Use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) to control the look and layout of your web site. In other words, design the way the structural markup looks in a completely separate document (e.g. the <h*> tags, mentioned above, can be styled to look almost any way you choose). Use CSS because it allows you to write structural HTML markup, without compromising your design vision and, most importantly, it allows you to code your web site for maximum SEO results.

META Information

The <title> tag – The most important location for your targeted keywords/key phrases is the <title> tag, preferably at the beginning of the tag. Since the maximum allowed <title> tag display length varies between major search engines, be sure your title is no longer than 65 characters. This is effective because search engine spiders use the <title> as the primary source for determining the web page topic (Figure 1). This text is also displayed as the linked “title” in the Search Engine Results Page (SERPs).

Meta Description – Add a META description tag to the HTML source using your keywords to describe the landing pages contents (Figure 1). The META description needs to be unique for each page and should never be the same as the HTML <title> tag. Also, like the <title> tag, various search engines may have different text length limits. Sometimes search engines list the description below the “title” in the search engine results pages (SERPs).

Figure 1

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Content, Links, and Page Naming

CSS Styled text headers – Place your keywords (figure 2) in CSS-styled text headers (<h1>, <h2>, etc.). It is very important CSS-styled headers are used rather than image headers or headers created using non-standard HTML markup unless you use one of the methods described here. Well structured, standard HTML markup always has the upper hand to non-standard HTML. More importantly, search engines index text, not images.

Figure 2

Click to Enlarge

Links and Navigation – Web pages anchor text and structure is another important aspect of SEO. The first one is for the web site visitor. The second reason is that many of the search engines not only give the linking anchor text a lot of weight, but good navigation helps their indexing robots. If the robots get stuck or have no links to follow through, they will stop indexing.

Consider the following example: < href=”about.html” title=”About us”>About The Company<a>

This is a basic link but nothing in this link is relevant to the actual company or type of company it is. If a human were to examine this link there would be a number of unknowns such as; “about whom?” “Who are “us””? “What company?” The same applies to Search Engines therefore search rank would drop and nothing relevant would be indexed.

Consider the following proper link example: <a href=”/used_cars/about_used_cars/” title=”About Used Cars”>About Used Cars</a>

Note that the link text, as well as the sub-directory (if exists), link title, and page name it is linking to, have the keyword/key phrase. This will help our SEO greatly. If a human were to examine this link they would realize that this link is about “used cars”. The same applies for Search Engines. To search engines, this would be flagged as an important page and would index the key terms used and immediately start to gain positioning for that key phrase. If you search anything on Google, you will notice that search terms are highlighted as well as the key terms stripped from the URL’s body content.

Internal Links – Google and other Search Engines treat each webpage as a single page. Not as a part of a web site, so when it comes to linking to your own pages it’s very important that good care is considered when you optimize your keyword linking methods, as described in (Figure 3). Make use of the footer by linking to all of your most important pages (especially the site map) and using appropriate anchor.

Content Quality & Content Quantity - Keywords should always appear in the content of the web site, ideally in the first paragraph. Keep a good link structure in your paragraphs. Consider Figure 3 for example:

Figure 3

Click to Enlarge

Note that the text link is now embedded inside a readable paragraph but does not take place of the other keywords in the paragraph text. Search Engines like this. This example tells me that the paragraph is talking about “Discount Used Cars” prices and linking to them. The “Used Cars” and “Discount Used Cars” is used quite a bit in this single paragraph without being obtrusive. Search Engines will instantly pick this up as a keyword and your visitors can navigate and follow links easier as well.

Content Quantity is also very important. People search for a huge variety of words in all sorts of combinations. The more text and keywords you have, the more chance that some particular phrase will match the exact phrase someone is search for. Some search engines also place importance on quantity. They assume that a large web site has had more effort put into development and is more likely to be high quality.

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AMERIQUEST
This one is hilarious. As it turns out, they’re no longer accepting mortgage applications, so who knows how much longer the company will even be around (as the poster of the second video noted, probably should have judged their customers a little more quickly), but these hilarious and clever ads will live on in infamy. Or at least on the internet.

