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by: Nancy Baym
Information Week has an interesting article up about Lost fandom. It talks about Second Life recreations of Lost spaces, ABC’s official sites, and Lostpedia, the wikipedia for Lost fans:
Continue reading "The Lost Librarians of National Defense?" »
by: Matt Rhodes
When people talk about new media, social media or Web 2.0, there is often one thing in common: user generated content (UGC). This is really what the essence growth of Web 2.0 is. Web sites are crammed full of videos, photos, reviews and articles written by users. This reflects a shift not only in the amount of time people are spending online (more), but also a change in the reason for going online.
Continue reading "Social Media Beginners: Lesson 3 - User Generated Content" »
by: Sigurd Rinde
The buzz around Enterprise 2.0 / Office 2.0 is palpable, one conference after the other with $ 50 k stands offering yet-another-wiki-version trying to snag the enterprise CTO/CIO.
Today is the final day you can vote for us on the Webby Awards. So if you haven't done so, here's your chance to give us that little piece of encouragement or appreciation. Go to http://pv.webbyawards.com, look for the category Best Business Blog, and cast your vote.
In honor of Earth Day, Adam Richardson, Director of Product Strategy at Frog Design has shared a presentation he gave to introduce Frog Design during the “Design Green Now” panel discussions.
As Adam mentions, comes across a little light little without his supporting talk, but it does give you an idea of what Frog is doing to save the earth. Thanks for sharing it Adam.
by: David Armano
So here's a presentation I gave recently to a client. I'm thinking through the concepts of "Micro Interactions" and "Direct Engagement".
by: Joel Makower
Some of the most important voting of the year doesn't involve candidates or political parties. It's taking place between shareholders and the companies they own.It has become an annual rite of spring: a bumper crop of shareholder resolutions filed by activist investors aimed at compelling companies to address any of a wide range of social and environmental issues. This year is no different.
by: Ilya Vedrashko
67 Best Practices for On-Screen Communication
Press release (Apr.17, 2008): "NeuroFocus has distilled and compiled its findings into 67 key points, or "best practices", designed to serve as a roadmap for ensuring that visual communications on a screen match what the brain desires to see the most, and what it responds to the best."
Continue reading "Best Neuro Practices for Visual Communications" »
by: Roger Dooley
Why do people do things that will gain them social approval? It turns out that the same parts of the brain are activated for a positive social outcome as for a monetary reward. In other words, the same reward circuitry is turned on both by social and monetary gains. Corporate marketers as well as non-profit fundraisers have always known that most individuals crave social approval, but these new findings show how our brains process these social rewards and how they relate to money.
by: Rick van der Wal via Business and Games Blog
I was really disappointed when I had to miss Nic Mitham’s (of Kzero) presentation at the Clever Zebra vBusiness Expo two days ago (Last day today!). Thankfully Nic was kind enough to post his excellent presentation online. I really love his take on the ‘corporate islands’. Most brands who have entered Second Life have bought their own island, developed a playground and tried to attract visitors to their virtual places.
by: Ilya Vedrashko
All these people in A&F behind Obama - not a product placement.
Which brings up an old question: what's the effect of news photography on a brand?
by: danah boyd
Last Wednesday, I gave a talk in Palo Alto as part of the MacArthur Forum "From MySpace to Hip Hop" alongside the rest of the Digital Youth Research Team. I'm still waiting on the videos and as soon as I have them, I will post them. In the meantime, I thought that I'd share my crib from the talk. For those of you who know my work, much of this will be familiar. Still, it's a pretty good overview of my project. Enjoy!
Original Post: http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2008/04/27/macarthur_forum.html
by: Roger Dooley
In my time as a catalog marketer, I almost always priced products just below the next dollar increment - a cheap item might be $9.97 rather than $10, while a more expensive item may have been $499, or even $499.99, instead of $500. My strategy was based on a couple of assumptions.
by: Nancy Baym
With my colleague Andrew Ledbetter at Ohio University, I’ve been finishing up a paper looking at relational development amongst “friends” on Last.fm. Our paper’s been accepted for presentation at the Association of Internet Researchers’ annual meeting in Copenhagen in October. Here’s the abstract. Forgive the heavy academese:
by: Matt Rhodes
Your devoted customers are your most active advocates. Positive experiences in the past have taught them to have high expectations of you - they expect a great experience and they’re devoted to you because they get what they expect. But just as these customers are you most active advocates, they can also be the easiest to disappoint and can quickly turn into detractors.
