Our thoughts

Women for Women International

Thursday, 2 February, 2012

Categories: Rufus Leonard

We've got some pretty special people here at Rufus Leonard and our resourcing manager Anni is no different. Anni is involved with Women for Women International, a charity which helps female survivors of war rebuild thier lives by teaching them new skills and providing education. Have a read here ab...

Facebook afterlife

Monday, 16 January, 2012

Categories: Digital

There are apparently two things that are certain in life. You live and then you die.For me there is one other certainty - Facebook. It's an integral part of my life, from when I wake up until I go to bed. So what about when I or any of the other 800 million current users die? As it’s so import...

The rise of the chocolatier

Tuesday, 20 December, 2011

Categories:

London has many brand new, boutique chocolatiers and confectioneries which have truly unique and exciting products. Perhaps something for your Christmas shopping list - either for yourself or a last minute gift. Here are our Rufus favorites. Hope and Greenwood Mrs Kibble's Olde Sweet Shoppe Paul ...

From digital to physical - the eBay pop-up store

Thursday, 15 December, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

Opening earlier this month for a short time, we went down to eBay's experimental pop-up shop on Dean Street in London, just off popular shopping mile, Oxford Street. The store had on display the website's 200 bestsellers, each with their own QR barcode. Punters will pay on their smart phones by scan...

Image search tools you should have tried

Thursday, 3 November, 2011

Categories: Digital

Here are some links to idee labs, a cool directory to serach for images. Here you can search by colour, find random combinations of images and even upload an image to find out where it is being used on the web. http://labs.ideeinc.com/

QR codes & cheese on toast

Thursday, 1 September, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

Yesterday, the inventor of the Flip video camera, Jonathan Kaplan, opened the Melt, the first of a proposed chain of cheese-on toast restaurants, San Francisco. Different to other fast food restaurants, you can order and pay for your cheese sarnie online or through your smartphone. The confirmation...

Apple through the ages

Thursday, 25 August, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

With Steve Jobs stepping down from his role as Apple CEO, Brand Republic has been bitten by the nostalgia bug and looked at Apple’s marketing history. Naturally a few of the iconic campaigns are in there – we think we even spotted Masood from Eastenders in the first iPod ad circa 2001! ...

From Russia with advice

Monday, 15 August, 2011

Categories: Technology

Here’s an interesting app being used in Moscow to help inform drivers about road safety. The idea behind the app is even though there are 100s of accidents every single day of the week on the very roads we travel that claim lives we very rarely see these accidents and by the time we are drivin...

Were the riots 'targeted free shopping'?

Thursday, 11 August, 2011

Categories: Brand

Brand Republic explores ‘why brands may be culpable for this week's rioting, and how they can play a role in improving society’. It looks at the most-hit places during the riots, including JD Sports, Argos, Currys, Foot Locker, and Carphone Warehouse, hinting that the latest smartphone ...

Exploiting social media for good

Thursday, 11 August, 2011

Categories: Digital

Social media has had some bad press over the past few days with calls to take Twitter and Blackberry’s Messenger service offline to try and quell the spread of rioting. But it’s social media that is now helping to fight back. The UK Metropolitan Police on Tuesday opened up their stream o...

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Teens 'addicted' to smartphones

Friday, 5 August, 2011

Categories: Technology

According to Brand Republic, Britons are "addicted" to smartphones with over a quarter of all adults and nearly half of all 12 to 15-year-olds owning one, according to research from Ofcom. One in three adults and 60% of teenagers who own smartphones said they were "highly addicted" to them, accordi...

AOL launches 'Editions' tablet magazine

Wednesday, 3 August, 2011

Categories: Digital, Technology

It is the latest in a string of personalised ’magazine’ apps designed specifically for tablets, is AOL's 'Editions' Editions, works in a similar way to one of our favourite iPad apps, Flipboard, which aggregates content from a variety of sources.Content from AOL-owned properties, includ...

We create new campaign for Bank of Scotland

Monday, 1 August, 2011

Categories: Rufus Leonard

Bank of Scotland has just launched a new integrated advertising campaign to bring to life its brand promise, "With You All The Way" by capturing moments of everyday Scottish life through the eyes of a customer. The campaign, created by us, is also offering people the opportunity to nominate someon...

Tags: bank of scotland, campaign

What does $114.5 trillion look like?

Thursday, 28 July, 2011

Categories:

With the USA’s unfunded liabilities standing at $114.5 trillion, it’s hard to comprehend how much money that really is. Step forward the people at wtfnoway.com who have shown the sheer scale of the problem by looking at what $114.5 trillion would look like if you stacked $100 bills. It...

Do Facebook ads work?

Tuesday, 26 July, 2011

Categories: Digital

Facebook’s already serving more than 50 billion display ads per month and is on track to serve 1 trillion display ads for the year. So what value do brands get who advertise through social media? According to recent research by Mintel, as reported by Brand Republic , over 60% of social ...

Computer hacking - a history

Thursday, 21 July, 2011

Categories: Technology

Computer hacking, where did it all start? Well, here’s the answer, thanks to a cool infographic from Digital Trends. Did you know that virtual hacking schools in China generate $40 million of revenue a year? Or that last year the Pentagon spent $6 billion on computer security? Those and other...

Fake Apple stores in China

Thursday, 21 July, 2011

Categories: Brand

I’m sure you’ve all seen your fair share of fake goods at the local market or on holiday perhaps. Knock-off watches, handbags and t-shirts are everywhere it seems, but ever heard of a fake shop? That’s right, as reported on birdabroad blog, China has seen fake Apple stores popping...

