We often talk about our interactive themes as offering an immersive visual experience integrated with content and functionality. I don’t think, however, we’ve referenced the intersection of the visual theme and integrated content. Specifically, how we’ve enabled the browser chrome to be an active communication tool and not just a placeholder for the theme and address bar.

Features

We’ve made the theme dynamic for partner’s like The Daily Beast, who put a thumbnail of their current feature story right into the browser theme. It’s a visual invitation back to their site that updates throughout the day allowing the user to keep up with the hot story of the moment. It’s compelling, it’s cool and it’s engaging. You can see a large screen shot on The Daily Beast’s browser theme download page. The image of Tiger Woods is the photo that updates automatically.

Sponsorships

For some partners, we’ve placed sponsorships into the browser chrome. Ontario University Athletics extended their sponsor agreement with the Dairy Farmers of Canada’s “Recharge with Milk” campaign and integrated the logo into their theme design. It’s a great example of making the sponsorship work while maintaining design integrity. The continued high percentage of click through is testament to its effectiveness.

Commerce

We’ve even leveraged the capability in our own topical themes, connecting our Valentine’s Day theme to the Ghirardelli Chocolate Store. The design incorporated a box of Ghirardelli chocolates and utilized that design element to provide a direct link to their store, turning the passive design into an active revenue opportunity.

It’s great stuff and it’s working. In the week’s to come there should be even more potential for making the themes ever more engaging.

Nothing like getting recognized by the readers of one of the biggest tech networks on the Web. For the first time, About.com’s Computing Channel ran a coordinated Reader’s Choice Award program in early 2010. During January, thousands of nominations were submitted by readers in a wide variety of categories including Best Browser Theme. Based on the total number of nominations, five finalists were chosen in each category. Throughout the month of February, About.com readers voted for a winner in each category.

Brand Thunder is thrilled to see its work for the Indianapolis Colts take the prize for Best Browser Theme. It’s a showcase product for us. They are among the NFL elite. They have a very active community, which played a part in helping with this win. The Colts organization has also taken an active part in making this a very engaging theme which shows itself in the details, like the multimedia sidebar.

It all adds up to a winning combination and that resulted in the win at About.com. You can check out the theme at Colts.com/browser.

Do you feel safe downloading a program from the Internet? Do you give more thought to visiting a web site or installing a piece of software? It’s questions like these that create challenges for web applications. If you’re offering a software download, you’re already operating at a disadvantage in the mind of the consumer — whether it’s conscious or not.

It’s an act of trust when a consumer downloads and installs your product. You’ve been invited into their life. That invitation is a powerful opportunity to connect with that user over a potentially long period of time. Don’t blow it. Here are some of the things we do and have learned to encourage adoption of our interactive browser themes.

1. Full Frontal Disclosure

In the connected world, it doesn’t pay to try to hide information. You will be found out. Just ask John Edwards. That’s why we put our disclosures upfront and prior to install. We include a default search engine with our product. Even though users can change it any time they like, we tell them up front that it’s coming.

It’s the proper protocol for software distribution on the web. Your user can then make an informed decision about everything they are receiving. It won’t protect you from negative comments, there are always dissenters. At least you’ve been open and can avoid greater negative fallout.

2. If You Love It, Let It Go

The best move we made was to change our product and allow consumers to switch between any theme they want. In the web 1.0 world, you got your hooks into the consumer and you didn’t let go. That doesn’t cut it anymore. Your fans are going to go wherever they want, whenever they want. If you’re doing right by them, they’ll be back.

Our themes help create return visits to our client site, and it’s powerful. Having messaging capability in the browser means you can reach them whenever they’re online. So, making it easy for your fans to change the theme and step away from a client’s experience can be a hard thing for clients to favor. It’s shown to be the right thing.

Our sports teams have a steady core of users that stay with the theme throughout the year. There’s also a large number that return each pre-season or join as the season rolls along. Recognizing your fans may have other interests and welcoming them back each season makes for a much stronger relationship. Giving the ability to switch between themes means you keep a foot in the door instead of creating a complete uninstall scenario.

3. Ain’t No Mountain High Enough

We all wish we could remove the barriers to entry. We try to minimize them by making the call to action clearly visible to the user, reduce clutter on the page, sell the sizzle and so on. Showing the graphics included in our themes is a big boost for us.

