Francomedia Celebrates Birthday!

It was 6 years ago that we began our creative journey at Francomedia.

Our business plan is simple and has been right from the beginning: low overhead = less cost for customers.

It was our mandate to provide top notch creative services for small to mid-sized companies for less money than traditional advertising agencies.

When we planned the business, we saw a huge market to serve, if done right. There are a large number of companies that can't afford the rates of traditional advertising agencies, but need more expertise and support than a stay-at-home graphic designer can offer. This is the space we intended to fill. And, because most of these companies don't have the budgets for big ticket agencies, we wouldn't have to worry about competing head to head with them, we could operate under the radar.

It seemed quite simple, offer creative design and marketing support at a fraction of the cost. We set up shop in an industrial park, opted for no middle-men and don't surround ourselves with unnecessary luxuries (3-ply toilet paper aside). A lower cost structure would enable us to operate efficiently and helps take the pretentiousness out of the daily grind.

We've done everything according to plan, so things should be on target, right? Not exactly. What we didn't account for was the amount of large sized companies wanting to do business with us. Our target audience went from start-ups and family owned businesses to billion dollar enterprises.

So much for staying under the radar.

Our reputation has grown considerably as an inventive marketing shop with highly talented staff and a penchant for creative thinking. This has resulted in the acquisition of some pretty high level projects with some fortune 500 companies.

So, what do we attribute this success and profile to?

First of all, we have taken our time in hiring the right people, each one hand picked and based on potential, not on previous experience, academic achievement or even their portfolio. Creative thinking, rationale and understanding our clients is what is needed and what each of our staff brings to the table. Our staff are some of the most creative individuals available and always bring their 'A' game. Secondly, we have always been selective with who we work for and what projects we do - we like challenges and we need diversity. Each new project leads to another. Thirdly, is our reputation, which we couldn't have built without the first getting the right people and then completing the right projects.

It truly is amazing what hard work mixed with talent can accomplish in just 6 short years. We still enjoy working with start-ups and small sized companies - sometimes, these clients can be the most fun.

I predict a great year ahead for Francomedia and would like to thank each and everyone of my staff for their contributions, hard work, ideas and attitude. I would also like to thank our clients (large and small) for the opportunity to work on some great projects!

Francomedia Wins International Awards

Francomedia received notice today that it won 2 international marketing and communications awards - MarCom Awards. This, of course, was met with some excitement and a feeling of validation for all the hard work that the entire Francomedia team put into these projects.

Here's what we won:

Platinum Award, the top honor, for the development of the Alternate Reality Game (ARG) called, 'Experience the Node', an interactive game we created to launch a new LAN Gaming Centre in Calgary called, The Node. Players registered as agents and were given clues to solve 8 missions in total - clues were distributed or planted througout the internet in various places like Facebook, Youtube, Craigslist and in blogs - the mission: to find the location of The Node and win a invitation to the opening. This turned out to be a rather international hunt, players chatted on numerous bulletin boards, IRC chatrooms and through forums to help each other with each series of clues. It got increasingly hard until the last challenge which was a ge0-caching exercise to find the rogue agent in a parking lot in Calgary - he awaited the players arrival in a stretch limosine. Overall the ARG was a success and many of the players from around the world provided us with positive reviews. It was a hell of a lot of work, but well worth it.

A Gold Award was bestowed upon the design of our business cards - they have been featured all over the world in various blogs and design forums and will be part of an upcoming book on business card design. The Gold MarCom Award is a nice addition to the Platinum Hermes Award we won earlier this year for the same project.

The MarCom Awards are administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals. AMCP is an international organization consisting of several thousand marketing, communication, advertising, public relations, media production and free-lance professionals.

As a rule, we typically don't enter client work into advertising design competitions, because the basis for the awards is so subjective and it takes away from the purpose of the work - to drive sales, not win awards. However, in the case of Experience the Node, the project was so complex and the work so compelling and high profile, we really did need to enter it, for validation and to further promote the success of the campaign.

We can't wait for the hardware to arrive - we will definitely need a large trophy case now!

Francomedia Becomes Platinum Sponsor of CCAT

Francomedia signed a deal with the Calgary Council for Advanced Technology (CCAT) to become a Platinum Sponsor, the highest level of sponsorship at CCAT.

CCAT was Founded in 1983 to provide networking events to enhance and promote technology awareness and business development for the advanced technology community in Calgary. CCAT hosts a number of events each year with guest speakers from a variety of industries and technology companies.

Francomedia is proud to be a sponsor, it's a good fit with the creative work we do - pushing the boudaries of what's possible is a big part of what we like to do for clients. Having access to such a talented and highly skilled technology group should open the doors to some very creative projects.

What are we gonna do with Windows 7?

Tonight, we took part in the Calgary Council for Advanced Technology's event featuring Dell's very own, Jeff Hamlin, Director of Marketing for Medium Business in the United States

We got to hear Jeff’s presentation entitled, Dell’s New DNA: Intertwining Technology Trends and Marketing to Better Address Customer Pain Points.

Mr. Hamlin shared some of the new technology trends (that they can speak publicly about) that they are keeping their eye on, participating in and/or pushing forward.

Notably, there were two topics that I was keenly interested in personally; cloud computing and virtualization.

From a web development standpoint there is so much by way of possibilities with online application development and operating from the cloud that it boggles the mind for anyone that understands it. It's hard to explain to some users and even harder for older users to wrap their heads around the security of it all. But, the change is gonna come. And, it's gonna be awesome... as long as the internets don't get full.

So...

To the client: We call them smart sites, they do smart things and save you time and money.

To the developers: Ok, we're gonna add some fun to the back end....

Virtualization is just simply cool. One of our customers in particular is beginning to promote this with some vigor, they are called the Iteam and they service mid-sized companies with IT support services. Moving to this model can greatly decrease costs on hardware and makes updating software super easy and fast... how many big companies are still running Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 just because it's a pain to install the new, free browser on 1500 desktops and laptops? This fixes that.

Virtualization doesn't really impact my business the way that cloud computing does, but it's still really cool and it makes so much sense... I just wonder what a huge decrease in the amount of hard drives, RAM and other components will do to the supply chain as far as further innovation on those product lines is concerned, time will tell.

So, to Mr. Hamlin from Dell. Thank you for your words tonight, and more importantly, thank you for the copy of Windows 7 that I won - our developers are looking forward to putting it through the paces in testing the apps we've put onto the cloud.

Brand Experience - Second Contact

Before we go too far and you start wondering if every customer experience follows this first contact, second contact philosophy.... they don't. Not all experiences are the same, some sales happen on first contact, second contact, third, forth, fifth etc., for the purpose of this series, I am prolonging the customer experience to table as many ideas as possible. Besides, you really should be looking at brand experiences as an on-going process anyways. Every interaction with a customer is an opportunity to reinforce your brand and keep it top of mind for your happy customer to introduce your brand to another person. The brand experience then becomes the customer experience and vice versa.

A memorable or successful brand or customer experience is the result of many conscious actions and is deliberate and planned in every way. My hope is that staging the ideas at different contacts shows some method to how various elements combined heighten the experience rather than just providing you with a list of things that can be done with no rationale, explanation or examples.

Second Contact

A consumers second contact with a brand verifies or confirms their assumptions or changes their perception of the brand. Either way, at this stage (and every stage) you win them or lose them - remember, often times, they are still not a customer, they are still evaluating your brand. They are interested, but not sold... yet.

So, a consumer experienced you for the first time by seeing your brand on the side of a bus, or maybe online in a Facebook posting and was intrigued enough to search out more information. The second contact can be physical, like in the visit to your store's retail location or it can be online - second contacts can be as varied as first contacts. Some of the things that are important at this stage is building relevancy with the consumer, earning their trust and meeting their expectations on a brand essence level.

Make sure your brand is relevant. Relevancy to the consumer involves strategy and an in-depth understanding of the market you serve. Not all brands are relevant to all consumers. Obviously, if you are a grocery store you want to be relevant and appeal to numerous demographics as everyone needs to eat. But, if you are a specialized running shoe manufacturer, you may only want to appeal to a certain segment of the market. A brand that is highly specialized that tries to appeal to broadly runs the risk of losing the very core audience that sustains the brand. Positioning your brand to the right audience and staying true to your brand and the expectations of that audience is what makes your brand relevant.

Earning brand trust. Legitimate, professional, credible and established are words that come forward when describing a powerful brand image. The brand image is more than just a logo or word mark, it's the overall look and feel of how those elements are used along with other graphic elements in a brochure, a vehicle graphic, a billboard, a magazine ad, a retail display, POS, retail location or a web site. Photography, design, colour, space and verbiage all work in concert to deliver the core message, values and essence of a brand. Think about a retail chain like The Gap - their logo is simple, their signage in-store is simple, their store layout is roomy and simple - they reek of simplicity. The Gap was founded on a simple idea, 'to make it easier to find a pair of jeans'. This simple idea was the basis for their entire brand essence and being true to this idea has fueled their growth to an international level. Simplicity is not a new concept, but few pull it off with great success the way The Gap has (Apple has also been wildly successful in taking their 'simple' brand into a retail environment) . The brand essence of the Gap was not created by happenstance, great effort was made to ensure that everything they did outwardly and with the consumer is simple, efficient and uncomplicated - this is through policy, design and awareness of their brand expectations.

