Nokia and Microsoft Play Nice With Mobile

Personal note to readers:

While I do not consider myself a technologist, technology plays an extremely important role in my job, as well my day to day activities (I suppose the latter is true for most of us).

I do not necessarily seek out technological movements in order to write about them on my Blog; however there is an inexorable tie between technology and marketing.

That being said I have been spending a lot of time talking about mobile, as the space is really hot right now and there is a great deal of movement within the space.

I would love to hear from you as to whether or not you feel I spend too much time on technology.

Now for some technology :)

Nokia Plays Nice With Microsoft

Nokia and Microsoft have strengthened their allegiance in the mobile space. Nokia will provide support for Microsoft’s Playready on various handsets. The two will also seek to enhance the consumer’s ability to access mobile content.

As part of the agreement, Nokia and Microsoft will also collaborate on expanding and simplifying consumer scenarios for accessing, experiencing and moving digital content using mobile devices

How will this shape the mobile content/mobile marketing ecosystem?

Microsoft is paving the way to create a powerful mobile distribution network. My question is how will the Telco’s play in this space? With walled gardens or “on deck” platforms becoming decreasingly relevant, will the wireless network providers be able to get a piece of the pie the Microsoft (and others) is baking, or will they return to their role as mere service providers?

Tags: microsoft, nokia, mobile, Playready, on deck

Can Amie St. Help Reinvent The Music Industry?

Head Over To Tech Crunch for the full write up on Amie St.'s recent round of funding by Amazon.

clipped from amiestreet.com clipped from amiestreet.com We know music is social, and finding new music needs to be fun. Music discovery is best served by communication between people, so we reward fans when they recommend songs to their friends by giving them credit to buy more music. Whether you spend two minutes or two hours on Amie Street you are connected to a world of music lovers discovering new music together.

A Post For One Of My Clients Dealing With A Topic We Recently Spoke About

Of course I will not say who the client is, but I will alert them to this post and subsequently the article (and they may also not know about Clipmarks, so it is a win-win-win) I figured that recommending an article via blog post would be an interesting way to go about doing things.

For more info on this topic, click on the sphere button.

clipped from publications.mediapost.com In analyzing the data, we found the most obvious change was a decline in the average order value (AOV) during the free shipping offer period. The magnitude of the decline varied, but there was a definite decline nonetheless. In January and March, the AOV declined by 2.2% and 3.1% respectively, while the decline in February was much larger at almost 20%. These AOV declines resulted in a concurrent decline in return on advertising spend (ROAS), a key performance metric for this campaign, during each of the offer periods. The decline in ROAS ranged from 30-70% during the free shipping periods, indicating a clear loss of efficiency during the promotional cycles.

Search 2.0 and Social Networking 2.0? (I have had enough 2.0!)

I think that the world is getting quite sick of products positioning themselves within the realm of meaningless new revision numbers.

In two press releases I read this morning the products I am about to talk about did just that.

Search 2.0?

On first glance this is no more than a Meta search engine with a slick interface. One second glance, I cannot it is much more than that. There is apparently more going on here, says Wookah’s press release:

Search 1.0 has:
- Sites ranked by algorithms and spiders
- Irrelevant results
- Search spam
- Many sites
- Many searches

Search 2.0 has:
- Pareto Principle (80/20 rule)
- Only the best sites
- No spam!
- Deep Search across multiple sites

I never say never and I love start-ups. I will keep my eye on this one, but for now, not sold.

Social Networking 2.0?

This technology is a bit more compelling to me, but I am not sure it is the product, or my own interpretation of the product that excites me.

In a less than pleasing interface, Zeptile is seeking to redefine Social Networking by thinking outside of the profile page. If I understand this correctly they are seeking to give people their own coordinate within a mosaic. Here is how it works:

• 
  

  When you enter the network you become a Zeptile (not sure I want to be one of those)

  
  


• 
  

  Along with your Zeptileship you get a zLoc

  
  

Every Zeptile has a zLoc, or Zeptile Location. It is the coordinate by which the Zeptile can be identified and located on the Social Networking Mosaic. A zLoc is basically a X/column and Y/row coordinate pair. zLocs are displayed in the form zLocX.zLocY (i.e. 511.511) where zLocX corresponds to the X/column coordinate and zLocY corresponds to the Y/row coordinate on the mosaic.

