Clerk Dogs, that is. Clerk Dogs is a new movie recommendation website developed by Stuart Skorman, founder of Empire Video, a small video chain in Vermont, and most notably Reel.com. If you are anything like me, renting a movie is a display of utter indecisiveness and mindless meandering around the video store hoping that the perfect movie will just leap off the shelf and into your hands. Most video stores post generic lists of the most popular rentals of the week but this doesn’t help if the top pick is a video based on the latest Stephen King novel and you were in the mood for a comedy. What if you try to base your selection on recommendations? What movie did your friend say she liked? What movie got the 5-star review last week? Did Leno give this a thumbs-up? Unless you are walking around with Ebert and Roeper it is almost impossible to keep track of the good, the bad and the ugly.
According to this article, the idea for Clerk Dogs started at Empire Video where Skorman asked customers one question “Name a movie you’ve seen in the past that you’re in the mood for something similar tonight.” This question is not only the foundation for the business, but it is also the key to Clerk Dogs competitive advantage. According to Skorman “We knew more about them [customers] than Netflix could ever know, because we knew exactly what they were in the mood for at that moment.” This knowledge was then translated onto the Web but the recommendations have been created by video store clerks, not by a computer algorithm.
What do Backchannels and Slingboxes have to do with my television?
Posted December 9th, 2008 by Andrea Bettello
Remember when we used to simply watch TV? Being an active television viewer used to mean wrestling your sibling for the remote, or reaching for chips and a cold beverage, but in the age of the Net Generation this simplistic outlook on television has been relegated to the ranks of the VHS and dial-up networks. Net Geners demand multi-directional entertainment, they don’t simply want to have programming beamed toward them, they want to interact with it, they want control over what is presented to them, and they want to access it on their own terms.
Shopping on your computer while watching television not long ago thought to be at the cutting edge of the cultural and technological movement is now passé. To satisfy the demands of the Net Gen we must now be able to instantaneously purchase the products placed in our favorite shows right through the television, all the while having the ability to control and view our home TV in real time through our smartphones and laptops. Making all of this possible are two new technology heavy-hitters; Backchannel Media and the increasingly popular SlingBox by SlingMedia, two companies that are helping to blur the lines between television and the Internet.
Last month I posted a blog entitled “Meet the Beckers” about the Audi Internet video campaign. If you didn’t get a chance to read the blog it’s a discussion about how Audi portrayed the stereotypical driver of each of their competitors as a dysfunctional family member and the reasons that I thought this advertising model was more effective then the traditional car advertisement, the main argument being that you (the viewer) could relate to the characters. If “Meet the Beckers” can be considered a success, I would argue that AT&T’s “Lost in America” series is a viral disappointment. This is an 11-part Internet video campaign where YouTube star iJustine (Justine Ezarik) and popular blogger Karen Nguyen get lost in different cities around the United States and have to complete various challenges with the help of their AT&T phones. This article claims that “Lost in America” is an example of how YouTube fame tends not to translate to the outside world, but I think that is only one reason in a series of factors that led to the poor results from this campaign.
The following is my analysis on why “Lost in America” didn’t achieve the desired YouTube fanfare that AT&T was hoping for.
- These videos seemed too much like an infomercial. Within the first 90 seconds the cell phones are introduced in such a way that makes it appear like a blatant attempt at product placement. If people skip commercials on TV, why would they watch a 7 minute commercial on their computer? “Meet the Beckers” was intelligent because it let the story and the characters sell the brand, they didn’t include obnoxious scenes of the car driving down a country lane. Not only does the obvious use of product placement seem forced and out of context, but the premise of the story is as thin as floss; how many people do you know get lost in a major city with an entire camera crew following them?
- The characters are almost impossible to relate to, but even worse than that, you don’t even want to relate to them. Part of what made “Meet the Beckers” so successful was the fact that you wanted to be like the brother who drove the Audi. He was young, successful and respectable. These girls come across as ignorant and unintelligent at one point exclaiming “I don’t even know what a caribou is!” Aside from a small niche market of 15-year old girls, Justine and Karen don’t appeal to many demographics. Who wants to be associated with a girl yelling “Here moose-ey, moos-ey, moose-ey” into a bush located in urban Alaska?
- AT&T contradicts themselves. One of the challenges for Justine and Karen was to find a place in Anchorage, Alaska where they got “full-bar service.” Now, I’m not a geography major but I happen to know that Anchorage, Alaska is not exactly in the middle of nowhere. Shouldn’t AT&T be promoting the fact that they get full-bar service in any location?
