Blogging from Inside the New Media Revolution

Finally…

Finally after weeks, perhaps even months, I can eat and sleep comfortably once more. Finally I can go throughout my day and not break down into a blubbering mess due to critical levels of mental anguish. Finally I can drive from point A to B without having to pull over on the side of the road and contemplate the meaning of my life. Finally… I know what the “August 5″ campaign in Edmonton signifies.

Metaphysical life-altering experiences aside, Edmonton’s Southgate mall recently finished an interesting marketing campaign to generate some buzz about their grand re-opening after substantial renovations. Featuring new stores, new physical outlay and a “new feel,” Southgate created a marketing plan to gain new shoppers and align itself as a legitimate competitor to the monolith that is West Edmonton Mall. How you ask? By simply posting signs around the city that said no more then “August 5″.

Southgate's re-opening campaign had Edmontonian's wondering: "What the heck is happening on August 5th?"

Teaser marketing campaigns (definitely not something new or indigenous to Edmontonians) play off of and manipulate the innate human characteristic of needing to understand what is going on. By strategically providing only small pieces of information regarding the actual event/product, advertisers hope to stir up the most powerful marketing tool: word of mouth. In this case, mission accomplished. After only weeks of seeing the signs around the city, I heard numerous mentions of the campaign from all kinds of sources, ranging from newspaper and radio to simple banter between friends. People were agitated by knowing absolutely nothing about something they drove past every day and as a result they spread the campaign around the city for Southgate (at no extra cost).

Probably the most documented case of teaser marketing in recent memory was the 2007-2008 campaign for the movie Cloverfield. Movie advertisements featuring only a shaky camera and a single passing glance of a gigantic monster attacking a city caught people’s attention, but by not mentioning a movie title, release date, or any sort of information that would help the viewers figure out what they just saw, the advertisements caused everyone in the theatre look at each other and wonder out loud “what was that?” They added to this fantastic viral campaign with a website that gave out almost less information then the movie previews but featured videos and puzzles alluding to a post-apocalyptic world, creating more hype towards whatever the hell it was that advertisers were planning on releasing.

The catch to teaser marketing is that with added hype comes higher expectations. After toying with their emotions (as my fragile psyche would suggest) the consumer expects to find a light at the end of the tunnel that really blows them away. Anything less than that and the promoter can face anything ranging from apathy to resentment, severely damaging any hype they had created. Cloverfield did amazing out of the gates, but kind of tapered off by leaving some people expecting more explanation from the promoters as the storyline didn’t finish on a solid note. Southgate attempted to add to their re-opening by hiring performers but, from what I’ve gathered, the event left a few people saying “that’s it?” The teaser campaign can be an incredibly effective tool at drumming up publicity, but due to the hightened expecations a promoter needs to sit down and determine if their product is worthy of the hype.

Tease me all you want, but you’d better have something that’s worth my sanity.

Sponsorship strategy? Check.
Customer relationship management? Check.
Social networking initiative? Check.
Fireproof racing suit? Check.

As the dust settles on another “successful” Rexall Edmonton Indy, its attendees are left to nurse hangovers and sunburns while its promoters are left to reflect on the successes and fallbacks of the event. While the race draws annual crowds of well over 150,000 people, the Edmonton portion of the Indy circuit continually reports losses. Why is this? The event is nearly sold out every year, corporate support is strong, thousands flock to the city to attend, yet the race is predicted to lose anywhere between 1-3 million dollars. With low sponsorship numbers and even lower television ratings, what can promoters do to ensure the race continues in Alberta’s capital city? I don’t know the answer (if I did I would have a drastically different job title) but I think a place they could start is by learning from their drivers.

Over the Indy weekend I had the pleasure to spend some time with Canadian driver Alex Tagliani behind the scenes while he prepared for the race and I was absolutely blown away by how hard these athletes work off the track to make sure they still have a ride on it. The economic downturn has hit auto racing, a sponsorship dependent activity, perhaps the hardest of any North American sport and with less money to go around, drivers that become complacent have found themselves without a team to race for. Tagliani, who drives for a small race team, has had to rethink the way he goes about securing sponsorship and think of new, more cost effective ways of drumming up publicity and funding. So much so, that in a July 20 Edmonton Journal article Tagliani “estimates he’s spending about 90 per cent of his time raising money, and just 10 per cent driving.” Be it utilizing social media to boost attention, tireless work with clients and sponsors, or spending weeks ahead attending local festivals and contests, Tagliani not only increased his chances of finding a full time racing team next season but also created new racing fans, which benefits the entire sport.

