Recently, on the Get Blue blog, they posted an analysis of check in data and illustrated how it was strongly correlated with Box Office success for the weekend of 5/27 to 5/29. 

Here were the top movies by check-ins:

And how they correlated with Box Office Gross (r value of .95):

This is some pretty interesting data, and presentation. In March 2011 (the most recent data I could find quickly) comscore reports that 16.7 million smart phone users utilize check in services.

Of those 16.7 million smartphones that use check-in services the demographic break down as so:

58.5% of Check In subscribers are 18-34, fairly evenly split between Male and Female (48% / 52%)

15,508 18-34 year olds, “checking-in” accurately correlates with weekend box office. 

Let’s think about these implications –

Checking-in could predict, with some accuracy, how people spend their time and money.

Obviously, we do not have anything beyond correlations to figure out the value of these digital behaviors, but its very exciting to see  these kinds of linkages being drawn. 

Combining this data with other points paints an even fuller picture of the value of checking in –

Let’s look at traffic to the movies respective websites, in the month of May:

The Hangover (9,964 Check-Ins, 86 Million, Visits peak 5/26 – 5/28)

1. A traffic spike over the opening weekend

 

Kung Fu Panda 2 (7,078 Check-Ins, 47.8 Million, Visits peak 5/23 – 5/24)

1. Traffic spike week before the opening weekend. 

 

 

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (3,417 Check-Ins, 39.6 Million, Visits peak 5/19 – 5/21)

1. Traffic spike two days before opening.  

 

Something Borrowed (2,175 Check-Ins, 1.86 Million, Visits peak 5/05 – 5/06)

 

1. Traffic spike two days before opening.  

 

Bridesmaids (1,216 Check-Ins, 9.4 Million, Visits peak 5/12 – 5/13)

 

The movies which received the most check-ins, and grossed the highest amount, also saw website traffic peak. Across all the movies, traffic peaked days (Tuesday, Wenesday, or Thursday) before opening weekend.

So what does all of this mean? 

Here are a few thoughts:

• The same kind of analysis that was done for these “check-ins” on Get Glue, could probably be done for website traffic, impressions or a variety of other digital quantifications of buzz. 
• To me, the Check-In behavior means signficantly more (these people have spent money to see a movie), but other measurements can predict trends in a similar fashion. 
• It is fascinating that such a small subset of the population, sending 26,000 Check-Ins can accurately represent the the movie going public. 

We can ask questions like –

Was the drop-off in Check-Ins similar to the drop-off in revenue after opening weekend?

This is really part of the ongoing quest to understand the complicated power of word of mouth marketing, finding takeaways that can make marketing, entertianment, and customer experience more valuable. 

Will Check-In data ever be as viable as a carefully selected random sample group? 

Hmmmm….

You could order a house from a Sears catalog from 1908 to 1940. 

447 Different Models were available. 

Including this guy — “Modern home number 102″ . A ten room residence:

This is what the home looks like today:

It is pretty incredible that someone could order their home from a catalog in the very recent past. 

What’s more: 

“The ability to mass-produce the materials used in Sears homes lessened manufacturing costs, which lowered purchase costs for customers. Not only did precut and fitted materials shrink construction time up to 40% but Sears’s use of “balloon style” framing, drywall, and asphalt shingles greatly eased construction for homebuyers.“

Beyond just selling WHOLE HOUSES through a catalog, innovations in design and manufacturing elevated the concept of a modern home. 

 “Central heating not only improved the livability of homes with little insulation but it also improved fire safety, always a worry in an era where open flames threatened houses and whole cities, in the case of the Chicago Fire. Indoor plumbing and homes wired for electricity were the first steps to modern kitchens and bathrooms.”

What happened to the concept of the modern home? Why did Sears phase it out? 

“Sears began offering financing plans in 1916. However, the company experienced steadily rising payment defaults throughout the Great Depression, resulting in increasing strain for the catalog house program. The mortgage portion of the program was discontinued in 1934 after Sears was forced to liquidate $11 million in defaulted debt. Sears closed their Modern Homes department in 1940. A few years later, all sales records were destroyed during a corporate house cleaning. The only way to find these houses today is literally one by one.“

There many lessons to be learned here about brands being responsible for moving society “forward”, and interesting parallels to our current housing crisis. It would also take someone much more intelligent than myself to adaquately research and explain these relationships. 

There is something inspiring about the impact of the Sears modern home on society. 

