The phrase "the more things change, the more they stay the same" has been on my mind lately. Computers have become such a part of our lives that we can’t imagine life without them. Just a few years ago it wasn’t uncommon to hear that Blackberrys called "Crack-berrys," referring to the addictive nature of having email readily accessible. Today we even have a thing called "Computer Addiction" that people can get treatment for.  The children coming of age in this era they are the most informational connected generation we have seen.  Considering the architecture changes, the changing expectations, and rate of adoption the future definitely has a more interactive and mobile look to it from a computing perspective.

I recently read where mobile devices have outsold traditional computers for the first time in the 4^th quarter of 2010. Apple has been reporting sales growth while companies like Microsoft, Intel, and other companies are reporting lower than expected returns for the same period. With certain product releases coming in 2011 the anticipation is the sales trend will only continue to grow the gap.  As we see the sales trends change and more companies trying to capitalize we look to anticipate its direction and build products viable for today’s market and tomorrows.

To anticipate the direction we can start by focusing on a brief history of the mobile devices. Consider that Microsoft was an early player in this market. Compaq iPaq’s, HP Jornada’s, and others were touted as Pocket PC’s. Toshiba had one of the first tablet PC’s I remember. It even had a built in camera but the unit was very heavy. Microsoft envisioned "smart devices" and for a while had produced marketing as such. I remember they envisioned the device could be replaced and your configuration auto-magically restored. They had great vision and they dominated the early market. But while they were an early endorser and participant in the mobile field a couple of miss-steps and lack of innovation later they were behind.

It’s arguable that widespread adoption started to change with the acceptance of the Blackberry. Users were getting email connecting in ways they really hadn’t before. It wasn’t long before next up were the expectation to be able to review attachments to email. Having the internet on a mobile device wasn’t far behind that and the expectations began to speed up.  Why? because the adoption rate improved. Users saw immediate value in the functionality of these devices. But devices had different purposes. Blackberry’s did email while pocket pc’s handled calendars and other basic functionality.  I remember at one point having so many devices I felt like a techno-nerd version of Batman. While this was going on Apple envisioned the iPhone. Apple developed the iPhone in quiet and when they released it changed the market.  The change was significant enough that the carrier they worked with to support the device was overwhelmed for a time with new customers. It seemed like overnight they met and exceeded user expectations, and made a giant leap forward. Others began to follow the trend.  

User interface expectations are certainly being affected by changing expectations. How long did companies toy with keyboards until the iPhone changed the game with the popularity of its touch interface? A touch interface for a mobile phone had not been accepted until then.  Apple tried to compensate for users comfort by adding "clicking" sounds to the iPhone. But the hardware wasn’t the only innovative aspect. They innovated software are delivery as well.

The layout of the Apps wasn’t entirely new. Icon short cuts on a desktop have been around in the Mac and Windows worlds for years but the operation or implementation around the apps was. Users were able to use the devices to quickly check what they deemed the most important things.   Another expectation is the speed that these devices are expected to operate at. Long load times are not acceptable.  In addition to load times connectivity has become a key factor as well, a key contributor to the onslaught of the battling ‘G’ advertisements and related devices.  

Delivery handled through iTunes and working directly with the Apple company remains the only way to deploy applications. With the combination of hardware, software and deployment the entire platform was innovative and users liked it.

With a great rate of adoption and renewed interest in the market other players have been working to be more competitive in this market. For example, the Droid and Microsoft’s Metro concepts are two emerging or re-emerging market competitors.  With all the various players history in some ways begins to repeat itself. As they have gained more market share and their sales increased as well technical complexities re-emerge.

We still have a familiar challenge though, remember the old Mac vs PC days? Well we are there with mobile. We see different operating systems, different carriers, lack of interoperability and different devices. Consider that Adobe’s flash won’t run on iPhones. These types of complexity have a strong feeling of déjà vu for some of us. Only now we have added the extra complexity of Different networks carry different devices and different operating systems.

The innovations in both the hardware and software will continue in the space Apple has defined for a while. We are also seeing a repeat of some of the same hardware and operating system issues that have plagued IT for years.  What is different is that the adoption rate is continuing to grow. Watching over the last several months I see more executives and other carrying tablet PCs to meetings instead of the traditional notepad.  

Innovative development on the mobile platform will remain costly in some respects. Developing for multiple operating systems and different devices presents many challenges. What’s different today is that there is more of a drive than in years past to build these solutions. There are and will be tools that enable development for devices as well as across multiple platforms. However, those tools will have limitations and it will be a challenge to truly innovate through them. While working in the native system means developing different code for the same app to work on the different systems. Architecting a solution in mobile has to take into account the various considerations. Companies have to decide if they want the expense of creating an innovative app for the mobile platform or just have an app for the platform. This has a significant cost difference especially if the app has to be deployed to multiple devices.  

As customers decide their goals and directions in the mobile space it will be important for architects to use the tools available to them. The use of design patterns and object oriented techniques will be of paramount importance going forward for the software side of solution.  Creating a scalable solution for the growing functionality needs of mobile users will be critical. Considering that the hardware of the PC has evolved at a much slower pace scalability will have additional challenges in the mobile platform.

Creating a scalable solution is more challenging with the frequent release of devices and the secrecy surrounding them. Many of the tools on a mobile device have been tools available on a traditional PC. Going forward the hardware is starting to move into truly new areas.  For example, talk of the iPhone 5 and the capability of it having Near Field Communication capabilities have been going on for months. Talk has already started about functionality of the iPhone 6. Architects will be able to help customers prepare for not only the next deployment but the one after that.

The mobile environment is a market that companies cannot continue to avoid as it has passed the tipping point of adoption. But those same companies have to realize where mobile is in it maturity. Companies will not be able to build an app, deploy it, and then forget it. These apps are living in an every changing world and will need maintenance to continue operating effectively.  The architectures supporting the apps and contained within the apps must be able to scale to meet these needs.

The mobile environment is changing frequently and stepping forward in leaps we haven’t seen in a while. Developing solutions for customers means considering all the factors and leading them to understand the environment. Bobby Knight is probably as polarizing a figure in college basketball as there is. For all the negative about him later in his career, he is regarded as a great teacher of the game. It’s one of those lessons that really apply here. He said, I am paraphrasing, "we have to focus, by focusing it allows us to notice trends, recognizing trends allows us to anticipate, and that leads to action."

 

Designing systems, interfaces, back end engines, databases and other system related items takes a blend of creative and technical acumen. IT professionals love to solve problems with their blended skill sets. When an algorithm is developed we sometimes even share those ideas and algorithms so it can help other systems. One case in point is my colleague Jon Taylor’s recent blog about the Observer pattern and .net event models. (Check it out of you haven’t yet-great information.) Design patterns in themselves are previous solutions that give us a solid base to develop a new algorithm from. But how many times and in how many ways have we overdesigned something?

I remember a bad decision I made at the beginning of my career in overdesign. A customer wanted a backward compatible query building wizard for their staff to use that had little technical knowledge or database understanding. However, the trick was the ‘management’ staff consistently wanted to ‘adjust’ database table and field names. The data in them wouldn’t change but the name needed to change. They were adamant about this. In coming up with a design we looked at using SQL Server ID numbers to store. This way we could recreate the same query with new names and we wouldn’t have backward compatibility issues. When built it worked great everyone had what they needed. Until a new version of SQL Server came out that instead of updating table names dropped them and re-created them. Slap the forehead time. I didn’t consider the impact or fragility change would have on the system. I focused on one direction to much.

Instead of looking to a simpler solution I went to a more complex one, or better said as an overdesigned one. I have never forgotten that lesson and I find all kinds of ways to apply it. Over the years this has turned into a philosophy and phrase ‘evolution not revolution’. Revolution is not limited to overdesigning the back end system it could be overdesigning any part of the system. In this context the concept of revolution for change is a bad one. Some of the aspects of revolution I am referring to are the destructive nature, the amount of change that has be absorbed, what can’t be changed back and the time to adjust to the changes. When your users are feeling the impact of a system revolution is this a good thing? What causes them to feel that?

 We aren’t talking about users feelings at the deployment of a system. We are talking about the users feelings over time. One example, I heard company say they couldn’t adjust the size of a banner frame for their customer because they had built it custom. It would take to many hours to change. That small issue was the start for the customer losing faith in the product and the team that created it. Eventually that team lost the business. Why? They created a revolutionary new banner frame that was great. But when the customer needed change they couldn’t accommodate efficiently and cost effectively.

