Three Minds On Digital Marketing @ Organic

While checking out award-winning work, I came across a cool (no pun intended) financial management site: Mint.

Mint is a free service and provides budgeting tools directly tied to all of your bank accounts. Once you set up your accounts, Mint will pull this information every time you log in, and categorize it by expense type. You can even add tags to expenses, like Reimbursable, Tax-related, Vacation, etc., so you can keep your expenses organized. Mint also displays your expenses by percentages in a clickable pie chart that lets you click down to the basic categories and then expand details on what your actual expenses were. This is great because it gives you a visual tool for analyzing how much you're spending on, say Food -- What percentage is on Restaurants, on Groceries or on... (gasp!) Fast Food!

Two other cool features in Mint are the ability to set budget amounts for yourself and see where you are at with expenses (how much you've exceed or are under budget in a given month), and the ability to see how much you spend in a given category compared to others in a selected city. So you can easily figure out if your lifestyle matches the city you're living in, whether another city might better fit your spending lifestyle, or whether-since your neighbors are doing it-you shouldn't feel guilty spending a little more on this or that!

Other features on Mint.com include savings and investment tools, so you can see what you're saving and invest it wisely - all within the same online application. All in all, Mint is a great online tool, especially if you have bank accounts at different banks and want to manage your overall budget in the same place.

Stephanie Jorgl

We often think of user and brand experience in the online space. But what happens when that experience exits the digital realm? I recently came across two pieces of work by two distinctly different agencies that successfully took the user experience off the safe path. One was driven by the brand. The other by the consumers.
 
Brand-Directed Paths
eView360 focuses on the reach of a brand experience and how it should touch print and interactive, and then carry over into physical space.  One pointed example is seamless brand experience Tessera Executive Search in Dubai presents from print to web to office.

eView360 is a unique agency that employs a multidisciplinary approach that includes print, web, interior and architectural design. When creating a branded experience for their clients, they carry their design cues into the physical office environment. For Tessera Exectutive Search, the color schemes on the Tessera website carry over to the wood stains in the office or the seats in the waiting room. The environment "feels" Tessera in all the areas where you interact with the company.

Consumer-Created Paths
Mazda 3 used an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) in Quebec, Canada to build awareness around its launch. Called the 33 keys project, it enticed users to find 33 keys in a scavenger hunt across various mediums. The ultimate prize? A real vehicle. A TV spot created awareness, and seeded through blogs and guerilla marketing. There were a number of web properties built for the campaign including a website, a Facebook group and a blog.
 
Over the course of play, the game changed and players reached out to each other through social media channels outside of the established properties. With this change in strategy, the brand was forced to change how they supported the game. They also worked with bloggers and Facebook group owners to seed clues. Their flexibility only added to the excitement of the game and encouraged more participation. Overall, it was a very successful campaign.
 
Managing the Experience
Both presentations got me thinking about how all-encompassing a user or brand experience can be. Seeing how the 33 keys project grew organically from their own properties to blogs and social networks, I wondered if it's even possible to manage the experience. Also, seeing how eView360 carries the brand through to physical spaces, I thought about how quickly a brand can be lost once outside the print or web space.
 
So, how do we help users experience a brand through multiple mediums?

• Create continuity. Consider all the places where your customers interact with your brand and make sure they're consistent.

• Think about your leitmotif. What cues can your customers feel that let them know when they're in your space, be that physical, cyber or print?

• Plan for change. As with 33keys, customers may pick up on your brand and run with it.

• Generate novel ideas. What would you do (or have you tried)?

Anthony Viviano
Sarah Jo Sautter
 

A number of emerging technologies in the gaming space were revealed at the E3 Expo.  The ones that seemed to generate the most buzz were offerings from Sony and Microsoft that both happened to be showcasing forms of augmented reality (AR) interaction.

 Wikipedia defines augmented reality as, "the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time." (You can read Threeminds posts about a few AR experiences here.) It's an exciting time because we're at a point where the hardware, software and maturity of data/networks have converged and we're seeing offerings that are priced within levels for average consumers to afford.

One of the largest and most talked about events at the E3 Expo was Microsoft's demonstration of their Project Natal technology for the Xbox 360 system.  Project's Natal's technology uses a camera/sensor to track a user's movements, and map that movement to an avatar/character in the game-space.  The most intriguing aspect of this technology is that it doesn't require the need of any controllers or attached tracking elements on the individual.  The technology is smart enough to know which of your different limbs is doing what, and correspondingly maps it onto the screen.  Sony, on the other hand, demoed its own version of augmented reality interaction for the PS3 through it's already available EyeToy. Unlike Microsoft's Natal technology, the PS3's EyeToy relies on a couple special sensors that a user holds onto. These sensors, that look a bit like funny batons, are precisely tracked by the camera and instantly translated onscreen. And from the looks of the video, the tracking looks pretty precise. (Note: motion sensor portion is about 8:30 into the movie.)

Sony also has a simpler form of AR coming out before the end of this year called Eye Pet -- although a bit more limited and something that's already being done on mobile devices and through today's computer webcams... It still does open up the possibilities of what can be done from an entertainment perspective.

