DOUG SCHUMACHER

experience designer + writer

social

Creativing : Air Jordan flies again, trends in social media, and a nice mobile campaign

By

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

Jordan’s History of flight

A stylish, hip run-through of the various shoes he wore throughout his career, as well as the continuing line of Air Jordans. While Jordan’s skills were undeniable, he also made an enormous impact on the fashions of the game. And of course, wearing a uniform of not much fabric, the fashion statements ultimately came down to the shoes (later to be overtaken by tats, perhaps). At any rate, a fun recap of his career, and introduction to the latest line of Air Jordans.

Top Consumer Trends: Trust, Control, … Playfulness?

I like where consumer’s heads are, at least according to this survey. Basically, it looks like consumers are running everything through one big BS filter. But interestingly, they’re not against having a little fun. What these five trends say to me is, consumers are looking for straight-shooting companies that aren’t trying to sell them on traditional marketing tactics like bandwagon and products with bloated feature sets. In exchange for that dose of reality, they’re willing to engage and participate in a little fun. Oh, and if they don’t get this from their current brands, they’re ready to jump ship.

What Execs Are Thinking About The Social Media Channel

After reviewing what consumers are thinking, it’s interesting to see how the views of marketing execs compare. For the marketers who get social media, it looks like they’re on the right track. Emphasis is on building better relationships and extending their brand awareness. For those who aren’t interested, it’s typically because of low ROI tracking, and a lack of control over their precious brands. And from what consumers are saying, if that’s their mindset, they’re probably not going to succeed in social media anyway. Once again, it looks like the marketing industry is going to offer big rewards to early adopters.

Basics Of Social Media Roi

A good breakdown of how to apply some traditional marketing evaluation metrics to social media, and move a little bit closer to the holy grail of marketing. Perfect data. However, this will probably never address the issues of the ROI-bent marketers surveyed above, and they’ll likely sit on the sidelines until they’re well behind in the game.

I am T-Pain Autotune App for iPhone

Saddled with the ignominy of auto-tuning, T-Pain comes back like a great social marketer should. He takes the criticism head-on, and even turns it into a point of engagement that he can profit from. An auto-tuner iPhone app. And with the app, he’ll likely demonstrate that even with auto-tune, you still need some skills to sell a million songs. Or ringtones.

MockFlow – Easy Wireframing for Software and Websites

My new fave method for tossing together a quick sketch of a site layout. This is almost as fast as drawing on paper. (Especially when I have to spend so much time explaining what I’ve drawn.)

Moviegoers Protest ‘The Cove’

Great premise behind a campaign for what’s being touted as a very good movie. As the movie ends, theater goers are ENCOURAGED to turn on their cell phones and send a text to stop the killing of dolphins in The Cove, the subject of the movie. Cool way of turning a taboo into a call to action.

Burning Man 2009 Photos

What’s certainly one of the most photogenic events anywhere is captured with beautiful interpretation of the desolation of the environment combined with the inspiring transformation it goes through every year.

Creating Free Websites

I haven’t really dug into exploring this yet, but on the surface it looks impressive. Build good looking flash sites in a flash. With optional e-commerce shopping carts, and other advanced features like auto-coding Google Analytics. It’s remarkable where templatized site building is going.

Circular Website Navigation

Check out the nav on this site.

Creativing :: Teens say :( to Twitter, debate over ‘the big idea’, and a new global medium … Postcards

By

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

Why Teens Are Not Using Twitter: It Doesn’t Feel Safe

Some insightful findings from a recent report on how teens are using media. By ‘safe’, they’re referring to knowing who’s reading your posts. Clearly, Facebook’s latest privacy settings are right on the mark. And while the safety thing is big, and something most adults probably overlook, I thought it was ironic that Twitter is seen as expensive. It’s based on the texting charges, which anyone without a smart phone will be hit by when they post. I’d guess it’s the same for Facebook’s status updates, but the bigger point is, when a significant percentage of a group have a strong preference about a communication platform, it makes other platforms pretty irrelevant for that group. Also noteworthy is this post, on TechCrunch, was written by a 16 year old.

