Pretty Good

Reshaping Our Memories Through Our Digital Lives

2011-11-15T14:50:00.007-05:00

The prevalence of social media clearly encourages life documentation and content creation- from videos of a child’s first steps to instagram photos of last night’s dinner. As a result, the way that people create and store memories is changing. This is compounded with the sheer magnitude of content that is created (including the 200 million tweets and 250 million Facebook photos that are uploaded per day), which affects the actual amount people can remember. To address this, a growing number of services and brands are organizing to this forgotten information and adding meaning to these dormant memories.

Over the last few years, the Internet has had a profound effect on how people remember things during the experience and also afterwards. People rely on the Internet to act as an external hard drive where information is stored outside of their heads. Called the Google Effect, people actually remember less if they know where to access it if they need it. As a result, people spend less time thinking about what they’re experiencing or posting, because they know that they can revisit it later.

But past social media content is also getting cluttered with content, making memories harder to find. Usage of social media grew 66% between 2009 and 2010, giving users even more opportunities to create content. With the adoption of even more publishing and creative sites, like Tumblr and Pinterest, there are even more ways for people to generate photos, videos, and text. Media that we assumed we could easily access is now hidden under hundreds of Facebook photos, thousands of comments— the massive amounts of content that we now create every day. These digital footprints are typically thought of in the short term and they are consumed and disposed of thoughtlessly.

Memory engineering, as it is referred to by Clive Thompson, is “the process of fashioning our inchoate digital pasts into useful memories.” Social media websites in particular are evolving to offer ways to reshape how we re-visit our digital memories. These sites are doing this by creating sense, order, and utility out of our ever-growing digital footprints and using it to create content that is interesting and meaningful.

When users revisit their content, they don’t necessarily want an algorithm to decide what was meaningful to them based on the most likes or comments. They want to find the content and memories that are meaningful to them. Brands can help to do that by giving the context to them and allowing the user to create, or find, their own meanings.

The Museum of Me, an effort by Intel to create a visual achieve of this digital information, was an example of how brands could use using consumers’ own memories to create an experience. Brands can also add value to their consumers’ lives by creating useful memories, like how Orangina International reminds users of their Facebook firsts.

These memory instigators are frequently simple (just a few words or a photo) but they can trigger a larger story as the brain fills in the details. These memories can be episodic- like Foursquare and seven years ago, which reminds Foursquare users of where they were exactly a year ago via daily email. Or, these memories can be semantic, like the Kindle’s Daily Review app, which takes news clippings and reminds users of them weeks or months later to assist retention.

The latest Facebook profile Timeline redesign, which changed the Facebook’s profile page into a historical record of that user’s interactions, is a clear example of this trend. Regarding the update, product manager Sam Lessin said “Imagine if there was an easy way to rediscover the things you shared, and collect all your best moments in a single place. With Timeline, now you have a home for all the great stories you’ve already shared. They don’t just vanish as you add new stuff.”

By being able to organize digital collections, brands can help people collect their memories in a meaningful and relevant. The focus of social media is expanding from just content creation to memory facilitation and utility. These memories can tap in to deep human desires and create an emotional bond with a digital entity. Memory engineering is the next step in creating a meaningful digital relationship.

(reposted from)

Agency Obfuscation Game

2011-09-30T12:11:00.000-04:00

What I did my last days at Tribal: create the Agency Obfuscation Game with some coworkers. Each phrase below is an agency, obscured by hints, homophones and bloated word choice. Highlight text below for answers. And comment with your own!

Fruit Amphibian
Strawberry Frog

Really Big
Huge

Foreign Currency
Euro

Black and White
Grey

What Lil John Gets
Lowe

Nickelodeon Hey!
Arnold

Sprechen Sie
Deutsch

Cinco Drugs
Droga5

Ponderin'
Mullen

Superman's Boyfriend
Wunderman

All Natural
Organic

Zodiac Sign + Non-Blonde
Leo Burnett

484
22squared

Scottish Metallic Container
McCann

Increase Width and President
Wieden and Kennedy

British Chip in Stout
Crispin Porter

First Copy, Federal Credit Bureau
Draft FCB

Mountain Vacation
Hill Holliday

Congregation of Cavemen
Barbarian Group

Au Revoir - E
Goodby

Double bonus hard one:
Bad thing that could happen to a car, and what you do after it
Dentsu

Facebook Places

2011-02-13T15:46:00.000-05:00

When Facebook launched Facebook Places, I created a guide for the Tribal DDB network to give an overview, as well as:

Implications for Users
Implications for Brands
How Brands Can Use Places
Setting Up a Places Page
Brands & Apps Using Places

Facebook Places

View more presentations from Tribal DDB Worldwide.

List: The Last 10 Years in Digital

2010-07-22T10:17:00.003-04:00

I made this list for a little project and thought I'd share it.

Warning! This list is by no means 100% accurate and is mostly just a compliation of random facts from various places around the internet. It's on there, somewhere, but I'm not citing it (for now, at least).

2000- Email viruses “Love Bug” and “Stages” attack address books
2000- Pandora launched
2000- The M-Systems DiskOnKey is the first USB drive
September 2000 - There are 20,000,000 websites on the Internet, numbers doubling since February 2000

2001- Kodak begins selling digital cameras
2001 - US regulators approve the merger of AOL and Time Warner
2001- Napster shut down
January 9, 2001- iTunes released
October 23, 2001 - iPod released

2002- The first Blackberry is released
2002- The Sanyo SCP-5300 is the first camera phone in the US
November 2002- Microsoft launches Xbox live, allowing players to play games with others online

2003- Broadband internet allows for faster surfing that dial-up
May 2003 - Wordpress launched
September 2003 - The RIAA sues 261 individuals for allegedly distributing copyright music files over peer-to-peer networks

Feb 2004- Google indexes 6 billion pages
Feb 2004- Facebook created by Mark Zukerberg, Chris Hughs, Dustin Moskovitz, and Eduardo Saverin
December 5, 2004- Digg launched

2005- Web 2.0 is coined
2005- Chuck Norris hits the web by force
2005- the One Laptop Per Child project begins
2005- The term “sexting” is created for explicit text, photo, and video messages
2005- Sunnydale, California launches the first city-wide free wifi
Feb 2005 – YouTube launched
May 2005- CVS creates the first disposable video camera
Dec 2005- Study shows Wikipedia is as accurate as Encyclopedia Britannica, if not more

2006- First silent disco flash mob in London where 4,000 suddenly broke into dance
2006- Skype allows for video conferencing between two people
June 2006 - Myspace becomes the most popular social networking site
July 2006- The Motorola Razor sells over 50 million units
November 19, 2006- Nintendo released the Wii, revolutionizing console

2007- Rick Rolling infuriates millions
2007- Tumblr Launched
2007- eHarmony reports that 19% of married couples met online
2007- World of Warcraft hits a milestone when it surpasses 9 million subscribers worldwide in July.
February 2007 - Apple surpasses one billion iTunes downloads.
September 13, 2007- iPod Touch released

Feb 2008- Toshiba stops making HD DVDs conceding to the format war between Blu ray
Oct 21, 2008- Android OS launched

2009 - Actor Ashton Kutcher becomes the first person on Twitter to have a million followers subscribing to his 'tweets'.
March 11, 2009 – Foursquare launched
April 2009- Twitter’s use in a Moldovan protest cements it as a necessary news source
June 2009 - Facebook becomes most widely used social networking site
Dec 2009- Avatar takes 3D to the next level by including photorealistic CGI technology

March 2010 - Facebook becomes most visited website
2010- Google is word of the decade
Febuary 2010- Samsung releases the first 3D TV in the US
April 3, 2010- iPad released
July 1, 2010- China blocks Google service

Social Media Event Review: Estee Lauder Profile Picture Makeover

2009-10-20T14:00:00.004-04:00

When I heard about Estee Lauder's Profile Photo Makeover, I knew that I had to check it out. I've been watching Estee Lauder's promotions since they created their Let's Play Makeover tool and I wanted to see how they actually would give me a makeover with Estee Lauder products, take a photo, and deliver it ready for Facebook (and LinkedIn! Because I'm profesh like that).

Overall, the event was great, but my experience was surprisingly dismal.

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What I really liked about this idea was that it connected a real life experience with something that was digital and social. Estee Lauder customers are part of the most rapidly growing segments in social media and helping improve their image is a welcome endeavor. It goes along with brands making relevant, useful things that customers want. Better yet...customers were excited about the oppurtunity.

When I went to the event at the newly renovated Bloomingdale's on 59th Street, I was glad (for EL's sake) that the event was mostly attended by the 30+s. My accomplices and I were quickly accosted by 3 employees asking if we wanted to get our photos taken, but we informed them that we had already in fact booked appointments.

Bad Move #1: Makeovers are the perfect time for employees to sell their company's products. The client is sitting there and can't move (or talk, depending on what's being applied) for about 15 minutes. Which is why I was surprised that the only things that my makeup applier told me that:

I should have brought a hairband to tie my hair back (that wasn't on the flyer and besides, no other clients had one).
I had horrific dryness under my eyes and I looked like a 40 year old smoker (paraphrased, she actually said, disgusted, "Your eyes shouldn't look like that! You smoke?"
I needed to buy the EL cleanser (but she couldn't tell me why or which one of two products would be best for me)

After I said that I was looking at switching my skincare routine but wasn't ready to make a purchase because I had about a 4 month stockpile, she stopped talking to me. This was before I even had any makeup on my face. Even at the end, when I asked her what she had done to me and what products she had used she brushed me off. Weird.

