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Archive for October, 2010



iws

10/26/2010

You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
12:29 pm by iws


What seems like yesterday and really was just a few short years ago the term viral video didn’t even exist. Only recently has it become a household phrase. However, most of us would agree that it seems every time we turn around there’s another “must see” video making its way through message boards, YouTube rankings and forwarded x11 emails. Most of those little gems are created not with this type of exposure in mind, but rather are made huge by the rules of today’s online world. Despite all of this an emerging trend seems to be quite the opposite.

You can’t make this stuff up. The trouble is that it’s much harder to stage and create a successful online video than it is to have one fall into your lap by accident. Most marketers who believed viral success could be planned fast discovered that it couldn’t.

Just look at the figures. YouTube alone will produce over 24 hours of new video every single minute so sheer numbers create the ideal antibody against any video going viral.

Making a viral video has always seemed like a crapshoot, or more like a lottery considering the potential of the payout vs. relatively small cost – and even smaller odds of success.

Humor will always win and cute babies on rollerblades is a plus. But the real key is appealing to both men and women. In the end, roughly doubling the potential audience, not surprisingly, makes a big difference.

Case in point?… Old Spice vs Axe. The male personal-care category has been very aggressive in viral exposure, and I’m sure by now the majority is familiar with the brilliantly targeted Old Spice ads featuring Isaiah Mustafa. These clever ads paint a portrait of the perfect guy your girlfriend wishes you were and the guy you want to be. Oh and by the way, they’re hilarious. Axe, on the other hand is slowly losing ground behind their largely male-oriented campaigns and viral videos simply because they can’t reach the same amount of people. Their campaign relies on single males purchasing the product based on how well it works to attract women. Old Spice hits them as well as the REAL buyers in a household. Girlfriends and wives.

The lesson here is maximizing your exposure by targeting smart. Throw that in with some Andy Samberg, trick basketball shots, or a few cute kittens and Boom Goes the Dynamite! Your looking at pure interned gold.

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admin

10/18/2010

A Web Designer is not an island
10:01 am by admin

I know what people expect me to write. There’s this running assumption in the office that I’m some sort of pirate.  Yes, I wear a lot of stripes, anchor-patterned shorts, and on Wednesday and Thursday, I carry a fun-size bottle of rum in my boots.

But the only thing I constantly pillage and plunder is my checking account, and I limit eye-patch wearing to the privacy of my living room.

The most compelling reason why this pirate assumption has spread is because right before I joined the team, I spent several months on board an old-school sailboat. I’ve tried to use proper technical terms to describe the boat — a brigantine, a square-rigged vessel, but the response is always the same:

“Oh, like a pirate boat?”

Yes, like a pirate boat.

So what is a Web Designer doing on a pirate boat? I guarantee you I did not do an iota of Web Design while helping run, maintain and navigate a sail boat with 29 other people from the Dominican Republic to Jamaica and more.

I was part of a program from Sea Education Association, in which students learn nautical science, oceanography, environmental science and cultural studies, to name a few.

Have I come out of that experience as a better designer? Of course.

Maybe I didn’t have coding sessions on the quarterdeck, but design is an art that encompasses much more than knowing how to use Photoshop and Dreamweaver.  Designers still have to work as a team, communicate successfully and find inspiration. And I did all those, repeatedly, almost constantly, for months.

Sometimes communication was a life and death matter.  If someone was not paying attention to their job, it could’ve cause catastrophic consequences. The SEA Program instills in students a sense of ultimate responsibility that many of them have never experienced. There was a sense that your decisions were so important that there was no option but to get them right. And while that might sound harsh, sometimes in the working world, that’s the sort of pressure people deal with.

A Web Designer is not an island, pun intended.

I find it helpful and necessary to step aside from the giant 28-inch monitor, and go do and live adventures that seem unrelated, sometimes if only for the inspiration, memories and friends you might find along the way.

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Gabe Rushing

10/05/2010

Technology Changes How City of Phoenix Votes
04:02 pm by Gabe Rushing

Everyone has probably asked at one point why is the voting process so complicated? Only four percent of voters cast ballots at the polls in the last City of Phoenix Election. If any other business had metrics that showed these results you can bet changes would come rapidly.

Well, the good news is the city of Phoenix has done something about it and at perfect time considering the next major city election will ask voters to choose a new Mayor.

The new plan will give residents of Phoenix a new way to vote in the City Election. This plan will make it easier for voters to get to the polls.

The plan is to open voting centers at high traffic areas across the city and allow voters to take their pick of the most convenient, whether it is close to home, work, or other activities. Voting Centers will also be open for open for multiple hours and multiple days surrounding the election.

I like the vision the City of Phoenix has taken here. Next year I’ll enjoy electing the next Mayor while hopping on the light rail, or maybe right before I get my morning coffee and check my email coffee at the local free wifi spot.

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