Original Design Gangsta Video is Classic

This video is a number of things that marketing people will appreciate. It is:
a) hilarious, particularly to any designers/art directors out there, and those who work closely with designers; and
b) an absolutely great example of social media marketing on a shoestring budget. Enjoy.



I'm particularly proud that he's a fellow North Carolinian, and worked "North Cackalack"into the video...

~Jim Tobin
Life Is Marketing

On email trash, guerilla marketing and cool stuff

So the title of this post is a search engine optimization no-no, but I just literally stumbled upon a cool web application that made me think three things at once:

1. This is a cool solution to a minor annoyance;
2. I can actually use this to avoid spam; and
3. What a nifty little way to use social media to market it.

The website is called GuerrillaMail. They offer free, disposal email addresses that expire in 15 minutes (unless you ask for more time). But in that 15 minutes you can read and reply to whatever you get.


Why would you want a disposable email address? I wondered that, too... Ever go to a website that requires you to sign up for something and you have to input your email address? But it won't activate for you unless you click on a link, proving that you put in a real email address?

You want what they're offering, but don't want all their spam, or a lifetime commitment? That's when you use GuerrillaMail.

Ok, so that's cool. I bookmarked it. I'm going to use it.

What's the marketing lesson? They are getting the word out in part by using the social media website Stumble Upon. On that website, nearly 3 million people have signed up and downloaded a little toolbar that let's you Stumble Upon sites that other people think are cool. You hit "Stumble" and it loads a random web page in one of the categories you find interesting.

If you like it, you give it a thumbs up (like I did), and they serve it to more Stumblers. If you don't like it, thumbs down and it goes up less often. So it uses the power of social media to help people find interesting web pages.

A neat alternative marketing tactic that costs nothing. And hey, I found a neat way to stick it to the man...

Faux Social Media: Another Giant Corporation Fizzles in Web 2.0

AT&T is rolling out their U-verse product in select markets. The product allows people to get television over the Internet (along with high speed service). Now the potential for that is interesting, although as cable companies such as Time Warner Cable and Comcast have improved their service offerings and their service over the years, the argument for change is not a clear one.

To promote U-verse in Norwalk, CT, AT&T has a campaign under which they supposedly award free U-verse for a year to go named, conveniently enough, Bobby Choice. Get it, you have a choice. Uh yeah... They've put a bunch of videos on YouTube. Here's one.



Ok, so did that nauseate anyone else? We discovered it here in the office off of YouTube, and we immediately agreed that it was fake and cheezy. So why pretend that it's real? To AT&T's credit, they've admitted in the media that it's a campaign. But why pretend he's "won" this service? It deflates it, it minimizes it. He could've been just a funny spokesperson.

Ironically, in some ways it's better more in-depth information than is on the rest of the U-verse website, but the whole "faux social media" attempt just feels like another Wal-mart like mistake by a big company trying to understand the new rules of marketing.

Simpsons Movie Uses Surprisingly Few Tie-Ins for Marketing

The Simpsons Movie is getting a lot of buzz already, and with a huge promotion budget they could've chosen lots of partners for tie-ins--partners that would've spent millions more promoting the movie.

But they did not. They chose only 4:

• Burger King
• Jet Blue
• 7-Eleven; and
  
• Vans (shoes)

Even more interesting, according to Hollywood Reporter, is that only one of them has a big advertising budget. Instead, they will use non-traditional marketing to reach the target audience.

Some believe this was to further the Simpsons irreverent personality. Others believe that the power of non-traditional marketing is growing enough that the Simpsons folks felt they could score with it. I tend to think it's a little of both.

(As for me, I'm on vacation the rest of this week, so no more posts for me! See you next week. I'll try to lure some guest commentary later this week...)

Facebook for Richer, MySpace for Poorer?

A new article by a University of California researcher is creating quite the buzz in the blogosphere. Danah Boyd is suggesting that there are significant class divisions between users of Facebook and users of MySpace. In her essay "Viewing American class division through Facebook and MySpace", Boyd suggests that Facebook is for better educated, higher income folks, while MySpace is for, well, the opposite.

