brandability

I did a little research into ‘appvertising’ and discovered this crazy guy talking about ‘killer appvertising’ way back in January 2006, when You Tube was but a suckling infant at the breast of Mother Web.

He does use the phrase ‘advertisers need to make it as easy as urination’ which if I hadn’t just credited, I would have happily deployed at some conference I’m yet to be invited to speak at.

His total incomprehension as to the workings of his own brain do translate into an interesting point regarding interactive advertising. He’s talking about widgets, without calling them widgets, as banner ads were the first iteration of widgets, embeddable code. Using a platform like Clear Spring modern developers and digital marketeers can now create rich internet applications that can be taken and viewed at the place of the individual’s choosing; Facebook, MySpace, netvibes etc… You Tube is a widget portal in effect, each video is designed to be taken and shared, to be distributed by the viewer.

What this nascent platform lacks is innovation - we have the technology, we just don’t seem to have the creativity to make widgets truly ubiquitous - there is a clear opportunity for brands to lead the way, for example for Conde Nast Traveller to create a ‘green travel’ widget, highlighting environmentally sustainable resorts, promote new methods and awareness of travel’s impact upon the environment, benefitting from the associated brand affiliation. It’s an opportunity to explore new ideas without re-structuring the website (which would benefit from a dev/designover - like a makeover but with pixels and AJAX!) . With Facebook seeking to become the social operating system, widgets are becoming ever more important and if a brand site isn’t already planning a widget strategy it should be. Modern brand managers need to be both creatives and technologists.

Posted in Appvertising, Travel, Viral Marketing, Web Apps, Widget Marketing | 1 Comment »