If you like Google Earth you’ll love this!
Google have hidden toys across the globe and everyday from now until Christmas they’ll be a new clue outside Santa’s workshop to help you find them.
Find out how to play along here: http://earth.google.com/santa/
Fantastic!
A bit of fun for you…. Take Jackass - the American guys who do stupid things for the camera.
Combine that stupidity with User Generated Content and what do you get:
Fun for hours (well minutes) watching stupid people do stupid things. You can’t help watching… so just give in.
Shopping on badly designed websites "could have a negative effect on the immune system, cardio
functioning and nervous system", according to a report
published today by the Social Issues Research Centre. Liz Tucker, Health & Wellbeing Consultant
warns:
This report shows that Mouse Rage can be as stressful as moving
house, divorce and money worries.
More from Retail Bulletin - I SAID MORE FROM RETAIL BUL….
I’m a bit of a techie and at The Escape we have links with charities so I love to mix the two. Make-A-Wish have worked with us for a long time now and have really pushed their website to work for them.
A brief conversation with the Fundraising Director this morning confirmed their forward thinking regarding www.everyclick.com. They are already using it as a search engine and encouraging people to do the same and are raising money in doing so.
There are plenty of ideas and tools for charities to maximise exposure. Another one from Derek at Probe (new website going live next week) is www.easyfundraising.org.uk.
Why not create an Amazon Affiliate Account or get involved with Ebay? Squidoo us also a great platform.
More money from more people - expanding your donation base and brand awareness. Go on… when the going gets tough, the tough get going and there are so many tools available.
Web 2.0 - everyone wants a piece.
It’s a transition, not a revolution (in my opinion) and it’s confusing a lot of people.
Robert Hoekman has his take on it and it’s one I agree with. UI (User Interface) Design for Web 2.0 is all about making things easier and clearer.
Many years ago, when we started The Escape, digital print arrived on the scene and threatened to kill of traditional litho printing. One of the great selling points of digital was the personalisation features. You could personalise each print and produce low-runs.
Well, that was nine years ago and it never really became cost-effective until about a year or so ago. And now, suddenly, marketers seem to be finally using the media.
In the last week I have had two pieces personally which did catch my eye. My only complaint would be that they came in very plain envelopes so it was a surprise I got as far as opening them.
Seth Godin puts his take on this - people love seeing their own name.
I had a meeting yesterday with a guy who has a shop nearby. We spoke about the need to publish the locatlity so that when people search for his product, in his area, they can find him. Then POW - two interesting finds found me:
To nick a well known strapline - Every Little Helps!
Relevant data here from E-Consultancy about the need for e-retailers to display as much product information as possible for knowledge hungry buyers.
Doesn’t just relate to retail though. We are all (most of us) selling something and that ‘thing’ is usually there to perform a purpose for your customers handing over the cash.
Now, and here comes the trick, what is that purpose for your audience and how does it differ between them all because you can guarantee that different customers buy the same things to fulfill different needs and wants.
Luckliy, if you put in enough effort, the web can deliver the right information at the right time in the right way and that takes time.
I hope I didn’t put you off - the rewards are worth the effort!
Flash used to be the easiest way for a design agency to create a website - it didn’t require as much programming and you could do more with it.
Now though, Flash seems to be mainly used on the web for pop-up adverts and the still slow "skip-Intro" that so many people still think is ‘cool’ and haven’t cottoned onto how annoying it really is.
Here is an interesting article on Fadtastic by Tadeusz Szewczyk: The Demise of Flash - 8 Main Reasons. Note that Tadeusz used to be a Flash Developer.
I still love Simon’s though.
This is funny, I hope you don’t have to be a nerd like me to laugh but it shows the ignorance of some people - in this case, in somewhat dramatic fashion.
I feel like I just had to link to him just to increase the hilarity of it all. Make sure you read the first letter - then the reply.
Link from E-Consultancy