We dove into the deep end of the talent pool and came up with four new senior creatives, each dripping with experience (I swear, no more water puns).

Mark Abernethy, Creative Director
Mark has spent time with multiple top digital agencies and, more recently, has been slumming it as a freelancer in Toronto. His vast experience in design includes work with Nike, NASA, Aeroplan, Saab, BMW/Mini Canada and Chapters Indigo.

Mackenzie Olson & Rich Albornoz, Art Directors
A husband and wife design team that’s worked for agencies and clients based all over Western Canada. Their combined project experience includes work with Hyatt, Albertsons, Dell, Corus Entertainment and the Alberta Children’s Hospital.

Tyler Hellard, Senior Copywriter
In addition to copywriting, Tyler also has experience as a content, editorial and social media strategist. He has previously worked with Dell, Mercedes-Benz, iStockphoto, Moxie’s and the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority.

These four join Zach Perkins (who was getting a bit lonely) as the core of zu’s creative efforts. We’re excited about the experience and ideas they bring, helping us move forward with an ambitious creative vision.

Morris Industries is at the forefront of innovation in the agricultural equipment market. The company’s forward thinking attitude and passion for customer service made them a perfect match for zu. The Morris team worked closely with our strategy department to craft the structure and content of the site and to ensure users could quickly and easily navigate Morris’ extensive product line.

The new site features large, dramatic imagery and intuitive navigation, as well as a Russian site to speak to international customers. Other features include:

• A Searchable “Find a Dealer” map
• Listings of upcoming trade shows
• A new Careers section
• A News section
• Become a Dealer and Dealer Login sections

Congratulations to the Morris team—it was a pleasure working with you!

Ted is the Director, founder and former CEO of Critical Mass, one of the largest and most successful digital agencies on the globe. He has worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was the strategic online force behind websites that included Mercedes-Benz USA, Nike, Proctor & Gamble and NASA. Ted stepped down as the CEO of Critical Mass in 2003 to take on the role of Co-owner and Managing Partner for the Calgary Stampeders until last year. Now, Ted is turning his attention to the digital space again, and he is excited about new technologies in the field.

“The technical knowledge that zu brings to the table was a major factor in the decision. The digital world has become a very fascinating place in which to develop consumer and personal communication opportunities. This is a great opportunity to build on zu’s strong technical and creative base and merge the two strengths for a more comprehensive international vision.”
– Ted Hellard, incoming Managing Partner, zu

Ted will play a key role in driving zu to leading-edge digital development—creatively, operationally and strategically. He will be working with executive team members Ryan Lejbak, Tony Zuck and JL Schmidt.

“By bringing in Ted as a managing partner, we also bring on board his business acumen and international recognition. We look forward to using some of Ted’s ideas and our talented staff to produce some amazing websites, web apps and mobile apps. Our message to the digital world, basically, is that we are open to partnerships.” – Tony Zuck, President & CSO, zu

JL has worked in digital media for more than a decade. The bulk of her career was spent at Critical Mass (www.criticalmass.com), managing account teams for Nike, Adidas, Mercedes-Benz USA, and UnitedHealthcare. Alongside NIKE in 2001, JL lead a talented team at Critical Mass to a Cannes Cyber Lions Grand Prix award for its work on NIKEiD (nikeid.nike.com). As the company began focusing more specifically on excellence in production quality, she led a 23-person project management department and then applied her experience to overall project operations as VP of Project Planning.

“This is an exciting time for zu, especially in the areas of mobile and web application development. I look forward to working with talented teams across the company to improve execution, accountability and overall operational quality.  I’m impressed with zu’s commitment to more agile processes and the value I see it bringing to our clients.”
– JL Schmidt, COO, zu

As COO, JL will oversee the day-to-day operations of the company, work with production teams to realize better efficiencies, and lend her knowledge and experience to the New Business and HR teams. She will work with CEO Ryan Lejbak and President & CSO Tony Zuck to grow revenues and margins and create a solid position for zu in the North American digital landscape.