When architecting we have to be able to break down a system to its critical components and work forward. We have to keep in mind that the parts of our systems need to evolve and grow. To best serve our customers we have to be diligent in evaluating if our design is evolutionary or revolutionary. Thinking of the quote ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ what are some simple ways to prevent overdesign. Collaborate; working alone in a vacuum is not always a great way to a solution. One of the reasons collaboration is such a great tool for teams is someone is always looking for a simpler way. If you aren’t working with a team or before you review with the team, ask yourself am I designing to the requirements or am I trying to add value. Sometimes in trying to add value we get so excited about what the system could do we forget that the customer may have never wanted that.

Prevention begins early in the process. Understanding the workflows and business processes associated with a system is critical. Architects, testers, developers, and customers all need to be on the same page. In gathering requirements we have to dig to the deeper process to design a quality system. With an understanding of the business processes, the entire development process begins from requirements on down reflect the beginning is a base.

Realize that for many systems that have heavy interaction, users need time with the system. This is important because I am frequently surprised with the direction a customer will drive a solution over time. It is so important to consider this during design as well as critical to take the time to design. It surprises me that even today how many developers and team almost go straight to code.  Take the time to focus on the base and look for evolution. For architects and developers design patterns are great if it fits and gives your customer what they need. Consider that the only constant is change. Do you really need that whiz bang new pattern or will something simpler work better?  

Create a system that can evolve with the customers’ needs over time not revolutionize today forgetting about tomorrow.

A common refrain in IT is to "begin with the end in mind." It is one of those refrains that has been repeated so many times that it quickly becomes ignored. For systems that collect data, "the end" may be very complicated. Some data collected can be presented in reports and that is sufficient. Reporting is such an easily understood term and used so frequently it often hides complexity. It’s in that complexity that frustration for system engineers and customers alike begins.  Because of that, complexity reporting is often not a cost effective means for exploring data. Complex reports can take a significant amount of time, (translate that to cost), in order to complete.  When users are looking at the data to see what trends or interesting anomalies appear, reports just aren’t efficient. We begin by recognizing that "the end" can be as complex a system as the front end collection system.

Architecting an analysis system can comprise many parts ans some of the most overlooked and underutilized are OLAP tools (Online Analytical Processing). As such, optimizing those tools and working with users to capture the areas the tool needs to work with are important.  It’s that OLAP part of an analysis system that we begin to explore in a bit more detail.

So to begin working with OLAP, two terms will immediately need to be understood--dimension and measure. Working off of a graph diagram is the best explanation to start with. Looking at Figure 1, notice the X–axis of the graph. In OLAP, that axis will be called a "dimension". The calculation that occurs at each notch in the access is called a "measure".  That in mind, figure 1 shows location as the dimension and debt amount as the measure.

 

Figure 1.

Using the same basic graph model, imagine that we add a new dimension debt type. So now the intersection that points between the dimensions debt type and location show our debt amount measure. The great thing about OLAP tools is that depending on the particular tool, they can look at many measures at the same time, can flatten a dimension out, and look at all of one and a particular point or notch on another dimension. So, why are they called cubes?

 Figure 2 shows the addition of the Calendar dimension, essentially time limited to the granularity level of day. With that dimension our graphical representation now resembles a cube, hence the name. While graphically we can only represent 3 dimensions clearly and easily, an OLAP system can represent hundreds of dimensions.

  

Figure 2.

OLAP tools provide different types of interfaces that allow users to simply drag, drop and click to explore data. Some tools like SAS Enterprise Guide can even graph dynamically while the user is exploring. Robust tools like this provide a good user experience and enhances the analysis system. Many systems like SQL Analysis Services connects directly to SQL Reporting services, allowing for reports to be built quickly and easily in addition to the normal canned reports. So, what does an architect need to consider with a basic understanding of what OLAP does for users?

An OLAP system basically represents hundreds or thousands, depending on the number of dimensions and measures, of queries working against the data simultaneously.  In processing, systems like SQL Analysis server offer different processing options to do as many pre-calculations as possible. These processing options are HOLAP, MOLAP, and ROLAP, but let’s not get into the weeds. What we need to know is that the system is going to perform some level of pre-processing and store that pre-processing. To do that pre-processing, and for that matter, processing, there are data structure designs that work more efficiently with OLAP. Some will refer to these models as Star and Snowflake patterns. What architects need to look at is that the data model for the collection may be differently optimized. Don’t get into discussions of normalization here, as it doesn’t apply. Both the data models can be normalized but still not be optimized for their working intent. Normalization does equal optimization for all cases.

Looking at figure 3, the data model shows a table labeled with the prefix "fact." The fact table in an OLAP model is where the values to calculate measures are usually stored. Keep in mind that a measure is an individual calculation and the facts are the values that enable those calculations. To help the OLAP system work, a group of foreign keys relate out to the tables with the prefix "dim." The dim tables may be single tables as represented with the debt type. Or they may be hierarchal as represented with the Calendar dimension.

Figure 3.

What creating a database model like this allows for is the OLAP engine to process quicker. Creating this model may result in ETL routines being created, which is a benefit, as dimension data can be transformed from being collected one way to another in the OLAP data model. This provides even more flexibility towards what we can represent, as well as interjecting new considerations. How often do we move the data? Do we copy the data or do we move it? An analysis system has to consider all of these options.

OLAP can also be a data source for the front end interface and provide new dashboards and functionality to the collection interface as well. Visual Studio.net for example, has quite a few capabilities in this area that will be in another blog coming soon. Getting back, this allows analysis systems the capability of being an integrated system in new ways with the collection system.

If you see the value of OLAP, look at it as another tool for the analysis system. Yes, it can be a replacement for some reports. However, a solution will still include canned reports, as we are always going to need those.  A full analysis system is going to have more components to it and be fully thought out. With this end in mind, if you were to design the exploration, reporting, queries, and analysis you want a system to provide, how different would the collection system be?

Many systems are designed from the point of view of the collection system. After all, that’s what most users will see and work with. So we focus there. Only later to realize we want to analyze data and we have the wrong level of granularity or we are missing a variable. Many know that the cost and time increase significantly when changing a constructed system versus at design time. Have you considered what the cost is of building the systems in the wrong order? Is the tail wagging the dog?

Many application development companies regadless of web development or windows development want or need to implement search functionality. However, it is a commonly underestimated function and it continues to evolve over time. Interestingly users want search to have minimal to no interaction while having a maximum result. With data and collection systems becoming more and more complex this becomes and increasingly difficult challenge. I remember a system I was architecting for a customer where the customer wanted to enter a DNA result that consisted of an 800 to 1600 character string into a web application and have it search a database using an algorithm providing scored search results. The customer was convinced that a basic desktop machine would act as a server and be able to conduct the search against a large database efficiently. The production architecture needed to support the customers’ performance requirements was a High Performance Computing hardware environment.  Like many customers they didn’t understand the complexity of certain functions. Thinking through this topic recently had me researching how functions in systems and their architectures evolved.

Architecting a system today has many facets, and search certainly is a prominent one. Searching for information is not a new concept but a heavily evolving one. Once computers evolved beyond just basic mathematics and started capturing, storing and manipulating other data the need for search began. Early systems collected data that was somewhat structured in files and databases. Search functions found data quickly within those structures. With the development of relational databases and more complex data capture search the tools for search had to grow. Also the acceptance and use of computers was growing and more and more.
Architecting search within a system has consistently had to recognize simultaneous evolutions. Database tools added the ability to index tables to help search perform better. Search appliances like Wizards emerged for more technically savvy users to pull data from a data source. Multiple levels of searching complexity were emerging. While these searches largely dealt with structured data stored in systems, at the same time this evolution was occurring what cannot be ignored is the emergence of the internet and its impact on search. 

Early on companies like Yahoo profited on the simple concept of locating content. While this wasn’t structure data as in databases internet standards of things like meta-tag’s and other items made it possible for users to find content early on. Searching on the internet allowed users to enter terms and content related to those terms would be returned. Later companies like Google would improve the algorithms and set that industries standard for a time. E-commerce companies were also integrating user shopper experiences with search as a means of driving revenue. So while a user shopped for shoes, related items and previous shopping items would appear in the links and advertising throughout the system. While the motives were different the capture of information and providing relevant data back is essentially an implied search. The evolution of the internet and its potential was impacting local systems.

Users’ expectations were changing as the interaction was to enter in a few terms and that brought back content they wanted to see. At the same time computers continued advancing in hardware and use. Pictures, Videos, art, music files evolved to become more common to be stored on systems. In fact digital has become so big that companies like Kodak have stopped producing film based cameras. Users have embraced and ran with the lower cost and portability of digital media. This new media has presented a new challenge and forced search to evolve in multiple ways again.

