Creative collateral serves two purposes. First and foremost, it has to be able to garner the attention of the consumer. A logo for instance, has to rely on its basic shape and color to be noticeable from a distance and at a quick glance. Then it has appeal to the consumer for a long enough time to effectively guide their eyes through its message. In digital marketing, these messages often act as an instantaneous call to action – a precursor to a successful conversion.

The importance of solid creative cannot be underestimated. Color contrasts are chosen at times for particular reasons. There’s an old rumor of a fast food giant that uses alternating colors to promote desired consumer action. Red and yellow were rumored to have been chosen for their abilities to quickly grab the attention of a potential consumer.

The colors were also said to have tested positively for hungry customers (red) and to then successfully turn them off to the point of leaving their facilities upon finishing their meal. This was based on the time spent looking at the unfavorable tint of yellow in contrast to red. While the colors used to pull them in were bright and vibrant, and same colors used indoors carried a slightly duller tint. As the consumer leaves the facilities, they have freed up space for a new customer, improving the restaurant’s turnaround time, allowing them to seat more, serve more, and thus earn more.

Weather this was an implied strategy or not, it’s no secret that something as simple as two colors together can influence the way in which a person views, reads, and interacts with a website, a banner, and more. Colors that promote various actions and deliver conversions require various degrees of market testing. Having a wide range of variations to choose from is where any designer wants to start. For those that have a limited imagination outside their current train of thought, the Color Scheme Designer can help you mix things up.

Here is a quick tutorial to guide you through the website that may be very useful:

You can choose the background color with your mouse (step 1) and then compare the different combinations given when you pick 1, 2, 3 or 4 colors (step 2). As you choose the first color, you will be able to see immediately the complementary colors given by the website (step 3).

When you like a color combination, you can click “Light page preview” or “Dark page preview” (step 4) to see how those colors would look like on a web page, as it will display a fake web page using the colors you have picked.

If you like those colors, put your mouse over them (step 5) to get the color code and start using them!

Finally, the top menu allows you to choose from various options (such as RGB or Web colors), to randomize a palette to get a complete random range of colors. It also even allows you to export your palette in order to use later (you can export it as a HTML+CSS file, an XML file or even a Photoshop or GIMP palette)

Remember to use these popular color variations to perform AB and multivariate testing on your website. This can be done simply with Google Website Optimizer. While you can test for several things on any page you want, the webpage color scheme that allows for the lowest bounce rate, the highest conversions, and most time spent on your site is probably the winner!

The forecast, free to download, explains that in the upcoming years, advertisers will spend more money on interactive marketing because of the excitement about emerging media, the effectiveness of the interactive marketing and the overall customer obsession with online media and mobile devices.

The report contains many interesting predictions, some of them a bit controversial and very doubtful, but still worth taking them in consideration when working on your next strategies and business spending.

Beside concentrating on the mobile and social media expansions, one part of the report that I really was surprised to see was the prediction that the daily deals would die.

The reason for this statement, Forrester is putting in these words:

“Standing out above the clutter becomes harder for marketers as ad exposures grow. So some marketers unable to differentiate will rely on spontaneous coupons through more and more urgent Groupon-like “daily deals” as one way to drive notice. Consumers will grow so conditioned to micro-impulse offers that they’ll lose practice at considered decisions — in all walks of life, not just when buying spa treatments. Facing a cultural descent into maladroit judgment, employers (and spouses) will blacklist impulse deals to keep people intentional.”

Controversal, but yet very interesting forecast. What do you think?

