Cam Balzer's Web-Cite

Twitter Blog: Tracking Twitter

Cool new feature on Twitter that lets you follow topics. You've always been able to follow individuals and receive notifications when someone posts a "tweet". Now you can see when any public tweet contains a keyword. Twitter Blog: Tracking Twitter.

The Chicago Spire

It will be truly amazing to watch this go up over the next few years: The Chicago Spire. Noticed the first ads in the loop today. Construction started in the last few weeks. Projected to be completed in 2011. Wikipedia has more details...

When worlds collided and you're still trying to catch up - OMMA NY 2007

Mediapost's OMMA East conference (Online Content, Media, Marketing and Advertising) just wrapped in NY. Despite the overwrought title, "When Worlds Collide", there wasn't too much apocalyptic going on. There were the usual declamations that "the world is changing" and "marketers need to catch up with the new realities." And David Verklin, CEO, Carat Americas concluded his featured interview with a "viva la revolucion" call. "We are changing the world", he assured his audience of media planners/buyers and his interviewer, James Lipton (yes, that James Lipton. Go ahead and ask, but I have no idea.) Granted there's a revolution going on, but personally I'd characterize advertisers as providing the funding with agencies playing the bagman. Like I said: a bit overwrought.

And besides, the revolution has happened. It's just the mopping up now. Vast numbers of people are sharing media and socializing online. Many people are spending more time online than with traditional media. Blogs collectively probably command a larger readership than print. Not to mention the number of people who've become "infopreneurs," publishing and monetizing their own content, or actually entrepreneurs, marketing their own products without commercial middlemen or traditional agencies. I don't have data for these claims. The point is, these things are well near the point of tipping if they haven't tipped already. We just need to figure out what the hell we do now.

Case in point: everyone from Unilever to IBM to Carat mentioned search engine optimization casually on their laundry list of agency capabilities and campaign components. But I can tell you that it's still only the most together of marketers and the best planned of campaigns that is leveraging anything near the full strategic potential of search to engage consumers.

Case in point: one of the last panels today promised to get below the surface on social media and advertising. Interesting as the conversation was, it didn't get much deeper than this: you have to engage social networkers in order to get results in the space, and oh, by the way, don't expect to sell anything with any scale here... we haven't figured that out yet. In other words, social networking has happened. It's working for the networkers and they're adopting it in droves. They can't get enough of it. But the o.m.m.a. industry still has no idea, really, as to how to make it work for them.

Case in point: someone mentioned "Return on Objectives" as a campaign metric as if this was the next great thing. That's more of a cry for help than a metric.

Frankly, I have no idea where I'm going with this. So let me wrap up my wrap up with a few interesting sound bytes:

• David Verklin, Carat: great brands are no longer the ones that are the best storytellers but the ones with the best stories being told about them.
• Elizabeth Osder from Buzznet: "advertising on a social network should be like hosting a party." Best, most succinct, advice all show.
• Max Kalehoff from Nielsen BuzzMetrics: Web 2.0 should push advertisers beyond a "stop and go" campaign mentality.
• Jordan Bitterman from Digitas: engaging someone on a widget before they get to your site makes them exponentially more likely to further engage when they come to your site.
• Richard Wood from Telefia (mobile metrics): they gave a group of teens free mobile devices and carte blanche to do what they wanted with them. They thought they'd see ringtones and song downloads and gaming, etc, etc. What they actually saw was mostly texting and MySpace.
• Jordan Bitterman: "share with a friend" functionality doesn't work in widgets. "Franchising" functionality from a site works very well, driving +10% CTRs.
• I think it was Ian Schafer of Deep Focus that pointed out that while advertisers should treat their social network friends (ie, subscribers to their profiles or groups) like their customers, social network media isn't sold this way.
• Seth Goldstein of Social Media: "virality is just another way of saying 'spam.'" That one got a lot of careful couching and spinning by co-panelists. "The expectations of 13-24yos are just different about the kinds of email they get from friends. To which Seth responded: "So it's not spam... that's just the way the younger demo interacts?" Very tongue in cheek. But not far from the truth.
• Seth again: The time per visit on social networks (1+hrs for FB, almost 3 from MySpace) means that people don't want to leave the network. Marketing that tries to make them leave is going to fail.
• David Edelman of Digitas: the key driver of mobile is "the place and situation of the HERE and NOW."
• Jordan Bitterman of Digitas: we think about it less as media and more as "distribution of the message"
• Ernest Legrand: we've moved from a traditional view of advertising where "no advertising = no selling" to a new accountability mentality where "no selling means no advertising"
• Brands are quickly becoming content producers. You need content on your site and for syndicating to your audience in order to engage your customers and target audience. Requires different approach to the web site, especially in light of universal search and UGC.
• Good question: how can an online pureplay with no physical locations leverage local targeting and local search to divert offline demand to the online channel??

