1.7 Million iPhones Sold in the First 3 Days
Colin Hogan
Apple announced that more than 1.7 million iPhone 4 devices were sold in the first three days of sales, from June 24 through June 26, making it the most successful product launch in Apple’s history. For comparison, Apple sold 8.75 million iPhones in the second quarter of 2010.
Coca-Cola Promoted Trends Nets 86 Million Impressions on Twitter
Bryan Spencer
Coca Cola, following closely on the heels of Disney/Pixar, began to experiment by advertising as a “Trending Topic” on Twitter. The cost of the ad buy, while tens of thousands of dollars, was small in comparison to other ad buys that Coke generally does. As for the results? In just 24 hours, Coca-Cola gained 86 million impressions and an engagement rate of 6%.
Real-Time and Physical are the Talk of Cannes
Brian Kress
This year, the Cannes Lions are taking a particular growl towards initiatives that are real-time, or those that blur the lines between “digital” and “physical” life. From CP+B’s chief creative officer, Jeff Benjamin, ”While digital has always been about innovation, this year it seemed to be also about pure invention; it’s this notion of creatives coming together with technologists.” What will your brand invent this year?
The State of Online Video
Sarah Voges
The Pew Internet and American Life Project has released a new study with interesting facts about online video. “Seven in ten adult internet users (69%), or roughly half of all U.S. adults (52%) have used the internet to watch or download video.” In particular, it seems funny is the way to reach the 18-24 age group with 93% of them consuming humorous videos. You can download the full report at the link above.
What Motivates Check-In’s?
Jill Krumsick
As showcased by Foursquare recently gaining 100,000 new users in one week, the popularity of location based social networks is clearly on the rise. But why are people checking-in? After asking users this same question, factors driving check-in behavior stem around the opportunity for real-world social connection, the chance to “win” and ability to document personal history. So why do you check-in?
Hulu Could Begin Testing Subscription Service This Month
Alex Kenney
According to reports, Hulu could begin testing a paid subscription service as early as this week. Agreements between Hulu and content providers are rumored to wrap up in the next few days. The service, known as Hulu Plus, would initially be available only to invited users who would pay a $10 monthly fee for additional content on top of Hulu’s current free offerings (which will remain free for now).
The rise of Foursquare and Gowalla have brought geotargeting into the forefront of emerging technology for advertising. But there are many other ways to connect to customers using their locations, from other location-based services to using social media outlets in new ways. ClickZ recently highlighted some case studies involving other services (some with more users than Foursquare) in the geosocial marketing space. We’ll take a look at the trends we see developing in this new field.
Checking in to Win
Online gaming has become a bit of an online darling with widespread adoption across multiple audiences. This social gaming trend has spilled over into mobile through location-based services.
Booyah’s MyTown is a GPS game that allows its 2.3 million users to check in to real-world places and earn rewards. Players can buy their favorite places, and other users pay rent when checking in during the day. More check-ins open new levels of the game. Olay recently used the gaming platform to target female users who check in at stores and pharmacies that sell their skin care products. The player can complete a quiz to get a personalized recommendation for Olay skin care products. An accompanying survey showed that purchase intent was higher for the suggested product when suggested through the game.
Social Networking Goes Local
Checking in is meant to connect you to new places and potentially a new community of nearby people. This means it’s the perfect tool for enhancing how we communicate with our real-life friends or make new contacts.
Available across multiple phone platforms, Brightkite lets users check in using an app, a mobile web browser or simple text message to connect with people in the area through Brightkite’s community. The “social discovery tool” tells you who and what places are around you and what happened at a place, in addition to the ability to share geotagged photos and notes with others nearby. Starbucks has found Brightkite useful in four ways: giving away a Frappuccino badge for the most check-ins, sending special offers to customers checking in with a competitor such as Dunkin’ Donuts, timed offers to morning customers for afternoon snacks and promoting its Via instant coffee line when customers check in at supermarkets.
The giants of social media have taken notice and are quickly incorporating geotagging into their current services. The microblogging site Twitter recently announced the addition of Twitter Places, which allows users to include a place with their tweet using automatic location detection or manual entry. The places are all searchable to help users find out what else is going on where they are.
Sapient Nitro is using location-enabling to support their Marco Polo game for participants of the Cannes International Advertising Festival. Players communicate their location in a tweet with the hashtag #marco and then receive nearby place suggestion with the #polo hashtag. The game also encourages players to find an elusive Marco while at the festival, tweeting hints to people who pass near him and awarding prizes to those who find him. The company specifically chose to use Twitter instead of a location-based service because it has already gained wide acceptance and is easy to use.
