Monthly Archives: June 2012

Daily Links – June 28, 2012

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Each business day we post links to our favorite news items related to the digital distribution trade, as well as a few tidbits about the assets being distributed. We categorize them accordingly. This is… Pushing Content:

Pushing

Content

In the Digital Age, Products are Also Services

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If a product is fantastic, but the user experience is lacking, customers will eventually stop buying.  A company selling an asset in the digital age also has to provide a medium in which to do so.  In the era of pushing content, the web site, software or app is the new storefront, movie theater or local hangout.  And if that storefront is dingy, outdated or just plain ugly, the customers will stop visiting regardless of the quality of the product on offer.  Whether you’re selling the latest and greatest widgets, or hawking must-have subscriptions, the method through which you bring the product to your customers is a service.

Are you testing the quality of this service as thoroughly as you’re testing the quality of your product?  Similar to real world experiences, customers make judgments on the value of your product based on their interpretation of the experience interacting with your brand.  Clients do not want to do business with an organization that has disorganized offices and no one wants to eat a restaurant that is filthy or lacking in service.  An outdated website, a poorly designed app, a cumbersome sign-up process, a confusing navigation scheme- all of these are just that, ‘dirty restaurants’, quietly informing customers that they should try elsewhere instead.  So much for your widget.

If your shoes are the best but finding my size takes forever, if your movie is awesome but I can’t get it to play on my device, if your social network is the coolest thing but it takes ten forms, a survey and a blood sample to sign up… I simply don’t want it anymore.  There will be someone else, maybe not with as awesome of a product, but one that I can actually use and that doesn’t make my acquiring it so cumbersome.

Long-term, successful companies build engaging consumer experiences and great products, instead of focusing on one or the other.  Getting a great product into the hands of excited customers is a service. And if that service is not fantastic, the quality of your product simply won’t matter… there won’t be anyone to try it.

Daily Links – June 25, 2012

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Each business day we post links to our favorite news items related to the digital distribution trade, as well as a few tidbits about the assets being distributed. We categorize them accordingly. This is… Pushing Content:

Pushing

Content

  • “(If) you’ve got a mobile phone you can make a film, you can enter” says Hugh Jackman of the newly announced NY short film festival that he will be hosting.
  • ESPN released NBA Finals viewership data including the statistic that over 300,000 viewers watched across all digital streaming platforms on average- a year over year increase of over 40%.
  • Digital performers continue to outperform their human counterparts at the box office.
  • Steve Carell makes sense when he says that he has no plans to return to The Office.
  • Professional wrestling’s John Cena becomes most popular Make-a-Wish foundation celebrity as he grants his 300th wish to a child in need.

Weekend Roundup

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Highlights of recent news to prepare you for the upcoming business week:

Pushing

Content

Daily Links – June 21, 2012

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Each business day we post links to our favorite news items related to the digital distribution trade, as well as a few tidbits about the assets being distributed.  We categorize them accordingly.  This is… Pushing Content:

Pushing

  • Amazon makes a bold move in the race to register the new internet Top Level Domains.
  • Company develops innovative method for managing malware attacks by constraining the infection to a virtual node.
  • Cable companies are enhancing their ability to insert more diverse advertising into On Demand television.  Unfortunately, one cable executive states, “The addition of dynamically inserted ads into VOD actually results in a much better user experience… more like linear TV.”  Uh… no.  No one except cable company executives will feel their user experience will be better with additional linear-style ads.
  • U.S Olympic Committee vastly underestimates the digital vengeance of the connected Knitting community.

Content

  • A video was posted to YouTube documenting abusive children bullying a bus monitor (Warning: this video is NSFW-language, will make you sick to your stomach and possibly force you doubt the future of the human race). In response, the internet raised $400,000 for her to go on vacation and retire.
  • After that, it might help to know there is still beauty in this world.

How Many Clicks?

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How many clicks does it take to sign up (and yes, I mean the advertisements that I have to close and the stupid terms of service too)?

How many clicks go to the same thing?  How many ways on one page did you try to trick me into visiting that same piece of content? How many clicks will it take for me to email my friends telling them how lame that is?

How many random, frustrated, mother-f-in’ “I’m in a damned cubicle surrounded by people staring at me” clicks does it take close that spontaneous loud-ass media player? How many of the same to close that stupid takeover ad?  Oh, and can we all please just agree that top right is the universal location of the close function?  You’re not being clever Mr. Designer, you’re being an ass. (Okay, we admit it wasn’t you but rather ‘the business’, driving you to continually sell your oh so “why am I here, I am an artist?” soul. We feel you).

How many clicks to unsubscribe? How many to share, to find out who you are, to (God forbid) try to contact you?

Am I not your most valuable asset? (I heard it on an investor conference call, I do believe).  So why not streamline my experience?  I like your brand.  I want more.  And I pay.  Why not make that easy?

[By reading the above you agree in full to our terms of service]

Click here or here for yet another way for me to desperately try to get you to click those terms of service again. (or here).

