ESPN's iPad Experience: Choose Your Own Adventure

I write a lot about the importance of getting product, messaging and promotion "in the river" (in other words: making sure that messages are delivered inside the core experience and to the respective audience - good example by Facebook here). Here is a great example by ESPN. When you visit ESPN via the iPad, it presents you with three options: 1. Visit the iPad optimized site (ideal for 3G usage) 2. Visit ESPN.com's full site 3. Download the new ESPN Scorecenter App for the iPad

The first two options were always present for iPad users, but now that they have an iPad app (that is pretty good by the way), ESPN has decided to promote it to all iPad owners.... this is more effective of a marketing campaign than running site-wide banners on ESPN.com.

Gilt Groupe Gives Free Shipping for 10 Invites

Social commerce sites like Gilt, Rue La La, ShoeDazzle, Groupon and LivingSocial have been among the leaders in 'social marketing'... and they find success through relatively straightforward, sometimes simple products and promotions. Here is a great example: Gilt is running a promotion where users who invite 10 friends to the service get free shipping. Clear value proposition and very simple process to invite. Furthermore, it is an attainable result (not tied to purchases and not a crazy number of invites).

And of course the site / brand itself is 'share-worthy' - if Gilt provided a poor experience, these sorts of promotions wouldn't result in sharing or ROI.

"Got 10 Friends? Get Free Shipping" "Invite 10 friends to Gilt and enjoy free shipping on your next order. Spreading the word is always in style."

Welcome to RockMelt: Great Product Marketing Introduction

RockMelt has a rather big product marketing challenge: explain to users how their new, social web browser works. It is not overly complicated - but it is quite different from what users are accustomed to. Most products display the equivalent of a "Read Me" introduction upon installation / first use. These are usually text heavy, step-by-steps tutorials... and they are often optional. RockMelt recognizes that the browsing capability itself is explanatory ... but it is also ordinary. The social elements are what makes RockMelt compelling - so upon download, they overtake the browser with a great, visual introduction. It can't be missed and focuses only on the social elements (assuming that you are do not need help with normal browser functionality). And in addition to being useful, the intro is far more inviting and enjoyable than the normal "Welcome!" experience.

Facebook Deal Redemption in the Feed: Gap & Starbucks

Last week I wrote about two updates to Facebook Places: Deals (using Starbucks as an example) and Photo attachments. Those two somewhat combine when deals are redeemed. If you haven't seen an example yet: here is the feed post after the Starbucks deal is redeemed. It is an expanded check-in on the Facebook feed... which means two primary things: 1. the post is customizable by the deal provider. Here, Starbucks has four pieces: logo, deal title, detailed description and viral call to action. In effect, this is great branding within the newsfeed ... that branding happens to be enhances by the fact that a friend is advocating it.

2. All the viral components associated with the feed: comments, shares, likes, etc. This is important because it is a core / necessary element to the deal platform - in a way that isn't entirely integrated on other popular sites which require post-transaction publishing.

And here is Gap's promotion:

Facebook Places + Photos Makes Sense... It's Now Here

When Facebook Places first launched, I wrote that a photo integration made sense: If I could change one component of the product – and I really only have one suggestion – it would be to add photographs. Four reasons why:

1. I believe that images are becoming integral pieces of explaining location / local activity. Checking in at a restaurant, theme park, ballgame, etc are all well described by time, title & description and photograph.

2. GPS & photographs are tightly related on the mobile device. Putting them together in the Places product could still be done simply and comfortably.

3. The lack of integration makes me frequently choose between posting a newsfeed photograph and describe location via the description… OR forgo an image and post via Places.

4. Finally, if Facebook Places is to ultimately also become a directory of businesses, reviews, etc – photographs must be tightly integrated.

... Well, it's now here:

Starbucks Already Advertises Against Facebook Places Offers

Today Facebook shook up the local deals space with their Facebook Places announcement: the local deal platform which now competes directly with Foursquare, Yelp, Groupon, etc. Facebook launched with twenty premier partners who represented different industries (Gap :: retail; Palms :: hotel; Starbucks : food; Golden State Warriors :: sports; etc). The platform will quickly expand to 20,000 local businesses and then a self-serve platform. Considering Facebook's size, mobile usage and collection of brands / business owners - this is a big deal.

