When ad placements go wrong...

Perhaps the "Aflac duck" keyword group wasn't such a good idea...


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~ Kathryn

Why Twitter?

This video exemplifies exactly how I feel about Twitter right now.

Space!

Just a quick follow up to a post from a few weeks back. Fortunately, the space shuttle launch was delayed from launching a few weeks ago, due to the discovery of a fuel leak. I say "fortunately", because I would rather not witness astronaut-con carne.

Anyways, NASA TV should be an excellent place to hit-up over the next 2 weeks, as the astronauts go about their business installing billions of dollars worth of equipment to the space station (ooh, solar arrays- shiny!)

Already up is the launch from a few hours ago. So, take a look!

Edgy E4

Here's another example, this time of a website applying consumer interactivity and (successfully) targeting the Groundswell social technographics.

During my travels visiting English relatives, I have become all too familiar with all 4 of my Grandad's television channels. Two were usually devoted to news, cricket (like watching paint dry!), or a vast array of melodramatic soap operas, such as Hollyoaks or Eastenders. However, I found E4 to be the best bet for entertainment and have continued to follow many of their shows. It's definitley a bit edgy (are there any censorship regulations in England?!) and I consider it to be the "alternative" station. I was definitley a big fan of the ever-sensationalist Big Brother a few years back- something about the Geordie commentator made it that much more entertaining. But, to business!

The E4 website is an excellent example of a website that is trying to promote User-Generated Content. Indeed, viewers can create a profile of themselves, and are encouraged to upload pictures of themselves with cast members, comment/create blogs, download special MSN Messenger skins that allow for bonus access to show-related materials, create videos, and communicate with one another using comments. Moreover, they try to promote involvement with their shows, by allowing for people to recommend music to be included in the show, which often is! Lastly, they are involved in many social networking sites, such as Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. Just check out any of the TV show sections for a better look. Definitley a company that's ahead of the curve.

I imagine that this is proving to be a very cost-effective way to promote brand advocates of E4, and catalyze interest in their TV offerings.

Product Bollywood

Just found a great, new example of a Viral Video at work.



I think that one thing that could definitley be improved upon from this is a direct linkage to the T-mobile site from the youtube site. Although it is aptly titled "The T-Mobile Dance" and there is spotty product placement and I don't think the linkage is very clear.

Interesting to see a company start to capitalize on the success of "freezing" videos, such as those done by Improv Everywhere (see video below), which have popped up online within the past year or so. It will also be interesting to see if this business application will drive interest in the product, or simply interest in how it was all orchestrated!

Happy Valentines, Internet!

Interesting study published by Reuters that indicates that people may be in a more serious, long-term relationship with the Internet than their romantic partner.

"In a survey by German broadband association Bitkom around 84 percent of respondents aged 19-29 said they would rather do without their current partner or an automobile than forego their connection to the Web...

Bitkom said 1,000 people had taken part in the survey, and one in two people said they had made new friends thanks to chat forums and Internet communities. Around 8 percent said they had found a new partner thanks to online relations.

"The Web creates real relationships and does not result in autism and dehumanization," said Scheer, who admitted he gets nervous when he does not have Internet access while on vacation".

Perhaps this is an an indication that increasing website interactivity and connectivity tools may be increasing the value that consumers place on the Internet. Certainly, offline companies who have been hesitant to get into the online marketing arena may want to take note, and try to harness this powerful medium.

Now, I wonder what an Internet break-up might look like....

Brace for impact!

More changes are coming to Facebook, and we all know how that went down last time.



If there ever was a virtual riot, that was it.

Apparently, the new layout and technical changes are being made to better compete with Twitter in terms of real-time status updates, as this article will tell you.

"The new-look home page, which will start rolling out on March 11, will refresh the status updates of friends and family as they happen, rather than every 10 to 15 minutes, as is currently the case.

It will make Facebook more like the Twitter microblogging service, which allows users to communicate with one another in real time in messages of 140 characters or less."

