Amazon Marketing the Kindle for Valentines Day 2011... with Same Ads as 2010

Since its launch, I have followed Amazon's Kindle ads and campaigns. Today, you will notice that Amazon is marketing the Kindle for Valentines Day... and if you look back a year ago, you will also notice that the Kindle ads are almost exactly the same. Furthermore, the language is consistent with nearly every Kindle ad to date: it's their best selling, best-reviewed and most wanted / gifted product. It seems that, even after a year, Amazon is confident in wrapping the same messaging in seasonal units.

The Kindle ads for Valentines 2011:

The Kindle ad for Valentines 2010:

Internet TV Summed Up

Despite being one of the few Google TV fanboys, I thought this Amazon Video On Demand screenshot summed up the space well:

The top of the page represents the good: software accessible via various devices and platforms. And content delivered on-demand, quickly and either free or cheaply.

The bottom (highlighted in green) represents the bad: hardware integration that will be problematic for manufacturers, developers and consequently consumers.

"Watch Instantly on Your TV with VIZIO: Now you can watch thousands of movies and TV shows on select VIZIO HDTVs. Order hit new releases and the latest episodes in HD, right from your couch and begin watching immediately. Learn more."

Anecdotally, this is precisely why I am bullish on Google TV: despite being hardware, it integrates outside the TV and is therefore cross-device. The Google platform allows developers to build better products, work across TV sets and manufacturers, and reach larger audiences.

Polaris Insights Google Chrome Extension - Download Now!

What sites and apps do I use on a daily basis? Quora, LinkedIn, Crunchbase and a slew of Google Chrome extensions (which I've written about before). So why not put all of them together and create a Chrome Extension that reveals: - Funding and company history (from Crunchbase) - Employees and your connections (from LinkedIn) - Topics, questions and answers (from Quora)

... And that's what I did. Along with Matt Basta and Rob Abbott, we built the Polaris Insights Chrome Extension.

- Read more on TechCrunch: Quora + CrunchBase + LinkedIn = Best Extension Ever?

- Read more on ReadWriteWeb: Check Out My New Favorite Browser Plug-In, Built by a Venture Capital Firm

- Download Polaris Insights

Facebook as a Conversion Tool. Registration Flows as Example.

It is common to think of Facebook as user / traffic acquisition lever (perhaps the best available considering its 600m users, its viral network, and the developer platform and tools). But thanks to a recent, enlightening conversation with good friend Alex Schultz, I have been thinking of Facebook as a conversion tool. A basic example is Facebook's Like buttons and Facepile which adorn millions of webpages. Combined, they welcome new users to otherwise impersonal webpages. This adds social and personal context to individual pieces of content and increases the likelihood of engagement (whether that be pageviews, shares, etc).

Yesterday, Facebook updated its Registration Plugin to streamline user registration:

Registration flows are obviously among the most critical part of the user funnel. Flows that are too cumbersome are overwhelming and scary...and flows that are too lightweight require progressive registration processes as the user matures. The above example is an excellent example of how Facebook can affect conversions.

Here is a live example on eBay Classifieds:

It does a four key things well:

1. It is pre-populated with key information (name, network, photo, etc). Not only does this create efficiency - it validates quality

2. Thanks to Facebook's brand, it is familiar and unintimidating.

3. The Facepile adds social context and is welcoming. Along with point #2, this is particularly important if traffic is arriving from ad campaigns, search engines, etc.

4. It is lightweight (publishers can choose to add fields relevant to the product)

And here is another example from ReverbNation. It is a longer registration flow but you will notice that it is consistent in style and much of it is automatically populated. In fact, the only remaining step is creating a specific ReverbNation password:

Blackberry App Advertising Two Years Behind Apple's

During today's NFL playoffs game, you may have seen the Blackberry spot featuring Blackberry's App World and the Urbanspoon application. The advertisement is well done and features small business owners (right in Blackberry's sweet spot) who use the Urbanspoon app to find new restaurants (seems like a reach?). However, the ad comes over two years later than Apple's iPhone Urbanspoon ad (featured in November 2008) and screams 'me too'.... which is exactly what Blackberry (and iPhone competitors) should be wary of: it's been available on the iPhone for years and, for various reasons, is probably a better application on the iPhone.

Blackberry should be focusing on one of two things:

1. Content and applications that are unique to Blackberry. For cross-platform applications, chances are they were available on the iPhone first... and that they are generally better on the iPhone.

