The Answer

THE FIVE SECOND COMMERCIAL ARRIVES....BRIEFLY

Good morning:

METACAFE "FIVE SECOND COMMERCIAL" Interesting article (Here) in AdWeek this week about Metacafe, one of the several user-contribtor video sites offering a five second video commercial during the pre-roll of videos they serve. Their thinking is that five seconds is below the "irritation threshhold" for visitors, but still enough to get some kind of message across. Click on any of the top videos, and you'll see an example of the "five second spot" : Metacafe

IGN "VIDEO ADS" Game network IGN has decided to pull banner ads from its sites and focus instead on video and rich media ads. (Forbes has an overview of this move: Forbes article) IGN's thinking is that their gaming customers are so overwhelmingly on broadband connections, the time has come to scrap the static of .GIF animated banner, and use video and Flash to push higher-quality and more interactive ads. Could be the beginning of the tipping point. Here's a sample of IGN's sites with the new video ads--BTW, they just got bought by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp: IGN site

REEBOK "THE ANSWER IX" Allan Iverson of the NBA's Philadelphia 76'ers is to basketball what 50 Cents is to Rap-- a very public example of a dangeorus man. Of course, he's got a shoe to sell, in his case the Reebok "Answer IX," after Iverson's nickname, which is "The Answer." This is year number nine, or IX, and Reebok celebrates with a very cutting-edge website that features a masterful blend of interactivity and video. The whole site is beautiful, stuffed with slick, high-end video accompanied by a music soundtrack. But count the number of places and choices where a visitor can control the experience---right up to downloading special mixed versions of commercials and interviews to the SONY PlayStation. (Iverson, of course, also has a SONY PlayStation game he endorses--the guy is a conglomerate) But this site is the next answer to the question "how does video get interactive?" The Answer IX

SONY PICTURES "THE DaVINCI CODE" This summer's biggest blockbuster could likely be the movie version of The DaVinci Code, starring Tom Hanks, and directed by Ron Howard. (Avika Goldman, who won the best screenplay Ocsar for "A Beautiful Mind" wrote the film adaptation) The website has all sorts of fun codes and puzzles, and viral features, which are updated in complexity every day. Interesting marketing note is that the site is deeply integrated with Google, and you need to use Google's many products---search, maps, etc--to solve many of the puzzles. Google will be doing more of this, integrating their products into marketing campaigns to make them interactive. (HBO just built a "Sopranos" map of New Jersey, using Goggle maps: Sopranos Map) The DaVinci code site raises the bar on what make's a great movie website: Official Davinci Code Website

NORELCO / PHILLIPS "SHAVEEVERYWHERE.COM" Welcome to marketing in the 21st century! Norelco jumps on the trend of "man-scaping" with their new electric BodyGroom razor, designed to shave a man really, really close, uh, well...pretty much anywhere. Some may get squimish about the details, but here's an (R-rated) website for the "BodyGroom" shaver that's got some genuine belly laughs---A suave MC (in a bathrobe) touts the virtues of (what Calvin Klein would consider) a close shave. BTW, the production values on this site are great, because it uses tricks and tools availavle in Flash 8, and shows off some of the cool video interactivity we can now do. And what you see here can be done not only in Websites, but in rich media banners, too. This same site could just as easily be served up as an expandable online ad: Shaveeverywhere.com

Here's another shaving pitch from Madison Avenue, circa 1950:

"The Whale put Jonah/
down the hatch /
but coughed him up/
because he scratched...
...Burma Shave!"

Thanks--RJ

www.cariboucoffee.com


WE'RE GOING TO THE WEBBYS!

Good morning!

Great news for us here at Periscope is that we've been nominated for a Webby Award this year for our work with Caribou Coffee (www.cariboucoffee.com) We're one of five finalists for "Best restaurant" website.

So I thought this week we would take a look at a couple of the better sites we're competing against in that category, and a few others in interesting categories.

The Webby's will be announced on Monday, June 12th in New York City.

"The People's Choice" Webby awards are voted for online by you, the public. Please help us out--take one minute, and go to:

People's choice voting site

and register and vote for our nomination as "best restaurant" site. (Thanks for all you who have done this already!)

