Following up on Mike’s previous post about Google Buzz, I totally get the furor about it. The service definitely needs work, and Google has definitely made a whole lot of big mistakes.
But hey, it’s new. That’s the downside of a service being released by such a huge, publicly visible company. Twitter and Facebook were NOT famous when they were released. They weren’t globally famous for years after they were founded. They had plenty of time to make changes, fixes, and tweaks based on quiet user feedback. Google Buzz had the disadvantage of going very public, very quickly. It wasn’t finished. And it got slammed. Now I wonder whether Google will have enough time to fix it and realize its potential before it gets laughed out of existence.
I think it would be nice if Buzz went back to beta. Google definitely needs more time to tweak it, and they need a setting to get real constructive criticism instead of media snarking. I still think the service has a lot of potential. I like Pete Cashmore’s take on it. If you insist on using an analogy to define Buzz, try this one. Think of Facebook as the local bar, where you go to hang out with your friends, play some games, and just shoot the breeze. Think of Twitter as the village square where you get all the news and have public conversations. It’s a public forum. Then you have Buzz, which SHOULD eventually become a place to focus detailed conversations on IDEAS. Not news, not people, not “what are you doing” or those awesome photos you took on your trip to Cabo this spring, man. It’s a platform to talk about content and have major brainstorming sessions about concepts and projects.
If Facebook is the local bar and Twitter is the town square, Google Buzz (I hope) will be the local college campus.
I’ve said before that I like Google Wave as a productivity tool–an easy way to keep work projects neat, tidy, and collaborative at the office. I don’t find much utility for connecting with friends about random things. It’s a business thing, and I like it that way. I think Buzz will end up being sort of similar in market, although I hope more concept-oriented and less business-y.
To be completely honest, this should probably be Part 1.5. This isn’t actually a blog (it’s a shopping site, I think) and I don’t actually know what they’re saying because it’s all in Dutch. I don’t speak Dutch. However, I think the animation on this site is absolutely gorgeous. Click on the site and just wait and watch. The animation will start in a second. Really fantastic, I promise. Go ahead, I’ll wait.
Oh my God, did you click? Did you watch? It’s amazing, RIGHT? I have no idea exactly what the little pop-up at the end is advertising, but I just LOVE this concept. It’s like an online Rube Goldberg project. It’s fun, engaging, and visually beautiful. It doesn’t hurt that it shows off the technical expertise of the site builders, as well as the fun aesthetic of the people who own it. I think business would be a LOT more fun if everybody incorporated this kind of sense of humor and attention to detail.
On an only-vaguely-related note, anybody who speaks Dutch want to tell me what the site is ABOUT?
DISCLAIMER: I do NOT want to get involved in a political debate and I am making NO statement about any of these candidates. I just want to know what people think of this ad by Carly Fiorina for Senate. Is this the most bizarre campaign ad you’ve ever seen or did I eat some bad shellfish?
CBS is beginning to head down an interesting path in its ad placement for the SuperBowl. They have turned down two “gay-themed” ads so far: one is from male-male oriented dating site ManCrunch.com and the other is from web-hosting service GoDaddy.com. The ManCrunch ad shows two men watching a football game (presumably the SuperBowl) and munching chips. Their hands touch as they both reach for a crisp, and suddenly they can’t hold back any longer–they smooch! The GoDaddy ad is more surprising…it does feature a flamboyant ex-football star, but it also features women in lingerie. Doesn’t that usually get any and all content a free pass? (It does for American Apparel)
In any case, both ads were rejected on the grounds that they don’t meet CBS’s content standards for the SuperBowl and they might offend people. For ManCrunch, the broadcasting company went one further and claimed that they couldn’t verify the firm’s credit (the rejection letter is up on Scribd as well as being reproduced on the Mashable article). However, it DOES look like they’re going to air the Tim Tebow pro-life ad, which is guaranteed to offend at least some people…which people is it okay to offend, and which have to be kept happy? CBS is sending a pretty clear message about what audience bracket they value, which is fine–First Amendment and all that. But still, what about all the gay-friendly sports fans? Seems like a bit of a business mistake to alienate such a vocal consumer group…
Alright, I’ve had my winter vacation, I’ve seen the movie, and I’ve finished the game. I liked the movie a whole bunch. A WHOLE BUNCH. Lots of fun, witty banter, and all the things one would hope for in a collaboration between Robert Downey Jr. and, well, anybody. Mark Strong was also enjoyably lugubrious and Rachel McAdams was cute.
The ending of the game? Not so much. The answer to the last code was guessable from the trailers and the reward was a video response from Inspector Lestrade hinting that Scotland Yard would be calling on Holmes and Watson in the future for help with the mysterious Prof. Moriarty. Rumor has it that Brad Pitt might be taking on the chalk-dusted jacket, but I would rather see Colin Farrell.
So, to sum up: fun game, great movie, slightly lame ending. All with impeccable production values.
The next film in the Twilight series came out at midnight. And it’s already grossing off the charts.
The thing that eludes me is that there’s been little to no branding for the film (that I’ve seen) and it’s still the most popular thing EVARRRRR (according to my 16-year-old sister). At this point I can only chalk it up to the unholy power of teenage girls. Someone please enlighten me.
All I know is that I will be avoiding the movie theater like The Plague, and hiding under my bed, with a stake in one hand and a big plate of garlic bread in the other.
