Catch Up Lady

Confessions of a Reformed FourSquare Hater

As FourSquare burst forth onto planet Earth and quickly amassed nearly 1MM users in a matter of months I totally resisted the pile on.  I had joined initially last summer and unstrategically friended pretty much anyone that came my way.  I checked in like three times (ok once), got annoyed with the push updates, and quit.  Over the next few months, as the platform gained popularity, I stayed in the corner - siding with the haters like Gawker who recently proclaimed, "If you use foursquare you are an annoying jackass."  I was a typical hater - I didn't see the value, I didn't want people to know where I was at all times, and the gaming aspect of it didn't appeal to me at all. 

Nevertheless, I followed the trend from a business perspective.   I saw some value in Yelp's rendition given the number of people already using their app and their review based premise.  As conference season took off I began to re-examine FourSquare.  Intel was one of the first brands to partner with the company for an onsite activation and used the service to promote their presence at CES.  At SXSW Foursquare was all the rage and helped people keep track of each other in the nerd herd chaos.   Couple that with brand's like Starbucks usage of the tool and the constant barrage of geo-targeted social networking headlines, and it was clear that the trend isn't going anywhere.  In fact, geo-targeted social networks are obviously the next big thing - and are closing the gap between social and consumer action/purchase in a very real way.

So, I got hip to the game.  And approached FourSquare with the same Mack Collier-esque strategy that got me turned onto Twitter almost two years ago to the day.

1) Create Your Own Experience.  Make sure you are following the RIGHT people - people you care about.  For Twitter this was a large social media crew, for FourSquare it's a more intimate group of people I actually know city to city.  Knowing what my friends are up to is actually interesting, and with status updates, amusing.

2) Try Hard.  You get back what you put in - so just passively signing up isn't enough.  I started checking in multiple times a day and low and behold I started to see some value.  Last week I saw that @DougMeacham and I were both in New York.  Doug and I hadn't seen each other since SXSW 2009 and we were able to hook up for drinks and dinner thanks to me actually using FourSquare.

3) Learn from Others.  Ask how others are using the platform, you might be surprised what you find!  I'm searching for "deals" in DC that you can get through FourSquare and am continuing to track how brands are using a platform that I'm invested in.

All this goes to show - you have to use social media to "get it."  You can't sit on the sidelines passively reading about social media, or attend a 2 hour training and count on it unlocking the secrets (or the badge - haha.)  You have to be proactive, even when you think it's not immediately applicable to you.  Lesson learned.

Sweet Jesus. Ketchup Packet Campaign Makes You Think Twice About Ketchup.

Via The Daily What, these ketchup packets extolling the dangers of land mines were recently rolled out in New Zealand as part of CALM:  Campaign Against Landmines. 

In case you weren't quite clear on what's going on, the press release clarifies:

Using a ketchup sachet, we demonstrated the horrific nature of living in a land mine affected country and how much a part of everyday life that horror is. The idea is simple: as you tear open the sachet you also rip through the child’s leg and the ketchup inside pours out like blood.

Terribly effective visual there friends, and kudos for the strong call to action (via text or website) on the packet - now we all have something to do while we regain our appetite.  

Patagonia: Selling a Story

From Rob BonDurant, VP of Marketing at Patagonia – from today’s WOMMA Summit.

Patagonia…

• Uses business to inspire and implement solutions to the sustainability crisis
• Believes passion cannot be created
• Is a non profit thinly disguised as a company
• Makes money so they can demonstrate their business model works, and donate more money to their 1% Earth Tax
• Designs its products and communications to adhere to the natural law of simplicity – things are done when there is nothing left to take away
• Always has an answer to “Who we are? How did we get here? Where are we going?”
• Is driven by story telling – it’s the anecdote to logic
• Doesn’t create stories, it just publishes them
• Received 100,000 unsolicited stories and photos from customers last year - that number will double this year
• Is selling a story, a symbol and a badge
• Believes the only limit is imagination – never budget

Patagonia...

• Creates experiences that complement their customers’ journey, versus interrupting them
• Relies on customers motive and intent to keep their brand top of mind
• Uses social media as real time reviews that are shared internally
• Cares a LOT about SEO, user experience, and the online buying path
• Now has more people chatting with them online than calling on the phone
• Is dead focused on getting people to comment and share their experience online

Patagonia...

• Would rather inspire than promote
• Would rather earn credibility than buy it
• Advertises as a last resort

Patagonia...

• Is a30+ year old experiment 

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!)