So here's five Webby nominees worth a look:

JIMMY JOHNS is one of our competitors for best restaurant. What's good about this site is how the goofy, infectious personality of Jimmy comes through in all kinds of quirky ways. What's bad about it, is what's bad about all the other sites we're competiting against which is gratuitous use of Flash (GUF, as we call it) Everything, and I mean everything jumps, flips for plays a song when you roll over it. Jimmy Johns

MINI-COOPER "ROOF STUDIO" Crispin Porter led the work on this site which allows you to build your own Mini-Cooper with a customized roof. (Apparently painting the roof of your Mini is a trend) Lots of fun designs to choose from, all of it in service to the very fun brand of the Mini-Cooper: Roof Studio

GENERAL MOTORS "GM FASTLANE BLOG" GM is nominated for best corporate blog for "Fastlane" which features running commentary from Bob Lutz, GM Vice Chairman, who actually posts lengthy travel reports from his Blackberry--is there such a thing as "carpal thumb syndrome?" GM FastLane Blog

BEBOP JEANS Here's a site to make the anti-Flash mob take to the streets. But if you're looking for eye candy, here's a very slick design that uses Flash to execute some great transitions: BeBop Jeans

PHILOTAXIS is nominated for "best navigation" for its radical re-working of the newspaper. It's an interface with hundreds of little circle icons floating around, each of which is a news story from a range of sources publishing today---AP, NY Times, Scientific American, etc. You can search along a spectrum from "science" to "culture" and when you roll over a circle, the headline appears at the top of the page. It's a little random for me, but at least they're pushing the envelope of design: Philotaxis



BONUS: My favorite corporate blog is published (almost daily!) by the new CEO and President of Sun Microsystems, Jonathan Schwartz. Schwartz took over for founder and Chairman Scott McNealy this past week, after serving as President of Sun for three years. He's got to be the only CEO in the Fortune 500 with a ponytail and his own blog. It's a real communications vehicle for him to reach out to the 30,000 Sun employees, as well as to clients and the press. Great reading, and a great blog: Jonathan's Blog

Remember to vote in the Webby's People Choice. As they used to say in Chicago when the late Richard J. Daley was mayor, "vote early, and vote often!"

And thanks for the support---RJ

TAKE FIVE: VIDEO EXPLODES ACROSS THE INTERNET


Good morning:

NBC announced this week they'll offer downloads of all their programming through a portal called National Broadband Co. The videos play on your computer, smart phone or video iPod. And NBC already sells some episodes of their prime time programming on iTunes.

So the swing to bring video to the Web is past it's tipping point. And a big part of this movement is terrific forms of new online video advertising.

This week I want to point out some good examples of these video ads, to show how marketers are starting to use ad units offered through online video vendors like Klipmart and EyeWonder.

Most of these ads play in a screen that's 1/16th the size of the page, enough to see the video clearly, but still keep the kbyte size of the stream small enough to get over 15 frames per second. If you subscribe to the online Wall Street Journal, you've seen these ads for more than a year, usually playing in the right-hand upper column of the pages.

If you hurry, you can see an interesting Samsung campaign which is playing out on the home page of MSNBC.com this week. It's two and three coordinated online ad units blowing video:
MSNBC home page

The good news about video ads so far is that video is being used respectfully---you usually have to mouse over the ad, either to get it to play, or to turn on the sound.

The bad news is that we're seeing a lot of used television commercials being slapped into a Web page, thus turning your $1,500 computer into a $200 television set.

There's so much more that can be done to integrate interactive applications into these units. The trick is to use video as the spine of the user experience, but give viewers lots of choices around and within the video, so they can interact with it.

Here's some of the good (and the almost good, and the not so good):

AIR FORCE "NIGHT VISION GOGGLES" This video ad for the Air Force is a great example of how video can be used as the "spine." The opening ad, a smaller unit to the side of a page, invites you to "roll over to "see what the Air Force sees." When you do, the unit expands into the page and you're in control of dashboard screen that shows footage of a night military operation. You can switch to either "thermal" or "infrared" night vision technologies. Points for interactivity, as well delivering an interesting subject well "illuminated," ---and using the medium itself to show how cutting edge the Air Force is with technology: Air Force Video Ad

