This is a test JESS3 Blogslideshare – JESS3 Blog https://blog.jess3.com JESS3 is a creative agency that specializes in social media strategy and data visualization. Tue, 11 Dec 2018 20:42:43 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.0.21 Putting the Strategy in Client Strategy https://blog.jess3.com/2012/11/putting-the-strategy-in-client-strategy.html https://blog.jess3.com/2012/11/putting-the-strategy-in-client-strategy.html#respond Wed, 28 Nov 2012 23:51:00 +0000 Sheri Cook http://blog.jess3.com/?p=31413 Made with love and learnings by JESS3. Originally presented by JESS3 Associate Director of Client Strategy Sheri Cook to the University of Oklahoma AdClub on November 27, 2012.

]]> Made with love and learnings by JESS3. Originally presented by JESS3 Associate Director of Client Strategy Sheri Cook to the University of Oklahoma AdClub on November 27, 2012.

]]> https://blog.jess3.com/2012/11/putting-the-strategy-in-client-strategy.html/feed 0 “Don’t Be Rich, Live Rich”: An Interview with Two Globetrotting Entrepreneurs https://blog.jess3.com/2011/07/%e2%80%9cdon%e2%80%99t-be-rich-live-rich%e2%80%9d-an-interview-with-two-globetrotting-entrepreneurs.html https://blog.jess3.com/2011/07/%e2%80%9cdon%e2%80%99t-be-rich-live-rich%e2%80%9d-an-interview-with-two-globetrotting-entrepreneurs.html#respond Fri, 22 Jul 2011 18:33:29 +0000 Kris Berinson /?p=10812 Cape Town
Everyone loves a vacation, but it’s usually over in the blink of an eye. Well, Ine Dehandschutter and Catherine Van Holder found a way to make it last a whole year — they took their work with them! The pair visited over ten countries on their work-and-play journey around the globe and they shared the successes (and failures) of their lifestyledesign method through slideshare!
JESS3 caught up with the pair to learn more of the ins and outs of their lifestyle design motto.
Why was this method better than the tourist route?
We both love traveling and have been doing it for a while. But travel is fast. You end up on the tourist track a lot — I mean, everyone has Lonely Planet.
Slow travel is nicer. You get to know a country differently, you get to know people who become friends. You get to know a city and its hidden gems that tourists don’t know. Plus it’s cheaper and more ecological.
But it takes longer. You need a way to pay for it — taking our jobs along was a solution to that. In fact, you could almost say that the idea started there; we wanted to design our lives with the things we like.
In the future, how would you choose your destinations?
We definitely would take language more into account. We also discovered that we love middle-sized cultural cities near the sea (or larger cities with a small center).
And we already have a short list of future destinations: Melbourne (though expensive), San Francisco, Valencia, Berlin, and Copenhagen (but that’s also a tad bit expensive). And of course we wouldn’t skip places like Thailand or Bali
What were some of the little things or daily joys that made it worth the effort?
We met incredible people all around. Some of them are hopping over to Belgium (where we live now,) and we’ll visit the others again.
What was the biggest positive surprise?
Again, all of the people we met; we did not expect to meet like-minded people so easily. When we arrived at our first stop in Cape Town, we met several brilliant people after only a week — we hung out with them most of our time there.
Today, we still consider them friends, even though we live far away from each other. The same thing happened in most locations.
Thailand
What was your biggest misconception about the trip?
We worked a lot; we were afraid of running our of money. However, in the end, we ended up with more money than we started with. So, next time, we’d try to be more chill about money.
To help prepare for your trip, you said you read The 4 Hour Work Week. What was your biggest takeaway from the book?
That you have to take it with a grain of salt and not just copy-cat like we saw many people do online No really, the biggest take-away was probably to figure out the worst that can happen and prepare for that. Often, the worst isn’t really that bad.
For example: the worst that could happen to us might’ve been that we wouldn’t have enough work and we would run out of money. Our solution? Go back home. It might have felt like a failure, but at least we would have tried.
How did you budget your funds? Did you always allot a certain amount for housing, food, and fun?
While we earned most of our money through clients, in an ideal world, it would be possible to combine that with some form of passive income, as Tim Ferriss explains in his book. With that in mind, Catherine launched www.butikk.nu. But since the project is still pretty new, the income generated is not all “passive” at this point.
Before we left we set up an ‘approximate’ amount that we needed each month. We went over this budget everywhere — especially in Argentina with our last trip to Patagonia — but that didn’t matter because we earned more than anticipated. (But, we worked more too).
What do you mean by “Stop underperforming: Win Time” (Slide 27)?
We all procrastinate hours away on answering emails, going to meetings, Facebook, Twitter…it really helps to close all of that stuff, and just start working, and stay focused. Suddenly, there are quite a few hours in a day.
