DOUG SCHUMACHER

experience designer + writer

mobile

Creativing :: Twitter trend #songprequels, It’s Foursquare day, and how marketers are using Twitter’s new ad platform

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Tweet of the Week

It’s Tweets of the week this week, picking up a trending hashtag #songprequels. Some funny stuff.

YouTube – Alice for the iPad

If you have any doubts about iPad or any other slate’s ability to transform the publishing, and specifically the book industry, this 45 second video for the iPad ebook version of “Alice in Wonderland” is a must see. While it may seem like it plays the same trick over and over, keep in mind this is the first attempt and within the first couple of weeks of the iPad’s release.

It’s 4SQ Day, But Foursquare Has (Almost) Nothing To Do With It

It’s 4/16 today. 4 squared. Get it? So in cities around the country, Foursquare users are getting together to celebrate post-tax day. About 150 businesses are giving Foursquare users special deals. There’s even a badge for it. McDonalds is getting involved.

What’s remarkable is that Foursquare the company had nothing to do with it, other than just making the badge. Probably took them an hour.

Most companies would die for this level of momentum.

Foursquare Cracks Down on Cheaters

As Foursquare starts to go more legit with companies actually paying to play along, this type of enforcement was just a matter of time.

History Channel Launches Foursquare Campaign and a New Badge

At the moment, I’m interested in anything happening on Foursquare. You can’t get much farther out on the edge than a location-based social gaming platform. Pairing the History Channel and the latest technology is interesting in it’s own way, but I do like the functional, or at least educational, aspect of this. It definitely adds a needed dimension to ‘checking in’, which is getting a little old and I think has people starting to ask “OK, What’s next?”.

Twitter Promoted Tweets Are Live

Just in case you haven’t seen a screen grab of Twitter’s new ad platform, Promoted Tweets, here you go. Note the tie-in between the hashtag and the content of the Promoted Tweet. Curious how many brands will be able to find that much context in the stream of Twitter conversations.

How Virgin America Uses Promoted Tweets

A good overview of how Virgin America is using the new Twitter Promoted Tweets ad platform. And VA appears to be doing a great job with this opportunity to participate in the launch of an ad platform. My question is, How mass-scalable is this (I can’t imagine Twitter is thinking this won’t be a mass advertising model). My questions are more around the average advertiser’s ability to use this ad model as judiciously as VA is. I don’t see most advertisers being anywhere near as creative, and certainly not as restrained. So I still have a lot of questions about how this opens up to a much larger base of advertisers who aren’t so much concerned with reputation as they are with reach. Of course, I’m sure Twitter gave that a thought or two before launching, so I’m curiously watching.

The Twitter Platform’s Inflection Point

Where’s Twitter headed? Or where’s the business or creative opportunity around Twitter? As Fred Wilson says, It won’t be in the same sandbox everyone’s already been playing in.

Advertising – Marketers Placing More Products Into Plots – NYTimes.com

Very interesting idea here of customizing products for a given TV show. Sure, there’s a certain cringe factor, but it’s a great way to get on a TV show in a more organic way and also tap the world’s insatiable desire for anything celebrity.

GetJar Facebook App Downloads Exceed 50M

Talk about nudging your way into a niche. This is a smartphone app that’s been downloaded 50 million times, and it’s nothing more than a link directly to Facebook’s mobile site (not the Facebook app). Also, jargon alert: MSS = Mobile Site Shortcut. I didn’t realize we needed an acronym for that, but WTF.

Creativing :: iPhone’s mobile ad platform, Facebook is #1, and Farmville has peanuts for profits

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

Tweet of the Week

I’m kind of sad that @BarackObama isn’t having more fun with Twitter. I’d like to see him retweet a Kardashian.

iPhone 4.0 OS’s iAd Ad Platform

Jump straight down to the iAd section. While it makes business sense to see in-app advertising as different search-based advertising, I find Jobs’ plan of replicating the TV viewing experience on the iPhone rather disconcerting. Isn’t TVs pervasive in-your-face push advertising something that drove a lot of people to online content in the first place? And what makes him think that they’ll have the tolerance for anything close to that level of intrusion in a mobile experience, where I’m paying a lot more for usage than I am with my cable service.

I realize the developers can probably set their own level of ad saturation, but then again, so have the networks.

And lastly, I don’t agree that mobile devices aren’t about search. 30% of searches on Google are already local, and my guess would be that search will be just as prevalent on mobile devices as desktops.

