Genuine Blend

Gamers Reveal Trends in Search Google recently released a study...

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:11:00 -0400

Google recently released a study examining the behavioral pattern of video gamers searching for, and purchasing the latest and greatest games. Interesting search patterns show a direct correlation between months leading up to launch and searchers conducting research prior to purchasing. Also interesting to note, while desktop searches have grown about 20% year over year, mobile searches increased at a rate of 168%. This raises an important question for all digital marketers to consider – Could this be the same for all industries?

iPad influences new USA Today site redesign Everyone seems to...

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 10:00:00 -0400

iPad influences new USA Today site redesign

Everyone seems to have their own solution when it comes mobile device support and the web. The Boston Globe rebuilt their site with responsive design, the NY Times pushes content through a variety of apps, and now the USA Today has built their entire site with tablet users in mind.

As you click through their new design keep an eye out for a few things: all interactions are touch-friendly, pages open in modals for fast access, advertisements come to the forefront when visible, and design overall is simplified.

Get the Jump on Google AuthorRank Google is adding a new factor...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:47:00 -0400

Get the Jump on Google AuthorRank

Google is adding a new factor to their search result rankings: “AuthorRank”. Similar to how websites currently get ranked based on their reach and influence, authors will now help Google determine which results get first priority. Authors with larger influence, as determined by factors linked to their Google+ profiles, will now be able to pull their content to the top of results with them.

What does this mean for brands? It’s clear that Google is trying to give priority to those that repeatedly produce great content. Brands are on an equal playing field with bloggers and media providers, reinforcing the need for brands to take their content production seriously. It’s also a reminder that Google+, often seen as simply a Facebook alternative, may have an increasing influence into the future of SEO.

Maps App Meltdown With the unexpected early release of...

Mon, 24 Sep 2012 09:48:00 -0400

Maps App Meltdown

With the unexpected early release of iOS6 comes Apple’s reengineered Maps app, and iPhone and iPad users aren’t very happy about it. Much of the transportation functionality has been lost, and bugs and errors abound.

Apple should have focused on building an independent maps app if and only if they could build a better user experience than the existing ringleader, Google Maps. (Google Maps has long been the most popular platform in its class for good a reason.) Divorcing Google Maps in order to pursue its own solution means that Apple is more interested in land-grabbing than aligning with user expectations and precedents. The app has sacrificed usability for gimmicks, resulting in spotty 3D Flyovers and all kinds of directional and nomenclature mistakes - an unaffordable mistake for a core functional app.

Facebook Tests Mobile-Ad Network, Challenging Google and...

Wed, 19 Sep 2012 11:31:00 -0400

Facebook Tests Mobile-Ad Network, Challenging Google and Apple

Facebook announced it will start testing ads on third-party mobile apps, launching what is essentially a mobile-ad network that could become a significant player in the mobile-ad market. The new ads will be standard banner and interstitial ads that can be standardized across many mobile environments and designed to drive specific actions on mobile phones, such as visits to a mobile website and app install.

Lessons in Authenticity from Caine’s Arcade You may...

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:19:00 -0400

Lessons in Authenticity from Caine’s Arcade

You may remember Caine Monroy from the heartwarming video “Caine’s Arcade” that went viral earlier this year, about a cardboard arcade in East Los Angeles. Well the success of the short film has inspired the creation of the Imagination Foundation, an organization dedicated to fostering creativity among young people around the world.

But Caine’s arcade and the Imagination Foundation raise questions about what we can learn from the young innovators all around us. Caine’s arcade wasn’t special because it was well-built, or gave out cool prizes, it worked because it was authentic and fun despite the lack of quality materials or real functionality. We should all take a close look at Caine’s arcade and think about how we can embrace genuine authenticity in our work. The results just might surprise us.

Pinterest: The Great Revenue-Generating Hope At a time when the...

Mon, 17 Sep 2012 10:50:00 -0400

Pinterest: The Great Revenue-Generating Hope

At a time when the largest social networks are struggling to transition from fun social media tools to savvy revenue machines, Pinterest might be in the best position of any. The new(ish) kid on the block is not only the fastest growing web service in history, but generates an astonishing amount of revenue from its click-throughs. The average sale resulting from a Pinterest user following an image back to its source is $180, compared with $80 for Facebook, and $70 from Twitter.

