Radu Zmeureanu -Interactive-Hyperactive-

Whistler-Powder skiing

2009-11-23T20:08:00.005-05:00

This is what happens when you mix:

Record breaking snowfalls during opening week in a world class ski resort

Powder hungry skiers worldwide craving their first turns very early in the season

YOU CAN BRAG TO THE REST OF THE WORLD ABOUT THE UN-GODLY SKI CONDITIONS

Event Marketing-Infopresse Conference

2009-11-23T19:46:00.002-05:00
Here is a video of the conference I gave on September 23rd on the impact of social media on event marketing. (##FRENCH ONLY##)
The full presentation deck is here but the fine folks at Infopresse caught filmed the full 45 minutes. Enjoy!

Radu Zmeureanu - Les médias sociaux pour faire vivre votre événement from Infopresse on Vimeo.

WHAT IS WEB STRATEGY?

2009-10-25T00:30:00.002-04:00
WEB STRATEGY:

IS NOT ADVERTISING.
IS NOT TECHNOLOGY.
IS AN ONGOING PROCESS.
IS ABOUT NUMBERS.
IS ABOUT BRANDING.
IS NOT RESERVED TO STRATEGISTS.
IS ABOUT LOOKING AT WHAT IS ALREADY HAPPENING, BUT NOT BEING PARALYZED BY IT.
IS MUCH EASIER IF YOU ARE CREATIVE.
IS TOO IMPORTANT TO BE ONLY ONE THING.
IS ABOUT OBJECTIVES AND CLARITY.
IS ADMITTING YOU HAVE NO IDEA SOMETIMES.
IS NOT TACTICS, BUT THE RELEVANCE OF THESE AND THE EFFICIENCY BY WHICH THEY ACCOMPLISH THEIR GOALS.
IS NOT AN ACRONYM.
IS NOT MEDIA-BUYING.
WILL QUESTION THE RELEVANCE OF YOUR BUSINESS STRUCTURE.
IS A DEATH SENTENCE TO MANY BUSINESSES.
IS COMMON SENSE.
DOESNT COST A LOT.
IS NOT SOCIAL MEDIA, SEARCH, NEWSLETTERS OR WEBSITES.
IS ABOUT CREATING, PLANNING AND EXECUTING.
IS TYING LOOSE ENDS AND CUTTING STUPIDITY.
IS BEING COHERENT AND HUMBLE.
IS STILL ABOUT NUMBERS BECAUSE SOMETIMES IT COSTS A LITTLE MONEY.
IS ABOUT LOOKING AT THE MANY, AND CRYSTALIZING THE SINGLE IDEA.
IS ABOUT TAKING SYMPTOMS APART AND UNDERSTANDING THEIR PROCESS.
IS TAKING A STAND AND ASSUMING THE RISKS.
REQUIRES DECISION-MAKING AND ACTIONS.

Quick post about PRINT

2009-10-21T21:57:00.004-04:00
Apparently it's about to die anytime soon now...
Despite the apparent #FAIL of it's advertising model, print is doing fine.
Why? Well these examples all happened in the last 2 hours.

My 2 year old still insists that we read him his story books 20 times a day. Despite having Youtube, VOD, DVD and TV available. Of all digital natives and theories about media consumption, he should be all jazzed up on the kindle, the zune (pffff) and fitted with a jet pack by now.
I'm psyched to find the latest ski magazine in the mail and actually read every page and every ad.
I'm also just as psyched to find a magazine type brochure the next day from Nordica in the mail, and despite the obvious penchant for lifestyle and product showcase, I still love it!
It's 21:50 and the only good thing in the 500 channels on TV is Voir, a TV cultural show based on the free weekly paper in Montréal. Talk about cross media ey?
I'm in the midst of moving and I just through out close to 200 data and music CDs. bah, I can always find it later or get a copy from a friend. Books on the other hand, I just finished packing 8 boxes.

Ok these examples might be circumstancial at best. But come on. Print is still around for a while. Give the doomsday scenarios a rest.

TOP 10 THINGS YOU ALREADY KNOW ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

2009-10-13T12:31:00.001-04:00
1-SOCIAL MEDIA IS NOT MEDIA. SO STOP TREATING IT AS A MEDIUM YOU CAN BUY, AS A CHANNEL, OR A SILVER BULLET IN YOUR MARKETING PLAN. IT IS NOT A MIRACLE CURE.

2-ALL MEDIA IS SOCIAL. DUH! DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE, THE INTERNET HAS BEEN SOCIAL FOREVER.

3-IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CONTENT DUMMY! MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHAT YOU’RE GOING TO SAY BEFORE GETTING IT OUT THERE. IT'S NOT ADVERTISING COPY.

4-DO IT YOURSELF. DON’T TRUST “SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERTS” TO CRAFT YOUR MESSAGE AND BRING IT OUT THERE. IF YOU WANT TO BE CREDIBLE (AND TRUST ME YOU WANT THAT) DO IT YOURSELF.

5-IT’S NOT EASY. IT TAKES TIME, IT TAKES PLANNING, AND IT TAKES HONESTY.

6-IT’S NOT A MEDIA BUY, SO DON’T EXPECT IT TO BE PART OF A CAMPAIGN. IN FACT ITS NOT EVEN PART OF MARKETING. ITS PART OF YOUR PRODUCT, TREAT IS AS SUCH.

7-NO ONE WILL GIVE YOU “EVIDENCE” THAT IT WILL WORK FOR YOU. THE NUMBERS AND SUCCESS STORIES EXIST BUT THEY MAY NOT APPLY FOR YOU. YOU HAVE TO PUT IN A LOT OF WORK AND THINKING INTO THIS.

8-EXECUTION IS EVERYTHING. THE PERFECT OPPORTUNITY CAN BECOME A NIGHTMARE IF EXECUTED POORLY. MAKE SURE DOCUMENTATION, PROCESSES AND METHODOLOGY IS PARAMOUNT TO EVERYONE INVOLVED.

9-SOCIAL MEDIA IS NEITHER.

10-DON’T FOCUS ON THE VENUE, FOCUS ON THE VALUE. FACEBOOK OR TWITTER WILL NOT MAKE YOUR BRAND BETTER. FOCUS ON WHAT WILL.

Infopresse conference: event marketing

2009-10-01T22:43:00.002-04:00
Here are the backup slides for a conference I gave last week for the Infopresse event marketing conference. I had a lot of fun being part of that day and giving this talk. It's not everyday that i step out of our web world to meet event marketers but wow, this was definitly an eye opener.

Props to twitter.com/IssamHeddad and twitter.com/SabrinaCote for awesome work.

L'empreinte interactive d'un événement
View more documents from Revolver 3.

Who's your daddy?

2009-05-21T16:52:00.002-04:00
Who's in control? Who's in control of your brand and your marketing? Who's your daddy?
Who's your daddy?
View more presentations from raduzmeureanu.

Dear Director of Marketing

2009-04-15T13:33:00.003-04:00
This letter serves to indicate that you are being dismissed immediately. While you have offered many years of loyal services and proved at many occasions your valor and hard-working ethic, it has recently become clear that you just don’t get what I’m saying.
You have been mandated to attend to my needs and make sure the organization communicates my values and emotions. Yet it has become clear to me and the rest of the organization that you un-lawfully hijacked your role into a travesty of control. I believe I should be heard and understood. You believe I should never address the people except with costly advertising campaigns and press releases. I believe I am flexible and changing in my views. You believe in norms and linger endlessly on what font people should use when talking about me. You believe I am an ingredient in an advertising plan. Yet I am the only reason the entire organization exists. These irreconcilable differences put each of us at opposite ends of the world as I understand it. Products you chose to design and manufacture and sell are mere extensions of the experience I provide. While you focused on the millions of dollars in advertising you wasted trying to break into every conversation, TV show, email, web page and outdoor banner, you failed to create meaningful lasting relationships. I am feeling now more alone and disconnected than ever before. If your insist that job was spending money and accounting for how many people you interrupted, you did a splendid job. Your schmoozing with agency account managers and awards proves nothing to me. You ignore my needs to connect and live. You ignore my role and rather focused on the sizzle, not the steak. Charts and studies and focus groups might back up you on some claims but we both know you’re a fraud. I am hereby relieving you of your duties and wishing you well in your future endeavors. Hoping this will allow you some time off to think of what you have done to me.

Sincerely yours,
YOUR BRAND

Online marketing strategy

2009-04-14T07:14:00.003-04:00
Online marketing strategy IS NOT:

repeating statistics from research and pointing a finger in the general market direction.
providing 50-page benchmark studies made up from screenshots.
bringing an outside consultant that is as detached from the operations as from the business rules and output of the company.
an online media plan with a next-steps keynote slide covered in buzzwords.
a recipe.
made up of disposable stunts hoping to become the next big viral.

Online marketing strategy IS
extending every aspect of the brand and company online and being accountable for it.
listening and trusting all team members, especially operations and creative.
seeing an opportunity in the market and intuition telling you to go for it.
cohesive with the entire business strategy
getting creative and taking risks.
unique for every campaign, brand and product.
as much a product strategy as a marketing strategy.

Le Massif video banner- Météomedia

2009-04-13T21:24:00.004-04:00
Pretty cool video banner for Le Massif ski resort today on Météomedia.com
Great creative execution. I like the dreamy look of the ski vid and the sequences, but I'm not too sure about the media strategy. The season is winding down, people are back into spring and summer mode, and the resort is closing tomorrow for the season. If at least the landing page was targeted for next year season's passes, maybe, but this is a doh! as far as I can tell. Maybe some remnant impressions from the 2008-2009 campaign left over, but IMHO, a "thanks for a great season, see you next year" promo would have been much better. But it's ok, I still love that mountain and the amazing rides I had there.

This is not a blog post

2009-04-08T21:30:00.002-04:00
This is not a blog post about the new media revolution
About how the web changes everything for everyone
About how agencies might or might not be relevant anymore.
It's definitely not a blog post about web 2.0
About traditional media versus digital media
I'm not going to write a blog post about blogging, Twitter or Facebook
Or about the future of online advertising
And the future of the newspaper industry or traditional media.
I will definitely not take a stance on who Google might be buying this week.
This is not a blog post on how to land a job in social media
Or how building online communities is changing the world
And this blog post will not reveal the magic recipe on how to score the next big viral video.
I am not writing a blog post on how such and such online metric doesn't match another
And how such and such method might or might not be accurate enough.

This IS a blog post that assumes you've already read all the MANY other posts that DO talk about it. Endlessly.
This IS a blog post that will try to focus on 1 thing only.
This blog post will ask you 1 question and hopefully you have an answer:

WHAT ARE YOU DOING RIGHT NOW TO MAKE HUMANS AND BRANDS HAPPIER ?

WHAT IS INTERACTIVE?

2009-03-30T10:25:00.002-04:00

WHAT IS INTERACTIVE
View more presentations from raduzmeureanu.

Monsters vs Aliens on Cinoche.com

2009-03-24T20:16:00.002-04:00

Here's a little something I found yesterday on the Quebec based movie listings site Cinoche.com

Cool homepage wallpaper integration with rich media for Monster vs Aliens. It reminded me a lot of the Ipod Games ad on MTV. Yes it's about time the homepage navigation became fair game for advertising. Indeed it's not the 1st time a publisher gathers the guts to do this. This is not a standard IAB cookie cutter BB or LB format. And that's probably why it works at getting noticed. More importantly, I'm happy to see it's not necessary to be a huge portal or ad network to pull this execution off so well. It's simple, not intrusive(IMHO) and fun. Well done Cinoche!

10 things a brand MUST ask itself in the morning

2009-03-19T09:23:00.003-04:00

Am I still alive?
Do people care?
How are they talking about me?
Am I making a difference for them?
Who can hurt me?
Why would they?
Am I happy?
Does it show?
How can I make human lives better?

feel free to contribute more....

Let them eat < social media> cake

2009-02-25T18:25:00.003-05:00
« Let them eat cake! »

This famous quote was claimed to have been uttered by the infamous Queen Marie-Antoinette during one of the famines that occurred in 1789 France. Upon being alerted that her people were suffering due to widespread bread shortages, she is said to have replied, "Then let them eat cake."

I keep thinking of Marie Antoinette when I I hear social media gurus hitting the same nail over and over on the power of the social web. Arent you on the bandwaggon yet ? You need a website ? Eat some social media cake. You need an advertising campaign? Wait a second, have some social media cookies. Sales are down ? How about some nice warm social media muffins. None of these are going to get you full, and they will probably give you scurvy if you rely only on them for your nutrition, but hey…they sure taste good! Hmmmm cake !

Social media alone is bad. Really really really bad. Who cares if your company is on twitter or answering to some blog war between elitist bloggers. Make sure you cover some basics 1st. Apparently 47% of marketers don’t even use analytics. Are you?

How much do you really know about your users ?
Can they find you well from search engines ?
Is your website helping users in ways that are meaningful for them ?
What can you offer to users online that will bring them back and create value ?
How much of what you’re spending is actually working ?
Do people care about flashy gizmos online when they’re looking for information or connecting with friends ?

Asking simple questions and getting simple answers to make better business decisions is the cornerstone of good nutrition, euhh, I mean online strategy.

