We like Corporate Comms magazine and it seems the feeling is mutual because we’ve been short listed for their “Best Specialist Digital Agency” award in the 5th annual DigiAwards 2010.

OK, I know you can’t see us on the list because it’s obviously intended as a big surprise on the night – but I have an email to prove it (and I’m not afraid to use it).

Nearly 20 years ago when I was stacking shelves at Kwik Save (yes, really…), Parlophone, Vimto and Cancer Research were brands that appeared on posters and packaging. Lily Allen and Gorillaz weren’t even invented then (let’s not go there) and now I work with them.

When I look at some of the talent in other categories for these awards, I can see that just getting a nomination for these awards is a fair feat. The funny thing is that the awesome-looking presentation ceremony at Battersea Power Station on 28th September is called “Monster Digerati” – and of course, it was a mash-up of monsters that launched Matmi on an unsuspecting planet. We mentioned it in our entry but didn’t give the name.

So will Monster Poolside Sumo pull it out of the bag for us? That would be truly amazing because it’s almost 10 years to the day since it was released.

We like Corp Comms magazine – and we like spooky specials – cos they’ve gone way beyond coincidence at Matmi.

Believe, Jeff.

We’re no stranger to awards (and I mean that in a humble way…) but we still get a tingle of excitement and anticipation when our work goes up for a gong.

Last week, our “Escape to Plastic Beach” game app for Gorillaz with EMI Music was nominated in the 3rd annual BT Digital Music Awards. As well as celebrating the online presence of artists and music, these awards take in music websites, blogs, events, apps and online innovation and gadgets. Which just goes to show how much demand there is from fans to get closer to their fave bands and sounds.

Without sounding like a broken record (pardon the pun), this is no surprise to us. We know people don’t just want to watch or listen to brands they like; they want to experience and interact with them. And we’re very happy to help!

What I like about the BT Digital Music Awards awards is that they’re interactive too. Winners are selected by online vote which means you can have your say right now! Click here to make your voice heard and don’t be confused by two Gorillaz entries on the shortlist for Best Music App. “Plastic Beach” is an earlier online game and “Escape to Plastic Beach” is the latest iPhone/iPod/iPad app. It’s your choice – but please vote for the “Escape to Plastic Beach” app because it’s a glorious Gorillaz experience, made with love by Matmi and it’s really, really good .

Voting closes on 23rd Sept and the more votes you cast, the better your chances of winning tickets to the televised award ceremony at The Roundhouse in London. C’mon! You know you want to….

Hope to see you there – our fate is in your hands , Jeff.

In a company where strange things happen a lot anyway, it’s sometimes difficult to get some perspective. But even by Matmi’s standards, these are strange and at the moment, they’re revolving round James, our senior developer.

Like the phone he plugged in to charge on one side of the bed – which had unplugged itself and moved to the other side of the bed by the time he woke up. And the hairbrush and purse that appeared in the bed after he’d got up for a glass of water. And the code that keeps changing when he leaves it for a lunch break or overnight. Matt is the only other person who has access, and on one occasion when it happened today, I was sitting right opposite him the whole time. He never moved.

Mmmm. We’re all short of sleep at the moment – so is James sleepwalking? It’s hard to tell. Sleepwalkers are usually in a low state of consciousness and have a ‘glazed over’ expression on their face. That sounds a lot like James at the moment anyway.

Or is it the Duke of Duke’s Court where we’re based? Well, it’s got us sufficiently intrigued to start trying to find out who he is/was, and it’s not exactly clear yet. The Dukes of Hamilton, Devonshire and Bridgewater all feature in Macclesfield’s history together with duels over women and disputes over canals. Maybe he’s taken a dislike to the painting of our three nude supermodels (unlikely) or fallen for Michelle (very likely). I think I’d like to meet him.

Actually… cancel that: except for the Duke of Devonshire, the others are all dead! But whether that’s more scary than the thought of James sleepwalking through his working day, I’m not sure. As James himself said, “If today’s been a dream and I wake up to find all the work I’ve done was never there, I’m going to be severely hacked off!”

