Bit by Bit: Finding Our Humanity Online and Off

I was cruising the Web with a friend today, foraging through Fandango, pillaging on Pandora, and seeking out some juicy gems on Facebook, when it dawned on me how much power the Internet truly has. And I mean this not only in the obvious way, but also in a more visceral sense — even when you’re spending time with a person face-to-face, the Internet can enhance the moment and make it pop. It can make it all the more immediate.

I'll explain. While the social potential of the Internet is pretty duh by this point, the reason I feel this topic is extra compelling snowballed out of the fact that tonight, I wasn’t with just any friend — I was on a first date.

That's right. A first date. To wit: We were enjoying ourselves in a blur of contentment after wolfing down the best Brussels sprouts I’ve ever had, when we proceeded to huddle around the laptop. As we sat in front of the computer, the awkwardness and crushing self-awareness that hover close to most first dates suddenly began to float away — we were just there, two friends having a fun time.

“Check out the comments for this movie!” “Ooh ooh, that’s a great song!” “Wait, you know Hannah too?” “Ha! What’s that face you’re making?” “OMG, your hand looks like it’s attached to that hobbit-looking dude.” “Oh check out this video, it was shot right outside your building.” “No way, I can’t believe she spelled that with an ‘s.’ What a poser!”

And on and on. It was a get-to-know-each-other experience set to fast forward. But more than that, it was a stimulating, effortless and enjoyable evening, and the connection we made was real. And no, I don’t mean this in a romantic, schlocky kind of way, but in a satisfying, warm and intrinsically human way.

So while many might forebode technology as the beginning of the end to our humanity — chipping away at our souls and sucking out whatever’s left of our spiritual essence — I believe it can bring us closer to whom we really are. We just need to relax, enjoy it and strap ourselves in for the ride. Yes?

Cable Provider Inadvertently Gets all Reggeaton on Our Unsuspecting Selves

I love this commercial for IO Optimum Triple Play. Check it: the chola mermaid hos, the fast-rhyming wetback sea monster who's getting his tail chopped off, the pillaging Boricua pirates, the rapper dude's decidedly fashionable Latino-thug hairdo... It's all so ludicrous, the camp almost goes unnoticed. But pay a smidge of attention and you'll be hugely rewarded with a dumbfounded dose of ethnic absurdity.

So what if it plays off of a musical movement bent of taking out moral values and musical artistry everywhere the salsa sun shines? It's too funny. Estamos? Below the lyrics to this advertising mess-gone-right:

Mi gente, Optimum Triple Play is in the house!

IO Digital Cable
Watch a lot of channels, whenever you're able.
HD is free, let me put it on the table
For $29.95, you get to sign the label

877-393-4448!

Optimum Online, so fast so fine,
Dial-up and DSL you gonna leave it behind.
C'mon mi gente, let's get online
For $29.95, it'll blow your mind.

877-393-4448!

Optimum Voice, call your mom, call your date
Call all you want from state to state,
Puerto Rico and Canada just one flat rate.
For $29.95, do I have to translate?!?

Remember you can get Optimum Voice Worldcall
Talk with anybody in the world, so call!

877-393-4448!

The savings are for real,
The Triple Play is the deal.
Estamos.

Time Freeze in Grand Central

Morph it Like a Polaroid Picture — Internet Events Flicker, Fade Away

As I was catching up on my online reading today, perusing my daily blog roundup for salacious posts on the latest Britney shenanigans, I came across this nifty little site that uses insta-technology to serve up some tantalizing results. The idea behind MorphThing is simple: With a few effortless clicks and drags, you can morph uber-known famous faces together to create quirky-if-somewhat-eerie images of celeb-hybrid spawns.

What sets this site apart from others of the same kin is the ease with which these morphs can be produced, the realism of (some of) the images, and the different Web 2.0 functionalities leveraged by the site. There are rankings, user ratings, comment streams, blog threads, homepage updates, e-mail-a-friend — the whole works. Hell yeah!

