Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Ongoing Demise of Agencies...

Some interesting reading on the (lack of ) future for ad agencies.

Saturday, November 29, 2008

Digital Discovery of NIN

Nine Inch Nails does a lot of great stuff online. The site is the least great of them all.





Year Zero
What was it, exactly?

Friday, November 28, 2008

Guitar

Because I can

Thursday, November 27, 2008

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

The Best Inventions or... Why Didn't I Think Of That!

Time magazine is still one of my favorite reads, and recently they ran a series on the best inventions of 2008. If you haven't read it, then this is where you need to get started!

Tesla Roadster

Hulu

Chevy Volt

Green Crude

The Dynamic Tower

A Public Bike System

And many many more, so read on!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Monday, November 24, 2008

Hulu vs. MTV Music

OK, OK, I know that these sites have nothing to do with another, but I am hopelessly addicted to Hulu and MTV Music. I get to watch TV and I get to watch my MTV all from the wonderful confines of my computer screen. This is what Online TV is supposed to be about.

The future is here when you know that you can watch your favorite shows and your favorite old videos all in one place. Just a smattering of some of my favorites:








Friday, November 21, 2008

Sprint Widget - Very Cool

This is a link to the Sprint widget. It's a very cool, very intriguing widget for the purpose of engaging people with a mobile broadband card. I think it's a very interesting strategy. Nice job to whoever did it!

Man On The Street Pt 2 - Not What We Expected

This may not have been our best man on the street video, so we added some humor to it. I wouldn't take it too seriously for today, but have some fun with it!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

The Future of Advertising

Another great presentation from Slide Share on the future of advertising. Great graphics and a great way to tell the story... have a good read!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Art Of The Start

From Guy Kawasaki, a presentation that is definitely worth a read...

Click through to Slide Share

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

More Bad News For Agencies

From this article, there appears to be even more bad news.

Doom and Gloom Numbers Again

These don't look good...

Monday, November 17, 2008

Death Cab

Good site, great band

The Round-Up Volume 1, Issue 16: Thanks for Sharing Your Stuff and Services with Everyone

This week it’s a potluck, in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holidays!

Thanksgiving is a time to sit back and acknowledge the great things in your illustrious life and recognize all who do what they do for you! In that theme, I want to point out that all the highlights in this edition were submitted from readers of this column on Jack Myers’ website and in our Digital Influentials Facebook group. We value your submissions and we really do check them all out, so please be sure to keep ‘em coming. Let us know what you think are some of the most interesting new innovations online by sending them to me in the Facebook group at “The Digital Influentials” or emailing me at cory@catalystsf.com.

Let’s jump right into it shall we?

Have you ever wished you could cut and paste a web page to send to a friend? Then you should check out SNIPD (http://www.snipd.com/). Snipd is a tool that does exactly what it sounds like; it allows you to “grab and save pieces of pages”. Take snippets of ads you saw online or articles you read on a topic and share it with your friends. I started using it and found a bunch of bugs initially, but the site is still in beta and hopefully they’ll work out those bugs very soon. The promise of the site is very exciting and they can already count me as a fan!

Another cool tool is KALLOUT (http://www.kallout.com/). KallOut creates a search engine using your mouse. You highlight a set of words in any program like Outlook or Powerpoint, as well as in your browser, and KallOut brings recommended search results to you immediately. I love the idea of bringing search into all of your computer functions; check out the tutorial video on their site and see what I mean!

Speaking of cool tools, check out JAJAH (http://www.jajah.com). Jajah is a beautiful marriage between Skype and your home or cell phone. Using Jajah you can create an IP-based call that is funneled through your home or cell phone to another person on the other end. All incoming calls to your cell are typically free and the outgoing call can be as low as $0.01 per minute. My issue with internet telephony has always been that it tied you to a computer, but now Jajah frees you up!

If you’re calling your friends or family using Jajah, why not also share some pictures of your kids online and expand the connection! That’s where WEE WEB (http://wee-web.com/) comes in. For those of you with kids, you know that everyone wants to see the updates. It can be overwhelming, unless you use Wee Web! It’s a centralized hub for sharing with your friends and family. Simple. Easy. Brilliant! The Thanksgiving holidays are all about family and friends, so share your family!

The last service we found for this week was MYTHINGS (http://www.mythings.com/). I admit this is a strange one, but for those of you who live by the immortal words of the late George Carlin (it’s all about having “stuff”), this is a service for you! Keep track of your stuff. Find out the value of your stuff. Organize your stuff. I started playing with the site and being an organization junkie, I started to find value. Check it out – you may too!

As for our iPhone Apps update! I love the new WEBMD app for finding what ails me. I also dig the FIELDRUNNERS game for a fun and interesting way to waste time at the airport. If you’re having a baby, the EXPECTING app is a fun one to keep track of where you are in the pregnancy. Download these now and see what you think!

Have a great week and enjoy the world of digital media!

Oh – and Thanks for reading!!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Live Archive

I almost forget how much I like the old school simplicity of Archive.org. I spent the other night downloading Ryan Adams shows from years back. Its great - sound board quality sites and loads of shows from thousands of bands.

Check it.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

More Music Sites - Hype Machine

I discovered the Hype Machine recently while I was surfing around listening to new music. I liked what I found. The place is loaded with mew and old stuff, and definitely gathers together some of the best of the music blogs (and trust me, there are lots of them to find).