Our minds are jumping way too often to other stuff. It distracts you from your work. For me, Zen to Done helped me get more focused. That and the no ‘always on’ internet connection in South Africa.
You advise, “don’t underestimated the practical stuff (Slide 40).” What details caught you off guard?
Before we left, it was insurance, administration, and paperwork — it took ages. We would advise people to do these things early: the bank, the insurance company, the post office for rerouting your snail mail. You will always need to go twice. At least.
On the road, figure out the locations of the post office and supermarket. Every new city meant finding new affordable supermarkets, housing, cafes, and nice restaurants. This takes time.
On the other hand, we now know all of the best spots in Cape Town and Chiang Mai!  If you could return to anyplace you visited, big or small, where would it be?
Cape Town. No doubt.
You said Argentina ended up being too spread out and expensive (Slide 41). How would you avoid this problem in the future?
Expensive is not bad, you know. The longer you travel, the more you want to spend money for decent stuff. After all, it is your ‘home’ and you want to live comfortably. If you earn money, it is not that bad to spend it on good moments.
We never stayed in hostels. And when comparing our spending with a backpacker, we often had the same amount — they just spent more on food and expenses while saving on sleeping. We preferred higher sleeping costs, and finding local, cheaper places to eat.
And, actually the prices were not our problem; it was ‘offering too little for too much money.’ We found that we got less for our money in Argentina when we compared it to other locations.
On the other hand, we have to admit, we saw the most beautiful sights in Argentina: Iguazu falls, Patagonia… we never saw such beauty! And again, we met some wonderful people there.
Would you suggest taking this trip with a partner?
Yes, if you have one. I, Ine, have been traveling a lot on my own, and the fact that you can share you trips with someone is unforgettable. As in ‘hey, do you remember that time, there?’ There is this shared thought that always will be there between two people. When seeing a picture, you both know what was outside the frame, you know the circumstances, the feeling, the sound…
It is also very convenient to have a partner in difficult moments. When you’re stopped at the border, it is much for fun and relaxed with two. Or when you have a bad day, the other one can cheer you up. You have to be strong though — 24 hours a day together is a lot. You need moments alone and some space.
In Thailand we lived in a hotel room for a while (grand luxury outside: pool, sea-side, space) but inside there was only one room, compared to our Belgian home with 3 floors. At one moment we rented an extra room just to have some space. The people in the hotel didn’t understand it at all. It was the most logical solution though. We still laugh about it.
Catherine_Statue
What did you find to be your most essential tool?
Our Macbook with wifi/internet. Without this, the trip would have been impossible. When leaving for Thailand, there was the ash cloud in Europe, and in Bangkok there was unrest and political clashes. Our embassy advised us not to go to Bangkok or the north of Thailand. Our flights couldn’t be changed. So we left to Copenhagen, a bit afraid that we’d be stuck there. We were lucky.
Then we arrived in Bangkok. We planned to go to Chiang Mai, but the news hadn’t changed, so we had to go to the South instead. We booked our flight straight away on the computer in the airport. And our hotels through our own website. Two hours later we were sitting on an island. I can’t imagine this without the internet.
Although, I can’t imagine this without a credit card either. So maybe the credit card.
What is your goal for the presentation/slideshow? Do you want to become advocates for this lifestyle?
Traveling with your job is one way of lifestyledesign. In face, Catherine made a presentation on how you can implement lifestyledesign in your daily life. We want to be advocates for lifestyledesign itself, instead of this one tiny part that Tim Ferriss sold — traveling and passive income.
What we’re saying is, instead of just doing what your parents believed in, do what you believe in. And that’s not necessarily a nine-to-five job until you retire. This old ‘template’ is just not working anymore. We all know that the capitalist view on life is over.   Many people are asking themselves ‘is this it?’ They have the house, the TV, every possible luxury, but one desires the passion.
In the past, creativity was mostly linked to art or culture. But today, why not be creative in real life, in the kind of life you design for yourself? And even beyond, in the kind of society we want to build for ourselves.
For us, we figured out that we wanted to go and travel the world slowly for one year. And we found a hack that allowed it.
Will we do it again? Yep, sure, for several months, because we love traveling.
But I know friends that design their lives themselves too. At home. Just by deciding they wanted to work part-time and spend time with their kids. Or to quit that office job to become independent and pursue their passion.
