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This idea has been thumping in my brain for the last few nights.

When people ring you up to enquire about your business, who you are and what you offer why not direct them, there and then to a virtual showroom of your business.

Most people, when they ring you will be sitting next to a computer. Ask them to fire it up and send them to yourbusinessname-showroom.com (not the main site, this is a much more intimate site).

The next thing you’ll say is, “Yes, that’s me there on the left and on the right is a picture of the team. Yes, ugly bunch, but very talented!”

“Okay, click on the section named Services. Okay, you in? Great. That’s Steve, head of Services. Yes, those are all the recent developments he’s worked on.”

You get the idea. And, in my humble opinion, it’s a killer idea People switch off on the phone, their mind wanders as they stare out the window. With this, you have them focused on the site in front of them, looking at all your lovely staff and the brilliant things your business offers.

I reckon this would have a really significant effect on conversion. I’ll let you know when enotions’ showroom is built.

What’s this heresy? Rob telling people to turn their backs on the web?! Well, maybe just for a little while, yes.

The web is an amazing media to broadcast yourself, to launch your business, to reap rewards of a financial and emotional kind. But it can also feel quite hollow at times, humbling in its size and dispiriting in its insincerity.

After a period when I found myself in front of the web for 18 hours per day for 6 days solid the other week, it made me want to shut it off and go and do something less boring instead. But that’s the point. The web is NOT boring. It’s astonishing. It’s deep and addictive and endless in terms of what you can do and gain and discover within it. And that got me thinking. Has it really answered all man’s answers? Does it really give us everything we need? Can we really live our lives now in front of a computer screen and never want for anything else?

For instance, how does the web compare to reading a book, or watching a television programme, or just going for a pint with mates? I thought I’d ask these and other questions, and see if I could find some answers….

The web means you’ll never need to read a book again.
Have you ever tried reading online? Impossible. eBooks? Give me a break. There’s something comforting to the eye about reading in print. Even on a PDA designed for ease on the eye, you’re darting all over the place. Bet you’ve skipped half of this article already because reading on screen is hard. And as for virtual page turning, pull the other one! Cheap gimmick. Give me a curled paperback or magazine any day.

The web is fountain of all knowledge.
True, but you need to go looking for it and learn what to believe and what to distrust. The problem is no one reviews what it is published online. Okay, Wikipedia reviews itself but who’s to say that what one administrator thinks might be completely different to what the very next one might think. I have read the most fantastically incorrect things in Wikipedia, from flight being first recorded in America to Robert Mugabe burning in hell when he dies (okay, not all false but, you get the picture.)

The web frees us
Does it? In many ways the web binds us and it binds us without us even noticing, which is the really worrying part. How? Search engines. Search engines are FAR more powerful that people give them credit for. Search engines are the sign posts to all knowledge. You want to find out about how to lay a brick wall, search on “how to lay a brick wall.” You want to know who to vote for in the next election, search on “who to vote on.” Suddenly, what we are told and what we act on is coming from the important sites according to search engines. From the insignificant (building a wall - unless is falls on you) to how to vote in an election, search engines are telling you what information to use. Just think about that for a minute.

The web helps us make friends
Maybe, but friends with who and on what level? Are our online friends really who they say they are? It’s proven that many people adopt online personas quite different from their worldly counterparts. Just play Second Life or an online communal game and you’ll see what I mean. People in every day life are NOT that bold or blatant or liberated. And are online friendships as deep and meaningful as our real life friendships. To some people yes, I am sure they are but to the majority of us I doubt it. I have, apparently, 100s of digital Best Friends in Facebook (I know, Billy no mates). But I know for a fact, my real life true friends I can count on one, okay maybe two, hands (at a push).

The web gives us it, when we want it
True. You want it, be it porn or music or videos general irreverent chatter, the web can give you it. You Tube is the most awesome creation ever. I can watch my old heroes of rock music and see them on stage and interview and never shove my hand in my pocket and pay for a DVD again. I can watch that thing I wanted to watch about the snakes eating bison whenever I want and not rely on being in front of the TV at 8pm on a Sunday. BUT, deny it or not, we are creatures of habit and whilst we might rejoice in being freed to get stuff when we desire it or think we want it, we NEED to shut off our brains and our busy schedules once in a while and let someone else take the strain and controls and give us what they think we want. That, in itself, is being truly free. Giving up our control over our media intake and say, “No, you entertain me. You take me where you want to take me.”

