17 Stories

Who's Buying What in Super Bowl 2012?

17storiesblog — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:53:38 -0500

This week’s Ad Age features a run-down of the 2012 Super Bowl ads. Considering that 30-second spots run as high as $3.5 million, are companies getting their money’s worth? Get an early look at the spots that will be discussed next week. The list will be continually updated all week leading to Sunday’s game.

How We Love Food: New Recipes to Celebrate the New Year

17storiesblog — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:21:34 -0500

It’s that time of year again! Tocquigny is celebrating the holidays with a new update to How We Love Food, the collection of recipes from Yvonne Tocquigny, founder and CEO of Tocquigny. The cookbook is filled with new recipes to inspire your next dinner party, romantic evening in or cozy meal with your family. Regardless of the occasion, Yvonne’s recipes are sure to delight! (I, for one, cannot wait to try the Spicy Mussel Soup with Bruschetta and Yvonne’s Mother’s Snowball recipe.)

Over the years, How We Love Food has evolved from print to digital, and in July 2011, we launched the How We Love Food iPad App. The various incarnations of the cookbook reflect the evolution of the way we share information with our friends and family. Like many emerging technologies, the How We Love Food iPad App takes a common, physical item and enhances it to meet today’s “at your fingertips” expectations. The goal is not to change the fundamental motivations behind sharing food with loved ones, but to enable and encourage new ways of doing so.

At the heart of How We Love Food are memories linked to Yvonne’s favorite recipes. Tocquigny’s hope with the How We Love Food holiday update is to inspire you to create memories of your own. It’s a free update for all of those who already have the app, and all proceeds go to Urban Roots, a nonprofit youth-development organization.

Download the How We Love Food iPad App and Update at the iTunes Store.

Mobile Development with Titanium Appcelerator

daviddulak — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 11:43:00 -0400

I recently had the privilege to work on an iPad version of Yvonne’s cookbook, How We Love Food, and enjoyed every minute of it. Since it was an internal project, we had the flexibility to try some new technologies. We chose to write the cookbook app using Titanium Appcelerator. The platform is nice, especially for someone like me who comes from a strong web programming background. Appcelerator uses JavaScript as the high-level coding language, and then compiles into an Apple xCode project in Objective-C that can be run on the iOS simulator and ultimately submitted to the iTunes App Store. The documentation was a bit weak, but with a little experimentation, I was on my way.

Appcelerator also has another perk that we have yet to use: Compiling to Android from the same base code. There is a significant amount of work to be done on designing the front end to work on differing screen sizes of Android devices, but the core functionality can simply be recompiled into a native Android Java application. One of the most interesting accomplishmentsof this project was an Appcelerator code hack — kudos to Tocquigny team member Jake Riesterer — that allowed us to save very detailed analytics in real time to our database server. We are able to track every user session in detail, including the user’s location and each interaction with the App all the way down to the specific recipe on which they used the illustration zooming feature. And in the end, the beauty and simplicity of the design landed us in Apple’s “New and Noteworthy” section for its category.

Check it out here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/how-we-love-food/id445071073?mt=8.

Inside the Branding Toolkit: Brand Manifestos

craigtest — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:11:00 -0400

In my humble opinion, the majority of successful businesses employ two crucial foundational elements: quality product and effective persuasion.

In the traditional business model, product is what gets the prospect in the door, while persuasion compels the sale.

One of the secret weapons of branding, however, is the contrary: use persuasion for acquisition and product for conversion.

I’ve always had a weakness for rhetoric (see my past blog posts on the subject). How can human language be as powerful as a multi-million dollar super computer or as lethal as a machete? How can an audience be transformed through emotion, logic and credibility?

The Brand Manifesto

While most companies have mission and vision statements, only a select few have adopted brand manifestos. These commonly short, frank and liberal declarations don’t articulate what a company aspires to be — they define the company’s driving principles and passions. They are the living anthems and battle cries of a brand, something so finely ingrained in the company’s DNA that a bankruptcy or rebranding has little chance of changing it. Brand manifestos are written rhetoric at its finest.

