What Teens Want Online and on Their Phones

From SXSW - Austin
Jennifer Helm

We always hear that it is the young are who are leading this journey into the technology age, and in particular, when it applies to marketing. This panel discussion was from the mouth of babes and what they respond to, how they use technology in their daily lives, and what really drives them nuts.

The speakers were a group of kids ranging in age from 12 to 17. They described their core needs online were socializing and expression. Their favorite sites were the obvious: Facebook, Myspace, and music sites, but what I found interesting is that game sites were an afterthought. Yes, they all go to the game sites, but only when they had time to waste. From the sound of it, they were too busy with homework, sports, and friends to really spend a lot of time gaming. Ruinscape and Swinky came up with the younger kids, and Halo with the older crowd, but those were only explored when they had extra time.

When asked what their turn-off online was, it was unanimous that they all hated annoying ads. Pop ups, forced expandables, ads with automated sound, etc. When asked about rebelling against the advertisers it was pretty apparent that they understood why the ads were there (to pay for the sites), but they actually wanted ads that were targeted behaviorally. One kid who loves basketball said he didn’t like that there was beer ads on NBA.com, but he was excited to see ads by Nike showing the latest shoe. They also responded well to fun banners with little games or some sort of interaction in them. They would get drawn into the game and liked that they didn’t have to leave the site to play with it.

The subject of video online came up, and in respect to the ads within the videos on sites like veoh.com and abcfamily.com, it was unanimous that they all found the interstitial ads annoying. As we all know, this is an area that needs to be figured out. However, they all liked being able to catch up on missed TV shows, or watch foreign TV programming on these sites – especially veoh.com.

So, back to social networking. Yes, they have facebook and myspace pages (and yes, they lie about their age), but that is not their 1st form of communication with their friends. They all agreed that they would rather talk to someone on the phone or text to make plans. They used their pages as more of a virtual scrap book, to show what they did, rather than what they are going to do.

Last but not least, the subject of cell phones came up. The older kids loved their text. This is where they can keep in touch with everyone. After reading the article in Wired this month about Freeconimics, I can only figure that text will have to be the next free thing.

More thoughts later!

South By Southwest

Jennifer Helm and I (John Nussbaum) are in Austin, Texas this week. We'll be attending conferences and posting some stuff here as we find it.

Last night we met with Neal Turley owner of Sustainable Waves. They create pollutant free entertainment systems - solar powered stages and sound systems. Its amazing. Co-branded events that have zero carbon emissions.

A quote from their site:
"Most people don't know that the generation of electricity is the largest source of industrial air pollution. Every year millions of tons of CO2 are emitted into the atmosphere that contributes to global warming and poor air quality."

Many companies are courting Sustainable Waves in an effort to appear more green.

They have been the staging partner for the Vans Warped Tour for the past two years, and with their offices in Austin, they play a large roll during the music festival here at SXSW.

Twitter in plain english

Another smart clip from the guys at Common Craft.

Check here and here for some other great examples.

Politics 2.0: We Are The Ones

In just the latest example of creatives having a crush on Obama, will.i.am has dropped another video in support of Barack (just under 200,000 hits on YouTube a day after posting).



To me, these videos show that the most powerful message in Barack's campaign may not be "change" or even "hope", but rather "WE". The power of community is what has propelled this campaign, and efforts like this show how devoted that community is and what it's willing to do to further the cause.

Will be curious to see if this one manages to sustain the kind of buzz and popularity that Yes We Can did. But either way, good PR to have just before the contests in Ohio and Texas next week.

"How do you even define what marketing is anymore Craig?"

The other line I love is:

"It's not viral marketing. It's comedy."

So what's the difference? At least Judd Apatow and his gang have the balls to kick the question around in this hilarious vid...



Props to Rick Webb (Barbarian Group) for mentioning Backlash, along with other cool stuff, in his Feb 25 Creativity Online "Guest Editor" piece.

(Speaking of cool stuff, and this is the mobile-phile in me talking, there is now one cellphone for every two people IN THE WORLD, or so says this intriguing Washington Post piece from last Sunday.)

Brand Action: Whole Foods Getting Rid Of Disposable Plastic Bags

Happy to see this initiative starting to take at least some hold on our side of the pond. Across all its stores on April 22nd (Earth Day), Whole foods will cut the "plastic" out of "paper or plastic".


The company is trying to make the transition easy for shoppers accustomed to plastic by providing an array of options:

"We make it easy by offering a wide selection of reusable bags for sale at our stores — check out our “Better Bag” — only 99 cents and it’s made from recycled plastic bottles. Helping the environment in two ways!" (from their website).

Disposable bags have long been discouraged in many European countries (Ireland recently joined the cause, instituting a tax on bags to get people motivated) and earlier this year even China stepped up.

A smart move and something that all of us can do in our collective effort to fight pollution, and fits well with Whole Foods vision on sustainability and our future.

And also, maybe it'll help offset some of the backlash that co-founder John Mackey caused with his message board blunder last year. Hope you learned your lesson, John (just remember: Transparency).

Drum Skills are Ageless

Great video that shows life, 1 through 100, through the people who are living it.

My favorites are 91 and 96; they are charming and quirky.

Generally amusing to see that tapping a drum doesn't shoot up in ease or fluidity with age.




via VSL

Music broadcasts more than sound waves

We decided recently to expand our department's musical repertoire beyond Murray's ever-thumping playlist. So last week some Vampire Weekend, Jay-Z, and Amy Winehouse floated from various speakers.

However, new research indicates that we were unwittingly exposing ourselves to association with personality stereotypes based on our selections.

Peter Rentfrow and Samuel Gosling, two longtime researchers in the field of music and psychology, found in 1996 that certain personality traits are associated with music preferences.

