Showing posts with label Marketing 3.0. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marketing 3.0. Show all posts
16.8.09
The 65 Most Annoying things about the Web Today
Using the Web can still be a very annoying experience!
Poor Design
- Illegible text. I can’t read that, it’s too small. And what on earth is that font called?
- Busy backgrounds. Oh MySpace, why do you allow users to create profiles like that? My eyes hurt.
- Obscure links. I’m confused, can I click on that or not? Oh I get it, you don’t want me to view other pages.
- Flyouts that are too large. Holy crap Yahoo! This is a page within a flyout!
- Drop-down menu navigation too many levels deep. OK, if I slowly move my mouse this way first… dammit Jim, I’m a doctor not a magician!
- Complicated navigation. I just want to get to that page, the one over there! Oh I see, you want me to complete the maze first.
- Abused centerpieces. Aren’t centerpieces supposed to serve as mechanisms for promotion, rather than areas to cram an entire page’s worth of content into itself? Call me an idealist, I guess.
- Poor navigation labels. Give me a clue and use labels that make sense!
- Clutter & chaos. With no emphasis or information hierarchy, it’s difficult for me to know what to look at, and what to do next.
- Ugly WAPs. Many companies treat their WAP sites like a deformed step-child they keep in the basement.
- Splash screens. Nice, a road block between your user and your home page.
Unfindable Information
- Dysfunctional site search. (Sigh) Why didn’t this site just use Google?
- Too many blog categories. Isn’t this what tags were meant for?
- Contact info. I just want to speak to them on the phone! And when I say “them” i mean a human.
- Invisible sign in. OK, so I registered, but how do I sign in?
- Hidden account closure. I guess I’m a member for life now?
- Unscannable info. I want to quickly know if this article is relevant. But alas, huge paragraphs, long headlines and no subheadings make for an unscannable chunk of data, and an indigestible piece of gristle.
No Content Strategy
- No focus. Yada, yada, yada. Get to the point, what’s your message and what do you offer?
- Spelling & grammar. Spelling mistakes are hard to forgive and really hurt credibility.
- Ineffective product pages: What am I buying? Why should I buy this? Help me understand, and I’ll move down the purchase funnel!
- Outdated. There’s nothing more thrilling than seeing a blog frozen in time. At some point, a landfill for websites is going to be needed.
- Small photos. Why would I buy something I cannot see?
Auto-Behavior
- Auto-playing home page video. Take note ESPN.com: the first thing I do when coming to your site is scramble to find the video pause button. And that’s when I’m surfing from home.
- Auto browser resizing. And you did that because?
- Customer service nags. Ironic really. Chat pop-ups appear like genies out of a lamp when I don’t need them.
- Theme tunes. Got to love that auto-play music, especially when it cycles over and over and over, and over.
- Auto opt-ins. It seems like an automatic opt-in is a contradiction in terms to me. No I don’t want your newsletter, and if I did, I’d opt-in.
Evil Forms
- Unreadable captchas. Pure Evil. If I had a brick, why I would…
- Too many fields. This is utterly exhausting. Oh forget it, I’m going to abandon this form.
- Cryptic error messaging. OK, so I made a mistake. If you used English, I might be able to fix it.
- No confirmation. Was I successful or not? I’m looking for anything here, a “thank-you”, a “job well done”, a “good boy”… anything that confirms the form was indeed a submitted form.
- Too many constraints. I want to add my Canadian zip code, but you’re validating against the US format only!
- Too small fields. How I’m supposed to enter my street address in that state-sized field?
- The reset button. Do we really need this? I especially love it when I accidentally press “reset” instead of “submit”. It’s especially satisfying when it’s a long form.
Intrusive Advertising
- Pop-ups. And that includes those fancy, flashy, moving, hard-to-close ones. Are you serious? This is 2009.
- Interstitials. Thanks for adding another click and creating a barrier between me and your content! Give me a reason to leave, I dare you.
- Flyouts via links in content. Oh darn, I didn’t know that was an ad! Thanks for punishing me.
- Too may Google ads. I know there’s some content around here….
- Long video pre-rolls. Is this ad ever going to end? Hang on; I forgot what video I clicked on.
- The bus stop. Home pages that resemble bus stops — flyers, posters, graffiti all shouting at me. Sometimes, I swear I can even smell urine.
Accounts
- Remembering user names and passwords. Seriously, how many do I need to keep track of? Just give me Facebook connect already!
- Being forced to register for purchases. I just want to buy it, OK? Forget it, I’m going elsewhere.
