"Fisheye Quake is a version of quake (software rendering) that allows you to play in ANY fov [field of vision], i.e. 10 to 360 and over."
Fisheye Quake
"Fisheye Quake is a version of quake (software rendering) that allows you to play in ANY fov [field of vision], i.e. 10 to 360 and over."
Are You a Digital Media Ninja?
Because if you are, we have -- not one, not two -- four open spots for digital media planners with different levels of ninjahood: associate media director, planner, coordinator, and assistant.
This is where in Boston the digs are, and here are the vistas. We'd be working together on a lot of stuff. My friend Tammy who sits across the hall and heads up the team could use some help with her 17 activeprojects clients, so there's a tangible sense of urgency. Hit her up on her LinkedIn page for specifics and tell her you're an AdLab reader.
Where the ninjas dine (and play Xbox; see that screen?)
This is where in Boston the digs are, and here are the vistas. We'd be working together on a lot of stuff. My friend Tammy who sits across the hall and heads up the team could use some help with her 17 active
Where the ninjas dine (and play Xbox; see that screen?)
Username Squatting
As if it weren't enough that buying a domain name requires all sorts of linguistic acrobatics, creating an account with popular social networks and other online utilities is starting to be taxing as well. Pages at myspace.com/McDonald's, GAP, Applebee's, IBM, Xerox, Microsoft, Sony, iPhone and many others have little to do with the respective brands apart from the page owners' usernames. Common dictionary words are long gone as well; here's, for example "/sex" on MySpace and YouTube.
You don't hear about username squatting much, although there was a blog post last year comparing twittersquatting to the domain name rush of the 1990s. Why is it important? Three reasons.
1. Convenience. MySpace.com/myblendtec is less obvious than /blendtec, which is taken by someone other than the socially successful blender maker.
2. Danger of misrepresentation. It is easy to recognize /billgates and /microsoft as obvious parodies, but hijacking an online identity of someone less famous can't be too hard.
3. Search traffic. Perhaps not a threat to bigger companies, but part of the search traffic for brands with limited online presence and for common words can be derailed to pages on MySpace, videos on YouTube (and stories on Digg, but that's a different story). I don't have a good "bad" example off the top of my head, but see how CBS YouTube channel ranks way above many of the network affiliates' sites. And if you search for "tequila", MySpace celeb Tila Tequila comes up above many businesses with the word in their names.
You don't hear about username squatting much, although there was a blog post last year comparing twittersquatting to the domain name rush of the 1990s. Why is it important? Three reasons.
1. Convenience. MySpace.com/myblendtec is less obvious than /blendtec, which is taken by someone other than the socially successful blender maker.
2. Danger of misrepresentation. It is easy to recognize /billgates and /microsoft as obvious parodies, but hijacking an online identity of someone less famous can't be too hard.
3. Search traffic. Perhaps not a threat to bigger companies, but part of the search traffic for brands with limited online presence and for common words can be derailed to pages on MySpace, videos on YouTube (and stories on Digg, but that's a different story). I don't have a good "bad" example off the top of my head, but see how CBS YouTube channel ranks way above many of the network affiliates' sites. And if you search for "tequila", MySpace celeb Tila Tequila comes up above many businesses with the word in their names.
Free Trade Magazine Subscriptions [Ad]
Remember the five magazines you have never read? Here's your chance.
I got (and, obviously, accepted) a review order on ReviewMe from a site called RevResponse. The site's homepage makes the business idea sound somewhat complicated, but it isn't: you, the blogger, get paid for having your readers subscribe to trade publications and white papers for free. Since these publications are trying to build their targeted circulation so that they can charge their advertisers more money, not everyone gets the free lunch -- you need to qualify to subscribe. I don't know how the qualification process works and hence how lucrative this affiliate model is for bloggers, but if everything works as advertised, why not.