Someone I had went with had a completely different experience with a very enthusiastic salesperson and she left with a list of EL items she wanted to buy. Apparently, if you're nice, people will want to buy things from you.

I found my way over to the photo section and took about 8 photos with a photographer who told me about the time he played basketball in Prince's recording studio. Hilarious. Apparently the EL model who appeared in the promotion had been there that morning and had helped the customers with their posing. I bet they had a great time and I know they'll be talking about that with their friends.

15 minutes and a cup of Forty Carrots frozen yogurt later, I had a print out of my picture. Ta-da!

Bad Move # 2: After I took my photo, they had airbrushed my photo- and all my freckles - out. Another girl I was with had her Cindy Crawford mole erased by EL, too. I thought that was a strange move, especially because it detract from the effectiveness of the makeup and removed our unique facial features.

Bad Move # 3: These photos were supposed to be sent out instantly, but later that day I got an email that said:

Dear Estee Lauder Customers,

We are experiencing minor technical difficulties at this time. Please
note that your Estee Lauder event photo will be emailed to you by
Wednesday October 21st. We apologize for any inconvenience.

It wasn't until four days after I had taken my photo that I received it. And then promptly airbrushed out the logos in the background!

74% of This Blog's Readers Are Awesome

2009-10-09T13:45:00.000-04:00

With the ever evolving and volatile atmosphere of the internet and the sensationalist Twitter headlines on subjects like Teens Don't Tweet and The Facebook Exodus, it's easy to get caught up with anecdotes and statistics. It seems like few days I come across a conflicting percentages or a YouTube statistical music video presentation extravaganza.

With all these numbers flying around, plus since its Friday, I'd like to offer my own little anecdote:

The early studies on smoking and Alzheimer’s disease said smoking protected you from Alzheimer’s disease. But when they actually looked at the data and they figured out how it protected you from Alzheimer’s disease [is that smoking kills you first]. Dead people don’t get Alzheimer’s disease. But when they corrected for the dead people, what they found is that it increases your risk.

Dr. Daniel G. Amen

Luckily, even our clients are becoming tired with mailable statistics and are instead looking for real examples that contribute to larger trends. I'm happy to work towards that.

Have a good three day weekend, and maybe remember one of my favorite and relevant Churchill quotes...

Statistics are like a drunk with a lamppost: used more for support than illumination.

How I Use Twitter OR So I Made A Twitter Account...Now What?

2009-09-01T17:21:00.002-04:00

After repeatedly hearing "Twitter! Uh! I just don't GET it!" and on the request of some people, I put together a little guide for the laymen on how I use Twitter. Hope it helps!

So I Made A Twitter Account. Now What?

View more presentations from Lara Hayden.

Working For Free

2009-08-05T16:15:00.004-04:00

Fans of me (okay so I don't even think my mom reads this) will know that another one of my blogs is Things I Got For Free Today (tigfft). I'm a commonfolk expert on free things.

My underlying view is that since have more money than consumers do, so as opposed to further cluttering consumers lives with boring messages, why can't they just give their consumers something?

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As such, I'm fascinated by the expansive and dedicated, even opportunistic community surrounding discounts and freebies. As I learn more and more about these typically Mommy blogger-types (no offense- don't go all Motrin on me), I'm seeing how much more focused than I these people are about bargains. If I were to pick a descriptor, it would be hoarders. Getting free things is a token trophy, and every new thing is a merit badge on the freescout vest. And no wonder- it can be addictive and, more important, tangibly rewarding.

With my own freescouting, I've noticed that there's a certain barrier to overcome. I could get a sample of soap for simply entering my address, but why should I? The 2 minute effort of filling out a form weighs against my soap sample, especially since instead I could get something else I want.

In reaction to the freebie community, some brands have been upping the ante. When once free things were about getting a customer to try a product in hopes of them becoming a regular, outspoken customer, thanks to the online freebie culture it is now more of a shot in the dark.

Now, there's so much clutter with freebies. While once they were targeted messages, information about samples and discounts now appear on centralized blogs, Twitters, and message boards with no regard to context.

At one time KFC could have run an ad in one region of Woman's Day, and then ten housewives in Des Moines would have gone. Now that they're online, everyone knew and KFC wasn't prepared to satisfy the demand.

So some businesses are creating a trade off for their free. A great example is Chick-a-fila, which has had Cow Appreciation Day for five years now. In exchange for dressing up like a cow - full costume required- customers get a free meal (Those who go simple have a cow accessory receive an entree). This promotion ties into their larger "Eat Mor Chikin" campaign, now 14 years young.

The Burger King Whopper Sacrifice is a great example, too, since it rewarded customers who overcame the hurdle of participation. It was also particularly clever since it rewarded them for passing along brand messages.

Naturally, by investing in something- whether its time, dignity or friends- it's an elevated consumer-brand relationship. Compare how positively the two latter food brands are viewed against KFC.

By giving passionate fans an opportunity to express themselves, the relationship is deepened.

Observations on Music Now

2009-07-21T02:46:00.011-04:00

This is another one of my silly little posts for all those music geeks out there who have certain songs that make them think of one single conversation five and a half years ago or songs they can't listen to unless it's raining.

I know music is so important to so many people's lives, and I think it's really interesting to see how the actual listening of music has evolved over time (mostly due to the internet). I've read plenty of books people's personal relationships with music (Prozac Nation, High Fidelity, New Brunswick, New Jersey, Goodbye, anything by Chuck Klosterman) and listened to people talk about it, and it got me thinking about how my generation's music habits are drastically different than the habits of the generation that's probably making the music we listen to.

So here's a list of how I listen to music, in contrast with previous listeners of 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 50 years ago, etc.:

For one thing, I don't listen to or buy albums. I listen to songs and download bands.

If I feel like checking out a new band, I can download their entire discography, sample some tracks in any chronology, and, if I decide I don't like it, delete the entire collection. There's more personal music experimentation because of this.

I'm generally less invested in my music. Since I did not go through the effort of going out, selecting an album, and spending my own money to make a purchase, I have a decreased investment in the actual music. So if I don't listen to an album right after I get it, it's not a big deal.

As such, there's less excitement with getting a new album because it is so much easier. When I first started listening to CDs, I used to come home and listen to the entire thing in one sitting. I've heard this is not uncommon. But now, when I get a new album (or new albums, as I tend to get many at once), I'll just put it on my iPod and listen to it whenever it comes up on shuffle.

When I do actually make a music purchase, it has more significance. If I actually make a music purchase, it's because I specifically want to support the artist.

Some people I know only make legal music purchases and this is abnormal compared to the rest of us. It's a real point of difference. It's also out of fear of getting caught.

My music collection is obscenely large and all housed on a hard drive the size of a book.

I'm going to guess that I have a wider range and taste of music than I would have had I grew up a few decades earlier. It's so easy to find and get new, different music and there's such a low risk involved in listening to new music.

Although I have more breath in my music taste, there's less depth. While there are certain artists I love and know a lot about, it's nothing compared to what past generations describe. I haven't sat there and analyzed songs extensively in terms of musics and lyrics in comparison to the artist's previous music and personal life.

But hey, if I want to know more about an artist I can just go online. I can use Wikipedia to find out anything, instantly about Bruce Springsteen, rather than reading every magazine article about him.

To make a sweeping assumption, my generation defines themselves by genres, not artists. I'm not a Beck fan, I'm an indie folk fan. (I'm not actually a Beck fan but the analogy makes the most sense.)

Genres that used to be lifestyles are now simply music labels that don't necessarily conform to the original definition. Most notable is indie, but there are others.

Bootlegs, live songs and rare tracks are no longer rare. They're now easily available if I want to listen to them and honestly, I rarely do.

I have the ability to look up lyrics. In the past, if an artist didn't include lyrics with the album you were stuck singing "Saving his life from his Mom's cup of tea!" for everyone to hear. Now, I can easily look up the lyrics for Bohemian Rhapsody or any other song.

MySpace. Really. MySpace allows me to sample artists' music in seconds (Sorry, listening booths of yesteryear. You're not replaced by the Land of Tila Tequila). It also lets bands share their music for free and allows them to gain popularity organically. I think this is actually how Taylor Swift was discovered (according to a Glamour article I read last month).

It's easier for emerging artists to share their music and gain a fan base because it's now both easier to share their music and less expensive to do it.

However, there's now so many artists that the music space is incredibly saturated with all types of music.

As a result of the internet, artists have less control of what is actually done with music. Advanced album leaks, piracy, and even remixes have taken away the songs from the artist and given it to the people.

I don't personally use them, sites like Last.fm have turned music into a community where strangers can share and recommend music. Even bands that have sites with message boards where fans can communicate have an increased level of community.

There's less spontaneity and self discovery in music. Thanks to these communities and auto-recommendation tools, there's now an "if you like x, you will like y" formula of music. The last truly spontaneous music discovery I made was when I downloaded a mislabeled song in 8th grade and discovered a new genre of music.

My music is intangible. It can never be damaged or misplaced, only lost as a result of mechanical failure. My music is also impermanent. I can delete it whenever I want and think nothing of it.

