FIGHTING FOR YOUR CONSUMER RIGHTS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
This is a customer service story with a happy ending, but it's also a cautionary tale. I would today be out $5,500 if it were not for the Internet.
I love Volvos. My wife and I have for years. We're so brand loyal to Volvo that we own two of them--a small X60 sedan and a larger XC90 wagon.
Our love comes from a combination of their cool, European styling and their incredible safety record. You may be aware Volvo sponsors a group called "A Volvo Saved My Life Club" and publishes the stories of people who have lived through horrific crashes because of Volvo safety features and engineering.
Last summer as our XC90 passed 60,000 miles I began to hear a horrific grinding sound in the transmission, but only when we were coasting at high speeds. When we brought it in for service at the local dealership, Borton Volvo on Lyndale Avenue, they said they couldn't "replicate" the problem. Okay.
Another couple of thousand miles passed and the grinding was combined with a lurching when accelerating. I brought the car in and left on a business trip. When I landed at Dulles airport in Washington, I returned a call from the service department.
The transmission in the XC90 was shot completely. A new one would cost $5,500.
Silence. I'm not a shouter, but I got pretty hot about a transmission failing completely just outside of the 50,000 mile warranty, and after I'd pointed out the problem some time before.
To their credit, the service department people at Borton connected me with Volvo service headquarters in Paramus, New Jersey. A very nice person named Lois took my information and said she would "get some action." Sounded promising.
That night, thinking about the $5,500 we would have to pony up, I began doing research on the Internet. I went to Google and typed in "Volvo XC90 transmission problem."
Well! Page after page of links came up: people with the same problem, threads in car forums about the lemon transmissions in the 2003 and 2004 XC90s. Consumer guides with warnings about buying used 2003 XC90s. And on and on.
I began printing out pages from the car forums. Some people had gotten the entire transmission paid for by Volvo. Some only had to pay $1,000. Some people got screwed.
I turns out in the first two years the XC90 was built--2003 and 2004--Volvo had to buy transmissions from General Motors for some of the XC90s because they ran short and couldn't keep up with demand. The GM transmissions didn't work well in the XC90. Some crapped out after just 20,000 miles. One person posted a note that they had replaced the transmission twice before 60,000 miles.
I called up the service manager at Borton and told him the good news! I had reams and reams of examples of people all over the country who had this same transmission problem and Volvo corporate paid to have the bad transmission replaced. I had all this great, great evidence that he could use to make the case to Volvo! The service manager wasn't quite as ecstatic as I was (the dealer probably had to pay part of these settlements) but he said he would press the case.
After a few days of silence Borton called back: all we would have to pay is $200--which was the deductable if we had purchased an extended warranty for the car. They threw in the 60,000 mile oil change and check-up for free.
Even five years ago what happened to us wouldn't have been possible. The infrastructure was there, but people wouldn't have thought to instinctively go to the Internet and post their stories. And if they hadn't done that, I wouldn't have found them and made my case to Volvo.
Some people think that the Internet is pretty well established now. My point--emphatically--is that we're at the beginning of the beginning. Now that the cloud is stable, fairly secure and real-time reliable, now that we have plentiful, free tools for communicating and publishing ourselves (you're reading my blog) ---now the Internet is beginning to reveal itself.
A system where instincively most people participate, read, listen, discuss, and write back.
I've got $5,500 that says we're just past the starting line.
