Its a tough decision for a design & development to use a Free “open Source” CMS as there is a lot to take into consideration when choosing it for a client, is it future proof, is it stable, is their support, and more important, is it right for the clients project.

The answer on 99% of the projects we undertake is yes, Wordpress is stable, is secure is 99.9% bug free ( trust me that’s 99.9% better then most custom CMS’s i have worked with)

So before we even start to quote for a project, we can usually guarantee that we will be in the right ball park with prices, if not under budget.

The online video behemoth is pointing to ‘modern’ browsers like Google Chrome (twice on the same page even, unsurprisingly), Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 3.5 as alternatives.

With the impending move, YouTube follows in the footsteps of that other Web 2.0 poster child, Digg, which recently hinted at wanting to cut support for the browser too. Digg’s User Experience Architect Mark Trammell at the time wrote that the site is strongly considering removing essential features like digging and commenting for IE6 users. He explained that while IE6 users make up around 5% of site traffic, it only accounts for 1% of diggs, buries, and comments.

YouTube so far hasn’t officially communicated about the desire to drop support for IE6, but it’s conceivable that like Digg it would rather have its developers spend time optimizing the service for newer, better browsers than wasting man hours on the oft-despised Microsoft browser. We recently reported that Internet Explorer is losing market share to FireFox and Safari at a rapid pace.

There is good reason behind this but you also have to take into consideration, I think this is a kind of short-sighted and selfish approach at times and every project has to be treated as a individual case . Sure it’s a royal pain to put in conditional CSS statements and PNG hacks because IE6 doesn’t understand PNG transparency, but do we really think that just leaving out the hacks so that users see the “ugly side of IE6? will convince them to upgrade their browsers? No, it won’t. I’ll tell you what it will do: it will make them head for the back button quicker than you can say “Bill Gates”, and on to a competitor’s site who IS customer/reader focused and who understands that many of these people who are still on IE6 don’t even realize they need to upgrade. They may not even have a choice, as they surf the Internet during their lunch at a company stuck in the dark ages, or they might even know there is a newer version out there, but haven’t the slightest clue as to how to install it.

We did a project with a local council that the department where struggling to see the website in its true format, we checked our code we cross browser check and double checked but to no avail could we replicate what was happening with the screengrabs they where sending us, it was only until we asked them to send a screengrab of the ABOUT box when we discovered they where on IE 5.5 YEP you heard it here IE 5.5, YES A TEN YEAR OLD browser, for a multi million pound council, so who is to blame do we charge the client more because their IT department hadn’t moved on, or do we as a company bite the bullet and do the changes that are needed, yep we bite the bullet, we redesign, we shuffle DIVs into place and we get the job done, cos that’s how we roll, but the lesson learned is ALWAYS FIND OUT WHAT THE CLIENTS BROWSER IS and cost accordingly, or alternatively, pop round to their office and hit the upgrade button when they are not looking!

Photos will be now passed over to Slater PRs capable hands to help market and promote reasons why life in sunny (sometimes) Darwen isn’t all that bad and that education+skills+determination+passion=success.

Images will be used in and around Blackburn/Darwen in the forms of flyer’s, posters and Billboard adverts.

Watch this space to see the final outcome of the project as we will put some bits in the main work section.

Chris is a brilliant illustrator who joins KP STUDIOS on the graphics side of the team for the “unusual” projects that need that magic, as well as graphic design Chris is part of a CRIM COLLECTIVE a collaborative group who use illustration as their artwork.

Below is an example of his work, WELCOME ONBOARD CHRIS.

The Hunter and the Hunted from Crim Collective on Vimeo.

The administration of Kshocolat, a Scottish brand that was well liked but never quite managed to make the cut through with consumers it needed to in order to survive, has been on the whole treated with sadness by marketers.

According to reports, a bookmaker is refusing to pay out on a bet worth £7.1million to South Western graphic designer Cliff Bryant who placed money on snow fall on Christmas Day.

BBC reports:

Melbourne has suffered its hottest night since 1902 as a heat wave grips southern Australia.

While much of the northern hemisphere is suffering from unusually cold conditions, night-time temperatures in Melbourne have reached 34C (93F).

The situation was made worse as air conditioning shut down when power cuts hit homes. Electricity companies said transformers had failed in the heat.

