No other service industry works this way...

...unless it has designers.

Been "cooperating" on a project with an agency. I've worked in an agency before, but I'm still always shocked at the arrogance of the designers.

You never walk into McDonalds and order a Big Mac only to hear the guy behind the counter said "Absolutely not! You want a McFlurry with cheese".

You: "Uh, isn't that kind of a gross combo?"

Oddly aggressive behind-the-counter-guy: "Not at all. It's FRESH & MODERN."

You: "No thanks. I want a Big Mac."

Oddly aggressive behind-the-counter-guy: "Well too bad. I'm not going to give you a big mac you cretin. As a punishment, I am splattering your McFlurry with cheese with ketchup and the stuff we wipe off the floor"

So here's my tip to all designers: the clients are the one who pay your overinflated salary. Listen to them, especially the ones who have worked in an agency before. Believe it or not, these people actually know what they are doing.

Yes, it's the duty of all designers to suggest a better alternative to a client when something incredibly detrimental is going to happen from a usability/aesthetic perspective.

But that's it.

Did Microsoft just beat Apple to something cool?

Windows 8 claims to unify touch and mouse interface, and completely revamps how Windows appears on the surface (it's the same old mess behind the scenes) but who cares? This looks pretty awesome.

The sad fate of a video game legend

Companies love to use celebrities to endorse their products. Which is funny, as this leaves your brand mercy to the bad behavior that celebrities engage in (I'm thinking Accenture and Tiger Woods here, but there are plenty of other examples).

Still, the allure of stardust keeps companies coming back. In fact, the trend for celebrity endorsements has even hit the small town I live in, and revealed the sad fate of a video gaming legend:

Yep, it seems that Link, of Legend of Zelda fame, is endorsing Nicorette gum at the local pharmacy. And man, looking at Link in his prime, he really has let himself go...

You probably don't need an SEO professional...

...but you DO need another pair of eyes to do a copy check.

Well, for fun I decided to see if I could get my site ahead of self proclaimed SEO professional Travis Larson Florida. And lo and behold, using SEO principles that you can find anywhere on the Web, my site is now number 3 on Google (with customizations turned off, so this is not just a result based on my browsing history preferences), just behind Travis Larson Band who have the 1 & 2 spot and ahead of TLF, who seems to like using unnecessary CAPS.

Awesome. 

The secret? Pick your keywords well (in my case, it was easy: my name). Use them naturally on your site. Make sure your site has useful content. Don't use automatic backlink generators. Write a useful meta description (this doesn't improve your SEO, but it helps people figure out if they should click your site). Only link relevant content. 

That said, I should have double checked my meta description, since it has a typo. I immediately corrected it, but it take a while for the Google crawler to find my site. 

Lesson learned

Do fonts matter?

A bit late spotting this one, but it was too good to pass up just because it's 3 weeks old.

Nokia decided to ditch Nokia Sans for a new font: Nokia Pure.

They also have a long post justifying why this matters.

Your digital brand

So, what's in a name?

When I google "Travis Larson" the results are pretty interesting (like most people, I will only look at the first page)

First of all, the Travis Larson band comes first and second on the results. That is awesome. Maybe it is a bit egoistic to follow a band just because it shares my name, but who cares? The Travis Larson band is awesome!

Next on the list is some Travis Larson from Florida who promotes himself as an SEO professional. My hope for Florida Travis Larson is that he isn't using automatic backlink creators (even though he promotes them) to push up results, because that is the height of douchebaggery. It's crap like that that made me abandon Google for Blekko when I need a quality search result.

Next comes linked in profiles - cool. I'm on linked in. Not bad that I (a non- Travis Larson SEO professional) still end up on the first page of results.

Then it's the same Florida Travis Larson's twitter. Kudos for him for getting 2400 followers. I suppose it's because he follows 2000 people himself.

Then it's my blog! Finland Travis Larson rules without quite understanding why (I am a web designer with background in search engine marketing and direct marketing).

And then the final 2 results are Travis Larson band again.

So my call is for everyone to link to the Travis Larson band page: let's keep the awesomest Travis Larson site top of the list.

And on a side note, when you want to see where you really rank on google, make sure you scroll to the bottom of the search results page, click "view customizations" and view the results without google's improvements (google moves items up on the results based on your search history, so the results are biased if you don't do this).

An attempt at rebranding (that must be crushed!)

As the 150th anniversary of the Civil War approaches (commonly taken to mean when the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter on April 12th), the Southern States are still sticking to the same fiction they have been spouting since reconstruction: the war was about states' rights.

It makes sense to try and rebrand history this way. After all, they were mainly fighting to preserve slavery. That's not something to be proud of.

It's our duty to not fall for Southern revisionist clever marketing. Slavery was a central theme to the war - just read the documents of secession to see how central slavery was.

True, the North did not enter the war to end slavery - they entered the war to preserve the Union. But as the war progressed, freeing the slaves became central.

Hell, even Haley Barbour admits that the war was about slavery. To pretend anything otherwise is to fall victim to the nefarious side of marketing...

The most sensible use of social media for businesses

Frosmo has the best use of social media for businesses I have seen to date - use Facebook connect to get people to log in to your site for A) a contest or B) some other benefit.

It's a natural way to leverage social media and try and get some visibility to your business in a way that seems natural and useful for the people involved. After all, who wants to have ANOTHER user name and password just to enter some contest or get customized info...

The great Friday round up (on a Monday)

Well, after a serious case of the bubons the copydude is back in business and I wanted to round up my favorite Friday memes.

-Best rant: Off the pill
Thoughtful, honest and hilarious.

-Best acoustic: Kalie Shorr
Makes the song listenable.

-Best remix: Friday - slowed 5x
Eat your heart out Sigur Ros

-Best of the best: Stephen Colbert sings Friday on Jimmy Fallon
Well, it's been pulled for copyright violation, so no links. But it was epic...

And finally, best of the worst, it's the Chipmunks version...

The collective insanity of the internet

In case you've missed it, the internet is currently going nuts about Rebecca Black's DIY pop single "Friday" which has over 45 MILLION views.

And by nuts, I mean nuts. The rabid frothing vitriol unleashed on this poor girl is proof that just because something can go viral doesn't mean you want it to.

It's just a kind of crappy pop song (I suppose using "crappy" and "pop" in the same sentence are redundant) recorded at a vanity studio by a 13 year old. Yet the response has all the reasoned intelligence of a digital lynch mob.

There is a lesson here for companies that want to harness the power of social media.

First of all, don't allow comments. If you really want to allow comments, moderate them ALL first. And if you don't want to moderate, than use Facebook connect to force all commenters to reveal their identity, which should keep all but the worst trolls in check. NEVER just allow comments. The people on the internet don't deserve that right any more.

That play on words slogan may not be so great after all

Just saw an ad for Maggi (a bullion cube producer) all about mom cooking great food and families. Their slogan is "It's hugging good"

I don't know about you, but the only thing that brings to mind is the rather less family friendly "it's f*cking good".

If that really was the intention, I have one word for the marketing genius behind that one.

FAIL

#Winning

The agency I work with (Command Associates) has won a Grand One for best B2B site. Big congrats to our brilliant art director for creating the site look and feel. Small congrats to me for being the one who worked with him on this!

See Grand One's list of winners

The exception that proves the rule

In case you haven't seen it, someone has actually pulled off a viral video. This was probably the best way to make it happen: choose a glamorous but funny spokesperson, and parody other popular viral videos. Who knows if it will help sell more Smartwater, but at least it's up to 6 million views on YouTube.

Watch the Jennifer Aniston "sex tape"

P.S. Good name for a video too