And I am not alone. Loyalty programs work, which is why so many businesses use them. People get addicted to points, and because of it, they share (knowingly or not) tons of information with the loyalty program owners. Loyalty programs that work well encourage their users to check in frequently, record every movement and interaction and reward their users for doing so frequently.

Retailers and restaurants are starting to encourage “mayorships” by rewarding mayors and those close to being mayors on Foursquare reduced prices, free drinks, badges and the like.

In a way, loyalty programs are like a game. The more I interact with my airline, the more miles they give me. The more miles they give me, the more apt I am to use them and find different ways to get even more points. I want to collect more and more of this currency. Companies then use the information collected to tweak products and services and tailor offerings and messages to me.

And speaking of games, there is a rise in a type of social gaming that combines the power of collecting with competition which make them particularly addicting. Two of the best known examples are the location-based social service foursquare and the Facebook applications by Zynga such as Mafia Wars and Farmville. A recent Ad Age article discusses these programs, as does a recent article in eMarketer.

Millions of people participate in these programs and are willing to share their status, pinpoint their location and annoy their friends all for the sake of collecting points and badges and gaining status by reaching certain levels or becoming mayors.

What these programs really do is play on two very powerful parts of the human psyche: competition and hoarding. Indeed, both are central to our survival and evolution and both are bred into our DNA. The need to compete – to win, to outdo others – is central to passing our genes along. It is competition for scarce resources that compels us as the most base level (because the individual best able to collect and use these resources is the more likely to be able to breed).

And collecting resources is something that we are also bred to do. From our deep human past as hunter/gatherers, we are compelled to collect resources when they are available so that we can compensate and take care of our needs in times of famine – again, increasing our likelihood that we will be able to breed.

Brands have been very active in creating loyalty programs that allow users to collect points: soft drink companies, credit card companies, airlines, hotels, casinos, retailers, restaurants, car dealerships, etc. use loyalty programs to reward users for buying and coming and to entice them to come back. As long as the rewards are valuable and attainable, they are powerful.

But these programs have usually lacked this second aspect of competition, which can make them even more addicting. The reasons why are generally obvious: you don’t want consumers to have a bad experience because they lose, or to feel like they won’t have a chance to win. Loyalty programs need lots and lots of members to be successful for businesses.

But games, especially the fun, social, and simple games like Farmville and Foursquare, offer brands the opportunity to add a little friendly competition to the mix. And the combination may prove to be extremely valuable.

These games offer brands the chance to associate with complementary addictive programs. They offer brands the chance to interact more often and offer rewards more frequently than they can do on their own – particularly for expensive and/or infrequent interactions. And the fact that they are local makes them especially enticing. Brands can really enhance their local presence with them.

For instance, retailers and restaurants are starting to encourage “mayorships” by rewarding mayors and those close to being mayors on Foursquare reduced prices, free drinks, badges, and the like. These programs encourage customers to visit more frequently, and have the added bonus of “virality” by the fact that status, etc. is sharable via social programs like Twitter and Facebook. The Auction USA Service Department gives free oil changes to its mayor.

For those in the automobile business, the most obvious opportunity is with dealerships. Because these are local businesses that are frequented for service calls, etc., combining social gaming with loyalty programs can be powerful ways to keep consumers returning, and keeping the dealerships top of mind.

Car companies have the opportunity to move past thinking about gaming only as an opportunity to brand a car or racing game, and to instead think about how their products can become valuable currency within social games. They should especially consider this for brands targeted toward younger users such as the Soul and the Scion.

I think it is still too early to determine who the winners or losers will be in this growing social gaming world. I find the Zynga games to be uninteresting and annoying myself. I strongly want to “unfriend” the people who play those games incessantly. But I do think that foursqure is onto something. The connection that they are making between gaming, loyalty, competition, and real-world businesses is potentially very powerful.

Brands should pay careful attention to these programs and the powerful effect they can have on their customers. Any brand with a physical storefront needs to consider how it best can get involved with Foursquare.

The key to making these programs successful will be based in a brand’s ability to think beyond the confines of a campaign timeline. These programs will not work in short bursts – they have to be part of sustained, meaningful programs. Brands who are willing to really dive into these programs and do them right will be rewarded.

Related links:

• All the World’s a Game, and Brands Want to Play Along; Advertising Age, 5.31.10
• Social Gaming Shows Potential; eMarketer, 6.10.10

Image credit:
Stitched foursquare badge image appears courtesy of The BrandBuilder Blog.

The challenge took place on the School Course and Training Area located in the infield of Road Atlanta, by turns 6 and 7

However, the folks at Mini wanted a race, even if they were going to stage it themselves. They pulled together a Porsche 911 Carrera S, selected a driver out of five applicants, and pitted the duo against the Mini Cooper and its driver. The Porsche 911 won the race despite the fact that the “track” — actually the infield of Road Atlanta, by turns 6 and 7 — was  more favorable to its opponent, the petite Mini Cooper. Somewhere along the line, Hyundai also jumped in with a video of its own addressed to Mini, and volunteered to take the slot that Porsche had declined.

Although the resulting victory by Porsche was not that surprising, the challenge created a large amount of online buzz. Let’s start off with the Mini vs Porsche tab that Mini USA added to its Facebook page, the epicenter for the entire event. The video featuring McDowell’s initial challenge, a downloadable scan of the email from Detlev von Platen, Porsche Cars North America President and CEO, declining the offer, as well as the video of McDowell’s second challenge. In addition, UGC  in the form of videos from Mini fans touting the brand are also posted. There is also a Mini-sponsored video from humor website Funny or Die that satirically depicts how Mini is meant for real life while Porsche is just a fancy machine that rarely leaves the garage.

The Mini vs. Porsche tab on Mini’s Facebook page

The Mini vs Porsche tab also incorporates a Compare The Cars section, with weight, size, horsepower and price of each vehicle listed, as well as a Sign The Petition area where fans can sign up to try and persuade Porsche to participate. Of course, the video of the actual race also appears. Both before and after the challenge, Porsche Facebook page has not posted any reaction or acknowledgment of the event.