Architects and systems were faced with growing use for search.  Users were searching as an exploratory exercise as more complex data and more types of data were being captured. Allowing for the advancement of tools like Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) and reporting tools. Users weren’t looking for specific data as much as looking to see what trends might appear in the data. These tools while technically complex have easy to use interfaces that allow users to review and analyze data. The complexity lies in the architecture and backend. The emergence and development of these tools was a move from appliance parts of a system to search to a full blown system of its own.

Users now expect applications to be able to search both structured and unstructured data. They want to give as little information as possible and quickly find very relevant search results. Algorithms and techniques for searching continue to advance because they must--including incorporating e-commerce like changes in the system and having subtle changes help the customer get to the results they want more quickly. One of the many reasons unstructured data evolved was not only digital media but mobile devices.

This latest evolution has occurred simultaneously with the acceptance of mobile devices. Now users have a high level of portability and connectivity to data. These mobile tools work quickly using touch screen technology and other key changes that impact the user experience for working with data. This has resulted in a need for better performance and system architectures that incorporate different devices, connectivity, and desired results.

Today’s cutting edge searches involve grabbing information from a part of a picture and searching for related information. Searches that work from audio files or live audio and provide related information quickly on portable devices is another technology that has been developed. Users want more with less required of them, resulting in more complex algorithms and models for searching.

Successfully architecting a system means taking a lot of factors into consideration. A successful solution can't overlook what the implementation's search functionality has within an enterprise system. Architecting search as a part of a system today means taking many factors into account. Understanding the user’s expectations and desired results has become critical to the successful use of a system. What devices are targeted for use, what is the complexity of the data, what type of data, and other questions like these are all key to get answered to develop a successful search system. Working with customers to identify the business rules that lead to implicit and explicit searches is important as systems more and more are expected to show relevant data.

Has something like this ever happened to you?

"Imagine waking up and hearing an ad on TV for a $.99 Chicken Strip Meal, then checking your iPhone on the way to grab some coffee and seeing an e-mail for a $.99 Chicken Strip Meal. Then, when you fire up Pandora for your workout, you hear ads for a $.99 Chicken Strip Meal, while on your Yahoo! mail, you are served a banner ad for a $.99 Chicken Strip Meal, and then on the subway, signage for a $.99 Chicken Strip Meal, and on the billboard outside your office, and in online video ads, and then, as you check-in into the Shake Shack – Bam! You get a Foursquare Deal Near-By with - you guessed it - a $.99 Chicken Strip Meal."

For years this integrated marketing approach of delivering the same message across multiple platforms was considered a best practice, however in the "always on" device-driven world we live in today, consumers tend to respond better to advertising that is tailored to the platform and recipient - in essence, delivering a unified experience versus a consistent message.

To learn more about my thoughts on unified marketing, visit my recent post on MediaBizBloggers.
 

The National Association of Television Program Executives Annual Event

I've been going to the NATPE TV supermarket for years.

I remember a time when millions of dollars were spent on the booths, and lavish parties were thrown for the execs and the affiliates.

I also saw it lose ground to CES during the financial meltdown, and now I've seen the start of a comeback for NATPE as an event and a marketplace.

I'm told there were a thousand more attendees at NATPE this year over last.

67 countries were represented here and every major content provider globally seemed to be in attendance.

This year, they had online show guides to help navigate the sessions and the floor, a hash tag and TwitterFall, a Facebook presence, and lots of social media interactions...they just needed better access to the NATPE Wi-Fi on site.

The theme this year was "Content First!”

Some things I heard and learned on content distribution, international programming, video strategies, brand integration and connected TVs:

Netflix, HULU, and other new(ish) content rich platforms need to be viewed as alternative distribution methods, not competitors. Beth Roberts of NBCU says broadcasters need to rethink their approach to windowing feature content to avoid being overwhelmed by all the new platforms.

But traditional media still sees platforms like Netflix as foes, where content producers see it as its friend. The truth is it's not going away, so everyone needs to play nice in the sandbox.

The mood overall was upbeat, as the advertising climate heats up again.

The international business was red hot according to my sources, and of course Latin American programming played a significant role here, with a large turnout from Univision, Telemundo and Televisa (not surprising in Miami)!

There was talk about the mainstay of Hispanic programming in the US Latino market- The Telenovela - being the best at serving the female demographic to the detriment of the male viewer. In other words, give the guys something more to watch as well!

Yahoo!, having lost the UGC battle To YouTube, is changing its video strategy to one of original video content.

Brand integration in programming was a big topic for the advertisers here. There was even a company on the floor pitching a software solution that inserts banners into video called SeamBI for seamless branding integration.

The talk about multi-screen TV consumption was still on a roll here, so that's good news for interactive TVs (but I'm still not convinced. Get Glue and Twitter while watching a show already distracts me).

And one last thought. It was an honor to see two old friends, Dick Ebersol and Mary Hart join Regis Philbin and Gerhard Zeiler, all Icons of television, receive the Brandon Tartikoff Legacy Award from NAPTE.  It truly was an inspiring event.

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Brand Relationship Development  – The Good, The Bad, and The Good Again     

Lately we’ve seen a plethora of logo changes from major national brands. Tropicana, GAP, PUR, Starbucks, Seattle’s Best, Caribou Coffee, Holiday Inn, and the YMCA have all created new logos. Unfortunately these new logos are not always welcomed. Tropicana and GAP’s new logos were so poorly received that the companies have already reverted back to the old designs. So why all the changes?





Think about Apple. Chances are you love them or you hate them, and that’s a whole lot better than just “liking” them. “Like” is a very weak emotion (although Facebook may disagree). A strong brand has passion connected to it. How about Starbucks? Is their coffee really any better than any other coffee shop? Probably not, but after years of Starbucks in the morning their patrons have an emotional attachment to the company that is a part of their daily routines. It makes sense that if something so simple, but so central to the core of the brand changes—like the logo—that there would be a strong reaction.

So why is everyone so quick to scrap the logo they’ve been building equity (and more importantly passion) in for years? Logo changes are typically made to either reinvigorate a tired brand or to appeal to a new set of customers. Starbucks, certainly not a tired brand, redesigned their logo to support a product mix growing beyond just coffee. At the same time the new logo is said to appeal to the Asian market to which Starbucks is trying to engage. While that’s all fine and good, their loyal customers who have been made Starbucks part of their daily routine and have formed that emotional bond are up in arms. Bear in mind that to fully implement a logo change requires millions upon millions of dollars, not just to pay for the design itself, but to pay for all the new signage and website integration, among other things. Is it worth it?

Starbucks’ red headed step child—Seattle’s Best—redesigned their logo after picking up major additions to its distribution channel, but the new simplified logo looks cheap. Did the marketers get too excited when they added Burger King, Subway, and AMC Entertainment to their list of vendors? Why make your brand less differentiated and more like Folgers (with a higher price tag)?

The YMCA’s decision to change the logo they’ve been using since 1967 was the biggest surprise to me. Sure, I’ll concede that it probably is a “tired” brand, but does throwing away a nearly 45 year old logo and replacing it with a logo in which you want customers to buy into “the many colors reflect the vibrancy and diversity of our communities and activities” really help?

The logo changes (and subsequent changes back) by Tropicana and GAP were the biggest disasters. Just four days after GAP’s new logo came out; they reverted back to their traditional “Blue Box” logo. After Tropicana’s sales dropped by 20%, they reverted back too. What does the lack of staying power behind the new logos indicate?

Starbuck’s had a pretty clear goal behind their change—to aid their planned product mix expansion. With that specific goal in mind, we probably won’t see Starbucks revert back their old logo even though their loyalists are (vocally) perturbed. Like most things in business, a logo change needs a specific goal (not just to get more sales) and without that specific goal, it is much easier to give up on a logo change the way GAP and Tropicana did.

Holiday Inn’s new logo makes some sense because they were largely viewed as tired and old before the brand overhaul and the new logo was well executed, but the bottom line remains the same. If you think you can totally change your logo without any backlash, you may have a passion problem, and if you think you can always change it back you have a goals problem. To all the marketers out there changing logos whenever they get bored…get a hobby!

About 18 months ago we bought a post-production business in Manhattan Creative Bubble (now definition 6) and  unified it into our interactive agency because we fundamentally believed that the future of the internet and marketing was brilliant story telling. We wanted a group of story tellers and emotion creators to be a core part of our team and have the capabilities to produce work for Hollywood, TV and Madison avenue at a world class level.  We have achieved this and since unification have won a Clio, an Emmy, an IBIXX, OMMA, ADDY, ProMax and even Small Agency campaign of the year from Advertising Age.  But what I did not expect was to be so engulfed by the discussion regarding "What is happening with TV, entertainment and the internet?"

