A break in radio silence on the blog to tell everyone why we’ve been so busy. We’ve just launched a lovely new site we’re particularly proud of for Bullring’s Art Project ‘Life Feels Better‘. The premise of Life Feels Better is simple – to encourage video, photo and audio submissions from members of the public on the theme of ‘optimism’.

The site is a gallery space for all the submissions people send through, as well as a place to find out about all the events and activities happening at Bullring this year. Since it launched last month there have been some lovely submissions which you can browse here.

To promote the project we also shot a summery video with Ed Moore which featured a few of the artists already involved. The idea we came up with for the promo was to shoot time lapse shots of the centre to to provide a backdrop to the featured work. Fortunately we picked a nice sunny day as you can see here:

We’re delighted to announce that 383 has been appointed as the new retained digital agency for Bullring.  It’s a partnership we’re really excited about and we’ll be sure to keep the blog updated as projects progress.

So far we’ve relaunched Browse: Bullring, a customer loyalty site for the centre and have more work currently in the studio. Having worked with Bullring on some more ambient below-the-line projects earlier this year we were awarded all further digital work earlier this month on an ongoing basis.  Bullring represents a really flagship addition to our growing retail portfolio and we’re excited about taking the lead on a number of digital projects planned for 2010/11.

You can read the formal release here and check out the new Browse: Bullring site in our portfolio.

As part of a wider ‘No Smoking Day’ campaign, we’ve just launched wequit.co.uk. WeQuit is a mini site which allows users to make a pledge via Facebook or Twitter to quit smoking. The site tracks the total number of pledges made and shows a cumulative ‘cigarettes per day’ figure which will grow in line with the campaign.

As well as providing tips and advice, the site also acts as a portal for the other campaign content and PR that is being generated. One amusing aspect worth a watch is the ‘I Want To Break Free’ video viral. Users are being encouraged to submit their own versions and the first has been created with a certain Mr Bannatyne of Dragon’s Den fame! You can view the full project in our portfolio…

Another week and another new piece of work to add to the portfolio. This time it’s a nice little project for SEAT Young Driver Training. As the name suggests, SEAT Young Driver offer driving courses for under 17s at locations across the UK.

We’ve been working with Young Driver to help launch their online offer to customers, as well as developing an entire back end which handles all the booking and process management for each venue. The site allows customers to book sessions online through a secure payment gateway and then view and choose from available time slots at their preferred location. Course organisers can then see a full rundown of stats for each site and co-ordinate the driving instructors. As well as the main payment system we also built a gift vouchers platform, and added a soon to be populated online shop.

In the first of a string of new portfolio updates we’ve just added two new interior projects for restaurants at Westfield, Merry Hill. Harpers and Napoli were redesigned from scratch as part of Westfield’s new ‘Eat Central’ food court.

Launching amongst established and well known brands such as Burger King and KFC, Napoli and Harpers have been designed to be contemporary and fresh spaces. We intentionally veered away from traditional in your face typography, plastered promotions and cheesy food photography, and aimed to create alternative schemes which would attract trade and stand out amongst the competition.

In the first quarter the two sites are the best performing units and plans are afoot for additional sites at other Westfield’s throughout the UK.

Further to our last post on making the Style Birmingham Christmas TV commercial we wanted to post the final version up here on the blog and give a little more information about the campaign as a whole. Hopefully, you may by now have seen the spot which airs on ITV and Channel 4 throughout December. If not, there’s still a few days to catch it (or of course you can just click play on the video above!).

The campaign as a whole this year was developed to try and encourage shoppers to explore more of what Birmingham has to offer at Christmas. We recognised that many shoppers miss some of the highlights in the city, either due to time constraints, or not knowing where to look. As such, the ‘One Mile of Style’ campaign was developed to encourage visitors not only to ’shop’, but also to explore and experience other Christmas highlights in the city.

The concept behind the ad was developed in conjunction with the lovely guys at Fullrange and aimed to promote the mile and drive people through to stylebirmingham.com (which it’s been doing very well!). On the site, potential visitors can then explore an interactive ‘One Mile’ map and print off a synopsis of information about travel, independent retail, in-store promotions and festive fun, to take with them when they visit.

In addition, a number of users have been using the new dayplanner feature to generate personalised shopping routes and recommendations based on their age, brand habits and wish lists.

If you’re watching Dick Tracy, The Bill, Big Bang Theory or Deal or no Deal today then you may just catch it!

Over the last month we’ve been working with Fullrange to deliver a creative concept  which will run across TV and overlap online with a new area added to the Style Birmingham site. Working with Fullrange has been an absolute pleasure and we hope there’ll be more opportunities to collaborate on projects for other clients in the coming months.

Once the ad airs we’ll post some more information about the Christmas campaign as a whole, and of course, post the ad itself.

In the meantime, here’s a few teaser shots from the shoot – as you can see, it was a fair old setup, so hopefully the final product will be well received!

The Drum has launched a new application for the iPhone which will allow users to keep up to date with all the latest Drum news and comment in real-time.

The application has been developed by Birmingham-based digital agency 383 Project.

Jacob Dutton, account director for 383 Project, said: “The popularity of the iPhone in the UK is undeniable, particularly in our industry. This is why we wanted to work with The Drum to develop an app that will help keep suits and creatives up to date whilst on the move.

“Increasingly as an agency, our offer is diversifying, we’re finding ourselves working on smart phone development more and more. By launching this app The Drum have shown real foresight. In a print media arena that is becoming increasingly unstable, this sort of digital offering is what will set publications apart.”

Other features in the application include a look at our live Twitter feed, the full Drum Directory, latest job postings and the ability to view and book onto all the latest events.

Richard Draycott, editor of The Drum, said: “The launch of The Drum’s iPhone application is another stage of development for our site which has grown phenomenally over the last year and a half.

“383 Project came to us with the idea and has worked hard to develop it over the last month and I’d like to thank them for doing such a great job. We’re sure it will be well received by the marketing and media industry and keep them in touch with the happenings in the industry.”

The application is now available for download in the App Store from your iPhone or by clicking here

We’ve just got a load of print back for this years Style Awards. As well as some updates to stylebirmingham.com we’ve also produced all the branding and printed elements for the event which awards Birmingham’s ‘Most Stylish’.

We’re pleased to announce a partnership (which in truth has been running for a while now) between 383 Project and BDL Hotels. It’s unlikely you’ll have heard of BDL, but they are infact the name behind some of the UKs major hotel brands including Holiday Inn, Ramada Encore, Crowne Plaza and a number of independent boutique hotels.

We’ve spent the last few months overhauling the entire digital side of the business building a suite of nearly 30 separate hotel sites for locations across the UK, plus a number of bespoke CRM and data tools for use across the group.

In amongst the sites we were pleased to develop the first UK hotel website to carry the new Holiday Inn brand, the web site for the newly built Ramada Encore in Birmingham and a rebrand of the prestigious Princes Street Suites in Edinburgh.

The contract win with BDL represents a further step in to the hospitality industry for 383 and we look forward to helping BDL progress the business in the coming months.