Sure you can eat cake all day long and make thousands of friends on Facebook, get poked and grow your followers list on Twitter. Just make sure you’re doing that on a full stomach of good site design practices, coherent brand experience and relevant functionalities that make peoples lives better.

Marie Antoinette’s famous line landed her a gig with a guillotine quickly after. Be careful out there!

Twitter and US online adults

2009-02-16T12:04:00.004-05:00
11% of online adults use Twitter or update their status online.
Twitter users are mobile, less tethered by technology.

New study from Pew Internet available here

This does not include adults who read and update their status on facebook, so we can only assume that the percentage of adults is much higher as Twitter has a smaller reach that FB.

http://steverubel.typepad.com/files/pip-twitter-memo-final.pdf

UPDATE: Qbert72 pointed out a grey area in the polling methodology.
It reads as follows: "Use Twitter or another service to share updates about yourself or to see updates about others".

While this does not explicitly lead Facebook users to answer yes, it prevents the data to reflect Twitter-only users versus users who have have updated their status in another social network platform.

As Qbert72 was lightning quick to point out, the 1st footnote makes light of the definition of said-Twitter:

"This definition can also potentially include use of status messages or mood and location messages on a social network site. All references to “Twitter user” in this report refer to those who say they update their status on social networks or elsewhere online."

Clearly the grey area was probably flagged at Pew and the footnote was inserted, *sigh*, thus making the 11% metric a little more ambiguous. However, looking at status updates/tweets on a platform neutral stance, and setting aside "generalized media Twitter hard-on" conspiracy theories, the adoption rate for ambiant awareness intensive tools is tremendous.

On a footnote of my own, I will re-state that if a follow up study should be issued and the methodology clearly asked if participants used Facebook to update their online status (versus Twitter) the percentage would still be higher than 11%.

Talk to Frank: anti-cocaine awareness campaign

2009-02-16T09:55:00.004-05:00
Probably one of the funniest viral videos I've seen in a while. Obviously not as graphic or in your face as Montana Meth, this campaign takes the humour approach to cocaine use. Cool video paired up with a video intensive website. A must see.

After being sent to clubbing influencers, the campaign launched a prevention website that provides information about the dangers and risks of cocaine use: Talk To FRANK. The website takes us to the darker side of cocaine with our guide Pablo, a dog cocaine mule that has been sliced open by drug traffickers. As you can see, the website doesn’t dance around the issue, but shocks its young target, who are used to realistic and difficult images. The website provides information, advice, telephone numbers, and an instant messaging service. There is also a YouTube channel that collects all the campaign videos.

From Culture Buzz

!UPDATE!
Just got an email from Jess at Rubber Republic giving me a heads up on the new FRANK campaign ahead of its TV launch this week.

As well as illustrating the range of effects cannabis can bring to those who take it, it also highlights the fact that cannabis was reclassified to a Class B drug last month, which many young people may not be aware of.

Thanks for the heads up and good job on keeping tabs on the blog noise on your campaign!

You know how they call a Quarter Pounder in Japan?

2008-11-22T14:40:00.000-05:00

A really cool brand, thats what they call Quarter Pounder in Japan. I can't believe I'm writing this, but McDonalds actually came up with an amazing concept: two Japanese concept restaurants in Shibuya and Omotesando called Quarter Pounder.
The super simple menu is: Quarter Pounder, Double Quarter Pounder, fries & drinks. Brilliant. I haven't stepped inside a McDs in over 10 years but this has me itching now. Ultra cool I have to say. By focusing the brandon a narrow and focused experience, the uber generic McDonalds manages to emerge as a cool brand. Packaging and store experience all reflecting the different image.

Read the full article in Business Week

Leaf against racism

2008-11-20T06:26:00.000-05:00

Simple and effective website from Finland to create buzz against racial discrimination. Print out a template from the website it and snap a pic of it in your neighbourhood. Simple concept that can evolve but could definitely gain from a rehaul in execution.

http://www.leaf-against-racism.com/

Clap your brains off : Frank Beltrán

2008-11-12T14:54:00.000-05:00

CLAP YOUR BRAINS OFF
Uploaded by frankbeltran

Beautiful video based on the Print Gallery image by MC Escher from Frank Beltran.

This was made entirely using a Digital Reflex Camera, Canon's Mark III which captures up to 115 continuous pictures, at 10 fps.
This video was "inspired" by the amazing pictures of Sebastian Perez Duarte.
All of the image processing was made on a home computer, tand took almost 6 months of work.

Landor study: Obama vs. McCain (or James Bond vs. Jack Bauer)

2008-11-11T17:25:00.000-05:00
What if Barrack Obama was a coffee, or a car, or a computer or a beer, or even a phone, which brand would he be? Landor led a study to determine the perception of Obama, Biden, McCain and Palin if they were actual products instead of presidential brands.
Full report here you can download.

IKEA: Come into the closet

2008-11-11T12:50:00.003-05:00

Sound makes all the difference

Very fun website by Ikea. The characters in the videos are controlled by the sound, the music or by your keyboard. Oddly similar to the work Grey London did for Toshiba in my last post TOSHIBA Timesculpture. Good experience through all the decors, very edgy.

http://demo.fb.se/e/ikea/comeintothecloset2/site/default.html

Toshiba Timesculpture Spot

2008-11-11T12:16:00.001-05:00
Simply amazing 1min spot for Toshiba, the "1st timesculpture advert". You MUST look at the making-of video as well, 200 cameras were used for this. A fine example of amazing people doing beautiful things.Bravo to Grey London.

CHECK OUT THE MAKING-OF VIDEO

Adobe Photoshop: As real as it gets

2008-11-09T22:47:00.002-05:00

To all you Photoshop geeks out there..."As real as it gets" by Jakarta agency Bates 141 for Adobe Photoshop. Check out the production process involved on Flickr, hint: it's much bigger than you think. Amazing work!

agency : Bates141 Jakarta
creative director : Hendra Lesmono
art director : Andreas Junus & Irawandhani Kamarga
copywriter : Darrick Subrata
photgrapher : Anton Ismael

Elections 2008 : Brand Obama

2008-11-07T16:06:00.003-05:00

Brands are alive and well. In fact they will get you in the White House.

This week Barack Obama was elected 44th President of the United States. As much as JFK's election was a defining moment in American culture during the 60's, the election of President-Elect Obama is ground breaking. The issues at stake for this election are vast, and many go beyond the borders of the US. The economic state of the nation, the military situation and the Bush legacy are just some of the major issues that made this a defining moment. While this event unfolded as millions watched worldwide, the Obama campaign became the golden child of marketing. Crowned Marketer of the Year by Ad Age magazine, the strategy and execution behind Mr. Obama is just as groundbreaking.

In the last week, countless articles detailed the winning strategy that included the use of the Internet and social networks. The campaign also focused 70% of it's $3 Million online budget on Search Marketing, which is quite the statement for brand building using search. A mere 10% of that budget was deployed for CPM based banner advertising.

Unless you have been living in a cave on the moon with no power and no wi-fi, you must have heard about the web 2.0 by now. The interactive media landscape has shifted significantly in the last years with a massive shift of users towards participation in user maintained environments. Enter the participation era of the web and platforms that allow users to connect and share in the dialogue with brands. Facebook MySpace, Youtube, etc... The Obama campaign leveraged incredible amount of grassroots support through social networks like Facebook that allowed efficient communication and bottom up dialogue for all Obama fans. Plateforms such as Twitter and the popular iPhone application brought political engagement at the fingertips of most mobile and social platforms. Bravo.

But I think the online innovation aspect of the campaign got enough coverage and that's not what I want to focus on right now. The Internet played a great role, without a doubt, in this very effective strategy. But fundamentally the Obama brand strategy was far superior and even more groundbreaking that the execution of social media.

The purchase decision, in this case which of the two candidates was best suited to be the next president of the USA seems far more complex than the choice for a cereal or a car. But in fact, the same processes are at work. Often the most effective campaigns are the simplest with the greatest emotional impact. The Obama campaign managed to distill it's meaning into one word: CHANGE. It became the DNA for all executions and messages. Beyond the actual word, this concept of change acknowledges the current White House embarrassment with a proactive action-oriented approach. This zeitgeist, or spirit of the time, for these elections is in fact CHANGE. After outlasting an 8 year old lease on the last president, CHANGE was in fact the obvious intuitive choice. Very smart move by Obama strategists.

But the power of the Obama brand goes far deeper that CHANGE and probably further than I understand American culture. Yet one thing was starring at me all along and it became apparent to me that despite it's transparency, this was one of the winning cards in the final hand.

In the Rebel Sell, the authors suggest that counter culture and rebellion, far from being anti-establishment, provide the next generation of cool appeal. Quite usefull in a highly commoditized market, lets say as jeans, or t-shirts or personal computers, differentiation through unique cool factors are essential to maintaining a hip brand.
Skateboard culture saved the ski industry with snowboarding and now with freeskiing, when mom and dad started snowboarding. Hip hop with sports. Violence and gangs with music. Heck, even drugs with rock and roll. Think different by Mac.
Adding a touch of counterculture appeal to a brand will give instant cool points. Counter culture probably sold more shoes, electronics, cars and lifestyle apparel than all the babes, babies and animals campaigns united.

The Obey Giant campaign was started in 1989 by artist and designer Shepard Farey. This street art campaign was in fact illegal and made up of spray paint stencils, stickers, posters and such. The campaign that started as a personal project in NYC quickly took off as other artists adapted the method and soul of the projet, and is now still active by the hands of thousands worldwide. It is now a massive brand that sells a lifestyle in premium stores worldwide. Clearly grafiti and street art is as urban subversive as it gets, and its always been associated with the counter culture behind the skateboard industry. Not a likely bed fellow for a presidential campaign. Is it?

Shepard Fairey actually designed the very popular Obama poster for CHANGE. And in doing so, added the entire mythology that permeates urban culture to the Obama campaign. The poster became an icon both fashionable and loaded. A political poster that became actually cool as it jumped out of the counterculture niche loaded with street credibility.

The Obama campaign managed to turn the act of voting and the elements of CHANGE into a subversive and therefore cool behaviour. The viral online videos from Moveon.org and the Will.I.AM video on youtube giving street credibility to the brand to further reinforce the message. Join our club and help overthrow the current establishment. Very powerful message indeed.

Energizing the youth segment of the population into voting 101: transform the patriotic duty of voting into an organized coup d’état, a non-violent tongue in cheek eviction notice. This is something conservative could never do. How could they possible sell the image of McCain and Palin as change agents. As much as McCain’s brand resonated to millenials as a mashup between Mr. Burns and Abraham Simpson and Sarah Palin’s as Stiffler’s mom and Maude Flanders, they failed to connect and were the actual antithesis of CHANGE.

The strategy of integrating social media in the mix is clearly a shoe-in by the very nature of the message. Organizing a coup is a grassroots bottom-up initiative. Even the 30 min TV takeover on several networks was bold and daring. Outside of the 30/15 second spot this was a clear statement that the media strategists behind Obama were not in the same ball park or even the same sport as the McCain-Tina Fey team. The boldness of this approach reminded me of a scene from V for Vendetta, where the anti-government hero address the nation while taking over all TV channels to announce it’s plan against the totalitarian state and asks the cooperation of all citizens.

The Obama team managed to create a mythology around CHANGE that spoke to the urban culture with icons and symbols and media platforms. A truly groundbreaking feat.

In Québec, we are getting ready for the provincial elections. In a matter of hours from the Obama victory, the blogosphere was up and running about what local parties could learn from the US experiment. Web 2.0 snake juice salesmen dusted off the powerpoints that seemed stale 2 years ago and are hammering on the social networking nail as a free ticket to political victory. As much as these have become essential in the dialogue between brands and users, their value is nil without a true message. Real value in the product itself. Furthermore, the very fabric that made up the CHANGE message so powerful is that people can turn things around. YES WE CAN. For that reason, the fit with social networks was an intuitive and efficient one. For parties in Québec to leverage even a fraction of the same passion online, their brand must be strong and their message clear, but ost important, they must make a difference. Without the power of the brand, the social network “series of tubes” becomes hollow and irrelevant. True passion inspires and connects people. President Elect Obama inspired a nation to vote and say CHANGE HAS COME TO AMERICA. Despite the new media strategies and the edgy counter culture symbols used for the Obama campaign, the message could be explained in one word, because the context and the issues mattered. I am keeping an eye open on what political parties will do up in Québec, but the fundamental apathy and lack of real issues certainly don't make up a relevant or promising landscape for a strong brand to emerge.

Crowdsourcing: VonZipper and Designs By Humans

2008-11-03T14:47:00.001-05:00

Edgy lifestyle clothing and apparel company Von Zipper announced it's latest user generated initiative. "Brush off your creative genius and cast away your artistic inhibitions and submit your design for the next VonZipper tees. VonZipper is looking to supplement the Spring 2009 tee collection with a collaboration with Design By Humans."

More details here

Very strategic and credible partnership between a t-shirt (media) company that harnesses the power of community design and a lifestyle brand that lives off the community image. This is the 1st time I see something like this but will likely see more. Threadless and Vans anyone?Love the DBH community and business model...My personal fav t-shirt

100 and one faces

2008-10-31T22:15:00.000-04:00

"L'homme 100 têtes" 3ème prix Panasonic'Art 2008 from Julien Lassort on Vimeo.