As are the rest of these:

AFLAC
Here are a couple classic AFLAC ads that are always fun to watch.

GEICO
In a world… ahh the king of movie trailer clichés, put to good effect here.

Anyone remember… Police Academy? It’s okay to say yes.

Cingular
Classic.

The follow-up repeats the formula, demonstrating that sometimes a formula needs a bit more of a tweak, but the original’s classic.

FORD
Finally, here’s a classic Mustang commercial, aimed at anyone with a need… for speed!

A few years back 50c rented a theatre at the Rainbow cinema for The World’s Best Commercials. Perhaps it’s time to do it again…

Geoff

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A two year old BOY plays with his TOYS on the wood floor.

Farm animals. Cars. Trains. He makes all the appropriate sounds
as he drags them across the floor and bangs them into one another.

BOY
VROOOOOOOOOOM!

He drags a silver rocket ship across the floor.

Okay, it took real ba–, er, nerves, to air a commercial like this. Especially from a bigger company like IKEA, who you really would expect to be more conservative. (on the other hand, it probably only aired in Europe)

Why does it work? Really, juxtaposing a child playing with his mother’s vibrator would be exceedingly creepy if it weren’t so clear that the kid was entirely innocent about what it was making that funny buzzing noise.

But again, why does it work? Why do we respond to it? Why do we laugh? Why do we groan, and maybe cover our eyes or slap our forehead, feeling real embarrassment on behalf of the kid’s fictional mother?

It really comes down to empathy. And projection. So that we, as an audience can picture that kid’s poor mother, having her little secret exposed for our amusement, and can picture ourselves in her situation too. Well, perhaps not that situation, but the archetypal situation wherein something personal we’d just as soon keep private is trotted out for the world to see.

In the context of advertising, it works to not only humanize the company a little bit, but also serves to make us laugh, which also gives us positive associations towards the IKEA brand. (building up a brand is a discussion for someone other than myself… ask Tony). But, yes, the technique, engaging us, making us laugh, letting us empathize with a fictional character is very reminscent of another medium…

Storytelling. Or, in my specific case, screenwriting.

One of the keys to writing a quality (or at least successful, they don’t necessarily line up together) story is to have a character we can root for. And to root for him, we have to empathize with him, to put ourselves in his shoes through the story and care for his fate. Sounds dire, but not all stories are life and death.

In the best comedies, you will be embarrassed for the characters (like the fictional IKEA mother), because you’ll identify with them in some way. You’ll put yourself in their shoes, recall times in your life when you reacted as badly as they are now, maybe worse, and can now laugh at yourself.

“Comedy is tragedy plus time”
Carol Burnett

“Tragedy is when I get a hangnail. Comedy is when you fall in a sewer and die.”
Mel Brooks

“Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in longshot.”
Charlie Chaplin

In all these little aphorisms, you’re finding comedy in things you can relate to, yet have some distance from.

In both storytelling and this style of advertising, comedy begets empathy, empathy begets connection, and connection begets success, be it in filling the seats of the cineplex or building on the foundation of a brand to sell organizers for the toys that don’t exactly belong in junior’s toybox.

FADE OUT

Geoff

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“Human interactions involving kindness, care and empathy are an essential part of the job.” - Barry Schwartz

“Practical wisdom is the combination of moral will and moral skill.” - Aristotle

- Nico

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After 27 years in the biz, I still have a helluva time explaining to my mother what it is I do for a living. So how do you expect a client to know? The most important part of our process in the delivery of effective marketing tools is to find out as much as we possibly can about each client in order to accurately represent them in their respective market.

Having said that, relationships require at least two parties who engage in two-way communication, without which, you might just as well adopt a quiet, eremitic lifestyle in some backwater hamlet.

