Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Hershey's is celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the King's death with a limited-edition candy bar:  a chocolate cup with a two-layered filling of peanut butter and banana creme, an homage to Elvis' deep-fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches. 

With a nod to the results of the national Fat Elvis/Skinny Elvis referendum of 1992, the package features the pre-Vegas Elvis.  Where's the truth in advertising?

Read more in AdAge.

Misha Cornes

In the ever changing world of Web 2.0 (don’t gag) the amount of gimmick-infused solutions probably doubles every day. Life hacks have become an icon of the modern web and one can’t go a day without running into a solution or tool that’s guaranteed to make your life easier.

Therefore, it’s a breath of fresh air to run across a solution that actually does simplify the browsing experience by making the user’s life a little less complicated. Snap, an Idealab company, located in Pasadena, CA has created a simple JavaScript tool to help developers construct more meaningful links to other sites. Snap simply pops open a preview balloon with a snapshot of the site being linked to whenever a user mouses over a link. This is by no means a new idea, Netflix has been doing it for over a year now with movie descriptions, and Ask.com currently employs a similar technique for their search results. 

Snap’s approach, however, is targeted towards webmasters and developers. By giving the user a snapshot of the site they’re about to link to, Snap claims that they can produce smarter browsing by helping users find the information they’re looking for faster, while at the same time keeping them on the current site longer. Snap continuously crawls the web and archives snapshots of its findings; and if you hover over a link that Snap has not yet archived, the application will do a live lookup via Ajax.

As with all Ajax tools there can be a lag with lookup times, but with broadband at a fairly high concentration this shouldn’t be a big concern.

Max Zabramny

If pre-school age children play any part in your life, you'll be painfully familiar with The Wiggles, a four-man singing and dancing sensation from Down Under.  Greg, Jeff, Anthony, and Murray earned more than $40 million last year through a combination of live performances, CDs, and DVD releases.

There's been a major shake-up in the band with the annoucement that Greg, the Yellow Wiggle, must retire for health reasons.  Across the country, millions of mothers are sitting down with their toddlers to explain the transition to a new Yellow Wiggle. 

For this purely digital generation, it's natural that the web has a role to play in breaking the news.  Greg released this video message on the Wiggles site, explaining his condition and handing over the mantle of Yellow Wiggle to Sam Moran, a long-time backup singer.

But as The New York Times reports, it may well be parents who are taking this news the hardest.  I had expected the video to be aimed at pre-schoolers, but its sober tone and medical language make it clear that Greg is speaking to his older fans as well.

Misha Cornes

Until the advent of Zappos, selling shoes online was largely considered taboo.  Shoe shoppers generally try on several shoes before making their final decision; few people seemed interested in the hassle and cost of having to return shoes that didn’t fit.  Zappos upended this experience in part by offering free shipping and returns and in part by offering an incredibly vast selection of brands. 

Gap, Inc. recently jumped into the fray by launching Piperlime.com.  For starters Piperlime is a rapid departure from the Gap's traditional store-brand strategy.  The site carries approximately 150 different (non-Gap) brands and thousands of different shoe models.  Nevertheless, compared to its competitors, Piperlime’s selection still seems alarmingly limited.  Rumor has it that Gap, Inc. is looking to Piperlime to haul it out of the company’s recent sales blues. Whether or not this is achievable, the site does merit some kudos for tackling the online shoe shopping experience differently than other players such as Zappos and 6pm.

First, Piperlime offers the same exceptional feature/functionality found on the other Gap, Inc. site: ‘quick look’.  Since people do consider multiple shoes at once, this is a critical and innovative feature that is currently not offered by the competition.

Second, rather than presenting a laundry list of shoe images without a clear fashion POV, Piperlime does an excellent job of merchandising its shoes.  It offers the buyer direction and different contexts to consider when purchasing shoes, for example in the women’s category it has links to shoes where you can glitz it up or think sophisticated.  Celebrity stylist Rachel Zoe is quick to point fashion mavens to ‘What’s Hot.'

Whether or not the Gap's merchandising efforts will trump Zappos' seat at the helm remains to be seen.   Current selection seems limited and despite the merchandising efforts, it comes off as a trendy site without much substance.   From a brand perspective, I question how Piperlime fits into the Gap's brand architecture and how it complements its core specialty retailer strategy.

Interestingly, Zappos does not see itself as a online shoe retailer, but as a service company that sells different products including shoes. 

