Digital Influence Mapping Project

Welcome to Social@Ogilvy!

(this post is also found in s similar form on our new Social@Ogilvy site)

The Social Imperative

Brands will spend between 17-18% of their total marcom spend on social media within 4 years. They will spend more on social business solutions. They are seeing value and expecting more every year. 

The key reason? 90% of us look to friends and family for the most trusted recommendations on products, service and issues. 70% of us count on consumer opinions online above traditional media. And it’s only going to grow. Millennials are three times more likely than Boomers to look for a social opinion on choices they make. 

The future is brand advocacy. And it cannot be faked, gamed, or outright ‘bought.’

There are only three ways to connect with and build a strong relationship with customers and stakeholders these days. 

1. Deliver highly relevant content or service. This could be advertising, media relations or what we call ‘owned’ content (including valuable services). Now it’s all highly targeted and tailored. No more 360 degree ‘onslaughts’ of interruptive advertising. Now our messages must be deemed highly relevant to our targets to earn their attention. Lets use the ‘10 degrees’ that matter. Useful content to run a sustainable business from DuPont. Better ways to use member ‘points’ from American Express. 
2. Be discoverable in search. When people search Google, Baidu or Yandex, brands need to be there for all the topics that intersect between a person’s intent and where the brand can add some value. Ford on fuel efficiency. Hellmann’s on Real Food recipes. 
3. Earn our way into their ‘social graph.’  To succeed in social media, we must become genuinely valuable to the people we serve and earn their attention, their advocacy and their business.   Inviting people as VIPs into the launch of the new Ford Explorer in Facebook. Sparking a social conversation about the dreams of the next generation of Chinese from Johnnie Walker. Helping Hong Kong parents celebrate their baby pictures in a much bigger way from Huggies.

How we form opinions about products, services and issues is constantly changing. It’s imperative that we make social a new way we do everything.

What is Social@Ogilvy? 

Social@Ogilvy is the global, cross-discipline team of social experts from across all of Ogilvy’s businesses delivering social solutions to all parts of our clients’ business. This is new. This is bigger than before. We have been designing and executing social media marketing and communications programs for 7+ years as 360 Digital Influence – a specialty practice born out of Ogilvy Public Relations. We quickly grew to deliver social solutions for all sorts of marketing and communications clients. 

Now we have grown into Social@Ogilvy. We are a true global network with a common approach. 

Integrated Social Media Matters More 

The whole PR vs. marketing battle is moot. Social media will inform every discipline and deliver business value for the foreseeable future. Social media as a standalone specialty doesn’t make sense. All the power and potential in social based solutions comes to life when you integrate it into marcom and other functions. 

We design integrated social solutions that combine deep disciplines like crm, public relations and shopper marketing and rooted in what drives behavior.  We plan around owned, earned and paid media working together for a compound effect and at its heart our work is ‘social by design’ – phrase used now by Facebook but that captures what we do quite well. 

A Global Shift

We do believe there’s a new customer and stakeholder journey defined by the increasing impact our networks have on purchase decision and our behaviors. How we buy, vote, and form opinions has changed. We tap into our 130 friends (the Facebook average) to discover, consider, compare, decide and rave about products, services and issues.

This shift is happening in one way or another all over the world. Growth markets like China, Indonesia, Brazil and Turkey will define the next episode of social media use. They are all growing their social network use and outpacing western markets including the US. That’s why we have grown the world’s largest global team delivering solutions relevant in each local market.  

And it’s more than just marketing, we design social business solutions that use the collaboration and advocacy strengths of social media to drive value internally and in customer relationships while at the same time managing risk. 

 

Join Us

We will be participating or hosting 23 events in and outside of Social Media Week this week in NYC, London and Hong Kong not to mention a dozen other markets. Join us as we launch this new ambitious business. It's been a wild ride to get to this point and we would love to see you. You can find out more at our new Social@Ogilvy site.

Idea Bar #13: Family Travel Match-up Service

I've been married for 18 years and missed the opportunity to use Internet dating services. From the sidelines, I am a big believer in the value of services that can match people's interests and affinities potentially leading towards meaningful relationships.

