Category Archives: Communication

AGENT X Weekly Digital Awesomeness Awards v2

Posted on by Josh Stauffer

This week has gone by pretty quick but I managed to snatch a few gems out of the ether to share with everyone. From browser based flash games that highlight the rise of device interoperability, to analog versions of the fridge, theres a little something for everyone. Check it out and drop a comment at the bottom, cause you know you want to!

 

Jihyun Ryou is bringing back old school food storage. It never fails, every few weeks I go to grab vegetables out of the crisper and they’re nothing but mush, then I remember that I bought then half a month ago. Maybe something like this could help me out, at the very least it would cut down on my electric bill and make my house a bit more green.  Check it out…

 

Mammoot Control is a retro style flash arcade game built by German based UFOMAMMOOT which utilizes the new websocket protocol. The game allows you the option of using you’re iPhone as a game controller instead of a keyboard. Considering what we do in the realm of live events, something like this seems like a solid hit for a brand if utilized in the right way. Check it out…

 

When I was a kid I loved everything LEGO, but Max Shepard’s biomimetic(yeah don’t worry, I had to look that one up as well) robot arm made from 100% LEGO parts puts anything I ever made to shame. Of course LEGO didn’t make things like linear actuators when I was a kid. Check it out…

 

Matt gets the credit for passing this one along to me and even though I’m no musician this video got me pretty excited to try out this thing. It’s like a great mix of the new Tron movie with the puzzle based play-style of Myth and a synthesizer laced overtop of it.  This gem is being cranked out by a three man shop called Phosfiend Systems in Canada and they have a great dev blog themselves over at fractgame.com.

 

Showcase for Dutch artist Casper Faasse’s work with a flash / html hybrid site that allows for great SEO and multimedia content delivery.  I especially like the way he reinforces the physicality of your own computer screen by pressing the iPad up to it while displaying his work.  It’s subtle yet very clever, in a world full of sites that attempt to draw you into the screen he chooses instead to remind you of it’s existence.  Check it out…

Nope! It’s Chuck Testa.

Posted on by Andrew Rushmore

Soon, if you haven’t already, you’ll be watching a video shot for Chuck Testa out in California.

As I’m writing this, I have had to opportunity to watch his video spread from a tiny comment on www.reddit.com to a full out internet meme.

(A meme (play /?mi?m/[1]) is “an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. Pronounced like “cream” it was coined by Professor Dawkins)

Here’s the video:

Hilarious yes?

What makes this video great, is that Chuck Testa pops out and says “Nope! It’s Chuck Testa”. But if Chuck had said “nope” to the video producers creative ideas, he would have seen far less exposure for his content.

Published August 14th, the video saw minor success. Chuck was probably happy enough with the video too! But wait. Check out the insights below. Once there internet “found out” about the commercial, his views skyrocketed.

Not every viral video will work. In fact. Most don’t. Our city saw great success thanks to Rob Bliss and his team producing a Lib-Dub video for the classic song  American Pie. Rob and his team poured their time into that video – and views kept climbing. Grand Rapids got another 15 minutes of fame (more like, 4MM+ views of fame!).

So why did Chuck Testa’s video hit off with the internet? Simple. They didn’t try too hard, but they experimented with a creative solution that ended up becoming a booming success.

He’s actually hosting a contest right now on his website for the best “NOPE!” photoshop. (http://www.ojaitaxidermy.com – if you want to enter.)

Here are my key takeaways from the Chuck Testa ‘experience’ (and he still makes me laugh outloud, FYI.):

  • First and foremost: don’t be afraid to be creative.
  • Pushing the boundaries doesn’t have to be “offensive” – you can push boundaries and still be noticed.
  • If the internet “finds out” about something you’ve done and it goes viral – let it. Heck, join it!
  • Don’t. Be afraid. Let your brand explore a creative message that wouldn’t normally “fit”.

If you find any good Chuck Testa stories, share it with us on our Facebook or Twitter!

www.facebook.com/weareagentx

www.twitter.com/weareagentx

Addendum: I should add that the video was shot by professionals for “Commercial Kings“. Just note that while shot by professionals, the beauty of the video is how long it took to be “discovered” by the internet. Very impressive viral piece.

Sweet WOM, Chicago…

Posted on by admin

It’s that time of year again, the birds and bees are out and about making whoopie, and in the bustling metropolis of Chicago the Word of Mouth Marketing Association is preparing to welcome all (including a few of us from SGC) attending the 2010 School of WOM at Swissôtel Chicago, May 24-26.

The reason I say all this is to shamelessly promote the event and to encourage anyone in the industry that hasn’t signed up to attend to do so if you can. We’ve been involved with WOMMA for almost a year now, and the School of WOM is a “shouldn’t be missed” event, if you’re at all into WOM marketing. In addition to presentations by some of the leading voices from some of the world’s biggest brands on their approach to WOM, there will be a number of great discussions around creating sustainable word of mouth campaigns, how to measure the effectiveness of your efforts and more – much more than this simple post can hope to contain.

