For the past five months, The Industry Standard has been touting it’s free rooftop parties as something that not every Tom Dick and Harry can get into. You have to apply for an invitation, and the site clearly states, “By requesting an invitation … This does NOT mean you are invited to a specific party. You must receive an email invitation from John Battelle, Chairman and CEO of The Standard in order to attend a Rooftop party.”
So, naturally we were psyched to be selected to receive an invitation from John Battelle himself for the DC party this week. When we clicked through to RSVP, it sounded deliciously exclusive, stating “Your invitation is for you and one guest only, and is non-transferable. Please rsvp for yourself and your guest. If you do not rsvp for your guest on this page, your guest will only be admitted if he/she arrives with you. Please note that we will be checking our original invitation list at the door.”
That night we abandoned our jeans for something more suit-like and ventured forth … into an enormous crowd made up of everybody from millionaire dot-com CEOs to sales guys from teensy local Web design shops! If somebody was excluded, we’d like to know who. We also suspect the more snooty of the crowd may not show at the next DC Standard event (but we could be wrong.)
Never mind. The crowd represented an unusually broad cross section of the DC Internet crowd. From Stackig media directors to beltway bandit techies. Plus you couldn’t swing a dead cat without hitting a member of the press. Everybody was in a good mood (possibly because food and drinks were free, plentiful and exotic.) Networking was happening and interesting connections were made.
Best tchotchke? Well not the way-overused-by-others little metal box of extra-strong mints from the Washington Post. Banana Republic wins this time, for handing out grey, stretch t-shirts to everyone … without a logo! We were most impressed by the fact that the shirts were still individually encased in plastic so no pawing hands could sully them, and all sizes were available, even XS.
On the heels of its comprehensive ecommerce study (see our 8/03/00 issue), the School, Home, & Office Products Association (SHOPA) plans to expand its research services for members marketing online. According to SHOPA President, Steven L. Jacober, member companies are finding that B-to-B online marketing can be “a very cost effective way to market” with similar margins to offline marketing channels. But in the excitement to market online, technology shouldn’t get in the way. Campaigns that are “clear, concise and uncluttered are the most successful,” Jacober says. The more cutting edge technology can be difficult for some business owners to use. KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) “is the way to go.”
There are those who suggest that, things being what they are with bandwidth, slow connections, and costly Internet calls, rich media campaigns do not belong on the Internet right now. This week we made this suggestion to Marc Lewis, CEO of Web Marketing (who do a nice line in Video Banners), just to see what the reaction was:
“There is no excuse for the drivel we see day in, day out. Bandwidth is more than sufficient for rich media advertising. A year ago we were promised better ads when we got to 56Kbps. We’re simply making excuses. We know, from tests with Video Banners, that the consumer is 500% more likely to respond to a Video Banner than a GIF banner. We know that 60% of our audience can already watch a Video Banner, and that number is rising by the day. We know that the Internet is already a rich media environment. We know that narrow minded, shortsighted, uninformed old-school agencies automatically assume the only execution for a banner ad is a GIF.
“Not to worry though – it only took them 5 years to wake up to the fact that the Internet existed…”
Some of these acquisitions we saw coming months ago (thanks to everyone who helped us win cash bets) while others were complete surprises. Everybody’s prediction? This list is gonna get a lot longer very soon. VP’s of Marketing look to your jobs! Quick round-up this week:
– Commerce bought AppNet
– Internet.com bought ClickZ
– O2, Essential Marketing Technologies bought LookSonic.com
– Immedient bought Solven.com
– Engage bought MediaBridge Technologies
– NetZero bought RocketCash
– Rapp Collins bought Innovyx
Insiders at interactive agency WebNet Marketing admitted to us they were being killed — not by the competition but by the dash in their domain name (WebNet-Marketing.com.) Some guy in Michigan already owned the dash-free version, so WebNet made do. But loads of people couldn’t find their site and email was always going astray. Not anymore, after shelling out a reportedly six-figure sum, WebNet’s just been renamed QFactor. And yes they own every possible version of the domain name (including QFactorSucks.com)
“Imagine the government’s response if there were an incredible number of people (sorry, better make that ‘voters’) being harassed with anonymous telephone calls offering services of a sexual nature. Just picture how fast they would take action if there were a sudden prevalence of mail scams.