So, for the benefit of prospective vestal consumers of design (and budding young creatives), here’s how I do what I do for a living…

As a Registered Graphic Designer:

I’m a professional with many years of highly specialized education and experience (and worth every penny, so please don’t haggle)

I understand your business objectives and have the expertise to help you achieve them

I don’t work on spec (professional colouring contests are shameful and universally condemned)

I won’t tolerate mediocrity (so if that’s what you’re looking for, let me know and I’ll respectfully ask you to look elsewhere)

I can’t possibly please everyone (so kindly refrain from asking me to)

I don’t design by committee (nor am I fond of backseat drivers, oh, and please keep your fingers off my monitor)

I still don’t understand why clients freak out about the size of their logo (you want something to freak out about, how ’bout how your customers think, feel and behave toward you despite the size of your logo?)

I appreciate when a client articulates two simple words: thank you

And no, I won’t give you my files and let you finish the project on your end, because frankly, it would be like trying to perform open-heart surgery on yourself (just looking out for your best interests… aside from legal and copyright ramifications)

It’s all about being pro-active. Now you know how I do my job… let me do it.

Jurgilas

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Most web sites fall into one of three categories, and each has points that damage your businesses ability to compete in the modern world of technology. Remember, in 2009 people are more likely to visit your web site than visit your office. The three things you should know about web sites is the following:

Keep it up to date

Web sites are like living, breathing organisms. You have to constantly feed them and that takes fresh content. Every web page on your web site should be reviewed and updated at a minimum every three months for accuracy.  Your home page should change once a week at the very least, which is where a blog comes in handy. Blogs (web logs) are used to promote events and feature news from key employees much the same way newsletters used to reach clients.

Modern web sites are not strictly used as online brochures, they are also feature rich tools for social networking. This “web 2.0″ technology allows users to access data from your web site using a number of tools including interconnectivity to tools such as Facebook. These technologies will make your web site a successful online tool for both yourself and your prospective clients.

Make it friendly

If it isn’t easy to use you have about 3-5 nano-seconds of quality time with your customer or potential customer before they move on to your competition. Don’t think technology when it comes to web site think customer experience.

You are what you post

Take a good long look at your web site. Does it reflect who you are and the business that you’ve spent years building up?  Ask yourself honestly if what you see on screen is what you want the public to think of your business.  The web is the great equalizer, you can do anything your competition can do with a web site and you can do it faster, cheaper and more often than any other time in history so honesty ask yourself … does your web site represent your business in a positive light? 

That’s it for now.

Henry

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For more information about how to get the most out of this downturn do a Google Search for “integrated business online’. — you’ll be surprised what you’ll discover!

Henry

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A RED LAMP sits on the endtable beside the couch, in front of the window.

A slow, ominous PIANO drones.

A REDHEADED WOMAN walks over, unplugs the lamp.

OVER THE WOMAN’S SHOULDER

The woman carries the lamp through the living room, the lamp’s “face” facing us.

LAMP’S POV

The endtable gets smaller and smaller as we pull away.

INT. DOORWAY - CONTINUOUS

The Redheaded Woman carries the lamp outside.

The piano music changes. Now sad.

EXT. SIDEWALK - CONTINUOUS

The Redheaded Woman drops the lamp between a garbage can and a bag of trash.

OVER THE LAMP’S “SHOULDER”

The woman walks up the stairs back to her apartment. Walks inside. Lamp trembles in the breeze.

EXT. SIDEWALK - NIGHT

Rain pours on the solitary Lamp. Its neck is drooped more than earlier…

 
Almost a decade ago, I took an interest in screenwriting. I’ve always been interested in storytelling in one form or another, and learning this particular craft has been a challenging and (personally, not yet financially) rewarding process.

It’s also tied in greatly with my chosen profession here at 50c.

Advertising… movies.

What do they have in common? It wasn’t something I’d realized or even thought about originally, but in the end, they all come down to communication. More than communication, but identification. Connection.

Some of the best movies are the ones you can invest yourself in. They quite often tap into some archetypal characters and situations, ones that on some level you can identify with in some way. It’s why so often a movie is about “an ordinary guy in extraordinary circumstances”… the “ordinary guy” becomes the everyman, whose shoes we’re able to project ourselves into and ask the question “how would I react in this situation? what choice would I make?”

