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I finally managed to read through Joseph Jaffe’s Join The Conversation during the Easter holidays. The book is yet another solid show of Joseph Jaffe’s understanding of the internet and how it changes companies’ business models and marketing. Numerous examples of excellent ways of marketing and at least equally bad examples enable the reader to understand the small important issues in working online.

However, I really would have wanted to see slightly more academic writing from the author, because “Join the Conversation” is another “life after the 30-second spot” from the online world. There are a lot of examples that prove the points Jaffe is trying to make, but they usually are very light in context and could ultimately, in some cases, be used to prove the point from another point of view. My favorite learning I received from the book was the combination of the Long Tail theory together with Roger’s Diffusion of Innovations graphs. I’m sure there is more there to explore and write about.

Despite all this I enjoyed the book, it’s a solid good read. With slightly more depth it would have been a 5/5-star goodie. Then again, this could be me to whom most of the examples were relatively familiar. To the the regular marketing person in a large multinational, this is definitely and eye-opener.

I’ve been writing a blog with a friend, Miikka Kukkosuo, for a while now called Arctic Startup. We review Finnish startups and blog about various events and issues around them. To my suprise, I realised alarm:clock euro had done a nice review on our site. Just to let you know; we do have some cards up the sleeve for next year! :) We’ll definitely have a lot more blog posts coming up, a new design to some degree and possibly even video to spice things up a bit.

Thanks for the review!

I’ve looking through some laptop bags tonight and found several good websites that review them. The best definitely has been Squidoo’s lens on laptop bags. There I came across Waterfield’s RacerX, with which I fell in love with instantly. It’s a little bit business and a little bit rock n’ roll, not falling into the traditional way of doing stuff, just the way I like it.

Now, has anybody ever seen or heard anything about these bags? They praise the bags on their website (with customer reviews), but it never hurts to ask a third opinion. And no, this is not a paid advertisement :)

Update:: So I went ahead and ordered a blue, 15″, mountain bike grip - RacerX. thanks to everyone for the comments! :)

During the last few nights I’ve been exploring Second Life a bit more. It was quite fascinating going back and explore it in more detail and smoothly than before (graphics wise). It still requires quite a bit of machine power and is still very nudgy with an Intel Dual core processor and a proper graphics card.

I’m a bit divided on my opinion still. It’s definitely a platform bound to get huge growth, however before the masses arrive SL needs to do a lot of UI design for the average John Doe. There are still too many features and small illogicalities that got me wondering where to go and how to change certain options. One of the most options uses of second life is a meeting place for communities to hold events between their users. It’s still a bit of a wild wild west with casinos and free commerce roaming everywhere which probably does not appeal to the masses as much. You can consider it a bit like the internet in it’s early days.

I’m definitely going to continue exploring it and building a presence there. Not just sure when - whether this week or later in the year…

ps. Another “BIG” virtual world, Project Entropia, is selling banking licences at the moment… read more here.

There’s an awesome bar in central Helsinki called the Aussie Bar. The picture attached to this post is one of their advertising posters they posted around Helsinki when they opened. I’ve been hanging out there a few times before as well as yesterday - needless to say, we had a blast. The atmosphere in there is very much down under and probably as close to Oz you can get without taking a Qantas flight to Australia. An interesting detail is the bar staff, they’re all original Aussies, except for the other owner who’s a Kiwi. They’ve got a big selection of Australian beers and wines, although they did lack Carlton Draught which is one of my favorite beers from down under.

If I was a bar critic, I’d give this bar a full five stars.

I took part in the word-of-mouth marketing initiative by Joseph Jaffe, with regard to his new book Life After the 30-Second Spot.

Being a somewhat novice internet-marketer in my career - I have to say I agree with most what Jaffe says in his book. Our generation and the generations that come along after me have a lot more alternatives to spend their freetime with than just television - so why should television advertising still be seen the ultimate and best way to achieve the means?

