Frontiering Talk

Newscorp owned Fox has launched an engaging site that provide an opportunity for American Idol fans to write their opinions via blogs.

It is a sign that Newscorp is learning from it’s Myspace asset and recognising that consumers want to share their thoughts and opinions online. They are going to do it anyway, so why provide a place for the discussion to take place ! Tagging is used to help blog navigation, and here’s a few examples of some of the conversations

Let’s keep voting for this guy, folks. He is an unlikely AI winner, but what a true and natural talent…I was completely blown away tonight. What a performance! We have to help Taylor go all the way. Doesn’t his excitement about music make you excited too? He is infectious–in a good way

The one I really want to win is bewteen Chris and Melissa. Chris is the best out of the guys and Melissa is the best out of all the girls.

Interacting with fans should become an integral part of the television production cycle. Fox is stimulating conversations between consumers by providing information (contestant bios, photos, video clips etc), and community tools (blogs) which whatever you think of the show, will certainly extend the interest of Idol fans.

Update: here’s a google mashup called Idol Tracker

Judging by the range of Easter Eggs in our supermarkets, Easter is fast approaching.

Maybe it’s a good time to consider creating some chocolate branding from Choco Logo. Certainly helps to create a talking point and creates something of a enjoyable association with a brand or special occasion.

via MIT Avertising Lab

Nike has created a clever mashup using Google maps called Run London. As part of the site, communal running routes are used to help runners know other runners routes.

Searches can be done by postcode, run length or gradients such as “Flat as Holland”. Save your routes, send them to friends and of course run them !

It’s a great example of a value added branded site, that serves a purpose as well as linking the brand (nike) to the sport (running) … that will keep running consumers coming back again and again! One wonders how long it will be before other companies pick up on this trend.

Need Some Examples?
How about Petfood companies could do something similar to highlight city dog friendly walking tracks!
Outdoor camping manufacturers to display the best hiking trails (like this example on the Ning site).
Christmas Lighting companies could sponsor and provide maps of the best Christmas lights to either walk or drive past
4WD car makers could sponsor the best 4WD driving routes.
Movie or TV productions could produce maps of important places one set (e.g. the Sopranos)

Update: how about this Mashup of Jack’s movements in the hit series 24.

BubbleShare is a photo sharing site somewhat like Flickr. They have a really cool AJAX feature called BubbleZoom, which allows any of the images stored on their site to have a 3x zoom view on a part of the image.

You simply drag a magnifying glass over the picture to see that part zoomed in.

Check it out

MasterCard is capitalising on the continued rise of Consumer Generated Content extending it’s successful Priceless tagline with a new campaign which encourages consumers to help write the script.

2 commercials Sailboat and Typewriter will show items but instead of quoting the prices of the varous items the ad says “Blank $100″, consumers will be directed to priceless.com where they can fill in the “blanks” using their own words for the “Write a Pricessless Ad Contest”

The winning entry will have their words added back in, and the ad aired again in the 3rd Quarter of 2006.

While I think consumers would be quite capable of creating an entire “priceless ad”, MasterCard is essentially using TV to help communicate the competition. I think it’s great to see big brands engaging consumers in creative ways, but one wonders how much more cost effective the campaign could have been if seeded only into the Blog-o-sphere.

via Adrants

Ether has just launched and offers people the chance to market and sell “pay per call” services. Ether lets you create an Ether Phone number, and set a rate for which people can call on a pay per call basis. It comes with the ability to sell digital content again at a price set by the seller. Ether takes a 15% margin.

Attempting to become “Ebay for services” it will be interesting to see how long it takes before Ebay, via their Skype acquisition offers something similar.

I also think it would be interesting to see variation models where marketeers could potentially sponsor an Ether call, enabling a free or discounted service. This could be provided by first surveying the caller, and serving up some relevant advertising.

Most of us can appreciate the problem of organising information related to a project, activity and then sharing updates on tasks, and associated information with other trused members of a team.

Basecamp was perhaps the first known web 2.0 application to attack this problem and provides a very professional web based project management solution.
Joyent is another web 2.0 collaboration tool, with integrated tagging.

But what I want to cover today is Foldera which only just came out of stealth mode into Beta about 2 weeks ago, Note: you still have to queue up for an invite, but this creates something of an “in-club” and adds to the excitement when your email invite finally comes through! And although I am still waiting, I can definately see what all the buzz is about, as Foldera does seem to have done their homework.

Foldera is the new way to:
Communicate with others in context
Secure your vital information instantly
Access and Manage your applications, teams, activities and information from wherever you are
Notify everyone at the same time when something changes
Share, Organize, and Archive your projects and information
Personalize your Foldera experience to match the way you work.
Save time and Simplify your life

See Techcrunch for screen shots. Foldera really does seem to provide a solution for groups wanting to stay organised by dynamically keeping your project folders current. They seemed to have cleverly covered most forms of online collaboration and allow up to 250 meg of data storage. Presumably they will offer a premium service for higher end users under a fee based structure and it could be a definate alternative to Microsoft’s Office Live.

It’s certainly a big idea, but what is amazing is that they have had 1 million signups. No television ads, a great example of how word of mouth can spread quickly when a few influencial bloggers write about your story!

Tags: WOM