remember the first time I cut and pasted a piece of text from a website and shot it out in an email. It was a news story about the “glowing puck” that made watching hockey online far more entertaining. Since then, I’ve grabbed and shared probably a hundred thousand items, happily reveling in the ability to share great finds so quickly and easily. I do it dozens of times a day. I'd imagine you use it every day as well.
So you can imagine my excitement when I was told about Bo.lt, a new cloud-based service that makes it easy to:
•Grab an entire web page
•Edit it, if you so choose
•Publish it in your own Bo.lt stream
•Link people to this customized, faster loading version
It’s a bit hard to grasp the scale of this concept just through reading bullets, so allow me to present a video that’ll take you through the product visually.
The breadth of ways that professionals may use this is tremendous:
•On the most basic level, the platform enables people with no technical background to edit content and republish it for specific purposes. A real estate agent could, for example, make many different pages off of a single page structure, each with different content.
•It also makes it very easy to do A/B web site testing. How will small and large changes in content impact the performance of a site and page.
•It also makes sharing web pages a better experience for the receiver because Bo.lt pages load faster than the originating pages.
The company also foresees broad scale consumer adoption of this sharing approach. That aspect of the Bo.lt vision is drawing largely positive reactions, except among some content owners and publishers who are concerned that their copyrighted content could be compromised by the cloning and editing capabilities. From Bo.lt’s POV, the benefits to pubs will far outweigh these risks because the service holds the promise of dramatically increasing online sharing of content. Bo.lt also makes any link on the page go back to the publisher’s site and ensures that any graphical or text based ads stay functional.
I sat at my desk for about ten minutes contemplating that assertion. There is no question that the web has changed the playing field for content owners and producers, and that sharing has been a boon for many. Even the music industry now seems to realize that the old concepts of ownership are not really relevant in this new interactive media environment. While I am not a lawyer, the spirit of cutting and preserving pages of content intact seems less problematic than the editing functionality. Additionally, if I can make a version of a page that looks authentic using Bo.lt, are we about to see thousands of hoaxes perpetrated on the public?
I think publishers need to really think their response to this through. The current content ownership rules are not generating the revenue required to support a really robust professional content creation environment. Rather than viewing Bo.lt as a threat, I think it all may represent an interesting opportunity for content creators and pubs to address some of their existing revenue shortfalls. Certainly greater sharing and exposure of strong content can be monetized in some way, and Bo.lt may simply be an inevitable step in the evolution of media from one way to multi-way.
I don’t know what all Bo.lt “means” but I am effing intrigued as all get out. It feels to me like a major step on the path to media transformation.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
Friday, June 24, 2011
Start-Up Watch COD: CrowdTwist Activates, Drives Action, Measures Engagement, and Rewards Brand Fans
The game-i-fication of everything digital seems to be a major trend of late. You know what I am talking about – the incorporation of game mechanics into nongame activities for the purpose of stimulating desirable forms of participation.
I like it because it is a powerful way to add value to brand engagements for consumers – an extra incentive to participate in brand activities and spread the good word about something they like.
CrowdTwist is the most comprehensive platform to game-i-fy consumer-brand relationships that I have seen.
The foundation is a powerful tracking platform that enables a brand to record and measure every time a consumer interacts with a brand. Instead of the data being siloed by platform (website, email, FB, Twitter, YouTube, etc.,) CrowdTwist collects all of a consumer’s various interactions in a single place, so that brands can have a more holistic view of their supporters.
The second key element of their offering is a points system that rewards consumers for positive interactions that you define. Consumers who write a review of your product, for example, might get 1000 points. Player fans accumulate points and then redeem them on virtual goods OR real world products and services.
That real world goods option makes them a bit different from some of the other companies out there in the space. Whether that real world rewards would be a bonus for your programs - or simply an added cost - really depends on your target audience. Certainly there are some audiences that absolutely LOVE virtual goods. But more mainstream consumers may well prefer to receive tangible benefits for their efforts on behalf of a brand.
One of the most active categories in their early user base is entertainment properties like bands and musicians, whose fans want to be “closer” to the people and institutions that they love. CrowdTwist also offers participating brands the opportunity to sell additional points to fans so that they can get the valuable rewards more quickly. For certain kinds of products, this could actually provide an incremental revenue stream of some size. The company also facilitates CPA/CPC sponsorship opps for brands to establish another revenue stream.
CrowdTwist offers analytical tools that enable marketers to better understand both their entire fan bases as well as segments within the groups that are more active responders, or who are more likely to take certain kinds of response actions. Clients can see:
•The environments in which their fans spend time
•Their physical locations
•Their content interests
•The scale of their personal influence over others
The analytics control center not only provides aggregated data – it also enables you to drill down to the actions of individuals. While establishing personal relationships with every fans is probably unrealistic for most brands, this level of granularity can be powerful when a few super influencers are driving a great deal of the brand activity. By having your social media manager focus on…say…the top 25 influencers, you may be able to unlock even deeper participation on behalf of your business.
To better facilitate communication with your fans, CrowdTwist also offers a means through which to send email communications to your supporters. This, plus the opportunity to empower your communications with cross platform loyalty data, offers a great means through which to relate to your consumers.
Tools like this are going to be a big part of how we manage consumer relationships in the next months and years. By activating consumer brand actions, brands can take a more proactive role in their futures while providing greater satisfaction to their user bases. And the real world rewards twist may be just the ticket to make such a tool work harder for many brands.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
I like it because it is a powerful way to add value to brand engagements for consumers – an extra incentive to participate in brand activities and spread the good word about something they like.
CrowdTwist is the most comprehensive platform to game-i-fy consumer-brand relationships that I have seen.
The foundation is a powerful tracking platform that enables a brand to record and measure every time a consumer interacts with a brand. Instead of the data being siloed by platform (website, email, FB, Twitter, YouTube, etc.,) CrowdTwist collects all of a consumer’s various interactions in a single place, so that brands can have a more holistic view of their supporters.
The second key element of their offering is a points system that rewards consumers for positive interactions that you define. Consumers who write a review of your product, for example, might get 1000 points. Player fans accumulate points and then redeem them on virtual goods OR real world products and services.
That real world goods option makes them a bit different from some of the other companies out there in the space. Whether that real world rewards would be a bonus for your programs - or simply an added cost - really depends on your target audience. Certainly there are some audiences that absolutely LOVE virtual goods. But more mainstream consumers may well prefer to receive tangible benefits for their efforts on behalf of a brand.
