Archive March 2010
Trustmarks don’t increase confidence, but LV use a fake Verisign image
Recent conversations on the web have indicated that trustmarks don’t work (see eConsultancy reports on the subject here).
LV seem to have taken this one step further, though: in their Life Insurance quote journey, the (usually clickable) image to verify the presence of a Verisign seal has simply been embedded using normal HTML. If you click it, nothing happens…
Click to enlarge
See for yourself here: link
Shocking! 
Effective display advertising
Having been involved in a fair few consultations regarding online display creative, I thought I’d share a few nuggets with you.
People aren’t interested in a story
You need cut-through, so get to the point. No more than 5 frames of animation; less if you can manage it.
Show me the money(shot)
Your incentive should appear fairly soon in your animation frames in order to grab attention. Money off, vouchers, a specific offer – whatever it is, do it quickly.
Know your enemy: banner sizes
There are a set number of specific banner sizes that you can use to get your message across. Certain formats will allow you to do more: others will allow very little room for messaging.The IAB set out guidelines for ad unit sizes, as follows:
){kind=link}
Banners and Buttons
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
){kind=link}
Skyscrapers
| 160 x 600 IMU – (Wide Skyscraper) | 40k | :15 | |
| 120 x 600 IMU – (Skyscraper) | 40k | :15 | |
| 300 x 600 IMU – (Half Page Ad) | 40k | :15 |
The takehome? A teeny-tiny 88×31 space will NOT allow you to tell a lovely, 21st-century-BT-esque-family story. Choose your sizes/locations wisely, and apply the ‘Storyboard’, ‘Moneyshot’ and ‘In-situ’ rules appropriately.
Know your enemy #2: in-situ
You know when you look at banners on a designer’s screen, or printed out on lovely pristine white presentation boards? Yeah – that’s NOT how people will see your ads: they’ll be in amongst other content – stuff that they’re actually interested in reading. Your ad is, essentially, a distraction. Make it a good one.
Who are you?
Remember: people don’t know who you are. ALWAYS include your company logo, and if at all possible, a persistent URL. People may not click on your ad, but display can be used as a Brand Response mechanism as well as Direct Response. Therefore, including your logo and a URL can only help brand recall.
5Unsubscribing from internal emails
Bit of a rant coming up – but one with a point that, I hope, will stimulate some debate.
I recently received a stack of internal comms emails. Since Monday, I’ve received 6 messages on various topics that are completely irrelevant to me and only serve to clutter my already-over-its-size-limit inbox (as the mailbox administrator continually takes pleasure in telling me).
One could argue that, in the grand scheme of things, 6 emails is nothing to worry about – and indeed that’s true: the Delete button is a wonderful tool. But I feel there’s possibly a more important point to make here:
Should there be an unsubscribe button on internal communications emails?
UK email communications are subject to a 2002 EU directive on privacy and electronic communications:
- The directive was brought into force in the UK by the Privacy and Electronic Communications ( EC Directive) Regulations 2003
- The regulations apply to all organisations that send out marketing by telephone, fax, automated calling system, email, SMS , MMS or using any other form of electronic communication
- The regs make distinctions between personal (joebloggs@hotmail.com) and corporate/company (joebloggs@company-email.com) subscribers
- The regs state that an organisation can’t send unsolicited marketing communications by email to individual subscribers unless the recipient has given their prior consent
There’s a bit of a grey area here as to whether my email address is considered a company or individual one, but my question is: where did I ever give consent to be spammed by corporate comms?
Clearly the definition of spam is a vacuous one, but the principle remains that I haven’t opted-in (or indeed been given the option to opt-out) for any kind of messaging from a self-absorbed internal comms team.
I personally can safely say that each and every email I’ve ever received from a comms team has been deleted. At BEST they’re of zero interest. At WORST (which is 99% of the time) they just get in the way and are a distraction.
Have you ever received a really good internal comms message that’s inspired and motivated you? Does that message from the CEO really touch your emotional core and tug on your heartstrings? Or have all yours also been total balls?
All comments & opinions appreciated.
(thanks to Out-Law for the various email marketing law info!)
1New Firefox 3.6 themes: completely pointless?
I am a long-time user of Firefox, and generally think it to be a good browser. I’ve toyed with Google Chrome, but generally find myself coming back to Firefox.
As such, I recently updated my version of Firefox to 3.6. Having successfully upgraded, I am taken to this page:
Click to enlarge
(http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/3.6/whatsnew/)
How pretty! It proudly tells me:
Thanks for supporting Mozilla’s mission of encouraging openness, innovation and opportunity on the Web!
It’s here that I start to have issues (other than the ones you are abundantly aware of).
