Transmission

Recently Published Article on QR Codes

2011-09-07T14:30:00.022-05:00

Henry Schein, Inc., a Fortune 500 medical and dental product company, recently asked Patrick Kelly to write an article on the use of QR Codes in dental practice marketing. Click here to read the full article.

Project Management

2011-07-11T13:45:00.000-05:00

Project management is an integral part of Method Engine. It may not be as exciting as strategy or as inspiring as design, but it's just as critical to the ultimate success of any initiative.

At Method Engine, we utilize a combination of best-practices, process and tools to ensure that all of our projects are managed efficiently.

Sample Best Practice: The Single Point of Contact
One best practice we follow is establishing a single point of contact on the Method Engine team and on the client team. Both contacts should have adequate time to dedicate to the project, knowledge of the creative and technical processes involved in production and authority to unite the different constituencies involved. They should also have some level of budget and timeline accountability.

Our clients have an immense store of knowledge about their business and their customers. The Method Engine team has expansive knowledge amassed during years of executing digital projects. The team contacts work together to make sure all of this knowledge flows freely and is leveraged for maximum positive impact on the project.

We've found that when this happens, projects are almost guaranteed to be a success.

Client Recognition

2011-05-23T11:43:00.001-05:00

One of our clients, InContext Solutions, was recently selected by Gartner as a 2011 “Cool Vendor in Consumer Goods.” We couldn’t agree more! The InContext Solutions’ approach is based on research and supported by breath-taking technology. They are a great partner for any consumer goods company interested in gaining customer insight on attitudes, behaviors and actions. Check out the full report from Gartner here and the web site we did for them here.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Competitor Keyword Conquesting

2011-04-06T14:23:00.005-05:00

Few things are sweeter than having someone begin a search for one of your competitor's products or services and end up buying one of yours.

In the United States, when executing a SEM campaign it's possible to bid on the trademarked terms of your competitors. The practice is often called "conquesting." Although it's a common practice, the question often comes up whether it's legal.

This question has been tested in the courts. Recently Rosetta Stone sued Google saying that Google was "unjustly profiting from its unauthorized sale of trademarks as keywords to its paid search advertisers." Their lawsuit was dismissed.

Google's position is, "Users searching on Google benefit from being able to choose from a variety of competing advertisers, and we've found no evidence that legitimate use of trademarks as keyword triggers or in the text of advertisements confuses consumers."

So for now, the practice of purchasing trademarks as keywords is allowed by Google and other major search engines. This may change, so for up to date information on Google's AdWords policies, make sure to check out their editorial guidelines.

In the meantime, enjoy the competition!

Social Media Strategy

2011-03-07T14:13:00.001-06:00

Most every brand feels the pressure to engage in social media. It seems like every day there is another article on the need for brands to dive into social media or improve upon what they are already doing.

Here are a few quick observations on things that we've seen that have led to successful social media initiatives.

1. Coordinate. Make sure your organization either centralizes or strongly coordinates social media. If PR has certain ideas, different marketing managers have other ideas, and the CEO wants to start tweeting on her own, you are going to have a fragmented approach to communicating your brand in this space. Also, put a senior manager in charge of social media and hold them accountable for meeting goals.

2. Set goals. Social media does not have to be an experiment. It has matured to the point where real goals should be set as a part of a social media strategy. These can involve identifying top influencers, turning customer conversation into insights that are fed back into the organization and reducing customer service costs.

3. Measure. There are many tools available to support your work in the social media space. And there are tools available to meet almost any budget: Adobe's Ominture, Radian6, TwitterAnalyzer are just a few. Others are becoming available as new social media tools come on the scene.

Microsite vs. Primary Web Site vs. E-Commerce Site

2010-04-26T15:00:00.003-05:00

When people refer to a "web site" they often mean different things. I thought it might be helpful to clarify some terms.