Continue reading "What Happens When You Disappoint Your Devoted Customers?" »
by: Lynette Webb
I’m only surprised it’s not lower. :-)
Continue reading "In Quarter of Homes Only One Person Can Control Technology" »
by: Scott Goodson
Today's NY Times Magazine has a wonderful story about Flickr and the potential for very talented people to rise above the networking and nomenclature of the established photo schools. In her article, Virginia Heffernan points to an Icelandic amateur photographer named Rebekka Guoleifsdottir as one good example of the rise of talent over the Flickr photo-sharing site. And in my opinion, Guoleifsdottir is very good indeed. She would certainly catch my eye if her book crossed my desk at StrawberryFrog. It's a good article. Have a read here and have a look at Rebekka's photos if you have the chance.
Continue reading "Forget the Art School. Photo-sharing Sites Have Their Own Ideas about Beauty" »
by: Karl Long
Is the web really moving so fast that the recently, bold, innovative, interactive marketers are now the “traditional” media? Are they obsessed with RIA/Flash based “orgies” for the senses and missing the boat a little on the “new” marketing, the conversational marketing, the blog marketing, the social software etc.
Continue reading "Interactive Marketers, the New Stick in the Muds?" »
by: Rick van der Wal via Business and Games Blog
The Association of Virtual Worlds released a useful 40 page eBook listing all Virtual Worlds available, completely free for download:
by: John Caddell
WorldBlu, the organization headed by a friend of this blog Traci Fenton, has unveiled its second annual list of democratic workplaces.
Workplace democracy is still a rare concept, but a growing number of companies are allowing workers a voice in their company, encouraging dissent, and otherwise involving the entire employee base in shaping and running the organization. WorldBlu evaluates companies on these factors:
Continue reading "WorldBlu 2008 List of Democratic Workplaces Released" »
by: Roger Dooley
I love research findings that run counter to intuition, or are at least unexpected, and the idea that you can get more for your house if you market it with an odd price is certainly unexpected. That’s what University of Florida researchers found, though:
Continue reading "Get More for Your House with an Odd Price" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Spy Museum - Your Mission: Learn the Craft of Espionage Through Top-Secret, Interactive Exhibits.
In an age of Google, YouTube and Sony's PlayStation, museums have to work a lot harder to make subject matter culturally relevant to young people.
Continue reading "Spy Tech: from Interactive Museums to Serious Games" »
by: Alexander Osterwalder
This week I participated in a high-level panel on strategic and operational private banking models in the 21st century in Zurich Switzerland. I talked about business model innovation in private banking (not meaning the innovative financial products that provoked the current financial turmoil, of course).
Continue reading "Video: Business Model Innovation in Private Banking" »
by: Mark Rogers
This definition of social media is hard to beat. It boils to three steps:
by: Scott Goodson
Perhaps they are equally sexy. And that's a marketing challenge if one portfolio of product is a great deal more expensive. How do you feel the luxury and fork over thousands of dollars more for one shirt vs another?
Continue reading "Who's Sexier - Tom Ford or Dov Charney?" »
by: David Jennings
Marc Cohen writes a challenging post on The Myth of Music Discovery. Citing a Digital Music News report of two venture capitalists agreeing that "the next big thing is going to be music discovery", Marc says this ought to be enough evidence that it won't be.
Continue reading "The Myth, Science and Craft of Music Discovery" »
I wonder if some of the latest thinking on measuring engagement with online brands is something akin to recording the eye color of job applicants.