Hopefully, Piperlime will not live up to its name and be a bitter fruit for The Gap.

Virginia Alber-Glanstaetten

It’s not the most intuitive site, and it’s a sort of print-like in its linearity, but I felt almost serene after pecking around Jonathan Yuen's portfolio site. Beautiful animation.

http://www.jonathanyuen.com/main.html

Adam Turinas

Like most interactive agencies, we spend far more time implementing sexy customer acquistion strategies than we do working on plain vanilla retention campaigns. 

We're really reflecting the prevailing values of our clients.  Many see customer churn as an inevitable aspect of their business model, particularly online, where switching cost are even lower than in the physical world. 

That's why I was so pleased to come across this membership site from Nature Made, one of the larger mass market vitamin brands from Pharmavite, a local subsidiary of Japan's Otsuka Pharmaceutical.  Every Nature Made product has a rewards code printed on the package, which can then be banked as points on the site and eventually redeemed for manufacturer's coupons. 

The design won't win any awards, but it's clearly tied back to point-of-sale data and probably provides valuable intelligence to Pharmavite on what products sell where.  In addition, it seems like a no-brainer to develop a basic loyalty program for what's essentially a commodity product.  It's a case of less is more, and a great lesson for all us not to forget about the retention side of the equation.

Misha Cornes

While not exceptional per se, URoulette.com has taken many to exceptional sites.  First introduced to me nigh on 8 years ago, it was the first random site generator I had seen.

It is a bit cluttered with ads from Amazon and Google, but there is something pure about the site.  It remains close to my heart as you never know where you will land in the world, or which language your screen will appear in. 

http://www.uroulette.com/

Vito Greto

I hadn't seen any publicity or blog posts about this Mozilla-based web browser until two days ago when  just by chance I stumbled onto Flock through a link on Flickr.

What makes this browser more than just a reskinned version of Firefox is its powerful social networking functionality. It's designed to be used by heavy photo sharing and blog users. It comes with built-in Flickr and Photobucket viewing and uploading/tagging tools as well as a blog editor. It also comes preloaded with a host of RSS feeds in a collapsible sidebar. But one of my favorite features that I'd like to see incorporated into other browsers is its snippet bar, which lets you store all sorts of web content for later use, such as posting in blogs.

The public beta version is available for Windows, Mac and Linux at www.flock.com.

Daniel Modell

Legendary Beatles producer George Martin and his son Giles have remixed and remastered 26 new tracks of Beatles music specifically for LOVE, the Cirque du Soleil homage to Beatles currently playing at the Mirage in Las Vegas.

I went to see LOVE with a couple of Organics last month, and it was extraordinary.  The stunts were of course amazing, but it was Cirque du Soleil's ability to put into performance the many themes and moods that run through the Beatles' music that really blew us away.  The show drew visual cues from post-WWII Britain, Swinging London, Psychedelia and Flower Power, Yellow Submarine and the Blue Meanies, and then of course the general Cirque du Soleil bizarre.  Certain set pieces had me wishing that own dreams could be as vivid. 

Leaving aside the unbelieveable artistry of both the music and the performance, LOVE's promotion has been exceptional from a marketing perspective.  There's a really seamless integration between a number of unusual but complementary brands:

• At a dedicated LOVE site 
• At the official Beatles site
• At Cirque du Soleil's website

And pretty good integration with some ancillary channels as well:

• The Mirage
• An Amazon-only CD+DVD
• Starbucks point of sale

If you can't take in the show, you can still buy the music.

Misha Cornes

I share this both because it’s such a great, simple idea but also because Bristol-Myers Squibb will donate $1 for every candle lit. Pity about the ad banner at the bottom. It seems like an after-thought.

Adam Turinas

Like.com is the first visual search engine that allows users to search by image or appearance to retrieve similar items.

The initial launch features is limited to hot ticket fashion items such as shoes, jewelry and handbags but will include other product categories in the near future.

A smart feature includes the ability to finds items that have a specific feature you like (such as a buckle, strap, etc); all you have to do is click and drag the area of the image that you want to focus the search on. You can also filter items by color, price range or even by celebrity (items worn by your favorite starlet).

This is very exciting technology, and Riya, the visual computing research team behind like.com, promises that users will soon be able to upload their own photos and search for similar products.

Angela DiPietro

Consumers' desire to trade-up is a key to the rise of a number of mass luxury brands in the last decade.  From Starbucks to Victoria's Secret, retailers have found value in taking an ordinary product and imbuing it with high-end, experiential qualities.

