Will it blend?

March 7, 2007 eirikso1 Comment

I started following this after Seth Godin mentioned it back in November last year. I think it is interesting how advertisers start spending money on totally new ways to market their products. The fact that the advertisers now have their own distribution channel thanks to the internet change their dependency on traditional media to reach out.

They start spending money that never reach the newspapers, magazines, television channels and distributors that have eaten a part of that pie before.

“Will it blend?” is another example of how you can reach out using this new channel. The idea is simple. Blendtec produce high quality blenders but have a relatively unknown brand compared to the competitors. So, they start willitblend.com in addition to heavy distribution on YouTube and Revver and probably a lot of other sites.

The videos are incredibly cheap to produce (compared to full fledged commercials). And they reach out. With a message that says clearly “we make high quality blenders”. And, “we are a cool company”. And what is it? You just have to watch one video to get the point. One of the most popular. “Will it blend? – iPod”. Here it is.

http://flash.revver.com/player/1.0/player.swf

And the numbers? About 3 million views on the iPod video alone on YouTube?. More than 20 000 people subscribing to the commercials from this company on the same site.

Hundreds of thousands of views on Revver. And by the way, on Revver Blendtec earns money every time people click on any of the commercials after the clips. Interesting, earning money off commercials on your own commercials…

And the traffic? Here is Willitblend.com compared to the total traffic of NBC.com for the last six months.

Remember that this is a site dedicated to the commercials for one company. The fact that their traffic is even visible compared to the total traffic of NBC is remarkable.

And do they sell? I don’t have their numbers, but the traffic on their online shop seems to play well along with the traffic of willitblend.com…

I think this is going to be a huge challenge for the media industry. Advertisers are using traditional media because they want to reach out. Traditionally this has been the only way to do this. Now, there are a lot of new ways to reach out. Blendtec and a lot of other companies are already using them.

The Shadow IT Department

March 6, 2007 eirikso5 Comments

Espen Andersen points me to this article about how advanced users build their own set of tools to be more effective. Tools that the central IT department at their place of work don’t provide.

As ~~Mr.~~ Dr. Andersen points out, this is not exactly news, but I think the phenomenon accelerates right now. Because of powerful tools on the internet that tend to be more user friendly and effective than what the IT departments provide. And I think that Ben Worthen is spot on right here:

Users want IT to be responsive to their individual needs and to make them more productive. CIOs want IT to be reliable, secure, scalable and compliant with an ever increasing number of government regulations.

Firefox with a lot of plugins is on the top of my list of tools that never was provided by the local IT department where I work. And, in Firefox our friends at Google provide me with some important tools as well. I am a heavy user of Gmail, Google Reader, Calendar and Docs & Spreadsheets. In addition to this, stuff like IM, Skype, del.icio.us, FTP clients and hardware like my personal digital camera, and a couple of personal computers at home pops up in my mind. And probably a lot of other tools as well.

And yes, I clearly see that there are issues with heavy use of non standard tools. Security issues. Standardization problems. It’s the good old question of security vs. usability.

Do you have other examples? What is your favorite tool that was never installed or supported by your IT department?

Chris Anderson on the new and the old media

February 28, 2007 eiriksoLeave a comment

It’s already in my list of recommended reading from other blogs, but this is interesting to the point that I decided to quote a bit here and send you over to Chris Anderson:

Don’t Confuse Media With Media Institutions

First, let’s agree that “media” is anything that people want to read, watch or listen to, amateur or professional. The difference between the “old” media and the “new” is that old media packages content and new media atomizes it. Old media is all about building businesses around content. New media is about the content, period. Old media is about platforms. New media is about individual people. (Note: “old” does not mean bad and “new” good–I do, after all, run a very nicely growing magazine/old media business.)

Interesting alternative to DRM

February 27, 2007 eirikso8 Comments

Streamburst is a company that helps people making video content available for sale on the internet. The files are without DRM and will play on most devices out there.

What they have done to discourage people from making the files available all over the internet is that the copy you get is personalized. They mark the file with the name on the credit card used to pay for the download. Both as a three second tag in the beginning of the movie and as an invisible watermark through the file.

I guess it is possible to remove this watermark just like it is possible to remove most known types of DRM, but I think this approach is way better. And very user friendly. And future proof. The MPG4-files that you download will play on Mac, Windows and Linux through free tools like the VLC Media Player or Democracy Player.