I know, I know, as a buzzy e-concept, Web 2.0 may be totes five-minutes-ago, but when it comes to consuming and blogging about sites like this, the term seems to fit the bill just right. MorphThing is the kind of Internet distraction that curious netizens like myself eat up in a heartbeat, if only to pass it on to our digital contacts in hopes we’re the early adopters of an inevitable viral cascade. It’s so digital zeitgeist: Play around with the site, tell your friends, recommend, get obsessed, tire of it, get over it, discard and move on to the next digital discovery.

Internet relevancy today is most glorious when it’s sugary and fleeting. Here today, gone tomorrow. A digital flash in the pan. Says so much, yet says nothing at all. Burns bright, then RIP. Like MorphThing. Amusing? Yes. Crafty? Also. Mind-blowing? Meh. Life-changing? Not so much. But it’s got some blogs a’buzzin’. Thoughts?

Let's See that Again! 10 Landmark Viral Videos of 2007

Top 10 lists have been bubbling up out of blogosphere with torrential tenacity this year. The Internet is brimming hysterically with them. And who doesn’t love lists, rankings and countdowns? I know I do! And so does everyone else who watches Vh1 or E! or even Animal Planet.

Anyway, this latest top 10 compilation comes straight from Gawker, and it’s one of the craziest and most hysterical I’ve seen so far — it's pure, unadulterated digital shock and awe. So what is it? It's a ranking of the most most popular and pop culturally (ir)relevant viral videos of 2007, of course!

Bet you can't watch any of these just once, no matter how much you try and pry your eyes away. Trust me: You'll be doing double-takes and re-clicking that Play button to get a good glimpse of the nutty goings-on in these videos, many of which I'm positive you've already seen.

Also, I think this list captures online zeitgeist the best, spouting absurd precision and one-up sarcasm with understated charm. The list makes a task of documenting the digital events that made the noisiest splash online this year, stopping Internets in their tracks and making them take notice.

Watch this “marvelous cut-the-chase montage” put together by the Gawker gang over and over again, then snap out of your dumbfounded daze and love on this post with some comments!

Honest to Blog? Best and Worst of 2007

Tune in to iMediaConnection and find out which online marketing campaigns the experts are touting as cutting-edge for 2007. Widgets, UGC, touch points, mobile, video, clickthrough, viral, rollout, social media, BT, analytics… all the trendy marketing buzzwords and phrases are tossed around freely and without restraint here.

The article is chock-full of interesting opinion and fanciful forecasts for 2008, and will have you making conjectures and coming up with ideas of your very own.

So check it out to see which campaigns have been labeled phenomenal flops and which are considered the best and the brightest of 2007 (high-five for automotive and film!); also, find out what’s in store for next year and what's shaping up to be the next big marketing platform. Will it be mobile? Facebook’s Beacon? What do you think will be the biggest online marketing trend of 2008? And which up-and-coming marketing blogs deserve our praise?

Music as Brushstroke — When Sounds Splash on a Digital Canvas

Here’s a standout site that a friend of mine sent my way last week. It’s really somethin’ else — and in an effort to keep you dialed in on the latest innovations popping up around the Web, I’ve decided to blog this one out.

Check it: The Life House Method is an imaginative proposition that uses specialized software to create musical portraits. Here's how it works: The software, created by a team manned by a composer/mathematician and comprised of Web developers and musicians, reads jpegs of your likeness as if following a grand staff, and then patches together musical notes and auditory references with sonorous, skillful sensuality to paint a unique musical masterpiece that captures your precise mood and personality.

It’s an all-out celebration of synesthesia — by merging the senses into one hallucinatory adventure, The Life House Method manages to blur the line between vision and sound by weaving pitch-perfect online sensory experiences that are bound to surprise. And with the latest news of Leonardo da Vinci encoding music into The Last Supper, the idea of creating harmony from images rings right on target.

With sweet pings, sultry arrangements, colorful notes, melodic clangs, pulsating beats, and at-attention rhythms, most of the portraits showcased have the power to both intrigue and provoke. So check it out. I know it has left me wondering: What would my very own musical portrait look— I mean, sound — like? What about yours?