Microsite: This term is usually used to describe web sites made up of a small group of pages created for a specific purpose. They are often built to support ad campaigns, launch new products or have some other specific, limited purpose. There are some advantages to creating a microsite instead of adding new pages to an existing web site. One advantage is the reduced cost of search engine marketing. Because a microsite can carry content solely related to its purpose, ads are given better quality scores and clicks can be purchased at lower cost. Another advantage is flexibility in user requirements. Because of the limited purpose of these sites, they are great places to utilize animation, video and interactivity such as gaming. Your users will not be returning to this site on a regular basis like they would a primary web site or e-commerce site so more interactivity and richer content can really work well here to support your brand.

Primary web site: This term usually refers to a company's main web site. It is a place to store corporate information such as management team bios, career opportunities and maps to offices. If the company is public, this would be the place to show stock price, press releases and SEC filings. Sometimes a primary web site can house product or service information. This is especially true with B2B companies or companies that don't wish to draw a distinction between the company brand and individual product/service brands.

E-Commerce web site: This term refers to a web site whose sole purpose is to sell products or services. There are well-known best practices to optimize these sites to increase conversions and following these best-practices can substantially increase sales.

Those are just three of the most commonly used terms. Other terms such as blog, wiki and even Facebook page can be interchanged with the term web site, but the ones mentioned above seem to be the most common.

Atemporality Revisited

2010-04-16T09:39:00.005-05:00

Recently I've been thinking about Bruce Sterling's 2010 TED Conference speech, "Atemporality for the Creative Artist." I like how he defines the idea of atemporality, but I think other examples may illustrate his point better. Many of his examples, especially those related to social media, do a great job showing how we've managed to create a world outside of space, but I think there are other ideas and products in the market right now, that will eventually help us create a world outside of time.

Take, for example, the growing ubiquity of devices like the iPad and iPhone. These devices have the potential to be always on and always recording. Couple that with the growing number of surveillance cameras everyone is subjected to, satellite images, mapping projects, geo-coded photos and tweets, etc... and you have entire portions of the world in which a substantial portion of the visual and mental landscape is recorded.

If these trends continue, and the cost to archive this content continues to decline, then without much difficulty you can imagine a future in which you can dial back time as easily as you can change the aperture on your camera.

For example, let's say I am sitting in my office on a beautiful sunny day in 2050. I hold up my future reality recording/augmentation device (or simply adjust the setting on my digital glasses) and dial back time 5 years. I can easily see this same office in 2045, the people that are here, the way the furniture is arranged, what people on the street and in the press are talking about. Enough adjacent content will exist that unrecorded objects can be extrapolated and rendered automatically.

Now, I've abolished at least a part of the concept of time and definitely changed the nature of history. I am well on my way to an atemporal world.

FourSquare: The Rise of Location-Based Social Networking Applications

2010-04-08T13:45:00.003-05:00

For those of you who haven't heard, FourSquare is one of many emerging location-aware social networking applications. And like most social networking applications, FourSquare is a great tool to support and encourage the creation of communities around your brand.

While the growth of FourSquare has been rapid, the application still has a relatively limited reach compared to other social apps and the final marketing model is still being worked out. In the meantime, if you want to use FourSquare to reach customers, it is best to refrain from using the platform to aggressively advertise and instead tie promotions to community activity. This model has worked well with other social media platforms and it's likely that FourSquare will continue to follow this trend.

Here are a couple of ways to tie FourSquare promotions to community activity:

1. Create promotions that reward customer loyalty. This can be done by providing discounts for frequent visits or when customers bring in friends as new customers. In FourSquare, the person who visits your location the most times becomes that location's "mayor." Loyalty could also be rewarded by providing recognition of your mayors on your primary web site.

2. Create promotions that leverage the gaming aspect of FourSquare. FourSquare lets users gain points and unlock badges through the use of the service. Bravo Television and Intel have both created custom badges within FourSquare that users can gain through interacting with the brands. Creating similar custom badges is another way that FourSquare could be leveraged to support your own unique communities.

