The Dead played at the Obama Inauguration

Posted on March 18, 2009 by minterdial

It took a little bit of exploration on dead.net and Rolling Stone to find out — substantially after the fact — that the [revised Grateful] Dead played for Obama in the Mid-Atlantic inaugural ball (20 Jan 2009). No one I know was in attendance or perhaps they might have told me. In any event, I saw a bit of the footage and it looked quite goofy. The Dead were accompanied by Warren Haynes (of the Allman Brothers / Gov’t Mule) and Jeff Chimenti (on keyboards). The Dead were square pegged into a rather unorthodox one-hour gig, replete with security checks (that must have been a gas). On TheOtherOnes.net (and Dead.net) you can find this rather fun, behind the scenes video of the Dead preparing and play at this Inaugural Ball (the embedded script did not work for me, otherwise, you would be able to click on here!).

For your viewing pleasure, here is a YouTube amateur shot of the tail end of The Wheel into Touch of Grey (4 minutes) at that Inaugural Ball:

And here is a close up of Bobby Weir strutting his stuff.

Bob Weir Grateful Dead at Obama Inauguration

Updated March 21st.
The unofficial set list of the show (courtesy of rundangerously) went as follows:

Dancin’ in the Streets
Uncle John’s Band
Sugar Magnolias
Eyes of the World

Break (with words from VP Joe Biden)

The Wheel
Touch of Grey
Box of Rain

Hammy the Hamster Goes Organic…

Posted on March 11, 2009 by minterdial

Which tastes better: organic or conventional food?

This Hammy the Hamster Goes Organic video (and especially the out-takes further below) is bound to produce a smile. And, if you are sensitive to the quality of the food you eat, then you could find the experiment of interest. Created by the authors of the The Cooks Den blog and posted just March 2nd, this clip has already had nearly 1/2 million views, a very quick offlift (thanks to an MSN posting).

“At The Cooks Den, we decided to apply the scientific method to that important question. We brought in an unbiased test subject — one who has superior taste buds, is unaffected by marketing hype, and is unafraid to express her opinions publicly.”

What if a food company latched on to this? Shouldn’t some organisation like Whole Foods sponsor Hammy? I can imagine a deal that allows Hammy to do some purchasing decisions? “This aisle for Hammy products…”

Here are the outtakes of Hammy. A quick 1 minute spin, worth the watch … at the very least to authenticate the techniques!

A few more pieces of information that you can discover on the Cooksden site: Hammy prefered conventional walnuts over the organic variety. The odd thing was I didn’t even know that organic walnuts existed. The broccoli left Hammy indifferent the most. The item for which organic was most important was cheese. Gives a whole new meaning to who moved my cheese.

Next up: organic milk and apples, I hope.

LIDL – A web campaign that merges value and values

Posted on March 8, 2009 by minterdial

MEANINGFUL MESSAGES AND SINGULAR SHOPPING EXPERIENCES…

A consumer’s journey with a brand

Ever since I latched on to the Firebrand (RIP) site, I have been interested in the concept of advertising as content, beyond merely being a reflection of contemporary society. Ads that have content have meaning and create conversations. They can become viral, for example, because they transmit values to which people adhere or humour that bring true cheer. Content-filled ads are rather rare, as marketers are reluctant to step away from the classic advertising ways; and, yet, in today’s environment, I believe that creating meaningful ads should be on the top of marketers’ priorities — at least for those up and comers wishing to make waves, make a difference and make a buck. Arguably, all brands with at least a little attitude or a semblance of community, should be looking to make their message meaningful.

The brand’s marketing [advertising] message is one thing; but, the in-store “live” feeling is another. There is a lot of work to be done for a brand to connect its advertising message with that in store feeling down the line. In today’s economically depressed and evermore time-compressed conditions — not to mention the paroxysm of information and misinformation that besiege the consumer — there is a need to rethink the shopping experience. And, whether it is the high street independent, the department store or the supermarket, the shopping experience is in need of a significant [r]evolution. Consumers are no longer willing to put up with the deluge of confusing messages, lost time and wasted packaging.

