Jane Nation Goes Mobile

August 4th, 2010

With somewhere between 10-15% of web sessions now attributable to mobile devices, the OMT group at St. John & Partners has just completed a mobile optimization of JaneNation.com.

JaneNation_Mobile_Experience

Jane Nation Mobile Experience

If you navigate to www.janenation.com, your mobile device will be auto-detected and present a version of the site that’s optimized for your device. Not all of the site content is presented, but forums and the ability to comment once you’ve logged in is available, and if you need deeper access, you can get to the entire site through a link from the mobile home page.

The beauty of this implementation is that the mobile content is pulling from the same database as the website, so administrators can manage content for both computers and mobile devices from a single point.

Kudos to the OMT team who made this happen – Steven, Mark and Jason. You guys totally rock.

Check it out. Get on your mobile device and surf to www.janenation.com.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Jane Nation Site Takes on New Direction

April 21st, 2010

Jane Nation

About a year ago, Jane Nation launched as a destination for women at transitional points in life, offering collaboration with other women at a similar point in their lives and interaction with marketers offering products and services to those life stages/issues.

Welcome now, Jane Nation, the evolved version, focusing much more on the marketing optimization and advocacy side of the equation.

It was the product of Chris Cowan, project manager and Richard Payne, lead developer at Four Roads, LLC and Steven Land and Mark Ruiz, web developers in the SJ&P OMT group. Site design was by Jen Ross of SJ&P and copywriting by Kristen Bankert.

The site is built on Telligent’s Community Server platform.

It is being debuted today by the two lead “Janes”, Lisa Beatty and Elizabeth Dukes, at the Marketing to Women conference in Chicago.

Congratulations to all.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Fear of Science Will be Our Downfall

April 13th, 2010

What a great quote from Michael Specter, “you’re entitled to your own opinion…..but you’re not entitled to your own facts.” He cautions us about the limitations that are unjustly being put on progress, and the lost potential toward ending epidemics like world hunger, both caused by the influence of mass misinformation and our loss of faith in institutions. Though at times these are justified by a massive fraud perpetuated by leaders in these institutions, facts from credible sources are being lost in this hysteria and the new societal gravity toward fad belief systems.

This is definitely a powerfully delivered wake-up call, and 16 minutes well worth spending…

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Modern Banking: This Can’t be a Sustainable Business Model

February 23rd, 2010

New York Times

We’re working on a bank pitch, so there’s a lot of banking chatter happening right now at our office. Someone just sent me a link to this article to read from the New York Times. It’s about banks adding all kinds of penalties and fees to stay profitable in light of the new banking regulations.

You know, police make a business out of penalties, fines and involuntary confinement, and this seems kind of like that model. Great for maintaining social order, but when you’re on the receiving end of it, it’s not much fun.

This can’t be a sustainable business model, can it??? Imagining that I just over-drew my account, which is embarrassing enough, and now my friend, my banker, is going to slap me with a monstrous fee on top of that?

I think I’m going to be looking for a new bank soon

What does this have to do with online marketing, you ask? Probably, not too much except all of our transactions and bill paying is moving online, making us susceptible to more and more of this abuse. I guess it just strikes me as supremely arrogant and short-sighted that such an ubiquitous institution would have as its customer growth strategy, profiting during someone’s personal struggles. I think I smell me some change coming….

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

London 2012 Olympics Commercial

February 13th, 2010

This message is exactly what the Olympics should be about; the world being brought together by a shared interest.

I saw this as pre-roll on NBC’s Winter Olympics 2010 site, but it’s also on YouTube. When it first started to run, I thought it was self-promotion for Vancouver, but it turns out it’s for the 2012 Olympics in London. Not that it matters, as the message works equally well either way.

This should be the best Olympics ever in terms of coverage because of the technology, and because all the content providers have figured out how to supplement their broadcast Olympics coverage with additional coverage on the web.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Our Sixth Sense

November 18th, 2009

Very interesting research into technical gadgetry that can help with real time information processing and intuiting.

Although in its current state this somewhat patched together set of gadgets is a bit clunky, you can see where the technology is headed.

