Awareness is Everything

Eye Tracking Web Usabilty - Jakob Nielson + Kara Pernice

2010-01-08T07:57:00.003-06:00

So, while putting off a late night report review I came across Cennydd Bowles UK blog reviewing the new eye tracking book - Eye Tracking Web Usability. The bottom line review of the book - not a great read and not a great case for eye tracking (even though that is the express purpose of the book). I beg to respectfully disagree - my response here.

Let me know your thoughts, would love to continue the discussion.

Social Media and Market Research

2009-09-21T10:54:00.003-05:00

Earlier this month Brad Bortner posed this question in The Forrester Blog For B2B Market Research Professionals:

"Are MROCs [Market Research Online Communities] the next big thing in market research, and will they eventually take measurable share from traditional qualitative research?"

Sentient Services has been working in online qualitative for a few years now through asynchronous bulletin board focus groups. While you give up a lot in moving away from a face-to-face interaction (body language, vocal intonation, etc.), in an asynchronous online group you have a lot of different strengths.

Less time restraint – respondents have more time to think, they can look up notes and do “homework” assignments. Additionally, we can let side conversations go and see if the tangent provides additional insight
Broader coverage – asynchronous participation means that respondents aren’t locked into 6-8pm ET, making time zones a non-issue. This translates to breaking down some geographic boundaries.
Bigger groups – we’re not limited to the capacity of a conference room, meaning that we “seat” at least 12 participants per group (vs. 6-8 participants in a traditional group).

While we’ve previously scrutinized sample goodness when using social networks for market research and the value of polling features in LinkedI n, I believe MROCs (private online communities focused on research) are just an extension of online methodologies we already see. Instead of recruiting participants to one online discussion or survey, they are being recruited for continuing feedback on a variety of topics. And MROCs will impact both qualitative and quantitative research – it’s just as easy to host a survey in an online community as it is a forum discussion.

What are your thoughts on MROCs? What other evolutions do you foresee in the research industry?

Sentient Services (Ubiquity Marketing Un Summit 2009) V1

2009-09-18T14:53:00.001-05:00

Presentation from Paul Janowitz (Founder, Sentient Services) at the 2009 Ubiquity Marketing unSummit.

Covers the current state of research in a customer driven web2.0 world. Contains tips and resources for entrepreneurs to leverage free and inexpensive market research techniques.

Sentient Services (Ubiquity Marketing Un Summit 2009) V1

View more presentations from Paul Janowitz.

Presentation at the Ubiquity Marketing unSummit

2009-09-04T13:25:00.006-05:00

Presented yesterday at the Ubiquity Marketing unSummit. Presentation titled "Is Market Research Dead in a 2.0 World? You can find it here on SlideShare. Also, on my LinkeIn profile as well.

Covers the current state of research in a customer driven web2.0 world. Contains tips and resources for entrepreneurs to leverage free and inexpensive market research techniques.

Keynote was great from Chris Brogan.

And, one more CNN.com article featuring Sentient. Forgot about this one.

2009-05-29T13:48:00.002-05:00

Forgot about this one - looking at e-commerce and site usability for CNN.com profile. Article covers cart, shopping path, branding, design, messaging, and SEO. It is here.

Sentient featured on CNN.com

2009-05-29T10:30:00.006-05:00

I was just interviewed by CNN.com regarding web usability and design for a small business website make over. Always fun to do this and see the great ideas entrepreneurs come up with, and then help them bring them to market in a user-centered manner. Article is here.

Just how useful is the new LinkedIn polling feature?

2009-04-15T13:47:00.010-05:00

LinkedIn recently added a new polling feature to their business social networking site. While LinkedIn’s own blog touts this new feature as a way to finally tap into the minds of the highly coveted business professional segment, its seems to fall significantly short of this.
I have been hearing about Linkedin’s upcoming polling feature for a while now and was looking forward to the launch of this new application. After taking several polls and going through the features and capabilities, this tool lacks the ability to truly gain much insight into a business or delve into the minds of business professionals within a targeted segment. Allowing only one question to be asked simply does not provide any real opportunity to gain much insight. Instead, similar to Facebook’s polling tool, it seems to be less of a true research tool and more of a glorified general market surveying tool to which questions must be generic, similar to that of an MSN or CNN poll.