- It’s not engaging. After watching Episode 1 “The Drop Off” I had no desire to tune into episodes 2-11. I wasn’t compelled to research for more information about the phone and I certainly wasn’t interested in buying one. Is it because I am not in AT&T’s target market? Perhaps, but after receiving a mere 31,000 views across YouTube, MySpace and four other websites I would be inclined to suggest that others may feel the same way. It is also important to note, that Justine posted six of the eleven episodes on her site (iJustine) which accounted for 20,000 of those views. I think one of the main problems for AT&T was that they tried to dress up a traditional telephone commercial (albeit a very long commercial) in viral clothing by incorporating two Internet stars. This differs from “Meet the Beckers” where Audi clearly deviated from the traditional car commercial, going as far as showing competitors vehicles for the same length of time as the Audi. A better idea might have been to give one girl the new AT&T phone and give the other girl a phone from a competing company and show which one has more accurate GPS service, easier keyboard to type on, takes better pictures, drops less calls etc.. Or even take a page from Audi’s book and use characters to represent competing brands and make the phone a secondary focus.
There are multiple avenues that companies can use to help create effective Internet campaigns but inserting two web-stars into a poorly written and executed Internet video series does not make for a successful viral campaign.
I attended a conference last week and one of the topics during a panel discussion focused on how to attract and retain Net Geners. The main ideas included:
- Highlighting a social agenda and reinforcing the idea “we do meaningful work”
- Give Net Geners the opportunity to drive the business
- Connect generations across the company: Boomers to Xers to Net Geners
- Recognition; highlight employee achievements (not necessarily with monetary awards)
Always on the lookout for businesses that illustrate ideas in action I came across 504ward. Their mission is to keep the young talent in New Orleans (504 is the city area code). If companies in healthy, balanced economic regions are experiencing difficulties in retaining their Net Gen talent, these challenges are amplified in regions where a great disparity between the socio-economic classes exists. The following is an excerpt from how 504ward came into existence and their social-based mission statement:
In early 2008, following an independent consulting firm’s assessment of the unique challenges and opportunities facing New Orleans, Leslie Jacobs, a local venture philanthropist, spearheaded the 504ward movement to engage the young movers and shakers who are arriving in New Orleans with dual aspirations of sparking social change and advancing their careers.
Representatives from a broad spectrum of New Orleans organizations have united to address the issues pertinent to this 23-35 year-old dynamic: career prospects, social engagement, and opportunity for community impact.
An initiative of The Idea Village, 504ward was developed in collaboration with our partner organizations to retain the New Orleans “Vanguards,” those brave enough to see an opportunity and crazy enough to lunge for it. It is our belief that this generation is capable of delivering social and economic change, and we are committed to making New Orleans the hub of opportunity.
Join the Movement. Our mission is to engage and retain New Orleans’ best and brightest: the talented and ambitious young people like you, people committed to working hard, playing harder, and giving back to a community with so much to offer.
Google, Google in my hand, where’s the closest Starbucks in the land?
Posted November 17th, 2008 by Andrea Bettello
Last week tech-giant Google launched their new iPhone application that uses voice recognition technology as part of their search functions. This free application allows Apple iPhone users to abandon touch-screen typing and instead, speak into their phone and ask almost any question, like “How many teeth does an alligator have?” or “Where is the closest McDonalds?” According to this article in the New York Times:
“The sound is converted into a digital file and sent to Google’s services, which try to determine the words spoken and pass them along to the Google search engine. The search results, which may be displayed in just seconds on a fast wireless network, will at times include local information, taking advantage of iPhone features that let it determine its location… The service can be used to get restaurant recommendations and driving directions, look up contacts in the iPhone’s address book or just settle arguments in bars.”
Drawing from their vast experience as the leading Internet search-engine, Google’s voice application provides greater accuracy and depth then fellow competitors – Microsoft Tellme service which is limited to specific categories and Yahoo’s oneSearch which lacks accuracy.
Now what kind of dominant force would Google be if they only offered it as an iPhone application? Fear not Blackberry users, because even before the voice search application hits the iStore, they are already developing ways to make this technology free for a number of different devices.
