Grown Up Thinking

So, after having highly anticipated the iPad and getting one on the day it came out, I found myself disappointed without a ton of use for it. Like all Apple products, the device was beautiful, had a great user experience and performed above expectations. It was just that nothing was new. The iPod changed how music was listened to, the iPhone brought about the mobile app ecosystem and both devices notably changed the way I did things from Day 1.

I kept saying the same would happen with the iPad, the applications just hadn’t caught up. Finally this week, I came across Flipboard and things started to change. Flipboard is a personalized social magazine, pulling content and shared links from your own Facebook or Twitter feeds and displaying them in magazine format, allowing you to flip through content that your social graph has created and shared specifically with you. You can even view curated lists by topics like sports, music, tech and fashion that pull stories from leading influencers in those areas based on what they are sharing in real time on their social networks.

Magazines and newspapers had already created some slick interfaces that turn pages in a similar way by swiping a finger but the content and even experience was largely the same. Similar to how these same publishers faltered and lost ground to blogs and content aggregators on the web because they tried to largely repurpose their content in a digital medium, publishers face the same challenges with new mobile and tablet platforms.

It is never about displaying the same content in a new fresh way. The true success stories of media when faced with disruptive technology are always those that fully embrace the new medium and develop a product that does things that completely alter how people consume content. Flipboard understands the immense amount of content that we now have to sort through from our social networks, the ability to leverage the personalized nature of this content and the emergence of a new device that now seems perfect for enabling us to consume this content en mass without being tied to a desk chair and computer screen. As a result, I’ve used my iPad more in the last two days than in the previous two weeks and my media consumption has once again been flipped on its head.

If you’re anything like me, you spend 72-85% of your “going out to dinner in NYC” time looking for a location that’s equal parts NOM-licious and affordable. Those of you familiar with the New York gastronomic scene know that “affordable” is the more fleeting variable in this scenario.

That’s why Scoutmob, the newest platform to jump on the Groupon/Woot bandwagon seems pretty spot-on to me. Bridging the gap between two of the hottest trends right now, geo-location enabled mobile apps and daily e-coupons, Scoutmob serves up hand-picked deals in NYC and Atlanta (usually 50% off) and delivers them right to your iPhone. The clincher? Unlike its web-based predecessors, there’s no purchase required for the adorably quirky Scoutmob. Simply present the app at your restaurant or bar of choice, and you have instant access to the 50% discount.

Did I mention the deal is valid on ANY combination of items on the menu? Guess I know where I’m eating tonight…

I came across a box of Barnum’s Animal Crackers the other week at a train station in Delaware and immediately noticed the packaging overhaul. To celebrate the Year of the Tiger, Lilly Pulitzer has teamed up with Nabisco Barnum’s Animal Crackers, to create special packaging to support the WWF with a goal to raise $100K to save the Sumatra Tigers.

Why is this interesting? For one, its an older brand that is getting a fashionable face lift. Through partnering with a modern, nationally known fashion brand they are definitely appealing to moms, but also making a cause connection between their animal crackers and real world animals, which can be a great education element for young kids. In short, the product has a real educational effect on young children and can teach them about endangered species causes. Furthermore, they are issuing one million of these limited edition boxes, so the campaign has some decent scale to it.

On top of all that, it’s an unexpected collaboration, which is what makes it great. I love seeing brands like this partner up for the purpose of a common cause. Overall it feels genuine. Lilly Pulitzer is issuing animal prints as part of their line this season to support Wildlife, so the elements all tie in well without feeling forced or like a sell out.

We need to encourage more mass-brands to step out of their comfort zones and predictable patterns. They should be entering new spaces, initiating unlikely collaborations and using their reach for the greater good. I’d love to see these boxes make their way down the runway of Fashion Week. Who knows? They may even make good upcylced purses for cell phones and essentials.

So what unexpected brand collaborations have caught your eye these days? Leave a comment and let us know.

This article appeared as part of MediaPost’s Engage:Teens Publications. To read the original post, click here.

So here is my report not from the sidelines, but from the mud pits of Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn. I was only there for 36 hours of it, but had enough time to party with festival children, see some killer bands perform, participate in the festival revelry and witness some brands in action.

In my eyes, event sponsorship is all about heightening the consumer’s experience. I hope for the sake of our industry, that corporate culture has graduated from thinking signage and logo placement equates to consumer retention and interest.

The true play for a brand in the event activation space is to elevate the event goers’ experience by ultimately conveying that the brand understands what the consumer is going through. Once a brand understands and connections to the consumer’s emotional event experience, they can effectively add real value as a sponsor.

Additionally, event producers don’t have the time to offer every amenity, every perk, every nice-to-have since they are focused on the entertainment and general production needs. I’m sure every festival producer says, “That’s a great idea; maybe we’ll get to it next year.” Four years later, it’s still a great idea but hasn’t been executed. This leaves a huge opportunity for brands to elevate their activations.

A quick snapshot of Bonnaroo to properly set the stage: four days of music and mayhem on a 700-acre farm in the middle of nowhere. There is no escaping the festival grounds. The average teen I spoke with drove 8+ hours and stayed in a basic camp tent with minimal amenities. Most didn’t have a basic fan in their tent and it was insanely hot. Bonnaroo isn’t an event; it’s a cultural movement comprised of loyal adventure seekers, with approximately half of 100,000 attendees being teens and college-aged.

Click here to read more of Doug’s experience at Bonnaroo 2010, and how some brands got it right.