Ensure your brand meets the expectations. The best way to meet expectations is to walk the walk and talk the talk. Be true to your brand; your outgoing messaging should be fluent and consistent throughout everything you do - if you walk like a duck and talk like a duck, consumers better hear you quack (never mind your purple cow theory for now, the fact that your a duck got people interested for this exercise, OK). Expectations are everything, as they are the basis of judgement on your brand and for the most part you get to set them. Your outward promotions and advertising should be setting the expectations of what customers will experience.

While you as a brand owner set the expectations in most cases, there are instances where expectations are the result of outside influences. In the case of Nordstrom, which we mentioned in the first part of this series, urban legends about their service grew on a grassroots level and while some of these legends may be based in fact, they can be skewed out of proportion slightly by each person as the story gets told, like playing telephone as a kid - the last one hearing the message gets a different version of the original tale. Exaggerated expectations can be hard to meet, but keeping tabs on your brand online will help to identify these trends and allow you to deal with them as they come up.

If you are true to your brand, earn consumer trust and meet the expectations of the consumer, you may be ready for a transaction with them - time for them to become a customer, not just a consumer.

If this second contact is happening on your web site, a sale could be made instantly if you are set up to do so. If not, the second contact could have given the consumer enough confidence in your brand to visit your retail location or to go to your web site and investigate further, thus initiating the third contact.

Bottomline: Remember Caddyshack? ... be the ball? Well the same goes for your brand. Be the brand. This applies to it's look, feel and overall essence. If you are true to the brand in every decision you make, you will ensure the consistency that makes a brand trust-worthy and relevant your desired audience. The third contact we will talk about service... I promise.

Attack of the Floating Head!

Hey folks, Ryan here. This post sees me returning to the theme of graphic design in film promotion, but I swear there is an underlying message that can be applied to all design.

That message: Trends become stale and unappealing, and fast.

The biggest example of this that I can think of is the "floating head" movie poster. You've all seen them. Every other poster that lines the theater walls shows giant, disembodied heads of Brad Pitt and Tom Cruise on top of some abstract blurry colors with a small explosion or car chase in the bottom right corner. It may have worked for the first few films, but it is painfully clear that these are uninspired and lazy.

The floating head poster has no doubt already solidified it's place in the internet meme hall-of-fame alongside lolcats, chocolate rain and the winnebago man. And yet here we are, 2009, and the floating heads continue to barrage this designer's eyeballs when he visits the local multiplex or purchase a blu-ray. Well, a lot could be said about the correlation between film-marketing and film-quality, but that's an entirely different post; and as I pointed out in my previous article on movie posters, there still is eye-popping design coming out to this day, though few and far between. So what makes this design approach sustainable? How does this appeal to audiences. What is it about these horrid, conservative designs that still aid in getting a man or woman to plunk down their hard-earned $12 to go see that screening?

Here, kids, lies the trouble with trend.

On the whole, trends can be great. Trends can prove to be progressive for technology and design and general public thought. That is, if the trend is embraced as a starting point or a status quo. A trend should not mean the apex of popularity or thought - that's when the snap bracelets start slitting wrists and Eddie Murphy's 30 foot swollen head tries to sell you on Nutty Professor IV: Forrest Klump. Trends, be it in print design or web, should be analyzed and inspiring, but never copied and continued. It's one of the trickiest dragons I battle with weekly, especially in the fickle land of web-design.

You see, print design has more room to breath, it's got more give. There's almost literally a blank canvas there for the designer to paint broad, colorful, masterful strokes, the bounds of the project very little in a lot of cases. Designing for the web can be equally as full of creative opportunity, but with a tighter pair of pants. Web-design is the Wooderson of creativity (think Matthew McConaughey, Dazed & Confused). My point is, web-design is very restrained, and that makes it incredibly easy to fall into a trend.

Let's do a little experiment. Open up a new tab in your browser (don't close this one!) and pull up the Google. Think of a letter in the alphabet, then think of a food or animal that starts with that letter. I chose 'B' and subsequently 'broccoli'. Enter that food or animal into the Google and hit search. Click on the first link that comes up in your search (one that isn't Wikipedia).

I will bet a hundred dollars that the page you made it to had most of the following:

• Logo, no bigger than 175px x 250px, in the top-left corner
• Colored background
• Centered content area no wider than 900px
• Arial or Times as the sole or secondary font throughout the entire site
• One of, if not both: Standard text links for navigation horizontally or vertically at the top and left of the content area, respectively

Cue the floating head poster.

The reason for that little experiment is self-referential really; of course the majority of web-sites follow this grid. What I'm asking myself, and other web-designers, is do we need to continue forcing ourselves into these tight, uncomfortable, acid-washed pants? What we need to do, as a community and as progressive-thinkers, is sit down and re-evaluate the logistics of where we start when we design a website.

The grid system we sketch out on paper is breaking and in turn the majority of websites are stale. The trends themselves are vanilla. But herein lies the problem, just like floating heads in the theater lobby, they still sell. Sure you could make the argument "that movie poster/website/packaging gets the consumer, the target, from point A to B", but I say nay. We'll get them to B alright, but let's not have them fall asleep on the ride as if their Dad had piped in Moody Blues for 6 hours without so much as an Archie Double Digest to keep you entertained.

So where do we, as web-designers, as creators, go from here? We can't very well break our top-left-centered-955px-verdana habit now can we? The web hasn't quite evolved yet. But what's taking it so long? Is it NETLOR, the terrifying beast that controls the internet and tells us when it's okay to go above and beyond what we've been doing for 10 years? Well I don't believe in NETLOR, and quite frankly the idea frightens me. It's the trend that's holding everything back. The trend dictates what everyone should do, thus creating the environment we operate in and its limitations.

If everyone were to use the trend as a starting point, a base you don't go below, working only to improve on that, I think the web as we know it would be incredibly different, and incredibly cool.

I don't know what it will take to rid our lives of those terrible floating head posters though.

Web Expansion

Over the last year, Francomedia has expanded it's web team and devoted hundreds of hours and resources into expanding our teams knowledge and understanding of web 2.0, content management systems and back end functionality.

What this means is that Francomedia can pretty much tackle any web based project... not that it stopped us before, it's just now we're prepared and well versed in virtually every aspect of web-based development allowing us to compete with anyone on the planet... not that it ever stopped us before.

Our web team consists of experienced graphic designers with a keen insight into usability and web developers that are motivated by challenges and pushing the envelope. Did I mention award winning? Yeah, they're that too.

Some of the sites that we are working on currently are using 'smart' technologies in the way that content is being presented to the user. For instance, if you are shopping for product A, the page will also display products or information that are relevant to product A. This may sound simple and from a user standpoint it had better be, but from a development standpoint it takes a real understanding of the customers products and offerings to pull it off so that it works well. If done right, it should aid in the sales process of any site - whether selling services, products or ideas.

So, if you are thinking of developing a new web site, especially if it's complicated and involved... we're your team.

This self-serving, promotional plug was brought to you by your friends at Francomedia.com!

Brand Experience - First Contact

There are many ways consumers experience your brand.

Eventually, consumers can become customers by experiencing your brand - that is the goal. But, to get to that stage the consumer will go through many experiences, and they all begin with the first contact.

First Contact
These days, it is likely that a consumer will have their first contact with your brand on the web. This is not from your brand's web site either. The fact is, your brand may be found in some form or another, on a discussion forum or social media site. Total strangers, may be mentioning your brand, ranting or raving about it or consumers may have seen an ad for it on their favourite search engine - there are so many different ways to discover new brands online. However, if you're not on the information superhighway but rather on another road in life, consumers may see your brand on a passing vehicle with decals on it, or perhaps in an advertisement in a magazine or newspaper or overheard in a discussion at one of the thousands of local coffee houses on your street.

No matter how or where the first contact happens, a first impression is made based on your brand immediately. And, consumers are either interested or they're not.

If the first contact is favourable, a consumer may be intrigued enough to go look for more information on your brand at which time many will turn to their favourite source of information and go online. This is where and when they may discover more customer comments, threads, videos, blogs or perhaps an official web site.

Now, as the owner of your brand you have to ensure that your first contact makes a positive impression. In a lot of cases, brand owners have little control over the first impression so they focus on improving the second and third impressions - although this is useful, but it's not the full remedy. You see, often times, the first impression is created and influenced heavily by existing customers and is representative of their experience with your brand. For example, a customer of your brand may start a discussion thread on a web forum (or Facebook group) discussing a specific experience - positive or negative, this is available for all to see. This is why the first reaction of brand owners is on service - good service begats good reviews, non?

Well, as a brand owner, you may think there is little you can do other than be better on service to keep first impressions in the positive light. But, there is actually a lot you can do... but it is a lot. And, most companies just don't dedicate the online time it takes to manage this properly. In large companies, this should be a full time job - brand owners need to be plugged into their brand online, 24/7.

With that in mind, here are a few things you can do to influence your brands' first contact and make it a positive one:

1. Advertise. There is no better way to communicate your brand message than with your very own message. There are many options in placement, with online options growing by the nanosecond, you have to choose your platform carefully and not spread yourself too thin. Online advertising allows you to pinpoint and hit your target customer better than any other form of advertising, hands down.
   