Not only does this search function make answering questions easier and somewhat surreal (seems like Snow White’s Mirror on the Wall became reality in the form of an iPhone) but it also has some major implications for advertisers as well. Let’s say there is Bettello’s Pizzeria on one side of Main Street and Da Silva’s Pizza on the other. They both target the same customers and sell their pizza for the same price. Using this new iPhone application, location-based queries become the battle-field for competing businesses. If a hungry group of teenagers are strolling down the street and one member of the group uses their iPhone to search for the closest pizzeria obviously I have a vested interest (read I would pay Google money) to ensure that Bettello’s Pizzeria will be listed first for Pizza in the Main Street location. Fielding over 240 million search queries per day Google can turn almost any location-based question into an advertising opportunity. The question isn’t when will Google start selling these ads, it is how much will businesses be willing to pay for that number one spot?
Do you know Ramu Uyyala? or Elijah Daramola? or Nuwan Gunasekara? Until yesterday neither did I, however, these young individuals were the finalists for the Youth Business International Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 hosted in Edinburgh, Scotland on November 6. In only its second year of existence, the award has attracted the attention of business leaders, government officials and policy makers from over 35 countries. Based on this information you might think that this award was designed for a dot com entrepreneur who has made a fortune developing some outstanding financial algorithm or the next Google. In truth it is quite the opposite. To begin, I believe it would be beneficial to define who Youth Business International (YBI) actually supports. The following information is taken from the YBI website and it gives a brief overview of the program’s mission and recent success:
The Prince’s Youth Business International (YBI) is an international network of programs that help disadvantaged young people to become entrepreneurs by providing business mentoring and funds. Our network comprises 38 locally based, independent initiatives that adopt the YBI model to meet national needs and conditions. Each local program operates on three common principles: they support young people, typically aged between 18-30, who have a good business idea but who cannot obtain help elsewhere; they provide access to start-up funds in the form of a loan without the need for guarantees or collateral; and they provide the young entrepreneur with a volunteer business mentor and access to business networks. Our goal is to build the size and the capabilities of the network to enable the program to help more young entrepreneurs start their own business. The YBI network has helped to start over 90,000 successful new businesses which in turn have provided employment to hundreds of thousands of others. In 2007 the YBI network helped over 6,300 new entrepreneurs, achieving a three-year annual growth rate of 37%. YBI is part of a group of 20 not-for-profit organizations of which The Prince of Wales is President. YBI was founded in 1999 and became an independent organization in 2008.
For those that hold the view that the Net Generation is comprised of video-game addicts that mooch off their parents, the stories of these young entrepreneurs is truly inspiring. Take for instance the story of winner Ramu Uyyala, a manufacturer from India. His business (M.R. Plastics) uses recyclable plastic bags to make new bags. From an initial start-up loan of $1,000.00 (USD) in 2005, Ramu’s business produced a net profit of almost $8,000 in 2007 and has grown so quickly that he now provides employment for 40 staff, some of whom are marginalized women. To read more about Ramu and other youth entrepreneurs from around the world, click here.
Although this strays from my usual discussions about marketing in a Web 2.0 world, these young entrepreneurs and the YBI program that supports them, definitely deserve recognition for the positive impact they are making. With the potential for such economically uncertain times ahead, knowing that bright young minds such as these are receiving the help they need in order to create sustainable and beneficial enterprises for themselves and their communities is a comforting thought. If you or anyone you know is aware of someone who may be eligible for such an award, I encourage you to visit the site for further information.
In a recent blog post, Alan Majer described his positive customer service experience with HP, so when I came across this video clip of CMO Mike Mendenhall I was interested to learn about the strategies that HP was integrating into their everyday practices to improve, not only customer service, but their marketing efforts as well.
After watching the clip there are two quotes that stick out as having provided some great insight into HP’s future direction:
“Brands are not defined today by campaigns but by the consumer ecosystems we nurture to support them”
“When you look at your customer service, the digital strategy can play an incredible role and in fact what I think and what we have seen is that it can actually be much more effective….We know of communities that have existed on their own as a social community around HP are actually solving customer service issues for HP customers better than at times some of our own service department people. So you can have more accuracy within this community, bring efficiency into the process of the operation and actually be more effective….I do believe it is a digital strategy that should exist across the operations of a company and not just in marketing and communications.”
