tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55432635515324357212012-01-11T17:11:44.263-05:00I am Mark Waldo, a digital strategist working in Philadelphia and San Francisco.Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.comBlogger571100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-20781655002079598212012-01-11T17:11:00.001-05:002012-01-11T17:11:44.273-05:00

Wow. It amazes me that two competitors - Yammer and Chatter - have homepages that are designed to be nearly identical: same tag line, a picture of three platforms, same simple sign-in, heroes gallery of clients at the bottom... insane! Here is Yammer And here is Chatter Crazy.

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-84569437643878858612011-06-07T15:45:00.000-04:002011-06-07T15:45:48.992-04:00

It has to be said that I am too busy helping clients to market myself very well. The design of my website is well past its shelf date and this blog is neglected. I have nailed strategy and user experience design as a professional but I am failing to promote myself.  UX designers on the whole are doing a phenomenal job discussing their craft. It seems everyone I know is publishing or speaking at

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-52755146196956450002011-04-01T15:16:00.001-04:002011-04-01T15:16:19.800-04:00

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-75292395640327707692011-02-15T11:02:00.000-05:002011-02-15T11:02:18.968-05:00

Scrolling marquess are part of most sites I am called in to redesign. I don't buy their utility though. Let me explain by sharing a note I just sent on scrolling marquees to the designer working with me on of one of these sites - a professional development and training site. We are conducting an internal review of her initial design treatments: ......... "THE MARQUEE And let's go out the door

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-56424658217895756732010-12-21T14:37:00.001-05:002010-12-21T14:37:28.102-05:00

Having a great mtg at penn

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-7737222498487022042010-12-07T15:06:00.001-05:002010-12-07T15:06:40.234-05:00

http://mobile.twitter.com/RGA RG/A does a good job with their Twitter feed. Human, intelligent, amusing and personable. Not annoying and never seems to be posting just to show value or to meet a social media strategy quota.

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-49035838951693946362010-12-07T14:46:00.005-05:002010-12-10T09:30:01.248-05:00

The client was in-house at the agency I am consulting to yesterday to review my information architecture strategy for their website. Sometimes the IADs for these big websites (this is a B2B IT website) are best explored as 11x17 print-outs you can stand in front of. I've also printed out the primary personas and workflows - see at top left - to help anchor our review.

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-39353396226979876072010-11-11T13:58:00.004-05:002011-06-12T16:03:10.480-04:00

There have been several times since I arrived on the East Coast when I have seen a print approach taken to creating digital properties and collateral. The results have never been good. Ultimately the margin on each project has needlessly suffered. Esprit de corps, good design and the end users have also taken a hit. So I have created a little presentation to help out. It's a primer on

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-45258477440017990472010-11-08T11:53:00.005-05:002010-11-08T12:15:03.152-05:00

Branding is work but good work. Leading collaborative work sessions with internal and client teams is one of my favorite moments in a digital brand strategy overhaul.  The sessions are vibrant and challenge many on both teams to think about the product and digital properties in emotional terms. The structure I follow is built on the work of Jean Noel-Kapferer. His understanding of brand

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-22211576022849014172010-11-02T13:20:00.001-04:002010-11-02T13:20:15.924-04:00

The view from my desk at the client's office.

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-70091388042819892072010-09-21T11:07:00.001-04:002010-09-21T11:08:43.490-04:00

What is in our arsenal as we begin the redesign of our client's B2B technology website? User Insights recorded as personas and put into buying cycles. No user testing yet so nothing from there. We will build these out as we progress through this refresh Assessment will start with a solid IAD (information architecture document) detailing the site as it stands now No branding docs or style guides

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-23897652714836366572010-08-20T15:25:00.007-04:002010-08-20T15:56:57.464-04:00

Following up on a meeting with the digital team at the agency I am at, and for anyone else in the Philadelphia is who is interested in linking up with others on digital matters, here is a quick list of digital organizations in the Philly area. Independents Hall A coworking space and community in Philadelphia for digital contractors. Hang out here and you will quickly catch wind of digital

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-10619449531009084672010-08-12T14:17:00.004-04:002010-11-11T09:22:30.861-05:00

I am directing some members of my team in work on a social media strategy for a client right now. Along the way, an issue has come up, we find ourselves artificially pulling away from offering guidance to our client as soon as the solutions begin to bleed into brick-and-mortar tactics. I think the issue is in how we have positioned the strategy. Putting it in terms of "social media" and "web

