internet on the telly

I’ve been harping on for some time (to anyone who’ll listen) about how our tv and internet experiences are going to merge and YouTube XL looks like a sign off things to come.

YouTube as we know it but formated for widescreen and remote control.

Social character extensions

We’ve been talking to clients for sometime about the power of Twitter and other social channels in creating intimacy around brands inherent or associative passion points. Something that’s particularly relevant for entertainment brands – where character extensions and back stories can come to life to maintain engagement and develop deeper more immersive narratives between (and possibly even during) on air/line shows.

If you were following Man Men’s @Don_Draper on Twitter last year it turns out it was actually Paul Isakson conducting a research project on doing exactly that. At first AMC had the profiles pulled from Twitter, then probably realizing they were getting free advertising and potentially facing a firestorm of online backlash, they let them go back up. However when Paul gave the profile over to AMC, despite being handed an active and essentially free dialogue with a large group of fans (who when finding out it was Paul still wanted @Don_Drapper to live on) they promptly did nothing with it. 

The point isn’t so much the issues of authenticity and control – although those are obviously huge (and for another time) – but the fact that whilst followers of @Don_Draper probably feel let down by AMC, the other characters profiles, run by fans, have been thriving ever since. If brands are to jump in, whether through choice or through circumstance, they need to be committed to an ongoing approach. If they are not and are just in it for the life of a campaign they had better be clear about that up front and have an exit strategy that doesn’t leave those who were engaged feeling cold.

@betty_draper
@bettydraper
@Sally_Draper 
@bertramcooper 
@peggyolson 
@bud_melman 

On other Mad Men stuff – a great clip from Seth Godins blog on what comes first – product or marketing.

@acotterill
@mindsharesocial

touch me

bill gates went on at ces about how touch screen technology will impact the future and it is interesting to see how already some internet sites are now being optimized for the iphone. at present this doesn’t go too much beyond stripping the content, reformatting the layout and increasing the hot-spots, much like with regular mobile interent sites. i’m sure this will change as smart young techies and designers think of interesting ways we can use our fingers to interact with digital info. it will be interesting also to see how the diversity of touch screens will change how we approach designing user interfaces and experiences. will we get used to manipulating information on screens with multiple simultaneous touches? this worked for bill gates designing a snowboard on a table-top display but would this work on a portable device that you have to hold in one hand? maybe, or maybe we will have to develop different experiences based on what the end users is doing and what they are doing it through, whether that be on mobile, table-top, out door display, laptop or tv. as the tv becomes an online interface and we continue to multitask through the same screen more e.g. watching tv whilst instant messaging, whilst shopping and keeping an eye on the news/shares etc, reading/writing email or whatever, we will want to be able to use a device to organise all this but from the comfort of our couch. therefore are remotes going to become tablet touch screens that will allow us to manipulate everything that is on the screen and enter data like a keyboard? or do i all ready have a device that can do that in my pocket if i can just sync up my iphone up to a web enabled tv.

a rekindled love

after attending a q and a session with myspace co-founder chris dewolfe i’ve dived back onto and into myspace.

 

some of the future developments discussed in the q and a were around allowing users to have different profile displays based on how you categorize your friends and myspace becoming a hub aggregator and entry point to the web – combining a social network with a netvibes/igooglely type thing.

 

another interesting development is a product that will allow small businesses, who they identify as currently being underserved online beyond google and directories, to independently create their own ads and buy space that is ‘hypertargeted’.

the roll out of an ajax style interface similar to pagii that allows greater creativity on your profile – the ethos at the heart of myspace – was skirted around but is currently in development and about 6 months away.

beyond all these developments i think what is happening now is really what makes, and will continue to make, myspace relevant.

myspacetv is now apparently the worlds 2nd largest video sharing site. but with 50% of videos being played via profiles this represents an interesting development in social networking and how people will integrate the content they consume with their social network identities and how that content is written, produced and lives beyond the movie clip.

i don’t really want to watch eastenders online after it has aired on tv. if i want to watch it in the first place i’ll pvr it.

i want to watch short sharp bites of content online or on my mobile, and i then want to be able to engage in the experience beyond just viewing.

actually watching a show is now only part of the entertainment. i think 2008 will see developments like quarterlife, where engaging with the community around the show becomes as entertaining as actually watching it, becoming relevant and mainstream.

beyond that i can now actually write, direct and star in this content through developments like ‘my movie mashup’ .

less - throwing a vampire at someone who I’d rather not poke anyway thank you very much. more - participating with a community around the creation of entertaining content.

i’m over facebook. i heart myspace again.