imagine books

Yes.
The saddest thing about the release of harry potter films
is that I've all but lost the images I had in my head of the characters.

Publisher Crisol reminds people to imagine!

you don't know quack

essentially a product site
but hooks users in with Yes/No Q's
then seamlessly seuges into...
insurance FAQ's!
then puts biggest calls-to-action up front

http://youdontknowquack.com

internet online

awesome website
that remindsus
what we didn't realize you were missing
until we saw it on
http://www.internetonlinewebsite.com/

Diesel's awesome stupid

Stupid campaign!

how supid are you? prove it.

you are your hard disc

My laptop crashed a few weeks ago. Went dark, wouldn’t turn on, a complete crash and burn. Nyark. But just in time came our Christmas bonus and a few days ago I brought home a new baby.

I panicked at first about the data that is now stuck in my old hard drive… photos, random thoughts, resume drafts, et cetera, which I actually think I have backed up somewhere. What really scared me was the thought that my music library was lost forever. But music was saved (ripped directly out of my iPod), play counts are lost is all. Now iTunes will re-start counting at zero.

Given all this data drama it seemed timely when I saw this image in one of the two Tumblr accounts I follow. And the more I think about today being the last day of 2009, the more I like the idea that I have 320gigs of new hard disc space to fill.

Hello, 2010.

Prius iPhone App updates Times Square billboard

I think this is pretty cool in terms of interactivity, engagement, novelty, buzz. But ultimately, it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the product or brand... like you could have put any random brand up there instead of Prius.

Saw this video on the digital buzz blog, about the evolution of Google. It's amazing what they have accomplished in the last decade+.



But the other feeling that I got from this video is that Google probably knows us more intimately than many of our friends and family via our online patterns. Imagine. You use Google Mail, so they know your closest friends, their e-mail addresses and the deeply personal things that you tell only your closest friends - whether you're thinking of quitting your job or maybe that you hooked up with a stranger. You stay logged on to GMail so they can keep track of your searches too. Are you shopping, looking for a vacation location, or are you surfing for movie reviews? Who are you cyber stalking? They know it all. Your calendar is also on Google so they can pretty much tell what your social life looks like, or your business development strategy via client meetings. They even know that High School Musical is a guilty pleasure because I've watched virtually all of the videos on YouTube!

And more recently with the launch of their cloud computing software, they can even keep tabs on our work documents and spreadsheets. They've got Picasa, GTalk, Google Reader, Google Analytics... and soon they'll be on mobile, too.

It just scares me to think that any one entity could hold that much information about me. Just look at Google Dashboard to see the breadth of what they have collected about you.

Not that Google cares about an individual like me. But the scary though is, what if they did?

improving our online outreach during times of distress

When Ondoy hit I was, very fortunately, safe in a house that didn’t even experience a black out or power fluctuations. It was only on that Saturday afternoon, when I started seeing frantic photos, videos and status updates on Facebook, that I realized that something was really wrong. I stayed tuned to my social network that weekend to keep in touch with what was happening, not once checking the news.

People were calling for help and sharing ways to reach out. Facebook and Twitter were abuzz with shoutouts and calls-to-action. Very quickly, the links to Google Maps (with updates on the flooded areas) and Google Spreadsheet (with the ways to help) were spread via social media.

No doubt that citizen journalism and volunteerism were able to exceed the efforts of traditional mass media outlets. Real-time updates and responses, more credible because they were done by people in my immediate online network.

Unfortunately the Philippines has become a sort of hotbed for tropical depressions (after Ondoy there was Pepeng, and several others) and we could easily be hit by another catastrophic storm.

So how about next time? Is there anything we can do to improve our online outreach? Is there anything that can be improved on the design or user interface side?

Came across an interesting article that addresses this on Threeminds. (The title makes it sound like it is about design, but it is more about content and use of the right platforms. Still, very helpful.):

When Good Design Could Save Lives

"On September 26, 2009, Typhoon Ondoy brought a month's worth of rainfall to Metro Manila and nearby areas in just a few hours, causing severe flooding which resulted in the loss of many lives and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. 8 days later, Typhoon Pepeng struck the northern regions causing more damage. This site compiles relevant information about the disaster, including a volunteer-maintained map of persons needing rescue and a list of relief organizations accepting donations, so that more help can be provided where it is needed."

There is no denying that Google's efforts are admirable and for a great cause. So it's hard to suggest that the site they developed to rally people around the Typhoon Ondoy cause could benefit majorly from improved design and usability. Normally, as marketers, we get the benefit of a specific demographic we are trying to address and for a defined product. In the case of large scale disasters, the demographic really is everyone, and the emotions you are trying to illicit is everything from awareness to action.

Knowing the need for action is great and the design challenge is real, I sent the site around to some colleagues. Together, we tried to come up with a few of best practices for making cause-based sites more effective...

