Studio Skylab Journal

Digital Creative Director - Manchester

2012-01-11T14:22:00+00:00

Skylab is looking for an exceptional Creative Director. This is one of those rare opportunities where growth dictates the need for a new key figure within the business to direct the entire creative output of the studio. We are looking for someone capable of exceptional thinking, who is very hands-on, with expert production skills and digital innovation in their blood. Skylab is a digital studio with innovation at its core. We have a BAFTA Award winning heritage and create digital strategies, websites, apps, social media and content such as film for clients such as the BBC, Manchester United, British Swimming and the Home Office to name but a few. Due to a number of new contracts plus growth in demand from existing clients, we are looking to make a strategically important addition to the studio's management team. We have some simply stunning new projects and long term contracts in place, all of which offer the very rare combination of contractual commitment and creative freedom to innovate for several years to come, building on our own solutions year after year to create best of breed solutions in various sectors. We will take our time to find the right person and when we find them, we are looking to make a long term commitment to each other to form one of the strongest digital teams in the North West, if not the country. These types of jobs are few and far between, so now is the time to fully engage with this opportunity. You may be an experienced senior / lead designer looking to make a step up or an existing Creative Director looking to work with a leading digital innovation studio. h2. Responsibilities Strategic Thinking * Contribute to the creation of digital marketing strategies with clients. * Create original and innovative solutions that help the client to move their business forward. * Strategies should be measurable and achievable, identifying KPIs and demonstrating ROI. * Work closely with the Managing Director, Technical Director and Account Director to plan the future direction of Skylab. New Business * Develop longer term business opportunities from new and existing clients to maximise revenues rather than just a single project approach. * Liaise with the Managing Director on new business opportunities. Working With The Team * Follow studio processes, adhering to best practice guidelines. * Contribute to the creation and refinement of studio processes on an ongoing basis, iterating based on learnings from projects, industry developments etc. * Liaise with the production team to create an optimal plan to deliver to time, quality, budget and client satisfaction requirements. * Review projects on a regular basis, working together with the team leaders. * Mitigate risks and manage change requests, dealing with the account management team on any necessary budgetary implications. Delivery * Ensure projects hit all client KPIs at all stages of planning, production and delivery. * Retain a practical and pragmatic approach to delivery, focusing on time, quality, budget and client satisfaction requirements. * Ensure that production targets for projects are met and that the creative aspects do not go over time or budget. Balance the need for quality whilst maintaining profitability across all jobs. Culture * Work with directors and team leaders to develop a culture of care for and development of clients. h2. Requirements * A proven track record in creative leadership, vision and innovation. * A track record in successfully delivering digital creative for multiple high profile projects to time. * An ability to devise digital marketing strategies and solutions for clients. This is a vital part of the job and requires the successful candidate not just to think about the creative aspects of a brief but to possess a broader understanding of a range of issues including usability, commercial feasibility, the value of customer profiling, integration of data into CMS / CRM systems, awareness of SEO and social media etc. * You may already have an award winning heritage. * A detailed working knowledge of digital production processes. * Expert level production capability setting standards for the studio. * An open and innovative approach. * Strong communication, presentation and organisational skills to board level. * A structured approach to working with tried and tested commercial processes and strong documentation skills. * Signifiant experience at a senior level within a digital agency environment including both having responsibility for and leading a creative team, and reporting to senior management. * A natural interest in design, user experience and all things digital. h2. Role & Package Role: Creative Director Package: Competitive salary depending on experience. Please tell us why you want to work at Skylab and what you can add to our offering of strategy, innovation and digital solutions. Please send your application and CV to "careers@studioskylab.com":mailto:careers@studioskylab.com Good luck..... and no agencies please.

Tweets from the Studio

2012-01-25T08:22:00+00:00

Highlights from Skylab staff on Twitter…

"Steve_Worsley":http://www.twitter.com/Steve_Worsley I'm beginning to find out how much I use Wikipedia. Also the amount of Wikipedia snobs on twitter.