One of the most active categories in their early user base is entertainment properties like bands and musicians, whose fans want to be “closer” to the people and institutions that they love. CrowdTwist also offers participating brands the opportunity to sell additional points to fans so that they can get the valuable rewards more quickly. For certain kinds of products, this could actually provide an incremental revenue stream of some size. The company also facilitates CPA/CPC sponsorship opps for brands to establish another revenue stream.
CrowdTwist offers analytical tools that enable marketers to better understand both their entire fan bases as well as segments within the groups that are more active responders, or who are more likely to take certain kinds of response actions. Clients can see:
•The environments in which their fans spend time
•Their physical locations
•Their content interests
•The scale of their personal influence over others
The analytics control center not only provides aggregated data – it also enables you to drill down to the actions of individuals. While establishing personal relationships with every fans is probably unrealistic for most brands, this level of granularity can be powerful when a few super influencers are driving a great deal of the brand activity. By having your social media manager focus on…say…the top 25 influencers, you may be able to unlock even deeper participation on behalf of your business.
To better facilitate communication with your fans, CrowdTwist also offers a means through which to send email communications to your supporters. This, plus the opportunity to empower your communications with cross platform loyalty data, offers a great means through which to relate to your consumers.
Tools like this are going to be a big part of how we manage consumer relationships in the next months and years. By activating consumer brand actions, brands can take a more proactive role in their futures while providing greater satisfaction to their user bases. And the real world rewards twist may be just the ticket to make such a tool work harder for many brands.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
Start-Up Watch COD: With Zoove, Everyone Can be a Star (Star)
Remember when short codes were, like, the coolest thing out there? The idea that you could ask a consumer to only dial 5 numbers to be connected to your brand call center ? Well, five digit short codes were certainly an improvement on dialing ten digits, but only by a certain degree. There’s still a significant degree of consumer friction inherent in “Text ENTER to 24437.”
Then there were the executional issues inherent in setting up short codes across carriers. There were service providers to make it easier, but it was never a doddle.
And then QR came along. While QR codes make things simpler than short codes in some ways, they actually add complexity in others. They need to be arranged cross carriers, require that the consumer download a QR reader, and also necessitate the consumer having a device with a camera. None of these prerequisites requires an effort analogous to completing a triathlon, but they do present friction, scale issues, compatibility issues, and drive up consumer and marketer complexity. Not good things.
Zoove is a start-up Hellbent on making mobile easier for BOTH consumers and brands by leveraging ** + numbers. The idea is to replace a broad range of mobile action types with memorable ** + vanity numbers that can drive a host of desirable actions at the consumer’s request. What kinds of actions? How about:
•Coupon Download: Dial ** + vanity number to get a text that provides a coupon url
•App Download: Dialing the ** + apps number activates the Zoove platform, which detects your device type and redirects your phone to the appropriate page for the download in the appropriate app store (Apple, Android, etc.)
•Video View: Dial ** + number and your phone automatically displays the desired video content, using a player appropriate for your device type.
•Website Visit: Dial ** + number and have a url appear on your device
•Purchase: Dial ** + number to visit a store or begin a transaction
•Sweeps Entry: Again, ** + number spawns the entry form
•Voting: Dial ** + number to have your vote recorded
Oh, you get it. By performing the most ubiquitous phone action – dialing a number -- the consumer can receive a host of resulting experiences. You can also communicate a ** + number in any medium. That's cool. After all, QR don’t work on da radio…
Here’s the flick:
So why care? Rather than my telling you, why not experience just one of the reasons first hand. Quick, without looking, try and remember the short code I mentioned in the first paragraph. If you had any difficulty doing so, the reason why a ** + vanity number might be preferable should be rather obvious.
This is all about making the desired consumer action easy to perform and remember. Brands can choose and register branded terms OR generic terms that denote the type of experience that will be spawned by the action. So, **PEPSI, or **CONTEST. But with the right vanity number, I cannot imagine that response rates wouldn’t explode.
To ensure that they do, Zoove manages the logistics across all major US carriers (ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint,) and ensures your content works on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Win Phone 7, HP/Palm OS, and Symbian.
The costs for ** numbers are quite reasonable, but it is a first come first served marketplace. Zoove makes its money on the ** number registrations and a cost per action on client programs. Based upon the insider info I saw, the prices are very reasonable.
Drop dead simple. Powerful. Performance enhancing. Hard to imagine a world where that combination isn’t a winner. Expect Zoove to do very very well in the months and years ahead.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
Then there were the executional issues inherent in setting up short codes across carriers. There were service providers to make it easier, but it was never a doddle.
And then QR came along. While QR codes make things simpler than short codes in some ways, they actually add complexity in others. They need to be arranged cross carriers, require that the consumer download a QR reader, and also necessitate the consumer having a device with a camera. None of these prerequisites requires an effort analogous to completing a triathlon, but they do present friction, scale issues, compatibility issues, and drive up consumer and marketer complexity. Not good things.
Zoove is a start-up Hellbent on making mobile easier for BOTH consumers and brands by leveraging ** + numbers. The idea is to replace a broad range of mobile action types with memorable ** + vanity numbers that can drive a host of desirable actions at the consumer’s request. What kinds of actions? How about:
•Coupon Download: Dial ** + vanity number to get a text that provides a coupon url
•App Download: Dialing the ** + apps number activates the Zoove platform, which detects your device type and redirects your phone to the appropriate page for the download in the appropriate app store (Apple, Android, etc.)
•Video View: Dial ** + number and your phone automatically displays the desired video content, using a player appropriate for your device type.
•Website Visit: Dial ** + number and have a url appear on your device
•Purchase: Dial ** + number to visit a store or begin a transaction
•Sweeps Entry: Again, ** + number spawns the entry form
•Voting: Dial ** + number to have your vote recorded
Oh, you get it. By performing the most ubiquitous phone action – dialing a number -- the consumer can receive a host of resulting experiences. You can also communicate a ** + number in any medium. That's cool. After all, QR don’t work on da radio…
Here’s the flick:
So why care? Rather than my telling you, why not experience just one of the reasons first hand. Quick, without looking, try and remember the short code I mentioned in the first paragraph. If you had any difficulty doing so, the reason why a ** + vanity number might be preferable should be rather obvious.
This is all about making the desired consumer action easy to perform and remember. Brands can choose and register branded terms OR generic terms that denote the type of experience that will be spawned by the action. So, **PEPSI, or **CONTEST. But with the right vanity number, I cannot imagine that response rates wouldn’t explode.
To ensure that they do, Zoove manages the logistics across all major US carriers (ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile, Sprint,) and ensures your content works on iOS, Android, BlackBerry, Win Phone 7, HP/Palm OS, and Symbian.
