‘Cross The Breeze

I’ll be on holidays for the next 2 weeks and although I won’t be traveling that much - that’s what I do at work :) - there will be no blogging. See y’all again later.

• Why would you ever pitch Valleywag? | seattleduck
  why on Earth would anyone, EVER pitch Valleywag?
  (tags: valleywag bloggers pitch pr)
• Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing: I have 400,000 users of my widget - Now what? Freemium potential?
  InsideFacebook has a story today about a guy who built a “Where I’ve Been” map widget that has attracted 400,000 Facebook users. Now he is struggling to pay for servers and bandwidth…
  (tags: facebook widget host server bandwith freemium remora)

At MIX07 in Vegas (in April) there were few presentations that didn’t have a sort of web-technical angle on things. There were a few, but one was quite outstanding and in on my list to write about since then. The presentation I’m talking about is ‘The emotion of customer experience‘ by Lou Carbone.

Lou talks about customer experience management, logic versus emotion, the brandcanyon, etc…

“Understand how successful businesses find and manage experience “clues” and differentiate between brand management and experience management. Learn how to make the dynamic shift from making-and-selling to sensing-and-responding.”

It’s very interesting to hear about how to create emotion, that creates an attude which will make people behave a certain way. And as Lou also quotes, you cannot NOT have an experience. He also points out to the interesting fact that we (companies) to a lot of research to see how people feel about our brands, whereas we should think of researching how people feel about themselves… and how we can affect that.

The video is an hour long, but it’s definitely worth it. Take a look at the examples he gives of NWA, Harley Davidson, Starbucks, Blockbuster and others, good stuff. This is one for my bringtheloveback series.

Bonus link: There’s also a video of an interview with Lou Carbone at MIX07 about this experience engineering.

Technorati Tags: bringtheloveback, lou carbone, customer, experience, logic, emotion, research, clues, attitude, video, presentation

This guerilla campaign was developed by BBDO Stuttgart for Mercedes, no need to explain what it’s about as it’s such a simple execution of a very good creative idea. Campaigns like these are just a joy if you ask me. Great stuff BBDO!

[Via marketing alternatif]

Technorati Tags: mercedes, advertising, guerilla, bbdo, germany, stuttgart, testdrive

Being rewarded for just writing your opinion on a blog is always a pleasant thing, and it was a nice surprise when Mark Goren listed me in his ‘thinking blogger’ award list. The idea of the ‘thinking blogger awards’ came from ilker yoldas and his his answer to the Z list thinking that is a bit too random as a list. So he started this meme to share a shortlist of ‘5 blogs that make me think’ and after a few months of traveling it’s great to see Mark tagged me on his version of this list.

In the past I already made my hotlists once for both marketing and advertising blogs and some people that were nominated before by Mark (or the people before him) are on these lists as well. These lists were actually my answer on the Z list and other initiatives, thinking of the blogs that stand out. It looks like I need to update that list again though one of these days, since there are a few people that should be added now like Andy Nulman, Matt Dickman, Toby Bloomberg,… etc (but that’s for later).

So here’s my ‘thinking blogger award’ list, where I tried not to nominate people that have been already (congrats to all of you as well):

• Hugh MacLeod (Gapingvoid): I like Hugh’s cartoons, they are fun and interesting. But also his comments and opinion (read the Hughtrain for instance) are mind provoking so reason enough to be in this list.
• David Armano (Logic+Emotion): If you know David’s blog you think graphics, I like to read it most for his views related to social networks, influence, etc… as they are very similar with how I think of it, but way better presented.
• Guy Kawasaki (How to change the world): I’m quite a big fan of his ‘the art of’ series but it’s been a while since his last one. Guy is just smart and so he writes smart stuff, this is must read.
• Richard MacManus (ReadWriteWeb): Richard is not writing on R/RW on his own to the team deserves credit as well of course. R/RW is an interesting blog on web technology and gives a lot more analysis on this new tech, rather than just news. Very interesting.
• Ewan McIntosh (edu.blogs.com): Ewan is a smart guy looking at new (web) technology and how it can be used in education. Since we’re both interested in tech, but from a totally different angle that’s quite interesting for me.

