So, what makes for a great commercial that will boost a company until its brand eventually morphs or even outlive the brand or company itself? We geeks have compiled a list of our favorites from the last half-century. For five of them, we dive into what makes each piece effective and why it became a cultural phenomenon. Warning: this post may be extremely nostalgic.

1. Mac vs. PC (series)

The “Get a Mac” campaign has easily become one of the most recognizable series of television advertisements. Every episode follows the same template: two men, one introduces himself as a PC and the other as a MAC, in front of a completely white background who act out humorous scenarios in which the two computers are compared with each other. Simplicity and cleanliness are some of the most descriptive words to describe the Apple brand and these commercials have achieved just that, which has kept their image strong and consistent. It has stirred much debate whether Apple is going about advertising their brand in a mean way, forcing PC to respond with the less successful “I’m a PC” campaign. In my opinion, that is the point when you know as a company that you have intimidated the competitor past their comfort zone because they know you are doing something right. In this case, Apple has combined the essential pieces in making a series of highly successful promotions by using humor, the competitor’s weaknesses and a clean projection of the branding making any of these spots instantly recognizable and memorable.

2. Old Spice – The man your man could smell like

Last year, Old Spice launched the fastest growing online viral campaign ever. Starring in the series, Isaiah Mustafa, former NFL wide receiver and current actor has become an icon for the Old Spice brand as well as anyone online looking for a good laugh. This is another unbeatable combination that this company has taken advantage of. The dialog and persona of the campaign perfectly matches what a man’s cologne commercial needs to stand out in a highly competitive market. Among the many awards this has won, the combination of well-executed television marketing, social media campaign and YouTube takeover prove this spot to remain a part of popular culture for a long while.

3. Tootsie Pop

I don’t know about you, but the famous question “How many licks does it take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of a Tootsie Pop?” will forever be ingrained in my mind. This has to be one of the most well known unanswered questions in human history! The brand’s popularity has stayed strong since the commercial debuted in 1970. The animation is simple, not perfect and a style that proves itself impossible to forget.  Although one guy by the name of “The Lollipop” claimed it took him 1,327 licks to get to the yummy center, the question still stands unanswered. Maybe if some of us geeks get some downtime, we can hold our own experiment to find the answer! See, right away Tootsie has sold xiik at least a whole bag of Tootsie Pops just for making that dang commercial!

4. Wendy’s – “Where’s the beef?”

Starting off as a generic catch phrase in the US and Canada, “Where’s the beef?” originally translated to questioning the substance of an idea, event or product. But after Wendy’s creatively transformed the slogan into their own, promoting their big burger patties, several spin-offs and references forced their way to popular culture, which spread the word like wildfire. Commercials are short, concise and straight to the point. We can learn a lot by noticing how just three words said over and over can settle in someone’s mind and never let them forget where they can find “the beef.”  This may be one of the most popular commercials ever to come into existence featuring only three elderly ladies. Maybe sex doesn’t always sell.

5. “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke”

First aired only on the radio, the “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” commercial did not do so well. But, the agency was finally persuaded to film a commercial of the song to be performed on a hill top in Rome, Italy, where a large group of multicultural teenagers lip synced the song to promote a message of hope and love. Smart move on Coca-Cola’s part! For a company to show their support of the global community in a way like this is creative, moving and extremely affective. Also, whenever you’re able to get a popular song written about your brand, there is a good chance that brand will be remembered through the song. It is my prediction that more than half of everyone who watches this Coke commercial will quickly recognize the song again in the future. It’s true – you can’t beat the real thing.

While searching for commercials we thought to be the best, we also asked our Twitter and Facebook fans what their opinions were. Here is a list including several more equally awesome concepts that deserved to be shared!

McDonalds Larry Bird vs. Michael Jordan

Monster.com

Head On

1984 Apple Macintosh

Sheraton

Walmart

AT&T – Rethink Possible

Allstate Mayhem

ETrade Baby

What are the commercials you remember most? Let us know in the comments section!

