Measured Voice - Latest Comments

Re: QR Codes: A Solution Looking for a Problem

Seth — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 03:01:44 -0000

Also, QR codes are ugly. I'm sure at Marketeer U, after you drink the Kool-Aid, they teach you guys that it'll "build brand awareness," but take it from me, it makes your (expensive) print ads look like something out of the weekly newsprint coupon flyer.

Re: QR Codes: A Solution Looking for a Problem

Seth — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 02:58:46 -0000

Are you out of your mind? No phone I've ever seen (and I've seen a few, Android, iOS, BlackBerry, Windows 7) has ever come with a QR code reader. Sounds like Mobile Commerce Daily is guilty of wishful thinking.

Re: Authentic Content

LindsayDayton — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 20:12:07 -0000

Hi Edwin,

The Old Spice ads I've seen are great, but I'm not sure I'd call them authentic content. It's totally possible they are doing that and I haven't seen it though. In general, this approach is very difficult for large brands. Partly because while brands can have a personality, they are rarely *actual* personalities.

For a big brand to practice authentic content, they'd have to let many different voices speak (highly unlikely given corporate control of most communication), and speak openly about their product (also unlikely, given the amount of unsavory chemicals/processes involved in most big-brand products).

I didn't say this in the post, but now that you've led me to think about it, authentic content is really only a strategy that works for smaller brands and organizations. I can see few exceptions (the Red Cross and similar organizations) to very big brands that would benefit from transparency.

Can you imagine photos of the machine that produces McDonald's fries actually selling more fries? Me neither.

Thanks for making me think more about this!

Re: Authentic Content

Edwin Tam — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 21:48:56 -0000

Nice post. Are there any big brands doing this? I can think of Old Spice, but the rest escape me.

Re: The Future of Graphics in Social Media

Theasideblog — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:20:45 -0000

Many thanks for the tweet.

Re: The Future of Graphics in Social Media

ofwona — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:58:42 -0000

Thanks Jed for the inspirational notes;measured voice has been my social dashboard since around APRIL this year.I do believe the a lot's in store for this beautify site in future.Thanks a lot for your contribution.

GEORGE.

2011/10/5 Disqus <>

Re: The Future of Graphics in Social Media

Jed Sundwall — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:02:09 -0000

Thanks for sharing this! I love this idea. Just tweeted about it https://twitter.com/#!/jedsund...

Re: The Future of Graphics in Social Media

Theasideblog — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:21:21 -0000

Here is an effective exercise in graphicacy we've tried with our students, to introduce terms and techniques of visualizing information (and fun, too): http://theasideblog.blogspot.c...

Re: The Future of Graphics in Social Media

TheASIDEblog — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 21:23:49 -0000

Thank you both for the positive feedback!

Re: The Future of Graphics in Social Media

Jed Sundwall — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 18:03:56 -0000

Thanks for sharing your blog with us! Clearly we think you're onto something! Your students are lucky to have you. Not only will they be better equipped to understand visualizations, but they'll be equipped to use visualization to communicate in ways that transcend language.

Re: The Future of Graphics in Social Media

ofwona — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:49:11 -0000

This is a highly educative blog post;I will let others know about it's conten
ts,

Re: The Future of Graphics in Social Media

ofwona — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:48:22 -0000

This is a highly educative blog post;I will let others know about it's conten
ts,

Re: The Future of Graphics in Social Media

Theasideblog — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 17:41:14 -0000

Teaching students to decode images takes on greater meaning today with visualizations and infographics successfully competing with traditional maps and charts in the classroom. Check out our blog all about graphicacy in education: http://theasideblog.blogspot.c...

Re: The Future of Graphics in Social Media

ofwona — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 20:58:16 -0000

Cloud computing should be integrated to this graphicacy platform...

Re: Is Brand Management Unethical?

Gustavo Valencia — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 14:29:24 -0000

Lindsay why would you make the title of this post "Brand Management Unethical" when you're merely writing about reputation. I think your post touches some important points, but brand management is much more than reputation, logo or advertising... Here you can read about what a Brand really is http://tavovalencia.wordpress.... and here what's the main purpose of brand management http://tavovalencia.wordpress....

Re: 1.USA.gov Hack Day Cheat Sheet

Jed Sundwall — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 10:47:31 -0000

It *should* be real time, but I think they're still working on issues with the pub/sub feed getting cut off. Moving forward, I think the best resource will be the data on data.gov, but that seems to be having the same problem.

I think one of the key things we learned (at all hack day locations) yesterday was the pub/sub feeds are hard to work with. We need to get better at ti.

Re: 1.USA.gov Hack Day Cheat Sheet

Jeffrey Bush — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 03:40:48 -0000

How often is the Socrata OpenData 1.USA.gov data updated? It seems like it could be nearly real-time but it is instead currently almost 2 days out of date.

