The Chameleon Net blog

Chameleon Net Site Evolves.

daryli@chameleonnet.com (Daryl Irvine) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 16:01:21 GMT

This month we have re-launched our very own Chameleon Net website with a brand new look. When I came on board as Creative Director at the beginning of 2006 one of my first tasks was to undertake a re-working of the 'then' current branding. Far from throwing away everything that had come before and creating something completely new I wanted to capitalise on everything we had already achieved as a company, and the recognition we already had within the new media sector. I saw it more as an 'evolution of the brand' and in approaching the recent re-design of our website I really wanted to stay focused on the principle of evolving our online proposition rather than going back to the drawing board.

Our development team have spent a lot of time creating a flexible, scalable .NET and XML based solution that is robust and easily maintainable. Likewise we have invested many man hours, creating relevant copy to achieve a very search engine friendly, accessible site. So the design brief was quite simple; Bring the website in line with the current branding and communicate our design abilities without effecting any of the underlying code or foundation work already undertaken.

Interestingly enough this scenario is not uncommon among many of our clients. There are of course occasions when their current solution is too old to cost effectively salvage technology, but many of our projects have involved existing systems or required collaboration with an in-house IT team to effectively re-skin their offering. With contemporary standards based development techniques like CSS ( custom style sheets ) we can 'skin' just about any system.

So back to the new Chameleon Net offering. We have added a dynamic Content Managed Flash Banner to our homepage and in the long term we will be re-tasking this space with multiple promotional panels featuring video, animation and motion graphic work from the design team. We have further utilised flash, and specifically siFr, to convert structural headings ( H2, H3 etc.. ) into our brand font on the fly, whilst retaining an accessible, standards compliant layout for users without the plugin.

I hope you like the new look Chameleon site as much as we do, and if you have any comments or ideas I would love to hear from you.

Free PPC Audit

donnaa@chameleonnet.com (Donna Adams) — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:25:51 GMT

We are currently running a free offer!

If you are running a paid search campaign on Google Adwords then you might be interested in our FREE PPC audit.

The audit will include bespoke advice on your Google account structure, the quality score and tips on how to make the most of your paid search spend.

Take a look at the audit page for more information.

Also if you're new to Google sign up for some free adwords vouchers here.

The Day I decided to make a film

jeremyd@chameleonnet.com (Jeremy Davis) — Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:34:18 GMT

In the autumn of 2004 I was sitting on a train with a friend of mine, Karen Jepp, and we were discussing climate change. We’d both been reading about it (Bill Bryson started the whole thing as I recall) and had both, unbeknownst to each other, been going through a whole range of emotions about the subject: interest, fascination, amazement, incredulity, anger, disgust and fear. We were both clear about one thing: it was not the latest fad, it was not hysteria. We (by which I mean ALL of us) were sleep walking into the biggest disaster the human race had ever faced – Climate Change.

You see even re-reading that sentence somewhere I cringe. Talk of disasters, sleep walking, even “the human race” somehow sounds over dramatic, an exaggeration. Yeah, yeah, another global threat, another disaster. It’ll be fine. It always has. Except this time it is highly likely that it just won’t be fine at all.

The basic problem is this: how we live is not sustainable. How we consume and discard in ever greater amounts has caused us to draw ever increasing amounts of energy out of the ground and convert in order to sustain our amazing growth (the human population has increased 6 fold in around 200 years). And doing that has put A LOT of so-called Greenhouse gases into the atmosphere very quickly. So it’s getting warmer. And that’s probably the least of our problems. You see, we (yes, that’s ALL of us again) are just not aware of the cumulative effect of our consumption.

And so there we are, Karen and I on a train on a lovely autumnal day (weather looks fine to me) we decide that we want to DO something. We have to help make people aware because then THEY might want to do something. Karen says “Let’s make a film.”

“Excellent idea”, say I. “Do you know how to do that?”
“No”, says she. “You?”
“Not a clue”.
“Right”.

At which point, we both realise that whilst we don’t know the first thing about making a film, we both knew someone who did: Lily Murray. An experienced documentary film maker who was nuts enough to say yes to helping us.

And 3 months later we had a film, SOS Climate Change. You can view it online at I’m so proud of it. We interviewed activists, campaigners, industry leaders, designers (Katherine Hamnett was a coup) and even got an actor from Home and Away to front it for us (thank you, Mick). We worked day and night (mostly editing – how hard is THAT!) and at times we gave nearly gave up. But it’s done.

