THINKing

Links – 7/10/2009

Here are a few things we’re reading today:

AP Works Toward Universal Online News Format -  The Associated Press, along with fellow non-profit The Media Standards Trust, unveiled a digital news “microformat” to effectively encapsulate the content and key meta-data of every news story online.

Bing’s Growth Accelerates – Microsoft is gaining ground with its search engine Bing, but Google still dominates the market. Microsoft’s Bing grabbed 5.25% of the U.S. Internet search market in the four weeks ending June 27, while Google captured 74% of the market, according to data released by Hitwise.

Evian’s Babies Take Internet By Storm -  Evian’s break-dancing babies have become an instant viral success — which is just how the bottled water company likes it, since there’s no TV media buy planned for the U.S. to support the new ad campaign, themed “Live young.”

Everything You Need To Know About Twitter You Learned From Your Grandmother -  Sure, it can help to utilize the growing number of Twitter tools available as well, but if your Twitter grade isn’t as high as you’d like it to be, you may want to take some tips from grandma.

I’m On Someone’s Media List -  THINKing has written about this before. Now, Rodger Johnson takes on the topic of PR people sending totally off-base pitches and news releases to bloggers and newspeople.

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A Holiday Gas

You have to love clients who clearly understand their brand, their audiences and have the courage to communicate with them in their vernacular. That’s why I love the folks at Newell Rubbermaid. They get it.

Their BernzOmatic brand LaughYourGasOff.com website that My Creative Team built has been redecorated for the holidays. It now features the bed of a plumber’s truck filled with BernzOmatic Fat Boy gas cylinders, which toot out holiday ditties. We call it the Fat Boy Farting Choir.

Please take a look and let me know what you think. I think we hit a home run. You also can view them as YouTube videos:

Fat Boy Farting Choir Does Deck The Halls

Fat Boy Farting Choir Does Jingle Bells

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Random Readings

A few things I’ve been reading.

Businesses: Get Your Social Media On
Almost 60 percent of Americans interact with companies on a social media Web site, and one in four interact more than once per week. These are among the findings of the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study.

Create Viral Content With Two Household Ingredients
Whether the communication is advertising, marketing or public relations, it all has a viral potential. Done right, and a message catches the attention of folks and spreads from one to the next.

Surprise For WOM Success
Emotional engagement is the key to viral marketing success. People share their everyday experiences by communicating them to others in and outside of their network. This social sharing is more rampant when the individuals develop intense feelings like fear, disgust, sadness, joy, anger and surprise.

Here’s To Knowing Your Audience
The first rule of communications, and thus the first rule of social media, is to know your audience. (Take a tip from Jason Falls and find out all you can about your audience.)

13 Tips On How To Have Great Conversations On Your Blog
What I do want to focus on in this post goes beyond getting comments and how to grow ‘conversations’ (something that I think is a little deeper). There is some overlap – but I hope this post goes beyond that previous one.

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This Is A Gas

Flatulence is funny, no matter how old you get. We had an opportunity to develop a viral website and animated videos that revolve around gas. It’s the only time we ever have used the word “flatulence” in a new business proposal. BernzOmatic gave us the go-ahead and the site now is online.

Feel free to check it out and “pass some gas” to your friends.

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Stilettos & Fishnets

THINKing, is putting on the fishnets and stiletto heels and campaigning for votes. It’s not pretty but it works. So, please visit the links below and help us win in 2008! (Registration is required to vote)

Best Marketing Blog (THINKing is leading in this Bloggers’ Choice category. Keep us there!)

Junta42 Top Content Marketing Blogs (THINKing is number 38 currently)

Speaking of voting: did you know that I am running for President? No? I didn’t either until yesterday. Visit this very cool viral site to find out all about the Harry Hoover Phenomenon.

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Inelegant Pitching

Received an inelegant PR pitch last week that I wanted to share with the class. This PR firm had someone, whose title is “integration intern”, send this note:

Hey – I love reading my-creativeteam.com blog posts about new industry ideas and things. I just found this video online. It’s a viral video from (brand name removed). What do you think about this? What do you think about viral videos as a marketing tool? Heres the video…

Let’s dissect this, shall we? First of all, I don’t think this person has ever read a complete post from THINKing about “new industry ideas and things”. Do you?

Second, this “integration intern” did NOT just find this viral video online. The firm she works for developed the video, which by the way did not improve my view of the brand at all. I’m not mentioning the brand or providing the link because I don’t want to spread the virus for such an inelegantly pitched video. By the way, Draft FCB, someone should be supervising your interns.

Finally, I will answer the “integration intern’s” question. A viral video is a great marketing tool if it is funny and spread correctly. This one was neither. If you keep doing this, you will continue to be skewered in blogs.

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Links 5/28/2008

Photo Courtesy of Morguefile

From my browser to yours, here are a few links of interest:

Read Free Magazines Via iPhone

Be A Trend Follower

Does Your Website Socialize?

A Very Social Beer

Top 5 Best Office Pranks

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Why Twitter?

I’ve just started using Twitter recently and am finding it very useful. (Follow me on Twitter). Here’s a link to a good article that outlines the many reasons you might want to Twitter.

A Guide To Twitter: What It Is, How To Use It And Twitter Tools | Lost Art Of Blogging

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We’re YouTubing & Metacafe-ing Dog Gone It

My Creative Team has just finished production of a video for client, Pet Sitters International. It’s about what happens when you leave your dog with the neighbor’s kid instead of with a professional petsitter. The MetaCafe player is embedded above.

Please take a look at the spot on YouTube and let us know how you like it. Please help us spread the message by StumbleUpon, Digg, Twitter, whatever your social network of choice is.

We’re planning on alternate endings. More on that later…

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