Rufus Leonard presents - The softer side of digital

Friday, 15 July, 2011

Categories: Rufus Leonard

Where The Yorkshire Grey, 2 Theobalds Road, London, WC1X 8PN When Tuesday 2nd August, 6:30pm onwards Event overview In our 'always on' world it's hard sometimes to take a step back and work out what on earth is going on around us. But here at Rufus Leonard we recognise that finding ...

Tags: digital, event

Google+ to hit 10million users

Thursday, 14 July, 2011

Categories: Digital

The Daily Telegraph reports that Google is on the brink of securing its 10 millionth user, just two weeks after it launched. Although Google has not yet released official usage figures for the service, The Telegraph suggests that demand has been high and some of the most popular users of the servic...

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Android dominates UK market

Thursday, 14 July, 2011

Categories: Technology

Figures, from consumer research outfit Kantar Worldpanel, show that Android has gained a massive amount of market share in the past 12 months. Android has surged from 10.7% of UK smartphones in June 2010 to a dominant 45.2% in June 2011, thanks to the popularity of phones from the likes of HTC and ...

McDonald's announces 'eco uniforms'

Monday, 11 July, 2011

Categories:

McDonald’s has announced that staff will wear recycled uniforms designed by British designer Wayne Hemmingway from next year. McDonald’s is also working with Worn Again, which specialises in “upcycling” clothing and materials to make new products. Worn Again will help McDon...

Screenmedia – Offline meets Online

By Jason Creak

Friday, 8 July, 2011

Categories: Digital, Technology

Online media and retailing have been top of the growth charts for some years now. But there is another media and retailing story that is starting to catch up – Screenmedia or so-called Digital Out Of Home (DOOH). Screenmedia covers all the those big, bright screens seen in air...

Facebook and Skype announce partnership

Thursday, 7 July, 2011

Categories: Digital

News today that Facebook has announced a partnership with Skype to offer video chat features to the social media behemoth. The deal means that Facebook's 750 million users will now be able to connect with friends via video and the tie-up is expected to rival Google’s video offering called Hang...

Where and when do you shop online?

Thursday, 7 July, 2011

Categories: Digital

Another day and another infographic. This one is pretty good though as it showcases UK online shopping habits. For example, did you know that by next year 10% of all spending will be done online, or that the average Brit spends £71 a month online, or that the peak time for online shopping at ...

A map of UK broadband

Wednesday, 6 July, 2011

Categories: Technology

Communications regulator Ofcom have produced a new map showing the differing speeds of Britain’s broadband network. The map shows there is still a massive difference in speeds up and down the country, unsurprisingly the fastest is London but Wales and Scotland are far behind, with th...

Why follow brands online?

Thursday, 30 June, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

It’s safe to assume that the majority of brands now have an official presence in the social sphere, usually on Facebook and Twitter and the plethora of other social sites. It’s also safe to say that consumers like to know about the latest and greatest from their favourite brands. But wh...

Will these brands disappear in 2012?

Wednesday, 29 June, 2011

Categories: Brand

Business Insider reports that household brand names including Nokia, Sony Pictures, Saab and Sony Ericsson may disappear by next year due to downturn in sales. Nokia, still holds the market share for smartphone users globally, but the rise in uptake of the iOS, Blackberry and Android operating syst...

Big brands get digital

Friday, 24 June, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

The old rumour that big brands ‘don’t get digital’ appears to have been quashed.According to the Grocery Manufacturers Association and PricewaterhouseCoopers, brand owners like Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills and Coca-Cola are increasingly leveraging digital tools to engage consum...

Google rolls out 'search by image'

Thursday, 23 June, 2011

Categories:

Google have just rolled out ‘Search By Image’ which, funnily enough, lets you begin your search with an image. Google will then tell you what it is and show similar images.Search By Image is available now at images.google.com or via the “Images” tab in the left-side menu on G...

User Experience is the key

Wednesday, 22 June, 2011

Categories: Digital

Here’s a blog post from Marc Ruxin who comments who technology has challenged the traditional ‘creative’ model in agencies. He argues that while Mad Men indicates that the power is in the hands of the ‘creative types’, today’s increased channels, where consumer pr...

TV, the old, reliable friend

Monday, 20 June, 2011

Categories: Technology

In a joint study between BBDO and Microsoft in the USA, psychological archetypes, better known as models of a person or behaviour we applied to personalities to devices we use everyday to determine which device is relevant for certain types of advertising. They say the study, ‘set out to...

A drop of nostalgia for Wimbledon

Thursday, 16 June, 2011

Categories: Digital

Summer is nearly here and Wimbledon is right around the corner. Cue a number of brands jumping on the back of the Championships in a bid to get their name associated with the famous SW19 tournament.Interesting then that, to promote the finals being broadcast in 3D, Sony has parodied its own infamous...

The Internet is a human right

Friday, 10 June, 2011

Categories: Technology

Here’s a nice article from Good.is which details a report from the UN declaring Internet access should be deemed a human right. The report states that “the Internet has become a key means by which individuals can exercise their right to freedom and expression." The article makes the poi...

Exploiting the 'social surplus'

By Adam Croxen

Thursday, 9 June, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

Collaboration and crowd sourcing aren’t new concepts, both on and offline co-collaboration has been happening for years with the notion of bringing individual knowledge, talent, skills and understanding together to produce a result which solves an initial problem or improves the current state ...

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts

By Libby Penn

Thursday, 9 June, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

Harnessing the knowledge of the community through collaborative creation (aka co-creation) to build your brand has real commercial benefits whether done online or off. Co-creation environments provide the opportunity for brands to interact with consumers, building arenas where the consumer can intro...

A model crowd-sourcing campaign?