There's no question that we can come up with ways for people to pass time visiting web sites: great, creative content and contests are tried-and-true tools for capturing and keeping someone's attention, whether accomplished via crude hand-puppets on a makeshift stage, or through slick digital transmission.
by: Ilya Vedrashko
A fascinating reading for experience designers comes this week from The New Yorker that has obtained and published time-lapsed security camera footage of a man who, in 1999, spent 41 hours stuck in an elevator, and accompanies it with a detailed feature about the history and specifics of the "vertical transportation" industry. The article also has a few great paragraph of observations on human behavior and how elevators are designed to accommodate for it:
by: Rick van der Wal via Business and Games Blog
I was writing a reply to Dusan Writers (great new design by the way) article on the ‘Sheeps Sweet Spot’ called ‘The Thinner the Client, the sweeter the Pie‘- Overall a good article and as it triggered a line of thoughts I’d been having myself lately It ended up a rather long reply and wanted to keep it documented on my own blog. Maybe to laugh at it at a later point, maybe to get back to in the near future (Why is it some realizations can seem so ‘right’ at some point, and a couple of days later lose all meaning…)
If brands are a promise, then the rules of chance, tactics of politics, and the uncertainty of human behavior all suggest that we should promise as little as possible.
by: Roger Dooley
Consumers must like lots of choices - why else would there be hundreds of shampoo brands and variants on a typical supermarket shelf? Actually, its been known for years that too many choices can reduce consumer purchases. A 2000 study at Columbia University compared consumer behavior when confronted with a selection of either six or 24 gourmet jams in an upscale grocery store. The bigger selection did indeed cause more customers to stop and check it out - 60% vs. 40% for the limited selection.
by: Scott Goodson
The quality of search engines will change and get better and more user friendly.
Here is one that I LOVE. Feels a little like the nav you get on Apple itunes. But it's very cool.
Check it out here.
Original Post: http://scottgoodson.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/04/better-than-goo.html
by: David Armano
"Call them information architects, experience designers or Jack or Jane -- they are the design geeks who love to sweat the details. They care about "micro-interactions" and toil away at the building blocks of what actually results in a "lovemark" in the end. We love to use applications that help us do things like plan vacations, find old friends and share our passions with the world. The ad industry has made a big mistake in the past by thinking technology was for geeks. Technology, in fact, is a love affair."
by: Scott Goodson
How many people out there feel a lot like Michael Arrington below in this article from today's NY Times? Last week, I wrote about the problems facing the advertising and communications industry in simply producing more spam. The tables are going to turn. Simply creating and sending out more spam isn't going to work. The smart brands won't do this. They'll do the opposite. They'll help you edit out the spam and keep only what's important. The good stuff. The relevant stuff. People just can't humanly react to all this eletronic stuff being sent their way.
Continue reading "Email Has Become the Bane of People's Professional Lives" »
by: David Polinchock
On the subway this morning and my car has one side taken over by the Change Is campaign by Delta airlines. Change Is: The only U.S. airline flying to Capetown or Change Is: Flying to Heathrow. I'm sure you've seen the ads. Someone actually pointed out to me that the Greek sign for change is delta, but I guess I never really got that. But the thing is, the changes they listed don't really seem all that big. I mean, is the airlines such a patriotic industry that we would be excited that Delta is the only US.airline flying to South Africa? Didn't do that much for me!
by: David Armano
Are your marketing initiatives insight led or trend driven?
Skype is one of the exceptions. And it didn't have to be this way.
by: Nancy Baym
Swarmteams is a project led by Ken Thompson exploring whether the same sorts of processes that insects and other biological entities use to organize group behavior through short term low range signaling can be applied to human social groups such as fans.
This little video excerpt by Allan Chochinov (of Core77 fame), during his presentation at the PSFK Conference New York 08, talks about his observations he made of his students after he asks them to design the perfect pooper-scooper.
by: Scott Goodson
Last week Google reported an unprecedented profit surge during a recession in the US while everyone else was reporting the opposite. And now this news from my friend Nishad who gave me this tip.
MSNBC Reported today that online ad spend will overtake TV in 2009 in the UK.
Here is the full article:
Continue reading "Internet Will Overtake TV as Biggest Ad Medium in 2009" »
by: Joel Makower
It's time for my (second) annual survey of surveys — the bounty of public opinion polls on green topics that seems to sprout every spring in time for Earth Day. A half-dozen or so years ago, there were perhaps a couple such surveys. Today, there are more than a dozen, ranging from substantive to silly to self-serving.
