Social Media blog

E-Money?

2009-05-27T11:20:00.000-07:00

Wired has an article that poses the idea of a completely cashless society. The article heralds the benefits of getting rid of paper money and coinage, to instead, go all-digital.

The idea of all-digital money sounds awesome. As is, I hate cash. I never have it, and when I do have it, I spend it. On the other hand, converting to all digital money might make it easier to spend money. Look at the credit cards, and how much fun we already have with not real money.

To me, there is something being able to hold my money, or valuables. I don’t know that I’d completely trust digital money. I feel like the ability to pirate, or hack or even (gasp) computer glitch would be too high for me.

Especially with our economy in the crapper, I’m interested to see where real money, and emoney will end up in the future.

Oprah's on twitter!

2009-04-20T09:54:00.000-07:00

Oprah is finally on Twitter!

I blogged earlier that Ms. O was seriously absent from the social media train. Now I'm happy to see that she's finally getting on board.

To me it only made sense that one of the most influential people in the world, should be using social media to her advantage, and it was surprising that she was not.

Although Ashton Kutcher may have reached 1 million followers before Oprah, she was a late bloomer and I'm sure she'll reach that in no time!

Skype for the iPhone

2009-03-31T09:44:00.000-07:00

Skype has arrived for the iPhone. Initially, when hearing about this, I imagined scenes from “The Jetsons,” where video conferencing becomes the norm. Unfortunately, it is not so. The current Skype app lets you talk via Skype to Skype calls on the 3G network for free, or make calls to land lines or cell phones at a discounted rate. However, the video feature is not yet available.

Although, once it does become available, there might be some problems with the older generation iPhones. For instance, the camera is on the back of the phone, but the screen is on the front, so you would only be able to see/chat by flipping your phone around every minute. I’m holding out for the June iPhone release, hoping for a camera on the same side as the screen on the iPhone and hope Skype updates their app.

Is Boxee right?

2009-03-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

Boxee is gearing up to piss off television networks. Boxee is free software that allows users to watch Internet content on their televisions. The reason this is upsetting to television networks, is because there are free services like “Hulu” or iTunes-which isn’t free, but is very cheap to download an episode. The networks are concerned that people are going to stop watching real time TV, even more than they already are tuning out with Tivo and DVR devices. This will further diminish the ad dollars, and then the networks won’t be able to fund the shows.

So let’s talk about the ethics of all of this. Is this wrong? I don’t think so. Boxee is free now. My guess is that at some point when it becomes a necessity-it will probably start charging for its services. Also, all that this is doing is helping the inevitable switch to digital programming move faster. I think that television networks instead need to figure out how to monetize online content.

The good, the bad and the ugly of social media.

2009-03-18T12:58:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of examples of good social media, social media gone bad-and ugly social media efforts.....

The good: Rachel Harris and her website: http://www.iwanttogotonotredame.com/
As a result of her social media tactic, inspired by Barack Obama’s utilization of web technology during his campaign, Harris has already been featured on various news outlets: Detroit Free Press, Muskegon Chronicle, USA Today, WZZM 13 News Channel, NBC2 Fort Myers, FL affiliate. Hopefully, Harris’ social media campaign will help her get the $46,000 a year that she needs for tuition.

The site and effort is ingenious, however Harris should continue to expand her efforts onto twitter, a facebook page and maybe an online blog/diary tracking her efforts throughout school. Harris should also rethink her major to PR/Communications instead of pre-med.

The bad: Mistrials as a result of iphones.

More and more jurors are looking to outside sources for information. With the popularity of iphones and blackberry’s, jurors only need to reach to their pocket to do their own independent research. Although jurors might think that looking up traffic routes, or other information on their own to inform themselves and develop their own ideas is a good idea-it in fact is hindering the judicial process. Not only is it illegal, but also it is resulting in mistrials.

The ugly: The new Facebook. I know. Facebook is trying to be more like twitter-but I personally think it’s ugly and now the home and the friend pages are sort of redundant.

Privacy and cameras-is there privacy anymore?

2009-03-12T08:17:00.000-07:00

Imagine that you are talking to somebody. As any good conversationalist, you know to make eye contact. Now, what if that eye you were trying to connect with was actually recording every move you made and every word you said?

With everyone worried about privacy these days, from identity theft, to Facebook owning your own personal profile, privacy is on the mind. And rightfully so. Technology is moving faster than the speed of light-which is great, but also brings some ethical concerns.

One example of privacy and technology clashing, is the creation of the eye camera. No, not the iCamera, the e-y-e camera.

A guy (Rob Spence), with one eye who had been using a prosthetic for most of his life, is now going to experiment with some new technology by making a prosthetic eye that also digitally records with a camera.

To me, it’s brilliant. And Rob wants to use this technology for good: to make a documentary about the rising privacy concerns of surveillance cameras.

I think it’s cool. You could use the eye camera to get more realistic point of view stories, or spy stories. Suddenly the cell phone that 007 used that turned into a stun gun seems lame.