The major limitation of this tool is being sure those taking the survey are truly qualified. Even if you utilize the targeting features that are provided (which are job function, seniority, industry, gender, age and geography – all very nicely presented and easy to use), you have no way of being sure your poll is being answered by qualified respondents since there is no ability to ask pre-qualifying screening questions (i.e. correct company size range, has decision making authority for your product or services, etc.) . This type of feature is definitely needed when you consider surveying current or potential customers within your business market and therefore limits the type of questions you can ask.

As Tom H.C. Anderson pointed out in his blog on social networks and market research last year, this type of tool is not truly useful for gaining specific insights about your customers. Walking through the “Browse Polls” tab anyone can see that this tool is being used for exactly what its capabilities have allowed – selling services (i.e. Do you need flash design on your website?) or generic questions (i.e. What has happened to the value of your house this year?). I am not sure how either of these really gives you any special insight into any of the rich and robust information that business professionals have to offer. And as a LinkedIn member myself, these type of polls do not motivate me to participate and do not utilize any business knowledge I have gained over the years.

As more social networks move toward providing tools for companies to gain insight into target customers in the future, I hope they consider the true purpose of why people would want to poll these individuals, which is to gain real insight into your customers wants and needs so you can offer the best product for them, and how it relates to the customer segment they represent. In a time where online surveys pop up on almost every website, there needs to be a compromise between not overloading members with lengthy surveys but also allowing for truly insightful and valid surveys that can tap into the knowledge base their community has to offer.

With that being said, LinkedIn is sitting on a goldmine of respondents that are most likely very qualified and vetted given their LinkeIn profile. Using this source is most likely going to reduce the number of “bad” or “fake” business respondents and give one high quality respondents. What is lacking now is the tool to ask meaningful questions to these high quality respondents. I hope to see this come soon!

Have you used the LinkedIn polling tool? Has it been useful to your company in gaining insights into your customers’ actions, wants or needs?

A moving video.

2009-03-03T11:56:00.005-06:00

Social justice is lacking around the globe. Social media is growing. Can social media and the internet "change" the world. Not overnight but they can help spark ideas, collaboration, share resources, get education to places it has never reached and connect you, I and others through content like the video below. Enjoy and spread the news, change the world.

http://www.fallingwhistles.com/

Google and Eye-Tracking

2009-02-13T14:13:00.002-06:00

A post from the Official Google Blog caught my eye last week: Eye-tracking Studies: more than meets the eye.

As Google points out, most people are not conscious of their eye movement, especially when doing something as mundane as a web search. Eye-tracking data lets you identify which elements of a webpage (or other stimulus) are viewed, and in what order. Just as importantly, you can identify elements that are not viewed - which may be the reason why task completion, ad recall or messaging breaks down.

In my opinion, eye-tracking is most powerful when it is combined with traditional think-aloud usability protocol. At Sentient, we do this with a little bit of a twist - first we start by allowing the user to complete a series of tasks without interruption from us to capture task completion and eye-tracking data without interference from trying to hold a conversation as well. Then we have the user walk us through what they were thinking and doing in a qualitative debrief.

By delving into a qualitative debrief after a user completes a task while their eyes are tracked we can learn the why behind what they did. For example:

Did they linger on an element because it intrigued them or confused them?
Why did they look at one navigation element, but then move to other navigation elements and click on them?

By adding eye-tracking to the usability arsenal, you get a rich interaction between the quantitative eye-tracking metrics and the qualitative insights derived from traditional usability methods.

Stats, Media and a new book

2009-01-08T08:49:00.004-06:00

I was listening to XM Public Radio with Bod Edwards this morning and heard a fascinating interview with Joel Best. Joel is a professor at the University of Deleware and just published a book titled "Stat-Spotting: A Field Guide to Identifying Dubious Data". A timely book if there ever was one - on the heels of an election with data thrown everywhere, financial markets that are either melting down or poised to rebound right about now depending upon the numbers you read that day and of course all of the numbers released daily on growth/no growth by industry/sector and just about any other segment one might be interested in. And, of course, market research and all of our clients and colleagues that deal with data, its interpretation and implications.

The book is available on Amazon.com and here is the description from Amazon.com, that summarizes it nicely:

Are four million women really battered to death by their husbands or boyfriends each year? Does a young person commit suicide every thirteen minutes in the United States? Is methamphetamine our number one drug problem today? Alarming statistics bombard our daily lives, appearing in the news, on the Web, seemingly everywhere. But all too often, even the most respected publications present numbers that are miscalculated, misinterpreted, hyped, or simply misleading. Following on the heels of his highly acclaimed Damned Lies and Statistics and More Damned Lies and Statistics, Joel Best now offers this practical field guide to help everyone identify questionable statistics. Entertaining, informative, and concise, Stat-Spotting is essential reading for people who want to be more savvy and critical consumers of news and information.

