The Chameleon Net blog

The Un-Measurable Success of a Profitable Poker Night

rossm@chameleonnet.co.uk (Ross Miles) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 13:00:44 GMT

The general consensus is that no matter how good your idea, strategy or marketing campaign, without KPIs or specific goals it is hard to qualify the success of what you have done. Also, when it comes to social media activity RoI is notoriously hard to measure.

So how much is a positive mention on Twitter really worth to your brand or product? If you cannot measure something and assign it a monetary value, does that then make the actions that caused the comments harder to justify? Why am I even asking these questions!? Well I recently attended a networking event for people in the digital and eCommerce industries in the guise of a poker evening, paid for by my employers under the agreement that I was to return and blog about my experiences, so let me continue…

The event was definitely well received. It ran smoothly and was carefully organised with the 60 players drawing their table numbers before play started, with professional dealers on each table. The venue was pleasant, centrally located and the staff were always accommodating. We got a free drink, some dinner and the cash prizes were certainly well received by the top 6 finishers. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and am already looking forward to its next incarnation later in the year. I should probably add a qualifier that I finished in the money and went home with a tidy profit. However, regardless of my financial gains I enjoyed the experience and would happily attend again. But was the event a success?

Strictly speaking we were at an industry networking event. Before we were seated and the first cards were dealt, people seemed to keep themselves to themselves, with the conversation limited to colleagues advising less experienced colleagues on the rules of Texas Hold ‘em. As soon as our chips were on the felt steely glares were exchanged and any chatter between players became poker related.

After one hour we broke for the buffet dinner where people joked about the lack of networking taking place around the tables and the serious nature of play! However, this did prove to be an ice-breaker to allow us to at least exchange business cards.

After around another 30 minutes of play ‘Barry the Broker’ jokingly introduced himself and laughed at how we hadn’t even told each other our names after an hour and a half of play! As the hands went on and players dwindled the tension on the tables led to more banter, but again, it wasn’t as if we were discussing possible business partnerships as the re-raises went in.

By the time we reached the final table of 10 rapport had been built through shared experiences and bad beats. Even some of the players who had been eliminated were hanging around, gathering around the table watching as we duelled out the final hands as the blinds and antes escalated at an alarming rate. It was around this point that I began to realise that by virtue of staying alive by the skin of my teeth a few times and making some outrageous bluffs (which I then showed) I had become a recognised figure at the table which put me in the enviable position of being ‘rememberable’, which is surely the purpose of such an event for me!

The morning after I made an effort to track down anyone tweeting about the event, send a quick e-mail to those I exchanged business cards with and added one contact on Linkedin. People tweeting about the event were positive and even those that mentioned their losses did so punctuated with emoticons. Did I uncover any immediate opportunities for Chameleon Net on the night? No. Did I leave enough of an impression for people to remember me? I hope so… I just have to hope they also remember I work for a Digital Solutions Agency!

So why the intro about measuring success and RoI? Well I was trying understand if the poker night was a success in terms of it being a networking event. Strictly speaking on traditional criteria it would be hard to say yes, but in those difficult to define, social-esque ways, it was. My positive feelings towards the event organisers have increased. No-one I encountered had a negative word to say about of the event. I did hand my business card out to several people, some of who eventually saw me make some ballsy bluffs on the final table (all-in three times in a row with 2 6, 2 3 and 2 7 on flagrant steals!) which meant I was someone they now remembered rather than just a random card in their pocket the next day.

In the same way that it can be hard to quantify my success with interaction via social media, it is difficult for me to quantify my success in selling Chameleon Net during that evening, but what I did do was establish personal connections with people on a real one-to-one basis, which hopefully makes me an approachable person when their company needs a digital solution.

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Our Thoughts on iPhone 4

richardk@chameleonnet.co.uk (Rich Kirk) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 10:29:18 GMT

Busy times at Chameleon Net – so apologies for the lack of blog activity! The next instalment of our Google Grants blog series is in production – if I weren’t working on so many Google Grant accounts I could sit down and write it!

One piece of news has provoked me to take a break and blog this week though: Apple’s latest smartphone has officially been unveiled (you probably saw it about 6 weeks ago courtesy of gizmodo).

iPhone 4 is being released towards the end of the month, provoking the usual round of adoring plaudits in the tech press. That said, even if you strip away all the “this changes everything” hype, iPhone 4 remains an exciting prospect.

The design raised a bit of debate here; on one hand the current design is a modern classic, and changing it may dilute the iPhone brand, but on the other hand, the new handset looks nothing short of stunning. Many Chameleons are also pleased to note that it’s made out of even tougher materials: Ed might finally be able to own a phone without a cracked screen!

Whilst Apple announced a new ‘reader’ mode for browsing on the iPhone (AKA adblocking mode) it has also been shouting loudly about iAd – it’s new mobile advertising platform for advertisers and developers wanting to display adverts within apps on any Apple product. You can bet the ‘reader’ mode won’t block iAds.

