Iron Man 2 Digital Campaign Just Works

I've been known to be somewhat cynical when it comes to flashy digital campaigns. Most companies just can't get it right. I was impressed with the last several weeks of Iron Man 2 digital promotions, and thought I would share.

Up first, a nice interactive trailer. Oft criticized for being bulky and offering little added value, this Flash promo plays the full trailer while picking bits out for further exploration. A nice build on the stale movie trailer experience.



Next, a quick look at the Stark Expo 2010 website. Though grumblings about vapid content can be found on Twitter, I believe the experience is both immersive and clever. The site was also integrated with offline experiences such as "recruiters" from Stark Industries handing out business cards at key locations leading up to the go-live date.

Note advertisers' content within the microsite - I wonder if these placements were sold as online spots to pay for the project? In the context of the expo I don't find it too intrusive, and let's not forget the cool (and totally fake) links to various "vendors" at the faux expo.

What do you think? A good overall campaign or a waste of marketing dollars?

Nick Kinports (@ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive world for over 9 years, and helps the Fortune 100 identify unmet consumer needs, create ideas to fill those needs, and bring them into market. He currently works at Maddock Douglas.

Adobe Sues Apple, Claims Unfair Business Practices

Alright - you got me - no one has filed a lawsuit yet. I say yet because this one is so obvious I can see it coming a mile away. Adobe is scared - and it should be - with iPhone browser share soaking up over 60% of the mobile market in the United States and the iPad generating huge sales figures Flash technology is at a tipping point. You can't get much better than 99% adoption, and we all know in the tech industry there's only one way to go.

Adobe's primary concern is preservation of market share, especially since they paid a hefty 3.4 Billion for Macromedia (stock swap though it may have been). Adobe must realize that Flash will eventually be replaced - now it's a question of how quickly.



I'm going to say something that a lot of advertising people (interactive folks especially) don't like to hear. Flash needs to go away. It's had a long and glorious run, but it's about over in my opinion. The endless custom video players, interactive ads that don't really do anything useful or interesting, and overly-creative websites are old. Since 2009 the web has really been about information; getting to it quickly, on any platform, and engaging in an experiences with others. Flash isn't necessary for any of this. Gaming is probably the best contender, but other options are quickly making Flash games inconvenient and expensive to produce and maintain.

What do you think? Is Apple on the money with their decision to move away from Flash, or are they making a critical mistake? How do you feel - as a designer, programmer, or interactive project manager - about having to get on the grind to learn the next big thing?

One thing is for certain, Adobe isn't going to go quietly into the night...

Nick Kinports (@ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive world for over 9 years, and helps the Fortune 100 identify unmet consumer needs, create ideas to fill those needs, and bring them into market. He currently works at Maddock Douglas.

SEM vs. SMO Part 1

Today marks the beginning of a two part series that outlines how Search Engine Marketing (SEM) and Social Media Optimization (SMO) practices can help produce a well rounded campaign that generates great response numbers and leaves a lasting impression in search engine indexes. Let’s dive right in with a brief conversation about Search Engine Marketing.

SEM: Bang for the Buck!

Search Engine Marketing is one of the best ways a company or campaign can raise its profile on a tight budget. As with most things advertising, you can find ways to spend every dime of that precious budget, but few things are as measurable and actionable as a good paid placement plan. Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft offer their respective paid placement products, but most experts (and the stock market) agree that Google provides the best offering through AdWords and related products.

Andrew McMains of AdWeek offers a poignant reminder of how underutilized paid placement can be. The kicker – he is talking about interactive agencies! Why an interactive agency would not engage in a paid placement campaign is beyond me. I suggest you read Mr. McMains’ entire article and learn more about some of the fundamentals of getting your name (or the name of your client) to the right audience.

The paid options aside, my favorite topic when speaking about SEM practices is SEO, or Search Engine Optimization. SEO gets into the gray area of advertising on the internet. The major search engines guard their search algorithms from the public eye to keep SEO experts from “cracking the code” and circumventing the hundreds of data points a search engine uses to calculate the ranking of a page or site. When am asked about SEO strategies and the best ways to increase page ranking I always recommend using the natural tendencies of search engine spiders to generate a successful result. What do I mean by, “natural tendencies”? Generate relevant content!

Page titles and Meta Tags are the most basic – but also often overlooked – aspects of SEO. Make sure your titles and tags are relevant to your audience on every page and update them as your campaign evolves.

Frequent updates are important to search engines. Old content that has gone stale will be replaced by newer indexing. The best way to keep things fresh and on the top of everyone’s list is to update your page content weekly with relevant information. This may mean a blog or a news/press release section. How many times do you go to a company’s website and find their last press release is two years old? Shameful! If the contract is a one time revenue stream, build a simple method into your project that allows your client to update the page on their own without you (or your agency) helping.

Linking between sites is critical to generating great search results! Make sure your client has active links to their new project on all their websites. Conversely, make sure you link to your client’s new project on all your agency sites. Research professional and industry associations that may be interested in your client’s campaign or project and solicit links from those organizations. Ask your client what companies or relationships they maintain with vendors, business partners, etc… and network to build a solid base of links.

FLASH! The new player in the SEO world. As ADMAVEN covered in a previous post text within Flash SWF files is now available for indexing on the major search engines (Microsoft excluded). Place relevant words and text in your Flash projects to ensure proper indexing. Remember – indexing of Flash files does not apply to ActionScript text, Library names, or any convention not readily viewable by the end user.

Keep reading for the next article in the SEM vs. SEO series, when I delve into more detailed information on SEM as well as graze the virgin territory of SMO!

Nicholas Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years. He is the Digital Strategy Lead and founder of Chicago-based digital marketing firm lonelybrand, where he directs the creation and execution of digital marketing programs that generate measurable signups, conversions and sales.

Google Indexes SWF - Yahoo! Follows Suit

Five days ago the Associated Press (among others) reported that Google will begin indexing Flash content on a text level. For those of us who work with Flash and SEO on a daily basis the news came as a pleasant surprise. Let's examine the key points of the announcement:

1) Flash content (.swf files) will be indexed according to text rendered within the movie or application. This includes hyperlinks, but does not include library names, variables, and other ActionScript items that are not visible in the web browser.

2) Adobe has announced that Yahoo! will soon follow suit, indexing .swf files. Presumably the algorithms will be different than those used by Google, but the results will be similar: visible text and links only.

3) Microsoft has not made an announcement regarding their choice to collaborate with Adobe to make Flash content indexable through the various Microsoft channels. Microsoft's reaction will reveal their position on seriously competing with Adobe, as Silverlight is now beta-testing version 2.0.

Capitalizing off search engine indexing is critical to an interactive campaign. Flash as a technology is certainly more “sexy” than HTML, but until now has been inappropriate for sites and campaigns looking to capitalize off traffic from search engines.

It should be interesting to see how this affects design elements as well as campaign pitches. Will we start seeing more Flash integration? One would think so, but time will tell.

Nicholas Kinports (follow him on Twitter @ADMAVEN) has worked in the interactive technology world for over 15 years. He is the Digital Strategy Lead and founder of Chicago-based digital marketing firm lonelybrand, where he directs the creation and execution of complete digital communications solutions for a variety of industries.