Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

Play time at Aaron Yacks's house goes something like this... The kids from around the neighborhood come over. A few crowd around computer #1 and the others crowd around computer #2. They invite each other into virtual rooms and the games begin. Shouting can be heard through out the halls of the house as they yell to each other, "I'm going to go on the next quest, are you coming?"

They are doing what all kids do.
They are exploring together... only virtually.

It's much different than the times of playing blocks on the floor or playing tag in the neighbor's yard. And it's quick to judge experiences that were different than the ones we had. But with new experiences come new opportunities.

There is something to this new play time. The New York Times described it best as co-presence. Both teams are playing their own game, but they are also "talking" back and forth, as if they were in the same room, on the same computer. And because of that, they don't even have to be. They could be across the street from each other. They could be across the world from each other.

The new play time is killing the locationality of friendships.

...because catching up to Firefox and Opera functionality better describes what is happening here. In either case, Microsoft has definitely stepped up their game with this release which allows a ton of new functionality and features.

All of the new functions are neatly packaged and easy to understand, which is a much different experience from browsing through pages of Firefox addons. The Easy Homepage function (see image above) has been incredibly useful and really changes your browsing experience because you tend to use this tab as a navigation page. The page load times seem faster than any other browser I have used to date, probably thanks to the FasterIE prefetching which uses idle bandwidth time to download and cache links so they are ready for you when you click on them. The mouse gestures are fun but this along with many of the services take time to learn and setup, I guess that is why it is called "Pro".

I have tried Chrome, Avant, Flock and other browsers but have always comeback to Firefox. Had it not been acting up this week I probably would not have even tried IE7 Pro. But now that I have spent some time getting acquainted, Firefox maybe knocked out of contention.

http://www.ie7pro.com/

Russ Hopkinson

UPDATE: Contrary to the implication in my post above, IE7 Pro is not developed by Microsoft, it is an independent group of developers based in India. Although there was mysteriously little information on who they were or how much support Microsoft has provided.

image creditSwansea Photographer [Flickr]

In a fantastic post about the different fears of different generations, Laurel Papworth brings this insight to the table:

"Gen Y fear not finding their passion. By not connecting to their passion and with others that share similar passions, Gen Y fear they will not have a voice and will end up being ignored.

Oh and there's no point standing still and trying to figure out something in depth because the world is in state of continual flux, and so you had better keep skating ahead of the changes. Keep changing jobs, careers, stay flexible, until you find what you love..."

It isn't ADD that this generation has, they are just constantly searching for something that will hold their interest and keep them passionate. In the world of information and sensory overload, there is simply no time to waste on the mundane, you have to flip and scan until you land on the exceptional. And it's when children find it, that they prove just how well they can learn, what can hold their interest, and how empowering technology can be.

"My 6 3/4 yr old daughter has given me a very different view into the next information / knowledge age and how different it is from the world I grew up in. Increasingly she's started to spend extended periods of time in front of the computer learning new things, not just playing games or watching videos...

Today she spent 60+ minutes exploring the wonderful world of African Rain Spiders. I watched her use Google, Wikipedia and blogs to read about these spiders, look at images of them and imbibe a huge amount of knowledge. Her mind is obviously able to deal with the hyperlinked world a lot better than her dad's."
David Feldt (Digital Disruption)

Technology is making learning more instantaneous, more exploratory, and more collaborative.

Just to repeat Frontline's Growing Up Online again, we are calling this the "biggest generation gap since rock 'n' roll". Parents are seeing their children embracing technology in ways they cannot relate to. But this is a shrinking gap. As the next generation of parents were raised on the internet and Nintendo, they will be able to identify with their children and be "digital natives" with them. And the question I have is... are we losing anything along the way?

