Project Management

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.

Search Engine Marketing (SEM) Competitor Keyword Conquesting

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!

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

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.

SEO vs. UX

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.

The Uncanny Valley

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

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.

Augmented Reality at Method Engine

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.