Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Last night I got a firsthand glimpse of a very cool video streaming app from startup Qik.
 
Qik is a mobile streaming video service with a social angle that is currently available for Nokia and windows mobile phones (see their site FAQ). However, they are developing the service for use with iPhones and what I saw last night was that alpha in development.
 
On the iPhone, the app is activated from an icon link and from there you hold your phone like a camera while recording video that is stored on the qik.com site for you or other users to view.  When we tested it last night, our stream happened to load up on their front page as a currently running stream - so we were watching our stream in real time (about a 3 second delay) - very cool!
 
Using the iPhone 1.0's lens optics and processor, the video quality was good but not great (about 5-7 fps, quality dependent on ambient lighting); however the audio was surprisingly good (kudos to the iPhone mic?).  Besides seeing ourselves on the qik.com homepage, we were also immediately able to access the file created from a directory of videos just created.  Making and viewing a video was a seamless, instant user experience.
 
From a content distribution POV, this service is even easier to use than YouTube and like the site says, will have a million uses.  Like YouTube, there is already a global user base (check out the integrated geotagging for videos).  Already on the site are quite a few known 'lifecasters' and podcasters, ranging from pro to (extremely) amateur.  Another great feature is live chat. It's the most elegant implementation of "video+phone" I've seen yet. I'm not sure if their iPhone app will be as robust for viewing as for video creation (e.g., the YouTube app on the iPhone) but we will see.
 
Color me very, very impressed with this service, its implementation so far and its potential impact on our media culture that is rapidly changing to bottom-up and many-to-many.  This is going to be big!

http://www.qik.com
 
Jay Bain

A little-noticed story from Anheuser-Busch last week given the focus on the presumptive InBev takeover: last week A-B announced that it will stop selling alcoholic energy drinks. 

Relenting to pressure from anti-underage drinking activists and state attorneys general, they are pulling the plug on the tiny Bud Extra and Tilt brands (shortly after I got married, I used to see this ad every day on my commute).  Several brewers are accused of designing and marketing "alcopops" specifically for the under-21 market, and ultimately it seems A-B has decided that the controversy was not worth the minimal gains.

While it will have little effect on A-B's business, it's a big deal for category leader Miller and their Sparks brand.  I've tried Sparks and last year I reviewed Sparks.com, which seemed to give an insight into their product strategy:

"Navigating the site definitely feels like stepping into the mind of a teenage boy - air guitar contests, skateboards, doodles - but in a bold move, no shots of attractive girls.  Is it specifically targeted at underage drinkers?"

If the Center for Science in the Public Interest and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's case against SAB Miller goes forward, we will soon have our answer.

Misha Cornes

This is a very smart and engaging site created for Subaru Canada.  Works on many levels.  The sumo wrestler injects the Japanese - read quality - aspect.  It is synergistic with the broadcast.  Leverages the reality shows like America's Next Top Model and also sells the vehicle in an engaging manner.  It provides the same walk around navigation of most auto sites, but truly puts the consumer in control.  You even get to look at your proofs and send them off to friends or a contest they sponsor.

While a half naked sumo may not be what I would consider sexy, the site certainly delivers on make a relatively non-descript vehicle, look..well hot...

http://www.sexysubaru.ca

Vito Greto

Apparently the Carhartt website has undergone a redesign and they are enlisting their users to help destroy the old site.  The implementation of this could have been a little stronger, with more tools to use, but I like the concept of having some fun with the old website to introduce the new one.  Once you destroy the old homepage, you get to see the new one.

http://www.carhartt.com/

Steve Conroy

This is a fantastic example of some outside the box thinking on connecting the offline, mobile, and online experience with customized products. By now I am sure you are all familiar with the NIKEiD program. The next evolution is using MMS on your cell phone to help you pick and match your outfit. The technology behind this isn't too complicated, but the experience design is interesting: see something that catches your eye, snap a picture, Nike sends you the matching shoes overlaid on your picture, and of course linking over to ordering online too! This technology and experience could apply to all kinds of clothing and retail products with strong color choices and a relatively minimal infrastructure.