This is a huge difference- my music is portable. I can (and do) listen to my music where ever I go. If I'm at work, in my car, the grocery store, walking down the street, etc., I am listening to music. Before the Walkman, this was totally impossible. As a result, I have situational music- music that I can relate to certain places and events. The previously listed books all describe the significance of the times where they were sitting on their floor, listening to music. I've never had my music been tied down physically, and as such....

I never just listen to music.

I listen to music with no regard to chronology, withing artist history or within albums.

My music is all about customization. I make playlists, and I can listen to my music on playlists, in an album or from an artist. If I wanted to (I don't) I could make remixes easily and share them on YouTube or MySpace. Also, everyone thinks they're a DJ now.

I listen to playlists, not mixtapes. I can create as many playlists as I want or even have them auto-generated. They can have no constraints- I can put as little or as much as I want on them. There is no specific order, and songs can be fast forwarded or skipped all together. They can change whenever I want them to.

I'm part of the A.D.D. generation, and as such I skip music like no other. I skip through my iPod until I find something I want, or I skip the last 30 seconds of a song if I don't feel like listening to it anymore.

Most of these statements are fairly obvious, but I hope they helped you put your everyday habits in context to history. Also- if you're interested in how music has changes aesthetically over the years, check out this article in Rolling Stone, The Death of High Fidelity, or The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.

Images from Wikipedia, Gizmodo, and Paste.

Talent Imitates, Genius Steals, Jerks Steal From Students: An Ode to NSAC

2009-06-25T11:40:00.006-04:00

A good chunk of my sophomore (06-07) and junior year (07-08) at BU was taken up with my involvement with The American Advertising Federation's National Student Advertising Competition, or NSAC (en-sack!). As a result of my participation, I am now significantly interested in the dealings of our two clients over the years, Coca-Cola and AOL Instant Messenger.

Our efforts for AIM was mostly tied around promotion of their Profile Pages, which were supposed to be their answer to Facebook. Since there was a lot wrong with the Pages technically and logically, they were eventually tied into Bebo and some of our campaign was made irrelevant. Regardless, I am extremely proud of the work we produced for AIM and am still getting over being robbed from first place by less than a point difference (we were clearly the underdog, and if it had been a Disney movie we would have won).

But Coca-Cola is a different story.

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Despite a seemingly dire beverage market, Coca-Cola is running strong- running strong with our ideas. Over the past few years, I've seen two of our ideas see the light of day from the creative "minds" over at Coca-Cola.

Exhibit A:

We wanted to separate Coke from the competition by focusing on the only thing that's actually different: the taste. To also tie in the "Coke Side Of Life"/ happiness/joy/positivity aspect, our visuals involved...tongues. Actually, it involved the act of sticking out your tongue, which is a silly act that makes you smile while still being relatable to taste.

Our campaign contained tongue-based creative like this:

SO were we ever surprised to discover a year or two later that Coke had decided to use tounges in their foreign Coke Zero ads.

But we let it slide. This could have just been a coincidence, no?

Exhibit B:

According to our research, these Dynamics (13-24 year old non-loyal beverage drinkers seeing convenience in their active, busy, social lives) are actually (somewhat) interested in world events, like global warming and definetly aware. In addition, when asked to pick a word/phrase that they associated most with Coca-Cola, "polar bear" was the second most popular after "red" (after that was "santa").

So how did we put two and two (PLUS the tongues) together? By sponsoring the conservation efforts of the World Wildlife Fund.

How did we find a picture of a polar bear sticking out its tongue? We're that good.

Low and behold, look who decided to create a partnership with the WWF a few months later: Coca freaking Cola.

Dude. Seriously? Come on.

So anyway, one of my favorite "viral" aspects of the campaign (in was 2006 so "viral" was okay) was our MySpace (again, it was 2006) and Facebook promotion.

We really want "own" the idea of sticking out your tongues. You know how you can't say "That was easy" or "It's getting hot in here" without mentally referencing Staples or Nelly? We wanted to make it so that our Dynamics would automatically think of Coke whenever they stuck out their tongues.

The premise was that a user would change their profile picture to image of themselves sticking out their tongues and, in exchange, would be entered to win a contest. In addition, we would create a MySpace and microsite application that would create a giant tongue mosaic out of the photos. A user would be able to scroll through all the photos, or click a button to see their own.

This would be fun.

So flash to the future of this month, 2009, when I come across this headline: Dunkin Donuts’ Facebook Campaign Turns Your Profile Pic into Prizes. Yes way. Somehow it took over two years to implement this SAME EXACT idea, but we totally thought of it first and ours was better (app-li-cat-tion!) so nah nah nah.

Anyway, this entire post is just an ode to the hard work and the cool kids involved in NSAC.

Some links to the NSACers (that I know will read this and are also totally awesome):
Jason Kahn, @jck5
Dmitriy Karfagenskiy, dima7k
Hannah Cross, @hannahCROSS
Zeny Huang, @zenidala

My Wishlist

2009-05-21T10:34:00.005-04:00

Just for fun...here's my current wishlist of stuff (not including my Amazon book wishlist, which is about 30 books long).

	a fancy cell phone
	an accordion (used, probably, but still a step up from my toy accordion)
	real art [prints]! (right now, I'm eyeing stuff by btoy, pure evil, mwm, and keep calm galleries)
	Serious Drawings, Marc Johns
	a name necklace that says "Lucky"
	an apartment. in a city.
	an electric tuner for my guitar because I am actually tone-deaf and can't tune it myself
	www.larissahayden.com. it needs to be done

Ever Notice The Twitter Home Page?

2009-05-18T09:47:00.000-04:00

I pride myself on paying too much attention to the little things that others overlook. Here are two little things about the Twitter opening page that I've noticed:

1- Here's what you can read from the first sample tweet:

Waited all morning for PG&E, who didn't
without power or internet let me get some
over, back at office

Sorry, PG&E. That's some front page bad press.

2- Twitter describes itself as "a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate...". It doesn't mention brands, social media gurus, or fans [of Oprah]. Interesting.

14 of the Oldest Logos Still Used Today

2009-05-12T13:36:00.004-04:00

I love the story Paul Rand and his refusal to redesign the GE logo (see below). It got me thinking- what other logos have had the same design for over 100 years?

Here, I put together a list of 14 logos that are still recognizable in the US that were registered in 1900 or earlier (I tried to limit the car and alcohol logos because they were the most common).

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Tiffany’s Tiffany Blue
1837

Brooks Bothers
1850
Fun fact: Brooks Brothers is oldest surviving men's clothier in the United States

Arm & Hammer
1860s
Fun fact: the Arm and Hammer logo represents Vulcan, the Roman god of fire and metalworking.

Guinness
1862
Fun fact: The symbol is the harp of Brian Boru, which was a symbol of Ireland since the reign of Henry VIII (16th century). Guinness adopted the harp as a logo in 1862; however, it faces left instead of right, as in the Irish coat of arms.

Red Cross
1864
Designed by Henri Dunant
Fun fact: The logo was established, along with the organization, at the Geneva Convention

Mitsubishi
1870
Designed by Yataro Iwasaki
Mitsubishi was started as a shipping firm and the three diamonds represented a ship's propellers.

Anheuser Busch
1872
Fun fact: The Budweiser Clydesdales were introduced on April 7, 1933, to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition for beer.

Bass
1875, but allegedly used since the 1600s
Fun fact: It’s one of the oldest logos in the world and is reg. no. 1 in the UK

Coca-Cola
1885
Designed by John Pemberton's partner and bookkeeper, Frank Mason Robinson

General Electric
1890
Designed by Emmanuel Orazi
Fun fact: Paul Rand was asked to redesign the logo in the mid-20th century. He refused to touch the "masterpiece" and prompted GE to keep their iconic Art Deco trademark.

Fruit of the Loom
1893
Designer: farmer Rufus Skeel, whose daughter painted pictures of red apples

Louis Vuitton
1896
Fun fact: The logo was originally created to prevent counterfeiting. Today, LV is one of the most heavily counterfeited in fashion history, with just over 1% of the items in circulation considered authentic.

Michelin
1898
Designed by O'Galop
Fun fact: Tires weren't colored black until 1912, which is why the Michelin man is white.

Goodyear
1900
Fun fact: The logo is based on a statue of Mercury from the Seiberling family’s home

This information came from all over the internet, including corporate websites, Wikipedia (totally legit), and:
http://www.dinesh.com
schwimmerlegal.com
logoorange.com
logodesignlove.com
logoblog.org
money.cnn.com
Let me know if there are any corrections or if you know any more!

This Beats the BMW Chess Ad (For Me at Least)

2009-05-04T19:35:00.001-04:00

This is a banner titled "The Art of Recycling" by Rona and was a three day publicity stunt to promote the company's paint recuperation program. The agency, Bos Montreal, expected the campaign to spread online (look Ma, I'm helping!). The poster says "We collect leftover paint" according to Creativity, who I assume have better translators than I do.

More information roughly translated from French, photos and a video of the installation here.

In case you've been in a cave, here's the Chess ad:

Thanks Hannah!

Hi irony, meet this ad.

2009-05-01T20:16:00.006-04:00

I've always been very particular (annoyingly so) about where I spend my money because I think too much about it.

I follow the idea that you vote with your money.