Either way, the eye camera is fascinating to me, and I can’t wait to see what other body parts we can turn into digital recording devices!

Why isn't Oprah on Facebook?

2009-03-04T12:29:00.000-08:00

Here is an article that is all about brands that embrace social media, quietly. PBS is listed as starting social media because of the engaging and educational programming like "This Old House". HGTV, Oprah and ESPN round out the rest of the list.

Oddly enough, some of these influencers are more quiet than others. It's odd to me that Oprah is not on Facebook. There are several fake Oprah or Harpo facebook pages, but nothing dedicated to the official, original influencer herself. Furthermore, a preliminary Twitter search produced only an "O" home magazine tweet. O home magazine can maybe live on online, since the hard copy is now defunct.

Myth Busters on Discovery Channel, was not on this list, but is an influencer in my eyes. The show could not go on without viewer input and participation. In terms of engaging, conversational and educational criteria, it seems that Myth Busters has (like PBS) been using social media way before it was even called social media. And although the show is popular (it's on broadcast TV!), Myth Busters is not on Facebook (officially) or on Twitter-two of social media's largest networks.

Why aren't the real social media influencers or inventors like Oprah and Myth Busters on the two biggest social media networks? It seems like they have nothing to lose, and can only gain influence and popularity.

Just a curious observation.

Ethics and the Internet

2009-02-25T08:24:00.000-08:00

The Internet is a fairly new medium, but more importantly, it is not a regulated medium. This means that there is a lot of room for unethical things to happen on the Internet. And boy do they happen!

The initial ethical issues that most people worry about are the privacy concerns. What if someone gets my password? What if they can log into my Internet banking? Here is a website that lists a lot of similar worries. Notice that exploitation of internet workers is not listed.

My ethical concern with the Internet is regarding the finances and exploitation of the workers. Thankfully, the largest payers in the Internet game (Google as an example) have used their powers for good: offering free service, being transparent and valuing their employees. However, could you imagine if the people who ran America's banks were instead running America's search engines or servers? Yikes!

My contention is about the business of blogs, forums and websites, aka web 2.0 or social media. There is no standardization or protection or regulation. A web developer could therefore charge whatever price they want to develop a site-which is great. But at the same time-there are no protections for developers, or bloggers when corporations are misguided about the value they offer.

There are many corporations and decision makers that don't understand development or social media/web 2.0, and therefore don't want to pay for the work being done. My concern is the ethical implications of a non-regulated internet-not for privacy concerns, but for the exploitation of the work that people are doing for companies that do not want to pay for it.

Brands are getting endorsements by bloggers, often without pay, yet at the same time, the brands or corporations balk at the idea of actually paying a blogger to immerse the company in web 2.0.

I foresee corporations trying to take all that they can from social media, without paying for the work or the endorsements, and that to me is unethical.

Social Media can disconnect people.

2009-02-20T09:40:00.000-08:00

I blogged about a 9 year old app whiz kid in Malaysia. Here is an article that shows the other (or negative) side of immersing children into technology.

I never thought that exposing children to technology could have a negative effect, but I have to say that after reading this article-I agree. The main point of the article is that children embracing technology are doing so at the expense of learning social skills.

The article explains that teens are opting to avoid the awkwardness that is puberty. It's easy to hide behind an icon on facebook, or to connect over technology instead of say...regular old fashioned conversation. Unfortunately, those awkward experiences are what teenagers have gone through for the history of mankind. These experiences shape who are are as adults, and have contributed to our culture. Without these awkward experiences, we never would have had "Catcher in the Rye" or "Great Expectations" or my personal favorite "Time to Change" from the Brady Bunch.

In my experience of dealing with social media experts, gurus and mavens, these people generally have an abundance of friends online, but in person are lonely and can barely hold a conversation. They have a serious lack of social skills, probably because the only human interaction they have is online. I have seen social media colleagues get asked by clients to be removed from accounts or have creatives refuse to work with them, because of their inability to connect on a personal level.

Social media, when used in conjunction with traditional human social activity can be great, but it by no means should be used as a substitute.

9 Year Old App Maker

2009-02-06T08:32:00.000-08:00

A large part of social media is programming. Programmers are necessary in the creation of applications, websites and pretty much anything else involved with web 2.0.

And honestly, programmers amaze me. For starters, they learn and work in various languages-that aren’t spoken. I have enough of a hard time saying “Yo quiro Taco Bell” correctly, that I can’t imagine typing a language to produce something intelligent. Secondly, the creativity and thirst for innovation to continue to create new products, applications, websites and functions is never ending and inspiring.

So programmers alone, already have my respect. They earn even more respect when they know several programs, but here is the kicker: Lim Ding Wen knows about 6 different programming languages and has completed about 20 programming is only 9 years old.

My hypothesis is that he is going to one-day take over the world. So far he has used his talents for goods, developing the iPhone app “Doodle Kids”, which allows users to draw with their finger on their iPhone, to entertain his younger sisters. I hope that he continues to use his powers for good, and not evil.