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-9023525562980310662010-07-14T15:22:00.002-04:002010-08-20T16:03:06.261-04:00

I am working with a team to roll out personas for a client over the coming weeks. In preparing myself, I drifted over to Boxes and Arrows. Andrew Hinton's article Personas and the Role of Design reminds me that their power is strongest in the hands of people who are willing to care about the user. As in have feelings of empathy for the user before they get all detailed out like a bunch of

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-25096249456677059762010-06-26T10:50:00.005-04:002010-06-27T22:24:24.043-04:00

Money as a motivation may not best for motivating talented people to a high level creativity. After a decent salary, people need:AutonomyMastery (or Craft)Purpose  More than they need cash incentives. This is detailed out in this video by RSA. The illustration style is enough of a reason to watch!!:

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-4996926812292678542010-06-18T11:45:00.036-04:002010-08-20T16:13:01.374-04:00

The role of the project management team in strategy can not be underestimated. Whoever owns the process of bringing people together and when they do their work, is a key player in how well strategy is created and modified  across the life-cycle of a project. For example, PMs are often making calls about how deliverables are handled between teams.  In this way they determine when one team's work

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-60068465339439854172010-06-14T11:02:00.002-04:002010-06-22T14:42:09.353-04:00

Because of the iterative nature of creating interactive products, it is essential that the manager of an interactive product (account manager, strategist or whoever) has a good understanding of the craft and skills of each discipline that will participate in development (UX, design, engineering, analytics, etc.).  Only in this way will they see the opportunities present in interactive product

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-27229373515663144392010-06-14T10:52:00.004-04:002010-06-23T17:58:05.743-04:00

What do many ad agencies not get about web development? Strategy in the development of interactive products is going to evolve throughout development - if you want to get the best ideas and product - rather than be delivered as complete in the front of a project. Many of the ad agencies I have seen still see strategy as something that is done up front. They see the development which follows as

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-86310959123536485102010-05-15T16:48:00.001-04:002010-06-22T14:43:40.129-04:00

Mark Magazine makes another addition to the list of edgy and arty zip-a-tone fashion sites in my last post, but this time in architecture. By blending a zip-a-tone line style, and serif and non-serif fonts together on a lot of white real estate, they are replicating the same brand experience for users. Their customers must be wondering just how innovative and cutting edge these sites can really

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-46872343345398728192010-05-15T16:42:00.001-04:002010-06-22T14:42:36.903-04:00

I'm seeing some trends in the design style of hipper clothing companies. Check out the similarities between the Urban Outfitters site and the Mohawk General Store. They're so similar in feel that I checked the page code for each but they seem to have been coded by separate developers.... The UX guru from one of these companies needs to go back to their audience and try to understand what it

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-12306281472566045622010-05-13T15:07:00.007-04:002010-06-27T22:23:41.049-04:00

 I developed requirements for two new mobile apps I'd like for myself sketched out the overall story line, character overviews and secondary story lines for a book I have had in mind for a year (adult fiction) wrote out a counter argument to the claim that musicians should resign themselves to having their digitized music shared freely because its the new business model (it tweaks me so)

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-31235193441489483532010-03-23T11:40:00.001-04:002010-03-23T11:40:59.922-04:00

It's good to see that WRT has relaunched their website This new site moves much more smoothly than the previous site! Also the design is more appealing; lighter and crisper. and it's also easier to navigate. This is an example to others. I can also imagine that it is easier to update and for search engines to crawl.Congratulations to WRT.in reference to: Wallace Roberts & Todd (view on Google

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-53561999392129982482010-03-20T13:32:00.003-04:002010-06-22T14:43:00.144-04:00

Good video. It is nice to hear quantitative data around this. I just wrapped up in-depth research for one company in a vertical that was viewed skeptically by every person I interviewed. Almost no one trusts content created by this vertical to be anything other than sales pitches. But after reading 40 journals and surveys and conducting over 50 in depth interviews in a lab setting we did find

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-83608982325977586832010-02-19T16:04:00.008-05:002010-03-16T15:30:24.601-04:00

Some how we need to apply UX principals to architecture. Chiat Day's no-location/virtual office of the 90's was critically well received but in the end it was a disaster for the users. The delta between positive critical reviews and user dissatisfaction is so large that it looks like just the sort of thing UX practitioners should be investigating.But would the application of UX tools designed to

