The Heavy Chef Project

I’m going on holiday. OK, it’s a short one but it’ll be well worth it, after bouts of weird sicknesses and insane work schedules over the past two months. On Thursday, I’m taking the family for a week-long sojourn to Macgregor, a small out-the-way country town somewhere in South Africa (I’ve yet had time to consult a map). If you’re a client, don’t even THINK about contacting me. I may not know where you live, but I know where you work, remember?

In the meantime, our small agency is in the capable hands of the studio head-honcho and all-round Web Marketing extraordinaire Mr Mike Perk. This week is an exciting one, as we’re closing off a couple of projects, and we’re getting cracking with some brand new ones.

• We’ve just signed the account for an international wellness products company (nameless until we’ve signed NDA’s and all that) based in Australia and SA.
• We’re starting on a new golf estate website.
• World Wide Creative launched a press office on Biz-Community.

And, did I mention that I’m going on holiday?

- Fred

Which country has the highest ratio of internet users? Sweden, apparently, at a 75.6% of their population browsing away happily. According to this map the top countries are Sweden, Holland, Portugal and New Zealand in terms of per capita ratio population surfing the net. Interestingly enough, the big developing nations, India and China are sitting at a lowly 3.7% and 10.9% respectively. South Africa and the UK, by the way, are at 10.3% and 62.3% at time of press. [Click on the map to view.]

Ayyye caramba, not a lot other than hard slog really. We got loads on, new projects starting, new prospects to work on. On Friday, however, we’re excited to get started on a new accelerator project. I will be quiet on the topic, as we’re still in the ’sharpening the axe’ phase, but watch this space for a kick-ass new World Wide Creative branded projects coming soon.

Other than that:

• Congrats to Shaun for completing his first week unscathed by the madness that is the WWC studio.
• We’re still looking for our award-winning designer. If you know of anyone, send them our way!

Until next week!
- Fred

This is a common question raised by most and is answered briefly but nicely below by Google at http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2007/08/server-location-cross-linking-and-web.html:

Does location of server matter? I use a .com domain but my content is for customers in the UK.

In our understanding of web content, Google considers both the IP address and the top-level domain (e.g. .com, .co.uk). Because we attempt to serve geographically relevant content, we factor domains that have a regional significance. For example, ".co.uk " domains are likely very relevant for user queries originating from the UK. In the absence of a significant top-level domain, we often use the web server’s IP address as an added hint in our understanding of content.

Therefore if your target market is South Africa you are better having a co.za domain.

- Nicola

This week sees Sean, World Wide Creative’s newest member, join the WWC programming team. Welcome Sean! We’re looking forward to your skills complementing an ever-strengthening group of dynamos.

We’re excited over a couple of projects:

• Creme & Cacao is a new company in South Africa. Led by Frank Meijer, a Master Chef from Holland, the company has big plans for the South African catering industry. In the same way that things changed when Vida e Caffe aised the bar with coffee, no one is going to accept a second-rate cake after tasting one of Frank’s masterpieces!
• We also start designing a website for a brand new hotel group that’s launching across Southern Africa. This company, led by a longstanding veteran of the international leisure industry, will introduce a new level of service and luxury across a handful of highly unique destinations across South Africa and its neighbours. Watch this space for updates.
• In House Fashion, perveyor of 2 of Young Designer Emporium’s top brands, launches its new website on the 1st August - courtesy of WWC. Our team collaborated to create a innovative new strategy, including website, web gallery and social media platform. More news next week.

That’s it for now. Look out for the impending new and improved look ‘n feel over the next few weeks on the Heavy Chef blog.

- Fred

Quick apologies for not being able to make the Nomadic Marketing Dinner this evening. Thought I would share with you some of the experience of where I went instead (Africa XI vs. Rest of the World XI). Couldn’t miss the opportunity to see Pele:-)

Fred and I have been talking a lot about our marketing strategy for World Wide Creative lately and as such have been planning changes to our Website, The Heavy Chef Project, Advertising and the usual marketing mix. The problem I sometimes have with marketing is the focus it places on selling rather than the buying process. Or should I rather say; the problem I have when I do marketing.



The web has changed dramatically over the last couple of years and the idea of “if they see me they will buy” just doesn’t ring true. The consumer no longer responds to the TV ad by rushing out and purchasing the latest product - in fact they haven’t done that for quite a while now. They are information gatherers, a tribe that absorbs thousands of messages a day, sifts through them sub-consiously and retains what is applicable to them. Each one is an individual, each one choosing to retain that message for a different reason to the next. How then is it possible to put up a sign with a picture of your product and a snappy line that say “we make your dreams come true” going to work?



We have to understand each and every one of our potential buyers and more importantly the process they take to buy our product or service. We need to ensure we are part of that information gathering process so that when they are at the point of saying: “Yep I’m ready to buy now” our product/service is in front of them. To do this we need to intricately understand the route they take, the alley ways and paths they go down, whilst subtly persuading them along the way.



This is much easier said than done as it requires an extreme amount of planning. If we are designing and implementing a web strategy for a client, it is almost impossible to persuade them that 2/3 months worth of analysis, research, brain storming and getting into the minds of their users is required before we can even tell them how there website/blog/web marketing is going to work. The reason being is one still views the web from an “old” marketing perspective: If I place an ad in a paper people will buy my product - if I put up a website people buy my stuff.

I am really looking forward to the next couple of years and seeing how the growth of Web 2.0 changes the way businesses not only think about the web but marketing as a whole.

- Perky