Get WILDLY Creative About South Africa Online BUZZ Campaign

This week, South Africa marked the start of the 100 days countdown to the 2010 Fifa World Cup with a variety of patriotic celebrations and flag-flying spectacles. The football spectacular kicks off on June 11, 2010.

The newly announced "Get Wildly Creative About South Africa" online advertising contest aims to inspire South Africans to get together as a nation, use their creativity, collaborate with the international community, and come up with ways to promote the country as a vibrant destination ahead of the World Cup.

The eight-week, people-inspired, online ad contest, which starts on March 15, is part of a major nation branding research project undertaken by the CMO Council and the International Marketing Council (IMC) of South Africa.

The IMC is responsible for defining and shaping Brand South Africa’s image throughout the world.

With social media networks hosting billions of monthly visitors, conversations and connections, the CMO Council’s new GeoBranding Centre is looking to evaluate the level of voice, influence and creative pull in these interactive online communities, particularly as it relates to shaping perceptions of countries, destinations, locations and origin of products.

GOING VIRAL BABY

The Get Wildly Creative About South Africa ad contest will be hosted on the Zooppa.com people-inspired advertising platform and will use viral communications, online conversations, blogging and cyber-chatter to pump up the interest and participation in this country branding program targeted at the world’s 1.7-billion Internet users.

Current and aspiring creative professionals, digital media buffs, South African citizens and expatriates, and anyone with a lust for travel to Africa, are invited to come up with inventive ways to produce a fresh and evocative message about a country that has gone from tragedy to triumph in less than two decades.

Cash and prizes - donated by SA Tourism, in-country partners and creative technology solution providers - will be awarded to the top submissions within each category. These are Best Print Campaign, Best Online Banner Campaign, and Best Video Segment or Commercial.

Among other things, the Winning entrants will have their work showcased globally to the CMO Council’s 5K+ members who control more than US$150 billion (R1.2-billion) in annual marketing spend and recognized at a special IMC-hosted reception in New York City, the world’s media centre and creative hub.

Fotobabble Turns BILLIONS of Photos into TALKING Ones

There are tens of billions of static photos on the web, all without a voice or a sound. The Fotobabble guys think that's a crying shame.

Within seconds, you can voice-enable any photo -- on a PC, a Mac or your iPhone and instantaneously send out via Facebook, Twitter, email and more. MEET Fotobabble and be prepared to have some fun.

Client Fotobabble went live this morning which means you can try it out in a number of different situations. For example:

*How cool and fun would it be to have talking photo status updates within Twitter and Facebook?

*You can use Fotobabble to add life to photos you upload on Facebook – at home or while you’re on the road traveling.

*You can send talking greetings to Grandma from your kids at a birthday party she is missing, in real-time.

*Snap a picture and add your voice to tell your spouse about the perfect couch for the living room you just saw.

*Include your voice to a greeting card to give it personality and life.

*Send talking postcards or digital hellos from your iPhone taken on vacation.

*You could also become a citizen journalist and add commentary to a car accident you just witnessed.

*Add voice to an image taken in an emergency zone such as Haiti, to communicate the situation on the ground.

*You could add voice to images to provide instant scoop from a local news or sporting event.

*Imagine being on a safari and sending a photo to a friend - captioned with your voice - that truly captures the excitement you felt the moment you first saw a lion?

*Snap a picture while buying the perfect pair or shoes or handbag while in Paris and get out to friends around the world instantly.

Whether you want to add your voice to a photo stored on your computer, or on one just snapped with your iPhone, Fotobabble brings images to life that can be shared immediately with friends and family.

A quick data point: there are tens of billions of static photos on the web without a voice or sound. Three billion photos are uploaded to Facebook each month alone. Now, you can add some spice to them quickly and easily.

Free to use, it only takes seconds to create and share a “Fotobabble.” Simply upload a photo and record your voice directly through your computer’s microphone to create a talking photo. On your iPhone, after downloading the free Fotobabble app, select an existing photo or a snap a new one, hit record and you’re done. Whether using a computer or your iPhone, you can share talking photos via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, or embed them into a blog or website.

And then, there's business uses and benefits. Businesses can create a talking photo to market or advertise a product, to more effectively engage with customers online, or to increase the number of visitors to their website, blog or Facebook page.

Since there is no software to download, Fotobabble supports PCs and Macs, as well as the iPhone, and makes it easy for people to create talking photos and to share them with a few close friends or with the whole world, in just a few button clicks.

Download the free iPhone App now and give it a whirl. They and I welcome your feedback and seeing your voice-enabled Fotobabbles all over the web. Let's collectively convert some of those billions of static photos into something fun, interesting, humorous, energizing, educational and of news value.

