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• 

  Super Bowl Ads – 2012 – Audi

  I have mixed feelings about this year’s Audi ad.

  Generally, the concept is pretty funny but consistent with many other Super Bowl ads. Audi seems to have sacrified many things to create a funny ad.

  Audi seems to bridge an interesting gap by appealing to the Vampire trend, but simultaneously poking fun at it by literally telling them to go away.  In addition, they successfully demonstrate the product well and highlight a unique Audi feature– the LED headlights, and their specific shape.

  However, it fails by potentially devaluing their brand by associating themselves with the Vampire trend (consider that previously they positioned themselves as a hipper alternative in the context of the Godfather films, perhaps now they are trying to be too trendy?) and, generally, even slight violence or negativity in an attempt to be funny (such as Fedex’s Super Bowl ad) can have negative consequences on the brand and ultimately, sales.

  Share your thoughts?

  12 days on
  Nick Loui
• 

  Thumbs Up!

  

  I have a new addiction.

  Thumb is an iPhone app that allows you to ask and receive an answer in a simple thumbs up/thumbs down fashion.  What makes it even better is that it’s insanely fast.  The first question I asked, had 99 answers within 10 minutes.  Find me a market research firm that can get answers that quickly, free.

  The interface on the iPhone is beautifully designed (the web interface could use some brushing up) and the built-in social features are addictive.  It looks like the audience skews younger, my guess would be a similar demographic to Formspring, and you never know what kinds of questions you will receive.

  I’m excited to see where this company goes in the future, but you can absolutely count on me playing with it some more.  It’s the bizarrely perfect answer to social insecurity…

  27 days on
  Nick Loui
• 

  Unifying the Clouds

  

  There really are too many cloud file storage services.  Dropbox is, what I consider, the industry standard but there’s also Box.net, Amazon, the popular Google Docs, and many others exist.  Until now, accessing all of these services meant bouncing around from one to the next, using separate usernames and passwords.  Otixo, a service that recently completed its beta and launched (congrats!) aims to fix all of that.

  I’ve used the service throughout the beta period, and I’m happy to say that it’s awesome.

  Once you’ve created an account, you simply tie together your different services (similar to how Mint.com ties together bank accounts)

  For example, I’ve setup:

  • Box.net
  • Google Docs (personal + work)
  • Dropbox
  • Picasa
  • FTP

  Once that’s done, you can share files directly from Otixo, create Workspaces, which brings files from different services into one singular folder, and most importantly: Access the files online from Otixo and mount the Otixo drive on your computer.

  Things I’m in love with: Being able to literally drag files from my memory card into a folder on my computer and have it automatically upload to my Picasa and being able to make changes to my website (via FTP) 10x faster.  Combined with Transmit FTP (which mounts Webdav folders better than the built-in Mac OS X Webdav client [just an opinion, not a fact]), I think I’ve found a perfect solution to a problem I didn’t necesarily know I had.

  Consider yourself a cloud warrior?  Check this site out.

   

   

  28 days on
  Nick Loui
• 

  YCombinator Hosting Decisions

  YCombinator is one of the largest and most successful incubation groups around.  Someone took the time to create a handy chart showing which web hosts, email hosts, DNS hosts, etc… each company used.  Pretty interesting results, and it’s a great page to pair with my recent hosting article. I wonder how the chart has changed since 2011, with GoDaddy’s SOPA debacle at the end of the year.

  [link]

  28 days on
  Nick Loui
• 

  Grooveshark Goes Mobile

  As a long-time supporter of Grooveshark Premium, this is great news for the website.

  Grooveshark now offers a mobile version of its web application, which allows any smartphone (even without Grooveshark Premium) to listen to its large library.  Previously, it had an Android app but iPhone users had to either jailbreak their phones or not use the mobile service at all.

  I tried it, and it works as advertised… it’s definitely still bare bones, but it’ll be exciting to see it develop.  We’ll see what this means for Spotify or iTunes Match.

  http://html5.grooveshark.com to try it out

  ~1 month on
  Nick Loui
• 

  Choosing a Name

  With the exception of choosing an actual product, one of the toughest decisions you will inevitably face when launching a company is choosing its name.  We’ve struggled with that at Divide Nine recently for a new project, and I thought I’d share a few of thoughts that have come up throughout this process.

  Past the traditional approaches of choosing a name that is not already registered and one that reflects your business in some way.  Last year, Fast Company wrote a great article on Lexicon, a company that specializes in this practice and gave some insight into the naming process that they use.

  It’s broken into these steps:

  1. Use the product and find its core value. Get not just to what it is, but the why.
  2. Use these words and come up with metaphors, sounds, and words that relate (In the case of Lexicon, a team of linguists).
  3. Separately, ask a group to come up with metaphors, sounds, and words without knowing what the product is to create new products based on a fictional mission.
  4. Consider these options

  Two other things that teams I’ve worked on have considered in the past…

  • Hard C and K sounds have better brand recall
  • Consider checking the numerology of the company to see what it denotes.

