marketing – Page 4 – atmaspheric

8/2/2011

Strava’s Social Fitness Works You Harder

I’ve become a huge fan of Strava for tracking my cycling workouts as well as sharing and tracking friends and pros. The data viz portion of Strava is really solid, easy to understand and actually quite robust. I’ve been a Garmin Connect user since I bought my bike (and GPS) three summers ago, but Garmin has always lacked social connections. As a result of Garmin’s lacking social functions, I’ve also been using DailyMile and while I really like DailyMile as well, I can see how the updates and strides Strava continues to make will probably assist in my full migration soon …

The basics … Strava gets cycling. More than any other service, they break down hill sections of your rides into competitive segments and allow you to automatically compete against yourself as well as all other riders who also sync their rides into Strava. Initially I missed this piece when I first tried it months ago as I was early in and did not appreciate the difference with Garmin.

The ability to quickly see that I’ve climbed my best that day (regardless of how my legs felt) is immediately rewarding, but it’s also quite motivating to learn that even though I felt strong, my time was better on a prior ride. This gets me thinking of the conditions of that prior ride and how I can do better the next time out. Adding in the social layer makes it even more competitive and even passively (without actually knowing the other people) you can still compete and set goals to try and ladder up the King or Queen of the Mountain competition for a particular climb.

Another really excellent feature within Strava is that it automatically groups you with the people you’ve ridden with that day as everyone syncs their data. Today as you can see from the screenshot below, I rode with 3 other people and Strava automatically grouped us so we can easily compare and discuss how things went afterwards. This type of discussion is happening naturally even with people I’ve just met (like today) and it’s quite powerful stuff.

The updates that Strava added today have only enhanced both the views of your ride data as well as the ability to slice the competitive ladder more discretely (even fairly) so you can compete on age and weight which certainly play a factor in some rides. I particularly like the Suffer Score and also how your power and heart rate are displayed to show the real level of effort for a particular ride. Strava calculates power using some algorithmic special sauce. I don’t have a power meter currently so there’s no way to know how accurate it really is, but for the moment it’s a great baseline to compare like my other stats on the regular rides I do. I should note that while Strava does offer a free service, it’s $6/month to get the full range of utility and I believe it’s well worth it.

Strava isn’t the only game in town and while today’s update also includes mention of the Running beta and potential for Triathletes, Runkeeper is pushing out their own update to include more social inclusion. Runkeeper already has Street Teammates which work like DailyMile’s and Nike+ friends. You can track how each other do each week and cheer people on. I consider that the basics … Today Runkeeper sent out an email pushing their new update which like Strava will let you digitally run with friends.

You’ll note as it mentions in the email above, you need to do this afterwards by selecting your Street Teammates or Facebook friends. While this isn’t hard to do, it’s that extra step that Strava does automatically that ensures you are actually using it. I’m really interested to see how Strava continues to evolve around new sports and particularly how deep they go with Cycling. If you’d like you can follow me. I’ve also recently added a widget that shows my recent rides on the ride sidebar if you still visit the site.

Ride safe!

7/28/2011

Consider the user …

I know it’s obvious, but it’s amazing how some companies don’t take user experience into account when designing their products. Take for example the bike route mapping sites MapMyRide and RidewithGPS … MapMyRide appears to be the market leader given they’ve been around for a long time, but man is it painful to use. They have a decent number of routes if you look around, but the site compresses the map to a small area and there are really a pretty gross number of ads on the page as well as on the map itself. Their goal is of course to get you to upgrade to a paid account and certainly the incentives are there given the volume of ads … The problem for MapMyRide though is that they are not the only game in town and RidewithGPS arrived on the scene with an excellent route planner and a great map browser.

Take a look at the two screens …

From Route Planning

Both are views of my local area and show available routes … so the experiences are as “parallel” as they can be to show the difference. I went into fullscreen mode to try and maximize as much of the view as possible.

Which would you prefer to use?

3/14/2011

Apple’s Post-PC BS

Apple’s claim that we are in the post-pc era is a load of garbage. This weekend I had the pleasure of updating our iOS household and it required a lot of tethering a lot of time and thanks to one particular failure quite a bit of frustration.

As anyone who’s purchased an iPad knows to activate even the wifi only device requires a sync with iTunes which of course requires both a computer and a cable. iTunes controls everything. It downloads the updates, confirms your device is authorized and flashes things over … all via the cable. In our house, we sync two iPads and two iPhones on two different computers though we share the same AppleID to ensure we can easly share apps and content.