2. Awareness. Be aware of what is being said about you online. Subscribe to Google Alerts and don't just track your company name, track slogans, brand extensions, owner names, and competitors. Each day, you should receive a report that tells you what's being posted around the world about you and your brand. Use these to leverage interest and to respond where needed.
   
3. Participate. OK, so you've gotten your first Alert and there's a discussion about how poorly your retail staff handled something... you can monitor it, but that won't solve anything. The best course of action is to address the issue with the staff then participate in the discussion online and explain who you are and what you did to ensure that type of situation does not happen again. Be honest and clear. When posting online, don't make excuses, just tell the truth about what happened and don't try to be a spin doctor. Transparency is how the web works and news travels fast.
4. Encourage. Ask customers to tell their story online and provide them a platform for this, good or bad these are real stories about your brand that would take you millions in advertising to recreate. Obviously, you can't do #4 without #2 or #3, they are prerequisites. A large fan base that contributes to your brand story can help you in product development and refining your customer service. Your customers become part of the brand - which is really how it should be if you want them to promote it.
5. Service. Treat every customer like your best customer and it will bring out the best in every customer. Consumers love hearing about brands that overachieve and talk about these experiences sometimes not even having experienced the experience first hand.

Here is an excellent example of how service can be talked about... from a posting about Nordstrom on Wikipedia:

"Nordstrom is well-known for its customer service, so much so that several urban legends have appeared regarding the store. One of the best known legends is purported to have taken place at the Anchorage store soon after its 1975 purchase from Northern Commercial Company. A customer, unaware that the store had changed hands, returned a set of tires. Although Nordstrom had never sold tires since opening, it was determined not to be the fault of the customer the store had changed hands, and the return was accepted. Many Nordstrom customers will attest that Nordstrom will refund items at any time purchased from Nordstrom stores."

Here is the instruction that Nordstrom stores gives to their new hires:

Welcome to Nordstrom

We're glad to have you with our Company. Our number one goal is to provide outstanding customer service. Set both your personal and professional goals high. We have great confidence in your ability to achieve them.

Nordstrom Rules: Rule #1: Use good judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules.

Please feel free to ask your department manager, store manager, or division general manager any question at any time.

How cool would it be to deliver top notch service so consistently that your spawn urban legends about your service? That is the absolute pinnacle of first impressions. I'm not sure if the story above is true or not, but it has been told over and over by customer service experts and by consumers that love the concept of the story so much that they tell friends about it. What does this do to Nordstrom's reputation?

We don't have Nordstrom's in Canada, but I've even told the story a handful of times, without setting foot in their store, I already think very highly of their brand.

What I find interesting, is how they empower their staff with such a succinct mantra. Provide outstanding service and use good judgment to do so. Wow. I'm sure there has been the odd hiccup, but you can't argue that this hasn't worked in building their brand to be at the top of the service chain. Nordstrom is a brand whos service culture continues to breed good first impressions.

For some of you reading my blog, this may be the first time you've heard of the Nordstrom brand - what are your first impressions?

Bottomline: Do all you can to get your brand out there and encourage your customers to do so as well, keep tabs on it and participate in the discussion. Your brand is a living thing, you can't pull a Ronco and 'set it and forget it' - you need to be involved in the growth and development. And, above all be consistent in your service... we'll get to that though, when we talk about the second and third contact.

Expectations and Promises

Do you know...

What your brand does?

What your advertising does?

What your marketing does?

Your brand and how you promote it, set an expectation and makes a promise.

The expectation is what the customer envisions they will get from your brand - this expectation is often based on the first impression or contact with your brand and like it or not, first impressions make an impact and opinions are formed. These opinions have to do with whether they like you or not, whether they trust you or not or whether your brand will make them look good or not.

So, put your best foot forward.

Its tough for people to recall their first impression of a brand they like - but we can ascertain that it was likely favourable or they would not have engaged with it any further. Negative first impressions are always hard to get past, especially in today's online environment.

Getting people to remember the first time they saw a major brand and finding out what their first impression really was about these brands can be difficult - through repetition and consistency a major brand helps solidify your first impression with follow up. Call it promotion or advertising, what this breaks down to is brand design.

A carefully crafted brand that embodies the spirit and essence of the company or offering will trigger response, even if just a way of thinking about the brand. Follow up with your messaging and keeping it consistent is important in identifying with the consumer what you want their expectation to be.

This is why graphic design plays such a heavy roll in the development and success of a brand.

Good graphic design will help communicate the essence of a brand visually. If done right, a brand will exude the feeling it wants to convey so that your expectation is in line with the brands offering.

When you create a brand, you market and promote it and in most cases, this is done through some kind of advertising. And, it is this outward promotion of the brand that makes the promise.

The promise is to the customer. And, the promise is that your brand will be as good (or as tasty, or hearty, or as durable etc, etc.) as the preconceived perception they have of your brand. Your look and feel, your essence, your personae is what your brand exudes through it's logo and word mark, its brochure, its website, what people are saying about it and how you are telling the brand story in your advertising and marketing.

This is a critical stage; the first interaction with a brand can determine continued support of the brand. This is because the brand needs to deliver on the expectation and solidify the assumptions that the consumer has made about it - this first interaction can be done a number of ways, but typically with a purchase, a visit to a retail location or even through other advertising.

If a brand fails to deliver on what the consumer is expecting, they will remember this in a not so fond way and will likely not engage with the brand.

These days, a consumer may have their first contact with a brand on the web, maybe in a forum or some social media site, where a friend mentions the brand or they have seen an ad for it, or it could be a good old fashioned way that they happen upon it like on the side of a passing vehicle with decals on it or in a magazine ad - either way, a first impression is made based on that brand immediately. Consumers are either interested or they're not.

This consumer may be intrigued enough to go look for more information on this brand at which time they may discover customer comments online, a tweet, or perhaps an official web site. This first contact with the brand will either confirm their assumption or change their perception of the brand.

Your brand needs to fulfill the promise made and meet the expectation, or your brand will cease to exist... it will just slowly disappear. You can throw all the money you have against it, but if you're not meeting the expectations you are breaking your promise to the consumer and for some reason this never seems to sit well with them.

It used to be said that consumers have the ultimate power, they choose what they purchase and can make their voices heard at the cash register. Back then, brand owners could manipulate and craft their brand as media was exclusive to big money (corporations, aka the brand owners) and communications were a one way street.

These days, consumers not only have the purchasing power, but they drive the media and communications through various online methods. Just think, 20 years ago, if a company wanted to convey a certain expectation about their product or brand they would spend a few million dollars on some TV advertising, Radio and Newspaper and consumers would get the message and understand the expectation (assuming their ad agency did it right). Fast forward to today, spend a few million dollars on traditional media and even if you reach a fraction of what you used to, views, listeners and readers will just go to the web for more info.

The information available online is not controlled by the advertiser, they put their rhetoric and propaganda out there, but in reality, they are merely a participant in the content... along with Gus from Albuquerque and Sara from Balzac and millions of others.

Considering how much information can be obtained online, you need to understand that you will not be the only one influencing consumers' impressions of your brand. People are Tweeting, Facebooking, having discussions through various chat mediums and in all these instances, they can be and are talking about your brand.

As a brand owner, you no longer have full control over your messaging. You can try to be 'plugged in' and put out the fires when they come up, post responses to negative postings, flood social sites with advertising... but when it comes down to it, you the brand owner, are now a spectator as well as a participant.

So, how do you manage to stay on top of this?

It's easy.

Deliver on the expectations and don't break your promise.

If you stay true to your brand, the people that discover you and 'buy in' to your brand will continue to do so and tell others... many others. Remember the TV commercial in the 70's for a hair shampoo... 'and she'll tell two friends and they'll tell two friends and so on, and so on...' well, times that by a million.

The Twials and Twibulations of Tweeting

Hands up, all of you who have tweeted sometime in the last twenty-four hours...

No need to blush now, tweeting is safe, fun and all the rage! Even your kids can do it!

Unless you've been living under a rock for the last year, you will have no doubt heard of Twitter, the latest and greatest tool for online networking. I am a huge fan and user of twitter, but I'll touch more on why I like it later on. For now, let me explain what twitter is.

I get asked weekly what twitter is, and you know it is incredibly difficult to answer this and get across the value and importance of it.

"Isn't it just, like, Facebook status updates?", I hear nine out of ten times. Well, yes and no. The concept of twitter is very simple: In 140 characters or less, what are you doing?

Unlike MySpace, there are no sections for friends and music. Unlike Facebook there is no creeping through your roommate's cousin's friends photo albums or zombie pokes. You get one page, your timeline if you will. People, other "twitterers", or "tweeters", or "tweeps", whatever you want to call them, can choose to follow you. When someone follows you, your "tweets" (a term used to describe each deployment of information) will show up on their timeline along with tweets from their followers. Just because someone follows you does not mean inter-connection is made; as a user you get to choose who you follow, regardless of if they follow you or not. This means that with twitter, you control what information and communications you are getting from your timeline. Being a user and having the ability to tailor your audience to your updates is a pretty phenomenal thing, and ultimately where Facebook and MySpace fail. 

Remember, it's not about quantity, it's about quality. If you build it, they will come.

