Now this is interesting. It’s kinda like Twitter for email. Shortmail hopes to save us all from email for forcing us to keep all email messages under 500 characters! Personally, I believe that restrictions can inspire efficiency and creativity (remember, Sgt. Pepper’s was recorded on a 4-track!) Email is out-of-control; each of my 10 accounts have inboxes with over 200 messages that I don’t have time to read, let alone organize. Why would I want to read any more than 500 characters anyway? However, as Shortmail critics proclaim: by restricting us to many, short conversations, aren’t we just adding to the noise? Using Shortmail, it might take me 3 or 4 emails before I can communicate what I could in just 1 email – maybe? Still, I think the idea has potential – just might not be for everyone, in every situation.

Whew, last week was a busy one; I’m calling it my “PR Road Show.” It centered mostly around the AppNation conference in SF, but also included a trip to Facebook, a panel on Native vs Web mobile apps, and numerous parties.

Facebook.
Met with some very cool people at Facebook’s new HQ to discuss programs/plans for communications with agencies as well as tightening our technology relationship. Man, they have a great cafeteria. Google’s is much bigger, but the food at FB seems more healthy.

Mobile Marketing Panel: Native Apps vs. Mobile Web.
I spoke on a panel, moderated by AppNation founder, Drew Ianni, which raised the question: “Are Apps Just a Stop Along The Way To The Mobile Web?” I’m a huge fan of building web apps for mobile devices. Back when the iPhone first came out (literally, the week it came out) I was playing with the iUI framework and convincing clients to create we-based iPhone experiences. After the AppStore came along, the mobile “apps” didn’t seem so “hot” to people – but, they are making a come back! However, I still feel that discoverability for web apps is a key factor in their success; so, I’m not sure we are quite “there” yet.

AppNation
It was my second AppNation – this time I spoke on a panel (“The Rise of the Creative Technologist”). Like the last event, this year’s show was full a good info and great people. One of the things I enjoy the most about this conference, and what seems to set it apart from others, is the focus on business (vs. development or design). For example, it’s quite amazing to be able to hear top VCs get up and talk about how they see things from their side (how often do you hear that?)

Well, not exactly. I saw this headline and, being a musician myself, I immediately got concerned: Is the value of music about to drop even further than it already has? As others reading this article have stated, the headline sounds like Apple is about to give users the ability to download all the music they want (likely for a free). However, that’s at all what is happening. In reality, the goal here is just to allow customers who have already purchased a piece of music the ability to still “own” that music if they ever replace their current listening device. Currently, when I buy a song from the iTunes store, using my laptop, that piece of music is only available to me on that specific laptop. If I were to buy a new computer, and I wanted to play that same song, I’d actually have to re-buy it through iTunes. Lame! I think everyone has been frustrated with this. So, the goal here is to remove this obstacle.

http://mashable.com/2011/03/04/apple-unlimited-itunes-music-downloads/

My wife, Sonia, is a huge fan of the group-buying site, Groupon. I think the concept/business model is really interesting and I joined it myself. The idea, if you’re not familiar with it, is simple: if enough people purchase a coupon for a deal at a local business, then the entire “group” of buyers, get the deal; group buying! Businesses work with Groupon to craft the deal. For example: if 50 people buy a coupon for my service, I can offer it to all of them for 75% off. The Groupons must then be redeemed within a certain period of time (i.e. one month.)

Bargain-hunters are getting a great deal, and the business is getting new customers (and hopefully also making a profit – although this is one of the issues in question.) Groupon then takes 50% of the profit from the deal. So, if the business makes $100 from the customer (after the deal), Groupon takes $50 of that.

I recently spoke to my friend, who owns a restaurant and just tried Groupon for the first time. He had some interesting feedback on the experience, which seems to mirror what other small business owners are saying. First, he said the response from using the service was much, much bigger than he had expected. He said they had expected to barely get enough buyers to make it work, but actually exceeded that threshold within just a few hours!! The response was amazing, and now they had an army of new customers on their way to the restaurant.