Things were generally smooth for my devices which sync through my older MacBookPro. The update process on the iPad took a very long time, while the iPhone was processed a bit more quickly. In both cases you have to back-up, acknowledge the update, (though backup first) and the sync and restore … iTunes takes care of this, but it’s quite the process.

My wife syncs against her PPC Mac Mini which is older and slower. Her iPhone updated as expected, but the iPad failed. The failure occurred sometime over night. It had already taken hours for the backup and I just left it running when we went to bed. Unfortunately things did not resolve well … Failure in sync for those who have not lived through this means you have to start fresh. Fresh means nothing on your device. You can of course re-download everything or try to restore. Given how long the initial process ran, I opted for the quicker route … this is where the Post-PC BS really comes into play. There is absolutely no direct way to download everything again from the iPad. You have to hunt for everything all over and download them one at a time … You also really get to appreciate Apple’s design of the App Store which closes out on you for each download.

In contrast, on Android when you sign into your Google Account all your apps, settings and preferences come right down. When I upgraded to the Nexus S from the One, I found even my hidden wifi networks auto-reconnected when I was nearby. When I played with the Xoom recently, my apps did not download immediately (presumable to enable preferences between phone and tablet) but did all nicely line up in the Market ready for a single click to download again.

Apple’s reliance on the computer is certainly friendly for the lower end user, but is incredibly limiting for the more advanced consumer. There’s nothing post-pc about connecting to the pc to do the heavy lifting.

2/13/20112/13/2011

Nokia the OEM

I’ve been tracking all the Nokia news the past days and while it’s impossible to argue that change was required, it seems that Nokia has actually folded considerably more than we’d all expected. In exchange for access to Microsoft Windows Phone, Nokia is essentially closing up shop outside of manufacturing and some bits of maps. Near term Symbian will be supported, but that has a pretty clear path to death.

If you read the open letter, everything is spelled out in plain English. My thoughts in italics …

• Nokia will adopt Windows Phone as its primary smartphone strategy, innovating on top of the platform in areas such as imaging, where Nokia is a market leader. (symbian and meego are done)

• Nokia will help drive and define the future of Windows Phone. Nokia will contribute its expertise on hardware design, language support, and help bring Windows Phone to a larger range of price points, market segments and geographies. (Nokia gets a say for some features, probably driven by hardware opportunities)

• Nokia and Microsoft will closely collaborate on development, joint marketing initiatives and a shared development roadmap to align on the future evolution of mobile products. (Nokia earns the right to co-marketing and will probably have some devices featured as core Windows Phone products in direct MS marketing)

• Bing will power Nokia’s search services across Nokia devices and services, giving customers access to Bing’s next generation search capabilities. Microsoft adCenter will provide search advertising services on Nokia’s line of devices and services. (Bing and you’re done, just like Nokia’s ad business)

• Nokia Maps will be a core part of Microsoft’s mapping services. For example, Maps would be integrated with Microsoft’s Bing search engine and adCenter advertising platform to form a unique local search and advertising experience. (Fortunately for MS, Nokia paid Billions for Navteq and we’ll put that to good use in our core products)

• Nokia’s extensive operator billing agreements will make it easier for consumers to purchase Nokia Windows Phone services in countries where credit-card use is low. (Nokia will help MS get operator billing in place for Windows Phone which will potentially help global reach for MS. Probably does nothing for the US Smartphone market opp)

• Microsoft development tools will be used to create applications to run on Nokia Windows Phones, allowing developers to easily leverage the ecosystem’s global reach. (QT is dead. An excellent acquisition for Nokia)

• Microsoft will continue to invest in the development of Windows Phone and cloud services so customers can do more with their phone, across their work and personal lives. (More MS for Nokia owners running Windows Phone)

• Nokia’s content and application store will be integrated with Microsoft Marketplace for a more compelling consumer experience. (Ovi is dead)

The best post that sums this up described the transition as a coup and frankly that’s not too far off. Microsoft has a new leader in place at Nokia who owns a massive amount of stock and naturally wants things to work out … for Microsoft. Microsoft gets a new hero manufacturer to abuse. If Nokia enables Windows Phone sales he wins – on both sides of the equation. Nokia as a company and brand has some major issues to resolve.