With Firefox at roughly 25% of the browser market, offering a Firefox-only theme would generally be perceived as a huge barrier to entry. Fortunately, the visual strength of our product and the affinity to the brands we work with has greatly reduced this obstacle. We’ve had clients double their Firefox penetration – outpacing Firefox’s own overall market share. We’ve also had clients get 30% of their total audience using their custom theme. Quite astounding numbers.

4. You Don’t Have to Shout

Our browser themes are an affinity marketing tool. We build them to help brands connect to their fans. And let’s face it, brands and the companies behind them are out to make money. If you’re sending stuff out into the market, it’s eventually got to make you some money or you’re out of luck.

As much as our product offers new sponsor and ad inventory, and there’s a persistent communication channel available to them, I think it’s great that the product owners tread lightly in this area. This is not the place for the hard sell. To coin the phrase of social media, this is for joining the conversation – you’ve got to be a part of the dialogue. Ongoing, timely and useful information will make the long-term connection where the marketing appeals are accepted. We’ve seen this respect around communication rewarded with an average of 10% click through to commerce offers from within our themes.

5. We Interrupt This Program

As mentioned above, timely and useful information is vital. The power of putting a message up front and visible to the user has resulted in phenomenal return visits to our partner sites. Most sites have feeds that are great tools to reach your fans when they’re not on your site. The question is “Are you offering enticing news?”

There are two items to consider. One, a killer headline gets attention. The Huffington Post is a master at this. You can also look to leaders in your industry to find out how they write to engage their readers. Two, inside information is a powerful way to build a relationship. Relationships get tighter when you share personal information about yourself. This can apply to businesses as well. You can get a good feel of this if you look at how Toyota mishandled their PR crisis. Take a page from the Tylenol scare years ago – open and immediate information sharing goes a long way to shoring up your consumer’s trust.

These are some of the things that are working for us, and why. What would you add to the list?

COLUMBUS (February 16, 2010) — Brand Thunder LLC (http://www.brandthunder.com), the browser customization specialists, announced today its relationship with Microsoft Corp.’s Bing to integrate their web search into all Brand Thunder interactive browser themes.

Interactive browser themes are like an extreme makeover for the web browser. With an easy-to-install browser add-on, end users transform their drab web-browser into an immersive experience. The theme features official logos, colors, images and style, plus content and functionality that extend browser’s capabilities and can include video, music players or other Internet widgets. Bing is now central to the experience as the default search engine included with all Brand Thunder products.

The growing list of company’s leveraging the communication power of an interactive browser theme includes leading Internet news sites, The Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/firefox) and The Daily Beast (http://www.thedailybeast.com/browser-theme), leading sports teams like
NHL’s 2009 Stanley Cup Champions Pittsburgh Penguins (http://penguins.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=56396) and the 2009 SPL Champions Glasgow Rangers (http://www.rangers.premiumtv.co.uk/page/RangersOfficialBrowser/0,,5,00.html), colleges and universities including the University of Cincinnati Bearcats (http://www.gobearcats.com/ot/browser.html), corporate clients like Comcast and Mercedes Benz and many more. The full list of active custom browser themes can be found at http://brandthunder.com/gallery/.

“Bing is an innovative new search product and we’re looking forward to working together to address the core need of search,” says founder Patrick Murphy. “Brand Thunder uses brand affinity and strong design to attract users to our product, but it’s the integrated content and functionality, like Bing, that helps keep them there.”

About Brand Thunder:
Formed in April 2007, Brand Thunder creates extreme makeovers for the Internet browser. Brands enjoy a persistent connection to their Internet consumer driving more website visits and increased revenue. Through a software installation, end users change the drab Internet browser into an immersive experience from their favorite sports team, entertainment franchise or Internet site. The interactive browser themes feature official logos, colors, content and functionality, and can also extend capabilities including video, music players or other Internet widgets. Current business partners and clients include Bing, The Daily Beast, Huffington Post, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, NBA, NCAA, NFL, NHL and Universal Music. Samples found at http://brandthunder.com/gallery/.

Contact:
Patrick Murphy, CEO
Brand Thunder, LLC
614-408-8202

###

Distribution

It’s easy to see the caliber of brand that we’re fortunate enough to work with, our client list is full of great names from around the globe. Leveraging the power of the brand and their consumer touch points is common practice for affinity products. We try to bring a little more.

