We need glowing red orbs everywhere
Energy — our master resource — is invisible.
This might seem like a good thing. It’s not. Because energy is invisible, we have no idea how much we are using at any given moment. At least not in terms that are meaningful to us. Sure, there are beautiful, visual calculators like this one. But — crucially — these are missing the “at-any-given-moment” part. And actually…they might even be missing the meaningful part.
Southern California Edison had it right when they installed something called an Ambient Orb in their customers’ homes. When the ball glows red, it means you’re using too much electricity; green reassures you that you’re consuming responsibly. The result: a 40% reduction in energy use during peak periods!
Who knew a glowing ball could have such an impact?
The Ambient Orb is successful at triggering change because it gathers (otherwise meaningless) information and turns it into salient feedback.
Funny thing, salience. Believe it or not, at the time of use, the colour of the orb means more to the user than the money it will cost (or save) to use (or not use) the appliance. Colour? More than money? Yes.
Why? Two reasons: timeliness and tangibility of the feedback. The electricity bill is in the future — maybe a month or more away — and money is actually a pretty abstract concept (especially future money). The red colour, however, hits on some psychological pressure that must be ingrained in us (I wonder if it would have had the same effect if it glowed purple?) And of course, the feedback is instant: turn off the blender, and you’re back to green.
We need glowing red orbs everywhere.
What if we took this a concept a bit further and upped the ante in terms salience? What if we replaced the red orbs with our smarphones for the timely part (they’re always on us) and replaced the red glow with our social graph for the tangible part (social pressure!). And what if we gathered not just information about our appliances, but for everything?
We have the technology. We have the data. Why don’t we see more red orbs? Although I’m certainly not the first to suggest this, and there are already many apps and services out there that attempt to recreate the red orb effect, I still feel like there is a huge unmet need in this space.
One thing is for sure, there are many instances where we could use the help: for saving money and investing, for saving energy and time, and for simply being better. Heck, even for getting the chores done:
What ever happened to diaspora?
Remember diaspora* (pronounced die-as-poe-ra)? It was all the rage back in May. A move to decentralize the web; a seemingly moral obligation provide the world with a ”privacy aware, personally controlled, do-it-all distributed open source social network.” Sounds grand, doesn’t it? Actually, it’s four dudes from NYU. They put their idea on kickstarter with the hopes of raising $10k so they could eat ramen noodles over the summer while they wrote their code.
Turns out they hit on something.
Not only did they reach their goal (they reached $10k in 12 days) they smashed it, raising over $200k in 39 days! And this is all before a single line of code was written. Why? This was right around the time when Facebook released its Open Graph and people were pissed about privacy concerns (yet again).
All the makings of a disruptive technology that can knock Facebook on its ass?
Ok, so I feel like we all know that there are a whole bunch of things wrong with Facebook. A poor user interface, and privacy concerns (perceived or otherwise) are the two most obvious.
But remember when Facebook came out? Myspace was king, and social networking was cluttered and messy.
Facebook came along and changed things. It clean things up and introduced us to the walled garden. Oh ya, and it was only for college students — you actually needed a valid university email address to sign up.
Things felt safe. And it was relitvely safe. Everyone was in the same boat. And — here’s the kicker — there was a pretty good chance all the people in your “friends” list were actually your friends!
Fast forward and social networking now dominates our Internet usage, and Facebook has dominated social networking. But now, this once pristine, walled garden isn’t so anymore. Things are getting cluttered and messy all over again. And they certainly don’t feel safe.
The real question is, what will we be doing in 5 years social media wise?
What about 1 year? 6 months? It’s hard to imagine that 500M people will abandon ship and move to a new network. But hey, I bet Myspace was thinking the same thing back in 2006.
Facebook won over Myspace becuase it found a beachhead — college students — and becuase it cleaned up its act, and because it created a walled garden (which has its advantages). But what if the pendulum is ready to swing back the other way? Something open – no walls, yet private as can be.
David and Goliath: David always wins.
Just when it seems that a company is too big to fail, it does. It has happened over and over again — it’s called disruptive innovation and the innovators dilemma. The disruptor is usually a quick and nimble nobody with a fraction of the functionality of the disruptee; initially taking root at the bottom of a market, relentlessly moving up market, and eventually displacing established competitor. The established competitor (i.e. Facebook) tries to innovate quickly, but can’t because its large, stable customer base can’t handle too much change too quickly. Hmm…does this sound familiar?
What did ever happen to diaspora?
Four, 20 year-old, self-proclaimed nerds with $200k in cash, and no real obligations. I know what you might be thinking…and some were predicting immentent doom. But actually, one month on, it looks like they’re doing ok.
So will these be the guys to take down Facebook? Will someone else do it? Or will Facebook live on forever?
Digital Strategy: A Definition
A couple weeks ago we had a strategy powwow. One of the topics of discussion was the definition and purpose of strategy. It’s an interesting question, because it can mean different things to different people — and all those answers can be right.
I want to share two slides that I feel do a great job of summing it up. The slides are from a presentation by Aki Spicer, digital planning director at Fallon.
You can see full presentation below:
Bike Cafes: Good Idea or Bad?
