The "hard working" people at Base Creative spent three days, including Saturday at the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry Annual Conference up in Birmingham. (The "harder working" people were in the studio making lovely websites.)

Our stand (see image) gave delegates a break from the three days of workshops and seminars, with some eye (and mouth) candy. Thanks to Base Creative clients,Dr. James Goolnikat Bow Lane Dental and Dr.David Bloom at Senova Dental for a great three days.

Google (and the Google way of doing search) has been the only way to do search for a long time now. So long, in fact, that most Internet users probably don't even remember how search worked before Google. For almost as long as Google has been dominant, little search startups everywhere have been looking for the new way - something that manages to be better than Google at Google's game, and it's not been easy.

Indeed, the ones that have been somewhat successful haven't been direct competitors of Google at all, they have concentrated on different kinds of search or search for a specific type of content. Google (and the other big players in search) noticed this and started introducing their own content-type sepecific search options and products.

So before long we had three main kinds of search engines:

1. a bunch of search engines concentrating on specific kinds of content (e.g. Technorati for blogs - engines dedicated to other categories are so obscure and hard to find they're not really worth mentioning) and presenting the results in much the same way as Google.
   
2. the big players with search engines that allowed you to search for many different things (news, images, blogs, academic articles, products, etc.)
3. companies attempting to compete directly with the big players and doing nothing much different (these guys don't usually last very long).

Now we come to the purpose of this article. A search engine with a new focus. Viewzi is a search engine which focuses entirely on presenting results in a more useful and visual way. Using Viewzi you can do a standard web search (and get results from the major players - so you don't need to worry about missing anything you might get from Google) or you can do the same search but have the results presented in a way that makes more sense for what you're searching for.

Viewzi is working hard on creating more 'viewz' but there are already a bunch which are very useful if you happen to be searching for a specific category of product. For example:

• Books on web design
• Images of Islington in London (or the 3d photo cloud view which encourages further exploration)
  
• Michael Buble albums, or tracks, or celebrity photos (The Boob happens to be our fearless leader's favourite artist)
• Videos of Michael Jackson (who doesn't love the Thriller clip)
• A timeline of articles about the London congestion zone.

There are plenty more options for how to display your results, so head over to Viewzi and take a look.

Article contributor: Senior Web Developer, Simon Elvery

Ok. We're not actually suggesting anyone pull the plug on your website. In fact, quite the opposite. You should be plugging your website as much as possible, both online (that's via the Internet) and offline (that's everything else.)

Specifically, this is marketing your website using offline methods. A big myth with regards to the power of a website is that it is self-marketing. However, nothing like this works in a vacuum. It's a combination of both online and offline exposure that's going to really make it work. Here area few ideas on where I would expect to see your website:

• All your stationery - business cards, letterheads, compliment slips. All.
• Bottom of your emails, both new and replies. Everyone forgets the replies.
• Throughout your brochure. Literally, every page.
• On all packaging (for product based people).
• In every email marketing campaign you send out.
• On your exhibition stand. And all flyers you give out at the stand.

I'm sure you're thinking "I already do that - thanks, anyway". Great. Now what about these:

• On your franking machine's stamp printout
• On envelopes (when was the last time you've seen that? Not recently, I bet.)
• The side of the USB keys you like to give to clients
• All press and news articles you send out
• All your company vehicles. Even the exec cars. It can be done appropriately.
• Company uniforms and clothing

And if you want to get creative, try:

• Shaving into the back of your head - works wonders at the end of meetings.

The biggest gain will be had when you find it on another website. Yes, this is back to online rather than offline, but it is the best method of digital marketing - third party referals. Make sure your websites got plenty of those.

Giving someone your website is giving someone access to a dynamic, up to date portal into your company. It's the best way to let them know everything you want to tell them. If you're not proud enough of your website to do that, do something about it.

Article from Base Creative Newsletter, sent 28.10.2008

We promise we do not have too much time on our hands, but in between working on a host of varied projects, we gave basecreative.eu another facelift.

Websites - it's what we do! Your thoughts please.

Base Creative launched an initiative in June to find a London based charity to work with on a pro bono basis. The aim was to find a charity that would really benefit from working with a design agency but may not otherwise have the funds to do so.

After weeks of meetings and deliberations, City based charity, The Brokerage was chosen. The Brokerage (full name, The Brokerage Citylink) helps young people from disadvantaged areas into work with city based firms from many different sectors.

"We felt that the Brokerage was an ideal charity to work with based on what they currently had and the difference it will make. The new website will be both a great marketing tool as well as an online resource for schools, young people and of course, the city based firms we hope to raise awareness with." says Iain Scott, Managing Director of Base Creative.

"Disadvantaged young people and the City can be at opposite ends of a socio-economic spectrum. Bringing together, what is essentially two groups of people living and working on each other?s doorsteps, can be an enormous challenge. The Internet is their common ground so investing in this as a communication tool is vital. We were delighted when we heard we had been chosen for this project as having a web site that effectively engages our very diverse target audience - City companies and inner city schools and young people - is essential if we are to continue to develop our services. We could not have done this without this support and are excited about the new opportunities the website will provide for us." says Caroline Reeson, CEO of The Brokerage.

The website will be launched at the end of November and everyone involved is extremely excited about the possibilities and opportunities it will bring.

Base Creative has won Outstanding Achievement in the Interactive Media Awards 2008 for the Bow Lane Dental website. See the full award on the Interactive Media Awards website.