Call of Digital

Run Berlin 2008

2008-05-26T10:50:00.007+01:00

Back in December I had a little gem of an idea. That little gem was to run a marathon, in particular the Berlin marathon, with my sister-in-law.

Now as I sit here with burning thighs, sore nips and chaffing in places I'd rather not mention that idea is looking less like a gem and more like a piece of dirty gravel. Nevertheless, my name is down, sponsorship has started coming in and there's no going back now.

Being a web designer what am I to do with all these new challenges. Well I've done what any self respecting web designer would do - i've create a blog. Not just any old blog but a tumblelog at Tumblr. Where Tumblr places itself is somewhere between full on blogging tools such as blogger/wordpress which lean towards lenghty articles and microblogs like twitter/jaiku. Tumblr allows the user to quickly add a particular media type from choose of 7 basic forms of media. It rocks.

If you're a generous soul who's just looking to sponsor me you can do so at my bmy charity page. Thanks.

You can also keep a track of how the blog is fairing on Command Shift 3 too. It doesn't seem to get into too many battles but when it does it seems to do alright.

Google's new trademark policy - what do we do now?

2008-04-15T15:12:00.005+01:00

With one fell swoop, Google made a massive announcement last week in reference to its trademark policy on Adwords, its PPC advertising platform. The new policy means that advertisers are no longer restricted from bidding on trademark terms. This could mean companies could face a lot of competition for terms they previously had sole control of, such as their company name.

So for instance, I run “123 Limos” and I have been bidding on PPC on this keyphrase for years. My local rival “ABC Limos” hasn’t been allowed to bid on my name, until now. He can now do so and steal traffic that is meant for my site. Sneaky...

Clients and colleagues alike have asked me “Should I bid on my competitors brand name?” My response has generally been that it is the client’s decision as to whether they should look to bid on competitor’s keyphrases to attract more traffic.

I did however offer these points to be considered:

1. Is there a lot of traffic under the keyphrase you are considering bidding on?
If the answer is no, whats the point? Spending time looking for phrases that might bring you the odd gem is not always the best use of time. I’d rather be analysing what you have done, and where you can be making improvements overall.

2. Will it bring relevant traffic?
Not necessarily. If you’re B&Q and you start bidding on Homebase, you may well get the right genre of people to the site. But if they are expecting the Homebase website and get something else, won’t this confuse the user? So it has cost you money to bring them to the site only for them to close the window and go elsewhere.

It’s the same as an ecommerce site bidding on a product that they don’t have in stock – the user ends up disappointed as there is an incongruence between what they have requested, and what they have been displayed.

A client once asked me if he should optimise his site to rank on David Beckham and Kylie Minogue. He repaired washing machines... its the same thing really!

3. Are you prepared to put your competitors name all over your site?
When Google introduced Quality Score a while back, it was an attempt to make all PPC ads as relevant as possible to the content of the web page they were pointing to. So the higher your Quality Score, the higher your ad position and the lower the bid.

With this in mind, in order to achieve a decent ad position and achieve a decent click through rate (CTR), you would need to make sure that you had content on your site that related to your ad. Do B&Q want to put Homebase’s name all over their website...? I think not.

4. Is your natural search in order?
If you have to bid high on PPC to get a position on your company name, it’s usually a sign that your natural search isn’t effective enough. You should rank in the top 3 for your company name irrespective of your competition. If you don’t, you could be spending that PPC ad revenue better elsewhere...

5. Focus on what you are doing right
Rather than trying to steal traffic from the competition, focus on where you have made gains on your online marketing strategy over the last year or so. Where else can you improve what you’re doing? Are there areas you haven’t looked at for a while that should be improved?

6. Can you get better traffic elsewhere?
The answer to this is probably yes. There are many other keyphrases you could be targeting that would bring you better quality, more relevant traffic. And if you think you have exhausted what you have done with PPC, look at other online marketing areas like viral, email and SEO.

There are a lot of comments out there at the moment that are based around “the end of Google” and “the abolishment of trademarking”. Over the last few years, CPC prices have increased without knowledge of this. If you optimise your ads effectively and continue look at improving the overall path a customer takes through your website, you will still see a very good ROI from Google.

