Updates from March, 2013

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  Lonnon Foster 3:36 pm on March 27, 2013 Permalink  

  Anatomy of a Social Media Robot 

  An awful lot of people share with each other on social media services. From Facebook to Twitter, Pinterest to Vine, people carry on all sorts of online discussions.

  One thing missing from all this exchange, though, is a direct connection back to the physical world. The subject of the conversation often comes from the real world, but once you post it, all your interaction with that content is virtual. Whether it’s on your desk or in your pocket, your window into the dialog is limited to whatever can be displayed on your screen.

  Enter Arduino, an open source platform for building electronics projects. Arduino is relatively inexpensive and simple enough that nearly anyone can have a go at making robots. With a little programming and a whole lot of experimentation, the online interaction of social media can be expressed in the physical world.

  We wanted to build something for the Seattle Mariners, Copacino+Fujikado’s oldest client, to celebrate the release of this year’s Mariners TV commercials. And what says “baseball” more than a bobblehead figure? In this case, it’s a bobblehead that bobs whenever someone tweets about the new Mariners commercials. Here’s a quick guide to what makes our little robot tick:

  

  1. Adorable Mariners bobblehead. Robots often lack the human touch, and the whole point here is to connect with people. Besides, how can you resist those dimples?
  2. Dead batteries. We killed a few of these before finding out that a WiFi board listening constantly for input draws a lot of power. Just idling, the bot drains a 9V battery in just under an hour and a half. A direct USB connection or an AC adapter is required to keep the little guy happy. We found a discarded adapter in the server room that provides 12V at 800mA, which is perfect.
  3. Tension spring. This keeps the bobblehead level when the bot is inactive. The platform is hinged at the front. A servo pulls the back of the platform down, and the spring returns it to level again. Other things we tried (unsuccessfully): rubber bands, chewing gum, happy thoughts.
  4. Arduino Uno. The brain of the bot is the Arduino board’s ATmega328 microcontroller. The tiny program (less than 28 KB) stored in the chip’s flash memory detects signals from a connected WiFi adapter, and on receiving appropriate instructions, activates a servo motor to pull the platform down.
  5. Servo connection. These wires provide signal (yellow), power (red), and ground (black) connections between the Arduino board and the servo.
  6. Blinky light. When glowing steadily, this LED indicates that everything is connected and running smoothly. When blinking erratically or completely unlit, this LED indicates that I’m spewing profanity at some bit of code that isn’t working properly.
  7. RN-XV WiFi adapter. Once hooked up to a WiFi network, the adapter makes a connection to Pusher, a service that sends messages between web apps. I wrote a tiny Ruby app that runs on Heroku and constantly scans Twitter’s stream for keywords, then sends a message to Pusher when it finds a match. When someone tweets the phrase “Mariners commercials”, the Ruby code sends a message to Pusher, which then passes it along to the Arduino board for action.
  8. Erector set chassis. Better known as Meccano on the other side of the Atlantic, Erector provides the perfect medium for mechanical prototyping. We tried a few different designs before settling on the frame pictured here.
  9. Servo motor. The bot’s muscle is provided by a small servo motor. We were initially worried that the servo wouldn’t be powerful enough to pull against the spring; the bobblehead is heavy, and the spring requires a fair bit of tension to keep the platform level. We needn’t have worried. Before bolting the bobblehead and servo into place, I made a test run, holding everything in place by hand. The servo nearly jerked the whole assembly out of my hands. I have a new respect for the physical power of our future robotic overlords.
  10. Lovingly hand-crafted servo linkage. The Erector set didn’t have a part that would work, but we had a lot of 22-gauge copper wire hanging around. Strip off the insulation and perform a little surgery with pliers and it serves as an attractive connection between the servo and the bobblehead platform.

  And what does this delightful contraption look like when it’s running?

  We’ve also helped other social media escape the confines of the internet and join us out in the real world. The flashing musical extravaganza on the left was built for Visit Seattle in connection with the 2 Days In Seattle campaign. It responds to tweets with the hashtag #2DaysInSeattle. The terrifying construct on the right took part in Copacino + Fujikado’s 15th anniversary celebration, swinging its mighty tweethammer at a piñata when people tweeted party pics with a #CF15 tag. It was a Mexican-theme party, so the piñata made sense, I promise.

  Where else can we go with Arduino? The flow of information can also go the other direction, so switches, buttons, or sensors connected to Arduino can control web apps through direct physical input. This two-way communication adds an important tactile dimension to online interaction. Engaging the sense of touch, even in a limited way, adds a lot to a medium that traditionally caters only to vision and hearing.

