Hot topics on Web design & usability from the Reactive Blog - Melbourne, Sydney, London

The Cost of Complexity

2007-02-05T14:37:00.000+11:00

One of the main tenets of software development is that the developer must aim to keep the application structure and code simple. What may seem like an ingenious solution at the time could in fact become the costly problem later on if it is difficult to read, understand, and modify. Reducing the complexity of the application makes it easier to understand, manage, support, and change. So decreasing the complexity reduces the total costs.

This approach of minimising complexity is not only important for developers, but also critical for business owners. I am often surprised by just how complex some businesses make their product rules or business rules. The first web project that I led (many years ago now!) had a client with what I expected to be a straightforward product offering. However, when we got to the details of the product rules (e.g. only the curved products can be brown, and only products 1, 5, 22, 45 can have special coating “x”), we encountered a can of worms. When I questioned the client about simplifying the rules, they admitted that although there was no clear rationale behind the rule, they couldn’t change them!

Businesses should be aware of the cost of complexity. Complex business rules will result in increased costs due to the IT applications that require the implementation of these rules. If your business could be managed with an out-of-the-box application, then your modification costs will be negligible, and upgrades will be simple.

Complexity extends much further than just your IT costs. There are the associated costs in getting your staff to understand the complicated product offering, and the costs when customers abandon a purchase because they are confused or frustrated with the complexity.

Businesses should have good reasons to justify making complex business rules.

At this point we could even start talking about Information Architecture and Usability. Both of these disciplines focus on making things easier for your users: easier to find something; easier to use something; easier to buy something. Just like the costs, the benefits are realised to further than the Web site. Good Information Architecture within a business can save a lot of administrative time, and enable staff to concentrate on value-added activities. Well thought out Information Architecture in a shop quite simply helps shoppers find the product they’re looking for in turn increasing sales.

Travel 3.0 - The future of online travel

2007-01-16T15:09:00.000+11:00

The start of a new year seems like a good time to try and predict the future!

I was recently asked by a student my thoughts on the future of travel and tourism online. Good question. Although I find it difficult to predict the future (difficult, but not impossible), this is a topic I have a lot of interest in so I’ll give it a shot.

As described in our recent whitepaper ‘Web 2.0 for the Travel and Tourism industry’, as more Web site operators provide their functionality as Open API’s, the opportunities for interesting new mash-ups grows exponentially. Currently it’s hard to find a mash-up that doesn’t include either Google Maps or Flickr, this will change!

I believe this will start to overlap into hardware (it is already), providing interesting combinations of software, hardware and data. In my opinion, one big opportunity for Web travel is the ability for a traveller to find any information in any format on any device they choose.

For example, if Apple released an API for some of the cool aspects of the new iPhone interface, you could then use this on other devices (like my XDA Orbit Windows mobile). Then imagine having an iPhone interface on my Orbit displaying data from Kayak to search flights… this might be someone’s idea of the perfect flight-finding interface. Instead, Apple is sending Cease & Desist letters to anyone even putting a screen-grab of potential iPhone mash-ups on their site!

A more practical example is an online flight booking. Currently you are restricted to the search and display interface provided by the Web site operator (e.g. Kayak, STA Travel, Flight Centre etc), and you can only personalise this to a certain extent. It might be possible in the future to say “I prefer the Kayak flight search interface, but want to display flight data from STA Travel, and bundle it with Hotel listings from Expedia”. And I want it on my TV. I could choose this as a user, rather than needing a Web developer to create a mash-up of this particular combination.

This will be extremely complicated to achieve, and would require great strides in the standardisation and interoperability of systems (such is the goal of the OpenTravel Alliance).

Naturally this is only one aspect of what the future of online travel might hold, but as someone who books travel online frequently, I hope it becomes reality.

Tim O'Neill

Web 2.0 for Travel and Tourism

2007-01-02T15:12:00.000+11:00

Our popular whitepaper "Web 2.0 for the Travel and Tourism Industry" has had a 2007 refresh, and now includes a foreword from Craig Hepburn, Global Webmaster of STA Travel Group.

There is no ignoring, and certainly no denying, the current hype around Web 2.0, in particular here in the UK. Recently, The Guardian (a mainstream UK newspaper) published an interesting feature on Web 2.0 with interviews (and podcasts naturally) with the founders of Wikipedia, Flickr, Technorati, Blogger and other Web 2.0 rock-stars.

Reactive work with a lot of clients in the tourism and travel industries, a sector which has always been at the forefront of Internet technology, and so it is no surprise to see Web 2.0 features rapidly appearing in travel Web sites of well-known brands such as Contiki, STA Travel, Starwood, Lonely Planet and Eurostar.

However, many travel and tourism marketers don’t have the time to sit down and consider how these new horizons relate to their brand, so we thought we’d give you some help!

