(No. That title is not a mistake. And - no I am not claiming virginity - I have 4 kids, people!) As many of you know I am attending the MTV Movie Awards. On my trip out here to LA, I rode in on Virgin. Branson has it right. The consumer experience was amazing. It all starts with the simple yet jet setting design that draws you to the smart messaging and functionality for the aircraft.
Every detail was taken care of. The private seating, computer menus, food, plugs for power and people service, not computer service, that was bestowed upon the entire air craft. One of the coolest features was that I had a the power of choice at my finger tips. I was able to order fresh food when I wanted it, from the screen at my seat. Virgin brings back great service to the sky's. I felt secure and well taken care of. What more could you ask for?
Now that I have landed I am staying at the LONDON in West Hollywood. The hotel claims a fusion of London meets Hollywood. In my view the design is 1940's Hollywood meets a 2008 cosmopolitan glamor smack in the middle of the sunset strip that overlooks the Hollywood hills.
Update: While my quarters were sleek and the bath tub was the size of an NYC apartment, the service did not give luxury a new definition. There was not a turn down service, re-stocking the mini bar seemed to be a challenge and I also question why Gordon Ramsey has so much buzz. The food was at best OK. It lacked the food couture that one gets when they pay that much for breakfast. The breakfast service was terrible. All in all I was not impressed by the London.
Stay tuned as I will be blogging my star studded MTV Movie Awards weekend from the road.
Have you taken a walk up Fifth Avenue? Super Heros' are muy caliente. If you are not on the cape - you not ON!
As I was walking up the Fashion Ave looking for a look to sport to the MTV Movie Awards I quickly noted that my idea had taken shape. Alone I am Wunder-woman. Together I am one of the Wunder Twins.
It is everywhere. The MET, Saks, Armani, Lacoste and Hollywood - its in. When you put those Christian Louboutin's on with a little SAS you have a look that is trend setting.
This years haute couture is Super Heros. What type of super hero are you?
Some times things "hit the cutting room floor" because they are not on strategy, they off the target, they are in the wrong voice...but that does not mean that they are not fun, not a good idea or just plain hot. this catagory is an omage to the work that gets taken off the wall in my internal reviews but gave me pause or at least a laugh.
Rejuvenating my brain this morning started with a bit of comfort food from Yves
Designer Yves Behar digs up his creative roots to discuss some of the iconic objects he's created (the Leaf lamp, the Jawbone headset). Then he turns to the witty, surprising, elegant objects he's working on now -- including the "$100 laptop." Getting To Know Yves Yves Behar has produced some of the new millennium's most coveted
objects, like the Leaf lamp, the Jawbone headset, and the XO laptop for
One Laptop per Child. Read full bio »
What ended up being a week of freakish events ended with a perfect prelude to take team Bickley to see what all the kiddies are talking about. We dawned the 2 train to Brooklyn and caught the most comprehensive retrospective of Japanese artist Takashi Murakami's works.
After Louis Vuitton's artistic director Marc Jacobs worked with punk
prince Stephen Sprouse to give the classic brand a shot of color and
chaos, Murakami was recruited in 2003 to bring his Asian Cute
sensibilities to the brand. The resulting designs were incredibly popular. My favorite is the white version of the above design with the jellyfish eyes.
It was no coincidence
that Louis Vuitton’s Japan and U.S. sales went up an incredible 20
percent in the third quarter of 2003 compared to the previous year.
DOB meets chaos
The works expose an irresistible force of nature, one we cannot fully understand, but to whom we must bow never ceasing eye contact.
I so enjoyed the Milk and Cream works as the combination of mediums brought together a simple campaign.
Here we go again. The news media, namely CNN, MSNBC (NBC) and ABC News are attempting to choose the president again. Let us not forget the same three media outlets, along side of the NY Times, sold us the Iraq war and has devoted a week of powder puff coverage to a man who lost the last primary by a margin of 26 to 67, his biggest defeat of the campaign.
The radio silence given the enormous loss was deafening. This past week's media silence and then frenzied coverage of the John Edwards’ endorsement, which of course only came after the exit polls showed Mr. Obama’s momentum with white voters has come to a screeching halt as a good sign that the biased coverage was back in full swing. Team Obama gave us a Southern son who could not help Kerry win in his own state of North Carolina in 2004. While John Edwards’s endorsement is likely to deliver a few delegates the race is still close and is far from over.
You would have never known that Hillary had won a landslide victory in West Virginia. One would have thought that the victory would have given the former First Lady justification to stay in the race until the final and 56th primary on June 3.
I sincerely thought that women, namely Hillary, had come further this. “Blatant sexism still exists, even now.” I thought.
Then I took a few days to conduct some research and found something that was not a surprise – but was truly disturbing. This ground swell of big and small media coverage was bought and paid for by Obama for president. Yes, Obama is paying for the good press. The ground swell starts with a legion of 400 paid bloggers who conduct online attacks of Hillary supporters on Facebook and MySpace as well as a number of anti-Clinton videos that are posted by this team on a daily basis. According to Fox News, the Obama campaign has hired 400 bloggers to influence the public discourse shown in the polls and sway Hillary voters to "remember we are all Democrats", to give up Clinton's cause, and to become dutiful citizens of the Obama Nation.