Last month's interview with Chip Conley  has gotten me thinking about a countervailing trend: trading down.  Dunkin' Donuts is in many ways the anti-Starbucks, and not just because the two chains compete head-to-head, particularly in the Northeast.  If Starbucks is a bespoke experience, Dunkin' is unabashedly a fast-food vision of coffee: drive-through, pre-defined servings of milk and sugar, donuts in a baggie.  And customers from across the economic spectrum love the brand.

There's something about a low-end brand that offers a sense of authenticity, particularly among those who feel jaded by traditional advertising.  Hipsters have rallied around Pabst Blue Ribbon as the beer analog to thrift-store clothing- anti-consumer in its consumption.  And you only need to look at recent electoral history to be reminded that working-class cultural elements (jeans, trucks, beer) are still equated with the Real America.  Standard advertising for these products is essentially all about how down-market they are.

It's a mistake to assume that only luxury brands have a self-expressive quality.  For every Endangered Species Chocolate  buyer, there is someone who'll stick with Hershey's, thank you.   

What other examples can you think of consumers trading down?

Misha Cornes

Are things not going as planned in your life lately? Learn how to improve your karma on www.ImproveYourKarma.com

This is an interesting advertising microsite for the Motorola Razr phone,  in which a wacky Swedish spiritual guide - Sven Goodsson - shows you how to boost your karma. The character is funny and the site is feature-rich. You can monitor your karma by typing in a Myspace profile URL (this didn’t work for me, however) and analyze your karma by uploading a picture and seeing your “aura” overlaid on top.

The concept is funny and the site doesn’t try too hard to sell.  But there is almost too much functionality and content.  For all the wacky written content,  little of it has a punch line or payoff, so you quickly get bored reading it.

Ultimately, what makes the site stand out is the funny character and the video of Sven embedded in Flash.  This features is what catches eyeballs - everything else is window dressing.

Jake Bennett

We seem to be working on a theme of  "simpler can be better" this week.  For those of us living in earthquake country, AlertSF.org provides emergency text-based alerts for the Bay Area. 

The site won't win any design awards, but its value proposition jumps off the page - free texts to your phone or email in the event of a major disaster.

The site is underwritten by the City and County of San Francisco, and powered by Roam Secure, a national provider of secure communications at the Federal, State, and Local level.  Since 9/11,  the emergency preparedness community has rediscovered the Internet's original role  - as a multi-node communications system designed to survive a nuclear attack.   (Sorry to be such a downer.)

But while you're at it, why not take a look at 72hours.org to make sure your earthquake/emergency kit is up to date.

Misha Cornes

Let me preface this entry with a statement: I did not set out intending to bash the Zune. I really wanted to like it. I held off on reading more than a couple of reviews until I had a chance to try one out for myself. That said, my overall impression after experiencing it for 24 hours can be summed up in a word: underwhelming.

I am an avid iPod user. Very few among us can't say that, can we? I mean, my dad bought a Nano last summer and can't stop telling me how awesome it is. And since Microsoft has had a long and colorful history of borrowing the best of Apple's software engineering and transforming it into something comically inferior, it's no surprise to see what the Zune can't do.

I was handed a Zune without much explanation from Conor Brady, who asked me to see what I thought. On first inspection I said, well, it sure is big. In fact, it's larger (though lighter) than the 4th generation iPod, and I suspect closer to the size of the 1st generation model. Its tactile feel is pleasing, with a frosted plastic surface that is presumably more scratch resistant than its Apple counterpart. Its face features a large, tall screen that brightly displays album art (or not - more on this in a moment). The back shamelessly mimics the iPod with its girder-like Zune logo centered just above the midpoint and bears the tiny words "Hello from Seattle," in an obvious lift from the iPod's "Designed by Apple in California." It also comes with a too-tight protective slipcover.

I'll be reading a book to my three year old and he'll ask me what a word means.  So far (and hopefully for a few years to come), I've been able to define everything he's asked about.  Later, I'm sure I'll do what my mother used to do when I asked what words I was reading meant, which is to say, "Go look it up in the dictionary."  Which he, like I, will probably not do. 

I read the New York Times online every morning and occasionally I'll run across a word I don't know.  Do I go to dictionary.com or wiktionary.org to look it up?  No.  I want to keep reading.  I'll try to figure it out from context.

