Two Degrees Blog

At one time, you couldn’t open Outlook without being flooded with email offers for Viagra. After that tsunami subsided, they seemed to be replaced with offers for a free iPod and then, more recently, credit repair and mortgage assistance. I’ve always wondered whether spams are some kind of barometer of our social psyche.

Now, there hasn’t been a day that goes by without receiving a least a dozen spam messages for … SUPERSIZING YOUR TOMATOE PLANTS?

Are Americans REALLY obessed with the growth potential of their tomatoes?  Could this be some subliminal extension of Enzytes offline marketing campaign?

Or perhaps there is something more nefarious happening …

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the World Wide Web, which was founded by British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee.

This world-changing technology started as a proposal by young Berners-Lee entitled “Information Management: a proposal,” which the supervisors he handed it to described as “vague, but exciting.”

They gave the go ahead and his team went about creating the global hypertext language (the “http” on web addresses and the links between pages) and came up with the first web browser.

And while those basics have not changed much in the past two decades, the web went from a mere 26 web server initially for nuclear physicists in Europe to serving 10 to the power 11 pages to over 1.5 billion users today.

Razorfish has just released their fifth annual Digital Outlook Report, which explores how to reach consumers in today’s digital media environment.

According to the report, the marketplace is being dictated by consumers, who are using ever-increasing channels and platforms.

In his blog, Guy Kawasaki calls it “a must for people in any Internet business” and shares these excerpts from his favorite parts of the report”:

Trends to Watch

1. Advertisers will turn to “measurability” and “differentiation”
   in the recession.
2. Search will not be immune to the impact of the economy.
3. Social Influence Marketing will go mainstream.
4. Online ad networks will contract; open ad exchanges will expand.
5. This year, mobile will get smarter.
6. Research and measurement will enter the digital age.
7. “Portable” and “beyond-the-browser” opportunities will create new touchpoints for brands and content owners.
8. Going digital will help TV modernize.

Trends in Social Influence Marketing by Shiv Singh

1. Social media usage will result in more influence.
2. The focus will shift to influencers.
3. Top-down branding will experience growing impotence.
4. Social advertising will grow up.
5. The portable social graph will fuel marketing innovation.
6. Not just friends, but friendsters, will start to matter.
7. Social influence research will become more important than social measurement.
8. Marketers will organize around Social Influence Marketing.
9. The intranet will join the Web.
10. Your CEO will join Facebook.

Click here to download a PDF of the report (6.1MB).

In this video Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief of Wired and author of The Long Tail, discusses where the “freevolution” will fit in the future of business.

His soon to be released book, FREE, is being published by Hyperion.  You can read more about “Why $.00 is the Future of Business” at Wired magazine.

Click on image above to view the video.

I’m not referring to their coffee, but to the latest shot across the bow in their anti-Starbucks marketing campaign.

Taste comparisons against Starbucks are one thing, no pun intented this time, but this t-shirt I saw being sold at a local Dunkin’ Donuts really made them look like a petty second-place competitor.

If they were trying to look hip, I think they certainly fell short.

As far as their Starbucks taste comparison was concerned, I really didn’t think that any Starbucks drinkers were swayed by the statistics they presented that more people preferred Dunkin’ Donuts coffee over Starbucks.  They are distinctly different and if you prefer the bolder taste of Starbucks, then DD will taste watered down and a commercial isn’t going to change your preference.

However, if they were trying to make Dunkin’ Donuts fans feel better about their choice, then perhaps the campaign made sense.  Apparently, the next step would be to deal with the fact that DD is not as hip a brand as Starbucks, and I would imagine this t-shirt is their attempt to try and change that.  I just think it seems more foolish than hip.  Any thoughts?

Starbucks fan’s can click here for special summer offers from Starbucks!