This year, their research took those findings one step further to explore the stereotypes associated with certain types of music by asking evaluators describe personality types associated with various genres.


Serious job implications here for the department-wide playlist. Start editing!

Evaluators were also asked to rank perceived drug use among fans of different genres:



(More editing....talk about an unspoken glass ceiling!)

via Cognitive Daily

Guilty Pleasure: Tay Zonday Crashes Into Weird

The latest from our favorite internet celebrity.

This is a little nuts...even for him. Hard to decide whether he intentionally dialed up the craziness/oddness factor or this is just genuine Tay. Either way, good for some renewed water cooler chat and more hype for the everyday celebrity- brought to you by YouTube.

Contagious: The World in Words

The story of a man and his pregnant wife, rushing through the streets of NYC in time to get to the hospital and deliver the baby, with all visual elements represented by words (watch and see for yourself).

"A world made only with typographics"



Made by DJ Alex Gopher.

Media Snacking: RSS Readers As Personal Space

A little while back, I wrote this post, wondering how much I should respect media snackers. But since then, I've been thinking I may have pulled the trigger too quickly on that one.

Because really, how can I not (or at least try)? After all…my name is Avin, and I am a media snacker.

RSS has been a godsend for me. Don’t get me wrong, I love to read, and do so as often as possible (latest: the world without us, very interesting exploration/thought experiment). But when it comes to online content, its truly amazing how much RSS lets us get through in a day. Sometimes I don’t know what the hell I did before it.

And lately, I've been thinking about whether I, as an admitted media snacker, feel respected by companies I deal with.

I don't. Not necessarily disrespect in regards to length of content (since I'm kinda being disrespectful to fellow snackers with the length of this post), but disrespected in my media snacking experience itself. Case in point is my RSS reader. I treat my RSS space much differently than if I were reading the same content on the original website- be it news, blog posts, whatever. For me, my RSS reader feels more personal and worthy of more protection. I picked which feeds would appear, tagged and grouped them to my liking, and filtered out all the content I don't want.

And yet, I'm still subjected to banner ads from companies I didn't invite, pushing stuff on me I didn't ask to see.


Honestly, if I saw those same banner ads on the original site, I probably wouldn't think twice about it (note: that's still not a good thing).

But when they pop up in my reader, it seems like an invasion of privacy, an invasion on the snacking I'm trying to do. Often times, it dissuades me from even wanting to read the story (or stay on that sites feed).

Working in this business, it can be quite disheartening to see opportunities to participate in conversation with people routinely overlooked in favor of interrupting. Instead, why not provide some interesting content which people would want to add to their own RSS feeds? Or somehow, make the feed browsing experience better?

Thoughts from fellow RSS enthusiasts? Do you feel the same kind of privacy invasion when ads interrupt your reader? Any examples of companies/agencies (yours or others) that have found a better way? Care to share how you've gotten clients to go in a different direction?

Fallon Brainfood: Dragon (China) Rising

Fallon strategic planner Avin Narasimhan presents the latest helping of Brainfood, giving us his perspective on the meteoric rise of China and what it could mean for us (as a global business, as advertisers, as...people).

| View | Upload your own

click here to view in full screen.

Since Slideshare doesn't do video, check the links below to get some of that context (slide number included for quick reference).

Chinese ad vs US (circa 1980s)- compare and see for yourself (slides 2&3).





Rejoice Shampoo ad- creative way of approaching a fairly standard product benefit (slide 37).



Nike celebrates the 25th anniversary of Air Force One's- Beijing party (slide 49).

Fallon Brainfood

Brainfood is a monthly all-agency lunch conducted by Fallon Planners. Wide-ranging topics explore trends, business issues, and actionable opportunities for our brands.

Last month's presentation: Design For All
Fallon strategic planners Aki Spicer and Alyson Heller explore the 360° influence that modern design has on the experience of our brands.

| View | Upload your own

or go here to view fullscreen on Slideshare

Prior presentation: Virtuality
Fallon strategic planners Aki Spicer (Aki Octagon) and Avin Narasimhan (Desi Stoneage) have come back from the future to offer their POV about Virtuality and it’s implications for brands.

| View | Upload your own

or go here to view fullscreen on Slideshare


*Look for Avin to post last week's Brainfood, Dragon Rising (China) soon.

Lifestreamed: Aki Channels Are Live

Its like an Aki Fishtank!
http://live.yahoo.com/akispicer
If you ooVoo, then catch latest episodes on "akispicer"...but ooVoo requires that you download software. Yahoo!Live is free and on the internets. Of course, you gotta have a webcam enabled computr. But u may still chat and join the conversation.
*i'll try not to pick my nose on cam


Webcam chat at Ustream

Lifecycle of a Blog

Wired details the Life Cycle of a Blog Post, From Servers to Spiders to Suits — to You

Politics 2.0: John McCain- Kinda Like Hope...

...but not

OMMA Mobile: The Afternoon Session...

Here it is, your recap of the OMMA Mobile Conference's afternoon session last Thursday...

(See my report on the conference's morning lineup, my disclaimers about not being a media guy, my Swingers reference, and my oozing excitement over the potential and possibilities of mobile marketing here.)

Lunch was really good, and it was followed by the important Mobilizing the Agency session. One standout was Jeffrey Stier, SVP of New Business for JWT, where they have embedded a mobile agency to consult on all marketing matters. Stier claims that they now assign a mobile marketing expert to every core brand team. If that's really true, I greatly admire their commitment to experimentation. (Yes, as high as I am on mobile, it's still an unproven experimental ad medium -- one that EVERY AGENCY should be experimenting with.)

Another Jeff, Mediacom's Director of Digital Media Jeff Malmad, offered that "Data will drive mobile", supporting (Starcom's) Angela Steele's emphasis on understanding the consumer. "Mobile ads need to be so relevant that it doesn't feel like advertising," said Steele. And what about privacy? Well, Amazon knows a lot about us and that's all good because they recommend the right stuff, right?