Ikea commercial? Not yet, just very clever on YouTube

2009-02-02T11:43:00.000-08:00

Here is a very clever YouTube video. It has only garnered about 7,000 views, to me it is successful and here is why: it makes you want to pass it along and mimic it.

To be even more specific, I think Ikea should contact the creator and ask them to do a whole series of ads. It would be a wonderful way for Ikea to showcase their large variety of bedding, while keeping viewers attention, because the concept is so creative and original.

Additionally, the Ikea campaign slogan “Home is the most important place in the world” is right in line with something like this. Think of the options for not only the bedroom, but the amazing things you could do in the kitchen!!!

A quote some "Experts" should listen to:

2009-01-30T07:28:00.000-08:00

Margaret Thatcher - "Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't."

Within advertising and social media, I meet and work with people who boast. A lot. About themselves. And then I think of the quote above, and smile.

Social media has a niche for ANYBODY!!!

2009-01-27T14:21:00.000-08:00

In addition to Hoffspace the David Hasslehoff social network, which offers a feature where you can leave a message for David, or in other words-hassle the Hoff-here is my new favorite social media site. If you have a cat-you will enjoy this. I have already checked it several times today...so many cats, so many sinks....and surprisingly-so many fans!

Barack Obama goes digital

2009-01-20T14:09:00.000-08:00

President Barack Obama is a president of firsts: he is the first African-American president, but he is also the first digital president.

An initiative of Obama has been to bring the presidency to the digital age. Obama is going to be the first president whose term will be viewed in HD. He is also the first president who will bring a laptop to the oval office-which he plans to use. Already, he is the first American president to have a blog.

And although he was not the first president or politician to use the Internet to draw support and donations, he has been by far the most successful. His website www.barackobama.com helped him amass over 500 million dollars in online donations during his campaign. He also has an e-mail list with over 13 million addresses, and sent out over 7000 text messages during his campaign. That number can only be topped by a teenager in CA.

But back to the firsts. Obama wants to be the first president to have a blackberry and to maintain an e-mail address. The secret service is against this because of the security concerns. Evidently the useful GPS technology in the blackberry make it easier for hackers or other potential threatening people to locate and target the president. Also, the courts can subpoena or potentially make Obama's correspondence public-which could create other security issues or create potential embarrassments (What?! The president uses smiley face emoticons when e-mailing Russia?!?! J/K).

The Internet and digital era has eased the lives of many, creating useful communication tools and other organizational tools that I personally could not function without. So I applaud a president who want to do everything he can and to use every tool available to help him do the best job possible.

Whether Obama gets to keep his blackberry or not, I welcome and am proud of our president who is determined to move forward with progress-both culturally and digitally.

Uniqlock

2009-01-13T14:01:00.000-08:00

You might notice a new widget that I’ve downloaded on the left over there. It’s Uniqlock. Uniqlock is a campaign that has won the Grand Prix at Cannes and Japan Interactive Advertising Annual. It is brilliant and innovative and everyone should know about it.

By simply clicking on the Uniqlock link, or perhaps by watching my little widget, you don’t really understand what it is, what it does or what it’s promoting, if you’re not familiar with the brand already. However, it certainly makes one curios. Curios enough to look it up and become pseudo-obsessed with its brilliance.

Uniqlock promotes the Japanese clothing brand Uniqlo-which I have never heard of until today. It does this through a variety of ways. The most basic form, is the web site. The web site is a clock that alternates between time and a constant, 24/7 music video of a group of dancers, doing various dances in different Uniqlo clothes. It’s mesmerizing. You find yourself watching to see the loop, or wait for the dancers to repeat something-but they don’t. Also, the dancers clothing changes at night, to sleepwear, and in winter and summer their clothing changes to the winter or summer line.

If you’re like me, and can’t get enough of these adorable Japanese dancers in their clean clothing-then you can download the widget and put it on your blog. So far, there are over 27,000 widgets in over 76 different companies.

And in case you’re not a blogger, but you want Uniqlock-you can download a screensaver. And in case you’re a super freak-there is an iPhone app for it.

Brilliant-it’s so accessible, and interesting and engaging. It was also executed extraordinarily well. There was obviously a large amount of time put into this initiative-but I think it’s well worth it. This is definitely an innovative website worth looking at.

Performance Reviews Go Digital

2009-01-07T11:48:00.000-08:00

Here is an article explaining the new, free system “Rypple”. Rypple basically is a free tool that allows employees to pick other trusted, valued colleagues to give them performance feedback.

The article claims that the benefits are that this can do away with the uncomfortable, time consuming annual performance review, while giving the younger “Net Generation” the constant feedback that they thrive on.

As a member of the “Net Generation”, who needs constant feedback to thwart my unwarranted daily fear of getting fired-this sounds too good to be true.

1) Rypple is free-so why not?

2) The responses are anonymous. I think that that is great-because you will get more honest feedback.

No such thing as a social media expert

2008-12-22T14:45:00.000-08:00

http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/2008/12/18/top-25-ways-to-tell-if-your-social-media-expert-is-a-carpetbagger/

This blog is titled “Top 25 ways to tell if your social media expert is a carpetbagger”.

