Saturday, March 29, 2008

Should We Switch to Online Ad Agency?

With the advent of online advertising and promotions via the internet, the world of advertising has undergone yet another revolution - this time it was different. While development and growth is definitely one of the key aspects of this revolution, but this time, we see a paradigm shift in the medium that is being used.

From various offline media, now we have moved on to online media or more commonly called - the Internet. And with advertising through online media taking birth, we see the mushrooming of different online ad agency and ad networks. An online advertisement agency is more like any other traditional ad agency; however they devise their strategy around a more powerful media.

What are offline ad agencies? Offline ad agencies are nothing but the traditional ad agencies that strategize and develop promotional measures around the offline media like television, radio, print media and OOH promotions. On the other hand, online ad agency is an agency that does the same thing but around a different media called internet.

When there is such a big shift in media, obviously the media plan does not remain the same. The main differences - payment model, the reach and penetration and the target audience. Is online advertisement more beneficial? Should we now switch over from our traditional agencies to online advertisement agencies? Well, the answer to this depends much on the message that you want to communicate, the product or service or the concept that you want to sell and also the kind of target audience that is your potential or existing customers.

Is there some sort of a competition between online ad agency and traditional ones? To some extent yes - as increasing part of the population prefers internet over the TV or radio (especially the working population, students and the young generations), offline media is slowly loosing the grip that they enjoyed till some time ago. But, there have been certain cases and projects, which displayed the right kind of media mix where all the media (offline and online) have been used in a way that not only has helped spread awareness of the product, but also brought the product to the target audience.

Meenakshi Wali is the co founder of Rupiz Media Ad Network, a leading online media buying agency. She is heading a team of experts, which is into online ad agency, internet banner advertising, online web site advertising, web banners.

Friday, March 21, 2008

Build Awareness of Your Company Logo Design and Be An Eco-Friendly Business

Whether your logo consists of words, pictures or both, it is an instantly recognisable part of your business. It has the power to evoke positive feelings in previous clients, and perhaps even curiosity in people who could use your services in the future.

So just imagine being able to put your business logo in front of your clients on a daily basis. What's more, this form of advertising has the potential to last an extremely long time, promoting your business for years to come for one initial price.

If that wasn't enough, you can also promote your business as an eco-friendly company that puts the environment's needs first, and makes a conscious effort not to add to the already overworked landfills.

You can use your company logo in plenty of creative ways, but for a long lasting promotion that has real value you should put your logo on items which tend to be kept and used again and again - such as tote bags, for example.

A tote bag is indispensable for many people, and has a variety of uses - from taking it to the beach on holiday, to carrying the shopping home. It's a fantastic item to have handy as it folds up conveniently and tucks away when not in use.

All in all it's a great item to have your logo and business name on. Every time the bag comes out to be used, there is your logo - ready to promote your business in a positive and dynamic way.

All of which means your logo will be constantly seen - putting your business in the minds of your customers over and over again. Even though reusable bags will cost more initially, the message they send to your customers is a powerful one.

Not only is your business portrayed as a caring one, it also places a high value on its customers needs by providing them with a useful reusable bag that will prevent plastic ones being used once and then thrown away. Now that is a powerful image to send out to your clients.

Don't forget, your logo represents your business, and if you are using it to build awareness in this positive and dynamic manner, it's important to make sure your logo catches the eye. It might be worth getting a professional design company to revamp your current logo for you, in order to convey a more dynamic image.

Logos are meant to be seen. They form a vital part of the whole marketing and branding area of your business. Buying reusable tote bags that bear your logo will ensure you make a good impression, both now and long into the future.

What other item promotes your business as eco-friendly and customer friendly at the same time? You'll more than recoup the initial cost and the end product is also recyclable when it finally does wear out.

All in all, it's the perfect message to give to your customers.

Environmentally friendly bags are a fantastic way to promote your business and build your brand... and with Smartbag, designing a promotional bag for your business couldn't be easier! For a quote or to make an order visit Promotional Bags.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Simple Logo Gets Success

Creating a graphic logo design is an important task and should be considered as important as any other aspect of business. The logo can be a character, shape, tool of the business, or just some text. Your graphic logo design is the first indication to customers of the quality and status of your business. The logo should have style and be designed to reflect the company. A great logo would have both excellent concept and execution. The style of the graphic logo design should reflect the business' purpose. Most important thing in designing a logo is that the design should be Unique and simple. Both the things Uniqueness and Simplicity is equally important. A simple but repeated design will get fail and the chances of getting success of a unique but a complicated design is also very low. So keep in mind that a logo should be unique and simple.