Guerilla Marketing Thru Instant Messaging

You’ve just come up with a standout sitelet-based marketing campaign. The creative is sparkling and spot-on, the messaging is laser-focused, and the troops are ready for deployment. There’s just one problem: There’s zero budget for an effective e-mail blast or OLA campaign to reel in some targeted traffic. So what to do?

There’s one alternative that might do the trick: Instant Messaging! That’s right. I’ve found that you can jump-start a promising campaign thru some of the chat channels most commonly used on the Web: MSN Messenger, Windows Messenger, Google Talk, AIM, or any other app you use to quick-relay digital dialogue.

And I’m not talking about IM spam either. Dialog windows that pop open with unwarranted commercial messages and interrupt you while at work will do your guerrilla campaign in. However, a simple URL in your IM status might be enough to pique your contacts’ curiosity.

This, in turn, can spark an engaging conversation, which can snowball into something unexpected. And if you have enough people doing this on your end, your brand can gain some edgy, underground awareness from a few much-coveted influencers and trendsetters, eventually pushing your campaign over the tipping point with some welcome viral force.

After all, it’s no secret that today, a well-intentioned e-mail campaign can disintegrate into garbage and unwanted spam in your recipients’ inbox if not executed with delicate precision and technological know-how. And no serious company wants that—even a start-up in desperate need of getting noticed.

So take a stab at a well-crafted guerilla strategy that leverages your IM contact lists. Can it yield the results you’re after?

Quirky Online Games for the Plucky Office Procrastinator

I have to admit I’m a sucker for branded online games. I love the old-school feel that comes from playing them, the throwback to the Atari and original Nintendo-style graphics, the simplicity of the keyboard controls, and the thrill and gratification that comes from beating a game of low-to-medium difficulty. I’m hooked. And many users throughout the Internets are, too.

And more to the point: As viral marketing campaigns, online games almost always hit a bull’s eye. The reasons are obvious: They grab user attention for long periods of time, serve as free advertising, provide a distinct interactive brand experience, and help players self-identify with a specific corporate messaging.

Of course, any sort of online gaming experience—especially that of a nostalgic nature—will inevitably cut into the productivity of anyone’s day. It’s hard to hype up a time-consuming hobby frequently frowned upon at the office by administrative types. I’ve found, however, that dabbling in a little online fun can do just the trick to mushroom that imaginative spark and transform it into spot-on creative execution.

If, for example, you have a slam-dunk idea but still need to hash out the details, a dash of online gaming can help you carve out the finishing touches. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and check out some of the following branded games. If they don’t help you come up with some quirky and totally awesome digital marketing ideas of your very own, I invite you to go off on me on this very post with an irate comment or two. So here goes:

Headcase, from Wrigley’s Candystand: Use your mighty brainpower and oversized head to collect green diamonds and bounce your way out of chewy situations in this land of bubblegum wonders.

Absolut Disco, from Absolut Vodka: Not so much a game as a groovy online experience, this Studio54-inspired disco affair lets you boogie down to a myriad of keyboard-controlled late 70s psychedelia while using your webcam. Far out!

Zuma, by Yahoo! Games: From the makers of Bejeweled and Bookworm, this PC-only game is guaranteed to swallow up tons of your time. Swivel your stone frog and chuck your colored balls in the right direction before the hungry Aztec idol gobbles up the entire string of balls with a single swooping gulp.

Now that you know where to go, go ahead and kill some of that valuable office time. Let me know if these games get your creative juices flowing. Happy gaming!

Your Reading Companion for 2008: Make it a Kindle?

I’m not really known to suffer from the kind of Asian gadget fetish that has stricken many of today’s in-the-know urban professionals, who at times seem to be in sears need of intervention from their iPhone and Blackberry dependency.

Every so often, however, I’m blown away by the news of an innovative technology to the point where I feel I must jump head-first into the online conversation and offer up my two cents on the latest and greatest whiz-bang device.