Masterminded by AKQA, London, NIKE PHOTOiD is a brand new mobile application which allows users to customize their own set of sneakers according to their physical surroundings. You simply take a picture of something on your camera phone (it could be anything from a piece of graffiti to an ice cream sundae) and then send this pic off to a shortcode via MMS. The NIKEiD website then picks out the two strongest colours from your image and uses them to colour your custom sneakers. Within a minute, you are sent a link with your design superimposed over the original source of pantone inspiration.

You can then save this image as wallpaper for your mobile, send it to a mate or, by entering the unique DESIGNiD at NIKEiD.com, link directly to your design to complete and actually purchase the sneakers. As one particularly over-excited sneaker-freak in our office inquired with a faint hint of dribble at the corner of his mouth: 'So I could take a picture of a grassy meadow and then it would text me a link to buy my very own Nike Grassy Meadows?' Yeap chap - that's about the long and short of it...

Via Contagious.

Dean McRobie

The crazy, messy story of the birth and nurturing of the internet.

"This year marks the 50th anniversary of an extraordinary moment. In 1958 the United States government set up a special unit, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA), to help jump-start new efforts in science and technology. This was the agency that would nurture the Internet."

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/07/internet200807

Sandy Marsh

As we all know in interactive, data is everywhere - everything we do is or can be tracked. The question is are we looking in the right place.

This is a very interesting visualization of information from a somewhat different angle.  This organic visualization, "code swarm" by Michael Ogawa from UC Davis is history of commits to a software project (a commit happens when a developer makes changes to the code or documents and transfers them into the central project repository). However, instead of focusing on the actual code, the focus is on the relationships between developers and their code.

Other than this being a great way to look at a universe of information based on relationships, time and events, I think there could be a real opportunity for us as digital marketers to use models like this from an analytics perspective to find new ways of targeting messages to customers.

Imagine doing a similar exercise for a client. Would there be patterns that we have not seen before and how could we leverage those patterns from a marketing and experience perspective?

See more videos at

http://vis.cs.ucdavis.edu/~ogawa/codeswarm/

Baron Conway

Webster's just added a slew of new words to the dictionary. For fellow lyric-maker-uppers, be sure to check out "mondegreen", if you haven't heard of it before.

It seems someone can just make up a word, work it into everyday language and wait a few years. Eventually, it may end up in the  big book of words.

What words will you coin?

I'm working on my personal favorites:
1. Confuser - a confused user of the internet
2. Modifly - modify on the fly; make a change during an existing process or operation

...both of which were born from usability testing :)

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080707/new_dictionary_words.html

Sandy Marsh

Information geeks and semantic web watchers have been tracking the progress of Twine since the fall of last year, and I just received an invitation to their Beta test.

It's hard to define what Twine does without diving deep into Web 3.0 jargon, but here goes.  It's a knowledge-sharing platform that attempts to organize streams of information found on the web- pages, images, emails, videos, etc. - into clusters that the company calls Twines.  Unlike a wiki or a shared extranet like BaseCamp, Twine uses the intelligence hidden in way the content is tagged to infer relationships between different pieces of information, similar to del.icio.us. Users who upload information can also define relationships between different pieces of data themselves.

Twine also weaves together a number of Web 2.0 capabilities into one package: 
Like social networks, you can hobnob with other people who share your interests
Like newgroups, you can subscribe to feeds on topics that interest you that are being assembled by the community.
Like an improved StumbleUpon, Twine will suggest different articles and pieces of content based on your information streams and your relationships with others.

It's always tricky to review a new service after only a couple of days of use.  It's a very ambitious undertaking that has the Web geek community buzzing (see reviews from ReadWriteWeb and WebWare).  But as it's currently organized, Twine really does make the Semantic Web concept seem...dull.  Like Wikipedia, the success of the project is entirely dependent on a large, active user base and the power of the network effect.  And that user base currently consists of uber-geeks.  No surprise that #1 topic on this Semantic Web is...the Semantic Web. 

