A Wider Net

What’s a widget? Check here, here, and here. Widgets are basically virtual desktop accessories - clocks, radios, cd players, weather indicators, stock tickers, etc. They’re fun, wildly customizable, potentially super-useful, and most importantly - they’re entirely up to you.

From a marketing perspective there are great opportunities in widgets - ranging from advertiser-funded displays to entirely branded widgets like this Harry Potter widget. Once this baby adorns the screen real estate of their target fan base, the marketing job is over. This one provides a countdown timer and a news feed. Believe it or not, it’s not the first Harry Potter widget - this one conjures up a quote from the movies on request. Also, these widgets did not come from the film publisher. Movie makers ought to be looking at these widgets and integrating them into the overall fan experience - connecting them to direct news, fan programs, movie microsites, trailers, etc.

You may have noticed that those two examples were only for Macs. Macs have built-in widget support. PC users can use Yahoo Widgets - found here. And yes, the Harry Potter widget is available there, too.

At CES I also spotted a neat desktop device, the Emtrace WidgetStation that uses widgets so you can change it’s display features as often as you like.

Custom widgets for corporate communications are being created all the time - some using a platform like Yahoo, some are simply stand-alone applications. Basically, these mini applications are designed to sit on your computer screen and make available crucial information at all times - critical internal notices, announcements, schedules. The corporate widgets can combine critical updates with company brand, vision, and value reinforcement, as well as helpful information like local traffic updates, stock, and weather.

I’m buying stock in the really big companies that make really, really, really big monitors.