Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

I saw a wonderfully weird and irreverent TV spot for Cheetos. The spot left me intrigued – it felt bigger than the common and meager attempts at TV-to-Web integration. Turns out, they want us to commit “random acts of cheetos”, or ROACS (ray-ocks). Or in their words, “to create playful mischief using CHEETOS snacks.” The tone of the campaign as a whole is riddled with subtle and not-so-subtle references to things like Fight Club, LOST and 12 Monkeys. The three things that I like most about this campaign:

The idea is extremely riffable; the nasty little orange snacks are easily accessible and the mischief potential is quite high; I expect they’ll get a lot of UGC participation.
The campaign is a build-up to a mysterious PR event that will take place on April 1st, where “all your hard work will not go unnoticed”.
The full screen video is whoop ass, with chapter-like markers that link to the YouTube profile which serves as a smart campaign hub.

http://www.orangeunderground.com/

Adam Wilson

News for the Long Tail: "The easiest way to keep track of what’s happening on your block, in your neighborhood and all over your city"
 
Hoping Toronto is covered eventually!

http://www.everyblock.com/
 
Jim Bachalo 

Connecting the spiritual part of running with the memory of the American soldiers who have fallen during the conflict in Iraq ...

Over the course of the past five years America has been involved in an ever-growing conflict inside Iraq. Over 3,930 American soldiers have lost their lives and over 28,000 have returned wounded.
 
Beginning June 15, 2008, a dedicated team of runners will run across America in honor of those who have fallen during the Iraq War.  Every mile in this memorial run, Run for the Fallen, will be dedicated to a fallen soldier and marked with an American flag and personalized sign card. These dedication markers will create a memorial trail across the United States, which will allow the memorial to connect with towns and citizens and propagate the memories and lives of those who fought in Iraq. We run in honor of the soldier. (see the soldiers and the map here.

Kathy Sierra has always been a proponent of what she refers to as the "hi-res user experience". She, along with Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV, recently spoke at the Future of Web Apps conference. They shared some common viewpoints about the necessity of inspiring passion when building a successful web community. And while Gary attributed his success mostly to his dedicated role as "community leader", there was a lot of insight in Kathy's words that also can explain the phenomenon that is Wine Library TV and a ever growing number of Vayniacs.

"What the music expert hears has more notes, more instruments, more syncopation... than what I hear when I listen to the same piece. Of course I don't mean the music technically changes, but if the way we experience it shifts, it is AS IF the music itself shifts. Learning adds resolution to what you offer. And the change happens not within the product, but between the user's ears. The more you help your users learn and improve, the greater the chance that they'll become passionate." Kathy Sierra

Two big mobile announcements this week:  Microsoft announced a deal with Nokia to take Silverlight mobile and Google announced the compatibility of Google Gears with Windows Mobile devices. Bringing some competition to a mobile RIA market dominated by Flash Lite can only be a good thing. While MS has a long way to go, a partnership with Nokia isn’t a bad place to start considering their 57% share of the global smartphone market.

What’s interesting about the Google Gears announcement is that it brings offline web app functionality to mobile. Most people are familiar with the idea for PCs in the form of Adobe AIR so it’s interesting to see a similar concept for mobile from Google. This could prove a very attractive platform for certain types of applications. Hopstop, that means you.

Dan Neumann

Apple has licensed the Active Sync Exchange protocol from Microsoft which will bring the iPhone’s messaging capabilities in line with Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices. It’s a big step toward removing barriers to corporate adoption.

In addition to push email support Apple announced the release of an iPhone SDK and outlined a distribution and monetization model for third-party applications. The plan is for a 70 - 30% rev-share deal with developers. Distribution is to be handled through iTunes giving Apple control over the types of applications available.

If they aren’t already, advertisers and marketers should be paying close attention to the iPhone developer community over the next few months. The breadth and sophistication of third-party apps at launch will likely foreshadow iPhone market share for Q2 and Q3, and potentially into next year. Not only is there potential for development of branded applications, but because Safari handles HTML so well, wider acceptance of the iPhone has the potential to shape the direction of mobile web development well beyond 2008. 

The device’s 2.0 firmware update is scheduled for release this June. It will include the application loader software that is to provide access to native application downloads. Mark your calendar. 

Dan Neumann

Organic is happy to announce a new, cross-network internship program, The Farm. Our long-term goal is create as one of the best digital programs in the nation – growing exceptional talent within the company.
 
We’re currently accepting applications from interested students and we are excited to show off our new micro-site:

http://www.organic.com/farm/

Besides submitting a typical resume or portfolio, students are also invited to submit their own two-minute video to express why they should be chosen as an Organic intern.  We're looking forward to hearing from bright students (or their teachers) who are interested in growing in the digital space with Organic.

