In my last post, I talked about the dangers of user-generated content and asked you how you felt about UGC and how we should use it. Your replies allowed me to dig deeper into this subject.
There have been quite a few sucessfull UserGeneratedContent campaigns these last few years, and the first lesson I learned is that each UGC campaign is a different experience.
You know how much we love user generated content, and how much it is changing marketing.
UGC sets new problems for brands: how to control what consumers will say under my name? how to react to abuses?
In 2004, an unknown NYC traveler managed to change an electronic sign to read: Pretty girls don’t ride the subway. An early attempt to engage in conversation? It took a few hours before the sign was actually unplugged and this message lost.
South California saw a more obvious form of abuse when a “graffiti artist” somehow managed to set his own trademark imagery on huge digital highway billboards (see above).
Those offline examples, remind us that abuses are not new, and not specific to the web; but the growing importance of Internet and the fast spreading of information online can turn the work of a simple graffiti artist into a marketing crisis.
How many brands have really opened the door to UGC on their website? How do they control it?
How much risks is your brand ready to take in order to enjoy the benefits of user generated content?
Since last october and the annoucement of Flash Lite 3 by Adobe, there has been a lot of buzz around this new technology and what it means for mobile web.
Flash Lite’s main challenge is to reach a critical percentage of device coverage … over half a billion devices shipped so far, thanks. More important is the future: Will Flash Lite reach the same level of ubiquity it has on the web today?
Last week a joint announcement made by Adobe and Microsoft that Flash Lite will be integrated into Windows Mobile is a major step forward.
On Apple’s side, things are more confused …
Steve Jobs said two weeks ago that Flash is not the right solution for the iPhone. The Adobe CEO announced last week that they would start working on it themselves … and changed his statement a few hours later because Apple’s SDK license will not allow them to distribute a Flash Lite plugin for the iPhone.
A battle is raging, and there is so much buzz going on that it seems pretty likely that Flash (or Flash Lite) will make it on the iPhone soon.
With or without Apple, Flash Lite will change the mobile web, and mobile advertising. New ad-formats are being prepared and will be launched in Europe before this summer. They use Flash Lite to provide full-screen interstitials ads and sponsored mobile videos. Expect more from us soon…
15 years ago (on 3 December 1992) the first text message was sent from a computer to an handset in Vodafone labs.
Since then, text messages have changed our lifes.
All around the world new words and expressions appeared. Early Internet users knew how to save key strokes with shortcuts like “brb” ; text messages gave it a name : SMS language. New language introduced new habits, and text messaging became in a few years a very important part of seduction. In 1997, french rapper Mc Solaar sung: “Times are changing // Pick up! With a cellphone”.
SMS allowed new type of business services to emerge. Alerting gives customer information they need, wherever they are. It has been applied to many contexts: stocks alerts, delivery notification, breaking news, etc. More services are coming: Texting money is now possible in the US, northern europe and quickly spreading in the rest of the world.
And of course, text messaging is a very successful advertising channel: the only marketing channel that allows a brand to talk with a customer at a precise time with a very personal message that has an opening rate over 90%.
What next?
SMS is also a huge source of revenue for carriers all around the world, and they have been fighting very hard to protect it.
Experiences in Africa have shown that instant messaging can replace text messaging, it is probably just a matter of time. Now you have figured out why there is no instant messaging in iphone …
Christmas is coming and like many Internet addicts you are desperately searching the web for presents. Some say it is nice to go out for christmas shopping. Christmas shopping is also a fun thing to do from your computer.
Anyway, out in the street or online, finding presents that reflect your personality is always a challenge (picking out of amazon dads top 10 was never trendy …).
There is so much content available online from you and your friends: Why not use that content to do something original?
This year has seen many new services show up that allow you to turn digital content into physical form. The idea is not new: online photo printing is an old story, but the possibilities are expanding.
Have you yet started a moo cards collection? Get some funny pics and turn them into lovely, high quality, original cards.
Remember that photo book that you bought last year for your parents and that is still unwrapped? Start iPhoto ’08 on your Mac and under a few hours you will be ordering your own “nice book” (allow a few weeks for delivery). Dont own iWork ’08? Blurb is available for PC and Mac.
If you do not want to spend that time working on your own book, Lulu will let you search through user uploaded books and buy them (self-publishing).
Just give me a way to publish my Google Sketch Up 3D creation and I will give you a wonderful christmas!
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