Steele went on to say that in the Awareness-Consideration-Purchase chain there are mobile opportunities throughout, and that agencies should meet with every mobile vendor to learn as much as possible about what's out there. One of those vendors, mobile agency Ipsh!, was represented on the panel by Bryon Morrison, who evangelized mobile as a "fantastic" direct marketing medium. Then he dropped, "How valuable is the opt-in relationship?" Well that's the magic question.

The breakout sessions followed, and I'm a broadcast producer by trade so naturally I checked out Big Screen Little Screen: TV Phones It In, where I discovered...

-ITV (interactive television) is alive and well and it has nothing to do with your remote control.

-Two years ago Bravo TV tried asking viewers to text their choice for the winner of Project Runway and the response was huge. Now they boast one of TV's leading mobile platforms including location-based mobile social networking, a mobile Project Runway fan club, and a brilliant new idea where on-screen product placements trigger an instant text message to viewers containing brand info/deals/coupons/whatever relating to the product they just saw. So much for taking product placement impressions on faith!

-Airplay offers mobile games to play along with live TV event programming like sports (NBA, NFL, NCAA Football) and award shows. They even set it up so users are served ads on their phone synchronized with the advertisers they see on TV. Very cool.



-Telescope (great name) is helping Sprite with their sponsorship of the NBA's Slam Dunk Contest next weekend in New Orleans. I presume Dr. J and 'Nique and the rest of yesterday's dunk kings will be there again judging the early rounds, but this year THE FANS WILL GET TO DECIDE THE DUNK CHAMP when they vote for one of the two dunkers in the final round VIA TEXT MESSAGE. Everyone who votes receives a text invitation to visit an innovative and already popular branded mobile social network created by Sprite called The Yard. They're going to get a lot of votes (mine included), and The Yard is going to get very crowded very fast. Best mobile hook I heard all day.



Let me repeat for emphasis: Sprite (the soda brand, not a tech start-up by the same name) went out and created a fully branded mobile social network experience (where they remind people to drink Sprite quite a bit I'm sure) and now they're letting the fans decide the Slam Dunk contest for the first time ever in exchange for a personal invite to hang out in their Sprite-soaked virtual mobile "Yard". As my one-year-old niece says, Big. So big.

How Open is Open? followed and turned out to be a pretty technical discussion about the openness of the mobile landscape. The word "open" in mobile was compared to the word "change" in politics -- everyone talks about it but it means different things to different people. Google Android will allow outside developers to create mobile apps for all to use, but who will provide dependable support? The best analogy I heard was that mobile web browsing today is like web browsing used to be for AOL customers, i.e., not open (but the iPhone's browser is open).

The day concluded with an analysis of the myths (or truths) surrounding the mobile marketing space today. Some quick highlights:

-SMS (text messaging) is the ultimate User-Generated Content, according to Amobee CEO Roger Wood, who talked about intercepting text messages, converting them into MMS messages with a graphic ad tacked on, and then sending them on their way to the originally intended recipients. No way, you say? Well what if it made sending and receiving text messages free?

-Rhythm NewMedia offers free ad-supported "video snacking" (2-3 minute shorts) on your phone, where practically nothing is free. The question is, do people want lean back-style video viewing on their phones?

-Enter Tony Nethercutt from AdMob, who reported that banner ads on mobile WAP sites that included the words "Watch the Video" saw clicks go up 3-5 times.

-During January's NFL playoff games, ESPN actually drew more visits to its mobile WAP site than to its regular website, despite a high number of iPhone users who typically browse the non-WAP web. I guess people watching games have their phones with them but they don't always have their computers.

-The mobile carriers started out as voice service providers and now they're being railroaded into becoming media companies. As media companies they sit on piles of user data, all of which could be used to serve highly-targeted ads. They're also dealing with a drop in talk time and a rise in other services -- texting, photo messaging, game playing -- that they need to monetize. So how are they making the transition? Not well, not yet.

And that's why mobile may not explode for a while, despite its enormous potential as an always on, always on you marketing platform with your wallet (your cellphone bill) built-in. Peter Kim attended the conference and blogged that mobile just isn't ready, but that shouldn't stop us from experimenting heavily to learn what will work when the time is right. Agreed.

So I began the day as a big believer in text, and by the end I'd confirmed that virtually every phone has SMS capability so text message campaigns (inspiring users to opt-in for useful, relevant brand info and deals) are ready right now as ultra-modern permission marketing vehicles, and that SMS ads can be a bridge to mobile WAP sites featuring more branded bells and whistles. But I also learned that mobile banner ads (large in relation to the overall screen size with a one ad per page limit) are another very effective means of driving people to your mobile web offerings, depending on how and where you use them. What you do beyond the click is up to you.

The bottom line is this, borrowing from MediaPost columnist Steve Smith's summary to close the conference:

MOBILE NEEDS TO ENERGIZE THE CREATIVITY OF THE AGENCIES

...and seriously, how can it not?

OMMA Mobile: A Day Later...

Let's see how much of the OMMA Mobile Conference I can distill into one blog entry. A day later, certain highlights emerge as I share what I learned with the water-cooler set, among them:

The opportunities afforded by mobile handsets are explosive (in my opinion). As long as mobile campaigns provide UTILITY (useful information and ways to save time and/or money), RELEVANCE (messaging customized by situation, location, and/or user profile), and CONTROL for the user (so they can't be spammed), this always-on, always-on-you medium is poised to be "The Thing" (according to Aegis CEO David Verklin, one of yesterday's speakers).

I'm not a media person, so it's the ideas I was there to hear. Verklin was pushing integrated campaigns where mass media (like TV) invites consumers to opt-in for mobile permission marketing. He touted achieving "100% composition", which he called "the dream of any media planner."