"tmoitie":http://www.twitter.com/tmoitie <marquee><blink>If this worked the internet would be an amazing place</marquee></blink>

"jaikdean":http://www.twitter.com/jaikdean My body has built up a dependence on chocolate and Guinness cake over the past few days that is no longer being met #justonemoreslice

"tmoitie":http://www.twitter.com/tmoitie Oh my "We code hard" bit.ly/yrK8xA

"jameslewis":http://www.twitter.com/jameslewis Initializr: an HTML5 responsive template - initializr.com Useful for us, @Steve_Worsley

"Steve_Worsley":"Steve_Worsley":http://www.twitter.com/Steve_Worsley View a website's DOM in 3D using this Firefox add on: bit.ly/uTGHiW

"studioskylab":http://www.twitter.com/studioskylab We love Macs, but it's hard to forget DOS, Boxer is an awesome free Mac app that lets you relive your DOS playing days ht.ly/8j6XD

"tmoitie":http://www.twitter.com/tmoitie "@Steve_Worsley jQuery vs mootools. Thats a real argument.

PHP Developer - Manchester

2011-09-26T07:00:00+00:00

Skylab are looking for someone who is right at home developing complex high traffic web applications and who can install, support and maintain the server infrastructure they sit upon. Skylab develop on the LAMP stack and are increasingly deploying our sites and applications on Amazon Web Services infrastructure. The candidate would take ownership of this process and be responsible for being the architect behind cloud-based infrastructure solutions. Core skills include: * PHP 5 * MySQL * Javascript * System Admin * AWS (Amazon Web Services) experience desirable Experience with PHP frameworks, content management systems and e-commerce platforms is essential, preferably: * Symfony (Doctrine & Propel) * CodeIgniter * Zend Knowledge of managing servers and other online infrastructure will be required, in particular: * Linux * Apache * Domains and DNS * Amazon Web Services & Cloud Hosting including EC2, RDS, S3, Cloud Front, etc. * Subversion / Git Ideally the candidate will have experience architecting infrastructure behind high traffic sites using the following techniques: * Load testing / stress testing * Configuring load balanced servers / applications * Performance tuning and caching systems such as APC, Varnish, Squid etc. * Server security * Log file analysis & trouble-shooting Competitive salary, depending on experience. Please tell us why you want to work at Skylab and what you can add to our offering of strategy, innovation and digital solutions. Please send your application and CV to "careers@studioskylab.com":mailto:careers@studioskylab.com. Good luck..... and no agencies please.

Skylab Get Social

2011-07-04T10:17:00+00:00

We were really pleased to see such a fantastic turnout for the second annual Social Media Day event in Manchester. The event was organised by Skylab, hosted by MD, Nigel Collier and supported by MediaTank, Melbourne Hosting and 24-7 North. Over 130 people packed out the Merchant Room at the Castlefield Rooms in Manchester to watch presentations from four fantastic speakers. The night kicked off with a fascinating insight into an award-winning Twitter campaign by Greater Manchester Police @gmp24_1. Amanda Coleman and Kevin Hoy explained the background and the issues they faced during this pioneering project, including criticism from mainstream media who didn’t think policeman could tweet while doing their jobs effectively. Next up was Simon Plumb Social Media Lead for @bbcnwt who took us behind the scenes at NorthWest Tonight to show how they use social media to great effect to encourage audience interaction. Fantastic engagement stats prove the strategy is working. Simon also revealed that Gordon Burns is an avid tweeter sometimes tweeting as the show goes live on air! The fabulous Christina McDermott @MissCay entertained the audience with tales from her popular blog Little Red Courgette, emphasising the importance of personality and finding your own voice, creating good content and revealing how she even met her fiance through social networking! Rounding off the night in style was Victoria Stansfield, Digital Delivery Manager for Manchester City Football Club @mcfc, who revealed that the primary aim of their strategy is engaging with fans in a personal, friendly and inclusive way across various platforms. She also explained the importance of engaging with those who post negative comments. There was a chance for questions before the big prize draw with the opportunity to win prizes ranging from a signed Man City team photo to an autographed picture of Gordon Burns with the latter proving to be the most popular! We hope you enjoyed the night as much as we did and look forward to seeing you all again next year. You can find out more about the event by visiting the website "http://www.smdaymcr.co.uk":http://www.smdaymcr.co.uk. If you have any suggestions for next year’s event please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you at "hello@studioskylab.com":hello@studioskylab.com.

Skylab Win Big Chip!