  For example, Apple’s numerology is 5, 8, and 6.  5 – Expansion, change, visions, growing evolution, 8- ambition, power, production, money, security, materialism, and 6 – harmony, creativity, art justice, balance, love, protection.

  So, are you sure that non-profit you are starting should be a 5?  Consider that Toms is a 4, 7, 6… 4- stability, security, objectivity, 7- philosophical, understanding, inspirational, 6- harmony, creativity, justice, balance, love, protection community, sympathy

  Maybe it’s a mix of voodoo, practicality, and luck… but what other tips do you have for naming products and companies?

  ~1 month on
  Nick Loui
• 

  Your own little cloud robot

  Two startups that have got a fair amount of attention lately are ifttt & Wappwolf.  Essentially, both glue together various cloud services and do things that you would normally do, automatically!  They’re designed to work in the background so that you don’t have to think about them.

  While the two services do similar things, they “glue” together different websites and my gut is that the two, for now, they can be used simultaneously to make your life easier.

  ifttt is a beautifully crafted interface that frames everything in the form of “If… This… Then… That…” .  To give you an idea of the kinds of things I’ve setup:

  • If I mark an article in Google Reader, send it off to Instapaper
  • If I send a text message to ifttt, then add it to Evernote
  • If someone sends me a #FF on Twitter, thank them
  • If I’m tagged in a photo on Facebook, download it to Picassa
  • If I check in to somewhere, add it to my Google Calendar so I can track where I’ve been
  • Send me an email when it’s going to rain the next day

  What really makes this site tick is how simple it is to create new actions.  In addition, there’s a shared community of “recipes” that other people have created as templates.  ifttt actions run every 15 minutes, which is generally a long enough lead for its actions.

  Wappwolf functions in the same way, but has a slightly more complicated interface.  Like ifttt’s recipes, Wappwolf has actions that other people have created.  The integrations that Wappwolf uses are somewhat different from ifttt.  Rather than focusing on glueing together different social and personal cloud services, Wappwolf appears to focus on productivity services.

  For example, some of the more popular services include automatic PDF conversion from a Dropbox folder or automatic image downscaling.  One great feature of Wappwolf’s services include exporting files into an FTP site, something that ifttt appears to lack at the moment.

  I found the Wappwolf interface slightly more confusing, but I had some trouble using it.  For example, Saved actions didn’t show up anywhere that I could see.  In addition, both Safari and Chrome were hanging when I tried to create actions.

  I’m looking forward to playing with Wappwolf some more and seeing how it develops.   ifttt is truly a great little robot for the cloud, and I hope you check it out.

  ~1 month on
  Nick Loui
• 

  BMW’s Welcome Kit

  

  BMW has always been known for being a leader in crafting a lifestyle within the luxury automobile market.  It’s also been in an innovative company in marketing, being one of the first major companies to use branded video content online, and in technology, as one of the first companies to really integrate the iPod well.

  So, it’s no surprise that they are head-to-head with Mercedes this year to best-selling luxury car of 2011.

  Anyone that knows me, knows that I’ve always been a supporter of the brand.  Today, I received a welcome kit because I purchased a new car from BMW earlier this year and it’s just another great example of why they have successfully developed such great customer loyalty.

  The welcome kit is simple enough, it comes in a black box with a white wrap and a personalized letter welcoming you to your new car.   In the center of the box is a USB drive, in the shape of the iconic BMW key. Plug it in, and you are redirected to the BMW online portal.

  This is great for so many reasons.

  First, it encourages its users to sign up for their online portal, which provides a way of organizing brand loyalists and allows drivers to reach a wealth of content (such as videos, the car manual, and lease management). BMW is now able to collect huge amounts of information from its drivers and form a two-way dialogue, which otherwise would have been impossible.

  Secondly, the key itself reinforces key BMW brand symbols– the logo and the key.

  Finally, it’s a great practical gift!  A USB flash drive is a product that enough people know how to use now in everyday life because it has become so ubiquitous in the office and in school.  And, it doubles as a great key chain accessory.  Together, these should have improve brand recall in the future.  Along with this, it’s an introduction to the BMW lifestyle products catalog– BMW also creates jackets, apparel, accessories, etc… sold online, in-store, and at dealers… and this small token is a gateway drug, so to speak, into other products.

