a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself
Thanks for the pointer, Steve! I’ve been bummed about Apple Mail deciding I can’t handle the HTML on this one for a long time and have not read it as much as I would have liked.
I just learned that eMarketer now has an RSS feed. You can get the feed here (RSS). [Micro Persuasion]
There’s an interesting piece in today’s NTY Business section on how cable companies (both carriers and networks) are working to roll-out technology to customize ads…
The Weather Channel is rolling out their own technology this October and will allow an advertiser to alter a message based on the pending weather forecast… Six Flags is testing ads focused in each Park market for each location, but has opted for a more general Brand message if rain is predicted for the immediate future.
Comcast has a system that is being tested by United in the Chicago market for Ted, their low-cost carrier, which lets the ad copy change based on the specific neighborhood you live in…There is flexibility in the system to allow a the targeted travel destination to change if flights are closing out.
Both of these are pretty interesting and pretty cool uses of tech, but the nay-sayers are actually more interesting…
“Television first and foremost is a branding vehicle,” said Charles Rosen, managing partner at Amalgamated, an ad agency in New York. “It is not the best vehicle for driving impulse purchases. If I make a memorable ad for Ben & Jerry’s, it’s still rare that somebody’s going to get off their couch, go to the store and buy our ice cream.”
While it’s true that TV has been primarily a Branding tool there has been a recent rise over the past few years in the use of Direct Response media…
Mr. Rosen has clearly focused his agency’s attention on Branding and has yet to be questioned on it’s effectiveness since he has no issue with zero accountability. When I read that quote, I started thinking about the last time I saw a Ben and Jerry’s ad (honestly have no idea when it might have been if ever) and then thought about my ice cream purchasing habits — we eat quite a bit of Häagen-Dazs.
I don’t mean to stick it to Mr. Rosen, but I do think it’s a tad 1985 to think that TV, and it’s darling 30 second spot are going to keep flying the flag. The audience may still there today, from a mass perspective anyway, but as more younger viewers continue to fragment their media consumption through interactive technologies like going online, video games, DVR usage and even mobile technologies, things are going to have to change. I believe that even the Networks will have to move in this direction if they expect to grab the share of media budgets they’ve come to enjoy.
While I was trying to avoid the site, I decided to check out Ugoff, the new site for BK by Crispin Porter, professional curiosity pulled me in… It’s not as crazy as Subservient Chicken, but it very well done and pretty funny. Ugoff looks like Matt Stone of South Park fame, yet sounds and dresses more like Mike Meyers from Sprockets. The interesting thing about the site which promotes the BK Salad and the bag it comes in is that it actually promotes up and coming designers of pretty fashionable women’s handbags.
The buzz is not as strong as the chicken was – you only get one of those without people knowing it’s an ad the next time, but seems to be a nice next move for both BK and the Agency. This time the site accompanied by a TV Spot directed by Roman Coppola, so it’s not exactly viral, though word or mouth seems to be pushing this. (That and of course the NYT Advertsising Section mention earlier in the week)
As a side note I mis-typed the url for the Chicken and it still resolved correctly… smart play.
MobileTracker reports on Nextel’s latest product enhancement, NextMail… From the sound of it, NextMail could be a very slick way to stay in touch indirectly, yet directly with quite a few people in your workgroup (or friends if you’re down with higher monthly fees) through a streaming MP3 audio message.
NextMail can facilitate group e-mails – up to 50 addresses at once – and the recipient of a NextMail message can easily respond to the originator in text (SMS) form. Customers can also deliver NextMail messages to their own e-mail inboxes as verbal reminders or to record meeting notes. [MobileTracker]
So the card and driver are finally getting close though it seems it will only initially work with the Zire 71. Aside from how ridiculous this is that it’s not even the latest Zire, the driver won’t work on any other OS 5 device until Palm One steps up and provides the appropriate assistance as each model has different requirement. For some strange reason this help is either lacking or inadequate. Seems PalmOne wants to be the one to bring WiFi to units with Bluetooth itself… though this has yet to materialize.
Even if the card was $150 without additional memory, I bet it would be a good seller. There are some hungry Palm users out there with Treos, T3s and Zires all looking to get this.
SanDisk would like to make this card compatible with other palmOne models, but it isn’t getting the co-operation it needs. The Zire 72 and Tungsten T3 need to have a system patch applied before their SD slots can use this card. According to SanDisk, palmOne won’t publicly release this. Instead, the patch will be built into the driver that palmOne will release with its Wi-Fi SD card, which is expected to be available soon. This patch isn’t something SanDisk can develop itself, which means that the only option for Wi-Fi SD cards for the Zire 72 and Tungsten T3 is the one palmOne itself will sell.
