The Morning at Widgetcon (RAW NOTES)

Opening Remarks


Chris Cunningham, Freewebs, Master of Ceremonies


A witty opening video routine by Chris Cunningham kicked off the show. A lost Cunningham traversed the city asking passers by, “what is the best way to sell a widget?” Pretty funny stuff, even to  cynics like me :)


Opening Keynote: Advertising 2.0: When will Marketing catch up to Media?


Chris Jones, Former CEO, JWT


Disclaimer: Chris sits on the board of freewebs




  • A self evident truth that you can divide the world into two type of people

    • The people who can divide people into 2 groups and people who cannot




  • Digital Natives

    • You cannot be a digital native if you are over 30



  • Digital Immigrants

  • “you will not find me seeking to display native skills”


  • Advantages to being an immigrant

    • Enthusiasm based on knowledge of the old



  • The world is not yet certain about the robustness about any business in the digital space

  • Disruption—The internet has not created chaos, it has simply revealed it

  • “It may have been a consumer society but the gods were the television networks and the temples were walmart…”

  • Agora- The greek marketplace


(this is a very interesting sermon, history lesson :) )



  • Talks about distribution via railroad etc. pioneers


(while this is all very interesting, I am loosing the sense of relevance….the historic account is great, but it has been going on for about 15 minutes at this point)



  • Distributed power and literacy


  • 3 great forces powering the interactive space

    • Bandwidth

    • Search

    • UGC (17 MM people have posted content on the web)



  • The digital worlds lives in the Agora, not in the temple (I dig that one)



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Amazon Gives You What You Want, Where You Want It...and Plays Games.

Everyday there seems to be a new acquisition by Google, a new product offering by Yahoo and new innovations from Microsoft and Apple. So where is Amazon you ask? Everywhere you want them to be…(well?)


Amazon Unbox On Tivo


When I first heard about Amazon Unbox I thought, the masses are not yet accepting of downloading movies on iTunes, what makes Amazon think that people will download from them?


The next strategic move in the “let's pretend IPTV is something new and dress it up for the masses” space came from Apple with its iTV. This move was less than inspiring (although I am sure there is an Apple fanboy or two who would argue that statement, whether or not they have ever used an iTV). Why are people going to shell out 3-500 dollars to do something that they can already do with their home computer (and are largely not doing)?


Not Sold!


Now Amazon has fired back with a strategic alliance with Tivo. This to me makes the most sense so far. People already have their Tivo’s hooked up to their TV’s, getting rid of the need to connect a PC to a TV (of course, I, and the rest of the digerati have this type of setup, but I am not so sure the mass market is setup this way). I don’t think it is a silver bullet, but it is a step in the right direction.


On To Something Completely Different; Askville (so Amazon wants to play games, huh!)


The quest for the perfect search engine continues. Jason Calacanis is in with his Mahalo human engine, there are about 200 new multimedia engines, and now Amazon has thrown its hat in the ring (ok, I know this is not true, their hat has been in for a while but it feels like they are only now getting serious), but why I ask? What are they trying to do with this? Are they going to compete with Google and Yahoo, or are they simply adding value to their current empire?


With their recent launch of Askville it is apparent that Amazon is going to be getting more aggressive with their A9 product. But are they innovating?


Well, they say they are with their lofty claims about Clickriver Ads and Open Search, but to me they seem like no more than a PPC program and a meta search engine. I suppose I could be wrong, I will just sit here and wait for someone from Amazon to contact me and fill me in.


Anyhow, the reason for my initial interest was due to the fact that I saw Mark Wallace blog about this on 3pointD. Due to the fact that Mark does not generally blog about search, I knew that there was something else here, and indeed there was. Take a look at the gaming nature of how Amazon has set up their human powered engine. To me this is very intriguing, although I am not so sure that the wisdom of crowds will be able to combat the wisdom of spammers that will inevitably attempt to stifle this effort.


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Too Busy To Blog Today, Read Jeremiah Owyang

I wish I had more time today. Perhaps I will get to something later in the day. I did come across this blog post by Jeremiah and I think that all you SL, Web 3D fans will really appreciate it. I love how Jeremiah explores the metaverse like someone who is truly looking for value and not someone who is touting value that is simply not there. I also love how he brings up the concept of opt-in brand immersion.