My zLoc is zLoc: 112.113…come find me :)

Now, to move away from negativity…

In theory I like what is being done here. In fact, it is very reminiscent of what has become of Second Life has become, and what Kaneva is doing (in a very roundabout way). While this social network is not 3D, it does give add a sense of space and place within a social network, and navigation throughout this network is not merely a series of hyperlinks.

Do I think that Zeptile will take off? Not unless they makes some serious changes to the interface and some really good partnerships, however this did stand out to me and I had to write about it.

Tags: social networking, search, search 2.0, web 3d, 3d, Wookah, Zeptile, zLoc, Mosaic, Second Life, Kaneva

Really Small Big Ideas

I AM SICK A MARKETERS SAYING "I WANT THE BIG IDEA"

What the hell does that mean anyhow?

A really small "big idea"...

I have been a listener of Joseph Jaffe’s Across the Sound since the beginning, and just when I think I have heard enough of this renegade marketer, he hits me over the head with some slick marketing moves (the master of making waves is back).

I realize the iPhone for an episode initiative has been going on for a while and I have not been a part of the conversation. Well, Leesa Barnes’ audio comment has sprung me into the conversation (if you want to hear her comment you will just have to listen to ATS #86. If you are not an ATS fan, sorry :) You may want to check it out).

First of all, the iPhone for an episode sponsorship was obviously a steal for Chip Griffin of Custom Scoop, the river of sponsorship has flowed from podcast to podcast to blog (you are reading one of them right now, free advertising anyone) and back. Chip got much more than a single show sponsorship; he got the ability to sponsor a whole conversation. Obviously this is what Jaffe was setting up from the start.

Now…on to Leesa.

Leesa, I am calling you out.

I think you know he will get the laptop and I think that you want him to get it for the sake of your book, and I love you for it!

In fact, I am a few conversations away from putting my money where all the mouth’s of this conversation are. Not for the sake of Jaffe getting a Macbook, but for the sake of The Conversation. If I can find a way to make it happen, I will make it happen (or look like a fool, I have no problem with that either).

Tags: Joseph Jaffe, Across The Sound, Leesa Barnes, iPhone For An Episode, Macbook Pro, conversation, iphone, Jaffe Juice

Elements Of A Semantic Web

While these definitions have nothing to do with the internet, you can see why it is important to for search engines to understand these concepts. I thought I would clip this and post it, as I found it interesting.

clipped from en.wikipedia.org Hypernym A word A is a hypernym (in Greek υπερνύμιον, literally meaning 'extra name') of another word B if A's meaning encompasses the meaning of B, that is, if B is a kind of A. For example, vehicle denotes all the things that are separately denoted by the words train, chariot, dogsled, airplane, and automobile and is therefore a hypernym of each of those words. A hypernym is the opposite of a hyponym. For example, plant is hypernymic to flower whereas tulip is hyponymic to flower. Hypernymy is the semantic relation in which one word is the hypernym of another. Hypernymy, the relation words stand in when their extensions stand in the relation of class to subclass, should not be confused with holonymy which is the relation words stand in when the things that they denote stand in the relation of whole to part. A similar warning applies to hyponymy and meronymy.

Feeling Sluggish--Drop A Load

Hey, there is nothing wrong with touting a core value of your product, even if it is slightly vile.

Tags: all bran, you tube

Boys vs. Girls--The Battle For Social Media

It may not be PC for me to say that social networks focused on fashion are mainly for females, however if you look at the demo info for sites such as StyleHive and ThisNext, you would probably see that this statement is fairly accurate.

Now that I got my disclaimer out of the way, lets look at the newest fashionista social network to hit the scene.

As you can see it is not just women gracing the pages of Stylemob :)

My concerns for sites such as these is, how well will they integrate with other social networks? With each launch of a new social network I think to myself, boy do I wish I had one digital identity. I cannot wait to see how this site turns out.

