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LOGIN 2010, the three and half day conference for leaders in the online game, kicked-off last night at Seattle Marriot Waterfront Hotel. This annual event brings together industry leaders and innovaters to discuss, collaborate and share ideas to help advance the online gaming industry. The 3 1/2 days will feature online game development lectures, panels, and roundtables, renowned local and international industry speakers, facilitated networking activities, parties, keynote lunches, meetings and an exhibition area.

Vicky will be there to experience the madness and fun for the third straight year along with over 500 other industry professionals. She is excited to check out some of the lectures, panels, roundtables, and networking opportunities, while ”geaking out” with other gaming professionals. So if you have the opportunity to make this years event and run into Vicky take a moment to say hi.  She would love to talk to some new folks and “geak out” about online gaming!

You hear the term “innovation” tossed around a lot in the corporate world these days. Everyone is looking for the next innovative product, marketing strategy, or “big idea” to stay ahead of their competition. Regardless of the industry you are in it is important to be innovative and stay ahead of the curve, so your brand does not become stagnant in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

The problem is that all too often the corporate or company culture actually stifles innovation before it can get started. Jeffery Phillips examines some weak links in the innovation chain that lead to failure, in his article, “Innovation Failure Points: Strangled in the Crib.”  

In his article Phillips touches on five key innovation killers within organizations including: not having the fortitude, unclear goals, and being scared of change. Too often companies are afraid to take the plunge and make the commitment and investment to achieve a successful innovation.

While working as a product manager in the sporting goods industry for many years I saw first hand the importance of innovation and the effect it can have on a company. It was imperative that we continually innovate and it was my job to research the marketplace to find the next innovative product or “big idea.” It was a constant battle to develop the next homerun product because if we didn’t innovate someone else would and our company would be passed by.

During this time I experienced some of the roadblocks that were discussed in Phillips article. Before moving forward, commitment and investment had to be made to the idea on the front end, which proved difficult because many times we were too afraid to rock the boat and possibly disrupting the current business we had. This worked for maintaining our current market share in the short term, but it also limited our ability to grow and be prepared for the future.

Phillips makes an additional important point that we usually only hear about the successful innovations when there is still a lot we can learn from innovation “failures.” By investigating the points that caused the innovation fail we are better able to prepare ourselves for future success. According to Phillips:

“I believe it is more interesting and more informative to consider the failures rather than the successes, in that every failure is instructive, while most successes are situational.

So rather than looking at a successful result and assuming the process was valid, let’s consider innovation as a series of interconnected links, and find the likely failure points for innovation in that chain. As we look at weak links in the innovaion chain our first stop is at the beginning.”

At Plexipixel we work hard to avoid roadblocks to innovation by fostering a creative environment. With constantly evolving digital world it is also imperative for the success of our client’s initiatives that we stay on top of new technologies. We have always tried hard to push the boundaries of innovation beginning with co-founder Matt Tamaru being one of the first animators/designers to formulate a production process using FutureSplash (later renamed Flash), to our recent work with Silverlight technologies and the development of our proprietary Windows Azure CMS..

It’s been refreshing as well as challenging to be at a company that understands the difficulties involved in fostering creative ideas and successful innovations.  The challenging part is that we know that we can only work on moving forward by talking about our successes as well as failures.  An essential part of my job at Plexipixel is to help facilitate that same environment with our clients which means I have to talk about success and failures including our very own.

All in all, I’ve learned that innovation can indeed be difficult but perhaps not in the way I’ve always assumed; good ideas can come from anywhere, but great ideas are the ones that are nurtured to completion with a lot of honesty and a healthy heaping of humble pie.

Yesterday in an open letter posted on Apple’s website, “Thoughts on Flash”, Steve Jobs discussed his feelings about Flash and Apple’s relationship with Adobe in hopes of explaining why they do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads.

This garnered a lot interest around the office and sparked some great conversation. A few of our team members weighed in with their thoughts on Jobs’ comments (with a few related random references thrown in).

Our Lead Developer, Andy Jacobs, found the article to be filled with many half-truths including the idea that Flash is actually a closed system.

“Adobe’s platform is actually pretty “open”.  The dev-side of Flash can be built in any number of ways using their free SDK.”

In Andy’s opinion the idea that “Flash won’t make the transition to mobile” is incorrect and it should be working on the next generation phones by summer.

“Adobe’s already adapted most of their new player VM to use modern hardware, why not mobile hardware?

10.1 has been running on Android in demos for a while now.  Adobe has indicated that it is on schedule to ship this for Android this summer, regardless of Steve Jobs’ personal predictions.

Apps will continue to do well on the Apple platform because content producers get a much better value prop when they can monitor their use and get paid.  Unfortunately I think this is just a crutch until they can figure out how to generate revenue from the web again – on all screens, regardless of form-factor or input style.”- Andy Jacobs

As a huge Mac fan, Interactive Designer Victoria Lo, weighed in with her own thoughts and why she believes Apple should reconsider a partnership with Adobe:

“I have to agree, even as a Mac-addict. While I love their devices, I would say that Flash is so ubiquitous on the web (at least for a few more years until HTML5 picks up more steam and support) that shutting out its support and functionality on mobile devices seems like a convenient way to keep a stronghold on their app market, thus limiting the type of apps and content users can obtain to what’s available in their store.

