Do Your Clients Act Like this in Real Life?
Nothing really needs to be said about this. If you have ever worked with clients who always question your estimates, do you wonder if they act like this in other parts of their life? Hat tip to Koroberi for posting this.
Microsoft Surface
While some devices are getting smaller, Microsoft table computer raises the ante in size and cost.
Free and Natural Running from Nike
The latest Nike ad probably won’t air on a tv near you. Nike has launched their new Free family of running shoes, which are as light and nonrestrictive as running barefoot, with a short video introducing the Bear Butte Running Camp. Several world class runners participate in the fun. Hattip to Brandfreak.
Cadbury Eyebrows
The Cadbury chocolate company has had great success producing witty commercials for British television and having them spread across the internet with millions of views. This recent commercial has over 3 million views on YouTube. The commercial was such a pop sensation that it was parodied by Lily Allen and Alan Carr, which also includes a reference to their previous spot. Go to www.aglassandahalffullproductions.com for the collection of commercials and other information about Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate. The flash interface is sometimes difficult to navigate, but with patience you will find some clever ads.
Raleigh News & Observer Announces E-Edition
This morning I received an email from the Raleigh News & Observer, as I am a former subscriber, announcing their e-edition. For a mere $5/month you can have unlimited access to an online version of the print edition of the newspaper. They list the benefits as
- View The N&O exactly how it appears in print every day
- Searchable, savable, printable
- Simple navigation tools for easy reading
While the technology used to produced this e-edition is a decent technological solution to reading content on the web, it is completely inappropriate to read a large format newspaper. Yes, you can go directly to the sections you are interested in, and yes, you can search to find exactly what you are looking for, but this is a huge step backwards. Revolutionary for 1996, but a major mis-step for 2009.
This is a screen shot of what comes up when I launch the demo, but note that the two windows, table of contents and paper, were of equal size, and I reduced the size of the left window to show more of the paper. This is not an intuitive adjustment to all web users. With the masthead and content boxes at the top, all I see is the headline of the lead story. The size of the viewing area is also reduced by a banner ad at the top of the page.
The power of the web is its non-linear approach to content. Web sites are designed to let you quickly and easily browse down a page for the stories that interest you. Lots of stories are visible on the current News&Observer website. Clicking on that story brings up a scrollable page with that story. In this new model, you must navigate around a page that has been laid out for print, where you are limited by the size of the paper. This front page shows me four stories. Clicking anywhere in a story brings up a separate window showing only that story. You can also view the story as it appears in the paper by clicking on a tab at the top of the window. When reading a story on screen, it does not make sense to view it in skinny column. If the story jumps to another page, you must click continue to see that jump. Why is the digital equivalent of turning the page a necessary part of this experience? This is an easy problem to solve technically. And the More News blurbs on the lefthand side of the front page do not link to those stories, but open a window providing a link to those stories. These should be changed to go right to the story.
There is currently a lot of talk about the death of newspapers, new business models, and that the only way they can survive is by ending the print editions and producing content online only. This e-edition is clearly an attempt to try something different in the online space, but I can’t imagine who the target for this e-edition is. If you like the newspaper in its print edition, and many still do, this does not replicate that experience. It takes a big sheet of paper and reduces it down to a small screen. There is no benefit to viewing the printed page on your computer if the print version continues to exist. If you like your news on the web, using a printed page interface to access that news is not very functional. After a quick demo, it’s easy to decide to keep you $5 per month and keep moving on the web.
So I can only conclude that this an advertising play that allows sales reps to promote the print e-edition as a way to get online eyeballs on the print ads. Access to the e-edition is included with the print newspaper subscription, so this will drive a bit of traffic by those who are curious.
I am glad to see that our paper of record is trying to come up with new revenue streams and new ways to deliver the news, but they missed the whole point of the web and how people consume news on this one. In the end, their e-edition is a novelty that will not last.
BMW Paints a Picture
BMW has a long history of art cars, but this may be the first time they have commissioned an artist to paint with a car, rather than on a car. South African artist Robin Rhode used a BMW Z4 roadster to apply paint to a 30 by 40 foot canvas that will be on display in NYC’s Grand Central Station. He developed a different style for each color, and each style referenced another contemporary artist. He used remote control jets near the wheels to spray the paint on the canvas. The whole process from conception to artwork was captured for a series of videos on the microsite, Expressions of Joy, and a complete documentary will be on the Discovery Channel. Art patronage still matters.
24 Heures
Belgian brewer Stella Artois and the Mother agency of London have created a series of short films that re-imagine the stories of contemporary cinema and television in the style of French New Wave. You can find all three shorts on Smoothoriginals.com, but my favorite is the updated, laid-back version of 24.
Bikini Clad Plane Promotes Magazine
Photo from Flickr
I am a big fan of decorated airplanes, especially Southwest planes, but this promotional stunt to create the “SI One” and hype the swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated, the one issue of the year that generates enough hype on its own, is an odd combination. Not the least because of a recent situation where Southwest kicked a woman off the plane for her revealing outfit.
Now there will be a bleary-eyed salesman in seat 3A looking out through the bikini top of a supermodel.
US Airways Holiday Greeting
I received this image in an email from US Airways. It has a bit of a classic travel poster feel, but it seems modern and current. I definitely like the idea that I am leaving my snowglobe encased winter wonderland and traveling to a tropical locale. I wonder what they sell in the giftshops?
Pizza Tracker
This past weekend the kids and I ordered pizza for dinner. I wanted Papa John’s, but the kids insisted on Domino’s because of their thin crust. This was the first time I had ordered pizza since I moved to my new house, so other than my general preference for PJ, it really didn’t matter to me. I didn’t know where either store was located, but I figured I would order online and it didn’t really matter.
I have never ordered Domino’s online so it was my first experience with the above pictured pizza tracker. As soon as I placed my order, the pizza tracker told me my pizza was being prepped. Two minutes later, it was in the oven. I was so intrigued by this system, I began tweeting about it. It happened to be a pizza-eating kind of night and lots of people were tweeting about pizza.
Others began to respond to my pizza-tweets (pweetzas?) asking about the social networking component. Since my tracker was not sharable, or social, I posted a link to a flickr photo. This was the only way I could share the progress of my pie. It made me think that Domino’s could create a social network around pizza where you could not only talk about your favorite toppings, but it would have a feed of your orders and real-time tracking. Might work better as a Facebook app where you could share the same data within Facebook. There are a few apps already, but they only address virtual pizza, not real pizza.
After about 7 minutes, my pizza was out of the oven, boxed and out the door by my delivery expert, Bryan. The term delivery expert got a chuckle from some twitter followers. The best response to me was from @fmedlin: just got a tweet from domino’s that @dgtlpapercuts had a third slice.
The breakdown of the pizza tracker happens once the order leaves the store. The driver does not have GPS in his car, which as a former delivery expert, I can understand. The last section of the tracker just shows me that my pizza is on the way. There is no way to update anything beyond that it left the store and it’s on the way.
There is a real missed opportunity for customer feedback. Since they know I ordered this pizza online, and I am probably watching the tracker, why don’t they provide me incentive to update the tracker once the pizza arrives. The driver, er, delivery expert can say something like, “It would be a big help to us if you can mark the pizza delivered on our website. You will get a coupon to use on a future order.” This can add a missing piece of data to the delivery metrics, and can better track the delivery experts.
So, in the end, the pizza tracker is cool for the customer, is not social or sharable, and does not capture a critical piece of data for Domino’s.
And, just in case you were wondering, we ordered a medium with black olives and bacon for my kids and a medium sausage and mushroom for me.