It could well affect people using Google as they may not be able to find what they are after, but for savvy advertisers, it could mean further increased effectiveness elsewhere within a PPC campaign. It will force people to become better at ad text writing, and ad building in general, which can only be good for the PPC campaign owner.

My own opinion is that it is the opening of the door for CPA, which Google has been trailing for a while. After all why wouldn’t you want to convert to a medium where you only pay for an action you set? Affiliates have been running this way for years and successfully so.

Sit tight and see what happens, but I wouldn't expect to see the massive fallout that some so called "experts" are predicting. People will still use Google for PPC as long as it continues to be an effective way of searching for content. When that starts dropping, then it could get interesting...

Why everyone needs a Wii

2008-03-31T17:21:00.002+01:00

No not for playing games. Well yes its great for that, but the Wii is an important internet testing tool. More and more people are using their games console to pit their wits against others online. Its an easy transition to start browsing websites more and more via these consoles and the browsing platform needs checking out to ensure all websites can be viewed properly on this technology.

Not only is the browser important, the usability of a site is too. It can be accessed via a mouse and a keyboard, but how does it fair with a Wii remote?

This should not be limited to just the Wii either. PS3 and Xbox consoles have the ability to connect online, and sites should also be tested in these formats.

Sony, Toshiba and Philips have also started releasing "multimedia centres" where the TV, the focal point of most living rooms, is also able to be used as a monitor for a PC, a tv for a games console and a facility to access your I Tunes.

Lets get ahead of the times. Or maybe just up with them until the next massive shift in user behaviour!

Int' it great. Yorkshire. Aye lad

2008-02-26T16:12:00.010Z

eeee them there folk int' digital bit ant arf dun a reet job be grabbin' a champion project frum Yorshire Forward...

Ahem...

Well an off shoot of Yorkshire Foward to be exact Seth. Yes, hours of toiling over a tender document and proposal paid off as we beat the competition to a rather nice piece of work for Integreat Yorkshire.

IY are tasked with "making places" in Yorkshire, and encouraging architects and construction agencies to redevelop and regenerate areas of Yorkshire to new heights. And thats exactly what we intend to do with the website. It wont be as big as Bridgewater Place, but we hope it will help spread the word about the regeneration available in Yorkshire with the aid of IY.

Watch this space for further updates. Project team includes Joe McGrath, Michael Wood, Chris Ball and Steve Baker. The site will use a mix of SiteKit CMS and bespoke development.

Eeee grand. Where's me whippet?

Innovation

2008-02-15T17:06:00.008Z

A new internal resource for the bezier group has launched today.

The innovation intranet provides information about the different innovative projects that are taking place across the group, the latest bulletins on what's happening in the retail environment, inspiration for bezier accounts, and a detailed database of innovative tools.

Based on the Community Server framework, the site is formed of a series of blogs and photo galleries - all easily updateable by the bezier Innovation team.

Our Father who art in Wakefield...

2008-01-16T16:33:00.000Z

There are moments in history when man has achieved the unthinkable. However, the building of the Pyramids, conquering Everest and flying to the moon simply pale in comparison when you consider that today Poulters Digital put 3 sites live IN ONE DAY.

Yes Sirree. Take a moment, sit back and marvel at the multi-tasking skills of the Digital department.

Website Number 1
http://www.beziergroup.com
The Mothership of all sites (within the bezier group). This puppy takes a novel and currently hip approach of delivering all the content on one page, using clever Javascript to navigate between sections. Basically, we tried our best at making a straightforward corporate site look 'down with the kids'. Rather than looking down on the kids as you'd expect it to.

Design, concept and mark-up/css by Chris Ball, smart coding skills courtesy of Joe Bragg. Steve Baker steered the ship.

Website Number 2
http://www.bezier.co.uk"
New year has hit the old bezier site hard. Atkins guide in hand, off it trudged to the gym focusing mainly on its love handles and rather unsightly paunch. The new stripped-back bezier site is here and its ready to rumble. Try not to mention the Halitosis mind.

Design by Edd Newson, mark-up/css by Poulters and admin coding by Joe Bragg. Project managed by Steve Baker.

Website Number 3
http://www.bluetouchdesign.co.uk
A swanky new website to match their swanky new offices. The bluetouch site is like your dapper brother-in-law who you know is way out of your sister's league but haven't the heart to tell him.

