Brands. Please Stop.

Building expensive brand sites that no one ever visits, unless you are providing a needed utility, content that is in demand or you have an ecommerce site.
Solution: Play in the areas where your users/targets are hanging out – social media, gaming, influencer partnerships, etc. Invest in social listening that drives great content, utility and things that make their lives easier or more entertaining.

Thank you

Food Habits of America via Seamless

Internet Week: Missed Opportunities in Social

Marketers often make the same mistake that we try to prevent our own clients from making: not understanding your audience. In marketing parlance, that includes talking above people’s heads, using acronyms, and assuming that everyone knows what you know.

I attended a number of excellent sessions during Internet Week but feel there is still a huge opportunity to develop panels that are more tailored and give specific case studies as to which agencies and clients are doing excellent work in the sphere of social media.

A prime opportunity rests in marketing for highly regulated industries. Marketers in this field face specific challenges due to the complex and limiting nature of the business structures and regulations involved, particularly in financial and legal services. It’s a daily struggle to be able to create valuable, customer-centric, engaging campaigns while satisfying internal compliance demands and external regulation. Clients want to hear ideas and learn about case studies that are directly targeted to their unique challenges.

The nature of social media requires a lighting speed turnaround to inquiries, which makes it extremely difficult for the industry to respond. Some questions to consider are: What channels are appropriate for these industries? What is the brand trying to achieve? The answer usually involves a combination of lead generation, relationship building via the sales force, and brand awareness. These are all valuable opportunities that must be planned out and thought through at length.

It’s exciting to see companies like Morgan Stanley entering this unchartered territory. “In June, Morgan Stanley will launch a pilot programme allowing 600 of its financial advisers to market themselves and to share their ideas and expertise through social media – notably through Twitter and LinkedIn.” Insurance companies have also started to train their agents in building a local presence in their communities via Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

This is a growing space that is going to see a lot of development and experimentation this year. Its important to continue to monitor and create exciting events that are relevant and targeted to this industry.

Favs of the 15th Annual Webby Awards

Its that time of year again where I talk about my favorite Webby winners.

I am absolutely a huge believer that marketing only really works when its an integrated multi-channel approach, hence I really love the Old Spice campaign. TV brought the character to life and social allowed for that personal, relationship building activation in an uber creative fashion. It won the hearts, minds and wallets of consumers (sales are up 107%).
http://nosharpstuff.com/oldspice/response/

The coolest sites seem to still be rocking big visuals with video components as the background and interactive navigational elements. I really loved the Wilderness Downtown site with its super creative use of HTML5 and pop-up windows.  www.thewildernessdowntown.com

The Monet site literally took you inside his paintings, providing a new prospective on viewing his work. A true masterpiece of a digital experience. http://www.monet2010.com

I love the “pay with a tweet” concept as a way to generate buzz. http://www.knarre.com/pwat_awards/

The theme of making people happy was seen in the Coke “Happiness machine” and “KLM Suprise”.

“Walking through” different digital channels seems to be a theme this year with Magnum Ice Cream (not in the Webby awards), Digital Story of Nativity and Sour MIRROR.

Social Media and Corporate Social Responsibility: Who’s In Control?

In June I attended the #promise conference in  New York City, which brought together a congregation of companies that had  promised to do good for the world.  It was sponsored by a number of major corporations who were using social media as a platform for communicating their  efforts in charitable pursuits. PepsiCo, both a sponsor and  a featured panel speaker at the event, spoke at length about the success of  Pepsi Refresh, a social media initiative now impossible to miss.  They  talked about the great brand engagement they’ve experienced with the campaign,  various social capabilities that have allowed them to reach out to consumers  in new and exciting ways, and how giving away millions of dollars to good  causes has, in turn, produced a more loyal consumer.

Not a moment into the Pepsi panel and the live twitter feeds on  either side of the stage were aflutter.  Someone had tweeted asking why  Pepsi had agreed to serve Aquafina bottled water, a plastic bottle made from  BP petroleum, which was currently leaking all over the Gulf Coast?  This  opened up a floodgate and the retweets started pouring in.  To Pepsi’s  credit, they never stopped the conversation.  It just sat there scrolling  on the screen as their marketing rep continued to expound on the work of the  Refresh project.

Consumers and brands never used to have this  type of relationship.  Grievances were either aired to customer service  reps or consumer publications.  CSR programs, if companies had them, were  privately invested in.  In the early days of the Internet, they may have  been a tab on a website.  But companies didn’t have to answer to  consumers.  You either bought their products or you didn’t.  Simple  enough.

But here we are in a new world.  One where the word  on everyone’s mind is “transparency, transparency, transparency.” Brands know  and fear this aspect of social media.  It opens you up to your consumer  in ways that are mutually empowering. You can talk to people more directly  about their interests, their passions, reach them where they are most active,  in the moment, one-on-one.  Consumers, in turn, can demand more from you.   They create a powerful network of influencers and tastemakers.   They expect you to answer to them.  They expect you to be honest  with them.  If they sense you are faking it, they will rat you out.

This was all one thing when it was just about selling  products.  But now companies have to work harder to sell themselves.   Consumers are more and more are demanding for brands to be “good”– to do  the right thing by your suppliers, staff, give back to the community and be  environmentally friendly. Its no surprise that Undercover Boss became such a  runaway hit. It’s as if the digital consumer is demanding, “Don’t just tell me  what you do.  Show me who you are and I will tell you if you can play in  my world.”  Facebook and Twitter provide easy and fast ways for companies  to appear to be doing the right thing, while continuing to drive profit and  brand loyalty.

Innovative new companies are leading the wave with  social good being part of their business objectives. David Dorfman, the  founder of Itzso, works with artisans in developing countries to create  fairtrade fashion and accessories.  While creating high-fashion products  that will appeal to the consumer is crucial, Itzso was primarily created for  the purpose of establishing sustainability in underdeveloped countries.   “These days the consumer isn’t given many fair trade, non-mass produced  options in fashion,” says Dorfman, “The more people connect with the fabric  they are putting over their bodies and the accessories they are decorating  themselves with, the more they connect with themselves and the world around  them.”  Dorfman believes it is not enough just to have a beautiful  design, it needs to be made in a way that honors everyone involved.  The  process of any company should be fair from beginning to end.  Imagine if  every company did its part, what would our consumer society look like  then?

Here is video of David speaking about being fashionably responsible:

Both  companies and consumers are continuing to define what it means to be socially  responsible in a social media world.  And each side is proceeding with caution, wondering who they can trust and just how much.  As companies  work harder and harder to campaign “goodness” in the social media space, consumers also have to work harder to ask themselves – are the right people  benefiting here?

We, too, have a responsibility to the causes we  support.

Highlights of the Social Media Strategies Conference

Huffington Post
- Growth in one year has been from 1.5 to 3.6 million comments.
- They are trying to stay really lean
- Editors are required to be familiar with SEO/SEM
- 135 people on staff w/ 10,000 freelance bloggers
- Twitter knows whats hot 12 hours before Google
- People want to be moderators and are given badges to cover certain sections of the site

Pepsi Refresh
- 120,000 refresh ideas
- 4.1 million registered users
- 50+M votes in total

H&R Block
- Social media team motto – “our business and our job is about helping people” – VERY SMART
- Have a great process in place to deal with their various channels and platforms
- Beliefs:  Two big ears to one mouth + one brand voice
- Properties include – Q&A community (typically respond to questions within an hour), iPhone apps, Twitter handles, Facebook pages and Blogger outreach
- Community has 1.5M visits between Jan and April of 2010
- They have the highest rated financial services app
- YouTube – 101 tax prep info
- Policy for content creation – creating content once and using it at least 3 times
- Focus heavily on social listening (using Radian6), building trust and leveraging their subject area experts.

What’s Hot
- geo-mobile
- social to real world activities
- emerging companies GroupMe+Fast Society

Gaming
- Social gaming is most popular with women aged 35-50 who watch soap operas
- A big gaming hit is $1M for developers
- 40M people in 30-40 countries

Coke
- Shared the case study of their successful viral:

Formula for viral – unexpected, relatable, funny

IBM
- Shared their social strategy and properties, too many to mention but they seem to be doing a great job at driving innovation and empowering their communities

Small businesses such as the Big Gay Ice Cream Truck, J&D Foods and Cheezburger.com shared their stories – very inspirational. One thing they all have in common is the ability to be fearless, nimble and niche.

My favorite peeps – Threadless shared their story of being a brilliant, engaging and empowering community – creating a new partnership with Disney around Tron shirts.

Wikipedia shared its philosophy of being “something very special…a national park, a temple of the mind” – the founder, Jimmy Walesthat, does not want advertising (agreed).

Additional Lessons Learned:

An overarching theme we’ve heard across these conferences is that we have to educate our clients at the same time we are educating ourselves about the social media realm.  The ask from clients should not be for a Facebook page or a Twitter handle.  What we need to know is what clients’ business objectives are and where across all media are those objectives going to be best accomplished.  The trick is often not to be new or first, but to be innovative in existing spaces.

Another cool insight was why user generated (organic) content creators in communities are sooooo PASSIONATE (Wikipedia, Stickybits, YouTube, etc, etc.) and willing to do the hard work for free (in some cases). === Creation is the closest thing that human beings have to Godliness and creating something that can be shared with a community and appreciated is even more powerful.

1.  Facebook is a fast-growing utility – so beware

Brands are growing increasingly dependent on Facebook to build relationships with their followers.  But Facebook only answers to itself.  If it wants to change its design one day, it will.  If it wants to go public one day, it will.  If its servers go down for a week, we are all at its mercy.  Brands still need to invest in other earned and owned media in order to remain nimble.

2.  Location based services are going to grow in big and diverse ways

Places and Foursquare are just small examples of what LBS can accomplish for consumers.  Newer platforms like Group Me and Fast Society are making instant connections between groups of people in the moment.  Big opportunities here, especially for sports marketers.

3.  Consumers want experiences, not just deals

Coupons alone won’t do the trick.  In fact, Pepsi found they don’t even drive initial trial.  Consumers want a more immersive experience from discovery to purchase.

4.  A strong internal social policy is the strongest guarantee for a successful social experience for your consumers

Companies like Threadless and IBM have done so well in social media because their engagement with their employees .  IBM considers each of their employees’ Facebook pages and Twitter handles part of IBM’s social reach – as such, they encourage their employees to be active brand reps and social media participants.

5.  Consumers can educate you about the boundaries of sponsorship

Threadless has partnered with Disney.  Huffington Post runs sponsored content on their page.  The Kardashians affectively product plug.  The importance here is not to over-saturate and to stay authentic to your community.  Their response will tell you how far you can go.

6.  Bar code technology is cutting out retailers and brands

Companies like Shopkick don’t require big brand strategies in order to initiate bar code technology.  Consumers can attach any kind of digital content they want to bar coding.  Brands need to make sure they have in-store presence if they know their consumers are going to be using this technology to engage with their products.  Huge opportunities here for Foot Locker.

7.  LISTEN

At the heart of all successful strategies is insightful listening across all platforms.  Conversation is happening everywhere.  Even the smallest tweet can mean the difference between making a deal or losing a customer.  It also can’t just be about being talked to.  Brands need to be actively looking at conversation and getting involved even when they aren’t asked.  H&R block monitors tweets to see how people are feeling about their consultants and get involved when they see negative experiences, even without their consumers knowing their listening.

8.  You can’t be afraid to fail

One insightful quote we heard was that the first man to cross the Andes was not considered an “Andes Specialist.”  Social media is a continual experiment.  As the line between virtual and real experiences grows more blurred, the full definition of social media is also expanding.  Small risks can often be free and great litmus tests for future campaigns.  And big risks can often result in big rewards.  It seems more imperative than ever that all marketers understand what social media looks like now to better navigate where it’s going – wherever that may be.

