Understand on the front end that your Web site will never truly be finished. It should constantly be tweaked and adjusted to make the user experience better, to respond to new input from the market, to relay new information. But beyond that, there are legitimate reasons your site should never "want" to be finished.

- Sites which are updated often are better indexed by the search engines, leading to higher rankings in the search engines than less frequently updated sites.
- It gives visitors to your site a reason to come back.
- You should consider having either a blog or a "Breaking News" page integrated into your Web site.

Your Web site should be the gateway to your customer service solution. "Relationships have become powerful differentiators. Customers can't tell if your product is better than your competitor's product, but they can tell if they have a better relationship with you than with your competitor." - Steve Yastrow

Use your Web site to enhance customer service. Ideas include:
- Downloadable tech guides
- Instructional videos
- Online chat with CSRs
- Polls, a suggestion box, etc.

If you do not have video on your site now – get it up. Several video content solutions and players are available:
- www.multicastmedia.com
- www.brightcove.com

People would rather watch than read. Use video to engage your customers, educate them and cross sell.

A picture really can be worth a thousand words. If you are selling a product, pictures of it are almost mandatory. But even if your Web site is more information-oriented, often a suitable picture can sum up the mood of the article succinctly, thus putting the reader in the right "frame of mind" to read it. Study after study shows that people looking at a Web page will look at the pictures first. If your pictures are properly formatted and are of a reasonable size, most modern browsers will have no problems. Proper coding ensures that the pictures are not loaded until after the text anyway.

For more than 500 years, we have been reading dark writing on a white page. Why? Because it works. One change from print is that on the screen, many studies suggest a sans serif font is easier to read instead of the recommended serif fonts for print media. Of course, make certain that whatever font you use is large enough to be read. Remember that the population segment over the age of 55 is growing every day on the Internet. Designers are afraid of white space, but it is the white space on the page that gives the text room to breathe, that makes the eye glide on the page and actually makes the text easy to read.

Few people read from a computer screen for fun or relaxation. Copy should help them achieve their purpose in coming to your Web site. Copy needs to be "scannable." Keep your paragraphs to less than four sentences. Maximize the use of lists and bullet points, both of which lead to easy scanning.

For key items, use bold to really make it stand out, but beware of bolding everything. Copy is also the key ingredient to search results. Make sure that all of your copy has been optimized for search results. Additionally, write copy as if you are actually saying it – not like an article or a brochure. Remember that your Web site is the place where you have the opportunity to engage your customer. Write in a conversational tone so that your readers feel like they are having a one-on-one conversation with you. The results can be surprising.

Use hot spots for the most appealing and/or attention-grabbing aspects. There is a distinctive pattern of eye fixation when the landing page loads in front of us.

Note the heat map graphic:

- Our eyes are naturally drawn to elements such as bullet points, lists, icons and large typography. Typically, this is also in the top section of the Web site, so you need to make sure you put your most important "grabbing" information up there.
- Note on the example how much of the page is not even viewed.

What are your competitors' sites doing right and wrong? Identifying your competitors is always regarded as a high priority for any business. If you are not adding any value to an existing product or service, why would customers switch to your business? If you are providing your product at a lesser cost this should be represented clearly on your site. Looking at competitors' Web sites also gives you a chance to take a step back and put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. What do you like about the competitor's Web site (navigation, clear information, professional feel)? One of the first things I do whenever we begin work on a new client's Web site is to embark on a comprehensive examination of our client's competitors. You will be surprised by what you can learn.

Load time is an important determining factor of how long people stay at your site. Have you ever been to a site where there are so many large graphics on the main page that you are waiting three minutes just for the page to load? Most people get tired of waiting for a site to load after the first minute. Try to keep your load time under three to four seconds. If you have a slow loading page there are several ways to speed it up. Google is now going to take site load time into account for placement related to its paid search program – AdWords.

