Robert Wilonsky, formerly of the Dallas Observer

In honor of the class I’m teaching at the University of Texas at Dallas, I’ve decided to turn my lecture into a blog post… just like I would recommend to my students. Today, in my home town of Dallas, there was a massive shift in the journalism industry. Robert Wilonsky has left the Dallas Observer to become the head of Digital Managing Editor for the Dallas Morning News and will oversee their website. Now, unless you are in Dallas, you don’t truly understand what this means… Over the years I’ve become convinced that Dallas is the largest small town in America. This is the largest network I’ve ever seen behave in the ways that a small network does. One small shift can have a great impact on the sum of all parts… and Robert Wilonsky’s new position will change everything in the world of Dallas media.

Robert Wilonsky has been the editor of Unfair Park, the Dallas Observer’s blog. Since 2006, this has become THE online resource for information on Dallas. He’s turned the Dallas Observer blog into one of the most well read Alt Weekly blogs in the nation. It’s good. I’d even say it’s brilliant. This is how I’ve received  my information about my city for the past 5 years.

The Dallas Morning News is the epitome of big media. They’ve gone through several trials and tribulations to gain footing in the digital space… however, they’re best known for being of the first major newspapers to jump behind the paywall. They’ve stated that they’ve achieved success in doing so, and have no plans to stop any time soon. They have one of the best examples of a “walled garden” that exists in content today.

So Robert Wilonsky will move from heading one of the most open, successful news blogs in America to… life behind a paywall.

I’m not fundamentally opposed to newspapers moving behind paywalls. I think that it may, in fact, become the best way to approach the monetization of good content in the future. The premium model has worked very successfully for many online entities, and I feel like it is certainly something that can work for the newspaper industry if they can figure out how to approach it correctly. I have not problem paying for good content, however,  THAT is my biggest problem with journalism moving behind a paywall. We’ve been trained to believe that behind these magical paywalls there are hard nosed, investigative reports that mean something to the community. These are stories that only those with the resources of the Dallas Morning News could possibly convey to the public, and all you have to do is sign up and you can be privy to this wealth of information…

Well… not so much. It has been a long standing tradition in the news media to subsidize the “real news” with the “news” that people actually consume, IE entertainment, lifestyle columns, sports, etc. We’re not paying just for Watergate, we’re paying for a play by play of the Kardashian Wedding.

Secondly, they still haven’t quite figured out how their own paywall seems to work… for instance, when you click on the News section of the Dallas Morning News, you see an article labeled:

Dallas firefighters leave scene, return to fatality 

Now this article is not accessible to me currently, because I am not a paywall subscriber… however, when I type the same thing in to Google, I found this:

Dallas firefighters leave scene, return to fatality

This is the exact article that I’m not able to access because of the paywall if I attempt to do so through the Dallas Morning News website. Like I said… this may be the way to manage monetization in the future, but you better figure out how.

That brings us back to Mr. Wilonsky. This is going to be quite the adjustment… going from a company (Village Voice Media) who monetizes free newspapers based solely on advertising, to the dreaded paywall model of the Dallas Morning News. I’m sure that there will start to be more interesting content provided to those who are not paywall subscribers initially, to try to pull the Dallas Observer’s core audience back to the more historically established Dallas Morning News. I’m sure that the Dallas Morning News blogs will even start to have a bit more of an Observer like edge… but after the initial push is over… and it’s time to retreat back into the world of the paywall… Will Wilonsky have helped a behemoth of the old guard into the age of new media? Or will he be another casualty to the sort of thinking that has turned these cash cows into a dying breed? I’m not sure we’ll know for several months… and by then the newspaper as we know it may have disappeared…

After all… the entire concept of what exactly a newspaper is is shifting rapidly. (Is Twitter a Newspaper or a Phone company?)

So, for you, my class, I ask you this… will you pay for content? Is this the future of journalism? Is it too late? Do we expect too much for free now? What is the future of journalism?

There’s no question that Budweiser is the content king of the Superbowl. According to MSNBC’s The Bottom Line, Anheuser-Busch has spent $246.2 million in Superbowl ad since 2002. They are always looked at for some of the most innovative, awe-inspiring ads displayed on the biggest of stages. They’re the king.

Well, this year, as many previous (and I’ll happily admit that I secretly long for the return of Bud Bowl…) Anheuser-Busch has absolutely won the competition for the best Superbowl ad. Only problem? It wasn’t aired in the US.