The costs for ** numbers are quite reasonable, but it is a first come first served marketplace. Zoove makes its money on the ** number registrations and a cost per action on client programs. Based upon the insider info I saw, the prices are very reasonable.
Drop dead simple. Powerful. Performance enhancing. Hard to imagine a world where that combination isn’t a winner. Expect Zoove to do very very well in the months and years ahead.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
Start-Up Watch COD: Image Space Media Turns Images on Pages Into Contextual Ad Environments
Are photos the final frontier of advertising? We’ve added sponsored messages to about every element of a page. From in-text to advertorial to banners here, there and everywhere. And of course pre-roll. Any way you slice it, there have been precious few areas of the page that have not been called into service for advertisers. And yet photos are the things most of us notice first.
It’s no accident that Huff Post’s pages, for example, are so photo heavy. Our brains process images much faster than words, so photos and pictures have always been a big draw in media – especially online media.
So it’s only natural that people have been madly at work trying to put the incredible contextual and visual real-estate value of editorial photos to use for marketer objectives. The CHALLENGE has been how to balance the intrusiveness with consumer experience – how to make an ad noticeable AND welcome. Or at least not despised.
A company called Image Space Media (ISM) believes it has the answer. Specifically, ISM has developed a set of ad products geared specifically to complement editorial images and add incremental impressions/ yield to web pages.
I’ll admit I was kind of skeptical about all of this. Well let’s call a spade a spade. I thought this would be profoundly icky. I imagined X-10 ads blinking over every image on a page, and sneaky deaky close buttons that are there on the unit but yet somehow impossible to spot. Boy was I pleasantly surprised to see that ISM appears to be just as concerned about user experience as, well, users. Their striking yet polite offering delivers on three “necessaries” to make this work:
1.Viewer activation of the units
2.Incremental revenue and yield per page
3.Contextual relevancy to an advanced targeting engine
They offer three kinds of units for three different situations:
Overlay Banners: These ads appear ONLY when the consumer rolls over an ad, and are targeted to offer contextual relevancy to the content of the image itself. They achieve this both through comprehensive analysis of the metadata for the photo and visually analyzing the image pixels themselves. And because three of you just saw a red flag in your mind’s eye, I’ll take this moment right now to assure you that they have a process for ensuring that the content in the photo is not objectionable, as well as a post audit in which the Mechanical Turk community is used to check every photographic instance.
Image Gallery Units: As the number of slide shows and photo galleries has increased online, millions of people are viewing images in a viewing session. This offering places overlay messages on alternating images in a gallery. Additionally ISM offers image sharing for users, clicking on the share button delivers a larger version of the photo, surrounded by a 728 and a 300x250.
“Photostitials”: These ads appear and time out in front of editorial images as part of a user’s viewing session. You pay for these on CPM. For those units that appear only upon rollover or click, you pay only once per viewer, even if that person rolls over a picture and triggers the ad again and again. The consumer experience is actually rather nice – a lot better than you’d imagine just by having this described to you. Further, the company takes pains to ensure that it provides publishers with best practices on appropriate limits to ad counts on a page or seen in a session. After all, no one wants a pissed off user.
The gimme here is contextual targeting. Like showing a McCormick ad on a recipe photo or an ad for a trip to Hawaii in front of blizzard pictures. But ISM also offers a full range of audience targeting methodologies like demographics, behavioral, and geographics. I did NOT think I was going to like this, but they won me over with their targeting capabilities and consumer friendly user experience.
If you are a pub looking for new ways to drive the shekels from your content, or a brand looking for a high impact way of getting noticed, check out their stuff.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
It’s no accident that Huff Post’s pages, for example, are so photo heavy. Our brains process images much faster than words, so photos and pictures have always been a big draw in media – especially online media.
So it’s only natural that people have been madly at work trying to put the incredible contextual and visual real-estate value of editorial photos to use for marketer objectives. The CHALLENGE has been how to balance the intrusiveness with consumer experience – how to make an ad noticeable AND welcome. Or at least not despised.
A company called Image Space Media (ISM) believes it has the answer. Specifically, ISM has developed a set of ad products geared specifically to complement editorial images and add incremental impressions/ yield to web pages.
I’ll admit I was kind of skeptical about all of this. Well let’s call a spade a spade. I thought this would be profoundly icky. I imagined X-10 ads blinking over every image on a page, and sneaky deaky close buttons that are there on the unit but yet somehow impossible to spot. Boy was I pleasantly surprised to see that ISM appears to be just as concerned about user experience as, well, users. Their striking yet polite offering delivers on three “necessaries” to make this work:
1.Viewer activation of the units
2.Incremental revenue and yield per page
3.Contextual relevancy to an advanced targeting engine
They offer three kinds of units for three different situations:
Overlay Banners: These ads appear ONLY when the consumer rolls over an ad, and are targeted to offer contextual relevancy to the content of the image itself. They achieve this both through comprehensive analysis of the metadata for the photo and visually analyzing the image pixels themselves. And because three of you just saw a red flag in your mind’s eye, I’ll take this moment right now to assure you that they have a process for ensuring that the content in the photo is not objectionable, as well as a post audit in which the Mechanical Turk community is used to check every photographic instance.
Image Gallery Units: As the number of slide shows and photo galleries has increased online, millions of people are viewing images in a viewing session. This offering places overlay messages on alternating images in a gallery. Additionally ISM offers image sharing for users, clicking on the share button delivers a larger version of the photo, surrounded by a 728 and a 300x250.
“Photostitials”: These ads appear and time out in front of editorial images as part of a user’s viewing session. You pay for these on CPM. For those units that appear only upon rollover or click, you pay only once per viewer, even if that person rolls over a picture and triggers the ad again and again. The consumer experience is actually rather nice – a lot better than you’d imagine just by having this described to you. Further, the company takes pains to ensure that it provides publishers with best practices on appropriate limits to ad counts on a page or seen in a session. After all, no one wants a pissed off user.
The gimme here is contextual targeting. Like showing a McCormick ad on a recipe photo or an ad for a trip to Hawaii in front of blizzard pictures. But ISM also offers a full range of audience targeting methodologies like demographics, behavioral, and geographics. I did NOT think I was going to like this, but they won me over with their targeting capabilities and consumer friendly user experience.
If you are a pub looking for new ways to drive the shekels from your content, or a brand looking for a high impact way of getting noticed, check out their stuff.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
Start-Up Watch COD: LetsGiftIt Makes Group Gift Giving Easier for Consumers
Group gift giving has probably been around as long as gift giving itself. The idea of multiple people contributing to a larger present affords the opportunity to provide something really special to a recipient. But in the past it has been a pain to manage the logistics of group giving. Someone has to go from desk to desk or get on the phone to coordinate and collect all of the contributions necessary to raise the cash.
