Michael Myers

. . . Hillel knows . . .

Several weeks ago I walked into Breckenridge Brewery in LoDo for a networking event. It was roughly 4:30 and the place was dead. As I walked up to the counter I saw an amazing piece of hand drawn artwork being worked on by the man behind the counter. It was shocking. Like finding a walrus in the back seat of your car. You just don’t expect it. At all.

He was working on a comic book page. It was already divided up and he was adding the artwork inside the boxes. I asked the man behind the counter the following question:

I know what you’re doing, but . . . what are you doing?

He replied that he was working on his latest comic book. I replied “Here?”. He then told me that creating comic books was a lonely job and that he needed to get out and see people. Fair enough. He showed me the cover art for his latest work and the quality was amazing. Realizing that these things don’t happen every day, I asked him if he’d be willing to be interviewed for my blog.

Fast forward to today, and I finally got to sit down with Ozzy Longoria to talk about art, comic books and the future of the medium. Let’s keep this conversational . . .

Me: How did you get into creating comic books?

Ozzy: I loved art and comic books since I was a kid. I collect them and have been since I was eight years old. The artwork is amazing.

Me: When did you begin to earn your living from comic books?

Ozzy: I’ve been doing this for 9 years and have been able to earn a living for the past 4 years. After high school I started a degree in communications and quickly realized my love for art and my passion for comics was where I needed to be.

Me: How did you get started?

Ozzy: I offered to do comics for free for several companies but was turned down. I believe in paying your dues and wanted to build portfolio work. Most companies turned me down. Never forget that this is a business and you’re someone with no experience. Finally I was able to get a create an 8 page comic for Blue Moon Comics and that was the start.

Me: It would be tough if you were awful at it but loved to do it. Don’t you think?

Ozzy: I’ve seen people do it though. My flag says: ‘ Do whatever you want’ and I support them.

Me: Do you use digital technology to create your comics?

Ozzy: Only to color. This process started in the 80s and it lessened the art for a while. Then the artists got better with the technology but it’s still not the same. I grew up reading comic books and technology is changing everything. I draw by hand but many draw using Wacom tablets.

Me: What do you think the future of the comic book medium is?

Ozzy: Obviously, everything is going digital. In the early 2000s the comic industry was making millions. Now they’re making almost nothing. Many give their product away for free online. Once they get you hooked then they charge.

Me: Are you moving to the online medium?

Ozzy: Yes. My next release Sails of Blood featuring pirates, vampires, zombies and Mayans will be released first as an online comic. This is something I’m doing on my own and when it’s up I will send it to publishers and see who wants to distribute it.

Me: What do you think of pushing the comic medium to the big screen?

Ozzy: Sin City has been the best representation of a comic on the big screen. Films like 300 and The Spirit have done a good job of telling the story. With a movie the pace is very different (just like a graphic novel). You have time to tell the story you want. Comics are very fast paced. You have 24 pages to communicate the story and that’s it.

Me: The only graphic novel I’ve read is Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns (a million years ago) and the artwork was pretty rough. Did you like that?

Ozzy: I did and Frank Miller is an amazing storyteller. I don’t think of him as an artist but an amazing storyteller.

Me: Do you think of yourself as an artist or a storyteller?

Ozzy: English is my second language so it has been harder for me to tell stories. The picture is where the stories are. I’m now much better with dialogue and feel comfortable communicating my story.

Me: Where do you see yourself as the medium changes?

Ozzy: I will continue to use new tools as the medium evolves. I’m not an early adopter and I need to be sure the tool works before I consider using it.

I think of this as the Kevin Smith dichotomy; He is not a director. He’s a screenwriter.

I had to put by geek-businessman hat on and told him it would be cool to release the lines from Sails of Blood a line at a time; a page a day up until it’s release. I’d like to see Ozzy base a story on a location and then include a QR code in the comic that takes that person to a map of that location. For hardcore fans, they could go visit the site and get a real feeling for the story that took place there.

We also talked about augmented reality and I’d love to see it used in comic books to breathe some life back into the medium. Think of the Avatar AR (shown below) for specific story frames of the comic book.

Last night we talked about the monster that is Facebook. Monster you ask? Y E S. Facebook could own the Internet or better yet; become the Internet. But more on that in a little.

We started out by watching the Facebook in real life video. This video puts, what is now accepted as online behavior, in an interesting light. It’s also really funny.

From there we talked about how Facebook fits into the online/technology landscape.

