One laptop per child project prototype

The first working prototype of the laptop for children of third world countries. A noble endeavor! Not really marketing, but this is definetly a different way of looking at computers and could help empower other parts of the world. Also I am curious about what people will watch these days. From a production standpoint not the best, but interesting content.

Embrace the change

So Amazon is embracing the new age of digital media with this new service. From a marketing standpoint I wish they wouldn't have called it "DV" as in the production world DV is a tape format, but I think this shows that there is a demand for this service or they are going to at least give it a try. The article also talks about Apple and Microsoft strategies for the future. What excites me is that increasingly this will allow "Jo Schmo" to sell their products to a larger audience.
Hopefully digital rights management and GUI don't mess it up.

Your way today!

Some thoughts today revolve around what media is to people today.
1) Have it your way
2) Tell us your story
3) Be authentic
4) See number 1

I only put number four on there because this is truly what today's digital age is about. You Tube, Google Video, MySpace, and a host of other social networking sites is about having it your way. Now your way is not a slogan that was used by one of those burger joints it is about the freedom to choose. People have chosen that is why MySpace truly does rank up there because people have chosen to have it their way and yet also tell their story. Hence number two which combined with number three is again the reason why we are seeing this influx of social networking and video sites.

The face of advertising is changing. Media is about you not about someone else. Each of us has the power to let others know how we feel and make it authentic. As advertisers we owe it to our customers to reach out and share our feelings on our product. Make it real and authentic not sanitized. Empower the customer to make a choice through the experience.

If you doubt what I am saying see number one again.

Links:
Seth Godin (Social commentary)
Washington Post (free registration)
Media Works
(How people have it their way and yet ad retention went up)

The changing face of MySpace?

So I posted a while ago about a commentary on how they could kill MySpace. Do you suppose this little tidbit is the forshadowing of things to come?

Now every provider of "free" content reserves the right to cancel said service at anytime it is just interesting timing. Now I am not a conspiracy theorist, but I would imagine that there are for more objectionable MySpace pages.

This one will be an interesting one to watch.

UPDATE: So it is back up.... Ted Stevens Fan Club

Oh and you need to learn more about what this is about!

Cutting through the clutter... How not to

So in this article in the USA Today there is great discussion how Honda is using a 5 second ad to thwart DVRs, but do you need to spend that money to thwart something? Why not spend the time developing loyal customers who will sell your product. I can see the trend now more and more shorter ads to get around the commercial skip function. This will only improve the already prevalent clutter in the broadcast market. I think that broadcasters who will increasingly become more and more hungry for revenue will back right up to this model. People choose DVRs because they both want to cut through the clutter as well as watch the shows when they want to.

Let's not clutter it up more.

New term or viable for marketing

So there is a new word out there called freedbacking. What is proposed is this will be a tag that will allow users to post feedback on a product for all to see. What this could mean as a marketer would be the ability to spot early trends on how your product is actually being used. Thoughts?

What do you project?

Each of us projects an image to those around us and to our customers. This fact struck me as I went to the recent concerts this last Saturday in Bend. Both acts were good musicians, but they did not do well with the audience. What I mean by this is they played well, but there was no interaction. Today more than ever we want people to relate to us and this was not done.

We owe it to our customers and clients to give them the same simple form of interaction. They are there to relate to you and your business for the long term unless you don't want them.

Future of mainstream television

The easiest way to fall behind is to not look ahead. I found this story this morning on NPR very interesting. I particularly enjoyed the piece where NBC's Zucker appears like he really is not sure how they are going to pay for shows in this new era. So if you are a big agency thinking that television still has power listen closely. I think even he may be a bit worried.