Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Sorry, No Flash in the Future of iPhone


I just read an article on PCWorld (http://www.pcworld.com, Read the article) that had me gaping with surprise. Apple has closed off avenues that allow developers to use non-native apps for the iPhone and iPad; in response Adobe has stated they will be "ceasing efforts to bring Flash-based applications to the iPhone".

According to the article (and this was something I wondered about but never got a straight answer on) Apple basically doesn't want Flash to work on their iPhones and iPads. They want all apps to be native to Apple - a typical Apple proprietary move.

So anyone who has been wondering just when your i-Stuff will be Flash-compliant, you might as well forget it. Go with an Android.

(Does Apple really think this is a good idea? Maybe they're trying to make Flash extinct - they've done it before, first with floppy discs, then with Zip drives, then with serial cables. Who knows, maybe they will. It will be interesting to watch this unfold.)

Monday, April 12, 2010

SEO efforts paying off

by Christopher Pinto, Creative Director

The first thing people ask us when they talk to us about Internet advertising is, "How can we get our name higher in search results?" They're hoping for a simple, straight answer, preferably a short one. Unfortunately there is no short answer. There are a lot of techniques involved with optimizing your search engine results, and all of of them take some time to accomplish.

Due to the errors of a previous employee who wasn't nearly as talented as he believed he was, we were stuck for over two years with a website that looked pretty, but had nearly no search engine optimization potential. (The entire site was built in flash with no readable text.) Now that we've created a new website, keeping in mind what search engines (and people searching) look for, we've gone from an organic search ranking of somewhere on page 300 to page three in only one month. Not bad, huh?

The moral of the story is to be competitive on the net you've got to do things right from the beginning, or be willing to change for the better. It took us some time to learn about internet marketing, from SEO to Social Media, but we did it. We've applied what we've learned to our own resources and its paying off. Now we're smarter and stronger than ever, and that truly benefits our clients.

To learn how we can help you with all your traditional and web marketing, call 954-927-2886 or visit us online at www.epadv.com.

Friday, April 2, 2010

Car Sales Up, feature article on CBS


Good news, something we haven't seen much of lately, was the focus of a CBS evening news segment last night...and no, it wasn't an April Fools Joke...sales at GM, Ford and Toyota are up considerably from a year ago.

CBSnews.com reports the story today, including some very inspiring numbers: GM core brands up 43% (up 21% including brands being phased out), Ford up 40% and Toyota up 41%.

For the CBS News link to the full story, click here.

The sales increases are attributed to a slowly but steadily strengthening economy and major incentives doled out by the automakers (When have you ever seen Toyota offering 0% interest for five years?). The problem now is to keep up the momentum.

This is of course excellent news (and an excellent opportunity) for Automotive Advertising Agencies. Even with our best efforts and most creative ideas, getting people to the lot in a bad economy is hard. Getting those people qualified and selling them the car they want at the right price is even harder for the dealer. But with this latest shift in sales (and the unusual plug of good news by the media) we can start concentrating on targeting the people who are finally in a position to trade up to a new or newer pre-owned car.

We'll be watching this trend closely in the next few months. You should too.

- Christopher Pinto, Creative Director
Engelhardt & Partners Automotive Advertising Agency