Experimental stopframe animation made up of from a mosaic of portraits by Julie Lassorts and Matthieu Burlot. Full of facial expressions and emotion this shows the communicating power of the human face by a stopmotion mashup between people. Everyone of these frames tells a story, at least we would interpret it so. Julien Fargo composed the melody that encapsulates the film. Award winner at the « Transformation: Live-React».

Need for Speed to reveal the 2009 Nissan Z

2008-10-29T11:18:00.002-04:00

EA and Nissan raise the bar in automotive marketing. The Need for Speed series and Nissan revealed today that the new game will launch the all-new 2009 Nissan 370Z. This is the first time an auto manufacturer has partnered with a videogame for the world premiere reveal of a car. The Nissan Z will be available in Need for Speed Undercover, available in North America on November 18 and in Europe on November 21. Test driving a car in a videogame before it's available on the street. Smart.

The gaming industry has been creating unique experiences for gamers for more than 15 years, and it's about time someone harnessed the power of product launch and the experiential power of the console medium for the power of branding. Taking things to another level and redefining media. Sure beats buying banners and calling that a media strategy, but I digress....Congrats to EA and Nissan in this groundbreaking initiative.

“Our relationship with EA has been instrumental in bringing the Nissan brand to a passionate and unique audience,” says Christian Meunier, Vice President, Nissan Marketing. “By launching the all-new 2009 Nissan Z® first through Need for Speed Undercover, we also gain the spirit and energy that EA gamers experience so strongly. Together with EA, we have truly integrated the all-new 370Z in the overall game experience in a meaningful, multi-layered and profound way.”

UPDATE: Issam Heddad over at Revolver3 pointed out that they also featured the Legendary Skyline GTR in Gran Turismo 5. And to close the loop between game world and real time, the car's dashboard was developed by non other than the game's creators Polyphony Digital!

So it's videogame about a car that you can buy that was designed like a videogame. Stellar out of the analog-box thinking! Brilliant article with all the details of the car : Nissan GT-R: A supercar with computer game or a game with hardware?

Dodge Ram Challenge

2008-10-29T07:51:00.001-04:00

BBDO, Organic, Mekanism and director Tony Scott have joined forces for a video-based web initiative to promote the Dodge Ram.

With the Ram Challenge, real truck buyers including cowboys, construction workers, firemen and military personnel take part in a series of races within a custom-built "obstacle course city." Intense and well shot with lots of helicopter and action shots. Full screen video makes this as much fun to watch as Volvo Rush initiative.

6-minute web episodes will live on the Ram Challenge homepage. Each episode will be unveiled throughout the coming weeks. Part 1 is currently up and features behind-the-scenes clips.

Amazing homepage UX that offers a 360-degree, animated view of the race site. Overall it's a fun brand heavy site and even if I'm nowhere near being in the market to buy a truck, I'm definitly going to be back to check out the other episodes. Solid work that showcases the powe of a brand online.

Digital out-of-home projecting on building

2008-10-28T16:05:00.000-04:00
Here is an excellent spin on digital out of home projecting images on building. The projector is placed in a car and in this case, it shoots a pretty big image of a tiger on the facade of a building at night. Until now pretty simple. Right? As soon as the car moves the tiger moves at the same speed and accelerates at the same speed. The car is stopped for a red light, the tiger sits and chills until he can go again.
Haven't seen commercial executions of this yet, but the simplicity of the concept really allows digital realizations to enter the street world at a low cost. Also, gives story telling possibilities for extending a brand's interaction outside the normal sandbox of media. Is this scalable? Probably not. But it's fun and creates instant attraction.

We are elevated from the everyday reality through this element of fantasy into a world with more dimensions, possibilities and perhaps beauty.

Check out the video and more details here.

CNNBC Elections 2008 Viral

2008-10-26T09:08:00.001-04:00

How would you like to find out that you're featured in the news and could be responsible for some terrible calamity unknowingly. With this video initiative by CNNBC (good pun on MSNBC) you can customize the name of the person who would be single handedly responsible for the election of John McCain at the 2008 US elections.

Must see also the Wassup 2008 video, 8 years later the irritating skit is back with a unique edge. Brilliant. Election time is bringing up some very cool creative projects.

OCT 29 UPDATE: Moveon.org is taking the credit for the CNNBC vid with the following on their homepage. 7 Million videos!!! WOW!

NikeWomen: Here I Am

2008-10-26T08:54:00.002-04:00
NikeWomen comes out with this eyeblasting video that tells the story of what happens inside competitive runner and Oympic hopefull Nicola. Lungs, quads, ears and the brain talk to each other and make it happen. Nike meets Osmosis Jones.
Originally a hurdler, Nicola overcame heartbreak and injury, injury, and has risen to become a formidable sprinter and a Beijing hopeful. Among her many accolades, she won silver in the 2007 World Championships and became European Indoor Champion, both in the 400 metres. Last August she was also named British Woman Athlete of the Year. She says her strength has always come from maintaining her sense of humour and listening to her body. Yeah, listen to your body, no matter freaky it sounds.

Nicola Sanders’ Story – NikeWomen: Here I Am from nikehereiam on Vimeo.

Sam Flores by Upper Playground & Adidas Originals

2008-10-25T13:06:00.000-04:00
Upper Playground & Adidas Originals released the new Sam Flores model. Sam Flores = amazing illustrator and artist.

Great personalized sneaker and it's probably sold out by the time you're reading this since there are only 500 pairs out there.
More goodies available on Upper Playground.

Electric Visual Iphone Application= circa-90's web site

2008-10-21T10:01:00.001-04:00

Electric makes some pretty cool shades. They cater mostly to street culture, action sports cool kids and their brand is hot. Iphones are really cool. Iphone applications are even cooler. The screen allows you to really get some interaction out of the experience and have some fun. So when I picked up this article on Freeskier magazine yesterday announcing the new Electric Visual iphone app, I zoomed right away to itunes to pick it up. Even if it cost me 5$ I would buy it. But it was free, even better!

Bottom line: I was prepared to write a post about how much I loved their new app. Unfortunately I am really disapointed. Iphone applications are supposed to be fun, interactive and unique. Think of Seth Godin's Purple Cow. The wow effect. Something to talk about with friends and show off. A memorable experience. As an example, on a recent biking trip a friend showed me his Iphone Star Wars Lightsaber application. Wow. A great viral tool to promote their game The Force Within. The lightsaber app is a purple cow. I downloaded it and convinced several users to pick it up. You should download it too, one should always have a lightsaber at hand.

The Electric Visual app on the other hand is a 1995 brochure website. It features the fall lineup of shades, the latest news, their ad campaign, a dealer locator and a contact Electric function. Arghhhhhhh. They are seriously shy of an About Us page that would make the circa-90's web alive again. The one thing that made them cross over in the Youtube realm of interactive was a short video featuring skateboard icon Bam Margera driving his Ferrari to the skatepark. Mad props to the art direction, it's got urban lifestyle branding all over it and it works. But inside an iPhone app, you're shooting blanks with just a video and a brochure. A dealer locator? The ad campaign? Come on!

I would have loved to praise their initiative in being the 1st lifestyle company out there coming out with a good app. I love the brand, love what they do, their product and their 'tude. But this was weak. Please make it better. Make something fun out of this opportunity to connect with your users.

The Best of 2008 Viral Videos by Trendhunter.com

2008-10-20T15:13:00.000-04:00

10. Bullet Proof Baby Stroller
9.Did John McCain Call His Wife A C**t?
8.Drunk Daft Punk! THE WORST!- Harder Bodies Faster Stronger
7.Everyday Normal Guy
6.Dove Evolution Parody Real Beauty
5.Dove Onslaught(er)
4.I'm F***ng Matt Damon by Sarah Silverman
3.I'm F*cking Obama - Hillary Clinton feat. Sarah Silverman
2.Guys backflip into jeans
1.Little Gordon Ramsey

and A Top 5 Deep Dive
5.Feist on Sesame Street
4.Bill O'Reilly Flips Out
3.Radiohead - House of Cards
2.FRED FIGGLEHORN
1.Christian the Lion - the full story

BONUS: The Muppets do Gangsta Rap

Brian Eno’s Bloom iPhone app

2008-10-20T12:37:00.000-04:00
Brian Eno's Bloom is the one of the most playful and cutting edge iphone apps I have seen. It lets you experiment with music loops and ambiant sound effects by taping at your screen. There are currently 9 moods to play with very colourful names including Neroll, Vetiver, Yiang, Labdanum. It's my 1st generative music application and I'm not a music expert but the interface and UX is simple, intuitive, compelling and fun. Check it out on Itunes for about $3,99 here.

Radiohead In Rainbows Download Stats Revealed

2008-10-19T23:32:00.001-04:00

After being made available for free for 3 months the album was no.1 in the UK and in the US
1st Radiohead album on iTunes – no.1 album selling 30,000 units in the US in the first week
Radiohead generated more revenue before ‘In Rainbows’ was physically in stored than they made in total on the previous album ‘Hail To the Thief’
The physical CD has sold 1.75 million to date and is still top 200 UK & US
They sold 100k boxsets via W.A.S.T.E.
Nearing 17 million plays on last.fm • 1.2 million fans will see the tour
The digital income from the experiment made a material difference to WCM’s UK digital revenue this year

In Rainbows is the seventh album by Radiohead that was first released on 10 October 2007 as a digital download where users chose how much they would pay for the album. This was followed by a standard CD release in North America on 1 January 2008.

The significance of the initiative is critical to fully understand the zeitgeist of the web and music industry. The fact that they even tried it, is a huge statement and a line in the sand vis-a-vis the industry. Again, Radiohead clarly demonstrated their avant-gardeness and their trendsetter status, this time not only in music but the way they relate with the industry and their fans.

Warner Chappell’s Head of Business Affairs Jane Dyball revealed that the digital publishing income from the first licence (for the Radiohead pay what you want site) alone dwarfed all the band’s previous digital publishing income and made a “material difference” to Warner Chappell UK’s digital income.

The publisher also confirmed that Radiohead had generated more revenue before ‘In Rainbows’ was physically in stores than they made in total on the previous album ‘Hail To the Thief’. Some may remember that until then, Radiohead has snubbed the likes of iTunes by withholding digital licensing.

The Radiohead In Rainbows experiment was a success for both Warner’s and the band’s perspective. For Warner it served to prove a point that by licensing directly and by offering a genuine one stop shop for licensing the publisher was able to generate far more money than would have been possible. From a marketing and product launch point of view, this experiment wrote a chapter in the book of brand management, social media and digital licensing. Forget about the book, they created the wiki....

Perhaps one of the strenghts of this 'experiment' is that In Rainbows is (IMHO) a better album than Hail to the Thief. So before we all get zapped around and jump to conclusions, the quality of the product is still the founding reason behind the succes of any distribution amd marketng strategy. Nine Inch Nails emerged with a similar free album download strategy with The Slip. The bands obvious niche appeal doesnt allow us to make comparaisons to Radiohead's In Rainbows, but I doubt it levereged as much.

The power of the Radiohead brand is probably the biggest driving force behind an initiative like this. In fact, the In Rainbows experiment probably reinforced even more the trend setting nature of the band. While a début album for a lesser known band probably wouldnt have levereged as much in terms of offline sales, we are clearly witnessed a deep fracture line in the landscape that the web is now making possible.

Read more on Music Ally

Crowdsourcing, forecasting the future, and evolution

2008-10-08T23:41:00.000-04:00

How do you start a post on these 3 massive subjects: crowdsourcing, forecasting the future, and then to add a little spice to this, human evolution. Play an online game with people all around the world and solve the problems of the world of tomorrow. It turns out crowdcourcing is not only a buzzword used for creative and commercial purposes. Meet Superstruct.

"Superstruct is the world's first massively multiplayer forecasting game. By playing the game, you'll help us chronicle the world of 2019--and imagine how we might solve the problems we'll face. Because this is about more than just envisioning the future. It's about making the future, inventing new ways to organize the human race and augment our collective human potential."

Very powerful concept indeed. Using the wisdom of the masses, this experiment leverages the insight and creative power of ever type of person to solve problems we will be facing in 2019. Some guidelines for the game include:

Be Unique. Superstruct is a collaborative community. Everyone is encouraged to contribute his or her unique skills, ideas, and talents! What do you know a lot about? What do you care a lot about? Where do you live? Who do you know? What are you good at? What unusual experiences have you had? Whoever you are, there are ideas only YOU could have, and there are thoughts only YOU could think. Please share them with us!

In Superstruct, players will bring their own personal knowledge and experiences to the table. "We don't need everybody to be experts on how climate might change and how the economy might be impacted," says McGonigal. "If you're a teenaged girl, tell us how a teenaged girl would respond to this crisis. We need that personal intelligence from everybody." The players will help imagine and document the world of 2019, and will work together to come up with solutions to the challenges that are presented throughout the six-week game. Cascio says that his highest hope is that the collaborating players will come up with innovative ideas that have applications here, in the real world of 2008. "The mass of ideas can become almost an epiphany engine," he says. (from discover magazine)

Ok, now what about the evolution part?

A lot of the challenges we're dealing with this century have a very long lag time. "Even if we were to stop putting out greenhouse gases right now, we'd still face decades of warming." Most humans aren't in the habit of acting on consequences they can't see; they have to be coaxed into saving money for retirement or into supporting climate change legislation that will raise energy prices.