The real issues facing Nokia are remain the same. They still need to attract developers and require some major assistance still in the US, the largest smartphone market. Microsoft has barely made a dent and it seems their sales are in the channel rather than end user. Windows Phone is a fresh start in a race that’s been active for years. Android while more competitive for Nokia as an OEM would have been an easy option for developers to work with given the stratospheric growth and sales of Android products over the past two years. Windows Phone is certainly nice, but that’s all it is. There are no standout applications yet even though the growth has been reasonable. Time will tell, but I’m not feeling this at all.

1/4/2011

Netflix looking to become the dial tone for on demand

it is going to take (more than) a few years to replace existing TV’s but as we eventually purchase connected sets, this could be quite a big deal. Way to think big, Netflix! This could make earning default status quite a bit more challenging for anyone else …

Netflix just announced partnerships with most of the major TV makers to add a Netflix button to TV remote controls.
Now instead of messing around with a tv, hitting “input” and trying to find Netflix, you can just hit the Netflix button and it will pop up for select internet connected televisions.
We don’t know how many TV’s will be getting this, but it’s pretty huge for Netflix. Every time someone uses the remote for their new TV they’ll see a little advertisement for Netflix.Business Insiders.

12/18/201012/18/2010

Good idea, poor execution Sprint

I just caught this ad in the latest Wired and since I’m the proud owner of a new Nexus S I was intrigued by the highlighted apps. The problem was when I went to get them …

Instead of using the standard QR code which works with the android barcode reader, Sprint decided to use scanlife which means I need to download an app before I can even respond to what I’d being suggested. The mention to download scanlife is quite small and noted via an asterisk … lame.

Let’s keep it simple … unless you really don’t want consumers involved.

12/14/201012/14/2010

html email rocks

html email rocks, originally uploaded by atmasphere.

stellar job team.

11/22/201011/22/2010

Online TV Viewers Tolerate More Ads (and get paid)

The only thingI want to know is how much the panel gets paid to endure 16 MINUTES of ads during a 30 Minute show. Who are these people? I’m sure the groups were considered a great success …

Viewers of 30-minute TBS sitcoms like “Meet the Browns” watched, on average, 40 percent of the episode if there was one minute of ads and 37 percent of the episode if there were 16 minutes of ads. Viewers of hourlong TNT shows like “Memphis Beat” watched 59 percent of the episode if there were one minute 15 seconds of ads, and 49 percent of the episode if there was 20 minutes of ads.

via Online TV Show Viewers Tolerate More Ads, Turner Says – NYTimes.com.

11/15/2010

10 Principles To Work By

Here’s a great list to start your week …

In 1951, Dentsu’s president, Yoshida-san, came up with these ten principles. They ring true, six decades down the line.
1. Create work for yourself; don’t wait for work to be assigned to you.
2. Take an active role in all your endeavours, not a passive one.
3. Seek out large and complex jobs. Trivial tasks debase you.
4. Welcome difficult assignments. Choose them. Progress lies in accomplishing difficult work.
5. Once you begin a task, complete it. Never give up.
6. Lead your fellow workers. Be an example for them to follow.
7. Set goals for yourself to ensure a constant sense of purpose. This will give you perseverance and hope for the future.
8. Move with confidence. Confidence gives your work force, focus and substance.
9. Find new solutions. This is the way we ensure satisfactory service.
10. When conflict is necessary don’t shy away from it or be afraid. Conflict is the mother of progress and the source of aggressive enterprise. If you fear conflict, you will become timid and servile.

hat tip @sushobhan

8/18/20108/18/2010

Google TV’s Tough Sell

The WSJ has a report today about the challenge in selling GoogleTV to traditional players in the TV business. This should not come as a surprise to anyone given the long history of resistance to change from media companies in general.

In recent weeks, Google has met with officials of TV networks including ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC to encourage them to work with the service, according to people familiar with the matter. Content owners, though, are skeptical that Google can provide a business model that would compensate for potentially cannibalizing TV owners existing broadcast businesses.

via WSJ.com.

I still don’t see the problem this is solving even as a technology early adopter. I don’t find myself wishing I could more actively search on TV. I take a quick spin and either find something of moderate interest or just tune out.

5/4/2010

Captcha Advertising?

Take one of the more hated “prove you are human” to the spam assassins and combine it in an ad to earn a consumer response?? WTF!? What am I missing here? This idea is horrible.

Captcha Advertising.

4/26/20104/26/2010

What exactly is Nokia’s problem?

What the hell is happening at Nokia?