But don’t just take it from me. Let some of the greatest brands speak for themselves:

Return on Branded PPC Terms – Is it Worth it?

lucienbone — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:47:15 -0400

“Why should we pay for clicks when we get organic clicks for free? Should I buy my own brand terms?”

If you’ve heard these questions from a client, boss, or peer, you are not alone.

For years I have worked with a variety of clients that have posed these and other questions related to the return on paid-search brand terms. Measurability, control, and overall ROI are good responses to these questions, but when pressed for proof, it has been difficult to come up with solid research to back up the rationale.

Of course, as an agency, we are inclined to recommend brand terms because those terms will provide very efficient clicks and conversions to prop up the overall metrics for the client. If they are removed, the loss of those keywords usually impacts the results in a negative way. When asked pointedly on numerous occasions about our recommendation to purchase the client’s actual brand name and derivations of it, I have always referred to the importance of that tactic for metrics health — but now I’m armed with something better.

Google recently released results from an in-depth study on this topic and posted it for public consumption here. It was also covered in a good article by SearchEngineLand, which gives a less-technical explanation.

The details of the study are pretty interesting, and the methodology appears to be very sound. Google statisticians conducted over 400 studies on paused accounts to determine if organic clicks would increase to make up for the drop in traffic.

The study shows that paid search drives incremental clicks compared to organic search, with little cannibalization of organic traffic. “A meta-analysis of several hundred of these studies reveals that over 89% of the ads clicks are incremental, in the sense that the visits to the advertiser’s site would not have occurred without the ad campaigns,” state the authors of the study. The results were fairly consistent across verticals as well as international markets tested.

The takeaway: It is worth it. You SHOULD pay for those clicks and buy those brand terms. And now we have a pretty convincing rationale for this tactic.

Location Location Location!

annielenore — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 18:53:00 -0400

Last Monday Tocquigny’s own Craig Saper tweeted something that has been on my mind ever since:

“iOS 5’s location-based reminder platform is brilliant. The second I stepped out of my office, I was reminded to pick up a dinner ingredient.”

iOS 5 - Apple’s new operating system for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch - will include location-aware notifications as part of the API when it launches to the public this fall. Beta users like Craig are already seeing the value of creating custom location-aware reminders through Apple’s own Reminders app, which is designed to alert users of a to-do when arriving or leaving a location.

To what level an app can use location-aware notifications is not yet clear to me (opt-in vs. opt-out, available only when an app is active, always on in the background and so on). But it’s safe to assume that this new level of location integration will change how marketers and product developers think about location-based services going forward. After all, the mobile screen, unlike the computer screen or the TV screen, is always with you and always on- perfect for streamlined, real-time personal engagement.

There are countless opportunities to light-up location-aware notifications in meaningful ways. For example:

Out for a run at Lady Bird Lake with MapMyRun? In 0.25 miles, you’ll find free water provided by the Trail Foundation.
At Waterloo Records? Get a coupon for Amy’s Ice Cream.
Passing Whole Foods? Salmon is on sale.
Friends checked-in at a nearby happy hour? Stop in for a deal on appetizers.

With location-aware notifications, companies can start communicating with a specific person, with her varied interests and sensibilities, in a specific location. This isn’t simply reconfiguring current communications; this is a new way to engage with customers. It should be designed to be relevant and actionable while on-the-go. After all, connecting with a customer through her mobile device is intensely personal, and if we want to achieve that level of engagement, we must be prepared to add meaning.

Managing privacy is the trick here. There is a fine line between relevant opted-in communication and unwanted promotions. As marketers, our role is to understand how the consumer wants to engage and help her manage her preferences.

Have you thought about how you can take advantage of this new level of location-integration for your business?

A Perfect Recipe for App Promotion

yvonnetocquigny — Wed, 03 Aug 2011 19:10:00 -0400

The How We Love Food series celebrates the iPad launch of How We Love Food, an annual collection of recipes from Yvonne Tocquigny, founder and CEO of Tocquigny, and focuses on the convergence of food, marketing, and technology. Download the app now for just $1.99, and all proceeds will be donated to nonprofit Urban Roots.

