Time's 50 best websites of 2008

The 2008 edition of Time's 50 best websites is out. I always enjoy clicking through their choices and discovering obscure gems.

21st century story telling

Basically, advertising is story telling. And story telling is about communication. Both are about communicating to people a certain plot line, memory, or message. The internet and new technologies have allowed people to communicate even more effectively and interactively. More often than not, it has enhanced the conveyed message. In the case of Local Projects, it has also fostered community.

Below are some examples.


A very inspirational digital storytelling company called Local Projects. From Dwell.







An interactive twise on the traditional (especially in the Southern US) story telling quilt. Via Its Nice That.

New British Currency

The British have new money and it is gorgeous.

From Simplebits

Update: The new $5 bill is out too.

Modernista! angers Wikipedia gods

Modernista!'s new website, or whatever you want to call it, is making Wikipedia very mad. But before we get into why, I must explain that Modernista!'s website recently underwent a revamp and is no longer a website at all. In fact, when I went to Modernista.com, I was actually redirected to DARPA's website for no apparent reason. Anyway, the only thing that is consistent about Modernista!'s new site is a static, ugly red menu.

You see, Modernista! no longer has a proper "About" page. It just links to the Modernista! entry in Wikipedia. When you click this link, the red menu stays on top of the Wikipedia page after it loads.

Wikipedia's response:

The website for this company obscures our logo with their own, and may lead the viewer to believe that Wikipedia serves as their homepage provider. This is not correct. Wikipedia has no affiliation with Modernista and has requested that Modernista cease this use of our website.

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia written from a neutral point of view and does not endorse nor condemn Modernista, but is opposed to being used as a promotional mechanism in this manner for any third party.

Ooo, burn! Wikipedia even left off the exclamation point in Modernista!'s name! DOUBLE WHAMMY.

EDIT: I should add: Modernista!'s new site is an attempt to show the world they understand Web 2.0 by using Flickr, Facebook, del.icio.us and YouTube (among others) as the various "sections" of their site. Some have called it bold and brilliant while others say it's just plain lazy. Check it out and decide for yourself.

Axiom.

Interesting conference and POV from the past annual planning conference, TED, held in San Diego, California.

edit: You can also download and watch this "Do schools kill creativity?" talk by Sir Ken Robinson at the TED conference official site.

Turn on Your Cell Phones!

During Intermission, Cellphones Are Brandished in a Promotion

By ANDREW ADAM NEWMAN
Published: June 18, 2007

Typically you are told to turn off your cellphone before a performance. But at a recent Saturday matinee of “Spring Awakening,” the Broadway musical that garnered eight Tony Awards last week, the audience was told to do just the opposite.

“Win Your Chance to Come Backstage!” said a flier inserted into the Playbill, which encouraged theatergoers to send the text message “bdway spring” to a five-digit number before the end of intermission.

After the show, Becky Mitchell, 18, received a text message that she had won, and she bounded onto the stage with Alyssa Navia, 19, a friend from Boston College, where both are freshmen. “This is my first Broadway show,” said Ms. Mitchell, who wore a rugby shirt and Ugg boots. “This is fantastic.”

The production’s company manager, John E. Gendron, showed them the trapdoors in the stage from which, only minutes before, two actors had risen from a dry-ice ground fog.

But what the play’s producers hope to make magically appear in the future are audiences. At the performance, 62 people sent text messages, which included their telephone numbers and e-mail addresses, in hopes of winning the contest. All of their information went into a database that will be used to pitch Broadway tickets and other promotions.

In exchange, contestants were sent a ring tone of a popular song in “Spring Awakening” and a photograph from the show to use as wallpaper on their phones. Both of the souvenirs are potential conversation starters with friends, whom the producers think of as would-be ticket buyers.

“Those are numbers talking to numbers talking to numbers,” said Damian Bazadona, president of Situation Marketing, who is working with the producers and the owner of the theater, Jujamcyn Theaters, on the pilot program. “A year or two years down the road, that’s how you’re talking to markets.”

Americans sent 18.7 billion text messages in December 2006, nearly double the 9.7 billion that were sent the previous December, according to CTIA, a wireless industry trade group. While various companies have tried to beat a path from consumers’ phones to their wallets, theater promoters, weary of phones ringing infuriatingly during denouements, have held back.

Until now.

“There’s a tendency for Broadway not to be an early adopter, but that’s changing,” said Jordan Roth, vice president of Jujamcyn, which owns five theaters in New York, including the Eugene O’Neill Theater, where “Spring Awakening” is being staged. “Most producers now are really looking for new ways to communicate with our audience.”

The musical’s producers are sharing data with Jujamcyn, which is signing up participants for Broadway Phone, its wireless service for ticket deals and show information. Since the production draws young audiences with its themes of adolescent angst, it was chosen for the maiden cellphone effort. “But our goal is to expand what we’re doing to many shows,” Mr. Roth said.