"According to some neuroscientists, our capacity for long-term thinking emerged in the parts of the brain that were initially involved with throwing rocks at moving objects," a skill first developed further during harsh ice ages, Cascio says. "If you look at the major advances in the Hominid line—advances in tool use, language, and art—most of these were triggered by environmental changes," he says. "Foresight turns out to be a critical adaptive strategy for times of great stress."

Check out Superstruct on Youtube

An inspiring example of collaborative culture and technology used to leverage creativity and problem solving. Thanks John for sharing this with me!

Midnight Madness Google Earth Video

2008-10-08T22:48:00.000-04:00

The cynics would say that Google Earth Mashups are sooo 2006. Well thats why no one likes cynics! Very cool and fun video site for Midnight Madness.

What exactly are you doing at midnight? Well this project seeks to answer that question with a simple yet catchy User Generated platform on the site http://thechemicalbrothers.com/home/
It's catchy, dizzying, simple and voyeur. Love it.

Welcome to the Midnight Madness / Google Earth experience! The tour takes you around the world, exploring what people get up to at midnight. Sit back and buckle up for a fly around the earth and let the Chems supply the soundtrack.

See part of the vid right here...

Memory Clouds over London's Trafalgar Square

2008-10-06T21:38:00.000-04:00

IMAGINE YOUR TEXT MESSAGE IN HUGE SMOKE LETTERS OVER TRAFALGAR SQUARE.
Every once in a while you hear about a project like this. In the great divide between commerce and magic, such a realisation clearly comes out as truly contemporary. While many communicators are looking for more compelling and clever ways to engage the social outside of the relm of the online pixel, this project on the other hand is clearly beyond. It colours outside the lines with fun, interactive, simple, uncensored, and boldness.
For three evenings in October, a new interactive smoky communication will be underway in central London - one that combines a very modern medium with a 5,000-year-old one. In Memory Cloud, visitors can text any message they like to the artists' creation, and that phone message will be made into light-and-air smoke signals and huge in Trafalgar Square. This new exploration of personal expression in public spaces is from Minimaforms, founded in 2002 by brothers Stephen and Theodore Spyropoulos as an experimental architecture and design practice that explores projects that provoke and facilitate new means of communication.

http://www.minimaforms.com/memorycloud/

The Ten Commandments of Emotional Branding

2008-10-06T07:49:00.000-04:00
From Marc Gobé's book Emotional Branding here are 10 Rules that illustrate the difference between traditional concepts of brand awareness and Emotional Branding.

Let's face it: Some brands create emotional connections with consumers, while others leave people cold. There are functional brands, such as Compaq or Kmart, and there are emotional brands, such as Apple, Target and Wal-Mart, that galvanize loyalty. The difference is the personal connection these brands have with consumers through the strength of their culture and the uniqueness of their brand imagery. Emotional Branding creates strong, flexible brand personalities that closely match the aspirations of their customers. These “brand characters” are less about rationality than they are about desire and cultural connection.

1. from consumers to people
Consumers buy, people live.

2. from product to experience
Products fulfill needs, experiences fulfill desires.

3. from honesty to trust
Honesty is expected. Trust is engaging and intimate.

4. from quality to preference
Quality for the right price is a given today. Preference creates the sale.

5. from notoriety to aspiration
Being known does not mean that you are also loved!

6. from identity to personality
Identity is recognition. Personality is about character and charisma.

7. from function to feel
The functionality of a product is about practical or superficial qualities only.
Sensorial design is about experiences.

8. from ubiquity to presence
Ubiquity is seen. Emotional presence is felt.

9. from communication to dialogue
Communication is telling. Dialogue is sharing.

10. from service to relationship
Service is selling. Relationship is acknowledgment.

Magic Flashlights

2008-10-05T09:50:00.000-04:00
Amazing light effect used in a Snowboard video by Mike Benson, song by MGMT.

The great talent by the kids at High Cascade Snowboard camp is enhanced by light tracing effect in post-production. I especially like the fact a kid draws a circle and then jumps right into in.

Vimeo Video Link

A couple of months ago I saw this video showing tagging artist DAIM that resembles somewhat the end product, but clearly the snowboard video brings things to another level.

Magic Flashlights from Mike Benson on Vimeo.

Cameesa.com and crowdsourcing

2008-10-03T11:57:00.001-04:00

I was looking at some interesting tshirt designs today and found Cameesa.com.
For those of you who are familiar with Threadless.com, it's a similar model, but geared differently towards funding. Like a lot of similar sites, freelancers provide the content that gets selected and printed on t-shirts. But this is where it gets interesting: before a tshirt can go on sale, the community needs to invest $1000 in it or 50 x $20 shares. The 50 shareholders will receive a copy of the shirt but will also receive a share of future sales from the shirt. Interest or popularity in the shirt is gauged before the shirt is ever produced and should the required 50 shares never get sold, everyone gets their money back. A very interesting model and venue for artists who want to be out there but also a great primer in market research for launching a product and creating a following.

More reading from cnet here

The 1st interactive game in youtube!

2008-10-02T15:24:00.005-04:00

Pretty neat gimmick, but visually a little weak. I'm sure(hope) someone will take this to the next level very soon.

update: after playing a little with this, I have to admit it's pretty cool. I can only imagine if someone setup a similar setup with our beloved cartoon Linea

The 4 kinds of "Free"

2008-10-02T15:09:00.000-04:00

From David Armano, VP of Experience Design with Critical Mass.
Great original post.

What it takes to land a brand's business?

2008-10-01T10:07:00.002-04:00
Interesting insights from the client POV on how to win a brand's business if you're an agency. A couple of obvious pointers but real goodies:
Be really good
Listen, do your home work and surprise the client
Provide not only pretty pictures but pretty pictures that work
Collaboration with other agencies

Volvo Rush

2008-09-30T17:38:00.001-04:00

It seems interactive movie/games are getting to be THE thing. About time! Brilliant mix of interation, great direction and filming and great brand experience.
Excellent execution by Volvo.
Volvo Rush

This game is actually good! Gets your Jack Bauer alter ego going with multiple situations and amazing ction shots. I dont know who shot this but they didnt cut corners and post prod is seamless. Beautiful and engaging.

Brand Marketers aim to receive digital expertise from their advertising and marketing agencies.

2008-09-29T12:19:00.000-04:00
Sapient recently sponsored a national online survey to gain insights into what marketers want from their advertising and marketing agencies in the next 12 months. The survey polled more than 200 chief marketing officers (CMOs) and senior marketing professionals.

Two points can be derived out of this survey:
I. Traditional advertising agencies are now at risk of losing their clients.
II. Agencies should acquire Social Media expertise.

Traditional advertising agencies are now at risk of losing their clients:

1. More than a third of marketers surveyed reveal that they are not confident that their current agency can serve their needs in the online digital marketing and interactive advertising.
2. 45% of the respondents have switched agencies (or plan to switch in the next 12 months) for one with greater digital knowledge or have hired an additional digital specialist to handle their interactive campaigns.
3. 79% of respondents rated “interactive/digital” functions as ‘important/very important.

Agencies should acquire social media expertise:

1. 90% of respondents agree that it is becoming increasingly important that their agency uses ‘pull interactions’ such as social media and online communities rather than traditional ‘push’ campaigns.
2. 94% of respondents expressed interest in leveraging virtual communities (public and private) to understand more about their target audience.
3. 92% of respondents said it was ‘somewhat’ or ‘very’ important that agency employees use the (social media) technologies that they are recommending.
4. 49% of marketers surveyed said that agencies with chief digital officers are more appealing than those without.
5. 63% of marketers surveyed said that an agency’s Web 2.0 and social media capabilities are ‘important/very important’ when it comes to agency selection.

Note: Full survey methodology including the research firm to conduct this research was not revealed by Sapiens.

from trendsspotting.com

SMITH & NEPHEW // BY PSYOP

2008-09-29T11:17:00.001-04:00
New spot by Psyop for Smith & Nephews. Directed by Eben Mears and Mate Steinforth.
Beautiful art- great execution. Hmmm got me thinking if I should get my other ankle done now...

http://www.matesteinforth.com/work/motion/smith-nephew/

Smith and Nephew from mate on Vimeo.

Smith and Nephew Mocap Shoot from mate on Vimeo.

This website will sing aything that you ask it to sing

2008-09-29T10:50:00.000-04:00

I would love to understand the programming behind this, then again, I'm sure it's really far out. Wow. Fun stuff.

Let them sing it for you

This is not an SEO trick, this is brilliant.

2008-09-29T10:25:00.000-04:00

Please visit http://hellyeahdude.com and read this amazing post made entirely of links. beyond the cool format it's made in ( yes I'm a SEO geek sometimes) this post is pure gold. Check it out.

Pushing culture and creativity to levels never seen before, an entire blog post in creative links

ZOMMMMMMMMBIES

2008-09-29T10:16:00.001-04:00
Chose your own adventure in this very cool interactive web series called The Outbreak. What can I tell you, I love Zombie movies, so now you get to follow the adventures of a group of survivors and makes important decisions along the way, (and sometimes makes the wrong ones and get eaten by said-zombies)
Check it out!

http://www.survivetheoutbreak.com/

Mac and PC: roadblock page on Gizmodo

2008-09-11T07:11:00.000-04:00

New road block-ad on Gizmodo today featuring some pretty interesting grimacing and an open editorial by our friend PC.

Nivea Couch: Goodbye Cellulite!

2008-09-09T14:44:00.000-04:00

When Nivea launched an anti-cellulite product at the Miami Fashion week, this is what it came up with.
Agency: TBWA\Chiat\Day, New York

Adidas micoach: filmed in Montreal PVM?

2008-09-08T17:18:00.000-04:00

Ok so I love what Nike did with Apple. Ok so this might be a little copycat initiative. And ok yes I'm a big Adidas fan, and yes this looks like it was filmed in Montreal! But I have to say this new mesh between Samsung-Adidas project is pretty cool. Check out the vid here.
Full micoach site here

miCoach is the first initiative in a partnership between two of the world's leading brands, Samsung and adidas. Developed as a real-time coaching system, miCoach is designed to help inspire, motivate and track your progress to help you reach your personal training goals

Pretty cool. Would love to try it. My Polar X625 is getting iffy on me.

Now finish reading this and go run. Now! Do it!

Bike racks and OFFLINE ONLINE Synch

2008-09-08T10:20:00.000-04:00

Somehow I'm sure we're going to be seing many more of these. David Byrne from the Talking Heads and the New York Department of Transportation put together a very cool looking project to customize bike racks. Very simple, great photo opp for tourists and simple to implement. Dunno how much they would cost, but I would say it's dirt cheap in terms of wow factor.

"Byrnes’ rack creations are spread through the two boroughs and follow an appropriate theme depending on their landmark location. For example, Ladies Mile has a rack shaped like a high heel; The Villager has one shaped like a dog; and Wall Street has the fun yet obvious dollar sign. Next time you’re in New York be on the look out for them. They’re scheduled to be in place for just a year, but we’re sure more collaborations like this will pop up throughout the city."

Original post here

This made me think of the OFF=ON concept. Trendwatching came out with an interesting report on this phenomenon you can read here. I couldnt help but think of how far you can push #1 concept : Online symbols turned into objects nd now the NYC bike rack creation gives an interesting example of how simple the design can be.

Super social media

2008-08-26T15:53:00.000-04:00
A couple of weeks ago I re-connected with an old friend I hadn't seen in over 12 years. I don't think we ever sent each other an email, come to think of it, I dont think I ever had her email at all. Well more than a decade and 3 continents later, Facebook comes along. A very modern and generic story unfolds where there phrase "Hey! How have you been, what have you been up to" comes up a lot. We catch up.
Facebook photo albums tell stories of the where and what you look like now. The list of Facebook friends tells the story of who you have kept in touch with. Email makes things a little simpler to write back and forth long stories of everything that has happened since and how complicated our mutual lives have become. Then Youtube comes into play. Have you ever heard this song? Do you know this band? What do you think of this remix or this bands' version of that song? It also allows us to channel-surf each other's cultural references and figure out if the things that make me laugh make you laugh too.
Gmail-Talk plugged on a blackberry and texting come into motion, I can now let you know things that are on my mind before I forget and another 12 years go by. When I get YouTube ADD, I make you an oh-so-90's-concept mixtape on Muxtape.com and tell you a story with 1 hour worth of streaming MP3. And you send me one too. Your music taste is still not that good but it's ok, mine is even lamer. We communicate, we adapt, we use different channels to figure out things about each other and tell our story. How far we have come along with these new communication toys.

This is not about web technologies. This is not about trendy web two-ish buzzwords.
This is two people talking, sharing, and learning. The form of the communication, whether picture, music, video, or mobile text is empty by itself, a bucket for words and emotions to be filled. An icon void of meaning until we give it some.

A human-to-human connection is not technological. Same goes with a connection with a brand. These are not even cosmetic, they are mechanical. No mater how much YouTubing, texting, picture sharing or banner advertising, the core of the conversation must be an emotional one, an intuitive one. It may seem obvious, but the purpose of communication is to share and engage, not how the wiring and the piping fits behind the wall.

