Bravia Advertisement

I posted over on my blog about my brother calling me cool, which happens rarely enough to merit a mention in and of itself. In doing so though, he reminded me of this brilliant advertisement for Sony Bravia televisions:

I love the campaign strategy here - they took what was an awesome ad and added another dimension by creating a Web site to showcase it.

I've never seen the ad on television, but I've watched it a few times online, read about it and talked to my friends about it. I even went so far as to post it on my Facebook profile because I thought the story behind the ad was so neat.


This is an advertising model that other businesses should take note of - truly using the Internet to advertise your business. With this campaign Sony has tapped into what Web 2.0 is all about - conversation. They have realized people want information, so they took what was an interesting ad and made it fascinating by telling the story behind it. They gave people the information and resources to continue the conversation past just passive viewing, and in turn created advertising far more effective than a banner ad on a Web page or the television advertisement alone. Bravo, Bravia!

Edited to correct a spelling mistake. Sorry guys!

How's this for passion?

A recent study by Yahoo! and MediaVest tracked online customers with a variety of passions-- health, sports, food and entertainment. The coining of term "Passionista" resulted from the fact that they found a segment that spends a significantly greater amount of time engaged in online activities related to their passion.

The statistics are interesting:

• For every minute a typical Internet user spends with the same online content, Passionistas spend six.


• Passionistas will visit a Web site related to their passion three times more than a typical Internet user.

Put two and two together... Marketers and advertisers are eating this up.

Because these users "heavily engage with communities of like-minded consumers who use e-mail, text messaging and instant messaging significantly more than typical users, and are more likely to create and share user-generated content online such as photos, blog posts or videos about their passions," companies are purposely stimulating conversation.

A perfect example is "Onslaught," part of the Dove Self-Esteem Fund, which will be released to YouTube on Monday. Everyone remembers the last incredibly successful viral video released by Dove. Perhaps, with the help of passionistas, "Onslaught" will achieve even greater success. Steve Hayden, vice chairman of Dove agency Oglivy & Mather, certainly hopes so.

So, the so-called passionistas search the Internet, apparently for hours and hours, for timely information related to their passion. They find it. They spread it. They spread it like crazy.

According to Sepideh Saremi, this makes the case for social media marketing.

Passionistas are 52 percent more likely to be brand "evangelists." Let's hope they like Dove!

Facebooking Deemed Hazardous to Your Health

The attorney general's office issued a subpoena yesterday against Facebook demanding all articles outlining the security that the social network promises its users. Complaints were filed that Facebook is misleading in promoting the site as an environment where teenagers and children are safe from sexual predators.

According to a New York Times article, no charges have been files but Facebook is taking the allegations very seriously. In a letter to Mark Zuckerburg, Facebook's chief executive officer, Andrew M. Cuomo, New York's attorney general, said "Facebook has the right to operate any type of Web site it deems fit. It does not have the right to represent that its site is safe and that it promptly responds to complaints when those statements are not accurate."

Cuomo's office is currently investigating the actual safety and reaction time of Facebook when inappropriate material is passed through the site by creating false profiles of teenage girls. Every time the girl is inappropriately contacted by a possible predator, the investigators report the instance to Facebook. In most cases, Facebook failed to respond and the predator was allowed to keep their profile.

conflict readings

Please read these online articles & be prepared to discuss them in class tomorrow:

• Salam Pax wikipedia entry
• CNN: Soldier 'bloggers' report from war (why bloggers is in quotes, I don't know!)
• LGF blog: Reuters doctoring photos from Beirut (read entire post, including updates)
• USIP: How modern terrorism uses the Internet
• NYT: Logged in & sharing gossip, er, intelligence
  
• NSF press release: Scientists use dark web to snag extremists and terrorists online

See you in class!

scholarship for blogging

Interested in getting a $10,000 scholarship for your blog? Nope, I'm not kidding.

Scholarship Requirements:

• Your blog must contain unique and interesting information about you and/or things you are passionate about. No spam bloggers please!!!
• U.S. citizen or permanent resident;
• Currently attending full-time in post-secondary education in the United States; and
• If you win, you must be willing to allow us to list your name and blog on this page. We want to be able to say we knew you before you became a well educated, rich, and famous blogging legend.

Important Dates:

• Submission Deadline: Midnight PST on Oct. 6
• 10 Finalists Announced and Public Voting Begins: 9am EST on Oct. 8
• Public Voting Ends and Winner Declared: Midnight PST on Oct. 28

Applications include a 300-word essay.

How Private is Private?

One of the biggest concerns people have with using the Internet is privacy. When you place personal information into a database that almost anyone with a computer has access to, there really is no way to ensure privacy.

Most if not all social media tools have settings that allow the user to control the flow of information. Most people, myself included, feel extremely comfortable in posting information to Facebook, knowing that I have control over who is allowed to access my profile.

But, what about when we make reservations for a flight online? Or even a travel package that includes a hotel with our flight at a discount rate? Sure there is always a standard assurance "This information will remain private". How accurate are these statements? Are the details about where we're going, when we're going, and who we're going with, fully confidential?

According to a new article in the Washington Post, these details are being disclosed in full to the U.S Government:

The U.S. government is collecting electronic records on the travel habits of
millions of Americans who fly, drive or take cruises abroad, retaining data on the persons with whom they travel or plan to stay, the personal items they carry during their journeys, and even the books that travelers have carried, according to documents obtained by a group of civil liberties advocates and statements by government officials.

The Automated Targeting System started in the early 90's as a way to determine possible security threats; however, since September 11th, 2001 "data for the system in recent years have been collected by the government from more border points, and also provided by airlines -- under U.S. government mandates -- through direct electronic links that did not previously exist".

While it is common knowledge that the government is expected to have access to certain personal information "travel records are among the most potentially invasive of records because they can suggest links: They show who a traveler sat next to, where they stayed, when they left".

Every day on the Internet we encounter notifications about our rights to privacy online. We take steps to prevent any possible loss of identity. As someone who travels quite frequently and has made many flight reservations online, this concerns me. If the government is going to have access to my interests in travel itinerary and reading material, what reason is there for keeping the information I share over social networks private?