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Judge rejects Apple injunction bid vs. Samsung

December 18, 2012 By Admin Leave a Comment

Judge rejects Apple injunction bid vs. Samsung

(Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Monday denied Apple Inc’s request for a permanent injunction against Samsung Electronics’ smartphones, depriving the iPhone maker of key leverage in the mobile patent wars.

Apple had been awarded $1.05 billion in damages in August after a U.S. jury found Samsung had copied critical features of the iPhone and iPad. The Samsung products run on the Android operating system, developed by Google.

Apple and Samsung are going toe-to-toe in a patents dispute that mirrors the struggle for industry supremacy between the two companies, which control more than half of worldwide smartphone sales.

For most of the year, Apple had been successful in its U.S. litigation campaign against Samsung. Apple convinced U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose, California to impose two pretrial sales bans against Samsung — one against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the other against the Galaxy Nexus phone.

Apple then sought to keep up the pressure after its sweeping jury win. It asked Koh to impose a permanent sales ban against 26 mostly older Samsung phones, though any injunction could potentially have been extended to Samsung’s newer Galaxy products.

Yet the jury exonerated Samsung on the patent used to ban Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales, and Koh rescinded that injunction. Then, in October, a federal appeals court reversed Koh’s ban against the Nexus phone.

In her order late on Monday, Koh cited that appellate ruling as binding legal precedent, ruling that Apple had not presented enough evidence that its patented features drove consumer demand for the entire iPhone.

“The phones at issue in this case contain a broad range of features, only a small fraction of which are covered by Apple’s patents,” Koh wrote.

“Though Apple does have some interest in retaining certain features as exclusive to Apple,” she continued, “it does not follow that entire products must be forever banned from the market because they incorporate, among their myriad features, a few narrow protected functions.”

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment on Koh’s ruling, and a Samsung representative could not immediately be reached.

In a separate order on Monday, Koh rejected a bid by Samsung for a new trial based on an allegation that the jury foreman was improperly biased in favor of Apple.

The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is Apple Inc. vs. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd et al, 11-1846.

(Reporting by Dan Levine in Oakland, California; Editing by Ron Popeski)

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6 Distractions That Could Destroy Your Relationship

November 12, 2012 By Admin Leave a Comment

(Phatforums News / The Frisky) — I remember the day I considered getting a smartphone for the first time. Before that, I’d been using a simple cellphone, one that made calls and occasionally dropped them. I didn’t assume that I needed anything fancier than that — I mean, I’m just a chick with a blog, right?

Time marched on and I found myself actually needing a smartphone, which I bought. Then came tablets – I probably needed one of those, too, right? For those times when phones aren’t enough?

Those two things quickly became both a tether and a noose around my neck — I was always reachable and available, which meant that I should respond, even if I was in the middle of living life in the real world.

Turns out? These distractions are things that can not only make us feel pressured to do more faster, but can ultimately put a serious damper on our relationships. Here are the biggest offenders.

1) Games – Video games, computer games, games on your phone or tablet – while these can provide a nice escape from the stresses of real life, they can also lead to some mega-relationship problems. If you find yourself spending more time playing games than you do talking to your partner, you should put them away.

2) Texting – There’s nothing ruder than spending time with your partner AND texting another person at the same time. Doesn’t matter if the other person is of the opposite sex or not, it’s a clear sign that whoever is in your real life is less important than the person on the other end of your messages.

3) Facebook – While being able to keep tabs on the antics of your friends in real-time Facebook updates, isn’t it more important to spend that time with your significant other? Facebook updates will be there later. Your partner may not be if you keep choosing a social networking site over him.

4) Smartphones – I have a hard time calling anything “smart” that can’t cure cancer, but I fully understand the urgency and (occasional) need for a smartphone. I run a nonprofit organization called Band Back Together — if someone is in desperate need of help, I need to know about it. But I also need to be able to show a partner that I’m present and in the moment with him.

5) Tablets – I’m an Apple girl, and I do so love my iPad. It allows me to do a ton of things remotely. I also understand that whatever I’m doing on my iPad should wait until I’m not out at dinner with or relaxing at home with a date. Being glued to my iPad is NOT sending the right message to someone I may really care for.

6) YouTube – I get it – there’s funny stuff to be seen on YouTube. But how about turning off the dancing cat video and having a real conversation with the guy next to you before it’s too late?