And honestly, I'm not one to talk, as a "digital native" myself:

"You were exposed to technology. I held you on my lap when you were weeks old as I composed my freelance work on an Apple II computer. Before long you were reaching out to play with the keys and on to the what now seems primitive software we got for you. By 18 months you were loading up your own diskettes."
My Mom

But I don't want to come at this from a biased point of view, because I understand this concept. We are dealing with our own limitations. We are advancing faster than the speed of human evolution, so as one skill comes in, another falls out.

"I compare this to the same problem as when people get a GPS. My friends admitted to me, and I admit of myself, that I no longer pay attention to where I am going. You no longer have a visual map in your head of where you are going. You are riding shot gun in your own car, and when the device freezes up, you are completely lost. You have no barrings."
Scott Lange

In this war for brain power and attention, in this world where there is so much competing to for our time, what skills are we losing by creating technology that makes it so much easier.

image credit: Irving Geis

We all love statistics!! Whether factual, misleading, or downright wrong... they are bite-sized and delicious. They make this whole crazy world quantifiable and human behavior easier to deal with. This weeks featured statistic comes from the 2008 Cone Business of Social Media Study:

"93% of Americans believe that a company should have a presence on social media sites and 85% believe that these companies should use these services to interact with consumers."

Hurray for social media, which is continuing to seep it's way into the hearts of consumers and companies alike.

What's Been Happening This Week...

Twitter Continues To Grow Up... Mostly
Evan Williams, co-founder of Twitter, got named one of Business Week's 25 Most Influential People on the Web. But what's funny about Twitter's success is that it wasn't intended to be used for what it is now. It's no longer about "what are you doing?", it's about communicating in the fastest way possible to the masses.

A great example of this occurred this week when Laurel Papworth, Australian blogger, decided to pull together an instant consultancy to respond to an RFP from Vodaphone. She put out a tweet and within 4 hours later, she had pulled together 65 people, they had set up a website called The Twitter Agency, and were exchanging tips and strategy via blog posts.

Big Twitter blunder this week came today when citizen journalism falsely reported that Steve Jobs had a heart attack. CNN carried the report, Apple stock dropped, until it was revealed it was false. Could this become a growing trend?

"You've got people who are trying to game the system to (possibly?) game the market or influence other events. The 'news market' will eventually start filtering these reports out, which raises the price of being a reliable news source and slightly degrades the Twitters and iReports as useful sources."
Mike Hudson

Web Apps: Alive, Dead, or Evil?
It was a weird week for the world of widgets and web apps. Mashable basically called web apps a necessary evil. And the rest of the blogosphere couldn't agree on whether the web app was dead or growing. Facebook announced that their apps are now portable to friendster, and Netflix finally launched an API to make their data available for widgetization. But is this all too late... AllFacebook has presented some pretty convincing charts that show a huge decline in web app installation, since the Facebook redesign.

One area that isn't down is mobile apps. Facebook launched a new version of their iPhone app this week. And presidential candidate Barack Obama released an iPhone app to help supporters connect and get involved, stay up to date on breaking news, read up on Obama's position on issues, and more.

Marta Strickland

image credit: point_cat35 [Flickr]

A few years ago, a technically minded (geeky? Who said geeky?) friend offered to set me up with a blog on his personal server. Having kept journals in various forms over the years, I thought, Why not? And hey, good work research.

With nothing in particular I wanted to write about, over the next four years it became a compendium of family and work life anecdotes, not very deep thoughts, links and anything else that came to mind. Few people knew about it, but I was vaguely aware that with very specific searches (eg the name of my band) it would show up on Google, so I was careful not to include client names or even where I worked, just to stay under the radar.

Then two days ago I got a frantic email from my friend (with a subject line that I'm amazed got through my spam filter) saying that while updating the blog software, he'd accidentally wiped away all four and a half years of posts -- about 250 or so. Poof! And he had no backup of his server. Suddenly my lighthearted musings of the last while became more valuable -- there were a lot of nice memories recorded in there that (as every parent knows) don't last on their own. What to do?