“We are extremely excited to have JL come on board. Her experience in working with international clients coupled with our talented staff puts in place for zu the missing piece to a solution for significant growth.”
– Ryan Lejbak, CEO, zu

Cameco is one of the world’s leading nuclear energy companies, with premier uranium mining and production facilities throughout the world. Their 2010 online annual report launched in April of this year, features a highly visual landing page that includes interactive graph features, as well as the “Double U” branding and an introductory video featuring CEO Jerry Grandey. The online annual report (OAR) received a Best in Class IMA in the Financial category, with a score of 493 out of 500.

PotashCorp is the world’s largest fertilizer company by capacity, producing the three primary nutrients. Their 2010 online annual report launched earlier this year and boast a new interactive Management Q&A feature on the home page, as well as a live graphing data tool for their 11-year report. PotashCorp’s OAR received a Best in Class IMA in the Financial category, with a score of 496 out of 500.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders is one of the most followed teams in the CFL, selling over 60% of all branded football merchandise in the league. In 2010, the Riders launched its new online store so fans can get their green gear from anywhere, on the go. The site received a score of 479 out of a possible 500 and an IMA for Outstanding Achievement in the E-Commerce category.

TransCanada Corporation is one the leading energy infrastructure companies in Canada. This June, they launched their 2010 online annual report, which showcases a rollover image feature and simple intuitive navigation and site structure. With a score of 488 out of 500, TransCanada’s online annual report received a Best in Class IMA in the Financial Category.

Congratulations to Cameco, PotashCorp, The Riders and TransCanada on their award-winning websites. It was a pleasure working with you on your projects!

THE SITUATION
With one of the largest fan followings in the league, the Stamps were looking for a way to get merchandise to their fans quickly, efficiently and on the fly. The only official Stampeders store where fans could purchase merchandise was at Calgary’s McMahon stadium. The Stampeders approached zu, looking to test the waters with a new e-commerce site.

THE JOB
zu enlisted the expertise of GrowDevelopment, out of Texas, to develop the backend, which was created in Magento. For the design portion of the project, zu’s design team created pages that remained consistent with the current Stampeders’ site.

THE RESULT
Fans are now able to browse and purchase merchandise through the online store as well as connect with the store on Facebook. It just got a whole lot easier for fans to don that red jersey they were eyeing up!

The Gold Quill Awards are a global competition held by IABC to recognize outstanding achievement in communication. Cameco recently received the Merit award for its communication effort at Cigar Lake– Mine crisis calls for journey to the centre of the Earth: Restoring confidence after Cigar Lake floods.

Cigar Lake is the world’s largest undeveloped high-grade uranium deposit. The mine is currently in development and is projected to start producing uranium in 2013.

In 2006 and 2008 the mine suffered severe flooding. Cameco solved the operational issues, improved its processes and kept investors and members informed on the developing situation, by hosting tours of the mine site. Those who were unable to visit the site were kept informed via frequent updates to the Cameco website. The company’s forward thinking earned them the Gold Quill award in the category of Issues Management and Crisis Communication.

Congratulations Cameco team!

The Health Quality Council of Saskatchewan (HQC) was awarded Best in Class in the Healthcare category for their Quality Insight Tool. The Quality Insight Tool was launched in December 2010. This web application was developed as a performance management system to help healthcare professionals make informed decisions about healthcare in Saskatchewan. The entry was awarded a score of 485/500. For details about HQC and the Quality Insight Tool, head over to our earlier post, Web Based insights into health care.

In the Hotel/Resort category, Elk Ridge Resort was granted the Outstanding Achievement award. The resort’s website was chosen from among 186 entries and achieved a score of 476 out of 500. The Elk Ridge Resort website underwent a complete overhaul with zu in late 2009. For details about the site’s development, check out our previous post, The Elk Ridge Treatment.

