 November 21, 2008
As a futurist envisioning digital things to come based on analogous developments in other mediums, and—just to come clean—as a cinéaste (by training and in temperament) interloping in the digital space, I’m patiently awaiting the aural web. I’m waiting for Garbo to talk, and I don’t mean in a podcast. I mean in a moment that signifies a sea-change. I’m waiting for the web’s Jazz Singer hour (the 1929 version obviously), when we create a wholly different human experience with digital sound, music and voice—for the mainstream customer, not just the gamer, not just the MySpace indie band fan. Sound online is overdue, delayed perhaps by early experimentation that left the cube farm-dwelling populace apologizing to workmates for sudden unsolicited rock concerts on their pc’s. By now, there’s sensitivity to the context of the listener, and a new playfulness, even artfulness to sounds that are, strictly speaking, functionally unnecessary. What would our experience of the iPhone’s accelerometer be without that great clickety, clickety? You can set your alarm but you can’t come up with straight jackpot cherries, figuratively speaking, without it. There’s a new, already wildly popular Mac app called the Poladroid that is a visual tool for retrofitting your digital images with Day-Glo surreality and the occasional midday poltergeist (and can make you channel Woodstock, if you look at an image long enough). You can even add the clean white border of a Polaroid to your digital pix, always so unceremoniously unframed. Some of the nostalgic irresistibility apparent in the Poladroid demo for me derives from the exact duplication of the film paper’s distinctive auditory dispatch from the camera. (There are other reasons the demo is so delightful; for instance, it makes you wait just as long as you have to with a real Polaroid for life forms to emerge from the brown murk. And the picture is shaken, as if by an impatient hand trying to accelerate the development.) But ocular time travelling aside, Poladroid had me at the clackety-click…whoosh. Google results are paltry for the “aural web” but buried among them is a prescient post on oreilly.com from 2006 that describes our prolonged ‘silent era’. O’Reilly pops up again with his Where 2.0 2007 conference, where we can find not only a strong argument for “soundscapes” for digital maps (putting the there in the where, as the copy says) but an intersection of two of my favorite trends, aural branding and cartocracy. Here is the question few brands are prepared to ask, let alone answer: what do you sound like? What is your aural identity? Many brick and mortar retailers have brand–reinforcing soundtracks for their shoppers but by and large leave them listening to sounds of silence online. There are notable exceptions, and many are found in the luxury category. (I believe that the luxury value proposition online is, frankly, untenable without sound/music/voice in the right places at the right times.) Nordstrom’s Designer Collections online plays the song “Madrid” by the French band Holden. (I had to check them out on last.fm.) The repetitive nature of the music, plus its worldly cred, is the right note to strike on the charmingly illustrated home page. Cartier has a MySpace Love collection profile with commissioned music by the likes of Lou Reed and Marion Cottilard. Talk about atmospherics; the brand’s signature scarlet background and the songs swallow you and your better judgment whole. RalphLauren.com features glamazons descending a chateaux staircase to the strains of the Pierces’ “Bored”; colossally snooty fun. And LouisVuitton.com brings us downloadable MP3 soundwalks of Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shanghai—essentially travelogues by three famous Chinese actresses serving as seductive narrators that further reinforce the love affair Asians (and the burgeoning Chinese middle class) have with this innovative luxury brand. Accessibility experts have studied sound as a form of non-visual navigation, and there’s something in this idea for everyone. Sounds can reward our decisions to move through a web site, unearthing auditory surprises as we go. Music can be a powerful brand differentiator, but so as to accommodate a brand’s every consumer segment, music should be made available as a highly curated selection. Sound not only has to be used creatively to reinforce the brand, it has to be used judiciously, and always with the on/off option and a fade in or fade out (lifted right from stage directions) once the choice to listen or not is made. Brand differentiation we know is essential to business survival, particularly because brand loyalty is, among certain demographics, on the wane. Sound and music are memory narcotics and to help a customer remember your brand in a certain way is the first step to putting your products invariably in the “consideration set.” Some day, we’ll have thousands of brands with Intel jingles and—to modify the title of Alex Cox’s Pulitzer Prize Finalist book on 20th century music—the rest will be noise. November 6, 2008