Our popular whitepaper (or is guidebook a better word?) titled “Web 2.0 for the Travel and Tourism Industry”. With it we aim to demystify some of the more common elements of Web 2.0, and show practical examples of how travel and tourism brands are using these to attract new customers, improve customer loyalty, and drive sales.

The whitepaper covers the following topics (with real-world examples):

Blogging (Starwood, Eurostar and STA Travel)
Podcasting (Lonely Planet, Orbitz, Virgin Atlantic, The Independent and Heartbeat guides)
Social networking and user generated content (TripAdvisor, Yahoo, Contiki and Sheraton)
Online video (YouTube, Travelistic and MGM Grand Las Vegas)
RSS (Expedia, STA Travel, Virgin Holidays, Orbitz, and Conde Nast)
Tagging (del.icio.us, Flickr and Travbuddy)
Mash-ups and Open API’s (Locale, Virtual Tourism, Blogabond, 43 Places and TripAdvisor)
Wikis (Wikitravel, World66 and TripAdvisor)
AJAX (Kayak, Sidestep, Farecast and Google Maps)

If you are responsible for a tourism Web site or travel Web site, and interested in learning more about how 'Travel 2.0' could relate to you, please complete this form. The whitepaper is 15 pages, and will be emailed to you in PDF format.

Tim O'Neill, Managing Director UK

Finding your way on Google Maps

2006-12-19T14:32:00.000+11:00

Google maps are certainly pretty cool and everyday people are dreaming up of more creative ways to use them!

But do they help or hinder us when finding directions? If you wanted an office or store location map on your Web site, is a Google map the right option?

Well I think that depends. If you want to pack your location map with interactive features like zooming, panning, satellite and hybrid image modes, then a Google map is a pretty nifty option.

But if you want to help people find your office as easily as possible, then it might be better to invest in a well crafted map by a graphic designer.

An advantage of commissioning your own map is it provides an opportunity to include colour, graphic and typographic cues from other aspects of your branding. This helps to maintain a visual consistency between the map and your Web site.

A good location map shouldn’t be too detailed. It’s probably not necessary to show every side street in 4km radius. Likewise, it’s probably not much use for a visitor to know the colour of the rooftops on surrounding buildings (i.e. Google satellite maps).

The user is more likely wanting to know where you are situated in relation to major landmarks, what major streets you’re off, and where’s the best place to park. By focusing on key bits of information and removing irrelevant detail, you are enabling the user to orientate faster and hopefully reduce any frustration trying to locate your office or store.

Another good idea is to provide a printable version of your location map that fits nicely on an A4 printout.

Tim Fouhy, Managing Director Australia

Internet Explorer 7 Push Imminent

2006-12-07T15:02:00.000+11:00

For those who aren't already aware Microsoft is about to "push" Internet Explorer 7 onto 10's of millions of desktops this month. The statistics are already showing that the developer community has started using it quite extensively in beta format, accounting for around 2-3% of current internet users (just short of IE5 usage).

There are two primary issues Reactive have come across so far. The first of these is that the often used CSS hacks to target IE rendering differences no longer work. Secondly a security change has meant formerly "safe" ActiveX controls are now deprecated, triggering a security alert when detecting QuickTime and Windows Media player.

To resolve the CSS issue Reactive have started using Conditional commenting

Unfortunately there is no complete resolution to the plug-in detection issues however if you would like to find out more you can read the Security brief from Microsoft

To find out more check out the following links:

Dan Oxnam, Interaction Director

Integrating Calls to Action into your Web site

2006-11-17T15:27:00.000+11:00

Marketers know that in order to execute successful campaigns, all channels of communication with customers require at least one call to action. The Web is absolutely no exception. In fact due to information overload, it demands even more candidly communicated calls. Calls to action extend much further than buying and include subscribing, donating, applying, submitting, bookmarking the page, contacting, referring to friends, discussing, getting help or support, or simply getting involved.

Visitors make a decision about whether or not to stay at a Web site very quickly, usually within a few seconds. Does your Web site convey its three most important calls to action within 20 seconds of a visitor arriving at your home page? If not the action they may well take is to hit the Back button.

Being an avid internet user myself, it’s all too often I see a corporate Web site simply displayed as an electronic brochure and find myself hitting the Back button or typing in another URL.

It all comes down to content. The right words will capture the attention of visitors and drive them to action and the wrong words will lead to distraction. "The goal of content is to expose business value and articulate it in a way that matters to the customer," leading subject matter experts Bryan & Jeffrey Eisenberg write. "Great copy persuades the reader to take action."

Studies of shopping behavior show that consumers tend to be more likely to buy something if they are asked to do so. Even panhandlers who ask for money on the street are much more successful than those who just hold out a cup or a sign!

