One is Steve Jobs’ latest gift to the world of technology. The other is a treatment for sickness using highly diluted substances. So what can they possibly have in common, I hear you ask?

Well, in the last two weeks both have been the subject of online backlashes against what their critics say is marketing hype. More than ever, using hype to promote your product is a dangerous game. Making exaggerated claims might be a fast track route to building interest and exposure. But when your product fails to live up to the hype you’ll find your credibility derailed.

These days, people are only too happy to blog, Tweet and share their rage when they think they’ve been hoodwinked by a cynical marketer.

‘iPad Sucks’ – 667,000 Google hits and counting

When Steve Jobs chose to unveil the iPad with the adjectives ‘revolutionary’ and ‘magical’ he was met by a wave of criticism from people with adjectives of their own.

Within hours the internet’s influential tech bloggers had unleashed a barrage of negative posts, comments and articles on what they saw as the iPad’s failure to live up to the hype.

From the way the iPad was promoted people were expecting it to have a new slick interface or built in projector. When it was shown to appear little more than an enlarged iPhone (without the camera) people felt misled, and a backlash ensued.

‘Homepathic overdose’ – 622,000 undiluted hits

Two weeks ago hundreds of ‘sceptics’ gathered outside branches of Boots to ‘overdose’ on homeopathy remedies in protest at the selling of remedies they said were ‘scientifically absurd’.

Now, this blog isn’t the place to debate whether taking highly diluted substances will cure your cough. But it’s interesting to note that, according to a Guardian article, one homeopathy pill maker spends €108 million on marketing and only €6.5 million on research.

Awareness of the homeopathic overdose campaign was spread, largely, by the online community of sceptic bloggers and podcasters. The fact that it generated so much exposure in the traditional press reflects how people now have the tools to challenge what they see as marketing hype and can more easily take their protests into the real world.

Be careful about your marketing’s claims

So will brands respond to the changes in consumer power and cut back on the exaggerated claims made in their marketing? I’m not holding my breath. I read today that luxury soap maker Dove plans on promoting a new range based on scientific knowledge that took 15 years to develop.

Let’s hope those claims prove to be true. Who knows, there might be a community of dry skin bloggers already with their hands hovering over the keyboard.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

If people are spending most of their online time on social networking sites, is this where most of your digital budget should be going? Well, Coca Cola certainly seem to thing so. It recently announced it would be abandoning campaign websites, for future product launches, and focusing on social networking sites instead.

And they’re not the only big brand to do so. Kellogg’s and P & G have also announced similar moves in going to where their customers are, rather than trying to entice them to their branded sites.

So is this where online marketing is heading? Are social networks the future of online marketing? Or are Coke, Kellogg’s and P & G abandoning campaign websites too early?

Well, to work out the answers to these questions, let’s assess the benefits of both:

Benefits of Facebook

• It’s where your customers are spending the majority of their online time
• You’re only a mouse click away and don’t need to build a time consuming and expensive SEO and site awareness campaign to attract visitors
• Creating a Fan Page is free, quick and easy
• Did I mention that it’s free?
• People actively engage on Facebook commenting, uploading photos and sharing interesting links, helping them to feel like part of the campaign
• Awareness spreads virally when people joining Fan Pages appears in the news feed

Benefits of Campaign websites

• You have more freedom in the type of brand experience you can create. You’re not reliant on people clicking through the tabs or having to squeeze everything into their template
• You can capture email addresses and contact details for follow up marketing activity
• You have access to metrics on number of visitors, time on site and where people are clicking to gauge the success of your campaign

Based on the above, I think it’s a safe bet that Facebook will be offering marketing packages to brands, which give them access to metrics and user data, in the near future. Facebook is, after all, still struggling to make a profit and will want to take full advantage of its gargantuan (and active) user base.

Advice on campaign websites

When it comes to building a successful campaign site, our advice is to consider how you’re going to engage visitors’ interest and encourage repeat visits.

Are you hoping they’ll sit through your Flash presentation and then immediately want to buy your product?

Or do you want to build a place where likeminded people can congregate and interact over their shared passions and interests, and build an affinity for your product over time?

