Incitrio’s Conference Room Gets a Makeover
Last week, our friend Schmiddy breathed new life into our conference room. Mark “Schmiddy” Schmid is the CEO of Sk8ology. Sk8ology sells carabiners to maintain your skateboard and incredibly cool display systems for skate decks.
Schmiddy began skateboarding at age 6 and hasn’t stopped for 30 years. His passion for skating and the skate industry is obvious and infectious.
Schmiddy was nice enough to donate some amazingly cool, framed skate decks to Incitrio so that we could liven up our conference room. He even came and installed them for us! We have to say that our conference room is definitely the coolest on the block now.
Looking for a way to transform skate decks into wall art? Check out Sk8ology’s website.
Add comment January 26th, 2012
The Social Express
Google’s advertising platform, Google Adwords, is the magic behind Google’s targeted advertising. Adwords is Google’s advertising service. It allows you to advertise on Google and its affiliates using the Pay Per Click system, meaning that you pay each time someone clicks on your ad. PPC allows you to control who you target your ads to as well as how much you spend on ads.
We are extremely proud of the work we did for The Social Express, an innovative software for children with autism, Asperger’s, and other social learning challenges. We designed and programmed a fully functional WordPress website with fully integrated ecommerce functionality. Within three weeks of launching the website, there were over 1,000 downloads of the lite version (an average of 75 downloads a day), 1,000 unique visitors, and a bounce rate under 40%. The best part? Visitors spent an average of 1½–2 minutes on the site. Not only is the site engaging, but with minimal online marketing, it’s already generating 4 sales per day.
Have you ever felt that your company is complicated and your process is challenging for people to understand? You’re not alone. Many companies face the same issue, including CRS Financial Management Solutions. Founder and CEO Marilyn Magett was producing amazing results for her clients, but offered so many services for such varied scenarious that potential clients had difficulty appreciating how she could help them. Incitrio created a transmedia video that combined a motion graphic, an interview with Ms. Magett, and testimonials from three clients to create a 24 hours a day/7 days a week sales asset. The video explains CRS’ offerings in a visually appealing, straightforward manner, leading to better pre-qualification and higher conversion.
The Jewish Federation of San Diego County came to Incitrio to rebrand the organization and set the stage for the 2011-2012 campaign. The organization has strong roots in the community and needed collateral that told their story in a more compelling manner. They were a joy to work with, and we loved designing and writing their Program and Impact stories as well as thier Case for Giving brochure. The collateral will be an integral part of their 2012 fundraising and outreach efforts.
Some websites need that extra something special because they offer a unique experience. Nulu Languages is just such a site. Nulu Languages is an online software designed to help foreign language teachers and students connect and learn in new, more effective ways. Incitrio designed the user experience section of the Nulu website, everything before the user logs in. And, the SAAS UI Design, everything after the login. Post login, students can read articles and respond, review flashcards, and discuss content with their fellow classmates. Teachers can assign readings and monitor students’ progress. And, administrators can manage multiple classes, teachers, and languages.Throughout the design process, the Incitrio team also participated in the software ideation process to suggest feature enhancements and functionality benefits. Pre-login, the site acts as a visual sales power, educating the prospective client as to the benefit of this new way of language learning. The site officially launches at the beginning of 2012 and already has several thousand students registered.
The City Heights Partnership for Children is a collective impact created to combine the forces of many powerful organizations and leverage their impact on the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego. Incitrio performed a series of focus groups with key audiences culminating in a brand positioning strategy, name, and, ultimately, a logo that over 150 people agreed upon. No small feat! The name and logo represents the core values of empowerment, collaboration, nurturing, and trust. It is our sincere hope that this initiative will pave the way for future collective impact initiatives in other similarly impacted neighborhoods.
Most people have heard of Pay Per Click, or PPC, but not everyone knows how to make it work for their ad campaign. If done incorrectly, PPC campaigns can cost you a lot of money and still produce minimal results.
Look out billboards and flyers. Online advertising is edging you out and it looks like it’s here to stay. We all know that print media is going the way of the dinosaurs and Jay Leno’s ratings. In today’s world, online advertising beats out print advertising in almost every sense. Online ads are now reaching more people in more locations than ever before, and for a lot less money than a traditional print ad campaign. Online ad sales continue to increase every year, with $63.4 billion spent on online ads in 2010. As of December 2011, 5 companies accounted for $40.4 billion (64%) of all online ad spending. 
Print Designers
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 10 years, you know that Social Media has revolutionized our everyday lives. Whether directly or indirectly, Social Media shapes the way we communicate and interact with our friends and family. Social Media enables us to get updates on the latest events, stay in touch with friends, find long lost relatives, follow our favorite celebs, get caught up on the latest gossip, and interact with people who share our common interests. Social Media has also become a useful tool for businesses to communicate with their market. 
Discovering New Content on a Website