Tags: social networking, social network, social media, fashion, Stylehive, Thisnext, Stylemob, fashionista, digital identity

SEM Has Been Behavioral Before Behavioral Was Behavioral

Check out this great post by Jonathan Mendez. I especially like his notion of "cross experience optimization" although I am not sold that this is some manifestation of what he is refering to as Web 3.0. As of late, I have been hearing more and more people throw this around as a term refering to the semantic web. The semantic web however is not a new notion and has been a goal of web pioneers since day once. I am stil not sold we have reached the point where we can claim this goal as reality.

clipped from www.optimizeandprophesize.com The growth of the semantic web or web 3.0 will make cross-experience optimization an everyday feature of the web. In fact, it may be more than a feature of the web. It may be the very platform. Those marketers and agencies that know how to use the platform will be the winners. I don’t think these winners will come from a display background. Though display will have a key part in the holistic marketing conversation BT reaps its greatest rewards to intention, action or affinity.

WILL AOL NOW BE CALLED TMZ?

Perhaps it really is time for a re-branding.

clipped from www.billhartzer.com First, it was “America Online”. Then, in 2006, “America Online” changed its name to “AOL”. Now AOL will reportedly change its name, yet again, to TMZ.

E-Mail To Go

According to Gartner, by 2010, 20% of all email accounts will be mobile.  Unfortunately the findings do not point to the type of activities (sending, receiving, opening attachments such as multimedia) that consumers will engage in, but it does predict that mobile email will take share away from SMS. Does this mean email is not for old people after all? :)

What does this mean for marketers?

For one thing, it may behoove you to start to get into the habit of checking your email newsletters on various handsets. For me, the main place I read email newsletters is on the go. While everything looks good on an iPhone, this was not the case with my Blackberry Curve.

Here is another interesting sound bite from this report:

"Convergence will happen on the client side, hiding technology complexity from users and allowing them to focus on messaging content. By 2017, wireless email will be fully integrated with other messaging tools into personal, converged communications," added Basso.

I fully agree with this statement. The mobile phone will become eventually become a true palmtop computer (much like my iPhone) and users will increasingly find little differentiation in the common tasks they do from device to device.

As for content, I still believe content consumption will always be a different story on the palmtop computer. Place and time will always play a factor.

Tags: Gartner, SMS, Mobile, MMS, iPhone, Convergence, Palmtop, Marketing, Blackberry, Curve

The Sobytiinost’ Meme Continues

(pre-requisite reading :) ). Much of my interest in the concept of "eventness" is due to Brad, so I recommend heading to his blog and seeing what he has to say first.

Brad Berens of Mediavorous and iMediaconnection always has a way of challenging me that extends the conversation started on both my blog and the articles that I write for iMedia. These types of challenges are the reason that I write, so for all of you who want to challenge anything I write about, bring it on!

In reaction a recent article that I wrote Brad wrote an incredibly insightful post. Here is an excerpt from that post:

The excess, the eventfulness, happens in what ISN’T recorded for posterity. It’s not enough for one avatar to meet another avatar that happens to be worn by Rachel Leigh Cook.  What makes it eventful is what’s happening elsewhere in the user’s life and consciousness that complements, extends, distracts or disrupts the Rachel Leigh Cook encounter. Cognitive oscillation of focus between the encounter and the context of the encounter is what will make something truly memorable.

As always, Brad has a great point!

In my article, I focus more on the central force of an event that I use to exemplify my point. While this central focus is of critical importance to making the event a success, it is not necessarily critical in providing the necessary components for “Sobytiinost’”. These components may never be fully known, for as Brad writes, they are not necessarily recorded. They are comprised of the social interactions that occur beyond the core event. They occur within the context of the event.

It is still pretty early in the morning and I have a ton of work to do today (as well a big meeting in Stamford) so I am left with a question that I wish to throw out to Brad and the rest of the AMediaCirc.us crew while I ponder it throughout the day.

How can the context of an event be leveraged (for marketers) in the interactive space in such a way that takes full advantage of the medium?

Online, in a more static environment contextual targeting can be employed fairly easily and can be pretty effective (i.e. Adsense). I have also seen attempts to create dynamic advertising in Second Life based context, but as you can see, it is far from perfect.

I will continue to think about this but I can use your help!

Tags: Brad Berens, Eventness, Adsense, Second life, Sobytiinost, Contextual Advertising, Contextual, iMedia, iMediaconnection

Nielsen Changes Approach, Comscore Follows Suite

It is undeniable that time spent is a much more valuable metric of measuring the online space than impressions. It looks like Comscore finally agrees.

clipped from www.ft.com ComScore refines web metrics system Published: July 25 2007 18:18 | Last updated: July 25 2007 18:18 By Carlos Grande ComScore, a leading measurer of website audiences, is refining its system to help advertisers avoid bombarding a minority of heavy online users and missing less active surfers.

