Marketing with Technology and More

A Video with Impact

A TED last year, we saw a video by a professor from Kansas State named Michael Wesch.  It was titled The Machine Is Using Us, and was an incredible explanation of Web 2.0.  Today I watched another video that he produced.  This one is extremely powerful.  Titled A Vision of Students Today, It tells the story of today's college student in a very interesting way, and it illustrates the power of this incredible information distribution tool - YouTube.  Watch this video, and see if you agree, it really has impact.

YouTube Marketing Power

TED had one last minute addition to the speakers list.  A young fellow by the name of Johnny Lee.  Lee is a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University brilliant young technologist, who on his own, without any funding figured out that there is more power in a WiiRemote than simply helping your backhand in a video game.  Lee presented two ideas he developed using the WiiRemote.  The first allows a user with a computer, LCD projector, remote and white-board to turn their regular cheap white-board into a digital capture white board.  He also showed how it can be set up to do heard tracking.  Both of these ideas are explained in the video clips below. 

What is significant is two fold.  First he has definitely developed some cool interactive technology.  But more importantly is the fact that his idea has spread far and wide through the power of YouTube.  A total of 3.9 million people (more viewers than many network television shows) have downloaded the video on head tracking.  Another 1.2 million have downloaded the white board video.  If any marketer has ever doubted the power of a viral message, this should eliminate any doubt.

What I love about the age of the web, is that an old adage has become a truth.  Build a great product and the world will beat a path to your door.  Just ask Johnny.

TEDsters Kluster together to create a new product

I’m here in Monterey, and the TED crowd has started gathering.  It is great to see friends from past years and meet new attendees (TED Virgins as they are known) trying to figure it all out. 

At the registration area, one of the first sponsors to catch my eye was an organization called Kluster.  Over the course of the next few days, this completely new concept in creative collaboration will be used to create a new product from start to finish. This is not just a concept, but a fully developed and tested product ready to go to market (and it is starting from scratch).   This is going to be one of the very exciting developments to watch here at TED this week.  Members from the community at large, not just folks at the conference will be able to participate. Kluster CEO Ben Kaufman  explains in the following video.

Zappos in the Airport

I was in the airport in San Diego last week, and while going through security, noticed that something was different than at other airports.  The little baskets that you put your shoes and laptops in had liners.  These liners were promoting online shoe retailer Zappos.  Easch had a different promotional slogan. What a great marketing idea.  According to information I have found on-line, this is being piloted at several airports.  The company providing the service, SecurityPoint, provides the TSA with the bins at no charge, and charges the companies for the advertising.

My Friend Steve, The Dali Lama and The Torch

Three years ago I met a man at TED with an incredible vision.  He had set his mind on a goal that many would say is impossible.  He doesn’t hear them.  Steve Varon is a businessman from New York with a vision and a goal of having the Dali Lama carry the Olympic torch during the Beijing Olympics later this year.

If you know even the slightest bit about world politics, you know that the concept of the Dali Lama participating in an Olympics being held in China is difficult to conceive.  Yet Steve pushes forward, having obtained the green light from the Dali Lama himself, as well as positive feedback from many world leaders. 

From a marketing perspective, Steve has an incredible job, but his goal is noble.  What iconic image could say more about world peace than the Dali Lama participating in this event.  Today, Steve sent me a great video about his dream.  Please watch, I know that you will smile as I did when you see his passion behind this goal.  I also hope that you will want to help him achieve it by passing the word along, if anything deserves to go viral – it’s this.

Talk About Your Niche Market

I happen to be in New York City this week for some business meetings.  At the end of a long day, I stopped off at the bar in the hotel I am staying at to have a drink.  I found another business person at the bar, and we started chatting about business.  It turns out that he owns a company that produces spray paint.  Not your everyday spray paint however, this is spray paint for graffiti artists.  Talk about your narrow market segment.

It turns out this is not some small back of the paint store market, but a major niche with many competitors, a large number of targeted magazines, even conferences.  It really started me thinking about how the web has really been a boon to these micro segments. It has created entire marketplaces for products that once would rarely have never made it into distribution because of their lack of a critical mass of customers. It also got me to thinking how many more of these microsegments exist out there just waiting for someone to come along and serve them properly.  The nice thing about web marketing is that the segment will often identify itself, long before we as marketing people might find it.  It just takes keeping a keen eye on the horizon for these types of opportunities.