Similarly, Nokia's Ad Business Director of Global Brand Solutions Jeremy Wright marveled at how few brands were using mobile to improve the performance of offline ads. Why slap your web address on an outdoor board (and ask people to remember it when they get back to their computer) when you can invite them to text a keyword to a short code for instant results and information (using the phone they have in their pocket or purse)? Said Wright, "Acting on impulse. Shouldn't that be what advertising's all about?"

Back to Verklin, he quoted a deprivation research exercise where 18-29 year olds were asked, "Which would you give up first: the internet or your cellphone?" The results were overwhelming in favor of keeping the phone, and many respondents muttered "stupid question." Why? Because they access the internet on their phone, so they wouldn't be giving up the internet at all. In fact, for many, the cellphone is their primary tool for accessing the web, and this is especially true in other parts of the world.

Verklin also showed some support for mobile video, adding that ad dollars will always chase things that look and feel like TV. As soon as broadband made the internet TV-like, the money followed. Now electronic out-of-home is getting popular. If mobile can succeed as another "TV surrogate", look out.



"Mobile is a channel, not a strategy" said Paul Cushman, Director of Mobile Sales for Yahoo! during the Enter The Titans session. Louis Gump, VP of Mobile for Weather Channel Interactive, explained how every advertiser starts off with a cross-platform buy typically involving Weather Channel TV, Weather.com, and some mobile, but many return asking for mobile-only campaigns because of how surprisingly well they perform. Reasons? The single banner at the top of their mobile web page does well because, like any mobile banner, it doesn't share the screen with any other advertising. Also, weather is a leading mobile search category (understandable), so their mobile site is among the most popular.

Gump also challenged advertisers to "think beyond the click". Where are they taking the mobile users? How can they leverage the heavily-loaded opportunity to engage an interested user on their phone (which is also a payment device, when you consider the ability to apply charges to a user's monthly bill)?

It reminds me of that scene in Swingers where T (Vince Vaughn) tells Mike (Jon Favreau) that he's like a big bear with teeth and claws, and the girl across the bar is a little bunny, "and you got these claws and you're staring at these claws and you're thinking to yourself, and with these claws you're thinking, how am I supposed to kill this bunny, how am I supposed to kill this bunny?!" Well, the phone has these massive teeth and claws, and that user who clicked? You get the idea.


They're so money and they don't even have cellphones.

The last session of the morning featured The Giant Killers, or the mobile startups expertly taking aim at the mobile space. David Goldman of Comedy Time ("the 7th most watched video channel on mobile and the only independent in the top 10") told of challenging Comedy Central with mobile-purposed video content featuring more close-ups, sound designed for cellphone speakers, and appropriate plotlines and running times for mobile viewing.

Barry Chu, GM of Advertising at Medio Systems, spoke of competing with the big boys of search by customizing the display of results for the small screen and emphasizing local search (again, understandable). And MocoSpace's VP of Marketing Jim Gregoire claimed that for many users of their mobile social network, mobile is the 1st Screen (not the 3rd, behind TV and Web, as it is for us older folk). In this way, he said, MocoSpace is more fulfilling than MySpace because your friends are always on (i.e., they always have their phone) and it's easier to meet and interact with new friends.

I texted a question for this panel about their mobile ad inventories (admittedly because I'm designing the ad platform for my own project, mobile sports chat and photo sharing utility FanChatter.com). The best answer I got was from Chu, who explained that mobile search ads offer click-to-call buttons instead of the traditional web links. Pretty cool.

That was it for the morning session, and speaking of sports, keep an eye out for my recap of the afternoon, where I'll explain what Sprite is doing to revolutionize this year's NBA All Star Slam Dunk Contest...


Just like 2007 Dunk Champ Gerald Green (above), Sprite is getting the jump on their competition.

Doin' Big Things: Jay-Z to Become Agency Chief

Supposedly, to be officially announced today, Jay-Z in conjunction with the equally entrepreneurial Steve Stoute will be opening an ad agency. Translation Advertising, as it will be known, will focus on "helping marketers reach multicultural consumers."

It makes sense he would do something like this. He considers this "part of the natural growth" of his career. I mean, come on, dude's resume includes just about everything: Hustlin', Grammy-Winning, Owning NJ Nets, Clothier, Budweiser Select Brand Manager, Def Jam CEO (a position he just resigned). He's a brand manager - more specifically a perception manager. Always has been. He gets it. "There are people who don’t understand the culture," Jay said, referencing a commercial for a wireless carrier “that shows guys break-dancing in the phone store...It’s just not something we do.”

I love this: "If we sit in a room...and offer our ideas of how to reach consumers, how to speak to them — and this is not a cocky statement — put us up against anything, and we’ll win our fair share of battles.” Curious to see what they will do and who they will work with.

Interpublic will own 49%, Jay and Steve will own 51%.

via NyTimes

Also, about a month old story from the rumor mill suggests Jay-Z and Apple may team up to form a new record label. Read gossip here and here.

OMMA Mobile: Over and Out

So much for live blogging the OMMA Mobile conference. I started scribbling down notes at 9am and 66 PAGES later it's over, my hand smells like ink, and my head is full.

I'll admit, this was a lot for a non-media type to grasp, but I was able to understand most of what was going on and I'll do my best to share it all in a couple of blog entries...




...but not right now. It's time to get up and head for the airport. Stay tuned for my reports of the highlights (there were many), and for those who can't wait there's the MediaPost Raw blog with a play-by-play of the entire day.

Until next time, ponder this: How long will it take for your cellphone to fully replace your TV remote control?

Live From OMMA Mobile

Greetings from NYC. I'm here for MediaPost's OMMA Mobile, a one-day conference dedicated to the future of mobile marketing.

