Helping advertising agencies transform their
websites into powerful new business engines.

Cool Red Shoes

It’s time the cobbler’s children wore awesome shoes.

AgencyCritique is Eric Holter’s web strategy blog that helps creative service firms improve their web strategies and their own websites.

November 24, 2008: Agency Website Gaffes: #5. Textarea Scroll Boxes

Scrolling text areas One of the symptoms if the “Creativity Barrier” as observed in many agency websites is the rigidly controlled textarea. This is almost universally seen in Flash-based agency websites since the boundaries of a Flash based web page’s layout are locked to the dimensions of the movie file. If there are too many words for a particular page the designer must add scroll bars or up/down arrows to enable text scrolling.

November 18, 2008: The Crit: closerlook

closerlook relationship marketing Chicago agency closerlook is a relationship marketing firm specializing in healthcare (pharmaceutical, health insurance, and health information technology). They have an excellent agency website that builds upon tight positioning with a significant content strategy. So let’s break it down:

November 14, 2008: The Sharp Axe of Positioning

The Sharp Axe of Positioning When I perform my crits of advertising agency websites the first aspect I evaluate is positioning. Positioning is a foundational element for an effective web strategy.

Positioning is defined as “what you do,” “who you do it for,” and “what the benefit is to them.”

November 14, 2008: Advertising Age Digest: October 20 - November 10, 2008

Advertising Age Digest Here’s a list of articles from the past month’s issues of Advertising Age that are worth a second look from a digital media and web strategy perspective. If you only read one I’d recommend the article from the October 27th issue by Rupal Parekh and Abbey Klaassen–”As the Lines Blur, Digital Agencies Are Taking Lead

November 3, 2008: Agency Website Gaffes: #4. Graphics as Text

Graphic as text In my RISD days I studied letter-press printing and wood engraving. Achieving great typography in metal type is a laborious task. For example, tightening-up letter spacing requires taking file to metal. Setting type by hand gave me a deep appreciation of excellent typography. So I sympathize with designers when they make this common web design mistake of using graphic text in place of real text.

October 27, 2008: Second Wind Network

Second Wind Consultant I’m honored to have been made an official consultant for the Second Wind Network! Anthony Mikes founded Second to “help smaller and mid-size advertising agencies, design firms and related businesses to be better.” Second Wind has been offering resources, communities, articles, white papers, books, conferences and consulting to agencies for over twenty years.

October 21, 2008: Advertising Age Digest: October 13, 2008

Advertising Age Digest Last week’s Ad Age had a lengthy white paper insert on “How Commercial Ratings Changed the $70 Billion TV Market.” I’m fascinated by how digital technology changes the way advertising is delivered and sold on television. The white paper traces negotiations between advertisers and media now that there’s quantifiable data on how well commercials perform in light of ad skipping and time shifting technology.