inFUSION

Not so flawless Facebook

Damien Mair — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:30:00 GMT

Despite having nearly a billion people actively using Facebook, their user interface has some problems. Facebook is meant to be helping us connect and find our friends, but its search function is actually hindering this fundamental process.

After watching my wife try to find a friend we knew was in Facebook I discovered that the use of Facebook's predictive search was actually making it really difficult to find friends. The search is limiting results to the top exact matches and hiding all the rest. If there is not an exact match to your search you are given a tiny message "top 0 results" and need to click through to see the rest of the search result. My wife didn't realise she had (or could) click through. I then observed a few other people at Fusion use Facebook and they overlooked this important link as well. How many people have NOT connected with their friends and family due to this user interface flaw?

Limiting search results has its benefits when there are a huge amount of findings, but when there are no top results or exact matches you should a least be shown the closest option. The problem with the click through to view results is that it relies on the user reading that this is a link. A link should intuitively look like a link, without relying on someone reading its text. Which would be a very simple fix for Facebook to make.

With user observation and testing Facebook would have discovered this flaw easily themselves. Usability testing is a fundamental process to ensure your customers can easily move through your website and achieve their goals. Being confronted with no search results or no possible friends is not what Facebook has been built on.

With the impending public float, the value of Facebook's connections between friends is core to the sustainable growth of the business; an ever growing network of people putting thier faces to brands. I will look on with interest to see if this Facebook flaw is corrected over the coming months. Maybe if the do implement a fix, they can throw me a few shares for highlighting the issue :-)

Conversions: Analytics are more than just visits

Celsius — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 14:30:00 GMT

Back in the earlier days of websites and how we analysed them, you would be beating your chest about how many visitors your site was getting versus your mates - "ours gets 1,000 visitors per day, it's doing great guns", "oh but our site gets 10,000 a day so I'm going to be a very rich man" and so on. But then your smarter mate comes in and says "our site gets 500 conversions a day and I bet my site is more successful than yours" - and I bet he's right...

Visits to your website are great and easily measured in Google Analytics. These usually provide a good snapshot of how active your site is; often they’re the biggest number too so there is still a level of bragging rights. Visits also mean there are people coming to your site and they are having a look around at your content which allows for brand recognition and users are likely finding information they're after. But visits alone don’t tell us where users are coming from and what they are doing.

The true value of measuring what is happening on your site comes from capturing conversions - completing a task on the site to achieve something of value to the user and something of value to you. A simple conversion could be a successful contact - a user visits the contact form on your site and successfully fills out the form. The value for the user is that they were able to pass on their message and you have achieved a communication line to a possible client.

Conversions can be as sophisticated as you want and just require a bit of upfront thinking.

Let’s look at an example. You create a campaign where you offer your customers a downloadable voucher (in PDF format). To promote the campaign you might be using Google AdWords to link them to your campaign page. Additionally, you may also be running some print or TV ads that have a unique URL that directs the visitor to the same campaign page as the AdWords do. Ideally, for this campaign, you would want to know which visitors came from which source and therefore which marketing spend was the most effective.

The easiest way to measure your conversions is to integrate specific code into the site that provides extra information to your analytics.

To measure how a visitor got to your campaign page:

For your Google Adwords, you could add a set of parameters to the end of each link URL so you can track their origin
For your print and TV ads, you could choose a unique URL (www.companyname.com/voucher) that immediately redirects the visitor to the campaign page separating these visitors from your AdWords visitors

Once they’re on the page, you can measure how effective this campaign is by how many people downloaded the voucher (completing the conversion), by:

Inserting extra code on the link pointing to the voucher that can track when someone has downloaded the file, as well as identify their origin (did they come directly, from Adwords or from the URL that they saw in print or on TV?).

This example simply illustrates how you can provide much richer information when measuring your campaign’s success. By adopting good conversion practices when building your campaigns or websites, you can measure success in Google Analytics far more accurately, and not rely on visits alone.

As a good practice, when the objectives of your campaign or website are defined, we can create a number of valuable conversion strategies to match these. These strategies not only allow you to measure your success and return on investment, but also provide you with ample bragging rights with your mates!