One of the worst mistakes made on the Web is to build a site and then leave it alone. Keep it fresh. Add new content regularly and try to update your site at least twice a week, if not more. Make sure that your content is something that will make your visitors keep coming back to your site again and again. For example, you could have a blog, a monthly contest, weekly specials or polls. We see many clients making a huge upfront investment to build a great site but are unprepared to continue to make the site great by keeping it fresh.

In the old days, when beginning a site design, we would sit around with our clients and brainstorm ideas about how the site should function and look. We would assume to a large degree that we knew enough about our client's business to be able to predict what the customer would want out of the site. Today, we can no longer assume that we know these answers. With recent advancements in technology, it is easy and inexpensive to really know what your customer wants. In order to improve your site, you must know what users like and dislike about your site. Some tips to do this effectively are:

- Set up monthly polls on your site asking your users what they like and dislike about your site and then use that information to make your site better
- Also make sure that there is an easy way for your visitors to be able to contact you and give you their suggestions
- Feedback from your users is one of the most helpful things you can use to improve your site

Recently, we began to test site design ideas by having site visitors go into test sites and give us feedback on design and functionality. This way, we know what site visitors like and don't like about certain designs and we can make changes before the site is launched, not after.

Before you ever begin working on your web design, make sure that you understand what is the Most Wanted Response (MWR) you want from a site visitor. Identify this in the very beginning and just as importantly, identify how you will measure the MWR going forward. For some sites, it will be about conversions to sales, to others it will be about building an opt-in email database, for still others, it will be about something simple like page views. Most clients will want all of the above, however, it is critical to force the client to rank the #1 most important and desired response. The site should then be designed around facilitating this MWR.

The second rule to effective web design is to Know Your Target. Always start by asking - Who is your target audience? This applies to every single site... ever made... you always need to identify the target audience and decide what is the single most important thing the audience should leave a site knowing. Do not be afraid to develop separate sites to market to different targets and then cross-market the sites. Sometimes dumping everything onto one site is not the best approach. This is especially true for companies that sell different products aimed at different demographics.

Over the next few weeks I will be writing about how to create effective web sites. With technology and capabilities changing so fast, I think it is important to understand the essential elements of web design so that you can apply them to your site. The first is "Make it Easy" for the site visitor. EASY is the most important feature of any web site, web app, or program. There are five things about making it easy that I would emphasize:

- Discoverability – make sure everything is easy to find, features are meant to enhance a site, not distract.
- Recoverability – actions should be without cost. Ever go to a form and forget a step and have to go back and fill in the form all over again? Don't you hate that?
- The web is about fulfilling needs – create things that let people do this as easily as possible.
- Drive usage. Generate touch points that direct site visitors to areas you want them to go within the site.
- Remove barriers to account sign ups – this is a real hot button for me. I can show you stat after stat that proves that the more information you ask for initially, the fewer sign ups you will get. Fight the impulse to get every question in the world answered and engage your audience first. Then go back and ask them questions.

Rule 1 - Make the web site easy to use. Then make it easier.

I recently made a presentation to some marketing professionals in the telecommunications industry in Chicago. The topic of the presentation was "Growing Your Business Online." In that presentation, I identified seven trends that are having a dramatic impact on Internet marketing. I thought I would share those with you...

Trend 1: Growth of Broadband in the Home

• 57 percent of U.S. households have broadband access.
• Among active Internet users, broadband access will break 90 percent by June.
• Not only are there more households with broadband, but the speeds are increasing as well.
  • Nine percent of U.S. broadband households had speeds capable of streaming high-definition video at the end of 2007.

