Today we’re going to show a step by step process of a piece designed by Husam Elfaki for the art collective Intrinsic Nature. For the new chapter called “Experiment 10″, Husam designed this really stylish digital illustration, check it out!

Husam Elfaki, also known as Galaxy Turbo, is a designer based in UK, working with intereactive media, print, web and other medias. The designer also gave us a little explanation about the piece itself:

One Zero was created for the release of Experiment 10 by Intrinsic Nature, with the idea of celebration of the group, its achievements and a promising future for the collective. As my debut contribution to the group (and an anniversary release), I wanted it to be very expressive, free, and representative of my current works. That said, there was no preliminary sketching or concept, just a vision.

Step 1

The IN logo was the obvious starting point as I felt the final piece needed to revolve around the group; I was fixated on an idea of celebration and I decided to see how I could expand on this idea, and add my own flavour to the identity of the group. Experimenting with diagonal treatments began.

Step 2

My sentiment was that the logo needed to be central to everything that was happening in the final product, the centre of attention. Making the logo 3D was part of making it a more eye-catching element in the final composition, and so I added more colour overlays and I stuck to a blue/pink/purple colour scheme at this point.

Step 3

This piece was also about experimenting with shapes, so I created some glass forms to interact with other components in the final output. Here I added a shape outlined with the pen tool and started reducing opacity, warping portions of the image to resemble distortions you would see through a magnifying glass for example. Flat glass shapes were also introduced to complement the logo.

Step 4

After the previous step I asked for help on how I could emphasise this idea of celebration, and one member in the Intrinsic Nature artist panel shouted “fireworks, lasers, dragons, confetti!”. I added some fireworks and some lasers hoping to create something impressive, shifting my composition and adding lighting corrections to compensate.

Step 5

I got into the flow of adding more shapes and lasers to the piece and it was starting to feel more like my own piece. Unfortunately that meant the fireworks were losing place in the chaos of all this abstraction, so they had to go. In light of that, I was finding myself seeing a more interesting piece that may have been stimulated by celebration, but turned into something completely different. Now I needed to spread this mess outwards as too much was going on in the middle.

Step 6

By spreading my elements outwards in the diagonal direction I started with, the piece immediately became more interesting as the viewers eyes could now follow a false path I was creating. This wasn’t intentional nor does it have any underlying meaning, but it meant you could catch some of the details I was adding along the way.

Final Result

More magnified glass shapes were added in the end, so that I didn’t have to reconstruct them if I wanted more happening underneath those shapes. The laser closest to the foreground and the white diagonal lines would be my finishing touch to add more depth to the complete product, with colours strengthened to emphasise certain places and add points of interest.

And here a couple o links where you can find more about Husam and his artworks:

Website
Devianart
Twitter
Facebook
Behance

Go to Source

Today we’re going to show a step by step process of a piece designed by Husam Elfaki for the art collective Intrinsic Nature. For the new chapter called “Experiment 10″, Husam designed this really stylish digital illustration, check it out!

Husam Elfaki, also known as Galaxy Turbo, is a designer based in UK, working with intereactive media, print, web and other medias. The designer also gave us a little explanation about the piece itself:

One Zero was created for the release of Experiment 10 by Intrinsic Nature, with the idea of celebration of the group, its achievements and a promising future for the collective. As my debut contribution to the group (and an anniversary release), I wanted it to be very expressive, free, and representative of my current works. That said, there was no preliminary sketching or concept, just a vision.

Step 1

The IN logo was the obvious starting point as I felt the final piece needed to revolve around the group; I was fixated on an idea of celebration and I decided to see how I could expand on this idea, and add my own flavour to the identity of the group. Experimenting with diagonal treatments began.

Step 2

My sentiment was that the logo needed to be central to everything that was happening in the final product, the centre of attention. Making the logo 3D was part of making it a more eye-catching element in the final composition, and so I added more colour overlays and I stuck to a blue/pink/purple colour scheme at this point.

Step 3

This piece was also about experimenting with shapes, so I created some glass forms to interact with other components in the final output. Here I added a shape outlined with the pen tool and started reducing opacity, warping portions of the image to resemble distortions you would see through a magnifying glass for example. Flat glass shapes were also introduced to complement the logo.

Step 4

After the previous step I asked for help on how I could emphasise this idea of celebration, and one member in the Intrinsic Nature artist panel shouted “fireworks, lasers, dragons, confetti!”. I added some fireworks and some lasers hoping to create something impressive, shifting my composition and adding lighting corrections to compensate.

Step 5

I got into the flow of adding more shapes and lasers to the piece and it was starting to feel more like my own piece. Unfortunately that meant the fireworks were losing place in the chaos of all this abstraction, so they had to go. In light of that, I was finding myself seeing a more interesting piece that may have been stimulated by celebration, but turned into something completely different. Now I needed to spread this mess outwards as too much was going on in the middle.

Step 6

By spreading my elements outwards in the diagonal direction I started with, the piece immediately became more interesting as the viewers eyes could now follow a false path I was creating. This wasn’t intentional nor does it have any underlying meaning, but it meant you could catch some of the details I was adding along the way.

Final Result

More magnified glass shapes were added in the end, so that I didn’t have to reconstruct them if I wanted more happening underneath those shapes. The laser closest to the foreground and the white diagonal lines would be my finishing touch to add more depth to the complete product, with colours strengthened to emphasise certain places and add points of interest.

And here a couple o links where you can find more about Husam and his artworks:

Website
Devianart
Twitter
Facebook
Behance

Go to Source

Tuesday Total Textures is post series that will bring a new life to your Tuesdays. Every week I’ll be posting some free hi resolution textures that you can download to use in your projects. Check out this week’s free textures, download the ones you like and start making your texture collection.