Facebook has also confirmed that they are developing a location-based application to be released soon, but it is not yet clear how it will be integrated into the social network’s tools. Considering the massive number of users already on the network, Facebook could become the most popular tool for advertisers looking to target consumers at a specific coordinate. Similar to why Sapient Nitro chose Twitter, Facebook has the advantage of a huge member base and user-friendly interface.
Telling an Object’s Story
At the most basic level, location-based apps and games are a means of connecting our virtual experiences with our real-life ones. They can be used to enhance our time at a location through suggestions and interesting trivia, such as Philadelphia’s tourist game with Foursquare, or share our experiences with our online network in a new way. With the use of bar codes and QR codes, some companies are connecting our online experience with the objects with which we interact rather than just the places.
We’ve mentioned Stickybits in The Buzz before as a means of connecting virtual stories to physical goods. The application allows users to turn their iPhone camera into a bar code scanner to upload comments, photos, videos or audio to an individual product. The next person to scan the bar code then sees the added information and contributes his own. In doing so, the product gains a history, and new users can see where other people use the brand and what they like about it. Pepsi has used the bar code function to extend their social media initiative by displaying messages related to their Refresh project.
Why So Popular?
The motivations for massive adoption of location-based services can be seen in some of the broader trends of 2010, particularly the idea of experiences as status (check out Trendwatching’s Status Stories). With luxury goods and status symbols losing importance in a recession and in a new generation’s set of values, the experiences people have are becoming more important. Location-based services provide an authentication of sorts for the adventures we choose to share as well as facilitate shared experiences in places we commonly frequent. Most importantly, it creates visibility for experiences on which we place value.
There is also an increasing interest among consumers to connect to and support their local communities. Whether motivated by green initiatives, a distrust for major national and global companies or simply the desire to reconnect with neighbors, the need for personalized and relevant information is strong. One of the best ways to deliver such tailored communication is to reach consumers where they are, as location-based services do. As many marketers have demonstrated already, there are several creative ways to bring your brand into this space and create a stronger connection with your customer.
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New iOS 4 for iPhone Has Arrived
Bryan Spencer
With over 1,500 changes or addition to technology giant Apple’s premier mobile operating system, iOS4 has finally arrived. Boasting much requested and needed features such as multitasking, folders. IBooks and more. As Steve Jobs & co would say, “This changes everything… Again.”
Gatorade’s Mission Control Approach to Social Media
Derek Louden
Gatorade has created a physical “mission control” for social media monitoring in the company’s Chicago headquarters. They’re using the data to increase engagement with the brand. For example, in a recent rollout for G Series Pro, they noticed the song in the commercial was being heavily discussed in social media, and within 24 hours released a full-length version of the song and distributed it via Facebook and Twitter.
U.S. Soccer Scores Big on ESPN3.com
Alex Kenney
Friday’s controversial tie between the US and Slovenia resulted in the largest audience to date for ESPN3.com (recently rebranded from ESPN360.com), with 798,911 unique viewers. The World Cup overall has been a huge boon to ESPN3.com: between June 11th and June 18th, almost 3.4 million unique users streamed part of the tournament, accounting for 342.7 million minutes of video. While impressive numbers, so far soccer is not quite college basketball. CBSSports.com drew over 6 million unique viewers during March Madness, as a point of imperfect comparison.
BPs Brand Value Hurting at $32 Million/Day
Jeff Whang
General Sentiment, a brand measurement firm, took Twitter, Facebook and over 30 million sources of content and sentiment and has determined that BP has lost nearly $1 billion in brand value. And when they calculated the media value cost of each gallon spilled in the Gulf, they came up with…$6.66. Click through to get a link to see the full report.
Connect Virtual Stories to Physical Products
Sarah Voges
UPC codes are becoming a new media outlet for packaged goods producers with the help of Stickybits, “the provider of a free mobile app that uses bar-scanning technology to attach digital content to physical objects.” Many CPG companies have started to use the technology to connect customers to contests, social initiatives, and product information online, namely the big soda makers, Coke and Pepsi. While it is yet to be seen whether this fad becomes a staying trend, it’s an interesting bridge between the virtual and physical presences of a brand.
Microsoft’s Xbox Live is Making Big Money from Virtual Goods
Brian Kress
While virtual goods have been gaining the most traction in the social gaming space, somehow we’ve neglected to realize that the true striker of the virtual gold rush is from a more traditional competitor: the video game console. The current conservative estimate for Microsoft’s annual virtual goods revenues is at least $625 million. How has Microsoft built such a big secret?
