So here I am at the iMedia agency summit in beautiful La Quinta California. I am fresh off my sojourn to Eastern Europe but that did not stop me from making it here to speak on a panel with my friends Brad Berens, Greg Verdino and my "new to be friend I am sure" Garrick Schmitt. I traveled for 11 hours yesterday to get here (gotta love modern air travel) but it was all worthwhile when I saw friends Masha Geller, Sean Cummings, Katharine Panessidi and a new friend from Eyeblaster (who I owe a drink for being too spaced out to remember his name. I owe you buddy!)
So what does massively niche mean?
Well, these days:
small is the new big
production is the new consumption
conversation is the new conversion
expressions are the new impressions
The world of marketing has undoubtedly changed. No longer can we look at mass audiences and push out one size fits all marketing messages. In light of these facts, what do we do?
Here are some thoughts:
Think qualitative in addition to (notice I did not say instead of) quantitative
Work on messaging fewer people effectively, as opposed to a mass of people in a manner that is impersonal
Seed the right people with the right message and show you care; they may just help find others who are interested
...and finally, you may just have to roll up your sleeves and work harder. If I can be in beautiful La Quinta on a Sunday and wake up at 6 AM (after a night of cocktails) to write this post, you can be up early to brainstorm as well :) (it is all about tough love)
I will keep you posted as to what we uncover here at this summit. In the meantime, send me questions you want answered and I will do my best to bring them up.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone at my company, Morpheus Media, for putting up with my incessant travel. You guys know I am out here fighting the good fight for all of us, and I love you all for it (this year I even promise to make it to the holiday party and get more drunk than all of you...combined!)
Finally, I have to thank [x+1] for my massage today. It is much needed. I know you guys have great technology, but you potentially have even better agency relation skills. :) Thanks!
We have all probably heard the famous quote from Andy Warhol in 1968, "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes".
My questions is, what about the 16th minute?
Another one of my favorite poets Neil Young said, "It's better to burn-out than it is to rust". I like to think that Neil was talking about the 16th minute; the minute after your time has past.
Friend and fellow blogger Greg Verdino alerted me (via his blog of course) to something that I had to comment on. Greg posted the latest video by the highly revered (?) Tay Zonday. While Tay Zonday is one of my personal hero's :), I am wondering whether or not he is taking his modern day classic, Chocolate Rain a little too far.
Actually, let's be honest, if faced with the opportunity that Tay Zonday had after his You Tube success, many of us would have capitalized on it.
But what about a brand? Is Dr. Pepper doing a good job of joining the conversation with this strategy, or is this just another corporate "me too" affair. I am sure it is garnering a lot of attention, but is it attention that the brand really wants? Is this a really effective strategy?
As a quasi proud owner of the Apple iPhone, I can say that Apple has undoubtedly changed what many consumers expect from a mobile device. In terms of user experience, Apple has raised the bar!
Apple's innovations start and end with user experience. It is Google, not Apple that has changed the face of the wireless industry.
It has only been a few weeks since the announcement of Android and the Open Handset Alliance and Google has already managed to shake up the wireless industry. Google has disrupted the industry to the degree where we have seen all major carriers shift the way they do business. We have also begun to witness the beginning of the end of the "walled garden". Some will be quicker than others to shed these walls, but mark my words, the carriers that keep their walls up will be the first to suffer (AOL anyone).
Verizon Reacts To The Disruption
Prior to the announcement of Android, Google and Verizon were unable to come to an agreement that would allow Google's search technology on Verizon's deck. With the announcement of Android, it seems that Google has taken a giant leap forward in terms of positioning themselves to be the default search engine for handsets of the future.
On November 27th key Verizon executives held a press conference (presentation can be seen here) announcing their latest strategy dubbed, "Any Apps, Any Device". While this announcement was short of innovative, it was certainly a bold move by Verizon and received applause from many industry wonks including the Chairman of the FCC Kevin Martin. Martin acknowledged both Verizon's and Google's moves toward open standard as, "significant". (ummm, yeah I would say so :) )
While the strategy looks great on paper, here are a few things you should consider before singing Verizon's praise:
Verizon will need to "test" any new device before it can join the network
I can only guess what the "test" for the iPhone will be. I imagine it will be similiar to the SAT's
Only phones running on the CDMA standard will work
iPhone, you are out of luck again
No details have been disclosed on what users of "out of network phones" will have to pay to get on the Verizon network
It is hard to say at this point whether this is really an opening of the Verizon network, or the opening of Verizon PR efforts. Only time will tell.