I was horrified to learn about the specifics about Starbuck's business practices, where they intentionally aim to intentionally destroy smaller businesses as opposed to simply competing with them, and so because I don't support the company ethically I won't support them monetarily. Simple.

So yeah, I know what Starbuck's is going for here and that I'm overthinking it, but I find it interesting that the company is urging consumers to be conscious of the consequences of their coffee.

via Media Bistro.

Creativity Nouvelle

2009-04-29T15:13:00.005-04:00

Lately, I've noticed people discussing how the internet is changing art, especially in terms of the loss of spontaneity (check out Ben Malbon, Kevin Rothermel, and Ana Andjelic have been writing).

Another way that I've seen art changing is more in terms of the evolution of creativity. Thanks to the ease of involvement, more people are expressing their creativity through social media.

One of the main usages cited for social media is people’s desire for self expression.

While content creators are a small but powerful selection of users, a larger group is expressing themselves in new ways through social media. Examples include editing MySpace and Twitter design, filling out Facebook’s 25 Questions meme, contributing to open source projects, customizing products online, Tumblr blogs, and creating fashion collages on Polyvore.

By allowing anyone to easily modify, publish, and spread their own unique additions, social media allows everyday people who would not normally produce their own work a creative outlet for self-expression. Social media eliminates factors limiting this group offline, such as lack of confidence, inspiration, or time.

Reasons driving the surge of creativity through social media include:

Existing creative framework. People don’t need to invent and produce entirely new ideas, they simply tweak what already exists. This saves them the effort of creating a new idea and the time of actually developing that new idea.
Low involvement of entry. Most sites that encourage creativity are free and, because of the existing creative framework, require less time than individual endeavors.
Anonymity. By concealing their identity, some people feel more comfortable about sharing their creative ventures.
Encouragement from the community. Positive reviews motivate people to continue their efforts.
Potential popularity. Acceptance is still a driving factor for human action, and social media facilitates the hunt for popularity.

And takeaways, esp. for brands:

The ratio of effort vs. output is a driving factor for the evolution of creativity online
Allowing websites or applications to be uniquely modifiable engages consumers
Creative expression is a non-tangible benefit to give to consumers
When attempting to generate UGC for themselves, brands should guide users with parameters to encourage widespread participation

Idea: Amazon Book Search by Book Cover Image

2009-04-24T12:15:00.001-04:00

Ever tried to recall the name of a book, but absolutely can't do it? The best you can think of is "well, the book was red...and the name was really big and gold"? The problem is actually not that rare.

My solution to this? Amazon Book Search by Book Cover Image

Here's how it works: you start to doodle a rough version on the book, and Amazon returns with all the book covers that mildly resemble your sketch.

Something similar was created for Flickr in 2006 called Retrievr. Check it out:

Success-ish!

Amazon has a bajillion book cover images in its system thanks to the ability for customers to add their own covers in addition to its own collection. In fact, Amazon's constantly innovative search and referral methods has influenced their overwhelming success.

If Retrivr could do it in 2006, Amazon can do it now. And perhaps better, especially as image search technology improves (as evidenced by Google's new project called Similar Image Search, which is super rad).

My Take on Simplier, Blog-Based Sites

2009-04-15T11:14:00.003-04:00

This week, an article in AdWeek explored the emergence of simplified agency and client sites based on existing sites like Wordpress or Ning, in lieu of Flash-intensive ones. I've been rooting for the low-fi underdogs for a while now (which has nothing to do with how bad I am at Flash) and, in my opinion, they have many advantages over the over-produced ones.

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I'm used to using super-slow student laptops/university computer lab computers/intern computers so I've never been particularly interested in flashy websites, anyway, simply because they don't work on slower computers.

While many are definitely cool, I'm a consumer too, so if I can't easily access them, then the message is lost. Or if they're all hat and no cattle (or for all of you plaid - shirt - wearing - non - Texans: pretty, but lacking in content), while the site draws my attention, it doesn't engage me and make me want to stay there.

Simplified sites also reflect a mass movement towards mobile web browsing and RSS reading.

However, this change is largely due to the recession because by making simple sites on free or low-cost existing websites, agencies save on production costs. I would argue that this doesn't necessarily make the sites cheaper- by refocusing to stripped-down sights, there's a lot more emphasis on content and a need to constantly monitor and improve upon it.

But that's one of the reasons I like this shift- the move from impressing a user with cool tricks to engaging a consumer with substance. AdWeek calls it "Cheap Chic", but I think it's using sites to the best of their ability.

This shift is particularly important because it utilizes online resources and what they do best for consumers. Instead of creating a highly-produced site but static site, these sites are able to evolve with a campaign, react to consumers, or change as needs fit. Minimalistic sites can be even more web-y than the flashy ones, because they promote communication as opposed to the more complicated sites that could exist offline.

An added benefit of stripping down the fancy Flash? Once the content is simplified- it can be removed from the site and live on it's own elsewhere. And spreadability is key.

The article lists some sites (EVB, Juxt Interactive and Big Spaceship) that have launched Wordpress sites in the last two weeks. I love the new designs and I can think of at least two agency sites off the top of my head that could use a change, too: Leo Burnett and Freedom and Partners. Although they're certainly aesthetically interesting, they're are almost impossible to navigate and get to the content- the reason I visit these sites.

Oh, and I like this part: For instance, there might be a new emphasis on strategic insights versus time sheets and production costs. Excellent!

Hat picture by cy esp

Scanning Old Notes: The Best Grammar Guide Ever by The Best Man Ever

2009-04-12T13:06:00.021-04:00

Although others (98% of the COM class of 2009 and a certain newspaper) may disagree, (ex) Dean Schultz was the best football-playing-fighter-pilot-rhyming-poet-sort-of-Oxford-graduate man to grace Morse auditorium before resigning after an investigation by the Boston Globe.

As traumatic as COM 101 was (like the time where three quarters of the class received a failing grade on an assignment judged by the PDDT standards), e-D Schultz's legacy lives on through Please Don't Do That, the writing guide given to us on the first day of class at Boston University. The guide, to me at least, has actually be helpful to me over the past few years and I'd like to share it.

Side note: Does anyone remember the time when the economics lecturer mentioned bagel sales and then, through his own clever magic, had someone purchase him a bagel so he could reference it in his traditional post-lecture summary poem? Awe-inspiring.

Individual pages here:

1		2		3		4
5		6		7		8

Hey Freakazoid!

2009-04-07T00:07:00.013-04:00

You are weird.

Seriously, if you have gotten to this site, you are not normal.

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By normal, of course, I mean average. Lately I've been involved seriously with the social media extravaganza trend, as as an online native I fell for it. I got the Flickr. I got the Twitter. Hell, I got the Tumblr and tons of others.

Compared to the people I know or look up to, I am enthusiastic but not abnormal. I'm interested in new developments (Flutter anyone?) as much as the next guy, and every new blog post concerning online communication I read and contemplate. And typically accept.

But thank goodness I still come back and live in New Jersey.

The thing is, the people here have never even hear of Twitter, let alone had any deep thoughts about it.

The people I know here, and even back in Boston? All those trendy up and coming influencial 18-24 year olds that I spend my time with?

They still are offline, or on MySpace, something the 2 million Twitter members who proclaim themselves as "social media experts" as of late have almost forgotten about.

It's strange to think that somehow I've become one of the strange minority that is exposed to technological developments as they happen. Honestly, I never even thought about it, let alone attempted to stay ahead of the trend. This just comes naturally to me.

But after reading those blog entries and talking to people, particularly planners, I realized that we're just freaks. We've embraced this change and integrated it into our lives seamlessly, and that's abnormal.

Most people haven't. Even those normal cool kids, the Millennials marketers spend thousands on to understand, those stereotypically trend-setting and monetarily influential, those with the latest cell and trendy Forever 21 clothes- they're still eons behind us.

It's important to be aware of the next big thing and see how communication efforts can connect with people in different ways. No doubt about that. And it's great to speculate on the best practices of social media and interactive marketing, because it creates really interesting avenue of communication.

But really, for all the hype of Twitter and even Facebook for marketers, most people aren't there for a way for it to create an impact. They're not there for the amount of engagement necessary for it to connect in any non-superficial way. Most of your target hasn't' been exposed to the creative efforts or even the scandals involved. They're interested, but not necessarily engaged.

(Side note: The creative online communication efforts are typically more effective than traditional media in brand-building or perception-changing and I stand behind them 100%. But something I've realized is that they're not the next big thing. They're part of the next move.)

I'm sorry for this rant because I am very involved with the progress of communications. I find the field facinating and I love finding out more about it.

But the thing is, I am abnormal. The most important thing, I think, as a planner, an advertiser, or even a marketer, is to step back. Go have a drink with your high school friends if you can, or spend some time on public transportation.

Remember who you're talking to.

Pics from here and here and here and here

Call DYFS, I've Been Negligent

2009-04-04T20:13:00.005-04:00

Zeny called me out this week for neglecting my blog lately. I'm chalking up the blame to PSFK, where I've been donating my time (i.e. interning) for the last month. See what I've been writing about here.

Man-novation.

2009-03-19T22:57:00.006-04:00

Facebook doesn't lie (except for the part of my profile that says I went to MIT and majored in Rocketships). I am interested in men. But that's not the whole story- I love menvertising (or whatever men + marketing word is).