Sports Authority Gives Away Gift Cards on Foursquare
Colin Hogan
Sports Authority is the latest in a series of companies using the rising location-sharing application Foursquare to reward customer loyalty. The promotion rewards mayors at all of its 463 retail locations with $10 gift cards. This move serves to reaffirm the potential value of big brands providing customers with digital discounts for real-world behavior.
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No matter how large or small the company, every organization undertakes projects. Companies from Google to the local bakery have project managers, even if they don’t know it. Every project from the Great Pyramid to Amazon.com has had one thing in common: a lowly human with no superpowers was the one responsible for making sure that necessary tasks were accomplished to achieve the desired goal. The job of project manager existed long before it was given a name. Over the years, many companies have recognized the importance of having a designated individual manage the project process. Since then, an entire culture has sprung up around project management, including something of an unofficial governing body in the Project Management Institute. Unfortunately, traditional project management also comes with a set of rules and regulations, guidelines and doctrine…a sort of project management dogma that must be followed. This sometimes-bloated process is often pursued without question and with no consideration for its impact on the quality of the final deliverables. Because of these obstacles, many web development agencies are turning to agile frameworks that allow for a more adaptive nature. One such methodology is Scrum. Scrum development is a lightweight project management solution that offers increased flexibility, efficiency and innovation.
Roles in Scrum include the Scrum Master (Project Manager) who facilitates the process and removes impediments that prevent team members from achieving their goal. The Product Owner represents the client and speaks with their voice. Everyone else simply has the title of team member. The team members are responsible for doing the actual work that makes the project a success (strategy, design, development, quality assurance, etc.). There are also people who will eventually use the product or have some vested interest, but don’t do any of the work and are not part of the Scrum process. These include project stakeholders and managers or executives who must give approval on the work.
Scrum breaks the total project workload into smaller prioritized segments called “sprints.” At the beginning of each sprint, a Sprint Planning Meeting is held to select which features are to be included. The idea is that at the conclusion of a sprint, the team will have a deliverable ready to ship. Once a feature set or “sprint backlog” has been agreed upon, including time commitments from team members, it cannot be changed. Any new features/functionality that are added after the start of a sprint must be folded into the next phase. This is helpful for the team members who don’t have to deal with drastic changes to the project scope midstream. More importantly, it allows for and even encourages changes to the overall feature set or “product backlog.” These changes are no longer viewed as extra work since they can easily be folded into the next sprint. At the end of a sprint, the “Sprint Retrospective Meeting” is held. The purpose of the meeting is to answer two questions and two questions only:
- What went well during the sprint?
- What could be improved in the next sprint?
Scrum development is best known for its daily “scrum” or standup meetings. It is called a scrum in reference to the play in rugby in which a team pushes down the field in tight formation. The scrum meeting is notable for its frequency. It happens every day at the same time and in the same location. It starts precisely on time without exception and has a hard stop at 15 minutes. Participants are required to stand because this encourages them to keep their comments brief and adhere to the time limit. All members of the team are welcome, but only team members that have ongoing work are allowed to talk. At each meeting team members answer only three questions.
- What did you do yesterday?
- What are you planning to do today?
- What obstacles are preventing you from accomplishing your goal?
The daily scrum meeting serves to identify and address problems early in the process. It is the Scrum Master’s responsibility to resolve any impediments to a team member’s progress. This ensures that no team member sits idle while issues go unaddressed. Because of these regular meetings, the team is able to adapt to changes or unexpected obstacles quickly without lost time and costs.
Traditionally, Scrum has been used for software development, but at Click Here we have worked to adapt the core principles to fit our marketing and advertising culture. Our teams have used Scrum on large website redesigns that require multiple resources working in parallel. How specifically does Scrum help? The daily meetings identify potential issues earlier in the process, and Click Here Scrum teams work in a collaborative way to find creative solutions to problems. Tackling and solving these problems early has saved our clients from costly delays as a product launch approaches. Adaptive methodology also gets our key client stakeholders more involved in their project by requiring numerous product deliveries and demonstrations throughout the life cycle of a project. When client and agency work as partners during the development process, it prevents surprises caused by any miscommunication during the planning phase.
