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"All the marketing hype that's fit to print"

What Facebook Connect means to marketersYesterday

My Razorfish colleagues Shiv Singh and Jesse Pickard just published a provocative point of view that analyzes the impact of Facebook Connect on the way marketers operate in the digital world.

Shiv and Jesse assert that by extending social media more aggressively to the digital world outside of Facebook, Facebook Connect (and other portable social graphs) will transform how consumers interact with digital technology and each other.

They contend that a new breed of websites is emerging — sites that contain an unheard of amount of information about consumers as well as the ability to integrate more seamlessly wth FacebookS. Shiv and Jesse discuss some interesting “what-if” scenarios to show how Facebook Connect could change Amazon, iTunes, and the iPhone.

This point of view dovetails nicely with an essay published by Marisa Gallagher of Razorfish, “Designing Experiences for the Facebook Generation.” Marisa argues that “social networking is evolving and morphing. It’s now about making the entire Web social intead of just creating a ghetto of destination sites where people have to go to socialize.” She discusses how retailers and even search engines are embedding social media int

Black Friday means social shoppingNovember 28

With the U.S. economy reeling, holiday shoppers have been the focus of heightened scrutiny. Will they turn out in droves in the wee hours on Black Friday and spend lavishly, or will they cave into recessionary fears and pinch their pennies? What are retailers doing to woo this exotic species of American shopper during a downturn? On Black Friday 2008, I decided to do some investigating of my own, which is why I found myself standing in line at a Downers Grove, Illinois, Kohl’s department store at 3:30 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving — the first of many early morning excursions that also included visits to Circuit City, Target, and Toys R Us.

I’ve endured Black Friday before. It’s not an experience to be taken lightly at least in Chicago, where getting a decent place in line to buy a door buster at Best Buy can mean camping out overnight in frigid weather. But I was downright curious to see if Black Friday would be a tamer affair this time. Would I find the shopping lines longer? What kinds of bargains were consumers seeking during an economic downturn — would they buy budget DVDs instead of DVD players?

Intel, Razorfish launch Digital Drag RaceNovember 19

How do you make a computer microprocessor cool?

Intel and my employer Razorfish tackled that challenge November 17 at Dog Patch Studios in San Francisco with the public launch of Intel’s new Core i7 microprocessor — which is the most significant update to the engine that runs your personal computer since Intel launched the Pentium Pro in 1995.

Intel describes Core i7 as the fastest processor on the planet. Unlike any other processor Intel has produced, the target audience for the Core i7 consists of creative professionals — animators, game developers, videographers, and the like. The creative community represents an untapped audience for Intel. They don’t particularly care about understanding the details of how a computer chip works. So how do you reach them?

Our approach: conduct a “Digital Drag Race” November 17 during an event where the Core i7 was formally launched. We supplied two graphic designers with computer equipment powered by the Core i7 and gave them 70 minutes to create a 17-second movie that expresses the theme of “innovation.”

Forrester predicts: consumer 2018October 29

This blog post comes live from the 2008 Forrester Consumer Forum in Dallas, October 28-29, 2008.The October 29 keynote consists of “Consumer 2018: Separating Fact from Fad” by Forrester Principal Analyst Lisa Bradner.Lisa addresses a thorny question: what will consumers be doing 10 years from now?How do you recognize the absolute truths about consumers versus passing fads?

Lisa contends that in the analog world, marketers have done a pretty good job at making things convenient for consumers through mass marketing, witnessed by the ease with which products can be mass produced, marketed, and distributed to your local Target.But too many companies are trying to apply a mass marketing approach to digital, which is why the web is awash with spam.Consequently, many consumers navigate the digital world without marketers.For instance, six out of 10 are influenced by peer reviews.

Consumers trust themselves and each other.But they don’t trust marketers. So how do marketers adapt?

The answer is fairly simple: follow consumer behavior — don’t try to “manage” it.

New Razorfish report studies consumer purchase behaviorOctober 28

Social media influence consumer purchase behavior far more than you might think.

That’s a key finding of new Razorfish thought leadership, FEED: The Razorfish Consumer Experience Report. The report is available in Flash and PDF download here: http://feed.razorfish.com and on the Razorfish Digital Design Blog.FEED, launched on 20 October 20008, helps marketers design better consumer experiences by uncovering insights into consumer behavior in the digital world. The report documents the results of a 2008 survey that Razorfish conducted of more than 1,000 “connected” consumers (a coveted group who spend money online and have access to broadband). Here are a few key findings from FEED that marketers might find noteworthy

1. Social media increasingly influence purchase decisions. Four out of 10 consumers surveyed by Razorfish have made a purchase based on advertising they saw on a social media site, and 76 percent welcome advertising on social networks. Consumers’ purchasing behavior reflects the