DOUG SCHUMACHER

experience designer + writer

apps

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

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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 :: A baby-photo meme, Facebook’s Hackathon winner, and measuring word-of-mouth

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

Dilbert Takes on Social Media Marketing Managers [PIC]

This is funny, and probably painfully true for some.

Score a Celebrity Twitter Follower by Donating to Charity

I like this concept because it plays into the Twitter culture of “who’s following who” so well. And it’s simplicity. Just bid on a celeb (like Justin Bieber), and they’ll follow you, retweet you at least once, and will also send out a tweet including your @twitterhandle. It’s tough to tag this with a value, as the big unknown is how many of JB’s 5.2m followers will ever see either of the references to you. But it’s a fresh idea.

10 Facebook Tabs to Add

If Facebook’s recent elimination of boxes left you baffled, this won’t necessarily explain their reasoning, but will give you a sense of how to revise your page to get back the content that’s now missing. For brands, this is a good chance to see how an advanced user is making the transition from boxes to tabs.

Nau, inc.’s photosets on Flickr

Fashion brands would seem to be a natural for photo-based social media. Yet it seems like so few of them take advantage of the technologies. One that is is Nau, a personal favorite of mine. In particular, I like their user submission contest, in which each month they select the best shot submitted by users, and that person gets, what else, free Nau clothing. They’ve also integrated the photos and Flickr’s slideshow capabilities on their site very nicely.

Does Speed Trump Quality for Startup Iteration?

With the term ‘agile marketing’ popping up more and more frequently, it’s interesting to note other situations where the rapid deployment and iteration approach is working. Personally, I think there’s a lot of headroom in this direction for agencies, as there’s no question they need to get more done in less time. The real question is, How to do that without ending up a pile of debris.

7 Strategies I’m Pitching for Businesses to use Facebook Places | Stay N’ Alive

A good list of ideas that many businesses should be doing with Facebook. Much of this is going to become foundational, and will support numerous other online marketing initiatives that involve social media, so it makes a lot of sense to have these capabilities already in play and having a good understanding of how to use them.

A new way to measure word-of-mouth marketing – McKinsey Quarterly

Some interesting findings in this. For consumer purchase decision-making, word of mouth has greater influence in developing nations, yet they also rely more on advertising, even at late stages of the decision making process. That makes sense given that mature markets tend to be more cynical about advertising. But word of mouth will almost certainly increase more for mature markets in the future, due to advanced in technology.

Another interesting bit. Word of mouth can lift a company’s market share 10% over 2 years, but also drop it 20%. Obviously, there’s a huge need to generate positive word of mouth. Imagine what 10% market share is worth to most brands.

A Baby Photo Becomes an Internet Meme – NYTimes.com

An entertaining story about memes, in particular a Florida parent’s baby photo that went viral in Japan.

Social shopping app wins Facebook Hackathon

Another indicator of the social shopping trend. Right now the simple idea is to map products to ‘Likes’, usually weighted towards your circle of friends. Of course this all underscores the importance of friends in recommending products, the most reliable source of information.

Is the iPad Devouring the Notebook Market?

Steve Jobs predicted this, and it’s remarkable to see the iPad’s impact happening so quickly. Keep in mind it was just a couple of years ago that laptops surpassed desktop sales. The trend is certainly to light, portable, and easy to use. For marketers, the question is, How will this impact future computing? So what are the user traits for iPad? Less typing, a more graphic experience, instant access due to not having to ‘boot up’, and an app-like experience, even if over the long-term that becomes more perception than technical reality. Bottom line: The Web has become (or perhaps always has been) a confusing mess of information, and now that’s it’s entirely mainstream, there’s a lot of room for optimization. The iPhone and iPad have taken us back to a simpler, almost pre-Web era of siloed experiences that feel simpler because, like traditional, they have a more contained set of options once you’re inside the app. Choice is good until it’s overwhelming.

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

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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

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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 :: Facebook goes location location location, Hysterical ChatRoulette spoof, and stock footage you haven’t seen (and would want to)

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

“The Last Exorcism” Viral Campaign Spooks Chatroulette

This is really well-done. I presume the prank is real, i.e., the people on the other end of ChatRoulette aren’t staged. For the record, this was done a few months ago, but this production is much better: Here’s the original: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMG8FT1TKkw

CriticalPast.com: Stock video site with great archival footage.

Just about anyone can use a stock photo site with fresh content. (Where else can you find footage of Richard Nixon playing piano at the opening of the Grand Ol’ Opry in 1974.)

How Coca-Cola Could Bring Pop Appeal Back to MySpace – Advertising Age

The headline is certainly a grabber. And music does seem to be MySpace’s only bullet left. But I think it’s because Facebook hasn’t spent real effort in the area. And they might not until MySpace or someone else demonstrates real opportunity. Then they’ll move in and do the same “Netscaping” that they’re taking to the location-based industry. Facebook has the user data — even their data on personal musical preferences surpasses MySpace. My guess is that if they rolled out a monetization model for music-related apps, they could sprint past MySpace in music pretty easily.

Facebook Places: What It Is, What It Isn’t, And Why It May Change The World | Forrester Blogs

A good detail on the Facebook Places launch. Facebook is wisely taking the platform approach, vs product, emphasizing a partnership relationship with the current field of location-based services. The also provide a lucid example of what these location checkins can mean emotionally. Their example: Imagine your children visit a beach in 20 years, and find out that’s where you and your wife exchanged your first kiss. That should have brands like Hallmark licking their chops. This idea of driving routes and hiking trails becoming flush with new reference points and notations holds a lot of promise for brands to make rich contributions to people’s lives, if done correctly.

Mashable Poll Results: Will You Use Facebook Places? [POLL]

This is my screen grab after taking the poll (my answer was YES, given I’d already used it). I’m a little surprised it’s not higher, but am guessing there’s some blow-back from current fans and early adopters of other location-based services. And for people who say they see no value in it, I’d just give it time.

Foursquare Experiences Record Signups After Launch of Facebook Places

Interesting headline in the wake of the Facebook Places launch. However, the article pinpoints what has to be the real story here. That Foursquare is drafting a lot of the buzz the Places launch has generated, as it’s hard to find an article about Places that doesn’t also mention Foursquare. It certainly indicates the value of press, even if it hasn’t been favorable to Foursquare regarding the launch. As the saying goes, write whatever you want, just spell my name right.

Facebook Mobile: 100 Million and Growing

Just a perspective on the launch of Facebook Places relative to the current crop of location-based services. Keep in mind that, as I reported last week, less than 1% of people use location based services more than once per week. Foursquare, the media darling of location-based services, has 3 million users. Facebook has 100m as of last Feb. Probably way more now, given the growth trajectory stated here. So for those asking how will Places impact the existing LBS companies? For future users who will be joining the LBS fun, Facebook offers a more familiar interface, an app they’ve probably already installed, and a place where most of their friends already are. Simplicity, familiarity, and mass penetration. I’d hate to be competing against that.

Shopkick Teams With Best Buy To End Fake Retail Check-Ins

This challenge for brands using Foursquare is very real. The checkins can be easily gamed. And while that’s fine when friends are fighting over the mayorship of the local dive bar, when brands start to spend big money on coupon-driven campaigns, millions of dollars can be at stake. Shopkick is offering a tighter grip on the situation. The technology behind this is quite clever. The Shopkick app picks up an inaudible sound emitted from their in-store device which tells them the user is actually in the store.

The CMO’s Real Conundrum « iMediaConnection Blog

If advertising is about understanding your customer, then every agency person should spend a lot of time studying CMOs. This is a good overview of the recent Accenture report on the challenges facing CMOs in the digital age. It also reflects the findings from the May 2010 article in BusinessWeek on what CEOs really want from their ranks: http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/content/may2010/id20100517_190221.htm

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

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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 :: How the iPad will change computing, The future of gaming, and a 70s music vid way ahead of it’s time

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

Tweet of the Week

Past tense of ‘bing’: If bing is like ping then it’s ‘binged’. If it’s like sing, it’s ‘bung’. If it’s like bring, it’s ‘bought’.

Starbucks Listens to Customer Request for More Sizes | Starbucks Coffee Company

This was my favorite April Fools prank. Starbucks again showing the best way to battle brand backlash is to not let it throw you off your game.

How the Tablet Will Change the World

The more I read about the iPad, the more impressed I am by Apple’s vision. I’m also enjoying the battle of the titans between Apple and Google. And while I generally favor the open system approach of Google, Apple’s been providing value through a far more consistently better user experience for the masses of users who never really care about doing their own Google Maps mashup.

10 Apps We’re Excited to Try on iPad Launch Day | Gadget Lab | Wired.com

Another post in the topic du jour. To a lot of people, the gap between a laptop and an iPhone experience seems like a small niche. True, almost all apps demonstrated here can already be done on either of those two devices. But looking at these large images and realizing that they’ll be delivered in the tight interface of the Apple app system, and you can see why this is going to be a very different computing experience.

NYT: Data Show Best Corners to Hail a Cab in New York

This article hits on several interesting points. The use of data to create a more fluid society — think traffic management or urban planning. Also, the release of this data as an app means the loop comes around and future data could reflect how this data was reacted to. And lastly, this is all about mobile and location based services; probably the strongest tech meme going.

Jesse Schell’s mindblowing talk on the future of games (DICE 2010)

A great presentation on the current and future state of gaming and how it could be worked into seemingly every facet of our lives. Watch this video and get 10 bonus points.

Amazon Filler Item Finder – Get Free Shipping on Amazon.com

Since opening up customer reviews in the mid 90s (to the howls of critics), Amazon has refined and redefined the online commerce business. This is right in line with their trend. A tool that shows you a range of products which will fill that last $3.11 you need to add to your order to get free shipping. Brilliant!

YouTube – Prisencolinensinainciusol

Remarkable video from the early 70s. The song from Italian singer Adriano Celentano is actually a parody on what English sounded like to him. Thus the rather odd title. It actually looks and sounds more like someone trying to take a funk hip hop group and send them time traveling back three decades.