carrie*connects

Social Media Impact Explained

This is a clever little YouTube infomercial argument for social media that is very compelling - I hesitate to agree with the producer's enthusiasm for Gen X driving the way the trend is evolving, and I think their concept is a bit reductive in terms of scope, but it does offer great food for thought - especially with the notion that brands need to drive their message directly to their customers.

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).

Design PR | Apartment Therapy's Hot House Tours

Apartment Therapy's daily House Tours seem to be really kicking it up a notch lately.  Today's home is this wonderful 1700 square foot flat in Chicago that belongs to designer Francesco Bilotto.  This is a remarkable venue for showcasing Bilotto's work, staging, styling and interiors.  And with Apartment Therapy's 17 million page views per month (about 65,000 per day) the exposure is remarkable.  

Sites like AT, Design*Sponge, Contemporist and SFGirlByBay really have an insatiable need for fabulous interiors and gardens to feature on a daily basis, which is no easy feat. 

Unlike design magazines which may feature between 3 - 7 homes monthly - each deliciously styled and dreamily photographed - these popular blogs have a run of about 60 interiors a month (AT probably many more through its various divisions).    These blogs also feature a very dedicated readership, with viewers returning to the sites daily to read, comment and reblog creative and well illustrated posts.

And You Thought Carrie Bradshaw Was Label Crazy ...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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. 

Julie Powell Talks Food Blogging With MediaBistro

 
I must admit that I haven't had time to see the new Julie & Julia film starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams- but it's definitely tops on my to-do list.  Both actresses are my fav's and I love the concept of the movie - an aspiring writer, Julie Powell, desperately in need of some zest in her life decides to blend a love of cooking with her passion for writing.  The result:  Powell cooked her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and kept a well documented and very popular blog about it.

What resulted was a book and what looks like an amazing film - just goes to show the power of the blog!   Powell talked with MediaBistro recently about her media odyssey - below are a few highlights ~ but be sure to read the whole interview here.

Powell says:  "I was a frustrated writer. I majored in fiction writing in college and wanted to be a writer, and nothing was happening with that. I pretty much stopped writing by the time I was 29 and was feeling extraordinarily unfulfilled. So I had this midnight revelation that I would cook my way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which came out of talking about going to cooking school. But I didn't have the money and didn't think I wanted to be a chef or anything like that. I did want to learn how to cook well, and Mastering was obviously a great way to do that.

I had no notion of what a blog could do and what the medium was really capable of at the time. I kind of chanced into it. I just was in the right place and time.

I started on a pretty instant level because I thought I was writing for family and friends. I would write, "Here's what I'm cooking." And then I would have some side notes about what was happening in my life. People ended up being interested in the food, but really interested in the other stuff. Then, I realized that I had all these readers interested in the gory details of my daily life; that's what they were following, and they wanted to learn more about that. "Tell me about how shitty you feel about your job, and tell me more about your pet snake," [readers said]. By that time, this bar had been set in terms of intimacy, which was very important to the development of the tone of the blog."

Also check out Julie Powell current blog.

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. 

wireimage

Another Ode to Michael - the EternalMoonwalk Site is Just Fabulous

Yes, I've been on a Michael Jackson video binge the past few weeks - remembering anew, much like the rest of the world, what it was that made us pay so much attention to this guy in the first place.  I will absolutely never forget the first time I saw Thriller, and further than that, watching that Motown Anniversary Special when Michael first showed us the Moonwalk.  It stays permanently in my heart along with so many other cultural time capsule events from that era.

Funny, while gazillions of people have been backsliding across kitchen floors over the years since that first telecast, no one was ever able to work out the step quite like Mike.  But perhaps 99.9% of the fun is imagining that we can.  Now Studio Brussel has put together a brilliant, whiz bang project that involves the entire globe of MJ fans - and fancy that it came together in just the past ten days - amazing.

