SEARCH

March 6th temperatures exceed 60 degrees. Beach plans are made. Surfing ensues. Cross-dressing occurs. Wedding dresses are worn into the waves with reckless abandon. Fun was had by all.

Recently the Microsoft Silverlight marketing team called upon Plexipixel to redesign their pre-adoption site. After some intense collaboration and a great partnership with the Microsoft Silverlight marketing team, the Silverlight website (www.microsoft.com/silverlight) was launched on Monday. For those who are unfamiliar:

Silverlight is a powerful development platform for creating engaging, interactive user experiences for web, desktop, and mobile applications when online or offline.

With a wide audience of Designers, Developers, Media BDMs (Business Decision Makers), and ITDMs (Information Technology Decision Makers), we were tasked with a site that looked polished, but had serious substance. Through tight collaboration between our designers and developers, we nailed down a solid user experience flow for four different audiences, while building our concepts into a smooth, robust, and fluid experience.

We built a Silverlight showcase widget that highlights case studies supporting full HD video and an engaging implementation of Deep Zoom that is housed in a site that still serves up content for those without the plug-in. Both the widget and the main site content can be maintained easily from anywhere via our Azure CMS.

In the background, we made sure to enable deep linking within the widget and added robust tracking throughout the site to help the Marketing Team analyze traffic and inform future iterations.

Our team utilized SketchFlow as an interactive prototype tool which helped us get solid feedback early on in the design process and to control unexpected iteration costs during build.

The new site incorporates a multitude of technologies including:

• AJAX
• Silverlight
• Azure
• ASP.NET MVC 2
• IIS Smooth Streaming
• Deep Zoom
• Silverlight Media Framework

We are very excited about the partnership we’ve built with the Silverligtht team and are excited to be an active participant while the technology advances and grows.

Plexipixel has been recommended as a preferred developer for Applications on Facebook® and is now on the directory for Facebook’s Preferred Developer Consultant Program. The goal of this program is to connect people to the resources they need to build with Facebook products and technologies.

We are very excited to have our services recommended for designing applications on Facebook. Millions of Facebook users return to the site each day, providing unparalleled distribution potential for applications and the opportunity to build a business that is highly relevant to people’s lives. The selection was based on our previous Facebook integrations which include:

Social MSN Games: Hexic and Chess

MSN Games turned to Plexipixel to help them gain a foothold in the world of social. We brought Hexic to Facebook, while turning their instant messenger version of Chess into an asynchronous game for the site.

RoshamBOOM!

Built upon an existing game concept that the studio discovered online, our teams designed and developed RoshamBOOM! RoshamBOOM! was one of the very first Microsoft Silverlight games on Facebook.

We’re excited about being chosen as a preferred developer and look forward to collaborating with our clients on more fun, engaging new applications on Facebook. Stay tuned!

Facebook® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

If you find yourself in Portland this Friday, check out Make it Or Brake It at Grass Hut. Our friend Snaggs is showing off some amazing wares, and will be joined by other talented artists, all showcasing art you can hold, spin, love and sometimes even use in daily life. Joy.

Now that the excitement has calmed down around the Super Bowl (except in New Orleans, where I am sure they will be partying for the next year) people’s interest in the oh-so important Super Bowl ads has faded. With the hype and excitement built around the “big event” no longer prevalent, the interest in watching, talking, and examining the Super Bowl ads has dropped from the public’s mind. I know this is true for me. After spending the days following the Super Bowl discussing the ads around the water cooler I am hard pressed to remember any of the commercials except for Snickers Betty White commercial of course.

People have moved on to the next “big thing” and with no shortage of content and channels to receive it they are having no problem doing this. Maybe this is another reason that influenced Pepsi’s decision to pull out of the Super Bowl after 23-years of being a sponsor.

A great example of this is the weekly AdAge Viral Video Chart that shows the majority of Super Bowl ads haven’t gained traction as viral campaigns. According to the viral chart and Micheal Learmonth’s AdAge article, “Most Super Bowl Ads Don’t Go Viral”, the majority of the ads that dominated the viral chart the week following the Super Bowl fell from the list the very next week, just two weeks removed from the event.

“This week, only four ads from last week’s Bowl-dominated chart remain: Doritos, Snickers, E-Trade and Google, while a fifth Super Bowl ad, from Bud Light, joins the list for the first time. Doritos came in at No. 1 with an impressive 5 million views, even though that’s a 73% drop from last week. Gone are many of the ads that generated heat around the game, such as Audi’s “Green Police,” Tim Tebow’s Focus on the Family ad and Motorola’s Megan Fox ad.”

Learmonth believes that this is a testament to the power of TV as it is the driving force behind the Super Bowl ads popularity. This may be true, but I believe more than anything this shows the power of the “big event.” The event and the excitement surrounding it, not TV is the driving factor in the popularity of the ads during the Super Bowl. Vicky Tamaru discusses the concept of the “big event” in her AllBusiness article, “How Entertainment Can Avoid Becoming a Commodity.”