So perhaps you are a charity or government department and you don’t have a commercial purpose in the sense of selling goods and services; however you still want to generate a call to action: an opportunity for the visitor to say, "Yes I'm interested!"

Every time you write a piece of Web content, you should also write at least one call to action at the end of that content. That's maximising your chances of converting a visitor to a prospect.

You may think that putting a simple contact form on your Web site will generate leads, and sure enough if you have a totally unique product or service it will generate a few. But most businesses operate within a competitive landscape, one with similar products and services. The best way of generating as many sales leads as possible is through demonstrating how and why someone would want to contact your company.

The whole idea is to get the users of your Web site to do something, or to direct them to a page or section of your website that you would like them to see. To do this, provide links within a product or service's descriptive content, and direct them to an online contact form that contains those same link texts. Links like "Receive a product demo", "Take a tour of this property", "Learn more about xyz" are all effective ways to directing your Web site visitors into a course of action.

By doing this you answer both fundamental questions; Why am I contacting you? (eg. for a product demo) and How do I do it? (eg. by following this link to a contact form).

Namita Davey, Project Manager

Happy Usability Day!

2006-11-14T14:39:00.000+11:00

The term ‘usability’ refers to how well someone might use a human-made tool to achieve a particular goal. Within the context of web design it refers to how efficiently a task can be completed, be it purchasing an item, looking for information or completing a function. The usability of a device is best summarised by Jakob Nielson's and Ben Shneiderman's five defining factors:

Learnability (e.g. intuitive navigation)
Efficiency of use
Memorability
Few and non-catastrophic errors
Subjective satisfaction

These five factors should be at the front of mind during any web design project. Furthermore, the process should be user-centred so that its outcome is more likely to rate well against each of these factors upon completion. However, what becomes problematic is the measurement of ‘Subjective satisfaction’. Although this is the most difficult factor to measure, herein lies the greatest opportunity to create a truly unique and memorable experience.

Usability rules have become ubiquitous and it is almost easy to forget to even question them. We refer to previous work or best practice examples which all suggest the same things which in turn validate our decision to prescribe the same thing over and over again. All outcomes are categorically 'usable' but at the same time risk being indistinguishable. For the same reason I would hate Volvo to be the only car on the road I would also hate to see every Web site look the same. Essentially what I am interested in is the less discussed (and equally important) idea of knowing when to break convention and when to invite innovation into the process of creating a usable product.

At this point I could refer to many, many products which in my mind have exceeded all five of Nielson and Schniederman’s five factors whilst also breaking convention and ultimately providing an elegant outcome which is truly innovative. The iPod is an obvious choice. The very nature of how the device is used by its owner makes it unique and desirable. Instead of compromising the design, in effect a focus on usability has completely informed the design. This allows the product to ‘cut-through’ and establish itself as a one-of-a-kind.

Another example is Droog’s toilet door handle for the blind. This simple door handle appears much like any other. When you clasp the door handle you instantly feel the braille bumps behind the handle which:

for the blind, instantly identifies the ‘male toilet’ from the ‘female toilet’ (without having to search for any additional reference)
for the non-blind, instantly raises social awareness of the blind
and as a piece of design is uncompromising

Given today is World Usability Day, I think it is important that we consider how to use usability as an aid in developing great refreshing design rather than a catalyst for more of the same. Yes usability is important (if not critical) so let’s make sure we truly understand it, embrace it and help it improve people’s day to day lives.

Tim Kotsiakos, Creative Director

Web site Conversion Rate

2006-10-28T15:15:00.000+10:00

Looking at your site’s conversion rate seems to be a forgotten measure of a successful Web strategy. Instead, it’s more common to hear “we need more traffic”.

The conversion rate of a Web site is simply the ratio of the number of visitors who complete an action to the number of visitors who view the site. For example, if you had 30 sales out of 500 visitors your conversion rate would be 6% = 30/500.

If you actually had a conversion rate of 6%, you should be happy. The reality is most sites will have a conversion rate of less than 0.5%. This means you need 200 visitors to generate one sale.

Before ramping up an online marketing assault, it makes sense to improve your conversion rate first. An average pay-per-click visitor might cost you around two dollars. Working with the scenario above, if you wanted 10 sales you need to invest $4,000 in pay-per-click advertising.

If you could improve your Web site conversion rate from 0.5% to 2% you would only need to invest $1,000 to achieve the same result. Likewise, for the $4,000 investment you’d yield 40 sales instead of 10.

