Catch Up Lady

Bing Goes the Internet! (SOS....)

Bing has a winner for its jingle contest.  And it's really really kind of creepy.  Overlooking the male camel toe (manel toe?) and the inexplicable apparitions behind the singer the song itself is so freaking catchy that I'm reluctantly predicting a Rick Roll type movement to shortly emerge.

If you're looking for a laugh, double click below and check out the comments on the YouTube page - "die in a fire, this is the worst shit I've heard in a long time", and "you should be tried as a war criminal and put to death in the most excruciating way for this act of audio/video terrorism" are definitely leading the pack in my opinion.

Pure Michigan

I'm totally loving the new Pure Michigan ad campaign that's been running in major markets.  I got chills the first (second, third, fourth, fifth...) time I watched them.  Not only do they feature Michigan in the summer which is truly heaven on earth, but they include the music from "The Notebook" trailer which ensures that you tear ducts are turned on before the narrative even begins.   (That calm, soothing voice is non other than Detroit native Tim Allen.)
Here are some of my favorite Pure Michigan moments with some of my favorite people:

With Catch Up brother and sister at Cottage Weekend on Gull Lake, MI:

Digging life at this moment

If docks could talk...we'd all be fucked.

Top of the Dunes with @awshannahan, Lake Michigan in the background:

Prepping out in Saugatuck, MI:

Walloon Lake, MI, where my ashes will one day be scattered.  Watch out water table.

"Pi-High Til You Die."  Which may turn out to be when you fall off the motorized rides outside Coral Gables in Saugatuck at 2am.

You can imagine my total shock that so far no one from the Pure Michigan ad campaign has inquired about using the picture above - or this footage from our Super Hero party  on Gull Lake, MI last weekend.  (The only thing that would make this even more Michigan is if Charles was smoking a Black & Mild instead of waving a giant sword.)

Marketing Video Gold Mine!

This week was marked by an outpouring of hilarious videos poking fun at marketers - because if we can't laugh at ourselves then... uh...yeah. 

Enlightened Stupid Marketer

The Vendor/Client Relationship in Real World Situations

Catch Up Lady LIVE on BlogTalkRadio

Two weeks ago my colleague John Stauffer and I launched a BlogTalkRadio show, That Social Media Show where we riff on all the remarkable and unremarkable  things that happened over the course of the week.

You might think that we had been planning this for months, but you'd be.... so so so wrong.  At 8pm at night at the Miami airport I emailed John that we should do a BlogTalkRadio show, and so the next day at 6pm we did.  And that's pretty much the back story. 

To give you a sense of what you're in for in Episode 1 we chatted about The Twitter @ reply kurfluffle, The Wall Street Journal's social media policy, Tropicana's The Juice community, WOMM-U in Miami, and Google Wonder Wheel.  Episode 2 we hit on the WolframAlpha launch, the new Google chrome, gratuitous social media mentions on television examined, Kindle 2 review, MicrosoftVine beta review, and Mashable's Twitter resources. 

So as you can see, while I haven't been blogging regularly I have not forgotten my social media roots - and have been contributing to society in my own way.  You can check out our show live every Thursday at 6pm, or listened to the archived episodes on the player on my side bar (yeah it doesn't fit, no I can't fix it) or on our BlogTalkRadio channel.

What's Been Keeping Me Busy...

In the last few days I've been catching HELL for not posting to this blog - everyone from my mom, to my bestfriend to a girl I used to work with and haven't seen in two years (hey Claudia!) have all been busting my chops.  So before we resume regularly scheduled programming I wanted to highlight some of the my work projects that have been consuming my time of late over at 360 Digital Influence:

Tropicana Trop50 The Juice
The social media ball keeps moving over at PepsiCo - and a few weeks ago Tropicana Trop5o launched The Juice, an online community for women in partnership with BlogHer.  The community revolves around the concept of getting more of what you want, and less of what you don't out of life - whether you're focused on nutrition, functional fitness, family, or just optimizing your life overall.   So what makes this community different?  Each week discussion is kicked off by a video featuring BlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardins and an expert guest, and the content is truly driven by community generated tips and ideas - from the Tropicana Trop50 spotlight that serves as the inspiration of each episode to the community tips that are featured throughout. 

