In general, I find it interesting that they have chosen to promote the subdirectory URL (i.e. espn.com/somethingyouareinterestedin) aspect of the site, since, in my experience, novice users don’t always fully understand how to use those URLs (and clearly ESPN has to appeal to the entire population). Though I’ve found that people tend to find “domain.com/subdomain” clearer than the other method — “subdomain.domain.com”, in general they are far less likely to use a subdomain than to just go to the main site and look for the content they seek.

In spite of that larger issue, I noticed some other minor issues that could create big problems for the worldwide leader:

The voiceover states (verbatim), “espn dot com, slash… Bill Simmons, The Celtics, The Fighting Irish, Mike Golic, Serbian Table Tennis Sensation Biba Golic…” However, typing in espn.com/THEceltics does not work (caps for emphasis only). Nor does espn.com/THEfightingirish or espn.com/serbiantabletennissensationbibagolic! Ok, so maybe that last one is a bit of a stretch, and when they quickly run through the URLs at the end of the commercial, the “the” is gone (as is the “serbian…”), but still, shouldn’t the voiceover state the URL correctly?

I suspected another flaw was that they showed spaces in the names of multi-word items (i.e. Bill (space) Simmons), but typing the space into the URL actually works! Clearly somebody was thinking of these types of issues, so how did they miss the announcer stating “The Celtics”???

Another issue I noted is that when you go to espn.com, it automatically redirects you to espn.go.com, a relic of Disney’s failed “Go” network of the late 90s. From the homepage, however, if I type “slash” billsimmons on the end of the espn.go.com URL, it does not work. Only when I type the full URL from scratch (i.e. espn.com/billsimmons) does it point me to the right place. It took me a minute to figure this out — and I’m quite good at this stuff. Would a normal user try more than once, or figure it out if they did? Doubtful.

Even if users are ready for the whole “slash” concept, these minor inconsistencies will surely create problems for some people and force them to have a negative impact on the overall campaign. It would certainly be enlightening to see how these commercials do in terms of audience response and traffic to the website, though I guess the only way to find out would be if some ESPN employee (you know who you are) would tell me.

See the rankings.

It can be viewed here (pdf).

Read more here and here.

My comments about video are noted in this email marketing blog.

A year later, my comments are noted again in this article about video in email.

QVC Chief Information Architect Mike Madaio shares QVC’s unified view of TV and online customers and what the company is doing to help deliver consistently great customer experiences across the board.

You can listen to the segment here.

Sign Up Early for Best Pricing
SAN FRANCISCO–(Business Wire)–
Online Market World 2008, the premier event for online sellers and
marketers, has opened conference and exhibition registration.
Attendees are encouraged to sign up early to take advantage of
significantly discounted pricing. The event will take place October 1
- 3, 2008 at Moscone Center West Hall in San Francisco.

Last year, in its inaugural year, the event attracted 1,755
attendees, most of whom are executives representing
Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) companies
including online and multi-channel retailers, advertising/marketing/PR
agencies, technology vendors and service providers, consultants,
analysts, and journalists. This year, the event is expected to attract
2,500 - 3,000 attendees.

The conference program has been expanded from two days to three
days and will feature 15 one-day tracks each of which addresses an
important aspect of online selling or marketing. The program is
filling up quickly with notable speakers including Jan Boyd, Executive
Producer of New Media at NBC; Mike Madaio, Internet Architect at QVC;
and Marsha Collier, Author of eBay for Dummies, among others.

Three-day conference passes are now available for $399–normally
$650. Two-day conference passes are $299–normally $550. Expo passes
are available free for a limited time and are normally $50. Special
student pricing is also available.

For more information about the conference and exhibition visit
www.onlinemarketworld.com . Attendees are encouraged to sign up for
membership at www.community.onlinemarketworld.com where they can
receive exclusive benefits such as the ability to upload their own
blogs, podcasts, videos, and promotional materials.

About Online Market World

Online Market World 2008 is the premiere event for serious online
sellers and marketers. Its comprehensive conference program uniquely
covers the entire e-commerce lifecycle including business, IT,
marketing, sales, and operational issues. Founded in 2006, the event
launched in October 2007 at Moscone Center West Hall in San Francisco
and attracted 1.755 attendees. The 2008 conference has been expanded
from two days to three days and all other aspects of the show are
being expanded to accommodate Online Market World’s growing community.
For more information about the event, visit www.onlinemarketworld.com.

Online Market World is produced by interact365, a world-class
event management company that produces corporate and industry events.
Its executive team and professional staff have decades of experience
producing Internet, ecommerce, networking, telecommunications,
nanotechnology, clean technology and other events. For more
information, visit www.interact365.com.

Online Market World
Lisa Morgan, 831-372-2381
SVP and Principal Analyst
lisa@onlinemarketworld.com

Copyright Business Wire 2008

I, however, despite my famous quote “Now that I think about it, I’m quite looking forward to interactive paper”, will not be one of the early converts to the Kindle… for one major reason: Money! Not only is the device $400, but you have to buy the books at retail price. Only suckers pay retail for books.

I get free and cheap books through several methods:

My Library! - I can search the county catalog online and have any book delivered to my local branch (for FREE), within 72 hours. Sure, I pay my fair share of late fees, but the money saved on books (especially ones that I borrow and DON’T like) makes it worthwhile.

Book Swapping Sites - I use PaperbackSwap, though there are a number of them out there. What I like about PBS is that there is no fee for a transaction (users pay their own shipping), and that I can gain credits by simply sending out books to any user — there is no need to find a user who wants the exact book that I have and has the exact book that I want.

Half.com/Amazon Marketplace/eBay - Unless you are looking for a niche product or something that has *just* been released, it can usually be had for less than half price on one of these sites.

So, unless there is some social reason why you need to read a book the week it comes out (i.e. Harry Potter), or it is a rare, non-mainstream title, there really is no reason to pay retail for a book.

Which brings me to the Kindle. If I pay $400 for one of these bad boys, will I also have to shell out more for everything I read? When I am done with a book, will I be able to resell the “used” version via Amazon marketplace? Will I be able to import free eBooks from other sites on the web like Project Gutenberg? Will I be able to trade Kindle “books” with other Kindle users?

One might argue that the Kindle price of books is far lower than hardcover new releases, so people who do buy a lot of those might benefit from Kindle. Sure, that is true, but at $5 savings per book (using Amazon prices), you will need to buy 80 books to break even, and this isn’t counting your ability to resell, trade and share real books that you purchase.

I realize this is just one way to look at the Kindle. There are many advantages. Firstly, the Kindle is really cool. Books aren’t. That’s worth something, right? It is also smaller and more convenient than many books. It has additional uses like the ability to preview books, get news and blog feeds, use wikipedia, etc. Features like word lookup, page and quote annotations, etc, may end up making the Kindle experience “better” than reading a book.

I’ll admit it: I want one! My only point is that they will need to address the social sharing and reuse values that regular books bring to the table if they ever want to replace them. (Or, just stop selling books. ;o)

• More info on the Kindle, including a must-watch video
  
• 17 Ways to Get Free Books Online

[the site]