Stay tuned for more info about Life On The Farm.

Traci Armstrong

Jeremiah Palecek is a painter that became noticed in the blogosphere (Boing Boing, Kotaku) for his video game inspired oil paintings. Lately, he's been getting another rush of press, as he has decided to turn his attention to painting representations of famous viral videos, including diet coke with mentos, grape stomping lady falls, Tom Cruise Scientology, and of course, the dramatic chipmunk.

The surge of traffic has caused him to reach out to the community and ask them what he should paint next. He will then select his 5 favorite comments from YouTube and create a community inspired art piece.

Marta Strickland

It's about time. Recent research from PEW Internet & America Life Project is beginning to tell a compelling story for American mobile web adoption. For the past two or more years, I have been somewhat astounded at the continual higher mobile adoption rates found in other countries. However strange as it seemed, there was an interesting and unique story in each case to justify these statistics.

Japan
As of Q1 2007, half of Japanese mobile consumers use the mobile Internet, which contrasts 10% of Europeans and a significantly lower amount of Americans. Why? Japanese consumers tended to use mobile web to get information that was timely, location driven, and actionable for their life on the go. Japanese never had a highly adoptable SMS program, and so mobile web quickly took over the void. Things like ringtones and wallpapers were pushed using this method instead of SMS which was more popular in the US and Europe. Add that to lengthy train commutes into work, and you have fast mobile web adoption.

Coordinatr is is a stripped-down event planning and tracking tool. Nice social features and VERY easy to use.

I’m swearing off of Evite.

http://www.coordinatr.com

Michael Beavers

I love this site from Vestal, a Southern California watch designer. Their brand is about "fine-tun(ing) style and expression for the musically inspired individual", so naturally they lead with music and video. 

While many other youth brands (Scion, Airwalk) integrate a music player into their site, Vestal uses the video window to house both entertainment (musicians, music videos, photo sets) and the sale itself (product details). Their products are so tightly woven into the brand story that the products tab is 8th in the navigation hierarchy.

What impresses me even more is that way that the interface replicates the modern experience of web-browsing multi-tasking.  You can run music in one window, browse product video in another, watch a news feed in a third, all from the same page.  Highly immersive.

http://www.vestalwatch.com

Misha Cornes

The Lost Ring is an ARG sponsored by McDonalds and the International Olympic Committee. It appears that a great deal of thought has been put into creating the game - it has an extensive cast of characters and content.

Check out additional videos here.

The actual site is....

http://www.thelostring.com/index.html

An a wiki that gives you the scoop on all things "thelostring" is here....

http://olympics.wikibruce.com/Beginners_Guide

Baron Conway

I received this "test" from a friend over the weekend for a campaign to promote awareness of cyclists among car drivers in the U.K.:
 
http://www.dothetest.co.uk/
 
While it pertains to cycling safety, I believe the premise of the "test", the phenomena of "change blindness" is relevant to our everyday business here at Organic.
 
Give it a try!
 
Here's more on the background of the "test":
 
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/projectsandschemes/roadsandpublicspaces/7599.aspx

Joe Lekovish

I just had a great experience with Dopplr that I thought would be insightful: ending my account.

Dopplr is a great tool for organizing your trips and seeing what trips your friends are planning and where they are.  This was all great, but my problem was that I just don't travel enough to warrant another site I have to update and deal with. So, due to no fault of theirs I closed my account today. They made this very easy, there's a one-step link in your profile page but after this they went above and beyond by emailing me this .ics calendar file of all the trips I organized in the tool. 

They clearly get that the owner of the data isn't them, it's me and that I shouldn't have to jump through any hoops to take my data with me after I'm finished using their site.  This sort of attention to detail and user friendliness in something as normally mundane as closing an account is exactly the kind of thing that makes me remember them and want to return to their service if I ever develop a need for such a thing.

Phil Dokas

MySpace launched their Application Gallery (beta) late last week to pretty quiet fanfare. Beyond the tech community, many probably don't even know of its existence. MySpace Apps is not yet included in the overall navigation, and with no messaging API that feeds application interaction into a user's "Friend Subscriptions", it is going to be a long while before MySpace Apps adoption numbers reach those comparable to Facebook, if ever.

But, it's early... and it wouldn't be unreasonable to consider the initial burying of MySpace Apps is on purpose. They still need to work the bugs out and get some proof points under their belt to attract skeptical developers, who have recently feared social network fatigue and application clutter. Having spent an hour or so testing out some of the initial offerings, I think that is probably a very wise strategy. There was equal amount that got me frustrated as there was getting me excited, and to win over the new MySpace audience, they are going to have to improve that ratio.

