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You won’t start your weekend smarter thanks to this post, but hey, at least it should put you in a good mood to kick it off. Fallon has re-worked the award-winning ad to Total Eclipse of the Heart. Super efficient. Airing tonight on Channel 4 (UK) for the finale of Big Brother (I can’t believe they still have that show on!)
Weezer’s video of the song “Pork and Beans” is all about Virality. And it is viral itself, because it gathers just about every YouTube superstar out there and if you are one of the millions of people who saw these blockbusters, you will find it funny. You can download the video here if you’d like.
Go stupid, go crazy seems to be the moto. This is the kind of stuff that either impresses us or makes us laugh, not done with actors but with real people. The formula seems to work with either spontaneous or enacted videos.
Viral videos are a consequence of the liberation of the web, which began with the creation of free platforms that allowed the mass creation of written, composed, filmed, photographed work. Today’s users spend millions of hours viewing stuff other people uploaded. Maybe it is just a matter of human nature. We like to laugh at crazy stuff, at the ridicule. We even laugh at our own mistakes and life’s bloopers.
This is an ever growing spiral of user-generated information, and it’s getting better. Users are finally seeing what they really want and the one way information flux era is behind us.
And this is helping the Web in becoming more like us and a better place to hang around.
If you are a webdesigner and can’t find inspiration tonight, here a list a “100 beautiful blog design” gathered by hongkiat.com. I call it a complete list covering the importance of a great web interface: colors, font, attractive logo, text alignment, effective navigation, inspiratio, etc.
This link will be more appropriate for the developer, here James Lao build a script that helps you building an Ajax powered Shopping cart. You can download the source codes or just demo it if you are curious.
If you like the iTunes coverflow, and want to reproduce it on your site. On this site, you will find 10 great javascript sources to download. Those scripts are light and very nicely done.
Okay, i was really bored during Labor Day weekend… i was looking a site where it could explain how to solve a Rubik’s Cube. Once you get it, you can impress your co-workers on Monday.
This link will be very useful for the Google fanatics. If you want to become the ultimate Google user, this complete list of tips and tricks will make your life easier.
And to finish, if you are nostalgic, Youtube stores an awesome compilation of artistic videos of the greatest moments in Art (with the A Capitale). So to make sure you click this link, you will find John Coltrane performing ‘My Favourite Things’, Ella Fitzgerald duets with Dinah Shore, Oasis and Madonna’s first live performance, Jack Kerouac reading from On the Road! And more!
After keeping tech bloggers busy for Labor Day weekend, Google confirmed last night that it was about to launch a new browser, Chrome, based on Webkit, like Safari. Going very frontal with Microsoft for what is now the most crucial piece of software in a computer since we do more and more things on the web, from email, companies extranet, calendar, banking, social networking, spreadsheeting, word processing…
What’s gonna happen to Firefox if Google decides to pull the plug on supporting the Mozilla Fundation? Is the long tail of browsers long enough for Opera, OmniWeb, Flock, Safari with the arrival of this massive competitor? Expect highly integrated Google Services like Google Gears, a lot of Windows Blue® and hopefully, a browser reinvented from scratch, more adapted to what the web browser is today: an OS.
From Google’s official blog:
All of us at Google spend much of our time working inside a browser. We search, chat, email and collaborate in a browser. And in our spare time, we shop, bank, read news and keep in touch with friends — all using a browser. Because we spend so much time online, we began seriously thinking about what kind of browser could exist if we started from scratch and built on the best elements out there. We realized that the web had evolved from mainly simple text pages to rich, interactive applications and that we needed to completely rethink the browser. What we really needed was not just a browser, but also a modern platform for web pages and applications, and that’s what we set out to build.
On the surface, we designed a browser window that is streamlined and simple. To most people, it isn’t the browser that matters. It’s only a tool to run the important stuff — the pages, sites and applications that make up the web. Like the classic Google homepage, Google Chrome is clean and fast. It gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.
