DOUG SCHUMACHER

experience designer + writer

apple

Creativing :: Where good ideas come from, YouTube’s new mobile site, and WiFi on ‘roids

By

What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Where Good Ideas Come From [VIDEO]

Excellent animated video on where good ideas come from. A lot of this will ring true to the importance of conversation monitoring, which is really just a way of plugging yourself into the community, or conversation, that the author talks about in this video.

Digital Marketing: Security Tech CAPTCHAs as Advertising – Advertising Age

Most of the time it’s annoying when advertising creeps into every nook and cranny of daily life, but this idea comes off as clever, and really making a pretty drab event — entering CAPTCHA info — a bit more interesting. And for brands, getting viewers to actually type out their tagline or product features based on a paid impression is pretty remarkable. One of the more clever new ad units I’ve seen in a while. The only limit will be that there really aren’t that many times a user has to see CAPTCHA’s, assuming they have cookies turned on.

The State of YouTube Mobile: Viewing up 160%, Operator Partnerships Sought

A couple of interesting things in this piece. For one, Google’s not happy with the way Apple’s YouTube app works, and are promoting the WAP version of YouTube mobile, instead. It offers a considerably better user experience, which shows that WAP has a lot to offer versus native app development. Secondly, Apple controls the YouTube app on iPhone, and if they can’t keep a major brand like Google up with the latest and greatest mobile experience, then it really underscores how much this brand really needs the larger development community on it’s side, and developing apps like mad for their platform.

SCVNGR provides deeper integration with Facebook Places

I’m following SCVNGR closely, as they seem to be the most aggressive of the location-based apps at trying to figure out survival in a post-Facebook Places world. It’s also interesting, because they’re backed by $4m from Google Ventures. And Google would love to kill both the social and mobile birds with one stone. But I still feel like SCVNGR lacks the simplicity to really go mainstream. For one, it requires an app download, a big barrier, whereas Facebook’s mobile app already has 100m users. And then there’s that problem of less than 1% of all mobile phone users use a location-based app more than 1x per week. So driving consistent use is going to be a real challenge. But the logic behind SCVNGR’s actions are on target, as they get that it’s ultimately about making brands more dynamic on their Facebook properties.

Digital Marketing: The Top 10 Viral Ads of All Time – Advertising Age

Just ran across this list. What I find interesting is that most of them are from the past two years. I’d think having more time on to accrue views would help. My guess is that two factors contribute to the recency of the leaders. One is that companies are getting better at promoting their videos, versus just tossing them on YouTube and telling a couple of forums about it. And secondly, the metrics tracking these views are improving, as they’re extending the analysis beyond YouTube views alone.

“WiFi on steroids” gets final rules, drops spectrum sensing

Any involved in online marketing should be a fan of anything that dials up our broadband speeds here in the US. They’ve been rated as low as 25th in the world, or something abysmal like that. But this is great. Take some unused TV spectrum and allocate it to wireless broadband. And I like that they’re focusing on wireless. It may not have the topend speeds of cable now, but ultimately it will be the most cost effective solution to scale, and seems like the most probably path to blanket coverage.

Phones Begin to Replace Hotel Keycards – Popwuping

Simply a smart way to differentiate yourself amid a battered travel industry. While it might not be enough to attract new customers, this will certainly make a strong impression on anyone who uses it (assuming no bugs, of course!). It also shows how companies need to focus on consumer touchpoints, and not media inventory, when looking at ways to make a real impression.

Hand Craft Your Way to Great Prizes in Etsy API Contest

Etsy is an interesting company to watch, as they’re developing a reputation for interesting, community-centered marketing campaigns. Earlier, they had a UGC video contest (http://www.youtube.com/user/etsy), and now an open API contest, with cash prizes. A couple things are truly helping them in these efforts. One is having a product that naturally attracts a lot of creative, artistic people. The other is having VC Fred Wilson (www.avc.com) as one of your backers.

5 Important New Trends in Location

An overview of the post-Facebook Places location-based services landscape. As expected, this is quickly moving from fun and games to real functionality. And that’s the big opportunity for brands. Because you may need several million people to make a game fun, but good functionality can be delivered on a 1-1 basis.

