BOSSdev responded by pitching “The Right Tool for The Right Job” campaign, which includes a micro site, a branded Flash game, a Facebook app, a Soft-Picks customized Facebook page, a YouTube channel, and a webisode series.  The common thread throughout the whole campaign is the situational and slightly exaggerated type of humor that causes a campaign to go viral.

“We really wanted to make the product come to life in the online world and get the brand’s key messages across using humor as a magnetic force,” said Paula Anderanin, interactive solutions architect, BOSSdev.

BOSSdev’s creative and technical talent leveraged experience with augmented reality, injecting humor and cutting edge technology throughout the campaign.  The team was able to integrate these elements while maintaining brand authenticity for the client.  Katie Mulloy, marketing manager, Sunstar Americas, Inc. explains: “We are delighted with the creative approach BOSSdev has taken for this campaign.  The interactive demonstrates a dynamism and relevance to this select audience that simply cannot be matched by traditional marketing approaches.  We believe this will play an important part in communicating all of the benefits of Soft-Picks® to this discerning and influential group of users in a new light.  And of course, the humor makes it all so contagious!”

Share a smile by following the links to “The Right Tool for The Right Job” campaign for Sunstar.

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BOSSdev is on Facebook

The project goal for Mr. Harper, of NBC’s The Biggest Loser, was to improve his community driven website, allowing him to continue building relationships with his online fans.

BOSSdev began work in late November.  The site, with improved usability for fans and a calibrated back end, was built to make posting blogs easier and more manageable.  To achieve this, visual design changes, content modification and augmented features were created.

Robbie Wells, senior vice president of brand management at UEG, was impressed that he was always able to speak with, and work with, the right person in any given circumstance.  This level of access during the project meant Wells was on a first name basis with key members of the BOSSdev team.  From the production manager to the president, for Wells it was, Kelley or John.

The project launched in early February.

Wells on launch day: “I’ve been so excited about launching this site today.  It must be showing because co-workers have been stopping me all day asking why am I so happy!”

Likewise, Bob Harper: “Love the site.  Thank you.”

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Anderanin understands that cutting edge features, focused on the brand, are necessary to reach viral status.

The Show Your Smile Augmented Reality Facebook app, featured in the Sunstar campaign, incorporated intelligent facial recognition software.  The user’s face is located via their web cam and their smile is replaced with a humorous “sendable” smile that they may save, send or print.  “We really wanted to get the consumers attention in various channels and drive brand awareness by using humor to link all campaign components, said Anderanin.

Anderanin designs with engagement in mind.  “Multi-channel experience is key in developing campaigns like these.  Understanding when to use the cinematic qualities of motion to help sell an asset, or a single musical note as a punctuation mark to a key point, or clean minimalist design to allow a player to experience a mood are all a part of the experience and insight we have to provide.”

With eight years of professional experience with numerous Fortune 500 brands and such prolific clients as The Biggest Loser’s Bob Harper, Anderanin understands the importance of brand authenticity.  Knowing that Sunstar’s Soft-Picks® users were already brand evangelists, she presented a highly interactive social media campaign, with a focus on engagement, combining an educational message with humor.

BOSSdev is on Facebook

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The developer discipline views a web site from an engineering perspective. A web site is a machine made of interconnected parts. Building one is akin to constructing a house, piece by piece. One often overhears conversations like this:

Developer to Sales person: “You’re asking me to quote a price for a house, but you haven’t told me how many floors it has, or how many bedrooms, or what kind of roof it has!”

The creative crowd views the web site as a work of art. Crafting a web site is akin to painting a beautiful masterpiece. It starts with inspiration that becomes the artist’s vision, rendered on a modern, technical canvas. One might over hear conversations like this:

Creativeto Client: “Sure I can make that box red instead of blue. Of course that will ruin the design integrity of the page, and destroy the mood we are conveying.”

Granted, these are extreme stereotypes, but these types of discussions are surprisingly common. The synergies of these two mindsets, carefully managed within a budget are what differentiate the best websites from the worst. Is a web site a construction project, or a painting? The answer is that it is neither.

Web sites play a major, ever increasing role in determining whether someone ultimately transacts with a company. Both the technical developer and the creative artist fulfill valuable roles in the process; a web site must be attention grabbing, pleasing to the eye, and functional. It is however first, and foremost an investment that should be laser focused on one goal and one goal only

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: Return on Investment.

Organizations put the developersin charge, because they mistakenly believe that the Internet is all about technology, so technology people know best. Or, they put the artists in charge, because they are committed to the old rules of interruption based advertising, and think the Internet is just an extension of TV, Radio, and print based advertising campaigns.

Most of us have a limited number of dollars to invest. The challenge for a responsible CEO is choosing where to invest limited discretionary dollars to achieve the greatest return. Is a web site a cost center, or a strategic asset? Given a web site’s increasingly pivotal role in the consideration phase of the purchasing process, isn’t it time to start treating it more like an investment property and less like a cost of doing business?

