DOUG SCHUMACHER

experience designer + writer

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Creativing :: Tweet of the Week, Museum’s engage in trash talk, and the 10 greatest YouTube mashups

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

Tweet of the Week

Today’s my last day at Sun. I’ll miss it. Seems only fitting to end on a #haiku. Financial crisis/Stalled too many customers/CEO no more

Ahead Of Super Bowl, Museum Heads Trash-Talk : NPR

If you want to breath some fresh air into the brand personality of your museum, you probably couldn’t do much better than this. There’s both a transcript and the audio version. How often do you get to hear museum directors talking smack to each other (in jest, of course).

Augmented reality mirror picks makeup for the ladies (video) — Engadget

The first line says it all on this. “Ladies and rockers alike”. You could also add kids, Halloween celebrants, Mardi Gras, etc etc. While practical, this could have a lot of pure entertainment potential.

Facebook Could Eat the Web – The Steve Rubel Lifestream

With everyone talking about Google and Apple, Facebook continues to advance in ways that make a much deeper connection between our personal and commercial relationships. For a lot of people, Facebook is quickly becoming the most convenient place to do almost anything online. And that’s always been the best way to increase sales. The thing they’ll need to be concerned about? Losing consumer’s trust, in the form of scams. As we’ve already seen, it’s much easier to social-hack someone when you have them on a trusted platform where they’re sharing a lot of personal information.

AppSlappy 32: “The iPad Episode” « AppSlappy

These guys do a good job countering most of the iPad objections I’ve come across. I do think there’s still a big issue in it not having Flash, as so much rich online content is Flash based, and this device is about absorbing media more than anything.

Facebook Trends: Goodbye Doppelganger, Hello Urban Dictionary Week

Maybe we need a new category here, Facebook Trend of the Week.

So Long, And Thanks For All The Flash — FarukAt.eş

A compelling argument for the end of Flash, more from a business sense than whether or not Flash is a better experience. I have to agree where he talks about development times and universal access … two major factors for any marketing project. And IMO, it’s the marketers that made Flash, with their expansive microsites and ubiquitous Flash ads. But the key factor for Flash has always been ubiquity and impact. If those are gone, the marketers will be too.

Leaked “Lost” episode spurs surprising fan reaction – Yahoo! News

When the season premier was leaked to YouTube, the reaction was often ‘don’t ruin it for me’. While this will give the networks a sigh of relief, it’s also important to realize that Lost is one of only a couple of shows that could garner this type of reaction.

Top 10 YouTube Mashups of All Time

Because of its simple user experience, popularity, and open API structure, YouTube has always been a good way to showcase mashup capabilities. What’s interesting here is the scope of the mashups. From simplifying an already simple UX, to tracking videos like you might a stock on the NYSE.

Twitter / eMarketer: Stat of the day: 68% of on …

It’s been reported that email marketing is falling by the wayside for many heavy social media users. This stat certainly supports that idea.

Creativing :: iPhone AR helicopter, smartphones and ecommerce, and a look under the hood of any website

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

Tweet of the Week

This is a new feature I’m going to add to this column each week.

140 Characters How Twitter Was Born

Ran across this story from Dom Sagolla, one of the original team that created and launched Twitter. Note how, despite Twitter’s relatively simple concept and technology, they went through a number of technical, UX and branding challenges. Scroll down the page past the book promo to see the original post

Parrot’s Remote Controlled Helicopter Takes Augmented Reality to the Next Dimension

This is very cool. A working mini helicopter controlled via the iPhone. If you’ve started shopping for me for Xmas next year, hint hint.

Social Media Not The Answer For Weak Brands: Branding Strategy Insider

I really like this piece on strategy v tactics. And while in many cases business strategy is, unfortunately, a foregone conclussion by the time the marketing department gets on the scene, it’s never too late to try to have an impact. As international borders vanish, production timelines shrink, and all businesses move closer to having perfect information, perhaps marketers will again get to spend more time in the CEOs office.

Ads Of Steel On Security X-ray Machines – Advertising Lab

Talk about niche targeting, these ads are recruitment ads for a security firm. The firm’s agents carry them in their suitcases. When their baggage gets scanned at the airport, the inspecting agent at the video monitor sees the recruitment ad. Not sure what the CPM is, but I’m sure these ads get noticed, as it’s certainly an attentive audience.