Teck Resources brought home the IMA for Outstanding Achievement in the Investor Relations category. Chosen from among 43 entries, the Teck IR site earned a score of 479 out of 500. Collaborating with zu, Teck relaunched its site in 2011 with a brand new design and strategy. For details about the project, check out our previous post, Teck’s New IR Site.

Cheers to everyone involved in the projects!

Head to the IMA website to see a full list of IMA-winning sites by zu.

Established in Saskatoon as a small cabinet-making shop in the early 1980s, Superior has grown to a company of more than 200 employees in three locations across two provinces. They have also won numerous awards for their products. When Superior came to zu, their old website was dated and the page backgrounds were dark. They wanted a new site that would showcase their abundant kitchen styles and options in a presentation that would breath light and space.

THE PROJECT
The crew at Superior took the same care and attention in their approach to a new website that cabinet makers would take building cabinetry. Several key Superior personnel including two top executives were involved in the initial project digital strategy and analysis. zu provided strategy workshops to educate their staff, while they toured our staff through the company’s factory and showroom to inspire design and content for the new site. The team then set out to discover what could be achieved with the new website within the scope of the project.

Superior’s goal was to position itself as a company that offered more than just cabinets. They provide not just products but service, from the beginning to end. The Superior team remains a support through the entire process to provide an outstanding and highly regarded customer experience.

One of the main objectives for the new site was to allow site visitors to book appointments with a Kitchen Designer online. We added key features to the site, such as the Kitchen Planner, where users can save favourite styles to a Design box, and the Product Showcase, where users can click through photo galleries featuring a wide array of styles, accessories, layouts, and finishes. These features help to streamline the planning and booking process for potential customers before they even begin building or renovating. A Customer Experience section introduces customers to Design and Installation team members and helps them find Superior product dealers and showrooms across the prairies.

THE FEATURES
The Kitchen Planner feature filters sample kitchen designs by budget, colour and layout. Images are filtered by design type—Old World, Urban, Contemporary and Traditional—then pulled in from flickr, an offsite image gallery and repository, to speed up loading time on image-heavy pages. Customers can choose what they like in the Planner and save their images to a Design Box.

The Design Box feature allows customers to collect images that show the kitchen styles they like. When their collection of favourites is complete, they can send their images to a Superior Professional Designer as they book an appointment. This particular feature simplifies and streamlines the process of browsing, planning, deciding and booking an appointment to plan a new kitchen.

Other site features:

• Tool Tips: This home-page feature highlights kitchen details and gives a glimpse into the drawers and the behind cabinet doors of Superior kitchens.
• Find Us: Powered by Google Maps, this tool helps users find the nearest Superior dealer.
• The Design Corner (blog): Enables Superior’s Designers to post blogs and lets viewers follow their favorite Designer’s blog.

THE OUTCOME
The end result of the strategic planning, collaboration and meticulous development was a user-friendly and effective retail presentation site with large photographs to showcase a huge array of available products and associated services. Congratulations to the entire Superior Cabinets crew. It was our pleasure and privilege to work with you!

SMPIA is a member-based, not-for-profit organization, which advocates the production and distribution of interactive media in Saskatchewan. Thursday’s event, Multi-PlatFORUM, is an event put on by SMPIA showcasing prominent speakers and case studies in Canada’s Digital Media industry. Also included in the event is an Interactive Reception, taking place Thursday evening, where attendees can engage in applications and creations developed by Saskatchewan players.

We couldn’t resist the opportunity to head down and mingle with other creatives in the province. For the reception, zu will be showcasing Timmy Me and the Rider app, as well as sneak previews of a few other apps we currently have in the works. If you happen to be in the area, stop by for a visit, check out our creations, and score some zu swag. If you can’t make it to our booth, stay tuned to zulive for updates from the conference.

