POST DIGITAL

ON: Batman knows his audience

  Slightly better photo of Mystery Dollar 
  Originally uploaded by Banshee1013

I was skimming my RSS feed this morning and I saw  Ian's post on how Batman marketers are starting with the loyal evangelists to get the buzz out on the upcoming movie.

Samplers were handing out dollar bills at Comic-Con in San Diego.  On the dollar bills there was a phrase written "Why so serious".

When you Google Why So Serious, check out the second listing called Anticipation.

When you get there what seems (i said "seems") to be a crudely designed website appears...

Batman: The Dark Knight trailer begins playing after the first click.  When you begin to take it all in you realize it is designed for the audience who is looking for a bit of a treasure hunt.  I loved the Gotham Police report.  This is really viral (something conversation worthy that starts in the core of a loyal audience and spreads through word of mouth)

But for those of us who believe in the evolution of creative the site is exactly what the fan base needs to begin getting jazzed!  Check out the links at the bottom which begin to get the audience involved.

Batman fans get ready... its coming

Check it our at http://www.whysoserious.com/

ON: TracyLocke Digital Day - Online Video

As many of you know I am the Vice President of Interactive in a traditional promotions agency.  For a marketer who was born digital and spent my career working in big digital shops (Organic, Digitas) or building digital shops (DigitalSolutions and BBG) the transition to TL has been an eye opening experience to the other side of the equation. Acting as the sole agency Digital Media guru I organized a set of sessions called Digital Days that gave our agency senior leadership access to  the best minds in the Online Video Revolution. This was the first in a series of what I hope will continue to be eye opening, educational sessions for traditionally trained marketers.

Today I am happy to present our first in a series of TracyLocke Digital Days- with a goal of educating and raising awareness of the plethora of cool digital strategy and tools..  Today we are focusing on the fastest growing phenomena of the Internet.  Online Video. 

The purpose of today’s sessions is to give you guys access to the movers and shakers within the digital industry. Each of our guests is an expert in a specific area of the digital video and advertising.   

This is an open forum with the presenters to gain access to their insights, case studies and best practices.   You have often heard me speak of no boundaries – and there are not many in liminal space… what we do have is best practices.

Today’s theme is “the Revolution is not being televised.”  It will not be televised in a conventional way or space.  How could we expect it to?  We do not live in conventional times.   Lets be clear TV is not Dead - But what you will learn today is that we must break from convention to keep up with our consumers.

We in the marketing industry are living in one of the greatest times because online video allows is to break from convention.  In 1971, Gill Scott-Heron wrote the “Revolution will not be televised”. I often ponder if he realized that his prediction would be so incredibly accurate.  He was clearly not talking about marketing.

I often said that the last twelve years of my career in the interactive space has been a time of living in liminal space.  After meeting Janet Kestin, the ECD who created the Dove Evolution video, last month I was inspired and reminded that after 12 years we STILL have no boundaries- just best practices.

In breaking from convention…The Revolution will not be televised…
It is being seen WHEN, WHERE and HOW people choose to see it. 

Our own industry has broken from convention...This year @ D&AD – one of the most challenging traditional advertising shows in the world, they gave the highest honor of the show to Tim Berners-Lee.  Tim invented the world wide web.  In 1989, he created an Internet based hypermedia initiative for global information sharing.  Tim Berners-Lee wrote the first web client server.  In 1990, he created the specification URLs, HTTP and HTML.  (these are all things we take for granted after 17 years)

I think this speaks volumes of where we are today. Our industry, the digital video industry has matured.  So has our consumer. Online Video has given our consumers the ability to talk to us – not in focus groups- but in a dialog, a video conversation, which is happening in real time.  Live.

On that note, I would like to introduce…

• Sean Mahoney VideoEgg and The Egg Network
  The Egg Network is the Internets version of a cable network on steroids.
  Disruption of Traditional Media and Trends in Online Video Advertising
• EyeWonder
  EyeWonder has quickly become the best platform for serving rich video and interactive video through online ads.
• Matt Spielman Director, MTV Networks: MTV – The Generator is the Viacom owned Umbrella that has truly been one of the first  big media companies to change the way the do business to match the way consumers consume media.
• Mike Hudak Co-founder & CEO Blip.tv: Blip.tv is quickly becoming the model to beat.  Mike Hudak and the team at blip has really taken the content space and created a model for people to make money from their content.
• Mike Sheehan CEO, SpotXchange, Inc.: The first online video ad exchange.
  Video Ad Serving Trends, Localized video Content and advertising online
• Mark Rosal Creative Director, Visual Goodness, Inc
  Designing for a video experience online. Experience Design 101 and Trends in Marketplace

ON: Consumer Generated Advertising

  Consumer Generated Advertising 
  Originally uploaded by joannapenabickley

Coming home from a dinner with team Bickley (-2) we spotted what I think was a great ad - using effective media - for the Wolf Pack's music. 

This band has gotten what most MBA's do not get.

They even had a call to action - take note big brands, if they are using the medium better than you are - then you will not remain a big loved brand for long.

So yes, this is just another piece of wallpaper - but they are using 360 to get my attention.  not bad music either!

ON: Coke's Virtual Thirst Campaign

  Virtual Thirst Campaign 
  Originally uploaded by Tao Takashi

Coke's Virtual Thirst campaign finally has a winner!  I applaud Coke for diving in and not just testing the waters - they have embraced their audience in all nooks of the web.