So whether we need a historian or a physician to work out what’s happening, wish us luck… . Thoughtfully, Penny.

One thing Matmi is very proud of is its unusual location – for a creative agency. We’re not in London or New York (yet), but in our home town of Macclesfield in Cheshire. So when we got the call from BBC Radio Manchester to join their weekly Manchester Business programme, we were delighted!

Our local Chamber of Commerce (you’re a star, John Walding) had suggested they take a closer look at this strange, growing North West company dealing with the likes of Gorillaz and Iron Maiden – so they did! Presenter, Steve Saul, lined Jeff up for a slot yesterday and he duly arrived at the World Heritage site (joke… ) that is the BBC on Oxford Road in Manchester.

Despite the temptation to open every door lining the corridors and shout “Fire!” to the people inside, Jeff made it safely to the studio with Richard Stead, host of the programme while Steve was on holiday.

The first funny thing was listening to Richard and Jeff decide what kind of company Matmi is. Introduced as a ‘digital agency’ then given the label ‘computer games company’, Jeff decided to bamboozle Richard with our specialist title of ‘branded entertainment and digital engagement.’ Good on you, Jeff; it got a laugh!

The second funny thing for the Matmi audience listening in was hearing the cogs of Jeff’s brain tick as he tried desperately to talk without swearing. I have to say, the result was brilliant; he sounded very well spoken, and he wasn’t talking at 100mph as usual because he was having to think.

The third funny was hearing Jeff say to a quarter-of-a-million people that he was going on management training because we’re growing so quickly. He is. Enough said. And along the way, Jeff unashamedly (but very naturally) plugged Monster Pinball, Comic Relief, United Airlines, Iron Maiden, Gorillaz, Vimto, Cancer Research and Ho Ho Ho Yellow Snow.

Credit to Richard and the team at BBC Manchester though – they fielded Jeff some great questions and it was obvious they’d done their homework. We found out later that they’d even pulled a song from the schedule to get some more time in the interview. Hats off to you guys, thank you and let’s keep in touch.

But the killer line for me, the person with the title of ‘Public Relations’ on her business card was hearing my MD say “We don’t market ourselves.” Of course we don’t (now that I’ve obviously got the boot….).

So if anyone wants to find out about Matmi in a nutshell – and Jeff not marketing us – click here, 16 minutes 35 seconds in (to be precise) and have a listen while I pack my desk… . It’s a perfect 8 minute snapshot of the magic of Matmi.

Enjoy. Penny.

I can only say that because I’m one of them and all of us had a great time in Nottingham last Thursday and Friday judging this year’s crop of digital talent. In some cases it needed a bit of fertilizer (and in the case of one agency’s submissions, they were ALL fertilizer), but you’ll see the results on 30th September.

So why were some of this year’s judges annoying? Because we won the team pub quiz on the advertising industry – “we” being the Digital Boys. And yes, we weren’t as advanced in years as the other three teams – but shouldn’t that have given them the advantage?! Maybe it was because we had some divine inspiration. When we were at a loss for an answer, we just put “Lionel Blair” – and one of them was right! (1990s Harp lager advert).

OK, so if you’re a ‘name’ in the industry that’s got to be annoying, but digital IS the future so at least you know your clients are safe in our hands. (Simon – did you frame our question sheet and send it on to the “Advertising” team?! I jest…. )

But really this annoying judge just wants to say a big Thank You to Paula and all the team at Fresh for a very enjoyable, challenging and well organised event. We exercised our brains, bodies and souls, and I met some fascinating gurus of the trade. (Can you imagine scruffy me in the same room as BMB, CheethamBell and Publicis? That’s why it was interesting!)

Some of my fellow judges already knew Matmi; some knew us without realising it; and some had managed to live without us – but now realise that life’s a lot more fun with Matmi around. It was a pleasure and a privilege to spend time with you, ladies and gentlemen, and I salute your talents and taste.

But the acid test is – have any of you beaten my score in the Iron Maiden game yet?! I have to say, it looked stunning on that big plasma screen – and a lot of you were just as stunned by the stats of our branded entertainment campaigns. I learned a lot too.