Constant Builds Brands, Passion Builds the Long Tail

Someone unsubscribed to my feed recently and the reason was as I expected it would be: the content was no longer relevant. My assumption of course was that they subscribed many years ago when I wrote about RSS and aggregation more than anything else.

That hasn’t been my focus for years of course. That said, I really haven't had a specific focus for awhile now so it's no surprise someone who wanted a regular flow of content on a specific topic, would not only find my content irrelevant, but inconsistent – it is.

It's because one day I might write about theatre, dark chocolate and intense walks through the streets of Rome, the next about an initiative in southern Africa and the next about some cool new app for Facebook or the iPhone.

Not being focused typically won't result in a lot of traffic. It won't garner the kind of repeat readers Mashable and TechCrunch get consistently because their readers know what content they’re going to get every day. It’s predictable and constant……..on purpose.

Constant builds brands. Constant means consistency to readers, consistency builds trust and trust ignites brands. How many times have you heard a Yank say that they sought out a McDonalds or Starbucks overseas because it was consistent, they knew what they were going to get? Bottom line, it’s familiar and they didn't have to think about the result.

Recently in Paris, I ran into an American who was there for 28 hours and learned that he spent 8 of those hours in a Starbucks. While not a surprise, it crushed me to hear this because constant deflates my spirit, not ignites it. My spirit isn't a brand nor is it constant.

Without garnered trust, you may not be taken seriously, at least not by the group of people who crave constants.....and the latter as we know, are the mainstream who build numbers, create a massive following and over time, build your online brand.

The alternative to being taken seriously is just to be taken. Ahhhh yes, passion. Let’s look at the long tail for a moment. It’s filled with thousands of obscure niche interests of people from around the world in categories you never knew existed. Green knit suits from Thailand, tasty blue love potions, Dragon dolls, and talking dustbusters, bring ‘em on.

Let’s think about the word “taken.” Such a visual, vibrant word isn’t it? You could be taken by a fragrance, a taste, the sound of a deep cello mixed with a harp, a flower garden, the texture on a Picasso painting or a man’s voice. Very few of these luscious incredible feelings, emotions, and senses are constant. Thankfully no………for the result makes life interesting.

I'd rather be taken to everywhere and everything but the constant. The ever-changing landscape of rolling hills for two miles only to be hit by large boulders and sharp cliffs around the next corner. The ever-changing hot and cold personalities of a redhead as she samples vegan pizza one moment and ostrich and foie gras the next.

The ever-changing dialogue between an elderly man and his granddaughter which increases as the weeks and months pass by. The ever-changing energy of a scooter on a busy Berlin street and the local baker's four-table cafe in a small Malaysian town.

Mix up the colors. Mix up the notes. Mix up the ingredients. Mix up the tempo. Mix up the tones. The hours. The sunshine and the rain. The puddles and the snowflakes. The glass and the wood. The flute and the drums. The A's with the M's. The Mac and the PC. The musicians and the lawyers. The artists and the engineers. The scientists and the bohemians. A German Shepherd and a Costa Rican butterfly.

Send me. Take me. Show me. Teach Me. Energize me. Push my boundaries. Ignite my fire. And with it, make sure that in any given day, that I'm never motivated and inspired by any one thing, whether it be technology or art alone.

Isn’t it great that one day we can choose a consistent and constant brand and the next a long tail passion that sets us on fire? Isn’t it great that we now have more choices and places to find that uniqueness on the web even if you have to do a little digging to get there?

Given that we have those choices, make them. Opt out of the large constant brand that you trust from time to time and you may find that you want to change your 80/20 rule and have the 20 be your constant, not the 80. America would be a very different place if we all chose the 20%; if we demanded that the 20% show up more; if we treasured it, praised it, voted for it and not the constant…….if we all increased our standards and did a little more creation and a little less observing.

It's an opportunity for the biggest mashup of all times and we haven’t even touched the tip of what’s possible yet. The online world is but a babe...still in its infancy. The digital gold rush is most definitely not over.

Enter more passion, diversity, and uncertainty. Enter waves, thunder, ponds, gardens, birds and buffalos all at the same time. Yes, all at the same time.

Consultants Can't Be Media Influencers Can They?

If you generate high quality content or a substantial amount of it, but consult, then you're clearly not a media influencer. If you have an audience and a voice that people listen to, but consult, then you're clearly not a media influencer.

That's how some view the world. After re-reading David Spark's recent post about an incident that prohibits him from generating content, I thought about how many times this has been an issue over the past several years -- for me and for others who wear both hats.

This isn't just about this one CES event; it's about old and new editorial voices and more importantly, it's about how to deal with influencers and manage content creators in a converging world. The landscape has changed so much that conference and event organizers need to throw a policy, any policy that has a black and white rulebook about whether you're an influencer who matters or not, out the window.