Moving Forward With eBay
eBAY MOTORS "GALLERY MOVING FORWARD:" The first of Periscope's eBay micro sites for
Gallery Moving Forward
A second showcase, for
iMEDIA "ABC INTEGRATES LOST TO WIN" Great case study about ABC's hit show "Lost," showing how the television show itself is actually the centerpiece of a much larger media network of websites, mobile content, podcasts, and a lot of connecting messaging in between. The point is the stuff outside of the television show isn't *advertising* for the show, it's more content from the show. So the show isn't just the show, it's a whole lot more: Lost Case Study
HBO "ARI INTERVIEW" "Entourage" is one of HBO's most successful series, following the exploits of a young
iMEDIA "GOOGLE CLICK FRAUD AND YOU" Google has entered into a class action settlement over "click fraud." A refresher: "click fraud" is when you pay Google for search advertising, but some dirty rat competitor spends hours clicking on your ad, just to deplete your marketing budget. It's been a nasty little secret in the SEM business for a couple of years, but now Google, Yahoo and other search engines are being forced to step up with rebates to jilted customers. Here's an (angry) view of the situation, and the Google settlement, from Kevin Ryan, one of the watchdogs of the paid-search business: Google Fraud and You
TACO BELL "THE FOURTH MEAL" Taco Bell has created an interactive night on the town with their website www.thefourthmeal.com. You get to create a character (an "avatar" as they're called online) and wander around mythical downtown and take in the nightlife. It's pretty limited, but a consumer marketer could really gather a crowd with this kind of "virtual world" where people can communicate by online chat. This is basically what the "Sims" (http://thesims.ea.com/index_flash.php) is, only smaller. There's a young wired audience that would enjoy wandering around a virtual world (bigger and better than this start-up by Taco
Have a great week--RJ
SMELLS LIKE TEEN-AGE CREATED CONTENT
Hey, like, good morning:
"UTHTV.COM" So what's hot for teens on the net? Here's Uthtv.com, which is just like MySpace, only aimed at teens and tweens. Kids send in video and other content (rap poetry, for example) and the best is bubbled up to the top by a professional staff of website designers. Click and gape, Mom and Dad: Uthtv.com
"OMNIK.COM" The new new idea: Omnik allows you to connect with up to 10 people at the same time, using text, audio and video. Perfect for hanging out with your friends, especially when you're doing/not doing your homework: Omnik.com
"SHOPBOP.COM" More kid's stuff: if you can't live in Soho in NYC, at least you can shop there online. Here's an online Carnaby Street of very cool boutiques, all aimed at the 18-30 year old female with hip disposable income. Check out how looks and trends and key items are merchandised and upsold: Shopbop.com
GOOGLE "AD SENSE VIDEO ADS" Google, emperor of all they survey, has jumped into the video advertising business, adding video ads to their ubiquitous "Ad Sense" advertising. (Those are the small box of link ads you often see on smaller sites like this: (look at the right hand column, "Ads by Google") http://atvflorida.com/) Now you'll be able to blow video through your ad, which ought to up the sheer volumn of video ads by 10X over the next six months. Here's the official word, from the official Google "Ad Sense" blog: Ad Sense Video Ads
PARAMOUNT PICTURES "AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH" Al gore may not have invented the Internet, but he's learning some smart ways to use it to promote his new environmental documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," from Paramount Pictures. MySpace is getting behind the film, which focusses on the effects of global warming over the past 25 years, and speculates about the environmental disaster that mnight yet come. Paramount and My Space are creating a Website within My Space that the 60 million MySpace members can link to from an extensive online ad campaign inside myspace.com. Could be a model for other types of marketing, starting with short-term product launches. Here's an article with the details, from Media Post: Inconvenient Truth
Enjoy the week, and enjoy the summer weather--RJ
www.lifecomesatyourfast.comLIFE COMES AT YOU FAST IN TIMES SQUARE
Here's some great Flash executions, but we lead off with a terrific Times Square billboard interactive campaign by Nationwide Insurance:
NATIONWIDE INSURANCE "LIFE COMES AT YOU FAST (in TIMES SQUARE) T:M's interactive team in Dallas took over a giant television billboard in Times Square in NYC this week on behalf of Nationwide Insurance, to push their campaign "Life Comes At You Fast." People are invited to upload a picture with their "moment" They're asking people to propose, to tell your husband "we're pregnant," say you're sorry, share a life changing moment----and they'll flash it up for all New York City to see. The campaign drives people to the Website where they can upload their "moment" or view what's going on live in Time Square right at this moment--they've got a microphone and camera trained on Times Square. You can also walk through earlier "moments" that have been posted. The home page "dashboard" drives people to "investments," retirement" and "Insurance." It sure puts Nationwide out there with real people sharing real moments in their lives: Nationwide Times Square
CALIFORNIA MILE PROCESSOR BOARD "PLANETINNEED.COM" Got milk? Got Flash! Take a look at this wowza website for the "Got milk?" campaign that shows off the state of the art in video, animation and interactivity using Flash 8: Planet In Need.com