Continue reading "Earth Day, Green Marketing, and the Polling of America, 2008" »
by: Scott Goodson
Brian Morrissey of Adweek quotes a new survey that says the US lags behind many other countires in Social Media.
Here is his article:
Consumers in the U.S. and Western Europe are more likely to be passive participants, while those in emerging markets often create content
April 18, 2008
-By Brian Morrissey
Continue reading "US Lags in Social Media Creation, per Survey" »
by: Lynette Webb
I love this quote. It apparently was uttered in a focus group by a college student, and I find it really resonates to explain how the mechanics and attitudes via which people stay in touch are altering.
Continue reading "If the News Is That Important It Will Find Me" »
The jury is in on green marketing: it doesn't work.
Although unpleasantly glib, the 2008 BrandJunkie Survey of consumer opinion revealed that nobody really believes the environmentally-friendly branding claims of most companies. This is after such traditionally "green" businesses -- you know, like oil and car companies -- have spent many millions to brand themselves accordingly.
by: Idris Mootee
This is a picture of my living room, I realized I have not been in this room for more than 4 weeks. You can imagine what life is like. When I am at home, I usually spend time in the study and then the kitchen and the bedroom. I have not been in many parts of the house for a long time. I need a tour this week.
Continue reading "Can A Media Buying Giant Reinvent Itself?" »
by: Gary Hayes
Three more of my cross posts from the LAMP Watercooler I write/edit.
Continue reading "SocioNet 101, Body Interface and The Cyber Celeb " »
by: John Winsor
Johnny Lee shows how innovation driven by simplicity can be truly magical. Amazing.
by: John Caddell
An article from the New York Times earlier this week ("Bridging The Gap, The Sequel") starkly illustrated that venture capitalists from Silicon Valley and creative types from Southern California are having difficulty cooperating to create financial and partnership models for new media.
Continue reading "The New Media Onslaught is Making Entrepreneurs out of Creators" »
by: David Armano
Sometimes taking risks means risking both.Original Post: http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2008/04/killing-cows-ju.html
by: Matt Rhodes
The biggest question that I hear from people who are new to the use of social media is what the tools are that they can use and when should they use them. Today’s lesson starts to look at these and in particular will look at four types of tool, which get increasingly more complex: blogs, forums, social networks and online communities.
Continue reading "Social Media Beginners: Lesson 2 - Know Your Blogs from Your Networks" »
by: Dominic Basulto
The May 2008 issue of Portfolio magazine ("the brilliant issue") has a listing of the 73 most brilliant thinkers in business - the rebels, upstarts, game changers and connectors who are changing the way we think about business. There are some familiar names, of course - Steven Spielberg, Rupert Murdoch & Lloyd Blankfein - but also a number of people you may not have heard of, like Anne Wojcicki and Linda Avey of 23andMe. (Actually, come to think of it, you may have heard of Anne Wojcicki - she's the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin!)
[image: Portfolio's "Brilliant Issue"]
Original Post: http://endlessinnovation.typepad.com/endless_innovation/2008/04/the-most-brilli.html
by: Scott Goodson
Anthropologists will tell you that small human behaviors are the key to understanding a society. Where will our society go with all this new technology in the hands of millions and millions and millions of people worldwide? On my way up to the StrawberryFrog's penthouse today on Madison ave, I noticed something that, at least in my mind, gives us a clue.
Continue reading "Human Nature Will Drive the End of Advertising as We Know It" »
by: David Jennings
I wrote last year about Swarmteams cross-platform messaging service, and its application for coordinating networks of fans. Swarmteams is running a pilot project for the music industry this year, supported by NESTA, and going under the name of SwarmTribes®.
I've become a regular reader of Brandweek's peer reviews of ad campaigns.