Recently, I had the pleasure of visiting Seoul, Korea for the 3^rd SIGGRAPH Asiaconference on computer graphics. The rest of the xiik geeks celebrated once they heard news I would actually be gone for a full month on an extended trip through Asia. (Because they were happy for me. Yes, that’s why.) After the conference in South Korea, a few friends and I planned a journey to tackle the east side of China, traveling from Beijing to Shanghai to Hong Kong and lastly Macau.

Needless to say, it was an experience of a lifetime. I consistently ran into one difficulty, however, while in China: staying connected with everyone back home. My friends, family and co-workers depended on social networking sites or an email here and there to know that I hadn’t fallen off the Great Wall or gotten lost in the Forbidden City. Aside from Hong Kong and Macau, which have an entirely open Internet, while in mainland China (Beijing and Shanghai), we soon realized that contacting home through our normal websites – Facebook and Twitter mostly – was not going to be an option. Not convenient!

So, what’s behind China’s policies to block such popular social networking websites? Though China has always exerted more control over its media than Western-style democracies, the real straw that broke the camel’s back was when violent riotserupted in the western region of Xinjiang in July 2009, where authorities blamed the use of the web, specifically Facebook and Twitter, for its planning. The entire Xinjiang region lost access to the entire Internet for several months as a result.

As I began to make friends with locals in these cities with restricted access, I asked them what their opinion on the matter was. Most felt the violence wasn’t the major player. Instead, they felt the blame was on China’s domestic services like Weibo and Kaixin, the Twitter and Facebook of China, respectively. If China has the opportunity to completely cut off the majority of the population to these US-based sites, locals have no other option than to use what is second best. Can anyone say scarcity power? Here is a list of all currently blocked sites in China. (Unfortunately and ironically, for the mainland China readers out there, this link directs to Wikipedia – one of the very sites China blocks.)

For me, a dude who uses Facebook and Twitter multiple times per day, the inconvenience really required some adjusting that I didn’t have the time or inclination for on my travels. Each moment spent searching for a proxy server or way to navigate the text-based websites that magically let me in (such as getus.in) I knew I was wasting time I could easily be using to see more of that vast country! One wonders what kind of cumulative adverse effect on tourism this might have in the long run.

Of course, I am just one guy. I can theoretically survive without my Facebook fix for a couple of weeks. But what happened to all of those China-based companies that relied on Twitter and Facebook as free, essential marketing tools? Are they stuck using the more censored, domestic platforms for now until China eases up or will they try to use proxy servers to gain access? Does this force more of a national, rather than international, approach to their brand-building and business development? There are many questions and implications for a society that does not embrace the connectivity of an open, transparent online global community.

What would you do in their shoes? Could you adjust to life in China as it currently is? Do these policies affect your desire to travel to or do business with China?

All I know is that we were thrilled to reach Hong Kong at the end of our trip, where we could access the real Facebook layout and catch up with our friends back home. If you cannot live without some of these sites every day, visiting mainland China will be even more of a culture shock than you had imagined. Don’t let that stop you, though! For me, a status update can wait. Traveling the world is much more rewarding than getting a few likes or @ messages online.

If you’ve traveled to or conducted business with China in the last few years, we’d love to hear about your experiences with their media landscape.

Today, we are determining what makes a holidayized website successful by comparing a few of this season’s examples: ThinkGeek, CGSociety, and Target.

ThinkGeek.com

ThinkGeek, a website that sells cool products for technophiles, geeks and the occasional monkey, went all out this season with their holiday theme. And it really isn’t until you scroll all the way down to the bottom of the footer before you fully experience the unique landscape they have created. In the header, we find the hint of Christmas from the red bulb peeking from behind the logo and large snowflakes scattered horizontally. The blue gradient background with subtle white snow throughout the entire background really helps connect the footer design with the rest of the site.