One group this validates are those who have, for years, been developing wearable technology. Here the value proposition is obvious vs. just offering convenience, to which most of the previous development has been limited.

You’ll notice the obvious augmented reality that they’re achieving with a projector vs. the onscreen data display employed with some of the previous iPhone posts I’ve made.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Wish I’d Said That

November 6th, 2009

Dammit, SEOGuy!  seo_guy_logo

Talking about best practices and integrity in the SEO world…

There are so many unscrupulous companies in this space who promise #1 rankings in 2 weeks or less, charging ridiculous fees and setting false expectations.

I found this while doing some research on domain name aliases, and even though this post didn’t exactly answer my question, (;-)) the principles stated were expressed about as well as they possibly could be.

Enjoy.

BTW. I found what I was looking for here.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

The Next Wave of Augmented Reality

August 5th, 2009

Obviously I love augmented reality, as evidenced in previous posts. I first posted about it months ago with GE’s Ecomagination commercial on the Super Bowl, and a couple month’s later when magician, Marco Tempest, used the technology to make his slight-of-hand magic even more amazing.

Now, SPRXmobile in Amsterdam has begun exploring a practical application of this technology, as you’ll see in this demo:

Their product, Layar, is a video-mode application that works with your 3G phone and its GPS system, plus a compass and an accelerometer, also both built-in to the phone. These elements work to establish your position on the planet, which direction your phone is facing and its angle or tilt. With that information, the application is able to pull data feeds that are relevant to the environment you’re viewing through the video display.

Wonder what the reviews have been like for the restaurant you’re standing in front of? Or maybe if there are any apartments for rent in that building nearby?

All kinds of relevant data will be available, and presented in a visually appealing, 3D context relative to the environment you’re viewing through your phone’s video camera, turning that view into a detailed and highly engaging dynamic interface.

Here’s the original article on CNN that talks about it.


Lovin’ dis big time, mon.


KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

JaneNation Takes Next Big Step

June 11th, 2009

More than six-months in the making, Jane Nation is now live as a new community devoted to women.

Congratulations to the development team involved…lots of time spent and people involved to birth this baby.  Special thanks to Steven (a.k.a. “Stevie”), Mike (a.k.a. “Michelle”), Jen (a.k.a “Jen”), Erin (a.k.a. “Erin”) and Sean (a.k.a. “Shana”) who were the core development team.

jane_nation

Definitely check out the site.

It’s got a lot of information and conversations happening, geared to what may be going on in your life right now, so almost any woman would find a bunch of relevant content and a number of interesting women with whom you can connect.

Here’s the link.

KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.

Project Natal Re-Imagines Gaming

June 6th, 2009

It’s kind of like they were contemplating re-inventing the wheel and instead came up with the mag-lev train.

Microsoft is dangerously close to stealing the cool factor away from Apple, not for its PC/Mac war of the ages, but because it is getting ready to shift the paradigm of the gamers’ UI experiences. What’s in the offing is Project Natal, introduced to reporters and VIPs on the eve of the E3 in Los Angeles.

Not being on the guest list, I can’t make any first hand observations, but one of the guys on our team is an avid gamer and Xbox 360 aficionado, as well as being versed in all things gaming, and he had to take a few days off to calm-down after viewing the video feed from the press conference on the Xbox Channel.

This demo and presentation is pretty crazy stuff. A lot of bloggers are disbelieving that Microsoft has really cracked the code on this, at least not to this level.

Here’s another video that shows more of the gaming experience vs. the artificial intelligence that Milo demonstrated above.

That’s enough of a difference that Wii and other gaming systems should be pretty nervous. Although Wii is much easier to master than the current Xbox, and PS3, there is virtually no learning curve with the controller-free gesturing in Natal.  No “A” then flick your wrist while hitting “Trigger” style interaction here. Just do what you’d do normally if you were engaged in the activity and you’re playing. If the AI layer is anywhere close to Milo, we’re talking mag-lev trains, baby!

Can’t wait to see this unfold over the next 18 months.
KidWithMatches is the personal blog of Pete Eberbach, VP Director of Online Marketing & Technology with St. John + Partners.


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