Just finished a mobile version of my website. So far I'm pretty happy with the 1.0v.

It's pretty basic stuff, a single profile optimized for iPhone resolution. But I laid a foundation for agile adaptability to displays of different mobile devices by creating a script that links to dynamically-updated device profile info via a Tera-Wurfl database.

Tera-Wurfl is the brainchild of Steve Kamerman, a techie jack-of-all-trades who wanted to address the problems developers have in dealing with the endlessly changing landscape of mobile device manufacturers' product improvements and releases. In creating Tera-Wurfl, he devised a dynamically generated database of mobile profiles that can be queried by basic scripts and PHP web applications. Steve has recently co-founded ScientaMobile, a startup that is focusing on taking the mobile device detection game to the next level.
  Read more about New Mobile Website

Ran into a silly YouTube popup ad today which got me thinking about the viability of intrusive advertising operating on the element of surprise.

This YouTube popup is a crafty page reveal seamlessly designed to look like a YouTube video gone wild, accomplished with jQuery-enabled transparency controls that mount a fake video precisely over the regular video content area. When you hit the play button on the "video" it actually starts playing Flash-created content that often creates the illusion of moving imagery breaking out of the confines of the video area.  This common type of ad creative in metro news websites is now executed with a twist on YouTube.

The popup I encountered was a promo for the film The Thing, part of a promotional blitz in advance of the film's opening day (two days from the date of this post). For the paid link placement, there are 7 different variations of content advertising various ersatz videos, all of which have irresistible YouTube-ish themes ("Baby goes nuts over food"… "Sexy girl in very small bikini" etc.). I imagine the agency who created this campaign have a pool going with the analytics... winner-take-all for whoever guesses the ad copy that gains the biggest billings.
  Read more about Exposed, Peeled and Burned

Haven't had time to write lately as I've been doing contract work for various branding agencies. Very hard to find time for personal projects of any kind when doing agency work. If you've worked in branding or advertising then you know the dilemma – challenges to be met, no set hours, and every deadline is yesterday. Thrills, chills & spills.

One of the firms I've been working for specializes in naming, which was a first for me. I was just doing UI work there but the elite level of their processes was such that I learned a great deal about naming simply by hanging around. I've often helped my clients with simple branding ideas and even naming from time to time, but after a stint at this shop I wonder if I'll ever again have the balls to help a client come up with a name for their business.

Until recently, no email manager could keep their seat in the marketing department if they didn't employ subject line best practices in an effort to sqeeeeeeze the maximum open rate from every mailing. All email freaks became little copy fanatics with their eyes focused on stingy character count limits, discount percentages, and every exclamation mark.

Then something happened - everything started sounding the same.

Check these recent sub lines from some very active e-tailers... guaranteed to cure insomnia, and condemn their accompanying promotions into the Gmail trash bin:

Save up to 20% on Living Room Essentials (Pottery Barn)
25% off shoes + new arrivals. $5 shipping on $50 (Deb Shops)
Extra 20% Off Sale Items + Kid & Baby Sale! (Gymboree)
4 days only! Save up to 75% + get FREE shipping (Oriental Trading)

With eye-glazing copy like the above boring the shopping population to death, it's amazing that any of us ever open anything we get. 

But times have changed, and now savvy marketers are let off their leashes to have a bit of fun. Here are some of the best from the first quarter of 2011...

An article in today's CNN Money declares that internet daily deals to be dead. Consumers are suffering from an epidemic of discount fatigue and are turning away from coupon and affiliate sites.

I don't think consumers have reached a saturation point with online bargains; the real problem with that these promotions is that they're too institutionalized.

Multichannel merchants take few risks and rarely offer any real bargains to their customers in cobbling together a calendar of promotional campaigns in nice, neat little 72-hour time spans. Smart bargain shoppers know that the really great scores in retail are the result of things that can't be planned, and might be triggered at any time various conditions: An unexpected inventory glut. A scramble to move product to make room for a sudden change in trending. A downturn in a retailer's sales necessitating a push for quick cash flow. A chain going out of business.

These patterns that are obvious for experienced retail marketers to see - that most web specials are just teaser deals with a portion of excess margin fat trimmed off their price points - are also intuited by lay consumers who realize that these deals are nothing special, and eventually stop responding.