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.

It’s back to our very own Moo (not Moon) for our next own-brand iOS/Android app release! Meet the milk-loving alien stunt driver, Roscoe, in the one and only “Dark Side of the Moo” (yes, really!).

The creative craziness is consistent at Matmi – but I’ve just noticed the materialisation of subspace subterfuge. Maybe it’s the Matmisphere effect (or maybe we are being brainwashed by alien forces…), but our next app release, “Dark Side of the Moo”, is due out later this Summer (what Summer?). Roscoe, our featured alien, is bereft. His favourite lactating lounge, “Udders”, has run out of milk and he decides to nip out to Earth to top up stocks (OK, it’s a stretch but go with me…).

This milky madness is packed with car jumps, bovinators, stunts, golf buggies, psycho cows, the FBI, impossible jumps over school buses and a very thirsty Roscoe who only wanted a pint of milk, after all! There are no prizes for spotting all the bovine related language and items, but we’re especially proud of ‘intergalactating’ and ‘moustache to the other side’ (groan…).

Find us on twitter for an update and gird your milky loins in readiness for a bovine space bonanza! (You only get to write a sentence like that at Matmi and understand it).

Mooooo-ve on up there, Roscoe!

Or is it? We’ve done two things for the 1st time in Matmi’s history this year.

Courtesy of the Siemens British Business Boost Award which we won last year, Jeff has been to management school to learn how to run an agency (yes, really!) Secondly, with wins and nominations in regional, UK and European awards under our belt, we decided to enter global industry awards for the 1st time (and the suspense is awful!)

From their grassroots beginning in a mill building back in 2001, the 3 original Matmians would never have dreamt we’d get a nomination as an Official Honoree of the worldwide Webby Awards – the Oscars of the digital industry. OK, we haven’t won (yet) but for a young and specialist agency, it’s pretty good going, thanks!

Meanwhile, we carried off a How Do Award for Best Commercial Game or App for the United Airlines Optathlon campaign with our American partner, Barrie D’Rozario Murphy. And we’ve entered the Cannes Lions for the first time for both Optathlon & Gorillaz (EMI Music).

We are yet young

Jeff’s management training has also made us realise that Matmi is yet young. The consultants at Your Business Your Future who’ve mentored Jeff have been astonished by Matmi – in particular, our Matmian culture and the way our multi-talented team handles everything in-house from animation to zeeding (sorry – couldn’t come up with a ‘z’…).

Now adding management magic to Matmi magic, we really do have a rocket-fuelled future on our flight plan. We may be new to 2 year financial targets, Key Performance Indicators and official role titles – but these simple improvements are going to have a potent and positive effect on our client work.

It also means that Matmi’s role at the (successful) experimental edge of digital marketing is assured. We won’t be able to travel faster than time, but we’ll be able to invest even more in amazing Matmians, technology and skills to fly our Odyssey M-Wing spacecraft (just made that up – we need a spaceship) to any point in the Matmisphere and get even more stunning results for clients.

“Set phazers to pun! Matmi’s 2nd decade is a new dawn!”

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Pretty darned well, thank you! Matmi carried off a gong for Best Commercial App & Game at last night’s How Do Awards event at Old Trafford Cricket ground.

It was mentioned by the judges and funnily enough, we’d only been talking about it in the office. How is it that a specialist agency in a small market town in Cheshire is working with the likes of United Airlines (the Optathlon campaign we created for them with our US partner, BD’M, won last night’s award), MAC Cosmetics, Gorillaz and other global brands – soon to add a well-known skin care label (watch this space)?

Answer: the word world in www.

10 years ago, our first release went global because people liked it and passed it on, so Matmi’s always considered the world to be its stage. Sure, we can get to continents and even discreet countries – we can even create digital marketing materials that self-select the client’s desired demographic.

Could you put your hand on your heart and say you knew that? Don’t worry – not many people do. But now you know who to call, just like United Airlines’ agency BD’M, the guys at EMI Music, Comic Relief (another ‘watch this space’… ) and more.

It was a sweet moment to win on home turf last night in North West England though, because we’re a grassroots kind of outfit. We didn’t make Matmi successful; you did and we won’t forget it.

Another thing I won’t forget is being the most under-dressed guest at the awards ceremony last night. I’m not going to bore you with the details, but if there was a ‘Scruffy’ category, I’d have won by a mile. And don’t ask me what’s going on in this pic – it’s a corker! (Me – left, Mark from Peach – the category sponsor, and Stewart, right).

Big thanks to Nick, Ben, Dunstan, Rachel and all the team at How Do for our 1st How Do win last night – and thank you for all your support over the years. You’re a grassroots organisation too – which is probably why we get on .

Great event and we’re delighted with our award. Enjoy (the Bank Hol), Jeff

We’re not usually fans of committees and all that stuff, but in this case, we reserve the right to be fickle.

TIGA, The Independent Game developers Association, represents the UK games industry with a mission to “make the UK the best place in the world to do games business”. We’re all for that – and we even parted with some hard-earned cash to become a TIGA member this year.

Fortunately for us, one of TIGA’s shakers and movers is none other than our old mate, Mike Hawkyard at 4T2. Officially, our companies should be competitors, but we have a lot of respect for each other’s work and complementary skills, so we collaborate instead.

Mike’s the chair of TIGA’s new Casual Games committee (which is one reason for liking it) and because he’s worked in casual for as long as Matmi, he knows what he’s talking about (an even better reason) and he says his role is not to be a talking shop, but to “deliver results” (now we’re talking! Well, actually, you’re delivering – but – well, you know what we mean….)

Mike – you’ve got yourself a deal! Pulling the UK’s high quality casual gaming companies together to support each other and win some seriously large contracts on the world stage is a great idea. Matmi already has great working relationships with some of the world’s largest gaming sites, we’ve got contacts all over the planet, and we’re very happy to trade skills and best practice. What else can we do to help?

Just let us know – and we look forward to seeing you and our future colleagues at the launch event on 13th May.

Game on! Literally…… Jeff.