Read More Here


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Mobile Advertising Is NOT The Next Big Thing!

Did I get your attention?


...Good :)


Okay, so I do not whole heartedly believe the above statement,


…however for years I have heard mobile ad firms telling me that mobile advertising is here and here in a big way. Well, where is it?


All of the mobile ad companies I talk to tell me mobile advertising has reached the point where it is a viable solution for any marketer, (except for my friend Chris Arens of Ad Infuse who has the most organic and realistic view of mobile) while many of the marketers I speak with ask, “where is the real value?”


Disclosure: I am not an expert on the mobile industry, but it is my job to pay as close attention as is necessary for my clients (which is probably closer attention than most people pay)


So is there value in mobile advertising?


I would say the answer to this question would have to begin with a shift in the semantic approach we take towards this channel. I also think we need to, once again re-adjust our attitudes and approaches towards advertising (as we did when shifting to web advertising).


Advertising is largely a reinforcement of a brand message. When most of us think of interactive advertising, we think of banners, impressions, click through etc. I have been told over and over again of the incredible click through rates that advertisers are seeing on the mobile web. I don't buy it, and even if I did, I don’t care about click through rates on the web, so why should I care about them on a phone? I care about real results!


Yes, I believe there is a ton of value for marketers in the mobile space!


From this day forward I will never refer to an initiative in the mobile space as advertising. This may seem unnecessarily analytical, but from now on it is strictly mobile marketing, not advertising. The decision is rooted in the Cluetrain Manifesto’s definition of markets as conversations. It is my belief that one of the sweet spots of delivering brand messages via mobile devices is in the conversation (I am going to stay away from locality and search in this post as we all know the importance of these factors in mobile marketing. I am strictly aiming my argument at those throwing banners on mobile phones aimlessly and telling me that is it working).


Markets are Conversations, Mobile Powers Conversations, Conversation Is Social


I chose not to blog about Coca-Cola’s Sprite Yard initiative when I first heard about it, as I did not know what I thought. My initial reaction was, “why would anyone want to be on a branded mobile social network? Teens will never go for that!”


Then I began to think, not about whether or not the campaign would be successful in a traditional sense. I begin to think about whether or not the experiment would successfully yield useable learning’s for Coke and the rest of the marketing community. Under this guise there is no way this initiative will be a failure.


After all, what is Coke really doing here? They are providing a persistent branded experience, and at the same time providing value to consumers by creating a social platform. To say this is not admirable would be somewhat hypocritical coming from someone who spends a great deal of time convincing others to experiment, provide experiences and take part in the new media conversation.



I want to hear from you! What is the true realization of effective mobile marketing?



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Transforming The Story In Unexpected Ways

Fan fiction is nothing new. For years fans have been adding to entertainment franchises by creating their own story extensions. One would think content creators and marketers would love this type of promotion, however this has not always been the case.


Prior to George Lucas’s complete adoption of fan fiction he was not a proponent of other’s taking part in his storytelling process. While this is certainly understandable, as marketers we need to be more sensitive to those who may want to tell our stories with us, as the way a consumer tells the story may be more inline with what they actually want.


Take the recent success of Transformers. While I have not yet seen the movie, and cannot judge it based on it’s cinematic integrity, I know is that it’s early success was due, in part, to the many stories told by fans.


Take this fan created clip for example (there is no mention that this was commissioned Paramount):






Fan fiction does not have to start and end with entertainment. Take the hype surrounding the recent release of the iPhone.  I don’t have an official number on the amount of media Apple bought to advertise it’s new product, but I know that most of the hype was created for no money, by people not working for Apple. The result was a technology product release with more buzz than I can remember.


For example:





You never know who will want to tell your story with you. It is important to keep your eyes and mind open at all times!


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The New Rules Of Demand and Supply

The traditional theory of “supply and demand” may be getting a run for its money. In the age of customization and personalization, consumer demands are decreasingly less focused on what is available and more focused on what it is that they want. With lower barriers to entry and lower distribution costs in many sectors of business, companies are able to be more nimble with product offerings and cater to the wants of the consumer.


Does This Mean That The Consumer Is In Control?


NO!


What it does mean is that the consumer is more in control than ever before, but it does not mean that the consumer is in total control. After all, companies still have a say in production. Actually, they have a very large say in production, marketing and all other matters. The fact is that these consumers have a much larger influence; this does not however mean that they are in control.


