Masters Allen have been working with midlands based telecommunications company Daly Telecom on their rebrand.

Daly Telecom recognised the need to future-proof their business, viewing the situation as an opportunity to expand their client base and move into new markets.

It was clear that the name needed addressing first and foremost, whilst it may be familiar to the current client base, it restricted their product offering and development into new markets. We had to establish a name that not only retained the 25 year heritage within the industry, but also provide a solution to take the business forward in an ever-changing and fast-moving industry. The solution, as it turned out, was simple – a removal of the reference to telecommunications, combined with the retention of the Daly name and reference to communications, joined together, created the individual name – Dalycom.

The new brand and design style has been applied to a variety of visual assets to create a consistent and coherent business message.

Ask yourself the question, which is the most popular web browser? A few years ago it was Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 (IE6). From January 2009 Fire Fox by a slim margin is the most popular web browser. Latest figures suggest Fire Fox has 45.5% of the share of overall usage and IE6 and IE7 together total 44.3%. 

These statistics tell us Fire Fox and other non IE browsers should not be ignored by web designers when creating websites. Subtle differences between makes and versions of browsers have always been a problem for web designers. Some of these differences include the way objects on a web page are aligned (horizontal and vertical alignment) and margin and padding properties around objects. Typically the more complicated the graphical design, the more difficult it is to code the web page to display correctly across common browsers. The browser statistics (below) are sourced from a really useful website W3schools.com

Thankfully the situation is getting better as time goes on as all web browsers adhere more closely to the W3C Standards (WWW Consortium). Also the web browser statistics tell us that older versions of web browsers do not need to be catered for as very few people are using them e.g. IE5. What this means for web designers is they have to test new websites not just in IE7 or Fire Fox but several other versions and makes of browsers. For example Safari for Mac users.

Computer screen sizes need to be considered too by web designers. With the availability of wide screens for PCs and laptops the standard web page viewing size is changing too. Eighteen months ago the recommended viewing width for a web page would have been 800 pixels or less. Now web designers can afford to design wider web pages because statistics are telling us users have 1024 pixels wide by 786 pixels high screens or wider. Some websites are even using fluid web page designs with means the web page grows to the width of the display.

Click on the images to see the full statistics from W3schools browser statistics.

Web 2.0 content is really starting to become useful in making purchasing decisions. User feedback and customers reviews on websites can aid the website visitor in making a decision and website owners shouldn’t be afraid to allow users and visitors to add comments or post reviews on websites.

Just recently, whilst searching for a hotel in the Lake District, new Lake Windermere, I was taken on a journey across a number of websites reviewing content and ended up on www.activehotels.com. The web 2.0 content there was extremely helpful in understanding a lot more about the resort, the facilities and the hotels available there, right down to reading reviews from people of a similar demographic and their thoughts about not only the hotel itself but about the specific rooms that they stayed in.

This was followed up by a quick call to the hotel to check availability of the exact room that we were interested in. Not only did we manage to book that room but we got a significant discount off the prices on the internet!

Without doubt we will be leaving our review on the very same website in the hope that other visitors will benefit from our comments. Hotels are just one example, but web 2.0 content could be used in any industry from automotive to telecoms, any website should consider the opportunities offered by this new wave of interactive web content.

What makes viral marketing work. Well a great way is to come up with something fascinating, that will make people surprised, scratch their heads, laugh or perhaps cry… or maybe a combination of all of the above. We came across this bit of viral marketing that certainly made us chuckle and it found itself on our website.

Full Screen:

awareness_test4

If that isn’t proof about whether it works then perhaps a search for this video online will explain. (Go to Google and search for moonwalking bear!)

Did you guess the number by the way?