Digital Case Study: Threadless

Since I am a big proponent of the “fun theory” on all activities in life, why shouldn’t an entire company be based around that principle. Case and point – Threadless. The design “crowdsourcing” t-shirt site has been around 10 years. Yes folks, they are the real deal. The company has a lighthearted, creative and community feel – which in my opinion is the way of the corporate future – no more oppression, greyness, cubicles and monitoring of what websites employees visit. It’s time that companies learn that they can get a lot more productivity and free social media PR from their staff, if they treat them well and give them some personal and creative freedom.

Playtime is a part of their company culture, their new locale “will include the pool and pingpong tables, arcade machines, basketball and bowling games, and photo booth”. “Giving employees the freedom to take a break to play a game or socialize lets them know that management trusts them. ‘If you want people to do work that’s inspired instead of just punching a clock, you have to give them some freedom to do so on their terms,’ Nickell said.”

Threadless is also super successful at social media, creating an active and engaged community. “It’s actually a community of more than one million people who collaborate to design the t-shirts. Each week designers submit their design and the community votes on their favorites.”  Currently on Facebook they have over 150,000 fans and 1.5 million followers on Twitter.

The Threadless team motivates and gives their community tons of freedom and rewards from creating their own contests to fantastic prizes for design winners. The company is also a testament for quality, not needing to advertise for the first 8 years – WOM was the way people found out about the product.

My opinion about success in social media has always been that you have to have a real personality as a brand, and your staff and customers need to believe it. That is why you need a culture with a passion and character! Companies that force it won’t do well – social media does a great job of exposing fakes. I think Threadless is an excellent case study on what smart, innovative, re-defining corporate culture companies are doing – engaging their staff and clients for one fun shared vision. That my friends, pays off on so many levels. Cheers!

Client/Agency Relationships

A very thoughtful article – how clients can better treat their advertising/PR agencies. Having worked on both sides its nice to see someone express the entire nuances of the relationship. I believe that the best campaigns and work come from a mutual understanding, consideration and respect between the client & agency – elevating and empowering each other.
http://www.commscorner.com/2010/09/i-client-take-you-agency.html

Data Visualization for Flickr

Super cool site that lets you search for images on Flickr via tags and displays results a beautiful data visualization mode.

http://taggalaxy.de/

Wohooo, more love for data visualization!

The superb eloquence of telling a story by visualizing data. How much more powerful can information be perceived through this method!

http://www.ted.com/talks/david_mccandless_the_beauty_of_data_visualization.html

Social Media Strategists and Creative Thinking

Social media strategy just like all digital marketing does not work in a silo. It needs to be integrated into a large scale program. To do that effectively - your social media strategists need to be  involved with creative brainstorming from the projects inception. So that the entire creative idea generation fits together seamlessly. The best ideas tend to breed in cross functional teams anyway, so its a win win for everyone on the team. Also, there is the chicken and egg situation – sometimes the social media strategy can a drive creative idea -  in the new era of marketing there are no rules. So be open to new ideas.

14th Annual Webby Award Nominees – My favorites Part 1

http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=14

These are my favorites from the nominees:

WEBSITES:

Activism:
http://battlefront.co.uk – I love to see people fighting for their believes and changing the world, this site is very approachable and gives people inspiration and an outlet for their causes. I also like the way its split between campaigners and mentors and its very visually appealing and fluid.

https://www.microplace.com – A micro finance site owned by eBay that connects investors with the world poor to help them get out of poverty. “A loan of a $20 can allow a poor woman to start a business and work her way out of poverty.” A while ago I read about Grameen Bank that was started by Muhammad Yunus and was really enlightened about this wonderful plight of social finance and how much positive impact it can have on the developing world.

http://www.stemcellfoundation.ca/ – A website that shares the plight and encourages people to sign for the very important cause of stem cell research. Stem cell research “Stem cell research holds the potential to revolutionize the way we treat diseases like MS, cancer, diabetes, blindness, stroke….”.

http://tcktcktck.org – Activism and stories about climate change around the world.

Associations:
http://www.thesedays.com/awards/hank/ – A movement to help people choose glass (which is 100% recyclable) over plastic by the the European Glass Federation.

Automotive:
http://panamera.com/#/home – A beautiful visual and audio experience through the Porsche brand

http://awesome.good.is/ecosystem/index.html#/home – An experience of creating a greener earth with Prius “there are people, organizations, and businesses working to reset the balance and create a greater harmony”.

http://awards2.digivault.co.uk/?p=493 – “The GTI Project: a game that allows people to relive the boyish fun of their youths by tapping into the nostalgia of when they first learnt to love driving.”

Banking:
http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/current.php?season=14 – I really love the design and playfulness of this site but I find it to be a bit overwhelming, nevertheless, thumbs up on a great experience for a younger demographic.

http://www.billshrink.com – “free, personalized savings tool that helps you save money on your everyday bills.” Great interface and platform.

Best Copy/Writing:
http://www.TED.com
http://www.nytimes.com
http://mashable.com

Best Home/Welcome Page:
http://www.hellomonday.net – Love the color palette, interaction and portfolio display of this site.
http://www.life.com – This historic magazine retains all its original print beauty that made it famous in its web format.
http://malecopywriter.com/ – Awesome, fun design that truly shows his personality I would hire him!

Best Navigation/Structure:
http://theymakeapps.com – Great idea and functionality website for finding the perfect (or good) developer.
http://wechoosethemoon.org/# – A great interactive experience that takes you through the 40th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission. The mission is recreated in real-time through the site.

Best Use of Animation or Motion Graphics:
http://www.hf3.coca-cola.com/ – Beautiful, colorful dreamy imagery and a lighthearted, interactive experience.
http://www.shapeshifter.co.nz – A new approach to a promotional site for a band though this visual and audio experience.

Best Use of Photography:
Really stunning and simple use of displaying photography – easy to navigate, crisp and interactive.

http://www.seohiroshi.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/onein8
http://thinkingspace.economist.com – Gorgeous navigation and 2D display of photography

Best Use of Video or Moving Image:
http://www.bluebelljeans.com – LOVE, LOVE this, but I have always been a huge fan of using interactive video in sites. (Reminds me of the old “This is Grow” website.)

Best Visual Design or Aesthetic:
http://www.nike.com/jumpman23/historyofflight/ – Great way to tell a story (corporate sites can learn a lesson on how to tell a visually striking story with their company history)
http://summitonthesummit.com/#/basecamp/ – Putting you in the shoes of the climbers, this site does an awesome job of making you feel like you are there .. Great visual and interactive experience.
http://www.wereallfans.com – Great campaign and site that aggregates fan data via an exciting and beautifully displayed experience (I love interactive data visualization).

Blogs:
http://kara.allthingsd.com
http://mashable.com – an excellent destination for all things social media
http://1000awesomethings.com/

http://anthony-bourdain-blog.travelchannel.com – Love his show, book and blog
http://designobserver.com/

http://www.nytimes.com/themoment

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/
http://www.truthdig.com/

Broadband:
http://www.hulu.com – the future of television

Celebrity/Fan:
http://www.jimcarrey.com/ – beautiful visuals and use of video

Community:
These guys have been around:
http://www.COLOURlovers.com
http://digg.com/
http://www.flickr.com

http://www.vimeo.com
http://www.indiegogo.com/ – “A collaborative way to fund ideas”

Consumer Electronics:
http://engadget.com – I like this site for the way it displays and organizes content.
http://www.thisisgrow.com/archive/photosmart/en_us/ – Beautiful visuals and organization of content (I like the “video real hand mouse”)
http://labs.tribalddb.nl/Cinema219/ – “At any point during the film you can compare the 21:9 format to a normal 16:9 TV or toggle Ambilight on and off.” to your connection speed, as did the corresponding soundtrack. Once loaded, if users liked what they saw, they could hit share to publish the movie across the web.”

Corporate Communications:
http://award.i-studio.co.jp/2009_garra/jp/ – Ohh, be still my heart. Love the concept, visuals and flow of this site which teaches you teh various skills of being a “tailored man”. Well done!

http://www.avealook.com/brightdancing/campaign/ – Great, interactive, engaging and viral campaign that supports the platform on which its marketed.

http://www.wk.com - I am biased here, I love W+K from the bottom of my heart, so .. of course I love the site )

Cultural Institutions:
http://awards.argonauteng2.de/philharmoniker/dch/en/ - “the worlds first digital concert hall.” “Every seat is the best seat in the house.” The sound and visuals make you feel like you are a part of the concert.

http://demo.fb.se/e/opera/homepage/ – This site really reminds of the gs.com website. Big bold visuals, type and iconography.

Education:
http://www.msichicago.org/fileadmin/Activities/Games/simple_machines/ – great educational game for kids, beautifully designed

http://waterlife.nfb.ca/ – Striking sound, visuals and narrative about a movie called Waterlife which tells the “epic story of the Great Lakes.”

http://www.pbs.org/your-life-your-money/ – I like this site more for the fact that it teaches young people how to manage their money. A very important skill set that is not learned in school.

Events:
http://www.TED.com – brilliant conference that I dream of attending one day.
http://www.tribecafilm.com – one of my favorite movie festivals.

Family/Parenting:
http://www.babycenter.com/ – great one stop shop for all things baby.
http://www.parenting.com/ – same applies here for parents.
http://www.themotherhood.com – great place to discover a modern/hip community of moms

Fashion:
http://www.hoodieremix.com – exceptionally produced, fun, customizable and interactive. Similiar to the latest web fashion trends of customization, this site takes its roots from Nike ID. I love the fact that the hoodie design is a contest and once you participate you get a coupon for a purchase.  What is missing is the ultimate payoff – how can you actually purchase my custom product?
http://lift.puma.com/ – personalized. big video visuals. cool. clear call to action > buy
http://eu.wrangler.com/bluebell/#/collection – its fun undressing the models

Food & Beverage:
http://www.cheeseandburger.com/ – tasty fun
http://www.epicurious.com/ – a world of info for people who like to eat well (like me).

Games:
http://apps.facebook.com/onthefarm – Zynga is a very smart company with some very successful games – so they have my vote.

http://awards2.digivault.co.uk/?p=710 – Monopoly teams up with Google. $3,000,000 virtual monopoly money and a chance to earn some bragging rights. Very very smart and a great use of the Google mapping platform.
http://www.recordtripping.com – clever fun

Government:
http://www.nasa.gov/city – great educational tool to help us understand how space exploration is present in our daily lives

Green:
http://www.loveletterstothefuture.com/ – very nice design and use of video
http://www.seventhgeneration.com – love the products, love the cause, love the visualization of the fellow “crawlers”
http://www.yoink.com – a more interactive version of the free items on Craigs list. “Get free stuff from your local area and give away things you don’t need.”

Guides:
Oldies and goodies-
http://www.tripadvisor.com
http://www.yelp.com

Health:
http://www.pbs.org/thisemotionallife

IT/Hardware:
http://www.everyclickmatters.com – great entertaining piece about identity theft.

Great article: “50 Free UI and Web Design Wireframing Kits, Resources and Source Files”

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/02/05/50-free-ui-and-web-design-wireframing-kits-resources-and-source-files/

Social Media Content Production

I have been thinking a lot about the issue of content creation lately due to social media. These days it is becoming necessary for companies and agencies to have a 24 hour “news/content desk” with partial or full production crews on hand (writers, editors, photographers, video cameraman, producers, etc). This is due to the fact that for the brand to stay popular, relevant and viral through the social media channels – it constantly has to supply audiences with “witty” copy – that carries the brands voice, crisp beautiful imagery and other media like videos, podcasts, etc. It also needs a 24/7 operation because of the necessary interaction with potential and existing clients. The more personalized and responsive you are, the more of a following/fan base you are going to receive and that translates into brand loyalty and sales.

On another note, this presents a great opportunity for all the out of work journalists, writers, photographers, etc. to shift their experience in a new direction – the “Social Media Content Production Studio” (due to the dying print publication world). Essentially, the principle of this type of content creation set up is the same as having a newspaper or TV studio, just tweaking it for the bite size content that today’s users demand.

Social Media Tools to Research Influencers

Since conversation/influencer monitoring through social media outlets is such a hot topic these days, I thought I would list the tools for finding these individuals in the marketplace. Influencers are the people who basically affect our purchasing decisions because they are well connected, popular and usually an early adapter of new products and technologies.

