Adver-Whatever

AoC 2008!

I've been holding off on doing this post until I had a little more information, but I'm now ready to do my part in promoting this year's sequel to the Age of Conversation.

Last year, over 100 authors came together to write a book entirely on the topic of "conversation" in marketing and new media, and all of the proceeds went to Variety: The Children's Charity. They recently held a "bum rush the charts" effort to get a last spurt of support, and climbed the Amazon sales charts to finally be #36 in business and #262 overall by the end of the day. The whole project was a great success, and from the sound of it, a good deal of fun.

So, the publishers of the first book, Drew McLellan and Gavin Heaton, are at it again, organizing another huge communal book-writing effort. The topic this time around is "Why Don't They Get It," and because an amazing 275 people volunteered to write a chapter, they've broken it down into subsections:

• The Accidental Marketer
• Keeping Secrets
• A New Brand of Creative
• My Marketing Tragedy
• Business Models
• Conversation to Action
• Life in the Conversation Lane
• Manifestos

We'll have to wait for the book early this Fall to get exactly what each of these topics means to the individuals writing about them. So of course, I volunteered as soon as I heard about the opportunity (I'm writing about My Marketing Tragedy, which should be fun), but here is the full list of all 275 of the contributing authors. Be sure to check some (or all) of them out!

Adam Crowe, Adrian Ho, Aki Spicer, Alex Henault, Amy Jussel, Andrew Odom, Andy Nulman, Andy Sernovitz, Andy Whitlock, Angela Maiers, Ann Handley, Anna Farmery, Armando Alves, Arun Rajagopal, Asi Sharabi, Becky Carroll, Becky McCray, Bernie Scheffler, Bill Gammell, Bob Carlton, Bob LeDrew, Brad Shorr, Bradley Spitzer, Brandon Murphy, Branislav Peric, Brent Dixon, Brett Macfarlane, Brian Reich, C.C. Chapman, Cam Beck, Casper Willer, Cathleen Rittereiser, Cathryn Hrudicka, Cedric Giorgi, Charles Sipe, Chris Kieff, Chris Cree, Chris Wilson, Christina Kerley (CK), C.B. Whittemore, Clay Parker Jones, Chris Brown, Colin McKay, Connie Bensen, Connie Reece, Cord Silverstein, Corentin Monot, Craig Wilson, Daniel Honigman, Dan Goldstein, Dan Schawbel, Dana VanDen Heuvel, Dan Sitter, Daria Radota Rasmussen, Darren Herman, Darryl Patterson, Dave Davison, Dave Origano, David Armano, David Bausola, David Berkowitz, David Brazeal, David Koopmans, David Meerman Scott, David Petherick, David Reich, David Weinfeld, David Zinger, Deanna Gernert, Deborah Brown, Dennis Price, Derrick Kwa, Dino Demopoulos, Doug Haslam, Doug Meacham, Doug Mitchell, Douglas Hanna, Douglas Karr, Drew McLellan, Duane Brown, Dustin Jacobsen, Dylan Viner, Ed Brenegar, Ed Cotton, Efrain Mendicuti, Ellen Weber, Emily Reed, Eric Peterson, Eric Nehrlich, Ernie Mosteller, Faris Yakob, Fernanda Romano, Francis Anderson, G. Kofi Annan, Gareth Kay, Gary Cohen, Gaurav Mishra, Gavin Heaton, Geert Desager, George Jenkins, G.L. Hoffman, Gianandrea Facchini, Gordon Whitehead, Graham Hill, Greg Verdino, Gretel Going & Kathryn Fleming, Hillel Cooperman, Hugh Weber, J. Erik Potter, J.C. Hutchins, James Gordon-Macintosh, Jamey Shiels, Jasmin Tragas, Jason Oke, Jay Ehret, Jeanne Dininni, Jeff De Cagna, Jeff Gwynne, Jeff Noble, Jeff Wallace, Jennifer Warwick, Jenny Meade, Jeremy Fuksa, Jeremy Heilpern, Jeremy Middleton, Jeroen Verkroost, Jessica Hagy, Joanna Young, Joe Pulizzi, Joe Talbott, John Herrington, John Jantsch, John Moore, John Rosen, John Todor, Jon Burg, Jon Swanson, Jonathan Trenn, Jordan Behan, Julie Fleischer, Justin Flowers, Justin Foster, Karl Turley, Kate Trgovac, Katie Chatfield, Katie Konrath, Kenny Lauer, Keri Willenborg, Kevin Jessop, Kris Hoet, Krishna De, Kristin Gorski, Laura Fitton, Laurence Helene Borei, Lewis Green, Lois Kelly, Lori Magno, Louise Barnes-Johnston, Louise Mangan, Louise Manning, Luc Debaisieux, Marcus Brown, Mario Vellandi, Mark Blair, Mark Earls, Mark Goren, Mark Hancock, Mark Lewis, Mark McGuinness, Mark McSpadden, Matt Dickman, Matt J. McDonald, Matt Moore, Michael Hawkins, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, Michelle Lamar, Mike Arauz, Mike McAllen, Mike Sansone, Mitch Joel, Monica Wright, Nathan Gilliatt, Nathan Snell, Neil Perkin, Nettie Hartsock, Nick Rice, Oleksandr Skorokhod, Ozgur Alaz, Paul Chaney, Paul Hebert, Paul Isakson, Paul Marobella, Paul McEnany, Paul Tedesco, Paul Williams, Pet Campbell, Pete Deutschman, Peter Corbett, Phil Gerbyshak, Phil Lewis, Phil Soden, Piet Wulleman, Rachel Steiner, Sreeraj Menon, Reginald Adkins, Richard Huntington, Rishi Desai, Beeker Northam, Rob Mortimer, Robert Hruzek, Roberta Rosenberg, Robyn McMaster, Roger von Oech, Rohit Bhargava, Ron Shevlin, Ryan Barrett, Ryan Karpeles, Ryan Rasmussen, Sam Huleatt, Sandy Renshaw, Scott Goodson, Scott Monty, Scott Townsend, Scott White, Sean Howard, Sean Scott, Seni Thomas, Seth Gaffney, Shama Hyder, Sheila Scarborough, Sheryl Steadman, Simon Payn, Sonia Simone, Spike Jones, Stanley Johnson, Stephen Collins, Stephen Cribbett, Stephen Landau, Stephen Smith, Steve Bannister, Steve Hardy, Steve Portigal, Steve Roesler, Steven Verbruggen, Steve Woodruff, Sue Edworthy, Susan Bird, Susan Gunelius, Susan Heywood, Tammy Lenski, Terrell Meek, Thomas Clifford, Thomas Knoll, Tiffany Kenyon, Tim Brunelle, Tim Buesing, Tim Connor, Tim Jackson, Tim Longhurst, Tim Mannveille, Tim Tyler, Timothy Johnson, Tinu Abayomi-Paul, Toby Bloomberg, Todd Andrlik, Troy Rutter, Troy Worman, Uwe Hook, Valeria Maltoni, Vandana Ahuja, Vanessa DiMauro, Veronique Rabuteau, Wayne Buckhanan, William Azaroff, Yves Van Landeghem

