Kinetic of the Week: Paul Sekerka

My name is Paul Vladimir Sekerka and I work in the media group learning under Mike Pierre to become a finely tuned media planner/buyer. I also get to explore other facets of marketing in the digital space, namely the mobile market.

July 5th marked my first year here at Kinesis, and what a quick year it was. I like the family-like nature of Kinesis. I enjoy being able to oversee every aspect of a campaign, and not just fulfill my “required” role. Actually knowing and speaking to the partners on a daily basis and working with them on projects is a cool thing. I mean, how many people can say that they interact with an owner of the company they work for? Furthermore, how many can say that the owner they work for even knows their name? Anonymity is not an option at Kinesis.

I have many interests, but I find there to be too little time in a day/week to regularly follow an actual hobby. I like to follow whatever sport is in season, taking my dog, Rudy, to the park, and getting together with close friends whenever schedules allow.

Also, I have a maddening addiction to knowing answers to certain pointless trivia questions, so I often find myself “Google-ing” many things.

I’m very competitive and I like to cook so don’t challenge me to a cook off!!I always thought that I would grow up and make a difference, and I find myself on the right path. But to give the cliché answer, who can be a sports enthusiast and honestly say they never had visions of hitting the game-winning home run in the bottom of the ninth with two outs, or catching a pass over the middle and going the distance for the winning touchdown? My sports dreams have been dashed, but I constantly look to make a difference when and where I can.

ED. NOTE: Paul’s sports dreams are not entirely dashed. As the captain and starting pitcher of our softball team, Paul has led Kinesis to an 8 and 1 record so far this season. The dream’s still alive for all of us!

More on the future of WAP and the iPhone

We seem to have struck a chord with our last post about the iPhone’s potential to kill WAP. Here’s one comment we received on it.

dmarine40 Jul 19th, 2007 at 2:38 pm

I think I need a dose of Apple Kool-Aid before reading this post, but I think we can agree that the convergence of what’s on your computer to your cell phone is imminent. I’m not ready to say that the iPhone is the harbinger of this cataclysmic shift, but I do feel that at some point in the near future there will be a convergence of content that can all be accessed from either your TV, your computer or your cell phone. The day will come when you’re watching a show on TV, but have to catch a train so you seamlessly stream that show to your phone with all the same DVR capabilities you have on your TV. The same with web video content.

The U.S. is far behind the rest of the world in mobile content and media, but I like to think it’s because we’re waiting for the right moment.

Thanks, David, and you’re right, the U.S. mobile market did lie considerably behind other countries in its consumption of mobile technology, especially Asia. But that is exactly what makes the iPhone the catalyst for change here. Consider the way that Verizon and other wireless carriers have handled the development of mobile technology and content. For years they have developed their own proprietary technology and asked mobile content providers to version their offerings according to their unique specs. This walled garden approach to the industry has been the very thing that has held consumers back from really getting into it. Which phone and which carrier are the biggest factors for those looking for specific mobile content such as video and games. And what happens when the next game is released? Will it work on the phone I have? It’s been a struggle to make money for both the carriers and the content providers. But now the iPhone has changed all that. Using common, available web technology such as good old html (today) and eventually flash and quicktime (to name a few) opens up the door for less versioning, streamlining the mobile content development process and perhaps increasing profitability. Of course it will still be a couple of years before the iPhone is available on any carrier other than AT&T but it could be the beginning of the end this walled garden approach and the kick start that the industry needs to gain momentum in the U.S.

WAP Sites? We don’t need no stinkin’ WAP Sites!

While new technologies are introduced daily, every now and then a technology comes along that truly revolutionizes peoples behaviors, attitudes, decisions and lives. Take a moment to think about how the DVR and HDTV changed the TV experience – I mean come on…who really watched those colorful nature shows on the Discovery Channel before HDTV?

Well, June 29th, 2007 was one of those days, as it marked the change of mobile web forever. What happened on that summer Friday you ask? The iPhone!

The New York Times‘ WAP site for conventional mobile phones

The New York Times site on the iPhone.

Put aside the fact that nearly 1.0MM units were sold in the first week. After experiencing the iPhone first hand, (yes some of us were fortunate enough to have recieved ours the first day) we can honestly say mobile web will never be the same. Seeing what this gizmo is capable of, leads us to believe there will no longer be the need for WAP sites to exist (talk about single-handedly changing an entire industry in one fell swoop).

Forget all the hype and buzz about the pros and cons. This topic of this conversation is not even about a phone. It’s about a device that will change consumer behavior and portable content as we know it.

When putting this single thought into context, not only will the implications of this device have a direct impact on mobile web, but consider all the other businesses/models that have or will be affected – Distribution, Marketing, Promotion, and on the list goes.