I could probably list about a million other ways to tell if your social media expert is a carpet bagger (they work from home, they offer free services, they rely solely on you “trusting them”), so this blog doesn’t really tell you anything that new, useful or interesting. If this blog wanted to actually say something-it would list ways to make sure your social media expert is NOT a carpetbagger. But that’s not what they did, and here is my beef:

From my perspective-any social media “expert” is a carpetbagger. Social Media is still being defined, shaped and developed. It is not a tangible thing-so to be an expert in it is a silly thought. It’s like being an expert of the paranormal-it’s measuring something you can’t see, feel or measure-so instead these so called “experts” measure indicators like electro-conductivity in the paranormal sector or impressions in social media.

Just because you have impressions does not mean that you have ROI, just like if a room has a high electro-conductivity, that does not mean you have a ghost.

The last time I checked-there was no set standard, no regulating group and no universal way to measure social media. Therefore, since success can’t be defined-how can anybody be an expert?

I don't like iLike

2008-12-15T14:49:00.001-08:00

I read these easy instructions from a website about adding music to your blog:

iLike: Add a soundtrack to your blog

December 5, 2008 — permalink

Sometimes we stumble across gadgets that are just too cool to keep to ourselves. And such is the case with the slick iLike gadget, which should be a real treat for all of you Blogger audiophiles out there.iLike brings music to your blog by letting you embed and share playlists that you make yourself. Using their simple interface, you can organize and arrange your tunes, then seamlessly integrate them into your blog's sidebar.

To get started, head on over to the playlist editor and build up your list of tunes from the iLike database. When you are finished, simply click the orange 'Done!' button at the bottom of the page, and you will be taken to a preview of what your playlist will look like on Blogger.

If everything looks good, click the orange 'Add to Blogger' button to go to Blogger's Import Page Element Page (if not already signed in you will be prompted to do so.) Then choose the blog which you want to have the playlist, and click 'Add Widget.'

The iLike gadget will now show up in your blog's page elements editor for you to arrange as you wish. Pretty cool, eh?

Keep in mind though that playlist editor feature of iLike is still technically in beta, so the usual caveats apply. However, if you are feeling extra entrepreneurial you could help out the iLike dev team by answering their quick survey.

— Brett

Now, if you are reading this, you are on my blog, and will notice a lack of music. Perhaps it's the functionality of iLike, or maybe it's the music Gods frowning on my choice of Beyonce's "Single Ladies". Whatever the reason, right now I don't like iLike.

Del.icio.us is not scary

2008-12-08T12:33:00.000-08:00

A lot of people are scared of web 2.0, but what most people don’t realize is how easy and not scary it is to use and learn. There is so much mystery around web 2.0, that if you know just the smallest amount of basics, you suddenly are credited as a maven or expert. In reality, it is painfully easy to learn the basics, and set yourself apart from the masses.

I’m going to discuss social book marking. Working in the industry, I was confused about what that social book marking meant. I knew that you could bookmark sites on your toolbar, but what were sites like Digg or del.icio.us?

Partly because I was bored at work, but I decided to open a del.icio.us account-to see what the big deal was. I opened an account, but didn’t know what it did, or why anybody else would want to open an account.

After about a month on del.icio.us, and really only using it once, I have a basic understanding of social book marking.

Del.icio.us lets you “bookmark” your favorite websites. You do this under the “Bookmarks” tab. Basically what del.icio.us is, is a list of your favorite websites. This comes in handy when there are so many that you have to remember. Some might also be technical, or have weird numbers/letters in them, so this makes it easier to access because remembering www.employer.example/fakeid3874943 can be difficult.

Why is this a good/useful feature? Why not just write down all of your websites on a piece of paper, or save your bookmarks to your browser toolbar at work? Well, you might wash your piece of paper, or loose it-and you can access del.icio.us at any computer, not just your work computer.

There is also another feature called “People”. This lets you follow other people’s bookmarks. I see why some people might use this feature, but personally I prefer my privacy and don’t really care what other people are looking at.

Lastly, there is a “Tag” tab. This lets you group/organize your websites. For instance, you can save your work calendar, or work e-mail log in page-and save them both under your “Work” tag. If you collect recipes, and you have a bunch of cookie and cake recipes-you can create “cookie” and “cake” tags.

Advertisers also measure how many times their website is bookmarked, so there is another use for social bookmarks, although that is more for agency purposes, and less for individuals.

Overall, I can see the utility of social book marking, and think that this is another trend that is only going to grow as more and more tech savvy youngsters step into the digital world.

Social Media experts

2008-12-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

David Amano is a VP of Experience Design at Critical Mass, and also has a widely followed blog audience and twitter group.

http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2008/12/the-expertise-of-experts.htm l

Yet in Amano’s latest blog, he admits that he is not an expert.

I find this view very refreshing, and honest and respect Mr. Amano tremendously for it.

