Articles

The week's viral video friday goes to Gillette. Released this Monday, has quickly ramped up to 3.3 million views and 100,000 facebook shares. As part of an ad campaign for Gillette, in what was designed to look like an u

Check out the official teaser video for Facebook places. What I really love about it is that it maps exactly to SapientNitro's PoV on the space time continuum for experience mapping; in layman terms what we believe is th

Earlier today Facebook finally announced the official launch of Facebook places. Mashable, ReadWriteWeb, and others covered it live, but if you missed the announcement, here's what you have to know. BTW, one thing no one is talking about yet is Places within the Graph API. You can query recent checkins by users, pages, places: GET https://graph.facebook.com/[place/Page/user id]/checkins That alone is SO powerful! Anyways, starting today, you can immediately tell people about that favorite spot with Facebook Places. You can share where you are and the friends you're with in real time from your mobile device. Checking In with Friends Ever gone to a show, only to find out afterward that your friends were there too? With Places, you can discover moments when you and your friends are at the same place at the same time. You have the option to share your location by "checking in" to that place and letting friends know where you are. You can easily see if any of your friends have also chosen to check in nearby. To get started, you'll need the most recent version of the Facebook application for iPhone. You also can access Places from touch.facebook.com if your mobile browser supports HTML 5 and geolocation. Go to Places on the iPhone application or touch.facebook.com site and then tap the "Check In" button. You'll see a list of places near you. Choose the place that matches where you are. If it's not on the list, search for it or add it. After checking in, your check in will create a story in your friends' News Feeds and show up in the Recent Activity section on the page for that place. Places is only available in the United States right now. But we expect to make it available to more countries and on additional mobile platforms soon.

This is a smart move on Coke's end. Everyone knows that Coke mainly targets teens, and what if instead of marketing to teens, you get teens come to you, promote you, share, chat, and advocate your brand? Dream came true

It always amazed me how SXSW Conference") calls for speakers about 11 months in advanced and has to lock down all sessions 6 months in advanced. Of course there could be some timeless sessions that will always make sense, but it's hard to know how topics will be relevant 9 months from now ... With that said, SapientNitro submitted 19 visionary topics that I think will make great sessions; some returning speakers (including Freddie and myself) and some great new speakers. It's great to see so much variety of expertise: creative, strategic, business, technology ... from SapientNitro, Government Services, Financial Services, and from so many different people like our CCO, Business Lead, Creative Directors, Technology Directors, developers, and even recruiting. Tells a lot about the diversity, multifariousness, mixture of SapientNitro's capabilities and expertise. Please read below and provide feedback or questions on these topics ... what else would you like to see us cover? If you like a topic please take the time to follow the link and vote for it to make sure we have the opportunity to share it with you. Bringing the Love Back to Brands by Gaston Legorburu Technology has liberated the dialog between brands and customers, sating consumers’ love of sharing, connecting, raving, venting… But in many ways, it’s also driven isolation as we press “skip intro” to proceed to our desired action. In this discussion, Gaston Legorburu, SapientNitro’s worldwide chief creative officer, will explore the unique paradox that technology has introduced to the consumer/brand relationship. From isolation to sharing, technology is driving a massive social revolution. Learn the art of combining design and engineering to create relevant experiences, experiences that transform barely personable brands into “builders of moments.” Location Based Services is so 2010 Behold Context Based Services by Rob Gonda Defined as using large mashup of data services to enable amazing experiences through mobile devices. What's not digital nowadays?! Mobile is replacing the pc and becoming that unique personal technology gadget that no one lives without and with it, comes connectivity, content, productivity, and entertainment. The magic is that mobile links the gap between digital and real world, extending experiences, and more importantly, making is easy, simple, and intuitive. Foursquare and Gowalla gaining momentum, Twitter added Places, Facebook launched their location based service and integrate with the Open Graph, Google "Me" relies on Latitude, location location location. But checking in requires too much effort... Location will evolve from a reactive engagement to a proactive engagement ... background services will be always location aware. Apps will automatically react to actual location, history, friends, places, and a new set of data source mashups such as weather, humidity, light sensitivity, noise ambiance, and more. If you want to get inspired by innovations galore, this is a session you can't miss. Found the Crystal Ball Unveil the Future by Freddie Laker The world is evolving at an amazing pace and if companies want to keep up they need to evolve too; but evolution is not a simple concept; what are the right choices? where should you invest? what do your customers want, and what are your competitors doing about it? The best VC firms in the world cannot predict the future, but a good understanding for trends, culture and behavioral shifts, technology advancements, brand evolution, micro and macro economics, and having insights on R&D and new product launches. The best brands in the world excel in designing amazing experiences. Loyalty driven through rewards, direct response advertising, and frequency / reach is a concept of the past. Loyalty is a consequence of providing great experiences across any touchpoint with the brand. What if you had a crystal ball that hint you on upcoming trends that will drive and set customer expectations? Good news, we found it!

