Great article on Green Business

It's interesting to see the tide change in the U.S. about going "Green." Our country is quite a bit behind on the adoption curve compared to Europe, but that is changing.

“General Electric Co. Chairman and Chief Executive Jeffrey Immelt said his ‘green’ ecomagination unit is on track to ‘blow away’ its 2010 sales target of $20 billion as demand for environmental products and services surges.” (Reuters, May 25, 2007)

Here's the full article from which the above quote was pulled.

iTunes Plus - What an Improvement

Since there are only song by EMI in iTunes Plus, I haven't happened to hit a song that is iTunes Plus in the last few weeks when I've been shopping around.

Well, spending a gift certificate from a friend for my Birthday, I got "Harder Better Faster Stronger" by Daft Punk - and what a difference. The bass is fuller, the high end is much more detailed... I wish all iTunes songs were of this level. Not that iTunes is bad, but this is really nice.

Of course, if you're not prepared to want to rebuy your EMI songs with iTunes Plus (you can for only the difference - 30 cents per song) you may not want to start to buy this option - to me at least, everything else now sounds just a little hollow unless I pulled it from a CD I bought.

I hope that eventually, all the rest of he labels do what EMI did and go DRM-free (no copy protection - you own the song, completely) and double the quality. It is a very audible difference, although the files are a bit larger in size.

Bits 'n Bytes

Some quick hits...

- Although Europeans under 30 have mixed views about American culture, they find it creative and love the Apple Mac computer....

- 313digital, a great organization for digital advertising, is having their digital day at the ballpark on the 26th of September... which also happens to be the last home game of the year. If you do digital advertising in the Detroit metro, you need to join these guys. Check out the event details - from that page you can find a link to join them.

- Apparently, Yahoo is beating Google in a category, and that's being a portal. I'd do a whole post on this, but well, duh. Google is not a developed portal, but a better search engine. Yahoo obviously has better offers for someone who wants all-in-one everything and is an average user. Good work from the local guys at University of Michigan!

-Andy Inahtko is hilarious, and I'd wax poetic about the ease of typing on the iPhone, but why? The Apple Phone Show covers that subject better than I ever could.

-Digital Views Through a Business Window Podcast comes out tomorrow.... I'm not committing to a regular release day of the week yet, but I will keep it current and not let it go more than two weeks between episodes.

Google Pulls Plug on Google Video - Your Paid For Videos won't work anymore

This is huge news - the first instance of DRM (Digital Rights Management) being used to de-activate people's content on their computers.

According to this email (I am attaching the text below), Google is now offering you credit at Google Checkout for an amount compared to the videos you have purchased. This should be a warning to all of those using Digital Rights Managed music, video or the like that they can turn it off at any time and give you little to no compensation for it, and quite frankly, I have no interest in the five dollars, I want to view the videos I paid for.

This should be a reminder, even though Google Video wasn't the most popular, that anything you own with DRM on it can be taken away from you at any time - and the only thing that you have is a promise that they won't do it. This should remind you on bigger sites, like iTunes, it's completely possible that if a deal with a record label goes south, you may not be able to listen to your music anymore. You might get a credit, but again, I bought the material because I liked it.

Here is the email I received:

Hello,

As a valued Google user, we're contacting you with some important information about the videos you've purchased or rented from Google Video. In an effort to improve all Google services, we will no longer offer the ability to buy or rent videos for download from Google Video, ending the DTO/DTR (download-to-own/rent) program. This change will be effective August 15, 2007.

To fully account for the video purchases you made before July 18, 2007, we are providing you with a Google Checkout bonus for $5.00. Your bonus expires in 60 days, and you can use it at the stores listed here: http://www.google.com/checkout/signupwelcome.html. The minimum purchase amount must be equal to or greater than your bonus amount, before shipping and tax.

After August 15, 2007, you will no longer be able to view your purchased or rented videos.

If you have further questions or requests, please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

The Google Video Team

Google Inc.
1600 Amphitheatre Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

Two bits of Xology

Interesting little bit I found in Xology today - about how men and women use the internet differently and some food for thought on your Saturday (I always try to keep it light on the weekends).

Also, an article decrying the lower aural quality of digital music - something that I deal with daily.

You may need to register for free to get access...

Web 2.0 Overhyped in ad world

I was listening to BOL - Buzz Out Loud - and their hosts, Tom and Molly, have a great point.

