Designkitchen Blog - Home

Cristin Siegel Talks Turning Traffic to Sales

2010-08-12T15:21:00Z

This month our Director of User Experience and Research, Cristin Siegel, will participate in a Target Marketing Group Webinar session called, Landing Pages That Convert: Turn more of your traffic into leads and sales.

As part of the 60 minute educational program, Cristin will weigh in on everything from integration between solicitation efforts and the landing page to mobile Web considerations.

Want to know more? Click here for more details.

Life Fitness Gets Into Shape with DK

2010-08-03T17:28:00Z

Partnering with DesignKitchen for over 5 years, Life Fitness recently called upon DK to whip its brand into shape with an updated look and improved user experience. A leader in creating commercial and home fitness equipment, Life Fitness wanted a site that mirrored the quality of their machines and was just as easy to maintain. Additionally, Life Fitness needed to improve its position as a fitness-knowledge expert by catering more to the needs of exercisers.

To give the site a bigger visual punch, DK first added full-screen background images with scenes from gyms around the world. Complementing this, navigation and search employs product imagery to help the users find the right equipment. Site search was given an extra boost with a revamped tagging system that focuses on product attributes as well as keywords.

Focusing exclusively on educating users, the Fitness Advisor section, complete with celebrity trainer advice, provides the latest in healthy living tips and news. Deeper in the site, the design integrates instructional videos on product pages to quickly inform users of the selected equipment‘s target areas and proper usage.

Behind the scenes, the new LifeFitness.com makes use of a content management system that centralizes and simplifies the updating process for all of their international locations.

Making exercise fun and easy yet again, the new Life Fitness is sure to leave the competition in the dust.

DK’s Cristin Siegel Dishes on the Great Experience Model

2010-07-30T18:53:00Z

Director of User Experience and Research, Cristin Siegel, has published another eCommerce inspired article with Target Marketing Magazine. This month’s piece focuses on bolstering one’s digital strategy with a robust experience model.

Target Marketing Magazine is dedicated to bringing marketing professionals hands-on, how-to information on direct marketing strategies and solutions that deliver profitable results.

You can dive into her latest writeup right here.

DK Crushes 360 Youth Engagement

2010-07-29T21:47:00Z

Every day kids are crushing their favorite tracks, friends, celebs and shows. But most of all, they’re crushing their fashion icons. Inspired by the style crush phenomenon, Sears teamed up with the folks at Y&R Chicago and Designkitchen to create a socially integrated back to school campaign that focuses on great kids, great Sears style and great prizes.

Hosted by “It Girl” Kylie Jenner, the Sears Crush Your Style Competition is the central focus of the back to school initiative. Calling on kids across the United States to participate in fashion-forward style challenges for a chance to become America’s Top Style Crush, the digital campaign — which also boasts a robust mobile site + submission process — invites kids to share their style challenge entries and crush each other’s looks via web, email and cell.

DK lead the charge with a multifaceted digital approach that targets both advocates and influencers. Utilizing the most cutting edge technologies across multiple platforms, the site hosts various distribution networks including Twitter and YouTube to keep tweens in the know as the campaign unfolds.

In the coming weeks the Sears Crush Your Style web site will continue to add new style challenges, an interactive video style room, exclusive video content and more amazing prizes. Stay tuned.

Goodyear Microsite Supports the Armed Forces

2010-07-29T14:49:00Z

In partnership with Wunderman, Designkitchen is thrilled to announce the launch of the Goodyear Support Our Troops® sweepstakes microsite. As the official tire of NASCAR®, Goodyear was given the opportunity to film 20+ NASCAR® drivers as they say thank you to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces.

Featuring the driver thank you messages, the site provides users the ability to send the videos along with a message of their own to friends and family in the Armed Forces. To top off the experience, fans can enter the sweepstakes daily for a chance to win a 2011 Ford Taurus, a NASCAR® autographed, Goodyear Support Our Troops® branded tire and other great prizes.

Cameron Friedlander to Speak at Stream

2010-07-27T15:15:00Z

Our very own Cameron Friedlander has been invited to speak at the WPP Stream unconference in Greece, this fall. And he has, without hesitation, accepted.

For the fourth year in a row, the Stream event, hosted by WPP Digital, will bring together three hundred of the brightest, most innovative minds in the creative, media and technology industries. With no formal agenda, the unconference attendees will debate and develop ideas and opportunities in culture, innovation and the internet.

Here, Cameron will learn from and contribute to some of the most original thinking about the future of technology and communications. And we couldn’t be prouder!

To Fifty More

2010-07-23T14:41:00Z

He’s founded an interactive agency, with a total of four kitchens. He’s co-authored an award-winning book. He’s rode through the Baja 500 on a dirt bike. And today, our very own Sam Landers has accomplished something else that no DK man has ever before. He’s turned 50.