Trend 2: Multimedia is Now Mass Media

• U.S. Web users watched more than 10 billion online videos during the month of February. That's a 66 percent gain from the previous year. ComScore - 2008
• 48 percent of Internet users have visited such a video-sharing site at least once to watch or post a video, a growth from 33 percent in December 2006. Pew - January 2008
• Nearly a quarter of Americans (24 percent) say they regularly learn something about the presidential campaign from the Internet, almost double the percentage from a comparable point in the 2004 campaign (13 percent). Pew - January 2008

Trend 3: Emergence of the "Prosumer"

• Today's consumer is...
  • Intelligent
  • Empowered
  • Skeptical
  • Connected
  • Time-pressed
  • Demanding
  • Disloyal
  • Always on
  • Ahead of the curve
  • Vengeful

Trend 4: UGC is King

• 51 percent of all consumers engage in User Generated Content (UGC), with 71 percent of the "millennials" (18-25) using it. TopRank - 2008
• Product reviews increase retail conversion, rates and satisfaction.
• 80 percent of U.S. shoppers place more trust in brands that offer customer ratings and reviews. Bazaarvoice - 2008

Trend 5: Explosive Growth of Online Communities

• Facebook
  • More than 60 million active users
  • An average of 250,000 new registrations per day since January 2007
  • An average of three percent weekly growth since January 2007
  • Active users doubling every six months
• MySpace
  • More than 110 million monthly active users
  • The country's most trafficked site on the Internet
  • One in four Americans is on MySpace
  • On average 300,000 new people sign up for MySpace every day

Trend 6: Email Has Never Been Bigger

• Email is the No. 1 Internet activity, with 91 percent of Internet users using it.
• 15 percent of Americans describe themselves as addicted to email.
• The average email user checks mail about five times a day, and 59 percent of those with portable devices are using them to check email every time a new message arrives.
• 83 percent of email users admit to checking their mail once a day while actually on vacation.

Trend 7: Mobile is the Next Big Thing

• Worldwide, there are more digital mobile phones than televisions and PCs combined.
• More than half of mobile handsets are less than a year old and most of them have full Internet capabilities.
• Smartphone sales (Blackberrys, Palms, iPhones) have grown 165 percent this year alone in the U.S.
• 30 million people in the U.S. will access the Web from their mobile devices this year, already representing one-fifth of those consumers that access the Web from their PCs.

A friend sent a book review my way yesterday of Steve Yastrow's WE: The Ideal Customer Relationship. I have posted the review below. This is a very relevant topic for today's marketers. As an agency, we are continually pushing our clients to engage their customers online, to listen to them and to communicate with them individually. This is very hard for many companies to do. Especially big ones who want so desperately to control everything about their communications efforts. The chart that differentiates between a WE relationship and an US & Them relationship says it all.

Steve Yastrow on the WE Relationship I love the premise from Steve Yastrow's recently-published book, WE: The Ideal Customer Relationship. In the opening chapter, Yastrow writes ... Relationships have become powerful differentiators. Customers can't tell if your product is better than your competitor's product, but they can tell if they have a better relationship with you than with your competitor. If relationships are such powerful differentiators, what is the most productive, profitable, and sustainable relationship? The We relationship. In a We relationship, you think less about what separates you and more about what intertwines you. In contrast, if your customer's view of your relationship is not "We" but "Us & Them," he will focus more on what he can get from you--and on what he believes you get from him--and less on how you can collaborate to reach your goals together. [Steve Yastrow, SOURCE]

________________________________________

For those needing to see this premise in a chart, peep the following from pg. 13 of WE: The Ideal Customer Relationship ...

For many years companies have been gearing up for an onslaught of retiring baby boomers who theoretically will be the richest, most active US population segment in history. Problem is, up to this point, it has been just that – a theory.

Companies from cruise lines to retirement communities have invested billions getting ready for this wave of retirees. However, a startling new research study from Kevin P. Coyne of Coyne Associates Atlanta http://www.thecoynepartnership.com/index.html creates some valid doubts about how the baby boomers will behave once they reach retirement age.

Coyne's research suggests that boomers will be neither rich enough or young enough at retirement to meet the business expectations aimed at catering to them. Coyne suggests that both the size and growth rate of US retirees could be substantially smaller than originally forecast.