The video of the race was also posted to numerous automotive websites shortly after the challenge concluded and reaction has been quite significant, quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Based on initial posted reactions on automotive blogs, it is obvious that Mini did more harm than good for its image by challenging the Porsche 911.

Many of the commenters on Jalopnik’s “Bait-And-Switch Badvertising Ruined Mini vs. Porsche” post reacted negatively to Mini’s choice of race course.

The results of wholly using social media for a PR stunt campaign such as this one, whether good or bad, are quick to be seen. Although this campaign was a success in terms of creating buzz and engagement, in terms of brand equity, it created a negative effect. Based on comments, it appears that most saw the effort as a poor attempt for attention on behalf of Mini. As one commenter asked, “Is it really that bad over at Mini?” Most people also seemed confused as to why Porsche was picked for the challenge, and why the 911 was chosen (instead of a more comparable opponent, such as the Boxster).

Furthermore, comments poured in about how Mini lost despite skewing circumstances in its favor. For example, Mini chose Road Atlanta’s infield, not the track itself, and configured the course with twists and turns that would favor smaller cars such as the Cooper. In addition, with Porsche declining to participate, the driver for the 911 was chosen by Mini. These are factors that only auto/racing enthusiasts might typically pick up on. However, with the heavy consumer-to-consumer interaction that comes with social media, this information is widely available.

What could Mini’s marketers have done differently? For starters, they could have used the brand’s Facebook page to ask Mini fans to suggest challenge vehicles or even have them select from a limited range of options. This would have taken care of the consumer engagement and involvement aspect from the get-go, avoiding the mismatch that occurred here.

Instead, we have a lopsided race that the Mini Cooper lost and a race video that appears to signal a rematch. Let’s hope that this does not happen.

Related links:

• MINI vs Porsche, the head of MINI USA publicly challenges the head of Porsche to a race; YouTube, 6.07.10
• MINI Response, Mini USA President Jim McDowell ups the ante and re-challenges Porsche; YouTube, 6.12.10
• Pre-Race Interview with Porsche Driver, Cory Friedman; YouTube, 6.21.10
• Brad Davis Interview, Mini USA driver at Road Atlanta; YouTube, 6.21.10
• Hyundai challenges Mini to a dual at Road Atlanta; YouTube, 6.18.10
• Mini vs Porsche tab, Mini USA Facebook page
• Mini Rocky IV, a Mini-sponsored satiric training montage; Funny or Die, 6.16.10
• Porsche Facebook book
• Mini vs. Porsche Challenge; YouTube, 6.22.10
• Shocker! Porsche 911 beats Mini Cooper in ‘race’ at ‘Road Atlanta’; Autoblog, 6.21.10
• Bait-And-Switch Badvertising Ruined Mini vs. Porsche; Jalopnik, 6.21.10

Image credits
All images appear courtesy of Mini USA

It’s probably safe to say that the reason you’re creating a website is to attract an audience to information [you believe] it will find useful. It’s also likely that you know that search is the primary means by which the content on the web is discovered.

Google Adwords has a keyword selector tool that gives you keyword ideas by category.

To most, the above terms describing fuel pumps all imply the same thing. To search engines, however, they’re completely disparate. Let’s face it, before beginning any marketing campaign you need to understand your audience. This methodology undoubtedly applies online and with search. For you, or those on your team who fill the roles of blogger, information architect, copywriter, market researcher, designer, programmer – essentially anyone that is involved in online content – search should be kept at the forefront. We need to learn how people are looking for your products, services or the relevant information you have to provide.

Think of search as a form of market research. Simply put, keyword research is the practice of determining what keywords, or words or phrases that a user enters into a search engine, are appropriate for targeting. There are many free keyword research tools out there, including the Google search-based keyword tool and 5minutesite.com for local keywords, so utilize this study in linguistics to see how people look for information. If you are doing this for the first time, you’ll quickly learn that the way you speak and search are often entirely different.

Now that we know how important search is to your marketing plan, it’s important to note that there are essentially three standard types of search queries: navigational, informational and transactional.  Navigational refers to those queries that are broader in nature and unclear on intent, except for maybe finding a specific site. Think, “headlight blog.” The second type of query, informational, is more descriptive and generally more explicit, such as “how to change a car battery.” For the third type, transactional, the searcher has finished researching and is now looking to make a purchase or another lower-funnel interaction with your site. These latter queries are typically your higher-converting terms, such as “buy k&n 57 series cold air intake.”

Here are some quick tips: Go beyond adding title tags and meta descriptions (yes, they’re still important). During the initial planning phase, take a step back and ask yourself, “What do I want to rank for?” Most people actually do this backwards. Identify your targeted list of keywords before writing copy. Share them with your information architects, copywriters, designers, and developers early on in the process. Use keyword research to actually define the website from the bottom up.

Remember, you’re the subject expert. Now all you have to do is write about it and do it in a way that helps convince the search engines.

Related links:

• Google search-based keyword tool
• 5minutesite.com

On January 21st, all hell broke loose for Toyota. Its sticking accelerator pedal recall was the most challenging crisis the company had ever faced. In fact, a few industry insiders even wondered whether the mighty Toyota brand could survive, as six million cars were recalled worldwide. The crisis is going to change Toyota forever and it may take years to recover lost market share.

Around the same time, something rather dramatic happened to another company, but this time by its own choosing. For the first time in 23 years, PepsiCo decided not to advertise its flagship Pepsi brand on the Super Bowl. With Coca-Cola sponsoring the Winter Olympics, Pepsi launched a year-round “movement,” Refresh Everything, to
donate money to charities based on consumer voting. For the traditional marketer, this was indeed a bold and risky move.

What do Toyota and Pepsi have in common? They both are in business situations that demand new ways of measuring their brand health — measurements they haven’t had before. And that’s where the SIM Score — monitoring how a brand ranks in Social Influence Marketing — comes in.

