If you are a company trying to compete today you are online. Period. That probably means that you have also heard gobs and gobs of information about social media and online conversations. You may have also heard about the need to be conscious of your own level of importance within the lives of consumers (i.e. no one wants to be friends with your mouthwash). However, if you are like me and have a simple brain, you hear phrases such as “your brand needs to participate in the ongoing online conversation,” and think to yourself “sounds like a nifty thing to say, but what does that mean?” Well, I always find I learn best from examples and I think I have a found a great one. EA has filmed a posted a response to a user video that was on YouTube. Lets take a look:
Original User Video:
EA Response:
Here are a couple points that I take away from this response:
EA didn’t try to create their own social network or video-sharing site, they found an existing community, developed an understanding of the social conventions that were already there and worked within them.
As with any great participant in a conversation, EA listened. Levinator25 posted a “glitch” in the game, and rather than get defensive EA posted a funny video that took its tonal cues from the original.
EA added to the conversation. If EA hadn’t been able to come up with something as funny as this retort I believe they would have just skipped the idea altogether. No one needs EA’s voice here, but if it is interesting then it will be welcomed.
If you are a large company, be a large company. The average YouTube poster can’t film a video with the real Tiger Woods, but EA can.
Oh Boy Obama is a site that crowd sources political campaign ideas. The thinking goes that this will quickly separate the wheat from the chaff and all the good ideas will bubble up to the surface. Since anyone can participate there will likely be a bunch of ideas. As a great professor, Mark Fenske, once told me quantity will breed quality. Thanks to that I have no doubt that there will be good ideas on the site. What I am skeptical of is whether the good ideas will be the ones that rise to the top? In all likelihood it will be the popular ideas, not necessarily the good ones that come up. This technique works well if you are selling a product since a popular product idea would likely translate to sales. However, I haven’t seen companies crowd sourcing advertising strategies. Just because a strategic idea is popular doesn’t mean it will be effective at accomplishing its goals. On the other hand, if Obama had wanted to crowd source his selection for, VP that would have been a better option that would have likely netted a greater amount of followers…Hillary anyone???
In the past, you could reach nearly 90% of all American households with a TV by placing an ad simultaneously on the three major networks. This placed great power and control in the hands of advertisers, who were able to unilaterally blast their message to the public. TV viewers were forced to sit through that interruption of their programming with little recourse (I mean could you imagine having to get up to change the channel?). In the fragmented media landscape we exist in today we know this is impossible. The power has shifted from advertisers to the viewers, but the forced interruption technique still remains today.
For example, this banner advertisement that extends when you roll over it with your mouse.
Before rollover:
After rollover:
I won’t go into what I think of the concept of the show, that is a post for another time and another place. What bothered me about this ad, is every time I moved my mouse anywhere near it it grew and covered the article I was trying to read. Each time I would have to click to close the article, and each time I would move my mouse away it would expand again. Also, every time it popped out, not only did it cover the text of the article I was on the site for, but it played a video complete with sound distracting me from what I was there for. This is just beyond rude and annoying.
I wasn’t interested in what the ad had to say to begin with, but through the impolite practices of overly sensitive rollover triggers and automatically playing video I just became agitated. Even if I were the target, which I am pretty sure I am not, I would have avoided the ad simply because of its intrusiveness.
People read what interests them, sometimes its an ad.
Howard Gossage
Howard Gossage said this about print advertising, but it holds true in all forms of communication. Here is a banner ad that understands consumers will seek out advertising if they choose to do so:
Before rollover:
After rollover:
Again, I won’t go into the shows or their concepts, although these shows are obviously far superior and the ad even looks a lot better than the previous example. The banner ad was much more polite in the implementation of rollover technology and rich media experiences. For example, you have to not only roll over the banner, but also linger for 3 seconds in order for the ad to expand, thus preventing any accidental activation. Even after the ad expands, the videos did not play automatically instead the banner offered them and other content for you to chose to interact with, or not. This comes from the understanding that the viewer is in control and allows them to consume the content they so choose, graciously offering the media for your perusal without trying to shove it down your throat. Granted, I may be closer to the target for these two shows, but I sincerely appreciate the context in which the information is presented.
This is a quick update to a couple previousposts on the Internet becoming a platform. Along with the introduction of the 3G iPhone, Apple also announced a new service, MobileME, at the WWDC. Through me.com (wonder how much that cost?) subscribers will have access to enterprise level PUSH calendar, PUSH email and PUSH contacts along with photo sharing and file storage. Beyond just simple storage online Apple has used AJAX to create online applications. To show this trend will continue here is a quote from the MobileMe website:
Access and manage your email, contacts, calendar, photos and files at me.com. All with amazing applications that are so feature-rich and easy to use, you may end up preferring them to your regular desktop applications.
Adobe
In addition to Photoshop Express, Adobe also recently launched an online version of Acrobat.
Gratuitous Steven Colbert Image nicked from here, many thanks.
Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand, in conjunction with the Human Interface Technology Laboratory, have created an interesting interactive campaign for the Wellington Zoo. Using their mobile phones, readers of the newspaper can point their cameras at a print ad that looks like a simplified QR code and an animal appears in 3-D above the page. AdForum has a short article about the campaign and a good video explaining the concept (although the video can’t be linked to or embedded, guess they aren’t too keen on social media over there).