1. Provide clear direction on needs, goals, and progress. Help users understand where the need is the greatest.

"I often feel a little helpless when massive events like this happen, if for no other reason than I don't even know where to begin helping. Is sending cash the right thing, do rescue workers need provisions that can't be locally sourced, etc?" James Vreeland

The current page leaves the user with too many questions. What's already been donated? What are the areas of need? What could my money be going towards? Is there something that needs to be donated besides money? Giving user a list of numbers to call only makes them feel overwhelmed, not motivated.

2. Use stories, not numbers. Stories make the user feel closer to the cause, while numbers often do the opposite.
The current Ondoy page isn't organized to elicit a reaction... not emotional or actionable. With so many charity stories and good causes out there competing for attention, incorporating a story of an actual person affected does more good than stats and charts. People need to be moved and then lead to action.

3. Harness the power and reach of social media to generate interconnectivity and spring users into action.
Google has seem to forgotten the "share this" button. No tweet this, no Facebook that. While links are simple and becoming ubiquitous, that simple addition could have made all the difference. Google could have also considered something like http://micro.ilist.com/ for quickly bringing folks together, especially now that Twitter is rolling in geolocation data.

#ihave a spare bedroom for up to 3 nights
+
#ineed a place to sleep, my house burnt down

It works best for big events, not one-off needs, but it is still an interesting way to connect at a personal level, those who have with those who need.

- Marta Strickland


{Original post here.}

Vodafone Symphonia

Like like like :) Simple and even sort of analog.

Impossible that this was choreographed you say?

Massive flash mob kicks off Oprah's 24th season

Oprah's team must have decided that the premiere of their 24th season was going to be the biggest thing ever.

So they invited the producer of the famed T-Mobile train station flash mob to help. They started with a group of 20 dancers, and then invited Oprah's community on Facebook and Twitter to be part of the movement. 800 people showed up to learn the dance, who in turn taught the moves to a crowd of over 20,000 on show day.

Add to this the Black Eyed Peas with "I Gotta Feeling", the most infectious, LSS-inducing song ever and you've got a hell off a premiere party.

And if you thought that Oprah looked extremely surprised, it's because her team kept it a secret from her. I WOULD LOVE A SURPRISE LIKE THIS!

What a sight!

After the number, Will.i.am said that this was the performance he's enjoyed the most because of  (the power of) crowd participation. I say this is the power of community.

City of Melbourne Identity

This is insane. I love it.

City of Melbourne Identity

Shared via AddThis

"Log out, shut down, go out!"

"Log out, shut down, go out!" ...is the motto for the members of Social Media Addicts Association, a sort of AA for people who can't stop tweeting, posting, chatting.

That there are now people who just never want to be disconnected not just from their face-to-face contacts, but from their virtual identities, is I think a powerful insight captured in this ad by Sony VAIO.



Do you belong to this group? :)


(Shared by Ethel!)

organizing my digital self

Just got an invite for Yahoo! Meme. Here is my profile! (Let me know if you want an invite.) Not sure what I really have to say that would be all that different from what I'm already saying here and my other blog.

In addition to that, I also manage Twitter, Plurk and Facbook accounts. I've really de-prioritized Multiply since people only seem to do re-posts there. Also haven't been taking that many pictures, and that was really the point of that site, at least for me.

And now there are so many more "lifestream" sites and I just don't know what to do with my Posterous, Tumblr... Not to mention the social bookmarking sites, playlist sites, scrapbooking sites, professional social networking sites...

Anybody else encountering the same problems?

McSaver moves!

Must try delivery!








Congratulations to DDB on a great set of TVCs. Again, Ramon Bautista rules.

Back when

Picked up a new song over the weekend, Aqua's "Back to the 80's". It reminded me of Sandwich's "Betamax".


When M&M was just a snack 

And Michael Jackson's skin was black...

Back to Rocky and Cherry Coke, yeah...

Too many men with heavy makeup on / Too many poodles with guitars 

Thanks for all the joy you've given us / You will always be our superstars...

Hooray for Cosby and Rubik's cube 

Hooray for Dynasty and moon boots

Hooray for Devo and barber curls

Hooray for Poltergeist and Barbie girls

Let's go back to the 80s

Wala pa nung myx wala pa nung MTV

Wala pa nung internet

Wala pa nung ipod at mp3

Wala pa nung cable

Wala pa nung cellphone

Wala pa ring cd or dvd

Meron lang betamax

Nagreklamo si Chikoy Pura

Sa balita ng Asin

Ang anak ni ka Freddie

Kinontra ni Edu Abraham

Dumibidoo ang Apo Hiking

Mga kababayan ni Francis M

Beh buti nga sa Hotdog

Nosibalasi Sampaguita

Sa jingle magazine

Natutong mag gitara

Sinifra ang mga kanta

Sa cassettte at plaka

Does the immediacy of the net generation have us longing for the good old analog days?

Not necessarily, as Sandwich sums up, "ipagpatuloy ang daloy ng alon" ( my terrible translation is... "it's the continuous flow of the waves").

Boomerang winners in the hot seat

For the last session of the Summit, Boomerang winners presented their award-winning work then sat down all together for a panel discussion.