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Dating “off the grid”

May 5, 2012 By Admin Leave a Comment

(Phatforums News / Match.com) — For most of us, email, smartphones, and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are a way of life — not to mention a way of finding love. But what happens when you fall for someone whose world doesn’t revolve around an app-happy smartphone or a desire to be plugged in or online 24/7? In other words, is it possible to connect with someone who lives “off the grid” these days? Let’s take a closer look…

Missed connections
Sometimes, the answer is a resounding “no.” When Dan N. — a 30-year-old stand-up comedian from Manhattan — met a cute hairstylist while rollerblading last year, he was surprised when she offered up her phone number instead of the standard email address. “To get someone’s phone number is unheard of,” he says. “But then it turned out she didn’t have an email address. And she had only one phone — a land line.”

Despite the fact that they were technological opposites — he lived a “super-connected” lifestyle that regularly relied on apps, Skype, and social media interaction, while she had no computer, Internet, email or cell phone of her own — the two began to date.

Unfortunately, after a few months, the “digital divide” took its toll on their budding relationship.

“It wasn’t like, ‘You’re not connected, forget you,’” Dan says, “but it caused a lot of operational problems. I’d be sitting at a restaurant for 40 minutes waiting for her to show up — this happened a couple times — and she didn’t have a phone or any way to call to say [that] her train was stuck. If I was going out in a group and wanted her to join us, I couldn’t text her. There was just no way to get hold of her.”

Ditching the digital world
Other times, it’s a matter of compromise. Sarah S., a 26-year-old registered pediatric and intensive care nurse currently living in New Jersey, met her boyfriend online — but soon after they moved in together, he was offered the chance to live on a nature preserve in California, which he accepted. “He now lives in a cabin without any electricity, so there’s no TV, no computer, no land line,” she laments. “He still has his cell phone, but he uses a hand-crank charger… and he has to leave the preserve to get a connection.”

While maintaining their long-distance relationship has been challenging (“I went from being with him every day to not knowing when he was going to call”), Sarah says that she’s now in the process of moving to California in order to be closer to him. “I love him and I’m happy that he’s getting to do what he’s doing,” she explains. “He says it’s been life-changing and wants me to live on the preserve with him.”

The idea of living without Internet access (much less electricity) is daunting for her, though.

“I’m a TV person, so I know that will be difficult. And I do like Facebook, too, although I could do without it,” Sarah says. “Mainly, though, it’s work. I don’t know that it would be possible for me to live on the preserve. They wouldn’t be able to get hold of me.”

Unplugged = unloved?
According to Patricia Wallace, psychologist and author of The Psychology of the Internet, staying off-line in a hyper-connected world is difficult — especially for those on the dating scene.

“Not having a cell phone is a major drawback,” Wallace says. “It’s turned into what I call a ‘micro-coordination tool.’ People expect you to be able to communicate all the time, to text them that you’ll be 15 minutes late. It’s a base expectation. I’ve read of cases where somebody will stop dating a person because they won’t text.”

In addition, a total lack of social media presence not only raises eyebrows — it can result in serious questions for potential dates.

“I asked my daughter (who’s 29 and single) what she thought of someone deliberately staying off the grid, and she said she’d be afraid they’re hiding something,” says Wallace, who’s the senior director of online programs and information technology at the Center for Talented Youth at Johns Hopkins University. “For some, it could make you more interesting. But for others, they might find it suspicious. It could be viewed as a possible red flag.”

Kimberly F., a 33-year-old marketing consultant from Manhattan, NY, says that she dated a man for three years who owned a cell phone and laptop but refused to participate in any social media online.

“He would have a minor freak-out if somebody took a picture of him,” she says. “He didn’t want photos of himself on Facebook. He wouldn’t get angry, but it would cause friction. For me, it’s part of life. You go out to a cocktail party; you expect it’s going to be covered on Facebook or Twitter the next day. But he was like, ‘Why do you want that out there?’” Kimberly explains. “Personally, I think it should be one of those questions on Match.com,” she says. “Like: ‘What’s your religion? What’s your political background? What’s your feeling about social media?’ It’s better if you have the same feelings about being on or off the grid.”

Doppelgangers and dating
Oddly enough, Kimberly met her ex on an online dating site, although he apparently only signed up so he could send her an email message. After they connected, he unplugged from the site. So, how did he fare during the standard pre-date Internet search conducted by most modern daters?