Facebook Reaches Top Ranking in US – Hitwise

Nothing short of remarkable, and perhaps most interesting that their business model is about as 180 from Google as could be. Instead of providing sheer utility at various online touchpoints, like search, maps, email, etc, Facebook has made an engagement play — typically the biggest challenge online — and is beating everyone at fundamental traffic stats. What’s more, they’re not only pulling amazing visit numbers, but in January 11% of all time spent online was spent on Facebook, according to these Compete numbers.

The Apple-Adobe War Escalates: Using Flash to Build iPhone Apps Banned

I get how Apple might not want to support Flash, but I don’t get why they keep slamming the door on the developer community. I can’t imagine that a company can continue this forever without serious backlash, be it direct in the form of product boycotts, or indirect in the form of someone else with a more open system (ahem, Google) taking them to the mat. If you doubt that anti-Apple sentiment is building, read the comments at the end of the article.

It’s Peanuts: Farmville Reaps Brand Placement – Advertising Lab

Considering Farmville now has over 82 million monthly active users, the idea of a nut company sponsoring a peanut crop is a smart strategy. There isn’t much info on the execution, but seems like an idea that would be hard to screw up.

6 Ways Brands are Using Social Media For Real-World Action

Good social media-driven case studies that are an inspiring and insightful read.

5 Years Ago Today the Web Mashup Was Born

Google Mashups are usually a great visualization of database-driven marketing solutions, so they’re usually pretty insightful. What else is interesting is how quickly this exploded after the first one launched. Much the way things happen online when an obviously good idea drops.

Facebook Limits Status Updates To 420 Characters

Curious how much the business world is changing? Imagine any of the most talked about companies 30 years ago making a pot joke out of one of their primary feature settings.

The Top 10 Most Watched Web Series, March 2010

Interesting overview of the most popular web video series’. The not-so-secret formula? A kids show presence with a much more adult tone to the episodes.

Photoshop Content-Aware Fill Demo “PatchMatch” (Video)

This is a remarkable demo of PS’s ability to clean up and even add missing elements to photos. All in a very automated way. The day of completely digitally-generated movies and commercials may seem like a long way off, but then again, seeing leaps in technology like this demonstrate that aspects of it are remarkably within grasp.

Creativing :: YouTube tips for goin’ viral, Big Brother on Facebook, and new media units when you fly

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

Tweet of the Week

“Orkut for Android?” Nice. If they just added pro sports, scrapbooking, and Ron Paul, I’d finally have my perfect “Who Cares?” engine.

Five Keys For Creating Viral YouTube Titles

Interest in creating viral videos will probably be around for a while. These simple tips are well worth the quick read. I also found the video for creating a “Tim Burton” look with makeup surprisingly interesting.

Digital Marketing: YouTube Opens Up Overlays – Advertising Age

I still say the YouTube deal will ultimately play out (and pay out) well for Google. With the level of usage still going through the roof, and Google wanting to get their text ads in every nook and cranny of the Internet, this video-based version of Adwords is right out of their play book.

“My Mom’s On Facebook” Song Goes Viral

From somewhere between Twisted Sister and Save By The Bell comes this video that’s trending upward. Not sure what qualifies as ‘going viral’, but at 250k views in a couple days, it seems headed there if it isn’t yet.

Attention, “Star Wars” Fans: The iPhone Lightsaber Duel is Coming

So I’ll admit to downloading the first Lightsaber iPhone app. And this bluetooth-based multiplayer version certainly ups the ante. Sold!

Facebook, The Tool Of Big Brother?

The idea is simple. Govt agencies like the FBI and DEA are using Facebook to lure and track suspects across a number of potential infractions. On the surface, it’s almost funny to think that some FBI agent could be posing as a cute girl to lure a criminal into confessing something stupid online. Of course, if it goes beyond the FBI and some ‘stupid criminal’ to monitoring general citizen activity, that presents another picture. And while the intent may be different between those two, the basic activities are identical. More privacy regulation fun ahead.

The Current State of Twitter [INFOGRAPHIC]

Sometimes I like data just for the way it’s presented. These charts are a lesson in info design. It’s also interesting to note how the majority of Twitter users have posted so few times. I’d guess squatters are making a fairly big impact, but still a very high percentage of “users” rarely use it. Also interesting is the days of the week. It still looks like a heavy workplace distraction that spills over into the commute home or drinks after work.

