I haven’t spent more than a few hours on Google’s new social network Plus, but I already like it and want it to succeed.  Many of you might remember my early crush on Google’s Wave and how that relationship ended in tears of frustration.  This time things are different, really.  Google has an elegant product that will surely evolve in ways that are fun and useful.   Why do I want Plus to succeed?  Because Plus doesn’t want to shut the Web out it in favor of a walled garden.  Plus is the Web because Google is the Web and more Web is good. 

“We’re looking for a big idea that will naturally tie in with the brand, a natural extension, something that feels right.”  That’s an actual request from a major media agency and a request that is contradictory, wasteful and silly.  The big idea is about change.  Changes that will make folks sit up and pay attention, share with their friends and crow about on Yelp, Foursquare, Twitter and Facebook.  What do these agencies really want?  Why ask for big when the desire and budget are small?  All the parties involved with bringing a product or service to market want change, but change is being resisted.  Individuals go to therapy for this sort of condition; can the advertising industry find help?  Stay tuned as I have an idea or two to run by you my loyal readers.

Day 2 and a huge amount of folks show up who are not officially registered, they’re here because it’s the place to be, or so they think so.  I think so!  Attended the Banking on Big Brands/Celebs for the Web panel in the morning and was surprised by what I took away.  Surprise 1: agencies are increasingly looking for unscripted, talent heavy ideas to match up with brands – this because if the brand messaging is baked into the content there is less flexibility if ROI (conversions, negative user feedback, et al) is not realized.  Having the celebrity guarantees a certain level of exposer for the content but keeping it loose is more important to protect one’s rear.  Surprise 2: the young male audience is less effected by celebrity and there’s a lot more money pursuing other audiences (women, boomers, et al) – not sure I agree, based up the competition my company experiences within our peer group for advertising dollars and the influx of celebrity heavy content targeted to young males.  Surprise 3: when I cut through the buzz/key words, the panel participants were big supporters of the traditional media business model.  Surprising because there’s a lot of opportunity with developing models.  But not surprising because the money is still in the pockets of traditional media business.  Later on in the evening I met four M.I.T. students who needed help gaining access to a party.  I made them my instant entourage!  They’re the founding group behind Ethertunes. Once inside I was able to introduce them to Scott Perry who runs Sperry Media, I’m excited to see what happens next.  Stay close.

The show is alive and well as far as I’m concerned.  Many brands are sticking their necks out either by sponsoring new products and services or creating the environment for creative collaboration and fun.  The show is not swamped with brand marketing messages, but rather with personal, marketing messages.  One might say there is a collective rallying cry of “here I am, look at me, my perspective on (fill in the blank) and insights on (fill in the blank) are important.”  Is this group therapy done right?  A lot of great companies are here and many of them are making important announcements:  Meebo is debuting their website check in service (become a VIP at different websites and see who of your friends have also visited) and an updated app.  Already the best free IM app for the iPhone, the latest update features a feed aggregation tab for tracking your friends activities.  Could be on my way to a new favorite app.  Foursquare has updated their app with a lot of new functionality.  The interface is good and there is a lot more going on: aggregation of tips near your location, friends who are not only there but who have been at the location before and offers near by.  I hope to see the app to evolve to where it notifies me of offers that are relevant to me.  More soon…

As I was saying in my previous post, it is/will be interesting to see how the Twitter ad products evolve.