Why the SIM Score matters beyond the social web
In July 2009 Razorfish introduced the SIM (Social Influence Marketing) Score and, at the time, felt that it was an accurate measure of how people perceive your brand in the social web in one moment of time. But since then, through our experiences in deploying the SIM Score and the even more explosive growth of social media (now it transcends all media and all platforms including mobile and gaming devices), we have come to believe that the SIM Score can and should be used as a broader measure of a brand’s health, not just as a measure of the strength of a brand in the social Web.

At the root of this thinking is the belief that we now live in a world where brands are shaped in real-time — more by how consumers talk about them versus anything the brands may do to market themselves or that we as an agency may help them do. This does not mean brand-building is dead. You shouldn’t fire your marketing department or your marketing agency. In fact, please don’t.

Nor does it mean brand equity has no meaning. But whether your brand is worth $83 billion (as Apple is, according to the fifth annual BrandZ Top 100 ranking by Millward Brown Optimor) or $10 billion cannot be revealed through annual, laborious and expensive brand tracking studies. You need to be tracking your SIM Score every day, every week and every month of every year. Brand health, measured using a SIM Score, is dynamic, because it constantly captures the consumer conversations of your brand relative to its competitors and determines whether they are helping or hurting your brand. The SIM Score tells you whether your brand is healthy, based on actions that you, your competitors or your customers are making every day.

With 50 billion tweets being published every 24 hours and millions and millions of consumer conversations taking place across social platforms and company websites via desktop computers, laptops and mobile devices, your brand health is a reflection of how consumers are talking about you in real-time everywhere.

But it also means that the SIM Score must be further optimized to address this new responsibility. Thus, watch for announcements as we work with additional analytic partners to refine the SIM Score methodology. We will be focusing on four areas:

1. better automated sentiment analysis
2. manual analysis of conversations via sampling
3. a sharper mechanism for applying influence weight-age
4. a tighter formula to give additional weight-age to positive mentions

However, in the meantime, let us show you how the SIM Score is already being used as a broader brand health metric by taking you back to the Toyota and Pepsi examples.

Toyota: SIM score numbers result in shocking short-term findings
When the Toyota recall crisis first broke, we uncovered something extremely surprising. In the first two weeks, the Toyota SIM Score, as illustrated at right, instead of dropping dramatically, actually increased. In some bizarre way, the crisis at first actually helped Toyota. (See related post.)

This happened for two reasons. First, as Edmunds.com later pointed out, the crisis made many prospective buyers believe they could get a bargain on a Toyota. They felt the cars would be fixed and there’d be a special discount on them because of the bad publicity. Second, at first it wasn’t clear how big a deal the crisis was and Toyota brand advocates came to the automaker’s defense. As a result, not just negative — but also neutral and positive — conversations about Toyota increased as the advocates spoke about their experiences with the cars and their safety — all helping to prop up the Toyota brand. In fact, Toyota saw a sharp increase in the number of fans on its Facebook page during this period too.

Without the SIM Score, one would never have uncovered these findings — findings that, as we’ll explain later in this article, warranted a unique response strategy. Did Toyota know this was happening? Did it respond to these findings? It is hard to tell from the outside. But one thing is certain; if we were in Toyota’s shoes at the time, we’d have discounted the cars just as the crisis broke (without waiting to see sales drop first) and would have actively started explaining the situation to the brand advocates of Toyota across the social web and especially on the brand’s Facebook page. Those brand advocates needed the right information quickly as they were becoming Toyota’s new sales force.

Unfortunately, the SIM Score uptick was short-term for Toyota. After those first two weeks, its score started dropping precipitously, partly because the advocates felt betrayed by the brand too — not to mention the fact that the full extent of the crisis slowly came to light.

Arguably, Toyota’s fate will be decided by whether it can stop its SIM Score from dropping the way it has been lately. In other words, Toyota needs to improve its brand health by finding ways to get consumers talking positively about the brand again and building trust with those brand advocates first and foremost. Discounting cars and running advertising campaigns touting their safety message will not be enough. They will need to focus on learning how they can build trust and figure out what it takes to inspire their advocates once again. In a sense, it is like a marriage that’s spiraling downward and needs counseling. We’ll be watching the SIM Score to see whether they are able to save the marriage with their advocates or not.

To read the rest of this article, go to the Razorfish 2010 Outlook Report. To read more articles by Shiv Singh, go to his blog, Going Social Now.

Related links:

• Razorfish 2010 Outlook Report
• The Toyota Way: A tragedy in three acts; Headlightblog.com, 3.17.10
• Toyota Files Voluntary Safety Recall Select Toyota Division Vehicles for Sticking Accelerator Pedal; Toyota USA Newsroom, 1.21.10
• Pepsi’s Refresh Everything project
• Razorfish Proposes Social Influence Score; ClickZ, 7.14.09
• BrandZ Top 100 ranking; Millward Brown Optimor, 4.28.10
• How Tweet It Is!; Library of Congress blog, 4.14.2010
• Could the Toyota recall crisis be helping the brand?; Headlightblog.com, 2.23.10
• Toyota USA fan page; Facebook

Image credit:
Toyota news release image appears courtesy of Toyota USA Newsroom

Too often, marketers take a schizophrenic approach to emerging media like digital out-of-home or mobility: On the one hand, dismissing the “emerging stuff” until they see it achieve a scale measured by reach or aggregate ad spend and, on the other hand, treating emerging media like an experimental toy — fun to play with in one’s spare time but not taken seriously.

In our view, emerging channels are so important that CMOs must treat them as a strategic part of their marketing mix — even possibly the core of their marketing plan — on an everyday basis, regardless of what metrics like reach or total line spend indicate. Leading automakers, such as Mercedes-Benz (a Razorfish client), demonstrate three principles of making emerging media rewarding.

In last year’s Digital Outlook Report, we discussed how digital media had outgrown the PC, amping up the magnitude and pace of change in the media ecosystem. A year later, the pace of change in the ecosystem refuses to slow. The global mobile phone subscriber base has reached 4.6 billion. By comparison, the worldwide market owns a mere 800 million cars, 1.1 billion PCs and 1.5 billion TV sets. Already, there are nearly 84 million American mobile web users who spend, on average, 2.7 hours per day using the mobile Internet.