Adaptive project management using Scrum is a proven methodology, but it’s important to remember it is not a silver bullet. Despite its benefits, Scrum is not for every project. Organizations committed to a traditional project management process will find it a dramatic shift in the way teams work. Also, for it to succeed, each team member must understand and be committed to the process. However, when organizations are able to implement Scrum, they are often rewarded with higher-quality work within a shorter delivery window. Scrum teams are flexible and can easily adapt to evolving project needs. In the world of online marketing, the only constant is change. Brands hoping to compete in the online space must be able to react quickly to changing trends and technology. Agile management solutions such as Scrum allow for projects to grow and evolve without redoing work. Such frameworks are ideal for the sometimes-shifting sands of digital advertising.
But you don’t have to take my word for it. Scrum has become something of a phenomenon in web and software development. More and more production shops are seeing the value in the flexible project framework and its principles. Scrum grew out of Agile Software Development and was created by one of the founding signatories of the Agile Manifesto, Ken Schwaber. You can see him explain many of the details in a Scrum presentation he gave at Google’s corporate campus. Also, check out some of these great online resources for Scrum development:
Videos
Scrum Tuning: Lessons Learned at Google
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I don’t know about you, but my mobile phone has changed my life. It’s my main communication device, it’s my life organizer, it’s my camera, it’s my favorite toy … it’s even my alarm clock. Well, all right, that’s not entirely true – I know it’s changed your life, too.
As we’ve watched the mobile industry grow, we’ve seen the device morph into a highly functional, multifaceted tool and witnessed users grow more and more dependent. In 2009, mobile phone penetration in the U.S. was 91.4 percent and is expected to be 93.9 percent in 2010. And according to the Pew Research Center, 57.8 million Americans access the Web through their mobile device every day.
With numbers like these, it’s no surprise the mobile commerce industry has gained momentum. Brands are seeing real benefits with this channel extension as users have grown to expect more personalized, timely service and interaction. In 2010 we expect to not only see continued growth in m-commerce applications with more varied players entering the space, but also expect to see mobile devices used in physical commerce as well.
Commerce as a Function of Mobile
Mobile commerce is the extension of e-commerce to the mobile device. Using tools like mobile optimized websites and mobile applications, m-commerce has linked online purchasing to users on their local device, when and where it’s most convenient for them.
Retailers went mobile first. Companies like eBay, Amazon and GameStop experienced vast numbers of users accessing their mobile sites, but also saw real, monetary results. eBay reported $380 million in combined sales from its iPhone app and mobile site during the first nine months of 2009. In 2009, the m-commerce market hit $750 million and is slated to be over a billion-dollar industry in 2010.
With retail paving the way, banking systems began realizing the value of mobile as well. A 2009 study by Mercatus revealed a growing consumer interest in mobile banking, showing overall adoption growth from 7 percent in 2008 to 11 percent in 2009 – a level of growth that supersedes past industry innovations like ATMs, online banking and debit cards. Institutions offering mobile services outperformed the competition in consumer acquisition; Mercatus projects a 60 percent sales lift for those that offer mobile capabilities. Institutions such as Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank, Sun Trust and 1st Bank currently have mobile applications in place, but as consumers grow more confident in mobile interaction, mobile services are expected to be a pivotal tool in the purchase decision process.
In 2010, we assume continued exposure and growth for both goods and service markets. Mobile is becoming a necessity, and businesses must adapt to the channel to remain competitive.
Mobile as a Function of Commerce
What’s going to be interesting about 2010 is how mobile will change our interaction with plain old regular commerce, not just m-commerce. This is the year we buy goods and sell goods in real time, in real space, with – not from – our devices. Our definition of m-commerce is about to be widened, if not flipped, with mobile point-of-purchase payment systems.
Consumers will reap the benefits of innovations that offer m-wallet abilities, such as contactless payment systems. Contactless systems use a piece of hardware attached to the device that houses data and offers the ability to be swiped at the point of transaction. Credit card companies like VISA and MasterCard are testing chip-embedded stickers that attach to the device and can be scanned like a credit card. Slated to roll out in the U.S. in 2010, United Kingdom-based IMS Research projects over 12.5 million locations will be accepting contactless payment by 2013.
And there are innovations to increase a seller’s transaction capabilities, too. Recently announced systems like Square (started by Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey), Mophie and Verifone’s PAYware use an external hardware piece that plugs into the phone, lets users swipe their card and then emails the receipt. Essentially, this system turns any mobile phone into a credit card machine. The highly anticipated Square is set to roll out in early 2010, while PAYware is pushing a launch date as early as January 15, 2010.
In 2010, Commerce is Mobile
This year mobile will solidify its spot as a bona fide channel; brands should be prepared to compete in this market as consumers demand more service. Here are some things to think about as you guide your brand into the 2010 mobile space.
1.) Mobile-optimized sites are the lowest common denominator of mobile.
