DOUG SCHUMACHER

experience designer + writer

privacy

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 :: Facebook is heroin, Farmville engagement is sliding, and the Twitter Times personalized newspaper

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

Tweet of the Week

“There was $250,000 lining the walls of that stand, how much clearer can I say it: “THERE IS ALWAYS MONEY IN THE BANANA STAND!” #ADquotes

Facebook is Social Media Heroin and that Puts It at Risk–Or Does It? | Forrester Blogs

Admittedly, the headline got me. But it’s an interesting case for why just because a social media experience is addictive doesn’t mean it isn’t in jeopardy of competition. Remember MySpace? Me either. But they were flying high when Facebook was just starting. And Facebook took over because of a better user experience. And that’s what people are complaining about Facebook now.

Bar codes get around town and get more useful – Yahoo! Finance

I’ve long felt that QR codes will have their day. As someone who’s found all sorts of convenient life hacks around mobile phones (taking a picture of my parking deck location is a fave), QR codes provide a convenient shortcut to entering text on a mobile phone. I really like how Google is distributing codes to their businesses. Think about walking along and seeing a store that you don’t have time to visit. Or it’s closed. You take a snapshot of the QR code on the window, and have their info logged for easy access later. That’s a very functional use, and I’m sure there are a lot of creative opportunities out there, as well.

The Twitter Tim.es – a personalized newspaper generated from your Twitter account

This is a great idea for people who find value in Twitter without having to constantly update the world on their last meal. It creates a magazine-style interface of all the links the people you follow are sending out. You can also filter it by lists or media sources. A much improved interface for consuming Twitter information than Twitter of any of the content generation-focused 3rd party apps.

Flipboard for iPad

Check out the demo video for a quick intro to the concept. This looks like it’s very well done, and like the Yahoo iPad app demonstration, makes a convincing case for why slates will dominate media consumption. Also, keep in mind we’re still in the very nascent stages of this type of content interface. The Flipboard branding is also nicely done.

Dribbble – What are you working on?

A fun site. Upload a snippet of a design. Limited to 400×300 pixels. So you’re not going to see the full page here. And that’s what I like about it. Interactive design is made up of so many micro-components, and sometimes simply a great button design or rollover effect can gain as much notice as a complete page. This site forces you to focus on the smaller aspects of design, and I found that a refreshing perspective.

Putting Facebook’s 500 million in perspective.: The Social Path

You may have heard about Facebook crossing the 500 million user mark. This is an amusing look at some other things that have hit 500 million, for better or worse.

Zynga’s Farmville Lost 4.4 Million Players Last Month

Ran across this older article on Farmville’s drop in traffic earlier this year. And it’s been a continuing slide. I think a lot of game-oriented systems are going to find people’s ever-changing interests a big help at launch, but a challenge for keeping long term activity. The article does a good job breaking down the information.

YouTube – Pug sings Batman theme

Randomness of the week. Thx to @gregtypes.

Twitter’s Noon Nadir – NYTimes.com

Can’t say I’m shocked that the ‘happiest’ day on twitter is a weekend, and the ‘saddest’ is a workday. The inforgraphics are interesting. The west coast lags the east coast a bit even when adjusted for time zones. Possibly because west coasters waking up later?

ToneCheck Checks Your Tone Like A Spell Checker Checks Your Spelling

I’ll be curious to see how well this works. Gauging sentiment is very difficult, and that’s really what this is doing. If they have a great algorithm, it could be the key to much more accurate assessment of online conversations.

Creativing :: Tweet of the Week, Facebook’s privacy blowup, and Google’s version of TVs future

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

Tweet of the Week

From writer Kathy Hepinstall: “what happens in the gulf of mexico does not stay in the gulf of mexico.”

Here’s What Google TV Looks Like (PHOTOS)

I’ve posted several things recently on Google TV, which is probably the most interesting happening around TV technology. Here are some early screen snaps from the experience. This is classic Google. Throw something out there early, it looks kind of ugly, but the upside potential is clear and massive.

Can One Man Communicate Solely Through Social Media for a Month?

A remarkable story for anyone interested in cause-related marketing through social media. It really underlines the fact that successful social media campaigns are about big ideas. The ‘social media’ tools are just the distribution channels.

ESPN to Launch Social Games for Sports Fans

If you consider the popularity of sports, sports-related gaming, and social viewing (which is really best for live events, like sports), this seems like enormous territory. Actually surprised I haven’t heard about this before.

NBC Turns Television into a Social Media Game

Several interesting things about this. 1. Foursquare is featured along with the heavyweights of social media (and note there’s not a single Google property), 2. The Facebook rules and regulations say you can’t pay people to “Like” something, but they’re offering rewards for liking things, and those rewards have value. Maybe they’ve found a loophole with “Rewards”, but it seems like a thin line. 3. The article speaks of “Liking” doing a makeover on the Nielsen ratings system. That’s a big indicator of the power of the “Like” button.

