NetScout sales incentive program mailer

Scott Design received a Best of Category Horizon Interactive Award and a Communicator Silver Award of Distinction for a mailer created to promote a sales incentive program for Opus Solutions’ client, NetScout. Scott Design’s retro Hawaiian theme for the announcement packages, banner ads, and email campaign took home top honors in the Direct Mail category.

There is only one Horizon Best of Category winner in each category, so Scott Design is particularly proud of this award. Horizon Interactive Award entries were judged by an international panel of industry professionals in the interactive media and advertising industries, as well as by a panel of end-users. Judges looked for the best blend between creativity and functionality, taking into consideration creativity and originality, overall graphic design, communication, technical merit, and effectiveness of solution.

With over 6,000 entries received from across the US and around the world, the Communicator Awards is the largest and most competitive awards program honoring the creative excellence for communications professionals. The Communicator Awards is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms.

Winner:

• Best of Category Horizon Interactive Award — Print Brochure

• Communicator Silver Award of Distinction — Direct Mail

About the awards:

The Horizon Interactive Awards highlight the “best of the best” in interactive media production around the world. The competition draws thousands of entries.

The Communicator Awards is the largest and most competitive awards program honoring the best in advertising, corporate communications, public relations, and work for print, video, interactive, and audio.

Adobe Goldmine portal website

Scott Design received a Bronze Horizon Interactive Award and Interactive Media Awards Outstanding Achievement Award for its work on the Adobe Goldmine internal research website. This redesign/rebrand project included new logo and web designs, information architecture, navigation, and improved search functionality.

Horizon Interactive Award entries were judged by an international panel of industry professionals in the interactive media and advertising industries, as well as by a panel of end-users. Judges looked for the best blend between creativity and functionality, taking into consideration solution creativity and originality, overall graphic design / appearance / user experience, communication of message, technical merit, and effectiveness of solution.

The Interactive Media Awards competition is open to individuals and organizations involved in designing, developing, managing, supporting and promoting websites. Entires are accepted from around the world from web design firms, advertising agencies and corporate marketing departments, as well as individual web designers and graphic artists, among others.

Winner:

• Bronze Horizon Interactive Award — Business to Business / Corporate Website
• Outstanding Achievement Interactive Media Award — Intranet Website

About the awards:

The Horizon Interactive Awards highlight the “best of the best” in interactive media production around the world. The competition draws thousands of entries.

The Interactive Media Awards recognize the highest standards of excellence in website design and development and honor individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievement.

Adobe Edge product preview microsite

Scott Design received a Communicator Gold Award of Excellence and a Silver Horizon Interactive Award for its work on the Adobe Edge microsite. The microsite features information that introduces a new web application to web designers. The site showcases the product, shows samples of what designers can create with Edge, and leads them to download a beta version of the software. The design is responsive, working equally well on desktop, tablet, and smartphone browsers.

Horizon Interactive Award entries were judged by an international panel of industry professionals in the interactive media and advertising industries, as well as by a panel of end-users. Judges looked for the best blend between creativity and functionality, taking into consideration creativity and originality, overall graphic design, communication, technical merit, and effectiveness of solution.

With over 6,000 entries received from across the US and around the world, the Communicator Awards is the largest and most competitive awards program honoring the creative excellence for communications professionals. The Communicator Awards is sanctioned and judged by the International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a “Who’s Who” of acclaimed media, advertising, and marketing firms.

Winner:

• Silver Horizon Interactive Award — Business to Business / Corporate Website

• Communicator Gold Award of Excellence — Online Advertising & Marketing – Microsite

About the awards:

The Horizon Interactive Awards highlight the “best of the best” in interactive media production around the world. The competition draws thousands of entries.

The Communicator Awards is the largest and most competitive awards program honoring the best in advertising, corporate communications, public relations, and work for print, video, interactive, and audio.

The client’s challenge:

Opus Solutions’ client, Good Technology, needed eye-catching materials to promote a corporate sales rewards program. The client sought an elegant set of materials aimed at building excitement for this sales incentive program, which would include an all-expenses-paid trip to Monte Carlo.

The Scott Design solution:

Scott Design created eye-catching President’s Club promotional materials. Those pieces included a mailer that folded out to reveal beautiful images of the destination.

