On SlideShare my slides for the second part of my course on Digital Storytelling I’m teaching at Master in Multimedia Content Design at the University of Florence.

On SlideShare my slides for the first part of my course on Digital Storytelling I’m teaching at Master in Multimedia Content Design at the University of Florence.

50/100

50 of our 100 simply never publish a decent presentation web site of what they’ve done.

25/100

25 publish the web site and hope for the best.

24/100

24 write to to the obvious generic publishers (Wired, Techcrunch) in their first week online, never getting any answer and so leave it there.

1/100

1 finds niches, writes to specialized bloggers, finds new particular perspectives under which she keeps refining it, in waves. Learns how people have different “buying propensities” in different times of the year, experiments with pricing and promos, … . This one and only this one has some hope of making it.

Do you have a two year survival plan for your product?

Data in this blog post is a purely fantastic projection from my life experience. But you get the idea. I’m @ppolsinelli. Drawings by @pupunzi.

Writing

iA Writer

UI Mockups

Balsamiq

Sketchupping

Google SketchUp

Blogging

Tumblr

War board games

Memoir ‘44

Sims like games

Zynga

Yes, aware that not in all circumstances it is an improvement. More? Tweet me.

References and sources

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/

http://weblog.sinteur.com/index.php/2011/12/02/word-on-ipad/

http://www.iawriter.com

http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator.html

http://www.balsamiq.com/products/mockups

http://usa.autodesk.com/autocad/

http://sketchup.google.com/

http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials-other-programs?T1=t5

http://www.tumblr.com/dashboard

http://spacecollective.org/shawnsims

http://company.zynga.com/

I’ve published a first study on game monetization via virtual items on Gamamoto here: http://gamamoto.com/2012/01/17/game-monetization-lenses/

1. If you don’t have it, install Thunderbird (I’ve also was careful to say “no” to the various “set it as default for…” questions).

2. Set up your Gmail account in Thunderbird; don’t worry! This does not mean that you’re reverting to use a client, you still will have all your e-mail online. You will use this just for the export.

3. Install this import export tools plugin in Thunderbird.

First download it, then to install it,  in Thunderbird go to tools –> add ons –> settings icon –> install add on from file

4. After Thunderbird synched your label (you can check that the number of messages is the same as on Gmail), select the label, go to Tools –> Import Export tools and export the label (which in Thunderbird will appear as a folder) in CSV or any other format.

This made my day.

Addenda to the previous post on fatal flaws in marketing:

Flaws and miracles

Yesterday I saw a big ad of the new mini saying more or less “If you feel like you are not living –> get a Mini.”. Their new ad line is that by buying a mini your life will be full full of adventures – an absurd and silly idea, but that doesn’t matter.  The fatal flaw here is clearly boredom. The ad must be here extremely elaborate because of the weakness of the link between the flaw and the proposed solution.

I just wanted to add that to each fatal flaw focused by the ad creator, a corresponding promise of a miracle is formulated by the ad: smell –> perfume, weakness –> strength, boredom –> adventure…

Flaws and pop

If you want to apply the “fatal flaw” reading to a different theme, just listen to the effective lyrics of Lily Allen: a fatal flaw is always evoked.

I have been fighting in software and games marketing for a while, and I’ve read many books and tried several techniques. I’ve launched several software products with diverse results, and I’ve also taken creative writing courses, studied storytelling techniques for marketing, studied TV advertising, even created a game on this theme.

Whenever I see an ad, read about a new product idea, see any kind of promotion I’ found it useful to ask these two simple questions, that somehow are my brief “extract” of all the experience and study process (I use “product” as a generic term for product / solution /service):

1. What is the fatal flaw that this product meets?

2. No direct fatal flaw met: so what is the narrative transmitted by this message?

Products that don’t meet any fatal flaw usually need more investment in narrative construction. If a product does not make me beautiful, perfumed, seducing, healthy, slim… (fatal flaws) – e.g. its an iPad – so its a solution is search of a problem – I need to create a powerful narrative so that some fatal flaw solution is evoked.

Next ad you see, ask yourself the two questions above. May be a useful exercise.