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Video | Do You Need A Social Media Recovery Group?

If you erupt into a mini giggling fit when you watch this video (from Sony Vaio) about Social Media, you may need to seek counseling (like I do).

And You Thought Carrie Bradshaw Was Label Crazy ...

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A recent study group took a look at tweens and their relationship to some not so familiar branding tools such as sounds, logos, smells, and how they relate to products like computers, clothing and food. As you can imagine, the kids were all more tuned in than their parents. This isn't all that surprising to me, they have more time to invest in the various aspects of a brand, and since their buying power is diminished they probably covet expensive products more.  What is a bit surprising is that the kids in this study were found to be more brand savvy than previous generations, leading me to wonder what new cues have been added from just a few years ago. 

Mark Lindstrom, author of the fab book "Buyology,The Truth and Lies About Why We Buy"  explains that the kids are now the prime target of many branding campaigns for things they traditionally wouldn't directly buy.  The reason?  Children are making buying decisions for the family.  According to Lindstrom 67% of cars (purchased for families) were chosen by the children ~ and they make these choices based on what they see on TV. 

This is Brill ... The Start A Lie Campaign

Love this idea ~ The Tappening Movement is an educational campaign to move people away from bottled water.  A clever devise they created was this "Start a Lie" website in which you choose from a number of witty, implausible lies about bottled water such as "Bottle water hates Father of the Bride" and "The US Government uses bottled waterboarding" and then spread the word on email, Facebook, Twitter or Digg (what no FriendFeed??)  It's not a non profit, but it is quite clever.

Social Media Marketing ~ How To Infuriate Your Fans & Friends on Facebook pt. 1

About a year ago if I mentioned the concept of harnessing the power of Facebook and Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, ect as a realistic strategy for marketing a brand, I would generally get a very long "hmmmmmm ....." followed by a very pregnant pause from many of the people I talked to.   A massive question mark would float over their heads as, more often than not, they just couldn't grasp the concept. 

Magically within the past six months however all that's changed with virtually every person I've ever known jumping on (at least) the Facebook bandwagon.  Unfortunately, rather than adopting the evolving norms of social media into the platform, which BTW are based on (1) actual human contact (2) original and interesting ideas (3) reciprocation ~ most Facebook newbies have attached dusty old marketing ideas to their shiny "new media" programs.  

As a result Facebook in particular is being used in some very annoying ways.  I thought I'd start tracking the most insidious behaviors and note them down here (mostly as a venue for venting my angst about the situation)....if you want to annoy on Facebook, here are some ideas:

1)  Businesses who want to really tick off their Facebook fans should be sure to send incessant group emails announcing minor sales, bland product announcements, and other information that is of interest only to their internal sales staff.  As a blogger, I'm used to getting press releases from other PR firms emailed rapid fire via specific email accounts, as such I really have little patience for this type of information sent to my Facebook in-box ~ and I'll lay you odds that I'm not in the minority here.  Even the most casual Facebook user is most likely not interested in being spammed about your 5% off sale once a day - if they are they'll visit your page to see it.  Facebook by definition is a "FACEBOOK" ie: people attached to faces, and personalized messages should only be sent this way. 

2) Keep requesting your friends "fan", join a group, or attend an event 0ver and over and over - even though they've probably repeatedly chosen to ignore your previous attempts for a reason.   Once is more than enough.

3)  Repeatedly poke, send game requests, gift requests, and all manner of the embeddable widget nature to people you've never had any sort of correspondence with and to whom you're a complete stranger - they love that.

4) Post only the dullest and most narrowly defined product photos and information about your company on your Facebook page so that instead of a lively interactive forum with an array of accessible ideas and information, it resembles a yellow page ad.

5) Never correspond with your fans or friends when they post info of their own (you know - the stuff that comes through on your homepage news-feed from them) ~ we know you're the only one that matters!  And when they comment on your posts or go so far as to post items to your page or wall, be sure to ignore them.  People love being treated solely as "consumers" and not individuals - isn't that what "social" means?  Oh it doesn't??  It means engaging and talking??  Whoa ....