  We’re looking to build more complex projects, expanding on these early efforts to make more compelling connections between the physical and online worlds. Hooking up the internet to real-world objects has potential to attract, engage, delight, and inform. And really, who wouldn’t want to build an army of robot minions to do their bidding?
   
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  Jim 10:01 am on February 6, 2013 Permalink  

  The rise of “Twittertising” 

  The debate rages in marketing circles: Is Twitter a true branding and marketing tool? Or is it best used as a CRM and PR instrument? What is the value of a follower? How can a company monetize its Twitter footprint?

  Time and technology will determine Twitter’s role in the marketing mix.  But one interesting sidebar is the increasing use of tweets in traditional forms of marketing communications.  Ads, TV commercials, outdoor boards, even radio commercials are starting to deploy Tweets as graphic and verbal content. And why not? A Tweet often represents the voice of the consumer as third-party endorser, providing word-of-mouth credibility.

  At Copacino+Fujikado, we’ve been working with Visit Seattle (formerly Seattle’s Convention and Visitors Bureau) over the past year. Our goal is to attract leisure travelers to Seattle during the off-seasons—October to December and  January to May. Our strategy is to engage upscale tourists for a weekend visit to enjoy indoor, urban pleasures: food, wine, art, and culture.

  

  The campaign theme is “2 Days In Seattle. What will you do with your 2?” Part of the program relies on inviting social media influencers from cities like San Francisco, Portland and Vancouver to spend a weekend in Seattle. We encourage them to tweet about the city’s restaurants, bars, music clubs, wineries, museums, galleries and entertainment. This tactic has unleashed a torrent of social media activity, highlighting the landmarks and hidden gems of Seattle.

  

  This enabled us to turn social media into traditional media—by leveraging the influencers’ tweets in our ad campaign. This month, “tweetcars” will roll through Portland, emblazoned with the words and images from our invited guests. The graphics are striking; the copy is persuasive.

  

  That’s Twittertising. A virtuous circle that begins as a social conversation then is re-purposed as traditional advertising that encourages others to visit Seattle and tell their followers about it. The lesson to be learned? Avoid compartmentalizing media into “traditional”, “digital” and “social” buckets. Instead, view our communications options as a robust, interconnected ecosystem that rewards compelling content.
   
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  Mike 12:46 pm on January 4, 2013 Permalink  

  Advertising should _____________. 

  Ask people if they like advertising and 8 out of 10 will tell you they absolutely hate it.

  The other 2 likely work in advertising.

  Now ask people if they like the Old Spice Man, the Allstate Mayhem campaign, Nike commercials, Nike Fit (that’s advertising too), the PEMCO campaign, the Washington Lottery flightless birds spot, Skittles advertising weirdness, Larry Bernandez or Leonard the Goldfish (to plug a few of our own) and you’ll likely get a much different response.

  Here’s the thing. People hate most advertising. And that means the industry as a whole is failing. It means for every hit there are hundreds of misses.

  What are we doing wrong? Better yet, what should advertising look like, sound like, ultimately be?

  That’s exactly what we want to know. And so do our friends at Portent here in Seattle. Working together, we’re opening up the conversation to include the very people we’re trying to reach everyday. People like you.

  So please tell us what you think. Just use the hashtag #AdvertisingShould on Twitter and help us get better at creating the kind of advertising you won’t hate.

  We’ll listen. We promise.

  We’re also collecting the responses at advertisingshould.com for everyone to see, and Portent will be analyzing the Tweets for trends and insights.

  What’s our angle? To be honest, we don’t have one. There’s no client behind the effort and no money to be made. We just want to find out what people think about this industry that so often thinks the only smart advertising answers come from within our own walls.

  Consider yourself officially invited to join the conversation. All you need to do is finish the sentence “#AdvertisingShould…”

  We look forward to hearing from you.
   
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  Chris 9:30 am on October 29, 2012 Permalink  

  Bringing a Fresh Idea Forward 

  I have heard ad people say that it’s either the most terrifying or the most exhilarating time to be in our business. Being an eternal optimist, I side with the latter.

  No other time has afforded our industry the opportunity to devise solutions for our clients with a virtual endless choice of technology, platforms and possibilities to help us engage with an audience.

