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MAXIM MAGAZINE

’Beer and sex and chips and gravy,’ sang the Macc Lads; none of these

Lads’ prerequisites are present on Maxim’s Website. Nor should they

be.

With a daily news feed, what the tabloids say, a bank of jokes, quizzes

- plus book, movie, fashion and album reviews and a tremendous links

section - Maxim has proved a handy addition to its more famous

competitors. The ’breast test’ is a fun (and slightly naughty) online

card game; there is also choice of banner sizes for advertisers. And my

’suave’ chat-up technique has the ladies ’begging for it’, according to

the quiz. Gripes?

The reviews, which are culled from the magazine, are not detailed enough

and they didn’t put my joke up (not printable here). Also, why isn’t

beeb.com on their list of fun links? 8/10

CLIENT Dennis Publishing

BRIEF Provide Internet entertainment for men where the Maxim online

audience can participate in features

CREATED AND PRODUCED BY In-house team

ADDRESS www.maxim-magazine.co.uk

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH

’The Daily Telegraph Internet site is an addition to the existing news,

sport, financial and features service provided by the Electronic

Telegraph.’ But it’s not an addition to the newspaper. In fact, it

merely reproduces the most boring parts of the day’s paper: obituaries,

Peterborough, letters, leader and opinion. It certainly provokes some

questions. Who is this for? Why don’t they just buy the paper? Why not

just incorporate these bits into the ET? Maybe it’s for the few retired

colonels who live abroad and are too cheap to buy the newspaper or don’t

want to access the ET with its bright colours and yoof-fulness.

I just wonder if it’s worth the Telegraph’s while to provide a few Pukka

Sahibs with Norman Lebrecht’s opinion on the Royal Opera. 1/10

CLIENT The Telegraph Group Ltd

BRIEF Generate income through advertising, sponsorship and electronic

comm-unications and at the same time support the Telegraph brand and

help it to diversify into areas of new media

CREATED AND PRODUCED BY Electronic Telegraph New Media Centre

ADDRESS www.daily telegraph.co.uk

G-CLUB

I should really like this Website, but I don’t. I suspect the site

reflects its authors: lots of good looks and style, but very little

substance (though a lot of substances). It tries very hard and it’s

useful if you want to brush up on your French and learn Italian words

for things like beer goggles.

On the down side are items like Inside London (pretentious twaddle from

a boring wannabe); Club Health (what makes a good club toilet); and the

shop, which doesn’t sell anything or have any idea of what’s cool. The

listings section is light on choice and detail. I really like the

bookmarks it gives you; its only mistake is that it lists 0171, which is

a far super-ior site, as is the Ministry of Sound’s. Saying all that,

it’s beautiful to look at and imaginatively designed. I think it’s

self-indulgent - like a lot of clubbers. Maybe I’m not cool enough to

’get it’. 6/10

CLIENT G-Club

BRIEF Provide a definitive guide to club culture online

CREATED AND PRODUCED BY Travis Sennett Sully Ross

ADDRESS www.g-club.net

SUNWORLD SAILING

As we all now know, time will be the most precious commodity come the

Millennium. The Americans have Time Dollars, and we have Sunworld

Sailing on CD-Rom. This format of holiday brochure should give Sunworld

(a division of Thomson Holidays) the opportunity to convey vast amounts

of information and through the tricks of multimedia to excite the sailor

in all of us. You certainly can’t fault its comprehensiveness, with all

the background information you’ll ever need included. The multimedia,

however, is a massive disappointment. Seagulls, ocean sounds and inane

voiceovers are the full extent of the sound FX and the stills could have

come from any traditional brochure. Disney videos may be lower tech, but

they give you a much better feel for how your holiday will be. Maybe

Sunworld thought that full-motion video or virtual tours of resorts

would be a waste of money. This CD commits a worse sin: it’s a waste of

time. 5/10

CLIENT Sunworld

BRIEF Attract younger professionals who will find this an easy and quick

advertising medium to learn about the range of holidays we offer

CREATED AND PRODUCED BY Congress Applied Media, Southampton

AGENCY FINDER

This site does exactly what it says on the URL. It’s founded on the

mistaken assumption that the Advertising Agency Register is not

impartial, and the solution to this is a crude computer dating-style

system. An American chap wants to charge agencies dollars 3,000 a year

for a listing here, and he hopes for 2,000 shops to be on board by year

end. Why isn’t it called ’licence-to-print-money. com’? It’s free to

clients, who register and then input either desirable or unacceptable

agency qualities into a series of multiple- choice forms. On my first

search, I received no matches; once I eliminated some of my selection

criteria I got 12. By this time, pretty much any agency would have

matched my selection! Even if they hit their agency subscriber target, I

hope it doesn’t catch on - this is a people business.

Doesn’t creative output or track record matter any more? The owner,

Charles Meyst, won’t care - he’ll be rich. 2/10

CLIENT Business Partnering International Ltd

BRIEF A free new-business service that helps clients and consultants to

find new, replacement or additional advertising, public relations, sales

promotion, direct marketing, media buying and interactive agencies

CREATED BY The Sales Marketing Institute, US

PRODUCED BY VisionFoundry, US

ADDRESS www.agencyfinder.com.