Before there was the Internet... There was ME.
The (sometimes) random musings of a man who has a (sometimes) faulty filter between his Ferrari brain and (sometimes) Trabant mouth.
Happy Friday... Some thoughts to take you into the weekend.You know, 'can't take the Assignment Editor out of the boy...' -- see if you can follow the random train of thought:
I’ve been told that there are strange things afoot in From the land of ET+12, (aka Asia).
Yesterday, I attended a panel with the Strategic Web Insights Group, hosted by Dan Mooney and Devin Brown.It was my second meeting, and I’ve met some very interesting people there before.Sat next to Marshall Sponder, who I’ve been running into for about the past six months here and there.Anyway, the discussion was about Presenting KPIs to Management, but I’ll get to that in a bit.
First, from the Foreign Desk... Facebook is still growing -- in Asia
From a couple guys by way of NBC Universal (Digital Research Director Blandon Casenave, and someone I didn’t know) , I learned that in Asia, the most popular online social community is Friendster, believe it or not.
A little background: according to Venturebeat, in the current international land-grab among leading social networks (N.B.: have you staked your claim on your @Handle yet on Twitter? Bought your name’s URL?), the almighty Facebook is overtaking MySpace (my old employer, NewsCorp) as the largest social network in the world.
That’s old news now to anyone in the know.Here’s the rub though: remember ol’ Friendster, which the grownups were digging Pre-FB, and then completely bailed on when FB came around?
Well, in Asia, Friendster continues to lead Facebook and everyone else by at least a two to one margin. Like increase its base nearly double from 23 million monthly active users in April of 2007, to 40 million users this past April 2008 (old numbers – anyone have any more current?), according to comScore.And it appears to trending still upwards On top of that, the Friendster people point out that comScore doesn’t account for users who access the site through internet cafes, which is a much larger user trend than in the US.And get this: comScore March ’08 data says that Friendster users spend an average of 229 minutes on the site per month, the highest of any social network.If anyone has any more recent data on this, to prove/disprove the trend, we can get all Mythbustery on it.If I have the time, I’ll dig a bit.
Google's New Online Ad Campaign for Chrome
Also, from that geographical area, apparently there’s a ‘battle for search engine supremacy” in Japan, between Yahoo and Google.On one of the fronts, Google is introducing its Chrome browser into the Land of the Rising Sun.From boingboing, this cleverly-crafted stop-motion video advertisement was put together by the Google Japan team.It shows the company’s strategic vision of using the Japanese cute factor (or kawaii, like “Hello Kitty”) to successfully enter their browser into a market currently dominated by Yahoo.Feels evocative of something you’d see on the newly-launched Electric Company, in its first iteration.
Iconic elements of New York City rendered in Lego. Brilliant. Utilizing everyone’s familiarity with Lego pieces, not only their strengths of being able to put them together, but the limitations that go along with their modular architecture.It’s Pop Art, using found objects and the viewers imagination to complete.
Found this yesterday... I have a feeling it'll go viral, unintentionally(?).
What is it? It's a church-produced (allegedly? seems legit...) ad featuring a tech-jargon-dropping grandma. Strangely enough, a lot of what she's talking about makes no technical sense. However, it's a great concept for how-to videos, since, if 'grandma' can understand it, so could 'anyone'.
BTW, "l33t" is hacker-speak for "leet" or "elite", which is a status term that us old-skool geeks used to use when we were working BBS and rockin' 14.4K baud modems.
(ED. NOTE: Updated and tweaked 10 Nov. 08) Pepsi-Cola has decided to shake up their branding (as opposed to a can of Pepsi, which is not advised) to see what happens.
