WhipperSnaPR

I just saw this AdAge article about Mun2’s new identity ads; they’re a bit controversial, but really fun. And, as I’m not exactly part of the demographic, I can’t say for sure, but I’m guessing this speaks well to their market:

“[The campaign] plays with the idea of ‘Check your balance’ for our second-generation, bilingual demo of young people who live within two cultures,” said Alex Pels, general manager of Mun2 (pronounced “Moon-dos”). “How can you assimilate into [American] culture and retain the identity from your Latin roots? These are all images that reflect part of a certain reality of Latin culture in this country.”

I hope Mun2 intends to expand on the campaign… they could do a lot to build a following from this attitude/idea. For starters, someone needs to get these up on youtube! For now, you can view the ads here. Enjoy!

Now I feel like an hombre again

I have a thing for cool/cute/fun t-shirts. My work apparel usually consists of jeans and layered t-shirt over a long sleeved t-shirt and I’ve out worn all of my current t-shirts. So, I need more. Luckily, I have been building a mental wish list. Here it is:

• Orisinal Monkey Slide: (play the game)
• Zipcar “Do you zip?”
• JBB t-shirt (I think I’ll have to go to a concert to get the one I want… darn)
• “Live Green Go Yellow” (yeah, I know it really isn’t all that good, but it is corn darn it! Well, it is sort-of corn. But, I love corn; I’m from Illinois for pete’s sake. Plus, I think this was a really clever marketing campaign)
• Yelp : “See You On Yelp“
• Indexed: Little Pricks
• Blissen: The Forest Floor
• A Hugh Macleod t-shirt… I just can’t decide what cartoon I like best. Maybe this one?

Finally! It launches! Check out Pod’s latest game, Adolfo vs Chicken!

I’ve been mulling over the topic of website traffic measurement in my head for the past month or so, brainstorming ideas on how to more formalize and standardize my “seeding” at work. Basically, I want to add quantifiable accountability  to what I do.  So, today, I came across some interesting articles/blogs on the subject and thought maybe it was a sight to put my own brainstorming on “paper”. I hope this will be the first of many posts, but for now…

I found this new list put together by Compete. It is a list of the top 200 sites ranked by the amount of time people spend on each.

I was also interested to read Seth Godin’s opinion on the list and I remembered an article I read a few weeks ago from the Center for Media Research about this report from Alterian, a marketing analytics company. The report focuses mainly on email direct marketing, but one statistic caught my eye: 70% of respondents said they apply basic or no analysis to any of their email campaigns. I can’t help but suspect that number transcends direct marketing and would reflect the bahavior of most marketers.

I think it is very interesting how some companies don’t even think to ask for metrics or statistics about their online presence and other’s can’t stop thinking about it. This is easier said than done, but, for me, measuring the success of each piece of online material is a very specialized endeavor. It cannot be boiled down into one statistic. As a proud graduate of Boston University’s College of Communication and a student of James McQuivey’s communication research class, I have a deep appreciation for reliable and useful numbers. Really, any marketing campaign should have a research and evaluation mechanism built in. Obviously, in the real world, this isn’t always easy to do.

And, even when it is integrated, you might not even be getting the right information. For example, does FedEx really care how long someone is on their sight? Sure, exposure to the brand is important, but this might also say something about the sites usability. And this would be especially important to note if, as Allurenet reports,  41% of consumers avoid shopping at a brick and mortar location if they’ve previously had a bad experience with the company online.

There has been some great debates surrounding online traffic measurement and I don’t think we’re anywhere near finding the best solution. Still, these are some creative, interesting and useful approaches. Not all of it pertains to what I’m exploring for Pod Design, but it is all worth keeping in mind.

I’m really intrigued by this article at Yahoo! Finance, “Tapping the Power of Your Morning Routine.”

I am not a morning person

When I sent Josh the link to this article, his response was:

“ick, who wants to do all that?”

So, you see, I also don’t have any positive motivation to be a morning person. When I was in high school, my parents would literally have to keep a spray bottle of water ready to spritz me every morning to get me out of bed. I repeat, not a morning person. I also have never seen the fruits of such labor as alluded to in the article. Mornings have always been a frenzied dash for the door and the earlier I wake up, the more it seems there is to do. So, it just becomes a busier day… not a better controlled day.

Bottom line, I don’t believe these findings. The author brags about his 85% response rate. Of course he has a high response rate! If I were the VP of marketing or PR at any of these companies and I found out my CEO hadn’t responded, I would have gone on the war path! What a great soft PR opportunity! Also, if I were the PR person, or the CEO for that matter, there’s no way in hell I would admit to being a grouch in the mornings… I’m going to give him the answer that looks good. As far as Yahoo Finance is concerned, I’m Ben freakin’ Franklin. Not only am I going to give the answer that looks good, but I’m going to give the answers the journalist wants… the study is awfully leading and I don’t want to be the speed bump that irritates the journalist.

Now, to be fair, this guy never claims the scientific relevancy of his study. But, readers should also keep that in mind. Most importantly, I will keep that in mind. I will continue to sleep till the absolute last possible minute and I will continue to barely catch the bus every morning. I suppose, I may also continue not being the CEO.

Last Tuesday, my boss, Steve Curran, and I visited Professor Walter Carl’s word of mouth, buzz and viral marketing class at Northeastern University. You can read Walter’s run down of the day here.

First, I have to say the fact that Northeastern University even offers this class is very encouraging. I was always very discouraged at BU as they were not as open to studying new forms of communication. Not only am I really happy to see a well-respected academic community give deserved attention to this area of communication, but I was so happy to find that the students in the class took the subject very seriously. They were all engaged in the conversation and asked some well-thought, in-depth and critical questions. Both Steve and I were impressed with the quality of students in the class and would be happy to consider any of them for an internship position at Pod Design. (send me your resumes!)

I was equally impressed with Dr. Carl. I had been following his blogs for about 6 months, but had never had the honor of meeting him in person. We were able to grab lunch after class and discuss everything from research to metrics to business models. Very educational. I find that some days it is far too easy to slip into a mirrored box at work, hanging out with great academics always helps to keep perspective. They remind me to think outside of my current spot and start asking some critical questions.

Preparing for this visit was also very healthy for me from a work perspective; It forced me to boil down what I do into a quick, 10 minute, synopsis. I was able to outline my priorities, justify my work and develop insight in the areas that are very important to my work but can often feel tedious or dull from day-to-day. It was also a great reminder of why I was motivated to take this job in the first place.

So, thank you to Dr. Carl and his class for a great experience!

Update on the Firefox Live Bookmarks:

This weekend, by Firefox updater informed me that my del.icio.us toolbar had been updated. This morning, Jesse Legg inspired me to give the Live Bookmarks another go. This time, it worked! I won’t question the good fortune the Internet Gods have bestowed upon me.

So now, here’s how it works:

• I click on the orange feed indicator in the browser bar.
• It opens my del.icio.us toolbar tagging window:
• I add my special tag, which I decided it will be MyFeeds.
• It gets added to my del.icio.us toolbar.
• I created a bookmark “bundle” that lives on my bookmarks toolbar
• So, now, when I want to read my favorite blogs, it looks like this:

Many special thanks to Jesse for all of the advice. My next project… take advantage of all of the live bookmarks coolness….