But, the most effective feature from this entire design can be found in the footer where the monkey on the left and even small, colored mini rockets appear when you scroll down to the bottom as if they were taking off from the ground plane with the trees. Even the presents and railway emerge from the ground — an intriguing effect. This is by far one of the best implemented and unique holiday designs I have seen. The site does a great job of borrowing the language of the holiday in a way that still makes sense for its brand.

The effect is stronger brand impression of ThinkGeek. Win-win.

CGSociety.org

As one of the websites I visit more frequently, I was excited to see CGSociety implement such an elegant take to holiday design. The CGSociety is the most respected and accessible global organization for creative digital artists. As you would image, they have digital artists on staff to design the print-worthy illustrations we find in the header and to program its snowfall effect. Though it is strikingly similar to that of WordPress.com’s falling snow optionit is nonetheless a delightful attention grabber.

CGSociety has even amended its usual logo image to include a wreath and changed the colors of the title text to green, a bold move for the sake of branding! My only critique on the design would be that the treetops, at certain points, actually are tall enough to disappear behind functional elements like the user log-in input fields. It is a slight distraction, but fortunately is not something that ruins the design.

Target.com

When searching for the examples I wanted to use for this post, Target.comwas one site I never expected to drop into my “not so good” bucket this year. Right off the bat, I felt overwhelmed with the Target red, which already dominates their website, even without the help of the sidebar decorations. Don’t get me wrong: the way Target has used subtle holiday hints throughout the rest of the site within images, fonts and ad decor is very effective and does a very good job of hinting the holidays. The sidebars, however, are complete overkill.

My suggestion would be to somehow introduce a new color or find a new way to use the red along the border of the website. Unfortunately, once you navigate to any internal page of Target’s site, these already distracting decorations start to animate and spin around, making them even more distracting than they were before! It is a very well illustrated holiday graphic, but steals focus from the shopping experience.

The simple fact is that these holiday designs may not be the most important aspect of visual hierarchy and can even at times (like Target.com) be distracting to the real intentions of the website. We have two very good examples of holidayizing and one that is not all bad, but just isn’t as effective as is it should be. Moral of the story is to further engage your audience with your new designs rather than distracting them. A holiday can be a great excuse to enhance your branding and roll out new designs that help attract more viewers or at least keep them on your site longer.

This year at xiik, we started arranging ways to get our own clients ready for the holiday season. Our long time friends over at Stiglmeier Sausage Co. have received great responses since a snowstorm came rolling by their website, leaving just enough snow to show it came by. We would love to see other great examples of companies deciding to holidayize their websites! If you have any in mind or stumble across exceptional examples, don’t be shy. Go ahead and leave a comment with them, so we can check them out for ourselves!

Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) was finally revealed to the public through an event named “Beauty of the Web.” Only available for BETA download to Windows 7 and Vista users (Sorry MAC and Linux fans!), IE9 introduces new features for customers as well as developers who want to take full advantage of their computing power while staying up-to-date with the most modern web standards.

To explore and discuss Microsoft’s new browser, I turned to our very own Steve Hering, Art Director and table tennis champion of the office, to hear his thoughts. My first impressions on IE9 were soon changed as we got away from the finer details of the browser and focused on the big picture of this [beta] release:

One of the quotes from Beauty of the Web claims “IE9 will change the web forever.” Do you agree?

No. One browser will not be able to affect the web forever. As the “browser wars” continue pushing the envelope, we will only see features and the languages behind those features being pushed as well.

Do you foresee the release of IE9 changing your day-to-day designing and developing?

I really don’t see this changing my day-to-day — at least not yet. When it comes down to it, the adoption rate of IE9 will determine those changes, just as different browser functionalities do now.

Will the introduction of these new technologies being utilized together (IE9, HTML5, CSS3, etc) kill off Flash?