Let’s say your objective for the year was to achieve 10 sales per week:

Scenario A (0.5% Web site conversion rate)

520 sales = 104,000 visitors * 0.5% conversion rate

104,000 visitors * $2 ppc cost = $208,000 investment

Scenario B (2% Web site conversion rate)

520 sales = 26,000 visitors * 2% conversion rate

26,000 visitors * $2 ppc cost = $52,000 investment

The difference in investment between scenario A & B to achieve 520 sales is $156,000

There’s lot of assumptions in this example, and every Web site business is different, but principle of conversion is universal. The bottom line is; if your conversion rate is low, it’s an expensive exercise to increase sales just by driving more traffic to your web site.

Investing to improve your conversion rate through quality Web design & strategy creates leverage and a significant return on investment.

Tim Fouhy, Managing Director, Australia

Why use Adobe Flash

2006-10-12T14:01:00.000+10:00

Reactive have noticed some websites coming to market that are primarily text based that have been developed entirely in Adobe Flash which led some of our team pose the question: Why would you do that, aren’t you creating a lot more work for yourself?As the Interaction Director at Reactive my first reaction is, 'why not?' For starters Flash works on all platforms in all browsers and will remain absolutely pixel perfect no matter what. As opposed to HTML/CSS sites which currently need to be tested, tweaked and retested in a minimum of 6 browsers across two operating systems. If you need more reasons see my entry: Tackling the thorny issues with Adobe Flash.

The example cited is www.pierinc.com a company that develops online applications using Adobe Flex and there in lies the primary reason for delivering their entire website in this manner: If you aren’t using the technology then you are going to have a tough time selling it to clients.With the latest release of Adobe Flex companies have the ability to quickly and efficiently deliver these applications on an enterprise level utilising the agile development model with a Flash front-end which will not have any of the issues prevalent in CSS.

Flex is a server side code based on xml which allows you to write and deploy flash based applications like pier in a very short timeframe. It is specifically designed for use with modular/component based systems/sites where you write the component; let's say the "news module" and then you just have to write something like this for your home page
Code for Pier site (very simplified):

This would grab the components and build them on the fly on the server and the deliver them to the client making it more efficient.

Find out more about Adobe Flex here

Yahoo maps using Flex

And the hard sell

The primary reasons Reactive does not utilise Flex is the current license cost of $20,000USD per CPU and the extensive use of component based development process which does deliver a more robust solution but the ramification is an increase in the time lines a decrease in flexibility and of course an increase on the bottom line.

The advantage of Flash sites in general however is that they can deliver a much more seamless user experience with a higher degree of feedback and a quicker delivery of specific requests, currently known as Rich Internet Applications. A couple of great examples developed by Reactive using Flash include, Global Corporate Challenge and Ferguson Plarre's Design-a-Cake.

With the new Reactive Content Management System (CMS), Web-Services and good use of Object Orientated coding practices we have developed a quick way of rolling out data driven flash websites. The current Alba Fan Club site is a good example with all content areas being driven by CMS and design to delivery taking just over a week.

Dan Oxnam, Interaction Director

Tackling the thorny issues with Adobe Flash

2006-10-12T14:00:00.000+10:00

A couple of quick thoughts on what I see as the three thorny issues when it comes to Adobe Flash websites: Accessibility, Search-ability and the back button.

Accessibility
In my experience making Flash websites accessible is not because you can’t it is because of the cost implication for the client of pursuing this process. (According to WebAim you can make them (flash sites) more accessible than html )

Search-ability
Reactive have addressed the second issue of searchable flash sites with the Release of cManager 3.0 delivering a static version of the site for search-bots and then using server side redirection to deep link to pages within the site.

Back button
In the past it has been virtually impossible to make the back button function from flash sites meaning that one of the primary user navigation tools was disabled. With a bit of tweaking and bashing our heads together Reactive have managed to come up with a solution which works in almost all the current browsers (some of them just don’t meet the standards…) meaning that users can now browse through a site as they would html and bookmark/email pages of interest.

What does this mean?
It means there is absolutely no reason not to develop your site using all the power and potential of Adobe Flash. Reactive can help you deliver an accessible, Google indexable, searchable, bookmark friendly, back button enabled and content managed website.

What more could you ask for?

Dan Oxnam, Interaction Director

Blogging - to comment or not to comment?

2006-10-12T13:59:00.000+10:00

Ever since blogging began there has been a debate over whether or not business bloggers should allow others to add comments to their blog posts. This has recently become extremely topical to us, as we engage in debate over our new Reactive blog.

Weighing in on the pro side of comments is the Web 2.0 community at large. The entire ethos of Web 2.0 is enabling the community to create content, it is the take-up of this ethos that have driven the success of community-content sites such as Wikipedia, Flickr and MySpace. In particular, Wikipedia’s content is continuously evolving, and is the result of the collective knowledge of all of its visitors. Enabling comments is, without doubt, the ‘right thing to do’ to stay on the good side of Web 2.0.