(Rob is currently overworked and, after a short break, will be back rejoicing in the web again soon.)

Have you got Skype? If not, why not? Skype is the best Instant Messaging and Web Conferencing Tool in the marketplace today. enotions use it for all their ongoing communications between the team. And what’s more, it’s free!

Anyway, enough of the advert. There’s also a great opportunity for ‘popular’ Skype users to draw a revenue from simply being online.

Skype allows you to set yourself a ‘mood message’. Most enotions’ bods use this to say how happy they are to be just working at enotions - or something like that. The prominence of this message is such that it does give a genuine opportunity for advertisers to spread their brand name, message or even URL by paying users to feature in the mood message.

Currently I have just 41 Skype contacts. But with over 10 million users online at any one time, there is a potentially huge reach for ‘popular’ Skype members to push a message at their contacts.

It would be interesting to see what the ‘acknowledgement percentage’ of users viewing Skype mood messages was, but I would suspect high, much higher than online banner advertising which is under 1% - that’s just for seeing the banner, not clicking on it (that’s about 0.05%).

Digital advertisers are always looking for new channels. MSN Messenger is riddled with unassuming adverts but Skype is, currently, untouched and potentially fertile ground. If you could build a relationship with users and monitor their activity on their mood message then Skype advertising could be an genuinely powerful and fruitful new channel, for all.

After all, didn’t some guy put an advert on his forehead for £50,000? That’s the price for his personal ‘advertising’ space. What’s your personal digital ‘advertising’ space worth, I wonder?

enotions came second in the Salisbury Business Awards for the category Outstanding Business of the Year.

We’re absolutely delighted. More soon.

What came first? Web site or the campaign idea?

Not a trick question - the campaign idea, right? Well, so you would think but in the 14 years I have been involved in developing web sites, I have continually come up against people seem to think it perfectly normal to build your site before your campaign idea, even your brand, service or product, is fully realised.

I can understand why people crack on with their web site before anything is agreed. Enthusiasm. Excitement. The wish to get something into the public domain quick (because the web is about speed). The ability to get something into the public domain quick (because the web is speedy.)

Fortune might favour the brave but because of impatience, according to W. H. Auden “we are driven out of paradise.” In other words, if you rush it, you are most likely going to end up with something that is way short of the web site you could have had.

My advice to anyone starting up a web site to support a new business, a new offering, a new or reworked brand is to STOP, take a step back and THINK about everything else that supports your business and brand.

Your web site does not work in isolation and will be stronger for building on a cohesive marketing strategy.

Ask yourself these questions. If you can answer them, you’re about ready to start developing your site;

1) Is your ‘brand bible’ complete and embraced by all the key players in the company; logo, colour palette, fonts, sample image library?

2) Have you recognised your bulls eye target audience?

3) Is your product/service fully realised?

4) Have you visualised your campaign for the next 12 months and recognised how this will be rolled out above and below the line?

5) Have you appointed the relevant agencies to push your advertising indirectly, directly and handle customer enquiries.

6) Have you set your business tangible targets around a timetable; both of a financial and distribution nature?

January is always a busy month but this year in particular I think we’ve all been surprised by how busy enotions has been this month; both with our PepsiCo work but also new work from General Mills, Cobra Beer, and also smaller local business.

It’s fantastic - slightly stressful, but fantastic.

We’ve put a number of changes in place to better manage the team and the work we’re doing. After all, we’re a fairly big team now (20 when at full capacity) and with up to 20 projects ticking over at any one time.

We have recently brought in Change Management consultants to evaluate and streamline the business and its processes, as well as provide direction for the future. That’s proved invaluable and we now have, at our fingertips, our financial and business targets for the next few years. enotions has been a victim of its own success and has tended to look within itself as it’s battled to keep up with demand for its services. It’s been good to step back and, with outside help, look at the just where it is we are headed, and why. It now has a much clearer vision which will help both enotions and its staff, but also its clients.