As you can imagine, MySpace is pretty miffed and they are claiming to Business Week that over 20% of their folks make over $100,000.

And Facebook is sort of quietly enjoying their position. No doubt this article has already raced through their offices...

But what Boyd also notes that is getting less attention is why this may have happened, and she points to the formation of the sites for some clues. Lots of interesting stuff to consider. Check it out for yourself.

~Jim Tobin
Life Is Marketing

MySpace enters the Fashion Space

MySpace Fashion has launched, an effort by MySpace to chunk their massive user network into groups that advertisers will pay for. So far, they have 50,000 friends on the network. Look for it to become its own tab along with "music" and videos.

But the real reason is to find a way to host banner ads from fashion companies. Here's the challenge: Ads from which companies?

As AdAge points out in a good article, MySpace Fashion is currently running a banner ad for Bratz, which is a decidedly young demo. Is that the niche, or is it more mature, or more upscale. And will upscale brands advertise on MySpace, which isn't exactly a luxury brand. InStyle.com, on the other hand, has it right. They are serving up buckets of content via MySpace Fashion (the average visitor to MySpace Fashion reads 26 pages of InStyle's content), which helps extend their brand.

While MySpace works out the wrinkles, the fact remains that marketing via social media sites is here to stay. Let's hope some smart folks realize it's much more than banner ads.

Honda Minisodes Clever, Subtle, On Brand

One of the tenets of new marketing--meaning marketing in an era of Web 2.0--is that sales efforts should be more subtle. Treat people as if they are intelligent and they'll respond to your product if it meets their needs and interests.

MySpace Minisodes, which are sponsored by the Honda Fit, are a edited versions of old, once popular sitcoms. The 30 minute shows have been stripped of commercials and extraneous detail to tell the story in 4-5 minutes. They'll go live on MySpace this week.

• Clever, because they're fun to watch.
• On brand, because the Honda Fit is a small car from a reputable company.
• Subtle, because the commercial message is only 8 seconds long, which is tolerable in a web environment.

Nice work all around...

Enjoy this *&#@!)% spot

I'm taking a break from the heavy discourse on how clients and agencies should work with one another because, well, I'm tired... And because a friend of mine sent me this spot and I thought it was funny.



For those of you who expect a marketing lesson with every post, go *&#@!)* yourself... Aw c'mon, I'm just kidding... It's a reference back to the spot... Don't get all mad like that! Come back here... There there...

But seriously, here's a quick fun fact. This spot comes from bud.tv, which is being widely panned in the blogosphere as a weak attempt at using social media. You need to log in to see the spots, provide personal info--even your drivers license number! Like YouTube doesn't have enough content like this for free? Heck, it HAS this spot... Why would I go give Bud my info... Funny spot. And a how to in what not to when you're trying to reach out...

~ Jim Tobin
http://www.lifeismarketing.com

Romancing the Audience

What marketing best practices can we learn from a first-time author? Turns out that my sister-in-law, Michelle Willingham Leonard, is a natural at this stuff.

When Michelle signed a three-book deal with Harlequin, she knew she'd sell a bunch of copies just on Harlequin's marketing muscle. But she also knew that to move herself up over other authors, she should sell some books, too. What things is she doing that we should all remember?

1. Make a Connection: Her first book signing ever was along with world famous author Nora Roberts. Michelle knew people were there to see Nora, but they had to stand by her table when they were in line. She told each one that she was a first-time author who was so excited to have a book in print. Suddenly the person in the line was part of her story, and they helped complete it. She sold every book.
2. Talk, and Listen: Michelle's had a blog for some time now. She shares her successes, her personal and business stories. She invites comments, and gets a lot of them. So much of marketing is one-way, you get a lot back from listening, too.
3. Break Down Your Audience: Michelle could have said, "Any romance novel reader in the world is my target, so I need a campaign to reach them." But she was much more realistic, sending books and simple press releases to local papers and magazines, playing up the "Local Teacher Makes Good" angle. She sent similar stuff to her alma mater, her hometown paper and other places, with "Hometown Girls Makes Good" type angles. As a result, she got feature stories in area papers. That's got to sell some books, right?
4. Look for Unique Opportunities: When Michelle saw two copies of her book on the shelf at her local store, she asked the manager if she could sign them both and put "Autographed Copy" stickers on them. He said ok. Both books sold quickly. (And I bet the manager ordered a few more copies once he knew she was local...)
   