Twitter just launched their official Tweet this button about time ... it comes in three versions (110×20, 55×20, 55×63) with five different settings for customization. You can set the URL obviously, the Tweet text default, via @SapientNitro or some user, related, and count box position. You can embed with an iframe or embed with a JavaScript hosted at Twitter that will style a pre determined class in a link. Pretty straight forward of course; how much can there really be for a simple Tweet this button. You can see it server directly from Twitter here. Step by step instructions by Mashable:

Microsoft has the same ability to display street view from person PoV filmed with 360 degree cameras, just like what we use with Google Street View every day ... but they built this project to dynamically mash the photos to build an infinite panorama perspective ... <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e ae6d 11cf 96b8 444553540000" width="480" height="385" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab version=6,0,40,0" <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" / <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" / <param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/K T949uSwU&amp;hl=en US&amp;fs=1?rel=0" / <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" / <embed type="application/x shockwave flash" width="480" height="385" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/K T949uSwU&amp;hl=en US&amp;fs=1?rel=0" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" </embed </object

Today's Viral Video Friday goes to Geico. Their new Piggy commercial is the first Geico commercial in their channel to ever go viral... amazingly, out of the 43 commercials posts in their channel, this Piggy one is the first to pass the 1 million views mark, and it did it in less than a week. <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e ae6d 11cf 96b8 444553540000" width="425" height="344" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab version=6,0,40,0" <param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" / <param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" / <param name="src" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/8F G2zp opg&amp;hl=en US&amp;fs=1?rel=0" / <param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" / <embed type="application/x shockwave flash" width="425" height="344" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/8F G2zp opg&amp;hl=en US&amp;fs=1?rel=0" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" </embed </object

The "Art Class" spot for Foot Locker by SapientNitro features a purportedly nude male model, being described by students as "leathery" and "crooked." Very nicely done. <object classid="clsid:d27cdb6e ae6d 11cf 96b8 44455

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Do you see iPad traffic on iPad content? Is this a cult or a coincidence? If you know me, I am obsessed with analytics ... So I noticed today a massive spike in mobile traffic:

Last month I wrote why Apple doesn't allow Adobe near the iPhone. Today, Adobe is trying to get into the iPad ... Adobe will roll out new publishing software for tablets. This new software, which will soon take its place in the Creative Suite pantheon, will be downloadable from Adobe Labs and will include tools that bridge the gap between print oriented InDesign and software for interactive formats. Adobe released a video showcasing the new capabilities, available to watch at Adobe TV and embedded below. You will noticed they added tons of capabilities around content ... such switching images, embedding video and rich content ... but it's all about content? What about gesture navigation? what about the experience? For how long will Adobe keep missing the experience aspect that makes Apple, Apple. The new magazine experience in a tablet is not based on technical capabilities of the tablet, it's all about providing a richer experience to the user... making it more natural, seamless, human per se.