Hey, it's a new look for Point to Point's web site

If you’re an avid Point to Point fan, no doubt you’ve noticed we’ve made a few changes to our site lately. Our old site (with the exception of the blog) was entirely Flash-based—as most agency sites are. We decided it was time to update the site for several reasons. We wanted to see how our search engine rankings would change if we created an HTML site. And we all agreed that HTML or Flash, the important thing was to get visitors to our work as soon as possible, something that we weren’t sure our old site did. Finally, while the old Flash site challenged your beliefs in how to navigate a site, we wondered if there was a better way to get that point across.

And it gave us an opportunity to really push the traditional thinking of HTML design with a horizontally scrolling web site.

Why push the limits? It’s my belief that agency sites should always push you, should always make you a bit uncomfortable. Most people visit an agency site expecting the unexpected, expecting to be entertained. We decided to challenge the notion of traditional navigation—the traditional way of navigating from, well, point to point.

I hope you like it, we are still working on finishing up some loose ends—but please feel free to post any thoughts you might have.

The most important thing you can do online

I promise you, I am honestly not obsessed with Google, despite what appears to be a blogging infatuation with them lately. I can’t help it that the Google guy, Jim Lecinski, came to Cleveland, courtesy of the Cleveland AAF and our peeps at COSE. But he did, and it was a great talk. I wasn’t expecting it to be, so, as such, I resorted to scribbling notes on the only piece of paper I had on me at the time a receipt from a Sunoco in Logan, Ohio.

He spoke about the impact the digital world will and is having on our advertising endeavors. There are many phenomenal bloggers covering the topics Jim spoke about, there’s no need for me to rehash it all again, but here are my actual notes if you’d like the very abridged version.

But here’s what I’d really like to share with you. The most important thing I took away from the presentation. For me, it all came down to just a question from Mr. Lecinski.

“Are you spending at least a half hour online each day, discovering and finding what is out there?”

It’s something you can take for granted. You have down time, you surf. But when things get busy… I hardly even glance at my start page during the hectic times. So remember to take the time. Remember to always seek out and explore. The internet, after all, is not going to come to you.

To get you started, here are some of my favorite sites you are welcome to check out. And surprise, most are blogs, the authors have already done the hard work for you—one site can take you a million different places. And please feel free to add your own favorites in the comments section.

http://www.boingboing.net (just like they say, a directory of wonderful things)
http://netdiver.net (a portal full of fresh inspiration for new media and beyond here)
http://www.adverblog.com (blog focusing on the best in interactive marketing)
http://www.bannerblog.com.au (a blog just about fantastic banner ads)
http://www.stumbleupon.com (as Jim mentioned, this free browser plug in will randomly select web sites it thinks you are interested in)

Staying ahead of Google by searching differently

In the spirit of fighting for the little guy and building movements, I’d like to champion the following sites in their quest for a piece of the search engine action:

mahalo.com: A human-powered search engine that creates very smart search results pages, above and beyond just a page of results. “Mahalo” to our fearless leader Mark Goren for pointing me to this one.

chacha.com: My favorite of all these mentioned. Can’t find the results you want? Just click on “ask a guide” and an actual real person will search for you. Of course, when I first checked out this site, you didn’t have to register, but now you do—still, it’s a great service.

ask.com: Oh sure, I know, I know, askjeeves.com has been around forever. And at first I wrote off their recent makeover. But their new movement-generating advertising (the UK campaign, that is) and enhanced site and search functionality has gotten me, a Google addict, to switch on more than one searching occasion.

Remember the good old days of the internet? When you turned someone onto this bare-bones search engine, Google, that only the “in-the-know” were using? In those days, Google was a breath of fresh air compared to the noise on the other big search engines like Yahoo, Excite and Lycos . (Nostalgic “how they looked then” links graciously provided by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine.)

These new contenders really capture the spirit of what Google once was. Simple results, easy to use and definitely not evil. Well, not yet, anyways. And I think they are all hard at work at attacking what Google has become. These are just a handful of the new crop of search engines that represent the move from combing endless pages of search results to a new way of search that is a reflection of the state of online content today.

So while Google now searches the universe itself, let’s all stay here at our computer screens and dare to search differently. The movement against the great search goliath has begun!

Hand-delivered junk mail

Eight pounds worth of junk mail showed up in my home’s mailbox last Saturday. Know what it was for? It was a useless assemblage of local addresses, phone numbers and adverts I will never even look at. It was, not one, but two Cuyahoga county phone books (one had white pages, and one had yellow.)

