Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

It sounds like the punchline of a joke or something catchy to put on a t-shirt, but there is no stopping it. The over 40 crowd is flocking to Facebook and you know what... I think we are all going to better off because of it!! Why? The new demographic is going to inspire:

1. Interfaces to become more intuitive
2. Social graphs to shrink
3. Social platforms to open and branch out

Over the holidays, the last of my parents finally joined the Facebook club. One thing that distinguishes the social media immigrants from the social media natives is their understanding of how to use the tools. It might horrify a parent to know that their kids snicker when they reply to our messages on their own wall. Or when they sign their name at the bottom of a comment. But why should it?

These social media interfaces need to be more intuitive. Why should someone be expected to know the difference between a wall post, a note, a message, and a comment the instant they sign up? And just think about how Twitter must seem to a generation that doesn't fully embrace text messaging. Platforms that are unintuitive are going to miss out, as boomers don't wait around for things to get easier.

One of Greg Verdino's 2009 predictions, one I very much agree with, was on social graph shrinkage:

"We'll start using online social platforms to stay connected with the people we actually know and care about. Suddenly, being Facebook friends with your mom will seem less ridiculous than following 4,000 strangers on Twitter."

Boomers tend to be more guarded with the information they distribute about themselves online. I have been politely asked to untag unflattering photos, and watched as my parents cautiously add select "friends" only after a few messages have passed between them. It's polite, it's pickier, and in a world of social noise, we could learn a thing or two from that behavior. Perhaps friendship should be earned. Perhaps I don't really care about the lifestreams of hundreds of people I've never met before.

Finally, I think with the influx of social media immigrants we are going to see projects like Facebook Connect picking up a lot of steam. Boomers are savvy shoppers. They love using online tools and consumer reviews to make smarter buying decisions. Social platforms that branch out into the online retail world are going to become seen as something of value in the Boomer's eyes. They will change from the casual messaging tool to an easy way to get electronic advice from my tech-savvy son or figure out what my daughter-in-law wants for Christmas.

So I welcome parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles to come to the social media party. Because, while I may not like having to clean up my house because my parents are coming over, in the end I always realize that I like it that way better.

Marta Strickland

image credit: Optical Illusion [Flickr]

2008 was a year of tremendous ups and downs. It was also a year of bold declarations. One week a social media property would be declared the future... the next "big" thing. The next week it would be declared dead. Many platforms sought to monetize, very few of them have been successful. And with the economic condition, everyone has begun looking around and taking bets on which properties will still be around after the recession.

Today I took a look back at my (half) year in Weekly Digests to figure out what exactly happened in the past many months.

What's Been Happening This Year

Continue reading "ThreeMinds Digest of 2008" »

I'll always remember 2008 not just for the political and economic drama, but also for all of the innovations in consumer technology that affected me.

In particular, this was the year the iPhone and its library of mobile applications became an integral part of my daily routine.  The iPhone's ever-growing app catalog has been a great source of utility and entertainment for me as an end user; it's also fascinating to consider these apps from an experience design perspective too.

On that note, here's an informal list of ten favorite iPhone apps from 2008, as well as a short wish list for apps in 2009.  With favorites from me and a few other Organics  (thanks Casey, Lisa, Marta and Tracy), this is by no means definitive but might prove helpful or fun for you or an iPhone user you know.

Continue reading "A Look Back at Some Favorite iPhone Apps from 2008" »

The demise of paper (yes, the stuff made from trees) has been a longstanding prediction. Ever since the first time we realized that we could conveniently find, consume, save, produce, or modify information via CPU, the old school printing press was put on notice. Still, old school newspapers, magazines, and books have held on, defying expectations and proving more resilient than many expected, making fools out of those who assured us otherwise. That is, until two weeks ago.

The newspaper industry, hit hard by declining readership, increased printing and distribution costs, and disappearing ad revenue, has been long poised for a radical overhaul. It seems fitting that Detroit - a place that knows more than a little about decline and the challenges and roadblocks to reformation - has set out to lead the charge toward transformation toward a new model in newspaper delivery.