A few weeks ago I flew to San Francisco for one of the episode shoots (that's me with BlogHer's Blake Norman, Julie Godard and Lisa Stone watching playback) - and I'll have more on The Juice in the next two weeks, as we head to New York to film an epsiode with a very cool guest.  In the meeeantime check out The Juice community, or watch one of the weekly webisodes below is The Juice: Make Ahead Meals  with Stephanie O'Dea from a Year in Crockpotting.

LG DTXTR

With LG DTXTR LG is branching out in the texting space - because while teens are leading the way with their warp speed thumbs the rest of us (especially parents) can use all the help they can get.  DTXTR has several features - most importantly the DTXTR Text Transaltor which lets you enter in any term and "translate" it into teen speak.  The Translator is powered by the DTXTR Glossary which is an every growing list of terms that anyone can add to at any time. There's also an interactive DO U Know TXT quiz where you can test your text knowledge, and TXT Tips for Parents.

Right now there is a DTXTR promotion running on BlogHer - so check it out for a chance to win the LG enV2 or Lotus.  These phones are pretty rad, I should know, they're all locked in my desk until they ship to the weekly winners.

Ford Fusion 1,000 Mile Challenge
One of the many projects that 360 Digital Influence is involved with over at Ford was the recent 1,000 Mile Fusion Hybrid Challenge.   For nearly four days here in DC a team of Ford Hybrid engineers led by Wayne Gerdes, the world record hypermiler, used Eco Driving techniques to drive over 1,000 miles on a single tank of gas in the 2010 Ford Fusion Hybrid.  The team actually did better - going over 1,400 miles before rolling to a stop.  I was there with our team creating video, live-Twittering, and hosting bloggers as they took Eco Driving clinics with the Ford team.  Below is a video of the final day of competition when NASCAR star Carl Edwards (fresh of his amazing crash at Talledega) flew in to drive the team over the 1,000 mile marker.

So, now you know where I've been.  More to come!

Generating WOM Through Contests: Cog'aoke and YouTube Symphony Orchestra

One of the best ways to generate WOM about a contest, is to incorporate a "People's Choice" voting component into the judging.  Doing this transforms an otherwise very static contest experience (submit your entry into a black hole and wait for the winning announcement) into a totally talkable, shareable experience lead by the people most passionate about your contest - the participants themselves.  In the last week I've come across two contests doing just this - the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, and Happy Cog's SXSW Cog'aoke party.

YouTube Symphony Orchestra
YouTube is using the power of the interwebs to call for musicians from around the world to submit an audition video and be considered for the first ever collaborative online orchestra.  Submissions were narrowed down to 200 finalists by the London Symphony orchestra, and the winners - who will participate in an 3-day offline summit with world renowned musicians and then play Carnegie Hall - are currently being chosen by public voting.  

Behold, while I now prove the power of the People's Choice voting tactic!  One of the reasons I wrote this post is that my friend David from Bermuda is actually one of the 200 finalists - and needs your help to get to Carnegie.  You can watch his video below and VOTE by visiting www.youtube.com/symphony, clicking on "Vote" and searching for "David."  His is the first of the two videos.  No need to log in, just give the green thumbs up. 

So, great contest idea - no doubt.  However, let's agree not to talk about how hard YouTube makes it for contestants to actually direct people to their page.  Asking people to do anything more than click on a unique URL is votes lost.  And the smartest contests make this WOM generating step as easy as possible.  Let's look at someone doing it right...

Happy Cog's OK! Happy Cog'aoke Party at SXSW

Apparently I am not the only social media pro who loves karaoke. I learned of Happy Cog's OK! Happy Cog'aoke Party from my karaoke soul sister over at Bad Ass Ideas.  The event revolves around a karaoke competition between 20 contestants - who have all submitted their entry and been "voted up" by the public.  (It's like the YouTube Symphony... for drunken geeks.)

Clearly  I'm totally entered into this contest - Doug Meacham and I are hoping to get enough votes to be in the Top 20 and regal the crowd with our rendition of Johnny Cash and June Carter's "Jackson."  Now, you need to....

