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One to One Assigned Oversight of MITX Digital Marketing Track

One to One Interactive has been asked to help launch and oversee the MITX Digital Marketing Track.  The track will focus on best practices, methods, and case studies associated with current and emerging Internet enabled technology platforms and their application to enterprise marketing and communication efforts. 

We felt that with all of the buzz around Consumer Generated Media (CGM) & Web 2.0 these days, a Panel exploring those issues would be timely.  To that end, MITX and One to One is announcing today the first series in the MITX Digital Marketing Track titled: Web 2.0: Engaging the Long Tail. This panel, scheduled for March 15th (venue TBD), will focus on the next generation of on-line services generally referred to as Web 2.0: i.e. Social Networks, Blogs, Podcasts, Tags, Wikis, Social Bookmarks, etc. 

First, I want to express my excitement around our moderator: Henry Jenkins III, DeFlorz Professor of Humanities and Director of Comparative Media Studies, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  He first came to my attention when I was reviewing the agenda for the iMedia Brand Summit scheduled for February 5-8.  He is giving the Keynote Address titled "Convergence Culture: Consumer Participation and Branded Entertainment". 

Not to be overlooked, I believe we also have recruited a group of amazing panelists.  Jack Barrette (Category Development Officer, Yahoo!), Adam Cutler (User Experience Director, IBM's Innovation Technology Center), Jim Nail (CMO, Cymfony), and Phil Hollows (President, Feedblitz) have all agreed to participate in the event.

In the spirit of the Panel's topic, we are looking for venues that will provide audience members Internet connectivity during the event so that they will be able to blog, record podcasts, etc.   We are also exploring an option to invite a select group of bloggers to attend the event free of charge. 

I will continue to post updates as things evolve over the next month.  Special thanks goes to Sara Fraim (MITX) for her ongoing assistance and support.

Jeremi Karnell-President, One to One Interactive

"A Keyboard... How Quaint"

Props to the recently departed James Doohan for my favorite example of botched speech recognition, with Steve Martin yelling at his answering machine in 'LA Stories' coming in as a close second-place. 

PC Magazine published an interesting interview with Drs. Robert Sicconi and David Nahamoo, two prominent players in IBM's Speech Recognition division to discuss the current and potential future state of speech recognition in our society.  This conveniently comes off the coattails of IBM's official release of Embedded ViaVoice 4.4 which boasts the ability to "comprehend nuances of spoken English, translate it on the fly, and even create on-the-fly subtitles for foreign-language television systems".

This is a technology that has struggled to gain a firm foothold into the consumer market.  It has been around in one way or another for decades now (especially as dictation tools) but the complexity of algorithms required to perform reactive analysis of speech patterns, regional dialects, speed, and grammar have slowed down acceptance of the software. 

Dr. Nahamoo suggests that the next big breakthroughs in Speech Recognition will be further enhancements to Call Center software, Person-To-Person communication (Language translation), and improved translation of Closed Captioning.  From a global perspective, the on-the-fly translation has vast potential, though I will be interested to see how they handle challenges, like tone and context, which are purely subjective.  Then again, if you frequently find yourself looking for bathrooms in multiple foreign countries, then your automated language solution is probably coming soon.

Personally, I'm getting impatient to see marked improvements in software designed for automobiles. This article was published almost 5 years ago and engineers are grappling with virtually the same problems today.  Yes, the automobile is a noisy environment, but if Bose can manufacture headphones that filter out airline frequencies, why can't this be applied to the same tones emitted in a common driving environment?   

So, hurry up and wait for the latest crop of Speech Recognition solutions, and don't throw away your keyboard anytime soon.  This is good news for the burgeoning Carpal Tunnel Remedy industry, but not many others.

Elephants And Donkeys Enter The Blogosphere

And speaking of deploying blogs... C|NET informs us that our elected friends on the Hill are making their way into the Blog scene.  This is not surprising at all, especially given the explosive growth of the Blogging community.  Check out the article to learn about current politicos typing their mind, including Sen. Kerry, Sen. Obama, Rep. Hastert, and Rep. Conaway.

