Today, Adweek posted an article about some recent Twitter stats. According to Nielsen, only 40% of new Twitterati are still on the perch a month later.

From the Mike Shields article:

“Over 60 percent of people who sign up to use the popular (and tremendously discussed) micro-blogging platform do not return to using it the following month, according to new data released by Nielsen Online. In other words, Twitter currently has just a 40 percent retention rate, up from 30 percent in previous months — indicating an “I don’t get it factor” among new users that is reminiscent of the similarly over hyped Second Life from a few years ago.”

Twitter’s been huge in the business and social media enthusiast community for quite some time, but with recent buzz reaching a fever pitch, the mainstream is registering with the little bluebird in droves.  The growth chart, as Adweek puts it, looks like a hockey stick.

With over 60% of new users flying the coop, however, there’s something amiss.  If it hopes to improve its retention rate, Twitter needs to address the mainstream users that are signing in and asking “Why is this better than Facebook? All my friends are already there.”

The fact is, some of the most intriguing aspects of Twitter don’t necessarily come through immediately: the flattening of the online landscape, the ability to engage with spontaneous chat with an open community–including with some of the world’s most admired or influential people.  On the surface, a new user is presented with an opportunity to search for their friends (many of which will likely not be present) or simply begin ’shouting into the darkness’ (as the folks at SuperNews so poignantly put it), all the while wondering if their time couldn’t better be spent on their existing networks.

The fact is, Twitter is an excellent supplement to one’s existing networks, and can serve a very different purpose than Facebook, but for someone not willing to blindly jump into the community and start sharing with strangers, the existing technology of Facebook status updates work just as well, and in a place where the user is already at home.

Put simply, what Twitter needs to do is sell its benefits better on its own site.  Relying on word of mouth between evangelists has been wildly successful thus far, but with the growth curve bending every skyward, the mainstream audience registrants (who are missing the wealth of blog posts extolling Twitter’s many virtues) require a refreshed explanation that’ s more than simply “mom wants to know what you had for lunch“.

Celebrity tweets can only go so far, after all.

A simple story from our family to yours.

If you haven’t had a chance to pick up the November 10th issue of Marketing Magazine (and Marketing’s 100th anniversary issue), may we recommend it?

The issue asks 100 of the most forward-thinking marketers to muse about where marketing is headed in the next century.  While Mike and Warren were honoured to have been able to contribute their opinion, the issue is also chock full of great insight from some of Canada’s most respected marketing and advertising professionals.  The breadth of opinion coming from agencies and brands in all corners of our industry really helps paint an intersting picture of the future.

It’s definitely worth the price of admission for anyone even remotely interested in where marketing’s heading, or just to see where the conversation’s going.  Check out www.marketingmag.ca for more information.

Anyone who grew up in the 80s and has visited an amusement arcade recently would no doubt feel disappointed by the lack of progress arcade games have made. Back in the 1980s video game makers worked hard to find new and exciting ways to convince people to part with their quarters; controlling the in-game action with a steering wheel perhaps, or bike handlebars, maybe an entire racing car cockpit for players to sit inside! As the 90s approached it was almost as though arcade machine manufacturers said goodbye to the control race - most likely because of rising production costs and physical space limitations in decreasingly sized video game arcades.

The console boom certainly helped to kill off amusement arcades, but I would even go so far as to suggest that the console boom may have stalled commercial innovation within the field - right up until the last few years.

The recent commercial trend of finding new and wonderful control systems (largely thanks to Nintendo) is not very far removed from Atari’s own experiences during the late 1970s and early 1980s. Think Rockband was the first to have a drumkit hooked up to a computer game? Atari did it first with ‘Atari Jammin’. As far as I know, Jammin’ never actually made it out of the prototyping phase, sadly, and I’m sure someone is kicking themselves now for not letting it go out to the world. Jammin’ featured an 8-button drum pad on the front of the case that users could tap out a beat with and try to synch up to match the in-game beats. It even featured a record feature, which in my mind was quite a feat given the tech.