According to a press release from the Detroit Media Partnership (the publishers of both the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News), "The economics of the newspaper business demand change to survive... The dynamics of delivering information to audiences has changed forever due to technology... That means we have to change the way we deliver [the] news - not just in subtle ways, but in fundamental ways." Read: We're going digital.

Continue reading "Print Is Dead (And This Time We Mean It)!" »

During the Web 2.0 Summit earlier this year, Paul Otellini, the CEO of Intel Corporation, brought up an interesting paradox about Moore's Law, the theory that computer hardware will drive ever smaller and more complex at an exponential rate. Rather than embrace my inner-geek and describe what that means when we get down into computers the size of atoms and the impending singularity, I'll try and put it as simply as Paul did at the conference...

Moore's law is not a law of nature, it's a law of human innovation. And thus, the limits are ours.

From what I'm sensing, 2009 will be a year of less new things. It will be a year to aggregate your social presence and sanitize your friends list. We could consider this a side effect of the economic downturn. Perhaps "tightening the belt" is not just limited to our finances, but also to our valuable time. However, there are others that say we are reaching our human limits...

As limits of quantum mechanics will forever taunt Intel as they drive technology smaller and smaller, we are limited by the evolution of our brain and our learned culture. There are only so many things we can remember, only so much we can multitask, and only so many "friends" we can really follow on Twitter!!

But I have faith. Every time Intel hits a wall, they break it down, they innovate, and they find a new way to move technology along. And we will too.

2009 will bring us aggregation tools that will help us sort through the noise, while our brains and learned social behavior has a chance to catch up to the brave new always-on world. Someday, we will be born with the natural skills to handle such dense information. Although, one look at the digital natives, who happily browse with 20 windows open, music blasting, videos playing, makes you wonder if that evolution hasn't already happened.

Marta Strickland

I received an e-mail last week from JetBlue announcing their JetPaws program, an exclusive program tailored to pets and pet owners to ensure a smooth trip.

While I don't have a pet, I'm really impressed by this idea. Great combo of useful information, subtle push to sign up for their loyalty program, fun stuff with the photo contest and product cross sells. While they're asking you to take action, they're also providing a payoff.

I had a pet in the past and needed to move her from San Diego to NYC. It was more frustrating than my own cross country move in that there was little useful information on the site and I spent at least 2 hours on the phone/on hold with American Airlines.

Pets are like family members, and it's great that Jet Blue recognizes this and is treating them as important parts of our lives.

Tracy Richards

I received a Snowflake message this morning from a family member that certainly brightened my day. I found the delivery of the message fun and it inspired me to create my own to send...

http://www.popularfront.com/snowdays/

The process of creating the snowflake was intuitive - very much like the paper version we all created as kids and then finally, sending my own message that I knew would brighten someone else's day was a nice ending to a morning diversion.

Nicole Craine

It's almost 2009. And as everyone's predictions for next year and best/worst lists for this year come out, there has been a lot of caution and skepticism. But in the spirit of the holidays, I am going to keep this digest short and sweet... sweet meaning let's focus on the positive news this week.

What's positive? Well, Facebook is still growing. Mobile social networking is up. And, the iPhone isn't the only phone getting cool new apps, although they are probably the only phone where people can make $10K with a farting app.

As we look back over the year, from the Superbowl to the election, it's amazing to see how Twitter has been there to add real time commentary and communications. Just in time for Christmas, they gave us a better and faster people search to help tweeters find each other more easily.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Marta Strickland

Just in time to be this year's hot stocking stuffer, Burger King released a limted edition body spray that supposedly smells like "the scent of seduction with the hint of flame-broiled meat".

http://www.firemeetsdesire.com/

As the site says, "The Whopper sandwich is America's Favorite burger. FLAME by BK captures the essence of that love and gives it to you in the form of a body spray."

On the site, I especially like the full screen option and the different video clips are really funny - plus the buy now link to close the deal. It's also cool to see the King character continue to evolve as a representative of the brand...

Now if only this smells as good as/better than the AXE spray in the Organic San Francisco mens room, the world will be a better place ;)

Jay Bain

As you all know, the global economy is on its way to being one of the worst economic recessions in 25 years. Layoffs are happening all around us and consumer spending is extremely tight. Getting share of wallet will be more difficult than ever before. So, what should marketers focus on during these challenging times?

