Web 2.WTF?!?!

I’ve known that the internet landscape has been changing for some time now; to what and from what remained unanswered questions nonetheless. While “from what” is going to remain in unanswered exile for a while longer, I think I’ve finally gotten at least a slippery hold on what the internet has grown into.

User generated content (UGC) is the common denominator among the many definitions of Web 2.0 . And its older than we think. I was recently having a conversation with a buddy of mine regarding viral video. I brought up BMW films and the series of short films they did with Clive Owen entitled “The Hire.” This was one of the original viral campaigns, launched entirely online and burgeoning into a full-fledged DVD with featurettes.

What we have is a democratization of media, and Thomas Jefferson’s fuckin’ dream. No longer is there an entrance barrier of journalism school, or big media/conglomerate membership, or expensive equipment. With relatively Neanderthal video equipment and a laptop- the world is yours. Finding out that LonelyGirl15 was scripted made several worlds collapse on themselves. A good story, regardaless of who’s telling it, will reach a crowd.

So why is T. Jeff so psyched? The educated populace. While they’re still quite dominant, think tanks, corporations, and faceless entities have competition now. As a result people are forced to evaluate the news they receive. Before, we read it in the newspaper or heard it on the evening news and believed it. Now that a million Joe Schmoes are writing the news, we’re forced to evaluate the “truthiness” of a given story. And believe you me, this a great thing.

Follow my train of thought if you will: 1) BMW Films comes out, stirs up the big media mix. 2) Tim O’Reilly said web 2.0 and now users generate the content for all to consume. 3) You can’t trust what’s being told to you, and are forced to do some background work on your own.

That’s it- the whole kit-and-caboodle. Nothing to earthshattering, just reflections on reality, and that’s how I like to keep it.

Kings of Leon - Because of the Times Album Review

You can't beat their backstory- 3 brothers, raised in the south, growing up with a Evangelical minister/father that took them on the big tent revival circuit as young, impressionable children. Add in a cousin sharing the same last name, equal parts the Strokes and Lynyrd Skynyrd and Randy Newman (trust me, I'll explain later) and you've got the Kings of Leon.

KOL have achieved relatively little recognition in spite of their songwriting talents in the U.S. On the other side of the "pond", the Followill's (3 brothers+1 cousin= same last name) have really exploded. On their first album, Youth & Young Manhood, it sounded like the Kings ripped a chapter out of America's songbook and rewrote a contemporary version of it. With their faces shrouded in ragged, and rugged, beards, the KOL brought an air of mystery and edginess to their music.

A couple of years ago they released their sophomore follow-up, this time you could tell they sanded around the edges a bit and really started to develop their sound. Flash forward to 2007 and a whole new treat is on our plate- their most recent offering Because of the Times.

The first thing to strike the listener is the maturity they've gained. No longer are they talking about running around with groupies, drinking and doing drugs (don't get me wrong, its still there) exclusively. "Knocked Up" is a claim to the mother of "his" baby, and no father's going to get in the way of it. Sonically, they really stretch themselves with this cut.

The standout track, for me, is "Ragoo." If this were the 19th century and it was the Civil War, KOL would proudly be sporting their grey coats, throwing blows against the likes of Fall Out Boy and company. They are the south for pop rock. Their subtle twang hints at Charlie Daniels, but really is just a guitar acting as counterpoint for Caleb's haunting voice.

Here's where the Randy Newman reference comes in. I was talking with my roommate about this very band last night, and he couldn't get over the fact that Caleb (lead vox) sounded kind of like Randy Newman. The carry-over between the two is the honesty and truth that is revealed in their imperfections. The write about their imperfections, they imperfectly perform, and they imperfectly produce some of the freshest music in the barren landscape we call contemporary music.

Do yourself a favor and sample this album on imeem or visit their myspace for a few samples- you won't regret it.

It's All For Sales

Hey everyone (all 2 of my loyal readers), sorry I haven't been updating. I've gotten involved in a couple of startups in addition to my 9-5, and working on a short movie, so life's been busy.

