Cool communities no longer exist just in physical spaces, they can be found clustered together virtually.
Geography is the way we tend to orient ourselves around most things- we've always thought of traditional media in geographic terms (local cable, local newspapers, radio, OOH, etc) and some people even want to convert digital media to geographic entities.
Peter Warden, the creator of Open Heat Map did a great job in a recent blog post of explaining the rise of Twitter, this phemom that defied the laws of geography and sold itself on the broad appeal of the "Silicon Valley dream", as Peter explains..
I'd also never thought of Twitter as an aspirational service, but Neha nailed the atmosphere of the early days. There was an air of exclusivity, of access to an interesting group of Valley rockstars, that gave people a reason to check it out. This feels a lot like the way that Facebook started at Ivy League colleges and then opened up progressively to lower-status groups with the promise of mixing with a 'better class' of people. That might explain why companies like Google have such a hard time launching similar services, catering to the masses they can't pretend they're exclusive, but it bodes well for Quora's approach.
The reality of its rapid adoption all over the country is hard to square with its image as an exclusive Valley club, but maybe that contradiction is the sign of exquisite marketing. Apple gives their users that same sensation of belonging to an elite, even as they sell products in malls across the country. Twitter tapped into people whose dreams were in Silicon Valley, wherever they were in the world."
The future of media planning depends on a deep and rich understanding of target audiences and communities that exist post-geographically and the secret is finding surprising and interesting ways to bring these communities together to participate as richly as they do in the geographic world.
Posted by Ed Cotton
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Posted by Ed Cotton
(1) A great example is how Arcade Fire, them again!, thought about the integration of art for the digital format. Understanding that the richness of the LP experience had long gone, they wondered how there might be greater interaction between music and art in the MP3 world. Their designer came up with a smart solution that has the potential to continually enhance the experience.
While the "sexy" thing might have been to develop on iPad application, this solution demonstrates an understanding of the "gap" that exists with existing technology in the user experience that can easily be enhanced with a little thought.
Via Creative Review
Posted by Ed Cotton
The widespread availability of technology especially using the internet should create more opportunities for retailers and brands to play with more flexible pricing models that shift based on demand or situations like weather.
Here's an example of an on-demand pricing pilot for San Francisco.
SFpark Overview from SFpark on Vimeo.
Think about how your brand could play with price, what opportunities might there be to raise or lower prices in response to external stimuli. Should/could people pay more for drinks in warmer weather and less in colder weather?Via Good
Posted by Ed Cotton
The report focuses on the technosocial advances that are transforming healthcare worldwide and gives some fantastic examples that have been broken down into three core themes;
1. Communication
2. Feedback Loop
3. Tools
Within these themes are the manifestations that are broad ranging and show just how much impact technology can have on the health of those in the developed and developing worlds.
Some examples include;
SMS technology- allows doctors to connect with patients or other doctors, send health information to teens and even track fake medicines
Mobile video, internet- Share symptoms with other professionals, social networks for patients suffering from specific conditions..
Hyper-local networks- For disasters, for local information sharing.
High-powered, smaller hardware- Takes the hospital out of the hospital, connects microscopes to mobile phones, makes cancer scanners handheld
and many more....
The Future of Health report is a veritable gold mine of information and has hundreds of examples of how technology will change the face of healthcare worldwide.
The report can be found here.
Posted by Ed Cotton
The PepsiCo 10 is a two-day event, today is day two, where an invited set of tech companies get a shot at presenting their ideas to the company.
Here's how they describe it.
"PepsiCo will to bring together PepsiCo brand marketers, venture capital and media partners, category specialists and thought leaders for a two-day idea exchange on media, communications and technology.
The group will assess presentations from 20 finalist entrepreneurs and choose the PepsiCo10 from among them. Up to 10 entrepreneurs will be named the PepsiCo10 following the Summit's end and offered the opportunity to pursue a pilot project with a PepsiCo brand team.
In addition to entrepreneur presentations and judging, the PepsiCo10 Summit will include keynote addresses from top media, communications and technology visionaries."
As you can see from this video- the initiative is being driven by Pepsi's media, social media and digital technology guys.
It's interesting to see a brand make such direct moves and it's not doing it alone- helping them are; Mashable (for the coverage carrot) and Highland Capital Partners (for that all important cash).
Clearly there's a lesson here for agencies to find forums and opportunities to bring the best external thinking in the rapidly developing tech space to their clients attention
Posted by Ed Cotton