Age of Randomness

Marketeers be aware of a new trend: the Age of Randomness has come.
Consumers want to add spark into their lives by tossing in a surprise element, and now producers respond. Sometimes that response comes in a literally sparkling form (see Brandsation article).
A great example of this trend is StumbleUpon.
This site brings you to websites that you haven't visited before.
The clue is, other surfers with a profile that is similar to yours have visited those sites and they have indicated their preference by clicking the "I Like It!" button.

As a result, surfing by using StumbleUpon takes you to refreshing, exciting and useful places that truly enrich your online experience.eBay did a good investment with its acquisition of StumbleUpon for $75 million, which certainly sounds like a good deal compared with more expensive deals in the sector. The consumer behavior of StumleUpon users, -i.e. their surfing experience-, matches very well with the behavior of eBayers who browse the auction site randomly in the hope of 'stumbling' onto something surprising or finding a good deal. So, bravo eBay, make something of the synergy opportunities that certainly exist and make the web more fun.

PS: Psst, what about targeted advertising based on StumbleUpon profiles...

Zeitgeist Europe 2007

A must-view for any marketeer. This is a video extract about media and Internet innovation, as well as Google's changing role in the world at Google's Zeitgeist Europe that took place last Monday, May 21, 2007. You see Eric Schmidt's fireside chat with Editor-in-Chief of The Economist, John Micklethwait.

Joost prepping further to conquer the online video market.

CNet reports that the online video service Joost is teaming up with Creative Artists Agency to provide even greater access to the best and latest programming. Already Joost signed deals with major content providers like Viacom, enabling it to offer content from MTV and CBS when it launches for the big public. Now, as it will work together with CAA, Joost will be in an even better position to network with studios, record labels, networks and libraries.

Contrary to the now-popular YouTube, whose success is built for a big part on home-made movies, Joost will be offering programming that will appeal to an audience that prefers professionally-made content. Of course, the 'prosumer' ("the consumer is the producer") is a real and promising trend that will not fade away, so YouTube need not to panic. Still, most consumers prefer to just 'consume' media for a big part of the time that they devote to entertainment, and it is obviously those 'eyeballs' that the mass media advertisers are interested in.

Basically, that shows us how the mass media will also become digitalized, lifting up the wall that currently exist between online and offline media (except for print,mostly). It also means that marketeers with deep digital knowledge are on the right side of the creative divide.

Let's discuss effective marketing over lunch

Microsoft Belgium has just launched an exciting new campaign to promote their advertising business. MS is picking up some serious momentum with this ad on all kinds of blogs globally, as well as with the remarkable $ 6 billion purchase of Aquantive, which is one of the campaign management leaders (with the Atlas tool) as well as the owner of the online agency Avenue A Razorfish. With the full integration of Microsofts advertising services in MSN, Xbox Live, Windows Live and the to-be relevant Office Live, including all the targeting opportunities that this brings, there is of course something to talk about over lunch.

Mix'07: Microsoft markets new strategy

Most Adobe tools are immensely popular among web programmers and designers alike. No wonder. Technologies like the Flash-based application framework Flex let you create amazing graphically rich and intense user-interactive websites that work like a breeze on any computer and that require minimal programming efforts. Seeing some Flex website is sometimes like experiencing web 3.0, and believing that it will come, too.

At the same time, Linux is getting more and more popular among consumers. Dell just announced that it too is offering Ubuntu Linux pc's now. Ubuntu has received rave reviews from many consumer magazines, both online and offline.

Then, there also is the whole ASP model, where your applications are online rather than installed as software on your computer. Think Salesforce.com. Check your online mail (Windows Live, Yahoo!, gmail -or googlemail, depending on where you live-) and feel the power of the application.

So where do all these consumers come from? Who is losing or at least not gaining audiences in these new areas? Sounds like for somebody, this situation must be a BIG opportunity for improvement, of which the consumer can only take profit.

Well, yes and no. Let's ask ourselves which Operating System, Office Software or Browser is used by the overwhelming majority of pc users worldwide.

That is right, you're talking Microsoft, and it is in no bad shape at all. Microsoft reported earnings in the first quarter that topped Wall Street estimates, thanks consumer sales of Windows Vista and Office 2007. To be sure, this article is written on a Mac, another pc at my home runs indeed Ubuntu, and generally I like to perform my job on a Windows pc: so I am not choosing any sides here.

Still, I do think it is good news that MS throws itself in the online competition. Some professional Microsoft products like MS SharePoint offer tremendous online content management and collaboration opportunities for companies and organizations. But in terms of openness to various dynamic programming languages, or as far as MS media-rich interactive Web applications run on different platforms or browsers, MS has yet to keep up with open-source and other commercial successes. At the end of the day however, if you are in marketing, it is the end result, -the impact-, that counts, not the technology behind.

At Mix'07, Microsoft revealed a host of initiatives to respond to these demands. It indicated how it will work with its partners and proceed by reinforcing its 'ecosystem' around it. Working myself at the major European digital communications agency, LBi, -always happy to reintroduce myself-, I can only support the idea that more technology options provide more innovative and better environment for everyone.