Grown Up Thinking

There is substantial controversy about an ad that was to be aired on Fox and ABC featuring ‘Cacique,’ plus-sized fashion retailer Lane Bryant’s new line of lingerie. According to reports, Fox thought the ad to be too “risqué” and showed excessive cleavage, banning the ad and renouncing its prime time broadcast during Dancing with the Stars.  Lane Bryant says that this act is a discrimination against full-sized women, noting that Fox ran Victoria’s Secret commercials (with equally scantily-clad but substantially thinner-thighed women) at the same time the Cacique ad was supposed to air.

And people are talking, in coffee shops, blogs and news reports across the country.  Was it right for ABC and Fox to shun the full-figured femme fatale in the spot?  Isn’t it more offensive to deny Lane Bryant the air time than to permit such a “risky” ad run?

1. EasyJet Holiday Planner: eCommerce through Facebook, with the ability to plan trips with your buddies at the click of a button? Now this is really #nextlevel.

2. Let’s Colour Project: Paint brand Dulux creates an international outreach program to transform communities with color. It’s the kind of fuzziness that warms the very cockles of my creative soul.

3. 6 Foundations of Great Digital Creative: Brilliant slideshow, and a primer for both brands and budding creatives alike on developing better digital.

4. Foursquare Fueling Local Culture through TV: Pop Up Video is kindasortalmost back thanks to a partnership between Foursquare & VH1 (via TechCrunch).

5. CR Annual on the iPhone: Some of the year’s best work in the palm of your hand. Many thanks, Creative Review.

6. Note & Point: Stunning presentations that inspire even the most jaded (ahem) Powerpoint-phobes.

And a few #MusicMonday tunes to love:

“Forgotten Place” by Brooklyn hotties/hotshots Cruel Black Dove. Directed by Emmy-nominated director Noah Conopask.

“Die By the Drop” by Dead Weather. Deliciously art directed. A veritable feast for the eyes and ears.

It’s not unusual to see a Gen Yer glued to her Blackberry, tweeting while walking (warning: not advised), updating her Facebook status and checking in at every stop along the way.

While only a year and some change old, Foursquare has been creating serious buzz both here at Mr Youth and in the tech worlds, with talks of some big players eyeing the game for a possible sale. While the Foursquare user base is growing, the start up  is making moves to become more business-friendly.

Foursquare recently added several features to increase its user-friendliness to area businesses. Here’s a run-down of some of the recent updates:

Management Ownership- Foursquare now allows businesses to ‘claim’ their venues on Foursquare to better ‘engage their increasingly mobile customers with specials‘, and track how each venue is performing on foursquare thanks to analytics. The site also gives sample engagement rewards to drive return visits (i.e. mayorship specials, wildcard specials).

Management Stats- By claiming their business on Foursquare, owners can also gather the following real-time stats:

• most recent visitors

• most frequent visitors

• times of day people check in

• total number of unique visitors

So why does this matter? Other than getting a free ice cream or the prestige of becoming the mayor of your favorite lunch spot, Foursquare is giving businesses the tools to shape their social media profile to a world of tech-savvy customers. While review sites have reshaped how customers find and frequent local businesses, Foursquare is giving businesses the tools to shape their perception in the eyes of ever-elusive consumers.

So while local businesses and restaurants catch up with Foursquare’s new offerings, I’ll continue to work on my hard-earned mayorships.

Earth Day is here and thousands of companies will be taking the opportunity to announce how they are “going green.” With such encouraging messages about positive action, why are consumers seemingly indifferent and even annoyed by these reports?

An overwhelming cynicism has developed regarding claims of corporate environmental responsibility and sustainability– partly for good reason. Greenwashing is certainly an issue whereas some companies attest that their operations or products are “green” with pretty questionable justifications behind those claims.

However, should that negate the efforts of so many companies who are legitimately trying to course-correct and reduce their carbon emissions?

