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Theres A Fly In My Soup

  1. Banner advertising – Why do we ignore most of it? Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed November 17, 2009 3 comments

    Admit it: you’ve never really clicked on a banner ad unless it’s got a hot chick on it (if you’re a guy) or if there’s a diamond ring (if you’re a girl) involved. We all suffer from ‘banner blindness’, and the other dozen desperate ads that blink and flutter around the articles we read recede into the background.

    It makes our job very hard as digital marketers. As much as we shout about the ‘brand building’ properties of buying space online, nothing really beats a solid, honest-to-goodness click-through to a client’s website. This is the Holy Grail of online advertising, and it’s worthwhile to examine the top 3 reasons why internet users avoid banners at all costs. Read Further

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  2. 5 worst online mistakes of 2009 Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed October 27, 2009 2 comments

    It is hard to remember a time before the internet. It’s only a decade or so ago that the web went truly mainstream and billion dollar industries have sprung up in its wake. These are heady times for companies like ours, kinda like the Wild West gold prospectors 200 years ago – they’d hear the buzz, pack their bags and get in their wagons to follow the next big lead. The problem is that it’s risky business, and mistakes are being made on a daily business. When pitching to clients, it’s our job as marketers to try and mitigate that risk by learning from our predecessors’ mistakes. So, with that in mind, here is a quick snapshot of the top mistakes in our industry.

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  3. Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid in your Social Media Strategy Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed October 8, 2009 4 comments

    1. Generalisation
    Number one on the list, and possibly the most pervasive mistake of all. Too many companies out there have pointless blogs, boring Twitter streams or aimless Facebook pages. Try this rather: Have a point, and focus on one thing. For example, presentation and events gurus Missing Link, use their Twitter stream to educate followers on how to make better presentations.

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  4. Facebook And Twitter: Stop Comparing And Spot The Difference Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg August 18, 2009 3 comments

    Have you noticed how many posts have popped up comparing Facebook and Twitter?  One thing I agree with is that they are both social media platforms and that they are both tremendously successful – but that’s it. I find it odd that people would compare features, target audience and value. These aspects could be looked at but one thing that you need to take into consideration is that these two phenomena have different goals and that’s why I say they should not be compared.

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  5. Viral meme for KFC: featuring many, many bones… Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed July 22, 2009 2 comments

    This has gone viral in seconds.

    Not sure whether it’s intentional, but I’d love to know the official stance from KFC. These pics are being sent via email, with the subject ‘When you’re feeling bored at KFC’ to just about everybody today, and it’s going round the world at a brisk pace. Read Further

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  6. 5 Gold Lions in Cannes Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed July 20, 2009 No comments

    This viral video is a nice take on the marketing industry’s preoccupation with awards. Created by European Digital Agency Boondoggle, it’s doing the rounds with a simple, yet cutting concept. Nice work. Read Further

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  7. The Fabulous Great Amazing 2010 Soccer Hooligan Show Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed July 7, 2009 No comments

    …or something like that. I take licence with the name since these palookas have not come up with their own yet. Jason Bagley, founder of Bean Bag Media (and part consultant for World Wide Creative) and our very own MD Mike Perk, have collaborated for a weekly online soccer show. Read Further

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  8. Journalism Students Reluctant to Blog Posted in Recipes for Success, There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Yolandi Janse van Rensburg May 29, 2009 7 comments

    blogging

    As a blogger myself I know the importance of creating an online identity. I started snooping around to see what has been written on blogging and how much people really know about it. It is strange to me that people still define a blog as an online journal or diary, because this definition for me is a bit out dated. Read Further

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  9. Microsoft’s biggest fear: Cheap computing! Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed April 6, 2009 No comments

    Read these paragraphs from an article in Wired:

    —————–
    The great terror in the PC industry is that it’s created a $300 device so good, most people will simply no longer feel a need to shell out $1,000 for a portable computer. They pray that netbooks remain a “secondary buy” the little mobile thingy you get after you already own a normal-size laptop. But it’s also possible that the next time you’re replacing an aging laptop, you’ll walk into the store and wonder, “Why exactly am I paying so much for a machine that I use for nothing but email and the Web?” And Microsoft and Intel and Dell and HP and Lenovo will die a little bit inside that day. Read Further

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  10. Corporate Attempts At “Edgy” That Failed… (from Cracked Mag) Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed April 3, 2009 No comments

    pepsi

    This is great from Cracked Magazine: 9 Corporate Attempts At “Edgy” That Failed Hilariously – it’s a list of advertising campaigns that try to pull off the slightly ‘left of centre’ communication that has worked every now and then. With all the hype around viral marketing these days, it’s probably not a bad idea to keep this list at the back of your mind when pitching new concepts to your clients. Read Further

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  11. Floor Diving Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Mike Perk March 13, 2009 2 comments

    Here at World Wide Creative we encourage a healthy work-life balance. Being stuck in front of a computer screen all day can be very draining so it is vitally important to be active – even in the workplace. One of our favourite pastimes is Floor Diving Read Further

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  12. The World Wide Creative brand identity crisis Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed March 4, 2009 2 comments

    Yesterday was an all time high for our little digital marketing agency. We managed to reach the holy grail of naming errors: “What could be the worst mangled version of the company name possible?”