Thursday, 9 June, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

So we know about crowd-sourcing and the brands which have utilised this platform to help improve their product, service or experience. So are there any downsides to using this form of communication with customers? The answer is most definitely yes. The internet and in particular social media has op...

Co-creation - think small

By Iain Millar

Thursday, 9 June, 2011

Categories:

As engagements with consumers are increasingly led by people rather than marketers, brands are having to find ways to be smarter and find common ground with their audience. This stands true not only for their communications but also for other experiences, products and services. Marketing has always...

Good ideas come from anywhere

By Pearse McCabe

Thursday, 9 June, 2011

Categories:

We define co-creation as a collaborative workflow involving end-users to identify opportunities and solve problems. It occurs in a facilitated environment and leverages the collectives’ knowledge, through peer to peer collaboration, to deliver relevant ideas and insight for our clients. ...

NFC looking to bring in $50bn

Tuesday, 7 June, 2011

Categories: Technology

According to IT Pro, near field communications, or NFC as it is being widely know, will see mobile contactless payments bring in $50 billion (£30.4 billion) worldwide between now and 2014. This is the conclusion of a study released today by Juniper Research, which claimed global touch-and-pay...

Sea-change ahead

By Freddie Baveystock

Friday, 3 June, 2011

Categories: Brand

A journalist recently asked me what the long-term impact of the financial crisis on the younger generation is likely to be. Watching All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace, the new series from cult documentary-maker Adam Curtis, I keep asking myself this fascinating question. In common with c...

L'hôtel interactif...

Friday, 3 June, 2011

Categories: Digital, Technology

Located in the up-and-coming section of south Bastille in Paris, the new HI Matic Hotel has few staff. Rather, it promotes guest interaction and knowledge-sharing via technology. The hotel is hooked up a single network, and interconnected touchscreens are located throughout. Visitors can order food,...

A Facebook Festival

Friday, 3 June, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

The Coca Cola Village in Israel is a summer holiday resort designed for teenagers finishing their school years. Now into its fourth year, residents are provided with RFID bracelets to help them share their experiences on Facebook. Teens are able to put a digital ‘like’ on their cho...

The Museum of you

Thursday, 2 June, 2011

Categories: Digital, Technology

An incredibly cool, well executed use of Facebook by Intel. The Museum of Me is a tool created to display your Facebook life in a virtual museum. It pulls together all of you data from facebook, then presents it in a video which sees you touring a museum looking at your friends, photos, videos and ...

Aurasma

Tuesday, 31 May, 2011

Categories: Technology

Here’s a video from the BBC talking about the new Aurasma application, which uses augmented in a different way to what we have seen previously. Now when you point your phone or tablet at a film poster, you can watch the trailer on your device. If you highlight a logo, an advert will auto...

Twitter becomes a mainstream news platform

Wednesday, 25 May, 2011

Categories: Digital, Technology

According to Hitwise, last weekend, Twitter experienced its highest ever volume of online traffic on Saturday, accounting for 0.54% of all UK Internet visits that day - or 1 in every 184 Internet visits in the UK. Twitter is surely now the fastest, if not the best, source of news from around the gl...

Less is more

Tuesday, 24 May, 2011

Categories: Brand

An interesting piece from Graham Button who urges brands to use the infamous 19th Century proverb, ‘less is more’, to improve service and boost profits. It’s obviously a trade off argument between consumers demanding variety, but not having the time to choose, or being ‘numb...

Eurovision by numbers

Friday, 20 May, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

After the spectacle that is Eurovision at the weekend, we thought we would put togther an infographic for you to digest with the main talking points from Düsseldorf, Germany - just in case you missed it. So it's congrats to Azerbaijan, well done to Jedward and hard luck to the Blue boys. Have...

Aggregrating notifications

Thursday, 19 May, 2011

Categories:

Here's a novel idea we came across that would certainly make our lives easier when dealing with all those notifications you get on your iPhone / iPad. The blog, iosnotifications shows an idea of how future versions of Apple’s iOS should deal with notifications, basically giving the suggestion...

McDonald's increase in-store technology

Monday, 16 May, 2011

Categories:

We came across some interesting news on MarketingWeek today as McDonald’s is planning to install touchscreen technology and swipe cards in its UK restaurants. The move is said to update how customers order food and improve its use of customer data. Changing the traditional McDonald&rsqu...

Apple now most valuable brand

Monday, 9 May, 2011

Categories: Brand

Apple has become the most valuable in the world, jumping two places above IBM and Google. According to Millward Brown’s annual ‘BrandZ’ survey, which combines attitudes to companies, market valuations, analyst reports and risk profiles to arrive at a brand's value, Apple’s b...

Are you a Mac or PC?

Thursday, 5 May, 2011

Categories:

We’ve all seen the Mac vs PC adverts made famous by Apple, and now it seems you can see the differences between Mac and PC users, right down to the types of food they eat, art they like and media they consume. Hunch Blog features a cool little infographic on the subject, with the results take...

Free beer in the summer? Sounds good to us...

Wednesday, 4 May, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital, Technology

Budweiser is launching ‘The Budweiser Ice Cold Index app’, an e-voucher app that will offer consumers special deals based on the temperature outside if the temperature rises above 20°C, consumers will be able to claim a free pint of Budweiser. The app will also offer money off when i...

Collaborative Consumption

By Clare Bennett

Wednesday, 4 May, 2011

Categories: Technology

Collaborative consumption is giving us all the chance to become micropreneurs. Technology is increasingly enabling us to make money from our time and skills and possessions, with the agreeable side effect of strengthening our communities. Technology is also enabling trust between consumers. We are ...