This is one feature of the new iPhone 4 operating system that interests me. Will iAds be annoying? Potentially, but this new feature will bring mobile-specific advertising into sharp focus for brands. If you don’t engage in mobile specific advertising / communications, this could be the time to experiment, whilst user fatigue is low. If you’re developing an app, signs are that you can generate a lot of extra revenue through in-app advertising, and if you want to advertise on apple products, you’ll be in good company; $60m of ads have already been booked through iAds by the likes of Citi, Nissan, Walt Disney and Unilever.

I recently went to a keynote by Hugo Barra of Google’s mobile web team. His presentation made it clear that Google is focussing hard on delivering relevant ads to mobile web users, as well as making it as easy as possible for advertisers to manage this mobile advertising through their account dashboards. If Google are investing heavily in a revenue generating area, it’s usually a sign that this channel is going to become much more important in the near future.

One thing’s for certain; the iPad and iPhone 4 is not everyone’s cup of tea, and other providers have great rival products on the market. Many of us have reservations about the closed environment Apple forces developers and users to operate in, and the reporting of apple product launches is infantile at best. However, the fact is Apple products account for the vast majority of all mobile browsing on websites we monitor, and therefore these developments are significant to your brand. Apple products have driven /are driving the uptake of mobile browsing in the UK. Mobile browsing isn’t a user behaviour that’s going to disappear. If you don’t have a mobile strategy in place yet... start thinking!

To help you get into mobile Chameleon Net is offering some free assistance:

Dan Martin (our head of digital strategy) is speaking on building a business case for mobile and where the mobile web is going in the next few months / years at our seminar in Hoxton on July 14th.
I’ve put together some resources on how you can learn more about your current mobile users using Google Analytics.

One mobile site we’ve already put together is for Sitters, the UKs largest babysitting agency. Visit sitters.co.uk on your iPhone to have a look.

The Economist helps move Augmented Reality closer to the mainstream

carle@chameleonnet.com (Carl Edwards) — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:29:35 GMT

Here at Chameleon we have been banging the drum for a while about augmented reality. Most recently, at a personal level, at an IWMW2009 barcamp held at the University of Essex.

Whilst augmented reality requires a sophisticated technological infrastructure to work, the 'additional' technology to make it work is itself relatively simple and the potential for new applications huge. What makes it possible is that the 'sophisticated technological infrastructure' not only exists but is both mainstream and taken for granted: mobile internet and telephony; GPS satellite and radio technology; portable camera and display devices - all rolled into one.

Now its good to see the technology featured in the latest Economist Technology Quarterly: http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14299602

No, the article has nothing to do with us!

However, hopefully the Economist article will bring augmented reality out of the future-tech wilderness to the attention of a wider, more business-minded and entrepreneurial mainstream audience.

...and they can come to us to have a go on our drum!

Liveblogging

richardk@chameleonnet.co.uk (Rich Kirk) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 10:48:43 GMT

I have been on leave recently, spending some time on the Isle of Skye in the Hebrides. I went up there to try and finally knock off the traverse of the Cuillin Ridge, which I would heartily recommend to anyone who likes the outdoors, vertical drops of dizzying proportions, and/or bad weather.

The traverse is something my Dad had wanted to do for years, and with him being 50 this year, I had arranged for a guide to help us. This was my 5th attempt and my Dad’s 7th or 8th; around 90% of attempts fail due to awful weather, navigational difficulties and/or lack of fitness, so I was anxious to give ourselves the best possible chance.

Hiring the guide was not cheap and so I’d done it as my Dad’s 50th birthday present. I’d also got contributions from a lot of his mates to help with the cost. Herein lay a problem; how to give something back to everyone who had donated cash so that they felt involved in the trip? I decided to live-blog the 2 day traverse, so people could chart our progress from their desks or mobiles whilst we were away.

Using the Wordpress app and my iPhone, I was easily able to update my Dad’s birthday blog from the mountains with notes and photos of our progress, even though I only had fairly weak GPRS signal at best (the O symbol next to the normal phone signal symbol on your iPhone). If I can get signal in the Cuillins, which are about as remote as it gets in the UK, then liveblogging must be possible across almost all of the UK!

Happily the whole thing proved to be a real success. I thought only 10-20 people would be interested in the blog, but over 200 absolute unique users were recorded on the site in a period of 3 days.

Being new to live-blogging, I found the main benefits were:

It has left a record of events that is more genuine and ‘raw’ than a circular email sent after the event could be.
People are interested in something they can see developing; most people would have found out through word of mouth we had completed our challenge and then not been as interested in a subsequent email account of the trip.
Liveblogging seems to be bleeding edge enough to genuinely capture the interest of family / friends
Liveblogging and allowing opportunities for realtime feedback ensures the audience feels involved; sending a report after the event implies they missed out.

For digital marketers looking to generate interesting content and create buzz around a website liveblogging seems to be a great solution, why sit at your desk and force yourself to write a blogpost when you could be more interesting in less words by sharing your thoughts or experiences live from an event you / your company is involved in?

