DOUG SCHUMACHER

experience designer + writer

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Creativing :: Twitter either explodes, implodes, or both, and a great example of Facebook Connect’s power

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My weekly update of what’s going on in new media marketing, pulled from social bookmarking site Creativing.com:

Hurt, Trent Reznor Half-Quits Twitter

Trent Reznor, of whom I’m a big fan, has long been railing against the music industry’s control over artist and general heavy-handedness. And I’m pretty much in agreement on that. However, when he rolls out his personal life on Twitter, and it’s a 180 from the brand he’s been selling for the past 20 years, and then complains about fans not aligning with his new online personality, it highlights both the power and the shift these media technologies are creating. For years, the music industry, and the star system at large, has created a buffer designed to keep artists sheilded from this type of off-brand exposure. More than anything, his latest rant seems like a reminder to be careful what you ask for. It might come true.

Twitter Posts From Display Ads – Advertising Age

A new use of Twitter’s open API. Now brands can have tweets go straight into their ads. See above reference on being careful what you ask for.

Tweeting Too Hard

I’m glad someone called this out. There’s working it, and then there’s self-indulgence.

Twitter on Pepsi Can: Entering Mainstream or Jumping the Shark?

Not had enough Twitter news yet? Pepsi UK is printing tweets onto cans of their Raw soft drink. Raw product, raw news I guess.

Gamasutra: Kim Pallister’s Blog – The Most Significant Thing At E3 2009

With all the buzz around Project Natal, Kim’s pointing us in a different direction. The power of Facebook Connect and Twitter’s open login is creating instand communities around pre-built networks for friends. With Xbox Live, Microsoft has proven that core gaming is social. But the casual gamers aren’t there. Yet. Look to these login solutions to help make that leap.

Gawker – Yahoo Nukes Man’s Photos Over Obama Comments – Yahoo

A man posts political, disparaging comments and content on the White House Flickr account page, and Yahoo deletes his paid-for Pro account, without any warning, deleting 1000s of irreplaceable pics. Point 1) Remember that when you use the cloud, you don’t have as much control over the data. Point 2) Brands, like Yahoo in this case, need to be a little more sensitive to people’s information before they just go pulling the plug.

CMO job becoming a lot wonkier

CMO’s are relying more and more on data to drive their decision-making. One, it’s a bad economy, and bad economies usually create a more cautious approach to decision-making. Two, there’s a lot more highly-valuable data available now, and smart people are going to take advantage of it.

Next-Gen Creatives Focus on Web’s Data Detritus – Advertising Age

See previous link and realize that they’re the one’s approving or killing your campaign. As I’ve posted before, data can be a creative’s friend.

SnapStream TV Trends

On the subject of data, here’s an interesting tool for monitoring what keywords are used with what frequency on national TV. One obvious use is researching the rise and fall of trends.

Facebook Connect Used With Prototype Game Trailer To Integrate Profile Data

The creative showcase piece of the week. If you’ve wondered what the power of Facebook Connect type login’s can have on creativity, watch this. Logged in, of course.

selfcontrolfreak

Just a fun, creative use of interactive video.

Creativing :: Gaming goes off at E3, a social marketing snafu, and Web 3.0 explained

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My weekly update of news and events in new media marketing.

Weirdo Kid Starts Huge Dance PartyVideo
This is just a fun, quirky video from some outdoor event in Australia. A good example of how community behavior is more than an online network.

DC viral marketer slips up on 4chan? on TwitPic
Careful, your viral marketing street team is showing. A social media street team member accidentally posts the creative brief along with their ‘genuine’ comments. Snafu’s like this are ripe for happening when you have a lot of people following orders they don’t completely understand, or are just jumping into the social space to help blast the word out. Authenticity is key, and while companies are sure to keep pulling stunts like this, they’re going to have to tighten it up or the cat will slip out of the bag.

