SES Chicago - December 7-11, 2009

September 29, 2009

Microsoft Windows 7 House Party: Public Relations Disaster or Video Marketing Triumph?

If you create something so bad that it goes viral, is it a public relations disaster or a video marketing triumph?

That's the question that journalists and bloggers are asking after watching HostingYourParty, which tells you how to host a Microsoft Windows 7 House Party.

Microsoft is putting a Tupperware-style twist on the upcoming Windows 7 rollout -- launching a new initiative to encourage thousands of employees, partners and technology enthusiasts to throw parties in their homes and communities to demonstrate and help spread the word about its new operating system.

People accepted as official launch party hosts will get their own copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition, and a chance to win a computer. But unlike the Tupperware model, there will be no literal selling. These parties are more about generating word-of-mouth buzz.

To promote this idea, Microsoft has uploaded a video to YouTube. Some journalists and bloggers think it is a public relations disaster.

Cindy Perman of CNBC writes, "You just knew that once they put the Microsoft geeks in charge of the "party," that it wouldn't be a 10-kegger and before long, we'd all be putting lampshades over our heads."

Ian Douglas, a tech blogger for the Daily Telegraph in London, writes, "I'm beginning to think that no one involved with Microsoft's advertising has ever left the house or spoken to a real person."

And James Lileks of The Bleat writes, "If Microsoft had been put in charge of marketing sex, the human race would have ended long ago, because no one would be caught dead doing something that uncool."

Now, you may be tempted to watch this 6-minute, 14-second video yourself -- to jump to your own conclusion. But, I warn you -- only serious geeks like me will watch beyond the first minute.

HostingYourParty

Now, if Microsoft really wanted to show people how to hold a Windows 7 Launch Party, they might have created a remix of the 1950s educational video below about what, in fact, makes a "good" party.

1950 - What Makes a Good Party

Not all of the reaction to Microsoft's Windows 7 House Party has been negative. Some of it can be charitably described as "mixed."

David Meerman Scott of Web Ink Now, asks, "Is this Microsoft Windows 7 House Party thing real? Or is it an incredibly wonderful and clever spoof on a 50s educational video that is so well done as to have fooled most observers who seem to think it is legit?"

Janice L. Brown of The Fussy Marketer also asks, "Hmm, if something goes viral because it's so bad, does that still count as achieving the marketing goals?"

Nevertheless, Lieutenant Columbo, if he were blogging these days, would ask just one more thing: "Why did Microsoft disable ratings and adding comments on HostingYourParty?"

Is this something you'd do if you were hoping for a video marketing triumph?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Posted by Greg Jarboe at 9:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (20)

June 11, 2009

$14 Million For CircuitCity Domain, Brand = Good Link Buy?

Aaron Wall does a great analysis of the smart play by the company that bought the CircuitCity domain and brand out of bankruptcy as the new high end link buying procedure.

The site is well ranked for many many keywords and with the recent boost of brands in the Google algorithm it could be that $14 million was a bargain that could be recouped very quickly.

Aaron does a great job dissecting the purchase and gives one ideas for gaining lift from less expensive domains that have gone into bankruptcy. I wonder if people will now start looking at bankruptcy reports instead of the expired domain lists.

Posted by Frank Watson at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 18, 2009

Facial Recognition Software Being Used To Take Attendance

Facial recognition software has been made popular from various crime shows, but it seems the real thing is now being used to take attendance at a university in the UK.

Four years ago there were search engines that measured visual similarity, now the NCIS, CSI and other crime show technology is actually being used.

The City of Ely Community College - not Oxford or Cambridge - is setting the standards of the future.

Posted by Frank Watson at 7:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

February 9, 2009

Former eBay CEO Bids For California Governor Job

Meg Whitman, former CEO of eBay, has announced she will seek the Republican nomination for California governor. Whitman is know to be a social moderate but a fiscal conservative.

"California faces challenges unlike any other time in its history -- a weak and faltering economy, massive job losses, and an exploding state budget deficit," LA Times reported Whitman said in a written statement. "California is better than this, and I refuse to stand by and watch it fail."

