A Wider Net

This terrific video explains web2.0 pretty well, although you will have to know a bit about it already to fully appreciate the video. I just love the way it’s produced. It offers some insight into the changes we’re facing in the way information is created, proofed, found, viewed, modified, and shared.

I also followed the rabbit hole to Mojiti where the creator of the video has posted the video for public comment. Mojiti allows everyone (who registers for free) to place comments right on the video - a terrific experiment in social content creation.

Found on Information Aesthetics.

Billboardom writes about a billboard designed to trick drivers into slowing down to read their billboard. The trick is the realistic cutout of a police car placed below the billboard at ground level. A few years back, while under the influence of the draconian “Speed Kills” campaign across the country, I read a study that proved that speed variance was the leading cause of highway accidents, as opposed to speed itself. Of course, I’ve always said that running into things is what does it, regardless of the speed factors, but who am I to judge?

The point is - here’s a billboard designed to cause traffic to slow down. What if someone slows down suddenly, and gets rear-ended? (Forget that this billboard is in Turkey for a moment). Wouldn’t the ad company and the bank find themselves on the hook for that accident? In fact, a sudden slow down can cause traffic jams, multiple accidents, and even gridlock. So why is this ok, given that it is clearly intended to cause slowdowns, while the Mooninite project, which was designed to create the effect of people talking about mooninites, is being treated as an act of terrorism by the city of Boston and the conservatives on the radio?

You may have heard of a radio show from 1938 which unintentionally caused mass panic and hysteria. That event also occurred at a very sensitive time in our nation’s history.

I guess our industry has to be extra careful not to worry people. Or we can tell the media to simply stop broadcasting the news. Or we can be more diligent and investigate more thoroughly before we react. Is this radio program a hoax? Is that LED cartoon character a bomb? Do they really have WMD’s?

Hitch Media offers an ingenious solution for exhibitors and event organizers to reach cell phone users. Using their own bluetooth transmitter, which they ship you for use on your event, they can beam advertisements to users with bluetooth phones within a range of 300 feet. Users must allow the download on their handset but it costs them nothing. In fact, the per-message transmit rate is also nothing.

Currently the system supports text, jpg’s, and video, although video is not supported by all phones. Also, due to Verizon’s stubborn restrictions on the supported bluetooth protocols on their phones, this system will not reach Verizon customers. It seems likely that Verizon will cave to consumer pressure to change that in the future. Most new phones already support bluetooth, and in the near future all cell phones will support bluetooth. In the meantime, this looks like a great way to grab attention.

Since those of us in and around Boston are in a pranky mood after the Mooninite invasion, here’s a way we can all join the fun. Dane Cook has a new promo website promoting the Tourgasm DVD. Through it, you can prank your friends and coworkers with emails that appear to deliver pink slips, paternity tests, and other frightening situations.

Viral pranks - if you’re an IT helpdesk worker, “Viral Pranks” is redundant and not at all funny… but I bet each one of ‘em will try to squeeze one of these babies through their spam filters. That has to be the dorkiest thing I have ever written.

Last night’s Super Bowl had its entertaining moments. The historic opening kickoff return for a touchdown was stumped only by the subsequent manic flurry of bouncing fumbles and interceptions. The rain also added a needed degree of uncertainty and drama. But the event also had an unfair number of missed opportunities - on the field, off the field, on television, and online.

I’ll start at the beginning with Billy Joel’s odd rendition of our National Anthem. Here was a (six-time?) Grammy-winner who sounded like he was singing backup to a blues singer that the rest of us could not hear. Apparently he remarked last week that he doesn’t like the Anthem, so maybe he was making some adjustments? Or maybe they should have tapped someone who actually likes the National Anthem and won’t butcher it. Then they could simply let Prince handle the butchering of songs by Foo Fighters, Queen, and Hendrix.

On to the marketing parts. As Super Bowl ads go, I’ll admit that after looking back at the ads at CBS, there were some ads that I enjoyed, but not one felt like the belle of the water-cooler ball. I was surprised to see my favorite electronic device of CES, the Garmin Nuvi, had a Super Bowl ad - but I can’t say I liked it.

On the topic of missed opportunities, I would include a link to the Garmin Nuvi commercial on the official CBS Super Bowl ad website, bit their site doesn’t allow you to link to a video! Also - they’re still using the prehistoric Real Player. Plus, their gallery of Super Bowl ads, heavily promoted on air, isn’t in the front page of Google search results for “Super Bowl Ads”. That’s three strikes for CBS for missed opportunities right there.

YouTube is no fool - they have the ads with direct links (here’s Garmin), and a cool voting page. They’re also near the top of the Google Search. You can embed them in your blog. Well done.

