In another article featured in Computerworld today Forrester research found that Windows Vista has seen incredibly poor adoption rates in it’s core business verticals. Only 8.8% of Enterprise based PC’s were running Vista. Those PC’s, for the most part, were upgraded from even older versions of Windoze, such as Windows 2000 or ‘98.

“Vista is ‘new Coke,’” Thomas Mendel of Forrester wrote, comparing Microsoft’s flagship operating system to the ill-fated soft drink. Enterprises still on the fence about Vista would be wise, he said, to “consider following the lead of Microsoft’s important partner Intel and re-evaluating the case of Vista.”

Mendel’s comments undercut the momentum for Vista claimed by Microsoft, which says it has sold 180 million licenses for its 18-month-old operating system to PC makers and end users.

They really should focus their efforts on building a better product instead of spending a bundle goldplating a turd.

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“Significantly expanding its industry presence, interactive agency Rosetta Marketing today is expected to announce the acquisition of companion agency Brulant.

“We are creating one of the nation’s biggest interactive agencies which will allow us to grow current relationships and build new ones quite dramatically,” said Chris Kuenne, Rosetta’s founder, chairman and CEO. “The interactive marketing landscape is rapidly shifting from mass to personalized targeting and from fuzzy equity measures to precisely measured, managed and optimized customer relationship economics.”

Founded in 1998, Rosetta’s client list includes Johnson & Johnson, Bristol Myers Squibb, Allergan, Shire, HSBC and Microsoft. The firm’s 2007 revenue totaled $50 million.

The company’s combined revenues are expected to total $130 million this year, according to Kuenne.

In addition, Brulant adds 370 employees to Rosetta’s existing stable of some 230 employees.

“We were determined to be one of the top interactive agencies in the U.S.,” said Len Pagon, Brulant’s founder and CEO. “Combining our technology-infused solutions with Rosetta’s personality-based segmentation and personalized marketing expertise ensures that will happen.”

Clients of the Cleveland-based Brulant include Borders, Coach, Nationwide, Citizens Bank, National City Bank, Marriott and Scholastic, among others.

Rosetta and Brulant are expected to consolidate under the Rosetta brand after a short transition period. Pagon will remain vice chairman of growth initiatives for Rosetta.

The acquisition will add offices in Cleveland, Chicago, and Boston to Rosetta’s current locations in Princeton, N.J., New York and Denver”

As a member of the Rosetta team I personally am happy that the increased technical capabilities are being added to our core marketing bench strength. As the two firms grow more closely together we should see some significant industry impact.

I will follow up with a little more color on the acquisition in a follow-up post!

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Some funny shite. The dog’s bollocks!

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In the Interactive Agency game we deal with sign-up forms everyday. At my agency in particular we wrestle with longwinded registrations and surveys (we deal significantly with customer profiling and segmentation). The notion of ‘gradual engagement’ detailed in the article is not new either, but not commonly practiced. It really comes down to an issue of ‘VALUE EXCHANGE’. What is the perceived consumer value, or offer, that might compel a user to sign-up on your site. Gradual Engagement is a great way to build that value without significant investment in unnecessary offers, giveaways or sweepstakes (i.e. low value, low cost gimmes that savvy websters realize are being used only to grab that all important email). This is especially true when the value revolves around information or the use of services. With Gradual Engagement you allow your site visitors to interact with content and potentially complete a set of actions. Only at the end when a transaction occurs (i.e. downloaded content, viral distribution and sharing, etc.) do you ask for any information. You’ve already sold them the value. They trust you because you let them participate. You let them get to the content and perform the behaviors they salivated for.

I’m also a big fan of longitudinal customer data acquisition. Simply put, longitudinal gathering collects a bare minimum set of information like name and email. It’s through follow up communications or subsequent site usage do you ask for any more personal information. That allows you to establish a level of trust and overcomes any inherent barriers to gathering more customer info. But isn’t that what we want anyway? We want return visitors, loyal customers that happily revisit your site and recommend your site and it’s content to their network.

If you’re developing a site that requires registration it behooves you to entertain and validate one of the approaches mentioned above. I’ve been on the evil end of the registration equation in the past. If you’d like to see significant lifts in site registration then abandon the old world reg methodology and don’t be afraid to give something away.

Thanks to Shai Reichert for the heads up on the article. It says everything we’re thinking.

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Here’s an excerpt:

“I attend meetings in which designers present their designs—typically the first round of comps—for the first time. Half the time, the presenting designer shows a rough product on the screen, and they usually believe the design is 90-100% done. But to the detail-savvy designer, the work is only 50-70% there. You can see the groundwork, foundation, and feel of the design in front of you, but you know it’s just not finished.”

It’s getting a design to 100% quickly that separates your average designer from the truly great ones. For me 100% indicates that the designer feels it is ready for client presentation. All has been considered - every pixel, every line of copy, every single typeface, every animation is directed at eliciting a positive audience response. Being on-brand, innovative and on-strategy is only half the battle. The other 50% is in the attention the designer gave to every single detail. It’s not easy to do this for sure. It’s especially difficult to do this in the fast paced ad world. But it’s possible. As the article states:

“You need to achieve polish, ridding the client’s mind of any doubt that the design is unfinished. It’s all too common for designers to feel rushed: you’re under deadline, you’re under pressure. But if you care about your craft and your ideas, you’ll take the extra time, perhaps working late into the night, as we all have, and add the touches that you know will make your work really shine. You know that feeling you get when you think, “Oh, I knew I should have tried that”? Do it the first time it comes to mind. Don’t let someone in your design review bring up an idea you thought of first.”

The article explores what it takes to do this - and do it well. It covers key ideas around critical thinking, objectivity, experimentation, simplicity and completeness. To read more check it out by clicking here!

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