People make the assumption that Flash won’t evolve, but the reality is that it will. I don’t know when that will be, but I don’t think Flash will ever be gone. I think there will always be a place for it. The experience that Flash can give you is one that we cannot quite replicate yet. Currently, there are some web browsing experiences we cannot implement effectively across all browsers, but that is definitely changing. Until we have a broad support for CSS3 and HTML5, however, Flash will continue to be used to get the same result across every browser.

What is your opinion on Microsoft’s decision to roll out IE9 in this fashion?

Here’s the part that annoys me. It will take years to adopt IE9 and right now, in order to run IE9 you have to install Windows 7 or Vista! That is Microsoft right there! They are playing catch up with the rest of the browsers. Finally! IE9 isn’t doing anything drastic compared to the efforts of Chrome or Firefox. I don’t see them doing anything groundbreaking here.

Steve raises some very important points to consider when judging the impact and relevance of new technologies introduced to us. Big picture questions should always be considered. It is very easy to get caught up in flashy features, animated intros and fancy notifications, but our focus should not simply be how to integrate these new technologies into the existing design landscape, but rather how to push all of these pieces forward in a synergistic way — one that ultimately results in a web experience unlike anything we’ve seen before. Microsoft’s move towards these newer technologies is important, given how big a player they are in the market. Let’s just hope, now that they’re catching up, that they can innovate at a pace alongside the rest of the market. They’ll never embrace a fully open-source philosophy, but we’d all benefit if all market players took in the big picture.

The questions about Flash’s future are particularly important to xiik — we have discussed and detailed our stance about it in a previous blog post. If you notice the comments below that article, it is obvious this is a heated topic of debate — as it rightfully should be. So, we discussed our thoughts in even more detail in a follow up blog, which could then be summed up as: “Flash is becoming more popular, but as an element, rather than the entire site.”

Do you think that’s true? We’re always open to shifting our stance on technologies if the facts on the ground have changed. What’s your take on the big picture? What immediate and long-term impacts will Microsoft’s IE9 have on Flash and the industry as a whole?

These are some of the best ways I have found to stay active, therefore happier and more comfortable at work:

Straighten up
I’ll admit it, right now I am slouching in my chair. Not good. And we have some nice chairs that actually help force you to sit up straight. This is obviously still a very hard habit to get used to. Better posture leads to better breathing, which leads to stress relief and relaxes the mind and body. And by the end of this topic, I already have better posture, sitting upright in my chair. Baby steps as they say.

Stretch. Stretch. Stretch.
Stand up for a quick second, reach toward the sky and take a deep breath. This is a less than 1-minute alternative to stiffness that will keep you limber throughout the day. It also forces you to take your eyes off the monitor.

Go outside at least once a day
The sunlight makes you feel better, improves your mood and gives you some extra focus before heading back to office. Got Vitamin D?

Don’t get too hungry
Take it from the pros. It’s twice as hard to work when your stomach is growling and you’re only thinkin’ Arbys. You just cannot concentrate, so go indulge!

Keep your desk pleasant
Surround yourself with inspiration or that killer lampshade you finally bought from IKEA. Personally, organization makes me more productive. Everything on my desk is always in its right place, like the Radiohead song! A clean workspace helps keep my mind focused on the task at hand. The less distraction the better!

Stay hydrated
Remember how your body is almost made up of 2/3 water? It’s easy to forget, but more important than we ever care to think. 8 cups a day keeps the dehydration away! Also, the more water you drink, the more likely you will be to get out of your computer chair to use the bathroom.

Are there other ways you stay active on the job? Leave a comment if you care to share your secrets!

It is a quick and easy read that has great take-away points, but I think the examples they chose to include could have been better. Their post features Lady Gaga, Britney Spears, Ashton Kutcher, Barack Obama, Ellen DeGeneres, Justin Bieber, Kim Kardashian, Oprah Winfrey, Taylor Swift, and Katy Perry. Notice any similarities? Duh! They all have $40 billion and a private island. I would go so far as to say that it would be unlikely if you haven’t heard even one of those names. And this is where the flaw in the Techipedia article lies.