When the Motor Trend application is launched, as it is loading, a full-page interstitial ad appears featuring the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. When users tap the ad, an embedded page within the application opens, letting them access a photo gallery of Mercedes-Benz E-Class vehicles. The Mercedes-Benz sponsorship of the app runs through early August.

Incorporating emerging media into the plan
Whether leveraging mobile, digital out-of-home or broadband video, some Razorfish clients are demonstrating how strategically important and effective it can be to make emerging media a core part of the planning process, instead of merely being an add-on. Here is a look at how Mercedes-Benz is doing this:

Brand: Mercedes-Benz
Program: Exclusive sponsorship of Motor Trend’s iPhone app
Beginning with the app’s Feb. 4, 2010 launch, Mercedes-Benz secured the only advertising presence on the app for the first six months. This included both a full welcome ad as the app loaded and a fixed homepage logo that allowed users to find a dealer. The app gave the brand 100 percent share-of-voice and a full interactive experience during key flight dates.

Assessment of program’s value: At one point,the Motor Trend iPhone app surpassed The New York Times as the No. 1 free news app. Because of its popularity, Mercedes-Benz got access to a large segment of its target audience. The sponsorship also had two other major benefits: It allowed users to access content wherever they were in a device-friendly format, and gave them the ability to juxtapose the brand against respected third-party content. Reviews and ratings have a significant impact on auto purchase decisions, and Motor Trend news and reviews on the app were enhanced with a vast library of videos and photos that interactively demonstrated the value proposition of Mercedes-Benz cars.

Do small dollars equal missed opportunities?
As the usage of new platforms by consumers explodes, it’s easy to see why old metrics to
evaluate them lead marketers astray. Tools such as financial analysis underestimate their actual
importance. According to Kantar Media, U.S. ad spending was more than $125 billion in 2009. With only $3.8 billion spent on mobile ads, per JP Morgan, and a mere $1.6 billion spent on online video, per Piper Jaffray & Co., it’s not hard to ask: And you’re saying these platforms should be central to the planning process?

But looking at those sorts of numbers misses the point. We’re not talking about a line item on a budget here. We’re talking about dramatic shifts in consumer media consumption, which requires a significant shift in planning, strategies and objectives. Obviously, even if the mobile web doesn’t command the money that the PC-bound web does, those 2.7 hours a day Americans are spending with it should be significant to marketers. And that’s just one example. Consumers have leapt well past the tipping point in terms of adoption of new platforms, but marketers have not. True, some marketers are already shifting huge portions of their budgets (e.g., Pepsi bowing out of the Super Bowl in favor of its social program, “Refresh Everything”). However, that’s more the exception than the rule. The point is this — whether or not large buckets of dollars are getting reallocated, new digital touchpoints demand to be an everyday consideration in the minds of CMOs.

To read the rest of this article, go to the Razorfish 2010 Outlook Report.

Related links:

• Razorfish 2010 Outlook Report
• Razorfish 2009 Digital Outlook Report (pdf)
• The Big Picture “All the Stats” Total View to Mobile Industry, 2010 Edition; Communities Dominate Brands, 2.05.10
• RF’s New Study Reveals ‘Intent’ Behind Mobile Internet Use; Ruder Finn Public Relations press release, 2.12.10
• Mercedes-Benz sponsors new Motor Trend app; Mobile Marketer, 2.04.10
• $3.8B on Mobile Ads This Year Can’t Keep Up With Usage; GigaOM, 6.04.10
• Pepsi’s refreshing new approach to marketing; The Vancouver Sun, 5.14.10

The roadtrip is the culmination of a yearlong Ford initiative called American Journey 2.0, a joint open innovation research project, supported by Microsoft and Intel, offering a group of University of Michigan students a chance to define the future in-car experience. AJ’s roadtrip started in Ann Arbor, Mich. and ended this past weekend at Maker Faire, the world’s largest DIY festival, in San Mateo, Calif. Since embarking on its journey on Wed., May 13, 2010 from the North Campus of U of M, AJ faithfully told us all about it one tweet at a time.

The American Journey 2.0 roadtrip is undoubtedly my favorite social media campaign of 2010. Ford, an iconic American brand that is busy becoming a boundary-pushing digital brand, has taken a great American activity, the roadtrip. and has reconstructed it into a multi-dimensional integrated experience that melds social connectedness, collaboration and innovation with brand heritage. This makes perfect sense for Ford, a company that knows its current and future consumer base for vehicles like the Fiesta are the Millennials –- the twenty-somethings who not only use social technologies, but perceive social connectivity as an inherent part of their day-to-day lives and expect automakers to embrace newer technologies as a way to communicate and sell more effectively to them. In-car connectivity is something Ford has been focused on since its 2007 launch of SYNC, knowing that these innovations are the price of entry for growing its consumer base. Enter American Journey 2.0.

But what works so well in this campaign is what attracted me to the world of social media marketing in the first place. “Social” success is about meaningful content, connection and authenticity, and Ford has extended beyond the traditional marketing message to deliver a program that has true social impact and meaning.

Two Ford Fiestas left the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, on May 13. During the trip, the drivers used four experimental social media apps engineered for in-car use, connected through cloud computing.

The American Journey 2.0 campaign speaks to our inborn human desire to find new and meaningful ways to connect to each other and our environment. As a result of this desire, social technologies have enabled us to create unique connections and relationships to most anyone — or anything — we can dream up. Ford capitalized on this “desire to connect” in a relevant and timely manner. Instead of launching a campaign that squarely focused on further promoting its revamped Fiesta model, or limiting their social media efforts to the Fiesta Movement, they produced an experience that used the brand as a vehicle (no pun intended) to elevate and enable dynamic, real-time community experiences and relationships (person to person, person to vehicle, vehicle to vehicle, vehicle to community, etc.) as well as novel new tools that enabled community collaboration. The key message for social marketers is an important one — AJ is a significant part of the story, but not the entire story.