iMEDIA "THE AGENCY OF THE FUTURE: CONSUMERS" Here's a short, pithy article from iMedia's Robert Moskowitz that shows five great examples of how big league brands are building entire campaigns around consumer generated content. Home Depot, Converse, Mastercard, and the infamous Chevy Tahoe "make your own commercial" debacle. (Some contrarians are now saying that Chevy knew exactally what was going to happen with this campaign, and wanted the free publicity--ha! Here's a re-cap from CNET: GM Tahoe Fiasco) Go window shopping on some of the bigger consumer-generated content campaigns: iMedia Consumer Campaigns
NOKIA "PJORTRO" Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia introduces their new N91 phone as a replacement for your iPod--it's a cellphone, and an MP3 player. For the launch they've created a character, "P.J. Otro," supposedly a Russian-sounding engineer who has invented a "musical suit." As he dances, he creates beats, notes, rythyms, all in kind of a techno-Hip Hop groove. You get to make your own music with him using some interesting (and somewhat complex) tools. And once you've made a song, you can save it and download it to your MP3 player. The musical suit is the hook, but the music is the star. This website is the center of an integrated print / TV / online media campaign: Nokia's P.J. Ortro.com
BUGAHTTI "VEYRON CONFIGURATOR" A Bughatti Veyron automobile will set you back $1.2 million, but us peons can dream, can't we? Visit the configurator website and see not only the most expensive production car you can buy, but some lovely Flash interactivity as well: Bughatti Configurator
YOMIKO ADVERTISING "CREATIVE BUSHIDO" Yomiko, a leading Japanese ad agency, built this daffy site at the center of their own advertising campaign. It's called "Creative Bushido" and using the structures of a Kurosawa Edo-era epic, it puts you in the middle of the "great advertising war" which has befallen the Japanese ad business. It's in English, or rather sub-titled English--you get to make some choices, and listen as a room of advertising samurai build a campaign. It's funny to us, but I bet it's a scream in Tokyo: Creative Bushido
BONUS: The Guthrie Theater closed its original theater in Minneapolis last week, before moving to glorious new quarters (right across the street from Periscope) along the Mississippi River in downtown. The Minneapolis Star Tribune had a cool QT-VR 360 degree photograph of the last intermission, during the final performance, of Shakespeare's "Hamlet:" Final Guthrie 360
Have a great week. More posts later in the week. Thanks-RJ
THE BOOK OF COOL
Good morning:
OCELOT "THE BOOK OF COOL" Fred Rees is a London film-maker who set out a year ago to document on video various masters of acting "cool"--from card sharks to soccer players to street bike riders--35 different sultans of cool, who show off how to shuffle cards in a cool way, or do one wheel 360s on a BMX bike. It somes as a set of 4 DVDs + a coffee table book. The idea is perfect for video, and this promotional site for the set allows you to control where you wander, looking at any of the different types of cool cataloged. The music in every section is sweet, too. Very cool: The Book of Cool
LAND ROVER "GO BEYOND" Y&R came up with the stylish "Go Beyond" website, which serves as a platform for Land Rover owners to talk about how they use their Rover to "go beyond" the ordinary. The site is seeded with the usual extraordinary stories of scientists who explore the Yang-Tze River, and musicians who play in the Moroccan desert, but they're starting to get some user content contributions. And the home page interface is an interesting kind of floating magazine table of contents: Go Beyond
ALEVE "ALEVE GOOD NEWS.COM" Aleve pain reliever has a new site that features a month of videos from 31 customers talking about how they found out they had Arthritis, how it affected their daily lives, and how Aleve fixes that. The interviews are spoken directly into the camera, so they have a very intinate, immediate effect. Great example of consumers being your best salespeople, and for using the Web both to present video--it's like TV, only better. This site is the destination from a wide range of offline and online media. Notice the ticker counting down until the next story is posted: Aleve Good News
TELE2 "THE FRIEND NETWORK" Swedish cellular company Tele2 has created a service to provide SMS text messaging for y6u to an exclusive network of friends that you build. It's the "six degrees of separation" idea that if 64 invite two friends, who invite two friends, etc, eventually you'll have all of Sweden on your network--which you can track through a colorful interface. More community innovation, led by the phone companies, who have the most to gain early from this kind of work: Friend Network
NIKE "NIKE WOMEN" RG/A comes through with a strong multimedia site featuring Nike fashion and fitness videos for women. Features hip hop tracks from Rihanna and other performers, and you can download 30 minute soundtracks to do your workout to. Lots of features ("What's your dance personality?" quiz, etc.) but mostly great intermix of music, video and e-commerce: Nike Women
Have a great week---RJ
FIGHTING FOR YOUR CONSUMER RIGHTS WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
This is a customer service story with a happy ending, but it's also a cautionary tale. I would today be out $5,500 if it were not for the Internet.
