Proven – People who wear fake sunglasses are of a lower moral standard

by Con Frantzeskos Posted on 26/10/2009

I hate fake fashion almost as much as I hate cheats. Check out this fantastic video from Behavioural Economist, Professor Dan Ariely, that proves a direct correlation between the two. ¬†He conducted some research that proved people who wear fakes are more likely to be cheats, and to think of others around them as cheats. ¬†Generally, these “fake fashionistas” are people of a lower moral standard.

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Apple’s T-shirt Box Photo

by Con Frantzeskos Posted on 26/10/2009

This is what makes Apple Apple.

Even the boxes that hold call centre employee t-shirts have been designed with the single sense of purpose, that incredible design aesthetic, that attention to detail and outstanding vision of what the company should be Рa creator brand.  This, along with photos of their employee job offer packs, shows the level of thought and strength of culture at the firm.

More pictures here: Apple Employee T-Shirt Unboxing Photos РMac Rumors.

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John Mayer (Please keep reading despite the title)

by Con Frantzeskos Posted on 23/10/2009

He’s done an Augmented Reality film clip – you hold up the John Mayer Icon (Download it here: http://www.johnmayer.com/ar/JM_Battle_Studies_Icon.pdf), and then you appear in his film clip, holding up the set of the clip.

An augmented reality application like might help:

  • Increase (reward) sales (if you held up the CD or some tangible product)
  • Customisation – every person has their own unique experience.
  • Making your brand pretty cool by telling your story or displaying your content in a cool way (even if it is John Mayer).

Check it out: http://www.johnmayer.com/ar/#/Home

Picture 39

Punters, what other products could this be done for?

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Fear of failure, fear of apples

by Con Frantzeskos Posted on 21/10/2009

How sick are we of telling another website what our name and details are?

How sick are we of remembering our various passwords?

How sick are we of having to make decisions ‚Äì and the risk that it might not be the right one? We‚Äôre the options generation, the people that have grown up in such a period of change that we‚Äôre afraid of making commitments in case the commitment takes us down a path that is made redundant or is superseded, or just boring. ¬†HEY, there’s something new here or something better, why didn’t I recognise this earlier?!

How many abandoned blogs MySpace pages and Twitter accounts are there in the world? How many ex’s? How many old toys? How many false starts? How many career changes?

I guess the key is learning how to make a single decision well – so that you may never have to make that decision again. You’ve decided correctly.

Seth Godin talks about the stress of choosing Apples. ¬†They’re just apples. ¬†They’ll be eaten in a minute. Why should it be so hard?

As always, he’s a top read: Seths Blog: Fear of apples.

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The Sartorialist’s “Friend”

by Con Frantzeskos Posted on 19/10/2009

I love the Sartorialist, and his neverending ability to find wonder in the fashion of every day people, and capture it so well.

In his words:

When people ask me if street style blogs will replace fashion magazines and big runway shows I always say “of course not.” Designers like Romeo Gigli or photographers like Paolo Roversi create dream worlds that challenge us to make our real lives even more beautiful.

For me, the reality-based pictures I take are a way to supplement the fantasy world of my magazines and photo books.

Somewhere in-between fantasy and reality can be a pretty great place to live.

Here’s a great picture he took recently, titled:¬†Isabel and Friend V√©lib’ing, Paris.

Of course, the “friend” is Adrian Grenier from Entourage (a friend of mine who met him described him as having the personality of a yabbie).

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Goodbye GeoCities – Thanks for the good times…

by Con Frantzeskos Posted on 14/10/2009

GeoCities.com, once the third most popular website in the world and the internet’s first free website service, is shutting down¬†next week.

Back in the day – 1995 – Geocities was the only place on the web where a person could build and host a free website – and put anything they wanted on it. ¬†Unlike MySpace, where you are still limited to placing their frames on the site, the only evidance that it was a Geocities site was a small transparent, floating GIF down the bottom right of the site that read, “Hosted by Geocities”. ¬†Geocities completely rocked.