FourSquare is like other social media platforms, but with the added dimension of location. This gives rise to several exciting opportunities to engage your customers. In addition, with the growing ubiquity of GPS-enabled smart phones, the rise of apps like FourSquare that leverage user location will also continue to grow.

What will you do with your new iPad?

2010-04-07T14:23:00.010-05:00

Customer research is a core part of the Method Engine process, so while we waited in line for the release of the new iPad, we took advantage of the time to ask other pad people what they planed to do with their new purchase.

CMS ROI

2010-03-26T14:10:00.013-05:00

Method Engine clients often require a content management system (CMS). These systems allow companies to keep a web site up-to-date with current information such as news, new products, etc...

We've implemented a variety of these systems. They can vary from small custom interfaces that allow a client to add limited information following a rigid template to robust custom systems supporting a variety of new information including the management of user-generated content, to off-the-shelf CMS systems ranging from Drupal to SharePoint.

Essentially, all of these systems do the same thing. They allow companies to keep their web site up-to-date. It is a natural reaction to want the ability to do this internally, however, it is important to first have a realistic assessment of the frequency and type of updates that will be needed. Building custom CMS tools can be costly and using proprietary tools can limit the types of user experiences that can be created.

It is often the case that outsourcing these updates is less expensive than creating the content management tools to do so internally.

There is a need, of course, for companies to engage in ongoing dialogues with their customers. Another way to handle this is to shift the burden of the management of this communication to social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. These tools are simple to use and the content can be pulled into a corporate web site to keep it fresh.

SEO vs. UX

2010-03-22T12:05:00.003-05:00

At Method Engine we often find ourselves in a position of balancing the need to create a compelling user experience (UX) with the need to create an interactive experience that is highly findable by search engines (Search Engine Optimization). Determining the proper balance is important as it drives the design process and the budgeting process (allocating resources to one or both of these areas).

I'm sure you've come across example web sites that fall into both extremes. You've seen sites that are so laden with "keywords" that they have a cheap, untrustworthy look to them. And other great sites (you love them as soon as you see them - the UX is that compelling) that you would have never found on your own - you only saw the site because a friend sent you a link or you saw the URL on a TV spot or in a magazine.

You may have also found yourself trying to decide between allocating resources to SEO or spending these resources instead on updating an aging or flawed user-experience.

Every Method Engine engagement begins with a Strategy Phase. The only way to deal with this issue effectively is to have a good understanding of the customer, including their touch points with your brand and their use of technology.

Other key factors to consider are: What are the goals of the site? Will other marketing (or sales) initiatives take on the work of bringing people to the site or will this be accomplished primarily through search? What other customer touch points are there in the digital experience with the brand and how is this relevant to the new initiative?

These are just a few of the questions that should be addressed to come to a final strategy for deploying UX and SEO in a way that maximizes your marketing dollars.

What we can learn from Chatroulette

2010-03-17T12:30:00.008-05:00

Kate Moss is addicted to it. Devo says it is more Devo than Devo. I came across an estimate last week that over 1.5 million people use chatroulette.com every day.

The question is: What can we learn from it? Here are a couple of things that were reinforced for me by the success of the site.

1. The site and its rapid growth demonstrates the power of social networks and blogs to turn a modest site into a global phenomenon.

2. As average bandwidth increases, the ability of more users to have a good experience with interactive full-motion video also increases. As the tipping point is reached, more and more sites based on full-motion video will proliferate the web.

3. The power of a well executed, simple idea. Chatroulette is based on a simple idea and fulfills a singular human need. It's neither over engineered nor bogged down in gratuitous fluff. It's a nice example of user-centered design.

4. The power of a platforms. Many of the most successful sites: Ebay, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Craigslist are just a few sites that are successful because they offer users a platform to create and distribute their own content. We can now add Chatroulette to this list.

Lastly, there is surly a lot that Chatroulette can also teach us about the human condition and human nature, but I will leave that to the philosophers among us.

The Uncanny Valley

2010-03-01T11:46:00.004-06:00

I recently came across a term used in robotics that I found both fascinating and highly relevant to the field of digital effects.