I recently read Pyro Marketing, and one thing it kept driving home is that the purpose of advertising and marketing is to generate sales. Some may argue that there's also branding, new product info, etc. , but the reason you're getting people to recognize your brand is so that they'll continue using it. You can extrapolate as to how new product info is directly tied to sales.

I find myself falling victim to coming up with a great idea to occupy mind-space, but later realizing that it doesn't get back to what my core competency should be - generating sales through ad/marketing.

After a campaign, the client wants to see some metrics so they can see what their ROI is. If you want that client to maintain their account with you, start thinking about increasing their ROI and not so much about an idea you think is cool- but won't drive the brand.

I'm going to get back on track and post at least one music and one ad/marketing article per day. I may even play catch up and post a shit ton of articles before the end of the week.

My Phone, My Wingman…

Note: Blackberry is synonymous with smartphone in this article

Let’s face it folks, the Blackberry is the digital age’s business card. For recent college graduates, it shows that you’re now gainfully employed and part of the “in crowd” of young professionals. For those who’ve been in the workforce for several years, it’s the symbol that you’re still cool and in touch with the changing times. The business world is so steeped in the Blackberry culture that it’s almost as if we don’t have a person for a boss, rather, we work for our Blackberry. It’s time to turn the tables and make that mobile work for you – and I’m not talking about at the office. Use these resources to employ the smallest wingperson (ladies, you can use these too!) in the history of wingpeople.

1. Ever had that dark wish that a friend of yours was in a car accident so you could get out of that horrendous date? Now you wish can come true- no paraplegic comrade required! MobileFaker allows you to schedule fake calls to be made to your phone. The rest is up to your imagination. If the date’s going well, just tell your “friend” that you’ll hang out tomorrow night, tonight you’re on an amazing date (brownie points, no doubt)!
2. MobileFaker, back at it, doesn’t limit you’re romantic utilities to a mere phone call. You can load a fake boy/girlfriend to your phone. Nothing’s more attractive than being “unavailable.” Even those CSI nuts who investigate everything and need proof of your significant other will be quieted with pictures and text messages from your sweetie.
3. The triumvirate would not be complete without a database of pickup and letdown lines. My personal favorite letdown: “I’m so happy to be dating again. My ex is totally psychotic and keeps stalking me.”

What would a wingperson be if they weren’t there for you the next morning? Absolutely worthless, that’s what they would be. Fear not, your Blackberry is there for you. Download MobiPocket reader for free to get started. Next, download the hangover cure remedy from ZDnet. This little wealth of information will give you all the foods and types of activities you should engage in to get rid of those few too many appletinis you took down at the club.

For those of you who are trying to keep your feng shui in line, you can reap the rewards of thousands of years of research from the Far East with MobiPocket’s acupressure hangover cure. A couple steel balls (that’s where the pressure comes from, get your mind out of the gutter!), twenty minutes, throw in a hangover, and when all is said and done, you feel so great you could handle another four or five appletinis!

So next time you don’t feel like hitting the town because your partner in crime is MIA, fear not. Your buddy has now been replaced by a cell phone who will never leave your side (until you drop it in the toilet).

“You bought the iPhone? Which one?”- Apple & Cisco Kiss and Make Up

News of Apple’s iPhone leaked months ago. Steve Jobs, with his typical anti-establishment maneuvers, drew the limelight from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) by holding the MacWorld expo in the middle of CES. And the wrench that got thrown into Apple’s plan- Cisco systems, in Q3 2006, announced their plans to release their own iPhone, patented a few years ago.

Apple’s run into problems just like this before with Apple Corps, the Beatles record company. Jobs and Apple can’t help it, branding is what drives their business. From the all white, sleek electronics, to the iEverything that is in their product line, to the cute little Apple logo and white earbuds shamelessly sported by iPod generation everywhere you go, Apple relies on their creative branding to keep up in a world dominated by Bill Gates.

Cisco, who had slowly been creeping away from the forefront of the tech industry, felt that this was their time to grab some of world’s stage and reassert their tech prowess. And so the negotiations began, and a deadline was set. Then it was delayed. Then it was delayed again. Apple lunges, Cisco perries, and vice versa. Now, it seems, a resolution has been reached.