Comparing the two technologies, the Xbox version definitely allows for more freedom, unencumbered by controllers.  However, I could imagine that technology would be susceptible to ambient background interference that might be occurring in the same room (e.g. roommates/pets walking by, outdoor activity seen through the window by the camera, clothing and accessories that might confuse the recognition system).

What Might These Technologies Lead To?

Using the 360's Natal control, a user potentially could have the ability to interact with screen elements in a way similar to the futurist-vision within the movie "Minority Report."  By simple swipes or pokes of a user's hands and fingers, information could be literally picked-up, shoved and tossed around.

    •  You could try on clothing via your avatar.  There's already a company showing off this kind of proof-of-concept. 
   •   Porn? I feel funny bringing this up, but if the adult entertainment industry isn't already hard at work on how to make you the star of your own adult film... I fear the entrepreneurial spirit in America may be dead.
   •   Further enhancing games similar to Rock Band, Guitar Hero or DDR (Dance Dance Revolution).  Each of the participants would be able to perform the actions by moving onstage with one another, even if playing over a network. (Maybe I'm just secretly dying to tell someone's avatar, "You got served!")

Many of the items have been involving you controlling an avatar or self-representation onscreen. But I think there are opportunities as well by utilizing the technology similarly to the PS3's EyePet. I feel the most interesting execution of the technology revolves aroundvisually manifesting things/people in your house/dwelling.  This could apply to celebrities, historical figures... heck, even a deceased relative.  Imagine sitting on your couch and when you look into your TV screen, you see sasquatch sitting next to you as you ask it, "Why are you so unphotogenic?"  And then, you both proceed to virtually arm wrestle.

Microsoft's Nadal is rumored to be available for release sometime in 2010 and Sony's PS3 Eye motion sensor doesn't have a release date as of yet. That being said, stay tuned for a lot of augmented reality development news coming months for game consoles, mobile devices and home computers alike.  And while they're developing away, what would you like to see?

Ted Hoot

Do you heart TED talks? Wonder how some of these folks come up with their inspiration?

Check out Sputnik Observatory which is billed as an observatory for the study of contemporary culture. It is a beautifully executed "micro-TED" like experience. Filled with pointed 1-3 minute vignettes from much larger interviews it covers topics as broad as genetics, architecture, quantum foam, and bacteria. I love the feel and aesthetic (things react to your mouse, and remember your path from the video galleries to the navigation, to the logo), they have an idea of "paths" through the experience, allowing you to explore other peoples explorations, further reinforcing the "remembering your exploration" theme. Simple sharing to other services (FB, twitter, etc...).

To quote their launch blog post:

"Ideas are not viruses. For the launch of Sputnik Observatory, we decided to focus on one theme that illustrates our philosophy: Bacteria. Why? Bacteria have survived since the beginning of time, not by combat, but by networking. Sputnik Observatory believes that ideas survive because they fit in with the rest of life. Ideas are social. Ideas should interconnect and re-connect continuously because by linking ideas together, we learn, and new ideas can emerge."

Dean McRobie

I've been waiting for this one to launch for some time now and it's finally here.

The guys behind Engadget and Gizmodo have teamed up to unleash what they are calling the biggest gadget database ( and hopefully community ) Ever. Known.

I know I'll be using gdgt (pronounced simply as 'gadget') for years to come. Perhaps even as my main resource for reviews, discussions and just info for anything tech.

So what are your thoughts? Good idea? Is this gonna be HUGE or what?

Tyler King

Ever since Crispin Porter + Bogusky launched their new website, they have gotten a lot of positive feedback from the blogs and twittersphere. Their move away from the branded portfolio and to a social aggregation has been praised as a step in the right direction.

kaseymarcum: Impressive! -- Crispin Porter + Bogusky's new site that puts social media ahead of their work

MattFiedler: Out with traditional websites, in with social media terminals

But I struggle with whether or not these are actual compliments. Do we want agency and brand websites to be "social media terminals"? Is CP+B losing something by doing it this way? And to be honest, is it really as social as it seems?

Craig Ritchie, a strategist at Organic Toronto, had this take:

This "digital uhm... fishing net," as Alex Bogusky describes it in his "candid" video, doesn't allow for any context or brand definition. Some are saying this move is good for all of us. "No matter what you think of it, just be glad they did it. It's one step toward making a lot of what several of us have been pushing for a whole lot easier," says Paul Isakson. But there's no move here.

As "the social web" becomes just "the web," brands will need to, yes, monitor and engage with all channels and not take themselves so seriously. But, there's no brand if everything anyone says about your company becomes your brand promise. You don't need a "uhm... fishing net," you need a big ol' crab boat, and a good crew that's in it for the long haul.

I agree with Craig's assessment. But my real problem is that the new CP+B site doesn't live up to the promise of being social. It should be about conversation, not aggregation.

The site pulls in bits and pieces of what people are saying from the social web, but doesn't actually allow people to comment or engage in dialogue on their site. Sure, they can tweet, and it's unfiltered, but it's also disconnected and not very meaningful. It's a lot of noise for noise sake, and it certainly doesn't show how CP+B is part of that conversation. Instead, it feels a lot more like they are spying on the party, rather than hosting it.

