Advertising & Blogs: Steal my Ideas!

I love watching videos from Ted.com, it always inspires me.
Ethan Zuckerman: Listening to global voices | Video on TED.com

As I have spent last year testing out the theory of creating niche networks and subgroups. I always thought it was an inevitable and positive direction. This lecture has pointed out that it is also increasing our ignorance towards other cultures and ideas.

Being a xenophile, I've always liked that I have one foot in traditional asian ideals and one in modern western mentality. I see myself as the 'Bridge figure' that Ethan refers to. One from two worlds and endowed with the translating ability between worlds, in my case, at least five worlds. " Language is the access key to knowledge" this quote rings true for me as I know that after learning Mandarin and its writing, you understand how it shapes culture, how it sets the foundation for interaction between humans.

I think Ethan makes a very good point that we're all generating this filter bubble within the internet that cuts off information from other sources. We may stumble upon a different sources of information, like a page in arabic or spanish or japanese, but we would usually just leave the page asap. The fact is, we are just concerned with our immediate surroundings.

The other interesting point that Ethan brought up reminds me of my mistaken presumptions too. The idea that bits would be move faster than atoms is currently wrong. We can get our hands on an Evian bottle of water that was packaged yesterday at the 7 Eleven shop, but we wouldn't get direct news from the french government. Just like how I thought the world was moving into the virtual world. However it is more likely that physical objects will get embedded with technology, bringing the virtual world into the real one.

With the new Iphone apps and the world of portable technology coming up, I wondered how could I bend this little channel/platform to my advantage.

Seeing that mobile coupons are not something new, and the advent of the Smartphones have taken hold of daily life, Can CLUMFF get a hold of the shares before it plummets into outdated-ness.

Here's an interesting article I just read. http://gigaom.com/2010/03/12/are-mobile-coupons-finally-ready-for-prime-time/

I've also just downloaded mobiQpon and Sherpa coupons and a few others  (http://www.mobilecoupons) that I shall test out in this week, to learn how they currently work and also as a benchmark for the CLUMFF app to work towards. I will report my findings in a weeks time, giving a day to each discount app to get a feel for their system.

Ideally I hope to achieve the interactivity of the Foursquare app, the addictiveness of Ebay and the communal support of traffic tracker app.

Hey guys, After 6 months out in the wild wild world, I've finally found a proper outlet to funnel most of my research and ideas into.

I remember researching the ideas of small networks taking over large monolithic top-down message structures, the trend of how niche markets will eventually be the aim for advertisers rather than mainstream marketing.

We are moving away from 'how many' are watching our advertisements and have already entered the 'which groups' are watching them.

Based on the idea of creating a subject where others can gravitate towards, 8 partners and myself have started a company called CLUMFF. CLUMFF is targeted at the Pan-Asian community within Melbourne. The industry we're tapping into is the entertainment industry. The idea of linking the subject to both an interest and a geographical location would seem to be contrasting points.

From what I remember, Clay Shirky argued that by giving the tools to web-surfers, we essentially let everyone do the dirty job for us without lifting a finger. Readers bound by their interest will continuously contribute.

On the other hand, the web is supposed to break down geographical barriers (i.e. anyone anywhere can submit) but by focusing on Melbourne as the location and physical placement of the subject, I hope it is once again creating the niche community rather than a limiting of readers.

Anyway. this is the Result.

According to the BBC, playing Sudoku or taking a shower with your eyes closed can make you up to 40% cleverer.

Brain exercises can make us 40% smarter in just a week!
BBC created a programme that combined healthy eating, physical activity, sound sleep and mental stimulation for the study.

This is the programme they created : THE GET SMARTER GUIDE! ooh
SAT = Brush your teeth with your 'Other' hand, and take a shower with you eyes closed.
SUN= Do a crossword or Sudoku in the papers and take a walk
MON= Have oily fish such as Salmon or Tuna for dinner, and cycle or walk to work.
TUES= Select unfamiliar words from the dictionary and work them into a ubiquitous conversation. (I just tried it)
WED= Do Yoga, pilates or a meditation class. Talk to a stranger
THURS= Take a different route to work, Watch Brainteaser (what's that?)
FRI = Avoid Caffeine or alcohol, memorise shopping list.

Hmm, seems like pretty simple list of things to do.
I wonder if playing bejeweled has the same effect . lol

It sounds remarkably like the application on Facebook where users get to 'sell' and 'buy' their friends like some form of digital black market trade. However, the friends for sale implied here is the one offered by the marketing firm, Usocial.

Friends and Followers should not be bought, is the message from Facebook. Connect only to those who want to connect to you and we will stop those companies who sell online friends. USocial is a web-marketing firm, operating form Australia, providing Facebook, Twitter and FrontPage marketing services. Their Facebook marketing service states "For an investment of only $197, we'll bring you 1,000 brand new targeted Facebook friends to your existing account, or we'll set up a new account for yourself or your business at no charge in order to deliver the targeted friends." USocial has package of buying 1000 to 100000 Twitter followers at varying price range. If such kinds of activities are allowed to run under the banner of web advertising then the thin line between web promotion and spamming, disappears.
(Friend shopping not allowed: Facebook

Mon Nov 23 15:17:16 IST 2009, by Abhishek Mehta)

This case marks the line where social network advertising begins to slip into the internet black market. Advertisers flock to successful social network platforms like Facebook and Twitter to sell the users to marketers like freshly gutted pigs. Due to the sheer amount of users, and the availability of data harvesting tools on facebook, it is a gold mine of information for advertisers and marketers alike.

There are tons of applications on Facebook that actually helps with promotions and advertising of all sorts. It's a wonder how anybody can keep up with all of this.
Though it may look like a rather bleak future in terms of keeping our lives from being commercialized, I still hold to my Honours year's research that the work of advertisers will eventually be one of managing communities, niche communities, and trust will be the currency.

Social marketing is a dangerous game. Where is the line between customer care (because you have to care) and to con your customers. Both involve a form of superficial relationship to extract benefits. Chaos theory.

Never ignore the lessons of an Ad man.



This makes working within the advertising industry a lot more beautiful.
We are making new things familiar, and making familiar things new. That's something that I am going to remember for a long time.

This is so cool.

based on your personal twitter feed, Volkswagen is able to pick out a car for you.
There is probably keywords that it picks out based on how often it appears on your feed.

you can try it for yourself :

http://caseyshultz.com/vw-ad.php


My result :
I saw it pick out words like loves, family, christine, work.
Perhaps the similarity to my name also plays a part?

I must say it would influence my decision if I knew that a car was designed based on my values and character.