Happy New Year!

Usability Survival Kit - Be prepared

2008-12-01T13:51:00.001-06:00

We all know the scout motto: be prepared. And having grown up in Girl Scouts, I like to think that I stay prepared for whatever life might send my way. For example, when traveling to conduct usability sessions, I always drag a copy of the project folder from the server to the local drive on my laptop. I also bring hard copies of critical documents for the study.

However, during usability sessions last month, life threw me a curveball I wasn’t ready for: The power went out to the entire building. There were no lights. No microphones. No recording. My laptop had limited battery supply, and there was no internet because the routers had no power.

Luckily this happened on the first day of a two day study, and we were able to reschedule the remaining participants for the next day. We had a marathon second day, but we successfully completed our study.

Having gone through this experience, I’ve compiled a “survival kit” for usability sessions that should get you through a power outage.

Mobile broadband card – plug it into your computer, and you have internet access
Portable power supply – power your computer through the rest of the sessions
Digital audio recorder – hit record and capture the conversation from the session

Those three pieces of equipment should get you through usability sessions without power. Now, how you would travel with a portable power supply in addition to everything else you’re already carting around is another story.

What about you? What unexpected events have you encountered while doing research? How did you cope with them or resolve them?

Got Old Biz Cards?

2008-11-13T13:48:00.012-06:00

A small problem that all working people have to face at one point or another - what am I supposed to do with all these old biz cards?

When we moved to our new digs, we didn't order new biz cards right away because we still had a TON of the old. After a little bit of using the old ones and having to explain several times that the address on them wasn't correct anymore, we decided it was time for a newly designed biz card. That's when the question arose. My first reaction was to just throw all the old biz cards in the recycling bin, but then after a quick search, I found many other ways to recycle your old biz cards:

You could use them for making a grocery list, jotting down a note for a loved one or taking down messages when on the phone. Plus, since biz cards are made of thicker stock paper than your normal sheet of paper or post-it note, if you wish to take your notes or list with you, you can put it in your pocket and it won't get crumpled as easily.

You could use them for entering drawings for door prizes or free catering as long as you make sure you have updated contact info on the card before you enter.

You could use them as luggage tags because they hold up better than a thinner piece of paper, but again, make sure you update your information by hand on the card before you use it.

You could use them as labels for organizing & identifying CD cases, files or hanging folders.

You could use a folded corner of a biz card to make a nice toothpick or fingernail cleaner if you are in a pinch.

You could fold up a biz card and use it as a wedge for a wobbly table or chair.

You could use the back (if it's blank) as a gift label.

After reading a few articles on what you could do with old biz cards, I thought that most of the suggestions for uses were kind of boring and expected. I ended up searching for more creative and unexpected uses for old biz cards and found the following:

You could use old biz cards as noisemakers for the wheels of your child's bike (or even your own for that matter :-) All you have to do is tape or clothespin a card to the supporting bars of the fenders on your bike so that the spokes on the wheel create a motorized sound when they strike the card.

You could make your own deck of playing cards and make up a game with them. This is a great one to keep kids busy for awhile with some creative fun.

You could cover a wall with the backside of the cards (if they are a solid color or have a cool pattern) for an interesting wallpaper effect. This one would be good for creative agencies or some kind of place that likes to get creative with their work environment.

You could use them in being crafty or making art. They make great paint scrapers for scraping paint on a canvas, great for creating collages with to add depth, or blend shreds of them together with other paper to make handmade paper.

You could make biz card cubes and put them all together to construct a house of cubes, cube furniture, or even make ornaments for your Christmas tree! This biz card project may take a while and you might actually find that you don't have enough old biz cards! I found this idea to be the coolest, by far, so I ended up making a few cubes myself. I also found someone who had actually spent the time to make a house of cubes.... it took 66,000 biz cards to make the house of cubes-- also known as Menger's Sponge. Now that, is dedication!

Pretty neat stuff, huh? Well, I hope that this gives you inspiration to do something with your old cards that have been sitting in your desk collecting dust. If you decide you really aren't the type to do anything with your old cards, please recycle them or send them to this guy named Steve Patterson -- he collects biz cards. If you are the type of person to do something with your old cards, I say "happy biz-carding" to you!