Steering wheels have been around for a long time, but how about the idea of an entire BMX bike? Atari prototyped it back in the 1980s… (photo courtesy of atarigames.com).

For more information on the incredible Atari story, the Atari History Museum website is a good start. For old game design documents, internal memos and technical notes be sure to visit Atarigames.com - an essential and inspiring time machine for anyone interested in games.

As some of you may already know, last week I was interviewed by a true gent; Gary Doyle on 570News radio about the launch of the iPhone and the possibilities it presents to game developers and game designers. One of Gary’s questions was ‘what’s so appealing about the iPhone to you guys?’ I answered with ‘the power of the little thing and opportunity for mobile entertainment with a whacky control system’ or words to that effect, though it crossed my mind that the iPhone accelerometers may be perceived as a bit of a gimmick - perhaps rightly so. Anyone can utilize accelerometers, but it takes a little more to actually utilize them in a meaningful way that isn’t expecting users to be contortionists. I fully expect to see all kinds of failing control methods as developers get used to it all…

As a case in point, I’ve been working on a game that seemed to be a perfect candidate for Wii remote control. Everything about the game screamed Wii and so I set to work on prototyping it out; It wasn’t until I’d built a playable version and used the controllers for the first time that I was able to establish just how badly the proposed control scheme was going to function. After trying out more than 5 completely different methods, the only one that worked was (suprise suprise!) the most basic. I’d approached the problem as an engineer trying to reproduce a real experience through an unreal interface - it just didn’t gel. The connection between player and game was disjointed and awkward until it was broken down to its most basic form; where natural body movements could synchronize with game mechanic.

I had experienced first-hand what Tony Walsh had commented about on my previous ‘Be the Ball’ blog post ‘The idea is that if we become familiar enough with an extension of our physical self, our brain’s interpretation of where our body is fills that extension.’ Essentially, we’re trying to engineer some kind of phantom limb syndrome. Perhaps an interesting - if not slightly disturbing - indication of where games may progress in the future and where amusement arcade game engineers tried to get to, some 20 years ago. Only now is the commercial interest and the technology strong enough to push forward.

As a final note, take a look at Julian Oliver’s Levelhead. It’s an “augmented-reality spatial-memory game” that blew everyones minds at the office this week. I have no idea as to whether or not this is real, though in this case I’m not even sure that it matters. The concept is incredible and perhaps a true glimpse into mobile entertainment of the future. Either that, or we could be looking at the next Rubik’s Cube craze!

I’m not entirely sure where this one is going to go - so please bear with me. Mike and I were recently on an academic panel presenting to some professors with some interesting and senior people from some of the more traditional channels (newspaper, television and radio) and it was an interesting discussion. As one of the “Internet guys” or “Online media experts” I was a bit shocked and saddened by the conversation.

I was shocked because, the conversation was…great! But at the same time very sad. It was great because we had some serious dialog on the strengths and shortcomings of a each particular medium/channel, and some fairly lengthy sparring over the what the future of each held. (During every break Mike kept whispering to me that he was going to say: “the only thing the newspaper will be used for in 5 years will be to start a fire”. While I didn’t necessarily disagree, it would have been too rude - and the guy was pretty big!)

What I was most sad about was the stickwithitness that all three of my panelists possessed. And not in a good way. While I commend and admire those proud of the company or industry they work for, these guys were just riding it out. So as to say: “Not on my watch.” “Not my problem.” “It’s all good.” “Not gonna happen.” Well, I’m here to say: “It will, and it is.” That’s where I became most concerned of a medium’s ability to overly fall in love with itself - to romanticize a position, to over assert a strength. It’s like a traditional channel’s variation on Barney’s. “I love you. You love me.” Except you don’t love me? Really? Ok. “I love me. I love me”.

And its where I came up with this. It is so painfully simple, and I suppose, simply painful to hear. CHANGE BEFORE YOU HAVE TO. It really is that simple. I wish it had a better hook, a better catch - but it really is that easy. I guess at the end of the day, Mark Twain had it right. Sacred cows make the best hamburgers!