the webthinking blog

Is it me or sites like Boing-Boing, Boy Genius Report or Mashable have become the new tabloids for geeks? The difference? Most of the rumours are true. That’s because they leak out on purpose, right? See the Nexus One / T-Mobile story published three weeks before the actual launch. Welcome to the new marketing.

So I spot this advertisement today, on the subway. Wait a minute, that’s a strange place to spot a “TinyURL.com“! If you are not familiar with the concept, you can create, short memorable (or not) URLs, using a third party free service. All good, but how much would you trust such a service, in order to count on a URL you have no control over? Of all URL shortening services, TinyURL was ditched by Twitter a while ago.

Funny story: JobConnect is a government funded program offered by St. Stephen Community House. I have met some of the folks over at SSCH on my third day after moving to Canada, many years ago. Lots of good memories. Phillip my friend, where are you now?

Possible advice: pay attention to domain names, it’s not a joke. If you really need such a shortcut URL, it’s not too late to own one. Be creative. Here’s my own example which, of course, I love it: urllr.com/goog

Signed-up for a Club Sobeys points card a while ago. The store is very close and is open 24/7, so why not getting an extra bonus point? Or 0.5 Aeroplan Miles, to be more precisely. A first statement comes in three months later, inviting me to just visit the site and give them my email address. All this for 200 points, that is 100 Aeroplan Miles, which translates to 0.006 per cent of points needed for something meaningful, like for a short-haul flight (15,000 Aeroplan Miles for a YYZ/YUL round-trip). Lovely, eh?

I had the pleasure to attend, for the 2nd year in a row, CMA’s Digital Marketing Conference, on October 29 and 30, in Toronto. I have translated some of my notes into couple of sound bytes:

Rob Master / Unilever
To be successful in today’s digital marketing landscape you need to figure out “how to penetrate the culture?”

Steve Levy / Ipsos Reid
Consumers outspend advertisers to avoid the advertising noise.

Top digital marketing trends: email, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, interactive consumer websites, blogging and podcasting, social network marketing, mobile marketing. Last one is still very complicated though. No kidding.

I was talking to Rick Bruner of Google over lunch – I wish the new Google AdPlanner had Canadian data as well. “Release early and reitrate often” is Google’s philosophy. Hopefully soon enough we’ll see those numbers: your web site stats and your competitors’.

First panel discussion
Barak Obama is the Digital Marketer of the year.

Charlie Gray, Head of Staffing and HR at Google and Bruce Powell of IQ Partners shared very interesting tips on how to find, hire and retain the best talent.

Tara O’Doherty / w.illi.am
Avoid web site information overload and band-aid design.
A blog is a tactic, not a strategy.
Only 50 per cent of your visitors agree with your web site design. Huh!
“F-pattern” web page scan determined by eye tracking still rules. There are still techniques you canuse if you really like to have a right navigation.

Stacey Grant-Thompson / Rogers
22 million mobile users in Canada. Of course, we’re still far behind the rest of the world, partially thanks to the big three carriers. Location Based Services (LBS) and the Electronic Wallet are the next trends in mobile usage.

David Pogue
“I interviewed Mark Zuckerberg. It turns out that the number one name in social networking is sociallly challenged.”

Interested in seeing tweets?

I find this really interesting. Have a look at the world’s most valuable 100 brands according to an annual survey by BusinessWeek and Interbrand. Note that heavyweights as Visa, Wal-Mart, Mars and CNN were not taken into account. Fiftly per cent of the brands come from the U.S. while the other half is from non-U.S. companies, including several from countries with much smaller economies. Switzerland, for example, has five brands on the global list (Nescafé, Novartis, UBS, Nestlé and Rolex). Canada has a few stong brands – RBC, Toronto Dominion, Petro-Canada – but none of them made it to Top 100, reason being the tendency to think locally/nationally versus globally.
 

Less eBay on AdSense?

Yahoo, eBay form Web advertising alliance

NEW YORK, May 25 (Reuters) – Yahoo Inc and Web auctioneer eBay on Thursday announced a partnership designed to boost their position against Microsoft Corp. and Web search leader Google Inc. , underscoring recent speculation the two companies could eventually merge.

Under the deal, Yahoo will be the exclusive third-party provider of all graphic ads throughout eBay’s auction site. Yahoo has also chosen EBay’s online payment system PayPal to allow its own customers to pay for Yahoo Web services.

The iPod took portable music to a new frontier and now it’s doing the same for the running shoe.

Apple Computer Inc. pushed its digital music player in that direction yesterday when it announced a kit that helps turn the popular Nano device into a pedometer.

The kit, called iPod + Nike, wirelessly transmits information from some Nike Inc. running shoes to Apple’s iPod Nano device so runners can tell how many calories they’ve burnt, the length of time they’ve been running or how many kilometres they’ve covered during a workout. More.

Taste, listen, read – enjoy! Some select Indigo stores include Starbucks coffee stops. Starbuckization has already started!

The company that sells 4 million coffee drinks daily in the USA is hot to extend its brand beyond the espresso machine to influence films, CDs, and books. More.