• Google – Google is a web business. That sounds funny but that’s what they are. They sell a ton of search-based ads via  . . . you guessed it; the web.
• Apple – This business is an electronics company. They create beautifully designed hardware/software and generate a lot of revenue. They also sell applications from within their walled garden.
• Twitter – Twitter is a social network for some a news resource for most. When something happens; you’ll hear about it first on Twitter.
• Facebook – FB is a social network. The biggest social network in the world and also a walled garden. (They’ve recently shared their internal content with Google via results but as soon as Rockmelt is done (more on that later) look for that deal to go away.

We then covered the staggering numbers that Facebook commands and then the many faces of Facebook.

• 10% of ALL Internet traffic is going to Facebook. People spend their entire day online, on FB!
• ~$800 million in revenue
• 450 million Facebook users
• 110 million mobile Facebook users
• Facebook is bigger than Google!

. . . and now for the faces

• iPhone App – Not sure how many have been downloaded but the last number I found was 1.5 million as of July 2009.
• Mobile Site – Compete.com shows the mobile site as having an average of 1 million unique visitors per month over the last year.
• 0.facebook.com – This is a recent offering from Facebook that allows people in other countries to access Facebook via their mobile device without being charged. The list of carriers that support this and other details are here.
• Facebook Lite (now DOA)
• Mark Zuckerberg – If you don’t know who this guy is, click on his name at the beginning of this sentence.
• Sheryl Sandberg – In my humble opinion (and most likely Facebook’s CEO as well), this woman is responsible for Google’s success and will also be responsible for Facebook’s success. She grew Google’s ad team from 4 to over 4000. Never underestimate how growth can kill a business. She’s a master at scaling.

From there we covered how Facebook makes money and how they’ll make money in the future. Today Facebook make’s money primarily through advertising  in the traditional online sense. They also offer social advertising and companies like Lotame utilize influencer marketing on Facebook to help promote things those influencers are most passionate about with their followers becoming informed along the way.  In the future their revenue base will much more diverse and potentially very very deep.

• Advertising that doesn’t suck – Traditional advertising sucks. It’s random and usually not engaging. If Facebook knows who you are and what your preferences are (and your friends preferences) advertising could get much more focused on you.
• Search Ads – Facebook has stepped out of its walled garden with Facebook Connect and more recently the ‘Like‘ button. This like button is allowing Facebook to create user generated pagerank that will allow them to sell search based ads on Rockmelt (getting there).
• Virtual Goods – Farmville. 85 million people CAN be wrong but they’re paying for those virtual cows and virtual goods are going to become a tremendous source of revenue.
• 3rd Party eCommerce – Just as you can log in to a site using your Facebook login; you’ll be able to purchase books on Amazon using your Facebook account.
• Local Coupons – Facebook is releasing check-in functionality “soon” and they’ll have an idea of where/when you go. This will enable them to provide you with coupons for offers specific to your online preferences AND your foot traffic.
• Brand Advertising off of Facebook – When you log in to a site using your Facebook credentials, they know who you are and can serve ads based on their knowledge of you. The ad rates for targeted advertising can be as high as 4x the standard CPM amount.

Note: The source for this list is here.

We then reviewed the primary method for businesses building their brand on Facebook; the fan page. (Some good numbers here.)

• Top ten brands
• 77% have less than a 1000 fans because they update content on average, every 16 days.
• What NOT to do by Nestlé – The important point here is that you don’t own the community you help create. The users do.
• Metrics – Tried to show the class some analytics from a friend of mine and could not find the link once logged in. Not sure if its usability or me.
• Best Practices – The best practices of Facebook fan pages are the almost identical to those for blogs.
• Twitter Users may not be Facebook fans – People join social networks and communicate based on their personal style. Don’t assume everyone is on both.

Okay . . . Now for Rockmelt. I’ve covered the melt before and it’s believed to be a Facebook specific search engine. If this is true, Facebook will own social search and therefore search-based advertising (just like Google), your preferences, your friends preferences and knowledge of when and where you go. They will ostensibly know all that they need to know about you to sell you personalized virtual goods, serve you personalized ads. (They also could potentially own mobile advertising which Apple and Google are currently fighting for.) Facebook isn’t going to stay in it’s garden and companies like Google had better watch out. Companies who provide ecommerce solutions better watch out. Google and Apple, who want to own mobile advertising dollars better watch out. Imagine a rabid space octopus, that hasn’t eaten in a week, climbing out of its hiding place in search of food.

RRRRRRRUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Layar is most likely going to be the augmented reality browser. Enjoy!