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For more texture visit http://abduzeedo.com/tags/ttt

Suggestions

What type of textures would you like to see next week?

Rough surface

Rusted Metal

Water Drops

wood background

backdrop

backdrop

Cement texture

grunge background

Grunge background

Rough surface

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Whenever you see an empty canvas, you’re seeing the possibility to free your mind and go to places that you’ve never been to, experience adventures that no one else would. An imaginative mind populates beautifully white canvases.

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That’s exactly the case of Wanchana Intrasombat, a Thai illustrator better known as Victorior. His work is definitely the product of a true creative, free mind. Also, he’s very talented, and gotta love his use of colors! Great technique. For more of his pieces, you should visit his portfolio. I hope you enjoy these. Cheers!

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With almost identical careers, Niklaus Graber & Christoph Steiger created in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 1995, Graber & Steiger’s office, which accumulates publications and awards to each work projected. Today both are professors at the University of Lucerne.

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graberundsteiger.ch

Niklaus Graber & Christoph Steiger traveled a similar path. Born in 1968 in the city of Lucerne in Switzerland and in 1988 joined the faculty of architecture at the ETH Zurich where he graduated in 1995. During his studies internships in offices Herzog & de Meuron in Basel and Hans Kollhoff office in Berlin. Graber also studied at Columbia University in New York and Steiger studied in London.

Villa in Zugersee, Switzerland. photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

Villa in Zugersee, Switzerland. photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

Villa in Zugersee, Switzerland. photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

Villa in Zugersee, Switzerland. photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

Villa in Zugersee, Switzerland. photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

In 1995, Graber and Steiger got together and created this partnership that has been creating quality projects since then. Since 2008, both became professors at the University of Lucerne, at the Engineering and Architecture course. With several publications in books and magazines, has won several architecture awards in Switzerland. Among his works are the residential and expansion projects, always attentive to detail, work elements and focal points also describing the internal spaces.

Villa in Zugersee, Switzerland

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

Villa in St. Niklausen, Lucern, Switzerland

photo @ Dominique Marc Wehrli / architekturbild

photo @ Dominique Marc Wehrli / architekturbild

photo @ Dominique Marc Wehrli / architekturbild

photo @ Dominique Marc Wehrli / architekturbild

photo @ Dominique Marc Wehrli / architekturbild

photo @ Dominique Marc Wehrli / architekturbild

Fensterfabrik G.Baumgartner AG Expansion, Hagendorn, Switzerland

photo @ Dominique Marc Wehrli / architekturbild

photo @ Dominique Marc Wehrli / architekturbild

photo @ Dominique Marc Wehrli / architekturbild

photo @ Dominique Marc Wehrli / architekturbild

photo @ Dominique Marc Wehrli / architekturbild

Residential and Comercial expansion, Adligenswil, Switzerland

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

House in Ermensee, Lucern, Switzerland

photos @ Filippo Simonetti

photos @ Filippo Simonetti

photos @ Filippo Simonetti

photos @ Filippo Simonetti

photos @ Filippo Simonetti

photos @ Filippo Simonetti

Residential and Comercial Raiffeisenbank Aletsch, Bitsch, Switzerland

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

Turn- und Mehrzweckhalle, Lucern, Switzerland

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

Mittelpunktschule Obermarch, Buttikon, Switzerland

photo @ Heinrich Helfenstein

photo @ Heinrich Helfenstein

photo @ Heinrich Helfenstein

photo @ Heinrich Helfenstein

photo @ Heinrich Helfenstein

photo @ Heinrich Helfenstein

photo @ Heinrich Helfenstein

Bank/Gemeindehaus, Wollerau, Switzerland

photo @ Andrea Helbling

photo @ Andrea Helbling

photo @ Andrea Helbling

photo @ Andrea Helbling

photo @ Andrea Helbling

House in Meggen, Lucern, Switzerland

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

photo @ graberundsteiger.ch

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The Mobile App Trends Series is supported by Sourcebits, a leading product developer for mobile platforms. Sourcebits offers design and development services for iOS, Android, Mobile and Web platforms. Follow Sourcebits on Twitter for recent news and updates.

Figuring out how much to charge for an app is not easy. It’s all about finding the right balance between what it costs to produce and maintain the application, and how much users are willing to pay for it. Other factors to take into account are revenue from in-app purchases and in-app advertising.

The average selling price for applications — across all platforms — continues to decline. Some of that decrease has to do with increased competition. But another big part of the decrease in app retail prices is the availability of alternative revenue streams for developers. Rather than charge a flat, up-front fee for an application, app creators are beginning to spread revenue generation across the entire app experience, particularly in-app purchases and in-app advertising.

So what should you charge for your app? Here’s a rundown of three options.

1. Freemium or Lite

Freemium is the concept of giving away free version of a product or service while charging for a more advanced version with increased functionality (hence the portmanteau of “free” and “premium”). The idea is that users will love the free version so much, they’ll be more than willing to pony up for an even better, paid version.

But that’s not always how it works out. The popular Instapaper app famously dropped its free version earlier this year. When Marco Arment removed the free version of Instapaper from the app store, he found that sales of the paid version actually increased. The free app has other drawbacks, too. It might create an “image problem” whereby users don’t even realize that the app they’re using is limited compared to the full version.

It’s easier to build a strong case for freemium when it comes to gaming. Users start out at a very basic level and then evolve and grow their game skills from there. It makes sense that they’d start with the early free version, and then graduate on to the paid version once they’re ready to. The use case for gamers is more linear, and the paid version is just another step in the game’s path.