1. Measure Return of Investment Holistically.
2. Develop Integrated Campaigns.
3. Optimize Your Marketing Campaigns.
4. Balance Creative and Measurement Goals.
5. Don't Shy Away From Social Media Platforms.
6. Develop Disciplined Innovation.

Full descriptions of each after the break...

Continue reading "6 Ways To Focus Marketing In An Economic Downturn" »

I didn't even realize that awesome could be this awesome. And I weep for our collective lameness. Christopher Dane Owens is the creator of this impossibly awesome confluence of multi-dimensional cheesiness. It's like he got a 20 every time he rolled the big Dungeons and Dragons dice of life. And then rolled all that good luck up into four minutes and seventeen seconds of YouTube greatness. Sure, it took a huge, largely self-funded budget (he's a well-paid TV producer by day). And sure, it's a bit confusing, but when you're trying to pack this much awesome into 4:17, sacrifices must be made. But don't listen to me, here's Calabassas-based Christopher in his own words, courtesy of the LA Times.

My character is part of the witches kingdom, which is the second kingdom. I'm actually part of their army and an enforcer, a general, if you will. I meet that young lady Arra who is secretly being trained by the angels and they hand her a book. That book is the book of golden symbols which can only be understood by the spirit, by the living soul. She's being trained secretly to be the queen of this realm, to overthrow the forces of darkness. My character actually meets her and falls in love with her and decides to leave the dark side, so he has an epiphany.

Dude, wait. What? That's totally some Narnia meets Final Fantasy and has a three-headed baby type ish. In other words: awesomeness redefined by spectacular geek-out overload. 

The rub? This can be perceived as disingenuous at worst when brought across the fence to the advertising community. Or just not all that awesome. So, how do we get this dude a Super Bowl ad without stealing his mojo. Somebody get Tay Zonday on the line for his thoughts. The White Gold guys over at Goodby? Barring that, this deserves some commentary from all of us. Fire when ready.

Turman

PS. Read the whole LA Times piece here.

It's a good time of year to remember Sears, Roebuck, and Co., once mail order megalith from which exciting and mysterious packages would arrive to the wonder and expectation of kiddies everywhere. As a kid I used to spend hours poring over the toy section of the Sears catalog and dreaming around this time of year.

Well, good ol' Sears has made a dream come true again this year. This has turned out to be one of the most practically useful web sites of the year for me:

www.searspartsdirect.com

My 1995 Craftsman garage door opener stopped working a few days ago, leaving the door stuck open, and when I hit that web site, within minutes I had pinpointed the exact part (drive gear & sprocket assembly) that I needed to fix the problem. Another five minutes saw an order submitted for about 40 bucks.

Last night I was bumming about the garage door being open before the big Detroit snowstorm of '08. Lo and behold, like the star-struck kiddies of yore, how my eyes lit up when my wife presented me with that mysterious package from Sears.

Fast-forward through four hours and a couple of customary expletives, and my wife and I were gleefully cycling the automatic 1/2-hp-motor-driven garage door up and down, up and down. The precise directions included with the specific part needed for our 13-year-old opener made the replacement straightforward (though never expletive-free for one with thick thumbs). Needless to say, dry garage this morning.

One may say that the above site is not a marketing site. But that site and the accompanying attention to detail in the parts process did more for my Sears brand opinion than any Sears marketing to which I've ever been exposed.

Even their acquisition of Kmart didn't go as far (close second, though - OK, not really).

Matthew Williams

Real proof that traditional paper billboards are not as immortal as the vampires promoted in this Brazilian subway ad campaign. The following video shows great examples of how a movie release campaign came to life. You can see it in action in the link below:
http://www.vimeo.com/2508720

For the movie release of Twilight in Brazil, Ginga Interactive created a series of marketing stunts both on and offline. Apart from creating and uniting various fan communities of the books and film, interactivity was brought to the underground metro system in São Paulo. Interactive Posters were installed in various terminals of the metro system, with animated videos and even extra content sent via bluetooth to cell phones.

Randi Barshack