Facebook Featured in Xbox's "It's More Fun Time" Commercials

Microsoft clearly understands that the platform element of Xbox is as much a selling point as its game titles: in just the first week of being live, 10% of Microsoft's Xbox Live subscribers connected their accounts to Facebook. The platform represents new online content (such as Netflix) and the ability to make console gaming more social and viral. Furthermore, the association with big brand names like Facebook, Netflix, and Pandora is an effective sales tool that is appealing to all console owners (whereas games and their audiences vary dramatically: Madden Football vs. Call of Duty vs. Little Big Planet).

So in Microsoft's most recent Xbox advertising campaign, the 'platform' is a major theme: "more games, more entertainment and more fun" and "plugin to the endless entertainment of Xbox Live".

The Facebook Halloween Costume

This clip from the office is great. And if you don't find this funny, then you clearly aren't as geeky as I am:

Google AdSense Optimizes Ad Units for "High-End Phones" (aka Android & iPhone)

Billed as "AdSense High-End", Google is now letting advertisers create ads specifically for "high-end" phones like the iPhone and Android-capable devices. While that is a natural evolution of the AdSense platform, Google's explanation as to why is quite interesting:

With the growth in popularity of high-end mobile phones with full (HTML) Internet browsers, like the iPhone and phones running Android, advertisers are increasingly extending their campaigns to mobile devices. Because these devices offer a rich content experience similar to desktop, advertising on them is a natural extension for many advertisers.

... In other words, the mobile web is really the traditional web. Experiences and applications are becoming richer - and will continue to do so as devices and HTML / HTML5 allows for it. And therefore, the advertising experience will also become richer and more effective.

Starbucks iPhone Apps: Mobile Payments, Shared Drinks & More

Hats off to Starbucks once more. Starbucks released two iPhone Apps yesterday that are again best-in-class, innovative and compelling from a customer standpoint. The 'Starbucks' app allows users to find stores, create custom concoctions, access nutritional information and - most importantly - share the experience with friends (your favorite drinks, location, Starbucks meeting times, etc). The UI is terrific and consistent with the Starbucks brand and environment. The second app, Mobile Card, allows users to manage their Starbucks Card (balances, settings, etc). Most importantly, the application allows users to pay with their mobile device - currently being tested in sixteen locations across Seattle and Silicon Valley. That's interesting and powerful... and unique.

And combined with Starbucks' massive presence on Facebook and other networks, it is essentially now possible to find a nearby Starbucks, schedule a coffee via mobile, share it with friends through Facebook mobile, and pay with your iPhone... and you can bet that Starbucks is thinking about the next move: layering contextual, location-aware push notifications for coupons and events.

LBS: Find the nearest Starbucks (and share your location)

Create and share your favorite Starbucks drink (like an iced coffee with 8 shots of espresso). Then read about the nutritional contents.

Access and manage your card balance.

Make in-store payments with the 'swipe' of your iPhone

Access store information and make it a social outing

A video of the Mobile Payments trial:

Microsoft Courier: My Apple Tablet Fascination is in Trouble...

My fascination with the Apple Tablet is less around Apple and more around the convergence of several devices which either currently or will play a key role in my day-to-day habits: web, video, applications, etc. Furthermore, it represents the convergence of devices of all formats and sizes: the computer, mobile phone, Kindle, and netbook.

But Gizmodo has a video and several screenshots of Microsoft's "Courier" - a late-stage prototype that reimagines the way a 'tablet' looks and behaves. Its both netbook and Nintendo DS - and as much Amazon Kindle as it is the iPod Touch... all overlayed with Microsoft's touch interface.

Conceptually, I love it. I love it as much for it's innovativeness and multi-touch system as I do for pressuring Apple to release and rethink the Tablet.

A couple Microsoft Courier screenshots from Gizmodo:

Trialing Videosurf's Video Link Enhancer

I spent last Monday and Tuesday at the TechCrunch 50 conference - a collection of fifty companies that took the stage to launch in front of 2,000 attendees and 1,000s more of online viewers. I was also at last year's conference and one of the companies to launch was Videosurf - a video search engine with a unique way to index, sort and search content. Also relevant, a good friend from eBay and InGameNow was part of the team, Danny Leffel. They have launched a new product aimed at bloggers and web publishers called the Video Link Enhancer. Danny gives an overview below and I am going to trial it on the blog for the next week or so. Feedback is welcome and I have another trial / demo going live once this completes. There is great innovation occurring in the widget, plug-in and publisher worlds - creating rich, contextual experiences that are good for the publisher (engagement, virality) and the consumer (context, visuals, etc). More to come!

We're announcing the release of the Videosurf Video Link Enhancer. When you add the code to your blog or web application, regular hyperlinks to video content become in-line video players. For example, hover over these links to sites like YouTube, Hulu, Vimeo and many more.