Lots of things Andy already touched on that I agree with, and I think if Apple was smart they’d reconsider a partnership. Allowing users and devs to ultimately choose would only benefit everyone in the long run, but as long as they continue to perpetuate this no-Flash mentality, people will be suspicious of their true intentions.

At the same time, Apple has fostered a culture of lazy-faux-tech savvy people. Instead of being engaged with our technology, we become pure consumers. Give me this app, give me directions here. I don’t know how to fix my phone, so I’ll just send it off to a “genius” because the physical housing is so enclosed I can’t even see where the screws are to open this $%@ up. Whatever happened to opening up a computer tower and tinkering with the guts? Although there’s good things to be said about making technology accessible and intuitive, there’s also something to be said about encouraging blind consumption.”

Andy then retorted with:

“That’s why I’m intent on being a ‘renegade air conditioning specialist’ type like De Niro’s character in Brazil.  Plus the cool costume and rappelling around a futuristic metropolis.”

“Brazil” photo courtesy of Universal Studios

Andy and Victoria definitely raise some interesting points and sparked some good conversation. What is your interpretation of Jobs’ comments and feelings on Apple’s direction? We would love to hear your “thoughts on Flash.”

As social media continues to be become an integral marketing tool companies are looking for new and creative ways to utilize these channels to interact with their customers. For those companies yet to take the plunge into the world of social the abundance of social media channels can be overwhelming. So where do you get started? How do you “jump-in?”

Andy Sernovitz takes a look at case study by Joyce Munoz on how her company got their social media program off the ground in his SmartBlog article, “Andy’s Answers: How Avery Dennison got started in social media.”  Sernovitz touched on 3 “big ideas” from Joyce’s presentation that helped their campaign garner early success despite being new to the game and not being a traditionally “sexy” company:

• Find internal social media evangelists
• Just launch
• Keep it simple

Although I think Munoz makes some excellent points, companies need to be careful about “just launching.” Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t mean you should dive in head first. It is important for companies to develop a social media strategy before jumping-in:

1. first examine who your audience is,
2. what their intentions are
3. and where they are consuming content.

Too often brands jump into the social media realm blindly, which leads to a poorly executed campaign that can actually degrade the brand. At some point you will need to “just launch”, but make sure you are informed before you do.  

Even after you have indentified the right approach to take to start a successful social media campaign it can still be difficult to get the decision makers at your company to buy off on it. Rob Birgfeld discusses a list of tips to sell the executives on social media and develop a companywide social media-plan in his SmartBlog article, “5 Steps to Building a Companywide Social-Media Plan”, which include:

• Start small and test
• Record victories
• Communicate
• Assemble an interdepartmental team
• Produce

It is important to measure the effectiveness and keep a record of the social media channels you utilize to show decision-makers what works and what doesn’t.  This will help them  feel more comfortable that you have gathered the knowledge to help the company succeed in the world of social. In the end you still need to “produce”; if the campaigns aren’t successful the plug will be pulled and the executives will be very hesitant of social media in the future.

Your customers are already in the digital realm: on the Web, connecting via social networks, and using their smart phones, so it is important you are there also. Just remember with so many different channels it is important you understand where your audience is, so you can engage them through the most effective channels. Are you where your customers are?

In her latest article for Dun & Bradstreets AllBusiness.com, “Microsoft’s Phones Expand Creative Advertising Possibilities“,  Vicky Tamaru discusses the integration for Microsoft’s new Windows Phone 7 Series and the potential new advertising opportunities this presents.

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

Kristi and I had the priviledge of attending MIX10 in Vegas this year. Here’s a tiny wrap-up of the fun stuff we saw and did.

Our Hexic for Zune game highlighted on game screen for the Windows Phone 7 Series game screen during the Day 1 Keynote.

Hanging out at the MIX Online Un-Booth.

Seeing our name in lights, uh PowerPoint. Thanks Karsten!

Here are some pics from the Adobe Dreamweaver Engineering Team’s visit to our studio. They stopped by last Friday to chat with our team. Little did they know that their visit corresponded with our first “Formal Friday.”

This is the third year in a row we’ve hosted Adobe. The last two times we had the pleasure of being visited by the Adobe Creative Suite Engineering Team. We’d like to thank Adobe for all of their time and attention for us here at Plexipixel!

Most companies lean toward a ”Casual Friday”, but at here at the Plexipixel studio we like to do things a little differently. Instead of the traditional “Casual Friday”, we opted to kick-off a new tradition with our first ever “Formal Friday.” This idea was the brain child of Lisa and Stephanie, AKA “Da Christmas Crackaz”, and had a very succesful debut.

Steph and Vics are ready for a walk down the Yellow Brick Road and Matt in his “power suit” giving a lesson on how to tie a tie.