Marketing: Where Is Cause Marketing Headed in 2010? – Advertising Age

I think cause marketing makes a lot of sense for companies right now. Firstly, there’s our economic situation. There’s a lot of pain out there, and showing that you’re sensitive to it eases the underlying push of commerce. Secondly, tied to the first, cause-oriented messages are for the most part much less prone to cynicism and criticism. And that leads into social media. Not only are cause campaigns less likely to draw ire, but they’re far more likely to generate positive buzz in social media. And that’s something more and more brands will be considering the top reason for cause marketing.

Augmented Reality Statistics 2009

Some great stats regarding AR, webcams, video, Facebook, etc. Slide 4 is kill — 40% of Facebook vid uploads were via webcam. Though sites like uStream are hitting millions of uniques, live streaming doesn’t seem to be capturing that much attention. The 40% number would suggest it’s waiting for a ‘tipping’ event.

BuiltWith – Website Tech Analyzer

Ever wonder what techs a given site is using for their platform, analytics, ad serving, etc? Sure, you could view the source and weed through it. But this gives you the whole enchilada in a single search.

Wordle – Beautiful Word Clouds

Easy, and more importantly, graphically cool way to generate word clouds from any selection of words you chose.

TOPPS Enters The Virtual Goods Space Through Facebook

Topps moves into the virtual goods market with “Wacky Digibles”, a kind of reissue to the 70s product parodies, Wacky Packages.

37% of smartphone owners purchased merchandise via their phones in 2009

More data supporting the notion that, finally, this is the year for mobile.

Creativing :: Google Google and more Google, a restaurant does brand experience, and Guitar Hero for the holidays

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

Google Chrome promotional videos

Fantastic videos from the Chrome campaign in the UK. It’s great to see Google doing something different from their homespun Wave video approach. This is real artistry.

Ultimate Guitar Hero Experience

It’s amazing what happens when you take a cultural phenomenon like Guitar Hero and mix in the wonderfully hackable Wii system. This kid gets the Christmas present of a lifetime, and a killer Guitar Hero experience, as well. And is there any better proof that companies that open things up benefit enormously from the creativity of the crowd?

When Google Runs Your Life

Great overview of Google Apps, and the power of cloud computing. Particularly noteworthy is the speed at which Google can react to needs and improve an experience across the entire user base. While so many companies talk about their listening skills, Google’s demonstrating it. The ongoing stream of improvements and new features is the first thing I noticed when I started using Apps.

5 Creative Ways to Hack Your Facebook Profile Photo

Interesting way to creatively ‘hack’ your Facebook photo. Hack being used innocuously. These are more just some ways to make your photo stand out visually.

Isn’t the Value of Social Media What Business Is All About?

Good reminder by the head of Dell’s social media and community that social media is at the core of what successful small business operators have always done well. Develop great customer relationships.

Maloney & Porcelli Expense Report Generator

Need to write off an expensive dinner? Let this receipt generator help. A fun brand experience for a restaurant.

Obama moves to boost U.S. broadband access

Of course I love this, and I realize it sounds self-serving, but having the best broadband access in the world is part standard of living, part infrastructure, and part education. It’s an enabler across many areas beyond e-commerce and e-services. I just hope this is enough budget to make an impact.

What Google’s Real-Time Search Means for Brands

Four things Google’s Real Time search means for brands. The bottom line is, what’s said about you on the Web will be easier to find, and more influential, than ever before. For companies that participate in and drive that conversation, there’s power to shape those conversations. For those that don’t, they’re leaving their brand to drift whichever way the conversation flows.

Google Earth Comes to Audi A8

Great idea. Especially the feature enabling you to send maps from your computer to your car. I just hope the download speeds are better than what I’ve found most mobile broadband systems can generate, or you’ll end up driving around in circles waiting for maps to appear on screen.

Android Market Hits 20,000 Apps

One of the more impressive stats I’ve seen in a while. When you think that after 2 years, the Apple store is now at 100,000 apps, 20k in this short of time is significant. Google’s  taken steps to make it easy to convert existing iPhone apps to the Android platform. Apparently, it’s working.

Creativing :: Holiday shopping madness video, social media gains advocates, and iPhone news

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

Chaos inside Walmart during Black Friday 2009 [VIDEO]

Absurd chaos going on here. You’d think a gun was fired. People in some parts of the world must see this and think this entire country is insane.

Frosty the Inappropriate Snowman Mashup Creates Controversey

The video this references to has been pulled. What I like here is that the mashup was done by CBS. That means that CBS was mashing up artwork they didn’t have the rights to? And the networks are trying to put a stop to YouTube? At least for a brief moment it seems they stopped acting like legal bots and started acting like real human beings.