Google to the rescue! Knowing that my band name showed up in searches, I started there. Sure enough, it came up, but of course the link itself was useless. On the other hand, the "cache" link... worked like a charm. And best of all, each post noted the name of the post before and after, so with a search string that went something like: "site:www.theservername.net elliottblog blog toronto " I found I could methodically work my way through the posts and extract all the content from them into a text file.

Google as file backup! It was laborious (and Google had lost track of a few of them), but hey, posts with names like "Glove in a Cold Climate" are worth saving. Ahem.

There is much written about the worrisome way that Google is crawling and documenting our online activities, but this is the first time I've really considered it as something with personal benefit beyond getting a decent search result. For once, the idea that Google has been following along behind me like an obsessive court reporter, recording and storing my meanderings, is oddly comforting.

Not that I won't be backing up my own posts from now on.

Elliott Smith

While I agree that the democratization of data is important, there are still significant hurdles surrounding privacy and security. For example, if my small business is in competition with someone else in a similar market space, how much do I trust the cloud with this data? How much can I share without a competitor deducing what I am doing?

While the initial "snooping" concept is simple ... The data is secure therefore they can't see it, what about the in the cracks data. Imagine we are collaborating on a Google document internally for a new partnership in my product space. We have a determined competitor who really wants to find out how to beat us to market. What is they can watch the ad's being served up to me and my employees in some way. What if the information gleaned from those ads (targeted at document content maybe) reveals our super-secret market partnership? Sound far fetched? Maybe not.

I think that the true power of this data comes from aggregating it, smashing it up against other data and then analyzing it. The problem is that doing this kind of data analysis often requires something more than a human mind. Scientists are already struggling with this concept as more and more raw scientific data is made available on the web. What we need is an automated way to look for patterns, clusters, interesting hypotheses in these data.

However, on the flip side, the setup of a business that is not tied to physical location any more. Cloud services like google docs, grandcentral, skype, and zimbra allow people to create a company without a physical office. A globally extended supply chain and global reach for shipping means companies can be created, operate, and grow in a completely virtual way. What will countries do to tax such an entity? How will we deal with this?

Dean McRobie

It depends on the execution.

A site from the Nova Scotia Government uses this method in a unique & very engaging way. The rise of smartphones and their penetration into mainstream consciousness allows the site to leverage it's theme of "everything you need" in what I thought to be a brilliant use of misdirection.

Introducing the Pomegranite, a new *faux* smartphone. Aside from the usual suspects of smartphone options - email, browsing, digital cameras, GPS & an mp3 player, this product goes beyond those options with a projector, a voice translator & a harmonica to name just some of the extras. As you navigate the site to learn about each of the additional features, you're given an option to keep learning more or if you've had enough.. When you've had enough - only then will the full message will be realized...

The sites storytelling, it's fantastic video production, plus other site subtleties - its cleanliness and by calling out often overlooked accessibility options give this site a feeling of authenticity.

http://www.pomegranatephone.com/

It's for sure to be a source of confusion as you're dealing with two completely different topics - smartphones & tourism.. Within Organic there's been discussion whether this idea works - with proponents from both camps. Personally, I loved the misdirection & felt a connection to the message when I was finally realized what the message was.

"Someday you'll be able to get everything you want in a device till then you can get everything you want in one place..."

Damn.. I really wanted that harmonica.

Thoughts?

Patrick Dunphy

I swear that's what these characters are thinking as they twitch for my attention. They know they're cute. The entertainment stops me dead in my tracks. When I finally break the spell and move my mouse, the rollover animations beckon me to look behind door #1, no! 2, no! 3! I give up deciding which to play with first, and just click, waiting with Christmas-like anticipation as to what I will see next.

The Coca-Cola Company blew campaign standards out of the water since launching the original fantasy world called the "Happiness Factory" in 2006.