Top tips for your live blog:

Alert potentially interested audiences about the broadcast in advance, and also send a reminder email / tweet at the start of the broadcast, or just after your first live entry has been posted.
If you are using Wordpress make sure you use twitter and facebook blog widgets to auto-update your wider social networks with an “I’ve just posted xxxx” link whenever the blog is updated.
Keep checking your comments / feedback, if your audience is debating the content of the liveblog, reflecting that in future posts will make them feel even more involved in the event.
Try to keep in mind the wider purpose of your liveblog and website and whilst you have an elevated level of attention from them, ensure you suggest things like donating / signing up / purchasing from you.

In case you missed the link earlier you can still check out the live blog of our trip here.

Review of Supply London's Bid Writing Workshop

surajs@chameleonnet.co.uk (Suraj Shah) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 11:11:08 GMT

This month I attended the Bid Writing Workshop run by Supply London who are funded by the LDA and ERDF to help London Based SMEs to win contracts.

As I haven't had very much experience preparing for and writing tender response documents, this was the perfect opportunity for me to brush up my skills.

Before I attended, I knew that I wanted to do what I could to prepare clear and simple documents that made it easy for those reading the bids to make an informed choice. If we are to be the right fit as a supplier to our prospective clients, then the document has to clearly communicate that.

The workshop has given me the skills to do just that. The overarching principle is that the tender process is centred around a list of requirements and certain evaluation criteria. So long as you can check all the boxes and cover everything that is asked for, then you're off to a good start. In essence, it's about mastering the art of forming and executing checklists.

Key steps in the bid writing process:

Evaluating the contract and deciding whether to bid in the first place: using a Decision Making Chart to help with this which covers whether the contract is profitable, whether we have the right capacity, whether the contract terms can be fulfilled, and in our eyes whether the client would choose us.
Preparing to bid with a plan in place to ensure a very good bid is submitted.
Working out which elements of the evaluaton criteria are covered by each of the requirement items: using an Evaluation Criteria Checklist.
Analysing how the deliverables are linked to the evaluation criteria: using a Deliverables Checklist.
Analysing the bid and doing the background research to help understand why that particular tender was advertised and what might be important to the client.
Writing the bid, ensuring the the structure, style and presentation serve to keep the message clear, engaging and professional.
Reviewing the final tender and checking it for consistency and accuracy.
Submitting the tender in good time and ensuring it is submitted in the format asked for.
Creating a repository of well-maintained documents for quick access the next time a tender is to be written. The repository would include the various checklists + deliverables such as staff profiles and copies of policies.

Overall this was a really valuable workshop for me, and it was engaging throughout. I would highly recommend any other SMEs to approach Supply London and find out about their other workshops to maximise their potential of winning new contracts. If you are a SME and based in London, this assistance is provided by Supply London free of charge.

Paris Marathon

louiser@chameleonnet.com (Louise Ryan) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:24:30 GMT

In November last year I took the mad decision to enter the 2009 Paris marathon - to be held this year on the 5th April. I can't say that I'm particularly looking forward to it but I have enjoyed elements of my training. Two things have kept me going.

My running gadgets

Of course being a software developer I am naturally a bit of a geek (only a very little bit though of course). Therefore when I do my running training I must have either my iPod or iPhone with me. Obviously they keep me sane by enabling me to listen to music, podcasts and audiobooks during my training but they also record my progress. Here's a quick overview of how they work:

Nike+ for my iPod
This consists of a wee little accelerometer that you can attach to or pop in your running shoes and a Nike+ receiver which you attach to your iPod. It records how far and how fast you are running or walking. You can then sync this data with your Nike+ account via iTunes and get a marvelous little summary of how your training is progressing and a breakdown of each run. Here's a pic from the Nike+ website for you to take a look at. I'm a bit of a fan of RIA (Rich Internet Applications) and really like how the site utilises Flash in a useful and very pretty fashion. The main disadvantage of the Nike+ system is that it’s not totally accurate but I can live with that as it still gives me a good idea of how I'm doing.

RunKeeper for my iPhone
I love my iPhone. Probably too much. This free app is the thing I show to my friends when I want to impress them with how cool the iPhone is. RunKeeper uses the iPhones GPS (Global Positioning System) capabilities to track your run, or in fact your walk, cycle, sky, whatever. Then when you have finished your run you can view a highly accurate breakdown of not only your time and pace but also your route via clever use of the Google maps API. You can also view this same data on the web using the RunKeeper dashboard site. Here's a pic to give you an idea. You can share runs with friends and also have RunKeeper auto-tweet your twitter account with your run data! This kind of really useful mashup application gets me all excited about web development! However, GPS tracking apps also have all manner of privacy implications - for example, in this article I have linked to a picture of my run rather than sharing the run itself (which you can do via the RunKeeper dashboard) because I don't really want the world to know where I started and finished.

It does get you thinking about the world of possibilities that GPS tracking opens up though. At the moment you can only provide geo targeted content via websites by inspecting the users incoming IP address or by asking the user to tell you where they are. However, with more and more mobile devices supporting GPS being available more possibilities open up for useful applications of this marvelous technology.

