2011.12.02 – 10:03 am

The value of web design, and how you can significantly improve your blog traffic.

It never fails to surprise us how design can have such a strong impact on a site’s performance. Recently we had the opportunity to do a complete redesign for one of our client’s blogs: americanehr.com/blog.

The legacy blog, which always produced quality niche content, was launched very rapidly with little planning and design thought.

Legacy Blog Design:

With this opportunity, and a team full of ideas, we went through our standard process: identifying the blog’s goals, defining the audience, and documenting everything we felt could improve the blog’s performance.

Here are the key changes resulting from this process:

Design overhaul to illustrate authority and importance
Highlight featured posts to focus discussion around hot topics
Place emphasis on blog contributors to build credibility
Place more emphasis on comments to facilitate content creation and reader ownership
Associate an image with each post to stimulate interest
Simplify post categories associated for streamlined topic navigation
Improve the blog’s structure for better search engine optimization
Add social share options (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) to improve reach

New Blog Design:

Only one month after launching the new blog, the number of pageviews had almost doubled, while visitors maintained a strong average time on the site. Even several months after the blog’s launch, traffic has been higher than ever before.

This occurred with no additional promotion, the same content contributors, and the same post frequency — the only change being the new design. Now the AmericanEHR blog, which was once an undervalued area of the site, is one of the top performing and key selling features of the program, facilitating the community’s growth.

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By Josh Bluman | Posted in Design, Interactive, Marketing, Uncategorized, Web Optimization, Websites | Tagged blog design, blog traffic | Comments (0)

2011.11.04 – 12:38 pm

Hot Tomali Strikes Gold at the ADCC Awards

Hot Tomali has received 2 national honours at the Advertising and Design Club of Canada’s 2011 Directions Awards. The event was held at the Royal Conservatory of Music’s Koemer Hall in Toronto, Ontario on November 3. Canada’s longest running advertising awards show, ADCC’s awards began in 1949 and have been going strong ever since.

The two awards received by Hot Tomali were:

Advertising Broadcast Radio Campaign Gold: “Freeze the Moment” for 7-Eleven’s Slurpee
Advertising Posters Campaign Merit: “Abracadabera/Hasta La Vista/Bye Bye” for Seicoat

View the ADCC Directions Winners online

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By Thomas Stringham | Posted in Advertising, Ambient, Awards, Broadcast | Comments (0)

2011.09.27 – 4:34 pm

Ed Norton’s Campaign for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust

Hot Tomali is proud to announce our support for the Maasai Wilderness Conservation Trust (MWCT). This charity was formed by Academy Award-nominated actor Edward Norton, as part of a group fundraising effort in collaboration with the New York Marathon. Last year 30 runners, including Edward Norton, ran the New York Marathon to raise money for the MWCT and the campaign was a success — they raised over $1.2 million! The money raised is used to protect the legendary ecosystems and astounding biodiversity of East Africa by promoting conservations that directly benefits local Maasai communities.

The MWCT Watering Hole Party

Hot Tomali has completed a pro bono ad campaign (see the first ad above) as part of our involvement. Our internal goal is to raise a minimum of $12,000 to enable MWCT to build a watering hole that will attract and sustain threatened wildlife, such as elephants and lions, on their protected land and help keep them safe from poachers.

We’re hosting a fundraiser, the MWCT Watering Hole Party, at 6:00 pm on Friday, October 14, 2011, featuring live music, drinks, and a mix of people representing the very best of Vancouver’s marketing and design community. Click here to RSVP on Facebook.

As part of our fundraising, many great items are being donated by our clients and local businesses to be auctioned off, with all funds raised going to MWCT.