Google TV: Five Burning Questions – Yahoo! News

I don’t usually like speculating on things too far out in the future. As Wired magazine once said, It’s virtually impossible to predict technology more than 6 months out. But this article brings up some great scenarios to consider, and involves speculation on the future of advertising. I also think the idea of Web-capable TV will probably happen fast. I could almost see people forgoing home computers, and bridging the gap with mobile phones and a Web-enabled TV.

New Ad Opps Abound at Airports, in the Air – MarketingVOX

If you fly much, you likely noticed the increase in ads popping up everywhere; from security bins to seat trays. The new interactive displays are not only showing up at airports, but in downtown areas as well. Triggered by motion (the one’s I’ve seen), they’re a fun technology, but I haven’t seen them really used that creatively yet. Opportunity alert!

4 New APIs: a Job Search API, a Movies API, a Book Metadata API, and an API for Researchers

A short article about some new APIs. Keep up on these. They’re the backbone of innovative marketing solutions of the future.

Creativing :: Tweet of the Week, The next Twitter?, and Foursquare gets around to revenue

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

Tweet of the Week

“Your respect’s the size of your attention span.”

Given it’s been called the “attention economy” we work in, this quote nails it.

Social Media: Is Voice-Based Bubbly the New Twitter? – Advertising Age

One question I hear a lot is, “What’s the next Twitter?”. With 100 million users already, Bubbly’s obviously a serious player. Most indicative in this is where they’re rolling out this latest social media app. 5 non-Western countries. One of the big factors in mobile usage isn’t just having a mobile phone, but also NOT having any other means of connecting on the Web.

Foursquare and Starbucks Team Up to Offer Customer Rewards

Foursquare has navigated to a nice sweet spot between entertainment and promotion. While obviously any mobile location based service technology has deep utilitarian potential, with the emphasis on badges and points, it’s currently a game appeal. (The new version does move towards emphasizing utility — most obviously enabling people to track the past places they’ve been for future reference). Starbucks, who has a good iPhone app and could obviously have integrated a game/coupon component into theirs, wisely opts to join an existing community versus the work required to ramp up their own. That’s a trend we’ve seen expanding since the early days of social media, and certainly shows no sign of abating.

4 Fun and Crazy Chatroulette Videos

Whether ChatRoulette turns out to be a sprinter or distance runner, it’s the net meme du jour. And amid the nudity, flakiness and boredom, there are a few things popping up worth checking out. The best one is the 3rd one using Auto-Tune, T-Pain style. If nothing else, this is a good reminder that any time you jump on ChatRoulette, you could end up starring in a viral video with someone ridiculing you.

Also, the bonus video 1 has a good lo-fi research bit on ChatRoulette behavior.

Google Goes Live With “In-Stock, Nearby” Mobile Shopping

For a company so deeply rooted in online technology, GOOG has done a great job connecting people to the physical world around them. This is a classic Google move, placing themselves directly in the pathway of consumers on their way to purchasing a product. Not only do they still dominate the digital search for merchandise, but now they’ll know which bricks and mortar store we’re going to buy it at. And given they’re also the ones giving us directions to the store, they’ll also know when we’re going, and which route we’re taking.

MediaShift . Witness Creates Sophisticated Evaluation Tools for Video Impact | PBS

If your in marketing and your not up on the latest in campaign metrics, you can’t dive in too soon. While some complain the data isn’t clear enough, closer to the truth is, there’s so much people are having a hard time parsing it all. And given the explosion of social media combined with it’s early-stage metrics, you can expect interest (read: demands by clients) in this category to jump sharply.

Take a Virtual Walk through Hong Kong with Google Street View

While Street View has been all over the US, I’m surprised it hasn’t been used more for promotional purposes, as it is here. Street View and it’s cousin Google Earth have generated a lot of viral interest around quirky ‘Easter egg’ surprises found amid the content. I’m surprised more large brands haven’t figured out a way to use these techs for promotions.

Perspective: Popwuping’s Clark MacLeod On The Design And Culture Of Mobility | MobileBehavior

If you care about marketing via mobile, this is definitely worth the read. It’s like very readable user research report from a Canadian designer who’s been working in Taiwan for the past 11 years, currently focusing on mobile.

CNNBC | Breaking News, Weather, Sports, Tech, Opinions, and Multimedia | By You, For You, And About You

I know this application of Facebook Connect has been done before, but this is really well executed. Glenn Beck’s obviously great fodder for the concept.