Some of the reasons are pretty easy to identify: falling stocks, sagging housing values, skyrocketing cost of healthcare, increased energy cost and social changes from increased divorce rates that will not allow single income families to afford retirement.

I think this is just the beginning and it will be interesting to see how the boomers evolve over the next 20 years. What was to be America's most economically powerful segment, may end up being a big bust.

This Memorial Day, we honor all those who have served in the military to preserve our way of life and the freedom that we all enjoy. We are blessed to live in a country where we are truly free and I want to take this moment to personally thank each and every person who has served and is serving in our military. When I think about how young our country really is and look at all it has accomplished, it makes me wonder just how long we will remain as free and successful as we are today. History tells us that countries don't last forever. I wonder what's next for the United States. We have so many conflicts around the world and even among ourselves. I also wonder what impact the absence of God in our Government and schools is having. Does the moral decline of our nation and the decline of Christian principles within our families mean that the men and women who have died for our country have died in vain? General MacArthur put it this way: "We have had our last chance. If we do not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door. The problem basically is theological and involves a spiritual recrudescence and improvement of human character that will synchronize with our almost matchless advance in science, art, literature, and all material and cultural developments of the past 2,000 years. It must be of the spirit if we are to save the flesh." General MacArthur said that 75 years ago and it still holds great meaning today.

A wiki is a Web page that supports user-generated content by allowing all site visitors the opportunity to add, delete or revise information on the site. The most well known example of a wiki is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that was entirely comprised of Internet users like you and me adding information to the site.

Wikis are a very powerful marketing tool. They are extremely user-friendly, both on the front- and back-ends; and they are quite affordable. Internet users enjoy knowing they have the power to control a site's content – hence the success of MySpace and FaceBook.

How can a wiki work for you? Let's say you own a home repair store. Your Web site is a valuable tool for you but you want to take it one step further – so you develop a home repair wiki. You send an eblast out to your database (you sort of need a database at the beginning for this to work – so start building an email database) alerting them to the fact that you have developed this home repair wiki and ask them to visit the wiki to help populate the site. They visit the site and post information on home repair tips and advice. With a little marketing, your wiki becomes the Wikipedia of home repair and soon do-it-yourself novices from around the country are checking out your wiki for advice. An instant marketing success story.

I was doing some research the other day as we prepared a marketing plan for a client and I came across some very interesting statistics:

The number of people who have used the Internet to search for health-related information increased from 53% in 2005 to 71% in 2007. This brings the number of all U.S. adults who have ever searched for health information online to 160 million, from 136 million in 2006 and 117 million in 2005 -- a 37% increase over two years. HarrisInteractive.com | 7.31.07

According to Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association Consumer Preferences and Usage of Healthcare Information, 64% of consumers say it is important to be able to get information about healthcare questions from sources other than their doctor. "Medical Cost Reference Guide 2007," BCBS.com | 2007

According to a CIGNA HealthCare survey, the ability to personalize healthcare insurance to their needs and budget is valued by 81% of consumer respondents. Among other findings, 79% are confident in their ability to decide how much coverage they need and how much they're willing to pay for that coverage, and 72% would value a plan allowing selection of health insurance choices using online technology similar to online shopping. CIGNA.com | 3.1.06

70% of U.S. adults agree that they are generally satisfied with the way doctors and hospitals handle personal health information in terms of protecting its confidentiality and security, but 17 % say they withhold information from their health providers due to worries about how the medical data might be disclosed. Harris Poll, HarrisInteractive.com | 3.26.07

What does all of this mean? At our agency, we retain a company called Icconoculture to help us identify trends, They have some interesting thoughts on the way consumers are seeking health information that I thought you would be interested in.

When you're feeling sick, call the doctor -- right? Not so much anymore. Consumers across the country have expanded their thinking beyond the white-coat authority to include a wide range of health and wellness resources. The multitude of sources available online, in peer networks and even on Oprah enables DIY health before consumers even consider making an appointment. Consumer "treat me" has shifted to Consumer MD.