 

Visit our entry page "Crazy Like Joaquin" and vote as many times as you like. 

Not surprisingly for a web design company that prides itself on the human experience, Happy Cog makes it ridiculously easy to create buzz about your entry (and their party.)  From your individual URL that you can easily forward to others, to your customized entry page, to badges you can put on your blog, to publicly displaying vote count to urge you onwards - this is a great example of public voting done right.  

Now that we've seen why People's Choice voting can be such a powerful tool - GO VOTE!

Heinz Ketchup Creativity Contest 2009

The other night I was in Five Guys (aka the best place for burgers in the whole world) and I noticed, much to my delight, that the Heinz ketchup packets had a variety of different designs on them.  Of course I dug through their condiment stand, pulled out all 12 different varieties and photographed them while curious onlookers observed me as if I was some sort of Rainman.

Naturally I was intrigued, and set off to find out what the deal was with these fun packets.  A few searches on The Google turned up several press releases on Heinz Ketchup Creativity 2009, a nationwide ketchup packet art contest for school kids.

Before I say anything else, I want to design a fucking ketchup packet!  Deep breaths.

This is the third year that Heinz has hosted the contest - which is billed as a way for kids to explore the world of art, and learn about food and nutrition.  The contest is broken out into different grades, and there are downloadable PDF lesson plans for teachers which include activities like growing tomato plants, Fun Facts, and crossword puzzles (for grades 1 - 3.)  New this year, popular Pop Artist Burton Morris will be helping Heinz with the judging.

The deadline for submissions is February 28 - so there is still time to get the party started in your classroom.  The winner gets $1,000, plus an additional $1,000 worth or art supplies, and $1,000 worth of ketchup.

On the WOM side, I will watch with interest to see how they promote the "America Votes" component, where the public chooses the final winners from among a group of chosen semi-finalists.  Seems like a great buzz generating component to an educational Heinz Top This! style challenge for kids.  Now, all I need to do is find a school child who will enter my submission as their own... how hard could that be??

Note to Heinz, for the love of God don't make me go all Gil Grissom looking for stuff like this.  As a brand fan, I need little to no provocation to blog/Twitter/buzz about pretty much whatever you send my way!  I'll even accept non-personalized press release emails (see, I really am serious!) 

The WOM Gods Must Be Crazy: Oven Baked Mosquitos

This week there were two remarkable word of mouth (WOM) advertising/marketing efforts that deserve mention.

The first was Domino's Oven Baked Letter incident.  Many of us are familiar with the Domino's 2:1 commercials that visually demonstrate the finding that their oven baked subs are preferred 2 to 1 over Subway's.  Apparently Subway was also familiar with the ad campaign, and none to pleased.  The Subway lawyers sent an email to Domino's threatening legal action.  So what did Domino's do?  They had their CEO, Dave Brandon (also a conservative Regent at the University of Michigan) film the spot below.  The spot can be viewed on the Domino's website (where you can also "oven bake the letter" yourself, or on YouTube where one version has over 1 million views. 


The second WOM moment of the week came with Bill Gates at the TED Conference. While speaking on the lack of funding for malaria research, Gates unleashed mosquitoes on the auditorium stating to the affluent crowd that it shouldn't just be poor people at risk for contracting malaria. (The swarm was malaria free.)

What made these two incidents stand out from other WOM campaigns is that you passed along the message - not the method of delivery. 

Think of your favorite virals - for most of them you remember that they were funny, or stunty - and when you told people about it, THAT was the message.  I told dozens of people about Smirnoff's Tea Part-ay video generally by saying that Smirnoff had made a hilarious rap video staring preppy people.  No mention of their new Raw Tea product or any of its attributes.  With both the Domino's Oven Baked Letter and Bill Gates mosquitoes stunt it's virtually impossible to recommend to others without delivering the intended message. 

