Social Network Woes? This past week MySpace announced the purchase of Photobucket for $250 million in cash. Compared to News Corp's $580 million acquisition of MySpace, this looks relatively expensive. Further since Photobucket users are primarily MySpace users, News Corp is paying a lot for an incremental amount of eyeballs. Why would News Corp do such a thing?
Well, in a case of the rich getting richer, MySpace is the primary destination for social networkers out there. Sure, there's LinkedIn for business folk, Friendster for early adopter social networkers, Sneakerplay for sneaker lovers,Facebook for college students and so on and so forth. However, nothing beats the shear strength of MySpace's reach and depth (176 million as of right now). MySpace helps to launch many items of interest including a high proportion of Michael Eisner's Prom Queen episodes, various movies and television shows, and of course the original intent of MySpace: music and unsigned bands. MySpace video is second only to juggernaut YouTube and the numbers for MySpace are staggering, with the social networking site consistently in the top 5 sites hit, searched for, and session time.
MySpace is protecting its territory and rightfully so. However, those of you who remember Friendster also remember how quickly that social network flickered out. With niche social networks coming out, MySpace wants to be the ONLY destination for social networkers. Two weeks ago, I was notified that my account on Nike's Runner's social network would no longer be supported. I suspect that as time goes on this will be a common scenario. However, the niche social networks do have targeting which many advertisers find valuable. The social network is stronger than ever however, we are slowly seeing segmentation. I would compare this now to the age of network television versus cable. We have the big players, the MySpace, Friendster, LinkedIn, and Facebooks (akin to ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) and then the niche players like SneakerPlay, MuscleDog, Barack Obama Supporters, etc which all serve a very important purpose. And if we take this a step further, I could definitely see MySpace purchasing other social networks (like StockPickr for example) similar to NBC and CNBC, simply to sell highly targeted niche advertising.
Web 3.0? With all of the hype that Second Life is receiving along with the other virtual reality worlds out there, I have to talk about where I think this whole thing is going to go. Mashable reviews Cruxy today, a widget that works inside various virtual worlds, even World of Warcraft. The widget is a player that embeds within an avatar so that artists can sell their audio, video or stills.
Second Life and other virtual worlds are being infiltrated by big brands such as Dell, American Apparel and Nike. Yet while these big brands are necessary I believe that this peer to peer interaction will still drive commerce. For example, your avatar is sitting next to mine at the Second Life Apple Store. I chat with you about the differences between iMovie and Final Cut and you tell me that you think that Final Cut does things so much better and that is worth the price. Then I can purchase Final Cut right from the Apple Store. With Cruxy, the product is you going around telling people to listen to your music. That doesn't really happen in real life outside of Times Square. Again, I think that while big brands have little to lose in Second Life (since most of their stores are not manned anyway), the real interaction is peer to peer. Where recommendations and such will really drive sales and marketing.
Is Second Life overhyped? Probably. Is it the future? Again possibly. While today's mechanisms are a bit clunky, in essence, Second Life is one big chat room with nice graphics, imagine the possibilities when you are virtually there. Think Nintendo Wii meets Second Life...that would be cool.
Marketing Imitating Art Just as life imitates art so does marketing. AdAge reports on this growing trend with different products, most popularly sneakers and cars. In fact, something like sneakers is such a popular art that social networks such as SneakerPlay have popped up around one's sneaker collection. (For the record, I am also a sneaker addict with about a dozen different pairs of sneakers.) Similarly the Toyota Scion has done a great job at being customized and thus a work of art in itself. To some degree, cell phones have also become a work of art (fashion) as well.
This being said, how can we capitalize on this as marketers? I think the first thing that we have to think of is WHY people do this? WHY do you want those shiny metallic purple sneakers? WHY do you want that lime green striped Scion? People want to be different, they want to be unique, they want to be recognized as individuals in this age of targeted marketing; the Long Tail. The more you allow someone to play with and customize the more control they want. We could go into a long discussion about iPods but I think that if Apple opened up not only the Apple architecture but also allowed for an infinite color palate of colors people would have multiple iPods for different occasions (my work out iPod, my going out iPod, etc).
Keep in mind that Products as Art only goes so far. Technical gadgets are the best candidate for this (laptops, cars), along with anything that you wear (cell phones, iPods, clothes (obviously)), and anything that you use that defines you (pens, tools, etc). Nike Plus created the wearable iPod with sleeves, sneakers and a whole line of clothing and sneakers that integrated the iPod with the rest of your running outfit. Putting gemstones on your phone was popularized by Paris Hilton but now its tough not to see at least a few people with these "pimped out" phones. Alienware took a commodity and made your desktop PC into your own. With technology we can create customized products for each individual and I think that soon people will expect this.
I think that the takeaway is that if you can customize your product with colors, designs or patterns (cosmetic changes), you should allow your consumers to do so via your website. Not only will they feel that this pattern is unique to them, they will become your brand advocate by integrating it into themselves as ART.
The Second Coming of the Infomerical
By now we've all seen the "Will it Blend?" demos on YouTube. If you haven't, its a series of demonstrations where the CEO of Blendtec, a blender company, blends unlikely items, like iPods, golf balls, a rake, cell phones, and well, you get it. The videos are done in a 60's science show manner and have made the rounds on YouTube. AdWeek reports that these videos have caused a tripling in Blendtec blender sales. (By the way, everything on the show, thus far, has blended.)
The videos are pure genius. They're taking a common household product and giving it the oomph to become viral amongst the YouTube generation. I'll be honest, they are extremely addictive to watch. So for smaller companies out there that want to finally have a low cost commercial out there? Now is the time! The production costs are extremely low, however, for an Internet video to work, it has to be fun, engaging, shocking or all of the above. No more 30 minute Ab Roller infomercials, or Bowflex demonstrations. Nike has one of the most watched videos of all time with a quick clip of soccer great Ronaldinho hitting the goal post 4 times in a row while wearing new Nike sneakers (shocking). Eepybird's duo proved that Diet Coke and Mentos mix well together, which spawned thousands of videos in response (fun). Dove's evolution video exposed the techniques of graphic designers and the modeling process (engaging and shocking).
It's not easy, but online video has opened up another world of infomercial production and a cheaper way to distribute your product's message to the world.
