The VOLTAGE x HIKAKIN christmas card was ranked 2nd in Adweek’s to 10 agency Christmas cards of the year!  We’re thrilled and if you haven’t seen it yet – check it out here!  Christmas mix and video. We owe a great big THANKS to HIKAKIN for his Beatboxing Badness and to all of our clients who made this year a great year! Thanks Reebok, Worthy, Centura, Xcel, Trice, Smashburger, SmartClick, Fresh Produce, Umpqua, Bold Earth, Cloud 9 Living, WW Reynolds, Covidien, The Wild Animal Sanctuary, our friends and partners at VJ, and many many others!! 2011 was sublime, wishing you all the best! We’ve also added a new Christmas mashup from DJ Riko here!! Enjoy and have a great holiday! Thanks to the Egotist for posting as well.

In September 2011, VOLTAGE and VJ launched Centura Health’s Distracted Driving Challenge as part of the health care provider’s BetterMe Blueprint Program.  This comprehensive online program uses a foundation of email and social media to tap into drivers’ personal relationships and help them stay committed to the challenge. The driving challenge is the first in a quarterly effort to raise awarness of Colorado’s largest healthcare provider and kicks off the first of a set of unique campaign challenges that you’ll be hearing about in the future.

People who’ve register for this Challenge on the Web landing page or Facebook tab, receive weekly emails over four weeks that enable them and others in their network to track their progress. The campaign creates a personal connection to try and change behavior.  Names are chosen randomly for a $50 gift card, and one person who completes all four weeks of the programs will be selected for unique prizes.

Check it out at http://drivingchallenge.centuraconnected.org/

VOLTAGE has also worked with Centura to digitally integrate VJ’s connected campaign which links Colorado’s largest health care provider to its family of brands, including 13 hospitals across the state. To do this we’ve designed Centura.org, which was developed on the MedSeek platform, and added a host of hospital landing pages, campaign pages and other digital media including online banner display ads, rich ad units, and facebook apps.

Now, go on. Get connected to a thing called life!

VOLTAGE is on the prowl for junior or senior level WEB PROGRAMMERS and FRONT END DEVELOPERS to permanently join the team. If you have mastered the matrix of web programming and cross browser compatability and want a chill work environment with some great colleagues – then please drop us a resume of your mad skills at this address : info@voltagead.com

You could be one of the lucky ones to join a rapidly growing team of creative and dedicated individuals.  We work in an office that’s based in downtown Louisville, Colorado – Money magazines #1 place to live in 09, and it’s only gotten better. Just a short jaunt from Boulder and about 20 minutes from Downtown Denver. Can’t live here – that’s o.k. – if you’re really good you can work remotely in your underwear or pajamas, or whatever you prefer – just show us your code, and quick, because we’re moving at ludacris speed. Yes, we’ve passed plaid.

The perfect candidates will possess the following qualifications :

- 2-3 years experience developing websites with a good dose of HTML(5), XHTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and PHP
- Lots of positive energy and attitude.
- A quick learner, is flexible and eager to attack digital challenges
- Experience collaborating with a design team to produce online campaigns,
- Has worked with wordpress and other CMS systems, or custom backends
- experience building custom Facebook pages/apps and integrating popular API’s
- attention to detail and design – loves webfonts and wants to push good type on the web
- prays daily that ie. 6 is wiped completely off the face of the earth

Advanced Programmers . . .

- You really understand PHP, MySQL, Javascript, HTML, CSS, XML and Performance on the web.
- You consider yourself a website “engineer” you speak every dialect of technology
- Relish in server side management and care taking
- You really like the song Kip sang at his wedding in Napoleon Dynamite
- Even Ivan Drago couldn’t break your code!!

Also looking for a Secretary/Phone answerer.

The perfect candidate will want more than ever to answer the VOLTAGE office line and manicure nails at the same time. We won’t be surprised and will welcome any aspiring novelists, poets, or time travelers. A desire to learn basic SEO / web analytics a plus. Did we mention FREE frozen yogurt?

Email us here : info@voltagead.com

We’re excited to announce a new iPhone app developed by VOLTAGE for Xcel Energy is now available in the App Store. The FREE game – Bulb Blasters recalls the good ol’ fashioned awesomeness of 80′s arcade play as you try and blast less efficient incandescent bulbs off the screen with your energy saving CFL Cannon.  Bulb Blasters is a fun and thumb numbing way to remind people to use energy efficient CFL bulbs and get energy tips between each level.  Download it today!! it’s FREE

About Bulb Blasters

With your energy-efficient CFL (Compact Fluorescent) light bulb cannon, blast away those old-school energy-sucking bulbs. See how many you can outlast. And between games get “Energy Tips” on how to better reserve this important resource.

