Frontiering Talk

Wii’s NiGHTS: Journey of Dreams, will soon include a mini-game called A-list that will utilise Wii’s Weather channel to incorporate real weather into the game’s play.

Perspective: Whilst this is a cool feature for a game, I can see this technology being used by computer controlled houses to alter lighting, update shopping lists, display pictures to remind younger kids of what to wear, etc.

Tags: Frontiering Websites, Gaming

Now that Youtube has gained acceptance across the world as video sharing site, it’s no surprise that companies are creating tools to assist content producers in establishing their own video collections.

Magnify is one such tool. You can browse the existing channels by category, or create your own in a few simple steps. The resulting site contains all the social sharing features that you need to allow your audience to comment and rate your videos as well as placing a widget of your collection on their own blogs, such as I have done above with the Creative Robot collection.What surprises me is the lack of brands in the collection of Video Categories. The notable exception seems to be Absolut with over 1400 videos in their channel. So what are you waiting for, starting a video channel for your brand / category has never been easier. In fact to show you how easy, i have just created a Gourmet Food channel.

Tags: Frontiering Products, Frontiering Websites

FreeRice is a clever website that donates 10 grams of rice every time you correctly answer an english word defintion. So in principle, you expand your english vocabulary and feed the hungray at the same time.

Perspective: I think “Not for profits” are succeeding in leveraging the demand to help global issues, by both producing engaging sites. The combination of these reasons produce a powerful incentive for people to spread the site through word of mouth / mouse to others.

via CTV.ca

Tags: Frontiering Websites, WOM, Word of Mouth

Salesforce.com have set up an ideas section within their site that runs like Digg. That is, the most popular ideas float to the top.
Software companies have been running user forums for many years, and typically the customers with the highest budgets got to dictate the priority of development releases. Whilst it is important to look after your best customers, this new site allows for anyone to suggest a new idea or enhancement for the product.

Perspective: One of the things Salesforce.com does well is service remote based sales people, and this is another example of ensuring that everyone is given a voice in the development of the product. Afterall, sometimes the best ideas come from places where you don’t normally look.

Tags: Frontiering Websites

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

Gossip Girl, a new tv show that premiered this week on CW, has taken brand integration to the next level by allowing people to purchase the clothes featured on each episode.

“With our audience, we know fashion is very much at the top of their minds,” says Rick Haskins, executive vice president of marketing and brand strategy for the CW.

Consumers can browse by character, brand, product or episode. Here’s a couple of items you can purchase.

Perspective: I have always been surprised that more fashion brands haven’t used the integration of TV shows or movies to market their “look” to viewers.

via NYDailyNews

Tags: Frontiering Campaigns, Frontiering Products, Frontiering Websites

I can’t claim to be a Baseball fan, but I love to talk about campaigns that let consumers have a real say in determining an outcome.
And that’s exactly what Marc Ecko is doing with the Barry Bond’s baseball that broke the number of home run records .. 756 to be precise.

You can even join the conversation on Youtube and Myspace

Perspective: The competition is pretty simple, but given the 10,010,552 votes so far, it’s sure to generate over 756 thousand conversations! Are your giving your consumers a reason to experience and talk about your brand?

via Jaffejuice

Tags: Frontiering Products, Frontiering Websites, Word of Mouth

IsAnyOneGoingTo.com launched in this year in the UK, and allows users to register their name, town or postcode, and then a photograph of themselves and/or their vehicles and a short description of themselves. They also pick one of three categories that suits their travel needs which are best—leisure, business or student, and then enter their travel requirements.

Other members can then search the site and communicate through Skype or e-mail to arrange travel and divide the costs before meeting. Over ten thousand members have already registered with the free site.

Founder Sonia Slater explains: “Our fundamental objectives are to realize how we all can be environmentally sound and still have fun, improve the environment by reducing the number of cars on the roads, use the Internet to introduce travelers and change the way we travel.”

Perspective: Is Anyone Going to is a good example of how social networks can overcome the normal barriers that keep people from connecting.

Tags: Frontiering Websites, News, Social Network, Word of Mouth

Here’s a clever web initiative, called Flameonwebcam, designed to help market the Fantastic Four movie.

