Retailers are facing increasingly difficult times, with high streets closing around the country.
Large conglomerates such as Woolworths and Game felt the cold hand of bankruptcy, disappearing from the streets, and it came as no surprise when Clinton Cards - another stalwart of the high street; announced they had gone into administration.
Sales fell by over 3 % and losses were in excess of £3.7m, many blamed the arrival of moonpig.com, and other similar on-line companies, which led to a dramatic drop in footfall. However, these companies cannot be fully to blame - Clintons missed the one advantage of being on the high street – interacting with customers.
Over the past few years we’ve seen supermarkets and other leading companies produce loyalty cards to reward and incentivise their customers, which in turn leads to greater customer loyalty and campaign lead products to tailor the individuals needs.
This is a proven weapon in the campaign to seduce the customer. Without knowing if your products are proving a success how do you measure a products lifespan, or increase loyalty?
Clintons became complacent of their position as a leading card manufacture - the lack of customer engagement was the key to their downfall!
Sorry for the delay in this month's browser statistics, but below are the statistics as of the beginning of May 2012. As per previous months, we are just focusing on the last browser version, and every version with % market share above 1%.
Global
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 9: 15.91%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8: 26.22%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 7: 4.14%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6: 7.11%
- Mozilla Firefox 12: 0.84%
- Mozilla Firefox 11: 11.35%
- Mozilla Firefox 10: 1.19%
- Mozilla Firefox 3.6: 2.43%
- Google Chrome 18: 13.97%
- Google Chrome 17: 2.01%
- Apple Safari 5.1: 3.49%
- Opera 11.6: 1.43%
UK:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 9: 21.57%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8: 13.25%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 7: 1.78%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6: 1.40%
- Mozilla Firefox 12: 0.84%
- Mozilla Firefox 11: 4.56%
- Mozilla Firefox 3.6: 1.35%
- Google Chrome 18: 27.33%
- Apple Safari 5.1: 5.79%
- Apple Safari 5.0: 1.62%
Sources: StatCounter Global Stats and NetMarketShare.
It's that time again, for us to tell you about all the things we love
We are reading:
We are watching:
We are listening too:
We have been inspired by:
It was four weeks ago that I first began showing up to manage resources, crack the whip and generally do project manager type things. I came from a large corporation where I’d spent my time in web project management, account management, copywriting, SEO and dabbled in UX. With a solid understanding of the digital world and a lust for learning I was all prepared for a smooth start into my agency life. It wasn’t long however before I realised that my security blanket of structure and routine was gone, replaced with a hugely creative environment that thrived on flexibility and challenge. I didn’t know anyone’s name, my desk didn’t have a computer and my initial introduction was coupled with cookies. Welcome to Creative Jar.
My first job was to pick up some maintenance work for a big client who had numerous sites. I was astounded to find that there was no central document with client names, website addresses, log-in details and generally all those little things that help you make a start on running a project which is already mid-way through. I asked around and discovered that every other project manager had these details in their head! It wasn’t long before I wondered how I would ever get up to speed with the numerous projects that felt like they were being assigned to me on a daily basis, while simultaneously getting to know my colleagues and not going insane.
It was two weeks before I felt like I was being a productive member of the team and it was also at this time that I landed my first print job. Under the wing of a senior project manager I was shown the internal procedures for getting a job set-up, approved, and moving forward. I revelled in having a project that was my own with nice clients who provided things on time.
It was strange starting a similar role in a totally foreign environment. Tasks which I was well versed in suddenly seemed completely new and I was constantly questioning whether I was doing things the right, or rather the 'Creative Jar' way. Over the coming weeks everything came together – I even learnt people’s names and occasionally made them laugh. I was settling in and things didn’t seem so alien any more. I’m now working on nine projects with more on the way. I’m enjoying the thrill of seeing work completed and clients happy. I know there’ll be more challenges to come but the good thing is my award winning agency is full of people who rock at their jobs and will be there to help deliver fantastic projects.
The five most memorable experiences this month:
- Seeing my manager drink his own body weight in tea
- Seeing team members given R&D time to keep abreast of digitial evolutions
- Waking up at 8am and still being early to work
- Listening to the philosophical debates of the tech team over rounds of fussball
- Visiting one of our print suppliers to see my project ‘on the press’
QR codes have been embraced by businesses everywhere - you can't open a magazine without spotting a few amongst the advertisers. Supermarkets, drink cans and food packets use them for extra promotion - they truly are "the norm".