After years of ridiculous female-focused products, hilariously male-focused marketing tools are appearing everywhere and I gotta love the brocus (bro + focus). So what do I mean?
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I mean shows like the MTV spin-off Bromance, staring Brody from The Hills portraying the evolution of the man crush (see David Beckham).

So as I'm writing this, the trailer for I Love You Man just came on. True story and totally relevant.

I Love You, Man is a movie that further emphasizes the soft, tender, and macho direction that is now being used to target men.

Now for the really silly stuff:

Mantiques - Vintage shopping with a male's eye. Check out www.mantiques.net and www.mantiquesmodern.com

Mandals - Male footwear fashion with too much man foot exposure.

Murse - Understandably practice but awkward looking.

Manktops - Should never ever be worn.

Keep your eyes out and report back with more mashion (oh yes, it's a site) and man-novation!

I wanna really really really wanna zigazig ha

2009-03-17T09:51:00.005-04:00

Honestly, I'm one of those anti-cigarettes kids (especially while drunk driving is under punished and smoking other things is still a criminal act, but more on that another time).

Now kids, I'm here to talk to you about smoking.

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In scandalous celeb news that no one but me cares about, Hayden Panettiere was caught smoking this week! Maybe she was just tired from this outburst.

And THEN I saw pictures from Paris Fashion Week. In addition to all the usual insanity, I noticed that a model was posing with a cigarette. Oh, France.

Like any good girl living in the Garden State, I was at the mall this week. In between the kiosks selling personalized embroidered sweatshirts and fake hair scrunchies, there was a different kind of stand- the ECigarette stall.

For real.

Yum, you can go to your mall to get peddled a device that I'm lead to believe is straight shots of nicotine. Yum. Interestingly enough, these sales people weren't as pushy as the fake hair women. But they still had, when I walked by, about four interested customers. I guess its true..

We don't sell Tic Tacs, we sell cigarettes. And they're cool, available, and addictive. The job is almost done for us.

According to the site

Finally you can quit smoking - by "smoking" ECigarettes
A healthier way to smoke... without all the harmful effects.

I sense some flawed logic in there somewhere.

But.....this next one I can do. I'm not as cool as the kids who have been doing this for years, but thanks to Ad Age I found out that I can smoke Smarties. I repeat- I can smoke Smarties. Take it away, ballerboy4life.

In addition to having the added benefit of being awesome, Smarties smoking has also influenced sweet Yahoo Help questions for added entertainment value (in addition to all those YouTube videos and the instructions via wikiHow). It's a fad that keeps on giving, really. And so much better that the SHS Class of '06 "California high" trend. Represent.

And that's why cigarettes are having the best week ever!

via here and here and here and here

Weird: Tag Cloud from Amazon

2009-03-14T19:01:00.012-04:00

I stumbled upon this buried in my Amazon account and realized that this actually accurately describes all of my interests in one pretty little box. Thanks for being a creep, Amazon. Let's hope I like the next book Mr. A recommends.

Okay the Military one is weird, but that's apparently because of Julius Caesar, The Atlas of the Real World, and 1491. Fair enough.

Just the Book Cover

2009-02-24T13:49:00.001-05:00

It’s been years since copy was declared to be dead and websites like The Media Death Watch and The Media Is Dying are reaffirming people’s disinterest in words.

So what’s living? Images.

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Why are images outweighing words?

Images are easy to use. They’re one entity that can be easily found, understood, and spread. You don’t have to read through an entire article (heaven forbid) to get to a small snippet you can use to demonstrate your point.
Pictures do not have a fixed meaning. Images provide inspiration and constant discovery because images can be reinterpreted. When the idea is not spelled out, the user is left with their own creative license.
Images have the ability to be timeless, or at least constantly relevant throughout time. Images have a certain immortality that words lack, because images have the ability to live without an obvious meaning.

The entire idea behind this post came to me when I was thinking of my Twitter account. As I near 200 tweets, I wonder how many of them live past the actual writing. Then I think of my Flickr account, where my images I took 6 months old are getting new views.

Compare how often you revisit old Facebook photos vs. old wall posts (not often, now with Facebook's new setup). Think about when you first get a friend invite. Do you go through their wall three or four clicks or their pictures? Facebook, a website clearly based on social networking, is actually one of the largest photo sharing site. (as I was writing this post, someone tagged themselves in picture I took two years ago).

In addition, think about how irrelevant words become over time. The best survive, but many fade away and are considered irrelevant and dated when revisited, especially in the communications field.

Why else are these images immortal? Poor attention span.

“The lack of retention lends itself to having fresh content. The joke is that 4chan post is a repost of a repost of a repost. There was a guy who was downloading every image from /b/. He calculated that 80 percent of what’s posted has been posted before.”
-Business Insider (via fascinated via Chet)

If it’s still funny, it’s still spread.

Recently, Life collaborated with Google to release their image database to the public. Two years ago, the New York Times allowed their old content to be accessible through their site.

Personally, I’ve already searched through the Life images and watched them being spread and used (my aunt even forwarded me some photos). However, whenever I stumble onto an old New York Times article as a result of a search, I’m instantly disappointed by the irrelevance of the article.

Clearly websites like ffffound and Tumblr (when you can't blog- Tumblr) show that people are interested in finding and sharing images. Other sites, too, like the aforementioned Polyvore uses images to create more images.

4chan is still primarily an image forum. Think about how this site and these pictures have influenced current culture. While they combine both text and images, they have the “viral” (30 lashes for using that word) aspect because, as images, they are so easy to share.

Even more widespread is Google Maps. There are numerous ways an average person uses Google Maps: street view directions, photo-based guides, or store reviews showing on store front appearance. Google Maps takes things historically word-based and creates more interest and widespread use by transforming them into visual information.

Now I’m not going to proclaim that words are dead, but there is clearly an increase interest in images and more ways to use them than ever.

Btw, aren’t you happy that I didn’t make reference to the “A picture is worth 1,000 words” until now?

Pictures from here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Love it: Polyvore

2009-02-18T11:29:00.009-05:00

So what is Polyvore, why does Larissa love it, and what can you learn from it?

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Chapter 1: Polyvore One Sheet

Polyvore is called everything from a user-generated fashion magazine to an outfit aggregation tool to a social shopping site. The site's drag and drop collage application that allows users to create and publish "sets" on the site.

Users can use the images already uploaded to the site or add their own with a bookmark button. Most images and sets are fashion-based, and the site makes money when people buy one of the items through a Polyvore link.

STATS!

1.6 million unique visitors per month
65 million monthly page views
440,000 registered users
10 minutes average session time on site
22 pageviews average per visit
3.8 million sets created
3.7 million products

The length of time users spend on the site is decently long. "[One of the founders] says what makes the site popular – even though she notes there was little promotion or marketing – is that it’s easy to use yet addictive." Which is pretty much the recipe for success for any site.

The users, who skew female, typically fall into three categories.

Tweens/Teens who make Twilight and Abercrombie Sets
Fashion and Design Kids who make pretty outfits and abstract sets
Moms unleashing their creative side

The website has been profiled by many others throughout the last year, but I feel like it has the potential to be used by brands more vigorously and inspire other brands to do similar things.

Chapter 2: Why I love Polyvore

Clearly Polyvore has a great application. What makes me love it is all the features on the site that encourages through all of its other features.

Through tags, groups, and user-run contests, Polyvore encourages users to spend more time on the site and interact with more products.

In addition, the site has a blog, Twitter and its own contests.

The blog is a great feature because it’s a genuinely valuable fashion tool in addition to constant self promotion.

The Twitter encourages people to use it the site in different ways. For example, here’s a recent tweet:
By encourage use of the site outside of Polyvore.com, the site gets promoted AND users see the application as a more useful tool.

Many of Polyvore’s own contests are brand-focused, which is when I realized that Polyvore really knew their target market. They know that fashion-lovers tend to be interested in brand names, and by focusing on that, they’re demonstrating the potential opportunities for potential partners.

The contest has over 2,000 entries (with 2 days left to go), with each set that purposely has a Starbuck item in it. Typically I don’t think contests are a necessarily effective way of promoting a brand because of the lack of involvement in entering a contest, but this combines something a Polyvore user is doing anyway along with the good will of the contest (plus the winner gets $).

Chapter 3: Polyvore +

The one brand that has a strong prominence on Polyvore’s application is Amazon. Amazon recently introduced an application that allows users to add music to their sets. Of course, by clicking the application users can purchase the song from Amazon, generating profit for Polyvore and Amazon.

(I have that belt!)

Stock images and words-as-art are both popular types of images on Polyvore. So what if Kodak created a special category for stock images from Kodak? Or what if Quotable Cards used Polyvore to invite users to interpret their cards?

Hulu could add clips of shows available for sets, or better yet the CW could add Gossip Girl clips along with a link to purchase the First Season.

Old Navy could have its own section on the site and users who include Old Navy apparel could be eligible for a gift certificate.

Why doesn’t Macys.com or Forever21.com have a collage feature on their site?

Having an outfit-building application could encourage more online purchases if customers could better visualize outfits. Not to mention the additional revenues the could be gained by recommending matches or posting other user-generated outfits.

Seriously, I love the collage application. What if it were applied to other site? Imagine being able to clip a few quotes and a picture on CNN.com or arrange some choice photos from Facebook?