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-49379289150598490962010-02-18T10:12:00.005-05:002010-06-22T14:29:28.233-04:00

I am looking back over my ecommerce work and wondering why the teams for branding and UX are separate. For example when I was at GSI Interactive (now True Action), it did good interaction design but the companies that worked with GSI, such as Levis and Calvin Klein, turned to brand agencies in San Francisco or New York to develop their brand – not the GSI teams – at least not when I was at GSI

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-17778222002961294922009-11-14T21:17:00.002-05:002009-11-14T21:20:47.453-05:00

More and more I am beginning to believe process books are essential for new clients to see. Here is a nice article by Nubby on her approach:Design Isn’t Magic: The Creation of Process Books

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-80386980700867235612009-08-11T12:22:00.001-04:002009-08-11T12:22:59.822-04:00

Amazing that both Digitas and Razorfish are now under one roof.Today Microsoft and Publicis confirmed the rumors that Microsoft would sell its digital agency Razorfish to Publicis.  This is great news for Razorfish as it will provide them access to services and capabilities they do not currently have to further solidify their leadership position in the industry.  Details of the announcement can

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-42495188796745238002009-08-11T08:25:00.003-04:002010-06-22T14:30:52.729-04:00

Regarding technology and Web 2.0 - I wonder if we are just picking up where we left off in social intensity? Up until, say, post WW2 we lived in compressed social worlds. After WW2 we got suburbs which threw us far away from each other and TVs which pulled us inside and alone. Now maybe we are recovering and getting back to the front porch conversations we left off in 1948... --Thanks to

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-9050757624044492122009-08-10T14:28:00.003-04:002009-08-10T14:40:53.332-04:00

I want to find the people who delight in what we can do in the interactive space.I'm not interested in the early adopters. That role seems to be more about a pissing match than really loving the interactive space.I'm not interested in the guys who only see this space as just another business opportunity. They are too serious and can't fit their hearts into it. Business is an important element of

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-88938959209457196772009-06-23T16:33:00.003-04:002009-08-10T14:28:30.415-04:00

Identified as an interactive shop, how do you seize opportunities to engage the client in discussions about core brand and strategic planning so you can move yourself more squarely into the field occupied by the traditional agency of record?

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-3345516174508865352009-06-02T13:05:00.006-04:002010-11-14T09:53:26.117-05:00

Looking at the redesign of Craigslist by DesignEye, I can see why Craig Newmark never implemented it. The design is without voices. As Gawker says, "The new design is gorgeous, slick, ..." Behind the design of the existing Craigslist you can hear the rabble. It's interesting. craigslist.org's design speaks well for what it is. What DesignEye has done IS gorgeous and slick. But is that good? Is

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-16257188283243378842009-04-30T17:22:00.004-04:002009-07-08T23:13:53.600-04:00

I think this is so fascinating. Apple decided that they like the label "1-Click" so much that they pay Amazon for the rights to use it."1-CLICK®. 1-Click is a registered service mark of Amazon.com, Inc., used under license. All App Store transactions use 1-Click, a convenient feature that allows you to license Products from the Service with a single click of your mouse or other input device." -

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-18487229605288989612009-04-29T19:23:00.002-04:002009-04-29T19:27:49.064-04:00

I think I may have just stumbled across the most copied line of copy ever. And it's being done by design studios claiming to be creative. Google this fragment:we knew it was never destined to be a typicalIt's just awesome!One studio (not sure which one) not only copied the line but an entire website.gravitate designcouture solutionsMan, oh man. Do you laugh or what?

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-41710782957372962182009-02-12T06:19:00.006-05:002010-06-27T22:18:19.491-04:00

Here is a schedule for handling an RFP that contains the process from my post "A Process for Creating a Proposal for Interactive Projects". This is based on actual schedules I've made for managing teams in the RFP process - so it has been tested.

