Now I’ve always known about the push not pull mechanism, the high relevancy of the messages from this brand new media by opting into what’s important to you but to be honest I’ve only known it as in I read-it-in-Wired-have-and-have-three-followers-to-my-stale-account of way rather than felt it in my heart.

But today I was embroiled in a crises. Being a manager rather than a useful person my job is to give updates. What suddenly came into focus today was that do you know? It’s a full time job. I had 6 MSN windows, 3 Skype windows, 134 emails through the day and 3.5 water cooler conversations (the .5 was the one where  I walked away from my poor listener whilst still talking).

How much easier would it have been to just tweet. I could have given each update once and all my fans, sorry, interested parties could have followed. They wouldn’t have had to ask me a thing. AND they could have been proactive in trying other things whilst seeing the mess I was making. I think it’s a while until our more structured clients would buy in but I’d hate to imagine the time it would saved throughout the day.

I had a play with the Salesforce implementation which looked quite handy but I’m hoping there is an easier way. There are other companies using companies such as Yammer https://www.yammer.com and you can even host it yourself http://visionwidget.com/toolz/8-web-development/379-open-source-microblogging-applications.html

We are giving Yammer a go over the next few weeks. If you want to know how we get on Follow my twitter @steve_king. OK, don’t bother – but feel free to drop us a line .

http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=15for

His site ‘What I Made’ won one award chosen by the judges and one chosen by the people.

We agree and we all love the site; a lot of us have even tried a few things. Some more successful than others.

What I made lives here http://www.whatimade.com/

What we end up doing is downgrading the experience for 96.5% of the population so that the other 3.5% can see it. Our bandwidth hungry friends at Youtube have a unique answer to this; a large message telling everyone to go install a better browser. Or push off.

Even Microsoft have also come to the party now with a truly inspired website. The only time I have ever see a company actively get rid of their most successful product;

 http://ie6countdown.com/

But why is IE6 still alive?

If you ask the average web designer why they think IE6 hasn’t died off they will probably point to some rune stones, a headless horse and an evil pact made by Bill Gates to Satan himself.

My personal experience to why it just hasn’t been upgraded is just necessity. IE6 is still responsible for 3.5% of the web traffic in the UK purely down to major corporates and government offices, this is what happens;

1.) Large corporate accepts the internet as a security risk and IE6 is already installed on computers. You never get fired for sticking with the safe option.

2.) IE7 comes out.

3.) I.T. departments worldwide begin to scan it for security defects before users can install it.

4.) This takes too long with stretched resources.

5.) IE8 comes out.

6.) Work IE7 security testing stops, resources moved to IE8 security scanning (“We’ll skip IE7 and go straight to IE8…”)

7.) Go to 3.) and repeat….

So this leaves us who care about the internet in a bother. Both of our top 2 clients use IE6. IE6 does not support any new technologies like HTML5. As much as we will try and persuade them our clients still don’t like it when their boss phones and says “our brand new site doesn’t work on my computer”

If you are reading this at work, in a large corporate on a trusty copy of IE6 -perhaps you would be so kind as to forward onto your local IT department and demand an upgrade. If enough of us complain we can create the necessity and finally start on web

If it’s good enough for Nokia and the Swedes its good enough for me. Soon us ‘Bill-lovers’ will be swimming in apps but for those of you, like me, that are on the bleeding edge of mobile telephone technology and not fooled by the faceless, functionless form of Jobs, in possession of one of the Google phones that are so “open” that no apps work across all handsets,  stuck in a 16 year corporate contract with Blackberry; here’s my top ten apps for Windows 7.

It should be noted that these are all my own thoughts only and not at all related to the ‘apps for all’ vision of Digital Jigsaw Ltd and Inc.

1.)    One Note. If you are clever enough to have it on your PC, then you can sync it with your phone too. One Note, One Love.

2.)    Facebook. Zzzzz. OK then, Seesmic

3.)    Last FM.

4.)    Calorie Counter (I’m told OptumizeMe is great too)

5.)    Ted

6.)    Shop Savvy

7.)    Need for Speed™ Undercover

8.)    Swipy Man (What a name?!)

9.)    Youtube.

10.) Shazam

Should keep you busy. If you want any of these apps click here and search http://www.microsoft.com/windowsphone/en-us/apps/default.aspx

Steve King – Technical Director

Jigsaw worked closely with Walkers to create web and mobile sites that are engaging and in keeping with the wider campaign. Both sites encourage consumers to share content across Facebook and Twitter; videos and photos from the shoots and behind the scenes footage.

The Fun Stuff area on the web site features a variety of interactive content including; ‘Comic Street Clash’ – a flash game involving ingredients from the comedians’ flavours, a ‘Funny Photo Tool’  which allows consumers to pose with their favourite comedian, an ‘Ebay Charity Auction’ where signed Clash of the Comics memorabilia is up for grabs and the chance to ‘Be a Video Star’ in a Walkers viral advert.