LetsGiftIt is a great example of how digital can take a lot of the wheel spinning and complexity out of something that used to be challenging to manage. With LetsGiftIt, the organizer simply picks out the desired gift, sends notifications of the group giving opportunity to people who may be interested in contributing, and then lets the platform do the drudgery. A sort of step by step explanation goes like this.
1.Pick out the item you want to give
2.Start a gift giving instance on the site by linking LetsGiftIt to an online seller where you want to make the purchase.
3.Set a minimum gift amount if you like, and define the privacy settings to either prevent the gift recipient from seeing who is giving, or enabling her to see what’s happening.
4.Send notifications via Facebook
5.Check back periodically to see the money collection process, send out reminders, or even tweet the link out to stir up some more contributors
When the money is raised, LetsGiftIt makes the purchase for you, and gets it shipped to the recipient. The recipient also gets a card with the names of all of the contributors on it. If all the money doesn’t get raised, the recipient gets a Visa or MasterCard gift card in the amount raised.
A how-to video explaining the particulars is available at this URL
http://www.screenr.com/EB6
They make money by charging 4% of the price of the item, and 75 cents per donation. So by my calculation, a $300 gift and 10 donors would generate $12 + (10*$0.75) = $19.50 in revenue to the company.
Consumers who receive requests to participate have the option of whether to give or not, and the amounts of their contributions are kept secret from the recipient.
So why should marketers care? A couple of reasons:
•First, the gift giving business is enormous, and tools that facilitate the giving of fewer, larger gifts have implications on how those companies go to market. At minimum, this may be a marketing channel that it would behoove luxury goods makers to explore.
•Second, it seems natural to expect that over time these folks will build gift suggestors and other potential sponsorship offerings into their platform. Third, other such companies are coming – I know because I’ve seen several similar businesses pitched in the past year.
•Third, it is yet another example of the dislocation of payment methods that we are witnessing and participating in today. This innovation is interesting in and of itself, but it is also another example of how digital is being applied to simplify business processes and facilitate commerce.
If you are in the gift business, take a moment to check this out.
LetsGiftIt is a great example of how digital can take a lot of the wheel spinning and complexity out of something that used to be challenging to manage. With LetsGiftIt, the organizer simply picks out the desired gift, sends notifications of the group giving opportunity to people who may be interested in contributing, and then lets the platform do the drudgery. A sort of step by step explanation goes like this.
1.Pick out the item you want to give
2.Start a gift giving instance on the site by linking LetsGiftIt to an online seller where you want to make the purchase.
3.Set a minimum gift amount if you like, and define the privacy settings to either prevent the gift recipient from seeing who is giving, or enabling her to see what’s happening.
4.Send notifications via Facebook
5.Check back periodically to see the money collection process, send out reminders, or even tweet the link out to stir up some more contributors
When the money is raised, LetsGiftIt makes the purchase for you, and gets it shipped to the recipient. The recipient also gets a card with the names of all of the contributors on it. If all the money doesn’t get raised, the recipient gets a Visa or MasterCard gift card in the amount raised.
A how-to video explaining the particulars is available at this URL
http://www.screenr.com/EB6
They make money by charging 4% of the price of the item, and 75 cents per donation. So by my calculation, a $300 gift and 10 donors would generate $12 + (10*$0.75) = $19.50 in revenue to the company.
Consumers who receive requests to participate have the option of whether to give or not, and the amounts of their contributions are kept secret from the recipient.
So why should marketers care? A couple of reasons:
•First, the gift giving business is enormous, and tools that facilitate the giving of fewer, larger gifts have implications on how those companies go to market. At minimum, this may be a marketing channel that it would behoove luxury goods makers to explore.
•Second, it seems natural to expect that over time these folks will build gift suggestors and other potential sponsorship offerings into their platform. Third, other such companies are coming – I know because I’ve seen several similar businesses pitched in the past year.
•Third, it is yet another example of the dislocation of payment methods that we are witnessing and participating in today. This innovation is interesting in and of itself, but it is also another example of how digital is being applied to simplify business processes and facilitate commerce.
If you are in the gift business, take a moment to check this out.
Start-Up Watch COD: AdGenesis targets your videos to prospects who WANT to see them
By applying the classic TV "intrusion model" to online video, advertisers have seen good results. Pre-, Mid-, and Post-Roll have demonstrated strong impacts in awareness, purchase intent, and even buying behavior for countless brands.
AdGenesis doesn’t dispute the power of pre-roll. What they believe, however, is that brands can benefit even more when they get their messages to people who actually WANT to see them, versus those who are willing to see it in exchange for content.
Rather than interrupting or pre-empting viewing experiences, AdGenesis has a database of millions of consumers who have raised their hands to be willing to watch videos that match their brand and category interests. They get notified that a video is available, watch it, and get a reward for their time and attention.
Here’s the 1-2-3 for advertisers:
1.Brands identify the kinds of consumers they want to reach. They can specifically target by interests, demos, locations, and brand affinities.
2.They then upload a video, be it a TV ad or a piece of sponsored content. The company accepts both commercial length vids AND long form content of up to 10 minutes (!) in length.
3.AdGenesis contacts hand raisers and tells them that a new video is available. In addition, they communicate the reward a brand has offered to provide in exchange for the video viewing. This reward could be free product, a discount, special viewer-only content or access, or really anything that the brand and AdGenesis believe will motivate a consumer to view your message. Part of the offering is a virtual currency system that enables users to purchase goods and services with rewards they receive from multiple brands.
4.The consumer clicks to view the content in the AdGenesis environment. To confirm that the consumer is paying attention, they scroll two numbers across the top and bottom of the screen in an overlay. At the conclusion of the message, the consumer must recall these digits in order to get their reward. If they submit the right digits, they receive the reward.
5.Brands pay on a CPE basis – only for the verified viewing of a consumer in the target group they have identified.
Ad Genesis identifies hand raising consumers through its partnerships with large broadly targeted pubs and not-so-large niche media properties. Its partnership with Parade, for example, helps provide needed scale to the total offering. The company also actively recruits and manages a home grown community that has opted in to watch these videos. The community tracks the rewards consumers earn, making the solution more turnkey for advertisers.
Reported response metrics are colossal. Huge multiples of response rates for pre-roll.
I am a huge believer in the power of sight, sound, and motion to motivate consumers. The voluntary nature of this model is also very appealing because it ensures both an engaged audience and rapt attention. In my view, this would serve as a great component of a total video strategy including more reach oriented pre-roll and in banner video. Reach and depth. And what more can you want than that?