In the insta-information world of Health 2.0, consumers are all too aware of wrong-side surgeries, misdiagnoses, overprescribed medications and the feeling of being shuffled through a crowded system riddled with confusion. Add to that the rising cost of health care, and consumers are clamoring for tools and information that help them figure it out -- or catch things that a busy doctor didn't.

Consumer MD mentality crosses cultures, age and regions. Moms, CHOs (chief household officers), the uninsured and underinsured, hyperlifers, Get RealSM skeptics and technomorphers are all looking for second opinions, cost-efficient alternatives, self-diagnostic tools and remote monitoring systems.

How does it break down by demo? Millennials approach Consumer MD with a confidence to search and access multiple resources at once, seeking transparency and authenticity. Gen Xers take a more practical stance of skepticism, appreciating questions preemptively addressed while at the same time valuing self-sufficiency, control and performance. Boomers are willing to try self-directed alternative medicine but demand personalized attention and leading-edge insight from the doc. Matures are most likely to value the traditional patient-doctor relationship, but they are entering the office armed with information.

No matter what the demographic, expertise and trust drive the Consumer MD mentality. Credentialed experts are meeting consumers with information in mediums that are easily accessible. Johns Hopkins Health News Podcasts, The Mayo Clinic Housecall e-newsletter and the UC Berkeley Wellness Letter root current information in well-respected names. Consumers beehive online around knitting and music, why not celiac disease, depression and stroke? Health communities like USA Today's Health Scout, PatientsLikeMe.com and DailyStrength.com are on the rise as consumers seek connection with people who know what they're going through. Never underestimate the importance of speed for the Consumer MD. Online and cellphone symptom checkers abound as people look for quick explanations. And whether it's an ear infection, low sperm count or the onset of menopause, consumers can easily diagnose right at home.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

Looking forward, Consumer MD's Rx calls for healthcare on the consumer's terms and time frame. Delivering personalized service in a fast-paced environment blends FingerprintingSM with Ready, Set, Go!SM for healthcare that meets the demands of patients who want to be involved and in charge of their bodies -- not simply within the confines of the doctor's office, but all of the time.

Consumers are comfortable taking charge of their health, whether that means the foods they eat, cosmetics they use or even the cars they drive. Companies that empower that inner healer will win fans.

Watch for wellness programs to steal the show in 2008 as consumers readily seek financial incentives like lower premiums.

There was once a time when a blog was, simply put, an online diary for ordinary people to express their thoughts, feelings and events in their daily lives. Today, blogs are widely read and can greatly impact the success or demise of a company. In 2005, only six percent of Americans read blogs, that number jumped to 40% in 2006. And in 2007, at least one blog was created every second of the day. Obviously, blogs are important, and they are taking the Internet by storm. It is even said that having your company mentioned in a blog is far more impactful then being mentioned in a high-profile feature story in a large circulation publication.

So who writes these blogs? There are several types of bloggers: those that simply blog to journal their daily life experiences; CEOs and corporate executives who blog to discuss their industry and to position themselves as experts in their fields; and those who report the news on their blogs - whether it be breaking news, feature stories or gossip news.

Why are blogs important? People value other people's opinions and outlooks – hence the success of tripadvisor.com and epinions.com. Bloggers are revered as experts in their fields which is why we encourage all of our clients to establish blogs of their own. Authoring a blog allows you to not only promote your expertise in a certain field but to promote your company as well. More and more, national morning shows and large circulation publications are calling upon popular bloggers to serve as experts in their features. In addition to writing your own blog, it is also imperative to initiate an interactive public relations program. Interactive public relations professionals can draft social media news releases and distribute them to a database of bloggers to encourage these bloggers to include information about your company in upcoming blog features.

