Living in a digital world

Green search

Lots of companies run from bad news like it’s deadly. Progressive businesses realise that bad news can represent an opportunity. So it was with Google when they were alerted to the fact that their search engine uses 750 mega watts/hour per year more than if the screen were black.

Cleverly Google responded immediately by launching a black version of their site called Blackle.

Sadly the initial claim  looks a little dubious based as it is on the energy demands of older CRT monitors, when increasingly everyone’s using LCDs.

Source: the digital marketing blog of Cybercom, an award-winning Irish digital agency.

August 9, 2007 Posted by riksta | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

User-generated campaigns

New agency Cutwater have created a lovely TV spot for Jeep, and wider activity very cleverly takes advantage of the passion that users share for their brand.

Jeep’s new ad campaign is supported by a microsite that pulls in Flickr pictures of the Jeep in action, has Jeep videos fed in from Youtube, and promotes the Jeep facebook and myspace pages, driving users to a specially created interactive film and other bespoke promotional content.

It’s a no-brainer really. If the world is busy creating assets related to your brand, why not use them? Visitors to the microsite are also encouraged to go to Youtube and Flickr to upload their own Jeep videos and pictures – thereby adding to the library of user-generated content. The campaign neatly demonstrates how brands and communities can engage with one another in a way that rewards both.

As Brent Terrazas points out in his blog, the site, “is a pretty cool way of showing off the magnitude of media participation that Jeep owners are using to help spread the “Jeep Experience.”

The only small criticism of the site comes with the user stats that the site provides, which seem incorrect and suggest that the developers didn’t build an API to drag in real-time data – not a complicated task. Brent kindly provides a breakdown of what the Jeep microsite claims vs. what the actual sites show:

August 9, 2007 Posted by riksta | Uncategorized | 2 Comments

bugmenot.com – a great way to bypass site registration

Old hands will know this site well, it’s a fantastic way to bypass the registration process sites use before you can access their content. So if you’re doing research and want access to an article but don’t want to register with the site, use bugmenot to get a login – www.bugmenot.com

August 8, 2007 Posted by robertjenkins | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

I love morph

I don’t believe there’s a person alive who grew up in 1970′s/80′s Britain and doesn’t love morph. ‘Take Hart’ was a pretty dire show, but our plastecene friend made it essential viewing. That and the glorious music soundtrack for the gallery section of the show.

Well Morph’s back, doing good and offering tips on eco-friendly living, as the star of a Friends of The Earth viral. In the film he ‘morphs’ from his usual orangey-brown colour to a bright green colour.

The Morph viral is part of a campaign to get people to make 60 second films about how we view the planet. Find out more here.

August 7, 2007 Posted by riksta | Uncategorized | Leave a Comment

Marketing in Second Life is a waste of money?

Wired magazine, the usually hyper optimistic American technology and culture magazine has weighed in with a massive slap down of Second Life.

The basic premise of their argument is that Second Life is empty – see the Adidas island on the right – the article states that out of a claimed 7 million residents only about 100,000 Americans per week log in and use Second Life and, as we have discussed on this blog before, the technology as it stands is fundamentally flawed – it cannot cope with large crowds.

So, why are corporates jumping into Second Life with reckless abandon? From the article:

“For people who’ve grown up in analog, Second Life is not that hard to understand,” says Rishad Tobaccowala, CEO of Denuo, a consulting arm of the global ad giant Publicis Groupe.

“I have a store in the real world; I have a store in the virtual world.” In contrast, the kind of digital marketing that actually works requires a conceptual leap. Successful online marketing is targeted and specific, like direct mail — but it’s direct mail in a fun house, where the recipients can easily seize control of what the mail says, where it goes next, and how it gets there. You need to know how to buy up keywords to maximize search returns, how to make the most of recommendation engines, how to use the viral potential of Web video, how to monitor what’s being said in blogs and message boards, how not to blow it by trying to be deceptive. Building a corporate pavilion in Second Life doesn’t require any of these things. It’s simple and it’s obvious.”

Now, I’m not that pessimistic about Second Life. I think there is a bright and exciting future for 3D worlds and MMORPGS . Whereas a few years ago SL would have been left alone by the corporates and the media until it reached a critical mass, in their haste to jump on the next bandwagon the attention came too early and Second Life got over-hyped, the inevitable backlash has now started.

Having said that it is well worth reading the article here.

August 6, 2007 Posted by robertjenkins | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Big in Japan

As some of you know I’ve just come back from a holiday in Japan. It is geek heaven, the mobile phones are incredible – they have large widescreens for viewing video, wallet functionality that works like an oyster card, credit card, ticket etc, they’re waterproof and have broadband connections that are faster than the majority of home broadband here.

However, what really caught my eye was the consumer use of “QR codes” (Quick Response). A QR code is a type of barcode that the weird devil thing is holding up on the right, the idea is that you point the camera of your mobile phone at it and software translates it into a message and (crucially) a web address. This saves the hassle of typing a url and allows the marketer to use a long address that directs the consumer to a specific page.

It can also include tracking to record exactly which QR code was used.

The codes are everywhere, on flyers for BMW cars, outside what seemed like every shop and restaurant, on posters, press ads, packs, business cards and bus stops – pretty much everywhere you would see a web address in the UK (and they don’t have to be as large as the devils version here).

There was talk a few years ago about using bluetooth and other radio technologies to send marketing messages to consumers phones as they pass a location.

This hasn’t taken off for various and fairly obvious reasons, however the QR codes allow a marketer to give an easy opt in way to send information, coupons, offers and drive to a website (and you can track which code drove to the website)

One of the novel uses I saw, was on bus stops. Because the code can have a custom web address, the user can be directed to a mobile web page for that bus stop which tells them where the bus is and how long it will take to arrive.

I would bet that this will come to the UK sooner or later, it’s a no brainer for the networks to install the software as standard in their phones, as it increases the use, and decreases the hassle, of mobile websites.

I’ve installed the software on my phone and have a bunch of test codes, so if anyone is interested in seeing how it works give me a shout. If you want to try it yourself this site has all the details.

August 3, 2007 Posted by robertjenkins | Uncategorized | 9 Comments