  One recent success story for us is The Pike Place Market Farm Fresh Lunches. Farm Season is the most important time of year for Pike Place: the bounty’s aplenty and the tourists a-many. But the Market faces a challenge in convincing Seattleites that the Market is theirs—given “fresh” local farmers markets’ popularity in many neighborhoods—and to shop it regularly.

  And, Pike Place is a quasi-governmental organization with understandably tight budgets. In the past, the Market had run paid media at the level they could afford to a buckshot audience prompting Seattleites to get over the parking burden and crowds to shop during Farm Season. Our client challenged us to approach it a different way.

  First, we shrank the audience. Shrink the audience? Well, yes, the qualified audience. Instead of reaching out broadly, we focused on those whom realistically would decide to shop the Market more often: people who live or work downtown. So, we came up with the idea of a downtown lunch series to interrupt the daily grind of Seattleites and remind them of the Market’s proximity and value.

  Partnering with favorite Market eateries—Tom Douglas, Matt’s in the Market, Steelhead Diner and Marché, we hosted five summer Wednesday pop-up restaurants. Each $5 lunch offering was created with farm fresh ingredients from the Market and took place in select worker hub locations that we staged with picnic tables and bright Market flower bouquet centerpieces. We handed out branded reusable shopping bags (you know about the bag ban in Seattle?) with coupons inside to drive Seattleites back to the Market.

  We served about 1,000 of these fun, delicious brand experiences, bringing the Market to attendees. In response, they’ve shopped: coupon redemption back to Market farm tables has been strong. The message also was amplified through participants’ Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, and we attracted influencers like Marcus Samuelson of Top Chef Masters fame who tweeted and blogged about the program.

  Just one example of a right-sized, innovative solution to a business challenge from a great client. Now that’s exhilarating. See? Told you so.
   
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  Cole 9:15 am on October 15, 2012 Permalink  

  Twitter Is Changing The Game in Sports 

  In a recent Q&A with the Sports Business Daily, Bob Ryan—who recently retired after 44 years as a journalist with the Boston Globe-lamented, “The Twitter world has perverted any concept of perspective.”

  Them’s some heavy words, Bob. The concept of perspective is still out there. Very much so. It’s just that sports fans aren’t gaining perspective via 950 words on page 1C the next morning anymore. Instead, they are getting it in 140 characters within 90 seconds of whatever is said, done, shot, scored. Their sources are from everyone and everywhere. And, in many cases, they are giving perspective, too. The fact is you don’t need to be a columnist to be a taste-maker anymore. Not in a world of retweets.

  Twitter is also changing the way teams market themselves. The Seattle Mariners (our client), now run a brand radio tag urging fans to follow them on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and Google+. That’s real estate teams have long reserved for moving tickets and spotlighting promotions and events.

  The Brooklyn Nets are set to open their new arena this fall. One of the final touches? Painting the org’s Twitter handle on the court.

  It’s not only shaping the way big plays are viewed, but big business issues, too.  The NHL and the NHLPA are learning quickly that Twitter—which wasn’t around during the last work stoppage in 2004—is going to play a large role in how the deals and sentiments surrounding the current lockout are communicated.

  Twitter’s CEO, Dick Costolo, knows the value of the sports audience to his product. When asked who he would most want to get on Twitter, he said Tom Brady.

  Sports remains one of the few things we consume almost wholly in real-time. Which means its exposure and coverage will continue to evolve and play out in real time. Which is why Twitter has become a perfect companion for the sports experience.
   
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  Mike 7:11 pm on July 19, 2012 Permalink  

  Why an economic recovery could spell doom for Facebook 

  Let me preface this post: a sample size of one doesn’t make for much of a scientific study. But let me tell you about the person who gave me a glimpse at Facebook’s potential fate.

  I was following a very smart, funny woman on Twitter. And I wasn’t the only one: she’d amassed a following of more than 3,000 by simply tweeting about her daily life here in Seattle.

  Then one day I ran into her in the real world and we had a chance to chat. Turns out she’s a 21-year-old UW student who will be hitting the job market next year. We talked about her success on Twitter, and then the conversation turned to Facebook.

  “I’m probably going to quit Facebook as soon as I get a job,” she said.

  Quit. Not change privacy settings. Not delete potentially embarrassing photos. Not unfriend certain people. Her timeline will end and she’ll be gone. Poof.

  She has over 600 Facebook friends & has been active on the site throughout her teens and into her 20s. With her efforts on Twitter, she’s dancing on the edge of the social media elite. And Facebook will lose her soon.

