Overdrive Services

Archives

  

Potholes in Boston? There's an App for That.

posted by Shane Kelly @ Monday, January 18, 2010 - 9:01 AM
0 comments. Click here to post comments.


The City of Boston recently released a new iPhone application, "Citizens Connect" (iTunes link), that allows residents to report issues about the physical state of the city.

The app is part of a bigger initiative to foster "Citizen-to-City" communications; all reports generated through the application are linked into Boston's Constituent Relationship Management System.

The free application allows residents to relay a problem and location to City Hall thanks to the GPS functionality in the new model iPhones. When a complaint is issed, users will get a tracking number so they can follow up and track the progress of the response to the complaint or issue.

So, if a user comes across a downed traffic light, or massive gaping pothole on Massachusetts Avenue, all they need to do is snap a picture, add comments, and submit the complaint to city hall.

For anyone that drives in Boston, you know this is a good thing, as there are plenty of potholes to snap pictures of!




Learn more about Citizens Connect program and iPhone application at the City of Boston's Site.

Labels: , , ,

 

When TV and the Internet Converge

posted by Harry Gold @ Tuesday, January 5, 2010 - 11:03 AM
0 comments. Click here to post comments.

OK, so 2009 was the year of social media and there's no reason to suspect that interest in social networks will slow down anytime soon. But what will be the next big thing that changes the way we, as consumers, consume media and how will marketers leverage that consumption? My prediction: the convergence of Web-based content, targeting, and functionality with cable television.

Call it enhanced TV or interactive TV. Either way, cable, satellite, and fiber-based broadband penetration combined with targeting, interactivity, DVRs, and the cable company's and TiVo's knowledge of our e-mail addresses, physical addresses, phone numbers, and even our credit card numbers will launch a new era in advertising and marketing. Old-school video creative, television networks, DRTV, and new-economy interactivity will come together.

While this has been talked about for a long time -- kind of like the days when we would hear about the "information highway" -- the promise of this technology is now here. Comcast's planned acquisition of NBC Universal validates the value and potential of interactive television. The folks driving that deal understand where interactive television is headed and I'm sure they have an arsenal of advertising goodies that will rival, and even surpass, the targeting, interactivity, and tracking of anything the Web can deliver. Interactive television will save the medium we know as television and replenish budgets that pay for the star power, creativity, and shows we've all grown to love and expect from the networks. I'm looking forward to seeing some amazing things.

If you're not 100 percent up on this stuff, let's first look at some of the interactive functionality offered by video, TiVo, satellite TV, and cable boxes. These features just scratch the surface of where things will go. In my next column, I'll look at real-life examples of interactive television ads and offer some predictions on where interactive television advertising is headed.

Step 1: Understand the Term "Addressability"

Wikipedia defines it as: "Addressability is the ability of a digital device to individually respond to a message sent to many similar devices. Examples include pagers, mobile phones, and set-top boxes for pay TV."

So, how does addressability affect interactive TV? We can take the targeting and tracking we do online (the thing that marketers love) and combine it with a cable company's customer records and data about customer's viewing habits. Television ads will be able to be targeted and tracked with unrivaled accuracy. Here's the reality: cookies can be erased but a consumer's ID can't be erased from a set-top box. As Variety points out, some advertising executives consider addressable TV marketing a "holy grail."

Step 2: Understand the Remote

In the column, "Remote Control as Mouse: TV and Web Integration," I discussed how today's TV remote is becoming the mouse of the future. You can move a curser up and down and side to side, click "ok" or "select," access menus, guides, widgets, and enter numbers and/or characters like a cell phone keypad. Just look at the image of the Comcast remote below.


Kind of like a game mouse, joystick, and game controller all in one, right? Imagine the day when you are watching an Applebee's commercial and it will say, "To get an e-mail Buy-One-Meal-Get-One-Free coupon for your next visit to Applebee's, just hit OK now on your remote." Then, armed with your e-mail address, Comcast or Verizon will fulfill your request instantaneously. Or, to take it a step further, how about, "Order your Snuggie now by hitting OK on your remote and entering your PIN number." The cable company would then transmit your order to the vendor, process your payment, and even take a cut. Now one more thing, imagine crossing the remote with a Nintendo Wii joystick.

Step 3: Understand the Guide

When it comes to TV/Internet integration, the feature we use the most is the "guide." (See the red "guide" button on the left-hand side of the remote in the photo, above, and the screen capture of the FiOS guide, below.) The guide content, typically delivered via the Internet, is essentially a Web site accessed through a TiVo or cable box combined with functionality that enables a consumer to jump to channels, set shows to be recorded, and order on-demand content that may end up on the cable bill. Now, while millions of people use this functionality everyday, most people don't really understand the power of all these technologies combined at their fingertips. This guide is the Google of your televised world! How many hits a day does your guide get?


