Here Be Monsters|blog

Shaming the pros?

Some very smart, very stupid or just plain lazy creatives working on the Chevy account over the water came up with the idea of letting the general public come up with an ad to be played out during the superbowl.

As if it's not tough enough convincing people that being a creative in an ad agency isn't one long lunch and/or coke binge but a very demanding and difficult job that requires considerable skill and talent rarely found in mortal form.

All a bit like Faking It. Can you spot the commercial from someone who until two weeks ago didn't even know ads are in 30sec segments?

So, have we creatives been exposed as charlatans, or can we sleep better tonight safe in the knowledge we have been vindicated?  Well you decide.

why I love consumer power

I've just been made aware of the exceptional reviews on Amazon for the above album. Thank you Anna. Thank you.

And then there's the video.

Wii with built-in viral appeal 2

Following on from my earlier post on Wii and it's build-in viralability, I have been pointed in the direction of this flickr set, by Russell. As, the man says, create something great and the marketing will be done for you.

Google Checkout

Google Checkout is like Paypal, In some ways it's better.  

• It's a conduit, not a bank, so your money will never get stuck (something Paypal seems to do alot)
• It really is one-click shopping.
• It doesn't share your full credit card info with anyone, not even merchants
• If you use it now and you get money off at participating stores

In someways it's worse.

• Bay currently don't accept it
  
• It hasn't reached UK yet

You can see the promo film here. Thanks to The Consumerist site

In the market for a camera?

Originally this was called, A snapshot on Camera Usage, but I found myself starting with an apology for the pun, as I really should know better. There is no place in modern society for puns - good, bad or  otherwise.

Anyway I found this on flickr. The screen grab doesn't do it justice, as it's just the tip of an iceberg loaded with information on what cameras are being used in their community. I'd be mighty happy if I were Canon.

Personally, I find the whole thing massively impressive for lots of reasons, not least because it's authentic. Consumer-generated (albeit not consumer-authored, but then curating is going to be massively important for brands in the future). And pretty comprehensive - I can visit manufacture's sites and see shots taken with the cameras by flickrites. It also works for Flickr, I love that they've put this together, it makes me feel warmer to them, makes me feel they're passionate about cameras and photography etc.

Next time I'm in the market for a camera, this is going to be part of my purchasing decision. I wonder how long it is before they add a purchase facility?

more power to the consumer

The first rule of PriceFight is you tell everyone about PriceFight.

Okay, it's in Austin Texas and it's still in beta, but PriceFight is still worth a mention if only for the fact it recognises that price is only part of the purchase process.

It’s a shopping search engine that offers a metric it calls “Peoples’ Choice” in addition to displaying which merchants sell an item at the lowest price. Merchants are rated on the fly based on the number and rating of anonymous shopper purchases plus other details in a proprietary algorithm.

The company says that “not all prices are equal” and that merchants also need to be evaluated in regards to customer service, hidden offers and other less tangible factors. Price Fight CEO Michael Griffin says the goal is to “pick up on trends like limited time offers or special rebates that are otherwise hidden on many price comparison engines.”

After performing a search, shoppers are shown a comparison between retailers by the two major metrics (lowest price and Peoples’ Choice) and a report card for the store. Report cards show ratings overall, for delivery speed, customer service and a summary of return, security, shipping, and tax policies.

The site currently searches over only twelve large merchants and is focused on consumer electronics, but the company says it aims to expand its reach quickly. The Peoples’ Choice feature and merchant ratings have been compiled over the past seven months.

I like the idea here, though it doesn’t seem like it would be very hard to duplicate. Perhaps the biggest challenge would be to populate a system meaningfully before you open the doors to the public so it provides immediate value. Perhaps too the mystery algorithm for Peoples’ Choice will prove particularly valuable over time. Price Fight has been well designed and has a good URL. It’s nice to be able to compare things like shipping and customer service.