Marta Strickland
Craig Ritchie

United Airlines is one of the latest corporations to be schooled in resolving a customer complaint before it is exposed publically. Musician Dave Carroll's guitar was damaged when he checked it on a flight. After months of trying to resolve the issue with United, Dave took his case to the court of social media in song.

The challenge for the corporation is knowing when a customer complaint is going to become a PR nightmare.  In Dave's case he informed United that "going social" was his next step.  But how does the corporation know when a customer is actually prepared and capable of going social?  While Dave seems to have a legitimate gripe, not every dissatisfied customer has reasonable expectations.  Playing the customer service game in the age of social is a bit like Russian Roulette.
 
Now, United is contacting Dave to make an attempt to resolve the issue.  His music will likely get more exposure than if United had settled in the first place.  A win-win for Dave.
- Richard Liechty

Fantastic. This is how brands are being defined by fans and detractors. Does United have a jingle? They do now.
 
And this is moving fast. It's already 4th on the Google SERP for "United" in Canada.
- Craig Ritchie

Awesome. As I was sitting in a return line last night, I was just talking about how social media could be a great way to improve customer service. If customers filmed their interaction with store clerks at big brands that have horrible customer service, one of two things could happen: 1) those brands might get better about training their staff in the public treatment of customers, or 2) cameras would be banned in those stores. With cell phones putting cameras into people's hands, I'm surprised more people haven't exposed bad service online! 
- Stephanie Jorgl

What's Facebook Been Up To?
Two supposedly big updates happened in the last few weeks on Facebook...

First, there was launch of new privacy options. Which I will call "much ado about nothing". The new privacy settings haven't even launched yet, and still the blog world makes furious guesses about how much the users will like or hate. Knowing Facebook's track record, I guess there is reason to fear user backlash, especially if an unintuitive interface means users begin blasting their photos and status updates to the public world. But I honestly suspect that most won't even notice the change.

Next, there was the launch of embeddable Facebook Fan boxes. Which also was a bit disappointing:

"While it allows you to show off your community of friends (by showcasing a number of how many fans you have and thumbnails of 10 random friends) it only shows the brands stream. It doesn't show the full stream of what your fans are talking about. So its like putting a promo tile of yourself talking about yourself to other people. Its a step in the right direction but I wish Facebook just had a robust api so that users and fan pages could aggregate all the activity how they please. Pulling photos, comments, links, videos, that they AND/OR fans have posted on the fan page." - Dwayne Raupp

Let's Do The Numbers
Some things are up and some things are down. All fingers point to MySpace, when it was revealed that ads spending on social networks is expected to drop 3% this year. Not all social networks are doing quite as badly. Facebook is growing by over 700,000 users per day, although much of that is attributed to growth in grandparents not high schoolers. Facebook is getting older!! And while Twitter is back on track with it's growth, it has now been surpassed (along with a few others) by Microsoft's search engine Bing, which garnered 49.57 million unique visitors in its first month.

Marta Strickland

Okay, so I'm a bit burned out on the MJ tributes, but saw one more worth sharing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je1KOcBYGjM
 
Not sure if T-Mobile is a silent partner in this or if BouncE (the dance troupe) just took the power back. (I wrote about this in an earlier post where the company sponsored something similar.) From the sounds of it, there's genuine recognition and love in the air.
 
Plenty o' related vids too.

Sam Cannon

Editor's note: The more than 1.3 million views of just this one version is again proof that good ideas spread organically.

It's no secret to my friends and family that I think Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, is a genius.  In addition to being an accomplished cartoonist, he has a very popular blog where he writes about any and everything.  He recently posted about banks, and though it was a somewhat uninspired rant, he did offer an interesting product idea:
 

"If consumers mattered, your bank would offer one retail product. It would be part checking account and part credit card. And by that I mean your balance could either be above zero or below zero at any given point. When your balance is below zero, you pay interest to the bank. When it is above zero, the bank pays you interest. You'd have one plastic card that does what your ATM and your credit card does now.

If you needed more credit, you could secure your account with your home equity. That way you wouldn't have multiple types of credit with the same bank, where the bank hopes you misplace at least one of their bills so they get the late fee."

 
Does this exist anywhere?  Is it even allowed by regulators?  Maybe, maybe not.  But I thought it was an interesting and fresh take on the most basic product offered by a bank.

Stephen Murray

50 new Nissan Cubes are driving off dealer lots this month. Each one's being driven by a brand advocate, the reward for months of creation and promotion by musicians, DJs, dancers, programmers, designers, bloggers, podcasters, poets, writers and artists, and all kinds of creative thinkers. Nissan openly called The Hypercube a social media marketing experiment, choosing to invest only in this channel, and is now pleased to announce (or tweet, perhaps) the successful proof of their thesis.

Nissan Canada's creative agency, Capital C, went beyond the boilerplate hey-make-us-a-video and please-retweet-our-propaganda "campaigns" that are all too common these days, by offering prizes on which creative minds could really envision spending time and effort.

Continue reading about the program and its outcome...