We need another service that essentially does the same thing for traveling families.Each year, we plan one or two vacations. Some are local-ish, driving vacations. Some involve flying. Historically, we have tried to go out of the country once and then maybe to the beach or a lake. Clearly, this year, we will be staying more local.

My kids are 11 and 14. We like to do certain things - as Popeye said, "I ams what I ams." or "we ares what we ares." When we take a week to go to the Outer Banks, let's say, how can we connect with a couple of families that we have enough affinity for who will be on the OBX at the same time? Or if we visit my dad on the Redneck Riviera, how do we find that family that wouldn't laugh at our Takoma Park values from the front seat of their Esplanade? We don't want to share a house so much as share a few experiences and most importantly, connect our kids with new friends and pals.

I realize that many families do group vacations - sharing houses and the full travel experience. We are quite a bit more independent than that. Our travel opportunities are precious and the excercise of matching affinities, budget, and vacation time with a neighbor or local friend is too daunting. Plus, I love meeting new people, and I want my kids to meet new people to.

Family Travel Matching
It's simple really. Let's take the best of affinity matching - we like science fiction movies, swimming both at the beach and in a pool, weird local activities (next time in LA, I want to visit the Museum of Death - probably not with 11, though.)

• And combine it with travel destination and timing: e.g. we will be in Assateague in the 3rd week of August

• Our children's ages and interests

• Some budget & taste information: we don't want to eat at McD's, abhor expensive brunches but kinda dig things like the Kill Devil Grill...

• and some ideas of what we would consider fun...

We should be able ot find folks both traveling and native to our destination who also want to meet new people for some low-commitment diversions. The New York Times Travel section featured a service today that starts to get there: Tripsay.com.

Tripsay.com
the new service seems more about aggregating traveler reviews and then allowing you to join groups - but it's a very high-level affinity like "passion on cultural nightlife" or "hiking." It's not family oriented and I am guessing matches more young people.

"What's your passion regarding travel? Join TripSay and create a group with others sharing that passion! TripSay groups are made up of people who share common interests or activities.

Build your traveler network using groups. You can share tips and places with your network and as the result you'll get their recommendations for your next trip!"

FamilyPosse.com

Time to start a Family travel matching Service. We could call it, FamilyPosse.com.

(thanks to Creativepro.com for the station wagon pic)
 

Idea Bar #12 Next Video on the Web: Threadless Meets Next New Networks

This post is part of a 5-part series. How can we all be successful with the next wave of video on the Web whether you are a show producer or a brand? Crowdsourcing topics is one of four important priorities and is technically one of my Idea Bar posts.  

This series started with this core idea. That's what makes it part of theIdea Bar series which is full of good ideas - each driven by expertise and naivete. Ultimately this simple idea led me to want to throw out my own model on how niche video programs can succeed online.

Threadless as you all likely know is the quintessential Cinderella story for crowdsourcing. T-shirt designers post designs, the crowd votes them up (or not) and the top designs are produced and sold.

Why not do this with your show? In the previous post on Focusing on Value to Niche Communities, I covered catering to the needs of a defined, lean-forward affinity group. Why not ask them for ideas and votes on what would make a compelling show for them? What would make them want to susbcribe? Just like Threadless has the "I'd Buy That" button, our show marketplace would have a "I'd Watch That"  and an "I'd Watch That Every Week" voting buttons. The principle is the same - prove there is an audience before going into costly production. What a great way to get marketers on board  before you have actually killed yourself bootstrapping production and building an audience.

Now lest you think I am slipping into the territory of the movie, The Player, where the studio exec decrys the need of writers by saying all we have to do is pick out a story from the paper and, "bam" there's our script, let me clarify. Let the crowd tell us what they would find compelling - what topics, what participants, what format - and then let the creative juices flow. We are not talking "exquisite corpse" here.

The biggest barrier to this model is likely to be "ego." Many show creators are trying to express an idea they are personally invested in. It's tough to become open to the audience. Beyond the poor quality of many videos, this issue - which can be called "control" - might be one of the larger barriers to success. Most filmmakers I know are passionate storytellers first. To win online, you must be passionate about your audience first. Diggnation seems to do a good job of this.

Next New Networks started with the promise of a hundred online shows for all sorts of audiences. They have quite a few today but more like 15 than a hundred. What would happen if married that ambition with a crowdsourced model? 