Many marketers are terrified to announce their sustainable actions because of the potential backlash they’ll face if their company is not considered environmentally friendly as a whole. Is it not still a good thing for a corporation to take steps towards a more sustainable future, even if they are just baby steps? What causes us to have such high expectations of companies when we don’t have them of ourselves?

On this Earth Day, let’s try not to look at corporations as deceitful polluters, but rather give them the benefit of the doubt and show some appreciation for the steps they are taking to make a brighter and greener future for us all.

There’s been a lot of buzz about Facebook’s growth as they try to stay on top of social media development. No one site “owns” the entire social media landscape; however, Facebook is making significant headway in making their site a one-stop-shop for all of your online interactions. Here are six reasons why I believe that Facebook will reign supreme over other social utilities:

1. Connecting: The average Facebook user has 130 friends, and with over 400 million active users that’s over 52 billion social connections. This dominance affords a huge opportunity for Facebook to integrate new social platforms.

2. Email: Facebook is rumored to be developing a full-fledged email system that could eliminate the need for a separate email accounts.

3. Social Plug-Ins: Due to the popularity of the “Like” function, Facebook is now competing with sites like Yelp by providing integration on to other sites around the web.

4. Facebook Chat: Facebook recently added a feature to their instant messaging system that allows users to make Friend Lists within Facebook Chat which will no doubt increase its use over other services.

5. Geolocation: Applications like Foursquare have made a name for themselves in this increasingly popular space, but now Facebook is jumping on the band wagon.

6. Facebook Connect: Facebook Connect eliminates most barriers to entry for engagement on other sites. Now that this process is being made even easier, it will continue its rapid growth in integration.

Check out some more information and insights from today’s F8 keynote presentation here.

After uproar over Google Maps leaving some faces and private property captured in their Street View feature unblurred, and Google Buzz’s questionable privacy settings, some major international players are putting their foot down and demanding change. Most of us can breathe easy– Google has been working to address these repeated concerns.

Heads of 10 countries just sent an open letter to Google CEO Eric Schmidt demanding that the internet powerhouse step up its game when it comes to protecting users. Overall, they say they want to see Google:

- collecting and processing only the minimum amount of personal information necessary to achieve the identified purpose of the product or service;

- providing clear and unambiguous information about how personal information will be used to allow users to provide informed consent;

- creating privacy-protective default settings;

- ensuring that privacy control settings are prominent and easy to use;

- ensuring that all personal data is adequately protected, and

- giving people simple procedures for deleting their accounts and honoring their requests in a timely way

So I have to ask, do you feel violated? What concerns do you have over Google’s privacy issues? Do you think the open letter is more whiny than it is warranted?

No matter the budget, when brainstorming for a client the eager minds at Mr Youth always start by thinking BIG. We toss around ideas of wild, dream executions to introduce or promote a brand, imagining that money is no object. (“Let’s send one person from every single country to the 2010 World Cup!” or “Let’s build the world’s largest piñata!” –don’t laugh, it’s been done! Well, sorta.)

Typically, reality sinks in quick and we regroup to develop a program that has the same strategic and creative chutzpah our client wants, but that fits more in line with their proposed budget and timeline– to sparkling and dynamic results, no less!

Derrick Borte’s new film, The Joneses, presents a concept that sounds as far-reaching as some of our initial wild and crazy marketing ideas. Embed a fake, envy-inducing family into a wealthy, materialistic neighborhood, outfit them with all of our clients’ newest and hottest products, and get them to get their “neighbors” to want it all? GENIUS… maybe.

The concept here is compelling on a few levels. We know for a fact that consumers trust the opinion of their family, friends (and in this case, neighbors) more than any claim a company itself can make. The Joneses may have something to say about how far some brands are willing to go to get you to buy what they’re selling. Is this an example of word-of-mouth gone too far? Are you swayed by strategic product placement as much as some brands are hoping you are?

