Brittany Smith's Blog

This year it cost approximately $3 Million dollars for a 30 second spot during the Super Bowl.  This figure is of course excluding costs and fees for actors, equipment, ad agencies, directors, crew and other personnel, according to Wikipedia.  That is plenty of money for companies to spend, especially new companies like Groupon, on advertisements that all seem to have failed to score a touchdown.

According to Ian Schafer in the article “The Super Bowl of Social Media? Maybe Next Year“,

Nearly two-thirds of 18-34 year-olds planning to watch the Super Bowl have smartphones and intended to use them while watching the game.

There was not one spot that actually asked us to do anything. Or suggested that we do something. These ads could have all run before the internet was even invented. Nothing acknowledged that we had any other connections at our disposal other than the one between us and our televisions.

Not only were most of the advertisements complicated and distasteful, like this one, they missed the opportunity to form meaningful connections and dialogues with millions of viewers by integrating social media into their commercials. I am confident that large proportion of the segment mentioned above was sending emails, text messages, and even tweets during the game about the advertisements. Therefore, all the advertisements seem disconnected by ignoring the most popular and fastest growing advertising medium.

Another way to interact with consumers online

Wikipedia and Google are two of the most popular information search engines.  They are add value by allowing people the ability to quickly and efficiently (“wiki” is Hawaiian for “fast) access relevant information.  But what if a text search engine such as Wikipedia and a video search engine such as YouTube were to procreate? You would get Qwiki, a revolutionary rich media experience of facts, pictures, and videos.  Qwiki is new technology that takes normal static information and presents it in an entertaining and interactive way.  It is a search engine that consists of dynamic presentations and has eliminated the need to search through pages of blue links. In the article, “Qwiki introduces multimedia storytelling” Amber Macarthar writes about her experience with Qwiki:

Not only can I take this visual tour of Charlottetown, as a registered user I can improve this Qwiki by recommending a photo or a YouTube video, so there’s a great crowd-sourcing element to the service. I can even suggest the reader’s voice be slowed down or sped up. And like any good multimedia site in 2011, I can share these entries on Facebook and Twitter

Qwiki technology even has Google Maps capabilities when a place query is made. Furthermore, it also incorporates social media that allows users to merge all their social data from Facebook and Twitter etc., onto the site. This will give users a default personal profile that can interact with them individually, giving this new technology the benefits of the 2 “i”s: individualization and interactivity.

However the real promise of a platform like Qwiki is in what it might do beyond Wikipedia. Every content creator, be they a media organization like the Globe or a food blogger – has a database of previously published information just sitting there. The whole principle of cobbling together text, pictures and video into consumable packages could change thanks to an idea like Qwiki.

Not only will this be useful for students and education professionals, it can also be used to market a company or product such as the iPad.  Most companies have information and rating on the web, which will all be aggregated and presented in a Qwiki.  Companies can improve on their Qwiki simply by clicking the button “improve this Qwiki” (once they have registered).  It could be used as a fast and easy way to keep customers informed and up to date with company information.  I predict that there will soon be a place on Qwiki where companies can advertise by sharing their recent commercials, pictures, and news. Qwiki is a new media platform for companies to dynamically communicate and interact with customers online.