Idea Bar #11: The Agency of the Future - Innovation Lab

Agencies are going through a dramatic transformation. Traditional Ad Agencies will scale back staff between now and first quarter. Media agencies, at the top of the pile, are choking on word of mouth marketing because that discipline does not behave like all of the paid channels out there. Public relations continues to grow and not because it is the "cheap" medium. PR works really hard for clients and is more efficient at selling and building brand at the same time. With all this change, what is the shape and role of the agency of the future? Sure, the marketing and PR silos will crumble into one 360 pile. But there is another opportuntiy for agencies as the next innovation lab for clients (and themselves).  

Google spends a tremendous amount of time and money on innovation (the fabled "20%" of everyone's time and the expression of that effort via Google Labs.) Agencies struggle to follow suit due to the business model of the big conglomerates (mine is WPP). Considering my entire business - 360 Digital Influence - is a boot-strapped innovation within Ogilvy/WPP, innovation does happen and it can be quite impactful.

The People's Innovation Lab
We plan and deliver some pretty intense workshops for clients to help them understand or simply get more out of social media and word of mouth innovation. We just held a 2-day word of mouth marketing workshop for a major client and consumer marketer. This was done essentially in partnership with Word of Mouth Marketing Association (member) to bring the best thinkers and doers together to help the 315 brand marketers in attendance understand and apply WOMM to their marketing efforts.

We also have the beginnings of a digital innovation lab across the Ogilvy eco-system. We plan to participate more in that this year. The model is very locally driven which means good ideas from local markets being shared across the globe.

I want to take that a step further. I want to create a consumer-driven lab experience that comes together at the point of sale: retail. Let's create an Ogilvy storefront where we apply some of our best thinking not simply in terms of retail experience but all of the marketing that surrounds the products and services we "sell" for our clients. The store/lab would have an intense digital layer that engages a cadre of advisors and influencers to engage them in ongoing feedback and to be the seedbed of outbound word of mouth on new innovations at the Open Lab. And we will integrate our clients into that store/digital experience. One month, the partner would be American Express, another Kaplan University, still another the Lance Armstrong Foundation (all clients). Clients would subscribe to 6 month episodes.

Episodic and Continuous Innovation
Many companies have their own innovation labs. Certainly the CPGs all have the fake stores where they work behind the scenes to optimize the selling experience. Ours would be different. First of all, the Open Lab, would be, literally, open to the public.

Look at what Urban OUtfitters is doing in Hollywood with Space 15 Twenty. They have created a retail experience that accomodates a number of brands in a new collaborative retail experience. Or there is the creative marketing agency - Neverstop -  that also runs a barbershop storefront. (You can read about it in my favorite magazine - Metropolis)

They wanted to add some "social" street-level experience to help them stay in tune with other consumers. Let's take that a step further and create a storefront which can be designed around a brand (rolling "pop-up" episodes with a single, street-level storefront). Digital programs - word of mouth, social media and digital marketing would all be launched to drive traffic and engagement.

What's the Point?
Certainly this is not a reach play or a volume sales play. This is about innovating around influencer marketing. That's who would come here. That's who would susbcribe to our Facebook group. People who want to know what is next, who have something to contribute (for spotlight, social capital and to try a product experience), and who love the brands that would be featured in the Open Lab (I know, we have to work on that name....).

This is about innovating from the outside in. Brands get the benefit of the real world exchange with people and the creative thinking from the agency "creatives" who try these ideas out. For me, it's where these Idea Bar ideas could see the light of day for test and insight.

For every 6 month "epsisode," brands would have 2 month-long positions in the store plus a full digital influence program to support it. These would include planning and reporting. The promise would be to deliver 3 tested marketing innovations that could each move the needle on their business.

One of the great advantages of brands working with agencies is to get the benefit of fresh thinking from marketers who work across different clients and have a built-in methodology for being creative*. I want to extend that role to product and service marketing innovation. No one can afford to go back to the "old way" of marketing even in this full-blown recession. We must go forward. We must innovate in that quick and dirty way that let's us try something quickly, refine it, and deploy it. The days of camapign cathedral-building are over (plan a program for 6 months or longer, then deploy, then start over). We all need a source of continuous innovation and much of it had better come from outside the organization or we haven't learned some of the most enbduring lessons of this crowd-sourced era.