Finally this brings me to the second thing that is keeping me going through training - I'm raising cash for MSF (Médecins Sans Frontières). I realised what amazing work this charity does when I worked on their website last year. In emergencies and their aftermath, MSF rehabilitates and runs hospitals and clinics, performs surgery, battles epidemics, carries out vaccination campaigns, operates feeding centres for malnourished children and offers mental health care. When needed, MSF also constructs wells, dispenses clean drinking water, and provides shelter materials like blankets and plastic sheeting.

If you've enjoyed reading about my pain or would like to help MSF please sponsor me or donate directly to MSF via their website.

Useful resources:

Nike+iPod: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike%2BiPod
RunKeeper: http://www.runkeeper.com/
Sponsor me via Justgiving: http://www.justgiving.com/louiseryan2009
Médecins Sans Frontières UK: http://www.msf.org.uk/

Twitter For B2B Websites

richardk@chameleonnet.co.uk (Rich Kirk) — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 11:27:39 GMT

Like everyone in the digital marketing space, here at Chameleon Net we are twitter junkies. Even our table football has its own feed! The phenomenal growth the service has enjoyed over the last 5 – 6 months means that Twitter is the platform switched-on marketers are buzzing about right now. However, as with any service growing at an exponential rate, there are problems. This recent article warning of a “Twitter bubble” summed up some of our fears about the service and the industry springing up around it. The challenge Chameleon faces is to make Twitter part of the range of e-marketing services we offer to clients, in a way that can best guarantee a good ROI for both our clients and ourselves.

Many of our more forward thinking clients have expressed an interest in developing a Twitter account, and as a result this week we launched Drivers Jonas on Twitter. DJ is a commercial property consultancy turning over nearly £100m per year and employing over 700 staff, yet they remain remarkably agile when it comes to marketing their website. We're excited about this project because we feel that with the right aims and expectations, a B2B Twitter feed can easily harness all the best aspects of Micro-blogging.

As a B2B company Drivers Jonas is using Twitter to provide the company with a more human face than their corporate website can, as well as develop their reputation as a ‘thought leader’ within the property industry. We believe that in time, being active on Twitter will help Drivers Jonas unearth business leads, connect and interact with potential new recruits (especially undergraduates), as well as doing more routine things like publicising DJ events. One thing Drivers Jonas recognises is that Twitter isn’t a marketplace in which to sell, it’s a watering hole at which they can meet their stakeholders; something I believe is vital to good big-business tweeting.

We’ve also envisaged that in the absence of a DJ blog (which would be time consuming and difficult to operate in line with internal compliance procedures) the Twitter feed could be used as a rapid response in the case of a major PR event. This flexibility is something many B2B companies would love to have; for some blogging is the answer, but for marketers at larger companies getting sign-off for a controversial blog post is ‘worst nightmare’ territory. Twitter restricts you to 140 characters, and at the same time, restricts the barriers to getting a message out into the public domain.

I hope to blog again with more on this project as it develops, as I think it will provide some interesting insights into ‘corporate tweeting’. In the meantime, if your company thinks they could benefit from being on Twitter, but want a helping hand building a business case and launching an account, get in touch.

Face to face with the real chameleon (small 'c')

lucie@actualmarketing.co.uk (Lucie Bickerdike) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 13:25:22 GMT

Last week I and Actual group Directors Stephen and Suzie had the pleasure of attending Chameleon Net’s 10^th Birthday bash at London Zoo. It was great to meet up with the team, and to make the acquaintance of a couple of recent recruits. Without wanting to be too gushy, it’s evenings like this that make us thankful for such lovely clients. In true Chameleon style it was an unorthodox evening, with a drinks reception – of course – in the Reptile House, with a party in the Pavilion later in the evening. It was nice to share the party with the wallabies and emus just outside, who were all wide awake and surprisingly sociable!

This month has shown that Chameleon’s work is becoming more widely recognised for its innovation and creativity, and that the company has climbed a long way in a decade. Chameleon Net’s fantastic campaign site for the latest Diabetes UK campaign made it into the news pages of New Media Age, the company won a silver W3 Award for the innovative Bucks New University website, and we were also proud that Vicky reached the finals of the competitive Women of the Future Awards.

So, what’s in store for the next ten years? As the internet grows and the industry matures (according to a recent survey, 30% of UK digital agencies were founded more than ten years ago), Chameleon are in a strong competitive position with a grown-up, experienced and confident offering. Happy birthday Chameleon Net – and here’s to many more!

Chameleon highlights, 2003-2008

danm@chameleonnet.com (Dan Martin) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:49:37 GMT

In the process of planning for Chameleon Net's 10th bday celebration (today's the actual day, by the way), it occurred to me that I'm celebrating my own anniversary of sorts - October marks 5 years of my being here at Chameleon.

Time has flown by and a lot has happened, that's for sure. So in the spirit of the both Chameleon being 10, and me notching up 5 years service, here are my highlights of the past semi-decade working in web with Chameleon (in no particular order).