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

Is your marketing aimed at building closer bonds or telling people how wonderful you are? If it’s the latter you might want to head back to the whiteboard. The fact is that consumer mindsets are changing; the ability to share opinions globally, in mere hours, is irrevocably changing the nature of marketing.

No longer can we simply spoon feed people advertising whilst they’re slumped in front of the TV, or carpet bomb messages they’re now adept at sidestepping. People just aren’t listening anymore when there’s so much noise to contend with.

Added to this is the recession tightening purse strings and hardening people’s resolve not to be bullied into buying ‘stuff’.

So what we’ve now arrived at, in 2010, is the rise of the cynical, sceptical and often critical consumer, who’s not shy of sharing their opinions with friends, followers and the search engines. With consumers now less trusting, building more personal relationships will be the key to marketing in 2010.

Here’s a rundown of some of the trends to watch out for this year:

1. Driven by the proliferation of laptops, smartphones and internet enabled TVs, people will be going online more often and from more locations – positioning digital closer to the centre of marketing campaigns, rather than an offshoot

2. Despite what some digital fanboys might say, direct mail still has a role to play. Surveys show that people prefer to receive offers in print. But to help print survive it needs to be supported by email, personalised URLs and mobile to enhance its relevance and impact

3. Digital advertising will become more targeted as advertisers start using data on where visitors have been and what they’re doing. Expect a backlash when complaints on privacy lead to rushed government legislation. You can pre-empt this (and build trust) by making it clear what data you’re collecting and what visitors gain in return

4. Expect more cases of multi million pound marketing budgets being ruined by critical or mischievous consumer generated content

5. Brands will create their own media channels (and sidestep the traditional media) offering consumers valuable content, useful apps and branded live events

6. Search gets social –Tweets and status updates will start appearing in the search results, making customer service more integral to marketing

7. Crisis marketing – the ability to spread negative opinions globally in hours means you must have a plan in place for monitoring what’s being said, and have the tools to respond and be a part of the conversation

8. Social networking will fragment as teenagers abandon Facebook to escape snooping parents and as people form private networks amongst those whose opinions they actually care about. This will make the job of identifying where customers are congregating that little bit trickier – you won’t be able to just slap up a Facebook fan page and tick social media off the list

9. Mobile will come of age as people start buying more than just ring tones. Short code and coupon marketing will become more widespread, and smartphone apps will evolve from mere gimmicks into useful tools

10. 2010 is going to be an interesting year for marketers, and one in which you’ll need to significantly update your job description as marketing becomes integral to everything a company does

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

Tomorrow there will be people wondering whether their Christmas wishes will be granted this year. And marketers are no exception, many of whom will be hoping for some festive cheer after what has been a difficult year.

Here are five wishes we think many marketers will be hoping come true this Christmas:

1. Proliferation of smartphones

Smartphones are an exciting prospect, with their flashy touch screens, the explosion in the popularity of apps and because they’re such a personal device. There have certainly been some impressive marketing hits and misses this year. As we learn from those who got it right and avoid the mistakes of those who got it wrong, smartphones will become an integrated part of the marketing mix.

Even if millions of people don’t get smartphones in their stockings this year there’s no need to feel glum. There’s still plenty of fun to be had with short codes and coupons in the meantime.

2. More businesses realising the importance of the web

I could sprout off some stats about the millions who went shopping online this Xmas and the millions more searching for product information throughout the year. But I think a timely example is the recent race in the music charts. The X Factor marketing juggernaut had the power of TV, radio and in store advertising powering its campaign. Rage Against the Machine had Facebook.

Rage’s victory (on download sales alone) was a great demonstration of social media flexing its muscles to influence opinions and spread ideas. More businesses need to realise that online is where their customers are spending more and more of their time, and invest in their web presence accordingly.

3. More investment in PURL campaigns

We bang on about PURL campaigns a lot on this blog, and for a good reason –they’re just so darn effective.