But check out the range of publications the service offers. There is some interesting ad-related stuff: Brand Packaging, Successful Promotions, and even Crain's Creativity. You can also try to subscribe to magazines that sound very cool but that you would probably never buy without a good excuse:
I got (and, obviously, accepted) a review order on ReviewMe from a site called RevResponse. The site's homepage makes the business idea sound somewhat complicated, but it isn't: you, the blogger, get paid for having your readers subscribe to trade publications and white papers for free. Since these publications are trying to build their targeted circulation so that they can charge their advertisers more money, not everyone gets the free lunch -- you need to qualify to subscribe. I don't know how the qualification process works and hence how lucrative this affiliate model is for bloggers, but if everything works as advertised, why not.
But check out the range of publications the service offers. There is some interesting ad-related stuff: Brand Packaging, Successful Promotions, and even Crain's Creativity. You can also try to subscribe to magazines that sound very cool but that you would probably never buy without a good excuse:
- Church Production (about "church's use of audio, video and lighting equipment")
- Church Solutions ("sophisticated, insightful articles on construction, design, staff management")
- Meatingplace ("written and edited for red meat processors")
- Cranes Today ("serves the whole of the Crane Industry")
- Wraps ("inspiring the vehicle and building wrap professional")
Robot Conducts Symphony
AP: "Honda's ASIMO robot conducts the Detroit Symphony Orchestra as it performs 'Impossible Dream' during a concert in Detroit, Tuesday, May 13, 2008." Watch video (if you can get it to play past the pre-roll).
Hey! Nielsen Brings Buzz to Ratings
I've been keeping an eye on Hey! Nielsen (lovely name, but the way), a place for TV fans to voice opinions about TV programming that opened last September. Nielsen's intent is to figure out how to incorporate the feedback into its ratings: "Using data from real users, Hey! Nielsen generates a Hey! Nielsen score -- a real-time indicator of a topic's impact, influence, and value. As users submit feedback, the score is created from a number of factors such as user response, blog buzz, and news coverage, as well as raw data from our sister sites Billboard.com, HollywoodReporter.com, and BlogPulse.com."
Funny, Tetris has a way higher buzz rating than GTA IV (111 to 28), even though BlogPulse shows otherwise.
Bookmarkable Advertising
Last week's news about Rolling Stone and Men's Health running promos where readers are invited to snap images of ads and send them in reminded me of a draft that I've been kicking around for a few months about bookmarkable advertising. It's not finished or polished but, I hope, useful for something.
Also, between now and when I had first started writing this, I heard about a "grabbable" banner format offered by one of the large networks. I couldn't find any references or samples, but if you know something, please drop me a line.
Oh, and I'm on vacation this week away from all things broadband so this blog is on autopilot.
People bookmark ads. They circle ads with red markers, cut them out, paste them on the fridge, carry them inside wallets, give ads away, put ads on the walls. Given the opportunity and a good reason, people archive, manage and retrieve ads. Naturally, it is in advertisers' best interests to encourage this behavior because bookmarking gives the ad another chance to do its job, which is why we often see the dotted "cut here" lines around ads.
The "dotted line and scissors" bookmarking/clipping metaphor has been extended online (source).
As a theoretical side note, "bookmarking" is used loosely here and refers to any activity of storing an ad for future reference as close to its original form as possible (writing information down doesn't count). Some activities are physical (clipping, putting away, sorting, retrieving), others are also mental (remembering where to look, creating an arrangement system, evaluating).
WHAT ADS GET BOOKMARKED?
In order to be bookmarked, an ad needs to satisfy two conditions:
1. It needs to carry a promise of some future value. Coupons are an obvious example of an ad type that gets bookmarked often. Look at how people manage their coupon collections and you will find that the complexity of some systems is as mind-boggling as Yu-Gi-Oh. Which is why there are coupon organizers for sale (do they offer coupons for coupon organizers?).
The value doesn't have to be monetary, however; it can also be informational or social. For example, a classified ad for a plumber whose services you know you'll need when you move in two months is more likely to be saved than an ad for a wedding dress you see a week after the event.
2. It needs to be easy to bookmark.
The problem with advertising on the web is that while the digital medium itself provides almost unlimited mechanisms for archiving, manipulating and retrieving the information, most online ads have all the fleeting properties of a TV commercial.
Let's look at other media.