Also, the 5000-friend limit is being removed, which I know was a *real* problem for me. The article suggest that celebrities and other public figures who are looking to connect with fans and supporters may benefit from this new development, although all I've heard about celebrities who use facebook are the hackers who post their private messages/pictures.

However, the fact that Facebook is more prominently displaying that changes are coming in a "Home" page announcement is probably a lesson well-learned from last time. Indeed, the changes don't occur until March 11th, which may leave nay-sayers enough time to get used to the idea, and spare us all from developing "Protest against the new facebook!" facebook groups (which seemed rather contradictory to me).

It'll be interesting to see what the response is, and if Facebook takes any other measures to keep the peace amongst its users.

Why am I here?

There's good news for all of us who have sat in class, sleepy-eyed and bored to tears and asked ourselves just this.

Read a recent article in the Globe and Mail the other day, which led me to this article about how students who download podcast lectures actually score higher than those who attend the actual lecture!

"A class of 64 psychology students was divided into two groups. The first attended a regular course lecture and the second only listened to a podcast of the lecture. All students received printouts of the PowerPoint slides used in the lecture.

The results showed significantly higher scores (71 percent average) on an exam of the course material for students in the podcast group. Those who attended the in-class lecture scored 62.5 percent. Scores for students who took notes during the podcast lecture rose to 77 percent."

One of the key reasons for this, they suggest, is that students can repeat the material, whereas in the real lecture, the material is only available once. Certainly, it would seem that this could be applied to all sorts of learning material- employee training programs, web-conferences, and other information resources. Also, it may a good way to complement current educational programs in high school or elementary school, especially with the increasing size of classes and higher student-to-teacher ratios.

Certainly an interesting find, but I would definitley be hesitant to shell out $600 CND tuition for a class taken via an audio podcast, if that is where this development may lead!

Still, one more reason to sleep through lectures! Although, good luck passing Calculus.

Hulu-huh?

Might be a bit behind the curve on this one, but just saw a recent advertisement for Hulu. Hulu is a free online video service, where you can watch television shows, and is a joint venture of NBC and NewsCorp.

Now, I found the advertisement a little confusing- take a look:



To me it seems like they are trying to reign in "illegal" (that's still a bit of gray error to most of us) downloading by offering a service for which they've most likely arranged compensation for those involved in developing the TV show. However, at the same time, it seems as though they are also trying to promote a state of cognitive dissonance within the watcher. Indeed, that watching Hulu is part of an alien plot at domination, which promoted a feeling, within me at least, that I should NOT be watching TV online. Just found it interesting that it would be promoting itself with a bit of a bad spin about watching TV online.

Interestingly, this is a Super Bowl commercial, so perhaps it was just trying to be edgy. But, I think it may also be trying to put people off watching TV online, and watching it on TV instead, but at the same time saying that if people MUST watch TV online, that they should do it at Hulu.

I'm sure confused- we'll see how it works out.

What IS your favourite colour?

Found this really interesting study conducted by one of my favourite professors, Juliet Zhu. The study centered on the effect of colour on behaviour.

They found that red groups did better on tests of recall and attention to detail, like remembering words or checking spelling and punctuation. Blue groups did better on tests requiring imagination, like inventing creative uses for a brick or creating toys from shapes. Indeed, the color red appears to make people’s work more accurate, and blue can make people more creative.

In term of pratical applications, the study also tested responses to advertising, finding that advertisements listing product details or emphasizing “avoidance” actions like cavity prevention held greater appeal on red backgrounds, while ones using creative designs or emphasizing positive actions like “tooth whitening” held more appeal on blue.

Certainly this discovery could be heavily utilized in e-marketing, and the selection of backgrounds for product/service websites. Indeed, if consumers can be primed to be more detail oriented, perhaps a red background will increase the likeliness of performing detailed product comparisons, and noticing the distinguishing characteristics of a product.

Definitley an interesting find, and one which can be easily integrated into e-marketing communications!

Our Economy is Going Down Under...

Looks like e-marketing could be more heavily utilized with our entrance into an economic downturn.