You’d simply select an apprpriate “suburb” – one that somehow reflected the tone or content of your website, and you began building your page. ¬†The suburbs were: “Colosseum,” “Hollywood,” “RodeoDrive,” “SunsetStrip,” “WallStreet,” and “WestHollywood.”

In June 1999, Yahoo! purchased GeoCities for $US3.57 billion in shares, and went about maing improvements to the site, including the introduction of vanity URLS, (eg: www.geocities.com/whateverxxxxxxxxxx).  While some complained that the suburbs had disappeared, it made it easier for people to promote their site on posters, nightclub passes, radio shows and other media.  At that time, companies and marketing agencies were completely oblivious, and most of the commercial use of Geocities came from artists, musicians, nightclubs, University clubs and societies and grassroots political branches and movements.

In the deep, dark depths of the Monash University Arts Faculty Computer Labs in the Ming Wing, scores of us scoured the then brand spanking new world wide web, looking for stuff. ¬†Once we found it, we “Homesteaders” (as GeoCities participants were known) ¬†linked to it on our Geocities pages. ¬†We wrote about rubbish. ¬†We scanned pictures and put them online. ¬†We wrote about things that we did. ¬†We put up fan sites. ¬†We actually created sites for celebs, organisations and brands that weren’t online – which back then, was about 99% of celebs, organisations and brands. ¬†It was genuinely groundbreaking stuff.

Where GeoCities went wrong was when Yahoo! slapped download / data limits on the site, and in doing so, limited the ability for people to share information and tell their stories online.  The Homesteaders revolted and started using other platforms for personal expression, whether it be hosted sites (that started to become a lot cheaper) or free blogging platforms such as Blogspot.com.

A site I’ve been intimately involved in, Buckleysurfers.com, a tribute site to the superstar Nathan Charles Buckley, is still hosted on GeoCities.com after more than ten years, and during popular weeks such as footy finals and other big events, the site’s bandwidth is regularly exceeded.

Upon the announcement of the closure of Geocities, the Internet Archive announced that they would be undertaking a project to archive GeoCities. ¬†In their words, GeoCities was “an important outlet for personal expression on the Web for almost 15 years”, and they ask people to submit their site URL or content for archival.

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Nielsen and Facebook join forces for Social Media Advertising Measurement

by Con Frantzeskos Posted on 22/09/2009

Measurement of advertising effectiveness on social media is a hot topic in the online space. Organisations understand the effectiveness of online engagement via conversations, but who ultimately funds the social media spaces – providing the middle ground between “pay for space” and “pray for space”? The advertisers. This just in from Nielsen Online, announcing their new collaboration with Facebook, and their attempt to better measure these ads – the first cab off the rank is Nielsen BrandLift:

Dear Valued Client;

I am pleased to inform you of an important development at The Nielsen Company. Today we announced a multi-year strategic alliance with Facebook. This relationship pairs Nielsen, the world’s largest market research company, with the world’s largest social network, now some 300 million-users strong.

Together we will collaborate on products and solutions that enable you to better understand the value of the Internet and social media in the overall marketing mix.

Our first product, Nielsen BrandLift, measures the effectiveness of advertising on Facebook through the proven, simple and engaging user experience of the site, primarily a simple and unobtrusive one or two question poll. Nielsen BrandLift will be commercially available in the coming months and we expect to conduct hundreds of studies with clients who advertise on Facebook by the end of the year.

Of course, Nielsen will continue to maintain our high standards for respecting consumer privacy and use the same open, transparent approach for conducting research on Facebook.

Raising advertiser confidence in online media is a key opportunity for the entire industry. With this new product and future developments, we will continue to bridge the gap between marketers and “connected consumers” to provide a deeper understanding of what works online and what does not.

By joining with the world’s largest social network, our work in online is further strengthened and, we believe, surpassed by none. As a long-time leader and innovator in the field of media and consumer data measurement and analysis, Nielsen has always worked to find new ways to increase our ability to help our clients. The Facebook alliance is a tremendous example of this heritage, and an exciting addition to our Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement program, launched in 2006.

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