For us, lifestyledesign is about finding your passion and finding a way to make your life about that instead of earning money for your retirement to pursue that passion then. Live now, not then.
Thanks guys for sharing not only your journey, but also a mode and method for our own! We’re looking forward to seeing the next adventure.
Catherine
]]> Cape Town
Everyone loves a vacation, but it’s usually over in the blink of an eye. Well, Ine Dehandschutter and Catherine Van Holder found a way to make it last a whole year — they took their work with them! The pair visited over ten countries on their work-and-play journey around the globe and they shared the successes (and failures) of their lifestyledesign method through slideshare!
JESS3 caught up with the pair to learn more of the ins and outs of their lifestyle design motto.
Why was this method better than the tourist route?
We both love traveling and have been doing it for a while. But travel is fast. You end up on the tourist track a lot — I mean, everyone has Lonely Planet.
Slow travel is nicer. You get to know a country differently, you get to know people who become friends. You get to know a city and its hidden gems that tourists don’t know. Plus it’s cheaper and more ecological.
But it takes longer. You need a way to pay for it — taking our jobs along was a solution to that. In fact, you could almost say that the idea started there; we wanted to design our lives with the things we like.
In the future, how would you choose your destinations?
We definitely would take language more into account. We also discovered that we love middle-sized cultural cities near the sea (or larger cities with a small center).
And we already have a short list of future destinations: Melbourne (though expensive), San Francisco, Valencia, Berlin, and Copenhagen (but that’s also a tad bit expensive). And of course we wouldn’t skip places like Thailand or Bali
What were some of the little things or daily joys that made it worth the effort?
We met incredible people all around. Some of them are hopping over to Belgium (where we live now,) and we’ll visit the others again.
What was the biggest positive surprise?
Again, all of the people we met; we did not expect to meet like-minded people so easily. When we arrived at our first stop in Cape Town, we met several brilliant people after only a week — we hung out with them most of our time there.
Today, we still consider them friends, even though we live far away from each other. The same thing happened in most locations.
Thailand
What was your biggest misconception about the trip?
We worked a lot; we were afraid of running our of money. However, in the end, we ended up with more money than we started with. So, next time, we’d try to be more chill about money.
To help prepare for your trip, you said you read The 4 Hour Work Week. What was your biggest takeaway from the book?
That you have to take it with a grain of salt and not just copy-cat like we saw many people do online No really, the biggest take-away was probably to figure out the worst that can happen and prepare for that. Often, the worst isn’t really that bad.
For example: the worst that could happen to us might’ve been that we wouldn’t have enough work and we would run out of money. Our solution? Go back home. It might have felt like a failure, but at least we would have tried.
How did you budget your funds? Did you always allot a certain amount for housing, food, and fun?
While we earned most of our money through clients, in an ideal world, it would be possible to combine that with some form of passive income, as Tim Ferriss explains in his book. With that in mind, Catherine launched www.butikk.nu. But since the project is still pretty new, the income generated is not all “passive” at this point.
Before we left we set up an ‘approximate’ amount that we needed each month. We went over this budget everywhere — especially in Argentina with our last trip to Patagonia — but that didn’t matter because we earned more than anticipated. (But, we worked more too).
What do you mean by “Stop underperforming: Win Time” (Slide 27)?
We all procrastinate hours away on answering emails, going to meetings, Facebook, Twitter…it really helps to close all of that stuff, and just start working, and stay focused. Suddenly, there are quite a few hours in a day.
Our minds are jumping way too often to other stuff. It distracts you from your work. For me, Zen to Done helped me get more focused. That and the no ‘always on’ internet connection in South Africa.
You advise, “don’t underestimated the practical stuff (Slide 40).” What details caught you off guard?
Before we left, it was insurance, administration, and paperwork — it took ages. We would advise people to do these things early: the bank, the insurance company, the post office for rerouting your snail mail. You will always need to go twice. At least.
On the road, figure out the locations of the post office and supermarket. Every new city meant finding new affordable supermarkets, housing, cafes, and nice restaurants. This takes time.
On the other hand, we now know all of the best spots in Cape Town and Chiang Mai!  If you could return to anyplace you visited, big or small, where would it be?
