tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40248262386904546242009-07-06T18:22:25.627-04:00The Brainstorm Blog covers all topics related to marketing communications - from traditional to web 2.0 - with contributions made by technology, marketing, and creative professionals from an Ottawa agency. These bloggers write with passion and enthusiasm, providing readers with useful insight, further reading, and links to additional content.Adam Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717381655176922433noreply@blogger.comBlogger86125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-49791791571340407002009-07-06T13:22:00.001-04:002009-07-06T13:24:14.264-04:002009-07-06T13:24:14.264-04:00

Since 2007, QR Codes have been a mainstay on billboards and print advertisements in Japan. Here in North America, it appears that only highly tech-savvy people have shown interest in this potentially groundbreaking marketing tool.QR or Quick Response Codes look like this:Application developers have created mobile phone apps such as BeeTagg, that allow you to snap a picture of a QR Code that in

WES DEAN, Account Coordinator & Strategic Support at Banfield Seguin Ltdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06904138847006621142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-87166800497125334192009-06-25T10:04:00.007-04:002009-06-25T12:18:05.812-04:002009-06-25T12:18:05.812-04:00

Microsoft has upset a certain group of people, and this time it's not Mac fanboys. The Email Standards Project has integrated Twitter into a campaign, to let the software giant know just how unhappy they are. Their problem is that the Word rendering engine will be used to display HTML emails in Outlook 2010."This means for the next 5 years your email designs will need tables for layout, have no

Adam Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717381655176922433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-8069401470804313792009-06-23T10:00:00.008-04:002009-06-23T13:31:47.680-04:002009-06-23T13:31:47.680-04:00

The very touchy subject that is the latest Iran election and the subsequent protests has become an eye-opener to many about the speed of obtaining news through Social Media.From the beginning of the election, results were being tracked through Social Media. The controversial Iranian Presidential results spread like wildfire through numerous websites, including Twitter. Where things got

WES DEAN, Account Coordinator & Strategic Support at Banfield Seguin Ltdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06904138847006621142noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-17325658739659201892009-06-18T10:35:00.006-04:002009-06-18T11:06:33.479-04:002009-06-18T11:06:33.479-04:00

Early next year, The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) who govern over domain names, will begin taking applications for top-level domain names.For example, if you have '.bsl' for example, you can create websites like 'blog.bsl' , 'casestudies.bsl' or 'portfolio.bsl'.A personalized domain extension could enhance your location in search engine results, open up branding

Jimmy Jheeta, Web Producerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112917020558937784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-20561097306645670572009-06-15T11:21:00.007-04:002009-06-15T17:32:42.846-04:002009-06-15T17:32:42.846-04:00

Often there is reticence to engaging in social media at an organizational level, out of concern for controversy, or losing control of "the message". I came across this site which engages a very controversial topic - the tar sands - using open (but moderated) discussion forums. I got to thinking: if they have found a way to make social media work for them, couldn't almost any organization? The tar

Scott Duncan, Senior Strategisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08546130936695419794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-85883726706301702102009-06-10T09:31:00.006-04:002009-06-10T09:40:50.454-04:002009-06-10T09:40:50.454-04:00

Here is a great resource for understanding web design terminology:There are specialized terms referring to all sorts of aspects of web design. For someone just getting started in web design, or someone looking to have a site designed, all the technical jargon can be overwhelming. Especially the acronyms.Below is a guide to industry terms that should get you well on your way to understanding what

Jimmy Jheeta, Web Producerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112917020558937784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-43758382433627039872009-06-09T14:01:00.003-04:002009-06-09T14:06:50.731-04:002009-06-09T14:06:50.731-04:00

Technological advancements in Wiki software are broadening the range of businesses that could benefit from using a Wiki.I used to think Wikis were only clearly effective if used by large companies or a consortium of businesses that needed a collaborative area to upload, read, and edit documents. After doing a bit more research, it has become obvious to me that almost any business of any size can

WES DEAN, Account Coordinator & Strategic Support at Banfield Seguin Ltdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06904138847006621142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-83040823000617517762009-06-01T13:14:00.001-04:002009-06-01T13:16:06.199-04:002009-06-01T13:16:06.199-04:00

While the vast majority of my peers have embraced social networking sites as a way to connect, keep in touch, and communicate with others, there are still a few who argue these online conversations take the human one-on-one aspect out of the picture. I would have a hard time arguing that communicating in an online world has the intimacy of an in-person chat, and that's why meetup.com has put the