1. Watching the web move a breakneck speed. This never fails to outstound and entertain me. When I arrived at Chameleon in autumn 2003 we were working on founding our in-line CMS code library - seems quite a standard set of functionality now - but I hadn't seen it anywhere else at the time. Just over a year later we were pioneering ePR with early adopter bloggers, and establishing the building blocks for our modular hub & spoke e-commerce platform, something that still 'wows' clients. Last week one of our longstanding Devs - Steve - was working on some proof-of-concept with iPhone applications and our CTO Carl's just built an Adobe Flex website deployment tool. It's amazing. It just doesn't stop!

2. Having meetings in unusual places. Most organisations needs a web providers these days, which can take you to some odd locales to meet clients. We have something of a mini-competition at the office to judge who has been to the strangest. My favourite (i.e. the most oddball) was the a meeting I had some years ago inside Sunbury telephone exchange. This year I've been to two offices with 20 ft waterfalls in the foyer, but only one where there is a large two-level coy carp pond. Jeremy says his most impressive meeting, visually, was at the top floor of Barclays Global in Canary wharf, with floor to ceiling glass. I also reckon Jeremy and I tie on fun transatlantic meetings - mine at UNICEF HQ in New York City, and Jeremy with a memorable pitch at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachussets.

3. Relocating. Soho Square was great (we were there until 2006), but genuinely not a patch on Smithfield, our home for the past two-and-a-half years. The feel of the area is perfect to promote a relaxed yet vibrant team. Plus it allowed the business to break out of our confined serviced office space in Soho and set us up for the growth we've experienced since in our dedicated premises.

4. Setting up the Chameleon Net events programme. One of the things I felt strongly about when joining Chameleon was the role educating the market has to play in being a company at the cutting-edge of the sector. I still feel the same. We've been running our educational seminars since 2003, and we've had over 700 people attend and give us great feedback, which is a testament to our speakers' knowledge and great content. Our latest sector-specific ones in November (Plug: for the Education and Publishing sectors) are already proving really popular.

5. Working with clients (outside of the norm). There's definitely a feeling of going the extra mile here, which sounds a bit cheesy, but it's true nonetheless. Two of my highlights... 1) when we worked with our client The Foundry to not only develop a business-changing e-commerce website for them, but also jointly to put together a really compelling award entry for the 2005 London e-commerce awards, which won the 'Best Sales and Marketing Award'... and 2) when the Tsunami hit east Asia on Boxing Day in 2004 everyone was off on their christmas break, yet between ourelves and UNICEF we got the campaign and donation pages setup the same day, and the site took over £1M in essential donations in 5 days. Everyone here felt like that was a really impactful thing to do.

6. Creating and launching the first direct-to-consumer sales website for Random House, the UK’s largest general book publisher, in 2006. Of particular significance for me since I manage this account for Chameleon, but if also felt like working on an industry-shaping site when few publishers were going down that route at the time, and most were just happy to send their visitors to Amazon and get sales that way.

I could go on, and probably would if it hadn't already taken me 10 days to finish this blog because I keep coming up with different things to add in :-)

So... here's my 'and finally' point, and for tradition's sake it's a bit unusual and includes an animal...

7. Not content with the likes of iStock and Corbis, we took a new slant on our own branding in 2004 by hiring 'Mela' the Chameleon from ‘Animal Actors’ and holding a photo shoot in a kitchen in Walthamstow (thanks David!). He's the little fella you can still see if you look top left in our logo.

Chameleon Net is (nearly) 10!

danm@chameleonnet.com (Dan Martin) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:03:37 GMT

Well it's nearly upon us. We knew it was coming, but here it is. On 31st October this year Chameleon will be 10 years old, and we're embarking on a whole bunch of fun to celebrate over the coming weeks. (Not least by behaving like 10 year olds on our temporarily kid-like blog ;-) )

A decade is a lot of time in anyone's book. Particularly in the life of a web agency. When we were established Vicky wanted us to be a one stop shop for all things web, a bold move back then, but the right one of course. Even so, who knew it would work out so well?!

Seriously... In '98 the web was a different kettle of fish to what we see today. To kick of our 10th anniversary blogging, I thought I'd have a quick look at the web world circa 1998...

When we started up, Google looked like this...

...and really was still in Beta :-) Google is also 10 this year, so we're in good company. You can check out the last ten years of the world's favourite search engine at: http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday/

An early client of Chameleon's were these cheeky chaps, with an ambitious website also founded in 1998:

A concept probably before it's time, sadly, and a story that didn't end too happily for well-publicised reasons - fortunately nothing to do with us, and we got paid too, which I don't think can be said of all their creditors!

I didn't realise until today that usability guru Jakob Nielsen archives his popular Alertbox commentary online (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/). Well worth a browse for insightful titbits and the odd amusing misfire prediction (nobody's perfect!).

On 1st Nov 1998, a day after our founding (no doubt a busy and disorienting day in Harrow), Jakob writes about Yahoo:

"Yahoo's home page has an average download time of 3.0 seconds according to the Keynote performance index. This is one of the fastest download times among major websites. " Bang, zoom!