By now we have all heard about Facebook's advertising platform (many, many times). While I fully agree that the idea of the platform is a game changer, I am skeptical as to whether or not the platform itself is a game changer.
When introduced, Mark Zuckerberg largely spoke about the new platform in high level vagaries (at least for my taste). There were still a lot of questions unanswered and I cannot blame Facebook for this, as it was in fact brand new. Still, I have to be honest about what I have seen so far.
Are Facebook Ads The New Adwords?
Ask a silly question, get a silly answer.
(I don't actually have a silly answer, but it is a silly question)
Self Service Platform
I put my small marketer hat on (it is not the hat that is small, it is the hat that makes me feel like a marketer with limited budget, c'mon, don't be silly) and created a campaign for this blog. I wanted to target people interested in marketing. Based on my extensive work with Adwords I created what I thought would be an effective an ad and started the bidding at $.50.
No Clicks
This went on for a while. I finally arrived at a $2.00 bid and alas, a click! After a few more days of messing around I came back down to a dollar and have received 10 clicks to date for a total cost of $13.91.
I was not too concerned, as my goal was not really to promote my blog, it was to get some insight into how the Facebook platform works, and potentially some insight from the ill defined "Facebook Insights" program.
Facbook Insights?
I love data and was very every excited to see what Facebook had in store for me. Who was it that clicked on my ads? How old are they and where do they live?
With a head full of excitement I clicked on the insights tab. I realize that there is little insight to be gained from 10 clicks, but could this be it? Was this all the insight that I would get?
If anyone out there has experience with the self serve platform, I would love to hear it. I would hate to think that this is all that I am going gain from Facebook ads at the moment.
It is nothing new to state that the world has gone crazy for Facebook apps. At this point there is an app for just about everything; and we are just at the beginning.
Regardless, when I see a number of press release on new apps, I like to have a look. Here are some of the announced today.
MeVu, a site that lets people create profile pages that show all of their online activities has created an app for Facebook. Here is how MeVu describes themselves:
MeVu is unlike the various "profile aggregator" sites typically used to show a person's handles to social networking sites. MeVu throws out this rigidity in favor of allowing a person to enter a link to any page of theirs, no matter what type it is, add a description, and order them as they wish within categories of their own naming. A MeVu user ends up with a page showing their friends everywhere they live and work on the internet.
I am not really sure how the fact that MeVu allows links to other social networks is revolutionary, but they seem to think it is, so maybe it is :)
What do YOU think?
A good friend of mine just had a baby (actually, now that I am thirty the babies seem to be poppin out like crazy...does someone want to help find me a girlfriend).
In light of this, BabyMoods has come out with three apps for parents:
My Pregnancy enables expectant parents to keep track of the pregnancy as it progresses and share the excitement of their blossoming new life with all of their friends on Facebook. They can countdown the days to the birth with a ticker, build a pregnancy photo album with their growing bump and baby scans and update everyone with messages about the developing baby and how they are feeling during their pregnancy.
Birth Announcement allows Facebook users to announce their baby's birth to friends and family with as much detail they wish to give such as the baby's name, weight, very first photo and parents' message.
Friends in Bloom is a unique companion application to My Pregnancy and Birth Announcement. It allows people to stay informed about the progress of their pregnant friends through their Facebook profile and be notified of the birth the moment it is announced.
Knowing a decent amount of new and expectant mothers, I imagine these apps to be pretty successful!
Back in October, I sat with dropped jaw (as I usually do when listening to a master of virtual worlds) at the Virtual Worlds 2007 San Jose conference and listened to Sibley Verbeck speak about the impact that virtual worlds could have on the state of eCommerce. I had listened to Sibley speak at the prior Virtual Worlds conference where he postulated about the power that virtual worlds could play in the entertainment space, and he was spot on (see Virtual MTV)
But eCommerce... for adults, no less?
