Ad Tactics from Japan: Tissue Flyers
What is the best way to prevent people from throwing your flyers seconds after you’ve handed it out to them? Give them something they need — tissue wipes! These tissue paper packets that my friend brought back from Tokyo have advertising content either printed directly onto the plastic wrapping or come with a printed flyer insert placed at the base of the packet below the stack of tissue wipes.
YOUR AUDIENCE, THE RECEIVER
Consider the fact that every time someone takes out the tissue pack to get a sheet or two to use, they are exposed to the ad again and again until they finish using the tissues. Based on common sense, most people will keep these tissue packets for as long as there are still clean sheets of tissues in there that haven’t been used yet. On a subliminal level these ads are presented to the naked eye as it navigates through to find the opening of the packet. The ad presentation process is cleverly placed within the natural engagement process of a person getting a sheet of tissue. On an attentive level, people who are inquisitive would naturally let their eyes roam and analyze the literature of the products they interact with, thus allowing you that opening to send your message across.
SECONDARY ATTENTION, THE RECEIVER’S IMMEDIATE NETWORK
Here’s another possible scenario. If a tissue pack makes it around a post-meal table, other people are also exposed to these ads. I imagine some of the more attractive and creative ads would act as conversation triggers, and what better way to get people to talk about your products, services, and brand. What a smart, cost-effective, and practical way to advertise!
There are many other scenarios where such a tissue flyer may work very well for some. Everyone needs to wipe their mouths, sweat, and goo off of their faces and skin. Why haven’t western businesses caught on to this yet? I’m just waiting to see the western world get creative and adopt this smart little tactic to communicate their products and services to an audience that are just waiting to hoard some free packets of tissue paper for daily use.
COMPELLING AVENUE OF OPPORTUNITY
But of course, I would not bother discussing this little-known avenue if I did not believe there is a compelling potential for success behind it. I do however believe marketing has to be relevant or it is akin to flushing your money down the toilet. Retailers and restaurants will probably benefit from the tissue flyer the most because of its relevance. People need to wipe after they eat, mothers need to wipe their babies constantly, and women need to soak oil off of their t-zone, and people generally need tissue paper to maintain personal hygiene.
LIFE, INTERCEPTED
In any economic climate (not limited to a recessive or depressive one) businesses have to be creative and work smart to avoid sinking. That acumen should reach a breadth that is not confined to a design canvas alone. Businesses need to seek ways to appeal to an audience that are more resistant to traditional advertising, and a very controversial but promising place to start is to embrace the way of life of your target audience. By intercepting the process in which they carry out the necessary steps to complete a task, you have automatically created an awareness of your message, however effective. In the case of the tissue flyer, the goal for the user is to remove a lingering discomfort by way of drying and cleaning the body and its immediate environment of undesired particles. In order to execute that task successfully, people would need to look at the tissue wrapper’s surface to find the opening in order to reach the holy whiteness of a solution to their problems, which is tucked inside the glory that is your ad message.
I think it is an absolutely brilliant idea. What do you think?
Free Project Management Templates from BERR
Today, as I was doing a feasibility study for a business idea I have, I came across some project management templates in WORD format from the (British) Department for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR). I think this set of templates is very practical for small business owners, consultants, and also looks like a great tool for use on smaller* projects. You can download these templates here.
* For larger projects that have multimillion dollar budgets and larger scopes, a dynamic tool like @task would be more practical to avoid from volumes and volumes of manual documentation.
Change.gov: Obama Continues To Use the Web
Ladies and gentleman, check out http://www.change.gov. I am officially rendered speechless for the rest of the night, but I thought I’d share this with you. I am especially impressed that Obama has put his agenda out for all to track. That is so incredibly professional of him. Kudos to him and his team for even bothering!
I admire the fact that the site was all done in anticipation of Obama’s victory because it shows that a lot of pre-work was done before he was even elected president. I’ll bet you ten dollars there’s a PMI or PRINCE2 certified programme manager behind Obama internet projects. This is exciting stuff, so very exciting!
CNN: How Obama Used the Web
This is proof you really cannot ignore the Internet. Barack Obama used Youtube, Twitter, Facebook, and relied on viral marketing to further his campaign.
The Recycling of Advertising Ideas
The Beer Boys have come together to back Obama! Here is a 2008 rendition of the Budweiser Wassup Campaign from 2000 that is adapted for the Obama presidential campaign. Although I think this idea did outlive its appeal on television sets, to see it resurface in the context of the U.S. election is a delight. This goes to show that good ideas, even those that have gone stale can be reused and adapted for other brands through capitalizing on the relationships that were formed by a legacy brand. In this case, the Obama brand is clearly benefiting from its genius. Enjoy!
Project: Dishez
I have been thinking of creating a social network for global epicureans for a while now and have finally decided to use Ning and the city of London as a starting point. I’m still debating whether or not to modify and scale the social network on Ning, and that largely depends on how popular it gets. Here’s the social network I created to share my culinary adventures in London. http://dishez.ning.com
RESEARCH
This project prompted me to search for suitable white-label social platforms to run my social network on and there are many out there. Jeremiah has maintained a list since 2007 and there are a few new ones that have popped up here and there. I have reviewed about a dozen social platforms today from OneSite, Pluck, PHPizabi, PeopleAggregator, KickApps, Momo, Drupal, Kwiqq, Converdge, and TamTamy to name the main ones.
