S60 Open to new features

Big props to Gomcoite for a double-whammy report this week. I kept thinking about "Monsoon Wedding" as I read this report...all the preparations that go into weddings in India are awesome to behold on screen, can't begin to imagine what it was like for Gomcoite's boss and family. But Gomcoite seems to have smoothed things out a bit with help from both "Share on Ovi" and his Widset Pets.

Here's Gomcoite's submission:

Going Back In Time

This one is a special one and it goes like this. Do you know we had 25,000 weddings in one day in Delhi last week, well if not, now you know it now. I'm sure it's a world record. It was my Boss's daughter's wedding. Well, we had our part of participation in setting up the event, sending invites, checking upon food etc. after all it was our Boss's only daughter the preparations of which had been going on since god knows when. Some ritual were well organized and at the same time some went a bit off track but in all it was awesome. We had our share of fun and enjoyed every moment. My friend clicked a few shots with his N91. This is when I caught him and asked if he could share it with me online using Ovi. After a pause he asked what is Ovi, well I told him that it's a way to share your media online with your friends with your s60 device on the go. I told him to Bluetooth me the pictures and I'll show how it works. It was pretty cool as I explained him about channels, public and private & the best straight access from our phone. He wanted get his own channel and thanked me. I told him that he could also get up front with cool tricks by visiting s60.com and can join the ambassadors program like me. Anyways the wedding went on and we danced, ate and drank and had a lot of fun.

After a couple of days I went to visit my boss and found that he was out but aunty was in and invited me for a cup of tea. I stepped inside and as you know it we started to chat about the wedding. After a few minutes she said how her daughter was just a kid and now she's married. It almost seems as if yesterday. The house seems so empty now. I knew what she meant but to keep her on the brighter sides of the things I introduced her to the Widset Pets application. I told her that I am an S60 Ambassador and came to know about the Widset Pets there. She was receptive on what I was saying but I still feel she was lost. So I took out my N82 and showed her how things worked. I started from scratch and told her that you first set up a Facebook account an online social network and then you add the Wisdet Pet application. Next you make you Mini Pet and send it for adoption to your friends and adopt their Mini Pets. Then you download the application to your mobile and then you go around taking care. I showed her how Mini Gomcoite was doing. Its like going back to the old days when you were small and were being taken care off.

She was amazed and said that she would love to try. Besides this I also introduced her to Ovi where she could share pictures, video, audio etc. with her daughter online and straight from her mobile. Well now she can be a part of the coming events in her daughter?s life and vice versa. I also showed her the wedding pictures I had online on ovi. During this the Boss made an entry and I greeted him. He asked if everything was ok back in the hospital and sat down in the dining. Aunty told him that how I used Ovi and the Widset Pets and we sat down for a long conversation.

Ciao

PS
You can get a glance of the wedding by clicking on the following link
http://share.ovi.com/search/owner%3agomcoite+tag%3awedding
these are two shots that I have on my public channel.

Thanks Gomcoite, and Kristina will be in touch with loaner details :-)

To submit your Widset Pet report just enter the Ambassador section of S60.com, click on reports and then select "Widset Pets" from the drop down and start typing away!

The shipping guys have shown up with our latest batch of goodies: The BH-503 BT Headsets:

We'll be giving these away to the Top 10 "Widset Pet" Ambassadors at the end of the current campaign (still 6 weeks away). To be eligible for the headset you have to sign up for the Widset Pet campaign. See your ranking by presssing the "Ranking" button on the left hand side of the Ambassador main page (who knew, right?)

Once you start submitting reports you'll see your ranking move up!

Happy WoMing!!

This week's Report of the Week comes to us from Ritesh. I of course am a fan of this report because
1) Ritesh shows how being an Ambassador is a hit with the ladies and
2) Ritesh is talking about Widsets while he saves the world by reducing his carbon footprint. Just like we did way back in the "Share on Ovi" campaign :-)

Check out our modern-day Casanova in action:

Guess this has to do with the increase in fuel prices, but I decided to join a carpool. Today was my first day. The concept is different. I pay a fixed monthly amount as a deposit/maintenance charge and then based on usage pay the car owner some fixed amount of money every time I use the ride. Then there are 3 different slots (say in evening cars leaving at 6 pm, 7 pm, and 7.30pm) and you can choose anyone you will use in the evening. You need to decide by 2 pm and inform the co. about your choice for the evening. On my way back, I got a ride with 4 ladies (don?t get excited, they were elderly ladies) and since I was the youngest, got chatty with me. Within a few minutes they knew all events in my life and with nothing more to share, I pulled out my N82 to pass time. I had recently installed Widsets and wanted to set it up. The fancy setup of widsets caught my neighbours attention and asked whether I was watching a cartoon on my mobile. I told her that I have created a pet and am trying to take care of it. For a moment, she gave me a look as if I have dropped from a different planet or something. I explained to her that it was a program where in one creates and maintains a pet. Then I showed her the application and told that just today I have installed this on my phone, since I am fairly new to this phone. Then I asked her if she knew about facebook and she had heard about it. I told her, this was an application created for facebook and the developer had also created a mobile version which all java based phones could use. I explained a bit more technical stuff about java/non java/S60,S40 cellphones, which they surely weren?t interested in. Then the usual remark came out ?you young fellow know so much about technology!? when I told them that I was a part of the S60 ambassador program which made me aware of technology. I quickly explained about the S60 ambassador program, lest not to bore them to death. I got off 2nd and I know what the ladies must be thinking about me ;-)

Thanks Ritesh! (We'll send a loaner N95 your way for submitting such an engaging report).

This week's report comes to us from Furie in the UK:

How To Get A Beating From Your Girlfriend And Entertain Her Little Sisters

It had to happen eventually. You get all these different applications and widgets that eventually you forget about some. Take Widsets Pets for example. I'd gotten my girlfriend to create herself on it for me to torture, um I mean play with and love when we're apart. Unfortunately I haven't really been looking in on her this past month and she's gotten thin and her clothes are all but rags as she stands alone in the desert with a broken heart. I didn't mean to do it, honest.

Anyway this all came as quite a shock to me and I swore when I saw her like that, eliciting high pitched giggles from her two little sisters who were visiting that day. As I explained what had happened they all started to look at me like I was insane, so I passed my phone over to the girls and explained how to use it. They spent the next hour bathing, brushing and feeding their big sister as if she was a doll, and loving every minute of it. Their mum and her boyfriend had never seen them so engrossed apparently, so I explained how they could get it on their own phones for the girls to play with. After wrestling my phone back (early teen girls stick to mobile phones - must be a genetic mutation of the species) I demoed a bit more of the Widsets service to let Dawn see how it'd benefit her as well as her girls and they left with the web address to download it for themselves, instructions on how to create their own pets, as well as a tip to get 3 UK sim cards as they have a cheap monthly data deal. Personally I refuse to let the lil monsters adopt my pet. They'd torture him soooo much.

Oh, you want to know about the beating in the title? Well, it wasn't so much that my real girlfriend was angry that I'd neglected her virtual self for so long, more that the last action I'd performed (that was still visible on the reaction screen) was to whip her. We made up though... eventually. =o(

EDIT - Everyone I know knows that I'm a phone guru and I explained about this WOM advertising thing and got permission to use their names in online reports about conversations we have about relevant features.

Thanks Furie. Contact Kristina to get yourself an N82 loaner to show off to your friends and your friends' little sisters...meantime, pls stay out of trouble ;-)

The results are in and have been lovingly tallied. Here are our Top 75 "Share on Ovi" Ambassadors:

75. Kikobaya
74. Smashpop
73. Esinclai
72. Sevendc
71. Lucky
71. liftii
70. dissonation
69. acurrie
68. tcarstensen
67. ganeshmoorthy
66. chino
65. rcampoamor
64. Gubro
63. bisito
62. Zanmato
61. mikealive
60. zainman
59. bogart
58. radical24
57. trupter
56. anirudh
55. coloboxp
54. ykbks
53. steve4130
52. gauravbr
51 akhilchawla
50. hoevenrobert
49. ashish
48. Micky
47. NormanJohn
46. merlin3212
45. iN10Se
44. jagteshwar
43. jmckitterick
42. javsmo
41. sevendotzero
40. manisha
39. technologicali
38. obsidial
37. simrantiwana
36. mirkocorli
35. MartY3
34. dochoa
33. EvilPhish
32. hmarsili
31. aashish
30. domon07
29. sigma421
28. ProfessorSmashy
27. NZtechfreak
26. jebbrilliant
25. pablopoo
24. Sirul
23. auntiewiv
22. mcpezza
21. Mitko
20. cnupy
19. RobertSe
18. gersbo
17. shewhowearsred
16. buddhake
15. dandandan
14. omedina
13. gwapz
12. jamaalism
11. jobber99
10. nikhilchawla
9. craigl21
8. vaibhavsharma
7. maksim
6. ritesh
5. MattWPBS
4. kukalubo
3. gomcoite
2. LENNYBONS
1. crazysehaj

Thanks for all of your hard work, your engaging reports, and your general commitment to the "Share on Ovi" campaign. As noted previously, if you are in the Top 75, you'll have a choice of rewards. Everyone is guaranteed a BH-900. If a winner would rather have something different, we'll also have a limited supply of iGo Stowaway BT keyboards, Nokia MD-5W BT speakers, and the Nokia DT-22 Tripod. The awards that are in limited supply will be first come, first serve -- let Kristina know on that day if that's your preference.

For the rest of you aspiring Ambassadors, remember that you have to sign up for a specific campaign to 1) get your welcome kit, and 2) to be eligible to earn rewards. "Always S60" doesn't have specific rewards associated with it, but there are spots left for our "Widset Pets" campaign. To sign up for a campaign, go to the Ambassador website, log in, and choose "Campaigns" on the left hand side.

Additional campaigns are in the pipeline, stay tuned to this blog and http://www.ambassadors.s60.com for updates!

We asked our Ambassadors to tag anything and everything Random13. Lots and lots of great photos were posted. And we got kinda of sad at the prospect of not having anything to rate in the future. Looking back at the themes over the weeks-- place3, sneaker4, food5, animal6, transport7, print8, door9, hand10, sign11, water12. A lot of great stuff.
So we wanted to give out as many props as possible. So: Instead of just one pic of the week, here's a smattering of some of our favorites, the best Random13 posts from last week:

Nikhil Chawla -

Gomcoite -

Maksim -

mcpezza -

Thanks to everybody who contributed and we look forward to starting a new "Share on Ovi" campaign in the coming months.

OK, so our most active "Widset Pets" Ambassador seems to be better at this thing than we are. Kukalubo has a non-broken heart, is well-groomed and fed, and has a high intellect score. Meanwhile, I keep feeding steaks to Kristina but mini-Kristina never gets more than 40% full. What gives? Are we corporate types just not cut out for this kind of thing?

As an experiment, we're running a contest for one week: Who can get the most attention - a corporate "suit" (Kristina :-) or a real-live S60 Ambassador (Kukalubo)? Over the course of the week, we'll see who gets the most attention. Kristina or Kukalubo. Winner gets bragging rights.

If you want to feed either one of them, sign up for widset pets on Facebook and create your own pet,(use the link below), then adopt one or both of them.

Kukalubo:

Kristina:

We've managed to get the first "Top 10" Ambassador list up. Better late than never, right? Here's the current standings:

1) Mike Perry
2) Robert Seijas
3) Craig Loxton
4) Jaakko Leino
5) Matt White
6) Hernan Marsili
7) Lenny Bons
8) Martyn Britton
9) Avinash Rathod
10) Conor O'Neill

Great to see a mix of new and old names in the list! The prize for the Top S60 Ambassadors at the end of the campaign (June 30) will be BT headsets and speakers. Keep those reports coming! And tune in tomorrow for our "Report of the Week".

An article in the Jan 28th Businessweek about Ford's plans to revitalize the Lincoln Brand describes two challenges facing Ford:

1) Lincoln's older customers have chauffeurs. They don't actually want to drive one.
2) Lincolns are the car of choice for funeral homes. Nobody wants to drive a hearse.

Ford has lured a former Toyota executive (James D. Farley) to turn Lincoln around. Farley believes Lincoln's past can actually be a blessing -- not a curse. Affluent consumers already associate Lincoln with luxury. Why tinker with that? Instead, Ford will create new designs. Instead of a glitzy, rock and roll based broadcast advertising campaign (aka Cadillac's recent efforts), Lincoln will rely "extensively on word of mouth marketing" to inform consumers that Lincoln is back.
Interesting idea....I wonder if other once-powerful brands in North America could take a tactic like this?

Boston sports fans have had *very* little to complain about in the past 7 years. The Red Sox have won two 'World' Series, the Patriots 3 Super Bowls, and the Celtics today are 29 - 4, the best record in the NBA. Even our soccer team, the New England Revolution, played in the League Championship in 2007.

Our players, our teams, and our coaches are truly great. One thing that is not great, however, is the experience of watching the games as a fan.

We know that the growth of broadcast advertising has had unfortunate consequences for corporations and consumers in general: In 1971, the average consumer was exposed to 571 ads a day. By 1997, that same consumer was exposed to 3000 ads a day (Shenk, "Data Smog"). Marketing executives today estimate the number has grown to 5,000. The traditional broadcast advertising is nearing a saturation point.

The sports scene is one of many examples of this saturated market. Ten years ago, when I watched my beloved Red Sox on TV, a total of 2 advertisements were shown between each inning.
Today’s Sox matches are a whole new ballgame: from two hours before the first pitch is thrown until the stadium lights have been turned off, we are inundated with billboards proudly displaying large corporate entities. The billboards and signs are everywhere and on everything. They are on the walls, the dugouts, the napkins, even displayed on helicopters flying over the field. Companies wishing to promote their brand have become increasingly more brazen. For instance, when a relief pitcher is brought in to the game, “the call to the bullpen is brought to you by Verizon Wireless.” Sportscaster Jerry Remy promotes his "RemDawg" hotdog stand in between batters. Little animated figurines dance in the corner of the screen to promote tv shows, furniture stores, and coffee shops.

The NFL is no different: We used to listen to the Patriots on WEEI. Today, we listen to the Patriots on the “Safety Insurance WBCN Patriots Rock Radio Network”. The pre-game show is sponsored, the opening kick off is sponsored, and nearly every 4th down features a product placement.

And the NBA is perhaps the worst offender of all. We no longer watch the Celtics at the Boston Garden, we watch at the TDBankNorth Center. Each quarter is interrupted by inane on-court contests, giveaways, and other shenanigans. And when we visit the bathroom and dutifully stare straight ahead while we go about our business, we see ads on the bathroom wall. If we choose to look down, a company called “Wizmark” is fighting for sponsorship space on the cakes at the bottom of the urinal.

As these ads proliferate, the relative impact of each ad is diluted. Each “impression”, as defined by the advertising industry, becomes shallower and occurs over a shorter time span.

As a result of this saturation, consumers are now tuning out ads. For example, in 1964, 34% of consumers recalled at least one advertisement from the last TV show they watched. In 2006, only 4% did (Newspaper Bureau Association, 2007).. In 1965, advertisers needed 3 television ads to hit 80% of the population at least once. By 2007, they needed 117 ads (James Stengel, P&G CMO).

As the interruptions become more frequent, and in many cases more shrill, the reputation of advertisers has diminished. For instance, in 2007, advertising executives were the 20th least trusted professionals in the USA, following lawyers and preceding used car salesmen (Gallup).

It is no wonder, then, that "Word of Mouth" or "WoM" advertising is now the fastest growing segment of the advertising industry. The following data was released by PQ Media in November 2007:

PQ Media released the following data at the last WOMMA conference in November 07:

Thanks PQ Media. I see this trend as a promising one. WoM, in my experience, is about connecting people who know and use a particular product with potential buyers of that product. Broadcast advertising, on the other hand, is about shouting at potential consumers. I'm not blaming the Sox, Celts and Pats for accepting money from broadcast advertisers. I'm hoping that as WoM advertising grows, we see fewer corporate-paid interruptions at games, and more conversations-- outside the stadiums-- between corporations and genuinely interested, potential customers.