But, here is where the troubles come in. Yes, he got a huge number of people buying coupons for his restaurant, but, he had no idea when any of these people would be coming in to redeem their deal. He found that the sudden, random “rush” of customers became overwhelming and difficult to deal with. As well, he said that the overhead required just to keep track of who was coming in, whether or not they had a valid coupon (vs. a fake or copied coupon), was very time consuming and unexpected. He mentioned that he found that the people who used the Groupon service, tended to be “cheap” people only interested in a one-time deal. In his words, these customers tended to complain more than usual customers and he has yet to see any of them return for another meal. To add to all this, he said that after Groupon takes their 50% cut of the profits, he barely broke even on the deal!

So, too much overhead required to manage the service and handle customer demands + lack of returning customers + no profit = he will not use the service again.

Since joining 2 months ago, I’ve honestly become quite annoyed with the endless spam that I get every single day, for deals like “50% off Pet Grooming” (I don’t even own a pet). However, I’ve probably not paid enough attention to how I set up my profile, to set my interests, etc. Sonia, and many of her friends seem to love the service!

All this said, I still believe that group buying is a very interesting idea; if someone can get this model down right, it could turn out to be something really valuable for everyone.

More info here.

I’m back from presenting at the AAAA Conference in Miami. Dang that place is hot – 90 at 11pm at night? Whew. I presented along with AKQA Group Planning Director, Kelli Robertson. Our presentation, entitled, “Emerging Technologies Can Create Powerful Brand Experiences” focused on a number of new technologies and how to use them to help create/inspire new marketing ideas. It can be difficult to present new technologies with the idea of pushing creative potential, without appearing too “gimmicky:” technology for technology sake – if you know what I mean. It is the great idea that leads over any new techie trend, however, just as a paintbrush and a canvas influences a painting, technology can inspire and enhance a creative vision. That said, we wanted to show new technologies, and then explain how they could be used within a marketing context.

As the audience was primarily non-technical marketing folks, we kept things high level and divided our talk into two main areas:
Location-based marketing: Serving up unique content to a user based on his/her phyisical location.

• GPS (new iPhone, Jotyou.com, loopt.com)
• Triangulation for Non-GPS Devices (Google’s MyLocation)
• Bluetooth broadcasting
• RFID (McDonald’s Japan, Mini)

Everyone can play

• Google’s Open Social
• Augmented reality (Total Immersion)
• Radiohead Lasers: DATA, it’s all about the data!

Actually, the Radiohead example got to the heart of what I wanted to get across: DATA. It sounds so “un-sexy”, but it is the ultimately where the creative power lives. The idea of being able to use a single data source to manipulate and create new “views” (presentations) of this data, is, in my opinion, the way to really begin to harness the power of technology for new innovative ideas. More on this in my next post!

There is an interesting Forbes article on using the power of the Crowd for developing mobile application ideas. As explained in the Nokia example below (which is similar to Nike+), it’s interesting to see how the company’s initial idea for the application was overshadowed by what the community ended up doing with it. Nothing too shocking there, but now many companies are approaching service/product ideation from the reverse: allowing the community to uncover and define the concept before fully developing it and “releasing” it to the masses. Similar to social networks, the Google approach to Software Development (permanent beta) and, in essence, kind of how the whole Internet itself was born. Makes me wonder if we all are just thinking too much.

How could this approach be cultivated to the point where it becomes a full fledge development process and business model? I wonder if the developers in the “old” days of shrink-wrapped software, ever could have imagined a company (like Google) who releases Beta versions of their products to world….often keeping them in “beta” phase for years as they work out the bugs with their customers. Perhaps a future of software development will push a large portion of the concept of the application out to the community: to work out the kinks of the idea. Wouldn’t the social network be the ripe place for this? Targeting specific applications to specific communities to help refine the final purpose. Of course you would really need to have your foundation together; it may be hard to secure VC funding for a bottomless idea. It would be like the Seinfeld of software: “We got an idea for an application that does nothing!”

“Crowds are now being tapped to develop mobile applications before they reach consumers.”

“Nokia’s Sports Tracker application enables runners and cyclists to record and share their workouts on a map-based software system. The initial concept, called “Personal Best,” aimed to allow individuals to track their sports performance for personal use. But athletes began using it to network with one another, creating more of a community feel. Since April 2007, Sports Tracker has been downloaded more than 1 million times.”