AT&T CEO Wants iPhone Users to Limit Usage

This is little short of mind-boggling. Just as the mobile industry a really taking off, AT&T’s De la Vega steps in and tries to threaten everyone with tiered pricing. He should read his history. The Web tried this very unsuccessfully in it’s early days. Consumers heavily restricted their use out of concern for unexpected high monthly charges. More than anything, I’m surprised that he can’t see how anyone in the mobile space should benefit from increased usage. That data they point to is interesting though: Their 3% smart phone users consume 40% of the data. I just don’t like their solution of punishing their best customers. What other industry does that (besides the music industry)?

Chrome Extensions for Mac Coming Soon

I just installed Chrome on my MacBook Pro, and am very impressed with the speed over Firefox. Extremely noticeable. But I do miss the ability to have plugins — something I used a lot on Firefrox. So this is good news to me. If you haven’t tried Chrome for Mac, though, i’d definitely give it a spin

Twitter Bombs and the Real Time Tweets on Google Results Page

I, like many others, have noticed a lot more Google Alerts search traffic. And much of it is from Twitter activity. This report could certainly explain why that’s happening. It could also be pushing up posters who happen to use a common Google search term. I can’t imagine this will last long. Way to easy for brands to drop the Twitter bomb. And you know they will. In fact, I’m sure the marketer behind the shaking belly ads is at work on that right now.

It’s Official: Auto Ads are Shifting Online

Some pretty convincing data on the increasing use of social media by the auto industry. What I find most interesting is that it’s the dealers, at the local level, that are really taking advantage of this. Here’s a great stat from a Nielsen report: “Auto dealerships dropped their overall ad budgets 27%, but increased internet ad spends 45% in the first three quarters of 2009, compared to the same time period in 2008.”

Social Media Influencing 28% of Shoppers

An early indicator of the influence of social media on consumer shopping behavior. And while I agree this is real, I’m surprised that the gap between those who say they check product reviews and those who say they are affected by social media activity is as narrow as it is. Really, I thought the majority of people would be regularly checking product reviews on sites like Amazon. Interesting that only 13% of people claim to make use of that information to inform their purchasing decision. Maybe it’s the lower price point merchandise they’re not so concerned with.

Seth’s Blog: The reason social media is so difficult for most organizations

Social media is a process, not an event. This is a big distinction, and actually something I addressed earlier this week at the iMedia Summit. So I couldn’t agree more. And company’s that want to treat social media and branding like an event, or a product, are in for an unpleasant surprise.

Top 10 Internet Marketing Strategies of 2009

What I like in this article is how they emphasize the mediums that establish credibility. This is a principle concept that’s coming up a lot in branding. And whether they refer to it as credibility, authenticity, or being genuine, it’s the same principle. You can’t just shout messages at people the way you once could. They mention these trends were big in 2009, and should be for 2010 as well. I’d say they can extend it out a lot longer than that for many of these mediums.

iPhone App Lets You IMDb on the Go

A good review of the iPhone app on Mashable. This is probably one of the most logical apps you could want, as especially among young people, a lot of movie-going decisions are out-of-home.

Creativing :: Social gaming’s revenue model is working, Twitter tools and insights, and Facebook Page updates are generating responses

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

The Goods May Be Virtual, but the Profit Is Real

Recently, I’ve posted a number of articles on this trend, and yet more reinforcement keeps popping up. This is a look at gaming, particularly social gaming. While the article doesn’t delve into it’s counterpart, console gaming, it’s not hard to connect the dots. Currently console gaming companies spending 100s of millions to launch a title, selling them at a high cost — often $40 or more. And like the movie industry, they lose money on most of their productions, making it back on a few hits. By contrast, social gaming sites product games that are free, played by millions, and then make their money selling small items for a buck or two. Their investment is less, so they don’t need enormous sales to recoup it. Zynga, the leader in this space and producer of games like Mafia Wars, says only 3% of those who play actually make a purchase. Yet they’re profitable. I think entertainment companies need to address this model, and stop trying to pull as much profit from as few people as they can, and start trying to get a little money from a lot of people. A great change would be to simultaneously make movies available in theaters, via download and on DVD. Capture the excitement while it’s there, realizing that there are potentially millions of people who want to see the movie, but just never make it out to the theater.

Weber Shandwick’s Inline Social Media Melting Pot

Good information, if not that surprising. What did take me back was the number of accounts the 73 Twitter-active companies have set up. 540. That’s an AVERAGE of over 7 accounts per company. And while the report overall has some good insights — I think they’re right on about companies just spouting off brand information and not really having a conversation — there are some aspects of the report that I feel are skewing the data. Namely, they look at absolute Tweets and Followers, not relative figures based on a recent time period. Twitter is still an emerging technology, and as such, many of these accounts could have been set up in the past 6 months. So unless the company has been posting at a very heavy rate, they likely wouldn’t have that much activity in aggregate to rank high in this study. I think brands can get a lot of value out of Twitter without posting at a level that, say, @garyvee posts (Over 60 posts a day average over the past week). And if you’re one of those brands, you didn’t look that good in this survey.