Fusion win at the AADC Awards

Celsius — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 13:30:00 GMT

Fusion enjoyed an evening of magic and success at the 34th Adelaide Advertising and Design Club (AADC) Awards as can be seen on video and Facebook. The very funny magician, Matt Hollywood, provided some early entertainment and crowd victimisation (sorry, participation) that we were fortunate enough to avoid. We saved our stage presence for later, collecting five Finalists and three Awards.

It was a privilege to be recognised by a distinguished panel of interstate judges with Finalists for our work with:
RDNS for Corporate Identities
Uni of Adelaide (whatsyourpreference.com ) for Microsites
Santos Northern Lights Pop-Up Photo Booth for Experiential Events
Motor Accident Commission (MAC) Schoolies Festival for Experiential Campaigns
Fusion Christmas Cook Book Gift for Publications

It was even more of an honour to win three Awards for our work with MAC Schoolies Festival for:
Experiential Events
Mixed Media
Mobile (apps)

Credit must not only go to our amazing team behind these projects but also to our clients for their vision and trust in our partnership.

Interestingly, whilst a lot of traditional advertising thinking were given gongs on the night, there was a definite shift in Fusion's direction towards rewarding great experiences rather than simply great ads.

The tide is definitely turning.

ProAV Solutions: ecommerce with a friendly face

Celsius — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 13:30:00 GMT

ProAV Solutions, (formerly AV Central), approached Fusion to redesign their website with an easy to operate and update online store showcasing their full range of products.

We designed a great new site that unifies the look and feel of their products and services with a seamless and smooth e-commerce system that incorporates customer reviews with a helpful rating system.

One of ProAV Solutions strengths is their extremely knowledgable and friendly team, so we recommended their expertise and know-how be brought to life online.

As well as browsing through the huge range of top quality audio visual systems, professional video equipment, home lifestyle technology and related production services, customers can now see product reviews from staff who’ve actually worked on real ProAV Solutions’ client projects.

The staff and user generated content means that website visitors not only get to see the specifications and functionality of a product, they also see the full 360 degree picture of people’s experience using it.

Visit the website:
www.proavsolutions.com.au

Social Media Berlin paper & presentation

Celsius — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 13:30:00 GMT

The end of October, 2010 was a very “social” time for Fusion.

19 October saw us co-presenting the research paper “The Social Media Leap” in Berlin with The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute (UniSA) and on 28 October we hosted the premiere of the hit movie, “The Social Network”, which traces the beginning of Facebook.

Innovation and connecting with people is in our DNA so it’s no surprise that Fusion have a strong association with social media and more importantly, social media thinking.

The world research industry organisation, ESOMAR recently invited us to present our paper, “The Social Media Leap”, prepared by Dr Karen Nelson-Field (UniSA) and myself (Fusion) with the assistance of 2010 UniSA Marketing Practicum students and Lisa Kennewell (Fusion). Our paper was one of only 15 presented globally at this year’s conference in Berlin titled “WM3. Worldwide Multimedia Measurement: Your Audience = Media Consumer + Generator”.

Well, what a whirlwind! Before we even had time to shake off our jetlag, we were centre stage presenting our findings. Our paper and presentation took people through our research of over 240 Australian organisations and 1000 articles and papers. Our findings included current practice and recommendations on best practice for integrating social media into business strategies.

Through an industry survey, we found that whilst there are some barriers for entry, there is a consensus amongst marketers that social media is not a fad and is an area for growth in 2011. The paper observes that this social media revolution provides opportunities for consumers, but it is providing challenges for marketers who may not be drawing upon information that is credible or based on evidence or academic rigour.

We also found that there was a significant disconnect between measurement of traditional media vs social media and a general lack of integration of complementary social media into broader marketing strategies.

We compiled nine industry best practices based on over 1000 industry insights (filtered by what we know empirically).

