Omnicom's Tribal DDB unit Thursday unveiled a new social media offering dubbed, Tribal DDB Radar, which will serve as the agency's eighth "center of excellence." Tribal DDB chief Paul Gunning said Radar would be overseen by a council of the agency's best social media "passionistas," and that the council would be headed by Milla Stolte, director of engagement planning in the agency's New York office. The agency said Radar would function as more than a research and listening post for Tribal DDB clients, and that its approach is "rooted in anthropology," and specifically in analyzing how the "culture of technologically enabled human communities around the Internet to drive insights" for brands. Details of Radar's methodology were not disclosed, but the agency said it has struck a deal with Visible Technologies, and that its truCAST products would play a role in that.
The Internet has become a cesspool of information without a funnel to siphon the garbage. It makes finding answers to questions that much more difficult. But what if you could enter a question in a search box and direct that traffic to experts who can answer the question, whether on a PC or mobile phone? Aardvark has the technology. And Google acquired it, confirms Damon Horowitz, Aardvark's co-founder and chief technology officer. Google paid $50 million for the company, according to TechCrunch, which first reported the deal, citing sources. Aardvark's technology allows people to ask questions, then pushes those questions out to a network of people who might have the expertise to answer them. The answers are sent back to the person asking the question through email, instant message, or Twitter. Google did not respond to requests for comment. Reliable-SEO founder David Harry says Google will likely connect Aardvark's technology with Google Wave and Buzz. It will provide an option to ask the question to social connections on the Web, social connections on email or connections across the Web in a variety of networks. "Would you like to ask the question in your network, or the public at large?" he says. "It wouldn't have made sense to announce the deal with Aardvark last week without first announcing the product Buzz." Aardvark isn't the only question-and-answer search engine. Ask.com launched a question-and-answer engine late last year. Ask.com's U.S. President Doug Leeds told MediaPost he intends to reinvent the "question and answer" engine, and has embarked on a project to take the company in a new direction. Part of the project, supported by search technology, aims to solve a completely different problem: not where to find relevant information on Web pages using link structure, but where to find relevant information based on someone's question. Leeds believes Aardvark is about two years away from being able to handle the support for the type of query volume Google would get. Ask.com has about 1 million questions asked daily, he says. Today, algorithms power Ask.com's question search engine, but in the second quarter of this year, that will change. Ask.com plans to launch a community network of people to support its question-and-answer platform. Founded by ex-Google employees, Aardvark has raised about $6 million in venture capital funding based on a social search engine business model. Since October 2009, Aardvark had 90,361 users, and about 55.9% have asked or answered a question. The site's average query volume sits at about 3,167.2 questions per day. Earlier this month, company executives learned the research paper "Anatomy of a Large-Scale Social Search Engine" had been accepted by the WWW 2010 committee. Findings of the paper are found here.
The company -- which this year is launching its most important vehicle to date in the U.S., the mid-sized sedan Kizashi, as well as a new version of its SX4 compact called SX4 SportBack -- hopes to get interest simmering on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The Brea, Calif.-based company, which unveiled a customized version of the car at the Chicago Auto Show this week, timed the launches of its Twitter (@SuzukiAuto), Facebook (www.Facebook.com/SuzukiAuto) and YouTube (www.YouTube.com/SuzukiAuto) sites with the show, where it unveiled a race-themed customized version of Kizashi, which it is pitching as a performance sedan. Suzuki is running a promotion that offers $100 to consumers who, after test-driving the car, opt for Acura TSX or Audi A4. Brown says initially there will be a lot of information on the Suzuki social channels about "Ultimate Wave Tahiti," a Suzuki-sponsored surfing adventure film featuring Suzuki vehicles and products. "It gives us an easy opportunity to approach our audience, share images and video," he says. "But it is also a good forum for feedback because, unlike traditional advertising, it's a dialogue. It's a deeper brand interaction than a website alone and on the PR side a great way to push information to both traditional journalists and to online influencers." Suzuki is running print ads now for Kizashi and in some markets will launch TV mid-month continuing until the April launch of the car, per Brown. "In a few markets there will also be outdoor and radio complementing TV, and online, print and now social; so we may not be in the Super Bowl but we will be very visible," he says. Brown adds that the media focus will be digital this year. "It will be up dramatically. But we will also be doing TV, radio, outdoor in key markets, which are new media for us; we haven't done a lot of that in the past few years." He says the key markets where the marketing efforts are focused include the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountain region, the Northeast and Southeast. "I would call it our most significant launch, and certainly our biggest departure from what we are best known for, since it's a bigger car, and competes in a hotly contested category," says Brown.
Omnicom's Tribal DDB unit Thursday unveiled a new social media offering dubbed, Tribal DDB Radar, which will serve as the agency's eighth "center of excellence." Tribal DDB chief Paul Gunning said Radar would be overseen by a council of the agency's best social media "passionistas," and that the council would be headed by Milla Stolte, director of engagement planning in the agency's New York office. The agency said Radar would function as more than a research and listening post for Tribal DDB clients, and that its approach is "rooted in anthropology," and specifically in analyzing how the "culture of technologically enabled human communities around the Internet to drive insights" for brands. Details of Radar's methodology were not disclosed, but the agency said it has struck a deal with Visible Technologies, and that its truCAST products would play a role in that.
