Blog post #777 will be the last blog post on VKI Studios blog

It has been 1785 days, 777 posts and 1103 comments, since our first blog entry on April 24th, 2006.

Now it is time to say goodbye to the VKI Studios blog, VKI Studios and our beloved Hippo.

This is not a time to be sad, but very excited as VKI Studios is merging with PublicInsite and Webshare to form Cardinal Path.

VKI Studios (people have always asked what VKI stands for. It is Virtual Kingdom Interactive) was founded almost 14 years ago by Darcy Foster and David Eckman. The goal was – and still is today – to provide world class digital marketing consulting services to our clients, helping them make more money from their websites. Along the way we have had the good fortune of working with a great number of exciting companies and fantastic people. By working closely with our clients and listening to their needs, our service evolved over the years from digital photography and virtual tours to web design and development, SEO and paid search management to web analytics and user experience consulting.

In recent years we have probably become best know for our analytics works. We were even nominated for and became a top 5 finalists for the Web Analytics Association’s Award for Excellence in Most Influential Agency. Being nominated was tremendously flattering and making the final five has been a true honor. In doing our analytics work we have been very fortunate to have partnered with a handful of great vendors who have provided us with fantastic support (Adobe’s Omniture, Google’s Analytics, Website Optimizer and Urchin teams, and the Yahoo Web Analytics Consultants Network).

But VKI Studios wasn’t just a web analytics shop. We have worked with a great number of firms to help drive more traffic to their sites via SEO, PPC and email. Additionally we have had the privilege of working with a great number of exciting brands and their all star teams to help improve their user experience via conversion testing. One of the most exciting projects was having the opportunity to work with the team at Youtube, helping them run a massive MVT on their homepage.

As of today all of this is in the past, but not to be forgotten. From today forward will be known as Cardinal Path where we will join our talents with two other industry stand outs, PublicInsite of Ottawa, ON and Boston Ma, and Webshare of Phoenix Az, San Diego CA, and more.

Cardinal Path was conceived of during a friendly conversation where we realized that we were all hearing a similar set of “What if we could have…” questions from our clients. We thought about that, and the wheels were set in motion.

With Cardinal Path we aim is to give our clients a true one-stop shop for all of their digital needs. Cardinal Path will provide clients access to an expanded team with exceptional depth and expertise across a broad range of disciplines that include search marketing, usability and conversion testing, web design & development, training, business / competitive intelligence, and more. We will have offices to serve our clients in each of the four primary North American Time Zones on both sides of the Canada/USA board offering services in English, French and Spanish.

We recognize that we would not be in the position that we are today without the fantastic clients that we have had and continue to work with, our dedicated employees (and their families that support them), our partners and the digital community at large.

To learn more about the merger, we’ve set up an FAQ page, and don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any questions. We’ll be blogging, tweeting, posting and conversing from Cardinal Path from here on out, so don’t forget to follow, friend, subscribe and friend.

We couldn’t be more excited about our future with Cardinal Path and what it will mean to our clients, partners and newly expanded team — both current and future!

Thank you one last time for following, reading and contributing to the VKI Studios blog, and we’ll see you over on Cardinal Path.

John Hossack, David Eckman and Darcy Foster