Monthly Archive for June, 2010

Carrington Accountancy – Free Offer!

Published on June 30, 2010 in Finance and investment. 0 Comments Tags: Carrington Accountancy, contractor, contractor tax offer, free consultation, free tax advice offer, freelance tax offer, PGC accredited, self-employed.

For a limited time only, Wild West clients Carrington Accountancy are offering non-clients an opportunity to meet with a specialist PCG accredited accountant at their offices in London at no charge. This meeting would normally be charged at £100 + VAT.

To claim the offer, just go to the Carrington Accountancy web site, and click on the box in the centre panel. You’ll be told how to claim your free meeting.

You can use this free 30 minutes to discuss your business or contract, get advice on expenses, or an aspect of UK tax law. Alternatively you may be an employed higher rate taxpayer and require advice on your personal tax position, or Carrington can provide direction on how best to plan efficiently for the next tax year.

Get help on IR35, capital gains or loses, whatever your need is – you can claim 30 valuable minutes to help you understand your tax position better.

Carrington Group (the company offers investment advice and help through Carrington Investments) is a long-standing Wild West client. We designed their new identity, and websites for both of their operating companies.

‘From little acorns’ cover feature in Real Deals

Published on June 29, 2010 in Finance and investment. 0 Comments Tags: branding, Inflexion, investors, logo, private equity, Real Deals, Simon Turner, venture capital, web site.

Inflexion chief executive, Simon Turner

Inflexion Private Equity are longstanding clients of WildWest Design. They began life on a shoestring, but have transformed into one of the industry’s top mid-market players.

It’s largely because of Inflexion that WildWest was able to develop such a strong presence in financial markets.

Now, managing partner Simon Turner is featured in an interview with the private equity trade magazine, Real Deals, about the philosophy behind his firm’s stellar performance.

Our most successful piece of direct marketing, ever

Published on June 23, 2010 in Advertising, Direct and Marketing. 0 Comments Tags: Advertising, Ariba, B2B, branding, direct marketing, direct response, Finance Directors, IT marketing, sales campaign, Times Top 200, wild west design.

70% response? Impossible! (or not?)

This direct marketing campaign happened when B2B eCommerce was the really sexy thing in IT.

Everyone was talking about it, and Ariba were the hot company within this particular technology.

The problem was that Ariba wanted to sell to big companies (Times Top 200, typically), their software was a big ticket item (for large companies it would have been a fairly substantial investment) and Ariba were new to the UK. They also wanted to talk at a high level (Finance Director).

Over a period, we jointly devised the idea of a remote-control car, branded and boxed, and a theme – ‘You can’t have power without control’ – to link the creative to the Ariba product. (‘Control your spending, get better value from every pound you spend’).

WildWest sourced the car via a German company who manufactured in Hong Kong. We sent artwork for them to brand the car, which included the Ariba phone no. We thought we would have done a job even if we got the car onto an office shelf.

The key idea though, (the ‘sting’, if you like) was that the recipient didn’t get the controller for the car until he returned a card – didn’t have to do anything else, though there were options to sign up for a seminar or request a meeting. The controller was similarly packaged and as soon as the card came back, it was sent off.

All this happened pre-Christmas (November) and there was a fantastic response – something like 60% in three days! There was telephone follow up just in case anyone was embarassed or had guidelines that didn’t allow them to accept (we would then send a donation to charity on their behalf). That allowed us to check whether the message had got across, if they remembered Ariba and what business they were in – all were great numbers.

We sent out about 240 of the cars. Final response was over 70%.

It wasn’t cheap. The whole exercise cost about 45k, but that was about the price of a dps in the FT – which was one of the other options considered.

Best of all was that Ariba got six sales direct from the campaign which paid for itself many times over.

CCDC appoint WildWest for design project

Published on June 21, 2010 in Design and Web. 0 Comments Tags: Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, Cambridge University chemistry, CCDC, crystal structures, life science, small molecule structures, website.

CCDC is the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, the world-leading source of expertise on crystal structures for education and commerce. We’re very proud to be working with this influential and important scientific body, which is vital to life sciences, materials science and other development bodies around the world. Our work includes developing a short-hand ‘icon set’ for CCDC products and services, and designing a new web site.