- Create a consistent brand experience as users jump from the computer to their mobile device to access the Web.
- Use the mobile real estate wisely by keeping it simple and focused – include only the most necessary information and purest functionality.
2.) Mobile applications are the opportunity for a locally stored brand experience.
- Add user benefit by creating functional tools that inspire repeat use.
- Expand your reach by looking for co-branding partnerships to create consumer solutions.
- Consumers accept apps as a form of entertainment, so add engagement with branded games, video or interactive experiences.
3.) Disruptive mobile technology will change the brick-and-mortar experience.
- Utilize mobile payment systems to take the leash off the cash register and rethink the customer experience.
- Add speed and operational efficiencies with mobile inventory systems and applications.
View all 10 trends here: Ten Digital Trends for 2010… and Beyond.
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Six Flags Launches Virtual Loyalty Program with FourSquare
Brian Kress
As Foursquare continues to grow its user base, Six Flags has become the most recent company to associate itself with the location-based social media platform. In the partnership, various prizes and rewards will be given to players who check-in multiple times during their Six Flags visit.
Guide to a Digital World Cup
Jill Krumsick
From 3D viewing to Facebook’s most-passionate-fans-competition to JibJab’s personalized video to Gowalla pub crawls, there is a lot to take in during World Cup season. Here is a comprehensive list of ways to follow and interact with all the World Cup action.
More Adults Than Teens Consume Mobile Video
Colin Hogan
There’s a popular, but apparently unfounded, belief that those who watch videos on their mobile devices are mostly teens. This isn’t the case, according to Nielsen’s latest “Three Screen” quarterly report. In fact, more than half (55%) of the mobile video audience is actually adults, aged 25-49. However, these adults spend less than half the amount of time consuming mobile video as do those aged 12-17.
Facebook Fans Spend More Money
Bryan Spencer
A recent study shows that people who “like” your brand tend to spend more money on it. Although a fairly obvious statement, social media marketing company Syncapse culled through the results of a 4,000 person survey of people that have “Liked” the top 20 brand pages on Facebook to put an exact number on these spending habits. Their findings? Those who “Liked” a brand spent an average of $71.84 more each year on that brand’s products or services than someone who has not.
Twitter Will Add Places to Twitter Posts
Sarah Voges
“Twitter posts already answer who, what, and when. Now they will also tell people exactly where a post was written. On Monday, Twitter announced on its blog that Twitter Places is going live. Twitter users can tag their posts with their precise location, and people can search for all the posts written from a specific location.” This new service provides a new targeting opportunity for marketers and is not meant to duplicate other location based services like Foursquare or Gowalla.
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Watching video on the Internet has experienced exponential growth over the past few years. According to the IAB, 33 billion videos were streamed online in December 2009, which was a 230% increase over just 18 months prior. Broadband Internet connectivity has played a big part in this growth given that almost everyone on the Web, 93% of the U.S., has access, making it easier to view video online. But even with this momentum and penetration, video is still seeing some hurdles when it comes to budget allocation because of reach and efficiency issues.
One of the biggest challenges facing online video advertisers is the lack of premium content on the Web. eMarketer reports that almost 63% of videos consumed online in December 2009 were user-generated content (UGC). If the online video marketplace is going to grow, more premium video content is going to have to find its way to the Web since UGC is not going to entice advertisers who are looking for a safe environment to market their brand. The biggest inroad for providing premium content has come from aggregators such as Hulu, who have tapped inventory from television networks and movie studios, providing free content to consumers in exchange for incorporating limited commercials within the programming. These types of efforts have begun to expand online video reach, which has been a big concern for major advertisers.
A large untapped market has been original cable programming. Until recently, watching most cable programming online hasn’t been an option for consumers since cable networks are reluctant to make the content available for free online while consumers are currently paying for the service offline. One solution for moving more premium content online is TV Everywhere, a system strongly supported by the top two cable companies, Comcast and Time Warner. TV Everywhere allows paid cable subscribers access to cable programming online. Before viewing the content, consumers must first prove they have a subscription to a cable provider offline, giving them access to all their paid cable programming online. Comcast rolled out the system to its 16 million subscribers last December, but adoption has been slow. Blame that on the 11-step authentication process that turned off a lot of consumers. Time Warner’s rollout hasn’t been quite so aggressive, testing the service with 6,000 subscribers in New York before potentially rolling it out nationally. If successful, this would help increase online video’s reach potential.