By now, I hope you’ve downloaded the newest version of How We Love Food – now available as an iPad app. From print to online to mobile and social, How We Love Food has evolved, just like my interactive marketing agency, Tocquigny, has over the last 30 years.

While the way we share recipes has drastically changed since 1980, the way we share food hasn’t changed much at all. Everyone knows that food is all about sharing with friends or family. A meal well prepared is a meal best enjoyed with great company. Just like a successful dinner party is dependent on inviting the right attendees, the success of a mobile application strongly depends on promotion.

That’s why we put so much thought into how we would best promote How We Love Food. An integrated transmedia campaign was led by two email blasts, driving users to the App Store. A landing page and a Facebook application also helped share the buzz about the application and pushed users to the App Store. Internally, the agency celebrated our proud creation by sharing links with our personal networks and – as you’ve seen all week – by contributing to 17 Stories with posts about our passion for the convergence of food, technology, and marketing.

The icing on the cake? Making things really social by contributing all download proceeds to Urban Roots, a signature program of the youth empowerment nonprofit YouthLaunch, which uses sustainable agriculture as a means to transform the lives of young people and increase access to healthy food. After all, How We Love Food – like most food experiences – has always been about sharing.

Over time, tracking key performance indicators like downloads, unique visits to the landing page, email click-through rates, referral visits to our agency site, and social media mentions has helped to prove the effectiveness and efficiency of different tactics.

In the end, Field of Dreams was a bit off. In marketing, if you build it, they won’t come. Promotion is the critical binding ingredient. So the next time you’re cooking up a mobile project, don’t forget to invite everyone over for dinner.

Cooking Magazine Mayhem

iskcashley — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:41:00 -0400

Growing up, I can remember the abundance of cooking magazines my mom subscribed to and her impulsive purchases of Cooking Light in the grocery store checkout line. After she would scour several magazines to find just the right recipe, she would only tear out one-or-two recipes per magazine that our family would even consider tasting (my sisters and I was quite the picky bunch). At the time, I just figured that this sort of behavior was normal.

Looking back on these childhood memories, I realize what a waste purchasing all of those magazines was. Of the 30+ recipes found in a single issue, my mom only saved one or two for her go-to recipe collection, and three if it was a REALLY good issue loaded with Italian recipes. Speaking with my mom recently regarding this topic, I found that she no longer subscribes to or purchases cooking magazines. When asked why, I found her response rather interesting: “Why would I pay around $30/month in cooking magazine subscription fees, when I can search thousands of cooking blogs for free recipes whenever I want?” Hate to say it, but she’s got a point.

This made me think about how the rise of social sharing has impacted our purchasing behavior. When we have unlimited, free resources at our fingertips, why not take advantage of that? These days there are thousands of cooking blogs, inexpensive iPhone apps, and friends who post their favorite recipes via Facebook for free. It seems that if cooking magazines want to continue to be competitive, they will need to find a way to compete with my favorite cooking blog. Rather than Mom planning out her family meals for the week, technology and social sharing has allowed her to quickly browse hundreds of recipes to find the best fit for dinner. Like everything else, technology and sharing have changed the way we traditionally search for recipes.

Farmville: How Social Media Can Save the Family Farm

colintest — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 11:32:00 -0400

No, not that Farmville. I’m talking about the new visibility of family farms in our responsible eating marketplace and how social media can be a great solution for keen farmers looking to seize this unique opportunity and build brand equity.

Picture the last time you were at a restaurant. Did the menu note that the food was fresh or organic? Maybe you saw a sign, trumpeting the restaurant’s locally sourced produce. These future artifacts are signs of the time. More and more consumers care about what they consume: Where did it come from? How was it made? Were the people who made it treated fairly How did it get to my plate?

Sustainability and social responsibility are no longer buzz terms - but market demands. According to a Deloitte study [PDF], 54% of consumers now enter stores actively considering sustainability attributes in their purchase decision. That said, only 22% actually buy based upon those attributes alone. For some reason, the 32% lost have changed their minds at the point of purchase.

