Member Article

Leeds Agency Creates Digital Love Letter for Channel 4

Excitement is in the air in Leeds today, as an app that’s been under wraps for the last month goes live, and the creators hope it’s the tool that the city needs to entice Channel 4 to make a home here for its new regional headquarters.

Working as part of a collaboration, combining some of the best digital agencies across the city with the force of Leeds City Council, award winning digital agency Bolser homed in on their team’s particular skills as part of the citywide campaign underway to encourage Channel 4 to relocate here, with the creation of an unique app.

With the aim of putting Leeds firmly on the map as a city booming in the creative industries, as news is announced that Leeds has made it to the shortlist as one of the final 3 cities for Channel 4’s new regional headquarters, Bolser’s creative pitch sees a ‘digital love letter’ being presented to the broadcaster, thorough a progressive web app; game.allin.leeds.com

Based on the model of popular dating & quiz apps, the interactive app encourages users to Swipe right to match facts and photos to Leeds, to help showcase all that Leeds has to offer Channel 4, alongside swiping left if they think the info is not related to Leeds. With the functionality to share the matched photo or fact on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn with the #4sparks hashtag as well as a link to the app, content sharing will also be a key element of the campaign.

Created as a fun way to highlight Leeds assets, and generate crowd sourced engagement around the campaign, this creative approach from Bolser, who work with global clients including Microsoft, KFC and EE, also helps illustrate the talent of creative agencies in the city.

Ashley Bolser, MD of Bolser said: “As the collective of agencies were discussing what was needed to get Channel 4 to understand the huge potential Leeds has to offer, it was pointed out that we were in effect writing a love letter to Channel 4. We need them to understand how passionate we are, and how much of a perfect match we believe Leeds to be for them. As no one writes love letters anymore, we decided we could bring a fresh new take on this approach and update the concept, using our digital skills. We also felt this was a great way to showcase the huge talent we have in the creative industries in the city, something very important when it comes to attracting such a key player to the North. This app uses skills across digital, mobile and creative, topped off with heavy focus on creating a fantastic user experience- something we are trusted to create for our global clients daily. Whilst we have applied all the same expertise as we would to a paid client this project has very much been a labour of love, with no external funding”.

A citywide campaign is underway to encourage Channel 4 to make Leeds it’s new home and showcasing the city’s creative talent is a group of Leeds agencies, supported by Leeds City Council Councillor Judith Blake and Council Leader Tom Riordan, along with Leeds University.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Bolser Agency .