Grown Up Thinking

There are many among us who cherish the days when we get to indulge in a hearty breakfast of pancakes and syrup instead of our usual cup of coffee and too much to do. Well today is our day, because it is officially National Pancake Day according to IHOP, and the folks over at the famed food shop are taking a new approach to promoting it with a Web 2.0 spin!

For starters, IHOP enlisted Miss America 2010 to be the official spokesperson for National Pancake Day to support the nationwide promotion and tie-in with the Children’s Miracle Network. On the official National Pancake Day website consumers can share information via their social networks and sign up to receive celebrity wake up calls reminding them to celebrate with some pancakes. If you’re one of the 74,000+ IHOP Facebook fans you may have noticed that you were automatically sent to the National Pancake Day tab this morning while IHOP employees across the country took to their local IHOP Twitter accounts to spread the news about the promotion and were even triumphant enough to earn IHOP a spot in the coveted “Trending Topics” list on Twitter. Overall I’d give IHOP an “A” for effort, but a “B” overall for their Web 2.0 centered celebration. They’ve got a lot of room to make this a full-blown social media extravaganza, and this is a great step in that direction.

By now everyone is aware of the sensation Doppleganger week generated on Facebook, and a smaller buzz was created when a movement challenged women to change their status to the color of your bra to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. Both appear to have started organically.

Two new groups are getting viral traction on Facebook. The first one:  I’m With Coco, a group started to show support for Conan through the NBC debacle. The group, started up by artist Mike Mitchell,  is closing in on 1 million fans and has inspired a merchandise line featuring  a Shepard Fairey-esque image of Conan that Mitchell created.

The second meme of the month is “Can this Pickle Get More Fans than Nickelback.” It was inspired by the “Can this onion get more fans than Justin Bieber”, which had over 2-million fans before it was pulled down by facebook. This week, the Nickelback hating page reached their goal by netting more than 1,420,000 fans compared to Nickelback’s 1,413,167. The page continues to grow with pure viral pickle power.

Both social media movements have started small, but have resulted in big pay offs. Facebook is a tricky space. Their policies are ever-changing and they reserve the right to pull down pages that violate their terms. YET, if a brand approached this correctly, it could be a huge win. Conan could have put out a rally cry on the network and driven people to join a Facebook fan group, but a consumer did it instead. Who knows if there is some magic pickle man behind this viral effort. I’d put money on it that there isn’t, but you never know these days.

Back in November, a clam chowder joint’s viral stunt reported their sales tripled from a hoax campaign that put their billboard in the depths of the ocean. Damn, I’m getting hungry… gotta change my FB status.

Print is not dead, but it’s certainly evolving. Perhaps offering a glimpse into the future of publishing, Wired Magazine’s latest offering is pretty impressive. Its ambitious iPad app (launching later this summer) wholeheartedly takes advantage of the yet-to-be released device’s multi-touch capabilities. Coming originally from a design background in print, I’ve long loathed the awful user experience of seeing magazines and newspapers being pulverized down to an eyesore browser smoothie. (I’m a proud card-carrying member of the ‘I Hate Arial’ club, by the way.) This new app is not only cool in that users will get to visually experience a publication the way it was meant to be seen, but it’s revolutionary in that you actually get to interact with it. Interactive print. Hmm…no longer an oxymoron? I was most impressed with the 360º rotation options for imagery and the oh-so naturally intuitive hand navigation.

Also of note: Unlike a traditional web browsing experience where ads are an evil burden, I would argue that print ads are integral to a magazine browsing experience. The placement of products in glossy publications are intricately woven into the entire experience in a very thoughtful and eye-catching way. Wired again steps up their awesomeness by illustrating how those very same print ads can truly come to life on the iPad in visually stunning and useful ways. It’s like the magic and wonder of a children’s popup book. On steroids.

So ‘cheers’ to the next incarnation of the publishing world. This splashy app is only the beginning of many exciting developments (hello, Augmented Reality!) surely to come.

Mr Youth has just received high honors in one of Fast Company’s annual compendiums, making our way onto the list of the Top 10 Most Innovative Advertising & Marketing Companies.

Each year, Fast Company seeks out the smartest businesses across all industries. Mr Youth was praised for taking word-of-mouth marketing to the next level and for our innovative approach to technology, with a shout out to Mr Youth’s crowdsourcing platform, RepNation.

Fast Company puts this list of game-changers together annually, focusing on companies ranging from visionary upstarts to storied stalwarts. This year we make our appearance alongside the likes of Crispin Porter, R/GA, and Goodby Silverstein.

Click here to see why Fast Company doesn’t think of Mr Youth as “just another word-of-mouth marketing agency.”

At some point over the last year many of us have realized that some of what we post on Twitter may not be what we’d like to share with all of our followers. Unfortunately for those in that situation, Twitter does not have privacy settings like Facebook that allow you to choose who can see what information that you share, so what do you do when you realize that your personal life is crossing over into your public life? The answer is simple – make a second account!