“He was un-Googleable,” says Kimberly. “There was nothing about him online. He had no Internet footprint whatsoever.” But Internet expert Wallace says that just because you avoid social media sites doesn’t mean you won’t wind up online somehow, anyway.

“Nowadays, it’s nearly impossible to be off the grid,” she says. “And the thing to consider is that if you’re not out there managing your own persona, it’s being managed without your knowledge. People will take your picture at a party and tag your face for Facebook.”

In addition, Wallace says that singles need to remember that there are lots of people with the exact same name. “I have a doppelganger — another Patricia Wallace who’s a romance writer,” she says. “A lot of people think I write her books. In a dating scenario, you may have to clarify who is who. You could pull up a Fred Taylor who posts white supremacist notes on various websites and think it’s the guy you just met.”

Making it work
As always, though, there are those who manage to connect in spite of their digital differences. Ashley L., a 33-year-old interior designer and consultant from Dallas, TX, met her husband via Match.com even though she didn’t have a computer — or email access — at home.

“A friend of mine helped me put up a profile and I would check it at work during my lunch break,” she says, “and it worked wonderfully. I dated a few people, and then I met my husband. We texted back and forth for about a month, and then we met and really hit it off. After that, we started spending all our time together and just took our profiles down.”

Married three years, Ashley says she now has a home computer (“My husband made us get one”) but she still doesn’t do any social media sites (he, on the other hand, “is on Facebook and all that”).

But her lack of connectivity hasn’t exactly short circuited their relationship. If anything, it’s drawn them closer together. “We have a lot of synchronicities and interests, and it was great that I was able to find someone made for me,” she says. “He’s also helped me with technology.”

Diane Mapes is a freelance writer based in Seattle and the author of How to Date in a Post-Dating World. She can be reached via her Web site, dianemapes.net.

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Yahoo threatens Facebook as patent war looms

February 28, 2012 By Admin Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Yahoo has demanded licensing fees from Facebook for use of its technology, the companies said on Monday, potentially engulfing social media in the patent battles and lawsuits raging across much of the tech sector.

Yahoo has asserted claims on patents that include the technical mechanisms in the Facebook’s ads, privacy controls, news feed and messaging service, according to a source briefed on the matter.

Representatives from the two companies met on Monday and the talks involved 10 to 20 of Yahoo’s patents, said the source, who was not aware of what specific dollar demands Yahoo may have made for licenses.

Yahoo did not elaborate in an emailed statement on details of its discussions with Facebook, but indicated it would not flinch at taking the social networking giant to court over its patents.

Yahoo said other companies have already licensed some of the technologies at issue, and that it would act unilaterally if Facebook refused to pay for a patent license.

“Yahoo has a responsibility to its shareholders, employees and other stakeholders to protect its intellectual property,” the company said.

The meeting between the two companies was first reported by the New York Times.

A Facebook spokesman said: “Yahoo contacted us at the same time they called the New York Times and so we haven’t had the opportunity to fully evaluate their claims.”

Should Yahoo wind up suing Facebook, it would mark the first major legal battle among technology giants in the social media sphere and a major escalation of patent litigation that has already swept up the smartphone and tablet sectors and high-tech stalwarts such as Apple Inc, Microsoft Corp and Motorola Mobility.

Yahoo’s patent claims follow Facebook’s announcement of plans for an initial public offering that could value the company at about $100 billion.

Several social networking companies, including Facebook, have seen an uptick in patent claims asserted against them as they move through the IPO process.

However, most of those lawsuits have been filed by patent aggregators that buy up intellectual property to squeeze value from it via licensing deals, and none by a large tech company such as Yahoo.

(Reporting By Dan Levine; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

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6 Ways to Overcome Your Sexual Insecurity

November 19, 2011 By Admin Leave a Comment

(Phatforums News / The Stir) — Having sex is one of the few things that leave us completely open and totally vulnerable. Emotionally as well as physically. In order to completely enjoy your time in bed, you have to let go. Easier said than done, right?

RIGHT.

Here are some of my tips to overcome sexual insecurities and enjoy your time in the bedroom a WHOLE LOT MORE.

1. Masturbate. Getting in touch with what you like and what you don’t like will help you to be a better partner, because you’ll know exactly what you want. And that is worth it’s weight in orgasms.

2. Naked time. A lot of us feel really uncomfortable with the way we look naked. We’ve put on some weight since college or we have dimples in places that didn’t used to have them, and we feel kinda, well, awkward. So take off your clothes and revel in everything that makes you YOU.