Click here to go to the previous post.  Eventually, you can click here to go to the next post but right now that’s the future so no clicking yet… thanks for the enthusiasm though.

Press Alt+F4 to make magic happen.

Daily Links – June 20, 2012

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Each business day we post links to our favorite news items related to the digital distribution trade, as well as a few tidbits about the assets being distributed.  We categorize them accordingly.  This is… Pushing Content:

Pushing

  • Filmmaking tips from the masters over at Pixar.
  • Augmented reality retail not quite real yet, but we’re one step closer with this technology.
  • Military grade storm chasers powered by supercomputers.
  • Smart infographic outlining the massive shift to digital distribution happening in the video games industry.
  • Valuable tips for iPad presentations.  Unless you’ve brought enough breath mints for everyone conference room, can’t emphasize point #2 enough.

Content

  • Another great Game of Thrones piece, this time in the form of political attack adds.
  • Analog, sure. But there is a valuable lesson in the quick thinking and crisis-management skills that went into saving this priceless work of art.
  • Total tweet transparency becomes law in the UK.
  • Yahoo partners to publish digital motion comics as part of their original content slate.
  • CBS and ABC continue their catty battle over ABC’s alleged copying of a CBS show.  Have to admit it though, Dancing on the Stars does sound more interesting than the currently airing version of the show.

Daily Links – June 19, 2012

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Each business day we post links to our favorite news items related to the digital distribution trade, as well as a few tidbits about the assets being distributed.  We categorize them accordingly.  This is… Pushing Content:

Pushing

  • App developer 955 Dreams is helping to redefine user-interactivity in mobile advertising.  With plans to license the technology, this tiny startup has a very bright future.
  • Facebook is taking over your life…and your wallet.  Subsidiary is hard at work planning total domination.
  • Rights and royalties finally sorted out for indie musicians whose work appears on Vevo, the music video streaming service.
  • Mozilla releases Thimble, a simple side-by-side web design tool.  Note to parents: With slickly implemented gamification applied to their Projects feature, this is a great starting point for children (or anyone really).
  • Everything you need to know about Microsoft’s new tablet device, Surface, in a well-edited 90 second video from Gizmodo.  The case-as-keyboard thing is pretty cool.

Content

  • Can Arsenio Hall mount a successful return to talk show television?  Maybe, although I wouldn’t count on seeing Mitt Romney with a saxophone any time soon.
  • HBO’s Game of Thrones reimagined as a romantic comedy.

Checking in With Captain Buzzword

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From time to time we let our industry peers weigh in.  Without further ado…

Hiya Folks,

Great to be here.

I recently attended a team building seminar and it really got my juices flowing about the synergy of end-to-end digital media services and the players that power them.  For just a second, I’d like to turn the spotlight on the unique skillset and core values of the folks that power our technology.  It is these people that create the sort of high-performance, user-oriented consumer experiences that allow us to continue to meet the milestones of our product roadmap.  So, as we visualize the possibilities of future-proofing our core technology, I think it is important to remember the individuals that are the fuel that pump our collective engines.  It is this group that empowers the frictionless implementation of our marketing vision as applies to our core demographic.

Thanks for having me and thank you for allowing me to help you visualize the possibilities of a truly Agile, laser-focused team.  Now let’s put 30 minutes on the calendar next week to circle the wagons and take this thing to the next level.

-The Captain

Daily Links – June 18, 2012

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Each business day we post links to our favorite news items related to the digital distribution trade, as well as a few tidbits about the assets being distributed.  We categorize them accordingly.  This is… Pushing Content:

Pushing

  • A look at the role of 3D printing in modern medicine.
  • Well that was fast…  About one week after an Electronic Arts executive sated that their digital distribution service, Origin, would never offer steep discounts similar to Steam, Origin offers steep discounts on several products.
  • The release of Huffington magazine, the Huffington Post’s new iPad magazine marks an important milestone in the digital revolution.
  • Is there room for the return of the retail video rental store? Perhaps, if done well.
  • Most pundits either are either staunchly for or against 3D film technology.  Robert Fure makes a strong argument that it is not so black and white an issue and that mediocre execution of 3D is what is most damaging to the 3D experience.
  • Interesting info from Hearst touting their 2000% increase in mobile traffic and reinforcing that strong brand identification is critical to consumers pulling out their wallets for a mobile purchase.
  •  comScore releases comprehensive analysis of online video services.  Milestone of note:  video ad views reached over 10 billion for the first time ever.
  • If true, and the new Razr phone is indeed outselling the iPhone, prepare to see another 10 generations of Razr phones.
  • Infographic: One minute in the life of modern internet data.

Content

  • Diving into sports a bit:
  • The newly rebranded Brooklyn Nets sell more merchandise in a single day than they did all year as the New Jersey variant.  New Yorkers collectively say, “Told ya so.”
  • How might the second screen experience be applied to football?
  • Speaking of football, are the sport’s days numbered?