Blogging is definitely the wave of the future – and a very important part of the marketing mix. Bloggers are part of what Joseph Jaffe calls "Prosumers"- the new merchants of conversation. As marketers, we can't ignore their importance any longer and brands must respect their power and influence.

As expected, U.S. newspapers' online audiences grew about 6 percent last year. This is a rare bit of good news for an industry struggling to adapt as readers and advertising dollars continue to migrate online.

Some interesting statistics released by Nielson include: web sites run by newspapers had an average of 60 million unique U.S. visitors per month in 2007, up from 56.4 million the year before Due to the growth in the total online audience, however, the online reach of newspapers grew somewhat less, with 38 percent of all active online users visiting newspaper Web sites last year, up from 36 percent in 2006.

Newspapers are struggling to find a revenue model that works. Rupert Murdoch, the WSJ's new owner announced today that it will continue to require online subscriptions to access certain information. Last year, The New York Times scrapped a two-year effort to charge online visitors for access to certain parts of its Web site, hoping that the additional traffic would result in higher online advertising revenues.

Revenues from online advertising have been growing at newspapers, but not yet fast enough to replace the declines in their traditional print advertising business.

Total newspaper advertising revenue fell 7.4 percent in the third quarter of 2007, the latest period for which the NAA has reported figures. Within that total, print ad revenues declined 9 percent to $10.1 billion, while online revenues rose 21 percent to $773 million, according to the NAA.

Expect continued consolidation in this industry as new media companies that understand how to monetize web site traffic continue to acquire the assets managed by the old guard who just don't get it.

According to study released Monday, February 4 by Solutions Research, primetime TV viewing on the Web has gained considerably in the past year. The survey said 80 million Americans watched a TV show online last year. This number accounts for 43% of the online population, up from 25% who said they watched a TV show on the Web last year. So what does this mean to ad agencies and advertisers alike? Well, to me it means that this audience can't be ignored. The local affiliates need to ramp up their ability to deliver geo-specific ad content to the commercial lineup within programming even if the programming is being viewed over the network's primary site (not the affiliate's site). We are moving ever closer to the day when we will no longer be valuing (and buying) broadcast media based on the value of the total audience but on the specific number of times the message is viewed.

Microsoft's bid to buy Yahoo at a 62% premium on Friday caused quite a stir in the media world, but is it too little too late? As of August 2007. Nielson ranked the top search engines with Google holding a 53% market share, followed by Yahoo with 19.9% and Microsoft with 12.9%. Since it initially launched its search engine, Google had consistently gained market share in each and every measuring period while Yahoo has seen its share atrophy steadily over that same time. Google is now seen as the leader in not only search, but innovation. Google is also very bold. Its acquisition of YouTube last year is testament to that fact.

Feeling the heat from getting caught with their pants down in search, the ever-conservative leadership at Microsoft sees this bid as a bold move – but is it? Had Microsoft made a play for Yahoo in 2002, maybe it would be seen as bold. But, until Google revolutionized the monetization of search, nobody thought that a search engine was worth much and instead, Microsoft focused on their browser and that was a big mistake. Who knows how this will play out. One thing is clear and that is Competition is good for all industries and a bigger, better funded competitor for Google will be good for consumers as these giants duke it out.

The number of text (SMS) messages sent within the U.S on a monthly basis has grown by over 200% each year for the past 3 years (over 24 billion text messages will be sent in December of 2007 in the U.S), and the median age of a text message "user" is 38, so it is a preferred method of communication for the masses, not just young teenagers. Over 75% of the U.S population owns a mobile phone and over 98% of all mobile phones are SMS-enabled. Promotions based on acquiring the customer's phone number by giving them something of value have proven to be very effective in building databases for long-term customer relationship management. SMS is here and we all need to be taking advantage of it.