In all my time working in web advertising with automotive companies, there has been a recurring theme, and that is what you see on the Web site supports what you see in TV and print media.  We've all seen a million high-budget, super-cool TV ads, most of which will stick the URL to their site at the very end.
 
Well, Volkswagen has decided to change that, by using TV media to support their Web site.
 
Check out this ad for their new site in it, they use a ton of actual screenshots and animations from the site. So, when you go to http://www.volkswagen.co.uk after seeing the ad, you're immediately familiar with it.  Plus, you get the feeling that you're really surfin' something special, because hey - you saw it on TV!
 
It's an incredibly refreshing thing to see, and even more proof that automotive companies are continuing to turn to digital media more and more for their advertising needs.

Daryl Brewer

Maintaining the "Impossible is Nothing" tone. This latest installment of the Adidas Beijing Olympics campaign, takes the viewer on an emotionally poetic journey of an Olympian's continuous struggle with 2nd place.

The sinking steps metaphor, head bowed and the grey, beautifully illustrate the athlete's internal battle.

The transitions between the real, cg and the pencil sketch style are beautiful. This ad follows the style of the other two, All Together and Zheng Zhi.  Co-produced by Stink and Psyop

Derek Knight

I learned something today.  Images such as the one above from Tibet are "escaping" censored countries through the ingenuity of several people.  Although the Chinese government regularly shuts down YouTube and Google and others, these crafty individuals are using Psiphon to bypass government filters. 

According to CBC radio and CBC.ca, there are about 150,000 users who send content like this at the risk of their lives.  Without these modern day resistance fighters, we may never, I mean never see the other side of the story.  That to me is a powerful use of the web.
 
Vito Greto

As we probably all know, the Internet has presented a lot of challenges (and opportunities) to the traditional publishing industry... Do they embrace the spectrum or fight against it and go the way of the horse-drawn carriage...or even the big record labels! Or do they embrace it - digital offers some incredible paradigms for redefining what telling a story is and can mean.

I think the jury is still out on what the final answer is going to be, however you can see from the way online advertising has decimated traditional newspaper margins that the writing is on the wall.

Well one traditional UK publisher, Penguin Books, is taking a different approach.  Starting on  March 18th, Penguin UK launched an ambitious digital writing project. In collaboration with alternate reality game designers Six to Start, Penguin has challenged some of its top authors to create new forms of story - designed specially for the internet.

Over six weeks a number of well known writers including Mohsin Hamid, Kevin Brooks, Naomi Alderman Nicci French will creating stories that take try to full advantage of the immediacy, connectivity and interactivity that is now possible. This could not have been done until the last couple of years.

http://www.wetellstories.co.uk

We may not consciously think that bees are essential to our food supply but we'd be wrong. They are responsible for the survival of 1/3 of our food supply. In recent years honey bees are mysteriously vanishing across the country and it has serious implications for our food supply, not to mention the beauty of nature. Albert Einstein once predicted that if bees were to disappear, man would follow only a few years later.

Haazen-Dazs presents a wonderful site that describes the plight of the honey bee, the impact on our food supply and what we can do about it. You'll have to explore the site to make the connection between ice cream and bees.

The site was designed by Goodby and produced by London's unit9.

David Feldt

How could a Newsweek.com article from 1995 be one of the most viewed and emailed stories of the week? You can attribute that to the power of Digg. But what is less important than how it became so widely viewed is WHY. The article is a fascinating glimpse into our technology past, to a time when skeptics such as Clifford Stoll thought the internet was an overhyped innovation never destined to be integrated into our everyday lives.

"Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works."

12 years later and we have RSS, Amazon Kindle, e-courses, social networks, wikis, the list goes on and on. A search for "Battle of Trafalgar" instantly brings up Wikipedia, BBC History, and britishbattles.com.

It makes you wonder what other sneered at fads of today will be the ultimate tools of tomorrow.

Marta Strickland

I love this idea. Toyota has just launched a web service that allows users to create their own "coat-of-arms" which can then be downloaded as a high-res image. The idea is that Scion owners can then use the images they create as personal icons for online profiles or even have them airbrushed on their vehicles. Scion has always targeted a younger audience that is presumed to be more interested in self-expression, so this should be a good fit. But, what I really like about this is that it is a service that gives real value to the end user.

It is time for brands to expand beyond informational poster-style websites and banner advertising. Web services and real products are the wave of the digital marketing future because they precipitate real interaction with customers. I'm not suggesting we do away with banners, but I would like to see more money spent on web services and digital product-based marketing.

Dan Neumann