  The reason? Mixing coworkers, bosses, family and friends in one place could hurt her career at some point. And besides, she said, “My grandma’s on Facebook. That means it’s pretty much dead, right?”

  But it’s not just her. She says she has “5 or 6 other friends” who have already quit Facebook because they found jobs beyond the part-time variety. Presumably these are people like her – smart, young, ambitious college grads who will soon have disposable income. That’s a demo a lot of advertisers like.

  Twitter is my social drug of choice. I’m admittedly not a big Facebook guy so I don’t have a lot invested in my Facebook page. I always assumed the people who had invested a lot had built something that would be tough to abandon – photos, friends and hundreds (or thousands) of connections.

  Apparently it’s easier to give up than I thought, at least for 20-somethings.

  For now, the job outlook for recent college grads is still pretty grim (the unemployment rate for 16 – 25 year olds was double the national average back in March). So chances are good they’ll be posting party pics from Saturday night on their wall Sunday morning just like they always have. But when they trade in their nametag jobs for desk jobs, they might tear down that Facebook wall for good. And that could spell disaster for a company that already seems to be losing its edge.
   
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  Nat 12:00 am on March 1, 2012 Permalink  

  Facebook Timeline for Brands 

  We’ve known for a little while that Facebook would be moving Brand Pages to the new Timeline format and today they launched a preview for page administrators. The change will happen automatically for brands on March 30th, so we wasted no time in diving in and checking it out. Here’s a quick glance at what Brand Managers need to know about the changes.

  1. Cover Photo replaces Profile Image
  The Cover Photo is the biggest visual branding opportunity in the new format and a great image here can really set the tone for a brand presence. Previously, brands were limited to a maximum 200×600 pixel image in the upper left-hand corner. The new cover photo is 850 pixels wide and dominates the initial view of the page.

  

  Ben & Jerry’s dedicated their Cover Photo to their famous Holstein Cows.

  It is important to note that Facebook has added restrictions to how this image may be used, prohibiting coupons, purchase information, calls to action and contact information. They seem to be encouraging brands’ better angels and it will be interesting to see how well this policy is adhered to.

  2. Tabs are now Boxes
  In their previous major design revision, Facebook “Tabs” were replaced with links and icons along the left-hand navigation and much confusion was created. We continued to call them Tabs even though the design metaphor no longer fit, so it is with some relief that this content is now added to the top navigation and can be promoted with large graphical boxes.

  

  Starbucks is handling the new boxes elegantly.

  Brands can display four boxes in this space and Photos is the only content piece that is fixed in place. Boxes can be anything from your “Like” counter, a map, various apps or custom pages. Additional boxes (up to 12 in total) are displayed in a dropdown menu.

  3. Custom Pages canvas is bigger
  Custom Pages (AKA Page Tabs) now have 810 pixels of width to play in, up from the 520px allowed in the previous design. The Custom Pages will reside in a nearly blank canvas, free from the Facebook user interface elements that crowded out the old pages. This is a huge opportunity to create rich sub-pages inside your Facebook presence.

  

  The size difference can be seen here, where Dove has an old Custom Page sitting inside the new canvas.

  4. No more default landing page
  In the previous design, brands could create “Like Us” pages and designate them as the default landing page for visitors who had not yet liked the brand. This tactic has been the basis for like-building campaigns that sometimes required visitors to like a brand before receiving special content (a practice known as Like-gating). This capability is now removed, making Timeline the only default view.

  I’m not sure if this spells the end of Like-gating as we know it, but it certainly looks like brands are going to lose a favored Like-building tactic. Interestingly, Facebook also prohibits referencing “user interface elements, such as Like or Share” in the new Cover Photo. With these two policy shifts in place it will be interesting to see what Facebook has in mind for the future of Like-building for brands.

  5. The Timeline
  Images are bigger and (potentially) more engaging. Posts can be customized by widening them, pinning them to the top of the page or (as before) deleting them entirely. A well-curated Timeline is going to be a great opportunity to communicate a brand’s personality.

  

  I like the visual consistency of the content on Ben & Jerry’s Timeline.

  6. Messages
  Visitors can now contact a brand privately using a prominently placed Message feature. It will be very interesting to see how users embrace this new private communications channel inside Facebook, which has until now been a strictly public forum for brands. Social Media Managers everywhere will be adding this to their to-do list.

  This is just a quick overview of the new features and overall we are very excited about what they mean for customization and brand engagement. If you have any opinions or questions you would like to share, head on over to our new timeline and let’s continue the discussion.