For restaurants, that means selling the sustainability value proposition at their point of purchase: the table, check-out counter, or drive-thru. Consumers expect transparency, and that’s why restaurants (especially in Austin) are starting to list the local farms where they purchase their meat and produce.

In today’s digital world, it’s almost expected behavior to pick up our mobile devices and Google after being exposed to something of interest. Then, it’s no wonder why I’ve been perusing many a family farm website over the past year while nibbling on my non-GMO, grass-fed bison hamburger.

But, really - farm websites are admittedly a bit behind the times. And, that’s understandable: Farmers probably prefer to do what they do best - farm - and probably have very few resources to actually invest in such a labor-intensive communications medium. So, how can we save the family farm?

Easy: Social media! These websites clearly have great content: Stories about the family, why pastured eggs are better than factory eggs, pictures of the well-kept livestock, and more.

What better way to easily share that content than through Facebook photo albums or regular status updates? Or a quick Flipcam-produced YouTube video? Or check-ins on Foursquare at the Farmers’ Market?

Some farms are already catching on. And, while their audience may be small now, they’ll be well-positioned as the responsible eating marketplace continues to expand and this sort of restaurant transparency becomes an insurmountable barrier to entry.

Then, social media really will be dominated by Farmville. No, not that Farmville.

You mean we haven't always had Yelp?

annielenore — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 15:42:45 -0400

It would be much easier to write about how technology hasn’t changed food – nearly everything has felt the impact of mobile apps, social, and the deluge of data. Whether it’s start-ups turning data from something mysterious to something fun (Gojee, Food Genius, Punchfork), food bloggers whose style and recipies I love (Homesick Texan, What Katie Ate, Cannelle et Vanille), online communities creating new local experiences (Grubly, Housefed, Dinevore), or apps that recommend jumping off I-10 in Jennings, LA to have lunch at Boudin King - technology’s impact on how and what we eat can’t be understated.

Our biggest challenge? Cutting through the noise! More than 5500 iPhone apps pop up when you search for “food” in the App Store. Searching “food blog” on Google returns about 728,000,000 results. It’s like drinking from a fire hose - and the information will just keep on coming. Once you hook up nutrition info with FourSquare and Nike+ I’ll know exactly how far I have to run to work off last night’s burger. Or when you connect a smart fridge to the geo-location on a phone, I won’t forget to drop in and get cornichons when I’m near Central Market.

If you’re interested in food and technology, I love foodandtechconnect.com. For geeks like me it’s a great way to find out what’s new - from the latest start-up to new ways to think about all this data. New voices and new technologies will continue to teach us more about food and help us enjoy it. There are great fun problems to solve and I can’t wait to see what happens next.

But even as I think about all this innovation, the most important thing about food is what what tech hasn’t changed - it’s still all about coming together to enjoy a good meal with great people.

The Evolution of Restaurant Reviews

kristenswanson — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 16:25:00 -0400

The How We Love Food series celebrates the iPad launch of How We Love Food, an annual collection of recipes from Yvonne Tocquigny, founder and CEO of Tocquigny, and focuses on the convergence of food, marketing, and technology. Download the app now for just $1.99, and all proceeds will be donated to nonprofit Urban Roots.

In looking at the evolution of user-generated content and the power and influence of social media, it is interesting to note the effect it has on restaurants, large and small. In fact, eating establishments now look to social media as one of the primary sources to learn what today’s restaurant goers want.

On Facebook, chefs post pictures of new creations to share with friends, and more importantly, learn what the public likes and how to improve upon their already existing menus. In turn, this generates substantial buzz for the restaurant. And this isn’t just happening on restaurant Facebook pages or Twitter feeds. It’s all over chef profiles, as their personal pages become more intertwined with where they work and their networks become brand advocates, posting and sharing the content as well. According to the McKinsey Quarterly, word-of-mouth marketing and reviews can have a profound influence on consumers, as they are actively seeking the required information to finalize their decision to use a product or service.

From reviews in the newspaper, to Yelp and UrbanSpoon, to social media, the evolution of what is a restaurant review has blurred. And that’s ok with me. Honestly, I think the more involvement the public can have in the creative and marketing process of restaurants, the better.

Adding Physical Dimensions to the Digital World

jaketocquigny — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 14:32:00 -0400

To add some flash to a recent new business pitch, we decided to utilize one of the first concepts that we toyed with in Tocquigny Labs.

Projection mapping, as it’s commonly called, is the process of projecting images onto 3D geometry. It’s been used quite frequently on a large scale to transform buildings into massive canvases, like with Coca Cola’s 125th Anniversary Celebration, but the idea itself is quite scalable.

For our presentation, instead of just creating a PowerPoint, we decided to bring projection mapping to the conference room. We designed an arrangement of four white canvases at different aspect ratios and then wrote custom software that allows us to map different images and videos to each surface using only one projector, all while being able to control the presentation like a normal PowerPoint.

Just the small element of depth introduced by the physical canvases makes the presentation feel strikingly different, and despite the fact that the light actually comes from one projector, it often seems as if the canvases are self-illuminating.

Finding ways such as this to introduce some tactility to the digital world can be a great way to create engaging, memorable experiences. In fact, many recent tech trends such as augmented reality, multi-touch screens and natural user interfaces all deal with the merging of digital information and physical interaction. Projection mapping is just another tool in the technologist’s arsenal, but the results can be quite compelling.

World Cup Twitter Record - So What?

imogentest — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:59:00 -0400

On Sunday, during the dramatic end to the women’s world cup final in Germany, as Japan tied with the U.S. with three minutes remaining and went on to win on penalties, an all-time Twitter record of 7,196 tweets per second (TPS) was set. This moment surpassed the previous record, set on New Years Eve in Japan in 2010, which hit 6,939 TPS, the earthquake and tsunami which hit Japan in March (5,530 TPS), the death of Osama bin laden (5,106 TPS), the 2011 Super Bowl (4,064 TPS) and the Royal Wedding in April (3,966 TPS).

The record-breaking numbers on Sunday, of course, reflect a rise in Twitter usage. Currently, Twitter users send 200 million tweets per day, compared to 10 million two years ago. What’s more, 600,000 new users are signing up daily. We should all expect upcoming noteworthy events are clearly going to lead to a greater number of tweets as well as new record breakers, but what else can we take away from this?

While the record is arbitrary and will most certainly be broken sooner than later, it is a small indication that there are more ways to judge the worthiness of cultural events beyond the traditional measuring sticks like television ratings. In the past, television ratings were always the single barometer for measuring the significance and popularity of current events. All the common-man chatter and hype that was built up around big events happened strictly in private conversations. Today, people have their entertainment attention divided, the individual has the power to choose how and when they consume their entertainment and events, and everyone has a voice that is very public and available worldwide in real-time. Decidedly, tweets-per-second isn’t a perfect gage for establishing cultural significance, and it is not going to take the place of TV ratings altogether, but it is like seeing the water cooler chatter on a worldwide level as it happens, not just what our personal friends and colleagues think. I predict, pretty soon, we will be inventing all sorts of new metrics, outside of TV ratings, to determine social impact and status.

WE DON’T NEED AN APP FOR THAT

samwmarshall — Wed, 20 Jul 2011 11:08:58 -0400

Just when the market was trumpeting Google’s loss of innovative aptitude, Google Mobile has begun to unveil what could be the future for mobile optimization. And (with any luck) has sounded the bell for the end of app mania. Let’s face it, there are too many apps. From Fortune 100 corporations to garage-based ambitions, everyone has an app. But when you get right down to it, most of the apps that get released offer slightly more than mobile optimized data recall with functionality that could have been accomplished on a mobile browser.

Now I’m not suggesting that apps don’t have a place in our smart phone world, but Google’s recent unveiling of its own mobile optimized site, and Google Docs for mobile, are welcome reminders of what can be done within the framework of a mobile browser. Remember, before the internet, computers ran on apps. Then the Internet came about and the tech world opened up, connected, revolted and became a better place. Through app mania though we’ve taken our innovative focus away from our desire to push the limits of the open online platform and returned to building functionality for a closed-platform personal processing device. So thank you Google, for reawakening us to the browser’s offer of an open platform whereupon technology innovators can showcase their unbridled ambitions.

Thought Leadership Pays Off

romanorama — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 18:05:00 -0400

Insperity, formerly Administaff, now has “Business Performance Advisors” (BPAs) instead of “Sales Representatives.” So why change the title of the front-line sales force?

Their 25 years of experience tells them that words matter. They’ve also re-named the industry a few times — in the 1990’s from Employee Leasing to “Professional Employer Organization” (PEO). Then within the last year from PEO to “Workforce Optimization.” No one else in the industry can quite seem to catch up with this kind of thought leadership. The competition seems to just follow suit and adopt the terms that Insperity defines with its evolving solutions.

Of course, for long-term success, there must be truthful substance behind a clever title. “Business Performance Advisor” demonstrates Insperity’s sharp focus on “being there” for their clients, more like a partner. It also serves as an effective conversation starter/reminder that the BPAs can use to tell their story and articulate the benefits they bring to the table.

Thought leadership yields other benefits for Insperity as well. Because they are living the concept of ”trusted advisor” with their own clients, they also understand how to partner with their vendors in the same way. Insperity valued Tocquigny’s advice to invest a significant amount of time, energy and budget as we lead them through best-practice strategic planning of their forthcoming social media communities.

Allowing us in as a partner — instead of seeing us only as a vendor or marketing firm — led to more effective planning that will be instrumental in developing high-impact online communities and tools. This ultimately plays back into their main mission and helps the BPAs “be there” for their clients.

Five Digital Shops in the Heartland >

jfneely — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 13:23:58 -0400

Five Digital Shops in the Heartland >:

Marketing news website Clickz explores the trend of top interactive agencies between the coasts, including Austin’s own Tocquigny.

Natural User Interfaces + Gesture Control: A Kinect Experiment

craigtest — Fri, 01 Jul 2011 14:21:00 -0400

One of our core responsibilities at Tocquigny (and more specifically within Tocquigny Labs) is to immerse ourselves in emerging technologies, with the key objective of identifying their respective applicabilities within our space. When something is launched, for instance Google+, it is my team’s task to become the resident experts, with the capability of answering a wide gamut of business and technical questions from both internal stakeholders and clients. Like scientists, we must see beyond the buzz-ridden Mashable articles and “Trending Topics”, and actually submerge ourselves in the technology. This all leads up to the key function of Labs: adding relevance & context. Every day we get to don our creative caps and architect innovative applications of the technology specific to our diversified client-base and their short- and long-term needs.

We have a roadmap of technologies in queue, but this week’s was one we had been waiting to test out for quite some time: the Kinect motion-sensing input device (created by Microsoft). Released in conjunction with the XBox 360, it didn’t take long for technologists to see the Kinect’s applicability beyond gaming. The infrared device brings John Underkoffler’s visionary gesture-control interface from Minority Report to life.

This $150 consumer-facing infrared camera has introduced natural user interfaces (through gesture- and voice-control) to the masses. Offered many different names by the tech-crowd (computer vision, NUI, gesture-control, feature-recognition, spatial navigation, et al), the Kinect represents what many feel is the future of physical computing.

This week, we took the Kinect for a lengthy test-drive. Most notably, we used the device to capture full-body movements and converted them into commands that were fed into a piece of music composition software. Illustrated by the above photo, a person can control a digital symphony simply by moving any joint in their body. Sounds like a toy, right? A pretty practical toy… After all, this experiment was the catalyst for dozens of ideas pertinent to our future-facing clientele.

Preventative Nausea: The common cure for cigarette addiction?

robinjosie — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 18:13:00 -0400

The government’s newest attempt to deter smokers is literally sickening.

Via FDA.gov: “These warnings mark the first change in cigarette warnings in more than 25 years and are a significant advancement in communicating the dangers of smoking. The introduction of these warnings is expected to have a significant public health impact by decreasing the number of smokers, resulting in lives saved, increased life expectancy, and lower medical costs.”

”Placement of new warnings on cigarette packages and advertisements — starting in September 2012, the new cigarette health warnings will appear:

• on the top 50 percent of both the front and rear panels of each cigarette package.

