After a couple of months of trying out Squarespace’s website platform I’ve decided to come back to the open-source Wordpress solution. (more on why and my review of Squarespace in a bit) I’m going to work on creating a custom template for the site over the coming weeks and will be sharing some new developments shortly as well! Very exciting times!
To help promote the launch of a new limited edition Absolut bottle in the Vancouver market, we invited the Vancouver artistic community to submit their ideas on how to make Vancouver beautiful through an art exhibit. Entries were submitted through a Facebook Fan Page and reviewed by Absolut. The top 5 have been posted and residents of BC can now vote for their favourite by visiting the website: www.absolutvancouver.ca
A $120,000 grant will be presented to the winner, chosen by the highest number of votes via the website.
Another week goes by, another site gets launched! This week we launch the new Kahlua Holiday contest promotional website at www.kahluaholiday.ca.
We wanted to create a website that was as exotic as Kahlua itself, so we themed the design around the ancient Mayan ruins – allowing us to use some very exciting visuals and audio tracks.
One of the key innovation stories for this website is the inclusion of Facebook Connect into the actual contest. After entering the general contest form, users are presented with a screen to login to their Facebook profile using FB Connect. Once logged in, the user can claim a bonus entry via an instant win game. The game is a memory match game, using images from your Facebook profile as the game’s images. Once a match happens they can pick a door to see if they’re a winner. Very cool stuff!
We keep churning out the websites – this time we launch a new brand and contest website for Ferrero Rocher Canada, at www.ferrerorocher.ca.
This project was a redesign of a Flash-based brand site. We removed many of the Flash elements to help increase SEO, scalability, and accessibility for mobile devices.
We also added a new contest element (you can win a $20k vacation package), tons of new lifestyle articles, helping you get the most out of your entertaining plans this holiday season, and included Facebook Connect to let users comment on content with their Facebook friends.
There will be MUCH more coming in the near future with this website – check back soon to learn more.
Just this past week the studio launched an updated Wisers.ca website to help promote the launch of a new retail-based contest for the premium Whisky brand.
We integrated the creative look and feel with the existing Wiserhood microsite to create a unified experience for the consumer. Technically, we also introduced a mobile version of the site that conforms to all mobile browser/device standards for accessibility. We implemented a device atlas script to detect the browser user-agent and if it was a mobile device it directs the user to the mobile version of the website. The key is that it’s all transparent to the user — we don’t have to advertise a different URL for the mobile experience – just wisers.ca and we can let the tech do the rest.
Wow how time flies! It’s been two years now and our little baby is now a walking, talking little girl! We all had a great time at her birthday party with family and friends this past weekend — thankfully the rain held off and everyone could play outside and enjoy some of the warm weather. (Will post some photos of the party and Amanda’s kick-ass cake!)
It’s been amazing to watch her grow and develop into her own. She’s very much different from her brother; he’s into cars and she’s all about her dolls. While loving typical girl things, she’s still a rough and tumble chick – loving to get dirty, squish bugs and jump into cold water (I know she gets all this from her Mom – you can’t stop that girl!). I also love her soft side – the one that likes to cuddle on the couch with her Daddy. 
Hope you have a great Birthday Gilly-bean! Daddy loves you!
Today we launch a new website for MultiGo – a new bread by Gadoua (Weston Bakeries). The bread features 14 grains but tastes and looks like white bread – perfect for the picky bread eater in your house.
As for the website, we built in a donation module where 10 cents is donated to the Breakfast For Kids Club by Gadoua on behalf of users just visiting the site. We also built in the ability to send someone a “virtual” sandwich to help spread the word to friends and family. We leveraged Facebook Connect and built a dedicated Facebook page to tie in some social media as well.
You may also see some of the new banner ads running on Canoe, Yahoo and The Weather Network.
We also built a mobile website for users to view product info and donate via their mobile device.
Check out the site and help spread the word for a great cause!
I mentioned before how BSTREET did the new Polar Ice website, and now it’s getting some excellent press via Marketing Magazine. Check out the story!
It’s been a busy couple of months here at BSTREET and we’ve pumped out a ton of great work. I’ve also been fortunate be to be involved with a number of very large retail pitches too which has allowed me to keep my “print” hat on.
Here’s an overview of some of the sites I’ve had my hands in:
A complete redesign of their old site to showcase new products, new packaging and provide a forum for consumer feedback through Facebook Connect. People can comment on recipes and meal ideas and have the comment show up on their Facebook page. We also built the site on Joomla, a great and very powerful open-source CMS tool.
This brand site for Kinder launched just before I arrived here but we’ve added some new content and contests over the past couple of months. Definitely worth a look if you’re searching for family events, playtime activities and responsible treating ideas.
A ground-breaking site in it’s class! A Flash/HTML website leveraging Twitter feeds into the creative’s “social landscape” allows for a dynamic and exciting web experience. We also built a Facebook fan page for creating a social community to facilitate discussion, recipes and events!
Absolut Vodka: Pop-Up World of Opportunities
To help promote an exclusive event for Absolut, we created another Facebook fan page to generate hype, collect signups for the guest list and provide product info and recipes for users. This event was held last night at an old abandon subway station here in Toronto and it was a great success!
BSTREET has signed on the be the digital agency of record for this “all things mobile” event to be held here in Toronto in September. Work includes website design & build and logo/identity creation for the event itself. If you’re in the mobile industry or thinking of using this very powerful tool for your marketing needs, you NEED to attend this conference. The event it also in collaboration with the fine guys over at FITC as they’ll be doing a mobile marketing seminar as well.
Sure has been a busy time – but there has been some pretty cool projects to show for it. I’ll try and post more work examples as they happen over the coming weeks as we have some cool things in the pipe.
So – I made the switch from Wordpress over to Squarespace for this website. Exporting my older content and importing into SS was very easy. The hardest part of the process was repointing the DNS from my hosting account – took about 24 hours for everything to propigate over the internet, but we’re all good now.
I have been using Wordpress for many years and still think it’s one of the best CMS solutions out there, but there are a ton of cool features in SS that drew my eye to use the service. Shortly SS will release an iPhone app for posting and reviewing site stats and they’re also working on integrating many social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook into the mix. One of the big advantages to SS is it’s cloud-server technology which means it will shift server load to accomodate for a spike in traffic – meaning your site won’t go down if you get dugg.
I’m going to try and post a ton more – everything from personal experiences, sites I like, projects I’m working on and much more. Of course I’ll post pics and news about my amazing kids and beautiful wife!
