...the blog that goes with everything. Your daily source for a hilarious take on social media, marketing, ketchup, Michigan and pretty much whatever else I feel like.
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.
A great follow up to the original What the Fuck is Social Media presentation - featuring some really astonishing statistics on social platform usage and global social media adoption.
Social media - fuck ya! Here to save the motherfucking day ya! ... I mean, I really like my industry and enjoy my job. That is all.
As many of you know, Ford is one of my clients. You may wonder what I do all day. And now you have your answer. I hang out outside Ford World Headquarters and pose on Ford vehicles. That's right, I'm a car model.
Tawny Kitaen would be jealous if my usually absurdly skinny calf didn't look like Tom Brady's for some odd reason in this photo. (Or not. But props to the Plaid Nation crew for snapping this beaut during their visit to Dearborn to pick up their sweet wrapped Ford Flex for their Plaid Nation 2009 Roadtrip.)
In all seriousness, one of the big social media programs I've been working on for Ford is an event that happened today in Chicago - the What Women Want Quality & Tech Event with BlogHer.com. We worked with BlogHer to bring 60 of their awesomest* bloggers to Chicago a day ahead of the big BlogHer Conference for an all day event at the Ford Chicago Assembly Plant.
The day was jam packed - and the women got to rotate between a number of different hands on modules around Safety, Sustainability, Technology, and Manufacturing. Even though I helped organize the social media side of things and knew what was coming I was still impressed, as I was still seeing it all for the first time. Some highlights included:
One on One Access to Ford Insiders: Various modules were lead by the actual movers and shakers at Ford - from Amy Marentic (North American Car and Crossover Planning Manager), to Sheryl Connely (Global Trends & Futuring Manager), to Carrie Majeski (Sustainability, and 25 year veteran of Ford - at right.) It was truly amazing to hear these kick ass women speak about their passion and transfer their excitement to others.
Technology Demos: There were hands on demos set up for all Ford's latest and greatest smart technology - including MyKey, Active Park Assist, and Cross Traffic Alert. Check out this video below for a demo by one of Ford's steering engineers, along with blogger reactions.
Tour of Chicgao Assembly Plant: After receiving eye protection, yellow safety vests, and a small head set so we could hear our tour guide we were walked around the 2 million + square foot Chicago Assembly Plant where Ford manufactures Lincoln MKS and the new 2010 Ford Taurus. If you ever have a chance to do something like this, jump. It was really amazing to see how a car is put together - a total marriage of technology, machines, and humans. Also, very impressed with the extent to which Ford goes to maintain quality. If there is even the smallest quality issue on the line they shut it down until it's resolved so that no other vehicles are impacted. Additionally, if you call your dealer with a complaint it takes less than 24 hours for that to travel back to the plant where your vehicle was manufactured. I'll spare you the hideous picture of me in the plant tour get up, and instead give you this rad picture of cars in the air...
Test Drives: Getting the chance to test driving 2010 vehicles that haven't hit the road yet was also a big hit. Check out this great video of the BlogHer ladies test drive reactions:
What Women Want Brainstorm: The day ended with break out brainstorms so that Ford could listen to what the bloggers learned from their readers and their day, and take the insights back with them to Dearborn. Be on the look out for our What Women Want Vehicle Check List - which will summarize a lot of this great conversation.
#fordblogher: And finally, what would a blogger event be without a sweet hash tag and a constant stream of Twittering? As always seeing reactions, suggestions and questions in real time helped make the experience all the more interactive.
When I was at SXSW I was introduced to Yim Gnome, a traveling garden gnome who made his way around the country from person to person having interesting experiences and adventures.
Recently Yim teamed up with Whrrl.com (through my home girls at Swarm Collective), and Yim's national and international travels are now officially being documented on the site - which allows you to upload images and text in a story board format in real time. (Effectively you can create a slide show of photos and captions as they are happening, days of waiting until you get home to upload to Flickr or Facebook are gonzo...)
Yim Gnome is an awesome viral experiment that takes many of the principals we apply to generating online WOM and proves them out in the real world. It's all about human to human connection (the physical kind, in this case) and creating something that's fun and quirky enough that people will care to share with others both online and off.
Yim and I chilled with my dad, who was in town for the weekend - click below to see a snapshot of our time with Yim.
Next Yim is headed to my good friend Paul McEnany - I truly can't wait to see what happens next! (PAUL. TAKE. CARE. OF. YIM.)
I was at Unilver's WOM conference this week, where I heard many a great social media speaker including Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter and Heather Armstrong, author of Dooce. I also (of course) spent time with many Unilever brand managers - one in particular stuck out. Not just because he turned out to know three of my good friends and work at a family camp similar to Michigania, which I obsess over regularly, but because he has like the coolest business cards of all time.
The front is your run of the mill business card for an Axe brand manager. The back, however*, is a whole different story - it's heat activated (like a Hypercolor shirt, hollllller!) and fades from black to a picture of a "babezilla" as one person put it.
Not only is this totally on-brand for Axe, but the WOM value of this card is off the charts. When was the last time you pulled out someone elses business card and showed it to people? Well I did it three times in the last 48 hours - to rave reviews. The novelty is fantasitc, and the fact that the next question anyone asks is "Whose card is that??" is icing on the cake of WOM.
Naturally we all want them now and are contemplating what we'd have on our cards fade to... what would you have on yours?