Social media is a new medium. There are no set definitions and no set standards, which makes it terribly difficult to rate anything. Now there are some indicators of success (number of views, number of impressions, number of pass alongs or followers) however the technology is changing at the speed of light. As soon as one indicator is defined and put into use, it seems to be outdated as something more new and accurate replaces it.

Because of this changing medium, it makes if technically and physically impossible for anyone to be an expert in social media. Granted, a person might know more about social media than another person, but they are not an “expert”.

If I am a client, or an agency and am looking at expanding my social media department or spend, I would be extremely wary of anybody proclaiming to be an expert. The social media movement has not been around long enough for anybody to gain enough experience to qualify themselves.

If Mr. David Amano, who is considered successful by most of the current indicators of success in social media does not even consider himself an expert, I throw caution to anybody who does claim to be an expert.

Aggregating Social Networks

2008-12-01T14:24:00.000-08:00

Social networks. There are a ton of them. Personally, I use Facebook, have an old account on Myspace that I don’t use anymore because of the adds, an outdated profile on Linkedin and I’m on Twitter and delicious just to be on them.

When you are on multiple social networks, it takes up a lot of time trying to update each one. So lucky us, there are few new aggregating websites that attempt to tie all of your accounts together:

Loopster-this acts like an RSS feed for all your accounts

ProfileLinker-this is a single interface to all of your social networking accounts

Ping.fm-this allows you to update your profile, pictures, feed etc., but you won’t receive other peoples updates

Power.com-this acts as one central log in to all social networks. You can post and receive information. However, this site it has a lot of disclaimers about using your image for advertisement purposes.

Facebook Connect takes it one step further. Facebook Connect allows members to log onto Facebook’s partner sites (Discovery Channel, Digg, Genealogy network Geni and Hulu) with their Facebook log in and see their Facebook friend’s activities on those sites. Obviously there are some privacy concerns here:

Girlfriend to boyfriend: “Why are you watching ‘Arrested Development’ on Hulu when you told me you had to stay late at the office?”—And that’s a PG version of what I am sure will ensue.

Friendfeed-this lets you get a feed of what your friends are sharing online, like news articles, pictures, videos etc. Again, please look at my privacy concern above. I can already imagine the fighting because partners are seeing what their other half actually do on the internet.

I personally have issues with these services. For one thing, they’re trying to link personal identities, instead of documents, which is what Yahoo and Google and other search engines manage. Search engines do a decent job linking documents-but they are not able yet to pick up on the nuances of personal identities. Heck, people can’t even pick up on the nuances of personal identities, and we’re the ones creating them! So to me, using a search engine algorithm to link personal identities is an impossible goal.

Secondly, all of these sites are trying to make a social medium into an advertising medium. I think that advertising on social networking sites is for the most part invasive and unwelcome. It would be like listening to a commercial every time you pick up your telephone. Social networks are simply a way for people to communicate-which is more similar to a telephone than to a television, or newspaper-which is how marketers are looking at it.

Giving Thanks...

2008-11-26T13:21:00.001-08:00

I am giving thanks this holiday for working in social media. While advertising and marketing budgets are getting slashed all over-social media and digital spending has been holding steady. There are many articles siting the growth of online and digital users/consumers-so I won't bore you with numbers, but what I would recommend to anybody in advertising (even those that already have a place in traditional media)-is to invest and try to get into social media.

If you are trying to get in yourself-write a blog, become a part of a social network, etc.. Try the new technology, because you will only learn something, and then you will be able to say you are proficient. Clients and agencies are starved for people who have an understanding of this new medium. Even if you have a background in print, or broadcast TV-try to make the conversion yourself-before others get hip to the swing that is about to happen when digital becomes the primary source for entertainment and information.

So I am thankful to have a job, that is teaching me valuable new things everyday and that is in a booming market. How about you?

Top 3 new innovations

2008-11-25T15:03:00.000-08:00

Here are my top 3-webby/techy stuff (or innovations) that I think are going to be HUGE!

1 CrowdSpring http://www.crowdspring.com/

CrowdSpring is a service where clients who need a logo, or graphic design post what they need and how much they will spend. That amount is set-it’s not going to move-they will only pay that amount. Then any creative that is registered with the site can take a crack at it. The client gives feedback/critique and the creative gets paid when their work gets chosen.

I think that CrowdSpring is awesome. For starters, it turns design into a cottage industry. You don’t need a studio; you don’t need an expensive office or really even any people skills. This is huge-because the majority of designers that I know, opted for a career in design simply to sit in a small room by themselves, and avoid the people aspect of a job. This is also an easy way for creatives to make some extra money, or learn more about their work and the industry from the privacy of their own home and anonymity of the computer.

I also like CrowdSpring on the client side as well: you will be getting a variety of creative interpretations for what you are looking for, while insuring that your cost will stay within budget.

2 Wii Headtracking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jd3-eiid-Uw

Wii Headtracking is using the infrared technology in the Wii, and reversing it-so this time the screen moves when you do. This gives the image on the screen a 3-D like quality.

I don’t fully understand it-but it’s the coolest video I’ve seen in a while. This video has been out for about a year, and I can’t wait to see how it transforms video games!