He was apparently sent an 11 year old 'rule book.' Rule books are designed for followers and structured entities, not visionaries. Egads, even if it's an 11 month old policy, it likely needs re-visiting. If anyone hasn't noticed, things have changed DRAMATICALLY in 11 years AND in 11 months.

11 years ago, media influencers included smaller vertical market niche publications that had a readership a quarter the size of my blog but oh yeah, I'm a consultant.

11 months ago, the third wave of full time journalists were laid off, more newspapers closed their doors and glossy magazines with once large entertainment budgets and hefty publisher salaries no longer have revenue or a brand. Crikey, Steve Wildstrom was even let go - and it's not because he isn't an amazing writer or thought leader. Know how many other award-winning editorial superstars are out of work?

Of the laundry list of do's and don'ts, I particularly resonated with this one: "don’t negate journalists that wear other hats - your sponsors are looking for quality people that represent media outlets they want to appear in. That should be your deciding factor. Not whether that person makes all their money from journalism and nothing else."

I'd extend this statement even further. Isn't it more interesting if journalists and bloggers ARE doing something else? It means they have another platform in which to tell a story. Who knows, maybe within those walls, a new deal may happen? A new voice unveiled?

Industry analysts have always been 'treated' as press in the context of which he writes, some of which were NOT part of a renown brand that wore Gartner Group or IDC on its door. They consult. They have clients and want to recruit new ones. And, while we're at it, don't publishers and editor-in-chiefs who attend a media event also want to nurture existing advertisers and recruit new ones? I would if I were in their shoes.

A separate agenda? Sure. I hope so - visionaries and leaders -- editorial or advisor, often have multiple agendas. They're thinking about and working on a number of different issues, topics and gigs. If you're a specific beat reporter with a list of who and what you can cover or not, your range is a lot more limited than an independent, freelancer, blogger or columnist who can write whatever they want, whenever they want.

And, a few more things from a consultant who generates a helluva lot of content... I have sometimes spent 90% of my time reporting and covering an event I've attended and paid for and told by some that it was the more interesting content they read of the event. Some of the traditional full time journalists at the same event didn't write a thing.

I'm not suggesting they should or are required to write. My point is that there are lots of important voices out there who are not full time journalists with traditional credentials. Whether they consult or not is irrelevant as long as there's full disclosure.

I've seen hybrid folks on media lists and not others. Who decides who is 'worthy' and has a more valuable audience than another?

Isn't it time we looked at the consultant/content creator/journalist relationship in a different way?

Isn't it time we rewrote the rules?

And she said....."understanding is a two-way street." --Eleanor Roosevelt

Bloggers In From Around the World

The Traveling Geeks mashup video by Mashcast. Thanks team.

A Chat with Gary Vaynerchuk #leweb #tg09

Below is a chat with Gary Vaynerchuk on LeWeb stage in Paris this past week. As passionate as ever, he takes over the interview, wanting to make sure he doesn't leave the stage without the audience knowing that they 'must do what they love.'

He touts that most people don't although LeWeb audience seemed to respond differently than the typical yank crowd he's more accustomed to addressing. While clearly this isn't scalable, he says - answer every email, answer every direct message tweet. Not only scalable but highly inprobable once success really hits unless you give up ever seeing your child or a tree again. At some point, something has to give.

That said, what he's talking about is the personal touch, the value of connecting with your audience and a large reason for his success. It's not because he's a master of wine above and beyond everyone else.

His success is because of his resilience, his determination, his ability to connect to the every day man - in their language and in a genuine way. he wears his immigrant status on his sleeve and as second and third generation Americans, we can still relate to that. Rags to riches and of course social media makes that reality more possible than ever. The second gold rush is in play.

Blog Facelift

Down the Avenue is going through a facelift, so bear with her while she gets revised, updated and beautified. It's coming in stages.

Traveling Geeks on Blog Talk Radio This Morning (THANK YOU team)

This morning, co-organizer Eliane Fiolet and I were interviewed on this morning's Blog Talk Radio's Social Media Hour about the upcoming Traveling Geeks to France tour next week.

We are thrilled to have a top notch group of organizations and sponsors who will team up with us for this tour. More details to follow on who they are and what they do in the coming few days.

Kudos and a huge thank you to co-organizers Eliane Fiolet and Phil Jeudy as well as to Sky Schuyler, Vladimir Drndarski and Scott Henady for their technical prowess, creative mashups, plugins and workarounds when we needed them most and for without all of their help, the trip wouldn't be a success.

Kodak's Chief Blogger Talks Shop

At the 140 Character Conference last week in LA, I talked to Kodak's Chief Blogger Jennifer Cisney. She talks to us about her role at Kodak.

Talking to BlogWorldExpo Vendors on the Show Floor (#BWE09)

An overview of BlogWorldExpo through the eyes of video. The summary recap below focuses on the show floor and the vendors rather than the sessions.

Part I:

Part II: