Jason goes the distance

Trigger Account Supervisor Jason Morton ran the HSBC Calgary Marathon in an impressive 3:16:55 – qualifying him for Boston in 2010.

Jason placed 66 out of 1,040. It was his sixth full-marathon, and Jason shaved off almost 46 minutes from when he ran in Calgary in 2008.

All the hard training Jason put in clearly paid off, for he said he felt good and recovered quickly enough to go to the Lilac Festival that same day!

Jason needed to complete the event in 3:20 to run the Boston Marathon next April. It is the oldest and best known annual city marathon in the world.

All your friends at Trigger are proud of you Jason!

Open Letter to Ad Rodeo

To the board of directors,

This letter is about the representation of interactive work at the show. We feel that while the traditional end of our craft is well represented, interactive is not. There is one category to cover the entire gamut of possible interactive executions and the credits in the submission process do not reflect the team members required to make them.

We think interactive could be better represented by making three simple changes:

1. Add credits appropriate to interactive roles.

Completing an interactive project takes designers, art directors and writers - just like a traditional project - but it also takes programmers, motion designers and information architects. These people deserve to be credited appropriately.

2. Change the submission requirements for interactive work.

Radio doesn't make sense unless you hear it. The same is true for interactive: If you don't experience it, you can't get it.

Change the submission requirements so entries have to have a working link (even to a working copy at the agency's website). Provide a screenshot of the work to use in the gala show. The work should be prefaced on the agency's site with a brief overview page.

For an example, take a look at how Duke Interactive submitted the Nike ACG site to the Webby Awards.

3. Add categories that address the key interactive properties.

Currently there's a single award for Interactive. The entries and winners are websites. Websites themselves come in many flavours. Flash sites, blogs, corporate sites, sites for non-profits, social media integrations etc., all take varying degrees of thought and personnel to plan, make and execute.

Banner ads, microsites & e-mail deployments are just as big a factor in the success of a campaign as the destination they drive to.

We think the inclusion of more interactive categories in the Anvil Awards will contribute to a better show and elevate Calgary's position as a leader in advertising excellence.

With these three changes to the Anvil Awards the show will improve overall. Stronger interactive will better reflect the current marketplace; we can be seen as talented and relevant in every craft of the advertising business.

Sincerely,

Scott King
Manager, Interactive Services
Trigger
403.231.2522

BBM Rankings for Calgary Radio Stations

BBM has provided its latest rankings for Calgary’s top radio stations, as listened to by the 24-54 age group.

• VIBE 98.5 has the highest share of reportable hours/tuned – 11.4% – up by 5% over the past three months.
• LITE 96 is now ranked #2 in this age group.
• CJAY 92 ranks #3.
• JACK FM ranks #4.
• Country 105 ranks #5.

The overall trending shows rock formats as a category have fallen a total five points in share of hours tuned. By comparison, adult contemporary and hot A/C formats experienced substantial collective growth since the last measurement period, with an increase of nearly eight share points.

Trigger Says Farewell to IE6

As of April 1st we'll no longer be including the cost of development and testing in Internet Explorer 6.

I look at the stats from site's we've done since I arrived in August of last year and I see a steady trend downword for use of IE6. Now with IE8 on the shelf that puts IE6 two versions behind the mainstream.

This isn't a decision we come to lightly. A large portion of our clients (but not their clients) still use IE6 in the corporate environment. But this is tough love for their own good.

For our clients this means:

• Shorter turnaround on simple website builds
• Lower costs for front end development
• Better creative product

There's really two big changes we're making in our development process:

1. We're going to start adding a 20 pixel yellow header to pages when IE6 is detected. The header will have a "you should upgrade" kind of message and a link to the newer IE.
2. We're going to start listing IE6 support, development and testing as a separate web development cost on our estimates. Generally it will fall in the range of 100% of the total web development hours.

We feel strongly that by dropping IE6 support as a rule of thumb will free our team up to make the best interactive possible. If we're clear on why we're doing it, stick to our plans and understand the freedom we've afforded we'll produce better, more effective and leaner work. I'm looking forward to what we can make without carrying the fat of our old friend, IE6.

Koalas are here!

Here are a few photos from this morning's koala exhibit grand opening at the Calgary zoo.

Custom PF Flyers Auction - Urban Youthworx

Our very own Shauna Luedtke placed a pair of custom painted PF Flyers Shoes up for auction with Urban Youthworx. A portion of proceeds going to charity. Shauna sold her unique shoes on December 4th to some lucky pedestrian.

Check out more of Shauna's work over at her site.