WES DEAN, Account Coordinator & Strategic Support at Banfield Seguin Ltdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06904138847006621142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-37566506559057176552009-05-19T15:14:00.000-04:002009-05-19T15:16:02.292-04:002009-05-19T15:16:02.292-04:00

It is almost always the simplest of ideas that are the greatest. This morning when I was engaging in my ritualistic search for creativity, I stumbled upon yet another great idea that is almost painfully simple.Andrea Romani is an environmental consultant who had to find a way to produce her business cards in the most eco-friendly manner possible. Most businesses are requesting cards that are made

WES DEAN, Account Coordinator & Strategic Support at Banfield Seguin Ltdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06904138847006621142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-10901766929998773052009-04-28T14:42:00.008-04:002009-04-29T09:40:16.283-04:002009-04-29T09:40:16.283-04:00

More now than ever, we are all trying to improve our online brand presence. There are numerous Social Networking tools that are being used effectively to do this. But before going overboard and trying to leverage each and every one of them, you have to think about the right mix and integration for your business.Jumping into social networking headfirst and simply signing up for everything is like

WES DEAN, Account Coordinator & Strategic Support at Banfield Seguin Ltdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06904138847006621142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-65295540545537561582009-03-27T11:27:00.003-04:002009-03-27T11:47:32.175-04:002009-03-27T11:47:32.175-04:00

Microblogging is the official term used to describe the massive trend erupting in the form of Twitter, Plurk, Jaiku, and the recently redesigned Facebook. If you haven't heard this term yet, get ready, because it's going to be coming at you from all angles very shortly.What is Microblogging? Well, if you're reading this then you're probably aware of what a blog is. A 'micro' blog allows a user to

WES DEAN, Account Coordinator & Strategic Support at Banfield Seguin Ltdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06904138847006621142noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-57073178207214094112009-02-09T14:53:00.005-05:002009-02-11T10:09:44.740-05:002009-02-11T10:09:44.740-05:00

"You can't build a reputation on what you're going to do." - Henry FordI love this quote. It can be unpacked so many different ways. Your reputation is based on what you've done. You harm your reputation by talking big and not acting. And if we turn the quote around - you can build your reputation on what you've done - that you have control over your reputation.I'm not sure the last statement has

Scott Duncan, Senior Strategisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08546130936695419794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-41417029985097080452009-01-14T15:04:00.009-05:002009-01-19T10:44:45.376-05:002009-01-19T10:44:45.376-05:00

Our clients are asking more from social media than ever before. No longer is it enough to place a link to Facebook on your site, or to provide an RSS feed. The challenge, particularly for those clients who need to connect with their users in the real world (and which clients don't?) is: how do we use our online social networks in the offline world?It's a really important question. One of our

Scott Duncan, Senior Strategisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08546130936695419794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-74266963434989029462009-01-14T10:16:00.005-05:002009-01-14T10:41:59.736-05:002009-01-14T10:41:59.736-05:00

Seeing as how I spend a solid 60-75% of my life in Photoshop, I loved seeing these images. Some deviant graphic designers in Berlin decided to overlay giant stickers of Photoshop panels onto Britney Spears, Leona Lewis and Christina Aguilera posters in the subway.Full article at Brand Infection.

Adam Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717381655176922433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-25068824822224820652009-01-06T11:07:00.009-05:002009-01-07T14:50:42.076-05:002009-01-07T14:50:42.076-05:00

Or, free advice for Ford Motor CompanyI am quite fond of my Ford Focus station wagon. It's (relatively) fuel efficient, big enough to put the snowboards and/or the dog in the back, and isn't bad looking. But it's a 2000 model year with pretty high mileage, and there is a problem with the fuel pump that makes the engine shudder around 2000 rpm. Ford could address this problem with an intelligent

Scott Duncan, Senior Strategisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08546130936695419794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-12135341017526186032008-11-27T14:13:00.019-05:002008-11-28T11:13:10.241-05:002008-11-28T11:13:10.241-05:00

If you’ve got a PC and a pulse, chances are pretty good that you’ve also befriended Facebook or MySpace, been Linked In, or been known to Flickr, perhaps even Twitter, from time to time.Social networking may seem ubiquitous these days, but it hasn’t truly been everywhere. There’s always been a physical distance between you and your social networks. Until now.Imagine if you took them wherever you

Derrick Outramhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04779471536270613615noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-8002524429243027332008-11-15T15:28:00.001-05:002008-11-21T09:05:09.154-05:002008-11-21T09:05:09.154-05:00