Consumers  are able to opt-in to follow the Clash of the Comics and to hear from their favourite comedian with all eCRM content tailored to these preferences.

Visit http://walkers.co.uk/clashofthecomics/ or m.walkers.co.uk on your mobile.

Designed to encourage fans to not only to ‘Like’ their Facebook page but to capture the full spirit of the Habaneros, the campaign encourages fans to interact with the brand by uploading creative examples of Habanero Spirit in exchange for a  chance to win a holiday to Cuba.
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Based on Jigsaw’s propriety UGC platform that has powered numerous ITV and Walkers campaigns, the Habanero Spirt campaign is the first time it has been fully integrated  into Facebook which will see it become the hub of all Havana Club activity this year.
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In addition to above and below advertising campaigns, Jigsaw continue to deliver an engaging eCRM programme designed to keep recipients up to date with the competition, Havana Club news and events and the chance to win money can’t buy prizes.

At the close of 2010 we had delivered over thirty applications across virtually every platform in the marketplace.  For 2011 it looks like apps will remain high on the agenda, but this year our clients are being much more prescriptive in terms of functionality, ROI and how it fits into their wider marketing and product strategy.

Already many of our clients, both at home and abroad, are asking us for version two of an app we created for them in 2010 (indeed for some we’re onto version three and even four).  All of which have added functionality, greater reach across different platforms and greater integration with loyalty, reward and brand strategies.

Our assessment of 2010 from a apps perspective is that it has exceeded our expectations on all fronts.  Our teams have grown dramatically and our creativity is much stronger than ever before.

We’re seeing that more and more clients are seeing applications as a core component of their digital marketing strategies and not just a bolt-on.  Each has to ‘wash its face’ commercially as well as creatively – particularly across the retail and publishing sectors.

I’m not one for making too many predictions, but if pushed, I would suggest that clients should spend time with agencies, working out their application and mobile strategy to deliver products that allow their customers to continually interact with their brand.  Fitting in with consumer’s everyday lives and habitual routines will be the smartest route to long-terms success for brands, and creating branded and creative utilities to fit in with these routines will be essential.  Just look at the way in which applications like National Rail and MyO2 are being used by consumers to interact with brands.

Jigsaw app case studies and visuals can be viewed here

Here’s to hugely successful 2011!

What’s your app strategy?  To find out more email David

www.digital-jigsaw.com

Digital agency, Jigsaw, today announced the appointment of Creative Director, Scott Bedford to bolster Jigsaw’s management team.  Scott will bring a rich creative pedigree to the company’s technological expertise in delivering multichannel campaigns that push loyalty, sales and engagement across the web, mobile internet and applications for clients including Walkers, O2, Doritos, Tropicana, News International and Vodafone.  

Prior to joining Jigsaw Scott worked as Digital Creative Director at Carlson Marketing with clients including Müller and Hyundai, developing an agency wide multichannel strategy that combined digital, social media, direct marketing and sales promotion.   At Carlson Scott was instrumental in winning the ‘Coke Football’ digital account and also led the Lurpak account, for which the agency won several DMA awards around the ‘Saturday is breakfast day’ campaign.

Scott has also held the positions of Creative Director at Agency.com (2004 – 2005) and Syzygy (2005 – 2008) leading the digital and creative teams on accounts such as Mercedes-Benz, Citroen, Channel 4, Harvey Nichols and the pan-European Mazda account. 

Dominic Murray, Managing Director at Digital Jigsaw said: “Jigsaw has a proven track record in creating global digital campaigns for some of the biggest brands in the FMCG sector.  We’ve achieved this success by marrying our technological expertise to an evolved understanding of how to engage consumers across all digital channels. 

“Scott brings the highest level of creativity to this mix, making our approach innovative, integrated and robust.  We welcome Scott to the team.   

Scott Bedford, Creative Director at Digital Jigsaw said: “Jigsaw has already completed some impressive work that demonstrates a real demand for its multichannel, results driven ethos.  I’m looking forward to being part of the agency helping to refine its creative approach and contribute to its ongoing success.”   

Digital Jigsaw is part of the Mobile Interactive Group.

Being designed and built with the fans of one of the most famous football clubs in the world specifically in mind, Jigsaw is proud both to be working with the best in the sporting industry and for delivering this astonishing new Chelsea FC App. Implementing new rich media audio and premium video features the user experience has been drastically enhanced and this will help drive engagement and awareness of the club.  The combination of streamlining the design of the user interface with new functionality and high quality content is key to the ongoing success of this App.

Download the application  here  http://bit.ly/chelseaapp