Marketing needs to be targeted and personalised if it’s going to appeal to people weary of being carpet bombed messages of little relevance or value to them. PURL campaigns, whether integrated with print or email, enable you to deliver customised messages based on an individual’s preferences and capture data for future campaigns at the same time.

In 2010 you’ll need to be marketing smarter if you want people to listen, which is why many marketers will be hoping they get the funds they need to deliver targeted PURL campaigns next year.

4. Less spent on celebrity endorsements

The implosion of brand Tiger has had many brand strategists shaking their heads and saying we’ve already seen the first and the last one billion dollar brand.

Whether or not Tiger Woods seeks deliverance on Oprah, brands are now nervous of risking millions having their identity stapled to a fallible human being. Many marketers will be hoping the millions saved on celebrity endorsements can go on campaigns they can more easily predict and control.

5. Job security and rebuilt teams

2009 has certainly been a difficult year. Despite everyone agreeing that marketing more in a recession is the smart thing to do, most companies have guillotined budgets, leaving depleted teams scrambling around to deliver the same results on a shrunken budget, slowing momentum and dampening morale.

With signs of brighter times ahead, many marketers will be hoping the grip on the money hose is loosened, and they can start rehiring and jumpstarting campaigns that have been put on hold.

Here’s hoping that Santa makes some of these wishes come true and spreads some festive joy for all the overworked marketers out there this Christmas.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

Christmas is fast approaching, and with it the rush to get to the shops. But with all the traffic and crowds, you’d be forgiven for staying away and buying your gifts online. Well, this year you can visit some of London’s top retailers from the comfort of home thanks to a new virtual world called NearLondon.

NearLondon offers laser scanned 3D recreations of Oxford St, Regent St and Bond St, with more streets to follow. Many top retailers have signed up to advertise their wares, although they’re currently limited to selling from a shop window. But as NearLondon evolves they’ll be able to house fashion shows, interactive games and virtual concerts in their branded stores.

Does this all sound familiar? Well, NearLondon’s creators have been at pains to point out it isn’t another Second Life, and for good reason too…

Second Life – Not dead, just evolving

It was only two years ago that Second Life was basking in the media spotlight as brands, businesses and even nations rushed to grab their piece of online real estate. In fact, the number of people joining jumped from 450,000 to 4 million in just one year.

But unfortunately Second Life just wasn’t accessible enough for most people, and failed to attract the numbers needed to make it a successful marketing platform. The branded shops and buildings became ghost towns when the crowds failed to materialise and the buzz fizzled out. In many brand managers’ eyes, Second Life is now dead.

However, the site still attracts a million regular users and is now being touted as a platform for online collaboration, virtual meetings and a teaching tool. But it remains to be seen whether Second Life will ever attract the numbers needed to tempt brands back to what was, for many, an expensive experiment.

Will NearLondon be different?

The fact that NearLondon’s creators are already talking about a NearNewYork and NearTokyo shows they’ve got big plans. But will they be able to attract enough shoppers to keep the brands happy?

Criticisms of Second Life have been its awkward controls and the cartoony graphics. In NearLondon, however, you just click around the screen to explore London’s streets which are rendered in detailed 3D graphics similar to the latest video games.

NearLondon is currently on limited release, with software disks to be handed out in London next Monday. Whether it can compete with the buzz and physicality of the real world shopping experience remains to be seen. But it’s certainly another step towards delivering more innovative branded experiences in the digital world.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

A couple of weeks ago we offered a few tips on driving traffic to your website using pay-per click ads. Now, driving traffic is one thing, but you still need to know what you’re going to do with visitors when they arrive. So here are bda’s 8 vital website conversion tips for turning more clicks into sales:

1. Help people find what they’re looking for

People on the web have the concentration spans of goldfish. So if they don’t quickly find what they’re looking for they’ll be gone before you’ve had a chance to reel them.

• Provide a clearly labelled navigation bar using familiar section names
• Align elements so they flow in a Z pattern and mirror how people scan web pages
• Avoid too much clutter and space elements evenly
• Use arrows to direct visitors along a clear path around the site
• Break up long blocks of text into sections to aid skin reading and so they don’t appear too daunting to read

2. Use your ‘About’ page to build trust

As the old adage goes, ‘people like to trade with those they know and trust’, which is why the ‘About’ page can have a big impact on sales.