Last year dotMobi (the informal name of mTLD Top Level Domain, Ltd.) was appointed by ICANN as the official global registry for the .mobi top level domain. dotMobi is backed by leading mobile operators, network device manufacturers and Internet content providers. Their investors include Ericsson, Google, GSM Association, Hutchison, Microsoft, Nokia, Orascom Telecom, Samsung Electronics, Syniverse, T-Mobile, Telefónica Móviles, TIM, Visa and Vodafone.

The core mission of dotMobi is two-fold, to become the most ubiquitous domain name for the mobile web (i.e. get the consumer to think .mobi rather than .com when using the Internet from their handset) and to become the critical link between mobile operators, handset manufacturers, content providers / brands and users to make phones the tool of choice for the mobile web.

A mobile device requires an entirely different user experience than that of a traditional PC or laptop. Just because a traditional website is now viewable on many phones, that does not equate to a tangible, fulfilling user experience. Unfortunately, that is exactly what many companies provide today. Obviously, the device is smaller, the screen space is limited, and the traditional QWERTY keyboard input method is not ideal. Further, the web is probably being accessed on a mobile phone while the end-user is driving, on the move, or otherwise engaged by some other activity or media device. If you currently have a transactional web site, then I strongly urge you to get a dotMobi version as well. If you don't, you will be losing business.

Is mobile marketing the next big thing? Can it be as big as the Internet was in the early 2000's? Well, consider this, worldwide, there are more digital mobile phones than televisions and PCs combined. According to A.T. Kearney/University of Cambridge, more than half of mobile handsets are less than a year old and most of them have full Internet capabilities. Further, smartphone sales (Blackberry's, Palm's, iPhone's) have grown 165% this year alone in the U.S, which means that the mobile platform and the traditional wireless consumer is becoming more sophisticated and has access to better technology and a quality signal to surf the mobile web from their handset. 30 million people in the U.S will access the web from their mobile devices this year, already representing 1/5th of those consumers that access the web from their PC. The opportunities to market to this audience using SMS, dotMobi designed websites and special promotions are endless. Stay tuned as we continue to explore ways to utilize this exciting new platform.

Here at Brandon we subscribe to a very interesting service called Iconoculture which spots world-wide trends and assists us in brand planning for our clients. A recent trend identified by Iconoculture was very interesting...

Insight - Regional travelers can be fiercely loyal to -- and defensive of -- the places they love. Part of the appeal of regional resorts is the authentic, local experiences they offer. National travel brands can succeed in regional resort areas, but the better known your brand, the more you will need to respect the unique character of the regional resort area you're entering.

This insight could apply for "Myrtle". She could defend (without sounding defensive) MB.

Fact - According to the 2001 National Household Travel Survey, half of all long-distance trips (50 miles or more) were leisure travel. 62% of long-distance trips were to destinations within the travelers' home states. And 9 out of 10 of all long-distance trips were taken by personal vehicles.

We have all heard the statistic that the average American is bombarded with over 3,000 advertising messages each day. With so many ads delivered over so many platforms, why is advertising effectiveness decreasing? Are we becoming de-sensitized to it all? Certainly that is the case with traditional internet banner ads, where research has proven that frequent web users eye's nearly always fall below the top banner. So what does work?

The fact of the matter is that no one reads ads (they never have). People read what interests them. Sometimes it's an ad. Somewhere along the way, the art of creating ads that are interesting has gone by the wayside. Interest can be created through visual graphics, great headlines or with a story. Even more importantly, no one can create interest among everyone. Great advertising should interest those that you wish to stimulate. So many times marketers want to throw in the kitchen sink so as not to alienate anyone and in the process, the ad becomes so watered down that it interests no one. With limited budgets and more pressure on advertising to deliver results, the problem will compound.

In spite of this pressure, we should all remember that in order for advertising to work, we have to first be interesting to our target audience. If we stand by that belief and continue to remind ourselves and our clients of that each day, we will create great ads that work.