In the early days of the Web, words like 'click here' were used as cues to direct people within a web site. The defence was that users had never seen a link before, and thus didn't really know what to do with them. Thus, the 'click here' was born.However times have changed now, where the web is (almost, if not already) an everyday tool, and the 'click here' is now implicit. Instead of 'click here

Jimmy Jheeta, Web Producerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16112917020558937784noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-35640252508298148592008-11-14T18:55:00.012-05:002008-12-02T12:25:39.917-05:002008-12-02T12:25:39.917-05:00

From the caretaker to the CEO, every employee has a responsibility to work towards greener pastures. And there’s good news! Retrofitting your office helps more than just the environment. It can increase your bottom line and contribute to a healthy, low-impact workspace.Here are a few tips for 'greening-up' the office:1) Delete unnecessary text from emails before printing. A long email exchange

Julie Buddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14163301960633527718noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-43802298046034283022008-11-07T10:51:00.003-05:002008-11-07T11:15:26.599-05:002008-11-07T11:15:26.599-05:00

From a brand perspective, Iridium is very well known all around the world, for two reasons. The first reason is a good one. They are the maker of superior satellite phones – ones featured in movies like James Bond, where our hero is magically connected from the middle of nowhere. The second reason is less complimentary. They have been previously recognized for their audacious vision of global

Adam Hugheshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01717381655176922433noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-52300225938402532962008-10-20T16:13:00.003-04:002008-10-20T16:18:12.969-04:002008-10-20T16:18:12.969-04:00

An interesting story in the New York Times today about the 98th annual meeting of the Association of National Advertisers. Some marketers - actually the biggest names in the business - feel a responsibility to help get us through this financial mess. “The consumer is sitting at the bottom of a bunker with his head in his hands, wondering if it’s safe to come out,” Jez Frampton, global chief

Scott Duncan, Senior Strategisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08546130936695419794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-91871893271346772602008-10-16T15:13:00.006-04:002008-10-16T15:27:58.520-04:002008-10-16T15:27:58.520-04:00

“I have invited Ferran Adrià because he has managed to create his own language, something that has turned into a very influential issue on the international scene. This is what I am interested in, I don’t care if people consider it as an art or not. It is very important to mention that the artistic intelligence does not depend on the format; we should not relate art only with photography,

Scott Duncan, Senior Strategisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08546130936695419794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-55516279428079632812008-10-09T13:11:00.026-04:002008-10-09T14:31:49.217-04:002008-10-09T14:31:49.217-04:00

The Big Wild - an initiative founded by the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) and Mountain Equipment Co-op - has been leveraging the viral benefits of online social media in the hopes of growing support for its cause.The Big Wild refers to the part of Canada that is still in its natural state. And the vision is to keep at least half of Canada's public land and water wild forever. The

Julie Buddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14163301960633527718noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-14270771911747175492008-09-08T18:52:00.018-04:002008-10-09T14:18:24.656-04:002008-10-09T14:18:24.656-04:00

Adam Hughes - Banfield-Seguin Flash specialist, Artist, and Blogger - recently designed desktop wallpaper that was published on The FWA on Sept 4. For those of you who may not know, The FWA (favorite website awards) is probably the most prestigious award site for flash/graphic design and Flash developers will tell you that it’s definitely worth a daily dose.Here is the design Adam won for, and

Julie Buddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14163301960633527718noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-76116211024426964772008-07-28T15:04:00.006-04:002008-07-28T15:22:07.969-04:002008-07-28T15:22:07.969-04:00

This is, according to top PR agent Mark Borkowski, the formula to determine the decline in fame from its peak.The formula applies to stars-as-brand. This conception has been impressed upon a generation of publicists by the American corporate PR firm, Rogers & Cowan. Mark Borkowski's came up with his formula (which you can see a fuller explanation of here) by studying famous people, somewhat

Scott Duncan, Senior Strategisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08546130936695419794noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4024826238690454624.post-44051851496567586412008-07-16T10:06:00.013-04:002008-07-16T13:38:49.402-04:002008-07-16T13:38:49.402-04:00

Someone with even a limited knowledge of human social behaviour, could postulate that approximately 15 minutes after the term "Web 2.0" was coined, someone attempted to introduce "Web 3.0" into the common lexicon. Given that anticipation seems to be a central notion of Web 3.0, that person would have been right to do so.Eric Schmidt of Google has claimed that Web 2.0 is a marketing term. Many

Scott Duncan, Senior Strategisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08546130936695419794noreply@blogger.com0