FULL DISCLOSURE:I don’t like Pepsi. The brand itself is fine, but any carbonated beverage, aside from Champagne or beer, is anathema to my palate.Blech.Anyway…
You may have already seen some posts from several “social media influencers” (Shankman, PSFK, Rohit Bargava, among others) in the marketing and advertising field about Pepsi's innovative new campaign, being dubbed by many the "Pepsi 25" for their choice of 25 bloggers to single out and send three packages to over the course of an hour (gotta suck to be an Account Assistant at Pepsi’s agency, huh?). Since I wasn’t one of them, I've grabbed the image posted on AdRants(thanks, AdRants! :) ) .
I’ve been a bit busy lately, but being late to the party gives me the benefit of some “widescreen views” about the campaign, and seeing what many of my fellow bloggers had to say the new initiative. Here’s the topline thus far:
The new logo looks a lot like Barack Obama's campaign logo.Really.I assume Pepsi's was being mocked up before Barack started his campaign (not sure when he debuted his, but let’s assume over a year ago), but it’s really, really close.
Who are these “Pepsi 25” influencers that Pepsi chose (though you can find them by checking out the Pepsi Cooler and other blogs—see below)?
How did they choose them (friends in the blogosphere?)?
Blogs/observations/rants that this campaign won't necessarily get any of the bloggers to like or drink Pepsi any more than they do now.I think they’re more the Mountain Dew, hyper-caffeinated types, probably, but I don't think that's the point of the effort. More on that below.
Pepsi’s making moves, no doubt about it.They’ve always been eager to make connections with youth and pop culture.It started in the ‘80s as the “Voice of the New Generation/Pepsi Generation”.According to AdAge , this effort will cost them hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide as part of a multi-year transformation.But the Social Media part is probably of minimal cost. You know something?I think it’ll work.
Why?
Research shows that 1 in 2 online Americans access social networks.I’ll write more about that in another post, but as you can imagine, the young (under 30 – grr..) people of today make up the bulk of the users, and that number will grow as that demographic matures.But also...
Social Media is the most efficient, cost-effective way in which to:
Grow a publisher's audience, increase engagement, and generate new revenue streams
Enable Brands to engage their customers more effectively in an increasingly fragmented world
Enable Marketers to evolve from delivering messages, to engaging in a conversation with customers
And get this:
"93 percent of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present, but also interact with its consumers via social media."
- 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study, September, 11-12, 2008
It could be argued that this is a very well-executed campaign, if only for the reason that these influencers have large followings (especially from marketing geeks like myself), and therefore will just get a lot of buzz.From what I can see, it’s succeeded. Going by the compiled list of "Pepsi 25" targets on ParkerWeb, the campaign's hit rate as of this writing is 16 for 25, which is pretty decent (for a small scope), actually.
Granted, some on the list don’t add to coverage in the “Positive Team”, but as some of my previous employers have noted/built their empires on, any coverage is coverage.Not my style, but then, I don’t work for them anymore. Pepsi's choice to make it an exclusive marketing story to online journos (in the Stuart Elliott/NYTimes vein of MSM pitching), and a revamp of a 100+ year-old brand logo and its evolution in the physical form of cans (would’ve LOVED to have that collection in my office!), probably means that Pepsi is pretty happy with what they got:a bunch of marketing geeks who reach a larger group of marketing geeks (as I said before, myself included) to talk about it.Word of Mouth, baby!
So what does this mean?
More importantly, many folks who really have no interest in writing about Pepsi now have a reason to, and Pepsi's (attempting) to keep the buzz going using the tools that Social Media people use, likeFriendFeed.They’ve created an online community called the Pepsi Cooler (hehe, ‘cooler’, get it?For soda pop, and ‘causeit’s cool!).
The Interwebs are a superlative communication stage, but you already knew that.It's efficient (fast, cheap-ish), effective (you’re reading this, right?) and scalable (start with 25 influencers, and let them grow the buzz for you). However, now that Social Media is here, it's become even more so. The ‘Net is now a launch pad for global relationships between brands and their consumers, as well as their stakeholders/critics.