Which is what I have decided to do now. So let's begin: If you haven't already, say hello to… drum roll please… the Amazon Kindle! Check it out: The Kindle is an all-new e-book reader, a crafty contraption brought to you by Amazon.com that builds on the functionalities of the Sony Reader by offering wireless connectivity and the possibility to subscribe to newspapers, blogs, magazines, and online comment streams, as well as the option to purchase e-books on the spot. In other words, it bitch-slaps the Sony Reader into technological obscurity with a definite techno sleight-of-hand.

Many in the blogosphere and in traditional media are calling the Kindle a milestone in technological innovation. And when it comes to traveling light, it really can’t be beat. As soon as I get my hands on one I’m totes buying it.

Online reviews have been mixed but promising: The Kindle’s screen is mellow and crisp, it’s easy on the eyes, and the e-ink reads perfectly under direct sunlight or in pitch dark—no need for sunglasses or a lamp to guide your eyes. It doesn't have a trackpad, but the keyboard and intuitive controls are getting high scores. It's not perfect, but it has potential.

And the Kindle has an undeniable advantage: It is eco-friendly through-and-through. No longer do we have an excuse to plow down patches of rainforest to ensure bestsellers make the global bookstore rounds. So let’s all rekindle (ha!) our reading habits through digital. Might we all soon say goodbye to books altogether?

Creative Spotlight: Oregon Trail Reloaded

Here’s an online experience I’m elated to endorse: Check out Thule Road Trip! If you ever played Oregon Trail on Apple II--and I’m sure at least a handful of you did--you’ll be overflowing with excitement at the thought of an all-new Web-based game, brought to you by Thule Sweden, that plays just like the original. As a digital marketing campaign aiming for higher consumer awareness, this game is right on the money.

Thule Road Trip, accessible on the Thule homepage, recaptures the spirit of Oregon Trail and the American Western Expansion with 4-bit programming, clunky graphics and choice-led gaming, and then infuses the pioneering experience with some modern-day Manifest Destiny.

What was once a desperate plight to stay alive before reaching the promised lands of Oregon is now a postmodern party-on-wheels experience that threatens to end too quickly if you can’t keep your passengers entertained or your car tuned and on the go. It's standout creative and impressive execution rolled into a can't-miss experience for retro gamers and cool hunters alike.

Remember the embattled oxen, the cholera-prone companions, and the ease with which a broken hand or leg could bring about sudden death on the Oregon Trail? Now, you can run out of fresh CDs to play, blow a tire or two, read through all your magazines too quickly, or even have your passengers freak out and give each other purple nurples. And don’t burn all your money! If you get pulled over for speeding and can’t cough up enough dough for the ticket, it’s game over, roadie.

As a manufacturer of car rack systems, RV accessories, and vehicle spare parts, Thule has really hit the nail on the marketing head with Thule Road Trip. Not only does the branded game offer a solid dose of digital nostalgia, it also celebrates the great outdoors and the thrill of automotive. It’s creative concepting at its best, no doubt. Play the game, have some online fun, and let me know if you make it all the way to Santa Barbara!

Creatures on the Canvas: Horror Invades Art

Not for nuthin', but it seems horror is everywhere these days. I've been feeling extra ghoulish of late myself, to be honest. I guess it's because it's Halloween? Whatever the case, I'll start off by apologizing for the back-to-back bizzaro posts on bilious bloodletting and horror hysteria. Next time, I'll author a post dedicated to ponies or something.

But back to it: Today's recommendation is a real treat, both for horror film followers and fine arts fans alike. Go ahead and indulge your inner Tales from the Crypt keeper and check out this "Horror Inside Fine Art" contest by Worth 1000, courtesy of Mario Bucolo Museums Blog, a site which touts itself "a blog about museums and culture."

The contest is a whirl of digital imagination where painting, legend and film collide to provide a raison d'être for pop cultural experimentation; it is digital art at it's best, to be sure. So I say, move over MoMa! Online is where avant garde art lives today.

