The Generalist

Microsoft and the worst ad campaign... ever

Why does Microsoft make such terrible advertisements? I just found this one on Revver, embedded below.  It's awful! Two 50-something paper-pushing nobody employees who have worked next to each other over 3 decades are united when "a guy with a drill" takes out the wall between their desks. The only words I can think of to describe it: "Fucking awful".

I could say something about how nobody would ever want to aspire to be like anything or anyone in their ad, and how their agency, CMO, and frankly whole marketing department should be fired for that crap, but the ad - and the entire campaign - speaks for itself. Fucking awful.

"A" for conclusion, "F" for effort

Facebook is going to kick ass Google-style.

'nuff said.

Hillary for President - On Facebook?

In the afternoon slow period I thought I'd comment on a recent post I found on Hillary Clinton's Facebook "wall" ... wonder if she's come across it yet:

Grant Harris (Erin District High School) wrote
at 4:00pm
well you see first of all bitch and slut are not derogatory terms to women in general i for one think having a women presidant would be a good think...i do think hillary as an individual is a bitch, and i say the same about u, i think bush is a bastard which is equivilent, they are all fucked up...and when did i ever give an opinion on gay marriage and abortion...im not making that an issue people can do w.e they want in their personal lives that should not be a government issue...but thats besides the point here....and u know what the whole feminist movement is becoming really old, i think its pretty obvious in this day and age that women are equal to men...in north america that is...so why dont we cut all this sexist shit its growing really old, what more do you want to be superior then men? because as i see it thats the direction that the feminist movement is heading

I'm sure someone will figure out how to use community technology for politics... looks like Ms. Clinton's staff has some more thinking to do.

The web spectrum

There are two intersecting continuums on the internet. The first, primary axis is the range from broadcast (e.g. NYT online) to community (e.g., Facebook). On the broadcast end, nearly 100% of a site's content is created by that site; in the case of the NYT the only thing that isn't are "letters to the editor". The opposite of course is the Facebook, where nearly 100% of the site's content is created by the community. MySpace has been drifting away from community towards broadcast, as has YouTube (if it every really had "community" to begin with).

Digg, Yardbarker and other sites like them, curiously, fit in the middle of this spectrum. The content is added by the community and chosen by the community, but it has a pedigree more like that of broadcast editorial.

At this strange middle comes another, perpendicular axis: aggregation vs. niche. The ultimate aggregator is Google, taking content in on literally every conceivable subject and letting users filter to find what they like. The ultimate niche sites cater to only a handful of people - perhaps a family home page, with a maximum audience (barring newsworthy family drama) in the single or low double digits (I offer no comment on that last link, by the way). What the niche site lacks in broad appeal it makes up for in specificity. My axes may have to bend a little here... is an individual Facebook or MySpace page - or Dabble user page - a niche site?

More on this later...

Starbucks (again)

So AdAge followed up their Starbucks article with another article, this time about how there aren't any alternatives to Starbucks. True, a bit of harsh reality for a New Yorker but for those of us with west coast roots, totally misplaced.

From Peet's coffee up here in the Bay Area to Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf down in SoCal, not to mention southern California's endless beaches and Northern California's... um... outdoors, us on the west coast just simply have it better than NYC. And that isn't even to mention the plethora of Seattle coffee houses. We have places "third" through "hundredth".

True, when I visit Colorado, or Topeka, Kansas, my choices are limited to Starbucks and Starbucks. But just wait a year or two... Starbucks won't get their A-Game back before their customers self-segment into more niche 3rd places.

Finally, Starbucks' Reign Ends!

An Ad Age article today points out the obvious: Starbucks has squandered its brand. Duh!

I think it's a great thing, because it proves what they teach everyone in Marketing 101, that if you overextend your brand, you'll start to lose it. It's hard to tell when, exactly, Starbucks overextended - was it the coffee on airplanes? or maybe in supermarkets? or maybe the corner outlet in WalMart? Or all of the above?