The first question you should ask yourself when doing this is, “Why am I using Twitter and what am I trying to accomplish?”. There are many reasons why having multiple accounts makes sense. You can segment your Twitter traffic based on your interests, focus content on different topics and develop larger followings across different fields. I will admit that I ran in to the same problem on Twitter which actually became more of a positive than a negative. Now that I have two Twitter accounts I can share personal content with my close group of friends and network with other professionals. In fact, I recently discovered that 53% of Twitter users have multiple accounts which is why Twitter management software like HootSuite and TweetDeck have become so popular.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Twitter was already developing a new platform to improve some of the organization and privacy issues that are plaguing many users- but until that day comes, I’ll have to keep up with my (not so) secret double life on Twitter. You can call me Bond… James Bond.

Though I missed the Super Bowl entirely, I did manage to catch up on all of the ads after the fact thanks to YouTube’s glossy showcase of Super Bowl commercials: AdBlitz .

I diligently viewed every ad from all four quarters of the game, and have outlined here a list of all the ads that made me LOL. Which, if you caught my previous post, you know that is something of a rarity.

Here’s the rundown of the most LOL-worthy spots of Super Bowl XLIV:

1. Snickers: Game (featuring Betty White)
For whatever reason, I’ll watch pretty much anything that involves Betty White. She’s delightful. But this spot in particular had me howling like Tom Hulce in Amadeus. Delight turns to pure magic when Betty delivers her first and only line.

2. Vizio - Forge (featuring Beyoncé)
This spot is a close second in my book of LOLs. The real clincher for me is the YouTube Celebrity/Meme theme: particularly, David at the Dentist’s inclusion is nothing short of comic genius. I’m a sucker for traditional and new media cross-pollination!

3. Doritos - House Rules
Cute little kid shows us who’s boss. This LOL smacks you right in the face with some LOL-worthy sass.

4. Dodge Charger - Man’s Last Stand
This commercial epic and comic ode to any man who has lived with a significant other or experienced a serious relationship. As a guy who’s lived through both, I had to resist the urge to bust out my air guitar at the climax of this spot.

5. Kia Sorento - Big Game
This commercial harkens back to something many of us wonder as children- do our toys have thoughts/feelings? Oh, maybe that was just me? Anyway, this commercial brings to life some hilarious fantasies from our favorite childhood toys.

That’s a wrap! Hope you enjoyed Super LOL 2010 - feel free to post your own Super LOL list in the comments!

Facebook is celebrating its 6th birthday this week, which seems a good a time as any to reflect on its path to world domination.

Let us not forget Facebook’s humble beginnings as “Thefacebook”. As if they were concerned there could be another one, this was THE facebook for all your networking needs. That is- assuming you’re an ivy leaguer buried in books in the Bay State. May I remind you that at its inception “Thefacebook” was only available to students at Harvard, where creator Mark Zuckerberg held his dorm room brainstorm sessions.

What you may not know is that even before “Thefacebook” there was “Facemash”- a Hot or Not game Zuckerberg created after hacking into Harvard’s computer network and stealing his peers’ student ID photos. “Facemash” generated 450 visitors and 22,000 photo views in its first four hours online.

I still remember the Facebook buzz growing my sophomore year of college- eagerly anticipating my D2 school’s addition to “the list”. This came around the beginning of junior year, my three roommates and I wasting hours of valuable study (and party) time polishing our profiles until they became a sharp snapshot of who we each were (on our best day, of course.)

I clearly remember my attempt to demystify the “poke” and debating with actual, legit friends what the rules were for deciding “Facebook friends”. Today, Facebook has 400 million members and anyone, anywhere over the age of 13 is allowed to join.

This tremendous growth doesn’t look to be slowing either. Membership this year is double what it was on Facebook’s fifth birthday. The social networking powerhouse also blew out the candles with some celebratory changes this week, including a shuffling of menus and an apps and games dashboard.

The new Vampire Weekend album, Contra, came out a few weeks ago. As a fan, I did what I always do… I downloaded it illegally. I didn’t even think twice.

Then a curious thing happened. One of my coworkers rushed to the record store to buy the very same album.  Huh? He enthusiastically explained the beauty of having something tangible, described pouring over the inset, the liner notes, the bonus poster that came in the sleeve. Having the album ensures that you listen to the tracks in the order the artist intended, he said, the time and energy involved in tracking down the record made it that much better. It all sounded very transcendental – something Penny Lane would wax poetic about in Almost Famous.

I can’t relate. At 22, I don’t think I’ve ever purchased an album. I got onboard the Napster train early on and haven’t looked back since.

All legal issues aside, is it possible that I’m missing something fundamental by skipping the pomp and fanfare of the record store? By downloading an artist’s tracks individually online, am I reducing the integrity of the music to a 99 cent commodity?

PS. Vampire Weekend, it you’re reading this – I’m very sorry. I owe you 12 dollars.