Virtual Roundup For July 26

So You Think Virtual Worlds Are A Fad, Do Ya?

I am sick of hearing all this worthless, Second Life bashing. I was about to list all of the fair-weather journalists who were praising Second Life 8 months ago, and are now bashing Second Life. You know know what, those are the people that really need a life! Look at the bigger picture that is glaring at you from the gorgeous eyes of your children. (had to get that out of the way, now on to some news).

More Great Stuff  From MTV

MTV continues to prove their belief in the power of  virtual worlds and transmedia storytelling with a new initiative for their hit show, "The Hills". MTV once again proves they understand how to monetize a franchise. This new initiative is based on the release of the 2nd season of show:

By pre-ordering the DVD, you'll receive an invitation to enjoy an exclusive Virtual Hills viewing party on Friday, August 10 at 6 p.m. ET - with Lauren and Audrina - in which you get a VIP advanced screening of the third season premiere of "The Hills," three days before its television premiere on Monday, August 13 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Brilliant  entertainment, franchise marketing!

Wallace and Gromit 2.0

Ok, this has nothing to do with Wallace and Gromit (what a shame) but it is brought to you by the makers of the our favorite claymation characters, Aardman Animations. Have a look at their new virtual world called, WebbliWorld. Like many of the other virtual worlds aimed at children Webbliworld has its own currency, Webbles. If you are lucky you may even be the worlds first WebbliOnaire (ok guys,  c'mon :) ). I have not signed up for this one yet. Maybe later today.

Virtual Fashion

I am a little late with this one, but it is still cool. Have a look at what H&M is doing with the Sims. I thought it was pretty interesting they decided not to work with Second Life, and you know, it may have been a smart move.

Finally, head over to Virtual World News for an in depth discussion with There.come CEO, Michael Wilson

Tags: there.com, second life, wallace and gromit, Michael Wilson, Virtual Worlds News, virtual worlds, MTV, virtual hills, Webbliworld, the sims, H&M, WebbliOnaire, Webbles, Aardman Animations

Was The iPhone Really The Biggest Thing To Happen To The Mobile Industry This Year?

The iPhone was the the most hyped movement in the mobile industry this year, but was it the most significant? As a proud owner of the iPhone I can say that it is an amazing device, but I am not so sure it's impact will be as great as ATT's new 3G network. Take a look at Video Share and let me know your thoughts.

clipped from www.attvideoshare.com

Is this the end of Second Life?

All of a sudden there is this backlash against Second Life. Too bad for those who only cared about the hype to begin with. The rest of us know that, whether or not Second Life is sustainable, Virtual Worlds are not a fad.

clipped from www.wired.com How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life

Social Networking 2.M (part 2)

Back in March I spoke about what I thought was one of the inherent value propositions of the mobile space (other than talking and navigation). I think a lot of mobile marketing companies are either fooling themselves, confused or way to far ahead of the game when they think that mobile video and banner advertising is anywhere near the potential of reaching critical mass, making it a scalable advertising channel.

Where I do see tremendous opportunity in the Mobile space is in the area of social networking. Back in March I spoke about Mobileplay and this morning I read a press release by another interesting venture, this time by Trilibis Mobile, who seems to be focusing a great deal of attention on mobile communities...

<<GEEK BREAK>>

Production is the new consumption. As mobile consumers, most of what we do is produce. We produce conversation first and foremost, but more interestingly, we are starting to produce networks of knowledge and intelligent communities. There is little time for spectatorship in the mobile space as mobile is a medium for the "on the go" consumer. So why do so many focus on pushing longer form, or more traditional style content to a medium that leaves so little for consumption. Mobile is a bite sized, active medium. MARKETERS, BE BITE SIZED AND PACKAGED TO GO!!!

<<GEEK BRIEF...FIN>>

As I was saying, Trilibis Mobile just announced the release of Version 4.0 of Peepsnation, the old site is here.Sure, there are a lot of similarities to Dodgeball (I will leave it up to the folks over at Trilibis to further educate me :) ) but there are a few things that I found interesting in their press release today.

