The best answer is found by considering your own needs, knowledge of the process and available resources.  Still, because I hear this question so frequently, here’s my two cents in the hopes it helps you in your own researching phase.  Of course, I’m also always happy to guide you to a decision in person, as well!

How to choose an Agency

You’ve most likely realized that working with an agency brings the benefit of having a team of experts, each adept at their particular area and experienced at working with others to produce results no one could achieve on their own.  At this point, the choice should become less about price, and more about fit.  Here are a few questions to ask yourself as you begin the research phase:

Has the organization does this before?

Yes, your needs are unique, but the organization you work with should be able to provide comparable examples to the work you need under discussion. At a minimum, look for signs that the organization has skills that will be easily transferrable to your project!

Can the organization provide comprehensive strategic thinking?

Most agencies can throw together a website these days.  However, the recommendations provided must consider your long-term organizational goals.  If you’re not discussing the ways this strategy will provide a return on your investment, you’re likely missing the boat.  Also, make sure your team is bringing ideas, recommendations, and long term support as your needs or problems change.  A great article we’ve posted on in the past about digital vs. integrated marketing teams was written a few years ago by our own Topher Overstreet.

Are the recommendations provided scalable?  Do they integrate with your full plan?

Your team is responsible for ensuring your project meets your immediate needs, but should also be an advisor to keep you abreast of the latest trends and ideas to further enhance your business.  Additionally your agency should steer you in the right direction because a tool meets your needs, not because it’s something they like doing.  (A great read about custom Content Management Systems by Doug Karr can be found  here.)

Do you have an excellent rapport with the team you’ll be working with?

Expect to have a few bumps in the road.  Your agency team should be your advocate, and will occasionally need to ask difficult, challenging questions.  Ensure you’re comfortable that the team you’re working with will do so, and that when they do, you’ll be comfortable answering them honestly.   Do you feel like you’re interviewing these guys?  Run.  Like.  Hell.

Does the team have great references?

Most agencies have case studies of the work they’re proud of on their site.  If you’re happy with the look and feel on their portfolio, ask for references and ask about their satisfaction with the work throughout the process, and after the project was completed.   The number one question:  was it effective?   The number two question: was the process fun?

Making a choice about the organization to work does require research and a great deal of trust.  Above all, make sure you’re comfortable that the team you work with brings the right mix of skills to make your project both effective AND enjoyable.  I’d love to know – what research did you do when you chose a team to work with?   What other steps or questions would you recommend?

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!

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!

The answer that we’ve found through research and experience with our clients is surprising.

Studies have shown that a direct e-mail subject line, like “B” above (“November 2010 News”) will most likely get the highest open rate. Many people have become inundated with e-news and don’t have time to guess what its contents might be. This makes it critical to “get to the point” or expect the sting of that delete key.

Our Point: Throw “marketing speak” out the window and be direct.

Want some tips for improving your e-newsletter subject line? Here are a few ideas that we’ve found in our research for guiding you toward effective subject lines.

1. Think Twitter.
What Twitter posts inspire you to respond? Which ones get your attention? The posts that are relevant, short, and interesting!

2. Use the News.
Remember that rolled up piece of paper you used to find at your doorstep in the morning? Yeah, newspapers may be becoming a thing of the past, but one thing we can learn from them is how to save a buck by keeping word count small. Check out news headlines and see how journalists are experts at getting to the point quickly! Keep your subject line 40 characters or less.

3. Less Waste, More Space.
Your company name should be listed under the “From” line anyway, so why waste characters in your subject line on repeating your name? It wastes those precious characters, and is redundant.

4. No “Dirty Words.”
These words may not seem harmful to you, but they can get you caught in spam filters and many have been proven to negatively affect open rates. Avoid: FREE, Help, Reminder, Percent Off, Click Here… to name a few. Make sure your marketing agency is testing your email newsletters thoroughly for spam trigger words before sending.

5. What the #$%!!!?
Avoid the use—(“or overuse!!!”)—of punctuation marks and symbols. Some mail filters are getting pretty picky about the symbols in your subject lines. The top ones to avoid: quotation marks, dollar signs, percent signs, and exclamation points. While you’re at it: AVOID ALL CAPS!

We’d love to hear from you—what other tips do you have for writing good email subject lines?

Mass Effect, BioWare’s latest role-playing game, is one example. It really pushes story and engages the player with well-defined characters with whom s/he can relate. Naturally, real world scenarios come into play, in this case, sex. Good old-fashioned digital gaming sex!

Now, let it be known that these in-game sex scenes are totally mild. Just like in film, games have a rating system to help prevent minors from playing them. So why would it be any different for a game to introduce sexuality and real emotion, especially considering the increasingly wider demographic that gaming represents? The production director for Mass Effect 2 describes,

“When I play a game, I always find it odd when I’m just running around shooting things and beating things up without understanding why I care. I need a personal reason to care. That’s something that the characters offer.”

This gaming trend got me thinking more about how sex may be spreading to other new media, namely the Internet. And no, we aren’t talking pornography here, which practically started the internet. Instead, the focus is on companies that were originally more conservative and have completely rebranded themselves around that famous phrase: Sex sells.