So where do you go for unbiased news when all forms of free press are paid for? The Sunday morning media pundits have become paid propaganda for the far left wing of the democratic party.
Instead of giving Hillary the due coverage, they failed to report that Mr. Obama’s negative poll numbers continue to show that a steady stream white men, Latinos and woman voters that have lined up behind Mrs. Clinton and will likely break from the democratic party if she is not the nominee.
Many have asked why I am a Hillary Supporter. I have so many great reasons to stick with her until November. She and Bill represent a couple that made the American Dream work for them. She represents a fighter. We need a fighter.
We need someone who knows how to run Washington, not someone who can enter as a change agent and fail. Her platform comes closer to the FDR platform than anyone in the race. Her stance on health care in unwavering. She has laid out specifics from the day one on how she will turn the economy around with green jobs, just as her husband did with the Silicon Valley explosion in the 1990's.
More importantly, I grew up in a middle class family, where I directly benefited from Bill Clinton's Pell Grant Program. Without those grants I would not have been able to attend college.
The biggest thing I admire her for is her stamina - everytime they have counted her out she has proved the pundits wrong. It has made for great political theater.
Join Us On May 31 For A Rally Join a group of Hillary supporters who are planning to visit Washington, D.C. on Saturday, May 31st to attend the meeting of the DNC Rules Committee and rally outside the DNC headquarters in support of Michigan and Florida. Check out the links to sites. Join us!
My childhood crush on Robert Downey Jr. drove my curiosity when I visited the Iron Man site this weekend. This is one of the best sites I have seen in years. (and not just because RDJ is still adorable) The right idea, no flash pre-loader, easy to find tickets, all the right moving parts and a place for comic book lovers to participate. Try the full screen version of this site. It made my heart go thump thump!
When you check out the "Fan Art" section think on how a consumer insight on comic book lovers drove this application. Comic lovers have spent hours sketching out their favorite heroes and villains. That function and contest is smart as it leverages something real fans been doing for years.
Digital or Die – I think not! Stop the madness! We all can contribute. Its not Digital v. TV . It should be Digital + TV. For those who have had success it simply is Digital + TV. The two converged and together they are more powerful than any medium on its own. Just look at the 2008 Election. They compliment and feed off each other. I was born digital. So do not kill the messenger. I ask you to listen to what I have learned through the ups and downs of having helped created the 1.0 economy where technology drove ideas and experiences, then lived through the bubble – you remember the time when we were all coding for food? Having lived through that experience the test results were clear.
The brands that have won are the ones who have used a simple formula.
Many digital practitioners have taken such polarizing stances on the role of the website, search, the banner ad and the long tail. In doing so they have alienated and confused brand teams as well as short changed their ability to make money.
Digital is a powerful medium. Digital offers the ability to innovate across the globe at the speed of light. When telling a compelling story it has the ability to cross cultures and deliver instant commerce, entertainment and education.
There is an effective way to combine them all to serve the brands you wish to sell. There are best practices that TV can teach to the digital socialites and Vise Versa.
Start with an idea! A website without an organizing idea is merely another fun toy. A TV ad without and idea is merely annoying. It is about being where they want us, when they want us and how they want us. Your Idea should answer why they want us.
Digital is not the best medium, it is not the only medium. It will continue to evolve like all other mediums. What digital offers is the flexibility and global reach like no other medium. All of that said, it is incredibly segmented and its continued proliferation will create smarter marketers out of consumers and the marketers who use the medium to its fullest potential. It cannot reach its full marketing potential if we allow technology to drive the consumer experience instead of a simple idea fulfilling a desire. Applications should have a purpose - they just cannot be cool.
Technology should facilitate the idea's amplification to the right audience. Digital is active not passive so an idea should be ubiquitous it should engage, enable and empower the consumer to own your brand.
While I was born into the marketing arena as a digital practitioner during the 1.0 boom – I do not subscribe to the death of the :30 second spot theories. TV will not die. It will continue to evolve and converge with the Internet.
Now I know many of my fellow social media mavens do subscribe to the death of the :30 spot theory. I simply do not. Having had my first career as a journalist in broadcast for ABC news I understand the power that a mass vehicle. Whether I was reporting from the courthouse steps or delivering a dog of the week report I knew though this mass vehicle I could get people to take action. I understand that almost 100% if the consuming audience uses it as a place for entertainment, news and learning. TV is not going away – but it has definitely changed.
Change will not happen in silos. The best companies have combined creative and media in one place. Big media planning and buying companies have yet to deliver new formats for us to test and measure against. When you combine the idea people with the media people what you get is a way to amplify and engage the consumer. Most recently I have begun working much closer with media outfits to change the formats that we deliver our conversation starters.
For instance, my most recent award winning work with Hershey’s, Kimberly-Clark, the Nestle’s / Dreyers Ice Cream brand Dibs has proven to be the right combination of creative and media. The use of live promotions, content pods and lower third tickers during content time combined with the power of widgets, internet videos and websites have begun to deliver more engaging consumer conversation starters. It is proving to be an area that more and more marketers are turning to.
This could not have happened without close partnerships with media properties like ABC / Disney and Viacom / MTVN. My expereince with planning an buying companies has been that they have become the middle man.
As we look into 2009 consider this equation. TV + Internet + Mobile = the creation of long lasting conversations that drive volume.
MTV