Maybe it's a contradictive rehash of the medium is the message. But both message and medium mean nothing without meaning. And meaning is beyond subjective and objective, it's gut feeling. Like brand equity and memories after 12 years of absence, it's nothing you can fake. No matter how much rich media or twittering it does, I will not buy Camel cigarettes or join the NRA.

Build meaning in your product, in your brand and in how you do what you do. Build purpose around your product with genuine quality.

Do what you are. Be honest. Simplify and commit.

Haven't been blogging in a while

2008-06-06T20:41:00.000-04:00
CLICK HERE AND VISIT MY TWITTER INSTEAD
Back with a full on post before you know it.

The Times They Are a-Changin'

2008-05-21T19:39:00.001-04:00
Something is up. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to wrap my head around this one, but there is something going on. I know most of us can feel it too. And I'm not talking about something like the Matrix but something has definitely shifted. The Times They Are a-Changin'.

Last week, Pierre Karl Péladeau, the Quebecor CEO, goes before a crowd of the Montréal Web community to discuss his web strategy. Quite the PR and vision pitch I must say. I will not comment on my perspective of his vision of any other horizon strategy that QCOR is engaging in, but I must insist on the boldness of this action. I did not attend myself, first of all, but went through the 22 pages of his transcript. PKP has stuck the stake in the ground in front of everyone in quite the public speech, bringing up the "web 2.0" word 15 times. Mentioning the impact of User Generated Content as well as taking a stance on social networks, open platforms and the repartitioning of the media business models is something that surprised me. I have attended many pitches where buzz-word-mania is played liberally. I die a little bit every time someone mentions web 2.0, but alas, I have got used to it. But to hammer down the nail at this extent, PKP is making quite the statement. Weaving "collaborative spaces" and "citizen journalism" into corp-speak is a very risqué strategy for the CEO of a major media comglomerate. Again, I will not reflect on the quality of the statement, and instead chose to focus on the weight of this speech. "Collective intelligence", a building block of the wikinomics is usually a word that hides deep in the geek-topia of the planosphere (thanks Vlad). Not only has PKP apparently internalized the values of the new web reality, but he's very vocal about them and proving a point by taking the stance.

So yeah, something is happening there.

Something is definitely happening in the blogosphere too. I had a lot of fun over the week-end catching up with an avalanche of posts on the AMM blog regarding the debate of duplicate content between blogs. This horse has been beaten to a pulp and I will also choose not to engage in this discussion, but the form of the discussion is fascinating. Bloggers arguing with other bloggers about blogging and blog orthodoxy. A similar debate is taking place at the macro level blogosphere regarding the preffered location of blog comments. Some bloggers would argue that while distribution via RSS feeds should facilitate user engagement, comments, therefore the ultimate value reinforcement for bloggers should belong to the blogger site. Other argue that comments belong where ever the user has intercepted the content, therefore claiming the content-centric comment view as the correct one. Wow. quite the debate guys. I will not take a stance on this, but my obvious vote goes to the obvious user driven experience. The blogosphere is alive and well. Such bio-diversity is really impressive, what an tribal ecosystem we have! It's truly motivating to see how much of a critical mass this pixel world has taken lately.

At the same time something is happening in the business world. Companies are still scrambling to "do stuff" online and at the same time confusion reigns over how-what-how-much. I hear a lot of " Age of Dialogue" lately, when in fact I see a lot of Age of Noise that now translates to online clutter. John Maeda speaks of the industry of profiteering behind the gold rush, providing gear and apparel to frontiersmen and making fortunes. This regardless whether they strike gold or not there is a vast industry of tool and platform providers to outfit your pixel gold rush. I see a lot of dust settling and people asking questions though. "Why is this metric so low, why is this metric so high, is this all that you can do, why are you constantly trying to sell me stuff."

The age of transparency is clearly not yet here, but an ever pressing pressure towards value based and belief based consumption is challenging black-box companies. Some will adapt to this psychographic predisposition of this generation. Other will not a continue their own way. Some brands will wither into oblivion, others will connect with emotional engagement.

There is something happening in every arena of communication. This shift is not technological, it doesnt have anything to do with acronym rich keynote marketing decks. This shift is behavioural. This shift is human. The web 2.0 infatuation with " now users can do this...." is fatally skewed. I have always communicated and now I can do it faster/easily/better online. Products that facilitate human behaviour will work. Simple. One of the cornerstones of this shift is digital media literacy. We have now passed the threshold of usage and penetration. Once a portal-initiated medium, then on to search, and now social networks, we come to a teenage hood of the web; and realize it really wasn't about the tool and the gimmicks and technology but about the user. Duh!

And what about value. The killer word that keeps media agencies, publishers and advertisers up at night? How do we create sustainable value for our users while sustaining an efficient content developing operation and provide advertising value to media buyers. This is really the killer word because I cannot say anyone has figuredit out yet. Ok maybe Google has. But everyone else is still scrambling in their own teenage hood wondering what they're gonna do when the digital native generation kicks in. There is something going on and everyday that goes by it gets even more so.

I will write about what I can pick up under my radar in this blog. I also invite anyone else to participate in this. I have the humility to say that our science/craft/art is blessed with the potential of "collaborative wisdom", and while I might share this same vision, I don't have all the asnwers. This shift is happening even if I don't write about it, and will keep persisting and evolving. This is a proverbial line in the sand. The etymology of line in the sand is implicit to drawing a barrier through which no one shall cross. I draw this line in the sand as a snapshot of where we are right now in the media/digital media/communication landscape. These have become critical building blocks to human behaviour and the scope is much larger than critiquing old versus new media. Any respectful professional will accept the notion of ingredient platforms, so this will not be a venue to discuss print versus pixel, or the like.

This is a line in the sand to discriminate opportunistic profiteering from true value.

Visual stimulation, cognitive processing and emotional response made simple with a diagram

2008-05-07T23:14:00.000-04:00

So here it is. Simple as rock-paper-scissors. Let's say you are exposed to a new stimulus, in this case an aisle of strange looking Japanese packaged goods you has never seen in the past. What happens next?

Values based business strategy

2008-05-06T22:29:00.001-04:00
I hear a lot about values based business decisions these days. I hear a lot of businesses integrating "green" variables in their decision making. Taking a stance in the global climate. I hear a lot of business-people talking about Al Gore. About social and environmental impacts from business decisions. Clearly there is an endless bandwagon of green companies: yes, if Y2K was the buzzword of '99, "sustainable development businesses" is the uber buzzword of 2008. Really I cant take it anymore. Take for instance, a company that promotes it's green-ness through the handing out of t-shirts packaged in ink heavy and paper stock heavy boxes. What does that tell me?

These promotional stints shrink down the business quickly to opportunistic driven marketing. It might sound like a bad word, but in fact it's a wise decision given all the attention and focus. But clearly it lacks one fundamental ingredient. Authenticity. One word that makes or devastates a strategic platform. One moment a company has a soul. The next moment, it's just leveraging every other inch of promotion available in it's marketing tool-box to desperately differentiate itself.

I have all the respect in the world for people like Yvon Chouinard from Patagonia Inc, who describe themselves as "reluctant business people". They are crafts people, who's passion translates into the development of the best possible product. This passion is anchored deep in their value system of what needs to be done and what is good. Values mean nothing in the absence of vision. And true vision, in my humble opinion is not opportunistic. There are many opportunities to leverage value for the purpose of creating a discrepancy between apparent value and incurred cost. This is the basis of creating profit and is profoundly necessary in our markup system. However, let's remember that profit is not why, but how we are here to improve the lives of users.

It is our responsibility to improve the state of our business as well as to improve the lives of our users. I believe that with responsible decision making extending far in the horizon and based with both feet planted on the firm ground, we can make better business decisions. Without vision and the humility to learn and understand how we impact the lives of many, value based strategy makes no sense. Every day, we impact hundreds of people's lives with our products, our services and our outreaching communication. I believe the 1st value of any business should be honesty. Be honest with your vision. Be honest with your customers. Be honest with your partners. Be honest with your team. Honesty is a powerful value that paves the way to authenticity. Differentiation and segmentation become minuscule in comparison. Transparency is hard to attain. It's sometimes impossible due to cultural business mores. At the same time, honesty, often seen as the nemesis of marketing, is the silver arrow to value based strategy and marketing. Be honest with your business plan and vision. Who are you, what do you do and why is it important? Be honest with yourself and your team. Your customers will see the value in the authenticity. No one likes a fake, even if it's a popular one.

Microsoft withdraws proposal to acquire Yahoo!

2008-05-05T20:10:00.000-04:00
Ok, we all saw this coming a zillion miles away, but it still feels good to say "I told you so".
There is nothing left to be said, except to quote the letter written by Steven A. Ballmer, Chief Executive Officer at Microsoft to Jerry Yang, CEO and Chief Yahoo.

Mr. Jerry Yang
CEO and Chief Yahoo
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, CA 94089

Dear Jerry:

After over three months, we have reached the conclusion of the process regarding a possible combination of Microsoft and Yahoo!.

I first want to convey my personal thanks to you, your management team, and Yahoo!’s Board of Directors for your consideration of our proposal. I appreciate the time and attention all of you have given to this matter, and I especially appreciate the time that you have invested personally. I feel that our discussions this week have been particularly useful, providing me for the first time with real clarity on what is and is not possible.

I am disappointed that Yahoo! has not moved towards accepting our offer. I first called you with our offer on January 31 because I believed that a combination of our two companies would have created real value for our respective shareholders and would have provided consumers, publishers, and advertisers with greater innovation and choice in the marketplace. Our decision to offer a 62 percent premium at that time reflected the strength of these convictions.

In our conversations this week, we conveyed our willingness to raise our offer to $33.00 per share, reflecting again our belief in this collective opportunity. This increase would have added approximately another $5 billion of value to your shareholders, compared to the current value of our initial offer. It also would have reflected a premium of over 70 percent compared to the price at which your stock closed on January 31. Yet it has proven insufficient, as your final position insisted on Microsoft paying yet another $5 billion or more, or at least another $4 per share above our $33.00 offer.

Also, after giving this week’s conversations further thought, it is clear to me that it is not sensible for Microsoft to take our offer directly to your shareholders. This approach would necessarily involve a protracted proxy contest and eventually an exchange offer. Our discussions with you have led us to conclude that, in the interim, you would take steps that would make Yahoo! undesirable as an acquisition for Microsoft.

We regard with particular concern your apparent planning to respond to a “hostile” bid by pursuing a new arrangement that would involve or lead to the outsourcing to Google of key paid Internet search terms offered by Yahoo! today. In our view, such an arrangement with the dominant search provider would make an acquisition of Yahoo! undesirable to us for a number of reasons:
•

First, it would fundamentally undermine Yahoo!’s own strategy and long-term viability by encouraging advertisers to use Google as opposed to your Panama paid search system. This would also fragment your search advertising and display advertising strategies and the ecosystem surrounding them. This would undermine the reliance on your display advertising business to fuel future growth.
•

Given this, it would impair Yahoo’s ability to retain the talented engineers working on advertising systems that are important to our interest in a combination of our companies.
•

In addition, it would raise a host of regulatory and legal problems that no acquirer, including Microsoft, would want to inherit. Among other things, this would consolidate market share with the already-dominant paid search provider in a manner that would reduce competition and choice in the marketplace.
•

This would also effectively enable Google to set the prices for key search terms on both their and your search platforms and, in the process, raise prices charged to advertisers on Yahoo. In addition to whatever resulting legal problems, this seems unwise from a business perspective unless in fact one simply wishes to use this as a vehicle to exit the paid search business in favor of Google.
•

It could foreclose any chance of a combination with any other search provider that is not already relying on Google’s search services.

Accordingly, your apparent plan to pursue such an arrangement in the event of a proxy contest or exchange offer leads me to the firm decision not to pursue such a path. Instead, I hereby formally withdraw Microsoft’s proposal to acquire Yahoo!.

We will move forward and will continue to innovate and grow our business at Microsoft with the talented team we have in place and potentially through strategic transactions with other business partners.

I still believe even today that our offer remains the only alternative put forward that provides your stockholders full and fair value for their shares. By failing to reach an agreement with us, you and your stockholders have left significant value on the table.

But clearly a deal is not to be.

Thank you again for the time we have spent together discussing this.

Sincerely yours,

Steven A. Ballmer
Chief Executive Officer
Microsoft Corporation

What my 4month old son taugh me about Marketing

2008-04-25T11:27:00.000-04:00
What my 4month old son taught me about Marketing

Simon is 4months old today, woohoo! Born on XMAS day of 2007, he is my idol. He teaches me everyday about the simplicity and authenticity of every moment. The teacher/ student roles quickly become reversed, and I am fortunate enough to have someone as pure and strong as him to show me what I missed along the way. Until yesterday, I didn't think Simon knew too much about marketing. Lo and behold, he knows much more about it than I thought I did.

There he is, on his back, wearing nothing but a diaper and a toothless smile. He is content. He is in the moment. He is happy simply by moving and kicking his feet, His sometimes sucks his fingers and sometimes he doesn't. He is the epitome of happiness and zen.
Then out of the blue, a visitor, a relative, a colleague who dropped by, or any other member of the older-than-10 year-old-human-being-club shows up.