According to a study by app marketing consultant Distimo, the average selling price of games in major app stores declined 28% over the last year, while the revenue generated by the most successful freemium (or “lite”) games increased tenfold during this period in the Apple App Store for iPhone.

2. In-App Purchases

During this same period, Distimo found that in-app purchases within games have exploded. Last year, 8% of top-grossing games relied on in-app purchases. But this year, the number has skyrocketed to a whopping 52% of top-grossing apps using in-app purchases as a significant part of their revenue model. That helped propel top-grossing games to a 79% increase in total revenue.

3. Advertising

In-app advertising is a great way to generate ongoing revenue for your application. You’ll only get paid once for an app download, but you can continue getting paid through in-app advertising. There is a huge range of advertising opportunities — everything from small banners to intrusive pop-overs. The key is to find a balance and manage user expectations for how annoying and invasive the ads will be. Users generally realize and expect that free versions of paid apps will have more intense ads.

The Great Debate: Free vs. Paid

Charging upfront for an app is clearly not the only way to generate revenue. Many applications are free because they promote or support some other paid service (e.g. Netflix’s app). But there are still plenty of apps that are directly aimed at generating revenue but are free. The idea is that giving an app away for free but loading it up with advertising can generate more revenue than a paid app because many more users will download the free app.

One easy way for developers to get attention is to temporarily reduce the price of their app to free. It’s not unheard of for apps to drop from $9.99 to free for a “limited time only.” When an app goes from paid to free, the blogosphere usually pays attention. People love getting things for free, and apps are no exception. When users realize they need to act fast to get the app for free, it can create a small whirlwind of buzz. There are even a number of websites that specialize in tracking app price drops, such as 148Apps and AppShopper.

The upside for developers is that their apps get attention and expand their userbase. The downside is that they aren’t making much money from it. One hope is that by giving the app away for free for a short time, the “sale” will still draw users to the app even after the price returns to normal. Another reason for dropping the price and attempting to attract a rush of new users is the hope of an app making its way onto bestseller lists. However, data from one researcher shows that the correlation between making an app free and breaking into bestseller lists is dubious at best.

What To Charge?

There are a number of factors that should help you determine what to charge for your app. The first step in determining your app’s price is to do some competitive analysis. What’s the going rate for similar apps, and what are prices of apps in similar categories? Undercutting competitors on price is an easy way to gain traction and attention, but if your app is significantly more complex or advanced, you should still be able to charge more for your superior offering.

The key to app pricing is setting user expectations. Users expect simple apps to be either free or 99 cents. More complex utilities often sell for between $2.99 and $4.99. Apps in the $4.99+ range need to have an expansive feature set and lots of polish. That is, they need to look good and provide a great deal of value for the user. While users won’t know if they got their money’s worth until they install the app, users will be quick to leave negative feedback if they feel they’ve been ripped off, which will likely turn off future customers.

The highest app price allowed in the Apple app store is $999.99, and at least one app — BarMax CA, a prep course for the California bar exam — is currently listed at that price.

Experiment

App prices aren’t fixed. Leverage the ease with which prices can be changed to experiment with various price points. Try releasing the app with a slightly higher price and then lowering it over time. Keep in mind, however, that initial release is the best time to attract attention for your app, so don’t squander the good will you build with the blogosphere by charging an outrageous price.

Where Do Your Users Live?

App developers must take into account their target audience and market. For example, that same study by Distimo found that users in Asia are significantly less inclined to download paid apps than their Western counterparts. In-app purchases also tend to be less robust in the Asian market. Thus, developers often rely on in-app advertising as a primary revenue source in that region.

Commissions & Refunds

One last thing to remember is that some app stores will take a cut of app sales and in-app purchases. Apple, for example, famously takes a 30% commission on app sales and in-app purchases. (You can read John Gruber’s rant about the “Dirty Percent,” as he calls it.) When calculating your app’s price, make sure you include the app store’s cut, including any processing fees.

One last thing to remember is the app store return policy. Pricing your app too high might result in a lot of returns once users see the quality and basic functionality. The Android Marketplace allows users to return apps within 15 minutes of purchase. The Apple App Store allows Taiwanese customers seven days to return apps. While Apple’s refund policy in Taiwan is such to comply with local law, it’s possible that Apple will eventually expand a similar trial and/or refund process to their App Stores in other countries.

Conclusion

The key to pricing your app is finding a balance between functionality and what users will find reasonable. If they aren’t happy, they’ll tell make it known via comments and ratings. Experiment with different price ranges, and most importantly, don’t rely on the app’s initial sale price to drive revenue. Rather, think of the app’s price as part of a wider revenue mix of in-app purchases and advertising.

The Mobile App Trends Series is sponsored by Sourcebits, a leading developer of applications and games for all major mobile platforms. Sourcebits has engineered over 200 apps to date, with plenty more to come. Sourcebits offers design and development services for iPhone, Android and more. Please feel free to get in touch with us to find out how we can help your app stand apart in a crowded marketplace. Follow Sourcebits on Twitter and Facebook for recent news and updates.

More Mobile Resources from Mashable:

- 5 Innovative Mobile Marketing Campaigns to Learn From
- Native App vs. Web App: Which Is Better for Mobile Commerce?
- The 3 Most Effective Approaches to In-App Advertising
- 5 Mobile App Trends You Can’t Ignore
- How HTML5 Is Aiding in Cross-Platform Development

More About: Android Market, apple app store, Mobile App Trends Series, mobile apps

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Facebook and Google are engaged in a war of words over claims that Facebook is limiting the spread of Google+ invites on its social network.