- Forced password reset. I just want to know my password! The one I chose but have forgotten. I know you know.
- Getting locked out. I get the three-attempts-and-you’re-out idea, but it would be nice to know the rules before hand!
- Password sent by “snail mail”. I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry. Should I expect a scroll to be delivered and read by a messenger?
Abuse
- Spam. We still cannot cure this disease?
- Viruses. If I was a conspiracy theorist, I’d say the anti-virus companies were creating these. You know, supply and demand and all.
- Phishing. Particularly sneaky; and definitely a step beyond annoying.
- Trolls on messageboards/blogs. Oh well, that’s life I guess – art imitating life and all.
- Fake profiles. Am I following the real Steven Hawking on Twitter? It says here he went bowling last night.
- Facebook app invitations. For the thousandth time, no I do not want to play Mob Wars, and no I don’t want a “pet in an egg” either.
Technology
- Explorer 6. I speak for all developers here, if there’s a plug attached, please pull it. RIP Explorer 6.
- Plug-ins. Not only do I have to download another plug-in, I have to keep these things current!
- Entire sites built in flash. I don’t get it, why?
- PDF overuse. Why couldn’t this PDF just be a web page?
- Dell’s Netbook trackpad. Designed to be web browsing device, Dell’s Mini 10 trackpad has a trillion bells and whistles, but cannot fulfill basic tasks like moving the cursor from point A to point B without going to C first.
- Small netbook screens. While mobile devices have optimized views for their screens, Netbooks and their 9 and 10 inch screens are caught in a weird place.
- Inconsistent colors. Optimizing colors and contrast across both Macs and PCs is a designers nightmare.
- Charging for Wi-Fi. Provide it free of charge, and the patrons will come!
Waiting
- Slow page load. OK that’s it, I’ve been patient and their 3 seconds are up.
- Comment approval. I thought, I articulated, I commented, I waited. Nothing. That will teach me to contribute.
- Black-hole between ordering and shipping. I took me 5 minutes to order this laptop, why isn’t it getting shipped? Should I place my order again? Should I cancel this order? What’s the order status?
- Twitter is down again. I’m starting to think this is a feature. One akin to a long line outside a trendy night club.
- Customer service. Since I cannot get a human on the phone, a 24 hour response time to my e-mail is not acceptable. Well look at that, I guess you just quantified the value of my business.
- Submission timers. I saw this really great article! I know, I’ll post it on Reddit. And there’s another one, I’ll post that on Reddit too. What, I have to wait 10 minutes to post another article? That will teach me to contribute.
13.8.09
Sleeping with the enemy: "Clients"
For advertising agencies may be the worst competition ever is emerging: The Clients...
Toyota just announced that they are launching two new marketing companies: one to "handle marketing within Japan" and another company to "carry out and assist global marketing." The new companies will "handle advertising, sales promotion and global marketing strategy" and "focus on marketing issues globally and help create a unified message." and bring in Toyota's more than $1 billion global advertising account in-house.
In addition, Hyundai also brought its advertising in-house ending its business with U.S. shop Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and transitioning creative duties to the agency called Innocean, owned and controlled by Hyundai's founding family.
There you have it! Another deadly threat for agencies.
Toyota just announced that they are launching two new marketing companies: one to "handle marketing within Japan" and another company to "carry out and assist global marketing." The new companies will "handle advertising, sales promotion and global marketing strategy" and "focus on marketing issues globally and help create a unified message." and bring in Toyota's more than $1 billion global advertising account in-house.
In addition, Hyundai also brought its advertising in-house ending its business with U.S. shop Goodby, Silverstein & Partners and transitioning creative duties to the agency called Innocean, owned and controlled by Hyundai's founding family.
There you have it! Another deadly threat for agencies.
2.8.09
FOX TV::: THE OBSERVER
To promote its new show Fringe, Fox Television is playing an interesting game with its viewers, likened to Where’s Waldo. A mysterious character from Fringe called The Observer is now appearing in a variety of live events on the channel and is meant to get people watching more of Fox’s programming – trying to spot him creeping around. At the live events, he’s on-camera but goes completely unmentioned by hosts and commentators. Pretty interesting idea
30.7.09
Rexona Men Energizing
What is Parkour? In a nutshell, parkour is the art of movement in which one overcomes the obstacles in his/her surroundings in the most quick, efficient and flowing way. It encompasses running, jumping, vaulting and climbing to overcome those obstacles. Parkour can be performed without special equipment, in any environment, both natural and man-made. It requires one to develop and utilize strength, balance, agility and fluidity, and apply them with prudence, awareness, control, and cool-headedness.
