Viral games

Companies are finding online games a valuable addition to the marketing mix and getting them right appeals to your customer’s playful side and has been shown to have a number of tangible benefits. Popular games spread awareness of your brand or product, and games can include a company message. Keeping ‘hi-scores’ not only increases a game’s popularity but allows you to build a database of leads. Successful games are infectious, they make you want to play it over and over again and can then be sent to friends as a viral campaign.

To make a successful viral game follow our simple tips:

• Ensure that it is fun! People won’t play or spread the word if it is not a fun game.
• Send out an appealing EDM (electronic direct mail) as an invitation to play.
• Make access as easy as you can. Don’t over-complicate the rules or make people register before they play.
• Keep the message simple.
• Use the game as a possible new business tool.
• People are there to play the game so their concentration will be focused on the game and not on some complicated sales message.
• Incentivise responses. Make the user have a chance to win something of value.
• Make sure you collect the data, analyse it and put it to good use.
• Build a complementary microsite, with a unique web address.
• Remember to exclude family and friends from winning any prizes.
• Finally, make sure the game is noticed in the first place, leverage social media and email the game to everyone in your database (called seeding) and ask all of your employees to do the same. You may even want to invest in a mailing list.

EC Design have built numerous games on behalf of clients and they can be seen in our interactive part of our website. We have also launched our own Christmas game, which can be viewed at www.merrychristmasfromec.co.uk please have a go, the player with the top score will win a Nintendo Wii… good luck!

Five second test

This has become my favourite website at the moment and it plays on the old rule that you can measure effectiveness within a website in 5 seconds, or that customers make up their minds about your website in 5 seconds. Basically you upload your test site and the users then see it for 5 seconds and then comments on it.

All anonymous so generally it will be a true statement.

Its great fun…The test works by seeing on screen an image/website for five seconds, then you choose your most and least favourite things about it.

Simple, but highly effective and you choose between creating a list of your 5 things you remember, compare design alternatives or identify strengths or weaknesses. It is a great exercise and a reminder on keeping things simple and effective.

Be warned…it is addictive once you start testing other peoples sites.

www.fivesecondtest.com

Website hosting resellers

Website 'hosting' is essentially the space you 'rent' for your website to be housed. This space has to be on a physical server somewhere, which then provides Internet connectivity so that your site is on the World Wide Web. Hosting companies (such as Fasthosts, Easyspace, UK2 etc) own a series of servers, where they rent out space for a monthly or yearly fee. Web servers are very expensive, and technically complex, which is why few companies own them.

Many smaller web companies who offer hosting are actually 'resellers'. Despite acting as if they are hosting websites, they are actually renting a larger space on a hosting company's server and then 'sub-letting' smaller spaces from this.

In essence there is nothing wrong with this practice, as it is easier for clients to deal with their web company for everything relating to their website, and the web companies can organise their hosting accounts and billing more easily. However, in some cases it has turned simply into a way of making money.

The hosting companies charge the reseller web companies certain costs, and the resellers then charge the client more. Although extra cost is justified as they are acting as managers (setting it up, dealing with problems), the amount of time spent managing often does not warrant the inflated prices. A typical Fasthosts hosting plan costs under £50 a year. And yet EC has experienced some clients paying that amount monthly for the exact same hosting plan, but via a reseller.

Another issue is that these resellers cannot fix problems themselves as they do not own or hold the servers, so any problems have to be solved through a long chain of people from the client to the large hosting company. This is time consuming and can cost the client even more.

EC deals directly with Fasthosts to host clients' websites. We do not have a reseller account; we simply set up hosting with Fasthosts on behalf of the client. The client can choose for us to deal with Fasthosts and send them any bills, or we can pass on all of the hosting information needed and let them deal with Fasthosts directly.

We only charge what Fasthosts charge us.

We have a few ‘ologys’ up our sleeve

Having listened into a few brain-storming sessions I thought I would share with you a few of the key buzz words in our studio at the moment which made me 'chuckle'. They are all real words and Eric and Hayley promise not to use them in their next presentation:

Tradigital - Traditional means to create digital work, such as screenprinting, illustration, proper pencil and drawing pad ideas (we are exploring this and practising this here at EC Design)

Trendology - The prediction of up and coming trends especially in fashion

Trendfluences - A shift in consumer behaviour influencing the purchase of products and services, very key analysis in our P.O.S. work.