So, a bit random. Lots of smart people thinking hard about how to continually adapt and react to the revolution in progress.

Curiosity vs noticing the curious

Outside the Times Square Starbucks (Broadway & 51st), there's a guy working at his desk... in his Chevy Cavalier [correction: Chrysler Sebring] convertible. In place of his passenger seat, he's got a computer, full sized monitor, printer, desk lamp, even a fake flower arrangement. He's getting a huge amount of attention from passers-by, gawking, standing around, taking pictures on camera phones and speculating to each other at great length amongst themselves about what he's doing... that guy that is three feet away from them in his open convertible. Of the hundreds of people who have gawked, exactly six have asked him what he's doing. Conclusion: homo sapiens isn't characterized by actual curiosity so much as by a vague capacity to notice curious things before jumping to unexamined, uninformed conclusions.

Curious.

And furthermore... it doesn't actually take much to make us shake our heads. A slight decontextualization and suddenly everyone is documenting the moment for posterity. I'm sitting 20 feet away from him in the Starbucks working on my computer, using the same wireless network as him, with two other dudes beside me doing the same thing. But put one of those computers in a car and man people will go nuts!

Curious.

List of social networking websites

List of social networking websites on Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Dopplr - social networking for travellers

In private beta but getting some buzz. Could be cool.

Dopplr is an online service for frequent travellers. It was created by an international team of world travellers. Dopplr lets you share your future travel plans with a group of trusted fellow travellers whom you have chosen. It also reminds you of friends and colleagues who live in the cities you’re planning to visit. In general, people will find Dopplr valuable if they travel more than five times a year or have friends who do as well. (Dopplr Blog)

Chevy Tahoe CGA Redux

Since it seems to be coming up frequently in conversation again, some links on the Chevy Tahoe consumer generated ad campaign from April 2006. Was it really that long ago?

• Best of the Chevy Tahoe Ads » Blog Archive   Alice Hill’s Real Tech News - Independent Tech.
• Church of the Customer Blog
• Chevy's response on their blog

Mortgage shake-out may benefit search channel?

Looks like search marketing may weather the mortgage marketing storm (that even The Onion has noticed). From Google's Advertising Week press day:

While Kaplan conceded that Google is watching the current economic trends closely, the restriction in mortgage issuance by lenders such as Countrywide could actually result in more consumer searches because mortgages will be harder to find.

At the same time, banks are seeking more depositors to fund their loans, which may result in additional marketing spending to attract big deposits. (Financial Category Holds Steady At Google, MediaPost Publications - 09/21/2007)

The Onion on threats to online advertising

Sometimes the Onion just crosses that line... you know... the one between parody and too close to the truth.

"Those eye-catching dancing motions on our nation's web pages are in dire jeopardy" (Mortgage Market Collapse Threatens Nation's Banner Ad Industry | The Onion)

Somewhere there's gotta be a Web 2.0 wunderkind working on a "pay not to see" advertising model. We'll just donate profits to propping up Yahoo and the mortgage industry and move on to 3.0...

 

Chicago Art Open - Curator's Choice for Heather's Fuse

Heather's submission to the Chicago Art Open, Fuse, has been selected as a Curator's Choice. Exhibition opens Oct 5, 6-10pm, at Iron Studios, 3636 S Iron St in Chicago. It runs through the 27th.