I was reading a recent report by Harris Interactive stating that 80% of all Internet traffic begins at a search engine. Perhaps even more interesting was a number from Double Click reporting that 41% of web users use search for simple web navigation by typing a query directly into a search engine versus typing the URL directly into their browser. Those are astounding numbers that clearly magnify the importance of search marketing.

As marketers, we would like to think that our target audiences are going about the trouble of typing in our dedicated URLs and that we are able to effectively track the results of everything we do. However, it is clear that consumers are choosing to behave differently. So what does it mean to marketers and clients alike? Well, you better have an excellent brand strategy and that strategy needs to focus of awareness as much as it does on perception, because, if you are not occupying some space in the minds of your target audience, it is not very likely that you will be successful.

Today, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. made a $5 billion takeover offer for Dow Jones & Co., parent company of The Wall Street Journal. The bid comes at a critical time in the newspaper industry, when defections of readers and advertisers to the Internet has sharply eroded newspaper profits and raised doubts about the industry's long term future. In the past year two newspaper empires, Knight Ridder Inc. and Tribune Co., have put themselves on the market after pressure from restive shareholders. Knight Ridder ended up being bought by McClatchy Co. while Tribune decided to go private in an $8.2 billion transaction backed by real estate magnate Sam Zell.

The mere possibility that News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch could get control of The Wall Street Journal is almost certain to spark a firestorm of controversy. Critics are likely to see his potential acquisition of one of the nation's most influential newspapers as an unacceptable extension of his already formidable media sway. Almost certain is that Murdoch has an aggressive strategy to expand his Internet kingdom. He already owns Myspace and The Wall Street Journal, reported 30% growth in online ad revenue in the first quarter, up from 26% a year earlier. Surely Mr. Murdoch would not pay a 67% premium over the current trading price without knowing exactly where he is going.

The newest buzzword to hit the marketing world is "Web 2.0". With the explosion in popularity of FaceBook, MySpace and YouTube, marketers are scratching their heads at how to effectively and efficiently utilize this phenomenon for their clients.

The fact is that user generated content (UGC) makes it possible for consumers to own your brand. For many businesses, this is a scary proposition. Many of our own clients are afraid to hand their customers the keys to the car. While this is understandable, it is the brands that are adopted, blogged about or parodied the most that will win because they are the ones most involved in the pop culture.

To be successful, brands must learn how to embrace the idea of user generated content, not shut it out. Many popular brands are figuring this out. In fact, one of our most recent clients WorldGolf.com is a perfect example of a brand that understands the power of UGC and has utilized blogs, reader reviews, user generated videos and photographs to build the most viewed network of golf related websites in the world. You can check out their primary site at www.worldgolf.com

I was reading an article in MediaWeek today by Larry Rowan and Dave Warren of RowenWarren, a New York based creative boutique about the challenges the large traditional agencies are having in dealing with the convergence of computers and TV (See MediaWeek October 16, 2006 pg. 10). The article deals with the fact that the larger agencies have traditionally been focused on either the branding (emotional connection) side of the business or the direct response (content and call to action) side of the business. Now that the convergence of TV and the Internet affords brand marketers the opportunity to intertwine direct response mechanisms into most every television campaign, the big agencies are struggling with how to best go about this process.

With media delivery convergence now taking hold, agencies must actively begin taking hold of message convergence. At no other time in history have agencies had the opportunity to combine great branding with great direct response. This will require a different approach and successful agencies will be those who require the brand managers (account planners) to sit with the direct marketing expert in order to come up with programs and campaigns that strike an emotional connection while at the same time delivering the desired response. Appealing to both the left and right sides of the brain is the only way to be successful in this new era of marketing.

So, who is winning the race? It looks like the smaller, more nimble shops are at the forefront of this media convergence and are aggressively looking to do both branding and direct marketing in one unified effort. It is easier for smaller agencies to adapt and communicate internally. How the rest of the industry will respond is still undecided. What is for certain is that there will be some big winners and some big losers.