I would love to see Twine remade (ie remarketed) for a more mainstream audience.  Think what plugged-in tween girls could do with a product like this. Forget a Zac Efron fansite- this could be the hub for all things High School Musical, all things Hannah Montana, all things Gossip Girl.  I think acquiring a mass audience is the only way that this product will come to cover the entire Web, which must be the ultimate promise of a Semantic Web application.

http://www.twine.com 

Misha Cornes

I cannot claim to have come up with the catchy phrase or this great simple, engaging, and to the point presentation on social media. But nevertheless, I have to do my part to support Marta's in Social Media, and thus I am putting my seal of approval on this great presentation from Marta Kagan.

Is it revolutionary? No. Is there anything we haven't heard before? Probably not. The important thing it's fun and that it's right. It's all the stuff that we have been blogging, preaching, reading, and tweeting for the past few years, only to the point with fun graphics and those great top-level gut-punching numbers.

Marta Strickland

(image credit: FCW Insider blog)

Web 3.0 has been a fairly exciting subject in the industry for many of us. Over the past few years, we've been watching what Web 2.0 has done to our daily lives, the way we talk with our friends, the way we find information, the way we shop, the way we navigate the web, and even the way we navigate the world we live in. It's empowering, and it seems only natural to ask... well, what's next?

Still, there is one fairly large area that influences our lives that has been left off of the list in the Web 2.0 Awards. While there are many remarkable examples in the categories of education, health, and real estate, there hasn't been an award given for a best US Government 2.0 website. The revolution just hasn't happened yet, and considering the philosophy of Web 2.0, it is easy to understand why. Richard MacManus of ReadWriteWeb describes the philosophy as "letting go of control, sharing ideas and code, building on what others have built, and freeing your data." While that doesn't sound like something the government would ever embrace, there are some major signs that the revolution is approaching.

The Signs...

Commissioned by the Cartier foundation, several young artists from around the world have explored and reflected on this question for the project LOVE.

Take a look at each artist's interpretation through original works: musical compositions, a series of twelve love stories on film, photography, video, drawing, etc.

On Cartier's Love Day 2008 (June 19th), they also aimed at combining charity with musical expression and fine jewelry. This year twelve international artists and performers worked with Cartier to create twelves never-before released songs. Cartier made these special songs available online where they can be listened to and downloaded for free.

http://www.love.cartier.com/

So, how far would you go for love?

Euphenia Cheng

Did you leave early last Friday to get your Iphone? Uh-huh~ So now you have you iPhone in hand, and finally got it activated, let's put some cool apps on it.

Loopt provides a cellphone-based GPS sharing system with the goal of providing an innovative social mapping tool that allows friends to visualize one another using their cell phones and share information about interesting places.

Loopt's geosocial networking services show users where friends are located and what they are doing via detailed, interactive maps on their mobile phones. Loopt helps friends connect on the fly and navigate their social lives by orienting them to people, places, and events. Users can also share location updates, geo-tagged photos, and comments with friends in their mobile address book or on online social networks, communities, and blogs.

Loopt was designed with user privacy at its core and offers a variety of effective and intuitive privacy controls.

Their latest release for the iPhone integrates microblogging and reviews from Yelp into its interface.

Beside iPhone, Loopt also works on Blackberry too!

http://www.loopt.com/

Euphenia Cheng

Grant Achatz received a standing ovation at this year's James Beard ceremony after winning the Best Chef US award.  He is most known for his work at Chicago restaurant, Alinea, within the realm of molecular gastronomy.  
 
Since then, he is scheduled to release an "impressive and epic" book this fall.  As a precursor, he has launched Alinea Mosaic, an online companion for those who have pre-ordered the book: http://alinea-mosaic.com/.
 
The site will feature video demonstrations, pictures, recipes and the like.  In addition, the site features an online forum, where Mr. Achatz answers questions from his cult-following of chefs and foodies.  A beautiful and personal introduction to a highly anticipated work.  
 
Read more on Achatz in Wired.
 