The election is over - a lesson in usability?

2008-11-05T14:23:00.007-06:00

It is the morning after the election - a historic moment in American history regardless of party or vote. Now come the pundits, the analysis and hindsight brilliance. But, one thing has been evident all along - the web and social media made a difference in this election. And, one candidate used them much more adeptly than the other, the one that won.

President-elect Barack Obama hired one of the co-founders of Facebook, Chris Hughes, to run his online strategy - not a bad move. I came across a great article comparing the two websites www.barackobama.com and www.johnmccain.com on BNET (here). Marc Mendell points out some striking differences in the article, and it is a great read just for practical design and usabiity best-of-breed parameters and how-tos.

Senator McCain gave a moving and wonderful speech last night conceding the race to Barack Obama. I woke up this morning at 5:30CST to start checking the polls and coverage (I am an election geek with an MA in Government concentrating on political behavior and survey research, so I love this stuff). What did I find at each candidate's website?

McCain's was unchanged and running through autoplay for several of his end-of-campaign ads attacking Obama - wait I have just heard from others that they saw the updated image below, apparently my browser cache was viewing an older version - NOTE - then it would make sense for any site with time sensitive matter to put in measures to keep this from happening through redirects, replacing index pages and so forth. Now, back to what was there today. There were buttons to vote, make phone calls and all sorts of stuff out of date. See it here:
Then I went to Obama's webiste and saw this:
The difference? Besides the usability dynamics pointed out in the BNET article - Obama was up to date with a "Thank You" page, a donate to the DNC as a payback to them for their help and a simple message and the most recent blog posts. The McCain site did not reinforce the great message that Senator McCain had laid out the night before and had many a CTA (call to action) that were irrelevant.

The lesson? Besides that usability matters and most likely played a major role now in the history of America - have a plan B. Both campaigns should of have had "Thank You" and concession pages built weeks ago, beta tested and deployed with hidden vanity links ready to go. Sometimes simply being prepared is the best usability tool out there.

Usability, the internet and design matter. They matter for the highest office in the land and they matter for your customers that want to purchase a t-shirt or a server.

Sentient Services - Welcome to our blog.

2008-11-05T13:21:00.004-06:00

Welcome to the blog of Sentient Services. If you are seeing this page you are most likely waiting for a web meeting or remote viewing of research. While you wait, please take a look around our blog or visit our website. Links to our site and recent blog posts are over there - to your right. Enjoy and please let us know how we can be of service.

Thanks!

The Sentient Team

Election 08, Propaganda, Marketing and Advertising

2008-10-30T14:18:00.004-05:00

Given the imminent election it seems fitting to take a closer look at propaganda tactics (and parallels to marketing), especially those that have emerged in the 21st century. And don’t worry I’m not going to get into the nitty-gritty of platform delineations. I think it might be much more fun to look at how the candidates get us to think what we think and ultimately persuade us to vote one way or the other.

The most basic definition of propaganda is the presentation of information in order to influence an audience. The modern day interpretation of the term is definitely more menacing (depending on the culture) and is most commonly associated with political messages (full definition at Wikipedia). Not surprisingly advertising can be thought of as propaganda that promotes a commercial product or shapes the perception of an organization, person, or brand.

A little history…
Propaganda is of course as old as people, but a quick google search on the history of propaganda will tell you that the origin of the word is attributed to Pope Gregory XV when in 1622 he established the Sacred Congregation for Propagating the Faith. As you may have guessed, the primary responsibility of this department was the dissemination of Catholicism.

There are many forms of propaganda, but generally speaking all tactics fall into 7 main categories identified by the Institute for Propaganda Analysis in 1938. They are Assertion, Bandwagon, Card Stacking, Glittering Generalities, Lesser of Two Evils, Name Calling, Pinpointing the Enemy, Plain Folks, Simplification, Testimonials, and Transfer (you can probably get the gist of each type, but for full definitions go here).

Propaganda, Marketing and the 21st century…
People with ideas, whether they are religious or political, will always want to persuade others and they use various means to do so. Throughout history campaign posters, entire books (Karl Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto”), movies, and radio and tv advertisements have all been tools in the propagandists’ arsenal. In the 21st century technology has changed the game a bit.

