Robert Yardy

About Robert Yardy

Online price personalisation: should we be worried?

With fears about price personalisation growing in recent times, even Harry Enfield’s creations, Stan and Pam Herbert, may think twice about showing off their wealth! 

Personalisation is something that has been heralded by businesses and customers alike.

It has mainly been associated with online activity such as personalised content on a website, cross selling suggestions (think Amazon), bespoke emails such “Here’s what’s new from your favourite brands” (mrporter.com), I can list many more examples. 

20 years of Nike’s World Cup ads

Nike has launched yet another brilliant advert for the World Cup but how does it compare to their previous efforts?

I’ve taken a look at Nike’s World Cup adverts over the last 10 years to investigate.

Interesting to see a certain Ian Wright figuring in 1994….yep, that’s right, we didn’t make it to the World Cup in the USA that year, thanks Graham Taylor!

Pimp my user experience!

Do you remember that ridiculous programme “Pimp My Ride” on MTV hosted by the even more ridiculous ‘rapper’ Xzibit?

Well Xzibit and his creative mechanic friends were ahead of their time as they recognised the importance of personalisation and creating something that was tailored to individual interests.

An admirable philosophy that should be applied to web platform content.

Responsive, adaptive, mobile or native? What’s the best option?

You may have read in the press last week that obese football fans at this year’s World Cup in Brazil we have access to extra-large seats (and half price tickets!!). What this shows is that one size (or seat) does not fit all!

This train of thought should be adopted by any web designer when they are deciding on the best way to make a website compatible for mobile.

There are a number of options for mobile strategies: responsive design, adaptive design, a mobile version or a native app. One approach may suit a company perfectly and be completely inappropriate for another. Perhaps a combination of strategies is the way to go. 

By using comparisons with football players past and present, this blog post delves deeper into the pros and cons of each strategy…

Selling your agency’s services is like making love to a beautiful woman…

Anyone familiar with the brilliant sketch show, The Fast Show, will know used car dealer Swiss Toni. He compared everything to “making love to a beautiful woman” especially selling….cars in his case.

Although a fan of Swiss Toni, I tend to disagree with his New Business philosophy. The smooth salesman façade is thankfully rather dated and there are a lot more….well, nicer ways of developing partnerships with clients.

This blog post will discuss a few things I’ve learnt over the years.

What does native advertising have in common with an erotic French film?

“You know it when you see it”. This, of course, is the famous Potter Stewart quote from the Jacobelis vs Ohio court case (1964) which found the French film “The Lovers (Les Amants)” to be too obscene.

As the definition of native advertising continues to evolve this quote is incredibly fitting. But I’ll get to that later, let me first go back to the origins of this marketing tactic…

Flat web design and skeuomorphism: the pros and cons

Flat web design and skeuomorphism are two design approaches that could not be more different. In terms of opposites we’re talking a level equal to Take That vs. Slipknot, Barcelona FC vs. Accrington Stanley, The Godfather vs. Legally Blonde, basically, they are not similar!

Microsoft and Apple have been at the centre of this design battle and fans of both companies have been equally passionate in their arguments for the pros of their particular approach for more than a year.

However, in terms of the future, short term at least, one ‘team’ seems to have been victorious. But is this a defeat, or is the supposed defeated team actually happy to lose the battle knowing that they shall win the war? I’m talking profits! 

This blog post attempts to answer that question while looking at what exactly flat web design and skeuomorphism are and the pros and cons of both.

It also discusses the recent shake up at the top of Apple and whether the actor Chevy Chase prefers flat web design or skeuomorphism (yep, you read that right!).