Tag Archive for 'web-20'

Social Networking Profiling – The Missing Link Part 2

30
Jun
09

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By luis FREITAS [FullSIX Portugal]
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Mafia Wars - Facebook

In September 2007 we wrote an article about Browser based games. We showed you some examples and why they were growing – basically in a stresstetained world, users have less time to completely focus on full-fledged videogame. Browser based games were an intelligent and obvious solution to this problem as they would allow users to spend very little of their time on each login.
Two years later, we live on the Mafia rule. The article in question shows the rise to power of the Social Networking-based game Mafia, which spreads from Facebook to Myspace to the IPhone. The question that comes to mind is – although Browser Based Games were already strong, how do Social Networks helped them (in this case, the Mafia franchise) grow to a point where you can’t check your Facebook Notices without coming across a Mafia post?
Browser Based games took a natural evolution towards Social Networks due to their strong friend need component. Most of these games require the user to have friends in order to help grow your power – be it having more power in fights or gaining rare items, for example. Before entering the Social Networks, the users had to add users manually via e-mail addresses. Now you just post on your wall, broadcast to your friends or send massive invites and see how bites.
Not only is this, but the app itself is programmed to broadcast certain comments to users when you do specific actions. You can deactivate these posts via the app options, but most users will let it happen because they want other users to help them grow. It is a definite proof that, if it benefits the user and makes sense in the app nature, then they don’t mind letting brands or product communicate via their account.
Sure, it sounds obvious that this evolution was natural, but it doesn’t seem so obvious for some Brands who still aren’t dwelling on the Social Networks. The raw potential of users and their involvement can make wonders for a product or brand. Today Mafia is known by practically every user on Facebook – be it because they play on it or they have at least one friend who does. The bottom line is that they play Mafia, but Mafia also plays them.

#: Is your brand ready to stream itself?

29
Jul
08

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By olivier PEYRE [FullSIX USA]
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UPDATE: On August 15, 2008 The Trendwatch received a cease and desist letter from the lawyers of a company named Fricken, which states that Fricken owns a trademark for the term ‘brandstream’ so that neither The Trendwatch nor Fullsix are allowed to use that term. I’ve edited the post accordingly.

According to a Universal McCann report, content consumed outside of websites has increased by 153% in the last 9 months. Furthermore, 53% of online users are consuming content outside of a publisher’s site (using widgets, RSS readers, social networks and mobile devices). A pretty good example is Ford’s Digital Snippets: YouTube videos, images from Flickr, extensive usage of tags, RSS…

Just by looking at what’s happening in our (new gorgeous) Fullsix office in New York, we’re helping four of our biggest clients to dive into this. And most of the other ones are convinced that they should develop their own content outside of their brand site. So based on this very unscientific poll, I would say that YES, brands are ready!

I was stumbling upon the other day when I came across a certain video. This video, fan-made, was one of the most awesome stuff I’ve seen in a while. There are two reasons why – first of all, as a hardcore gamer myself, I couldn’t help but love to see my favorite familiar characters battling it out. But, in a second insight, I realised something far more deep – Generation C is already using certain concepts and symbologies that are considered to be “new” in a pre-web conception of reality.
The thing is that having a video focused on video game women battling it out might sound simple to the most, but in fact it retains a few aspects that are noteworthy:
- The amateur work around the 3D in this video is unbelievable, casting a shadow upon some million dollar productions I can think of (The Spirits Within, cough cough…);
- The use of women in a male-dominant cenario shows how the women’s role in this Generations conception is drastically shifting – none of them is bouncy or half naked – they are actually fighting it off in a “old fashion” manner;
- Most of the elements in the video are directed towards a hardcore videogame community, but most of them are already familiar. From Tifa using a Haste spell to Yuna’s drastic attempt to send a Mana potion, this might sound like something strange, but for this Generation these are familiar actions and symbols;
I could continue to describe the elements I think that are relevant, but this IS a sidenote. So the main focus of this sidenote is this – Generation C is already making path to a new Generation. Why so? Because certain elements that are “new” are becoming “old” – rapture is one of the key elements for a Generation shift. And taking into account how time is considered in the modern society, where Generation gap with only a few years difference, it’s not too soon to already start thinking about it. In a soon to come article, I will describe some elements that, when placed together, toggle the birth of a possible new generation. It’s not predicting the future, but yes provide some guidance into the path audiences are taking nowadays. And what is more important for a Marketer than to know his future target?
But for now, enjoy this inspiring video – it’s awesome!