Here is a simple/smart/humanistic approach to hiring. Specialized has a position for a graphic director that needs to be filled. Instead of just posting the position with copy the creative director added a video of himself talking about the position and who their looking for (a rock star of course). With just a quick watch, the viewer is able to understand the attitude, style, and lifestyle the company houses (wasn't over done, glitzy, or too corporate).

Most hiring managers and companies forget: half of the interview process is selling a candidate on the culture, the opportunity and the people they'll be working with. This video takes a proactive approach to culture pre-sell before the interview even takes place and is likely to attract high-quality candidates.

Many more companies were making the effort to create culture videos when the economy was strong and a talent shortage made it harder to attract high-quality people. A chees-ey but impactful video - created by Micrsoft interns - documents an employee taking advantage of 30 Microsoft perks during one day at work. Keep in mind, this video was posted in early 2008, so these perks may no longer be offered - but it certainly makes a compelling case of everything Microsoft does for their employees.

Video could have many other applications during the interview process. Many candidates are starting to use video resumes as a "warm" introduction of themselves - as opposed to a near-anonymous resume or phone call. And many companies (including Organic) are currently considering the pros and cons of pre-screen video interviews - asking candidates to answer a pre-determined set of questions to get a sense of whether they're a fit for a position - and allowing the hiring managers to view on their own. This allows for both scheduling flexibility and time savings.

All of these techniques help give a clearer impression - for both the hiring manager and the candidate - of not just whether there is a qualification fit... but is there a culture fit.

Casey Riggleman
Traci Armstrong

Or to paraphrase my grandfather, "If it aint broke, don't fix it."
 
Microsoft has been promoting its new search experience, Bing, with an estimated $100-$300M advertising campaign.  Factoring in development costs Billions have been invested in this new product.  Now people are wondering if this was all money well spent.  As you've heard from me before, the answer depends on which question you think to ask.
 
A Good Question:  Are people using Bing? 
 
Answer:  Yes.  Bing has 50M +/- visitors to the site in June.  As a point of comparison, Google has seen slow and steady growth in 2009 nearing 150M in June.
 
A Better Question:  Do these visitors like Bing?
 
Answer:  It appears that the answer here is yes, with some caveats.  People are starting to probe into this by surveying people active on the internet.  One recent study published these results:

"Of the respondents who had tried Bing, 38.3% listed the relevancy of the results as its greatest strength, with the variety of results including web, maps, images, etc. coming in second at 22.1%. Speed, organization of the results page, and the user interface also received positive reviews."

The New York Times had article about a side-by-side comparison.  Takeaway is that Google isn't quite the exceptional experience just yet.  Depends on what you're looking for: quantity or quality of search engine results pages.  Bing is banking on quality.  Microsoft's POV on Google has been that it's all branding and perception.  They'd be happy to gain a few points from anyone.

If we stop pushing and asking questions at this point, this seems like a great story for Microsoft.  But for fun, lets take things one step further. 
 
The Best Question:  Is Bing good enough to compel people to switch from Google?
 
Answer:  No.  The same survey suggests that "98% of people won't switch to Bing and that those who do will be coming from AOL and Ask (folks Microsoft might have gotten eventually, anyway)."
 
I'm not suggesting that this the end of the story, or that Bing has failed by any stretch.  But I hope this helps illustrate the value of pushing until we can answer the right question

Stephen Murray
Bonnie Chu

There's a debate going on in the online advertising world. It's getting tougher and tougher to grab the attention of viewers with so-called banner ads. Yet, some sites are charging more than ever for space.

Online Broadcasts vs. Television
James Kewageshig tipped me off to a piece from PC World that states advertisers are paying more for a slot online than on primetime.

"If a company wants to run ads alongside an episode of The Simpsons on Hulu or TV.com, it will cost the advertiser about $60 per thousand viewers, according to Bloomberg. On prime-time TV that same ad will cost somewhere between $20 and $40 per thousand viewers."

Could it be that they don't have to worry about fast-forward? Hulu claims their space is "clutter-free" -- unlike many sites. So they're banking on the viewer's full attention. Plus, the ads are usually a lot shorter than the 30-second-minium television ads. As I viewer myself, the ads can still be annoying. But at least they're not as frequently annoying as being interrupted every seven minutes during a 30-minute primetime show.

Websites vs. Magazines
So how does this all compare to print? A short FastCompany article that surmises that the reason print is dying is because of online ads being crud. Advertisers are still prepared to pay higher for ad placement in a well curated magazine than your website.

How about simply adding interactivity to your banner? According to spongecell.com, the addition of interactive doodads to banner ads increases click through up to 70%!

Their parting shot:

"If Web advertising's formats were half as clever as all the internet content out there, wouldn't everyone be better off, and making a lot more money?"

It's All About Relevancy
True. The key is knowing your target and providing them with interesting, informative information. It's our job to provide the exceptional experience, not the space we buy.

