Sara and I hiked to the top of a mountain while we were in CO Springs this past weekend (i was speaking at a conference). Check out the view from top of the Helen Hunt trail. We even shot this video blog:

I’ve been a HUGE fan of this new iPhone app called HDR Pro, that takes some amazing pictures. Check out the one i took at the top with my phone:

And I’m also obsessed with another iPhone photo app called 360. Look at the stitched/panoramic photos i shot with my iPhone:

It took 11 years, but the building that looks like a giant silver snail shell in downtown Kansas City is about to open! The Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts cost $413 million dollars, sits on 18 acres, and has 2 halls inside (one for theatre, the other for concerts). Kristin gave me and my friend Pat a private tour- and we put together this video blog of the Kauffman Center. Check it out! I also took this and this panoramic photos with my iPhone while I was there.

btw, Pat (who works with me at @digitalev) was behind the camera and did all the edits <– which i think he did awesome!

I’ve been in Toronto for the past couple of days at the Toronto International Film Fest …while I was there Josh, a bartender at Pease did a demo of what happens when you cool your beer with liquid nitrogen. Isn’t this crazy!?! (i didn’t know you could drink this). You can do this with alcohol and other shots too (it makes any liquid immediately cold).

Thanks to TKC and local b.a. photog Eric Bowers, I saw through my feeds about a new art installation you can checkout, near Liberty Memorial in Kansas City. There are 117 stacked containers, and it can withstand over 90MPH winds (KMBC has an article). Check out this video blog I shot of the art project AND I even did an interactive 360 panoramic photo as well.

BTW, my mic + audio got jacked, so you’ll noticed i had to re-dub the last parts of the audio on the later cuts in video. [sigh]

Have you heard of Title Boxing? Some would say it’s a fairly new trend in fitness (they even claim if you workout there for one hour just three times a week and you will lose at least one pound a week without dieting).

We just launched a new Facebook giveaway app for Title Boxing (a client). Here are 3 learnings I wanted to share given the many clients we work with for these types of promotions. 3 tips to keep in mind when developing a giveway or contest:

1.) The “5-second rule” applies.
When deciding on a contest or giveaway, it should take less than 5-seconds to understand what it is and how to enter. “Clever” isn’t always the most effective. And far too often in the boardrooms and those posh marketing conference rooms people get caught up in complicated promotions. The attention span of a user on Facebook is much lower than the average user. Facebook is inherently designed for media snacking, so a contest that takes time and work is typically less successful. Rule of thumb: make it simple and tell them in words how “easy it is to enter”.

2.) Ask for their email address.
Giveaways and contests are highly effective email acquisition tactics. We believe you have to “give to get”. And customers are ok with this. So make the [email address] field required. Also, the information you require on the form should be dependent upon the minimum amount of data you need to segment and take action on from an email and CRM perspective. Don’t get greedy and ask for more. Remember my advice from Rule #1.

Also, in compliance with Facebook Promotions Guidelines, you cannot use Facebook to notify winners, such as by sending them a message, chat, or wall post alerting them to their win. So having their email address is vital.

3.) When you build it, they won’t enter.
Just because you build an amazing contest or giveaway app, it doesn’t mean hundreds or thousands of people will flock to enter. Cascade and flex your digital channels (email, website, twitter, facebook) with a drip roll-out to drive traffic, stimulate buzz, and attention about contest. Bonus Tip: one of the best promotional strategies for a giveaway or contest is to work with influential bloggers or existing communities to push and support the promotion <– coorindate this prior to the launch