However, as more premium content moves to the Web, there is a concern that sites will start charging for it. There have been rumors swirling for months that Hulu will move from an ad-supported model to a paid-subscription model or some hybrid of the two, which could negatively affect viewing levels online. Critics of TV Everywhere worry that if consumers flock to services such as Hulu to watch premium cable content, they’ll cancel their current cable subscriptions. Depending on how much content a person consumes, an online subscription to a site such as Hulu is likely to be considerably less than a consumer’s cable bill, which could positively affect viewing levels online.
Another hurdle for advertisers moving video dollars online is the cost. Pre-roll and in-program CPMs for premium content can be two to three times higher than CPMs for the same programming on television. A lot of marketers are already unsure about shifting dollars from television to online, and higher online CPMs aren’t making the conversation any easier.
However, to combat this premium pricing, there is research that online video contributes to significant lifts across brand metrics much more than television. In a 2008-2009 study by Nielsen, brand recall for an online video advertisement was 22% higher than brand recall for a television advertisement.
So while CPMs for premium online content are higher than television CPMs, value should be associated with knowing a consumer is engaged with a brand for a full 15 or 30 seconds, and it is often reflected in the metrics.
Although everything regarding the Internet seems to happen at lightning speeds and it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement, it’s important to remember that the online video marketplace is still in its infancy. The first U.S. television ad was broadcast almost 70 years ago. The first online video ad ran less than a decade ago. It will be years before online video spending matches TV spending, but online video advertising will continue to thrive as more content becomes available online and CPMs level out.
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The Web isn’t about eye-catching graphics, animations or even motion video. And while all those elements, when properly orchestrated, can significantly enrich the online user experience, at the end of the day the Web is really about communication. Simply put, the Web is a vehicle to deliver a message. And to communicate your message to the appropriate audience, you need to go where that audience is. And guess what … They’re not just sitting in front of their computers waiting to be spoon-fed the latest trend or topic via their favorite blog. The term “online” no longer implies being tethered to a desk and monitor. People are on the move. Living their lives at a quicker pace than ever before, with more information, and messaging, at their fingertips than ever before.
The meteoric rise in popularity and participation on Facebook serves as a solid indicator of this trend in online behavior. As of this writing, Facebook has in excess of 400 million active members. And what may be even more telling is that in excess of 100 million active users are interacting with the platform through their mobile devices. More than 60 million of those users engage with the platform via Facebook Connect or native API (application programming interface) from other websites or third-party applications.
And Facebook isn’t alone in this. Twitter has seen similar indicators within its membership, with an estimated 80 percent opting to “tweet and be tweeted” via their mobile devices. And as of December 2009, there was estimated to be more than 50,000 registered applications using the Twitter API.
So, armed with this information, we must ask ourselves what does 2010 hold for us in terms of new opportunities and challenges? Well, speaking as a technologist, we must focus “beyond the browser.” And what we mean is that we must look beyond the traditional walled garden in which we have come to find such comfort since Netscape provided us with that first real glimpse of what was possible with the medium in 1995.
With the social media alpha dogs of Facebook and Twitter leading the pack, it should be no surprise that other services and solutions are springing up and taking advantage of these communities, thereby expanding their reach and conversations to realms beyond the browser.
Location-aware, or location-sharing, mobile applications such as foursquare and Gowalla have already started to make inroads into the space. Even Kevin Rose (of Digg.com) has become an angel investor in both of these ventures.
According to its website, foursquare helps you find new ways to explore your city. See where your friends are, learn about the places they frequent and even unlock rewards as you travel through the city. The foursquare application is currently available worldwide and supports a variety of platforms, including iPhone, Blackberry and Google’s Android devices.
Gowalla is also a mobile app that allows you to tag or “check in” with your current location, such as your local Starbucks or someplace in the mall. From there, you can do a variety of things, such as see who has been where you are or, for that matter, who on your list of friends might be there now. Gowalla even takes location-sharing a step further by adding some game-play in the form of trading virtual items left or “dropped” at a given location.
Both of these applications take full advantage of the open interfaces with Twitter and Facebook by allowing you to add your friends from those platforms. Foursquare offers businesses such as restaurants and retail stores the opportunity to participate through give-aways or promotional items offered for patrons who check in frequently. In this scenario, business owners or managers are referred to as “mayors” of a particular location. This creates buzz for the business within the mobile community. You can also become the mayor if you’ve been to a particular location more than anyone else.