Cape Town. No doubt.
You said Argentina ended up being too spread out and expensive (Slide 41). How would you avoid this problem in the future?
Expensive is not bad, you know. The longer you travel, the more you want to spend money for decent stuff. After all, it is your ‘home’ and you want to live comfortably. If you earn money, it is not that bad to spend it on good moments.
We never stayed in hostels. And when comparing our spending with a backpacker, we often had the same amount — they just spent more on food and expenses while saving on sleeping. We preferred higher sleeping costs, and finding local, cheaper places to eat.
And, actually the prices were not our problem; it was ‘offering too little for too much money.’ We found that we got less for our money in Argentina when we compared it to other locations.
On the other hand, we have to admit, we saw the most beautiful sights in Argentina: Iguazu falls, Patagonia… we never saw such beauty! And again, we met some wonderful people there.
Would you suggest taking this trip with a partner?
Yes, if you have one. I, Ine, have been traveling a lot on my own, and the fact that you can share you trips with someone is unforgettable. As in ‘hey, do you remember that time, there?’ There is this shared thought that always will be there between two people. When seeing a picture, you both know what was outside the frame, you know the circumstances, the feeling, the sound…
It is also very convenient to have a partner in difficult moments. When you’re stopped at the border, it is much for fun and relaxed with two. Or when you have a bad day, the other one can cheer you up. You have to be strong though — 24 hours a day together is a lot. You need moments alone and some space.
In Thailand we lived in a hotel room for a while (grand luxury outside: pool, sea-side, space) but inside there was only one room, compared to our Belgian home with 3 floors. At one moment we rented an extra room just to have some space. The people in the hotel didn’t understand it at all. It was the most logical solution though. We still laugh about it.
Catherine_Statue
What did you find to be your most essential tool?
Our Macbook with wifi/internet. Without this, the trip would have been impossible. When leaving for Thailand, there was the ash cloud in Europe, and in Bangkok there was unrest and political clashes. Our embassy advised us not to go to Bangkok or the north of Thailand. Our flights couldn’t be changed. So we left to Copenhagen, a bit afraid that we’d be stuck there. We were lucky.
Then we arrived in Bangkok. We planned to go to Chiang Mai, but the news hadn’t changed, so we had to go to the South instead. We booked our flight straight away on the computer in the airport. And our hotels through our own website. Two hours later we were sitting on an island. I can’t imagine this without the internet.
Although, I can’t imagine this without a credit card either. So maybe the credit card.
What is your goal for the presentation/slideshow? Do you want to become advocates for this lifestyle?
Traveling with your job is one way of lifestyledesign. In face, Catherine made a presentation on how you can implement lifestyledesign in your daily life. We want to be advocates for lifestyledesign itself, instead of this one tiny part that Tim Ferriss sold — traveling and passive income.
What we’re saying is, instead of just doing what your parents believed in, do what you believe in. And that’s not necessarily a nine-to-five job until you retire. This old ‘template’ is just not working anymore. We all know that the capitalist view on life is over.   Many people are asking themselves ‘is this it?’ They have the house, the TV, every possible luxury, but one desires the passion.
In the past, creativity was mostly linked to art or culture. But today, why not be creative in real life, in the kind of life you design for yourself? And even beyond, in the kind of society we want to build for ourselves.
For us, we figured out that we wanted to go and travel the world slowly for one year. And we found a hack that allowed it.
Will we do it again? Yep, sure, for several months, because we love traveling.
But I know friends that design their lives themselves too. At home. Just by deciding they wanted to work part-time and spend time with their kids. Or to quit that office job to become independent and pursue their passion.
For us, lifestyledesign is about finding your passion and finding a way to make your life about that instead of earning money for your retirement to pursue that passion then. Live now, not then.
Thanks guys for sharing not only your journey, but also a mode and method for our own! We’re looking forward to seeing the next adventure.
Catherine
]]> https://blog.jess3.com/2011/07/%e2%80%9cdon%e2%80%99t-be-rich-live-rich%e2%80%9d-an-interview-with-two-globetrotting-entrepreneurs.html/feed 0 The 2011 Digital Advertising Landscape https://blog.jess3.com/2010/11/our-predictions-for-digital-advertising.html https://blog.jess3.com/2010/11/our-predictions-for-digital-advertising.html#respond Wed, 24 Nov 2010 20:23:00 +0000 Jesse Thomas /2010/11/our-predictions-for-digital-advertising.html Read our “6 Predictions for Digital Advertising in 2011” on Mashable.