BOOKMARKING OFFLINE
Print ads are bookmarked more than any other type in part because print in general is easy to archive. You open a newspaper, see an ad you like, and you can either put the entire issue away, tear the page out, or cut out one particular ad. Print is also easy to annotate -- you just write on it.
Magazine ads are bookmarked too, although often for a different reason -- they are cheap and pretty dorm room decorations.
Magazine ads are bookmarked and used as wall decorations. See annotations to the original image on Flickr.
Billboards and TV ads are usually bookmarked through a secondary medium: billboards are photographed, TV commercials are DVRed. Some are saved for their social value (look what a cool billboard I have found); other purposes might have nothing to do with the ad itself and are just part of the scenery. (Billboards can also be bookmarked with cell-phones if they sport an advanced bar code.)
Some outdoor ads are designed to be bookmarked.
Other offline media are even harder to bookmark. External devices have been invented for bookmarking radio songs (and many have flopped); you don't hear a lot about people bookmarking radio ads. Locations can be bookmarked through some kind of mechanism that involves a cell phone, such as mobile post-its by Siemens.
Generally, the more bookmarking options for content a particular medium provides, the easier it is to save advertising messages. Not so online.
THE WEB
Historically, the web medium has offered multiple ways of easy content archival, from copy/pasting to complex social bookmarking tools. Online ads, however, are not trivial to bookmark at all. Not only are they largely impossible to store for any extended period of time, but they are also difficult to go back to within the same user session. In 2003, Jakob Nielsen wrote:
Technically, there are ways to save an online ad. You can make a screenshot of the entire page and then cut out the relevant parts, or you can save the page on your hard drive, but I haven't met many people collecting online ads this way so that they can reference their sales message at a later date.
How to save an individual ad depends on the ad's type and your tech savvy.
Sites that compile online coupons usually offer some way to save and group them within the site itself. These coupons are also designed to be be printed out. I don't think I've ever seen a coupon-type ad on a third-party site that could be clipped from the site itself.
Image ads can be saved as regular images but will lose any link information, and the context they provide is often insufficient for the ad to be used effectively at a later date.
Flash ads, including video, can be downloaded using browser plug-ins with the link information retained, but these tools are not widespread.
Text link units are not really ads but rather pointers to ads.
Finally, text ads can be archived, arranged and retrieved with third-party tools such as del.icio.us. This method presents a different problem -- that of click fraud. Someone can easily collect a dozen of links from AdSense ads on this site and click AdLab (and perhaps the advertisers) out of this particular business. Also, after the links expire, the bookmarks will not be pointing anywhere because the ads are not archived.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Advertisers could equip their ad units with a clipping mechanism -- a small scissor icon that, when clicked, would produce a printer-friendly stand-alone version of the ad with extended information for future reference.
Online ad networks could offer a repository of all offers they serve and a link that says "view more offers from this vendor" or "view similar offers".
An ad repository could be offered by ad filtering services such as AdBlock Plus, which may work out well for all parties. (See? Ad filters may turn out to be a good thing.)
... to be continued
Also, between now and when I had first started writing this, I heard about a "grabbable" banner format offered by one of the large networks. I couldn't find any references or samples, but if you know something, please drop me a line.
Oh, and I'm on vacation this week away from all things broadband so this blog is on autopilot.
People bookmark ads. They circle ads with red markers, cut them out, paste them on the fridge, carry them inside wallets, give ads away, put ads on the walls. Given the opportunity and a good reason, people archive, manage and retrieve ads. Naturally, it is in advertisers' best interests to encourage this behavior because bookmarking gives the ad another chance to do its job, which is why we often see the dotted "cut here" lines around ads.
The "dotted line and scissors" bookmarking/clipping metaphor has been extended online (source).
As a theoretical side note, "bookmarking" is used loosely here and refers to any activity of storing an ad for future reference as close to its original form as possible (writing information down doesn't count). Some activities are physical (clipping, putting away, sorting, retrieving), others are also mental (remembering where to look, creating an arrangement system, evaluating).
WHAT ADS GET BOOKMARKED?
In order to be bookmarked, an ad needs to satisfy two conditions:
1. It needs to carry a promise of some future value. Coupons are an obvious example of an ad type that gets bookmarked often. Look at how people manage their coupon collections and you will find that the complexity of some systems is as mind-boggling as Yu-Gi-Oh. Which is why there are coupon organizers for sale (do they offer coupons for coupon organizers?).
