I love a flash mob. Some say they are sooo done. I am not one of those people. I have to say that this flash mob really brought a smile to my face when I realized that it was another T-Mobile event. With all the horrible crap going on in the world it is nice when a brand just wants you to have a smile and share it.
When I saw what T-Mobile did on Oprah - I was blown away. If you watched Oprah's 24th season kickoff party, which took place in on the mag mile in Chicago you could can see how people shared an incredible experience that makes you want to smile. This is really content worth sharing. (just search YouTube and see how many videos were made)
Do you remember the T-Mobile dance at Liverpool Street Station for T-Mobile's Life's for Sharing campaign? And who can forget the Trafalgare square karaoke, where 13,500 people sang Hey Jude. It seems to me that T-mobile's flash mob still works.
Have you had a recent flash mob experience that you want to share? If so leave me a comment.
When have you seen any piece of technology fuse one generation of people to another in a way that they can all actively participate in one mission? Its a rare occurrence. I found that fusion with The Beatles: Rock Band. I had to keep myself from spontaneously belting out "All You Need is Love..." in a room full of people.
My parents still reminisce about watching the Beatles on Ed Sullivan Show.
The Tribute in Light is an art installation of 88 searchlights placed next to the site of the World Trade Center to create two vertical columns of light in remembrance of the September 11 attacks. bing's active commemoration has gotten me to change all of my search services to bing permanently and begin evangelizing its powerful decision engine.
I recently heard a wise man say something absurd. "Blogging is dead!"
WRONG!
We are the new media - and blogging allows us to do it now.
Blogging has just evolved. The vast majority of bloggers are thought leaders who have pushed the medium forward. These influencers have moved the bar and migrated to smarter platforms that allow the broadcast of their thought leadership.
One of new my favorites social/blogging apps happens to be posterous.com. Easy, connected and portable. Here is a fantastic video that highlights why real bloggers have migrated and adopted this new service.
Which came first the chicken offer or the direct response ad format?
For the longest time Facebook spent all of its time using ads to drive people to a web or fan page where a user could get lost in the experience of it all. The newest of Facebook ad format seems to adopt some of our direct response best practices.
This ad for Chick-fil-A's free chicken biscuit samples is the most integrated
lead gen-style home page ad unit I’ve seen on Facebook. What I love about this ad is that it does not take me to a page where I have to read about your beleaguered brand.
The new DR ad unit, gives me a quick fill response form presented as a modal window over my News Feed.
A user can
easily redeem the offer by filling in the form, and with one click post it to their to their profile
and share the offer with friends. The user experience is fantastic.
According to InsideFacebook.com, Facebook has added new targeting features, including connection targeting, multi-country targeting, and birthday targeting. This test seems to fall in line with many of the new direct response driven ad formats that big brand advertisers are demanding.
As CPG and foodservice marketers look for new ways of creating lift in sales, drive new offer redemption and connect social media to in store traffic this new DR ad unit could easily be used for all types of free offer based subscription services.
Have you seen this one? Thanks to a report from Peter Corbett here is a demo of Google's “Holodeck” system that uses Google Earth + seven flat screens + an awesome omni-directional joystick to let you fly around the Earth, Mars, and the Moon. Here’s a quick video of Peter exploring a virtual NYC.
His art crossed barriers, his fashion allowed us to appear militant and
pop at the same time, his fusion of sounds and collaborative work style
saved parts of the music industry in the 80's and gave MTV an injection
of legitimacy.
His product endorsements and original scores drove fans to purchase millions of products. He helped define the cola wars. He also helped raise the bar when it came to producing advertising that had an entertaining production quality.
The impact of his death was amplified by social media. 10-years ago, we would have learned of MJ's passing via TV, or a friend or coworker. Yesterday, our knowledge was
immediate. With my tweet deck open and my iPhone on my desk the news came in waves. First it was a video from a tourist on a starline bus who uploaded a video of the ambulance leaving Jackson's home. Then it was an avalanche of tweets and links that updated his condition on a real time basis.
The global coordination of fans mourning in public was fascinating. The photo above was taken by my daughter. We used twitter to see where fans were converging in our neighborhood. (We found groups of stunned MJ fans in Harlem, Times Square and Chelsea)
Even more fascinating was the "private" behaviors that drove iTunes to slow, amazon to clog and twitter search to fail. Yesterday afternoon showed both the power and frailty of the digital medium. Celeb-news site, TMZ.com (AOL/Time Warner owned), secured the scoop when it was first to
report that Jackson had died — but the site then crashed several times,
unable to cope with millions of visitors flooding to it.
One of the most fascinating tweets today was when P-Diddy tweeted a link to a tribute song that features The Game, Usher, Mario Winans and Boyz2Men to name a few. Diddy's tweet to approximately 1.3 million Twitter followers has made “Better On The Other Side” the most popular link on Twitter today. (it has almost 2000 retweets).You can download the song at BOX.net a file sharing site.
The rapid changing information added to Wiki's across the net triggered this message to appear on Jackson's Wikipedia page: This article is about a person who has recently died.
Some information, such as that pertaining to the circumstances of the
person's death and surrounding events, may change rapidly as more facts
become known.
The firm New Media Strategies notes
that Jackson’s Wikipedia page logged 1.8 million visitors yesterday,
compared to its daily average of just 20,000. According to Mashable it also saw a whopping
650 edits as users updated the entry furiously as news broke.
If you attempted to search anything last night you probably noticed that the connection speeds felt like 56k modem slow. For 35 minutes, millions of people who googled
Jackson’s name were greeted with an error page rather than a list of
results. CNET reported that Google believed it was under attack
when the news first broke. Google said that there had been a “volcanic” surge in interest in
Michael Jackson, with most of the top 100 searches related to the singer.
Facebook reported that Jackson’s page was
attracting about 20 fans a second, and fast becoming one of the top pages in
all of Facebook. (@ 2:42AM it has 1,228,072 fans)
Once again, real people reporting a story, revealed yet another tale of the traditional news media playing catch-up with the digital. However, it took the traditional outlets to lend their credibility to real people reporting. Together, Broadcast + Digital + Mobile showed how the established players such as TMZ.com / AOL / CNN have finally worked
out how to tap into the power of convergence.
What we know for sure is that no matter your opinion of MJ's private matters (accusations of molestation, childlike behavior and plastic surgery) he never stopped helping change the way we listened and participated in the creation of his music and persona. Jackson was the intersection of art, philanthropy and social movement.
I cannot imagine a brand being able to coordinate a product or service launch, update or invention being as powerful as what Michael Jackson's persona did. We should study the trend to understand how to attempt to replicate it in our marketing lives.
Last night the mediums and the messages converged and exploded. What was your contribution or experience to the #michaeljackson effect?
This is a well written spot that inspires hope in American products. I particularly like the way flip Chapter 11 in to Chapter one of a new day.
What I also like is that this spot looks pretty inexpensive, yet delivers a powerful message. As a brand, GM, cannot appear to be frivolous if it wants consumers to fuel its re-invention.
Evelien Lohbeck is a filmmaker to watch. From Candle to Breakfast the films show innovation, simplicity and a keen ability to tell a short story. What more could you ask for!
The Flip book a lovely way to visually communicate a journey. Audi created this spot promoting the Q5 SUV using a flip book and a new tag line "Everything happens on cue”
The spot was filmed in South Africa and directed by Kim Geldenhuys.
Photos from the road, the day, the meetings and a few ironic random finds. Catch up with me on my adventures! This is a visual time line of my life ON: The Road.
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