Cisco claims no financial interest in the resolution, only hopes for a future in which Cisco Systems could work with the notoriously closed Apple. This being said, its estimated that between $25 million and $50 million passed hands from Apple to Cisco. This deal is like allowing the bully to steal your lunch money, and hoping to work with him in the future. Apple pulled a Microsoft and pushed around Cisco. While $50 million would put a smile on my face, the iPhone has the opportunity to do to the mobile world what the iPod did to the mp3 world, and $50 million is nothing in that picture.

Cisco took care of dinner for tomorrow night with the deal. Heck, they took care of dinner for a while, but they gave up their bargaining chip and now they have to live with the decision they made. The iPhone could, very unlikely, bomb and Cisco made the right decision. Then again, the iPhone could take the market by storm and Cisco could be left with the scraps of Apple’s dinner. I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

How Smart is the iPhone?

Reviews have been out for a while, and competitors are starting to surface for Apple's uh-mazing iPhone. Here I'll just go over a few things about the iPhone to sum it up for everyone.

IT'S NOT A SMARTPHONE!
- smartphones, by definition, can run 3rd party software on their OS. Sadly, the iPhone can't. This means that what it comes with, which is a fairly substantial selection, is what you get. They may be changing this in future editions, but we'll have to wait and see.
- touchscreen QWERTY keyboard. No stylus, no keypad- this could be awkward. For those people that use their phone's for e-mail and more text intensive applications, a touchscreen keyboard could prove troublesome. I like Samsung's new phone that incorporates a slideaway QWERTY keyboard, with a predominantly touchscreen interface.
- Competitors: like I mentioned above, Samsung already has a phone in the works that will be a great side-by-side comparison with the iPhone. Also, LG released an entirely touchscreen phone designed with the help of Italian fashion staple Prada.

YouTube Founders Finally Make Money

YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen just registered to sell their stock (read more here). Firstly, this shows that these guys actually did make some money. Up until this point it was a misnomer that they were rich. They merely sold their company, and had stock in the new company, but were ultimately accountable to the shareholders at large.
What does this say about YouTube and Google's relationship? Don't hold me to this, but it says that Mark Cuban was right. YouTube is a great idea, but a bad business venture. The copyright infringement liability is still an unsettled issue, and could potentially wipe out the venture. Monetizing the service is going to be very tricky without upsetting users who are accustomed to the ad-free, streamlined user interface. Not to mention that the videos are of poor quality. This contributes to the guerrilla, viral aspect of the service, but consumers today are obsessed with quality (do you really need 7 megapixels?), and that's something that YouTube does not offer.
So what next? Joost (pronounced Yoe-st) is planning on transforming the internet-TV dialogue by bringing quality video to your computer screen. Quality is something people pay for, not grainy, yet hilarious, four minute videos.
The bottom line- Chen and Hurley cashed out because they realize that YouTube is a Craig's List, not an eBay. It's an awesome service, as long as its free, but you're not going to be making TV off of it. When it's all said and done, Google created a whole lot of buzz with their purchase of YouTube, which makes it a billion dollar press release.

A Match Made in Heaven

Today's feature...another entry about music - but this one's educational and you WILL find your next favorite band if you follow these simple steps (yes, I can make guarantees on here...just try and sue me- not really, but yeah, go ahead and try).

1. Set up an account with Pandora, a program created by the good folks at the Music Genome Project (MGP).

• Pandora is essentially a streaming radio, but you get to program the stations. Yes, I know other programs have this capability (Musicmatch Jukebox was one of the originals), but Pandora incorporates the immense database of the MGP. The MGP basically tags songs, just like you would tag photos, with phrases describing the quality of each song, ranging from the instrumentation, to the genre, to the lyrics, and even the timbre of the vocals.
• You create a radio station by starting with an artist/band or song that you like, and Pandora generates songs that are strikingly similar to the one used to create the station. You can then give a "thumbs up" or "thumbs down", look at why Pandora selected that song, and if you really like the song you can bookmark it where it is saved in your profile for future reference.

2. Look at the songs you bookmarked and check to see if that artist is on MySpace. Today alone I found 3 new artists that I particularly enjoy (Looper, What Made Milwaukee Famous, and Ms. John Soda).