The New Online – Keep It Clear

This article reiterates something social media is reminding us on a daily basis. Keep your communications clear. I think this has been a big reality in online for a long time, and social media is perhaps bearing it out more clearly. Consumer’s are both in charge, and impatient. Site usability studies have shown for years that lack of clarity doesn’t breed further investigation, but rather site abandonment. If you can’t get your message across quickly and clearly today, you probably won’t have a message at all.

PR Blackout Challenges Mom Bloggers to Return to Basics

Pretty interesting approach by community MomDot to serve something of a reality check to the mommy blogger group. Essentially drop all paid posting for a week. Paid posting probably won’t be going away, but reminders like this can help bloggers more conscious of why their readers are there in the first place.

The Difference Between Total Users and Active Users

Most sites and web services have far more total users than active users. Writer Fred Wilson states that companies should focus on the active users, making them even more active, than trying to get the non-active users more involved, because over time, many of the non-active users will become active, as they see their friends who are active users getting more involved. This aligns very well with common social media practices. Brands should be focusing on their best customers first. Once they’re on board, then they’ll carry the message on to their friends.

Howcast, a Video Start-Up, Charges Into the ‘How-to’ Web

At first, it doesn’t seem like there’s be room in the crowded video space for a company developing content internally. But these vids are very well done, and are a good reminder that while YouTube may have a lot of HowTo videos, there’s always room for a better product experience.  The branding and styling of the videos are nice, and the production quality is surprisingly good for miniscule budgets.

The Big Idea: Chronicle of a Death Foretold

Good piece on the life or death of ‘the big idea’ in marketing. This subject is as nuanced and fragmented as the marketing industry it’s written about. The truth, as usual, is probably somewhere between the polarities. I don’t think the big idea is dead, but rather we’re looking at a new version of the big idea. Something that has to have a lot more fluidity and scale than anything we considered the big idea in the past.

Web site recreates Apollo 11 mission in real time

On the 40th anniversary of moon shot v1 comes this piece from the JFK Museum: We Choose The Moon. A nice comprehensive piece that seeks to put the moon mission into a more grandiose perspective by going granular. The site is being rolled out in real time sync with the mission timeline. An interesting tactic, although probably not in line with how people consume media these days. Is that part of the retrospective?

Camera screen overlay info for Google Phone – Kicking Reality Up a Notch

Last week I covered new patents being applied for by Apple in which contextual geolocation information is served through a combination of a phone’s camera, GPS coordinate info, and photo recognition technologies. Now here’s a real world example, from The Netherlands. Pretty impressive, and definitely something I’d use.

Postcrossing – Postcards Traveling The World

This is a cool idea. The site matches people from around the world, and initiates a postcard exchange.  A simple yet effective way to connect people in different cultures. Alternately, it’s a bit random, and I think it would be nice to be able to select a country. But a good idea at the core.

Creativing :: Social media strengths and embarrassments, mobile takes off in a million directions, and a Michael Jackson tribute video worth watching

By

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

90% of Consumers Trust Opinions of Friends

That shouldn’t shock anyone. But it really gains impact when compared to other information sources, especially paid media. The idea of knowing what our friends are doing, and having that steer our own behaviors, is what social media marketing is all about.

Can You Be Friends With Your Mom … On Facebook?

A funny scenario in which a woman struggles with the pros and cons of bringing mom into her Facebook fold, yet a very real situation for many people. As Facebook continues to push for growth and more and more people file in, many are going to be asking how great of a communication tool it is when they’re seemingly communicating with virtually everyone they know at the same time. Sure you can individualize settings for everyone. How many of you have done that? And how long did it take? These are openings for the next Facebook, or Facebooks, serving niches that were lost in Facebook’s growth.

The Facebook Doctrine: Gaming And The Future

I’d normally never post an article this long for a group of marketing people. But it’s a far-reaching discussion with Facebook’s platform manager — one of the main guys making decisions about what Facebook will and won’t be doing, technologically. Social gaming, considered by many as the most exciting thing on gaming’s horizon, is perfectly suited for Facebook’s friendship network. And Facebook Connect simply extends that to experiences to all 3 screens: Computer, TV, and mobile.

