Archive

Archive for March, 2010

Mobile Phones Change Social Media

March 31st, 2010

It’s no secret – 2010 is the year of the Mobile Phone – every analyst, journalist, and pundit are stating their case on why this is the year that mobile finally rings the proverbial bell of success.  As a marketer, I certainly see that it is very important to focus on this ’emerging’ platform – people are using their mobile devices in more robust ways than ever and, sometimes, even abandoning their computer all together and relying on their handheld as their only ‘connected’ device.  According to Mary Meeker’s Mobile Internet Report, the #1 driving force for the uptick in mobile is Social Networking (slide 30).  The number of people accessing their favorite social network or taking a social ‘action’ on their mobile device has sky rocketed over the last year.  Facebook is head and shoulders above the rest as she outlines.  If you want a more visual portrayal of how Mobile and Social are converging, Flowtown has put together (as usual) a very compelling infograph…teaser below, click on the image for the full version.

Mobile Marketing, Social Media ,

Go To School, Get An iPad

March 30th, 2010

How times have changed.  When I was in college (enter anecdote about slogging through 3 feet of snow uphill, both ways) I carried around massive textbooks.  Granted, I was a Science Major (don’t even ask how I got into Marketing – it’s a boring story) and my texts included: Organic Chem, Invertebrate Biology, and Quaternary Vegetation History….but still, today’s students have a much more appealing option in front of them.  Carrying all their textbooks in the very friendly form factor – thanks to the latest brainchild of Steve Jobs, the iPad.

Seton Hall just announced today that they will be supplying each incoming student to their university a 13″ MacBook and a new iPad.  Instead of heading to their student bookstore to purchase texts for their semester schedules, they will be able to download each text for their class load via the iBook Store.  As a technology zealot, I’m appreciative to see our education system (which is usually slow to adopt change and new paradigms) beginning to be on the leading edge of technology adoption.  What a great time to be a student – not only is your backpack lighter, but your institutions are recognizing that they need to equip you with great devices to learn in a revolutionary way.  Kudos to Seton Hall.

Technology

Baby Boy Veneski And A Little Time Off

March 24th, 2010

For those of you that follow my blog on a consistent basis – there has been some radio silence over the past week as I hit the pause button in my social media life and hit play on my every day life.  My wife and I welcomed our first child – a son – into the world last Monday, March 15th and the subsequent 10 days have been pretty much a blur.  People weren’t kidding when they said your world as you know it, will change!  I wouldn’t trade it for anything, however.  He’s a pretty amazing little guy and we couldn’t be happier.  The fact that he’s healthy, active, and handsome (ok – I am biased) has left us with a huge sense of ‘We did it’.  We are now a family of three… Danielle and I are excited for life with Brooks – let the adventure begin!  I’ll be back to more regular blogging starting next week. Thank you for your readership!

Family

Intel In The Big Dance – March Madness!

March 11th, 2010

One of the really great things about working at Intel is the fact that I get to work on some amazing programs.  As a GIGANTIC sports fan and an ardent user of great technology, I have been spoiled this year.  Not only are we announcing and launching  a new family of Intel Core processors, we are doing so around major events in the first half of the year.  First, there was the Super Bowl.  Next was last Sunday’s first ever foray in the Academy Awards.  Starting this Sunday, we are unveiling a major relationship with CBS and their coverage of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tourney – aka, March Madness.  Don’t let me tell the tale, rather read what Stuart Elliott’s (New York Times Advertising columnist) take in today’s Media Decoder blog.  We’re very happy with this coverage – Mr. Elliott did a nice job capturing the essence of a very complicated integrated media effort.  I’ll be watching the whole tourney – from Selection Sunday, to the Play-In game, the National Championship game on April 5th in Indianapolis.

Advertising, Integrated Marketing, Intel , ,

Intel Sponsors of Tomorrow Goes Mobile – Postcard Style

March 9th, 2010

If you’re in media or digital marketing, you know that the hottest platform of 2010 is the mobile device.  From a direct advertising and marketing approach, what better way to interact with your customer – on a device that is always with them and almost always ‘on’.  We are just beginning to roll out a very robust mobile strategy here @ Intel and one of the first programs happens to be a fun way to send a message to your friends and family – from your mobile device – specifically, the iPhone.

Intel is giving iPhone users the opportunity to bring postcards back from the days of gift shops and stamps with a digital twist. “Postcards From The Future” allows iPhone users to send fun and interactive digital postcards to their friends near and far via social media sites like Facebook and Twitter or by email. We’ve had a very successful first few days on the iTunes App Store – ranking in the top 50 of free applications and in the top 15 of free entertainment specific apps.  If you’re an iPhone user – give it a try – we’d love your feedback!