It has been described as "micro-blogging", the idea of short, rapid updates of personal information, but herein lies the trouble with twitter. You see, twitter has become very well known very quickly and there is a huge misconception regarding its use. Yes the question posed is what are you doing?, but is it as simple as that? The internet has been inundated with numerous videos and comics depicting twitter as an incessant and pointless bug. The problem here is that these parodies are not necessarily wrong.

If you answer twitter's question with "eating a ham sandwich", you're doing it wrong.

 

When used correctly, twitter can become a powerful networking and marketing tool.

To really hit the sweet-spot with twitter, you need to do three things.

1. Tweet useful and/or interesting information. No one cares that you're "on my way to the gym!" or just saying "whuzup? w00t!". If you put this kind of information out, be prepared to get that kind of information back. Also, tweet useful and relevant information often. The more you use it the more you will be seen and found by other useful and relevant twitter users.

2. Seek out and follow like-minded individuals, and individuals important and relevant to you and what you're doing (and tweeting). You will most likely be followed by many individuals that have nothing in common with you and are merely adding you to get their numbers up, or for spamming. If that happens, you don't have to follow them back. You want your twitter experience to be the way you decide it to be. 

3. Communicate with your followers. Make connections and network with useful and relevant users. This is how relationships, both business-minded and otherwise, can start. Talk directly to your followers, ask questions and answer questions. Twitter uses @replies and @mentions to link to other twitter users, and you can even send direct messages (still with the 140 character limit). What good is a microphone if it isn't turned on.

These three simple ideas are key to avoiding a disastrous twitter experience and will ultimately prevent the program from sucking majorly. Until you really get in there and use the program and get a feel for how it works, it's an uphill debate with non-users or skeptics.

I can attest to the benefits of Twitter firsthand; 

• I run a film and comics news site, www.giantkillersquid.com, and have seen a tremendous increase in my traffic since I started using twitter to share news stories and articles. This is because the content I'm putting out is relevant and of interest to my followers. 

• I've seen my daily average unique site visits go from 12 a day to well over 200. 

• I've met and conversed with other website editors; this is priceless networking for a community-based medium. 

• I've watched special events unfold, take the recent San Diego Comic Con, for example, before my eyes. 

• I've made film-industry contacts and now I'm receiving free products for review and contests, and I'm being set up to interview actors. 

Running a news site means getting information, leads and stories as soon as it happens. Whether it is true is up to the editor to decide and ultimately publish, but twitter makes the mass-spread of news almost instantaneous. In a time were digital media is king and information is power means that twitter is armed to the teeth. 

So you see, tweeting is a lot more than you might think. 

What are you doing? isn't such an easy question, is it?

Follow me on twitter at twitter.com/zombie_elvis

Follow Kevin on twitter at twitter.com/FRANCOMEDIA

Save Our Stamps!

We have just launched our newest promotion, open to customers, suppliers, contractors and anyone else we deal with.

This year we won a Gold Hermes Creative Award in an international design competition for the design and concept of our custom envelopes and postage stamps. To celebrate this (and promote it), we put together a fun little contest.

We ask that you collect 12 of our custom stamps - we mail stuff all the time, so it shouldn't be that hard to do - then contact us for your prize. There has been a lot talk about extravagant prizes, but in all likelyhood, your prize will be lunch for your office delivered by Francomedia.

You can read about the contest details here.

A Day at Francomedia

I thought I heard the Brother's Gibb, light strains about the room,
At first I thought it was a ruse, it’s such a catchy tune.

This is the place to work, I thought, where laughter is the norm,
And jeans are cool to wear in here - for those who won't conform.

We even have a brew machine, for coffee, that can judge,
Exactly when it should shut off, before to turns to sludge.

Then there’s the vinyl Kevin brought, it’s not the stuff that drones,
The music that we’re apt to hear is usually the Stones.

Where Facebook is the business plan, and Kick-Ass is the brew,
And often inter-office notes include a new YouTube.

Not all days here are quite this good, and this I must impart,
cause round and round my brain is going “Eclipse of the Heart”.

There is one thing we mush eschew, in case you didn’t know,
You can have juice but just don’t touch the bottled H2O.

Now Sandor, he’s the man for lunch, and Dave he’s quite the cook,
and Ryan he’ll do Arnold quips, and Colin’s got the looks.
(Actually they all do but hey, it rhymes.)

Now where has Kevin gone to now? I need to get some stuff,
Perused and answered, tweaked, and cropped, but finding him is tough.

I think he's gone to get supplies, and this just might make sense,
(For Bonnie Tyler tunes you know, he's got to recompense.)

Now all in all we have it good, we groove to different tunes.
It is a shame, we can’t complain, like all the other goons.

Cause working here is pretty sweet; I know it could be worse,
I’ve learned new words, and catchy tunes, and even how to curse.

Now I’m not good at writing blogs, but thought I’d try my hand,
To say how nice it is to work right here at Francoland.

SEO Guidelines

Optimized?

Search Engine Optimization is considered by some a science and by others (namely this humble developer) as common sense. I have done the research and will share with you the most important factors to consider when optimizing your site for search engines.


Dos

Page Title
Every page should have a descriptive title, in addition to the site name. This greatly helps with page ranking, as the title is directly related to the content of the page.

Meta Description
Meta keywords aren’t given any weight anymore because of unethical practices like keyword stuffing. The meta description, however, is still good for describing your site, and it appears in search results.

Headings
Relevant headings relate, or should relate, to their content. This improves the validity and genuineness of your site, making indexed searchable content more meaningful.

Content is Key
Without interesting and relevant content, your page doesn’t stand a chance. People will not search for it and most likely won’t link to it. Great content is important especially on the first page, as it creates the snapshot for the rest of your site.

Links Have Meaning
Avoid “click here” links. A link should have meaningful text, alluding to the content of the page that it is linking to.

Image ALT Tags
All images should have ALT tags describing their content. Web crawlers are blind to images. This point is especially important when it comes to image-based menus. It is imperative that web crawlers are able to scan your menus, especially the main one. Search engines create nice little indexes of your content, and accessible menus make this much easier.

Sitemap
A sitemap is crucial, especially for dynamically generated content. It contains the table of contents of your entire website, complete with valid URLs which search engines look for. In a nutshell, sitemaps are an easy way for search engines to index your content.

Friendly URLs
Use human-friendly and meaningful urls whenever possible, especially with dynamic content. Web crawlers cannot search content that is dynamically created. Friendly urls help search engines look in the right direction.

Don’ts

Don’t Keyword Stuff
This constitutes as search engine spam. Search engines like Google frown on this and will black-list or ban you from results if you blatantly break this rule.

Don’t Try to Trick Search Engines
Keep in mind that the people who build search engines are smarter than you. Search engines will look for common tricks people employ to gain higher rankings. It’s not worth the risk.

Don’t Resubmit Frequently
One submission to search engines is enough, any more and it will be viewed as spamming and will consequently hurt your page rank.

Don’t Submit To Multiple engines
Submitting your site to dozens of search engines is kind of pointless and a waste of time. Google is about as ubiquitous as the air we breathe. It is the number one search engine for several reasons. The name has even been turned into an adverb and added to the modern English language.

SEO Specialists
Some make wild promises that your site will be number one in no time. No one can realistically promise this. Proliferation takes time. There are many companies that can employ the recommendations I put forward for you here, just beware of superfluous claims by some service providers. Save your money and apply some common sense.

Tips

Clean Code
Code that is structurally sound is much easier for web crawlers to search. It may be a web crawler by name, but that doesn’t mean your site should be a tangled mess of a web to crawl.

Semantically Correct Code
When code is semantically correct your page ranking benefits because the structure definitions are directly tied to the content.

Home Page is Important
It is the beginning of a web crawlers search and thus the rule of first impressions applies. The home page should basically summarize the content of the rest of the site. Be selective about what you choose to put on the home page. There is a new breed of internet user that is very weary of sites that waste their time.

Use With Caution

Flash
In general, Flash is a little harder to crawl. But as of 2004, Google has invented technology to allow web crawlers to extract text from Flash. Flash-based sites still rank lower than HTML-based ones, so use sparingly.

Intro Pages
Use only if absolutely necessary, and provide an actual link to the main content so that the crawler can continue on its merry way.

Things To Consider

Link Exchange & Affiliation
The more people are linking to your site, the higher your page will rank. It’s that simple.

Time Will Tell
It’s no mystery that websites that have been around for a while have established their footprint on search engine results.

Traffic
Raw traffic alone will boost your site straight to the top of search results. How do you get that traffic? Design compelling websites. Write interesting content. Let people talk about your products. Create an interactive game. Give people a reason to keep coming back to your site.

Your Brand Motto

Every brand can be summed up in three defining words. Here at Francomedia, we call these three words that define your brand the Brand Motto.

Can you imagine all that your company does, what it stands for and it’s core personality and values boiled down to 3 words? Sounds overly simple, it really does.... until you actually try to do it. Finding the right 3 words that truly define your brand motto is a process in itself. It is a sometimes lengthy process that takes a lot of time and debate.

But, when you do finally arrive at the right 3 words that truly define your brand it is liberating and helps to communicate what you are about, both externally and internally.