The value doesn't have to be monetary, however; it can also be informational or social. For example, a classified ad for a plumber whose services you know you'll need when you move in two months is more likely to be saved than an ad for a wedding dress you see a week after the event.
2. It needs to be easy to bookmark.
The problem with advertising on the web is that while the digital medium itself provides almost unlimited mechanisms for archiving, manipulating and retrieving the information, most online ads have all the fleeting properties of a TV commercial.
Let's look at other media.
BOOKMARKING OFFLINE
Print ads are bookmarked more than any other type in part because print in general is easy to archive. You open a newspaper, see an ad you like, and you can either put the entire issue away, tear the page out, or cut out one particular ad. Print is also easy to annotate -- you just write on it.
Magazine ads are bookmarked too, although often for a different reason -- they are cheap and pretty dorm room decorations.
Magazine ads are bookmarked and used as wall decorations. See annotations to the original image on Flickr.
Billboards and TV ads are usually bookmarked through a secondary medium: billboards are photographed, TV commercials are DVRed. Some are saved for their social value (look what a cool billboard I have found); other purposes might have nothing to do with the ad itself and are just part of the scenery. (Billboards can also be bookmarked with cell-phones if they sport an advanced bar code.)
Some outdoor ads are designed to be bookmarked.
Other offline media are even harder to bookmark. External devices have been invented for bookmarking radio songs (and many have flopped); you don't hear a lot about people bookmarking radio ads. Locations can be bookmarked through some kind of mechanism that involves a cell phone, such as mobile post-its by Siemens.
Generally, the more bookmarking options for content a particular medium provides, the easier it is to save advertising messages. Not so online.
THE WEB
Historically, the web medium has offered multiple ways of easy content archival, from copy/pasting to complex social bookmarking tools. Online ads, however, are not trivial to bookmark at all. Not only are they largely impossible to store for any extended period of time, but they are also difficult to go back to within the same user session. In 2003, Jakob Nielsen wrote:
Many a time we've been working on a site and noticed an interesting, relevant advertisement. This typically happens in the dead time between clicking a link to follow some item in depth and getting a refreshed page. So, we make a mental note to return and follow up on the ad. Oops, we can't. When we go back, there is a different advertisement, breaking one of the oldest principles of interaction design: stability.
Technically, there are ways to save an online ad. You can make a screenshot of the entire page and then cut out the relevant parts, or you can save the page on your hard drive, but I haven't met many people collecting online ads this way so that they can reference their sales message at a later date.
How to save an individual ad depends on the ad's type and your tech savvy.
Sites that compile online coupons usually offer some way to save and group them within the site itself. These coupons are also designed to be be printed out. I don't think I've ever seen a coupon-type ad on a third-party site that could be clipped from the site itself.
Image ads can be saved as regular images but will lose any link information, and the context they provide is often insufficient for the ad to be used effectively at a later date.
Flash ads, including video, can be downloaded using browser plug-ins with the link information retained, but these tools are not widespread.
Text link units are not really ads but rather pointers to ads.
Finally, text ads can be archived, arranged and retrieved with third-party tools such as del.icio.us. This method presents a different problem -- that of click fraud. Someone can easily collect a dozen of links from AdSense ads on this site and click AdLab (and perhaps the advertisers) out of this particular business. Also, after the links expire, the bookmarks will not be pointing anywhere because the ads are not archived.
WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Advertisers could equip their ad units with a clipping mechanism -- a small scissor icon that, when clicked, would produce a printer-friendly stand-alone version of the ad with extended information for future reference.
Online ad networks could offer a repository of all offers they serve and a link that says "view more offers from this vendor" or "view similar offers".
An ad repository could be offered by ad filtering services such as AdBlock Plus, which may work out well for all parties. (See? Ad filters may turn out to be a good thing.)
... to be continued
Apple Eyeing Virtual Store?