Another key argument for enabling comments is the business benefits of hearing what the public (and customers) have to say. This has been used effectively by many companies for research purposes, effectively the blog becomes an unpaid focus-group (presuming you can attract enough comment to get a broad sample).

However, there is plenty of argument for the con side of allowing comments. The most obvious gut reaction being: ‘what if people say bad things about us?’ This may sound over-protective, but it’s easy to imagine a scenario where a disgruntled staff member or a competitor starts posting negative comments. If you allow comments on your blog, it is considered extremely poor form to then moderate those comments. Although another downside of comments is comment-spam, automated (or manual) entries promoting commercial sites. These are a tiresome annoyance, and lower the credibility of your blog in the eyes of the visitors, and also in the eyes of Google.

Seth Godin caused a stir recently when he removed comments from his blog. He removed them primarily because he didn’t have time to read (let alone respond) to all of the comments, but not every blogger is fortunate enough to have the number of readers that Seth does.

Clearly there are no right or wrong answers, and here at Reactive the jury is still out. We launched the Reactive blog without comments, but soon we are going to enable them for a trial period. Hopefully anyone reading this will weigh into the conversation, and let me know their thoughts on whether we should allow comments or not. Be nice :)

Tim O'Neill, Managing Director, United Kingdom

Unlocking search engine glory with the right keywords

2006-09-28T13:58:00.000+10:00

SEO - Search Engine Optimization - is a set of methodologies aimed at improving the position of a Web site in search engine listings. Primarily, to achieve high rankings in search engines, a web site must be optimized for keywords relevant to the Web site’s subject. The keyword phrases you choose to optimize for should be equivalent to the queries users are likely to enter into search engines when seeking the product or service your Web site offers.

It is important that you optimize your site for the right keywords. Choosing popular single-word keywords is unlikely to yield satisfactory results. If, on the other hand you have very specific words that are unlikely to be found on many of your competitor’s sites, such as the name of your business for example, then it would be foolish to ignore these. But it is much better to choose a number of two- or three-word keyword strings to optimize for. For instance, if your site is about apples, “apple” is a mandatory keyword, but if you select a number of multi-word phrases such as “apple orchards”, “growing apples”, “buying apples” then success is more likely.

Another issue to consider is synonyms. Very often users will use different words for the same thing. However, be careful not to use every synonym you can think of. Most search engines have algorithms that include synonyms in the keyword match. But using relevant, on-topic phrases is likely to give you extra street cred by search engines.

The way you use the keywords you have chosen to optimize for can make or break your SEO campaign. It is important to use these terms frequently, but be careful - overkill can lead to being blacklisted by search engines. Try and aim for a keyword density of 1-3% for your primary terms and 4-7% for the rest. Anything over 10% is likely to be frowned upon by users and search engines alike. Where you use your keywords is also important. Search engines place higher relevance on keywords found at the beginning of pages, blocks of text, headings and titles.
Aim for about 10 keyword phrases to optimize for. It is not worthwhile thinning out your attack by tailoring your content for many more.

So content is king. Keywords alone will not shoot you to the top of search engine listings but choosing the right ones for your site and using them intelligently in your content is the first step to claiming pole position in Google.

Isaac Forman, Designer

Web law & order ain't all bad

2006-09-28T13:57:00.000+10:00

Every now and then I hear stories of online campaigns that have gone horribly wrong. A Web site for example that’s been live for two years, but has never had it’s performance measured; an offline campaign that is supported by an online campaign which someone forgets to get up on time; a project that goes live, fails to meet the desired outcomes and has a redevelopment commissioned only three months later; or project that wasn’t backed up before a server crash, and had to be redeveloped again from scratch.

These stories come to me from clients, candidates and even the occasional potential client who discovers (after the budget is spent) that they made the wrong choice, and now need some advice. Whenever I hear these stories I am reminded that there are still a lot of Web cowboys out there.

For a Web cowboy, following process can be a real bore but a lack of it is at the heart of their mistakes. They prefer to saddle up, dig in the spurs and ride out, in any direction, into the open country. Forget risk analysis, forget road maps and forget milestones - just get out there and see what happens. Sometimes it works. Most often however it doesn’t.

A successful online project needs careful thought and a dedicated Account and Project Management team to make it happen. Before you get on the horse it’s important to ask where you are going, how you are planning to get there, when you want to arrive and what you want to happen once you reach your destination. And of course, before the bells and whistles are considered the most obvious question needs to be asked: how will this project deliver profitable results to our client?

Riding out with the cowboys can be exciting, and maybe even more fun (in that fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants sort of a way) and by cutting corners it may even end up costing you less. But like the Wild West of the past, law and order is necessary for ultimate success.

