Windows 8

It’s now my desktop OS. 

I also have a Windows Phone that’s almost an 8 – and from what the geek press tells me I’m impatiently waiting for an upgrade that’ll make it not quite Windows 8, though close enough.

These posts are composed with Microsoft Live Writer, a pretty good program.

But don’t think I’m a Microsoft groupie – my browser is Firefox, my cloudy email Google.

Redmond screwed up a bit with their new OS. Lots of folks aren’t happy with the Start Screen. You can do your own binging about the brouhaha. It has to do with the touch interface when there’s no touch. The OS works flawlessly on phones and tablets, not so well on desktops and laptops with regular ol’ monitors and screens. Third-party workarounds are available – and I use them.

If I ever get a tablet or touchscreen laptop they’ll probably be Windows, and I’ll probably like them.

My HTC Trophy is simple, easy to figure out, easy to use, easy on the eyes.

Win 8 phones, tablets, and desktops are potent technologies for Baby Boomers, but you’d never know it by the ads and commercials.  The products are positioned as toys, not elegant and productive tools: 

Windows 8

Surface

Microsoft would be wise to fashion some advertising  for Boomers and older (and that tiny niche market known as the business industry).  Less flash, more substance. Once you get the hang of it, “Metro” isn’t that intimidating.  The email app is big and gorgeous, but lacks features at the moment. The weather app is great, the pic apps easy to utilize.  Thousands of other apps are likewise graphically pleasing and accessible.  My guess is that the next handful of upgrades will be all about making the OS more user-friendly.

And I think most people will be able to switch between a mouse/keyboard OS for serious business stuff and touch-based operating systems for accessibility and fun. 

Microsoft doesn’t seem to understand this:

Windows 8 wrestles with PC's legacy
On a traditional PC, Windows 8 Metro is a solution looking for a problem
by Brooke Crothers
… Of course if you're one of the relative few who have a tablet like the Samsung slate or Microsoft's Surface or a touch-screen laptop like Acer's Aspire S7, yeah, then Metro is front and center, as it should be.

But on a traditional laptop it's problematic.

Ever heard of Gorilla Arm?  Read about it.  Boomers and older have enough trouble with arms and hands and fingers.  And shoulders.  And necks.  On a phone or tablet, touch is great.  Not so with desktops and laptops.

Microsoft needs to upgrade the Windows 8 Start Screen with a few more navigational buttons, and in advertising spots show people being productive with mice, keyboards, and touchpads. 

Call me an old fuddy-duddy, but I’m not particularly interested in B-Boying with my Surface.  (Well, maybe once in awhile.)

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Update 13 Jan 2013:

Two good pieces from The Wall Street Journal and Forbes:

Microsoft needs a Windows 8 fix now
11 Jan 2013|John C. Dvorak
Problems with operating system affect entire industry.

Microsoft Could Change The World With Windows 8
12 Jan 2013|Jonathan Salem Baskin
Even a budget north of $1 billion hasn’t changed the fact that they have expertly told us nothing compelling about what they’re selling.

Until next year (if it happens)…

I thought it’d be a smart move to get my last post of the year in before the end of the world in a few days.
Making predictions for 2013 – that’s what everybody’s doing now.  But NostraChuckus has no prophecies.
The Crystal Ball of Common Sense is hazy.   
Like
The Mayans, NostraChuckus unleashes prognostications not limited to calendar years.  Often he foretells decades in advance.
It’s impossible to keep track of the slews of small-to-medium ad agencies opening up specializing (or so they say) in targeting Baby Boomers.  All follow in the shadows  of Yours Truly and others.
Culled from Advertising to Baby Boomers ©2005:

C H A P T E R  T W E N T Y - S I X
The Revolution

My guess is that the revolution will be a quiet one … It won’t be high profile, and most likely you may not hear about it until it’s over. Here’s what will happen.
The Prediction: A Baby Boomer at the helm of a small or medium-sized agency will roll up his or her sleeves, get his or her hands dirty with copy and design (or hire a few of his or her creative buddies from the old days), and fashion a campaign for a general consumer product, with Baby Boomers as the target market…
Small-to-medium-sized advertising and marketing agencies may squirm at first, even kick and scream—but eventually will be co-beneficiaries of this common sense revolution. Some may become the heroes and heroines of this reasoned paradigm.
Last week there was a newspaper piece about advertising and Baby Boomers.  A fellow heading up a small agency was quoted:

*********, who is a boomer, added, “I still have to wake up and brush my teeth, just like a 25-year-old.”

Sounds vaguely familiar.  From a review of Advertising to Baby Boomers (2005):



Until next year (if it happens), NostraChuckus signs off…

The strongest drive is not sex or greed.

My Xmas Card from British Subject Reg Starkey:

Scroll a few:

Reg Starkey has been writing copy since the Dead Sea was only poorly.

For the last umpteen years, he has focused primarily on the ‘mature market’ where he perceived the need to fill the yawning gap between technically ‘clever’ advertising and effective communication.

As sooth is said, eld has great advantage;
In eld is both wisdom and usage;
Men may the old outrun but not outred.– Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales

The New Millennium Tales
This book is ahead of its time in its recognition and understanding of the importance of the mature market. Whilst others waste time obsessing about youth, this collection sheds all the light you need on reaching Baby Boomers.

What is Digital Advertising?

I wanted to follow my previous post by posing a tongue-in-cheek question: What is Digital Advertising?  I’ll do that in a scroll or two. 

