Screensavers are a great way to keep you in front of your customer. They can be cut to CD and handed out as trade shows, connected to online contests or simply be fun to play.
Widgets are a hot new area for entrepreneurial activity and advertising. We define them as any piece of code or application that interacts with other internet applications. As a result, many are little more than toys. As a desktop application that connects to the internet, like our Clivemate, they are a versatile way to push desirable information to your market.
Screensavers include simple animations like an aquarium that turns on automatically when a person leaves their computer for any length of time. Originally designed to protect the monitor from damage, they quickly became a source of entertainment.
Screensavers can do a lot more than please the eye. They can be interactive and link the user to the internet.
We developed a screensaver for the Canadian Sugar Institute that pushed a new question to users each day for a month. The answers could be found on the www.sugar.ca website. The screensaver facilitated both a visit to the website and the ability to answer the question. At the end of the month, the winners received gift baskets.
When www.myPhysician.ca went online, Janssen-Ortho wanted a cheery way to interest doctors and get them returning to the website again and again. We created the myPhysician.ca screensaver which played a branded animation and contained links to the site's homepage. The screensaver was available in French and in English.
The success of the myPhysician screensaver led other departments to ask for screensavers for their specific marketing campaigns. Polaris was one such example using a mystery theme.
The Toronto Community Care Access Centre also took advantage of the screensaver concept. In their case, they used in internally as a branded link to their intranet and to extended services available online.
As with any interactive or animated program, you need to think through the project before you spend money. What is the goal? How long will the screensaver be in play? Is it something you expect users to have on their computers in 2 years time or is it time-limited? Will your users download and install such a program? If they are behind firewalls, will they be able to install it?
We can help you research and answer critical questions about the value of developing your own screensaver and the campaign that it supports.
In the same vein as screensavers, the internet is now ablaze with widgets, many of which are desktop applications. The Clivemate is our first desktop widget connected to the internet. Left alone, Clivemate wanders around the computer like a screensaver. But click him and you can open a chatroom. More information is available here. Clivemate is in beta but we have tested him for over a month. Please try it out with out compliments.