Pomplamoose Music – I don’t wanna miss a thing

I love what these guys are doing with music. Creating very low-fi vids to sell mp3 versions of what they call VideoSongs. Many are covers of other bands songs. The quirky spirit of their videos is not to be missed.

Creativing :: Free ebooks correlate to printed sales, Social media crisis lessons, and the first ChatRoulette campaign

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

Tweet of the Week

There are pretty much just two writer moods: “I am a GOD!” and “I suck!” Today, Minions, I am a GOD!

Free ebooks correlated with increased print-book sales – Boing Boing

A similar correlation has been shown in the music industry between file-sharing and volume of music purchased. I’m sure there’s a similar correlation between YouTube and TV watching (a la “Lazy Sunday”). The takeaway? If you have something to say, lay it out there. If it’s valuable, people will want more.

3 Crisis Survival Lessons for the Social Media Age

Case Studies are often the best way to learn. While these aren’t full of deep stats, reading about these 3 situations will decrease your odds of repeating them.

We’re Not In Kansas Anymore. Well, We Are — Google, Kansas.

While their tactic may not be all that tight, I think strategically Topeka is dead on to be in hot pursuit of Google’s broadband ISP service. It will have a positive impact on education, attracting businesses, and overall economic efficiencies. But next time, hopefully they’ll call in a good creative shop to help with the execution.

Google Kansas II: Duluth Strikes Back [VIDEO]

A shot back across the bow of Topeka. It’s nice to see people across the US so excited about broadband. This also demonstrates how people everywhere are taking marketing into their own hands. Google-style, you could say.

Is Content King? Then Distribution Is Crown Prince – Advertising Age

A lot of good points about content and the distribution of that content. It seems to me that right now, there’s more emphasis on distribution. Everyone and their mother setting up social media distribution points and trying to game the search game. While not really offering distinct content of any sort that’s being pushed through those channels

Those Hooves? That’s the Sound of the Internet Search Apocalypse – Advertising Age

SEO is quickly becoming a system too easily gamed. I have to think this will end someday soon. The question is, will Google end it on their own, or will one of their competitors end it by offering a better product, or will government step in? Stay tuned.

How Lionsgate Plans to Take on ‘Twitter Effect’ for ‘Kick-Ass’ – Advertising Age

The technology behind this is about integrating the conversation streams across Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace. This makes a lot of sense from a brand management and social conversation standpoint. In the comments, you’ll find some good counterpoints about loss of cohesion in the conversation, but I’m not sure it’s any worse than most YouTube threads for movie trailers. If anything, my issue is that the brand’s presence in these threads seems to heavy-handed.

Adverblog: French Connection brings Chatroulette into its Manifesto

If there’s any question about the need for speed in today’s marketing climate, consider this UGC campaign based around ChatRoulette for French Connection. A simple, quickly-deployed UGC campaign that leverages a rocketing trend.

Amazing iPhone » Time warp your iPhone 3GS video with Slowmo app

This actually looks pretty cool.

Creativing :: The creepy addiction of Chatroulette, Foursquare’s real impact, and trouble ahead for online advertising

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

Tweet of the Week

I’ve been sitting in LA traffic so much today I wrote a pilot. I need a Final Draft app.

The Surreal World of Chatroulette – NYTimes.com

If you haven’t seen this site, check it out. Like the NY Times writer, I think it’s faddish, but also feel it’s part of a segue to more anonymous online content experiences.

5 Ways Foursquare is Changing the World

Of these, the Mayorships and the game element (badges) are the real differentiators for Foursquare. The other features mentioned will increase in value as the Foursquare community grows.

How the Global Fortune 100 are using social media: some statistics | FreshNetworks

Some curious stats out of this analysis. Between Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Blogs, companies are using blogs the least. That’s interesting, because blogs offer the most content ownership of all four, which a lot of brands seem pretty concerned about.

I’m also surprised that 68% of Global Fortune 100 firms are actively using a YouTube channel by adding 10 new videos each month. That’s a good rate of content development.

NYT: Apple Purges Blue Apps from Online Store

Another in what’s a growing list of situations where Apple’s closed-loop approach to business stands opposite Google’s open, “let the people decide” approach. While I’m an enormous fan of the products Apple’s built, their mindset displayed in the quotes in this article sound more like Microsoft policy of the past 20 years, and less like the openness that has been so key to the Web’s growth and evolution.

