I picked up my LA Times from the driveway this morning and was faked out by seeing a full page photo of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in the Disney/Tim Burton movie “Alice in Wonderland” on the front page. It only took me a few seconds to realize that it wasn’t really the front page at all, but a full page ad (actually a 4-page wraparound) for the movie that obscured the real front page of the Times. With my background as an ad agency creative director, my first thought was “wow…what a creative use of media!”.
Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category
Breaking through the blather
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010These days we’re all buried in clutter. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, the blogosphere. Information is constantly coming at us over the floodgates.
The amount of information we see, hear and read every day has mushroomed a thousand-fold. That makes the task of creating a unique message that breaks through the clutter even more daunting. In a world where a clever video or a scandalous piece of news can go viral in a matter of hours, how does one get a message through the over-information pipeline? (more…)
Blogging on Blogs
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010The Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), of which I’m a member, just published its list of the top 20 marketing blogs top marketers read. This list was gleaned from a survey of the membership, nearly 2000 strong, which is made up of senior level marketing executives from around the country. The poll asked which blogs (by non-MENG members) they actually read, which blogs were their favorite reads, and which ones were the most enjoyable to read. (more…)
How tweet it is!
Monday, December 21st, 2009I was surfing the web this afternoon looking for something interesting to blog about when I was rewarded with a great story on Mashable about Trident Layers. I’ve seen their TV commercials, in which people trade their work for the gum as payment and I’ve thought they were pretty silly. But I think their use of Tweets as testimonials in a full page, color print ad in USA Today was brilliant.
What happened was this: The Trident people searched on Twitter and found ten unsolicited, authentic comments from fans, contacted each person to get their approval, and then ran them under the headline “The People Have Tweeted”.
It’s a great example of a brand integrating print and online communications in a very clever way and making the most of both the “old” and the “new” to reinforce each other. Now if only they had integrated those TV commercials into the program….
The viral power of social media
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009A few days ago I was a witness to the power a few people can wield over a big issue as I participated in a discussion in one of my Linkedin groups (On Startups). I was attracted to the discussion “Chase hates small business” and posted a comment because, like the originator of the conversation, I, too, have been disturbed by the credit card companies’ policies of increasing their interest rates by up to 24.99% and decreasing credit limits even for their good customers with good credit ratings who pay their bill on time. This after receiving huge government bailouts and posting record profits.
Apparently a lot of people feel strongly about this issue: over a 24-hour period, the conversation went at the speed of light from complaints and commiseration to action. Spurred on by the sharing of a home-made video posted on YouTube by Ann Minch , a handful of group members took the lead and began suggesting activities: the creation of a day without using credit cards, writing letters to the White House, creating a Cause page on Facebook, generating press releases and giving the cause a name: “Don’t Bank on Me”. With over 200 posts and going strong, the cause had become a movement. At this writing, the organization is growing, committees are being formed through teleconferences, and a web sit is in development.
If you’d like to keep tabs on the action or become part of it, look for the web site launch or the Don’t Bank on Me group on Linkedin …and spread the word.