Scott Design wins 4 Horizon Interactive Awards

The Horizon Interactive Awards, a leading international media competition, honored Scott Design with four awards for work done in 2012:

	NetScout President’s Club Promotion Best in Category, Print Brochure
	Adobe Edge Preview Microsite Silver, Business to Business / Corporate Website
	SwiftTest Website Bronze, Business to Business / Corporate Website
	Adobe Goldmine Research Portal Bronze, Business to Business / Corporate Website

About the Horizon Interactive Awards

The 11th annual international competition saw more than 1,000 entries from more than 25 countries around world. An international panel of judges, consisting of industry professionals with diverse backgrounds, as well as an end-user panel, evaluated categories ranging from online advertising to mobile applications. The 2012 winning entries showcase the industry’s best interactive media solutions, including websites, mobile applications, print media, online advertising, video, and more.

The Horizon Interactive Awards was created to recognize excellence in interactive media production worldwide. Since 2001, the competition has received tens of thousands of entries from countries around the world and nearly all 50 U.S. states.  Each year, those entries are narrowed down to the “best of the best” to be recognized and promoted on an international stage for their excellence. For the latest information on recent awards, visit the Design Awards page.

SwiftTest website

Winner:

• Best in Class Interactive Media Award — Computer Software Website
• Bronze Horizon Interactive Award — Business to Business / Corporate Website

About the awards:

The Interactive Media Awards recognize the highest standards of excellence in website design and development and honor individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievement.

The Horizon Interactive Awards highlight the “best of the best” in interactive media production around the world. The competition draws thousands of entries each year.

This year, we’re celebrating Scott Design’s 20th year in business. Launched in 1993 with a handful of Silicon Valley clients, we now have 20 years of experience in design, development, and marketing technology businesses. Along the way, we’ve helped launch successful online marketing campaigns through cutting-edge technology and creative designs.

What we’ve learned in 20 years

At Scott Design, we have been working since our founding in 1993 on hundreds of projects with technology, venture capital, B2B, and retail products companies. Over the years we have worked for some of the largest technology companies in the world, innovative startups, and everything in between. We have grown with Silicon Valley, starting in print and then transitioning to web and interactive projects as the technologies developed.

We know what B2B and B2C technology buyers are looking for, how they think, what works to reach them, and what doesn’t. We know how to make an early-stage startup look like an established company, how to rebrand a company from logo to website, and how to launch new solutions for an established company. We know the ins and outs of redesigning a website, creating effective email campaigns, and developing online apps.

Most importantly, we understand the business challenges and culture of the technology industry and how to target marketing initiatives for multiple audiences. We know the aggressive deadlines that Silicon Valley companies work under, and our smart, creative staff works to make sure that projects go forward without a hitch.

Our clients

We love to work with teams who view their website as the foundation of their marketing strategy, and who embrace other online tactics, including SEO, email, analytics, demos, advertising, apps, and social media as essential tools to help bring their product and company messages to their audiences. We limit our client base, so clients receive the full value of our expertise. Following are some of the companies we’ve worked for over the past two decades. Some of our longstanding clients have been with us for more than 10 years.

The results speak for themselves

We have been successful because we are good at what we do. The fact that we’re still thriving after all the ups and downs in Silicon Valley over the past 20 years is a testament to our success, and the success of our clients. Our staff is professional, smart, creative, reliable, and over the past 20 years has seen it all. We embrace best practices in web design and development, we put the success of our clients above winning awards, and our clients return to us, year after year.

Our client’s challenge:

For the beta release of the eBay Global Shipping Program, eBay sought a campaign tailored to its high-profile international sellers. eBay wanted a clean and modern look for the emails, landing page, microsite, and infographics that introduce the new product.

The Scott Design solution:

Scott Design designed and developed multiple versions of an HTML email to invite a select group of eBay sellers to the microsite. The landing page and microsite feature clearly presented information and educational infographics that explain the program and help sellers learn about becoming part of the beta program.

Scott Design has been awarded Best in Class by the Interactive Media Awards in the Computer Software Website category for its work on the SwiftTest website.

Judging focused on design, usability, innovation in technical features, standards compliance and content. The Best in Class award is the highest honor bestowed by the Interactive Media Council. The award confirms that Scott Design excelled in all judging criteria and achieved a near perfect score. This site represents the highest standards of professionalism, standards compliance, and impeccable planning and execution.

For its winning project, Scott Design created a custom WordPress website that enables SwiftTest team members to easily make website updates themselves.

Kirsti Scott, creative director of Scott Design, said: “It’s an honor to have our work recognized by the Interactive Media Awards. We feel strongly that our projects are world-class examples of how the Internet can be used to enhance a company’s message and branding. This award shows we can effectively and efficiently develop powerful and appealing websites for our valuable clients.”

