Mediamix: Modern English; Uniform; 422.tv
MANCHESTER-based digital agency Modern English has launched a maths app after working with students at Bolton College.
Maths Everywhere is intended to help users’ maths skills by explaining everyday concepts – such as fuel costs to drive certain distances – with a series of learning activities.
Bolton College won £60,000 to develop the app after triumphing in a competition run by the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) and Maths4Us, which works to raise awareness about the importance of maths.
Pat Harrison, director of 14-19 learning at Bolton College, said: “As one of the core subjects here at the college, there is a strong emphasis on maths and I’m in no doubt that this app is going to inject some fun into what is a stereotypically dry subject.
“By helping to improve maths skills through day-to-day problem solving, we hope it will encourage the study of maths at a higher level, providing adults with greater confidence in their numerical skills at home and at work, while giving young people a vital grounding as they embark on their career.”
Bruce Thomas, director of Modern English, said: “We’ve thoroughly enjoyed working with Bolton College on this project and we’re very proud to have created an innovative and exciting piece of educational software.”
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LIVERPOOL marketing agency Uniform has been hired by top end music system manufacturer Linn to help promote its new technology.
Glasgow-based Linn is launching its Klimax Exakt system, which retails at £50,000 and claims to eliminate the sources of noise, distortion and interference that exist in the traditional analogue hi-fi systems.
Uniform has made a series of short films to explain the technology behind Exakt in a simple way.
Angus Lawrie, marketing director at Linn, said: “Uniform took a very complicated subject matter, explaining the technical detail of Exakt technology, and communicated this very clearly – creating a very simple, easy to understand film which was effective in all of our markets from the US, across Europe and into Asia.
“The simplicity of the messaging allowed for easy translation – critical for our retailer conferences, consumer events and online presence.”
Laurie Jones, creative director of film at Uniform said: “This is an amazing opportunity. Linn is a company of innovative engineers with a real passion for music. We had to understand the benefits of Exakt and work from there, breaking down the story into an easy to follow film that could work across different continents, which is similar to our briefs with Unilever.”
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MANCHESTER-based television and film post production company, 422.tv, has been chosen to produce the latest United Utilities weather idents for Granada and Border TV.
The firm, commissioned by Manchester marketing agency One MCR, made six idents, co-ordinating all animation, post-production and production. The work also included composing musical strings and sound design in-house to bring the animations to life.
422.tv’s managing director, David Jackson, said: “The opportunity to handle the United Utilities weather idents draws upon the breadth of original skills within the company and the advantage we offer given our access to the latest and highest quality technology. We were working to a specific brief that incorporated more greater camera movement and animation into the ten second versions, whilst creating a greater three-dimensional look visually. It’s a great example of how we work with agencies as an extension of their creative team to deliver the results to clients.”
Creative director Pete Johnston said: “Working with Rob and the team at 422.tv was an absolute pleasure from start to finish on this project. 422.tv put together a really talented team and used all the top-end kit to get the animations looking beautiful, on time and on budget. What resulted were very happy clients all round and I can’t recommend this team enough.”