So, to all you WOMites out there, get registered, jump on your plane, train or automobile and make your way to Chicago. The weather is nice this time of year, the food is great and I’m sure we’re all going to walk away in an enlightened state of mind.

David

In the End, Google Fiber is About More Than Just Google

Posted on by admin

When Google announced they would be taking applications from cities interested in receiving free fiber optic broadband, there was a surge of interest from cities across America – it grew into over 1,000 responses to Google’s request for information (RFI) – and, with some unspoken encouragement from Google’s RFI around community spirit, many of the cities involved in the initiative began to leverage digital media to raise awareness for their efforts, to drum up active support from community members and to show Google exactly how excited they are to be considered for the “grand prize.” In most cases, the people responded. Many who had an interest in bringing Google’s promise to their city acted as brand champions, spreading the story everywhere through both traditional and non-traditional channels. For many of these champions it became a highly competitive race to get Google’s attention, showing the vested interest participating cities have with Google’s fiber broadband technology.

As we began to monitor conversations around the initiative and the participating cities in the digital landscape, several cities stood out as clear leaders. These leaders had over ten thousand Facebook fans alone, with some breaking twenty and even thirty thousand. Pictures, tweets, blog posts, videos and more all supported the digital media presence of active cities, showing how very hands on participants became – fiber became a catalyst for community growth in cyberspace and beyond. And I say beyond, and this is a key learning for everyone, because the cities that controlled the largest share of digital voice were those that not only pulled together strategies for deploying digital media but carried it through to PR and experiential activities as well.

As Google’s March 26th deadline loomed closer we monitored even more excitement online as many cities saw last minute increases to their fan bases. This was likely tied to the flood of nationally recognized events various cities used for promotion, as well as the effect of word of mouth and the variety of media coverage that backed the buzz around Google’s fiber initiative. Continue reading →

The Next Google Fiber Report

Posted on by admin

First off, congratulations and good luck to all the cities that have applied. It’s been amazing watching what everyone has pulled together so far. We’ve been fortunate enough to have a very unique perspective.

On that note, and based on Google’s post on its official blog that it will be making its selection “…by the end of the year,” we have decided to take a step back from our weekly reports, evaluate the number of cities participating in online efforts around the initiative to make sure that we have the most inclusive list possible and then resume our efforts on a regular basis until Google makes its final decision. Again, we’re not saying in any way that Google is using online share of voice as a factor in its decision making process, but we still want to make sure that everyone knows who the top contenders are around this metric and what they are doing to try to get Google’s attention online. And given Google’s tip of the cap to Topeka today, the question has to be asked: does it hurt to go out of your way a bit to stay top of mind in the digital world?

So, look for our next report sometime in April, and thanks to everyone who continues to send in insights and requests on behalf of your city – we are taking as much relevant information into account as we can. In the meantime, make sure you continue to include your city in your tagging strategy, as we’ll continue to base our search for data on the participating cities, and please don’t hesitate to emailus with questions, concerns and anything else I should know is going on in your world.

Finally, and this is way past due, thanks to Martin at Zettaphile for his efforts in compiling the original list of Google fiber cities on his blog. It was our starting point.

Thanks and again, best of luck to everyone!

Dangerous words…

Posted on by Kyle Harris

I really hate Helvetica…

Before you hit up the comments section and start a debate over which one of you hates ME more, please hear me out. I am not trying to be a rogue designer that just wants to be different (and tick people off in the process). And it’s not that I didn’t pay attention during Typography 210 (or something like that), where we were told which fonts were good, which were bad and which was the greatest (Helvetica, supposedly).

I also understand that Helvetica is arguably over-used, but that doesn’t even bother me. Honestly, it is a nice typeface; it has great, safe characteristics which make it viable for a lot of applications and mediums.

But…I can’t stand the capital ‘R’. The descender is awkward to say the least. For a typeface with such little connotative character, where did this rolling leg come from? The rest of the family is so sterile, so defined, so geometric, but the ‘R’ is so, so confusing.

To me, it looks likes Max Miedinger played “Pin the Tail on the P.” Sure, he put it in the right place (impressive for having been blind-folded), but that is to be expected from such letterforms displayed in the rest of the  family.

Or maybe his hand slipped when finishing out the letter. Many long nights have been put into his work, the accidental yawn / slip could be expected.

Whatever the case may be, I can’t stand it. Now, I realize that I have been praising the rest of what Helvetica has to offer, so I guess I have to retract my previous statement a bit. I actually hate 1/26th (not counting numbers or punctuation, who needs those anyway?) of the entire family (from 27 to 93).