British spy chief’s cover blown on Facebook by Reuters

The wife of the head of the British MI6, their secret service, divulged WAY too much family information on Facebook. Incidents like this make me think that there are a lot of people out there who just don’t don’t get what social media is all about. And per above, with more and more ‘older’ people pouring onto Facebook, it’s a bit like running a media gauntlet. It also seem to set the stage for a backlash based around privacy concerns, although in this case, I think it’s just someone who didn’t get the memo on the social aspect of social media.

The Social Media Underground

One of the least-discussed benefits of a great social media campaign is the SEO rewards. There are 3 pillars to SEO: Content, architecture, and links. The link component is often the weakest. And that’s where great social media creative can knock it out of the park. Because good social media is shared. And often that sharing points back to an experience somewhere on the brand site. Each of those inbound links gives a boost to the brand’s Google rankings. As social media matures, more and more companies are going to be trying to generate this type of content. And that’s where creative agencies that understand the medium are going to have an enormous impact on things way beyond brand awareness, the aspect of social media most focused on at the moment.

Viral customer complaint

I love this. A band is flying to a gig on United, and at a stopover in Chicago, they look out the window and to their horror see their instruments being tossed around like a hacky sack. (Just to have a shot of their faces would have been plenty of entertainment for me.) They complain to the flight attendants. It’s ignored. They get to their destination and the lead guitarist finds his $3,500 guitar destroyed. They complain again, and United ignores them. So what do they do? Sit down with their patched-together instruments and write a little ditty about the whole experience. When it went viral, THAT got United’s attention. Watch the music video of their song.

Mobile Media Usage Soars, Opens New Vistas for Marketers

More evidence that mobile’s day is (finally) here.

SMS Money Transfers with Africa’s M-PESA MobileBehavior

What I love about the mobile revolution is the myriad areas it’s impacting. From entertaining content to gaming to personal communication. This article describes how mobile phones are being used to exchange money via SMS texting in areas of rural Africa that lie well outside the traditional banking world.

First music video shot on iPhone 3GS? Reyna Perez, “Love Love Love.”

This was as inevitable as daybreak, but still worth a view. Add another item to the long list of examples of how production of content is being commoditized by technology.

The Future of the iPhone: Intelligent Object Recognition

I generally don’t like far-flung projections about the future. They’re usually way off. But with iPhone, it’s a different story. The technology at hand is Object Recognition, and its potential is laid out here in two examples. One, say you’re at the Eiffel Tower and point the phone’s camera at it, and up pops all sorts of contextual information. That’s because the Tower was identified as an object, causing related database links to bring up various info about it. The second example is face recognition. Imagine the same thing, but only pointing the phone at someone’s face, and it bringing up info about them. Most remarkable is perhaps that all this is in the latest patent filing by Apple.

Eternal moonwalk – A tribute to Michael Jackson.

Did you hear Michael Jackson died? Despite the overwhelming coverage, this is both an inspiring tribute and a great use of the technology.

Hilarious Family Guy bit about those annoying TV show promos that pop up during shows

Creativing :: The death and rebirth of advertising, how real can reality content get, and the Twitterverse once again attempts a shark jump.

By

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

TV Ratings: Neda Video Truly Shocking, Unlike Jon & Kate

John Rash has a powerful and poigniant piece on recent events in television and video. There’s a profound difference between Reality and Real content. When Reality first hatched, it seemed very ‘real’. By today’s standards, the format is more often than not highly contrived. Of course, the original appeal was the sense that it was real, and people are still looking for content that has a more real feel. The big question is, Where does that end? Or does it end? When you consider the content danger zones of violence and sex, and think about the trend perpetually arcing towards the most extreme examples you can conjure up in your mind, it’s a pretty chilling media horizon up ahead.