Slick design by Edd Newson, mark-up/css by Chris Ball with a helping hand from Joe McGrath. Pam Manku was at the controls.

The digital department is celebrating this great feat the only way it knows how. By rejoicing in the Kevin Keegan Quote Machine.

Dorjes Wine

2008-01-02T20:57:00.000Z

How can we possibly pay back our Mums? They spend 9 months lugging us about in their tummies before squeezing us out like a watermelon through a smarties tube. Then after we've inflicted the most excruciating pain they're ever likely to experience how do we repay them? By coming into the world crying and screaming and pooing everywhere.

Well I've taken a tiny step in paying mine back. I've only gone and created a brand spanking new website for my Mum's company, the wondeful wine merchants Dorjé's. (www.dorjes.co.uk).

My Mum's partner Ali is the genius behind it all and together they have painstakingly compiled an exclusive and extremely comprehensive wine list for all to enjoy. The website currently provides a detailed catalogue of beverages available from their warehouse in Warwick.

If you're looking for tips try the sparkling and fruity Fragolino.

Chin chin.

Zhoodles

2007-11-24T02:00:00.000Z

Thought I'd just give a little mention to something I've dedicated a little of my free time to. Some of us in the team win Gold medals at the Ultimate Frisbee European Championships (Joe M), others of us take money off Joey Barton at online poker (no mentions), I run a food blog. Its called Zhoodles and it is slowly building into a collection of free recipes.

Saag Paneer anyone?

The Big Apple of My Eye

2007-11-24T01:18:00.000Z

Black guy with clipboard: Anyone? A minute of your time to save the children! Anyone! 'Scuse me, pretty miss! Excuse me! [Pretty girl ignores him.] Oooh! I'm too flyyy fo' da children. I'm too hot fo' da children. [To old lady] Ma'am, do you wanna save the children?
Old lady: I hate children.

For more NYC quotes click here

For more of my NYC photos click here. Many more to be added later.

Glamour Models

2007-11-23T09:16:00.000Z

'I'm rich beyond my wildest dreams.' Well Robbie is. Liz and I aren't as you see here. This is taken from the latest (Dec '07) issue of Glamour magazine for which we featured as part of their careers section.Glamour asked us probing questions and we answered... from the heart, delivering prophetic soliloquies on the future of the web, the imbalance between designers and programmers, where the growth of the industry lies, how to make a buck along with the passion that burns within us both. So what do Glamour do? Take 2 sentences stitch them together to completely mis-quote us AND take the quote out of context.

Hey ho. At least they got Liz's age wrong.

If that isn't enough to convince you to go and buy it you get a FREE Kinder Buena bar and a FREE pouch.

Yes... we know.

By Far The Greatest Team Building Website The World Has Ever Seen...

2007-10-24T10:28:00.000+01:00

Love them or hate them, you have to admit Manchester United have a great team. They may not win every match. They may have had a slightly unsteady start to the season. But they are coming good right now as last nights 4-2 victory over in Kiev showed. And as with any great team, once they get into their stride there is no limit to what they can achieve.

I'd bet that if you offered offices up and down the country a glimpse into the Old Trafford changing rooms (not like that girls!) to see the tactical master that is Sir Alex at work and to see how great teams organise themselves, they'd bite your hand off.

Well now you can.
http://unitedinbusiness.manutd.com/teambuildingsolutions/index.htm

Manchester United have developed a team building and training programme designed to bring out the best in individuals and teams. The site has much more detail about it including a video of Sir Alex and testimonials. Now with newly up-to-date kit.

Shame it didn't help them in the 2-0 drubbing the mighty Sky Blues gave them the other day, eh?

Digital Facelift

2007-10-03T12:14:00.000+01:00

As you can probably tell Call Of Digital has had a facelift. Yay!

It was bit drab in the standard-blogger noir look. With the winter nights fast approaching I've lifted the naked black and replaced it with a... err... lovely midnight blue. What a difference a bit of slap makes eh?

The photoshopped collage in the background calls inspiration from a few sites. Firstly, the lovely webdesignerwall.com and this fantasic tutorial in particular from the talented Neil Duerden.

Secondly, I took thin slice of grime from urbandirty.com to provide some texture in the background.