Drawing viewers near through film is one master of skills; recreating the same level of experience online - and letting viewers touch it and affect it - is a separate challenge. The campaign demanded equality from its online extension in 2007.

These characters were too fun to be shelved and locked away in a non-interactive film. So, the Happiness Factory became the website. Users can explore the characters, play games, and apply for a job.

Let us tip our hats and take note on the technical dances that must have taken place with creative. This high quality, rich animation working within today's bandwidth limitations doesn't happen easily. The load times are at a manageable level, and I should mention that I've seen the loader tens of times, yet I still study the host's reflection and wait for his Roger Rabbit.

The moral of this story: continue pushing for solutions that make the fantasy a reality. Let's practice saying this to each other: "You want that? *OK. Let's work together and we'll find a way to do it."

* This Experience Architect does not endorse meaningless, purposeless nothingness.

Nikki Duncan

I'm not the biggest fan of survey research, as I find that it most often (of necessity) uses leading questions. When I review survey data, I often wonder if respondents would ever think or formulate some of the statements which they are asked in these surveys.

Gen We is a study of Generation Y, and it offers some interesting insights interspersed with commentary which wanders between the inspirational and the utopian. The scientist has clearly fallen in love with his subject. It tends towards the leading variety of research, but it's balanced with first person, one-on-one conversations that ask more open ended questions. Although, I do wish it offered other generations responses to the same questions for comparison.

What I find particularly remarkable is that the authors have placed the entire contents of the book in a free, downloadable PDF on their website. I almost purchased the book on Amazon (for $19.98) after having read an interview with the two authors. But right before adding the book to my shopping cart, I googled their names, which led me to their website, www.gen-we.com.

It's an interesting moment in media, because many content creators (musicians, writers, etc.) seem to be willing to offer free or pay-what-you-want facsimiles of their work as a marketing tool for other, typically higher quality versions of their work.

Should those of us in digital be concerned that our creations might be valued less than their "real world" counterparts? The jury's still out, but I'd argue that we should be somewhat concerned about this perception...

Only 3% of the population defines themselves as classical music lovers, for the rest we are either tolerant or just "don't get it". While some people concentrate their energies on trying to raise that 3% to a 4%, Benjamin Zander believes beyond any reason of a doubt that EVERYONE is a classical music lover, they just don't know it yet.

Zander boldly commits to not playing his musical piece until everyone in the audience realizes their love for classical music. He uses pure emotion and storytelling, as he breaks down a piece bit by bit. He finds commonalities with the audience so that he is connecting on their level. He gets them interested and engaged. And only then does he play the piece, and everyone in the audience "gets it".

Zander's statistic about classical music reminded me of another statistic I saw recently... 58% of people have no idea what social networking is (eMarketer). But I don't really believe that. What I believe is that everyone wants to use social media to enrich their lives and strengthen their relationships, they just don't know how to get started. What I believe is that every company wants to connect with their customers and build a loyal community, they just don't know where to begin.

I used to be content with my peer-appointed title of "social media expert". People will ask you questions when they need to and it makes you feel smart and helpful. But as my love for social media grew and grew, that was when I realized it wasn't enough to just be an expert and wait to be asked... I wanted to be a Social Media Evangelist. I spread my dreams for a socially connected world whenever I get the opportunity. I'm no longer telling people what to do, I'm telling them what is possible...

But maybe, that's not enough either. I want to be like Benjamin Zander. I want to be a conductor. A conductor's power is to make other people powerful, and to awaken them to the possibilities. It's showing, not telling. It's leading, not preaching.

So from now on, I want to be Marta Strickland, Social Media Conductor.

What are you a Conductor of?

(thanks to Jim Bachalo for the link)

It's hard to pay attention to the news of the web industry this week. I've seen digests on other blogs become shorter and shorter. Right now, everything else going on in the world seems more interesting, scary, captivating, devastating...

But if you were paying attention this week, you would have seen an underlying trend, and that is this... social media is growing up.