On that note, I’ve been struggling for a long time with the whole setup of free markets and how the concept seems to clash with ethics and the greater good for a society, and the world at large. The free market concept basically presumes – “if people consume it, then there’s a market and suppliers should compete to provide it (whatever IT may be).” A lot of products may be up for debate as to whether they are truly good for people and society. I do believe that most things in moderation are alright for us – but who am I to judge? Where this bothers me the most is in the category called “vices”, which is comprised of cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, military arms and guns, pornography and gambling. I simply have a hard time getting myself motivated to work on behalf of these industries. Does it matter whether I do or not? Obviously, there is good money to be made and someone is going to snag the business; already, the marketing machines behind these industries are vast and well-developed. They could really care less about some small agency’s CEO running around on his high horse. For me, it’s not about them – it’s about me, and the small but significant circle of influence that I do have. If I say “no to vices clients”, then it sends a message to the Blueliner Family and their families, and so on. Plus, I can sleep better at night, knowing that, while we are in a business that plays on consumer psychology attempting to influence people through all kinds of messaging, we’re at least not contributing to the influence of people towards what I consider negative and detrimental products.

“Business is business” so they say. “It’s tough out there. You can’t turn away a major category of opportunity.” Well, yes I can. This is one of the reasons that I decided to start my own companies 15+ years back; I don’t care for the politics or bureaucracy of debating such issues that in my mind are very clear cut. There is other business to be won. We’ll turn our attention elsewhere with the confidence in our hearts that we do stand for something.

Do you know anyone who has gotten terminal lung cancer? How about someone who died in a drunken driving accident? Gone to rehab for drug addiction? Lost thousands of hard-earned dollars or gone in to debt gambling? Been killed by guns, missiles, rockets or bombs – on the streets or in the battlefield? I do, all of the above. The thought of promoting any of the products that are directly responsible for preying on human weakness and abetting these tragedies is one that I cannot consciously accept. Even under the financial pressure of growing a global business across several countries, I have decided that Blueliner will stand for something. We will not support the vices category of business.

While I have always held these views, and rejected many lucrative offers to enter the vices business before – predominantly porn and gambling web design and internet marketing offers – I have never issued a formal statement. What prompted this statement was a recent meeting, a few weeks back, that I will recall for you. So I was sitting in a meeting with two of my colleagues at a major tobacco company’s headquarters – name withheld for confidentiality purposes – and left with a splitting headache. The room smelled like smoke. It was like a scene from Devil’s Advocate. “There’s a lot of money to be made here” I thought. As soon as we walked out, I started chuckling and looked over to Arbab while we shook our heads. “No way” I thought, “I don’t want this account.”

Porn is the #1 business on the Internet. Gambling is the #2 business on the web. We’re walking away from both of those “opportunities” because this opportunity – the responsibility that I feel as a leader of a small but important group of people – is one that I don’t want to miss. I strive to be a conscious and ethical business man, and hope to encourage others to be the same. The footprint that we leave in our career path and our lives does matter. The marketplace offers many, many opportunities to earn a good living while also doing what’s right and productive for society. And there are consequences to our actions, whether we like to believe it or not, whether we feel it now or later, whether or not we can connect the karmic dots. This marketer has gone through the internal conflicts and is now drawing a clear line in the sand. Every day, I’ll continue to monitor this line and see what I believe belongs on the right and wrong side of it. From this process, the intention is created which will attract companies that we feel good about, who feel good about us, and that we can put our SEO, Social Media, Web Design and Web Development skills to work for.

Zynga‘s elevation was tied to their partnership through Facebook, whose wealth of personal data made it a simple driver for revenue growth.  Executives at Zynga now seem to want their application to leave the nest, so to speak.  They have yet to be a factor in Apple’s massive App Store, where users can sync digital content across platforms. Web analytics rank them outside of the top ten in downloads.  Android represents another option should Zynga develop a program using its standards.  Check that. Zynga has struck a partnership with AT&T to carry the mobile application.

In due time, it appears that Zynga will reap more of a digital harvest when the bid is accepted.