The Internet has become a cesspool of information without a funnel to siphon the garbage. It makes finding answers to questions that much more difficult. But what if you could enter a question in a search box and direct that traffic to experts who can answer the question, whether on a PC or mobile phone? Aardvark has the technology. And Google acquired it, confirms Damon Horowitz, Aardvark's co-founder and chief technology officer. Google paid $50 million for the company, according to TechCrunch, which first reported the deal, citing sources. Aardvark's technology allows people to ask questions, then pushes those questions out to a network of people who might have the expertise to answer them. The answers are sent back to the person asking the question through email, instant message, or Twitter. Google did not respond to requests for comment. Reliable-SEO founder David Harry says Google will likely connect Aardvark's technology with Google Wave and Buzz. It will provide an option to ask the question to social connections on the Web, social connections on email or connections across the Web in a variety of networks. "Would you like to ask the question in your network, or the public at large?" he says. "It wouldn't have made sense to announce the deal with Aardvark last week without first announcing the product Buzz." Aardvark isn't the only question-and-answer search engine. Ask.com launched a question-and-answer engine late last year. Ask.com's U.S. President Doug Leeds told MediaPost he intends to reinvent the "question and answer" engine, and has embarked on a project to take the company in a new direction. Part of the project, supported by search technology, aims to solve a completely different problem: not where to find relevant information on Web pages using link structure, but where to find relevant information based on someone's question. Leeds believes Aardvark is about two years away from being able to handle the support for the type of query volume Google would get. Ask.com has about 1 million questions asked daily, he says. Today, algorithms power Ask.com's question search engine, but in the second quarter of this year, that will change. Ask.com plans to launch a community network of people to support its question-and-answer platform. Founded by ex-Google employees, Aardvark has raised about $6 million in venture capital funding based on a social search engine business model. Since October 2009, Aardvark had 90,361 users, and about 55.9% have asked or answered a question. The site's average query volume sits at about 3,167.2 questions per day. Earlier this month, company executives learned the research paper "Anatomy of a Large-Scale Social Search Engine" had been accepted by the WWW 2010 committee. Findings of the paper are found here.
The company -- which this year is launching its most important vehicle to date in the U.S., the mid-sized sedan Kizashi, as well as a new version of its SX4 compact called SX4 SportBack -- hopes to get interest simmering on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The Brea, Calif.-based company, which unveiled a customized version of the car at the Chicago Auto Show this week, timed the launches of its Twitter (@SuzukiAuto), Facebook (www.Facebook.com/SuzukiAuto) and YouTube (www.YouTube.com/SuzukiAuto) sites with the show, where it unveiled a race-themed customized version of Kizashi, which it is pitching as a performance sedan. Suzuki is running a promotion that offers $100 to consumers who, after test-driving the car, opt for Acura TSX or Audi A4. Brown says initially there will be a lot of information on the Suzuki social channels about "Ultimate Wave Tahiti," a Suzuki-sponsored surfing adventure film featuring Suzuki vehicles and products. "It gives us an easy opportunity to approach our audience, share images and video," he says. "But it is also a good forum for feedback because, unlike traditional advertising, it's a dialogue. It's a deeper brand interaction than a website alone and on the PR side a great way to push information to both traditional journalists and to online influencers." Suzuki is running print ads now for Kizashi and in some markets will launch TV mid-month continuing until the April launch of the car, per Brown. "In a few markets there will also be outdoor and radio complementing TV, and online, print and now social; so we may not be in the Super Bowl but we will be very visible," he says. Brown adds that the media focus will be digital this year. "It will be up dramatically. But we will also be doing TV, radio, outdoor in key markets, which are new media for us; we haven't done a lot of that in the past few years." He says the key markets where the marketing efforts are focused include the Pacific Northwest, the Rocky Mountain region, the Northeast and Southeast. "I would call it our most significant launch, and certainly our biggest departure from what we are best known for, since it's a bigger car, and competes in a hotly contested category," says Brown.
How are we embedded in social netweorks, and how do they affect our lives? How do they form, operate and affect us? Cluster clouds help visualize human social networks and with that identify patterns and clusters. Example Obesity: Obesity clusters show that there is an obvious relationship between the close social network being obese and the individual being obese. Reasons for this could be human behavioral patterns of Induction (influence of surroundings on own behavior), homophony (association based on same body size), and confounding. Friends: Cluster clouds show that people have different ways of friendships: Some have friends that know each other (tight web of social interactions), others have friends that are independent from each other. Pro of edge of network: Epidemic may not hit you. Pro of center of network: Gossip finds you. Our experience of the world depends on how we embed ourselves in the Connection matter of the world - the human super-organism. The spread of good and valuable things are required to nourish social networks, and vice versa, social networks will spread the good. They are fundamentally related to goodness, so what the world needs now is more social networks.