What's Been Happening This Week?

The Playful But Powerful Google
Google had a few unserious moments this week. It introduced two joke features, an audio preview for YouTube comments and "mail goggles" for G-mail that prevent users from drunk e-mailing by forcing them to do math problems.

But as an ongoing trend, Google continues to be an innovator and a magnifying glass into online culture. They are implementing high-definition imagery and textual advertising into Google Maps. And, ReadWriteWeb had a great article on how one can use Google trends to analyze America's reaction to the debates. Popular campaign words, such as "maverick", saw a huge spike during the debates, as viewers at home everywhere in this nation turned to Google for a true definition.

The Social Network War Is Coming To An End, Or Is It?
It may happen in the next month folks. A battle that has been raging for more than a year might come to a close. As for the first time in US history, Facebook is set to overtake MySpace in traffic numbers. What could this mean? Will Facebook become MySpace like everyone fears?

Better question.. do we even need Facebook? The up-and-comer, Ning, just announced that it has hit the half a million mark with over 500,000 niche social networks. Maybe Facebook and MySpace are they the Netscape and AOL of the 2.0 world? They started the trend, but will fail to innovate quickly enough, as more nimble companies grow in popularity.

Enterprise Embraces Social While Everything Else Falls
Despite reports that half of social media campaigns will flop, there is more and more enterprise dollars being invested in the space. As risky as it may seem, it is far more risky to do nothing. We have 93% of consumers saying they want brands to join them in the space. And we also have compelling statistics to show that their purchase behavior and brand opinion is being shaped by social media experiences.

This space is evolving at intense speeds. We've moved passed the time of "my top 8 friends" and superpokes. Best Buy is building an enterprise Twitter for employees. Digg is flushing out those who are trying to scam the system. YouTube is building in e-commerce options into their site.

The good times are over. RIP. Things are about to get a lot more serious.

Marta Strickland

Content creation. It is undeniably the one of biggest and most powerful characteristics of Web 2.0. Ever since the web became a platform, developers have been providing the tools for consumers to be the creators of:

Video
Music
History
Social Networks
... even Applications

It's become easier and easier for us to create powerful things. Creation is not limited to an elite few, it's available to everyone. And as each week passes, the lines between developer/programmer and common user blur even more. With each week, we are becoming creators of something new and exciting.

So this week, I will be taking a quick look at some tools that have launched recently and some trends that are gaining momentum. What could you be the creator of tomorrow?

Marta Strickland

Now this might seem like a given. After all, we have had consumer-rated news sites like Digg for a few years now. But I am talking about something more than consumers choosing what news articles they find relevant at any given time. I'm talking about tools that empower us to create news in an easy and powerful way.

Earlier this year, CNN launched iReport, a consumer-generated news site that claims to be "Unedited. Unfiltered." I would have to agree considering that the top story according to Google today read Ketchup assassinated. That was probably a fluke, because most of the top stories have to do with the election.

What is great about iReport is that it turns individual citizens with a camera, time to investigate, time to write, and decent basic reporting skills into actual journalists. But, what about something even easier than that, what about something even more integrated into our everyday lives and common citizens?

Well, look what is going on at election.twitter.com. This is a place where our chatter is becoming news. Yes, it is only reading the dialogue of people using Twitter, and yes, it is only focused on the election, but I think this is the beginning of something big. When I want to find out the newest hot items in the upcoming election, THIS is where I go. The site analyzes the firehouse of constant conversation and looks for instant trends that are peaking. It's the consumer-generated headlines in an ongoing news story.

Just imagine what this could be if they started creating portals for energy, the economy, foreign policy, disasters, health, fashion... as more and more people use Twitter, we're not just going to be writing articles anymore, we're going to be creating the headlines.

Marta Strickland

Little Big Planet is one of those games that defies explanation. On Friday, Eric Diem wrote, "I can't find the words to describe what a unique experience this game produces, so I figured it would just be easier to bring in my PS3 in so everyone can check it out."