Citizen Tweetalism

Tuesday, 3 May, 2011

Categories: Digital

Citizen journalism isn’t a new concept. And now it seems citizen ‘tweeting’ is just as able to cause a stir around the world. As U.S. Special Forces converged on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abottabad, Pakistan, IT consultant and resident Sohaib Athar tweeted about what ...

Facebook Deals - putting the shivers up Groupon?

Tuesday, 26 April, 2011

Categories: Digital, Technology

Today has seen the long-anticipated launch of Facebook Deals which has had a landing page (currently unavailable!) since March 2010, but few details. Not to be confused with the old Deals for Facebook Places (to be renamed CheckIn Deals - also under redevelopment), this is a location-based daily de...

An Easter break

Thursday, 21 April, 2011

Categories:

We’ve hit the wall and decided to take a break for Easter. But never fear, you can still keep up with the musings of the Wiki Wall on the Rufus Leonard Twitter feed @rufusleonard or even on our Facebook page.Have a great Easter.

Is Apple Big Brother?

Thursday, 21 April, 2011

Categories: Technology

Some interesting news for readers with an iPhone. As reported by the Guardian, It has been discovered that Apple's device keeps track on the user, wherever they go, saving this information to a file which is subsequently transferred to the user’s computer when synced. This opens up the privac...

Introducing the Rufus Leonard iPhone app

By Rudi Hoppe

Wednesday, 20 April, 2011

Categories: Technology

We’ve recently built our very own iPhone app to give a brief snapshot of some of the fantastic work we do across brand and digital for our clients, as well as keeping you up to date with the latest news from The Drill Hall. It’s an especially interesting app because it’s actually ...

Tags: app, apple, iphone, mobile, rufus leonard, web

A branded wedding?

Tuesday, 19 April, 2011

Categories:

We’ve talked about brands jumping on the bandwagon to be associated with certain events a few times over the past year or so. Think the World Cup and iPad specific content. With the impending royal wedding (heard about it?) Marketing magazine has found that consumers claim they aren’t i...

Rufus Leonard appoints Man Bites Dog

Friday, 15 April, 2011

Categories: Rufus Leonard

We have appointed B2B PR specialist Man Bites Dog to handle our PR in the UK. Man Bites Dog will be working closely with us on our communications strategy, as well as developing high-impact thought leadership programmes and other cross-media PR campaigns. Graham Cox, our Marketing Manager comments:...

Tags: man bites dog, pr, rufus leonard

Online ad revenue finally surpasses newspapers

Thursday, 14 April, 2011

Categories: Digital

Well, it was only going to be a matter of time wasn’t it. 2010 was the year when internet advertising surpassed its newspaper counterpart. The Internet Advertising Bureau reported that full-year 2010 internet ad revenues were $26 billion, up 15 percent from 2009, showing that after a slight r...

The power of an orange

Tuesday, 12 April, 2011

Categories: Brand, Technology

We all remember using a potato to power something at school, now juice specialists Tropicana have taken it to a new level, utilising the power of oranges to illuminate the brand’s own billboard. It took three months and, with some careful wiring, Tropicana have created something visual and or...

Rufus Leonard awarded for EEF transformation

Friday, 8 April, 2011

Categories: Brand

Well, if winning two Recommended Agency Register (RAR) awards last week wasn’t enough, we attended the Transform Awards for rebranding last night at the Grange Hotel in London - and won a couple more. The Transform Awards, hosted by Communicate Magazine, is Europe's only dedicated celebration...

What a tweet can do

Friday, 8 April, 2011

Categories: Digital

It’s funny how things can spiral. Take, for instance, our piece on brands utilising random acts of kindness, using social media platforms to learn about customers in a bid to improve relationships with them. A great example of this in action is Dutch airline KLM using Twitter to track passenge...

The question of questions

Tuesday, 5 April, 2011

Categories: Digital

We first spoke about Quora back in January when there was a sudden rush of people clambering to sign up to the crowdsourced Q&A service. From what we can tell, and in our own experience, we had a look around, used it a few times but didn’t really go back, especially with the introduction o...

IT spend to surpass expectations

Monday, 4 April, 2011

Categories: Technology

Good news for the IT sector as reports today suggest that IT spend is set to surpass expectations for growth this year Gartner research has found that worldwide IT spend will total £2.23 trillion in 2011, a 5.6% increase on last year and puts the increase in sales of tablets as a factor...

Rufus Leonard scoops two RAR awards

Friday, 1 April, 2011

Categories:

So, last night we attended the Recommended Agency Register (RAR) awards in Kensington which, as they put it, “recognise service excellence from marketing companies”. And here’s the good news, we picked up a couple of gongs in the Best in Creativity / Innovation and Best in Digital...

The Rufus Leonard infographic

Thursday, 31 March, 2011

Categories: Brand

Infographics, they're very 'of the moment'. So what better way to tell you everthing about Rufus Leonard that through our very own infographic. This 'agency C.V.', if you will, is a graphical way of telling you about us; who we are, where we are and what we do. We hope you have as much fun reading ...

Can I get a +1?

By Iain Millar

Thursday, 31 March, 2011

Categories: Digital

So Google yesterday officially launched their latest social product, titled “+1”. Essentially, it could be seen as Google’s version of a Facebook ‘like’ or a Twitter ‘retweet’. +1 acts as a way to share search results from Google that you like with the rest ...

The greatest data on earth?

By Pearse McCabe

Tuesday, 29 March, 2011

Categories: Technology

By now many of us will have registered for tickets to at least one of the 26 sports happening as part of London 2012. Some claim this will create the largest database of (mainly) UK sports fans in the world. So is this a marketers dream? There is no question that the resulting database will pr...