• Not to preach to the choir or treat the few readers I have as idiots, but MySpace is the largest social networking site on the internet, and even has a search function dedicated to searching for artists.
• Typically, an artist's MySpace page will have 4 songs available for streaming, and some even have downloads available.

3. Check iTunes to see if the album or song is available for download. If not, call your local record store, visit the artist's website (which is sometimes their MySpace page- as is the case with a trio I really enjoy, One Block Radius).

• For God's sake (no, I'm not talking about a divine rice wine from Japan), do not illegally download the track. Pandora goes out of it's way to mix in lesser known groups with the more mainstream ones. Support these guys so they can become rich and then you can illegally download the track because they're millionaires anyway.

There you have it, Jake's 3 easy steps to finding your next favorite new band. Leave a comment about a band you want me to check out, or if you have another awesome suggestion as to how I should go about finding my next favorite band.

Alien Gives Boston the Finger- Terror Ensues

This has got to be a joke. I first read about this yesterday and thought it was going to blow over because it is so ridiculous. Turner Broadcasting, promoting Aqua Teen Hunger Force (an animated show on Cartoon Network's Adult Swim) employed a non-traditional media marketing campaign of posting up lite-brite style images of a character from the show in 10 major American cities. See them assemble and install one such device here.

So what is the big deal? Apparently Boston officials didn't find the lightsnipes, as they're called, so entertaining. I can understand misunderstandings (that's poetry baby!), but jailing two individuals responsible for installing the devices under charges including inciting hysteria. According to the Boston Globe: "Elected officials said there is no room for battery-powered contraptions on bridges and overpasses in a post Sept. 11 world."

That statement really irked me. We live in a post 9/11 world, yes, and we always will. There's absolutely no way to go back and undo that event, at least until Marty McFly saves the day. So a neon, heavily pixilated alien giving people the bird is how the terrorists are going to get us? Nevermind the loosely secured railways and seaports- its the aliens giving us the bird that we should worry about. We live amongst morons...sad yet oddly entertaining.

Music Recording 2.0, The New Revolution

For those of you not familiar with the term web 2.0 (if you're not look it up in wikipedia because it's the "hot craze" right now), its basically this current trend of user generated content. Users upload their videos to youtube, photos on to flikr, links to news stories and other items of interest via digg and del.icio.us, etc.

It has really changed the way people are using the internet- not only the users uploading the content, but industry professionals looking for a creative spur. Gino Bona, while not via the web, won a contest in which an agency heard Super Bowl ad pitches from a plethora of fans, and will have his Super Bowl spot featured this coming Sunday. Some prolific posters on youtube have found themselves invited to work in the mainstream industry. Collegehumor.com's bread and butter is user generated content.

This got me to thinking about music. There has been a steady trend over the past 100 years of music production and process going through more and more hands. Initially, someone wrote a song, and performed that song for others. Next people started performing pieces written by others. Throw in a conductor (mind you this is all before recorded music) and there's another cook in the kitchen. With technology comes producers, masterers, collaborators, and so on and so forth.

This concept of music being individual and one person having ownership or control of a song has been convincingly eroded, yet some still linger on the romantic idea that THIS song is THEIR song. Why not get past this archaic individualistic division from community? It's quite cliche, but nonetheless: music is supposed to bring us together, not tear us apart.

Not only do I hope for, but I predict a web/music mash up where a user could upload a beat, guitar riff, vocal line - even an abstract sonic soundscape - and other users can download, manipulate, then reupload a new version of that track. It will even get to the extent where you won't need to download and upload. There will be a web-based application that will be able to handle all of the editing and recording functions necessary.

Remember that game in elementary school where all the students from a class sit in a circle and each person writes one sentence to the story and passes it on? That's is exactly what this is. Imagine the possibilities and endless variations other users could (and would) produce from the one soundclip you uploaded! Truly exciting stuff.

Damn the man, but sometimes you feel for him

Today it came out that Microsoft was in the process of hiring an Australian IT pro to change some wikipedia articles about them (here). Now, being a Mac user, I'm a proud member of the Gates-haters, but this situation, assuming the facts are correct is pretty ridiculous.