The word "Parkour" is a modification of the French phrase "parcours du combattant," roughly translated as "military obstacle course." At first glance parkour looks like an extreme sport, and it certainly has many of the same qualities of an extreme sport. However, it is considered by many practitioners (known as "traceurs") as more of an art and discipline. It has creative and aesthetic elements that allow for individual expression, and also promotes inner strength and personal growth.
It introduces us to complete freedom from restraining obstacles, and it is this freedom amidst the routine and regimentation of much of modern society that makes parkour very appealing. It is a method that's available to us at any time to deal with the obstructions facing us, both mental and physical. No obstacle, no barrier, no restraint can stop the traceur; they continue moving forward in spite of, and in harmony with these.
While parkour does allow for a great deal of originality, there is a certain methodology commonly used when practicing it. The traceur chooses his/her own path through the environment adapting to and using anything in this path to create unique and flowing movement. When many techniques or moves used to overcome obstacles are linked together in an efficient and continuous way, it is known as a "run." If you see someone that looks like they're running from the police, but there is no one in pursuit, it's probably parkour.
This idea of the chase captures the movement of parkour quite well. In fact, it is the form of movement that our ancient ancestors may have used to hunt for food, or escape from predators on the plains of Africa. There is certainly an instinctual quality to it. In adapting instantaneously to whatever comes forth without thinking about it, we naturally flow over and around all obstacles. In practicing parkour, we are reviving and honing that ancient instinct.
The attitude behind parkour also incorporates the mentality of a child at play. That boundless imagination and energy combined with a complete disregard for social precedents and expectations epitomizes the traceur. Others look at a rail or wall and see a restraint; we look at it and see a launch pad. And hey, let's not forget that we do this because it's fun! The world is our jungle gym, let's go play.
Beamvertising Parkour Rexona from Lumina Motion on Vimeo.
27.7.09
Royal Mail 'mail in the digital age'
The new work, which combines the use of 3D anaglyph film and 3D60 audio, focuses on the idea of direct marketing and digital elements coming together to create a third enhanced dimension.
This is shown through a DM teaser pack, which contains 3D glasses and a personalised URL that opens a microsite containing a 60-second video that can be viewed in 3D.
Viewers are reminded in the spot that they are experiencing the strengths of the combination of direct and digital media.
This is shown through a DM teaser pack, which contains 3D glasses and a personalised URL that opens a microsite containing a 60-second video that can be viewed in 3D.
Viewers are reminded in the spot that they are experiencing the strengths of the combination of direct and digital media.
Project nameMail in the Digital AgeBriefTo promote to advertisers the benefits of using direct mail and digital togetherExposureDirect mail to 3,000 top advertisers and their agencies
Agency:
Proximity London
21.7.09
Tampon “drop” stunt
Libresse Tampons shower Dutch beaches in little pink parachutes
Brand: Libresse Tampons
Geography: Holland , June 2009
Objective: to remind all females on the beach that their best bikini friend is the good old fashioned tampon
Insight: The idea came from recent research that showed only one in seven women actually go to the beach when aunt Flo is visiting. Libresse wanted to remind girls of the practical side effects of tampon wearing, like the ability to take a swim. Dear Libresse, that's not actually why we avoid the beach during the moon-phase, but I'll give you ten points for effort
Action: Over 3,000 little pink parachutes with "emergency supplies" were air dropped down on the beaches, and women scrambled to get their cute free samples
Results: all targets were reported “Direct Hit”
Traffic Light Dance Off.
Streets attacked by Red, Green, Yellow dancers to promote a dance festival.
The festival is Woking Contemporary Dance Festival and the dance is called Traffic Light Dance Off.
Client:http://www.wokingdancefestival.co.uk
Agency:Lethal Design + Branding
Samsung Jet phone
July 17, 2009
Live 'flash' event in the heart of London with a flying spaceship and bungee jumping elephants.
15.7.09
Ultimate brand experience
Doods who planned and created the following” ultimate brand experience/ engagement” without doubt dripping with enthusiasm for all things digital -they love it and they live it
10.7.09
THE UK'S TOP MARKETING WEBLOGS
For those who may be interested, this chart is based on the AdAge Power 150,
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Stretching 60 metres across and featuring blue halo lighting, sculptured front-lit lettering 2.5 metres tall and a variety of 2D cut-out cha... -
Creating online content is easy. However, creating actionable online content without using the right tools can be quite challenging. The g...