The Uncanny Valley is a term and a hypothesis which states that when robots and other digital likenesses of humans look and act too much like actual humans, but not exactly, it causes a response of revulsion in human observers. The "Valley" is the actual dip in the graph charting human reactions to these likenesses.

When a digital likeness is created that is far from human (think a doll or a Saturday morning cartoon character) it is far enough from an actual likeness of a person that viewers react positively. Get closer and closer to an actual likeness and before you arrive at a likeness indistinguishable from a real person, you fall into a valley where your creation looks kind of like a person, just wrong. And the reaction of viewers is visceral fear.

This theory is good for anyone developing avatars, animated characters or even just photo editing to keep in mind. Straying far from reality is okay and sticking to reality is okay too, but slight deviations from what is real can be a dangerous place to play.

Digital Marketing in Healthcare #1: Increasing Utilization of Capital Purchases

2010-02-22T13:35:00.002-06:00

This post is part of a series on digital marketing tactics within healthcare.

Digital Marketing in Healthcare #1: Increasing Utilization of Capital Purchases

It's not enough to make a capital purchase. Ensuring that a big purchase is actually used to generate income or reduce costs is just as important.

In addition, communicating to your community that you have a new technology helps improve your overall positioning as a technology leader.

Some of the digital tactics that can have a measurable impact on utilization are:

1. Showcasing technology with 360 degree videos, patient and doctor testimonials and other compelling content.

2. Using geo-coded search engine marketing for promotion. Patients and doctors are searching online for your technology. Help them find you. And use geo-coding to target relevant ZIP codes.

3. Using digital tactics to target patients, caregivers and doctors. Each of these are a key part of the care giving process and each has unique needs. Create specific content and tactics targeting these audiences.

4. Participating in online discussions and communities relevant to your new capital purchase. Many online communities encourage their members to use the latest technology available. Engage them and them know you have also embraced the newest treatment options.

Marketing Tactics, SMS and Technology Adoption

2010-02-15T13:53:00.008-06:00

On January 27, Nielsen released the results of a study which showed that American teenagers send and receive an average of 3,146 text messages every month. That amounts to more than 10 messages for every hour of the month that they are not sleeping or in school.

Five years ago, when everyone was buzzing about text messaging, Method Engine was regularly asked to develop text message-based marketing tactics. Now that mobile apps and social networking are all the rage, we are asked about those. The irony is that for a lot of brands, using text message-based campaigns might be a more useful idea now that the technology is more mature and widely used.

The key takeaway is to know your customer and understand how they use technology. This knowledge is the foundation for an effective allocation of your marketing dollars.

Ambiente Germany

2010-02-08T18:00:00.005-06:00

Method Engine is heading to Germany for the 2010 Ambiente trade show.

We are in the process of developing several web sites for Thermos that will target distinct global regions. Each of these rich, immersive sites are filled with localized video-based media.

We used the videos created for the web sites to create new sales presentations to help the Thermos sales team build international distribution. In addition, we created new video programming highlighting the importance of re-usable Thermos hydration bottles over disposable water bottles. This exciting new content will be used to draw people into the booth.

We'll post photos from the show when they become available. In the meantime, we wish our friends at Thermos good luck!

Augmented Reality at Method Engine

2010-02-05T15:19:00.005-06:00

On January 25, Richard Alvarez, Method Engine's Director of Technology, hosted one of the first Augmented Reality (AR) seminars in Chicago.

Now that Flash has a toolkit for building Augmented Reality applications, the technology is much more accessible to marketers. Some early adopters like Lego and McDonald's have executed very exciting campaigns that utilize this technology.

During the seminar there was a passionate discussion about the future of AR and how we as marketers could leverage the technology to create applications and campaigns to help our clients build better relationships with their customers. You can view PDFs of the presentation here:

The State of Augmented Reality

Stay tuned for more. We intend to follow this new trend closely in order to bring relevant aspects of it to our clients.