Talk about a tough crowd. They hate pretty much everything they write about.
by: David Polinchock
I know, I've been quiet lately. Part of it is travel, part of it is work and part of it is probably ADD setting in and just losing interest in blogging. It's been almost 4 years, so it's not surprising that I'm losing some steam.
by: Matt Rhodes
This morning we spent some time with Robert East, Professor of Consumer Behaviour at Kingston University. His research focuses on word of mouth and brand loyalty and we spent the morning talking about how you can measure these things and in particular critiqued the Net Promoter Score as an approach to this.
Continue reading "Measuring Word of Mouth - Some Principles" »
by: Sigurd Rinde
Thanks goes to Tony C for the inspiration:
Business and organisations are social groups with a value creation purpose.
The value creation happens to tangible or virtual objects, from widgets and bikes to concepts and broken arms.
Continue reading "Ideas, Problems, Broken Arms - Social Objects" »
by: Scott Goodson
At the turn of the last century, the advertising industry was dominated and controlled by Wpp, Publicis, IPG and the gold standard - Omnicom. Wpp had developed the subcontinent and owned India. IPG was rising in China. And Omnicom dominated Europe and Brazil. Then came MDC – a Canadian maverick-led firm who bought CPB and a host of independent creative firms. For the most part, the extraordinary success of CPG raised the water in the tub and MDC has done well.
Continue reading "Challenging Omnicom, WPP, IPG & Publicis " »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
Spielberg and the Serious Games Industry: A Perfect Match!
In my prior post Serious Games Expanding The Creative Art Of Story Telling, I addressed the Film2Game initiative, through which Extreme AI is working with film makers and entertainment industry professionals to design and develop film-based games. Their vision is to create a medium that extends the reach of film productions and expand the creative story telling art to a broad array of viewers/players.
Continue reading "Spielberg Takes Serious Games to a New Level of Magic" »
by: Yann Gourvennec
It occurred to me in the past few weeks that there was some kind of missing link in the evolutionary state of the twenty first century corporation towards interactivity.
by: Matt Rhodes
The UK Department of Innovation and Skills (DIUS) has recently released a White Paper on how it could and should invest in innovation (see here). This got me thinking about innovation and what it means.
by: David Jennings
Here's a short story — the fifth in my series of future scenarios from the first draft of my book, which got edited out of the published version — about a casual music listener trying to find some music to go with a home video, and being led through the minefield of finding music that you can use legally on your soundtracks. [I found the picture on the left on Flickr: it's by quasimime, and used under a Creative Commons licence.]
by: Michael Hoexter
For decades, marketers have leveraged product placement to influence consumers. The idea is quite simple: leverage media to showcase a product or service being used as part of everyday life in order to shape consumer brand perception and impact purchase behavior. Put a product in the hands of a celebrity and consumers will interpret this as a de facto endorsement. Such placements have been embedded across all types of media including television, film, video games, books and music videos.
Continue reading "Shifting from Product Placement to Engagement in Green" »
by: danah boyd
Last fall, Hiyam Hijazi-Omari and Rivka Ribak presented a paper called "Playing With Fire: On the domestication of the mobile phone among Palestinian teenage girls in Israel" at AOIR. They studied teen girls who received their mobile phones from their boyfriends and hid them from everyone else.
Continue reading "Palestinian girls, dating, and the mobile phone" »
by: Matt Rhodes
I spoke about sharing some of our thoughts on how to go online as a set of lessons. We’re going to be feeding one or two lessons a week for the next couple of months as part of this, this first is below. We start by looking at how you should be communicating online - what’s good and what’s bad.
Continue reading "Social Media Beginners: Lesson 1 - The conspiracy" »
by: John Caddell
This past winter I had the opportunity to spend a night working at a local homeless shelter. It was an unforgettable night for many reasons, including the memory of huddling around a radio with four other guys after lights out listening to the Giants beat the Packers to go to the Super Bowl. Among everything I experienced, one thing that surprised me was the share of people staying at the shelter that night carrying cell phones. By my reckoning, it was roughly half.
by: Lynette Webb
This paraphrased quote comes from a March Ad Age article and is attributed to Matt Freeman, head of Tribal DDB. It isn’t a new point to make but I liked the simplicity of explaining it this way.