As online marketing professionals, we must be there to embrace these opportunities from both a technical and strategic perspective. It’s a whole new paradigm in terms of messaging and creative packaging. And the possibilities are expanding on a daily basis. Think of a sculptor, constrained for years by a rigid, unforgiving medium such as iron or stone, suddenly exposed to very malleable material such as clay or wood. His creativity allows him to produce things that had previously been difficult, if not outright impossible.
The scenario is much the same in today’s world of online technologies. The exposure of new platforms and content to developers via open APIs and wrappers, such as Facebook Connect, promises to allow us to spend more time focusing on our message and much less time strategizing on how to shoehorn it into a rigid framework or existing website. We are free to participate in virtually any format we choose, whether that be a location-aware mobile application that allows us to stay in constant communication or simply syndicating relevant content into our own heavily branded website, blog or desktop application or widget.
But we must not become so intoxicated with this newfound freedom that we forget that we live in a digital world that is constantly evolving. As we exercise our creative muscle, be that visually or technically, we must be diligent in validating the direction that we’re heading against our strategic vision for the future. The truth is that no matter how reliable the rumor mill may be, we really don’t know exactly what the future holds beyond a certain limit. And it is with that mind-set that we must embrace and adopt practices that allow us to flex and adapt to new platforms, devices and, perhaps most importantly, user behavior. When Marshall McLuhan coined the phrase “The medium is the message” in 1964, I wonder if he realized how profound that statement would be for generations to come.
Now it’s also important to note that the decision to embrace any of these new platforms isn’t always automatic. That is to say, depending on your brand and your vision for that brand, this may not always make sense for you. In that vein, we have provided the following three simple steps that should significantly expedite the decision-making process.
1. Take inventory of your existing online presence. Before you head down a path, it’s important to get your bearings and have a solid grasp of where you are. Take the time to document your digital touch-points and don’t overlook items such as the Facebook pages, tweets or blogs of your employees.
2. Define and document a clear and concise digital strategy. This will enable you to evaluate your options and validate any choices you make as to how they align with where you want to take your brand. Technology for the sake of technology is rarely a good idea. Make sure you have a solid, strategic reason for the paths that you take.
3. Begin to identify the technical resources you have at your disposal. Whether this is an internal team of developers or a capable, reliable technology partner, this will help you set realistic expectations and reconcile those expectations with your overall objectives.
Once you’ve gone through these exercises and you know where you need to go, the next steps are pretty simple depending on your findings. Consider the following:
1. Facebook – Incorporate a Facebook Connect feature into your website via one of their cut-and-paste code snippets. Or implement the live chat feature for an upcoming event.
2. Twitter – Generate a Twitter feed of brand-related tweets and incorporate them into an existing website, blog or marketing dashboard.
3. Location-aware (Gowalla/foursquare) – If your business or brand is public-facing, consider seeding the Gowalla or foursquare communities via your employees. Identify someone from within your organization to become mayor for your location.
The digital space is constantly evolving. It’s quite true that the only constant here is change. This presents us with exciting opportunities, unique challenges and a seemingly endless series of decisions. If we approach these decisions in the context and with the attention they deserve, they will allow us to reach our goals and objectives well ahead of our original schedules.
View all 10 trends here: Ten Digital Trends for 2010… and Beyond.
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Everything You Need to Know about iPhone 4
John Keehler
Yesterday, Apple revealed the latest version of the iPhone. This great live blog archive from the New York Times allows you to rewind through yesterday’s announcement to look at some of the highlights, including iAd, Video calls and more.
Cut Back Your Facebook Activity Over Privacy Concerns? Didn’t Think So
Jeff Whang
Despite all the alarms over the past couple months about Facebook’s privacy failures and vows to delete or cut back usage, Facebook had one of the strongest months (May) in its history, attracting 130 million unique visitors, an increase of 8.6 million people.
Bing Turns One… Google Not Impressed
Brian Kress
After 1 year, ClickZ evaluates the progress of Bing on its mission as Microsoft’s Google killer. Spoiler alert: Even though Microsoft has been building market share through the Bing product, Google’s share has remained consistent. Microsoft has instead been stealing share away from its business partners over at Yahoo!.
Why You’ll Pay More to See Magazines on iPad
Bryan Spencer
Citing research and development costs and a smaller digital subscription base, many high profile magazines are pricing their paperless iPad counterparts at a premium. Will they be able to sustain demand? Experts believe these magazines will be under increased pressure to drop prices as the tablet market grows this summer.
App Makers Worry as Data Plans Are Capped
Sarah Voges
There were some big announcements about the new iPhone, but we should keep in mind a big announcement about data that AT&T made last week. The iPhone carrier will no longer be offering unlimited data plans to new smart phone users. AT&T says this may create more smart phone users and save many more low data users money, but there may be serious implications for the app world. Will it reduce our appetite for apps? Will consumers be less likely to click on ads that may take them to a data hungry feature or website?
