Location as Identity: Further discussions by the top dogs

Just watched this video from PFSK.com on Good Ideas in 2009. The very first idea discussed is right on with part of what I was talking about a few posts back.

"We're fascinated with how physical location is being blurred with virtual identity and virtual information." The ideas that follow are super cool, and though they have less to do with identity in "real life" than some of my examples, they discuss a lot about tying your online and offline lives and how GPS and location help support that marriage. The video is about 34 minutes but worth the time.

Also a great discussion of some really really cool applications that use GPS to provide you with new, better, and more relevant information. All exciting discussions because technology is starting to catch up with some of our ideas and now we can really push them forward. I wonder who's taking the credit for these innovations--the people who came up with ideas first, or the companies who are helping to realize them?

Love that they mention the importance of a meaningful brand communication, not just sending mobile coupons 24/7. THIS APPLIES TO ALL NEW MEDIA! More on that later.

Toshiba puts its hat in the ring

Just found this ad by Toshiba-- I think it's a pretty good example of something I've talked about here before: in the tech industry, often times the best way to get consumers to consider you is by drawing them in emotionally and then supporting them with the rational and technical information instead of vice versa. For example, the Sony Bravia campaign "Color like no other." I watched "Balls" and "Paint" and thought "Yup, got it."  This commercial has a similar strategy:

Not only is it a cool ad visually, but it reinforces the message that things are changing, technology is advancing, so don't you want to be with the company thats making those innovations happen? Truthfully, I've never thought about Toshiba this way, but they've given me cause to think about it.

I will say that it's not quite as strong strategically as it could be...it talks about sharp, clear picture and the "timesculpture" doesn't necessarily demonstrate this in the way that the Sony commercials demonstrate color, but it's still worth taking a gander at. And who's to say every had has to be rationally strategic? Sometimes finding a way to get eyes on the screen is strategy enough if the product sells itself. But that's a whole 'nother topic for another day...

A New Communications Model- Consumers are Changing the Conversation

In September I attended the Deepspace presentation on Modern Brand Building, where I heard from Paul Isakson, Adrian Ho, and Dion Hughes. During the presentations they each presented a number of different metaphors for brands and brand communications. But during the presentation a different idea came to me--a revised communication model, to reflect the way consumers communicate in this media environment.

I realized that oftentimes, we assume that the consumer is going to give us--the senders--feedback, when instead they're much more likely to share their thoughts with others, both good and bad. 

(Red lines are the traditional way, blue lines replace the bottom red line--these blue lines of communications result in WOM, blogging, Twitter posts, Facebook fan pages, etc)

Windo recently made mention here of these conversations, calling them "me-casting." He noted that these communicators may be influencers if brands come check out what these consumers are saying, but that's just the thing. I think that brands need to make an effort to seek out these opinions, and not just by giving them a place to share them. They're striking up these conversations with their friends, their peers, their co-workers and family. Comcast actually figured this one out and opened their ComcastCares Twitter account. I've personally benefitted from it and think it's pretty kickass.

Like I've said, I typically don't like brand metaphors and limiting models like these, but I think this added friction point needs to be added to the conversation around communication.

Sponsored Video Streaming: Is change a-comin'?

I mentioned in my last post of this series the lessons to be learned from the music industry, one of which was changing your mindset. I argue that this is absolutely critical, because consumers are already changing their ways. We need to be prepared to change with them, just learn how to corral their behaviors into ways we can also benefit.

Just yesterday I read this article from AdAge about how the cable networks won't be getting a site like Hulu anytime soon. David Sazlav, CEO of Discovery Communications, was quoted saying: "The cable channel business is a good business model, and we want to continue to be partners with distributors. We don't want to train [viewers] to watch our best shows on [free online] platforms. Most of our research shows if we move our content mostly in clips, we can create an environment where we can mostly satisfy our viewers with consumer content on other platforms but do it in a way that doesn't take away from our core business."

Just sayin', this is the most frustrating thing for people like me who really like to watch content online. I'll spend way too much time trying to find the whole thing only to discover my time was wasted.

Zaslav argues that the model doesn't need fixing just yet. But in this industry (and really any industry,) getting ahead means thinking ahead. Don't wait for necessity to force you into taking up strange bed partners. See this opportunity and grow with it.

Remember this? "The fundamentals of our economy are strong." Yeah. The people who hold onto the ship while it sinks are the ones that get sucked down once it finally submerges. Just jump.

Location as Identity

I've begun to notice a common thread in a number of new trends across multiple categories. As technology progresses, fashion expands, and shopping behaviors become more diverse, one thing seems to keep cropping up: location. People seem to treat their community, their home, as part of their identity. 

Bright Kite: Here users can upload pics from their phone, write a caption, and put the link up on their Twitter or Facebook accounts. When they do this, their location is tracked on the GPS and uploaded with the picture, bringing the viewers right to where the user is and helping users connect with each other online and in real life.

Urban Spoon application: Pretty simple. It finds you on GPS. It gives you the restaurants in the neighborhood you're in, instead of making you leave where you're at. Helps you support the community you love. (Of course you can still just change the neighborhood, but you get where I'm coming from.)