Facebook Knows That Your Relationship Will End In A Week

A lot of people wonder what the value is of all the behavioral data Facebook can track. This example of Facebook’s supposed ability to project the end or beginning of a relationship is all they should need. Imagine just from this info, the number of related businesses that could want to target messages to either party, going into or coming out of a relationship. Then extend that across all behaviors in your life, and there quite a lot of potential for marketers. All of this potential isn’t available to companies yet, but if Facebook’s recent trends about selling your info play out, then it likely will be.

Mayors of Starbucks Now Get Discounts Nationwide with Foursquare

More interesting events on the mobile front. While Foursquare only has about 1 million users, they’re certainly the type of people Starbucks wants. Early adopters, socially active, and willing to broadcast much of their brand loyalties throughout social media.

Booyah Hits 2 Million, Stealing Foursquare’s Thunder

Booyah’s MyTown. The biggest mobile game you’ve never heard of. Already about 2x as many users as Foursquare. It’s interesting to contrast/compare with Foursquare, which is sort of a game, but not really taking the social gaming concept head-on, which MyTown is definitely doing.

The Big Game, Zuckerberg and Overplaying your Hand « The Jason Calacanis Weblog

A very well written lambasting of Facebook from a number of angles. Of course, right after this, Facebook inked a long-term deal with Zynga, the Facebook whipping boy in this article. Beyond the vitriol, Jason makes a far-reaching point about the very essence of the Web’s progress being about openness and existing outside any single company’s motives, that single company being Facebook.

Well, These New Zuckerberg IMs Won’t Help Facebook’s Privacy Problems

Mark Zuckerberg doesn’t seem very concerned about privacy. At least not yours. However, it’s interesting to see people digging up all sorts of things from his past, like these 5 yr old IMs where he literally calls people ‘dumb fucks’ for trusting him with their information on Facebook. If he’s not responding to reporters questions about this, does it mean they’ve uncovered something he’s not comfortable with? i.e., Information he thinks should be private? Privacy advocates could start targeting him in much the same way they exposed Justice Scalia’s personal information after he opposed privacy laws.

Facebook Enters into Five-Year ‘Strategic Relationship’ with Zynga – IndustryGamers

At times, Facebook seems like a company moving so fast they’re going to meltdown, but then they pull moves like this and show how far ahead they’re thinking relative to the other majors, including Google and Apple. Social gaming isn’t even close to being tapped out, IMO. That’s why I’m impressed by Facebook putting together such an unprecedented (for them) long-term deal with a social gaming company.

Creativing :: Tweet of the Week, Pissed off at Google, and Foursquare goes for the gold

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

Tweet of the Week

if ($caffeinated) { echo ‘good morning!’; }

P&G Launches eStore to Test Marketing Concepts – MarketingVOX

I’m curious to see what this ‘lab’ looks like from a features and development angle. It’s clearly designed for nimbleness, which will only be a growing trend as everything seems to be moving toward immediacy. From product development to brand experience to social marketing.

Fuck you, Google « Fugitivus

I’ve felt for a while that the tech industry is veering perilously close to blowing the top off the whole privacy issue. From location-based services to misunderstood social network sharing to cookie tracking, there are a lot of hot buttons, and people are starting to push them.

Twitter Is Still Growing Rapidly [STATS]

A week or two ago it was widely reported that Twitter was dropping off in popularity. However, they were gauging unique visitors to the site, and with so many people using 3rd party apps, like TweetDeck, that could have a large impact. The other key stat is obviously overall Tweets sent, and that’s where apparently Twitter is looking just fine.

Foursquare Inks Deals With Major Media and Entertainment Brands

Mobile is certainly heating up, and Foursquare is on the front burner. While Foursquare currently operates under the guise of fun and games, location-based services on mobile will likely soon be the way most people figure out what they’re going to do for entertainment on a given evening.

Wi-Fi Turns Arizona Bus Ride Into a Rolling Study Hall – NYTimes.com

Another good story on technology improving lives in a very simple way.

Google Liquid Galaxy live demo at TED [VIDEO]

Google connects 8 large LCD screens in a wraparound view to it’s Earth and Street View apps for an amazing voyage around what feels like a pretty small world. The trip from LA to SF beats any bullet train proposal I’ve seen.

Skittles | Experience the Rainbow

Very fun experience. The surreal carnival feel fits great with a product as quirky as Skittles. The long extended page reminds me of suck.com back in the day. It’s an unconventional format which defies most usability issues, but who’s really coming to Skittles.com for functionality anyway?

E-commerce and Facebook: Friends or foes? – BusinessWeek

Some of the good and bad of doing ecommerce on Facebook

Motorola Maintains Mobile Subscriber Market Share Lead – MarketingVOX

Amid the iPhone craze, it’s important to keep in mind that overall, there’s still a small percentage of users who have one. Thus if you want to go mass on mobile, you’ll have to go more lowest common denominator.

Creativing :: New ad formats, the end of privacy as we know it, and YouTube gets local with the news

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

Is Persistence the Key to Web Branding?