So the ads weren’t really home runs - some were creative (Coke) and some had their shock moments (Bud’s Rock, Paper Scissors, and Snickers). Our favorite repeat Super Bowl Ad Stars, the Bud Clydesdale’s were reduced to a cameo role supporting a dirty-white-dog dalmatian ad.

The video game industry missed a golden opportunity. With Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo in a tight console war, not one was featured in an ad (unless I missed it). Nintendo had the greatest opportunity, after scoring a major upset when their version of Madden Football for the Wii console scored higher critics ratings than the versions for XBOX 360, and PlayStation 3. Nintendo had the opportunity to drop an advertisement just before halftime saying “Critics agree: The best Madden Football game is on the Nintendo Wii” and remind people to turn away from the halftime show, and turn on their Wii and get their party off the couches.

Speaking of halftime and missed opportunities, did anyone notice that Prince opted to cover a bunch of artists but NOT James Brown? Hmmm - seems like Prince may own him a bit of respect.

Back to the ads. The greatest missed opportunity at this years’ Super Bowl was the lack of compelling campaigns driving traffic to the web. It was as if the money spent on air was stubbornly trying to prevent people from spending time online. Online is where all those eyeballs are today, the day after the Super Bowl, so why not have told them where to go online? There were a few website URLs mentioned, and a few online companies like GoDaddy and SalesGenie had their own ads. But there was nothing that really drove traffic other than CBS, who pushed people to watch replays of the ads on their previously mentioned lame video player.

I also didn’t notice one Mooninite in the stadium.

UPDATE: Forrester Analyst Peter Kim on the Superbowl Ads: He reported a similar weakness in integrated ads.

I find it tricky to write a post about a marketing campaign that resulted in the gridlock of the city of Boston, nearly a million dollars in emergency response expenses, and countless cases of irrational panic. Writing about it raises questions like “Am I giving undue attention to an inappropriate publicity stunt, thereby encouraging others to do the same?” and also “wait - was the problem the stunt, or the city’s reaction to the stunt”. I also find it tricky because it has already been covered by hundreds of other blogs.

As an attention-getter, the stunt worked. See ABC, CNN, WBZ Radio, Boston, (full coverage from Boston.com is here but may not be for long), and for a more insightful read, check out Making Light’s roundup.

This has truly received an undue amount of attention, especially in the city of Boston. These same devices were in place in 10 cities for weeks without gathering any attention. In fact, homeland security wasn’t even aware of them in the 10 other cities - think on that a bit… Perhaps I should feel safer living in the one city that took it seriously. Or perhaps I should add it to the same mental scrap book next to The Big Dig, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Mike Dukakis, and the Celtics, who have made it embarassing to admit to the rest of the country that I’m from Massachusetts.

Thinking back to the marketing aspects of this stunt - was it worth the $1 million in damages being sought by Boston Mayor Menino from Turner and their agency, Interference, Inc? Was it worth the legal fees and the costs to build them and execute across 10 major cities? Of course it was. Who but the lonliest of hermits isn’t now aware of the Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim, the Aqua Teen Hunger Force and their irreverent Mooninite’s?

But this campaign HAD to cause some kind of stir to succeed. Otherwise, as in the other 9 cities, it would have been casually dismissed by the masses and picked up by the same niche that already watches the show.

The book of “Bad PR is Good PR” will need a new chapter when this blows over.

NewTeeVee has a nice list of 10 great video mashup sites. Don’t forget to check out the ones in the top paragraph, too.

Each one has different functionality - some are designed to track popularity of videos across multiple sites like youtube and google, while others provide make-your-own-thing-and-share-it tools.

It will make your head spin a little, but if you’re attempting to follow the social/web/viral/video/mashup thing, then consider NeeTeeVee’s list a “to-do” list for ya.

This poor guy was boosting Airborne supplements. I suppose he’s an infection with footwear confusion.

Enjoy iFilm’s Viral Video Best of 2006

Note: The guy from the video below was recently featured at the IAEM(now IAEE) show.

In a recent press release from Zylom.com, the free online games website owned by Real Networks, they claim to have been voted the UK’s “Most Popular Website”. Apparently, 275,000 people voted for their favorite from among 359 websites including juggernauts like Google, IMDB, and iVillage. Also interesting is their reported demographics - over 80% of their visitors are female over 30 yrs old.

I’m not sure how scientific this study is, but one thing is consistent around the globe - casual gaming is already huge and it’s attracting a whole new (and wide) demographic to the internet and to gaming.

Casual gaming provides more than revenue and sponsor opportunities. Games designed to augment your brand allow people to interact with your products, brand, and message in a lasting and affecting manner. They can also be custom designed to communicate product information, capture information, or drive traffic to product sales.

The full press release is below:

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