In the 2004 election, Howard Dean was one of the first presidential candidates to utilize the internet to communicate with supporters and raise funds. Via the web, he raised approximately $50 million in campaign contributions, started a blog, and created a group of political activists called “Deaniacs” that organized gatherings called “meet ups”. In 2007 all 19 primary candidates had websites and a blog at the bare minimum and today all three of the candidates (yes, even Bob Barr) have a dedicated website (www.barackobama.com, http://www.johnmccain.com/, http://www.bobbarr.com/) and email campaign and are leveraging increasingly creative strategies typically only executed by marketers like social networks, consumer generated viral videos, widgets, blogs, SEM strategies, and iPhone applications.

Barack Obama has unquestionably seen the most rewards by balancing mass marketing techniques with the latest developments in social media and niche marketing. He employed a Facebook founder (Chris Hughes) and other hired guns from various ad agencies and it’s paying off big time. In September alone Obama raised $150 million and the cash continues to flow. It is estimated that the Obama campaign spends $2.8 million a day on advertising, which is double McCain’s daily budget (McCain’s total budget for September 1st to November 4th is $84 million). On October 29th, 2008 Obama will air a half-hour infomercial on 7 networks that is considered to be one of the largest ad buys in election history. Not since Ross Perot’s run for president in 1992 have we seen such media roadblocks executed by a candidate. So I guess it’s not that surprising that Barack Obama was recently named Marketer of the Year (above Nike, Apple and Coors) by AdAge.

Regardless of which side of the fence you stand on (or maybe you stand ON the fence),
I don’t think anyone can question the remarkable change in propaganda tactics this election. Here are a few content examples – candidate generated and supporter generated.

• Obama-Biden Tax Calculator widget: Based on your annual income and filing status (can also populate # of dependents, age, retirement, etc.) you can see your estimated tax savings under each candidate’s plan. Unless you make more than $200K a year Obama is going to save you money.
• Viral email campaign: Sponsored by MoveOn.org and TrueMajority PAC. Enter your friends name and email address and they will receive an invite to view a CNN type website with news coverage about how they (name inserted) lost the campaign for Obama by not voting. And to make sure you don’t forget to pass it on the creators send you a follow up email encouraging you to continue your “social nudging” efforts to help them achieve their goal of 10 million forwards by election day.
• Will.i.am music video: Entertainer Will.i.am created a music video that features celebrities reading/singing an Obama speech. To date it has been viewed 970,223 times on YouTube.com.
• Paris for Prez video: Created by Adam McKay (FunnyOrDie pioneer), this video is a response to John McCain’s political ad that attacks Obama’s celebrity.
• Countdown for Change iPhone application: A clock (days, hours, minutes, seconds) created by a supporter that counts down the days to Election Day. Even if applications like these don’t directly garner any votes, it is yet another example of how Obama is immersed in the modern consumer experience.

You may be wondering why there are no McCain examples listed. All I can tell you is I sincerely tried to find some examples, beyond the standard myspace page, but was not successful. Perhaps that explains the polls. Time will tell.

What are some of your favorites? Have you found any good examples of McCain leveraging social media, web 2.0, etc.?

Happy Halloween! Want A Chip?

2008-10-17T18:07:00.003-05:00

Found an interesting site the other day – Hotel 626.com. There are several cool elements on this site like soliciting email addresses as a “reservation” to access the site, webcam and microphone integration and overall the site is incredibly creepy (just in time for Halloween). There’s really no direct product pushing so from the user’s perspective it’s pure entertainment. It belongs to Frito Lay, but from a messaging perspective that’s put on the back-burners.

What’s really interesting is the way they handle access to the site. As indicated by the name, the site is only accessible from 6 PM to 6 AM (Hotel 626). Here’s why I think this is a cool idea:

It’s Risky, But Not Really.
Would this approach work for 90% of the sites out there? No, absolutely not. But, I think it’ll work quite well for this one. The reasoning is that it’s risky, but not really. Although it’s harder to access the site, they have technology in place (reservations) that’ll send the user an email when the site opens for the evening. On top of that, they’re effectively weeding out the fickle fly by night users and honing in on the active, engaged market. This brings you closer to your loyalists; and it’ll certainly provide a decent amount of those lost in the branding “grey area” as well.

It’s Breaking the Typical Online Experience.
We all know that the tougher you make your online content to access, the more you become susceptible to increased drop-off, decreased conversion and all the wonderful financial repercussions in between. However, this site’s putting that school of thought on its head a bit. In an environment where users are cynical, have the shortest of attention spans and have more competing entertaining online options at their beckon call than ever, this site tells them to “wait, you’re going to view this site on our terms.” It’s all very reminiscent of the trickle-like release of Nintendo’s Wii and the iPhone.