Here's the situation brief:
Microsoft found some inaccuracies in articles about them on Wikipedia and tried to contact the folks at Wikipedia to correct said inaccuarices. Microsoft received no response. To remedy the situation, Microsoft was in the process of hiring an IT pro in Australia to change the articles, but Microsoft would not be able to see the articles until after they were posted. Wikipedia finds out and all hell breaks loose. Their suggestion as to what would have been the proper course of action for Microsoft is to have written a write paper, post it on another site, then link that site to the discussion forums for the articles containing the inaccuracies.

While the majority of articles I've read haven't taken a position supporting either Wikipedia or Microsoft, I have read several that bash MS. I'm a big fan of open source, love it as a matter of fact. I'm assuming that like the rest of the open source devotees out there, Wikipedia has some pent up animosity for MS. Don't let that destroy the legitimacy that you've worked so hard to obtain.

This post is not funny- not that the rest of them are, but this one definitely isn't. I need to go watch a comedy movie now or something on youtube that will make me laugh so hard I piss my pants.

Advertising...2: The Return of the Jerk

Earlier this morning I touched on the debate between mass marketing and narrowly tailored, specifically targeted marketing. I also promised "more on this later"...now it's later and being the honorable, occasionally respectable person that I am, here's your fill.

I've recently been reading PyroMarketing by Greg Stielstra (sidenote: great book). Stielstra draws a comparison between mass marketing and talking to someone who doesn't speak the same language (literally) as you. I'll start at the end and work backwords.

Point 1. Relevance, not volume is the key to successful marketing.
- When you're trying to talk to somebody who doesn't speak the same language as you, increasing the volume of your voice and speaking slowly makes no difference, but if you use relevant gestures and body language you're more likely to establish some sort of connection.

Point 2. Lumping in customers who may not be open to your product/service with those that do will hurt your marketing efforts.
- Bad news travels faster than good news, and generally gets worse as it travels. If somebody likes your product, they'll tell 3 other people. If they don't like it, they'll tell 5, and those 5 are less likely to purchase anything from you than the person who had the bad experience to start with.
- Be careful who you market to, because if they don't like your product, there's a very strong chance they'll market against you. Try and wrap your head around that.

Until next time...don't let the man drag you down.

Advertising...You Are Such A Jerk!

Why is advertising's only friend advertisers and the companies getting their product out? "Big Brother" already keeps tabs on our buying behavior, so it makes logical sense that they would be able to target ads narrowly tailored to our interests.

Pandora (www.pandora.com) has broken through this wall a bit with their streaming online radio. Basically you set up radio stations that populate themselves based on the song or artist (you can use either) that you select to characterize that station. For instance, I have a Gorillaz station on my profile that plays music ranging from Mark Farina to the Firebird Band to Fischerspooner.

While there are some banner advertisements on the page that hosts the player itself, the advertising I think is much more inventive, is the advertising for the artists. I like Gorillaz, so Pandora recommends Mark Farina to me- if I don't like that song I simply click the thumbs-down icon and it updates my preferences. Here's the breakdown: Pandora plays a song for me, an advertisement for that album essentially, based on my listening habits.

Essentially narrowly tailored, specifically targeted ads don't turn people off like mass market ads. More on this later...

My First Post

Why the hell am I succumbing to the forces that be (said forces=peer pressure to blog, and by peers I mean professionals who are semi-peers, while I belong to the Toys 'r' Us camp living by the MO "I don't wanna grow up", formerly the Peter Pan camp of eternal youth, but I digress...) and publishing my thoughts, perceptions, and, as you have already witnessed, digressions for you- the ghost user.

Its simple, I do so because I'm scatterbrained, and I do believe there happens to be an army of scatterbrained, neo-renaissance persons (unisex terminology) in the neterworld of WWW who can band together and take over the world alongside Pinky and the Brain.

Now for the meat and potatoes...I'm going to covering topics including, but not limited to, advertising, marketing, mobile content, music, and things I find hilarious. Think of me as your one-stop shop for intelligence...no really, try it and interesting things will happen. Join me on this wild ride and you'll never be the same. In the word's of George Zimmer (founder of Men's Wearhouse and featured in most of their commercials), I guarantee it.