The controversy erupted Tuesday after Google spokesperson Randall Safara posted a video on Google+ that appeared to show how Facebook was limiting the spread of Google+ invites. In the video, Safara posts a Google+ invite on his Facebook page, then demonstrates that the post with the invite did not appear in his friends’ News Feeds — even though other posts went through with no problem.

Google Senior Vice President of Social Vic Gundotra thenreposted the video. “We are getting reports of Google+ invite links not showing up on Facebook news feeds anymore,” he said. “I wonder how widespread this problem is?”

But replicating the results of the video haven’t been easy. Most Google+ users say they can share Google+ invites on their Facebook pages just fine. Our own testing shows that Google+ invites are not being blocked by Facebook.

For its part, Facebook denies that it’s doing anything underhanded. “We have seen the video but have been unable to replicate the experience it shows,” the company said in a statement. It also explained that the News feed is an algorithmic product that takes hundreds of factors into account. Links or posts may not show up in friends’ feeds for any number of reasons.

Google said yesterday that it hadn’t contacted Facebook directly about the issue; the company evidently decided to take it to the public first.

This is just the latest episode in the drama between Facebook and Google. In May, a plot by a PR firm representing Facebook to plant anti-Google stories in the press was exposed, igniting a firestorm of controversy.

Have you had Google+ invites blocked on Facebook? Let us know in the comments.

More About: facebook, Google, Google Plus

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Hey, Android partners, did you miss out on giving your two cents about Google’s proposed takeover of Motorola Mobility? Well, now here’s your chance.

Someone has created an Android Press Release Generator that funnels your thoughts into a blandly positive template. The one-sentence statement offers several variables on word choices, but they’re all synonyms. The punchline is that the real quotes actually seem to be based on the generator.

Point made, some anonymous prankster. The only thing you left out was that other press release quote mainstay: “We’re really excited.”

More About: android, Google, Motorola

For more Business & Marketing coverage:

• Follow Mashable Business & Marketing on Twitter
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Hey, Android partners, did you miss out on giving your two cents about Google’s proposed takeover of Motorola Mobility? Well, now here’s your chance.

Someone has created an Android Press Release Generator that funnels your thoughts into a blandly positive template. The one-sentence statement offers several variables on word choices, but they’re all synonyms. The punchline is that the real quotes actually seem to be based on the generator.

Point made, some anonymous prankster. The only thing you left out was that other press release quote mainstay: “We’re really excited.”

More About: android, Google, Motorola

For more Business & Marketing coverage:

• Follow Mashable Business & Marketing on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Business & Marketing channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

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Just about every electronic textbook company declares that it has the most books available for download.

Coursesmart calls itself “the world’s largest digital course materials provider.” Sellers like Barnes & Noble and Amazon return absurdly high numbers for searches in their etextbooks sections that include novels and other general books used in classes. Textbooks.com boasts the “biggest selection of used & new college textbooks.” And a Kno executive recently told Mashable that Kno has the biggest etextbook offering on the Internet.

Up until this point, there’s really been no good way to objectively compare each company’s offerings.

Campusbooks, a 12-year-old textbook price comparison site, recently gained this ability when it expanded its database of texts across seven different etextbook makers — thus receiving access to their catalogs.

The site worked with partner booksellers to come up with a list of the 1,000 most popular textbooks for fall 2011 to use as its metric. It takes into account data that professors share with bookstores in order to help them determine demand, including which books they have selected for their upcoming classes and how many students are signed up for them. Past data is also used as part of the calculation.

“It is a relative number but overall represents the most popular books,” Campusbooks CEO Jeff Cohen says.

Here’s what percentage of the most popular 1,000 books each of these seven etextbook retailers had on hand:

• CourseSmart: 82%
• Barnes & Noble: 46.6%
• Kno: 43.6%
• Textbooks.com: 24.2%
• Cengage Brain: 23.1%
• Amazon Kindle (ebook purchases, not rental): 14.9%
• eBooks.com: 0.2%

The data doesn’t reflect the quality of the etextbooks or their relative prices, but it’s a good indication of where digital book makers stack up when it comes to offering books that are actually used in classes — a factor that many consider key in the healthy competition among etextbook providers.

Photo courtesy of istockphoto, dlewis33

More About: books, education, etextbooks, textbooks

For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:

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Just about every electronic textbook company declares that it has the most books available for download.

Coursesmart calls itself “the world’s largest digital course materials provider.” Sellers like Barnes & Noble and Amazon return absurdly high numbers for searches in their etextbooks sections that include novels and other general books used in classes. Textbooks.com boasts the “biggest selection of used & new college textbooks.” And a Kno executive recently told Mashable that Kno has the biggest etextbook offering on the Internet.

Up until this point, there’s really been no good way to objectively compare each company’s offerings.

Campusbooks, a 12-year-old textbook price comparison site, recently gained this ability when it expanded its database of texts across seven different etextbook makers — thus receiving access to their catalogs.

The site worked with partner booksellers to come up with a list of the 1,000 most popular textbooks for fall 2011 to use as its metric. It takes into account data that professors share with bookstores in order to help them determine demand, including which books they have selected for their upcoming classes and how many students are signed up for them. Past data is also used as part of the calculation.

“It is a relative number but overall represents the most popular books,” Campusbooks CEO Jeff Cohen says.

Here’s what percentage of the most popular 1,000 books each of these seven etextbook retailers had on hand:

• CourseSmart: 82%
• Barnes & Noble: 46.6%
• Kno: 43.6%
• Textbooks.com: 24.2%
• Cengage Brain: 23.1%
• Amazon Kindle (ebook purchases, not rental): 14.9%
• eBooks.com: 0.2%

The data doesn’t reflect the quality of the etextbooks or their relative prices, but it’s a good indication of where digital book makers stack up when it comes to offering books that are actually used in classes — a factor that many consider key in the healthy competition among etextbook providers.