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
AdGenesis doesn’t dispute the power of pre-roll. What they believe, however, is that brands can benefit even more when they get their messages to people who actually WANT to see them, versus those who are willing to see it in exchange for content.
Rather than interrupting or pre-empting viewing experiences, AdGenesis has a database of millions of consumers who have raised their hands to be willing to watch videos that match their brand and category interests. They get notified that a video is available, watch it, and get a reward for their time and attention.
Here’s the 1-2-3 for advertisers:
1.Brands identify the kinds of consumers they want to reach. They can specifically target by interests, demos, locations, and brand affinities.
2.They then upload a video, be it a TV ad or a piece of sponsored content. The company accepts both commercial length vids AND long form content of up to 10 minutes (!) in length.
3.AdGenesis contacts hand raisers and tells them that a new video is available. In addition, they communicate the reward a brand has offered to provide in exchange for the video viewing. This reward could be free product, a discount, special viewer-only content or access, or really anything that the brand and AdGenesis believe will motivate a consumer to view your message. Part of the offering is a virtual currency system that enables users to purchase goods and services with rewards they receive from multiple brands.
4.The consumer clicks to view the content in the AdGenesis environment. To confirm that the consumer is paying attention, they scroll two numbers across the top and bottom of the screen in an overlay. At the conclusion of the message, the consumer must recall these digits in order to get their reward. If they submit the right digits, they receive the reward.
5.Brands pay on a CPE basis – only for the verified viewing of a consumer in the target group they have identified.
Ad Genesis identifies hand raising consumers through its partnerships with large broadly targeted pubs and not-so-large niche media properties. Its partnership with Parade, for example, helps provide needed scale to the total offering. The company also actively recruits and manages a home grown community that has opted in to watch these videos. The community tracks the rewards consumers earn, making the solution more turnkey for advertisers.
Reported response metrics are colossal. Huge multiples of response rates for pre-roll.
I am a huge believer in the power of sight, sound, and motion to motivate consumers. The voluntary nature of this model is also very appealing because it ensures both an engaged audience and rapt attention. In my view, this would serve as a great component of a total video strategy including more reach oriented pre-roll and in banner video. Reach and depth. And what more can you want than that?
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
Start-Up Watch COD: Zenergo – the soc net for real life experiences
When I get together with Baby Boomer friends, the topic of virtual versus real living ALWAYS comes up. We Boomers tend to feel a little haughty about how our younger brethren seem so physically disconnected from one another. Personally I am in awe that people can feel connected in any way with people that they “see” on Facebook 99% of the time.
So I was intrigued when I learned about Zenergo, a social network specifically for people to connect in real life. Oh sure, there’s stuff like Match.com for dating, and Craigslist for horizontal jogging, but what about vertical jogging? Book clubs? Ways to connect with Foodies, or Parents, or any of the million other activities people like to, you know, actually DO.
Zenergo offers a special profiler that focuses on real world activities -- information that can be invaluable for more precise ad targeting.
It also offers special communication tools to help you manage specific groups of friends that share your interest in a particular activity. Your running group is kept separate from your macramé plant holder group, and so forth. It reminds me a bit of the old start-up eCircles, though with a more feature rich and open structure. Zenergo is about meeting and connecting with new people as much as it is about managing your existing connections.
I read recently that the number of close friends – as defined by both what we share with these individuals as well as how often we see them -- that the average person maintains has declined pretty significantly over the past two decades, especially over the past few years. Our lives seem to get ever busier, but the basic human need for in person relationships endures as something that makes us human. Zenergo’s tool set helps to meet that need in a powerful way.
But this blog is about marketing solutions, and Zenergo offers some interesting approaches to promote local as well as national brands and entities.
Zengage is a marketing solution for any budget level that helps businesses reach their consumers based upon either interest areas or demographics. Because of the physical world focus of this platform, it is particularly suited for businesses with physical locations. But it’s about a lot more than that. By connecting with a carefully defined set of people that match your product profile, you get great target comp coupled with strong ways of reaching and engaging with current customers or bona fide prospects. These include:
•Display ads
•Section sponsorships
•Newsletter sponsorship programs
•Strategic partnerships
•Self serve ad platform
Zengage Engagement Marketing Program: This is their more complete service level that offers integrated programs including all of the above tools as well as:
•Customized landing pages with multiple content options for different target segments
•Build branding and awareness across the entire Zenergo network specific demographics
•More precision interest and activity level targeting
•Measurement and analytics that can be tailored to your specific objectives
As with any social media strategy or partner, the value comes from your particular business goals and the extent to which a specific platform can accommodate your needs. And we musn’t forget the need for scale, either. What is so intriguing to me about this platform is that it holds the promise of better driving offline action.
In my view, that makes it best suited for physical products and locations. If that describes you and your business, why not surf over and take a look?
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
So I was intrigued when I learned about Zenergo, a social network specifically for people to connect in real life. Oh sure, there’s stuff like Match.com for dating, and Craigslist for horizontal jogging, but what about vertical jogging? Book clubs? Ways to connect with Foodies, or Parents, or any of the million other activities people like to, you know, actually DO.
Zenergo offers a special profiler that focuses on real world activities -- information that can be invaluable for more precise ad targeting.
It also offers special communication tools to help you manage specific groups of friends that share your interest in a particular activity. Your running group is kept separate from your macramé plant holder group, and so forth. It reminds me a bit of the old start-up eCircles, though with a more feature rich and open structure. Zenergo is about meeting and connecting with new people as much as it is about managing your existing connections.
I read recently that the number of close friends – as defined by both what we share with these individuals as well as how often we see them -- that the average person maintains has declined pretty significantly over the past two decades, especially over the past few years. Our lives seem to get ever busier, but the basic human need for in person relationships endures as something that makes us human. Zenergo’s tool set helps to meet that need in a powerful way.
But this blog is about marketing solutions, and Zenergo offers some interesting approaches to promote local as well as national brands and entities.
Zengage is a marketing solution for any budget level that helps businesses reach their consumers based upon either interest areas or demographics. Because of the physical world focus of this platform, it is particularly suited for businesses with physical locations. But it’s about a lot more than that. By connecting with a carefully defined set of people that match your product profile, you get great target comp coupled with strong ways of reaching and engaging with current customers or bona fide prospects. These include:
•Display ads
•Section sponsorships
•Newsletter sponsorship programs
•Strategic partnerships
•Self serve ad platform
Zengage Engagement Marketing Program: This is their more complete service level that offers integrated programs including all of the above tools as well as:
•Customized landing pages with multiple content options for different target segments
•Build branding and awareness across the entire Zenergo network specific demographics
•More precision interest and activity level targeting
•Measurement and analytics that can be tailored to your specific objectives
As with any social media strategy or partner, the value comes from your particular business goals and the extent to which a specific platform can accommodate your needs. And we musn’t forget the need for scale, either. What is so intriguing to me about this platform is that it holds the promise of better driving offline action.