For example, within this program, we are introduced to in-car apps such as CaravanTrack, which allows “caravans” of road-tripping vehicles to track each other (see related Headlightblog.com post); Virtual Road Rally, which allows users to identify physical points of interest along their route and share vehicle-centric data, such as the amount of fuel used; and “Auto”matic Blog, which allows the car to have a personality and share its moods/impressions based on data collected from various data sensors combining internal diagnostic readings with external events. Of course, don’t forget foursquare check-ins.

All of these tools –- the result of an engineering collaboration between Ford engineers, partners and the University of Michigan — were brought to life through a simple microsite that tied together the various social channels — Facebook, Twitter, blog, etc. — normally used to share and create real-time interactions and enable participation. Through these channels, the story of this unique journey took center stage and it invited us to participate in and explore the meaning and value of these new technologies and connections.

Yesterday AJ arrived at Maker Faire and tweeted that conditions were mostly cloudy but that someone named Gigi “loves AJ the Fiesta.” I’m sure that this campaign is only the first of many for Ford, and it will take on many new incarnations as Ford continues to explore in-car connectivity and its impact on enhancing our lives. If we aren’t hearing from AJ anytime soon, I’m sure we’ll be hearing from some other tweeting Ford vehicle in the months and years to come -– something as swell to me as a slice of virtual apple pie.

Image credit:
American Journey 2.0 image appears courtesy of Ford Motor Co.

Related links:

• AJtheFiesta on Twitter
• Ford and U-M use socially connected road trip to debut car as next platform for cloud computing; Ford Press Release, 5.12.10
• Maker Faire website
• Automakers Should Turn to Technology to Target Millennials, Reports New Microsoft Survey; Microsoft Press Release, 1.26.09
• Ford teams up with Microsoft to deliver SYNC; in-car digital system exclusive to Ford; Ford Press Release, 1.07.07
• Ford bets on social media for its next American compact; Headlightblog.com, 4.30.09
• Your car and the cloud; Headlightblog.com, 5.10.10
• American Journey 2.0 website
• Ford Fiesta Check In and Tweet Cross-Country; Mashable, 5.12.10

Headlightblog.com (HBDC): Were you always interested in cars? How did you get from studying computer science to creating cool car prototypes?

TJ Giuli: I’ve always been a fan of cars although I don’t actually modify my own cars. I did grad school out in the Bay Area, at Stanford. After graduation my wife was offered a position at the University of Michigan. So I went out and I knew some people in Detroit and they suggested that I start looking into car companies. And it just so happened that somebody at the University of Michigan was tied in with people at Ford so I went out and met with a bunch of people there. I thought it looked really fun and cool. So it was mostly serendipity, I guess.

HBDC: Let’s talk about cloud computing. It seems that this term means a lot of things to a lot of different people. How do you define it?

TJ: Well I guess I take a more constrained view of cloud computing. I really view cloud computing as a general-purpose computer compute resource that is accessible by a network that you can offload computation on to, essentially. There are also usually properties of scalability associated with it. For example, if I have some processes running and I need to either scale up to do a larger computation, or in the case of doing web hosting in the cloud and I’m getting a huge amount of traffic driven to my site then I can easily reconfigure without having to physically go down to a machine room and set up more machines. A lot of people think of cloud computing as anything that is web accessible, but I prefer to make the distinction.

HBDC: So how are you using cloud computing? How is it relevant to the in-car experience?

TJ: Well I can break that into two parts. One part is that we have developed an “automotive software research platform,” you could call it. It’s based on top of Microsoft’s Robotics Studio. We’ve basically taken that platform and we are using it for a projects-oriented course here at the University of Michigan with a group of engineering and information-school students. The idea is that they can use this platform that interacts with the cloud in various ways. A lot of them are using it for projects involving large amounts of storage.

The application shown here, CaravanTrack, allows multi-car groups on a shared roadtrip to stay in touch through a real-time map display and coordinate stops.

I think, strategically, the opportunity for cloud computing in the automotive industry is pretty huge. The possibility there is to solve a huge problem that we have with relation to embedding any kind of computation device in the vehicle, and that’s that typically vehicles last for about 10 years or 150,000 miles. That’s sort of a rule of thumb. You can imagine that after you physically build some kind of computer into your vehicle that it’s basically obsolete after three years. So the problem becomes “How do you maintain relevance?” You could focus on a strategy of remanufacturing, where you would essentially replace that compute element after every two or three years and make it very easy for the consumer to do that. Or the promise of the cloud would essentially be that as the vehicle ages you could offload more and more computation on to the cloud and enable new features, basically refresh the interface for the customer as time goes on without having to physically replace anything in your vehicles.

HBDC: Can you give me some examples of some of the projects your students are creating?

TJ: We’re just coming to the end of the semester right now. One of the groups is focusing on a cool ride-sharing app. It would basically be an app that would have both an in-vehicle and a mobile experience. So you’d have people who are interested in getting a ride that would use an iPhone or some other kind of smartphone to register with the site. The software would use their social networking profiles to figure out things like what kind of music you like, basically trying to get as much information as possible about a person’s personality and best match that with other people in the car and the driver.

The GreenRide Challenge app, shown here, makes it easy for drivers and passengers to share rides to common destinations and to find people you would be comfortable riding with.

And then on the in-vehicle side, when you get into your vehicle it would display a cool maps mash-up with a person’s picture. It might have a certain amount of points, or some way of showing how far out of your way you would have to go to share a ride with this person so that you can get a sense of how many minutes you would have to add to your commute. Then there’s the notion of “karma points” that might translate into real-world incentives.

HBDC: Can you tell us more about the app-development contest part of the Cloud Computing in the Commute course? Which app won and why?

TJ: At the conclusion of the course we held a design competition in which all the students participated.  We had six teams of four students each and everyone produced a really cool app.  It was a very tough decision but we chose CaravanTrack, which allows multi-car roadtrips to coordinate things like food stops in real-time via map display.  CaravanTrack had an excellent user interface, significant in-vehicle and web-side code, and was just very well put together.

HBDC: Have you been looking at diagnostics at all? If so, I’m curious to know what sorts of applications you envision being available on a platform like this.

