August 16th, 2005 | 2 Comments
Advertising Agency Websites Reviewed
The Independent has done an interesting review of 12 advertising agency websites to see just how well they do at marketing their own services.
If you’ve ever had to work with or do research into ad agencies or companies that work in similar industries (web design included), you’ll probably have come across the types of site that we have here: inaccessible, full of Flash and nonsense jargon.
I think there is now, luckily, a general trend away from the sort of sites we saw developed a few years ago; the annoying Flash intros, “mystery meat navigation“, and a tendancy to talk complete BS are disappearing, but from browsing some of the sites reviewed (and these are big agencies, such as Ogilvy & Mather and Saatchi & Saatchi), it’s clear that there is still a way to go.
What we have to remember is that in these industries there are many creative people wishing to show off their skills (and indeed impress prospective clients) in a creative way - I believe the challenge for them is to use this creativity in a way that is accessible to all.
WV4 is the online home of Rob Lewis, featuring a blog covering a variety of subjects, mainly web design, CSS and PHP, as well as featuring useful links to other websites.
Ummm, the link to the article appears to be pointing to the wrong place.
Try http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article305905.ece (and it doesn’t work in Opera … amazing how many large sites like that are still so amateurish).
Dave,
Thanks for pointing that out. *Note to self - be careful with copy & paste in future, and check all links before publishing post*.
You’re right about the large sites though, I find it hard to believe that some of these big companies can neglect such basic accessibility problems, but thankfully I think things are slowly improving.
Rob.