and create bespoke training programmes and goals. Rather than us tell you about the dramatic success of Swimfit, we asked Barry Wade, the website manager for the ASA to comment: “From concept through to execution Skylab has more than delivered. Their innovative, flexible and collaborative way of working has created a great new Swimfit website for us... and the list of positive feedback we have received from users speaks for itself. Swimfit’s goal is to get more people swimming and improve people’s health. It’s a free programme that guides people through pool exercises. Over the previous two years before we moved Swimfit to the website and Skylab’s Web App, the total number of members to Swimfit was around 9,000. The fall out rate was also high with the website gaining about 15,000 page views a month. In the first four months of the Web App going live we gained 9,000 new members (as many as the previous 2 years) and the website now gains over 150,000 page views a month as people log swims and keep track of their progress (10 times the amount of previous traffic). This is giving us concrete results in our drive to get Britain healthier as people engage with swimming. The new website has also allowed us to become a publisher. This means we can directly engage with people in an online environment in a manner once only the preserve of traditional media. A good example is the recent World Trials Swimming Championships. Through the website we managed to have an eight day event at capacity everyday. We have also been able to update the website as journalists from the event, gaining coverage for unknown swimmers and getting larger numbers of people engaged in swimming as we move towards the Olympics.” With work now complete on phase one, we’re looking forward to cracking on with phase two which will include the integration of the channel with Facebook and Twitter and delivery of the MySwimfit platform on mobile channels such as iPhone. We’re confident these features will continue to revolutionise poolside training sessions. Watch this space.....

British Swimming

2010-05-27T18:56:00+00:00

Skylab were briefed to create a new website for British Swimming, the national governing body for swimming in the UK and one of the premier Olympic medal winning sports. The website needed to cater for a diverse range of audiences including the 11.5 million people who swim regularly, British Swimming (elite athletes), the Amateur Swimming Association and its workforce, sponsors, partners, the media and various others. Skylab were given total freedom to reinvent the organisation's online positioning from scratch. Our solution was to revolutionise the organisation and turn the governing body from administrator into a global publisher of swimming content and more importantly turn the organisation into an online broadcaster through our video platform for business - "MediaTank":http://www.mediatankhq.com. Skylab have transformed the organisation. The website has been extremely well received by British Swimming / ASA, the general public and most importantly it has be very well received by key sponsors British Gas, Kelloggs and Speedo. We worked with many of the sponsors during the development of the website who we continue to work with in respect of British Swimming's social media strategy. Check out "www.swimming.org":http://www.swimming.org Watch video content at "tv.swimming.org":http://tv.swimming.org

Philip Lawrence Awards

2010-05-26T18:22:00+00:00

The Philip Lawrence Awards brief was to make an engaging site for their audience that promoted not only the Awards themselves but also all the groups involved. Skylab developed an engaging website that's easy to navigate with up to date information delivered in a variety of methods. As part of the digital strategy, Skylab developed the concept of a countrywide Network for all the involved groups, bringing them together as part of the PLA network (PLAnet), sharing resources between groups and building an online community. Skylab also shot and edited all the video content that appears on the website. The client was delighted with the digital strategy and the final website, which provided solutions to big organisational challenges. Check out the site at "http://www.philiplawrenceawards.net/":http://www.philiplawrenceawards.net/

Simply Be Blog

2010-05-02T19:46:01+00:00

JD Williams are the largest most profitable home shopping company in the UK, they have been established for 146 years! They approached Skylab with a simple objective - to find a different way of promoting one of their brands, Simply Be, through social media. We were tasked with creating a platform that would allow customers to engage with the brand on a more personal level, through conversation. It was important to Simply Be that their core brand values were communicated to the audience. Our solution would have to be bright and bold, fun and friendly. Simply Be were keen to step away from the "hard-sell" of their existing e-commerce site. They were looking for a complementary solution that would prove both valuable and informative to their customers. After an initial Discovery phase it became obvious that Simply Be customers were already fully engaged with social media, they were using Facebook and visiting fashion blogs. Skylab set about developing a social media platform that consisted of a blog that integrated the Simply Be Facebook page and Twitter feed - bringing everything together in one space that is bright and bold, fun and friendly. Simply Be are using the platform to deliver fashion news and tips, trend watching, competitions and exclusive offers to their customers. They now have a healthy and growing number of followers across the Blog, Facebook and Twitter. Check out "http://www.simplybeblog.co.uk":http://www.simplybeblog.co.uk Follow Simply Be on "Twitter":http://twitter.com/SimplyBeUk Or "Like" their page on "Facebook":http://www.facebook.com/SimplyBeFashion

InjuryLawyers4U Website

2010-01-01T07:36:00+00:00

InjuryLawyers4U is a national network of genuine lawyers who specialise in personal injury cases. They came to Skylab with a brief to rejuvenate their existing website. Given that the content had been written by lawyers, InjuryLawyers4U recognised that the website wasn't appropriate for their customers; it had become complicated, uninspiring and didn't clearly represent the customer experience at InjuryLawyers4U. Skylab responded with a digital strategy that would re-position InjuryLawyers4U as honest, friendly and professional. Our work included an information architecture overhaul, bespoke photography and an entire re-write of the copy. We simplified and humanised the site creating a structure that is easy to navigate with clear calls-to-action. Check out the new website at "injurylawyers4u.co.uk":http://www.injurylawyers4u.co.uk

Ruth Badger, Branding & Website

2009-12-03T22:28:00+00:00

Ruth Badger came to Skylab asking us to develop a brand new website. She was clear what she wanted to achieve. She wanted to be promoted much more as a business woman and motivational speaker. She was keen to develop a distinct brand and to engage with her audience more. She also wanted to convey her straight talking personality made famous through 'The Apprentice'. We quickly knew how to get Ruth to achieve her goals. Ruth's name is synonymous with business and she has a loyal fan base. Neither of these were being promoted on her existing website. We knew that social media would be a brilliant tool to promote her as well as engage and interact directly with her audience. We decided to position and brand her as Ruth Badger 'Straight-talking business woman and motivational speaker' - because that's what she is! We built a website that promoted her famous personality alongside the array of services that she offers - Public Speaking, Ruth Badger Consultancy and Ruth Badger Academy. Alongside this we created a social media strategy for her and set her up as an advocate of social media and the benefits it can bring to business! It's been a very successful site for her. She regularly updates her blog which gives the site the personality it previously lacked especially with the popular feature Ruth's Rants. It also gives a great insight into her business life. Ruth was also set-up on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. Ruth fully understood the value of social media and updates her Twitter and Facebook account regularly and has a healthy number of active followers of her and her business.