Facebook apps the pet rock of the 2000's
JP Holecka Nov 27, 2008 - filed under: Social Media Comment (1)
Is the facebook app really dead? For at least six to eight months after the apps launched it seemed like everyone was under savage bombardment of zombie armies attacks and requests for Funwall signups. Yes there was no end of hype over the facebook app phenomenon. From facebook users too the numerous big brands that wanted a facebook app of their very own. It was the talk of the interactive community back in 2007 and early 2008. Clients would usually call me at the agency and ask "We want a facebook app. Can you build us one?" Most of the time the clients never new why they needed it or what a facebook app really was but they knew that it was a "must have". Those days are now gone and I can't even imagine trying to sell an app to a client today. That was only 6 or 7 months ago. Things move so quickly in this interactive world.

What killed the app you ask? Well there are a couple of thing in my opinion that put the death nail into the facebook application platform.

The 18 month attention span with all new shinny things. 

Yes that's right. There is a cycle of consumer interest in any given product or service that lasts approximately 18 moths or so. If you look at the Apple product lifecycle it is just under this at around 14 months, giving about 3-4 months for traction. Also I believe the pet rock was around for roughly the same amount of time back in the 70's.

This summer's much hyped redesign of the facebook profile page that put the apps on a tab somewhere at the back of the page.

There was much hype and noise surrounding the facebook redesign this summer. Some reviews were positive but mostly negative. I myself like the new design and think that the site's usability went way up. One downside for many users and app developers specifically was that the new design pushed the apps to the last tab on the profile page. I did not personally mind as I never really used the apps to begin with. Oh sure I tried them out more for the exploration and insight than anything else. I still have a few apps loaded on my page like Tumblr.com and Lastfm.com but ditched the zombies a long time ago.

The iPhone 3G and it's tremendously popular app store.

Apple's launch of the long awaited iPhone 3G with the apps store coincided with the facebook redesign, 18 month cycle of interest and the finite amount of time that a person has in any given day to dedicate to the Internet. In fact the iPhone facebook app version 2.0 was probably a contributing factor as well. To this day it is in the top 25 most popular apps in the iTunes store. 

To coin an overused phrase it was "the perfect...cough..cough...storm" that killed the facebook app. I have a feeling that a lot of those facebook app developers are now immersed in the iPhone SDK trying to stay afloat.

If the facebook app has been replaced by iPhone app store then what will be after that? Maybe look at the Android platform I hear it is going to be hot!

tags:// Web, trends, marketing, iPhone, facebook, advertising
Will shoppers spend more or less this year?
JP Holecka Nov 25, 2008 - filed under: Online Retailing Comment (0)

Here are some numbers that I found to follow up on my anecdotal  shopping bag count of last weekend. I wanted to put the story into the online retailing context.  The Forester numbers say it the most. 45% plan to spend less this Christmas season due to the economic state of the world. Wow that is a huge drop in spending year over year. For the online retailer a number to watch this year is the shipping costs. According to a recent Paypal survey 40% of the people that abandoned their shopping carts did so because of of high shipping costs. In another poll by BIGresearch 60% said that free shipping was very important to them. I know personally that I stopped using Ebay last year due to merchants completely gouging the customer with expensive shipping fees.  I think that if you want to avoid the empty carts online this year you need keep the shipping costs aggressively low if not free all together.

Will shoppers spend more or less this year?

  • 26% of consumers plan to spend less, 11% expect to spend more, and 63% about the same. “For the first time I am predicting flat to declining sales for the holiday season,” stated Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst, The NPD Group, Inc. NPD Group Holiday 2008 Survey
  • 59% will spend less, citing food prices (73%), energy prices (69%) the economy (61%) and job uncertainty (18%) as reasons. 11% are still paying off last year’s holiday purchases. Deloitte, October 2008

How does price play in importance?

  • 60% say that lower prices, sales and special values will dictate where they shop (surveyed mid-September before the stock market’s major downturn). NPD Group, September 2008
  • 70% will shop sale items more often and 53% have become less brand loyal in favor of less expensive brands. Morpace, October 2008
  • 73% will shop where they can find the best value for their money. 72% will look for low prices. Convenient location, quality and selection of merchandise, and customer service/experience all ranked lower. Deloitte, October 2008

Is free shipping important?