  So, all in all, hats off the BMW for creating a simple but effective promotional tool.  I’m curious, what do other kits look like from similar companies? (Audi, Mercedes, etc?)<!-- PHP 5.x -->

  ~1 month on
  Nick Loui
• 

  Levi’s Commuter Ad

   

  A great Levi’s ad<!-- PHP 5.x -->

  ~1 month on
  Nick Loui
• 

  Rackspace, Amazon, Cloud, Blah

  So you’re starting a new online business and you’re faced with a critical decision: Who is going to host my website?  I’m expecting my growth to look something like:

  

  And I need to know that I can support all of my new clients!  Everyone’s talking about the cloud but WT-F does that mean?  It seems like Amazon AWS is all the rage now, but how the hell do you use it?

  In 2011, I went through this decision a few times… here are my quick thoughts:

  Mediatemple GS, Rackspace Cloud Sites

  Mediatemple GS seems heavy on the marketing and mediocre on the product.  Rackspace Cloud Sites is a bit pricey if you’re trying to bootstrap your company, and the MySQL database performance (assuming you’re using it) isn’t going to scale along with the website.

  Shared Hosting - GoDaddy, Dreamhost, 1And1, Etc…

  Shared hosting is a solid option if you’re looking to save money.  I’ve always avoided GoDaddy hosting, although they were my go to domain registration company (until the recent SOPA debacle– I’ve since moved almost all my domains to Namecheap).  Dreamhost has been great to me in the past but if you’re ever so slightly more tech savvy, Webfaction is my new home for most of my domains and they have been awesome.

  VPS - Slicehost, Servint, other managed VPS’s

  When you’re ready to scale, being on a VPS is a huge advantage.  If you have the budget, and you’re purchasing hosting for a single project, starting with a VPS is a great decision.  We’ve had great experiences with Servint in the past.  This will definitely be pricier than shared hosting, but if you’re serious about your startup– this will be a great first step.  In the past, a dedicated server would have also been a choice, but quite frankly– a VPS is much more flexible since you can scale so easily.

  PAAS (Platform as  a Service) – PHPFog, CloudControl, Orchestra, Heroku, etc…

  This seems is the new hot-choice at the moment.  If you’re a fan of developing using git, and need something that can automatically scale with your site, looking into a PAAS is an interesting option.  We’ve deployed test sites and have been relatively happy.  It seems like when scaling, PAAS is not the most cost-effective option but being able to scale the website and database so easily is a great differentiating factor.  Note that with this option, you’re committing to your development language and you usually don’t have shell access (if that matters to you).

  Amazon AWS , Rackspace Cloud

  The big boys all seem to deploy on Amazon AWS or the Rackspace Cloud.  Amazon, in particular, has truly revolutionized the hosting business with their EC2 tools etc.  My feeling is that Amazon AWS and The Rackspace Cloud are incredibly powerful, but you’ll want someone fairly technical to help create a server stack for you.  The Rackspace Cloud, in my experience, has been easier to deploy since it acts like a traditional VPS but both systems are completely unmanaged– meaning you need to know how to use it.  When you’re ready to scale, this seems like the most cost-effective option, but when you’re ready to scale, you’ll ideally have the money to pay for someone to manage the migration and setup for you.

  Sooooo my thoughts depend on who you are.  Here’s my quick guide:

  1. I’ve never started a startup before.  I barely know how to program.  I’m going to figure this out on my own at the beginning.  Set your self up on Webfaction, Servint, or Rackspace Cloud Sites (depending on budget).
  2. I’m starting a startup.  I’m a programmer but have no experience in server management.  Try out a PAAS option and tell me what you think.  I’m thinking this is the best option for programmers that know they will need to scale but need a little help managing servers.
  3. I’m a pro.  You just wasted my time reading this article. Amazon AWS or Rackspace Cloud Sites.  Develop your own private cloud in one of those environments.

  Thoughts?

   <!-- PHP 5.x -->

  ~1 month on
  Nick Loui
• 

  Umami Burger

  Since (almost) all of my 2012 Emerson friends will be coming to LA in two weeks(!), I’ve decided that I’ll spend some time jotting down all of my favorite places in LA… Starting with a new favorite: Umami Burger

  

  (photo credit cozysf on flickr)

  Look at this.  Look at this burger.  It’s gorgeous.  I think Umami actually competes with In N’ Out, which is saying a lot.  Mind you, it’s 3x more expensive, but worth every penny.

  There are two Umami locations: one in the Los Feliz area and one in the Hollywood area.  Either way, Emerfolk will be happy to know that both are fairly hipsta.

  The Hollywood location was the first Umami I went to, and I’m a big fan.  It’s right next to Kitchen 24 (to be written about later), Urban, and Amoeba Music.  It takes a little longer to get a seat, but it’s a fun area.

  The Los Feliz area is quieter, and the location isn’t as good but it’s a bigger location.

  I recommend: The Hatch Burger (it’s got jalapeños in it!) and Truffle Fries.

   <!-- PHP 5.x -->

  ~1 month on
  Nick Loui