Here is a wonderful return-to-values and bring-me-emotion campaign by the German discount supermarket chain, LIDL (with stores in 17 countries, including major presences in UK, France & Holland…). I add a Wikipedia write-up here on LIDL. This web-based 1’31 ad (below) associates fundamental, daily emotions with basic (and cheap) accoutrements that you can find at LIDL. It is perhaps a more practical take on MasterCard’s Priceless campaign. Of course, I now need to see how this translates in the LIDL in-store situation.

For such a great creation, I was surprised to see that it only has 39K views (since its October 2008 posting). Perhaps, that is because it is only in German. In any event, I think you can get the gist from the euro figures…and the English lyrics to the accompanying song.

What are your thoughts? Please drop me a line!

UPDATED on 2nd June, 2009: Since there was a decision (I assume by Lidl) to shut down access to this ad above, I have re-added a different link to the YouTube ad from LIDL. In any event, if they do the same thing again, I add the link here: ~~http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkSOv52qvD4~~.

UPDATED on 19th April, 2011: This last ad was also taken down. I guess LIDL don’t want their ads on line — or at least certainly not on YouTube?

Convergence – In search of the Uber Consolidation

Posted on February 20, 2009 by minterdial

Are you like me, Seeking the Consolidation & Convergence of all Applications, Tools and Electrical Wires?

I enjoyed this article from Engadget “What Apple could learn from Palm Web OS” and it spurred me to consider my state of un-convergence, with the multiplicity of electronics that I lug around, different coloured USB keys to swap files, portable disk drives for backups, Apples and Dells, iPod and Blackberry, camera and video, work and home, Freebox and AppleTV, avi and wmv… The list of interdependent yet not connected items continues to gall me. When can we have the uber-converged mother-of-all tool?

Specifically, I dream of consolidating all my address book information whereby all my snail mail and email addresses and telephone numbers are simultaneously updated and accessible across every platform — think Plaxo on drugs. I think of centralizing all my digital communications so that, instead of jumping from Facebook to LinkedIn to twine to twitter to Hotmail and gmail, etc., I just have one email site to open and one preferred functionality to use — think universal netvibes. I wonder if it is time for me to abandon a fixed line at home (like 1 in 5 US households apparently) to concentrate on one mobile phone (nix one for work and one for personal use) so that I have just one telephone number to give out and have one less bill to pay (albeit the fixed home telephone is embedded in an internet and television subscription here in France). I am confounded by the number of different electric chargers that I must carry with me to support my blackberry, my iPod, laptop and earphone, etc. — much less when I travel abroad with all the different plug adaptors. I puzzle at the stash of USB connector chords that I have by my computer to connect the various apparatus with non-standard fixtures to my main computer (thank goodness for the USB hubs). And, if all that were not enough, I just want my laptop, desktop, television, iPod and mobile phone all to be the same. On this latter point, aside from the large keyboard, one can sniff that an economically viable answer is around the corner.

Convergence Mobility Telephone & Computers

Somehow, despite my fast typing and reading skills, I still feel like I am near to being submerged by the burgeoning number of sites and applications to which I have signed up. Is my webiquity catching up with me? On the application front, among the solutions that are out there and that are truly helping, there is hellotxt that creates“what am I doing” microblog messages for a wide variety of twittery applications — and can be updated now via the mobile. There is the aforementioned netvibes (est 8 million users) or pageflakes for storing a good portion of different applications such as Facebook, gmail and/or hotmail (albeit you still need to switch to the individual applications to read and write). Still, there is no full coverage system. Proprietary applications and stonewalling is clearly stopping the creation of the mega-consolidator. One thing is for sure; I am not alone in my desire, even in France. There was a study done by Accenture in France about the desire for telephonic convergence in France (no longer available on line).