Remember the third place? Digital Millennials are the first real post-PC generation; their smart phones are not only their primary digital device but some would say their primary means of discovering what it means to be a social being. For brands, millennials’ perpetual connectedness via mobile phones and social networking profiles has been their most salient trait for about five years. Facilitating and being part of this perpetual connectedness was a brand’s route to relevance. But another millennial trait is about to usurp simple connectedness: their collective location awareness—and the importance they ascribe to place as a marker of self (yes, just as brands endeavor to be). Mobile phones once again are the technological driver of this generational trait, but only those that are location-aware (thanks to cell tower triangulation and GPS). These phones and their geo-applications, along with cyber cartography—the constitution of information-rich up-to-the-minute digital maps of astounding physical accuracy, mean that brands have to put themselves on the map, literally. Why? Because the more accurate and personally useful digital maps become—with the help of anyone willing to geotag their photo or geoannotate a place—the more people expect them to constitute a complete “mirror world,” as the gamers call it. Brands must recognize that there are consequences to being left out of this mirror world. As web surfing gives way to world surfing, brands have to be at the right places at the right time. Most important, they have to be part of the Fourth Place. After home (first), work (second), coffee shop/athletic club/church (third), the Fourth Place is a fusion of virtual and real, a spontaneous hot spot created by people oscillating between digital co-existence in a geo-annotated space and the heightened possibility of suddenly meeting up—at a store, nightclub, park—in the real world.
October 2, 2008
 Facebook – Delivering value to this Gen XerTagged as: O.P.E.N., networked, personal, social web, trendsPosted by: Mila Goodman I have two digital social profiles – my professional one and my personal one. In my professional world – I have an avatar, I twitter, I shop online and am an active member of several social networks. My personal circle – comprised mainly of my non-work friends – is mostly offline and connected by phone and face to face. They don’t twitter, post pictures online and rarely use email or IM. In the past 2 weeks, these worlds finally collided. My high school and college friends made their way onto Facebook and I am re-connected with them. Facebook now delivers the promise of being a social utility – not because of any updates or re-designs but simply because the people I want to stay connected to are finally there! I can keep tabs and update both of my worlds with single strokes on the keyboard (or more likely my Treo). The fact that it successfully juxtaposes my work self with my personal self is truly an awesome thing. In my experience, my generation—unlike the Digital Millenials—is either in the digital space or still trying to figure it out. For my Xer friends not in the business, the online channel is not part of their DNA or even seen as a useful way to communicate. Notwithstanding the social convenience Facebook has recently delivered for me, it is a part of mass culture. Consider some of these stats… - Facebook has over 110 mm active users - Facebook is the 4th most-trafficked website in the world - Facebook is the most-trafficked social media site in the world - More than half of Facebook users are outside of college - The fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older - Maintain 85 percent market share of 4-year U.S. universities - Over 24,000 applications have been built on Facebook Platform - 140 new applications added per day If you’re an Xer or Boomer looking for an easy entry into the social web, visit Facebook.com and re-connect with your family and friends or friend me and I’ll show you the ropes. September 24, 2008
 Agency Life, 2012: Takeaways from the MIXX ConferenceTagged as: Open brand, creative, trendsPosted by: Molly Metzger
Tasty-Good Case Studies My first thought is that digital is truly, finally a serious business. How do I know? I know because the sponsored snacks were quite possibly the worst I’ve experienced at any conference. One could argue that the vertical ad networks, premium content providers and gaming sites are too small and niche to afford more than pre-packaged grocery store granola bars for the mass of attendees. I believe there’s something more to it: these start-ups were more focused on case studies than tchotchke, save for one poor soul dressed in a chicken suit. This departure from the early days of interactive is a testament to the seriousness of the industry. We’ve arrived. Digital remains vibrant despite tough economic times. We’ll stay the course, even if the food is terrible, because digital works. I’ll spend some time later discussing the details, but here are a few prognostications about the future of agency life in the digital age. My industry projections are as follows: International Agency Cooperation Week, 2012 “No agency can do it alone” was a key theme, and after seeing the case studies, I believe it. The caliber and complexity of the work is evidence of tight