I love Volvos. My wife and I have for years. We're so brand loyal to Volvo that we own two of them--a small X60 sedan and a larger XC90 wagon.
Our love comes from a combination of their cool, European styling and their incredible safety record. You may be aware Volvo sponsors a group called "A Volvo Saved My Life Club" and publishes the stories of people who have lived through horrific crashes because of Volvo safety features and engineering.
Last summer as our XC90 passed 60,000 miles I began to hear a horrific grinding sound in the transmission, but only when we were coasting at high speeds. When we brought it in for service at the local dealership, Borton Volvo on Lyndale Avenue, they said they couldn't "replicate" the problem. Okay.
Another couple of thousand miles passed and the grinding was combined with a lurching when accelerating. I brought the car in and left on a business trip. When I landed at Dulles airport in Washington, I returned a call from the service department.
The transmission in the XC90 was shot completely. A new one would cost $5,500.
Silence. I'm not a shouter, but I got pretty hot about a transmission failing completely just outside of the 50,000 mile warranty, and after I'd pointed out the problem some time before.
To their credit, the service department people at Borton connected me with Volvo service headquarters in Paramus, New Jersey. A very nice person named Lois took my information and said she would "get some action." Sounded promising.
That night, thinking about the $5,500 we would have to pony up, I began doing research on the Internet. I went to Google and typed in "Volvo XC90 transmission problem."
Well! Page after page of links came up: people with the same problem, threads in car forums about the lemon transmissions in the 2003 and 2004 XC90s. Consumer guides with warnings about buying used 2003 XC90s. And on and on.
I began printing out pages from the car forums. Some people had gotten the entire transmission paid for by Volvo. Some only had to pay $1,000. Some people got screwed.
I turns out in the first two years the XC90 was built--2003 and 2004--Volvo had to buy transmissions from General Motors for some of the XC90s because they ran short and couldn't keep up with demand. The GM transmissions didn't work well in the XC90. Some crapped out after just 20,000 miles. One person posted a note that they had replaced the transmission twice before 60,000 miles.
I called up the service manager at Borton and told him the good news! I had reams and reams of examples of people all over the country who had this same transmission problem and Volvo corporate paid to have the bad transmission replaced. I had all this great, great evidence that he could use to make the case to Volvo! The service manager wasn't quite as ecstatic as I was (the dealer probably had to pay part of these settlements) but he said he would press the case.
After a few days of silence Borton called back: all we would have to pay is $200--which was the deductable if we had purchased an extended warranty for the car. They threw in the 60,000 mile oil change and check-up for free.
Even five years ago what happened to us wouldn't have been possible. The infrastructure was there, but people wouldn't have thought to instinctively go to the Internet and post their stories. And if they hadn't done that, I wouldn't have found them and made my case to Volvo.
Some people think that the Internet is pretty well established now. My point--emphatically--is that we're at the beginning of the beginning. Now that the cloud is stable, fairly secure and real-time reliable, now that we have plentiful, free tools for communicating and publishing ourselves (you're reading my blog) ---now the Internet is beginning to reveal itself.
A system where instincively most people participate, read, listen, discuss, and write back.
I've got $5,500 that says we're just past the starting line.
