codegent is a full service web development new media agency, based in clapham, london, uk, that delivers well-designed content managed sites, microsites and flash games supported by robust technology and integrated marketing solutions including search engine optimisation, pay-per-click and html email.
Our clients at Youth Music are always coming up with new and innovative ways to get young people involved with music and this summer's Youth Music Box is no exception.
Based at the Southbank Centre for the next 6 weeks Youth Music Box is an 'interactive musical experience', allowing you to create your own unique track and video in under 10 minutes.
You can then go onto the website, find your video, tag yourself against it and share it with your friends. For those that can't make it to the Southbank Centre there is also an online version where you can create and record your own music. We are currently working on integration of the site with Facebook to help spread the joyous sounds even further afield.
So after a hard weeks work getting the site ready for launch last Thursday, we felt it was only right to pop along and try it out for ourselves. Our verdict - great fun for everyone but remember... you are being filmed!
Exciting times here at Codegent, we've just completed and launched a new website for Nickelodeon.
Nickelodeon presented us with an interesting challenge, they needed a website that could showcase their on-air summer content. This content consisted of (amongst other things) a competition to find SpongeBob Square Pants' biggest fan. Here's an example of one of our favourite entries so far. The other main part of the site was TEENick, a magazine style show aimed at teenage girls.
The challenge came in finding a way to create a cohesive site that would encourage the 2 different audiences to engage and interact with these seemingly disparate elements.
We wanted to incentivise people to travel through to the different parts of the site so we designed 5 SpongeBob cards that we 'hid' on various pages. When a user found a card they could click on it and were then given the option to download and print the card. 4 of the 5 cards incorporated a marker which, when printed and held up to a webcam, would display a 2D message from a character from SpongeBob. Finding the fifth card unlocked an augmented reality, 3D SpongeBob which the user could interact with by pressing their space bar. You can view a demo of the SpongeBob AR here:
These cards helped us to tie the site together and to generate page impressions, however we didn't want to incentivise people to travel through the site if we couldn't be sure that they were engaging with the content, so we constructed a points system that rewarded good behaviour, such as commenting, rating entries, entering the competition etc. Points are accumulated during the visit and when you reach certain milestones you unlock Nickelodeon 'goodies'.
We also wanted the user to feel a bond with the site which is why we added a badge creator. This allows users to create a badge with their unique username and design, this badge is displayed whenever they leave comment on an article. Here's an example of the badges in action.
The competition has had hundreds of entries and from the stats we've got so far, page impressions and time spent on site is looking good. The augmented reality aspect has had great feedback in terms of how it looks but also how it gives the user something new, exciting and valuable in exchange for their time and attention.
Well... actually a Vice Chair. At the BIMA (British Interactive Media Association) AGM last week, David was successfully elected to Vice Chair and will serve with Justin Cooke as Chair. Justin is Managing Director of agency, Fortune Cookie. The executive committee saw 9 new members joining the team.
David said: "We were amazed at the calibre of people standing for election for this year's executive committee. The experience and the will is there to enable us to make some significant changes and re-engage with everyone involved in the industry. This year we want to really push the idea of the UK being a world-class centre for digital innovation and build on the superb work that has been done by BIMA already in fostering future talent among schools. We're also going to really look at how we can bring more benefits to members in the areas of publicity, networking and education."
David joined the BIMA executive committee a year ago. It's great that one of our own has received this accolade from his peers and whilst it means that he'll have to spend less time doing Codegent stuff, we all think that improving the industry in which we all work is a worthy cause and well worth the effort.
Last night we had the pleasure of taking out some of our wonderful clients from Youth Music for a night of good old fashioned campness.
We have had the pleasure of working with Youth Music for over 4 years now working on some really exciting projects with them, most recently Music Is Power and Underage Festival a competition giving teenagers the opportunity to perform at the Underage Festival this summer.
So when we heard that Priscilla - Queen of the Desert, the cult Australian film had just opened at the Cambridge Theatre in London - it was too much of a good opportunity to miss. There is a small taster of the experience in the video above :)
It turned out that we were all slightly under dressed for the night!? But a great time was had by all and we ended the night with cocktails - just because it seemed the right thing to do!