Creativing :: The revamped Facebook ‘Like’ button, Apple relents on Flash dev for mobile, and the return of microsites

By

What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Google Losing Ground As Users Spend More Time on Facebook and Yahoo

The article attempts to downplay this rather remarkable stat. However, i think for many brand marketers, it’s all about quality time and experiences. When people are spending so much time on Facebook, it’s easier for a brand to forge a relationship because the users are in a more comfortable environment. Sure, there will always be value in meeting consumers who are just ready to buy, i.e. Google Search. But for brands who need to establish themselves earlier in the funnel, Facebook offers a better environment, and one that will ultimately offer more inventory because of the amount of time spent on the site.

comScore: Facebook Now The Third Largest Video Site In The U.S.

A while back, Facebook surpassed Flickr as the number one site where photos are posted. Now they’ve moved upwards in terms of videos viewed. It demonstrates the power of a platform, and being the default place people go to share things. Remember that a big part of YouTube’s success was it’s capability for embedding videos into other sites, like MySpace. As more people opt to upload their videos directly to Facebook, where they’re already spending much of their online time, then YouTube could see the same attrition happen that photo sites did. When it comes to sharing, users will almost always opt for the simplest route.

5 Things You Need To Know About Today’s Facebook Like Upgrades

Facebook is taking some bold steps forward recently with their Like button. Primary is the added flexibility of what Like can be tied to. A Web page, an app, or even a virtual goods. Perhaps of more immediate and tangible interest to marketers is the ability to identify where Like’s came from, and being able to reach out to anyone who’s Liked you or your content in the past.

Apple Relaxes Restrictions on Mobile App Development

This is refreshing, given my previous criticism of Apple’s decision to control how apps are developed for the iPhone and iPad. The biggest news nugget of this has to be the allowance of apps developed using Adobe’s “Packager for iPhone”, which was at the center of the recent Apple/Adobe flame war. At least for now, things seem back to normal, although I wish Apple’s decision was based more on keeping the platform open than the potential legal threat of non-competitive practices.

Thoughts on Google Instant

Given all the buzz around Google Instant this week, it makes sense to let Google’s search guru Matt Cutts give the main introduction. If you haven’t experienced Instant, just go to Google and start typing any search query. Not only will the suggested search topics change, but the surrounding page content. It’s basically a nice way to search multiple terms without having to click and view multiple pages.

How Much You Need To Spend To Be Facebook’s Largest Advertiser

Facebook is showing serious gains in advertising revenues. Not exactly Google spend levels, but there’s a big ‘Yet’ at the end of that line. This will get even more interesting as Facebook continues to figure out it’s social search product, a direct aim at Google’s big revenue generator.

What Big Brands Are Spending on Google – Advertising Age

These spend levels, while not even necessarily the top spenders on Google, are remarkable. Think about a brand spending $8m/mo on search. And that Google has to do very little to make that sale happen, or to maintain that customer relationship. It’s also interesting to see brands using SEM as a periodic strategy to address product launches, crises, and shifts in seasonal trends. Again, demonstrating the power and influence of search.

Thought Microsites Were Dead? Think Again

The first thing to note is, This is not your father’s microsite. There are hardly any links between it and the Flash-heavy, sound effects-drenched behemoths of the mid-2000s. Much more tactical from an SEO standpoint, the emphasis here is on making the content the experience. The benefits they list for this approach is a must-read.

PepsiCo Names 10 Tech Start-Ups for Pilot Digital Marketing Programs « iMediaConnection Blog

When you consider that Pepsico and their agencies spent several months reviewing over 500 emerging tech and social media platforms and culled the list down to this 10, this is well worth a close look.

Why Your Business Needs a Mobile Commerce Strategy Now

This story is remarkable if only for the mobile spending figures PayPal shares. They’ve seen mobile transactions go from $25m in 2008 to $141m in 2009, to a projected $500m in 2010. That’s staggering growth. And for just one mobile payment system. The article goes on to give suggestions around creating a good mobile shopping experience.

Creativing :: Stunning infographics, the future of Web content, and NASA explores Flickr

By

What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

50 most stunning examples of data visualization and infographics | Richworks

Fantastic selection of work. This is a must see for anyone in marketing. (Thx to John Durham for the link.)

The Rise of the Anti-Facebooks

I don’t see any of these as having a real chance of unseating Facebook, but it’s a good read comparing their strategic approachs. Diaspora is the most interesting, as it’s open source. So many other platforms are moving towards open source, and as Facebook’s big strategy is to be a platform and not a destination, they could be vulnerable to an open source movement. Especially given the increasing amount of data they have on people (e.g., Places).

“The Social Network” Movie Launches a Facebook-Themed Website

I really like the simplicity of this site. I don’t get how they’re comparing this site to a social network site, but it’s well-done none-the-less.

