• They want your 'pod', eh?

    I spotted this on the streets of South London recently. Political correctness strikes again! Lambeth Council apparently aren’t allowed to use the description iPod, so they’ve referred to MP3 players as ‘pods’. I’m not sure if I know what a ‘pod’, but recognise the visual language of the man with white headphones! Local government and youth, will they ever connect?

    By Super Administrator
    Published: 9 August 2007
    0 Comments

  • Photo Friday

    Photo Friday

    We decided to throw the Photo Friday concept wide open to stupidity this week (each week we set a theme for taking interesting pics to go on our flickr sites) and ended up messing about with Photo Booth on the mac! All comments welcome!!!

    By Melanie Russell
    Published: 8 August 2007
    2 Comments

  • tictoc Glasgow gets a makeover and a Wii!

    tictoc Glasgow gets a makeover and a Wii!

    There's all sorts of developments going on here (to say nothing of wallpapering the toilets with back issues of the Broons and Oor Wullie - legendary Scots comics to keep you entertained!!) to make sure the tictoc Family are all happy in their workspace - the Developers requested plants for their office which were duly provided - little do they know it's down to them to look after them!!

    We also felt lunchtimes were just not challenging enough so have invested in a Wii to add to the daily fun and games here at tictoc Glasgow! Here's Tom and Alan, watched closely by Andrew and Colin, playing a quick round of Golf before heading back to an afternoon of developing!

    Wii

    By Melanie Russell
    Published: 31 July 2007
    2 Comments

  • Women love the web

    The internet is becoming increasingly indispensable for women, with over two thirds (66.1%) saying their lives would be disrupted if they had to go without the web for a week.

    A study of 1,800 women aged 25 and over found four out of five females go online between 7am and midnight.

    A majority of those aged over 65 go online before 7am. A third of women say they use the net during normal hours for primarily personal use, but that climbs to 52% between 4pm and 7pm, when one in 10 women go online for family-related content, and to 70.8% between 7pm and midnight.

    In a finding that will pique the interests of marketers who have long targeted the spending power of women, who are seen as controlling the purse strings in many family homes, 54.5% of females said the internet is their primary resources on products they are considering purchasing, beating family and friends (10.9 percent), newspapers and magazines (9.9 %), TV (5.8%), brochures (5.1%) and radio (1.3%).

    And some 51.4 % of women of all age groups used the web to do shopping in the last year, mostly for travel (37.5 percent), adult clothing (32.4 percent), health and beauty products (27%), children's clothing (18.8%), financial products (15 %) and groceries (14.9 %).

    Some 43.6% of women said their daily routine would be "significantly" impacted upon if the internet were removed from their lives.

    Source : Burst Media

    By Melanie Russell
    Published: 31 July 2007
    0 Comments

  • Web Trends 2007

    Web Trends 2007

    Information Architects Japan have released an update to their very interesting Web Trends map of 2007. Based on a representation of the Tokyo Metro map the 200 most successful websites are ordered by category, proximity, success, popularity and perspective to create an interesting image.

    While the focus is still on English language websites (because that is where it's at), we have added some Japanese sites (a mystery to most of you gaijin), some German sites (yeah, there are some popular ones) and a Chinese line (the second Internet)"

    Each trend line follows a theme, e.g. the technology line has the tech sites, the design line the design sites. You can download the map in various formats and even use the interactive version as your browser startpage. 

    By Tom Beddard
    Published: 20 July 2007
    0 Comments

  • Hello to the newest member of the tictoc Family

    One of our longest standing Family members became a Daddy for the 2nd time at 5am (ish) this morning with the arrival of Iona!

    Huge congratulations to Alan, Jen and big brother Aedan from all of us here! (Glad to see she was born with more hair than her Daddy!)

    By Melanie Russell
    Published: 16 July 2007
    0 Comments

  • Online shoppers trust reviews

    The latest research to come from Bazaarvoice suggests that 53% of online shoppers have more trust in brands that allow customer product reviews on their sites. 54% of UK shoppers thought it was extremely or very important to read customer reviews before making a purchase. What this points towards is the creation of ‘your own editors’, a meritocracy of users that will target rewards, and as a result enhance loyalty, as they get more and more recognition of their reviews and comments.

    By Super Administrator
    Published: 12 July 2007
    0 Comments

  • Web Acronyms

    Web Acronyms

    DYJHIW people LOL and end up RAOF and you have no idea why?

    My suggestion to them is TANSTAAFL and tell them to GBTW

    More bizarre Acronyms!

    If you know of any others, or want to discuss this ridiculous subject in more detail, give us a call!

    By Melanie Russell
    Published: 10 July 2007
    1 Comment

  • 3-D Secure

    3D Secure is a new technical standard developed by Visa and MasterCard to further secure CNP (Cardholder not present) transactions over the Internet.

    Online purchases continue to grow at a higher rate than they do in the physical world. While there is no doubt that the number and value of internet transactions are increasing, it is also clear that concerns remain regarding the potential for fraudulent use of payment cards on the Internet. Consumers are increasingly seeking the convenience of online shopping but are demanding the same security protection that exists in the physical world.

    How does 3-D Secure work?

    Verified by Visa and MasterCard SecureCode - 3-D Secure - requires the cardholder to provide a personal password or pin number when paying for goods online with their credit card just as they would provide a pin on the high street. This ensures that the shopper is who they say they are when providing card details to an online shop. Cardholders can sign up to the service with their card provider at no cost and are reassured that their card is protected from fraudulent use on the internet.

    3-D Secure enabled merchants immediately benefit from a chargeback liability shift on all qualifying transactions. This means that merchants are no longer liable for chargebacks where the cardholder claims fraud or non participation (including transactions where the cardholder is not yet enrolled for 3-D Secure).