3 DapperMashupAds http://www.dapper.net/

This is another thing that I don’t fully understand. It has to do with targeting ads on websites. What I do know is that it is brand new, and pretty much doubles click through rates-which is enormous! Click through rates help measure ROI-which is the most important number to a client!

Overall these are 3 things I can’t wait to see revolutionize creative work, video games (and possibly TV?) and analytics.

Broadcast television is dying-not Silverman's fault

2008-11-24T08:35:00.000-08:00

In an earlier blog, 11/14 “Addressable Ads: Not Worth Your Time Or Money”, I blogged about the demise of broadcast TV. Basically I blogged that not even specifically targeted commercials will help broadcast television, that it is a dying medium and that digital is the wave of the future. Specifically, I was critiquing Brian Steinberg’s article “Addressable Ads could Reinvigorate TV”.

Well, Steinberg is back and this time seems to be adding more fuel to my fire. Steinberg’s new article “Silverman’s Magic Touch Fails to Jump-Start NBC” http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=132794 speaks of the demise of broadcast television, whether he knows it or not.

Steinberg talks about Ben Silverman, the newish exec at NBC and how he has brought in revenue but not viewers to NBC. Steinberg notes that NBC as well as all of the big 4 networks have been loosing live-plus-same-day-ratings for key adult demographics of 18-49, 18-34 and 25-54.

This further supports my notion that younger, hip, tech savvy demographics are moving away from traditional live or same day viewership and are instead opting for Tivo, DVR or even (gasp) digital views of shows on network websites, it-tunes or hulu.

Steinberg credits the loss of viewers to content, or executive decisions, whereas I see the drop in viewership to the conversion of a digital era. The loss of viewers is not Silverman’s fault. Silverman was commissioned with the difficult task of saving a sinking ship: traditional broadcast television.

Steinberg does not mention that NBC’s online viewership went up the most out of the other big 4 networks, to 5.56 million unique viewers in Sept., which doubled their previous online viewers. http://www.fierceonlinevideo.com/story/big-four-tv-networks-gain-ov-viewers/2008-11-07

Does Silverman get any credit for that?

Ethics in Production

2008-11-20T14:35:00.002-08:00

Business schools have ethics classes. Law schools have ethics classes. Even some undergraduate colleges or universities mandate an ethics class-but for the most part; film schools have no ethics class.

Production, whether it is for television, Internet or film has no standard code of ethics. Being in, and knowing a lot of people who rely on production work as their livelihood, it seems that there are more sleazy people trying to screw you to reach their glory and money, than there are people trying to make an honest living. And I’m not just talking about small ventures-I’m talking about major television network shows and companies that have the money to pay.

Unions can help this problem. So if an executive or producer is trying to screw you, the union has the power to screw the executive or producer. However, the people in charge have gotten wise to the union rules and have found work arounds. They create unique titles that aren’t union jobs-even though it is the same position. The workers are then getting paid a grossly undervalued paycheck, and are barely scraping by, just so the producer or executive can get a $40,000 + bonus at the end of a season or project. This is wrong, even though it’s legal.

And don’t even get me started on the producers that have a complete disregard for the law. A colleague of mine was telling me about his “brilliant” producer friend, who actually dressed up like a boy scout, and asked a grocery store for a donation for his “troop’s camping trip”, when really he was getting free food for his craft service. To me, that’s not brilliant-that’s illegal, stupid and predatory. And maybe my view on this is why I’m still only one step above the secretary…

Buying an image v. paying for clearance

2008-11-19T14:47:00.000-08:00

If you are ever trying to get pricing for stock images or video footage, make sure to leave a whole lot of money in your budget for clearance costs.

An image itself isn’t that expensive, and neither are video clips. You could find images for a few hundred dollars, and videos for a couple thousand. Obviously, there is a range-don’t get me wrong-but you can purchase images and videos without breaking the bank.

Now if you want to use those images, you need to have the clearance of the person in the image. If it’s a model or actor and the image is from a photo or video shoot-you’re usually fine. This is because the model/actor in the shoot has released their likeness to the company that is shooting, or owns the picture/video. Then, the person or company that owns the image, usually has the rights to sell the likeness of the person in the picture.

If you are trying to use the likeness or image of a person that has any amount of notoriety (namely a celebrity or famous historical person), you still need to get clearance from either them, or their estate if they are dead. Not even presidents are open to the public-much to my surprise!

The costs to get clearance to use somebody’s likeness are surprisingly large! I heard that Einstein’s estate won’t sign anything unless it’s at least $50,000. No wonder they call him Einstein-that’s brilliant!

Regardless, most famous people including historical figures can cost anywhere from $3,500 on the low end, to $50,000+ on the high end. These were numbers I was not aware of-and nearly lost it when I finally got the estimates.

There are a couple of exceptions to this rule: if it’s satire or parody. This is why Sarah Palin didn’t sue Tina Fey for the use of her likeness on Saturday Night Live.