Flickr: NASA on The Commons’ Photostream

Like the Library of Congress putting a lot of the National Archives photos on Flickr before. While the pics have been available on the NASA site, it’s nice to see them moving to a common online photo site. As a Flickr user, I’m glad to be able to see these pics up in my rotation of photos by contacts.

Facebook Awarded A Social Search Patent

The patent is for “ranking search results based on the frequency of clicks on the search results by members of a social network who are within a predetermined degree of separation”. Interesting that the patent was filed in 2004. They were focused on that very early on, and the vision is still holding strong.

Apple – iTunes – Ping: Social Network for Music

I’m pretty underwhelmed. Of course, social media and open anything aren’t really Apple’s things. But really, there just isn’t any depth of content or relationship to the conversation or the connections.

Chatroulette’s Relaunch Is A Bust | paidContent

Even if the ChatRoulette URL proves to be dead, the idea of randomly connecting with strangers via video will surely surface somewhere else, probably more closely aligned with a specific interest group.

The Future of Web Content – HTML5, Flash & Mobile Apps

Uncovered this article from earlier this year. If you’re not familiar with Jeremy Allaire, he’s had a great career charting technology trends and making products that address the changing needs. His take is that of a seasoned technologist who’s seen a lot of things come and go. Bottom line is, there’s still a lot of tumult in the industry (witness the h.264 pending usage royalties in 2014) and a clear vision of the future online content platform probably won’t emerge for at least a couple of years.

Checkmate iPhone App Uses Background Location for Automatic Checkins on Foursquare

Given this works wtihin 50 meters of a business, that means a lot of potential checkins when people are just walking past. I can’t imagine how that’s good for Foursquare.

8 Crucial AdWords Reports For Measuring Success

A good set of campaign metrics to follow that provide a well-rounded view of performance. This is a good read for people outside SEM who aren’t overly family with campaign analytics

Creativing :: Virtual booze on Facebook, tracking through RFID bracelets, and the Web of Intent

By

What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Virtual Drinks on Facebook Become Real With Bartab

I really like this idea, and can imagine there’s a lot of room for liquor brands to get involved, and even other brands that don’t involve kids, autos, or operating heavy machinery. Being one who enjoys buying a friend of drink, I gave this a quick try with what I think was a free first $1. Very clean, simple interface. The only issue I saw was very limited bar selection. But if this builds any steam, that will be a temporary issue

Fujikyu Highlands: “Guts” – Metal Potential

Simply an absurdly funny commercial, from Japan.

Coca-Cola Marketing Event Tracked Facebook Users Via RFID

One of the smoothest applications of new tech I’ve seen. Through the use of RFID bracelets, kids were able to post to Facebook by simply flashing a bracelet. For example, if a photo took their picture, they could flash the bracelet and it would auto-tag them in the pic. The real proof is that over the course of the day, there were 35,000 updates, although only 650 kids could be in the part at a time. Whatever the total visitors was, that’s a lot of checkins in a given day. And at that rate, Facebook user’s biggest problem will be sorting through their friend’s updates (which some would argue is already a problem

Thousands Of Facebook Users Fight To Rescue Dogs

A good example of how a seemingly small emotional element can drastically change a message. We’ve all seen animal rescue ads. But this one goes a big step further, by both giving us a look at an endearing animal, and secondly, telling us that this dog will be put to sleep tomorrow if you don’t do anything. Hard hitting? Yes. Effective? I’d bet on it.

Location-Based Text Message Ads Get a Major Boon

This type of things has been brewing for a while, but The North Face is doing a good job of adding relevance to the SMS notification system by factoring in user preferences. This also gives them additional data on their customers, which could be worth the cost of the program. A lot of companies have tried to nail SMS and failed, which has certainly tainted the industry. But the sensitivity TNF seems to be bringing to this could help shift things in another direction. Ultimately, brands will build or lose their reputations around how they handle situations like this, so it’s good to read the details of how they’ve structured this program. And all of that said, the experience seems to be down right now (that, or Mashable provided a bum link). This also points to another flaw in so many campaigns. Nowhere on their site or Facebook Page are they promoting this program. Again, could be due to technical issues, but if that was the case, they’d just offer an explanation instead of nothing

iTunes may be more social starting next week

Maybe it’s naive, but i’ve been surprised it’s taken Apple so long to go wireless with iTunes synching. At any rate, if Apple takes music social, the potential is obviously enormous.

Seth’s Blog: Sell the problem

Funny that advertising how-to’s always emphasizes benefits and solutions. Of course, a little negativity also goes a long way. Just ask a politician.

