misunderestimation

It looks like Coca-Cola has stepped-up their Internet marketing campaign:

The Coca-Cola Company is redefining the relationship between consumers and their sparkling beverages with the launch of the Sprite Yard, a real-time digital “on-the-go” community that provides social connections and downloadable content via their mobile phone anytime, anywhere. This mobile marketing breakthrough launched in China on June 1st and will go live in the US later this month.

The Sprite Yard creates an entertaining social experience beyond the value of traditional online destinations by providing consumers constant mobile, social and brand connectivity through mobile devices such as cell phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs).

Coke is definitely on the right track. The marketing money being spent on Internet will boggle the mind:

Studies have predicted that mobile marketing will increase sharply in the coming years, and Google, Yahoo and Microsoft have all introduced mobile-friendly search interfaces.

Mobile advertising could account for 25% of global internet advertising spend by 2011.

But what are they really trying to accomplish?

“The brand becomes the enabler of mobile social connections,” Mark J. Greatrex, senior vice president of marketing communications and insights at Coca-Cola, told a gathering of the nation’s leading mobile marketing executives. “The Yard users literally have their friends in their pockets.”

The mobile marketing effort is part of Coca-Cola’s plan to “create, connect and customize on-the-go experiences,” according to Mr. Greatrex.

Sprite’s “usage over-indexes with mobile phone usage,” Mr. Greatrex said. “This is Generation C and they’re right at the center of the mobile target audience.”

Genius. In case you have not heard, this is how Wikipedia defines Generation C:

Generation C could be said to comprise the people who use Web 2.0, create user-generated content and participate in the co-creation of products and services.

It’s getting harder and harder for marketers to reach Generation C and this effort means users will go to the Sprite Yard to interact with their peers. What could be easier? Only one question remains, how long will it take Generation C to see through the marketing campaign and declare the Sprite Yard as lame? There is a reason why it is hard to reach Generation C, they are at least a couple of steps ahead of the marketers.

More misunderestimation

The 2008 presidential election already promises to be on like no other; diversity in the candidate field, no clear inside-track nominee, insane levels of campaign spending, and a campaign that will be won or lost in the Internet. MySpace is stepping-up the Internet pressure and bringing in a new class of voters who ONLY get their information online.

First, MySpace has announced a partnership with Declare Yourself:

MySpace has partnered with Declare Yourself, a national nonpartisan, nonprofit campaign to energize and empower you. In 2004, DY registered over a million young voters – this year, MySpace and DY are working together to make it easy for millions more to make a difference.

Encouraging kids to become involved is a good thing. Traditionally, the 18-25 crowd is the lowest voting segment in our country. When kids ask, “Why do we always get the short end of the deal”, the response is, “Politicians don’t worry about you because you don’t vote.” Well, now at least the registration process is right in front of them.

After you register, you need to know about the issues and the candidates, so MySpace has also announced MySpace Impact; a page launched last week featuring candidate profiles and information. Of course, the Internet will be full of blogs on every possible aspect of the 2008 campaign, so the MySpacers will have a lot of information at their fingertips.

What’s missing here, the instant poll to see where users stand. MySpace is planning to adress that piece by holding their own presidential primary:

MySpace, the social networking site, will be holding its own presidential “primary” over the first two days of January 2008. (We’d call it more of a straw poll, actually.) All registered users will be eligible to choose their favorite candidate, and they can track the results of the two-day poll as they come in.

“Iowa and New Hampshire may be selecting delegates, but the MySpace vote will be the first test of where candidates stand in the election year,” said Tom Anderson, president of MySpace, in a release.

Talk about undercutting Iowa and New Hampshire. The MySpace vote could have a huge impact on a candidate’s campaign. You can be sure that the press will be all over the “election” results and the political experts will be weighing the impact of this poll for a long time.

What does this mean for the MySpace universe? Get ready for candidate appearances, more online political ads than you can stand, and every campaign camp wanting to know what’s on your mind. In other words, get ready to be noticed.

More misunderestimation

The much-maligned social networking site, MySpace has taken an important step in repairing its image:

Popular online social network MySpace said on Tuesday it will begin sending online alerts to users in certain U.S. regions to help find missing children as part of an expansion of plans to expand safeguards for users.

MySpace struck a partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to enable MySpace AMBER alerts, a program between the media and law enforcement to issue early warning broadcast bulletins in serious child abduction cases.

It is part of an upgrade by News Corp.-owned MySpace of safety features designed to address concerns of child safety advocates, some of whom say it has been slow to keep its many teenage members safe from adult predators.

Now this is an arrangement that makes complete sense. Consider the volume of MySpace users:

With 150 million profiles, MySpace is seen as one of the Web’s fastest-growing properties in terms of users. More than half of U.S. teens with online access use sites such as MySpace to stay in touch with friends, a recent Pew survey found.

Issuing missing child alerts to targeted areas via MySpace could be a huge help in recovery efforts. The question on my mind is, just how visible with these alerts be?

The Amber alerts, named after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1996 in Texas, will appear in a small text box at the top of a profile, MySpace said. The alerts give MySpace users the option to get more information about the case, such as photos and information on suspects.