Here are some of the features of 4.0

Peepsnation 4.0 features include:

• Intuitive and rich user interface


• Picture upload and profile management


• Rate, rank, tag and message functionality


• Profile search with gender, location, age, and keyword filters


• Showcase of popular users

While Mobile/ Mobile Marketing and advertising will go many places in the future, this is where it is at now. The one hold up for me is that, no one in my network are in any of these places. In fact, I find Facebook mobile to a great job of connecting me on the go. We will see how these other networks compete (or if they get bought)

Tags: mobile social, social netowrking, mobileplay, trilibis mobile, peepsnation, intelligent communities, dodgeball, facebook, mobile, network social users

I

Mediapost Behvioral Marketing Forum-- Bringing Re-Targeting to Scale

Re-targeting is one of the most effective ways to get a second at bat with consumers. But getting enough of those consumers and finding most efficient way to retarget them is the hard part. This panel will speak out of case studies and planning strategies, about how to bring a strategy to a scale that delivers worthwhile ROI and how not to over-spend on re-targeting as well.

David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media, 360i
Joshua Koran, Senior Director of Targeting and Optimization, ValueClick Media
Brad Powers, Founder and CEO, Active Response
Andrea Palmer, Manager of Interactive Services, Siquis, Ltd.
Moderator: Greg Smith, CEO, EchoTarget

• One panelist references a 15% increase in retargeting in the travel sector


• Creative makes a big difference in winback


• How do you scale?


• 
  
  
  
  • The number one issue why many marketers are not buying more
  
  
  
  


• Very effective for loyalty programs


• Targeting later in the cycle is sometimes very effective if the window is not as narrow


• The question was asked if retargeting was used for acquisition, isn't that fairly obvious?


• Is this just a fad? Will it grow substantially?

Tags: David Berkowitz, 360i, Joshua Koran, ValueClick Media, Brad Powers, Active Response, Andrea Palmer, Siquis, Ltd., Greg Smith, EchoTarget, Re-Targeting, BT, Agencies, Mediapost, OMMA, Behavioral Targeting, CPM

Must See PC-- Event Marketing Online

Check out my latest article on iMediaconnection which covers various manifestations of The Experience Web and explores how a new generation of web users will return to event based media, and how marketers can leverage this shift

clipped from www.imediaconnection.com Morpheus Media's director of creative and emerging strategy examines whether online can bring back the social aspect of entertainment viewing or if we are doomed to spend our lives in media solitude.

Mediapost Behavioral Marketing Forum-- Behavioral in the Media Plan

All the surveys show great interest among agencies and buyers for more precise targeting and BT in particular. But is BT making inroads with media planners?

Carrie Frolich, Digital Practice Lead, Mediaedge:cia
Michael Winter, Media Director, Agency.com
Mark Egan, VP, Group Account Director, MediaContacts
Joseph Weaver, Associate Director, Interactive, Media Storm
Moderator: Anna Papadopoulos, Interactive Media Director, Euro RSCG

• At first BT was more like a nuclear collider


• What is behavioral targeting really?


• 
  
  
  
  • Targeting after any online action
  
  
  • Many flavors of behavioral targeting
  
  
  
  


• Are their advertiser types better suited for BT?


• 
  
  
  
  • Tends to be a DR focused channel
  
  
  • Frolich- “It works best for patient advertisers”
  
  
  
  


• Custom creative is essential, you must have a control group to compare how well it did


• Who are the top three partners?


• 
  
  
  
  • (I don’t think anyone wants to answer this one)
  
  
  
  


• What are the key obstacles in adopting behavioral?


• 
  
  
  
  • Getting creative and account teams to think more about behavioral strategy
  
  
  • Client adoption
  
  
  
  


• What are the metrics for success?


• 
  
  
  
  • DR metrics
  
  
  • Attitudinal Studies
  
  
  • Levels of engagement
  
  
  
  

Tags: Anna Papadopoulos, Euro RSCG, Media Storm, Joseph Weaver, Mark Egan, MediaContacts, Agency.com, Michael Winter, Mediaedge:cia, Matt Straznitskas, Media Planning, Agencies, Mediapost, OMMA, Behavioral Targeting, Carrie Frolich