On December 21, 2011, Budweiser turned fantasy into reality for two rec league hockey teams in Ontario, Canada. They made a regular game, and I do not use the word lightly… epic. They showed up with screaming fans, play-by-play announcers, mascots, trainers, video replay, confetti cannons and more. They created the ad to specifically air in Canada during the Superbowl, but we feel like this story will far outlive the Canadian viewership of the big game.

This is what they used to create on of the best Superbowl ads I’ve ever seen…

“Budweiser strongly supports hockey and Flash Fans was our way of honouring all of the passion and hard work of rec players. The ad captures the incredible excitement of a league game that has been elevated to new heights with all the elements of a professional game,” said Ben Seaton, Marketing Manager, Budweiser. “The energy in the arena that night is palpable on screen. Once the fans rushed the stands, you can see the energy level of the players increase ten-fold. The emotion on their faces is priceless and the ad truly puts the viewer right there on the rink with the players.”

The entire campaign was executed over the course of 6 days, with several teasers released leading up to the commercial, as you can see below.

The Budweiser Canada YouTube channel has already received over 2 million views and it was started just for this series of ads. According to Bostinno.com, this was the  “Super Bowl commercial of the decade.”

Signing off with the tag “Great times are waiting, Why not grab some buds?” the commercial dares to go where many Super Bowl commercials don’t: appealing emotionally to a consumer base. On an evening that will be filled with Matthew Brodericks and Jerry Seinfelds, seeing a bunch of unknown athletes unexpectedly playing in the game of their life is a pretty damn cool thing, and one that will likely stick with fans a lot longer than the alternative.

And finally… here it is, in all it’s glory… The full commercial.

If you are as fascinated by this as we were, here’s the “even more full” version, in which the director and the production team walk through the creation of the entire event. Huge props to Budweiser. While this didn’t air anywhere other than Canada, this is going to be one of the more shared and most viral commercials to come out of this year’s Superbowl. Well played.

Now, for those of you who have never seen anything like this… this isn’t exactly the newest idea. An AMAZING improv troupe from New York City called Improv Everywhere was the first time we heard this idea. They decided to give a local NYC band their “Best Gig Ever” by creating signs, t-shirts, learning song lyrics, and flooding a small venue so that this band could have the truly memorable experience of being rock stars. Over the past week we’ve heard some talk on the interwebs about “Budweiser ripped off this idea”… Frankly we think it’s neither here nor there. A brilliant idea doesn’t mean anything unless you can execute it. A brilliant idea is not something should be held as sacred, never to be repeated. The beauty of a idea is that it’s just that… a thought. It’s not an action, it’s not a one time occurrence, and it’s certainly not the entire execution of an event. Once an idea is formed, it will live forever in the minds of those ho have heard about. And that’s not a bad thing.

Besides… for anyone who’s ever played beer league hockey or pick up basketball or little league soccer… how would YOU feel if this happened to you? We’d like to think the answer to that is “perfect.”

Fortunate enough to own an iPad? Check out some of our favorite apps to use on this device.

Flipboard

Flipboard is great because you can visualize Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google Reader feeds, and your favorite blogs and websites in magazine style format.   You place them in square icons and they load the newest post images. You click and literally swipe the pages and the screen simulates page turning.  It’s very clean way to display your social streams and is great for browsing.  The bad news is they’re introducing advertising sometime soon.

Zite

Zite is a great news reader app as well.  You can add sections by topic and browse the thought leaders in each subject.  Zite is great because it pulls content posts from all different website sources.  The articles tend to be more interesting and you can tailor them specifically to your interests, voting them up or down and choosing to receive more from that site or more about tagged topics.  You can also easily share easily to social networks or send by email.

FLUD

FLUD is probably the news app I most use, while I still browse the other two.  It’s definitely brings the “sexy” to news reading.  You have the control to customize which source sites you have on your front page.  There are many different source hubs for each topic.  You can select the top sites in the areas of social, technology, creative, world/politics, business, science, lifestyle, entertainment, sports, and other.  Always the latest and greatest streams from a variety of different sites.  Check this one out, for sure.

Zinio

Zinio is an app for finding magazines.  It’s a must-have for anyone with particular magazines they enjoy.

Pennant

Our founder is a sports nerd and one of his favorite sports app is Pennant.  Pennant is a an interactive history of baseball complete with stats from 1952-2011.  If you love baseball, you need this app.  Unfortunately it will cost ya $4.99, but that’s chump change to you sports fans!

