Vexed Digital is an independent digital agency, based in London UK

We have been active in the digital space since the mid 1990’s. Vexed Digital’s founders originally launched Good Technology (GT), one of Europe’s foremost pure digital agencies (billings of $20m) which was sold to international advertising network WPP plc in 2005.

Later that year, fuelled by a continued passion for the ever-evolving digital world, Vexed Digital was formed; an independent business with no outside investors and importantly just our clients to answer to.

With the rise of the social web, Vexed was one of the first agencies to specialise in this area and today continues to innovate across all digital channels, most recently mobile e-commerce.

We have considerable strategic, creative and technical experience and our key strength is in our user-centric approach, ensuring the consumer is at the heart of all our solutions.

With all our clients we commence with their overall business objectives and seek to provide a solution to address these with proven ROI.

Below we list some Vexed Digital areas of expertise

Multi-channel e-commerce

Vexed have developed and maintained Dominos Pizza’s UK and Republic of Ireland’s web sites since 2006, handling £78.5m transactions in 2009 and nearly 30% of their total sales.

It is Domino’s fastest growing and most cost effective sales channel, up 40% year on year.

Our long-term objective is 50% of all sales online and to help achieve this Vexed continue to develop new and innovative initiatives for the business.

The web site had a full design refresh in 2010, with a focus to improve both the user experience and revenue generation through improved cross and up-sell.

Prior to this saw the launch of in-store e-commerce Kiosks for outlets with peak busy periods and in late 2009 Domino’s first ever iPhone app was launched. It has already exceeded initial sales targets and has achieved award nominations at both Revolution and NMA Effectiveness Awards 2010.

Mobile strategy continues to extend through augmented reality activity, Android e-commerce and a solution to generic smartphone users, all to launch in 2010.

Vexed are also lead digital agency for Alternative Hotels Group, with a specific brief to develop the De Vere Hotels, Resorts and Venues brands online.

The brief was to create a new brand identity, a clear online strategy for the key De Vere brands and a CMS driven website incorporating a new booking engine to cater for both bedroom and meeting room booking. The end result was a site with visits up by 50% and bedroom booking revenue by 100%.

The focus for 2010 is to further enhance the booking engine and grow share of e-commerce sales, with an emphasis on cross and upsell across the Group.

Vexed are also developing more branded destinations for De Vere’s experience products such as Golf & Spa, including the ability to book both online.

Social Media

As one of the more active digital agencies within social media we can turn our knowledge, management and expertise to provide the best social solution for a client’s business.

Whether its developing branded online communities, bespoke social campaigns within existing networks or ongoing reputation management and engagement, all aspects of social media fall within our remit.

In 2008 we developed Maggie’s Cancer Care online community providing valuable support to those affected by cancer. This online centre mirrors the services provided by Maggie’s physical centres through one to one groups, forums and Blogs.

Last year Vexed created Virgin Atlantic’s branded community site Vtravelled.com, for staff, customers and prospects. It enables the planning, sharing and storing of a trip and opens up to the public the travel expertise that resides within the Virgin Group – from cabin crew and ground staff to those based in its offices around the world. A bespoke relevancy engine ensures that content served fits with the user’s profile.

Vexed devised a first ever campaign for a UK brand with location based social network Foursquare. Domino’s Pizza rewarded ‘Mayors’ of their outlets with free product, encouraging consumers to check in at their local store more regularly. The offer was heavily promoted by Foursquare and was viewable to anyone in close proximity of a Domino’s outlet, reaching over 100,000 users to date.

Recently we devised a social media campaign for the Californian Tourist Board. The CaliforniaCalling.co.uk site, seeded through Facebook and Twitter allowed budding stars to submit their videos for a chance to win an amazing holiday and to feature in the Tourist Board’s advertising campaign alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Finally one of Vexed Digital’s in-house projects is Owngig.com, which connects artists and fans around ‘live’ music. Fans are empowered to create demand for an act to play in their area, spreading the word virally through social networks, Twitter, blogs and other online channels. Artists can help seed the demand through various bespoke tools and can then track both the response and the buzz around this activity through their own area of the Owngig site. The end result is a better planned and promoted show and an engaged audience more closely connected to the artist.

Mobile

We’ve been developing mobile products for over ten years. But with the recent rise of the iPhone & Android putting mobile e-commerce firmly on the business agenda, this is an area where we’re really able to share our expertise.

From app development to text ordering and even branded augmented reality, these are all areas in which our clients have benefited in the past 12 months.

Our Domino’s Pizza’s iPhone store has racked up 150,000 downloads in the first six weeks of launch and is already accounting for a good share of their online sales. Text ordering has also been in place for over a year now, providing a tool for the non-smartphone audience.

We recently partnered with Cafe Rouge on a new iPhone app game to keep children entertained whilst waiting for their food. Two in a series of apps are now available in the app store.

Vexed are working with a number of book publishers including Macmillan, launching iPhone / iPad apps for a series of short stories. Furthermore July 2010 will see the first ever iPhone / iPad app for the world famous Man Booker Prize. This incorporates both long and short lists as they are announced, excerpts from authors, biogs of the judges and the ultimate winner plus the location of a ‘nearest book store’ to you to make a purchase.

How We Work

Whether you are looking to build an e-commerce site from scratch, maintain an existing site or deliver mobile solutions, we can tailor our project management approach to fit. Our PRINCE2 based processes provide a framework that ensures delivery on time and to budget. However, it’s not just about reaching the finishing line. The quality of what we deliver is at the heart of what we do. So we make sure that we work closely with our clients to meet your expectations – and those of your customers.

If however you do have an immovable deadline, and a fixed budget, we can deliver the project using Agile methodologies to make 100% certain that you hit that date with the most important features in place. If you have multiple related projects to keep track of, we have programme mangement expertise too.

Our partners

To help us get the best for our clients, we work with a number of partners, including Tempero, Radian6, Sysomos, Trackur, Comma Consulting, Google, Foursquare, Amazon AWS and many more depending on the project and the business requirements.

Keeping in touch

We’re passionate about digital and aim to bring fresh thinking to brands to enable them to keep their competitive edge. Technology moves fast, so rather than commit to a list here that will probably be out of date within three months, we suggest you subscribe to our daily news updates or regular newsletter digests.

We’re a sociable bunch – you can follow us on Twitter, check out our Facebook page, read our blog and if you visit us in person, you can even check in on Foursquare. Coming to visit? We’re here on Google Earth, Streetview or Maps. You can even email, phone ( +44 020 7221 4529) or if you prefer send us a letter.