Everyone inside the agency would work in teh Open Lab at one point or another. It would not be its own sequestered group. It could become more than a retail lab and become a place to try out new creative, put together experiences (you know, arty stuff like poetry slams and origami jams).

We need a nice pedestrian city - Chicago, Philadelphia, New York. We need 5 clients at $200K initial subscriptions with a modest investment from the agency side.

Oh, the things we could learn. Oh, the ideas we would launch. Oh, the agency business we would transform.   
  
Related Pop up stores information:

• Trendwatching

• Businessweek

• PFSK

*creative must be defined differently. Now it includes a strategic view, an eye toward channel and platform complexity. The "big idea" is not enough.

Idea Bar 10: Travelers' Smoking "Clubs"

Overheard in a meeting: "Cigarette smokers are the last great counter culture." I am not so sure about "last." Still, the world has changed. Harley Owners are now a customer retention program versus a badge of outlaw honor. Rock and roll has long since been main-streamed by the Live Nations of the world.

Cigarette smoking is counter culture, no doubt. And that's what makes the business ripe for programs that reward the fan (existing adult smoker). There are so many marketing restrictions in the business, it makes the pharmaceutical industry look like just another consumer packaged good. They need new ways to stay true to those restrictions (don't market to new smokers - especially youth).

I don't smoke. I did once. I do not want my children to smoke. And I am not advocating smoking. But, ever since the industry put those intense warning messages on the packs, it seems more like matter of personal responsibility.  So what's the Idea?   

The Haze Club
You know the glassed-in room with little more than hard plastic, bus station seating and a haze of cigarette smoke that are the "designated smoking room" in airport terminals? They remind me of the smoking room at highschool which was a dark room with hard wooden benches and a perpetual stench. They wanted us to hate it. We didn't.

Why aren't there Admiral Club-like smoking lounges sponsored by a tobacco company eager to win wallet-share from the already smoking-committed?

Members-only, the Haze Club (no need to pretend it's anything but proud of the smoke) would exist behind mysterious, wood-paneled doors. Inside, leather arm chairs and Vitamin Water for everyone. It would feel like a club - a little exclusive, a little plush. Only 18-and-over existing smokers could join.

Online a members-only web site would let you find the unlabled locations of the Haze Club in airports and select southern cities across the country. You could even connect it with your Dopplr application to let them know when you would be passing through and if you had any special brand needs.

If smoking is counter-culture, it's time they started celebrating that and overhauled their own image. 

Idea Bar #9: Health Fashion & Lifestyle Store

So many pharmaceutical companies want to build better relationships with patients and physicians yet get caught in the ruthless cycle of pressure for short-term product sales and safely navigating regulation or worse, the threat of more regulation. Launching a new drug is complicated. And it's a game with a lot riding on it. A game that can squash creativity in certain organizations.

Regulation like "fair practice," DTC rules and "adverse event reporting"  are hard enough. The effectiveness of the push and pull of TV adverstising for drugs is really not all that clear. 

So, how can pharma build that better relationship? Can they really balance product brand-building, corporate brand-building and sales?

The Well, Well, Well Marketplace

Someone needs to create the Well, Well, Well Market (WWWM). We're talking -  "well, well, well, don't you look good" or "well, well, well I thought you were sick but you seem to be doing okay..."

This is a market that sells products that help us all live well with our various diseases and conditions without sacrificing our taste. If we test ourselves because we are diabetic, we use cool kits like Stickme Designs. If we have to take food through a tube even after you are back at work (happened to a friend of mine), you have a cool shoulder bag with the tubing built into your shirt (remember the cool "stillsuits" from Dune? ). If your hair is out due to chemo, not only do you get much cooler scarves but head-care supplies like sunscreen and even some hat suggestions.

The bottom line - every condition that allows us to remain engaged in life we ought to enhance by putting our best fashion and design talent against it.

It's Alessi for devices. Donna Karan for chemo scarves. Dean Kamen for wheelchairs.

Marketplace of Ideas
And it's also a marketplace of new fashion and design innovations from the crowd. Look at today's NY Times magazine article on the 'craft-centric' cottage industries sprung up throughout the Web . This marketplace could become not just a breath of fresh and cool air for people challenged by conditions, it could also become a boost for those creative minds that would dream up super cool solutions.

