From the man who bought you Squidoo, comes the online answer to Who's Who.
Squid Who is an online compendium of anyone, who's anyone, for whatever reason, and created by whoever can be bothered. Dr Who? Well, he's not on there. However, the site automatically builds you a page all about him and gives you the chance to take ownership of it and manage it forever and ever.
Simple idea, fun, and very useful (if you do a lot of pub quizzes or are trying to secure a wealthy benefactor).
A means to an end, if you will. Somewhere central to note down things I see that may come of use in the future. Something like this to make me go out and look for them in the first place.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Monday, August 27, 2007
All roads lead to....somewhere
The new smart fortwo is in the midst of being launched, and Claydon Heeley (who I work for) have created a wonderful site to help get it into the hearts and minds of the masses. The timing of this couldn't be better, given right now half of you are no doubt stuck on the M4 returning from your numerous countryside domiciles in the drama that is the bank holiday weekend derby.
www.smartenlightenment.com features life coach and driving guru Dr. Tridion, who guides you through the moral maze that is UK driving and shows you the true road to enlightenment is as much in the head as it is behind the wheel. It's a brilliant piece of work, with a great performance from comedy maestro Matt Berry (Garth Marenghi, The Mighty Boosh, Saxondale, The IT Crowd).
www.smartenlightenment.com features life coach and driving guru Dr. Tridion, who guides you through the moral maze that is UK driving and shows you the true road to enlightenment is as much in the head as it is behind the wheel. It's a brilliant piece of work, with a great performance from comedy maestro Matt Berry (Garth Marenghi, The Mighty Boosh, Saxondale, The IT Crowd).
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Broadening your marketing horizons
Good article showing how companies are using online tools (social networks, blogs, social search and online video) as a marketing channel and invaluable customer service channel. It's refreshing to see that companies have utilised these new conversations as a way to take their presence out of the boardroom and into the hearts and minds of the people that matter most, their customers.
Customers will stay with a reprobate business as long as that business goes over and above to rectify any grievances, or behaves in a way that demonstrates they really understand their role in their customers lives. Web 2.0 gives brands the tools to enable that to happen.
Customers will stay with a reprobate business as long as that business goes over and above to rectify any grievances, or behaves in a way that demonstrates they really understand their role in their customers lives. Web 2.0 gives brands the tools to enable that to happen.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Bourne to be wild
This is great! Take the afternoon off work and spend it setting up spectacular stunts using VW's finest in tribute to the new Bourne film. Look out!
There's an ongoing debate about the true value of user generated as part of the marketing mix (see Fosters Laidback Legends and Land Rover's Go Beyond campaign for recent examples of UGC in search of real value - and send me some positive stats if you have them!). The thing is, UGC has been alive and kicking for well over a decade in the gaming world, from early MUD's through to the latest multi-million pound blockbuster games (see Half Life and its various iterations for a case in point). The point is, if people like it and they find it easy to use, then they'll interact with it and contribute to it.
This campaign site give you a simple 3D environment in which you can create your own stunts and save them to a gallery section. The more you interact with it, the better it gets as you come to grips with the physics driven environment and the tools on offer.
It's a neat idea, well executed, and has resulted in a lot of online news coverage as well as much chatter amongst the bloggers and bookmarkers.
There's an ongoing debate about the true value of user generated as part of the marketing mix (see Fosters Laidback Legends and Land Rover's Go Beyond campaign for recent examples of UGC in search of real value - and send me some positive stats if you have them!). The thing is, UGC has been alive and kicking for well over a decade in the gaming world, from early MUD's through to the latest multi-million pound blockbuster games (see Half Life and its various iterations for a case in point). The point is, if people like it and they find it easy to use, then they'll interact with it and contribute to it.
This campaign site give you a simple 3D environment in which you can create your own stunts and save them to a gallery section. The more you interact with it, the better it gets as you come to grips with the physics driven environment and the tools on offer.
It's a neat idea, well executed, and has resulted in a lot of online news coverage as well as much chatter amongst the bloggers and bookmarkers.
Monday, August 06, 2007
People help the people - talking to social networks
Recently came across a new addendum to those old favourites SEO and SEM. SMO (or SNO) is a means by which you can begin to utilise social networks, blogs, UGC as a marketing channel, without pissing off those you're trying to connect with.
Imagine if you were sat at home one night and someone knocked on the door and asked you if you wanted to buy a dog? You'd probably keep a cold bucket of water to hand (or maybe a baseball bat). Then, imagine if you had a load of friends round your house and one of them mentioned, over truffles, that they knew of a dog in need of a good owner, and how they knew you loved animals and would be the perfect match. You'd thank them, invite fido round for a meet and greet, and take holidays in the UK for the next 10 years. Well, it's the same principle with marketing to large communities online, with advocacy, insight and discussion the building blocks of a good social network marketing strategy.
Anyway, there's been some good discussion on the topic across a number of blogs:
- O'Reilly offers a good overview here
- A good article from Entrepreneur.com relating SMO to being part of an overarching PR channel mix
- Some older (six months is a long time in this business) comscore stats on the demographics across social networks, particularly with reference to age. Don't be fooled into thinking social networks are a young persons playground.
Imagine if you were sat at home one night and someone knocked on the door and asked you if you wanted to buy a dog? You'd probably keep a cold bucket of water to hand (or maybe a baseball bat). Then, imagine if you had a load of friends round your house and one of them mentioned, over truffles, that they knew of a dog in need of a good owner, and how they knew you loved animals and would be the perfect match. You'd thank them, invite fido round for a meet and greet, and take holidays in the UK for the next 10 years. Well, it's the same principle with marketing to large communities online, with advocacy, insight and discussion the building blocks of a good social network marketing strategy.
Anyway, there's been some good discussion on the topic across a number of blogs:
- O'Reilly offers a good overview here
- A good article from Entrepreneur.com relating SMO to being part of an overarching PR channel mix
- Some older (six months is a long time in this business) comscore stats on the demographics across social networks, particularly with reference to age. Don't be fooled into thinking social networks are a young persons playground.