Sound bites would almost definitely include the words ‘disgraceful’, ‘appalling’ and ‘immediate action’, but with Spam, the reaction is a resounding ‘sorry, it’s your problem’. Yes, the British Government has finally taken an official stand on Spam, demanding that, erm, we look after it ourselves.
I can’t say that I’m surprised, really. Blair himself confesses to being completely ignorant about the web, and E-Envoy Alex Allan’s main qualifications seem restricted to being a ‘computer consultant’ (in the early 80’s) and building an entire site – http://www.whitegum.com/ – all by himself.
Of course Alex has called it a day now, and will stand down from his position in October so he can return to Australia.
If this keeps up, I may do the same myself.
PS – The search for a new E-Envoy begins in a couple of weeks. Feel free to nominate (ahem) worthy parties for this cushy position at: e-envoy@open.gov.uk”
…says Tim Ireland, our Rant Envoy, and Director of Marketing at www.designercity.com
Having been assured by BT that their Openworld site was definitely up and running early last week (and having found that it wasn’t), we’ve been checking progress from time to time…
Well, yesterday morning, there was finally something on view at www.btopenworld.com, but we have a feeling it wasn’t what BT intended us to see – it was, in fact, the Index page to the entire site, complete with countless little yellow folders (how touching that BT feels able to share these things with us)! If you’re curious enough to pay the site a visit you’ll find that you can get into the site proper (yes, it DOES exist) by clicking on any of the folders. Have a quick read – would YOU say it was written in a hurry? We couldn’t possibly comment.
Buses. In London, we’re used to seeing adverts splashed all over buses so, this week, we thought we’d have a look at what’s going on in the Home Counties…
In terms of visibility, e-commerce site Countdownarcade.com has to be the winner, even though they’ve opted to advertise inside, rather than outside the buses, presumably to exploit what is, after all, a rather captive audience of passengers. You can hardly miss their ads – they’re plastered across three or four of the windows. In fact, you’d need to crouch on the floor to see past them. Great idea, huh? Bear in mind that many of the passengers on regional buses are on their way to town centres to do a bit of shopping – where better to advertise your time-saving, hassle-saving e-tail operation?
If only Countdownarcade had chosen a better slogan. Featuring a huge hand of playing cards, their ads say “Don’t gamble on the Internet”. What they mean, of course, is ‘rather than gamble with other shopping sites on the Net, come along to countdownarcade.com where we guarantee you’ll be satisfied’. But, because we thought the slogan was ambiguous (and because we’re inquisitive), we asked a few of our fellow passengers what they thought… and yes indeed most of them interpreted the slogan as a warning not to shop on the Internet at all!
Sometimes the simplest things can make tangible difference in the profitability of your Web site. Visiting SeekingCapital.com’s home page took us back to basics and reminded up how important they are. Their site isn’t ready yet. But, instead of putting up a “under construction” sign (a big Net no-no) or nothing at all (an even bigger no-no), they put up an elegantly simple page consisting of their logo, contact info and a sign-up box for visitors to add their email addresses to the launch notification list.
This little sign-up form is something every business should have on any unfinished sections of their site. In fact email newsletter publishers recommend you start collecting opt-in email names a few months before you start a new service! So, do you have a pending new product or service announcement? Add a sign-up form for news about it on your site today.
OK, we’re unashamedly flag-waving fans of Master Syndicator. This low-cost ($99) software program enables you to syndicate out any content you please (articles, graphics, tutorials, hotlinked headlines, etc.) to any Web sites you’ve got pre-arranged deals with. Aside from being cheap and easy-to-use, Master Syndicator’s benefits include: (1) the ability to send content to multiple sites with just one command; (2) you decide what your content will look like at the other end; (3) webmasters receiving your content can’t change it, steal your content or make your hotlinks inactive; and (4) lifetime product support included in the price, plus for $60 more they’ll even install it on your server for you.
Owner Angela Smith says, “This program is perfect for smaller publishers who don’t have an in-house tech team.” Dozens of publishers including SalesVault.com, AllCritters.com and TheRomantic.com already use MasterSyndicator. In today’s marketplace Angela recommends if you’re charging for content that you lowball your price and go for mass quantity of deals with sites rather than high-priced deals with just a few. She also says your best bet may be to distribute your hotlinked content for free in order to drive traffic back to your site and/or promote your name brand.
[Ed. Note: We’d like to thank reader David Yale at http://www.controlbeaters.com for bringing this great software to our attention!]