They have been in a real decline with no sign of change which is just ridiculous considering their global share of mobile. I’m glad I’m not a shareholder, but if I was I would be freaking out and calling for change … Instead i will just use my iPad.

When Nokia forced the N97 out of the gate early it was, in my opinion, a move made of ignorance. While it is typical for them to release a hardware product that requires firmware to smooth things out, consumer experience had substantially changed since that proactive started. The initial N95 was the same actually. It took a big software update to deliver on the multitasking promise as it shipped without the ability to page memory and therefore needed to close apps constantly as you moved through the device. The N97 continued that tradition and actually shipped with crappy hardware hardware as well. It was barely tolerable with the N97 but people were far more aware of their options (iPhone, Android etc) when the N97 arrived. As a result sales suffered and consumer demand is low … Outside of course of the carrier based low cost phone channel. A place all flagship devices seek …

Now the N8, next flagship is due to arrive and according to aEldar’s review at Mobile Review is yet another disappointment. I’m sure Nokia will make it up by only charging $600 instead of $700 as with the N97.

Nokia’s device strategy is allegedly based on solutions, but their goal of integrating software through Ovi remains another empty promise. The lack of a core suite of reliable services is ridiculous given the amount of time that has passed. I’m not saying this is easy to do, but the company line has been “it’s coming” for far too long … As in years.

Perhaps you think Maemo, oh I mean Meego is the solution? Let’s just look at the stellar track record there. The N900 is the 4th device on the 4th version of the maemo platform. Maemo 6 is DOA and instead Meego will replace. Let’s see how that goes … I won’t be holding my breath. Even if Nokia and Intel pull off a reasonable UX, the services won’t be in place, nor will the apps. Maemo haas been the red headed stepchild within Nokia through each phase it has existed. Instead of creating a dual OS strategy and giving Maemo some real resources, Nokia instead has played it coy and left a lot of the work on the community, which while enthusiastic, remains more hobbyist than anything else. Instead the “effort” has gone towards S60 and Symbian.

I’ve used countless Nokia devices since the launch of Nseries back in 2005. I have loved and actively promoted the brand. I’ve even worked for Nokia in that time through the digital agency I still work for today. Through all that time Nokia has made many broken promises but because they have also stuck to the old game no one else is playing they are losing and badly. It’s great that manufacturing excellence leads to global efficiencies and reduced costs for emerging markets, but where’s the innovation?? Where’s the passion for mobile?

It’s time for a real change.

4/24/20104/25/2010

Lazy print to digital conversions

Just because someone offers a solution to take and digitize your print product doesn’t mean it’s actually a good idea. Take Outside Magazine, a magazine I’ve recently subscribed to and enjoy reading. I was excited to see they offered an iPad edition and downloaded the app.

While the app store preview showed a prior edition, I thought that was just for example and yet post purchase I see that the only issue available digitally is the same one – and one I’ve read previously as a subscriber. Even so i thought it would at least be interesting to see how the iPad edition worked…. Not so great. It was obviously an easy conversion … I’m guessing with minimal manual intervention. As you can see below, there was absolutely no thought on how to handle links to online content. In the case highlighted below, there is no way to click on the link or even capture the text. Not cool.

4/14/20104/14/2010

It’s called Facebook

Seth, meet Facebook. Facebook, Seth.

PS If I ran Twitter, I’d build my new ad service about a socially acceptable way for corporate users to build large lists of followers, people who would give permission to get news and discounts and insights from advertisers. Twitter knows who likes what and they have permission from users to be a bridge between the user and those that might want to talk to them. That’s a powerful place to be.

3/7/2010

Cablevision – ABC = No Oscars and Millions of Pissed Consumers

We’ve officially lost ABC on Cablevision today. Thanks Disney. Aside from the Oscar blackout tonight, which upsets my wife more than anything, we’ll lose access to Lost as well the only other show we care about on ABC.

The question I have for ABC is this … If it’s really about the money, how are you able to justify the efficacy of the ads sold for the Oscars with such a substantial portion of the NY Metro removed? Charging for what’s available for free over the air (if we all hadn’t switched to digital) is ridiculous and you should be ashamed.

2/22/2010

The Apple Store Experience – Impressive as always

Over the weekend I took my brother in law to the Apple Store in White Plains to pick up a new MacBook and I was struck by how much of an impression it made on him. The things I take for granted because I already know a fair bit abut technology and have spent my share of time in various Apple stores are simply not the case for the more normal consumer.