Every ad exec is obsessed with UGC, being in the social network space - regardless if it works or is a smart strategy for the brand. It's a craze.

And what does that sniff like? Bubble 2.0. It won't be as bad as the dot com bubble - there isn't as much money tied into it - but any company that is just getting into the space, to get into it, and don't think about if it fits in their model is going to get burned.

Check out this article by John C. Dvorak - a little pessimistic for me, and I don't agree with him about the mobile space, but he has really good points. And of course, CD never died, and Web 2.0 isn't going to die - but throwing money out the window at "Yet another Web 2.0 site" which I seem to see everywhere is going to cost people money.

The ones who are successful will be the ones who, instead of creating social networking to create it, do it as it makes sense with their brand or leverage existing networks where people already are. Podcasting that is useful and purposeful and quality - we don't need another facebook, and lord knows a corporate facebook isn't going to work. We need great ideas, and large companies can do that and be part of it - but throwing aroung "UGC" and a sea of other acronyms like so many execs (who, by the way, don't use the internet or have very little clue of what actually is going on) is a dangerous trend for the long-term.

Check out this hilarious video about getting venture capital in the web space...

http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-raise-money-from-VCs-4661

The Heart of a Website

This article is great - it relates to me my monthly or weekly occurance - the anorexic writing of websites.

Someone will come through my door - and want a website. But there is no content. And, as much as I'd like to take your money, no content = no website.

We either say come back with content, or pay us to create it for you off of a set of interviews.

http://www.alistapart.com/articles/revivinganorexicwebwriting

Did You Know - Web 2.0

Fascinating. Simply Fascinating. We are living in exponential times.

Featured in Great Lakes IT Report

I'm very proud to tell you all about our Podcast/Green initiative being featured in the Great Lakes IT Report.

How Can A Podcast Help Save The World?

We just sent this release today, and thought I would share it with you all:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (July 10, 2007):

HOW CAN A PODCAST HELP SAVE THE WORLD?

3,200 pounds of CO2 emissions at a time. That’s the estimated carbon footprint of reaching just 2,000 people in one place, and that’s if no one has flown to the meeting or conference.

Podcasting almost completely eliminates this imprint, by making content accessible in a high-quality form, online, anytime, and on the go. And since podcasting regularly reaches ten to one-hundred times the original audience, your message in front of 200 can reach 2,000... 20,000... or more.

To help reinforce this environmental commitment, the Royal Oak - based interactive agency Portage Media Solutions is now purchasing 250 pounds of carbon offsets for every person who contacts them about professional podcasting for their business or organization.

Beyond being a green enhancement to your corporate communications or marketing efforts, podcasting can save up to 98% on your media distribution costs vs. teleconferences and direct mailing.

To learn more about carbon offsets, visit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_offset

To learn more about podcasting, visit http://www.portagemedia.com/what-is-a-podcast.pdf or http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Podcast

To learn more about Portage Media Solutions, visit http://www.portagemedia.com

####

An Answer To The Cold Call Jitters...

I was rumaging about this weekend, and realizing how much one needs to embrace cold calling. This of course will not replace my networking, my meetings - however, the good 'ol cold call is an effective way to drum up new business. Problem is, that although there are sales skills within me, my "mirror" view always seems to be that of entrepreneur or visionary - not salesperson (more on that in my "Business Lessons" series very soon).

So, into Google the search goes - and voila - a piece of podcast gold.

"The Cold Calling Podcast" is full of really useful information - and I can say in the ten episodes that have been devoured, there has been more information than a library of books could tell me.

There is a lot of content I need to catch up on - but I already fully recommend it.

Plans are the Right Price for iPhone

**Warning - a mini-rant is enclosed in this post**

I just go the word on the iPhone plans - and they're the right cost.

For $99.99, you get 1350 minutes, 200 texts, and unlimited data. Perfect.

Goodbye Verizon, great service, but, alas, no iPhone.

This is the wonder of a mostly-unsubsidized phone. At $499, Apple is making money on the device and puts it in a reachable price point - reducing the monthly price.

There are a few questions for the iPhone - but considering our companies' work flow is 100% mac centric, not using Windows beyond testing, other client's servers and error checking, we've been waiting for this device since our "switch" four years ago.

**Begin Mini-Rant**

I had talked to Verizon about offers in competition - but they started to slam Apple engineering. Completely wrong answer to an Apple person who knows their engineering skills - even more hilarious when you know the small fact I flat out stated the reason I want an iPhone is the seamless integration with my mac and can Verizon match it.