The conference is just about to start, and I'll attempt to live blog throughout the day whenever I've accumulated enough shareable stuff.



I admit I'm not "mobile blogging". As evidenced by my mobile misfire post below ("Sent from Gmail for mobile..."), Blogger's mobile tools weren't easy enough for me to abandon blogging wirelessly from my laptop (but I did snap the above photo with my phone).

The opening speaker has taken the stage, so I'm gonna go. Will I be learning all about slapping banner ads on mobile sites (yawn)? Or will I hear about cool SMS marketing techniques based on a user's situation, location (see yesterday's exciting NY Times article about CBS Mobile), and/or personal profile.

Crossing my fingers it's more of the latter. Last thing, check out Mozes. They're here offering text-your-question-for-the-panel technology.

--
Sent from Gmail for mobile | mobile.google.com

Only Human

Only Human is a community where people share stories about mistakes they've made in life and their advice to others.

Reebok: Perfectville Still Just A Town of One

Speaking of a smart post Superbowl ad, check out Reeboks angle in:



Not only did they (like Miller High Life) avoid the nearly $3 million pricetag, but they built up some buzz and interest with their Perfectville microsite in the days leading up to the game, and they tapped into something that was a BIG deal for those of us who love football: the prospect that the perfect season record held by the 72 Dolphins could have been broken last night (and most people were expecting just that result).

Maybe the start of a new era for advertisers Superbowl strategy? Avoid paying to actually be in the game, and find a way after the jump to do something interesting and stand out from all those who ponied up the cash just to be a part of the clutter (and maybe even make the guys who opted for game time spots feel a little foolish for having done so).

Guilty Pleasure: Miller High Life Delivers Common Sense

a) Nice strategy
b) Great way to join in the conversation and continue the dialogue
c) ...and save a buck or two on Superbowl rates (talk about it, don't actually be on it)
d) Fast delivery of a idea to capitalize on relevance (presumably they trolled the preview spots of last week and didn't actually shoot last nite and edit this am)

Politics 2.0: Servers Overwhelmed

Perhaps there is lots of interest this election...

Politics 2.0: Yes, We Can

Will I Am (and friends) recorded a song/video inspired by Barack Obama's "Yes, We Can" speech. Obama clearly inspires folks in a way that many candidates can't really match. This is an interesting phenomenon to watch.



...and well, from the profound to, uh, ObamaGirl is back with another hit at 1.9Million views already.

Guilty Pleasure:Frozen Grand Central

Improv Everywhere strikes again. This time over 200 agents "freeze" at the same time in Grand Central Station.

Tom Green Hosts Talk TV Show From His House

Tom Green has been getting all web 2.0 social media on us with a decent enough show that he broadcasts live nightly from his house. The Tom Green channel on the web displays his real home phone number for any and all to call and ask questions on air. Celeb guests like Perez Hilton, Tony Hawk, Dr Drew and Kenny+Speny come on over to Tom's house and bring items for later resale on eBay to raise funds to keep the show on the air. Viewers get to vote on what the funds are actually spent on (necessary vid equipment or a useless stuffed bear, for instance). Podcasts on iTunes, yep. Blog, yep. Mass calls to submit user-gen YouTube vids of you watching him.

All he needs now is a groundswell of viewers and paying advertisers and he has a disruptive model for the giants to be concerned about (or mimic).

Taking It To The Streets: Obey Endorses Obama

Well known (and previously mentioned) street artist, Obey/Shepard Fairey, has made a recent endorsement of Barack Obama - and has done so in a quite intriguing way. He created 350 limited edition screen-printed posters (image above), to be sold to fund a larger street poster campaign. The profits are being used to produce stickers and large posters that will be sent to those who are willing to throw down for Obama in the streets. See communication from the Obey team below:

"Thanks for reaching out and wanting to get involved with OBEY's effort to support the OBAMA Campaign. Shepard made this image for the purpose of making pasters to be put on the street, with the money coming from prints sales to help fund the effort. For those interested, we will be sending out a care-package of the OBAMA Paster plus some OBEY stickers to be put up on the street. These pasters will be folded, not tubed, and are STRICTLY for street use. We do not expect to see them for sale on EBAY or anywhere else, so we ask that only the seriously dedicated get involved!"

There will also be non-partisan posters pushing everyone to vote:


Remember, Obey is the guy who over the past 10-15 years has decorated most major U.S. cities with the iconic Andre the Giant imagery:



Look familiar?

Honestly, I see this as a significant endorsement because street artists, in general, tend to be anti-helping-the-man. They are known for being anti-this and anti-that, but rarely, if ever do we see them promoting a politician, or a presidential candidate for that matter. Not to mention Obey has quite the following. Equally, if not more significant, is that the Obama camp appears to be embracing the endorsement.

Wonder if we will end up seeing any of these posters around?

Tooble Comes With The Goods

Tooble is a new program that allows you to download any of the content on YouTube to your computer with ease. No video editing or IT skills necessary. It's free and has a very slick and user friendly interface - it can even function as a standalone YouTube browser. Tooble downloads, converts and imports any YouTube video into MP4 format to play on your computer, iPod, iPhone, Apple TV, etc., with just a few clicks. You can even take the MP4 video file and drop it into PPT - perfect for all of those times you wanted to drop that YouTube video into a deck. Finally, my one complaint about YouTube has been solved.

Currently you need a Mac. You can also sign up to be a Beta tester for the PC version.