I gather that Palm has come up with a new palm PRE (coming soon, pictured right) all-in-one product. See here at Engadget and here on Mobiledia for more details. A friend at Nokia has reliably told me that the Nokia E71 “connected freedom” is a good alternative with the bonus of being available already. And, there’s the Touch screen qwerty Nokia N97 coming soon. Could it be that a hardware company can come up with the wherewithal to centralize all the different applications?

But, as urgent and (de-)pressing as the need for convergence is, the world of the web is expanding like the universe…to appear and operate on many different media…well beyond phones… on buses, tables, buildings, all electronic appliances… And newer still appliances and applications are sprouting up like mushroom so that, just when you think you have it all together and think you can converge onto one new glorious, unifying ubermetaplatform, you are going to be faced with the mobile book reader (Sony’s PRS-700BC or Amazon’s Kindle); the to do list consolidator that wirelessly feeds the “shopping list” on the kitchen fridge into your uber-PDA todo list; or a digital pen that magically transforms letters on a page into a typed document.

Just think about it. There are a billion people connected to the net now via their computers. The next billion internet connections will come on mobile platforms… Ready for mobile phone banking and mobi-creditcards (try wizzit which won the top prize at the NetExplorateur 2009)? On-demand shopping assistance, advice and ratings on your uber personal mobile device (try Big In Japan – Biggu – T-Mobile G1 on YouTube coming soon to Europe)? The third billion one has to imagine will have internet literally at, if not, in our fingertips. Everything will be wired.

Of course, there’s another topic brewing here regarding the convergence of branding, entertainment, advertising and consumption and how best to tackle the convergence from a marketing standpoint. But, better save that for another post.

What are your thoughts about convergence? What are your favourite tools? Or do you feel that it is just an interminable rat race and a way to get us to spend more money (think Vinyl-DAT-CD-mp3-mp4…)?

Velib in Paris – Wheels are coming off…

Posted on February 11, 2009 by minterdial

The wheels are coming off the track for the Vélib bicycle programme in Paris, a subject I have been following since its inception. According to this BBC write-up (taken in turn from Le Parisien), the Parisians seem to have taken a little too much liberty with the vélo liberté…

It seems that, after 18 months, the verdict is that the Vélib system in Paris simply does not function. The city of Paris has had to indemnify JCDecaux for the damage and disappearance of so many bicycles. In fact, 19,600 out of 20,000 bicycles have had to be replaced or repaired, with nearly 8,000 of them having disappeared (into Eastern Europe and Africa). The replacement value of each bike is 400 euros, not cheap, eh? And, then there is the Vélib Extrême / Freeride trend which has popped up on YouTube.

What a poor statement. The youtube site dislaims: “none of the vélibs in this film were mistreated…” Appropriately, the accompanying music is Highway to Hell. Why has the criminal underworld descended on Paris? How many Parisians are responsible themselves? How is it that the similar programmes work so much better in other cities? And, importantly, for cities wanting to replicate the Parisian system (London, San Francisco…), how can such base vandalism be avoided?

Steve Jobs’ Launch of Macintosh in 1984… Video down Memory Lane

Posted on January 27, 2009 by minterdial

Feeling nostalgic during these difficult times? You are not alone. Many people, in this worrisome period (inspite of the arrival of Obama), are looking for creature comforts, reassurance and transparency.

In the spirit of rekindling nostalgic moments, below is a little trip down memory lane, with the quixotic Steve Jobs launching the original Mac. Not that one needs to worry today about Apple just yet–despite Steve Jobs’ evidently serious health issues–as the company has just beaten forecasts in its F1Q09 (quarter ending Dec 2008) and seems to be weathering the storm perfectly.

The launch presentation is quaint and yet visionary. Jobs says, “come see the Macintosh in person…” Revealed as if the 1984 Mac were a human being (not Big Brother), this is an engaging 4:48 video, showing just how human the box could become. Macintosh speaks for itself, truly. And the Apple journey continues today, with plenty of vices — but on the whole, LOTS of pleasure and, given the look and feel, plenty of humanity, too.