One of the biggest hurdles for big business to develop lifestyle solutions for people without legs or with special medical needs is the small size of the marketplace. Yet their are many entrepeneurs who are motivated by the challenges they face or their loved ones face. They are more than willing to dream up fashion and design products without a million-dollar payday expectation.

Pharma builds the store 
What if a pharma built the store? One of the challenges here is that no one pharma has drugs for devices across a wide collection of conditions. While this one has deep expertise in diabetes, another will have deep expertise in cancer treatments. Maybe an independent needs to build the mall, but the individual pharmas need the opportunity to create a cool store for their patients (and physicians) that help them live well with their condition. 

Being 'of-use' to patients is a great way to demonstrate they really do care. And helping people with diseases or conditions lead a high-quality of life via the best style and usability in design is one way to do it. Even if a pharma just built a promotional 'window' for these great products and, in the process, motivated others to design even better looking chemo chapeaus. 

Idea Bar #8: Nonprofit Widgets in the age of OpenSocial

With this week's announcement from Google of OpenSocial - essentially creating a uber-platform to eclipse all platforms (i.e. Facebook) - and the news that MySpace has joined, widgets suddenly became a lot more relevant. The promise behind the Open Social move, whose API became available late last week, is that advertisers can now create widgets that hold some, hopefully, useful or delightful code, that can be embedded in user profiles across a range of social networks including MySpace, Bebo, Linkedin and more. More than that, we may achieve that wonderful goal of a single social network profile, "one ring to bind them."

Non-profits must jump on the widget wagon now!

If you go to widgetbox, one of the clearinghouse directories of widgets for different social networks, you will find approximately 29 nonprofit widgets available for your download and installation pleasure. They are a pretty varied and obscure bunch from the Dancing Dolphin to the Wild Apricot. Where is the Peace Corps? Amnesty International? Oxfam? Oceana?

So far, folks are using the widget to pull RSS headlines into a special box. (You can check out my Auctions for Change widget on my MySpace page)

I want to feature the 1-2 organizations that I support on my blog(s) and social netwrk profiles. I want to promote their mission and solicit other supporters ($$$). I need a widget that offers something more than headlines. It should offer something engaging like a dynamic statistic of the number of people going without meals in different parts of the world right now. Here's my RockYou countdown widget reminding me that I am off to Taos in t-minus "x" days and counting. How hard would it be to make that a "stat-widget" driven by real research numbers that tell me how many folks are starving, how much of the ocean is polluted, or the average human carbon footprint?

Then I need a micropayment button that allows visitors to give $1 to $1000 (or whatever) right there in the widget. How many people will click and give based upon widget exposure alone? No idea. But chances are, if it's on my blog, it's a cause I support and I will blog about it. Let me be your champion.

Non-profits need to engage their brand ambassadors now. We need nonprofitwidget.org to emerge not as just another clearinghouse (like widgetbox) but as a toolbox for promotion and measurement for nonprofits who would use this type of resource.

Here's how nonprofitwidget.org can work:

• All nonprofits can publish their widgets in this directory which features all of the requisite download and embed protocols to relieve the necessity of too much technical knowledge.
• A directory of developers with rating systems would help nonprofits connect with folks to build the widgets.
• A promotion toolbox will give the nonprofit staff a set of procedures and tools to help promote their widgets
• A voluntary "membership" link will allow all of the folks who are using the widget to remain connected.
• Each widget "page" would feature and aggregate set of links to the blogs who feature that widget thus sending some link love back to those who publish the widget. 

Unlike advertisers who will wrestle with how to measure the use of widgets in terms they are used to (online advertising - see this WaPo article from Saturday), nonprofits have everything to gain by activating their greatest asset - their supporters and fans. 

As reported in the NTEN, Network for Good has released a new whitepaper on technology and fundraising. In general, the report includes their experience with widgets and here are some key points:

"When Wired Fundraisers Talk, People Listen: The messenger matters even more than the message.

Not Every Wired Fundraiser Is a Champion: The successful Wired Fundraiser has a relatively rare combination of true passion and a means to lend a sense of urgency to their cause.

Technology Makes a Difference: Widgets and social networks make existing personal fundraisers more effective.