I promise I’ll practice being less annoying ready for the Fresh Digital Awards ceremony in a few weeks’ time. Until then, have fun and keep in touch. Best, Jeff.

Lots of things change at Matmi, but happily lots of things stay the same too.

Like clients coming back for more – which we’re humbled by (and very proud of). Like space travel – Iron Maiden’s new album “The Final Frontier” is set in deep space and Matmi was born in the Space Odyssey year of 2001. And like taking a giant leap from one world to another in the space of a week (from the Gorillaz virtual world to infinity and beyond!).

We love it – and it’s been a delight to work with Iron Maiden again.

Think about it; it’s a game developer’s dream. The global brand of EMI Music, the raw power and reach of one of the planet’s biggest brands, Maiden’s iconic artwork and an intergalactic setting. We’re still drooling…. .

But before we get too carried away, let’s remember why we’re doing this. Last year’s game points the way; it was launched to promote Maiden’s docu-film DVD of the awesome “Somewhere Back in Time” tour that spanned all 5 continents (Bruce Dickinson on the flight deck, of course). It’s been played over 4.5 million times and delivered over 54 years worth of brand exposure…. and counting. That sounds pretty awesome too – and that’s one of the reasons our clients keep coming back for more Matmi magic.

There’s definitely magic afoot with “The Final Frontier” game. Since it went up on the Iron Maiden website 24 hours ago it’s had over 50,000 plays – and we’ve only just sent out the press release! This is looking good for a great run and it proves my point. Give people something they like at their convenience and you’ll get a much more positive and long-lasting reaction than some unwanted advert that interrupts. You know I’m right (we’re just waiting for the rest of the industry to catch up ).

But let’s not get too serious! We’ve had enormous fun bringing this polished game to life for Iron Maiden – and we hope you do too so off you go! Maiden can’t play the loudest gig in the Universe unless you rescue all their kit from the Space Pirates who attacked the band’s Ed Force One cargo ship. There’s no time to lose!

Enjoy, Jeff.

Yeh-Hey! The Gorillaz game app we released this week has already hit the #1 spot as the best selling music game in the App Store for the UK & Ireland. And the iPad version’s doing well too – it’s risen to the #16 slot across all game categories. The lead article in How Do’s Weekly Wrap also mentioned us above the birth of the writer’s baby (not sure his better half will be pleased with that – but thank you, Christian!).

So it’s great to start enjoying the fruits of everyone’s hard work – and we’ve got everything crossed that this #1 will be the first of a few more… .

If you want to find out what all the fuss is about, get on down to the App Store! “Escape to Plastic Beach” is a whole lot of fun for the £1.19/$1.99 price tag.

Enjoy! Jeff

I was fortunate enough to speak at this years Develop Conference again this year and, not being the shy & retiring type, I picked the hot topic of Flash vs. Unity – from a game developer’s perspective.

Flash is close to Matmi’s heart; we’ve been working with it for nearly a decade and in our early days, it was our hallmark platform. As Matmi grew, game players and clients got more demanding and we found ourselves outgrowing the functionality of Flash. We also spotted the trend towards mobile and made the leap onto that platform with Unity 3D – which has worked well for us… so far.

The Develop audience were a savvy bunch including plenty of Flash developers and for once, I stopped answering questions and started asking them. We had a very insightful 30 minute debate and I think a few eyes were opened. Hopefully, one of those eyeballs was Apple’s. Has David become Goliath, or does Apple remember what it was like to fight for fairness?

I hope it’s the latter. Developers need freedom to mix and match platforms, re-use code, re-skin applications and make max use of assets – because otherwise, clients won’t be able to justify the cost of our work and the whole industry will backfire spectactularly. Toolsets and middleware like Unity 3D may or may not continue to be available on the iPhone etc, but to continue to offer great value to the developers, they really do need them. I’ve got everything crossed for a good result because Apple platforms are great for gaming and we love them.

If you’ve got some constructive comment or insight into the subject of 3rd party development tools on the iPhone, comment here or drop us a line in confidence at jeff@matmi.com.

