From Walt Mossberg, the leading tech writer for older rich white guys, on his recent frustrations following the purchase of a new Sony laptop and having to deal with “the plethora of teaser software and advertisements for products that must be cleared and uninstalled to make way for your own stuff”:

The problem is a lack of respect for the consumer. The manufacturers don’t act as if the computer belongs to you. They act as if it is a billboard for restricted trial versions of software and ads for Web sites and services that they can sell to third-party companies who want you to buy these products.

…

On my new Sony, there were two dozen trial programs and free offers. The desktop alone contained four icons representing come-ons for various America Online services, and two for Microsoft. The start menu and program menu had more items that I neither chose nor wanted. Napster, a music service I don’t use, was lodged at the lower right of the screen.

The worst was a desktop icon called “Watch Hit Movies Now!” This turned out to be four full-length films from Sony’s movie studios, which the company had preloaded onto my computer at the cost of more than four gigabytes of precious hard-disk space. But they aren’t a gift. If you want to play them, you have to pay Sony.

This is not a “Macs are better than PCs” thing. This is a prevalent issue in the PC industry where marketers are deciding to sell their product’s experience to the highest bidder. It’s true that Apple was heading in a similar direction in the mid 90’s when I can remember seeing several third-party services and products on a new Mac’s desktop, but if you buy a Mac today you see none of that. You see a company deciding not to take money sitting on the table because they care more about the experience a consumer receives rather than the few extra bucks they could add to the bottom line. Hardly the only reason, but surely one of the things that makes new and existing Apple customers like their products so much and buy them over and over again.

Can you imagine car manufacturers doing the same kind of thing? What if every time you started your new minivan a voice came on that said, “Be sure to take advantage of a special discount offered to all our new customers for Armor All Carpet & Upholstery cleaner! It cleans the toughest automotive dirt and grime from your car’s interior. Look for the valuable coupon in your car’s manual. Armor All – We’ve got you covered,” until you navigated into the car’s computer using the stereo’s buttons and disabled the “Valuable Offer” feature. How is that any different than what Sony’s doing on Walt’s laptop?

Good marketing offers value to both you and your company in a way that suits the consumer’s needs, not yours. Everything else is spam.

Via Digg.

I was late to about a hundred meetings when Daylight Savings moved up and apparently it was all for naught. Moving an hour of daylight from the morning to the night did nothing to save energy. Nothing at all. Sigh.

Via Kottke

I’d like to think this is an April Fool’s joke, but it’s not. PalmTreeDirect.com will deliver any of seven different varieties of palm tree direct to your Minnesota home for as little as $399 (and as high as $2,000). From their FAQ:

The majority of our clients treat their northern palm as an annual.  They have fully recouped their investment with the hours of enjoyment they spent sitting in its shade, staring in amazement, and telling friends about the neat benefits of having their own personal paradise.

“Staring in amazement.” As in, amazement that you’ve been talked into planting a tree that will die sometime around Halloween. Of course, there’s nothing more festive than snow softly falling on the boughs of your dead, dead palm tree at Christmas…

ideapark’s annual “Vernal Equinox Party” is a time to celebrate with our customers, employees, and business partners the transition from winter to spring and exchange insights on emerging trends in marketing for the new year.

We also showcase emerging uses of technology for marketing professionals. This year, ideapark partnered up with Michael Bragg and talented team at Digital Dialogue to demonstrate SMS in a fun and engaging way. One of the best examples is how American Idol uses text messaging to drive audience participation. How can we make this relevant for traditional marketers within a reasonable budget?

For example, let’s say you are a major sporting event (or a vernal equinox party) and you want to capture real time insights from the audience.

Here’s how it works, ideapark develops an engaging and branded SMS experience for your audience via cellphone or interactive kiosk. You offer the audience the latest product information, prizes (like a Wii), discounts, or an update about their order. In return, you can gain valuable insight into what matters most to them.

Here’s an example of one the questions we asked as part of the demonstration. The answers were surprising:

We also asked fun questions and almost 70% of the attendees knew the answer to: “What is the airspeed velocity of a laden swallow?”

We were able to turn this around in less than a week.

Also, congrats to Charlie, Maryanne, and Dennis!

If you’d like to see how we did this and the outcome to some of the more serious questions, just drop me a line at mark@ideapark.com.

I love my Wii, but Nintendo’s approach to online gaming is brain dead.