I don’t mean to bash the article because it is, overall, a helpful read for a newcomer to Twitter. (Did I mention it was written by a 16 year old? Yeah. I know. Go him!) I just feel that it is unrealistic to use a group like that as models for the rest of us.  That would be like reading an article on building a house that only uses examples of mansions in Beverly Hills.

For the record, I am no Twitter expert, nor do I have as many followers as Justin Bieber. But, I do believe that I have been using the site long enough to take a stance on topics such as this. Since we are talking about Justin Bieber, I’ll use him as an example. Bieber has over 5 million followers and follows…wait for it…over 83,000! Don’t even try to convince yourself (or me) that 17 year-old Bieber sat there and clicked follow on all those tweople. And he’s not the only one following so many. Personally, I don’t have time for that, so I can safely assume little Justin doesn’t either. Barack Obama, on the other hand, probably has plenty of time to follow 715,000+ users, right?

We could continue to examine these stats, in detail, like number of tweets, following to follower ratio, join date, status popularity, and so on, but using examples like Oprah Winfrey and Kim Kardashian won’t guarantee a pathway for Twitter success. Instead of looking at these stats, practice yourself by making a Twitter account and learning how to use it for your own success. Everyone’s different after all, so we all use it for different reasons.

I will leave you with my quickly revised list of Twitter tips (based on the Techipedia article):

Status updates matter only if you are being true and real. It is so easy to spot a Twitter-bot. Don’t fall for the old “Want 2 million followers overnight? Click here!” trick. It won’t work. Oh, and your number of tweets won’t make you more popular automatically. Just because you posted 8,500 tweets last month doesn’t mean they were all quality tweets.

A follow for a follow would be nice in a perfect world, but it won’t always happen. My advice: follow who you want, who you think is interesting and helpful. The followers will come after, just as long as you are being real in your status updates. And remember, this takes time.

Add personality that fits you (or your brand). This is the only way to separate you from the other 75 million users on Twitter. You can only fit so much in 140 characters, so it’s easy to sound like Joe-shmo.

Promote yourself, but be careful not to overdo it. Would you still follow Katy Perry if all she was tweeting about was to buy her new album? Me neither. I say this: Promote at your own risk.

Unfortunately, this post is not reserved to explain how mind-blowing the conference was, but rather the trouble I had trying to make it home in one piece.

It was a brisk California morning when a large group of us, including my partner in crime, Zeb Wood, decided to rent a car and take a road trip to Malibu for the day. You should know that our flight left the Los Angeles airport at 10:30pm that night! That didn’t stop us.  We headed to Malibu beach to play volleyball and freeze our butts off in the cold water for half the day. The remainder of the day, we were invited to a beautiful wedding ranch on the side of a mountain where we started to really push our time. 8pm rolled around and we are still on a tour of this amazing ranch. We couldn’t resist!

Cut to me flying down Highway 1, weaving in and out of traffic in an attempt to get all the way to the airport, drop off the rental car and check in before our flight took off. Needless to say, we pushed our time too far and missed the check-in by mere minutes! “Bummer,” we thought. But, at the same time, we knew the fault was on us. For now…

We proceeded to the counter designated for special people, like us, who had problems with travel. Finally reaching the front of the line, both Zeb and I went to separate counters to figure out how to get on standby for the next flight. Boy, were we wrong! After a confusing and very unhelpful conversation with the Delta attendants working the counter, we were told that because of “Priceline’s agreement with Delta” we would need to purchase completely new tickets for the same flight the next night. Only one word comes to mind: expensive! Overall, we were extremely upset and left confused as to why we had to purchase completely new tickets. Not cool. </rant>

So, what do we do now? In the heat of the moment, I could only think of one idea where I could simply tell my story and possibly reach someone at Delta about this unfortunate situation – Twitter. If you want to read my first tweet about the situation, it can be found here. As you can tell, I was a little upset.