As a father, this news makes me very happy. While some may debate the potential success of issuing Amber Alerts on MySpace, the more you get the word out, the more likely you are to recover the child. With MySpace, you can reach millions of targeted users instantly for little or no cost. This one is a no-brainer.

More misunderestimation

MySpace has had its share of trouble in 2006, but now a fresh round of identity theft is again raging through MySpace:

MySpace bills itself as a “place for friends.” Increasingly, it is also a place for unfriendly attacks from digital miscreants on the prowl, luring users to sexually explicit Web sites, clogging mailboxes with spam messages and playing on the trust users have when speaking to “friends” to obtain passwords that could lead to identity theft.

Identity theft is the Darwinism of the 21st century. Someone asks you for your information and we provide it. Why does it seem so easy on MySpace?

A key reason behind the popularity is its ease. Simply by adding a few lines of computer code, users can create elaborate profiles and personalize them with photos, music and video. A host of communication tools makes it easy to send messages to one person or a whole list of friends, who number into the thousands for some of the more popular MySpace users.

Those same tools can be used by vandals to make it look like an innocent user has sent spam to the same long list of “friends.”

Programmers are writing scripts that take advantage of specific features on MySpace, including “friend request,” where one user asks to be added to another user’s list of buddies.

I’m wondering again if having a MySpace account is really worth the potential trouble. It’s probably the same story we’ve heard time and time again; criminal prey on the vulnerable or uneducated. Please educate your kids and make them less vulnerable.

MySpace needs to get their act together pretty quickly according to BUZZscreen:

Other popular social networking sites such as Facebook do not have issues like MySpace does. If MySpace doesn’t fix the existing problems in short order, it’s popularity peak may be reached.

And we all know what happens after anything peaks.

It’s all downhill from there.

I couldn’t agree more.

More misunderestimation

The Nintendo Wii has been an incredible sales success that is rapidly turning into a Nintendo Nightmare. On top of a recall of 3.2 million remotes, now Nintendo is facing a class action lawsuit:

A law firm has filed a class action suit against Nintendo Latest News about Nintendo on behalf of owners of the new Wii gaming console for selling remotes with inadequate wrist straps.

San Francisco-based Green Welling filed the lawsuit against Nintendo of America in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington just days after Nintendo pledged to replace all defective parts through a recall of 3.2 million of the straps.

The law firm said Nintendo’s “failure to include a remote that is free from defects is in breach of its own product warranty.” The action seeks an injunction requiring Nintendo to correct the defect in the Wii remotes and provide those who bought the console the option of a refund or replacement.

Basically, you interact with the Wii by moving a remote and some users really get into the games…

Does this mean big bucks for Nintendo? Igniq.com doesn’t thing so:

Considering how fast Nintendo responded to complaints about the straps with A.) more stringent warnings, and B.) replacement straps, I have to wonder how far this suit will go. It seems like the company did cover its bases when overzealous gamers started reporting issues, but now it’s ultimately up to a judge to decide whether there’s a real claim here or people are chasing a cash cow.

I would have to agree. This appears to be little more than an opportunistic lawyer who can’t run after ambulances as fast as he/she once did.

More misunderestimation

Newsday.com and an interesting Op-Ed piece on Sunday drawing analogies between MySpace and YouTube with the rise and and subsequent falls of Napster and Kazaa. Could music sharing on MySpace and Video sharing on YouTube be heading down the same road?

The two differ in fundamental ways from their file-sharing predecessors, but their popularity flows in part from the same source: a supply of free media contributed by users. On YouTube it is video clips; on My Space it is clips and music. In fact, the two sites each show more videos than any Web site except Yahoo.

And now, with both sites drawing flak from copyright holders, the question is whether they’ll follow their predecessors’ rapid path downward, too.

The descent of the file-sharing companies was fueled mainly by their inability to satisfy the demand for free downloads that they had stoked. When the courts ordered the original Napster to prevent users from downloading copyrighted songs, it lost more than 60 percent of its audience in five months. It never recovered.

Could we be on the verge of another attack from the RIAA or Hollywood? Stay tuned.

More misunderestimation

In a follow-up to a post from last week about the flying Nintendo Wii controllers and the damage they cause, Nintendo made a major announcement today:

Nintendo said Friday it will replace 3.2 million straps for its popular Wii computer game controllers after receiving a rash of reports that the devices flew out of the hands of overzealous players.

Photo from: wiihaveaproblem.com

This can’t be good news for Nintendo who is in a major battle with Sony and Microsoft over their share of the video gaming market.

Nintendo has a remote replacement form on their site.

Lost Remote: What’s the worst thing that can happen to a new toy at Christmas? How about a recall?

Simon Bullen’s Weblog: The problem with the straps, originally reported as a major recall, affects all Nintendo Wiis sold worldwide and almost all units currently on shelves in shops. Nintendo has targeted sales of four million Wii consoles by the end of 2006.