 

Most of the conversation has sounded like "who moved my cheese?" especially to an outsider who never had cheese in the first place (cheese is consolidated broadcast advertising dollars and limited distribution channels such as movie theaters and DVD's). Ultimately, I've come to believe the issue isn't that TV is dead or dying, in fact it is growing and thriving, or that VOD is going to destroy Hollywood. The issue is that ad buys are more complex, dynamic, fragmented and content distributors are having to work harder to maintain margin and that content producers are having to become more sales savvy because they need to have more customers than the limited number of broadcasters and theater distributors from days long ago.  Everyone blames the internet, the Millennial’ s, the mobile revolution and cord cutters for fragmented the audience and making it harder and harder to find a digital dollar vs. digital penny.  As a response, we are seeing a slew of "Smart TV's" internet enabled televisions with app stores, over the top content, deals with VOD organizations and social integration. Awesome! Fantastic! we will bring the distractions from traditional living room TV into the living room and then we will get all the dollars in one place again and things will just be beautifully profitable for us again.   Except…..

 

Who asked you to make the idiot box Smart? I want to watch TV, not necessarily watch a specific show, just watch TV.  According to a #CES panel where either Nielsen or TV guide said "70%+ of the people who sit down to watch TV don't know what they are going to watch until they sit on the couch" - ok, I buy that, and to me that means I still want it to be easy, passive, yes I want to do discover, but not necessarily search and explore like I do with Google, Twitter and Pandora. Stations and networks are good, they have themes, they have repeats, they have marathons in case I've fallen behind or want to get immersed on a weekend afternoon in a new series. So stop touching my TV, I want to sit back, relax and watch the "History of Steel" or "Golf" or "The Guy from the 70's painting and talking in that soothing voice" - I don't want to grab content, make my own playlist, find my favorite actor that cross references with Kevin Bacon to kill 20%-50% of the time I have to WATCH TV. Leave my few times a week I have no plan, and only want to enjoy.  Now if you can make it work with my iPad and come with me on my phone when I'm in line at the supermarket, then I'm all yours and I look forward to the new adventures of "TV and Me".

Follow Michael on Twitter @mkogon

I woke up this morning to a pretty interesting e-mail that was sent to me by way of my Google profile from someone named David Anderson:

I am making a blog for an online writing class I'm taking through UF, and for a module on search techniques I needed to find a non-mainstream website about my topic (sports bars).  I found your old site, the East Lansing Bar Review, and I loved it so I've written my post for this assignment about it.  I've only made five posts so far, but here is a link anyway: http://sportsbarjunkie.blogspot.com/

This is really crazy in so many ways. The site he is referring to is something I created back around 1995. I was attending Michigan State University and worked part-time in the MSU Network Center to make some extra cash. My official title there was Mainframe Consultant and mostly I helped professors and students to use things like Gopher, Banyan VINES, FTP, configure dial-up PPP access, and learn how to use our Unix-based ELM e-mail client. This was a time when most corporations hadn’t even heard of the web, it had fledgling use by Universities, it was being referred to as a fad, and I had just helped to get Michigan State’s own first web sites up.

I wanted to play around more with this new-fangled world wide web so using a vi editor in Unix, working in HTML 1.0 and armed with a copy of the predominant browser of the time NCSA Mosaic, I decided to create a site that offered a personal review of all the local bars and pubs in the East Lansing, Michigan area. I had a lot of fun creating the site. I had even more fun doing the critical research required to provide the reviews. But it really was bare bones ugly, used hand coded tables, some basic formatting tags, and the most advanced thing it included (which was hot at the time) was an image map that used a monstrosity I created with a copy of Photoshop 1.0.

But so it was born: the East Lansing Bar Review. For a couple of years I kept updating it and occasionally I got really interesting feedback or comments. It even got me a few free beers from local bar owners. When I left MSU my younger brother Mike took over the site and moved it (all 4 or 5 HTML files and all 5-6 images) from my student web account to his. He kept it updated for a couple of more years before he graduated. A couple of years later we got tired of being contacted about it from people asking for updates so Mike posted a note on the site explaining this and since then it’s gathered electronic dust but apparently it’s still there.

15 years from when I created the site, I’m now the CTO of Definition 6 where we create massive high-end brand experiences that include transactional sites with extensive back-end systems integration, hundreds of thousands of pages of content in enterprise-class Content Management Systems, on-line video experiences, mobile web sites, mobile applications and more in addition to spending a ton of time doing Search Engine Optimization, Search Engine Marketing, On-line Display Media, and Analytics.

In an effort for this blog post to have a point and not just be nostalgic rambling or reflection on how far we’ve come in terms of the web and on-line advancements, what really stands out to me is considering how high this site shows up in results for major search engines. If you search for East Lansing Bars it still comes up as one of the top several results on Google. And if you search as David describes he did in his blog post it’s number one. Keep in mind the site was originally written and posted before Google even existed and at a time when Yahoo! had just come onto the scene as a start-up. The very concept of organic search engine optimization didn’t even really exist let alone was it the means of livelihood for the legions of people that practice its art today. I’m sure there are some things to be said for how today’s algorithms treat a site with such a long tenure favorably as well as the tenure of links to that site. And I’m all but certain that the same site published today would not be treated so favorably. But it is probably worth noting that a site hosted at relatively bad URL by today’s SEO standards with no meta-data, no thought to Information Architecture, and bad file naming practices still shows up high for certain not uncommon searches when the content was meaningfully written and relevant to the subject matter of interest. I’ll leave the rest of the analysis to the real SEO experts out there (and my apologies to our Creative Department for even publishing a link to this relic of a site on our blog).

Thanks, David, for the trip down memory lane and for giving me some interesting things to think about this morning.

“6 Things” is a list of things I've come across that I find interesting, inspiring, adventurous, or just plain cool. I’ll be publishing these fairly regularly, so keep an eye out.

It's been a little while since my last "6 Things" post. It's not that I haven't had lots of cool stuff ooze through the interweb onto my screen, it's just that I wanted to get my CAT/Clio posts out. And besides, absence makes the heart grow fonder... or is that absinthe?

This list features 6 awesome time-sucking activities I've come across recently. They aren't all new, but if you haven't had the pleasure of using these to fill up your copious free time, then you are in for a treat. Actually, the real question is, "are these a waste of time?" If you are engaged and entertained, is that not a worthwhile activity? Who's to say, but if you get caught at work spending your time on these... you don't know me.

Most of these are tied to brands. Do they do anything for them? Much of marketing is building awareness, so in that sense, many of these are successful (but not all). Will they lead to better business? That's hard to say, but they probably aren't hurting it.

1. Who doesn't want a paper head?
Converse has posted an application on their blog that allows you to make a paper mask of yourself.  Here's mine.

It took some time, but it wasn't difficult. You can print on 8 1/2 by 11 paper, but only if you are making a mask for your cat (it's very small). 11x17 will yield a nearly life-size mask (that's what I used). If you have access to a large format printer, a giant paper head would be awesome.

Does it do anything for Converse? Well, they are really a lifestyle brand, so I say yes. Their blog is all about be cool, hip, and funky... and this fits right in.

2. Rube Goldberg meets Jeopardy
To promote their Chrome browser, Google created a hybrid video/trivia game.

 

It uses a cool YouTube feature that lets you play multiple movies in a sequence and interleaves little trivia games between them. The object is to get through the course as quickly as possible.

It's fun, uses Google services (search and YouTube), and it gets the message out that chrome is fast (over and over, in fact). Will it make you download chrome? It might. They provide a handy download link right on the page.

3. Drink a fake beer, win a real prize.

To promote Strongbow beer, they poured a virtual pint and invited everyone to take a sip.

4. Do a little dance.

You, too, can be a video DJ, creating a seizure inducing video montage that you can send to all your friends.



5. Cast you and your friends in a film trailer.

"Lost in Val Sinestra" is a horror film directed and starring you and your friends. Well, at least that's what the trailer says. If you have a Facebook account, create your own. 



Sure Pixar is great, but have you thought that if Buzz Lightyear would just drop a few more F-bombs it would be high-larious. Well, now is your chance to script a 3D movie your way.

These are not new, but they are still fun to make and watch. Between the too-cute characters and the almost creepy vocalizations, it's hard not to love them. You can create free movies using a limited character set. "Premium" characters cost money (which I suppose is how they stay in business). But even if you only play around and never actually "publish" a movie, it can be hours of fun.

(warning: Most of these movies are rated M for mature... although clearly the people making them are not.)

What’s the biggest buzzword around social networking right now? If you guessed location-based services, it would be hard to argue with you. If we ask you again in six months, chances are good you’ll answer the social graph.