By the way, several do not allow comments, and all are almost certainly moderated, so your 15 minutes of fame will be wasted if you try posting personal Manifestoes.

McDonalds Deploys Corporate Blog

Steve Rubel reported today that McDonalds has launched a new blog called Open for Discussion that will offer perspectives on the company's “aspirations, activities, and challenges ... to make a difference on corporate social responsibility issues that matter.” This, no doubt, will be a trend that we will continue to witness in the marketplace - corporate marketers leveraging the power of the blogsphere to augment their current marketing and PR efforts.

Benoit Sarazin, in a blog post entitled "Blogs: a revolution in corporate marketing" provides three examples of how other companies have begun to take advantage of blogs as part of their marketing and PR mix:  "First, Microsoft reached an astounding achievement: create a human corporate image, close to its customers and to the software developers' community. A Microsoft employee, Robert Scoble, authors one of the most visited blogs on the planet. He shares his personal ideas and opinions on all kinds of topics, in total freedom, without any review by Microsoft's organization. He does not hesitate to criticize Microsoft's products when competitors do a better job. His bluntness gives him utmost credibility within the High-Tech community and he has acquired a strong authority when defending Microsoft's positions that he agrees with. This is such a success that Microsoft invites a number of its employees to follow his example and to create blog communities around diverse themes.

The second is Nokia who uses blogs to apply the best marketing tool for the promotion of new products: word of mouth. Nokia has created a blog to promote its new mobile phone, Nokia 7710, where it invites about 20 VIP customers (early users of the product) to share their experience. The result is a series of independent opinions, written in a casual and funny style, full of stories and useful practical tips. The site is a fantastic resource for all potential buyers who search for a relevant input on how the product can meet their needs.

The last example comes from Michel-Edouard Leclerc, President of the French retail chain Centres Leclerc in France. He shows us how an executive can create a strong connection with its public. He has created a blog where he freely expresses his stance on business issues and his personal interests. Rather than relying on a remote and stereotyped image formatted by the information media, he lets readers understand his passions, sense the depth of his views, appreciate what he like and what inspires him. In short, readers get the feeling of knowing him as a close friend even though they never met him."

Motorola Invests in Linux-Driven Television

Motorola is poised to purchase Kreatel Communications, which is a leading manufacturer of set-top boxes and the supporting infrastructure for delivering digital television content over IP-based connections, specifically broadband.  The service is commonly known as Internet Protocol Television (IPTV).  While IPTV is more popular in Europe right now, estimates are that global profits will be upwards of $17 Billion by 2010*.  What I like most about the Kreatel set-top boxes is that they are powered by Linux (open source!), leaving the door wide open for developer community to code customizations.  TiVo is also written in Linux, by the way, which could make them a desirable acquisition for Motorola should they plan to push IPTV as a standard soon.  Besides, Motorola's current Digital Video Recorder (DVR) interface stinks in comparison to Tivo.

*Source - TDG Research

Quicktime 2 RSS

According to the Guardian, Apple is working on something called 'QuickTime 2 RSS,' which will allow someone to record a lecture and then have it automatically encoded for playback on a video-enabled iPod and seeded to an RSS feed, which would automatically be populated on the iTunes Music Store. The best part of this? It would be free, you just need to buy the camera and the Mac to run it on.

Stardust@home Project Brings Cosmic Dust to Your Desktop

NASA's Stardust spacecraft returned safely to Earth when the capsule carrying cometary and interstellar particles successfully touched down at 2:10 a.m. Pacific time this past Sunday in the desert salt flats of the U.S. Air Force Utah Test and Training Range. Launched in February 7th, 1999, Stardust rendezvoused with the Comet Wild2 in January 2004 and captured thousands of cometary dust grains in special aerogel collectors. 