I don’t think a lot of these guys take part in memes, but hey you asked for the 5 blogs that make me think most so that’s what you get.

If you are inclined to continue this on, I’ve got the specs to follow here:

Here are the participation rules for the Thinking Blogger Award:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post (or this one or this one) so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the ‘Thinking Blogger Award’ with a link to the post that you wrote (here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn’t fit your blog).

Thanks again Mark for the nomination, I’ll buy you a drink in July :)

• Marketers Seek a Banner-Blindness Cure - WSJ.com
  Pity the poor banner ad. Cutting-edge just a few years ago, this pioneer of Web advertising is now scorned as hopelessly out-of-date, a neglected stepchild in an era of Web video, widgets, mash-ups and social networking.
  (tags: banner online advertising video widget mashup wsj)

This is just too good.

[Via Right-Half Chow]

Technorati Tags: george orwell, big brother, camera

• blog.pmarca.com: Analyzing the Facebook Platform, three weeks in
  In this post, I provide an overview and analysis of the Facebook Plaform and what we have learned about it in the three weeks since it launched.
  (tags: api application facebook dev networking marketing internet platform programming review strategy socialnetworks socialnetworking trends business web2.0 social)
• Wired 15.04: Operation Channel 9
  Lenn Pryor knew his little project was going to upset some of his colleagues at Microsoft. And sure enough, when the junior exec unveiled a Web site called Channel 9 in April 2004, the organization reacted like a dog whose tail had been stepped on
  (tags: article blog blogging business communication community corporate wired culture microsoft channel9)

I just found this picture at istartedsomething, where Long Zheng is making fun of a recent AMD announcement stating that the new AMD Phenom logo appears on the Ferrari Formula One Helmets. I like F1 and watch it quite often, how come I haven’t see that logo before? :)

Technorati Tags: f1, amd, branding, logo, advertising, speed, phenom, ferrari, fun

• New IM application for Facebook, built with Adobe AIR - Download Squad
  Combine Facebook’s API, Adobe’s portable AIR runtime and a little ingenuity and you get Airwaves, and IM client built from the ground up with social networking in mind
  (tags: applications platform beta api adobe air facebook socialnetwork video)
• Webware 100 winners announced! | Webware : Cool Web apps for everyone
  And now the moment you’ve all been waiting for… The Webware 100 winners. Go to www.webware.com/100 to see the top 100 Web 2.0 products, 10 each in 10 categories, selected by the Web’s users.
  (tags: web2.0 web20 webware hotlist winners internet)
• Techmeme: Semel Steps Aside as Yahoo CEO (Wall Street Journal)
  Yahoo Inc. said Terry Semel will step aside as its chief executive and be replaced by co-founder Jerry Yang, as the Internet icon attempts to reinvigorate its business and regain investor confidence.
  Link Search: Google, Ask, Technorati, Sphere, and IceR
  (tags: yahoo ceo semel founder leadership confidence investors)
• Live Earth Tree
  The Live Earth tree is a new project by MSN UK running in conjunction with the Live Earth concerts to promote green, environmentally friendly activities.
  (tags: change design global graphics green live warming)
• Bink.nu | Flash Zune supposedly gets name, capacities
  After our leaks regarding the flash Zune, Zune 2.0, and Zune factory were confirmed we decided to seek some new info regarding future Zune products. Once again we will protect our sources, but be assured, this info comes from inside Microsoft. The codenam
  (tags: zune flash source leak future draco microsoft 4gb 8gb)
• Bink.nu | Microsoft Enhances Virtual Earth Product in Great Britain With High-Resolution 3-D Height Data From Intermap Technologies
  Microsoft Corp. and Intermap Technologies Corp. today announced the launch of Microsoft’s enhanced Virtual Earth™ 3-D viewing platform based on Intermap Technologies’ highly accurate and up-to-date elevation data for all of Great Britain
  (tags: ve virtualearth 3D microsoft uk intermap technology)