Photo courtesy of istockphoto, dlewis33

More About: books, education, etextbooks, textbooks

For more Tech & Gadgets coverage:

• Follow Mashable Tech & Gadgets on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Tech & Gadgets channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

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The Behind the Social Media Campaign Series is supported by Oneupweb, an award-winning agency specializing in search marketing, social media and design for mid-to-enterprise level brands. Download Oneupweb’s free whitepaper, “Measuring Social Media’s Contribution to the Bottom Line: 5 Tactics.”

Those who came of age during the social media revolution may take it for granted that you, the consumer, are often called upon to be an active participant in your favorite brand’s marketing.

But it wasn’t always this way. Until very recently, marketing was a one-way conversation. That’s how advertising always worked. Can you picture Don Draper saying, “Let’s just have consumers come up with the next campaign”?

Of course, a lot has changed since 1965. Technology now lets you do your job from home or wherever you happen to be. Clients, aware that ad agencies can now cut their overhead, are pushing the shops to do more with less. “The old full-time, employee-based model is going away,” says John Winsor, the CEO of Victors & Spoils, a crowdsourcing agency. “The incentive when you’re full-time is to take longer and put more people on the work.”

Victors & Spoils employs 17 people full time, but has relationships with 6,500 people who are on call for advertising work of one kind or another. It’s a unique model for the ad industry, but one that shows how far you can take the idea of crowdsourcing. The term itself refers to an umbrella of activity. There’s crowdsourcing that consumers don’t see, like the work Victors & Spoils does on behalf of clients like Harley-Davidson, and then there are campaigns that are partially crowdsourced, like PepsiCo’s “Crash the Super Bowl” contest in which consumers see the participation.

Those who carry out crowdsourcing campaigns, though, don’t draw a great distinction. Guidelines remain constant. Here are a few basic rules they offer to those considering crowdsourcing campaigns:

1. Be Very Clear in Your Brief

Whether you’re doing behind-the-scenes crowdsourcing or asking consumers to pick the next flavor of your soft drink, you need to be very specific about what you’re asking them to do. “Write a super-tight brief,” says Winsor. “Be super-clear about what you want.” Wil Merritt, the CEO of Zooppa, a crowdsourcing agency in Seattle, agrees. “You’ve got to get it right,” he says. “Once it’s out in the community, it’s all systems go.” That doesn’t just mean clear writing, though. It’s also important to keep things pretty simple.

Merritt says that a brief that asks consumers to mention too many features will often result in work that can look like a PowerPoint presentation. “Keep it high-level and aspirational,” he says. “And it doesn’t have to be funny.”

Setting clear guidelines in a brief will also help you avoid a disastrous situation in which consumers are trashing your brand. That’s what happened when Chevy ran a crowdsourced program in 2006 asking consumers to make videos for its Tahoe SUV. Consumers seized the chance to criticize the vehicle for its environmental unfriendliness with lines like “It’s Global Warming Time.” (See above.)

2. Offer Good Incentives

When it comes to crowdsourcing, cash is king, says Mike Burlin, marketing manager for Zooppa. If you want high production values, you have to open up your wallet a bit. Don’t dangle a trip as a prize since consumers may not be able to take it for one reason or another. The magic number for prize money seems to be $5,000. Any less than that and you won’t get serious submissions.

The other thing to consider are second prizes. “Is there just one?” Burlin asks. “People look at the odds.” A decent second- and third- place prize may be worth the money just because it convinces serious candidates to give it their best shot.

3. Don’t Overwhelm the Consumer

Ad agency JWT tapped the online community of its client Smirnoff as a source of ideas, but it didn’t go so far as to ask them to create ads. “People are busy enough as it is,” says Matt MacDonald, executive creative director, JWT New York. “The last thing they want to do is to work out your marketing campaign for you.”

The Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange Project, detailed in the video below, is less about getting consumers to do the vodka brand’s marketing and more about participating in it. That’s a fine distinction.

4. Prepare to be Overwhelmed by Ideas

The difficulty in crowdsourcing a campaign often is not getting the ideas, but keeping track of them all. Ignacio Oreamuno, president of Giant Hydra, a “mass collaboration” agency (he abhors the word “crowdsourcing”) says that on any given campaign, he gets 10 times more ideas than a standard ad agency would.

Victors & Spoils is taking its own approach to wading through the ideas — the agency plans to introduce a software product in August that simplifies the process, though it currently uses software programs including Crowdspring and PopTent to execute campaigns.

5. Remember: Crowdsourcing Doesn’t Equal “Unprofessional”

Winsor rates his 6,500 freelance employees using a “reputation algorithm,” which he calls a “new kind of meritocracy” for the industry. Oreamuno stresses that his employees may not be full-time, but they are held up to a high standard.”The creatives that work in Giant Hydra have all been pre-selected and they are all being paid for their time,” he says. “Most of the Hydra Heads that work in Giant Hydra projects do it on a constant basis. One day, we’ll have the world’s largest creative department working at all hours of the day across the world.”

Of course, “professional” is a term that has been sorely tested in recent years, thanks to crowdsourcing. There are industries, like medicine and engineering, where it would be unthinkable to have a stranger come in off the street and do the job you’ve been working at for 20 years better than you, but advertising isn’t one of them.

As Winsor notes, those Pepsi Super Bowl ads routinely show up in USA Today’s AdTrack as consumers’ favorites. “The professionals say they’re not as good,” says Winsor, “but consumers like them better, so who’s right?”

