MIMA Summit  is one of, if not the, leading Minnesota-based conferences for digital thinkers. The 2011 conference is occurring on Oct 11th-12th and is comprised of a half-day of intensive workshops and a full day of great conference presentations.

Bolin knows that digital has been a “Game-Changer” for many marketers and what better way to address this than with an actual game. Bolin will have a “Pile Up” arcade game located in our booth on the third floor of MIMA Summit that, in partnership with FirstTech, is stocked with an awesome harvest of  Apple® goodies.

What is that you hear? You can win free stuff? O yes, that is right: We said FREE STUFF! Here are the details on how to participate:

A “coin” will be located in your swag bag, bring the #Bolin coin to our booth and trade it for a game token to play “Pile Up.”  You could win an iPad2®, an Apple® TV, an iPod nano®, an iPod shuffle® and other fun prizes.

Wanna play more?

Be on the lookout in the next week for additional posts on tasks you can do to earn more coins and more chances to win great stuff.

From March 11^th-March 15^th I had the opportunity to attend SXSW Interactive in Austin, TX. SXSW, as described by closing speaker Bruce Sterling is “the epicenter of the web universe.” SXSW has become the conference for all things interactive. This was my first time in Austin, as well as my first time at SXSW.   SXSW is definitely not your “run-of-the-mill” conference. If conferences were drinks, SXSW would be a triple-shot espresso (or a Four Locos if you are into that sort of thing). There is always something going on, it starts at 9 a.m. and runs until 4 a.m. and there are more people and things to see than one really knows what to do with. To be honest, it can be a bit intimidating for the first day or two. However, here are a few tips from my first SXSW experience to help other newbies get in the groove and conquer the five day madness:

1.       Plan! Plan! Plan! – Most conferences have a few tracks that you can follow for specific interest, SXSW has… about 80 (slight exaggeration). It is really important to determine which sessions and panels you are most interested in and schedule them into your day.  It is also important to note that the sessions occur in various locations throughout the city, so pay attention to where a session is located and  determine if you need to skip something else (or hustle your pants off) to attend.

2.       Throw the Plan out the Window – I know, I know, I just told you to plan and I sincerely mean it, but be willing to throw that plan out the window. The plan is really important for trying to tackle this event, but once you are there things can change very quickly. Sessions, particularly the highly sought after ones, fill up fast. Once the room is full, it is full and the wonderful SXSW volunteers will close the doors. Be willing to find something else, explore the numerous outside activities and sponsored booths or chat-up someone else that got locked out.

3.       Be nice to the SXSW volunteers – They do not determine fire codes, they are not purposefully keeping you out and they are not being paid. Show them a little kindness, because that is not a job that most would want and Felicia Day was once a SWSX volunteer (Moral-You do not always know who you might be yelling at!).

4.       Don’t be fooled by a snazzy session title – This is the oldest trick in the book: create a really awesome -superly -fantastic –hipster- thrashing-can’t- believe- it’s not- butter of a title for your session to get people to come. Don’t be fooled. Look at the title for general interest and then look to see who is speaking. If it is someone that you have previously heard of, great. If it is not, search out who they are and what they do. This helps determine if the session will actually live up to the title and be beneficial.

5.       Location! Location! Location! – As mentioned above, the sessions are scattered all around the city (on that note: Thanks Austin for being so fantastic about a bunch of nerds taking over your city). If a session is in the Austin Convention Center, it is probably a safe bet in terms of content. If it is located at a gas station (another slight exaggeration) 20 miles away, make sure to do your due diligence on what the session is going to offer and if it is worth the trek.

6.       Go it alone – I am lucky enough to have amazing coworkers who showed me the ropes of SXSW right away. However, if you are not so lucky or have a different sleep schedules or different interests don’t be afraid to divide and concur (Data geeks do not bite).

6 ½. If you see your coworker leave the hotel without a bag, inform them at that moment that you will not be carrying their swag – AKA Do not turn into the pack mule, the days are long and the t-shirts get heavy.