While the platform debate rolls on, I’d like to say big thanks to David and Alison at Unity 3D for a top night out at the Develop Conference. Great company; great food; great discussions (and probably a great big bill – but we’re worth it!). We had a blast, thank you, and I hope we can return the favour soon.

Susan and all the Tandem Events gang; nice work – great conference pulling some great speakers and a great crowd. Thank you all.

I’m not going to even think about the days getting shorter because I can’t believe we’ve just passed the summer solstice anyway! What a year it’s been so far….

We’ve added Gorillaz, Philips and Red Bull to our client list. The lovely people at Asda and Cancer Research have both come back for more. We’ve won another award for our first advergame for Vimto. I’ve been speaking at Elmwood’s Digital Picnic, Brandhouse’s Digital Sparks and I’m up next at the Develop Conference in July. And we need more desks and IT kit because we’ve got new Matmians on board – great!

Why has the downturn been Matmi’s up? Because we’re getting great results for our clients and making them look really good…..

Although our other halves have sometimes forgotten what we look like, in general the marvellous Matmians have been having a whale of a time this year. And I’m not gloating about it – there’s a very good reason.

What we do is working wonders for our clients and they keep coming back for more. Asda, EMI and Cancer Research have all run their second/third/fourth campaigns with us in the last six months because now they truly understand the power of branded entertainment as the new genre of advertising.

We’re talking TV equivalent airtime in terms of decades – and it’s voluntary, interactive, word-of-mouth marketing too (ie – the most influential type). Take a look at the Digital Diary for the facts and figures.

So what’s changed? Nothing – but when times are tough, people are more open-minded. “Necessity is the mother of invention” and all that. Now that a few big brands have successfully included cutting edge digital techniques (like advergames) in their online marketing, the rest have noticed and decided to catch us up.

That’s slightly scary for Matmi because we like to be “out there” in every sense of the word. But we put our business brains into gear (yes, we have that type of thinking here too) and work out the next move.

I predicted that the fusion of gaming with social media would be this year’s big trend – and it is. So much so that the big shakers like Facebook and Apple are only just keeping up. We’re a minnow in comparison physically, but we have a massive footprint digitally and that’s what qualifies us to show clients how to do the same. It’s no surprise to us that their Matmi campaigns are so successful – but it’s great to still be able to surprise them!

I think this is the beautiful secret of Matmi’s success. Give people what they want online (entertainment) and they’re really happy. Brand the entertainment – subtly – and the sponsors are happy. Come up with great concepts and challenging work and the marvellous Matmians are happy.

When everyone’s happy, you’ve got a success on your hands. I hope you can put the same principle to work in your business.

(And if you’d like to give it a test drive with an advergame, you know who to call).

Enjoy, Jeff.

We have been making advergames and virals for many years but sometimes the outrageous spread and success of particular projects even surprise us.

Take our recent game for Philips called Brilliant Brushes. The audience is kids (and their parents) in Europe.
This is kiddie power at it’s best.

Since “Brilliant Brushers” came out for Philips Sonicare in November 2009, it’s had a staggering 7.2 million plays and knocked our socks off! It’s not Grand Theft Auto by any stretch of the imagination – but those 4 – 10 year olds are definitely making their preferences known.

The game in question is an educational experience for under 10s and their parents to brighten up tooth brushing time – together. And that’s the secret of its success. It tugs on that emotional bond that parents want the best for their kids, and engages adult and child in a pleasurable brush with top dental hygiene for nearly 7 minutes a time.

7 million plays at 7 mins = 49 million minutes
49 million / 60 (mins in hour) = 816,666 hours
816,666 / 24 (hours in day)= 34,027 days
34,027 / 365 (days in year) = 93 years

7 minutes! That’s 93 years worth of educational airtime – and counting!!

Never mind the kids learning a lot from this game – we have too; don’t underestimate your audience. Give them something they like and they’ll do the rest quite naturally. Kids – you’re great teachers and we love it.

Creating emotional connections with the brand helps build customer loyalty and with 93 years worth of positive brand engagement it is clear to see why this is the future of advertising online.

See Brilliant Brushers for yourself right here!