Matmi’s had an interesting experience this week and, in my opinion, we’re better off for it.

We got knocked back at three award presentations this week – and maybe we deserved it for getting a bit too big for our boots. 10 years in, most successful year yet, some great new clients and releases, nominations at The Webbys and Cannes Lions on our 1st attempts, blah blah.

Had we started to believe our own publicity? Every marketing/PR person will tell you that’s a very dangerous thing, so I’m glad we were pulled up short.

It made winning Digital Agency of the Year at the DADI Awards last night very special indeed (yes, 4 award ceremonies in a week is a new one on us too). And to see Optathlon (United Airlines) pick up another win in the DADI’s Travel category was a fantastic pat-on-the-back for the team.

When Richard Draycott (MC’ing at the time) described the winner being in a ‘humble location” my heart started beating a little faster, and when he said “specialists in branded entertainment” it started to pound so that by the time I heard him say “And the winner is ….. Matmi!” I thought the whole audience would be able to see my heart about to leave my chest. The adrenalin rush kicked in and by the time I returned to Table 24, I was shaking like a leaf!

A monstrous Thank You

Guys, girls, everyone who voted for us, a monstrous thank you from the stunned and amazed Matmians of Macclesfield (that previously unknown centre of the universe). Thank you to Table 24 (LBi, BJL & The Drum) for your great company – let’s do it again soon, please. And thank you to everyone at The Drum and the judges of the DADI Awards for your obvious passion for digital marketing, and all the hard work that made last night’s awards ceremony the resounding hit that it was.

From a few over-awed Matmians, I can safely say it’s been a tough week with a fairytale ending which our CEO, Jeff Coghlan, should have been there to see in person, but duty called .

I hope we can live up to our voters’ expectations in Matmi’s second decade, should we work hard enough and be fortunate enough to be writing blogs (or whatever the 2021 incarnation is) by then.

From a very excited team of Matmians, enjoy. Penny

PS. A few quick messages: Ian & Bobby @ Lost Boys – enjoy LBK (Life Before Kids) while you can & all the best for next Spring’s arrivals. Richard – thank you for the name checks (which I’m sure I didn’t deserve) and when I’ve finished the first book, I’ll make you read it . James – JFDI and so will I. Lines ends, over & out.

Matmi (located 20 minutes outside of Manchester, UK) are looking for a front-end developer. Read on if you are interested.

Front-end Flash web developer

Good Flash & AS3 skills are the core elements in this role, working on websites and branded game releases for clients including EMI Music, Vimto Soft Drinks, Mars, Comic Relief and Cancer Research.

If you can also bring HTML and HTML5, CSS and JQUERY into the mix, that would be great.  If you’re prepared to learn them while you are here, that suits us fine. We also work heavily with PHP but its not an essential requirement for the job.

The nature of our work means that skills with Facebook and other social network APIs are always needed – but we train people up in-house for that.

If you’re familiar with Scrum/Sprint or other agile methodologies – great – but it’s not an essential skill.

What’s it like working at Matmi?

Fast, sometimes frenetic and always fun.

Take a look at our website at www.matmi.com, find us on Tumblr,Twitter, and Facebook too – and you’ll quickly get an idea of what we’re about.  Coverage on The Drum and How Do could be useful background too.

What are we offering?

• Salary range up to £25k per annum, depending on skills and experience.
• 24 days holiday per year, plus Bank Holidays.
• Stakeholder pension scheme.
• In-house learning environment in whatever business related subject you’d like to develop your skills in!

Have you got what it takes to be a Matmian?  Contact us at michelle@matmi.com or on 01625 575661

Please send links to a blog/online portfolio if possible.

Matmi have had a fantastic year so far regarding recognition for our work.

We have won at events such as The Big Chip Awards, The Digi Awards, How-Do Awards, nominated for Best Use Of Games at the Cannes Lions and received a special honoree mention at the Webby Awards (first time of entering too). Enough awards to make the little Matmian eyes pop.

And our run keeps on going. Only last week we were nominated for a BIMA award for our work on the Optathlon Campaign.

However, that was not the end of our amazing week. Our chief Matmian Jeff Coghlan was nominated at the DADIs for ‘Individual Of The Year’ (fear not, my fellow Matmians shall keep his feet on the ground). Matmi itself was also nominated for ‘Agency of the Year’. We are all obviously very proud of the work we do but it’s always nice to be recognised by others.

The winners of the DADI awards are based on an open vote. If you feel the Matmians and their ever-so humble leader Jeff Coghlan deserve this recognition, you can vote here: http://vote.dadiawards.com/

If you need some persuading, check out our some of our latest work:

• Optathlon
• Gorillaz: Escape to Plastic Beach

Matmi need your vote!

One week on, our hot stuff baking game is living up to its name. “Knead for Speed” released for the craft bakers, Genesis Crafty, is top of the European viral chart and No.3 in both the UK and around the globe*!

A quarter of a million plays in a week is pretty good going, even by our standards, and at over 5 minutes average pay time that means the brand has already racked up 900 DAYS of brand exposure (yes, seriously).

When did your last digital marketing campaign achieve a result like that so quickly? If you’re hesitating, don’t worry – because now you know who to call.

Enjoy the flipping and chaffing and pure baking delight that is “Knead for Speed” with our compliments!

Jeff

* Source: Independent Viral Chart.

What?! Has Matmi been exposing itself again?

The answer is “Yes” but in a good way. The lovely people at International Mobile Monday asked Matmi to get involved in their inaugural event in Manchester (get the acronym now?), and given that the debate was “Mobile web vs. mobile apps” we felt we could make an insightful contribution.

I took a place on the panel in front of 100+ of Manchester’s finest mobile minds last night, alongside 2Ergo, Apadmi, Capsule CRM, Code Computerlove, Magnetic North and the Wholesale Applications Community (WAC).

Horses for courses

It was a lively meeting with plenty of input for web and apps – but can you really pit one against the other? Given converging technology and putting consumers first, the debate decided not. Irrespective of the conduit, it’s about giving customers what they want, where they want it, when they want it – and that means selecting the right horse for the course.

With Tim Haysom from WAC sporting an unmissable “HTML5″ T-shirt, we also got into the depths of languages and geeky stuff – but that probably helped some of the less technical in the audience understand more about the cost, platform and platform migration implications when selecting a development language.

As a lover of Flash, what d’you think about me turning up to the next event on 12th September sporting a “Flash Forever!” T-shirt? Maybe not – I’d probably get arrested before I arrived – but that could be interesting in itself.

Thank you!

Big thanks to the guys at Apadmi for organising the event – and I hope to get along to the next one. MoMoLo (the London version) has been running for a couple of years now and the initiative kicked off in 2000 in Finland originally.

We’re really pleased to be involved – and it’s good to see you’ve found your way back to the birthplace of computing (joke). You’re very welcome in the north.

Let me know about that T-shirt…… . Enjoy, Jeff.