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-14211768766407410372009-01-29T16:28:00.006-05:002009-01-29T16:48:56.714-05:00

I received a request for clarification from Dave Cooksey of PhillyCHI on what I meant by "IDEO style" in my recent post A Process for Creating a Proposal for Interactive Projects."Mark - Thanks for sharing this with the group. I have lots of questions, but want to start by asking what you mean when you state in your blog entry:"Additionally it relies on a leader who is facilitating a team IDEO

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-79507636758169252122009-01-22T13:46:00.005-05:002009-01-22T17:30:44.885-05:00

If you believe in the power of brand to significantly impact how people relate to a companyANDIf you believe you don't have to be a company to have a brand - you could be a countryThen Obama's decision today to close Guantánamo Bay may be the greatest rebranding effort of the year and essential for national security.The NYT Article : Obama Orders Secret Prisons and Detention Camps Closed It's

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-90828329899265565002009-01-21T13:18:00.011-05:002009-01-27T22:21:00.180-05:00

The process of creating a proposal that requires some strategy work to prepare, or is for a client who isn't at all clear about what they want, is a difficult one for most studios and agencies to get a handle on. Many start ideation too soon, leave out key internal subject matter experts, fail to create actionable project plans and produce unrealistic estimates.Basically they implode.Reflecting

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-66136660554246151862009-01-21T12:56:00.007-05:002009-01-27T22:18:46.031-05:00

Recently I was asked by an interactive agency to help improve its overall processes including strategic consulting processes. They were unclear exactly how to begin ideation and when.I have always been on the creative side of things; coming up with ideas for my own companies and others. Along the way, I have learned that to be a successful idea person you also need to be proficient at getting

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-53098147663124836772009-01-05T14:09:00.008-05:002010-06-22T14:41:04.268-04:00

Here is one of the equations for making your margin in an interactive project. A web development team which understands the vision of a project -> creates better project requirements. A team that wrote the project requirements -> creates project plans that are more feasible. A team that created the plan that it is building within -> creates projects that hit their margin. Account Management

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-43931373064821498962009-01-05T13:55:00.010-05:002009-01-27T22:20:24.383-05:00

A team where everyone feels that the work they are doing is meaningful is ideal and not impossible to create.Meaning for most web people I have worked with starts with knowing the purpose of the things they are building.So why then do many of the account managers I have encountered in Philadelphia treat their team like Kinkos? Rather than bringing them in to participate with them and the client

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-36105125573766976732008-10-28T09:34:00.001-04:002010-06-22T14:37:20.672-04:00

If we value innovation in Philadelphia, it would be interesting for Philadelphia based design agencies (or studios) to not just sell innovation individually, but band together and sell Philadelphia web and ID studios as being innovative because they are Philadelphian. So I have a vision: An area wide marketing effort: "Philadelphia - 200 Years of Innovation". I am prompted to this thought

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-30846018233967042082008-10-19T20:56:00.007-04:002008-10-19T21:24:15.933-04:00

Still hot - and very defunct - is Construct Internet Design. In the 90's some of the most innovative work in the web was being done there. Browse through their products page to get an idea for what they were doing. I was lucky enough to work there for a time.They did a lot of advanced interface design including virtual worlds work. Two memorable projects were the ZKM Difference Engine and the

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-88699324898387366432008-09-28T09:40:00.012-04:002010-06-22T14:41:21.645-04:00

"...boundaries of organizations are less clear, the ownership is much more community-based...." -Dion Hinchcliffe Dion hits the nail on the head in his Web 2.0 blog . And this may be the greatest challenge for those of us working to create interactive agencys that offer better strategic consulting and innovative ideas . Most of the legacy processes that I have found which inhibit this are fed by

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-61806073048101598542008-09-11T10:22:00.000-04:002008-09-11T10:23:12.974-04:00

Hmm… at the Cyber Monday store, http://www.cybermonday.com, it turns out that “garden” and “pets” belong on the same line in the nav bar as “Garden & Pets”. You UX guys out there always catch me off guard. This must be, like, "para-contextual-associative navigation” or something…I have to pause to think what causal relationships drove that one. Do they see pets as most likely in gardens? Wow.

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-70825041624249432762008-08-04T07:55:00.006-04:002010-06-22T14:36:40.770-04:00

Implementing a new development methodology in an interactive agency is not a top down thing. It's not about cracking heads. It is the coordination of the processes of each discipline within the studio. And so it sometimes means working with people within each discipline to nurture and grow their way of working first so that it is mature enough to be integrated into the overall methodology of

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-69504649574185928422008-05-05T14:56:00.007-04:002008-05-05T15:14:38.189-04:00

I am going back through my Microsoft Project Templates and editing them. Next week I am officially rolling out interactive development timeline templates that integrate analytics, SEO, banners etc. (the artifacts of internet marketing) into the olde web development methodology.In the late 90's web development was so easy. vivid studios captures the iconic methodology on their old site. The