Place your bids here! Hot Tomali MWCT Charity Auction

Music by:

Top Less Gay Love Tekno Party
Kristie Yung
DJ Blaze Kik

Prizes generously donated by:


Shot Glass Pack Shot Glass Pack Coffee Mug Set Coffee Mug Set Sports Pack XBox360 Shooter Pack XBox360 Sports Pack Playstation3 Shooter Pack Playstation3 Adventure Game Pack XBox360 Adventure Game Pack Playstation3 PC Gamer Pack Family Pack Wii	1 Health Assessment ($75 value)	Bracken Vest ($150 value)

	Earrings: Red Crystal Tear Drop Earrings Silver Crystal Tear Drop Earrings Dark Silver Crystal Tear Drop Earrings	Icebreaker Merino Wool gear: Mens & Womens

1 Loaf, Banana Bread	One night stay at the resort for 2, VIP wine tasting for 2 and two bottles of wine.	Ski Vacation Package for Two

SPUD gift basket	$100 Catering Gift Certificate	3-Month Fitness Pass 3-Month Fitness Pass Donated by SNFW Howe St. location

Speakout Nokia 2720 phone 7-Eleven gift cards	Gift Basket ($100 value)	4 weeks of Semi-Private Therapeutic Yoga classes at The Network Hub ($200 value)

Mixed Crate of 12 BC Bud Cooking Sauce $20 Gift Certificates x 2	Ticket to the Marketing Mastery Summit ($495 value) Chocolate Tasting 101 Class for 2 People and 2 Boxes of chocolate from Xoxolat ($90 value) 2 Tickets to the Murders, Mysteries and Mayhem Halloween Tour ($52 value)	Gift Basket ($50 value)

1 Month Membership at Gracie Barra Vancouver - Unlimited Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Boxing & Mui Thai ($150 value)	Sakura in Aqua Clutch ($65 value)	2 hour Design Consultation ($300 value)

GUESS Seductive Eau De Toilette ($69.00 Value) Chloé Love Eau Intense Eau De Parfum Intense ($125.00 Value) Kiehl’s Limited Edition New York Heritage Collection ($60.00 Value)	Rice giftbags

Weekly Trivia Night

We also have draws planned at several upcoming trivia nights at the Lamplighter and Academic, so if you can, be sure to come check those out.

As part of Ed Norton’s team, Thomas Stringham, Hot Tomali’s president and creative director, and Scott Maddox, art director, will be running in the New York Marathon on November 6, 2011. If you would like to make a donation directly through the charity’s web partner, Crowdrise, you may do so by following one of the links below:

Thomas Stringham’s MWCT Crowdrise Page
Scott Maddox’s MWCT Crowdrise Page

If you are interested in donating any items for use in the auction, or if you would like to be added to the guest list for the MWCT Watering Hole Party on Oct. 14, please contact our office manager, Sabrina Wagner.

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By Thomas Stringham | Posted in Charity, Events, Food | Comments (1)

2011.09.21 – 12:00 pm

Seicoat’s Peel-Away Decals Win at Applied Arts

Our peel-away graffiti for Seicoat won an award for Advertising/Non-Traditional advertising in Applied Arts Magazine. With over two decades of awards experience, the Applied Arts Awards are one of the industry’s most prestigious national recognitions for the Canadian advertising and design community.

View Seicoat Work

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By Thomas Stringham | Posted in Advertising, Awards, Creativity, Illustration | Comments (0)

2011.09.19 – 11:42 am

All in a Day’s Work

What do skateboard wheels, a crack pipe, tea lights, plastic cutlery, and Band-Aids have in common?

They were collected by us Hot Tomalians at English Bay Beach as part of the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup on Sept 15.

Aaah, I know… the things we get up to! This is the second year in a row Hot Tomali has participated in the Shoreline Cleanup. We were choked when the lovely summery weather we’d been enjoying abruptly departed and the rains came the moment we met up. But in the end it didn’t dampen our spirits. Armed with garbage pickers and donning lovely yellow vests, our crew — including our accountant and his wife — took to the beach and got to work. Two hours later, this is what the dozen or so of us managed to collect:

Bags (Paper): 83
Bags (Plastic): 101
Balloons: 7
Beverage Bottles (Plastic): 26
Glass Beverage Bottles: 37
Beverage Cans: 13
Caps, Lids: 146
Clothing, Shoes: 16
Cups, Plates, Forks, Knives, Spoons: 89
Food Wrappers/Containers: 327
Pull Tabs: 14
6-Pack Holders: 7
Straws, Stirrers: 55
Toys: 4
Pallets: 1
Rope: 7
Strapping Bands: 7
Cigarettes/Cigarette Filters: 1,966
Cigarette Lighters: 6
Cigar Tips: 1
Tobacco Packaging/Wrappers: 8
Batteries: 1
Building Materials: 6
Tires: 1
Car Parts: 1
Tampons: 1
Band-Aids: 4
Crack Pipe: 1
Skateboard Wheels: 40
Gum: 4
Tea Lights: 30
Plastic Ruler: 1
Belt: 1

In 2010, Shoreline Cleanup participants collectively picked up over 200,000 butts, covered a total distance of 2,235 km, and picked up 98,071 kg of litter. The biggest culprits? Cigarette butts, food wrappers, plastic bags, lids, and disposable plates and cutlery.

It feels good to know we were a part of that success. This year we collected twice the amount of cigarette butts from last year: almost 2,000! There’s no two buts about it: we did our part to help the environment and keep English Bay Beach looking beautiful.

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By Alison Stringham | Posted in Events, Sustainability, Uncategorized | Comments (0)

2011.04.29 – 12:35 pm

Why Facebook Deals may drive out other group buying platforms.

Amidst all the hype about social commerce, Facebook just launched its first test of Facebook Deals among several US cities. Deals is Facebook’s new group-buying platform, which competes with other sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, and Google Offers. All which allow users to receive daily deals on products and services relative to their location.

Groupon, the “big daddy” of group buying sites, currently claims they have over 40 million subscribers, and have saved their customers more than $800 million, clearly making them the largest market shareholder among similar sites in the US.

Resting under the big boys, the market is saturated with other, smaller, more niche coupon and group buying sites like AppSumo, GroupGolfer, and even Jewpon.

So where does Facebook Deals fit in? And how will it compete?

Here are a few ways beyond a user base of 500 million:

Social Reach: In comparison to other group buying platforms that utilize email, with Facebook Deals you will be able to “like” a deal, which will share it through your newsfeed, broadcasting the message to your friends. Group buying will be done among pre-established peer groups already online, where a deal or message can spread quickly, and organically. This is the reason so many marketers are already turning toward Facebook’s platform and establishing their brand’s presence through Fan pages.

Virtual Currency: Facebook plans to introduce a new payment system using virtual currency, which means users will be able to pay for Facebook Deals using “credits”. So whether buying a restaurant coupon, vacation package, or series of massage lessons, these credits will reduce the friction involved with online purchases, so users avoid pulling out their wallets every time they see a deal.

User Data: This is a big one, and the reason I’ll probably be signing up.

Facebook already knows its user base. They know your likes and interests. They know your age, sex, and occupation. They may even know your marital status and religion. With the recent addition of Facebook Places, not only could they know what city you live in, but also what neighbourhoods you frequent.

This personal data makes it extremely easy to connect users with advertisers. And Facebook has already proven this method by providing relevant advertising through their hyper-targeted display ad platform, which is expected to take the biggest US display ad market share in 2011.

Drawing from this example, it’s almost a sure thing this data will become a fundamental part to serving relevant, hyper-targeted Deals.

Of course, who knows what will happen in the end, but it could be just a short time before Facebook towers over platforms like Groupon, sliding into the driver’s seat of the group buying bandwagon. And if carrying deals so targeted that a mid-twenties ski bum in Vancouver can grab cheap ski tickets for the local mountains, I’ll be ready to hop on.

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By Josh Bluman | Posted in E-commerce, Interactive, Marketing, Social Media, Software, Technology, Websites | Comments (2)

2010.11.30 – 9:22 am

Want your marketing to sell? Get focused.

