A Metaphor for Web 2.0: The Bubble Project

Consider this a living metaphor for Web 2.0 (in fact, he says so at the end):

This artist and his Bubbles are the Web 2.0 enablers sprouting up all over the web and mobile (YouTube, Dopplr, Yelp, Twitter, etc), inviting people to participate. People add value by contributing to the blank space in the Bubbles (without the contributions of the masses, the Bubbles are valueless). And well, the collective canvas and conversation starter is the ads (and TV shows and news).

Agencies and creatives now have the choice to acknowledge that these Bubbles will now increasingly pop up throughout the web (and the real world). We may even embrace these Bubbles and actually leave space for them and let their contribution make our communications ideas better/contextually relevant/innovative/participatory/engaging/personal/collaborative ("people add value"). Or not. We can pretend that our ad ideas are the special ones, and we won't ever be Bubbled over.

But it is likely that the Bubbles are coming whether you intend it or not. Don't fear the Bubbles! They don't have to be malicious threats to our idea, in fact, many are simply co-creative and collaborative additions that actually improve on and expand the communications idea (or they can be). And if the Bubbles are negative, we may need to ask ourselves why and is there some truth to be addressed in the Bubbles' response to our brands?

Either way its a fresh and slippy idea for our times.

Social 10: Facebook’s New Social Video Ad Unit is an Engagement Magnet

A few of us noticed a curious new ad unit pop up in our Facebook feeds yesterday. The unit is a video that also displays open comments from your friends circle about that ad. Real-time, ongoing conversation about the ad - which potentially gives advertisers a peek directly into the sentiment of the audiences receiving the ad. I think this is a game-changer for social ads.

Inside Facebook notes: Facebook will fill the sponsored home page slot with this kind of unit.

The behavior:
1)Clicking on the ad image opens a video player in-line
2)Comments on the video are visible to your entire friend list.

The comments around the ad dramatically increase engagement with the unit, as the highly visible comments provide an opportunity for users to simultaneously draw attention to the ad by drawing attention to themselves.

*While this could backfire if comments degrading the advertiser are abundant ("this movie is Lame"-type commentary could overwhelm - but hey, the comments are from your friends so it has a certain relevance to you), the ad comments take powerful advantage of Facebook’s social dynamics to draw attention to an ad in a way that is impossible without the social graph. When is the last time you heard 9 friends talk about an online ad in the same day?

Ad comments are an interesting step forward in the evolution of “Social Ads.” While this kind of ad may not work as well outside of a few advertiser verticals, expect that early advertisers will be pleased with its performance.

Aki's quick takeaways:
1) Ads will need to become more engaging and comment provoking or risk flaming commentary (or worse, not being worthy of notice and comment)
2) Advertisers will need to become reactionary to response...maybe change the ads up, or try 10 ads - monitor feedback/response/actions taken and let the top 2 effective ads move forward
3) Advertisers will need to become choiceful about what they put in this channel...relevance and interestingness will matter now more than ever
4) EVERY MEDIA will soon be made more accountable to results and data of this nature for every ad media buy

Guilty Pleasure: Big Ideas, Don't Get Any/Radiohead "Nude"

Radiohead held an online contest to remix "Nude" from their album - "In Rainbows". I found this (late) entry to be particularly fascinating and breakout. It takes a bit to get to the "beat" but well worth it as it builds and mashes the music utilizing Sinclair ZX Spectrum Guitars, Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer, HP Scanjet 3c, and Hard Drive arrays. Of particular note is his savvy working of the social net touchpoints to get the work slippy.