Monday night we began covering social media and how to develop deep relationships online. We walked through the conceptual model of Findable, Recommendable, Transparent and Collaborative.  From there we moved on to the benefits of social media.

• Habitual vs. Loyal – Buying from Amazon is a habit of mine. I would just as likely to to Overstock.com to buy my books.
• Craftsman Mentality – The online market is just that; an open market.
• Stronger Connection with Customers – People want to be heard. If you truly listen, they’re more likely to trust you and come to you for their needs.
• You Become “Trusted Source” – Think Progressive Insurance. They will tell you what the competition is doing, even if they have a better offer.
• Engaging User Experience – Conversation are much more engaging. Don’t read like a PR statement.
• Conversational – This medium is conversational at its deepest. It can be used for 1) SEO at the least, 2) distributing information (which also builds SEO) and 3) creating relationships.

I recently read an article in The Economist that talks about the cultural differences between the US and Europe when it comes to digital privacy. It’s a good article and it begs the question, what the coming mobile/social explosion will look like for cultures that have a stronger sense of personal privacy than the US.

The immense success of social media and the smartphone over the past several years has many businesses preparing for the opportunities this marriage will create. An essential element to these opportunities lies in a user’s willingness to share their information. Situational advertising, personalized marketing are only possible if your settings allow businesses to know “see” your shadow. The article in The Economist points out that within the European Union there are differing opinions on what privacy laws should entail. The true can be said of the US. We’ve most recently talked about these differences in terms of the red and blue states, but anyone who’s recently been in New York and Texas knows exactly what I’m talking about. Might as well be different planets.

One of the benefits of mobile and social is there ability to get hyper-local. Geo-location helps map out where your users are. Social enables businesses to determine your tastes via your settings and your friend’s settings. Businesses are going to struggle if they think they are going to be able to create a set of standards that works between the US and the rest of the world. (They aren’t going to be able to do this within the US of A.) If we take the concept of hyper-local one step further we get to personal preference. Businesses should empower their customers/potential customers to make decisions about their privacy settings; explaining to them CLEARLY, what sharing their information means. This is the only way businesses that want to have good, mutually beneficial relationships with their customers online, will be able to create deep relationships, long-term.

Businesses are also going to have to accept that there are people out there that won’t ever want to have relationships with businesses. I would not rely on governments to make good decisions for me as a consumer and I know that self-regulation is a stretch for many governments.

In all honesty, the difficult part will be clearly explaining to people across multiple cultures how to manage their privacy. Giving them the power will be easy by comparison.

Last night we covered a couple of the technologies that are pushing the virtual world and the real world together. The first, and my favorite is augmented reality (AR). We walked through the definition of the two types or AR; marker and browser. I showed them examples of both; maker here and browser here. We then talked about what needs to happen for AR to take off.

Browser – Geo-location is going to be key. If people can see where the experience is on a map, it could become a destination.  (AR treasure hunts!) Until that happens, search will be important to AR. If you search for a business or a brand that has an AR feature near you, it should show up on a search/map result. People are not going to wonder around, looking for big “AR EXPERIENCE HERE!” sign.

Marker - Web cams will be essential to the adoption of marker based AR. Most laptops come built in with a web cam and the web cam market is predicted to be a $3.2 billion market by 2015. (40% of video uploads to Facebook are from a web cam and look for the next iPad to have one built in.) Browser plug-ins to view AR are essential and it’s not to early to want a standard protocol. (Having users download and app like, the Esquire AR, is too disruptive.)

Universally - It’s obvious that application adoption is essential for AR to continue to grow. This will only come with cultural awareness. When I say culture I not only mean, Globally but between technical and non-technical cultures. Metrics will also be very important for this medium. Marketers will need to know how much traffic is being generated by AR enabled offerings; browser & marker. For the browser, this will tell you where the foot traffic, essential to your business is and allow for intelligent display/print advertising. For the marker, it will give the business a feeling which print offerings (or affiliate for that matter) are the most successful. Increased quality is the last thing that needs to happen to get this market to grow. People are okay with the pixelation for now but quality similar to James Cameron’s Avatar, needs to quickly become the norm.

The AR market is predicted to generate $350 million by 2014. Brands that have delved into AR are, Disney, USPS, Toyota, BMW, John Mayer, Ikea, Adidas, Paramount. Really tiny companies.

I then offered some of the resources that I use to get to keep up with changes in the AR industry.

Good summary video showing many implementations of augmented reality from the Total Immersion 2010, Demo Reel.