Here is a current list of some popular tools:
http://tweetlevel.edelman.com/
http://twitter.grader.com/search
http://www.retweetability.com/
http://klout.com/
http://facebook.grader.com/
http://technorati.com/
http://boardreader.com/
http://www.whostalkin.com/
http://www.socialmention.com

INFLUENCER ROLES:
- from Wikipedia

“Message Path Chart of a Single Idea” from a great article by Red Ant: http://www.redant.co.uk/community/blogs/building-a-digital-strategy–planning-investigated/

Digital Case Study: Foursquare

I have always preached that the best utilization of the interactive space is in real life experiences. By that I mean, using digital as a tool for people to have real interactions with the world; not to sit zombie like in front of their computer, waisting away all their social skills on buying people virtual drinks. That is why I have always loved Nike Plus, Meetup, etc.

This means I am truly psyched about Foursquare, a “… location service-based social network-come-game. What it does in effect is to tell you where your friends are and add a little fun to going out in the evening. It’s like Google Lattitude meets a little bit of Facebook, a touch of Twitter, a dash of Qype and even a twist of World of Warcraft. And if that’s not a cocktail for hopeless addiction, then we’re not sure what is.”

It’s a social game that you play using the platform in real life via your mobile – it’s fun for customers and brings in $$$ for small business owners. “Think: 50% friend-finder, 30% social cityguide, 20% nightlife game.  We wanted to build something that not only helps you keep up with your friends, but exposes you to new things in and challenges you to explore cities in different ways…”

People earn badges and “mayor statuses” by checking-in to various establishments.  “If you tell us where you are, we can tell you which of your friends are nearby.  We call this “checking-in”.  You can check-in from a park, bar, museum, restaurant, whatever. Badges are little rewards you earn for doing interesting things – e.g. staying out late on a school night or visiting places far outside your neighborhood.  A mayor is when “you’ve got more checkins than anyone else at a particular place, we deem you “The Mayor” of that place.  But once someone else comes along who has checked in more times that you, they then steal the “Mayor” title back from you.”  In certain location the Mayor gets special discounts, privileges, etc.

I am about to start testing this tool as a client and on a business, will let you know how it goes and I am excited!!!

Digital Strategy

Below is a very important statement by Advertising Age in a recent article entitled “Does the Industry Need Big Digital Agencies Anymore?”
http://adage.com/agencynews/article?article_id=140549

Tactics driving digital are over. Digital strategy is now a major component of the marketing mix since consumers are spending such a bulk of their time engaging online, especially through social media. The digital strategy has to go beyond microsites and banners (they are good methods to support an overall campaign but not be the campaign itself). We need to start bringing superb customer experience through these digital channels, providing tools and services that make consumer’s busy lives easier. These tools can live on mobile devices, though Facebook apps, Twitter “coupons”, etc.

“Big or small in the digital space, three major trends are changing the game at this very moment requiring marketers to play catch up.

1) Smart mobile devices will outnumber computers in 2010;

2) Social Networking has proven out to be the place where customers spend the most time on-line;

3) Digital is too big and value priced to be overlooked any longer.

The net of all three trends is that the days of tactics driving digital are over. The numbers and the competition are getting too big. Every marketer must move forward with a sound digital strategy to meet the bigger goals and returns they are attaching to digital plans, as digital is becoming a more significant part of the mix.

Customer insights married with business objectives must now be used to formulate overarching digital objectives and strategies. Once those are well defined with the ability to measure and adjust in real time, execution and success are much easier to develop and achieve.”

Digital Case Study and Winner: Chanel N.5

What an amazing job was executed on the first ever Chanel online campaign. Stunning, crisp visuals, brilliantly produced in a superb and detailed integrated online campaign. Kudos to “London Creative Agencies Feed and Hi-ReS!, along with Media Agency MEC Global”. I love the overtake with the train timetable and the animation mirroring how the information changes. The moving train loop with Audrey daydreaming in the background and the banner are great elements that wet your appetite for the “Night Train” spot. The microsite also does an excellent job of being the campaign hub – such as providing behind the scenes footage, Chanel story, etc. It is super romantic and totally captures the essence of the brand, using the peak of the story as her scent (in a subtle, non-intrusive fashion).  It’s also perfect for an international audience – no dialogue just pure visuals, senses and fluidity. Beautiful!
http://creativezone.eyeblaster.com/?ItemName=Chanel%20No5

Introduction to Interaction Design at SVA

For all those interested in understanding the very important discipline of interaction design/ information architecture, I took this good short class at SVA that goes over broad strokes principles (Introduction to Information Architecture & Design). Here is the ppt that the cool Professore (Anh Dang) presented: http://www.slideshare.net/sva.ia/sva-intro-to-information-architecture-design-fall-09
The key concepts and techniques concepts that were discussed: “organizing information, designing interfaces and creating interactions” + “heuristic evaluation, card sorting, analyzing and organizing content, sketching & wireframing, paper prototyping and user testing”.

Great article and sites listed on the history of social media

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/10/the-history-and-evolution-of-social-media/

“The Way Forward (9/21) – incl. Bob Greenberg (R/GA) and Barry Wacksman (R/GA)”g

“There has never been a year quite like 2009. The simultaneous impact of technology and the global economic downturn have disrupted the advertising industry. What are some agencies doing and what do…”

Great slide on digital “diversity of output:”

Digital Case Study: Urban Daddy

The “exclusive and illusive” tone of Urban Daddy is one hot commodity – the email newsletter will generate around 5-10 million dollars in 2009. Not bad for an email publication (check out my posting on Daily Candy for another email cash cow). The company founded in 2005 by Lance Broumand and has 1.1 million subscribers. The publication is targeted to a ” style-conscious young male with a high income living in a big U.S. city.” Daddy has also changed it’s strategy a bit – originally being invitation only and now open to everyone to increase its subscriber base. “UrbanDaddy has sought to set itself apart with highly selective offerings, coupled with its increasingly customized sponsorship campaigns. As a result, UrbanDaddy claims to deliver higher metrics across the board, including click-through rates as high as 15%.”

Overall, I really like the look and feel of the site and the newsletter, clean and bold with large imagery and short but to the point commentary.

Interactive Physical Spaces!!!

The blog is back from summer vacation! Great article about how digital is even transforming physical spaces and making them interactive (users are playing games on buildings) !!! http://adage.com/digitalnext/article?article_id=138725

Google’s Education Portal for Agencies

Google has created a portal for ad agencies  “to educate their staff on Google Advertising and also help bridge the gap between Google and the agencies which may have been ‘wary’ of using Google ad planning as opposed to traditional media buying techniques.” This will be a great asset for Digital Ad and PR companies to learn the ins and outs of Google. Tools such as “webinars, a searchable library with more than 200 marketing case studies and short, on-demand video segments” will be offered.

Peace!

“Best Free Website Analytics Tools”

Great great posting about free analytical tools for the web: http://webdesignledger.com/tools/best-free-website-analytics-tools

Social Capital and Benchmarks

Steve Rubel – guru of all things social media had an interesting piece in Advertising Age called “How to Build Social Capital: Innovate Early and Often.” The title basically spells out the main point of the article but there are some good examples given such as Starbucks, Microsoft and eBay.  He also mentions a great site where you can take a survey on how your company stacks up in the social media scene and read the report “The World’s Most Valuable Brands. Who’s Most Engaged”

Twitter Feeds as Press Releases!

Here is a smart way to make money by having lots of press followers on Twitter and saving the press valuable time with short tweet press releases: http://mashable.com/2009/07/22/muck-rack/

Digital Case Study: Moishes Moving Systems

I came across this moving company who is doing a superb job at all things digital advertising and PR related. They are in my opinion a perfect example of being innovative, intelligent, user friendly, customer driven and fun – using a variety of online marketing tools that are constantly updated with new materials.

Let’s break it down:
1. Website – simple, clean and visually appealing – most importantly it’s easy to find the information you need.

• They offer lots of tips and coupons on their site which is an excellent value-add for doing business with them.

For example, they encourage being green by offering a service that connects you to people giving away their moving boxes. They also champion a lot of green initiatives and have “green moving” where they offer environmentally friendly trucks.

• They even have a fun (none-boring) video where they demonstrate how solid their packing skills are.
• The links to Twitter, Facebook and their blogs are very clear and above the fold -  including a “Share This” button.

2. Blogs – I am sure that SEM is a huge component of why they offer Blogs (helps to increase rankings) but they do provide useful information such as moving tips.

3. Facebook – They have an excellent fan page that features a moving contest – where you can win a free move. The page is synced up to Twitter and YouTube, has a field where you can request a quote, see reviews, photos, etc. The page is also very well designed and user-friendly.

4. Twitter – This is really smart; they are acquiring new customers by tweeting back to clients who are looking for moving companies! Wow – nicely done!

Overall, this is one of the best integrated marketing/PR efforts that I have seen in a while – especially coming from a relatively small company.  Well done Moishe

Listening to the Users

As a Web Producer/Strategist I have unfortunately seen the below Acme story from “Good Experience” a bit too many times. Dear Marketers, PR experts, Tech Directors, Small bizz owners, etc, etc – I urge you with every fiber of my being to start listening to customers and stop listening to just yourselves. Don’t assume that whatever you churn out will be loved by everyone – do some client research, study usability, use technology that makes sense – If you build it RIGHT they will come and engage and it will be a win win situation for everyone

“A day at Acme Corp”

“I spent a day at Acme Corp recently… you know, the multinational
company that makes all the supplies for Wile E. Coyote and other
avid inventors. (Hey, I figure it’s more interesting than ‘all names
and details have been vastly changed’ etc.

Anyway. Acme had a problem: research showed that their website was
completely, unforgivably, disastrously hard to use for their
customers. And *ugly*, on top of that, as if it was spat from a
template circa 1996.

So I sat down with the executives, everyone with a stake in the
online presence, to help them improve the business metrics by
improving their website.

Here’s an excerpt of the meeting transcript, more or less.

Me: One thing customers complained about was the home page
navigation. To quote one customer we talked to, ‘I can’t figure this
thing out and I’m leaving right now.’ I think it had something to do
with the flaming chainsaw animation that follows the mouse pointer
around the screen. Is it possible we could remove that?

VP Marketing: Oh right, the flaming chainsaw animation. I’d love to
take that off the site, really I would, but I just think it’s so
neat, and besides it aligns with our brand message of innovation
here at Acme.

Me: But customers would shop more, and buy more, if it wasn’t there.
Wouldn’t you like to reconsider that animation?

VP Marketing: Here in Marketing we have to adhere to our brand
guidelines, and innovation is central to that, so I’m afraid the
animation has to stay.

Me: OK – next up is the customer complaint about the 18-level-deep
flying dynamic navigation sub-menus. Several customers said all the
menus zipping around the screen made them dizzy.

VP Technology: I know what you’re referring to. That menu system
took our technology team six months to code up, and I have to say
it’s the most advanced implementation I’ve ever seen, really an
awesome job.

Me: The technology is impressive, for sure… I mean, I’ve never
seen 18 nested levels all flying in unison like that.

VP Technology: Thanks, man.

Me: Uhh – sure thing. But I’d just like to push back a little on
this – the customers did say that the menus were confusing. How
about a simpler menu, maybe just a few links to the top-level
categories, and that’s it?

VP Technology: Listen, I’m all for simplicity and ease-of-use and
all that, I hear you. I really get it. But I have to tell you, Web
technology is moving fast, and if we don’t keep up, we’re going to
look like Google or something. A bunch of blue links. Borrring.

Me: Allllright. Now we’ve covered the flaming chainsaw and the
flying menus, let’s move on to the logo graphic. Some customers
complained that they didn’t want to scroll down a full page just to
get past the logo, the large stock photos, and the slogan.

VP Branding: What did they say about the color scheme? I’m just
wondering, because the green and fuscia palette is really supposed
to, you know, bring forth assocations of innovation and holistic
thinking, all while blending in with the flames from the chainsaw.