For more information on the conference head to SMPIA’s website.

zu is sponsoring this worthy cause by sending our Creative Director, Albert Jame, to DJ the event. Literacy is deeply ingrained in all zu roles and informs everything we do to create effective online communication.

We also recognize how literacy skills play an integral role in understanding the business strategies of clients, translating objectives into website goals, staying abreast of interactive trends, and communicating daily with clients and internally. For our clients, literacy is typically assumed: they read our recommendations, provide written feedback and understand our invoices. In a booming information age, we often forget that some people don’t have the skills that those of us reading this blog post take for granted—skills needed for employment, banking, public transportation and purchasing food.

The auction goes down March 31, 6 pm, at the Western Development Museum in Saskatoon, with celebrity packages that include showing Rider Pride, co-hosting Shaw TV’s Stripped Down, and hosting Alice Kuipers and Yann Martel at a book club. Join zu as we support literacy skill development to create a healthier and economically stronger community.

READ Saskatoon is a volunteer organization that provides free literacy development services to individuals, families, workplaces and the community. Purchase tickets for the READ ‘n’ Feed Celebrity Auction.

The Presentation will be taking place on Wednesday March 30^th at 10:45am in the Sheraton Centre Hotel, Toronto. For more information on the CICA and their upcoming events, head to their website.

Cheers fellas, break a leg!

The Stampeders and zu worked closely together to pack the Stamps full-sized website into one tiny, efficient package. Many teams are slow to adapt their current website to mobile format, making the Calgary Stampeders a step ahead in the field. The team is now accessible to fans wherever they happen to travel and on whatever mobile platform they prefer.

While developing the mobile site, many elements were pulled from the existing Stamps site and adapted to the smaller platform. zu tailored a user-friendly interface that would encourage users to interact with their touch-screen devices. This, paired with easy-to-use navigation, would allow a fan sitting in the stands to find out who from the team roster is on the field, or find out the name of a cute Outrider they’ve got their eye on, without missing a play.

Other key features:

• The Outrider’s Cheer and Dance team information
• Real-time stats and scoreboards
• Player bios and blogs
• Game schedules
• Updated rosters

Want to learn more about Stamps Mobile? Head over to their site.

The Back Story
Like many top companies we’ve met, Teck’s website had grown organically in response to comments about the existing site. But this caused the website to come off as unfocused and piecemeal. Though zu was initially brought in to assist with the Investor Relations area, it soon became apparent that a complete re-design would be the most logical and effective tactic.

The Process
In developing a new strategy, we turned to Teck’s offline communication materials. We also integrated elements of President and CEO Don Lindsay’s description of the company when speaking to investors and stakeholders. With these relevant content resources, we created a foundation for a new narrative structure upon which existing materials would be organized.

This structure—combined with existing corporate standards, communication elements highlighted by the IR and web teams, and a dash of zu creative flair—resulted in the clearly focused visual design and hierarchy of materials on the new site. Teck.com emphasizes the core nature and strength of the company—Diversified Mining—paired with its core reality, Responsibility. The site is secondarily a communication vehicle to the stakeholder group, Investors, and this completes the main navigation choices in the site architecture.

zu’s roles included assessment, strategy, design and graphic preparation. Teck supplied subject matter expertise, a wealth of content resources and a programming team to complete the final build on the in-house content management system (CMS). As always, zu provided the complete website production process team and whatever skill elements Teck needed to complete their own team.

The Result
Teck.com: Simple, powerful messaging and visuals crafted for a strategically operated, diversified mining company with unlimited potential. To all involved—good job! And a huge thanks to Greg Keller, Vice President, Investor Relations and Strategic Analysis, and his team at Teck for the opportunity to work together in building a useful and informative IR site.

The Quality Insight tool was featured recently through media outlets across the province, including on CTV news, in the Saskatoon Star Phoenix and in the Regina Leader Post.

Cheers to HQC and its insightful new venture!

For more information on the Quality Insight Tool, please see our previous post, Web-based Insights into Health Care.