Find it under “Bulb Blasters” at the iPhone app store.

VOLTAGE has designed and launched a new look and website for The Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. Along with our colleagues Vladimir Jones, we’ve taken the Royal Gorge’s web presence to new heights, and depth – and that’s pretty deep. The Royal Gorge Bridge is one of the world’s highest suspension bridges – hanging 956 feet high and spanning a quarter mile across the canyon. The park is an experience unlike any destination you’ll ever experience with 360 acres and 21 rides, shows and attractions to explore. The site features the parks excitement, history and allows visitors to buy tickets online, get directions, or surf key information on their mobile devices through an optimized mobile version of the site.

Check it out : www.royalgorgebridge.com

We’ve been so busy the last few months we’ve fallen a bit behind on our blog. At the beginning of the  year we launched a mobile site for Xcel Energy’s Responsible by Nature site. Having done many mobile sites, we we’re thrilled to fully employ jQuery and it’s super cross platform / cross device usability. The simple architecture makes it easy for users from Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North & South Dakota, Texas or Wisconsin to quickly access rebates and energy information specific to their region across all current mobile devices.

VOLTAGE is excited to announce it will be adding more account services and a strategic partner – Vladimir Jones – in 2011.  We are turning things up a notch. Yes, In the infamous words of Spinal Tap lead guitarist Nigel Tufnel – we are taking the business to “11” in 2011.

Vladimir Jones is Colorado’s most enduring, privately held, full-service agency specializing in integrated marketing, advertising, communications and insight. The agency staff of over 70 people is multidisciplinary and represents expertise in all facets of marketing communications strategy and implementation. VJ’s depth and experience will give VOLTAGE the business edge to grow with the increasing digital demand. To learn more about VJ, visit vladimirjones.com. To read more pub click here

2011 will definitely be “one louder” for VOLTAGE this year. THX VJ!

Last year VOLTAGE designed and helped launch the new UPG brand with Umpqua Feather Merchants. The products were a huge success selling out quickly and receiving “Best New Flybox of 2010″ from Feild & Stream Magazine. Thanks to the die-hard flyfishing mentality and insight of Umpqua’s product design team – the flybox has once again evolved!

This year UPG launches 5 new box designs: The Midge (your compact midge fridge), The Daytripper (designed for the rocky mountain daytrip in mind), and the Double Wide, Flats, and Streamer boxes (for all your Saltwater needs!) VOLTAGE has designed and developed a campaign for the new product launch and micro-site – www.flyboxevolution.com. Check it out as it evolves!

Fresh Produce Clothing is a women’s lifestyle brand known and loved by women ages 6 months to 60-plus for lush colors, year-round sensibility, and simply inspired design.

A $50 million dollar company in it’s third decade – Fresh Produce has retail stores in La Jolla, Beach Haven, Martha’s Vineyard, Santa Barbara and other exclusive seashore resorts in North America and the Caribbean.

VOLTAGE Advertising & Design has developed a new look for Fresh Produce’s 2010/11 campaign – Live Life, Enjoy Color. The new look references the organic feel of homegrown farmers markets and introduces the brand to a younger audience.

Along with SmartClick Adwords the new design and online marketing strategy has garnered tremendous sales results in the digital space for the brand.

VOLTAGE designed the Getaway by Color sweepstakes – that featured four colorful trips facebook followers could win. The contest added 6,000 fans to their fan base and 4,500 entries.

Weekly email marketing blasts that were designed by VOLTAGE have dramatically increased open rates and click through rates.

We have enjoyed working with a brand that focuses on so much positive energy and the coastal lifestyle. It’s definitely rubbed off on the design team – going from predominantly black attire to varying shades of gray, even an army green shirt has popped up around the office.

Thanks Fresh Produce for the good vibe!

VOLTAGE had the opportunity to work with TDA Advertsing & Design in developing a website for the Sir Richards condom brand which has recently been recognized by Commarts magazine – the leading trade journal for visual communications. Good to know we had our own little part in saving the world one condom at a time. TDA is an amazing shop and we enjoyed working with their team on a few projects like this. See the feature here on Commarts website.