Coca-Cola Quest - World Cup

New film from Coca Cola for the Football World Cup. I think it's great! Can't wait for the World Cup in Brazil in 2014!!

Coke Quest from Paranoid US on Vimeo.

A Place in Brazil

I was talking to my friend Jumoke last week about how people can’t live without “being connected” all the time. I don’t understand the reason why but people just feel the necessity of reporting every single thing they do to their friends and everyone else reading their online profiles. And people literally, sleep with their mobiles these days. 
 
The growth of Foursquare and the possibility of updating your location and sharing it make people even more likely to tell the world where they are and what they are doing. Definitely, as said Pete Cashmore - founder and CEO of Mashable, privacy is dead, and social media hold the smoking gun!
 
I was telling Jumoke about a place in Brazil (Chapada Diamantina) that I visited 2 years ago, where I had the opportunity to do a tracking on the forest for 4 days. The place had no electricity, no mobile signal and almost anyone living there. The only thing I could think about was the beauty of the place and how would I cross the next river or climb the next hill. The experience was amazing and I felt that I was living intensely every minute, not worrying about answering work emails, phone call or anything, only me and the nature.
 
Obviously, I enjoyed the time however I can’t imagine myself living a life like that, unaware of what’s happening in the world.
 
But it would be great if sometimes, I could just “turn-off everything” and go back to the peace and freedom of that Brazilian place.

My Experience with Second Life

As an experiment, I decided to try out Second Life. I know that it might seem a little late but as I am studying Digital Marketing and becoming more involved with social media all the time now, I feel the need of experiencing the online world as much as I can, even if it’s just to know how people are using it.
 
So, I began by signing up for an account and choosing my avatar name and figure. I have to say that this first part was funny. Picking a new name and figure made me feel like I could be anyone in the world, “playing” and experiencing what is it like to be a different person.
 
After that, I had to continue and to select a place to start. I thought it would be good to see what kind of Brazilian places they had out there, so I selected a Brazilian Portal, where I would get a “tutorial” about how to use Second Life.
 
Then, I had to download a 'Second Life viewer' to my computer and that didn’t make me happy, but for the sake of the experience, I decided to download it and keep going. They tried to sell me a premium membership of Second Life, offering a beautiful pre-built home and L$1,000 in bonus, but I was definitely not ready for that yet! 
 
Finally, I was “transported” to this island and I was able to see the “new me” on my “new world”. Unfortunately, from now on my experience was very frustrating since I didn’t even know how to walk…Yes, it was like being a little baby again, giving my first steps.
 
Some people started “talking” to me – do you need help? we are here to help you? - And my only concern was not to hit someone while trying to move around (at this point, I didn’t have the full ability to turn right or left...haha!). I know this sound silly but I’m not a gamer and really never had a lot of talent with it.
 
After a couple of minutes playing and figuring out how to live my new life…... I got tired of it and thought it was just too much for me!!

43-year-old woman is the average social gamer!

The topic of my Advanced Digital and Emerging Media class this week will be ‘Gaming and Virtual Worlds’ and while I was doing some research, I found a recent study about ‘social games’ that reveals what is the market of gaming today.

Just to make it clear, ‘social games’ are games designed to be played together with friends, using the infrastructure built by social networks.

The study was conducted by Information Solutions Group for the American casual game developer/publisher, Popcap Games and here are some interesting stats that I would like to share:

·    More females play social games (55% vs. 45%).
·    Social game players average 43 years in age.
·    The majority (41%) of those playing social games work full-time.
·    Fun and excitement (53%), stress relief (45%) and competitive spirit (43%) are the top three reasons people play social games.
·    71% play social games on a desktop computer, 50% play on a laptop computer, while 9% play on a mobile phone.
·    At 83%, Facebook is the primary social networking site social gamers go to play social games, followed by MySpace (24%) and Bebo (7%).
·    Ads promoting games on social networking sites (38%), and word of mouth are the primary ways Internet users hear about new social games.
·    A recommendation from a friend, relative or colleague (60%) is the number one factor influencing the selection of social games, followed by the familiarity with the title/played a similar game elsewhere (46%).
·    At 51%, PopCap’s Bejeweled Blitz is the most popular game among social gamers, followed by FarmVille (44%) and Mafia Wars at 32%.

As Playfish CEO, Kristian Segerstrale said in a recent interview, social experiences are more compelling than traditional gaming experiences for the vast majority of people. Add to that Facebook’s ability for users to tell their friends what they’re playing, even those who aren’t also playing the game, and the reach of these games becomes unprecedented.

To see the full study, click here.

iPad on the news!

The topic most talked on the weekend has been the release of the Apple iPad. My twitter is full of messages about it!
 
According to TechCrunch, sentiment is split on the ipad: people either love it, or hate others for not shutting up about it. But everyone is still searching for information about the iPad online (see the trending search term on Google).

*Google trend data (April, 4th 2010): Scale is based on the average worldwide traffic of ipad in the last 30 days.

I still don’t know what iPad has to offer and its business strategy, but to tell you the truth, I would love to have one. I always like to try new technologies and every Apple new “gadget” is a temptation to me.
 
Yet when I stop and think, I question myself about the real necessity of having an iPad: Laptop, smartphone...why would I want to carry another device??
 
So, I will wait and see what others have to say about it. I’m sure it will be easy as per the volume of posts, tweets and discussions about it on the web his weekend. 
 
Given the history of success of Apple, I’m certain that they will find a way to show the value of the iPad to the world. I definitely see no explicit need for an iPad right now, but I don’t question Apple’s power to create a new need, that I was not aware that I had until now…
 
For further info on the iPad, check the links below:

Waiting in Line for the iPad [VIDEO]
HOW TO: Get Started with the iPad
Live Blogging the iPad’s Big Day
New iPad launch-day estimate: 600,000-700,000 sold
Hands-on with the Apple iPad: Groundbreaking Or Not, It’s Still Amazing
Laptop Killer? Pretty Close

 

The new bizarre online fad

Want to catch up with the latest online diversion? Then, check the video below.


chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.

If you saw the video until the end, you now know a bit of Chat roulette, a website that randomly links users to one another through web-cam conversations -- and attracts some of the strangest people in the world.

For me it seems very weird to go to a website to talk to people you’ve never heard before and if the person thinks you are not good looking or don’t have an nice conversation, they can easily press the “next” bottom to spin the wheel to connect to the next random stranger. Obviously, the chances you find someone with whom you wish to actually speak are incredibly small…

And despite its weirdness, Chatroulette is in the roll. According to TechCrunch, the young website quadrupled in size in a month, attracting 3.9 million visitors worldwide in February, up from 944,000 in January, 2010.

I didn’t have the guts to try it myself, but I would love to know your thoughts if you ever decide to try it…

The importance of product reviews

While programming my Spring Break trip to California, I realized how important the reviews are today. In my experience they were very influential if not determinant of my choices of hotels and car rental companies.

As we all know, the Internet has become a key information source for researching products. According to Nielsen Online when making purchase decisions, North American Internet users trust recommendations from people they know and opinions posted by unknown consumers online more than advertisements on television, on the radio, in magazines and newspapers, or in other traditional media.

People read reviews because they try to get the most out of what they pay for and they want to know all the “secrets” about the product before they make a purchase. If the product page by itself does not make customers want to make a purchase, they will certainly look for more information before they go ahead and make the final decision.

Customers are looking for an honest opinion from someone they trust because money is tighter than it has ever been for many people and consequently, they want to make an informed decision. Reading reviews online can help strengthening a customer’s trust and belief on the product or brand.

So, it’s definitely very important for companies to pay attention to that and not to be afraid of the negative reviews. In fact, the majority word of mouth is positive. As said by BazzaarVoice, across all of Bazaarvoice US clients, 80% of product ratings are 4 or 5 stars out of 5. And across all of Bazaarvoice UK clients, 88% of product ratings are 4 or 5 stars out of 5.

While it is truth that people reading good reviews tend to sway towards the product because of the established trust other people have on that particular product or service, customers are also looking for negative reviews.

Negative and sincere reviews establish credibility. Customers know that if there aren't dissenting opinions about a product, then the opinions aren't real. If all they see are five-star reviews, they're reading testimonials, not authentic, credible customer reviews to help make a purchase decision.

As I said, reading customers’ reviews made a huge difference on the purchase decisions for my trip to California and it helped me to be more confident about my choices. So, as a customer and as a marketer I truly believe that reviews can help retailers to improve conversion rates, drive sales and increase customer satisfaction, since customer will know what to expect of the product or service they are about to purchase.