Free shipping (95%) and sales/specials (83%) top of the list of what influences online gift buying. e-tailing group, October 2008

  • 75% prefer to shop with online retailers that offer free shipping. 58% claim that shipping prices deter them from shopping online. Forrester Research, October 2008

tags:// trends, shopping, christmas
Lot's of shoppers but where's the loot?
JP Holecka Nov 24, 2008 - filed under: Marketing Comment (0)
On Saturday we decided to take a trip up to the Apple Store and spend some of the birthday cash that I had received a few days earlier. We live in the West End of the city and decided that a walk up Robson street to the Apple store and get us into the Christmas spirit by immersing ourselves in the sessional throng of holiday shoppers. Well the downtown crowds did not disappoint and it was pretty intense and actually quite difficult to make our way through the busy sidewalks. I thought to myself that maybe Canada is going to be immune from the US recession after all. At least that's what it looked like at first glance. Then I noticed something strange in the sea of Christmas shoppers. There were little to no shopping bags being toted about. I thought maybe it was just a fluke and this would surely change as we made our way into the centre of the shopping district. My count put it at 1 in 10 with a bag and not a big bag at that. Five, ten, then fifteen minutes went by and nothing changed with my count. This was a stunning observation for this time of year.

So what is going on here? Are people waiting for bargains? Are they just out and about window shopping? Or are they shopping online? It's not like there are no bargains to be had. The B2 shoe store had price cuts upwards of 60% off just about all of the stock.

If this trend continues my feeling is the retailers are going to be decimated this season. 

What are you doing this Christmas? Are you cutting back? Buying online? Waiting until there are better bargains?

tags:// shopping, recession, christmas
Rebel Base - RIP **Update**
JP Holecka Nov 20, 2008 - filed under: Design Comment (0)

Today on my birthday I have decided to kill something! Yes that's right I said kill. What I have killed should have been put out of it's misery a long time ago. I have killed my design blog Rebel Base for the last time. It has been sputtering for quite some time and although I get around 100 visits or so a day I just have not felt compelled to write purely about design anymore. I will keep the domain as tribute to my childhood love of Star Wars. But from now on the domain will now point here to Powershifter. 

Thanks to all of you who read the blog. 

 JP 

Well there was a bit of an outcry on the whole 'killing of Rebel Base" over the weekend. I think I may have come up with a solution...The site has been converted to an easy to manage tumblr page. Tumblr for those who don't know is an easy to use microblogging service that is somewhere between a full blown blog like Wordpress and a microblogging site such as Twitter.

I like Tumblr because of the very quick blogging feature that you can use in the toolbar of your browser. Essentially it's a button that you click when the content on the page you are browsing fits the content on your tumblr page and is worthy of blogging about. 

The biggest difference is that the commentary is limited and as of right now there is no commenting allowed. Commenting is a feature that would make it the perfect blogging software for a guy like me that has such a limited attention span. 

 So long live the Rebel Base. 

tags:// Rebel Base, Blog
2008 Lotus Awards**Update**
JP Holecka Nov 12, 2008 - filed under: Advertising Comment (0)

Tonight the annual Lotus Awards take place. Now that I’m riding solo and no longer travel with a heavy agency crew I’ll be sitting at the mavericks’ table number 3. 

I think this year’s show is going to be great since it’s no longer just a showdown between DDB and Rethink. Last year’s strong showing by TBWA was fantastic.  And this year, TAXI  will be in the mix so it should be even more exciting.

Since I opened for business just last month, I won’t be submitting any Powershifter work to the Awards this year. Nonetheless, I’ll be there cheering on the work I did with Engine Digital.

Room for improvement
Two things were utterly, completely and terminally wrong with last year's show. 1. It was on a frickin’ Wednesday! This is an advertising show for crying out loud! Picking hump day meant limping through Thursday and Friday for us folks who over indulged during the festivities. 2. There was no chocolate fountain (need I say more). 3. Engine only won a programming award! Weak.

See ya at the mavericks’ table 3! 

Update

I am happy to report that the Lotus Awards were much better this year! The whole show was produced better and felt fresh and alive again.It had a great pace and some amazing creative from all agency's too boot.

Congratulations to my buddies at Engine Digital for an amazingly strong showing with  six awards! And a thanks to Stephen Beck for the shout out at the podium for my contribution to the Engine Oil project. It did not go unnoticed!

  • Engine Oil Wine - Best Interactive Microsite Business to Consumer -  Lotus Award [1st Place]
  • Engine Oil WIne -Best Online Single Ad - Merit 
  • Engine Oil Wine -Best Online Advertising Campaign - Merit
  • Engine Oil WIne -Best Self Promotion Interactive - Lotus Award [1st Place]
  • TLC - Best Website Non-Profit. - Lotus Award [1st Place]
  • Vancouver Aquaiium - Best online Advertising Single - Lotus Award [1st Place]
  • Western Canadian Coal - Best B2B website - Lotus Award [1st Place]
You can see the rest of the results of the show here: Lotus Awards Annual.

The awards were spread out among more agency's that ever  which I think is better for the community and the show for that matter. I would also like to thank all of those cast and crew that made Engine Oil Wine such a success. Without that volunteer army the project would not have seen the light of day.

 See you at next year's show! 

tags:// lotus, awards, advertising