Thirdly, kuler came in handy for some cute colour scheme guidance. 1944mustang was what I plumped for in the end.

Finally, the four photos across the top are taken from the Stock Exchange. A great site that allows you to download free stock imagery once you have signed up. I highly recommend you get on there and start sharing your photos for the good of the web. It just happens that the photos used we're all taken by yours truly from a long time ago and forgotten about until yesterday.

Hope you like it ;)

'I must have some booze. I demand to have some booze.'

2007-10-02T10:19:00.000+01:00

That's what you should be saying to your boss now that the Corporate Thresher Gift Voucher website has been incorporated into the main Thresher Group website. We did the Thresher group website back in March time. Unfortunately, I was tied over Ross's desk at the time so I couldn't actually get away to post on it.

So anyway, the site is seemlessly integrated into the main site and it now allows you to order your Corporate gift vouchers online.

If you fancy a quick peek visit http://www.threshergiftvouchers.co.uk/.

The Thresher website was developed by Joe Bragg & Joe McGrath, managed by Ross Hewitt & Anna MaWhinney and designed and scripted by Chris Ball.

Suits You Sir...

2007-09-20T10:35:00.000+01:00

Hurrah, at last, the new Brook Taverner website is live! This site has moved their business on dramatically and has given the Digital team some useful reminders of what is involved in developing an online sales service. If anyone is in the market for a nice piece of tweed or some dapper slacks then look no further than www.brooktaverner.co.uk.

The Brook Taverner site was designed by Chris Ball and scripted by Joe McGrath. The project was managed by Ross Hewitt.

dConstruct 2007

2007-09-10T15:54:00.000+01:00

I popped down to Brighton on Friday for this year's dConstruct conference. Having just missed out on tickets last year, and seeing that this year's conference was all about Experience Design, I was really looking forward to the day.

And I wasn't disappointed. The venue was great and the speakers all really interesting. Amongst other things, I leaned about chicken sexers, waterfalls & washing machines, some neat design tips, and the origins of flickr and b3ta.

A lot of the User Experience stuff was new to me, and most of it was fascinating. There's so much potential for us to be implementing the concepts that I heard about. I came away really inspired, and with loads of ideas - now time to figure out how to put them into action...

Yorkshire Air Ambulance Gets Off The Ground

2007-08-17T11:42:00.000+01:00

Boasting a successful 18 month relationship with the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, Poulters have produced work on TV, Radio, Press, Poster and DM. To add to the plethora of work is the delivery of the brand spanking new flash website!

The Big Idea: it's in a cockpit. The bells and whistles: the flash interactivity, the sounds, the feather, the simplicity. The Objective: to increase donations.
There will be more activity to follow to increase donations over the coming months. Next on the agenda is to deliver the html site and the admin tool which will allow YAA to update their content for both sites as and when.

yaa.org.uk was lovingly produced by Poulters.
Creative – David, Mick and Gaz; Digital Design – Chris Ball and Liz Worsley; Flash work by Liz Worsley. The technical work on this project is being produced by Joe Bragg and the project was managed by Pam Manku.

http://www.yaa.org.uk/

Saving The Earth One Ink Cart at a Time

2007-07-19T14:30:00.000+01:00

Here at Poulters we would like to think that we use our web design for good rather than evil and so we were overjoyed when the people at Bag It Up – a recycling business who take old clothes, mobiles and ink cartridges and make them into cash for charity – came to us asking for their website working over.

Last week we launched the new Bag It Up website with a fresh look and new functionality. The functional improvements allow Joe Public to register for Doorstep Collections and search for their nearest recycling Bring Bank - the Bring Bank search results are presented using a nice bit of Google Maps integration.

The site shows the recycling schemes and campaigns Bag It Up have with the likes of the Yorkshire Air Ambulance, Springhill Hospice and the Hampshire Air Ambulance.

So we make a good site, they raise money for specific charities and we all save the planet.

http://www.bag-it-up.org.uk/

Bag It Up was designed by Chris Ball, Michael Wood and Liz Worsley, and built by Michael Wood. The technical work on the project was conducted by Joe McGrath and the project was managed by Pam Manku.