Rachel Nathan

 
I have been looking forward to the release of Rob Walker's new book for months.  Walker writes the Consumed column for the New York Times Magazine and is one of the few journalists to write critically about popular culture and consumer trends rather than simply chronicling the ad industry as a business. And unlike your typical marketing guru, he isn't hawking consulting services, his company, or his other books.

The result is a refreshingly jargon-free analysis of the interplay between brands and consumers.  Walker has an omnivorous intellect and he moves effortlessly through a range of topics including the history of advertising, world of mouth, the rise of hip-hop, and role of academic psychology in shaping marketing.

His central thesis is that all the talk about a new era of consumer control is wrong.  While the orthodoxy is that consumers are tuning out advertising and demanding authenticity, it's equally true that brands have more allure for consumers than ever.  And that allure doesn't just mean active consumer collaboration - reworking and remixing a brand.  He gives numerous examples of consumers adopting products whole as the key expression of their identity.

With Timberland boots, for example, you had a new segment of the population- inner city African Americans- adopting a no-nonsense 50's-era shoe originally designed for rural, blue collar New Englanders.  The hip-hop segment ultimately became more profitable and more influential to Timberland's future, essentially forcing this conservative company to update its style to include, for example, a florescent pink model.  On the flip-side, you have brands like American Apparel or Pabst Blue Ribbon that both represent and define a lifestyle for their audience.

Walker calls this blurring of the relationship between brand and brand consumer "murketing" - which began as a joke at the expense of buzzword-loving marketers but seems to have stuck (Walker's site is www.murketing.com)

If I have any complaints about Buying In, it's that it lacks a central framework that ties the argument together.  No matter what the (fascinating) anecdote, the conclusion is little more than  "yep, that's murketing too".   Maybe this is the downside to Walker's chops as a magazine journalist.  It felt like each chapter makes a very compelling essay, but altogether it falls just short of being a seminal book.  Recommended reading.

Misha Cornes

image credit gizmodo

The decision to get an iPhone might seem like an easy choice to most people. The fact that this decision has been so hard and so long coming (since February) has more to do with how much I use my phone, strangely, and not how little. I would rather hold out with my frustrating, but familiar Motorola Q for the right phone, than jump into another 2 year contract with the wrong one. My love for all things Google certainly hasn't helped in the matter. I had recently changed my mobile signature to say "still holding out for the Android", but with the Android release delays and developer drama, I just can't hold out any more.

I'm going to get an iPhone. When my current cell contract runs out (coincidentally on my birthday), there will be no more debating, I'm just going to do it.

Now that I'm convinced, I've already begun shopping what apps I'm going to fill my phone up with from the first day. The two I'm most excited about: Google Mobile and Where™. While I'm terribly frustrated that yet again Google did not integrate Google My Maps into their new app, the usefulness and intuitive interface cannot be denied. Google Maps is just meant for a fast touch screen interface. Where™ is another location-based application that delivers local information via Eventful, Yelp, GasBuddy, Zipcar, ShopLocal, Starbucks, Buddy Beacon® and more. While I am yet to find a mapping application that feeds in my custom GPX data, both of the options listed above are a great start in that direction. And, best of all, they are both free. Something I won't soon be taking for granted.

Marta Strickland

While I don't understand the craze behind Joss Whedon, I have to respect the major Web 2.0 embracing that is demonstrated in his latest project, Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog. This is not another viral video, this is not another web sitcom. It's an event, a moment in time, a quickfire community assembled around valued content.

Dr. Horrible a three part series releasing every two days and then coming down for good. All acts will be available until midnight, Sunday, July 20. Then they will "vanish into the night, like a phantom (but not THE Phantom - that's still playing. Like, everywhere)" according to Letter from Joss Whedon available on the site.

It's ingenious. In a time of disposable culture, grassroot advocacy, and niche social networks, Joss is tapping into the vein of Web 2.0 in a way that most of traditional media has yet to comprehend.

"It is time for us to change the face of Show Business as we know it. You know the old adage, "It's Show Business - not Show Friends"? Well now it's Show Friends. We did that. To Show Business. To show Show Business we mean business. (Also, there are now other businesses like it.) "

And it looks like it's already working. The first installment released on Tuesday crashed the website.

