What's New

A new type of video content creation.

This post is about a brand new digital technology for video called Popcorn. It’s one of a number of technology led efforts to broaden what video is capable of, and in a world where soon 90% of data on the internet will be video, that’s good news for marketers, but first a little context.

My career and IQ, my digital agency started out in the video business. Over the years I’ve seen big changes as we moved from film to HD video, and from expensive post-production to a million dollar edit bay on a laptop. But despite these changes the basics of video creation haven’t changed that much. It’s still a linear experience made out of the combination of visuals and sound. It still a demanding art that takes quality writing, acting, lighting, sound design, animation, and post production, to say nothing of great ideas, to make quality videos.

Now, with the Content Age in full swing and a general mad scramble for video content creation, companies are finding that while they might be able to produce a talking head video of the chairman or an interview with a customer, it still takes experts to make the quality of video that captures the imagination or moves us emotionally. Today companies can go out and spend a couple of thousand dollars on a camera that would’ve cost a fortune a few years ago, they can buy microphones, lights and editing software and be fully equipped for chump change. But in the end it’s still the experience and expertise of the people using the equipment that’s the difference between wonderful and OMG.

Many forces are driving this demand for video, not the least of which is that it’s become incredibly easy and cheap to put high quality video in digital channels. So much so that video has replaced many of the interactive experiences we used to make. This is good and bad. The bad, at least for brands, is that we have moved away from interactive experiences which required the participation of the viewer. Instead of two way experiences we’ve gone back to a one way traditional video experience. Until now……

With the introduction of a new technologies like Popcorn that may have changed. Popcorn is open source technology that allows us to put links, images and even dynamic content into a video stream. That can be as simple as a link to where to buy that sweater you’re looking at, or a photo and email address for an insurance agent in your area. Popcorn essentially turns videos into mini-websites so that when your video travels around the web from person to person and site to site, it has the same capabilities you could have on your home page.  The possibilities are as many and varied as the technology is flexible. It can adopt the dynamics of “choose-your-own-adventure” and allow brands to follow viewer preferences and interests, or it can enable the functionality of shopper video without the big platform cost. On first blush it looks like Popcorn is moving video into the digital age with functionality capabilities that could reshape what we think of as video. It’s early days for Popcorn, but it appears we’ve been given a new paint box for video and I can’t wait to see what’s possible.

There has been an explosion of mobile devices – both in smart phone and tablet format – in the past year. It is predicted that by the end of 2011 there will be 70 million smart phones in use across the US (33% of the mobile audience). That statistic does not even take into account the new proliferation of tablet computers that also account for today’s mobile computing.

With so many people turning to mobile devices for data consumption, it’s only natural that companies start investing in ways to leverage these devices. In the past companies primarily focused on mobile optimized web sites, however with the rise of the iPhone and Android and the popularity of their apps, it’s only natural that companies also begin to invest some of their resources towards app development as well.

Early statistics are already showing that mobile apps are more successful than mobile optimized web sites:

• Mobile apps show a 26% lift in conversion rates over mobile optimized sites
• Mobile search has an 8x better click-thru rate vs. desktop search, and even higher when using a dedicated search app.

As companies start to spend revenue on developing mobile apps, it will be critical to show how successful (or not) these apps are being – and this is where mobile analytics come into play. Using tracking similar to web analytics, mobile analytics can help show the performance and troubleshoot mobile apps in near real-time. Some of this data would include information like:

• How many times has the app been downloaded, and onto which devices?
• How often are users launching the app? Do users of one kind of device launch it more than others?
• How often is the app crashing? At what point and on what device does it crash the most frequently?
• What is the conversion rate from app users vs. mobile optimized site / web site?

Answering these questions, among others, will help determine not only the performance of the app, but also help troubleshoot and improve the app over time.

While the web and web sites are unlikely to go away anytime soon, mobile apps present a new opportunity in online marketing that should be taken advantage of wherever it makes sense to do so. To do so will require an understanding of the analysis of mobile apps in order to make the most of them.