Stephen Murray takes this a step further:
There was a quote this morning in the newspaper that struck me. The author was discussing the Obama administrations recent efforts to overhaul how professionals are paid (Teachers, Doctors, Executives). Essentially, the goal is something that's closer to a Pay-For-Performance model:
 

"In executive suites, he says, we rewarded reckless risk-taking and got the worst recession in half a century. In doctors' offices and hospitals, we pay for more care instead of better care and get a wastefully expensive health-care system. In K-12 classrooms, we pay teachers, good and bad, for showing up instead of successful teaching and perpetuate schools that fail."

 
Attempts at progress increase the risk of failure....
 

"The risks of unintended consequences are large, and there's a chance we'll get more of what can be measured -- not what we truly want or need."

 
These same goals and risks apply to our business as well. We must not fall into the trap of focusing on what can be measured easily. In our role, as Intelligent Marketers, the most important skill we possess is the ability to listen closely and be sure we're answering the right question. We could all design misleading ads that had tremendously high click rates. But that doesn't mean we're doing our job of delivering an exceptional user experience.
 
Dean McRobie
Stephen Murray
Sarah Jo Sautter

It's been up for debate whether the now famous Domino's Pizza Tracker is myth or reality. Some claim the employee names and estimated times are thrown in completely at random. But whether fact or fiction, the online ordering system accounts for 28% of their orders and has put them far ahead of their pizza competition, Pizza Hut and Papa John's. (Despite some recent brand damage due to that not-so-appetizing employee video.)

During June, Domino's announced the extension of its Pizza Tracker technology into social network sites, namely Facebook and Twitter. This now allows customer to track the progress of their pizza (or other purchased items) from prep to oven to box to belly. Well, maybe not to belly, but that would be a fun feature. Domino's had already added Tivo support in late 2008, just in time to accommodate the Thanksgiving's Eve pizza rush.

So does that make Domino's the most digitally connected pizza chain? Allowing more ordering from more places than it's competitors...

Pizza Hut would like to boldly disagree. On the same day as Domino's announcement, the "Hut" put out an offer of free food to anyone who was following them on Facebook or Twitter. Since then their followers have gone from 4000 to almost 15000. Pizza Hut has also been long engaging an audience Domino's has chosen to ignore... gamers. They own the category, from their partnership with GameFly and its in-game ordering functionality with titles like Everquest II.

And finally, on the mobile front, Pizza Hut wins again. While Domino's has merely half-gestured at mobile integration by launching a mobile version of their Pizza Tracker (tracking only, no ordering), Pizza Hut has just launched the iHut app which allows full mobile ordering, saving of favorite types of pizzas, and digital coupon integration.

So in the online pizza war, who do you think will come out on top?

Marta Strickland

I opened up the add-ons tab of Firefox 3.5 the other day and discovered the recommended 5-star add-on Targeted Advertising Cookie Opt-out (TACO). It works by permanently setting tracking cookies that are nonsense, and making them persistent across cookie cache clears. With Ad Blockers already popular, is this the next salvo in the marketing versus the world war?

How will this kind of thing change the landscape of what we [as marketers] are doing?

I don't believe this will be a game-changer. The key thing to remember is that, as digital marketers, we are not normal and neither are our friends. 
 
Outside our world:

• People still use dial-up.
• People still don't know the difference between a browser and a search engine. (But really, why should they care? Craig Ritchie talked about this in an earlier threeminds' post.)
• People wouldn't know how to find what a Firefox or an add-on was with a map and Sherpa.

 
People who use alternative browsers and are aware of and install plug-ins are still the small minority of people we reach with our advertising. It's very likely they've already installed plug-ins such as Ad-Block Plus, which hide our banners, and paid-search results in Google.  So TACO would be redundant.

But as this trend increases, and more of these safeguards are built into browsers by default, we'll probably see shifts in three directions.
 

1.      First-Party ad serving. Partnerships with content providers, where ads will be pushed by the host site and data becomes more fragmented as a result.

2.      Rise of Akamai and similar data pipes. They already have access to all of the web traffic out there (more or less). They just need to find a way to make it easily used and they'll start selling ads. No need for "bad" cookies here, Akamai is already everywhere

3.      Opt-in viewing. Increased usage of panel-based, opt-in marketing groups who explicitly give permission to us to market to them.

So not only are the tools changing the landscape, the way we use those tools are changing too. Even if most users aren't using filtering or blocking add-ons, we should be forecasting they might. Our job as marketers is to get into the minds of our targets and ask, "What would ______ do today? Next week?" What else is vying for their attention? And how do we make our stuff more relevant and interesting? Pick up where the post about content over location left off. Tricky? Maybe. But more interesting than the straight and narrow path.
 
Dean McRobie
Stephen Murray
Sarah Jo Sautter

Forget what you know about typography. Two Brussels-based designers, Damien and Pierre from Pleaseletmedesign, decided to find a completely innovative new way to create a font... by using a car (specifically the Toyota iQ) as a stylus. In order to do this, they employed professional driver Stef van Campenhoudt to do incredible automotive acrobatics, as they tracked the motion of the car with four large colored dots, a camera, and custom motion tracking software called Open Frameworks.

They turned the results into a fun font called iQ font. The font can be downloaded at iqfont.com. More photos are available on Flickr.

Thanks to Evan Cordes for the link.