Music HAS to be the number one content item available on the interwebs. There are soooo many pages dedicated.

Check them out when you have time.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

And Now... Ryan Adams

I decided that I also want to exploit MTVMusic to highlight some of my other favorite artists. This time, Ryan Adams!










http://www.cardinology.com/

Testing How To Use Virtual Avatar's

I know this may seem strange, but...


Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Radiohead Is Today's Feature

As we continue to highlight my favorite music, let's move on to Radiohead!







Monday, November 10, 2008

Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam

I like to test out search engines and vodeo engines by finding all the Pearl Jam content that i can find, so why not turn that into a blog post!

MTV Music has every video you can think of and a bunch you didn't, such as:





















If you visit Mahalo, you get a bunch of cool info.


SearchMe looks like this.

Most of the rest comes up with the same info, but that's a good start and a good reason to show off Pearl Jam videos on my blog.


Friday, November 7, 2008

RockBand and Virtual Worlds

What is the definition of a virtual world? Well, let's see what the Wiki says:

"A virtual world is a computer-based simulated environment intended for its users to inhabit and interact via avatars. These avatars are usually depicted as textual, two-dimensional, or three-dimensional graphical representations, although other forms are possible[1] (auditory[2] and touch sensations for example)."

By that definition, is RockBand a virtual world? Technically I think it is and if that's the case then it might be the world's biggest virtual world!

I feel an article coming on...

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Where To Read About Mobile

The mobile marketing world has finally started to come into its own, and in order to stay on top of what is going on you need to look at the most updated information, hence some of the blogs that I've recently found that are helping me to keep an eye on what is going on in the mobile world!

Mobile Marketing Watch

The Mobile Marketing Forum

Fierce Mobile Content

This is of course in addition to the Mobile Marketing Insider from Mediapost!

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

A Tale Of Two Phones

AT&T is giving away free wi-fi in hot spots to people who have iPhones.

And Walmart is selling the G-1 phone at a discount.

It's funny - these are supposed to be the two phones that will change the way we operate in a mobile world and one is high tech and the other is not. One is responsible for the next generation of interfaces and touch-screen technology being adopted by the masses. One is synced with all things Google. One is a phenomenon that creates lines and the other is dropping price two weeks after launch.

Of course, being distributed in Walmart means that everyone will have access to the phone and at a lower price point, more people likely will, but will the G1 ever have the impact that the iPhone does?

Probably not, but it's fun to watch regardless!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Marketing Mistakes - From Twitter

I pulled this link from Jim Connolly on Twitter...

Common Marketing Mistakes.

Monday, November 3, 2008

The Round-Up Volume 1, Issue 15: It’s Autumn and Change is in the Air

“Everyone must take time to sit and watch the leaves turn.”
-- Elizabeth Lawrence

Change is in the air, or maybe that’s just the faintly earthy, comforting scent of a wood burning stove mixed with the coolest hint of a chill in the autumn air slowly settling upon us. As the colors fade from the trees and the leaves are raked to make way for the coming winter snows, we’re afforded the chance to look back fondly upon the year that was.

This time of year presents a chance to make a prediction for what is and what will be (and over the coming weeks we’ll see a lot of them), but let us not look past the immediacy of now and the changes and innovations that are already upon us. Let us uncover some of the innovations that afford us, both as consumers as well as marketers, the opportunity to gain a moment in our day and as the quote says, take a moment to watch the leaves turn.

Or, we can skip past all that hyperbole and check out some of the cool companies we’ve discovered over the last two weeks…

Original online video production is a hot category and no company is hotter than MEVIO (http://www.mevio.com/). Formerly Podshow, the company has emerged as a leader in the development of online video content by focusing on the personalities who are presenting the content. They follow a TV model by creating continuity in the hosts, a lesson embedded in the company DNA (check out the founding team).

Speaking of video and VJ’s– have you seen MTV MUSIC (http://www.mtvmusic.com)? Get this – videos and more videos, all the time! No horrible reality shows! I love it! And no – they are not paying me to say that! I really love it!!

If you’re not watching TV on the Internet, maybe you’re getting together with friends and colleagues? One of my favorite companies has always been MEETUP (http://www.meetup.com/). It appears that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery, plus the business mode works, hence QLUBB (http://www.qlubb.com/). Both companies help you organize your real world gatherings, which is a great way to learn what others are all about.

Sometimes when you get together with other people, it requires some travel time. Traveling requires flying, and waiting for a flight to land can be a precarious way to spend your time, until you use FLIGHT STATS (http://www.flightstats.com/). The site gives you email and phone updates regarding your desired flight, saving you time from sitting aimlessly at the airport.

Though it’s not really a new service or a new site, we wanted to showcase a design that we uncovered while on one of our expeditions for coolness, from THE COOLHUNTER (http://www.thecoolhunter.net/architecture/HOUSE---The-Best-Of-The-Best/). A house that leaves you breathless!

And as we leave the Round-Up this week, let us leave you with another quote, one from Chuang Tzu, an early interpreter of Taoism from approximately 380 BC:

“We cling to our own point of view, as though everything depends on it. Yet our opinions have no permanence; like autumn and winter, they gradually pass away.”

Have a great week and remember to be open to others point of view for that is truly where education lies.

Thanks!