Could it be that the “lipstick effect” may be becoming the iPod effect? Rather get the latest iPhone or iPod than the newest shade of red lipstick? More likely that people are cutting back on other items other than the little cosmetic luxury they can afford. But, I believe that the paradigm is shifting and the indispensable expense now includes your mobile communication/music player. The mobile is social, business and personal. And the innovation of the i-P set of products have driven that change. And, you have to tip your hats to Apple for not having gone to any drastic discounting measures in the face of difficult economic times.

Stop and Smell the Roses – Joshua Bell Tolls for Thee

Posted on January 7, 2009 by minterdial

If you were passing through your local metro or subway station on your way to work and saw Joshua Bell playing (over a 45-minute span) in front of a trash can, would you have stopped to listen?

Gene Weingarten, staff writer of the Washington Post, wrote this piece April 8, 2007, “Pearls Before Breakfast” in which he describes how he and Joshua Bell, a virtuouso violinist, staged a fake busker scene (on January 12, 2007) to see if anyone would really notice (or care). From snopes, it is declared a true story, although the video below would seem to be proof enough; and the Snopes article is itself a little inaccurate insaying that there “was no recognition” of Bell or his quality playing. If you look at the video below, and wait till the end, you will see that a woman recognized him, having seen his concert two days before.

Here is a 2:37 video of the scene from YouTube. The video is sped up, though thankfully the music is not. This video has been viewed some 850,000 times so far. Click and enjoy!

Wingsuit “Birdman” BASE Jumping

Posted on January 7, 2009 by minterdial

Ever heard of BASE jumping? I had not until I was sent this video (below). BASE stands for Building, Antenna, Span, Earth. To qualify for a BASE number, you need to have jumped off from all four locations. And, on a variation on a theme, you can add an aerodynamic “wingsuit”, alternatively called “squirrel” or “birdman” suit before pulling the chord. Wingsuit Base Jumping is clearly one of the most extreme sports out there and you can live it vicariously through these exceptional videos below. There is no trickery in these videos. This is the real thing. As is my wont, I have done a little digging around to find out a little bit about BASE jumping. Read on below for more.

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Evidently, one of the best places to do this is in Norway as indicated in the film above. But, it seems that the “Earth” jumping in wingsuits has a set of most recommended spots, meaning you get to do some travelling before you can casually sign up. A report from ARTe (en français) is also available on YouTube:

BASE jumping was apparently started in 1978 and mainstreamed in the early 1980s. Considering you need to jump from a building and an antenna, there are legal challenges to overcome. To whom do you apply to say that you would like to jump off a skyscraper? You also need to consider carefully where you land. To do a BASE jump, you don’t need to use the wingsuit. That is an intermediary option for the longer jumps before you get to the parachute. The number of BASE jumpers (“BASE numbers” or people that have managed to execute a jump from all four locations) is now around 1,300 and the graph seems to be rising fast (the tipping point seems to be around the year 2000… not to metion the million+ viewers of the videos above. The trusty Wikipedia provides some good information.

For those of you who need to brush up on the gravitational pull, you need 12 seconds of freefalling before you reach maximum speed which is 119 mph or 191.59 kph, meaning you are hurtling down at 53.04 metres per second. My favourite statistic (pictured below): 30 people jumping simultaneously from the Ostankino Tower in Moscow (2004) and apparently captured in the Guinness Book of World Records.

And if you want to get into the action, there is advice (safety tips, how to do it, where to do it) for those of you who are singularly crazy enough to do it here from the Dropzone. There seems to be much debate as to how many skydives one ought to do before starting to do BASE jumping. The debate rages between 100 and 1,000 sky dives. See here for the BLiNC Magazine’s version on the debate. (BLiNC claims to be the source for everything you wanted to know about Base Jumping).

