Maroon Ventures Blog

Via Greg Sterling, Dynamic Logic research shows consumer reaction to ads in various media. Perhaps surprisingly, consumers are a lot more amenable to ads in traditional media than new, and newspapers are at the top of the heap with 42% of respondents having a “somewhat positive” view of newspaper ads.

Is it time for print to start borrowing some of the measurability that’s common online? Why don’t more papers use 800-numbers in ads so they can track the actual phone calls their ads drive? How about the ability to track e-mail or web responses using proxy server technology (think of something like Tiny URLs in print ads that help the paper measure how many people are going to the advertiser’s site based on what they saw in print)? Online products have been doing this for a long time.

It would be really interesting to see someone buy one of the myriad newspapers on the market based on a pro forma that would allow for a sane, easy to understand rate card that completely rethinks some of the gouging that’s created advertiser disdain for newspapers.

Yes, newspapers have lost much of the marketplace status they once held. But most of them still have significant classified franchises and ad volume. And they have substantial, albeit dwindling, local audience. Cutting rate (sorry, Mark, someone had to say it) might be the right, if counterintuitive, way to re-establish some of that clout with advertising that consumers actually like. What if you coupled this with a compelling online strategy that isn’t afraid to put advertisers on the web — even at the expense of the print product if it makes more sense for the advertiser?

Maybe it’s not too late for a truly innovative — even disruptive — approach to print advertising. But it probably will have to come from someone arriving fresh to the industry with a sober view of the current economics it faces. Recent “fresh” arrivals haven’t followed this route …

Dynamic Logic research results

Aurora (Part 1) from Adaptive Path on Vimeo

Via LifeHacker, I came across this intriguing guess at what life on the Web will be like 10 years from now. Is it just me, or does it seem rather Apple-esque? And that creepy music in the background. It’s just a little too close to the airy-yet-ominous soundtrack on the Epic 2015 video.

But all snarkiness aside, Adaptive Path’s Aurora represents some fascinating thinking. Definitely worth a look.

And while we’re talking about user interface, check out “The Creative Destruction of a Website” post on Innoblog. It looks at the disruptive implications of ad agency Modernista!s new home page design. It takes the disaggregation that’s occurring on the web to the next level, essentially conceding that users will find, gain and access information in their own way. Modernista! just provides navigation and tools that allow its users to learn about the agency in a way that isn’t predicated on everything residing on the agency’s site. It’s almost the navigation equivalent of RSS ..

Update: Part Two of the Aurora video is now online.

Root Clip, which has emerged from the innovation group at Scripps newspapers, has opened voting on its second film, Chance Encounters. The site has come a long way since I initially took note of it in this blog. Clearly, Erik Luchauer and Kevin Antoine are iterating as they go, refining the process and streamlining the user interface.

The premise of the site is that Erik and Kevin post a short video, a root clip, and other filmmakers are urged to submit the next video in the sequence. Users vote on the best submission with the winner becoming the second installment. Then on to the next round. In the end, if all goes well, you end up with a short video story that is created by myriad filmmakers in a collaborative process. Talk about social media.

The major obstacle I hit when voting on Chance Encounter was the need to register. While I understand why it’s necessary to avoid voting fraud, it was a pain to have to go and register just as I was about to vote. But go ahead and register. Then vote. It’s an interesting project that’s worth checking out.

And why would a newspaper company be messing around with this? I’m not sure, exactly. But there’s something cool here, something outside the bounds of what newspapers traditionally do that could help as they cast around for what role they’ll play in an interactive world. It doesn’t take much extrapolation to come up with ideas that could apply in local markets, advertising and news.

Another day, another Twitter crash. Twitter is rapidly becoming a victim of its own success. Outages have become frequent and unfortunately, predictable. Twitter’s inability to scale has resulted in turnover of key technical staff and a complete rethinking of their technology strategy with the very public abandonment of Ruby on Rails. Now, reports are coming in that people are moving to FriendFeed in search of a more stable platform. Rule #3 of the Web 2.0 world - if you fall down, they will leave - quickly.

P.S. I am a Twitter junkie.

Scripps’ Jay Small notes that RootClip, a startup video play that emerged from the company’s new venture fund, is starting to generate some positive buzz. RootClip really is one of the more innovative video plays I’ve seen in a while, and as Jay notes, it’s one of those things you wouldn’t expect from a newspaper company. Talk about innovation …

Also, just noticed that RootClip received a redesign recently that is a major upgrade. Nice work. If you haven’t done so  already, stop by and check out RootClip.