However, this site’s not directly tied to revenue, which begs the question – what will they do next? It sounds like there’s a product launch coming, in which case Frito Lay will be locked and loaded with a pool full of advocates and otherwise engaged users just waiting to mobilize and ultimately, eat some chips.

As always, time and traffic numbers will bring success or failure, but I’m very interested to see how the product launch goes.

The Election

2008-10-06T20:05:00.004-05:00

Just watch this.

Awareness is the Key – Lessons on the economy

2008-09-30T11:42:00.002-05:00

While contemplating what to write about, I cannot seem to get my mind off of recent events occurring within the economy. I don’t think there is a way to get around the recent turmoil with headlines across all major news sites such as CNN, MSNBC and Fox News. I guess what has intrigued me the most is just how little I really knew about what truly has been going on with the economy over the past 70 years.

In many ways our economy has been taking a turn for the worse for years. The government has been passing policies and manipulating the market so that it seems that up until recently our economy has been great. However this is not the case and our economy has been on a path (though a slow one) to where we are today.

So what is my point with all this you ask? I feel that it is important that we be aware of the economy, what is going on and the underlying issues that have lead us up to the point where we are now. Therefore, I thought I would offer up a link to several educational videos from Chris Martenson, an ex-professor and VP of a fortune 300 company now turned author.

http://www.chrismartenson.com/three_beliefs

The reason I chose this series of videos, is that they go beyond what the current news is reporting and gives a history of the economy and how policies and/or actions have shaped it over the last 100 years. Martenson does a fantastic job of breaking a complex subject down and explaining in an easy to understand manner. The videos cover how the economy interacts, where the economy has slowly gone wrong and implications for the future that go way beyond just a couple of major bankruptcies that are happening today (although this number continues to rise).

Remember “Awareness is Everything” and being aware of what is going on in our country and our economy is very important. What other content have you found beneficial to furthering awareness of the economy crisis?

Why the web matters and will still change everything.

2008-09-24T12:32:00.003-05:00

Yes, the web matters - duh. But, its major impact is yet to come. Currently it has democratized (somewhat) information, changed the way we share, communicate and learn - along with about a million other things. However, the large scale social, psychological and economic ramifications have not happened...yet.

Let's leave out the psychological discussion for now (does having 500 "friends" on Facebook increase closeness, dilute actual bonding with family? what happens to a generation that grows up sharing video, photos, private moments with Dear@www - how does a 1:1 relationship, be it marriage or parenting stack up to or compare? and so many others).

What is really interesting right now is the tapping of the collective wisdom of crowds, social networks, starfish theory, desire for fame, money, social capital - whatever you call it to find serious solutions to major global problems.

The big case in point here is Google with their Project 10^100. According to Google "Project 10¹⁰⁰ is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible." Seems like a perfect use of some of their money, brand equity and the web.

I, for one, am very excited to see what comes out of the project. My guess, some amazing mind blowing ideas, game changers and a few "smack me sideways - why didn't I think of that" ideas.

Google video is below - and go post your ideas!

Clean Advertising, Clean Planet

2008-09-19T16:22:00.003-05:00

I was reading last months Creativity magazine when I came across a beautifully simple and earth-conscious project called “The Reverse Graffiti Project”. My interest was instantly sparked because I’m actually a huge fan of well-done graffiti. Wondering what ‘reverse graffiti’ was, I visited the site – www.reversegraffitiproject.com. I found that this is a project powered by Green Works– a spin off from the Clorox Company that’s producing plant & mineral based biodegradable cleaning agents. As soon as I read that, it hit me what they were doing— they were cleaning dirty, smut-caked walls in cities in order to make earth conscious, artistic advertising! BRILLIANT! However, it made me somewhat question the reasoning behind it all— is Clorox really trying to help the planet? Are they just trying to make an extra buck or are they just trying to offset the damage they’ve already done to the planet with their normal line of Clorox products?

After reading a little more about it, watching the videos and rolling the concept of ‘clean art’ around in my head, I decided to focus on the positive instead of questioning the motives of Clorox. I came away from the site with two main ideas to take from this project: #1– Use of advertising that actually HELPS the environment instead of destroying it; #2– Make something “new” out of something already existing– a form of recycling, if you will. The basic ideas of ‘clean art’ have been around for a while and probably exist in many different forms. The most recent example I can think of was an email I got a while back about ‘dirty car art’.

I went on thinking about the 'clean art' concept and wondered how it could be applied to other means of advertising or life in general. Seems like a lot of individuals and companies are starting to become more interested in 'earth friendly' alternatives to just about everything. I'm glad people are starting to finally wake up and realize just how much we impact the health of our planet. So, the questions still stand– how can these ideas be used to make something 'new' out of something pre-existing for use as an advertisement? What are other people already doing that's recycling pre-existing objects and making them into something new?

Online tools for parents

2008-09-15T11:43:00.003-05:00

As some of you may know I have been on maternity leave for the last 3 months. My days (and nights too) have been consumed with feedings, changing diapers, trying to keep up with the endless amount of laundry (who knew someone so little could produce so much laundry), and staring in wonderment at this amazing person. Now that I am back to work and my former life at Sentient has resumed I am spending my days talking to clients, writing proposals, reviewing reports, and managing projects again. Two very different roles. And as many working parents before me I am learning to manage and balance work and family. So how do we manage it all? Fortunately for me I work for a company that is my “village” so to speak and has been very supportive, generous and accommodating during this time of adjustment. In addition to working for a great company, I have discovered a plethora of online tools (many of course sponsored by brands) to track, answer, remind, and verify my every parenting move, question, task and concern.

Here are a few of my favorites.

www.Babycenter.com – everything from mommy and baby horoscopes, to baby milestone videos, community blogs, development calendar, recall finder, deal finder, and much, much more.

www.cozi.com – Their tagline is “Family Life. Simplified. This tool is a multimedia organizer for busy parents. The tool keeps track of calendars, shopping lists, family journal postings and pictures and you can coordinate it all from your desktop, notebook, phone, or PDA. You can sync your outlook and cozi calendars, send or leave a message to a family member (dinner at Hula Hut at 7pm!) or send your shopping list to your cell phone. See a tutorial here.

www.bellyhood.com – a widget that lets you customize your own pregnancy countdown so you can watch your baby grow from a tiny dot to a full grown fetus. Check it here.

These online tools and forums were not available to my parents when they were raising me. They had to rely on more archaic means…like calling their parents in a panic in the middle of the night to find out how to treat a fever and of course there was and is always Dr. Spock (he is online now too). So as the diffusion of parenting information evolves, I wonder what tools my child will use when she becomes a parent. What’s next?

Volunteering

2008-09-12T13:49:00.003-05:00

Arrived at work this morning, and my boss wasn’t in yet. It took me a minute, and then I remembered, he’s volunteering today with LifeWorks. One of our work benefits is that we get one day a year to volunteer for something that pulls at our heartstrings.

What sort of impact does this have on our business? Having been involved in volunteer organizations, my reaction is: volunteering has a big, positive impact! It builds interpersonal skills, problem solving skills, increases patience and flexibility, among other things. And then there’s just that feel-good high you get from helping another human being.

As it turns out, I’m not the only one that thinks this. According to the 2008 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey, companies are paying attention to volunteering.

“Not only does skills-based volunteering provide much-needed support to local nonprofits, but it also helps foster meaningful business and leadership skills among employees.”

What are your thoughts? How has volunteering impacted your skill set, career or business?

If you’re looking for a volunteer opportunity to use and build your skill set or portfolio, check out AustinProBono, a site that connects businesses that want to help with nonprofits that need help.

Platform Thoughts

2008-09-05T11:53:00.003-05:00

I ran into an interesting article today on CNET, titled “"Should software developers fear Facebook, Apple?" In summary, and I’ve dumbed this down considerably for the sake of brevity, the author feels Apple and Facebook’s quality control maintained over third-party applications developed for their respective platforms is excessive to the point of stifling growth in the software development industry. I agree, productivity will be limited by their actions, however I don’t like the causation implied – i.e. larger software developers using their “weight” and influence to force Apple/Facebook to suppress smaller ones.

I tend to skew closer toward this thought. Apple and Facebook may be slightly stifling innovation, but they may be doing so to stay out of court and on the legal side of copyright laws, etc. In my opinion, they’re ultimately raising the standards for the developer community. As this platform continues to grow, I’m hoping we’ll soon see a chasm between allegedly copyright/trademark infringing developers versus the innovators. With current platforms developing and new ones continually coming to fruition, original and useful applications will be recognized as such and widely adopted, period. We’ve reached the point of application saturation in which truly only the “cream” will rise to the top.