On the web you don’t have the luxury of introducing yourself in person, so the ‘About’ page is the next best thing. Use this page to tell visitors about your company’s history, what you’re passionate about and about your brand’s message.

The more people know about you the more reasons they have to trust you. It can also differentiate you from your competitors who stay anonymous.

3. Answer questions that might block a sale

In the bricks and mortar world people can ask questions to decide whether a product solves their problem and if it’s the best solution for them.

In the digital world you don’t shop assistants to respond to questions, and you can’t expect people to email or pickup the phone. So instead you have to answer queries through your content.

Write a list of the questions people might ask before they’re ready to buy. Then write blog posts or an faq section in which you answer them in an open format. Include links on the relevant product pages and you’ll be removing hurdles that might otherwise have tripped up a sale.

4. Invest in high quality images

Avoid clichéd, stale stock photography. Instead, invest in high quality shots of your people, products and your workplace. Give people the visual reassurance that you’re an established, professional company, and not a fly-by-night organisation that’ll vanish once they’ve placed an order.

If you’re selling software include screenshots. And if you’re feeling ambitious, you could record a video talking about your company and to show off your products. After all, isn’t video supposed to be the next big thing in online marketing? So get a head start on your rivals.

5. Choose your words carefully

A mistake a lot of business websites make is to complete the design stage first and then crowbar in the words (a.k.a. copy) wherever there’s space.

This is a mistake because it’s the words that do most of the selling. It’s your words that speak to your customers and will persuade them that buying your product is the smart thing to do.

As in the real world, people buy things based on two triggers: emotion and logic. Hard hitting copy using time proven copywriting techniques appeals to both these triggers and hammers home your USP.

In fact, your website’s copy is the most influential element when it comes to selling the benefits of your business. So don’t leave it as the last element to tick off the list.

6. Offer free content

Software companies often give away free limited versions of their products so that users invest time in them before buying the full upgrade.

Even if you don’t sell software, you can mirror this tactic by giving away free content, such as an eBook, newsletter or podcast. If you offer free gifts in exchange for an email address you can maintain contact with visitors and build a relationship long after they’ve left your website.

People are also more likely to reward you with their business because of the psychological impulse to reward generosity.

7. Remove nasty surprises that cause shopping cart abandonment

It can be agonising watching the number of people visiting your site, filling up their shopping basket and then abandoning it at the checkout till.

One way of minimising cart abandonment is to eliminate nasty surprises. Consider offering free postage, by including it in the original price, and reassuring customers they can get a refund due to your ‘no quibbles’ returns policy.

8. Test, adjust and test again

The beauty of the internet is you can endlessly test every element to improve clicks and conversions. So experiment with different font sizes, calls to action, images and copy.

If budget allows, invest in usability testing to see how easily people can find their way around your site and whether they’re persuaded to buy your products.

Use analytical software to track what pages your visitors are interested in and which send them fleeing. Continuous testing will highlight your site’s strengths and weaknesses, and, ultimately, show you how to convert more clicks into sales.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

Facebook continues to be an untapped goldmine struggling to extract cash from its users. People love the service, but aren’t prepared to pay for it.

So advertising remains Facebook’s main source of income. But in its rush to deliver targeted, contextual ads using its members’ data, Facebook needs to be careful it doesn’t upset its users in the process.

And it’s not just its own advertising Facebook needs to be concerned about.

People consider personal data private

It’s no secret that whenever you take part in a quiz or download an app you’re handing over your personal information, and that of your friends, to Facebook’s third party developers.

What they then do with your info is anyone’s guess. But it’s unlikely they create quizzes and apps for your entertainment when there’s money to be made.

In fact, it’s predicted that Facebook’s developer community could soon be earning more than the site itself. It’s estimated this year they could pocket a combined $300-$500 million from sales of virtual goods (e.g. tommy guns in Mafia Wars and poker chips), branded sponsorship and, of course, advertising.