These were:

1. Strive for reach (fish where the fish are)
2. Don’t be too narrow (don’t narrowly target)
3. Use brand cues (build and refresh memory cues
4. Look for recency (incorporate recency planning tactics)
5. Be social (put people in the picture – remember to be social)
6. Plan with multi-hats (plan for success)
7. Listen and spy (monitor activity)
8. Ready your troops (enable your employees)
9. Start slowly (don't leap in unprepared)

Interestingly, 1-4 are not new to media planning - but new in context of social media whereas 5-9 represent a shift in thinking.

More of our findings have been reported in adelaidenow and are summarized nicely in the slides (with handy speaker notes) and documented in more detail in our paper available for viewing and download. We also presented our "Sharefactor" video of marketing case studies incorporating social media (featuring the brands Uniqlo, Heapsgood, Picnic, McDonalds and Old Spice).

Overall WM3 was very enlightening and it was great meeting so many research and marketing leaders from around the globe. It was interesting to hear about the global challenges and innovations faced by the shifting face of media research and measurement. There was much discussion about the word "fusion" in context merging traditional and digital media metrics - in fact I disappointed one of the delegates who thought I was from an official “Fusion” measurement organisation.

On the local front, Fusion actively support academic research in this area, having hosted and worked with two Practicum student research papers on social media marketing: Claire Harris in 2009, Shane Burford and Michael Day in 2010. Additionally, we present lectures on social media and have set-up Sharefactor, a Facebook community page for students, and anyone else, interested in the topic of social media research. Those interested can join the page and be a part of the ongoing discussion. We welcome your involvement.

Enjoyed sharing this with you.

Pilgrimage to Apple WWDC10

John Chaplin — Sat, 06 Nov 2010 13:30:00 GMT

Sometimes you just know you are in the right place at the right time. When the guy at the Apple's World Wide Developer's conference opened up his list of attendees straight to my name, it felt good. But it was always going to feel pretty exciting to finally go to an Apple conference. They announced the date of the 2010 conference only three weeks prior to the event and the 5000 tickets sold out in 8 days. So I was lucky to be there.

Call it a pilgrimage if you like, but while in California I had to visit Apple's headquarters in Cupertino in the Silicone Valley. Apple is like its own little town by Adelaide standards, the headquarters are huge. Being the Sunday before the conference I wasn't alone on this pilgrimage and Apple opened its company store especially for us conference goers. The company store is the only place in the world where you can purchase Apple merchandise. So I can happily say that I've been there and bought the t-shirt that says "I visited the MotherShip".

I have always been keen to go to an Apple developers conference. Never more so since the launch of the iPad and iPhone which this event was focused around. I think conferences are a great way to not only learn about your industry and topics relevant to your business, but also network with other developers and like minded people, find out what is happening in the world and gauge where you are at, and find out what Apple is developing next. All conference attendees are under a non disclosure clause, so it was exciting to be privy to some exclusive information.

Steve Job's keynote speech, or as the geeks call it Stevenote was the first event to go to. I was surprised that people were queuing up outside the building the night before. So I joined the line at 5am and even then became concerned I would miss out on seeing him live. I learnt that the auditorium could only hold 2000 people, otherwise they had big screens you could watch it from. It felt like I was lining up for a concert, and plenty of people were wearing the jackets they gave us at registration. I was amongst hard core Apple fans, the vibe was amazing.

After waiting two hours outside, the doors were opened up. But now the line was managed within the building twisting and turning back on itself over several floors. Unlike a concert they laid on heaps of food and the crowd became placated with baguettes, donuts and coffee. Eventually the doors to the auditorium were opened and there was a crazy mad rush and crush. I got a seat two thirds back from the front and was pretty happy. Steve is a great presenter, but during his presentation there was a major technical hitch caused by everyone using their own portable wifi connections. Steve handled it really well. It's good to know technical glitches can happen to the best of us. View his key note speech.

Over the course of a week I attended a six sessions a day learning about:
   •   Apple's new technology and functionality
   •   The new operating system in detail
   •   Tips and tricks on getting the best out of Apple's technology and frameworks
   •   The new hardware features of the new iPhone 4
   •   User Interface Design and Apple's approach to it.
   •   Development tools for the iPad and iPhone, and
   •   I also attending some Lab Session that allowed me to ask Apple Engineers detailed questions.