The campaign could have used some plus ups, but I am sure this is a test for the mega brand and I would assume they have collected many learnings.

Here is what they said:
" Virtual Thirst Has a Winner!
Hey there everyone. We hope you didn't think we forgot about you and all the great submissions we received as part of the Virtual Thirst campaign.

The truth is that we got more submissions then we originally planned for. The level of creativity and thought that went into these was amazing and thank you to everyone who took the time to submit an idea.

We went through several rounds of judging with our Advisory Panel and as the ideas narrowed down we came up with a clear winner. That winning entry was submitted by Ann Marie Mathis aka Emerie May in Second Life. We encourage you to visit her blog and Flickr portfolio to find out more about her.  In the coming weeks she will travel to San Francisco and sit down with the team at Million of Us to bring her idea to life. All of us are excited to watch this process and we promise to share some of it with you later this summer.  Stay tuned for more news in the coming weeks!"

Score one for Anne Marie, a Creative Director @ Cheil who really gets it!  Score another for Coke for knowing that SecondLife and Virtual worlds are aren't about sales, they're about brand love. Brand value and brand love seem to be the key metrics measured here.

if no one loves your brand, no one will buy it! - just a thought.

ON:NY Tech Meetup - Are you in?

If you were wondering where all the cool kids hang on the first Tuesday night of each month - now you know!  Join us!

Click here to check out
The NY Tech Meetup!

ON: CNN YouTube Debates & My Next Meetings

Watching the debates, it occurred to me that I will begin attending all my senior management meetings via podcast. Perhaps I will broadcast my annual review and rebuttal. 

clipped from youtube.com

ON: Yahoo's Acquisition Gossip

The buzz on the tech street is that while Yahoo has made some smart acquisitions recently, like the great people over at Right Media, that Yahoo is up for grabs as well.   

This has been rumor for a while now...  I have heard speculation that it could be acquired by MSN and or SONY...  I think the entertainment/media angle would be smart.  But word from inside of a mega media conglomerate say otherwise.  Right now Yahoo is in serious negotiations with a leading global entertainment content company, who has a lock up on youth television, motion pictures and a wide range of digital media.

I have two inside sources who have told me that their parent company is looking to benefit from Yahoo’s digital distribution backbone.  Stay tuned...  I will reveal the company's name soon.

ON: Where are the Joneses Wiki

I love Wiki's! I love the idea of collaborative creativity across the web.  The core of sharing starts with a Wiki so in the spirit of not wanting to detract from the online hotness that is Wikipedia - but using the Wiki technology has now been put to a potentially even more exciting use.

Wala moment! Enter Meet the Joneses, a highly interactive online comedy sitcom, with Ford as the key sponsor.

Episodes are posted daily, with a variety of web 2.0 worthy ways for viewers and collaborators to get involved. The series follows Dawn and Ian, daughter and son of a prolific sperm donor, on their quest around Europe finding a potentially infinite number of siblings. Episodes are hosted at www.wherearethejoneses.com where comments can be posted to the blog, or for the more intrepid, a wiki site (http://wherearethejoneses.wikidot.com/) allows you to be script writers to add, remove and edit content online, in a giant user-generated, collaborative project. Flickr, Twitter, MySpace and Facebook all provide access points to the story and characters, as well as blogs on Wordpress.

Can you imagine the exciting challenge, exploring new ways of delivering and targeting comedy in a totally original, interactive format. The beauty of this adventure is that no one person knows where it will end, that’s quite literally up to the users/fans.

ON: Toy Story For Us

One of my favorite sites and sources of daily laughs is SomethingAwful.com.  I was cruising and found this great grindhoused Toy Story poster.  It was created by 'Pyrocy' for one of the Photoshop Phriday competitions.

ON: AMEX, VW and Jim Beam - Quit Spamming Me...We are Not Friends

Having spent years developing relationship marketing strategies for big brands, I am now of the opinion that affinity for a brand can wear off quickly when they begin spamming you with irrelevant crap!

I offer a bit of a cynical view when it comes to RM programs as everyone says they have one...but are they really offering consumers anything of value to inspire loyalty? 

When Jim Beam sends me the latest sticker for my decanter do they really know me?  If they did they would offer me something I found valuable...not another sticker or calendar at Christmas.  (Which by the way I am Jewish.)

I am of the mindset that these brands need to stop spamming us as well as giving thoughtless gifts.  This has yet to win over my affection or affinity.  Give me a badge I can wear (not literally - but metaphorically) Give me something that is all about me.  Something I can wear and make it my own.

Make it simple! Stop emailing and start using RSS (real simple syndication). All major consumer email carriers have readers.  Shoot Google has a great way to keep track of brands that have RSS feeds in their easy to use iGoogle interface.  Give me the information I want in a simple format so that I can gain quick access.

After the latest spam from AMEX for the alert for My WishList or the next tasting in a town that is to far too walk to I beg brand mavens to stop the madness and give me something that is worthy of me repeating.  Something that is true to your brand.

I want, like all consumers want, to be in the know and feel smart. How is your brand delivering information so that I am a better, smarter, and quicker consumer?

AMEX, Jim Beam and Reel Video quit spamming me.  Give me an RSS feed for my rewards points and my favorite programs.   

Throw in widget that spits out valuable information I cannot get anywhere else. Allow me to repost it and show people how cool I am.  I would love for VW to create a widget that told me it was time to put my top up on a rainy day. (That way I could stay far away from the dreaded condition of swamp-ass on a summer day.)  And then you have me at hello.