But, aside from the untold costs (equipment, travel, etc.) of getting into BASE jumping, now time for some cosmic reality: there are plenty of fatalities. Here is a list of the BASE jumping recorded fatalities that goes back to 1981. This particular list chronicles 124 deaths (as of summer 2008), including 7 women. Among other statistics you can find here with another slightly different list, it would seem that jumping from Earth is the most common departure point. And, in terms of departure point fatalities, not surprisingly Earth departures constitute two thirds of the recorded fatalities. Antenna comes second (at 14%). 74% of the fatalites have non-gear related reasons. Only 14% of the fatalities concern the wingsuit variety. Curiously, the stats say that just 49% died on impact.

Clearly, BASE jumping does not stand to get this Blogger Actively Subscribing to this Exercise. However, the wingsuit videos are still absolutely mind boggling to watch.

BootB & Pratiks – Website Reviews

Posted on December 16, 2008 by minterdial

I have spent the morning looking at and rating two different “community” sites with different concepts: Bootb and Pratiks, with proof that not all sites are created equal.

BOOTB – “unlimited creativity”

www.bootb.com

I discovered a new concept in the Internet world which appeals to me no end. It is called BootB, for Be Out of the Box. Available in 12 languages at launch (officially launched November 2007, but went “live” during 2008) Bootb it is still just in the beta phase. With several big name clients and plenty of media coverage around the world (LCI TV in France, WSJ, Guardian and more), I have to believe we are on to something here. BootB is a perfect example of “crowdsourcing.” Pier Ludovico Bancale, CEO and Founder, has pulled together a pool of some 10,000 creatives around the world who are there to submit their creative executions to briefs put up by companies who are looking for quicker and cheaper alternatives to the traditional Agencies. The minimum price is $1000 and the creator of the winning submission gets 80% of the earnings. I have not tried my hand yet on a brief, but in the era of collaborative, open innovation, BootB has a fun design and several success stories in its pocket already. Here’s how it works. As the site says, BootB is the Republic of Unlimited Creativity… the world is your [creative] oyster at BootB.

One annoyance for BootB: the sign up is particularly painful to navigate (scroll doesn’t work, small text, odd calendar system) and, worse yet, the sign up information isn’t rolled over into your profile, so you get to do it twice.

BootB FINAL RATING 5***** out of 5.

—-

PRATIKS - “video guides for life”

www.pratiks.com

The second site I have come across is called Pratiks.com, available in English/French/German. Pratiks is a site collating consumer generated video guides for life. The idea is for consumers to post their “how to” videos regarding practical parts of life. In the channel mosaic, you will find a number of chapters, most of which are as yet empty of content: Love Charm, Car Bike, Beauty Fashion, Kitchen Cocktail, Do It Yourself Decorating, Law Money, Practical Life and more. In Beauty Fashion, for example, you can find an amateur video for how to do a chignon or how to apply a lipstick – seems to be aiming at the teenager. In Law Money, meanwhile, you find topics such as death & succession as well as divorce (neither of which has found any takers, duh). In “Unusual Hobbies,” you find such unusual hobbies as football (single most popular game in the world), bicycling, golf and tennnis… When there are videos, they are virtually all in French, making the English and German flags a case of oversale. And, without even waiting for further content to be posted, I cannot state that I believe this site will not last long. YouTube and its peers have sufficient search functionality to allow to find videos on how to play many pieces of music, play cricket or just have a laugh… things that pratiks can’t do. Then again, I did get a laugh out of the poor quality of some of the videos.

One final annoyance, the English site is riddled with errors in English. Just on the English language Profile page, it writes “CONGRATULATION MINTER” and “Invit your friends”. A bit sloppy. And some of the text has yet to be translated from the French.

Pratiks FINAL RATING 1* out of 5

Your rating please!?

Finding a CRM Voice – The Right Values, Meaning & Frequency

Posted on December 7, 2008 by minterdial

Customizing your Real Message & Finding a CRM Voice?

