Very well, thank you!

As regular travellers down that fine line that separates genius from madness, we’ve had a very interesting trip in the last week crossing between pride and humility.

In our own back yard (the North West of England), Matmi broke its own records and the Big Chip Awards’ records too by carrying off 5 gongs in a single evening! That included New Media Agency of the Year and the judges’ Grand Prix for United Airlines and the Optathlon campaign with our US partner, Barrie D’Rozario Murphy.

Still stunned, 3 days later we started another new trend by picking up a nomination on the worldwide stage at Cannes Lions – only 2 months after becoming an Official Honoree of The Webby Awards. Cannes Lions is the Oscars of the global advertising/marketing industry and The Webbys is its equivalent in digital marketing. 2011 marked our first ever entries on the worldwide stage – and we did the North West (and the UK) proud!

It’s quite a dilemma though.

On the one hand, the recognition is amazing (hats off to the marvellous Matmians) and on the other hand, we’ve just set expectations out there pretty high. That’s a large responsibility for a relatively small agency, so we’ll have to trust that our reverse Tardis tactics (being bigger on the outside) will hold fast in a larger universe.

I know it’s been said before – what’s the point of dreaming if you don’t dream big? We do – and we’re going to have to dream up some pretty amazing concepts, campaigns, characters, craft and karma to top our tenth year (and it’s only halfway through!)

With humble thanks to the Big Chip Awards, Cannes Lions, The Webbys and the How Do Awards too, we believe it’s possible.

Dream on,
Jeff.

Snap up our apps for a snip!

Remember two years ago when mobile apps were new? Me neither! Surely the world has always had apps?!

Feels like it, but only 24 months ago our very first app, Monster Pinball, was a monster smash and set us up for many more successful releases. Gorillaz on the iPad (not long after the tablet had come out, thanks to a direct request from Apple Europe), the multi-award winning Optathlon suite from United Airlines (a multi-platform releases using Unity 3D to develop for Android and iOS) and what now?!

It’s the long-awaited return of Monster Pinball – but this time for Nokia smartphones. So many platforms, so little time, arrrggghhhh!!!

To celebrate, we’ve only gone and put a load of our apps on half price and special price deals!

Truckloads of fun for tiny amounts

- Monster Pinball on Nokia (£1.00) and iPhone ($0.99)
- Gorillaz “Escape to Plastic Beach” (also award winning) on iPhone ($0.99) and iPad ($1.29)
- Multiball Pinball on iPhone ($0.59) and in HD on the iPad ($0.59)
- The Optathlon duo on Android and iOS (trick price ‘cos this one’s free…thanks United Airlines )
- Ice Road Pinball on iPhone ($0.99)

But this ‘aint gonna last long – so let your fingers do the walking and get busy in the Ovi, Android and iTunes Store before we run out of monster ideas! Actually, I guarantee that will never happen! This company was built on marvellous monsters (Monster poolside Sumo, in fact) and 10 years later, that game’s still going strong – and so are we.

Here’s to the next app, next platform, Jesus’ next tweed suit and here’s hoping that your next app purchase will be a marvellous Matmi monster (pinball on Nokia).

Monsterful!
Jeff.