The site, eternalmoonwalk.com is an amalgamation of videos collected from all over the world and features people, cartoons, cats, dogs, goats .... yeah - if you can imagine it - it's there, moonwalking in 20 second clips from right to left.  The concept for the site alone is priceless, but then you add in the good natured creativity of the thousands of clips that have been collected from guys and gals just like you and me who are featured and you have some sheer brilliance - and a lot of laughs to get you through an afternoon.  Clever features include buttons you can hit to create Jacksonesque whoops and calls - all the while set to the Billie Jean beat. 

But before you click over you have to check out this very creative video from Abeja Mariposa who culled together archival footage of dancers from the 20th Century who were moonwalker pioneers - it's really quite amazing.

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! 

Fab Promotion | Threadcakes Contest

I love this contest that Threadbare T-Shirts has mounted to promote their seemingly endless collection of interesting and artful designs.  Called Threadcakes, entrants pick out their favorite Threadbare T-Shirt design and interpret it with flour and sugar in the form of a cake.  The contest started June 15th and runs through August 3rd - to date the promotion has inspired some very interesting and creative entries such as "The Apple" shown here.

There are two divisions of the contest 2-D and 3-D - 2-D being the sheet cakes with images created in fondant and icing on top much like a photo - and 3-D more sculpturesque.

An impressive roll out of prizes awaits the winners that includes free t-shirts, baking supplies, and ingredients.  To enter visit here.

via {ifitshipitshere.com}

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.

Mascara and Eye Shadow Up! Lip Down. Cosmetic Sales Offer a Profitable Mix.

While retailers are on pins and needles, the standby category, cosmetics and beauty is coming through for them very strong - something that pleases this beauty publicist quite a bit!

This according to Information Resources Inc. which reports that:  "For the 52-week period ending January 25, facial cosmetics sales in food, drug and mass stores (excluding Wal-Mart) rose 2.18 percent to just over $1 billion. Drugstores are outpacing that growth, with sales up 2.8 percent to $634 million. New items such as Revlon’s Beyond Natural and Cover Girl’s Simply Ageless, hawked by Ellen DeGeneres (what a ingenious beauty pr coup that was), are propelling sales. L’Oréal Bare Naturale leads blush and foundation, but mineral formulas are rising and account for two spots in the top 10 selling brands."

Mascaras, shadows, mineral makeups, natural cosmetics and hair color are key to bringing shoppers into stores.  The fastest-growing segment is being called "body accessory" and includes bronzing and polishing products like Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs, and Perfection Body Accessory.

Eye shadows, brow kits, and mascara sales jumped 6.68 percent to over $1 billion for the 52-week period.  Particularly strong right now are smoky eye and brow grooming kits that have all the products and a bit of instruction - sales of these kits are up 300 percent for the period.   Tops on the list in this category are Almay Intense I Color, Jane Colorstick Eye Combo, Revlon’s Brow Fantasy, Maybelline Expert Wear Eye Brow makeup.  Sales of new mascaras are up 7 percent for food, drug and mass.

Oddly, while eyes and face showed sales increases, the lip category is lagging.  Lip liners, lip treatments, glosses and lipstick sales are down almost 6 percent to $580 million. 

Hair color sales are flat for the 52-week period -- L’Oréal’s Superior Preference Women’s hair color is the number-one unit in drug chains.

source:  WWD

Warm up with Anthropologie

Who doesn't love a cuddly sweater when the weather turns a bit colder. 

Check out Anthropologie's fabulous fall finds.

Why I (heart) Isaac Mizrahi

Really, he is a master.  With more career shifts than this week's stock market index, Isaac Mizrahi knows how to market through a storm.

He's become a master on Facebook - reaching out to his followers in a way that's so personal and flattering that even a fan from Ohio feels like a fashion insider.  And that's really the key these days, especially when you have a haute couture image, with a proletariat label.

He's come out with a new book, How to Have Style (about $19 at Amazon.com) that is accompanied in true Mizrahi mode with an innovative series of videos, shot right in his workroom.  The videos are informative but friendly enough that it seems like the talented designer will call you on the phone at any minute to get your thoughts.  Here's one below, but there are 180 more to see ... and when you're done, be sure to join his community where members make a glamorous profile page (ala MySpace but without the teen angst) and share fun ideas, fashion news and more.   Now if we could just bottle his energy and optimism and spread it across the country!