YouTube – Project Natal for XBOX 360
Google and Microsoft are trading blows over who can deliver the knockout technology news. Google Wave last week, Microsoft Project Natal this week. And each presentation was brand-revealing. Google geeky and open source, Microsoft slick and highly produced. Both in the dev stage. At this point, I’m calling the fight for Microsoft, though.

While the Wii comparison’s are obvious, the physicality of Project Natal as a gaming experience is remarkable. And that’s what blurs the boundaries between real and virtual.

Facebook Ads Now Available for ‘Pages’ and ‘Events’
With social media still generating massive corporate interest and paid media still owning the bulk of the current spend, it makes sense that figuring out how to transition between paid and social media will be a big topic. Facebook takes their rather unglamorous-at-first-glance display ads and gives them an inside track for parlaying impressions into a social media action. You can now Fan a brand, or RSVP for an event, right in the ad. My guess is Forwarding, along with the RSVP option, is coming up soon.

Microsoft to link 360 to Facebook, Twitter
Project Natal wasn’t all the gaming news from Microsoft. Xbox, the focus of their entertainment center ambitions (yes, say goodbye to the Media Center) is now going social with Facebook and Twitter linkage. So when you login to a game, you’ll see which friends of yours are playing, and can post to FB and Twitter that you’re online playing. You can also post acheivements, which the good gamers are sure to do. Any brand that offers a shared experience will have a lot to benefit from this type of social net integration.

What is Web 3.0? Semantic Web & other Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English
Just when you figured out the diff between Web 1.0 and Web 2.0, here comes Web 3.0. While I’d say some of the 3.0 here is 2.0, there’s no denying that the semantic web is going to give marketers a wave of new tools to play with.

10% Of Twitter Users Account For 90% Of Twitter Activity
The general trend here isn’t that surprising. A while back I saw a similar stat for YouTube, though maybe not quite as extreme. But I’m surprised that Twitter is more in this direction than YouTube. Creating video content requires a lot more than typing 140 characters, so it would seem there’d be more even distribution with Twitter.

Maybe the point is, because Twitter’s only 140 characters, those that are participating are able to do so in high volume. There’s also a trend towards using Twitter in a broadcast fashion, as most celebs and a lot of brands are doing. And it’s an easy vehicle for that. You can blast a personal, 1-to-1 feeling message out to millions. And while they can freely respond, few of them truly expect a reply in return.

Dear AmericanAirlines
Funny exchange between a UX designer complaining about AA.com, and the staff’s response.

Virtual tour of NY
The website for a photog team who shoot aerials of NYC. A nice showcase for their work.

Creativing :: Facebook, the accelerating mediascape, and some fantastic short short films

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About: “Creativing” is my weekly summary of the latest industry developments affecting new media creatives, strategists, and producers. It covers issues like the latest technologies, new campaigns, and industry trends. The content is primarily culled from Creativing.com, a social bookmarking site covering new media marketing.

With the holiday, it was a short week, although the people creating industry news apparently didn’t get the word, as it seems this week had more interesting developments than usual.

Surprise. Facebook is in the news.

Facebook is roaring back from the backlash earlier this year. The cover story of BusinessWeek is not to be missed. There are some good figures about the tightness of friend networks. As expected, there’s quite a gap between our Facebook friends and our “real-life” friends. While we may have a lot of Facebook friends, we really on stay in close communication with less than 5% of them.

But I think the article over-emphasizes the closeness of communication among friends. The broader network of people you stay in little touch with reminds me of Malcom Gladwell’s Outliers, in which he states its often the people in the farthest reaches of your network that lead to impacting connections. And that’s the big opportunity for brands on socnets. I already know a lot of the brands my closest friends use. But it’s the outliers that can really introduce me to new products.

Dave Knox of P&G breaks the article down into several key points, including the study of “Paths of Influence”.

This study of social mapping is going to be massive, and should part a lot of the clouds around the value of these friends. BusinessWeek revisited this this topic in follow-up article to their cover story.

Don’t cry for paid media just yet

The social media buzz has extended well beyond it’s present impact, though. Paid media is still far and away where the bulk of spending is going. Let’s face it, most companies aren’t ready to toss out the sudden results of paid media traffic for longer-term word-of-mouth growth just yet.

