Creating Next Generation Digital Experiences with Dragable Driving Directions and Photosynth

Thoughts// If you've been using Google Maps regularly like I do, you've noticed by now that the maps have become more interactive and allows you to add multiple driving points and customize your route by simply "dragging and dropping."

Kevin (our director or marketing here) and I had a brief chat in the office today about the power of the experience we could convey if we can extend this mapping experience and marry it to "Photosynth." Photosynth (based on Seadragon technology) creates breathtaking "multidimensional spaces" with "zoom and navigation"...all built from digital images (Flickr, cell phone images etc.).

Building such a platform where consumers can play, build itineraries and then start a conversation with each other (and the brand) can make for a compelling digital experience that makes a vacation eagerly anticipated and fondly remembered. For a demo of the photosynth project, please check out the presentation below.

Interactive Trend Report Partners With Travel Oregon

The Interactive Trend Report was originally created to provide insight into the interactive marketing and travel fields for the Arizona Office of Tourism.

In an effort to broaden the scope and reach of the report, the Arizona Office of Tourism has invited Travel Oregon, specifically Mo Sherifdeen (the resident 'Geek-In-Chief'), to contribute and collaborate on the Interactive Trend Report. This partnership will present additional views and opinions on the ever-changing interactive marketing landscape.

I am sure you will find Mo's thoughts and opinions on interactive marketing both significant and very insightful.

Travel Trends - Email, MySpace, Tacoda, AOL

Addicted To Email - According to a recent survey, the typical user checks their email an average of 5 times per day. In addition, 15% of those surveyed consider themselves 'addicted' to email. And most users have more than one email account...half (52%) have two or three accounts, while 22% have four or more.
http://www.mediapost.com

29,000 Sex Offenders Identified On MySpace - While certainly not a shock to anyone familiar with the ease of registering on MySpace, the news that the company has identified 29,000 sex offenders that were members of the site does cause a great deal of concern for companies using MySpace as a promotional tool. As with any ad campaign or marketing effort, attention must be paid to how the medium will affect the consumers and in this case, the repercussions of using such a public forum to deliver a brand message. The scary part of this story is that these 29,000 are only the users who registered with their real names.
http://www.adage.com

AOL Buys Ad Firm Tacoda - AOL has purchased behavioral targeting ad firm Tacoda. The deal, which brings AOL into the ad network buying frenzy, could mark an important turning point for behavioral targeting. In the past, most major portals steered clear of such ad delivering methods due to consumer privacy concerns, but with AOL clearly supporting behavorial targeting, the technology may finally clear the privacy hurtle once and for all.
http://www.cnet.com

Virgin Mobile Causing A Stir With Flickr Photos

Virgin Mobile has been accused of breaching people's "moral rights" after it took images from a popular photo-sharing website without asking permission and used them in a national advertising campaign.

People around the world who posted their photos on the Yahoo-owned Flickr website have objected to their images being used in hundreds of Australian billboard ads, accompanied by provocative captions. >>Full Story | Flickr Posts | Virgin Mobile Campaign

Thoughts// An intriguing story from Australia that appears to be one of the first situations to test the Creative Commons (see Word of the Week post about Creative Commons) licensing agreement. In short, Virgin Mobile Australia is using Flickr-posted photos in a current ad campaign. These photos were posted on Flickr under the Creative Commons license, which (under this particular license) allows anyone to use them for any purpose. Virgin Mobile did not contact each of the photo owners to let them know about the campaign, which, was not technically necessary. However, considering the amount of negative posts in response to the campaign, Virgin Mobile might have been better served to at least notify the photographers prior to the campaign launch.

The real sticky part of this whole debate deals with the photos that show people. Virgin Mobile did not receive a photo release for the talent, but the Creative Commons license does not fully address the issue of talent. What becomes especially tough for Virgin Mobile is that not only have they used a photo without the 'blessing' of the photographer or the talent, but that some of the talent in the photos are underage.

The lesson for Virgin Mobile or anyone else using publicly-hosted photos is to notify the photographers prior to using their photos, especially if they are for a commercial advertisement. A quick email from Virgin Mobile to these photographers would have created a group of Virgin brand evangelists, instead of a rash of bad publicity.

With Tools on Web, Amateurs Reshape Mapmaking

On the Web, anyone can be a mapmaker. With the help of simple tools introduced by Internet companies recently, millions of people are trying their hand at cartography, drawing on digital maps and annotating them with text, images, sound and videos.

In the process, they are reshaping the world of mapmaking and collectively creating a new kind of atlas that is likely to be both richer and messier than any other. >>Full Story

Thoughts// Yet another illustration that "mashups" have come a long way since Google and other providers released their API to the public back in 2005. This article refers to how new tools such as Google's My Maps and MSN's Collections—both of which allow users to create custom "mashups" without any technical knowledge—have transformed the web into "a medium where maps will play a more central role in how information is organized and found."

Case Study: Trail Blazers' Use of Twitter to Chat With NBA Fans

I have been intrigued about the buzz around Twitter and curious about its potential use as a tool to engage and interact with consumers. My curiosity was fueled earlier this summer when I saw a campaign by the Portland Trail Blazers who used Twitter (view the site here) as part of a campaign to stimulate conversation among NBA fans about the recent draft (Portland had the number one pick).

I connected with my friend Stephen Landau, partner at Portland based digital brand agency Substance (his firm created the campaign) for a few words of wisdom…why Twitter, why now and how did it work?

Why did you and the Trail Blazers feel that Twitter was the right platform for this campaign?
When we were thinking about ways for the Trail Blazers to extend their digital brand beyond the web site, the idea of communicating via mobile devices came up. But with traditional text messaging, there's a fairly expensive cost in sending out text messages and setting up a number. Twitter, however, is free to subscribe to (via the web or mobile device), and free to use. This allowed the Trail Blazers to send out messages whenever they wanted.

