Cache & Carey

Deadline extended for South Florida Interactive Excellence Awards

The South Florida Interactive Marketing Association is calling for entries for its 2009 South Florida Interactive Excellence (SoFIE) Awards, which encourage creative, innovative and measurable digital marketing programs and reward the South Florida digital community for their hard work.

Companies based in Florida, or advertising/marketing agencies with clients based in Florida, may submit interactive work produced during 2008 for more than seven categories at www.sofieawards.com. The cost to enter is $150 per submission for SFIMA members and $200 for non-members. The deadline for entries has been extended to Thursday, March 12.

The contest categories are:

• Most Effective Social Marketing/Viral/Word of mouth campaign
• Most Effective Integrated/Cross Channel Marketing Campaign
• Most Effective Direct Response Campaign
• Most Effective Online Brand Experience
• Most Effective Email Campaign
• Most innovative: Newest and Innovative use of Integrated Marketing
• Most Effective Hospitality, Travel or Tourism Campaign/ Site

Can strippers save the news media? We Media Miami 09 looks for answers.

For two days, cutting-edge thinkers in the media industry gathered at We Media Miami at the University of Miami to network, brainstorm ideas to monetize social media -- and stay in business. 

Even strippers were brought up in one workshop, since strippers might have the answer on why people might pay for conversations. As Dan Suwyn told his group, "You have to look in unorthodox places to find unorthodox answers."

Considering the mass amount of layoffs we've been hearing about in the news industry, attendees were on a mission to put an end to apathy. In case you missed my story in today's Miami Herald about the We Media Miami Conference on Wednesday, I've copied it below. The photo here was taken by journalist Mathilde Piard who was tweeting for We Media. The photo was during a workshop I attended with her on how news companies can change as they struggle for survival, and groups brainstormed on creating different news delivery models.

Also covering the event was Herald reporter Glenn Garvin, who spoke with a CNN exec that warned TV news must embrace new media to survive. You can read Glenn's story here.

BY BRIDGET CAREY
bcarey@MiamiHerald.com

You could smell the desperation in the air at this year's We Media Miami conference.

Images of foreclosed homes and stock markets crashing flashed on presentation screens as an audience of more than 200 discussed concerns on saving media industries and engaging with new social media technologies in a nerve-racking economy.

Held at the University of Miami, this is the fifth year for We Media, which had workshops on creating, operating and sustaining businesses in a media-centric culture. It continues Thursday with start-ups pitching products and services.

"This is an age of a new kind of responsibility," said Dale Peskin, managing director and co-founder of iFocos, during his opening presentation. He called on attendees to put their hearts into finding solutions for companies in media, rather than just being a think tank of ideas. He and Brian Reich of iFocos presented an agenda for smart capitalism, to think of outcomes not income, connections not transitions, people not products, and creativity not productivity.

A BIG `IF'

"If you start a company with the intention of it being sold, stop now," Reich said. "You may sell to Google or another organization, but if you frame what you're doing in those terms . . . you will not succeed."

Susan H. Karol, executive director of the Suburban Newspapers of America Foundation, said its clear this year has a more urgent tone than past conferences. "I think sometimes social media is a little elusive," she said. But she hopes to pass on the social media strategies bounced around to the 2,400 smaller newspapers she works with, because they probably couldn't afford to attend.

In a workshop about saving journalism, groups split up to brainstorm about a media company that would revolve around the user, or around the conversation about an event. The idea was to get journalists to think more about listening to their audiences. But no clear-cut answers arose about how to make money.

`UNORTHODOX PLACES'

"We have to figure out how people will pay to have conversations," said Dan Suwyn, who managed the exercise. He was managing editor of the Savannah (Ga.) Morning News and is now owner of Rapid Change Group. "Maybe we should ask strippers -- you have to look in unorthodox places to find unorthodox answers."

But even if the answer isn't found at the end of the conference, the purpose is to get people thinking in different ways.

"It's not about identifying that a shift is here," Reich said. "It's about figuring out what needs to be done and doing it."