So the current issue seems to be less about how social media is killing paid media, and more about how the two can be used in sync.

A recent study reiterates a theme that’s been building since the cross-media studies done by the IAB in the early 00’s: That media channels work far better when used together in a coordinated way. It’s a call for team work in a big way. So while the IAB demonstrated that online and print were more effective than just print, we now see that search and display are better when used together. The next logical step is the need for paid and social to get locked in. And my guess is that when they nail it down to numbers, the findings will blow away the previous studies. Just a hunch.

The growing need for speed

It’s no secret there’s a growing need for quicker response times in this business. This has been coming up again and again, from different directions.

Some of this is mandated by crisis management, like the recent Dominos video.

But most of it is simply the need to keep pace with the rapidly changing mediascape. Somewhere in the middle of Web 2.0, Internet technology finally went from geek chic to mainstream cool. Girls writing fashion blogs aren’t afraid to dive in and hack through a little WordPress code. Many of what we would consider normal consumers have looked behind the technology curtain, and embraced what they found.

Of course, businesses follow consumers. The challenge is that consumers are setting a pace you’d need an Indy car to keep up with. This was all summarized pointedly by Simon Clift, CMO of Unilever, when he said “We may be ahead of some of our competitors. But we’re most definitely behind consumers.” And keep in mind he’s at Unilever, one of the most forward-thinking marketing departments in the US.

It’s not surprising then that there are technological solutions springing up to address this need to keep up. Wildfire is one example worth noting. In short, it’s a way to set up a contest or promotion across a number of socnets with as little footwork as possible. No real coding involved. Fill in some forms, push a few buttons, and up goes the campaign.

Another brand that’s been around a few years but is getting more buzz lately is Ning, sort of a community in a box. I was surprised to see their monthly uniques at 4.7 million. Their distinction from other socnets was laid out in the interview with their CEO. When asked ‘How is Ning different from other social networking sites’?, she replied, “Most social networks are built around friendships, but Ning is built around interests.” Thus for marketers willing to forgo owning the community data, an admitted issue for many, they can utilize tools like Ning and WetPaint to go live more quickly. Again, without coding.

Although potential levelers, my opinion is that these types of solutions are good for agencies. They move the emphasis away from technical implementation, and (hopefully) place it on strategy, messaging, design, and optimization. The creative and insightful parts of the business.

It does smooth the path for clients to take things in-house. And that’s certainly going to be a concern for a lot of agencies, as Max Kalehoff delved into this week. But what I keep coming back to is, the ad business has never been about production. It’s always been about ideas. And reducing production requirements shouldn’t take that away from them. If anything, it emphasises what they’re good at.

Creative works worth checking out

Old Navy’s $1 Flip Flop Memorial Weekend Sale
This just seems simple and smart. Take a loss leader like flip flops, which they probably buy for about what the sale price is anyway, and practically give them away to make news. This story was all over the fashion blogs that weekend.I can’t imagine what they generated in press coverage — all of it reinforcing the message that Old Navy is a place for great value. In a bad economy, no less. Here, the promotion concept is the big idea. And of course, right next to those $1 flips are some more expensive shirts, shorts and shoes, which a lot of the customers will grab on their way to the cash register.

Twitter the TV Series
Somewhere between obvious and inevitable. The announcement was about as informative as Warner Bros. announding they’re going to make movies next year. It will be interesting to see where this goes.

Del Monte Using Community for New Product Ideas
I’ve stated that creative is primed for a rennaissance. I think research is on the same path. There’s so much conversation out there, it’s almost impossible NOT to have it impact product development. Del Monte set up a community for 300 of the most avid pet owners, and in what seems like a fairly quick process, came across a product idea that probably would have been laughed out of a marketing department brainstorming session. Dog food based around a bacon and egg breakfast.

Last Day Dream
Just watch this. It’s about 1.5 minutes and worth every second. A great demonstration of simple cinematography and short clips creating a powerful story line.