Verbeck said the following:
“A lot of the business models haven’t even been experimented with yet,” he explained. “With the right technology, a lot of the consumer experience for ecommerce could be at least as good if not better than shopping on the Web. I think the time will come, and I don’t know when, when most consumer ecommerce is done in virtual worlds. But I don’t see anyone really doing that.”
I was intrigued...very intrigued and have begun my exploration.
The first thing that comes to mind is Peter Morville's Ambient Findability . Unfortunately I am at the office at the moment and do not have a copy of the text, but I recall a portion of the book where Morville speaks about the fact that it is inefficient to make people travel from one place to another on the web, when hyperlinks serve as instant teleports (unless someone sees this post and finds the specific section where Morville speaks about virtual worlds, I will be sure to follow up and cite a specific passage). I see this as one of the major challenges that virtual world designers will have when creating 3D ecommerce experiences.
There are many other challenges they will face, but that is a discussion for another day (or potentially the comment section of this blog).
So what are the benefits of 3D eCommerce?
Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge fan of virtual worlds, and that I do in fact feel there is a future in 3D commerce. There are a tremendous number of social ramifications inherent in immersive 3D environments. Furthermore, there are spatial elements that can be leveraged for various aspects of decor and fashion that could not be achieved in a flat space, but after playing with Kinset this morning, I felt much less bullish on the prospect of virtual world commerce happening any time soon (although I am going to attempt to be a part of the solution if possible: more to come on that later, I hope).
I had heard about Kinset's 3D shopping platform a while back. I was on the road and installed it, but the install took so long that I did not open it. In fact, I did not revisit until today when I saw a press release talking about Brookstone's efforts in Kinset on Cyber Monday. After reading this press release, I felt like I had felt after reading so many press releases from PR hungry brands entering Second Life.
Still, I entered Kinset and began to shop, and the experience was very impressive...for a virtual world geek!
I thought to myself, as an average consumer, would I ever do this? Of course not!
In fact, this experience is far more complicated than anything I can do on the web so why bother.
I Love Experimentation
Okay, I was a bit harsh on Kinset. The fact is, I love experimentation and I love the people pushing the envelope for the rest of us, but I am heavily engrained in the eCommerce space (at my agency) and I feel it would be a disservice not to offer some criticism.
Offer Value
Why would someone shop in this space if there are no enhanced renderings of the object in the shop?
Use Multimedia to display uses of the product while displaying a 3D rendering
Offer Assistance
If one of the value propositions of 3D virtual shops is social, have someone in the shopping ready to help
Offer Creativity
Surprise and Delight. Show people entertaining things that could not happen in the real world. Make the shopping experience a really enjoyable one.
There is so much more that could be done in this space, I cannot wait to see some of it!
The better questions may be, who should it serve and who is responsible for ensuring service?
Since the onset of mass media, the role of media ownership has been in question. If media is supposed to serve the people it would be an obvious conflict of interest if one governing body owned too much of the media, and on the flip side, without ample capital it is not easy to run a successful media organization.
Many would argue that the Telecommunications Act Of 1996 loosened media ownership laws to the point where media concentration bordered on media monopolization for a few large corporations. Despite the fact that companies such as Clear Channel were allowed to own as many as 1200 radio stations, the laws did not allow them permission to own newspapers or other media in certain local markets and retained the ability to block other types of cross media ownership (note: this is intentionally a very top level account of media ownership in service of this post. If you are interested in this history, which you probably should be, I recommend you follow the various links I am providing to get more in depth information).
With media ownership laws looser than ever the questions arose, who is our media serving, and can we really trust media that is owned and operated by corporations with very specific political and economic agendas?
How Loose Can The Media Get?
The Chairman of the FCC, Kevin J.Martin has begun making some noise lately surrounding various issues. One such issue involves cross media ownership in the top 20 US markets. Martin seeks to relax laws surrounding ownership, and aims to empower television and newspaper companies with the ability to own more media bodies across more outlets than ever before. This move has various consumer groups and politicians (Democrats as well as Martin's own party, Republicans) outraged. Martin's proposal includes two important caveats which are not popular with many media companies:
the proposal requires that there be at least eight other "media voices," including newspapers and major commercial TV stations, in a market for it to qualify for the rule change.
the TV station can't be one of the four largest channels in the market. Typically, that leaves out local affiliates of the four major broadcast networks, and those are the stations that offer value for media conglomerates seeking synergies for their newsgathering operations.
