Now this is a true story, I have changed the names to avoid any potential embarrassment or future legal proceedings.

I work in a small office where we work hard, 5 of us as a team, we build, develop and market websites, each area of our enterprise is kind of symbiotic, mutually supportive and generally intertwined with each other. A designer designs a site in order for the task of development to be as easy as possible, he/ she also takes into consideration how the elements of the design will perform with regards to search engine optimisation and customer retention. So you see, we are a team with many disciplines working towards a common goal.

We, as an agency, make use of some of the major web players as marketing tools, we use Google, Overture and other such companies to make online marketing a more profitable process.

One of these companies, who I should not name, though I will : “Google”, makes a well appreciated effort each year in sending out Business Gifts to agency staff. In the past they have famously distributed Google radios, Computer Accessories and other such well received gifts.

Last year the search engine company decided to present marketing staff worldwide with some beautiful LCD screens. This would have been a great idea had the search engine company not taken the decision to award these most enviable gifts to only 2 members of our team. To see the two ‘marketing’ people swaggering around with their corporate gifts irked me hugely. I took this up with the search engine company immediately, I emailed complaining that their antics had caused division and resentment in our office.

Now you may wonder how a company gains global dominance in a few years, reaches a turnover of billions and sits, with the untrendiest man on the planet, as pioneering leaders and shakers of the Internet can be trendier than sliced bread. Well the answer is this… they sent me and my other colleagues LCD Screens as Business Gifts, they saw the humour in my request and ensured that their logo made it into our hearts and Christmas stockings.