Sorry I’m Late

Just when you think stop motion has been done every which way. The camera position and resulting background is brilliant. Stay tuned till the credits roll for a breakdown of the production process. Another example of production that could have been done in the living room of a nice house, with a bunch of props from Ikea.

That’s my breakout for this week. As always, very open to any input on the format of Creativing.

Creativing :: Social Media. Let the inquisition continue.

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I’ve been kicking around a couple of different approaches for posting here. One is to do a recap of what I think are the week’s most interesting developments in online marketing. I’ll pull a lot of this info from Creativing, the social bookmarking site I’ve set up where anyone’s free to post relevant marketing information (read: not spam). Thus I’m titling these posts ‘Creativing’.

This would be in contrast to longer deep dives on a more focused subject. Any input on this would be greatly appreciated.

So what happened this week? Nothing. So goodbye and have a great Memorial Day weekend.

jk

Actually, a couple things happened that are perhaps more continuation of previous trends than anything else.

Social Media Gets Shelled

Social media came under attack. Again. And not unjustifiably so. Fast growth demands questions, as everyone should have learned from the late 90s.

Regarding the Knowledge Networks study, true, most people don’t ‘go’ to social media sites for product information. I don’t go to TV for product information, either. Nor magazines, radio or billboards. But that doesn’t mean that there’s no opportunity for brands there, or that it’s not a valid environment for them to be in.

The fact that they state those sites are used for staying in touch with family and friends is an open door to even more opportunity for brands to get into the conversation. As long as they’re authentic about it.

Survey’s in which people answer direct questions about why they behave the way they do are, in my opinion, sketchy at best, and misleading at worst. Product decisions are laced with emotional overtones that are seldom captured in surveys. The minute we ask someone to rationalize an emotional process, it’s over.

Moving on to Facebook

Facebook announced the Publisher is being extended to Pages. What’s the big, you ask?

Facebook is all about sharing, yeah? Getting into that conversation thing. And this is simply extending the capacity for people to share things right off the Pages of the company’s they’ve Fanned.

Thus if someone’s on a company’s Page, and they see something they want to share (probably one of the most likely places to find such content, it should be noted), then they can post back to the company’s newsfeed, and to their own newsfeed (and friend network), right from that page. This could also be driven from an app.

Ever since the move last year away from widgets and towards the Newsfeed, Facebook has been pushing the thread of conversation. This is bringing brands into the picture more prominently than ever.

Of course, brands will still need to give people a reason to share it with their friends.

And more Facebook news.

Crushing data for MySpace this week. While the user base is still coming around, the engagement is dropping precipitously. Users are spending less and less time on the site. And when your site is all about social engagement, that’s pretty much the sign of the apocalypse.

To date, there hasn’t been a community or social networking-based site that’s been able to turn an ebb tide around. MySpace does have a lot more tools in their belt than the Geocities and Friendsters of past. But still, and I’m just saying.

Death of the Upfront, or just Jimmy Kimmel’s TV Career

While probably not the same cringe factor as Colbert’s National Press Dinner speech, I’m guessing there were some anxious ABC, no make that every broadcast and cable network in the country, execs on the edge of their seats. And further differentiation, there’s a big diff between slamming someone you slam on a regular basis on your show, and slamming someone you work for. I haven’t heard anything about this since, either. Does he still have a gig?

Best Buy Goes With the Crowd

There’s a lot of chatter in the business world about listening to the customer. So when Best Buy put a site up asking for constructive ideas for how to make BB a better experience, I was a bit skeptical. But putting up a site like this takes time and resources, and in this economy, doing so says something.

Sure, you could say ‘Why bring up what the brand is currently lacking?’ But there’s an authenticity to tactics like this that companies are highly in need of. No, there doesn’t seem to be that many people visiting. But sometimes brands need to do things that are worth more than the sum of the traffic or participation they drive.

If I had had a problem with BB in the past (which I have), this shows me that someone in the company with some pull is making strides to improve the brand experience.

Hope you have a good Memorial Day weekend.