So he did, and the impression that he left on the office was monumental. Jeff Bossardet confessed to me, "It is gorgeous. I have never been a gamer. For many years now I have thought that it may be advantageous, as an interactive professional, to understand the gaming world from a users perspective. I think I have found my gateway drug I mean game...Little Big Planet."

Why were we all so excited? Little Big Planet isn't just a game. It is a way to make games, mold games, and share games. The only limits are that of human imagination.

In its simplest form, Little Big Planet is a platform game, but it is a game that teaches you how to create your own levels. It provides you with different materials and all the tools you need to turn those materials into moving, changing, and logical objects. These objects can be set to react to different changes in the environment or actions of the players. The result is the ability for every player with patience and practice to create entire video games of their own.

But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The social element of the game is another side to the revolution. All worlds can be "published", which means they are open for the entire community to play. Those worlds can be rated, tagged, and shared. And, if the world creator so chooses, they can give the objects they create (villains, tools, etc) as gifts to other players to use in their levels.

Some see this all as a bold move in consumer-generated gaming, and others see it as opening the door to other greater deeds in co-creation. But everyone agrees it is a HUGE step forward for the industry. Just look at this guy who defied game-makers expectations and created a working calculator. Prepare to be amazed:

Marta Strickland

Congratulations to Organic's own Fang-Yu Lin on the upcoming release of his DIY book. Outside of the office, Fang's work as a new media artist led him to this latest project as co-author of Switch Craft, a book which marries technology, fashion, and craft.

After two years of preparation and labor, Switch Craft: Battery-Powered Crafts to Make and Sew, the design DIY book that Fang co-authored with Alison Lewis, is finally ready for release on October 28th. The book is intended to introduce the previous niche fashion/wearable technology to the mass audience in an accessible and appealing manner. It's Fang's hope that the book would inspire more professional or amateur crafters, designers and artists to incorporate electronic features in their creative endeavors.

For more information please visit http://www.iheartswitch.com/switchcraft/ (the site is under redesign; a new version will be launched soon).

Definitely check the book out when it hits shelves at the end of the month.

Charlie Zicari

There have been several stories on the incredible use of virtual media by the Obama campaign. All their campaign events have been streamed live on his site, they use Twitter to keep people informed about them, they launched their own iPhone application - and they're not done yet. The Obama campaign is now advertising in a very popular video game for the Xbox 360.

The game, called "Burnout: Paradise", features an open world which you drive, race, trick, and crash your way through in any way you see fit (you can get details about the game here). It features billboards (a lot of which you can crash through) that companies are able to buy advertising on, just like real billboards (In fact, I believe Dodge has already done it for this game). This in itself represents an incredible way of reaching an audience of millions of (generally) younger people.

Here is a screenshot taken by an Xbox 360 gamer of the billboard which the Obama campaign has paid for. At first, most people didn't believe it; they thought it was somebody's clever Photoshop job. But then Electronic Arts (the makers of the game) confirmed that the Obama campaign has indeed paid for advertising within the game. Brilliant.

In-game advertising is not a new concept, but for a political campaign to be savvy enough to realize this opportunity exists and take advantage of it is really impressive. I really believe as video games continue to move to take advantage of the power of social networking, this is the type of advertising we will see a LOT more of. And therein lies a tremendous opportunity for Organic.

The challenges for this type of advertising will be game-specific - how can advertising be blended in without having it stick out like a sore thumb? Gamers are very, very passionate about their hobby, and while they will instinctively reject a really obvious marketing ploy, they will also applaud those that are done in a clever yet non-intrusive manner. Sounds like a heck of a fun project to me!

As in-game advertising opportunities continue to grow (and they will!), I think we will see a lot of VERY cool opportunities to show off our Exceptional Experience abilities.

You can read about this story right here.

Daryl Brewer