FEASIBILITY
I am equally glad and humbled by the fact that there are predecessors like menuism.com, friendseat.com and dishola.com out there who have beat me to the chase in terms of initial crowd-sourcing and strategy formulation. This creates contrast and challenges my business case, as I see the need to spend circa 400 hours to develop a social network of any true value.
Since there are already existing dish review and rating sites out there I must think of an even better product that would create more impact and be easier to deploy. My consolation is that Google was a latecomer in the search engine game and was able to triumph over search engines we don’t even remember anymore. The technologist in me says yes but the planner in me is putting down an emphatic “no.” At least not until I have passed my ideas through a feasibility study, analyzed the business side of things and plan this like any other client project.
RESERVATIONS
I am struggling to see when these websites will make real money and whether or not the resources invested into the content strategy formulation and development of these social networks can be justified. A cool idea is just that. If it doesn’t have a clear direction, is a dead-horse that sucks up resources and does not make money, we don’t have a project. The imperative is a business case. Until I have that clearly mapped out I will simply just use original content to fuel interest in testing and reviewing the different white-label social platforms out there.
Do leave me your thoughts.
UPS Widget on Groundswell and Other News
GROUNDSWELL
The UPS widget project that I worked on earlier this year at McCann-Erickson got a mention on Page 34 of Groundswell. Published by Harvard Business Press in May 2008, the much-celebrated book by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff goes into detail about a world that is transformed by social technologies and how you can use them to work to your advantage. I am only on Chapter 5 at the moment but it is definitely coming across as a “must-read.” I found their breakdown of the Social Technographics Profile helpful for online strategy formulation. Traditional audience segmentation unfortunately do not reflect the current participation levels and groups on the Internet and thus are not particularly insightful for the kind of work we do anymore. Forrester Research has the most relevant data and that has been the foundation to the writing of this book by two of their senior analysts. (P.S. Charlene left Forrester recently to start her own consulting company Altimeter Group. Here’s where to grab a copy of Groundswell.
SEESMIC
Johann Romefort, CTO of Seesmic has abandoned Paris for the moment and will now shake his French lovely locks for San Franciscan admirers. Although I did interview him in London, we were interrupted by un chien et une abeille at Kensington Gardens. Although the whole thing was caught on video, I’ll spare myself the embarrassment of being attacked by a buzzing bee mid-interview and show you a picture of triumphant avoiders of the bee-sting!
Johann Romefort and Jackie Miao. London, July 2008
YOUTUBE STARDOM
I’ve been tracking YouTube music stars like Kina Grannis, David Choi, TheBathroomGirl, JillianMarieThomas and SinginDork888, because these folks are really really good! Check out David Choi’s cover of How Deep Is Your Love below. Enjoy the sing-song!
Kodak : Make Yourself or Anyone Super
One of my ex-colleagues Husani who is the former Head of Technology at RSCG New York and now Director of Technology at EVB San Francisco has just launched MakeMeSuper.com for Kodak. I went in and tinkered around with it and made myself super!
HOW TO MAKE YOURSELF SUPER
You start by selecting your gender and entering your name (there are some preset names for your selection), and if it is available for selection you then upload your photo. If your name isn’t on the list, you can choose a generic identifier like mom, girl, dad, or the like.
The next step would be to browse and upload a photo of yourself. After you have done that, you’d need to adjust the photo to fit in perfectly within the face frame of the character. There is an option to scale and rotate until you’re happy with it. When you are satisfied with the way your face is framed you can then make yourself into a super hero or a super heroin!
You are then presented a video of how incredibly super you are with your own theme song. Below is an example of what that looks like.
POSTER OF SUPER “YOU”
The system also generates a Super “You” poster which you can download for free, but what would be the whole point of it if it didn’t have a business case to support its creation? As such, there is merchandise you can buy of your own superhero character. The choices include a mug, mousepad, deck of cards, t-shirt and a tote bag, and although as of my writing the super product section doesn’t seem to be enabled just yet, it looks similar to a Cafepress.com service.
TECHNOLOGY
Strictly technically-speaking, MakeMeSuper.com is like a lo-fi version of Schick’s revolutionary website Hige-Chen.com, which is able to go one step further in transforming a 2D picture into a photo-realistic 3D animated sensation. The website is in Japanese, and if you are not comfortable with Japanese you can watch this video which talks about what JWT did for the Hige-Chen project.
Makemesuper.com is an entertaining website that is good for a laugh, gives the option of personalized gifts and would probably do well with the younger American demographic and those Gen X folks who secretly have always wanted to be a superhero. Do check it out if you’re in need of some entertainment, and in the meantime here’s Super Jacqueline!
Google: Got a $10 million Idea?
