At the 2005 Sales and Marketing Council Awards event, sponsored by the Home Builders Association of St. Louis, Cinco Development Company's website, www.cincohomes.com, was announced as the best builder website in St. Louis. The website was designed by Critical Mass Web Design and Farber Marketing. Critical Mass also manages and hosts the website. Bill Farber, owner of Critical Mass Web Design, has a list of reasons he feels that Cinco's website is such a success. "We always try to create a website that is very user-friendly, and gives as much information as possible in a creative, interesting way," he explained. "The Cinco site has a very nice look and feel and some unique ways to deliver the information homebuyers are seeking." One of the unique features is an interactive "walk through" of the model homes. In this section the home shopper can select a floorplan to view, and click on arrows in strategic locations on the plan to bring up a beautiful photograph of the actual model home taken from that vantage point. "It brings the floorplan to life," said Farber. The "look and feel" he spoke of was created by Farber Marketing, a St. Louis-based builder marketing company owned by Bill's brother, Steve Farber. Together the two firms have partnered in the development of many builder websites, three of which have won awards. "With our company's 45 years of builder marketing experience, we have a strong knowledge of what to include on the website," said Steve Farber, "We try to design a unique identity for each builder, usually corresponding to the look and feel of the rest of their marketing program." According to Steve, the Cinco Development logo in the corporate office was the inspiration for the look of the website. "The logo is done in shiny metal, and we tried to incorporate that look into the website," he said, "You can see a nice reflection effect that Bill created on the home page." But looks alone do not make a website an award-winner. According to Farber the site must be easy to navigate, full of desireable information and free of extraneous or superflous information. There must be a certain amount of photographs and illustrations to give a strong visual presentation to visitors, but not in a way that dramatically slows down the site. Cinco Development's website moves quick, is very easy to understand, includes the right amount of information, is kept up-to-date, navigates easily, and is very attractive. These all combine to make it a winner. To Kathy Miller, of Cinco Development Company, what makes it a winner is the fact that so many new home buyers are finding out about Cinco on the internet. "Our website has become one of our strongest marketing tools," she said. "We are very happy we were selected to win this award, but are even happier that our website is providing our customers with a very useful tool in their new home search!" To view the website and see all that Cinco Development has to offer, visit www.cincohomes.com.