Three Suggestions for 2009

Instead of offering predictions for the year to come, I’m going to write about some things I would like to see in 2009. They’re kind of like predictions, but if they don’t pan out by year’s end, at least I can come back and say “Well, they were only suggestions, not predictions, so technically I wasn’t wrong.”

1. Brands Forget Facebook and Try Twitter
When Facebook opened up it’s application development platform and subsequently allowed brands and celebrities to create their own “Facebook Pages”, there was much talk about how great it would be for brands to connect with people on the 150 million strong network. But that never really happened. There are more virtual tumbleweeds on branded Facebook Pages than meaningful conversation. And no one ever created a branded Facebook application that caught fire. Burger King’s recent Whopper Sacrifice is promising though, at least they understand the medium and use it in a clever way.

The problem with Facebook is that conversations happen all over the place. I can post info in my profile, write status messages, leave comments on a friend’s wall, leave comments on photos, and have discussions on group and event pages. For brands on Facebook, they don’t get to see the majority of these conversations; they only get to see what I’m posting on their branded Facebook Pages.

And then there’s Twitter. With the simplicity of everyone getting one centralized feed in which to “tweet”, it’s a lot easier for brands to monitor the conversations to see what people are saying about them. Twitter has made it simple by creating a search engine so you can see what others are saying about a topic of particular interest to you. This allows an opportunity for brands to engage with people in ways that they could not on Facebook. Brands that have already got in on the action include Zappos, Dell, and The Home Depot.

2. For Online Videos, Check Out Vimeo
Tired of all the teenagers and grumpy old men ranting on their webcams? Get off YouTube and check out Vimeo. While YT has a stranglehold on streaming web videos, I think 2009 will be the year in which competitors start to make some strides. Vimeo has better HD video and audio quality hands down, making it perfect for short films, comedy sketches, and music videos that depend on higher quality audio and video.

3. Obama Marketing Machine Takes on America
Imagine if the team behind Obama’s successful and impressive marketing campaign tackled the challenge of re-branding America. The country’s image has taken a tumble both internationally and domestically – some say it’s because of the past eight years, but it has been going on longer than that. Whatever the case is, we all saw the reactions at home and abroad to the election results. Massive amounts of people gathered and the show of support for Obama was overwhelming.

If people could show that much support for a political candidate, could they do the same for America? Should there be an Obama-led effort made to promote the great things about our country and convince the world and ourselves we are not a bunch of overweight, privileged, arrogant war-mongers? I think so. And I think it needs to be done.

Brand-Free Bowl Games

We’re right in the middle of college football’s bowl season, and if the fact that more than half of the 119 Division I-A teams get trips to the post season isn’t ridiculous enough, we now have 10 bowl games named after the title sponsors. It’s both lame and genius at the same time. These are mostly lower-tier bowls that won’t gain significant audiences, but brand-name-as-bowl-name ensures every time a reporter, fan, or commentator talks about the game they will mention the sponsor. So now I present to you, for reasons only out of spite, the logos of those bowls minus the brand names.

Drew Carey is a Man of No Emotion

From Best Week Ever.

Whopper Virgins Not As Bad As You Might Think (Update: Or maybe it is)

Last year, Burger King and their agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky took Whoppers away with Whopper Freakout, and now they’re giving them out to villagers in rural parts of Thailand, Romania, and Greenland in a short documentary long commercial titled Whopper Virgins.

Fun Fact from Your Youth

If you played Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? on your home computer back in 1990, then you probably remember how you had to answer trivia questions to receive a promotion to the next detective level. The answers to these questions came from The World Almanac and Book of Facts included with the game. Get the question wrong and you can’t advance.

What I learned the other day was this was done as a form of off-disk copy protection. You could have made as many copies of the floppy discs for your friends as you wanted, but without that almanac, they’re not going to get far in the game. Of course, if you lost the almanac you were also out of luck. But now with the help of the internet, you can answer all of those burning questions and finally capture Carmen. I’ll leave it up to you to decide if that’s how I spent my Sunday afternoon.

It’s Science

How do you sell thin layer chromatography plates in an interesting way? This is how:

Analtech (pronounced like “analyst,” you perv) is the only U.S. manufacturer of chromatography plates and accessories. The Delaware Film Company helped create this short film for them. According to Analtech, “The Adventures of Ana L’Tech tells the story of a young lady in a quiet medieval village who must defend her life – and uncover a plot to usurp the throne – using science.”

Neat.