Issue 1:
How exactly have I “supported Mozilla’s mission of encouraging openness, innovation and opportunity on the Web!”? Because I’ve updated my browser? Feels like Mozilla are disappearing up their own sockets.
Issue 1a:
In addition to the above, if you click the link for ‘Mozilla’s mission’, you’re taken to a page that explains who they are and what they do. Point #2 on that page says:
We’re a public benefit organization
dedicated not to making money but to improving the way people everywhere experience the Internet.
Um: so what about all that kick-back revenue Mozilla get from Google by having them as the default search engine for Firefox? 
Issue 3:
From a web usability angle, this is the bigger one. On this ‘update’ page, the user is informed they can choose from over 35,000 themes for Firefox. At first, you think “That’s awesome!”
And then you mouseover some of these themes to try them out – only to realise that, for anyone other than a basic user with no bookmarks on their toolbar, or any toolbar extensions – the majority are unusable. Check out the screenshot below of how one of these themes looks on my version of Firefox with various extensions:
Click to enlarge
How is that any use to anyone?!
Rant over.
4Confusing card payment screens
This is a personal bugbear of mine: badly-designed payment screens. The payment stage is absolutely critical: if a site screws up here, a customer will quite often leave the journey if they:
- Get confused by what’s being asked of them
- The content of the site isn’t accurate/correct
- If the site doesn’t inspire confidence in the purchase process
With that in mind, DomainMonster should revise their card payment section:
It all starts off well: select the card type, and fill in the details…only it gets confusing because I’ve selected Visa Debit, yet each of the questions still have a * next to them, indicating they’re mandatory…except the ones with (Maestro only) are purporting to only need completing if the user has a Maestro card.
So which is it? Do I fill them in anyway? What if my card doens’t have those details on it? What if it does, but I’m being told I don’t need to complete the fields? What’ll happen if I don’t fill them in?
The problem is that these are such trivial issues, but often they’re enough to make users bail out of a journey.
The solution? Dynamically alter the question set depending on the type of card they choose from the drop-down. It’s not hard to do, and could drastically improve the usability of this section.
3Virgin Holidays: your homepage needs prioritising
Is it just me, or is this homepage a bit bonkers? I can just imagine what the eyetracking results from this would look like: a crazed bluebottle bouncing around a windowpane.
Click to enlarge
I feel another review coming on…watch this space.
0Apple headphones aren’t covered under warranty
I’ve used iPods in various incarnations since 2005 when I was bought one as a gift. I still have it – a 4th gen white ipod – in a box at home. It’s a bit battered and scratched, but fully-functional. I feel this is pretty good for hardware that’s usually expected to stop working after a couple of years.
On the other hand, I’ve got through about 8 pairs of the standard Apple headphones through the years: they just don’t last! And they’re not covered under warranty unless you buy the £25 Apple Care service when you buy a new iPod.
This is shit.
Rant over.
p.s: My ear-holes are a funny shape – therefore any comments along the lines of “Oh get some Sennheiser headphones, they’re amazing” will be rudely ignored. 
Route One review – redux
Back in 2008, I reviewed the Route One website (here). Aside from that being ages ago (time flies), I recently stumbled across the site again – they’ve undergone a redesign! That’s cause for a) celebration, and b) another review.
To recap, the main issues with the old site were:
- Crazy homepage with bonkers messages
- No hierarchy in terms of buttons, messages, actions or otherwise
- Badly-built (all in tables)
- Strange combination of design templates
So has the redesign gone well? Did they sort out those issues? Or have they become Route Bum? Read on and find out!
0Visa ‘Life Flows Better’ – with stolen sounds?
I was lying in bed recently, and caught the new VISA ‘Life Flows Better’ ad. It’s here for your viewing pleasure (YouTube embedded):
This is all well and good…but being a massive geek, I noticed something. Play the video above again, and listen to the noise the camel makes at 0:20. Hear that noise? That’s not a camel noise: oh no.
It’s a sound from a zombieman out of the DOOM video game.
Evidence? Why certainly:
- Download the sound clip (12.7kb WAV)
- Embedded sound clip (needs Quicktime): http://wadview.bigredtower.com/cwWADView.dll/Sounds/DSPODTH1?View&WAD=DOOM&Loop=false
- Doom Wiki with sound references: http://doom.wikia.com/wiki/Zombieman
Does anyone know who made the VISA ad? (EDIT: Apparently Saatchi & Saatchi made it). I’d be interested to know whether the sound was officially licensed from (presumably) id software who own the Doom franchises. Or perhaps it’s so old that it’s now available in the public domain? Anyone know?
And yes, I fully accept I’m a massive geek for recognising a half-second sound clip from a game that was released 17 years ago.
p.s: Big thanks to http://doom.wikia.com: loadsa Doom knowledge!
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