Engadget: Well, how ’bout that… on top of the 200k DS and DS Lite AC adapters being recalled this morning, Nintendo just announced an additional recall of 3.2 million straps for their Wii Remote Control.

Nintendo Gal: Nintendo’s new Wii console has been cracking the charts wide open, along with the walls, furniture, and television screens of hundreds of eager players whose enthusiasm got the better of them.

More misunderestimation

Thanks to the popularity of MySpace, Yahoo was dethroned as the top site in November:

Social network MySpace drove parent Fox Interactive Media past typical leader Yahoo in number of page views in November, a Web metrics firm says.

Fox Interactive had 39.53 billion page views last month, while Yahoo had 38.05 billion, comScore Networks said Wednesday. As an indication of the impact of MySpace, Fox Interactive in November 2005, which is before parent News Corp. acquired MySpace, had 231 million page views from all its properties.

Of course, Yahoo does not see things the same way:

Yahoo argued that it had lost the top spot in terms of page views because it increasingly uses the latest “Web 2.0″ technology that did not need to spawn as many new pages to display Web information, a spokeswoman said.

ClickZ, an Internet marketing company, went a little further:

Be clear: this does not indicate MySpace and FIM are “biggest” online, whatever that means. Page views are a far from reliable measurement of success for a Web publisher. They fluctuate month to month for any site, and the advent of AJAX site navigation, which Yahoo has embraced in its mail app, reduces their number by not generating a new “view” for every click.

AJAX is a web technology that pushes new content out to web sites without “reloading” the page. Basically, the page gives you new information, but does not count as another page view. Cool for the user, not cool for the company counting the views.

LostRemote has this to say:

True enough, this is one of the biggest issues facing web developers today: AJAX improves usability but decreases page views. In fact, the Internet Advertising Bureau has urged both major web analytics companies to consider reforming its measurement practices to either account for partial refreshes or come up with a new metric for page views.

What strikes me in all of this discussion is something that has been around with the Internet since the first web pages. How do you accurately measure the success of anything on your site? Is it traffic, click-through rates, duration on the site, ad views, or something else? What is certain is this; what we think of success today will be pointless tomorrow.

More misunderestimation

Last week, MySpace announced plans to Weed Out Sex Offenders from their site. I, along with everyone else, figured this was nothing but an effort by MySpace to put a positive spin on a site that has excelled in bad press lately. After all, what sex offender is going to use their real name when creating an online identity?

Perhaps I was a bit premature.

Officials in two states proposed unusual plans Monday to tighten oversight of convicted sex offenders: Virginia’s attorney general wants them to register their e-mail addresses and online IDs, and New York officials want them to take lie-detector tests.
[...]
In Virginia, Attorney General Bob McDonnell said Monday that he would seek legislation to require convicted sex offenders there to register their online identities with the state to help MySpace and other online teen hangouts more easily block access.

MySpace is happy with the proposed legislation.

This legislation is an important recognition that the Internet has become a community as real as any other neighborhood and is in need of similar safeguards. Its passage will be a landmark moment in the history of Internet safety.

While I’m sure no one really believes this effort will be the perfect solution, but at least we are heading in the right direction. It takes a village to raise a child and it’s nice to see we are recognizing the role of online communities in our kid’s lives.

Others Blogging:

• Bill Designed To Keep Sex Offenders Off MySpace
• Megan’s Law goes virtual
• Virginia Wants ‘MySpace’ Sex Offender Bill
• Why Use A Cheese Cloth To Patch A Hole?
• Perverts on Myspace are Getting Nervous

More misunderestimation

You have to figure it is only a matter of time in front of the computer before we all forget how to write. I’m guilty. I needed to write a paper check the other day and had to read the instructions. I type much faster (and more legibly) then I write, plus the spell-checker is my best friend.

Most adults have had some experience with a pen and pencil, but schools today are pushing more and more technology. One would think all the time in front of the computer must have a cost. What are we taking out of the day to make room for keyboarding instruction?

One school in Scotland is bucking the trend and teaching their kids the lost art of writing with a fountain pen:

There is no clacking of keyboards in most classrooms at the Mary Erskine and Stewart’s Melville Junior School, although there is a full range of facilities for computer lessons and technology isn’t being ignored.

But the private school’s principal believes the old-fashioned pens have helped boost the academic performance and self-esteem of his 1,200 pupils.

“The pens improve the quality of work because they force the children to take care, and better work improves self-esteem,” principal Bryan Lewis said. “Proper handwriting is as relevant today as it ever has been.”

Interesting. Because they cannot easily correct their mistakes, the kids are required to focus and exert more care in their work. But, writing with a fountain pen? Do they still make those? Is that legal? I thought they made the ink out of endangered animals or something like that. Will PETA be raining red on schools?

Maybe there is a middle ground; a way to get keyboarding/technology skill into the classroom and still maintain that feeling of care in your work. Bring back the typewriter! Not those fancy ones with the ball, give me the good old-fashion typewriter with little golf clubs and hit your paper. You know, the ones that build finger strength while making that cool swatting sound. That would be great!

I love the sound of typewriters in the morning…

More misunderestimation