A number of ad networks are working on display ad models where they keep the same ad on the page for a much longer duration. I like this change of focus. Publishers have been going for quantity – trying to show as many ads as possible – instead of going for quality. Literally running viewers through a more cuircuitous path than necessary, to increase impression counts. The net effect is people are exposed to a lot of messages they can’t recall, versus something they can’t forget. Hopefully this, combined with larger ad sizes, will give publishers the boost in revenues they need.

Ads Follow Web Users, and Get Deeply Personal

Speaking of publishers needing to monetize their traffic. This is about the merging of online and offline data. The creep factor on this is that the offline data companies like Experian have such extensive demographic information about us – like home value, credit rating, the car we drive – and the online tracking companies have a lot of behavioral data based on how we’re moving around the web and the sites we visit. Put those two together, and you have an intensely personal profile available to marketers. Bring in Facebook profile info, and you also have a lot of information about personal taste and interests. This merger is possible due to cookies, of course. In the past, tracking via the so-called 3rd party cookies has been tolerated because of it’s anonymity. They knew a lot about the sites you were visiting and the ads you responded to, but little else. But now, all of this data comes together: With your name and social security number attached. On one hand, I’ll be shocked if there isn’t a big backlash in the near future about the amount of information available to marketers. On the other hand, in a terrible economy with an already-struggling ad model, tracking is a huge factor in serving effective ads that can be sold at rates the publishers desperately need.

False online reviews draw suit from NY

This story should rip through the social media community. The NY Attorney General settled a law suit with a cosmetic surgery company for posting fake product reviews online. While this should be good news for the social media marketing community at large, it does seem to open up a big can of worms. I mean, Amazon is full of fake book reviews. Yelp has a lot of suspicious restaurant reviews. In a social media world where everyone is a brand with the potentail to be a pitchman, this should get interesting, and certainly complicated from a legal standpoint. But this really underscores the power of social media in general. When people lost trust in corporations, they trusted other humans, even if they didn’t know them. With that relationship in question, the most reliable and trustworthy product information they’ll have will be their friends and their network.

Izea Launches Sponsored Tweets

Is there a difference between a company paying an unknown individual to write a positive review and a company paying a well-known individual to write a positive review? In this case, I think there is. For one, you have full-disclosure with the Izea posts. And someone who’s writing career is based on credibility does have to maintain certain standards. Some people see this as a pact with the devil, but with bloggers needing to pay the rent just like their newspaper counterparts, I’m sure this will only increase in popularity.

Go Cloud, Young Man

A good explanation from a range of perspectives on the impact of cloud computing. While the overarching tone is opportunity, it’s lace with dire warnings about pending changes in business.

Now on YouTube – Local News

The new section on YouTube is titled “News Near You”, and it serves up videos from your area, based on your IP address. They’re getting some local TV stations to participate, and doing a rev share deal with them on ad sales. But of course, with citizen journalism getting easier and easier – the new iPhone video cam actually has a ‘send to YouTube’ button to post in 1 click – some news organizations are understandably concerned. If news scrapes, blogs, and RSS did in newspapers, how  different is this as a replacement for local news on TV? And I’d say that video is a more easily replaced form or reportage than articles.

Inside Best Buy’s Augmented-Reality Ad

You’ve probably seen various forms of AR, or augmented reality, where you print out a piece of paper and hold it up to your computer camera and voila, something that looks like a hologram comes into view on your computer screen. Overall, this seemed to work very well for them. But I think there’s a big first mover advantage to new technologies like this. After the first wave, expect response rates to drop, and certainly the press will stop covering them.

Beauty Of New Technology: Users Personalize Before-And-After Ads

There’s no shortage of examples of places you can insert a headshot of yourself, and suddenly you’re a pirate. Or a Transformer. Or a Simpson. Etc. Etc. This is taking that idea and applying it to products as a way of reviewing them. At first glance, this looks pretty cheesey. But don’t underestimate people’s interest in seeing themselves within the context of a new product they’re considering purchasing. Even if it’s very crude.

Seth’s Blog: When tactics drown out strategy

A good reminder that just because you can do things quickly in new media doesn’t mean you should.

Cool Navigation

A photography site is a challenge for navigation, because it’s a bit hard to describe a photographer’s style, especially in the few words that navigation requires. So in this case, they simply used photos. A nice way of using a standard like navigation in a fresh way that enhances the experience.

NY Times article on ever-expanding cookie tracking

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Tracking technology has been on a growth spurt. After post-impression tracking in the early 2000’s, we’ve recently added a lot of different BT techs, and now an even more comprehensive system in which you pretty much have an interest profile that the so-called Behavioral Exchanges are trying to align their ads with.

I had an interesting discussion at SXSW with some friends about where this is all going. If you summarize techs like Disqus, Twitter, Facebook, and whatever, you can already pull a pretty complete picture of someone’s life. But that’s all consciously opt-in. And any conjecture beyond what you’ve shared is up to an individual to pull together.

These new cookie-based technologies are starting to make projections about your interests based on a lot of data, much of it less public data than what we’re currently putting out there.

The online industry thrives on this type of information, and I hope, like the financial world, we’re not getting into something that’s going to spur a major backlash and set things back quite a bit.

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