FIFA, Flash Presentations and the Importance of Content – 2Q06

On June 9, the month-long 2006 FIFA World Cup Soccer Tournament will begin, but the widespread commercials and advertising have already begun. Large global brands such as McDonalds, Coca-Cola, MasterCard, and Adidas are huge participants and FIFA has partnered with Yahoo to develop a robust tournament website. The site has deep content and interactive tools to promote interest in the tournament. Companies are expected to spend over $1 billion in sponsorship and they are willing to spend because of the tremendous opportunity for exposure—cumulative over the course of the month-long tournament, 28 billion sets of eyes watched in 2002 and 32 billion are expected to be watching in 2006.

News from Inside Articulation 

During the second quarter, the team at Articulation has been working on a short Flash-based web presentation for a large corporation that will be broadcast e-mailed to thousands of clients and prospects. The presentation details new features, benefits, and enhancements to a product that launched earlier in the year. In addition to email distribution, the presentation’s shelf life will be expanded as it will also be housed as a marketing tool on the firm’s website. There were three steps in the process—concept and framework development, flash execution, and script implementation for voice over. These elements then had to be synchronized into this self-contained Flash commercial presentation.

Inside the Industry 

It has been said that “content is king” and we certainly agree. Your firm’s “content,” or the text and messaging involved in all marketing efforts are certainly a key element of your overall brand. It is important to make the effort to align your content with your target market and to keep things up to date. Refreshing your content, whether it’s for your website, sales materials, or client correspondence, can go a long way to aligning your strategy and vision and improving the results of all your marketing efforts. Differentiate your firm from the competition and make your message succinct and clear to drive better results.

Current Projects

The firm has recently completed a website redesign for a jewelry company. The idea began with a decision to return the site’s focus back to the jewelry, letting the art speak for itself. The site was then streamlined, where content and text were minimized and imagery and design were brought to the forefront of the design. In addition, we added an impressive press section consisting solely of thumbnail visuals and a comprehensive store map locator displaying the firm’s national reach. The new site now has a fresh and unique look, tone, and feel—an example of our core philosophy that every business is unique and its marketing and communications efforts should embody and convey its goals, vision, and identity.