Archive for May, 2007

Messing with Popfly

Published by davidk May 27th, 2007 in Social Media and Consumer Generated. 1 Comment

Popfly

(click to enlarge)

I’ve been poking around Popfly. You may not have noticed it slip onto the web 2 scene after the recent Silverlight announcements but Popfly is (from Microsoft):

“… a web site and tool to help people create and share web sites, mashups, and other kinds of experiences. It has two parts: the social network, which we call “Popfly Space” and the online tool for creating different kinds of experiences, which we call “Popfly Creator.”

This whole “drag and drop API thing” could really take off with a much more mainstream audience. In the coming years, normal people (not that today’s software developers aren’t normal…) may whip together a little Flickr+CitySearch+LastFM+Game app themselves.

Could this type of thing be the Macpaint of the next generation, kicking off a new habit in unsuspecting consumers for creating digital masterpieces in ways they never saw coming?

Playstation Network: The Loyalty Catalyst

Published by davidk May 15th, 2007 in Social Media, Gaming, Virtual Worlds, Video and Consumer Generated. 0 Comments

psn_upgrade_425px_evan.jpg

Recently at the Online Game Developers Conference in Seattle, Sony discussed it’s intentions for better extending the consumer relationship and commercial opportunities it has via connected PS3 and PSPs. Currently Playstation 3 owners are able to play online and download a small array of digital content. But Sony has ambitious plans to capitalize on it’s loungeroom presence via a new range of upcoming digital services.

In the near future, Sony will be looking to fill up the PS3’s 60Gb hard drive with full-length video on demand offerings such as movies, television and music. Some of this will integrate with its 3D community space, Home, where users can share media with friends within their own apartment spaces.

SCEA’s director of third-party developer relations, Michael Shorrock, also talked about how the Playstation Network could be seen as an experimental space for new business models. When asked if pavillions within Home would need to be leased or purchased by developers, he said that Sony are looking to “foster activity and flexibility”. This is encouraging for other non-gaming brands looking to be involved. A FMCG brand might be able to run an event launch, shared with a media owner or create an original video or music content offering. Shorrock also talks about providing conduits for people to contribute conten, but so far the specification for Home has been more focussed on business to consumer-type features.

With loungeroom (PS3) and wireless (PSP) distribution coming together, Sony nearly has all the enabling pieces of the puzzle in place. Now the services that overlay this connectivity just need to be captivating enough for people to turn away from their traditional consumption habits. But when you stand back and look at the possibilities of blending gaming, media, advertising and commerce, the ecosystem might actually provide some compelling reasons for engagement.

Source: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=13901

Coke Virtual Thirst: Update

Published by davidk May 7th, 2007 in Social Media, Virtual Worlds, Consumer Generated and Second Life. 2 Comments

Coke recently launched a Second Life-based campaign called Virtual Thirst asking residents and the general population to design a virtual experience. It’s more of a social media initiative than a traditional approach by a brand in entering a virtual world, as it has a presence on MySpace, YouTube, FlickR etc as well as Second Life. It harnesses the creativity of the audience but doesn’t leave a massive in-world corporate footprint.

After some questions and complaints the complaints the company has decided to adjust some elements of the competition, including adding a 500,000 linden dollar prize. But more even more interestingly, the project lead at Coke, Michael Donnelly, has just posted a video response on YouTube explaining a few of the issues. This is a great example of a marketer really engaging with his consumers in a conversation, and making a decent attempt at actually listening.

Go see: Michael Donnelly from Coke on YouTube

Citizen-created commercials

Published by davidk May 3rd, 2007 in Video, Advertising and Consumer Generated. 2 Comments

The past 12-18 months have seen our digital airwaves awash with brands asking consumers to remix or create their commerical. These campaigns don’t typically garner thousands of responses but do get talked about. Is there a new way to measure the success of this stuff on some kind of ‘return on enagement’ level? Clearly a fraction of the people who watch a commerical will put any effort into creating one (see Brad Horowitz’s famous pyramid for “Creators, Synthesizers and Consumers”).

The Church of the Customer blog (great name huh?) breaks down a few recent examples including:

Intuit’s Tax Rap Contest with Vanilla Ice
Southwest Airlines’ Wanna Get Away Video Contest
H&R Block’s “Me & My Super Sweet Refund Video Contest

.. and annoints the Converse Gallery as the benchmark for such contests. I wonder if consumers will tire of this kind of campaign mechanic. In certain parts of the blogosphere there is an ongoing discussion about the value that people provide consumer-generated content sites with only 15kb of fame in return. Or do (some) people simply love a challenge? Of course if you work in the creative or production industry you might expect to get more than a competition prize for responding to a brief, but that’s another discussion :) Brands used to say “watch my ad!” and we’ve begun to find that rude. Is it more polite to say “make my ad!” ?

The shape of Second Life is changing..

Published by holdenm May 1st, 2007 in Uncategorized, Virtual Worlds, Holden Mulgrave, Consumer Generated and Second Life. 0 Comments

sculpted_fruit.jpg

This is pretty big news for those keen to see the aesthetic of Second Life evolve: Linden is testing the introduction of ’sculpted prims’. Prims are the basic shapes used in constructing all kinds of objects within Second Life. Until now, the process of buidling something has been fairly rudimentary and the shapes very basic. But what is a sculpted prim? This from the FAQ:

“A sculpted prim is a prim whose shape is determined by a texture - its “sculpt texture”. Sculpted prims can create organic shapes that are not currently possible with Second Life’s prim system.”

This, together with the new capability to export from professional 3D packages such as 3DS Max and Maya, will mean Second Life will soon be peppered with architectural visuals similar to that of animated films and video games.

An interesting potential effect of this could be that branded (ie better funded) development will begin to look quite different from the user-generated constructs. I am curious to see how the residents react to big companies bringing in their professionally sculptured Maya models. It could create a greater divide between individuals and brands, or maybe the professional developers that make their living within Second Life will take on a new array of modelling skills with much of the development across the board migrating to sculptured prims.

Personally I think it’s a great step forward and may potentially result in more users hanging around to check out Second Life beyond their initiation. Many users expect to see a Grand Theft Auto-style rendering of the virtual world and can feel a little let down when it doesn’t appear as smooth as it appears in still photos. I will post some happy snaps of sculpted constructions in the near future when this capability is released onto the main grid.

Cheers,

Holden.

Calendar

May 2007
M T W T F S S
« Apr   Jun »
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031