The Era Of Co-Creation


In light of the statements above, we have entered into an era of co-creation. An era where corporations and consumers are meeting (perhaps half way) to discuss consumer wants.


Take Dells Ideastorm where today’s challenge is, “Help Us Become The Greenest Company On The Planet”. Dell has obviously realized the power of co-creation (now they just need to start making decent computers).


The Agencies Are Always The Last To Jump In


Okay, so this is not really a fair statement. In fact, I think that Publicis is doing something monumental in the recent announcement of their partnership with Dassault to create 3D marketing solution entitled; 3dswym.


While the concept of co-creation is something that Second Lifer’s have been participating in for a while, I think it is great that a company of this size is forward thinking enough to experiment with this type of product. I am very excited to see how this plays out!


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We Have Been Living In Virtual Worlds For A Long Time, Don't Kid Yourself

I have been doing a lot of talking about Virtual Worlds lately. Most recently I gave a talk at the iMedia Entertainment Summit in Beverly Hills. You can download my presentation here and you can see the write up by Adam Shahbaz (a super cool young writer and musician) on my presentation here.


To Live In 3D or Not To Live In 3D


While I think my presentation was largely well taken, I think there were some skeptics in the audience, and to be honest I partly take the blame for not fully convincing them . I was reviewing my presentation and what I failed to mention about virtual worlds is, it is an irrefutable fact that the hyper mediated world we currently live in is, in fact, already largely virtual. Furthermore, I did not point out the fact that when referring to virtual worlds I am not only referring to 3D environments. While the third dimension adds a more human element to the web, it is not essential in creating a virtual environment. I would go as far as to say that Facebook is a virtual world in many ways (and with all of the new functionalities it is becoming increasingly so). While my focus tends to be on 3D virtual worlds, I want to make sure that I am clear about how I define what I feel a virtual world is in the current era.


In my estimation the core principles that make up the modern  virtual world are as follows:




  • Persistence


    • Virtual Worlds create perpetual identities and communities that exist outside of the physical world

      • Sometimes these identities are fictional, sometimes they are extensions of real life. I am largely concerned with those that act as an extension of real life.



    • This is where lifelogging comes in. If you are not familiar with this concept, I would ready what Jerry Paffendorf has to say about the topic. He is a long time champion of this notion, and while I am not sure where this concept originated, it was he who familiarized me with the concept.




  • Immersion


    • Virtual worlds are becoming increasingly human. Those of us who grew up with AIM know that after a while an IM conversation feels almost every bit as human as a face to face conversation.

      •  When performing the many layers of communication that we perform online today, one can get the sense that we are in fact immersed in a more human web than ever before






  • Real Time Interaction

    • This concept is very close to the above statements about IM, however online chat has matured significantly. We are now able to chat in groups (in real time) using any number of various digital media (audio, video, self mirrors/avatars, text). The online forum is much more human than ever before.




  • Experience

    • When all the components are online virtual world are tied together, we get a virtual experience not unlike the type of experience that occurs in real life.

    • I will never stop going out with friends, going to conferences and hanging out in public places, however The Experience Web provides me with far greater opportunity to to  be social, with a far greater amount of people in places all over the world than ever before and I love it!




There Are Many Flavors Of The Metaverse


As outlined in The Metaverse Roadmap (which is a must read), there are elements that make up what is being referred to as the metaverse. The metaverse not only encompasses online virtual worlds such as Second Life, it encompasses Mirror Worlds such as Google Earth, Augmented realities which include technologies that add information elements to, and enhance our experience in the the physical world and lifelogging.


Perhaps A Virtual World Map Looks Something Like This




I think there are elements of the world pictured above that most of us can relate to. Before you rule out Virtual Worlds or the Metaverse as a significant part of the way we communicate, I urge you to do some research on what these concepts really are and what technologies they employ.


In the future marketers will not be able to simply ignore these matters. The ubiquitous nature of computing will, to a large degree, dictate the way in which we live, as humans and as consumers. The marketer who is not taking this fact seriously will be the marketer who will not be taken seriously for very long. I am not saying you have to agree with my opinions, however it is tough to debate the importance for marketers to be well versed in the subject of  virtual worlds.