TJ: For the class itself, we were focusing on the themes of “social games” and “sustainability.” For the purposes of the class it’s a little hard to sell an “exciting diagnostics application” for the consumer. But I think diagnostics apps for preventative maintenance, for example, are really great for the manufacturer. If you could scrape every piece of information coming from the powertrain controller, or basically any kind of vehicle sensor, then you can essentially datamine it and look for anomalous behaviors or a change in the state of the vehicle over long periods of time. You may be able to notice specific maintenance problems before they become a real problem and start becoming cascading failures. You may be able to actually save people money by noticing these things beforehand. In addition, it would be much more accurate than something like “your manufacturer recommends that you change your oil every 3,000 miles” and “it’s been 2,900 miles so you should get your oil changed.” This will actually be able to tell you that “you really do need to get your oil changed,” or “you need to get this component replaced.”

I think that the other interesting thing would be a massive datamining application where you would really start to look for fundamental design flaws or quality issues, and be able to tie that in closely with your manufacturing and design process so that once you notice this flaw you could quickly fix your existing customer’s problem or — if it’s a really big problem — then change the design. I think that right now most OEMs are mining their quality databases; however, they are all relying on the diagnostics capabilities of their service employees, who may not be able to get in as deeply into the diagnosis as you might get by scraping huge amounts of information off of each vehicle. That might be a pretty cool diagnostics application for the future.

HBDC: Let’s talk a little bit about this “apps store” for cars that you’ve been working on.

TJ: So for Sync Version 4, which we talked about at CES this year, we announced some new features involving Sync that work with Pandora, OpenBeak, a Twitter client, and Stitcher. [Full disclosure: Razorfish developed the Sync My Ride owner support account website for Ford Motor Company.]

That extended functionality is pretty cool, but for me the real story there is the way we’ve partnered with these companies. We designed a simple API and then worked with developers to write code for it. Anecdotally speaking, it turned out to be a really quick design turnaround and Pandora developers were able to modify their iPhone app in a week.

That for me is really exciting and leads into this discussion of what would an app store look like. If I were to contrast our situation with Apple’s, not only does Ford have to worry about the quality of the user interaction, but it has the extra problem that the consequences of a bad user interaction could be distracting, which is absolutely something that we don’t want.

HBDC: It’s really an angle to user experience that most of us haven’t had to consider.

TJ: Right. Take a blinking GIF for example, which can be so much more annoying while driving! That’s the situation that Ford is in. What I was talking about at the SXSW panel was this notion of “managed openness” whereas on the scale of things you have in the Apple AppStore, the Android Marketplace and the whole Android development sphere, which is much more open than the iPhone, and my guess is that any automotive OEM that does an app store would be much more managed than even the iPhone, simply because we’d probably want to very closely inspect the work. It would be much closer to a partnership between the developers and the OEM.

You had mentioned diagnostic applications earlier — I think that there is a space in which you could have applications that don’t interface with the driver at all, or any of the passengers in the vehicle, but it would operate on data that the vehicle would export. So you might imagine that you could very accurately calculate your green footprint or your carbon footprint. There certainly are quite a few iPhone apps that will try to measure various aspects of your driving style or your vehicle experience in some way, but I think that for the next level of fidelity you really do need to get that data out of the vehicle somehow. I think that apps that don’t interact with the user would probably get to play in their own space. It would be much more open and Ford wouldn’t have to exert as much control over it.

HBDC: Can we talk a little bit about internet radio (the Pandoras of the world) and how that technology fits into the work you are doing?

TJ: As far as Sync is concerned, I think that it’s really huge. I think that one of the big themes that people have been talking about for a while, with regard to infotainment systems in general, has been this notion of personalization. I think certainly an app store speaks to being able to personalize your own vehicle in some way, and I think that something like Pandora, which is a completely personalized radio experience, also speaks to that. I feel that it’s a really huge thing and I really like it. It’s extremely important to enable these sorts of applications.

HBDC: How are you integrating alternative input methods, such as an IVR (Interactive Voice Response)?

TJ: If you look at the first generation of Sync, it was basically integrating your music player and your voice. What the first generation of Sync really nailed was that a) it would work with almost any music player under the sun, even a USB stick with MP3s on it,  and b) it enabled a fairly sophisticated search-and-retrieval function via voice, because at the time Sync was released there were certainly other OEMs and aftermarket manufacturers that had “iPhone integration” and typically one of the common ways you would do that would be to trick the radio unit into believing that the iPod was a six-CD changer. It worked as long as you had six playlists you could switch between; if so, it would actually scroll through a list of songs for you. That’s actually deeply frustrating and distracting; so just being able to say “play songs by this artist” or to request a specific song and actually have the vehicle do a fairly good job of recognizing what you just said, was quite revolutionary because of its simplicity.

It seems like the real key to designing interfaces that aren’t distracting and that allow you to do fairly complex things, is an IVR. The next step would be designing voice interfaces that are based more on natural language than a hierarchical, phone tree-driven interface with increasing recognition. Actually, I think what we have is pretty good right now.

–Interview conducted by Kyle Outlaw

Related links:

• Dude, This is My Car!; 2010 SXSW Interactive Panel
• Social networking apps for cars to be unveiled; University of Michigan News Service, 4.20.2010
• Ford taps students for in-car software; CNET News, 5.4.2010
• Ford Syncs With U of M Students for Cloud-Connected Car Apps; Fast Company, May, 4, 2010
• Ford CEO and team demo Stitcher, Twitter and Pandora integration at 2010 CES Keynote; YouTube, Jan. 7, 2010
• Pandora
• OpenBeak
• Stitcher
• Sync My Ride owner support site
• Ford Sync

Image credits:
Photograph of TJ Giuli taken at the ACM CHI 2007 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems by Lorenzo Wood (via Flickr); Cloud Computing in the Commute images appear courtesy of Ford Motor Co.

The dialog between Toyota and the public has continuously shifted as more and more information comes to light and newer technologies are necessary to keep the conversation going.  I look back on the past six months and see it as an evolving play of sorts, and this trio of recalls is a climactic moment that could very well define the next decade of Toyota worldwide.

