The 6th Annual Interactive Day San Diego has wrapped and we couldn’t have asked for a better day of fun and learning with industry thought leaders regarding mobile, web design, online video, SEO, social media, email marketing and more!

Together with SanDiego.com and Chad Robley, sponsoring IDSD 2010 was an honor for Mindgruve and we’re already looking forward to next year! If you didn’t get a chance to check out the event, here are our highlights:

Opening  Session: 2020 Vision: The Most Important Advertising Issues for This Decade with Jack Myers, Founder of M.E.D.I.Advisory Group
Jack Myers kicked things off by discussing the changes happening in the market today, forcing advertisers and marketers to be more innovative than ever. Read the full recap…

Email Plus with Joel Book, Exact Target
Pointing out that email marketing is nothing new and still a very lucrative business, Joel Book explained some key insights, including the fact that 75% of social media users say email is the best way for companies to communicate with consumers. Read the full recap…

SignOnSanDiego.com Social Media Demonstration and Q&A with Mike Hodges, SignOnSanDiego.com, and Indra Gardiner, Bailey Gardiner
Mike Hodges led the group in a social media demonstration, discussing the importance of creativity in order to have more consumer impact. Indra Gardiner also shared her thoughts on how social media guidelines are key to leveraging client and company interactions. Read the full recap…

Advanced SEO with Rand Fishkin, SEOMOZ.org
Rand Fishkin discussed the balance of SEO vs PPC budget and the four areas of SEO acceleration, laying out the formula to increasing individual rankings: low competition + high search volume + high value to visitor. Read the full recap…

Mobile Marketing with Amielle Lake, Tagga
Amielle Lake explained the marketing shift taking place in the industry, moving from traditional to digital to mobile marketing. Noting that the mobile target is millennials, digital moms and techie men, she emphasized that efforts are most effective when it is campaign driven to offer immediate and branded payoff to consumer. Read the full recap…

ValueClick Media Demonstration and Q&A with Tony Winders, ValueClick Media, and Tamara Bousquet, MEA Digital
Together, Winders and Bousquet provided session attendees with insight into the importance of ad exchanges, demand side platforms (DSPs) and ad verification in a media plan. Read the full recap…

Marketing Convergence – Are You Ready? with Warren Raisch, Digitaria
Warren Raisch led the discussion by providing key insights regarding marketing in the industry, noting that mobile is becoming the ultimate Channel Aggregation point and that 92% of social users trust a recommendation from people they know over the marketing channels. Read the full recap…

Luncheon Keynote: The Identity Web with Paul Ollinger, Facebook
Facebook’s Western Region VP of Sales discussed how the internet has changed social marketing to make it enormously effective for marketers, pointing out that relationships and authenticity will allow businesses to truly learn, grow and create a social web. Read the full recap…

“POV” Point of Video with Tod Sacerdoti, BrightRoll
Providing insights into the growing online video space, Tod Sacerdoti noted that online video advertising is the future and is the best place to involve yourself. Also offering tips for moving into online video advertising, Sacerdoti says it is important to test, measure and optimize, as well as remove under-performing content. Read the full recap…

Mindset Marketing with Denny Reinert, Placecast, and Andreas Roell, Geary Group
Using Placecast as an example, Reinert led the session with a special focus on reaching consumers while in the right mindset. For location-based marketing, an opt-in mobile service is the right way to engage with consumers. This and a combination of other factors create relevance and increase purchases. Read the full recap…

Website Redesign for Lead Generation with Rick Burnes, HubSpot
Burnes discussed that the purpose of a website redesign is to be found by more prospects and convert those prospects to leads and customers. All website redesigns should have specific goals in mind, while being aware that some design and taste sacrifices will need to made to generate traffic. Read the full recap…

Digital Download: What You Need to Know About Ad Networks with John Yearout, Undertone Networks
After reviewing the timeline of ad networks over the last 15 years, Yearout pointed out that as DSPs become more prevalent, ad networks need to deliver unique inventory, targeting, products, insights and research to stay relevant. Read the full recap…