Moving Forward With eBay
eBAY MOTORS "GALLERY MOVING FORWARD:" The first of Periscope's eBay micro sites for
Gallery Moving Forward
A second showcase, for
iMEDIA "ABC INTEGRATES LOST TO WIN" Great case study about ABC's hit show "Lost," showing how the television show itself is actually the centerpiece of a much larger media network of websites, mobile content, podcasts, and a lot of connecting messaging in between. The point is the stuff outside of the television show isn't *advertising* for the show, it's more content from the show. So the show isn't just the show, it's a whole lot more: Lost Case Study
HBO "ARI INTERVIEW" "Entourage" is one of HBO's most successful series, following the exploits of a young
iMEDIA "GOOGLE CLICK FRAUD AND YOU" Google has entered into a class action settlement over "click fraud." A refresher: "click fraud" is when you pay Google for search advertising, but some dirty rat competitor spends hours clicking on your ad, just to deplete your marketing budget. It's been a nasty little secret in the SEM business for a couple of years, but now Google, Yahoo and other search engines are being forced to step up with rebates to jilted customers. Here's an (angry) view of the situation, and the Google settlement, from Kevin Ryan, one of the watchdogs of the paid-search business: Google Fraud and You
TACO BELL "THE FOURTH MEAL" Taco Bell has created an interactive night on the town with their website www.thefourthmeal.com. You get to create a character (an "avatar" as they're called online) and wander around mythical downtown and take in the nightlife. It's pretty limited, but a consumer marketer could really gather a crowd with this kind of "virtual world" where people can communicate by online chat. This is basically what the "Sims" (http://thesims.ea.com/index_flash.php) is, only smaller. There's a young wired audience that would enjoy wandering around a virtual world (bigger and better than this start-up by Taco
Have a great week--RJ
SMELLS LIKE TEEN-AGE CREATED CONTENT
Hey, like, good morning:
"UTHTV.COM" So what's hot for teens on the net? Here's Uthtv.com, which is just like MySpace, only aimed at teens and tweens. Kids send in video and other content (rap poetry, for example) and the best is bubbled up to the top by a professional staff of website designers. Click and gape, Mom and Dad: Uthtv.com
"OMNIK.COM" The new new idea: Omnik allows you to connect with up to 10 people at the same time, using text, audio and video. Perfect for hanging out with your friends, especially when you're doing/not doing your homework: Omnik.com
"SHOPBOP.COM" More kid's stuff: if you can't live in Soho in NYC, at least you can shop there online. Here's an online Carnaby Street of very cool boutiques, all aimed at the 18-30 year old female with hip disposable income. Check out how looks and trends and key items are merchandised and upsold: Shopbop.com
GOOGLE "AD SENSE VIDEO ADS" Google, emperor of all they survey, has jumped into the video advertising business, adding video ads to their ubiquitous "Ad Sense" advertising. (Those are the small box of link ads you often see on smaller sites like this: (look at the right hand column, "Ads by Google") http://atvflorida.com/) Now you'll be able to blow video through your ad, which ought to up the sheer volumn of video ads by 10X over the next six months. Here's the official word, from the official Google "Ad Sense" blog: Ad Sense Video Ads
PARAMOUNT PICTURES "AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH" Al gore may not have invented the Internet, but he's learning some smart ways to use it to promote his new environmental documentary "An Inconvenient Truth," from Paramount Pictures. MySpace is getting behind the film, which focusses on the effects of global warming over the past 25 years, and speculates about the environmental disaster that mnight yet come. Paramount and My Space are creating a Website within My Space that the 60 million MySpace members can link to from an extensive online ad campaign inside myspace.com. Could be a model for other types of marketing, starting with short-term product launches. Here's an article with the details, from Media Post: Inconvenient Truth
Enjoy the week, and enjoy the summer weather--RJ
www.lifecomesatyourfast.comLIFE COMES AT YOU FAST IN TIMES SQUARE
Here's some great Flash executions, but we lead off with a terrific Times Square billboard interactive campaign by Nationwide Insurance:
NATIONWIDE INSURANCE "LIFE COMES AT YOU FAST (in TIMES SQUARE) T:M's interactive team in Dallas took over a giant television billboard in Times Square in NYC this week on behalf of Nationwide Insurance, to push their campaign "Life Comes At You Fast." People are invited to upload a picture with their "moment" They're asking people to propose, to tell your husband "we're pregnant," say you're sorry, share a life changing moment----and they'll flash it up for all New York City to see. The campaign drives people to the Website where they can upload their "moment" or view what's going on live in Time Square right at this moment--they've got a microphone and camera trained on Times Square. You can also walk through earlier "moments" that have been posted. The home page "dashboard" drives people to "investments," retirement" and "Insurance." It sure puts Nationwide out there with real people sharing real moments in their lives: Nationwide Times Square