I titled my post as the decline, not the death, of the 30-second spot. This is because it will take time for the 30-second spot to die, if it ever will. But one thing is sure that there are better alternatives for marketers to achieve the sales than mass media advertising on television. Mostly 2 reasons, which Jaffe also proposes in his book; 1) highly untargeted 2) the customer can’t do anything with the advertising - where as in digital mediums the consumer is able to immediately proceed to make the purchase.

This may not be the bible of new media marketing, but a definite read for all people wondering extent that this revolution will have on our lives. For example; did you know that Halo2, the computer game for the XBox, hit some 125 million USD in sales compared to 70 million USD sales of the hit movie Incredibles? Games have long been underestimated as a marketing medium and that’s just the start…

I took part in Joseph Jaffe’s attempt to stir up some word-of-mouth on the internet regarding his book Life After The 30-Second Spot. As I got home for my christmas holidays I found a book waiting for me, sent by Joseph Jaffe - wow.

I’ve been reading the book now for about a day and I have to say this guy has a point. I’m also surprised at the stuff I wrote into my thesis, because there are quite many similarities with regard to traditional or old marketing. My thesis was about small and medium sized companies creating awareness in the mass markets - large scale media advertising is out of reach for them due to the cost. There are however many other possibilities to create attention and get consumers interested in products.

I will write a more thorough review once I’ve read the book, that probably won’t take long.

ps. I also have to do some anti-promotion against Adidas. I bought a pair of running shoes from them and they are horrible. Just after running for 30 minutes I had massive blisters in my feet. I know shoes are very unique to everybody’s feet but this is something I’ve heard from other people as well… not sure if there’s a point, but I think I’ll stay away from their shoes for the time being.

Just watched Lord of War. It arouses mixed feelings in me in some sense. The story line is pretty simple; Nicholas Cage plays a Ukrainian immigrant who becomes an arms dealer and deals guns to the hotspots of the world. The movie is based on actual events and at least to me it was pretty understandable.

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Weekends fly by fast! Saturday was spent curing the condition and watching movies, reading and generally just chilling and eating well. This was of course, ’cause on Friday me and Jaakko decided to check out Iltat?§hti and we were lured into the city - where of course we stayed until the closing time.

I watched Paha maa and Hotel Rwanda on Saturday, both of which were good movies. Paha maa is a Finnish movie, a sort of an oppsite filming of Pay It Forward. People passsed bad stuff onto each other, without knowing about it and the ending wasn’t too bright either. Anyways, a very Finnish movie in that sense. Hotel Rwanda is an amazing story of Paul Rusesabagina, who kept over a thousand refugees in the Mille Collines Hotel in Kigali and thus saved them from the slaughter of Hutus. Strongly recommended.

Today I’ve been trying to catch up on some of the reading that I planned for the weekend. I’m still trying to finish James Surowiecki’s Wisdom of Crowds - interesting book, but with a lot of detail. I also managed to interview somebody for my podcasts. I will be posting the interview very soon onto my dotKommuuni website in a new podcast and later on to my personal podcast. I’m not revealing him now, so check out the podcasts! :)

From Blogikriitikko X:

3) :: antti vilpponen net :: on englanninkielinen blogi. Vaikka teksti?§ onkin enemm?§n kuin edellisess?§ blogissa, ei se silti tarkoita, ett?§ sis?§lt?? olisi sen mielekk?§?§mp?§?§. Valokuvia, elokuvia, tietotekniikkaa, matkustelua, kuulumisia… Toki t?§m?§ vaikuttaa kypsemm?§lt?§ yritelm?§lt?§, mutta kuka muka jaksaa lukea noin pitki?§ ja yksityiskohtaisia sepustuksia, ellei sitten tunne kirjoittajaa henkil??kohtaisesti. Jos jaksaa silloinkaan.

Sorry foreigners, it’s a quote from a blog critics website that basicly states that “my website is a more mature attempt at a blog, however who wants and cares to read such long entries, unless you know the author. And I doubt even then you’d want to read the blog”. :-)