Conclusion:

Polyvore is an interesting revenue model that is open to brand development. Its rapid growth in the last year has created a large, engaged user base that enjoys interacting with brands. Do something about it.

Images from: Here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Oh Baby Baby!

2009-02-13T08:45:00.005-05:00

I've had this in my head for a while now, and Hulu's new campaign with Boomer Alec Baldwin aimed at those Boomers instead of young, cool kids like me got me thinking again.

In the age of "Jesus Christ on a bicycle my Mom just Facebook friended me," people are re-evaluating Boomers. I feel like there was always a skepticism about treating the Boomers as anything from vacation-loving retirees, but now the view is changing as Boomers are reestablishing themselves as informed and active users of modern communications.

The Reader’s Digest version:

Boomers are used to adapting to new technology; they’ve done this all their lives
The latest technological development, the internet, create a distinction between them and later generations
Boomers learned on their own terms when it was relevant to them, especially from having to use technology in their careers
Boomers don't think they're old or out of touch and resent being treated that way
There is a distinction between common knowledge and universal knowledge. Boomers might not know what seems obvious
Regardless, Boomers are still a valuable market who use everything from Hulu to Wii to Twitter

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Slowly, Gen X and Y-ers are coming to terms with the fact that their Mom is listening to her iPod at the grocery store and their Dad is TiVoing the Duke game.

There’s always been a general enthusiasm my generation, because Millennials are considered to be different: They grew up in a time where technology was rapidly developing and have been using computers for most of our lives.

But Boomers are different, too. They've been part of this communication revolution just as my generation has, but in a different way. A year after the first Baby Boomer was born, another landmark in American History occurred: in 1947, the transistor was invented.

Boomers grew up in a world that has always had the transistor and the technology that comes along with it. They grew up after radio and television were invented and during their lifetime a multitude of other devices were invented, from the personal stereo to the Internet.

Throughout their lifetime, Boomers have adapted to new technology and incorporated these new advances into their lives to make them easier and richer. Through their careers, Boomers have grown acquainted with the Internet and cell phones. They integrated technology into their daily lives because of their careers and are likely to continue to use the same technology after they retire.

But here is where the important distinction is made. Millennials all started on the same level and worked up to a decent grasp of technology together. Boomers, on the other hand, learned on their own time when they needed it.

Instead of being forced to learn about computers through school or hearing about new, fun ways to use the internet to communicate and play with friends like Gen X and Y, Boomers have adapted to technology on their own time.

So marketing to Boomers is different, too. Boomers are not technologically illiterate, but they approach technology differently. They are still active members of the communications world and need to be communicated to appropriately.

Communicating to Boomer appropriately does not mean creating a dumbed-down version. Boomers do not consider themselves old and reject things that seemed obviously aimed towards Boomers. Instead, they embrace what is relevant to their lives.

Matt Thornhill, president of The Boomer Project, says, “The biggest misconception about Baby Boomers is they think they are old…Boomers do not consider themselves old. They are putting off old age…They are continuing to follow the same patterns they have in the past.”

What to remember is that Boomers are involved with current technology, but they might not use it in the same way as the younger generations. I realized this when I came across a (heavily highlighted) print out of this article on my parent's desk. This "Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User" post makes the distinction between common knowledge and universal knowledge. You might think that something like Ctrl-C is stamped in everyone’s mind, but that is not necessarily the case.

Boomers are no longer the geriatric stereotypes that many consider them. Luckily, there examples emerging that correspond with the redefinition of the Boomers.

An early example is from 2007, when Paul McCartney appeared in an iPod commercial. Paul is a timeless figure, but Apple was actually doing some smart marketing. 33% of Baby Boomers own an Early Lifecycle Portable Electronic Product (like an MP3 player or a portable DVD player), while the national average for adults is 30% (Lifestyles of Baby Boomers - Mintel Reports).

Hulu recently used Alec Baldwin in their SuperBowl commercial. At first glance, it seems like a strange choice because Alec’s age peers are not necessarily what someone would imagine using Hulu. But in actuality, the Wall Street Journal reported that:

When the company launched its public site last March, the largest age group visiting the site were those Internet visitors over 55 years old, accounting for 47% of all site visits, while traditionally younger early adopters accounted for only 17% of traffic. (via 5 Blogs Before Lunch)

The recent movie Last Chance Harvey was actually a cultural landmark for Boomers.

The nice thing here is that the movie is about the lives of the older characters, not just about them being someone’s grandparent or mentor.(Savvy Boomer via PSFK)

Boomers are a huge market for everything from Wiis (hey-Nintendo says 25% of their gamers are 50+) to YouTube, and it is important to realize that, really, even granny can get a blog.

images from here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. Geez.

Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

2009-01-29T10:03:00.000-05:00

The one thing that I love about the internet is that if you're lying, you probably will be caught. After all these years of "The Media is Lying to You" conspiracy theories, the media is shifting hands. There are Anonymous vigilantes out there who love exposing the little man behind the screen or sticking it to the man.

So why do brands continue to be deceitful? Is this an effective method?

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Four examples come to mind off the top of my head. Ray Ban's Guy catches glasses with face, Levi's Guys backflip into jeans, Guitar Hero's Bike Hero, and the Witchery's are you my man in the jacket?.

The video comments have a lot of positive comments because they're really cool videos, but of course they also have a lot of comments denouncing the video. Imagine the conversations people have about them. "Hey, did you see that Bike Hero video?" "Yeah, it was all fake."

You get remembered as a phony or a gimmick.

Would any of these videos be significantly less successful if they were a little more clearly branded? If you have the ability to be clever and make a video people like, why not be proud of it?

That's why I love this Cadbury Eyebrows video. It's as random and captivating as any of the others, but it doesn't try to hide the fact that it's branded. It evokes joy and happiness and connects those feelings with the product. Perfect.

I saw Gareth Kay use this quote in a presentation and it stuck with me.

Obviously this extends to other media as well. People watch videos, sometimes they watch branded videos. And really, there's nothing wrong with that.

Why be tricky? Make something better and be proud of it.

pictures from x y and z

DIY in 09

2009-01-22T09:24:00.006-05:00

I was hyper excited when I saw that DIY is one of 2009's trends. Half my Delicious Bookmarks are from Craftster (or Etsy, Make, Craft....) and I've made my own jewelery, pants, and beer before, so I am kinda in love with DIY everything.

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I have a feeling that the revival in arts and crafts is a reaction to the rapid evolution of technology. Something similar happened after the Industrial Revolution: the Arts and Crafts Movement emerged against the cold, machine-like feeling that the revolution produced. Again, people are reacting to the massive penetration of technology with the return to something that feels human-made.

In addition, times of economic hardships correspond with a return to the basics. And that means a return to values like hard work and, of course, the renewed interest in simple and unique items that have an authentic, homemade feel.

This return pertains to a trend continuing from 08: the old is new trend. Examples include renewed interest in vinyl records, vintage-inspired clothing and interior accessories, nostalgic references in pop culture, and retro-sounding music.

So this brings me to two cool things.

One is the emphasis on combining crafts with technology, which is interesting to a small niche of people-including me. It's the combination of old school crafting with new ideas (like Burda Style's open source sewing or custom-designed fabric through Spoonflower) or the application of DIY ideas to new technology (like almost everything on the Make blog).

The other is combining the trend of crafts with...anything else. I read that Jamba Juice launched their new oatmeal with "knifiti" (or knit graffiti, which is not a unique term). To emphasize "making cold things warm," they decorated stores in Michigan and NYC with the help from some guerrilla knitters. This event elevated a traditional food with an added a modern element.

What's next.... bands selling embroidery merch?

Oh wait...I own the Decemberist's Embroidery Kit. See? Nothing's off limits.

Pictures from here and here and here and hurrrr.

Just Google It

2009-01-20T06:19:00.003-05:00

The trailer for the disaster movie 2012 has an great twist.

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Instead of having a silly-sounding but nonetheless x-treme call to action like many other movies have, this trailer encourages the viewers to educate themselves about the events inspiring the movie.

Typically, it's very bad if your website isn't one of the first results on Google. But in this case, the movie is making this fact work for them. It's actually making Google work for it, too.

Following examples like the Blair Witch project ("No, man, that stuff is REAL"), 2012 is attempting to utilize outside information that will hopefully create more hype about the movie.

The accompanying line is notable, too. "Find out the truth" corresponds with the online emphasis on truth and reality, as evidenced in numerous studies and websites devoted to uncovering scams.

View the trailer here and of course, google 2012 for yourself.

He-Man Designur Haters Club

2009-01-07T09:57:00.007-05:00

Okay, so you know what? I don't have a ffffound invite.

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I have gone through the same routine as innumerable other ffffound visitors have. I saw the crazy name, noticed a few neat pictures, and then ended up finding a few I really liked through the recommendations. I thought "Hey, this is worth the .5 seconds it takes for me to sign up for a website by George I think I'll do it."

BUT not only is ffffound invite only, they announce their exclusivity by putting a strike though the "Register" button.

I get it ffffound. You're cool and exclusive and use Times New Roman.

I briefly tried to get an invite code, but so were plenty of other people. While I think invite-only is a unique backlash against the open-everything of the web, it really stinks to be on the other side.

