TDG BlogStream

Great Scott! … Scott Bruce, that is

We have a couple of new faces around the office here at TDG. Scott Bruce is the new Director of Business Development and Client Services. Tyler Restvedt joined the team as Web Developer and Graphic Designer.

It’s been a lot of fun getting to know Scott and Tyler, and seeing the new enthusiasm they bring to our little shop on Sherman Street. I think introductions are in order. Let’s start with Scott.

Scott Harley Bruce — yes, Harley really is his middle name — was born to sell. He has fond memories of childhood trips across the Midwest with his dad, a traveling salesman for grocery wholesaler Nash Finch. He grew up in Rapid City and did a stint in the Navy as a communications radioman and ship’s swimmer. (His job was to jump in the water and save people when the sea was too rough for rescue boats.)

He has a Black Hills State degree in business management, emphasis in marketing and advertising. He’s co-owned retail companies and done business consulting. But his true love is marketing. Scott has 22 years in broadcast and newspaper advertising in South Dakota, Colorado, Montana and Nebraska. As Director of Business Development, he’s looking for clients who need the kind of marketing muscle that only a full-service agency like TDG can offer.

- DAN DALY

Chubby Chipmunk’s new website: Sweet!

We’ve been busy building websites this summer. Haven’t had time to toot our own horns. But this one, for Chubby Chipmunk Hand-Dipped Chocolates, still makes my mouth water just looking at it.

Chip Tautkus — who, by the way, is not chubby at all — was a lot of fun to work with. She’s creative (obviously) and passionate about the subtle tastes and senses that come from the finest chocolates. This site blends well with her less-is-more aesthetic.

We’re especially happy about the photo work. Shooting pictures of food is not as easy as it looks. But the Chubby Chipmunk truffles on these pages look so good you can almost taste them …. which we did, right after the shoot.

-DAN DALY

(Source: chubbychipmunk.net)

Picture Rapid City’s Past is up!

TDG has been working the Rapid City Historic Preservation Commission on a very cool project that uses QR codes to let people stand on a downtown Rapid City  sidewalk and see historic photos of the same buildings before them.

Commissioners put 20 QR codes, in the form of window stickers, in various downtown storefronts. To see a photo, you just scan the code with your smartphone, tablet computer or iPad. The photo pops up, along with a small story about the picture.

We unveiled the project yesterday, and Picture Rapid City’s Past got some great press, including Derek Olson’s nice piece on KELO-TV. Give it a watch. He does a great job of explaining it.

— DAN

Joomla - 30 Million Strong and Growing

When you do one thing day in and day out (building kick ass websites, in my case) you can sometimes loose some perspective. Of course when that perspective involves the Internet it’s pretty easy to lose. 

In April, the folks at Joomla (IMHO the worlds best website platform and the software we use at TDG) laid down some statistics that stopped me in my tracks. Joomla runs 2.7% of ALL WEBSITES ON THE INTERNET. That translates into over 1.6 million websites worldwide. The software has been downloaded 30 million times. 9,500 extension or plugins have been written for Joomla to give it added super powers. Not bad for a software project that’s less than 7 years old and has a name that’s hard to spell.

Why?

Without getting too nerdy, Joomla allows a web geek like me to build any kind of website I can think of. It’s the “Swiss Army Knife” of content management system websites. Flexible, powerful and easy to use. That’s why 99.9% of all websites TDG builds now are built using Joomla. 

Another key factor in Joomla’s growth is that a significant number of government agencies are turning to Joomla for their websites, blogs and intranets. The new Joomla 2.5 allows us to affordably build out large, content driven websites without killing their budgets. 

With Joomla running 2.7% of the Internet with everything from small personal blogs to uber-large enterprise websites, here are some companies and organizations that rely on Joomla. 

• Citibank
• eBay
• General Electric 
• Harvard University
• Ikea
• McDonald’s
• Sony
• MTV
• Mexico City
• Government of Greece
• Barnes & Noble
• U.K. Ministry of Defense
• High Court of Australia
• Pizza Hut
• United Nations
• European Union
• Holiday Inn
• Kelloggs
• Linux.com
• Orange
• Jaguar

- Jack

What the ‘L’? It’s a very important letter

There’s an old saying — OK, I just made it up — Anything that is printed can be misprinted. One letter in a word can change its meaning. And there’s nothing you can do about it. It’s not funny … when it’s your mistake. Case in point: this printed piece from the University of Texas School of Public Affairs — not Pubic Affairs.

(Source: prdaily.com)

It Pays to Do Photo Research

Lazy graphic designers and cheap clients, beware: copyright infringement isn’t the worst thing that can happen when you source photos from the internet. An article on the BBC website this morning illustrates that the consequences can be much worse in some cases - for example, when you use a photo from one of the most well-known child disappearance cases in recent history. Oops. Paying for real stock photo research and usage can be a pain, but a cease-and-desist letter definitely isn’t the worst possible outcome.

Does Your Klout Score Matter?

In general, I think people pay a bit too much attention to Klout scores. They’re a useful metric, but they’re certainly not a window into anyone’s soul. Still, people in the marketing universe are more commonly using them as a hiring tool, and companies are starting to use them as a way to evaluate their customers. According to an article in Wired, if you have a high Klout score, you might just get an unexpected hotel room upgrade or extra online shopping discounts.

I’ve got an itch for ‘The Pitch’

OK, I’ve never been a real fan of reality television. I’ve always been convinced that there is very little reality in reality TV. But last night I saw AMC’s “The Pitch,” and I have to admit I was fascinated.

I’ve done a few pitches with the TDG team. You work out your ideas, go in, make your case, go back to the office and wait for the phone to ring. Sometimes you win; sometimes not. It always reminds me of closing arguments in a jury trial. 

However, in a jury trial both attorneys get to hear each other’s closing. That doesn’t happen in advertising. I have this nagging desire to see what the OTHER guys are pitching. I want to compare our ideas with theirs. See what works and what doesn’t work.

That’s what I like about “The Pitch.” You get to see how both agencies build their ideas into campaigns, create their visuals, etc. How they present it all to the client.

On the AMC website, there’s this whole chat network debates the merits of both agencies. … I might have to drop a line or two next time I see the show.

(Source: amctv.com)

“Driving It Is Better Than Your Last 4 Romantic Encounters”

Spotted over on Regretsy, what may be the best used car ad ever posted on Craigslist:

There’s been a lot of hyperbole in ads lately - particularly ads targeted to men (*cough*Old Spice*cough) - but this ad seems to pull it off without seeming derivative or tired. In fact, it’s a great example of how awesome an ad can be when the seller isn’t afraid to take some risks. I hope this guy is a copywriter somewhere.

Marketers + Mathematicians = Your Secrets

Marketers call it “predictive analytics.” Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov called it “psychohistory” and wrote his Foundation series around the idea. The end result is pretty much the same: using historical statistics, psychology and mathematical algorithms, it’s possible to predict a person’s behavior and life events.

Take, for instance, the marketers at Target who were able to predict a teenage girl’s pregnancy before her father. Not surprisingly, the Target marketing team wasn’t happy that particular story made it into the New York Times.

PBS, NFL, DIY Viewers Most Likely to Buy

Want people most likely to buy your product? Try ads on the NFL and DIY Networks. PBS Kids Sprout wouldn’t hurt you, either. A story over on Media Daily News reports that a new study from Beta Research ranks cable networks according to which viewers are “most likely to buy products advertised.” Other networks that do well include Food Network, Disney XD and Nick Jr. I don’t know about you, but I detect some young mommies in that audience profile…