As we continue deeper into a recession, we will see more deal-based advertising. Groupon and LivingSocial were right to make those inroads early. Sites like Gilt Groupe and PLNDR are being really innovative with their sales strategy, and it’s paying off for them.

Location-based advertising was big in 2010, and it will get even bigger in 2011 as Facebook expands the technology behind its location platform Places. Mobile advertising is of course the larger trend associated with location-based advertising, and it’s also a hot trend.

We can always hope for more smarter and better Google, Twitter and Facebook ad units. Social ads are really exciting, and they have never before been possible. What comes with it is smarter and better metrics.

Last year, we saw some advertisements online that allowed you to click Facebook Connect and suck your permission-based info into a video ad to create a powerful experience. This is in the dynamic ad space that still uses the upload photo trick to get custom content within an ad. I personally find this super interesting and predict we will see more of it for sure in 2011 and beyond.

TV is going to get really exciting for advertisers as well. If you think about it, we haven’t had any good innovations in TV for a long time. With Google and Apple entering the TV market, it will be a great chance for new ad units to be created and tested. If you remember back when Gmail came out and people were flipping out about how the ads next to their emails were related to their emails content, we might have a similar moment with TV ads. In the next few years, we will also start to see better, more powerful remote controls. Perhaps we will see a Facebook “Like” button on TV remotes in the future? Imagine.

Facebook “Like” walls was a big trend this last year. We will see better and smarter strategies around limiting exclusive content on a Facebook page to entice users to click the “Like” button. The trick is turning your customers into fans on the first view of your Facebook page. Most big brands are making a Facebook “Like” box the most prominent thing on their reveal tab for new visitors who haven’t “Liked” the page yet. Another trend we are seeing the big advertisers use is creating an incentive for the customer to become a fan. Exclusive content access is a typical strategy, but we have seen some pretty good ones this year and will continue to see more in 2011. This trend is not without controversy of course, and if you are spending $$$ on Facebook advertising, you can have an official Facebook account person validate your techniques. Our soldier in arms, Matty Mo, coined the term “Reveal Tab”, but I like the term “Like Wall”, because it’s more accurate than referring to it as a tab. A tab is something a user can get to when they want, a wall is something more urgent and alarming frankly.

Facebook “Likes” have become quite valuable this last year and will continue to be the metric marketing departments are judged on. Think about smart ways to drive traffic to your social network presences by promoting your Facebook presence via HTML emails. A trend for 2011 is sending HTML emails driving traffic to Facebook. You can’t “Like” something from an email, but that hasn’t stopped people from using the image of a “Like” to get you to click on a veiled “AddThis” widget. I also like the more unique uses of the “Like” as a metric of popularity. For instance, Urban Outfitters has a page ranking their products by Facebook “Likes”.

As Facebook becomes the front line of a brand, and the image used as the avatar become more important. For instance the image can be tall, designs can blend in (see LeBron James’ Facebook page) and the “Like” wall can be integrated like we see in the LeBron page.

Sponsored content is a great trend that the internet has added great new potential to. Brands that are already in good standing with their customers will find great results with new ways to buy content that their customers care about. We will see more pages like Skittles that would seem to employ comedy writers to keep the content fresh. It would seem that “A Brand’s Best Bet in Social Media Is Randomness.”

Utility is a recession enabled trend. As people have less money, they rely on advertisers to provide things they can survive better with. Obviously coupons is one way of doing this, but providing supplies kids can use around school time, or wrapping paper that can used around the holidays, etc. I think to some extent the comedy you see on the Skittles Facebook page is also utility — by cutting to the chase and providing humor.

Donations are a great new trend we are seeing. From donate your status on Facebook, tweeting to sign a petition, to other more involved forms of engagement. Farmville has done some exciting promotions this year and we will definitely see lots more like this. Farmville had a very successful promotion that allowed the game users to plant virtual seeds in their farm, and then donate the crops to Haiti-related charities.

Giving the user control of options is a great trend that’s here to stay. If you look at how bk.com is setup, I think that says a lot for where we are going. Provide a ton of great relevant content, but allow the user to have as much control as possible.

Visual simplicity means a lot of things. Simplicity can mean that a company is trustworthy. It can mean a company is smart about spending their money, because they don’t need to waste money on pretty images to sell products. I think another factor is companies that look to be spending lots of money are under more and more scrutiny.

Facebook fan acquisition is an emerging trend we saw in 2010. The idea of optimizing the process of securing brand page “Likes” is here to stay. Using A/B testing and optimization techniques, agencies are raising the Facebook fan page numbers for mega brands. I have found that clients just want the numbers to go up. One of the draw backs to this industry trend is the fans one acquires can be low-quality or even irrelevant to the brands ideal target audience.