Like any business, the Indy’s success depends on the performance of the entire crew. With shrinking sponsorship streams the entire industry must enter the pits, get retuned, and strategize for the laps ahead. On that note, I’ll wave the checkered flag on this string of puns and leave the forum open for discussion. What else can the Indy, or any business for that matter, learn from the way drivers secure their own sponsorship and deal with partners, clients, and supporters?

Over a year ago in a blog post I discussed what makes a great user interface. I questioned Facebook’s big interface switch and I held up Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn to its standard. Looking back, everything I discussed feels relevant but also somehow remarkably out of date.

When I surf the web now I’m not just thinking about interface, I’m conscious of my experience. I think this subtle shift in terminology captures the gradual evolution of the web towards fun, user friendly spaces that encourage collaboration and community.

I found this user experience Honeycomb on Flickr. There are probably a lot of different matrixes to try and explain the new user experience phenomenon, but I think it comes down to one factor: resonances with our daily lives.

The “Machine is us” video taught us that users drive and therefore are the content of the web. If anything has changed its that now the user driven experience of online platforms, tools and methods of communication are fostering change in our real life experiences too. Social media has connected people online in an incredible way – real people, real issues, real-time. What happens on the Internet is a product of our lived experiences, and in turn our activities online ripple outward into the world.

So, what I think about now is what the next generation of user experience innovation will be. Videos, blogs and streams of updates are currently giving websites a tangible, interactive look and feel. Its not just click-ability and interest-factors that are providing value any more, its spaces that foster conversations and that appeal to the relevance of user’s everyday lives.

Now that we, the general public, are more in control of how web giants generate user interface and experience simply through the communication of our wants and needs – where do you think our passion for dialogue and engagement will lead the web?

I want to think about this question and write about websites currently providing unparalleled user experience, and then brainstorm about the kind of experience I’d love to see created online in the future.

Image Courtesy of Flickr user A-dit-ya. I love Creative Commons licensing.

So we couldn’t help following the string of TechCrunch stories over the past couple days releasing confidential Twitter company information and strategy on their blog. TechCrunch was e-mailed the info by a hacker who managed to answer the password safety questions of one of the Twitter founder’s gmail account. Yikes.

TechCrunch’s actions are highly controversial, and everyone is up in arms about whether or not posting the stolen info is wrong. TechCrunch didn’t do any stealing themselves, but many people still contend that chosing to act on the news tip was unethical.

To be honest, right now we are completely undecided. We see arguments for both sides.

We want to know what you think?

During a rare day off work due to getting the flu, I picked up a book I had purchased a couple of months ago that I hadn’t gotten around to reading. The book is called ‘The Dream: How I learned the risks and rewards of entrepreneurship and made millions’ it is basically an autobiography of Indian American entrepreneur Gurbaksh Chahal. The book is a very easy and pleasant read with a lot of great business tips and inspirational successes. I was surprised by how engaging it was, I actually couldn’t put it down. Gurbaksh or G as he is known to friends, immigrated to the US from India along with his parents, grandmother, two sisters and older brother. He always felt like a misfit and dropped out of school, only to found a multimillion dollar company at the age of 16. The story continues, and he shares business lessons he learned the hard way and highlights how to trust your instincts. His current project is www.gwallet.net which is a website that aggregates online coupons and good deals. I had a look at it and will definitely check it out when I am going to make my next online purchase, some of the deals are quite amazing.

With all of this said, I googled Chahal and it seems he has a kind of playboy, ego, consumption-addict image which was a bit of a disappointment…who knows what he is really like…and honestly, I could care less really. The book was a good read, especially if you are like us here at Smibs, a tech start-up.

Some other reviewer comments:

“While success like his is often attributed to luck, Chahal’s story, like that of many immigrants, is more one of sacrifice … it was years of hard work, persistence and faith, along with the support of his family, that brought his financial rewards–not chance.”–San Francisco Chronicle

“Chahal is a prodigy, a successful entrepreneur, and a writer. His story is remarkable and we think it is a prime example of what can be accomplished with a little motivation and ingenuity. Young Hollywood wants to know what this young man can’t do!”–Young Hollywood

Book image courtesy of Amazon