Frontiering Talk

Yourstreet, which will officially launch tomorrow has created something of value by plotting news and discussions from various major news sources, as well as providing the environment for discussion.

I organise a street party every year as a way to keep in touch with the neighbours, and it certainly helps create a sense of localised community.
I think this is where Yourstreet may be onto something. Afterall, who isn’t interested in a view of news of the street where you live or work.
How better to get a community group to voice opposition or support to planned developments.

There are other social networks that have emerged specifically targetting local communities such as Life At, which hosts software specifically aimed at Properties such as large inner city living, retirement villages etc.
Meet the Neighbours is also a service aimed at apartment dwellers.

Yourstreet’s contents are focused on US cities, such as New York, Chicago, but will no doubt expand driven by community involvement.

Perspective: I like Yourstreets content, allowing them to create something of a critical mass of information, which so often is a barrier for new startups. As anyone can add news, I can immediately see some opportunities for advertorials. For example, “123 XYZ street just sold for this much”, as a way to promote local real estate. Yourstreet does list the authority of various articles, which presumably could be used to prioritise content based on a reputation indicator. One also wonders why various local search offerings like Yellowpages are not providing localised news to complement their listing services.

Tags: Maps, Social Network, Social Networks

I often use the George Masters advertisement in my presentations as one of the first examples of Consumer Generated Content.

Now here’s another IPOD ad, this time for the IPOD Touch product.

Which was covered by this NY Times article and at the time the article describes the number of Youtube views as 2,131 times.
Just to show that traditional media can still impact new media, that number is now has 273,992 times.

Nick Haley even got to re make his ad with TBWA and it will be broadcast during the world series this weekend!

Perspective: Fans often know your brand best, and this is another example of how they can also create world class promotional material.

Tags: Mobile

SpinVox which offers technology to convert audio to text, will soon be offering users of facebook the option to dial a number and then dictate updates which are then converted to text and posted to your profile.

Perspective: I first trialled text to voice technology in the mid 90’s as a potential solution for busy on the road sales reps to connect with email conversations. The technology has improved since then, and Spinvox seems to have found several applications for it’s tool. For instance, Lawyers use the tool to enable them to “read” their audio to text converted voice mails in court. Transcribing of podcasts might be another application. It will be interesting to see the take up of SpinVox facebook service.

via CNET

Tags: Frontiering Products, Social Network, Social Networks

Many of the presentations that were given at Oreillys Web 2.0 summit are now available online. You can either watch them online or subscribe via Itunes or Miro.

If you haven’t used Miro, it’s a platform that is an open source Internet tv tool built around the ability to subscribe to content in the same way that Itunes works. This means your content is downloaded in the background and available to watch when you want to.

Perspective: It’s good that these presentations have been released, and I think the ability to “subscribe” to video content is going to enable the effective distribution of niche content. This will provide huge choice for consumers, as well as a lot more complexity for marketing communications.

Tags: News

Blinkbox is a new site that allows you to customise video clips from your favourite movie, TV show or viral.
You can chose from a range of videos, and then insert your own text which runs on the start of the output video mashup.

The resulting video mashup can be inserted into your website, or you can email the link to your friends.

Blinkbox has contracts with several content producers, which gives them quite a large selection of clips.
The site hopes to monetize this by linking any blinks allowing viewers to rent or purchase the movie or TV show.

Perspective: This is an interesting idea, and linking the success of the site to renting or purchase of the videos will certainly keep the content owners happy. Blinkbox has also chosen to allow a simple mashup of adding text as a pre-roll option. As video editing software becomes easier to use and more available, I think they will need to expand this offering. I also think that Blinkbox should expand their reach by integrating their tool as a Facebook application.

Tags: Word of Mouth

Magazine publisher CondéNet, who purchased the application “What are you wearing?” earlier this year, has found success linking the application to Facebook reports Media Week.

The application allows you to tell your network of friends what brands of clothes you are wearing. Already, 90,000 users have added it to their facebook accounts and it is growing at 1,000 per day. Today’s most popular brand is Zara, which the following people are wearing.

Within the application there is a banner advertisement which is currently advertises the Guess brand’s Club G via the CondéNet owned Flip social network.

CondéNet has also released a spin-off application known as What are you wearing for Halloween.