We hope you’ve had a good year? We think all of our customers have and we ourselves certainly have. It’s been a blur, as all recent years have seemed to have been for us.

We are busier than ever - a term we’ve used a lot in the past but never has it been truer than now. We currently have 12 projects on the boil and several very large projects hitting at the start of January. 2008 looks set to be our best year yet, both in terms of finances but also the range, variety and complexity of work we’re undertaking.

We’re not a big team (we want to be bigger but it’s about finding the right people) but we’re dedicated and every single one of us at enotions works above and beyond the call of duty to do the very best for our clients. It’s something I am very proud about and something that sets us aside from other web agencies both near and far.

The company will be open all over Christmas. We’re all working up to midday on Christmas Eve and then expect a skeleton crew in from then till 2nd January. Yes, some of us will be working on designs for the forthcoming 2008 sites. Can’t tell you much about them at the moment but they are going to be big and very impressive.

Many thanks to all our customers and to everyone at enotions.

Roll on 2008!

Radiohead’s decision to sell their latest album solely online and allow the purchaser to choose the price they wish to pay for it has potentially huge ramifications for how we buy our media online.

How will Radiohead’s latest move change the buying attitudes of the general public, if at all? My feeling is that, initially, it will have little impact. The ripples from this one album from, albeit, one of the biggest rock bands in the world at the moment, will barely buzz the conscious of the music companies and publishing houses. But should another big brand (and Radiohead are a brand, make no bones about it) adopt a similar policy based on the success of this album’s sales and profitability, like the falling of tiny stones that causes the avalanche, we could see more and more online media pricing being decided by the paying public.

This manner of paying could only be adopted by brands which are selling a service or product with no intrinsic component value. Audio / visual streams are obvious candidates. Ultra-low cost white goods, such as low-tech computers could also feature. But so could service based operations where you pay for the information you receive. AQA (Any-Questions-Answered) are one such information based service who might consider such an approach. Search engines too might eventually move to a pay-per-search service.

Of course, only those companies with a strong brand would dare adopt such a policy. If you are a disliked brand (Microsoft) you would never dare adopt a policy where, largely based on the user’s opinion of you, you were paid accordingly. But brands such as Apple, with a stronger connection to their users and subsequent respect might be tempted to try the policy, if only on lower priced items, to both enjoy the publicity and test their opposition.

It will be fascinating to see (and I do hope Radiohead reveal the results) how much people paid for the album. Whilst not a huge fan of the band, I admired their balls and opted to pay £7.99 for the album, the same price as most albums on itunes. I know others who have paid £5 for the album (as itunes are bound to mark tracks up for their own profit-margin and Radiohead really don’t need the money) and likewise have spoken to people who have paid £10 - the price of a CD.

So, how much did you pay and how often will you be left to decide how much something is worth in the future?

Further reading…..
from the BBC site, details for download prices: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7082627.stm

It surely has to be the best brand propositions in the world; combining beer and curry? It’s certainly one of the best lagers in the world and it’s now one of enotions’ clients.

We’re all delighted here by being awarded our latest account and I am personally knocked out by the fact we were given it because of the quality of our previous work and our growing reputation for exceeding client expectations. No pitch, no negotiations, no justifying our existence. Just a single phone call to tell us the work was ours if we wanted it.

I think it’s a clear sign that our attitude and approach to clients has paid off.

I’ve made a point of recruiting people who aren’t just fantastic at their jobs but they really want to delight customers. Before setting up enotions, I worked at several agencies where the focus was on year end targets, profitability and squeezing the client wherever possible in the project cycle. I made a decision from the start that enotions would be a very different sort of company. We would focus on delighting customers, even if it meant being at the detriment to our top line. Many companies talk about ‘going the extra mile’. Very few do. Best intentions are often dropped when the account manager’s end of year bonus looks in jeopardy.

In addition to using people who genuinely care about their work, I have taken money out of the equation when awarding bonuses. Our staff are awarded for attitude, not for financial gains they achieve for the company. I’d much rather have a list of clients who feel really special, and wax lyrical to others about enotions, than have a list of slightly disgruntled customers who feel over charged and unappreciated. Doesn’t that sound like customers of banks? And who has a good word to say about them?