Advertising, Digital Marketing , ,

A Film Focused On Brands Wins An Oscar

March 8th, 2010

If you watched the Academy Awards on Sunday, you’ll know that the Hurt Locker was the big winner of the bunch.  However, as a marketer I found one nomination and subsequent victory to be very interesting – the winner of the animated short film category:  Logorama.  This is a film entirely dedicated to brands.  They do a marvelous job of incorporating hundreds of logos in a compelling and entertaining short…don’t take my word for it – the entire spot is embedded below.  I’m still trying to find our Intel logo in the mix… if you find it – leave a comment with the timestamp of where in the video it is…

Branding ,

Weekly Wrap Up – 3.05.10

March 5th, 2010

My top 10 reads for the week.   This is a SMALL sampling of what I come across in my weekly media consumption addiction.  If you’d like to be on my email list, please email me and I will add you.

Understanding the Participatory News Consumer – Pew Internet

An App for That, Too: How Mobile Is Changing Shopping – AdAge

The State of The Internet Video by Jess3

Getting the Most Out of Twitter – NYTimes

The Social Agency Of The Future – SocialMedia Insider

How Companies Are Using Your Social Media Data – Mashable

The Oscars Twitter Effect – Chicago Tribune

Facebook and Twitter Access via Mobile Browser Grows by Triple-Digits in the Past Year – comScore

The latest and greatest opportunities in mobile apps – iMedia

A Word From the Wise – Thomas Friedman on Intel –NYTimes

Marketing, Social Media

World’s Most Admired Companies: Intel #31

March 4th, 2010

It’s award season…and I am not just talking about the Oscars.  You’ll have to wait for Sunday night’s telecast to see our spot in broadcast.

Following FastCompany’s list of most innovative companies (Intel was ranked #14), Fortune Magazine released it’s list of the world’s most admired companies for 2010.  Intel comes in at #31 – up two spots from last year.  I think the first comment in our section says it best:

Of course Intel should be admired .. one of the best companies based in Silicon Valley working with the greatest minds in the world .. life as we know it would never have been the same with out Intel’s innovations…

Thank you Ismail – we agree…

Intel ,

The State Of The Internet

March 2nd, 2010

Jess3 (Jesse Thomas) strikes again, and creates a fantastic video that shows us the ‘latest’ state of the internet… Kudos on a really interesting look at the trends and factoids in the social graph.

JESS3 / The State of The Internet from Jesse Thomas on Vimeo.

Facebook, Online Video, Social Media ,

How Do You Get YOUR News?

March 1st, 2010

I consume a lot of content – a lot.  I don’t go to a single source for that content – rather choosing to bounce around my favorite sites to digest specific data tidbits.  Be it sports content (the usual suspects of ESPN, Yahoo Sports, Sports Blog Nation, and Bleacher Report) or current events, ie news (New York Times, Washington Post, CNN), or gossip (I won’t list all of those – I have a little addiction there).  However – what I have noticed over the last couple of years is that Social Media has been the single largest ‘engine’ for me when consuming, contributing and relaying content.  I am pretty selective whom I follow on Twitter and have found some very reliable outlets to funnel most of the news (all the above categories) that I am interested in.  In addition – I’ve also found that I spend a lot of time on aggregation sites – with Popurls being at the top of that list.

The net result of all of this is that I actually spend most of cycles on Twitter and Popurls for the bulk of my news – which is a trend not uncommon to the general population and shows the transition from traditional media to new media outlets.  Pew Internet released a report today that shows how Americans are receiving, consuming, and relaying news of interest to them. There are a few very interesting points that Pew makes in it’s report.  The first being that we no longer rely on just the newspaper or the nightly news to feed our media habit.  In fact, we leverage all the platforms available to us to keep current on a daily basis.

“46% of Americans say they get news from four to six media platforms on a typical day. Just 7% get their news from a single media platform on a typical day”

The second relevant point they make, in my opinion, shows how we are tailoring our media habits to fit our individual news – creating a personalized, portable, and participatory relationship with the information that we find important:

Portable : 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
Personalized : 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
Participatory : 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.
  • Portable : 33% of cell phone owners now access news on their cell phones.
  • Personalized : 28% of internet users have customized their home page to include news from sources and on topics that particularly interest them.
  • Participatory : 37% of internet users have contributed to the creation of news, commented about it, or disseminated it via postings on social media sites like Facebook or Twitter.

Being in the profession that I am – this profile doesn’t surprise me in the least.  What it does show me, however, is that the advent of multi-platform, new media outlets has streamlined and customized people’s content consumption experience.  We have more control over what we consume, how and where we consume it, and whom we share interesting tidbits with. Personally, I can’t imagine going back to a world of passively pushed content – I want my content and I want it now…on any device I see fit to view it on.

Community, Internet, Social Media , ,