Here are two stores using Streamburst:
In Search of the Valley
Long Way Round

Links to other sites discussing Streamburst:
DRM Alternatives: Q&A with Steve O’Hear
Film about Apple founders released DRM-free
DRM and creativity
Social DRM

iPhone AD – Hello

February 27, 2007 eiriksoLeave a comment

Because I like movies and I have hopes for the insanely hyped iPhone I also like this one:

Apple iPhone AD

Update:
And here you can find names of all the movies in the ad.

Future of Web Apps 07 – Part 1

February 26, 2007 eirikso2 Comments

Here is my first post in a series from the Future of Web Apps 07 conference in London last week. I am not going to go in detail on all the speakers. Here you’ll find some of the stuff that I found especially interesting. For detailed information head over to Ryan Carson and his list of coverage from around the web.

So we gather in London with great anticipation. Big names, interesting speakers. Ryan Carson open the show with bad news. No WIFI. I understand that he’s not to blame. He has the equipment and all, but there’s some serious trouble with the network. OK, full focus on the speakers then. We’ll have to manage with the crappy connection at the Copthorne Tara when we return to the hotel.

All the images in this post can be clicked for a better view.

Mike Arrington of TechCrunch was the first speaker. The hardest working man on the web. He had an interesting look at startups with case studies and hints on what’s working and what’s not.

I think he is completely right on what he has to say about the buzz factor. If you are hard at work marketing Super Audio CD when all the buzz is happening around something called MP3 you should seriously rethink your product. Etc… Remember, stuff gets big when the usability is right and the functionality is crystal clear.

And what are the oportunities according to Mr. Arrington?

1. The combination of online and offline content. What will be possible with Adobe’s Apollo platform, Firefox 3.0 and interesting combinations of a file system and html/flash/Ajax.

2. Someone that solves the problem of DRM and music, movies and TV

3. Data and service portability. teqlo, ning and pipes was mentioned here.

4. Still lots of opportunities regarding mobile services.

Tara Hunt of Citizen Agency had lots of information on social networks and is a big advocate for open systems with possibilities of sharing. The simple but rich API of Flickr is a good example. To get the word of mouth going you need to build in a variety of ways to share early on. Support blogs, rss and easy to copy and paste permanent urls.

Matthew Ogle and Anil Bawa Cavia of Last.fm shared lots of experience from their work on Last.fm. And as you can see from the slide above, some interesting numbers from their service. They where talking about how they go from a service to a platform. In this transition openness is the key. They also talked about all the attention data that Last.fm collects and how they plan to use it. Here are some bullets:

1. Microchunk it – Reduce the content to its simplest form
2. Free it – Put it out there without walls around it or strings on it
3. Syndicate it – Let anyone take it and run with it
4. Monetize it – Put the monetization and tracking systems into the microchunk

They also had an interesting case study on how they solved the problem of “tag cloud spam”. Lots of people tagging Paris Hilton with tags like “officially shit” etc… Of course you could agree on that, but the tag cloud is pretty useless. They solved this by combining the tag cloud data with the attention data. The tags that people that actually listen to Paris Hilton weighs more than the tags from people that simply tag it with “untalented” and never listen to her.

So, the most important tags for a band like U2 is from people that actually listen to U2 etc…

Check back to eirikso.com, sign up for an email update or add my feed. My next post from this conference will include some very interesting stuff from Bradley Horowitz from Yahoo! and Kevin Rose from Digg.com

Canon EOS 400D – experience after one week

February 25, 2007 eirikso17 Comments

I have missed a proper SLR since I stopped using my old Nikon F90S back in 2002. All these years I haven’t found anything that would fit my wallet and my needs. But after playing with a colleague’s Canon 20D and a cousin’s Canon 30D I knew that now there’s something out there that is good enough and within reach.

I went to the shop to buy a Canon 30D and came home with a 400D. They are both pretty similar and and also very different. Because other people might have considered some of the same equipment I have decided to post some thoughts here on my blog.

Why on earth buy a cheaper plastic camera when you went into the shop to buy a solid and pretty professional one?

Canon EOS 400D, EF-S 17-55 2.8 IS @ 17mm F10, Shutter: 1/400, ISO100

The answer:
The 400D came out more solid than I initially thought. It is smaller and lighter than the 30D. And it will probably manage the strain I will give it for as long as I am going to keep it.

So why is the 30D twice the price of a 400D? The most important thing is that it is way more solid. And it takes 5 pictures pr. second compared to 3 for the 400D. And it has a maximum shutter of 8000 and ISO of 3200 compared to 4000 and 1600 on the 400D. And, it has spot metering. And probably a lot of other small details. Like the navigation wheel on the back.