"You have to check out the Domino's Web site - their CEO got a letter from Subway telling them to pull down their ad campaign - you know the one saying their oven baked subs are 2 times better - then the CEO actually oven bakes the letter!" or "Did you hear Bill Gates unleashed a swarm of mosquitoes on an auditorium at TED during a speech on malaria research and said that poor people shouldn't be the only ones suffering from malaria?"  This is WOM gold - and we shouldn't lose sight of it.

Visual Thinking For Idiots

There are a lot of amazing visual thinkers out there.  They, like many of us, have brilliant thoughts - but are doubly blessed with being able to create something visual to represent it.  I work with many of these people, I read other visual thinkers' blogs - and yet I remain a strategist through and through.  I can come up with great ideas and narrate or write them til I'm blue in the face and you're bored to tears (I mean, riveted with my thinking!)  But, at the end of the day, I'm totally and irrevocably stuck in stick figure land and do not count myself among the many great visual thinkers out there.

So what happens when a strategist like myself comes up with an idea for a visual? 

THE IDEA: A few weeks ago I was in a brainstorm with John Bell and Virginia Miracle and we were talking about the benefits of companies using social media in a world traditionally defined by interruption based advertising.  On an average day you are bombarded with approximately 5000 commercial messages from all mediums - TV, radio, newspapers, out of home, online and chances are this is all static in your day to day routine.  You block most of it out and focus on news and information that you filter for yourself using social media - through RSS feeds, Facebook friends, Twitter followers, etc. 

Today, your social graph functions as a message shield - allowing only the information you want to pay attention to in.  Companies who are actively engaged in social media are able to penetrate your personal message shield.  They are able to "message" to you because they are using the channel that you pay the most attention to, and engaging you on your own turf - in other words, they're relevant.

And my idea for a Personal Message Shield visual was born. At that point - brace yourselves - I attempted to visually show everyone what I was talking about.

Attempt #1:  This is a stick figure, dressed like Abe Lincoln, inside of his personal message shield.  This worked well to illustrate what I was talking about - and I got buy in from my colleagues.  It was decided we should turn this into a "real" visual.  I was CLEARLY not the person for the job - so we set about articulating this to one of our designers.

Attempt #2:  I took to the only electronic platform I know how to use - Power Point.  (Designers everywhere are vomiting on their keyboards right now...)  I added in detail for a designer, so that they would understand the concept we wanted to bring to life.  (Apparently "Other Stuff" doesn't translate into "traditional interruption based advertising mediums" for everyone...)  Tell me this is not the most beautiful visual you've ever seen.  Oh, it's not? 

The Final Product: Is THIS the most beautiful visual you've ever seen?  This was the final product after a professional got their hands on the idea.  (No, we didn't really trademark it...)  I was thrilled with how it turned out - turns out we all have the capacity to be visual thinkers - some of us just need a little more help than others. 

Pickle Getting the Axe From the Heinz Logo - Say it Ain't So!

I've gotten several emails from all of you over the last week asking my opinion on the planned Heinz logo change. 

For those of you who don't have Heinz news on their RSS feed, the plan is to remove the pickle from the label and replace it with a tomato that is more reflective of the product.  The new logo, which has already rolled out in Europe, will only appear on the Heinz ketchup product and will be accompanied by the new tag line "Grown not made." 

Heinz's association with the pickle originated at the 1983 World's Fair when a pickle pin to draw customers to his booth. With tomato ketchup actually being the 10th product introduced by Heinz (horseradish, sour gherkins, mixed sour gherkins and chow chow pickles were the first) the pickle is also a clear nod to the company's early days.  In fact, HJ Heinz is actually the fourth official "name" of the company - the first was the Anchor Pickle & Vinegar Works.

I'm not one to stand in the way of progress, but I think I'm going to have to go with the Save the Heinz Pickle! Facebook group that was recently formed (and has over 2,000  members, including yours truly.)  Heinz logo is iconic and should not be messed  with.  It's one thing to iteratively evolve a logo over time to make sure it stays fresh - but taking the entire freaking pickle off is like putting the Morton's Salt Girl in a poncho, or giving Larry the Quaker a buzz cut. 

While the new logo will in no way deter me from purchasing Heinz ketchup, I can confidently state that I have no plans to remove the pickle from this blog's logo.