1.  Twitter Elevates an Unfinished Book to No. 1

Indiana author John Green hasn’t finished his next manuscript. It won’t be published until early next year. Nevertheless, his social media community is feverishly waiting.  According to the headline from the Journal, Amazon and Barnes and Noble’s e-commerce portals have the writer of Paper Towns as a No. 1 entry due to endless viral connections.  Publishers have long known that social media can be influential in delivering written content. Like any industry, however, the segmentation is affected on a greater basis than other penetration. Green already has his young-adult base entrenched through online lead generation. Publishers, be careful who you tweet.

2.  MySpace Sold For a Note

NewsCorp sold the once seminal MySpace to an online advertising firm for $35 million.  The media giant was seeking offers above $100 million, but nobody took the bait.  MySpace’s descent into digital oblivion is hardly shocking anymore. It lost relevancy once Facebook rose to public conscience in 2008.  Several cases of digital pedophilia also soured the website for users. It’s hackneyed website design also did not help matters.  Specific Media along with entertainer Justin Timberlake look to refurbish the company’s value and open it to public bidding.  It may be too late to replenish the brand, but people are trying.

3.  Marketers Using More Psychographic Data

Jamie Beckland discusses the fragmentation of today’s generation. He argues that due to all the new digital measurement tools which graph human behavior in more sophisticated contexts, we have psychographic profiles instead of demographic. Demographic profiles were targeted by mass-marketed producers.  I highly recommend reading the article by clicking on the headline. Fascinating.

4.  Google In the News

Techland has more of the details on Google’s system wide website redesign.  Executives want the interface to represent a cleaner, minimal aesthetic.  These were segmented into “Preview” and “Preview” (Dense).

Google is still trying to gain market share from Facebook and released Google + this week. The search engine has thrown the kitchen sink at the social media sector, to only come up short.  I think history repeats itself. Wired has a sobering take on the whole ordeal.

5.  I’m The Tax Man

Today in California, a new state law levies a tax on affiliate advertising. The law was intended to break up a huge business revenue stream from e-commerce giants like Amazon.  CEO Jeff Bezos made clear that the U.S. Constitution protects interstate merchants from state legislation.  I’ve spoken here a few times about the impact of e-commerce on state coffers. They feel it by customers avoiding brick-and-mortar shops and saving fuel by navigating with a point and closing with a click. The debate will only grow larger once venerable institutions are stuck with declining property mortgages.

That’s the Blue news for now. Keep it clean.

Those discoveries can be fleshed out on Pintley.  Pintley is another social media website where a user makes choices based on their individual palette. Pintley will use their algorithm to list recommendations and offer communities to talk about them.  You could say that Pintley is the graduate level of the brewing industry. Users have lauded the streamlined interface.  Take a virtual tour of Pintley here.

For those who seek to learn about business and don’t have neither the finances nor time, look no further.  The people at Fast Company have developed a microsite titled, “The 30 Second MBA”.  The website design has a warm interface mixed with a tangerine color palette. Photo profiles of the participants, dubbed professors, are on the right side panel. A Twitter feed rolls on in the bottom right corner.  The contributors come from all ranks of business.

But this portal is not about the quality of the user experience.  Instead the program is delivering a concept in viral content which is gathering steam.  Society is processing information a little quicker with less patience.  The questions are fairly standard, but the answers delivered by the executives are insightful. They are sharp bullet points in a world of haphazard dots, like this program.  Kimberly Grant, the Planning Supervisor for Zenith Media, has some visual notes for you.  Class is in session.

This event happened last week, but the infographic struck my eye for its animation flash.  To see the action, click through the image.

It’s actually astonishing that geolocal social media marketing has taken off in terms of individual engagement.  I found the concept awkward, as many probably did at first glance. Why would someone publicly alert the world of your location? Well, it’s just fun and games. It also promotes more intrigue, not to mention intensify the voyeurism of our digital livelihood.  Since we constantly engage with applications on our phone, it is also a marketing stream.

Local businesses are slowly starting to leverage the participatory nature of geolocal tagging. The Foursquare application developed a new feature to list up to 25 specials in your latest checked point. As a result, scale is becoming closer to a reality for businesses who engage with repeat customers.