codegent

Someone described us as a “boutique agency” the other day. I’m not sure I’m 100% happy with that description because boutique sounds like something that’s small and expensive. But the concept of working with a digital-only agency versus one that does a variety of marketing disciplines is one that people talk about a lot.

I’m going to be biased in favour of our own set-up, but my view is based on my own real experiences over many years. There are a few myths that are banded around about the benefits of one approach over the other. These are a few of them:

Going to a one-stop shop ensures joined-up thinking

I’m not saying this is the case for every agency, but what I have observed is that each agency within a so-called  'integrated' group will have its own P&L and its own interest in not sharing the love around. If one part has a budget for the year from one of their clients, they are really loathed to give it away to anyone, even if they are all part of the same group. Your DM agency is unlikely to recommend that this year you divert a larger part of your marketing budget to digital – because it will reflect badly on their own business unit’s P&L.  How do you think the excuse that you missed your targets this year is because you were bolstering the Group elsewhere going to go down?

Bigger is better

Imagine, all those experienced directors from all those marketing disciplines all thinking about my business? Er... no. I worked for a large agency where everyone tended to operate in silos. OK they were big and some of the people there were bright, but the client might have one person fresh out of University really thinking about their business. He or she may get a share of a designer and a developer, but again, experience and expertise was a real lottery. Unless you had a lot of money to spend. But please don’t ever think that in a large agency the CEO sits down on a Monday and applies his or her enormous brain to each and every one of the campaigns going out that week.

Multi-disciplined means multi-expertise

Again, not always so. A lot of agencies will offer digital because they see an opportunity to cross-sell to their existing clients. I’m talking here more of agencies whose real expertise lies in something else. This may work for a bit of an HTML newsletter here or there, or a flash microsite, but ask them about database-driven content or video delivery and watch them reach for the “I’ll get back to you on that one” excuse.  I tend to think of it like asking your plumber to build you a shelving unit. Yeah – it all kind of falls under the same broad umbrella, but really wouldn’t it be better to get a carpenter to do that?

So, if being a boutique means that we are digital specialists, that we are small enough that the senior people are able to really care about each and every one of our clients, then I guess we are that. And if a boutique means that we have some soul and passion, where the department stores recycle the same old shit just to make the figures work, then I’m happy to be a boutique agency every day of the week.

Barcamp came to Thailand for the first time on Saturday. As codegent was one of the main sponsors (along with a couple of lesser knowns - Google & Microsoft) Matt and I felt it our duty to come out to Bangkok and join the fun.

Topics ranged from the seriously geeky (the virtues of streamlined ssh) to the seriously socialist (how Open Source can empower the common man) but in between we had some great discussions about RESTful web apps, PHP Frameworks and the most enthusiatic man on the planet eulogising about Twitter. There was even room to talk about online adult video.

The event was a huge success and undoubtedly Barcamp Bangkok II will follow next year. It's just cool to meet the people from around the globe who are as excited about this whole 'web thing' as we are.

AS3 for Flash Player 9 is so amazing. Everyday people around the world discover new things in it to play around with and the performance is a big bonus for developers. Today I found a site that has benchmarks on each animation tool in Flash (including AS2 too). The performance for the new tweening tool is very impressive and this site demonstrates how it works really well. Check out codegent's own performance test using Baked Beans! (Requires Flash Player 9 to be installed)

More power, more creativity.

Since we launched our new website we have been featured on quite a few portals as an example of good web design and coding standards. Its been great for traffic as well as the ego!

However, today broke boundaries as our global reach stretched as far as China and Japan! That's why I love this medium, things crop up in the most unlikely of places :)

A former client of ours, Claudia Orrell, decided to jack it all in and go and work for VSO in Thailand, helping Burmese refugees.

The organisation she has been working with in Thailand is called Peace Way Foundation. When we discovered that they were trying to run their operation using computers from the Middle Ages, we decided we would help by donating a few newer ones. We're pleased to hear that they are now happily installed in the Peace Way Foundation offices and working like a dream.

You can find out more about them here (maybe one day we should build them a spanking new website, too!) or you can join their Facebook group here.

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Now is the winter of our discontent.

The digital world is an exciting place to be right now, but it’s time to get selective. Trouble is, browsing the web, it’s so easy to get distracted and go off on tangents.

My digressions used to include thoughts such as ‘how long have my trainers been so dirty’ or ‘how long have I had my umbrella up and it’s not been raining?’ Now they’re more frequently ‘how long have I spent on this website!?’

I guess Shakespeare was right when he said, ‘All the world’s online, and all the men and women merely avatars.’

We've just produced our first Facebook application for iFan. The good old game of keepy uppy is given a contemporary setting.

For us, we just wanted to see how you go about getting an application onto Facebook and be able to watch the viral effect, and for iFan it's a great tool for raising awareness and driving people to their site.

Check it out for yourself: the Facebook "iFan Football Ball Control" game

I switched my ipod off last night so that I could listen to the elderly gentleman sitting on my bench at the tube station.  He was singing about Jesus.

He had a nice enough sounding voice, but it was the fact that his eyes were closed that really struck me and the serene look on his face. I watched him singing, meaning every word and I thought about updating the playlists on my ipod, but actually, maybe I just need to turn it off every once in a while, to see what else I can hear.

I know what you're thinking, but apparantly it’s not a diet, it’s a mixture of "dietary and lifestyle changes that will enable you to lose weight without the unpleasant side-effects normally associated with dieting."

What are the 'unpleasant side-effects' I wonder, putting on weight I guess.

The 'No diet' diet will change the way your body responds to food. 

Well that's great, but whilst we're at it, how about ‘No payment’ bills and ‘No hangover’ alcohol or 'No show-up' work,  then you’d really be talking!