So, I hope you enjoy it. And I hope it makes you think. You see we didn’t make it for sentimental reasons. It’s not about saving the Whale or the Rhino or even the Rainforests, as beautiful as those things are. The truth is that Climate Change is not new to the Earth – it’s spent most of its 4 billion year history an awful lot hotter or an awful lot colder than it currently is. And species come and go – sometimes up to 95% get wiped out and the cycle starts again. What’s different this time is for the first time in the Earth’s history there is a species who can see it coming – and do something about it. And you never know, they might just save their own skins.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mUpVZwReoic

Email Marketing - A Misconception?

kelm@chameleonnet.com (Kel Miah) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 12:10:05 GMT

It is a misconception that email marketing is solely deployed to promote a company and/or its products to random people.

Email marketing can be used for:-

Welcoming people
Gathering more user information
Engage with past/present/future customers
Cross and up sell
Maintaining customer loyalty
Asking customers to refer their friends and family to a service or product

As an example I recently purchased a printer online from a well known company, part of the transaction involved me giving my email address. A few months later I got an email from this company asking me if I would be interested in purchasing ink cartridges for my new printer, they enclosed details of their latest offer on ink cartridges. They had obviously done their research because a few days after receiving the email my printer indicated it was low on ink! So I found the email they sent, followed the links and purchased a new set of ink cartridges as well as some more paper.

This example demonstrates how the company engaged with me, gathered information about how frequently I require new ink, cross and up sell a relative product and ensured I did not defect to a competitor when purchasing my ink cartridges.

Email newsletters and email updates are also valuable methods of retaining customer loyalty and brand awareness. Newsletters and updates can be sent, daily, weekly, monthly, or a frequency defined by the user. These newsletters and updates are also a useful tool t remain engaged with a user even once they have completed a transaction with a brand.

Another form of email marketing, known as “Triggered Email Marketing” is what one of our clients has implemented on their e-commerce platform. The basic idea is, when a customer wishes to purchase a product which is out of stock they can click a link called “Alert me when back in stock”, so that when the product is back in stock the user will receive an email alerting them about it with a direct link to complete the purchase. John Lewis also have this feature enabled on their website they have dubbed it the “£4 million button” because this feature has generated £4 million pounds worth of sales since its implementation.

Email marketing does not have to be about random people receiving random sales emails. Email marketing can be very personalized and tailored to individuals, no longer is email marketing a “one size fits all” method of direct marketing it is much more 1 to 1. Also, to generate sales an email does not necessarily have to directly promote products or services.

Chameleon Stands Out....On Facebook!

donnaa@chameleonnet.com (Donna Adams) — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 12:02:47 GMT

Having just got back from my round the world, (well, Vietnam and Cambodia ) charity travels. I arrived back at work and like any good employee, headed straight for Facebook.

I am really excited about Facebook this year (especially now I’ve posted the video blogs from my trip.)

Actually it’s the advertising on Facebook that’s really caught my eye.

I’ve been checking out Facebook’s advertising interface and the list of targeting parameters is endless, gender, location, relationship status, political views, workplaces and stated interests to name but a few! And, for each parameter you add, a calculation is made on how may people you will be targeting. The whole process is quick, simple and so very attractive to the eyes of an online marketer. – You can even choose your favoured pricing model (CPM / CPC.)

Seen as Facebook advertising is still relatively new I predict that costs will be low and conversion rates will be good. Mix that with the fact that campaigns are highly targeted and you’ll be bound to see some great ROI.

In order to jump on the Facebook advertising bandwagon you’ll need a Facebook Page. I have just set Chameleon Net up with our very own page – Take a look.

It’s important to remember not to just use the page as a stepping stone to allow you access to the advertising features. A page must be managed and kept up to date. Once you have your page Facebook users can become fans of your company, service or product. The Page then acts as a great way to interact with, and contact your customers and also spread the word amongst their friends.

As with a Facebook profile, Facebook pages also have many features such as adding RSS feeds, linking del.ici.ous accounts, galleries, videos, events etc.

I really urge you to take a look and try out Facebook (I didn’t mean for that to rhyme!)

Check out the Chameleon Net Facebook Page for inspiration and if you need any tips, why not post a question on our discussion board.

End of the rally

chris@chameleonnet.com (Chris Thorn) — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 13:22:06 GMT

I have been back for a few weeks now but just thought I should let you know how the rally ended. The victory parade was good fun; we got lots of smiles and waves from passers-by. We drove through the presidential arch, which is normally reserved for the President. Only 2 cars broke down on the parade route, which was quite an achievement!