Just my take on things but it was easier to understand why some campaigns were winners vs the others...

{Like}

Gold Winner for Online:

Nescafe Palistuhan

Proximity

Mentioned Support: Rich Ads, Non-rich Ads, Skinner, Search, TV

To bring to life the product benefit of a new Nescafe RTD product, communication asked Listo ka ba? (Are you alert?). Treatment was rap / hip-hop. Viral videos showed Ramon Bautista getting rapper-ready. The campaign microsite allowed users to get their rapper names and take a quiz that tested their wits.

I got to try the quiz, which didn't ask the usual trivia, but instead posed questions like "Which came first, the chicken or the egg?" Well users had to get a hundred of those right in order to be eligible for a prize! Points for engagement!

I thought this was a great campaign. Big Idea was solid, campaign was supported both online and off, and the website had content for various levels of engagement.

Gold Winner for Innovation:

Awesome Philippines

Media Contacts

Mentioned Support: TV, banners, digital PR

Posed with the challenge of promoting "Awesome Philippines" across eleven markets in four contintents without the budget to do actual on-ground at each place, Media Contacts came up with an innovative solution - meet everybody in Second Life. And where else but the 7,108th Philippine island?

Sec. Ace Durano held a press conference on the island, which also allowed visitors to try classic Pinoy activites like beach hoppings and see local landmarks such as the Chocolate Hills.

They also launched TV spots and banner ads featuring Apl.de.Ap, Happy Slip and MTV VJs doing trippy stuff. They called users to search "Awesome Experience" to find out where they were. This I believe led them to the DOT site, where they discovered even more cool stuff they could do in the Philippines, and "Remix Your Vacation" - plan their own itinerary and trip.

Ed Mapa, Jr. was asked via SMS during the panel discussion how many conversions actually came out of the campaign. He clarified that the metrics set by the DOT were not actual conversion to visit, but to drive buzz and conversation which they were very successful at.

I thought that this was really cool! Kudos on integration with ATL, SEO to utilize search as call-to-action, social engineering for the reveal and real innovation via Second Life press launch.

{Did not understand}

Gold Winner for Mobile:

Quaker Oats Eat Well Promo

Proximity

To increase sales for Quaker Oats (which are good for your heart), users were given the chance to win gadgets and even a car if they purchased the product and then joined an SMS raffle.

I felt that this did not impress. What is different about a raffle? It seems like all of the big brands have done some type of SMS raffle.

In the interview after the panel, Leah Besa-Jimenez mentioned that they were discussing heart health even prior to the raffle... which unfortunately was not mentioned in any of the materials shown to the audience. Would have liked to hear more about that instead of a promo since winning a car doesn't seem related to any big idea or even the product benefit.

From the materials shown, I actually thought that the Silver winner, Pampers Hearts Club (also by Proximity), did a better job of engaging consumers.

Gold Winner for Integrated Marketing:

Sandbox

Tribal DDB

When Sandbox was announced as the winner, I thought that they won on the basis of being the first "web-to-wap" portal. I agree that is pretty integrated.

But when they showed the AVP with the marketing for the site, it didn't seem very different - online videos, banner ads, skinners, e-mail blasts and iCafe screensavers. They didn't even do any mobile marketing despite Sandbox being on WAP.

The most creative item would be the viral videos starring Ramon Bautista, which the Tribal speaker said that Ramon actually wrote himself. I find this odd but when I search "Ramon Bautista Sandbox" on Google, the only result is a video on Metacafe, which only has 118 views. Also, searching for the same on YouTube renders no results for Sandbox (but includes some of the Listo vids!). Is this viral?

Lastly, I seem to recall several TVCs and print ads which may have contributed a lot to the number of people that signed up.

Maybe my beef is more that Sandbox doesn't really have a lot of content besides the games, ringtones, etc, that people are going to have to pay for before getting to use.

I don't know, I could be wrong. Anyway that's why the top of this section is titled "I don't understand".

{Anyway...}

An interesting point that came up in the panel discussion: Digital is not necessarily cheap.

I think the confusion comes from the fact that the distribution network is actually for free. I mean, how much did the inmates in Cebu spend on going viral? Probably not much. But that assumes that whatever, X, will actually spread on its own. It costs money to spread the word, especially vs other brands spreading their own word and most especially vs consumers spreading the words that they and others actually care about.

Besides that, producing digital content is so much harder than a TV or print ad because of interaction. A website has so many working parts that people can use in different ways - click, share, scroll, sign up, comment, play, view - and via different interfaces - Firefox, IE (not 6!), and a gazillion differently sized monitors. Taking all of this into account takes time, i.e. is not cheap!

Also, the Tribal DDB speaker made a good point when he said that digital work is not like a TV spot that you hand to your media agency for launch and then never have to worry about. A website is live, real time and you need to monitor regularly. This also takes time, i.e. is really not cheap!

But that's the value of an agency, folks! We will do all of that so you can still get your beauty sleep :P

All in all though, I was impressed by a lot of the finalists. Digital is coming. List for all Boomerang finalists and winners here.