Location, location, location

By Chris Wills

Tuesday, 29 March, 2011

Categories: Technology

During its short life, the web has experienced a number of significant milestones. For me, the arrival of Google Earth was nothing less than earth shattering (pardon the pun). Sitting at my PC, the idea that I could drop in my post code into an application on my desktop and within seconds be peering...

The electric car revolution

By Rudi Hoppe

Tuesday, 29 March, 2011

Categories:

If you live in London then you probably don’t own a car, but if like me, you wish you could justify having one, then you may have spent some time daydreaming about the option of going electric. Normal 0 false false false EN-GB X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 ...

Breaking the mould for professional services

By Libby Penn

Tuesday, 29 March, 2011

Categories:

Think about professional services firms – so, the law firms, consultancies, accountancy firms of the world - and what images come to mind? Suits, paperwork, corporate offices. Now, think of their marketing communications and what comes to mind? Bland statements, stock photography, text heavy e...

How to deal with agencies

Tuesday, 29 March, 2011

Categories:

Interesting to see that ISBA have released an updated ‘best practice guide’ for marketing professionals when dealing with agencies, with a focus to improve the process. And what a refreshing document it is to read. It certainly highlights the challenges marketers can face when briefing ...

What’s not to ‘like’ about Facebook?

Tuesday, 29 March, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

With over 500 million active users connected to an average of 80 pages, Facebook is becoming the go-to place for marketers to promote their brand, products and services. It’s also an effective channel, along with Twitter, for organisations to communicate in real time with their current and pot...

Getting paid to tag photos

Monday, 28 March, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital, Technology

Here’s an interesting one for a Monday. An image tagging service, EmmaActive, pays users to act as advertisers for brands and products. Basically, EmmaActive enables users to begin tagging images on third party sites. These tags are visible to everyone, and they link through to a brand page w...

Google launches its own magazine

Friday, 25 March, 2011

Categories: Digital

Even Google needs to consolidate information sometimes with the launch of its B2B focused print and online magazine ‘Think Quarterly’, designed to “bring together some of the world's leading minds to discuss the big issues facing businesses today". It hasn’t had an all...

Proving honest-tea pays...

Thursday, 24 March, 2011

Categories: Brand

There has been quite a bit of media coverage recently about an innovative experiential campaign launched last summer by organic tea brand Honest Tea. It took the form of a "guerilla social experiment", putting the honesty of the seven largest cities in America to the te...

Become part of Firefox

Wednesday, 23 March, 2011

Categories:

With the recent release of Mozilla’s latest browser, Firefox 4, they have embarked on a Twitter campaign to allow fans to have their own photos on one big Firefox logo mosaic. All you have to do is Tweet about Firefox 4 with the #fx4 hashtag and your avatar will join thousands of others from ...

LinkedIn reaches the 100m milestone

Tuesday, 22 March, 2011

Categories: Digital

News today that social networking tool LinkedIn has surpassed 100 million users. The $3billion valued company celebrated the milestone by releasing an infographic, looking at membership numbers, location, growth and represented companies to give you a better insight into how well it has been perform...

Happy birthday Twitter

Monday, 21 March, 2011

Categories: Technology

Today we say a very happy fifth birthday to Twitter, the micro-blogging platform which has seen growth over the last five years surely co-founders Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone couldn’t have envisaged. It took three years, two months and a day for 1 billion Tweets to be sent. Today ...

Are social and entertainment seperate?

Friday, 18 March, 2011

Categories: Digital

Interesting to see today that Hitwise Intelligence reports that social media has become more popular than entertainment online. Hitwise says “During January 2011 social networks accounted for 12.4% of all UK Internet visits. Across the 9,000 social networks that we monitor, there were over 2.4...

An interactive guide to Europe

Thursday, 17 March, 2011

Categories: Digital

Ever wondered which European countries have the best healthcare? Which countries will have the biggest population increase, what’s the life expectancy and what does it cost to live in different European countries? Well look no further. The Guardian has produced an interactive guide to Europe,...

Overcoming data through design

Wednesday, 16 March, 2011

Categories: Brand

Another fantastic TED talk sees David McCandless talk about removing the ‘information glut’ we consume every day. McCandless looks to turn complicated data across the likes of military spend, media and Facebook updates into well designed, visual representations. Infographics are all the...

Targted adverts coming to your living room

Wednesday, 16 March, 2011

Categories: Technology

Sky is said to be readying targeted adverts for its customers - based on their viewing habits, location and the package they subscribe to. A simple upgrade to your existing Sky box stores adverts which will then play during the normal ad breaks, meaning you could be watching a totally different set...

The cheek of it!

Monday, 14 March, 2011

Categories: Brand

DDB New Zealand have come up with a unique approach to promoting a “short shorts” sale for fashion retailer Superette. Benches at bus stops, fashionable malls and parks have been manipulated to contain an indented plate that leaves Superette-branded imprints on the thighs of anyone...

Test drive a Volkswagen... inside a print ad

Friday, 11 March, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital, Technology

Volkswagen in Norway has launched what it claims is the world's first test drive inside a print ad. The ad, placed in popular Norwegian publications, presents a long stretch of road (in summer and winter) and urges readers to download an Augmented Reality app that lets you drive ...

Google's crisis center

Friday, 11 March, 2011

Categories:

Following the awful news of an earthquake hitting Japan today, Mashable reports the following, explaining that Google is providing a tool that helps you find a person or provide information on missing people. Google’s Crisis Center also shows a map of the earthquake, the latest related ...