The question you must ask yourself is, why would Martin ostracize members of virtually every entity involved in this feud? If he is angering consumers, politicians as well as big media companies, who is he satisfying?
One of Martin's reasons behind the relaxation of ownership laws is the declining prosperity of more traditional media in light of new media outlets such as the Internet. One may argue that traditional outlets such as newspapers are still incredibly lucrative businesses, but the fact remains that circulation continues to suffer at the hands of new media.
While I do agree that it is imperative for the FCC to ensure that no one media body has too much power, I find myself tending to feel that a media company is a media company, and should be allowed to exercise the type of transmedia news and storytelling that is indicative of the modern media environment we live in.
Can you imagine if a media company were only allowed to podcast and not blog? That would be ludicrous.
Media has changed and so must the laws. It seems that no one will win the current argument as the argument itself is flawed!
After all, when all of our information is delivered via IP, will anyone care who owns the newspaper division of The Wall Street Journal? In ten years will there even be a newspaper version of The Wall Street Journal (I imagine there will be, I was just posing this question for effect)?
So What About Google, Aren't They Playing In Multiple Media Channels?
With all the talk of regulation, where is the talk about Google's foray into every type of media on the planet. Sure, Google is not playing the same role as the traditional media company in many of these situations, but Google has landed itself in print, mobile phones, newspaper, radio, magazines and let us not forget the Internet.
Has Google found the loophole that traditional media companies cannot seem to find?
After all, Google is providing the one service that realizes most of the revenue generated by media anyhow, advertising. Google does not own anything equivalent to what Clear Channel or Viacom owns, but does that mean Google is not poised to have influence over a fair share of the media we receive? Just because Google does not own the media they are advertising in does not mean that they do not have influence, or does it?
Most of us have heard of Google's various ventures into traditional media, but the last few months have paved way for some of the most interesting debates surrounding Google and media ownership. Google has been able to hold true to it's original mission statement, "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" and at the same time has begun to create an empire by monetizing the worlds information and making it useful to their bottom line (I am in no way attacking Google here. In fact, I have the utmost respect for what Google is doing, but I feel it may get to the point where the FCC does not appreciate it as much as I do. Either way, Google has changed the way media is subsidized).
Take a look at this video outlining the potential of Google's Android. Sure, the system is open source, but who do you think the population will turn to when it comes time to search for information on this platform? People will undoubtedly turn to the worlds most efficient search engine, Google.
Google's investment in Android is predicated by the fact that they are aware they have a superior engine, and I don't think their are too many that would disagree.
Now go take a look at some of the speculation surrounding the Google Set Top Box. Notice how this strategy is perfectly aligned with Android, and Google's strategy at large.
I don't even want to touch the idea of the Google Magazine but I felt it was essential to provide a link.
I have been pondering all of the questions above over the last week and I would love to get the conversation going (or at least continue it, as I know this conversation is going on all over). I would love to hear your thoughts.
Talk back!
Lets get a conversation going and maybe some action based on what we decide is right.
For online retailers, today is not a typical Saturday. This Saturday, the conscientious e-tailer is hard at work pulling numbers from Black Friday, the largest holiday shopping day of the year, both online and off. While brick and mortar stores have had decades to deal with the holiday rush that comes along with the post thanksgiving shopping craze, online retailers are still relatively new to this phenomenon.
or the past few years the rush by online marketers to their analytics reports has resulted in nothing but smiles, this year may be different.
In a report by the Keyhole Competitive Group, the exponential rush to online shops has resulted in up to a 400% lag in many major retail sites, potentially resulting in a loss of site navigability and ultimately sales. Furthermore, Keynote has reported that the companies indexed in their study spoke of, "Struggle with Pressures of High Holiday Traffic".
There is little doubt that many companies forecasted for the same type of growth seen YoY in the 2006 holiday season, however many of the retailers may be in for a surprise.
I just returned from my tour of eastern Europe and noticed something new on Facebook.
Had I really been away that long?