The social graph questions keep coming up in client and prospect meetings. What is the social graph? What do we need to know about the social graph? How can we use the social graph to deepen relationships with customers? So on and so forth...

While I can’t answer every question you have about the social graph, I can help to start framing the conversation for executives struggling to gain a deeper understanding of the impact social graphs will have on their business.

For starters, the social graph is just a fancy way of describing relationships or connections with people, places and things. It’s a map of your social connections and preferences – a visual data model if you will, with hubs and nodes. For you, your social graph could be the Connections you have on LinkedIn, the places you’ve checked in on FourSquare, or the brands you’ve ‘liked’ on Facebook.

For illustrative purposes, there a few dozen lacrosse fans who are my Friends on Facebook. How many of them are from upstate New York? Syracuse fans? Of those, how many also listened to a lot of grunge in college, now live in Atlanta and work in marketing for an integrated interactive agency?

Granted, there’s probably not another one of me – at least not that specific, but you can see the potential. You’ve never been able to slice and dice data with this level of precision before. It’s this unprecedented level of targeting that gets innovative marketers excited, while privacy advocates reach for their pitchforks and torches.

Of course, my example above only illustrates relationships between connections and doesn’t get into activity, preference or myriad other social graphs that can be linked to one another. For example, who likes the same things or has been the same places as me? Who’s reading this article at the same time you are? These are questions you will be able to answer as social graphs get more sophisticated.

Where Did The Social Graph Come From?

Social graph has been popularized by Facebook, the world’s largest social network and the company most likely to serve as the epicenter for social graphs. While Facebook has plans to be the only social graph, recent announcements like its “Open Graph” suggest the company is happy remaining the epicenter of all social activity online. Plus, it’s unrealistic that Facebook could sustain a monopoly over the social graph – we all want to use other stuff.

With offerings like “Open Graph”, any electronic asset online can be linked to an individual’s social graph. In the months to come, look for this to include every place you go, everything you do, and everything you buy.

While Facebook has a lot of influence, there are no rules to the social graph. Any piece of social data can be woven into your graph to provide a more accurate picture of the interdependencies between your relationships and preferences. Privacy concerns aside (a future post perhaps), this stuff is truly amazing.

In the first wave of the Web, we were excited to discover new websites via links to other sites or search results. Early social networks encouraged us to link to one another, which dramatically accelerated our discovery of mutual relationships and made networking (the human kind) much faster – and in many ways enjoyable. Now everything is getting out there.

What’s All This Mean for Business?

For starters, you’ll start to have a crystal clear view into who your potential and current customers are. In the short-term, this will provide you with tremendous targeting advantages over your competition. For the 1st time ever, you’ll be able to customize incentives for all the 32 year old homemaker motor cross fans that have purchased a tofu burger from you in the past year.

Keep in mind, the more accurate you can target customers, the more accurate customers can target you. It is yet to be determined how consumers will react to the knowledge that they are your best customer. How much longer will it be before Foursquare mayors start demanding more incentives for the role they play in your viral marketing? What happens when Blippy users start demanding special incentives for all the purchases they’ve made?
These are good problems to have. Smarter brands and smarter consumers always forces us to innovate and push the needle farther. And who doesn’t love a good challenge?

Bottom line? The social graph takes a lot of the fun out of the guessing game of life – learning about people and things over time. Only time will tell whether or not instant gratification is a good thing or not. As marketers, it’s hard not to get excited about the potential to target with the greatest accuracy, reliability and ease ever. Bring it on.

At the same time, let’s tread forward lightly. We don’t want to create such huge concerns over privacy that regulation and oversight come in to drain the life out of the creative process.

What do you think? Are social graphs a good thing or a bad thing? Do you want people to know what kind of ice cream you like or what kind of car you drive? How much sharing is too much?

By now, Twitter should be an integral part of your media relations strategy. Twitter has become one of the most efficient tools PR professionals use to manage relationships with journalists and other influencers. Why is Twitter such a great channel for media relations? Here are a few reasons:

• Fish where the fish are: most mainstream and amateur journalists and bloggers are on Twitter. There are many tools for finding journalists on Twitter, such as MediaOnTwitter, MuckRack or JournalistTweets.

• Mix business with pleasure: Twitter provides the ultimate glimpse into a person’s world. You can learn a lot of about journalists and bloggers by following their tweets and getting involved in conversations. This will help you not only identify ways to approach the journalist better, but also to monitor and respond to journalists’ needs – positioning you as a trusted expert.

• Get to the point: journalists are overwhelmed with pitches. The short message format of Twitter makes it easier for journalists to scan brief messages. The chances of your tweet being read may be better than with email – just make sure the journalist is cool with being pitched via Twitter before you tweet it.

• Pass it on: a tweet (Twitter status update) mention of your company or product by an influential journalist can be just as effective as a mention in a print publication. In many instances, the tweet may drive more traffic to your site in a short period of time. If increasing qualified site visitors is a core objective of your PR plan, you may want to consider Twitter.

• Track results: most of your activity can be tracked through Twitter. Whether you want to track the pace at which you’re gaining new followers, the number of times your tweets are re-tweeted (passed along to others), or how many people click on a link that you share (using trackable URL-shorteners like Bit.ly or Su.pr), it’s easy for you to keep tabs on the effectiveness of your social media impact.

• Build relationships: Twitter is all about relationships. The longer you use Twitter – actively use Twitter – the more relationships you will form. I can honestly say that I’ve built more relationships with media in the past two years on Twitter than I had in the previous five using conventional methods.

So how can you use Twitter for media relations? I suggest you look at Twitter as a channel like you would any other outlet. Treat journalists and bloggers with the respect they deserve – you know, the way you would like to be treated. Listen and observe at least (if not more) as much as you talk or tweet, you’ll be surprised what you can learn from journalists and bloggers. If you follow the media on Twitter long enough, you’ll notice that most tell you exactly what it takes to score publicity opportunities with them step-by-step.

Here are some general tips for using Twitter as a media relations tool:

• Follow journalists and bloggers relevant to your organization and read what they tweet about. If you see a tweet you really like, consider passing the tweet along or sharing your feedback with the person. This is a great way to build relationships, outside of just wanting coverage.

• Use the Twitter Search function to search for keywords related to your business. This will make it easier to see which of the users you’re following are talking about relevant topics. You can also set up saved searches for keywords or hashtags (#journchat for example), so you don’t have to read every tweet that comes along.

• Monitor Twitter users like @prsarahevans, @skydiver and @profnet to keep tabs on publicity opportunities issued through Twitter. You should follow each of these users if you’re not already.

• When it’s time to pitch a story, you should know that the journalist or blogger is open to being pitched through Twitter. If you’ve followed the steps above, you’ll know the answer.

Finally, don’t make the mistake of thinking Twitter is just another social media fad. As someone with firsthand experience using Twitter for media relations, I can tell you that – for today, at least – it’s the easiest and most effective way to get the attention of today’s busy journalists. It’s also a great way to accelerate your learning around PR, with thousands of helpful PR professionals at your disposal for advice at any hour of the day.


(Image Credit: Twitter Badge by 7son75)

I recently attended the NABshow in Las Vegas and was not only impressed with how amazing football looks on a 3D TV, but also the dominant theme of the importance of social media to growing audiences and creating new ways to interact with television.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have grown so quickly and unobtrusively that we often don't realize how big they really are. Becoming a part of Facebook is easy, and simple, even my mom did it without needing any help from me (for once). When we are looking at Facebook we see ourselves and our friends, and for the most part it feels like our own little community. The real eye opener is realizing there are over 400 Million other people feeling the same way.

The first step for the networks was integrating their website with their programming. NBC Universal did a great job integrating Heroes show themes with their website, and I've been impressed by that for some time. Their webisodes and tangential plotlines for Heroes was really well done, continuing alternative stories and keeping interest going.

Most of the networks are catching up and revitalizing their website presence so that it aligns with their programming. Recently HBO completely re-launched their website with an online community with forums. Simultaneously they are launching "minisodes" that are viewable online and on Sunday nights.

Every network is exploding onto social media since they realized how many people are actually participating online and how much more interesting this paradigm can be.

What about live commenting and interacting? This is the new theme within the television networks that has been growing over the last year or so, and that's integrating social media into programming live online. I remember the first time I saw Tosh.O on Comedy Central, highlighting the funniest and most random YouTube videos, and broadcasting the funniest tweet that people posted during his monologue. Oprah has live broadcasts with Facebook feeds running simultaneously so that people can contribute to the show. Look out for the new contest called Your Own Show, it's going to be a big one, with user submitted videos highlighting why they should be the next new TV Host promoted by Oprah.