Before you bought a piece of investment property, you would be well advised to decide what it was you were trying to accomplish with it. Perhaps you desire an asset with a net return greater than what you are getting from your broker. Cast Away movie download

What are you trying to accomplish with your web site? Is it a lead generation tool? Is it a sales platform? A way to reduce support costs?

This question often draws blank stares from the same people who can articulate the design, usability, and navigational issues of their current web site in great detail.

If you decided to buy an apartment building as an investment, you’d need decide who your target tenant was going to be. Are you going to rent to transients, families with kids, or working professionals? Does the property you a looking at anticipate the needs of your target tenant?

Who’s your web site for? Is it designed for the audience it is trying to reach? Does your Web site anticipate likely visitor needs?

You’d probably drive around the neighborhood, look in the newspaper, and talk to a few realtors. You’d want to know who else you’ll be competing with for your tenants. Does the competition have a swimming pool, or offer the first month’s rent free?

What does your competition’s site look like? Viewed through the lens of the Web site only, how does your company look like in comparison? What opportunities are you missing because your Web site is mediocre compared to the competition? Is your web site overbuilt?

The biggest investment property most of us own is the home we live in. If you had $50,000 to spend on your house, what factors would you consider in order to determine where best to spend it? Update the plumbing, modernize the kitchen, or buy art for the living room?

This kind of logic is rarely used when it comes to deciding how to invest limited resources in a website. The correct approach is to use numerical analysis. You can’t do that if you aren’t measuring each and every action on your web site with the same kind of precision that you handle your money with. If you are tracking the performance of each page, you can determine whether or not to work on conversion optimization, driving more traffic, or reducing your cart abandonment rate. You’ll know which skill set, or combination of disciplines, is best suited to the challenge at hand.

Reframing your web site as an investment property, and knowing when to leverage the right expertise at the right time, will insure that you are spending your dollars wisely.

Here’s a simple example:

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Which is better: More uniques or a higher conversion rate? Should you spend your budget on word buys and banners, or web development? Assume baseline metrics of:

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Conversion Rate: 2%

Uniques: 1M/Month

Sales: 20,000

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Total Sales: 2M

If you spend $100,000 on driving traffic this month, increasing your uniques to 1.1M, you’ll see a net sales increase 2.2 million, resulting in an ROI of 100%. This follows the logic of traditional advertising, based on Sarnoff’s law, which says that advertising cost is proportional to the reach and therefore the return.

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On the other hand, a $100,000 analysis of the landing, content, detail, and cart experience pages based on metrics, with incremental changes executed, measured, and refined over several months could demonstrate returns on investment as follows:

Increasing the conversion rate by .01% is break even.

Increasing the conversion rate by .05% has a 400% ROI.

Doubling the conversion rate to 4% has an ROI of 1,900%.

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This ROI would be realized each month, month after month.

Treating your web site as an investment first, and managing it as such, will guarantee that the dollars you spend on a web site go to the right places.

Monday at SXSW Interactive 2009

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featured more presentations and panel discussions on a variety of topics. It was also the final day of the trade show exhibit for the interactive portion of the event. The final keynote presenter was science fiction author Bruce Sterling Under the Tuscan Sun on dvd

. The evening offered up several options, including Plutopia and an Unofficial Party by Dachis Corporation and Austin Ventures.

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Sam, Katie, Korye, Andy and Scott of BOSSdev enjoy a fantastic meal at The Salt Lick BBQ in Driftwood, Texas.

Science fiction author and cyperpunk legend Bruce Sterling delivers a speech about the evolution of print media and how technology may change lifestyles in the future.

A SXSW 2009 crowd of over five hundred listen in as cyperpunk legend Bruce Sterling delivers a speech at SXSW 2009 in Austin, Texas.

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Performers at the Plutopia 2009 Interactive Party take a break outside of the Palmer Events Center in Austin, Texas.”

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Jeffrey Dachis and Karl Long Anatomy of a Murder film have some fun at the UNLISTED: Unofficial SXSW Interactive 2009 After Party at Malverde in Austin, Texas. The event was sponsored by Austin Ventures and Dachis Corporation.”

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Sunday at the SXSW 2009 Interactive Festiva Robinson Crusoe on Mars on dvd l Pig Hunt download was another great day of learning, sharing and networking. My personal highlight was seeing wine video blogger Gary Vaynerchuk, of Wine Library TV fame, live for the first time. Gary has so much passion and a great “real guy” presence. Some of his key points included:

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“It’s all about the hussle.”
“It’s reactionary businesses that win.”
“Do what you love to do, because you can monetize that sh@t!”
“Embrace yourself… Love yourself more.”

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Wine critic and video blogger Gary Vaynerchuck answers questions during a session at SXSW Interactive 2009 in Austin, Texas.

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The 2009 edition of the SXSW Interactive Festival You’ve Got Mail release is off to a fantastic start. Thousands of the industry’s leading minds and innovators have converged upon my home city of Austin, Texas. The BOSSdev team is representing in full force at SXSW with Scott Heath, Katie Kremhelmer, Sam Swenson, Andy McDonnell and Korye Logan in attendance. Below are a few photos of highlights from the first full day of the event.

