Traditionally, if someone wants to see content on the web, they visit the site that holds this content. If I want to read an article from The New York Times, I go to The New York Times’s website. The website is the hub for the content and users pass in and out of it when they want to interact with the content. However, sites like Pinterest, Instapaper, Gimmebar and Svpply are disrupting this model. They’re giving users a way to liberate content from it’s original context and aggregate it in their own collections. This is causing a shift.

Gimmebar is a web application that gives users the ability to capture content from almost anywhere on the web. Pictures, videos, tweets and words can be torn out of their original website and saved into Gimmebar. It doesn’t just bookmark the content either, it actually copies it from its original context to Gimmebar’s servers, available forever. It’s a fascinating concept and I’ve been happily using Gimmebar for the last few months. Anything I want, saved for all eternity in my own curated collection. Why am I talking about this on a marketing blog? Because when content is pulled out of its original site and shared around the web, the advertisements don’t follow it.

Right now, most websites monetize by placing advertisements around their content and trying to get as many eyes to see those ads as possible. This photo of Steve Jobs on Apple Insider is a good example. Notice all the flashing ads around the page? However, if I save that picture into my Gimmebar and share it from there, it looks like this. Apple Insider isn’t making any money off the people viewing the photo from inside my Gimmebar collection. Are you starting to see the implication here? The more ubiquitous content liberation tools become, the harder it is going to be to monetize that content.

I’m not writing this to offer a solution to the problem of monetizing content removed from its original website because well, I don’t have one. Nor does anyone at this point. Video could be done by embedding ads into the file, however once that file gets passed around, you have no way to know how many people have seen it. Photos could possibly be watermarked with little advertisements, but that’s a terribly inelegant solution. What about articles? Do we hide little text ads within the article itself that will follow the article even if it gets copied? This could get messy, fast. There are two things I know for sure.

1. Attribution is key for monetizing content after it has been liberated from its original context. Now matter where content ends up, it must remember where it came from and who created it. If this is lost, the creators receive no compensation or credit for their work.
2. We can’t ignore this trend. No matter how hard content providers try, they’re not going to be able to stop users from liberating and sharing content. The key now is not to fight it (are you listening RIAA?), but to figure out how to monetize within the new model.

As advertisers and marketers, some of the burden is on us to figure out new ways to promote in an increasingly unstructured internet. No pressure, right?

Soon, the .com’s, .org’s, and .net’s will all eventually going to be a thing of the past. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers – or ICANN for short – has decided to to expand the realm of generic domains. It’ll help push to a new generation of creativity and inspiration, at least according to their chairman Peter Dengate Thrush.

These changes won’t be instantaneous, but will change the way we use the Internet. With more options at their disposal, brands will have to take initiative to bring awareness back to domain names. This is especially true since search engines have started to dominate our Internet experience. In fact, a street survey revealed that less than 8% of people were able to distinguish between a search engine and a browser. Only 8%!

As we start moving slowly back into the age of domains, brands should be creative in integrating branding and practicality into their chosen name. Canon, for example, has stated their intent to acquire their newer domain: “.canon”.

These newer domain names can also complement a brand’s web content. Memorable content or engaging material help a company’s brand, and attaching a newer domain name along with that can only reinforce that brand’s name, message or idea.

But brands might have to beware: a URL is only as strong as the brand itself. And as Shakespeare himself would say, “What’s in a name?”

“The Mid-Atlantic’s premier provider of Electrical Testing, Engineering & Field Services” – Potomac Testing was ready for a powerful new look. We designed a new brand identity to help them amp up their presence.

We applied their new brand to their recent sponsorship of the PowerTest 2011 – the electrical maintenance and safety trade show held in Washington, DC in February. Under tight deadlines, we created a cohesive presence for Potomac Testing in the form of t-shirts, banners, brochures and giveaways that garnered rave reviews.

We also designed and developed their website, which you can see here. With a clean, friendly design, it offers much more information and interactivity to visitors than the previous site. It launched before the conference.

Our latest website launches are for two clients whose businesses focus on the needs of children.

The first, JumpBunch offers sports activities for children from preschool through school age in the United States and internationally. Their activities are offered in schools, camps and birthday parties. Their new website brings into focus all of the different ages they serve and highlights the benefits they offer to children.

The second, The Young School, is a private preschool with several Maryland locations. Their educational philosophy promotes child directed exploration, teacher learning and parents as partners. They use Resources for Infant Educarers (RIE) and Reggio Emilia curriculum in a cottage environment inspired by home and nature. Their new website allows them to showcase how this defines them from other preschools and infant care centers.

Recently, we launched a new website for Harbourtowne Resort in St. Michaels on the Eastern Shore. The site reflects recent renovations to the hotel and golf course, and helps show off the property to people looking for a golf getaway…or a place to get married near the water…or a convenient location for a meeting. Needless to say, we had several audiences to cater to.

The new site more accurately highlights the strengths of Harbourtowne in general, but more importantly the site speaks directly to Harbourtowne’s main audiences: meeting planners, weddings, golfers, and people on vacation in St. Michaels. With more succinct copy, and better organization, people can find what they want more quickly.

One of the main reasons that Harbourtowne decided to have us redo their website was that their old design was outdated, even though it was done just four years ago. With the rapid pace that the internet is evolving, sites that are only a few years old are now undergoing full redesigns in an effort to keep up with the trends. Heck, even Google, the most popular website ever, recently redesigned their website.

We didn’t just re-design, but we also added some really cool functionality. Now meeting planners can download RFP’s directly from the website. There are also more robust photo galleries with better functionality. Finally, we added social media icons so that our audience can connect with us on Facebook or see our photos on Flickr. Overall, the site is much more user friendly. Click on the picture of the new site below to see it in action!