Yesterday, the Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) announced its winners of the 2009 Excellence in Marketing and Communications competition. The contest, an annual event since 1990, rewards airports around the country based on the criteria of how well their marketing and communications efforts reflect on airports, flying, and the stakeholders.

Among the competition’s nearly 250 entries overall, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (part of MAC) ranked second for websites.

Earlier this year, August Ash launched the brand new, redesigned website for MSP. The new website features a cleaner, simpler appearance, with an assortment of real-time tools to assist visitors.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport will be recognized at the ACI-NA 18th Annual Conference & Exhibition in October for its honor. August Ash is honored by the opportunity to partner with the Metropolitan Airports Commission. Congratulations on your latest accomplishment, MAC!

We’re not the only people talking about it.
The Internet.
More and more people are putting their money into online advertising and leaving other media.

A Forrester Research report predicted an 11% increase in interactive marketing efforts over the next year. Read more about that here.

People are turning to the Internet for more than just marketing, though.

A study from Forbes Insights and Google found that the Internet has become the most valuable information resource for US senior level business executives.
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Effective 11 PM CST on June 12th (tonight), Facebook will be allowing members the option of creating customized usernames for their profiles.  These usernames will be incorporated as part of their profile’s URL (ie: facebook.com/company name).  The relevance and urgency of this news for business owners is twofold:

1. This means you’ll now be able to incorporate your company/organization name into your Facebook URL, which is good news for a variety of reasons, not the least of which include search engine marketing.
2. This also calls for a certain degree of diligence in protecting your company name.  After all, what’s stopping your competitor from registering your company’s name?

Well, before your imagination starts conjuring images of wild-eyed homesteaders racing across America’s untamed West in the 1890s’ land runs, take comfort in the fact that no username registration will necessarily be considered irreversible. (more…)

August Ash, Inc. is proud to have been featured in the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal in April.

Check out the article detailing businesses weathering the recession at the link below:

August Ash thriving in recession; helping other firms weather it

Google.  What does it mean?  In the company’s corporate information, they define “What’s a Google?” by referencing a “Googol”. So what’s a “Googol”?  It’s a mathematical term for the number one followed by 100 zeros.  The number has no real significance even in math, except when making comparisons.

Because Google’s mission is to organize all the information available on the web, this reference is a good one for their name.  But in reality, they’re only indexing a small fraction of what’s out there on the web now. Even with the one trillion addresses Google has indexed, there’s more. Much more. (more…)

August Ash (AAI) is honored by the recent recognition from Minnov8 for its recent launches of Magento powered e-commerce websites. An article was posted last week on the Minnov8 website, as well as the MinnPost website, commending AAI for its innovation and early adoption of this innovative new software.

Magento is an open-source e-commerce solution that offers unprecedented flexibility and control for web development companies. The AAI team has been following Magento’s development since early beta and is the first known company in Minnesota to launch websites using this new e-commerce tool. Two such websites that have been recently launched are for LDF Silk out of Dallas, TX, and freshvac, a St. Louis Park company. AAI has a number of additional projects currently in development using Magento, and is also in the process of developing several custom Magento extensions.

This month marks August Ash’s tenth year in business. During these ten years, August Ash has grown from a one employee company to a thirteen employee company consisting of positions in sales, marketing, management, customer relations, and of course, web design and web development. With 240 active client relationships today, we look forward to continuing to serve customers in the Minneapolis area and beyond with consistent, thoughtful service; quality, custom web designs; and innovative web solutions.

We’re currently looking to add to our professional, talented team of designers and developers. See our employment page for current opportunities with August Ash.

Whether you’re looking to work for us or with us - we’d love to hear from you!

Are the new features some search engines are announcing enough to win over loyal searchers from trusted engines?

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Many of us today can’t imagine our lives without the Internet – for better or for worse. Some of us - present company included - literally make a living through the Internet, whether that be through web design and marketing or online sales. Sometimes, though, we’d do anything just to have a day with no email, online news, or instant messaging.

Seeing so many people chained to their laptops and blackberries, it can seem hard to imagine a society more addicted to the Internet than our own – but clearly, South Korea is in the lead.

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August Ash enters its 9th year of business.