I love some of the fun, big budget ideas that the pros come up with. But marketing is so basic, right? Who cares? Why should they care? Where are they? How can I reach them? etc. etc. Kudos to Michelle for getting it.

Buying Buzz

Well, well, well... Advertising Age is reporting new data from the folks at Nielsen. They took data from two sources and found that the greatest chance of having buzz around a new product was to have advertising support of it. Yes, advertising support.

There's a lot to be said for blogs, Facebook, Second Life and all the other forms of social media out there today. And lots of the biggest advocates are getting a lot of ink in the ether saying that advertising is either dead or irrelevant. That's a great headline, to be sure. And there are issues with advertising, no doubt... But it's still a pretty powerful tool in the toolbox when used in the right way, at the right time...

Having said that, there are countless examples of using advertising badly...

The new tools in the toolbox are very exciting. But just like I was very happy to get my fancy new RotoZip a couple years back (until I lost the darn thing... I think my mover stole it), that doesn't mean the hammer isn't still pretty effective...

Friday Fun

This would be even funnier if it weren't so true... Have a great weekend.

In an earlier post, I talked about how people come to me frequently with their product ready. Sometimes even with their strategy "ready." But too often they haven't done the hard work of perfecting (or at least nearly perfecting) their product before they worry about marketing... If they did that, it would be amazing how much more effective their product would be.

Cartoon credit to Tom Fishburne and his fun website.

Want a Joost Invite?

My earlier post about Joost led many to ask if I knew where to find an invitation for Joost. I am happy to provide you with a Joost invite. Just leave a comment below and I'll send you the invite (UPDATE: YOU MUST INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS, or I won't know where to send it... I've received about 5 requests that I can't send to because I don't know where to send it...) Once you get your invite, enjoy.I've tried the service and I like it (nice picture and all), but honestly I don't love it. If I want to watch some random B-level programming, I'll leave my office and mindlessly surf my 500 cable channels. I did watch a pretty twisted Adult Swim episode tonight, but... Still, maybe it will evolve, or maybe I need to try it for more than 20 minutes. If you're a Joost lover, I'd love to know why...

The Internet's Being Joost

Over the years, you've had to learn new Internet service company names, including Firefox, Skype, ICQ (which essentially became AOL Instant Messenger). Add to that list another name: Joost.

Joost is a new service that allows you to watch TV shows over the Internet with full clarity. They've got credible deals with folks like Warner Bros. for content.

But what's interesting about all these companies (except WB of course) is that they are using the same tools to grow big. Like the Nintendo Wii posting I made earlier, they are letting customers do the work for them. (Not a surprise, as one of the founders of Joost founded Skype, too...)

And, taking a page from ICQ, they are creating fake shortages to build excitement. You can't get Joost by going to the website. You have to be invited. They make you work a bit, and create a perception of being an insider. It worked great for ICQ. I think it will work well for Joost. Expect to hear more about them in the coming months...

To learn more about Joost, watch this 3-minute CBS News clip on it:

Online Evangelism

A few years ago, creating customer evangelists was all the buzz. If you ask me, it still is the right thing to do. Only a handful of companies actually do it, but that's another story.

Now the Washington Post reports that companies are looking to the web for a place to let their evangelists flourish.

From customized M&Ms, to placing your own Cadillac story, to My Tivo Gets Me profiles, there are good, and bad efforts out there.

One thing is for sure, this is an effort that makes a lot sense. Have you been able to do this for your company or clients? Let me know.

By the way, the Washington Post gives credit to the "Will it Blend" campaign I mentioned in one of my very first posts. It's fun though, so here it is again. This is sheer brilliance...