POST DIGITAL

ON: The Age of Conversation - 2008

If you are work in the social media world - and you have not read the Age of Conversation - you may loose your digital street cred!

In what began as a half dare, the editors, Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan challenged bloggers around the world to contribute one page — 400 words — on the topic of “conversation”.

The resulting book, The Age of Conversation, brings together over 100 of the world’s leading marketers, writers, thinkers and creative innovators in a ground-breaking and unusual publication.This was one of my best reads last year.

Drew has put out a new challenge in 2008!  Want to join the conversation? 

I am looking forward to adding topics and continuing the Age of Conversation in 2008.

ON: MySpace's External Link Strategy

Last night while twittering I caught wind of the MySpace External Link change up.

Via Mashable:

Back in July, MySpace started converting external links on profiles and comments to first re-direct to an “msplinks.com” address in an effort to presumably cut down on spam and provide the social networking site with better tracking.

Tonight, we’ve caught wind of a discussion thread where some webmasters of “bling” sites have noticed a splash page that MySpace may be testing that shows up in between a link on MySpace and the site you’re trying to get to. Here’s what it allegedly looks like:

I haven’t been able to re-produce this splash page yet, but if it’s true, it would appear MySpace is now concerned with phishing scams, as the emphasis of the warning is to not give out your password. The “bling” webmasters are obviously quite concerned, as such an aggressive move to warn users may cut down on the amount of traffic that follows through to their sites.

For those of us creating widgets - this is really going to push you to create entire experiences within your apps instead of using your widget as an ad or billboard.  Or of course - it could lead to more MySpace branded communities.

 

ON: A Holiday to Exhault the Super Bowl Spot

Firebrand, The multi-platform commercial channel, began a celebration of “the Holiest Day in Advertising,” with the launch of  “The Road to Firebrand Monday.”  All week on TV, web and mobile, Firebrand will begin showcasing playlists related to the Super Bowl.

The ode to commercial time began last night and will go through the following Monday where every spot that is viewed, downloaded, emailed or embedded earns the viewer a chance to enter to win cash.

Major investors in Firebrand include Microsoft, NBC Universal and GE’s Peacock Equity Fund. Firebrand can be found at http://www.firebrand.com , and  weeknights on ION television network at 11 PM/10C and on http://www.itunes.com .  For  additional information, check out http://press.firebrand.com.

ON: An Evolution

The “Change” rhetoric of the political races got me thinking about the page I have turned in my own career.  This week will mark the last week I will serve as the Vice President of Interactive at TracyLocke.  I have accepted a position on a growing team of superstars at Wunderman/WPP.  I am looking forward to joining the creative leadership team that Nick Moore has assembled. I am joining one of the most talented, experienced, vetted and proven teams in the agency world.

Since 2006, I have written this blog and worked in the industry for 14 years to educate traditional marketers on the significance and vast reaches of the digital landscape.  Consumer demand, mass media saturation and the convergence of mediums now require marketers who want to compete to deliver relevant ideas anchored in past campaign insights.  Our goal is not to communicate – Our goal is to architect a long term conversation that will lead to a relationship using the tools of mass media in a new and different ways. 

I have explored, researched and worked with agencies for a while.  I have found that there are significant gaps in the experience it will take to change their organizations.  There is no more time to figure it out.  Our clients and their consumers are demanding the strategy, planning and inspiring creative it takes to compete.

What some of us are witnessing and taking part in is an “evolution” at its fundamental roots.  In biology, evolution is a change in the inherited traits of a population from one generation to the next.

A positive change and less painful evolution is impossible and will not happen without the experience of past experiments, failures and learnings.  This approach is not new for marketers and creatives who grew up digital - we have spent our careers in BETA.  It is the way we will have the biggest impact for our clients.

In a week when people are making endorsements and making choices for the future – I choose an organization with the right stuff baby!

Wunderman & WPP = The Right Experience to Change.
I join a team made up of experienced marketers who, in their own right, hold a legacy of leadership, innovation and ideas that have lead to change.  Wunderman is one of the largest, most experienced global marketing services networks in the world.  Its history and legacy are rich.