    If you're interested in discussing this further, please get in touch with us as we'd be happy to help out 

    By Melanie Russell
    Published: 7 July 2007
    0 Comments

  • Account Director joins the Family

    Account Director joins the Family

    Kerry Reid has joined the tictoc Family in the role of Account Director with the key task of keeping all our lovely clients happy! Having worked with Kerry on the Client side almost since inception 8 years ago, both sides were very familiar with each other therefore Kerry was the perfect choice for the role. Her experience client side will mean she has a real understanding of what clients want and need from an agency and will ensure projects run smoothly for the duration.

    She's been spending this week trying to work out how on earth a mac works (former PC slave!) hence the studious nature of this pic! 

    By Melanie Russell
    Published: 6 July 2007
    1 Comment

  • CMS training session

    We've nearly completed the first phase of our work for Love & Lord, the wedding planning business, and have subsequently been in their office training James and Ian on their shiny new Content Management System. I'm trying work out whether the expression on their faces was one of wonderment, or bemusement, or a bit of both hopefully.

    By Super Administrator
    Published: 3 July 2007
    1 Comment

  • Patonz & P Diddy, ay

    Mel, David and I were all at Patonz 5th Birthday at Soho Hotel last week where I gave a short talk about the merits of retailing on the net, and some of the pitfalls if you don’t do it well – we figured that achieving ‘Site of Week’ in NMA gave us licence to do so! As ever, there was a wealth of UK retailers (Claires, Dreams, Heals, Planet Organic etc) and some new agency folk including new found friends Irving. and Heavenly. The highlight or our night wasn't my talk sadly, but hanging out with the man P Diddy. He was in town for the Diana birthday celebration concert. We didn’t quite get to shake his hand, but David claims they got on like a house on fire! Here they both are, chatting away like old acquaintances, hhhmmmm

    By Super Administrator
    Published: 2 July 2007
    0 Comments

  • What our mum's think we do!

    What our mum's think we do!

    We thought it would be mildly amusing (and to be honest interesting!) to ask our Mums (and Dads!) to describe, on the spot and without thinking, what they think we do all day here in the tictoc family therefore below are the responses so far. I have to confess I'm so far hugely impressed with the responses and will happily confess that I guess we underestimate the genius of our parents but then, they are responsible for us so we shouldn't be surprised!!

    Mel 

    Andrews Dad : 
    "You create, from scratch, these wonderful web site thingies that most companies, conglomerates, councils and even individuals see as being
    necessary to advertise and promote their particular areas of expertise, their facilities, resources and abilities.

    I understand you also create programmes in several computer languages, so you could be known as a polyglot in the computer world. What you do with these programmes is a bit of a grey area for me, but I assume you use them to make your web sites do interesting things at the touch of a button, rather than just provide contact details and an e-mail address to which all queries should be sent."


    Colins Mum :
    "You put together on a website text from a customer to advertise his product, with suitable pictures, and sometimes set up a buying facility"

    Mels Mum:
    1st answer - "Design logos and brands and build websites" 

    2nd answer - "hopefully make enough money to keep me in the manor to which I expect in my later years!!"

    Alans Dad :
    "I haven't a clue! Do you sit at the computer and play around with designs and pictures?"

    By Melanie Russell
    Published: 26 June 2007
    1 Comment

  • Global engineering firm are on board

    Global engineering group Proclad have confirmed the appointment of tictoc to revamp their website. Proclad Group is a global network of companies operating worldwide with manufacturing sites & offices located in Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific, C.I.S., & North America.

    For Proclad, understanding how their site could work harder for their business will be the first step. Working with tictoc they are now aware of how they can more effectively use their site and are keen to take advantage of effective web technologies in creating a dynamic website which will benefit their business, generating a real buzz around the Proclad brand.

    By Melanie Russell
    Published: 25 June 2007
    0 Comments

  • London fashion party

    Apparently I've been promoted (or is it demoted) to the role of Art Director by our friends over at international fashion photography agency Jed Root. Jed was celebrating the opening of his new London office and the end of a gruelling round the world trip. I didnt manage to win the award for most desirable man of the evening despite my best efforts, this chap walked away with that accolade. To my colleagues in Glasgow - it's all in the name of networking, honest! Thanks to our client Sven at Kaufmann Stanley who also runs Jed's London office for the invitation.

    By Super Administrator
    Published: 22 June 2007
    0 Comments

  • Bill, IDEO and the RSA

    The tictoc London office went off on a trip to see Bill Moggridge, founder of world-famous design business IDEO, and interactive design guru, give a lecture titled ‘Designing Interactions’ at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) last night. Aside from the beautiful surroundings, the thing that most stuck in our minds was Bill’s comment that ‘everything that can be beautiful will be’. Bill also showed a short film of Tim Mott, the creator of the ‘desktop’, coming up with the original idea on the back of a napkin. It proves that great ideas not only come from anywhere, but at any time and place.

    By Super Administrator
    Published: 14 June 2007
    0 Comments

  • A day in the life of the tictoc developers

    Watch the video on YouTube.

    Hard at work eating biscuits and drinking coffee. A frame was captured every 10 seconds using an excellent little program called Gawker. The music is a track called PWSteal.Ldpinch.D from the Aphex Twin's latest album Chosen Lords.

    By Tom Beddard
    Published: 1 June 2007
    2 Comments

  • Online shoppers seek more information

    A recent poll by Harris Interactive that surveyed 2,873 US adults found that 44% of consumers had abandoned their shopping cart because they couldn’t find the answers to questions about the purchase or the product they wanted. It also went on to state that 68% of consumers said they were compelled to browse a website after receiving an email from a retailer. Download the Harris Interactive Online Poll report (pdf).

    By Super Administrator
    Published: 1 June 2007
    0 Comments