The look and feel of the in-line players is customizable using CSS. Developers can also exert fine-grained control as to which links on the page are transformed.

We built this product based our belief that whenever a video is mentioned on a site (whether that's in a Tweet, a comment, etc) the optimal experience is one that allows the user to watch the video referenced without ever having to leave the page.

TGI Friday's Facebook Campaign is Strange... But Somewhat Brilliant

Meet Woody: TGI Friday's clever / bizarre entrance into the world of social media... and in particular, Facebook. Woody has his own series of television advertisements and Facebook page (825,000 fans and growing). And Woody is a covert spokesman for TGI Friday's.

The entire campaign is aimed at getting Woody / TGI Friday's 1,000,000 Facebook fans; and if that happens, all fans who provided their email address, will get a coupon for a free burger.

It is a fascinating approach for a few reasons:

- first, it is the most obvious Facebook / television campaign - and it is geared specifically around becoming a fan

- second, there is a stated goal of the number of fans: 1,000,000.

- third, the marketing spend (specifically their television campaigns) is aimed at creating long term marketing relationships: email addresses, Facebook fans, etc. This is about engagement and sustained relationships.

- finally, it is a bold move towards free samples and yet another example of consumer goods giveaways on Facebook

Woody's TV commercials:

More about Woody from Facebook:

About Woody: Woody was born at the stroke of midnight one Thursday-to-Friday morning along the Arizona/California border. From that moment on, he has dedicated his life to spreading his love of T.G.I. Friday's and all things red-white-and-meaty. Through the years Woody has become one of the leading online flair collectors in the world, and made many friends along the way. His love of Friday's is second to none, only to his own. And Woody would do anything to prove his passion for his home away from home - T.G.I. Friday's Restaurants. As luck would have it, someone pretty high up on the totem pole at Friday's hears of Woody. Long story short, they decide to take Woody up on his claim with a little bet: If Woody can get 500,000 fans on here by September 30th, they can all get a free Jack Daniel's(R) Burger! In Woody's words, "It'll be friggin' Octo-Burgerfest!' So become a fan of his, and help make free burger history. It'll be a dream come true for him.

Adding Facebook Page Fans: TAG as a Case Study

Facebook now allows Page owners to create Facebook Ads that allow users to "Become a Fan" directly in the unit. It is a natural move since adding fans is a priority for social media marketers - and it is a more difficult task that adding Twitter followers (though arguably more valuable). If you are logged in as a page administrator, you will now see a button on your page(s) to "promote your page with an ad" ... which now includes a "Become a Fan" button. Yesterday TAG Body Spray ran a campaign to promote their new product and Facebook presence. As of yesterday morning, they had 18,000 Facebook fans:

Twenty-four hours later, Tag has over 85,000 Facebook fans. You will also notice that those fans are engaging with TAG's content. Before the promotion, each Facebook post would have 2-5 'likes' and no comments (meaning the posts would not appear virally in people's feeds). TAG's posts from today have 100s of 'likes' and 50-100 comments. Not bad considering the posts are not as social or interactive as they could be (Starbucks is a great example here).

FastFeud.com Launches out of Dog Patch Labs & Rails Rumble 2009

Rails Rumble 2009 concluded yesterday at 5:00pm pst. About 250 teams submitted their 48-hour projects and the early results look great (here's an excellent write / thread on Hacker News). Judging for the event begins tonight.

Dog Patch Labs hosted a team of four (see roster below) that created FastFeud.com: a social way to create viral match-ups. FastFeud is integrated into Facebook (via Facebook Connect) and Twitter - allowing users to share content through their social graphs.

Member and designer Rob Abbott gives a tour of FastFeud and its Facebook integration:

About FastFeud.com: This or That: it is an age old question that pertains to people, ideas, sports teams, and so on. FastFeud.com allows users to quickly create match ups that can then be shared virally through Facebook (using Facebook Connect) and Twitter. The experience is visual, exciting and fast-paced - allowing users to rapidly interact with numerous feuds.

Each match up includes a question, two contestants and images. Users are then encouraged to vote on the match up - on FastFeud.com, Facebook and Twitter. Votes are collected and winners are presented.

When shared via Facebook, users are able to post the match up and images of the two contestants directly into their Facebook feeds. When shared via Twitter, users are able to promote their match up and voting preference to their Twitter following.

Developed for the Rails Rumble 2009 contest in 48 hours by the Browseology Team and friends from Lijit and Egg Haus with the support of Dog Patch Labs.

The Team

Joe Pestro (@joepestro) - Developer for Yardbarker.com and Co-Founder of Browseology, LLC Art Chang (@kineticac) - Developer for Yardbarker.com and Co-Founder of Browseology, LLC Kevin Olsen (@kevinrolsen) - Developer for Lijit.com (flew in from Colorado to the SF Bay Area to work on this) Rob Abbott (@abbott) - Founder and CEO of Egg Haus