The adoption of smartphones is increasing at an incredible rate. Nielsen predicts that smartphones will overtake feature phones by the end of 2011. This shift will be the catalyst for innovation in the mobile marketplace. Marketers and their partner agencies need to consider how they’ll create for the next-generation mobile devices.

These next-generation mobile devices will push far beyond current devices in both hardware and software capabilities. Increases in mobile broadband, processing power, image resolution, storage, and connected services will drive innovation.

A competitive mobile platform marketplace dominated by RIM, Apple, and Google has been the primary storyline over the last few years. Previous market leaders such as Nokia and Microsoft are poised to challenge the current leaders and regain market share.

The operating systems that have dominated the marketplace for the last few years have focused on an app-driven paradigm. The central focus was on the capabilities of the individual mobile application. Nokia, RIM, and Apple built successful platforms based around this type of user interaction. More apps in a platform’s market provided the end user with more options and a perceived greater value than other competing platforms.

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I recently attended the Omniture Summit 2011. This conference has really worked on transforming itself from purely a “users’ conference” to an Online / Digital Marketers’ Conference. As a web analyst, especially one who specialized in Omniture products, I have made it a point of attending this conference every year, since I started using Omniture SiteCatalyst in 2005. This year was definitely, in my mind, the best so far for a number of reasons.

Quality Keynote Speakers

This year the two featured keynote speakers were Michael Eisner, former CEO of Disney, and John Gerzema, a world-renowned social theorist on consumerism and its impact on growth, innovation and strategy. They both were very engaging speakers and shared a lot of their wisdom with the attendees.

Michael Eisner’s keynote centered around the theme of “from Gutenberg to Zuckerberg,” looking at how far we’ve come since 1455 in the realm of mass communications. One point in particular that struck me was “to punish failure, is to encourage mediocrity.” His point being that everyone makes mistakes (he personally pointed out the failure of Disney’s Go.com to jump on the paid search bandwagon far too late to rescue that effort against Google and Yahoo). However, if you don’t take risks (and risk making errors), you end up wallowing in mediocrity and never have the chance to achieve something potentially great.

John Gerzema’s keynote centered around the theme of his newest book “Spend Shift.” He discussed concepts like consumers moving from “mindless spending to mindful spending.” Overwhelmingly consumers are migrating more towards brands that share similar values to their own and that they now value brands known for kindness and quality over brands known for mystery and trendiness.

Much Improved Breakout Sessions

The breakout sessions this year were very well done. In years past the breakout sessions felt more like sales pitches, and I often came away from them disappointed. Also there were often problems getting a seat at some of the more popular breakout sessions. This year there were a number of excellent changes to help reduce this. First they encouraged attendees to register for breakout sessions ahead of time – this allowed them to plan the capacity of each better. Additionally each breakout was done in 2 parts – the first half focused on the topic in general, presented by an Omniture speaker. Outside of the specific Omniture product focused sessions, there was a lot less “sales pitch” in these presentations. The second half of each breakout session was a case study from a current Omniture customer. All the ones I attended had very thoughtful case studies that illustrated the point of each session quite well.

Entertainment

It wouldn’t be an Omniture Summit without entertainment and this year there was once again plenty to be had – from the opening reception on Tuesday night, to the lavish party and concert on Wednesday night (with Lenny Kravitz this year), to the after and after-after parties thrown by the various executives from Adobe/Omniture.

That sums up exactly why I felt Omniture Summit 2011 was by far the best Omniture Summit I have yet attended.

Few would argue that storytelling is one of the most primal and powerful forms of human communication. But what is considered “narrative” these days is definitely up for debate. Because storytelling is such a huge part of what IQ does — we’re always keen on those that challenge the conventional definition of narrative and the mediums through which it is told.

Before the written word, stories were primarily an oral way of handing down history and teaching cultural values. But with every advance in technology and the boundless creativity of the human mind, storytelling is evolving at rapid pace. Here’s a quick look at some things that have helped me challenge the notion of what it takes to make a story and how we think they should be told.

A Story Has ________ ?

