online
deliver and deliver.com
I have been receiving the magazine called deliver a magazine for marketers, and I really enjoy it. The magazine offers marketing insights and tips on how we can really hit it home when it comes to our client/customers’ needs. It has articles that talk about different topics like, social media, direct mail and even the latest technology – all from the marketing point of view. Each issue touches upon different topics. As I started reading the current issue, I came across a line that really hits home for me personally, it stated “No matter what you choose to read, you’ll see that print is definitely not a goner. It’s evolving as new technologies emerge.” I highly recommend subscribing to either the printed magazine or the online version.
Fidipidi: Cool concept maybe launched too soon
I thought I had finally found a solution for my HBFS [holiday and birthday forgetfulness syndrome]…
Being notorious for buying greeting cards I never get around to mailing, I was excited to hear about Fidipidi™, a new online application that allows users to create personalized and printed greeting cards in Facebook. They’ll print the card out and mail it in an envelope for you for about five bucks.
That sounded good to me, so I went to take a look. All-in-all a pleasant site. The cards they offer are nice-ish but, as templated cards usually are, generic and impersonal. Not a single Hallmark moment among them. They’ll let me design my own card and pull in photos, but I was hoping for more card categories and sentiments, and less of “your customized message here.” There’s also no brand experience in either the cards or the transactional site…which might be a wasted opportunity to drive maximum customer lifetime value.
On the Facebook side, they do show that one of my friends has a birthday next week. However, she’s not getting a Fidipidi™ card, because like many of my social network contacts, I don’t know her physical address.
I will be interested to see how Fidipidi™ evolves. Until then, I’ll probably just keep having good intentions. In fact, right now in my bag, there’s a beautiful Mother’s Day card that never got to fulfill its destiny. I take comfort in the fact that it was printed on recycled paper.
Social gaming on campus saves energy
Eneractivity has developed a social game for college students that schools can use to drive energy savings. Groups can compete against each other as they race around a virtual dorm room to turn off lights and adjust settings, destroy things, and get recharged by pizza. Based on the new energy consciousness the game imparts, Eneractivity estimates colleges with 5,000 students can save about $24,000 a year in energy costs — a 300% ROI. (Does anyone else think it’s ironic that you have to use electricity to play this game?)
Anyway, it sounds fun, so I got to thinking about what I would like to learn from the games I play. For instance, maybe Farmville could teach me how to conserve water and reduce my virtual methane production. And maybe Diner Dash(tm) could teach me how to say ‘no’ to that hamburger, fries and shake. Sweet Tooth 2, you could teach me how much I could save on the family’s dental bills every time I cleared the board of those yummy looking candy pieces. I wish you would.
Find out more about Eneractivity, their mission, and their new game at http://www.eneractivity.com/
Would You Pay to Read This Post?
Walter Isaacson at Time Magazine has a incredibly thorough write up on the impact of online media on traditional media’s revenue model. We are hearing a lot about how your big traditional publishers such as the New York Times and the Tribune Co. are struggling to adapt their old pay-for-news business models to stay successful in today’s everything-is-free ecosystem.
The odd part of these struggles is that newspaper readership is at an all time high. The problem is that fewer and fewer of the readers are paying for the content. Come to think of it, it is a little amazing that anyone is still paying for this content. It is hard to justify paying for something that is readily available for free, legally.
Everything is now online
Gone are the days when tried and true contests require you “must be present to win.” Unless of course, we openly acknowledge today’s living definition of what it means to “be present.”
We have all seen the Keep-your-hand-on-a-car-the-longest-and-win contest before. (Ashton Kutcher anyone?) Now Volkswagen has migrated this seemingly analog-only contest to the digital space. Want to see a sweet translation from offline to online? This VW viral site has had virtual contestants, for six days now, with mouse cursors hovering over an image of a new VW.”Traditional” game rules apply and the last person with their cursor on the car takes it home.