A great night, perfectly summed up by Dulcie from Youth Music
"I've vowed to make sure I have more sequins and leopard skin in my life now"
Our work on Ben10 - My Favourite Alien was showcased as part of Cartoon Network's showreel entry into the shortlist of this year's BAFTA Kids' vote. The showreel highlighted the best creative work from across Cartoon Network this year so it was an honour for our project to be included.
The BAFTA Kids' Vote embraced all media platforms and celebrated the rich diversity of children's media. For the first time, children got to have their say in a nationwide poll to choose their favourite film, television programme, website and video game.
A big shout should also go to the glorious Aidan from Sheffield whose "flaming" antics in his back garden were the standout highlight of the campaign :)
We build a fair few sites that facilitate all kinds of user generated content, but we wanted to share an absolute jewel with you!
We designed and built a competition microsite for Cartoon Network's Ben10, a program about 10-year old Ben Tennyson, who discovers a watch-like device with mysterious powers which allows him to transform into 10 different alien heroes.
We created a site where users uploaded video impressions of their favourite Ben10 alien, either by recording entries using a webcam or uploading the video file straight from their camera or mobile phone.
In the words of Aidan, aged 5, from Sheffield, "My best alien is Heatblast because he's great at shooting fire at rocks!" And then Aidan himself shoots fire into the corner of his garden from his very own human fingertips! How he does this we are still trying to figure out ;) but we suggest that if you are ever lucky enough to meet awesome Aidan, you are don't get on the wrong side of him!
If you wanna know more about Ben10, then check out the Ben 10 site on Cartoon Network.
We recently worked with Cartoon Network on another site, Sonic Chronicles:The Dark Brotherhood, where users have to search the site for Sonic the Hedgehog characters in order to win cool prizes!
Boomerang (part of the Cartoon Network) asked us to create a site to promote the new series of two of their children's TV shows: 'My Spy Family' and 'Life with Derek'.
In response Codegent designed and built Ask the Cast (www.askthecast.co.uk). The idea was to get children to engage with the characters by allowing them to upload videos of themselves posing questions to the characters in the shows.
Using our FilePipes system, which allows users to easily upload videos either from a webcam or from their phones or videocam and then encodes to flash on the fly, children can record themsleves asking the question and submit it to the site.
Codegent has a wealth of experience working with user-generated content and young people. For Boomerang, we introduced a parental consent stage to uploading the video. Users can rate videos but cannot write comments.
The site has only just been launched and video questions are appearing on the site as they are approved by the Boomerang team. Once the best questions have been answered, the TV characters will answer them online and on the TV shows.
This is a great example of online and broadcast content working together to create a fun and engaging experience for the audience.
Codegent is to design and build the digital elements of Youth Music’s ‘Passport to Music’ initiative. Youth Music has developed its Passport to Music as a major new pledge to the government backed Music Manifesto – a campaign for improvement in music education. Research has shown that children often give up learning instruments when they move from primary to secondary school. ‘Passport to Music’ has been designed to encourage the continuity of children’s learning by giving them a digital record of their learning and allowing them to interact with their peers and mentors.
The new site will feature a video diary using the latest Red5 technology that means children can film themselves using just a webcam that will encode straight to flash. Teachers can review students’ diary entries and comment by leaving their own video entry.
David Hart, Director of Codegent said:
“It was great to be chosen by Youth Music for this very exciting project. We have plans for a lot of clever functionality that will address the problems faced by music educators when their students move from primary to secondary school.”
Trish Thomas, Executive Office at Youth Music added:
“We chose Codegent because of the innovative technical solution they offered and their genuine enthusiasm in responding to the brief. We look forward to a successful relationship with Codegent.”
Youth Music is a UK-wide charity set up in 1999 to provide high quality and diverse music-making opportunities for 0-18 year olds. It targets young people living in areas of social and economic need who might otherwise lack opportunity and predominantly supports activities which are held outside school hours.
Youth Music receives £10m a year National Lottery funding through Arts Council England. It has also levered in more than £13.7m in partnership funding from other sources.