MUPC '07 Website Goes Live

2007-07-02T12:21:00.000+01:00

The site for this year's Manchester United Premier Cup is now live.

http://www.manchesterunitedpremiercup.com/

The site currently shows the latest tournament news and information, an interactive map of the qualifying teams (as shown in the screenshot), and a gallery of the best images from last year's competition.

Watch out for the next phase of development, which will include the 'Players' Lounge' interactive elements such as message board and a 'Dream Team' competition. The site will also include up to the minute game results during the tournament itself, which runs from the 1st to the 4th of August in Manchester.

MUPC was designed by Chris Ball. The technical build on the project was conducted by Joe McGrath and the project was managed by Pam Manku.

Surface

2007-07-02T11:59:00.000+01:00

Microsoft have launched their new 'Surface' system, bringing the 'Minority Report'-style interface that little bit closer.

http://www.microsoft.com/surface/ (warning - the first video contains that annoying American pronunciation of leisure)

In terms of in-store, this blog article talks about using it in T-mobile stores. I think this system will work well in ‘technology boutique’ type stores like a mobile phone shop, but also in any other situation where the store staff are in a 1-on-1 situation with the customer and want to present information on a screen. For example a travel agent could bring up pictures and videos of holiday resorts, or an estate agent could show walk-through videos of a house for sale. Lots of possibilities...

Wagg

2007-06-16T14:48:00.000+01:00

The new Wagg site has gone live...

www.waggfoods.co.uk

Wagg was designed & built by Michael Wood. The technical work on the project was conducted by Joe Bragg and the project was managed by Anna Mawhinney.

Facebook is now officially classed as work

2007-06-14T15:46:00.000+01:00

No more switching browser tabs when someone walk past 'cos you're writing on the wall of someone you think you once knew at school. With the opening up of the Facebook Platform, allowing anyone to develop custom applications for the Facebook site, this is now officially classed as development work, maybe...

http://developers.facebook.com/

This release seems to have led to an upsurge in custom apps being released for Facebook (eg. Poke Pro etc...) - some useful, most cr@p. But seriously, this really could be chance for clients to tap into the huge opportunities available within the social networking and branding arena.

Go-Go-Gadgets

2007-05-11T12:20:00.000+01:00

Love it or hate it, we’re bound to all be using the new version of Windows (Vista) on our PCs within a few years.

One new feature of Windows Vista is the introduction of ‘Gadgets’ (Mac users may already know them as Widgets). These are mini-applications that live on the Windows desktop.

So why is this important? Because it enables brands to have a presence right on a user’s computer desktop.

If an organisation provides a useful Gadget to the user, such as displaying the latest news, offers, live video and commentary, or product information; the user will choose to install that Gadget. The user sees the Gadget on their desktop every time they switch on their PC, and forms an association between the useful information provided by that tool and the organisation’s brand.

The number of methods by which we can access information from the web is increasing all the time, and this is another one of those methods. An organisation can display summarised content from their website directly to the user’s desktop. The user does not have to open a web browser to see this content, but at the same time is more likely to visit the main website, so the Gadget acts to drive traffic.

The opportunities for marketing with Gadgets are huge. Microsoft claims that “In the first month of Windows Vista’s general availability, sales exceeded 20 million licenses”.

Here in Team Digital we are always looking for new ways to use technology creatively for the promotion of client brands.

Midland Mainlines Always Getting More

2006-12-21T13:03:00.000Z

Midland Mainline's loyalty scheme - Always More - went live and has bedded in offering integration between the customer's offline experience and the website. The Always More layer sits seamlessly with the rest of the site and works effortlessly with broader promotions Midland Mainline offer.

Credits: Always More was built and coded by Joe Bragg using ASP.NET via EpiServer. The project was overseen by Anna Mawhinney.

A lesson well taught...

2006-11-22T17:30:00.000Z

Studio were taught a valuable lesson today by one of the soldiers of digital.

The very valuable 'floating while pretending to be dead' technique has proven invaluable to members of the British SAS, German GSG-9 and American Navy Seals in covert operations worldwide and the members of Studio should feel honored to have been shown this technique (please see illustration below):

The impressive version of the obligatory out of the window image

2006-11-21T16:51:00.000Z

Every office blog has the digital camera from the window shot and this one is no different but the photo in question - taken by Digital's Heinz Schmidt - is impressive and has been picked up by the BBC.