by webteam | Dec 24, 2014 | News
Rhubarb Media is known for simplicity in design and a deep commitment to create and express your story to the world. But, if you’ve ever wondered what goes on in a creative mind, this little Christmas scene might sum it up. Mayhem, slightly distorted, a kaleidoscope of hues and a cornucopia of imagery, shapes and shades – all mashed up and interacting and sometimes fighting with each other. We wrestle and wrangle, mix and match, fail and find, until… it becomes your logo, your website, your brochure, your story. Somehow it all comes together.
As we look back on this past year, we celebrate. Our team has worked hard and I’m proud of them. Tyler, Zhenya, Mario, Joelle and Sandra. (And yes, although you’ve moved on Jess, we celebrate you too!) I look over our client list and I am thankful. Many have been with us from day one! (That’s almost 9 years, folks!)
We hope your Christmas isn’t as crazy as this scene looks and that next year is a year of significant and satisfying growth. We look forward to serving you in 2015!
by webteam | Aug 24, 2014 | Art, Drupal, Web Design, Websites
Over the past 8 years, Rhubarb Media has become the go to studio for design and web services for arts and culture organizations and OMAH continues that trend. We consulted with them to create a new and improved content managed site (DRUPAL) designed to be highly visual, interactive and responsive.
What they said when we launched…
“OMG….just checked! WOOT, it’s there!! OMG!!!!!!!!! Thank you!!!”
~ Ninette, Executive Director
Those Executive Directors can be so reserved sometimes.:)
See their new site here!
by webteam | Jul 24, 2014 | Meet The Team
Rhubarb’s founder and owner Chad Ballantyne continually takes a leadership role in the community, encouraging the collaboration of businesses, mentoring of youth and modelling social responsibility.
In addition to donating these invaluable services, Rhubarb’s founder and owner, Chad Ballantyne, has sat on the ‘Pathways Committee to End Homelessness’ and the ‘Entrepreneurship Advisory Board’ for Georgian College. Chad is a contributor to our community newspaper, challenging readers to pursue passion, creativity, care for others and personal responsibility.
Rhubarb sponsors The “Creative Space”, a coworking space of over 40 small business members (created by Chad and his wife Sandra) which supports Barrie’s entrepreneurs through collaboration and community, mentorship of students and encourages the revitalization of Barrie’s downtown core, which is one of the priorities addressed in the city’s 2010-2014 Strategic Plan.
Rhubarb’s owners, Chad and Sandra Ballantyne live and run their business in a way that truly reflects their understanding of the connectedness of each of these elements to a healthy, thriving community. They put heart into their business.
Ballantyne volunteers at the organization he started and Rhubarb sponsors, ‘The Creative Space’, where local businesses can sponsor a desk for a Georgian Student through their ‘Trep’ (entrepreneur) program.
by webteam | Jun 26, 2014 | Article, Branding
First off, don’t be in a panic about July 1, 2014.
(Unless you are sending unsolicited nonsense to mass recipients without providing “a way out”… then God help you)
In the past few weeks we have been receiving questions from our clients about sending out emails to their contacts in an effort to be CASL compliant. It appears that many corporations are taking a “sledge hammer” approach in a knee-jerk reaction to this legislation and sending out mass messages to their clientele and contacts. Their goal is to confirm with everyone in their list that they have indeed given express consent to continue to spam them send valuable marketing messaging to them in the future. We think that’s bad for brands and super annoying.
We have done a lot of research to find out what it actually means for our clients to be CASL complaint… and surprise, what we recommend is a more strategic approach.
The first thing to note is that most (if not all) of our clients are already using a proper email list management solution such as MailChimp or Constant Contact. This is probably the largest step toward becoming compliant (depending on how they initially setup/acquired their email list and imported it). These services track sign-up information, so you can provide that if it ever comes into question. They also offer templates that present the originating company’s address and an easily accessible unsubscribe link. These are key aspects to being CASL compliant.
Regarding complacency on the email list itself, the main thing we’re working with our clients to establish is whether or not the individuals currently within their lists have already given implicit consent. This by virtue of the fact that they have had past communications about something (such as membership or a business transaction), provided their email address and therefore have been added to the list database.
For these people, (from what we’ve read) you don’t need to have their explicit consent until July 1, 2017 (see the section labeled “Transition” on the Government of Canada’s CASL FAQs). As a path to least resistance, what we recommend doing is adding a clause to your membership/contractual agreement where it explicitly informs them that you are requesting their email address to add them to your membership email list and that they can unsubscribe any time. Please look up other articles outlining other strategic recommendations to accommodate this requirement over the next months and years. Please do not spam your members, constituents or customers in a panic demanding consent.
Many of our clients also have people on their list who registered through the website subscription form. This means they have already given explicit consent to send them messages (which MailChimp has a record of, if this ever comes into question), so you don’t need to bother them to ask for it again.
Other than the government’s own website that does a fairly good job of express consent versus implied consent, a great article to quickly read through is up on MailChimp’s website. It explains all of this and allows most of our client rest easy that they’ve already been compliant to CASL (and it’s predecessor from 2011).
Another resource that explains the implications of the July 1, 2014 date vs the July 1, 2017 date is Constant Contact’s FAQ page on “What does the Canadian Anti-Spam law mean when it talks about implied and express permission?”
Still confused about your situation? Give us a call or email us and we’ll talk through it.
by webteam | Jun 17, 2014 | Design, Web Design, Websites, Wordpress
In the past few weeks we have launched two new e-commerce websites on the increasingly popular Shopify platform.
Under the Shopify Partners program, our team was able to work with clients to configure, populate, train-on and thoroughly test their new online stores.
Although this is our 4th major update to sweetflour.ca since first launching it in 2009 using Drupal 6, we consider this an official “version 2” after migrating it from Ubercart 2 to Shopify. In 2012 the site underwent a restructuring and simplification of products and categories to improve UX and SEO.
Since seeing an increase in online sales conversions, we made it a priority to maintain the site’s SEO equity by migrating the structure, maintaining keywords in content, page titles and meta descriptions, configuring 301 redirects and submitting the updated site map to Google Webmaster Tools. Additionally, we made it a priority to ensure the website content is mobile-first and usable on all size of devices with its responsive design. Helpful features such as a “call now” button that is revealed on the mobile-view of the website have been put in place to increase value to the customer experience.
Our client Kim Gans forwarded a note in a support discussion she had with a Shopify Guru Team member:
…I must say that you probably have one of the best put together bakery sites I have seen. The layout, the rules and feel of the site are extremely well done.
Mark G — A Shopify Guru
Parcelled With Love was a start-up e-commerce site with the idea of selling toy products to parents and have them delivered as care packages to children while they are away at Summer camp. We worked with Sarah and Josie to give direction on marketing messaging, content development and appropriate photography styles. The logo and brand colours had been kicked-off before we took on the project, but we worked to further refine some of the styles and round out the colour palette to make the site’s presentation fun and kid-friendly without making the site look childish.
We were extremely pleased with the website that the Rhubarb Media team designed using the Shopify platform. Rhubarb was able to successfully choose a theme in keeping with our products and provide us with design concepts that reflect our brand. The structure of the site the team built worked well, incorporating all of our categories and products. Finally, the Rhubarb team ensured that we were well trained to update and navigate changes to our Parcelled with Love website independently. We would happily recommend the professionals at Rhubarb Media.
Sarah and Josie – Parcelled With Love
Let us know if you have an idea for an online business and need some assistance with your marketing efforts!