collaboration of all creative practices and media partners in the very early stages of concept development. We heard from BBDO’s Andrew Robertson that the best creative ideas are the result of 72 hour transcreative collaborations, where “all forms attack the brief” in their own way, using their own tools. For at least 1 week in 2012, we’ll celebrate our collective contributions to the work. No one owns the big idea, the account, the credit. There’s no time for nonsense. National Take Your Vendor to Work Day The collaboration theme didn’t end with agencies and creative teams. By way of example, Google and Publicis associates have gone as far as trading jobs for the day, in an effort to conquer issues collaboratively to bring value and speed to market only delivered by walking in one another’s shoes. I predict 30 minute WebEx briefings will be replaced by day-long collaboration sessions that will change what we offer, bringing new value and speed to our clients. Take your Account Exec to Lunch Day In this increasingly complex world, the venerable AEs are sharpening their pencils and establishing new cost structures. “Production as a percent of media” doesn’t cover costs when media is, in some cases, free and production costs are increasingly uncertain due to all the moving parts. On top of that, it’s imperative that AEs spend the majority of their time helping the clients “push the big bet” (quote from Michael Linton, CEO of eBay) when the idea is right. This requires a mix of confidence, hunger and humility demonstrated by the best and brightest in our industry. When the client is temporarily terrified, the AE’s bedside manner matters. So as creatives collect those awards, I predict they’ll thank the AEs for making it possible. The Final Score: Vegas 0, Madison Avenue 1 My favorite quote on the future of the interactive advertising industry didn’t come from this conference, but from the Social Times conference last week. One panelist, I think it was Ian Swanson of Sometrics, made the following observation: “There are two sides of this industry. The side that hold conventions on the Vegas Strip and the side that meet on Madison Avenue. In 5 years, I don’t want to be on the Vegas strip.” Score one for Madison Avenue. The food might be better in Vegas but I’ll take NY any day. In closing, a few data points No conference coverage would be complete without a few new data points sure to make PowerPoint presentations everywhere. Here’s one from Microsoft: 94% of data is disregarded by the “last ad standard”, the assignment of conversion credit to whatever ad was finally clicked. And from Deloitte: 82% of content for the top 20 global brands is driven by other stakeholders. Score one for OPEN brands. September 22, 2008
“You are here.” How many of us have scrutinized this inadvertently philosophical assertion when wayfinding in the subway or at the zoo, mall or amusement park? The X designating one’s location vis-à-vis other highlights on the map is practically the universal symbol for being slightly lost. In my experience, it always seems to have little to do with where I feel I am, or where I wish I were, or where I thought I had finally arrived. All manner of perspectival negotiation of the 2-D maze of lines and dots before me ensues: moving in closer, tilting my head to align the landmarks with my sightline, squinting so as to project myself onto the smaller plane of impervious reality before me. A cartoon check on Google reassured me I’m in good company finding humor in the incongruity between my existential self and this confident cartographic depiction of it. But a really funny thing has happened recently while navigating our way to the forum—or big box or nightclub. Something dislodged this incongruity, this mismatch between our selves and our public maps. Location awareness has become the new “there there” of our digital devices, and not just of the mere 17% of phones that are GPS-enabled (as of late 2007, pre- 3G iPhone). Low- and mid-tier mobile phones and PNDs (personal navigation devices) have been serving up location awareness to millions.
Location awareness, in case its killer app-ness is initially lost on you, means the navigator is embedded in the map. That inscrutable X that once stood for you is now the real-time longitudinal and latitudinal (and sometimes altitudinal) equivalent of you. And if that isn’t enough of a kick for the navigation-challenged, or the socially mobile (as it were), the map in which you are embedded can be populated exclusively by the geo-information in which you’ve indicated interest. So the world arrays itself around you and your immediate needs and desires as if you were Zeus on a daytrip. The digitally prescient have been talking about this paradigm shifter for some time—how web surfing is giving way—or at least sharing the stage with—world surfing. We in the RI:Lab have been studying the macrotrend of Cartocracy for months. But brands might be wondering what the heck these apps and maps offer that their store locators don’t. We’ll need a few WeThink posts to answer that one but, for now, here’s a handy list of five reasons a new kind of X marks the spot, and how mega value creation is sure to follow.