American Apparel is my primary example. They are HOT! From one look at their home page, it is clear that this brand isn’t afraid to show some skin, literally. Their suggestive promotions leave customers wanting more. In other words, they have brought sexy back.

Just as we play games like Mass Effect to immerse ourselves in a fantasy and connect to its characters, we visit the American Apparel website in hopes we’ll find sexier duds for the avatar that is our real identity. The engaging photography, beautiful models and seductive marketing keep us browsing and fantasizing, until (in their hopes) we arrive at an item we simply must have.

Of course, American Apparel isn’t the only retailer with an unorthodox way of marketing. There are plenty of others, including one of our well-known quality denim suppliers, Diesel, pictured below.

So what does this mean? That our heads are stuck in the gutter and more brands are giving in too? I don’t think so. Rather, these companies have capitalized on a part of life that is captivating and, frankly, always on our minds. Their marketing strategies have shifted to a more progressive way of thinking to keep pace with changing generational attitudes and globalization. The younger crowd is less squeamish about the human anatomy than its predecessor, as are several Westernized cultures across the Atlantic. Like it or not, get used to seeing even more sex than you’ve seen before. As graphics technologies have begun to create interactive experiences that more closely mimic our sensory world, never before have we been so captivated by websites and games. Buckle up, it’s gonna be a risqué ride!

Some people still like print. It’s intriguing. You can physically touch it, carry it with you, hold it and turn pages. You can even smell it, if you’re into that. For a lot of folks, interaction is an important factor when they sit down to read a book or a newspaper. That is a main reason websites are becoming more interactive and engaging. Staring at a computer screen for long periods of time can be stressful on your eyes and some people just cannot handle that. Print may always be their preference.

Now consider the alternative. Amazon’s Kindle was one of the most popular gifts this past holiday season. The Kindle might be good for people on the go, a lightweight, portable alternative to bulky books and newspapers, but at the end of the day it isn’t the same as turning the pages of your favorite book.

Another argument in favor of electronic media is the ease with which information is at your fingertips. A quote that really stuck out to me in an article by Fast Company is “Too many of the ideas trapped on pages end up, at best, in unused archives or, at worst, in recyclers’ pulp, when they should be online: searchable, discoverable, linkable, part of the conversation.” – Jeff Jarvis. I can easily search Google for an excerpt from a book, but it would take much longer to search through thousands of books to find the same excerpt.

Just make sure your web sources are reputable. When you read a physical publication, most of the time you can be sure the source is reliable (unless you’re reading a tabloid you picked up while standing in line at the grocery store), but with electronic media, you could end up reading news stories on The Onion and anyone who’s heard of that site knows you don’t want to end up there if you are looking for real news.

I was also lucky enough to stumble across some funny excuses why print is still alive from Web Pro News and had to share. In my opinion these don’t count, as true as they may be.

-Newspapers are convenient for entirely different reasons than online news sources. When they develop a computer screen that a puppy can pee on, then print is surely dead.
-What are you going to wrap your dishes in when you move?
-There are coupons in the newspaper—ones that require only scissors.

Where do you see the world of media in 5 years? Will we be using tablets that we download the latest news to each morning replacing newspapers? Will the Amazon Kindle replace printed books? Will your nanny be replaced with a robot? Who knows!

While there were definitely bright moments in the ads , like the Doritos commercial, where the little boy slaps his mother’s new boyfriend across the face and says “Don’t touch my mama, don’t touch my Doritos,” the overall trend I noticed was far more disturbing – that of bashing and degrading women.

Grandmotherly Betty White was tackled to the ground in a Snicker’s commercial and a short while later Tim Tebrow tackled his mother during the controversial Focus on the Family ad. Men were told that buying a Dodge Charger was the last stand against women dominating their lives and then there are the GoDaddy ads, which are just blatantly trying to sell mediocre Web hosting using sex.

I’m a woman AND a football fan. I know that the vast majority of the Super Bowl ads are not targeted to my demographic, but I couldn’t help but sit and wonder what the sentiment was in the creative agencies this year that determined these were the best ads. Maybe it says something that the best commercials in my mind were those created by Doritos fans, not by major ad agencies. Fresh ideas and fresh content, not more of the same.

When a client or prospective client contacts xiik to develop a Web site, brochure or marketing campaign, one of our first questions is always going to be, “What do you want to accomplish?” We ask this because every company has different goals. It also helps us to learn more about a client. Often, but not always, a client may not have an end goal in mind, but just think they need “marketing.” However, marketing without a purpose is like trying to shoot a target in the dark. If you’re not sure what your goal should be, here are a few things to consider:

• The Status Quo: Think about your company from an outsider’s perspective. If staying objective is too hard to do, literally ask people (not employees!) what they know about you or your company. Do they know who you are and what you do? What you stand for? Is their perception of you positive or negative?

• The Goal: What do you want people to know about your company?

This is just the beginning of the strategy process. Although strategies may take some time and planning to develop, a solid strategy acts as a roadmap for achieving your goal(s). Just like a good coach won’t send his team into a game without an end goal (winning) and a series of plays to achieve the win, a good marketing firm won’t run a client through a gauntlet of marketing options without knowing the intended result. Anyone can shoot an arrow in the dark, but turning on a light always helps with hitting your target.