Influencers are more important when the market is in a recession. If you think about it, people spend longer making purchase decisions and in the process listen to more voices along the way. Services like Klout have come out this last year and created an official layer of social credibility. Klout scores are for instance being used by The Palms Hotel in Vegas to gauge discounts. At The Palms “The Klout Klub,” which “will allow high-ranking influencers to experience Palms’ impressive set of amenities in hopes that these influencers will want to communicate their positive experience to their followers.” Creating thoughtful ways to leverage your influencers is the thing to focus on. People have always said, its cheaper to keep and please the customers you have, than acquire new ones.

Madison Avenue meets Silicon Valley. It used to be the coolest job in advertising was working for an agency. These days working at Google, Facebook, etc has become the dream job of the advertising industry. I think this is good, as we move from disposable online campaigns to robust long term digital campaigns.

Private groups is a trend from the end of 2010 that will continue into 2011. Path has shown us the potential to limiting our social networks to 50 people. Facebook Groups has allowed us to turn Facebook into a meeting room for the long tail of groups we have in our lives. Fast Society is a new iPhone communication service that allows the user to create small groups to text with on the fly, and the groups last for 3 days. Something to consider is the mix or intimacy and urgency.

MySpace is totally the underdog, but in typical underdog fashion, they are fighting to the death. Under the great Mike Jones’s new administration it might be possible to salvage what is an incredible opportunity. The Facebook experience is quite cold, and to be specific — monochromatic. Facebook is two colors, blue and grey (and white doesn’t count). Facebook can get boring, the new MySpace is actually really bright and exciting. MySpace is doing things that Facebook has chosen to never do. I think Facebook suffers from Googlitis and thinks that everything needs to be devoid of design. People think that because Yahoo! and AOL were the platforms with life, and Google and Facebook are the more surgical alternative. MySpace has bright life and tons of potential in 2011. It will be interesting to see what MySpace offers to stay relevant with the main user base, as well as pandering even more to the musician market. I always think about how the difference between MySpace and Facebook is that MySpace has tons of cash and a defined direction, and perhaps Facebook is a bit of a bubble? Something to think about.

LinkedIn is an interesting brand to watch for advertisers. The integrity of its users is way undervalued. One tip is the new “share to LinkedIn” widget. Think about this next to Twitter, Facebook and depending on the site in question, MySpace and Digg.

SlideShare is doing some really exciting things with their platform offerings. You can buy the “featured presentation” or “presentation of the day” for $399 a day and $999 a day respectively. Brands can negotiate with smaller platforms for things Facebook and Twitter won’t do for you, things like customizing the layout of the page in YouTube style. The featured accounts are a great value allowing you to customize the background of the page and add a header to your presentation detail pages. A trend for 2011 will be brands use of SlideShare as a content focused social network.

Quora is a question and answer community, not unlike Yahoo! Answers, or LinkedIn Answers. These sites remind advertisers of the importance of PR. The line between PR and advertising has never been so close. And on this same trend we have seen sites like Get Satisfaction emerge as well. Get Satisfaction allows users to rant and rate on business all over the world. It is kind of like an even more UGC version of Yelp.

]]> Read our “6 Predictions for Digital Advertising in 2011” on Mashable.

As we continue deeper into a recession, we will see more deal-based advertising. Groupon and LivingSocial were right to make those inroads early. Sites like Gilt Groupe and PLNDR are being really innovative with their sales strategy, and it’s paying off for them.

Location-based advertising was big in 2010, and it will get even bigger in 2011 as Facebook expands the technology behind its location platform Places. Mobile advertising is of course the larger trend associated with location-based advertising, and it’s also a hot trend.

We can always hope for more smarter and better Google, Twitter and Facebook ad units. Social ads are really exciting, and they have never before been possible. What comes with it is smarter and better metrics.

Last year, we saw some advertisements online that allowed you to click Facebook Connect and suck your permission-based info into a video ad to create a powerful experience. This is in the dynamic ad space that still uses the upload photo trick to get custom content within an ad. I personally find this super interesting and predict we will see more of it for sure in 2011 and beyond.

TV is going to get really exciting for advertisers as well. If you think about it, we haven’t had any good innovations in TV for a long time. With Google and Apple entering the TV market, it will be a great chance for new ad units to be created and tested. If you remember back when Gmail came out and people were flipping out about how the ads next to their emails were related to their emails content, we might have a similar moment with TV ads. In the next few years, we will also start to see better, more powerful remote controls. Perhaps we will see a Facebook “Like” button on TV remotes in the future? Imagine.