3. Make sex a priority. We’re all busy. Period. We do so much in any given day that it’s easy to forget that sex is important. Not only is an orgasm good for releasing tension (thank YOU, endorphins), but it’s a great way to feel close to your partner. So schedule it, put it in your smartphone, whatever you gotta do. Just get it done.

4. Forget perfection. Sex doesn’t (usually) last hours. Not every sexual escapade lasts for hours. You don’t need to sound (or look) like a porn star to be sexy. Just enjoy the time you do have together in bed NO MATTER WHAT. Feel ugly? Try some ugly day sex positions.

5. Accept thyself. Does touching yourself while talking dirty to your partner rev you up? Do you want to know exactly what your partner fantasizes about doing to your naked body? Just do it. Suck it up, and tell them what you want. Exactly what you want. Then? Enjoy the hell out of it.

6. Keep on keepin’ on. Was sex weird when you tried it from behind? Did you feel like you didn’t perform well? Only way to fix that is to keep at it. Keep trying it. It’s perfectly normal to need to practice certain things before they become like second nature. And believe me, eventually, they will.

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Report: Smartphone Use Boosts E.U. Internet Traffic

October 28, 2011 By Admin Leave a Comment

(Phatforums News / XBiz) — RESTON, Va — Smartphone use generated 4.6 percent of all major European Internet traffic in the 3rd quarter of 2011, according to a ComScore MobiLens report.

The study canvassed adults from five of the largest European markets — the U.K., Italy, Denmark, France and Spain — and revealed that 94.1 million people used smartphones in the three-month period that ended Aug. 31, resulting in a 46 percent increase on the year.

ComScore also said that although the Symbian platform is the most widely used in Europe with a 28.7 percent share, Apple’s iPad and iPod have helped iOS grab the overall mobile Internet audience lead with a 30.5 percent share for the period.

“While we have seen the increasing adoption of smartphones in the EU5 contribute to the rapid growth of mobile media consumption, we are also beginning to see tablets and other connected devices play an increasing role,” said Jeremy Copp, ComScore’s vice president for mobile in Europe.

In the U.K., mobile browser usage is still higher than mobile app usage with 45.9 percent of respondents having used their mobile browser compared to 43.7 who have used mobile apps.

More than one third of users have used their mobile devices to access their social networking profiles, according to the study.

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Apple’s iOS Grabs 55% of Mobile Web Traffic, Study Says

October 4, 2011 By Admin Leave a Comment

CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple’s iOS operating system is now driving nearly 55 percent of worldwide mobile web traffic, according to a new report by web analytics firm Net Applications.

The findings suggest that the percentage eclipses Google’s Android by more than three times. At 16 percent global market share across mobile phones and tablets, Android web traffic even trails Java ME, which accounts for nearly 19 percent market share.

Symbian follows at 6 percent and RIM’s BlackBerry is at 3 percent.

Although Android controls 48 percent of the worldwide smartphone market, Apple’s iPad continues to own the tablet market, increasing to 68 percent global market share during the second quarter, up from almost 66 percent a quarter ago.

At the same time, Android’s tablet market share slipped from 34 percent in the first quarter to nearly 27 percent, due both to Apple’s dominance and the introduction of RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook, which captured almost 5 percent market share.

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Twitter dismisses $10bn Google deal and talks up mobile

February 15, 2011 By Admin Leave a Comment

Twitter chief executive Dick Costolo has dismissed talk of a $10bn deal with Google as “rumour” during a keynote speech at Mobile World Congress.

He laughed off questions about tie-ups with Facebook and Google, saying he didn’t know “where such talk came from”.

Instead he concentrated on the importance of the service’s growth, especially on mobile.

According to Mr Costolo, 40% of tweets now come from mobile platforms.

He said that the service needed “deeper integration” in smartphones as well as to extend how it was made available to more basic phones.

Mr Costolo said that he wanted Twitter to work seamlessly on all mobile software.

“We want deep smartphone integration and stronger text messaging integration. It has to just work the same way everywhere it is used,” he said.

But he offered little detail on how this would be achieved, beyond saying that he wanted more “single sign-ons”.

“We want to be able to tweet from any app, without having to fire up another application,” he said.

More detail on how Twitter could be integrated with mobiles would have been useful, said Eden Zoller, principal analyst at research firm Ovum.