Smart Charities Embrace the Wired Fundraiser: And they find their own, “inner” Wired Fundraiser. "

 

Idea Bar #7: Geek Paradise

Geek is cool. It always has been, it has just taken different forms. Today, it's all about video games, D&D, comic books, science fiction and a splintered universe of offbeat music including Nerdcore (geek hip hop). (You can check out a documentary of the Nerdcore "movement" here) The geek eco-system is actually made up of sub-communities defined by subject matter interests from experience format (comic book vs. computer game) to story types (Battlestar Gallactica to Dr. Who) to other affinities, I'm sure.

The common element is a slight-to-greater sense of being an outsider or at least on the fringes of the head-of-the-tail pop culture. An there is a type of tribal kinship. Can this kinship transcend the subcommunities' differences? Can a comic book geek identify with a Halo 3 enthusiast? I think the tribal sense is powerful and may transcend the experience and even the story formats. I had that sense when I attended VideoGames Live! at the Kennedy Center.

The Idea already
What if we could create the ultimate Geek destination that combined the best of geek retail with community? What if we created the Geek Superstore?

Retail
xtremegeek and ThinkGeek are well-established in this category. We need to rethink the category. The current xtremegeek store has some great stuff (where else can you find geek staples like trebuchets and barcode t-shirts) but looks and feels too much like that bastion of malls from the eighties. We need more cross-over merchandise:

• button-down white shirts with white-thread (subtle) emblems of Battlestar Gallactica and the scientists from Andromeda Strain. You know, things a guy can wear to work and "blend" while still having that subtle, tribal symbol.
• A selection of geek music from electronica to hiphop
• Advance editions of big name comic books like DMZ
• Special edition Moleskine notebooks with simple text messages on the outside (e.g. "And they have a plan", "I'm a doctor not a brickmason.")
• Gadgets: the latest 4Gb SD Cards (I wish), micro-GPS's, special-use MP3 players.

We have to be careful here as many of the most desireable gadgets - iPhones, Blackkberry 8830's - would require complex service and sales support. Still there's a fleet of  gadgets on another level. Or we could create the "ultimate collection" which is really only one produce per category but it's the best in it's class. 

Community
It must be more than standard retail. Geeks are a tribe(s). They are social amongst themselves and are enthusiasts for authentic, if not a bit fanciful, experiences. Apple has done a good job of creating a sense of community in their flagship stores. Between the genius bar, product demos, auditorium and occaisional events, they become a destination. Discovery had that in their awesome DC flagship store when I worked there. We actually broadcast a live weekly Webcast from the store in front of an audience. Thinkgeek is already doing some fun things to build community. The good news is that the community(s) already exist. That is the best way to "build" community - start with an authentic, organic core. We have to understand the community and then offer it ways that make it easier to interact.

• Free broadest-band wireless. Keep it simple. That's the bright light. We (geeks) are the moths. You get it.
• Organize products around customer picks. This is like the independent bookstore that features a display of staff picks with handwritten reviews. These would be collected and displayed online. But customer lists would also be featured in-store to give them a spotlight.
• Create a creators circuit where the writer of Y: The Last Man and the effects guy from Serenity can talk and meet with fans. We already see this happening at Comiccon and other big events. Let's bring in more people to talk with fans. It's no longer about the head-of-the-tail stars, it's the creatives that contribute that are interesting. And geek fans are loyal fans.
• Product co-creation. Let's take a page from the book of Threadless. They produce customer-created t-shirts that are voted up by the community. Let's invite customers in to vote up merchandise for our shelves. They choose.

The name
Teh PownTown. Teh-ville. I know it sucks. I need some help here. I have become a big fan of Namewire, the name blog. They are the best naming and branding blog out there and I follow them regularly. I am hoping they can help name this IdeaBar idea.

"Teh" is the classic typo for "the" and before you dismiss it completely think of the SEO benefits. "Pown" is current geek speak. "Town" is stupid but like I said, I need some help.

Whatever the name, it must appeal to the fringe sensibility of the geeks even at the expense of becoming a bit of a head-scratcher for the mass market.

Idea Bar #7: Walk-a-thon "Flash"

How many walk-a-thons are there out there? Is it a tried-and-true model for community participation in a good cause or tired-and-tame based upon over-use and lack of imagination? Does it pull in the same walkers or draw new crowds.