More mapping mania to come! August 21, 2008
Chris Anderson is an expert meme splicer. The Long Tail, as a marketing strategy recently flattened into financial negligibility by Anita Elberse in the July-August 2008 HBR article, “Should You Invest in the Long Tail?,” is now part of Anderson’s broader economic argument for the value (variously defined as revenue, reputation, consumer attention) of making much of your service or product offer free. Anderson’s splicing occurs by attaching both the long tail and the marketplace-of-free memes to our economy of abundance. Many would argue that by the time the Free meme winds its way through Wired magazine article to blog and “open source ideation” to best-selling business book (following the winning and not entirely free formula of The Long Tail), many of us will have finally read or reread Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture or Yochai Benkler’s The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom, both of which Amazon reviewers by and large think cover the same conceptual terrain. But such is the nature of free information exchange. There is much that is derivative, but more people are exposed to—and contribute to the ideas in the long run, er, tail, er, run. And if you want to preempt the long tail of derivation, you can always, well, pay for premium content, that is, buy the book. Yes, indeed, we’re having some sporting fun with what admittedly are essential, galvanizing ideas, which marketers should decide are worthy of implementation or not. To be clear, Elberse’s HBR article doesn’t dismiss the long tail altogether; it is best, for instance, to offer a wide assortment of products—including niche ones—to your high-value customers because they’re “disproportionately active in the long tail.” (Her most shocking finding to me: those connoisseurs who favor long tail choices don’t rate them higher than the more popular, less esoteric products. So much for our extreme private delight in that rare find—the book, the song, the band, the blog—and its transcription into larger cultural currency. To social network theorists like Duncan Watts, it’s been proven again and again that the popularity of a cultural product and the pleasure taken in it or the affinity one feels for it are inextricably linked.) The debates around Anderson’s free stuff argument are in full swing. And to contribute to them, we need go no further than the recent auctioning off of that part of the spectrum freed up by the imminent national move to all-digital TV. You might have read some of the bloglines about these so-called white spaces of the spectrum. Invisible, intangible assets. Free like wi-fi sometimes is? Well… In order for Verizon Wireless to attract more customers for high-speed mobile internet access, they shelled out $9.4 billion on airwaves. Anderson argues that phones are often free so carriers can charge for services. But Verizon’s acquisition of the coveted C-block spectrum must follow “open access” rules, meaning the network must be accessible by any compatible gadget and any software application. Not all of which will be “owned” by Verizon, obviously. This is where “free” gets very complicated and comes off as the frontman for an extravagantly expensive business model. But then the recent spectrum auction aligns once again with Anderson’s free argument when you consider Google’s stake in it. They didn’t take home any spectrum licenses (they were outbid) but the open access rules (which, I hasten to point out, AT&T’s spectrum doesn’t require) suit them just fine. They’re happy to “provide technical support, including intellectual property, design, databases, etc.” And why not? More free internet access with all the bells and whistles=more ad revenue for Google! Stay tuned for Part Two of my free meme free associating, where I take on the three forces Anderson says are driving this new economy—“fremium”, third-party (advertising) support and the gift culture—and hazard some advice about where marketers should be headed. August 11, 2008
On occasion we find ourselves in client meetings with a very senior team shouldering a very inconvenient burden: convincing their CEO that the digital medium is not inert and uninvolving—that its ads are more than insinuating party crashers, that its Flash-fangled web sites don’t pale in comparison to 3-D store shopping, TV ads, magalogs, or even digital OOH advertising. “The web can’t make shoppers fall truly, madly, deeply in love with us. Period.” Thus speaks the CEO who knows from retailing—the merchant prince with skeptical eyebrow arched over all things dreadfully, dully digital. Yes, digital diehards, pioneers and recent converts, doubts persist about the web’s potential to involve us emotionally in a brand. If the argument were entirely without