CHANGE IS
OUR LIFEBLOOD

by Graham White Managing Director, Howorth Public Relations How to fight back when you’re trashed on the web

The burgeoning social media landscape has brought with it frightening new possibilities for brand-trashing on a global scale: people using Twitter or blogs to spread derogatory remarks about your company; a disgruntled employee posting an “insiders” video on YouTube. You have no idea how it all started, and even less of an idea about how to stop it.

Filed under: social media, communications strategy, business strategy

by Toni McCann Art Director I'm Gen Y and I shop online

Australian retailers should never become complacent about the online retail experience they offer or forget that within seconds users have the ability to be shopping at any one of thousands of overseas online stores.

Filed under: business strategy, usability

by Stephen Foxworthy Group Account Director The Perpetual Beta

For many, a website is treated as part of their marketing campaigns, not a permanent element of brand communication. This means that it gets looked at when there’s a campaign budget but ignored the rest of the time. We prefer to approach websites from the perspective of continuous improvement, so the launch of a new website is just the beginning of campaign planning.

Filed under: brand strategy, web

by Michael Richardson Hosting Manager Protecting your most valuable asset

What's the value of your website, and what would you do if it went offline for an extended period? DTDigital's Hosting Manager, Michael Richardson, discusses our new Rapid DR solution to provide quick recovery from the unthinkable.

Filed under: business strategy

by Gordon McNenney Content and Communications Director Reptile-centric design

In the last decade, web designers have become increasingly confident about the sophistication of users. The very concept of “newbies”—users who are new to the web—has essentially disappeared. As a result, web design has become a lot more interesting. But complacency about all the reptilian-brained users out there (like you and me) can spell trouble.

Filed under: communications strategy

by Gordon McNenney Content and Communications Director Sweating the small stuff

If you were to ask a typical web developer or e-business manager what they’d like to improve about their sites, they’d probably have lots of great ideas. But they’d generally be great big ideas. Optimising the simple words and phrases that guide users and compel them to take action could have as big an impact on your site's ROI. You could call it "microcontent optimisation", or more plainly, sweating the small stuff.

Filed under: communications strategy

by Michael Knox Creative Director, BADJAR Ogilvy We're all on holidays

I have an 11 year old son. He's a great kid. Likes school, has a good sense of humour, looks after his little sister and has nearly 60 friends on Facebook. I should know, I am one of them.

Filed under: social media, communications strategy, web

by Jon Garner Strategy & Planning Director Digital strategy and 'The Art of War'

If I were to ask you, ‘How is digital strategy related to 6th Century BC Chinese philosophy’, what would you say?

Filed under: business strategy

by Ken Park Senior Developer Breaking through the Fourth Wall

The term Fourth Wall is often used to describe the boundary between an audience and actors in both theatre and film, represented by the edge of the stage and the screen respectively. I think this idea can be extended to the web, where the user’s screen or browser forms a barrier between them and the content they are viewing. Importantly, since the advent of Web 2.0, and increased user participation in website content, the Fourth Wall of the web has begun to erode.

Filed under: social media, web

by Gordon McNenney Content and Communications Director Do web marketers suffer from attention deficit disorder?

Glancing through the agenda for an upcoming Digital Marketing and Media Summit happening here in Melbourne, I noticed many interesting presentations with names like “Establishing Your Digital Community” and the “Social Media Revolution.” But there was nothing as far as I could tell about email marketing, and not much about online display advertising.

Filed under: communications strategy, digital advertising

by Michael Trounce Group Account Director Make yourself useful

Brands have to find new ways to connect with consumers. Traditional advertising is losing relevance as people move away from traditional media. Of course, advertising alone is never enough. Real brand loyalty comes from great brand experiences.

Filed under: communications strategy, business strategy, digital advertising

by Damien Brown Business Analysis Director “Real needs” rule!

Too often websites and applications are produced without a clear, objective understanding of the “real needs” of their end users. These needs are generally very different to the perceived needs that are thought to be accurate by particular stakeholders in a project.

Filed under: web

by Alex Campbell Head of Digital Strategy Why I love the new ogilvy.com site

Advertising agencies often have the worst websites in the world. There is something about the combination of the massive egos, the ‘big idea’, and the discovery that they can make things move around the screen interactively that tends to lead to disaster.

Filed under: web

by Ben Skelsey Digital Account Director Digital marketing is better for everybody – remove the line

A lot of people think the internet is a ‘below-the-line’ marketing channel. But I see the digital space as more of a market than a marketing channel.

Filed under: communications strategy, web, digital advertising

by David Trewern Managing Director How to make your website awesome

To really make an impact, your website needs to be awesome - as opposed to simply good. Below are the essential "herbs and spices" for awesomeness, followed by techniques for developing an awesome web strategy.

Filed under: web, business strategy