You can’t make this up. But people actually think they can use digital communication to have their way.
If you are one of those who give airport security a hard time, take some time to sympathize with them after reading what they are up against.
(As an added bonus, read the comments to this post. A lot of anonymous people talking about unrelated things.)
Last Saturday’s experiment baffles me.
The idea of the Defense Department trying to understand network effects is understandable. DARPA (which stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) sent up 10 of these across the country.
Balloons to study social networking how information travels across the Net seems like a bit odd. Sure DARPA did invent the internet, but…
Why use a large object in the sky? On Twitter people resort to “wide area team-building and urgent mobilization” without any interest in a reward. Just ask Tiger Woods, and (you knew this was coming, all you balloon fans, didn’t you?) the dad of Balloon Boy.
Here is how it was handled: Teams were asked to take part in locating ten moored weather balloons at fixed locations in the US. They were visible from roadways (spottings here) and accompanied by DARPA representatives –hopefully not inside the balloon, as that would have been too much like the Falcon incident.
They went up at 10 am (Eastern) and supposedly stayed there until 4 pm on Sat, Dec 5.
Attached (hopefully not to the aforementioned rep) was a $40,000 prize “to the first participant to submit the correct latitude and longitude of all ten weather balloons.”
I have an idea, DARPA: Why don’t you do this once a month, and then ask the winner to give half of the reward to someone who’s lost a job? The network effects of this would be huge since there could be 15.4 million people (the official unemployment figure as of Nov 09) Tweeting, talking and Facebooking this. Larry King would love to cover incidents like this and regularly point to the bottom of his screen to show us his Twitter address.
Or maybe you could hire a few people to increase the network effects of your Facebook page –which had only 19 people leaving nice messages about this.
OK, enough of having a bit of fun at DARPA’s expense. Let me say what I liked about:
Not enough organizations take risks like this. It’s time many did send up some trial balloons, red or otherwise.
“The general consensus about my hair, among our team and the client, was that it was distinctive and instantly recognizable — a characteristic we ad people long for in our campaigns, but it sounds funny when we’re talking about my hair.”
Andy Azula, the guy in the U.P.S. whiteboard commercials, in a Q & A with Stuart Elliot. He has a Wikipedia entry!
“Once you start restricting access on the websites, if you have content that can broadly be found somewhere else, then you really restrict the number of people coming to websites.”
“She’s more caustic than a manure lagoon.”
“Most painful for us is not the minaret ban, but the symbol sent by this vote.”
And speaking of symbols…
“It’s that image that has been shattered, sort of like the back window of his SUV, but maybe I’m pushing another metaphor too hard.”
“I realize there are some who don’t share my view on that. But for me, the virtue of privacy is one that must be protected in matters that are intimate and within one’s own family. Personal sins should not require press releases and problems within a family shouldn’t have to mean public confessions.”
“Teachers begin using cell phones for class lessons”
“I myself straddle the line between political commentator and a member of the political universe … it’s not easy being a woman.”
“Lesson: Don’t dumb down your information. We’d prefer the full story.”
Best Buy has always skirted controversy, but this storm is being whipped up by some irresponsible writing, that has fueled hundreds of comments (514 as of this morning).
It’s all about a Black Friday ad –a print circular — celebrating Thanksgiving and Eid Al-Adha. The latter is a Muslim festival.
The story attempts to be one about marketing (in)sensitivity.
It has spilled into bigoted religious attacks –creating the storm that the author, John Biggs, probably intended. In the piece he suggested the story is “going to overtake the news cycle in a few days.” Hmmm.
Shameful, John!
“She is not a girl, and she is not a pinup.”
“I am applauding Bebo …I don’t understand the logic for the others not following suit.”
“we should not make the perfect the enemy of the good,”
“A portable device with an appropriate wifi connection, and a very powerful browser.”
“Huh? If you’re already a Fortune 100 company, ‘brand awareness’ is probably not your biggest problem.”
“Would I be cynical if I said I believed Apple was secretly fueling the hype by leaking bits and pieces of information to raise expectations? Does it matter?”