The Sears Modern Home –

1. Moved society forward

2. Helped define what it meant to own a modern home.

3. Supply chain innovation

4. Made a process that had numerous disprate parts both customizeable and uniform, selling directly to a consumer. 

5. Richard Nixon was born in one of these houses. 

Hmm. Sound familiar (Minus number 5)?  Are we talking about Amazon / Apple / Zaarly / Zynga / Groupon right now? Or Sears in 1908?  

The new challenge, is to take this process a step further –

How can a brand do all of these things listed above, and, in the process, improve the quality of life for not only for its customers, but the planet as a whole?

Oh, and not be part of a global financial meltdown and depression.

If Sears could sell full homes out of a catalog in 1908, brands should proably be able to make the world a more secure place while also making a profit. Here’s to optimism. 

Am I alone in my optimisim? Is this kind of innovation even possible?  

For more read: 

1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sears_Catalog_Home

2) http://www.searsarchives.com/homes/

All photos are also from these two sites. 

 

 

This is a really neat excercise for understanding your target / customer / whatever you feel comfortable calling the people you are selling a product to.

Image via

Now, you can market to customers “in flow”. Maybe even give provide them with something useful, when they need it! The unfortunate thing, is, as a marketer,  it is much eaiser to shout, than it is to be useful in an opportune moment.

I know it isn’t realistic to completely stop shouting, but at the very least let’s make these shouts useful or entertaining?

The barriers to distribution have theoretically collapsed, let’s create something worth spreading and find the right moment.

That was fun.

I love when ideas or trends group themselves into themes. Today I came across an advertising campaign, a Research and Development product by the New York Times, and reactions to a news story about Apple gathering iphone user location. There is a common thread in all of these stories. Yup. You guessed it, “Collective Engineering.”

Faris, in his post about the New BMW EVolve advertising campaign, almost wrote it as an aside:

“And the collective engineering data the it creates will be used to continue to develop the next generation of BMW Electric Vehicles.”

Collective engineering is a fantastic way to describe the practice of putting your customers data to use. Not only to fulfill business objectives, but to design and build products that provide even greater utility. 

1) Here is the EVolve advertising campaign:

Collective engineering element –> Uses data from current BMW owners to discover if they are EV ready. That data, about how much owners drive for example, will be utilized in the development of future BMW vehicles. 

 

2) Cascade, By New York Times Research and Development. 

Collective engineering element –> Helps the New York times better understand the value of a Tweet, how stories spread on social networks, and identify key influencers by topic in a visually simple and stunning format. This data will (hopefully) be utilized to create news experiences that are better tailored and more relevant to individuals and curators alike. 

3) The Apple Location debacle. I guess this is conjecture, but I have to believe that Apple is tracking location data on its Iphone users to determine how to make its services better, not only for some sinister purpose. 

Collective engineering element –> By collecting location data, Apple can provide better services (especially in terms of allowing users to utilize LBS faster). 

A side note: There is no viable explanation as to why the data is stored on the phone for 10 months. Gulp. I’m going to choose to believe their only goal is to improve the quality of their product. 

 

 

Have you seen interesting examples of “collective engineering” lately? Do share. 

 

 

 

 

Ted Williams on the left. He started to upstage his brother, I think he did alright. Supposedly, in his day, you could just write to players and they would send back an autographed picture.

Ready for use:

 

Action Shot:

Buy here. 

As you have probably heard by now, Google has chosen to install high speed internet in Kansas City, KS (Story from NPR below):

I’m really excited about the idea of a brand creating long term value through infrastructure investment. Obviously, I can’t be totally sure what Google’s ultimate aim is, but I hope Kansas City, KS becomes a case study for the economic power of top internet infrastrucure. If this goes well (economic growth in Kansas City, KS), the government may invest more readily in installing high speed internet across the US, with Google winning the coveted contract.

Currently, the US ranks 15th in average internet broadband speed gloabaly. So this seems like an apt problem for Google to address:

I love the idea of brands growing economically by investing in infrastructure. Especially in places that are suffering both socially and economically.

It is in the best interest of brands and their agency partners to form these types of relationships, where brands can provide tangible social value  and sustain long term growth. Stuff like this makes me think its possible. Am I naive? Probably. But examples like Google make me think that profit does not always have to arrive at the expense of the poorest parts of society. Maybe smart marketing can spurr economic growth in a way that actually benefits society as a whole.

I’m ready.

If Aol’s Project Devil is being lauded as innovative, I think we have a long way to go.

 

 

Happy Friday –

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