If I was buying a camera for pure photography and not for family snapshots as well I would have selected the 30D. But I know that I am going to carry this camera around on holidays and all kinds of places. The difference in size and weight is absolutely an issue. Trust me, I have been traveling for months with my old F90S in my backpack.

As long as the 400D has the same beautiful type of CMOS chip, RAW files and support the same optics as the 30D I don’t think I will be able to take better pictures with a 30D. The fact that the 400D has automatic CMOS dust removal and a slightly better resolution (10MP compared to the 30D 8MP) also influenced my decision.

Canon EOS 400D, EF-S 17-55 2.8 IS @ 17mm F9, Shutter: 4 sec, ISO100

Because I had decided to buy a very serious lens I also was a bit unsure of the combination. Was the 400D too small and too light for the Canon EF-S 17-55 2.8 IS USM that I had decided to buy? It also depends. I would say that the lens would fit the 30D better, but I have absolutely no problems operating this combination. So far I am more than happy with the 400D and the beautiful lens.

Here you can see the 400D with my lens. Compared to my Canon S2 IS. The red line on the 400D is the approximate balancing point with that lens.

And some more images of the Canon 400D with EF-S 17-55 2.8 IS USM
Continue reading “Canon EOS 400D – experience after one week” →

A new gadget and a promise

February 23, 2007 eirikso13 Comments

Yes, I have returned from the Future of Web Apps conference. And I will post an article with some impressions.

And I have invested in a new gadget. Let’s see if you can guess what it is. It’s not me in that image, but I shot it. And in theory you find the answer in the exif data of the image.

And the person in the image? No other than Mr. HappyGoLucky himself.

Update:
You find the image that Mr. HappyGoLucky is shooting here.

eirikso in the news

February 20, 2007 eirikso2 Comments

Yesterday I was quoted in the biggest financial newspaper in Norway, Dagens NÃ¦ringsliv. An article about the fact that people are buying equipment for consume of online media like never before. And the fact that they actually spend time on online content.

I am telling them something close to what I wrote about here. If you are talking about the death of TV you first need to define what you mean about TV. I also told them that for very large live events reaching millions of people in High Definition we still have problems with distribution on the internet.

To put it short, the future traditional television broadcasting will be more about large live events in high quality. For that kind of content a platform that won’t break down regardless of the amount of people turning on their equipment is still the best one.

But for a large quantity of the content that we broadcast through traditional channels today we’ll see a shift to the fact that people use the internet to access it in different ways.

For me, the most interesting thing about the article is the company they have put me in on the page with the images. There you have it. Me, the chief executive of the Norwegian Broadcasting corporation and the chief executive of Norwegian TV2. To put it short. The two most powerful persons in the media industry in Norway, and the author of this small publication called eirikso.com

How to remove scratches from your iPod

February 18, 2007 eirikso8 Comments

Or at least: how to remove some scratches from your iPod.

I have never bothered to protect my iPod with loads of covers and stuff. I have the device because I want to use it and it is just too much of a hassle if I have to remove covers and stuff from the iPod every time I want to dock it in the car or at home.

So it ends up with a lot of scratches. No big deal. They’re very visible in certain kinds of light but not really a problem when using the iPod. Still, when I found a product called Displex Display Polish in my local gadget store I just had to try it out on my seriously damaged iPod.

The process is simple. Cover the parts that you don’t want to polish. Add some white polishing paste and start polishing.

<img src="http://www.eirikso.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/img-0543-tm.jpg"

Start with an old iPod. Add tape to the part that you don’t want to polish.

<img src="http://www.eirikso.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/img-0544-tm.jpg"

Mark the tape with the details.

<img src="http://www.eirikso.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/img-0550-tm.jpg"

Remove the tape and trim it.

<img src="http://www.eirikso.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/img-0552-tm.jpg" <img src="http://www.eirikso.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/img-0554-tm.jpg"

Add the tape in the right place.

<img src="http://www.eirikso.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/img-0563-tm.jpg"

Now add some polish and start the hard work. You actually need to do some work here. Polish, add more, polish some more etc.. I guess the end result is pretty dependent on the work you do here.

<img src="http://www.eirikso.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/img-0574-tm.jpg" <img src="http://www.eirikso.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/img-0628-tm.jpg"

After finishing you clean the surface with a soft cloth and enjoy the result.

<img src="http://www.eirikso.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/img-0561-tm.jpg"
Before

<img src="http://www.eirikso.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/02/img-0611-tm.jpg"
After

As you can see. The stuff did not remove all scratches, but my iPod is absolutely better! If I spent the evening polishing I guess I would get an even better result. You can get the display polish on Amazon, or if you happen to live in Norway your best friend would (as always) be Clas Ohlson.