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A MediaCirc.us Roadshow

Luxury Interactive 2007


I have not really had a chance to write in the last few days I have been all over the place. On Thursday the 21st I spoke at the Luxury Interactive Marketing Conference in NYC. Although I did not get to attend that much of the conference, I really enjoyed it the part that I made it to.   


Brian Bolain of Lexus (even though he disagreed with me :) ) had some incredibly poignant comments to make about the power of the third party messages (PR) versus the first part messages (advertising). He also had some great things to say about strategy as it relates to gaining mindshare with consumers who are not in your brands consideration set, and how to circumvent their preconceived notions about your product by drawing up on external elements. The case he gave was Lexus’s green initiative and how, by peaking the interests of consumers through means outside of the core value proposition of Lexus, the brand was able to message consumers who may otherwise not have paid attention to the brand.


Supernova 2007


One hour after speaking at the Luxury Interactive Conference I hopped in a cab to the airport to head to San Francisco. Regrettably, I had to miss the first days of the conference however I still wanted to make it out for some of it. My ten hour flight to San Fran (yes, ten hours. United kept us sitting on the plane for about four hours before taking off) ate further into my time at Supernova but I did catch the tail end. There is so much good coverage of the conference and I need to head to LA to speak at the iMedia Entertainment Summit so I will let all the other great bloggers fill you in on details from the conference.


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Microsoft Says, "There is More Room For Media At Home" While Apple Gives You A Ride

Old Friends


As the race towards the digital future heats up, both Microsoft and Apple continue to make very interesting moves. As usual Apple's moves are a little less predicable, we will see if the success is as unpredictable as the iPod was so many years ago.


There is Always Room For Media


Microsoft announced the renaming of it IPTV platform, and with it announced some new features.


The press release highlights a few main features:




  • Personal Media Sharing

    • Although it does not go into detail on how it is done the idea here is that Microsoft is attempting to further content convergence within the home across all platforms and bring the media you want to the device you want it on, when you want. I really love this concept.




  • Multimedia Application Environment

    • While they promise richer support for web services, I am skeptical as to what this actually means. The press release does promise a developers toolkit which will be vital for the success of this product in an open source world




  • Enhanced Mulitview

    • Multiple channels (snore), Multiple camera angles, sure, this is cool but who is shooting the video for this? A few weeks back I wrote about Immersive Media. My thought is that these types of technologies are on their way, but we are not quite there yet.




The bottom line is that the dream of IPTV is far from a dream (for those of us paying attention this have been evident for a long time). What really strikes me as important is not the technology itself. What strikes me is the changes in consumption habits and the ability to make TV interactive and even social. The implications of Personal Media Sharing go far beyond convenience. Imagine watching TV online while chatting with friends. You got to the bathroom, miss a play on the big game and although you can rewind, you can also get commentary from your buddies in Germany (even though you are in American).


When we talk about Web 3.D the third dimension is not always the Z axis. The third dimension can be you, your perspective and presence within the mediated environment. The third dimension is also the shared experience between between people.




Apple Is All Over The Place


The iPod, the iPhone and now the iCar?


Apple has announced that they will be working with Mercedes to create an in car maintenance, navigation and communication system by 2009. They will be leveraging Google for navigation and mapping information.


The play here puts Apple in an unlikely market with much less competition then the market they recently entered with the iPhone. What does this signify?


Ubiquitous computing coupled with Google's ideal of making the worlds information useful. Furthermore, with this type of system it will be much easier to deliver ads prompted by location.


Exciting Stuff!


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Whose Up For A Little Rock/Viva La Conversation

The Trip Was A Success (so far)


For those of you that did not read the last post, please do so I don't have to recap everything :)


Anyhow, my trip to speak to the Little Rock chapter of the PRSA has been successful so far...why do I say "so far" you ask?


Well, the conversation has only just begun. I challenged the folks at the meeting to blog and to trackback to my original post. I also challenged those who were not members of Facebook to sign up and add me as a friend. Finally, I challenged them to join Second Life and meet me in one months time for a follow up on our meeting.