This is the first sample return from a solid solar-system body beyond the Moon and the first ever samples of contemporary interstellar dust ever collected.  In order to search for the tiny dust samples embedded in the aerogel, scientists from the Nasa Jet Propulsion Lab at the California Institute of Technology are recruiting volunteers online to download a virtual microscope (VM) . The VM will automatically connect to a server and download so-called "focus movies" -- stacks of images that are collected from the spacecraft using an automated microscope at the Cosmic Dust Lab at Johnson Space Center.  Those interested may learn more and apply to participate at the following website: http://stardustathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/

Is My Site Hot Or Not? Think Fast!

According to researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa, it can take only 50 Milliseconds for a user to decide whether or not they like a Website.  It's an interesting psychological approach to judging aesthetics, if nothing else.  I'll advocate one suggestion made in the article regarding good site design... "It's not about getting as much stuff on the page as possible".  Big animated logos and abuse of the color palate was really neat in 1997, but these days it just doesn't make the cut!

Forrester Research: Web Analytics Vendor Summary

This past week, Forrester Research unveiled its Forrester Wave Web Analytics Vendor Review Q1 2006.  Authored by Nate Root,  Vice President and Research Director for Forrester's Customer Experience research team, the report assessed the state of the Web analytics market and explored how vendors stacked  up across 106 different criteria.   

The report established the following as Industry Leaders:

• WebTrends: Battling Omniture for the title of top dog.  Completing its shift to a more flexible deployment model (allowing for both hosted and enterprise installs), this brand is making headway in earning back respect of enterprise Web analytics buyers.
• Visual Science: Four years of stealth development with major customers had afforded Visual Science to reach the top of Forrester's technical rankings by taking a different cut at how Web analytics data should be stored and analyzed.
• Coremetrics: Although falling from its original leadership position, Forrester still considers Coremetrics a leader in the Web analytics space due to its solid technology, emerging suite strategy, and superb customer service.
• Omniture: Forrester believes Omniture is poised to challenge WebTrends for market leadership within the next two years.  Last year yielded 100% growth for Omniture.  Furthermore, its solid product, service, and support makes this brand a safe bet for large enterprises that wish to deploy Web analytics across the organization.

The report went on to detail WebSideStory, Sane Solutions, and IBM SurfAid as Strong Performers in the category.  Netratings SiteCensus and SPSS NetGenesis were classified as Contenders.

An Advertising Lesson from the Old Masters

                                                                   Whether or not Howard Stern and Opie&Anthony know it, they are borrowing marketing techniques from the best in the radio business. 

At first, I was very annoyed when I found out that 10% of my morning commute would still be interrupted by commercials (6 or so minutes per hour), even though I am now a paying subscriber of Satellite Radio.  Well, it turns out that the writers and advertising gurus over there anticipated my annoyance, and took an active step to remedy it before it became a problem.  Instead of listening to a carefully scripted and rehearsed commercial run over and over, they let the cast of the show slap together some ad-hoc bits that wove nicely into the show.  The banter was topical, the product being advertised was prominent, and the pace of the show really was not broken up to the point I felt the urge to change channels.  I know this tactic has been used on terrestrial radio for ages, but it has always felt bland and forced to me until this week. 

So I dug back into my radio archives and re-listened to broadcasts from Jack Benny, Fred Allen, George & Gracie, and Amos & Andy, and realized that, to a great extent, the tactic was identical.  Each show used fresh, topical interactions between cast members and announcers to push their products, as well as weaving them into the show itself in numerous cases.  I submit that they were under different format constraints back then (Live shows, Live Audiences, etc...), but the tactic works as well in 2006 as it did in 1935.  After just a couple of shows, I feel like I know more about the Lucky Strike, Jello, and Pepsodent brands than I do about most of today's products.  Not a lot of glitz, just good, relevant, topical advertising.

Of course, my whole theory could be thrown out the window next week if I hear the same ad-hoc bits from this week run over and over again.  But, if they can keep the ads fresh and interesting, then advertisers may find big success from this new(ish) channel....that is...if you're willing to look past the racy content to reach their aggregate 4-6 million loyal listener audience (and growing).