Maritz Canada, part of the Maritz global network the largest single source of sales and marketing performance services in the world, has partnered with Pixelcarve to bring a new dimension of engagement and interactivity to the Blackberry / AT&T “A Bold Step Ahead” campaign. Pixelcarve, known for their innovative use of new technologies, worked closely with the Maritz creative team to conceptualize, create and produce multiple media banner ads that encouraged user interaction and promoted brand engagement. The ads featured Flash AS3 interactivity as well as direct social media integration through Twitter. Check out some of the ads below:

Client: Maritz Canada
Media Buy: Starcom
Artwork: Pixel Pushers

Here is a sample of the ad on Wired Magazine. Also applied to 600 x 480 page take-over.

Legendary Toronto real-estate magnate Brad J. Lamb has moved to a brand new building, featuring 3 interactive displays designed by Pixelcarve. Working with Johnson Chou, who designed the new space and conceptualized the project, the screens present new and resale properties in an innovative and revolutionary way. Users walking by his office on the street can use 1 of the 3 touchpad controllers to navigate through a comprehensive listing of properties, seeing high resolution images, location, description, price, agent, etc. It allows Brad Lamb’s office to showcase their properties in a far more interesting and comprehensive format than the usual clipboard.

Feel free to stop by his new office at 786 King St. W. Toronto to try it out.

Gotstyle

But knowing how to put yourself together is not just for celebrities, so Gotstyle needed an effective and entertaining way to communicate a variety of fashion messages to every guy – an audience known for their dislike of shopping and short attention spans (unless of course it’s the 3rd OT period of a playoff game!).

Working with owner Melissa Austria, Pixelcarve envisioned and executed a short video blog, filmed in HD, in the style of a TV show. Each segment identifies a different essential for every man’s wardrobe, and how best to represent it. Packed with incredibly useful tips and tricks, it’s also short enough that guys will actually watch it.

The videos are promoted on Gotstyle’s blog, as well as through targeted and attention-grabbing eblast campaigns.

Melissa Austria, owner of Gotstyle: The Menswear Store, says “Pixelcarve were one of the first that I told about Gotstyle before I created it. From the very beginning they were able to put together a visual image of what I wanted my brand to look and feel like through the website, eblasts, business cards, postcards, etc. Pretty much anything that had to do with the brand they “got it”. Now as they go to the next level, they’ve brought me there as well with digital multimedia, big concept advertising ideas and full interactive campaigns that are rapidly growing my business.”

Check out Gotstyle’s first video blog, and let us know what you think.

STRATEGY
The strategy was to create a website that made the user feel as if they were in the Avenue Road showroom. It would feature video, photography and intuitive interaction with product. The website needed to maintain the beautiful design features Avenue Road is known for, while supporting functions and features conventionally found only on websites not capable of premium aesthetics. I.E. xHTML sites rather than Flash sites.

EXECUTION
Using Flash ActionScript 3 technologies, Pixelcarve designed, built and executed a beautiful, full-screen, indexable, searchable and categorized online catalogue, the likes of which has never been achieved before ( www.avenue-road.com ). Containing thousands of products, it supports all major conventional catalogue functions while enhancing it with fluid navigation, high resolution photography and video, browser intuition and unparalleled user interaction. The website is essentially an interactive experience, supporting live response feedback (the website knows what you’re doing and helps you do it more efficiently), bread crumbs, and Unique Page Identifiers (UPI – every page and product is uniquely identified within the browsers address bar). Deployed behind the site is a fully custom content management system (CMS) that allows Avenue Road to add, edit and delete product information & images, or import large databases with millions of data fields.

Additionally, Pixelcarve launched a number of micro-evite sites and eBlast campaigns to promote Avenue Road’s overall brand, collections and events.

IMPACT
The micro campaigns contributed to several high-profile and successful events, capturing the attention of the industry and the media. With the launch of the new website, Avenue Road has seen a 350% increase in web traffic, resulting in a substantial amount of positive feedback from users, unprecedented product inquires and sales, and an industry leading web presence.

Visit their site at: http://www.avenue-road.com

If you would like to know how we can help you, talk to us.

Founded in 1976, Tour East Holidays had grown from a niche Asia travel wholesaler to one of the nation’s largest, most diverse and fully integrated full-service travel companies. However, their brand had limited awareness in the mainstream North American market. Even though they operate in offices worldwide, with over 165,000 trips arranged annually, they were slowly losing market share to increasing competition. Over the past few years, more and more specialized travel agencies have tried to capitalize on this billion dollar market, leaving Tour East Holidays looking for a new strategy to stay ahead.

STRATEGY
With the industry growing more competitive, Tour East Holidays needed to have a defined mission to position themselves as best in their field.  Pixelcarve’s strategy was to focus the Tour East brand as the premium and preferential provider of East Asia tours. The goals were to amplify brand awareness and increase overall revenue, as well as appeal to a more sophisticated and wealthy clientele to increase sales of tours with higher profit margins.