We have options to opt-out of telemarketing phone calls, an opt-out option for junk mail, opt-out laws attempting to rule the wilds of email marketing. So where the heck is my opt-out option for these phone books? What is the deal with just burdening me with the chore of now having to recycle 8,432 pages of paper?

752,000 phone books are delivered to residents of the city of Cleveland alone. Now I know people like my mom are out there, she loves her phone books, she’s still trying to figure out how to email me pictures of the dog. And people like my mom need their phone books. But just think, if you asked some of those 752,000 phone book recipients if they really wanted a yellow book—how much time, money and trees they could save? Look at the efforts they go through to reassure you the book is made from recycled paper and inks and what not (see page 3 of the book)—they know the problem is out there.

In case you are still a phone book user, I would recommend the following online services to you, to join this movement of ridding yourself of these post consumer waste recycled books:

• maps.google.com now has a great business look-up feature that incorporates their maps. Some listings even include hours of operation and most include photos of storefronts.


• yellowbook.com has one of the coolest things you could do with a phone back in the day—reverse number lookup. Sort of the passive version of *69—type in a number and see whose it is. You can also do a reverse address lookup as well.
  


• whitepages.com: look up a published land line and you can also see their neighbors, in fact, everyone on their street!
  

But if you feel uncomfortable with these web sites freely publishing your personal information to the web at large, you can remove yourself from them here.

So I’ve gone ahead and asked the phone book company about their plans for people like me who wish to be excluded from their deliveries, I’ll post their response here if I ever get one.

In the meantime, you can bet my plans for this weekend include a trip to my designated phone book recycling drop off point to part ways with my two phone books forever. Or maybe I’ll take a hint from Amy at momadvice.com who gives us some creative uses for unwanted phone books—here’s just one:

Use your phone book to do your crafts on. Open up the book and work on your projects (painting, glitter, or anything else that is messy). When your project is complete, just tear and dispose of the pages.

Social networks: find out where you belong

A question was recently posed to me: "Which is better? Myspace or Facebook?"

Myspace and Facebook are just two of the many leading social networking sites. Billions visit these communities religiously to stay in contact with their friends and make new ones. And advertisers have jumped at the chance to use these networks to find their customers. The thinking of course is, "If everyone is there, no doubt we should be too."

Recently published statistics suggest that Myspace is growing older—the average user is now age 35 or more, and the 18-24 are moving towards Facebook. Many “experts” use these statistics to reach the conclusion that Facebook is, in fact, better than Myspace. After all, they would argue, Myspace has been overrun by a bunch of uncool old people who aren’t setting trends, but following them. Which is a clear sign of an internet phenom going downhill. If you want to be on top of your social networking game, you gotta be where it’s hot.

Yeah right.

I don’t think there is an easy answer to this question. The internet population is just too enormous to make sweeping generalizations like, which is better… which site won the battle. Each site offers their own unique features and benefits, and that’s what has made them rise to the top.

And, more importantly, I think just simply asking that question represents the old way of thinking. Don’t ask which is better so you can easily assume which site to throw your marketing efforts at—but rather invest some time in researching the entire genre as a whole. Spend some time with these sites, research them, and find out where your customers are. Then make your choice. Social networking is entirely about your involvement with a virtual community. You have to stay immersed in it if you are to succeed. Asking someone where you should go is not the way to start. The way to start is to jump in feet first and see where you land.

Is online advertising dead?

Traditional online advertising might not be dead but it definitely has one foot in the grave. Growing trends and new ideas in viral marketing are showing results that make web banners seem about as effective as mailing your company logo out on a free ballpoint pen. The pen gets to people and your logo might gain recognition, but it doesn't really mean anything, and it just isn't targeted to the people who are interested in, or who are looking for your product.

Online marketing is evolving. It's changing the way advertisers reach potential customers by using the very content that people go online for; whether it's information, news or entertainment. That's why people go online. Not to view random banner ads. And studies have shown that most people don't even see a banner ad on a web page.

The basis of a viral campaign utilizes the web content your targeted customers don't mind viewing or participating in. And who doesn't want a potential client base that enjoys getting pitched? Viral and stealth ads have many formats: videos, games, animations, contests and more.  It can also be a part of your daily news in blogs. And once a viral campaign is out in the online community, these ads can take on a life of their own, being spread from consumer to consumer via word of mouth/ keyboard or via the speed of email.

How do you know if a viral marketing approach is right for you? If you're looking for a way to build your client base rapidly with lower costs than traditional marketing means, or if you need a campaign that can distribute and target itself, which can develop into a juggernaut of potential business—then  you might want to toss your banners and start thinking about the right way to move people online.