On Monday, I spent the day at DigiDay: Apps, a conference all about (you guessed it!) apps. We talked about iPhone apps and Android apps; [...]]]> Ah, the elusive app. All the rage these days, right? I was thinking about counting the number of times I heard “app” vs. “social media” in a buzzword-off…but I lost count.

On Monday, I spent the day at DigiDay: Apps, a conference all about (you guessed it!) apps. We talked about iPhone apps and Android apps; we talked about Facebook apps; we talked about how to build these apps and how to measure these apps. This was a full-day event, so I’ve tried to cull down the key learnings into five main points:

1. Make something good. While this should be obvious, this point was made by agency execs as well as app developers. If you don’t have the financial ability to make something good, don’t make anything at all. [Note: This even applies to branded utility- You can't just make something useful, it has to be well-designed and easy to use.]

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2. Media buys are a must. Specifically, panelists said you need to devote at least $10k toward promoting your app. Roadblock buys are great for new releases if you have a big budget: Spend $10k in the first two days and then spend the remainder of the $10k+ across the following days/weeks.

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2a. Leverage existing media to support your app. Be sure to leverage all of your assets to draw attention to your app. Whether you have a TV buy in place, a print ad going out or just a large following on Facebook/Twitter, these need to somehow drive back to your app. (This is especially important in the beginning.)

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3. Talk about location-based technology. You don’t have to re-invent the wheel and try to talk brands or investors into building another Foursquare. Instead, brainstorm how location-based technologies and apps apply to your company or your companies clients. Part of providing consumers with content when they want it and where they want it is the where.

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4. Make your app accessible across multiple platforms. Across the board panelists cited apps with cross-platform availability as “the most successful, without exception.” This means Android and iPhone, but also Blackberry and Facebook. It’s important to note that this is likely where the majority of your app budget will be spent – cross-platform development could cost $300k.

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5. Build in metrics & ways to measure success up front. Talk to your clients (& internally) to figure out what kinds of metrics and measurements show success. Then, make sure ways to track these metrics are part of the app development process. These days, it isn’t about downloads or installs as much as it is about engagement: How many people shared the app with their friend? How frequently did they use your app? How long were they using your app?

So those are the five things I’m walking away with in my back pocket. What would you say to an app-novice? I’d love to hear your thoughts, even if you weren’t at DigiDay: Apps!

As part of the “West End Partnership,” which promotes the joys of the West End to people in London and overseas, the lovely Londoners of Cake constructed a maze in the middle of Trafalgar Square. Each alleyway of the 30m x 20m [...]]]> Our colleagues in London spent the past week lost… in a maze, that is.

As part of the “West End Partnership,” which promotes the joys of the West End to people in London and overseas, the lovely Londoners of Cake constructed a maze in the middle of Trafalgar Square. Each alleyway of the 30m x 20m installation corresponded to a different part of London’s famous West End, and gave visitors lots of quirky “hidden gem” pieces of information about the streets.

At the heart of the maze was a special “performance space” which hosted a different theme each day. (I’m pretty sad that I missed Monday, as the puppets of the hit show “Avenue Q” put in a special appearance.)

Built overnight, word soon spread of the maze that popped up in the city’s iconic location. Pictures hit the papers and the internet, and there were soon queues of people wanting to “get lost.” By the end of the week nearly 40,000 people passed through its hedges.

View the complete set of pictures on Flickr here.

But that was only part of the story as Poland and Jamaica clashed in the final, with Poland prevailing on penalty kicks. Cake was on hand to help coordinate the arrival of [...]]]> That’s what Pele said in Flushing, Queens yesterday at the Copa NYC final, and if Pele says so, it must be true!

But that was only part of the story as Poland and Jamaica clashed in the final, with Poland prevailing on penalty kicks. Cake was on hand to help coordinate the arrival of Pele and Mayor Bloomberg and their halftime and post-game announcements and to wrangle hundreds of soccer-playing kids from Gottschee Soccer Club as they joined Pele on the field for his historic announcement.

Watch this space for more news from the New York Cosmos.

Some of the happy Cake [...]]]> Okay well it was really just an away afternoon, but we went all the way to Connecticut! Our friends from Euro PR invited us to celebrate summer and gorge ourselves on BBQ in the midst of gorgeous greenery. Special thanks to Marian Salzman for hosting and feeding us all.

Some of the happy Cake campers and a plus one: Billy, Aaron, Greg, Rosie, Faris, Joe and, of course, Waffle!

Not pictured but just as happy: Noelle, Michelle and Bea.

What exactly is cultural latency, you ask? Latency refers to the lag time between cause and effect, typically in reference to gaming. The lower the latency, the faster the response time. With advances in technology, we [...]]]> Ever since Faris Yakob wrote this piece for Fast Company on cultural latency, I have been fascinated by the idea.