Under the hood, we were able to build the foundation of a browser that runs today’s complex web applications much better. By keeping each tab in an isolated “sandbox”, we were able to prevent one tab from crashing another and provide improved protection from rogue sites. We improved speed and responsiveness across the board. We also built a more powerful JavaScript engine, V8, to power the next generation of web applications that aren’t even possible in today’s browsers.
This is just the beginning — Google Chrome is far from done. We’re releasing this beta for Windows to start the broader discussion and hear from you as quickly as possible. We’re hard at work building versions for Mac and Linux too, and will continue to make it even faster and more robust.
We owe a great debt to many open source projects, and we’re committed to continuing on their path. We’ve used components from Apple’s WebKit and Mozilla’s Firefox, among others — and in that spirit, we are making all of our code open source as well. We hope to collaborate with the entire community to help drive the web forward.
I came across an article the other day that got me thinking for a while. It’s about the Google Effect - on reading and writing habits. A particular sentence haunted my mind when I first read it.
Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages. I get fidgety, lose the thread, and begin looking for something else to do. I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.
Why? Because it’s describing my reading habits. In the past, most people would be able to focus on a specific theme or subject and read about it for as long as their concentration would allow them. But Google created a system in which you are always compelled towards jumping to the next page, searching something deeper by clicking on a hyperlink on the text, or simply click the “Back” button because the first two lines of the article just didn’t interest you enough. So what is happening is that more and more people are becoming all around knowledge databases instead of specialists of a given subject - not only do the specialists are becoming more valued in the work marketplace but also brands are struggling to keep their audiences interested.
I could go on ranting on the subject, but the fact is that you already lost interest in the first paragraph. In case you didn’t, I recommend you thoroughly read the article in question - although long, it shows you the shift that Google is causing in our learning patterns. As a Marketeer, you should take that in account - you audience is becoming less concentrated and if you want to captivate them you should consider a strategic high-impact approach on the first contact they have with your Brand. Deepening the contact should come in an N-2 phase. Otherwise, you might have lots of page views - but a very little returning rate or page time, as your consumers will probably be clicking around somewhere else to jump to the next subject.
The other day, I saw an ad for Polo Ralph Lauren on the back of my NY mag, featuring one of those bar codes that I believed had never crossed the Japanese borders. Since I’m a sucker for marketing experimentations, plus I’ve been wondering about these for a while, I decided to give it a try. I grabbed the magazine and my iPhone, ready to dive in the wonderful world of real-life shortcuts to the Internet!
Unfortunately, I wasn’t so lucky. It took me 15 minutes to go from that ad to where Ralph wanted to take me. A quarter of an hour when I had to struggle with broken web pages and far-from-optimized layouts. For an insulting result… being sent to the site’s homepage! The 21 steps I had to take are detailed in the slideshow above.
I know, we need to be “educated” before actually seeing some interesting marketing applications, but you can only make one first impression. So please, marketers, if you want consumers to use new technologies like QR codes, make sure you make it effortless for us. Because it’s gonna take a while before I take a picture of one of these again! And dear people at Polo’s Interactive Marketing Department, if you need an agency that can develop a gorgeous, premium, advanced iPhone/mobile-optimized site, drop us a line and we’ll give you a sneak preview of a pretty awesome example we’re about to launch for one of our client!
Milan, end of August: the summer break has ended, and everyone is returning back to work. Slowly, the city is recovering its normal busy pulse. I don’t know about you, but for me the end of vacations, much more than New Year’s Eve, represents a new start and I’m more inclined to reflect upon what I normally do during the year, and especially about my job as a copywriter. Many words were spent on advertising until the onset of the 90s: in fact, before that decade, words could easily reach the 60% of total weight of an ad.
Nowadays images rule virtuallly unchallenged. A major exception arises when we deal with “digital brand strategy”, though, since interaction is involved. It’s about creating the right environment that nurtures opportunities for interpersonal exchange. Building relations with people online means engaging with reactions, emotions and conversations. In this case, writing becomes more essential than showing. To prove the enduring power of the written word, I’d like to share with you a video which is helping me find a fresh start for this year’s business season. It’s the story of a copywriter who with few strokes of the pen manages to transform the experience of another man. The director won the Cannes 2008 Online Competition.