So why is this important? Again, I'll defer to Joss who explains it best in his letter...

"Do what you always do, peeps! Do what you're already doing. Spread the word. Rock some banners, widgets, diggs... let people know who wouldn't ordinarily know. It wouldn't hurt if this really was an event. Good for the business, good for the community - communitIES: Hollywood, internet, artists around the world, comic-book fans, musical fans (and even the rather vocal community of people who hate both but will still dig on this). Proving we can turn Dr Horrible into a viable economic proposition as well as an awesome goof will only inspire more people to lay themselves out in the same way. It's time for the dissemination of the artistic process. Create more for less. You are the ones that can make that happen. Wow. I had no idea how important you guys were. I'm a little afraid of you."

Marta Strickland

image credit regelzam0ra (Flickr)

Searching for "street photography" in flickr groups returns 6,497 groups. It appears people around the world are drawn to capturing the urban lifestyle.

In a similar fashion, Blurb, an online book publisher, recently hosted a photography book contest. Anyone can use Blurb's site to put together books using their own photos. Sure, anyone can take photos. But has the advancement -- and nearly norm -- of digital photography allowed anyone to become a photographer? Maybe it's that the medium simply allows for us to share our captured moments more easily. And what defines a true photographer anyway? It's all in the eye of the beholder.

Sarah Jo Sautter

As some readers of this blog know, I am stepping down as Editor-in-Chief of ThreeMinds.  Today is my last day at Organic.

It's been a great five year run.  In many ways my career here took off as I became more involved with ThreeMinds.  There are amazing synergies between coalescing my random thoughts into cogent posts and bringing a strong point of view on digital marketing to clients.

Marta Strickland, a senior strategist in our Detroit office, will be stepping in as the new Editor.  In addition to being a prolific author on this blog and Recently Consumed, Marta is a forward-thinking technologist with a keen interest in social media and the semantic web.  With your help, she and the rest of the team will taking ThreeMinds to the next level.

I want to thank everyone for their readership and their participation in ThreeMinds. It's been a very rewarding process for me and I have learned a great deal from all of you.  I first worked here as an MBA intern more than eight years ago, and Organic and ThreeMinds will always have a place in my heart.

The next step for me is to work on the broader challenge of experience design.  I will be building the Strategy practice at Method, a design studio that focuses on bringing innovative products and services to market.  You'll be seeing more of my thoughts on design, digital marketing, and the customer experience there.

Misha Cornes

There was an interesting article in the New York Times about how there has been a shift in new teen romances, "brands are more important than romantic relationships to the female protagonists' popularity." Dr. Naomi Johnson, a communication professor at Longwood University in Virginia wrote her dissertation on female characters' obsession with being pretty, thin and stylish. She did this by reviewing three popular teen series, "Clique", "Gossip Girl", and "A-List". What she found was interesting.

In these new teen romances, she wrote, "Heroines no longer become women through romance, they become feminine through consumption" On average, there was more than one brand mentioned per page and the bad guys are often indicated by their unfortunate brand choices. Although all the representatives of the "Clique" series were adamant that there had never been any paid product placement in these books, cross-promotion or barter exchange, the books are represented by Alloy Entertainment. One of Alloy's biggest revenue streams is product placement and they are "very good" at reaching the pre-teen and teenage audience.

This goes into the face of the rise of the Alpha Girl. Alpha Girls have an "emancipated confidence" that is raising self-esteem, reducing depression, and altering gender roles among girls and young women.

So what does this mean? Maybe the difference with the girls coming of age is that they want the same things girls have always wanted, but now they will provide the clothes, fun and happiness for themselves versus looking to a boy to make it happen for them.

Full article in the New York Times:
In Novels for Girls, Fashion Trumps Romance

Embarrassingly as it is to admit I have recently become obsessed with teen romance novels (I like vampires, fairies, witches rather than the mean fashionable girls).

Kari Girarde