beta testing facebooks hyperlocal augmented reality:
Met up with some interesting intruiging and exciting peeps last night in Cardiff #cdfblogs meetup with @getgood @hrwaldram @carlmorris @stuherbert @GlynTansley Am excited again about the concept of local online. 
Might even do something like a “secret swansea” facebook group.
I thought about doing a post on advertising since Upside Downturn started. And as the length of time between the last post and this one spiralled out beyond my expectations (and my control) the more the idea of managing to squeeze a post in before the end of the decade played on my mind.
I had fragments of posts written about various ads but they were little more than rants and I like to have something vaguely positive to say in my posts here. What tied it all together in the end was one of those pointless commercial TV countdown shows. The ‘50 Best Racist Sitcoms’ sort of thing. This one billed itself as the 20 greatest ads of the decade. I guessed I could bear to sit through it because of two things.
1. The ability of the ITVplayer to fast forward and
2. The thought of seeing any of the Sony Bravia ads again.
It seems like a new gadget comes up on the web every five minutes. The latest must-do thing to join up to. And as a complete gadgetphobe I initially sneer at them all. That, combined with the fact that I hate the phrase ‘web 2.0′ even more than ‘brand building’ or ‘multi-media’ or even the use of ‘old school’ to describe any hip hop more recent than 1990 and you can see I don’t make a natural Social Networker. However, this post is all about what can be done when you make use of the right tools at the right time to plug your business.
Read more…
The past 6 months I’ve been elevating the importance of landing pages in my projects. Typically it’d only be the homepage that I’d paid substantial efforts on. However, with my increased efforts on pay-per-click campaigns, and SEM, I wanted make sure the page that visitors first see continues the experience of where they’ve come from and removes barriers to them actioning either first contact or a sale.
So here, I’ve brought together some of the real world examples of psychological tricks people use in the real world attention locations that translate superduper well to landing pages, and are things that you should definitely consider on your landing page design.
I went to lunch at the new River Cottage cafe in town. I have to say that the food was faultless. That and the values he runs the place by make it a winner but there was a one, quite big problem: the cost.
The prices charged were presumably so high because no corners were cut in the ethical sourcing of ingredients (that and Bath’s sky-high business rates!) and, as I mentioned, the quality of what was on the plate was fantastic. But there was an issue with the overall experience. The setting was nice (in the foyer of an old cinema) and the decoration simple and taseful but really basic. On the downside, the chairs were uncomfy, the presentation sloppy, the portions small, the staff were forgetful and the service chaotic.
Recently I’ve been looking for an idea for an iphone app to develop. Apple have announced they’ve had over 1 billion app downloads, which makes it a recession busting industry, and one that it’d be very nice to be a part of. Here are some of the ideas that didn’t make my final cut:
Ever wondered why you tweet pictures of your cat, tweet about the cost of organic food, or tweet about your social incompetence? Help is at hand, this app will punch you every time you twitter; not just when you do lame, naval gazing tweets.
Useful if you are stuck on an island based reality tv show with 12 muppets and a conflict-baiting camera crew.
My company is planning regular ‘work for free days’ throughout the spring and summer. Working for free is a sticky one. Why would you do anything that wasn’t going to make you money? For one thing, we’re in a recession. But just because money is tight doesn’t mean we shouldn’t explore the opportunities to get our name, and our work, out there that won’t come any other way.
Anyone who knows me will know I’m a bit of a gadgetphobe. I dislike getting new bits of kit because it’s something new to learn how to use, it’s probably not as good as the thing it’s replacing (or worse, it’s not replacing anything in particular) and, let’s face it, it’s bound to go wrong and then there’s the hassle of taking it back to the shop or ringing up to arrange a return and then having to wait in all day for DHL to pick it up and then chasing it when it still hasn’t re-appeared in a month and then arranging another day to wait in while DHL deliver it to your neighbours…
So it’s no suprise for my friends to hear me being snooty about the iPhone and Similar Devices Too Small To Look At The Internet With. And how I sneered at the advert about Apps: The things that let you know where to go out to eat, or calculated how to divide the bill between friends just made me angry as they all seemed to be over-engineering solutions for problems that don’t really exist, or making stupid people think that they can work something out that would be easier if they just gave it a go themselves!
Walkers crisp’s new ad campaign is very clever and works from most angles. It has involvement from the public at all stages and a great TV ad (unlike the horrendously misjudged ‘Mud, glorious mud’ from last year!). The supporting website is bloated and not very well thought out, but even there the content is good.
Got a leaflet from the council today about grants for insulation and advice on heating. Important stuff. It was titled something like ‘Make sure you keep warm and keep your heating bills low’. It arrived on a sunny April day.
Paolo - glorious leader of South Wales web empire Refresh Creative. Paolo also reviews cheap laptops for his other website.
Andy - runs a web consultancy based in the sunny city of Bath. He has been working in the online industry for 13 years. His mission is to get his clients to "improve their business, achieve the results they want and not get suckered into spending money on things they don't need!".
