Article: viral perspective

Link: http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2005/02/18/
virals_popularity_may_undo_viral_effect/index.php?rss1

Description: A couple of references to the popularity of viral marketing outdoing itself.

My Thoughts: Interesting concept, however its such a broad general term that seems to apply to many things these days. Wish these type of articles were more specific and provided illustrative links/examples.

learning: Interactive body

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/
humanbody/body/interactives/3djigsaw_02/

Description: A Flash based, interactive module learning piece.

My Thoughts: Although not as refined as could be both in terms of design and functionality, this piece is still goes a long way towards getting ideas flowing in the right direction.

Viral: Drawing with text

Link: http://storyabout.net/typedrawing/

Description: This rendering system allows users to draw using text, and then save their creations in a database.

My Thoughts: Seems to be a personal creative project, however I think that the system is quite effective and some of the ideas developed can be used as inspiration for creating Flash based interactive promotional campaigns for a the right client? I am thinking B2C, I am thinking a product or service where the marriage of image and text makes great sense in re-enforcing brand message? Do you have such a client? Lets talk...

Order Pizza while gaming

Link: http://everquest2.station.sony.com/pizza/

Description: Next time your playing the game Everquest and get hungry, you can apparently order a Pizza through their Pizza Hut promotion.

My Thoughts: Although it doesn't sound like the Pizza promotion is integrated in the game, it still caught my attention as an odd mix. If you consider games in the richmedia family, this could be richmedia marketing in a round about way? I'd be interested in seeing some stats and numbers around how effective this promotion ends up being.

Macromedia Q3 FY2005 report

Link: http://www.macromedia.com/macromedia/
ir/macr/web_pres/earnings/q305/

Description: Macromedia's Fiscal Year 2005 results presentation provides a great snapshot of Macromedia's business.

My Thoughts: The biggest surprise for me was that Rob Burgess is no longer CEO, and is moving aside to let Stephen Elop to step in as new CEO.

For me its very interesting to see that Macromedia's efforts of competing with US (the actual content developers) seems to be working well for them, as they seem to be have sustained growth in these new areas.

Not sure how much of this presentation is fluff and candy, but it would lead us to believe that Macromedia Flex is destined to be a substantial product and not yet another failed venture (central anyone?)

For me this presentation provides an excellent high level perspective into Macromedia's health, revenue split, various distinct business areas, anticipated growth areas, among other things. I feel that the presentation is especially relevant for a company like Zarinmedia in trying to position ourselves in the technology media landscape in relation to the giants.

Richmedia marketing messaging alongside traditional text content

Link: http://www.vimation.com/

Description: Please notice this company's visual service offering, it is not your typical Flash intro, but a much more relevant marketing displayed alongside the site contents.

My thoughts: Although I would have appreciated more control over the media playback, here is an interesting and unique delivery of a visual sales demo ALONGSIDE the site's business content. You can either sit back and absorb their high level sales clip, or read about the details at anytime. (sort of like skimming a book while the TV is on).

Extra notes: more of my thoughts on relevance of this piece at Meetup.com's messageboard:
http://entrepreneur.meetup.com/34/
boards/view/viewthread?thread=1247919

Sales support: Flash 3d, surgical medical media, rich data visualization

Description: Here is part of a sales support email I sent to a knowledge strategy based consultancy, as part of my business development efforts.

It was a followup email with links that we talked about durring the meeting.

link: http://www.edheads.org/activities/
knee/swf/surgery.htm
comments: this is the virtual knee surgery learning media piece. I think it
really works well for the topic, while being friendly yet professional! The fact
that the main virtual surgery is illustration and animation based, actually goes
a long way of presenting a very sensitive topic in a compelling
way...

link: http://www.segway.com/downloads/
flash/model.zip
comments: this is an old example of 3d rendering of a product driven by
interactive user experience ..

link: http://www.stxship.co.kr/
stx_multi/stx_main.htm
comments: have not explored this site fully.. but since part of our
conversations where flythrus etc... here is another interactive 3d environment
in that realm ..

link: http://www.skyscraper.org/
timeformations/animation.html
comments: yet another spatial, and interactive visual system in 3d...


link: http://www.zarinmedia.com/condosearch
comments: This is an RIA that is not in the samples on our site... its
essentially rethinks the standard 'real estate search' paradigm and creates a
more emersive end user experience with it! (you know, they all have drop downs,
and after a few pages, tables and tables of data you have to go thru.. etc..)

link: http://www.zarinmedia.com/super
comments: you might have seen this simple little RIA, however its a great
example of taking a boring subject such a personal finance and turning it into a
branded useful toy.. hits a few points..

link: http://f150.fordvehicles.com/
trucks/f150/index.asp
comments: check out the 360 view.. and some of the other interactive product
presentation techniques... again all in flash.. meaning that youre not brokering
to various types of technology and you can build on the framework for future use
... (ie.. throw video in there to extend message, etc..)

link: http://www.teamone-usa.com/
comments: some fluffy eye candy.. (with not much 3d interactivity) to show that youre 3d will be as good as your rendering and your models... etc... Flash will just be
the authoring tool..

anyways.. I run into TONS of flash based 3Dish representation systems on a regular basis.. etc...let me know if you need more links

Realtime charting data visualization

Link: http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html

Description: Here is a java applet based real-time chart processing program that allows you to visually search a large set of statistics based on history of names. Simply type in your name and see when it was the most popular!

My thoughts: Although rich media components in Java can be quite clunky, this is a great iteration of the concept. Essentially its a living graph that responds to your interest and re-arranges itself in real-time in response to your intentions. More of a functional information rendering tool than a marketing exercise, however I'd like to point out the branding opportunities in deploying such a tool, as well as the fact that this exact same framework can translate very well to a variety of industries that have data visualization needs.

Study: Video Key Opportunity for Online Advertisers

Link: http://www.clickz.com/news/article.php/3481806

Description: Here are some recent stats on effectiveness of the continuing trend in video advertising

My thoughts: Not sure how much of these numbers are trend, and how much will stand the test of time, however the fact that video is getting this sort of response and buzz, makes it an important tool we can use in our online marketing mix.

Marketing centric simple online calculator

Link: http://tide.com/tidecoldwater/
energysavingscalculator.jhtml

Description: This branded, easy to use, Flash calculator will show consumers how much they can potentially save with Tide's new product

My thoughts: I think this is a very clever marketing/branding touch point disguised as a functional calculator to try and "show" or "prove" the advantages of Tide's new detergent technology.
Edited by zarinmedia on Feb 5, 2005 @ 1:58 PM

Interactive video advertising online

Link: http://www.unitedvirtualities.com/demo/
shoshmosis_friends/expandable_banner/

Description: rolling over various regions of a "friends" clip will present user with the item they are wearing or using, click will give option to drive lead to e-commerce

My thoughts: Here's another interesting implementation of video entertainment content, delivered thru flash, in an ecommerce friendly context. People have been talking about this sort of thing in "interactive television" since 1998 but this is the first time I've seen a decently produced version of it for online marketing/consumption.
However I often wonder if these expanding banners in any form are not too intrusive to the user experience to begin with? I guess we'll have to wait and see if they go the way of the popup ad or not.