2011-06-27T07:53:00+00:00

Manchester based innovation studio Skylab are celebrating the win of their second Big Chip Award. The Big Chip 2011 ‘Best Not for Profit’ Award was awarded to Skylab for the Swimfit project. The Swimfit website and web app were developed for British Swimming as an extension to the swimming.org site. Offering a free online coaching tool for swimmers of varying abilities the project is designed to increase participation in swimming by providing a structured approach to maintaining health, shaping up, improving fitness and developing competitive swimming skills. Big Chip judges were impressed by the project’s simplicity, ease of use and quality of its content all of which have been endorsed by the strength of response the project has generated from its target audience. Commenting on the dramatic success that Swimfit has achieved, British Swimming’s Web Manager, Barry Wade said, "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 Skylab's 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. This is a ten-fold rise in traffic giving us concrete results in our drive to get Britain healthier as people engage with swimming." Speaking after the awards, Skylab Managing Director Nigel Collier congratulated his team, “We are especially pleased to have won the award given the tough competition but hopefully this demonstrates Skylab's ability to deliver industry acclaimed success for not-for-profit organisations, as well as commercial clients. The award highlights the fact that innovation is at the very heart of what Skylab is all about and it also underlines Skylab's digital expertise in websites, apps and social media within the sports sector. The team worked incredibly hard on the project and have a strong commitment both to British Swimming and British Gas. The team are the real heroes and the award is a great success that they can be rightly proud of for a very long time to come." This is the second time Skylab have been recognised for their work by Big Chip, they were previously awarded the prestigious Anthony Wilson ‘Modern Original’ award in 2008. Check out the "Swimfit website":http://www.swimming.org/swimfit or get involved and sign-up for the "Swimfit web app":http://www.swimming.org/myswimfit/!

Skylab Support the Northern Lights Programme

2010-07-07T06:15:00+00:00

Being a friendly kind of bunch here at Skylab and always keen to help out, we’ve been doing just that with Phoebe Quayle supporting her on a work experience placement at Skylab. Phoebe graduated with a 1st Class Honours degree in Media Production and was keen to work in digital but like many graduates needed to get on the first step of the ladder. Skylab support the Northern Lights programme which Phoebe had taken part in. Northern Lights is a multi-platform media production course and gave Phoebe a real taste for digital. She came to Skylab keen to gain further experience and although we didn’t have any vacancies she was able to shadow members of staff and get a real understanding of how a digital agency worked. (She also made a great cup of tea - always vital in a busy studio). In turn we helped her with job applications, interview technique and gave her the benefit of our experience. We are delighted to say that Phoebe has now been offered a great contract with a Manchester agency and although we’ll miss her we wish her all the luck in the world! If you are looking for an industry placement - we are always happy to help. Get in touch with us at hello@studioskylab.com or on twitter "@studioskylab":http://twitter.com/studioskylab

A big thank you to everyone who attended Manchester’s first Social Media Day

2010-07-06T11:04:00+00:00

Thank you to everyone who attended Manchester’s first Social Media Day on 30th June 2010. This inaugural Social Media Day was celebrated across the world, across time zones and included countless pieces of media produced from more than 30,000 tweets to hundreds of photos to many live streams and videos to showcase what each different community was doing and connect it with the rest of the world. Manchester’s very own social media day was organised by the team at Skylab in just over a week and all done through social media. Speakers, guests, and even gifts for the prize draw were gathered through Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin (and a few phone calls but don’t tell anyone ..) We ended up with a fantastic night which we hope educated, connected and brought the social media community of Manchester together. We even managed to hook up with two other Mashable events one in Portugal http://www.smdayportugal.com and the other in Sacramento, California in the good old US of A! And we even managed to make the ABC news! h2. Skylab make ABC news... Thanks to our speakers who included: "@manairport":http://twitter.com/manairport - Manchester Airport manage 20 million passengers a year. John Greenway let us in on the secrets of their strategy in getting so many followers and how the recent volcanic ash problems have shown that the immediacy of social media can really enhance customer experience. "@realfreshtv":http://twitter.com/realfreshtv - Chi-chi Ekweozor was joined by Rick Guttridge, MD of Smoking Gun PR "@smokinggunpr":http://twitter.com/smokinggunpr in a short 'armchair chat' to share how their client Panda Licorice decided on what social media platforms to use and also how they used blogger outreach to reach important influencers. (And thanks to Rick for the free licorice!) "@yourstylist":http://twitter.com/yourstylist - Martine Alexander is one of the North West's most sought-after fashion stylists with an established client base including time-precious professionals and high-profile celebrities. Martine gave an engaging talk about her twitter use but we still want to know the answer to the question - which celebs won’t let her tweet about them?! "@thehodge":http://twitter.com/thehodge - Dominic 'The Hodge' Hodgson is the organiser of the Think Visibility conference and works behind the scenes for the gaming and retail sectors. Dom has been tweeting, blogging and generally getting into trouble with social media for a few years and he shared his experiences in one of the funniest presentations we have ever seen. "@nigelcollier":http://twitter.com/nigelcollier - Nigel is a BAFTA Award winning producer and Managing Director of digital studio Skylab. He talked us through the workflow of Skylab's social media process. Thanks to drinks from Melbourne Hosting and to all the fantastic prizes donated including a VM Cloud Server by Melbourne Hosting, Manchester Aiport for 2 free passes to their brand new escape lounge and the 2 tickets to Manchester Confidential Heroes VIP loyalty scheme as well as a great donation of a MediaTank. And a big thank you to all our guests who attended from near and far (with a special mention to "@danielkolodziej":http://twitter.com/danielkolodziej from Hark Consulants in Newcastle and "@mngurl1183":http://twitter.com/mngurl1183 who is writing an MA on the Emerging Role of Social Media and it’s Impact on Leadership) Here’s to the next one! If you have any comments, suggestions or just want to talk about the event please get in touch with us!