What do you think? Does it make sense for Facebook/Apple to control applications or should they be more of a platform? From a brand perspective, was Scrabulous hurtful or helpful?

CPC - CPM - CP?

2008-09-02T13:00:00.013-05:00

More money is being spent online, serving up ads and an ad revenue model continue to be the driving force behind new start-ups, Microsoft purchases (or planned ones) and Google product development such as the new browser Chrome - built to further deliver targetting for those that buy via Google and potentially shut out others like Microsoft from lucrative profiling data The big question becomes how do you measure such terms as "immersion", "product placement", "gaming", "social media" and so forth.

One interesting idea we came up with at Sentient was in regards to measuring brand interaction in virtual worlds for market research (at the bottom of this post). How are you measuring brand interaction on emerging platforms?

Virtual Worlds activity is measured with specific metrics that are different from web metrics

These are the areas it makes most sense to measure:
– Sim Traffic
Sim = server
Sim traffic is the total amount of users that have visited the respective presence in a given time frame

Currently virtual worlds can accommodate 65-100 users per sim
– Concurrency
Average number of users on a sim at the same time

– Sustainability
Average time experience per user (in hours)

– Experiential Value (EV)
((Total Traffic/(Concurrency/10))*Sustainability= VE ratio

Benchmark - WBHV, 12/12/06 launch - ((200/(40/10))*40 = 533.33
– WBHV Rave Party was considered a success by Second Life standards

Printing with Zero Ink

2008-06-13T12:51:00.002-05:00

As I was reading a magazine today, I came across an article about a company called Zink. I have never heard of it before, so it caught my attention. I realized the name stands for Zero Ink – And it means exactly that. No Ink. No Ink to print pictures or any other kind of graphics? What happened to make this possible? When was there ever NOT a need for ink cartridges, toners or ink ribbons? Soon everyone will have a different kind of printer – one that could even fit in your pocket. This is BIG news for printers everywhere and a HUGE breakthrough in printing technology.

As my curiosity grew, I started to read more about Zink. I found out that the key to the digital printing process involves a special kind of paper. A magical paper, if you will. This magical paper has an advanced composite material with cyan, yellow, and magenta dye crystals embedded within it. Okay, well that’s cool, but how does it work? Well, I read on and found out that they’ve created a “device” that uses heat to activate the crystals thus revealing your image. What’s great about this “device” is the fact that it can be extremely small because you don’t need the room you’d normally need for ink cartridges or ribbons. This means that it could soon be installed on any or all your hand-held devises. You could get prints no matter where you are.

If you’re a big print buff like me, this new Zink product just totally blew your mind. Just the thought of never having to buy another expensive ink cartridge or toner again just sent a series of chills down my back. Zink will totally change how we print and even where we’re able to print. Need your airline tickets? No problem. Print them from your phone enabled with the Zink device and *bam* you’ve got it right there on the spot. With Zink, you have instant gratification and “Zero Hassles”. I forgot to mention that these Zink devices are not affected by gravity. WHAAAAA? This means that you could mount a Zink device on the wall next to your workspace and print right off the wall. The Zink paper is all you need to buy and can also be finished with an adhesive back. I'm not sure exactly how much the paper will cost, but it’s the only supply you need, and it’s not light sensitive so it doesn’t need special storing conditions. The Zink device also prints in a single pass at a consistent speed and quality regardless of the print width. Wow. That deserves a standing ovation in my opinion.

Probably the most important fact about this product is that it leaves absolutely NO waste stream. If normal printers produce 100% waste (ie: used ink cartridges, used toners, etc), then these Zink printers produce 0%. The photo itself is the only artifact of the printing process. I’m still not sure if the paper itself is actually recyclable– I’d be interested to know if they plan on it being recyclable.

So, I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to get my hands on one of these printers. They sound like they are so effortless and fun to use. So where do I buy one, you ask? Actually, Zink paper and Zink enabled products are in the final stages of development, so they aren’t available in any stores….. yet. You can, however visit their website – www.zink.com - and click on the “where to buy” to enter your information so that they can notify you about when and where you’d be able to buy and enjoy the “magic of Zink”.

Please, after looking at the product and visiting their website, share with me what you think of this new innovative way to print. Would you use it? Do you think it will revolutionize printing? If the whole world is trying to go “green” how does facilitating personal printing help? In making printing easier, is it encouraging people to print stuff they don’t really need thus creating waste that may or may not be recyclable? Do you think that instead they should be working on a technology that makes paper obsolete?