Inspired Exploitation…
17 Jul 2008 | Filed Under: Crankypants + Interpipes + Ireland
The tiniest bit of internet sleuthing reveals that Dublin based marketing firm Inspiration were the SEO company behind Irish Greeting Card’s recent debacle. Their homepage proudly declares it, in fact.
The part that made my jaw drop, however, was the next notice on their home page:
Cathy McGovern, Inspiration was one of three guests invited by Enterprise Ireland’s eBusiness Unit to participate in a round-table discussion on issues surrounding eMarketing and how it can be exploited by SMEs in Ireland.
Emphasis mine. I don’t have a problem with Enterprise Ireland and I think they’re providing key help for a number of high potential start-ups. Given the state of the economy, God knows bright businesses need the help now more than any time in EI’s history.
Somehow, though, I don’t think this episode is the kind of “exploiting” EI had in mind when they funded Irish Greeting Cards for online marketing consulting. A relationship between EI and Inspiration would seem to exist, but if that’s the case, my hope is that in the name of upholding best (or even acceptable) practices for online business, EI’s eBusiness Unit terminates it.
Post haste.
Alan O'Rourke says:
Have you tried signing up to their newsletter? You get redirected to an insurance broker site http://url.ie/j8t . Does not bode well.
Thursday, 17 July, 2008, 11:48 pmSabrina Dent says:
I was going to say “what a train wreck” but it’s more like, well… a car crash.
Friday, 18 July, 2008, 5:56 amEugene Flynn says:
I wouldn’t like to be blind listening to their alt tags through a screenreader..stuffed
Friday, 18 July, 2008, 2:46 pmKatherine says:
A lot of the blame for this lies with Enterprise Ireland. They really do not get this whole new fangled web thingy. I realised this when I client approached me recently with the good news the IE were ready to give him a ton of money to spend on his site. But the money was only available for “a high tech ” site. They thought Flash animations of his product working would be good, ones where people could press little buttons and pull knobs to see what happens.
He makes heavy industrial machinery.
Can’t you just see all those plant managers around the world sitting at their computers pulling little knobs and playing with switches and saying “Geez, we gotta buy this, it’s waaaay kooool!!!”
Friday, 18 July, 2008, 10:58 pmMike says:
I totally aree with you Sabrina on this. Blogging is about meaningful engagement with fellow bloggers and building up trust over a period of time.
Also a site should not necessarily be assesed on its use of “gadgets” etc
Monday, 21 July, 2008, 4:47 pmA well thought out site with good editorial content and user friendly especially for non ‘techie” people usually gets the nod from me