1. A Set Sequence of Events?
In the 90’s, Quentin Tarantino popularized the idea that events in a story don’t have to be told in chronological order. Although the idea of nonlinear narrative had been around for a good hundred years, Pulp Fiction sparked an explosion in the genre. Aside from being my all-time favorite movie, this was the first time I remember being challenged on my rigid, traditional view of narrative. Today, some view the internet itself as a form of non-linear narrative. When surfing the web, the story is “driven entirely by the user’s impulses, loosely connected by links.”

2. A Script?
MTV’s The Real World proved you don’t need a pre-conceived story arc, written script, or actors with memorized lines — and subsequently birthed the detested/loved genre of reality TV. Pick 7 strangers different enough, and the inherent tensions between those bold personalities and conflicting needs will be all you need for a unique and entertaining story to unfold.

3. Words?
You’d think this would be the base criteria, huh? But data can tell stories too. Depending on your audience, it may be a more powerful and relevant way to do so. The internet has made an incomprehensible amount of information available — and data visualization has emerged as a huge trend to help us make sense of it. Some even  argue that data visualization is reinventing storytelling yet again for the digital age.

4. More than 140 Characters?
“Twitter is The Human Narrative in real time” @SilkCharm. But being updated on every trivial moment in the lives of your friends hardly counts as story, you might say.  I suppose it depends on how you look at it. During the Iranian election protests and Haiti earthquake, we watched dramatic stories unfold in real time on Twitter. These stories were told collectively by multitudes of people at the exact same time they experienced it. Collective storytelling of the fictional variety was on display in the 2008 Twitter reenactment of Orson Wells radio broadcast, War of The Worlds. On Halloween, hundreds of participants tweeted what they imagined to be happening around them as events in the original narrative took place. More on Twitter Storytelling here. And also here.

5. A Single Delivery Medium?
Not so, says Clear Channel and American Idol creators with their latest endeavor, If I Can Dream. The story follows the lives of 5 aspiring actors, musicians, and models — all living in a cool house in LA and pursuing their Hollywood dreams. Where have we heard this storyline before? What makes it different is the multi-platform approach to storytelling. It can be experienced live 24/7 online at ificandream.com via any of the 50 live camera angles you choose. A short, TV style curated version is available on Hulu.com. Viewers can interact with the characters in real time via popular social networking tools like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube — and even audition to be one of the cast members on MySpace.com. In their words “The platform offers a variety of viewing modes for all types of users, telling the story in multiple dimensions. You can be a fly on the wall, poke around to discover interesting details, or sit back and watch the story unfold. If I Can Dream stories will come to life on-air, online, and on mobile devices.” It’s set to be released early this year. As ashamed as I may be to admit it, I can’t wait to see how the multi platform thing pans out.

6. A Passive Audience?
The phrase makes me think of children listening to a storybook read aloud, watching a movie, or reading a novel. But we’ve all seen and experienced many formats where the audience is an active part of the story — everything from Japanese Kabuki theater, to the interactive yarns we spin at IQ.  Perhaps some of the best examples are seen in the recent advances in video games. I stumbled upon this great article that explores the emergence of games as an immersive storytelling medium. “The player is, by definition, not the same as the reader of a story. The player is the catalyst for the events in the game. He is not passive.” So the gamer is in many ways half storyteller and half audience — in complete control of the outcome of the story. And, in MMOs (massive multiplayer online games), the authors of the story are actually the huge gaming community. In this context, the game company may give us the words we can use and some rules around how we use them, but the real story is created by the real time interactions and decisions of thousands of players across the world.

The Future of Storytelling
How we create stories and how we choose to tell them changes dramatically with the technology we invent and the creative ways in which we use it. Given the heavy lifting technology does, it’s exciting to see MIT’s opening of the Center For Future Storytelling sometime this year. Their aim is to “…revolutionize how we tell our stories, from major motion pictures to peer-to-peer multimedia sharing. By applying leading-edge technologies to make stories more interactive, improvisational and social, researchers will seek to transform audiences into active participants in the storytelling process, bridging the real and virtual worlds, and allowing everyone to make their own unique stories with user-generated content on the Web. Center research will also focus on ways to revolutionize imaging and display technologies, including developing next-generation cameras and programmable studios, making movie production more versatile and economic.”