Why did you we think it was important to communicate using Twitter, why not blogs or email?
With the NBA Draft drawing significant attention because of the caliber of potential first round picks (Greg Oden or Kevin Durant), we wanted to build upon this excitement for the Portland fans. Twitter allowed fans to be a part of the conversation, hearing what was going on pre-draft, all the way up to the moment the draft choice was made.

Post-draft, Twitter was used to send announcements about Greg Oden, his visit to Portland, and then moved into information about Summer League.

We also used Twitter as a content management tool, pulling the Twitter feed directly into the "Oden or Durant" microsite. This allowed the Trail Blazers to publish content to the microsite without investing in a full content management tool.

Can you share any results of the campaign?
Currently, over 150 people are "following" the Trail Blazers Twitter feed via Twitter, which doesn't count other RSS feed subscriptions. The plan is to continue to utilize Twitter for communications during the basketball season... everything from special ticket offers to game results.

Any parting comments?
The interesting part of Twitter, as with many Web 2.0 technologies, isn't what people might initially use it for. For example, many people dismissed Twitter as a "what I'm doing right now" kind of online service, to write about making toast, or going to a movie, or whatever they were doing. But abstracting this idea to further think about, "what is my company (or my brand) doing right now," using the existing technology, allows for continued growth from a digital brand standpoint. The more compelling and relevant the content, the better the conversation between people and brands, and better conversations result in better relationships.

Email Defines, Not Defies, Innovation

At least once a year, I have the same old conversation with people who want to zero email out when dividing up the marketing dollars by claiming it’s a stale technology that can’t keep up with innovative digital applications like RSS, social networking, SMS marketing and microblogging (Twitter, for instance) >>Full Story

Thoughts// Sometimes the more things change, the more they stay the same! As "clutter-prone" as email is, the writer argues that email's adaptability—it's ability to "reinvent itself, overcome performance challenges, integrate with other technologies and channels"—makes it an "innovative" and attractive over "new" and "cool" platforms such as Twitter that don't have real world applications.

Transparency Tyranny

The non-competitive and the downright incompetent have very few stones left to hide under: never before have consumers’ purchase decisions been so strongly influenced by all kinds of transparency. In fact, TRANSPARENCY TYRANNY now rules:

"Old economy fog is clearing: no longer can incompetence, below-par performance, ignored global standards, anti-social & anti-eco behavior, or opaque pricing be obscured. In its place has come a transparent, fully informed marketplace, where producers have no excuse left to underperform. TRANSPARENCY TYRANNY for some, TRANSPARENCY TRIUMPH for others." >> Full Story

Thoughts// I read the article above a few months back but was reminded of it again by two developments last week; 1) Wal-mart's decision to allow consumer reviews online and 2) Trip Advisor's recent launch of it's traveler network.

This thoughtful article examines the impact of user generated content, customer reviews and ratings and makes some predictions about where it's going. Some of the conclusions include:

• "Sheer mass of reviews will lead to daily, and...even hourly reviews on any topic imaginable...mass postings will also unmask, outnumber and thus neutralize fake reviews."
• Ubiquitous online access from mobile devices and camera phones means reviews can be documented and posted instantly and on the spot. This also means that reviews will go "multi-media." (For a classic example, check out the story of this WAMU credit customer who documented poor call center service)
• "Star reviewers" that evangelize the brand through great reviews and recommendations could demand a "piece of the action."
• Web enabled mobile devices capable of capturing bar codes and performing an instant online/offline "price comparison" would make create ultimate price transparency.
  

Empowering consumers to share and interact with one another has been an important strategy for Travel Oregon; this spring, we sponsored the build of a travel community for Oregon that allows like-minded individuals to share/rate places; check it out at: www.GoSeeOregon.com

What the French Taught Us (Online Engagement in Politics)

Click on the Freestyle Zone, one of 16 video channels on French president Nicholas Sarkozy's Web site, and you begin to understand how this former candidate's Internet strategy played a big role in helping him win the May 6 election. >>Full Story

Thoughts// With CNN hosting a one-of-a-kind "YouTube" debate Monday and Tuesday night, this article on AdWeek offers a fascinating look at how the interactive medium, and tactics such as social networking, streaming video, played a key role in the political strategy for the recent French elections and how they've already inspired elections here.

(Note - This article does not directly relate to marketing/travel 2.0; however working in politics was my first immersion in marketing and I've always been inspired by the techniques used in political campaigns to build "engagement". From the use of social networking, user generated video, blogs, twitter feeds and "friend" collections on Facebook and MySpace, technology is already leaving an indelible mark on the 2008 Presidential Election and will no doubt provide marketers some interesting case studies in the future)

When Fewer Clicks Are A Good Thing

There may be times when a declining click-through rate on a behaviorally targeted campaign is a good sign. When Advertising.com ran a comparative test of three campaigns that used both run-of-network and BT techniques, Brent Halliburton, director of network strategy, was surprised at the results. The targeted ads demonstrated lower CTRs than untargeted ads, and yet at the same time they showed much better results on the back end. This week, Halliburton walks us through that research and explains what it means to media planners. >>Full Story

Thoughts// A very interesting article and interview from the Behavioral Insider about the drop in CTR (click-thru rates) during behaviorally targeted campaigns. Although the research does not initially make logical sense, the hypothesis put forth that the BT ads are 'wedding out the window shoppers' does begin to explain the results. A timely and useful article as advertisers begin to really question what all of those clicks mean.