merit, rebuttals would hardly be necessary. But most of us don’t say “deeply moving,” “wildly inspiring” or “irresistible” quite as often as we’d like about our digital brand experiences. Most of us aren’t able to say, “That brand feels like me” often enough online. Hence the rise, one could argue, of consumer-generated content that makes the brand over in our own image. Brands that do make the emotional connection often employ humor, and among digital millennials, humor is king online, particularly sarcastic, knowing, parodistic, low-brow humor—emblematic of both the generation’s marketing savvy (they’re in on it) and the emotional peculiarities of a life lived virtually (and a private life lived publicly). Sarcasm and parody, after all, put some distance between “us” and “them,” don’t they. Music will dramatically change the emotional timbre, if you will, of the web. So will the continued rise of brands demonstrating corporate social responsibility—particularly those using the power of video to spur activism. But let’s give the devil’s advocate his due. A very thoughtful post by Sean X Cummings about the deeper emotional impact of the TV spot vs. the online banner ad, Is Digital a Hopeless Medium?, draws a series of sharp contrasts between the individual viewer/user’s respective psychological stances while online or watching TV. Online engages the cognitive cortex, TV the limbic system—allegedly the older, less understood part of the brain involving emotion, memory, learning/motivation. Though I’m unaware of any scientific proof of this argument, it seems at least superficially accurate. My rational drawbridge is down, in the way one says “my defenses were down,” when I’m watching a movie (or Mad Men) on TV, which makes it easier for emotions to cross the moat. Cummings also argues that digital is a “learn forward” medium, chiefly informational and individualistic whereas TV is a “lean back”, communal entertainment medium. Again, these assertions seem generally true, leaving the very communal and limbic MMORPGs aside. Leaving aside digital millennials’ constant connectivity and the digerati’s microblogging and lifecasting, which also seem inarguably if strangely communal to me. Leaving aside networked brands that are either transforming “traditional” online advertising into social media marketing or dramatically decreasing spend on straightforward interruptive ads because they recognize the web’s colossal community impulse. Leaving aside as well the imminent full-video web, which will make distinctions between so-called entertainment media like TV and informational media like the web (and first, second and third screens) superannuated. OK. Leaving aside quite a bit. Still, Cummings’s argument seems to contain a kernel of truth. An intuition, perhaps, about how difficult it is to describe, assess, appreciate the virtual community when members haven’t (yet) fleshmet. (I’m reviving this term because it’s deliciously, well, corporeal, and contrasts nicely with the hyperreal online.) It does seem a propitious moment to introduce a digital experience far, far from the banner ad that Cummings spends considerable energies critiquing. A digital experience emphatically limbic and communal, that springs from the living web—and all that it implies. Inert and uninvolving? Not for me, baby. August 8, 2008
 Let the (digital) games begin!Tagged as: O.P.E.N., creative, digital millenials, engaging, iCitizen, mobile, networked, new consumer journey, on-demand, personal, retail, social web, technology, trendsPosted by: Dan Shust
Here are my podium picks: Bronze Medal: McDonalds “The Lost Ring” In March 50 bloggers received a mysterious package in the mail. It contained an Olympic poster and a ball of string that, when unraveled, revealed a web address. Thus began “The Lost Ring” an Alternate Reality Game (or ARG) that is currently being played in 7 languages across 100 countries. The players work together to hunt for clues to solve an ancient Olympic mystery. Immersive gameplay leads them to websites, blog posts, wikis, podcasts and even Twitter. 4 million people and counting have visited the launch site. Silver Medal: Lenovo “Voices of the Olympic Games” In an attempt to bring attention to a variety of less mainstream Olympic sports, Lenovo has given laptops and Flip video cameras to 100 athletes. (No other compensation is being provided.) Their only direction was to tell the rest of the world about their Olympic experience. Their blog posts are revealing, touching and sometimes humorous. Mainstream media will blast us with Phelps, LeBron, Kobe and Torres, but Lenovo’s athlete bloggers allow us to partake in the “common” Olympian’s experience. Gold Medal: NBC - Digital Coverage In 2006 NBC streamed one hockey game live form the Turin Winter Olympics. This year the network will stream over 2200 hours of live coverage and 3600 hours of on demand video will ultimately be available. Their custom video player is ground breaking, allowing the user to enjoy such features as closed captioning, expert commentary even for less popular events, integrated trivia, picture-in-picture and a “control room” view in which you can enjoy up to 4 live events simultaneously. NBC’s coverage also includes a robust mobile web site, text messaging, e-mail alerts and mobile video. So, there are my “Digital Olympics” medal winners. Each effort is game changing in its own way, but just imagine if they were all on the same team. When you do, you can almost see the future… July 31, 2008