Marta Strickland

Star Wars Uncut is a crowd-sourced / UGC recreation of "Star Wars: A New Hope."  The movie was broken up into 472 15-second segments and the community asked to select up to three segments to recreate and submit.

The community has been busy. All segments have been taken and there are 14 completed so far. Once all segments have been completed, they will be stitched together to produce a very geeky but very cool version of the original movie.

Does this mean a future of viewers turning into script-writers and producers? And will the UG version be better than the original?

David Feldt

Toyota is showing people what their latest product has to offer in a novel, useful way. Not only is their third-generation Prius (launching 2010) a full hybrid -- meaning it can be completely powered by battery -- it is embedded with solar panels that can help cool the inside of the vehicle.

They're promoting their use of solar energy and energy conservation in urban areas across the United States while playing off their tagline "Harmony between man, nature and machine." People in New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco and LA will get the benefits of free solar-powered Wi-Fi and power outlets via giant Toyata flowers. The base of the plastic flowers consist of benches with 110-volt outlets that operate daily from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. The company is also demonstrating its solar ventilation in bus shelters.

I'd love to see these energy pods travel and become a permanent fixture in more cities. How often have you been out and about and needed to connect, but not wanted (or too cheap like me) fries with that Wi-Fi? Maybe it could be owned by cities whom could lease out sponsorships to brands. I bet there are a lot of cities who could use some extra dough right now. Arnold, there's an idea for you.

Thanks to Jim Napolitano for the link.

Sarah Jo Sautter

New York-based UX designer and writer Whitney Hess recently listed her top ten user experience design blogs for blogs.com. Whitney's list includes Joshua Porter's Bokardo, Michael Angeles' Konigi, and David Armano's Logic + Emotion, as well as Jared Spool's Brain Sparks and Catriona Cornett's InspireUX.

I think I could drop some of Whitney's choices and make room for Adrian Chan's Gravity7, Adaptive Path's blog, and The Cooper Journal.

Which UX blogs would make your top ten? Please let us know in the comments.

Karri Ojanen

It really feels like the last few weeks have been relatively slow compared to a few months ago. No big disasters or revolutions that Twitter could help spread news about. No more movies or television shows about social networks in the works. No new and crazy announcements from the standard three big news producers... Twitter, Facebook, Google. It's almost been unusually quiet...

So What Has Happened In The Past Week?
Namely... What's Hot + What's Not
Hot... Bing and its contest to design a "bingle". Not... Myspace as an entertainment platform. Hot... sharing your links and favorite content on Facebook. Not... doing it in that old fashion thing called e-mail. Hot... twittering in a response to an awesome article. Not... leaving comments on a blog (say it isn't so).

Each of these new statistics need to be taken with a grain of salt, as these behaviors and demographics are changing all the time. Still, that didn't stop The Guardian UK from dedicating a whole featured article to a 15-year-old journalist's thoughts on what is in and out with the kids these days. While some of the information seems useful, it's gotten a lot of flack for not being scientific or very trustworthy.

Finally, Amazon is feeling pretty hot right now. They just bought online retail giant Zappos for a handsome sum of $850 million dollars. It's a scary proposition, especially for a business built on its unique brand, its culture, and its people... but it sounds like Amazon realizes just how special Zappos is, and doesn't want to change that, as much as study it and learn.

Marta Strickland

Three NBA players recently took part in a week-long tour of China courtesy of shoe and sportswear manufacturer Li Ning: Shaquille O'Neal (above), Baron Davis, and Jose Calderon. The tour showcased a campaign that associated each player with a spirit animal. Yes, their spirit animal. And if that isn't awesome enough, once the spirit animal was successfully devined, Beijing-based agency, Creatim, ratcheted up the awesome another notch by way of the art direction shown above. Look again.

Shaq, not only jumping the shark, but jumping over and dunking on the shark, while apparently playing ball on an offshore oil rig in the South China Sea. Kudos to you Creatim creative director, Liu Fang. You have created a twin stream of envy within me. Not only for the campaign and the creativity--because in a million brainstorms I could not have come up with this one--but also for the athletes themselves. Frankly, now I too want an awesome spirit animal. And some rad airbrushing of myself with same. So I could get it reproduced on the side of a 1974 Ford Econoline E100 Super Van. But I digress. Here's the simple piece of press about the campaign from Creatim.

In July 2009, Li Ning will hold Style Fighter 3+1 Basketball Challenge and NBA Stars' Meet in Beijing, Zhengzhou, Shijiazhuang, Changsha and Chengdu. Three different thematic basketball courts will be set up representing the styles of Shaq O'Neal, Baron Davis and Jose Calderon respectively. Considering various interest of young basketball fans, different competitions are designed for them, including 3+1 contest, one-to-one contest, slam dunk competition, skill competition, and so on. It is a good opportunity for the youth to learn from the NBA stars.

Following some of these guys on Twitter during the trip was really pretty fascinating. And given that Baron is a digital-minded fellow, there's also a pretty interesting Flickr stream for viewing too. But still, I need an awesome spirit animal.

I really, really do.