adage.com/abstract.php?article_id=125741
Continue reading "Paid vs Earned Media - on Internet Is Fair Fight" »
by: David Armano
A couple of weeks ago I was on a panel for the Ad Age Digital Marketing conference and slightly frustrated with the tone of the discussions, I said this:
Continue reading "Zappos & Southwest Get Direct Engagement" »
First of all, I like to apologize for the lack of my usual “insanely useful” design articles lately. I have been in the last couple of months really busy resettling back in Singapore. Not only that, work has been really busy as we have kicked off a good year of product development. Lastly as the title of this post alludes to, I have been working on something that I would like to give back to the Design Industry that I love so much.
by: Mark Rogers
Joe Marchese over at MediaPost has a good post on the Watts vs. Keller controversy. He, too, thinks that the truth lies in a middle ground. Influencers are important, but not for viral marketing. Hubs/mavens/folks with high “betweenness centrality” scores are helpful in that case.
Continue reading "Targeting Influencers - Cadbury Case Study" »
by: Lynette Webb
This quote is slightly paraphrased but comes from a great recent article in The Guardian about Wikipedia by Nicholson Baker. www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/10/wikipedia.internet
Continue reading "Wikipedia Is Like a Community Leaf Raking Project" »
by: Michael Hoexter
I realize I overlooked in my last post some technologies that will also play a major role in cutting our GHG emissions. This is an oversight on my part. I am not claiming that these 4 additional technologies will lead to more overall GHG reductions if we fully deploy the 20 listed in the first post (I arrived at a figure of approximately 93.7% reductions over 2000 emissions) but they deepen the choices and reiterate the contention of many in the anti-global warming movement that exploratory research is nice but not necessary to cut emissions substantially. More importantly, technologies already exist or will emerge, so the original list is not meant to be exhaustive or final.
by: Dick Stroud
I get a lot of “would you like to write about this” type e-mails. Some I do, some I don’t.
Continue reading " Weird or What - Viral at Its Best or Worst?" »
by: Idris Mootee
Just as you thought the buzz of avatar is over, a new app now allows your avatar to join Facebook. Alter Ego was created by M iChameleon in conjunction with Coca-Cola’s digital team in London.
Continue reading "Your Avatar Can Now Go Partying in Facebook while You're Asleep" »
by: John Caddell
I was prepared to dislike "The Breakthrough Company." The dust jacket is a garish silver. The author photograph reminded me of Svengali, and the first line of his bio read, "At the age of twenty-six, Keith R. McFarland was named associate dean of one of the nation's leading business schools." And continued, "He and his family live just downhill from the ski lifts at Snowbird, Utah."
This was a cover that screamed at you: THIS IS IMPORTANT, VITAL, DON'T MISS IT. (I mean, how could you not listen to someone who lives just downhill from the ski lifts at Snowbird?)
Continue reading ""The Breakthrough Company"--Wise Advice for the Emerging Entity" »
by: Ilya Vedrashko
Considering how much the banner format has evolved over the past decade, it's surprising how little innovation we see on the publishers' side of the equation. For the most part, publishers treat their ad space as just that: a blank piece of real estate that they rent out. As in real estate, the neighborhood and the location is important, but a lot with extra features could command a higher price. To be fair, many publishers offer targeting capabilities that are much more advanced than in the past, although even with targeting the lowest common denominator is pretty low. And, to continue with the real estate metaphor, most of the lots for rent lack something as basic as a sewage hook-up.
by: Matt Rhodes
Thanks to Social Media Playground for a post this week about the Forrester Research Marketing Forum 2008, and in particular the discussion about engagement being the new key metric for businesses to know and understand (see post here).
You may or may not remember mood rings but they were the coolest fad when I was a kid.