Here is the brand motto for Francomedia: Inventive, Accessible, Dynamic

Some of you may be wondering why a creative agency doesn’t have the word 'creative' in it’s brand motto. I can explain it like this; you have to be creative to be inventive, but you don’t have to be inventive to be creative. And, it’s that type of analysis that makes this process not so simple. Words and concepts need to be broken down to their root meaning to ensure relevance.

Determining your brand motto helps you to fine tune your brand message, helps you to clarify what you are about and saves you from making mistakes - in other words, it will save you time and money. Really.

Now, our brand motto isn’t something we advertise, (except for now, I guess) it’s not what we do or sell, it’s what we are. Everything we do fits into the Brand Motto and it permeates every decision that we make about ourselves.

For example, we decide we want to do some self promotion, every idea we come up with must be held up to our Brand Motto. For instance if we want to print t-shirts with our logo on it we would ask if the t-shirt or the message on it is Inventive... Accessible or Dynamic... if it isn’t at least one of the words in our Motto, then the t-shirts are a no-go.

The Brand Motto helps guide the brand and keep it true to itself. It keeps what we do for our brand, 'on brand' - if we are consistent in this brand offering - being Inventive, Accessible and Dynamic in everything we do, our brand will be known for these traits.

Consistency is key.

I'm sure, you have heard a lot of marketing speak about authenticity and brand experiences. To offer a true brand experience you must follow your brand motto, be authentic and not stray from it. Consistency and continuity is what makes good brands great.

It’s no surprise that those who understand the importance of marketing and branding in the long term, see and experience success. Clients that understand that everything they do influences consumers and eventually becomes part of their brand story are the ones that do it right. We just help out a bit with some creativity, some design work and some ideas.

For you to have a successful brand, you need to understand who you are, be consistent in your brand message and offer a great experience. You can change graphics and you can change offers, but you need to be consistent in why people come to you in the first place.

And, this comes back to following your Brand Motto.

Famous Business Cards

Chances are, that if you've met with any of our staff, you have one of our famous business cards. Maybe famous is stretching it, but they are certainly unique and on their way to being famous... or to some level of celebrity or cult status.

In April of this year, we won the Platinum Hermes Creative Award for the design and concept for these very creative business cards and ever since, we have been getting more notice and plenty of buzz about our cards.

The cards themselves are pretty clean and simple, save but a few creative features to each card that speaks to each employees individuality/ specialty. What really makes them remarkable is the complex process to create them - it's the final result and effect that makes them truly sui generis.

Earlier this week, our cards were featured on Card Observer, a site dedicated to creative and unique business cards. Shortly after our posting on that site, we received word that a blogger named Yanda out of Singapore wanted to cover the cards and feature them on their site as well.

It didn't take long for other web sites to pick up the information and start sharing the news about our cards. We have found a few different sites that are showing our cards such as this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one and this one.

Needless to say, this has increased traffic to our site in a huge way.

When we look at the cost to produce our cards, compared to other business cards, some would say we're crazy for doing it, as each card comes close to $5. However, if you look at the fact that these cards have resulted in us getting international attention online and local press in two magazine articles, I would have to say that it was well worth the expense.

Everyone we hand these cards out to, comments on them and reacts positively. Well, except for one lady who asked about their longevity in a landfill to which I replied, "You're not supposed to throw them out!"

Doing something truly unique and creative will get you noticed... and that's what it's all about, right?

Joomla Security

Introduction

According to Google Trends (1), Joomla is the most widely used CMS on the market today. With its ease of use, developer community, and immense library of third party add-ons, it’s no surprise why Joomla is so popular. Popularity, though comes with a price - the issue of security.

It’s comforting to know that, out of the box, Joomla 1.5.10 is a very secure CMS (2); and when maintained properly, keeps your site nearly hack- free. But do keep in mind that nothing is 100% hack-free.

The key here is maintenance. Aside from typical security measures, the owner must be vigilant in keeping up to date with security patches, regular backups, and monitoring unauthorized access.

There is official Joomla documentation on a security checklist (3), that if not taken for granted, can reduce any downtime in having to re-implement a compromised site.


What can the Developer Do?

The developer can do a lot to ensure that the client’s new Joomla site is safe and secure. Here is a list of some of the most important things:

- use a secure host (www.siteground.com is popular)
- install recent Joomla version (ensures latest security update)
- ensure sensitive directories are write-protected (prevents unauthorized access)
- enable .htaccess (this prevents unauthorized scripting)
- enable SEF urls (this hides URLs)
- turn Magic Quotes off (prevents SQL injections)
- turn Register Globals off (prevents access to global variables)
- delete unused templates (prevents unwanted display of pages)


What can the Client Do?

The client needs to acknowledge the fact that all websites are vulnerable to attack, even those found on Secure Server Layers (SSL) like Bank websites for example. Certain precautions need to be taken to avoid potential disaster:

- secure usernames and passwords (combinations of numbers/letters/uppercase)
- an offsite backup system (don’t rely on the host to do this)
- secure third party Joomla extensions/plugins (buyer beware)
- tracking and monitoring (be aware of unauthorized traffic)


Conclusion

In summary Joomla is the number one open-source CMS on the web. This popularity has led to more than its fair share of hacking attempts, but this is normal. It’s the PC vs MAC analogy. Apple boasts that MACs have zero viruses, but this is simply due to the fact that it has less market share, thus less interest from hackers. To be sure, the underlying UNIX-based system behind a MAC is very secure to begin with, but that does not mean it cannot get hacked.

Joomla is very similar in this regard. With the release of Joomla 1.5, significant security measures have been integrated into its core. Things like SEF urls, and .htaccess do a lot to ensure your Joomla site is safe from exploits. However it is up to the developer to make sure everything is setup correctly. Thereafter, it is the client’s responsibility to change passwords, monitor third party access, and perform regular backups.

In the end, Joomla is what you make it.


SOURCES

(1) Google Trends

(2) ”Is Joomla A Secure Platform for a Business?”

(3) Joomla Security Checklist

International Award Winners!

We did it!

Francomedia picked up 3 awards at the Hermes Creative Awards, an international advertising design competition put on by the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals.

Here are the details:

2009 Platinum Hermes Award for Design and Concept of Business Cards
2009 Gold Hermes Award for Design and Concept of Envelopes and Custom Stamp
2009 Honorable Mention for Production of "Our Method" Streaming Video

It was great to be acknowledged in an international competition, especially taking top honours for the design of our very unique business cards. What makes this especially gratifying is that every all of our employees were involved in the process, with each staff member designing their own card - this truly was a team effort.

We posted our stance on Advertising Awards a while back... in that article, we mentioned that we would not enter client material into these types of awards as they are not measured on results. However, winning advertising awards on our own materials shows clients that we are capable of award winning creative and doesn't take our focus off their projects.

The Need for Web Standards

Tell Me I'm Dreaming

I had a disturbing dream the other night - Microsoft creates a web browser that actually adheres to web standards. Much to my surprise, it wasn't a dream; Internet Explorer supporting web standards is finally a reality.

Among the many things Internet Explorer did not support before, here is a list of the ones that have special meaning to me as a web developer:

• min-height
• :hover on all elements
• alpha-transparent PNGs
• proper box model

Standards are Good

Min-height allows me to make sure content blocks always stay at a minimum height. This is to prevent the undesirable look of uneven columns that don't line up at the bottom. This typically happens when the main content column is much shorter than the other columns. It looks unprofessional when you have a long menu column and a much shorter content column, especially if the background graphic doesn't line up at the bottom. Maybe it's just me but I like it when things line up neatly.

Hover on all elements means no more javascript hacks to get CSS menus working properly. This is a godsend because CSS menus, when combined with list elements, are lightweight and easy to maintain. Who needs those fancy animated menus anyways? Menus should be instantly accessible, without needless animations that don't really serve any purpose.

Alpha-transparent PNGs can be a huge time-saver. This is especially true when your design consists of shadows and transparent gradients. For example, typically you would have to matte the background color ( or much worse, a background texture ) to the transparent image you are cutting out. Well now that IE officially supports full alpha-blended PNGs, you can simply switch off any background layers in Photoshop and save your images as is, complete with drop shadows and everything. You never have to worry about background matting again.

Caution must be taken when using lots of alpha-transparent PNGs, as they result in much bigger file sizes than their brethren.

Another really cool advantage with alpha-transparent PNGs is where menus are concerned. Nicer looking menus usually have gradient or textured backgrounds. Traditionally, menu text is merged with the background it is situated on. This made it somewhat laborious and inflexible whenever you wanted to edit or create new items. Using transparent PNGs, all you need to save is the text of the menu item on a transparent background. This can be placed over any background with a seamless effect. Any time you need to make an edit to your spiffy graphic-based menu, all you need to edit is the text itself and save the PNG. Very cool!

At long last, IE finally supports the proper box model. The box model is simply a web construct that determines how the dimensions of containers are determined by the browser. The correct box model states that the full width of a container is equal to the width + padding + margin. IE's model stated that full width = width - padding - margin. I remember struggling with this many times, until I finally realized that STRICT mode temporarily solves the problem.

You still would have to test your site in the major browsers just to make sure your padding and margins look the same across the board.

Now that IE officially supports the correct box model, no more guessing on what to pad and what not to pad. Finally!


