Month: January 2013

Fireman or Astronaut. That is the question.

Every year, as the clock strikes midnight, nearly half of Americans are thinking about their New Year’s resolutions. People resolve to get healthier, exercise more, stop smoking, or make more money. Individuals are not the only one thinking of goals for the coming year. In boardrooms across America, businesspersons are deciding how to conduct their business in the New Year. Some of the more popular business resolution are stabilizing the balance sheet and growing or expanding the business.

What some businesspersons overlook, however, is how the right advertising campaign can propel that business plan to new heights or breathe life into a goal threatened with failure. That’s where Spark, a Jacksonville advertising agency, comes in. What is your company’s business resolution for the New Year? Is it to increase your customer base? This Jacksonville advertising agency can revamp your advertising to target a whole new demographic. Is your goal to expand your business into new areas? A Jacksonville advertising agency can promote your new lines of business and relate it to your past successes. Do you want to simply refresh the awareness of your company and outshine your competitors? Spark can design the perfect ad campaign to propel you to a greater market share.

Another way to take advantage of the tendency to set goals this time of year is to target your advertising to some of the more popular New Year’s resolutions among your consumer base. For example, the most popular resolution this year, according to an article in the University of Scranton’s Journal of Clinical Psychology, is to lose weight. It would be an obvious choice to target these people if you are the owner of a gym, a company that sells exercise equipment or programs, and weight loss supplements. But, it is also important to think outside the box. A grocery store can run advertisements on all of the healthy food they sell. Food companies can advertise the benefits of their particular product in weight loss. Even department stores could run ads depicting shopping as good exercise. We at Spark can help you find the perfect fit for your product and a popular New Year’s Resolution. Click here to get started today!

The Jacksonville web design community, including Spark, Inc. is preparing for the changes and challenges HTML5 will bring to programmers. In December 2012, the W3C announced that no further features would be added to the new programming language, meaning programmers can start using the language immediately. Starting in 2014, HTML5 will be fully released, replacing HTML4 and reducing the need to program the same app for several different web platforms. The language is increasingly popular, and is currently used by 34 of the top 100 web sites around the world. Even Adobe admitted that Flash will no longer be used with the advent of HTML5.

Additionally, HTML5 syntax is compatible with older languages, including C++. HTML5 standardizes the syntax needed for certain elements of programming, and simplifies programming for the typical modern website. The new parsing rules are far more flexible than those of HTML4, and HTML5 is built to be backwards compatible with older systems and apps, streamlining the user’s experience and reducing syntax errors. Unfortunately, HTML5 still cannot handle animation on its own. However, effective Jacksonville web design can take this into account, intertwining HTML5 programming for static elements and videos with Javascript programming for any animation needed in the site.

Many of the features of HTML5 are compatible with smart phone and tablet apps and have the additional benefit of cutting out the native platform intermediary, reducing costs for developers and users. This is due to the fact that programming in HTML5 changes apps from being platform based to being web based. Also, many browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer, have already updated their systems to support HTML5.

Even though HTML5 will be backwards compatible with older languages and websites, keeping up with the latest programming and features available for your website benefits your company by allowing a modern, streamlined, and user-friendly interface with your customers. Spark specializes in Jacksonville web design and can update your existing website or create an entirely new one in HTML5, keeping your website up to date and compatible with the modern ways of surfing the web. Click here to see what Spark’s web designers can do you for you!