BUENA VISTA ENTERTAINMENT "SIN CITY SMS" Sin City was a wild, violent incarnation of Frank Miller's graphic novel, and many of the audience who ran to see it were 18-30 year olds. So it made sense to build one of the first interactive video ads for mobile devices, delivered through that tiny web browser on your cell phone. Not only is this a cool video ad blowing through your cell phone, but you can interact with it to find out where the movie is playing near you (or rather was playing, since it's through it's theater run). Hint: you have to mouse over the ad to get the sound to play. That's using one of those "polite" features for a pretty un-polite movie: Sin City Mobile Video Ad

TOUCHSTONE PICTURES "HERBIE FULLY LOADED" Here's another decent movie video ad, designed for websites. Lindsay Lohan's latest movie has come and gone (mercifully) but while it was in the theaters, Disney ran an online campaign in Q3 to support it, with this video unit (again from Klipmart) that's pretty hard working: it's got video, and an interactive game, and a quick link to AOL movies to find local showtimes near your zip code. It's an early example of taking existing assets from a TV campaign and at least building some interactivity around it. Interestingly, Disney spent 80% of their $40,000 media buy for this campaign with NASCAR.com: Herbie Loaded

BUICK "LUCERNE" Dumb video ad campaign from Buick for their new Lucerne model--somebody told somebody to just throw up a television commercial on the Web. The only thing good I can say is that the commercial is visually interesting. Buick spent $500,000 on the campaign, making it one of the richest online video campaigns so far. (click on the little speaker icon in the lower right to hear the sound): Lucerne Video Ad

BRITANY SPEARS "FANTASY" Instant messaging is one of the most powerful means of communication between 12-25 year olds, and now video advertising has come to the IM world. Here's an IM video ad for--oh, gag me with a spoon--Britany Spears' new perfume, called Fantasy.

Two things make this ad interesting to me....and neither one is Britany Spears.

First, the ad is designed for, and delivered through, this "alternative" medium of Instant Messaging---very cool, and a great media choice for their audience. Second, if you listen to the sound, you'll notice her voice has no reverb at all. This choice works with the creative--it's all a dream, you see--but the lack of reverb also creates a kind of intimate conversational tone that works well in this very personal medium of IM (hint: hit the > play button to run the commercial:) Britany's Fantasy

With 70% of US households getting their Internet through broadband, 2006 can be the year we blow up old online advertising models of static banners and primitive animations, and get on to some very creative interactive experiences. Play on...

Have a good week----RJ

Sunbeam's Little Oskar


TAKE FIVE BONUS: INDESPENSIBLE KITCHEN TOOLS!

Here's a bonus "Take Five" about another of my passions: cooking. I do all the cooking for my family, and over the years I've grown emotionally attached to several of my favorite, but obscure kitchen tools.

Here's five fabulous tools I couldn't start cooking without:

SUNBEAM'S LITTLE OSKAR

It's hard to find these anymore, except on eBay, but the Little Oskar chops and grinds vegetables, herbs, and meats with a twist of the wrist. Two sharp blades evicerate anything you can fit into the six inch wide chamber. Every kitchen in the Miller clan has one of these on the counter thanks to my Mom, Betty Miller, who gave them as Christmas presents.





MANDOLINE

This is like a long, narrow cutting board with two (very sharp) blades built into the middle. You "rub" the food back and forth, and perfectly even slices dump out. It's kind of like the big meat slicer in your local deli, except the blade doesn't spin. Great for cutting french fries, potato slices, tomatos, onions---anything that needs to be sliced evenly and in large quantities.





Viking Cheese & Fruit Knife


CHEEZE & FRUIT KNIFE

The Viking cheese knife become my favorite utility knife---I use it for all kinds of stuff other than cheeze. The open areas behind the blade prevent that smearing layer of cheeze left on traditional blades, but the serrated edge can cut bread easily, and it's great for trimming out fat from a leg of lamb or a roast. And it's great for cheeze and fruit, yeah...






MEAT THERMOMETER

This is the best of the meat thermometers I have bought, and I've bought many that just don't work--batteries, LED displays, wires and probes---agggh! Here's a simple, easy-to-read meat thermometer that comes with a sleeve cover you can clip in your shirt pocket while you're making dinner. Use it frequently, and memorize the correct temperatures you like. Example: I think pork tenderloin should come out of the oven at 125 degrees, and then you should allow it to "rest" for 10-15 minutes before carving, so it rises up to 135 degrees--reddish pink medium rare. Here's how you can track progress to make that happen. This little baby puts you in real control of the cooking process.