The web has splintered audiences. Think about how a sports fan may follow their favorite team. A fan may go to the team’s site, or they may go to a leading sports site, or they may participate in a blog or community focused on a team or sport. Limiting distribution through team channels limits the reach of the product. (As an aside, if you really want to learn about how teams can keep up with their fans, follow Sports Networker.)

Brand Thunder leverages distribution opportunities beyond the client site. We interact with communities where fans are gathering (always in a respectful way). We go through download sites where users are already looking for ways to personalize their experience. We look for other means to message the availability of the browser theme and get it to fans. We’ve seen a material benefit to our partners with this approach.

Product Extension

We love our client list and helping our clients connect with their fans is our biggest priority. But that’s not are only product. We also build interactive browser themes for the generalist or people that like stuff not represented by our client list. In the world of affinity credit cards, the NFL card is in the top 3 (don’t quote me on the exact number). Data accuracy aside, the illustration holds – most fans choose the NFL over their favorite team.

That’s why we have a Basketball theme, in addition to the NBA teams we work with like the Cavaliers, Magic, Sixers and Suns.

These product extensions help us reach the broader audience and grow our business. We continue to look for ways to meet the end user where they are and where their interests lie. We’ll continue to strive for that while we work our way toward the four million download mark.

You probably saw our release this week for the Daytona International Speedway Firefox browser theme. We’ve also just released a revision to the NASCAR Nationwide browser theme that is pretty hot. Either one will get you in the racing spirit. Enjoy!

COLUMBUS, OH – February 9, 2010 — Brand Thunder LLC (http://www.brandthunder.com), the custom browser specialists, announced today the launch of the interactive browser theme for the Daytona International Speedway. Racing fans can get a browser theme that keeps them attuned to three of the hottest events at the preeminent race track, the Daytona International Speedway. The theme changes automatically in the browser after each event providing a unique look for the Daytona 500, the Coke Zero 400 Powered By Coca-Cola and the Daytona 200 motorcycle classic. The theme can be downloaded for free at http://www.daytonainternationalspeedway.com/Fan-Info/Custom-Daytona-Web-Browser.aspx.

In addition to three unique looks, the interactive browser theme also features breaking news in the news ticker and sidebar newsreader, plus easy navigation to the Daytona International Speedway Web site including tickets for all events. The browser theme will also connect users to the Daytona International Speedway’s fan pages on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

“With each event, Daytona International Speedway transforms to a completely different experience,” said Robin Braig, President of the Daytona International Speedway. “With Brand Thunder’s help, we’re delivering that same concept to the web browsers of race fans.”

“The events at the Daytona International Speedway are such a big draw,” said Patrick Murphy, founder and CEO of Brand Thunder. “This theme is a great way to keep the connection to the fans when they’re not at the track and keeping the racing spirit with them whenever they’re online.”

Brand Thunder’s browser Boom! technology provides an extreme makeover of the Internet browser. Booms! are free, lightweight active customizations that can include themes, toolbars, sidebars and other content or functionality. Users can switch real-time between any installed Boom!.

About Brand Thunder:
Formed in April 2007, Brand Thunder creates custom-browser experiences for major brands. Brands enjoy a more persistent connection to their Internet consumer through the custom browser Boom!, which increases website visits and revenue. Through a software installation, end users change the look and feel of their Internet browser into an immersive experience from their favorite sports team, entertainment franchise or Internet site. The custom browser Booms! feature official logos, colors, content and functionality, but can also extend capabilities including video, music players or other Internet widgets. Current business partners and clients include the Huffington Post, Major League Soccer, NASCAR, NBA, NCAA, NFL, NHL, Universal Music and Bing Search. Samples found at http://brandthunder.com/gallery/.

Contact:
Patrick Murphy, CEO
Brand Thunder, LLC
614-408-8202
###

PCWorld recently issued a story, by James A. Martin, on cloud computing and what small businesses should keep in mind when they think about this path. We provided a little insight for that article. Since we gathered our thoughts on the subject, I thought I’d offer Brand Thunder’s own thoughts and experience in this space and hope that it provides value to other small businesses.

We were asked what recommendations/tips/strategies would we give other small businesses considering a move to cloud-based services (and away from PC-centric software)? What would we do differently, what not to worry about, common mistakes and so on?

Here is our bullet-point list of ideas and considerations, followed by a more detailed explanation:

Advice and Lessons Learned About Cloud Computing:

- It allows for your own custom development to develop tools unique to your business.

- With other services, we’d be forced to change internal processes to fit the tool or, if feasible, pay for new development with the service provider.