As it turns out Facebook's news feedback function had only just been launched. I thought to myself, "finally, I can tailor my news feed to things that I care about, and stop getting feeds reporting on the fact the Sam Super-Poked Sally with a ninja fork".
I began to do some searching to see what people were saying about this enhancement. Much to my surprise there was not a whole lot of conversation going on in the blogosphere (or anywhere else). Perhaps this is due to the fact that it is Thanksgiving, or perhaps people just don't care. Either way I think that this is a step in the right direction for Facebook. As much as I love Facebook, there is a lot of irrelevant information and due to my ever growing social graph, I have more friends than I ever thought possible. It is essential for Facebook to continue to work on enhancements such as these to keep the experience of the site relevant.
As I continue my month (well, it is really two months) of travel across the country (and soon world) I am amazed at the rate of change in the communications industry. Luckily for me, I have a wonderful set of "go to" bloggers to help sum up all these changes for me.
It is in this interview that the two seem to coin the phrase, "Fansumer". For all you naysayers, adverse to fancy buzz phrases, I recommend pay attention to this one (especially if you are a marketer) as this concept will be very important in the way we market in years to come. Even if you despise the phrase, make sure you pay attention to the concept.
Search Engine Land
The next stop along the travels through my sphere of trust was Search Engine Land, where they did a pretty good job of covering the Facebook announcement , although not quite as insightful as Jeremiah, they certainly verified the facts and provided me with an image of the Coca Cola Facebook profile (I later sent a request to befriend Coke and they still have not accepted. Coke, you don't want to be friends?)
Okay, This Post Was Meant To Be Exemplary Of The Social Graph
Notice how I traversed from blogger to blogger in search of the truth and good insight. I did not search for information once in this process. I moved along the axis of what Facebook is now referring to as the Social Graph (notice how even that mention landed me a post by Alex Iskold).
From Search To Discovery
As a search engine marketer (amongst other things) at Morpheus Media I spend a lot of time thinking about keywords, as keywords, up until this point have been the greatest signifier of intent to take action in marketing history (I guess that is my opinion, but I am right 97% of the time :) ).
But what do you do when you run out of opportunities to reach consumers while they are searching?
A better question is, will search engine marketing remain the greatest signifier of consumer intent?
A searcher is raising their hand for more information about a given product, but that does not mean they want that particular product, it simply means that they are interested in more information. It is up to you, the marketer to convert that searcher into a buyer.
Well, what if that same consumer comes to your product by way of discovery?
What if that discovery process occurred when that consumer read that a friend had just purchased, and explicitly endorsed a product? How important could it be for you, the marketer, to be there with a relevant, enticing message? What would you pay for that?
Is discovery the new search?
I Get Carried Away
Maybe discovery is not the new search, Facebook is not the new Google and Pink is not the new Blog.
What I can tell you is that November 6th marked a significant change in the history of the Internet (and, not to be overly grandiose, but communications at large).
If you did not pay attention, you may want to practice the phrase, "would you like fries with that?"
According to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “Facebook Ads represent a completely new way of advertising online”. While the verdict is still out in this, some of the elements of the platform are very unique in their nature.
Today's announcement can be broken down in the following categories:
More than 100,000 Facebook Pages Launch Today
Pages representing 100,000 brand will launch today. The pages will be similar to user pages
“The core of every user’s experience on Facebook is their page and that’s where businesses are going to start as well,”-- Zuckerberg
Distribution through the Social Graph
As with any interaction that friends have with friends, any interaction a someone has with a brand will be spread though that users social graph via the mini news feed
Users can add reviews, comments and write on the Wall of a given company
Unique Ads with Social Actions
“Social actions are powerful because they act as trusted referrals and reinforce the fact that people influence people"-- Zuckerberg
“It’s no longer just about messages that are broadcasted out by companies, but increasingly about information that is shared between friends. So we set out to use these social actions to build a new kind of ad system.”
Social Ads can combine actions taken by users with messages directly from the brands themselves, giving brands the ability to join in the conversation taking place in the social graph
Insights about Brand Presence and Promotion
Facebook is promising useful metrics on various interaction with the social graph.