• in the upper portion of each cigarette advertisement, occupying at least 20 percent of the area of the advertisement.”

The images are most certainly unsettling and will now be leering at you from behind the counter at your nearest corner store. There goes my weekly candy bar run at 7-11. Tell me you can choke down a Milky Way after this:

Do we really think this will work? Apparently so: Lawrence R. Deyton, director of the F.D.A. Center for Tobacco Products, said the government estimates — based on other countries’ experience — that the new warning labels will prompt an additional 213,000 Americans to quit smoking next year…

So from 46 million to 45,787,000?

This is a whole new realm of advertising we’ve never seen before for a minimal result. We’ve come a long way from 8 out of 9 dentists prefer Colgate, baby. How will this tactic perform against a substance whose addictiveness is compared to that of heroin? And what’s next? Images of shirtless obese people plastering your local fast food drive-thru? Only time will tell.

TWiT

romanorama — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:57:00 -0400

As broadcast TV and radio media look to transform their business models and content delivery, some new media pioneers are making serious headway in claiming valuable niche territory. For a few years now, I’ve been listening to various shows on a “podcast network” dubbed “TWiT” (originating from This Week in Technology).

Created by broadcast radio personality Leo LaPorte, aka “The Tech Guy,” this single network has around 35 niche shows – which LaPorte prefers to call “netcasts,” because “podcast” implies it’s only been uploaded to iTunes. In fact, each weekly netcast can be viewed LIVE or pre-recorded via any smart phone, iTunes, Android app, iPhone app, various set-top boxes, YouTube, you name it.

The live version is mostly for the die-hard fans, many of which log into a chat room to provide real-time fact finding and expert consensus. Every once in a while, the host needs help on a topic faster than a Google search, so they’ll say something like, “I don’t know…chat room, can you help me?” and within seconds the question is answered accurately, and you’re moving on to the next topic.

All content is free, and their ad model depends upon each show host to put their own spin on in-show mini-monologues that are often much less annoying than a produced piece. If you’re out and about while listening, and want to dive in deeper once you’re at your computer, each show has easy-to-find show notes with related resources and links.

So, we all know what podcasts are…it’s just amazing to watch LaPorte build his empire on a shoestring with everyday technologies like Skype and to realize how hard it will be for other players to catch up in the niches that TWiT chooses to dominate.

My favorite netcasts are TWiG (This Week in Google - covering all things ‘cloud’ with special focus on Google) and TWiT…the flagship netcast after which the network was named.

One fun and useless thing I learned this week is that you can Google the phrase “Google logos” to find a repository of all those clever holiday Google logo doodles – cool to see them all in one gallery.

Check it out on www.twit.tv. Even better, look up ‘twig’ or ‘twit’ in your iTunes app (or one of the various Android apps) next time you hit the gym or walk the dog…if there’s any geek in you at all, I promise it will not disappoint!

Prototyping: Do It Sooner, Not Later

comeonwork — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:18:13 -0400

Prototyping your product can solve many problems! Unfortunately, it has a major misconception: Too much TIME is involved with little payoff for either the agency or client.

I believe any process embracing prototyping will not only gain responsive UX, but all business parties will reach their goal much faster. Here’s how:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2011/03/07/lean-ux-getting-out-of-the-deliverables-business/

Client & Account Manager

Prototyping is the fastest way to get back to your client. It opens up a quicker stream of communication by allowing your clients to see and test core functionalities of their site. It allows them to feel involved and be heard when feedback can be given sooner, not later. Mainly, the client will never have to hear the word “No” once they have been given the chance to validate and see the prototype.

Designers/Developers

Prototyping forces agency developers and designers to converse often and close the gap between the left- and right-minded thinkers. It allows designers to embrace web best practices sooner, while maintaining creative control of their site. It allows developers an opportunity to discover, code, and minimize duplicate objects. Mostly, time is saved on both ends, as rarely will a step be taken without the other involved.

Agency

Overall, seeing an actual site versus a PDF can make the process between the agency and client leaner and cleaner (see image above). It will create easier steps for everyone in the agency to succeed.