- Open source may require having someone on staff capable of set up and administration of the service.

- We try to maintain the energetic and creative environment by supplementing regular Skype calls with face-to-face meetings for the entire team a few times a year.

Details About Our Experience:

As a small business, we’ve tried to aggressively manage costs while still using tools that allow our team to operate effectively.

The majority of our migrations from PC-centric software to the cloud have been driven by growth. As a startup with a handful of people, PC-based solutions made the most sense. It was economical to start with local tools such as Daylite (for Customer Relation Management – CRM) and Excel for project management and software bug-tracking.

As we continued to grow, and given our distributed workforce (from Mexico to West Virginia), we realized we were hitting the limits of what the local-based software application could do and sending files via email made working from the most current document version difficult to manage. We also were not buying software packages for each new employee and dependent on them using the software they owned. Each person had their own preferences ranging from Microsoft Office, Open Office to Google Apps. There were collisions with compatibility across file types.

It became more efficient and still economical to migrate to cloud-based services where we could pay a small monthly fee but gain functionality for the entire team. We migrated to 37Signals products, Highrise (CRM) and Basecamp (project management, bug tracking), for their inexpensive cloud-solution for small businesses. We then moved to Google Apps for email, calendar and office applications. This was the natural progression for us as we grew in staff and grew in customers. We all have access to single files with real-time collaboration, tracked changes, comments, edits and more. It’s alleviated a lot of confusion and emails.

As we outgrew Basecamp, based on functionality desired and the cost associated with license for a growing team, we migrated our entire project management and bug tracking to the open-source Redmine. Even now, we continue to upgrade the products we use and are currently migrating to a more robust CRM system (Salesforce).

We also use Internet services to run the business including Skype for all team meetings. It allows easy and open communication across team members despite being geographically dispersed.

Adobe Acrobat Connect is used for product demos during sales presentations. It gives us a virtual presence during the sales call, that we can manage like a normal sales presentation but we don’t incur the travel expense. The result has been sales success with major brands both domestically and internationally.

This has been our path. What’s yours and what would you recommend?

Tonight, Brand Thunder shares the stage with a great community of entrepreneurs, start ups, technologists, thought leaders and more. The best part is they are all our part of the local technology scene in central Ohio.

Our friends at Toobla have re-envisioned the way we share and collect our information on the web. It’s visual, a break-through experience and is getting lots of great attention in the media.

Likewise, VacationTrade is reinventing timeshare vacationing and making it easy to trade your timeshare. It’s a great service to get where you need to be to unwind.

TasteCasting is an imaginative way of bringing social media into the offline world and then broadcasting back to online. The TasteCasting team is invited into dining establishments for complimentary tastings and then broadcast their experience to their network. It’s great exposure for the establishment and a great time for the team.

As cool as these products and services are, they are in categories most would expect to emerge from one of the coasts and not central Ohio. To see some of the innovators in central Ohio’s “area of expertise” will really blow you away. Some of the advances in medical and health technology is simply amazing.

It’s fun stuff and the best of will be honored at the TechColumbus Innovation Awards. We’re happy to be in such distinguished company.

As we kick-off Super Bowl week, I thought I’d take the less than humble approach of mentioning how, yet again, a team that has chosen an interactive browser theme from Brand Thunder is vying for the championship of its sport. The AFC champion Indianapolis Colts go for it all Sunday night. We’ve been here before.

During the Stanley Cup Playoffs last year, Brand Thunder clients had an outstanding representation. The Pittsburgh Penguins won a well played series and the Cup over a team that only offered their fans a toolbar. An interesting data point.

That celebration was extended to the MLS Cup where another Brand Thunder client, the Real Salt Lake, defeated the LA Galaxy – who also offer their fans an interactive browser theme. You might say we cheated, because we signed the entire MLS and we’d lay claim to any champion heralding from the soccer league. To that I’d say… you’re right.

Yet we also enjoyed having the Orlando Magic, the NBA Eastern Conference Champions, as a client. You see the trend here. It’s a pretty compelling story. Partner with Brand Thunder and find yourself competing among the elite of your league and playing for the championship.

That’s why on Super Bowl Sunday, we’ll be rooting for our favorite NFL client – the Indianapolis Colts. On Super Bowl Monday, we’ll be looking to help more teams. And for Major League Baseball teams getting geared up for Spring Training, we’d love to have our first MLB client. Give us a call.