How Ad Agency Grady Britton's Site Won an ADDY Award (Hint: No Flash Intro)

Grady Britton, an ad agency in Portland Oregon, has created a site that combines the immediate navigation control that most visitors want, with the personality of Flash and audio. President Frank Grady explains, "It's easy to make a site all complex and Flashy. Instead we tend to make things work very, very well and be understated in look and feel -- even though it's a fun site. Our site evolved so it's a warm inviting place with enough character in it that we don't need all that Flash. It gets you quickly there with a little humor."

Aside from not forcing visitors through a Flash intro, the site also excels at presenting lots of samples of work in an easy-to surf format. If your agency site just gives a list of clients, you may want to steal some ideas from Grady Britton's layout.

While Grady can't point to any direct relationship between more sales and his site, he says, "We get an awful lot of comments from people looking at the site about how much they like it." Plus, the American Advertising Federation just gave Grady Britton its 2001 Addy Award for best "Interactive Agency Self Promotion" which can't hurt business.