“We expected more; for example what Twitter is doing to build its application ecosystem given the importance of apps in adding value to the service and the fact that a growing number of Twitter users interact with the service via apps,” she said.

“We also hoped Twitter would show that it intends to leverage mobile location better than it is, and likewise search,” she added.

Expansion plans

Currently Twitter’s revenues are made in three key ways – from promoted trends, which allows companies to pay to appear in its top ratings, and sponsored and promoted tweets.

Much of the keynote speech was devoted to Twitter’s phenomenal growth.

Twitter on iPhone Twitter’s plans to make money are still uncertain

Twitter now regularly carries 130 million tweets a day and during major events, such as the football World Cup can see upwards of 3,000 tweets a second, Mr Costolo said.

The record, he revealed, was 6,000 tweets per second in Japan at New Year’s Eve.

Mr Costolo also spoke of the importance of the platform as a political tool, with basic services such as speak-to-tweet, a partnership with Google which allowed users to send tweets as voicemail and read them as texts, proving crucial in recent citizen protests in Egypt.

He announced that a crowd-sourcing translation service will soon be coming to Twitter.

He revealed that increasing numbers of users are coming to the service as passive consumers.

“More users of Twitter aren’t tweeting,” he said.

“We have to understand that many are here just for consumption, they just want to follow content,” he added.

He hinted at possible expansion of Twitter’s social network.

“If new users come to Twitter and have a couple of social connections they are far more likely to remain engaged users,” he revealed.

Windows world

Mr Costolo did also hint at possible tie-ups with TV advertisers, playing up Twitter’s value during TV shows such as live sports, saying that the service was turning people against DVRs and on-demand services because they preferred to watch in “real time” so that they could tweet.

Twitter was allowing interactive TV to become a reality. “Twitter is the second screen,” he said.

The assertion will be welcomed by TV advertisers which have seen revenues fall as a result of people using DVRs and other methods to watch content.

Ms Zoller was disappointed that Mr Costolo did not say more about how he intends for the company to make money.

“Twitter quoted figures on healthy growth and use, which is good but not surprising. What it didn’t provide was concrete details on was how effective its nascent businesses are proving to be in driving revenues – lots of case studies of cool brands using Twitter but no hard line on the margins this brings to Twitter,” she said.

In an earlier keynote speech, Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer revealed that it plans to integrate Twitter as one of a raft of updates to Windows phones, coming later this year.

Other updates include a version of Microsoft’s latest browser, Internet Explorer 9, for phones and deeper ties with gaming services Xbox and Kinect.

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Opening Day: Verizon iPhone 4

February 10, 2011 By Admin Leave a Comment

Customers waited outside a Verizon store in New York to buy the iPhone 4 on Thursday.

Despite icy temperatures in New York on Thursday morning, people eager to buy an iPhone that is compatible with Verizon’s wireless network filed into Apple and Verizon stores.

Thursday is the first day that the iPhone is widely available for sale from a wireless carrier other than AT&T in the United States. Verizon and Apple planned to start selling the Verizon version of the iPhone in their stores around the country at 7 a.m. as well as in their online stores. Best Buy and several hundred Wal-Mart stores also planned to have the phone. Photos on Twitter showed modest lines at some stores; here is a roundup.

Verizon said on Friday that demand for the iPhone 4 was greater than for all of its previous smartphone debuts, including releases like the Motorola Droid and Droid X. Despite minor complaints from some Verizon customers who said they experienced glitches when trying to order online, the company said it sold all of the phones that it had set aside for pre-orders for current customers who wanted an iPhone. The phone has received glowing reviews from many gadget reviewers, only fueling interest in it.

At least one region of the country is expecting unusually high interest in the phone. North and South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming, which are not serviced by AT&T, will now be able to purchase an iPhone from Verizon, which will begin selling the phone in those regions on Thursday. Stores have stocked up on hand warmers and hot drinks for the those who may line up.

If you pursued a Verizon iPhone 4 this morning, what was your experience like? Let us know in the comments.

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Super Bowl ads mix old and new media

February 4, 2011 By Admin Leave a Comment

If it seems as though messages from Super Bowl marketers are flying at you from every direction — even from inside Kim Kardashian ‘s private gym for Skechers — you may understand why many advertisers view Sunday’s Super Bowl as a tipping point for traditional media and social media.

Old media: 30-some advertisers will air about 60 TV commercials, having spent up to $3 million per 30 seconds of ad time in the Fox telecast expected to be seen by more than 100 million.