Oxygen said they put an espisode of Bad Girls online, and paired it with Social Media, the result was a growth of their audience at 70% on the west coast and 90% on the east coast! That's tremendous!



Be on the lookout for a host of new ways of interacting with television networks, and the new shows that are going to result from all these ideas being submitted and shared!

Oprah Winfrey's President of Digital Media, Rob Tercek, really nailed it down succinctly when he quoted Oprah as saying, "Engagement is the new entertainment."

So what about you? Have you participated in Social Media and Television? What about checking out websites for your favorite shows? Which one do you like most?

What do you want? Those of you that are CMOs, Brand Managers, VPs of Advertising or Marketing, what do you really want?
 
Whenever and wherever this question is asked, the answer is always the same: Results! You want results and you want them now (it’s the same thing you wanted yesterday, and the same thing you’ll want tomorrow).

If you are in the agency business, you should never lose sight of this basic marketing need. If you are in-house and spend your money on advertising and marketing, I hope this helps you think about how to find people who can improve those results faster.
 
This topic has been on my mind since I got together with a group of marketing professionals earlier this month. We started off talking about how to produce ROI reports for their CFOs and finance counter parts. Ultimately, what everyone really wants to see is results.

How you define results and what value they deliver for your business may vary, but here are some sample measurements based on our discussion:

•    Brand health metrics
•    Units Sold
•    Leads Generated
•    Awareness and Recall levels
•    ROAS
•    E-mail marketing conversion
•    Increased Foot Traffic
 
How can agencies produce results more consistently when results are so varied by each client? Here are six suggestions for ways I think agencies can be prepared to provide a variety of results for a variety of clients and also for the same customer who has evolving needs over a long period of time.

1.    Understand your client's business. If you are not as much a management consultant as an ad person, then I think you will fail in the future. Today's marketing and advertising challenges, impact customer service, public relations, product develop & procurement as well as IT, finance and channel relations. Now, they always have, but now that the world is digitized and visibility is possible; the demand to work on more than just demand is higher.

2.    Understand customer behavior. One of the things I think Agency can do better than most client-side marketers is getting to know the end customer and the customers along the way.  We can and should provide outsider insight into the purchase drivers that lead consumers or businesses to buy from clients. By being involved in the insight business, we can help our customers produce the results they need.

3.    Be more social. So much has been said about this over the last 18 months, so I'll share why I think agencies need to become more social. We are in the business of communications and in connecting companies and customers. The landscape has evolved where the cost of distributing messages is virtually zero and the demand for connection is 100%.  When demand is this high and the cost is so low, there is an unlimited amount of success you can have for you and your customers if you tap into this skill set.

4.    Learn math and how to analyze data. I became a Speech Communications major because it had no math requirement. I bet a lot of people who are in our field did the same thing, I know it.  Math has never been a problem for me, I just didn't care to do any more formulas or equations. Then I got into advertising, and as I did Nielsen store data, GRPs, category management, research, coupon redemption and media plans, it became clear that math was going to be a big part of my life. When I started our Integrated Interactive Agency in the 90s it become clear that math, engineering and analysis would be at the center of much of what we would do to help clients. A strong analytics capability and good math people, programmers, engineers and analysts are essential if you are serious about producing results and proving those results.

5.    Learn how to produce.  Content, code, sounds, event. From branding to social, to broadcast to micro-cast. From visual to technical, and in-home to the 6th screen. A good partner doesn't outsource the doing to sub-contractors, it is no longer acceptable to do the boards, the concept, the design, the plan and then hand it off. In these days and times, buyers expect ongoing interactions and learned messaging overtime. The mediums must be an integrated seamless experience or you will lose sales and revenue for your clients. That is not the result they want.

6.    Ask your clients what they need to thrive. So I end with this, what do you need to thrive in your current marketing and advertising role? We are listening……….
 

While the race for ‘ownership’ of the LBS market (Location Based Services) rages on, and naysayers’ debate its viability, I am sold on the concept.

If you are not familiar, LBS are the latest craze in the ever growing social media marketing landscape.  The general principle is that an end user uses their smart phone and its GPS abilities to ‘check in’ to their current location. 

Like its social media older cousins Facebook and Twitter, there are many out there that think this is just a passing phenomena - a game if you will.  Like Facebook and its now 400 million plus users, and Twitter and it’s large following I believe in the LBS strategy.  Out of the pack has emerged two ‘major’ players in the field, FourSquare and Gowalla.  Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and even Apple are also looking at entering the playing field but I believe they will have to make an acquisition to truly play. 

Along with the hype of these types of services there is also a lot of criticism.  Since I am a ‘fan’ and a user I might be a bit jaded but I think I can at least address the critics; here are the gripes I have heard, some legit, some just silly:

1. If you tell everyone where you are then you are leaving your house open to be robbed.  I originally thought that this was a ‘non-issue’ I have to admit but after a conversation with people smarter than I over drinks I have amended my opinion.  This is one that you DO have to pay attention to.  Use common sense, if you are ‘checking in’ on vacation, turn off the setting that posts to Facebook and Twitter, so ONLY your friends on that LBS Tool of your choice get it.  Second, and this goes whether you use and LBS or not, CHECK YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS IN FACEBOOK!  Facebook has gone through a number of changes and many people have forgotten to go into their settings and make sure they have the level of privacy that they want.  For me, I only want FRIENDS seeing information; others may have different standards and that’s cool, just make sure you are comfortable with yours.  As for Twitter, you can ‘protect your tweets’ as well so only your followers can see them.

2. You can get stalked by a crazy ex and have to deal with all that.  True, but is that really a concern?  If it was, you wouldn’t be on FB, Twitter or LinkedIn.  Can it be a problem?  Sure.  However, you don’t have to tell EVERYONE where you are.  Your standard LBS lets you self select who the information goes to.  Side note – crazy ex probably knows all your haunts and when you like to be there anyway…

3. Why would you want to be doing free marketing/advertising for a place or a brand?  Are we seriously talking about this one in 2010?  Look down at your feet people (go ahead, I’ll wait) --- is that a ‘swoosh’?  Did NIKE pay you to wear their shoes or did you drop $100+?  How about that laptop I carry around?  You know the really sleek, chrome looking thing with the fruit in the middle very well lit?  Let’s face it people, WE have become walking billboards!  Take the silly Ed Hardy T-shirts (yes, I am just over 40 and don’t get it).  You have people clamoring to be seen in an Ed Hardy, and what is besides some crazy print with the biggest part of it being his SIGNATURE!!!  I’ll talk more about personal brands in another blog.So there are some of the negatives, which may be legitimate, but aren’t exactly deal breakers.

What are the positives you might ask?

1. It’s fun and it’s social.  One of my favorite shows as a kid was CHEERS, the bar where everyone knows your name.  Basically, with a tool like FourSquare you can become your own walking CHEERS.  Check in at a friendly place and the bartender says, “Welcome, how about a beer Mr. Peterson”, OR how about you get to a place that is running an amazing special, you could take the time and call or your friends, or break your fingers and text them OR check in with an LBS, type in a comment, it automatically gets to everyone through whatever social tools you are using and who knows what can happen when everyone shows up.  Simply put, in its most elemental form, it’s a way to extend the party.

2. As I have heard from Social Media Guru, Gary Vaynerchuck, “why would someone check in at a bar?”  Give’em a free beer and watch them check in all day!  What a cool way to earn stuff and allow a small business truly establish a win-win customer loyalty program.  At one of the Whole Foods in Austin, TX you get a very valuable coupon on your 5th visit.  What does this do?  It drives loyalty, rewards it, makes it fun and even mysterious…what will I get on my 10th check in, etc…Not enough small businesses are using these tools to see a huge uptick here but I believe by this time next year it will be off the charts.

3. That last part of #2 is part of the biggest positive from a business application and it’s the direct corollary to the third criticism.  I’m not sure when MARKETING became a four letter word but when it comes to LBS that is seems to be the #1 complaint and it goes something like this, “that stuff is just one big marketing ploy to get you to go somewhere or buy something”.  My response is somewhere along the famous Socrates reply of “duh!”  Isn’t that the whole reason for newspapers, magazines, TV shows, etc…sure they have their entertainment and news value BUT no one is shocked to know that advertisers are paying to place their content in front of your eyeballs to get you to buy stuff!  Not sure why the uproar when it comes to LBS, it seems to me like a natural fit.

