Cooking for Brevitt

Line Rider - Yet Another Way to Waste Time

Believe Line Rider has been around for awhile now, but I've been reading more and more buzz about it the last few weeks. It's yet another great way to waste some time during the day, but it can be fun.

Check out examples over at YouTube and lookie here:

Who Creates a Market?

Social Media, Web 2.0, Integrated Networking, User Generated Content - it's everywhere in business today no matter what sector you are in. Much like the rush to build a presence on Second Life, companies are equally driving towards Web 2.0 compliance (whatever the fuck that is).

Although most of the companies are doing a great job of putting these tactics together, the question still remains - is it necessary? Are the firms pushing or pulling towards their tarket audience?

Remember that you can build the greatest product, service or technology - but if no one needs or wants it.......you have no sales and last time I checked, a company with zero sales revenue isn't going to last that long.

More to read over at ClickZ which has a great article focused on this issue in relation to the Holiday shopping season - check out Sites Have Caught on to Social Shopping, But Have Shoppers?

"There's a lot of supply, but it's unclear whether or not there's the demand," for social shopping services, said Forrester Research Senior Analyst Sucharita Mulpuru. "These are interesting ideas, but it's still a little early"

Crayon: A New Marketing Company

So the wave of Second Life centered ventures continues - Crayon, a startup from Joseph Jaffe launched a few days ago. Dubbed as the world's first dedicated new marketing company, Crayon is an agency that exists both in the real world and Second Life. Built on the premise that more corporations are going to want to pitch their ideas/products within Second Life - Crayon hopes to capture the first mover status as numerous companies scramble to get into the game.

Now - everyone nows my ongoing debate with Second Life, but as an Advertising professional this move fascinates me. As much as I don't understand ths shift, this game HAS become a significant channel that companies should explore. By moving into the space this quickly, Crayon should set itself up very nicely. My concern is the long-term value of Second Life and it's users. Yes, they just surpassed the 1M user mark, but how many of those play on consistent basis? Are the numbers inflated due to it's rising popularity?

I'm not sure, but I would caution any of my clients into rushing into Second Life just because everyone else is. What is the true value of setting up an in-game promotion?

Anyway - very curious to see where Crayon heads. Jaffe has a great blog and has been in the new media space for awhile now. It's a interesting model and something I plan on watching develop.

Check out 'Connecting the Dots' - the Crayon corporate blog as well. 

Blog Me Up: Boston Business Filter

The Boston Business Filter is a great blog living over at the Globe from Maura Welch. Depending on how busy my day is, I try and make it over to her site at least once a day.

Although based in Boston - her posts are not limited to local technology. It's a great fresh viewpoint on Web 2.0, Marketing, Advertising, Technology and pretty much every other business channel I'm involved with.

Check it out......

Oddica & Technorati

Checking out some user stats this morning over my morning coffee and noticed a few hits from Technorati for the term - www.oddica.com. Dug a little deeper and it looks like my addition of Oddica's site in my links has gained some traction. Odd seeing there is no content, but still pretty cool.

By the way - Oddica is a great company that like Threadless is pushing some very cool designs out there. I like that they put everything on American Apparel as well - much better feel and probably my only complaint with Threadless. I'm putting a new order in at both shops soon, so will drop an update once they arrive.

Either way - check Oddica out....great designs!

Has iTunes Met It's Match?

Finally took some time to review the MySpace announcement the other day highlighting their new music store. Seems like a great alternative for those unsigned or up and coming bands that are still searching for an audience.

The rates seem reasonable as well:

• 45% to MySpace and Snocap (although I've also read that it is $0.45 per song - anyone have clarification?)
• Rest of profit to Band
• Band sets price point - can be free if desired

iTunes is too big of a monster for this to make a huge dent in their market share, but it could grow over time. The sheer size of the MySpace audience has to make the folks at Apple recoginize the competition.

On the flip side - is this target audience (15-30) even purchasing music or are do they continue to use P2P networks to download music for free?