Our good friend, Wikipedia defines walkathons(walk-a-thons) as:

"A walkathon (walk-a-thon), or walking marathon is a type of community or school fundraiser where participants raise money by collecting donations or pledges for walking a predetermined distance or course."

And the most notable examples include:

AIDS Walk

Breast Cancer 3Day

MS Challenge Walk

WalkAmerica

Relay for Life

There are, of course, all sorts of other marathons, bike-a-thons, etc.. Walk-a-thons are great because they are accessible to most people. If I can walk, I can make a difference. Even if I cannot walk, I can sponsor someone who can. But there are too many of them.

Bring on the Flash

But it is tired. If I do not have a personal connection to the issue, I overlook the same-same posters promoting something-a-thon on Saturday morning somewhere in America.

What if the next walk-a-thon took a page from Converse.com (their ConverseOne design-your-shoe app) and Poject Runway (their make fashion fun and shareable)? What if participants were invited to customize their sneakers with the grandest of "flash" - you know, homemade sparkly, colorful, wild stuff? Not only would participants do the walk-a-thon thing but they could also participate in a wild and weird fashion show of homemade good and bad taste combined.

Local merchants could sponsor a Friday night event leading up to the Saturday event. Kids could create clubs at school to compete. Those who shun exercise but love showing off would get motivated. We would create Flickr galleries of shoe entries and extend the voting online creating a whole dimansion of engagement that doesn't exist right now. And fresh, new life would breathe nto a tired-yet-true model. (And new money would come in)

Walk-a-thon-a-lulu - that's what I would call it. And I promise not to copyright it or buy the url. Another IdeaBar there for the taking.

(get some ideas here at the Solepedia: encyclopedia of sneakers)

(And check out Rohit's latest IdeaBar on Magazie Subscription Coupons)

Megatrends and the Glory of the Road

Will the shrinking credit market affect the VC market and exhuberance around Web 2.0? Never!

Anyhow, David Beisel at Venrock had an interesting post outlining Seven Ubertrends ripe for VC capital. Here are the first three and I encourage you to click through to see the rest:

"1. The digitalization of transportation experience. Our cars are transforming from motorized transportation into digital immersion experiences. With in-dash devices ranging from GPS, to satellite radio, to integrated telephone controllers, the place where many Americans spend much of their day is going digital. Also, other transportation experiences, namely public transportation, is being affected by a digitalization trend – everything from digital signage in subways to infomation touchscreens in taxis is modifying what we do when going from here to there.

2. Internet’s facilitation of green lifestyle. With concern over the environment becoming a progressively more relevant issue, the web provides a natural vehicle for connecting people to resources and services which lessen impact of individuals on environment. We are at the beginning of “The Green Web” which will provide individuals within our society a leveraged way to positively affect the planet.

3. Influence and word-of-mouth marketing facilitated by online social software. Marketers are increasingly concerned about truly engaging with consumers as the effectiveness of traditional advertising erodes. Social software (in its broadest sense) coupled with the principles of word-of-mouth marketing will provide for successfully reaching potential customers via the most trusted source – people they already know."

Idea Mini-Bar

The first point I find interesting as we have been poking around Sync - the voice activated mobile and MP3 control that is a joint venture between Microsoft and Ford - for a client. It's only natural that we would spend energy figuring out how to make use of our time traveling and especially commuting. I hope some equal energy is spent on making the road experience more glorious and fun via digital.

• What about a digital version of "I Spy" that would let cars traveling the same road participate as a community? "I spy something red near Exit 12...."

• Or a voice activated Yahoo Answers for a local community. Driving through, I could call a 1.800 humber and pose a question about the best diner in town with fresh pie. It gets converted to text, someone answers and it appears on my Google map mashup that is custom published for my trip.

• Or a traffic alert collective where everyone traveling on I95 through Maryland subscribes to a live channel that broadcasts traffic reports called in from the crowd.

I am all for seeing where travel innovations go to make us more productive during those lull moments we cannot control. But I don't want to lose the sense of adventure I get on road trips to the distractions of headphones and DVD consoles.

(image Heart Like a Wheel (2006)  from http://www.takehitoetani.com/hbbb.html)