In the internet world, there’s a strong polarity between companies that create “Proprietary” software that is kept secret, developed by employees and that you have to pay for and “Open Source” software that is written by contributors around the world and is given away.  Shawn Coyne authored an article on stevenpressfield.com, called The Bubble Men that pretty much sums up the difference between ”Open Source” and ”Proprietary”.

But, one one friend of mine emailed me after reading this sums up this article even better;

“I wonder how many times in one day we each accidentally walk past a person, whose heart we could very easily reach out and touch.  I think I’ll look out with different eyes tomorrow…”

It’s definitely worth a read. Find it here.

And, if you haven’t read any of Mr. Pressfield’s books yet, I suggest starting with The War of Art and Do The Work.  Also, find him here

Their motto? “Pets.com, because pets can’t drive.” Well, they can’t buy online either…

Where am I going with this? Well, today I saw a twitter feed from @LenKendall that went to a website  from DigitalBuzz.com with stats for website trends for large brands and then stats for the social media websites.  Company website stats are falling while social media stats are rising… quickly.

The author, Aden Hepburn, suggests two main reasons.  First, that people are spending all their time on social networks and getting the info they need there, and that they’re getting info via RSS feeds and from the very same social networks to which the brands are pushing information.

This doesn’t really mean that the big brands are getting less and less popular, but that they are and need to be pushing more content into Social Media to be successful.  And sure enough, many of them are.

And while the Pets.com sock puppet was funny for a while, it didn’t yet capture the social media in a way that was meaningful and profitable (according to Wikipedia, they were “selling merchandise for approximately one-third the price it paid to obtain the products.”)

So, according to DigitalBuzz.com:

The fact is, agencies and brands will need to work out how to deliver the relevant content, branding and experiences they are currently achieving on their own websites, into highly competitive social networks, feeds, apps and widgets, where every “campaign” or “offer” has to be groundbreaking just to get noticed… and then there was tracking…!

In short, It’s all about the Conversation.  Are you being part of it?

AP photo

According to today’s Advertising Age, AT&T is embroiled in some potential controversy around American Idol and how many text votes it might have encouraged Kris Allen fans to send.

According to a New York Times story citing the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, employees for AT&T distributed phones to folks at two finale parties organized by fans of Kris Allen, the Arkansas singer who was crowned this year’s “Idol” winner. The phones allowed Mr. Allen’s supporters to text their votes for their native idol, while the AT&T employees reportedly also gave free text-messaging lessons, including how to send multiple texts with the press of a single button, a practice known as power texting. (According to the show’s website: “The producers reserve the right to remove any identified ‘power dialing’ votes. Note that this applies to both toll-free and text-messaging votes.”)

Now, they’re not telling how many of the almost 100 million votes cast were for each of them, so we don’t know by how much he won.   But, what’s pretty interesting is the actual number of votes cast via text message this year.

AT&T, the No. 2 U.S. carrier, struck a sponsorship deal with “American Idol” in 2003 that allowed only users of its cellphones to cast votes via text message. Since then the volume of text votes related to the show, including sweepstakes and trivia, has jumped. This year the carrier processed 178 million “American Idol”-related text messages, vs. last year’s 78 million.

178 million text messages in 2009.  That’s 35,600,000 per month (including May), or about 1.7 million text message per day just about American Idol.  Now we know why the cell phone companies, don’t include text messaging in their “unlimited data” plans (something else that really bugs me because, after all, text messages are data).

Anyway, back to the point.  Anyone business that can drive that much text traffic, not to mention all the search and web traffic, is definitely in the “unstoppable” category and is a wave to ride.

Jimmy is a brand unto himself.  So are Parrotheads.  And now, he’s taken the stadium naming rights away from Corporate America and into the social, entertainment, fun world.  Too bad this is only for one year, and that it’s supposed to end by the Superbowl, but, I expect it will live on forever and this will always be Landshark Stadium as Jimmy Buffett turns corporate branding on it’s ear.

Many of the articles say that one of the primary reasons is to get more people to football games.  I didn’t actually think that declining attendance to football games was a problem, but I bet this will work in terms of making them more fun.  You know he’ll be at many games and I expect he’ll play a lot too.  It’s the next step in the Margaritaville world.

Read one of the articles here.

See a short AP video here:

AWESOME!

See the other ads below:

It also hits upon one of my favorite theories that Mobile Marketing has more to do with where you are than what you can do…

Consumers use technology and communication infrastructures to take control of and have greater access to information and services that relieve growing time pressures and allow them to access a greater range of experiences. This opens the door for retailers to connect with shoppers in a way that doesn’t interrupt them, but instead becomes a part of their dialogue. For example, smart-phone applications can select the best product for a shopper’s individual needs, and scanned barcodes can instantly compare prices across competitors’ stores and online sites to ensure that the consumer is getting the best deal, all without lengthy research. Another example is in-store digital kiosks that use video cameras and LCD screens to virtually place products in shoppers’ hands or clothes on shoppers’ bodies, eliminating the need to try on clothing.

This seems to me to be the key…

Thanks to:
Morgan McAlenney, senior vice president and digital czar at The Integer Group.
Jack Neff – Advertising Age

What brand is on the judge’s glasses on the table?

I’m sure you all guessed correctly that it’s Coca Cola.

From the article:

The biggest TV success in history, “American Idol,” seemed an obvious place to begin. Season after season, three brands — Coca-Cola, Ford and AT&T (formerly Cingular) — have been the proud sponsors of a show that continues to boast high ratings. The reported $26 million-a-pop sponsorships are arguably some of the most valuable in North America, which explains why the sponsors have been just as loyal as the audience.

But when Simon Cowell sips out of his Coca-Cola cup, Randy Jackson comments on the latest Ford and Paula Abdul encourages everyone to cast a vote using AT&T, does it work? Quantitative and qualitative statistics say it does, but does a couch shaped like a Coke bottle really make people consume more cola? We were able to find the answer in only one way: by understanding what really goes on in our subconscious.

~~~

Not surprisingly, Coca-Cola did well; the brand had clearly increased its equity during “American Idol.” The couch, the red room — the entire setup seemed to fit with the program and thus had a very positive effect on the brand. Cingular (now AT&T) did well too. Its results weren’t as impressive as Coca-Cola’s, yet the fact that the network provider was an integrated part of the show that allowed people to cast their votes seemed to do the job: The brand increased its equity through the sponsorship.

If you get a chance to read the rest, it’s pretty interesting to show why we all remember Coke with Idol, but not for the Olympics in China…  And why Ford wasted 26 million bucks on Idol.