To my amazement, after a couple days, @DeltaAssist direct messaged me and asked me to tell them my story. It took me about 11 messages, but I let them know what was up! Sure enough, one week later, Zeb and I both received emails from Delta with a sincere apology and $50 in credit vouchers for purchasing another flight with Delta.

At this point, I realized the power of Twitter. From a simple 140 character-long tweet, I was able to gain the attention of this enormous company and have my story heard! Four years ago, Twitter was created. Two years ago, I would not have been able to get this response from Delta. They may not have even had a Twitter account yet! I predict this type of customer feedback is and will become extremely popular in the very near future. Hold me to that.

All in all, I am pleased that Delta took the time to address our situation and attempt to do as much as they could to correct it. I guess I’ll call it Delta’s second chance. Hopefully they get it right. And don’t think this guy will be missing a flight anytime soon!

If you are on Facebook, there is a very good chance that you are one of the many who have their data collected and stored in this downloadable file. How does that make you feel? Betrayed? Exposed? To be honest, it doesn’t bother me. Here’s why.

Over the years, we have all seen how risky it can be to post our personal details on the Internet. We’ve learned far too many details about celebrities on Twitter (like John Mayer’s love life and Lindsay Lohan’s family drama) and heard the horror stories of folks who have put their Facebook status as “On Vacation” only to come home to find all of their possessions were stolen. And let’s not forget all those high school kids who have posted their fights on YouTube and were “shocked” when they got expelled from school.

It’s become pretty obvious to me that it isn’t wise to post any personal or vital information that I don’t want others to know. It really is pretty simple. Personally, I’m fine with the information I have shared online. Sure there’s a lot of detail about what I like and whatnot, but I certainly haven’t shared anything that could put me in danger or jeopardize my future. Sure you can probably learn that I live and work in the Indianapolis area and that I’m allergic to my favorite food (shellfish), but you won’t find any scandalous photos from my last vacation or a list of my credit card numbers!

I have seen way too many people post things that just shouldn’t be said on Facebook (or Twitter). You also have to keep in mind that employers spend a large portion of time looking through potential hire’s social accounts. From pictures, to status updates, notes and even events, you must be careful! Social services are hosted on the internet and even though there are “privacy settings,” people think that there is no consequence to posting something a little more than personal. That’s their call really. It may also be their loss.

It is your choice and your responsibility to decide what information you want to share with the world. I don’t believe Facebook users have any right to be upset with Ron Bowes for simply gathering all of the information that people have knowingly posted online into one downloadable file. If you don’t want people to know it, don’t post it online.

I guess my goal for writing this was not to excuse Bowe’s decision to post that file, but rather to shed light on the big picture of your online social life. It should be no surprise that the information you release publicly is [and has been] compiling for years in places like the Library of Congress and other massive data banks. A quote from an article on CNN regarding tweets being stored in the library of congress says “And I think folks understand that whatever they post on Twitter is meant to be searchable. So I don’t see the big issue here. The open exchange of information can have a positive global impact. This is something we firmly believe and it has driven many of our decisions regarding openness.”

There you have it! Used the right way, Facebook and Twitter can be amazing tools, but remember that once you post it—you can’t take it back. Proceed with caution, social butterflies!

“We’ve always strived to be a multi-regional firm, operating in the largest US markets. As we grow, we follow the demand,” stated xiik’s owner and VP of Operations, Topher Overstreet, at this week’s staff meeting, where the company’s two-year roadmap was unveiled. Three days later, the company began Stage One by welcoming Joe Nissan as its Chicago-based Account Director.