The problem is that some of these developers are misusing people’s personal information. And Facebook needs to step in before the abuse gets out of hand.

Misusing customer data will lose their trust

Facebook is already facing a spate of privacy lawsuits, cases of applications recording people’s login details and a man seeing his wife advertised as a ‘hot single’. And recently a number of applications had to be suspended for flouting Facebook’s user privacy policy.

So Facebook does, indeed, appear to be at a crossroads: it can either start doing more to protect how its members’ data is used or risk losing their trust and loyalty. You only have to look at the demise of Friends Reunited and falling popularity of MySpace to know how quickly fickle online crowds can move onto the next big thing.

Last week, Facebook announced it would be making some changes to give its users more control over their data. In the future, developers will have to specify what information their applications need to use and users will also be able to block applications from scraping their friends’ profiles.

But it will take at least a year before these changes come into effect. So Facebook will be hoping that, in the meantime, there aren’t more cases of people’s private data being misused. Or there might be a rush of its members logging out for good.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

Google has been ruffling a few feathers recently after announcing on its Adwords blog that the position your ad appears in the search results doesn’t affect its conversion rate. Its research suggests that whether your ad appears at the top of the page or the bottom the likelihood of people taking action on your website remains the same.

This news has been greeted by a mixture of shrugged shoulders and furrowed brows. Some people wonder why this is even news, whilst others are annoyed at Google’s subtle marketing ploy. Because Google’s research could be interpreted as suggesting the only way to improve your website’s sales is to attract more traffic, which means getting sucked into a bidding war for the top positions.

So is Google correct and the conversion rate remains the same wherever your ad is placed? Or can its position and content be optimised to attract a higher proportion of buyers, rather than browsers?

Who cares about clicks? Send me customers!

Many big companies buy up the top positions for generic terms as part of a branding strategy. They want you to find their website as soon as possible so you can register and bookmark it, even if you’re not yet ready.

This strategy is fine if you’re happy to throw £1000s at Google Adwords everyday. But if you’ve a limited budget, chasing after the top position might not offer you the best return.

Most people initially search the web for information. So if your ad is in top position you’ll attract a lot of browsers at the early info gathering stage.

If your ad appears lower down you’re going to attract fewer clicks. But the clicks you do receive will be from people who’ve scrolled down the page, which suggests they’ve progressed further along the research stage and are closer to buying.

So an ad in 7^th or 8^th position might attract fewer clicks than those at the top. But, potentially, a higher proportion of those clicks will be from people who’ve picked out your ad for a specific reason. So managing your bids to appear further down the page could offer you a better return on your Adwords investment than fighting an expensive war for top position.

To increase your conversion rate it can also help if your ad is targeted at specific prospects, rather than as many people as possible.

How can my Google Ad be better targeted at buyers?

One of the world’s best known copywriters, Bob Bly, recently said that every great ad has four ingredients: urgent, useful, unique and ultra-specific. This is particularly appropriate to creating targeted Google ads.

Instead of focusing on generic keywords, consider how your ad can be made more unique and ultra-specific. If you sell a range of products, how can you create an ad targeted at customers for each one?

For example, if you sell industrial furniture you could create separate ads focused on ‘antistatic workbenches’ and ‘small parts storage cabinets’. You could also include the price to dissuade clicks from those on a limited budget. Your ads might attract fewer clicks. But a higher proportion of those clicks will be from targeted prospects more likely to buy.

The beauty of Adwords is you can split test different keywords and descriptions to discover which offers the best conversion rate for you. Just don’t listen to Google and settle for a 1% conversion rate when higher ones are possible.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

Next month everyone will be able to start playing around with Google’s snazzy new app: Google Wave. It’s already being billed as the future of email and revolutionising the way we collaborate on the web, as the hype machine pumps out superlatives.

So is the hype justified? Does Google Wave truly offer marketers new opportunities for starting a real dialogue with customers? Or will it be another niche tool few will use outside the web savvy crowd?

What is Google Wave?

Imagine the love child of email and instant messaging and you’re not far away from picturing Google Wave.