Ian and Lisa ready for their high school prom.

The partial family photo. Visit our Facebook page to check out more pics from our first Formal Friday and other Plexipeep craziness!

Heading into the new decade we took a moment to examine what digital trends would have a significant impact throughout 2010. As we pass the first quarter of this year we have been able to watch the continued emergence of some of the digital and web trend predictions discussed including:   

• Social gaming and virtual currencies: This can be seen with the continued popularity of games such as Farmville, which now has over 80 million users. Women ages 35-55 continue to be the largest demographic for social gaming, so expect to see more social network games geared toward this group’s interests.
• Mobile and GPS based advertising and services: As discussed in a recent article, MillerCoors has crossed the threshold to mobile advertising and will be utilizing SnapTag technology to promote their latest craft beer.  GPS based services such as Foursquare continue to grow along with mobile and GPS dating services. Expect to see a continued growth in geotargeting as marketers continue to find better ways to deliver relevant real time content to consumers.
• Improved social-media monitoring and analytics: This can be seen with the increase and improvement of the analytics tools available as marketers and brands seek to justify social media campaigns.  

Now that we are well into 2010 it is time to start looking forward at the next wave of digital trends, to try to stay ahead of the curve. Freddie Laker discusses his predictions for the social media landscape in 2012 in his AdAge article, “What Social Media Will Look Like in 2012”, which include:  

• Decentralization of social networks: We are already seeing the early-stages of this with the emergence of Facebook Connect and the functionality of the new Windows Mobile 7 Series.
• Growth of content aggregators: This is increasingly important as the amount of content available continues to grow and is scattered across multiple channels. Brands will need to find ways to manage content, filtering it through the appropriate channels and delivering in the right context.
• Interaction with search engines and influencer marketing: New platforms like Google’s Social Search will change the way people interact with search engines by permeating search results with content that is relevant to their personal networks. This will increase the significance of influencer marketing and will give brands the opportunity to reach their potential consumer base in more focused and effective ways.

Laker believes that in order for brands to stay relevant in the future, they will need to be on board with the idea that share of voice, point of view and community influence will be more important than brand ownership. It will be interesting to see if all digital experiences will become socially-enhanced, rendering the term “social media” obsolete as everything becomes digital media as Laker predicts. Regardless of how the digital world evolves as we move forward it will be imperative for brands to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to the changes if they want to stay relevant in a constantly changing marketplace.

MillerCoors, the second largest brewing company in the US, who is most well known for their American-style lagers Miller Lite and Coors Light are taking a new approach to reach their consumers in Colorado. This week under their A.C. Golden Brewing Co. unit, MillerCoors plans to launch their new craft-style beer, Colorado Native Lager. According to Jeremy Mullman’s AdAge article, “Miller Lets New Craft Brew Speak for Itself”, the new lager, which is brewed from “99.9%” Colorado grown ingredients and distributed only in Colorado, will be marketed exclusively through digital and word-of-mouth channels.

This in itself is not an entirely new concept for the Chicago based company. The Colorado Native Lager is following in the footsteps of Blue Moon, another MillerCoors’ craft-style beer whose popularity was built through word-of-mouth advertising. According Mullman’s article, A.C. Golden will be putting the entirety of the Colorado Native budget into mobile and social media channels hoping to encourage consumers to become the brands advocate and introduce the beer to friends.

Where the new approach differs and becomes more engaging is with the addition of SpyderLinks’ SnapTag technology, which will enable MillerCoors to utilize their logo on each bottle as a portal to mobile interactivity. According to Mullman:

“Every Colorado Native label is affixed with a “SnapTag,” which, if photographed on a mobile device and e-mailed to a specified phone number, allows the brand to begin a conversation with its drinkers. After e-mailing in a picture of the logo, a drinker will first get a reply asking for their birthday. If they say they’re older than 21, they’ll be queried with Colorado-centric trivia about their hobbies and interests, and the database will remember the answers and use them to craft future communications and offers to each individual drinker.”

Through utilizing the SnapTag technology MillerCoors will be able to communicate with their consumers rather than just talking at them with the goal of organically growing the brand around what the Colorado consumers want. This will allow A.C. Golden to provide consumers with content and information that is relevant to their lives with the hope of building the number of advocates for their brand. According to A.C. Golden’s president, Glenn Knippenberg:

“This brand is all about our consumers and their Colorado lifestyle. And this technology is going to allow the brand to evolve based on what they tell us about their lifestyle.”

As a craft beer fan myself I wonder if this approach will resonate within a community that tends to be skeptical of any beer brewed by a national powerhouse. It would also be interesting to see how many people will be willing to install the tag app and go through the motions of sending their personally identifiable information to MillerCoors. Will the incentives be enough to entice their customers to jump through the barriers to entry? Using digital and mobile advertising to build brand advocates will definitely be a huge step for brewers who have typically shied away from social media outlets in the past because of the struggle with age verification. Finding that “killer implementation” could be the answer for Colorado Native Lager success in a market that is already over-saturated with locally craft brewed beer.