In my view, that makes it best suited for physical products and locations. If that describes you and your business, why not surf over and take a look?
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
Start-Up Watch COD: WinBuyer helps ecommerce sites better monetize pages and shoppers
As we get more experience in online retailing, it’s becoming even clearer that the rules are different. Consuemrs have the ability to leave and enter stores by making a single click, and have greater desire for information and transparency when they are shopping online. Given these realities, online stores are best served by testing and defining the new rules of (r)etail, rather than blindly copying the old school models of brick and mortar.
A fascinating company called WinBuyer is at the center of such efforts, and has developed a line of products that help online retailers drive revenue in some cool and frankly surprising ways. This innovative company has challenged some of the basic tenets of retailing, and has great results to show for its efforts.
WinBuyer has three products that can be easily integrated into online shopping environments:
•Relevant Buyer Advertising: A complementary advertising engine that displays relevant brand advertising for related products on your product pages, Relevant Buyer Advertising offers retailers high CPM ad opps through its client base of high quality brand advertisers and the sophisticated product matching capabilities that power it. So, for example, if you sell computer monitors, the platform could display ads for laptop brands on . You can specify the advertisers and categories allowed, so your brand and your customer stream is protected. The branded ads might be for items you carry, or items that fit with your lines but are sold by others.
•Onsite Comparative Pricing: This tool enables you to give consumers the option to see prices for the same item from other retailers, so as to demonstrate the great value that you offer. By plugging into the APIs of leading shopping comparison sites, OCP offers precise item-level matching and information from leading online commerce sites. Now, if you price a lot higher than other retailers, I’m guessing this has about as much appeal as dead fish lying in the sun. But if you are competitively priced, you are giving consumers the valuable insight that by buying from you they are making a good financial decision – that there is no need to continue shopping for price. You don’t need to offer the absolute lowest price to be appealing to consumers. I can certainly imagine paying $5 more for something expensive simply for the convenience of staying where I am. But when you consider that the vast majority of your site visitors leave and visit other sites before they buy, it’s easy to see how this offering drives demonstrably higher conversion rates across your site. You probably won’t win every pricing shootout, but if your pricing is good, it can potentially drive a dramatic increase in people who buy immediately.
•Related Products Listing: This tool presents similar items from other retailers on your product pages. Now, hold the phone, don’t freak out about that. The idea is not for every site or every type of product. The way it works best is when a site has high traffic and low conversion categories. For example, jewelry. Driving clicks and visits to other retailers can drive YOUR revenue because you earn affiliate referral fees on every sale your direct to their sites. Think about it in the context of high subjectivity categories. You sell costume jewelry. The consumer is looking for a silver necklace. You might not offer the perfect item for her. So she leaves. That’s the existing scenario. Using the Related Products Listing, you present thumbnails of other silver necklaces available on other sites. She sees something she likes, clicks, and buys from them. You didn’t make a sale, but you DO get a percent of their sale.
We often apply faulty brick and mortar CW to online shopping. In brick and mortar, a savvy selection and sales team can convert a very high percentage of customers. An item might not be EXACTLY what the consumer had in mind, for example, but a good seller can showcase its charms and drive a sale. But in online, conversion rates are nearly always rather low. Consumers want perfect matches, and the costs of comparison shopping are near zero in both money and time. No gas. No driving time. No looking for a parking spot. Just point and click.
Given that absolutely different shopping dynamic, we need to rethink the rules about the things it makes sense to do on our pages. And as in the movie Miracle on 34th Street, sometimes it pays for Macy’s to tell people what’s available at Gimbel’s. So to speak.
Santa would be very proud.
Seemingly unusual ideas and concepts are worth serious consideration as we work to drive more from our online stores.
WinBuyer is an Israeli company with offices in Phoenix, AZ and London.
A fascinating company called WinBuyer is at the center of such efforts, and has developed a line of products that help online retailers drive revenue in some cool and frankly surprising ways. This innovative company has challenged some of the basic tenets of retailing, and has great results to show for its efforts.
WinBuyer has three products that can be easily integrated into online shopping environments:
•Relevant Buyer Advertising: A complementary advertising engine that displays relevant brand advertising for related products on your product pages, Relevant Buyer Advertising offers retailers high CPM ad opps through its client base of high quality brand advertisers and the sophisticated product matching capabilities that power it. So, for example, if you sell computer monitors, the platform could display ads for laptop brands on . You can specify the advertisers and categories allowed, so your brand and your customer stream is protected. The branded ads might be for items you carry, or items that fit with your lines but are sold by others.
•Onsite Comparative Pricing: This tool enables you to give consumers the option to see prices for the same item from other retailers, so as to demonstrate the great value that you offer. By plugging into the APIs of leading shopping comparison sites, OCP offers precise item-level matching and information from leading online commerce sites. Now, if you price a lot higher than other retailers, I’m guessing this has about as much appeal as dead fish lying in the sun. But if you are competitively priced, you are giving consumers the valuable insight that by buying from you they are making a good financial decision – that there is no need to continue shopping for price. You don’t need to offer the absolute lowest price to be appealing to consumers. I can certainly imagine paying $5 more for something expensive simply for the convenience of staying where I am. But when you consider that the vast majority of your site visitors leave and visit other sites before they buy, it’s easy to see how this offering drives demonstrably higher conversion rates across your site. You probably won’t win every pricing shootout, but if your pricing is good, it can potentially drive a dramatic increase in people who buy immediately.
•Related Products Listing: This tool presents similar items from other retailers on your product pages. Now, hold the phone, don’t freak out about that. The idea is not for every site or every type of product. The way it works best is when a site has high traffic and low conversion categories. For example, jewelry. Driving clicks and visits to other retailers can drive YOUR revenue because you earn affiliate referral fees on every sale your direct to their sites. Think about it in the context of high subjectivity categories. You sell costume jewelry. The consumer is looking for a silver necklace. You might not offer the perfect item for her. So she leaves. That’s the existing scenario. Using the Related Products Listing, you present thumbnails of other silver necklaces available on other sites. She sees something she likes, clicks, and buys from them. You didn’t make a sale, but you DO get a percent of their sale.