We’ve always believed in the Twin Cities (and Minnesota in general) as an exception place for entrepreneurs. The diversity in talent that Minnesota attracts means innovation becomes part of the local DNA. This has been going on for decades, but not necessarily getting the recognition. For example, everyone that uses the internet might want to pay a special homage to the Twin Cities. (Anyone remember the significance of local innovations like gopher?)

Check out the launch of www.GetGoMN.org site that connects Minnesota based entrepreneurs, companies, and supporters together. Similar to the sites like Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs, GetGoMN is a great resource that showcases the talent and breadth of companies that get their start in the Twin Cities. We applaud this and it’s about time we started being more vocal and organized about sharing our collective experience. (Yes, we can still do it in our “Minnesota nice” way.)

By the way, we did a quick count here at ideapark on the number of organizations that we have started up ourselves. The tally: 19.

Lessons learned? Priceless.

Last fall, I spoke to analysts about the impact of user generated content (UGC) and the effect it will have on brands and marketers as organizations look to non-traditional media to reach their audiences. The theme: companies are actively striving for new ways to extend their brand.

Back in July of 2005, News Corporation paid USD$580MM (in cash) for MySpace. Given the headline above as reported by Ad Age, this looks to be a bargain and the industry is taking notice. In addition to the ad revenue, News Corp has specific insight and trends into their vast online audiences; information that isn’t available to anyone outside of New Corp. The real value is the aggregated, authentic information that is collected by UGC sites. In essence, content is currency. Or more specifically, content around focused audiences is currency. Afterall, isn’t YouTube just “America’s Funniest Home Videos” on the web?

Being an advocate for driving online communities to promote brands (specifically through wikis) for years, I can attest that there are potential risks in regards to brand dilution. However, done correctly with the right strategy and focus, the rewards can be extremely high as MySpace is proving out on a daily basis.It is also interesting to note some that measurable CPM for UGC sites is on the rise:

“Speaking at the 17th annual Citigroup Entertainment, Media and Telecommunications Conference in Las Vegas, Chernin said online ad rates have started to become significant at CPMs of $25-$30.”

It’s all about focused content to reach specific audiences.

As a side note, it’s good to be here at ideapark!

We are thrilled to announce the launch of our most recent project, Live Dynamite. Check out this hot new company that helps people expand and create momentum in their lives, set goals, and make things happen. As the founders of Live Dynamite would say, “Sometimes, we all need a little nudge…”

AdAge has posted an examination of what makes Nintendo a leader in the video game space. Namely, they make different products, not better ones.

Too many companies focus on trying to make better products when the real advantage is making different products. The video-game dogfight between Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo illustrates this point.

It’s easy to draw parallels between Apple and Nintendo that aren’t there, and I don’t agree with everything the author says (Pepsi better than Coke? Whatever.), but it’s a lesson more marketers need to remember. Grab the imagination of your consumers and you’ll win. Try to out-do the competition with a soulless battle of features and you’ll lose. This is why the iPod outsells all other MP3 players combined even though its feature set is not as robust as theirs. And it’s why Nintendo is eating Sony and Microsoft’s lunch.

Via Infendo.

We’re pleased as punch to announce the following additions to the ideapark wreckin’ crew:

Sy Harris – Interactive designer
As a newcomer to Minnesota, I would have thought Sy’d be a little more shell-shocked by our recent cold snap, but he’s taking it all in stride. Sy’s experience includes working as a designer and art director on interactive and print projects for clients such as Marvel Comics, Gateway Computers, Hearst Publications and Sotheby’s. He’s also skilled at high definition underwater videography which may or may not be useful here in the land of 10,000 lakes (but we’re not counting on it).

Mark Kurtz – Vice President of Client Services
Mark’s been a friend of ideapark for several years and we’re very excited to mix his skills and interests into our group. He brings extensive experience in technology and marketing from both the agency and client perspectives. During his time spent with Seattle-based Garrigan Lyman, Mark worked with clients such as Microsoft, Wall Street Journal, Aveda, Polaris, Nikon, and SAP. As a voracious entrepreneur, he’s started companies in Australia, Singapore and St. Paul. Most recently he served as the Vice President of Marketing and Sales for the wiki wizards at MindTouch (which recently moved to San Diego). Mark’s lived all over the world, but he’s a Midwesterner at heart (we’re hiding the fact that he’s from the Green Bay area for obvious reasons).