EXECUTION
The campaign needed to execute in a number of mediums in both English and French. First, Pixelcarve launched several print campaigns using the “Imagine Asia” tagline. This included magazines, newspapers, brochures and marketing collateral, as well as an extensive amount of local tour advertising in traditional and online media. Pixelcarve then built and launched a brand new website ( www.toureast.com ) that met modern web standards, supported multiple languages including English and French, was aesthetically superior to the competition, heavily Search Engine Optimized, allowed online booking, captured new traveller information for continuous e-marketing and drip campaigns, supported tour specialists through an online chat application, and had extensive program details with interactive videos and photos.  Visuals speak louder than words in the travel industry, so a large variety of hand selected photography was incorporated into all media, including a number of TV spots.

Visit their site at: http://www.toureast.com

If you would like to know how we can help you, talk to us.

Game-Monitor.com first launched in August 2004 with a very basic “designed by a programmer” look.  Its purpose is to give gamers the ability to search through servers efficiently and effectively.  It also allows game server hosts to manage their data, track users stats and use multiple tools to improve traffic to their servers for a small monthly fee.  Prior to launching, Game-Monitor.com had no brand positioning at all but it still attracted a good core base of users through referrals.

INSIGHT
Our goal was to present Game-Monitor.com as the heavyweight in the realm of game servers management websites.  The strategy behind Game-Monitor.com is to attract new subscribers and visitors while maintaining existing clients and users.  We concluded that Game-Monitor.com needed a professional, yet edgy redesigned website and logo that will speak well to its clients and future prospects.  Image is everything, and with a competitive industry, online user trends are being decided based on first impressions and the functions, along with the price point.   

IDEA
A new design that maintained its focus on the purpose on the website was implemented.  Researching and asking users what they like most, as well as tracking the user patterns of the website, we focused on these key things to ensure Game-Monitor.com has a brand positioning in the market.  We also took the complicated search functions and simplified it to avoid confusions for new users, but also utilized an advanced tab that can be defaulted on visit for members that are already used to the more complex search engine.   

RESULTS
Game-Monitor.com is now among the leading game server management companies out there, and is now known for the most cutting edge in terms of easy functionality and the fastest search queries in its market.  Within 4 months time, traffic for the website has gone from 4.1 million impressions to steady 6.3 million impressions monthly, and 8% increase in paid subscribers.  The new brand positioning and design for Game-Monitor.com has also increased their revenue 22% which means our creative approach has been flawlessly accomplished.

Visit the site at: http://www.game-monitor.com

If you would like to know how we can help you, talk to us.

INSIGHT
It was our intent to ensure that LUXE Destination Weddings doesn’t fall in the same category as either a travel company or a wedding planning company, but into an entirely separate category of their own.  We had to promote LUXE Destination Weddings as the unique, exotic, “dream wedding” for any couples, but specifically for the young affluent couples.  We determined the best way to convey to the consumers the brand image of LUXE is through word-by-mouth, print and web advertisements, marketing collateral, and an upscale website.

IDEA
“A Dream” is the key.  We expressed an exotic and warm experience through a full-screen website, stunning print collaterals, and advertisements.  A full screen website not like other wedding sites in its market leaves people talking.  Partnership with Wedding Bells to host a contest was also deployed to generate more traffic to the website.  Users’ average time spent on the website has greatly increased as a result, as people take the time to experience the lush aesthetics and dynamic visuals of the site.

Visit the site at: http://www.luxedestinationweddings.com

If you would like to know how we can help you, talk to us.

INSIGHT
Its steady event figures has left CSCS hitting a glass ceiling, and a public impression of a non-competitive and trashy event.  Plus, having events far away from the main core of the city of tuners, it makes it very inaccessible for some to travel such a distance to attend or participate in the events.  We made a decision that the best way to accomplish our goals is to re-brand CSCS into a more serious competitive racing series, leaving the typical half naked girl in the flyers behind us. 

IDEA
“Prove it at the tracks…” is what we enforced in the brand and we dare not take it lightly.  Keeping the racing the tracks as the focus not only helps the brand image, but sends a definite message out that racing should not be done on the streets.  An overhaul of the media kits, marketing collaterals, brand positioning and website took place to create an image that is professional and serious, but also exciting.

RESULTS
The launch of the new campaign took place early 2007 and since then it has successfully influenced the image of the Canadian Sport Compact Racing Series.  By 2008, there has been a 7% increase in vendor and exhibitor support, 10% increase in spectators (30,738 to 33,000), 5% increase in Drag Racing competitors, 20% increase in Show & Shine competitors, 14% increase in Time Attack competitors, and 25% increase in Drift Competitors.  As well, website traffic has been at an all time high with a 21% increase in web traffic.

Visit the site at: http://www.cscs.ca

If you would like to know how we can help you, talk to us.