Digital marketing conference ad:tech cancels Miami event

One of the largest digital marketing conferences, ad:tech, has announced it has canceled its Miami event for 2009 "due to current economic conditions." Ad:tech Miami started in 2007 and has a stronger Hispanic focus than it's sister conferences in New York and San Francisco and Chicago. Below is the e-mail I received of the news:

Dear Bridget,
Due to current economic conditions, ad:tech has made the decision to cancel its Miami event in 2009.

ad:tech is proud to have celebrated 2 consecutive years in Miami with events in '07 and '08. However, we will now integrate US Hispanic and Latin-based content into our North American programs in New York, San Francisco and Chicago. We continue to maintain a strong commitment to the US Hispanic-Latin American digital media marketplace and will also explore alternative and complimentary platforms for serving this ever-growing segment of our industry.

We offer our deepest appreciation for the generous support of the attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, speakers, media partners, vendors and our esteemed Miami Board of Advisors who worked so diligently to create such a vibrant and well-received event. We look forward to working with all of you in some capacity in 2009 and beyond.

Sincerely,
The ad:tech Management Team

Opensports.com in Deerfield signs deal with John Elway

A new online sports news and entertainment site, OPEN Sports, has signed a multiyear deal to make legendary NFL quarterback John Elway its spokesman for the site's Fantasy Football products.

Deerfield Beach-based opensports.com launched only a few weeks ago by Mike Levy, the founder and former chief executive of CBS Sportline.com.

As part of the deal, Elway will have a blog, predict winners of each NFL game and provide game analysis on Sean Salisbury's OPEN Sports show, Salisbury's Take. Salisbury is a former football analyst for ESPN.

The site hopes to reel in Fantasy fans by offering it's top-level Fantasy Football product for free for life for anyone who signs up now. Major sites like CBS Sportline.com charge a fee to use its top-level Fantasy sports services, which allow fans to create and manage teams and leagues based on real-life players and their statistics.

Fantasy sports services produce $500 million a year in fees and advertising revenue, according to a study from the Fantasy Sports Trade Association.

OPEN Sports promotes itself as being different from traditional sports news sites like ESPN or Sportsline in that it pulls sports news and opinions from all outlets. So if you follow the Florida Gators, you can see what was written from the Associated Press as well as from Gainesville news outlets.

"The big sports sites haven't really been challenged," Levy said of ESPN, CBS, Fox and Yahoo. "They almost look identical with similar photos and similar stories. Real sports fans what to see hundreds of inputs."

The site also has community features by letting users create blogs and submit photos. There are also plans to let users customize their own Fantasy game using Open API technology. Also, users will be able to put their OPEN Sports Fantasy game facts on outside social network profiles, like Facebook.

Levy said the company has raised $10 million in funding so far and has about 60 employees, many of which produce original stories and video content for the site.

Other company executives and advisors include Rob Phythian, the founder of Fanball.com; former E-Trade chief executive officer Christos Cotsakos; former Office Depot chairman and chief executive officer David Fuente; and Peter Pezaris, chief executive officer of Boca Raton-based social network Multiply.

Levy said he plans to get a major chunk of the online sports audience in about three years, with a goal of five million registered users and 10 million monthly unique visitors, which he said "is in the same ballpark'' as the top sports news destinations.

Facebook game Scrabulous turns into Wordscraper

In case you haven't already noticed the flurry of people adding the Wordscraper application on your news feed, the Facebook application Scrabulous changed the name of their game to Wordscraper in an effort to dodge copyright and trademark laws of being too similar to Hasbro's Scrabble.

On Tuesday, the Scrabulous application was disabled after Hasbro filed a lawsuit against Scrabulous for copyright infringement.

The new game not only has a different name, but instead of square tiles and spaces, it uses circles. And the point system is very different.

Scrabulous disabled, procrastinating employees spelling game addicts cry out in horror

The widely popular Facebook application Scrabulous has been taken down today. Hasbro, the makers of Scrabble, sued the creators of Scrabulous for copyright infringement on Thursday. You can read the full story here: Creators of Scrabble knockoff on Facebook sued. Now if you visit the Facebook page for the Scrabulous game, you get the message:

Scrabulous is disabled for US and Canadian users until further notice. If you would like to stay informed about developments in this matter, please click here.

Electronic Arts and Hasbro recently released an official Scrabble application on Facebook in Beta. But with 14,956 users, it hasn't come close yet to the more than 2 million Scrabulous users... then again, I wouldn't be surprised if addicts switch over just to get their Scrabble fix.