Many residents chose to spend the night on the beach.

Temperatures were expected to rise to 40C (104F) on Tuesday, before becoming cooler.

The city was also hit by more than 100 train cancellations as air conditioning failed on trains, and the heat caused rails to buckle.

Fire warnings

Across Victoria state, paramedics attended to 70 people who had collapsed because of heat-related problems.

Resident Andrew Jefferson, of Ballarat, west of Melbourne, emigrated from Britain in 2001 and said: “It’s probably the most uncomfortable night I’ve ever had down under.”

Richard Whitaker, a senior meteorologist for Australia’s Weather Channel, said northerly winds from inland were responsible for the Melbourne heatwave.

“Over the last 50 years there is no doubt in Australia, we’ve seen a rising temperature trend,” he said.

Earlier this month, meteorologists said the last 10 years had been the hottest on record in the country.

Firefighters in South Australia fought three bushfires, and code red fire warnings remain in place for Victoria and New South Wales.

A little over a year ago,  we took the decision that the agency wouldn’t engage in any more pitches. It wasn’t an easy decision – it split the board BUT once the decision was made the entire team got behind the new way of working. We took the decision because we had seen a long-standing trend. There is no need to embellish this other than to say that the weaker Marketing Directors/Managers and their like always wanted us to pitch while the great and inspiring Marketing Directors, Managing Directors and Business Owners didn’t.

The later certainly were not in anyway naïve – they were the absolute opposite. Serious, highly paid individuals either operating at board or with a direct and respected report to board. They were miles above being interested in CV building because they would always be in employment where they wanted to be – in short….they were players. It is also worth saying that they all agreed that the pitch process was way too time consuming and ‘flawed’.

Our experience with the other camp had been poor. It wasn’t, as we stressed at the time, that we had experienced a poor pitch run -  in fact quite the opposite -  we had an enviable record. However in almost all the ‘pitch’ win situations we had experienced, the work was slow, painful, there was little to no ability post-pitch to make decisions and, in many situations, the pitch winning idea wasn’t implemented. On top of this, the monies discussed weren’t available and to cap it all the client then tells you on the quiet that they hate their job and are moving.

We didn’t take the decision to stop pitching because the risk was all ours and the effort was hardly ever rewarded. We took the decision because with those ‘players’ who were appointing us on a mix of our case studies, reputation and chemistry (although with the later it has to be said that, in their determination for results, ‘chemistry’ was sometimes overlooked), the ongoing work was fast and dynamic – fuelled by the type of senior decision making you would expect. These people allowed us access to their fellow board members to ensure our work could resonate. I recall a few of them discussing that for them ‘marketing was business and business was marketing’. Oh how we agree with that.

So we took the decision to aim ALL our efforts at finding and engaging ’players’. We took the decision to withdraw from pitches where the client-to-be was demanding to see some creative and or unqualified strategic advice. That’s not to say that we don’t turn up at the odd pitch and hijack a meeting where the client is expecting to see some ‘nice creative ad ideas’ and instead we deliver a 10 point charter on exactly why we don’t pitch, because we have converted these on at least three occasions and had the pitch cancelled.

There is always tonnes of debate about pitching, its expense, its fragility and farce.

For those interested in exploring another way we can report that one year in we have seen a far higher business conversion under our no pitch model – more importantly we have a stable full of very serious and senior clients which allow us to get on with the work and support us with fast decisions and financial resource.

Perhaps we have unearthed a previously undiscussed issue that pitch-loving clients remain to be unable to make choices and decisions post the pitch stage, where as those who follow a better logic go on to give the agency a sporting chance of ongoing success.

Summary: I think agencies who like pitching should pitch and are better suited for the type of client who will pitch. On the other hand if you despise the ethics and sheer lack of logic in the pitch process…there IS another way. There will always be exceptions – such as an existing client of an agency deciding to pitch an account. In that situation an incumbent might decide that as they have the insight required to push forward some new alternative ideas that are qualified but again should it get to that? Surely if a relationship isn’t working than a client must simply move on. No pitch needed. And one final thought: whilst ever the marketing press get off on celebrating a pitched win above a straight win there will always be some false  belief that clients who pitch their work have better work to pitch with bigger budgets which simply isn’t true.