As for whether this will result in more ringing during performances, Mr. Roth said that it has not been a problem, but that the promotion might not suit every production. “Will it interfere with the show?” he said. “Yeah, that is one of the things that is open for discussion.”

About 8.5 percent of audience members have been sending text messages in the 14 contests that the production has done so far, but organizers expect participation to reach 10 percent.

For a similar promotion with a tour of the rock-oriented theatrical production Blue Man Group, an average of 16 percent of audience members sent text messages, Mr. Bazadona said.

In a tour that covered 60 cities in 90 days, about 50,000 people sent text messages. “This means that each night, 16 percent of the house is leaving the theater with Blue Man Group somehow represented on their mobile phone,” Mr. Bazadona said.

At the Eugene O’Neill Theater that afternoon, the two students were enjoying their behind-the-scenes access when Stephen Spinella, who plays several characters in the musical, strode onto the stage on his way out of the theater. He asked Ms. Mitchell what she had done to win the contest.

“I texted,” she replied. “One of my favorite things.”

Google buys DoubleClick for $3.1bn

Who makes huge decisions on Friday the 13th? Google does! DoubleClick, the online enabler between advertisers and agencies, was purchased yesterday by the googopoly in its biggest buyout yet--just six months after the $1.65bn YouTube acquisition. By my calculations, Google will own the entire Internet by the end of next year (really, the only things left are Wikipedia, MySpace and Facebook. And maybe Perez Hilton.).

"It has been our vision to make Internet advertising better -- less intrusive, more effective, and more useful . . . Together with Doubleclick, Google will make the Internet more efficient for end users, advertisers, and publishers." -Sergey Brin, Google co-founder and president

For some reason, antitrust laws don't apply to Google--but who's complaining? Google has made everyone's life easier by making Internet advertising--and the Internet--more relevant and less intrusive through, arguably, the best quality control systems on the planet (hehehe!). But seriously, I challenge you to give me a reason why Google Internet domination is a bad thing. Do it.

And what about after they've conquered the web? They'll begin purchasing third world countries, working their way up to the Big Seven--ultimately making the world less intrusive, more effective, and more useful! Shhh, just let it happen. It's inevitable.

The Voice of God gets Face Time

CNN has a story about Don LaFontaine that I think everyone should read.

The meat of the story is basically that Geico has taken the "Voice of God" and given him a face. By placing the VoG in one of their recent commercials, everyone and their dog is staring slack-jawed, saying "THAT'S what that guy looks like!" Everyone knows his voice, and now, with the help of advertising (I might add), everyone knows his face, too.

Just a little picker-upper piece that I felt the community should look at.

-Z

SueTube

Everyone knows that Google--owner of, um, the Internet--recently purchased YouTube for like a hundred bajillion dollars (or $1.65 billion, whatever). Back then, it seemed like a pretty awesome business move (all those impressions!!!!), but the conglorporation might be kicking itself after Viacom--owner of, um, television?--announced it is suing Google for $1b over copyright infringement.

Marc "Smarty Pants" Cuban, the self-proclaimed Blog Maverick, whatever that means, and founder of broadcast.com said this was gonna happen: "Google will get sued by thousands of rights holders." And boy, was he right! Viacom alleges that about 160,000 unauthorized clips are floating around on YouTube and have been viewed more than 1.5 billion times, so lawyers are pretty happy.

But why didn't Viacom sue YouTube a long time ago? Well, if you possessed the mental capacity of Marc Cuban, which you don't, then you would've figured out long ago that lawyers were stealthily waiting around for Google to buy out YouTube so they could jump into their infinitely deep pockets and swim in sweet delicious money.

And Google's response? They're claiming innocence, meaning they're stalling while they scrape up enough money to buy Viacom, which they could probably find under the cushions of the couches in Google's break room. I heard there are million-dollar bills under there.

But in the end, guess who benefits? You! NewsCorp & NBC have teamed up for a more proactive response--to develop an online video portal, chock full of content like House, Heroes and 24, plus hit movies... allegedly. I'll believe it when I see it. But if it really happens, it might be the beginning of the end of TV as we know it. Just kidding. And what does Marc Cuban have to say about all this? "It's a great idea." Thanks, Marc.

Nintendo targets your mom

Remember Tupperware? Your pantry probably overflowed with it fifteen years ago thanks to the climax of the Tupperware party—a direct marketing getup masquerading as a social event where women (and a few men?) gathered to buy brightly colored crap. Since then, companies selling other brightly colored crap (notably makeup, lingerie and sex toys) have lifted the idea and enjoyed similar results.

