Every year, we express gratitude to our friends and colleagues and point out exciting events from the previous year. 2009 was an extraordinary year. Our clients kept us on our toes—inspiring us and helping us see old things in new ways. We continue to focus on medical device clients and were fortunate to work with amazing teams developing some really outstanding products for asthma, cardiovascular, diabetes, HIV, and ophthalmic diseases.
Because of our strong social agenda, our favorite product in 2009 is an HIV test that makes testing as simple and portable as a pregnancy test. It was developed by a brilliant German team at ZYOMYX. We believe this will have a tremendous impact on the developing world; saving lives and reducing human suffering. The underlying technology will have many applications and we expect this team to win the medical device Olympics.
As you might have guessed, the most recent marketing developments have not been lost on us. We have been following closely the FDA and its decisions on search engine optimization, social networking, and online advertising. It is a gray area that requires some finesse but it does open new doors for the health care industry. We see social media as an area of tremendous growth during this decade. Our @readtoday Twitter alias has drawn more than 2600 followers making us a leading Tweeter in the area of literacy and teaching us a lot about what works and what doesn’t in the Twitter sphere. We have also been developing appropriate blogging and online advertising strategies. On demand printing is another big development. Not only is it a green solution it is also much more cost-effective. We expect to be designing more online magazines, eBooks, and brochures.
Our medical device photography has drawn such a popular audience that we are now working on a book. Several companies have asked to participate. We will keep you posted but it is safe to say Wolfgang Hahner is poised to become one of the most recognized photographers, in this particular area, during this new decade. His eye-of-the-needle photographs are so stunning many have actually put them on canvases and hung them in public spaces.
On the technology front, we are very proud of Whiteboard Selling. These are the guys to watch. They have impressed a host of clients with their unique selling methodology and helped us discover that we still hold an edge in the technology design space. This year, we designed and built an innovative platform for IBM Whiteboard TV that includes six videos controlled by a dynamic Flash Whiteboard. It is a cool application that holds a lot of promise for distance selling and corporate training. In 2009, HyperRoll (a client we have been working with since 2004) was purchased by Oracle laying our big cat campaign to permanent rest. Our big cats had a good run.
No year-end review would be complete without mentioning our non-profit organization. Last year, our LiteracyCenter.Net had more than 1.5 million visitors and 35 million page views. We launched a new companion site called ReadToday.Net which is growing its own base. Over the holidays, we designed and launched e-books that use fruits and vegetables to teach preschool age children words even as they instill a love for healthy foods. Our Eater Reader(TM) e-books were a terrific success with parents and teachers and are still available from our websites.
So, that was our year in a nut-shell. Like all of you, we are looking to 2010 to bring peace and prosperity to the world. We thank each and every one of your for your continued support! We couldn’t do it without you.
Best wishes for a wonderful New Year!
out of the blue design
Tags: Medical Device, Photography