 EBay’s desktop AIR application downloaded 1,000,000 timesTagged as: technology, trendsPosted by: Chris Berk
EBay’s desktop application is definitely a great app. But I kept wondering why it is a desktop application? It makes no use of the capabilities available to it as a desktop app – like access to the file system, printing functions, and other features. Also, the application is essentially disabled if you are not connected to the internet (i.e. offline). This makes sense given that buyers spend their time searching for and buying stuff – both activities that require you to actually connect to EBay. However, most desktop applications are developed to work as effectively offline as when connected. Additionally, every thing that EBay Desktop does, including the look and feel, could have been accomplished inside the browser using the same technologies. So it makes me wonder why this became a desktop application – requiring users to download and install it…1,000,000 times! – instead of just running it as a really cool RIA inside of the browser? While there is plenty of use for a solid desktop app, EBay Desktop seems to be a desktop app because it could be, not because it should be. July 22, 2008
Sent to NYC to experience the future firsthand at MOMA’s Design and the Elastic Mind, let me begin by saying that reportage is rarely more exhilarating. An exploration of (as the show’s superb catalog would have it) “…one of design’s most fundamental roles: the translation of scientific and technological revolutions into approachable objects that change people’s lives and, as a consequence, the world,” the show was both provocative and practical, optimistic and urgent, sci-fi clunky and simply ravishing, nano and macro—this latter spectrum in particular requiring a certain mental elasticity to span. As digital marketers, we also know that one of design’s most fundamental roles is the translation of basic human requirements into viable commercial experiences. Usability and digital ethnography help us build a matrix of intelligibility and desirability behind every web site, mobisode and digital POS system. Until now, the human body has had paltry interaction with brands’ digital interfaces and environments. So addictive and liberating is the iPhone “pinch” (an example of gestural computing), it’s tempting to think of it as having given rise to a new species of computer-literature humans: those with opposable thumbs! (Lest we forget, this is the distinguishing feature of primates and that which permits the use of tools.) Typing with thumbs on PDAs doesn’t count: here the thumb acts as just another index finger—on its own, doing the same basic act of button-pressing. One installation at Design and the Elastic Mind, entitled “Shadow Monsters” and part of “Not Your Usual Interfaces”, invited greater bodily involvement with the digital universe. A magic lantern show-meets-performance art installation, its responsive design embellished certain physical movements of the participants with sinister appendages (accompanied by monster growls and such), making Monsters one of the indisputable hits of the show. See me on the left, my muscle-flex gesture suddenly met with snapping tentacles (while trying to capture the shot, of course.) Saw-toothed hands kept many people performing way past the point of there being any point. Except, of course, complete captivation by the phantasmagorical world of inner demons unleashed. (Talk about Engaging.) Responsive design is a trend we’ll be monitoring because it pushes basic usability insights to ever more intuitive and imaginative heights. Moreover, the retail possibilities are myriad. What if… (cue my favorite part of futuring) changing rooms offered fantasy backgrounds and accouterments? Trying on lingerie would trigger the projection of a five-star hotel suite; prom dresses would prompt tiaras, red carpets, popping paparazzi light bulbs, James Bond escorts. When it comes to digital brand experiences, it’s about time the (rest of the) body showed up, don’t you think? |
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