More Resources:
7 Interesting Storytellers to Follow on Twitter
A Storied Career

In no particular order is my list of the top 10 reasons why I want need an iPad in my life.

1. I spend 5 – 7 hours in meetings daily and the iPad will serve me better than a laptop for note taking.
2. My iPhone is too small for reading and writing email.
3. I need a device that allows me to leave the macbook pro at work in the evenings but still get work done.
4. My home computer is a powerbook on it’s last leg and it’s time to upgrade
5. Like Miles Davis Apple has proven it can innovate across genres so I have faith in their new products.
6. I’m excited about it’s impact in the portable gaming space.
7. Multi-touch multi-touch multi-touch!
8. I’m a non-tv owner looking for a solution that can leverage the newer digital entertainment channels.
9. Flash Professional CS5′s ability to publish to the platform will help push innovation in the app store.
10. It’ll be great for road trips with kids.

ATLANTA, GA – Atlanta based IQ Interactive announced today that Bob Morris, formerly COO at the digital agency, would be assuming the role of Chief Strategy Officer.

“Bob is the most accomplished digital strategist that I have ever worked with and our new structure will allow him to dedicate himself to creating the strategies that drive the success of our work” said Tony Quin, IQ CEO. “Our leadership team is now so strong and deep, that we can afford to have Bob focus on leading our strategy efforts. This is an exciting opportunity for both the agency and our clients.”

IQ’s strategy group as well as account management group will report to Bob. Bob brings unparalleled experience to IQ with over 15 years in the digital space and a track record of breakthrough strategic insights for Fortune 500 clients.

“The opportunity to focus on delivering solutions that address the complexity of our clients business needs while working with such a talented team is a terrific opportunity. IQ has established itself as a pioneering thought leader and I look forward to building on such a strong foundation” said Morris.

About IQ Interactive

IQ Interactive is a digital agency specializing in using digital channels to simplify complex brand stories.  Clients include Microsoft, UPS and New York Life. IQ has won more than 100 national awards since 2006 including the Gran Prix at Cannes. IQ is a Charter Member of the Society of Digital Agencies (SoDA) and was named in BtoB Magazine as one of the top 3 interactive agencies of 2008. To view the IQ Interactive portfolio visit: http://www.iqinteractive.com/.

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For more information contact:

Ragan Kellams
Director of Communications
IQ Interactive
Direct: 678.449.2007
Main: 404.255.3550
ragan@iqinteractive.com

I recently broke down and tossed my beloved Blackberry for an iPhone. I know I should have done it sooner, especially being the early adopter that I usually am, but the Blackberry was such an excellent tool and it did everything I wanted.

The problem was I didn’t know what I wanted until I got my iPhone.

I won’t bore you with another set of gushing about how cool it is, about the brilliance of the app store and the pleasure of the user experience. I will, however, make three connected observations.

First, my impression is that, even with the depression we are in, the word is spreading fast and adoption is accelerating. I’m sure the $200 price point has something to do with it.

Secondly I believe the app oriented user interface will not only set the experience bar for mobile phones, but will also fundamentally change expectations for website user experience design.

Third, the only way to get it…. is to get it. Literally.

Post by: Tony Quin

Project Darkstar, from Sun, is an open source endeavor to simplify the really big infrastructure problems common to all multi-user environments. The obvious use of this is for MMORPGs like World of Warcraft and The Sims, but less obvious ones are for non-game focused interactive entities. Entities, because they could be 3D ‘worlds’ like Second Life, social applications like a Facebook Live, educational ones for teaching to thousands of students at once, and business uses such as training environments.

By radically simplifying online game development and enabling games to scale to tens of thousands of players without a glitch, Sun’s Project Darkstar — with a preliminary release now freely available for download under open-source licensing — is changing the rules of the game business.

Links:
Project Darkstar Home
Development Roadmap

by Joe Corr