Scrubbing Bubbles Hits The Mark On Cool Product...But Misses On Targeting

I'm probably pretty late to the game, but just saw one of these commercials (on late night TV of all times) and felt like posting about it. The Scrubbing Bubbles Automatic Shower Cleaner is quite possibly the coolest innovation in bathtub cleaning I can recall seeing (not that I pay much attention to the category...but still). What has been nagging at me though, is the fact that in their advertising (specifically the target that seems to be depicted in the spots), they position the product toward a familiar audience because it may have seemed to make the most sense or was the safest route at the time (and perhaps it does/is in some way). Check one of the spots here:



I think this is an example of a HUGE missed opportunity in reframing who your target market is. Personally, I think this product is made with- and could have been marketed with- young guys in mind (or, to steal a term from Seth, Gen GuYs). As a member of this group myself- twenty something, still getting used to this idea of being a "professional" and that having clothes strewn about the apartment and dirty bathrooms are no longer socially acceptable as they were in college- a product that allows us to achieve a reasonable level of clean, while requiring the bare minimum of effort, is a god send. Having a clean bathtub and yet not having to spend a minute with a sponge, or can of cleaning solution? Sign me up.

Yet the ads depict the type of out of touch, 1950s style, women who are oh so happy that cleaning is a part of their day that is so typical of commercials in the cleaning product category (always makes me think of the Swiffer campaign...another missed opportunity to go after young guys who would never "dust", but find no issue with grabbing a swiffer cloth and wiping down the TV).

I'd be curious to understand better what the client/agency thought process was. I really think there are plenty of guys that would go for this easy fix cleaning solution, but the company isn't trying to get to them (to my knowledge), maybe out of fear of alienating what they see as their base. Anyone else have thoughts on this (even if it is just to call me a bum for not commenting on these spots sooner)?

Age of Conversation 2.0

Age of Conversation is back with another book underway, "100 voices, one conversation". And In the true spirit of collaboration, you're invited to decide the book's topic together and vote on the topic collectively.

Topic choices are:

Marketing Manifesto
Why Don't People Get It?
My Marketing Tragedy (and what I learned)

Brand Belief System at Pazzaz Printing

While I don't know Pazzaz' prices or capabilities, I certainly know his beliefs. And I suspect Pazzaz will keep my colors true on the press. And I'm compelled to spread his print belief system across the web to all my peers about Pazzaz Printing.

Politics 2.0: Interview With Obama Girl

For all you undecided voters out there who have yet to join the Obama camp, here's some more of the inspiration you need.



Hate it or love it, it's still pretty amazing to me that something which started as a joke has managed to maintain attention for such a prolonged period of time.

And for those who missed it, peep the return of Obama Girl just before the Iowa Caucus (1.3 million hits on YouTube and counting), when she received a pep talk from none other than Truman Girl.

Likemind this Friday!

Open call for anyone (not just us ad folks) who is interested in morning coffee with Likemind. C'mon, it's early, but it's easy: you just show up any time between 8a and 10a this Friday and chat about whatever's on your mind (and we are all about the 15 minute saturation period for your coffee to sink in). Likemind cohorts at Anomaly will even pay for your coffee.

Friday January 18th
Espresso Royale Caffe on Hennepin and 12th (click for map)
8am-10am, come any time.

More info can be found here: www.likemind.us.

The De-blinging of MTV?

MTV is announcing a new program that takes the spoiled brats from My Super Sweet Sixteen and dumps them with indigenous tribes in Africa and Antarctica. It's called Exhiled! and it's a 180 turn from the ostentatious and limitless lifestyle glamorized in the original show.

The premise of this show stuck out to me, and I think it’s because it’s a demonstration of our swing away from soaking up the unattainable ultraglam world of My Super Sweet Sixteen to being more interested in “what’s right.” MTV is following that trend with Exhiled!. Over the next year, we will become more focused on what's right and what's wrong as the presidential election bears down on us. Things we haven't thought about for years are creeping back into our minds, and I think it's making us all a little more righteous. I think plenty of brands have picked up on their consumers being fed up (cashing out, as Faith Popcorn calls it) and have staked out territory as allies in “being fed up.” They’re anti-establishment; they’re rebel. But this MTV program may be going one length further to focus on life after being fed up—depicting what it’s really like out there in the world, rather than just being against what the world is not. "Our audience in the past few years has really begun to look at how they fit into the world; it's core to who young people are now," said MTV executive Dave Sirulnick. "Some of these girls had very little awareness of what was going on around them and were very self-centered. We thought, 'Here's an opportunity.'"

New Air Jordans, New Design Approach?

Nike is dropping the 'golden' pair of Jordans on Jan 25. Golden, if you will, as they are the Air Jordan XX3 – which means they are the 23rd version of the Air Jordan – and Jordan wore #23 for much of his career.

More interesting than it being the golden pair is the design approach. Nike says the AJXX3 is the first b-ball shoe as part of its Considered initiative, where all products are designed with reducing waste and utilizing environmentally friendly materials in mind. Apparently, in contrast to most kicks, the AJXX3 uses a minimal amount of environmentally harmful adhesives and instead relies on a new design system of interlocking panels. Sounds cool, however, curious to know how environmentally friendly these shoes really are?



The interlocking panels, light weight elements (in some cases made of recycled materials) and unique details (Jordan finger print inspired sole pattern) added to the productions process. Apparently a lot of people in the factories were pissed as this “wasn’t business as usual,” according to Tinker Hatfield, Nike’s vp of innovation design and special products. Tinker lead the design and was also the guy who came up with the concept for the Nike Air bubble/Air Max. Below is a video of where he found inspiration for the Air Bubble:



In Jordan brand fashion, the typical build-hysteria model is being employed behind the AJXX3 release. Only 23 Nike sanctioned stores, each with only 23 pairs will have the kicks on Jan 25. $230 will be the ticket. As expected, this initiative will be supported by a campaign appropriately titled “Become Legendary.” Jordan, Melo, Chris Paul and Ray Allen will appear in the spots which are expected to come out mid January.

*Props to Aki and Alyson for their Design for All presentation yesterday.