... And Starbucks seems to recognize that. Immediately after the Facebook announcement, they began advertising with premium Facebook ads - specifically promoting their places offer: "Starbucks will donate $1 per Facebook Places check-in up to $75,000 to Conservation Intl. Help us protect 5,000 acres of forest land."

Must Read Quora Threads for Startups

For entrepreneurs, Quora has become the new Hacker News: the go-to-place to glean great, rich information related to startups - culture, technology, product, design, history, financing, etc. It's all there and much of it is outstanding. My goal is help build a list of must read Quora threads for entrepreneurs and startups. This is by no means a comprehensive list - so I encourage you to share threads that are important / helpful to you and I will supplement the list. In no particular order, here is a list of Quora threads that I think are critically important to startups. I have tried to include content relevant to all avenues of entrepreneurship: from hiring to product to financing... and everything in between. And enjoy spending the next hour getting lost on Qoura =)

Must read Quora threads for entrepreneurs

Building a Great Team

- What would the ideal web technology start-up team be composed of?

- How does one hire really good product managers?

- What are the best ways for gauging or assessing product "spidey sense" during an interview?

- What is the best way to evaluate a potential startup to work at (full-time)?

Financing

- Are there examples of good start up term sheets?

- What are the top 5-7 questions a start-up CEO should ask of an angel investor early on, to determine if they and you (& your project) are a potential fit?

- What are the top qualities to look for in angel investors?

Startup Culture

- What key values led to early PayPal's culture of entrepreneurship?

- What companies are the best examples of great corporate culture?

Miscellaneous Startup Advice

- What percentage equity should an "involved" advisor receive?

- How do you get TechCrunch to cover your startup?

- What are the most common mistakes first-time entrepreneurs make?

- What is the most useful, shortest and most generally applicable piece of wisdom you know?

- If you could today send a tweet to yourself back when you were graduating high school, what would you say?

find me on Quora

Today's Top Grossing iPhone Apps

Following up on yesterday's post about the impact Apple and Android are making on the gaming industry... here is a screenshot of today's top grossing iPhone Apps. A couple notes of interest: 1. The highest grossing application is free... meaning that financial success can come from 'freemium' apps

2. ... but don't overlook that it is the NBA App: massive brand and timely app (the season just started)

3. Other than the NBA, every other top grossing in the app is a game

4. Most of those games are $0.99

5 ... and the more expensive ones ($4.99 - $6.99) are associated with larger brands (ie Gameloft & Electronic Arts).

This is not to say that non-gaming applications are unable to succeed... but it is clear that pricing, brand and timing play a key role in popularity. This is precisely why Nintendo and others should be scared: the app-store has disrupted how games are played, shared and purchased ($0.99 vs. $29+). It also changes how those games are produced and marketed.

Lastly - while I find gaming interesting and fun, I would love to see other app categories crack these lists. It is already happening on the iPad... and I expect it will happen with the upcoming Chrome App Gallery.

iPhone & Android Dents Portable Gaming Industry

Two years ago, I wrote about the looming death of portable gaming devices... seems like it happened sooner than we thought. Yesterday, the Wall Street Journal covered Nintendo's revamped 3DS handeld gaming device - which Nintendo is hoping will revive their declining gaming platform and business:

"The Japanese company also reported its first interim net loss in seven years, hurt by weakening overseas sales and the strength of the yen. First-half revenue fell 34% to 363.16 billion yen ($4.44 billion) from a year ago."

While the Nintendo 3DS may be a great device (to be determined).... the fact of the matter is that improved hardware won't solve Nintendo's problem. Asking consumers to buy a handheld device, carry that device, and individually buy game titles (at $29 / disc) is unreasonable.

Consumers already carry iPhone's, iPod Touches, and Android Devices - and those platforms now have large libraries of gaming content. The games are far cheaper (free to $9.99) and wildly popular: 14/15 top grossing iPhone apps are games.

We have learned that with Apple and Android - and to a lesser degree Znyga, LOLapps, etc - consumers value gameplay and social more than game graphics and flashiness.