Merely researching the subject made my head spin.  So many buzzwords, catchphrases, and twaddle to slog through…

Thanks to The Ad Contrarian (I should’ve just gone there first), here’s a video that sums up everything:

December 05, 2012
Truth Is Stranger Than Satire
I have watched this thing three times and I am convinced that these people are serious.

And there’s this chestnut:

23 June 2010
Where people already aren’t.

The newest buzz-phrase has me completely baffled: Native Advertising.  One social media guru described it as advertising that is ‘baked into’ the content. I guess it’s sort of like the old Burns & Allen Show where  one episode had Gracie baking a cake using Betty Crocker Cake Mix, a sponsor.

Or was that product placement?  Madison & Vine?  I’m still confused.  Whatever it was, I know it doesn’t work anymore, is old school, and nowadays native advertising is the future, and all advertisers should be all over it or their businesses will fail.

So what is Digital Advertising? 

Television is now digital, commercials are shot with digital cameras – so are commercials digital advertising?  Are digital spots on digital radio digital advertising?  Print ads are created on computers, usually rendered as PDFs, delivered digitally. Digital advertising?  Magazines, both editorial and ads, are digitally produced.  Digital advertising?

I read an odd piece the other day.   A fellow instrumental in the development of  banner ads (#epicfail)  now doesn’t like them:

“There's a way to make web advertising a better experience, like an ad in between every pageview that you can simply flick away if you don't want to see it. I'm a big fan of full-page ads, especially on tablets.”

Hmmm.  Reading a magazine on a big tablet, immersing yourself in a passive experience with no distractions…

Sounds familiar:

27 April 2009
Is roiling ether the best place for advertising?

23 October 2012
The Future Of Consumer Doodad Technology
Tablets/Smartphones will be big, small, thin, simple, complex, active, passive, out the door in your purse or pocket, lost in your couch cushions…

15 April 2007
Positioning Magazines for Baby Boomers
… This (digital) nest is here to stay – but for a big part of their day Baby Boomers are happy to fly far from all the chaos and into another nest – one that is warm and nourishing. That’s where they will find, among other delectable items, your magazine.

01 May 2010
Foretellings
That silly retronym “traditional advertising” will remain the premiere force for introducing people to a product or service, along with sustaining its shelf life. Television, print, radio, and billboard ads will continue to have the visceral power they’ve always had – if only for their sheer size, simplicity, and cutting-edge audio/visual qualities.

06 March 2012
Digital Distractions
Digital interruptions are headache-inducing. Not so with magazines. Advertisements are welcomed and appreciated. They are integral, seamless extensions of the magazine experience.

So are full-page ads in a magazine you’re accessing on a tablet digital advertising?

Say goodnight, Gracie.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday Surpass One Billion Press Releases

A fleck of flack confetti just flew into my inbox:

Subject: Expert Available for Cyber Monday Recap Stories
 
Chuck,
For any Cyber Monday wrap up stories you’re working on, **** CEO & Co-Founder ***** is available to comment.

Who needs experts when we have famed Soothsayer and advertising gadfly NostraChuckus, who’s been startling the world for years with his mundane prognostications?

More from the flack fleck:

Move Over Black Friday: Last year it was Cyber Monday, rather than Black Friday, that saw numbers surpassing $1 billion in revenue.

Hmmm.  Could that be because Black Friday revenue was $11.4 Billion last year? Why would you use $1 Billion as any sort of comparable barometer?  You might as well use one dollar.

Flack fleck:

Top Shopper-Targeting Tactics: The number of potential touch-points to reach consumers is rapidly increasing, especially with more shoppers turning toward tablet devices and smartphones.

Add these:

Mobile Boosts Cyber Monday; Facebook and Twitter Not So Much
By Christopher Heine
… The proliferation of smartphones and tablets are impacting the way holidays shoppers go about their business.

…On the other hand, IBM found that social media-driven sales were down 35 percent year over year for Black Friday.

Social Media Has A Black Friday #Fail
Traffic from Twitter to retail websites was especially grim: down from 0.02% of total traffic on Black Friday in 2011 to 0.00% this year…

The numbers will need some serious spinning by social media gurus invested in the idea of social commerce being the future for online retail.

This all sounds vaguely familiar…

01 May 2010
Foretellings
… Advertising on smartphones will be considered an annoyance, invasive, and rather dinky – while marketing/search (coupons on steroids, and more) will flourish and dominate.

22 August 2011
5-Star Web Reviews Go for $5
Time To Duct-Tape WOMM?
A recent ad posted by “Katmoney” … offered to write convincing negative reviews posted to a Yelp page of your choosing.

25 September 2012
Twitter & Advertising
The mobile/social media soothsayers will have you believe that there is this unknown, magical mode of persuasion that has never been thought of before – and will reveal itself any day now.

The Lesson:  Use (silly retronym ahead) Traditional Advertising – television, newspaper inserts, magazines, outdoor, direct mail – to advertise, use smartphones for marketing while consumers are shopping. (Although the percentage of people using  smartphones to shop isn’t that impressive.)

And what did NostraChuckus predict almost six years ago?

15 December 2006
The Brouhaha Over WOMM
…When it all comes out in the wash, WOMM will be the best thing to happen to traditional advertising. Pretty soon, consumers won't believe anybody - even their best friends.

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What is and is not ‘digital’ advertising?  That’ll be the next post.