Lawrence Lessig speaks about Change V.2 at SXSW 2009 in Austin, Texas.

Charlene Li speaks about the Future of Social Networks at SXSW 2009 in Austin, Texas.

Andy McDonnel of BOSSdev grabs lunch at Ironworks BBQ at SXSW 2009 in Austin, Texas.

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Katie and Korye of BOSSdev enjoying the DIGGnation Party and Concert at Stubbs with Christian Caldwell of the American Heart Association during SXSW 2009 in Austin, Texas.

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Photos by Korye Logan

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The Killers’ song expresses the feelings of ambiguity of the digital generation

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When Brandon Flowers of The Killers sings “Are we human or are we dancer?” it stirs emotion and leaves us seeking meaning in today’s cold technical world. It’s eerily reminiscent of the moment in 2001: A Space Odyssey when HAL says “I’m afraid. I’m afraid, Dave.” Terms of Endearment dvd The song’s appetent lyrics and robotic guitar riffs seem representative of feelings many of us share about how we communicate in today’s digital world.
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Our lives are filled with scenes that exhibit how our digital connectedness actually reduces intimacy – perhaps even meaning – in our lives. We sit in restaurants with family and friends, but we’re often not present. Rather our attention is on portable electronic gadgets. These devices beep with mostly meaningless messages from marketers, work associates and updates from our “social” connections.

The lyrics of Human speak to our uncertainty of who we are and how we’re connected.
“Will your system be alright when you dream of home tonight?
There is no message we’re receiving.
Let me know is your heart still beating.”

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Flowers’ use of the word “system” speaks to dehumanization, while his choice of the pronoun “we’re” Legends of the Fall references the collective nature of our communication. This is exemplified in the ubiquity of user generated content on message boards, blog comments and Twitter streams. Even the lyrics of the song cannot escape collective commentary in this discussion thread.

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The reach of this song is somewhat significant as I learned on a personal level during my family’s visit this holiday season, I found people in my family from three generations who like The Killers and the song Human. Looking at YouTube, a simple audio only version of Human

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has nearly five million views and over ten thousand comments.

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An abstract released earlier this month by HP’s Social Computing Lab covers the topic of relationships on the microblogging network Twitter. Social networks that matter: Twitter under the microscope by Bernardo Huberman, Daniel Romero and Fang Wu was published December 8, 2008. The researchers found that:
“Twitter users have a very small number of friends compared to the number of followers and followees they declare. This implies the existence of two different networks: a very dense one made up of followers and followees, and a sparser and simpler network of actual friends.”

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Reach for the Sky dvd My experience on Twitter is similar to the findings of the HP research. What began as a fun shared experience with a small group of friends has evolved to an overwhelming mass of 140 character feeds from people I don’t really know. Once my network grew beyond Dunbar’s number

of about 150 people, it became less intimate, less meaningful.

download American Pie Presents Band Camp movie There is still value to my Twitter network, but it is certainly different. The information I Tweet today is less personal, as I feel a community responsibility to “broadcast” content that adds value. When I had a smaller network comprised more of actual friends, I felt free to Tweet about my personal life. My experience today on Twitter is less human. I am now part of the collective dancer.

Does this change what marketers should do in social media?
Companies must understand and respect the individual experience to effectively participate in social media marketing. This is not a new epiphany, but it is an oft overlooked principal in a discipline that places too much emphasis on technology and not enough on psychology. Advertising legend Claude Hopkins understood this truth in 1923 when he published Scientific Advertising.
“The advertising man studies the consumer. He tries to place himself in the position of the buyer. His success largely depends upon doing that to the exclusion of everything else.”

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When you lead a brand’s effort into social media marketing, remember that you are communicating with humans – not a “target segment.” This speaks to the critical importance of accurate personas and effective feedback loops in your digital marketing programs. There is immense value in one-to-one conversation. People trust other people much more than they trust brand names. Listen to what people are saying in your marketplace. HEAR what people are really talking about. Then guide representatives from your company to become active participants in meaningful market conversations.

In 2009, be more human in our collective community dance.

Dog Day Afternoon full movie My name is Paula Anderanin and I’m a Rich Media Solutions Architect at BossDev. I will be giving a lecture on Rich Media Solutions at the 2008 Michigan Flash Fest (MFF). A Michigan based conference on Adobe Flash, Rich Internet Applications, & Interactive media this Saturday September 13th.

http://miflashfest2008.somee.com

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This is my second year speaking at this conference and it was a lot of fun last year. This year I will focus on Rich Media Solutions.The purpose of the lecture is to communicate areas where marketers, creatives and developers can create a more engaging online presence for  clients. With all the emerging technologies and trends in the online world, our job is to communicate to clients what are the necessary steps to keep a current and prosperous image in the online world.

Also, to succeed in today’s marketplace companies need to make sure that they speak to each market in a language they can understand. It is neccessary to research and monitor the behavior of each of the markets to create an online strategy. Once the strategy is in place, we can create integrated digital campaigns that will reach to them. Some of the components are:

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This lecture should be a lot of fun and very informative. Hope to see you then!

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