What exactly is cultural latency, you ask? Latency refers to the lag time between cause and effect, typically in reference to gaming. The lower the latency, the faster the response time. With advances in technology, we continue to see diminishing cultural latency across a wide range of day-to-day activities – from communication (think snail mail vs. email or IM) to advertising.

Which leads us to the ridiculously awesome Old Spice videos that W+K pulled off.

In case you’re not sure what I’m talking about, first check out the original Old Spice ad here and the newly released sequel here. The concept is great, the copywriting is excellent. But here’s where it get’s good: For two days, Isaiah Mustafa, “the Old Spice guy,” was responding to the digital world in almost real time. What happened to the script approvals, post production work and lengthy edits? Gone – out the window.

[Side note: One of the things about advertising that has always annoyed me is the amount of time that it takes to get things done. From signing contracts to script approvals to shooting to post production, by the time it's all said and done, it's hard to keep track of where things started in the first place. This is probably one of the reasons I love social media - everything has to be quick, and so it is!]

After posting updates to various social networks inviting users to ask questions to Isaiah Mustafa (the star of the videos), they received responses from Demi Moore, Ellen DeGeneres, Digg founder Kevin Rose and even the guys from Twitter (who asked if Mustafa had any experience training whales.) In a single day, over 80 videos were created in response to tweets, Facebook comments and even 4chan postings.

The videos were genuinely hilarious, but they also felt extremely personal. But I suppose you could argue that’s nothing new – There are lots of creative people in our industry.

What was so crucial for this to work was the response time. Tweets fly by… Responding to a tweet months later, even days later, just wouldn’t have been the same.

But like all good things, the videos, too, come to an end. So what now?

Brands will be challenged with trusting the agencies that are producing their content even more and agencies will be challenged with creating content (that matters) on the fly. How are you stepping up to the challenge?

And our client Havaianas, being a Brazilian brand, definitely speaks [...]]]> For nearly a month now, the entire world has been consumed with a single sporting event – the World Cup. Coupe du monde. Copa Mundial. Whatever you call it, we all speak the same language when it comes to soccer. Er, football.

And our client Havaianas, being a Brazilian brand, definitely speaks soccer. For the 1998 World Cup, they launched their now-bestselling “Brazil” line. You know, the one with the Brazilian flag on the strap. And this year, they took it one step further, launching their Teams line, featuring colors and flags for 16 of the 32 World Cup teams.

To support this initiative, and build upon the idea that Havaianas is the footwear of choice for the football fan, we took to the streets and hit various bars around New York City, documenting the fashion, fun and fanaticism that is the World Cup. From the opening match at Felix in Soho to the semifinals at Tonic and Loreley, we’ve kept up with the fans through Havaianas’ 90 Minutes In 90 Seconds series.

This Sunday we’ll be on hand to capture all the World Cup finals fan action – will New York revert to New Amsterdam, as it seemed to do on Tuesday? Only Paul the Octopus knows for sure….

During Internet Week, Ryan Lawler from New TeeVee and Magnify’s CEO Steve Rosenbaum explored this topic. I attended the talk, thinking it would be a debate between creation and curation. I was wrong – from the very beginning, it [...]]]> Watch live streaming video from internetweekny at livestream.com

To create or to curate – that is the question.

During Internet Week, Ryan Lawler from New TeeVee and Magnify’s CEO Steve Rosenbaum explored this topic. I attended the talk, thinking it would be a debate between creation and curation. I was wrong – from the very beginning, it was announced that “Curation is King.” Rosenbaum cited New York Magazine as a great example – on average, for every 10 videos on their site, they produce three and the remaining seven are curated from other blogs and sites.

There has been much buzz and commentary on the curation issue. Most recently, Mediabistro reported that Forbes.com will “open its doors to thousands of unpaid contributors and that [rather than commissioning in-house journalism] ‘Forbes editors will increasingly become curators of talent.’” According to Tech Crunch’s Paul Carr, this makes “quality, originality and exclusivity … fast becoming irrelevant. Instead, online publications increasingly treat content as low-paid, illiterate swill, commissioned by the ton to provide SEO ad inventory.”

Regardless of your point of view, the bottom line is that there is a massive appetite for online content and sites need to stay relevant by consistently posting new (and strong) material on a daily basis. Given this demand, it is no longer feasible to simply create. The question here is how sites plan on doing this in the long run, which inevitably leads us to more questions: Are these assets monetized? If anyone generates revenue, should it be the content creator, the site that curates and hosts content, or both?

It will be interesting to follow the Forbes.com story as well as other similar developments in the digital space. What are your thoughts on curation? Share them with us here.

Update: Steve Rosenbaum recently posted his thoughts on curation in Business Insider.