What's New

Our latest site launch has certainly captured the media's interest:-

• The Guardian

• The Independent 

http://www.thelendingwell.com/

Happy First Day of Spring to all our clients!

Today's Google Doole is designed by Marimekko.

The team are looking forward to attending Digital Trendspot tomorrow.

If you are going to be there, come over and say "hello".

To follow the event on Twitter use the hashtag #SitecoreDTS. 

For information on how to get to The Tower Hotel, see the Sitecore site.

Google may celebrate International Women's Day with a nice doodle but here at Wickedweb us ladies have been given roses! Tea rounds are on the men today!

At the Apple event tonight we're expecting news on the launch of the next iPad. There's been lots of rumours of what the next device will bring from a much improved display, faster processor, and upgraded camera. Others are talking of 4G and the announcement of a new Apple TV device. 

Apple won't be streaming the event but the Telegraph are posting comments as news comes in.

With so many of the big website updating their look and feel in recent weeks. Take a look at what they used to look like ...

Hot on the heels of Facebook Timeline and Google+ brand pages is the major relaunch of Twitter with a host of new features. Gone are the likes of ‘mentions’, ‘search’ and ‘profile’ and in comes ‘connect’, ‘discover’ and ‘me’. Although many brands already have Twitter accounts this update brings brand pages with more functionality and interactive with followers. Will this be enough to compete with Facebook? A snapshot of Mashable’s Poll illustrates the changes are going down well!

Here's a few snap shots of what some Brands are doing with their new pages.

Following last year’s bake off for Macmillan, we decided to do it all again this year – and what a feast for the eyes (and tummies)!  Wickedwebbers have been busy in the kitchen baking their specialities and it is an impressive display: we have gingerbread cookies, chocolate and apricot sponge cake, cupcakes, Yule log, banoffee cake, Candy Sushi and gingerbread brownies to name a few!

The team can help themselves to this fabulous fare in return for a donation to our chosen charity this Christmas, the Orpheus Centre.  This charity promotes transition into independent living, and provides opportunities for young disabled adults to encourage personal development through performing arts.  This helps them gain the skills to live independently in the community and to make informed choices about their future.

The money we raise for the Orpheus Centre will be the icing on the cake! (see what we did there?)

Schülke are the international specialists in infection control products, hygiene, disinfection and preservation, and are a long standing client of Wickedweb.  The UK website was over - hauled by us a year ago and Wickedweb manage ongoing developments to the site and the digital strategy.  One of schülke’s key objectives is to maintain their leading position in the market by ensuring the brand engages with its audience in an innovative way.

Following the website re-brand, schülke were keen to enforce this re-positioning, increase traffic to the site and encourage repeat visits.  It was also paramount that we worked on raising awareness for the brand.  Wickedweb advised creating a members area for the main schülke website as part of the content strategy, in order to bring engagement with the audience to the fore.  In addition, a dedicated microsite for the dental portfolio was created to support a key campaign.

Our recommendation also included launching social media activity for the first time, which underpinned their data acquisition objectives.  Furthermore, Wickedweb rolled out an SEO strategy.

Find out more about the overall strategy Wickedweb implemented for schülke and how this met the client’s objectives.

Nicola Furniss, Senior Product Manager for schülke comments: 

“Wickedweb were integral to the launch of our re designed site which was intended to make us and our products and services more accessible to our customers. Wickedweb continue to support us both creatively and technically in our online activity as pioneers of infection prevention.”

Our clients regularly ask us 'what is the point of social media?', or tell us 'we won't use Twitter we don't see the point.' ...

It's not all about just Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and LinkedIn. There's a whole host of conversation taking place across the world which the image below illustrates. The key element is to grasp and understand where you audience is, and what they are saying about a brand and it's products.

Open your mind to the Conversation Prism ...

The Social Media World back in 2007, courtesy of xkcd, is barely recognisable from the popular platforms that are used today.

Flowtown has recreated the map to illustrate how quickly the landscape has changed in the short time frame. Does this set the precedent for the end of the Facebook and Twitter bubble? We'll see come 2013!

Over-50s are the internet newbies! The UK Online Measurement Company have recently announced that the majority of those who have connected to the internet in the last year are the over-50s. This denounces previous perceptions that the internet is for the young.

Many online services are now starting to target the older generation as the medium itself matures with the shift in audience with 31% of the UK internet users now being in the over-50s bracket.

The statistics highlight that 35-49 year olds are the main demographic with only a few percent more men online that women.

In terms of usage, this peaks from 4pm to 5pm with 72% of users being online. By far, the most used sites at this time of day are Community sites, followed by News, Instant Messaging and Music respectively.

Looking at the month of May 2010, 28% go online 7 times a month and 52% being online over 22 times a month.

http://www.ukom.uk.net/

Check out Uniqlo's online tool using either your own Tweets or a specifc keyword that creates a short movie that pulls through your latest updates.

We think the music is quite catchy too! Altogether now ... 'u' ... 't'

utweet

This week sees the press announcement of The Official Charts website.  The final result is one that we at Wickedweb and The Official Charts are proud of, and a vast improvement in terms of front end appeal to the consumer and the technical development that operates behind the scenes.

With a complete design overhaul, and fantastic new functionality, fans of the UK Charts can now hear, watch, and purchase chart entries on the site through 7digital, Tunetribe and Muzu.

