I came across this video from the Guyism site here, and I have to say, even though the video comes off as a ridiculous, (un)intended self-parody of the 80′s, I cannot get the stupid song out of my head and will have “Mike, Mike, Mike Weinstein” on the mind for awhile. Mission accomplished there as I thought I had moved on from Footloose…a long time ago.
So, is this an effective use of video for political campaigning purposes? I’d have to say a resounding yet irritated yes if the goal was to get Mike Weinstein’s name out there. However, if they were trying to make a middle-aged white guy seem cool with younger voters…negative on that Ghostrider.
Let me know what you think in the comments below or @kobrabai on Twitter…
This blog post originally ran on Power Retail – you can view it here.
We’re currently in the midst of a revolution on the internet in regards to how information is interacted with, digested and shared. Social media has been the main driver of this new era in communication on the internet (both fixed and mobile), so it’s no surprise that this revolution is also impacting online retail. Social media tools are just now being incorporated into most online retail sites which are giving consumers a new method in which to pre-validate purchases through peer feedback. However, interactive video is set to alter the way in which consumers interact with product information by not only integrating what works from social media but also altering the way consumers interact with digital content.
Online shopping itself has to date been a very solitary experience and not entirely interactive. Consumers would often review listings of a product, view respective photos and maybe even see a standard product video – all to base their buying decision on. The Achilles heel of online shopping has always been the lack of interaction with the product itself to make a more informed purchase decision. However, innovative uses of interactive video are quickly changing that perception. Interactive video is providing that next step just short of reaching out and physically touching a product (that’s another installment though as 3D printing might change things in the near future). Some online retailers are even using interactive video as a customer service model to better connect with the online shopper. Though interactive video itself is a technical breakthrough, it will continue to evolve online due to its integration of social media fundamentals. Here are a few examples of how interactive video is changing the online shopping experience:
ZAPPOS’ INTERACTIVE PRODUCT VIDEOS
With a partnership with Nike and Overlay.tv, Zappos is offering interactive product videos for the consumer to get product info and other information all through an interactive video interface. Consumers can also leave their own video testimonial through their webcam. Zappos’experience has shown it increased conversions from 6% to 30% for products that use video.
SAMSUNG PRODUCT SUPPORT TV
Even the customer service experience will be affected as online shoppers expect to deal with a live person versus an automated response. Samsung is offering live video streaming for online shoppers to have a more personable way to solicit information from their customer service end.
AUGMENTED REALITY SHOPPING
Webcam usage is skyrocketing, so it’s only a matter of time until shoppers expect to have the ability to ‘try on’ digital clothing while they shop. Enter Augmented Reality Shopping. Tobi.com recently integrated Augmented Reality into their site to provide this innovation for their customers. (Disclaimer: Zugara created Fashionista based off its Webcam Social Shopper technology)
SUMMARY
Webcam sales alone are expected to grow to $3.2 billion by 2015 and video chat services such as Skype are currently handling 22 million users concurrently at any given time. I think it’s safe to say that as interactive video continues its growth on the web, webcam and video chat integration will as well.
Join me at my presentation at the Online Retailer Expo & Conference in Sydney on July 7, 2010 as I show even more demonstrations of how emerging media and technology are contributing to this evolution of both the internet and online shopping.
I was originally intending for this post-Coachella entry to be about all the cool emerging media and tech at this year’s Coachella festival. Instead, it’s going to be a rant against AT&T. Not only was cell service non-existent for basic calls, text messages and even email but trying to use the mobile web was an even worse nightmare. What makes this ironic is that the festival ran out of paper schedules by early Saturday and directed people to the Coachella iPhone App which didn’t really help you find your way around. So not only could you not contact friends to meet somewhere but you also had to rely on the sparsely located stationery “Here you are” map areas to locate certain stages. And that’s if you happened to already have the app installed – there was no way you were going to be able to download the app with non-existent service.
What about the advanced emerging media and tech like mobile marketing with QR codes, livestreaming and social media updates? Not a chance. I only found out after the fact that most of the tweets I was sending out at the fest weren’t actually going out. And I didn’t even bother to livestream any of the bands knowing that the AT&T network was useless. You would think with 75,000+ people at Coachella every day that someone would have thought, “maybe we should get some mobile cell towers in there like we did for SXSW to improve service for our customers.” Nope. And I don’t seem to be the only one that’s frustrated with this clear lack of planning by AT&T.
So there you have it. I’m not sure how Apple can continue to market livestreaming and other advanced features and apps for the iPhone when it’s pretty clear that AT&T cannot keep up with demand. With projections of mobile web usage continuing to skyrocket, I think the upward trend on this graph will clearly outpace the time it takes for AT&T to get it’s act together or just render their entire network useless. And as long as Apple is tied to AT&T, I don’t think mobile interactive video will take off this year as hoped with the rumored iPhone 4G coming out. Another post for another time though…
In closing, if you want to know how the overall festival went (sans any cell or internet service), there’s some good footage on both YouTube and Ustream. RFID technology continues to gain ground at events as you can see from the picture above of the Coachella wristband. You can also see some of the praise and complaining on twitter with hashtag #coachella. And if you are still not a fan of Muse, you have obviously not been enlightened yet!
Coachella is almost upon us – at least for those of us in the Los Angeles area! This 3-day concert/festival is a huge event out here and it’s always interesting to see how emerging media and technology is used at this forward thinking musical event.
I’m going to test out most of the standard techs while there such as Livestreaming with Qik, Ustream and maybe even Twitcasting. Pretty sure there will also be quite a few campaigns from bands and brands using QR Codes, Stickybits, and other mobile marketing efforts. And of course, I’ll update this post after the fest with any pictures/videos from the event itself.
With all that said, I did want to take a chance to list out many of the ‘new media tools’ you can prepare yourself with before heading to the fest (or to interact with from home):
MOBILE APPS
Pretty standard but always helpful – especially the Interactive Field Map, Band Chooser and Find My Car functionality.
Happy Coachella also has a feed aggregating band tweets here.
VIRTUAL TOUR (360 degree Interactive Panormas)
2010 Virtual Tour is not live yet, but you can view it (and 2009) here.
WIDGET
After the event, I’ll post some of the emerging media and tech from the event in a post-event update. Until then, if you’re heading to the show, hit me up on @kobrakai – you can probably find me wandering about or close to the beer tent
It was bound to happen sooner or later. Someone took Facebook Connect functionality and mashed it together with Chatroulette’s video conferencing interface. So now you have Faceroulette! The only problem? Nobody seems to be using it quite yet. It remains to be seen if the whole appeal of Chatroulette is in the anonymous nature of the service or if services like Faceroulette, Redditroulette, Tinychat and others can gain traction in the marketplace with detailed and niche user options. Could Facebook will be rolling out a similar feature to Faceroulette sometime in the immediate future?
We Are Organized Chaos (WAOC) is Zugara’s (www.zugara.com) interactive marketing and advertising blog where we’ll be featuring some great projects and discussing upcoming trends in the digital world. Work — good and bad — will be critiqued. Hope you’ll enjoy reading our insights and thoughts on interactive.