Oh....there will be more .... stay tuned.   Yes, the Medium is the Message, but only if you know how to use it.  Otherwise it's just another cyber-armload of junk-mail to toss in the trash unopened.

Paul McCartney Makes a Splash In New York

Imagine you're hanging out at the office, working - Facebooking - Twittering away and all of a sudden some guy starts playing his guitar really really loudly just outside your window.  And then it actually sounds like someone is playing drums and base!!  You rush to the window to offer the dude a few choice expletives and - wow - realize that it's Paul McCartney hanging out on the Late Show marquee playing music. 

Surreal? Yeah - a little - but not so much for the Big Apple.  A fabulous publicity stunt?  Yep!   McCartney's spontaneous concert garnered him pics on all the major news networks and on countless blogs and websites - whereas a similar planned event in Central Park or at Rockefeller Plaza would have been more or less digested into the panorama of constant activity in NYC.  Good show Paul.  Love the shots of the cell phone behind him below, and the images of people looking down on the event from the offices above taking pictures - wonder how many Facebook pages those ended up on. 

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A Flow Chart For Getting On The Sartorialist

 
If you're familiar at all with this new fangled thing called blogging than chances are good that you've heard of the Sartorialist - yes the little bloggity blog that gets upward of 50,000 readers a day and has spawned a book and a reality show for street photographer Scott Schuman.  

Considered one of the most influential fashion portals on the web, many with a mind for fashion branding have been devising ways to surreptitiously get their goodies (ie accessories, clothing, ect) in front of the famous street snapper.  Now, the evil geniuses at Refinery 29 have come up with a very clever (albeit tongue in cheek - but with vast amounts of irony thrown into the mix) flowchart of ways to improve your chances of getting on the site. 

I'd cut and paste it in here but think snagging their fabulous artwork is not really playing fair - so here's the link >>>

Design PR | Architectural Digest's Reader Submitted Rooms Contest

As long as I've represented designers, contractors, furniture manufacturers, and architects, one of the main professed goals of almost each and every one of these clients has been to get into Architectural Digest in some capacity.  The magazine's reach and influence is legendary - but the collection of designers and projects that it publishes to date has been an intentionally exclusive and cloistered club - one into which very few gain entry.

So naturally I was quite intrigued when I saw that the AD website has now launched a rather egalitarian design contest.  More than 150 reader rooms have been submitted and are now being voted on.  According to AD, the images are being divided up at random into groups of 10 and are being posted this and next week.  The winner will be announced on July 31st - no telling what they win, other than exposure on the website - which in and of itself is its own prize. 

So far the entries range from professionally designed rooms to kitchy, fun spaces that could only have been created by light hearted homeowners.

Hop on over to their site to put in your two cents! 

Does the Term 'Shop Your Closet' Give You Shivers? Will the Sartorialist be the Next Mega Brand? Links!

--Style scribes love the term "shop your closet" these days - but the Times Ben Widdicome cautions what you find may be more radioactive than retro on The Moment.

--Edificial bemoans the PR-ization of recessionary design - they write "be on the lookout for the following pitches: flacks will “highlight the eco-friendly features of [their] client’s products”; they will deploy “high-quality images with every pitch”; and they will assault us with samples so that we can see how easy it is to be green with the splendiferous econo-trinkets they’re hawking."

--Fashionista is quite jazzed about the spector of The Sartorialist as the next mega-brand as they report about the intrepid photog's book deal with Penguin that will get its own pop-up shop at Barneys - a possible line for the ever expanding Net-a-Porter is in the works as well.

--The Girls in the Beauty Department took a very long look at Oprah Winfrey's hair last week when Tyra Banks appeared on the show.

Branding a "Maverick"...it's an oxymoron

If you're an avid politico, we're pretty sure you're kinda sick of the word maverick.  It may well be time to see action, rather than just repeating the word ad nauseum.  Here Jeanne Moos from CNN gives an illuminating look at the origins of the term.

BuzzWord roundup>> BMDS, LAQs, Aquacurrent science, are we getting too fierce?

Do you still say "dude", "groovy" (I personally wish that one would make a comeback), or "cool"?  If so, your kids and your co-workers may use these verbal throwbacks to relegate you to the linguistic dinosaur bin. 

