In Your Face™

The big news on the wire today is that Facebook has been given approval to trademark the word 'Face'. 
While this makes sense...it is also kinda ridiculous. Unlike the greedy genius of people like Gene Simmons, who trademarked the Money Bag icon, this is a move to protect an already powerful brand. To me, I think it's overkill. If you've established your brand as a household name within a product category or across many, and someone tries to spring board their success by infringement on your name, it's a non-issue. You win.

Regardless, Facebook is just a payment away from trademarking the word “Face.” As of today the U.S. Patent And Trademark Office has sent the social networking site a Notice of Allowance, which means they have agreed to grant the “Face” trademark to Facebook.

All Facebook needs to do is pay the issue fee within three months of today and the “Face” trademark will be issued and be published in the official USPTO gazette and everything.

I wonder what will be next? Will Twitter trademark Twit? Foursquare trademark Four? Maybe I'll trademark Porter and make my fiancée sign her soon-to-be new last name with a TM above it. I think I'm onto something... ~ p

(Source: Techcrunch)

Funny Friday: Cat vs Gator. Bad ass.

Yet another cat starring in Funny Friday. I guess Ben Huh, CEO and founder of The Cheezburger Network, was right when he recently said that 'cats are always the centre of the Internet universe'. This is more bad ass than funny. But the idea is simply hilarious. 

Facebook Email Will be More Than Email

I guessed this one right. Kind of. After I said, and many echoed, that Facebook was going to launch a Gmail killer, Facebook insists that was not their plan. But if that happens as a result of their re-invented message system, then I guess Facebook will have successfully changed email and messaging as we know it.

The system overhaul is still a bit of a secret. Facebook is currently rolling it out with an invite-only strategy right now, and will open it up for all to use slowly over the next few months. We're told that the revised system will better facilitate users needs and the 4 billion messages that are sent daily on Facebook by over 350 million people. Yeah, those numbers are crazy. It might be a while before you can test this system out for yourself, but in the meantime, check out this video to further peak your interest and hopefully answer some of your questions. ~ p

The Beatles on iTunes Was My Second Guess

Good for Yoko Ono for finally giving into the pressure of iTunes, and realizing that fans, including me, want to hear more, in the easiest way possible. Or maybe she's just running out of money. Either way, it's good for Beatles fans everywhere! ~ p

Miami, it's Time to Fan Up!

It saddens me that the Miami Heat bandwagon that I've jumped on has a lot more room than I would've thought. Especially at the beginning and end of games. It embarrasses me that they've had to put out a defense marketing strategy against their own city's fanship habits.

Really? I know it's nice out, and there are beautiful cars, and attractive people walking around all the time...but the rest of us who don't live in Miami would kill to see one of these games live and in person. Do you really need to be told to show up on time? The rest of the country, correction, the rest of the world sees all the empty seats every game until around the end of the 2nd quarter - just in time to hit the bar. Come on, Miami. Fan up. The world is watching. ~ p

Stickybits Could Make Your Brand Stick to Loyal Customers

Geo-targeting social services like Facebook Places and Foursquare are all the rage. And by rage, I mean obsessive behavior. Hey, I get it, I'm cool (sometimes), I 'checkin'. But when my friends start checkin-to their own living rooms, it makes me wonder...why didn't I think of that first?!

With so much attention on ourselves, a company called Stickybits has developed a platform that draws the focus away from us, and onto the products we like, and then gives us free stuff when we scan a unique bar code. It's essentially a product checkin app. And it could be the next big thing.

Why is this cool? If I'm a company, like Ben & Jerry's or Pepsi (both partners of Stickybits), I can incentivize you to engage, buy, interact, and share my product. This is an interactive way to generate brand loyalty and, if your product comes in a case that people need to buy before they touch, it can also drive sales. As a consumer, this is an easy, and possibly really fun way to get free stuff from brands and companies you already have an affinity for.

Each product has its own product wall (check out Pepsi's here) filled with all the comments, photos, and videos left by Stickybits users. The new app adds a leaderboard, rewards & challenges button, and suggests tags to add to each post (“review,” “tip,” “question,” “random”). And, for the benefit of brands and customers, you can share each scan with your friends on Facebook or Twitter. For brands, there are also analytics and campaign management tools.

The key to this equation is how good the promotions will be. If Stickybits can convince their brand partners to serve up exclusive deals, like, say, Groupon, this will be a surefire hit. If all I get is a XXXL white, see-through T-Shirt, the stickiness of this idea will fall flat. Check out (not in) stickybits.com for more details. ~ p

(Source: Techcrunch)

Apple Announcement will Change How You Listen to Music

Apple has an announcement coming tomorrow. Any guesses? Word on the street is that they are 'killing the MP3' file format by introducing a live streaming function. From the sounds of it, this would be cool and make a lot of sense. Basically, you and everyone else would access your music through a 'cloud' storage service, instantly streaming and playing music on your iTunes enabled device. This is a logic step moving forward. Why would we keep a catalogue of music, eating away our personal storage space, when we could simply access it in the same way from Apple's cloud? It would be even cooler if we could simply type in our user name and password and access our music from any iTunes-enabled device, mobile or not. 

The only hurdle I currently see is people, including me, who do not have an iTouch, iPad, or iPhone and, therefore, do not have Internet or cloud capabilities on our iPods. I'm sure Steve Jobs simply sees that as an opportunity for me to upgrade my device and give him some more money. I can't blame him. I would buy a new device for this service. But first, let's see if tomorrow is indeed a day not worth forgetting. ~ p

Topguest 2.0: Will Virgin American Airlines Build Loyalty with Virtual Checkins? I Think Yes.

Topguest is a new platform that gives travelers loyalty points and rewards for checking in on geolocation applications. Since its launch earlier this year, you've been able to check in using Brightkite, Gowalla, Foursquare, Twitter, Google Latitude, Yelp and Loopt. Not only did you get the standard benefits, badges or promotions from the apps you used to check in, you also got rewards from Topguest when you checked in at a partner location.

You could see this app partnering with a loyalty company from miles away. Sure enough, with Topguest's 2.0 platform launching today, they are introducing some major changes, including a new partner in Virgin American. The new version also only supports Facebook Places and Foursquare, with a new mobile application for Android and iPhone. 

Using the platform, Virgin will users frequent flyer points in exchange for their checkins — a first for any airline. As Mashable reported, 'Virgin America guests can now earn an additional 25 Elevate points per checkin to Facebook Places or Foursquare — at the airline’s airport terminals or baggage claims — for a total potential of 50 extra points per flight.'

Brett Billick, Director of CRM for the airline, expands on that point: “Our innovative in-flight amenities have attracted some very tech and social-savvy flyers, so it is only fitting that we are now the first airline to offer its guests frequent flyer points for virtual checkins. Given the rapid growth of location-based checkins, this is something our flyers have actually been asking for — and we think it will give guests a compelling way to earn real world rewards for virtual checkins,”

Virgin America is just one of many new partners. The startup has formed a strategic alliance with Hospitality Marketing Concepts, meaning Hilton HHonors, Doubletree Hotels, Wyndham Rewards, Choice Privileges, Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants, Thompson Hotels, and Avis Car Rental are now participating as well.

This is big. Other virtual checkins from loyalty programs and companies will follow. As a quick aside, look for Facebook to make a splash of their own with Facebook Credits being used as loyalty points to reward checkins. This is just a hunch. Another prediction is that we will ultimately be able to use those earned Facebook Credits to buy real-world merchandise, online and off-line. But that's another story. ~ p