Just spent way too much time in this. Draw something, swap with someone, repeat. It has been fun since SomethingAwful discovered the app.
Google’s Visualization API
Posted by vlad
on March 20, 2008
Launched yesterday, the visualization API is closely tied to iGoogle and Google Docs.
A fun game to play whenever Google launches something: “How Will This Help To Make Advertising More Relevant?” For example, the Google Maps API provides geographic location. Ad Manager provides results of ads ran by other parties.
I doubt that the visualization API is there just to make Google Docs or iGoogle a bit better. So what does the Visualization API add to advertising effectiveness? Could the new structured data brought in from third parties improve ad relevance? The API will support custom data sources in the future, so perhaps this is a way to gain access to data that can be reused in ads themselves?
Examples of visualizations are in the gallery.
Starbucks’ New Plan
Posted by vlad
on March 20, 2008
Brand autopsy covers the Starbucks’ new plan, as disclosed at their 2008 shareholder meeting. Apart from trying to compete with McDonald’s, the company launched a platform that solicits ideas from customers. Yes, even you can go to MyStarbucksIdeas.com and submit your great idea.
Here is the problem though: a premium brand that asks for ideas inevitably almost exclusively gets the ideas of giving out stuff for free. Free wifi, a punch-out coffee card to get a free coffee every 10 purchases, free cup of coffee when you buy a coffee beans, free drink on your birthday, and so on.
Acting out on these ideas is simple brand suicide. Just focus on quality and on ways to showcase quality.
What Do TV Viewers Do During Commercial Breaks?
Posted by vlad
on February 06, 2008
BIGresearch latest Simultaneous Media Survey
MediaPost - Three Fourths of Consumers Channel Surf or Chat During TV Commercials
Same thing as you. They channel surf and otherwise try to avoid ads, unless those ads are guaranteed to be entertaining (such as during SuperBowl).
(Curtesy of lapie)
State of Microsoft’s Advertising Union
Posted by vlad
on February 04, 2008
MediaPost Publications - Microsoft’s Brian McAndrews On The Eve Of The Yahoo Offer - 02/01/2008
The kind of thing Microsoft should publish more of. To this day AQNT is the best stock I’ve ever held on to.