New media: Advertisers’ social-networking lead-up and follow-up to their game ads are going non-stop on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and more — on phones, computers and iPads.

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2011 AD LINEUP: Super Bowl XVL advertisers

Not that the ads will be the best ever. It may be that 2011 Super Bowl advertisers now are so focused on spreading the message across so many media channels that many forgot to focus on the content of the central message itself.

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CAMPAIGNS START EARLY: See a sneak peak of a Bud Super Bowl ad
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PHOTOS: Take a look back at Budweiser’s top Super Bowl ads

But if the famous “1984″ commercial for Apple ‘s Macintosh instantly changed the way Super Bowl ads were created, 2011′s game may be remembered for changing forever the way marketers expand their campaigns — via new media far beyond the ad they buy in the Big Game.
Who will win Ad Meter?

Visit admeter.usatoday.com on Sunday to view the ads and get the full results of USA TODAY’s Ad Meter. Ad Meter tracks the second-by-second responses of a panel of viewers to the ads during the Super Bowl and ranks them from best to worst.

“Welcome to the first Transmedia Bowl,” offers futurist Watts Wacker. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see Bud Light roving reporters in the stands, providing lucky fans with 15 seconds of fame through video feeds to their sites.”

Fox’s 30-second Super Bowl ad slots have been sold out since October — among the earliest sellouts ever. The ads may be old-style media, but even Groupon, the hotter-than-hot group coupon website that’s as new media as new media gets, has bought a slot to gain brand buzz.

“We know it’s ironic to use the offline world of Super Bowl advertising to build our brand,” says Rob Solomon, president of Groupon. “But we’ve done everything that you can do online.”

After some fits and starts in years past, marketers also seem to have figured out how to integrate new media into the Super Bowl effort. Instead of nudging viewers to static websites, they’ll steer them to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or smartphone and tablet apps, where folks can engage with the brands.

“It’s cosmically different, because it’s not just a TV experience, but a multichannel, multiplatform, deeply social experience,” says Shiv Singh, digital media chief at PepsiCo Americas Beverages, which, for the first time, has purchased an iPad-specific Super Bowl ad.

Think of it this way: Nearly two-thirds of 18- to 34-year-olds planning to watch the Super Bowl have smartphones and intend to use them while watching the game, says Lightspeed Research. Of those, 59% will be sending e-mails or text messages about the game, while 18% will be checking out the ads online from their phones.

“This is the new water cooler,” says Ann Mukherjee, chief marketing officer at Frito-Lay. “People are not working at the office like they used to. Digital space is helping to re-create that human behavior of talking at the water cooler.”

As a result, most Super Bowl advertisers have spent months planning strategies. Twenty years ago, strategy was about the TV ad itself. About a decade ago, the strategies began to be expanded to directing viewers to marketer websites for more information, games, etc.

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JUSTIN BIEBER PITCHES: With Ozzy in Best Buy Super bowl ad
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CELBRITIES: Kim Kardashian, Danica Patrick to star in ads this year
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SUPER GALS: Photos of top female celebrities in Super Bowl ads

Now, it’s all about using social media before the Big Game to build brand buzz and attract viewers to watch a Super Bowl commercial, then using that spot to redirect viewers back to social media to talk about the brand and the message.
Asking people to personalize, share

HomeAway, the online vacation-rental service, isn’t just running an ad in which a baby gets smushed against the wall in a crowded hotel room. It’s asking folks to upload family pictures in place of the baby’s picture on a special website, then share the pictures via Facebook or Twitter.

“We’ve taken personalization to a whole new level with this campaign,” says Brian Sharples, CEO.

A spot for the 20th Century Fox film Rio— featuring the angry birds from Rovio’s hit mobile game app, Angry Birds— has an even more complicated intertwining of old and new media. The game ad will nudge viewers to pause the spot on their DVRs and watch it frame-by-frame to find an embedded code. The code gives access to a new level on the game app, where they then can enter a sweepstakes for a trip to Rio de Janeiro for the film’s premiere.

Then there’s Skechers.

“We hope to define this as the social Super Bowl,” says Leonard Armato, chief marketing officer.

Before the game, the shoe company has used Facebook and Twitter pages to tease folks with images — what Skechers calls “raw film” — from its Super Bowl ad shoot with a sultry Kardashian.