New Facebook Inbox Increases Response Rates For Page Updates

Insightful comparison between response rates for email newsletters (the opt-in variety) and Facebook Page Updates. While newsletters draw significantly higher response rates, they’re typically sent out with much less frequency.

Twitter Analyzer | Twitter Statistics | Twitter Analytics

One of the more interesting Twitter stats tools I’ve seen recently. A lot of information, although like most of the tools, it’s a little kludgey, and some of the data being presented could be more thought out in terms of whether or not that information is really helpful in making a Twitter use analysis.

On Twitter and in the Workplace, It’s Power to the Connectors – HarvardBusiness.org

A dissection of how corporate America structures are changing, from more rigid vertical hierarchies, to interpersonal networks that can expand across multiple companies and disciplines. There’s a strong leadership undercurrent to this, exemplified by the following blurb:

“Wherever teamwork across positions is desirable, natural connectors who instinctively reach across divides to form relationships get the plum jobs, on small sports teams as well as in large companies. For example, on the North Carolina women’s soccer team, a perennial winner among college teams, Jordan Walker was a team leader because she was a connector who helped other players work together, even though Coach Anson Dorrance called her one of the least athletic players he had ever seen.”

Creativing :: New storytelling on the iPhone, Google Chrome shows some personality, and the Xbox goes social

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

The PhoneBook – The future of interactive storytelling?

Perhaps iPhoneBook would be more accurate. A simple children’s story book concept for integrating the interactivity of an iPhone with a physical book. The big idea here is that one book could launch an endless stream of stories. I’d think every children’s book writer in the world has to be licking their chops at the potential around this.

Read news fast with Google Fast Flip

A common complaint about reading on the Web is that it isn’t the casual, perusal of flipping through a magazine or newspaper. This may not go quite that far, but the experience does have a more relaxed feel to it. Probably in part because it takes a web page and shrinks down all the little annoying data, so all you focus on are the big articles.

Advertising in Reverse

I completely agree with the foundational premise of this approach, that online shopping is a bad experience. Maybe not as bad as driving all over town, but still. Largely inefficient results for anything other than technology products and books. The idea here is a consumer RFP process, where people submit what they’re looking for, and a specified number of companies respond with products that meet your parameters. Clearly a system like this would have to be monitored for scammers and spammers. But I’ve heard discussed the idea of an ad network in which people are shown ads based on predetermined product categories they’ve stated interest in. This takes that to a more actionable stage.

Online gangs cashing in on swine flu

Fascinating, if not alarming. Sometimes technology actually changes society, and sometimes it just gives the same behaviors a new playing field.

VoiceQuilt Personalized Keepsake – Gifts With Voice Messages And Recorded Voice Memories

The production and presentation on this is pretty cheesy, but underneath all that dairy is a smart idea. A way of bridging people who are naturally savvy internet users (many people under 30) with someone in their life who probably isn’t (their grandparents). I know personally that, given the choice between doing a task online or offline, I’ll usually do it online. It’s simply an easier place for me to navigate at this point. And I think that’s the point here. People wanting to stay in touch with their grandparents could do something like this just because they CAN do it on the internet.

Taking Its Cue From Apple, TV Explores On-Screen Applications

Cable TV companies are looking at ways to integrate the Apple apps type environment into their set top boxes to enable apps downloaded and used on TV. This story underscores two issues. 1. There’s a lot of infighting in the cable industry, and it will likely take a lot of cooperation between TV companies, cable operators and online platforms to make this work. That’s a tall order. Furthermore, Apple has been doing this on a phone – a single owner device that people carry with them everywhere. Not the TV in the family living room. 2. There isn’t anyone in the cable industry with the vision or passion of Steve Jobs to pull this off.

Twitter and Facebook Launch on the Xbox 360

Interestingly, this came out the day after the above article. Everyone’s racing to own the living room. Xbox has already been enabling various social viewing and gaming experiences, including the new Netflix social viewing capabilities. But it’s only been social within the Xbox Live subscriber base. This blows it out considerably.

Statistics Show Social Media Is Bigger Than You Think

I saw the data presented here posted somewhere, but the video component adds a nice bit o’ drama. Some remarkable stats. e.g., 35% of the books sold on Amazon are for Kindle.