Because almost everything is available online, it's actually a good thing to make some things selective because a lot of times it makes the final result more focused and occasionally better. In addition, it adds another benefit- the feeling of being in the in crowd.

In the online world of free, exclusivity is a currency.

But because almost everything is available online, there are other options. Which is how and why I signed up for We Heart It instead. It's exactly the same thing, except everyone can use it, hence the tagline "Visual bookmarking for everyone". And when I say exactly the same thing, I mean that there might be some artistic copyright infringement as well.

I personally like We Heart It better because I like the variety of images on the website. Since they can be added by anyone, there are a lot more options. It even includes almost 800 pages of images relating to ffffound.

It's a toss up. You can be exclusive, but then you risk losing a lot of people and possibly some value in their numbers. Or you can be exclusive and allow that added benefit to make a more appealing product.

But if saving ffffound images on We Heart It is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Picture from here and here

Now I COULD make an economy joke...

2009-01-06T12:17:00.003-05:00

...but since this is from Williamsburg, Brooklyn I'm 75% sure these kids were just trying to be clever. Because they went the extra mile and included the whipped cream -cap off- I'll approve of the hipster fridge.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T14:33:00.004-05:00

Sure it might be different and sometime difficult. But to me, that sounds like fun. Cheers!

You and I and the Ditty Bops Save The World

2008-12-29T14:21:00.010-05:00

I know...blah blah green marketing is super cereal. But after reading The World Without Us, I got interested in the reduction of plastic bag usage and I've always been a bikes-not-cars kid. (Really, I'm a good time at parties.)

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So the other day I actually visited the website for the adorable hipster duo, The Ditty Bops. I've always been vaguely okay with their music, but I had no idea that they also had an environmental aspect to their band.

What I really love is that they have a point of view and they apply it to every aspect of their identity that they can.

For example, their main page promotes their non-profit side project You And I Save the World. The organization promotes the reduction of plastic bag usage through a petition, a canvas bag fund raiser ($1500 raised so far), and their environmental-themed comic.

To promote their album Moon Over the Freeway, they did an all-bicycle tour from California to New York to simultaneously raise awareness about energy conservation and pollution while blogging on the road.

The Ditty Bops' next tour was dubbed the Farm Tour (complete with corresponding blog). This tour took place on small farms and in traditional venues and raised money for agricultural charities.

The Ditty Bops take their product (i.e. the band), integrate their opinions, apply it wherever they can in inventive ways, and directly communicate with their fans through social media. Now, why can't everyone do something like that?

Write Your Own Label

2008-12-22T09:52:00.004-05:00

I love applying the concept of user-generated content further than "SUBMIT YOUR VIDEOS FOR MY ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN FOR A CHANCE TO WIN $50!!!!!" Because really, how engaging is that?

So while at the Tate Britain last week, right next to some of the typical art museum captions, were something called "Write Your Own Label." read more The Tate Britain invites patrons to write their own captions for various artworks and then places a select few in the gallery. It's part of their general campaign that appears to encourage repeat visitors who have specific passions that can be related to the collections.

This is a really interesting way to involve interaction in place that is not typically associated with modernity. The effect of this idea also extends beyond the label writer; it hopefully opens up further contemplation with every different visitor.

Oh, and to continue my Tate-Britain-Love? The Create Your Own Collection is another facet of their interaction (with interesting and customizable lists of the collection) and their Tube posters are great--and show that good copy isn't dead.

Images from here and here

8th Wonder of the Fast Food World

2008-12-19T16:14:00.004-05:00

Google has failed me.

I cannot find any proof of this one, incredible culinary innovation that rocked my world.

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No joke.

One evening, my friend and I passed by a McDonalds and did a double take. "Does it say Potato Dippers!? And Tangy Tomato Sauce?" By George, it did.

Now, like 75% of the US population, I am a huge french fry fan. They're crispy, salty, and taste great with ketchup. I loved them for who they are.....but I had no idea there were bigger and better things out there.

Namely Potato Dippers.

It had never occurred to me that such a simple but incredible meal staple could be any way improved on. But McDonald's had taken it to the next level. They engineered a french fry that was perfectly ergonomically compatible with the [Tangy Tomato] sauce that it complimented so well.

Seriously, guys, this was awesome. Instead of the stick-like french fries, the potatoes were hollowed out so that they were a trough meant for dipping.

Unfortunately, the only proof I have is this one picture I took in haste before I started eating.

But imagine the cross section of the french fry is something more like:

Ingenious.

BUT the next time I went to the same McDonalds (Two weeks later. Tops.), I was told that the promotion was over. Worse, I have not been able to find any other evidence that these existed. I don't understand why something so wonderful would exist for such a short time.

The moral of the story is twofold.

Just because something has been around for a long time doesn't mean that it can't be improved upon.

And also, get it while it lasts.

Image from Trendhunter.

Elf Yourself for W+K's Christmas Card

2008-12-16T16:52:00.010-05:00

While on a super shopping spree around London's Brick Lane, I stumbled across Wieden + Kennedy's Christmas Card Making Machine.

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The premise is that passers-by stand on footprints outside the agency and have their picture taken as part of W+K's Christmas card.

This is what I look like when I W+Ked myself:

It's a really cute and clever interactive piece that adds an element of difference because it's only available to those who go to the office in real life. People can view the Christmas card online, but they cannot participate unless they actually are in the area. While it does reach a smaller audience this way, it creates the personal feel of a Christmas card. Thumbs up.

P.S. Saying "Ps This site is nothing like elf yourself but rubbish" on the website does not make it any less prone to Elf Yourself comparisons.

If you give a college student....

2008-12-09T14:18:00.010-05:00

If you give a college student the internet during finals week, they're going to want to check their e-mail.

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If they check their e-mail, they might find a notification from Facebook.

They're going to want to see what the notification is, so they're going to sign onto Facebook.

Once they go onto Facebook, they're going to respond to the notification.

And if they want to gossip about the notification, they're going to have to sign on to AIM.

If they're signed onto AIM, they might as well listen to their iTunes.

After they've been on AIM for a while, they're going to start to wonder if they've gotten any more e-mails....

Live East, Die Young

2008-12-07T16:58:00.014-05:00

I went to the opening of POW (Pictures on Walls) this weekend in Shoreditch and discovered two new artists to fall in love with.

The POW festival was a great communal effort to launch a street art gallery/ store.

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Of course, there was a Banksy exhibition there.

The entire road was closed down and full of little modifications (in addition to big additions).

Anyway...to the two artists! Btoy and Simon Munnery.

By the time I got there on the second day of the exhibition, everything from Btoy's collection had been sold.

Simon Munnery wrote pamphlets titled "How to Live." I loved the short, witty collection so I bought it (plus it had an excellent list of security guard jokes). Here are some quotes:

What do you get for the man who has everything?
Might I suggest a gravestone inscribed with the words: so what?

All men are brothers.
Hence war.

and finally...

You can't fool all the people all the time. But you can try. It's called advertising.

Overactive Imagination

2008-12-04T09:51:00.010-05:00

You know that teased hair look that's trendy right now?

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That one. Yeah, I always thought it makes your head look like Gossamer from Looney Tunes.

Anti: Band T Shirts

2008-12-04T07:24:00.008-05:00

There are a few things I do based on shaky rationale that I stick to for some reason. The biggest one is that I haven't eaten a hot dog since 3rd grade even though I know they're delicious and I eat plenty of other gross things.

Another one of those things is that I won't wear clothes with brands on them. Including band t-shirts.

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While I don't go around cutting off the labels on jeans or anything drastic, I would never pay for a brand to advertise on my clothes. I started following this ideology some time in jr. high, when shirts like these were popular.

One of my teachers pointed out the foolishness of allowing your personal space to become advertising, and I agreed, so I never ended up being that trendy. Fine, it's a pretty easy thing to do and plenty of people agree.

The one thing that irks me is that while people get all up in arms about marketing and advertising, they fail to realize everything that they do to support it. One of those things is band shirts.

Band logos are logos. Bands are Brands. Simple.

I know I'm not the first person to say it, but people seem to not realize that bands are products, no matter how indie or whatever they are. They're selling things- songs, tickets, and merch- just like a thousand other brands. It's not a bad thing, I just think it's silly when people think artists are immune to advertising.

Walking billboard punx.

It's True....

2008-12-02T06:17:00.011-05:00

Germans really ARE obsessed. Found this delight in Berlin:

Facemates.com

2008-11-28T06:01:00.004-05:00

Facebook has clearly mastered what Classmates.com [I feel like the ".com" is inherently part of the name of the website] set out to do.

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The website dates way back in 1995 (apparently the interface and the ads haven't changed since then, too) with a legitimately good and new idea: to play on people's curiosity by giving them access to people in their past. Of course, they've recently failed while others have flourished because their interface is extremely outdated and they stifle usability with a membership fee.

Facebook's genius and popularity are from it's friendship aggregation scheme. Nearly every aspect of it's website is integrated with the ability to find new people. Even before the very obvious "People You May Know" scheme were features such as picture tagging and six random friends displayed on each user's profile.

Anyway, I've been thinking of the two in comparison because I've noticed a trend in Facebook requests that triggers a response that parallels their infamous banner ad.