Now the best part about this story.  It turns out that the graffiti paint this fellow’s company makes is so far superior to the standard Rustoleum type of stuff you pick up in your average hardware store, that the hardware stores are now embracing the products from the micro segment, and turning them into mainstream product.  True Value and other leading hardware stores will soon have his product (Plutonium G) on stock for your more serious home projects.  You should definitely check out the company’s web site to see how serious marketing graffiti paint is.

By the way the image above is of graffiti painted by famed artist Bansky.  He is famous for his beautiful and sometimes attention grabbing work.  Check in out on his web site.

I’ll Trade You My Steve Jobs for Your Bill Gates

I have been remiss in writing about a great web-based marketing tool. Not because I didn't want to tell you about it, but because it took me a while to become comfortable with the concept.  When I first heard about it, I found it a bit on the creepy side.

The tool is called Jigsaw, and is an online list compilation service with a difference. The difference is that the compilation process is based on trading and buying business cards. 

I used to work in the list compilation business. In those days we combed through phone directories to build lists of businesses and consumers (a practice that still goes on today). The problem is one of accuracy.  A phone book is only a snap shot in time. As soon as it is printed it is already out of date, so anyone who rented one of our lists could count on a fair amount of bad data (we didn’t sell it that way of course). 

As I thought about Jigsaw, I realized that it is nothing more than a list compilation service, only one that is much more accurate.

The basic concept is simple. It is designed to be a business card exchange system. If you give me your business card, I can log onto my jigsaw account and enter your information. If you are not already in the system, I get "points” for entering your data. If you are already in the system, but your data is incorrect, I also get extra points for correcting it (and the person who put in the inaccurate data loses credit).  If I want to find a contact, I simply go to the Jigsaw CRM type interface, enter any sort of select parameters such as:

• Search for a specific person
• Search for a specific business
• Search for all people in a specific business in a specific area

When I find who I am looking for, I download the contact, and I am charged “points” for the contact.

It is easy to argue that when you give your business card to someone, you are not expecting it to get entered into a database. The reality of the world is that your name is being compiled all the time in many ways, this is just a new way of doing it.  The benefit to the user of the product is that you are able to get very accurate information on key contacts within companies that you are looking to connect with.  The data includes correct names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.

To use Jigsaw however, you don’t have to be willing to surrender your data.  The company allows you to purchase data also by buying points.  What I have found great about the product is the accuracy.  Of course accurate data also requires that it be used in a responsible manner, so my hope is that Jigsaw will continue to monitor how the product is used and reinforce responsible usage (ie. don’t download a  list and then spam it).

You should be Jotting

I have fallen in love with the a very simple new technology called Jott.  The concept is so simple.  If you have an idea, a thought, or simply want to remind yourself to do something while you are on the road (or anywhere for that matter), you simply dial phone number on your cell phone and "tell" Jott that you want to "Jott" a message to yourself.  You then speak the message, and have up to 30 seconds to record your thought or message to yourself.  After you hang up, Jott transcribes your message into text, and emails it to you. What could be easier.

You can also add business associates to a database that includes their email address and phone number.  If you need to communicate with one of these associates, but can't get to email (or don't fell like thumbing your way through it on your blackberry), call the same number and tell it to "Jott" and say your friends name.  The message shows up in their mailbox (and if you set up their cell number as an SMS message).  The message includes a link so they can listen to your recording itf they want to.

Jott's voice recognition is almost dead on...this is because they actually have a combination of humans and voice recognition doing the transcription.

Jott provides an easy to use web interface where you can manage all your recordings.  It will send you weekly summaries of the Jott's that you sent, it will let you set up a calendar reminder so that you can have a reminder sent to you in the future.  It also contains the actual recordings so that if you want to listen to the recordings, they are there.

Jott is still in Beta, but for now it is offered on their site free of charge.  They have some initial venture funding, so they are likely to start charging soon, so I encourage you to try it out now.  That way you will be hooked when they start charging.