Distribution:
Consider this – prior to the release of the iPhone, the general consumer experience to purchase a new mobile phone consisted of going to a store, signing over rights to your first born child and literally wasting an entire afternoon – not anymore. The experience in buying the iPhone was seamless from the get-go. you purchase the phone in a store, or now online (literally a :60 sec credit card transaction), and then activate the phone (including the transfer of your phone number from a different carrier) through iTunes in a matter of 3 minutes. This kind of user experience is what is generally forgotten (ignored?) by the wireless companies themselves in their haste to win the battle over 2 percent of the market. Apple’s influence here is evident – the experience of the product begins with the environment in which your purchase it.

Marketing:
Because of the iPhone’s real web browser feature, users can experience web sites the way they would on their computer. That means no longer do marketers need to create promotions that require WAP sites or special mobile elements. what is good for the computer is good for the phone. Now an opportunity exists to create integrated, cross platform, web based, mobile solutions without compromise, a benefit for both marketers and their customers.

Content Portability:
For years publishers have pitched the notion of “portable content” as being able to access digital content anywhere. We create Widgets, Gadgets, and RSS feeds to enable customized information and while some of these technologies offer mobile components, they are clunky and not very user friendly. Now consider a custom widget for your iPhone, which enables a true wireless “always connected”, visually appealing experience which by the way, includes all the most important information relevant to ME! (NOTE: While Apple has yet to announce additional software as of this posting they have distributed the developer’s guide which will allow developers to begin working on new compatible software.)

While most smartphones enable many of these technologies to happen, none have come close to creating an experience such as the iPhone. That’s the best part about this story – its about an innovative company who took technologies that already existed for years, and packaged them in a way for even the most “non-savvy” individual to enjoy, creating an entirely new market opportunity for various industries in the process.

The question now is: as a marketer in the digital world, what marketing innovations can we bring to this environment that will enhance consumer experiences and maximize the value of our brands?

Stay tuned….

Measuring Web 2.0 Success

With a new way to web, comes a new way to track and measure your success. In the 1.0 world, page views and total visits and maybe some interesting funnel charts if you’re lucky, were the standard metrics. But in the 2.0 era we’ve got more and better ways to measure success and track ROI. As Marketing Sherpa points out in its article on this topic, the rise in use new Web 2.0 technologies like Ajax and Flash that don’t require a page re-load can leave a gap between page view measurements and the interaction that users are actually having with the site.

The answer is based in some small tweaks to how we measure sites that are content-, Ajax-, Flash- and video-rich and it starts with the functionality itself. Comments to a blog post for example is a much better gauge of usership than page views alone. And what about maps? Zooming in, panning and other general interactions all tell more about the habits of the user than just the number of times the map page was loaded. Got image and video downloads? Of course you do. But are you measuring their usage? You can and should. And don’t forget your RSS syndication subscriptions. What better way to really get a sense of how you’re really doing by measuring how many people ask for your content to be delivered to them automatically?

Web 2.0 may be a little different from 1.0, but measuring it effectively to prove your worth isn’t. Just like the strategies of Web 2.0 , it just may a take a little re-thinking.

David Pogues iPhone Video

Just had to share this from the New York Times‘ gadget-head David Pogue where he rather un-ironically celebrates the iPhone in a music video with new lyrics set to Sinatra’s “My Way.” Not only is it clever, it’s an accurate review of the iPhone. And hats off to Mr. Pogue for having some fun with this even though lots of people think he’s in Apple’s pocket.

Creative Review: VitaminWater.com

In this episode, Kinesis Designers Trevor Aldinger and Larry Latore wax poetic about Vitamin Water, G.I. Joe and…..Ram Man?

Larry Fantastic: If you want to see all the flash you can shake, then check out www.vitaminwater.com. With bottles flying, shapes bouncin and colors “poppin” vitamin water comes alive on screen.

Trevor Awesome: The thing I love about this site is it makes quite possibly the most boring thing on earth (browsing through water bottles) into something really fun. Might be one of the coolest navigations I’ve seen in a long time. The only negative thing I can find are those annoying commercials they force you to watch after you select a flavor. It would be cool if you can interact with the water bottles somehow – like throw them around the screen or pour one on Kelly Clarkson. That actually might be a bad idea, and the reason I wasnt asked to create this website.

Larry Fantastic: You see so many all braun no brains flash sites, but this one actually schools you. “If you want to get mad healthy, drink some vw” (I just came up with that, too bad vw’s already taken). It was designed by a company called Big Spaceship, their client list is more impressive than my collection of Transformers. Just kidding (no Im not)…. Yes I am…. (nah).

Trevor Awesome: I never got into Transformers, I was more of a G.I Joe fan. There was that time when I was really into He-Man, but there was something about bringing a figure named Ram Man to school that made that fad very short lived.

Larry Fantastic: With so much flash being abused these days, its good to see some guys and gals gettin together to make some good old-fashioned design lovin.

Trevor Awesome: Larry… you’re fantastic.

 

Editor’s Note: Larry and Trevor are no longer dating but they both remain in love with Flash. See some of their recent work here.