The Point of It All

The moral of this story is that standards are always a good thing. As far as web development goes, they are a very good thing. Web standards promote better design, leaner code, and more importantly, a consistent user experience. As a developer you worry more about how to turn an awesome design into a functional site, and less about how to make the design work in non-standards compliant browsers. In the end, time and money is both saved, and users benefit from a more compelling web experience.

Why We Don't Enter

Clients sometimes ask, "Why don't you enter this into an advertising awards competition?" And, quite frankly, it's a good question, one that needs answering.

So, here it is - Francomedia's official stance on advertising awards:

First, let me state that our only purpose, the reason clients hire us in the first place, is to sell their product or service. As a creative agency, we do this through a multitude of different ways. We create advertising and marketing programs, build brands, design offers, create packaging and advertise - all to entice the consumer to buy more of our clients' goods or services.

Don't forget, we do need to be creative in order to accomplish this goal. Advertising awards have been set up to 'reward' this creative thinking, further the industry and fuel future creative thought. Sounds good, don't it?

Here's where things break down though.

Advertising awards are judged on creativity alone not results and that's where we have a problem.

We are in the business of results, most often, we do this through creativity. You see, creativity is just a tool that we use to accomplish the goal. Currently, advertising awards reward the use of this tool, but it's measured on intangibles and is very subjective. Our position is that advertising awards should be based on results.

For us to approach a job with the focus on winning an award, it detracts from the purpose of why we were hired in the first place. And that's not good for anyone.

Does this mean advertising shouldn't be creative? Hell no, advertising should be creative, it has to be if it's going to reach the consumer, but not just to be creative for creatives' sake, it has to be purpose oriented.

So, to our customers that are reading this... sleep tight, knowing that we've got your interests at heart, not ours. And, that's why we don't enter client work into advertising award contests... not until they measure on results, that is.

Now, this doesn't mean we won't flex our own creative muscles from time to time and enter some of our own materials in advertising or creative awards.

In the case of our own materials, awards can be construed as the results.

The Difference

I want to clear up a minor discrepancy in advertising vernacular.

There often times is confusion around the terms consumer and customer. Now, it's not a big deal to most people. But in our line of work, it means completely different things - and if you were to ask for a campaign to target one, but meant the other - you would not be happy with the result.

So, to clear things up:

Consumer: These are people with money. They have the potential to be a customer, they may have even heard of you, but they have not contacted or had any business dealings with you.

Customer: These are people that give you money. They are part of the consumer base, they are the ones you have contact and business dealings with.

OK, now that we've cleared that up, let's get back to focusing our creative energies onto things that turn consumers into customers.

Talent Pool

For the last 6 to 8 months, we have had a practicum student working with us from the SAIT New Media Production and Design program. It's a good program, in fact we stole one of their best and brightest a few years back - he's now a mainstay at Francomedia and produces some of our best creative.

As luck would have it, we have another SAIT graduate, from the Computer Sciences side of things and he continues to amaze us with his ability to do anything thrown at him.

SAIT produces some all-star talent and this year is no different, our practicum student has helped us out on quite a number of projects, was quick to learn and very efficient.

Earlier this month, the students of the New Media program at SAIT put on their Student Showcase - a demonstration of their work. It's a wine and cheese gathering with lots of young talent waiting to be picked up by local businesses. This is the first time I attended the event, so I wasn't sure what to expect.

I was impressed with the diverse nature of the work and it was cool to see so much promise and prospect in one room - who knows where these kids will end up, maybe running shops like ours one day.

The displays were amateur and hand made, and I don't mean that in a negative way at all - they were well thought out and good by any standard. When you're in school and you have limited resources you do what you can, and what they put together was great. It just wasn't like walking through CES, if it was I would have been very intimidated. A $50,000 booth isn't necessary when looking at potential, you can see it in their enthusiasm, in their pride of work and in their portfolios.

On Wednesday, we learned that our practicum student, Annky Yu, won the best of show this year at the Student Showcase. Holding true to what I've always believed; we attract top talent. Congratulations to Annky!

When you see hard work pay off through a win like that, it's very rewarding - our team has hit many home runs, unfortunately the majority of the time nobody's keeping score. At least, we think nobody is. Truth be told, our clients know the score which is why they keep coming back for more.

It's great to be surrounded by such a deep pool of talent. And, believe me, there's no shallow end at Francomedia.

IE8 Released!

On March 19th, the latest version of Microsoft Internet Exploder was released!

Why am I excited about this? Because, this is the first browser that Microsoft has released that will conform to the internet standards set forth last century. And, it means their browsers will work seamlessly with new web technologies we employ on web sites we design.

So, do I expect the new browser to be better than Firefox or Safari? I don't care really, I hope they've made some improvements though. They'd have a hard time releasing anything worse than Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), it was flakey at best and, a security nightmare at worse. Released in 2001, there are still many companies that use this antique as their everyday browser and wonder why theirs and many other sites don't work properly.

What this means to web site design firms everywhere, like Francomedia, is that we no longer have to design sites to work on IE6. We can build web sites, the way they are supposed to work and only have to do it once, not waste countless hours trying to rig it to work in IE6 as well as current browsers.

Going forward, if you want a site to work in IE6, you will have to specify this in the scope of work and this work will be quoted separately. I hope nobody really asks for this. The alternative work-around is of course having browser detection on the site that informs site visitors that they are welcome to step out of the stone age and download the new browser at no cost - this work-around takes very little time and we will offer it for free to any client that is building their site with us until the end of the year.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not bitter - we made a hell of a lot of money by having to ensure that web sites work on IE6... but it was neither fun nor easy. And, something I'm glad we're done with, in fact, everyone involved in web has got to be happy about this.

If you are reading this blog using IE6, go and get IE8 NOW! Or, seeing as you do have a choice, download Firefox, Safari and IE8 - try them out and see which you like best.

Not What You Expected?

We're in the business of getting customers to see you... and buy from you. How others see you or their perception of you really comes down to just two things; what was promised and what was delivered.

This is a large part of brand building: consistency.

Your advertising and marketing sets the expectation, your frontline staff deliver it.

When you run an ad, you make a promise, you set the expectation. This is typically done through the creative approach that a team like ours gives the advertising. We spend time learning about your business, finding out what makes you tick, determining your essence and character and pour all of that into a business card sized ad (hey, don't look at me - sometimes, this is all you run). There's a lot of info that has to go into any ad, even a small one. The information that is on the ad, the look, the feel - it's all part of the brand promise and sets the expectation for what the customer is in store for.

As a creative agency, we have to introduce the personality and essence of a company to new eyes, make it appealing and comforting - all in a short period of time and sometimes with limited space. This is why font selection, colour, image selection and words are so important to the success of an ad.

Getting people to like your company can be easy, but, we also have to get them to buy from you, and that can be a challenge. The expectation that your advertising sets, this promise you make to consumers needs to be backed up by real world delivery on the expectation.

Too many times I have seen an ad with a glossy stock photo of a great service interaction in a spotless retail setting only to go to the actual store, fight for parking, dodge 'wet floor' signs, and empty skids in the aisle only to be greeted by service staff that are more interested in each others activities after their shift than my order.

Now, if that's the reality, that's fine, just don't promise a palace when you operate out of a shed. If you have a shed, use it in your marketing - tell people, "we ain't fancy, but that's how you save!" If the shoe fits, wear it, and flaunt it for all it's worth.

Your frontline service is the great equalizer. Before you go and make promises your staff can't keep, do a little shopping of your own. Find out if what you want to promise is actually going to hold up to the real world.

If it doesn't match up, there's but two choices; change the message so that it does or explain the expectation to your staff. In either case, you should probably contact us after you've figured this out to save yourself some trouble and some hard earned money (really hard earned if the expectation and delivery aren't lined up).

When you are firing on just these two cylinders, you will likely make an impact positively on your sales. Sounds simple, but look at your operation closely see if what you are promoting, is what your customers are getting.

Baby steps. Next time we'll talk more on building your brand.

From the Ashes...

Two thousand and nine started out great, but the last two weeks we have begun to see things slow down with our existing clients as a result of the economic recession we are facing.

I believe we are in a pretty good position to weather the storm, our pricing is still well below the majority of competing advertising agencies and we operate very efficiently. But, this position is only good if we have work to do and clients to do it for.

Luckily, we have a terrific reputation in the marketplace and finding new customers has never been hard... it's never been a focus though, until recently.

Aside from some minor technical challenges that have plagued us recently (accounting system crash + bosses system crash = lot's of wasted time) we have still managed to bring in some new clients in the first quarter. New clients are great for a number of reasons: they invigorate staff, stimulate fresh thought and give us new projects to focus on.

Now, more than ever, is a great time to be a new client, believe me on this. Here's why: when I first set out to create Francomedia, my vision was to provide clients with a professional team to offer a creative approach to their projects and as we grew (doubled twice in two years), we slowly became more deadline focused and had little time to collaborate and flush out ideas to their fullest potential. Now, don't get me wrong, we still did great work, we were just unable to put an entire team on every thought. As we slow down with our existing clientele, we have more time to work together again on projects/issues, for new clients and for existing clients. We can 'blue sky' everything and will - removing the boundaries on creative thought is what got us to where we are today and a renewed focus on creative approaches will be just what our clients are looking for in this economy.