Rufus Leonard nominated for four RAR Awards

Thursday, 10 March, 2011

Categories:

The Recommended Agency Register (RAR) has announced the nominees for this year’s RAR awards with Rufus Leonard nominated in four categories. The RAR Awards are all about recognising service excellence from marketing companies. In the last 12 months, nearly 5000 ratings have been made by ...

Tags: awards, rar

Smart price relationships

Thursday, 10 March, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

You may have seen back in January we talked about Tesco venturing in to the gold exchange and beauty services market. Well it seems that Tesco isn’t the only grocer looking to extend its brand a far as possible. ASDA have created their own dating site asdadating.co.uk, pairing singles based o...

Random acts of kindness

Wednesday, 9 March, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

When was the last time you made, or received a random act of kindness? Well that might be about to change as Trendwatching reports Random Acts of Kindness (R.A.K) is the latest trend being used by brands to connect with consumers. Using social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook and Fo...

Google profiles

Monday, 7 March, 2011

Categories: Digital

The online privacy debate has raged on for a long time now. It has become standard practice for employers to Google potential employees and interview candidates before a face to face meeting occurs. And I think it’s fair to say that what you don’t want the first impression of yourself to...

Points of control

Thursday, 3 March, 2011

Categories: Digital, Technology

Here’s a very cool infographic style site called Points of Control, essentially using a map to show the size and scale of digital organisations and the 'battle for the network economy'. You can view parts of the networkedworld including the ‘kingdom of e-commerce’, ‘union of...

Did someone say iPad 2?

Thursday, 3 March, 2011

Categories: Brand, Technology

Well the build up and hype is finally over as Apple and, perhaps surprisingly, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad 2 yesterday in California. The new launch certainly cements Apple’s place as the brand of choice for anyone purchasing a tablet. With over 15 million of the first generation iPads sold ...

iAd just too niche

Tuesday, 1 March, 2011

Categories: Digital, Technology

Perhaps everything Apple touches doesn’t turn to gold. Brand Republic is reporting that Apple is facing a struggle to convince brands of the value of advertising on its iAd format. The format, which allows brand to advertise to iPhone and iPad users with various targeting options including De...

A new era for product placement?

Friday, 25 February, 2011

Categories: Brand

Monday the 28th of February 2011 will see the day when product placement is officially allowed on British TV. Campaign reports big brands including Electronic Arts and Thomas Cook having already brokered deals for their products to be place within programmes including This Morning. So is this going...

A confession..

Thursday, 24 February, 2011

Categories: Digital

We’ve seen some pretty weird and wonderful iPhone apps in our time and now it seems, in an attempt to give religion a digital fix, the Catholic Church has released an iPad and iPhone app to seemingly allow Roman Catholics to make a confession over the internet. It’s a bold move from the...

Capitalising on an error 404

Wednesday, 23 February, 2011

Categories: Digital

We all know error 404 pages on websites can be incredibly frustrating. But when a link has changed or been moved wouldn’t it be nice to be shown something other than a white page with a big ‘404’ message at the top? Thankfully, some web designers have chosen to end the misery of e...

Keeping up with the zeitgeist

Monday, 21 February, 2011

Categories: Digital

If you have got a spare few minutes, have a look at Zeitgeistminds, a collection of videos from Google's Zeitgeist events covering everything from politics and economics to culture and comedy. You can customise which videos you watch a number of ways, such category, location and year to give Google...

Death of the customer...?

Monday, 21 February, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

If I were to tell you I’d had an “experience”, whether it were good or bad, you’d probably infer it was something that had made an impact – something to stick in the memory. “A once-in-a-lifetime experience”, “an appalling experience”, “an ...

Radiohead do it again

By Freddie Baveystock

Friday, 18 February, 2011

Categories: Brand, Digital

Four years ago, when Radiohead gave its fans the option of downloading ‘In Rainbows’ for whatever they chose to pay, the music industry split in two. Those in mourning for the hog fat years of overpriced CDs went into spasms of righteous denunciation; more sober commentators noted that ...

A car in the palm of your hand

Friday, 18 February, 2011

Categories: Technology

Here’s an interesting idea from Ford to launch their new ‘C-Max’ model which we spotted on Marketing Week. The automotive giant is launching an augmented reality campaign in an attempt to “put its new C-Max model in the palm of consumers’ hands”. Using outdoor s...

Google updates Social Search

Thursday, 17 February, 2011

Categories: Digital

It has finally been announced today that Google has launched major updates to its Social Search, integrating Twitter, Flickr and Quora all the way through. As reported on Mashable, any content shared by your friends on Quora, Flickr and Twitter can appear as a social annotation in search results. F...

Iain Millar comments on Honda's latest campaign

Tuesday, 1 February, 2011

Categories: Technology

You may have read about Honda’s new 'This Unpredictable Life' campaign, promoting their Jazz model today. In the first of its kind, Honda is using ‘sound syncing’ technology allowing the tv ad to connect directly with Honda’s iPhone app in real time. To be aired for the first time this evening on Ch...

Tags: honda, mobile, qr codes, waitrose

Banking and social media - the conversation they don't want

By Liza Medd

Wednesday, 26 January, 2011

Categories:

Banking brands have been slow adopters of social media, and it’s not hard to work out why. Not to put too fine a point on it, consumers have the nasty habit of asking awkward questions, which banks have the habit of not wanting to answer. In the new, always-on digital world, transparency is ki...

One brick at a time

Friday, 21 January, 2011

Categories: Rufus Leonard

It was fantastic to read in gulfnews.com today, news of our recent trip to Bangalore in India to help build homes for local families. Gulf News has profiled the entire experience, undertaken by Neil, Jaclyn, Emily and Sarajayne, from their arrival through to the completion of the project in con...

