One of today’s iMediaConnection cover stories is an article I wrote on emerging tech trends that will have implications for marketers. It’s truly riveting. Okay, maybe that’s a bit of an overstatement. At the very least, it doesn’t suck.
Those of you who attended the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) earlier this month might still be suffering from a mild case of geek fatigue, but now’s not the time to unplug. Technology moves fast (no less than six new social platforms have probably launched since you started reading this article); these days, successful marketing requires not only keeping pace with what’s available today, but also preparing for what’s lurking just around the corner.
Groupon, Quora, 3D TV, tablets, and 4G are just a few of the topics that have been getting the tech set all a-twitter lately (yes, pun intended). With so many new services, applications, hardware, and platforms, it’s not possible — or necessary — to assess and scrutinize each one. At the very least, though, you should make sure you have a handle on the larger tech trends that are likely to impact your marketing strategy and tactics over the next year.
Continue reading ‘Top tech that will get marketers wired in 2011’
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Movie Clip Madness
According to TechCrunch, online movie clip site Movieclips just raised more VC funding. I think it’s great that companies are looking for innovative ways to squeeze more consumer value out of existing entertainment content. With a good catalog and a few user-friendly editing tools, there’s a lot that could be done with this kind of content.
The idea of this becoming a niche art form is not at all far-fetched. There’s definitely an art to weaving together pieces of movies to create an original work that communicates a message, expresses an opinion or simply entertains people. A few talented (and patient) clip artists have been putting homemade mash-ups on YouTube for a while now and, given the number of times these mash-ups have been shared and viewed, it’s clear that there’s a good amount of interest in this medium.
Then there’s also a more informal but equally compelling use case. This past Saturday night, I had plans to go bowling and actually went online to find a good quote about bowling from the movie “The Big Lebowski” to post on Facebook as my status update. Unfortunately, it wasn’t Shabbos so I had to settle for “Fuck it, Dude. Let’s go bowling.” Also unfortunately, we didn’t end up going bowling after all so it was a useless exercise. But the point is, sometimes a scene from a great (or awesomely crappy) movie is just the perfect way to express what you’re thinking or feeling; a service that makes it easier to do that could easily become a staple of the social media toolkit.
Obviously, the biggest challenge for any digital service that wants to distribute or re-purpose proprietary entertainment content is making licensing deals with the rights holders. So far, Movieclips is doing ok in that regard; its collection is small but its titles are good. It will be interesting to see how open the studios are to working with these clips services going forward. There is clearly no cannibalization threat, so it’s really just about the studios’ willingness to give up some control in order to give consumers more value from the content they’ve already produced. If they’re smart, they’ll see this as an opportunity with a huge upside potential and little risk and continue to engage in productive and fair negotiations with these services. Or, they can go the music industry route.
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Bright-eyed and Sh!t-f@ced!
This week, Brandchannel.com’s branddebate is about caffeinated alcohol. I’m confused- not about the subject, but about the fact that there’s a debate. What’s to debate? Caffeine=good; alcohol=good; caffeinated alcohol=bad? In the words of Ralph Wiggum, “That’s unpossible!”
A word to marketers of these ingenious products: Don’t be shady. Market this stuff responsibly, i.e. don’t use Justin Bieber as your spokesperson or advertise during Yo Gabba Gabba or do anything else that positions you to capitalize on the unfortunate reality that some parents either can’t or can’t be bothered to instill in their children an understanding of personal responsibility and right vs. wrong and 7-Eleven doesn’t have a cash incentive program for cashiers who spot fake IDs. If you aren’t talented or creative enough to figure out how to push CAFFEINATED ALCOHOL without hitting the playground, you should probably flick the career spinner and see what else you land on, ’cause that’s just sad.
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Speak and they shall listen…
I’ve been doing some work with Jetset Studios, an original content and transmedia marketing agency that has created some very cool campaigns for movies and tv shows. This week, they launched a campaign for NBC’s new show, “Outsourced,” that doesn’t just use cool new technology, but uses it to create an interactive experience that perfectly complements the show’s main theme. And I’m not just saying that because I’m working with Jetset. Seriously. If I didn’t think it was cool I wouldn’t bother blogging about it because, well, it’s Friday, the weather is beautiful and I’m not into performance marketing.