The ad is about heartbreak queen Kardashian, decked out in her Skechers, once again breaking someone’s heart. It’s Skechers’ second Super Bowl spot, and a long way from last year’s Joe Montana voice-over.

The ad will try to lure folks back to the Facebook page for yet more video outtakes from the ad shoot that will be posted after the game. Here, folks also will find a “customizable” ad of Kardashian — to be shared via Facebook — suggesting what the recipient of the ad needs to “break up” with, such as eating too many cheeseburgers.

The clincher: One person who posts the ad on his or her Facebook Wall will win a workout session with Kardashian.

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2010 AD METER: Revisit last year’s Super Bowl ads
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PHOTOS: See all the previous winners of USA TODAY’s Ad Meter

Other outside-the-TV-box plans:

• Facebook mania.Anheuser-Busch has concocted a guessing game for its Bud Light brand that’s luring folks to the brand’s Facebook page before the game.

Two weeks before the Super Bowl, A-B posted screen grabs from its three Bud Light ads, encouraging consumers to guess what each ad is about. Only those who figure out all three get special access to a “secret” Bud Light spot that others can’t see. The goal is to get Facebook users to share.

“People have to piece together the story,” says Gregg Billmeyer, vice president of premium lights at A-B. With about 1 million Bud Light Facebook fans, and with the typical consumer having about 100 Facebook friends, he says, “It becomes an exponential thing.”

• Post-game new media. For Audi, in its fourth Super Bowl, being in the game is as much about garnering attention for the brand after its 60-second spot airs as before or during the game.

So Audi is using Facebook and a Twitter hash tag in the ad this year to drive game viewers to tweet about the ad and check it out on Audi’s Facebook page. After airing of the spot, which contrasts old-fashioned luxury to hip new luxury, folks will be able to go to the Facebook page and “deconstruct” the ad frame-by-frame, says Scott Keogh, chief marketing officer.

The Facebook app will open to a “Luxury Estate Sale,” where consumers are urged to find examples of “old luxury” in the ad, says Keogh. The carmaker will randomly pick winners for prizes.

• Layers of multimedia. PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay Doritos chip brand has built in layers of multimedia for this year’s Super Bowl that it’s never used before.

More than 21% of the brand chatter it received about its four consumer-created Super Bowl spots last year was via Twitter, says Mukherjee.

So this year’s “Crash the Super Bowl” consumer-made-ad contest is giving consumers the ability to share the videos on Twitter or Facebook.

Doritos also has created a Super Bowl YouTube channel for its finalists. “Instead of having to go to our website to play, we’re coming to your house to play,” explains Mukherjee.

The three ads that will air were picked from the finalists via consumer voting. And for the first time, votes could be cast via smartphones, which increased the number of votes 148%.

• IPad Bowl. PepsiCo’s Pepsi brand returns to the Super Bowl with ads for Pepsi Maxx after sitting on the sidelines last year to focus on its digitally based Pepsi Refresh Project. Like Doritos, it will air three consumer-created spots.

If one of the Pepsi Maxx or Doritos spots wins the top slot in USA TODAY’s Ad Meter consumer rating of Super Bowl ads as they air in the game, the creators of the spot could win up to $2 million.

Pepsi also is eliciting consumer responses to its ads on Facebook.

Beyond that, says Singh, head of Pepsi’s digital, “We think we would be remiss if we didn’t have a marketing play around iPad.”

So, it purchased an interactive iPad ad on The Daily, a new, daily iPad newspaper created by News Corp. and Apple.

Why iPad? “IPad users are big trendsetters,” Singh says.

• Been there, done that. The undisputed champion of milking pre- and post-Super Bowl hype for consumer action is Go Daddy. It’s doing it again this year.

On its Facebook page, if you “like” GoDaddy.com, you get “fan-only content,” including behind-the-scenes footage from the filming of its always provocative Super Bowl spots. This year’s spots feature race car driver Danica Patrick and fitness guru Jillian Michaels for Web domain site GoDaddy.com and a GoDaddy.co Girl to be unveiled in a Super Bowl ad for the new GoDaddy.co site. On Twitter, Go Daddy fans are frantically guessing who the GoDaddy.co Girl is.

Year after year, Go Daddy has urged consumers to visit it online with the tease that they will see more there than its sexy ads can show on TV. And, every year, folks leave wanting more, a trick that predates new media.

“I have one goal every year,” says Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons. “To be the lowest of the low.”

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