It is evident that HP not only promotes consumer feedback and the creation of social networks around its product lines but it actually listens to what consumers are saying, which in turn creates a win-win situation for the both consumers and the company. As outlined by Mendenhall, it creates an entire process that becomes more efficient and effective –by using the information gleaned from these social communities to help correct consumer problems the first time they occur. This results happy HP users and a customer service department that isn’t laden with call-backs and complaints about the same problem. The positive customer experience that follows translates into positive word-of-mouth and ultimately creates a stronger brand. As HP has learned, it doesn’t necessarily matter what HP’s marketing campaign says about their brand, it matters what a trusted and influential source (friends, neighbours, digital communities) has to say about the brand. It is the old marketing rule dressed up in digital clothing; listen to your customers, apply the information they provide, create a satisfied consumer base. This may seem simple or straightforward but more often than not companies fail to see the value provided. Some companies aren’t aware that social networks about their brand even exist let alone use the information to improve their service and even worse some companies create social networks around their brand as if to say “we’re doing something digital” and then ignore any consumer-generated ideas. Companies like this invariably believe that they better understand their brand than does the customer. In other instances, customer suggestions make it inside the company boardroom but they either get lost in translation or because they don’t fit with the current strategy they are cast aside.
Hats off to HP for making the effort to actually listen to their customers, perhaps other companies can take a (digital) page from HP’s playbook, or else risk alienating clients and eroding brand value. In an era when existing and potential clients can connect with one another in ways never seen before, ignoring these influential, digital communities is a risky business practice for firms seeking to remain at the forefront of their industry.
We are all familiar with the typical car commercial; the car is seen cruising through scenic landscape on a closed course with a professional driver at the wheel and the narrator is in the background telling you about gas mileage, safety ratings and then some spiel about financing options. Whether you are watching an advertisement for a Ford truck or a Lexus sedan I’m fairly certain they have all been seen driving down the same highway in California or up the same winding road in Colorado. In an industry that has such archaic advertising methods it is always interesting when a company deviates from the norm. Take the Honda Accord Domino commercial or the Volkswagen “Safe Happens” advertisements; each strayed from the path and as a result they had a greater impact on their target audience.
In late September Audi released a three minute video clip introducing us to the eclectic Becker family as they prepare for their annual Thanksgiving festivities. The idea behind this Internet video campaign was for Audi to portray the stereotypical driver of each of their competitors as a dysfunctional family member.
Praised for their use of social networking throughout the presidential campaign the Obama team has added yet another social media weapon to its arsenal. The following blog post caught my attention while I was sifting through information related to the use of technology in the American election.
“The Obama campaign has released an application for the iPhone that cleverly sorts your address book, prioritizing which friends you should call to convince them to vote Obama. (”Call Friends” sorts your friends by how close the race is in that state. So you can call your Ohio friends or Missouri friends and not bother with your California or NY friends.) It’s a smart marrying of the fact that friends are much more likely to convince friends politically, coupled with the technology that helps you to easily see where your social networks may make the most political difference given battleground states and the electoral map. The ‘Get Involved’ Button uses GPS to help you find the closest Obama campaign headquarters.
Another interesting part of the application is that it shows how many calls you have made using this application and how many have been made nation-wide, enabling one to feel a growing sense of momentum and part of a larger national cause. (The software doesn’t transmit who you called, but records the number of calls made with the application so they can centrally keep track.)”
Apart from being a brilliant campaign tactic I can see this application being used outside of the political arena. I agree with the blog posting in that your friends are some of the most influential people in your social network. It is a relationship founded on the basis of trust and as such their opinions, recommendations or warnings carry a lot of weight. Would you eat at a restaurant where a friend said the food was terrible? Probably not, but you might be willing to try a product or rent a movie that came with a positive recommendation from the same individual. Marketers are constantly searching for new ways to convince people to test their products or switch from a competing brand and I think teamed with the right business this iPhone application could make a powerful impact. For instance, if this application could sync with my iTunes it would know who my favorite bands or musicians are based on the music I’ve purchased. Using this information it could notify me when a certain band or artist is performing in my area. That way if Coldplay was coming to town the application would inform me of the concert date and where I could purchase tickets. It could also prioritize my friends using the band’s concert schedule so I could call my friend Lauren in Boston and my cousin Murray in Seattle to let them know Coldplay would be performing in their town and encourage them to purchase tickets. It isn’t difficult to see why bands would want to support this application and have fans contacting fans from coast to coast sharing information and encouraging faster ticket sales. Prioritizing your contact list using geographic locations could also be an application that travel websites could use to entice users with discounted airfare. If this application was sponsored by Expedia or Travelocity it could tell me when there is a cheap flight to visit Kyle who goes to school in Madrid or Iris who lives in Paris. This Smartphone application has created the ultimate ripple effect in the sense that you aren’t just telling me about a concert, you are also using my relationships to notify my circle of friends. I’ve merely scratched the surface of how this application could provide some great word-of-mouth advertising or promote information-sharing across the globe but I’d love to hear some suggestions or ideas on where you think the iPhone could take this application.