Trendstorming - Open idea generation after thorough quantitative and qualitative research.

Banks corporate identity – what now?

After monumental errors, nosediving share prices and the humiliation of nationalisation, the banking world has changed forever. So will their corporate identities, marketing and advertising adapt to fit the new realities?

It might seem that logos, commercials and colour schemes should be the last thing to occupy the banks right now, but surely campaigns and brands developed for a very different time (ie before last week) can no longer be appropriate? Ever since the early 90s, banks have been attempting to project a friendlier, less formal image. (In fact I was involved in the early 90’s of the Scottish Widows rebranding and seen this first hand – affectionately we christened this ‘the propeller’). Heraldic devices and serif type were ditched in favour of rounded edges and updated typography. It was all about innovation and modernity as banks started to project themselves as dynamic global brands, reflecting a shift in their management style and business aims.

So what happens now? In the UK, Royal Bank of Scotland, HBOS and Lloyds TSB have had to be baled out and part nationalised. Similar schemes have been introduced throughout Europe and in the US. The way we think of these institutions has changed completely. Instead of projecting themselves as friendly, casual, everything on a first-name basis, (Howard and the Halifax..) perhaps we’d like them to start acting a little more like they actually know what they’re doing? A bit more sober? A little more buttoned-up rather than dressed-down? I came across a great quote from Landor which explains. ‘Unfortunately this spirit of “innovation” is now more typically characterised as reckless risk-taking.”

Dynamism, innovation, modernity - these aren’t messages that we really want to hear from our banks at the moment and as we have a few live FS briefs in the studio at the moment, EC Design and Marketing are keeping our eyes open and ears to the ground so we understand this complex issue and overnight market shift.

Our banking institutions need to re-establish trust and confidence. Time to bring back the pin-stripes, PMS Blue 280 and the heraldry type logos?

I don’t think I want Howard to be my friend any more…

Internet users slow to embrace Google's Chrome

It was predicted to be a giant among the many Internet browsers, but Google's Chrome has failed to impress users. At time of writing, the percentage of Internet users on Chrome is only 0.78%*, 6 weeks after its release.

The initial release had crashes, video playback issues, and very odd quirk when writing in a blog or comments field (see Computer World blog).

The latest version released this week promises to be more stable, and as Chrome is still in the beta stage Google predicts a much faster uptake in the months to come. However, at this stage EC are not re coding or testing Chrome compatibility until the number of users increases.

The broadening browser market is a test for web designers and developers, as each browser engine parses their code in a slightly different way. However, as new browsers or browser releases are developed with this is mind, we may be getting closer to a standardised browser engine, or at least a series of browsers which follow the same rules. We hope it does as this will reduce client costs as we have to test less and less for compatibility.

*According to netapplications.com

iPhone websites

The iPhone is the perfect platform for companies that wants to get “friendly” with their customers that are on the move! We are increasingly being asked to advise on iPhone friendly websites and how they work.

Most websites are still viewable (but are NOT “friendly”) on the iPhone, because the user can zoom in so that text is legible, however this is not ideal for the user when they have to scroll across the screen a great deal more. You have to build your site specifically for mobile media. It is best not to exceed 320x480 pixels, which is one reason for having a separate website specifically for the iPhone.

The main reason for adopting a website dedicated to the iPhone is if your current site is purely flash based, or contains any Flash elements, such as Flash banners or embedded videos it will not be viewable on the iPhone or any other mobile devise. Also users are now wanting information on the move and companies need to be seen to be technologically savvy.
At EC Design we have tackled the issue of mobile friendly websites and believe companies should be seen as “early adopters’ to this new technology. If you are thinking of becoming an early adopter of an iPhone site, here are some useful tips:

• The iPhone site should mirror your main site visually for design consistency
• Design no larger than 320x480
• Correct page size code - add a meta tag (<meta id="viewport" name="viewport" content="width=320;">) in the header section of your website code, makes your webpage compatible and friendly with iPhone browser
• Minimize the code to as much extent as you can
• Remember less is more
• Prioritise key information
• Contact details should be prominent

Effective Blogging

We are being increasingly asked by our clients to set up blogs on their websites or ask us if it’s a good idea to let staff air their views. We think blogs are great and make strategic sense and we have listed below a few tips to get the most out of them

Make the subject matter easy
Pick topics that your company knows about and can write about regularly and would be interesting to your clients.