SanDisk promises to try to make versions of all of its SD products compatible with as many palmOne products as possible. However, it says the lack of support from palmOne makes this difficult. SanDisk can’t release its SD card that combines Wi-Fi and 256 MB of storage without further assistance from palmOne. [Brighthand]
This is certainly an interesting perspective on the Sony’s failure in the US… I can’t say whether I agree or disagree, but will add my own own experience is of not to read the manual unless the gadget seems incredibly complicated and like something I can’t figure out, which is to say pretty rare with me and consumer electronics.
I just did not like what the Sony devices had to offer (except for wifi and bluetooth together) vs. Palm and was not willing to pay the huge price difference. I was pretty close to getting the UX-50 but found the screen way too small compared to the T3.
Sony’s design flaws, and ultimate failure, also came from a misunderstanding of its target audience, as well as poor design. But size wasn’t the problem, rather it was usability by the American consumer.
The typical Japanese electronics buyer (of cameras, camcorders, PDAs, etc.) reads the manual in order to understand everything they can about their devices. I am told (though I have never seen it myself) it’s not unusual to see people wearing a PDA on a lanyard around their neck in Japan. They love their technology and they have no problem spending all the necessary time it takes to learn how to use it well. Americans love technology too but expect it to be powerful AND intuitive, and we don’t want to have to read the darn manual.
Unquestionably, Sony engineers are brilliant; they can make things smaller than anyone on the planet. They can rewrite software to do amazing things on a PDA. They were first to market with lots of PDA enhancements. But they didn’t take the time to make their enhancements intuitive and thus non-manual-reading Americans thought their device was too complicated or worse, broken.
Sony failed with Clies in the U.S. because its devices had numerous small software controls with cryptic icons, buried settings with vast numbers of mystifying variables to set up things like Wi-Fi, and unnecessarily complicated looking screens. Apparently for the Japanese consumer, a complicated-looking Applications screen suggests that the device is cool and powerful. In America, the same screen is seen as too complicated and confusing, and if it requires a manual to figure it out, it’s going back to the store.
There’s even proof of this inside every Clie box lid. Sony prints the message, “If your product is not working properly, DO NOT RETURN IT TO THE STORE…” then it tells you how to get tech support via a toll-free number or web address. The box lid message finishes with, “For U.S. customers only.” [Brighthand]
This seems like a total rip to me… In my train travels, (I ran the corridor several times a week for a few years) I’d never get to the station with any time to kill unless weather got in the way of the scheduled train. As nice as some of the Amtrak stations are, they really are not where you spend any time. You could do much better with a bluetooth connection from your phone or a handheld like a Blackberry or Treo. I’d like to see Wi-Fi on the train, in motion… that’d be worth paying for even if you only ride the Acela for just over an hour… A day rate would be the best though giving you a single fare for round-trip day trips.
Amtrak and AT&T Wireless put Wi-Fi hotspots in six Northeast train stations: Boston (Router 128), Providence, New York (Penn Station), Philadelphia (30th Street), Wilmington, and Baltimore (Penn Station) have Wi-Fi service starting today, according to the press release. These stations process a million passengers a day. It’s $10 per day per location–unlike T-Mobile’s $10 per day throughout the network fee. They also offer a 5-pack ($30 or $6 a session) and a 10-pack ($50 or $5 a session). Business subscribers only who already participate in AT&T Wireless’s “Corporate Digital Advantage and Wireless Business Advantage” plans can purchase unlimited monthly service for $40 per month to supplement voice plans or $35 per month to supplement data plans. [Wi-Fi Networking News]
Looks like we are getting closer or they really like me… more like we are getting closer to launch. 5 more invites ready to go…actually 4 now.
I don’t live near a PalmOne Store (well without a car NJ and the Philly airport are a bit far), but if you do, this might be a good chance to upgrade/trade-in for a Treo 600…
Just bring your old handheld computer or smartphone to any palmOne retail location by June 30, 2004 and get $50 off the purchase price of a Treo™ 600 smartphone, Tungsten™ E, Tungsten T3, Tungsten C, Zire™ 71 or Zire 72 handheld.
Plus, you’ll save 10% on any (and all) accessories you buy at the same time. But hurry! Offer is only good for a limited time–and only at palmOne retail stores.
This is hardly surprising… given the adoption of digital by consumers and the acceleration of professional level equipment to market.