Watch the trailer and let us know:

1. Uniqlo’s UT video creator: Clever execution that creates a  cute video integrating your Twitter feed to promote character tees, and a memorable tidbit from a brand that  delivers at least one feel-good surprise every year. (Note: quickly gaining popularity, too, it seems)

2. Hail The Villain: I may not dig metal, but I LOVE how this Canadian band is promoting it’s new album. Users get thrown into a graphic novel style world that challenges them to solve a grisly mystery by finding clues, contacting the band, previewing the album and using a webcam to integrate personal pics. For a quick taste, view this video.

3.Rohit Bhargava’s article on what marketers can learn from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution: Thoughtful and inspiring. Read it here.

4. Granimate: A musical wallpaper creator for the iPad?! Yes please. Preview it (very briefly) here. (via Creative Review blog)

5. Wordle: Ridiculously easy word cloud generator (and the second great design tool I found today. Check out 0 to 255 for color variations in a snap).

And the one thing we’re not quite sure about: Voyurl. Effective connection opportunity or just plain creepstastic? What are your thoughts?

Oh. And check out my Wordle for this post.

If you work in marketing (especially social media) you’ve probably seen more than your fair share of infographics designed to explain complex concepts that you couldn’t possibly have understood on your own. Whenever a good infographic is made it gets passed around the marketing world like a hot potato, but what is it about these images that makes them such marketing gold? I took some time to analyze the elements of infographics, and came up with this list of 12 key elements to creating your own mind-blowing images. If you’re thinking about making your own infographics, keep these elements in mind. If not, just enjoy!

1. 

(Ex. The Social Engagement Spectrum)

2. 

(Ex. Word of Mouth Visualized)

3. 

(Ex. The World’s Top 50 Banks)

(more…)

An hour-long high school dramedy series that’s a musical? Let’s face it: Glee initially had everything going against it. Time will ultimately tell, but skeptics be damned. This year’s Golden Globe winner for Best Comedy Series turned out to be a runaway hit that has yet to lose steam as it heads into the second part of its freshman season. Above all, the show’s writing is top notch by melding a perfect blend of edgy dark humor and a lot of heart. The talent of the young cast is undeniable. And Jane Lynch turns anything into comic gold. But producers were faced with some tough challenges right from the start. How to get people to actually tune in? Enter social media and a relatively risky gamble on an aggressive interactive marketing campaign.

First of all, Fox chose to debut the pilot episode months before its actual season debut in order to capitalize on its 20+ million captive audience from American Idol. They then utilized the down time to really gain traction online by engaging with their most passionate fans (or ‘Gleeks’). Currently, @gleeks has a nearly 50,000 person following on Twitter and almost 2 million fans on Facebook. Mix that with its very own YouTube channel with exclusive content, PR-worthy appearances (Oprah!) and even nationwide mall performances. Yep, everyone’s all abuzz over the little show that could.

Blurring the line between fan and fiction even further, Glee has since launched a national casting campaign for new characters to appear on the series. Fox also recently released an interactive “hypertrailer” allowing viewers to click and “fan” the show’s cast members on Facebook, who also participate live on-air in weekly re-run episodes (or “Tweetpeats”) much like the cast commentary on today’s DVD and Blu-ray discs.

So what’s so significant about Glee’s marketing strategy, anyway? At its core, it is truly a niche show. But a very enthusiastic niche crowd at that. And Glee is giving that very core audience exactly what they want: access and interaction. At a time when studios are shuttering unauthorized playback of content and guarding creative copyrights like a fortress, this show is practically shooting it across America through a t-shirt cannon. Whether it be the show’s music content (consistently charting week after week on iTunes) or capturing that “underdog” spirit in everyone, Glee has succeeded in truly crossing all media types, including a forthcoming iPhone/iPad app. That makes it one of the very first scripted shows to actually achieve results in reaching out to a young, digital audience with significant viral success. That’s definitely a social media coup to be gleeful about. I, for one, am proud to be a Gleek. Who’s with me?

Glee resumes its season on Tuesday,  April 13 on Fox.