An Australian survey conducted by WebTrends showed that Australian businesses "(have) found that 48 percent of Australian businesses surveyed consider internet marketing a key component to overcoming the challenges faced by the economic downturn. The report also finds that 68 percent of Australian respondents believe that more sophisticated web analysis would boost online sales."

As a result, Australian internet advertising will see increases of up to 9.7 per cent, according to a recent report by Aegis Media.

Perhaps this will spur the development of improved web analytic tools, in order to negate the high risk that is often associated with online marketing, due to a failure to reach the desired target audience. Indeed, there is a significant amount of information to be had, but there needs to be the e-marketing infrastructure to support listening to consumers, and identifying which consumers to listen to, in the vast domain of critics and creators.

Keeping a Heads Up

As I began preparing for my E-marketing class tomorrow (it happens), I stumbled across (and by stumbled, I mean deliberately searched for "Listening to consumers, e-marketing") this article regarding listening to consumers.

Interesting to hear about Online Reputation Management (reputable enough for itself for an acronym- ORM!) which allows companies to be gather any online mention of the company. The article points out the importance of being able to monitor how consumers are perceiving the brand, as any negative information can be spread to many, many people within only a short period of time. In fact, the article states that "Forrester research has found that 25% of consumer respondents said they trusted the opinions of fellow consumers above all other forms of media referrals or advertising".

Utilizing Quirk's ORM, one can comprehensively gather online mentions of a company and channels them to a dedicated team to measure the relevance, credibility and impact of each mention. From there, a company can quickly respond appropriately to any "brand attacks" or "haemorrhage of customers".

Interesting to see how these new management tools are emerging as the shift to Web 2.0 continues. But, I wonder how effective it would be for a company, such as Microsoft, whose mentions are likely in the tens of thousands each day, and whose brand is well established. Perhaps this is likely suited to smaller companies, who are establishing their brand value and require more feedback to suss out any potential weaknesses or misconceptions with their product or service.

From Outer Space! (Or, 350 kms above Earth)

I'm definitley staying true to my albino-like skin tone from this next post, so beware. But, I find this very, very cool.

So, I've always LOVED space in a "I want to be an astronaut, until I realized in Grade 11 that I was slightly claustrophobic" kind of way. When I happened upon NASA's website around 5 years ago after watching a space launch, I was amazed at what I found. At the time, streaming video was still in its infancy, with lengthy buffering times and diluted pixels. But, not here. No, not only did NASA have excellent streaming video, it had LIVE coverage of it's space operations 24/hours...from SPACE! Yes, you are privy to all the conversations shared between Mission Control and astronauts in the space shuttle, as well as all interesting activities aboard the space shuttle. This includes watching/listening to astronauts performing space walks, dicey docking manuevers, incoming S-turns as the shuttle glides to Earth...am I losing you? And, today, the NASA TV function has only improved, with various multimedia for Educators, Students, Employees, and so forth.

For a program that is often critized for the amount of funding it receives (although most astronauts only make $50K a year!) I feel that this level of web presence and accessibility provides an excellent communication tool, and allows viewers to interact and engage in activities that promote its program, and will hopefully "fuel" its continuation.

The next space shuttle mission is scheduled to begin Feb. 12th, and I implore you to check out NASA TV over its 2 week duration, and see it for yourself!

It's An Obama-nation!

Just perusing the daily e-marketing news, and found an interesting article on the complete revamp of the Whitehouse.gov website. Not too long ago, our e-marketing class was discussing how Obama was the first presidential candidate to successfully utilize the internet to connect with voters, and as one might expect, it seems that he will continue to be the first president to utilize the internet to connect with the American people- so much so, that his administration is now being termed as the first "internet presidency". Moreover, he/his White House minions have made the addition of a blog to the new website- perhaps not only to keep the public informed, but to give a level of accessibility that has never been attained before. In addition, it will likely provide a useful feedback mechanism and medium.

Although, seeing "The White House" and "Blog" in the same line seems a strange combination, I feel that this a very progressive move, and a good continuation of Obama's strategy to harness the power of the Internet.

To see the new website, and blog check out The White House Blog .