This post, in some respect, is going to be the most egotistical post ever. But it's a blog and in its very nature carries some ego, right? Be honest. But for the record, I am only trying to exploit my ego to prove a point. And in order to do that I need to wade through it.

So here it goes.

Google me. Seriously, Google my name "Derek Pine." The second link below my Twitter account is a link to Flynn Wright. Which means, you already are! Googling me, that is. While recently looking through some site statistics for the last quarter, we discovered that my name is the 7th most Googled phrase that leads to the site flynnwright.com.

Head begins growing… I'm thinking, that's freaking awesome! People are visiting us online purely on the basis of my name. And they are spending a significant amount of time on the site -- visiting a pretty significant amount of pages.

Head still growing… I should feel downright proud, eh?! And I am.

Epiphany… Holy crap, I am representing a company and creating a significant amount of buzz. 

Head shrinking… What the buzz am I saying?

Back to normal sized cranium… Here's the point. Do you create buzz? Do you realize the effects of your buzz? It's no mistake that I have purposely done things to position my "Google face." But I also know that it comes with a price. To some extent, I represent myself and my employer with everything I do. And as a result I am purposely aware of what I say and do online. I work to create buzz that is of value regardless of the ridiculous bio on my Flynn Wright culture page that my Googled name links too.

How about you and/or your business? Are you creating buzz? Are you aware of it? Do you like it? Are you shaping it? Take some time to Google your name or business name. If you don't like what you see, start taking steps to shape it. If you need help shaping it… you know who to call.

Eight months ago we introduced MailStorm (Flynn Wright’s email marketing software) to our clients. In that time a group of clients has implemented it, and we've sent out more than 200,000 html emails through the system. Those that have used it, LOVE it. It's easy to use and it provides great reporting that’s second to none. In December I wrote a post entitled The Email Marketing Comeback of 2010 to explain this software and how we utilize it.

But that’s besides the point of this post. What I want to explore is how the iPad and iPhone are changing the future of email marketing.

I was surprised when the iPhone grew to more than 5% of the email client market within a year of its release. If the iPad experiences similar growth we'll likely see 15-20% of emails we send through MailStorm being opened by a handheld Apple product. That's not to mention Apple's computer software Mail, which could raise that number to roughly 30%. That's amazing!

Here's a little data we experienced
First off, email client usage on a particular email is going to be determined primarily by the composition of its list. We sent out emails for a client recently whose list is made up of young adults (ages 15-18). In this campaign, 26.2% of the email clients used were Apple products, with 15.4% of those being handhelds.



So why is this amazing?
I’m not trying to pimp Apple here (though I’m an avid user), but compared to every other web and desktop email client on the market, the iPad, iPod and Apple Mail interfaces are noticeably free of distractions. It's all about the content of the email. And when it's about the content of the email, your email gets noticed. When your email gets noticed, the result is higher click-through rates and more interactions with those users. Now that's amazing, isn't it?!



Flynn Wright's MailStorm is a slick system that makes creating beautiful emails simple and takes the hassle out of managing your lists while providing up-to-the-minute reporting on your campaign deliveries. Humbly speaking...it rocks! Contact us or send a message to @flynnwright on Twitter if you want more info.

As different parts of the world find new ways of using technology in marketing, we're keeping our finger on the pulse in an effort to bring these emerging trends to our clients. Case in point: mobile tags. For those that are unfamiliar, mobile tags are essentially barcodes that can be placed anywhere and on anything. What’s different about tags is that by using a mobile phone with a camera and Internet, you can take a photo of a tag and it will typically link to online information such as a website, video or product review.

There are a lot of potential uses for tags:

• A tag found on a real estate sign could lead you to see details and images about the home for sale or other homes handled by that agent.
• A travel magazine could put tags on destination photos that when snapped bring up a Google Map with the location of where the photo was taken.
• Snapping a tag found in an ad for a flower shop could then store that business’s info to your phone’s address book enabling you to easily locate the number in future doghouse moments.
• Tags found on food packaging could provide recipes, nutritional ratings, recycling information, etc., via a free text message.
• Fish are already being tagged in Japan to provide buyers with more information about the date, time and location of the catch.