Simplicity is the Key

One should repeat the word "simplicity" while designing a logo all the time. The image of the logo need not be confusing and complicated. Logo design should include as few elements as possible or needed. Using many elements just to create beauty may take all it's present beauty back.

Do not go for a complicated design, always remember a logo is not a piece of art but it is a symbol for your corporate identity. It is Good to have an artistic logo if it is the demand of the business or client but making it complicated may affect the image of company badly. Complicated designs are difficult to remember and are not easily recognized. Also, if Company wants to use it on pen, pencils or on any small thing it may loose all it's beauty and remain no more recognizable. If you see carefully you will get that all the big and successful companies have a very simple logo design. So it is proved that simplicity is the key to success.

I am a Freelance Graphic Designer.
If you need a Design for yourself, you can visit me at http://paripoornarts.blogspot.com I will try my level best to serve you. Thanks

Friday, March 07, 2008

Logo Design Tips

Logos can be described as visual icons that provide a unique identification element to a business or product. Logos provide quick visual recognition of a Company which in-turn builds branding. Business owners and overly enthusiastic artists can often go astray in their efforts to design the perfect logo. There are too many examples of logo designs that look uninspired, overtly abstract or seem to be nothing more than whimsical art. Many of these logos are designed without forethought into usage, application or even cost impact upon a business. So how do you create a logo that makes business sense? Consider following a few simple guidelines:

Remember that your logo is a business tool. Your design concept should begin with a commitment to portray your business as professional and competent. A logo is not an art piece! Avoid using elements that may give a “dated” look such as those 1970’s flowers that were on so many Volkswagen Beetle cars. A logo design should take into consideration how, when and where the logo will be used. A logo has a cost impact upon your business from the day that it is introduced. There is more to designing a logo than simply hiring an artist or online art shop to assemble shapes and colors – it is a business decision.

Create your logo using vector graphics software. Simply put, images done in vector graphics can be resized and maintain design integrity. There is no loss in clarity, sharpness or definition and the file size remains constant. A common program for creating vector graphics is Adobe Illustrator. Software like Photoshop, which works in pixels, is better suite to working with photos and texture style areas. You can create your original image in any software but have it redone in a vector graphics format before you print or reproduce your logo. After all, a logo is all about sharp image.

Avoid complicated and intricate designs. A logo that is too intricate hinders rapid visual identification. The viewer is required to “study” the image in order to mentally process the image and relate its identification to a given company. Note the simplicity and high visual impact of the Nike “Swish”, an excellent image. Another reason to avoid complicated designs is that they do not reduce well. A busy, intricate logo on the side of a company truck may look wonderful but when the same logo is reduced in size for use on a business card it may become a meaningless blob of ink. Keep it simple and clean.

Limit color selection to a maximum of three colors. Ideally use one or two colors but never more than three. There are three main reasons for this guideline. One, your printing costs for printing business cards, letterhead, envelops, labels, etc. are increased for every additional color that you require. Your “cheap” logo design could end up costing you a lot of money. Reason number two, your visual impact or even identification could be diminished or completely lost in some mediums. Consider a logo that has overlaid images of different colors – looks nice, right? What about when you fax your proposal or letter and your logo is now in a black and white realm? Does the black and white (grayscale) version still provide distinction? An example of lost-in-translation logo is a peacock used to promote color and via fax it ends up looking like a turkey. A final note on color selection is to carefully consider cultural and marketplace standards. For example, red may be lesser choice for a medical company due to the negative association of red to blood/danger whereas green might infer safety or a positive status.

Consistency and control in font usage. Do not use over two font styles, as it may be distracting and confusing. Try to use a standard font such as Times New Roman, Arial, etc. as it makes commercial reproduction of your image easier. Any font style should be sans serif and typically non-script to improve clarity in small format reproduction. An exception is a logo/name where the logo is the script font such as the trade name of a popular soft drink in a uniquely shaped bottle.

Check Trademark and Registration Rights. While a new logo runs a low statistical chance of violating any trademark or registration rights of any existing logo it is not a bad idea to make some effort to confirm this before you publish your new logo. And after you have settled on a final logo design you should take the effort to register or trademark your own logo. If you need an example of why then consider the yellow pages “Walking Fingers” logo. The design was never trademarked or registered and has no copyrights protection – it could have been, but wasn’t – a huge loss of value for the original creators.

