Content Delivery: WIDGETS.

Every marketing or communications team will brainstorm on the development of new and interesting ways to deliver content. That’s pretty well what it comes down to. In the golden age of advertising and communications, you had television, print, and radio. These were predominantly the ways that companies communicated their products or services and maintaining awareness of their brands. They were beaming what they did into the heads of consumers and hoping that the designed message was effective enough to do the chosen medium justice. The thing of the hour are widgets…and I have to say, I think they’re awesome. The thing is now…how do you get a widget to compliment a greater communications initiative in a good way so that a potential client sees the ROI? We’re talking in a marketing capacity, here. Widgets are interesting marketing tools, and they have many practical applications if you can convince a client or consumer to reserve a space on their desktop or browser…both highly visible areas to people for a significant period of time daily. They’re viral tools for marketing and are considered as such. They’re also portals into further delivery of content. In my opinion, a widget with an emotional attachment for the user is one of the most valuable things you can introduce as an idea if it exists. Couple that with a practical application, and you’re in a good position. It also provides a tremendous opportunity to emphasize a brand. Motortrend magazine has an interesting series of widgets for it’s blogs and forums that it offers car buffs. Check it out.

Cool widgets….Pacific Gas & Electric has one available on the Apple download site. Gucci has an interesting one for the promotion of their Chiodo watches. My favorite one…the U.S. Postal Service and associated shipping companies providing widgets for package delivery and tracking. Just cool….but also practical. I’d consider DHL as an alternative to Fedex, especially if they’re letting me save 10% on my shipments within North America if I downloaded the widget to my browser and used it to create a waybill. Sure…I’d even be willing to take part in a customer survey if they were looking for some information from me.

I’m opening this post up. What are some of the cooler widgets that you may of seen or are currently using?

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