Instead of sparkling gems, the rings (or wristbands) were filled with a substance that reacted to the temperature of your skin. It turns out that there were approximate corollaries between heat and emotion, so the rings evidenced moods.
by: John Caddell
The one nearly universal feeling of companies dealing with the changes that web2.0 has made to marketing is utter bewilderment. I participated in a project to assess corporate blogs last year and I wouldn’t give any company I looked at better than a “C.” In fact, most of them would get incompletes: they had no blogs at all.Continue reading "Is Your Marketing Department Confused about Web2.0? Read This" »
by: Mark Rogers
Duncan Watts is a Yahoo researcher who has done detailed work looking at the best strategy to launch a viral campaign - the kind of campaign which is aimed at getting the consumer to pass the idea along. Watts compares campaigns which targeted viral communications via “influentials” in the social network with campaigns which simply seeded the viral in the maximum number of places in the network. Watts found that the latter was a more effective way of launching a campaign.
Continue reading "Targeting Influencers With Virals "Doesn't Work"" »
by: Alain Thys
I had to catch my breath when I heard the news, yet this blog has actually been nominated in the "Best Business Blog" category at the Webby Awards. As the co-nominees include blogging efforts by the likes of the FT or Business Week, it feels a little bit like the small Belgian film producer getting an Oscar nomination for the best animated short, which makes it all the more incredible.
by: Idris Mootee
Is design being assumed to be an offshoot of visual arts of visual art is an offshoot of design? Or is interactive design an offshoot of theatre arts? There are many common grounds. No questions designers often draw inspirations from visual arts whether it is art book or galleries. There are also examples of artists who look to commercial design and technology for inspirations. Let me think of one example.
Continue reading "Experience Design and Authenticity - Is There a Connection?" »
by: Michael Hoexter
(With this post I’m skipping a little ahead of my series on the Renewable Electron Economy but policy debates are starting to heat up as we head into the election year.)
by: danah boyd
While taking a break from my dissertation to do my taxes, my mind wandered back to my data. I started reflecting on how the new suburbia* parents I met when interviewing teens knew few other adults in their community. They knew other adults in passing - fellow churchgoers, parents of kids' friends, etc. but many didn't really socialize outside the family.
Continue reading "musing about social networks and g/local cultures" »
I’m at the Forrester Marketing Conference in Los Angeles, which kicked off with a spiel about a woman in Cincinnati who pretty much dedicated her life to Ikea.
After regularly driving hundreds of miles to shop at the closest locations, she took it upon herself to campaign for a store closer by. Well, that, and a whole lot more:
by: Idris Mootee
I have been talking with a number of senior executives of large media corporations and I really think it is an exciting business to be in. Take a look at a chart of EBITDA multiples versus EBITA from a Goldman Sachs research report on the media business growth rates tells us something. Look at the differences between video games and Internet versus newspaper. That tells you why media executives are up at night thinking about how to play the NEXT game.
by: Eliane Alhadeff
I've been receiving quite a few inquiries regarding the apparently conflicting figures for the Serious Games market size short term.
Continue reading "Reconciling Serious Games Market Size Different Estimates" »
by: Dick Stroud
Two things caught my eye this morning in the deluge of over-night e-mails.
The value of internet advertising in the UK will overtake that of TV adverts by 2009, says the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).
While there was never such a thing as a free lunch, it seems that some customer-service innovations in business these days come not just as a benefit, but with a sometimes hidden cost.
by: Jon Miller
As part of our ongoing series about sales and marketing alignment, Paul Dunay of the Buzz Marketing for Technology podcast and I recently chatted about why B2B marketers should care about lead scoring and how they can get started qualifying and prioritizing leads.
Continue reading "Sales Is Mars, Marketing Is from Venus - Podcast Vol II - Lead Scoring" »
In the same spirit as Visions of the Future Project, Philips generously shares with us their research findings of what our possible lifestyles could be in the era post 2020. Called Design Probes it is:
…a dedicated ‘far-future’ research initiative to track trends and developments that may ultimately evolve into mainstream issues that have a significant impact on business.
Continue reading "Philips "Design Probes" into Our Future" »
by: Eliane Alhadeff
SOS 21 is a Serious Game which allows us to have a better idea concerning our rights and obligations towards the sustainable development challenge.
Continue reading "SOS 21: Serious Gaming in a Virtual World to Save the Real One" »
by: Dick Stroud
A couple of years ago you would not have expected to have read this type of statement in AdAge.