Google’s realtime search: fun times for neurotic searchers

As Gary Vee once said, the most interesting thing about Twitter is Advanced Search. This is like Twitter search, only with Google. Which IMO takes a large bite out of the value of Twitter search alone (unless, of course, your interest is limited to Twitter). Thinking about all the buzz around Twitter activity for timely events like the World Cup, it’s not surprising that there’s both interest in this type of search, and that Google will be putting a lot of effort behind it.

Trailmeme and the Web of Intent

As online content explodes in quantity, a growing concern is how people will parse all the info. When the Web started, it was enough to have a simple directory (Yahoo). Then, we needed to find random information at a given moment (Google). Now, we need to figure out how to piece together and extract a story line out of the mad influx of information we get every day. Perhaps it’s not surprising that a mega-brand like Xerox is taking up this task. In particular, check out the Scamville example, and when on that TrailMeme, look at the “View map” button on the lower left. Of course, the ongoing challenge for brands will always be figuring out how to insert themselves into the content stream in a way that doesn’t detract from the user experience.

How To Spam Facebook Like A Pro: An Insider’s Confession

Ran across this old article. It’s a fascinating look at how Facebook adscams are going down. It also serves as a good dissection of key industry tactics and technologies.

Creativing :: Apple’s fantastic arrogance, Facebook and Amazon friend each other, and two excellent augmented reality apps

By

What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Tweet of the Week

so many girls leave their boyfriends over his excessive x-box playing that they should call it the ex-box.

The ever-arrogant Apple « Observatory

Funny take on Apple’s brand personality, and how there aren’t enough companies like them.

Facebook And Amazon Join Forces For Social Shopping

This brings together two online giants in a way that clearly demonstrates the power of Facebook Connect to a major retailer like Amazon. Perhaps no other category is more tied to our friends than books, music, and movies. And when you think about how many people have their preferences in those categories listed in Facebook, the value to Amazon becomes obvious. But it goes beyond that. Where else can a retailer like Amazon tell you which of your friend’s birthdays are coming up, while also knowing their product preferences. Check it out.

iButterfly=AR(Augmented Reality) × Motion Sensor × GPS × Coupon [VIDEO]

This is an exception demonstration of the potential around AR. I think this specific example is a little misdirected. Very kid-focused, but on iPhones with GPS? And with coupons? Seems like a great core idea — collecting things that are all across a country and only visible through your phone — waiting for a brand to give it the perfect context.

Chatroulette.com cracking down on perverts – Yahoo! News

So, who’s going to be left using the service? Seriously, though, the question is, What’s the long-term potential for this type of online experience? YouTube pulled down sexual content, but users found a lot of other creative ways to use the service. That may be possible for ChatRoulette, but could require them to invest time and money into showing the way to that. A large user base is a great place to start, though.

This Week’s 10 Most Explosive Facebook Pages

Self-explanatory title, with no additional explanation required.

Augmented Reality: PlanningAlerts Uses Mobile to Reveal Undesirable Real Estate | MobileBehavior

Perhaps the most practical augmented reality application I’ve seen. You simply hold up your phone to view a real estate property, and it shows you all the potential problems in the vicinity. If this were offered in my area (it’s in Australia at the moment) and I was house shopping, this would be a given.

Seth’s Blog: The problem with unlimited

More wisdom from Sage Godin.

How To Make Your Blog Popular On Facebook In 5 Seconds

Beyond the simple advice about increasing your activity rate for posts is the foundational reason for doing so. It increases the odds of your story appearing in the newsfeeds of your Fans.

MediaShift . Your Guide to Next Generation ‘Content Farms’ | PBS

This should be an interesting series of articles on the growing area of content farming, one of the major challengers to the publishing industry as we know it.

Creativing :: What Steve Jobs should say, kings of YouTube, and dissecting the Old Spice campaign

By

What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Tweet of the Week

If Jobs doesn’t start this press conference with “Look at your CEO now back to me now back at your CEO now BACK TO ME” he’s missed a trick.

How the Old Spice Videos Are Being Made

A good overview on how the campaign was created. It’s interesting to see user generated components kicking in, which is mentioned towards the end of the article.

Skin Lightening Facebook App Sparks Controversy

Have to say I think this issue is blown out of proportion. Maybe it’s because in Venice Beach all I see are people trying to darken their skin.

Seth’s Blog: A hierarchy of failure worth following

An excellent distillation of where to take risks, and where not to.