So unless you are mocking somebody famous-expect to pay. That in itself is a little ironic, don’t you think?

iPhone applications

2008-11-18T14:29:00.000-08:00

iPhones. They are useful to a degree, but there are too many, and many of them offer no use whatsoever.

I started looking into the various applications available to iPhone users. I was shocked at what I found:

Idream: This application plays ambient sound without loops, while sending optically stimulation to help calm you and put you to sleep.

My comment: If you can’t sleep, I recommend you putting your phone down, and then try closing your eyes.

Imensies: This application tracks female’s menstrual calendars.

My comment: TMI my friends, TMI.

SitOrSquat: This application finds any nearby public restroom in the world for you.

My comment: This may be useful-but public restrooms can also be scary. At outdoor concerts, does it just tell you to go behind the cars?

BossTool, Caterpillar, Poof etc.: These applications help you manage all of your applications.

My comment: This is just silly. If you have too many applications, you do not need any more!

Beer: An application that features a cooler of beer that never runs out.

My comment: Dumb.

PhoneSaber: Turn your iPhone into a light saber.

My comment: Geeky and dumb.

FakeCalls: This application fake calls your phone, to get you out of a situation (irritating conversation, bad date, etc.)

My comment: Will further alienate you from the rest of humanity (as if being constantly glued to your iphone isn’t enough).

Addressable Ads: Not worth your time or money.

2008-11-17T10:56:00.001-08:00

Brian Steinberg's latest article "Addressable Ads Could Reinvigorate TV" is a lost cause.

http://adage.com/mediaworks/article?article_id=132585

Dish Network and ad-tech firm Invidi have developed a pact to develop "addressable ads" or ads targeted to specific households. An example would be sending Pampers commercials only to houses that have an infant or toddler.

Steinberg is very gracious in his praise of this new technology and venture. I on the other hand, see it as a desperate attempt by the captain to save a sinking ship.

Steinberg admits that the lack of a universal connection to TV (satellite, cable, etc.) largely hinders a mass application of the addressable ads technology.

To me, the technology is the least of the problems with this strategy. For starters, I was surprised to learn that households with DVR's are only expected to be at 36% in 2012. I thought that that number would be higher. Regardless, as younger generations purchase their own cable services, and as long as Tivo and DVR is offered, I see our attention deficit youth opting more and more for the disappearance of commercials instead of opting for targeted commercials. In the Pampers example above, say I am a household with a baby-I still might be a loyal Huggies user. In which case I would not want to see any commercial because I know what I like, and am loyal and I would still be irritated by the Pampers commercial. I would rather opt out of commercials all together, than opt for targeted commercials.

Now this is not to say that all consumers will stop watching broadcast TV commercials, or will go to the dark side of Tivo/DVR. I believe that there will be some consumers that avoid new technologies like the plague. My Grandmother for instance, still has a turn dial TV with the rabbit ears. I know a lot of older consumers that are afraid of messing things up with a Tivo or DVR. Heck, a lot of them can't even operate their VCR's. And don't get me started about their fear of the evils of the Internet. So, for my Grandmother's demographic-I would say yes, addressable ads might be effective. However when has an older, demographic that is afraid of change been a key target market?

Another problem with this strategy is that Steinberg compares ads on TV to targeted ads on the Internet. This is not a fair comparison. Television is primarily used for entertainment purposes. Although the Internet can be used for entertainment, it also has a lot of other uses: commerce, finance, research, communication, etc.. Targeted ads are effective on the Internet because consumers go online to find an answer. Consumers watch TV to be entertained.

My last gripe with this article, is that Steinberg peppers the articles with rave reviews from major players in broadcast advertising. This is their livelihood-so of course they are not going to say that ads on television are a lost cause. Steinberg even quotes a study by Comcast and Starcom Media Group, showing the effectiveness of addressable ads, that found that 38% of the consumers with opt-out commercial tools, watched the targeted commercials. To me, that number is statistically low, with more and more people going to opt-out commercial tools like DVR and Tivo, only retaining 38% of the viewers from a roughly 80% of viewers seems like a massive step backward. Additionally, this was a self-serving study by 2 groups that are pushing this technology to save themselves.

My suggestion for any company with any type of marketing budget is to put your ad dollars online. And I'm not just talking about banner ads, because to me, those banners that are forced onto the page that you are watching are equally as irritating as those commercials that are forced in front of you while watching television. I recommend to do something interactive, engaging and educational. Make the consumers want to watch or play with your branded material instead of forcing them to watch it.

Graphic grabs on Macs

2008-11-14T12:52:00.000-08:00

Macs are pretty easy to operate. And taking a graphic from anywhere is pretty easy too. Here is a "Dummies" guide to taking a graphic on a Mac.

1) Probably the easiest way to snag a graphic that you like, is to simply click and drag it to either your desktop or folder. It's that easy.

2) Another easy option is to hit apple, shift 4. Then you get a little target looking icon, and use that to draw a square around anything you want, and voila-there's your graphic. This is sort of like the screen grab function on a PC.