“The next step is to apply crowd sourcing to reservations, commuting and shopping–any activity that involves a shared resource. Crowds could share information about seating at football games, waiting times at airports and special sales at local stores. Once mobile payments become more popular, phones could even transmit sales data to let users know where they could buy a particular item for the lowest price”

http://www.forbes.com/technology/ebusiness/2008/06/16/
smart-mobile-apps-tech-wireless08-cx_ew_0616smart.html

This has potential for a lot of interesting connections between mobile and online advertising: I can create (Flash-based) ad units that live anywhere, and allow users to get related mobile content directly onto their phone simply by entering their mobile number into the unit. Pretty cool. Not only speeds up the experience, but also blurs the line between the online world experience and “that” mobile world. We could relate the ad content directly to the mobile content. It would be great to start a game online, and then, when you need to go, you can grab it and finish it on your mobile.

In an industry-first, Flash-based “Online2Mobile” ad units streamline the process for acquiring of mobile content by eliminating the need for consumers to enter their mobile carrier, device make and model, or having to click through to a microsite; To begin downloading the Rogue advergame or wallpapers to their mobile handsets, consumers simply enter their mobile number directly into the ad unit and click “submit.”

MangoMOBILE created a series of online ad units that empower consumers to download “Rogue-themed” content for the Nissan Rogue Crossover Vehicle, including a fully-branded advergame, directly to their Mobile Devices.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/prnewswire/LATH00311102007-1.htm

Thanks again to Rick Mathieson for providing the source for this sweet info!

I am a big fan of Rick Mathieson; I read his blog regularly and re-use (steal) a lot of what he says, for inspiration. Recently he posted something about Mobile Ads that really captured my attention; mostly because the gist of the article touched on what I believe is going to happen in the digital (marketing) world: More useful, relevant “tools” – that are likely data-driven(think web service model) – and create engaging experiences and provide value back to the user. (Has Google written all over it). This, instead the more traditional, static (think broadcast, rasterized graphics, heavy video), fancier, flashier, ads we have come to know the ad biz to be. This does not mean that things like video and animation and great design will go away at all, just that the focus will be to use these in conjunction with real, dynamic data/content.

As the article below points out with regard to Mobile, I think the same will be mirrored on the web and will continue grow with all the free/cheap “Web 2.79z” (or whatever) services that give us access to data and applications like never before. According to the Programmable web, a new web service API was released every day so far this month!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/17
/AR2007081701164.html

Saturday’s Washington Post features a story on how brands like Nokia and McDonald’s are moving away from push-style text and display ads to what can be more accurately described as mobile apps that enable consumers to (for example), find the nearest restaurant outlet or retail store. Other apps are unrelated to a brand, but sneak in a branded nugget, ala Yahoo’s mapping service and combines search and location-based mobile technology. Enter a keyword or search, and advertisers registered on Yahoo’s database pop up as features on the digital map.

HP, disenchanted with Web-style advertising transplanted to the mobile medium, is looking at a major new mobile launch next year along these lines. As Craig Davis, worldwide chief creative officer for JWT tells the post: “We should all by now (know) that doing boring TV ads aren’t much appreciated….Doing annoying things is no way to seduce people that your brand is for them.”
-Rick Mathieson

I will be presenting at the FITC Hollywood Oct. 22,23. I will be talking about one of my favorite projects, the multi-channel Palm Treo project: Mobile controlled kiosk/digital billboard and website. Along with the specifics of the project, I will be exploring the dynamic between the various parties involved in producing complex multimedia creative and technology solutions.

http://www.flashinthecan.com/presentation_detail.cfm?
festival_id=21&presentation_id=549

“In this presentation we will look at some recent work from AKQA including the Palm onTreo Digital Billboard and Website. This multi-channel project integrated video production, Flash development, web services, mobile, a physical installation, and Print design. We will discuss the creative inspiration, the development process and the challenges we faced, focusing on the workflow between the various team members. What did we learn about the technologies, the process, team collaboration and how to manage all the moving parts?“