Prologue: Rise of a new king
Toyota set up U.S. operations in California in 1957, as Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., and steadily grew market share and profits, even garnering a few business books about their production system, the Toyota Way, as they surpassed the longstanding king, General Motors.  Toyota, the new champion of America, built its empire on quality and reliability.

Act one: Signs of trouble
Shortly after Toyota recalled nearly four million vehicles in September 2009, the largest recall in its history, due to potential floormat interference with the accelerator pedal, the Los Angeles Times began a series of stories that looked at safety concerns at the company.  The first of these, which was published in October 2009, covered reports of sudden acceleration in Toyota vehicles.  A flurry of blog posts, tweets and re-tweets, Facebook messages and emails quickly spread the news.

In a subsequent article, in December 2009, the L.A. Times reported that an investigation by the paper “shows the world’s largest automaker has delayed recalls and attempted to blame human error in cases where owners claimed vehicle defects.”

The same day that L.A. Times article appeared, Toyota published a statement on its U.S. media site. Titled Setting the Record Straight, it read in part, “Today the Los Angeles Times published an article that wrongly and unfairly attacks Toyota’s integrity and reputation.”

Toyota acted as any new king would, as if its authority couldn’t and shouldn’t be questioned.  The company’s simple, direct rebuke of the article posted on their site suggests a stark and limited dialog about the possible quality issue.

Act two: Public outcry
However, the hyper-connected nature of consumers created a storm of conversation around these recalls that continues to build even now, several months later.

While recalls are not uncommon among automakers, why has this instance been raised to such tragic frenzy among the public and the press?  It is debated within the industry as well as among concerned owners.  It could be a patriotic sentiment: excitement to see a chink in the import brand’s armor. It could be a heartfelt outcry for the lives lost due to avoidable mechanical error.  It could be an escape valve for pent-up frustration stemming from the recession. It is likely all of these and more.

Some argue poor communication is more to blame than poor mechanics.  Most automakers still rely on standard mail to inform owners of a recall.  That is both horribly slow and often ineffective due to residential moves as recalls can span several model years and millions of vehicles.  DriverSide.com got some acclaim for automating recall announcements via email, allowing for timely knowledge of critical information (something every car owner should expect, but don’t often get). [Disclosure: I am an employee of DriverSide.com.]

Toyota has been very reactive across the web. Toyota’s Twitter stream is littered with @mentions, updates on the recall, upcoming announcements and interviews. In the past month two company execs have participated in Q&A sessions: Jim Lentz, COO of Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc., went on Digg Dialogg to answer several of the top questions asked by participants (#1- What do you drive?); a few days later Doug Coleman, Prius Product Manager, answered questions on the Prius fan page.  And, of course, Toyota’s new ad campaign promises to repair vehicles and to learn from its mistakes.

It seems every Toyota message is coming across as apologetic and promising a better tomorrow.  What I find really refreshing is the company’s use of different communication channels to reach the right audiences, quickly shedding the solitary press release response at the onset of this ordeal.

Act three: In the trenches
Despite these apologies, Toyota has suffered a nearly unimaginable PR blow and significant sales declines. February sales were 9 percent lower than for the same period in 2009 while GM saw 12 percent gains and Ford an amazing 43 percent climb from sales volume a year ago, according to Automotive News.

Toyota has hit back by launching amazing incentives, including special lease offers and zero-percent financing for up to 60 months.  Also thrown in will be two years of maintenance for owners.  And I am sure more offers will hit your TV screens if the sales don’t rebound quickly.

The bottom line is definitely the bottom line for Toyota.  The automaker needs to move metal and this major setback has the potential to dethrone the brand in the U.S. market. The aggressive offers being rolled out are an interesting first step, but I predict Toyota will surprise us over the coming months with new approaches to the market.

Epilogue: Rebuilding the kingdom
I think the widespread coverage and often-negative slant has and will continue to cauterize Toyota and help the automaker focus on the most important aspect of its business: the overwhelmingly supportive fan base of loyal Toyota owners.

With almost 80,000 fans on Facebook providing amazing sound bites and easily hundreds of thousands out on the road every day, Toyota has let the loud voices of the few outweigh the quiet voices of the many.  Yes, lives were lost and for that Toyota needs to be held accountable. However, that needs to be counterbalanced by the millions of vehicles Toyota has put on the road safely.

Some owners leading the way have already made their own fan page: LoyalToyota to help spread the word online via Facebook and offline with bumper stickers. Toyota should take note: use online outlets to rally and inform the vocal minority, then deploy offline tactics through them to remind and convert the masses.

But how this all turns out isn’t written yet.  Chances are the final scene won’t play out this year at all.  But one thing is certain, Toyota showed a critical weakness and is now adapting quickly to respond.  As Darwin wrote, evolution doesn’t favor the strongest, but rather the most adaptable.

The comments in this article are the opinion of author and are not necessarily reflective of his employer, DriverSide.com.

Related links:

• Floor Mat Recall; Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
• Pedal Recall; Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
• 2010 Prius Recall; Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
• Firestone Tire Recall; Firestone-tire-recall.com, which is registered to attorney Konstantine Kyros
• Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.; Wikipedia
• Toyota production system, search results; Amazon.com
• Toyota Beats GM for First Time; Associated Press via CBS News, 01.21.09
• Toyota Consumer Safety Advisory: Potential Floor Mat Interference with Accelerator Pedal; Toyota USA Newsroom, 09.29.09
• Toyota: Road to Recall; series of Los Angeles Times times on Toyota recall
• Toyota’s runaway-car worries may not stop at floor mats; Los Angeles Times, 10.18.09
• Toyota found to keep tight lid on potential safety problems; Los Angeles Times, 12.23.09
• Setting the Record Straight; Toyota USA Newsroom, 12.23.09
• How to split up the U.S.; PeteSearch, 02.06.10
• Safety Recalls; Office of Defects Investigation
• Toyota’s Pledge to Customers; What’s Your Opinion?; Automotive Digital Marketing, 02.19.10
• Toyota Recall: How Car Owners Avoid Being Victims; The Huffington Post, 02.03.10
• Toyota profile on Twitter
• Digg Dialogg: Jim Lentz; Digg, 02.08.10
• Prius fan page on Facebook
• Dealer Perspective on Toyota Recall; YouTube
• U.S. sales rise 13% after an uphill climb; Automotive News, 03.02.2010
• Toyota chief forecasts March sales recovery; Automotive News, 03.08.10
• Toyota USA fan page on Facebook
• LoyalToyota fan page on Facebook
  

Image credits:
GM Toyota image appears via Orbitcast; social media bandwagon image by Matt Hamm appears via Save the Tiger Fund;  Associated Press image of Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda appears via Arab News.