Chatroulette Rolls Out Local And Custom Channels. Top Channel: “Sex”

Shocking!

5 Non-Profit iPhone Apps You Should Know About

A few mobile apps from the non-profit sector. My pref on these is the simplest one, the Salvation Army “Bellringer”. A nice way to reenforce a strong brand icon.

Queen Rania of Jordan takes to TwitVid to Promote Her Country [VIDEO]

While the contest info delivery vehicle, the video, might be what you expect from a Royal, the underlying promotion has a nice feel of global inclusiveness. Swap two people from your country with two people from somewhere else in the world.

YouTube – Most viewed videos

With the recent Justin Bieber / Lady Gaga ‘most viewed’ showdown, I was curious to see the 100 most viewed vids on YouTube. Perhaps not surprisingly, the majority seem to be music videos, interspersed with baby’s laughing, people dancing, and allusions to sex. The view counts are also interesting to note. The top vid has 245m views. The 100th: 40m views. That’s a pretty precipitous drop, and if you consider that 2 billion videos are viewed every day on YouTube, it’s really a long tail play with a huge majority at very low view counts.

Is Social Media Failing to Produce Business Leads?

This pulled select from the article says it all in regards to shifting marketing forces: Former President of CBS News Andrew Heyward wrote in the Harvard Business Review last year that “every company is a media company,” summarizing the idea that marketing is shifting to an environment where advertisers need to produce compelling content in order to succeed.

Creativing :: Massive Glastonbury photo tag, Google’s uphill run at Facebook, and mobile heads in-store

By

What’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Tweet of the Week

Man. I could listen to Jony Ive talk about “materials” all day long. I mean—unless I had the option of doing literally anything else.

GlastoTag – One huge photo. A whole load of tags. | Glastonbury Music Festival

A very simple but powerful idea. Take a hi-res photo of everyone at a concert, and then enable them to zoom in anywhere, find, and tag themselves via Facebook. I’d also have added an easy way for them to drop and save their photo as their profile pic.

Disney Puts Movie Tickets on a Facebook Site – NYTimes.com

One of those ideas where you look at it and say “Really, nobody’s done that yet?”

Best New Mashups: World Cup, Interview Questions, and Innovative Online Dating

More mashups. An interesting World Cup mashup that attempts to predict the score via Twitter tweets, a site to help people keep up with the latest job interview trends (you know, those trick questions!), and a match making site based on music taste from Last.fm. Interesting functionality/productivity in those last two.

Google Trying to Build Facebook Competitor? Good Luck With That

A good reminder of the importance of cohesion across all your brand touchpoints. Google has an impressive lineup of touchpoints, competitive enough feature-wise, but often lacking the key ingredient. A critical mass audience.

If Banner Ads Are Dead, What’s Next? – MarketingVOX

While the headline is a little alarmist, the point is, a lot of people are finding banners aren’t driving the response rates they used to. Of course, that happens with any medium. For many advertisers, it’s most likely a matter of them not doing anything of remote interest in the banner in the first place. And then they wonder why nobody notices their ad.

Rory Sutherland: Sweat the small stuff | Video on TED.com

Fantastic TED presentation by a British ad exec on how big ideas don’t require big budgets.

Gay Social Network Fabulis Gets Backing from GeoCities Founder

An example of how Facebook may lose social website cache, but still retain a valuable business model. Social sites could easily go niche, especially ones build around currently strong communities. But like Fabulis, they’ll likely use Facebook integration to accelerate growth at their inception. And that keeps Facebook in a powerful position to deliver relevant advertising.

Vuvuzelas for BP by Adam Quirk — Kickstarter

I’ve mentioned kickstarter before. And out of that biz model comes an edgy cause marketing campaign that’s not only blowing away the creator’s estimated budget, but has to be generating enormous amounts of buzz. I really think there’s a lot of potential for a sort of event artists that can pull these things together in a way that people will want to support.

Big Potential for In-Store Mobile Marketing – eMarketer

Mobile isn’t just for when your customer is trying to find you. It can be for when they’re standing in your store. However, while people are growing more accustomed to grabbing their mobile for product research while in store, only about 20% of Multichannel retailers are using any form of m-commerce. Looks like a lot of potential growth.

YouTube – Nissan Leaf iAd announcement

What can you take from this? That there’s likely going to be a lot of business in the area of building the experiences backing these ads. Of course, the comments would indicate that people won’t tolerate iAds. Yet again and again, people choose ad-supported over pay models. (Hulu will be an interesting case study, although news site after new site has failed trying to go paid.)