Ever feel like there's some sort ofenergy field that surrounds us, penetrates us, and binds the galaxy together to act in synchronicity? Oh, yeah, that's the Force. Anyway...
So a friend of mine invited me to go see Liza Minelli at a free show in Brooklyn last week... It's part of a series that's goin' on this summer. I'm not a huge Liza fan, per se, but it would've been fun to see just for the ridiculous spectacle of it all; Liza Herself, Brooklyn, free, the NYC/Brooklyn Gay Scene, etc. I didn't go, 'cause we ended up doing karaoke instead -- that's another entry. Anyway, I'm a bit disappointed that we didn't check it out now... Why?
Found out that Christopher Cross was a special guest... One of my favorite one-hit wonders, with a song from probably one of the only Liza movies that I've ever sat through.
BTW, I just tracked this video down, and it frakkin' RULEZ:
So how did I become privy to all this information? Well, I heard that Huey Lewis is performing on Thurs 8/21 - saw him a few years back, and it was a super fun show. Now here's where that "Force thing" comes in: the Back to the Future movies have been on rotation on HBO lately, along with the underrated American Psycho (a.k.a. the Dark Knight!) so I've been inundated with Huey recently. The movie's been in the news a bit lately too, because of John Edwards' girlfriend (Gawker) That Patrick Bateman really understood the band:
On top of all that, there's a movie out there that I'm DYING to see (perhaps this afternoon) -- it's become an 80s summer with Huey and his News releasing a theme song to a big summer movie... Wha? (AllAboutJazz)
Wow... That's totally a move I'd make if I was making a movie...
Just wanted to share this oldie but goodie with y'all...
He Also Eats More Than They Do
PR girl #1: I love your outfit today! PR girl #2: You know, I was walking down the street, and this homeless man in a box told me that "Purple is the color of royalty." PR girl #1: Don't joke about that. I could be joining him, if my apartment doesn't come through. PR girl #2: At least he lives in Manhattan.
My Mets will be having a runoff vote to determine their new eighth-inning sing-along song.
Traditionally, Shea (in its last season alive) plays Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline", and everyone rocks out a bit. In the latest misguided digital corporate campaign, the organization received five million votes at mets.com after inviting fans to choose from among 10 selections to potentially replace the song.
Fark.com readers bombarded the Mets website with votes for a write-in candidate: Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up."
I have a colleague (actually a few) who is obsessed with Rickrolling.
Never heard of it? Guess you're not as geeky as you thought. :)
To Rickroll is to intentionally misdirect someone to a video of Never Gonna Give You Up from 80s pop icon Rick Astley.
Tease them with a link to a supercool video or site, perhaps disguising a YouTube link with TinyURL. Your victim is served with Rick Astley doin' his blue-eyed soul thing in your face. Ha.
Anyway, the Rickster heard about it, and shared his thoughts...
As you may already know, Bill Gates spoke last night as his 'final' (?) CES keynote speech... You may not have seen the introduction video.
Yes, it's totally scripted, and derivative and kinda predictable, but I was totally LMAO, for the funny bits and the fact that this dude has SO MUCH INFLUENCE, that all these A-Listers kicked in to do a bit part in the video. Damn!
Plus... Bill Gates has a sense of HUMOR! Love how the MSFT techies 'allow' him to take the credit for things... Like Microsoft Bob.
Saw this on boingboing... Some are very fitting, and some are just disturbing in a Wes Craveny sorta way... Photos of celebrities and celebutantes who've had their eyes replaced with smaller versions of their mouths. Photoshop Fun.
Well, it's Christmas Eve (I think -- I always get confused with Christmas Day and Eve and crap-- I know, ridiculous...), so here's one for the Jews... Perhaps some inspiration for this evening's activities... To quote Adam Sandler:
"There's a lot of Christmas songs out there, but not too many about Hanukkah, so I wrote a song for all those nice little Jewish kids who don't get to hear any Hanukkah songs-- here we go..."