That, and cellphone sales reps crawl my skin. I've never been told the truth by them, and always do all the research myself.

**End Mini-Rant**

I'll be buying from the Apple store directly - they've always treated me very, very well, even if I'm buying a $20 item.

This device, I believe, will be a game changer. I'm sure there will be bugs the first month or two, but, it is revolutionary in true Apple style.

So iPhone, I'll see you in September. Work out your issues, and we'll start our relationship then.

If you need more iPhone madness, go to http://www.applephoneshow.com

Glass House Opens To Public

This article on the Apple web site opens perfectly...

"In the professional design community, people have been waiting their entire careers for access to this site."

It's true. Philip Johnson's Glass House is probably one of the best examples of Modernist architecture and it reminds me much of my old neighborhood designed for the most part by Mies Van Der Rohe, which is another true gem of the modernist movement.

But beyond the beautiful vistas and clean lines, there is another part of the article that got me thinking...

No Clutter
Most importantly, the Visitor Center itself had to reflect Johnson’s aesthetic. “We knew we didn’t want it to be your typical historic house, cluttered with signage and displays,” says Dunn. “We saw it doing something different — even reshaping the way historic house museums are viewed.”

So if you clear your clutter - mental and/or physical - don't you think you can reshape how you are viewed?

Productivity Means Avoiding Email

For anyone dealing in, with or near technology, email is a saviour and a pariah.

Email, although useful, can suck up your time in multiple-hour chunks - and considering I get hundreds of emails a day I need to take action on, it can render someone almost unproductive.

This blog post has a bunch of interesting (some tongue-in-cheek) tips for productivity. Some are applicable in your situation, some are not. However, if you feel like you or your employees are working but aren't producing, check this out:

Only doing email twice a day will make you far more productive for the rest of the day. The problem with email is that getting an email triggers that same endorphin hit I mentioned above -- the one that a mouse gets when he bonks on the button in the cage and gets a food pellet.

Responding to an email triggers that same hit. The pleasure chemical hits your neocortex and you go "ahhh" inside and feel like you've done something.

So you sit and work with your mail client open and you interrupt your work every time an email comes in and you answer it and you send another email and you feel great in the moment. But what you're really doing is fracturing your time, interrupting your flow, and killing your ability to focus on anything long enough to get real high-quality work done.

This one is far easier to say than do. And it won't be feasible during projects where lots of updates during the day really are important -- raising money, for example, or closing a big deal.

There is a ton of value to just walking over to the next cube and directly communicating.

We all, at times, hide from each other behind carpeted low cubicle walls at times, instead of using technology as a tool we use it as a shield.

Major hat tip to one of my favorite blogs, 43folders, where they look at a couple of the other items in this article. Merlin Mann, thank you.

YouTube is Fun, Not Smart

Great piece of information wound up in my inbox today from Mediapost (free login required) - some key snippets...

But the real problem is not with content, as marketing clips should (and must) be every bit as creative as popular clips on YouTube; instead, it lies in the delivery of this content. Only a handful are approaching video with the same care as one would any other medium.

Webcasts can be sent to an email list or delivered on-demand from a link on the company home page. Podcasts can be pushed through an RSS feed or available for download off a brand's site. Either way, a company needs to link itself directly with the content and keep viewers coming back for more. Otherwise, there's a good chance that an entertaining clip on YouTube will do more to promote YouTube than it will to sell your product.

Omnivore, Connector, Productivity Enhancer, or Lackluster Veteran?

A friend sent me this very interesting article about how people use technology, breaking them into four groups: Ominivore, Connector, Productivity Enhancer, and Lackluster Veteran.

Also included were some interesting statistics in regards to the percentages of all Americans who have a specific technology:

Assets: Information Appliances
Percentage Of All Americans Who Have Specific Technology

Cell phone: 73%
Desktop computer: 68%
Digital camera: 55%
Video camera: 43%
Laptop computer: 30%
iPod or other MP3 player: 20%
Webcam: 13%
Blackberry, Palm, or other personal digital assistant: 11%

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project April 2006 Survey. N=4,001. Margin of error is ±2%.

Feel free to add to the comments which type you are!

Cable Networks Block Ad Auctions

IHT is covering this interesting story -

Apparently, the cable networks are blocking eBay from selling ad time on their properties by refusing to participate.