From a marketer’s standpoint Pinterest could be the golden ticket. One glance at a user’s pinboard is like looking at his/her wardrobe, furniture set, or holiday wish list. The potential for generating a huge ROI on Pinterest marketing is something CEO Ben Silbermann is constantly, if not publicly, obsessing about. The only questions that remain are when and how Pinterest steps into the monetization game.

The Benefits of Mapbox over Google Maps In February of this...

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 12:41:00 -0400

The Benefits of Mapbox over Google Maps

In February of this year, FourSquare switched from Google Maps to MapBox. Going forward, we are encouraging our clients to use MapBox for all of the same reasons. Mapbox is powered by OpenStreetMap, which is a free global map anyone can update. MapBox allows us to more fully customize maps for our clients, whether it’s simply adjusting the colors on the default map, or building a completely new map or unique data overlays in the MapBox TileMill studio application. In addition, we can easily add dynamic data layers to any map through the open source Leaflet library. MapBox lets us make maps that are both beautiful and powerful with ease. Take a tour of MapBox’s features.

When Will Mobile Ad Targeting Become Truly Effective?

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:30:41 -0400

As we all know, mobile usage is skyrocketing. Each statistic continues to amaze me as to what percentage of people in America are using smart phones. A recent study was released by Nielsen highlighting that the largest growing segment of smartphone owners is teenagers between 13 and 17, but the most astonishing stat I found from this study is that 74% of 25-34 year olds in the US own smartphones, up from 59% in July 2011.

Almost everyone is on mobile devices. When will mobile targeting of advertising become truly effective? Currently, you have ineffective mobile advertising networks for games and apps like Zynga, mobile ad networks for web searchers that yield low engagement (admob, jumptap, etc.), and Facebook who hasn’t figured out how to effectively advertise to their increasingly active user base on mobile devices.

Genuine believes in a new agency model where ideas come from...

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 10:46:29 -0400

Genuine believes in a new agency model where ideas come from everywhere and not just a select few. To learn more about how we’re built, and why we’re different, watch the video below.

Walmart, Target, Best Buy team up to create mobile payment system

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 14:18:40 -0400

The mobile payment competition has gotten serious. Walmart has announced a partnership with Target and Best Buy to form a new company, Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), that has the potential to become the first widespread standard for smartphone-driven payment. PayPal, Square, and ISIS have all taken steps forward in the past month, posing the question: Who will win over users first with a mobile payment platform: a retailer (Starbucks with Square, Walmart & co. with MCX), or a payment process company (MasterCard and VISA with ISIS)?

The Converged Media Imperative

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 12:02:13 -0400

Looking for the an up-to-date explanation on what exactly media convergence means today? Alimeter Group has put together a detail brief on how convergence can be organized into three buckets: paid, earned, and owned media. It’s a lengthy read, but a good one if you’re thinking about taking advantage of the shifting expectations between users and brands. If you’re in the market for an enterprise digital marketing suite, this is a must-read – the presentation addresses the current options available, and how they are tailored for this new environment.

What Children Can Teach Us About Interaction Design The...

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 09:38:00 -0400

What Children Can Teach Us About Interaction Design

The challenges of designing and iPad app for children have unearthed some important revelations about user behavior and effective design strategies.

Because young children are usually less conditioned to know which elements in an app are interactive and what actions they’re supposed to perform, it’s critical to find more intuitive ways to indicate what objects are meant to do. Menus and gestural interactions prove less successful than clear affordance and pagination tools.

While adult audiences are predisposed to have a better grasp of more advanced interaction techniques, the universal design principles still apply: If you can achieve the same result with a more simple and intuitive method, do it!

A Bionic Garden Grows in Brooklyn From Wired:...