The Pros: Convenience! With tags there is no need to remember to type in a web address or text a short code.

The Cons: The user needs a phone with a camera and Internet, as well as an application on their phone to decode the tag. (It's only a matter of time before everyone does though.)

bragging rights
For Josephs, we produced an ad for the back of the latest dsm Magazine. If I can brag, Jason and Liz executed some great art and copy to make this ad really stand out. AND we're pretty sure this is the first local business to utilize this technology. Now, in the bottom right corner of the ad we hinted at a "secret sale" and used a tag to lead people to more info. It was a good way to execute the secrecy and exclusivity of the sale because we knew the big roadblocks (smart phone, downloading an app, etc.) were going to weed out some people, and intrigue others. Those who were intrigued…well, the secret is all yours! But just in case you didn’t get a copy of the latest dsm, here’s a sample of what we did.

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For Mediacom we placed a tag on a Free Standing Insert (FSI) that takes people to a video alerting them of a special offer they can receive.

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In the end, we measure the success and short-comings of mobile tag marketing with open minds. By using Microsoft® Tag technology and Google Analytics we're able to get some reporting that is inline with our expectations. But for now, the obvious success of these tag endeavors is that we have clients excited to be utilizing cutting-edge technology as we pave the way for future marketing.

Download the Microsoft® Tag reader app and keep a keen eye out for tags... have fun!

Do you get your kicks from graphs, data strings, analytics and reports? Do you dream of building mind blowing research, web and social media reports that would make your grandma weep in amazement? Well our research and interactive team does. They are the cream of the crop hipster nerds. But to do these amazing tasks, sometimes they need an extra hand to pull a lever or push a button.




THE SUMMER RESEARCH AND INTERACTIVE INTERN! You can check out the full details of this internship and apply here. But long description short... we're looking for the right guy or gal to come in here and jump right in. Being hip on the web, social media and research is a great starting point, but we're also looking for someone who can analyze the results of campaigns and gather all the details. Cool, eh?

And here come the sweet bonuses
We believe that interns play an important role in the make-up of Flynn Wright. So, you're not only going to get the chance to work with the best client list in Des Moines right out of the gate. But you'll also get all the free caffeine you want be it coffee or Coke products. You'll get to spend the summer in downtown Des Moines and not worry about paying for parking. You'll get the valuable experience that everyone will be ragingly jealous about. And...you'll get paid!

So get the full details and apply.

Denver web design company, Aten Design Group, will hold a tongue-in-cheek funeral for Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6 (IE6) on March 4 to signify the over-the-hill browser's deterioration. Aten announced IE6's funeral on Monday with a site, ie6funeral.com, which offered a short obituary and an invitation to a wake.

"Internet Explorer 6, resident of the interwebs for over eight years, died the morning of March 1, 2010, in Mountain View, California, as a result of a workplace injury sustained at the headquarters of Google, Inc." The obit continues, "Internet Explorer 6, known to friends and family as 'IE6,' is survived by son Internet Explorer 7, and grand-daughter Internet Explorer 8."
- From ie6funeral.com

The Google reference comes from the company's announcement to drop support of the horribly aged, no-good browser IE6. Other online services are also jumping in and dropping their support, including YouTube on March 13.

For us web designers, this is reason to crack out the champagne and caviar and have a party to celebrate. If you're not a web designer, this may mean absolutely nothing to you and you will therefore have no idea what the big deal is. So allow me to clarify... IE6 is a web designer's NIGHTMARE! The amount of hacks and work-arounds you need to do to get a site to look correct in IE6 can be downright obnoxious at times.

The way I tend to work when designing a website is by occasionally previewing it on my native Firefox and Safari browser. But then I get to that point... that scary, dreaded point... where I walk to the Windows laptop and launch IE6. And low and behold, while everything looked great in Firefox, Safari, IE7 and 8... in IE6 it looks like I just put the computer in a blender and tried to make a smoothie. GGGRRRRR!!!!

So thank you Aten for helping to make it official!

R.I.P. IE6