Facebook “Like” walls was a big trend this last year. We will see better and smarter strategies around limiting exclusive content on a Facebook page to entice users to click the “Like” button. The trick is turning your customers into fans on the first view of your Facebook page. Most big brands are making a Facebook “Like” box the most prominent thing on their reveal tab for new visitors who haven’t “Liked” the page yet. Another trend we are seeing the big advertisers use is creating an incentive for the customer to become a fan. Exclusive content access is a typical strategy, but we have seen some pretty good ones this year and will continue to see more in 2011. This trend is not without controversy of course, and if you are spending $$$ on Facebook advertising, you can have an official Facebook account person validate your techniques. Our soldier in arms, Matty Mo, coined the term “Reveal Tab”, but I like the term “Like Wall”, because it’s more accurate than referring to it as a tab. A tab is something a user can get to when they want, a wall is something more urgent and alarming frankly.

Facebook “Likes” have become quite valuable this last year and will continue to be the metric marketing departments are judged on. Think about smart ways to drive traffic to your social network presences by promoting your Facebook presence via HTML emails. A trend for 2011 is sending HTML emails driving traffic to Facebook. You can’t “Like” something from an email, but that hasn’t stopped people from using the image of a “Like” to get you to click on a veiled “AddThis” widget. I also like the more unique uses of the “Like” as a metric of popularity. For instance, Urban Outfitters has a page ranking their products by Facebook “Likes”.

As Facebook becomes the front line of a brand, and the image used as the avatar become more important. For instance the image can be tall, designs can blend in (see LeBron James’ Facebook page) and the “Like” wall can be integrated like we see in the LeBron page.

Sponsored content is a great trend that the internet has added great new potential to. Brands that are already in good standing with their customers will find great results with new ways to buy content that their customers care about. We will see more pages like Skittles that would seem to employ comedy writers to keep the content fresh. It would seem that “A Brand’s Best Bet in Social Media Is Randomness.”

Utility is a recession enabled trend. As people have less money, they rely on advertisers to provide things they can survive better with. Obviously coupons is one way of doing this, but providing supplies kids can use around school time, or wrapping paper that can used around the holidays, etc. I think to some extent the comedy you see on the Skittles Facebook page is also utility — by cutting to the chase and providing humor.

Donations are a great new trend we are seeing. From donate your status on Facebook, tweeting to sign a petition, to other more involved forms of engagement. Farmville has done some exciting promotions this year and we will definitely see lots more like this. Farmville had a very successful promotion that allowed the game users to plant virtual seeds in their farm, and then donate the crops to Haiti-related charities.

Giving the user control of options is a great trend that’s here to stay. If you look at how bk.com is setup, I think that says a lot for where we are going. Provide a ton of great relevant content, but allow the user to have as much control as possible.

Visual simplicity means a lot of things. Simplicity can mean that a company is trustworthy. It can mean a company is smart about spending their money, because they don’t need to waste money on pretty images to sell products. I think another factor is companies that look to be spending lots of money are under more and more scrutiny.

Facebook fan acquisition is an emerging trend we saw in 2010. The idea of optimizing the process of securing brand page “Likes” is here to stay. Using A/B testing and optimization techniques, agencies are raising the Facebook fan page numbers for mega brands. I have found that clients just want the numbers to go up. One of the draw backs to this industry trend is the fans one acquires can be low-quality or even irrelevant to the brands ideal target audience.

Influencers are more important when the market is in a recession. If you think about it, people spend longer making purchase decisions and in the process listen to more voices along the way. Services like Klout have come out this last year and created an official layer of social credibility. Klout scores are for instance being used by The Palms Hotel in Vegas to gauge discounts. At The Palms “The Klout Klub,” which “will allow high-ranking influencers to experience Palms’ impressive set of amenities in hopes that these influencers will want to communicate their positive experience to their followers.” Creating thoughtful ways to leverage your influencers is the thing to focus on. People have always said, its cheaper to keep and please the customers you have, than acquire new ones.

Madison Avenue meets Silicon Valley. It used to be the coolest job in advertising was working for an agency. These days working at Google, Facebook, etc has become the dream job of the advertising industry. I think this is good, as we move from disposable online campaigns to robust long term digital campaigns.

Private groups is a trend from the end of 2010 that will continue into 2011. Path has shown us the potential to limiting our social networks to 50 people. Facebook Groups has allowed us to turn Facebook into a meeting room for the long tail of groups we have in our lives. Fast Society is a new iPhone communication service that allows the user to create small groups to text with on the fly, and the groups last for 3 days. Something to consider is the mix or intimacy and urgency.