Interestingly, her site is taking donations for the campaign through PayPal - the online payment platform owned by eBay. I expect her opponents will be checking if she is getting a favored rate.

Former California Republican Governor Pete Wilson will be campaign chairman.

The Republican primary is shaping up to be a battle of the Silicon Valley giants, as her major competitors Steve Poizner - tech entrepeneur who sold his company to Qualcom for $1 billion and Tom Campbell, former Silicon Valley congressman.

Posted by Frank Watson at 5:41 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

January 22, 2009

And Now For Something Completely Different: SEO Wars

Lisa Ditlefsen over at Base One Search has given us some entertaining parody video to enjoy. Appropriately its a "hands in" experience just like any SEO Wars should be.

See Matt Cutts, Ralph Tegtmeier aka Fantomaster, Rand Fishkin, Jane Copland and Greg Jarboe star in this indy video. Watch out Lisa that George Lucas does not come after you.

Check out these soon to be award winning videos.

Posted by Frank Watson at 11:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

September 24, 2008

Rebecca Lieb On Top 100 Silicon Alley's Digital Business Execs

Former head of ClickZ Rebecca Lieb is on the Silicon Alley Insider's Top 100 digital executives list and is moving up into the top ten!

The site is getting users to vote so everyone show some support for a person who worked hard for us.

It is an impressive list of people, well worth a look.

Posted by Frank Watson at 11:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

July 9, 2008

Dick Cheney Is Spamming SEW: As Effective As A Shotgun Blast

As the Forum Editor here at SEW, I have to delete a lot of bogus spam posts. So much to my surprise I came across one new visitor using the screen name Dick Cheney to drop a couple of spam posts about some tool he is pushing from his site.

Obviously not the current Vice President since he is pushing some type of Craigslist toolbar and not shot guns or Enron or Haliburton. Nice try mate - but if Dick Cheney is doing any kind of reputation management he may come hunting for you. And we know he has no inhibitions when it comes to using shot guns.

Good luck with your tool - but link drops and other spam generally gets swept out of the forums pretty quick. We have good mods.

If you want to get links from a search forum I would suggest you spend the time to actually post here and give advice on the areas you know. Develop a presence and reputation for helping others and we allow some links to relevant information on other sites.

Come by and drop links and you waste everyone's time - yours and ours - and if you happen to use a prominent person's name as your nom de spam I would worry about them tracking down your site and creating problems.

Posted by Frank Watson at 5:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

April 18, 2008

Avinash Kaushik, iPerceptions Offering 4Q: Exit Popup To Survey Visitors

Avinash Kaushik is one of the most knowledgeable people in the analytics space, but his newest venture 4Q with iPerceptions may have a problem. One of the pet peeves of Web users is that popups suck.

The idea of a survey to find out what people thought of your site is a good one, especially in a world where site owners are just starting to understand the need for analytics. The survey goes back to the old direct marketing system where restaurants and other brick and mortar services would poll their customers.

But while the information may be invaluable the bad taste exit popups leave in a visitor's mouth is something iPerceptions may have wanted to survey first. The few people discussing the product on the site's forum mention this problem and the drop in conversions the popup may be causing.

True, the message is not a pitch for a sale (well not directly), and many large companies still use the feature (log out of any travel booking site and you will see what I am talking about).

The feature itself can be written with a simple javascript and a landing page, so the outsourcing of it may be more for the novice. But it does give some aggregated information to 4Q and I have yet to read through the privacy policy to see how that may be used in the future.

There are a few features to this that make it a little different. You can actually set the percentage that see it - so you are not pushing it to everyone and could test it on say 10% of your exiting traffic.

I am on the fence right now but still remember how effective those exit popups used to be in grabbing email addresses when I used them a few years ago. One warning, don't put them on any of your pages where you are using AdWords... it is against the T&Cs.

Posted by Frank Watson at 3:57 PM | Permalink

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