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 10:07:00 -0400

A Bionic Garden Grows in Brooklyn

From Wired: “Agriculture-obsessed software programmer Tom Hallaran and colleagues Clare Sullivan, Kallie Weinkle and Gregory Sogorka, known collectively as Feedback Farms, broke ground on an experiment that enables sensor-embedded planters filled with tomatoes and kale to wirelessly transmit information about soil conditions to a custom-designed dashboard installed on Hallaran’s laptop.”

Imagine the possibilities. Moisture data could control irrigation and computer vision could detect red ripe tomatoes for harvest.

Twitter’s Promoted Tweets Get Better Aim Last week,...

Wed, 05 Sep 2012 10:37:00 -0400

Twitter’s Promoted Tweets Get Better Aim

Last week, Twitter announced new options for businesses to better target their Promoted Tweets and Promoted Accounts. Advertisers can now customize their marketing messages at specific user interests, allowing for more levers an advertiser can pull to create better targeted campaigns and improve ROI.

The HDSLR Revolution While most people in the industry are hip...

Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:59:00 -0400

The HDSLR Revolution

While most people in the industry are hip to the DSLR phenomenon, when we show up on client shoots we are still often greeted with the question: “are you taking pictures?”

High-end DSLRs have long since bridged the gap between photo and video, and provide incredible image quality on a budget. Large image sensors allow for great low-light performance, as well as razor-thin depth of field control. These factors are combining to make DSLRs commonplace on film shoots, and might even eliminate the puzzled looks we get from clients.

SumAll Aggregates Social Media Metrics and Web Traffic Data...

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 10:37:00 -0400

SumAll Aggregates Social Media Metrics and Web Traffic

Data visualization company SumAll has launched SumAll Social Metrics (currently free!), which aggregates social media metrics as well as web traffic data in one place. Along with this data, SumAll aims to include transactional and sales values (using eBay, PayPal, etc.) associated with social campaigns, giving small business marketers a sense of ROI and monetary value they’ve been looking for, on a single dashboard.

Online Advertising Is (Still) Growing Up If you’ve been...

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 14:55:00 -0400

Online Advertising Is (Still) Growing Up

If you’ve been following the growth of display, search, and social marketing recently, you’ve become accustom to the constant barrage of new channels popping up on a regular basis. Just last week, Facebook rolled out a new species of digital advertisements: pay-per-click display ads in Facebook search results. What does this ever-evolving digital media market mean for your brand? It’s a challenging time to optimize your digital media spend.

Dig into current theories and you’ll hit upon one key difference between traditional and digital media: scarcity. Where TV spots have a finite time to reach viewers each day, display banners can litter websites, limited only by the frequency new posts can be generated. One thing is finite, however: an individual’s attention. The best brands will value this above all else, maximizing the attention of their audience on positive interactions.

Are Moms the Most Engaged Demographic? Moms spend an average of...

Mon, 27 Aug 2012 11:47:00 -0400

Are Moms the Most Engaged Demographic?

Moms spend an average of 6 hours a day on their smartphones, and a third of them own a connected device (that doesn’t include smartphones). Of these connected device users, 31% report spending over ten hours a week on their tablet, but less than two on their PC. Mom’s also make purchases on their tablets at an alarming rate, with 97% reporting using their device to shop, and 62% saying they use shopping apps.

Accessing this incredibly connected, and influential, demographic is a must for any marketer. Tablet-friendly websites are especially essential for retailers, and shopping apps with in-store functionality should also be a priority.

Facebook Dumps HTML5 for iOS Native Facebook has rebuilt their...

Fri, 24 Aug 2012 11:45:00 -0400

Facebook Dumps HTML5 for iOS Native

Facebook has rebuilt their entire iPhone and iPad apps in native iOS, dumping their HTML5 version. The change has resulted in a faster app, both in opening and performance while viewing.

However, this shouldn’t be an indicator of the way the market is going. Facebook has reasons for tighter iOS integration, such as the rumored deeper integration that Apple will have with Facebook. But even beyond conspiracy theories, while Facebook had very specific needs and reasons for switching, there were a lot of useful reasons for them having gone with HTML5 in the first place, such as the breadth of devices a single app would work on.

Bottom line, these kinds of decisions are a case by case basis, and should be vetted out while apps are in planning.