[AFTERNOON UPDATE:] The Scrabble application by EA and Hasbro is currently down, but it's not clear for how long. They say they are working out kinks, which is understandable since it is in beta testing. Maybe it got overloaded with how many people are switching over today. This is the message you get if you've tried to add the application this afternoon:

We're working on some tech problems and Scrabble will be ready to play as soon as possible!

We appreciate all the great feedback we've received over the past week and as a result we're making changes to Scrabble for its official launch in mid-August, including a streamlined app with the option to turn-off animations for faster gameplay and full keyboard functionality for those who prefer this way to play.

Please continue to let us know how we can make Scrabble - the best word game on Facebook - even better!

- The Scrabble Team

Scrabble addicts on Facebook are probably going through withdrawals. Poor babies. Before you get the shakes at your desk, realize that you can still play around on http://www.scrabulous.com/.

Carnival adds Scrapblog to its social networking features

Scrapblog, a website for creating and sharing multimedia scrapbooks, announced Tuesday it has partnered with Carnival Cruise Lines.

Cruisers can create Carnival-themed online scrapbooks using digital photos, videos and audio on Carnival's social networking site, CarnivalConnections.com, which began in 2006. The site allows guests to connect with other cruisers and share vacation experiences.

Click here to see some Carnival Scrapblogs that some people already created.

Miami-Dade County government website caused computer problems

UPDATE: 1:15 p.m. 6/12/08 -- Site seems to be working fine now. The area that was causing computer problems was the transit page, but its still unclear as to why. Below is the original post from yesterday:

Stay away from Miami-Dade County government websites today. I just received the following message from one of the top people in The Miami Herald's tech department:

"The Miami-Dade County government website appears to be compromised and is serving up viruses to unsuspecting visitors. 

We are not completely aware of the extent of the damage but until this matter is resolved please avoid visiting -www.co.miami-dade.fl.us-  or -www.miami-dade.gov-"

I'm not about to test out the site myself to see if I get a virus, so I'm just passing along the warning. I'll update this post when I learn more or if it is safe to go back on the site.

Explore Walt Disney World in 3D on Google Earth

Want to know what Walt Disney World looks like, but you've never been? Or maybe you're like me and have the urge to run out of the office and go now....  but you can't cause that would get you fired.

Well the Walt Disney World Resort is now on Google Earth in 3D. As a Disney nut, take my word when I say how shockingly accurate the details are in this 3D world. It's not totally perfect, but it sure is close. Not only are the paint details on every building spot-on, but when you walk by the gift shop at the Snow White's Scary Adventure ride, you can see Grumpy sweatshirts on sale in the store.

There are also some neat hidden gems -- I found a random couple dressed like a prince and princess on the back steps of Cinderella's Castle.

But this world is much more than a place to browse the resort. It's one big interactive travel-planning tool. You click on a ride, you can get more details on the ride from Disney, along with as Wikipedia links and photos. If you want to stay at a hotel, you can tour the outside grounds and click links to get more information at the main website. (Sadly you can't actually go in the rides. The Space Mountain building was empty inside, but you can see a promotional video for the ride.)

Here's how you can check it out for yourself:

• Download Google Earth 4.3 by visiting www.disneyworld.com/3dparks
• Launch Google Earth and search for "Disney World" (or just zoom into Orlando)
• Click on the gold Mickey Mouse ears to open an information window, and then click the button that says "Show Disney World in 3D"

Disney reports it took eight photographers a total of 10 days to shoot all the visible surfaces of Walt Disney World. A total of 100,000 photos became the base of 1,500 3D models in the virtual world.

Moli.com social network targets small businesses

When it comes to integrating business and social networking, most sites I've come across tend to revolve around professional contacts and resumes, like LinkedIn.

But Moli.com -- a social network based in West Palm Beach -- is targeting small businesses by offering them a resource center and the ability to connect with other businesses.

When it first launched, the site was marketed as a place to manage multiple profiles for your social and professional life, but separates them with different privacy settings. The small business center is just another addition to encourage the busy start-up entrepreneur to manage their life and work on one network.

A free account comes with a URL and search engine optimization abilities. Of course these sites are not super professional. The target user is someone with 10 or less employees who doesn't have the resources to make a site from scratch. The idea is to get started on a site like this, use the resources, connect with others, and eventually take your business to the next stage.

You can read my full story here.