My Urban Rabbit Hole: These t-shirts are printed with city maps. The purchasers marks five locations that have special meaning with red permanent paint, "telling their stories through urban geography." 

Social Souvenir: This is a project through the Museum of Contemporary Art in Denmark, where 300 shirts were created with text fragments inspired by 15 of the artists featured in the museum. When purchased, the new owner has to offer up their name and address, and the "work" is then mapped on google maps. This is supposed to both share the art with the community, but also strike up community between the museum-goers. (Thanks PSFK for the tip!)

Buying Local: Huge trend, for a number of different reasons. But there is a huge sense of pride amongst folks buying local and support local businesses. Many of these businesses have started producing community-based badges to let these consumers reflect their passion, such as pins and bumper stickers.

There are many other examples of this, but these were the first to come to mind.

So what does this mean for advertisers? I think it means that more than ever, we need to be looking at subculture, at the little stuff instead of the big picture. We need to stop making easy assumptions based on age and race. We need to see what really matters to our consumers, and I think what matters to our consumers is very close to home.

Sponsored Video Streaming: How the Music Industry is Coping

In the last post in this series, I made mention of Napster and the parallel issues the music industry has faced. They've had the benefit (?) of beginning these battles much earlier, with Metallica making noise in 2000, and thus have already gone through many growing pains to reach some degree of maturity. I recall a time when even though I knew it was wrong, there was no way I was going to pay when I could get it for free...and yet here I am, with nearly $100 in  purchased songs and episodes in my iTunes library. 

The industry as a whole has found a number of ways to cope. First, strong partnerships with online music stores like iTunes gave consumers the opportunity to get their music the same way they've become accustomed to while still supporting the artists and labels financially. Second, they focused on the sales opportunities of merchandise and concert tickets instead of relying on disc sales. And third, and definitely most difficult, they changed their mindset. The industry listened to what their consumers wanted and they made it work for both of them, looking for how it could work to their advantage:

Myspace became a place to support artists and get the word out, while informing fans and soon-to-be-fans about upcoming shows and giving them the chance to purchase merchandise instantly. Download sites offered bonus songs for free when consumers signed up. Sites popped up like Daytrotter to let you hear live performances from artists to get hooked, then drive you to buy the full CDs. Pandora streamed free music, purchased from the label, and suggested to consumers who in turn can go buy the tracks. And the industry keeps moving forward, using apps and other new technology to continue giving consumers what they want without compromising sales.

So now the question is, how can the video entertainment industry learn from these lessons? They've already begun with providing episodes for sale on iTunes, investing in video technology on mp3 players, and supporting themselves with ad revenue, but what new revenue streams can they find? 

RELATED UPDATE- I felt like watching some TV this afternoon but there was absolutely nothing worth watching, so when I found that TRL was on, I decided to go with the throwback--I was in middle school when it first came out. I switched over and discovered that today's show is the second to last episode EVER. Besides the fact that TRL has totally changed over the years, do you think being able to find the videos online are part of why the show has lost traction?

UPDATE 2.0: Just found this post by Ed Cotton--great thoughts on some of the same stuff. Love the quote from Techcrunch about the music itself being the marketing. 

Fine, I give in--thoughts on the Sprint Widget

I first heard about the Sprint widget a few days ago at about 2am from a Google alert (I'm a Goodby Silverstein and Partners fan and I have a GSP alert--no teasing please) and was excited to find a little late night entertainment. I regret to say, however, that my initial response wasn't much more than a shoulder shrug and I deleted the email. 

But since those early morning hours, I can't seem to stop finding people talking about it, so I'm breaking and joining the discussion.

In favor of the work, I think Mike Kellogg did a beautiful job and certainly made each tiny space a part of the experience, which ended up keeping me playing with the widget much longer than I would have expected to have done. And in favor of the strategy, it directly relates this idea of "now" to measurable and entertaining bits of information, even if they aren't actually accurate or are based on annual (or longer) averages instead of actual up-to-"now" updates.

But my frustration with the piece is that they were so close to bring their strategy to life, and yet they missed the opportunity.  As you all probably know by now, I'm a big fan of adding value to the consumers. Tweeting back and forth with Paul Isakson, we discussed how the widget was alright but would have been significantly cooler if the features were more useful, which brings us to the big missed opportunity: If it had more useful features that were up-to-the-minute, people would be more apt to want the product for on-the-go internet. This would take the idea of "This is Now" and make it much more relevant to the consumer and the product, supporting a much more direct path to sales. 

Some may argue that they didn't have to make it about the product, that reflecting the idea of instant needs and instant knowledge is enough to support the "This is Now" campaign, which in turn would drive the sales, but I think that both the sales and the widget experience would improve with more useful features on the widget. Besides, just using that insight can open you up to getting lost in the category; there are a number of tech products that could have been promoted using this widget, so Sprint should make sure they get the most out of this extensive project and do what they can to hit it outta the park.