My Second YouTube Video

Video of my son.

Was (Not Was) Perform One of Their Hits

Caught a great show last night by David Was (Weiss) tech reviewer for National Public Radio and sometime reporter for New York Times, and all around great guy.

Attack of the Camera Blogs!

Nikon has expanded their Web 2.0 marketing from microsites and Flickr to their own blog. Not missing a beat, Kodak announced the promotion of Jenny Cisney to Chief Blogger of their own site. It was sort of like a movie, perhaps "When Jenny Met Joe"?

The media universe is increasingly digital, and as the layoffs from mainstream media continue, and bloggers, podcasters, and other social media properties gain more traction online, marketers are faced with navigating new ways to touch the public. Those companies that learn to dress like blogger wolves in consumer sheep's clothing will be able to take advantage of these new tools.

It is said that the Internet has eclipsed friends and family as the most important source for researching and selecting mobile devices (Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience). When it comes to promoting digital technology, companies like Nikon and Kodak are showing that they have the tech savvy to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. They're having a one-to-one relationship with their customers and fans that's more valuable than a 30-second Ashton Kutchner ad on TV.

Blogging Kills

It's official (because reading about it in the NY Times makes it so): blogging kills.

The article "In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Til They Drop" reporter Matt Richtel describes the insane world of blogging and how one tech blogger for Gizmodo, Matt Buchanan, lives off of a "protein supplement mixed into coffee."

Before we go to the local Starbucks to get a shot of espresso and 'roid rage, it's important to consider the role that the fast-paced news cycle plays in marketing. The competition among these mostly young reporters who are paid by the post to get a scoop is enormous. With that pressure, it's understandable that Gizmodo would fire off what it calls "Lightning Reviews" of products. They simply don't have the time to engage with gear long enough to figure out how to work out the kinks and get to the right settings and menus.

Tech marketers beware. In a world where first impressions of products are formed online by twentysomethings buzzing on coffee and human growth hormone, it's quite possible that if your product takes more time to understand than it takes to whip up a meth milkshake, it will suffer the fate of not being explained for what it is.

Hands-Free Legislation a Boon for Bluetooth Headsets?

Cellular safety got some recent media attention from New York Times (“Text Generation Gap: U R 2 Old (JK)” 3/9/08). In the article, Ben Blanton, student at Vanderbilt University, was quoted as saying, “I can text without looking at the phone. It’s definitely not safe. Sometimes I’ll look up and I don’t remember where I’ve been driving.”

The next day, the USA Today reported in “Merely listening on phone shown to distract drivers” that, according to Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association,
“Allowing hands-free phones really gives drivers a false sense of safety." The article went on to say that he had seen no evidence that bans on handheld phones have prevented accidents.

These articles point to the dangers of texting or talking while driving. Several states have enacted legislation to ban hand-held cell phone conversations. Phoenix is the first city in the nation to ban texting while driving.

Marketers in the Bluetooth headset space have caught on to the timeliness of this legislation and the role their products will play in helping consumers continue to talk on their cell phones with both hands on the wheel. For instance, in a Mobile World Congress announcement for the Plantronics Explorer 360A, Plantronics wrote:

Enhancing Driver Safety

With an increasing number of U.S. states and municipalities enacting legislation that requires drivers use a hands-free device while driving, Plantronics is also bundling the Explorer 360 with a unique “elbow” car charger that fits within most car cigarette lighters. The Explorer 360A with car charger delivers a continuously charged Bluetooth headset that is always within easy reach and line-of-sight for the driver.

Plantronics has also published Safe Driving Tips on their website.

Motorola has also come out with information as a part of its Drive Safe, Call Smart program. But the reports coming out claim that any conversations while driving -- whether those are hands-free or hand-held -- are dangerous to drivers. According to the USA Today article referencing the journal Brain Research, MRI brain scans of drivers found a 37% decrease in perietal lobe activity for drivers while talking on cell phones.

So, on one hand legislation is favoring the providers of hands-free Bluetooth headsets (Jabra, Plantronics, Logitech, Jawbone), but the news is reporting that any coversation on a cell phone is going to weaken a driver's abilities regardless of whether both hands are on the wheel.

The communications challenge for any of the headset providers: if they come out strongly for their products as the solution for those who don't want to get ticketed in New Jersey and other states for talking on the phone, then they risk going against scientific findings that any communication is risky.

Challenges are opportunities for companies to become thought leaders. And crafting a strong message about overall cellular safety is something that Bluetooth headset manufacturers have yet to really do. As long as they continue to maintain radio silence on this critical issue, they risk appearing like opportunists who are taking advantage of legislation to sell more products.

In Europe, legislation has already banned almost all usage of cell phones in vehicles (hands-free or hand-held). If the US decides to follow their lead, what will the repercussions be for providers of this bridging technology?

Leaks as Marketing Tools?

On February 13th the blogosphere lit up with rumors that there would be a new digicam from Olympus in the not-too-distant future called the E-430. The "leaked" news of this camera came from photoforum.net, and was reported in such established blogs as Engadget. The only problem...there's absolutely no corroboration that this camera will ever exist. And, judging from the comments on the postings, the overwhelming majority agree that this camera looks like a Photoshop hatchet job on an image of the E-330, an earlier Olympus model launched several years ago.

It makes one think about the power of so-called leaks to draw attention to a product. So how can readers tell a real leak from a Photoshop-happy bogus leak? Back in early 2007 there were rumors on the web about what would become the Olympus E-3 pro DSLR. The source was a PDF presentation hosted on a photo site, and this was picked up by CNET among others. It was detailed and appeared to be legitimate (Japanese-English and all). This report made the rounds of digital photography message boards and blogs. It had a lot of information that made it appear as though it were from Olympus (and therefore authentic). It was also taken down by sites that had hosted it and were contacted by Olympus to remove it.

Because Olympus moved to remove the post, it had instant validity, and when the camera was officially launched, it proved to have been accurate information. Still, the fact that it was leaked information caused the E-3 news to build incredible anticipation for the real product. So, the lessons learned: if a leak is just a Photoshopped image, it's probably bogus. But if a company takes measures to have a site remove the content and the content is detailed, then the leak is probably real.

CES 2008 - More of the same?

I had the priviledge of walking the show floor for two days this year and I couldn't help thinking that it was deja vu all over again. The big screen TVs were bigger and thinner, the booth bunnies were still as beautiful/haggard as ever, and the crowds were maddening (but somehow the shuttle buses didn't seem to take as long to the hotel and back). But there didn't seem to be many breakthroughs beyond the generation 2.o devices you would expect to see. There were also a lot of mee-too devices to be seen, like the G'zOne phone from Casio (pronounded Gee-Zohn, like the Pizzone from Pizza Hut).

This was clearly following the lead of Olympus in taking their Stylus digital cameras to greater heights (depths?) of durability with their SW series. Olympus has essentially taken their famous Stylus line that was all-weather and made them even more durable with the sub-category for SW. They're shock-proof, waterproof, freeze-proof, dust-proof and submersible underwater without a housing. But the problem I have with Casio's offering is that it fails to meet a real consumer need. I can't make a cell phone call from underwater (one that you would understand), and if I'm that attached to my phone that I want to have it with me in the water, I need to change my job.

I get the shockproof capability of the phone (who hasn't dropped a cell phone, giving us a new meaning for "dropped call"), but the way they're marketing this phone it needs to have a better reason for me to buy it (and better functionality) before I'll consider durability to be key.