When real life simulates virtual life

I couldn’t believe it when I saw it a few minutes ago. Someone actually simulated an incidence in Second life during a real life press conference. Do you remember the time when, during a second life press conference with Anshe Chung, the whole screen was suddenly covered in flying penises?

Well, now there was a similar incidence – however it was in real life (and it was only one flying penis). I was quite astonished at the fact that someone had the guts (balls) to do this. Someone let this thing fly loose during a press conference of Gary Kasparov (before a security guy smacked it to the ground).

Quite funny, isn’t it. Probably much harder to implement than the virtual flying things, but most likely much more provoking…

Becks wants you to blog for them

Just when you thought that everybody who wants to use a (corporate) blog in their communication has tried (and sometimes failed miserably), Becks opens the bottle and starts a blogger casting.

Here is what they want:

You live by the blog. You have a way with words that hold people captive. And you don’t shy away from being in the public eye. Then we want you. Give your two cents worth, and we’ll give you a handsome salary and other bright perks. Your name and blogs will be seen by many around the world. Others have 365 days, you have 365 entries in a year. You get to work with Beck’s and a congenial creative team in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You might even relocate to a greener pasture. Sounds too good to be true?

Adverblog found a quote from a press release:

„Our consumers actively seek out links to new trends and genuine material from around the globe. They have a desire to learn about people who share the same values as they do. The Beck’s new columnist will help uncover and highlight relevant and exciting topics for our consumers, enabling us to better connect with them.“

The idea is not new, but it could work well for becks, if the blogger manages to connect will with the becks consumer. But there are several possible negative outcomes:

  1. The blogger will blog too much in favour of becks undertakings: it might not be sufficiently authentic and people might stop reading.
  2. The blogger will blog very independently and could soon be a ‚celebrity‘, successful even when disconnected from the becks brand. Hence the image transfer to becks might decrease over time.
  3. The blogging could turn out to be extremely boring regardless of the being authentic or not. Again people might stop reading it.

In either case it is a comparatively small investment (at the cost of probably only a few TV commercials) with a large possible upside to it.

Youtube’s new buzz targeting

Googletube just announced a new mechanism through which advertisers can book preroll ads precisely on those ads, that are on their way to become viral. Sounds great, considering the fact that there are around 150.000 new clips uploaded to youtube everyday.

YouTube buzz targeting works on an algorithm that looks at a number of viewer activities, including how many times a video is chosen as a favorite, how favorably it’s rated, and how quickly it picks up views, to determine which clips are about to „go viral.“

Advertisers can capitalize on the momentum by choosing to run overlay ads on these videos, with the possibility of combining buzz targeting with other options like time of day, gender and category targeting. As with all YouTube products, the ads only run on partner videos–or content from professional, semi-professional and even amateur producers that fit the targeting criteria, and have their express consent. (from here)

In the same article from which I got the quote above, Eric Schmidt ist quoted saying that the best youtube products will come out this year. This is one of them – some others might concern the tracking and measurement offerings, which have also greatly improved over the last couple of weeks!

Participation will no longer be optional.

I missed the blogpost „social media will be like air“ by Charlene Li in March. But before not mentioning it at all, I’ll rather blog about it late. The article is about the fact that social media, especially the communities/social networks that make up these media plattforms, will be be ubiquitous in a few years. The son of my boss once asked, how people managed to access the internet before computers were invented. A rather smart question, once you think about it.

In a few years kids will ask us, why we used so many different platforms to socially engage with one another online. (And why we used platforms in the first place). Similar to why they will ask us, why we needed stationary big machines with huge screens to access the internet.

So the article of Charlene Li is worth reading in any case, but there was one point that I particularly noticed:

4) A business model where social influence defines marketing value. Today’s advertising models don’t work on social networking sites – that’s because simply targeting better on profile or social graph details is still the same old media model of CPM and CPC pricing. What’s missing is marketing value based on how valuable I am in the context of my influence. For example, Steve Rubel is a highly influential person because he is an authority on social media, the people in his social graph tend to interested in his views, and they in turn have a great deal of authority as well. (Several people came up to me after the speech and said that this is similar to a „PageRank of people“, a very easy way to crystallize the idea.)

There are discussions about the future of your „typical target group“ already going on. The idea of establishing a „PageRank of people“ seems to be a viable solution. Discriminating it may be, but it provides a good indication of who to target – or should we rather call it: speak to?

In summary, Participation is no longer optional writes Steve Rubel, referencing Charlene Li’s post. And he ads:

The end result is that marketers will need to shift the way they approach communities. Static advertising is no longer viable. The solution is collaboration. Marketers will need to tap these emerging social operating systems to build meaningful connections through their sites and others before competitors do.

Engaging in „social networking“ with your brand/product advocates will be is a crucial part of the media mix. I just wonder, when this insight will have found its way into marketing plans of most companies?

Free Social Media eBooks

Just found this now, even thought it was posted a few weeks ago: Mashable features a list of 15 free Social Media eBooks. I know some of them already, but it’s worth taking a look at that list. For some reason, it appears to me, that free ebooks are becoming ever more popular. Not so much as a true means of spreading knowledge, but rather as a marketing/pr instrument for individuals and companies. Don’t you think?