Enjoy! (and go visit Presentation Zen, while you’re at it)

A long time ago, before death by PowerPoint

I haven’t thought that for a long time. Gonna go by some yellow cords now.

I covet Chris the writer’s linguistic agility which, in itself, makes for some awesome target marketing. Whoever responds to this job post and truly meets the criteria is a person that I want to meet.

Oh, and that company name.
Bravo.

I found this picture when I was searching for some information on CrossFit. Look at it closely. In one image with very few characters, the owner of this belt was able to deliver an incredibly profound testimonial for Crossfit.

This should be a billboard.

They know their audience: hardcore athletes (just look at the models they feature) and those that aspire. Their core message is simple and it’s buried about halfway down their nude, tattooed brand personalities: “We’ll never out-engineer the human body.” Damn right. Vibram’s gotten out of the way of the phenomenal WOM success of their product and even managed to make fun of other athletic shoe company’s reliance on ridiculous-sounding technology to sell the newest shoe features. The result is an eye-catching, stripped-down site with a resonant message.

Creativity interviewed Creative Director Jason Bagley and Digital Strategist Josh Millrod to discuss how they migrated a TV ad campaign online. Pretty interesting stuff, especially when you consider that they’ve brought a brand personality to life in real-time via Twitter.

This is a trend we’re going to see a lot more of because it allows deeper engagement between fans and products. It also allows for endorsements from 3rd parties (witness Alyssa Milano’s involvement in the campaign), content spin-offs, “sneak preview” style product launches and exclusives, and sweepstakes/promotion opportunities that become appointment viewing.

According to TechCrunch’s Arrington:

Zynga will be the cornerstone of a new Google Games to launch later this year, say multiple sources. Not only will Zynga’s games give Google Games a solid base of social games to build on, but it will also give Google the beginning of a true social graph as users log into Google to play the games.

Yikes! Just imagine what Google’s marketing geniuses could do with all the data they could harvest from Farmville, MafiaWars, Petville and other social games. There are so many ways for Google to exploit your game playing:
- Google Checkout as the means of payment
- incorporating your social graph into Google’s social graph
- incorporation into the Android OS, including real-time geo-location features (watch out FourSquare)
- full-scale game playing on the much-speculated Google tablet to compete with iPad gaming

Arrington continues:

Zynga continues to work on high level strategic business development deals. The reason these deals are so attractive to companies like Yahoo and now Google is this – Zynga allows them to rebuild the massive social graph, currently controlled by Facebook. For whatever reason people love to play these games and get passionately addicted to them, coming back day after day. That’s helped Facebook become what it is today. Google, Yahoo and others want some of that magic to rub off on them, too.

Some of the more interesting marketing opportunities for business will come when you can convert virtual purchases into real purchases. Imagine a Farmville partnership with a local farm like BeeWise in Rancho Santa Fe or grocery chain Safeway that will deliver you a box full of produce reflecting what you “grew” in Farmville. This points to what seems to be a growing trend in these games: product placement. Except this is product placement with the highest of relevance because promotions are based on a world you, the consumer, built. Get ready for partnerships with PETCO (Petville), Burpee (Farmville), Chevy (MafiaWars). It’s all going to come together in one big, neat, hyper-targeted marketing package.

In just six weeks, 100,000+ in virtual Farm Cash was redeemed from this real-world promotion. This is mainstream and this is big. And it means Zynga now knows what you’re buying at the store. What do you think is next for FarmVille promotions and Zynga in general?

Why such a harsh response from a public that has been otherwise adoring of Hulu? Because the makers of Hulu (NBC/Universal, et. al.) are squeezing money out of this in both directions. They’re charging $10/month for access and you have to watch advertising. As one reviewer commented: “They’re kidding, right?” It would be like migrating NBC or Fox to cable.

Hulu – it’s one or the other. You can’t charge people to watch advertising. Not anymore at least. You gave up the goods for free online already. And just because someone has an iPad, it doesn’t mean they’re willing to spend their money just anywhere. Rethink your model before you piss off everyone.

Mobile: It's not just for voice anymore

Although I’m not sure where SMS fits into this (“data?” “other”?), it’s incredible that data accounts for half of smartphone usage. And even more surprising is the finding that 60% of mobile Web usage occurs at home. The peak time for mobile web use? Evening. In fact, half of the sample population claimed to use the mobile Web while watching TV.

Imagine the implications for advertising when people are watching content on their monitor and interacting with that content on their phone. It already happens when I get texts from friends about something that we’re watching concurrently on Top Chef. But what if the content provider was controlling both channels – the television experience and the mobile experience? The opportunities for advertising are incredible. Like that knife that Padma is showcasing? Here’s a link to buy it right now in a 3-hour promotion from Groupon. Get ready for product placement and promotion like we’ve never seen it before.