At the same time more legitimate viral campaigns powered by social media have returned to the chart, showing off the lasting power well-planned strategic viral campaigns can have. And this can be done without dropping the exorbitant amount of coin a Super Bowl ad spot costs; $2.5-$3 million for a 30 second spot. So at the end of the day maybe Pepsi made the right decision to pull out of this years “big event.” Will other big brands begin to follow in their footsteps?

This past weekend my family and I went down to Pioneer Square’s Davidson Galleries for the Seattle Print Fair. We saw some amazing prints, got information on local arts programs, and managed to keep a one-year-old from eating a thousand-dollar serigraph. It was a good day.

I was inside the Collum Gallery when Ryohei Tanaka’s papercuts caught my attention. The crisp lines, bright colors and symmetry of the work reminded me instantly of vector graphics. His work feels contemporary and fresh, yet it’s done in an ancient medium that we’ve ALL practiced and most likely forgotten (remember making paper snowflakes as a kid?) I was struck by the realization that paper, scissors, and talent can often compete with the latest software from Adobe. Next time I’m stuck inside Illustrator and suffering from pixel fatigue, I should pick up a pair of scissors and see what happens. Thanks for the inspiration, Ryohei.

Microsoft unveiled the new Windows Mobile 7 Series on Monday morning in Barcelona. The new device sports a revamped user interface that resembles the look of the Zune HD music player. Microsoft has taken a new approach for the UI design for the new phone, while also working to develop a user experience that focuses on the end-user and their unique attributes. Joe Belfiore, VP of Program Management & Design, discussed the strategy and thought process behind the design of the new 7 Series phones at the launch in Barcelona, Spain.

The new phones have moved away from individual apps to a more content based, integrated experience. To accomplish this Microsoft created what they call “hubs” as an alternative to apps that integrate information from multiple online sources integrating content from different silos. These hubs are arranged as tiles on the start screen and are fully customizable to be unique for each users needs. Microsoft’s Gian Wilson discusses some hub examples on Todd Bishops Microsoft Blog including the Games and People hub, which pull together information from Xbox Live, Facebook, Windows Live, and other sources. Much of this thinking is very similar to the way we’ve been thinking about content and how people browse for and consume content.

Also According to Todd Bishop’s blog Microsoft will be using the Windows Live ID system as a log-in for the device at the system level, meaning that users won’t need to log-in to various services like Xbox Live individually, they will already be logged in via the system. This is one more part of the integrated experience that will allows users to easily get the content they want and get back to living their lives.

Another cool feature, which Microsoft Product Manager JP Wollersheim demonstrates during an interview with CNN, is the Wi-Fi sync capabilities. When you come in contact with your wireless network the Windows 7 Series phone will automatically sync with your computer pulling in new music, videos, and pictures depending on your pre-existing settings.

Vicky Tamaru wrote an article last summer on AllBusiness called, “How to Make an iPhone Killer.” Vicky believed Microsoft had technology to develop the next big thing to rival the iPhone. So the next time you see her on the street talking through a brick of a phone, you’ll have an idea of what she’s been waiting for.

MIX Online is pleased to announce the launch of Incarnate for WordPress 1.2, the latest version of their fully customizable avatar management service. With help from the Plexipixel team MIX was able to resolve issues that emerged in the earlier versions of the Incarnate plug-in. Version 1.2 will now work as anticipated with most themes with no adjustment needed.

Mix had first enlisted Plexipixel to help them build the WordPress plug-in for Incarnate. Vicky Tamaru explains the steps we took to do this, as a contributor to the MIX Online web site, in her article, “A WordPress Plug-In for Incarnate.”

Visit the MIX website to see how easy to integrate Incarnate with your blog post comments by downloading and installing Incarnate for WordPress 1.2.

In her latest article for Dun & Bradstreet’s AllBusiness.com, “How Entertainment Can Avoid Being a Commodity” , Vicky Tamaru discusses how the seemingly endless channels available to consume content (Hulu, DVR, Cable, On Demand, Internet, ect.) are turning entertainment into a commodity and the steps that can be taken to avoid this.

To hear more from Vicky check out past articles on her Branded Entertainment blog.

Social media continues to evolve and as we move into 2010 the landscape in which companies utilize it will begin to shift. According to Clay McDaniel’s Imedia Connection article, “Social Media: Listen less and sell more”,  it is time for companies to use social media for more than just creating buzz and actually get consumers to buy. In 2009 Social Media was centered on engagement, but for 2010 it will be all about sales.

McDaniel’s article discusses how companies can gather information on the front end, but these same companies need somewhere to input and utilize this information on the back end to help them drive sales. We recently launched a demo to help bring to life Microsoft’s vision for Connected Experiences for Consumer Goods. Connected Experiences for Consumer Goods is Microsoft’s vision to provide innovative, cost-effective solutions and capabilities that allow companies to connect with shoppers and consumers to create rich, lasting relationships. Our Consumer Goods demo touches on the great technologies and tools provided by Microsoft and their partners that companies can leverage to gain insight into their customers’ buying preferences and attitudes.

Although McDaniel’s article and Consumer Goods demo offer quite a big overview and may touch on more technology than most brands need, it still provides insight to some great tools and processes that can be leveraged to more effectively direct your advertising and increase sales through social channels.