OXO 4C. MEASURING CUP

OXO Good Grips is a line of basic kitchen tools that are made very well--the concept is to add thick black rubber grips on ordinary tools, and make them work better. This is their jumbo four cup measuring cup. The cool idea is that they print the four-cup scale inside both sides of the cup, and along a diagonal ridge, to allow you to clearly see how much you've put in. I'm left-handed, so I'm always having to read numbers backwards through the glass when I measure. A big bonus is that this is twice the size of a normal 2c. measuring cup, so it's great for family-sized reciepes.

BONUS BONUS: One last piece of free kitchen advice is get your kitchen knives sharpened at least once every three months. You will be astounded at how much better they work. It's the single biggest improvement you can make in your kitchen for under $25.)

Good morning:

We've talked over the last months about the trend of Websites which feature consumer-created content. Sometimes this is just me and my friends having fun, like www.myspace.com and www.flickr.com, but sometimes the sites become real destinations, like www.youtube.com. And every once an awhile we see an advertiser trying to crack into this, with a website for consumer-created content; some good, some bad, some very ugly. Here's a few more postings on this frontier, plus the latest Google-generated content:

McDONALDS "CASTING CALL:" This "consumer-created content" trend has spawned several recent forays by agencies and clients into "consumer-created" advertising. A couple of recent attempts by big brands have ended in spectacular disaster--we posted some of the Chevy Tahoe "make your own commercial" parodies, which all ripped the Tahoe for being a gas-guzzling SUV. (The contest has been taken down, as you can see at "Chevy Apprentice" )

Now McDonalds is in the middle of this mash-up of a trend, with a contest to get your photo printed on millions of Mcdonald's hamburger wrappers. Enter your photo and you could be one of 25 lucky winners. At least they can filter out the obscene and irate entries--something Chevy didn't think about: Global casting.com

CONVERSE "CONVERSE GALLERY" More consumer-generated content: The shoe company Converse has a consumer-generated Website, Converse Gallery, featuring homemade music videos and commercials (and pseudo-commercials) almost entirely made by consumers. I say "almost" because there are very sophisticated videos by Mos Def and other stars and directors. There's a fair number from starving actors and their line producer/cum commercial director buddies, which can be both entertaining and sophisticated. Each one features a converse shoe in the course of the video. New films posted every day, and the release of a new Converse model brings in hundreds of videos: Converse Gallery

KRAFT FOODS "U-STARVIN.COM" Kraft shoots for the 19-25 crowd with this interactive look at college life. Using Flash 8, they take you to the "University of St.Arvin" where you can visit a bunch of wacky college students in their dorm and fraternity rooms, as they deal with their hunger pangs in humorous, wacky ways. I give this a C minus for the humor and the acting, but there's some thought to how you can use interactivity to explore a fun environment (check out "this dude will eat anything." Kraft Mac N' Cheeze is the product being advertised--and college students are probably make up a fertile but unexplored market for Mac N Cheese: U-Starvin.com

GOOGLE "GOOGLE CALENDAR" Google released a free calendar product this week which is the next piece of evidence that they aim to organize and control the computer desktop for consumers. The idea is that you can set up multiple calendars---business, social, kids, whatever--and as you enter appointments into the calendar, Google searches based on the words in your entry and serves up ads it hopes are relevant. For example, if you enter "Lucky Number Sleven and dinner with Claire" for this Saturday night, Google will place ads for theaters showing "Lucky Number Sleven" plus ads for restaurants nearby. The ads pay for the service, and Google has another media channel to sell ads into. Here's a good story in the Washington Post about it: WaPost Article. And here's Google Calendar itself: Google Calendar

REUTERS "SPRINT TO OFFER MOBILE CHILD LOCATER SERVICE" Interesting article about Sprint / Nextel using the emergency geo-position service (GPS) function to create a service allowing parents to track where their kids (if they also carry a mobile phone) are at any time. Buried in this article is an interesting business note: Disney is talking about offering the service to parents, but branding the service "Disney." This is where I think there's a early and big home run in mobile marketing: "Branded Services," as I call them, are services offered by sponsors for free to customers, and the sponsor picks up the cost. Branded services generate real good will with consumers, since they're getting a free service, and if the sponsor picks the right service, it can really improve their brand image. Disney and this mobile child locater sounds right on to me: Disney locater article

Go generate your own content this week...Thanks-RJ