Then on Saturday we prepared the cars for the auction on Sunday. It was sad to see the car go, it had served us well – even in the desert the engine temperature had hardly risen, while cars all around us where packing up. The worst failure being the rear axle of an Opel separating from the rest of the car and flipping the car over in the process – luckily no-one was seriously hurt. Our car and it is contents (car and camping accessories, which were auctioned separately) rose over for £800 for Gambian charities, which in a country where most people only earn a couple of pounds a day, will go a long way.

I would be delighted if you would also give something to charity for our efforts and have set-up an on-line fundraising page, for Médecins Sans Frontieres at: http://www.justgiving.com/msf-plymouth-to-dakar >. Simply pay on-line by credit/debit card and the money will go directly to the charity, to provide much needed medical care to many more people across Africa and the world.>

I am glad to be back but I had a fantastic adventure, raised money for charity and possibly made some life long friends - not bad for a 3 week trip!

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog and if you feel like taking part in the Plymouth to Dakar challenge yourself, next year, see: http://www.plymouth-dakar.co.uk/ > for further details.>

When I get all my pictures together I will put them on-line and be sure to post the URL on the blog, so watch this space!

Chameleon Net in the news - online

danm@chameleonnet.com (Dan Martin) — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 17:29:17 GMT

I thought it might be useful to create an area where we can compile and keep track of any websites that mention/report on Chameleon Net's activity. Mainly news sites and online press.

So in the spirit of web 2.0 I've set up a de.licio.us account to bookmark such bits and pieces.

Feel free to check it out: http://del.icio.us/danm_chameleon.

We made it!!

chris@chameleonnet.com (Chris Thorn) — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 10:47:25 GMT

Little did we know the most challenging piece of road would be in the Gambia. We crossed from senegal to the gambia with little stress but once we got to the gambia we found the worst road we had yet to encounter. It was almost impassable for 2 wheel drive cars and despite destroying yet another wheel and another shock absorber, we managed to limp in the dark to an eco-report on the banks of the river. Just as well because the surrounding fields were ablaze and the countryside home to crocodiles, leopards and even hienas.

The next day was easier, we made it to Banjul without too many problems; the road improved although a lot of it was still under construction so we had to dodge bulldozer and men at work but at least the car kept on going. Despite taking the most difficult route through the gambia we were suprised to find we were amongst the first to arrive. Apparently there is a victory parade in a couple of days time and then the cars will be auctioned for charity.

Covered in sand...

chris@chameleonnet.com (Chris Thorn) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:45:34 GMT

The car took a hammering in the desert and everything is covered with a layer of sand. We have had 3 flats and now only have a space saver spare but as long the car keeps moving, so will we! We are now only a couple of days away from banjul, our final destination!

On the way to Gambia

chris@chameleonnet.com (Chris Thorn) — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 10:44:59 GMT

We made it through the sahara or at least the edge of it. We got stuck countless times but we let the tyres down so they were virtually flat, dug the car out and pushed - tiring but effective. The first night in the desert we camped by a sand dune and the second night we reached the ocean and camped on the beach.

We then made a dash for the border and after 5 hours of tough negotiation we eventually managed to get into senegal on a car ferry that i thought was going to sink at any moment. We then found our way in the dark to a tiny campsite on the edge of a national park, just south of st louis. After a rest day, we then pushed on to Dakar. We are now on our way to the gambian border, i am sure with many hours of negotiation to come.

Western Sahara - off road!

chris@chameleonnet.com (Chris Thorn) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:43:29 GMT

We are now at the edge of near civilisation in the western sahara, we have a short 450k on tarmac through the desert today before we go off road for real and will be at the mercy of the local guide to take us through the sahara to rejoin a road further south. Apart from a puncture, there have been no problems with the car so far but the next four days will be the real test. Not sure when we will be able to communicate again but watch this space...

Nearly through Morocco

chris@chameleonnet.com (Chris Thorn) — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 10:42:40 GMT

We are now close to completing the second part of our trip through Morocco. We have experienced the madness of the Marakesh roads at night, stayed at a beautiful Riad, snowboarded at 3000 metres in the atlas mountains surrounded by desert and driven through winding roads through the atlas mountains......

Plymouth/Dakar - We have made it to Africa!

chris@chameleonnet.com (Chris Thorn) — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 13:04:26 GMT

So we have made it to Africa! We have had a very eventful journey so far.

We crossed the Millau viaduct in a blizzard and flashed by a speed camera in France.

In Spain things got more eventful. Some youths tried to car jack us in Barcelona; in Valencia we got a puncture and after parking car overnight returned to find it had been towed away by the police!

In Tarifa we managed to cause a scare in a shop by accidentally setting off a camping gas canister.

In comparison to that our first day in Morocco has been much quieter but great fun.

More soon... Chris and Richard.

--Sent via BlackBerry--