Hoi Polloi

Micro, micro targeting

Remember the billboard ads in Spielberg's Minority Report? The ones where the ads start addressing the potential customer (John Anderton) by name? We're a long time away from that projected future (2054) but we've known for awhile that one-to-one marketing was getting well, funky. This technique is technologically feasible using SMS, for instance, but until now it didn't take it to the point of actually using the name of the person on  outdoor ads .

Now it's being done. Two strong cases have shown up.

1. Mini Cooper, USA is using RFID that gets customer participation. It's an interesting case of looking like an intrusive ad, when it's not. Why? because the customer has to register on the site, receive an RFID key fob, and carry it when driving, which triggers off the messages

2. Wilkes University (as reported by NY Times today) is taking it one step further, by targeting the students on billboards and posters, without their consent --just like direct mail. Apart from the risk of investing so much in a handful of potential students (where there is no real guarantee that these few would respond to the message) they have built other one-to-one elements into the effort. Such as giving the students being targeted in the ads the contact information of current Wilkes' students who had attended the same high school.

So much more refreshing than the the wasted efforts in mass targeting, a la Super Bowl ads, that are repeatedly proving to be inefficient.

Google Docs vs Wikis -a reason to use both

Despite my use of Wikis, I can see why Google Docs can become a sharing tool in instances where a Wiki would be overkill. Forrester's Charlene Li has a few good examples.

Here at ASU, we have opened up to Google Apps since last year which includes calendar, email, and IM. Google acquired a Wiki platform JotSpot, and Writely, a sort of web-based Word processor platform.

As for Wikis, I am impressed with Wetpaint, and have started using it for my IABC column, that my editor can visit while it is being written, to throw in comments, ask for clarification, and avoid the back-and-forth emails that all writers face. I figured that, at some point, I have to hand over the reins to someone smarter than me, so why not do it while it's being worked on, rather than a few minuted before the deadline.   

Speaking of Super Bowl controversies, Godaddy must be miffed

If traffic to Go Daddy not spiking after the Bowl ad wasn't enough, the fact that Snickers usurped the 'controversial ad' position this year must be salt in their wounds.

It's time the folks who churn out lame TV advertising for Go Daddy wake up and try something more innovative.

The YouTube generation

The demographics of YouTube is often not what people think. We've heard for some time that the audience is skewing toward an older audience.

This article makes you realize that things are changing in aggregator sites like this, and will change. For instance, news is the number one category watched. Not lip-syncing teens, not ads, not movie clips. We are still in the dark ages of video sharing. But very soon YouTube will begin to change as parent company Google addresses the changing demographic, and how best to serve them.

Jason Calacanis makes a point about innovation as being something social media players (who are not obsessed with how Super Bowl ads play out in this territory) need to be more concerned about, rather than 'scale'

Digital Enthnography --what a neat demo!

Kansas State University blog on "digital ethnography" is is a great way to understand what web 2.0 is all about. And for a fast way to infect your brain with the phenomenon, check their video here.

Wiki credited with state bill's passage in Utah

I am just completing an article on Wikis --not simply on wikipedia, but on the potential for wikis as a marketing and publishing platform. I had been intrigued with Politicopia (not to be confused with Politopia) and its founder Steve Urquhart's idea of putting hot button issues like this up for public debate in a Wiki.

So the news that in Utah's legislature passed a bill for school vouchers, debated in Politicopia, was a case in point that this democratic social medium can be stretched to serve a variety of purposes.

Urquhart credited the wiki with shedding ‘sunlight’ by taking private dialog and putting it into a public forum.

GoDaddy-esque tactics gives marketing a bad name

Almost impossible to ignore the GoDaddy pre-game PR that's been carefully played out. See my longer comment on the Valley PR Blog about Super Bowl advertising
 

Unwittingly, the media --and yes, bloggers-- contribute to the story, as Doug Rushkoff told tonight's Nightline reporter. They were discussing some recent guerrilla marketing tactics such as Ass-vertising (yes, you read that right) for a health & racquet club. Marketing messages on underwear. Now that's as Godaddy-esque as you can get.

The Boston bomb scare almost outdid it this week, with the placing of electronic panels on bridges --the cartoon characters make obscene gestures. Because of stuff like this that gets tagged under 'marketing' no wonder people squirm when they hear someone recommend something out of the box, or a tactic that would push the envelope. There are other envelopes to push, if Godaddy's agency could get past the hackneyed boob jokes. It's about time marketing returned to the box, and at least stayed relevant.