7.       Be realistic – There comes a time in your career when there is not a ton of knowledge to be gained from listening to other people talk about what you do. That said, there is an immense amount to be gained by being around 17k people who are just as excited about the new Foursquare update as you are and what that means for the future of LBS. It is energizing and inspiring and gets your mind racing with ideas and how to execute. If that is not good enough; go to sessions that have nothing to do with what you do. If you are a marketer, go down the development track and vice versa. A conference is only as good as what you are willing to put in, so put in.

8.       Charge! Charge! Charge! – You will use all of your gadgets all of the time, so bring your chargers wherever you go or have backup batteries where applicable. Not having your phone normally is not fun; not having your phone when you are trying to stay connected to your team is awful.

9.       Be about IRL – This is the biggest learning from my first time at SXSW. Meeting people and networking is the heart of SXSW. Make sure you take your nose out of your iPad long enough to actually meet people. Go to parties every night to make connections with people (you can sleep when you get home), take business cards, give business cards, follow people on Twitter right away and be open to making new friends. These friends are possible vendors, clients and partners that share interest in the interactive space. Also, use it as an opportunity to further relationships with people from your neck of the woods. I made great friends with someone from Minneapolis whom I had not previously met and that is an invaluable experience that would likely not be replicable at an in-town event.

Obviously these few tips just begin to break the iceberg that is SXSW. Any other SXSWers out there have additional tips to share for newbies or think that I am way off base: Let me know!  See you next year Driskill Hotel, Austin Convention Center and Bar-B-Q Heaven Food Stand.

How do we design for the realities of human behavior?

That seemed to be the driving theme in BJ Fogg’s Designing for Behavior Change: Human Nature, Hot Triggers and New Habits workshop in Day 3 at UX Week in San Francisco.

The premise was clear: much of first generation of digital design (websites, applications, and related tools) has focused on providing as much information as possible to audiences in order to encourage them to take action. This is commonly referred to as the information (action) fallacy. And it’s been proven to not work. A lot of evidence shows people don’t consume vast amounts of  information in the way that typical information systems present it.

Another reality advertisers are coming to terms with: most research shows attitudinal change in people doesn’t correlate to changing behavior. People generally say one thing, and then do another. In addition, a lot of advertising focuses on enforcing ambient/passive awareness of messages and brands in traditional channels of communication. These also have been proven to not be terribly efficient or effective, either.

So, what really works?

In digital experiences, we need to rethink our context. We need to learn how to trigger able, motivated people to take action while in the normal flow and environment of their habitual lives. To understand this landscape of behavior change in people is to master this guiding principle of designing systems and tools for user experience:

Put “Hot Triggers” in the the path of (able) motivated people.

Let’s start with the “motivated” person. For instance, it’s easier to place carrots or “triggers” in the paths of able, motivated people than it is to go after unmotivated people first, and persuade them to do something differently.

• Example: To encourage bicycle commuting, experience designers hand out easy-to-access bike trail maps to people who own bikes (bike owners are “able”) and want to bike to work (they are also “motivated”), but don’t know the best or most effective routes, or simply need that extra incentive or reason to take action. The activity of the hand out, of course, occurs at the right time–when people are considering their biking routine, for example.

Let’s now talk “Hot Triggers.” Hot triggers are devices that entice, instigate or catalyze action or inaction at the appropriate time (my definition). For example, digital tactics used in the correct context, like email and texting, have proven to be effective in this regard. Mostly because the penetration and adoption of these two channels of communication are so ubiquitous (many of our audiences are ABLE to use these channels). Sometimes these very simple tools are overlooked when trying to engage online audiences. Examples:

• Facebook has mastered email triggers to drive traffic back into the social experience to enhance engagement and encourage ongoing interaction.
• Facebook also uses simple behavioral devices (the ‘Like’ button) to tip users’ affinities in the direction of digital communities they associate with.
• Ebay encourages honest online behavior by incorporating rating systems for buyers to comment on and rank sellers.

Apparently simple stuff, right?