Everyone has heard of Netflix in some way or another by now. The ads are everywhere and the service has rapidly become a household staple for many.  I finally took the plunge myself and purchased a membership. Like me, most people used to drive to Blockbuster only to find that the movie they wanted to rent wasn’t in stock or was being rented by someone else. This obviously wasn’t cutting it for the “fast lane” society that, at the time, we were becoming. So a couple of dudes from California thought up and pitched a service that would allow customers to rent movies from a website on a pay-per-rental basis, and it eventually evolved into the flat monthly rate service it is today. So, how did this all come to be?

Since their launch, Netflix has encountered several other start-ups trying to sell the same service, but nobody has been able to do it as well as them. Wal-Mart and even Amazon (in Germany and the UK) have tried to release similar online services through their companies to their already loyal customers, but they eventually fizzled out. Wal-Mart now even has a cross-promotional agreement with Netflix! A partnership like that is huge — consider how pervasive Wal-Mart is and the comparatively tinier size that is and always will be Netflix. No offense to Netflix, we can’t all be Wal-Mart.

Now to my favorite part: the website. Netflix’s usability is amazing – from recommending movies it thinks you would like, to letting you stream many of the popular movies straight onto your computer or X-Box 360, PS3 and soon, the Wii. As a new customer, it only took me a couple minutes to get used to the site and how it all worked. That is incredibly important to keep in mind when designing the functionality of your websites. You could have a beautiful design, but if the layout is jumbled or confusing, it will not keep the user engaged and you’ve just lost a visitor or potential customer.

Another thing I love about the Netflix site is the way everything is interconnected. As I’m browsing through the legions of movies in the Netflix database, I have the option of adding them to my DVD Queue or Instant Queue. The way the site is connected through your personal profile is by the rating system and movie recommendations. As you rate more and more movies, Netflix gets smarter and better at guessing what movies you would like. Just an FYI, my queue is already big enough to last me months!

Netflix is also changing the business plans of other similar companies. More and more Blockbusters are closing their doors and driving to the movie rental store on a Friday night may soon be obsolete. We’ve also seen other businesses pick up on the practices of Netflix. Gamefly is one example of this. They have a similar site as Netflix for video game rental. Most hardcore gamers hate leaving the couch, so having their next game delivered right to their front door changes everything. Genius!  Red Box is a bit different, but nevertheless changing the way we rent movies. You can find these in places like McDonalds or neighborhood grocery stores. Red Box is, quite literally, a red box that has several new release movies in stock. Just slide your credit card, choose your movie and the box pops out your DVD. Consider it a vending machine for movies. Movies are only one dollar per night, so you won’t have to worry about late fees.

The changing movie rental industry is easy to use, personalized and fun, which for me equals addictive. Entertainment is a booming business integral to our lives and culture, so there will always be new and classic films to watch and great services allowing you to do so. People will always be searching for the perfect movie for their next date or, for aspiring filmmakers like myself, research and inspiration for professional endeavors. Whatever the need, Netflix has really started a revolution in entertainment, putting practically any film and TV series at the tips of our fingers. Go check it out and consider the free 14 day trial. After all, it’s FREE! Do you already have a Netflix account? What are your thoughts on the service?

My guess is you’re probably asking “What the heck is SIGGRAPH?” Fair enough. You have to be on a whole new level of nerd/hardcore computer graphics fanaticism to recognize it. I won’t lie, I am! Just check out the picture below of my conference badge and how much stuff is on that thing.

SIGGRAPH is the largest international professional organization “to promote the generation and dissemination of information on computer graphics and interactive techniques.” In other words, it hosts a conference every year in North America (usually in a major city) where thousands and thousands of students, educators, researchers and  professionals get together for a computer animation festival, huge exhibition, art gallery, emerging technologies, classes, behind the scenes amazingness and so much more. Let’s not forget about the parties. Oh, you heard right. Nerds can throw down!

Anywho, they just recently started hosting a conference in Asia halfway through each year, starting in December of 2008 (the original conferences are held in early August). It was a huge transition and a big step forward for the field of computer graphics and Asia, but also came with a lot of struggles such as language barriers. To our surprise, it wasn’t bad at all! There were great reviews and as a student volunteer, I was able to help most  every case that came across my path. I’m not saying it wasn’t hard though. Either way, the blending of cultures into one huge mesh of the most talented artists in the world is one of the most fulfilling experiences I’ve ever had. You literally pass people who helped create the films you watch everyday, the technology you use, the games you play and the amazing visuals that accompany every single aspect of our lives.

That’s most undoubtedly a true statement. In Japan, I was able to talk to owners of animations studios, producers and artists from Pixar, big guns at Lucas Film Animation and even the winner of best in show in the computer animation festival. That alone is worth the trip! Since I could practically write a book on my experiences at SIGGRAPH, I’ll leave you with some pictures of my trip. Some are from the conference and others are around the town of Yokohama. Enjoy!