Facebook Insights is a free service for all Facebook Pages and Social Ads
Protecting User’s Privacy
It will be interesting to watch whether or not Zuckerberg and crew will be able to be more relevant in social environments than competitors have been. While I am not sold on the fact that the Facebook crew has found the solution to advertising in social networks, I really like their thinking and approach.
As you may or may not know I am doing a lot of traveling lately. Most of it is for work, however I am about to take my first vacation of the year and will be out of the country. While I am away I would love the conversation to continue. Therefore, I am opening up the blog for YOU!
We have heard the speculation, the rumors and the aimless banter about the mythic gPhone. Well, it turns out that the myth is in fact reality, and the reality will be unleashed today. It will not however be what you may have thought.
Google’s gPhone will not be a device (at the onset at least). The gPhone will be an open operating system aimed to compete with and loosen the constraints of the walled gardens created by the major mobile carriers.
“The new operating system, geared specifically for cell phones, will be used to showcase and promote Google's ever-growing panoply of services; much like Microsoft has done for decades with its Windows operating system”
…and why not! Google has a far superior ad delivery system, and if they can get on the palm tops of the lionshare of people, it will only mean increased revenue for the big G.
Verizon, AT&T and Sprint, be afraid, be very afraid (or be prepared to do something that you are not used to doing; playing nicely).
Other Key Points:
The gPhone will allow developers to work in an open source environment, spurring the growth of the mobile space
Due the increased usability of the web from handsets, people will begin to rely on these types of devices and expect more from their current carriers. Just as the iPhone raised the bar for what is expected from a mobile device, the gPhone will raise the bar again
Advertisers will have increased control over their reach to mobile devices, not needing to rely on large mobile ad networks such as Third Screen Media
I am not saying that I feel the gPhone will certainly prevail, however there is no doubt in my mind that it is a game changer and others will look to it as a symbol of things to come.
Derrick Oien, President, Intercasting Dan Monahan, Manager, UMPC Infotainment Programs, Intel Dr. Larry Marturano, PhD., Director, Social Media Research Lab, Motorola Bill Godwin, VP of Business Development & Strategy, Zannel, Inc. John Koller, Sr. Marketing Manager, PSP, Sony Computer Entertainment Norman Liang, Business Development, Web 2.0, Forum Nokia Peg Jackson, Managing Director, NeoCarta Ventures, Moderator
Mobile personalization
2007 this jumped due to the iPhone
How we connect content with friends and family
2 billion interactive devices currently in the pocket
1.4 MM iPhones to date
Mobile social network about 50MM wide
Carrier turnover rates are about 30% in the US
Mobile marketing 2B market
Mobile CTR's between 3 and 6%
RSS as a way to personalize content on the mobile phone
There is already personal info in the phone about you
location based services
Nokia has 10,000 developers working on mobile browser
The US marketplace wants their mobile experience to mirror their desktop experience
Mobile device as a locker for information you need with you
The iPhone helped to underscore what the US consumer wants
The iPhone is the first device marketed for its UI
it is really about usability, not the actual device
One of the pain points of the US mobile market is the fact that you cannot walk into any best buy and get any phone
Carriers are trying to innovate, but they look at the ecosystem and get concerned to not step on toes
Its just not the phone anymore. It's the Internet stupid!
Jeremy Lockhorn, Director, Emerging Media and Video Innovation, AvenueA - Razorfish Walker Jacobs, Senior Vice president, Turner Entertainment New Media Ad Sales Arnie Gullov-Singh, Vice President, Advertising Technology Group, Fox Interactive Media Michael Pond, Media Analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings Scott Schiller, Senior Vice President & Chief Revenue Officer, Glam Media, Inc. Federico Grosso, Senior Vice President, Business Development, blinkx Doug Scott, Senior Partner, Executive Director, Mather Productions Branded Content & Entertainment, Ogilvy & Mather, Moderator
Constant challenge for brands and content creators to reach consumers
Where is the user experience going?
Schiller-- "It is like groundhogs day all over again"
The deportalization of the web
You need to connect with consumers on their own terms
"how can we identify audiences and match them with advertiser" -- Gullov- Singh
that is the key to social media. That is where consumers are going en masse
"one of the problems with web 1.0 was the two ends of the spectrum" mass and niche. There was a great gap in the middle. Social media can help
The Funnel-- Marketing 1.0
How is video coming into a text based Internet world?