Join us in Manchester to celebrate Mashable’s first global Social Media Day

2010-06-28T18:14:00+00:00

Come and help us celebrate Mashable's first global Social Media Day event on Wednesday 30th June at 7pm. At the last count over 525 events are happening on the same day with over 6,500 people taking part in 87 countries around the world. Come and join us to celebrate Manchester's social media scene and be a part of history! The event is being held in The Study, which is upstairs at The Living Room on Deansgate in Manchester. We'll be having a few speakers plus a relaxed networking session over drinks afterwards. Living Room tell us that WiFi is available. We'll be discussing the latest topics, trends and technologies in social media and how it's transforming our personal and professional lives. The event will be hosted by our very own Nigel Collier, Managing Director here at Skylab "@studioskylab":http://twitter.com/studioskylab We're looking to share a blend of social media strategies, insights and success stories from individual users right through to big businesses. Speakers include: * "@manairport":http://twitter.com/manairport - Manchester Airport manage 20 million passengers a year. John Greenway will talking about their strategy in getting so many followers and how the recent volcanic ash problems have shown that the immediacy of social media can really enhance customer experience. * "@realfreshtv":http://twitter.com/realfreshtv - Chi-chi Ekweozor will be joined by Rick Guttridge, MD of Smoking Gun PR "@smokinggunpr":http://twitter.com/smokinggunpr in a short 'armchair chat' to share how luxury car giant Jaguar used social media during their successful 'Manchester Celebrates Jaguar' campaign through the month of May. * "@yourstylist":http://twitter.com/yourstylist - Martine Alexander is one of the North West's most sought-after fashion stylists with an established client base including time-precious professionals and high-profile celebrities. Martine is Chief Stylist of Modele Magazine, a freelance fashion writer and fashion spokesperson on City Talk FM, Heart, Key 103 and the BBC. Martine will be talking about how she uses social media in the fashion world and how it helps her business. h2. Free draw on the night Since we are lovely social people, on the night we will be holding a free big prize draw for anyone that hands in their business card. There are 2 big ticket prizes. * Skylab are celebrating the launch of MediaTank, our white label online broadcasting platform by giving away a free custom installation AND 6 months hosting of up to 100GB of video per month. MediaTank is the perfect platform to help broadcast your business. Visit: "http://www.mediatankhq.com":http://www.mediatankhq.com Follow: "@mediatankhq":http://twitter.com/mediatankhq * Thanks to our friends at Melbourne Hosting, they are giving the opportunity for one person to win an Ultra VM Cloud Server for a year!!! They're also helping to make the event happen with welcome drinks, so get there early! Visit: "http://www.melbourne.co.uk":http://www.melbourne.co.uk Follow: "@melbournehost":http://twitter.com/melbournehost We'll be confirming a couple of other social media speakers in the next couple of days... so register your interest on our "Meetup Page":http://www.meetup.com/Mashable/7529/ and follow us on Twitter to find out more! Tweet your friends, facebook your family, let's try to get our FourSquare swarm badge! It's going to be great! Thanks to "@247North":http://twitter.com/247North for supplying a broadcast HD camera kit so that we can film the event for posterity. We use them all the time to rent broadcast TV kit so look them up! Follow us on Twitter: "@studioskylab":http://twitter.com/studioskylab Search for: #smday #smdaymcr Visit: "http://www.smday.com":http://www.smday.com to find out more about Social Media Day. Call the Skylab team on 0161 877 0004 if you want to volunteer to help or speak at the event.