Me: I think I have a plane to catch. (Exit conference door right)”

Bold, beautiful websites – a list of my favorites

I am a big fan of using big, bold imagery, interactive navigation (right now I love visual sitemaps), and “free flowing” video components in sites.  Copy should be minimal and right to the point.  I also can’t stress enough how important the field of interaction design is in making these sites great!

Here is a list of my current favorite websites:

Design:

http://www2.goldmansachs.com

http://www.seymourpowell.com/

http://www.red-issue.com

http://www3.standard.com/

http://www.razorfish.com/

http://www.ushmm.org/propaganda/exhibit.html#/gallery/

http://www.trollback.com

http://www.koko3.fi/

http://www.tbwa.com/

http://www.sexysciencebydita.com/

http://www.laperla.com/home_page.php?lingua=EN

http://www.firstbornmultimedia.com

http://www.heartbeatdigital.com/

(of course there are a number of these in which I like the site for multiple components)

Interactive/Video:

http://www.gotmilk.com/

http://www.visittheotherbritain.com – make sure to wait a bit on this page

http://www.whitevoid.com/portfolio.html

http://www.speakvisual.com/#/spotlight

http://thankyou.thisisgrow.com/T37J

http://www.volvocars.com/se/campaigns/Local/C30_kalkylator/Pages/english.aspx

http://www.bam.org/

http://www.dreamgrove.org/http://www.maccosmetics.com/

http://www.tictacusa.com/

http://dyc.saab-web.com/microsites/turbogene/GLOBAL/en/index.shtml

http://www.lecoqsportif.com/search/#/us/all/filters/pt/

http://www.indelible.tv/

http://www.seemydress.com/#

The coolest news website since sliced bread …

MSN’s Spectra – Visual Newsreader website  is just insanely beautiful on all ends of the spectrum – literally – the color spectrum. Amazing interaction design, functionality, design, graphics …. it just blows my socks off … http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/i/msnbc/components/spectra/index.html Makes life a lot more fun for all the news junkies like me out there. Also, I think this site is inspirational for what kind of design and ID we will be seeing more often in the future (at least I hope). You can rotate the news in different speeds, choose whether you want to see images or not, save articles, etc…. Ahh, I am in love

Spectra

Site inspire – a great tool for web designers!

You can browse sites by style, theme and type:
http://siteinspire.net/home

Ovation TV – Make Life Creative

I just discovered this station that features amazing shows, documentaries, etc about art, design, music, theater, etc.. Watched an excellent show about the history of photography, Bauhaus architecture and a segment on digital innovators … very cool! I highly recommend

Tasty Digital Display Advertising

These display ads are interactive, fun and engaging:
http://www.oneclub.org/awards/viewer/?id=08007N&yr=2008&sh=osi
http://www.cpbintegrated.com/staging/awards/pinball/pinball.html
http://festivals.doubleyou.com/2006/caciquecampaign/en/index.html

Tasty Digital Display Advertising – Part II

I thought I would follow my post yesterday with some more killer display advertising (from the Webbies):

• http://www.achtung.nl/awards/2008/volkswageninnovations/laneassist/index.html
• http://www.achtung.nl/awards/2008/volkswageninnovations/parkassist/index.html
• http://www.cpbgroup.com/awards/2009/ca/banners/collapse.html -I LOVE THIS ONE! – It collapses your browser
• http://www.wewillbethewinner.com/general/projects/en/acCoffeeCup/index.html – This is pretty awesome as well.
• http://www.pointroll.com/PointRoll/AdDemo/ZippoManufacturingCompany/725_Zippo_StartSomething_BaldLd7.asp
• http://portfolio.na.agency.com/creativity2008/clients/skittles/mix_the_rainbow/swf/index_01.html
• http://www.pointroll.com/PointRoll/AdDemo/FocusFeatures/RealOther_300x250_Exp_TSEPd1.asp

Search Engine Marketing

SEM is one of the most powerful tools for digital marketers. Users no longer want to spend time “flipping” through websites; they want to find the information they are looking for immediately (I am a big fan of that).  So having worked on SEM in the past and thinking about getting Google certified I have realized how extremely complex this space is becoming. There are plenty of companies dedicated to this field alone. An important component of SEM is Search Engine Optimization – “… the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via “natural” (“organic” or “algorithmic”) search results.” – Wikipedia

I am also wondering with all the buzz about Wolfram (natural-language search engine) launching on May 18th what the next revolution of search will be “…users can ask questions using natural language and the search engine uses “knowledge models” to bring you the right answer. But does it really work, and will it be a Google killer? Wolfram says “yes” to the first question and “no” to second, insisting that Google and Wolfram Alpha will co-exist and offer different forms of searching… ” -http://dvice.com/archives/2009/03/wolfram-search.php

Here are some articles with great tips about SEO:

• http://freelancefolder.com/10-top-seo-techniques/
• http://www.searchengineguide.com/jim-hedger/seo-101-basic.php

Here is a top 10 list summary from: http://www.ozelwebtasarim.com/index.php/web-haberleri/9127-free-search-engine-optimization-seo-tips-step-by-step – please click on this article for detailed information.

Step 1. – Analyze your competition
Step 2. – Start to improve your website with quality content
Step 3. – Choose the right keywords.
Step4. – Creating meta tags – TITLE Tag
Step 5. – Creating meta tags – DESCRIPTION Tag The next important meta tag is description tag. It describes content of your web page
Step 6. – Creating meta tags – KEYWORD Tag
Step 7. – Creating meta tags – ROBOT Tags
Step 8. – Check your website URL before submit to search engines.
Step 9. – Submit your website to search engines
Step 10. – Build your link popularity (offpage optimization)

Gestalt and Interaction Design

I remember learning about Gestalt principles in my NYU design class – such simple but exceptionally powerful concepts once you got to understand them – every good designer should keep this in mind when creating. These are extremely valuable principles for interaction design, usability, information architecture, etc.

Here is an excerpt of a good article on Gestalt principles of form perception from http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/gestalt_principles_of_form_perception.html

• Law of proximity – when we perceive a collection of objects, we will see objects close to each other as forming a group.
• Law of similarity – The law of similarity captures the idea that elements will be grouped perceptually if they are similar to each other.
• Law of Prägnanz (figure-ground) - … the phenomenon captures the idea that in perceiving a visual field, some objects take a prominent role (the figures) while others recede into the background (the ground). The visual field is thus divided into these two basic parts.
• Law of symmetry -The law of symmetry captures the idea that when we perceive objects we tend to perceive them as symmetrical shapes that form around their centre. Most objects can be divided in two more or less symmetrical halves and when for example we see two unconnected elements that are symmetrical, we unconsciously integrate them into one coherent object (or percept).
• Law of closure – we perceptually close up, or complete, objects that are not, in fact, complete

Social Networking – very VerY very powerful tools

I was always a skeptic on social networking until a few years ago while working at R/GA I started using Facebook to be more versatile in the “medium” for my clients. And let me tell you – it’s incredible, really incredible how fabulous social networking is on many levels – keeping up with colleagues/old friends/acquaintances, etc. As a small or large business, having a “fan” page on Facebook is essential and a great way to have true ambassadors for your company or brand; plus it is truly easy to set up and free (plus additional ads on these sites are affordable and pretty precisely targeted) . I also love LinkedIn for the many opportunities that the site presents for networking, job opportunities, career education, etc. I have used ASmallWorld which is great for Travel advice, city hot spot tips, etc.  These sites are — POWERFUL. I just started Twittering recently, so I will tell you how that goes … Social networks should definitely be in your arsenal of strategies for the best (and affordable) digital marketing opportunities for your business.

Tip: Ning (http://www.ning.com/) lets you set up your own social network for free.

Wikipedia has a good list of social networks and how many users they have:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_social_networking_websites

The UX Workshop Cindy Chastain: Experience Themes

I went to a great lecture hosted by the IXDA and Digitas called “Experience Themes – An Element of  Story to Design“. Cindy Chastain talked about using themes/story telling when creating the ID/User Experience for your website. “In experience design, themes can be used to pattern and unify product solutions as well as a means of unifying teams, assisting in the work of defining strategy and helping to design for the intangible pleasure, emotion and meaning in experience.”

What is great about this very intuitive method of doing design is that it unifies the team and keeps everyone grounded on what the ‘mission statement’ of the assignment really is. Cindy suggested creating a Matrix of themes and further clarifying it by “concept, story premise, sub-themes, primary activities and emotions to evoke”. Themes also quantify what are tangible and intangible components to what the site entails. It makes very broad creative ideas much more easy to digest for the client and we can dig deeper into what they really want when we give them a theme to work with. I think this is great in combination with using personas for site development. In my eyes personas are the characters and the theme is the “stage, location, etc.” but of course there are many interpretations that can be made from this.

Rockin RSS Feed

Andy Biggs rocks this beautiful site called “Voyage” which is an “RSS feeder that sorts the feeds based on data of each item posted.” Very nicely designed, fun and INTERACTIVE way of looking through feeds: http://www.rssvoyage.com/#RSS=loaded. Make sure to use your mouse wheel to scroll.

Well done Andy!

Seed Magazine is Spectacular

Along the lines of MSN’s “Spectra” and Andy Biggs “Voyage” this site is also using a color spectrum and fun way of displaying data visually.

http://www.seedmagazine.com/ui09/

Applying Direct Mail Tips to Email Marketing

Email is a very solid marketing tool that can give you a lot of bang for your buck from a cost, ease of use, measurement and relationship building perspective. Recently Advertising Age wrote an excellent article why email is kick-ass: “How E-mail Became a Direct-Marketing Rock Star in Recession“

In this post I will examine how traditional direct mail advertising can teach us lessons in email marketing.

Historically, DM was one of the few advertising tools in which you could directly measure success of a campaign and test different messaging/design to your audience. This was original “campaign optimization” –where based on response you could pick and choose the elements that were working to create the optimal advertisement for your prospects.

“Direct mail allows you to control your campaign and direct spending against those targets that are most likely to purchase your product or service. The first step is to run small test mailings to get a feel for your baseline response rates. Subsequent mailings can try different things such as a different mail piece design, modified copy or new mailing lists.” – http://www.postcardsmart.com/testing_tutorial4.php

Success rates are considered to be 1-2% for direct mail and email.

There are a lot of correlations and success metrics that can be applied to email marketing from direct mail:

Here are some tips from Tom Egelhoff in “Direct Mail: Formula for Success” and my comments on how that applies to email
http://www.smalltownmarketing.com/formula.html:

• “You need a good list to mail to.”
  – that is very valid for e-mail marketing as well
• “There must be an offer that your customers will want to respond to.”
  – a key to a successful email marketing campaign
• “You must take advantage of the postal rates the USPS (United States Postal Service) offers.” .
  - from an email marketing perspective that corresponds to using a cost-effective and reliable e-mail marketing platform

In regards to calculating revenue Tom suggests:
This can be used for e-mail marketing your cost being that of designing and writing the piece and paying for the e-mail marketing platform tool, list acquisition, etc.

“Here is First, the amount of revenue you want your mailing to achieve.
Second, your closing ratio. 100 customers see the product, 50 buy it, your closing ratio is 50%. Here is your formula for computing number of direct mail pieces needed to produce a specific revenue amount.
To Achieve A Revenue Goal of $10,000 if the average sale is $50.00
Average sale = $50.00
x close ratio = 50%
x response rate = 1%
divided into Revenue Goal ($10,000)
= Number of Direct Mail Pieces Needed
Would be:
$50.00 x 50% x 1% = 0.25
divided into 10,000 = 40,000 pieces”

I have worked with the below email platforms in the past and found them to be very useful from a targeting, list management, measurement and programming perspective however, there are tons of excellent platforms available based on your needs:

• Responsys
• Constant Contact
• Market First

More cool data visualization sites – do you Digg it?

Check out these cool sites from Digg Labs – some more great examples of data visualization. I definetly DIGG it A LOT.

Pics

“Digg Pics tracks the activity of images on the site. Images slide in from the left as people Digg and submit them.”