Instead of emails you send ‘waves’, to which recipients can reply, edit your message or chat in real time just as you would on messenger. Members of the wave can also drag and drop photos, videos and links into the conversation, as well as go back and edit earlier posts.

The ability to build a group conversation in this way obviously offers great potential for collaborating on projects. But does Google Wave offer anything new to marketers?

Is Google Wave the future of email?

You’ll often hear email marketing being described as an ‘ongoing dialogue with customers’ or a ‘one-to-one conversation’. But marketing emails often seem more like infomercial broadcasts than a two way dialogue.

Well, Google Wave could change all that with its welding together of email and instant messaging. And it has the potential to offer email marketers the level of engagement they’ve been striving for.

If Google Wave becomes a success, instead of asking website visitors for an email address you’ll ask them to join your wave. As well as receiving your latest promotional offers, members of your wave will be able to ask questions in real time and interact with other members in an open format.

This level of interactivity means marketing messages will have to be about more than just encouraging clicks to buy your products. They will, in fact, be more like sitting around a table having a chat with your customers, than making a speech to a captive audience.

But how can you have 100s of conversations at once?

Google Wave offers great potential for greater customer engagement with your brand. But it also presents a challenge: how can you manage conversations with 100s or 1000s of your customers at once?

Well, if Google Wave does prove to be the success its creators hope, and starts to replace email, marketers will have to find a way of using what could be the ultimate conversational marketing tool.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.

Microsoft might have been named the UK’s most popular brand earlier this year, but it’s not going to be on many email marketers’ Christmas card list. Its decision to continue using Word to render emails in Outlook 2010 has had web developers and email marketers up in arms in recent months. Despite the best efforts of the Email Standards Project, fixoutlook.org, 100s of blog posts and 1000s of Tweets to rally support against its decision, Microsoft has refused to change its mind.

Why is using Word a problem?

Prior to Outlook 2007, Microsoft used Internet Explorer to render emails. This suited email marketers because they could create attractive newsletters in the same way as they’d create a web page. But in 2007 Microsoft decided to switch to using Word. This didn’t just put the brakes on email newsletter design but put it in reverse.

CSS is a popular coding language for creating web pages, and would be the language of choice for most newsletter developers. But the problem is that Word struggles to accurately render CSS code, leading to CSS emails appearing broken, with images ripped out, fonts changed and the layout messed up. So instead developers are forced to stick to the antiquated design methods Word allows.

Microsoft’s decision to use Word infuriated the web developer community in 2007, but many hoped Microsoft would listen to the complaints and reverse its decision for the 2010 edition. However, with the release of Outlook 2010 imminent, it looks as though email marketers are going to be stuck with Word for another five years at least.

Possible reasons

So is Microsoft’s decision to continue using Word due to laziness? To lock people into using its products? Or just pure arrogance in refusing to listen to web developers’ demands? After all, why is Microsoft going to pay attention to 16,000 complaints on Twitter when it has a subservient user base of over 300 million?

One of the reasons given by Microsoft has been security because Word won’t run the web scripts used by spammers. But Outlook has been plagued with security issues in the past and Microsoft has always been quick to praise the protection offered by Internet Explorer. So security is unlikely to be the real reason.

The most logical explanation is that Microsoft is simply trying to provide the most consistent experience for Outlook users.

Looking after its users

If Microsoft were to use Internet Explorer then when emails are first received they’ll be rendered accurately. But if the recipient then replies or forwards the email on, any changes they make will be done using Word. Using two different rendering engines in this way was leading to inconsistencies between what people created in Word and what was received.

So to ensure emails appeared consistently between Outlook users, Microsoft decided to just use Word for both rendering and creation to remove the possibility of these inconsistencies occurring.

So Microsoft might be the UK’s most popular brand. But their decision to continue using Word to render emails means there are plenty of web developers hoping Google and its new email application, Google Wave, knocks Microsoft off its perch next year.

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BDA (Buckingham Design Associates) blog – real people giving real opinions, and a complete lack of agency waffle. BDA deliver an exciting blend of design and creative marketing for the Oxford, Milton Keynes, Northampton and London region.