Client

Gateway

Period

05.1998 – 02.1999

Client Bio

Fortune 500 company; one of the top tier computer manufacturers founded in 1985. Gateway is a technology and direct-marketing company that uses its call centers, Web site and sales force to build direct customer relationships. It has been transformed from a leading PC company into a full-service technology provider, that now includes a line of Gateway-branded products such as thin TVs, digital cameras, camcorders and systems and networking products.

Personal History

Gateway was another very large client for IAB and as the Creative Director I would spend a great deal of time with them, whether in New York or San Diego. I can remember many sleepless nights at their headquarters in San Diego working with their Creative Director until three or four in the morning brainstorming about new projects and technologies to help improve Gateway’s position amongst the top computer brands. (I remember this well because late at night the coyotes would howl for hours at a time.) For many of these projects I would take a team of five or so people with me from New York to help with the workload, sometimes working side-by-side with a massive team from Accenture.

It is because of this I learned to deal with third parties (Accenture in this case) that were not as nimble as I needed them to be. This was good practise because as it turned out there were plenty of other big consulting firms to manage in my future.

Objective

Development of back end infrastructure and consumer communication efforts to reach more people efficiently. The largest project, ‘One and Done’ was created to provide an efficient and cost-effective method for handling both their consumer and business sales.

Noteworthy

Online promotions; client-side business portals; kiosks; branded mini-sites for various product lines; technical support mini-site; presentation demo to showcase Gateway’s position as a direct marketing company; 1999’s ‘Who Are You’ online campaign; telesales internal site; computer configurator database and interface; and several ‘Jump Pages’.

The ‘One and Done’ project allowed Gateway to take orders via Gateway telesales, Gateway Country employees or directly by the customer via the web. One and Done also provided telesales and web ordering experiences that enhanced Gateway’s relationship with the customer. The order process included the following: personalized site experience, managed customer information, product marketing, a product shop, placement of orders, review of orders, order management (telesales only) and reporting (internal only).

Vendor

Hired by IAB (Roger Black)

Client

Univision

Period

05.1999 – 07.2000

Client Bio

The largest and most influential Hispanic television media company in the United States.

Personal History

This was a biggie. Univision was a very important client and spent a lot of money to put itself online. Univision hired IBM for its back end, teamed with IAB for its front end design and editorial leadership and the Gryphon Group for acting as the interim CTO and as an ambassador for technology decisions. Univision also partnered with a major hispanic sales organization to power its store front for their shopping channel. There were many players all trying to work together to deliver a great experience for Univision’s dedicated viewers. Although I can remember this being a struggle at times, the final product was very good and really delivered a distinctive, very hispanic brand online. I also formed a great friendship from this venture with my future business partner Michael Nicklas.It is unfortunate that Univision did not keep this design. Their present design is nondescript and lacks a visual identity that resonates with their brand.

Objective

An online venture to extend the Univision brand to the web and initiate the convergence of television and the Internet.

Noteworthy

A branding umbrella approach was taken for Univision. The original television logo was extended to include the “.com” and the channels within were represented as sub-brands. To extend their content online, the Univision stars were leveraged to create a unique and targeted online family, an integrated e-commerce experience was created, a scaleable template framework was developed to facilitate realistic site growth and easy manageability and lastly a comprehensive staffing and workflow plan was provided. Univision rose to #1 within six months after this launch.

Vendor

Hired by IAB (Roger Black)