Anyway, scroll down through all of the Photoshop-enabled creations. “Samara Lisa” is one of my faves, as it's a wry, immaginative twist on the ubiquitous Mona Lisa painting, and out of all the Mona Lisa entries, it's by far the cleverest. “Comte de Darkness” is another one I like, mostly because I'm a big a fan of Legend. “Roticelli” is good too: It looks like the guy in Boticelli's "Portrait of a Youth" took shrapnel to the face before zombiefying, turning this classic painting on its head.

Some entries are lackluster, but whatevz; all are fun. Maybe a few of these could work as crafty Halloween costumes? What do you think? And which entry is your favorite? Let me know, creatures of the night!

Mystery Trailers Hype Gore Galore

Hands down, digital is the ideal medium to hype up and build buzz around an upcoming film, this because online allows marketers to cast a wide-enough digital net across The Long Tail, leverage behavioral targeting techniques with skill, pique curiosity, and hone in on the desired audience with laser-guided precision.

Moreover, the Internet encourages innovative, creative ways to build up a marketing campaign before a movie opens that are not plausible in traditional media and that can help ensure a first weekend box office slam-dunk. This is always a cool phenomenon to watch. I will forever be a sucker for hype, I have to admit, especially when it snowballs online.

So on this note, and after my two-second analysis of the status of online entertainment marketing, I give you three movie trailers meant to leave you with an itchy case of what-was-that whiplash:

1. REPO! The Genetic Opera. Is this a musical? Is it sci-fi? Is it splatter cinema meets musical torture porn? Whatever it is, it looks awesome. Think of it as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, only more gore, less gay. This movie is gonna blow up next year, I'm pretty sure. The fact that Paris Hilton stars (and sings!) in it is a marketing ploy that will pay off in spades. Check out the teaser trailer here.

2. Cloverfield. So no one knows the real name of this much-anticipated, J. J. Abrams-produced monster movie, but many Internets tip "Cloverfield" as the most probable title. This "what the...?" inducing trailer has been causing endless speculation in the mainstream media since it first reared its head in cinemas this past summer, playing for packed movie houses before Transformers, and it's been gaining momentum online ever since. It looks like it will offer audiences a good dose of gory goodness, or at the very least, provide moviegoers with no-frills, feel-good frights and jump-out-of-your-seat jolts. It's one for the books.

3. Mystery movie trailer. Here's a "trailer" that might probably not be a film trailer at all, but the ending is still pretty freaky. If it's not a movie, it totes should be. What the hell is this castaway building?

Handheld camera shots a lá Blair Witch, singing henchmen hell-bent on disembowelment, Internet hype and marketing mayhem. It looks like 2008 will be an interesting year for celluloid. Thoughts?

Digital Pings to Primp and Preen

Is it just me, or do you find the ping factor excessively annoying? Let me explain: Throughout the day, as I plug away at the office, I’m constantly interrupted by different types of digital notifiers calling for my attention: email alerts, meeting reminders, Google alerts, IM messages, RSS feed updates, incoming VoIP calls, virus scans, Facebook updates, and even cell phone calls and text messages.

I believe that's the entire list—I might be forgetting something. The point is, my computer sometimes feels like the 4^th of July, with windows and pop ups blanketing my screen without care or compunction.

Every day, I am forced to cull through these and separate the urgent from the important from the remind-me-later, and then trash the thanks-but-not-necessary and the waste-of-my-time. I find this irksome, since it’s hard to focus on a single task at any given moment and it makes me feel like I’m treading water instead of getting any work done.

Amidst the madness, however, there’s the one-off, totally inspirational, captivating or useful blog post or e-mail that makes it all worthwhile. And if it wasn’t for computer pings, I would never remember anyone’s birthday, to be totally honest.

As I uncork the most urgent pings and follow through on these, I become decidedly glad that my computer keeps track of my obligations for me, and a sense of accomplishment settles in. After all, there’s no way I would remember everything on my own. Sure, an agenda could help I guess, but it feels crass and I would treat it askance. I need digital pings to remind me of my day-to-day commitments, to clip away at the useless, and to keep me from dropping the ball.

So what about you? Can any of you claim you don’t depend on digital pings to get through you day?