What’s so Pinteresting?

I am a bloke. I don’t really care about the latest Spring skirt fashion or how to plait someone’s hair. But Pinterest, launched in 2010, has collected a 10 million strong user-base of people who do. It’s got to the point now where I can’t avoid it; from an advertising and marketing perspective the site’s predicted monetization is rather attractive. Recently it was reported by VentureBeat that numbers around the $500 million mark are stirring.

The concept of a ‘pinboard’ behind consumers is intriguing for the marketing industry. After all, the stuff you pin is all stuff you can buy. So what you would get is a board that provides the most delicate demographics possible; people promoting stuff from giants like Amazon and eBay but also pinning things – goods from shops, small businesses – local to them. And it’s not transient, either. Pins can be aspirational: what you wish you could buy, which could provide a rather interesting way of predicting trends.

I’m not saying that the future of market forecast in 2012 lies in stalking Pinterest, but I think there is certainly a scope for exploring a site that exposes future desires alongside present ownership. In terms of usability, a person’s context for using Pinterest doesn’t extend beyond fun and organisation. I reckon this means consumers are going to be more honest on the site – you don’t feel like you’re addressing the masses, like on Twitter.

Kony 2012

The Kony 2012 campaign is something very close to my heart – my friends at Digitaria gave it breath. Thanks to them, we all know who Joseph Kony is and we all know what he’s been doing for 26 years. Watch the video here if you haven’t already. Sign the petition if you haven’t already. Network it if you haven’t already.

http://www.kony2012.com/

This is probably the first time where a company’s marketing skills and sheer clout have been put to the task of drawing disgust from an audience and flinging it onto an individual. Let’s hope it works.

iPad – the power of a name

Apple made a mistake in calling their latest upgrade just the iPad. Before yesterday’s launch rumours were adrift about what the iPad 2’s predecessor would be named and two contenders presented itself: the iPad HD and the iPad 3. The online ruckus caused by Tim Cook’s ambiguity created a hyped discussion on Mashable which from a promotion perspective can only be positive, but highlighted some disgruntled undertones. One commenter aptly surmised his feelings about the whole thing by suggesting that people would be stupid to “spend $500 on something that only has a bit more computing power over the first iPad”.  As a consumer i’m inclined to agree, but as a marketer, I know that technology needs to be pushed like this so the market can continue innovating.

The question is: which name lessens the blow? Which name cools the smoking hole in your wallet? It’s certainly not the number 3, acting as a constant reminder of Apple’s transience. After all, this is 3 iPads in 3 years we’re talking about. Upgrading each time would cost someone a sweet £1.5k, or more, just to step in the footprints of Apple’s giant strides across the industry. There is a lack of reassurance in buying a product that’s third in a seemingly infinite line.

But HD – well, even the most technologically illiterate cave dweller knows what that stands for. It lends credence to new Apple buyers who can associate the experience of watching the Super Bowl – or Desperate Housewives – on their televisions with the sharp usability of an iPad.

However just ‘iPad’ is simply misleading. This is not the first iPad and this will not be the last iPad. It’s also boring – where’s the erudite, new age mist that’s surrounded products like the iPhone 4G? It seems like Tim Cook is attempting to distance this latest gadget from the first iPad and iPad 2 legacies, perhaps because there are more exciting things to come, or perhaps the improvements to the iPad can only get more superficial. After all, the newest version is a few millimetres thicker and a few grams heavier in exchange for a ‘retina’ screen that’s so sharp it probably hurts. It’ll be interesting to see where Apple goes since Steve Jobs passed away.