“Wunderman helps powerful brands inspire consumer action. We believe strong, lifelong, profitable customer relationships result from getting the right people talking, the right way, at the right time.”

I am looking forward to blogging my experiences, learnings and work as a creative leader on a proven team.

ON: Porche's Bloodline

A simple exploratory navigation system brings you face-to-face with the rich experience of Porsche's Bloodlines.

While the art of simplicity is achieved by keeping the experience in the hero shots of the cars, I think that they could have made many of the websites artful experiences a bit more grab and go so that consumers could take and own the Porche's Bloodline in social networks.

Check it out at: http://www.porscheusa.com/bloodlines

ON: Sites For Your iPhone

With a day off from work I have spent the day shopping online, catching up on the industry pub reading and loading up my bookmarks on my iPhone.   What I found was that sites are moving quickly to provide iPhone compatible interface and functions. I am sure that the positive iPhone news that came out of Macworld 08 is driving the quick development of sites. (the news was that iPhones have been selling at an average of 20,000 units) While I am sure there are many more out there these were the ones I was able to dig up.

• GoMovies - See movie showtimes
• Digg - latest stories on Digg
• Google - Search
• Weather Underground - my fav weather site
• Bank Of America
• Facebook
• Food Network
• GetLeaflets
• Twitter
• Hahl0 - twitter like service
• Realtor - listings of homes for sale
• iPhoneColony - A social network for the iPhone users
  
• iRovr - another social network for the iPhone users
• Multiply - social network
• PlayTalk - mobile micro-blogging website
• Wadja - social network, RSS reader, video site
• CBS News
• ESPN PodCenter
• Fox News
• Los Angeles Times
• Box.net - Get access to all of your stored files
  
• iZoho - An iPhone version of the office applications.
• Remember The Milk - to-do list
• TaDa List - another to-do list
• Amazon
• eBay
• TypePad

Share your iPhone favs with me!  What sites have you found?

ON: Snitter

If you twitter - you need Snitter !  Mac / PC no matter. 
The newest version works with both. 

The application runs on Adobe AIR, and you’ll need to download it in order to enjoy all of its features. It very much resembles an instant messaging client. 

To download the latest version (the dev beta kicks the dec 25th verion's ass) go to http://snook.ca/testing/snitter-27.air

ON: 364 and Change

In Friday's fog I ran across this find.  GREAT shirt. 

Blogged with Flock

ON: Gigya

Designing the perfect experience is what drives me when i come up with an idea.  When I was designing the digital experience for Room-A-Day, I needed to find something that could be used for acquisition, conversion as well as retention. 

The Kimberly-Clark widget was created with the fundamental tenants of CRM 2.0 with the power of  mass social media reach.  I did countless hours of interviews with different widget companies, played with different interfaces and designed several scenarios . After all that play, one stood out as not only the strongest multi-platform installer,  but it also gave me the strength of a rich media ad server and ad network. 

Many of you have asked how The Kimberly-Clark Widget was so easy to implement across all social media platforms.  The answer is a phenomenal partnership with a widget platform (Wildfire) and ad network (Gigya).  While we created the idea, designed the video and widget interface, it was Gigya's Wildfire that let us do what we do best - which is the strategy and idea.  Gigya's technology has facilitated many more installs than we anticipated for the campaign.

See My Endorsement In Related Press:

• Forbes: Gigya Launches Ad Widget Network
• Market Watch: Gigya Launches Ad Network for Accelerated Widget Distribution
• Mashable: Gigya Widget Ads Launch to Compete with Google
• Yahoo News: Gigya Launches Ad Network for Accelerated Widget Distribution
• Reuters: Gigya Launches Ad Network for Accelerated Widget Distribution

ON: Vacation

Thanks to all the ON:digital+marketing blog fans!  From widgets to websites it has been a year that I spent launching, listening and learning.  We had a great year last year.  2008 is shaping up to be a year of new beginnings (and dare i say CHANGE - ok. ok. ok. don't barf). 

I am in need of a vacation. For the next few weeks I will be reading relaxing and restoring!  When I check back in we will take a deep dive into ideation, experience design and the art that makes marketing fun!