This person wants Simon's attention. Why? I am not sure yet. Everyone is compelled to sollicit Simon's attention, maybe because of his beautiful smile and energizing laughter. But I think it's not that. They want his attention because it serves them a purpose. Simon's attention is worth something. He is an audience. He is a content human being about to be solicited and interrupted for the sake of creating value. This value is in this case the happiness of seeing his smile, or even the bragging rights about being able to make Simon laugh. Oh well.

So how does one go about to make Simon smile and laugh? The tried and true method is the "wouagadagahoudaga" baby talk strategy. It is entertaining to see mature human beings drop about 9/10 of the social IQ in an instant to come up with a routine that will spike the interest of Simon. The simpler the better really. Classic phrases such as "yes you are cute, you are soooo cute, you know you are cute, yes you do", not only betray the lack of originality, but the fundamental disconnect between target audience and message. Simon really doesn't care. He was happy being. And then he was interrupted. This drives advertisers/people to amplify their buffoonery at soliciting his attention. Eventually Simon laughs. Maybe he's figured out how silly these people really are and he starts paying attention. At this point it is impossible to know if he laughs and or with them, but I digress. Positive reinforcement kicks in and the advertiser remembers the last thing he did before said-smile/laugh and he repeats its over and over to have the same expected response. All is well. Until we bring up the creative churn rate. Simon is smart. He can also get bored. Eventually he realizes these buffooneries really don't do anything for him. Entertainment value, sure, it has some. But when the initial thrill is gone, that value becomes nill. "GIVE ME SOME VALUE" he would say if he could speak. "DON'T INTERRUPT ME IF YOU'RE GONNA BORE ME WITH YOUR MINDLESS BOZO ROUTINE"...eeesh he might have sounded a bit grumpy, but wouldn't you be grumpy too if theres a creative popularity contest going on around you based on who can solicit your attention best. Hold on a sec, there is such a contest going on.

So whats someone to do for Simon's undying attention and focus. Well bottom line: have something not just good but great to give him. Value can take many forms, entertainment is one. Food is another. Making his life better, improving something in his life should be the priority of anyone trying to solicit his attention. I, for one, have figured something out. Despite all the baby talk brouhaha, I have my secret weapon. I know he is ticklish and loves to have tummy tickled. He genuinely enjoys it and that's how I 1st heard him laugh at the top of his lungs. Moral of the story, don't be a buffoon with the people you market to, find their tickle spot and be essential for them. That is what Simon taught me about Marketing.

Top 10 APril 25: Montreal Is blooming: keep ur eyes on the road

2008-04-25T09:51:00.004-04:00
TOP 10:

1.Hockey fever: GO HABS GO!!!! It's official, Montreal has lost it's mind over hockey. It's alright though, I've been told by a judge and an emergency doctor that crime and injuries have been on teh downside ever since the Habs have been in teh payoffs. I guess those 2 werent paying attention during the riots, but thats the beauty of averaging things out.

2.The weather! I know it can sound pathetic to a non-Montreal, but weather here is serious stuff. No kidding Météomedia is one of the most visited websites, and weather here could be compared to soccer in latin american countries. It's critical to the well being and functionning of our nation. People know more about barometers and anti-cyclones and cold fronts than they understand about the house of commons. And in the last 3 weeks, weather has been good. So people are happy. That and lets remember that Montreal in the summer is an inspiring site. ;-)

3.TQS loses news. That is huge news! The same morning CBC announces internal reorgs. Traditional media is in somewhat of a bind. I am writting a longer post specifically to address this, but essentially, it's a big WE TOLD YOU SO.

4.ATTENTION ALL HIPPOs, A BRAND IS NOT A LOGO.

5.Avinash Kaushik rocks. Even if Google Analytics doesn't rock my world so much lately, I think Avinash is great. Saw him and chatted some up with him in Montreal last week, and very impressed. This pluggin for Google Analytics (sigh) is actually really cool. Take the time to instal it, it's not an intuitive instalation but try it, it works after a couple of bugs are ironed out. It works and answers the simple question "WHO IS SENDING ME UNUSUAL TRAFIFC"

6.BonjourQuebec and URLS: Amazing post by Michelle Blanc, her post rocks! She actually scooped everyone on this news, letting everyone know that you could find an adult website on a governmental url (with a slight twist).

7.How many planets do we need to sustain your lifestyle? Shameless work self promo.

8. Very clever POP-UP video application by Revolver 3, works amazingly and is loads of fun.

9.Ile-sans-fil is a lifesaving tool. Especially when you can work and eat at the same time at le Titannic, hmmmm, Coconut Chicken.

10.The twitter posts of Marco Gervasio. Clearly the most inspiring, refreshing and sobering part of my day.

Globeandmail.com search box on Google

2008-03-15T09:44:00.000-04:00
Saw this interesting search box in the Google SERP. Has anyone seen this lately?

TOP 10- Omniture Summit- Salk Lake City

2008-03-12T11:20:00.001-04:00
1.Brett Error Q&A session:
Extremely inspiring to see the head of technology of Omniture taking the time to take question and remarks from the audience about their product. No matter how small and niche the request was (3% Marco!), he took the time to discuss, inquire as to the needs and take it down inview of next versions of the product
update: Sorry for the typo in Brett Error's name. Thanks Design Dork!

2.Skiing Snowbird. WOW!

3.Flight of the Concords beating Seth Godin by a landslide as main drivers of booking on Omniture.com. But don't tell Seth....

4.Major snowstorm hitting the North East making traveling back home absolutely horrible. Thank you American Airlines for taking me onboard when Air Canada abandonned me. See post by Stephane Hamel.

5.Zaaz.com presentation about actionable analytics. Brilliant presentation by the 2 Jasons. Loved it.

6.Lance Armstrong. Omniture ended up giving a LOT of money to Lance's foundation, catching him offguard.

7.Being the only Google Analytics user at the conference, or at least feeling like I am.

8.So many talented people, so many interesting projects. Wow.

9.Seth Godin moonwalking wearing mismatched girly socks.

10.ITS NOT ABOUT THE DATA, IT'S NOT ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY. IT'S WHAT YOU WILL DO WITH IT.

Top 10: c'est Lundi matin!

2008-03-03T09:23:00.000-05:00
1.Mec laptop bag
Mon nouveau sac a laptop d'apres les recommandations de mon chiro. Je le recommande a 100%!

2.March 3rd
Interessant, le 2nd mot le plus recherché est la date d'hier. Hmmmm.

3.Twittering meetings away
Est-ce que Twitter est devenu le nouveau must-do pendant un meeting sans fin? Au moins on pend des notes au cas si on nous demande si on écoute.

4.Al Gore à Montreal!

5.BBC new page
Belle nouvelle page à l'age de la personalisation.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/

6.Wendys hot juicy burger and microsites
Je suis vraiment décu que Wendys a retiré son site viral Hot Juicy Burger et l'a remplacé par un site corpo circa 1996. Franchement décu. Malgré le tout, je trouve cet article sur les microsites assez pertinent. C,est un bon mode de revenue pour les agences mais pour une marque, est-ce vraiment une bonne stratégie. Je cogite toujours.

7.Guerrila marketing en Italie

8.André Pratte à tout le monde en parle
J'adore son analogie à propos de son chien. Surtout le jour même qu'on s'est séparé de notre "petit" chat Sachat.

9.Question philosophique de la semaine: Should Ads In Adult Magazines Feature Naked People?

10. Cause an old classic never dies: Smirnoff Tea Partay

Top 10: 20 Février

2008-02-20T12:57:00.001-05:00
1. La Victoire du Canadien!!!!!!!!!!!! SPEC-TA-CU-LAIRE!

2. Google experimental. Un peu space et pas trop ergo, mais bon... un tres bon présage des choses à venir...

3. Vous rapellez vous de la pub de Bill Murray dans Lost in Translation?
Au moin c'était dans un film...mais voyez cette pub de Condé Nast avec nul autre que Hugh Jackman. J'imagine que même les acteurs de Hollywoods ont des factures d'Hydro à payer eux aussi.

4. Très bon post de Seth Godin: "No user servicable parts inside"
Pour ceux qui aurot la chance d'être à Salt Lake City pour la conférence Omniture, Seth est un des speakers!

5. Comme je suis confu/heureux/surpris quand j'entend dire que la publicité de bannières et le référencement sont des initiatives de publicité traditionnelles. J'adoooore.

6. Le blog corpo même dans les smoke meats! MIAM!

7. Le widget Météomedia Météoéclair MAC ne fonctionne pas. J'adore ce qu'ils font d'habitude et ca me rend triste de ne pas avoir le feed de MMT. Je dois me contenter du widget Accuweather.

8. RÉFÉRENCER DES SITES EN FLASH? OUI CEST POSSIBLE!
Bravo Nicolas Et Fred pour cet article dans Abondance!

9. L'usage des blackberry pendant des meetings. C'est vulgaire et un manque de respect. Une montre affichant le début et la fin prévu du meeting sont par contre recommandés.

10. "Le chalet de ski" le plus tueur que j'ai vu de ma vie. La vue qui donne sur les Alpes, wow.

Top 10: de retour apres un petit repos (de paternité)

2008-02-07T12:28:00.000-05:00
1. Mes 2 tickets de parking consécutifs durant l'opération de déneigement Montreal Storm. Le plaisir de me faire réveiller 2 jours de suite par les remorqueuses.

2. Les blogues corpo et l'évangélisation de ce "medium". Un couloir étroit et glissant mais efficace et porteur si autentique et honnete. "Soap box pour business rock-star diva in the making" ?...bah...LES BLOGS C'EST DE LA COMMUNICATION! Et bien sur la communication implique partager un message. Alors toute allusion discrete mise a part sur le profil "psychologique" des blogueurs, je ne crois pas que les réseaux sociaux soient de près ou de loin des outils qui rejoignent les amateurs de la masse, du conformisme et du One-Size-Fits-All media.

3. Les sondages. Comment intégrer l'échantillonage et la représentation de comportements nichés dans un univers web de Long Tail.

4. Le Grenier d'Or de Revolver 3. Miam Miam Maim. Moi j'aime les biscuits! Bravo.

5. Finalement, on dirait qu'il y a une baisse des demandes "Vampires, Zombies, etc..." dans facebook. Enfin! C'était quoi le trip? À la rigeur je comprenais les tamagushis mieux...

6. Microsoft-Yahoo! Encore une fois on en parle, on dirait que c'est toujours a ce temps ci de l'année que ca recommence. Oh well, je vais le croire quand je vais le voir. L'idée d'intéger ces 2 organisations releve du quasi-impossible d'un point de vue organisationel et visionnaire. Mais bon...

7. Le nouveau widget Digg dans Digg Labs.

8. Le mot de la journée: consoprosélytisme.

9. Les lettres me rapellant mes obligation de non-sollicitation.

10. Le partage vidéo Joox.net Et toute le monde pensait que Facebook était LE gouffre de temps le plus profond?

Top 10: December 10th 2007

2007-12-11T00:12:00.000-05:00
1.Boomerangs: Provokat.
Great title. Not too sensationalist but great at maintaining the hype. Smart.

2.A new website for hot chicks.
New LOULOU new site by Cloudraker

3.What Do You REALLY Want?
You aren't getting anywhere because you dont know where you want to go

4.DASHBOARD
http://dashboardspy.com/

5.Facebook is the ultimate solution.
Always very impressed by how people post extremely personal things in their facebook status line. I have heard of a girl who broke up with her bf via the status line. Although I have never witnessed such an extreme event, I have seen countless public flirting, grieving, fights and mucho anger expressed.
Addendum: It's still uber hard to explain the virtues of Twitter to most webnewbies, but somehow, they figure out the status line the next day after signing up.

6.PDF
WHY DO PEOPLE STILL USE PDF FILES SPLICED IN BETWEEN WEB PAGES. JEEZ....

7.I hate my xmas gifts
http://badgiftemporium.com/

8.NALGENE BOTTLES ARE EVIL! SERIOUSLY!
Apparently Nalgene bottles are bad for you. Mountain equipment Coop pulled them off their shelves today accross the country.
Google news

9.Machine Girl Movie Trailer: “The Cult Film of Next Year”
I saw the trailer and I think you should see it to judge for yourself. Machine GIRL!

10."Flashturbatoire"
Great post by Michel Leblanc. hehe I like.
I quote " Du Flash C’EST PAS DU WEB CALVERT! Vous primez des “sites” qui sont en fait des CD ROM accédés par internet. Ces “sites” là ne sont pas vraiment accessible, pas vraiment indexables (engins de recherches), ils souffrent d’une utilisabilité des plus douteuse et leurs “pages” ne sont pas des pages et ne sont pas linkables."
Beautiful. Please read the whole post.

TOP 10 (ANNOYING) ONLINE MARKETING BUZZWORDS:

2007-12-09T22:23:00.000-05:00
TOP 10 (ANNOYING) ONLINE MARKETING BUZZWORDS:

1. ROI
Maybe 1 out of 10 marketing decision makers have a vague concept of calculating ROI the correct way. No need to wave this killer buzzword when all your want to say is « profitability ». Extra points for being an acronym buzzword.

2. WEB 2.0
The King Kong of powerpoint buzzland. I die a little everytime someone uses it to refer to « the web of today and tomorrow». I must admit the french upped the ante by dropping the « point o » and calling it « le web deux ». Advil please.

3. INTERACTIVE MARKETING
Marketing has always been interactive, if there was no human interaction, it would be called accounting. Drop the redundant adjective + noun combo.