    Someone called us ‘World Wide Cremators’ yesterday Read Further

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  13. The 30 second advert is coming back (at a website near you) Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed March 2, 2009 No comments

    I read this today: “In your face disruptive ads could ease inventory, creative woes”

    A snippet:

    Web publishers have always treated their users as a sacred flock. But last week at the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., Payne, the CEO of ShortTail Media and former senior vp & general manager at CNN.com, issued a daring challenge for the industry: stop worshiping, and start interrupting the almighty user. Read Further

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  14. He wears your shirt (for a day) Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed January 28, 2009 No comments

    Could this be the next Million Dollar Homepage idea – you know, when after the idea hit mainstream, everyone was scratching their head going ‘I wish I’d thought of that!!’

    The idea is that Jason, some dude in the States, wears a different shirt each day of the year. He will then blog about, talk about it, link to your website and generally parade himself in the public eye in the name of your brand.

    The first day is charged at $1, the last day sold $365. Read Further

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  15. Heavy Chef’s Top 12 Digital Marketing Predictions for 2009 Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed January 19, 2009 4 comments

    This is the time of the year that we collate all the pearls collected during the various Heavy Chef Sessions we hosted in 2009 – as well as from our team that is working on various high-profile online projects in the United Kingdom and South Africa.  Looking back allows us to learn the lessons, apply the wisdom from conversations with some of the smartest people in the industry, and look forward with confidence.  Read Further

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  16. Facebook growth astounds shortsighted doomsayers (like me) Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed January 9, 2009 No comments

    Ok, so they say it takes a big man to say ‘I was wrong’. I’d also like to add: ‘good looking, charming, intelligent and modest’.

    So here goes: I was wrong.

    Last year I predicted the death of Facebook, and said it’s fall would be swift and inglorious. Well, take a gander at Facebook’s latest figures Read Further

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  17. Another reason to switch to Chrome Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed December 16, 2008 2 comments

    ie problems

    This just in:

    Serious security flaw found in IE:

    Internet Explorer is used by the vast majority of the world’s computer users

    Users of the world’s most common web browser have been advised to switch to a rival until a serious security flaw has been fixed.

    The flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer could allow criminals to take control of people’s computers and steal their passwords, internet experts say. Read Further

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  18. Is the internet too open? Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed November 21, 2008 No comments

    suicide

    I saw this: ‘19 yr old commits suicide on live TV‘, this morning, and thought ‘Aye Caramba, now it’s gone too far!!’

    I know this isn’t the first shocking thing we’ve seen on the net, but it still freaked me out. I don’t know, maybe I’m getting old, but I’m thinking that George Orwell got his date wrong by 2 decades.  Read Further

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  19. When wiki’s go wrong… Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed October 13, 2008 No comments

    2 years ago, we at the World Wide Creative studio tried to enter a word into Wikipedia. I think it was something like ‘omnetymolgy‘ or ‘the study of words that continuously change their meaning‘. We were then going to encourage a friend to go and change the definition at will and pass the baton to the next guy – sort of like a social media chain mail. I think the post lasted around 5 minutes before it was gazumped by some Wikipedia nerd, alerted to the non-suitable content on his beloved forum. Read Further

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  20. Yuppiechef.co.za team expose an e-commerce fraudster Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed September 16, 2008 1 comment

    If you haven’t read it yet, click here now.

    Andrew Smith and Shane ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ Dryden take on ‘Frank Snyman’, a would-be internet fraudster. You’ve got to love the video, especially when Frank starts getting hot under the collar and starts blurting incoherent nonsense at the end. Read Further

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  21. Clash of Generations Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Web Marketing Fare, Concocted by LouisJvR September 11, 2008 2 comments
    Twitter

    twittering

    Excellent work from the guys from Geek & Poke (Creative Commons Licence) Read Further

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  22. Beware Bozo – The Community Troublemaker Posted in Recipes for Success, There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by LouisJvR September 2, 2008 1 comment
    Beware Bozo

    bozo

    Yep, “Bozo” is the troublemaker in online communities. The guy (or girl) that stirs things up. Craves for attention. Has little to no social skills. In short, a community manager/webmasters worst nightmare.

    Online communities are essentially about social interaction. And, as in the offline-world, where there is social interaction unpredictability is a sure thing. Read Further

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  23. Flash Intro or no Flash Intro? That is the question. Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed September 1, 2008 3 comments

    flash intro

    [Cartoon via ReadWriteWeb]

    Flash Intro or no Flash Intro? That is the question.

    Actually, that’s not really the question we ask at World Wide Creative. The big question we ask (internally) is what strategy can we come up with to persuade the client not to use a Flash intro. Read Further

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  24. New.Facebook.com Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed July 23, 2008 1 comment

    facebook new

    Not sure about this. The changes to Facebook’s layout seem too small to drastically up my usability, and too big not to be annoying. Maybe it’s just me, but it’s taking some getting used to. Read Further

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  25. Advertising still works! Posted in There's a Fly in My Soup, Concocted by Fred Roed July 15, 2008 No comments

    marlboro

    Despite the growing gloom in the industry, advertising still works.

    I’ve heard in meetings recently that the time has come to start casting the net out wider and cutting advertising budgets. I think in some cases this is true (and plays nicely into our hands being a web marketing company) but to believe that the advertising industry is dead, as some pundits have called it, is foolish. Read Further

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