When talking about social media to a group, I often step back to get them to pay attention to how to design for interactivity. After all, social media is all about interactions, right?
I like to note how wicked a wiki could be (though no one ever talks of wikis anymore, with all the tools around Facebook and Twitter). I mention how Microsites can do a lot of things their POW –that’s Plain Old Web sites, in my book) can never do. All this thanks to social media elements that are almost invisible.
So I want to comment on two microsites that came on my radar this week. Toyota and Timberland.
The Toyota site works like a cross-section between an ad and a social network. Timberland is more complex. I’ll take that first here:
Timberland’s Earthkeepers is so complex it could easily be a mistaken for a grass roots movement, or a cause-marketing campaign such as Hopenhagen. Indeed, it has a cause-driven section called ‘Don’t Tell Us It Can Be Done’ (launched this week), aligned with the Copenhagen summit. As the press release states, it is “a movement that encourages citizens of the world to challenge government leaders attending the United Nation’s Conference…”
It has definitive calls to action – Take Steps, Make Pledges, Shop Responsibly etc. The Twitter site is actually set up to track 12 students on a bus tour supporting the cause, rather than the typical corporate tweets. Their ‘Heroes’ are doing more than sporting Timberland attire. They are doing things like this.
There is a lot more, and it points to how web sites are getting built up so much around engagement, that very soon these microsites will be the template for the macro-sites. You know: the standard corporate sites with dated, static information.
Toyota’s Beyond Cars, is a different animal: Dynamic content on steroids. Almost too much information. It’s an ever-changing grid of visitor-generated content (a term I like to use because it is more appropriate in this case than User-Generated). You could sort through four categories of content – innovation, environment, community, economy, with a floating navigation bar. It asks for story submissions using text, video or photos. Not sure if these go through content moderation, but it has a real-time feeling about it.
Unlike Timberland Beyond Cars is not connected to a specific cause other than to make a positive impact on the economy and environment –which is somewhat of a cliche if it ends there. But the very intent, to tap into ideas from the crowd, is bold and inspiring –yes, and visually very appealing. I wish they had thought it through into not just Twitter and Facebook, but beyond cars, literally –into activities not involving wheels. As someone who has two Toyotas in the garage, I have vested interest in this brand, obviously. I could think of a dozen, inexpensive things they could do.
What do you think?
I’ve seen a lot cause marketing campaigns, so perhaps my expectations are high for this one, particularly.
The presentation by Ogilvy Earth (yes they did set up a group with this name for sustainability-related clients) is eye opening,.
It hinges on the word ‘Hopenhagen‘ which initially struck me as yet another clever pun. But it’s been well thought out, to focus on this city less as a destination for activists and tree huggers, and more as a symbol, a buzz word, a starting point for conversations, individual and collective actions…
Two things going for it:
But while all this is impressive and works well in the digital world, I was hoping to see more real world events, local visibility, community calls to action. Passports and online petitions can go so far.
The city of Copenhagen itself has adopted the campaign. Why stop with that?
We get so focused on digital media, with its global reach, we often forget to communicate, through local channels, and our human networks. If people can change their Twitter background, they will be ready to change some aspects of their analog life as well, if only for a few weeks.
It’s not too late. If only Ogilvy Earth could get slightly more down to earth …
“Yes, it’s important to change the light bulbs and windows, but it’s even more important to change the laws and the policies,”
“When put together, we have the tools and technologies to solve three or four climate crises … But the missing element is political will.”
“Who wouldn’t buy a pair of socks for the Mount Olympus of commercial exposure?
“And the fun won’t end Nov. 27 …”
“Facebook is for brands – the careful ones”
“It’s a hole in your heart, just like 9/11.”
There are so many mashups around us that we have begun to take them for granted. We tend to see more of the video and music variety -like Everyblock and those that are Obama-based. Google has a tool called ‘maplets’ to use the API of their maps.
How about a mashup of a mug and your Twitter followers? Check this out.
So I was glad to hear that there’s a British competition open for mashups, on three themes: Crime, Environment and Health. The winner gets £10,000!
Hoipolloireport 