The feedback from the users of the website has been phenomenal since launch, ‘superb’, ‘looks amazing’,  ‘congratulations’, ‘great clear new look’.

Managing Director, Martin Talbot, stated that “it was important that our new site was as advanced as the charts now are – it is designed to be the ultimate destination site for anyone looking to find out what is happening in music right now, as well giving the option to delve into five decades of British music history.”

Check out the awesome additions - the historic timeline, the countdown clock, video preview of a track, listen to a track. The website is controlled through Wickedweb CMS, along with some rather clever automated features through which we hold back on the charts releases until precisely 7pm every Sunday. The CMS gives The Official Charts the much needed flexibility to instantaneously edit features such as the main home page, selecting which charts feature on landing pages, and many more.

For more information on the project check out The Official Charts Company Case Study page.

Plus there's even more exciting elements being released very soon. Watch this space to see future developments and check out the site now ... if you haven't had a sneaky peak already.

The term ‘lifelog’ is referred to by a variety of names such as ‘lifecasting’ and ‘lifecaching’. If you’ve not heard of this form of social networking, then read on...

Lifelogging is not a new concept and has been around since the early 1980s but in today’s blogging climate, this type of activity is becoming more popular with individuals and more interestingly forming part of brand consumer research.

It involves a small camera being carried by an individual, usually worn around an individual’s neck. The purpose is the ability to document their actions 24/7 to gain a deeper insight of their daily routine.
Unlike other forms of consumer research such as focus groups and one-to-one interviews, this method allows the consumer to conform to their natural instincts rather than being fully aware of being scrutinised in what they are saying or doing. This is why more and more brands are picking up on this technique, as the results are a truer reflection of the individual. Rather than having an edited version of the truth, the results than come back show the person’s whole life with actual real-life experiences.

The vital areas where results are really beneficial is when information is required for what people buy and when, how people react to media, getting people to change their behaviour in terms of brand development planning.

The insight and innovation director at GSK Consumer Healthcare, Lois Schorah, says it is this element of lifelogging that most attracts her to the technique. “It would be really useful to see what people are looking at on a shelf, how long for and whether they are looking at the information on the back of the packet,” she says. “It has lots of potential for understanding shoppers. It could be quite a flexible tool.”

The downfall of this methodology is that whilst the results are fantastic, the hours of footage that needs to be analysed is vast, but there is a lot of development that is continuing whereby software will recognise certain details, such as an activity or a logo.

Whilst the more popular forms of user research can return an altered perspective of an individual, this technique cannot lie. Many brands chose to replay the footage analysis to the individuals in order to change their behaviour. For example, Dr Bob Cook, board director at a research agency carried out one project looking at levels of environmental awareness among consumers. People had stated that they were very interested in green issues such as recycling and saving energy, but the lifelogging footage showed something different. “They realised that they weren’t being as green as they could have been,” he reports.

From a personal perspective I love this concept but it goes against our nature of our choice of memories which we historically record in a photo album. Rather than a edited version of events to recall happy memories in many years time, you cannot hide from the truth in lifelogging. A scary prospect for some... the camera never lies!

So you've got your new logo, brand positioning, digital online strategy and a design agency in place and ready to go. You've had a fleeting thought about images and for ease you've decided to utilise what you're already using on the current marketing material. After all you're busy with twenty other things that all needed doing yesterday. Right?

Wrong! The design, technical specification, SEO, copywriting, testing are always taken for granted as elements where studio time and your precious time should be spent. Many businesses do not consider nor understand the importance of image sourcing as a prime element. However, when you stop to think about this in terms of how images are used on a day to day basis by many other mediums; on the television, in magazines, buses, shop windows, the list is endless. Why should the attitude for website imagery be any different.

For years newspapers have used highly emotive photographs to illustrate a story and pull at the heart strings of their readers. A strong powerful set of imagery positions any company at the forefront, demonstrating their understanding and appreciation that users are heavily led by imagery. Professionally composed photography will portray your integrity to your audience by demonstrating that you are serious about your business.

The homepage of a website is the window to your company. The first impression a visitor has needs to intice them in, encouraging them to delve further and interact deeper within your website. By using visually stunning  photography that balances with the overall look and feel of the design you will succeed in grabbing your visitor's attention and retain their level of interest.

Whilst copy is essential for a visitor to understand about your companies offerings, photographs can do some of this work for you. After all, to coin a phrase, 'a picture speaks a thousand words'. A powerful image is more influencial than copious amounts of text as it can be absorbed far quicker.

Your image choices does not have to be high end, high cost as remember it needs to consider your target market. What appeals to your audience the most? A more informal, relaxed, life-style shot will evoke an approachable feel to your website, whereas powerful fashion shots that has been highly retouched will exude premium and quality. Usuability research and analysis can include establishing the overall stylisation and impression that you should be illustrating to support your brand online.

When is comes down to the direction of images we can support you all the way. From our expertise in sourcing a selection of ideal stock imagery, to managing a shoot with a photographer that specialisies within your industry sector. Be it still-life studio product shots to full open action shots in the middle if the ocean. We can cater for your every need right up to post- production, cropping and placement within your website.

It is often considered far simpler, quicker and cheaper to take snaps yourself but there is an awful lot more to seriously take into consideration than just 'point and shoot'. Your visitors will appreciate the extra effort and your business will see the benefits and reap the rewards.