Tags: bangalore, habitat for humanity, india, nabs

Leading the way for technology in London

By Chris Wills

Wednesday, 19 January, 2011

Categories: Technology

We’ve known it for a while, but now it seems official. The Evening Standard reports that Smartphone apps are ‘revolutionising the way government communicates with citizens’. From finding the closest available bike to hire, to the fastest mode of transport to your required destination, it appears Lon...

Tags: mapping, oyster card, tfl

Your country needs you!

By Emily Duncan

Monday, 17 January, 2011

Categories: Rufus Leonard

It’s been nearly two months since we travelled to Bangalore and yes, we are still beaming from ear to ear when we think how fantastic it was. Rufus has always supported charitable causes and events, the trip to Bangalore was on a large-scale and took a lot of hard work from a lot of people, raising ...

Tags: bangalore, charity, nabs

Rufus Leonard named in Marketing Magazine's 'Review of the Year'

Thursday, 9 December, 2010

Categories:

We're in the news once again this week. This time it's Marketing Magazine's 'Review of the Year' supplement. 2010 saw us come in ninth, up six places from last year in the 'Design League'. We're also one of the biggest agencies on the list for growth this year. Here's to moving furt...

iEverywhere

By Liza Medd

Tuesday, 9 November, 2010

Categories:

The rise and rise of Apple’s iPhone is often proclaimed as a prime example of real ‘game-changing’ technology. But the game that’s really changed is the consumer’s very relationship with what used to be called the ‘telephone’. Dubai seems to have run out of them. What am I talking about? The iP...

Lloyds TSB win an IPA Effectiveness award

Thursday, 4 November, 2010

Categories: Brand

The Lloyds TSB 'For the journey' campaign has won a silver award at this year's IPA Effectiveness awards. The work was described as a simple idea that has transformed the fortunes of the UK's largest bank. 'For the journey' has helped add more that 400,000 current accounts. Rufus Leonard is t...

Tags: award, lloyds tsb

Rufus Leonard named #2 in the Design Week Integrated Top 20

Friday, 1 October, 2010

Categories: Brand, Digital

Hello all, We wanted to share yet more good news with you... Rufus Leonard has been named number 2 in Design Week’s Top 20 Integrated Consultancies. We think it’s great to be recognised as an agency who can provide a robust brand and digital offer to all our clients.

Tags: design week

NMA Top 100 Interactive agencies 2010

Wednesday, 29 September, 2010

Categories:

We thought we’d share the good news! For the ninth year running Rufus Leonard is featured in New Media Age’s Top 100 Interactive Agencies and this year we are over-the-moon to be listed as number 35. We think it recognises our digital talent, giving us 11th place in the top Desig...

Rufus Leonard Global Village Project

Tuesday, 6 July, 2010

Categories: Rufus Leonard

In November 2010, four members of the Rufus Leonard team will take part in a truly life-changing experience. Emily-Faye Duncan, Jaclyn Townshend, Neil Svensen and Sarahjayne Matthew will be part of a 21-strong team of volunteers travelling to the slums of Bangalore in India to spend a week building ...

Tags: bangalore, charity, nabs

The future has already happened but we have yet to discover it

By Chris Wills

Tuesday, 6 July, 2010

Categories: Digital, Technology

I’m currently being seduced by a slim lined, laidback, touchy thing that comes alive whenever I stroke it and if you’ve had a chance to play with the new iPad you might have had a similar experience. When Apple delivered the iPad, web designers across the world debated how tablet computers would c...

Tags: apps, flip, ipad, iphone

Rufus Leonard launches new in-branch campaigns for Lloyds TSB and Bank of Scotland

Thursday, 3 June, 2010

Categories: Brand

Rufus Leonard has developed new in-branch campaigns for Lloyds TSB. The leading brand and digital agency has worked with Lloyds TSB for many years as Group Brand Development Partner, winning the ongoing in-branch campaign brief at the end of 2009. The campaigns focus on National School Sport ...

Tags: lloyds tsb

Lloyds TSB Scotland Celebrating 200 Years

Tuesday, 1 June, 2010

Categories: Brand

Lloyds TSB Scotland is celebrating 200 years of helping customers save with a commemorative card and chocolate coin. It goes live in-branch on 1st June 2010.

Tags: lloyds tsb scotland

Top of the charts

Thursday, 27 May, 2010

Categories: Rufus Leonard

I always look forward to reading the Design Week league tables, so I was delighted this morning when The Top 100 supplement arrived inside the magazine. Let’s see who is the cream of the crop amongst design consultancies? How would our rivals be ranked? Where would we be positioned? Tu...

Tags: design week top 100

Rufus Leonard develop a Transport for London Google map bus route application

Tuesday, 27 April, 2010

Categories: Digital, Technology

Transport for London has unveiled a new Google map bus route application designed by Rufus Leonard the leading brand and digital business. The application will make it easier for Londoners to travel around the capital. With over 25,000 visitors each day, Transport for London’s website plays an imp...

Tags: google, maps, tfl

Rufus Leonard design & build new website for Greater London Authority

Tuesday, 13 April, 2010

Categories: Digital, Technology

Rufus Leonard has designed and created a website for the Greater London Authority. www.london.gov.uk is the official website for the Mayor of London, the London Assembly and the Greater London Authority. The new site build decision came after the new administration called for innovation, reduced o...

Tags: drupal, greater london authority, open source

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Rufus Leonard celebrate anniversary year with a Re-Brand and new Director of Technology

Monday, 15 March, 2010

Categories: Brand

Rufus Leonard has spent the past 20 years helping shape many of the UK’s leading brands off and online. Now they are marking their anniversary year by developing their own brand and appointing new Director of Technology Peter Barker. Peter Barker will be promoted to the board as Director of...