Advertising Industry Prospects: A Tough Year Ahead

From Advertising Age: Brace for the worst year in recorded history. About 65% worst than 1991, the previously worst year. We’re headed for a 5% drop this year, which almost feels like a recovery after a 14% drop in Q1. Increasing the challenge is a projected slow recovery. The cause of this is fundamental change in the media-related world. Newspapers are going out of business, and won’t becoming back. Car advertising is way down, and with vast numbers of dealerships going out of business, those media dollars won’t be coming back either.

Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer: Traditional media will not bounce back

Piggybacking on the previous article, Ballmer, speaking at the Cannes Lions Festival, reiterates that media is fundamentally changing, and that to date, only Google has figured out a profitable revenue model around new media formats. He adds that in the near future all content in all media will be digital. It’s only a matter of When.

Need Some 15 and 30 Second Spots? Hire Your User Base.

As if the top-down pressures listed above isn’t depressing enough for the ad industry, there’s also a sword coming in right at the ankles. The user-generated ad phenom is not only sticking around, it’s likely to increase. This year’s Super Bowl was enough of a warning, when the most popular ad (according to USA Today) was done by two brothers in Indiana for practically pocket change. Now here’s another good example of a company crowdsourcing what was once the bread and butter of the industry: 30 second commercials. And getting a nice spot out of it. Contests like this link are proving again that good work can be done for very little money and well outside the traditional agency structure.

John Battelle’s intro to the CM Summit

So with this sense of industry meltdown, what’s an agency to do? John Battelle (author of “Search”), kicked off his CM Summit with his version of the future of the industry and what agencies should be focused on. It’s a video, and you’ll want to skip to the point about 6:00. His prediction? In a nutshell, it’s all about going from ‘creative’, to ‘adding value’, and from ‘buying media’, to ‘creating media’.

Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen :: MMM’s campaign review

When major tent pole films like Transformers start going with minimal production on their websites, you know there’s a sea change going on. What’s most noticeable here is the expansion of brand tie-ins and partnerships. Not necessarily surprising, given the need for both movies and corporations to cut costs while still getting their name out.

Why Facebook Will Fail

I really appreciate a good contrarian viewpoint. I think there’s a lot of validity here, too. The fall in popularity of MySpace should be a warning to everyone. The key distinction to make is the difference between social networking and social networks. The former is here for the long run, I’d say. The latter is perhaps one of the most fickle online businesses yet. It’s not surprising that Facebook is pushing things like Facebook Connect, placing an emphasis on connecting people and having access to their data, versus trying to be the place where everything happens.

June 2009 Trend Briefing covering FOREVERISM

The idea that campaigns in a social media context don’t have an end point the way traditional push advertising does is very real. I’ve seen this  come up in social media campaigns we’ve run, in which a group we’ve engaged actually requests that the relationship continue after the campaign has finished. For an indusry accustomed to viewing media presence as a faucet you can turn on and off, it’s important to remember that the participants in the campaign may not be so ready to turn on a dime.

Furthermore, with any campaigns that take on a utilitarian role, there’s the issue of actually taking something away that you’ve given them and they’re now relying on. Brands are needing to extend their thinking further down the pipeline than ever, and at a time when that future is less and less clear.

Facebook Live Stream Box launched

We saw social viewing play out big with the Obama Innauguration on CNN/Facebook. This will make that type of activity much easier to impliment on a smaller scale. This is great news for brands with something to say and wanting the crowd to help them say it.

LG hosts texting contest, gets 250k entrants, held in Citi Stadium, and videod for a TV show

Fantastic campaign for LG. 250,000 entrants for a speed texting contest? What’s great about this idea is the lowest common denomenator factor (and I mean that in a good way). Texting is universal now. A very high percentage of people do it, so a contest like this is something a lot of people can relate to. The way they played it out live in Citi Stadium and videod it for TV shows good campaign support and viral anticipation/preparation.

Twitterature: 19 Year-Olds Score Twitter Book Deal

Essentially they’re taking a pile of classic books and turning them into the Super Clift Notes. Each boiled down to 20 tweets. That’s what they scored a book deal with. So, this means they’re turning books into tweets, and then back into books. Now on sale. No wonder the media world is screwed up.