Project 10100
In conjunction with Google’s 10th birthday, the search engine gigantum is luring the world to offer their ideas for $10 million dollars. If you have an idea that can change the world and create a positive impact to as many lives on planet earth as possible, you could be awarded serious money to fund its fruition. Go on then, submit your ideas before the October 20th deadline. For more information on how to enter your $10 million dollar idea, visit http://www.project10tothe100.com
The Airbus A380 Chronicles on Singapore Airlines
Part 2: The P.C. Suite
Sept 25th, 2008 - Benefits and Usability Challenges
The good news is, with the P.C. suite introduction to air travel, the days of worrying about battery life depletion on your laptop may soon be over. In fact, if you’re on business class you even get a one-up, but I am hoping to cover business class features (from a third-person point of view) in two weeks, as a friend who flies business class as often as two-to-four times a month has promised me some pictures. While we wait for content from the business class traveler, let me just tell you about my ECONOMY class experience. 
Back to the P.C. Suite. I did not have the luxury of a USB keyboard (they don’t sell them on board either), so I have had to use the keypad exclusively to use the word processor and other office tools. Using the keypad feels a lot like using a handheld or mobile phone. I do not think it is practical if your intention is to write a 10-page report, and using the controls on the keypad for mouse-navigating is quite challenging. The controls are stiff and not particularly agile, so I got a bit confused and slightly annoyed with it. Moreover (since I was merely trying the system out and had no media on my USB drive), I am not sure how the importing of images and other media into StarOffice works. I only had enough patience to key in alphabets on the word processor on this trip, but I imagine if I did it a few more times I’d eventually figure out how to use StarOffice properly.
Anyhow, that also means that in order to use it (if you aren’t already a StarOffice user) and half a Playstation geek, you’re going to have a bit of a learning curve ahead of you. I speak as a technically-savvy user, so if you’re not a geek it might prove to be challenging.
LOADING TIME
Loading time for the P.C. suite was boringly slow. I think it took anywhere from 5-8 minutes for the suite to load, not that it makes much of a difference when you have 13 excrutiating hours to kill. However, it is still significant if it causes boredom when the whole point of InFlight entertainment is to counter boredom! Minus points for their RAM.
BENEFITS
PDF READER
Even in view of these drawbacks, the P.C. suite’s other applications like PDF reader, picture viewer, and video player can still be handy for the traveler. If you have a 300-page report to read, you can do so without printing on paper that could add weight to your hand luggage and also be very bad for the environment. If everyone read more files digitally, we can chop down less trees.
PICTURE VIEWER & VIDEO PLAYER
This feature is great if you want to look at pictures from your vacation, cute little chuckling shots of your baby (aww how your mini-me looks like you) and other pictorial and video files, be it personal or business-related.
SCENARIOS
With that in mind, I am betting that before long you’ll have people scrolling through content that are unsafe for children, and when a controversy gets the attention of watchdogs a most interesting case on censorship laws in the airspace will likely crop up in time. Singapore laws against pornography are tight but will they regulate what people are viewing on their airplanes while flying above Sudan?
Sept 6th, 2008 - Somewhere above the Middle East en route to Singapore
If you are not already aware that there is such a monstrosity of a passenger aircraft that can carry 800 passengers (471 on Singapore Airlines’ configuration) say hello to the Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft sensation that boasts a smoother, quieter, greener and more comfortable way to travel. In March of 2008 Singapore Airlines (SIA) became the first to offer commercial flights to passengers on its Singapore - London - Singapore route. This aircraft’s engineering marvel and my desire to fly on business class are not within the scope of today’s effort, but I will endeavor to give you a proper experiential account over several posts over the course of the week.
Part 1: The P.C. Suite
Very few things excite me in a good way about long haul flights. Besides watching movies, listening to radio music, playing some space shuttle shooting game, DVT-combative calisthenics, and being woken up for food in between napping and drooling, just what are you going to do in mid-air for 13 hours?
Ladies and Gentleman, you would be delighted to know that I am beginning this entry entirely on the aircraft’s entertainment and activity console. My laptop is safely and quietly stowed on the overhead compartment as I play with and review the wonders and short comings of this feature of personal computing on the new Airbus A380 aircraft.
Using the word processor feature to begin a draft of this post
WHAT THE PC SUITE OFFERS
The new PC suite is powered by Sun, and it offers all passengers the ability to do word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, read PDF documents, view your photos, videos, and manage your files. It runs the StarOffice 8 system, which is part of the OpenOffice project. (Yes, MS Office can access these documents with no problems.)
SO JUST HOW DO YOU USE THIS?
In order to use the PC suite, you must have a USB stick jacked in to the socket like what is shown below or the P.C. suite will not work. P.S.: You can buy a thumbdrive on board!
USB drive jacked in to the socket
Right now, a full-size qwerty keyboard is not built into the system. A small qwerty keypad is the main word processing input interface.
The keypad
However, if you think this is a painfully slow way to do any kind of serious work there is an option to plug in a USB keyboard through the sockets shown below. Currently you can’t rent or buy it on board so you’ll have to bring your own.
USB Sockets
Stay tuned for Part 2, when I shall discuss in detail about the usability, benefits, and shortcomings about this new office in the sky!
Who?
JACQUELINE MIAO
Web Strategist
PRINCE2 Project Manager
Location: London, U.K.-