Daniel Turman

Digital divide refers to the societal and knowledge gap between the people with effective access to digital information, and those who do not have ready access. It was once a hot topic, but does not get much air time these days. Is it because people have become jaded about the subject or are too busy social-networking to pay attention? Or maybe, just maybe, digital divide is getting less pressing because the same technologies at the heart of the problem have been put to use to combat the very issue.

A good example is the ACCESS program in Alabama. ACCESS is an educational program that provides Alabama public high school students the opportunity to engage in Advanced Placement (AP), elective and other classes that they don't typically have access to or could be losing access to due to budget/curriculum changes. The Economist reports:

"The state has many small, rural schools. Because of their size, and the relative scarcity of specialised teachers, course offerings have been limited. Students might have had to choose between chemistry or physics, or stop after two years of Spanish. ... In 2005 the governor, Bob Riley, announced a pilot programme called Alabama Connecting Classrooms Educators and Students Statewide, or ACCESS. The idea was to use internet and videoconferencing technology to link students in one town to teachers in another. ... In 2006 students took more than 4,000 courses at 24 schools. In 2008, with ACCESS now in more schools, the number exceeded 22,000. Administrators are finding new ways to liven up the experience. Last year a dozen schools went on a 'virtual field trip' to Antarctica, with scientists beamed in by satellite."

What do you think? Could digital actual help decrease the educational divide?

Read the full Economist article here.

Fang-Yu Lin

For the past few years, the publishing industry has undeniably experienced turmoil - shrinking circulation, declined ad sales, and an aging reader base. Today, younger consumers are accustomed to consuming content through digital channels, both online and through their mobile phones. Consumers crave real-time information and a social experience. To no surprise, magazines are throwing up Websites and creating iPhone apps in an attempt to hold on to an increasingly tech-savvy audience. Still, Website growth and iPhone app penetration for publishers creeps along at near glacial paces. Alas, a beacon of hope - a shining example of a company that has the potential to stabilize and (dare I say) revitalize the fashion category. And if publishers pay attention to the innovation displayed in this start-up, then every magazine stands to benefit.

As I read the NY Times this week (on my iPhone may I add), I stumbled upon an article about Polyvore. Started in 2007, Polyvore offers a service that has virtually flown under the radar of digital strategist. Their site allows users to take images from around the Web and combine them into collages. Most of the three million unique monthly viewers create fashion collages, mixing and matching their favorite pieces from old and new collections. On average, visitors spend close to eight minutes per session on the site - more than Vogue's style.com, instyle.com and even the NY Times online. So, what's the connection between making collages and saving the publishing industry?
 

If you weren't a sponsor or weren't present at the BlogHer '09 conference July 23-25 in Chicago, then you missed a huge opportunity to talk to thousands of women that could potentially send you quadruple that in leads.

I had the opportunity to attend the Business portion of the conference, which turned out some useful case studies. [I'll write more about these in another post.]

Interestingly most of my learnings came from attending three evening parties (affiliated with the conference) and talking with and observing some of the female bloggers -- coined Mommy Bloggers. The term has become a buzzword in the marketing world as more and more companies are turning to these influencers to help them promote their products. Note, that some of the Mommy Bloggers dislike the term. However for ease of reference here (no offense intended), I'll refer to this collective group using that term throughout this post.

They Are the Experts
Since 2008, blogs have gone from mainstream (read: addictive) to the leading go-to source for advice and information. Blogger motivations are different than social networker motivations. Mommy Bloggers are "experts" in a certain subject matter -- not always simply parenting -- and they want to share that information. This community bases itself on an exchange of ideas.

They Know How to Suck Them In
Now there's an ongoing media shift that has attracted readers who seek out blogs for entertainment. From a female perspective, why would I watch a sitcom about parenting, when I can read a raw, real-life narrative? And I'm proof. While my husband takes control of our plasma screen nightly, I choose to snack in front of my laptop, engrossed in Twitter and mommy tales.

Readership is big. We're talking up to 50,000 eyes on one blog every month. And they create enough stir to get people commenting.

They Influence Purchases -- Big Time
Not only are these bloggers moms, who've been there done that. They are educated and professional. Some of them still hold corporate jobs (as if managing their blogs plus raising their kids weren't two full-time jobs already).

According to the BlogHer research, 25% of they women they surveyed try to buy from companies they know. Even more marked, "45 percent of survey respondents stated that they decided to purchase an item after reading about it on a blog."  How do they "know" them? By reading trusted blogs about products and the bloggers interaction with the company.

Twitter is another good example of a means to humanize the brand. Mommy Bloggers are really good at this. They speak honestly and openly about brands in the context of their daily lives. They blog about it. Then they Tweet it.

Key point: If you are a brand that targets women, you need a Mommy Blogger or two...dozen.

Here are a few* of the women I had the amazing opportunity to talk with:

Green and Clean Mom Sommer Poquette 
Mindful Momma Micaela Preston
Beth Terry of Fake Plastic Fish
The Smart Mama Jennifer Taggart
Lisa Nielsen-Woods of CondoBlues 
Crunchy Domestic Goddess Amy Gates
Katja Presnal of Skimbaco Lifestyle

They often review products, thought it's not always for money. Their blogs are sprinkled with advice and interesting antidotes about their lives too. Antidotes that -- as a mom and a consumer myself -- resonate enough to make them likable and trustworthy.