Henry was amazed at the in-store engagement – classes, questions, and purchases all around. We flagged an employee to help him and Erick was more than happy to help Henry finalize his selection and even added in a printer. Check out was the usual impressive event as well … no line. The same store rep fired up his iPod touch, scanned the barcodes of the macbook and printer and swiped Henry’s card. Henry was amazed as he signed the screen and his email receipt was sent.

I’ve had this experience quite a few times for various purchases and it still amazes me too. Apple has enabled the point of sale to be everywhere with effectively everyone in the store able to take your transaction. If you’ve purchased before the receipt is in your inbox before you leave the store.

2/18/2010

JetBlue Fails Their Own Digital Savvy Test

This morning I read about how JetBlue used Twitter to try and test the agencies pitching for their business. I think it caught my attention as I had a Jet Blue flight booked for later in the day … Well fast forward a few hours to that time and suddenly I’ve got a reason to reach out to JetBlue about my family’s experience today. It wasn’t great.

On the way down to Florida, we were booked in 4 seats in row 1 and our last seat in row 18. Not exactly stellar and something only a computer would do. We had to actually forfeit the row 18 seat and checked our car seat once on the plane in order to make sure the whole family stayed together. Traveling with three small kids can be stressful and not being together only amplifies the potential challenge of keeping everyone calm. JetBlue has said (via the flight attendant) that they’d be looking to reimburse us for the lost seat … I guess we have to wait it out on that one. I didn’t tweet it, but I’m posting it now.

Today was our return trip and while our seats were booked together, we were in the back of the plane. Not ideal, but certainly acceptable -being together was the most important detail. While waiting around for the boarding call, I tried to see if we might move forward a bit (we were booked 2 rows from the back). I waited patiently and politely and stood quite when a passenger was called up from the back of the line to be helped first. Her issue was apparently far too complicated and used up any available time for me. Instead we got a gruff, there are no seats to move around (after the passenger ahead in line moved). OK …

About 5 minutes later the pre-boarding call was announced and we immediately made our way over to the gate door. The JetBlue attendant looked at our boarding passes and gave us an earful about not coming over sooner for the pre-board even though she had literally just announced it. Instead of letting us on the plane, we were asked to stand to the side while other rows for main boarding started. There were at least 3 other families who also found the same experience and all were surprised to find that there wasn’t a pre-boarding and that we were being scolded for not respecting the call (that had just happened).

I’ve traveled far too much to know getting angry with the person behind the desk never leads to anything good for you, but man the families were livid. We all have small kids and definitely need more time to get on the plane, deal with car seats unpack etc. Not today … My family was cool. We got on board eventually and I was able to get the car seat belted for my son, but one of the other families ran into an issue and started to get quite nervous about securing their child safely. Joe (real name) from JetBlue came over to help but got testy with the nervous parent who was certainly pushing to get things resolved. We heard Joe scold the dad by saying “I don’t come to your office and tell you how to do your job, so don’t tell me how to do mine.” I can’t help but think that extra time we all wanted during pre-board would have been exactly what we needed right then.

Back to the original tweet test … I tweeted this as it was happening today – twice. JetBlue? No comment today … tomorrow won’t matter. Let’s not forget this social media stuff is a two-way street, JetBlue. Looking at you, @martysg. Comcast and Zappos don’t need #sneaky hashtags, they pay attention and respond within a reasonable amount of time – sometimes surprisingly fast.

2/8/2010

How Google Won the #brandbowl

Unlike the vast majority of crap that ran last night, Google delivered an incredibly focused piece for the Super Bowl. The ad is simple, shows off the product and keeps the brand on screen for the entire time.

1/29/2010

Configure Safari for Apps

An interesting development within the .Mac Gallery App for iPhone is the ability to configure the iPhone to redirect activity to the app over the browser.

I could easily see this evolving quickly to include all kinds of apps that can deliver a richer experience over the browser. If you are a publisher, this seems like a no-brainer. The New York Times showed off their swanky new iPad app this week and I would certainly want to direct traffic to that once installed. The mobile web is great, but the richer experience of the application is much more compelling.

The potential for a brand to earn greater traction within their app just by tweaking an existing consumer behavior – clicking a shared link in email – is quite high in this case and something I definitely want to consider for client engagements we develop in the near term.

BTW – The Gallery app also includes a friend feature which while totally manual in nature (adding people) is I believe Apple’s first real nod to social connections.