MySpace is totally the underdog, but in typical underdog fashion, they are fighting to the death. Under the great Mike Jones’s new administration it might be possible to salvage what is an incredible opportunity. The Facebook experience is quite cold, and to be specific — monochromatic. Facebook is two colors, blue and grey (and white doesn’t count). Facebook can get boring, the new MySpace is actually really bright and exciting. MySpace is doing things that Facebook has chosen to never do. I think Facebook suffers from Googlitis and thinks that everything needs to be devoid of design. People think that because Yahoo! and AOL were the platforms with life, and Google and Facebook are the more surgical alternative. MySpace has bright life and tons of potential in 2011. It will be interesting to see what MySpace offers to stay relevant with the main user base, as well as pandering even more to the musician market. I always think about how the difference between MySpace and Facebook is that MySpace has tons of cash and a defined direction, and perhaps Facebook is a bit of a bubble? Something to think about.

LinkedIn is an interesting brand to watch for advertisers. The integrity of its users is way undervalued. One tip is the new “share to LinkedIn” widget. Think about this next to Twitter, Facebook and depending on the site in question, MySpace and Digg.

SlideShare is doing some really exciting things with their platform offerings. You can buy the “featured presentation” or “presentation of the day” for $399 a day and $999 a day respectively. Brands can negotiate with smaller platforms for things Facebook and Twitter won’t do for you, things like customizing the layout of the page in YouTube style. The featured accounts are a great value allowing you to customize the background of the page and add a header to your presentation detail pages. A trend for 2011 will be brands use of SlideShare as a content focused social network.

Quora is a question and answer community, not unlike Yahoo! Answers, or LinkedIn Answers. These sites remind advertisers of the importance of PR. The line between PR and advertising has never been so close. And on this same trend we have seen sites like Get Satisfaction emerge as well. Get Satisfaction allows users to rant and rate on business all over the world. It is kind of like an even more UGC version of Yelp.

]]> https://blog.jess3.com/2010/11/our-predictions-for-digital-advertising.html/feed 0 Why Social Media, a Slideshare Presentation https://blog.jess3.com/2010/07/about-why-social-media-slideshare.html https://blog.jess3.com/2010/07/about-why-social-media-slideshare.html#respond Thu, 22 Jul 2010 19:22:00 +0000 Jesse Thomas /2010/07/about-why-social-media-slideshare.html If you’re still wondering why Social Media is impossible to ignore in today’s world, our very own social media guru Leslie Bradshaw has put together a handy little slideshow showcasing crucial tips and information on the topic. Read it, learn it, love it, share it, live it:

]]> If you’re still wondering why Social Media is impossible to ignore in today’s world, our very own social media guru Leslie Bradshaw has put together a handy little slideshow showcasing crucial tips and information on the topic. Read it, learn it, love it, share it, live it:

]]> https://blog.jess3.com/2010/07/about-why-social-media-slideshare.html/feed 0 Microformats https://blog.jess3.com/2008/12/microformats.html https://blog.jess3.com/2008/12/microformats.html#respond Sun, 28 Dec 2008 19:40:00 +0000 Jesse Thomas /2008/12/microformats.html

“This is the best microformats presentation I found in Slideshare.”

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“This is the best microformats presentation I found in Slideshare.”

]]> https://blog.jess3.com/2008/12/microformats.html/feed 0 Why you Should Design Fast Websites by Yahoo https://blog.jess3.com/2008/12/why-you-should-design-fast-websites-by.html https://blog.jess3.com/2008/12/why-you-should-design-fast-websites-by.html#respond Thu, 25 Dec 2008 21:45:00 +0000 Jesse Thomas /2008/12/why-you-should-design-fast-websites-by.html

Great advice from the experts.

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Great advice from the experts.

]]> https://blog.jess3.com/2008/12/why-you-should-design-fast-websites-by.html/feed 0 The 25 Blog Styles https://blog.jess3.com/2007/04/25-blog-styles.html https://blog.jess3.com/2007/04/25-blog-styles.html#respond Wed, 11 Apr 2007 15:49:00 +0000 Jesse Thomas /2007/04/25-blog-styles.html My coworker Rohit and I produced this presentation. Check it out here and if you like it, please add your vote to the best preso contest:

Download Presentation PDF (right click to “Save As”)

]]> My coworker Rohit and I produced this presentation. Check it out here and if you like it, please add your vote to the best preso contest:

Download Presentation PDF (right click to “Save As”)

]]> https://blog.jess3.com/2007/04/25-blog-styles.html/feed 0