Now, Nintendo of America Inc. is attempting to generate precious word-of-mouth for its new Wii console by emulating the Tupperware party to—you guessed it—sell even more brightly colored crap. Part of Nintendo’s current marketing strategy is to expand its client base to include unlikely gamers… like the alpha mom. She knows how to work a digital camera, use the Internet and even send text messages, so watch out—chances are your mom’s one.

The party plan effort was started by a buzz-making trio of LA alpha moms who invited 35 other LA alpha moms to the always classy Chateau Marmont to experience the Wii firsthand. Nintendo has since expanded its party planning crusade to Boston, Chicago, Denver, Miami, San Francisco, some place in Kansas, and right here in Austin.

I know what you’re thinking: Intuitively, this target is all wrong—isn’t it? Most normal moms are inherently anti-gaming, even alpha moms—nagging their kids to give the console (and their eyes) a rest. It just doesn’t make sense for Nintendo to target them; that is, until you realize who’s making the purchase decisions. Who got me a Wii for Christmas? The tag said “Santa Clause”, but I’m almost positive it was my mom—and she hates that I play video games. Absurd? Maybe. But if Nintendo can convince the very people that hate video games (but buy them anyway) to love video games, then logically, they’re going to love buying more video games and Nintendo’s profit margin will increase by a million-billion percent. It sounds like nonsense, but apparently it’s working.

One alpha mom who attended a Wii party said, “Most people were like, ‘I don't play games,’ [but by, like, the end of the night], everybody was playing it. People were working up a sweat.” Only in, like, America do we work up a sweat playing video games and have parties to buy brightly colored crap we don’t need.

Microsoft fights back

To take on the 79% market share ipod, Microsoft has released the Zune digital music and video player.

And to take on youtube, they've released Soapbox.

Once Microsoft gets involved in online ventures, does it take away some of the, forgive my use of the word, hipness associated with them? The joy of youtube, craigslist, myspace, facebook, and other internet funzones is that they're started by everyday joes who simply had a great idea and a passion for that idea. People like going to these sites because they're "innocent" and for the masses.

Now, that Fox Corp. has bought myspace and facebook and youtube are accepting ads, does it diminish the fun factor of these sites? Once a corporation gets involved, it usually takes away the fun-loving entreprenurial feel of the venture.

Perhaps it might be the same with agencies (who are usually part of corporations) creating myspace pages and blogs for their clients.

From adage.

The new kinds of college kids have $$$

In today's Dallas Morning News, there's an article about how Stephen F. Austin University and The Univ. of Texas at Austin are now affiliated with retirement homes that are being built in Nacogodoches ("Nack" as the locals call it) and Lake Travis in Austin. This unique arrangement allows for retirees to feel "reenergized by the college culture" and to experience college culture through classes and student life.

For decades, marketers and advertisers have targeted the Generation X and now Generation Y crowd. The biggest problem with these audiences is that they don't really have disposable income due to lack of salary. However, these retirees do have a rather large amount of dough.

How much dough separates the twenty-year old college student from the seventy-five year old college student?

Try $300,000.00

(estimate includes student loans, 401K, and pensions)

Role Models...?

In the news today, Pete Coors, Chairman of Coors Brewing Company, was arrested for driving under the influence . Meanwhile, Ben Roethlisberger, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback announced that he will not be doing ads promoting helmet safety, despite his high-profile motorcycle crash last month.



Looks like the real hero today is Mr. T .

adidas courts ten year old bball phenom

photo credit: (Preston Keres - The Washington Post)


Dirk Nowitzki started playing basketball in his teens and he got noticed as a 17 year old who schooled the Americans at an international basketball tournament in Dallas with 33 points and 17 rebounds. Now, there's a ten year old boy out of Baltimore, Justin Jennifer, who could be the "next Lebron James."

He has co-starred in W+K's Carmelo commercial and he was featured in the Washington Post recently.

excerpted

"Adidas pays Scottie Bowden to find impact players and get them into Adidas gear. That usually means 15- or 16-year-olds, but the company has no age minimums; it wants to procure the best players, said Darren Kalish, Adidas's director of grass-roots basketball programs.

Bowden courted Justin just after he turned 9.

"It's about brand loyalty," Bowden said. "If you're in my uniform at 10 or 11, maybe you will stay with me later on. I'm not always happy we're focusing on 9-, 10-, 11-year-old kids. That's so early. But this is a business. And if that's what I've got to do now, then that's what I'm going to do."

Funny Best Buy prank

50 people dress up in the Best Buy uniform (blue polos, khaki pants, and sneakers) and walk into a Manhattan Best Buy.

Here's the lowdown.

This is a cultural phenomenon known as a "flash mob".

A flash mob is a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, and then quickly disperse. They are usually organized with the help of the Internet or other digital communications networks.
The term has also been applied to distributed mobs, who use similar means to co-ordinate sudden large scale simultaneous actions in multiple locations. An example of such an action is the widespread use of mobile phones in the 2005 civil unrest in France to co-ordinate widespread social disruption.