We often apply faulty brick and mortar CW to online shopping. In brick and mortar, a savvy selection and sales team can convert a very high percentage of customers. An item might not be EXACTLY what the consumer had in mind, for example, but a good seller can showcase its charms and drive a sale. But in online, conversion rates are nearly always rather low. Consumers want perfect matches, and the costs of comparison shopping are near zero in both money and time. No gas. No driving time. No looking for a parking spot. Just point and click.
Given that absolutely different shopping dynamic, we need to rethink the rules about the things it makes sense to do on our pages. And as in the movie Miracle on 34th Street, sometimes it pays for Macy’s to tell people what’s available at Gimbel’s. So to speak.
Santa would be very proud.
Seemingly unusual ideas and concepts are worth serious consideration as we work to drive more from our online stores.
WinBuyer is an Israeli company with offices in Phoenix, AZ and London.
Start-Up Watch COD: Submishmash simplifies and monetizes submissions and editorial work flow
I was fortunate to be a part of the first annual New West Rise of the Rockies Conference in Missoula Montana in May, and while there I was struck by both the intensity of entrepreneurism in the region and by the fascinating and powerful solutions provided by a start-up called Submishmash.
Submishmash makes the process and work flow of soliciting, accepting, and reviewing content far simpler, and improves the quality of submissions by enabling companies and publications to charge a submission fee. Because even a small fee helps keep out the riffraff that can flow in when there is no cost to submit.
Now why is this important? Quite simply, many organizations buckleand groan over the challenges of receiving, analyzing, editing and otherwise processing submitted content. We live in an era in which the population of potential content producers (say, 6.5 Billion) drastically outstrips the demand for content.
Submishmash addresses these challenges by first enabling organizations to charge a fee for a submission. The fee is at the discretion of the user, and generally they are fairly low – for many entities, the goal is not to make a fortune from the submission process but rather to cover some costs and limit submissions actually received to those that are serious and a good fit. From there, it substitutes a cloud based collaboration platform for the ridiculous back and forth of email trading and versioning and and and. If you doubt the value of this, just think back to all the documents you’ve shot back and forth between people with names like Media Plan Final Final Final v. 36.
The collaboration platform itself incorporates tasks, workflows, permissions, and approvals so that your team can focus its energies on the mission critical task of reviewing and editing content versus managing the back and forth. It also offers a means of managing communications with creators, much like a Salesforce CRM platform.
So what kind of submissions are we talking about? Well, the platform is being used by thousands of organizations already, and the use cases truly run the gamut.
•Publications use the product to accept text and photo submissions
•Film producers use the platform to solicit and accept content
•Businesses accept and manage contest entries
•HR departments use it to accept resumes
•Schools and universities leverageit to accept student applications
•Investors and VCs use it to accept and manage business plans and summaries
These are just some of the ways this flexible and versatile platform is being used today, with more and more inventive approaches surfacing weekly.
Here’s a nice and clear video that outlines the feature set and value prop:
Is charging money for a submission “fair”? In a word, yes. The fees can cover the costs of reviewing submissions, and even offer a revenue stream from organizations seeking ways of diversifying their businesses. Meanwhile, people will think twice before sending in resumes that don’t qualify for an opportunity or aren’t 1800 word short stories or whatever it is that the reviewing org is looking for. Further, fees tend to be modest and the would be submitter always has the choice of submitting or not.
I think what made me such a fan of Submishmash so quickly is that it is so well aligned to the real issues and problems of reviewing organizations. It:
•Reduces dumb submissions
•Cuts the costs and complexity of reviewing and editing
•Ensures a more timely flow of submissions
•Provides safeguards like permissions and decision trees
•Provides a revenue source to cover the cost of reviewing submissions or making a small profit
There are three levels of service available for Submishmash, offering varying levels of storage, seats/accounts, and the like:
•An ad-supported version is made available for free to nonprofits, arts organizations, and small entities
•A $20 a month version is for small to medium sized organizations
•An enterprise version is available for $200 a month
Submishmash is a SaaS play requiring no changes or additions to a client’s internal infrastructure. It’s very cool and so wonderfully reflects of the entrepreneurial culture of the Rockies.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
Submishmash makes the process and work flow of soliciting, accepting, and reviewing content far simpler, and improves the quality of submissions by enabling companies and publications to charge a submission fee. Because even a small fee helps keep out the riffraff that can flow in when there is no cost to submit.
Now why is this important? Quite simply, many organizations buckleand groan over the challenges of receiving, analyzing, editing and otherwise processing submitted content. We live in an era in which the population of potential content producers (say, 6.5 Billion) drastically outstrips the demand for content.
Submishmash addresses these challenges by first enabling organizations to charge a fee for a submission. The fee is at the discretion of the user, and generally they are fairly low – for many entities, the goal is not to make a fortune from the submission process but rather to cover some costs and limit submissions actually received to those that are serious and a good fit. From there, it substitutes a cloud based collaboration platform for the ridiculous back and forth of email trading and versioning and and and. If you doubt the value of this, just think back to all the documents you’ve shot back and forth between people with names like Media Plan Final Final Final v. 36.
The collaboration platform itself incorporates tasks, workflows, permissions, and approvals so that your team can focus its energies on the mission critical task of reviewing and editing content versus managing the back and forth. It also offers a means of managing communications with creators, much like a Salesforce CRM platform.
So what kind of submissions are we talking about? Well, the platform is being used by thousands of organizations already, and the use cases truly run the gamut.
•Publications use the product to accept text and photo submissions
•Film producers use the platform to solicit and accept content
•Businesses accept and manage contest entries
•HR departments use it to accept resumes
•Schools and universities leverageit to accept student applications
•Investors and VCs use it to accept and manage business plans and summaries
These are just some of the ways this flexible and versatile platform is being used today, with more and more inventive approaches surfacing weekly.
Here’s a nice and clear video that outlines the feature set and value prop:
SMM Tour from salty snack studios on Vimeo.
Is charging money for a submission “fair”? In a word, yes. The fees can cover the costs of reviewing submissions, and even offer a revenue stream from organizations seeking ways of diversifying their businesses. Meanwhile, people will think twice before sending in resumes that don’t qualify for an opportunity or aren’t 1800 word short stories or whatever it is that the reviewing org is looking for. Further, fees tend to be modest and the would be submitter always has the choice of submitting or not.
I think what made me such a fan of Submishmash so quickly is that it is so well aligned to the real issues and problems of reviewing organizations. It:
•Reduces dumb submissions
•Cuts the costs and complexity of reviewing and editing
•Ensures a more timely flow of submissions
•Provides safeguards like permissions and decision trees
•Provides a revenue source to cover the cost of reviewing submissions or making a small profit
There are three levels of service available for Submishmash, offering varying levels of storage, seats/accounts, and the like:
•An ad-supported version is made available for free to nonprofits, arts organizations, and small entities
•A $20 a month version is for small to medium sized organizations
•An enterprise version is available for $200 a month
Submishmash is a SaaS play requiring no changes or additions to a client’s internal infrastructure. It’s very cool and so wonderfully reflects of the entrepreneurial culture of the Rockies.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first!