Is Apple prepping a 3D shopping interface? A Second Life resident thinks it might (via Brand Flakes) if the new patent is any indication. The patent was filed in September 2006 and published a couple of weeks ago. (Follow a lengthier discussion.)
There have been a couple of fan-made Apple stores in Second Life before: see this set of Flickr pictures of one such store and a video of another one below.
This is me in a bootleg Apple store in Second Life in early 2006. The store was selling iPod and iPod shuffle replicas but was eventually shut down. There, you could also pick-up a black outfit and a green "cardboard" background and walk around looking like an iPod commercial.
iPhone App: Music Synchronized With Gait
"synchstep (now for the iPhone & iPod Touch) plays songs from your music library that match your pace. Every step you take lands in-time with a drum hit, a bass pluck, a piano chord."
Somewhere, an ad mind is thinking: "Great! Now we can play an ad variation that corresponds to the natural rhythm. Gait-optimization."
Letters to the Editor
The letters from readers and PR people (who might also be readers) that have accumulated over the past couple of weeks:
This week's winner is this letter from Paul: "have a lage [sic] roof it measures 250 sq mtrs at our office and wondered if you were interested in looking at the prospect of using it for advertising? Google map it de74 2 dh its on the East midlands approach flight path." [ed.: If you are interested in a roof, drop me a line and I'll put you guys in touch.]
Parmesh Shahani, a good friend with whom we worked together at Convergence Cultures, just got his new book out. It's titled Gay Bombay, and if it's anything like his grad thesis, it's brilliant mixture of astute cultural analysis interwoven with breath-taking personal stories.
Andy Fletcher on what's wrong with ad agencies: "I believe there are just three things wrong with being an agency today: 1) How we are selected, 2) what we are asked to do, and 3) how we are compensated. Other than that, sheer perfection."
Another idea marketplace.
Lot's of fancy display ads at EyeBlaster's Creative Zone, "a comprehensive gallery of digital ads as they appeared on the Web."
"TRA brings precise measurement of advertising effectiveness by matching the ads people actually receive with the products those same people actually buy. For the first time, advertisers now have a way to find out precisely what they are receiving for their advertising spend, and can shift to better-producing media to lift ROI."
Saatchi's Kevin "Lovermarks" Roberts talks about digital and other stuff: "More than 70% of purchase decisions are made in store. Most stores are a nightmarish experience, devoid of mystery, sensuality and intimacy. They are set up by product category rather than consumer experience, with limited screen properties." Right on.
We7 offers 500,000 ad-supported streaming music tracks from Sony BMG.
Next PSFK conference will be on July 17 2008 at Fort Mason in San Francisco.
This week's winner is this letter from Paul: "have a lage [sic] roof it measures 250 sq mtrs at our office and wondered if you were interested in looking at the prospect of using it for advertising? Google map it de74 2 dh its on the East midlands approach flight path." [ed.: If you are interested in a roof, drop me a line and I'll put you guys in touch.]
Parmesh Shahani, a good friend with whom we worked together at Convergence Cultures, just got his new book out. It's titled Gay Bombay, and if it's anything like his grad thesis, it's brilliant mixture of astute cultural analysis interwoven with breath-taking personal stories.
Andy Fletcher on what's wrong with ad agencies: "I believe there are just three things wrong with being an agency today: 1) How we are selected, 2) what we are asked to do, and 3) how we are compensated. Other than that, sheer perfection."
Another idea marketplace.
Lot's of fancy display ads at EyeBlaster's Creative Zone, "a comprehensive gallery of digital ads as they appeared on the Web."
"TRA brings precise measurement of advertising effectiveness by matching the ads people actually receive with the products those same people actually buy. For the first time, advertisers now have a way to find out precisely what they are receiving for their advertising spend, and can shift to better-producing media to lift ROI."
Saatchi's Kevin "Lovermarks" Roberts talks about digital and other stuff: "More than 70% of purchase decisions are made in store. Most stores are a nightmarish experience, devoid of mystery, sensuality and intimacy. They are set up by product category rather than consumer experience, with limited screen properties." Right on.
We7 offers 500,000 ad-supported streaming music tracks from Sony BMG.
Next PSFK conference will be on July 17 2008 at Fort Mason in San Francisco.
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