For your online project, having a professional and dedicated Account Manager will ensure you get control and accountability. The first step is to research and plan, asking questions about your audience to develop a profile of your users. Then determine the desired results, see if any legacy systems need to be considered, understand the fundamentals of your brand, and how your business works. Once that information has been shared your Account Manger can apply their expertise to develop a Road map – outlining long term goals and how to achieve them.

Meanwhile your Project Manager will don the Sheriff’s badge, focus on the detail and ensure your milestones are fence-posted. This way we’ll ensure you’re safe from being looted, and you’ll know what to ‘pony-express’ back to your stakeholders along the way.

Next time you meet a Web cowboy, consider the fact that you need some law and order to become a true success in the online frontier.

Pepi Ronalds, Studio Manager

Looking into the "too-hard-basket"

2006-09-27T13:55:00.000+10:00

The requirements phase is often not given the attention it deserves.

Albert Einstein once said "Requirements are the foundation of software"...well, maybe it wasn't Einstein, but it was someone smart.

The outputs of requirements gathering are the blueprint to your site - critical documents! They are used for quoting, planning, designing, building and testing your Web application. The requirements will give you artefacts to describe the behaviour of the system (such as wireframes and use cases).

Defects in requirements will have a cascading effect throughout the project. While fixing an error in the requirements phase is often 100 times cheaper than after the software is built.
Statistics show that investing up to 30% of the project budget on requirements documentation significantly improves the chance of a project successfully meeting budgets. Make sure you invest the time and effort in a detailed requirements phase - this will reduce the risks and give you peace of mind.

The requirements phase aims to define and document the scope of the system so it can be quoted and developed based on that scope. However, some projects just aren't suited to fixed scope. You might want a more flexible system, perhaps your business is changing, or your market is rapidly changing. This is where agile development comes in.

The concept of the agile approach is to break the system into smaller projects which are delivered in iterations with less documentation. Each delivery is quoted based upon the experience of the previous iterations. The risks are reduced by this approach, but it doesn't suit a fixed budget.

It's rare to find project sponsors who don't have a fixed budget. But time and materials work doesn't necessarily mean you need deep pockets. You can put controls around the hours that are spent, and re-evaluate your requirements after each iteration (fortnightly or monthly), thus keeping a tight rein on expenditure.

Matt Watson, Technical Director

The new us

2006-09-27T12:00:00.001+10:00

Over the last 9 years Reactive has gone from humble beginnings to a market leader. It’s focus has changed as has its clients. The work is more strategic, more informed and more aware of it’s business intent. New offices have now opened in Sydney and London. Our org structure had changed to better service bigger business. Projects have increased in scope and variety. Quality of work has become more important than ever. And as ‘once-competitor-come-employee’ of Reactive the opportunity to re-brand was the perfect way for me to get to know the company from the inside - intimately. What I found was a significant gap between the story told by the existing brand and the real sprit of today’s Reactive. Different enough to require a ground up restoration.

It started with a marketing plan. Our management team used this as a reference throughout the process. We researched, brainstormed, discussed, and developed a plan. We identified three key requirements for the new brand; to communicate who we are, what we do, and (the bigger challenge) to describe what we are like. To assert our genuine point of difference.

It was acknowledged early in the process that the company’s key differentiator is it's quirkiness and human approach as well as it's focus on real results. As such the brand had to be approachable and whimsical whilst asserting the right amount of professionalism and sophistication. White and black are punctuated by a synthetic green colour; similar to the green used to display early computer operating systems. The type mark is a customized version of the typeface Klavika designed by Eric Olson. It sits proud and approachable. Keylines trail from the typemark in different directions and in different ways.

The trailing key lines suggest reactivity, movement, 3 dimensions, interactivity, depth, a network, motion or shape. They can appear abstract or simple depending on the requirements of the application. They trail from one side of the paper to the other side, resolving in the type mark. The brand appears in transition, having just changed or about to change. This reflects the nature of our company, of ourselves as individuals and our business.It’s great to be at the end of a thoroughly enjoyable process. Today we proudly launch our new Web site. I have a dozen boxes full of business cards, presentation folders, letterheads and followers which will be distributed to our staff. There are a dozen different word templates, fax templates, envelope templates, bills, invoices, email signatures and other internal documents which have been designed and will be used by all staff. All of this work was the contribution of many hard working people over the course of the last couple of months.

We hope you like the new us.

Tim Kotsiakos, Creative Director

So what is social networking?

2006-09-27T12:00:00.000+10:00

Social networking is the buzz word of the moment, it’s a general term for the process of people making social connections via the internet.

Social media describe the online tools and platforms that people use to engage in social networking. The most popular social networking tools are Web site services (such as Friendster, MySpace or LinkedIn), blogs, podcasts, message boards and vlogs.