There are a lot more dimensions to this concept that I simply cannot cover in one blog post. So I’ll end by asking some questions that, if answered correctly, can put you on the track to designing better, more productive human behavior in any user experience:

• What behavior do you want to change, or trigger, for your audience?
• What is the simplest behavior that matters to your audience?
• How do you trigger the simplest action for them?
• How do increase your audience’s ability to do something?
• How do you reward or promise to reward your audience?
• How can the little touch points over time create shifts in value exchange for your audiences? For you?

Example of Ben Fry's Interactive visualization of "The Cost Of Getting Sick"

In the world of digital performance marketing, three things matter most: (1) measuring customer activity; (2) analyzing the measured activity and (3) activating sound strategies that better serve customers in their own desires to seek out products, services and solutions for themselves.

As an evolving practice at Bolin, our insights team is constantly seeking new methods and tools to help understand the data that’s collected from customer activity. One way to aid understanding of data is to visualize it.

In day 2 of UX Week here in San Francisco a select few of us worked with Ben Fry, computational information design expert and key developer of the open source Processing language. Processing has evolved as a straightforward visualization language that’s been used by information designers and programmers to communicate complex data relationships. Fry’s work on visualizations like the cost of getting sick and the health visualizer are just two examples demonstrating the power of visualized data to help people understand complex relationships and make better policy, business or other decisions. (you can find more of Ben’s work here, including his fascinating albeit extremely complex work on visualizing the human genetic code).

The power of visualized data in decision making has enormous potential. Humans by their very nature are visual people. So, as marketers and user experience practitioners, how can visualization take information and make it more meaningful, more actionable for us? For our clients? For our clients’ customers?

Nicole Lazzaro speaking on game play and the future of UX

I have the fortunate opportunity to converge with 474 other user experience (“UX”) professionals from around the globe for the Adaptive Path 2010 UX Week Conference here in San Francisco.

As this conference gathers some of the best and brightest minds in user experience thinking and practice, I wanted to share some of the latest ideas being tossed about in the UX community and give a little insight into how we at Bolin Marketing think about operationalizing user experience strategy, planning and execution for our clients, based on our ever-active approach to learning and applying new ideas.

While I won’t go into detail about the first day’s schedule of events, the most important themes were obvious: (1) UX practitioners need to design interactive experiences that account for human emotion-based decision making (not just rational thinking); and (2) incorporating game play in these experiences enhances adoption and engagement of user audiences.

Thinkers like BJ Fogg and Nicole Lazzaro have done significant work in helping software designers understand that (1) people not only need to interact with things that are natural by habit but (2) people often can be motivated to immerse themselves in experiences that are fun, exciting or even challenging (in a good way). If they don’t, boredom, annoyance, frustration and abandonment quickly ensue.

Some examples here beg questioning, but have been proven to tap into this type of behavior:

• Why do you want to learn about what your favorite brand is saying (Facebook fan page)?
• What compels you to want to know what your friends are doing, or share what you are doing at 10:47pm on a Tuesday night (Twitter news feed)?
• What motivates you to strive for the next level or achieve the highest score (Xbox, Wii, Playstation)?

So, how do we as UX designers motivate our audiences to continue on a journey that is meaningful and valuable to our customers’ lives as well as our clients’ business?

These are the questions that drive us as designers to go beyond mere design of a website or marketing campaign. As marketers in the new world, we have to spend time understanding better ways to appeal to basic human needs and wants, especially over time. Simply put, maybe that means creating more “fun” for everyone.

Many organizations have begun to use social platforms as a direct channel to their audiences. Following is my presentation to the Minnesota Direct Marketing Association annual conference that demonstrates how to do more than just have a social presence by showing you how to identify strategies that meet your organizational objectives and then how to track and measure success. In this presentation, I propose 3 primary strategies for reaching common marketing objectives. I’m interested to learn what other strategies are being used to reach both business and broader organizational needs.

Two weeks before SXSWi I was in my home town attending the funeral of my younger cousin. My aunt had told me that my 91 year old grandfather wanted to see me. “He wants to see you. He says he doesn’t think he has a lot more time left.”, she said. See my Grandpa John had a stroke a couple months ago, and he has short periods of being lucid; knowing who is around him. This isn’t his first medical scare.