Reuters – Japan’s Nikon Corp said on Tuesday that it was boosting its production capacity for a hot-selling
digital single-lens reflex (SLR) camera, while eyeing an eventual exit from film compact cameras due to sliding demand. [Yahoo! News]
Yahoo will announce Tuesday that it has revamped its mail products, increasing the storage on its paid and free products to 2 gigabytes and 100 mbytes, respectively. Is this a big deal? Yes. [John Battelle’s Searchblog]
Via Scoble, I came across this quote over at Kevin Schofield’s Weblog:
Marketing is a difficult discipline, that requires both theoretical and practical knowledge. Just as marketing people should respect technical people, technical people should respect marketing people. I think in the long run one of the most important business lessons that people will take away from studying Microsoft is that when you put sharp technical people and sharp marketing people together and things click, you can create a very, very profitable business. [Kevin Schofield’s Weblog]
Kevin works at in the Microsoft marketing group and tries to help Scoble understand and appreciate the difference between marketing and advertising so that the art and science (primarily behind the marketing) can be respected. I’ve definitely learned a great deal in my time in Marketing… and believe that while I’ve got plenty to learn (as is natural) there is much to offer based on my experience.
I’d add this bit to Kevin’s post, since my experience is from the Agency side, rather than the client side…
Advertising needs to respect Marketing as well.
There were far too many times for me to count where marketing (particularly direct and interactive) were used as window dressing to sell advertising based primarily on ignorance to better position the Agency to sell more sexy ad campaigns rather than focus on the issue at hand which might be more easily addressed through a targeted marketing campaign. Because the science behind the marketing usually takes a good bit of time and effort and cooperation from the client (they’ve got the data initially) it gets passed on for TV-appeal. It’s great to see your work on-screen.. I know, it feels good from my perspective too! It’s redeeming to share that with your family and have them appreciate what you actually do, but is very difficult to track a few key details of how you are spending your money like:
Who’s watching…
Are they interested in my product/service?
Are they even considering my product/service?
Do they use a competitors product or service?
Are they already a customer?
How long and what level?
Perhaps an upgrade offer or cross sell of related services would be a better use of message…
Before I dive into the deep on the differences between direct and general advertising, I’ll just end with this thought…
There is almost always a great deal of focus that can be brought to a campaign to make sure that the greatest number of interested parties see your message and are likely to respond (and buy or get in touch with you) in an attributable way. It’s hard to beat the mass efficiency of TV in primetime or daytime, but is that really where your message should be? Wouldn’t you rather know who you are communicating with and engage in a dialogue?
Without a deal (like a cellular subsidy) on price this is pretty much an impossible sell…
It’s official, the HD TiVOs have finally begun shipping. They’re going to be priced at around a thousand bucks for now, but expect a new customer special in the next few months that should make it cheaper (I’m going to guess $399 or $499 with a year contract). [PVRblog]
This is something I’ve wondered and commented on many times to my wife as we’ve walked around the city…
Can someone explain to me why all the watches in the MSN direct ads are upside-down? [Michael Gartenberg]
It seems some creative director thought they liked the look of the watch in right side up mode, but preferred to place it on the wrong hand… even if it was on the correct hand, this is not a service I have interest in personally, though perhaps the point of the ads was just to draw attention which clearly they’ve achieved. Probably have not sold too many though…
AdTunes lets you find the music used in commercials…
Starz to Launch Online Movie Service With Real: The service will offer about 100 movies for download every month, and unlimited streaming options, for $12 a month, writes Ali and adds, “The deal is exclusive for both Starz and RealNetworks for at least five years.” I think the killer aspect of this is the streaming and the pricing of the package. [GigaOm: Om Malik’s Broadband Blog]
This is a pretty amazing development coming from Peru and apparently it’s not the only beverage product looking to take advantage of the coca leaf…
A Peruvian company is producing a soft drink with coca, the much-maligned green leaf used to make cocaine.
[New York Times]
Dave Chappelle did a parody of Red Bull called Red Balls, which was like crack in a can, but this is actually real. It only includes trace amounts of cocaine, but still…
Through deals with WebEx and Lightbridge, AOL is bringing a significant bump in functionality to the business user… According to AOL, it’s “becoming the new phone.”
NEW YORK (Reuters) – America Online, the world’s largest Internet service provider, on Thursday said it had launched a service that lets users conduct audio conference calls and share online presentations over its popular instant messaging service. [Yahoo! News]
I’d love to see iChatAV support this as well…
I’m not exactly a sales guy, but I’ve certainly spent more than enough time selling services to clients and potential clients. This article on CareerJournal at the WSJ is a good read for 10 points on how to interview smarter. One thing I’ve realized in my travels is that while they might be interviewing you, you are also interviewing them. Be sure not to forget that and try not to get sucked into just providing the right answers… the right questions can really give you much more information and help you decide if you are in the right place for your next move.
Salespeople are prone to accepting the wrong jobs. Maybe it’s because they tend to be overly optimistic and see only the good until it’s too late. Or it may be because they’re customers at heart who appreciate a good pitch. [
CareerJournal]