I couldn't help but be impressed with how the conference was organised. The event even had its own iPhone and iPad application to help you manage what sessions you were attending, including location directions and rating of the session. Wifi was available throughout the building plus all the seats had power in them so you could plug in your computer and not be concerned about battery life. A text editing application that allowed real time sharing amongst attendees was great for collaboration on one set of notes. This was amazing as one person would be editing while another was typing into the same document. All the sessions were recorded so I have been able to watch the ones I couldn't attend (and share them with the Fusion team). It was a really busy conference with a fun vibe, yet it was very professionally managed. Each session began and ended with uber cool music. The presenters were mostly senior and junior developers sharing the session with demonstrations and they used humour throughout.

Since going to the conference I have a new appreciation for the operating system (iOS) Apple has developed for the iPad and iPhone. It is so well thought out, I can only describe it as "beautiful". It is fundamentally the same operating system for my Mac Book Pro and it is so expandable. I find it difficult to see how a mobile phone company like Nokia, with limited high-level computer OS development experience, can seriously compete in this growing market of smart phones and tablets. The real beauty of the iOS is Apple's development of its touch software (Cocoa Touch) and how it has adapted the operating system to run by finger gestures. Even my Mac Book Pro uses a pinch touch gesture on the touch pad to zoom in on the screen and my mouse has a touch surface that acts like a scroll wheel. Apple is really blurring the line between its new devices and the desktop computer.

After my pilgrimage I have come back to Fusion with so much enthusiasm and energy. Currently we have released the HeapsGood iphone app (ironically launched the day of the keynote) and we are working with TafeSA on an iPhone app ( Sleepy Koala ) as well as a some iPad applications. It's a really exciting time to be in an emerging industry and wear my Apple t-shirt.

Rundle Lantern wins AGDA Digital Media award

Celsius — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 13:30:00 GMT

The cream of the crop of the Australian design community came together on the 16th of October at the Brisbane Convention Centre for the presentation of the 10th AGDA National Biennial Awards. Some 2,000 plus entries were received for the Awards across 18 categories. In total there were 241 Finalists, 167 Distinctions and 8 entries achieving AGDA's highest accolade, the Pinnacle.

The highly sought after Pinnacle award for Digital Media was taken out by Fusion for our work designing Adelaide’s Rundle Lantern. Of the 241 finalists, the Rundle Lantern also received a Judge’s Choice award. Additionally, the Rundle Lantern was a Finalist in the Environmental Design category (being fully powered by solar energy) and it’s partner, the Rundle Lantern Simulator website, www.rundlelantern.com.au , was also Finalist in Digital Media.

Fusion our proud to have one of South Australia’s greatest landmarks recognised right across the country as being the standout entrant for digital design in Australia. “South Australia now has an innovative national icon to be very proud of”, says Fusion Director, John Chaplin. “Our vision was to add beauty to people’s lives without affecting the environment, working with current structures, and putting Adelaide on the global map.”

The lantern is made up of 748 square panels, each illuminated by two huge LED lights. They come to life at dusk to display a myriad of moving images, providing an ever changing piece of art for the people of Adelaide to enjoy.

Fusion also received two other Digital Media Distinctions for their work on Adelaide’s Air Warfare Destroyer website, www.ausawd.com , for their creation of the every handy Heaps Good iPhone app (available here on the iTunes store ). Other Fusion entries that obtained Finalist status in the Digital Media category were the Dalrymple website, www.dalrymplevineyards.com.au , and Fusion’s own website, www.fusion.com.au in the Self Promotion category.

The 2010 award is Fusion’s 3rd Digital Media Pinnacle and Judge’s award.

Fusion presents Social Media study in Berlin

Celsius — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 14:30:00 GMT

Fusion Co-Director, Gavin Klose, recently partnered with Uni of SA’s, Karen Nelson-Field to complete an intensive three month social media study which has resulted in a paper that has been invited for inclusion in the upcoming global ESOMAR conference: WM3 2010 Your audience = media consumer + generator.

