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It's almost Spring – a time of rebirth and new endeavours. The weather is great; bees are buzzing, birds are chirping, even our Federal government is Tweeting! We hope you are out and about enjoying the fortunate weather we are having in Toronto. Speaking of rebirth, watch out for our Chill Session next month. We'll be doing a special issue strictly on Branding and Re-branding.
Inspired,
Pierre Monké
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Branding Lesson From Super Mario Bros
I can't help but smile every time I play Super Mario Bros. Wii. Back-flips, super triple jumps, wall kick jumps, fire balls, snow balls, penguin suit, propeller mushrooms, Yoshi and more. They've taken all the great bits and pieces of all the Mario games in the past twenty five years and created a phenomenal four player (at the same time!) game.
What Nintendo has done is remarkably simple: They kept Mario the same. Their formula hasn't changed for twenty-five years. Mario the plumber is still running through worlds in his overalls picking up power-ups and fighting Bowser to rescue Princess Peach. Simple. What's difficult is fighting the urge to change, especially when the world demands so much of it from us. Change is great, but not all the time. Sometimes brands do not recognize the value of evolving as much as they enjoy the idea of changing. The difference can sometimes be fatal, especially if you're running out of mushrooms. Tropicana lost 35 million dollars in two months because they changed their packaging too drastically. That's a-lot-of lives. Obviously your customers expect your brand to evolve over time. But a drastic change to your brand and you could lose that special fire-flower love between you and your market share.
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Feds Will Tweet Federal Budget
Efforts by Canada's Department of Finance to adopt Twitter into its social media marketing campaign failed, But recovered in time for Friday March 4 big media announcement. Today (Friday, March 4th) the department will Tweet to their followers Canada's new federal budget.
For those who don't know about Tweets or Twitter, learn here.
Advance media coverage for Dept. of Finance's budget began Feb. 25 when the department announced it would Tweet the budget. Potentially distracting Canadians into thinking all is good with their federal finances. We'll find out today when the agency begins budget Tweets. "Our government wants to reach out to inform Canadians of actions we are taking to support the economy," Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said in a statement. "Using social media will bring our message to Canadians in a new, cost-effective and convenient way." Within hours a phony Twitter account launched promising Canadians sneak peeks at the upcoming budget. Budgets are top secret deals until presented to parliament.
It's an incredible feat to Tweet something as complex as a federal budget. Tweets are limited to 140 characters.
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3V Prepaid Visa Voucher Launch
Pixel Dreams is delighted to be a part of the 3V Prepaid Visa Voucher launch in Canada.
3V Visa is the first virtual prepaid Visa voucher available in Canada. At Pixel Dreams our objective was to educate consumers and deliver creative that stands in a very noisy Credit Card market. We delivered 7 display ads for testing in all the networks as well as a landing page that brought together a product marketing website in one page 3vcash.ca/3vvisa. The Q1 launch campaign went very well and we're looking forward to the Q2 campaign. Thanks 3V Visa!
What is 3V? 3V Prepaid Visa vouchers are disposable prepaid Visa numbers that can be used to shop online, via mail order or over the telephone just like using a standard credit card. Customers purchase a 3V Prepaid Visa voucher in 15,000 locations across Canada including Canadian Tire and Esso Gas stations and activate it on the 3V website, www.3vcash.ca. The corresponding Visa number is displayed on the screen with the security details (CVV2 code) and expiry date are sent to the customer via email or SMS. It's secure, simple and instant!
You can find out more and catch our creative here: www.3vcash.ca/3vvisa. Keep an eye out for our banner ads on the Google network.
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IE6 Funeral
Yes you read it right. Internet Explorer 6 is on its way out. Soon it will be dead. Gone. No more.
Since its release in 2001 (that's 160 years ago in Internet year), IE6 has been the main source of agony and hair loss for many web designers, developers and project managers. Internet Explorer browsers are notorious for their inconsistent behaviours, script errors, security holes, and weird rendering bugs that require special CSS hacks to make websites look like what they are supposed to. IE6 has been the worst nightmare of them all, and it having the biggest share in the browser market for many many years means you'd better make sure your websites work on IE6, even if it would mark up development time by 50% or more.
The good news is that Microsoft has announced an end to IE6 support, and the browser will officially come to its end of life on July 13, 2010. This announcement came shortly after Google dropped IE6 support from all of its services after the cyber-attacks originating from China into Google via unpatched IE6. Ouch!
Google isn't the only one. Many major web companies have also dropped IE6 support from their services in the last two quarters. A good start to a world of better user experience.
Some of us just couldn't wait that long. Yesterday was IE6's funeral in Denver, hosted by the folks at Aten. Looks like IE6's death is among the most celebrated around the interwebs. What a legacy. Microsoft even sent in a bouquet with handwritten notes from the IE development team.
Exit IE6. Enter IE9. Let's hope it will follow web stantards this time around.
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Do It For Them, Not Yourself
Arriving home the other night to my new rental condo there was a newsletter posted on my door. Who prints and posts a newsletter on someone's door in the age of digital communication? Although unsolicited, it was a pleasant surprise. It was hand delivered by my building's management. The next morning I called to inquire why they invest time and money on creating, printing and distributing newsletters to their residents, especially when there's nothing left to sell.
Here's what Angela T. at Vertica.ca said:
"It's a communication tool, definitely created for our residents. We don't do it for any marketing reasons, but to show our appreciation and to build customer loyalty. It's a great way to communicate what's happening in our buildings and in the city, not necessarily to sell something."
This simple step creates loyalty, appreciation from your clientele, dialogue resulting in exposure, and in the long-run: an increase in your sales. Most companies fail to recognize, even if you have nothing left to sell (in this case, I don't think Vertica.ca expects me to pay rent twice or give the maintenance guy a tip), you should still take the opportunity to show appreciation. In the digital world, the effort and capital to send out newsletters online is pennies per person. Yet, many companies miserably fail to deliver. Opening up opportunities for their competitors to walk in and say hello.
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