Arc

“Digg Arc displays stories, topics, and containers wrapped around a sphere. Arcs trail people as they Digg stories across topics. Stories with more Diggs make thicker arcs.”

BigSpy

“Digg BigSpy places stories at the top of the screen as they are dugg. As new stories are dugg, older stories move down the list. Bigger stories have more Diggs.”

Stack

“Digg Stack shows diggs occurring in real time on up to 100 stories at once. Diggers fall from above and stack up on popular stories. Brightly colored stories have more Diggs.”

Swarm

“Digg Swarm draws a circle for stories as they’re dugg. Diggers swarm around stories, and make them grow. Brightly colored stories have more Diggs.”

That Facebook – making people rich!

I read a great article in Advertising Week entitled “App Revenues is Poised to Surpass Facebook Revenue” and bedside the point that everyone is always mentioning that social networks don’t make any money or have a revenue model  – these guys are on the way of making $500 mill for themselves and then a possible  $500MILL for developers?!

“What happens when businesses running on Facebook become bigger than Facebook itself? Wowee .. Facebook surpassed 200 million global users and is “expected to bring a revenue of 500 million” 500 million!!! And then developers make a combined $500 million on the platform.

Zynga the top developer on Facebook “makes much of its revenue from the sale of chips for its Texas HoldEm Poker or weapons for Mafia Wars”. They are expected to make a 100MILLION in sales in 09 – that includes MySpace!!!!!! There are also tons of other developers making millions on the platform. “Lisa Marino, who runs West Coast business development for RockYou, estimates developers will earn $300 million from Facebook this year primarily from three streams: virtual currency, branded sponsorships and ad-network inventory”. Facebook is thinking of changing its model to have developers pay for platform use – smart move but might make some people mad. Ohh well, the free lunch is over.

Lots of other great info in this article. Definitely check out Advertising Age.

Groupon (coupon with a kick) – put this in your strategy suitcase

In today’s ever evolving media model the channels that can get you noticed do not have to cost millions of dollars. You can actually market yourself/company/product for a very affordable price tag – what you need is good content, clever strategy and consistency – an “always on campaign” works best!

Recently I heard about Groupon a very cool concept that I tried. Basically it’s a daily deal on a product or service with a kick. I bought a facial session for a great price and the salon told me the “goupon/coupon” campaign was such a success that they were booked solid. Nice! That is what I like to hear. They have a special program that’s a win win for businesses – if they don’t have enough people signing up for the groupon to validate the cost of the discount – the deal does not go through – its risky but smart.

Groupon is based on an original model that they used for fund-raising. “Whether you’re asking people to do something or give money, people only contribute if they think it makes a difference. On The Point, all campaigns have a “tipping point” — people pledge to give money or do something, but no one does a thing until the conditions are met to make contributions worthwhile. That way, you can gather all the resources needed to be successful before anyone is asked to take action. The Point aims to fix the problems with online petitions, mass letter-writing tools, or many fund-raising efforts — it’s not clear how participation translates into results.”

What I love about this company besides the fact that I REALLY DIG clever entrepreneurs is that it was started on good intentions – trying to help do-gooders have a platform for their causes. Check out their story: http://blog.thepoint.com/category/groupon/

Next I will talk about: Daily Candy, UrbanDaddy and HitList

Cheerio

Wolfram is howling!

The new search engine tool that is “possibly a rival to Google” has gone live. “Wolfram Alpha is called a computation knowledge engine rather than a search engine and wants to change the way people use online data. It aims to give people direct answers to queries rather than send them to other sites where they may find what they are seeking.” “Typically the results it returns are annotated pages of data rather than a simple list of other sites that might help resolve a user’s query.” – BBC.

The new engine reminds me of Askjeeves.com that attempted to do something similar but was based on a different technology.

I conducted some “simple” and “complex” searches in Google and Wolfram and below is a sample of two.

Question: The number of websites on the internet.

With Google I got my answer within one click and it gave me suggestions (I love that feature):

With Wolfram the result was a message saying  “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.” – so I never got my result.

Search:  Population of Manhattan

With a simple data question Wolfram did great and Google took a bit of digging through the Wikipedia link to find my answer.

My conclusion for now and you never know what the next beta versions of Wolfram will bring is that Wolfram reminds me more of a library reference tool  but definitely not a replacement to Google, more of a companion – which might have been their aim.

Sweetness of DailyCandy

Here is another (check out my Groupon post from 5/21) cool email newsletter. DailyCandy has been around since 2000 and has 2.6 million subscribers.

“DailyCandy, a free daily e-mail newsletter and website, is the ultimate insider’s guide to what’s hot, new, and undiscovered from fashion and style to gadgets and travel. As useful as it is entertaining, it’s like getting an e-mail from your clever, unpredictable, and totally in-the-know best friend.” – http://www.bizjournals.com/gen/company.html?gcode=2EC1676A72B647588B29E645345A0732

The founder Dany Levy started the email blast after pitching the idea to Lucky as its online companion but they passed and she decided to pursue it on her own – a very smart move (I love entrepreneurs). Check out more of her bio here http://mycrains.crainsnewyork.com/40under40/profiles/2007/10022. “She sold a controlling stake in the business to the private investment firm Pilot Group in 2003 for $3.5 million.” -http://gawker.com/tag/daily-candy/ Pilot group then sold the newsletter to Comcast for $125 Million 8 months ago. Nice profit

Below is information from their media kit: http://www.dailycandy.com/mediakit/:

“Dailycandy began with e-mail addresses of mostly friends and family and turned into 2.6 million subscriptions in only nine years by primarily word of mouth. Deeply passionate about their discoveries, subscribers rely on DailyCandy for the latest products, services, trends and ideas and then spread the news with a zeal that makes them a nearly unparalleled marketing machine.”

Demographic Info:

96% | Female
62% | Under 35
92% | College Grads
32    | Median age
$78  | Median HHI

Readers are:

Devoted 95% read it every day or almost every day

Generous 61% forward articles to their friends regularly

Shoppers 75% bought something they read about on DailyCandy

Influencers 77% see it first and tell others about what’s new and cool

Digital Pull Advertising — Give the customer a cookie!

I have been “hollering” this concept to anyone who can listen in the advertising sector for a while now but it’s nice to see that others and especially those I highly admire like Steve Rubel think like me as well! Wohoo! Yehh! In his May 25th article in Advertising Age entitled “Use Utility to Reach Out to Attention Crash Consumers” Steve talks about a common issue facing all advertisers and consumers today. That issue is attention overload deficit disorder and a need for something besides push advertising. “For more than 100 years, brand marketers have largely focused on push marketing – a mix of tried-and-true tactics that includes paid and earned media. However, that was before the Attention Crash, an event that is changing the economics of digital advertising.”

Gone are the days when you had consumers undivided attention through 3 television channels and a couple of newspapers. There are around 156 million websites on earth!!! Yeh, that puts things in perspective, at least for moi. It’s time to put more of an emphasis on the “PULL” strategy. Adding value and creating a relationship with your client is insanely important. “To remain relevant today brands realize they increasingly have to create valuable utilities that consumers pull, and these need to seamlessly integrate into the hubs where consumers are investing their shrinking attention.”

My favorite example of this is Nike Plus – a totally genius concept – “a small sensor that fits in your shoe and a receiver that hooks up to your iPod Nano. The sensor in the shoe tracks distance, pace, and time, and measures those up against your weight and gender to estimate how many calories you burned. It prides itself in being the largest running community in the world, and people everywhere from Tokyo to Doha have been seen running with it.” “When I got home, I plugged my Nano into my MacBook and iTunes automatically updated NikePlus with my most recent run data” –  http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2009/04/28/how-nike-plus-is-hel.html
Online is an entire community of runners who share best routes, compete and challenge eachother. Talk about pull marketing and relationship building with a brand. They make a real difference in a runners life by adding SOOO much value! I would love to see this type of pull strategy affecting more brands and even small business philosophies. Email me if you need ideas!!

For more info on the spectacular Nike Plus check out the case study video done by R/GA who built their online platform: http://www.rga.com/award/nikeplus_video.html

Business Blogging

Check this article out for some good rules to follow when blogging for bizznesss:
http://www.ackermannpr.com/blog/?p=307

Here are some excerpts from the article:
1. Make sure your blog’s content offers real value to visitors
2. Avoid explicit marketing on your blog
3. Create a branded franchise for your blog
4. Follow through on blog readers’ expectations

Russkies are taking a small slice of the Facebook Pie

The community that has more than 200 million global members has sold 1.96%  of it’s share to a Russian company called Digital Sky Technology.  “DST holdings include social networking and communications, e-payment solutions, online marketplaces, MMO and social games and vertical specific websites.” – http://www.crunchbase.com/financial-organization/digital-sky-technologies
The company is not going to sit on the board. “DST’s internet businesses account for more than 70% of all page views on Russian language websites.”
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8069102.stm.

Can Twitter Help your Bizzzzness

Twitter is getting a LOT and I mean a LOT of buzzz in the industry but besides Tweeting to your pals that your are eating crapes with chicken and blue cheese at the local cafe – are there any other fruitful uses for this overwhelming conversational tool?! I think so! It has to be part of your personal brand or business strategy.

First of all – what in the birds name is Twitter? Watch this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddO9idmax0o. (BTW – I love these “In Simple English” videos). Basically – “Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables its users to send and read other users’ updates known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters, displayed on the user’s profile page and delivered to other users who have subscribed to them (known as followers).” – Wikipedia

Below are some great tips from this awesome article by Nancy McCord: http://www.sitepronews.com/archives/2009/may/11.html

1. Follow people in your industry who “say something of value, who provide a link to a new application or point me to an interesting new article, video, or blog site that I should review but may have never have found myself.”

“Based on what I like, and the people who I find interesting to read, I now write my   Twitter posts using this same formula to grow my own Twitter audience.”

“What I also like about Twitter is that the people who I follow also know how to show their true personality in their Tweets.”

2. “Twitter is an excellent tool for linking and this is the real value for businesses. By using Twitter to point people to content on your website, articles you have written either on or off your website, or by linking to a service you want to highlight, you drive traffic. On top of that, Google actually indexes Twitter and so your Twitter page can appear in the organic search results so make sure your bio is well thought out. Don’t waste time using Twitter to point to blog posts, use TwitterFeed to post your blog posts directly onto Twitter.”

“If you have a blog or website, you’ll get new Twitter followers by posting your TwitterFeed right onto your web pages. People who may not have known your Twitter ID can simply click the bottom “follow me link” and start following you on Twitter.”

3. “What’s important to be successful in using Twitter is to identify what you personally like about this new media and then deliver the same type of things that you like back to your own followers – work to provide value not drivel!”

4. Getting followers: “I started by following everyone (who I found by doing a Twitter search) who had the last name McCord. Then I searched for web design, search engine optimization, and pay per click. Any site profile that looked good, I clicked to follow the writer.”

5. “Another cool Twitter use is that you can reply to any of your followers by simply putting an @ in front of their Twitter ID. For example to send something to my attention use @mccordweb at the very front of your Twitter posting and click enter. Just remember that this post is seen by all followers on my site and on your Twitter site.”

“If you need a more private exchange, go to the direct message link on the Twitter.com site and select a follower by Twitter ID name and send your message from there. “

6. “..the ability for users to communicate with top management using Twitter is an invaluable resource. This one-to-one exchange allows a company principal to keep tabs on customer viewpoints, concerns, and interests.”

“As a Twitter reply or direct mail does not use email and does not require a response, this is a great way to tap into social networking to test new ideas and to ask for user feedback. For example, if you have a new software product, ask your Twitter followers for feedback on a specific feature, or provide a link to your beta version for their testing.“

“The best advice that I can offer to you is that you need to use Twitter a bit yourself first to understand the medium and to find out what you like to read best using Twitter. Then, create your own Twitter network sharing information that you find interesting and have some fun.”

