Must Play

Win A $1,000 Headphone Hack
Friends +Moon-Audio.com are running a cool Hack Your Headphones contest. Entering the contest is simple. Take a picture of your headphones and music gear and share on your social nets with hashtag #hackheadpones . Questions or if you don't have social nets email info(at)Moon-Audio.com. 

http://www.moon-audio.com/hack-headphones-contest/

Win $1,000 Headphone Hack
Grand prize is a $1,000 #headphones hack by Moon Audio Founder & Silver Dragon audio cable creator +Drew Baird. 

Short deadline (October 4th), so take a pic and win a better pair of headphones. Drew hacked my +Shure SE846s with Silver Dragon audio cables and WOW what a difference.

Why TIME Is Money Online
I've wrestled with how to fit three concepts into online marketing for years:

* Narrative (storytelling).
* Video Games.
* Time.…

This post, thanks to a great game theory post by Jesper Juul, is as close as we've come to fitting these three important puzzle pieces into a "super symmetry". Time is money online and its important to understand how to create online environments that work with customer expectations and major trends such as:

* Mobile First.
* Ubiquitous and always on web.
* Social nets and increasing connections and connectivity.
* Design.
* Alignment with visitors needs, expectations and aspirations. 
* Super-Symmetry between once disparate technologies.  

Games and gamification creaete great responsive content. Games rock engagement, wins hearts, minds and loyalty so Gamify Your Content Marketing with 5 tips.

Love Music? Audio Gear?
Friends at Moon Audio (http://www.Moon-Audio.com) are looking for people who love music and the amazing emerging technology changing the way we hear to write reviews to share their love. Reviewers become "Official Moon Audio Ambassador / Reviewers" and get to audition gear I can't afford (lol).

Moon's Reviewer Contest illustrates a favorite strategy associated with the "New Ecommerce" - ASK. The new ecommerce is about building sustainable online communities in a social / mobile / connected time. Building sustainable community means listen more than you talk and ASKING for help.

Moon is lucky. Music and technology lovers love to share. Moon is not alone. No matter what industry you are in there are Ambassadors wiling to help...if you ask. Why? Marketing guru Faith Popcorn said it best:

"People don't BUY brands, they JOIN them".

If you love music and the cool gear we use to make it sound amazing you need to "audition" to become a  Moon Audio's Reviewer. Here is where you can find out more and enter the contest:
http://www.moon-audio.com/ambassador-review-contest

Deadline is March 15th, but I wouldn't wait until the last minute rush. If my friends at Moon Audio love your review you might be audition equipment tomorrow :). Marty

McDonalds, Red Bull & Like Me Scores
McDonalds is pushing their Monopoly Game with big brands like Lebron, Patrick Murphy (hockey star) and others. This got me thinking about Red Bull and "like me" scores.

Advertisers evaluate ads on awareness. In a time where everyone is connected to everyone else Red Bull shows the power of "like me" brands. Red Bull brands cultural icons and athletes across a broad spectrum.

Red Bull favors the slightly known star. The missing dimension in ad evaluation is a "Like Me" score. If we ask viewers and consumers of McDonalds vs. Red Bull content is "Like Me" with a 10 point scale (10 = just like me, 1 = not like me at all) I would bet on lower "like me" scores as we move up the brand ladder. More powerful the brand the lower the "like me" scores with many personas (like our Internet marketing tribe).

Lebron occupies rare air, so his "like me" score is likely to be lower than a relevant but only slightly known stars favored by Red Bull. Red Bull gets another benefit by featuring slightly known stars - they get to help shape and amplify the story. They get to play a major role in how the "slightly known" brand becomes known.

My prediction would be the lower the "like me" scores the less likely a consuming audience, especially an online audience, would be to take an action. Higher the "like me" scores the more likely an action. SO...

McDonalds = my tribe = marginal awareness & lower Like Me scores
McDonalds + Monopoly + LeBron = my tribe = much lower scores (thus hurting the tiny margin that may have been interested).

Mcdonalds + Monopoly + Mark Traphagen (or Phil Buckley) = my tribe = VERY interested due to high Like Me scores and support and play is 100x more likley.

Smart move, in a digital age, is to align your brand with an army of "like me" brands.

By shaping the stories of "slightly known" stars, and McDonalds includes a few of these with Lebron, Red Bull's TELLING also shortens distance to "like me" identification" (is my theory). By telling s story Red Bull becomes the prophet / storyteller.

Red Bull's focus is outward (seemingly), but they are painting with the collaboration brush AND they are sharing their valuable amplification power to help lesser known brands. This creates a sense of Red Bull's altruism thus increasing "like me" identification chances (again my theory).

Red Bull creates a strong 3 Legged Stool:

* Brand benevolence helps "slightly famous".
* Distance between Red Bull and content consumers SHORTENED by branding within the tribe (albeit the top % of the tribe in a particular skill) so LIKE ME identification more likely.
* Collaboration feeds aspiration and positions brand as helper / filter / guide / prophet shortening distance and making LIKE ME identification more likely.

More on Red Bull's branding lessons on @ janlgordon's Curatti: http://curatti.com/red-bulls-branding-lesson-media-companies-now/

Crowdfunding, Contests and Games
Crowdfunding is a lot like an online contest. There is a deadline and you need an army of supporters to get from here to there. You need an army to help achieve your goal. In crowdfunding and contests there must be some tangible reward.

If people don't feel special and like they are part of your community they don't contribute. Crowdfunders use updates. Contests use feedback loops. The key is to create an event with a defined timeline. We START here and end HERE.

As your timeline progress updates feed momentum. What does music and The Clash have to do with contests, crowdfunding and Internet marketing? As it turns out, quite a bit as we shared in this Haiku Deck:

Crowdfunding (and Contest) Tips From The Clash
http://shar.es/1aTm8d

For people with dyslexia, playing action video games may help them better manage shifting attention between audio and visual cues, new research reveals.