And, while his first half-century achievements are increasingly admirable, so too is his hair. So, Sam, here’s to the next 50. Your first half looked great but it’s time to bring down the house.

IxDA Chicago Summer Party

2010-07-20T19:23:00Z

This Thursday, come join us at IDEO Chicago for a drink, a chat and a little friendly competition with fellow designers and design appreciators.

Sponsored by IxDA Chicago, IDEO and Designkitchen.

Event Details:
July 22, 2010 7-9pm
IDEO Chicago
626 W Jackson Blvd, Floor 7
Chicago, IL
978.930.3729

Click here to RSVP.

Mowing Across AdFreak

2010-07-20T18:57:00Z

Brian Morrissey, digital editor of AdWeek, gave Y&R Chicago and DK a little shout with his AdFreak blog post on the Craftsman Across America campaign and that dude, Lucas Van Engen.

Click here to check out the full post.

Connecting Across America

2010-07-13T14:22:00Z

In partnership with Sears, Y&R and Designkitchen have given one adventurous New Yorker the tools to do what no man has done before him — ride across America on a lawn tractor.

Created to prove that the Craftsman mower can handle whatever you throw at it, the Craftsman Across America campaign documents Lucas Van Engen’s experience as he travels cross-country at 9 mph. Recording Lucas’ progress daily, our team integrated three popular social tools into one cohesive experience. Utilizing Posterous for daily content updates, Facebook for promotion and Google Maps for location-based information, we’re giving users the tools to track Lucas’ journey.

Lucas captures his daily adventures through photos and videos and seamlessly posts them to Posterous using his smartphone and laptop. The same rich content is automatically displayed on Craftsman’s Facebook page, providing Craftsman followers with access to Lucas’ real time updates throughout his trip. Google Maps then updates the locations that Lucas has visited and where he’s heading next.

Click here to follow Lucas along the way.

DK and Office Depot® Do It Again

2010-06-17T09:41:00Z

Designkitchen partnered with Office Depot® for the second year in a row to deliver the Official Small Business of NASCAR® Courtesy of Office Depot® online sweepstakes. An interactive Flash experience, this sweepstakes microsite sets the stage for one lucky small business owner to meet the opportunity of a lifetime. And this year, the stakes are higher than ever.

Two small business owners will be randomly selected as finalists and Office Depot® sponsored Tony Stewart and 3M sponsored Greg Biffle will go head-to-head to determine their fate during the 400 NASCAR® Sprint Cup Series™ race at Dover International Speedway on September 26. The two finalists will each receive a slew of prizes including a $10K small business makeover and the winner will take home the grand prize of $1 million!

Garnering media attention from top racing sites like Sports Business Daily and The Fast and the Fabulous, this sweepstakes is sweeping the nation. Yet again.

DMNews Talks Blue Crew

2010-06-14T14:34:00Z

DMNews, a leading print and online resource for new trends and technologies in marketing, gave the Sears Blue Crew HQ site launch a little shout out last week.

A product of Y&R Chicago’s digital platform and Designkitchen’s execution, the Sears Blue Crew HQ site boosts Sears’ online customer service, providing a highly interactive home for its dynamic team of unsung customer service heroes.

Gold Effie for DK

2010-06-10T23:21:00Z

Designkitchen, in partnership with Young & Rubicam Chicago and MPG, took home a Gold Effie Award for work on the 2009 Sears Back to School Campaign and web site.

Featuring popular teen celebrity Selena Gomez as a hip guide to fashion and music, Sears teamed up with DK to create a fast-paced, multi-tiered digital presence that promotes fresh fall fashion styles, ramps up tweens for the start of the new school year and reaches them with the things they value the most: music, celebrity and social media.

With the integration of broadcast media, rich media programming and social media channels, the Sears Back to School Campaign and dot com experience has emerged as a key example of next-generation online retailing — reversing downward back to school sales Sears had been experiencing in previous years.

Helping Set the Web Standard

2010-06-01T13:22:00Z

Round of applause for our very own Cameron Friedlander who has been selected to judge the 2010 WebAward Competition. An international award program, Cameron will sit side by side with industry experts from around the world — including members of the media, advertising execs, web designers, content providers and webmasters — to name this year’s best web sites in 96 industries.

Designkitchen Honored for Motorola Social Media Campaign

2010-05-27T10:06:00Z

DK received an honorable mention for the Motorola – Share the Experience web site in the Social Media Campaign category at the CableFAX ‘Best of the Web' Awards.

Developed to provide a long-term social media site that allows visitors to follow Motorola’s involvement and activities during and after key industry events, the Share the Experience digital presence is a dynamic social space for customers, conference attendees and media alike. Pulling in feeds from various Motorola social platforms as well as blog posts and news releases, the solid web experience is an interactive hub for all things Motorola.

We are proud to receive this recognition in partnership with Motorola. Thank you, CableFAX.