What the People Want

It's been fairly interesting watching what Facebook and Myspace have been doing to retain members / attract new members / increase overall usage of their sites now that social media seems to finally be reaching a peak. At least, if it hasn't peaked yet, it's growth is certainly slowing down.

This week marked two developments aimed at keeping social networking fresh and interesting. The first of these is the launch of Myspace Latino. Apparently, someone just told all of the major social networking sites that there are rather a lot of Latinos in America. Add to this the fact that they tend to be early adopters of new technology and use various social media much more often than the average consumer, and you have a pretty good reason for social networking sites to bend over backwards trying to reach them.

Myspace Latino is an attempt to create a bilingual community for it's 9.7 million latino users. The site features eight new communities focused on entertainment, fashion and celebrity, music, nightlife, soccer, events, and news. Several Hispanic and mainstream groups and media outlets, including the Spanish Broadcasting System, the Spanish version of Billboard, Gibson Guitars, McDonald's, and Sprint Nextel, have partnered with MySpace to deliver content and promote activities. For the launch of the new service, they're putting on a show, featuring Latino artists Tego Calderon, Circo, and Locos por Juana.

Facebook launched a Spanish-language version of it's site two months ago, so we'll have to see if this kind of community targeting catches on with consumers.

The second major development is the release of Facebook Chat. The new tool is essentially a messenger the likes of AIM that sits on the bottom of your browser and lets you talk to your Facebook friends in real time. Right now it's only open to Ivy League networks, but it will be slowly opening up to everyone soon enough. Sadly, unlike Myspace's big announcement, they don't seem to have rolled out the application with a giant concert. :-(

It seems to fit well into the Facebook brand: it's already entirely centered around communication with friends, and since you don't have to set up a buddy list or install anything, it could just lead to people keeping Facebook open all day long. It could also mean trouble for traditional chat clients, and offer competition for the AOL + Bebo team up that happened a while back (if AOL ever does anything with its latest acquisition, which, knowing AOL, it probably won't), and the relatively recent Myspace Messenger.

Stay tuned to see what these crazy sites do to stay relevant next!   

Mind Control?

Well, folks, there appears to be an entirely new form of advertising on the horizon that is going to solve all of our problems. It no longer matters that people don't watch television, listen to the radio, or read the newspaper. It doesn't even really matter that no one looks at banner ads online. All this is thanks to Prof. Olaf Prilo PHD from the Mind and Brain Institute of New South Wales and his new Trust Banners.

These amazing high frequency (90fps) banner ads "stimulate specific regions of the visual cortex (Visual area V5/MT) producing instant effects on consumers."

In fact, after seeing a Trust Banner:
        -  87.9% average increase of product desire in test subjects.
        -  76.4% switched brands after seeing a single TrustBanner
        -  63% purchased consumable products within 7 days.
        -  No Click / CTA required. Can be applied to any banner ad.

Be sure to check it out for more of the amazing details.

Happy April Fool's day, and thank you Avenue A Razorfish, for making my day a little brighter.