The author specializes in small business marketing services, advertising, logo and website design for small to mid-sized businesses in the United States. For more information on this or related topics please contact their offices at 770.654.3223.

Sunday, March 02, 2008

9 Free Webmaster Tools You Can Fall In Love With

Webmasters and developers don't need a whole lot of money to spend on tools in order to work efficiently and be productive. Here is a list of free tools that help me run my everyday webmaster chores.

Notepad++

Dreamweaver and such designing tools might have become very advanced in the recent years but I am still far from satisfied with them. I prefer to do the coding with a simple text editor and be in total control of the code and not end up with unnecessarily long code. Recently I discovered Notepad++ which has the few bells and whistles that are desired by hard core programmers such as code highlighting, Regular Expression Search/Replace support, capability to extend functionality with plugins and nice depository of contributed ones. Worth your attention.

Filezilla

If you are like me and don't use WYSIWYG editors to do your HTML/CSS designs then you are probably need or are already using a standalone FTP client to upload/download files to and from your server. Filezilla is a free tool that I have been using for some time and has not failed me. New version 3 has lots of new features, if you are FTPing stuff often maybe you should check it out.

Xampp

XAMPP is an apache server distribution that integrates php, mysql, phpmyadmin and a bunch of other great open source projects into an easy installation. It can be used on production servers to host one's sites but I mostly use it locally to code and test my html/css/php projects. Its easier to develop locally because there is no need to upload files on servers everytime, and only upload when your project is complete. It can be installed on Windows/Linux and lots of other platforms and if you are serious about developing you should get it installed in your computer and start playing with it.

Google Analytics

Google analytics is a free website statistics package that anyone can easily integrate into their website in a few minutes. Analytics once installed on your website it gathers data and presents you with reports about which sites your visitors come from, what country they live in, how long they stayed on your site, which pages were more popular and a whole lot of reports that you will likely not need another statistics package for you site. Those statistics are vital to the progress of any site in order to understand a site's audience and find things that might need to be improved. You can create as many analytics accounts as you like (unlimited number of sites) as long as your total pageviews don't exceed the monthly allowance of 5 million.

Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is not only a great browser to surf with. Firefox was build with extensibility in mind and has given developers a way to extent its functionality with add-ons. Add-ons can enhance the capabilities of Firefox and enhance the browsing experience. There is a whole lot of add-ons in the Mozilla repository that can help you with task such as bookmarking, searching, social interaction, developing, news reading, downloading to name just a few categories. Some of the following favorite tools of mine are actually Mozilla Add-ons. Its definitely worth your attention.

SeoQuake

Seoquake is a Mozilla add-on that was created with the SEO professionals in mind. It will help you gather important statistics about a website or web page with the touch of a button. Such statistics include PageRank, indexed pages, Google backlinks, Cached date etc. One can also extend it/configure it to gather other important statistics from online services not already included in it.

Firebug

Firebug is yet another Mozilla Add-on; a webmaster tool that can help you understand and debug your javascripts. It has so many bells and whistles that I am thinking of devoting a whole article on it. I will just mention the features that I use myself; Inspecting and editing HTML and CSS on the fly, debugging and running javascript on the fly, monitor network activity but there are many others. Here is a video tutorial I recently found that will help you get started with firebug debugging

Gimp

Gimp is an open source image manipulation package that can help you with photo retouching, image composition, format conversion and animations among other things. Its not likely to replace adobe photoshop any time soon but its a free alternative that has found many followers and through its plugin architecture promises to built the only image manipulation tool you will ever need. Some of its features are presented in a way of a presentation but nothing can convince you better than to actually install it and try it on your own.

Drupal

Drupal is a content management system much like wordpress but a lot more extensible. Wordpress is a good CMS (content management system) for simple sites and even though it has many plugins to extend its capabilities I would not recommend building anything other than a blog with it. Drupal on the other hand was built in such a way to be extensible. A programmer digging in its code will appreciate its flexibility, code quality, and modular design and simplicity for writing a new module. Drupal is was build from the ground up a tool for building community sites, and as a result it has many features to support such sites but it is also capable for supporting standard websites. Its learning curve is quite steep but it pays off in the end. Worth more than a look from you.

Giorgos Kontopoulos is a web consultant from Greece. He is one of the authors of GeoLand.org where he can often be found blogging about issues related to web development and search engine optimization. This article on free webmaster tools was originally posted on GeoLand.org