The Behind the Social Media Campaign Series is supported by Oneupweb, an award-winning agency specializing in search marketing, social media and design for mid-to-enterprise level brands. Download the Oneupweb sponsored Marketing Sherpa free study, “Measuring Social Media’s Contribution to the Bottom Line: 5 Tactics” to learn how to cut through the clutter and be sure to catch up with them on Facebook and Twitter.

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, AndreasKermann

Image courtesy of Flickr, Tony Peters

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Each day, Mashable highlights one noteworthy YouTube video. Check out all our viral video picks.

Ever dated a guy/girl who was more apt to stare into his/her iPhone than into your piercing eyes? Well, have we got a song for you.

The above video, set to the tune of “I Just Called To Say I Love You,” comes courtesy of Break Media and stars Elliott Yamin (from American Idol on vocals), Sarah Hyland (Modern Family) and her boyfriend, actor Matt Prokop (High School Musical 3).

Make sure to share it with your significant other — preferably on Facebook.

More About: humor, music, pop culture, social media, trending, video, viral video, viral-video-of-day, youtube

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Nintendo will launch a redesigned Wii gaming console in Europe by the end of 2011.

The updated console will be part of a new Wii bundle, which will include “the newly configured Wii console in white, a Wii Remote Plus controller, Nunchuk, and copies of Wii Sports and Wii Party,” the company announced Wednesday.

The device will be cheaper and slimmer than the original Wii. Nintendo did not announce the bundle’s price or release pictures of the new Wii. The console also will be designed to stand horizontally rather than vertically like the current Wii. Additionally, the new Wii will not be backward compatible with Gamecube games.

While Nintendo didn’t say anything about releasing the console outside of Europe, the video game maker told CNET that it has no plans to release the slimmed-down console in the U.S.

Perhaps Nintendo thinks the current Wii bundle is already cheap enough (it dropped the price for a Wii & Mario Kart Wii to $150 in May), but we suspect a slimmed-down console would sell well stateside.

In June, the company unveiled the Wii U, its next-generation gaming console. The console includes an innovative 6.2-inch touchscreen controller, HD graphics and compatibility with Wii controllers and games. The device is expected to launch in 2012. You can check out our initial review for more details.

More About: gaming, Nintendo, nintendo wii, Wii

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Kenneth Cole, who seemed to shy away from social media after a well-publicized Twitter flap earlier this year, is courting controversy anew with a website that asks consumers to weigh in on abortion, gun control and gay rights.

The new site — wheredoyoustand.com — is divided in two. “What You Stand In” features information and advice about clothing for men and women. “What You Stand For,” meanwhile, asks consumers to post their thoughts about those hot-button topics and posts links to relevant Twitter feeds under the heading “Feeding the Debate.” Those conversations also continue on the brand’s Facebook Page.

The site also maintains the brand’s edgy — some would say tasteless — method of conflating serious topics with sales pitches. A video under the heading “Should the government have the right to choose?” shows a woman who seems to be agonizing over a decision, which turns out to be which handbag to purchase. “Shouldn’t it be a woman’s right to choose?” a message on the wall behind her reads, “…if she’s the one who’s carrying it? — Kenneth Cole.”

Cole raised public ire on the fifth anniversary of 9/11 by noting, “Important moments like this are time to reflect. To remind us, sometimes, that it’s not only important what you wear, but it’s also important to be aware.”

In the video gallery below, Cole explains the reasoning behind the outreach, which is to use his brand platform to “raise awareness about important social issues.”

What do you think? Is this clever marketing or exploitation? Let us know in the comments.

Antisocial Media

Kenneth Cole explains his rationale for the new web site, to use his brand platform to “”raise awareness about important social issues.”

Pro-Choice

A woman is shown agonizing over a decision, which turns out to be which handbag to buy. Shouldn’t it be a woman’s right to choose?” a message on the wall behind her reads, “…if she’s the one who’s carrying it?”

Guns

Two guys face off in what looks like a gunfight, but they’re actually just making gun shapes with their fingers. “Is the person most at risk the one with the gun?” asks some writing on the wall behind them.

Gay Rights

A man and a woman begin kissing. Then a jump cut shows two women kissing. Then two men. A message on the wall reads, “Those against same-sex marriage aren’t thinking straight (or are they)?”

War

A man and a woman are screaming in protest. Then the screaming stops, the woman leaves and the man is left by himself. “In war, is it who’s right or who’s left?” a message reads.

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The Social Media 101 Series is sponsored by Global Strategic Management Institute. GSMI’s Social Media Strategies Series are the leading educational events for organizations looking to advance their online capabilities. Learn more.

As Tumblr‘s reach continues to grow, more brands — particularly those in the fashion and media industries — are adding the blogging platform to their online marketing mixes.

But, you might wonder, is Tumblr right for me and my business? Who uses the platform, and how do I engage the users who are there? What can I expect to achieve?

Let’s take a look.

Is Tumblr Right for My Business?

Tumblr has two big advantages over other blogging platforms. First, it has built-in tagging and sharing capabilities that makes your content easily discoverable and spreadable among Tumblr’s existing community. Secondly, it’s quick and easy to set up.

Tumblr also has some considerable disadvantages. Those used to WordPress and custom-built websites might be disappointed to find that their Tumblr pages offer less flexibility in terms of formatting and features. As Mashable has pointed out previously, Tumblr themes can be enhanced with widgets and sidebars and the structure of the newsfeed can be altered, but it can’t be completely reworked to the extent that more full-featured blogging services such as WordPress can.