If Social Media’s “brand chat” is at one end of marketing, hike all the way across the spectrum to the hyper targeted, call-to-action space called local marketing. This is where you can dial up the specifics of your customer targeting and approach them with focused, action-oriented sales messaging. These days it’s direct marketing on steroids and it’s being enabled by some big, new-school media companies.

Google reports that 20% of all searches are from people looking for local places: plumbers, restaurants, and — for those of us living in the Vancouver suburbs last week — snow tire shops. Over the past couple years, Google AdWords has offered the ability to get closer in with our ads, almost down to neighbourhood levels, to ensure we’re only advertising to people that matter to our businesses. It also provides a local business directory, Google Places. Google really believes in local targeting for its advertisers: rumour is that Google is about to buy local deals site Groupon, and is willing to spend in excess of 2.5 Billion dollars to bring a single-offer, geo-targeted, selling tool to its customers.

Targeting is not new; companies like Environics Analytics have being developing lifestyle-based segmentation models for years to help businesses identify the needs, attitudes and behaviours of customers, and overlay that on geography. Some of this is based on the simple adage “birds of a feather, flock together”, meaning consumers tend to live in micro regions where other consumers behave like them. What is new is how this is being transported into self-serve advertising tools, for example Facebook Advertising.

FB supports demographic filtering, but also behavioural filtering in its advertising. The social networking giant has integrated a tag-like filter that allows advertisers to type keywords that are part of users’ collective profile data. Want to target single men in British Columbia, age 25–34, who love to play the Monopoly board game? There’s 420 of them on Facebook waiting to act on your advertisement!

When you put together your next marketing plan, make sure you consider your local prospects and how you can use the new tools to cost-effectively get your sales message in front of your most receptive audience — and them only.

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By Bryan Mavrow | Posted in Marketing | Tagged Environics Analytics, Facebook ads, Groupon, local marketing | Comments (0)

2010.10.18 – 8:12 pm

Hot Tomalians Raise Highest Amount Ever for United Way

Ten years ago, Hot Tomali launched United Way of the Lower Mainland’s first ever website. We did the site as a pro bono project and have continued to stay involved with United Way ever since, as one donation helps so many people. United Way’s main focus is preventing problems tomorrow by supporting especially vulnerable groups such as children 0–6, 6–12, and seniors. Partner agencies that United Way helps include the Canadian Red Cross, SUCCESS, YWCA, and Big Brothers.

This year we decided to combine our United Way Employee Campaign with a last Friday of summer BBQ on our new rooftop patio. The Campaign kick-off was on Friday, September 17 after our biannual Town Hall meeting. To get the campaign started, we did a small presentation with facts about United Way to remind our team, friends, guests, and neighbours from MET Printers what United Way is about. Our goal this year was $2,000, which at first seemed, dare I say, too high for the size of our team.

Luckily the day was sunny and we could gather together outside by the BBQ or in the boardroom by our colourful potluck buffet prepared by Ali, Dav, Alex, Jan, and Kyle. International specialties were offered, such as Canadian Butter Tarts, Indian Samosas, Chinese Zongzi, Czech Goulash, and English Bean Salad. As well we served refreshing Margaritas with premium Tequila that Jan kindly brought back from Mexico.

After the weekend we got together again for coffee and cookies to wrap up our campaign. We did a prize draw for everyone who pledged, and with great pleasure I announced the total amount raised: $2,517 — way higher than our original goal of $2,000!

Thanks to everyone who helped to make this United Way campaign so successful! It’s amazing what a small group of people can do. I’m glad I set the goal higher than my comfort level because it reminded me that goals are meant to be tough to reach — that’s what makes it so rewarding when we meet (or exceed!) them.

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By Sabrina Wagner | Posted in Charity, Food | Comments (0)

2010.09.22 – 10:21 pm

Hot Tomalians Get Off Our Butts and Clean Up 1,000 Cigarette Butts

So we didn’t snag a beach location for our Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, held Sept 18–26 this year, but the East Vancouver park we went to was very close to the shoreline — and close to our office. Oxford Park evoked no images of posh Oxford, England; it’s just a small grassy area with a little playground and a couple of benches that are well used by local bums.