Perspective: Currently Facebook are allowing applications to run their own ads, and this creates enormous opportunity for brands to leverage the social network to reach consumers. This could be by creating an application related to the brand essence, or by sponsoring an application. People are using their facebook accounts to express things about who they are and what they like, so it makes sense to provide tools that aid this expression. If you are looking for ideas for your brand, start by checking out some of the best Facebook Applications.

Tags: Frontiering Products, Frontiering Websites, Social Network

Marketing Spending on social media will surpass traditional marketing spend by the end of 2012, according to a study conducted by TWI Surveys, writes New Communications Review.

260 senior PR and Marketing Communications professionals were surveyed and the results surprised even me.

- 81% of survey respondents said they will spend at least as much on conversational marketing as traditional marketing by 2012.
- Two-thirds of respondents plan to increase their spending on conversational marketing in the next 12 months.

The top obstacles to increased spending on conversational marketing, according to survey respondents:
- Manpower restraints: 51.1%
- Fear of loss of control: 46.9%
- Inadequate metrics: 45.4%
- Culture of their organizations: 43.5%

I would add to these obstacles the following :-
- Agencies do not have the necessary skills to capitalise on emerging marketing trends
- Changes in ownership and consolidation of the large social networks

Perspective: I have always been one to research and explore emerging marketing trends, and whilst I agree that social media spend will account for an increasing portion of marketing spend, I am not sure it will overtake traditional marketing within 5 years. There will also be a convergence in the media channels which will make it increasingly harder to categorise something as traditional or emerging. What I am convinced of is the need for brands to start experimenting with how to engage consumers where they will no doubt be spending more and more of their time.

Tags: Social Network, Social Networks

Genius Rocket, is a community designed to allow companies with Creative needs to connect with Creative resources, who submit creative entries which are then scored by the members of the Genius Rocket community.

The concept is valid, but whether the site is successful will depend on the quality of creative talent it can recruit, and then whether it has enough “assignments” to allow this community to be rewarded. I suspect agencies and perhaps small businesses will be the main users of this site seeking cost effective creative input.

Perspective: Crowd Sourcing is a topic that i am convinced will grow. It’s also interesting to watch the various implementations of how sites like Genius Rocket execute this. So far, they seem to have implemented a rather simple rating system which allows the community to rate various entries. I think these systems are prone to abuse until you get a large critical mass of people are active. Otherwise, the submissions who have the ability to call for votes from their friends will bubble to the top. I think with Creativity, you ideally have a process where people can collaborate and build on the best ideas.

Tags: Social Networks

Stacy’s chips .. (part of Frito lay), couldn’t afford to provide a sample of their chips to everyone in the US .. that would be 300 million chip packets. So instead, they sent a sample pack to everyone called Stacy .. which was 133,000 people.

As well as receiving the Brand story, the Stacy recipients were invited to share their sample with their friends with the following message.

“We hope you enjoyed getting your free box of Stacy’s Pita Chips as much as we enjoyed sending them to you. If you did, why not share the joy by sending a FREE gift box to a friend? Since we’ve already sent them to every Stacy, you’re free to send them to Bill or Mary or Cheryl or John—or whoever you think would enjoy Stacy’s chips the most.”

The Stacy Consumers were impressed, and many of them not only shared the sample, but also shared their story online. Like Josh, and Ryan (husband of a Stacy), and this Stacy, and no doubt many others.

Perspective: This is a great example of a brand creating an unexpected positive experience for consumers, that not only rewards, but provides the tools to share that experience when the samples are spread. Positive experiences do make things taste better, and when something tastes better, we tend to repurchase!

Tags: Frontiering Campaigns, Frontiering Products

Renovation has got to be one of the most talked about topics, and so it’s no surprise to see a social network built around sharing advice.

Refurber is a well laid out site, and built on the same platform as Minti (the parenting advice social network).

Refurber has some cool features such as Latest Activity which shows by timestamp how long ago the social network was updated and by who. It’s a good indication that this social network is very active.

The company behind Refurber is Vibe Capital and they are also offering the network engine to people wanting to build an advice driven social network. An example is Building London.

Perspective: Social networks will continue to appear and over time, there will be a place for just about every conversation. So think about the category your brand is in and explore what social networks are emerging. Make sure you establish a program to monitor the conversations as this is a valuable source of research. Then, figure out ways to engage in the conversations, such as establishing advice services, or sponsorship of existing social networks. Conversations in social networks are growing .. is your message being heard?

Tags: Social Network, Social Networks, Word of Mouth