Now as architects of marketing campaigns evolve their work to put a new face on standard branding concepts, more creative catchphrases and crazy acronyms that you'll spend hours decoding like markings on a crystal skull, are coming to market.

Ever since Christian Siriano uttered his first "fierce" on Project Runway (and since has gotten every one from Rachel Zoe to Anna Wintour to repeat the adjective ad nauseum, thereby continuously reminding us of his perky a-symmetrical haircut and dark rimmed glasses) marketing departments have been "boiling the ocean" to come up with unique catchphrases of their very own. (Actually it started well before "bootylicious" was unleashed a few years ago, which makes us inextricably think of Beyonce, but for the sake of seeming current let's go with "fierce".)

Most people thrive on buzzwords, while others like Jennifer Jones, "JHIW" (just hates it when) she hears them.  Jones recently wrote on her blog:  "I met with a new business prospect recently who repeatedly described his company with so many empty buzz words that even his own people had trouble translating his meaning. For example, "seamless holistic models to innovate the user-experience paradigm with new ideation and syngergized core competencies."" 

An article in the New York Times Fashion & Style section today takes a clever look at the unique buzzwords that makers of skin cream are employing to differentiate their products in the beauty marketplace. 

Written by NYT's renown beauty writer, Natasha Singer, the article discusses Oil of Olay's "Aquacurrent Science", which sounds far less mysterious when you read that the term is based on the discovery of aquaporin water channels within the skin - yeah, it basically means "moisturizing" - our beloved beauty marketing standard.  The article goes on to reveal that Loreal's "cellular level cleansing" is in fact ex-foliation by a snazzier name. 

Other terms Singer dug up that pertain to a number of anti-aging marketing strategies ("AAMS"): “biomolecular” eye cream; “microtechnology bio active” foundation; “pro-collagen” serum; “microsmoothing” face serum; and a “bio-stimulating” night cream with “microlift.”

Singer writes:  "Industry analysts, scientists and consumers interviewed for this article offered a variety of theories for the increased use of such jargon: it lends face creams the air of high technology; it helps distinguish one product from a myriad of others; it helps justify the price tag."

“If you are trying to decide between a 16-ounce bottle of Suave lotion and a one-ounce $300 jar of Perricone, if it doesn’t have sciency-sounding words in there, people are going to feel a little foolish at plopping down that money,” said a cosmetic chemist who often blogs under the name Left Brain on the Web site thebeautybrains.com."

The next beauty buzzword in the pipeline: "mitochondrial".

Keeping up with buzzwords in other areas of the business community is mandatory for some - infuriating for others who have to decode internal corporate speak as if listening to a second language they really haven't learned.   To whit - I've attended client marketing strategy meetings over the years in which it becomes obvious after a few minutes that the more "bizzy catch-phrases" that are slung around the less people know what they're talking about.  But having noted that, I do enjoy the creativity of language and the way it keeps evolving with need.  While they're fun to scoff at, catch phrases and buzz words can be commandeered like fashion and graphics to evoke the uniqueness of individuals and brands.  It's another form of brand management that is inextricably part of the marketing puzzle that sets products and companies apart.

I found a few buzz words that are particularly relevant to current events cruising around the website BuzzWhack: 

Bear Market Depressive Syndrome (BMDS): Now there's a medical term for the overwhelming sense of inadequacy, shame and regret you feel whenever the stock market takes a dip. Coined by Dr. John W. Schott, an author, practicing psychiatrist and portfolio manager for Steinberg Global Asset Management.  I'll bet Dr. Schott is quite busy these days.

LAQs: A publicist's worst nightmare: Lame-ass quotes. In a sound bite world, the last thing you want are LAQs.  Biden, Palin, and McCain seem to be competing for the LAQ prize lately.

silver ceiling: Management bias that stymies older workers from rising further up the corporate ladder. Instead younger employees with "potential" get the nod.  Every time you hear an ageist comment coming out of a "political analyst's" mouth - think of this phrase.

Watch:  SNL spoofed the maze of buzzwords and catchphrases emanating out of Project Runway back in March with the Fierce Hot Mess Makeover Show: