Showing posts with label Cool Dadz. Show all posts

Responsive Websites Aren’t Exactly New, so Why the Face? (Part 1 of 2)

Saturday, 9 November 2013 § 0

Before responsive web design (RWD) became a new best practice, there were two basic types of website designs:

  • Static design gives components of your website fixed dimensions.
  • Fluid design gives components of your website percentage dimensions. This means that your browser adjusts to changes in your window size.
Responsive designs are similar to fluid in that they are adaptive to screen size, but are even more adaptive. The code involves CSS media queries, which basically say “if the screen size is less than this, then set the dimensions to this.”

Source: Web Designer Wall
There has been a lot of buzz about responsive design as of late, and the reason it’s been brought to the forefront is because of the increasing multi-device habits of consumers. Advertisers and content publishers alike have been playing a game of catch me if you can with their audience across their smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, and desktop computers.

One challenge that many content publishers faced was the incompatability issues of their desktop website on mobile devices. The response to that was to create mobile websites (eg. m.bbcworldnews.com). There were many problems with this, however:

  • Double the Work: m-dot websites mean you have to maintain two separate sites. Every page on your website has to have an equivalent on the m-dot site.
  • SEO Disruption: m-dot websites spread out your SEO efforts. In order to rank your site, Google crawls the web to look for inbound links and relevant content to give you a quality score. If you’re on two separate sites, these two sites are competing against each other for your ranking.
  • Sharing is Hard: when m-dot sites are shared and opened on a desktop browser, the content is shrunken down since the site has been designed for a 4.7-inch screen.
  • Screen Sizes Differ: Not every mobile device screen is the same size. Screen sizes differ within mobile devices (eg. iPhone vs. Samsung Galaxy) and between them (eg. iPhone vs. iPad)
M-Dot site on a desktop browser
The solution to the m-dot problem is responsive web design (RWD). RWD means you have one website that users can access from any device. As Ethan Marcotte, the web designer credited for paving the RWD road, put it: 
“Rather than tailoring disconnected designs to each of an ever-increasing number of web devices, we can treat [the devices] as facets of the same experience.”  
Source: Web Designer Wall

Stay tuned for Part 2, where I discuss the pros and cons of RWD and what it means for marketers and content creators.
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Honda Starts Twitter War with Snack Brands

Tuesday, 8 October 2013 § 0

A good chunk of the people I follow on twitter are comedians. More often than not, especially sarcastic tweets are faced with backlash, but if you’re a celebrity or prominent twitter figure (or brand!), your public feuds can get blown out of proportion and entirely public to anyone with a wifi connection.

 Last week, Honda started series of “fun” twitter feuds with prominent snack brands, many of which responded with snarky replies.





The feuds were started to promote the new in-car vacuum for the Honda Odyssey, and accompanied a series of TV spots, which featured actors Rainn Wilson and Neil Patrick Harris voicing snacks and other small forgottens on the floor of a Honda about to be vacuumed. Despite being “the first of its kind,” you have to admit that a mini-van with an in-car vacuum is nothing worth jump up and down about.

But here’s why I think Honda’s marketing efforts are so exceptionally smart: The parents of today are pretty hip, but they’re not as interested in cars as their parents used to be, let alone mini-vans. Millenial parents don’t have the same financial security as their parents did, are more open about alternative transportation, and are simply less excited about owning a car. 
 

Honda understands this and have used creative mediums to reach Millenial parents:
  •  The recognizable voices of Rainn Wilson and NPH are worth paying attention to. Just as when The Office’s John Krasinski narrated esurance’s ad which took a jab at Geiko customers for “trusting animal characters,” these hilarious men of primetime are young parents themselves (both IRL and on TV) and are recognized as trustworthy poster dads for the parents of today. 
  • Twitter feuds are something you jump at. Whether it’s your “No spoilers!” friend who thinks the entirety of the Internet is under his authority, or some celebrity getting mad at another celebrity, you can’t help but follow the conversation. Yes, the Honda vs. Snacks “feuds” aren’t real, but a corporate twitter account with an inkling of a personality is refreshing isn't it? 

By leveraging the power of all these big food and snack brands, Honda created an interactive and social ecosystem around a product you wouldn't expect to be talking about. What are your thoughts? 
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