Archive | August, 2009

Gap ditches TV for Facebook

20 Aug

So the Gap is rolling out a new line of jeans, but they won’t be shelling out big bucks to have celebrities dance around in ‘em on the TV.  They’re going grassroots with a Facebook campaign. Ads on various web site sites (including glam.com and popsugar.com) will drive traffic to Gap’s Facebook page. Oh they’ll use cinema and print – but Facebook will be the star of the show. Read more: http://www.bizmology.com/2009/08/18/gap-ditches-tv-for-facebook-in-advertising-new-jeans/

Reducing bounce rate.

17 Aug

Google views a bounce as a visitor who visited 1 page, and didn’t visit any other page on your website. So if your bounce rate is 65% for example, that means that 65% of the people who arrive at your website are leaving without making even one additional click. That ain’t good. You reduce the bounce rate by making your site more appealing and effective. Here are a few handy, dandy tips to help you do so.

1. Don’t sacrifice form for function. It’s OK to make your website look nice – just make sure it doesn’t get in the way of letting your visitors know what you do or what you sell as soon as they get there.
2. Stop the music. Seriously. If I get to a website that has bad 70’s porn flick music streaming out of my speakers I hit the back button. Immediately. I’m willing to bet most people do the same.
3. Improve page-load time. This is a huge pet peeve for people trying to shop during work hours. If your home page takes more than 9 seconds to download, expect your visitors to leave. Cut 3-5 seconds off your page-load time and watch the bounce rate drop.
4. Put important stuff on top. Always put your offers up high, front-and-center. Don’t rely on people to scroll to see em. When visitors comes to your website and find what they’re looking for right away, they ain’t gona bounce!
5. Ditch the popups. I can’t believe I even have to say this but if you have a popup or other similar annoyances on your home page, dump em! You’re losing a lot more than you’re gaining, plus you’re pissing me off.

Holy crap – this website sucks!

4 Aug

http://www.leoburnett.ca/FLASH/index.htm

BEWARE: if you get motion sickness, you’ll definitely have a problem here. This site is a hot mess. I’d hardly call it a vehicle for promoting services. To me, this site is a clear cut case of an ego-maniacal Creative Director (aka: Big Pencil) gone berzerk!

Look, I don’t appreciate my screen size being re-sized against my will. What the hell is with that navigation? What’s with those flying apples? Can I PLEASE have a ’skip intro’ or ‘ditch the pencil’ option? This site may be unique and cool, but it fails miserably the test of a person being able to figure out what it’s about in the first few seconds. And after the ‘cool’ wears off (which for me was in 12 seconds), I couldn’t wait to get the hell off the thing.

Geez Burnett – you’re supposed to be the cream of the crop. This site is the cream of the crap. And I bet it cost over $100k, too. This site gets two enthusiastic thumbs down. And a foot, too. Make that two feet. It deserves it.