The ads themselves are fairly unremarkable. They just look like clunky graphics of a bear, a giraffe and a cheetah to me. Although it is nice to see they had a reason for using the technology, that is to bring the animals to the people to promote the close encounters exhibit at the Zoo. (Side Note: I can’t help but think walking though New Zealand with a bear or cheetah on a leash would have gotten more attention, but possibly more lawsuits). It is nice to see a new technology being used in conjunction with newspaper advertising, goodness knows it needs all the help it can get.
Honestly, the best part of the campaign is seeing the reactions of people discovering this new form of advertising. I am guessing the shock and delight comes from the novelty of this execution and not from the actual display itself. If this technique were to become widely adopted with this particular example stand out from the crowd? Probably not. It is the technology that is playing the lead role here above the idea, whereas I like to see it the other way around. This campaign does seem to be effective, delivering a 30% increase in visitors.
All in all it is a pretty neat technology to add to the toolbox. Do I believe the video when it says, it is “set to revolutionize advertising as we know it?” Uh, nope. It is exciting to think of the possibilities. In the video they mention increasing the technology to include animation and video as opposed to the static image. What if you made it truly interactive, like a game you could play or clues to a scavenger hunt? What if you made it interactive where participants could store information at a certain site to build a knowledge bank over time or communicate with other participants?
The main problem I have with this technology is it requires a download (already the kiss of death for any interactive campaign). Further complicating matters, it is a download to your phone, activated by a text message. This seems to be asking a lot of the viewing public and quite honestly for not a big payoff. It is something that seems to be universal across all executions in new media, there is a novelty factor, but the idea seems to play second fiddle.
Tim O’Reilly, from O’Reilly Media opens the web 2.0 conference speaking about cloud computing, and the internet as the new platform. I touched on some of these topics in a post I wrote earlier (although Tim is much more of an authority than I am). Tim does a great job of explaining how all this is working, and even highlights some companies that are taking advantage today. What we, as brand planners, need to look at is if we can provide greater utility for our customers, how should we be doing it, and what meaning can we convey as we do?
I just finished reading this article about Amazon’s move to offer outsourced computing services (online storage, infrastructure computing services and even real-world fulfillment services) all on a pay for what you use model.
For laymen like me, what this means is that instead of needing tens- or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to get an Internet startup off the ground you could start by uploading your code to a server for 10 cents/hour and storing your files for 15 cents/gigabyte/month. The best part is it is completely scalable, so as your project takes off, it costs you more (you should be making more money, too) and Amazon makes more money. This gives web start-ups a chance to get started without sacrificing large chunks of their companies to venture capitalists, and tying their capital up in computing power that will quickly become outdated. On the other hand it gives Amazon a way to sell computing power and infrastructure services, to a vast array of start-ups and when one takes-off both parties win. For instance, as the article says, one heavy user is spending five-figures/week on Amazon Web Services.
This, to me, is just another example of our computing power moving into the ether. Where historically we have needed to buy software (ensure it will run on our machines) then store any data we created on that same machine, where it could only be accessed there unless physically being transferred to another machine. Now that game is changing, where my computer used to be everything it is now transitioning to be an access point to connect me with my data and applications that I have strewn about the Internet. This may sound a little odd, but should benefit from the clarity of a few examples.
Banking
Online financial management tools are so prevalent they would be easy to overlook. If you think about it though, none of the data you create and work with there is stored on your computer, allowing you to access it from anywhere, yet it still offers powerful applications. For instance you can check you balance, transfer money from one account to another and even set up recurring bill payments just by moving numbers around in the ether. Beyond just managing finances you can also use these tools to build wealth, buy and selling stocks via a portfolio manager. (Bonus points if you use your profits to acquire the services of a clown, which you will undoubtedly, underestimate the creepiness of, as the E-trade commercial suggests.)
If you haven’t seen or heard about Google Docs, check out the video. You can upload your documents, (Word, PowerPoint of Excel) and work on them collaboratively with a select group. More importantly though, you can also create the documents online, without needed a word processing, spreadsheet or slide creation program. Essentially you could work within a more collaborative existence without ever needing to purchase Microsoft Office of for that matter a computer, just so long as you have access to one and a Google account.
Typical Word, Excel and PowerPoint junkies like myself aren’t the only ones that can benefit from the shift to purely online access point applications. This trend is showing up in the world of the pixel pushers as well. Adobe’s Photoshop Express is being beta tested currently and allows users to upload photos and utilize a limited set of tools typically only available to those who have purchased the program and loaded it on their own computer.
There are other examples and I expect to continue to see many more. Another proof point that this trend is starting to take hold exists with the machines themselves. If all the computing power, data storage and applications now exist in the ether then what will we need? Plain and simple, all you really need then is Access. Just enough computing power to get you connected and enough storage to cache the sties you visit. Lo and behold, it appears Steve Jobs sees the trend coming and has given us the MacBook Air (the name alone says a lot).
This computer isn’t as fast, and doesn’t contain the massive storage capabilities of some of Apple’s other laptops. What it lacks in brute force, it makes up for in compact size and lightweight portability. I mean, this computer doesn’t even have a CD-ROM, and instead allows users to access cd-drives from other computers – you guessed it – though the ether.
These are just a few examples and there will likely be more with increased effort and technological advances. Hooking everyone up to a fiber optic connection wouldn’t hurt either.
Southern Planner 