It's also a good time to be an existing client of Francomedia, for many of the same reasons. Our staff are very familiar with your brand and your market position, believe me when I say, just because we're not working on something for you at the moment does not mean you are not being discussed and thought of on a regular basis. We are always uncovering opportunities and pitch ideas internally and this is a direct result of a understanding your goals and objectives as a client.

So, here we are, back into problem solving mode, creative ideas will abound and focusing on what we are best at will generate the results our clients are looking for. Each of our staff are very talented in different areas, I didn't just hire them to make me look good, I hired them to make our clients look good - and they never disappoint.

I am excited about this spring and the influx of new work as well as a renewed focus on our existing customers.

We are happy to be working with the following new clients: Noise Solutions, Laura Schlosser Real Estate, Beautiful Blooms and the United Nations (Calgary). Welcome to Francomedia.

Combating Spam (part 6 of 6)

OTHER METHODS

In addition to the aforementioned ways to combat spam, there are some other popular methods to achieve a lean spam-free diet. Keep in mind though, that popularity doesn’t always equate with user-friendliness or accessibility.

Black Lists

If you’re a Web Administrator you can keep track of IP addresses from known spammers and add them to a black list. Spammers usually spam from the same IP, so this is fairly effective. In some cases, spammers will use dynamic IPs, but this is not as common.

This is a well-known method of reducing spam and is quite effective, but only part of the solution.

Captcha

This method has gained a lot of popularity in recent years as well as some scrutiny. Basically what this method does is ask you to type what letters/numbers you see in the image provided. If correct, the message will be sent; if not correct, you have to refresh the page to get a new image. In some cases you may have to enter the information all over again. This would prove tiresome and annoying especially if you made a mistake because you couldn’t make out the letters/numbers in the image.

The scrutiny is well justified as issues of accessibility and user-friendliness come into play.

Skill Testing

A more recent method I have been seeing is one which involves the user answering a basic skill-testing question, one that a spambot wouldn’t be able to answer. For example: “What color is an apple?” or “What is 12 divided by 2?”

Again, while potentially effective, the question of accessibility and user-friendliness comes up. Users don’t like having to answer extra questions just to submit a simple contact form.

Note: This method works just like the hidden field method described earlier, but in this case it is ok to have data in the field. The chances that an automated spambot can answer the question correctly are slim. And even if somehow spambots figure it out, you can always change the question.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

No E-mail Addresses in HTML

An obvious, or should be obvious, consideration is to avoid hard-coding e-mail addresses into your web pages. This is one of the first things spambots and spammers look for. A general rule of thumb is if you can view the source code to your web page, so can a spambot!

Don’t Reply to Spam

You have to realize the majority of spam is automated. It in no way is a personal attack on you. So don't start replying to all your spam with death threats. If you do reply what this effectively does is tell the spammer that your e-mail address is active, resulting in, you guessed it, MORE spam!

Besides, a spambot is a cyberNETic organism - it has no feelings. Threats are futile.

CONCLUSION

There are many ways to combat e-mail spam. Applied correctly and in tandem, you should see a significant reduction of junk mail. Unfortunately some people like leaving the back door open, wide open.

Keep in mind that the volume of spam is directly related to how long your website has been on the net, how well known it is, how many e-mail addresses there are, etc. If your business website falls into the large and popular category, I hope for your sake your web guy isn’t asleep on his keyboard.

I hope you have learned a thing or two on the nature of e-mail spam and how to combat it effectively.

"Knowing is half the battle..."


Part 5
Part 4
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1

Combating Spam (part 5 of 6)

SERVER-SIDE VALIDATION

In most cases client-side validation is not enough, or even adequate. Spambot programmers always seem to find a way to shove their useless crap into your mailbox. Luckily, there are some clever ways around this.

At this point, I don’t think it’s necessary for your server to validate every field all over again. You have already done this on the client-side. At this stage, anything violating the validation is spam anyways; so if flagged, simply abort the mail.

The last thing you want to do is allow spam to cause a strain on your server because of constant validation checks from never-ending junk mail.


Hidden Fields

Spambots typically search FORM pages for available fields to fill out. (This is easily accomplished via the HTML “name” attribute) Knowing this, you can create a hidden form field that is not available to the user, and then do a simple check to see if anything has been entered. If so, a spambot must have filled it out, so abort the email.

Note: The field must be made hidden via CSS and not HTML because smarter spambots can easily check if the “hidden” HTML attribute has been set. It can then decide to bypass the field.


Access Denied

Most spambots search the net for common page names like “contact.html” or “contact.php” and spam them directly via HTTP requests.

Pages with contact forms should only be accessed via the navigation of the website. Any attempt to directly access a php page is a security violation and in some most cases attributed to spambots or curious minds (a.k.a. hackers).

The solution for this is to set a variable in the calling page for the contact form and pass it as a parameter to the form page (set the variable to something other than “yes” or “true” as these are common) In the contact form page do a check for this variable, and if set, access is granted, otherwise, display an error or authorization warning.



Illegal Characters

This, once again, is the most important check you can do, especially on the server side of things.

Using a regular expression, check ALL fields for illegal characters. This is similar to the client-side validation process. Simply check for illegal characters, and if any field has them, abort the email process.

TIP: Make sure “magic_quotes_gpc” is disabled in your PHP.ini. If not, the server will append a backslash to things like apostrophes and quotes. This makes it a pain to do validation because it sends these backslashes in the mail message.

Part 4
Part 3
Part 2
Part 1

Combating Spam (part 4 of 6)

... Client-side Validation continued ...
Empty Spaces

This should go without saying. If you have empty fields, the form should not be submitted, and an error should be displayed. You don’t want empty data being sent to your mail now do you? Sometimes empty email is far worse than those persistent Viagra ads. With the latter, at least you have something to read and curse at. ;-)

You could create a class called “required” and assign it to all fields that require data. Then validate and check all “required” fields for empty data. Keep in mind “empty” data could mean many things. It could mean a null value, an empty string, single space or series of spaces, or even a carriage return. You should test for all these conditions.

Testing for empty spaces is also a great way to promote data integrity, especially if you are collecting information and storing it in a database.


Phone Number

Usually people don’t like entering phone numbers into contact forms. If you require this information, then you better validate the field so that, at the very least, you don’t get random letters and numbers.

Checking for valid phone numbers not only prevents garbage text from being entered, it is also another way to slow spammers down, if only for a little bit. It also forces persistent spambot programmers to adapt their code.

... generally spammers and hackers are kind of lazy. They like to do as little as possible with the highest possible gain. So, rewriting spambot programming is not always in their best interest. They would rather take advantage of people who are careless enough to leave the back door open...

Make sure your phone numbers are in the format of ten digits, including area code.

TIP: A common practice for user friendliness is to separate a phone number into three fields and auto-jump to the next field. A hidden field can be used to concatenate the values for easy validation.


Postal Code

Much like the validation for a phone number, correct syntax will slow spammers down. This really aggravates them because they don’t care about entering postal codes. The great thing about the World Wide Web is that it is all one big postal code! An e-mail address is an e-mail address regardless of where you live.

Having to enter letter-number-letter-number-letter-number is really annoying, even for regular users. Therefore, by forcing spammers and spambots to do this, you are cutting down on invalid data as well as trimming the spam.

Canadian postal codes must be in the format T0T 0T0.


E-mail

E-mail validation is fairly important because you want to ensure your visitors leave a valid return address of their choosing. Usually people don’t want you to reply to the e-mail address provided by their web server. Furthermore, you want to annoy your spammers by entering valid data.

Hey, it’s not like a spammer or spambot is going to leave you a return address so that you can exchange in witty banter. But, at least you have fired one more torpedo at the little buggers.

This field must be in the correct format of having a minimum of one “@” and one “.” Furthermore, the “@” must not be the first character, and the “.” must not be the last character. This is a simple check to do, and goes a long way.

Part 3
Part 2
Part 1

Lights! Camera! Artwork!

You like picture shows? Of course you do, everyone does. Me, I like em more than you, but that's neither here nor there...

I believe the film biz to be one of the deepest apexes of creativity. You've got hundreds of people furiously pouring their everything into one entity. Actors, writers, editors, set designers, makeup artists, conceptual artists, costume designers, sound engineers, visual effects artists, animators, musicians... you're hard pressed to find a type of creator not involved in a movie's production at some point or another. These people and positions are all imperative to the film's success, but there's one person (or persons) that often time get the shaft once the lights go down and the credits roll. And they were there first, wetting your appetite and giving you fodder for the water cooler months before you bought your ticket. I'm talking about the movie poster designer, of course.

There's no doubt that movie posters are engraved in the walls of time and pop-culture. Some are as recognizable as the golden arches and "Just Do It". Movie poster art is branding to the extreme; not only does it have to resonate with you, it has to entice you, engage you, and make you invest your money, your time, and your imagination. I think a lot of people don't give nearly enough credit to just how wonderful and creative these pieces of art can be. But in a time of floating heads, the movie poster seems to be a fading art form... but every once in a while we see one that makes us do a double take.

Here are a few of my favorite movie posters from throughout the years. This is in no way a definitive list of the best designed posters of all time, these are just some that have caught my eye as some really epic work (click each image to enlargesize it).