I was recently scouring the Internet for information about the history of advertising; more specifically I was hoping to find a timeline. Not only are they a great way to visualize key historical moments but they are also a concise format where intimidating amounts of information are summarized into key points and presented in chronological order. Unfortunately I didn’t find the timeline I was searching for, but I did find timelines….and lots of them!
I stumbled across a site called xtimelines, which is basically a place where people can create their own timelines (about almost any topic) and open them up to the public so more points along the line can be added or false information can be altered or removed (in true wiki style). The timeline can belong to different groups (e.g. Starbucks belongs to the fast food and multinational corporations groups) and under each timeline there is space set up like a Facebook wall for people to comment about the topic. Each point along the line is linked to another window which provides people with additional information about the event, for instance, on the McDonalds timeline if you click on the point that reads “Big Mac comes out in a big way” a new window opens and explains all you ever needed to know about the Big Mac (as seen below).
So you think you’ve come up with the next Flickr, but you’re not entirely sure about the execution, or whether people will understand the premise, what does one do? While it’s true that you could turn to your friends for advice and feedback, they may ultimately lack the technical acumen or intestinal fortitude to give you the kind of pointed critique that will help take your web design to another plateau. This conundrum is exactly where KillerStartups.com comes in, the site describes its vision as, “Tapping the wisdom of crowds to find the next internet big thing”. This is the online equivalent of the cinematic pre-screening, a chance for designers to share their vision in its earliest form in order to glean from objective third parties what is currently working well, and what could be corrected or deleted. I was inspired by Paul’s blog about this website and I decided to investigate the idea a little further….
Here’s the situation: you are at home watching your favorite television program and just as the scene ends you exclaim, “I KNEW that was going to happen!” Well if you ever wanted to put your powers of prediction to the test, then tvClickr is a great way to showcase your television smarts. As mentioned in my previous blog, tvClickr is a Facebook application that was developed by LiveHive Systems and it is based on the idea of NanoGaming.
As a competitive person I was intrigued by the idea that you could play against other viewers for points and prizes by answering questions about a live television show. Throughout the week I thought about testing tvClickr on a show that I was already familiar with (such as Greys Anatomy) but I decided that my review might be a little biased because I was already engaged by the show and not necessarily by the application. Instead, I opted for a show that I don’t normally watch to see if my attention waivered or if I stayed focused on the show. Enter the test subject: The Amazing Race. Read the rest of this entry »
Think of any television program you’ve watched recently, do you remember all of the commercials? I didn’t think so, these largely commonplace 30 second commercials are what I like to call “Advertising 1.0” since, similar to the definition of Web 1.0, you can observe the information but you can’t interact with it. It is the marketing equivalent of the one way street, where the rules are rigidly defined, the advertisers speak and we the consumers must dutifully listen. However, LiveHive Systems of Waterloo, Ontario is breathing new life into television advertising and changing the way we the viewers watch, and more importantly engage with TV. The company’s system is based on a two-screen digital advertising platform, and allows the TV viewers to interact online (via phone, laptop, desktop, or PDA) with their favorite TV shows –and with each other- as they compete for points and prizes. Read the rest of this entry »
As October draws near, and the temperature begins to drop, hockey fans anxiously await the opening game(s) of the NHL season; but for CBC viewers what song will be played during the opening broadcast? For over 40 years the “Hockey Night in Canada” theme song has permeated through Canadian living rooms and sports bars, signaling “game time.” However, at the beginning of June, the rights to the infamous jingle were sold to the CTV-owned TSN. (In other words; a canuck crisis).
In search of an anthem, CBC looked to the best possible source….hockey fans themselves, launching “Canada’s Hockey Anthem Challenge.” Just to prove that Canada is the hockey nation, even in the middle of the summer, hockey fans from across the country rose to the challenge, with more than 14,000 submissions received by the August 31 deadline.