And that's just the coffee! Have you ever tried their food? How hard can it possibly be to make a decent sandwich for $7? Or a scone for $2? The food in Starbucks reminds me of the lunch food in London, only Starbucks is usually worse.

So, if you don't go there for the coffee (trust me, it's miserable - the espresso itself is usually burned, and the milk is always burned) and the food is only more miserable, why go there? Because you need a place to sit for a few minutes, and your only alternative is McDonalds - and McD's smells like fries, just like AdAge says.

The "fast casual" segment of the food industry is exploding right now. If Starbucks doesn't get its act together another company with a decent-smelling product (coffee, tea, or bread - once carbs are back in favor) is going to eat its lunch by providing comfortable seating and a nice atmosphere. And maybe free WiFi. Because that's all Starbucks ever did - except they branded it and packaged it nicely, and charged $10/day for internet. Now that their fundamental product sucks (not that it was ever very good) they will hit a rough patch. Because it doesn't matter how much the steak sizzles if it's stringy and overcooked.

The Third Place Online

It's been a while - perhaps too long - since I pontificated. Thanks, Jack, for pointing that out.

I read an interesting WSJ article on whether or not the "third place" can be a place online. Like the famous Starbucks analogy (apparently it wasn't Howard Schultz but rather Ray Oldenburg, a sociology professor, who came up with it) we have our work and our homes, but both are stratified and stressful. Where do we go to relax? Starbucks' answer was, the coffee shop. Some would probably suggest a bar, or maybe a gym. Jason Fry suggests we should also consider places online to be the third place people go to to get away.

It's so obvious it's almost self-evident.

But then again, I read an analyst report where the analyst said that video games are escapist, and therefore Electronic Arts, Activision and the gaming industry in general wouldn't do well, because things in America are so great people don't need any escape. Hey, dude - whatever you're smoking, please pass it to the right!

So back to online. Perhaps, as my friend Blair has always said, video games really are "digital crack" cocaine, but they do fill that void. You don't have to be tall, short, male, female, smart, dumb, or anything else - you can choose from the outset what to be. Of course, if you're stupid, you probably won't ever amount to much. And if you're not a risk-taking leader type of person, you'll end up begging your friends for tips. But those people online, they're real people. It doesn't matter how smart you are, some of them are at least as smart as you - and they might beat you, if you don't really try.

The situation is different for websites, and social activity that draws on the real world. Take Yardbarker, a great site if you're a sports fan. Not just an armchair sports fan, though - a hardcore, bleed-the-color-orange sports fan. Let's face it, even if you own the team, you're only a skosh more important than any one of the other 60,000 people in a stadium (except, of course, if you're a player and at work). And for the other 59,999, season tickets, luxury box, whatever - you're still at someone else's show. That kind of escapism - for the president and a carpenter to have a burger off of the tailgate of a car - is the kind of thing that keeps the fabric of regular society functioning. It's great that that can happen online, too. Just remember: online and off, i'm an amateur chef. So don't take my advice there too seriously. And, try though I might, I'll never achieve "hardcore" status in videogaming. Even in Mortal Kombat (damnit, Jon Delshad!).

Are we doing something right at Dabble?

Having been at Dabble for 10 weeks I'm pretty used to surprises. But today is different.

Yesterday our alexa numbers were going nuts. Tons of new people checking out the site, poking around, finding some cool online videos. But today's Alexa numbers are even more nuts. It's making it hard to focus on actually getting stuff done!

Anyway, to the five of you who read my blog every day (it's down from a high of over 10, one day, back in August or September) just know that I can get people to check out a website, even if it isn't my own.

Dabble hits 5 million videos

Yeah, scooping myself... it's a new low. So check out the Dabble blog in 10 minutes...

Dabble Challenge starts today!

Dabble's hosting a cool contest - somebody will win every day all month long, and a couple people will win big - $500 or a video iPod.

Check out the dabble site at noon today for more info!