"We are looking at social media less and less as a channel, more as an OS"-- Lockhorn
Video is part of that
Community driven interfacing with content
Blinkx
"We are at the crossroad of the audience, content owners and advertisers"
"Search is still a crucial tool for the web"-- Grosso --
Search Versus Discovery
How much should search be an implicit process
"The problem with the digital business is many technologists who create the solutions believe they have the answer because they have a cool technology"--Schiller
So here I am at Digital Hollywood. I flew in straight from Podcamp Boston 2 (which was a really great time). Part of me is cursing "conference season" and is already worn out, but a larger part is excited to learn and take party in the ever evolving digital space. I will be speaking on Wednesday with some really great people and cannot wait for that. If you are around, please come by and say hello. Half the value of these conferences are the people!
Session
Deconstructing Advertising: Making Choices in a Universe of Limitless Choice: Broadband, Social Networks, Mobile, TV, Cable, Games, VOD & ITV Tim Hanlon, Senior Vice President, Ventures, Denuo - A Publicis Groupe Company Adam Stewart, Vertical Director, Media & Entertainment Group, Google Dean Carignan, Director, Advertising Business Strategy, Entertainment & Devices Division, Microsoft Corporation Tom Bosco, Head of Sales, MySpace TV Joe Franzetta, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Broadband Television Business Unit, TANDBERG Television Karen Bressner, Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales, Tivo Feisal Nanji, Sector Resident, Global Media & Entertainment Sector, Ernst & Young, Moderator
Advertising markets in flux
Impact of the media value chain
Advertising in center of this perfect storm
The conundrum of hyperchoice
MySpace as social OS
Qualitative views more important and a major focus at Tivo
Emerging media as a catalyst for creativity, as there is less precedent
My Space TV to roll out more programming
Dialogue is the magic in a bottle
Multitaskers have better ad recall, as many times the tasks include disseminating messages
For those of you that were not able to find the 212 event last night, you sure missed a fun one!
The gloves came off early on when Nick Denton remarked that certain technologies (widgets, podcasting) we marginal in comparison to platforms like Facebook. While I disagreed, his presence really made this an event!
Topics of innovation were brought up, and at one point Nick asked me, "Why do we need to innovate?"
I loved his challenge, and I think at the end of the day our viewpoints were not entirely different, we were just coming at the subject from different angles.
I was not going to write about this, as I figured everyone would be blogging about this today. Still, it is what is on the brain, and I cannot help it!
I am not sure that I would have been a big fan of episode sans the Second Life, but it was really funny hearing terms like Cosplay, Teleport and Avatar on mainstream broadcast television.
Did This Get A New Audience For Second Life? Does That Even Matter?
Obviously this was great press for Second Life, but I am sure that is not what CBS and The Electric Sheep Company had in mind when they produced this show.
For those of you that have not been following the experience, have a look at the quote from an interview with one of The Sheep, Damon Taylor,
I think it's fair to say that the Second Life experience is feeding off the television show. It's unclear at this point whether or not what happens in the virtual world will feed back or influence what happens on the show in the February 2008 sequel, but that will be determined by the producers at CBS. We wanted to connect with a storyline from tonight's show for our Second Life experience, and we have three main game experiences for CSI:NY in Second Life. We have a mystery game, and we will release a new one about every three weeks, which involves a crime scene, a crime lab, and suspects. It will be a 20-30 minute experience, and users can go to the crime scene, pick up evidence, process it, follow leads, and then choose the suspect they they committed the murder.
Was This A Success?
YES!
I don't care what the numbers say, nor do I care whether or not CBS or any of the involved parties thought it was a success. I have said this before and I will say it again, Experimentation Is The Mother Of Innovation and it is this type of large scale experiment that pushed the whole industry forward.
My job as a marketing/media strategist has been enhanced due to this experiment, and for that I tip my hat to all involved parties.
My Favorite Message Board Comment
I recommend heading over to the CBS CSI NY message boards and have a look what the community is saying. One of my favorite comments is,
Hey-- I'm a baby boomer too, and I loved it!!! I'm going to try to figure out how to play it.
(sorry you were cut off greg :)