You also can’t host your Tumblr, meaning that if Tumblr’s servers go down — as they do all-too-often — so does your Tumblr. You can, however, give your Tumblr a custom URL, and/or embed it on your existing site.

For these reasons — and because certain kinds of content (read: images) tend to perform better on Tumblr than other kinds of blogs — many businesses decide to have a Tumblr in addition to their existing blogs.

Bergdorf Goodman is a good example. The fashion retailer has a self-hosted WordPress blog at blog.bergdorfgoodman.com, dubbed 5th/58th, and a Tumblr called The Bergdorf Goodman Swipe. Although both blogs are full of images, the former tends to feature long articles alongside said images, and has a more curated, magazine-like tone. The Tumblr is far more informal, brimming with quick inspiration and behind-the-scenes shots, many cross-posted from Instagram.

“While our blog, 5th/58th, is more editorial, providing detailed insight about what’s happening in the store, the fashion world and New York, The Swipe gives a very private glimpse into the most imaginative and creative minds of Bergdorf Goodman,” explains Cannon Hodge, Bergdorf Goodman’s manager of social media. The content on each blog is tailored to accommodate “what we feel those audiences are more interested in… [and] the technical capabilities custom to each platform,” she adds.

In terms of demographics, Tumblr, like many a burgeoning social network, is particularly popular among younger Internet users, according to Quantcast. In the U.S., the bulk (55%) of users are under 34 years old, and another 30% are aged between 35 and 49.

Users tend to be slightly less affluent than the web average, with roughly a quarter earning less than $30,000 per year in the U.S. The platform has also proven to be particularly popular among Hispanics (12%) and Asians (6%) compared to other sites measured by Quantcast.

Much of Tumblr’s audience is international; of the estimated 9.7 million people who visit tumblr.com each day, 5.4 million come from outside of the U.S.

If you’re a small business owner serving an older (50+) demographic solely in your area, Tumblr might not be right for you. It might be better instead to pour more resources into Facebook, where you’ll have much better success finding potential customers with Facebook’s targeting capabilities. But if you’re looking to target young, geographically diverse consumers with your goods and services, Tumblr might very well be worth the time investment.

Getting Started

Setting up a Tumblr is easy — in fact, it’s one of the most-touted advantages of the service and has undoubtedly played a role in the platform’s growth.

To sign up, head over to tumblr.com and fill out your email, password and desired URL (username.tumblr.com).

Before you set up your own Tumblr, you’ll want to have a look around. Find Tumblrs in the categories you’re interested in by selecting the “Explore” button on the right-hand side of your dashboard and follow them. What do you like about them? What kinds of posts are getting the most engagement (by which we mean likes and reblogs)? What are your competitors doing on Tumblr? This is your time to study the community and set up your own Tumblr newsfeed.

Once you’re ready to set up your own Tumblr blog, you’ll want to click the settings icon from the dashboard and select “Customize your blog.” Here, you can name your Tumblr and furnish a brief description, toggle with a variety of free and premium themes, and add pages and custom CSS. You can also opt to use custom HTML, and at the very least, you should use the function to add Google Analytics code. When you’re finished, click “Save + Close.”

You’re now ready to begin posting.

What & When To Post

Tumblr hosts a wide variety of content, but certain kinds perform better than others.

“In my experience, photo-based posts, whether it’s something Photoshopped, straight-up photography, an animated GIF, [an] infographic or something else, get the most reblogs/notes,” says Mark Coatney, Tumblr’s media evangelist, adding that half of Tumblr’s daily posts are image-based.

Looking at Tumblr’s list of popular tags, one can surmise that humor, art, photography and fashion and are popular topics, as well as crafts, food, news and sports. Of the top 1,000 Tumblr blogs, 180 are fashion-related, says CEO David Karp.

For someone who owns an online vintage clothing shop, this is great. For those whose goods are services are less photo-worthy or concrete, this can present a greater — but certainly not insurmountable — challenge.

“Any brand that can create thematically interesting visual content can potentially do well on the platform.,” says Raman Kia, director of digital and social media at Starworks Group. “We’ve found that compelling images with a small amount of descriptive text work best on this platform. However, it is the editorial marriage of the images with a theme that acts as the strong connective tissue between all the images that creates something really compelling,” he adds.

Although fans will often complain if brands post more than once per day on Facebook, that is not the case with Tumblr, where post frequency is much higher. Of the brands we studied, some posted as much as 10 or 15 times per day, although most hovered in the one to five range.

Setting Expectations

Although businesses often feel pressured to jump onto every new social network, it’s important to be strategic in resource allocation and goal-setting. After all, you have a lot more choices now. If you’re spending half of your time on Facebook and half of your time on Tumblr and getting three times the engagement from the latter, you might want to consider revising your marketing plans.

As with other social networks, ROI with Tumblr shouldn’t be measured in terms of sales, says Kia, although he recommends companies use tracking URLs to measure traffic that leads to an online point-of-sale. Tumblr is better used to create awareness of a brand amongst a community that may not already be paying attention (or at least not on this platform), as well as develop engagement, which can translate into “a tremendous amount of social currency and earned media,” he says.

The Social Media 101 Series is sponsored by Global Strategic Management Institute, a leading source of knowledge for today’s leaders. Learn more by visiting GSMI’s website, liking it on Facebook and following it on Twitter.

More Marketing Resources from Mashable:

- HOW TO: Start Marketing on Foursquare
- HOW TO: Start Marketing on Gowalla
- The PR Pro’s Guide to Facebook
- How Barbie & Ken Were Reunited by Social Media
- How Converse Became the Biggest Little Sneaker Brand on Facebook

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GOOD, a social innovation website and the publisher of GOOD magazine, has just bought Jumo — the Chris Hughes-helmed social network built around philanthropy.