As I mentioned in the prior post, I believe that the consumer world is in the midst of a true paradigm shift. In these dire economic times, there is a huge likelihood that the ongoing increase in the share of time and mind of the Internet is going to accelerate. The consumer will turn to the Internet even more because it offers useful new tools and services that cater specifically to the needs of people living in harder times. (Read here for more about why the crisis will push up Internet use).

The question now becomes how brands and companies want to take advantage of this. What posture will companies take to reach out to the consumer who is decidedly cautious, if not nervous about his or her future? The company that speaks to me in a way that makes sense is a good starting point. For example, if a company (ex Harrods) checks out my dopplr and see that I am going to travel to London on such and such a date, then drops me a pertinent offer for that date, would that not be a great idea? The chances are that I would be more than willing to view their mail (if they only they could make their creative a little more classy, too).

There has been much written about CRM (for basics, see marketingteacher.com), as in Customer Relationship Management. But, except for a couple of rare exceptions, I as a consumer have not been “feeling the love” from any particular brand or companies. It is not like I am not present on the Internet, or do not own any loyalty cards, or do not shop frequently at certain stores. There is certainly plenty of data on me out there to mine. At this point, for most companies, the mining has been, at best, superficial. There are some companies who have cottoned on to the idea of email campaigns as a cheap way to bolster traffic — to the web site if not the store. But that’s about it. But, I am looking for more. Companies need to tap into the data (which I volunteer) and capture my attention by knowing more about who I am.

Once companies have mastered dynamic customer knowledge (i.e. created a way to keep an up to date database), the question will then become to what extent (quantity and quality) the brand is communicating with its customers? There is a real risk that a deluge of irrelevant email campaigns will completely shut down the effectiveness of the email channel — broadening the definition of spam, increasing people’s intolerance to emails and making them opt out systematically or just delete with increasing revulsion on reception. If the average rate of opening an email drops down below the 2% level — a barometer for so many formerly traditional media campaigns — you may end up pissing more customers off in the process. While companies are still saving on the postal cost and on the CO2 with emails, they will be shooting themselves in the foot if they overdo it.

There is a golden opportunity to use the ‘net as a marketing tool. There are two important points. First, don’t abuse the opportunity out of laziness. Pouring out unpersonalized, non-customized emails is not the right answer; like cutting down rainforests, it is a very short-sighted approach. Second, mind the data (think “Mind the Gap” as they say in London’s tube stations). What is needed is to craft meaningful messages (in line with the brand’s values), with a customization that reflects some of the unique elements of the receiver.

This all leads me to the main point: Brands endeavouring on CRM programs need to reflect carefully to find their CRM VOICE. There are three core ingredients to creating a CRM Voice. (1) A CRM Voice first means being getting in touch with the brand’s DNA, its core values. How is each communication refurbishing the identity of the brand and reinforcing the customer’s affinity with the brand. (2) It means knowing how to create messages that are relevant to the brand and to the receiving client. Does the brand have an interest in me? Does it know me (without the overtones of Big Brother). Does it know how to surprise me? To wow me? (3) Finally, it means getting the frequency right, knowing how often that person needs or wants to be contacted — including all the different channels of communication (TV included). A well-adapted, customized message becomes part of a well-oiled service.

In summary, brands need to find their CRM Voice: a Customized Real Message that is aligned with the brand’s core values. Brands that are high in love (lovemarks *****) and respect have a potentially greater starting point. But, every customer is looking for meaning and, in today’s difficult economic times, they will be more than likely spending more time online. I will be keen to see which brands or companies come through this vortex smelling like roses — for the times they are a changing, and I believe a paradigm shift is well underway. Which companies are going to capitalize intelligently on the accelerated shift in time on online that is bound to accompany this worldwide crisis? If you do what you always did, you may no longer get what you always got.

Minter Dial

Minter Dialoguing about culture, politics & sports; Expert on Branding & Digital Marketing

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