The future of WAP billing
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The sun is setting on premium SMS as a payment channel for mobile content. But how bright is the shine on its replacement WAP billing? Tim Green canvassed some industry opinion
Youth Mobile Trends and Statistics 2008 - presentation
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That’s the size of the mobile youth market according to mobileYouth’s latest 2008 research - the mobile youth report. Here are some sample data sets from the report available for download & sharing.More free youth data available for download at mobileYouth (fill in the form on the home page)
Sep 17, 2008: Crowdsourcing at Institute of Contemporary Arts, London.
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“One of the most original business ideas and buzzwords of recent years, the idea of crowdsourcing is that companies and institutions of all kinds use the internet to harness the wisdom of the many rather than relying on the expertise of the few. But how far can we rely on the electronic crowd, and how exactly does it all work?
Jeff Howe, contributing editor at Wired magazine, first coined the idea of crowdsourcing in 2006 and comes to the ICA to talk about his new book Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd is Driving the Future of Business. Chair: James Harkin, ICA director of talks and author of Big Ideas: The Essential Guide to the Latest Thinking.”
Chemical Brothers Request Geo-Tagged Content For Music Video
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For their forthcoming greatest-hits album Brotherhood, The Chemical Brothers have asked fans to submit short video clips (2 to 20 seconds) or photographs that celebrate the “insanity that goes on at the stoke of midnight.” The clips, which have been requested to be related to the specific point of origin and include geo-tags, suggest that the group are planning on creating some sort of crowd sourced montage video incorporating footage from around the world.
Footage for the The Midnight Madness global video project need to be submitted to Google Earth via The Chemical Brothers website by August 25. All submitted clips will be shown on a Google Earth and Youtube channel on September 1st, while a selection of the best clips will be used in the video itself.
[via Wired]
The Evolution of "Live" Entertainment
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The days of traditional marketing are fading away in the music industry, especially in this age of the digital music era. However, DeepRockDrive.com has come up with new and innovative ways to market music. DeepRockDrive.com seems to continue where Myspace has left off, I’ve always felt that Myspace was a great place to hear all genres of music, from legendary songs to brand new hits. However, I’ve felt that Myspace has never given users many options when it comes to online video viewing of fan’s favorite musicians and artists. Well, DeepRock does an exceptional job of marketing musicians and artists in a unique and interactive way.
It blends the excitement of live shows with the interactivity of online video games. They state that they’ve created the most popular destination on the Internet for interactive live performances. At a DeepRock concert, you just don’t watch. You also support the artists you love by participating with them “live” in real time. You get the chance to tell the artists how you feel about their performances, while also voting with other fans on which songs get played. Another cool feature of the site is that you can pick which camera angle through which you want to view the show. These interactive features give fans the rare opportunity to interact with musicians and give input on what they want.
Traditionally, music has been promoted several ways including through radio and word-of-mouth. However, word-of-mouth is a strong and successful method in marketing music to my generation. From personal experience, I’ve learned and grown to love many musicians through word-of-mouth from close friends. DeepRock does a great job at using the word-of-mouth method to ensure their site is heavily promoted. Their site offers users the option of creating a digiposter to spread the word to others. The digiposter can be e-mailed to friends or posted on various sites such as Facebook. Once you join DeepRock, you can also petition to determine who will perform live. When the number of requests hits 1,000 votes, DeepRock calls the artist to try to book a show. Personally, I feel their method of marketing and promotion will help their website be successful especially among those in my generation. It’s a fresh and different way to promote new and upcoming musicians or even well-known musicians. It gives fans the rare opportunity to interact with musicians, while giving input on what they want. This will help bring fans continually to the site excited to hear and see more.
The idea of virtually giving fans free tickets to a concert with no tickets, no lines and no hassle, but best of all, from the comfort of your own home is brilliant. As an avid music fan, I truly like the idea. I recently fell upon the website through music forums, however it immediately caught my interest. At first glance, it may seem like your typical video-sharing and viewing music site. But, DeepRock isn’t a typical video site, but rather it is evolving what “live” entertainment truly means.
So grab a seat and experience DeepRockDrive.com yourself!
Customer evangelism case study: Tom’s Shoes
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Here’s a customer evangelism case study in the making: Tom’s Shoes.
Tom’s was founded in 2006 by Blake Mycoskie, a former contestant of “The Amazing Race” who was inspired by the low-cost alpargatas (espadrille-type shoes) during a trip to Argentina.
His idea was to bring alpargatas to the U.S. and give them a fashion makeover.
Blake was also struck by scenes of poverty in Argentina; so he launched Tom’s based on the premise of giving away a pair of shoes to shoeless children in third-world countries for each pair he sold.
So far, he’s sold 200,000 shoes and given away the same number. He’s struck licensing deals with Ralph Lauren and distribution deals with all sorts of department stores and retailers like Whole Foods (where I first saw Tom’s last month). Blake has also created an evangelistic following; one restaurant chain in New York outfits all of its servers with Tom’s because of the cause.
Tom’s Shoes has buzz for a variety of reasons, which include:
- An uncommon product amidst of sea of commonality.
- A simple, yet inspiring story that’s easy to tell and therefore spread.
- An accessible and well-spoken leader who’ll tell the story to anyone who’ll listen.
- A strong culture of participation among employees and customers that’s ingrained into the DNA of the company.
JJ Ramberg of MSNBC has an excellent piece on the magic behind Tom’s.
The Inventiveness of Youth
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A dorm, light switches and way too much time on their hands
Elizabeth Ferranini - How to Get Your Customers to do Your Marketing
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Who can better influence your markets and show your product’s real value than an articulate satisfied customer? Elizabeth Ferranini, veteran PR consultant, brings a wealth of experience to this conversation about using both old and new media to enable your customers to do high-quality marketing for your company. She explains how to interview CEOs and CIOs, what marketing skills and investments start-up companies need, how to craft a case study that can jump-start your business, and how companies can effectively communicate with their customers.
What Does Innovation Produce?
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People ask us, why do you spend so much time in all this “social stuff”? Our answer is consistently because we love to learn.
Learning is a critical value attribute of being connected with others and reading selected social media sites. Learning produces knowledge and social computing puts the learning process on [...]