Imagine a bar, cafe and bike workshop all rolled into one. Sounds great. To my amazement, they exist! They’re called Bike Cafes and are apparently popping up all over London.
A haven for serious bike addicts who bring their machines for repairs, and commuters who simply want to use the free Wi-Fi or eat snacks and salads while watching live screenings of cycle races… The bar is stocked with microbrews from all over Europe, and hosts weekly route planning sessions and bicycle film nights
Although I love digital, I’m a huge believer in the power of physical spaces. Way before the term “social networking” came along, shopping and commerce have always been a central part of how society interacts — and it’s probably still the main driver of word-of-mouth.
On top of that, I love when retailers connect what they’re selling to something more meaningful than the product itself. I’ve mentioned before how lululemon does this.
But does 2 + 2 always equal 5? Can you combine two or more different services to create one super service? It think so, but only to a point. With bike cafes it makes sense: why wouldn’t commuters looking for a coffee on the way into work stop by a place where their bikes are welcome? And vice versa: why not get a tune up from a place where you can also hang out and connect with the biking community while you wait?
The question is, operationally, can you still be the best coffee shop/bar AND the best bike shop? Does it pay to specialize – do one thing really really well? Or does it pay to cater to a very specific niche, hoping that you’ll build a strong community and loyalty?
The Internet is [taking] OVER! (the real world)
You tagged me in your photo? No, I tagged you with my photo.
It’s official: the Internet has moved on. Unlike Prince, however, I don’t think “the Internet is over.” In fact, I’m saying it’s taking over; the real world, that is. If the last decade was about filling the Internet up with things that existed in the real world, the next one is all about filling the real world with things that only exist online.
It’s not like we wouldnt have done it sooner, but only now with ever improving, increasingly adopted smartphones, and ubiquitous internet connectiviy, has it really been possible. That being said, it’s obvious that our mobile phones are the key link between our physical worlds and online worlds. And indeed, the more we use the mobile web, the more the lines between the two worlds continue blur.
IMO this is where all the interesting things are happening, and where all the opportunity lies.
Need more convincing? Here are some examples:
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Effect Change: Become a Choice Architect
Reading Nudge, and in the first few pages, came across the term choice architect. It’s a fascinating concept, of being able to influence decisions and change habits, simply by “organizing the context in which people make decisions.” It’s really all about (as the author goes on to say) understanding that “everything matters” and, in fact, it is those tiny, seemingly banal, details that matter most. Here’s an excerpt:
A recent example of this principle in action is Method Landry Detergent — it won this year’s International Design Excellence Award. The innovation here was not the detergent itself, but the bottle, or more acurately, the way you get the detergent out of the bottle.
Problem: people pour way too much laundry detergent into the wash. Solution: make the detergent highly concentrated and put it in a pump bottle. Changing the way people dispense the detergent (squeezing a few tiny drops versus pouring a cap full) very effectively changes their habit of overuse.
iAds = awesome
About a month ago, when the iPhone 4 was released, Steve Jobs showed us nine new features. Number eight was iAds.
With the new iOS4 advertisers now have the ability to serve up in-app display ads. This in itself is not new; there have always been mobile display ads. What is new (and awesome) is two-fold: 1) the ad runs in the app, which means you won’t be kicked out of your app while the ad opens the web browser, and 2) the ad can use all the functionality of the iPhone, so the “ad” can actually look and feel like it’s own app.
Today a detailed video was released of one of the first iAds for the Nissan Leaf (the first mass market electric car). Thanks to PSFK for sharing. Check out the video; it’s pretty amazing what this ad can do (customize your car, compare based on miles per dollar, enter a contest, and even reserve a showing!). I think it does a great job of, as Steve puts it, “combining the emotion of video with the interactivity of the web.”
Before iAds, if a brand wanted an ad with this kind of functionality, it would have to produce its own branded app. Problem with that is people would have to download it voluntarily at the app store. The other problem (with apps in general) is their lack of stickiness. When you compare the options, iAds seems like pretty effective “App-vertising.”
So how do you get an iAd? According to Jobs, “Apple hosts and sells the ads, so all you have to do is tell us where you want them and make the money.”
Brands that have iAds already: “Nissan, Citi, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Geico, Sears, JCPenny, Target, Best Buy, DirecTV, TBS network, and Disney.”
For more on App-vertising, this presentation is worth a gander.
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11 Rules I Strive to Follow
I’m writing this post, not because it fits into the general theme of my blog. It doesn’t. No, this post is a reminder of what got me here, and what will get me where I’m going. Take what you will from it, and please feel free to add your own.
Generally, I’m not big on rules, but these are the ones I strive follow:
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Wonderful Variety or Choice Overload?
I think it’s safe to say, we love variety. I mean, doesn’t it make you feel good knowing that you could get a starfruit or a kumquat, even though 99% of the time you stick to apples and bananas? According to Barry Schwartz, ‘choice = freedom’ is a false assumption.
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5 Ways Audi Is Using a Digital Experience to Sell Emotion
What sells a car, or any object for that matter? Are the reasons purely practical? In some cases, yes. But when it comes to selling luxury, it’s all about emotion.