The guide can essentially be a portal into a whole universe of Web-based content, applications, and commerce. If you can do it online, you can do it via the guide. Now that we have the PC screen and the mobile screen, get ready to create Web pages and interfaces for the living room screen. Note: while there are no ads in the guide now, I have a feeling that will soon change.

Step 4: Understand TV Widgets

These are applications that draw content and functionality from the Internet right into your television, where consumers can access via a remote control mouse. A consumer can get the weather, sports scores, and even Facebook and Twitter. (See a screen capture of the Verizon FiOS Widget Bazaar and a video tour, below.) Just think of it as iPhone apps for your TV. Now, imagine brands advertising their widgets on television and letting people acquire them by hitting "select" on their remote control. Something like, "To get Domino's Pizza widget now, hit OK on your remote."


See a Verizon Widget Video Tour here on YouTube by one of Verizon's product managers.

In my next column, we'll look at real-life examples of interactive television ads and I'll offer predictions on where things will go.

Labels: , , , , ,

 

Is Mobile Payment the Next Big Consumer Marketing Tool?

posted by Melanie DAcchioli @ Monday, October 5, 2009 - 4:46 PM
1 comments. Click here to post comments.

Mobile apps have become a staple of the marketing industry. Users are so connected to cell phones, PDAs and smartphones that advertisers have quickly learned that the way to get peoples' attention is inevitably to get into their mobile phone.

The newest piece of technology to start gaining traction in the mobile application world is the payment function. Mobile payment allows a cell phone or PDA to essentially replace a credit card; however, unlike the impersonality of a credit card, using a mobile payment option allows marketers to really generate a conversation with their target audiences, by providing promotions, coupons, and a method of payment right within each person's most important and inseparable piece of personal property. Much like online marketing became extremely powerful as computers and laptops became more prominent, mobile marketing is now a fast-growing, effective medium for marketers to utilize to break through the clutter.

The technology required to deploy mobile payments involves implanting a chip into phones that contains consumers' credit information. The difficulty and expense of implementing this technology is a major hurdle that needs to be overcome in order for mobile payments to really infiltrate the marketplace. However, according to AdAge, Juniper Research predicts that 123 million NFC-enabled handsets (46% of today's U.S. wireless subscribers), will come online in North America by 2013. Additionally, Dublin-based Research and Markets predicts that global mobile payment transactions are expected to reach $110.1 billion in 2013, at a 105% compound annual growth rate.

Mobile payment has been in use in Japan for about 4 years, and is just beginning to enter the U.S. in a few test markets of companies such as McDonalds and Starbucks. The ultimate reason for the growth of this new function in the marketing world is the ability to track customer behavior. According to Drew Sievers, CEO and cofounder of mFoundry, which supplied the technology that powers Starbucks' mobile payment feature, explained to AdAge, "If you've got a real-time device in the users' hands at point of sale, this gives you the opportunity to provide promotions and incentives at the time it matters and influence buyers' behavior."

You can check out the full AdAge article about mobile payments at http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=139439

Labels: ,

 

Social Media Strategy & the Importance of Listening to the Conversation

posted by Ty Velde @ Saturday, September 12, 2009 - 12:48 PM
0 comments. Click here to post comments.

So, you’ve been tasked with developing a social media strategy, but where do you start? In most cases the focus is on building an actual presence, which means building your Facebook page, MySpace profile, Twitter page and YouTube channel. Then, just like a magician waving a magic wand, your social media channel will be up and running.

But is this really the right approach? As we all know, what makes social media unique is the ability able to socialize with your target. To simply just look at social media as an extension of what you are already doing elsewhere online is not necessarily a sound strategy, as most online strategies are based on a one way exchange…speaking to your customers, while social media strategy is about socializing with your constituents. However, can you really socialize with people if you don’t know what they are actually talking about and what’s important to them? Now, you may think you know what’s important to them and in doing so try to barge in on the conversation, but is that really the proper way to engage someone in a social conversation?

While establishing a presence on major networks is by no doubt important to any social strategy, I’d like to argue that its not necessarily the first thing you want to do if you truly want to socialize with your constituents. In order to truly socialize with your audience, you need to first listen and understand the conversation that’s already taking place. This approach will in turn enable you to form the foundation of a social media strategy that is truly based on socializing with your audience, versus just speaking to them.

A Four Step Approach
With this being said, I would like to propose a different approach towards social media strategy development that is first about understanding your audience and the conversation taking place, versus building out a physical presence on major social networks. In the case where you might be inheriting an existing social media infrastructure, which as a result needs to be managed, I would like to argue that this approach still applies, as understanding the conversation that’s taking place will enable you to more effectively evolve the channel you've inherited.

With this being said, I would like to outline an approach to social media strategy that is based on the following four sequential steps.

1) Listen
2) Learn
3) Build
4) Engage

1. Listen to the Conversation
As any company knows, based on today’s environment there’s a conversation going on. And knowing there is a conversation, but not knowing what’s being said, scares the heck out of them. From blogs to Twitter to groups/forums and more, people are talking and conversing about your brand, products and company in more ways than you can imagine.

Thanks to social media monitoring technology such as Radian6 and other tools, it’s now possible to monitor this river of news and understand what people are saying about your brand and organization. These tools enable you to see what people are saying on Twitter and in the Blogosphere and by monitoring the conversation, you can get a handle on what’s being said.

Therefore, focusing first on “Listening to the Conversation” is more important than ever, as the intelligence you can gleam from it can form the bedrock of your social strategy, in terms of how you will ultimately choose to socialize with your constituents.

2. Learn from the Conversation
It’s not just enough to listen to the conversation, but you must then learn from it as well. By having your ear to the ground, you’ll be amazed by what you suddenly can learn about your brand and the people discussing it.

With this being said, following are just a few of key strategic elements that can be garnered and be used to develop your baseline strategy:

*** Topics of Conversation ***
- What are people talking about?
- Which topics are most popular?
- Which topics incite the greatest passion?

*** Sentiment ***
- Are people speaking in a positive or negative tone?
- Are there certain topics that garner positive and/or negative responses?

*** Influencers ***
- Who’s steering and guiding the conversation?
- Are there particular individuals, bloggers or Tweeters, that have a large following and are seemingly influencing how others perceive your brand in the social landscape?

3. Build Your Presence
Now that you’ve listened to the conversation and learned about what’s actually happening on the social front, you’re now ready to begin building your actual channel. The key thing here, is that unlike most strategies where this is often the first idea that is put forth, we’ve only come to this point after listening to what’s being said, and then garnering strategic learnings from it. This will ultimately enable you to develop a much more sound social media strategy, as it will be based on what people are actually conversing and socializing about, versus your assumptions, or worse, what you think they should be conversing and socializing about.

With this being said, building your social presence is composed of a few key components:

*** The Plan ***
Once you’ve decided to build your presence you must then develop a plan of action. Specifically, what’s the timeline, how and where is your channel going to be constructed and what kind of content are you going to populate it with.

This is obviously a huge endeavor, but when based on steps 1 & 2 of Listening and Learning, it becomes much easier and more strategically sound. The reason for this is that your plan and all of its components are rooted in the realities of the social conversation that’s happening and what people are responding to. Therefore, you can be confident that the plan you put forth will ideally be well received because its based on the realities of what your audience wants, not what you think they want.

*** The Platform ***
This is the point where you put your plan into action and start building your actual social media platform…Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Twitter, etc.

In doing so, your key advantage here is that you will be building a platform that’s based on knowledge of how your constituents are already socializing, so it can be constructed with this in mind. Therefore instead of merely constructing a social media presence, what you can construct is a platform for socialization.

4. Engage Your Base
One, if not the most important, component of your social media strategy, is your Engagement Plan. The reason I say this is that engagement is really just another word for socialization and this is this is what truly makes Social Media a unique marketing medium.

While anyone can listen, learn and build, what will ultimately determine the success of your social media strategy is its ability to engage your base. In short, if you want to build your friend/fan/follower base, you need to be consistently updating your channel, responding to inquiries and developing new content.

However, it’s important to realize that engagement is a two way street. It’s about how you choose to engage with your users and also knowing how they want to engage with you. Therefore by first and foremost Listening and Learning it will enable you to formulate a 360 degree approach towards your engagement strategy, as you’ll have a solid handle on what people want from you and also what you can expect with them.

With this being said, the following are a few key components to any engagement strategy and how listening to and learning from the conversation can impact them.

*** Building Your Fan/Friend/Follower Base ***
For many social media programs, this is what success is often measured against…the ability to build your social community. This of course is very important and therefore, warrants very specific attention.

Understanding why someone would want to engage and become a friend/fan/follower is very important. Therefore incorporating elements of the conversation within your branded social environment in the form of content, updates and more will help you to readily build your Fan/Friend/Follower base as they will see you as understanding their needs and most importantly relevant.