He also notes that "since Internet bandwidth is very limited, Yahoo emphasizes a slim design and forgets about emulating television or glossy magazines." We were all on piddling 56k modems at the time don't forget, so the thumbs up from Jakob for Yahoo.

He does argue however that "Advertising Doesn't Work on the Web" and that "Yahoo's financial reports show that Web advertising is a very poor revenue generator". Hm... not so sure that prediction panned out all that well.

Old screenshots are fun, so here's a Yahoo one:

Look familiar? I expect so, because Yahoo looked more or less like this until about 2004.

A final bit from the Nielsen archives, just since it shows how things have changed. On 29th Nov 98 he advises that web pages should be left online indefinitely because "search engines are slow in updating their databases". Word, Jakob. Chameleonnet.co.uk has received 3,154 hits from search spiders so far this week alone.

Things have moved on. We all know that, but it's a bit dizzying sometimes to think just how rapidly the web has evolved. Chameleon started in a climate of snail's pace modems, search engines that spider and index every other week at about teatime, adventurous but ill conceived web-only startups, and the beginnings of a world dominating brain child of two adventurous geeks in California (sorry Larry/Sergey).

Exciting and turbulent times were ahead. I'll do a bit more digging and pick another exciting year in the life of Chameleon for one of my next posts, so watch out web lovers.

Safeguarding innovation: Chameleon Working Groups

carle@chameleonnet.com (Carl Edwards) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 14:07:19 GMT

This isn't really my thing. It has been so long since I last blogged here, I think my last entry pre-dates the archive. Possibly the web also. When sites go live, others do the press releases and perhaps also the blog thing. Others are better at it.

Today, however, the gears of an internal project are finally getting in motion. If I do not blog about it, no-one will. I even think its quite cool.

Basically, I have been wanting to set up what I call "Working Groups" for some time now. At Chameleon we like to think of ourselves as a fairly creative, cutting edge bunch. We like to play with new technology. We like to keep an eye on the trends on the web. Its just what we do. When we were a smaller, it did not take a great deal of effort to integrate this into our day to day work, nor to spread ideas around the company.

Now we are bigger. Our self image is much the same. We still like to play with and keep an eye on the same things. However, as one grows, what is agility in a small company can become anarchy in a larger one. Processes for managing more people on teams for larger projects makes it harder for that grassroots innovation to bubble up from the most junior developer to the most senior, or even from the developers to to the sales team. Increased specialisation either across technologies or in internal processes makes it tougher to contribute across boundaries at a timely point in the project process.

Fortunately, this is not yet a major problem for us. Within client projects we deal with this in a number of ways and continually look to safe-guard this aspect of our company culture: Innovation is what we do. It is what we, all of us, wish to continue to do. Only left alone will it become a problem.

So this is where "working groups" comes in: outside the realm of client projects. Here I don't just mean the non-billable realm where thumbs twiddle and FaceBook get the majority of their hits. Such time is rare anyway - unless a company has other problems. Despite wider economic events, we are doing ok.

Instead, I mean time set aside outside of billable client time in order to retain our skills and expand our skills into new areas of expertise. Not just training; but research, playing, getting experience.

The idea is to be able to have small teams of 'chameleons' continually investigating and toying with new technologies and trends that interest them. Such teams will have clear deliverables in order to keep things focused; but the drive should come from them. Not quite the infamous "Google 20% time" (Google=bigger than us), but a similar idea. Google are also doing ok.

Our model is of course different. For us, such efforts will then feed into our company as whole: skills, ideas, practical experience. It will make us better consultants, designers, and developers.

For our staff, hopefully it also keeps them motivated and interested, and most importantly, involved - even as we continue to expand. Every political party knows to safeguard its grassroots. To remain innovative, as we grow we must do the same.

Over the coming months I hope to see it start to effect this blog too, as our working groups begin to blog their ongoing findings. We're putting our grassroots online. Perhaps you should worry after all...

As a taster, our first working group looks to be the "Mobile Websites Working Group" tasked "to look at and investigate the ways to make engaging and intuitive websites for mobile phones and devices." Not exciting to you? Well it is to those involved. They really want to build a cool mobile website - not just a widget on a phone; but a proper website - and they know they can, given half a chance. That (hopefully) will be why it works out. If not, lessons will be learnt along the way - and you will learn them along with us. That is after all the point.

I guess this blogging lark isn't so bad. Will leave it to the pros though. My sentences have gone all staccato. Wierd.

Digitise or Die (or “Much Ado About Digital”)

jeremyd@chameleonnet.com (Jeremy Davis) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:12:00 GMT

In my ongoing mission to become the David Dimbleby of the Web Industry (and beyond?) I recently spent an afternoon chairing a “Question Time” style event for movers and shakers in the UK publishing industry: “Digitise or Die” was the inaugural annual event run by The Bookseller, the leading trade publication for the book industry, with the sole intention of focusing on the issues facing the book business in the digital age. And issues there are.

