les années folles: roaring through my twenties

Android Market, Google Music, and Google eBookstore Rebrand to Google Play

Let’s play word association, shall we?

Apple: iPods, stickers, earbuds, iPhones, Safari, hipsters, coffee shops, MacBooks, iTunes, white, Steve Jobs, QuickTime, iPads

Android: cell phones, that little green robot………… and oh yeah, aren’t they owned by Google?

In short, it’s safe to say brand recognition is an issue for Android, Google’s mobile platform. If customers can’t identify a brand, how will they know where to purchase its products and services?

On March 6 Google took its first step to repair that missing link, launching Google Play as a one-stop-shop for Android apps as well as games, books, movies, and music for viewing on desktop or mobile browsers. Wrapped up in a neat bundle, all of Google’s entertainment services are now easier for customers to access, whether they’re Android owners or Gmail account holders.

Google’s foray into mobile in 2008 quickly found success - they’re the number one mobile platform in the world - but that celerity came with a cost. The platform’s rapid growth since its release is largely due to the proliferation of Android-compatible devices, not consumer awareness of the brand itself. That’s a dangerous strategy, as users who pick up an Android-compatible device simply because their mobile carrier provided it to them have no loyalty to the brand.

What does Google Play mean for competitors like iTunes and Amazon? Google isn’t giving up this market without a fight. For now, Apple “owns” music and Amazon “owns” books, but with a streamlined entertainment market, Google can siphon away Apple and Amazon customers who use Google apps like Gmail, YouTube, Google Chat, Google Maps, and Google Docs. Where better to find new customers than your own backyard?

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Rules of Engagement for QR Codes

Forget Foursquare v. Gowalla (RIP!), the latest social media divide centers on QR codes. The checkered squares invaded social marketing this year, popping up in GoDaddy.com’s Super Bowl ads, Rock the Vote’s SXSW tees, and cheeky Victoria’s Secret promos. The jury’s still out on their staying power, though, and social media gurus have emerged swinging on both sides.

My verdict? While QR codes’ utter ubiquity of late dilutes their impact, their ability to bring timely, relevant info to mobile web users is a gold mine for socially savvy brands. Below, some of the best practices I’ve seen:

• Create content users can’t find on their own. Plenty of this year’s Super Bowl spots featured QR codes emblazoned on screen, but no one at my party bolted to the TV with a scanner app. Why not? While we’re big enough social media nerds to justify crouching by the TV with our iPhones, the codes often linked to the brand’s main page, which we can access much more easily by typing in a URL or Googling. The exception to the rule? GoDaddy’s Super Bowl spot, which landed a Hail Mary by enticing viewers to “See more now!” and scan the code, linking to a video continuing the commercial’s storyline.

• Behold the power of print. TV is not an ideal medium for QR codes. Who has their QR scanner at the ready for every commercial break? Truth is, nearly half of all QR codes in 2011 were scanned from a printed magazine or newspaper. The brilliance of the QR code is that it links users to content when they can’t access a computer for more info. Austin’s Capital Metro expertly posted QR code posters at bus stops linking to pick-up times, schedules, and route maps during SXSW 2012, offering attendees easy access to public transport info.

• Know your users. QR code generators like SmartyTags and delivr include analytics with insights on QR users, from consumer demographics to preferred mobile devices to popular QR code sources. Armed with that knowledge, brands can personalize the user’s experience - offering newspaper or magazine consumers information on a local retailer, or linking to a web-only coupon from a QR code on an in-store product.

         Registering to vote via “Rock the Vote” tees at SXSW 2012

QR’s are here to stay, but the novelty has worn off. It’s time to streamline how brands incorporate QR into their marketing instead of saturating the media with the new “it” tool.

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Where I wish I were, Monday morning edition: @BettyDraper’s Guide to Social Storytelling, Helen Klein Ross (@adbroad)’s SXSW panel on brand fiction and content. Helen’s the voice behind Welcome to the Drapers as well as the Mad Men characters on Twitter, trophy wives and ad men and buxom secretaries personified in tweet.

Some of my fav @bettydraper-isms:

@bettydraper: Whoever invented Saturday morning cartoons deserves the Nobel Peace Prize.

@bettydraper: You can’t wear your white shoes @Sally_Draper. It’s after Labor Day!

@bettydraper: Cold cream. Curlers. Cigarette.

@bettydraper: Counting the days until sleepaway camp.

@bettydraper: Mothers Club luncheon. Another gimlet please.

@bettydraper: What a waste of manicure today if we’re bombed tonight. #madmen #blackout65

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