EBay was hired to build the exchange last year by a group of large marketers, including Hewlett-Packard, Home Depot and Intel. The group, which had pledged $50 million to test the project, has said that it thought placing ads in many types of media could be done more efficiently using an Internet auction rather than human negotiation.

I understand why. This could eliminate almost all salespeople in this industry and cut off a huge revenue stream for agencies (which is what the marketers who funded this, I'm sure had in mind). After all, if you can create the material, send the material, and buy the space, a CEO could be left asking, "what is the value of the agency and or salespeople? I could just contract the parts myself and save the overhead, or put it all on my interactive provider."

However, being as involved in online media as we are, we see automated bid systems as part of every new initiative or media network (an example would be Federated Media), allowing you to spend $100,000 or $10,000 or $100, leveling the playing field.

And yes, it would seem to lower prices - but it does so mostly by taking the commission cut away from the (in this new model) now non-existant salesperson and instead of having two go-betweens (the buyer's agency and the selling agency) it's a direct representative - so the buying company itself buys (as opposed to having an agency buy for them) directly from the selling representative.

Ad executives not involved with the eBay project expressed similar concerns.

"By going to this online bidding system that eBay was sharing with us, we'd be taking a step backwards," said John Muszynski, chief executive of Starcom USA, an agency in the Publicis Groupe that buys ads.

"Years ago, you basically bought for the tonnage, you bought slots and you bought for the price," he said. "We have now integrated the buying process into the marketing process. We're doing product integrations. We're doing significant added-value. We're doing promotions."

I don't know how exactly I feel about it all, as we're content creators and could benefit either way, but it's pretty obvious to me this is the way media is starting to go...

Costco Connection features Podcasting

You know podcasting is starting to hit the mainstream if Costco Connection is starting to cover it.

A really good article is in this months "Costco Connection" (yes, I'm an avid Costco shopper) about podcasting.

It's not available online yet, but I'll quote a couple interesting excerpts. When it becomes available, I'll link up.

It's a marketing tool that is paying off with new customers for Rightlook.com, says Stephen Powers, a Costco member and president of the San Dieo-based company. Rightlook.com's salesforce refers customers to its podcast library as part of it's sales pitch.

"In many cases, we've documented where customers will call us back and make a purcahse after spending hours listening to our podcasts the night before," says Powers. "They make a commitment and see that we are the right company to choose."

Podcasting acts as a silent sales force, Powers adds. "It increases the effectiveness of our sales force, so, in a way, it replaces hiring some new sales staff. You've got this extra tool that helps us increase our sales and profits."

UPDATE: Here is the link to the article

Podcasts and Personal Branding

I have been hearing more and more people talk about using podcasts as a tool for personal branding - I couldn't agree more.

You, like radio in some ways, can get right into your audiences' head and they can develop and affinity and connection for you. However - here is the big key - it's NOT a commercial.

Remember, give to get.

Comerica leaves downtown

Another hit for downtown Detroit - Comerica moving it's corporate HQ.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070306/BUSINESS06/70306018

I am completely convinced that this is only harbinger of more leaving. It's 200 now for political reasons, but I fully believe following the logic in this article it's presence will be shrinking downtown.

Between this, various ad agencies (JWT and Brogen) leaving or left Detroit, it's not a good sign.

However, Comerica leaving is NOT a Detroit-is-bad issue, it's a Michigan-is-not-growing issue. We need to realize that we must band together, embracing small business and entrepreneurship (which this area needs to do more of) and not let these items get us down.

In many ways, the whole region feels "depressed." And understandably so - but this could be the greatest opportunity we have to reinvent ourselves.

Podcasting Story on NPR

Interesting piece I heard this morning on Morning Edition - about podcasting, and who makes money doing podcasting.

And, I think it has a fair look - however, it also talks about the toolmakers and people who create podcasts making money, much like the goldrush.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7711156

Congratulations VIA!

We're proud to have launched today viaagency.net

The Virtual Interactive Agency has a history of building and being involved in really cool interactive items at auto shows (such as The Jeep Experience Simulator) and has various interesting clientele such as Mattel, Ford, and General Motors.

We're honored to have built their new online site, utilizing Flash, CSS, HTML and other tricks to make a cool hybrid site that is still visible to search engines. Thanks to Joey Silvian for working with us and being a great client to work with!

http://www.viaagency.net