The Interactive Media Awards recognize the highest standards of excellence in website design and development and honor individuals and organizations for their outstanding achievement.

Get more mileage from your website by giving it a tune up

You don’t have to be an expert web mechanic to make improvements to your organization’s website. Now is a great time to take your company’s website out for a spin to make sure it’s doing its job as a high-performance marketing machine. Depending on how long it’s been since you launched the site, you might find you need minor service, a few new parts, or major service to really improve performance. Minor services might be something you can fix yourself; major services might require the help of your web team.

1. Handling

Take your website out for a drive to get an overall impression of its performance

A good test drive can help you determine how much work you’ll need to do to get your company’s site in top condition. To decide whether the site handles well, do a visual inspection, find out how easy it is to get where you’re headed without continually adjusting your course, and see how the site responds in various conditions.

Minor Service:

❏ Can a visitor quickly determine who your company is and what you do?
❏ Does the overall look-and-feel match the image your company wants to project?
❏ Is the site visually pleasing with a clean layout and information organized into logical sections?

Major Service:

❏ Does the site perform on desktop, tablets, and smartphones and on different browsers?

2. Styling

Inspect the paint job, options, features, and finishes on your company’s site

The right look and feel for your company’s website can be like the difference between a luxury vehicle and a pickup truck. Sure, they both get you there, but you want your site visitors to travel in style.

Minor Service:

❏ Does the imagery capture the attention of the user?
❏ Do the images position your company as a leader in the market?
❏ Are the images of a consistent style, size, and placement?
❏ Are the images current and unique to your company, not stock photos and clip art?
❏ Is there a unified color palette that supports your company’s branding?
❏ Are colors used consistently in links, headlines, and buttons?

Major Service:

❏ Are you using the web version of your corporate font instead of Arial?
❏ Do the font size and the colors make pages easy to read?
❏ Is the design of all the sections of the site consistent?

3. Engine

Pop the hood and make sure your organization’s website is firing on all cylinders

When you look under the hood to check out all the content on your company’s site, make sure the pages are full of valuable, up-to-date content for customers and search engines.

Minor Service:

❏ Does the home page explain exactly what your company does and how you are unique?
❏ Is it easy to find a way to locate your office, including a physical address or map?
❏ Can visitors easily find ways to contact your organization by phone, email, and using a form?
❏ Do you include a variety of content on the site, including text, images, and video?
❏ Are the links all working and do they all lead to live pages?
❏ Are there misspellings and grammar errors on the site?
❏ Is the information on all pages of the site current, accurate, complete? Check addresses, phone numbers, emails, employee information, product names, pricing, events, news, and photos.

Major Service:

❏ Does your company have a blog or news page that is regularly updated?
❏ Is all the copy on the site HTML text, not type in bitmapped images?
❏ Is all the information in HTML pages instead of PDFs or other downloadable documents?

4. Navigation

Make sure your site navigation helps visitors find what they need and get where they’re going, using the shortest route

Have you ever found yourself going in circles trying to find something on a website? It can be frustrating and tedious if your company’s website navigation doesn’t help customers get where they’re going quickly and easily. With a clear and helpful navigation system, visitors will never have to ask for directions again.

Minor Service:

❏ Is the website navigation simple and easy to use?
❏ Does clicking on the logo take you back to the home page?
❏ Are the main menus the same on every page in your company’s site?
❏ Do titles in the navigation match titles and content on the pages?
❏ Is the sub navigation style and functionality logical and consistent throughout the site?

Major Service:

❏ Does the navigation menu show which page a visitor is on?
❏ Are there breadcrumbs to show where the visitor is on the site?
❏ Can a visitor get to every area of the site from the home page, or with just a few clicks?
❏ Is there on-site search?

5. Fuel

Turbocharge your website with a combination of high-octane tactics

The best way to boost an engine’s power is to increase the amount of air and fuel it burns. You can boost your website’s power by increasing the amount traffic to your website with a combination of search, advertising, email, and social media marketing.

Minor Service:

❏ Do you include targeted keywords and phrases on every page to bring organic search traffic?
❏ Do you update your content on a regular basis?
❏ Do you share links to your site regularly on social media, bookmarking, and review sites?

Major Service:

❏ Do you have a paid advertising program and banner ads that bring targeted traffic to your site?
❏ Do you send regular emails to your subscribers to lead them to your website?
❏ Have you made it easy to share content on your site thorough social sharing plug-ins?

Just like a car tune up, you don’t have to do all of these checkups every time. But with a system of regular maintenance, you can make sure your website is ready to go the distance.