Tags: director of technology, peter barker, rebrand, rufus leonard

Rufus Leonard delivers new brand and website for FCO services

Friday, 12 March, 2010

Categories: Rufus Leonard

This week sees the launch of FCO Services new website www.fcoservices.gov.uk. Rufus Leonard has been working with the brand for over a year to first develop a new brand identity and a new brand strategy, then design and create a new web site. To define the brand Rufus Leonard looked to FCO Servi...

Tags: fco services, government, public sector

Bank of Scotland launches new ad campaign

Monday, 1 February, 2010

Categories: Brand

Bank of Scotland is launching a new media campaign and visual identity to refresh Scotland’s oldest bank and re-assert its traditional values. The campaign, created by RKCR/Y&R with media strategy by Mediaedge: cia, aims to demonstrate the return of the traditional values of relationship bank...

Tags: bank of scotland, campaign

Rufus Leonard create iPhone app for British Gas

Tuesday, 15 December, 2009

Categories: Digital, Technology

British Gas has today launched a Meter Read App for the iPhone designed by leading digital and brand agency Rufus Leonard and developed by the Internal Development Team at British Gas to help put customers in control of their energy bills. The iPhone App will allow customers to submit a meter rea...

Tags: app, british gas, iphone

UKHO launches the future of navigation

Thursday, 3 December, 2009

Categories: Digital, Technology

The United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) today announced the launch of Admiralty e-Navigator the new digital navigation solution. Rufus Leonard, leading brand and digital business developed and implemented the launch campaign at this year’s ECDIS Conference in Singapore. e-Navigator is a new...

Tags: e-navigation, touchscreen, ukho

British Gas launch EnergySmart

Wednesday, 25 November, 2009

Categories: Digital, Technology

British Gas today launch EnergySmart, a new online service designed and developed by the award-winning top 10 digital and brand agency Rufus Leonard, working in partnership with the internal IS team at British Gas. For the first time, EnergySmart gives British Gas customers the choice to pay only fo...

Tags: british gas, energy smart

Rufus Leonard Dubai wins Aldar's Yas Links Golf Course digital account

Thursday, 5 November, 2009

Categories: Digital

Rufus Leonard; Dubai-based brand and communication business announces its latest competitive win with Aldar's Yas Links Golf Course Online Account. Yas Links Golf Course is the first of its kind in the Middle East, being the oldest style of golf course in golf history with coastal and dune terrai...

Tags: middle east, yas links

Hair-raising fund-raising

Monday, 2 November, 2009

Categories: Rufus Leonard

It’s November, one month to Christmas, almost the end of the year and the time to look one’s best. Even more importantly, it’s the month when the men of Rufus Leonard will be stepping up to the challenge that is Movember. In support of the international Movember charity, an organization that back...

Tags: charity, fundraising, movember

Rufus Leonard launches Witness Confident

Wednesday, 9 September, 2009

Categories: Brand, Digital

This coming Wednesday 9/9/09 Witness Confident the new independent charity that champions witnesses of violent crime will launch with the help of brand and digital agency Rufus Leonard. Witness Confident sets out to support witnesses of all violent crimes by helping them to navigate the UK witnes...

Tags: charity, witness confident

Rufus Leonard Launch ‘Free Swim’ for British Gas

Monday, 7 September, 2009

Categories: Digital

British Gas has today launched ‘Free Swim,’ a through-the-line campaign inviting British Gas customers to take a swim at their local pool – and bring the family along - for free! Rufus Leonard, the award winning top 10 brand and digital agency, has designed and developed the online Free Swim experie...

Tags: british gas, free swim

Rufus Leonard helps EEF build brand awareness

Tuesday, 7 July, 2009

Categories: Brand

Rufus Leonard has developed a bold new look for EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation. Over recent years EEF has undergone significant change and restructuring, and wanted its brand to reflect the distinctive value proposition it offers its members and customers. Recognising this, EEF appointed...

Tags: eef

British Gas announce lead digital agency

Sunday, 5 July, 2009

Categories: Digital

British Gas are pleased to announce that we signed Rufus Leonard as our new lead digital agency on the first of May 2009. Benjamin Braun, Head of Online Services at British Gas said that “Visitors to britishgas.co.uk spend on average 10 minutes on our site. What would you do if you had a prospect...

Tags: british gas

O2 launches internet safety book

Tuesday, 3 March, 2009

Categories: Digital

Rufus Leonard today announced the publication of ‘who wnts 2 no?’, a children’s story on internet safety provided by O2 in conjunction with Childnet International. The book for 8-12 year olds was jointly written by best-selling children’s authors Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore. It will be published...

Tags: child safety, o2

Happy birthday Rufus Leonard Dubai

Monday, 2 March, 2009

Categories: Rufus Leonard

We’ve been popping the champagne corks here at Rufus Leonard to mark the first anniversary of the opening of our office in Dubai. And what a busy 12 months it’s been for our Middle East team. The first account we won in Dubai was for lead marketing communications agency for Lloyds TSB Middle East...

Tags: dubai, middle east

Churchill Launches ‘You & Yours’ Facebook Quiz

Thursday, 12 February, 2009

Categories: Digital

Churchill Insurance has today launched a new Facebook application, designed by Rufus Leonard. As February is love filled for Valentines Day, Rufus Leonard created a light hearted compatibility test, similar to the ‘Mr & Mrs’ format called ‘You and Yours’. In the game you guess what your frien...

Tags: churchill insurance