4. COMSCORE
Beyond it’s dismal meaninglessness, I still hear the sound of it’s name cause there still is nothing « better ». Pass the Kool Aid please.

5. KPI
Key Performance Indicators : ie things that matter for your business. In

6. Dashboard
It takes 30 mins to set one unless you’re suffering from AADD (analytics ADD). Know your « KPIs » and learn to use your analytics tool.

7. OPTIMIZING CLICK THROUGH RATE
If your KPI involves some clicks, people need to click. Just change the ads that suck, ok fine we’ ll call that optimizing. Natural selection sound sdramatic but would also be accepted.

8. VIRAL
John tells Mike who tells 5 other people who tell 10 other people each. Kinda like in Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman and that little monkey. Must we be so dramatic that we want to replicate some doomsday vocabulary ?

9. STRATEGY
Common sense people. We have yet to place someone on the moon in this business (ok we did this). What we do everyday is 90% common sense with 10% analysis. Strategy could be as simple as not just looking at your feet when you run.

10. ROAD MAP
Used too often to be taken seriously anymore, everytime I hear this one, I keep thinking of following a map and ending up at Bates Motel.

Extra buzzword points will be awarded to combinations ie Web 2.0 Strategy roadmap.

TOP 10: December 8 2007

2007-12-08T10:52:00.000-05:00
1.Spare $1Million?
Wealthy New York Family Begs for 1 Million Dollars: must maintain lifestyle and times are hard. Incredible story and incredible nerve. Pauvres bourgeois!

By the way, there are people far less fortunate than us. There are over a dozen causes in Montreal that need your REAL support:
http://www.danslarue.com/
http://www.oldbrewerymission.ca/
http://www.fondationdesmaladiesmentales.org/
http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=000005&tid=003

2.Pecha kucha
Unfortunately I was not able to attend the last event in Montreal last Wednesday but I have to say the format of these presentations is brilliant.
To quote Wikipedia:
Pecha Kucha or Pecha Kucha Night is a presentation format in which (mostly creative) work can be easily and informally shown. It was originally devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein-Dytham Architecture (KDa) in Tokyo in 2003 as a place for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public. The format has spread virally to many cities across the world. The name derives from a Japanese term for the sound of conversation ("chit-chat"). The idea behind Pecha Kucha is to keep presentations concise, the interest level up and to have many presenters sharing their ideas within the course of one night. Therefore the 20x20 Pecha Kucha format was created: each presenter is allowed a slideshow of 20 images, each shown for 20 seconds each. This results in a total presentation time of 6 minutes 40 seconds on a stage before the next presenter is up.

I have to say that I tried the format once and overshot by 30 mins. Ouch. Practice practice practice. But yeah, everyone was asking questions so it wasn't really fair.

3.Xmas shopping
If Clotaire Rapaille says that going shopping is our cultural equivalent of connecting back with our world, I have to say that the mall madness I witnessed today is the cultural equivalent of a rugby game. Such a sea of people "connecting" with xmas gift guilt I have the pleasure of witnessing only once a year. Thank god. I don't think I have the stomach nor the patience behind the wheel to go for another round. People : go shop online, better yet, don't spend all that money and spend some real time with someone you havent spoken to in a while.

4.15% commision on paid search ads
Good post on Yannick Manuri's Blog. The age old topic that some people are out there to screw you. What do you really expect? This is an industry of people selling stuff to people selling stuff to people. Markups, albeit obscene are part of the DNA of the fauna. 25% comm on ad buys is obscene. There is no way to rationalize anymore on paid search.

5.The Hon. Denis Coderre, P.C., M.P. on FB (Facebook)
I must say that marketers dont have the stronghold on Facebook marketing anyore. Enter the political players! None other than Liberal Superstar Denis Coderre in the FB universe!

6.Jackson 5 makes another blip on the Search radar
See Google trends activity
The actual search phrase "Jackson 5" is 75th out of the top 100 search queries for December 8th 2007. Just thought you'd like to know.

7.MBA's
Is it really worth it? I ran accros this article on a MBA competition.
Is it just another way of writing on a piece of paper: I AM BETTER THAN YOU ACCORDING TO THIS SCHOOL? Then again, I might be wrong. I have met people with amazing minds with the notorious MBA suffixes (poor form if you ask me). But I would argue that they were just as brilliant before entering the sausage grinder. Cause and effect still tbd.

8.Great quote by founder of Patagonia
I'VE BEEN A BUSINESSMAN for almost 50 years. It's as difficult for me to say those words as it is for someone to admit to being an alcoholic or a lawyer.
I've never respected the profession. It's business that has to take the majority of the blame for being the enemy of nature, for destroying native cultures, for taking from the poor and giving to the rich, and for poisoning the earth with the effluent from its factories. Yet business can produce food, cure disease, control population, employ people, and generally enrich our lives. And it can do these good things and make a profit without losing its soul.
read the rest here

9.Leekspin.com
Why?Because it's there.
Read all about it on Wikipedia.

10.Darwin award of the day:
Yahoo-Adobe partnership to put contextual ads in PDF documents.
Yawn, come on guys. Seriously....

TOP 10 LIST: 2007 Boomerang Awards

2007-12-07T18:19:00.000-05:00
10-The company that makes those outdoor heating lamps must really be laughing since smoking indoors is outlawed.
9-Facebook is the new business card
8-Justice DJ music.
7-Le Proprio in house web design. Respect !
6-The Canoe bar is dry after 1 hour. BOOOOOOOOH.
5-Being an event sponsors : a great way to win a boomerang?
4-Denis Talbot : why and how much are they paying you?
3-Les "ballounes" Yahoo !
2-Fjord’s DC fashion style. Year after year, stylin'
1-Provokat. Nuff said.

Top 10: December 7th 2007

2007-12-07T17:38:00.000-05:00
1- Sony advertising on Mac Rumours site.
I’m not really convinced by the strategy of placing Sony laptop ads on a die hard Mac lover site. Do you really think theres any hope of converting macusers with the most uber-basic display ads ?
http://www.macrumors.com/

2- Live ads.
There are people accross my screen. I love the execution on this campaign. I have no idea how to read Norwegian but I’m still laughing out loud.
http://www.adverblog.com/archives/003323.htm

3- Opinion Lab
Does anyone use Opinion Lab tools ? I’m especially interested in the AD FEEDBACK feature. I’ve seen some very promising features and apparently the back end reporting is out of this world.
http://www.opinionlab.com/

4- A moment of philosophy.
Long tail distribution in human beings: general versus specific needs mold different templates of personalities. Isn’t the Long Tail just a example of a healthy bio diverse model. The more diverse an ecosystem is, the better and more adapted it is ?

5- The new social MIXX.
It makes all the sense of the world for a news media company to team up with social tagging startup Mixx, who’s users are snubbing the Digg Culture. I can’t say I’ve been using this new site but it’s looking good and fun to use. Update coming soon !
article

6- The land before the web
Will the next generation believe stories of the land before the web ? wikipedia, homework, cell phones, etc…It’s pretty impressive how quickly technology moved from comunicating to a daily appliance. Almost banale really, the light swicth goes on and the rest is magic. I just wanted to take a moment and thank all the little elves of the digital world for making the « light go on » everytime the switch goes on.

7- No comments? No blog for you!
If no one is talking back it’s not a conversation. So if you’re gonna blog, get ready to get some people talking back to you. Clearly it’s a sense of engagement from the user but also of respect by the blogger.
Great article in a great blog byMaggie Fox

8- McDonald report cards.
What might make sense in a marketing plan makes absolutely no sense from a community sense. I dislike this brand more and more every day. YA YOU HEARD ME RONALD, I DON’T LIKE YOU.
full article here

9- Infopresse Boomerang award list.
Very happy to see Cyberpresse picking up the interactive banner award. The banner was created by Generation Flash and is a great showcase of how updated RSS feeds can always keep banners fresh and up to date with current events. WOOHOO!
On another note, tidewave of awards for Provokat. hehe.
http://www.infopresse.com/prixboomerang/2007/

10. Comscore.
Please lets all put our thinking caps on and lets find a solution/ alternative.

TOP 10: New Blog Format

2007-12-06T13:02:00.000-05:00
Top 10 : December 6th 2007

1. Blogging- how easy and how hard it is
Facebook, Digg, Delicious, Twitter etc…Its very easy to share cool links, odd articles and the occasional WTF website. It’s become super hard lately to sit down and actually write original content on my blog lately. So I came up with a solution to bring the efficiency of twitter with the content value of a blog: Theme oriented TOP 10 LISTS. It’s an experiment right now , but I plan on posted every day a TOP 10 LIST summing up whats on my mind around a theme.

2. Dove
Even if I loved the 1st Dove Viral ad, and the second ad was so-so, and the irony around Unilever pushing accepting your body is overwhelming, this brand just keeps swinging.
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/17585.asp

3. Book review: naked conversations
How Blogs are changing the way businesses talk with customers.
Great book for demystifying the dark art of blogging. A lot of examples, a lot of must-dos but more importantly a list of reasons people should not blog. Very interesting points about sustainable business communication practices. I still give it a 8/10 as it get repetitive and doesn’t have much depth to it after 50 pages.

4. Twitter
Yes I love it. Yes I know Facebook copy catted the status line to be like it, but I’m still a huge lover of the micro-blogging aggregator.
My Twitter here

5. Analytics
After the Workopolis Analytics Summit lasy week, I realize that we really do have a new language: marketing analytics. I’ve noticed that fluent speakers of this digi-mark-speak ( as opposed to corp-speak) havea lot in common: Love of SEO, Scepticism of Banner Advertising, Respect for the user, and doubt as to dogmatic design. All your data are belong to us.

6. FYI: ROI of SMO
Is there a ROI on Social Media? No I don’t think so, not that I can calculate right now. Is it pointless? No definitely Not. Is it critical? Not yet, but you can't (IMHO) just wait for the whole market to get there 1st. I think I had this exact conversation 10 years ago re: search engines. Incoming links are not only a great source of SEO love but actual traffic that actual people are driving to you. Is there a ROI on PR initiative?

7. SEO and site development
Yes Finally I think we did it! Walking into a meeting with the dev team, project management and SEO specialist and everyone got along great! No it’s not a miracle, it’s simply people talking the same language and respecting each others skill.

8. Foosball and type A personalities
It’s a great game. Nuff said.

9. Simplify:
Loved the S.H.E. concept by John MAEDA:

* S: Simplify
* H: Hide
* E: Embody

10. Facebook beacon
Facebook screwed up, blah blah blah. Too fast too soon too greedy. Everyone’s favourite screw up is still worth more that some small countries ( don’t quote me on that). I think they still have a great platform and great following and people are so damn addicted to Facebook, it doesn’t matter

Life after the spotlight---la vie apres la une.

2007-11-28T18:57:00.000-05:00
Digg's Long-Term Effect on Traffic

Ben Cook created a blog with a single post and submitted it to Digg. The post reached Digg's front page, a deluge of visitors ensued, but what's next? High search engine rankings and a continuous trickle of visitors, Ben Cook explains.

Original post: Digg's Long-Term Effect on Traffic

Ok I have been lazy with my blog

2007-11-28T15:27:00.001-05:00
Ok I admit it. I have been very lazy in the last 2 monts with my blog. I take the blame, but I can definitly say that posting to facebook has been getting so much easier lately.
Here is a selection of my latest Posted Items in Facebook:

Flash is suspect, to be not search engine friendly(SEF), unmanageable and not be bookmarked - the...
http://the-flash-files.com
The Flash files - Flash-based sites are complex and unmanageable, they
can’t be optimized to be search engine friendly, nor can they be
bookmarked, and sending a URL of a specific page is next to impossible..

TomTom mapshare explanation and cheatcode
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Explanation and cheatcode of the new TomTom GO 720 mapshare feature

Yvon Chouinard, | Outside Online
http://outside.away.com/outsid...
I've never respected the profession...

MySpace News Is Stealing Your Search Results
http://www.techcrunch.com/2007...
We've wondered previously who was going to use MySpace News (if ever), and now we've found the traffic source: Google. Framed pages of ..

How To Cost User Engagement | How To Split An Atom
http://howtosplitanatom.com/how-to-read-shorts/how...
I am sure that someone more clever than me has already had this idea, but let me take a stab at introducing a new concept .

redditAll: alien artist blog: project for excellence in journalism lowers its standards, analyzes...
http://reddit.blogspot.com/200...
Thanks to an article by Joe Strupp in Editor & Publisher, I found a recent study on social news sites from the esteemed Project for Excellence in Journalism. OK, I don't really know if they're actually

Nokia unlocks anti-Apple campaign - Engadget
http://www.engadget.com/2007/1...
The quartet of posters above was photographed in New York city over the weekend by a MacRumors forum jockey. Of course, this isn't the first time we've seen Nokia pounce on Apple foibles, and it certainly won't be the last. ...

The Break Up
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
The Break-Up' -- soon available on www.bringtheloveback.com - is about the relationship between an advertiser and a consumer. They've agreed to meet in a restaurant. The man's feeling perfectly happy, until the woman makes a painful announcement: she wants a divorce.

iMedia Connection: Display and search: why the double standard?
http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/16913.asp
Search and display advertising can benefit both your direct response and your branding goals. Here's the breakdown.