Some of the most popular Web sites that have emerged to facilitate social networking are YouTube, Flickr and Blogger. Most of these sites offer free accounts and everyone has the desire to share their experiences with the wider world - to be social.

MySpace has become particularly popular with a new generation of internet users who are tapping into alternative and mainstream culture alike, setting up their own ‘free’ Web sites. Recently the UK pop-singer Lily Allen achieved the first number one hit single based on download sales alone, by building a strong fan base via her MySpace page.

MySpace offers people the chance to express themselves, especially through music, video and photography. It’s easy to ask other users on MySpace to be your friend, allowing you to expand your social network and share your thoughts and ideas with a larger audience.
I have a friend from Melbourne who met his Japanese wife via Friendster. Through profile matching it’s easy to find someone with the same interests as you, even if it’s as obscure as Fanzine collecting.

Many companies are now leveraging these social networking Web sites to access new customers or build and maintain customer loyalty. What better way to sell the new Nokia E-series that through a dedicated fan-blog. Sponsored by Nokia? Paid by Nokia? Who knows…but it’s working.

See this wiki List of social networking websites for a comprehensive list.

Carl Panczak, General Manager, Sydney

Journey to the centre of Customer Conversion

2006-03-01T15:21:00.000+11:00

If you're like many Australian marketers a significant part of your online budget is currently being spent in reaching prospective customers... driving traffic to your Web site... filling your sales funnel. In fact Australian business spent in the order of A$620 million in 2005 (60% growth over A$388 million spend in 2004) on banner advertising and Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and are expected to spend in excess of a staggering $700 million throughout 2006.

Dropping customers into the funnel is a critical part of the sales journey and generally, a function, marketers perform quite well. We're probably not so well-renowned, however, for converting prospects into customers... especially in the online channel. Which means a significant portion of marketers’ budgets are going up in smoke.

We're all aware of the financial benefits of the retention of existing customers, in contrast to the acquisition of new ones. And therefore if the objective of our acquisition strategy is to acquire with the intent to retain and grow, then we need to convert a significant portion of qualified leads. The dirty ROI acronym seems to be raising its ugly head again!

So how do we move prospective customers through the sales journey and past the narrow neck of the funnel?

Firstly, we need to understand the different types of customers we have and what their characteristics are (segmentation).

Secondly, we need to understand why these people visit our Web site. In terms of the acquisition activities, what stories are driving them to the Web site and what are they expecting from this experience?

And thirdly, now that we have the traffic, we need to understand how our visitors interact with the Web site.

People visit our site with varied intentions. For example, a person may come to our Web site in order to:

Research a product or service
Research in order to compare prices
Buy a specific product or service based on prior research
Browse without intent to buy

People who visit the Web site with each intention generally exhibit different behaviour. Therefore, if we can link that behavior with a specific segment we can understand how to best guide each segment along the customer journey and identify what barriers are preventing us from a sale.

Consider a 'financial services' Web site where there is great diversity in product offerings. We might consider segmenting people by 'sex' and 'age' (which can be triggered by the person 'self-identifying' via a number of means such as specific 'age-related' content) and then refine the segment based on prior interaction.

So, for example, if a 35 year old male looks at content related to travel insurance then it is more than likely that he may also be interested in additional home insurance given his absence from his home. This being the case (and assuming we have also qualified that he is in fact investigating this insurance for himself), we can serve up an offering that not only meets his insurance requirements but additionally removes the barrier of time-consuming and confusing product comparisons based on age, sex and other variables.

We have provided him the most appropriate and efficient solution by simply 'listening' to his actions and in doing so we have a greater opportunity to convert.

Listening to our customers is the critical path to conversion. Sam Walton, legendary founder of Wal-Mart, said it best, "Whenever you get confused, go to the store. The customer has all the answers, and all the money."

It's pretty simple really, and the key to good marketing. In terms of online marketing, all we have to do is gain the insight and understanding of the customer's journey by 'listening' to the data captured by our customers’ interaction to understand what’s happening now, combined with our end goals, to determine the barriers to sale.

If we know what the barriers are, then we can remove them.

Reactive Media

Marketers vs CFOs in the Battle for the Online Budget

2006-02-02T15:24:00.000+11:00

If you're reading this article there's a good chance you're a marketer. You're probably a marketer who knows that the online channel is powerful and has earned its place within the marketing mix. And like a lot of marketers, you'll probably be the first to admit that it's hard to keep track of the changing world of online marketing, but are willing to try. The good news, then, is that you are not alone. However, there is some bad news too...

I'm guessing you're like most Australian marketers and struggle to demonstrate the value marketing brings to your organisation. And that's probably because you're not in a position to demonstrate how the activities that you perform contribute to the bottom line. As a result, you never get the budgets you want, spending half your time begging the CFO for additional dollars and the other half developing online campaigns that you know are going to fall short of the mark (because you don't have the budget to do it properly).