New features in YouTube and Flickr enhance user experience and open new possibilities for advertisers.
In YouTube, for instance, now we can create stories with multiple plot choices, just like Samsung Canada did in a brilliant way (see above clip). Hats off for them for pioneering!
In Flickr, adding notes to pictures is pretty easy, and now advertisers can scan photo streams in search of images featuring their products, thus enhancing product placement and providing info on those products, prices and links to specific company website areas about that specific product, one step away from conversion!
So, it’s time to rewrite the chapter on online advertising. Now we all can explore the possibility of having still or filmed interactive catalogs on at least these two major Internet properties.
Like you, I’m one the hundred of millions to have followed Michael Phelps or Usain Bolt’s stunning performances during those three Olympic weeks. Between them, 11 gold medals and 10 world records in these games. Seriously, I don’t think we’ll see this happen again in the next decades.
So, question: “Who receives the biggest check?”
None of them actually. As the Olympics are closing on this Sunday, 24th, what we are really going to remember is that Digital gets Gold. And those performances helped Internet to get its biggest hits in the entire sports history.
Today one of the NBC commentators said that
“Millions were watching these Olympics on their mobile or online.”
Really?!?! Is that possible? As a very conservative person that believes TV’s content can never be viewed on a mobile. And so the other way around. Curious that I am, I did some investigations!
Officials at NBC have claimed “phenomenal” ratings for its digital coverage of the Beijing Olympics, with on-demand web-TV and mobile content.
Looking at the figures of NBCOlympics.com (partnering with MSN)
“has set records for uniques, page views and streams. It attracts an average of more than 6 million users daily, who stay close to 15 minutes per visit and spend 20 minutes when watching video” – NBC.
One GREAT news for Visa, Exxon, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and blablabla!!! And for the Phelps’s fans: Phelp’s profile is at the top in visits at NBCOlympics.com. This guy has also his own Facebook page, Amen!
Back to the serious stuff. Gary Zenkel, the president of NBC Olympics said in a statement:
“These record numbers validate our multiplatform strategy. They drive viewers to share in the Olympic experience on network television in record numbers,”; “And as a result of this unprecedented digital effort, consumers have a destination to watch thousands of hours of video and relive the great moments of these Olympics.” - NBC Universal, Inc.
NBC measured having “half a million unique visitors everyday on mobile, about half of which are accessing mobile for the first time. We see significant growth. We basically doubled our uniques two weeks after the day of the opening ceremonies (8/8).” - Washington Post
Great, I guess Gary is happy of his ROI. To remind the readers, NBC closed a deal at $1.5 billion for the exclusive rights of the 2006 Winter Games and 2008 Summer Olympics.
However, we now know Internet was a huge “stunning” success. But what happened to our old TV (or LCD TV for the luckiest)? TV still has vast majority of the viewing, but its share dropped from 95% to 92% as the volume of online viewing grew.
Research president for NBC Universal, said “the ratings are well ahead of the Athens games in 2004 and confirmed that the 2008 Beijing Olympics are the most viewed ever, with 114 million US viewers - NBCOlympics.com“. That makes +3.6% versus Athens’ 04.
So Online is taking a few market share from TV. But does it mean Online’s content is cannibalizing TV’s?
“No, no, no!” says NBC’s research. Indeed, with only 0.2% of its audience using the web only. I don’t see that happening. I’d rather assume that TV creates some interest and drives the audience to the Digital platform (computer or mobile). Most of this audience looking for some replays after missing an action or they have no other place to watch the games but from their workstation!
After the Olympics, it will be interesting to evaluate if people will continue to use their mobile more often as a multimedia platform. And this will also for sure depend on the amount of content available.
Photo courtesy of It’s el BOFO!!!!
Short background: a user posted a video on YouTube of what seemed to be a glitch in the Tiger Woods ‘08 game, allowing the player to stand on water. AE posted that video response. Genius.
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