HBO Go

HBO Go is a MUST for anyone who has the service.  Watch any episode of any of your favorite HBO original series.  I catch up all the time when I miss a show and I don’t have time to sit on my couch.  The other HBO app is great too as it gives detailed information about episodes and additional video content.

Netflix

Netflix has fallen under a lot of criticism lately, but their application is still great for movie watching.

Dragontape

Dragontape is really neat in that it allows it’s user to patch videos together under one theme.  Most are by music genre or visual genre.  Check it out and create your own video mixtape!

Radio Soulwax

Radio Soulwax is another music video application.  You can download or stream different music video radio shows by concepts.  It’s really weird and good to put up on the screen for a weird hip party.  I think it’s a really entertaining app and it’s worth checking out.

Aweditorium

Aweditorium is just like it sounds.  You can browse a screen full of square icons of images of different indie music artists.  When you click on one it plays one of their songs with pop up information – a homage to pop up videos almost.  You can share and find more information about them.  You can pinch and zoom and click on different artists and save them to your favorites.  Great for finding new music!

Dallas Observer’s music blog, Dc9atNight is currently running a series on local music influential, and decided that our very own Nico Martini was one of them! The music series is “where we meet some of the people behind the local music scene — those who aren’t necessarily members of local bands, but more the people who make the scene move. ” We’re thrilled to have Nico Martini considered one of those who make the scene move!

In a September 13th article by Dallas Observer blogger Alan Ayo; Nico Martini, founder and CEO of Hypeworthy, was interviewed about how he came to be… whatever he is.  Ayo says:

Although we normally only see Nico Martini in his trademark short-bill painters’ cap, he actually wears many hats. At least proverbially-speaking.

The article describes, mostly in biographic detail, Nico’s journey from high school football and then theater to being a maven in the worlds of social media and the Dallas music scene.  It even states of the subsequent interview that:

It’s this kind of stuff that really should be required reading for all ambitious local musicians.

Thanks Dallas Observer!

Read the full article here.

Facebook has finally stepped it up in relation to privacy settings and are allowing more control for its users.  With the rise of Google+, Facebook is finally recognizing some of the huge privacy issues and are basically installing Google+ features.  Read below about a list of upcoming changes to your Facebook experience.

Profiles:

This new version of Facebook allows for greater profile control in regards to visibility.  When you edit your profile, say your Music section for instance, there will be a drop down with icons representing if you want this information to be public, friends only, or allow for custom friend lists and specific friends.

The feature “View profile as” that lets you view your profile from another friend’s perspective will now be prominently displayed on your profile page for easy access instead of being hid in the confusing privacy control panel.

Tags:

Currently on FB, any one of your friends can tag you in a photo or location and it will be public unless you have otherwise monitored these features in your privacy panel.  The new updates will not post a photo or tag you at a location without your approval first.  You accept or reject the tag and it’s important to note that this feature can be turned off.

Another big change is that you can tag ANYONE on Facebook, even if you aren’t friends.  This is scary, since it could lead to an increase in spam, but the rationale is that you want to be able to see photos you’re in even if you aren’t friends with that person.  Maybe they’re a coworker you don’t necessarily want to be friends with, but would like to see a company party photo.   When untagging from a photo, you are given three options.  You may just untag, untag and request the user delete the photo, and/or block the person.

Status Updates:

With these new updates, you know have greater control of who can read your status.  The drop down menu will allow for you to indicate whether you want your status update to be public, appear to friends only, or to be limited to specific friends or friend lists.  Instead of the “everyone’ option, it will be changed to “public” for greater clarity.

Location:

Facebook Places will be integrated into Facebook’s Publisher bar and you will be allowed to check in to places without GPS restriction, in other words, you don’t have to be physically near the location.  You can tag a location to a photo album after you’ve returned home.

Subscription:

Facebook has been testing a “Subscribe” feature, where users will be able to subscribe to anyone’s feed (despite not being friends) and they will receive any public updates from that user.  This is only in the testing phase and we will have to wait to see if they release this feature.

Movie Streaming:

Additional features include movie streaming.  Facebook has partnered with Miramax, Warner Bros., Paramout, and Universal to launch their own video rental service on Facebook last Monday.

Included in this feature will be a game called Casting Call where users can cast friends as characters in films and unlock bonus content.

