• The Japanese Translation
    In the U.S. we are accustomed to hearing anecdotes about the advanced state of mobile media and marketing in Japan. It is an article of faith in our industry that many Asian markets are years ahead of us in their mobile revolutions. But in most cases, the vision is just that, anecdotal. And so I was fascinated by one of the most compact but comprehensive profiles I have seen of the Japanese case from the research firm Infinita at www.infinita.co.jp. A six-page summary of the company's new research report, "21st Century Mobile Marketing," by Christopher Billich, is available free and …
  • Honey, I Think You NEED An IPhone
    "Would you use an iPhone if I gave you one?" I ask of my fiancé. Now, bear in mind my darling's level of cellular understanding. When I do call her on the feature phone I gave her last year, she has been known to yell at the unopened clamshell, "Steve, are you in there? How do I answer the call?" So asking if she wants an iPhone comes with a history...and high stakes. "Why? You want a new one, right?" she asks me. Well, yes. The 3G iPhone is rumored to be coming in early June, so like every good …
  • I Like You -- Talk to Me
    As anyone knows who suffers through video pre-rolls on every damn clip on most news sites, or clicks aggressively through the maddening takeover units on too many sites, marketer have a lot of trouble knowing when to shut up. So I was happy to see one marketing pro take seriously the level of user discomfort he sees with some of his own ad units.
  • Mobilizing The Mall Crawl
    Imagine if you will a smart phone application that locates your current position in the shopping mall, searches for the item you want, and then directs you to the nearest store with your target in stock. Now, imagine if competing retailers knew from your search and eventual destination, where you were headed next and could send you ads keyed to the path you were taking. A competitor could poach you with a special discount, so you might buy those Adidas shoes from Foot Locker instead of the original destination. The mall could turn into an exciting place, where shop keeps …
  • A Clean Breast Of Things
    Truth be told, I was one of those Italian-American kids who was pretty much raised by a coven of overbearing mothers. grandmothers, aunts and female cousins. There are about 50 downsides to being raised a boy in a matriarchal cult like this, not the least of which was that you become invisible as a male and somehow become privy to all of the feminine secrets ordinarily hidden from the male world. With all of that, even I have to admit a certain titillating discomfort over Playtex's latest viral video hit across YouTube's online, mobile and set-top-box platform: a one-minute bit …
  • The Brand's New Clothes
    This is about the way I feel when I remind media brands that every emerging platform confronts them with both a threat and an opportunity. By not taking the new media seriously, they risk losing the category they may own elsewhere to some upstart startup that better understands the Web or mobile. And at the same time, the new platform gives older, perhaps fading brands, the opportunity to refresh themselves and gain an early shard of mindshare.
  • Oh, Jeeves
    My bookmarks runneth over. As I was training my way back from the FTC's "Beyond Voice" workshops on mobile (more on this next week), I noticed how full my phone browser bookmarks had become in recent weeks with new material. Somebody at the major media companies has drunk a gallon of mobile Kool-Aid, because the torrent of mobilized brands is relentless now. I will save the best of the content providers for columns next week, but for now I am focusing on retailers who went mobile with good intentions and mixed results.
  • Raised On The Radio
    Anyone else remember a time when radio DJs were not all super-caffeinated -- but nicely anesthetized? The need to fill air time with fast-paced chatter is so profound now that drive-time shows seem to require a trio in the studio and "Wayne, Our Eye Guy in the Sky" playing the straight man. Maybe I was spoiled by '70s FM rock. Even NPR seems a bit too chipper for me. Back in the day, I remember when we kept our DJs well stoned and searching minutes for the next word. And so I am not the best guy to judge radio …
  • Honey, Please Shrink The Ads
    The inventor of LSD passed away this week, but I would like to think that before dying he had some hand in Sony's truly bizarre, mildly hallucinogenic Minisode Network. Online for the past year at MySpace, and available this week on Sprint TV, the Minisode concept shrinks normal TV episodes down radically.Watching a radically truncated version of "Charlie's Angels" is a bit like trying to stay awake through prime time in a drunken stupor. You know you just ought to go to bed. But then you might miss a coveted moment (for "Angels" cognoscenti) when "smart one" Kate Jackson says …
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