Great design – It all adds up

Published on June 17, 2010 in Brand and identity, Corporate and Design. 1 Comment Tags: branding, Corporate, design, design inspiration, Hatton Grange, identity, start-up, Stock Spirits, venture-backed, web site, website.

No matter whether you are a start-up operation just beginning to make your mark on the business world, or an established company with a brand to protect and enhance, the way you look is important.

And it’s not so good when your website (for example) looks great, but your corporate stationery looks second class. Or your product literature is great, but you’re let down by an outbound email. High quality is important and consistent quality more important still.

At WildWest Design, we’re proud to provide that consistency of approach. Because we’re not the largest of design companies, we have to be incredibly thorough about detail, (as well as providing the inspiration in terms of the big picture), because getting things right – from a business card or a powerpoint presentation to a corporate display or a product launch – really does matter. It means business for our clients, and it means business for us too.

Our bright and confident logo for Hatton Grange, a company providing specialist services to private equity and venture capital companies

Hatton Grange (see the story directly below) are the latest new company to launch with a new identity, new stationery and new website – all designed by WildWest. They join a growing list of companies working with WildWest, either for specific projects or on the basis of regular and frequent needs. You’ll find that list to the right of this story. Scroll down to the ‘Contacts’ section.

In total contrast to this project was our work for central Europe’s largest manufacturer of branded spirits. Stock Spirits neeed to document and control the use of their brand mark over different territories, and to ensure a consistency of approach in terms of corporate websites wherever their products are sold. WildWest designed and implemented a set of ten websites, many with two and three language versions.

Different companies have different requirements, but our award-winning service can be important whether you have specific design needs, or you are concerned to have a service that will reinforce your product and service quality wherever you are visible.

Hatton Grange – Identity, Personality, and Capability Too

Published on June 16, 2010 in Brand and identity, Finance and investment and Web. 0 Comments Tags: branding, Corporate, executive, Hatton Grange, Hector MacAndrew, identity, investment, key skills, media investment, non-executive, portfolio companies, private equity, recruitment, senior managers, Simon Mellor, technology investment, venture capital, web design, wild west design, WildWest design.

The home page from the new Hatton Grange website

If you are involved with or interested in the private equity or venture capital markets, (as an investor, manager or participant) then you’ll need to take a look at WildWest Design’s latest client, Hatton Grange.

Hatton Grange is the creation of Hector Macandrew and his partner Simon Mellor. The company – a very specialist provider of services to investors and entrepreneurs in the media and technology sectors – launched last week with its bright, confident new logo, and a new website too, which you can reach at www.hattongrange.co.uk. Both were designed by WildWest.

Hatton Grange partners with entrepreneurs and investors by building networks in their chosen sectors, advising on transactions, providing executive search and consultancy services to their portfolio companies, and originating deals.

The company also supports senior managers (executive and non-executive) in their search for venture capital and private equity backed opportunities.

In a market where specific expertise, experience or knowledge can sometimes be the key to unlocking multi-million pound opportunities, we’re sure that Hatton Grange has a big future in front of it, and we look forward to supporting the company’s aspirations and growth over the coming years.

Personal Print and the Power of Micro-Marketing

Published on June 2, 2010 in Marketing. 1 Comment Tags: digital print, direct mail, direct marketing, Display, documents, micro-marketing, personalise, presentations, tender submission.

If you are bidding for a big contract, trying to establish your credentials with a potentially large client, or submitting proposals that you want to be remembered, think about the power of micro-marketing.

Today, digital print is sometimes almost indistinguishable from material produced in other ways, and it gives you amazing flexibility too.

The same kind of flexibility that you’re used to when producing a mail-merged letter for example, with the additional credibility of high-quality print.

So you can personalise complete documents, binders, reports, proposals and have them produced as though they were mass-market materials.

We’ve produced these kind of documents for Pricoa Relocation, for Birse Civils and Balfour Beatty. We’ve also produced direct marketing materials personalised to potential clients for Tectura, and personal market research documents for Hardwicke.

Those aren’t the only possibilities either. Outdoor displays, liveried cars or cabs, posters – all can be produced as one-offs or in small volumes to meet your particular requirements.

If you would like to find out more, just get in touch.