But.. are they soon to be defunct?
It is well known that they are not reliable across devices, with many choosing to Google the results instead of waiting for the QR code to work its magic.
There is also the security issue of a code - with small url's we have the ability to discover what is hidden beneath a bit.ly, but there is no way to find out what is on a QR code before you snap and go - which could open up the possibility of malicious spyware.
So, what is the alternative? There have been rumours that Newsflash will eclipse QR codes. NewsFlash is an app that uses your smartphone's rear camera to pick up flashing color codes on electronic signs that are imperceptible to the human eye.
It is still in tech stages, and users still have to scan an image to get to the end result - one thing is for sure, NewsFlash is being developed for digital, and may never truly compete with QR codes.
QR is just the first step in the development of apps that can assist us in merging the on and offline world.
There’s nothing better than getting your hands on some fresh new tech. While it might not have the same appeal as when you get that new desktop or laptop home and get a to take off the protective wrappers and start your good housekeeping (backup discs, anti-virus, etc) before installing everything nice and fresh for the first time, getting a new server for a client, setup ready with the basics to be configured has its own rewards. Albeit over RDP.
You’re going to be deploying on this box, developing sites you want to perform well. So you want to get it right and make it the best setup possible – for you and the client.
I thought I would gather together the key items that you definitely want to get right plus show you how to make best use of the disk space available (depending on your setup).
My bit of tech has the system on a C:\ drive running on a RAID 1 setup with a D:\ drive left free to play with on RAID 5 setup. This is where use of disk space comes in. We have the luxury of the potential to expand our D:\ drive in the future with the minimum of fuss (in theory) because of the RAID 5 setup. Given that this server needs to grow with our client and their hosting needs it makes sense that we host the websites and their databases on this drive rather than the C:\ drive.
So in with the basics of FTP and SMTP, I’ll also show you how to go about migrating your default configuration to another volume on your server. This is also the typical order of priority I would give these tasks.
FTP
To install the FTP service on Windows Server 2008 follow the steps below.
NB: Windows Server 2008 R2 will be a different process.
- On the Start menu, click Administrative Tools, and then click Server Manager
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In the Server Manager Pane, in the Roles Summary section, click Web Server (IIS)
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In the Web Server (IIS) section, click Add Role Services.
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Under Role services, select FTP Publishing Service. This will install the FTP service and the FTP management console.
- Click Next, and then click Install.
Using IIS6 for FTP use the following steps to complete the setup:
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Right click the Default FTP Site and view the Properties
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Set the home directory to D:\inetpub for example
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Set Directory Security to ‘Denied’ and add the CJ IP addresses
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View the Security Accounts – the user account used here must be added to the Directory permissions on D:\inetpub with ‘Full Control’
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Ensure the FTP site is started
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Finally test – this setup will allow CJ access using the server IP address and anonymous access ticked.
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The service is a manual service so locate the ‘FTP Publishing Service’ in ‘Services’ and set startup to ‘Automatic’.
IIS
Your default setup would in theory normally suffice here but we want to move IIS to the RAID 5 setup. To do this there are a number of scripts you need to run, a little tedious but well worth it! They’re well documented here: http://blogs.iis.net/thomad/archive/2008/02/10/moving-the-iis7-inetpub-directory-to-a-different-drive.aspx
SQL
To make the most of the RAID 5 setup we’re going to move SQL Server across to the RAID 5 volume. The links below document in detail how to do this. Follow the steps exactly and you won’t go wrong.
SMTP
This configuration has SMTP running in IIS6. Some useful links are below to aid in setting up your SMTP service.
If your server doesn’t have IIS already installed then this website could help you with that too: http://www.itsolutionskb.com/2008/11/installing-and-configuring-windows-server-2008-smtp-server/
Fortunately for me SMTP is already installed so I just needed to configure it. The applications that would be running on this server were ASP.NET – this website was handy in getting things setup too:
http://devlicio.us/blogs/mike_nichols/archive/2008/05/07/configuring-iis-6-0-to-send-mail-via-smtp-for-asp-net-applications.aspx
One of the key things for me was securing the SMTP relay to ensure it couldn’t be hijacked. Here are the steps I followed:
The SMTP service is most likely to be disabled so despite configuring IIS 6 SMTP you won’t be able to start the service.
- View the service list in the Server Manager and locate ‘Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and change the status from ‘disabled’ to ‘Automatic’.