The site provides the ability to record a brief message using your webcam, but the recording adds a flame effect to any movement which creatively links the viral to the movie.

Here’s a samplethat I created. You can send the link to your friends, or embed the video in your own site or social network.

Perspective: The site is clean and easy to use, and the use of the flame effect is a good connection to the movie. I couldn’t see any links to the actual movie website and it would have been nice to add a feature to show showing times of the movie in my city, or perhaps options to buy the DVD.

Tags: Frontiering Products, Frontiering Websites, Social Network

In an attempt to attract young people, Leader Newspapers (owned by Newscorp) has created a local search site called Nook.

The site is intended to be a lot more than just local search, allowing users to join the conversation and write about local venues such as restaurants, review local tradesmen, as well as discuss local issues.

There are no ads on the site yet, but there’s little doubt that the site will start to run ads once the content and audience numbers grow.

Where I live is a similar site servicing Sth East Queensland.

Perspective: One of the challenges from the existing local search models such as Sensis’s Yellowpages and New’s Truelocal, is that they don’t provide facilities for consumers to review businesses. This is mainly because their listings are subscription based, and they haven’t found a way to juggle charging businesses a $1000 listing fee, while allowing consumers to publish a bad review next to their listing.
However, I think that consumer review sites have a definite place and if executed correctly, even the reviews get reviewed and rated, thereby providing a much richer source of information for readers. Amazon and Cnet are perhaps the best examples of this where professional reviews are mixed with consumer reviews to provide a rich source of product commentaries. Ning’s Restaurent Reviews with maps is another example that is purely consumer review driven. If Nook strikes a chord in Melbourne, I have no doubt that News will expand the service to other cities. I also think there is a place for professional consumer review organisations like Choice to take the lead in this space.

via Search Engine Room

Tags: Frontiering Websites, Social Networks, Word of Mouth

Who says traditional companies can’t play in the social media space?

I remember subscribing to J&J’s Babycenter’s weekly email just over 10 years ago, when my wife was pregnant with our first child. You got a very well packaged 1 page email explaining what part of the baby was growing. Babycenter has continued to grow, providing advice related to planning and having babies.

This week Paidcontent tells of Babycenter’s purchase of Mayasmom, which is a social network aimed at mothers. The social network will be extended across the Babycenter network. Along with this purchase, there are plans to create an Advertising network for this category.

Perspective: This is a smart move by J&J, and just shows that finally some big corporations are not just placing ads on existing social networks, but providing consumer driven communication channels.

Tags: Frontiering Websites, Social Network, Social Networks, Word of Mouth

Nearly 1400 members of a facebook group known as “Bring back the Wispa” seem to have convinced Cadbury to relaunch the historical chocolate bar, which will be relaunched on October. There are about 90 facebook groups that were used by Wispa fans to record their appreciation for the brand.

“We have noticed the web interest for some time and the consumer passion has undeniably swayed our opinion to relaunch Wispa.” said Cadbury spokesman Tony Bilsborough. He went on to say “This is the first time that the power of the internet played such an intrinsic role in the return of a Cadbury brand,”.

Perspective: Brands should be monitoring consumer conversations not only for research, but as a communication strategy, allowing fan clubs like these an active say in how the brand grows.

via NYTimes

Tags: Frontiering Websites, Social Networks, Word of Mouth

Following up the discussion on Video advertising, it seems Google is finally ready to puts advertising into Youtube videos.

Sample here which works if you are using IE as your browser.

The ads appear about 15 seconds after a user begins watching a clip as an overlay. Users can close the ad, but the ads will disappear themselves after about 10 seconds. Rates are suppose to be $20 for 1000 impressions.

Perspective: Google has been testing these ads for a while, and it will be interesting to see how quickly marketeers move into this medium. I expect caution at first, until confidence is established that the right ads can be run against the right content. This initiative may also encourage more content deals between Youtube and major content distributors seeking to monetise their video content.

via NYtimes

Update: looks like Ten (australia tv) may be about to sign a deal with Youtube, reports B&T.

Tags: Frontiering Campaigns, Frontiering Websites