What is The Cookie Law?

As an addition to the marketing opt-in law The Cookie Law states that website owners should request user consent before setting cookies on their machines. 

Not all cookies are affected, cookies necessary to the good working of your website are not e.g. cookies used to remember a user shopping basket or session cookies containing vital information to provide a requested service e.g. remembering a user location for a property search.  

All other cookies are affected including third party cookie such as analytics, campaign tracking, advertising cookies etc

How to comply with The Cookie Law

You need to assess the cookies used on your website and sort them between essential and non essential cookies. If you have non essential cookies (very likely) you then need to define a user consent strategy with your user experience, designers and developers or your agency. There are many ways to implement obtrusive and non obtrusive cookie consent devices. 

The ICO website (http://www.ico.gov.uk/), the body charged with enforcing the cookie law has implemented cookie user consent on their site. 

Are you at risk of being fined?

Although the European cookie law is already in place and active is it not yet enforced but will be by end of March next year so you need to plan your website changes now. Fines can be heavy but are unlikely to be handed out if you have started the process of implementing user consent for cookies on your website by May 2012. 

The cookie law is not an option so you'd better start tackling it now. 

If you have any questions about the cookie law or wish to discuss its implementation with us please contact rob@aqueduct.co.uk

Some of our clients find it difficult to understand why it can be tough to run multiple projects on one code base and that we can spend some time 'merging'. 

At Aqueduct we branch aggressively, we follow the 'no junk in the trunk' rule and create branches for every project or new feature. This allows us to support the current live code bases (trunk) whilst safely developing other features or projects (branches). 

However this can comes at a price, too many branches or very lengthy projects and we end up with merging headaches. 

Indeed before we can do a release we need to merge the branch code back in the trunk, there will be conflicts, and there will be more the longer it took for the branch to get developed and signed off. 

To save time and money we do two things:

• We limit the number of branches for a code base to 2, add the trunk and that makes a maximum of 3 code bases to manage
• We only branch and develop once every user story is signed off and the project scheduled to reduce the time the branch lives and therefore the number of potential merging conflicts 

There are many other ways to manage source control (Facebook and twitter are notorious for not using any branching) but in our agency we deal with many projects, different environments and code bases and we find that 'no junk in the trunk' works well and limits human errors and bugs. 

The FA and Aqueduct have just won Best Entertainment, Leisure and Travel Site in the Sitecore Site of the Year awards.

The FA’s goal for the Just Play website was to get people off the sofa and back behind the ball. The FA and Aqueduct, knew that getting people excited about playing football again would require a ground-breaking digital experience. 

The challenge

Using web technology to get people to play football again, required breaking the boundaries in the development of user experience. The user interface would have to be fast and fluid to captivate would-be players just as the real sport–an even greater challenge to achieve for mobile devices. Next, the web interface needed to be tightly integrated with The FA’s systems including CRM, clubs database and football centres. 

Highlights of the Solution

We designed the website to achieve two goals; to create a highly functional search and a learning aspect. The learning aspect focuses on engaging the website user with rich content, bold layouts and dynamic, fluid transitions. Once visitors access search on the website, it dynamically switches to a more functional version offering enhanced functionality, game information and booking options catering to localised-experiences.

Results

The website has surpassed goals for opening of Just Play Centres, Just Play kickabouts, unique visitors and 11 a side clubs contacts. The website design boasts dynamic layouts with boundary-pushing CSS techniques, and an engaging experience that reflects the fast, fluid motion of playing.

Search online for "Just Play" (or go straight to the Just Play website) to book your kickabout.

There has been a growth recently in sports organisations employing innovative digital strategies to better engage their fans. Digital started out as another marketing channel - a place to promote the brand, fixtures, results, news and information. It then quickly became a place to advertise, to sell and to serve video. Now, digital is a lot more than a marketing or sales channel. It's a way of connecting with fans in a way no other mechanism has been able to in the past. Digital is helping sports organisations to reach more fans, engage them more deeply and, critically, increase their revenues and grow their commercial businesses as a result. 

Fan Engagement is about organisations:

• getting relevant and personal with each member of their audience, whatever the channel, time or location
• being open, transparent and adaptive
• encouraging two-way conversations about everything
• involving friends and peers in conversations
• listening to fan interactions, learning from them and rewarding influencers
• giving sponsors, partners and advertisers a ‘front row seat’ in connecting with your audience
• presenting data to fans visually in exciting and entertaining ways

We're currently helping Manchester City FC and The RFU to engage with their fans through digital. 

There are lessons and examples for all organisations in how to develop more compelling relationships with their audiences. Get in touch with us if you'd like to hear how we can help you with your audience engagement, whatever your game.