*** Outreach ***
Social media also affords you with the opportunity to reach out to particular “influencers” as a means to extend the reach of your social media communications. This is particularly true in the case of Blogs, as identifying bloggers who focus on particular topics and have a decent following is a great way to further extend your message and get others, besides yourself ,to talk about your offerings.

Therefore having an understanding of what’s being discussed in the Blogosphere, can help you to offer and put forth content that will garner interest from them. This can in turn lead to long term and important relationships with a very influential circle of tastemakers and evangelists.

*** Integration ***
Engaging your audience via social media does not only have to happen within your social media properties, but it can also happen on your branded web properties as well. The act of installing chiclets throughout your site or by integrating Facebook Connect makes it possible for users on your site to engage in a way that enables your website content to be propagated as social content.

Therefore, listening to the conversation can provide insight in how and where you should place chiclets and what kind of content might likely get propagated into the social environment. This is particularly important as your website is where many of your key evangelists are residing and giving them the ability to propagate content into the social networks can play a huge role in helping your overall channel to grow.

*** Applications ***
While there have been far more misses than hits with applications, what they do afford is an opportunity to create a branded social engagement within a user’s personal social environment. Therefore, applications make it so a user does not have to come to you to socially engage; rather they are able to incorporate your brand into their environment.

Additionally, I personally believe that also by deploying a “Listen & Learn” strategy as it applies to application development can fundamentally change how they are perceived and adopted. The reason I say this is that by basing your application development decisions on the conversation that's happening within the broader social media environment ensures that you are fulfilling a definitive, versus a perceived, need with what is built and deployed.

Conclusion
I believe that the four steps outlined in the proceeding paragraphs provide a solid road map to success in this new and evolving medium. The key takeaway here is that by deploying a Listen >> Learn >> Build >> Engage strategy is that it’s based first and foremost on understanding the environment and who’s participating within it.

The fact is, social media can not be approached with a “Build It and They Will Come” mentality; rather success lies first and foremost in an “Understand and They Will Engage” approach. For its only you are able understand who you are talking to and what’s being said, will users then socialize with what has been built and success ultimately realized.

Labels: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

 

Social Media Isn’t Just for Kids Anymore!

posted by Nick Cifuentes @ Friday, February 27, 2009 - 12:59 PM
1 comments. Click here to post comments.

According to a new report from Forrester Research, social media isn’t just for kids any longer. The new report notes that more than 60 percent of baby boomers are actually engaged in social media channels, such as blogs, videos, podcasts, and forums.

In 2007, the percentage of baby boomers consuming this media was at 46% for people ages 43 to 52, and 39% for people ages 53 to 63. By 2008, the number increased in a massive way, 67% and 62% respectively.

In addition, the number of baby boomers responding to content posted online increased as well. For the younger boomers, responding to content doubled from 15% in 2007 to 34% in 2008. According to Forrester, this is now at a percentage that’s high enough to target this group with social media applications and content.

When it comes to joining social networks, the activity has widely increased among baby boomers as well. Today, almost one in four of the younger boomers are actively engaged in social networks, up from 15% in 2007.

The one aspect of social media that is up, but not at a significant increase when compared to the other activities, is the aspect of actually creating content. Besides updating their online profiles and leaving blog comments, the baby boomers are still not heavily involved in writing blog articles or creating videos and posting them online. In 2008, 16% of younger boomers were involved in content creation (up from 12% in 2007) and 15% of older boomers (up from 8% in 2007). Both groups saw an increase, but it still remains the least popular activity online for baby boomers.


What Does this Mean?

According to Forrester’s suggestion - the best bet for getting baby boomers involved in your content is to create blogs or videos that relate to the life and/or work style of baby boomers. And creating these content channels without so many complex sign-up processes are most likely the smartest direction to take your ideas, as the numbers above show that baby boomer’s feedback is limited - so consider the sensitivity of your channel.

This research opens the door to start considering serious steps into creating social applications for this particular age group (ages 43 to 63). Although the group isn’t as active as the younger generations, their participation levels are now at a moderate level and increasing - very worth of a company to start to seriously consider marketing towards.

So when thinking about marketing to this age group, consider the social networks that many of the baby boomers now favor. Websites like Eons, BOOMj.com, TeeBeeDee, Classmates Online, and AARP’s new online community.

Labels: , , ,

 

Getting Savvy With Appsavvy: Measuring Success

posted by Harry Gold @ Tuesday, October 14, 2008 - 9:56 AM
0 comments. Click here to post comments.

Last time, Chris Cunningham, founder and CEO of appssavvy, the largest ad network of social applications, described how some brands use application advertising. Here he describes adoption rates, CPM rates, and his prognosis for MySpace, Bebo, and Friendster in their rivalry with Facebook.

Harry Gold: Why should online advertisers take advantage of social media applications?

Chris Cunningham: In a word: engagement. Internet consumers are spending more than three times the amount of time utilizing social media applications over their profile pages. They're engaging with their interests via applications, interests like games, music, books, travel, and more. Brands that interact with consumers via social media applications in a contextually relevant fashion are seeing tremendous success, and as more and more consumers interact with social networks and applications the opportunity grows exponentially.

HG: Do you see any danger in crossing the line when making an application too commercial or branded? Where is that line and how do you make sure you don't cross it?

CC: Again, if it's contextually relevant the user won't mind. On the flip side, if a brand wants to build its own application its needs to provide some, actually a lot, level of utility and content. Our work with Alberto-Culver's V05 is an excellent example.

It is also important for brands to understand that the mission should not be about pushing a message but rather bringing something to the party. Building applications only works if done the right way.

HG: Is there any demographic info on application users you can give me?

CC: It is really dependent on the social network. It is really that simple. For example, if Facebook's core audience is 14 to 35, that's the same demo appssavvy sells against on behalf of brands and advertisers.

It is this reason V05 is on Facebook. It is also why Kohl's back to school application promotion was on Facebook and why movie studios, such as Sony Pictures and MGM, are reaching Facebook consumers via relevant social media applications.


Read more...

Labels: , ,

 

Getting Savvy With Appsavvy: Application Advertising

posted by Harry Gold @ Tuesday, September 30, 2008 - 10:42 AM
0 comments. Click here to post comments.

Last time, we talked with Mike Kerns of Citizen Sports Network about application sponsorships on social networks. This time and next, we talk with the other top player in this space: Chris Cunningham, founder and CEO of appssavy, the largest ad network of social applications.

Harry Gold: Can you tell me about you and your company?

Chris Cunningham: I've got a passion for this space. I was exposed to the social media application space by spearheading freewebs's widget initiative a couple of years ago. At that time, I got my first taste of the opportunity here for brands to play an important role in the social media ecosystem. At freewebs, I had the opportunity to launch the highly successful WidgetCon conference in 2007 and haven't looked back since. Prior to the application space, I was involved with several companies in the digital music space, including Digital Music Network and Music Vision.

Now I am CEO of appssavvy. We are a direct sales team representing many of the leading applications in the social media space. Currently appssavvy sells integration and media around 15 of the top 25 biggest applications on multiple platforms and reaches over 50 million users over another 500 applications. Appssavvy sells contextually relevant advertising on social and utility applications and drives premium CPMs [define].

HG: What are those 15 apps and their stats?

CC: Appsavvy represents 15 of the top 25 application companies, including leaders such as Playfish, SGN [Social Gaming Network], Flixster, Bantr, and 42 Friends. Each company has leading applications, such as Bowling Buddies, Circle of Friends, and Entourage. Through these partners, appssavvy has access to a user base of more than 6 million daily and 50 million monthly users. Advertisers have the opportunity to integrate their branding messages through exciting mediums, such as the bowling lanes on Bowling Buddies, where the brand can spend an enormous amount of time with a user. Or campaigns can leverage the millions of users across the SGN Gaming Bar to drive response and engagement.


Read more...

Labels: , ,

 

Overdrive Interactive Launches New Website, Interactive Game and Facebook Application for GMAC Insurance

posted by David @ Friday, May 23, 2008 - 1:43 PM


Are you a dumb driver?

That’s the real question being asked by the 2008 GMAC Insurance survey of 5,524 drivers from all 50 states. The results of the survey show that one in six U.S. drivers wouldn’t be able to pass a written driver’s test if they took it today.

Overall, the national average score grew slightly to 78.1% from 77.1% in 2007, but scores varied based on driver demographic and geography. The study found that drivers over the age of 35 were more likely to pass, and women were more likely to fail than men.

Overdrive Interactive recently launched a new website (http://www.nationaldriverstest.com/) for GMAC Insurance that contains all of the study data, the online version of the written test, an interactive defensive driving game, and a Facebook application for the National Driver’s Test.

In the first twenty-four hours after the site launched, it received over 100,000 page views and was responsible for tripling the normal daily traffic to the GMAC Insurance corporate site.

Go to the site, take the test, and then challenge your friends to beat your score!

Labels: , , ,

Blog Search

 

RSS Feeds

 Atom
 RSS

Subscribe to Overdrive eMarketing Blog by Email





Delivered by FeedBurner

Categories
Blog Home  |  Social Media Map  |  Schedule a Seminar  |  eMarketing Blog  |  Contact Bloggers  |  © 2002-2010 Overdrive. All Rights Reserved.