Stay tuned for how to connect with the right Mommy Blogger(s) in this series about using one of your most networked customers to advertise for you.
[7/31 read part 2: Finding the Perfect Mommy Hands]

*I did exchange cards with others, but there's just too many to list.

Sarah Jo Sautter

image courtesy of Big Whisky

In my earlier post about why brands need Mommy Bloggers, I talked a little about how these influentials review products. Get your product into the right hands and let them advertise for you. Sounds easy, but finding those perfect hands takes a bit of planning.

Everybody Loves Swag
Yes, everybody loves free stuff -- especially Moms, often on a budget, infrequently indulging or buying things for themselves. I've never seen so much swag at a conference [BlogHer '09], not to mention the frenzy over it. One even went as far to blackmail a brand rep.
 
Yes, one company even sent flowers to every attendee's room.

While most of the BlogHer conference goers took advantage of the freebies (myself and Lindsay Ferrier included), many (most of the eco-conscious bloggers) questioned the true intension of the parties and even the day parts including Lynn Miller, and Cate Nelson,
Christine Koh, and Stephanie Precourt.

One of the best brand interactions I saw* was from GoGirl. They sent "GoGirls" (young, bubbly brand representatives) to give out free samples and coupons and answer questions about the novel product. No boring representative parked behind a booth. No free sample stuffed inside a bag with a plethora of other goodies. Real girls who've tried the product showing, telling other women about it. Unfortunately they ran out before I could get one, but one GoGirl gave me her card and told me to contact her if I'd like to blog about it.

One area that was lacking was technology. Annie from PhD in Parenting nailed it when she said she'd like to see more companies who are behind the technology they're using or might potentially use. Think: blog platforms, software, apps, etc.

To brands, it was better to be there than not. Face time with these influentials is key. If they're not in love your brand, talk with them one-on-one and find out why. Maybe it's just that they don't understand your product or your company's mission. Make plans to attend BlogHer10 if you haven't already. Just make sure you do it in the most eco-friendly way possible. [Sidebar: This is an already huge and growing Mommy Blogger niche. There surely was no shortage of expert bloggers in this area.]

How Do You Pick the Right Mommy Blogger?
Readership is a must of course. But it really comes down to personality and chemistry. How well does she (or could she) represent your brand? Check out her writing and previous reviews. Are you okay with her style and tone? If you're not, don't even think about asking her to change for you.

This can get tricky, because sometimes the blogger picks you. If you're not doing it already, you should be monitoring who's talking about you. If they're saying good things, wonderful. Send them an email or comment on their blog to say thanks. But what if they give you a poor review?

Counter the Bad with Some Love

You can't please everyone, but you can do your best to address their concerns. What is it about your product or company that they didn't like? It might be something that can be rectified over honest-to-goodness customer service.

Don't fix the review or demand that it be taken down. That will cause your brand more harm than good. Instead, use it as an opportunity. Dell did this when a blogger complained about a computer and the company, fueling a firestorm of more hate posts. Dell countered first with a blog post, then by asking customers what they wanted (hence, IdeaStorm was born).

Are They Blogging With Integrity?
The latest FTC rulings demanding that bloggers disclose paid reviews have changed the landscape and spurred many questions surrounding transparency (as reported by NPR). Before the influx of brands turning to Mommy Bloggers, brands would occasionally sponsor a blogger's writing, meaning the blogger still retained her Mommy Blogger identity and not one of a brand spokesperson. As of late, some Mommy Bloggers have taken up gigs writing for brands. Also, advertising on blogs - if any - used to have no links to editorial content. Now, they're being mixed.



Some Mommy Bloggers (remember I'm using this term loosely), like Jessica Gottlieb, welcome this. Four longtime female bloggers, Susan Getgood, Liz Gumbinner, Kristen Chase, and Julie Marsh, created the Blog with Integrity pledge and badge where bloggers vow to disclose relationships with marketers, cite sources, credit inspiration, be professional and most of all honest. This is good for consumers and if done right, it's good for brands.

It's Okay to Pay
Ideally, the best praises are the ones that happen by chance. Though paid reviews or ones where brands offer their product to the blogger, can still work in your favor.

Make sure your blogger creates transparency by dedicating a page to strictly show sponsors and advertisers. Make sure the paid review mention is immediately visible. You might think this would turn away readers. But those who blog with integrity have built a trusted following and that following expects truth in both sponsorship and the review. Most Mommy Bloggers will only write about products they've had a good experience with.

If you're asking a Mommy Blogger to review your product, foster better reviews by:
1. Allowing her to write how she writes.
2. Refraining from changing or editing the review. Remember, this is how she feels about the product, brand or company, not marketing speak.
3. Making sure she discloses to her readers the sponsorship.
4. Bloggers: what are some other ways we can work with you?

Stay tuned for examples of brands who've enlisted Mommy Bloggers successfully in this series about using one of your most networked customers to advertise for you.

*I didn't attend the exhibitors' floor. This opinion is based only on Thursday evening's parties.

Sarah Jo Sautter