Culture: Pay $. Be a celebrity.

There's a CNN article about party buddys.

It's a company that arranges for us, normal, anonymous and boring people to be hounded by paparazzi and given the VIP treatment for six hours to, from and during clubbing.

official site


What does this say about our celebrity-obsessed culture?


On a side note, now you can get your own doll!


Submit a picture. Poof. Your doll is made.

Springwise newsletter

Culture: reese witherspoon totally has it in the bag . .

. . . or does she? well if james carville and mary matalin have any say in the matter she doesn’t. unless of course they were her designated campaign manager in running for school president, which is soon to be the case in the duo’s upcoming reality series on lifetime television, appropriately named, “election.”

as reported on yahoo! news:
Women's cable channel Lifetime Television has given a vote of confidence to "Election," a reality series pitting husband-and-wife political consultants James Carville and Mary Matalin against each other as part of a high school election.

The network has ordered six half-hour episodes of the show, titled "Election," which is set to premiere in the fourth quarter.

The series will see Republican Matalin and Democrat Carville put their White House experience to use when they become rival campaign managers in what's described as a "hotly contested" election for student-body president at a high school in Washington.


first flavor flav, then hulk hogan and now this?! I guess no one is safe from the allurement of reality tv.

Culture: Purpose-Driven Media

Richard Siklos of the the NY Times has written a very interesting article about the future of media.

Excerpted:

Media Frenzy
Death by Smiley Face: When Rivals Disdain Profit

"The tectonic changes facing media companies are by now the topic of an often-recited sermon. Put briefly, digital technology is placing control over much information squarely in the hands of consumers and creating all kinds of opportunities for new entrants who can push the revolution forward.

Understandably, attention in this race is focused on the companies that are, as the management consultants like to say, transferring value from conventional outlets to new disruptors that deliver personalized media more efficiently and hence with greater profitability. In other words, to the victor go the spoils.

The obvious standouts are Google and Yahoo with their aggregation software, prominent brands and ability to layer advertisements all over the Internet and perhaps beyond; or Apple Computer with its iTunes and iPod and their utter dominance over portable music.

Consider Monster Worldwide, the online employment advertising company, where the numbers tell the story: Monster, the owner of the www.monster.com site, has a stock market value of $6.2 billion, some 40 percent greater than the amount for which Knight Ridder, the newspaper chain owner, is being sold. But Monster has only one-third of Knight Ridder's $3 billion in annual revenue.

There is another breed of rival lurking online for traditional media, and it is perhaps the most vexing yet: call it purpose-driven media, with a shout-out to Rick Warren, the author of "A Purpose-Driven Life," for borrowing his catchphrase.

These are new-media ventures that leave the competition scratching their heads because they don't really aim to compete in the first place; their creators are merely taking advantage of the economics of the online medium to do something that they feel good about. They would certainly like to cover their costs and maybe make a buck or two, but really, they're not in it for the money. By purely commercial measures, they are illogical. If your name were, say, Rupert or Sumner, they would represent the kind of terror that might keep you up at night: death by smiley face.

Probably the best-known practitioner is Craigslist.org, the online listing site..."


Could this be a sign that society is reflecting some kind of "new moral resurgence"?

Since when was 60 minutes cool?

I'm going to say something that's very obvious. Are you ready?

Google and Yahoo are the future of media.

Why else would one hundred year old TV Networks partner with ten year old websites to promote a venerable show like 60 minutes? Also, lest anyone forget, NBC partnered with Yahoo for The Apprentice too.

60 Minutes Interviews with Tiger Woods

Being online enables a lot more viewers to watch a TV show. It also allows more episodes to be shown. Basically, it's a "treasure trove" for devoted viewers of that particular TV show. But, at the same time, TVs still dominate the global society. TVs are still the most common objects in households worldwide.

Download "free" ABC TV shows

from Marketing VOX

'My ABC' to Offer Free, Ad-Supported Prime-Time Shows Online

Walt Disney is making its hit shows available via ABC.com as part of its efforts to create the "network of the future," according to CEO Bob Iger, who provided details of the upcoming launch of "My ABC," reports AdAge. He was speaking at the Bear Stearns Media Conference this week. Using an ad-supported model, My ABC will offer shows "Lost," "Desperate Housewives" and "Grey's Anatomy" free of charge. Iger said Disney wants to create various revenue models but did not want to turn its back on the ad community and so would create new opportunities for advertisers.

Ad-free episodes of the shows will continue to be sold via iTunes at $1.99 each. The ads accompanying the online videos would not necessarily be those that air during network broadcast. "There is so much greater consumption of media, the opportunity for advertisers are greater; look at what Google has managed to do," he said. "Our job is to create the new networks and new direct commerce opportunities."

Why do you buy a TV?

Why do you buy a computer?

Why do you buy an ipod?