This year Guinness turns 250. It’s older than any of the automakers or the other big businesses that are in and out of the news today. It’s older than America. I know  technically speaking you can say that things like religion, countries, and personalities are all brands and several have been around since … well, the beginning. But you’ve got to hand it to Guinness. That is some staying power for a consumer good. What a beer. What a brand.

Guinness is really the classic archetype of a brand. It has a compelling story. It has a founder and is full of history that is as rich as the culture of Ireland. It has icons like the harp, toucan, and St. James Gate. But most of all it is a very  personal brand that intertwines itself with the lives of its consumers. We all remember where we were when we had our first Guinness (The Dublin Underground in Iowa City — when they pour it from the tap they stamp a clover in the head). We all have jokes (maybe too crude for the blog plus it’s hard to do an accent here) and memories about Guinness (my Uncle loved it).

Stories and sharing. These are what has helped make the Guinness brand great. Whether they were shared from one Irishman to another over a pint ages ago or college kids 250 years later commenting on the classic bar posters as they enjoy their first stout, sharing stories has been a critical component of the Guinness brand’s enduring strength.

And the sharing continues today. In fact, it’s at the forefront of their celebration. As I mulled over this post, I knew I had to include one of their classic ads. I hunted around the usual online image haunts looking for something to legally share. Know where I found this? On Guinness‘ site. They have a whole section dedicated to these classic ads (I love that their most popular media has been the poster; ads are for customers where as fans have posters). As part of this ad showcase  you can share the art via email, grab a link for posting, or download the images at a size of your choosing. You can also share bits of Guinness history from their interactive time line. Rather than being afraid, this centuries-old brand is taking the thoroughly modern approach of facilitating the online sharing of their content because they know that sharing stories builds strong brands.

Nothing like it indeed.

P.S. Check out that timeline of theirs. Talk about economic downturn … this brand has been through a few and is still kicking.

In our last post we talked about our mantra for employing online video (borrowing a bit from the folks at FTD) — say it with video. We took some of our own advice and used video for our newly added client stories. When faced with how to present client testimonials there are many options — quotes, case studies, etc. In the end, we thought the most powerful words would come directly from our clients via video. While video on websites cannot replace text universally, you should take a step back and review your content and see where video might offer you a chance to put a unique and personal touch on your message. Your privacy policy and contact page? Probably not. But what about a quick video about your financing processes or other technicalities that customers frequently have questions about? Say it with video.

Of course client stories are a great fit and we are very excited to share these first two with you from Mark Hummel of Hummel’s Nissan and Barry Smith of Peoples Trust & Savings Bank. We hope to add more of these in the future. Client Stories >

Today at an NADA session on online media I caught some news from the presenter with insider info as it was breaking (or very shortly there after). Pandora – the online jukebox that grew out of the Music Genome project – will now be adding in-stream ads to their content. You can read the complete story at WIRED.

I’ll get to a more meaningful post very soon. Apologies for not keeping up. It’s been a busy March/April. More on that later. I had to toss these two screen caps I found recently as examples of unintuitive web design and really … just general online avoidance and trickery.

The first offender was when I was creating yet another online account. I get cranky about account creation. I have SO many. Right now I’ll do anything that Google offers so that I can just use my Google account. Anyhow, I got to my email preferences and didn’t want their newsletter and it came back at me with the red text below.

Yeah … I read your offer the first time. Leave me be! No means ‘no.’ Don’t question my choice because it tells me that you think I’m stupid and I can’t read. I made a decision. Move on. Now I’ll never subscribe.

Second offender – slightly worse in my opinion. I was on a site and confused this particular online merchant committed a two-tier no-no. First, they didn’t have a phone number. Call me old-fashioned but I think every site needs a number where you can reach someone if everything goes wrong. Worse yet, I go to fill out the email contact form and after I click ‘Submit,’ it gives me this little message:

Grrrrr. I’m basically lost in your store and you won’t let me ask for directions. This was extremely aggravating. In my personal opinion it never should have made it this far because they should have covered the phone number thing and at the very least had an easy-to-use contact form.

I guess both of these are pretty good reality checks for your next site design. They seem like no-brainers but go back and check your potholes. Can users easily sign up for an account without being guilted into you spamming them? Does this sound like a real sturdy opt-in to you? And, can a user ask for help easily at any point throughout your site and get some form of immediate response? A dedicated phone line or some sort of live chat would be ideal. A contact form that didn’t try to get you lost further in the site would do also …

Again, more on other things very soon.