So not only do we all have a constant plethora of SEO questions swirling around our little heads, we - being entirely obsessed with consumer behaviour and how it changes across media - have of late been thinking a lot about how people consume information online.

Jakob Nielsen - the king of usability - spends a good deal of time teaching the lot of us about the concept of information foraging, positioning humans as informavores - crazed consumers of information.

To say that Web users behave like wild beasts in the jungle sounds like a joke, but there’s substantial data to support this claim. Animals make decisions on where, when, and how to eat on the basis of highly optimized formulas… [S]uboptimal behaviors result in starvation, and thus fewer offspring that follow those behaviors in subsequent generations. After thousands of generations, optimal food-gathering behavior is all that’s left.

This optimal gathering behaviour can be pushed out to the way we search for everything, not just food. So what do we - as designers of content information - do to ensure that our consumable looks more delicious than anybody else’s?

• Bullet wherever you can - good information is most commonly easy to find.
• Be more careful about how links are phrased. Is it clear that your contact page is a contact page? If not, help your users “more easily identify prey.”
• Use plain language wherever possible in body copy. Search engines like it, and so do our brains.
• Ensure that users can see the path as they drill deeper into the site. Your readers should never be unclear as to how they got where they are or you risk their losing sight of the task at hand.

• Ensure that both navigation and body content are visible upon first sight. If a user can’t see how to find his way around, he’s likely to give up before he even gets going. If he can’t see any body copy, he has no idea where said going will even get him, thus again is likely to press the back button and look elsewhere.
• Accept that, as search engines become stronger and focus more on high quality content, the average length of the user’s visit to your site is likely to diminish - but their frequency of visiting is likely to increase if your overall content design is appealing.

As usual, this comes down to being sure you’re thinking about user experience and variations in consumer behaviour across media. But the more we all push ourselves to do this, the stronger our messaging will collectively be!

Okay, maybe not attack, but at very least hang out at A-list celebrity and sporting events.

Any thoughts on what this might be advertising?

Update: True character of the faceless people will be revealed in 18 days - but apparently, this is an activity undertaken by Lotus.

A couple of my close friends attended the Video Games Live Show in Toronto last week, which got me thinking about cultural impact and branding. (Check out the requisite promo video here.)

Video games’ first emergence into the market was pretty basic. Playing an eight byte game? Awesome. Rather than featuring stellar graphics and technology, older games relied on the user’s imagination (cue awwws around the table). That said, the whole imagination thing meant that we were all deeply involved in these games. Said involvement obviously led to strong emotional ties across hundreds of thousands and millions of people. The games allowed for unique self-created universes - and brands owned what was in each of our individual heads.

Old School

New School

Intentional or not, video game producers’ brainchildren created a cultural shift and emotional connection with consumers across the globe. The connection was so great that games - like Trekkies and Johnny Drama’s Viking Quest fanbase - are now paying money to attend shows that pay homage to… the brand.

Sound tougher than beating Bowser?

Becoming part of that connection brings an opportunity. So do you want to play or what?

This hurts my heart.

Is Google serious?

Oh, yes it is. Though the company claims it’s not - calling the deep-driving service “complementary” - we are pretty sure they’re taking on Nielsen’s and comScore’s business model.

And you can bet we signed up for the beta.

If there’s one thing we at Espresso love, it’s picking up the pace. We like to work faster than the speed of light, we live for seemingly out-of-control deadlines, and we thrive on crazy quick thinking that meets objectives. Frankly, we’re rather obsessed with the culmination of creativity efficiency. So when we had an opportunity to work with a new company built around the concept of speed and fresh thinking, we were ready to sign up!

Fadow - short form of FAst DOWnloads - joins the espresso client base this week. What exactly are they up to? They are the inventors of the Moviecle - an airport kiosk where you can grab a movie in a mere minute or two when you didn’t feel like downloading one yourself before you hit the airwaves.

This puppy is set to launch in Q3, so keep your eyes open for said clever device in an airport near you. We are all quite certain it’s bound to be a raging success!

We love this. That is all!

Just because we can’t resist, you might have a laugh over these.

Hilarious x 1.

Hilarious x 2.

Hilarious x 3.

Awesome.

So there’s a ton of study in the word-of-mouth/word-of-mouse realm dealing with who ultimately spreads ideas, and we basically end up with two leading theories: opinion leaders versus birds of a feather.

• The opinion leaders theory suggests that key influencers adopt an idea and the masses fall in love with it to emulate said influential crew. This concept basically suggests that you can hit a few superstar talkers and achieve the attention you’re seeking.
• The birds of a feather theory suggests that when a certain number of your more easily influenced peers fall in love with an idea, you too are likely to give it a shot. This theory allows us to categorize people according to their relative level of skepticism - i.e. the more skeptical among us require a higher share of our social network to adopt an idea than those who are easily influenced.

Why is this relevant to social marketing? Easy-peasy. Key influencers - not shockingly - are more difficult to get to. Their skepticism levels are naturally far higher than the average individual, seeing as they’re attacked daily with messaging that companies desperately hope and pray they might latch on to and spread. The masses, however, are easier to find, but does the birds of a feather theory really work?

A recent study called Influentials, Networks, and Public Opinion Formation - discussed in short form here in Science News - shows some pretty intriguing findings.

The researchers compared how far an idea would spread depending on whether it started with a random individual or with an influential individual who was connected to a lot of other individuals. They found that highly influential individuals usually spread ideas more widely, but not very much more widely…

More important than the influencers, the researchers found, were the influenced. Once an idea spread to a critical mass of easily influenced individuals, it took hold and continued to spread to other easily influenced individuals. In some networks, it was far easier to get an idea established this way than in others. The entire structure of the network mattered, not just the few influential people.

So indeed, this seems to indicate that we are nearly every bit as influenced by our non-influential peers - when that influenced number reaches a critical mass - as we are by leaders. Thus, when you’re approaching your word-spreading strategy, it’s relevant to focus your eyes on the dollars and see where they might work best for you.

Is yours a product that - removing all biases - truly will capture the imagination of opinion leaders, or are you best off focusing on large networks? Do you want flashy media kits for the few or a fun application for the many?Where do you see yourself fitting into the mix?

As Jacquelyn mentioned, the Espresso team has been getting around as of late. We recently completed a cross-Canada six city product launch with Bell and Samsung. We took one of Bell’s newest smartphones, the Samsung ACE, and brought it to life.

Armed with vintage luggage, Samsung ACEs, great digital content, period posters and course some ACES HIGH stewardesses, we created the ACES HIGH: Jet Setter’s Lounge. This 1960s throwback highlighted the device’s unique ability to function around the world - but rather than listen to me run through all of the product details, check out our in-flight safety video.

Companies today have to look beyond the traditional advertising campaign and create memorable brand experiences. Experiential marketing is an incredibly powerful tool that enables companies to connect their product with either the end consumer or channel sales staff.Happy travels.