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Building or redesigning an important website can be like buying a starter home. You think it’s the solution to all your problems, but sooner or later you discover that it has problems of its own. The upkeep is a lot of work. One thing is certain if you are building a family: There will come a time when you outgrow your starter home, and you’ll notice that it seems like the house was built for someone else. A close examination of the house reveals that, in some instances, you just weren’t that important in the grand scheme of things.
For instance, the contractors used composite hardboard siding instead of wood, vinyl or cement, and it seems to not withstand the rigors of the environment like the other things might. Since hardboard is slightly cheaper than the alternatives, that part was built for the builder’s bean-counter… not for you.
When you encounter your first plumbing issue, the master plumber who comes in to fix it laments that when the builder installed the pipes, they didn’t seal them. That part was built for the construction workers, so they could get to their break quicker. It wasn’t built for you.
Who is your website built to serve?
It doesn’t always have to be this way, but in many cases, websites are built through a series of processes, negotiations and compromises – much like a house. However, it is primarily built to solve problems. Therefore, the design team must agree on which problems they are trying to solve, and in what order.
There are several ways to approach the problems you identify.
Recently I had the pleasure of attending the 2nd Annual Big Design Conference in Dallas (#bigD10). Our keynote speaker was Jared Spool (@jmspool), founding principal and CEO of User Interface Engineering. His presentation, “The Anatomy of a Design Decision,” included an excellent perspective on user-centered design.
What is “User-Centered Design?”
The traditional definition of user-centered design can be explained this way (from Wikipedia):
“User-centered design can be characterized as a … problem-solving process that not only requires designers to analyze and foresee how users are likely to use an interface, but also to test the validity of their assumptions…”
“The chief difference from other interface design philosophies is that user-centered design tries to optimize the user interface around how people can, want, or need to work, rather than forcing the users to change how they work to accommodate the software developers’ approach.”
User-centered design can be broken into 4 categories.
- Self-Design – The designer is the user. This is not traditionally considered user-centered design, but it can be effective when the designer is designing for himself or when other users are exactly like the designer.
- Genius Design – When the designer intimately knows the user and the space for which he’s designing and can apply the patterns he’s learned without researching everything from scratch.
- Activity-Focused Design – When the designer is focused on what the user does and verifies through research and testing. This is the benchmark for traditional user-centered design.
- Experience-Focused Design – Through extensive research and deliberate execution, persuades the intended audience to perform a desired action and elicits appropriate emotion that makes the experience memorable. True experience design transcends the medium and is the hardest to plan.
User-centered design is, at its core, a philosophy, not a rule. It stands in opposition to three other types of design.
- Unintentional Design – If this occurs, one of two things is true: Either the designer is absolutely clueless or has tried to stretch an architecture designed for one thing to serve purposes for which it was never intended to serve.
- Technology-Centered Design – This occurs when you’re more concerned about “features” on the platforms you already own or have access to than you are how the user could interface with those platforms – and why they would even want to.
- Ego-Centered Design – This is a variation of “Genius-Design” masquerading as “Self-Design.” The difference is that with Self-Design, the designer (whether he be an actual designer or simply a stakeholder who is hijacking the process through the exertion of power, intimidation or influence) actually is the primary user of the design in question. With Ego-Centered design, the designer simply presumes that everyone thinks like him — denying evidence to the contrary.
Getting to Good
There’s an old adage that production managers seem to like to use when estimating a project or allocating resources. It goes something like this: “Quick, Inexpensive and Quality. Pick two of the three.”
(Image credit: Adam Polansky)
Strictly speaking, this isn’t even true. Sometimes you can have only one. There are always limitations with any project. There are always going to be trade-offs, and discovering what isn’t negotiable is part of the process of getting to good design.
That really boils down the design process to its essence. Good design is primarily about solving a multitude of problems: for the user, the marketing group, the IT group, the finance group and the design group.
The value of a design can be broken down to its parts — such as usability, usefulness, desirability, etc., but if it doesn’t solve at least one key problem that synchronizes what your users want and what you provide, it is doomed to fail.
Instrumental to solving these problems is making sure you honestly identify what the real problems are — asking the tough questions up front to make sure you don’t go down the wrong rabbit hole. This requires confronting the uncomfortable truth that you may be using one design method when you mistakenly believe you’re using another.
For Further Reading
The Elements of User Experience (PDF)
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