Anyway, the show centers around a novelties company that has recently outsourced its call center to India. Jetset decided that creating an interactive virtual call center would give web users a highly-relevant opportunity to be introduced to the show’s theme and characters. Nothing groundbreaking, but sure, a good idea.
What’s cool is that they went the extra step and worked with a company called Telefon Projekt to develop an application that syncs the audio from your phone with the video on your computer screen. We all have experience with campaigns that integrate information you supply into a predetermined narrative to create a “personalized” experience (like when Samuel Jackson called people to tell them there were “motherf—in’ snakes on a motherf—in’ plane). The Outsourced campaign takes that to a new level. On your screen there’s a guy talking to you, but his voice is coming through your phone. And the responses you give to his questions (via the phone) actually guide the narrative.
The best way to understand it is to just try it. Go on, now.
http://www.nbc.com/outsourced/mid-america-novelties/customer-rewards/
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Ben & Jerry’s new “Scoop of Happiness” iPhone app enables users to experience augmented-reality “Moo Vision.” When you use Moo Vision, the lids on containers of some popular Ben & Jerry’s flavors come to life with images of things like cocoa farmers, skyscrapers and flying chickens.
Since it sounds eerily like an acid trip I had back in college, the app earns high marks for consistency with the Ben & Jerry’s brand.
The app has some fun features, like “Mystic Moo’s Flavor Fortune,” which predicts the flavor that matches your mood. I told Mystic Moo that I was looking for a flavor available by the pint, that I don’t like Lady Gaga or Madonna (that’s right), I feel like prancing (it’s cathartic) and I believe in unicorns (a girl has to believe in something) and the clairvoyant cow (that’s descriptive, not derogatory) predicted that Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream was the flavor for me. That heifer read me like a book (that one was derogatory).
In the “not so fun” feature list we have the nutritional information for every Ben & Jerry’s flavor. Gotta love the age of transparency.
As for the overall value of the app, my penchant for flying fowl aside (my therapist’s fee is clearly well-earned), unless you’re a Ben & Jerry’s junkie, I’m not convinced this is really worth the 21.5 MB of space. If I suddenly find myself in the midst of a “Cherry Garcia emergency,” I probably wouldn’t bother trying to find the closest Ben & Jerry’s shop since it can’t possibly be closer than the nearest bodega, 7-11, grocery store, car wash or funeral home that sells Ben & Jerry’s ice cream (okay, that last one is just me trying to seed a concept I’ve been working on; I do not know of any funeral homes that currently sell ice cream… but you see how that makes my idea even more brilliant, right???).
And since these days no app is complete without social network integration (aka, “pimp this app” functionality), Scoop of Happiness (Scoop of APPiness would have been a kinda cute name. Ok, nevermind. ) users can “brag” about how many of the 4 different AR dioramas they’ve seen on Facebook and Twitter. I can’t imagine ever doing that personally, but I suppose people who don’t mind clueing all their friends in on how much ice cream they’ve been consuming might find that cool. (Note to Ben & Jerry’s: An “I gots me some mad PMS” badge might have made a nice addition to the app).
No matter how secure users are with their ice cream habits, they earn a reward for watching all 4 AR scenes- Ben & Jerry’s iPhone wallpapers. What?… of course a wallpaper can be a reward… some people actually… ok, yeah, I see your point… Would you have felt more appropriately rewarded if Ben & Jerry’s gave you a choice of patterns, images and fonts and let you create a personalized flavor container/iPhone wallpaper? What about if you got a coupon? What if you got your name on an exclusive list of people who get a free cone on their birthday? Man, you’re hard to reward. Well, when you get a job in marketing at Ben & Jerry’s, maybe you can suggest those things.
According to Mashable, which also questioned the app’s value, the app is the 37th most popular one in the iTunes App Store. Okay, so clearly the app is popular. I think part of the reason is because AR is still a relative novelty, at least when it comes to marketing. Regardless, before you dub Mashable’s Lauren Indvik and I clueless media floozies, I think it’s worth noting that, as of this moment, the app has received 2437 5-star ratings… and 2407 1-star ratings. Suck on that one, cone head.
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Tags: app, augmented reality, iPhone
Media Social Studies 