4. Last but not least and this is by far where I see the big win for LBS and that is creating partnerships to pull off some really cool stuff.  I was discussing the value of FourSquare with an Executive at one of the major record labels.  She is responsible for new acts and we were discussing the value of LBS for her and she said; give me one way it works in my world.  So I said, do you have an all girl band you want to promote?  The answer was yes.  How about an in store ‘tour’ across America teamed with an outlet like Express?  You have all the traditional ways to support it but now add an LBS layer for very little cost.  It is also a completed integrated approach across all the social media tools; from Facebook, to Twitter, blogs, Flickr and a full activation using LBS.  Her eyes lit up and she said, write it up and let’s take a look at it.  That’s just the tip of the iceberg.So, mock it if you want.  Five years ago you never thought you’d be on Facebook. 

If you can remember back to 1991, if someone asked if you wanted to be accessible 24/7 via the phone, some new thing called email and a feature called text that in our old lexicon meant a book at school you would have said, “no freaking way”…and how many of you don’t have a cell phone today?

During the Vancouver Olympics in February, I conducted an informal experiment to arbitrate which mobile Olympics experience would be superior--the mobile site at www.NBCOlympics.com, or the NBC Olympics iPhone App. Other than the mens and womens medal round hockey games, my entire olympics experience was mobile-- I kept totally up to date using only my iPhone.

  “6 Things” is a list of things I have recently come across that I find interesting, inspiring, adventurous, or just plain cool. I’ll be publishing these fairly regularly, so keep an eye out.

In this installment of “6 Things” I explore the use of video beyond passive viewing. Video is a powerful way to engage your viewers, and these examples take it to the next level by integrating video into the user experience and getting the viewer into a more active role either through interaction or a more immersive experience.

1: The European Wrangler site uses video as an integral part of the interface for its Bluebell collection. It shows the collection using a series of vignettes that allow the user to control the action.

2: These guys project video on buildings to create an immersive experience that goes beyond the screen. They create amazing visuals that are made to wrap the surfaces of buildings. The result is a cross between a drive-in movie and an acid trip.

3: For Phillips Cinema Display, they created a single moment in time that the viewer can explore. Check out the “behind the scenes” moments embedded in the time line. The whole experience draws the user in and engages you on a deeper level.

4: The things that happen outside the perceptible range of human sight are stunning, creepy, and amazing. Discovery explores this world on their show Time Warp. To give viewers the opportunity to really get up close and personal with the show, they a series of clips the user can run every which way to explore all the nuances of that action.

 

5: Here’s a simple but effective way to move YouTube from a passive to an active medium. Showtime used YouTube’s API to create a Dexter game. The created a series of videos challenging the user to find Dexter before time runs out. Do so, and you are sent to the next, more challenging level.

 

6: Interactive Projection Systems have been around for awhile, but the technology has eveloped to a level where you can do really interesting things. Brands are using these installations to attract attention and engage passers-by. Artists are using them to create interactive works that involve the viewer in the art. Museums are using them to bring fun to their exhibits.

 

 

 

I recently had the opportunity to attend MIX 2010, Microsoft's annual conference for web designers and developers focused on building great user experiences, in Las Vegas, along with Definition 6's two interactive Creative Directors from Atlanta and New York.

MIX 2010 is highly unlike most other Microsoft conferences where the topics frequently focus on .NET, Exchange, Office, and Windows. Instead it's chock full of design and UX goodness - a geeky love fest for all the cool tech that goes into creating great web, mobile, desktop, kiosk, and other assorted technically enabled experiences using the Microsoft platform.

It's hard to argue that this isn't an arena in which Microsoft is still playing a lot of catch-up. Adobe Creative Suite and Flash/Flex are still easily the staple of most creative and design departments. And many people definitely hug their MacBooks and frantically wave their iPhones about when asked to provide examples of great user interface design. But if there was one thing abundantly clear at MIX 2010 it is that Microsoft has no plans to cede the battle on these fronts, they are rapidly catching up in many areas, and even appear to be leading the way in a few. Seriously.

Microsoft is a marathon runner, not a sprinter. And as Steve Ballmer said at Microsoft's Worldwide Partner Conference last year regarding questions as to why Microsoft doesn't cede such battles as Search and Advertising and retreat back home to their core Windows, Office, or SQL Server business lines, "We. Don't. Go. Home." Anyone who doesn't believe him should have been at MIX. And do you really have to look further than an example like the Xbox?

Probably the hottest subject of discussion and presentations was Windows Phone 7 Series. I am, admittedly, an avid iPhone user who stood in line the first week they came out. I happily ditched my old Windows Mobile device and it's BlackBerry predecessors back then to live in Apple's world and I've never been seriously tempted to use something else until I saw WP7.

I really believe WP7 is a game changer for Microsoft and the mobile industry. Sure, it has some shortcomings. I don't know how they could decide to not include copy-and-paste as a feature in the first release. And like iPhone, they also do not have application multi-tasking and they appear to have similarly stringent plans regarding their app store.

But the interface is fantastic, I love the "hub" metaphors, streaming video and even Xbox Live over the phone looked amazing. Not sure exactly how badly those things will kill battery life, but they sure looked impressive. For heavy Outlook users, the Outlook mobile experience on WP7 may alone be enough to get you to switch. Just awesome. And there's a chance it could finally be the breakthrough that Zune has been looking for.

Silverlight 4 is definitely another big step in the right direction. They continue to slowly chip away at adoption and now claim that it's at 60% market penetration, probably mostly attributable to the Olympics and adoption and rollouts of Windows 7.

Tools like Expression Blend keep getting better, and Sketchflow may even be better than the competition, it is simply cool. IE9 beta demos also got big buzz. It appears they have surpassed Firefox on overall performance, are coming close to Chrome in many aspects, and for certain functions like handling of video and HTML5 they could end up being even faster and better (when running on a Windows platform of course) by taking better advantage of your computer's processor and using a form of background hardware-based acceleration. The head-to-head examples showing some really slick use of animation and video in HTML5 were really amazing.

The one thing that Microsoft has which no one else can offer (not Google, not Adobe, not Apple, not anyone) is an end-to-end story on tools and capabilities in this arena. The depth and breadth of their tools and services is truly staggering when you put it all together. And I'm not just talking about the typical story of Windows + Visual Studio + .NET + SQL Server. On top of that throw in Expression Studio with SketchFlow + Project "Dallas" + Azure + Silverlight + Surface + Windows Phone 7 + OpenData + IE9 + Bing Search and Maps and on and on. Sure you can poke certain holes in individual pieces versus their competitors. But the cohesive power of all that together makes for a truly impressive lineup.

There definitely were a few other good tidbits at MIX. Announcements around Orchard, freely available tools for WP7 development, great live streaming of Channel9 straight from the event, strengthening support for JQuery, and a surprising number of atypical logos on screens being talked about as friends (e.g. Wordpress, Drupal, PHP, etc.).

And the keynotes included fantastic sessions by Scott Guthrie (@scottgu), VP of Microsoft's Developer Division, and great demonstrations by consummate tech presenter Scott Hanselman (@shanselman). But for me, the highlight of MIX was the opportunity to see Bill Buxton, Principal Researcher Microsoft Research, speak live. He is simply brilliant and one of the most passionate people alive when it comes to interface design and technology.

If you've never seen him speak it is worth your time to google (or bing) for videos of his speeches and spend an entire day just watching them. As the conference organizer, Microsoft's Thomas Lewis (@TommyLee), put it in a tweet during Bill Buxton's keynote: "OMFG! Buxton's brutality has destroyed Vegas! Only zombies, mushrooms & lavender frogs have survived! DESIGN IS GOD!". I couldn't have put it better myself. Buxton's speeches are often too filled with memorable lines to count, though my favorite at MIX included "The most important thing in the system is the wetware... the human being" during a segment where he described the importance of taking into account all the users different prior experiences within the specific environmental contexts of where, when and how they will use a system that you are designing.

Side note: I still don't understand how such an amazing guy who lives and breathes design and is considered the Father of Multi-Touch can have such a horrible personal web site, but I can only assume it's a "cobbler's children" thing.

And last but not least, the overall crowd and dynamic of the attendees at MIX was fantastic if not a bit quirky. It was a great group of highly intelligent people that are all passionate about great design and truly unafraid to ask the hard questions of Microsoft and dole out praise as well as tough love in person in the sessions and in torrents over Twitter. Unlike typical creative and design conferences it's definitely rooted in a true developer core (e.g. more guys still talking about compilers as opposed to a more mixed-gender crowd talking about heuristics and having used many tools like these for years), but unlike normal Microsoft conferences it's a large group of people who love great creative design and have been dying for Microsoft to bring these kinds of things to the table.

This conference in Vegas was more WXSW for geeks than it was the concurrently running SXSW, but Twitter and Foursquare definitely reigned supreme there as well as the tools that joined everyone together digitally during the sessions, into the evening, around the bars, and throughout the event. Sunday evening even kicked off the conference with a massive tweetup at the MIX Lounge at THEhotel at Mandalay Bay. There is a real embrace of Twitter showing through by Microsoft that is really uncanny with regard to how they normally react to any tech service that they don't build and own.