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Then start the SMTP service in IIS 6.
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In IIS 6 right click the SMTP Virtual Server and view ‘Properties’
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Under the ‘Access’ tab click on ‘Relay Restrictions’
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Select the option ‘Only the list below’
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Add the IP: 127.0.0.1
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Add the IP of the SMTP Relay
If you don’t know the IP address of the SMTP Relay, enable logging in IIS 6 and run the Telnet test (see below). Access the log file on the server under: C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\SMTPSVC1
This will show the IP address attempting to relay the email. You need to allow this.
Run a test in command prompt using Telnet: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/323350
Something spectacular happened last week - no not stuffing our faces full of Easter Eggs; but the rather more marvellous Award we received from RAR.
We have always been proud of our work; our passion and drive can be seen in everything we do, whether it is a mobile app, a website or a complete brand transformation.
Last Wednesday, Alex, Gareth and Charlotte made the journey to London to anxiously await our fate.
The nerves around the table were palpable, with murmurs of “wouldn’t it be great if…” and “I hope it is us”.
Finally, when the award for Best in Digital was announced there was a communal hold of breath before the announcer declared Creative Jar the winner.
We were incredibly proud to achieve industry recognition for our work. Winning the award is testament to the Creative Jar team, and the hard work they have invested over the last year, and it would not have been possible without the support and belief of our fantastic clients.
Our clients had this to say about us:
"Creative Jars digital capability is nothing short of excellent. They have top quality developers who understand and get to grips with the issues quickly and efficiently."
"Have worked with CJ for a number of years, Their creative is excellent, Their account teams excellent and their execution excellent. Truly a pleasure to work with. They have helped us develop a new corporate identity and apply it across all our collateral and develop a new website to very specific requirements and cost parameters."
Although the whole team couldn’t share the excitement of the evening, they were all quick to re-tweet and share their enjoyment in other ways.
Since the ceremony, the whole office is abuzz with renewed vigour as we are all looking forward to the next award we will win!
What we are reading:
- Lance Armstrong, It's not about the bike
- Gypsy Boy On the Run by Mikey Walsh
- Jill Mansfield, Over the Moon
- Mansfield park - by Jane Austin
What we are watching:
- Game of Thrones
- Boardwalk Empire
- The Undateables
- Silent witness
- Blackadder
What we are listening to:
- Rush
- Emeli Sande
- Robin Thicke
- Apologies, I Have None, London
- Alabama Shakes, Album: Boys & Girls
What we are inspired by:
Google has just announced that it is giving Bloggers the ability to place a +1 and a Google+ badge on their website.
+1 is comparable to a Facebook like - giving readers the opportunity to voice their (positive) opinion of the blog, and linking it to their own site.
Whereas the Google + badge connects the blogger to their Google + profile, so readers can get more levels of interaction with the blogger.
Google is trying really hard to step up its social media and make Google+ as interactive as possible - they are spending thousands on advertisements to get people talking about their product - but, are people really using it?
Google likes to claim it is the fastest growing site in history - although this may be the case, a lot of people have signed up out of curiosity or because they use other Google products, such as gmail, and then they aren't revisiting.
Google itself has been pretty vague on how much interaction goes on within Google+ and it is no wonder they are confused, if you are a gmail user then you are automatically signed in to + - what are the day, week, month contributions to + and when are Google going to let us know?
Is this foray into social networking just a big flop?
Below are the statistics as of the beginning of April 2012. As per previous months, we are just focusing on the last browser version, and every version with % market share above 1%.
Global
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 9: 15.17%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8: 25.40%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 7: 4.48%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6: 6.90%
- Mozilla Firefox 11: 4.23%
- Mozilla Firefox 10: 7.79%
- Mozilla Firefox 3.6: 2.68%
- Google Chrome 18: 0.39%
- Google Chrome 17: 14.73%
- Apple Safari 5.1: 3.45%
- Opera 11.6: 1.39%
UK:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 9: 21.65%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 8: 10.06%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 7: 1.88%
- Microsoft Internet Explorer 6: 1.40%
- Mozilla Firefox 11: 14.22%
- Mozilla Firefox 10: 1.85%
- Mozilla Firefox 3.6: 1.74%
- Google Chrome 18: 14.32%
- Google Chrome 17: 14.79%
- Apple Safari 5.1: 5.6%
- Apple Safari 5.0: 1.74%
Sources: StatCounter Global Stats and NetMarketShare.