Mr. Nissan is a Chicago native with an MBA in marketing and over 10 years of experience in advertising for national agencies. He’s managed accounts for major retail brands, including Best Buy and Nextel, and several automotive companies. His mission is to develop new client and partner relationships in the Chicago area and grow the local Account Services team as these relationships mature.

xiik’s decision to focus on building Chicago came after several months of debate regarding the growth of the company. Early this year, xiik consolidated its Las Vegas office into its Headquarters in Los Angeles suburb, Century City. In the first half of 2010, the company made strides in expanding its west coast operations as it welcomed clients in Phoenix and San Francisco. xiik also found success in its second highest volume market, Indianapolis, with the addition of national clients such as eDentist.com and the National Panhellenic Conference. Growth from the company’s Capital Office in DC (also serving NYC) has been steady, but company leadership anticipates a ramp-up in early 2011.

Currently, with clients already in the Chicago area and the city’s close proximity to xiik’s National Operations Center in Indianapolis, this expansion simply made the most sense. Overstreet continued, “I’m confident that [Chicago] will be our second strongest market within the next ten months. We’ll experience the same exponential growth that has guided us for the past nine years – our existing clients love working with us and they continue to be our biggest evangelists in bringing in new clients.”

The two-year roadmap came with the announcement of extending the xiik’s competitive tuition reimbursement plan and an employee ownership plan that the company expects will continue its already high employee retention rate.

The Chicago office will officially open August 2, 2010 and will be located at:
300 South Wacker Dr #2300
Chicago, IL 60606
phone: 312.212.3499
email: chicago@xiik.com

“We have a responsibility to give back to our community,” says Steve Hering, Art Director at xiik. “It feels great to help and it’s amazing to see that a few hours of work or a small donation can turn into a huge success for these organizations that may not otherwise have the resources to get such powerful results.”

xiik is a full-service marketing firm based in Los Angeles with staff in Indianapolis, New York and Washington D.C, who supports charities and causes across the country. Each year, the company has pledged to donate a minimum of 1% of profits to organizations in need and a minimum of 1% of total development hours to build Web sites for nonprofits that may not have been able to afford one otherwise. In 2010 alone, xiik has already donated more than 110 hours and over $9,000 in discounted services to several non-profit and philanthropic organizations.

The Humane Society of Indianapolis (HSI) has served the Indianapolis metro area since 1905, providing vital services to animals and people through sheltering and adopting animals, training classes and outreach programs. HSI has been a client of xiik’s for two years now, utilizing services from modifications to their current Web site to development of fundraising microsites for the organization, leading to over one-half million dollars in charitable donations.

xiik recently teamed up with the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC), a 108-year old membership organization that represents more than 4 million women at 655 college/university campuses and 4,500 local alumnae chapters in US and Canada. xiik and NPC are conducting focus groups and research to overhaul their outreach sites,SororityParents.com and TheSororityLife.com, that provide information and expert advice about sorority life to young women and their parents or guardians.

The Arizona Labor & Employment Relations Association (ALERA), facilitates the exchange of ideas, information, and research, to improve and promote the climate of labor and employment relations. xiik is working to help them overcome their challenge of maintaining communication and improving processes amongst volunteer staff and members through the creation of a Web site and discussion forum.

A unique site is being developed by xiik for a new, independent eBook publisher, Sterling Hope, which donates $1 of every sale to a charity. Customers cast a vote for one of three charities and send a personalized link to their friends to encourage them to vote. At the end of each round, all of the proceeds are awarded to the charity with the most votes. This fun, innovative charity not only benefits the organizations, but also brings exposure to new authors.

“We believe corporations have a responsibility to our global community and that is very clearly reflected in our business model and charitable outreach,” explained Amber Cleveland, co-founder of Sterling Hope. “xiik facilitated our wish for our customers to be able to see how they were making a difference for three very special charities. It’s critical to see that impact in real-time; xiik made that possible for us.”

All of the employees at xiik get involved in the effort: programming a site, writing content, providing creative ideas, or even attending charity events during personal time to show support. “It’s not just about an obligation to donate,” explains Topher Overstreet, xiik owner and Vice President of Operations, “it’s a great opportunity to use our talents and skills to support people in our communities and feel good about the work we are doing each day.”