Hello fromo Iowa (part three)

As the nation gears up to see what N.H. has in store for us, I couldn't help but try to pull some attention back to Iowa. Although I gave you a taste of what the caucus was like from my relatively juvenile point of view, I thought my parents would provide an interesting take on the caucus that often isn’t available in the blogosphere (my parents are decidedly not bloggers). Since they are semi-retired, I was able to rope them in. Their thoughts are below:

Thoughts from my dad:
"I’ve always been an independent—although most often voting Republican rather than Democrat—so spent a lot of time reading about and listening to the candidates from both parties. With growing concern about Iraq and Pakistan and many foreign/energy relations issues, I joined my wife and daughters in supporting the Democrats—making that decision in the last 1-2 weeks.

With so many candidates and platform topics, I observed more of a ‘go with the crowd’ mentality this year versus prior presidential election years. For that reason, to aide me in my ‘winnowing many down to few’ process, I consulted a ‘selection quiz’ on the internet developed by Minnesota Public Radio. By spending just a few minutes answering 14 questions on 14 different platform issues (Iraq, taxes, abortion, immigration, stem cell research, gay marriage, line item veto, energy, death penalty, gun control, education, social security, healthcare, and environment ), the quiz helped me more easily identify those candidates more in alignment with my views.

As to the caucus itself, because of the level of dissatisfaction with our current administration and the number of highly qualified candidates, turn-out was substantially greater than prior caucuses and more than the caucus leadership was ready & equipped to handle. With initial support for 6 of the democratic candidates, ‘politicking’ and arm twisting eventually narrowed the field to 4, with a few of the 1st time caucus going becoming disillusioned with not being able to stick with your original preference and leaving the caucus rather than switching support to another.

The caucus process is more intimidating than the normal ‘closed curtain’ voting process. This creates a more knowledgeable voting public because you want to know so you can influence and defend. Unfortunately this also means that many do not participate..."

Thoughts from my mom:
"In person I found Hillary Clinton to be a surprise. She was warm and very, very informed on every issue and questions brought to her. She treated the audience as intelligent and informed citizens. She was friendly and easy with the crowd as she walk around shaking hands

I also was impressed with Obama’s speech making. He too is smart and ready. However, I didn’t find his demeanor with the crowd afterwards as comfortable and he didn’t stop to talk as much as he may have earlier in his campaign. He appeals to a b ig crowd and does it so well. I saw him several times and always in a big room where some of the other candidates were comfortable at small restaurants, and the like. It is just style each finds comfortable for him/her.

Last night was the caucus and I went to find twice to three times more people there than what was expected. Due to numbers it was chaos at first. I started at Richardson’s table but had to move to a viable candidate for delegates. I just couldn’t figure out who I wanted to get behind liking them all. Finally, I went with Hillary Clinton because I want a woman to be taken seriously for the top job in this country when she is as prepared and capable as this candidate. Early in this campaign I still want the country to know that I woman is a real possibility for this job and I am not ready to concede that it won’t happen.

However, all this said, I am a fan of Barak Obama and think he has had the best people on his team imaginable. They called daily, canvassed our home, kept on top of things very professionally. They did a terrific job. They also have a very strong candidate to promote and I feel happy that he did so well last night. His speech following the win was so strong that how can he be denied."

Hello from Iowa (part 2)

I am sure you have all seen the headlines – the big Democratic turn out, the big Obama win, the big Clinton loss, and the religious right’s single-handed miracle of a Huckabee win – but what happened in Iowa last night holds far more secrets about what is to come than those headlines.

I caucused with the Democrats so I will have to limit my comments to what I saw there, although from my understanding, the Republicans go, pledge, pray, vote, and go again -- home to watch the Orange Bowl (Kansas was playing after all). The Democratic caucus procedure is much more involved, but more on that later.

I felt as if I stepped into a time warp last night as I entered the church/precinct 1 voting center in Muscatine, Iowa, a smallish town on the Mississippi river. 261 democrats showed up to caucus, far more than they were expecting. The planning felt similar to the planning, I imagine, that goes into a Spears’ offspring, but I believe that was because of the sheer numbers. Although we were there to decide something with implications far beyond our small town, it had the feeling of caucusing over the gnawing decision of who should head up the PTA. We were in a large room with one microphone (which few people could hear), the majority of the time was spent attempting to count how many people were there to caucus. Once we managed that debacle, people were asked to separate into groups based on the candidate that they were supporting. Stickers were passed out by precinct leaders and more counting ensued, in order to be a “viable candidate” groups needed to have 15% of the attendants; this by the way was explained to us as “multiply by .15” (our family put our heads together and figured out it was 15%). Our precinct selected 5 delegates for Obama, 3 for Clinton, and 2 for Edwards.

The caucus could not have been more low-tech. It harkened to a time when town hall meetings were not orchestrated events with “don’t tase me, bro” security. The caucus was a decidedly local event. Yes, people here care about the war, but it seems they care more about the neighbor kid down the street that has been deployed in Iraq, than the details of the hows and whys of what got us there. Yes, Iowans care about national issues, but the reason I think Obama won last night, was because he understood the changes people want are not “wedge issues” but “make your life a little better” issues…

Hello from Iowa

As a very recent addition to the Fallon gang, I am returning to my home state of Iowa to do what Iowans do best, caucus.

Over the last few months, my family and I have braced ourselves against the onslaught of political ads, political rhetoric, people playing politics, political mud slinging, political polls, political reporting, and most of all, a seemingly never-ending stream of politicians. Exhausting? You begin to understand what it is to be an Iowan before the caucus.

I believe the political ad that packed the most punch in our neighborhood was the Huckabee ad that declared a cease-fire for the holidays. For those of you that missed it, this was the ad the mass media focused on due to the fact that there was a cross in the background… I didn’t hear many Iowans complaining. I am not sure if this type of gesture will move votes, but it does produce goodwill, even in my house, and lets just say, we’re NPR, not Fox News.