The NBA has followed in the footsteps of the NFL and the SEC and banned athletes from using social media during events. From 45 minutes before the event until they’ve finished their team responsibilities, team-related personnel are not allowed to use ANY KIND OF SOCIAL MEDIA.
I’ve been harping on what a bad idea this is for AGES, so I won’t rant about it again today…all I have to say is:
I came across this post on Slashdot and it just really pissed me off. Reverb Communications’ idea of good social media practice is to hire a team of interns to spam the iTunes store with fake positive reviews of its clients’ apps. Be prepared, because I’m going to rant a little…
THIS is EXACTLY why people get suspicious of marketers using social media! Consumers are afraid of companies co-opting what was meant to be an authentic, altruistic community for mercenary ends. By contrast, they don’t mind if companies (like Threadless and Zappos) use social space to have real conversations and provide real, useful content…so why is it so hard for companies to understand that, to make the best of the social space, you need to participate in good faith?
/rant.
Seriously, when you (the reader) find out a company employs tactics like that, does it make you reluctant to purchase from them, or is it just me?
Mommy bloggers are becoming a force to be reckoned with and in Chicago at this year’s BlogHerconference, they were treated with shopping sprees, lavish meals and the much coveted swag from brands like Tide, Bounce, Kodak, Pepsi and more. I suppose for this particular segment, it’s akin to hitting the motherload. Read the rest of this entry »
Nike has innovated again! This time with Lance Armstrong and the Tour De France. The two entities have teamed up with the development of Chalkbot - a robot messaging system of sorts. This robot lets users send 4o character long messages, texts, emails or tweets to a server and then relayed to the Chalkbot. Then throughout the course of the Tour, the messages are PAINTED (yes painted) on the streets that the cyclists travel on!
According to our friends at vanskengroups blog “culturebuzz” The Chalkbot was developed by Deeplocal and StandardRobot for the Nike Livestrong campaign, created together with Lance Armstrong in support of the brand’s cancer foundation.
It allows fans to disseminate their messages of hope and encouragement, as well as joining the fight against cancer.
Simon Prestidge UK Marketing Director at Nike was quoted as saying: “We don’t do advertising any more. […] We need to become part of people’s lives and digital allows us to do that.” We’re sure you get it, the cause is laudable and the concept is truly innovative.
So visit wearyellow.com and/or text LIVESTRONG followed by your message to 36453 to participate in this very innovative campaign.
Kit Kat Japan had a major dilemma: How do they stand out from the clutter on a crowded snack aisle at convenience stores. They didn’t want to buy their way to the top for many reasons - number one being cost - so what to do?
They went to the drawing board and saw an opening that was ripe for the taking and swooped in and did something extremely innovative, creative and “completely out of the box.” (I hate using that term but it works well in this setting.)
When Japan Post was privatized, kit kat went to them with a proposal with the idea of kit kat mail. This newly packaged candy let users write notes to the attended recipients and then literally drop them in the mail to be sent on the fly. To mass market this product kit kat took it to the next level. They proposed selling the items right at the register of the post office to maximize exposure. And in some cases, changed dingy post office locales into kit kat shop in shops. But the kicker of the campaign had to do with timing. They slated the launch to coincide with university admission examinations to maximize reach and exposure in an already well traffic local where users primary goal was to send something already. The assumption being that if they made a superior product; tweaked the packaging so that the box facilitated an ease of use to ship and receive seamlessly; and made it accessible to everyone at a location where it would be relevant - this would equate to a successful new product launch.
O how right they were. The campaign won the Media Grand Prix this year at Cannes; Kit Kat has grounded itself as Japan Post’s candy of choice at the retail post level; and the social component of the campaign still continues today.
A few months back I decided to enter the Stride contest to rename their Nonstop Mint gum. The contest lasted a few months and just recently ended. With a grand prize of $10,000 and a year’s supply of gum, I took this contest as a serious assignment, spending hours thinking about and submitting potential names. I was extremely disappointed when I received two e-blasts this past weekend informing me the contest had ended without a finalist being selected due to a “technical glitch”. Do they know how much time I put into this, as well as all the other excited participants? I was irritated, so the first thing I thought about doing was blogging about it in hopes other companies will never make this mistake and risk turning loyal customers into an angry mob that can quickly crush a company’s image in a matter of minutes using today’s technology.
If you discover a technical glitch and users are submitting many of the same names, why wait until the end of the contest to announce this? Now, the Stride Marketing Team has to clean up this sticky situation. They have informed participants that a “drawing will be held in which five randomly selected individuals will each get $25,000 and the winners will be announced shortly.“ Why hasn’t this date been decided? When will this be announced? Participants who “submitted the same names as the finalists will be receiving custom packs of Nonstop Mint featuring one of the ten final names that most resembles theirs in about six-to-eight weeks.” I also received a link to print a coupon for one free single pack of Stride. I was a little peeved that all participants would be entered into the drawing as opposed to the ones who submitted many names or finalist names, but felt better after printing my coupon.
Although the contest may not have been thoroughly thought out and tested, the Stride Marketing Team utilized the right tactics to ease consumer backlash. The team acted quickly by notifying and apologizing to participants through email and making the news public on their website; providing an instantly redeemable coupon for a free pack of Stride gum; sending custom packs of the minty gum to finalists; and holding a drawing for more winners and money than the original prize. Lesson learned- always hope for the best, but prepare for the worst.
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