Some of PIXAR’s biggest movies tapped into that with lost children or children surrogates trying to find their way home. FINDING NEMO… daddy fish trying to find kidnapped son. MONSTERS INC…. loveable monster becomes a protector to a lost child. THE INCREDIBLES… dysfunctional super-heroic family finds themselves by re-embracing who they are, with a good dose of “mommy and daddy have to rescue the kids”, but also some “the kids have to rescue mommy and daddy” as well.

These movies hit home in all demographics. The adults could identify with the adult figures, struggling against their own quirks and situations to protect the young ones, and the kids in the audience likely projecting themselves into the lost young ones, identifying with their own small stature and being comforted by the fact that there was a mommy or daddy (figure) out there tearing the world apart to rescue them and keep them safe (and perhaps feeling some sort of empowerment when the kids did some rescuing of their own).

Identification. Personification. The key to great storytelling is to pull an audience member into a situation and emotionally invest themselves in the outcome.

A movie has 90 to 120 minutes to accomplish this task.

A TV spot has 30 to 60 seconds… and it gets done all the time.
The techniques vary, but in just about every one that IS well done, the audience is able to identify with the subject of the ad in some way.

Like… this IKEA lamp commercial.

I’ve loved it since the day I first saw it. Doesn’t it just pull you right in? The music. The mood. The way they personify the lamp, with that over-the-shoulder shot when she’s walking through the living room, where the lamp actually has the “feel” of a child. Or that part where the lamp’s “home”, the endtable, is getting smaller and smaller as we walk away from it. Or the posture, how the lamp droops in the rain. Looking up at its replacement, and that little tender little gesture the new lamp gets from the Redheaded Woman.

Every ounce of pathos has been wrung out of the scene, we’re sucked in, we can feel the lamp’s pain, we can empathize with it, sensations of own moments of being “kicked to the curb” poignantly displayed in front of us…

And then we’re kicked in the gut with the real twist of the commercial, the moment that elevates it from a saccharine, maudlin lamp soap opera to something else altogether. Something worth remembering.
The guy with the accent walks onto the screen.

With a wink, they tell you that you’ve just been played big time. That they pulled out all those cinematic tricks to make you feel for the lamp. And you can’t help but laugh. Can’t help but share it with a buddy online or at the water cooler. Or write a blog about it.

Or think of IKEA next time you look at a ratty old lamp that needs replacing. Or any other piece of furniture.

And wasn’t that the point in the first place?

FADE OUT.

Geoff

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In these tempestuous economic times, the temptation to abandon your creative vessel is irresistible. Think before you leap into the foundered deep. It’s a scary place if you don’t know how to swim.

I could waste half a day looking for the name of the person who coined the phrase, “When times are good you should advertise. When times are bad, you must.” But instead I’ll just say, “I wholeheartedly concur,” and get on with my opinion.

Foremost… don’t watch the news. It’s all bad. As complacent Canadians, we have the distinction of spontaneously adopting everything upon which our neighbours to the south embark. Well, thanks to “W”, the American economy is fueled by fear. That marketing strategy is flawed. It works so well that nobody’s buying anything anymore… not even guns… and much to W’s dismay, oil is trading at only 33.66 today. (Only five more days).

Forget them… and that guy who killed the economy. Instead, say to yourself, “What recession?” Hither forth. But don’t forget your life jacket (ie. your advertising agency… if you’re not gettin’ the nautical metaphors).

BTW, I’m not a fan of sailing.

When you feel marketing resources are scarce, and it seems easy enough to do it yourself, drop anchor right there. You already have a skilled crew ready to face anything the economy can muster. So if advertising is obligatory… then “how to advertise” becomes the battle strategy.

Mutiny notwithstanding, how do you give your scarce resources a fighting chance? Don’t follow economic trends. Set them! Your agency will discover whatever floats your boat.

—Jurgilas

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