2. Content and application aimed specifically at Blackberry's core competencies: business and email. This is why the Urbanspoon ad comes off as "me too" and off-brand. It's also why I don't understand the focus on Blackberry Messenger campaigns (which, by the way, seems short-lived with apps the rise of social group apps like Groupme, Beluga, Kik, etc).

Blackberry's January 2011 TV ad:

November, 2008 Apple iPhone ad:

Starbucks Cards: Game Mechanics Done Well

Last week I wrote about the "do's and don'ts of gamification"... in other words, how to effectively add game mechanics to your site / service. Thanks to the success of leaders like Zynga and Foursquare, companies across different verticals are layering game mechanics to their product. In my last post, I wrote that the key to successful "gamification" is to make surre that game mechanics [are] natural, rewarding and straightforward.

Here is a great example from Starbucks (who generally always does a great job on the social and marketing fronts).

You'll notice a few things with the below screenshots:

1. It is Natural: Starbucks has not created a new program here... rather, they have tied it in to the Starbucks Card system that has been around for years. This is just an incentive to register and actively use your card.

2. It is Rewarding: In fact, the Starbucks Card program comes from the "Starbucks Rewards Team" and card-holders are notified of their status, their rewards and their goals.

3. It Progresses: As you progress through various levels are membership ("black, green, gold"), you earn different rewards. Starbucks clearly defines your 'status', your rewards and what is needed to reach the next 'level'. Again, the program is straightforward and rewarding.

4. It is Accessible Email, Starbucks.com & Mobile: The program has several reach / access points. The emails are well crafted and targeted to the specific user's 'status' (notice below an email sent to a green member and gold member).

5. It is Social: Below you will also see an example of sharing your purchase and rewards in Facebook. The image is specific to your status / balance and is tied to a check-in via Facebook Places.

Starbucks email sent to a Gold member:

Starbucks email sent to a Green member:

What the check-in looks like on the Facebook feed

And the custom Starbucks Rewards graphic on Facebook

LinkedIn's '2010 Wrap Up', Engagement Email

Your typical email from LinkedIn is text-based and includes some sort of notification about your network, messages, etc. They are straightforward, actionable and likely focus on conversions. A very different email arrived from LinkedIn this week though: The 2010-year-in-review email. I'd love to see the metrics as compared to their normal emails - I assume behavior is quite different... but so is LinkedIn's goal with a 'newsletter' like this. And that's why I like it: very different, very creative and yet still on-brand: - first, it's very different from what I'd expect. There is only one line of text and it is interesting (345 of my contacts started something new in 2010).

- It's highly visual and great looking. Tons of visuals and tons of familiar faces that catch my attention.

- It's clever. The targeted blue boxes draw attention to specific people and do so in a very unique, catchy way (See Paxton's new job!).

- And it's actionable... but in a very different way than the standard LinkedIn email. Simple but strong language.

Huffington Post, Google Promote Chrome Application 'In the River'

I write a lot about the importance of marketing and promoting "in the river" - my terminology for engaging users in the most specific and relevant experiences / locations. This concept is increasingly important new platforms (software and hardware) emerge and as those experiences consequently change. Just the other day I wrote about how Evernote has done a masterful job creating numerous applications for each native environment: iPhone, iPad, desktop, Outlook, browser, etc. This will become the norm... and the result is that targeted messaging becomes tougher and more challenging.

Here is a great example from Huffington Post (along with Google & Chrome) - who is always far along the marketing & experimental curve. If you visit their site in the Google Chrome browser, the header is taken over to promote their new Chrome Application: Newsglide. Simple - but brilliant. This messaging would be overlooked if it were a traditional location. And it would wasted real estate if it were a universal promotion. Furthermore, the promotion is native to the experience (a similar action in Firefox would look different).

It wasn't long ago that I commented on Huffington Post's in-experience promotion of their Google Chrome Application (see example here).

Write Once, Read Anywhere (Evernote Example)

Earlier in the week, I listed the productivity and work applications that I use daily. I concluded that the applications I most rely on not those that are the most robust... rather, its those that are most portable and efficient. A great example of that: Evernote.

Note taking can be done in many forms: word docs, notepad, email, competitors, etc. But what makes Evernote so appealing though is that it is available everywhere:

- Web - Chrome App - Chrome Extension - Desktop App - iPhone App - iPad App - Email - etc...

What is notable is that each of Evernote's applications / versions have specific use-cases for that environment. The Chrome extension, for instance, is focused entirely on web-clippings. And the iPad App is very different than the iPhone app. When most properties think of building for different platforms - it is often recreating an experience (which is often the web). Evernote shows the power of building for multiple environments and building tools specific to each environment.