While the amount and exact terms are unknown, Hughes will be joining GOOD as a senior adviser while keeping Jumo close to its charitable roots. “Jumo.com will be the home for our open source code base, so that nonprofits and developers can use it,” Hughes told Fast Company. The goal is to enable other social entrepreneurs to use Jumo’s own progress to further global projects.

Hughes, who helped create Facebook, continued to rise through the social media ranks as part of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. He started Jumo as a non-profit social network to help people find ways to help the world.

The sale to GOOD marries Jumo’s network of activists and nearly 15,000 socially driven organizations with GOOD’s own community of 3 million monthly users, according to Jumo’s official announcement.

This story is ongoing and will be updated throughout the day.

Image courtesy of Flickr, USV

More About: chris hughes, Good, social good, social media, social network

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About one-fifth of global Internet users visited Amazon‘s various websites during June, according to a report from comScore.

Amazon led online retailers with 282.2 million visitors that month out of a total Internet audience of 1.4 billion, comScore estimates. That’s a 27% jump from June 2010, when Amazon got 221.8 million visitors — which was 17.7% of all Internet users. In the new report, Amazon was followed by eBay with 223.5 million, or 16.2% of all Internet users. China’s Alibaba.com got 156.8 million (11.8%).

The report also found that Amazon has an impressive global reach. Just 35.4% of its visitors came from North America in June. Europe was Amazon’s number two market with 31.8% and Asia Pacific produced 24.1%. In contrast, 83.4% of Walmart.com’s visitors came from North America.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Brave New Traveler

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About one-fifth of global Internet users visited Amazon‘s various websites during June, according to a report from comScore.

Amazon led online retailers with 282.2 million visitors that month out of a total Internet audience of 1.4 billion, comScore estimates. That’s a 27% jump from June 2010, when Amazon got 221.8 million visitors — which was 17.7% of all Internet users. In the new report, Amazon was followed by eBay with 223.5 million, or 16.2% of all Internet users. China’s Alibaba.com got 156.8 million (11.8%).

The report also found that Amazon has an impressive global reach. Just 35.4% of its visitors came from North America in June. Europe was Amazon’s number two market with 31.8% and Asia Pacific produced 24.1%. In contrast, 83.4% of Walmart.com’s visitors came from North America.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Brave New Traveler

More About: amazon, apple, ComScore, ebay, WalMart

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Go to Source

About one-fifth of global Internet users visited Amazon‘s various websites during June, according to a report from comScore.

Amazon led online retailers with 282.2 million visitors that month out of a total Internet audience of 1.4 billion, comScore estimates. That’s a 27% jump from June 2010, when Amazon got 221.8 million visitors — which was 17.7% of all Internet users. In the new report, Amazon was followed by eBay with 223.5 million, or 16.2% of all Internet users. China’s Alibaba.com got 156.8 million (11.8%).

The report also found that Amazon has an impressive global reach. Just 35.4% of its visitors came from North America in June. Europe was Amazon’s number two market with 31.8% and Asia Pacific produced 24.1%. In contrast, 83.4% of Walmart.com’s visitors came from North America.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Brave New Traveler

More About: amazon, apple, ComScore, ebay, WalMart

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Go to Source

About one-fifth of global Internet users visited Amazon‘s various websites during June, according to a report from comScore.

Amazon led online retailers with 282.2 million visitors that month out of a total Internet audience of 1.4 billion, comScore estimates. That’s a 27% jump from June 2010, when Amazon got 221.8 million visitors — which was 17.7% of all Internet users. In the new report, Amazon was followed by eBay with 223.5 million, or 16.2% of all Internet users. China’s Alibaba.com got 156.8 million (11.8%).

The report also found that Amazon has an impressive global reach. Just 35.4% of its visitors came from North America in June. Europe was Amazon’s number two market with 31.8% and Asia Pacific produced 24.1%. In contrast, 83.4% of Walmart.com’s visitors came from North America.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Brave New Traveler

More About: amazon, apple, ComScore, ebay, WalMart

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Football fans will be able to catch live video of Friday’s “first kick” extra-preliminary match of the FA Cup on Facebook.

The match between non-league teams Ascot United and Wembley FC will be livestreamed on Budweiser’s Facebook page. Budweiser recently signed a three-year sponsorship with the English knockout cup competition worth about $40 million.

This 90-minute live stream of the game will increase its potential audience from a handful of local fans to 700 million Facebook users worldwide. Both of the relatively unknown teams will be paid nominal broadcast fees, Reuters reports.

“To be involved in the first game of The FA Cup this season is an honour in itself,” said Mike Harrison, the Chairman of Ascot United, in a statement, “but to be part of a world first and have our match broadcast to a massive global audience is fantastic for our club.”

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, zentilia

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Football fans will be able to catch live video of Friday’s “first kick” extra-preliminary match of the FA Cup on Facebook.

The match between non-league teams Ascot United and Wembley FC will be livestreamed on Budweiser’s Facebook page. Budweiser recently signed a three-year sponsorship with the English knockout cup competition worth about $40 million.

This 90-minute live stream of the game will increase its potential audience from a handful of local fans to 700 million Facebook users worldwide. Both of the relatively unknown teams will be paid nominal broadcast fees, Reuters reports.

“To be involved in the first game of The FA Cup this season is an honour in itself,” said Mike Harrison, the Chairman of Ascot United, in a statement, “but to be part of a world first and have our match broadcast to a massive global audience is fantastic for our club.”

Image courtesy of iStockphoto, zentilia

More About: FA cup, football, soccer, sports

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