Creativity Feeds The Data Beast (And Digital Killed The TV Star) – Media Post

Cory poses a great question here. What if the ad industry loses the power of 3rd party cookies in the pending 2011 legislation? For an industry that has positioned itself as the leading marketing vehicle based around insights and information that those cookies generate, that’s going to be a tough sell. And from what I’ve read, the 2011 ruling is a given to pass. The easiest sell in Washington. So emphasis has to be somewhere other than the bread crumb trail from ad to shopping cart.

MediaPost Publications Rothenberg: ‘Forces Out To Destroy Interactive Advertising’

This is a must-read for anyone in the digital space. If this legislation goes through, it’s going to be like a bomb dropped on the line marketing industry. What’s everyone talk about regarding online advertising? How trackable it is. So imagine taking away the biggest selling point for an entire industry. And my guess is that this legislation will pass. Doug Weaver had a great commentary on this at the last iMedia Summit. With what wil almost surely be a down economy, politicians will be looking for easy victories. And consumer privacy will be just the tool.

The Best Web Browser on the Planet – Slate Magazine

if you haven’t tried Google’s new browser Chrome, this is a good overview of why it’s preferable to other browsers, but also what it lacks. My favorite example of the Google mindset is how they’ve built into Chrome a time saving device that produces search results right in the address entry field. Thus eliminating the need for a visit to their own site. What other company on the planet would ever make that decision?

Faster, Faster! Google’s brilliant new plan to provide super-speedy Internet access. – Slate

Speeds 100 to 200 times faster than our current broadband connections. Sign me up. The reason for our current broadband speeds? The lack of competition in the service provider industry. Imagine how nice it would be if your business only had one other competitor.

Creativing :: Tweet of the Week, the iPhone sandwich, and Facebook vs. Google

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

Tweet of the Week

PEW SURVEY: By 2012, every object in America will have its own Facebook page and an unnecessary laser pointer.

YouTube – iSandwich 4G

Found this pretty funny. Not sure I’d want to taste it, but it’s a visual treat. Wait until the end for the CG gag.

MediaShift . Best Online Resources for Following 2010 Winter Olympics | PBS

This list is an interesting scan simply because of the range of content around the Olympics. No really unexpected, but a good overview at the numerous angles from which online content can approach a subject.

30 APIs Used in 7 Days: Bing, Facebook, Flickr, Google, Netflix, Salesforce.com, Twitter, YouTube

Despite mashups having been around for a while, I feel there’s enormous untapped potential. Especially as social networking and mobile are going to generate treasure troves of data previously unavailable in any form. This list is heavily concentrated on data and web tending apps, which is no doubt a big topic right now.

Foursquare Responds To Please Rob Me: Please Shut Up

Contrasting the closed, symmetric network of Foursquare with the open, asymmetric network of Twitter.

Ajaxian » I Can’t Believe It’s Not Flash

A Flash trashing, followed by a lot of rebuking in the comments.

The Future of Flash, on FarukAt.eş

Faruk’s been writing about Flash, and it’s pending demise. But here he reconsiders the value of Flash, with a possibility of it becoming a big potential mobile play. Flash does offer development speed, but there’s always been that nagging stability thing. And I don’t think consumers will tolerate phones crashing to any degree that they’ve dealt with it on computers.

Pre-Roll Video Ads Still Hated, Here to Stay – Advertising Age

A nice overview from someone who both dislikes the pre-roll but also derives revenue from it. I agree with his assessment that branded sponsorships are going to be the real value for content developers — essentially creating a brand experience with less up front risk for the sponsor.

Farmville About To Cruise Past 80 Million Users

Some interesting findings in the numbers. When looking at active users, the shorter the time of reference (daily, weekly, monthly), the lower the growth rate. That should indicate a lot of people are trying it out out of curiosity, but not hanging with it for long. Consider that active daily users is 31m, only up from 27m a year ago. So it would seem they’re drafting Facebook’s continuing rocket trajectory of new users. Granted, 31m is still a lot of people. But I think it’s indicative of how these social games will play out. Friends pulling friends in, everyone dabbling for a bit, and then on to the next new thing.

Is Facebook Becoming More Important Than Google?

There’s been a lot of recent talk about Facebook’s growing search influence. And no doubt that searching Facebook is going to increase in both frequency and intent. But as this article points out, a lot of the behavior isn’t understood at the moment, so it’s difficult to say what’s correlation and what’s causation.