Rentals cost 30 Facebook and Facebook keeps just a third of that.  Rentals can be saved for a month, but if you start it you have 48 hours to finish it.   There have been technical issues with this service so beware in these early stages.

These are just a few updates coming to Facebook.  Check back to read more news about Facebook on the Hypeworthy Blog.

Source: Mashable.com

If you haven’t heard already heard –  Google unveiled it’s new social networking service, Google+, last month.  The question remains, howl will Google+ change your digital marketing strategy?

The biggest realization for online marketers with the debut of Google+ is that a social network made by Google impacts search.  If you have a Google+ profile, you will see the +1 button on all your search results.  This is a key feature that will need to be incorporated into your pages and online content.  Think of it as Google’s “Like” button.

The +1 button is basically digital “word of mouth” marketing.  Your +1′s are revealed most apparently to your friends when they search, but others searching for your +1 topics might stumble across your recommendation.  This promotion will only bring you to greater heights in search results.  If more consumers give you a recommendation using this tool, you have a good chance of increasing sales.

When Google+ debuted, brands were rushing to make accounts to connect with their demographics.  Google began deleting these company accounts and asked for marketers to hold off on creating accounts.  Google announced that they will be unveiling tweaked profiles with all the analytics and sophisticated sharing options that marketers need.  This new tool will most likely be unveiled around Q3 20111.

While Google hasn’t elaborated on what the business profiles will include, a spokesperson told Venture Beat:

“You can expect to see a level of analytics and measurement that you’d typically find in Google products as well as a nuanced approach to how things are shared. It encourages and enhances conversation, it doesn’t just put things in the stream.”

It’s important that businesses do not make profiles at this point.  There will be no “switch over” from current profiles to the new business profiles.   Check back to learn more new developments from Google+ and what this means for online marketers.

A Quick Response (QR) code is a two-dimensional code that can be scanned by smartphone cameras using QR code reader applications to automatically pull up text, photos, videos, music and URLs.  QR codes are being increasingly utilized in marketing campaigns, giveaways, rewards, and informational uses such as in museums.  Ultimately, the QR code is the shortest distance between curiosity and information retrieval.

The great thing about QR codes is that they are an open-source and freely licensed standard.  There is no cost in adding them to printed materials and can be scanned by free readers on all smartphones and even half-way smart phones.  To find a QR code reader application, simply enter “QR code scanner” or “barcode reader” into the search field of your app store.

Some QR scanner options available for the iPhone are QuickMark ($.99),  Optiscan ($1.99), NeoReader, Barcode, ScanLife, and for the Android there is Barcode Scanner, QuickMark among a variety of others.

There are many QR code generators available. Kaywa, iCandy, Stickybits, Zxing Project, dlivr, QR Stuff, Maestro, QReat Buzz, and My QR.

Each service has it’s limitations and features – some commercial and not.  Explore and see what fits your project.  It’s important to understand the strategy behind QR codes and articulate the purpose to your clients.  QR codes should ultimately provide some kind of value to the scanner.  You make think it’s a good idea to direct QR code scanners to your website, but is that really the most engaging place to send your audience?  Once a QR code is scanned, the resulting view should be thumb-interactive, easy to read, and purpose-driven.

There have also been strides in the art of creation of QR codes, The mathematical qualities of a QR code and the impact of a clever design can truly elevate a QR code to the point where the code becomes the central artwork of a piece of marketing collateral.  See the QR code for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire below.

There are also services like JumpScan, which provides an complete profile QR code to link your digital persona.  JumpScan lets users create customized QR codes with all their contact information, including social media profiles, for on the go sharing and can be placed on business cards.

Are you curious as to who’s actually scanning these QR codes? And on what devices?  Here’s an info-graphic by JumpScan on QR code consumption.  Visit our blog again to learn new developments and a more in-depth look at how you can use QR codes in your marketing campaigns.

Image courtesy of JumpScan.

Welcome to the newly redesigned Hypeworthy website. Read a little bit about our new look, the company, and our official blog below.

Here at Hypeworthy we have grown at such a quick pace that we haven’t needed or had the time to treat ourselves like a client.  We plan to expand even further and thought it was about time to start promoting ourselves and sharing our knowledge on the web.

Our blog will feature company news and the newest digital marketing practices and strategies.  We will discuss new tools to help you market yourself, company, organization, or brand on the web.