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-90676289132723966652008-04-12T09:01:00.013-04:002008-04-12T10:43:15.820-04:00

Sitting with one of the studio dogs, Connor, and coffee this morning, I was reading Tom Kelley's "The Art of Innovation". Written in 2001 it still creates a compelling vision for an innovative company.His book misses something though.The message of innovation CAN NOT be introduced to the client after the fact. This is a law. If your clients don't already value innovation and are as passionate

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-60441526876873960012008-04-09T13:30:00.011-04:002010-06-22T14:44:04.465-04:00

Information Architects (IAs) used to own website organization and strategy. They also had very specific tools for doing this work. In ’97, a web studio’s IA would probably be putting together the feature set for the site based on an understanding of user needs, profiles (personas) and usage scenarios. We didn’t really have that many separate standing strategists in ’97. But the times have

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-20151393040034377902008-04-02T08:35:00.005-04:002008-04-02T09:17:13.202-04:00

Sitting at the main studio table this morning, cup of Peet's coffee in hand, I'm putting down more thoughts on branding in the interactive space. It's not all that easy, given the damage done to me at last night's meeting with some of Philadelphia's digerati. I like the Black Sheep Pub where we met as much as the next guy, but a dinner comprised solely of hummus, nacho's, fried calamari and

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-34360542239089629752008-04-02T08:30:00.004-04:002010-06-27T22:19:18.777-04:00

1. Interaction puts more emphasis on proximity TO the brand, rather than perception OF what is inside the brand than traditional media have. Following this then:2. Use of social media technologies means that as much emphasis in developing a brand needs to be put on PERCEPTION OF SELF by the self and others while interacting with brand as on the product’s traditional BRAND ATTRIBUTES which are

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-8094889524577073242008-03-25T08:25:00.010-04:002010-07-16T12:07:17.450-04:00

[Editor's note: I wrote this after engaging with a Philadelphia Agency that had reduced all of their digital marketing tactics to SEM] Why did I talk about IDEO and the Eames as if they are/were "agencies" in my last post? They are really industrial design studios not internet marketing agencies, I know . But they are closer to being internet marketing agencies than most ad agencies – and here’

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-2273173881001106192008-03-23T14:54:00.008-04:002008-03-25T08:55:28.318-04:00

I was looking at vivid studios's Methodology Manual v1.1 today. (the link is a link to the memorial site; the actual site no longer exists). It brought something into sharp focus for me. vivid studios was a top notch interactive agency that created a deep and authentically passionate company culture amongst its employees, while delivering top notch online collateral to clients in the San

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-20603749190037072532008-03-14T00:31:00.003-04:002008-04-02T09:25:15.077-04:00

In Philadelphia, with the large client base in Pharma, interactive agencies face an interesting problem that you won't see in a place like San Francisco: the need to swing teams between Pharmaceutical clients and ...well... clients in just about any other industry. For example I have moved teams from financial accounts to consumer accounts and then to web based applications with ease. But it is

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-75512816628276470582008-03-02T19:56:00.019-05:002008-03-25T08:59:12.682-04:00

What is the best way to organize a company to deliver collateral in the interactive space? In reviewing the shape of several companies I have worked for, two different organizational structures appear to be dominant; The Interactive Studio and the Agency/Brand Management Studio.Both satisfy client needs for campaigns and products that are aligned with internal company mission and brand

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-75441046696575793332008-02-29T08:54:00.003-05:002008-03-25T08:55:28.320-04:00

EPIC 2015 is a stupendous little video. From the point of view of 2015, it traces the history of the commercial web space starting in 1989. Things get interesting pretty quickly... . Run Time is 8:55Thanks to Scott Reese for tipping me off.

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-28168408827113828092008-02-29T08:28:00.005-05:002010-06-27T22:20:11.436-04:00

Four points for the interactive agency to consider when branding. 1. Sales moving to Customers 2. People moving to Spheres of Experience 3. Branding is in the Experience not just the Eyes 4. Business Intelligence in the studio/agency is flattening across Disciplines: Old school - Branding expertise comes from MBA New School - Branding comes from the networked tools of the interactive

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5543263551532435721.post-65691317640386858162008-02-29T08:18:00.003-05:002010-06-27T22:21:37.238-04:00

Automated Personalized Recommendations Search Facilitation and Creation of Personal Community Auto-assembly of Content Ideology and Algorithms

Mark Waldohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11950485639206616197noreply@blogger.com0