Thursday, 13 August 2009

District 9 QR Codes - Snap 'em quick!

I saw this on PSFK and have mixed feelings about it. It's a great piece of Guerilla advertising for upcoming Sci-Fi film District 9, and it features a QR Code, which is generally 'a good thing' if it leads to good and useful content (this is unconfirmed). However there are two concerns:



1) You are, as SFK's Francisco Hui points out, going to break your neck trying to snap the code in order to access the content. However engaging and valuable it is, it is unlikely to keep you amused while you're in traction having gone headfirst down a flight of stone Subway steps.

2) A QR Code, like anyone who has had to scan a barcode will tell you, works best when it is clear. Sticky tape like this absolutely fits in with the feel of the movie, and gives you an excuse to place the ad in a strange place (although I would be interested to see if permission was sought). However, I'd question whether the creases evident in the QR Code itself will allow you to actually capture the code properly and access the content.

Pavement/Sidewalk ads have been used well recently, notably for the launch of Wired Magazine, but has anyone sued a QR Code in pavement advertising (I am betting yes they have in Japan)? Or is it a recipe for people bumpijg into you as you bend over to take a picture of the pavement?

Just a thought.

Tuesday, 11 August 2009

My Blog got a Google PlusBox!

I've done some work with Google's Product PlusBox, which allows you to advertise several products within the same paid search listing, for example a number of Nokia phones available on O2, or a range of several beds. I did not, however, expect to see one for my very own Blog.

As I do occasionally out of interest (and mainly to check that I am still above Rick Lamb - America's Premier Horse Racing DJ), I Googled myself this morning. The results were surprising not because I'm top, although that never ceases to amaze me, but because there is a second listing that is indented and incorporates a PlusBox.



The PlusBox expands to show five additional posts, thankfully all of the type that make me look intelligent and like I know what I'm talking about. I'd like to think they reinforce the sort of subjects I talk about, from an apparaisal of Berocca's Blogger Outreach programme (I never got my Berocca Blogger Relief Pack incidentally, despite being told it had been sent) a year ago, to my French Wikipedia-referenced post about Google's Street View Astronaut, and the post which saw me followed on Twitter by a number of new Tweeters who only followed celebrities.



I'm not the only one either. If you search, as I'm sure a lot more people do than search for me, for Nick Burcher, you get a similar range of his wisdom, from Facebook User Statistics to Waitrose Pinatas and Eurovision predictors.



On initial tests of the Beta version, this will not be a feature of Google Caffeine. I'll also fall behind 'the other Rick Lamb'. I definitely prefer the De-Caff version of Google.

Aleksandr the Meerkat starts Facebook Petition to get 'Simples' into the Dictionary

Not content with being quoted by everyone from Davina McCall and Ant and Dec to the Arsenal squad, Aleksandr the Meerkat is campaigning to get the word 'Simples' into the Oxford English Dictionary.

The campaign is on Facebook and has a few signees already, but is sure to gain momentum. It's also exactly the kind of publicity that new editions of dictionaries like, knowing that when they ad words like 'ming' it will generate publicity.



Uptake is sure to be huge given Aleks' tweet to his over 22,000 Twitter followers about the campaign. The petition was prompted by Aleksandr's dispute with Sergei the IT meerkat over a game of Scrabble, another Facebook staple.



A great idea, and I'm off to sign the petition. Simples.

Wednesday, 5 August 2009

Your brand is no stronger than your reputation...

...and will increasingly depend on what comes up when you are Googled. A quote by Allan Jenkins from Paul Isakson's excellent What's Next In Marketing And Advertising 2009.

Tuesday, 4 August 2009

A Party Theory of Twitter

@Iaintait explains why you should like Twitter.