Here are the stats so far:



  • 7 blog comments

  • 1 email through my blog

  • 2 Facebook friends

  • 3 Linkbacks

  • 0 TRACKBACKS


I would like to thank the following people for joining the conversation:



  • Becca Gardiner

  • Drew Stephens (who I apparently shocked with my mention of The Cluetrain Manifesto. Drew, everyone loves that book, no? Well, for those who don't, lets get them reading. It is about time the entire PR world knew. Also, I know that you will see this, so let's take this conversation offline and see what we can do about starting a Podcamp in Little Rock. You seem like the perfect leader for it!)

  • Lance Turner

  • Bryan Jones (a Lebowski after my own heart :) )

  • Dan McFadden

  • Carol Cassil

  • Mary Wagoner

  • Jamie Higgins


...and last but not least the man who drove me around, showed me the Clinton Library and let me use his camera when mine died, John Twyford.


If I left anyone out, it either means that I have not slept much in the last week and I apologize, or you have not joined the conversation, shame on you :)


The Arkansas Business Journal


The Arkansas Business journal is doing a great job of getting social (and I am not just saying this because they wrote an article about me). Second, I would like to thank Ashley Suffle for showing up to the event, engaging me with some great questions and above all, PODCASTING THE TALK!


I Think We Are Are Doing Ok, But Come On Little Rock, I Am Rooting For You!


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Good Morning Little Rock/Hello PRSA. This Post Is For You!

I woke up this morning and took this picture from the beautiful Peabody Hotel In Little Rock Arkansas (where I will be speaking to the PRSA today).


Thanks to Mary Wagoner for inviting me here and to Andrea Morrissey, who I heard is the youngest and one of the best presidents of the Little Rock Chapter of the PRSA ever.



I have been told that we will not have that many bloggers in the audience today. While I understand that people are very busy, I think it is really essential to experiment with blogging, podcasting, vlogging etc. to really "get it". So this post is for today's audience.


What are you waiting for!??


Here are my challenges


Challenge Number 1


 I challenge all of you to blog within the next two weeks and trackback to this post.


It does not have to be on your own blog (although that would be best and you can feel free to call me for help). If you do this it will validate the importance of my journey to Little Rock (remember, I tried to make it here in February and that did not work, so I have put in my time to get here).


Challenge Number 2


In a month from now I will be holding a private meeting for the Little Rock Chapter Of The PRSA at Morpheum Island in Second Life  (Andrea, Mary and I can sort out the details). Your second challenge is to sign up for Second Life and be there for a reunion (you may just find that you miss me, I tend to have that effect on people :) )


Now, let's get to work!


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AT&T-- Do You Think We Are Idiots?

Keep The Net Neutral


I just got done reading an article in mediapost that speaks of AT&T's planned attempt to minimize piracy on its network. Of course, I am not pro-piracy, but I cannot believe that companies are still focusing so much attention on controlling media as opposed to accepting it's democratization and learning to work within the new framework.


What got me the most (and what prompted me to write this post) was some of the reasons that AT&T is making this effort.



AT&T says it is protecting the best interests of its network and its customers, because illegal peer-to-peer file-sharing sites not only raise the cost of DVD and CD sales--they also eat up bandwidth on the network.



Raising the cost of CD's!!!


Come on guys...do you think we are idiots?


We all know that plastic media is on it's way out. A rise in such media would necessitate more bandwidth cost and potentially more money for you. Why are you so worried about a rise in the price of plastic media anyhow?


Phew.


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The Irony and The Agony/Ecstasy

I pulled the numbers below from MediaPost today as I though that they were highly ironic. The impact of Google Universal Search has resulted in a slight decrease in what their core site used to be, and a tremendous increase in a company they just acquired. The largest shift further positions Google as the place to go for directions, maps and local information.


I guess Google really is on their way to organizing the worlds information!



Percentage U.S. Visits to Top Google Properties

























































































Rank Property Week
Ending
5/12/07		 Week
Ending
6/2/07		 Change
1 Google 69.28% 69.06% -0.32%
2 YouTube 10.65% 11.53% +8.26%
3 Google Image Search 8.17% 7.58% -7.22%
4 Gmail 5.42% 5.27% -2.77%
5 Google Video 1.42% 1.44% 1.41%
6 Google Maps 1.18% 1.42% +20.34%
7 Google News 1.02% 0.94% -7.84%
8 Blogger 0.51% 0.49% -3.92%
9 Google Book Search 0.36% 0.29% -19.44%
10 Orkut 0.28% 0.28% 0.00%
Source: Hitwise

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