joshuakelly.com » fine design group

Continuum Estate: A Singular Site for A Singular Wine

joshuakelly — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 04:41:02 +0000

“It’s a single wine, produced with a clarity of focus, at the highest level”, to quote Tim Mondavi about his Continuum Estate wine. A pretty good description of the new Continuum website as well. The structure is unique and the look and feel is dramatic. Wait for the brief and flash-restrained home intro of the transforming “one tree” graphic, and you’re into a site that actually exists on a Continuum. You can navigate by traditional left nav means, or scroll on what appears to be a continuing spool of imagery and words that make up the “pages”. This site, from FINE Design Group, is at the strong of the coolness Continuum.

Sizzle Is In: Bacon As Metaphor

joshuakelly — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:27:17 +0000

It may just be coincidental, but I sense a renewed enthusiasm for that old staple of American cuisine, the only meat that’s good at every meal, as a condiment, and perhaps as a men’s fragrance. I speak, of course, of bacon.

Bacon’s surely never been entirely out of style, though various diet trends and movements have likely impacted it as a commodity. But there’s something about the indulgence of it, the comforting nature of it, and the reactionary tendency to embrace it as a nose-thumbing to the nagging culture of vegetarianism or environmentalism, or any kind of ism. It’s good ol’ fashioned bacon. And right about now, I keep seeing indications that it may be the cure for what ails us all. With apologies to the pigs, it almost seems like bacon is a trend.

As the economy flounders and we retreat into simple pleasures, and foods that deliver high calorie to cost ratios, bacon seems more relevant than ever. Visit the Royal Bacon Society site to see the extent of the enthusiasm for “meat candy”. Indeed, watch the inevitable list of 2010 trends for topics where bacon serves as a metaphor.

In closing, I give you yesterday’s launch of the “Save Your Bacon With Norton” campaign (with microsite by FINE Design Group), where those who submit their stories of backup woe are eligible to sooth their aching tech souls with a year’s supply of that most sublime of food products.

[Shout out to the trendwatching bacon-lovers at Symantec, and to the king of all bacon lovers, Bacon Matt at Ste Michelle Wine Estates.]

Silverado Lining

joshuakelly — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 16:43:43 +0000

The new Silverado Vineyards website is a dramatic and seamless site for a classic Napa name. I like the image of the spring flowers in the home page rotation, which reminds me that someday my lawn will thaw. Nice job FINE Design Group.

Digital Branding 1: The Return Of The Long Term

joshuakelly — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:51:47 +0000

A consequence of the ability to measure certain things easily online is that most people now measure easy things. Anyone with a Google account can figure out conversion rates and traffic sources. What’s happening is that people in many markets are realizing the limits of mining for keywords and clickthroughs – everyone and anyone knows how to do it.

So we’re on to the next phase, which turns out to be old news: marketing is about getting and keeping good customers. And the best measure keys on an understanding of the Lifetime Value of A Customer, or at least the value of winning their favorable brand perceptions and behaviors past the next click.

There is some truth in the idea that there’s no such thing as brand loyalty anymore. But it’s more accurate to say you can’t assume loyalty anymore; you have to work for it continuously. And it’s also clear, as a result, that a small but loyal customer base is more of a valuable asset than ever.

If all you’re measuring is sales and traffic, you are not doing marketing. You are not measuring customer acquisition and retention; you are measuring dollar volume acquisition and retention. A good score there will keep you employed through your quarterly Board meeting. Congratulations.

But think now about the question of what happens when you adjust your view to consider the next purchase, the next year, or a lifetime. What asset are you building? What value are you creating? What relationships are you solidifying? How does that change the way you approach your interaction with customers and potential customers through design, technology, social media, social responsibility, metrics, advertising, customer service, and even how you hire and train staff?

The answer is, it can change everything.

What’s magic is that the further out you think, the greater the chance that the interests of your customers and the interest of your organization, and even greater social interests, intersect and align. The more likely it is that you will be competing for customers, not competing against your own interests.

You could argue that the most important role of marketing in any organization is to get people thinking longer term, about getting and keeping customers and growing a meaningful, profitable company.

So adjust your sightlines forward a notch and we’ll explore further in Part 2.

P.S., A related read on Seth Godin’s blog: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2009/11/embracing-lifetime-value.html

Social Media’s Biggest Challenge: Cybercrime

joshuakelly — Wed, 19 Aug 2009 06:24:37 +0000

While it’s increasingly clear some part of social media is here to stay, it’s also clear that its most profound challenge is already rearing its ugly head: cybercrime. Forget speculation about whether social media is a trend or a fad, or how widely it can be used for commercial purposes. It’s a big giant party with no one screening at the door.

According to Symantec, every 3 seconds an identity is stolen. There’s a symmetry with popular stats about Facebook adoption (100 Million users in less than 9 months) that suggest a legitimate (or at least mostly harmless) new FB identity was created about every 3 seconds. That’s a lot of identity creation, modification, and transference. Between the amount of identity generation going on with cybercrime and social media right now, the entire population of the United States is currently “turning over” about once a year. The Wild West sensation online is greater than its ever been. Stake your claim in a place where no one knows your name. Reinvent yourself, make friends, make enemies, disappear, reappear, get a life, or lead a double life. Cybercrime has surpassed illegal drug trafficking as a criminal moneymaker. Was it 130 Million names and numbers stolen this week? Ho hum. There are 200 Million Facebook users alone. What’s the stat – if Facebook were a country it would be the third largest in the world? And what are the policing forces mustered on behalf of this nation?

There is no way law enforcement can keep up. There is no way the average FB/Twitter user can either. So, who will be the Guardian Angels of social media? Or in this new world, will we be our brother’s keepers out of necessity, community-enforcing the unspoken laws of the frontier?