If They Don't Hear It, Say It Louder...

... and if don't see it, MAKE IT BIGGER! That's the latest initiative from the Online Publishers Association in an attempt to combat desensitivity to online banner ads. In an effort to maintain an evolution in online advertising, and create new ways for agencies to integrate a brand's experience with more interactivity, three new online ad units have been introduced. These ad units will be available through nearly two dozen OPA participating members including New York Times, MSNBC.com, MTV Networks and Wall Street Journal, whose combined reach is over 108.3 million unique visitors (that's 66% of the total US internet audience).

Read on to get the skinny on the creative objectives of this initiative and all the deets on the new creative units that will be available in early July!

re: iPhone Forrester Study

A recent Forrester study supports the previous post. iPhone apps ranked highest for web browsing for convenience by on the go consumers followed by other Mobile apps, with mobile web surfing ranking at the bottom.

500MM Apps downloaded and rapdily counting.

Looking forward to the Blackberry App World!

iPhone has huge mobile browsing saturation

This doesn't come as much surprise. After all, the iPhone was the first mobile web browser that gave users the Internet in full (albeit Flashless), pinchable form. Arguably, it still is the best game in town. At least until the Palm Pre releases.

66% is a big number. And makes it even more important to think about iPhone-friendly sites as a part of a bigger interactive strategy.

Now where's that Flash anyway, Apple?

Intel: Programmable Matter is in the future.

I know this blog isn't necessarily "popular mechanics", but this technology really just makes me realize what dramatic changes that we and especially our kids will see in the future. Here is a technology that is 20-40 years in the future, but the ground is being broken today by Intel and others.

It's really interesting to imagine how something like programmable matter could affect the products we buy, how we sell, how we demonstrate usage, how a single product might be customizable to fit your needs in a way few of us could imaine. There are several articles out there on this subject. it's nice to dream.

Q&A: Why Best Practices Matter in Shopper Marketing

Nice Q&A on the creation of the shopper insight council.

http://www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/shopper-marketing/e3i99cfa85eeeab5b040544f46ec5714cad

.................
Sent from my iPhone

Augmented Reality from GE.

Ok, this actually gave me the chills, which really doesn't happen too often. It's a really imaginative evolution of 3D online. It's most likely a combination of Papervision 3D and as you can see the use of a QR code (of sorts).

Regardless of the technology used, this is really a show stopper. Print out the QR-ish code and hold it up to the screen and a 3D world erupts on screen, mapped to the image on the paper - Amazing! The marketing and in-store opportunities for something like this could be HUGE. I'll definitely be looking more into this.


Try it out for yourself

Bully Free Zone.

Facebook is going through more IA and design changes to make its self a bit more 'real time', like Twitter. The last Facebook layout update (which most people still hate) really put the emphasis on your Facebook status, clearly a response to the popularity of Twitter, even at that point. So here we are again, Facebook is trying to overtake what Twitter has carved out for its self in the social networking arena.

See the posting at techcrunch

Interesting stats.

Super Sweet from Tumblr.

As you may know Tumblr is a social site that allows easy personal blogging of video, text, photos... etc. I noticed that you can also call in audio and have it posted to your blog page. I'm sure this feature isn't for everyone, but for those with some flair and personality, it could be a hit. If you come across any audio blogs, please post them in the comments.

Skittles.com : Interesting take on information architecture

Skittles.com has a new online experience to check out.  This is the 2nd time i've personally seen this type of information design in place, the other time i saw this was on Modernista's web site. I guess imitation is the best form of flattery.  In short it's using social sites on the web to host their content. So friends of Skittles are on Facebook, videos are on YouTube. The main page their navigation sits on is Twitter. It's pulling in everyone who's talking about Skittles, which is pretty cool. Products are hosted on Wikipedia.   This is still an interesting approach.  Outside of this you can't help but realize that there are many ways for a brand to utilize social sites (Other than the obvious ways) and utilize their benefits.

Wow. Jaguar, Land Rover Make $1.6 Million Mobile Buy

Huge mobile marketing buy here and big news here from Jaguar / Land Rover. Interestingly they see the medium as not just awareness, but direct response. I'd agree completely. Even on a very basic mobile level it is super easy to interact and get information on basic information like weather/news and just as easy (and convenient) for appropriate branded messaging. I can't wait to see how this mobile marketing campaign comes to life in the marketplace. I'm also really curious about it's success.

Read the ad age article here >

Oldie but a goodie, What if Microsoft designed the iPod?