Re: QR Codes: A Solution Looking for a Problem

Harlan Harris — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 10:29:16 -0000

Here's a great QR code application. Put a QR code on every bus stop. Link goes to one of the thousands of URLs on the transit service's mobile site that has real-time bus arrival data from GPS. One action gives you the answer you want ("3 minutes away" or "32 minutes away"), with no typing required. And it's VASTLY cheaper than putting LCD screens and network connections on every bus stop.

Re: QR Codes: A Solution Looking for a Problem

Jed Sundwall — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:24:51 -0000

Need to give credit where it's due: Mark is the inspiration for the title of this post.

Re: QR Codes: A Solution Looking for a Problem

LindsayDayton — Wed, 25 May 2011 18:29:37 -0000

Hey Blake,

Thanks for your thoughtful comments.

Lots of what I think you're saying boils down to this: QR codes have a lot of potential. This is certainly true, and there's no telling how the technology may be changed or used in the future.

You say the audience size is growing, that code readers are becoming more plentiful (and, hopefully, easier to use), and that there are constantly new applications (maps, video, etc.,) that make a url more useful than just a webpage. It's clear that QR codes have lots of potential users and applications, and I think that's part of why marketers love them so much.

But potential is not the same as reality. In reality, most mobile phones don't have code readers built in. In reality, typing a url into a mobile browser is often easier than using an additional app that requires good lighting, high visibility, and a steady hand in order to work. In reality, many codes are driving mobile traffic to non-mobile sites. For these reasons, until the potential becomes reality, I think brand marketers should be weary of using QR codes.

I agree with you that brand interactions are incredibly valuable and that QR codes increase the potential for brand interactions. The problem is that in the current context, they almost exclusively increase the potential for NEGATIVE brand interactions. If a user gets frustrated at any point and abandons the process, yes, they were interacting with your brand, but now your brand is associated with that frustration and negative experience.

For myself, my company, and my clients, I don't subscribe to the old adage that any PR is good PR.

Re: QR Codes: A Solution Looking for a Problem

Mark — Tue, 24 May 2011 13:58:34 -0000

Amen.

Re: QR Codes: A Solution Looking for a Problem

Blakesohn — Tue, 24 May 2011 12:15:00 -0000

Maybe you clarify a few things for me. I am not a QR code expert by any means but have researched them a bit. I think your readers deserve a broader perspective than you have shared.

First, you state that QR codes are "trendy". Of that I agree with you. In fact according to a recent Scanbuy study that tracked bar code trends from Jan. 1 – March 31 - "we found that bar code scanning traffic increased more than 800 percent year-over-year."

Second, you stated that they are pretty useless. Hmmm. Beg to differ there. You position Qr codes as mostly directing the "scanner" to a url. That might be the current trend but QRcodes can also:
º send a text message
º send map location and show were you are in comparison to it
º send an MMS or "how to" image to your phone
º direct you to a site that will play a video to educate you - like YouTube
º encode a vCard with your business information on it

Seems like that isn't "useless". Finding the right time do the right information to the mobile user is important however. Sending a user to a website where they have to navigate through it to get the right info is useless I do agree and many Marketers are missing an opportunity.

You also state that QR codes are only awesome if... ". Can we look at these one at a time because some of the fact I found are conflicting?

> Your target audience ALREADY has a QR code reader on their mobile device.From what I understand that is correct. You have to have a reader on your phone to scan a QR code. However, according to Mobile Commerce Daily, the majority of smart phones now come with readers on them. Also, there is a scanner for almost any smart pone. Here is a site I found useful to find the better ones: http://2d-code.co.uk/qr-code-r... site you’re driving traffic to is SPECIFICALLY for mobile users.

I think that the stats would disagree with you there. Some more facts by a Google study " Smartphones have become an integral part of users’ daily lives.

• 81% browse the Internet and 77% search on their smartphone." Seems there are a lot of mobile users that think that it's just fine to view at a non-optimized mobile website. Grant you it is combersome but more and more sites are making their site mobile friendly.

> The target url is particularly complex and unwieldy.Again, any savvy Marketer knows that since last September both Google (goo.gl) and Bit.ly have added the ability to create QR Codes using their url shortener platforms so long urls are no longer a problem.

Then lastly, you said "using a QR code, you’ve increased the number of exit points (and the
incentive for your audience to use them) by an order of magnitude.
That’s a problem."

I think you may be missing the point here. The user is usually holding a QR tagged item in their hand that any Marketer worth there salt should have Branded. Additionally, the user is interacting with the object/product by scanning the code. Huge in my world.

The objective of scanning a bar or 2d code is to extend the Brand with a useful bit of information like price, promotion or demonstrative url. That sounds like a BIG opportunity to build brand awareness and loyalty, not “a solution looking for a problem.”

Love to hear more of you thoughts.

Just another Marketing guy.

Re: Kurt Vonnegut’s 1st Lesson on Branding

ofwona — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 08:46:50 -0000

HAPPY EASTER 2011 !

Re: And yet another lovely post title

Jed Sundwall — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 20:29:25 -0000

Testing a comment on this thing.