Capture the imagination
Use good and relevant headlines for your post titles. These will be picked up by the search engines so make them relevant to you.

Be strategic
As a business you need to be commercially aware on how your posts will be interpreted.

Choose the correct blog platform
Blogger and Wordpress are free for hosting and domains. We recommend Blogger for its ease of use.

Write for the search engines
Being an expert in your topic will raise your profile.

Don’t become a grumpy blogger!
Sounds simple, do not use blogs to moan and always have a ‘gate keeper’ to monitor.

Ensure you blog often
This will keep your views and ideas up to date and will improve your Google rankings.

Standard of C.V.s

As you may have noticed on our main website, we are advertising for graphic designers and account handling staff. We have had quiet a few C.V.’s in from designers and the majority of them have been dull and the work seems to be very much the same. Don’t even get me started on poor typography!

To attract our attention you must do something out of the ordinary, create something unique and eye catching. Send us cream buns every day, stand outside our office with a loud hailer, print your C.V. in dayglow colours A1 size and send me a pair of retro Raybans! Anything until we issue a restraining order on you!

The point I am making is, make us notice you, stand out from the crowd. That way you will be at least guaranteed an interview.

Question Time

Last week I was lucky enough to be in the audience of Question Time when it came to Bournemouth after the Liberal Democrat conference. It was a small audience of no more than 70 people and we were allowed on set before the politicians arrived. I was looking out for the ‘smoke and mirrors’ and all the staged TV moments, but the programme was shot in one take and shot live, no questions were rehearsed or given to the panel.

The experience reminded me of what it is like in our own agency, long gone are the days of dazzling clients with our industry brand of ‘smoke and mirrors’, or rely on a few mouse clicks and standard templates, you have to tell it like it is, show originality, be honest, have a point of view and consistently deliver our product to a very high standard.

Now does that sound like our politicians?

HTML emails

It could be said that one of the hardest jobs in web design at the moment is the task of creating HTML emails (or e-Flyers, EDMs and so on) in which the design and build works perfectly across all browsers, web-based email clients, computer-based email clients and operating systems. I will outline a couple of the more unknown problems I have found and possible workarounds for these problems.

Cellspacing in web-based email clients in Firefox for PC

So you've managed to build a HTML email using tables, even though you feel like you are leaping back towards the late 90s. It looks great in Outlook 2007 (a mammoth task just on its own) and seemingly on all of the popular email clients (Yahoo! Mail, Windows Live Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, Google Mail, Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Entourage). And yet, viewing it on Hotmail and Gmail in Firefox 3.0 on a PC completely strips all of the cellspacing with no explanation.

So there isn't full support for margin, padding or now cellspacing (cellpadding seems to work perfectly).

The workaround?

The only way I found to make this work was to use a spacer.gif (a 1x1 pixel transparent GIF image) and increase the width and height of the image to force table cells to create the illusion of cellspacing. I remember doing this kind of workaround 7-8 years ago!

Background images or floating images in Outlook 2007

For some unknown reason, instead of Microsoft using the Internet Explorer engine to parse HTML emails as they did in Outlook 2003, when it came to Outlook 2007 they decided to switch to an MS Word engine. This means very little support for HTML (and almost no CSS); the main problem being how you can get the most out of images in your designs.

Background-image is not supported. Background (the non-validating bygone property for tables or tds) is not even supported. And you definitely cannot float text around an image. What does this mean? Very structured tabular designs with structured tabular images.

There isn't one. Just make sure that every image can be in its exact place without overlapping text or other images, and you can work it into a table structure without the need for text to float around it. Good luck!

A quick welcome

Welcome to the brand new EC Design and Marketing blog. Here we will be keeping you up-to-date with all of the goings on at EC, as well as offering some tips and advice from the worlds of design, web and advertising. We hope you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoy writing it.

Please feel free to visit the main EC website, where you can take a look at our portfolio and maybe even drop us a line to let us know what you think.