And here's the recap of my in-class presentation for the 8th session for the (2009) "Future of Advertising" course at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design (MCAD). On March 16 we talked about Widgets, Gadgets, Applications—and Marketing as Utility. Many thanks to Adrian Ho from Zeus Jones for coming to class to share his wonderful insights and examples. Please note the Creative Commons license. Thanks.

1. Takashi Murakami characters. Image via http://www.lri.fr/~jkeren/jkeren/Iordanis-Art_Murakami3.jpg
The Future of Advertising
Class #ADV 3041-01 | Spring 2009 | Mondays 1-6pm | Rm 416
Instructor: Tim Brunelle
SESSION #08: MARCH 16
UTILITY: WIDGETS, GADGETS, BUBBLES AND BADGES, OH MY!
Creative Commons Attribution & Non-Commercial License

2. Today:
1. Defining “utility”
2. Widget, gadgets, bubbles & badges
BREAK
3. Guest speaker: Adrian Ho, Founder
Zeus Jones
4. Next steps

3. Defining “Utility”
“When Nike global director of digital media
Stefan Olander looks at the Web, he doesn’t
see an ad medium, though Nike runs its
share of banner ads. Instead, he sees a
chance to build Nike’s brand by providing
valuable services.
‘We’ve been viewing digital as less of a
marketing channel than a place for
services,’ he said.”
—Adweek

4. http://nikeplus.nike.com/nikeplus/

5. http://nikeid-europe.nike.com/nikeid-europe/banner/identify_yourself/

6. http://nikeid.nike.com

7. http://www.oliverpayne.co.uk/ogilvy/05-cisco-livecast-banner/

8. Defining “Utility”
“...advertisers want to build brand loyalty
by providing utilities that both improve
people’s lives in some small way -- even if
it’s simply a tool for customizing pizza --
and directly pad corporate bottom lines.”
—Jeff Benjamin, CP+B
quoted in Adweek

9. Defining “Utility”
“When you create a utility...it becomes less
about information as pollution and more
about information to help people get
through life.”
—Nick Law, R/GA
quoted in Adweek

10. http://www.dominos.com/home/index.jsp

11. Defining “Utility”
“There’s a big possibility to deliver on your
brand through the tools or functionality you
can give people that are positive.”
—David Armano, Critical Mass
quoted in Adweek

12. http://www.visitlasvegas.com/vegas/my-vegas/login.jsp

13. Today:
1. Defining “utility”
2. Widget, gadgets, bubbles & badges
BREAK
3. Guest speaker: Adrian Ho, Founder
Zeus Jones
4. Next steps

14. Widget, gadgets, bubbles & badges
=
“Content redistribution”
Simply put, all of these (micro) tools are
examples of portability—code that enables
anyone to move and share content that
pleases them.

15. A few examples of widget/gadgets (and
what they make portable) from my blog:
music social travel audio

16. A few examples of widget/gadgets (and
what they make portable) from my blog:
presentations video

17. Content redistribution:
“‘No digital property is an island anymore,’
said Schmidt. ‘Everything can be
connected to everyone. You have to design
for that. We think about how we can chunk
up content, and make it viral and
distributable.’”
— Garrick Schmidt, Avenue A/Razorfish
quoted in Adweek

18. http://widgets.yahoo.com/

19. iGoogle (http://www.google.com/ig) is a website you create almost entirely from widgets.

20. http://www.google.com/ig/directory?url=www.starbucksmeetinggadget.com/gadget.xml

21. http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/

22. Another way to think about widgets,
gadgets, et al are as applications.

23. http://apps.facebook.com/carbon_bigfoot/

25. http://www.adobe.com/products/air/

26. In-class assignment: Find+share two widgets

27. Guest speaker: Adrian Ho
Founder+Partner, Zeus Jones
http://zeusjones.com

28. Monday, March 23:
“Relevant Data: Getting to know
(and predict) you”
1. Guest speaker: Patty Henderson
Consultant
2. Assignment #3
usefullunacy.typepad.com
tim_brunelle@mcad.edu

29. Thank you.
Creative Commons Attribution & Non-Commercial License