Start-Up Watch COD: Because Baby Changes Everything, YellowBrck Creates Location Based Soc Net for Parents
There are few parents who would dispute the idea that having a child drives absolutely profound changes in one’s life. Suddenly, instead of your daily existence being more or less SELF focused, it becomes THEM focused. And while every parent can fill hours with magical stories of their offspring, so too can they fill a similar amount of time with stories of mewling small creatures seizing attention and demanding information, entertainment, and objet du play.
A new location based soc net called YellowBrck is designed to meet the needs of Mommies and Daddies, whether they are currently feeling overjoyed with parenthood or are drumming their fingertips on the wheel of the Dodge Caravan trying not to leave their rug rats by the side of the Interstate. It is a high quality tool for parents to share their locations, activities, and thoughts with other parents. The app is available for free on iTunes for iPhone users.
This sort of sharing can be of tremendous value to consumers. Parents can get ideas for entertainment and activities from one another. We can start conversations and friendships with others in the park. We can schedule play dates. Or we can rant to someone who understands those crazy feelings everyone has after hearing the Barney theme song sung by a 5 year old, offkey, 47 times.
On their blog, they explain the origin of the site thus, and I love the simplicity and honesty of it. Many of the best ideas come when inventive people are confronted with real life challenges:
We and our wives are always looking for coupons, savings and fun things to do with our friends and kids. We are constantly balancing, work, taking care of the home and finding activities for our kids to do. One day while out together with our families, we came up with a fantastic idea — why not build a location based application that lets parents share their location and activities with other parents?Parents check in their location with their iPhone and see where other parents are. That’s the location part. And why not let them check in what they are doing at the time? That’s the activity part.And while we are it let’s add some rewards. When you check in with our iPhone app, you will earn virtual stickers and real world coupons and discounts.
More of a Twitter or 4Square analog than a Facebook style experience, the site seems tailor made for people who want to stay in touch but only have time for SMS-length updates. Naturally because this is a location based service, it is designed first and foremost for use on smartphones.
That’s just some of the value that this interesting experience offers. The commercial side of this compelling new company comes from the rewards system they offer for parents who participate. By checking in at different times and locations, for example, parents become eligible for special offers and discounts from brick and mortar entities anxious to attract their custom. They are partnered with an impressive list of retailers of kid oriented merchandise, including Totsy, Ecomom, Dapple, Abe’s Market, Torly Kid, and many more. Additionally, this being 2011, they also offer a variety of badges and other forms of virtual goods rewards.
One might ask why parents need their own Four Square, when the original would be more than happy to have their visits and check-ins? Well, clearly the founders believe that the nature of parents’ lives is radically different from the strongly single, strongly male skewing Four Square and Gowalla offerings. Whether you accept that reasoning really relates to which direction you think social will head. Will we all do everything on a single, universal soc net? Or will we want to uise different networks for different aspects of our lives.
My own thought on the subject is that we will do both. Having Facebook and Facebook Connect is really very valuable as a means of making it easy to create a personal presence online as well as sign into a growing number of socialized web experiences. But specialty communities will also prosper when they can better meet particular needs and life circumstances. I agree that parenthood is such a unique manner of existence that creating a service and growing feature set geared specifically to their needs has solid merit. Keep this outfit on your radar because I have a hunch they are onto something with YellowBrck.
Plus, the excellent brand name is five kinds of awesome.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
A new location based soc net called YellowBrck is designed to meet the needs of Mommies and Daddies, whether they are currently feeling overjoyed with parenthood or are drumming their fingertips on the wheel of the Dodge Caravan trying not to leave their rug rats by the side of the Interstate. It is a high quality tool for parents to share their locations, activities, and thoughts with other parents. The app is available for free on iTunes for iPhone users.
This sort of sharing can be of tremendous value to consumers. Parents can get ideas for entertainment and activities from one another. We can start conversations and friendships with others in the park. We can schedule play dates. Or we can rant to someone who understands those crazy feelings everyone has after hearing the Barney theme song sung by a 5 year old, offkey, 47 times.
On their blog, they explain the origin of the site thus, and I love the simplicity and honesty of it. Many of the best ideas come when inventive people are confronted with real life challenges:
We and our wives are always looking for coupons, savings and fun things to do with our friends and kids. We are constantly balancing, work, taking care of the home and finding activities for our kids to do. One day while out together with our families, we came up with a fantastic idea — why not build a location based application that lets parents share their location and activities with other parents?Parents check in their location with their iPhone and see where other parents are. That’s the location part. And why not let them check in what they are doing at the time? That’s the activity part.And while we are it let’s add some rewards. When you check in with our iPhone app, you will earn virtual stickers and real world coupons and discounts.
More of a Twitter or 4Square analog than a Facebook style experience, the site seems tailor made for people who want to stay in touch but only have time for SMS-length updates. Naturally because this is a location based service, it is designed first and foremost for use on smartphones.
That’s just some of the value that this interesting experience offers. The commercial side of this compelling new company comes from the rewards system they offer for parents who participate. By checking in at different times and locations, for example, parents become eligible for special offers and discounts from brick and mortar entities anxious to attract their custom. They are partnered with an impressive list of retailers of kid oriented merchandise, including Totsy, Ecomom, Dapple, Abe’s Market, Torly Kid, and many more. Additionally, this being 2011, they also offer a variety of badges and other forms of virtual goods rewards.
One might ask why parents need their own Four Square, when the original would be more than happy to have their visits and check-ins? Well, clearly the founders believe that the nature of parents’ lives is radically different from the strongly single, strongly male skewing Four Square and Gowalla offerings. Whether you accept that reasoning really relates to which direction you think social will head. Will we all do everything on a single, universal soc net? Or will we want to uise different networks for different aspects of our lives.
My own thought on the subject is that we will do both. Having Facebook and Facebook Connect is really very valuable as a means of making it easy to create a personal presence online as well as sign into a growing number of socialized web experiences. But specialty communities will also prosper when they can better meet particular needs and life circumstances. I agree that parenthood is such a unique manner of existence that creating a service and growing feature set geared specifically to their needs has solid merit. Keep this outfit on your radar because I have a hunch they are onto something with YellowBrck.
Plus, the excellent brand name is five kinds of awesome.
Thanks to ad:tech for publishing this first.
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