This Week in Twitter

2010-06-04T22:04:00+00:00

Highlights from Studio Skylab staff on Twitter this week... "jonnyfrodsham":http://www.twitter.com/jonnyfrodsham RT "@neljohnson":http://www.twitter.com/@neljohnson DJ Overdose Mix - Miami bass, electro and early hip-hop, gloriously thugged-out FACT mix - "http://bit.ly/difnLM":http://bit.ly/difnLM - enjoyed it.

"@julieabbo":http://www.twitter.com/julieabbo For all you cat lovers out there - now even your cat can tweet "http://ow.ly/1SXkY":http://ow.ly/1SXkY

"@davidlogan":http://www.twitter.com/davidlogan My god this is funny! Check out the drummer - he has skillz! "http://ow.ly/1T4ay":http://ow.ly/1T4ay (via "@neljohnson":http://www.twitter.com/neljohnson)

"@jameslewis":http://www.twitter.com/jameslewis Apple Prepping Cheap, Cloud-Based Apple TV For War With Google "http://tcrn.ch/9wX1Vf":http://tcrn.ch/9wX1Vf

"@dan_tudor":http://twitter.com/dan_tudor YouTube to stop supporting IE6. Let the flood gates open...

"@r3vok":http://twitter.com/r3vok RT "@thefader":http://twitter.com/thefader: Big Boi, your video for "Shutterbug" belongs in MOMA or the Guggenheim. The SICKNESS. "http://bit.ly/abQPEd":http://bit.ly/abQPEd

"@nigelcollier":http://twitter.com/nigelcollier 3rd Ave is closed for filming of the new pot noodle TV ad. Wonder if we get free pot noodles for putting up with the inconvenience! "http://yfrog.com/gikoahj":http://yfrog.com/gikoahj

Four Square Fever

2010-05-10T11:00:00+00:00

In case you haven’t heard of it - "foursquare":http://foursquare.com/ is the new social media tool that determines your location using GeoTargeting (either via GPS or Tower triangulation). It allows you to share your location with friends. So, when you walk into a bar or restaurant or mall, you "check-in" (foursquare's term) on your mobile device, and your friends will see where you are on a foursquare map. You can earn points and ‘badges’ for checking in frequently or at a certain time. If you raise enough points you can become Mayor of a certain area. Dave - Skylab’s Technical Director - has become Mayor of Skylab much to our Managing Director Nigel’s chagrin. (Nigel is, however Mayor of Worsley). The rest of the team have been at it as well - Kieran is trying hard to be Mayor of Media City and Julie is trying to be Mayoress of the Trafford Centre. Three brands that we think are using foursquare really well include Manchester City, Starbucks and Jimmy Choo. Manchester City recently tried to make a little history at Eastlands by urging fans at the game to check in and break the record of the largest number of people checking in on foursquare. Although they didn't quite make the record (nor did City sadly get coveted fourth place) it was the first attempt of its kind from any sports team around the world "http://foursquare.com/venue/201084":http://foursquare.com/venue/201084. foursquare also have the huge brand Starbucks using its platform to test out an experimental customer rewards program. Frequent Starbucks visitors who check in at retail locations using foursquare will earn customer rewards. Although there’s no financial incentive or free coffee to begin with, customers can unlock the “Barista badge” after five check ins. Jimmy Choo are taking their first steps (sorry) into social media. They are organizing a real-time treasure hunt around London via foursquare. One pair of Jimmy Choo trainers will check in at various locations and those who follow the campaign and are lucky enough to arrive at a venue before the trainers leave will get to pick a pair in the style and size of their choosing. The sneakers are checking in at trendy spots such as Lounge Lover and the Hummingbird Bakery "http:foursquare.com/user/CatchAChoo":http:foursquare.com/user/CatchAChoo. If this has made you want to explore foursquare as part of your digital strategy - please 'check in' with us at Skylab ("http://foursquare.com/venue/236324":http://foursquare.com/venue/236324) - and we'll be happy to help!