By luis FREITAS [FullSIX Portugal], 0 Comments

UGC experiences – or how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb

14
Apr
08

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By thomas SARLANDIE [Backelite Paris]
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dell regeneration campaign

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.

Continue reading ‘UGC experiences – or how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb’

The Trendwatch does SxSW, Zuckerberg turns us wild

10
Mar
08

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By olivier PEYRE [FullSIX USA]
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Damon and I arrived in Austin, Texas, last Thursday to do our best to represent the Trendwatch Daily team and the Fullsix Group in THE Interactive Festival of the Year, SxSW (pronounced South by South West). It’s our first time here and we’re thrilled by the high quality of the speakers, from Jason Fried (Founder of 37 Signal) to Michael Lopp (Senior Engineering Manager at Apple). Topics are definitively super inspiring (Top 10 Lessons learned in e-commerce by Zappo’s CEO, Social Marketing Metrics Strategies…).

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The main event was expected to be the Mark Zuckerberg’s Keynote, CEO of Facebook, and we haven’t been disappointed. The auditorium was packed with a super-excited crowd, ready to listen to the 23-year-old billionaire speak about the social network site and the challenges encountered in the recent past (think NewsFeed, Beacon, Privacy, Openness…). But it didn’t go that well, because of a very weird dynamic between him and the over-friendly and egocentric interviewer, author and journalist Sarah Lacy. Questions asked were boring, and she was mainly interested about talking about herself and her upcoming book than trying to challenge Zuckerberg.

Members of the audience were quick to express their frustration, both online (Twitter and Meebo dedicated channel for SxSW) and in the room, someone shouting her “Ask interesting questions”, while even the young CEO was being annoyed by her self-oriented endless questions, answering with a mere : “OK”, “Sure” and finishing her with a “You have to ask questions”, since she kept telling uncomfortable stories about their first encounters. Which generated a huge cheer from the crowd, booing the famous journalist, forcing her to give up on the interview and, Digg-style, pass the microphone to the crowd for a (disappointingly) super short Q&A session where topics like data portability, application saturation and privacy finally got a chance to be discussed.

Tomorrow, on the menu: Going social now, Judo moves for defending your reputation online, and more taco/margaritas overdose. We’ll certainly come back to our respective offices with great topics to share with you here but also in the next issue of the Trendwatch Keynote. So stay tuned by subscribe to our RSS feed or our daily digest email for your inbox.

By the way, if you’re like my friend Sylvie who was waiting for the French version of Facebook, Sarah Lacy broke the secrecy and announced it in front of a shocked Zuckerberg that it would be released on Sunday night. Still not spotted on the site though.

If you’re in Austin and want to meet at one of the 20+ party tomorrow, leave a comment or drop us a line!

Gourmets finally meet Geeks, online.

20
Feb
08

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By olivier PEYRE [FullSIX USA]
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My obsession for great food goes beyond my brand new pasta machine. It also shows in my bookmarks bar. There is a plethora of websites to find recipes, and the new generation embraces the web 2.0ness. Here are my favorites:

MARTHA STEWART, THE MOTHER OF ALL

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She’s the Oprah of cooking and was once one of the most powerful women in the US, before being convicted of lying to investigators about a stock sale for which she had to serve five months in prison. She’s even bigger after a much publicized comeback at the head of a media and merchandising empire. The content of years of tips and recipes found in her magazines, books and TV shows are gathered in one site, while acting as a hub promoting all the goods under her name, sold at Kmart, Lowe’s, Macy’s…
I love the site’s refined design, the depth and quality of content, and the small and subtle touches of AJAX. And it adds to my homemaking cred.

TASTE SPOTTING, HIP AND INTRIGUING

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Started in 2007 by the NotCot team, the site acts like an aggregator of recipes found on different blogs and submitted by the readers. No complex search tool here, the user browse through a grid of gorgeous images until inspired by one of them, clicking on it to be redirected to the source blog. Surprisingly addictive.

COOKTHINK, THE ONE THAT LISTENS

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You just bumped into your sexy date on a date with another date, and decide to impress your girlfriends with some South American food based on the few ingredients available in your fridge. That’s basically what CookThink offers you. Browse the tag cloud and select all the relevant items. So that would be in this case consoling, Argentinian, chicken and onion. And you get… French Onion And Shallot Soup! OK, I guess that the search engine needs some fine tuning. Give chance another spin by clicking on “Almost… show me more recipes”, which is actually my favorite page on the site. I also dig the related tips, the Meal Builder and their blog.