I'm going to blame the (ingenious) "People You May Know" tool which connects my name to people I haven't thought of in years. Lately I've gotten requests from people who all occur the similar reactions to what Classmates.com strived for: "Who are you? Ooooooooh yeah. You really friend-ed me? Okay, well let me read your profile in it's entirety. You're with him/her? And you've got 7 kids??"

Anti: Bad Design

2008-11-25T10:53:00.011-05:00

I'm a bit of a design jerk sometimes. For example, I hate when people write blogs on black backgrounds with white writing and all of that basic design 101 stuff.

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So I went onto PerezHilton today (because the nicely-designed superficial.com linked to it) and I was astounded at how much of an eyesore the website is. Of course, it is one of the most popular blogs , so clearly the appearance isn't important (what a value contrast to the content!).

Ouch.

A few minutes ago Lyndsey A. sent me a print execution that I LOVE...

Link to Flickr

....but when I went to the website, it looked like one of those sketchy "Computer-Crashing Virus Included With Every Download!!!"-looking websites. If it weren't for the print campaign, I would have left software-asli.com in a second.

Good design reminds me of Chief Justice Potter Stewart's remark about pornography.... I don't know what it is, but "I know it when I see it."

Those Who Don't Know History...

2008-11-21T05:52:00.007-05:00

Good thing I know random, irrelevant history. It seems to come in handy ~~never~~ in blog postings.

I read today that Dr. Pepper is almost accidentally giving away Dr. Pepper until Feb. 28. All you have to do is get a coupon on Sunday at 12:01 a.m. I'd have my calendar marked because I LOVE free stuff, but unfortunately (?) I'm going to be in Berlin this weekend.

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So why the free soda?

Dr Pepper is making good on its promise of free soda now that the release of Guns N' Roses' "Chinese Democracy" is a reality. The soft-drink maker said in March that it would give a free soda to everyone in America if the album dropped in 2008. "Chinese Democracy," infamously delayed since recording began in 1994, goes on sale Sunday.
-The Associated Press

I think that's a hilarious compilation between the two parties. But hey, it gets some people free soda and others the amusement of a new Guns N' Roses album. Win win.

It's similar to something that happened in the 1920s + 30s that I read about a few years ago and somehow managed to recollect. Burma-Shave, a shaving cream was famous for it's had a series of clever poems on roadsides. Eventually, they crafted half-joking promotions like this one :

Free Offer! Free Offer!
Rip A Fender
Off Your Car
Mail It In For
A Half-Pound Jar
Burma-Shave

Not surprisingly, people actually sending in their fenders. The amused employees traded the junk yard scraps or toy fenders for jars of Burma-Shave. The next series, the company believed, would surely be realized as spoof.

Free — Free
A Trip To Mars
For 900
Empty Jars
Burma-Shave

Arliss French, though, Chicago's 1920s BAMF managed to procure the necessary jars. After a series of rhyming telegrams (web 0.0)....

Burma:

If A Trip
To Mars You Earn
Remember, Friend
There's No Return

French:

Let's Not Quibble
Let's Not Fret
Gather Your Forces
I'm All Set

Burma:

Our Rockets Are Ready
We Ain't Splitting Hairs
Just Send Us The Jars
And Arrange Your Affairs

.....Burma-Shave agreed to send French, his wife, and 12 children to a German town pronounced "Mars."

Of course, all of this amounted to massive publicity to Burma Shave (obviously, because almost 100 years later I still know about it). I think it's a great story of a company that was years ahead of it's time.

Cheers!

Burma info from Snopes. com + pictures from Digital Media Library and couponcravings.com

Anti: .docx

2008-11-20T06:44:00.005-05:00

.docx is horribly inconvenient at times.

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Because I use a lot of different computers, especially older, shared computers that don't allow downloads, I sometimes run into situations where I have to Google frantically to find some sort of option of converting .docx to .doc for free, online.

Seriously, the files are always the most basic Times-New-Roman-Size-12-Single-Spaced documents that I could have used Notepad for and I really don't know what that extra "x" is doing.

Image from here

Interaction in London

2008-11-19T07:50:00.007-05:00

Two of my less-strange but still diverse interests* are technology and art and I've gotten to see some interesting public art in London recently. There's a great and surprising exhibit in Trafalgar Square right now called Under Scan by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.

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Lozano-Hemmer set up two projectors that create videos in passerby's shadows. It's a strange concept because when people in Trafalgar Square look down, they are greeted by an image of a person waving at them. The exhibit is set up so that the projected people look directly at a viewer, interact with them, and appear to lose interest as the viewer walks away.

Neato. And a lot less eerie than the exhbit I just saw in the Saatchi Gallery, where aged models of world leaders in electric wheelchairs roll around in the basement.

More information on Under Scan here.

* Example: I'm graduating with a Minor in Visual Art and a Liberal Arts Concentration in Political Science. Woooo.

Pictures from BBC, Three Cities and the Saatchi Gallery

Pro: Free

2008-11-18T10:03:00.008-05:00

I love free things. A lot.

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I've taken free samples from everyone I see on Comm. Ave, gotten my favorite furniture and decor from the streets of Allston, and sent away for free sippy cups in the mail (which turned out to be a great innovation for shower beers). With the exception of the Instant Karma: Campaign to Save Darfur CD I bought for my Mom last year, I can't remember paying for music in the last few years.

And now, especially thanks to the internet, Free is trendy and I love it.

The reason I love free so much, actually, is because I love the idea of spreading knowledge to everyone who wants it. I first heard the phrase Information wants to be free in high school, around the time of the Napster lawsuit, and I really believe it does.

If people want to find something hard enough, they now can. Beyond that, there is so much out there now (my petty blog postings, pirated music files, television shows, radical opinion essays, etc.) that people now have so much information to use now. The access to information is so exciting.

Free is accessing all sorts of avenues. It's evolved music, including submissions from Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and Quote Unquote Records, a donations-only record label. It's evolved culture, with everything from free entertainment on Hulu and YouTube to events such as the controversial Free Art Show, a show designed to bring the ownership of contemporary art to the masses by giving away all the art in the show. These are just ideas off the top of my head, but there's an innumerable amount of examples.

Of course this is also influencing businesses, and I think that's great. If a company wants to pay to give me something useful and free, I'll take it. And so will a lot of other people. Wired wrote some great articles about this idea in addition to a free issue of their magazine.

Even that whole "branded utility" advertising scheme created useful and free things for consumers. Two examples I've recently encountered probably the two most referenced examples: the Dyson hand dryers and the Charmin Times Square Toilets.

I'm excited to see what people can realize they can offer others.

Photos courtesy of: Bristol Indymedia, Syndey Morning Herald, Look Good Feel Great, and Gizmodo

Fast Fun Fact

2008-11-13T11:24:00.008-05:00

Regardless of how uncultured Continental Europeans might see Americans, I would guess that every person in my generation who grew up with cable TV can say "I am a little girl" in French.

Proof:

Click It to Believe It.

Consequences of Obama's Presidency

2008-11-09T05:10:00.007-05:00

While I was tuned in/tuned out on the tube today (alliteration is my best friend), I started thinking about the effect Obama is going to have on contemporary alternative music.
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A lot of musicians in my generation have grown up with having a certain disdain for our head of state. It's not a result of some mass rebellion, it's simply that during the entire time of our political awareness we've disrespected our leader.

For the last ten years, we've only really known a president for his national scandal and a president known for his incompetence. Ten years ago, I was 11 years old. This entire time, we've been raised thinking that the POTUS was a joke (I mean, 90% of the Daily Show involves making fun of Bush) and in a lot of ways, our music reflected this, too.

Naturally, because a lot of musicians stereotypically fall into the liberal category, a lot of songs were written about hating the war, the presidency, or politicians in general. This isn't too different than previous generations, because hey man, we all have our problems.

The difference here is that the songs that actually meant something and weren't just "F the President! He sucks!" really just wanted something to be changed about the government. Then Barack came along and preached the change they wanted to hear. So after these bands and musicians played their anti-something song, they'd urge the kids in the audience to go vote against [insert foul language/description of tyrant here] and vote Obama.

Something happened, and they did.

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that musicians spent all this time hating the present political situation and supporting the person who is now actually the president elect. They can't fall back on the "what's wrong with our country" song formula anymore because now they've taken part in what’s going on with our country.

...so what's next?

If I Were A Fashion Shop

2008-11-07T08:03:00.006-05:00

While I'm not fashionable......at all......I found this great shop in London called Junky Styling that I could identify with (as strange as that is). read more

I love D.I.Y. everything, but 83% of all handmade things looks terribly hideous or ridiculously unusably weird. Really, I hate when D.I.Y. stuff really looks D.I.Y.

sorry, friend of quirkyknitgirl@gmail.com.

But I love the idea of the D.I.Y. style done right. So I'm a bit obsessed with Junky Styling, a shop in London near Brick Lane (VERY close to 24-hour bagels, too) that has some pretty unique takes on some basic things. Making normal things into awesome things is my favorite.

I love the idea of using one thing and turning it into something else unexpected but still pretty rad.

Exhibit A: Blazer to bomber jacket. Rad.

Or, they take something normal and just do it in a totally strange way....like this blazer to vest-y thing. It's a really basic idea, just stripping something down, but it creates an entirely different effect.

And I love how they take something normal and just spin it a bit. Goes to show how just a little tweak makes a huge difference.

With a little courage, all of this is totally wearable.

Plus, it's recycling.

Cheers!