Mean Streets - A wonderful use of color, negative space, and type.

Dirty Harry - Love the depth in this one combined with the jarring bullet hole leading to the title.

Funny Games - The portrait itself is phenomenal. It truly captures the essence of the flick. The typography and placement is perfect too.

The Thing - One of the legendary Drew Struzan's best pieces. It's so "pulp" and terrifying and beautiful.

Lord of War - One of the most innovative portrait-style posters ever created.
The Dark Knight - This one completely steps out of the typical stuff for the action-hero genre. It's totally inventive and unsettling, and shows a tremendous amount of work.

Again, this is merely a fraction of pieces that I adore... what are some of your favorites? Leave a comment after the beep.

Combating Spam (part 3 of 6)

CLIENT-SIDE VALIDATION

You want to do as much client-side validation as possible before sending the data off to the server. Let the spammer’s machine do the legwork of validating everything, before you place a load on your server and eat up precious bandwidth.

This type of validation, if done correctly, can also enhance the user experience by providing contextual error checking. This means error messages appear exactly where the corresponding error occurred, and in this manner can provide more detail about the type of error.

Typical forms merely display a single error message and put red asterisks next to erroneous fields, without any information on why the field is incorrect. In some cases you have to hit the BACK button, forcing the server to re-POST the data. This not only puts unnecessary load on the server, it can sometimes result in loss of data. You know how the internet is. Furthermore, do you really want your users clicking back and forth if something is wrong?

With client-side validation you can do a lot of good and save yourself some headache. You are making your forms more accessible, promoting data integrity, reducing spam, reducing bandwidth, and overall, adding some extra value to your site.

The next section covers the most common client-side validations to perform.


Illegal Characters

If you only do ONE type of validation let it be this one! This alone will eliminate a lot of spam. Failure to comply will result in a very bloated spam-filled diet, possibly requiring therapy and counseling afterward.

The reason this is so vital is because the mail() command in PHP has a vulnerability which allows spammers to inject (add) extra headers. In other words, a spammer could add extra recipients, e-mail forwards, HTML code, and links to malicious websites. Smart hackers could even access your PHP files, leading to all sorts of nastiness that would make even Bill Gates cringe. Sound dangerous? Indeed.

Left unchecked, this kind of security hole can cause a lot of problems and misery. You must eliminate, scratch that, disallow these ILLEGAL characters from being entered into your input fields in the first place.

Check ALL input fields for illegal characters. Don’t just check the MESSAGE field. All fields are equally vulnerable, disregarding their maximum character length.

Below is a list of the curious character culprits in question.

%, \, <, >, www, http, /, php?, to:, cc:, bcc:

[ % ] - used for manual URL encoding
[ \ ] - used for things like \r \l \d which allow extra email headers. This is dangerous!
[ <, > ] - used for manually embedding HTML content
[ www ] - used for website links
[ http ] - used for website links
[ / ] - used for website links
[ php? ] - used for direct access to php pages; variable contents can be changed
[ to: ] - used for adding extra recipients
[ cc: ] - used for adding extra forwards
[ bcc: ] - ditto

Part 2
Part 1

The Branding Story

Everyone talks of branding these days, well, that and social marketing, experience marketing and the like.

But why is branding so important to your sales? Because it is, that's why. I don't mean to be short, but you don't have all day to read a blog, now do you? So let's assume that it is important to the success of your product for now.

Developing a brand is much like developing a character for a movie script or novel (except you need a logo for your character), first you need a good name then you need to define the character - how does it look, act, respond and what is it's back story. To develop this you need to understand who will be reading your script - who will your customer be and will they want to be interested in your character?

All of this back story and character development should be reflected in the design of the logo and treatment of the promotional/advertising materials but is not limited to these items - your brand messaging should be in everything you do from your stationery to your invoices to your cheques to your e-mail signature. Further to graphic design, your brand must carry a voice and be heard on your phones when people answer a call, on your voicemail, what your sales force says & promises even your on-hold messaging - all of this helps solidify your characters role (by character, I mean brand).

A lot of companies think that a brand is just a logo, it is way more encompassing than just an icon, and the brands that are successful understand this. Don't get me wrong, a good logo can be an icon, but it needs some collateral, it doesn't become iconic without a back story.

Everything a company does is reflected upon their brand and impacts their customers perception of the brand. Because when it all comes down to it, a brand is about perception and what customers believe you are. This perception is built over time, as your story develops, it is not written all at once - I don't think that's even possible. Perception is reality.

By saying this, I don't want to give the impression that a brand is an illusion, far from it. A brand is a carefully crafted story with your product as the main character. So, invest some time into developing your character. Create a character that people can identify with, learn to love, trust and aspire to. Your character will eventually influence a customers decisions and become a part of their life (or at least intertwine with their ongoings) and result in some sales for you.

The bottomline - branding is way more important than most people believe, companies should invest more time into developing their brand story and character.

Combating Spam (part 2 of 6)

Harsh Reality

Before you enter the battle zone you have to acknowledge a fundamental truth and accept a harsh reality:

There is no 100% sure-fire way to blow spam out of the water!

You can launch as many torpedoes at it as you want, but somehow it will manage to crawl out of its charred cesspool and find its way back to you. This reminds me of a song and a cute animation of a very persistent cat. “… I thought he was a goner, but the cat came back... the very next day...”

Unfortunately there is nothing cute about e-mail SPAM. It is at best, irritating, and in my opinion, the bane of the internet.

Ultimately though, the more torpedoes you launch at spam the farther you will send it, consequently taking it longer for it to make its way back to your inbox. I make all this sound like a war of epic proportions, when it's more akin to a plague that you try to keep from entering your house. From a developer's standpoint, it’s almost like a game of chess, where you have to think a few steps ahead of your opponent. You have to think like a spammer and figure out ways to counteract any attempts to exploit the weaknesses of your contact forms.

The bottom line is, the more combinations of spam-eliminating strategies you utilize, the longer you will live a spam-free diet. You have to realize that programming automated spam isn't that difficult. In most cases spammers rely on ignorance and laziness of the common internet user. The same goes for developers. Ignorance is NOT bliss. To truly be spam-free you must employ a comprehensive two-pronged approach:

Client-side Validation and Server-side Validation.

Part 1

Combating Spam (part 1 of 6)

Bad Taste in Your Mouth

Are you sick and tired of SPAM?

No I’m not talking about the processed puke in a can. I’m talking about the bane of the Internet, e-mail SPAM.

I’m sure you, like billions more around the world, get a little queasy every time you open your inbox. You cross your fingers and hope you don’t have to look at another Viagra or penis enlargement ad.

Well thankfully, if you’re a web developer, there is a lot you can do to control, if not eliminate, 99%* of the spam in your inbox. But let’s be clear that we are talking about spam originating from vulnerabilities in your website’s contact form.

Aside from having spam filters on your mail server (which is a MUST), there are some very practical and well-known methods to trim the spam from your diet. There are some lesser-known (more effective) methods, which I cover as well.

After implementing most of the methods that I will divulge over the next few weeks, I was able to eliminate 99%* of the spam from my inbox, as well as the spam from our customers' inbox.

*Why 99%? If spammers know your email address, the only thing you can do is change your email address. Well, that, and stop visiting websites which contain questionable material. ;-)

Our Expedition Launch

Well, we launched our corporate blog today amidst much celebration and fanfare. OK, well, at least you've come to read our propaganda, and for this, we thank you.

For this, our first posting, should set the tone for what you will expect on this blog. That, I can promise you. So, put aside your odd curiosities and lend me your reading eyes for a few minutes as I explain what you are to expect from these writings.

Our journey, this expedition, will be documented here by the very members of our crew and our fearless captain. It shall offer insights into what we've learned along the way, things we've picked up, things we'll put down, here... on the blog. When we cast our customers' nets looking for the big idea, there's a lot we bring in with the trawl, and we plan on sharing some of these nuggets here with you, in this intimate setting we have come to know as the internet.

But first, a message from the corporation: A long time client of Francomedia.com, Spindle, Stairs & Railings, won the Marketing Award of Distinction at the Alberta Chambers of Commerce Gala. This prestigious award celebrated the marketing success of the Build-A-Stair Workshop program that we designed for the Greatstairs.com web site in 2008.

Phew... bloody adverts, always getting in the way of good content.

Things you can expect on this blog... oh yeah, well... I should point out that this blog will have many contributors, all of which are staff members at Francomedia, so their opinions are very important and should be read with reverence and a grain of natural, organic sea salt.

You see, everyone at Francomedia has specialties and expertise in different areas of this thing, this profession, the job we collectively and respectfully call 'creative'. And, as such, each of our team has opinions, waxings and musings on said field - this is an outlet for that angst and pent up knowledge.

If you have read this far, you obviously don't have anything better to do with your internet browsing time, in which case, I would like to point out that you can subscribe to the RSS feed of this dribble without further delay. This great service will interrupt you at unannounced times throughout your life with equal to or lesser postings. You can do this quite easily by clicking the little 'subscribe' pill on the right... but you already knew that, didn't you.

So, without further adieu, welcome to Tales From the Expedition, our stories, opinions and learnings as we make our journey through the vast sea of marketing.

Kevin
(place emoticon of fish here)