The paper titled, The Social Media Leap, documents ‘current practice’ of social media integration into marketing strategy based on a quantitative survey of over 230 organisations. Many of you have contributed to the study - and for that we say thank you.

With numbers of unique visitors on social media sites growing by the millions near daily, it’s not hard to understand why marketers are becoming more enamoured with the idea of social media as a staple in their media mix. Yet while most recognise its value, the adoption of social media has been relatively slow.

It would seem that organisations are largely ill prepared for the social media revolution. This is particularly the case for small to medium organisations that are not only being more reactive in terms of implementing social media activity, but they’re also spending greater proportions of their marketing budget expecting social media to become a key component in the marketing mix, yet with no real planning in place.

Additionally, and perhaps most alarmingly, there is not only disconnect between success measures used for traditional marketing and those used for social media but knowledge gained to assist social media implementation is largely sourced from un-quantified means.

Subsequently the findings not only document ‘current practice’ (in terms of how organisations are adopting social media) but make recommendations for ‘best practice’ in terms of how organisations should adopt social media into marketing strategy. The recommendations are based on tested knowledge and should be applied at least in the short term, until further credible research (that may or may not disprove this thinking) can be published.

So, it’s a big topic and an exciting trip to Berlin for Gavin and Karen as they present their findings and recommendations to attendees from all over the world on October 20. ESOMAR has members from over 100 countries and is the world organisation for enabling better research into markets, consumers and societies. Stay tuned for more information on the research findings, to be released post conference and feel free to get in touch if you’d like a copy.

We have moved

Damien Mair — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 14:30:00 GMT

We have moved, (but the office isn't completely finished). The builders did, and are still doing a great job after hours. The amount of work they completed within five weeks was fairly astounding. All the internal walls that had to be built are in, as well as some really sexy office partitioning. We laid over 4.5 Kilometers of cabling and installed 234 power points. Can you believe the space only used to have one power point? The builders worked 7 days a week and kept the noise to a minimum for our neighbours, plus they kept the site really tidy and rubbish free. I would highly recommend these guys to anyone.

There is still quite of lot of work to be done, the kitchen is not installed and our meeting rooms need their finishing touches. One meeting room that has an angled wall is a really striking feature. It has a slightly lowered ceiling and raised floor so you will step into the space. It's already been named the 'Pod' room.

We have a bit of a headache with the glass boardroom doors. They are 2.7m high and 1.6m long, not a problem in itself, but the building's staircases are original and have limited manoeuvring space. The doors wont fit in, so we have to get them in the building another way. We can hire a crane and remove a large window, but with a long reach required we need a massive crane. Rundle street would need to be closed to traffic so Council will only permit this to occur on a Sunday, meaning the expense of the crane is doubled. The building has a lift, but this too is small in size. We can make the glass doors out of panels and silicon join them. It wont have the same impact as one huge door, but it might be the sensible option. I know I wouldn't want to be around watching when the doors are two stories up making their way through a removed window. I will be glad when this problem is solved.

The office is a great place to work. Everyone loves the northern facing windows. The light and ambience is so much better than our old digs. We are all are impressed with the warmth here, no one has to run those little fan heaters under their desks anymore and coats, hats, and scarves are off. It's great to be back this side of town. Thankfully the fire at the Austral didn't close their kitchen, you've gotta love those Austral Burgers.

Work experience at Fusion

Celsius — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 14:30:00 GMT

From the time I first walked in the big orange door to the time I reluctantly walked out of it, I was made to feel welcome and part of the team at Fusion. Working with people who cared about my experience with them was much more than I could have expected from anywhere else.

The work experience program was excellent, giving me an insight into the roles of everyone in the office. I was given a task to complete which was used to give me a taste of graphic design work. The facilities were fantastic and I was able to take full advantage of the programs that are only accessible at a company like Fusion, and along with the help from the graphic designers, and support from everyone else I was able to complete it to my satisfaction by the end of the week.

I am sure my time at Fusion will help me in many future endeavors both to do with design and elsewhere.

I loved my experience at Fusion.

Lauren.