And I thought I was the only one that had this growing internal irritation with Helvetica. I mean, it’s so universally loved that there was a movie made because of the impact and popularity of the typeface. But I have 2 “R’s” in my last name, and seeing it set all caps in Helvetica makes my left eye twitch a little.  Luckily, in my research (to prove I am not crazy) I found this guy. It’s comforting to know I am not alone.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I will ever like the capital ‘R’ in Helvetica. I don’t change my appetite much, considering I still don’t like grapes, bananas or many other forms of fruit.

I want to hear from you though. Let me know whether your a lover or a hater (of Helvetica that is, not me).

Cheers!

Kyle

Google Fiber Initiative Update (Not a New Report Yet, but Some Thoughts Nonetheless)…

Posted on by admin

We’re receiving a number of inquiries from supporters of cities that weren’t included in our report, and the bottom line is that in order for these cities to get on the digital radar, they need to organize their approach by relevant search terms that supporters can find easily and, once connected, more effectively contribute to the campaign. That’s the value of these reports. This is an exercise in demonstrating to viewers the value of developing organized, measurable digital (and social media, etc.) campaigns in order to get the greatest value for the time and spend. The cities that tend to have a more fragmented social media approach (for example, Ann Arbor titling two separate Facebook pages “A2 Fiber” and “Ann Arbor for Google Fiber”) are making it more difficult to be heard as a single voice on a national level and are running the risk of going unnoticed. The way to get noticed beyond your local efforts is to get organized and create a unified, holistic digital/social media strategy of relevant, searchable content. Continue reading →

The Race is On(line) for Google Fiber – How the Candidates are Faring in the Digital Space

Posted on by admin

With community events for Google’s fiber initiative beginning on March 19th and the growing level of online community involvement that’s building here in Grand Rapids, we put together the first in a series of reports measuring the digital conversations and online efforts surrounding the participating cities looking to have Google’s hyper-speed fiber communications lines installed, creating a rank of the top 10 candidate cities by share of the total conversation happening around the initiative online.

This first report ranks the aspiring cities by share of total number of mentions in conversations happening between February 15 to March 17 on digital media channels, and we’ll continue to publish reports weekly showing the collected digital efforts and rankings of the top 10 cities until Google makes its final choice.

Google has multiple factors in their decision making process, including how interested a community is in working with Google, community support, local activities, needs and resources, approved construction methods, local regulatory issues and area broadband speeds. Most participating cities assert that online interaction in their campaigns will increase the chances of favorability in their selection by Google, and we’ll be presenting the data and insights that will ultimately show how important a factor online share of voice is in the process.

The first report is available for download here. Just click on the image below. And stay tuned for additional reports in the coming weeks.

UPDATE: As we continue our research and measurement for our next report, we’ve noticed that some cities’ online efforts are being conducted around nicknames relevant to their campaigns or local communities, rather than the direct name of the city (Ann Arbor and Sarasota, we’re looking at you!). Based on this, we’re filtering at more detailed levels to make sure we’re capturing that information and reporting accurately. We invite any city involved in the initiative NOT directly using their name for their online efforts to reach out to us (either through a comment below or through our Twitter feed – @steketeegreiner) with any specific search terms to make sure that we have your city represented properly.

2010 – A pragmatic view

Posted on by admin

I enjoy Judy Shapiro’s pragmatic approach to 2010.  Meeting the business objectives is the number one goal, even if that means avoiding the glitz and staying with the tried and true.  It is easy to be lured down the path of shiny objects only to find expectations are too high and performance underwhelms.  I speak from experience on this one.  A grounded platform based upon facts and data is where I like to start.  Then a comprehensive integrated campaign, with the appropriate amount of attention-getting bling, can follow. Continue reading →

New Strategies for Managing Social Relationships – SRM

Posted on by admin

Back in 2002, when we were trying to get our new catalog company off the ground, we quickly learned the value of a customer.  The old saying “it is easier to keep a customer than get a new one” came to life when we were buying names of prospects and less than 1.2% of them became customers.  The house list was our bread and butter and we learned how to squeeze every last drop of value out of it.  We quickly became experts in segmenting our list using the RFM model: Recency, Frequency and Monetary value.  It worked well.  A new customer was a live customer and we did everything we could to let them know they were valued and keep them engaged.  We incentivized heavily to increase purchase frequency and treated our best customers like royalty.  Now, segmentation goes much deeper and CRM models have become much more sophisticated, but the same fundamental principles still apply.  Today, with brands engaging customers through social channels, how are these relationships managed?  What are the rules in a world driven by return on engagement not return on investment?  Social Media is changing the brand-to-consumer relationship driving the need for new strategies to take advantage.  We call this new strategic approach Social Relationship Management (SRM). Continue reading →