At Definition 6, we do use a lot of tools and services across platforms including a very significant amount of work in the Microsoft platform. And we do use tools and design for platforms that are competitive to many of those that were showcased at MIX 2010. But there is no doubt that what we saw there has given us a lot to think about, some great ideas, and a few new weapons to put in our arsenal. We look forward to using many of these to create great solutions for our customers and to seeing them continue to evolve and improve.

I just returned from SXSW Interactive (SXSWi) and was blown away by the scale of the festival. There were more than 15,000 people in attendance, looking to expand their knowledge around the Web, social and mobile (for the most part).

It would be impossible for me to summarize the entire festival for you, so here's the "what was trending" version with what you might have missed in the stream:

#1 Location-Based Services Stole the Show

For the first time in many months, something made more noise than Twitter among the Web crowd, namely Foursquare and Gowalla. While there are a bunch of location-based services (LBS) out there, SXSW Interactive was a showdown between Foursquare and Gowalla.

SXSWi was the perfect venue for LBS to take off, due to its geographic focus, large number of events and high concentration of early-adopters. I saw more people checking in on Foursquare than tweeting. Foursquare hit a new usage record at the show, with more than 347,000 check-ins in a day.

Every inch of Austin was checked-in to on one or both of these services during SXSWi, with attendees trying to take over mayorships on any piece of fictional real estate they could find. There's still some question over business models and monetization, but with usage levels like this, there remains a lot of potential.

Gowalla (a similar service) made a fair impact at the festival, but was overshadowed a bit by Foursquare's daily four square games, custom SXSWi badges, heaps of swag, and its star-studded party with the likes of Ashton Kutcher.

While there was a lot of buzz for Foursquare, you really need massive user adoption to make this stuff work. At a show with 15,000+ people, you're bound to have a friend nearby. To really make LBS stick, locations will have to start offering up incentives to people who check in (the most logical extension to all this stuff).

To quote Gary Vaynerchuk's keynote (see #3): "Why the heck would I check in somewhere? If someone gives you a f**king beer for checking in, you're going to check in."

It's true, once businesses start rewarding customers for their check-ins, services like Foursquare are going to explode in popularity (which is what happended when Twitter followers started to get hookups). I wouldn't be surprised to see Foursquare owned by somebody else by the time SXSW rolls around next year.

#2 Private Parts

The more people share online - such as where they're having lunch or who they're hanging out with at SXSWi - the more privacy becomes an issue.

Danah Boyd, Social Media Researcher at Microsoft Research New England, delivered the opening remarks at SXSWi, quickly launching into a mild attack on Google Buzz and Facebook for their recent, well-reported missteps regarding privacy. "Just because something is publicly accessible, it doesn't mean people want it publicized," said Boyd.

As more and more people take to lifestreaming, there's mounting concerns over the sharing of sensitive information. Boyd says she's never met anyone that really knew what their privacy settings were on any social site they use.

While on one hand brands want to open up the lines of communication with customers, they also need to consider any potential privacy implications.

There's a great write-up on Danah's keynote on Techcrunch here.

#3 Gary Vaynerchuk's Keynote

There had to be more than 1,000 people there to hear Gary Vaynerchuk have a conversation with the crowd. Gary is all about connecting with people on a personal level. He stood at the door and personally thanked everyone for attending the keynote (did I mention there were about 1,000 people in there?).

Gary has a no-BS approach to his presentations that reallly make you just want to watch him again. Bottom line? Most companies don't care and consumers know it. When companies even show they care a little, they get rewarded (Zappos is a perfect example).

For a great summary of the keynote, check out Andrew Mager's post on ZDNet. And in case you're wondering, he's got a mean four square serve too.

For a more coloful view into the keynote, you can watch it here. The quality's a bit shaky, but you can still get the content. Keep in mind, Gary's a brilliant speaker, but he does have a potty mouth (in case you get offended by profanity).

#4 Twitter Launches @anywhere

While Foursquare and Gowalla drove the buzz, Twitter still managed to get its share of the lime light. Unfortunately, a good part of the chatter revolved around how boring the keynote was, causing about half the room to leave before it was over.

Dissappointing keynote asside, the launch of @anywhere was significant. @anywhere is a new framework that enables developers to integrate the Twitter experience into their sites. Early @Anywhere partners include eBay, Amazon, Salesforce.com, Bing, Yahoo! and MSNBC.

For the full scoop on @anywhere, check out the official Twitter blog.

#5 Can You Digg It?

Almost launched in the midst of SXSWi was the announcement that Digg is getting a major overhaul. Digg CEO Jay Adelson made the announcement at the "Bigg Digg Shindigg" (love the name). The overhaul will include personalized feeds and the return of the Digg leaderboard. You can learn more about the new version (and sign up for the beta) at http://new.digg.com.

#6 QR Codes

There were QR codes (Quick Response code technology) on everything at SXSWi, from everyone's name badges to the fleet of Chevys on display. QR codes, a special type of bar code, are becoming more prevalent in advertising and product packaging. They provide an added way for consumers to interact with content, typically through a mobile device.

For example, if you used one of the QR readers (like I-Nigma for the iPhone) to scan an attendees badge at SXSWi, you were able to save the person's information. It was a cool way to exchange information, despite the experience being a bit slow. Look for QR codes to show up more and more (more on the SXSWi QR stuff here).

Checking Out

In conclusion, when all the hype dies down, everyone will remember this year's SXSWi as the kickoff of LBS for the masses. If last year was the year of "What are you doing?", this year will certainly be the year of the "Check-in".

Were you there? What was your favorite part of SXSWi? Let us know.

(Image Credits: Danah Boyd Art by amanichannel)

Social media marketing is at the forefront of integrated interactive marketing programs underway at almost every Fortune 500 company out there. Corporate blogging, online video and podcasts are among the most popular strategies used by the world's largest comapnies. But what about Twitter?

What might surprise you is how quickly Twitter is growing as the social medium of choice among Fortune 500 companies. According to recent studies like “Fortune 500 and Social Media: A Longitudinal Study of Blogging and Twitter Usage by America’s Largest Companies,” conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth and Financial Insite, a Seattle-based Research Firm, Twitter is the platform of choice for Fortune 500 social media marketers.

The study examined the 2009 Fortune 500 in an attempt to quantify their adoption of social media tools and technologies, finding that 22% of Fortune 500 companies have a public-facing corporate blog – six percent more than 2008. The study also found that 86% of these blogs link directly to a corporate Twitter account, a 300% increase over 2008. Even more corporations have Twitter accounts, but not all link to them from their blog.

It would appear that Fortune 500 marketers are moving fast to Twitter for engaging with their key audiences. Of course, upon further analysis, you’d find that only 35% of these Twitter accounts are active – described as having been updated within the past 30 days. If I’m reading the study correctly, that means 65% are not being actively used.

While Fortune 500 companies have realized they need to be on Twitter – probably as defense against username squatting – few have truly embraced Twitter as a social channel. 

Of the groups that have engaged most heavily with Twitter, the insurance industry is leading the way, with 13 active Twitter accounts according to the study. Of course there are also companies like Exxon Mobil, the #1 company in the Fortune 500, that have no presence on Twitter.

A separate analysis of Fortune 500 Twitter, “The Global Social Media Check-Up” conducted by Burson-Marstellar, found that 79% of Fortune 100 Global companies are using one of four popular social media platforms, with Twitter leading Facebook, YouTube and corporate blogging as the platform of choice.

65% of Fortune Global 100 companies have active accounts on Twitter, while only 54% have Facebook accounts, 50% have YouTube channels, and 33% have a corporate blog. There is still plenty of room for improvement here.

Why Is Twitter the Preferred Platform?

Nobody knows for sure why Twitter is so popular, but there’s a good chance that it’s because it’s the easiest platform to launch. Companies can have a Twitter account up and running in a couple of hours (or less). There is a lot more work to do to launch a YouTube channel, corporate blog, or Facebook presence. It also takes considerably less resources to manage content production and audience interaction on Twitter than these other platforms. It’s a relatively low-cost and low-maintenance option for getting in the social media game.

Are Fortune 500 companies getting any value out of Twitter though? According to the Burson-Marstellar study, the answer is “yes”. Twitter accounts to the Fortune Global 100 average 1,489 followers. This doesn’t seem like much when you consider the average Facebook fan page for these companies has more than 40,000 fans, but it's progress.

A full copy of the new research report can be downloaded here: http://www.umassd.edu/cmr/studiesresearch.