Pretty much ever since Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1440, the only way you and I could get our hands on a book would be if a Publisher printed it (the only way to create multiple copies on anything like a large scale) and a bookseller sold it to us. Simple. Oh yes, and of course and author needs to write it.

So, publishers find authors, groom them, coach them and generally hone their talent so as to (hopefully) create not only a great piece of writing but also a rampant commercial success. Of course the publishers would have to kiss a few frogs but hey, sometimes when you get your prince he turns out to be a darned good catch (JK Rowling, Terry Pratchett, Dan Brown anyone?)

So, that model’s clear: Publisher finds the creative talent, publishes the work, markets it, sells it to retailers and then you and I buy it. Hang on a minute…that sounds familiar…creative talent…publisher…seller…consumer…Ah yes I’ve got it! It’s the music business!

And that is essentially the problem facing the book business – how to not do what the music business did. In the digital age the roles are unclear: anyone can be an author (just add talent), publish a book, mass produce it, reach an audience (if it’s any good) and distribute it worldwide, absolutely free.

Perhaps books are just content, and the web is very good at distributing that for free. So who’s going to pay for it? Yes, the book business is probably going through its biggest change in over 500 years, when Gutenburg, quill in hand, said to himself “there MUST be an easier way of doing this!”. Anyway, back to my Dimbleby impersonation....

With research done and cue cards in hand, off I went. There were several speakers in the morning and then my session was in the afternoon. Tension was in the air…what does the future hold? speakers included Jason Hanley from Google (who are digitising content at a rate of knots) and he aptly demonstrated the speed at which the internet, in only 15 years, has been able to reach an audience of 1.5billion – way faster than the decades it took TV or radio to reach anything like those numbers. Yes, the internet is REALLY good at delivering content.

All in all the event was developing a fairly dramatic atmosphere and like any drama there had to be a bad guy. And there was. Enter, stage left, Andrew Keen, self proclaimed “Anti-Christ of Silicon Valley” and both irreverently funny and deadly serious all at the same time. And his message? That book publishing is finished as a business, either for the publishers or the authors. Content has gone digital and digital content (as the music business is finding out to its cost) is largely free on the web.

As a popular author himself he should know – most of his money, he says, comes from live appearances (c.f. Madonna, Rolling Stones?), not book sales. Although a word of qualification here: as far as I know Andrew has one popular book to his name and that’s hardly a career. Most creative artists would expect to have to produce a substantial body of popular work before they can think about retiring…but I digress. And so to the afternoon session....

In front of an audience of book industry bods I chair an interesting discussion that ranges from the role of the author to the role of the high street bookseller. My fellow panellists included Andrew Keen, Kieron Smith (MD of BookRabbit.com) and Yang May Ooi, who introduced interesting ideas about how the nature of storytelling has changed with the digital age – maybe the book is a format from another time.

Our session was then followed by an excellent presentation by our very own Drew Davies who gave the audience a whistlestop tour of effective SEO techniques.

One thing was very plain throughout the day: Change is afoot. There is fear. There is excitement, anxiety, confusion and (as in all times of change) opportunity. My sense is that there will indeed be winners and losers in the publishing sector over the next few years and the landscape may look very different.

When the dust settles we will see who grasped the opportunities for delivering high quality digital products in a way that consumers want. Content is here to stay and if it’s good enough I think people will pay for it too. The challenge that faces the book business (and the music business) I think is how to position itself so that it adds value, not just the mechanism for distributing content. Value is always attractive....

Next question…ah yes…the man at the back with the yellow tie…yes you, sir!

A media insight into Chameleon's online world

lucie@actualmarketing.co.uk (Lucie Bickerdike) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 15:01:32 GMT

Lucie is Chameleon Net’s PR account executive at marketing and PR consultancy the Actual group (www.actualgroup.co.uk)

When Chameleon Net asked me if I’d like a regular ‘blog spot’ on their site, I was chuffed but a little nervous. Surrounded by the creative and technical insight provided by the blindingly bright Chameleon Net team, how would my PR perspective of the company and their work fare?

But the fact is that Chameleon Net do some really exciting work that deserves to be shouted about. This month, .Net magazine was so impressed with Chameleon’s new Médécins Sans Frontières website (www.msf.org.uk) that they asked us to produce a tutorial that walks readers through the process of creating the dynamic homepage banner. The piece, written by Daryl and Louise (with co-ordination and proofreading efforts from myself!), has not yet been published but watch this space for the finished article!

Chameleon Net are also pleased to share the expertise used to create such innovative work. I had the pleasure of attending their latest seminar, titled ‘Quick Web Wins’, on 24th June. Offering ‘practical, tactical ways your organisation can harness the web for short-term results’, the seminar was a great way for non-technical folk (myself included!) to get a better grip on the latest web techniques – and, most importantly, how to translate this knowledge into visible results.

At the seminar Jeremy observed that, while the media continues along its doom-mongering ‘recession’ track, the online industry is thriving. Still effectively in its infancy, the industry is constantly innovating and creating new opportunities for companies to increase their revenue using online methods. It’s an exciting time for companies to explore the possibilities on offer.