Tropicana pulls back new packaging after a few weeks.

So Tropicana redesigned their packaging and put it into market just a few weeks back.  Here's the thing, they promptly pulled it off the shelves after just about a month and went back to their original package design.

Did sales plummet?  Was the shift to an entirely new look and feel just too much for consumers?  To the left you can see the 2 designs, on the left he classic orange with straw inserted into it and on the right the new design.

Personally, i'm glad they went back to the original design.  It's a classic brand and classic design that everyone knows.  The new creative feel too much like a generic orange juice brand.  It's contemporary and attractive, but It just doesn't hold onto any of the brand equity or frankly, the heritage that has been established over the years by Tropicana.  So hit your local super market for this limited edition Tropicana packaging, get them fast, because they'll soon be gone.

What's Ping?

I came across this very cool site which allows you to manage all your social networks from one place. Most of us are on Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, LinkedIn, AIM or Delicious, Flickr. But, you can also manage your accounts on Plurk, Tumblr, Identi.ca, Brightkite, friendfeed, Jaiku, Plaxo, Bebo, Hi5, Mashable, Xanga, Wordpress, Blogger (hey that's what this blog uses), yammer, Vox, typepad and about 15 other social networks out there in the world.

Realize Ping doesn't give you "full" access to manage these account, but gives you in many cases the ability to update a status on particular social network, or All statuses on all your social networks that accept statuses. I actually could have posted this blog post from Ping, but wasn't sure how to add the nifty Ping logo above, next time i will.

Million Dog Mosaic in Brandweek.

Nice case study from Brandweek on Pedigree's Million Dog Mosaic below.

Case Study: Pedigree's Million-Dog Mosaic
Feb 21, 2009
-By Kenneth Hein

The Challenge
Every year, more than four million dogs end up in shelters. Pedigree decided to do something about it by creating the Pedigree Adoption Drive Foundation last year. The charitable organization is dedicated to helping shelters and rescue groups find homes for dogs. Now the issue was how could the Mars Petcare division raise awareness and money for its cause.

The Plan
The foundation and the "Million Dog Mosaic" were promoted at Pedigree.com, Dogsrule.com as well as at Milliondogmosaic.com/pedigree. Each time a consumer uploaded a photo of their favorite dog onto the site, the Pedigree brand donated $1 to the foundation. The mosaic was promoted via a custom Facebook application, the Westminster Dog Show Pedigree Pop-up dog store as well as integration with its advertising campaign, which features the hero adoption dog, "Oliver." Oliver is featured on the site comprised of consumers' uploaded photos. It was featured on a nonprofit channel on YouTube and targeted e-mails sent to an in-house database also got the word out. Catapult Action-Biased Marketing helped put the effort together.

The Results
In one month, there were more than 1 million page views of the mosaic. To date, more than 55,000 photos have been uploaded. It set the record for user-generated mosaic participation, beating American Idol. "It signified that Pedigree is a company that walks the walk when it comes to fully aligning with the values of its consumers," said John Anton, director of marketing at Pedigree. "A million dollars was raised for the Pedigree adoption drive. [The campaign] brought together dog lovers in a fun place where they could be entertained, do research on the best way to feed and treat their dogs, join a like-minded community and be rewarded for their engagement."

Mobile hotel bookings on the upturn.

Mobile hotel bookings rise

In an economy where the hotel business is on the downward trend there is one thing they are doing that's working. It's mobile hotel reservations. As users get more comfortable with mobile devices the convenience of making a reservation seems to be too much to ignore. It's clear that instances like this will be popping up all over, instances where the mobile option just makes it easier to communicate with the brand.

What's in store for in store marketing displays?

How about digital signs that actually read customers? This display knows whether customers glance at the signage, stops to read it or ignores it all together. pretty interesting stuff. See the full article on the CScout Japanese site here

very small game

Pouring BudTV down the drain

According to this AdAge article Bud TV is ceasing to exist.  I'm a little surprised that it lasted as long as it did.  I think we all remember when it launched, it was a big deal, but it's had a lot of competition in the video space. The production of original content was just too much.   In comparison, It's funny that Hulu had press about it that it could never succeed in this pace and it's a great site.

Txt your revelation

If I could get a few of my twitter statuses on a coffee cup, I'd be a
happy man. Txt cup to 30241 to share your revelation.

The future implications here are huge. The opportunity to interact
with a brand like green mountain while doing something as simple as
drinking your morning coffee.

My revelation. "I need to get back to my work".