At Kaleidoscope, we’re all about open, honest and clear communication. So what better way to show you how we operate than through interviews with team members? You want to know who’s working on your campaigns, and we figured this would be a pretty easy way to show you.
Graciously, Andy Malone, our Digital Director, has put himself forward for the first interview! Learn more about Andy and what matters to him below.
So, how long have you been at Kaleidoscope?
I joined the team as Digital Director five years ago. I was brought in to build the digital offering up — starting from scratch; we’ve built up to a team of four now.
I’ll rewind a bit to give you an idea of how I ended up here. During my Computer Science degree, I worked as a freelance web developer. After graduating, I had a pretty strong portfolio, so I decided to lean into it while I considered what my career was going to be, but I never looked back. I started solo as a freelancer, then took on some longer-term contracts, and spent some time as part of in-house teams until settling into full-time agency life, moving from mid-weight developer up to a Head of Digital role in my last agency. It was here I met our current MD, James, and we shared a common love of working on innovative projects that deliver good.
So a few years later, when the opportunity arose to help James and the Kaleidoscope team kick off their digital offering, I couldn’t wait to get started.
Tell us a bit about your job in a nutshell…
As Digital Director, my primary role is to run Kaleidoscope’s digital services and the team that delivers them. I also act as the senior project director for websites, apps, email and social campaigns — basically, anything online or on devices is my territory.
Bethany, our digital project manager, oversees projects day-to-day (and is much better at it than me), but when it comes to strategy, planning and scoping out tech solutions, that’s where I thrive. I also love that for some projects I can still get stuck in and dust off my coding skills!
When it comes to the digital side of the business, what matters most to you?
As a business, our proposition is “communications that matter”, which means working on projects that matter to the wider community and us. So it’s vital that our digital offering reflects that proposition, too.
With that in mind, for me, inclusion and accessibility are two things that matter massively to me. That means building websites, apps and tools that are easy for everyone to use, regardless of their level of understanding or background — from considered UI/UX to mobile performance, keyboard navigation to adhering to accessibility best practices. It all matters when building effective digital communications.
My favourite thing about this job is that you can go beyond just communicating well with digital transformation. Although it’s essential to build traditional campaigns with bus adverts and posters, digital adds another layer of opportunity to campaigns. It gives people something to interact with and can help change people’s lives more directly.
What’s your favourite project you’ve worked on at Kaleidoscope?
A few projects spring to mind here, all for very different reasons. My first is Dyslexia Scotland, partly because I’m working on it at the moment. Their website is their hub for content, resources and membership and needed to be refreshed. As part of that, we are really focusing on optimising the design for the primary audience, which means pushing our design capabilities in terms of accessibility and testing it rigorously with the end-user group we are collaborating with.
Another project which I’m very proud to have worked on is the Happy Hearts Blood Pressure Tool. This tool was part of a wider blood pressure campaign for the region and allows people to have meaningful conversations with a healthcare provider, using an engaging and simple interface to give them a personalised experience. The tool helps drive meaningful conversations that could change their lives.
Another smaller project that I really enjoyed working on was with the University of Liverpool Career Studio, which was exciting because it meant getting into some pretty new tech and was a fusion of both print and online. We produced marketing materials and brochures for the studio, but alongside this, we also did all the environmental branding and, as part of that, created wall vinyls that included digital marker codes, which enabled users to view an augmented reality experience on their phones while in the space. The experience was fully content managed, so the team could maintain it, and also showed the user personalised career advice based on some simple options such as their preferred industry.
Connect with Andy via email or LinkedIn
Communication is no doubt at the heart of what we do here at Kaleidoscope, but driving real change through a mixture of traditional and digital communication is what fuels us to deliver exceptional campaigns. Learn more about our services.