But don't despair, there's hope - and money - available to you. It's just a matter of knowing how to release the finances from the vice-like grip of your CFO. And it doesn't have to be as difficult as it sounds. CFO's tend to more easily distribute budgets if they know what the impact of the spend is on the bottom-line. Fortunately, that's pretty easy to do in the online channel, because almost everything can be measured if engineered correctly.

So what do you need to do?

Step 1. Define Objectives

Know what you are trying to achieve. Are you simply attempting to drive traffic, and if so, how will this affect the bottom-line? Probably very little. Or is your objective to sell, and if not directly, then indirectly? Hmm... I wonder which is the more attractive option to the bean counters?

Step 2. Develop the Strategy

Know exactly how you are going to achieve those objectives. Have you written a marketing plan? What's more convincing: hyperbole or a documented approach backed up by research? Reduce
perceived risk.

Step 3. Calculate the risk

Know what the benchmarks are for the activities you wish to perform. If your Web site is not eCommerce enabled, then make sure you understand the impact that customer loyalty has on sales conversion.

But before you move to Step 4, you need to address a critical part of the story - measurement.

If you want ongoing budgets, if you want buy-in from the CFO and the rest of the management team, if you want to actually get results, then you need to measure.

You must have the framework that will allow you to measure against your objectives and the trip-wires to allow you to identify any barriers that prevent your customers or prospects from making that journey.

We all know that marketing is not an exact science. It's very difficult to get things completely right the first time. We must understand what works and what doesn't - and then fix what doesn't and improve what does.

And be prepared to share (i.e. communicate to the CFO) the good with the bad. The bad does not look so bad when you can identify where the problem is and then recommend how to fix it.

And finally ...

Step 4. Sell the Concept

Understand that while you shouldn't have to, you do in fact need to sell the concept to the CFO (or whoever else it is that holds the purse-strings). In order to do so, you must (a) clearly communicate what you plan on undertaking; and (b) clearly communicate the financial benefits of the activity. Don't set unreasonable expectations but demonstrate that your objectives are in line with their objectives. Trust is critical in sales... but you know that.

Reactive Media

So what are our hot predictions for 2006? Short answer - us!

2006-01-14T15:06:00.000+11:00

That's right, you and I. This is the year where the primary focus is on the Web user - our ability to make choices and our ability to find relevant content. The user-centric experience is finally being delivered.

Life Management

In 2005 we saw significant investment by key online players in customisable and portable Life Management Web services such as MyYahoo, Google's Personalised Home and Microsoft's start.com. These sites allow users to save personal information (address books, bookmarks, photos, electronic files and calendar entries) and display and manage preferred news and information services (weather, news headlines and blogs).

We can expect to see these services further expand into content and search personalisation. We could for example, see the aggregation of search results, news feeds and even product enquiries based on the behaviour of other online users. A current example of this can be seen in the popular book-marking site, del.icio.us.

Localisation

Enhanced online directories and maps have been commercially adopted in the US and Europe using services such as Google Maps and Google Earth (esp. Real Estate) and we can expect the same trend in the Australasian market.

Google Local is expected to be launched on the Australian market imminently. And as Australian businesses turn toward Google Local for commercial directory services, we can expect activity from brands such as Yellow Pages, Where Is and CitySearch to expand and develop their technologies and content capabilities, allowing us to interact with local views of our cities and states.

In fact, News Limited has just released truelocal.com.au.

Content Syndication

With the release (expected early 2007) of Microsoft's long-awaited new Windows operating system, Vista, expect to see mainstream use of RSS content syndication feeds... right onto the desktop. While RSS (Really Simple Syndication) has been with us for some time now - adopted by news sources and blogs primarily - the average user will begin to use RSS as a seamless part of their desktop experience.

Video

This is the year video on the Web will go gang-busters! There have already been over 3 million video downloads from iTunes since the introduction of their video services in mid-October and other media players such as Google are capitalising on the popularity of portable devices like the iPod.

Given the barriers for entry into the video marketplace are so low (i.e. cost of distribution and production) we can expect more underground video content to be introduced to the mainstream market via 'vlogs' (video blogs). Expect to see a proliferation of internet video stars that fill niche markets and gain notoriety and celebrity status.

Google

And finally, our safest prediction for 2006 is, without doubt, that Google will astound us. Expect them to captivate us with their technological innovations (although topping Google Earth will be hard) while dazzling us with their corporate muscle-flexing. Don't be surprised to see Google acquire something big in 2006 - and turn it on its ear.

What will be even more fascinating is whether Google can retain customer loyalty as they go head to head with almost everyone.

Make sure to check out Google Labs regularly.

With all this online activity, it's going to be an exciting 2006!

Reactive Media