In doing so, car dealers understand the changes in their customer’s behavior and truly recognize the opportunities being created. For the truly progressive, it doesn’t stop there. Showroom shopping experiences, online browsing and customer relationship management abilities are becoming more congruent.

Several pieces of technology — particularly the six covered here — are well positioned to speed up the historic change currently happening within the automotive retail industry.

Car buyers are a powerful segment, with a strong voice. Dealers are wise to consider adopting these ideas sooner, rather than later. If not, their customers will have moved on — and be happier with their decision.

1. Real-time search
   Google and Bing are squaring off in the first round of real-time search by providing results from the likes of Twitter and Facebook. While we don’t see these results in the same format as regular search results now, this will move from being a silo to being a primary search result visual. Search Engines such as Topsy will help the competition ramp up improved methods of displaying real-time results from relevant and influential sources; other players in this space: Collecta and OneRiot.

   Customer benefit: Having access to real-time content can help shoppers confirm a smart decision much faster. It can either speed up the decision making progress — or even keep a shopper away from a store due to the immediacy of this content.

2. Geolocation services
   It will become increasingly easy to engage with prospects and customers with the advent of GPS-style functions within mobile phones, social channels and smart phone apps that harness geolocation capabilities. Geolocation API’s will increase the ability to communicate with consumers; your own creativity is the limitation. For example, Whrrl’s Merchant Program is a simple way to extend your online footprint and offer an incentive for consumers to visit and engage them with new discount/promotional ideas.

   Customer benefit: Customers will have an opportunity to create better relationships with dealerships with these tools — while also actually having fun.

3. Mobile video
   Video has become a standard for the automotive segment within websites — mobile video will be a new frontier. Smartphone video usage will continue to explode as it becomes easier to stream from your phone — and to users’ phones. Network expansion from 3G to 4G and Google’s entry into the spectrum will open up new creative possibilities. The first step was gaining mobile acceptance and basic usage. Nine million users accessed their Facebook account via their mobile phone in 2008; that number exploded to 88 million in 2009. There is a huge opportunity for mobile video in 2010.

   Customer benefit: This is a pure convenience play for consumers. Shopping for what they want, when they want and where they want. The experience will become hyper-customizable.

4. HTML5
   The newest version of HTML will host a suite of user features and benefits that improve online experiences. Rich applications, such as video and animation, will be easier to integrate as Flash and Silverlight won’t be as heavily relied upon. The goal is to create simple user experiences that function like a desktop application and also allow next-gen features such as offline data support and drag-and-drop capabilities. Hopefully, more automotive web developers will recognize the opportunity this presents to provide dealers and their visitors more memorable and effective experiences.

   Customer benefit: Online shopping will become more robust as new content delivery methods emerge. Access to vital information will become easier and simply more enjoyable.

5. Social centralization
   This is my term for the direction of car dealer social networks and the value-added services they will provide automotive professionals. Dealer network sites will evolve into centralized destinations that provide more than blog posts and discussions. As user acceptance and awareness increases, greater value will be driven by segment-specific research, access to video libraries and vendor ratings. I see the culmination being the eventual cross-pollination of content and resources from major industry brands into their own specific communities. I also see users gaining greater access to this content, whether they act as contributors or readers, via simpler access points such as smartphone apps.

   Customer benefit: A rapid increase in the sharing of best practices is about to overcome the retail industry. Competition will increase as the bar is raised to proved a better, more impressive shopping experience.

6. Social CRM
   The entire CRM segment will be shaken up in 2010. Old systems that dealers have been subjected to will be turned upside down with the advent of more web-based systems. The biggest changes could also come from the integration of the social channels to these systems to help improve and monitor customer communications. Major CRM solutions have already made this leap; I’m confident these solutions will make their way into the newest CRM tools being rolled out. I wouldn’t be shocked if an open source DMS-CRM solution sprouted up. Salesforce.com is adding a new data tool to its offering called Chatter. Other companies, such as Yammer, have rolled out creative solutions that mesh internal and external communication efforts.

   Customer benefit: Greater communication and information flow with regards to items such as vehicle service and car care will become more important as ownership continues to increase.

We’re experiencing another round of significant changes in the automotive markets. Improvements in the retail process, customer service and online user experience will continue to move at breakneck speeds in 2010 and aren’t limited to the above list; they’re certainly not limited to simply technological solutions — these are simply tools to help make the improvements easier to achieve.

I’m confident we’ll see an ongoing wave of improvements as manufacturers and retailers continue to alter the automotive markets. As long as the consumer is placed one step ahead of the OEM’s and retailers, shoppers will reap more benefits than ever experienced within the industry.

Related links:

• Topsy, a search engine powered by tweets
• Collecta, a real-time search engine
• OneRiot, a real-time search engine
• Whrrl Merchant Program FAQs
• Driving Sales, community for dealership managers, OEMs and vendor employees
• Salesforce Chatter, social application platform
• Salesforce Chatter: A Real-Time Social Network for the Enterprise; TechCrunch, 11.18.09
• Yammer, enterprise microblogging

A Look at the numbers
There are a number of ways to track brand perception. During my time at Razorfish, I have helped develop the SIM Score, a basic equation for calculating how a brand is faring on the social web. The SIM Score incorporates reach and likeability using conversation data sourced from the major conversation monitoring vendors (in this case Radian6). In the month of January, Toyota saw an uptick in its SIM Score relative to its direct competitors. Counter intuitive? Yes, most certainly. And there are two explanations for this.

Read the rest of Shiv Singh’s guest post on Mashable. You can read more by Shiv on his blog, Going Social Now.