Sorenson Media Demonstration and Q&A with Eric Quanstrom, Sorenson Media, and Montana Triplett, Tremor Media
Both industry experts made a point of saying that online video is still the wild wild west for marketing and advertising. A customized user experience should be based on your objectives. Read the full recap…

Google Analytics with Joshua Knox, Google Analytics
Google’s goal, as explained by Knox, is to speed up the web to improve conversion flow. Knox also led the group in better understanding the impact AdWords has in creating valuable traffic when used correctly. Read the full recap…

State of the Industry Roundtable
At the close of IDSD, Panelists Heather Blank, Responsys; Torrey Lincoln, LinkedIn; Brian Lynch, Yahoo!; Paul Ollinger, Facebook offered their thoughts on the State of the Industry as well as some companies to keep an eye on in the coming months.

If you’d like to learn more from or contact the presenters, a list of slide decks and twitter handles can be found at the San Diego Advertising Club Facebook page. We hope to see you next year at IDSD 2011!

“The fold.” Clients are concerned with it, advertisers want to be above it and web designers continue to argue its existence. Though this term makes sense in the newspaper industry, when it comes to web design, our philosophy is that “the fold” is dead. Hierarchy of content, a well-defined design strategy and user habits now dictate a successful website, ultimately leading users to discover the content that falls, as we like to call it, “below the screen.”

In its original application, “the fold” described which stories appeared above or below the fold in a newspaper, where content above the fold was visible to a potential buyer. Though newspaper content is bound to the preset sizes, content for a website is not, and as Three Minds accurately notes, “not everything on a web page needs to be located within an 800 x 600 layout.”

This leads us to the guiding light of our “No Fold” philosophy: a hierarchical structure of web content. Simply put, the most important content should come first and engage the user. If the first piece of content on the viewable screen does its job, users will be encouraged to scroll down the page to continue the interaction and see what other important information is provided.

Hand-in-hand with hierarchical content is design strategy. Based on advances in technology and hardware, what falls “below the screen” is different for every user, which means a well-defined design strategy cannot be ignored. Utilizing design cues, including images that anticipate more content, anchor links that jump further down the page and cleaner layouts, will encourage site visitors to explore the page. In support, according to research done by ClickTale, scrolling has become a natural practice among users and is associated with forward-thinking web design.

Finally, we believe the infamous “fold” no longer dictates a successful website because users are smarter and will search for the information they’re looking for – even if it means venturing “below the screen.” To help prove our point, CXPartner’s research shows that users don’t mind scrolling the page and that heat maps show a strong concentration on the scroll bar. Furthermore, when there is less content on the viewable screen, users are more likely to explore what is below it.

The only exception to our “No Fold” philosophy is advertisers. They have the right to be “above the fold” because ultimately their dollars help pay for the design, whether it is fold-centric or not.

Moving forward with our philosophy in hand, we will encourage clients and fellow agency folk to realize that newspaper is, in fact, the only thing that physically folds. Web pages are a different medium and capable of much more when coupled with a hierarchical content structure, design strategy and the realization that users intelligently seek out content to discover what lies “below the screen.”

SAN DIEGO,CA – June 3, 2010 – Helping to support local design students as they strive towards greatness, Mindgruve sponsored and awarded local San Diego State University student, Raymond Chou, with the Best of Interactive scholarship at the 14th Annual AIGA SD Student Portfolio Exhibition.

Mindgruve Art Director and AIGA Judge/Presenter, Barbara Luna, commented, “The portfolios were amazing this year, which made our decision in choosing a winner extremely difficult. We’re lucky to have such great talent in our area and we hope to continue supporting this event in the future.”

In addition to awarding the Best of Interactive scholarship, one of Mindgruve’s newest designers, Neil Kupras, took home the overall award for Best Portfolio.