Several years ago, I went to visit him in the hospital. As I sat by his bedside, he started telling me stories. My Grandfather was never a talker, so when he talks, I listen intently. He imparted this knowledge to me: “The thing that mattered most to me, were the friendships I was able maintain throughout my life. My friends mattered more to me than anything.”, he said.

I don’t know if Grandpa John was right, but I made the most of my trip to Austin, TX. I’ve made a lot of good friends throughout the years, and love to share stories, tales, and knowledge with people. Honest connections are one of the things I cherish most, at SXSW or anywhere I go.  If I shook your hand and we got to speak, I consider myself a lucky individual. Thank you for your time, and I hope to meet again.

Gas Lamp from Travis Industries

With many of our clients in the building products industry, Bolin travelled to Las Vegas for the 2009 International Builders’ Show. As predicted, the attendance was well below 90k. Exhibitors were at 1600. One interesting effect is that many exhibits brought far few people to work the booths. The result was that these people were much busier as they were outnumbered by attendees. Sustainability continues to be a trend. In fact, Whirlpool’s exhibit theme was “Green”. It’s obvious most companies still aren’t sure how to utilize green as a competitive advantage. We shot some undercover photos with our camera phones of new products. See them at the the Bolin Photo Blog.

Here are my notes from the 2008 Minnespota Housing Summit. Keynote speakers, NAHB Sr Economist, Dr Elliot Eisenberg, MN Senator, Norm Coleman and 9th Dist Fed Reserve Economist Toby Madden.

Sen Norm Coleman:

Coleman says the holiday season has him counting and recounting his blessings!

Coleman blames regulators, banks for current woes. Says change in leadership will help no matter who it is. Leadership is about credibility and Obama has it.

Bottom line: 1. Do no harm. 2. Need short term fixes. 3. Need vision. If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. However, MN is north star state and we will lead nation out of this situation.

Pawlenty administration says we need to build consumer confidence.

Toby Madden, 9th Dist Fed Reserve:

Derivatives and credit default swaps were the incentives created that built 40,000 homes in MN and each state. Problem is these were not regulated.

2009 9th Dist Fed Reserve forecast:

• 7% unemployment
• 17% housing starts

“Remember all recessions end and expansion happens.” Not worried about the long term because we have good system.

NAHB Sr Economist, Dr Elliot Eisenherg:

2009 will be the bottom of the housing market in MN but not in states like FL. In MN, overbuilding of multifamily construction was the issue. Population will save the day. US growing at 3 million people a year. US needs 1.6 to 1.8 million new homes a year. Housing prices largely driven by land prices. Land prices driven by govt regulation. That is why CA, Boston and Seattle are expensive. Regulators need to understand that each action causes an equal and opposite reaction.

Builders concerned that credit available but appraisals prohibit equity needed.

Recessions last on average 18 months.

At the American Dietetic Association’s Food & Nutrition Conference & Expo, McDonalds Corporation had a booth. At the booth was a wheel that attendees could spin. On the wheel were a number of McDonalds menu items. Based on the menu item you landed on, you would guess what the calories were. It is one of those type of tradeshow “games” to get attendees to your booth …

However, what the real point of this post is this: McDonalds is a huge corporation with thousands of restaurants in over 100 countries worldwide. They do millions of dollars in sales every quarter. Their market cap is $64B — that is nine zeros! Worldwide, they have over 390,000 employees. It isn’t a company; it is a global powerhouse. A machine.

Despite its sheer size and worldwide dominance, McDonalds Corporation is concerned with talking directly to food and nutrition professionals. I think it illustrates what is happening with healthy living through food and nutrition. A corporation the size of McDonalds wants to establish a presence with food and nutrition professionals. These professionals work directly with patients to help establish eating and nutritional habits for people. It is admirable.

In my years working in marketing in the health care arena, I’ve heard it is restaurants like McDonalds’s fault the majority of Americans are obese. About two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight, and almost one-third are obese, according to data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) … we are talking 200,000,000 Americans.

Fast food restaurants like McDonalds are getting into the game. They want to be part of the solution and not be exclusively labeled as part of the problem. McDonalds still has a way to go, but they should be applauded.