The Times has a feature that I discovered today that makes it easy to get definitions and encyclopedia info on any word in any article they publish without distracting yourself too much.    It's the coolest feature you didn't know exists.  Just [ALT]-click on any word and a daughter window opens with definitions and links.  From five dollar words like "inexorably" to five-cent words like "have." 

The obvious room for improvement is to float the definition in Ajax right over the word rather than opening another window.  But their ability to isolate the word of your choice wherever it sits and smarten you up about it an awesome (in its simplicity) experience enhancer.

Matt Rosenberg

How incredibly fun is this site from Toyota of Sweden? They had me at hello. From the very first look at this cluster of moving scenes, I couldn't resist rolling around to explore. I didn't even click on anything for awhile because I was just mesmerized by the scenery and sounds.

I like:

• the chapter navigation at the bottom that corresponds to each scene.   
• how easy it is to return to home base at the end of each module.
• how they created a fairy tale atmosphere – a story – that stimulates imagination. I can lose myself in this immersive cluster, just as I would in a good book or movie. Interaction is not at all forced. It’s purely voluntary.
• the humorous and light-hearted chapters, for example “fingertip quality” and “the string”. It’s content unrelated to the reveal vehicle, yet content that strengthens brand perception.
• how I’m projecting Toyota’s meticulously designed and engineered website to their vehicles

Nikki Duncan

My name is Kelley, and I just had another Amazon EE.

Just poking around for some good Zojirushi products, I ran across the Mr.
Bento.

The product alone is very cool. But then I was checking out the additional Amazon photos.

Which then led me to "More photos and ideas at Flickr".

I have been using Amazon for so long, I just assumed I had seen all they had to offer.  Secretly I knew they must be cooking up new ways to engage me, but I hadn't seen anything obvious.  This strikes me as the perfect tie-in - you get users to sell the product for you by showing the over 1000 ways people have utilized their Mr. Bento as documented in their OWN photos.

Kelley Barry

I have been known to dig the folks over at Honda and their various marketing maneuvers rather enthusiastically. I also kind of want a robot manservant. Well, Honda's been making the promotional rounds with their version, Asimo, for a while now. And it's been an up and down tour for the little guy. After watching the first video, I was pretty sure that it was only a matter of weeks before I would wake to, "Good morning, Daniel San, your breakfast is ready." Then, after watching the second, I realized that my place isn't very big and the stairs are a little uneven. And made of tile. And tile really hurts when you fall on it.

Poor Asimo. He even says, "sleeping," in English after he falls. But Honda, keep dreaming big. I'll save my yen.

Daniel Turman

What happens when you mash-up Linked In, Facebook, and Brass Ring?  You get Doostang, a social networking site and job board. 

Taking a page from early Gmail and the original Facebook, it's by invitation only and seems aimed at ambitious young Ivy leaguers who are ready to trade gossip on MySpace for an analyst's job on Wall Street.   

The site's main innovation is allowing recruiters to post positions directly to the site, then letting users set up keyword search preferences  so that matching positions are accessible directly from their profile.   They also make it easy to port your entire address book from sites like Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and Hotmail.

Doostang is fourth or fifth mover in a crowded field that includes Linked In, Ryze, Jobster, and Zero Degrees (now defunct).   Like online auctions, network effects make it very difficult to unseat the player with the largest user base (Linked In).  But I think that their life-stage positioning is smart one, particularly if Doostang can convince today's job-minded college students currently on "social" social networks to switch over on graduation.

Misha Cornes

Last week Conan O'Brien, late night talk show host on NBC, did a comedy bit on NCAA mascots, one of which was introduced as the "sexy and she knows it"  FSU Webcam Manatee.  Before moving on to the next imaginary mascot, he made a crack about "HornyManatee.com." a fake domain name.

The next night, Conan let the audience know that NBC lawyers had told him to buy the domain name, reasoning that if a viewer were to acquire the rights and post objectionable material, NBC could potentially be held liable for promoting it on air.   So NBC bought ten years of rights to HornyManatee.com. Conan's team quickly threw up a site that included "manatee-on-manatee" action and a live manatee webcam, and, on the next show, he solicited "horny manatee" picture and story contributions.

So far the site has received 4.5 million hits in a week's time, and fans have submitted hilarious art, video and story contributions.

http://hornymanatee.com

Read more in today's New York Times: So This Manatee Walks Into the Internet

Angela Di Pietro