If you want a conversation, say something interesting

We’ve all met people who talk and talk and talk and never say anything remotely interesting. This is a great warning to companies engaged in social media not to become that person.

What is Google Chrome OS?

Google apparently learned quite a bit from their arduous Wave launch video. This one is fun, refreshing, and actually makes me want to go out and buy a Netbook.

What Twitter’s New Geolocation Makes Possible

A list of some great examples of how this could be applied. Anyone in marketing should read this.

Creativing :: ESPNs anti-social media policy, Facebook’s ad innovations, and change isn’t just for advertising anymore

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

ESPN Responds to Criticism and Publishes Social Media Policy

Previously I posted someone’s prediction that going forward, more and more companies were going to have a social media policy, which I certainly agree with. Perhaps no place will these policies be more interesting than with news organizations, who butter their bread by releasing news, often over social media networks. Here’s ESPNs policy, which basically says you can’t do on your own for free what we’re paying you to do. Sounds logical on first take.

However, this policy attempts to build a wall between professional and personal social media use. It may sound easy to a lawyer, but reality is a different ball game. And wouldn’t you want some of your best writers to promote their work to their personal networks, which can be very large? Lastly, if you’re wanting to hire a top writer who may have a blog following of 100k, which she can monetize, how much more do you have to pay her to drop everything she’s built up in social media for the past 5 years to come and write for you?

Why Digital Agencies Are Indeed Ready to Lead

Probably the longest ongoing industry debate to date. I’m not sure it’s a digital vs. traditional question at all. I think it’s definitely going to be driven by someone with a powerful digital sensibility. But I feel like while agencies are fighting over whether the banner or the TV spot should come first, the bigger question is, Should this all be lead by a product development, creative messaging, or media buying mindset? Following the money across a ten year projection isn’t easy. But then if the answer was easy, there wouldn’t be a debate.

Nikon Kick Starts Campaign via Tweet

Mind you, this wasn’t just any Tweet, but rather an Ashton Kutcher Tweet. With 3.9 million Followers, he’s demonstrating that not only is a large social media following a great weapon for negotiating film contracts, but for endorsement contracts as well.

Posterous Overtakes FriendFeed, Set to Overtake Delicious.

The stat is certainly interesting, although I find this a little apples-to-oranges. At least I consider Posterous to be pretty much a content posting tool, and FriendFeed and Delicious more social media platforms. If Posterous hits that magically nebulous thing called critical mass, though, the game opens up considerably, and they can become more of whatever they want to be.

Facebook Launches Friends Of Connections Targeting For Ads

I’m surprised this isn’t generating more noise. The idea that your network of friends is a remarkably accurate predictor of your own preferences should be a closed case by now. And this is one of the only mass scale ways to target the friends of someone who’s a Fan of anything from a movie to a tennis shoe to a car. Seems like a big leap forward. If you knew someone was a Fan of a movie, wouldn’t you want to talk to their average 120 friends to try and get them all to go see it? At least the one’s in the same city?

Microsoft to Include Video Ads in Loading Screens

I’m not sure I’d recommend to many companies to run ads during games, but the loading screens are another thing. They could even add value (imagine that). Of course, there’s the temptation to make game loading times longer to support longer ads. And I wouldn’t want to tempt anyone in need of more revenues at the moment. But at the core, in-game advertising is as inevitable as ads on cable television, which was once anathema to the concept of cable. At least this approach won’t have me seeing a billboard for a new 5 blade razor while walking through Renaissance Venice playing Assassin’s Creed.

LEAKED: The Facebook Ads API

When the subject of integration comes up, the discussion is always around messaging or media spending. It’s rarely about tracking and data. But there’s enormous power in that information. This news isn’t the onset of a revolution, but certainly a good indicator of where the business of performance tracking is headed.

Mountain Dew Crowdsources Agency Review and Selection

If a small business will crowd source a $50 logo, why not a $100 million campaign? This is about all you need to read to see a major trend in the ad industry unfolding.

What EA Sees in Social Gamer Playfish

Like the ad business, the gaming business is going less big idea, more a lot of little ideas. And of course, those myriad little ideas are ongoing, and take a lot of manhours to execute.

The future of business is in ecosystems

The reality is, business models everywhere are being flipped on their heads. This post from Jeff Jarvis (What Would Google Do?) shows that the clients are facing as much tumult as the agencies they’re working with (or maybe it’s ‘not working with so much’). It’s the same story from yet another industry. Keep it small, stay nimble, and don’t stop running.