3) I found a new way to grab pictures in a much more neat/organized way. Instead of relying on my ability to accurately box a graphic, I can use the Grab application. On Macs, under Applications, open the Utilities file. There should be something called Grab, who's icon looks like scissors cutting the paper. Drag the icon to your toolbar.

Then, when the page or image that you want is open, click on the Grab icon, go to "Capture" on the top toolbar, and choose "Window". It will automatically capture everything in the window-so it is more accurate/even than drawing your own box around the graphic.

You can also use the "Screen" option when capturing, when you want to capture many things on your screen. This is another screen grab option-but again, will gather all of the information and not just what you box.

That's the new thing I learned today!

Free software to save movies

2008-11-13T06:41:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine is a film maker. He actually hosts his own independent film festival and graduated from an esteemed film program. However, he was equally befuddled as myself when we were trying to put something from YouTube on to a DVD. It can't be done was the explanation I got from other so-called "experts" in the film/video field.

However, a co-worker of mine just opened my eyes to the fix: free software, and it's easy to use.

TubeTV ( http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/video/tubetv.html ) is a program that is free and essentially lets you save any video to your computer. Even videos from YouTube. Basically, once you download TubeTV, you open it and paste the URL for the video you want to save, and then save the video. It's very easy. There are also options about what type of file you want it saved to (flash or qucktime).

Perian is another program that you can download for free http://perian.org/ . Perian lets you watch flash videos in quicktime formats.

Lastly, there is Visual Hub-which is great, but sadly not openly available to the masses anymore. Visual Hub lets you convert videos or other files from flash, to wmv to mov to avi, etc. Although Visual Hub went out of business, if you or a friend had already purchased it, then you can still access it and download it to any computer. All you need is the name, e-mail and confirmation code to download it on a computer. So if you don't have Visual Hub, try to find a kind soul who is willing to share.

I'm assuming that if you are interested in using any of the software mentioned above, then it should be safe to assume that you know the difference between quicktime and flash. However, I am going to explain the brief differences for the novices reading: Flash is smaller in install size, it's faster to download and faster in it's initialization time. This is great when you are putting a video on your computer, or you're saving it somewhere and you don't want it to take up a whole bunch of memory. Quicktime (MP4) is free, and is the international standard for videos online. If you post a video, you should post it as a quicktime file, because flash can be displayed wrong resulting in dropped frames and skipped audio.

So good luck any fledgling online video makers. I hope this helps!

Being Detail Oriented Does NOT Make You A Secretary

2008-11-12T06:36:00.000-08:00

Michael Driehorst is a public relations expert who likes details and is respected and published. I have a feeling that nobody thinks he's a secretary, even though he likes details.

Michael's latest article: Proper Planning Key to Setting ROI Expectation is an interesting one.

http://www.talentzoo.com/news.php?articleID=1259

Here, Michael explains the importance of details. I understand the details. I thrive on details. I love the details, however more often than not I am brushed off when I start asking the account execs and creative directors for those pesky details. Actually, I have been asked to empty the dishwasher when I have asked for details.

Now I know that emptying the dishwasher is not in the job description for a secretary, but I often find that when probing for details, I get brushed off as the "silly woman" in a predominantly male office and department, and am asked to do some menial task. My official title is somewhere between "Wearer of many hats", "task master" or "account copyducer"; my own take on account executive, copy writer and producer.

Whatever my official title is, I am NOT the secretary, and details are nothing to snuff at. I applaud Michael for standing up for details and giving proof to the fact that there is value in details and planning. Details are the brick and mortar of any project. If only "big picture" people are involved-then there are no details being discussed or planned and subsequently there is nothing actually holding the project together.

Basically, my point is this: details-like contracts, e-mails, pricing, etc., are imperative to getting any project done and making sure it's profitable and on time. If you don't spend time on the details, you will find yourself over budget and/or late in delivery. If you are any of the cogs in an advertising assembly line and are working with a team-share the details! And if you are a detail lover (like myself) working with a team of "big picture" people-don't let them brush the details under the rug. Show them Michael's article! They might not listen to a "secretary", but maybe they'll listen to Michael.

Puppies in a box

2008-11-11T13:27:00.000-08:00

What is more cute or appealing than a bunch of puppies? Nothing! And that's exactly why some brilliant mind decided to stream a box of puppies 24/7. This is already a hit in dog communities. It already has over 17,000 hits and counting.

http://cdn1.ustream.tv/swf/4/viewer.45.swf?cid=317016

Here is an example of something viral, that has no purpose other than entertainment value. Imagine how much more valuable this would be, if say Purina or PetSmart or some other brand decided to do this first? This would be a great way to drive traffic, get new fans, interact with consumers and to help develop a brand relationship.

Like Jared and his Subway diet-here was a missed opportunity that the corporate brands did not come up with on their own. It's so simple, yet it hasn't been done. Perhaps this was because of the "recession" that we're in, but that is exactly why it's important to keep spending the right money on the right products.

Social media is an area that should continue to grow during tight times. The good ideas are going to keep coming no matter what-it just depends if you're going to make them work for your brand or not.