It’s down to just a matter of hours until the annual triple j Hottest 100 countdown kicks off, but when you’re enjoying the countdown on your day off tomorrow, make sure you crack open a tinnie for the folks at Made In Katana, who made it all possible.
You may not be familiar with this small, Adelaide-based digital creative agency, but they’re the whole reason you were able to cast your votes for the Hottest 100 – they designed and developed the voting platform currently used by the countdown.
“It’s a great feeling working on projects that engage people all over the world, like the Hottest 100 does,” Simon Davies, head of development at Made In Katana, recently told The Adelaide Advertiser.
Last year’s Hottest 100 campaign saw MIK introducing a “radical interface change”, which yielded the highest number of votes cast in the poll’s history (2,099,707 votes from 188 countries) and a 41 percent increase year-on-year.
“We’ve relaunched an even stronger product this year, riding high on the success of our recently released ARIAs voting platform,” co-founder and creative director Adam Callen said. As triple j recently revealed, this year’s poll is made up of some 2,094,350 votes.
“We’re relishing our role in supporting the state’s music industry and it proves how well Adelaide is embracing its recent UNESCO ‘City Of Music’ status,” Callen added.
Made In Katana have a well-established reputation in the Aussie music industry, having worked on projects for the likes of Thelma Plum, Troye Sivan, Lorde, Thundamentals, Metronomy, Lisa Mitchell, and even the ARIA Awards.
Their projects, which they create out of St Paul’s Creative Centre with a workforce of about 20 employees though some are based in Sydney, range from websites and apps, to album covers, film clips, and social media campaigns.
Project manager Jason Lennon is a recent addition to the MIK team and said that while he was unaware of the company’s work before signing on, he was soon awed by the company’s portfolio and considers himself lucky to be at the “cutting-edge of innovation and technology”.
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“Made In Katana provide unique opportunities for its web developers to work with top industry clients, producing world-class products,” he said, counting MIK’s success as a sign of a rejuvenated creative scene in Adelaide.
“Through the St. Paul’s Creative Centre, we’re really starting to shine. I feel Adelaide is truly re-establishing itself as an innovative powerhouse, blending creativity and technology.”
According to Lennon, MIK’s portfolio is gaining more and more international renown and the company now pick up all of its business through word of mouth. They’re even expecting to double their workforce by the end of the year. “We’ve almost got too much work at the moment,” he said.