OPEN SOURCE FOOD, THE SOCIAL SITE FOR HOME-CHEFS

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That one has a list of impressive features for a site developed by one guy! Recipes are user-generated, and “home-chefs” have a profile page that gathers submitted recipes, loved ones, comments posted by others… You can follow your favorite users to be updated when they post new dishes. A bit like facebook’s Activity Feed for gourmets, sans the retarded apps. Seriously impressive, convenient and well thought.

For a better World… The Social Tools’ True Purpose

14
Feb
08

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By luis FREITAS [FullSIX Portugal]
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Facebooks Causes

Social tools’ usage and potential are far from have been completely explored. This is a fact. Besides their original use – Social Networking for friend aggregation or Social Bookmarking for common bookmarks shared on a webpage – there are subsequent effects and results that have derived from the constant use and reinterpretation of social tools. One specifically comes as a result of peer pressure, generation Y and the Youniverse theory – the rise of a civic and social conscience on the Web.

Surely you’ve come across P. Diddy’s campaign “Vote or Die”. A political service group, Diddy’s group Citizen Change aimed at getting young people to vote. Exercising civic duties is a lost art on younger generations who grew under the influence of disappointed, entertainment driven parents whose disbelief in politicians and economical system influenced the younger people to just not care. Following the words of Bart and Lisa Simpson – “We’re the MTV Generation. We feel neither highs nor lows.” Well, they couldn’t be farther from the truth – this generation simply lacked the necessary tools and influential peer to actually push towards a more civic mind.. Continue reading ‘For a better World… The Social Tools’ True Purpose’

A Bit of Sanity on my Facebook Profile Page

21
Jan
08

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By carmen HEVIA [6&Co London]
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After reading about it for a while, this morning when I logged to Facebook, an extra layer in the layout opened, asking me if I wanted to move any of my 49 applications to an extended profile.

I have to say it’s easy and convenient; you decide the applications boxes that you want to keep or store, and your extended profile can be edited any time from your profile page.

How simple??? If only all things online could be this simple. Not wanting to go into a rant about complicated things, but I think Facebook have delivered that first building block of a solution to a problem, whereby if everything was approached in this way it would make the online world one of sheer ease.

I will try to adopt the Facebook “simplicity” model when proposing any online solution!

Social Network Profiling – The Weight Loss Chapter

27
Dec
07

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By luis FREITAS [FullSIX Portugal]
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Wow… I can actually weight how much turkey I ate!
When addressing Social Networks, most users consider the most “generic” ones such as MySpace, Facebook or Hi5. Although with different functionalities and approaches, the main focus of these Social Networks is the building of a friend database with multimedia elements – photos, videos, etc… But, besides these, there are Social Networks that actually serve a purpose besides satisfying some areas of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs – they are directed towards a common trait or goal that members of that particular website share and go one step ahead of “generic”. In the various examples I could mention, I decided that one that would be interesting is a Weight Loss SNW. Continue reading ‘Social Network Profiling – The Weight Loss Chapter’

Natural Evolution – The Top Ten Iphone Replacements That Microsoft Wants [PIC]

10
Dec
07

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By luis FREITAS [FullSIX Portugal]
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Interesting News…
Social Bookmarking Websites are definitely a trend – most of the techies/geeky receive a feed from one SBW every day, telling them what’s the new buzz, what’s the news with the Iphone in Yugoslavia or the best top 10 reasons to stop questioning your parents. But, with the rise of new competitors to the market that bring new added value, are SBW going down the same path Newspapers went – from source of news to shallow tabloids?. Continue reading ‘Natural Evolution – The Top Ten Iphone Replacements That Microsoft Wants [PIC]‘

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The TrendWatch:


The TrendWatch is the collective postings of some of the FullSIX Group’s designers, strategists, and consultants on new media and marketing trends. It is meant to be an impromptu think-tank, and is a way for us to share theories and beliefs about how we think communication and connectivity is evolving.

We work for The FullSIX Group; a leading full service marketing agency with digital DNA. From our 15 international offices with over 600 employees, we constantly embrace and encourage innovation to make integrated marketing and communication campaigns that are more accountable and efficient for our clients.

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