Boomer Marketing has finally come of age. Yes, the game-changing, paradigm-shifting, neologism-inducing sea change has indeed arrived and is actually living up to the hype. Marketers of all kinds are waking up to the largest, wealthiest, most tantalizing market in history.
by: Joel Makower
Water hasn't yet risen to the level of energy and climate as a pressing issue for most companies, but the conversation seems to be flowing lately. And that conversation includes two concepts likely to enter the green lexicon.One of those, "virtual water," received currency last month when its foremost proponent, Professor John Anthony Allan from King's College London and the School of Oriental and African Studies, was given the 2008 Stockholm Water Prize.
Continue reading "A Deeper Dive into the Business of Water" »
by: Mark Rogers
Research from the European Interactive Advertising Association suggest that the power of the web to lure consumers into trying new brands is greater even than we thought. 49% of UK consumers admitted to switching brands after online research. 76% were driven by search, 72% by personal recommendation.
Original Post: http://www.marketsentinel.com/blog/2008/04/49-of-uk-shoppers-report-switching-brands-after-googling
by: Alain Thys
Now here's a publisher (or should I say publicist) who knows how to market its wares, and I think it should be rewarded with a post. Instead of sending me the usual (advance) review copies that go to bloggers, Holly Cariddi of Planned TV Arts started up a dialogue with me first. She basically asked if I would like to review or give visibility to a book she represented, but left it open how this was to be done.
by: John Caddell
As I mentioned yesterday, I am using EV-DO to connect to the internet here in Vegas for CTIA. It's more economical and reliable than the hotels' and convention center's WiFi hotspots. What I didn't say is that the way I contract for this service is convoluted and actually, on my analysis, loses money for Verizon. Details to follow.
Continue reading "Free, Unsolicited Product Management Advice for Verizon Wireless" »
by: Scott Goodson
Matt Ingwalson, is the founder of the Colorado 50, a new creative awards show that highlights the coolest, best, most interesting and innovative communications work out of the region. The adworld is fragmenting, new sprouts of brilliance are popping up in the huge evergreen underbrush of the advertising forest.
Tell me about your life?
Continue reading "Matt Ingwalson - Goodsone does Lunchtime Chats" »
It is really Biomimicry at its best!
by: Ilya Vedrashko
The inconvenient truth brought to you by the Interbrand's Brandjunkie survey: "When asked about which brands were really serious about sustainable development, brandjunkies offered a resounding, and—perhaps you may want to sit down for this—surprising consensus. Who is really going green? Answer: NOBODY."
On the other hand, 74% of the 2000 respondents come from marketing, so it's not horribly representative.
Original Post: http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2008/03/survey-nobodys-green-enough.html
by: Dick Stroud
My favourite Web usability guru, Jakob Nielsen, has published a fascinating article about the impact of ageing on the way people use the Web. Do make sure you read the full article.
Continue reading " Middle-aged Users' Declining Web Performance" »
by: David Jennings
We're getting used to the idea that fans create some of the most authoritative accounts of the objects of their fascination. I've cited Andy Aldridge's work as one example of this, and the They Might Be Giants wiki as another. Recently it was reported that fans are more likely to refer to Wikipedia than MySpace as first port of call to find out about a band or artist.
by: John Caddell
On vacation, you're supposed to catch up on your reading. But when you're chasing five- and seven-year-old boys around all day--beach, fishing, mini-golfing, etc.--till they finally crash at 9pm, you get even further behind. Which is why it took me this long to get around to reading the recent New Yorker profile on wacky restaurateur David Chang (sorry, only abstract available on line).
Continue reading "Chef David Chang--in a Weird Way, a Leadership Role Model" »
by: Dick Stroud
This is the announcement from the press release.
Yahoo has launched a site for women between ages 25 and 54, calling it a key demographic underserved by current Yahoo properties. The site is called Shine.
Yahoo said advertisers in consumer-packaged goods, retail and pharmaceuticals have requested more ways to reach those consumers.
I am amazed that a company that should know better is still using age based segmentation rather than lifestyle. Maybe this helps explains Yahoo’s precarious position?
Original Post: www.20plus30.com/blog/2008/04/yahoo-launching-site-for-women-well.html