CALIFORNIA MILE PROCESSOR BOARD "PLANETINNEED.COM" Got milk? Got Flash! Take a look at this wowza website for the "Got milk?" campaign that shows off the state of the art in video, animation and interactivity using Flash 8: Planet In Need.com
iMEDIA "THE AGENCY OF THE FUTURE: CONSUMERS" Here's a short, pithy article from iMedia's Robert Moskowitz that shows five great examples of how big league brands are building entire campaigns around consumer generated content. Home Depot, Converse, Mastercard, and the infamous Chevy Tahoe "make your own commercial" debacle. (Some contrarians are now saying that Chevy knew exactally what was going to happen with this campaign, and wanted the free publicity--ha! Here's a re-cap from CNET: GM Tahoe Fiasco) Go window shopping on some of the bigger consumer-generated content campaigns: iMedia Consumer Campaigns
NOKIA "PJORTRO" Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia introduces their new N91 phone as a replacement for your iPod--it's a cellphone, and an MP3 player. For the launch they've created a character, "P.J. Otro," supposedly a Russian-sounding engineer who has invented a "musical suit." As he dances, he creates beats, notes, rythyms, all in kind of a techno-Hip Hop groove. You get to make your own music with him using some interesting (and somewhat complex) tools. And once you've made a song, you can save it and download it to your MP3 player. The musical suit is the hook, but the music is the star. This website is the center of an integrated print / TV / online media campaign: Nokia's P.J. Ortro.com
BUGAHTTI "VEYRON CONFIGURATOR" A Bughatti Veyron automobile will set you back $1.2 million, but us peons can dream, can't we? Visit the configurator website and see not only the most expensive production car you can buy, but some lovely Flash interactivity as well: Bughatti Configurator
YOMIKO ADVERTISING "CREATIVE BUSHIDO" Yomiko, a leading Japanese ad agency, built this daffy site at the center of their own advertising campaign. It's called "Creative Bushido" and using the structures of a Kurosawa Edo-era epic, it puts you in the middle of the "great advertising war" which has befallen the Japanese ad business. It's in English, or rather sub-titled English--you get to make some choices, and listen as a room of advertising samurai build a campaign. It's funny to us, but I bet it's a scream in Tokyo: Creative Bushido
BONUS: The Guthrie Theater closed its original theater in Minneapolis last week, before moving to glorious new quarters (right across the street from Periscope) along the Mississippi River in downtown. The Minneapolis Star Tribune had a cool QT-VR 360 degree photograph of the last intermission, during the final performance, of Shakespeare's "Hamlet:" Final Guthrie 360
Have a great week. More posts later in the week. Thanks-RJ more
THE BOOK OF COOL
Good morning:
OCELOT "THE BOOK OF COOL" Fred Rees is a London film-maker who set out a year ago to document on video various masters of acting "cool"--from card sharks to soccer players to street bike riders--35 different sultans of cool, who show off how to shuffle cards in a cool way, or do one wheel 360s on a BMX bike. It somes as a set of 4 DVDs + a coffee table book. The idea is perfect for video, and this promotional site for the set allows you to control where you wander, looking at any of the different types of cool cataloged. The music in every section is sweet, too. Very cool: The Book of Cool
LAND ROVER "GO BEYOND" Y&R came up with the stylish "Go Beyond" website, which serves as a platform for Land Rover owners to talk about how they use their Rover to "go beyond" the ordinary. The site is seeded with the usual extraordinary stories of scientists who explore the Yang-Tze River, and musicians who play in the Moroccan desert, but they're starting to get some user content contributions. And the home page interface is an interesting kind of floating magazine table of contents: Go Beyond
ALEVE "ALEVE GOOD NEWS.COM" Aleve pain reliever has a new site that features a month of videos from 31 customers talking about how they found out they had Arthritis, how it affected their daily lives, and how Aleve fixes that. The interviews are spoken directly into the camera, so they have a very intinate, immediate effect. Great example of consumers being your best salespeople, and for using the Web both to present video--it's like TV, only better. This site is the destination from a wide range of offline and online media. Notice the ticker counting down until the next story is posted: Aleve Good News
TELE2 "THE FRIEND NETWORK" Swedish cellular company Tele2 has created a service to provide SMS text messaging for y6u to an exclusive network of friends that you build. It's the "six degrees of separation" idea that if 64 invite two friends, who invite two friends, etc, eventually you'll have all of Sweden on your network--which you can track through a colorful interface. More community innovation, led by the phone companies, who have the most to gain early from this kind of work: Friend Network
NIKE "NIKE WOMEN" RG/A comes through with a strong multimedia site featuring Nike fashion and fitness videos for women. Features hip hop tracks from Rihanna and other performers, and you can download 30 minute soundtracks to do your workout to. Lots of features ("What's your dance personality?" quiz, etc.) but mostly great intermix of music, video and e-commerce: Nike Women
Have a great week---RJ