Our team came prepared. Having been supplied garbage pickers, garbage bags, and gloves from the City, we were ready to do our part. The sun was shining almost as if to say, “It’s the last day of summer; it’s the least I can do.”

We separated into three teams with one recorder per team. That was my job. I got to tick off on my data card every wrapper, bottle cap, plastic bag, cigarette butt — you name it. The park didn’t seem atrocious when we scoped it out, but it was amazing how much litter was lurking. It was mere minutes before I ran out of room trying to tick off the amount of wrappers I found. When we got to the one hundredth cigarette I realized just how many were there. Interesting finds included a raw fish fillet wrapped in plastic, a car fuse, two fireworks (one being the possible remnant of a homemade pipe bomb), and a fake fingernail. And a condom, but sadly that isn’t too unusual.

We got some odd looks by passersby. The bums on the bench kept to themselves but eventually we had to start picking up near them. I heard one guy say, “We’re surrounded.” They didn’t seem too enthused. Jan found a few dollars in coins not far from where they were sitting. He exclaimed, “I found money. But I don’t want to keep it.” At least that’s what I heard. So I said, “Give it to them,” meaning the bums. They were all ears and then when Jan said, “No I said I want to keep it” I felt like an idiot and the bums were disappointed. They asked if anyone in our office smoked and I said no, we’re all pretty healthy, and he said, “You can smoke and still be healthy.” Not in my books buddy.

In an hour and a half, we collected 1,032 cigarette butts, 362 wrappers/containers, 37 lids, 22 plastic bags, and an assortment of other rubbish. I’m still in shock at how much we did in such a short time. We kicked butt!

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By Alison Stringham | Posted in Charity, Events, Inspiration, Sustainability | Comments (0)

2010.09.20 – 10:20 am

E-Commerce is Key

It was a simple task: get a spare door key cut for my boat. However, after being turned away by four locksmiths because they didn’t have blanks for my “crazy Swedish key”, I knew I was in trouble. Plan B: the Internet. I searched on the Swedish brand along with a number imprinted on the key, and was surprised by the result. There were only two exact matches, but one of them was a product order page with a picture of my key! The online retailer was an unknown key company in Florida and the e-commerce site was bare bones, but being an e-commerce adventurer I banged in my credit card. Eleven days later, five blanks exactly matching my boat key arrived in the mail: $6.95, plus $12 for the international shipping.

With all the excitement swirling around social media’s new paradigm of brand engagement, it feels like focus has been lost on “closing the deal.” So many organizations are bent on building their online fan base, but how many are then being moved into a seamless online purchasing opportunity? E-commerce has always appeared to be complicated, technical, and expensive. It is a business channel and therefore has implications across multiple company divisions including marketing, IT, customer service, finance, and inventory mangement. This can make it tough for one area of the company to champion an e-commerce deployment. The fact is though, online transactional systems should be a central part of any company’s long-term strategy.

In the past few years, e-commerce has found its home in some unexpected but successful places. As The Economist reported in July, Oscar de la Renta launched a transactional Website some years ago expecting to sell small accessory items. To their great surprise, online customers have been pulling $4,000 cocktail dresses off the virtual shelves, and they recently sold online an $80,000 sable coat! In the same fashion vein, Prada forecasts that within 5 years, 40% of its revenues in America will come from the internet. At the other end of the business spectrum, small companies are also finding online is their goldmine. Thanks to the incredible power of search engines, if you put up a great SEO’d e-commerce system, buyers from every corner of the globe will find you without you spending a dime on advertising. Buyers like me and my crazy Swedish Key.

It’s time to think about how you can sell, online. Call us for a discussion: we’d be happy to show you some of our recent e-commerce successes, and get some thought-starters going of what it will take to open a whole, new, market potential for your business.

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By Bryan Mavrow | Posted in E-commerce, Websites | Comments (0)