The most beautiful thing about the Iowa caucus is that those that wish to be engaged have a real chance to make a difference. Many of my friends and family have talked face-to-face with candidates. Seeing as in Iowa right now, politicians are as ubiquitous as corn, you can take the car for a test drive so to speak… kick the tires, look under the hood, all that. I’ll be here tomorrow to give all of you outside the great state, an Iowan’s look at the caucus. Under the hood…

And so, we caucus.

On Second Thought, How Much Should I Respect The Media Snacker?

On a recent post, I added a note about respecting media snackers. It wasn't until a few days later that I actually had the time to think a bit more about what it meant and why (or why not) I should be trying to respect snackers.

Truth is, providing content that could've been found anywhere (ie, in simply reposting a video) doesn't really make me feel like I accomplished a lot (other than ending a post drought). Sure, I do it from time to time (sometimes too often, given crazy schedules), but the posts I feel best about are the ones that took me more than 3 minutes to put up. The ones I've rewritten 10 times. The ones where I've added pictures and video simply as extras (or not at all), not as the focal point of the post itself.

I can understand the desire to respect media snackers (and admittedly, its a label that often applies to my own media habits), but specifically when it comes to blogging I don't know how much I really should. In fact, sometimes I think I give a bit too much respect to the snackers and don't dedicate enough effort to creating a more meaningful post that requires me to think about and clearly state my point of view on something (but I'm trying to get back on track).

But curious to hear what others think. What are you looking for when you come here (and to other blogs)? Quick bites of content, or posts that make you stop and think (or somewhere in between)? I'm sure it varies depending on the blog you're reading (I know it does for me), but interested to hear thoughts on the media snacker topic in general.

The Role Of A Country's Brand

Tata Motors today will be announced the winner of the bidding war over Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford. The latter has been struggling to do much of anything really with the British brands and has been looking to sell them off for some much needed cash.

But, the sale has many US Jaguar dealers upset. They believe that Indian ownership will dilute their luxury brand (as if Ford was the most prestigious automaker).

Personal biases aside, the whole incident was interesting to me because, in an increasingly global world where we often like to think that country of origin has less and less impact on what a brand/product means to people (well, perhaps except China), its still a strong issue. Indian business men and women have been left feeling like they've been slapped in the face, more or less told by these US dealers that the brand of India downgrades the brand of Jaguar/Land Rover. While on one hand (if I push myself to be very understanding) I suppose I can see why these dealers have reacted this way (it's still a third world country, blah, blah), seems to me that India has done quite a bit to prove itself as a nation on the rise, and deserving of the chance.

But it also raises a broader question that I have been thinking about recently- is there another product category that has tied itself so closely to the country it is produced in? For decades American car companies have used (and continue to use) brand America (though it may not be in their favor anymore) to sell cars. It's amazing to me how strongly the brand of a nation is tied to the cars it produces, wise or not. Hell, some foreign automakers even feel like they have to defend themselves for being "foreign".

Can any of you readers think of another product or category that so heavily associates itself with the country it comes from? And is this something you see continuing (growing/declining?)- in car makers or other categories? I've been thinking that that where a product comes from will increasingly become irrelevant, but this made me pause (and, perhaps, it is yet another sign of how out of touch car makers are with what's going on in the world).

Top 10 quotes of 2007

Yale Book of Quotations compiled its list for 2007 (hope nothing memorable happens in the next ten days).

Number one was "Don't tase me bro!" It's compiled by Fred R. Shapiro, an associate librarian and lecturer in legal research at the Yale Law School.

It's interesting to consider these ten quotes in the context of a collective benchmark for our world in 2007 (and by interesting, I mean scary).

Politics 2.0: Barely Political Takes On Ann Coulter

Want to be perfected? Look to Ann Coulter.



The funniest part is how little the peeps at BP actually have to try in order to portray Coulter as quite the extremist. But frightening to me is how many people in this country listen to and actually approve of what she has to say. One of her more recent books has nearly a thousand customer reviews on Amazon, with close to 600 giving her 4 stars or more...wow.

The Whopper Freakout

This is genius.

(and in response to Seth's comments, I guess I'm doing my best to respect the Media Snacker).

"The Youth Vote"

Future Majority, a blog that reports on youth voting, put together a set of tips for reporting on "the youth vote."

Tip #1 is my favorite:

The youth vote is not synonymous with students. In fact, students make up only a small part of the eligible youth vote. Only 21% of all 18-29 year olds are currently attending a college or university. That means that when you report on "students", you are leaving out the other 79% of all the individuals that make up the "youth vote." These people serve in our military, are struggling to raise families - and yes, have very different concerns from college students. I understand that makes it difficult for you to cram them into a cookie-cutter story about student aid activism and tuition costs, but you do them and your readers and our democracy a disservice when you limit your coverage to students.

Mike Connery, one of the site's bloggers, put together the tips after the CNN debate in which a college student was forced by producers to ask Hilary Clinton whether she preferred diamonds or pearls, instead of the original question about the Yucca Mountain nuclear situation.

The woman later lambasted CNN for forcing such a fluff question. This whole mini-drama falls in line with a topic of conversation that comes up frequently at Likemind: that "youth" are more mobile, more connected and more able to voice their opinions than any generation before them. This is the only world they know, and are aghast when that right is stepped on--as in the instance of diamonds v pearls. Yes, there's a twinge of self-righteousness that every sprouting adult experiences, but this generation is more able to retaliate when they've been wronged. Are they taking full advantage? Depends on the metrics we're using to judge. If we go back to voting, 49% of 18-29 year olds voted in the last election, a higher percentage than 65+. So watch out, youth have a big stick.