TWITTER TOOLS SHE RECOMMENDS:

• Twuffer – I love this one, it is a Twitter post scheduler.
• Twitter Feed – “..allows me to show my blog posts from “The Web Authority” directly onto Twitter. “
• Twitter Grader – “This one is a vanity application that allows you to see where you stack up against other Twitter users.”
• TweetBeep – “With this application, you can manage your online Twitter reputation.”

Web Award Sites

Here is a good list of website related award sites that I found on this LinkedIn Discussion:

• http://www.thefwa.com/
• http://www.webbyawards.com/
• http://www.oneclub.org/
• http://www.website-awards.net/
• http://www.webaward.org/
• http://www.standoutawards.com/
• http://www.worldbestwebsites.com/
• http://www.dopeawards.com/
• http://websitedesignawards.com/
• http://www.creativewebsiteawards.com/
• http://www.designlicks.com/
• List of Awards by dates: http://exaltcreativity.blogspot.com/search/label/Web%20Awards
• http://www.fitc.ca/
• http://www.sxsw.com/
• http://max.adobe.com/awards/
• ID: http://www.id-mag.com/designawardwinners/
• http://www.horizoninteractiveawards.com
• http://www.promaxbda.org

8 Tips for Successful Small Business Digital Marketing

1. Use valuable free tools BUT make sure you are creating useful content that is interesting to your existing or potential clients.
   For example- Facebook Fan pages, Twitter accounts, Ning social networks, Google and Yahoo business listing are free but insanely valuable.
2. Be very selective and request to see stats on the ones you have to pay for (Citysearch, Yelp, etc.) – make sure it’s a good ROI on your time and money
3. Use Google Adwords – it’s as cheap as $50 bucks a month but can bring a lot of traffic to your site with good promotions/specials, etc.
4. Keep content fresh through all your channels (website, social networks, adwords, etc).
5. Have a person on your team dedicated to digital weekly marketing – preferably one that can write well and acts as your content administrator
6. Promotions and coupons work very well and can be posted in many places for free (e.g. business coupon on your Google business listing)
7. Have a simple, user friendly and intuitive website (SEO compatible) that has the latest updates/coupons, etc for your bizz
8. Create a community around you client base and keep them updated with extra perks (for example recipes for a restaurant, special promotions, etc) via email newsletter.

Contact me for additional strategy and tips at illygdigital@yahoo.com or ilana@coopcreative.com

Impressions of Internet Week

With all the ups and downs and the stress of living in New York city – events like Internet Week make me feel warm and fuzzy again. If you are a lover of the industry  this is the opportunity to get a sense of the digital pulse – who, what and what’s next. The other amazing opportunity is of course to meet the industry peeps. There are tons of free and very valuable events. I wish I had time to go to all of them but I have too many digital duties @ the job.

So far I went to >

• StartupAlpha.com
• Ignite
• SOCIAL MEDIA: The Impact of Social Media on Culture and the Economy
• Venture Capital Bootcamp

These are some of the topics I thought were very interesting >

• Creating a community around the evangelists’ of your brand:
  Taking the time to congregate and have evangelists discuss your products in person – the example used was the Kindle – when someone is interested in seeing and playing with the product – an Amazon brand evangelist actually meets you in your city and shows it to you ! That is such an awesome way to create a community around your brand and have a real person talk to you about the products cool and dweebie features.

• There was also an awesome presentation at Ignite about the power of “viral” done by an editor from Onion whose name I need to find. He created a character called “The Swine Flu” on Twitter and Facebook and got a huge following by writing clever copy that played on the various social aspects of Facebook and Twitter and used “The Swine Flu” as a “voice” accompanied by some great images.

• Perry Chan had a nice concept with the site kickstart.com – which helps you raise money for your ventures
• Amazon and Mims – more on this tomorrow
• The Social Media event in Time Warner had a lot of informative discussions such as Twitter and Facebook pages becoming almost a replacement for companies regular sites and the enormous overall impact of social media for business

More on these items and the Venture Capital Event I attended tonight will be in tomorrow’s posting.

Good Night

Great (funny) video on the state of advertising today!

Digital age is in full force!

Explosion of Digital Public Relations

Digital public relations is evolving into a very powerful medium because of the viral nature of the web and the two way communication that it offers. Now what is digital public relations? Traditionally PR is “the practice of managing the flow of information between an organization and its publics. Public relations gains an organization or individual exposure to their audiences using topics of public interest and news items that do not require direct payment” – Wikipedia. That in the digital age is a somewhat direct morph into social media and social components on the web. The communication of a brand, business, etc. with the public through a Facebook Fan Page, Twitter conversation, blog or management of  reviews on a site is a Digital PR function.  PR is powerful because it elevates and spreads positive messages and mitigates and manages the negative messaging – that is an aspect of traditional PR that is harder to maintain due to the amount of content but is necessary in digital.

What prevailed through Internet Week is that the public wants to see full disclosure in the companies “voice”. No fake anonymity. Tweets should be coming from real people, about real subjects and things that matter. No one wants to see astroturfing – “generating public excitement in a subject by posting anonymous comments to blogs, wikis and other public venues.” or be  meat puppets “a person who publishes comments on blogs, wikis and other public venues about some phenomenon or product in order to generate public interest and buzz. Using alias names, meat puppets pretend to have experience with the subject or masquerade as an exceptionally satisfied and unbiased user of the merchandise.” This really upsets the public!

Here is my advice: Be as open as possible – when something goes wrong – admit to it and involve your digital community to offer suggestions how to make things better when it does well – be humble.

Here are some great Do’s and Don’ts from a an article by Heather Whaling – “Agencies, Client and Social Media”:

Do’s and Don’ts of Social Media

DO understand the core premise of social media. Social media is about helping brands engage with stakeholders, create dialogue and educate a broad audience. It’s not just about talking points, corporate messaging or playing “spinmeister.”  Make sure your PR agency grasps the distinction.

DON’T let agencies pose as someone they’re not. Authenticity and transparency are two basic tenets of social media participation. Agencies shouldn’t tweet as a brand’s CEO or post comments under someone else’s name. Disclosure is required. Without it, be prepared to feel the wrath of your network. Warning: It won’t be pretty.

DON’T think social media happens in a vacuum. Agencies and clients must work closely together. Brands can’t expect to take a non-participatory role in social media. While an outside agency can provide strategic direction and support, the agency is not your brand. You are. As such, you must play an active role in implementation.

DO let agencies help with monitoring. One of the most valuable services agencies can provide involves listening to online conversations. Who is saying what, and where is it being said? Listening to relevant dialogue is time-intensive. But, it’s also the most critical part of social media participation. Using services like Radian 6, Filtrbox or Techrigy, agencies can sift through the noise and help brands find people and places to engage.

DO let agencies assist with content development. Often, the hardest part of blogging is coming up with fresh topics for posts. That’s one area where PR agencies can assist because they’re used to finding interesting story angles when pitching the media. Depending on the subject, the PR firm may also be able to help with research or some writing – as long as all parties involved adhere to the previous guidelines about transparency.

DON’T implement a cookie-cutter strategy. Agencies that immediately recommend starting a blog, creating a Twitter account and developing a Facebook page are giving bad advice. Yes, Twitter is the current media darling; however, it’s not the right tool for every company – especially those with limited resources to devote to social media. The smartest consultants understand the value of listening first and then developing a customized strategy to help brands engage and participate in ways that will support overall business objectives.

Time to Get Social

Communicating through social media requires a different approach than traditional marketing. It means communicating with … not to. Having actual conversations … not just repeating key messages. It’s changing how business gets done. Agencies and brands need to understand that this new form of communication centers on listening, engaging, providing value and being personable – whether it’s handled in-house or with outside assistance.

The Digital | Interactive Future

Along the lines of Microsoft Surface comes this new invention – this is the future! Check out this amazing “product”.

An Exiting Future or Not? – The best video clips are here

Twitter Changing American Business

Time magazine published an excellent article called “10 Ways Twitter will Change American Business”.
Here is a general summary:
1. “Hyper-Local Marketing”
This involves special promotions, discounts etc. for people in the community who follow your business on Twitter. A great way to constantly engage and interact with your client base.
2. “Making Old-World Advertising Work”
Because tweeting is so easy from mobile phones the tracking of responses to various forms of outdoor advertising will be much easier “billboards, telephones, taxis and public transportation. Because Twitter can be used on mobile devices as well as PCs, and since Twitter allows messages of a maximum of 140 characters, the reactions to outdoor ad messages can be instantaneous.”
3. “Turning Wall Street on Its Head”
Tweeting about the latest stock picks could become a replacement for Yahoo Finance message boards and will help to spread the word faster on Wall Street.
4. “Making Blogs Count”
Creating more exposure and followings for Bloggers and making distribution of content much easier. “Twitter will give content operations with limited numbers of employees and small distribution budgets access to hundreds of thousands of Twitter users based on the community’s views of the merit of their content.”
5. “New Ways to Get Consumer Data”
Twitter will be a huge resource for collecting the customer voice on various products and services.
6. “Helping TV and Print”
Alerting users to the latest ground breaking news.
7. “Expanding the Power of Micropayments”
Payments could become an extension of Paypal on Twitter “…small loans or payments to companies for services, essentially no more than an extension of a user’s PayPal, checking or credit card account …”
8. “Changing Telecommunications”
Supplementing communication of cellphones, etc. – users will get more freedom.
9. “A New Way for the Government to Reach You”
Can be used for alrets by the government in emergency situations
10. “Charity Begins Online”
It can become an extremely valuable tool in fundraising. “Twitter will be an immensely useful way for people to voice their opinions in response to public-opinion polls. This offers an opportunity to access tens of thousands of reactions to critical questions in a very short period of time.”

Web Based Video is Hot

Web based video is becoming more and more popular. With the explosion of Hulu and YouTube – video content on the web is everywhere “By the end of 2013, the equivalent of 10 billion DVDs worth of information will cross the Net monthly, according to a report issued today by Cisco Systems”. I believe that using video components should be an integral part of building current websites and digital AD/PR campaigns – it adds a greater dimension and entertainment factor and an easier way to demonstrate a product or service, etc.

Here are some good tips for YouTube Channels/Campaigns from the article “5 Ways to Kill a YouTube Campaign“:
• “Clear Proposition” – consistent messaging
• “Links” – including links to appropriate places on your website inside your video
• “Regular Contribution” – just as with any campaign, blog, etc – your contribution should be consistent
• “Title Research”- “Don’t be lazy researching the right title. Forget Youtube tags for the moment and concentrate on finding a great keyword heavy title. It’s the most powerful thing for people to find you through search.”
• “Sex” – Keep the sexiness factor on the down low. “Too sexy thumbnails will get your video algorithmically demoted. Make the Thumbnail compelling as 43% of Youtube users say that if it is it encourages them to watch it.”

Check out this innovative way of creating a “website” using YouTube (cool nav):

The Story of a Webtacular Idea: YouTube

I really like featuring internet success stories on this blog because I totally dig people who take an idea and make it into something truly innovative, useful and empowering. They follow their passions, create a killer business and become millionaires to boot! So to follow my web based video post from yesterday – here is the story of YouTube:

The company was started by three PayPal employees – Chad Hurley, Steve Chen and Jawed Karim who got frustrated over the difficulty of sharing a video shot at a dinner party. They were all in their 20’s when they founded the company in 2005 (Chad 28, Steve 27 and Jawed 26). The domain name was registered on February 15, 2005 and the site launched in May. YouTube received an $11.5 million investment from Sequiua Capital to help finance the business. They were instantly popular and the sites viral elements (embeds, tell-a-friend, e-mail, etc.) were a huge component to spreading its popularity via WOM (word of mouth). Voting also added another huge dimension to video sharing and creating a community.

Google acquired the company in 2006 for $1.65 billion in Google’s stock. Wowzaa!

Of course the company like Napster has had huge issues with copyright infringement but overall they have come out in a pretty decent shape by offering profit sharing, etc. with various content providers.

The future:
“In November 2008, YouTube reached an agreement with MGM, Lions Gate Entertainment and CBS which will allow the companies to post full-length films and television shows on the site, accompanied by advertisements. The move is intended to create competition with websites such as Hulu, which features material from NBC, Fox, and Disney” –> I wonder how companies such as Netflix will respond to this type of model.

Not a bad outcome for three dudes in their 20s who were just trying to share a video! This is what makes the internet such a powerful opportunity for entrepreneurs – it presents so many business options. And YouTube is the classic case of a service designed by the “necessity which is the mother of invention” principal.

• Fun Fact:
Top watched video on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=CA&hl=en&v=dMH0bHeiRNg&feature=related (121,027,858 views)

In regards to advertising:
“Over the summer and fall of 2007 major announcements were made about advertising models for YouTube. In August, YouTube introduced “YouTube InVideo Ads”, a set of flash overlays displayed on the lower portion of videos. Advertisers are charged per impression, and the resulting revenue will be shared with the clip creator. In October, Google announced the inclusion of YouTube videos in its AdSense product. Site owners using AdSense can select videos from certain content providers, and ads will be served contextually as they relate to either the site or the video. Resulting revenue will be split between content providers, site owners, as well as Google.”

References for this post:
http://www.tamingthebeast.net/articles6/youtube-success.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YouTube
http://www.crunchbase.com/company/youtube

Facebook Vanity URLs – Launching Tomorrow

Maybe there is something to social networks becoming the hubs of companies (their websites will serve more as brochure-ware). Though, I believe that a website is a must have – it is your home – social networks are the cars that bring traffic to your home (at least for now). So just like a good website must have a clear URL and vanity URLs to support campaigns – Facebook is now launching the same thing! Tonight at 12:01 pm EST – vanity URLs are going to be available on a first come first serve basis.  To prevent URL “squatting” of a company or brand name Facebook created a form a company has to fill out (http://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_rights). The company must have at least a 1000 fans to reserve the vanity.

Badda BING Badda Bang

The search  industry in getting hotter with recent launches such as Wolfram and now Microsoft’s “Bing”. Microsoft launched an ad campaign “which depicts the Google search experience as causing ‘search overload’ compared to Bing, which is a more simplistic and relevant ‘decision engine’.”

The article “Thoughts on Bing and Search Engines of the Future, From UW Computer Scientist Dan Weld” does a good job of describing what sets Bing apart.

“When you think of search, everyone thinks about Google, and maybe Yahoo, but there are many other kinds of search, like people searches (you can think about Facebook as a people search), travel search (Kayak and Expedia), health information sites. You can think about Wikipedia as providing a search for encyclopedic information. Shopping searches—Amazon is great in part because it makes it easy to find so much information about the products, and reviews of products. All of these are examples of vertical search experiences. Instead of having wide coverage, you have a better experience within a narrow range.

Bing has tried to marry those things into an integrated wide search experience. All of the engines have been doing this. If you do a search on Google for a movie, you might see information about show times and trailers at the top, for example. Bing has gone further in some directions than people have gone before, in this aspect. If you look at their tabbed pane, it lets you look at different kinds of information right there.”

“All the engines are trying to do it, but the way Microsoft has done it with Bing is somewhat better than what Google has done. With the shopping tab, you get a faceted interface, meaning you can narrow your search using categorical information, restricting yourself to a particular brand or price range. Those facets are specific to the object you’re searching.”

For factual information it really seems that Wolfram is the leader (possibly a big hit with students) but for general searches Google and Bing seem to be better solutions.

The Transition from Print to Online

As much as I am deeply saddened by the insane speed of decline of newspapers and magazines and the eroding state of journalism – I am thrilled that the power of digital is helping to spread the word of the masses. Everyone who has a desire to speak about a cause, business, corporation, politician, etc. – now has a voice that cannot be silenced. That is extremely powerful and comforting! This creates a demand for transparency from all sides of the spectrum from politicians to corporations – otherwise if you are doing something shady someone will let the cat out of the bag and once she is out she will breed A LOT of kittens!  Now, that said – journalism is a profession I highly respect and the objectivity and due diligence of fact checking that it requires cannot be replicated by most none-journalists. I think the best scenario would be to somehow find a combination of the two for information such as news, analysis, etc. There has been a lot of talk on models to monetize content for both newspapers online and “professional blogs” but that is a separate and very complicated topic.

The transition of information sharing from print to online is a huge shift that affects a lot of industries but as in all technological advances – creates new opportunities and jobs if the change is embraced and adapted and constantly evolved. I am excited to see the outcome.

“Evolution Web 1.0, Web 2.0 to Web 3.0″

More Cool Information Graphics and Data Visualization

As you might have seen in a couple of my posts I love info graphics and data visualization. Here is a great post on the topic from Abduzeedo: http://abduzeedo.com/beauty-infographics-and-data-visualization

Here are some of the examples he listed:

http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/transparency/web/0904/trans0409obama100days.html

http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/transparency/web/trans0209whodruggedmydrink.html

http://awesome.goodmagazine.com/transparency/009/trans009onwords.html

http://www.glocal.ca/

http://mkweb.bcgsc.ca/circos/

– Love, love this one.

- Cool way to visualize Twitter conversations

Free Content Management Systems

Check out this useful post from Spyre Studios about great and FREE CMS systems:
http://spyrestudios.com/free-content-management-systems/

1. WordPress
2. Jumla
3. Drupal
4. SilverStripe
5. Cushy CMS
6. Frog CMS
7. MODx
8. TYPOlight
9. dotCMS
10. Expression Engine
11. Radiant CMS
12. Concrete5

Aggregated Search Results from Different Formats in One Beautiful Panel

What an awesome new way to search! Check out this cool new engine called Spezify that places your search results in one panel – aggregating images, articles, reviews, Twitter, etc. Super cool!

Examples of Minimalist Site Design

This is a great article that compiles a list of 50 minimalist site designs. I love the beautiful use of typography and grid structure that a lot of these exemplify:

http://line25.com/articles/50-inspiring-examples-of-minimalism-in-web-design

5 Digital Production Tips

1. NEVER ASSUME A DIGITAL PROJECT IS SIMPLE
If anyone – your client, colleague, boss, etc. tells you that a digital project is simple (and should not take too long, require too many resources, not be too expensive, etc) – take a second look and do some research. PRETTY MUCH NO DIGITAL PROJECT IS EVER EASY and needs to be very detailed in its scope, planning, budget and timeline.

2. THE STATEMENT OF WORK  SHOULD BE AS DETAILED AND CLEAR AS POSSIBLE
Make sure to do a lot of due diligence in scoping out what exactly your client is looking for and write out a very detailed statement of work with clear deliverables.

What are the clients business objectives and strategic goals? Since digital is an ever evolving medium and things are changing constantly – your client might want to be “cool” and think they need a Facebook page and a widget but that might not be their best solution or just a part of it – show them some examples and take their temperature for what they really like and need.

3. CREATE REALISTIC TIMELINES AND DON’T OVER PROMISE THINGS YOU CAN NOT DELIVER.
Create some general ballpark timelines for your clients when pitching – for example, complex microsite – 4 months, rich media banner ad campaign – 2 months, youtube channel – 1 month, complex widget – 6 months,  etc. Then once you create a detailed timeline make sure to review the various phases with them in detail so that they understand why things take a certain amount of time and have realistic expectations. Have a disclaimer that timelines increase based on more complex technical scope changes, delayed client reviews, etc.

If you are building on an existing platform or using vendors, etc. – make sure that you have a kickoff with them to see what their turnaround time and technical specifications are like.

4. DON’T JUST JUMP INTO DESIGN AND PRODUCTION.
If possible break your timelines and fees into 2 phases:
#1. Discovery and Requirements and #2. IA, Design, Production, QA.
This way you can really do your due diligence on discovery interviews, persona development, usability – to really understand what features, content, etc. your project should really entail that would best serve the needs of your client and their user base.

5. MAKE SURE TO PUT TOGETHER THE RIGHT TEAM
Just like creating the perfect dish requires the right ingredients and measurements the team can make or break your project.
Here are some roles that I think are essential for most digital/interactive projects.

• Interaction Designer – for wireframes, ID, sitemaps, possibly functionality, etc (usability and interaction are very important and often left out)
• Digital graphic designer
• Digital copywriter
• Producer – to manage your project
• Strategist/Planner – for overall vision and future phase development of the project
• Programmer – this is VERY important – there are a BILLION disciplines within programming – scope out the requirements you are looking for – Flash Developer or Flash Designer or both, PHP, HTML. Java Script………and the list goes on and on and on.
• Analytics and measurement analyst – reporting – setting up pixels, tracking etc. and conducting reporting on the success or failure of the project once completed

Hope this helps

Google to Launch Free Digital Education Portal

Google is starting a new digital education portal called AgencyLand that is currently in beta testing at a few agencies. Check out this article from Advertising Age for more info: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=137473

Facebook is Making “status messages, photos and videos visible to the public at large by default instead of being visible only to a user’s approved friends”

I really, really, really don’t like that! Read the article for more info:
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/the_day_facebook_changed_messages_to_become_pulic.php

Do viral videos work for Advertisers?

Do viral videos work as a successful advertising platform? The answer to that is in the strategy. Since you can not really control your target audience the videos are best suited to broad scale product/company awareness (I would actually compare it to a super ball ad). Content has to be catchy, short and usually humorous and or unusual. Once launched there are several different techniques for spreading your content and giving it a jump start.

Check out the Viral Video Chart from Advertising Age: http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=137365

Also, take a look at 100 Million Views Club – “The list is a diverse collection of older and newer campaigns, including music videos, movie trailers, user-generated spots, and clips from TV shows. What they have in common is a massive total audience.”
http://www.visiblemeasures.com/the-100-million-club/

Rest in Peace MJ! You will be missed!

A true enterpenuer, music/dance genius and innovator!

Cannes Lions (My) Cyber Favorites

Link to the Cannes Lions Cyber award winners: http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/

A List of My Favorites:

http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/?award=1
Tourism Queensland – Very well done, cohesive, integrated online campaign with a great payoff!

http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/?award=1
Fiat – Along the lines of Nike Plus – a very smart way of integrating the real world experience with a super digital platform with a series purpose and payoff

http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/?award=2
Axe – innovative, cool campaign that’s very true to the brand and gets the message across

http://www.uniqlo.com/uniqlo1000/map/
Uniqlo – This is a REALLY amazing website. They were featured in One Show Interactive as well. Check out the beautiful use of vivid videos and awesome interactive navigation.

http://www.akestamholst.se/awards/swooper/
Posten – An awesome digital PR campaign that is based on a very clever idea

http://www.donate-a-meal.com/mainPage_noBlend.php
Donate-a-Meal – Another excellent Digital PR example that really gets the message across of donating food to kids in a very personable, touching way and very user friendly (where every meal shown on kids plate shows exactly how much money you are contributing)

http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/?award=2
Pringles – amazing banner ad with super creative copy

http://www.bornoncloud9.be/canneslions2009/axion/banner-concerts-cyber-banners/banner-example-01.html
Axion – Great creative visual design that plays with the space given to the ad

http://www.cyberentries.com/wario_youtube/
Wario Land Shake it – Now this is AMAZING – so clever!! Taking an existing platform like YouTube and making your video REALLY stand out by simulating the game experience on YouTube.

http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/?award=2

http://www.grazeourfield.com/barnardos/troubledyouth/btc/

Another beautifully executed intelligent ad that gets the message across very clearly

http://draftfcb.at/bank-transfer-job-ad/
Draft FCB – A genius method for looking for an accountant for their agency by transferring a $1 to other agencies and seeing who is super detail oriented and looking for a job

http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/?award=2
Diesel – clever use of x rated materials (safe for viewing in the office)

http://awardentries.co.nz/signs/
Schweppes – Romantic movie with a nicely done subtle product placement

More on the rest of the entries tomorrow …

Cannes Lions (My) Cyber Favorites Part II

Cannes Lions Interactive Agency of the Year

“This award is given to the agency that obtains the highest score for entries in the Cyber Lions sections, irrespective of whether these have been entered by the agency or another party.”

1. GOODBY SILVERSTEIN & PARTNERS, San Francisco, USA

2. CRISPIN PORTER & BOGUSKY, Boulder, USA

3. BOONDOGGLE, Leuven, Belgium
Link to the Cannes Lions Cyber award winners: http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/

Some More of My Favorite Winners:

http://www.wwpl.net/awards2009/EnvironmentalDefenseFund/links/polarBear.html

Environmental Defense Fund – what a masterly orchestrated way of getting the message of global warming and Polar Bear endangerment across

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQlzX7EyIwU

Samsung Omnia – awesome viral video that poses as a homemade video of a techie with a serious spin

http://www.interachtung.com/snake/pieza_ficticio/index.html

Greenpeace – great email campaign that uses a simple image to send a big message

http://www.llr-hamburg.de/germanwings-wifi/

German Wings – cool idea of using wifi as a marketing tool

http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/?award=3 -

Old Spice – nicely done platform and interface that pumps up a users life through the search engines (I couldn’t actually complete it because its only for males – pooof)

http://www.cyberentries.com/sprint_now/

Sprint – “world’s most elaborate widget”

http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/?award=3

AC/DC– Talk about going digitally where your users hang out. A video and navigation embedded within Excel

http://work.canneslions.com/cyber/?award=3

Radio Head – a beautiful website that reminds me of data visualization sites; except this one is doing it with video.

Super Duper Checklists for the Web

Check out this comprehensive article called “45 Incredibly Useful Web Design Checklists and Questionnaires” that lists various checklists/tips for usabillity, design, SEM, blogging, etc – very helpful! http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/06/29/45-incredibly-useful-web-design-checklists-and-questionnaires/

Infographic Resume Sample

Check out this awesome original idea of how to present your resume in an infographic format:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bartclaeys/3351321706/sizes/o/

Meetup.com – The Real Life Social Network

Today I would like to feature another digital innovator snippet about the social network Meetup.com.

Meetup was started in 2001 by Scott Heiferman (see his story here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3n1BUk32T14), Matt Meeker and Peter Kamali. When September 11th happened they felt a new sense of community awaken in NYC that had led them to read “Bowling Alone.” The book talks about the decline of community in America due to society becoming more tech addicted causing people to spend more time alone instead of being engaged with others. The model of Meetup is meant to connect people in real life through an online social network platform – which in my opinion is a very necessary and valuable tool – it transfers the online experience to the real world (which is why I love Nike Plus so much). The network gained a lot of popularity through political meetups.

Originally its revenue was made from fees paid by venues but then it changed its model to organizer fees.

I think it’s an excellent tool both for small and large organizations to either become organizers for the brand or business meetups or to sponsor other organizaers in their meetup events. It offers a direct way to touch your target market by providing them with something really useful.

Some stats:

• 4.7 Million Members
• 5 Million Monthly Visitors
• 102,000 Monthly Meetups
• 4,916 Meetup Topics
• 3,601 Cities

Useful YouTube videos:

• How Meetup Works: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnBpj9oMDDk
• Organizer story: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLAHRTvTJpA

Happy 4th of July! I will be back blogging on Monday

Email Marketing Tips

A useful article on designing successful email marketing campaigns called “Email Design No-Nos Your Designer May Not Know”:
http://www.lyris.com/resources/email-marketing/articles/email-marketing-design/
Here is a summary of the tips:
1. The Top of the Email is Not for Pretty Pictures
2. Web-like Navigation is Murder on Mobile Devices
3. Graphics Don’t Work – No, Really, They Don’t
4. Invisible Calls to Action Don’t Get Clicked
5. Outlook 2007 Snubs Cascading Style Sheets

Enabling the Beauty of Social Networking on Your Website Through Facebook Connect

Facebook Connect is a “single sign-on service that competes with OpenID, the service enables Facebook users to login to affiliated sites using their Facebook account and share information from such sites with their Facebook friends.” – Wiki

Here are some benefits of using the tool from the below two links: http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Facebook_Connect and http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php

• Seamless way to connect to user’s Facebook account and information with your site.
• User’s Facebook friends can be brought into your site. You can link friends that have existing accounts and invite new friends to your site.
• Info updates back into friends streams on Facebook
• Dynamic privacy

“Early results have shown that sites using Facebook Connect for login have seen as many as 2 out of 3 new registrations come via Facebook Connect, and those users have about 50% more engagement on sites.”

“Share deeper, richer content (including images, flash elements, embedded links and user-generated content) along with a user’s comments. Users interact directly with your content on Facebook and return to your site to learn more. DonorsChoose (creating a story when users donate) and MeetUp (allowing users to share when they RSVP to an event) are two great examples to check out.”

“Instantly use data users have already shared with Facebook to create a more targeted, personalized experience. For example, if you know a user is from San Francisco, CA — auto-target your content to that location, like Citysearch does. Or, create a completely customized experience based on a user’s stated interests, like Daily Perfect.”

Plugin for Blogs: http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/Facebook_Connect_Plugin_Directory

I think this is an excellent free tool that can add a lot of social networking aspects to an existing websites or/and blog which can then generate more traffic for the site and provide more relevant content needs for the publisher.

Examples of Facebook Connect Live Sites

On the Hunt for the New OS

Microsoft Operating Systems are under a possibly serious threat from Google who in 2010 plans to launch the Chrome OS “an operating system designed from the ground up to run the Chrome web browser on netbooks. ‘It’s our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be,’ Google writes tonight on its blog. But let’s be clear on what this really is. This is Google dropping the mother of bombs on its chief rival, Microsoft. It even says as much in the first paragraph of its post, ‘However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web.’ Yeah, who do you think they mean by that?”

Read this for more info: http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/07/google-drops-a-nuclear-bomb-on-microsoft-and-its-made-of-chrome/

Wow – I am looking forward to what Google is concocting!

What is Interaction/Experience Design and Why is it Important?

As I have mentioned in my previous posts – I am a huge fan of interaction design ever since working at R/GA (which has the cats pajamas of ID teams). I believe that good ID can make or break a project – especially as sites become more complex and require more synergy with the user. The beauty of the medium is that incorporates so many different disciplines together like usability, IA, visual design etc. One of the optimal results of using Interaction Designers (as an example) is that you ultimately produce sites where the user is able to navigate and get desired actions completed quickly, easily and fluently and there are clear calls to action.

What is ID:

• ID “elicits a certain behavior”.
• “UX folks create the underlying framework and skeleton and logic of a site, and work very closely with the designers, to make it not only beautiful, but usable, too.”
• “Interaction design (IxD) is a professional discipline that illuminates the relationship between people and the interactive products they use. While interaction design has a firm foundation in the theory, practice, and methodology of traditional design, its focus is on defining the complex dialogues that occur between people and interactive devices of many types—from computers to mobile communications devices to appliances.”
• “Interaction designers strive to create useful and usable products and services. Following the fundamental tenets of user-centered design, the practice of interaction design is grounded in an understanding of real users—their goals, tasks, experiences, needs, and wants. Approaching design from a user-centered perspective, while endeavoring to balance users’ needs with business goals and technological capabilities, interaction designers provide solutions to complex design challenges, and define new and evolving interactive products and services.”

What is Experience Design:

It is most often described as the umbrealla of ID, Usability, IA, Design, etc.

“(XD) is the practice of designing products, processes, services, events, and environments with a focus placed on the quality of the user experience and culturally relevant solutions, with less emphasis placed on increasing and improving functionality of the design.[1] An emerging discipline, experience design attempts to draw from many sources including cognitive psychology and perceptual psychology, linguistics, cognitive science, architecture and environmental design, haptics, hazard analysis, product design, information design, information architecture, ethnography, brand management, interaction design, service design, storytelling, heuristics, and design thinking.”

For more information on this discipline, please visit the Interaction Design Association: http://www.ixda.org/

Awesome Evian Viral Video

To start the weekend on a cute note – check out this FAB viral video and overall “How Does Evian Make you Feel” campaign.  I love when marketers truly do excellent creative work! The line from May West that is used “you are never too old to become younger” is also incredibly powerful!

Creating a Brand for Your Blog

Here is a great post about creating a brand for your blog entitled “7 Ways To Develop A Unique Brand For Your Blog”

Summary of Adam’s tips:

1. Develop a post archetype
2. Create a simple or unique design
3. Refine your writing quality and style
4. Find a way to view your topic from a fresh angle or different lens
5. Focus on a unique topic, or intersection of topics
6. Create a better signal to noise ratio
7. Focus on achieving consistency

Social Media “Lingo” Dictionary

http://socialmedia.wikispaces.com/A-Z+of+social+media

I love widgets!

A widget is an awesome branding tool that can make your content more noticed and shareable – here is a great posting describing widget strategy, benefits, etc: http://www.speakmediablog.com/2008/09/social-media-widgets-can-drive-traffic.html

Cool service for FREE conference calls!

Wow, my collegue told me about this service and its really no hastle. Great free tool for client meetings.

https://www.freeconferencecall.com

Digital/Interactive Case Studies

I believe reviewing case studies is an excellent way to learn more about the industry (what all the cool cats are doing), generate some new ideas of your own and learn from others mistakes.

Besides the Award sites such as the Webbies, Cannes Lions, One Show Interactive Awards, etc. – here are some other useful sites for interactive/digital case studies and client problem/solutions:

http://www.wesellorelse.co.uk/

http://www.rga.com/#/section=client

http://www.doubleclick.com/insight/casestudies/index.aspx?csfilter=DART%20for%20Advertisers

http://www.facebook.com/akqa#/akqa?v=app_2392950137 (not all are case studies but there are some good examples)

http://www.razorfish.com/#/work/portfolio/automotive/mercedes-amg

http://www.ogilvypr.com/cases

http://www.agency.com/clients/

http://www.ogilvy.com/portfolio/portfolio.php

http://www.atmospherebbdo.com/home.swf

More to come later – I will keep expanding this list.

Guide for Google Analytics

As well all know SEM is a very important tool for digital marketers – here is a good article discussing Google Analytics:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/16/a-guide-to-google-analytics-and-useful-tools/

International Digital – Russia

I went to an excellent presentation today about public relations in Russia and their digital capabilities. What an interesting market – especially the growing opportunity for international digital advertising and PR! Some cool stats – 30% of Russian people use the internet (34M people). There is a real opportunity to do some great creative work and innovative campaigns.

Mobile Marketing

Mobile advertising/apps have been hot topics for a while, especially since the launch of the iPhone. The United States seems to be behind the times a bit when compared to Asia where for a few years already ”consumers already pay for merchandise using their cell phones in South Korea and Japan”. Described as the “third screen” (after the computer and television set) mobile is becoming more and more technically savvy – here is a good discussion on Mobile Ad Trends with a panel of experts done by Advertising Age: http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1370868150/bctid1775769073

Building Personal Brand Within the Social Media Landscape

Web 2.0 Expo NY: Gary Vaynerchuk – The man who has made himself a celebrity wine expert through social media and video blogging shares some advice.

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Connecting to the Ultimate Consumer

I had an insightful chat at a networking event recently about how the agency world ultimately disconnects you from your true consumer. You live in this removed world, actively managing teams, creating PowerPoints and sitting in long meetings in sassy conference rooms but never truly having a conversation with your ultimate audience. In today’s world of big corporations going bust, hours spent being connected to automated phone queries, and self check-outs – we have less and less human interaction. Getting personal can be a true differentiator for creating great strategies and creative work. Making the consumer’s life easier by getting to know them and understanding their needs. What makes them happy?

I discovered how powerful this could be when I started dabbling in small business marketing a few years ago – and got “PC down and dirty” with my target audience. I realized just how far removed I have been all these years from ultimately knowing what makes people tick on a personal level. I got tons of useful tips and advice on improving the business and the consumers felt like my small business clients were truly interested in their needs – a win for everyone. At the end of the day, no research can substitute real life conversations. That is why the “discovery” process is so essential in most projects. Ultimately, it is that personal touch that makes this world go round, not the mass marketing plans or digital banners – it’s having that chat with the person and understanding what they are all about.