Drew’s talk on blogs and social networks was bang on trend. You can’t move in the new media press for articles on how social media can be exploited for by business. Bloggers have gained a name for themselves as pretty useful journalistic commentators on a broad range of subjects, and it is because of this that search engines tend to place blogs near the top of results. Many companies are now regularly contacting bloggers as part of their online PR activity and targeting users of networks as potential customers - but what we all really want to know is, as one member of the audience said, ‘how do you begin to measure ROI on this type of investment?’ It’s a sticking point faced by PR – and, to some extent, marketing – practitioners across the land, and there is no absolutely scientific answer. Perhaps the most successful companies are those willing to take a chance on new methods?

Speaking of hot topics in the new media press, Dan touched on one at the seminar that seems to have got them all a-froth: user-generated video content. According to .Net (177, July 08, p.15), Flickr users are none to happy about the possibility of video, or ‘long photos’, as well as photos being uploaded and shared on the site. Not everybody’s a fan of social networking sites, it seems, with one Flickr user commenting: ‘What will be the next step? Pokes? Third party applications that you have to invite 20 friends to use? Music playing on each member’s page to slow the site down even more?’ Ouch. I have to say I agree with the mag when it suggests that comparing the ability to upload simple video to an all-out MySpace style assault on users is taking it a bit far. It got me thinking, though: are social networking facilities actually a hindrance to users when they’re misappropriated? Perhaps this is an issue worth exploring for companies looking to monetise these sites – user experience is the all-important factor.

Last year, Chameleon’s ePR campaign for Tefal’s Jamie Oliver Survival Kit cookware sensitively navigated the rocky terrain of blogs and user videos, achieving high visibility for the product on dozens of UK blogs and a fantastic level of consumer participation on the mini site, which invited user video content. The success of the project showed that while these techniques are still in development, if you approach them with a real understanding of consumer requirements your brand will almost certainly be enhanced.

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.

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

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...

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--

Plymouth to Dakar Rally

chris@chameleonnet.com (Chris Thorn) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:01:33 GMT

As many of you may know I am taking part in the Plymouth to Dakar rally. A colleague and I will be setting off tonight, to drive to Portsmouth to catch a ferry bound for France. The plan is that we will then drive through France, Spain, take a ferry over to northern Morocco and then on through Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal and finally arrive in The Gambia in about three weeks time.

If we make it, the car will be auctioned off and the money donated to two local charities.

The Gambia is a small, poor country that struggles with having a population the size (roughly) of Birmingham and a land area that is more the size of Scotland. More than 75% of the population are subsistence farmers and therefore desperately needs all the support it can get.

The first charity supported by the rally is the Association of Small-Scale Enterprises in Tourism (ASSET). The second is the Gambian National Olympic Committee (GNOC).

ASSET operates in the tourism industry and was set up to help thousands of Gambians to scoop up more of the crumbs from the tourism table and to 'give a voice to the voiceless'. So it lobbies government to do more for the juice pressers, the fruit sellers, the tourist taxi drivers, the official tourist guides and people with many similar jobs, all of whom struggle to gain access to the tourists who are managed by the tour operators and the bigger ground operating companies.

By contrast the GNOC is about improving the quality of life of all ordinary Gambians by providing sporting facilities. In the Gambia, there is huge interest and participation in sport. The Gambia has a huge numbers of 'football pitches' - patches of bare sand - at least one in every village. Very few people can afford the kit that gets bought for kids from the age of two or three in the UK. Football boots, footballs are in very short supply and to see a goal with a net is almost unknown. The GNOC struggles hard in these circumstances to offer a variety of sporting activities and to build stadia around the country. The National Stadium, where our car will be auctioned, is apparently an impressive building but it is the only one of its kind in the country. The GNOC is building more facilities as and where it can but has very limited funds.

ASSET and GNOC ensure other Gambian charities also hear about the rally and are able to apply for some of the proceeds. In addition, they will also do what they can to monitor the way the money is spent in order to make sure it goes where it was meant to.

Since the rally began in 2003, hundreds of thousands of pounds have been raised, which has made a huge difference in a country as small and poor as The Gambia. We hope will be achieved again this year!

So although we will be having fun on the trip, we will be donating our car to these charities. If you would also like to follow our lead, it would be great if you could donate something to either UNICEF or Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without borders) both who do fantastic work in Africa, making a real difference to thousands of lives.

I have set-up specific fundraising web pages so you can donate; simple go to either of pages below and get your credit/debit card out!

http://www.justgiving.com/msf-plymouth-to-dakar

http://www.supportunicef.org.uk/Plymouth_to_Dakar

I hope to keep you all up-to-date with our progress on the Chameleon blog, which can be found at: http://www.chameleonnet.co.uk/blog/default.aspx

Or if you want to find our more about the rally and see up-to-date field reports from us and the rest of the teams, you can to the official Plymouth Dakar challenge site at: http://www.plymouth-dakar.co.uk