Amazon Brings All 7 Harry Potter Books to Kindle Lending Club

This is pretty significant news out of Amazon: all seven Harry Potter books are now available in the Kindle Lending Club. It is the all-time bestselling book series and is a testament to Amazon's willingness to put marketing muscle behind Kindle and the Lending Club. And considering the reach and popularity of the Harry Potter franchise - it is a win for Kindle owners, Harry Potter fans, and Amazon users. It is also worth noting that it is a couple days from Mother's Day and Amazon's merchandising exists (upper right corner) but is far smaller than the Harry Potter announcement or the Amazon Local promotion. I would have assumed that the week would be dedicated to Mother's Day preparation - particularly highlighting one-day shipping, etc.

Jetsetter + Pinterest: "Pin It to Win It" Contest Drives Travel Curation

With the rise of Pinterest, I have enjoyed tracking the brands and campaigns racing to leverage the platform and be early movers. For instance, a couple weeks ago, I highlighted Harrod's Pinterest / curator contest. Here is relatively similar program from Jetsetter. Like Harrods, Jetsetter is using Pinterest to drive curation:

"Our fans ask us all the time how they can become Jetsetter curators. Now's your chance to show us you have what it takes. Using Pinterest, create the ultimate destination pinboard..."

It is effectively a way to:

1. drive best-of-lists (ala early Yelp and eBay efforts) 2. understand data and users preference 3. and drive viral traffic by rewarding social sharing on Pinterest ("Pin it to win it in our Pinterest Giveaway")

It's simple, clever and amazingly low-cost. Furthermore, it seeds usage and drives followers on a growing platform where most brands are still slow to adopt.

Amazon's New Footer a Reminder of Amazon's Focus on Verticalization & Digital Avenues

Amazon has been rolling out a redesign over the last couple months. I have discussed the homepage's new navigation and promotional units. One small, interesting note is their new footer (shown below). Notice how many properties - and how diverse they are - are part of Amazon. If the header signifies a shift from product to digital (as discussed here), the footer signifies both that (Askville, Audible, CreateSpace, DPRreview, IMDB, etc) and a focus on verticalized experiences (ie Wag, Soap, Diapers, Woot, Yo-yo, Shopbop, Zappos, etc).

Amazon's New Layout, New Merchandising

Amazon's redesign is much cleaner... and grayer than before. It also is more focused on promoting their new categories. I noted this before with their revamped navigation bar: "Amazon's Navigation bar is Revealing."

But Amazon has gone a step further here: not only does the left navigation panel promote their digital efforts ahead of physical (Instant Videos, Cloud Player, Cloud Drive, Kindle, Appstore, Games, Audiobooks, etc)... they then duplicate those categories in the center panel. Each category has it's own visual and merchandising unit.

Below the top panel is another promotional box that promotes other efforts (Amazon Mom) or curated experiences (Clothing Trends).

For what it's worth: I find the nesting of the two units a bit strange. And the units do not auto-scroll - so it's both overwhelming (and confusing) to have 10+ potential links to click.

Harrods Takes to Facebook to Promote their Pinterest Contest

This is relevant to two posts: - Yesterday's on the value of being a first mover, specifically on Pinterest; and - Porsche moving users between their Facebook and Pinterest pages

Well here's another good examples: Harrods is allowing fans to help design their retail windows using Pinterest mood boards.

Clever: It's on brand. It's effectively free marketing. It drives Pinterest activity far beyond the winner. And it blends users across Pinterest and Facebook - both from the cross-promotion and Pinterest's opengraph integration.

Amazon Begins Including Pinterest Buttons on Product Pages

First movers get rewarded... just ask Spotify on Facebook or Loopt on iOS. This of course assumes that you are a first mover on a big, impactful platform. There is little question Pinterest is both big and impactful. So Amazon is experimenting with it.

Here is a screenshot of the Pinterest button on an Amazon product page - beside email, Facebook and Twitter buttons. For e-commerce companies - Pinterest is arguably more relevant here than either Facebook or Twitter. It is probably most valuable to get a Facebook share - but users are probably far more inclined to post to Pinterest... and for many of those users, Pinterest will then post back to Facebook.

Fascinating to watch.

Facebook "Use App Now" Prompt is Really Interesting, Potentially Important

When Facebook for iPad launched over a year ago, I surmised that the "Apps" section would be its most disruptive move. The Apps section essentially highlighted Facebook Connected mobile applications and allowed you to quickly access / search them. While not a prominent feature of the iPhone / iPad experience - I still believe this is a big opportunity... particularly should Facebook decide to own their own mobile experience / platform. It is worth noting that a similar experience exists - and is being promoted - on the web. Here is an example from a Facebook post I crafted about Wantful and 'tagged' it using @Wantful.

That of course hyperlinks Wantful - but Facebook allows you to choose whether you prefer to link to the page, the app or other content (ie location). I am not entirely sure why Facebook chooses to default to different formats at different times... but they do. And that alone is interesting because in this example, the @Wantful link goes directly to Wantful.com as a Facebook Connected App ("Use Now") rather than the fanpage. Big shift. The word "Use" is alone a big idea and shift.

Separately - if you have not yet tried Wantful, give it a spin. It is a better way to give gifts - it's social, fun, personal and thoughtful. I have given a couple dozen of them and, without fail, people love receiving them... the reaction and response is really enjoyable. I am excited to be involved!

Learn more here: Wantful, Gift-Giving Start-Up, Announces Funding (New York Times)

Dream Lites & Promo Codes

Watching the Sprout channel with our son, a mini commercial aired for Pillow Pet's new product: Dream Lites. They announced a special Promo Code ("PROMO") that would save 25% off an order. This is a common way of driving purchases and tracking efficacy / sources.

The great consumer I am, I pulled up DreamLites.com on my iPhone to find the following screenshot... which entirely negates the point of a promo code. It's a huge text promotion that says "Enter promo code DREAM to save 25%". What's the point?? If you are going to do this - might as well just say: regularly priced at $X. But now 25% off!

Strange.

Worse yet, when tax and shipping are added up - the purchase price is actually more than the 25% off. Might as well promote free shipping with full price. Even at the same total price - and with a generous refund policy - that's more compelling because I get frustrated paying S&H (thanks to Amazon and others).