Sneaker Cents - TIME
http://www.time.com/time/magaz...
Walk into Steve & Barry's sprawling New York City store, and a perplexing sign greets you: DUE TO LIMITED SUPPLY AND TO BE FAIR TO ALL CUSTOMERS, STARBURY FOOTWEAR IS LIMITED TO TEN PAIRS PER PERSON,...

Blogged with Flock

Why To Use Flock | How To Split An Atom

2007-11-26T16:49:00.000-05:00
Why To Use Flock | How To Split An Atom

Like most of you, I was a quick convert to Firefox a few years back. When compared to IE6, it was an absolute treat. If nothing else, the tabs and the extensions made Firefox the browser to beat. Add to that better security and a rendering engine that actually worked, and there simply was no competition.

A couple years later, I am still a huge fan of Firefox but with Firefox 3 on the horizon I wanted to point you in the direction of what for some of you might be a worthy successor to everyone’s favorite Fox.

Flock.

Yea, I know. Version 0.7 was an absolute mess, but the newest version of Flock is definitely worth your time.

Birds Of A Feather

Flock is a “social web browser” based on the Firefox code base. That means that converts will be treated to pretty much the same experience as they have come to expect out of Firefox, except with a whole lot of other widgets thrown on top.

First let me say that the best part of Flock is that you can ignore most of the more irritating “Social Features” of the browser, but for those of us who need to integrate our digital empires into one dashboard, Flock makes this exceptionally easy.

If you are on a site with an RSS Feed, just click a button and add it to the built in feed reader.

If you want a side-bar to keep track of what your Twitter friends are doing, just open one up using their “people” panel.

If you want to whip up a blog post on the fly, you can do that too with their built in editor.

Surprisingly enough, for all the stuff they have packed into this browser — it runs light. In fact, it feels a lot less heavy than Firefox has since version 1.5. Then again, I hear rumors that Flock is based on that particular version of the Fox’s code base.

All the social “stuff” aside, the real selling point of this browser is its speed. I do most of my writing from a three year old laptop, which in computer years dates it to just about the end of the Mesozoic. Using Firefox for more than twenty minutes almost always leads to a slow and painful death, often involving me force exiting the program just to get my computer to stop churning.

So far, Flock has run without a hitch. This is with my usual 8 to 10 tabs open.

What are the downsides? Well, you don’t have access to some of your extensions but that can mostly be solved with a little hackery courtesy of Frobba.

Beyond that, seasoned Firefox users should have no problems at all getting used to the browser.

Probably one of the lamest posts ever

2007-11-22T00:32:00.000-05:00
Live Search : We are flattered, but...

I really cant believe MSN actually had the nerve to come out with this post. I know this is from late March but somehow it's found its way on the not so rightious wall of shame.
"We have been seeing broad use of these features by legitimate users but unfortunately also what appears to be mass automated usage for data mining."

Guys seriously, how can you even type this and not die of shame.
Nuff said. Whatever progress you made in the 18 months or so with Ad Center, you totally burned off.

Feedster Quietly Dies... So Which Blog Search Engine Do You Use?

2007-11-22T00:21:00.000-05:00
Feedster Quietly Dies... So Which Blog Search Engine Do You Use?

Written by Richard MacManus / November 21, 2007 / 8 comments
Blog search engine Feedster has had the following notice on its frontpage for at least a few weeks now:

There is no sign of life on the site and the Feedster blog has already been killed off (the big 404 in the sky).

In terms of the blog search market in general, Feedster has been struggling for 3+ years now - this RWW post in July 2005 shows how Feedster was falling behind Technorati even then. Now Feedster seems to be, if not in the DeadPool, then at least in the PurgatoryPool. PubSub was another victim in this market.

Nowadays, the blog search market seems to be made up of 3 main players - Google Blog Search, Technorati and Bloglines/Ask.com - and a lot of smaller players such as Zuula and Blogdigger. Personally I still use Technorati a few times a week, and the search function of Google Reader. I also am a heavy user of Google's main search, which I find brings up good blog results (i.e. often I don't see the need for a specialist blog search engine). I did a quick poll of the other RWW writers. Josh said he still uses Technorati sometimes, but also Google Blog search. Marshall said that he uses Ask.com for minimizing spam, relies heavily on feeds with subscribers in Bloglines, and uses Technorati too. He finds that Google Blog Search is good for speed.

What blog search engine do you use - and why?

Yet another PC versus MAC ad

2007-11-20T10:25:00.000-05:00

Despite the simplicity of the roadblock with somewhat of an interaction, this ad by Apple scores yet another point against the PC squad. Touché boys! Maybe a animated wallpaper could have been nice as an extra but overall it's got my attention.

Brijit: A Digg For Dead-Tree Media

2007-11-16T10:50:00.001-05:00
Brijit: A Digg For Dead-Tree Media

Can’t keep up with all those magazines piling up in your mailbox, especially the high-brow ones you thought would make you smarter but never have time to read? Well, cancel those subscriptions and head on over to Brijit, a self-styled “Thinking Man’s Digg.”
There you will find 100-word abstracts on the latest articles from magazines such as The New Yorker, The Atlantic Monthly, The Economist, Fortune, Harper’s, Vanity Fair, and Wired, with links to most of them. The site also covers video from 60 Minutes, Charlie Rose, The Colbert Report, and The Daily Show. Readers vote the best stories up or down, so you can keep up on the ones most likely to come up during a dinner party. You can even get paid to write abstracts, $5 apiece if your submissions are accepted.

Brijit is designed to be a filter for the smart set. But it oddly defines smart only as what’s in print. Where are the blogs? Other than Salon and Slate, very little online-only media is represented. Perhaps that is because Brijit is focussed on long-form narrative, and there is not much of that online. But it makes you wonder whether sifting through the dead-tree titles will be enough to keep readers coming back to this site, or whether they will prefer a broader view of the world.

Brijit has raised $1 million from angel investors, including former Time Inc. editor-in-chief Norman Pearlstine.

Blogged with Flock

Pas besoin d'une raison pour un nouveau browser

2007-11-13T15:04:00.001-05:00
Pas trop sur si j'aime ca encore mais bon, le changement c'est toujours bon.
Welcome to Flock 1.0
Et bien oui j'essaye un nouveau browser, c'est pas par reproche à Firefox que j'adore encore. On s'entend que IE est tres tres tres loin derriere dans mon rétroviseur...
Mais bon, j'ai trouvé ce nouvel outil FLOCK 1.0 ( déja c'est pas 2.0) avec la self-proclaimed promesse d'etre le "social web browser". Interessant jusqu'à maintenant! Usage assez simple avec intégration de mon blogger, facebook, flickr, etc...
Alors apres 1 heure d'usage c'est 7/10 et une recommandation à mes amigos. Je vous garde au courant!
Blogged with Flock

VA Tech

2007-04-16T19:13:00.000-04:00
L'horribe incident qui a pris place a Virgina Tech aujourd'hui est un autre exemple de l'horreur humaine lorsque des armes à feu sont dans les mains de monstres et malades.

Voir article très intéressant sur le crowdsourcing des nouvelles lors de la tuerie.
Crowdsourcing the VA Tech shooting

Second life...encore second life

2007-04-11T17:16:00.000-04:00
Apparement nous sommes très méchant.
Oui, voyez vous, dans ce monde virtuel de la spéculation de buzzword marketing, nous aimons prévoir le prochain train-wreck. Assis tranquilles dans les estrades, comfo et cyniques, on regarde les gladiateurs de buzz se tapper sur la gueulle à coup de nouveaux joujous technologiques. C'est présisement la que notre cynisme se crystalise: "ca va jamais marcher ce truc", "c'est une mode", "ca va disparaitre d'ici 2 mois", "c'est qui utilise ce truc anyways". Oui je sais, on ne le dit pas tout le temps pour tous le nouveaux joujous 2.0 mais bon, c'est définitivement la tendence. Mais voyez vous, malgré tous les nay-sayers, desfois , le plus doomed des doomed des produits web pesistent. Et non seulement survivent mais font un pied de nez à l'establishement (en l'occurence nous, "the man").

Je vous présente le brand map de l'univers Second Life. Voici toutes les marques cartographiées par leur présence dans le monde SL. Effectivement, il est possible que ce soit encore un autre Buzz marketing. Possible. Quand meme, BMW, Sony, Toyota, Comcast, Pontiac, STA travel, Cisco, Reebok, Telus, etc, c'est pas que du geek-wear web. Mais bon...

En passant, intéressant article sur le " Futur de Marketing Interactif". J'adore l'expression. Business week online a sorti quelques résultats de sondage sur les différentes initiatives que les agences et clients ont entrepris. A lire.

The web

2007-04-05T12:53:00.000-04:00

The web is not a media.
The web is not a destination.
The web is not an advertising medium.
The web is not technology, or worse IT.
The web is not content.
The same way Hydro Quebec is not gaming, cooking or alarm clocks.
The web is our information matrix.
It is our conscience, our past, our hopes, our dreams.
It provides tools, and extensions to speech and print.
The web will not make our life harder or easier.
The web is amoral and very organic.
Our flaws and our aspirations leave their mark and grow in this matrix.
Brands exist in this matrix.
As well as people, in forms they cannot take elsewhere.
Emotions are created and maintained.
Thoughts and information are gathered using tools.
There is no online and offline.
There is no cyber or digital.
There is no traditional or new-media.
The web is uniting humans.
Not to say a book doesn’t.
A book is paper and paper has limits.
The web has problems, and problems create fear.
The web is not the solution to all problems.
The web is not the source of all problems.

What it is, after all, is very simple:
The web is the most advanced human language .

Montage-a-google

2007-03-20T00:44:00.000-04:00
Montage-a-google est une app web qui utilise Google image pour générer une mosaique de thumbnails basée sur les mots clés d'une recherche. Voici ce que Tourisme Québec génère:

Définitivement a essayer avec des mots clés choc tel que 9-11, George W Bush, Prozac, etc...

Montage-a-Google

Myspace au service de la mode...

2007-03-20T00:25:00.000-04:00

Apparemment, la deuxieme source de trafic UK pour le site d'une boutique de mode de Glasgow, TopShop.co.uk, proviendrait de son profil Myspace.
3230 amis quand meme!

Article complet de Helen Leggatt.

Twitter newbie

2007-03-20T00:12:00.000-04:00

Ok Ok Ok Ok, apres hi5, linkedin, myspace, facebook et viaduc, me voici sur un autre band-wagon de communauté web : http://twitter.com.
Concept assez intéressant: le discours avec amis et membres de la tribus tourne autour de la question (très) existentielle WHAT ARE YOU DOING.

Widget American Airlines

2007-03-20T00:04:00.000-04:00
Outil interessant pour interface Google IG. Un widget American Airlines offrant a l'usager un acces direct au moteur de réservation et disponibilitées en temps réel. Un exemple d'outillage et de réflexion out-of-the-site qui étend la portée et l'usage. A quand un engin similaire pour les sites de rencontre? Pour ceux qui ne m'ont pas entendu parler des RSS en 2004, et surtout ceux qui l'ont vu venir, voici une application monnaiyable tres tangible pour l'ésotérique RSS ;-)

Telus attaque !

2007-03-19T23:48:00.000-04:00
ET bien nous voici en pleine guerre de transférabilité. Depuis la campagne de Vidéotron avec Jaimemonnuméro.com, et les campagnes de Virgin plutot cute, voici maintenant Telus sur l'offensive. Telus a effectivement acheté TOUT l'inventaire publicitaire du réseau ad-sense de Google le14 Mars. Blitz très aggressif mais très pointu considérant la portée et l'exclusivité. Bravo Telus, un très bel exemple.

2007-02-08T15:07:00.000-05:00
Dans la publicité

Dans la publicité y aplein de gros flemmards qui se gonflent l'égo, mais bon, ya aussi ce vid qui se fout de la gueule de tous ca?
R

2007-02-07T16:35:00.000-05:00
Web 2.0 ... The Machine is Us/ing Us

Despite all the marketing buzzword and the bs-meter running on high lately, the web has changed. Changed our ways of communicating and the way information is consummed. Changing the way humans process information and organize their thoughts around a topic.I like this video for its simplicity and its brute strenght at documenting how far along we have gone. SO beyond the buzzwords and the next big google-esque widget, lets remember the beauty behind communicating and exchanging. Humans. Not machine.

2006-12-20T11:45:00.000-05:00
PS3 vs. Wii - Apple Style!

2006-11-25T13:31:00.000-05:00
SONY ROBOTS ADVERT

2006-11-24T13:47:00.000-05:00
Watching an RSS Feed in Second Life

Lets talk about penetration rate?
R

STREET YOGA

2006-11-18T21:53:00.000-05:00
Street Yoga- Yoga for homeless kids.

2006-11-15T00:05:00.000-05:00
When I Grow Up I Wanna Work in Advertising

HILARIOUS!!!!!!!

Video Maps @mooom.jp

2006-11-09T23:45:00.000-05:00
Video Maps @mooom.jp

Make your city more exciting

2006-11-08T01:46:00.000-05:00
Ok it's been done. And it's gonna be done over and over again.
Nice interface, so-so execution and customization. Not as much a "me-too" vis-a-vis Stockholm, but more of a "kinda-like-but-not-really".