Technology
Time to rethink your passwords
Make the hackers work a little harder…turn your eight character passwords into 12 characters or more. With current technologies eight character passwords can be defeated in two hours, but it will take over 17 years to get past 12 characters. Security experts also advise you to not use real words, and to use full sentences. More great tips in this article.
Marketers…this is a good thing to know if you’re updating your mobile site and websites, and you’re currently requiring a password for login. Some sites aren’t friendly to long passwords. Another good idea is to proactively make your customers aware of this. Get a message out to them, prompt them to update their password, and post password best-practices on your login screen.
Come out from behind the two-way mirror
That coupon you just downloaded could be a window into your world. When you viewed it online, the barcode on it was dynamically generated with what could be very personal information about you. When you take it into the store to redeem it, the retailer could instantly know the search words you used, where you got the coupon, where you live, and a host of other details that can help them target you better.
16 years after the first cookie was planted on a computer, the business of capturing and profiting from online behavioral data has exploded, and grown to include mobile user data. There’s an attitude amongst us marketers that lack of privacy is the trade-off that consumers make for their access to content on the internet and on mobile phones….and that we have every right to spy if it means we can make faster and more relevant offers to specific individuals.
But please, let’s regulate ourselves before the regulators step in. We’re intrigued by a company called Media6Degrees Inc., who is pushing the envelope. The folks at Media6Degrees envision the day when financial institutions can make judgments about you by who you associate with online. According to this Wall Street Journal article, “The idea is that the creditworthy tend to hang out with the creditworthy, and deadbeats with deadbeats.”
How many times do we need to learn…what the consumer doesn’t know can hurt you. Protect your brand and think twice about how you’re using this data. Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.
What Question Will You Ask?
Facebook’s question feature is in beta testing right now, but they promise they’ll launch it to the rest of us real soon. While the idea of being able to post a question to a social community is hardly new, I don’t believe the functionality has yet been experienced by such a large and active community as Facebook. Until a little of the shine has worn off the new toy, we’re potentially looking at millions of questions posed and answered each day. Crowd sourcing run amok.
So what question will you ask first?
I’m going to ask “Why can’t you eat Beefaroni every day?” since I can’t seem to come up with an answer my daughter deems credible.
Baskin-Robbins retires five flavors
Get thee to a Baskin-Robbins quickly if you want to stock up on one of their five soon-to-be-retired flavors. To clear the way for new concoctions, they’re sending French Vanilla, Caramel Praline Cheesecake, Campfire S’mores, Apple Pie a La Mode and Superfudge Truffle into the “Deep Freeze.” If you want to see what other flavors have been retired over the years, go here.
By the way, the Baskin-Robbins website is an entertaining place to spend some time. It has a light-hearted tone, fun content to read, and gives you an uplifting experience. For a 65 year old company, it’s constantly refreshing and renewing…either through new flavors or fun promotions.
The top selling ice cream flavors at Baskin-Robbins are really pretty pedestrian…Vanilla, Chocolate, Mint Chocolate Chip, Pralines ‘n Cream, and Chocolate Chip. I have to say that I am not an ice-cream risk taker. I may take advantage of a free taste of the flavor-of-the-month, but invariably end up with my old friend Vanilla.
Slow Goodbye to PCs
Are PCs really on the verge of extinction? I do have to concur that the desktop PC at our house is a lonely appliance. With several laptops and wireless Internet access, plus a smart phone in every hand, our family only uses the PC when efficient and rich capabilities are needed. But that represents only about 5% of our home computing time.
According to this article on CNNMoney.com, consumers prefer multi-function, mobile, connected appliances; but the author stops short of predicting the end of PCs. I agree. I will only give up my PC when I can be just as productive with something else. Personally, I’m holding out for a smart tablet that has a built-in but detachable smart phone, featuring a digital camera to rival an Olympus E-3, plus a holographic, full-sized keyboard enhanced with voice recognition and image-to-text converter. Until then, I’m probably sticking with my dust-catching, space hogging PC.
A “sip” to integrated marketing.
I raise a cup of coffee to Dunkin’ Donuts, for producing one truly innovating marketing campaign. It all started with a “Guess What” contest, then it led into a video, interactive website and customer interaction. What I am talking about is MissionFresh.com. DD launched a contest that asked people, “Something Fresh is coming. Guess what it is.” And boy was it FRESH! DD came up with an idea of producing a giant size graffiti mural in Times Square; it involved a team of 4 street artists that worked night and day for an entire 72-hour marathon session (while drinking lots of DD coffee, of course).
Using old school and new school art techniques, they came up with a design that really took their creativity to another level (60′ x 40′), literally. DD filmed the entire production of the mural, provided the video, and featured behind-the-scenes comments and bios of each of the artists on this site. After enjoying the video and reading more about the project, you can even take a stab at being a graffiti artist and create a mural of your own. How coolatta is that?
