Are You Ready For Now?

This one came in on an email tip from a reader in Minnesota. Are You Ready For Now is a catchy title in the same vein as Now What, albeit a bit looooong.

When you enter the URL into the browser address bar it immediately redirects to EDS.com. It’s not a 301 permanent redirect, but a 302 temporary redirect. A 302 tells the search engines that there is a new page in place of the old, but to ignore that new page for now since it won’t be there for very long. That may be the case as the redirect page is a directory off the main page(/sites/now/flash/) set up primarily for the Are You Ready For Now? campaign. I would think though that if anything it would be better to do a 301 to bring any traffic ranking to a deep page in the site. They can at a later date set up a 301 to the main page when the campaign ends. This is of course is debatable.

So what is EDS? Well, EDS stands for Electronic Data Systems. According to their website:

“EDS is a leading global technology services company delivering business solutions to its clients. EDS founded the information technology outsourcing industry more than 45 years ago. Today, EDS delivers a broad portfolio of information technology and business process outsourcing services to clients in the manufacturing, financial services, healthcare, communications, energy, transportation, and consumer and retail industries and to governments around the world.”

So IT, huh? Exciting stuff. I jest of course. Some of my best friends are IT guys. No really, they are. Oh, and physicists too. But before this website I honestly had never heard of EDS. They’re a big deal. With contracts from the Defense Department and the World Bank, they must be doing something right.

The campaign seems purely for branding. EDS dubs itself as a company that connects technology which benefits consumers and drives business. Okay, sounds good. So how’s the company doing?

NEW YORK, May 4 (newratings.com) – IT services firm Electronic Data Systems Corp (EDS.NYS) Thursday announced a sevenfold jump in its first-quarter earnings.

The Plano, Texas-based company said its earnings in the three months surged to $164 million, or 31¢ per share, from $24 million, or 5¢ per share, in the year-ago quarter. Electronic Data Systems added that its sales mover up to $5.22 billion in the first quarter, from $5.08 billion in the same period a year earlier. The company said it was able to record healthy results despite “softer market conditions” due to its expanding operations in low-cost countries and because it had diversified from the core outsourcing activities into applications business. New contracts signed fell, however, to $3.4 billion in the latest quarter, from $10 billion a year earlier, Electronic Data Systems added.

Okay, so that’s impressive. What’s that bit about “expanding operations in low-cost countries”? Digging into the subject I found that EDS outsources in India, in fact, they were No. 2 U.S. outsourcer in terms of revenue and market share last year. But everyone does it so I’m not going to point fingers.

Like I mentioned before the campaign is purely for branding. It seems they want to create a connection between their company and the concepts they wish to embody. The commercials are very good. They’ve done a fine job in expressing that EDS is a company “in touch” with the future of technology, which I presume is precisely what they intended to do. Though anytime a major company starts a marketing campaign geared toward the consumer I’m naturally wary. Like when Exxon comes out with a commercial showing how environmentally friendly they are. Cough. Whenever a company that doesn’t normally market directly to the consumer it usually means either that they are trying to reposition themselves from previous bad press or set themselves up for a future takeover. I’ll keep my eye on them that’s for sure.

Now go do something about that 302.

Stats:
PR 0
Alexa N/A
Compete N/A

(Stats on EDS.com:
PR 8
Alexa 34,640
Compete 27,732)

Screenshots after the jump.