Grown Up Thinking

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.

As we enter the “tear it up” 10s we should be in for a wild year in all areas of American culture- entertainment, technology, sports, and media. Since Twitter has become such a critical source for news dissemination, I thought it would be appropriate to share some predictions for 2010 in the form of Tweets:

1. @TigerWoods: feels great to be back on the course and winning again

2. @BarackObama: We never said we were out of the woods

3. @MTV: Ask and u shall receive! Excited 2 announce #JerseyShore renewed til 2015

4. @ESPN: SportsCenter in 3D premieres tonight- get ur glasses in today’s @USAToday

5. @Mashable: Facebook Announces Premium Account Service Offering $1/mo Subscriptions with Enhanced Functionality: http://bit.ly/19ksST

6. @The_Real_Shaq: #Italwaysfeelsgoodto hoist that trophy

7. @JamesCameron: Humbled by #Avatar passing Titanic as top-grossing film of all time

8. @AlGore: Don’t believe the hype, I am not running in 2012

9. @PerezHilton OMG! OMG! Tom and Katie are history

10. @NFLNetwork: 2011 lockout looms large for next season

11. @IMDB: Shooting for The Sopranos movie seen around Northern NJ yesterday

12. @VirginAmeria: Now offering @Skype seats for in-flight video conference in select “noisy rows”

13. @EbertChicago: Sex and The City 2: Two thumbs down!

14. @Gizmodo: The #SkiffReader is our 2010 tech device of the year

15. @JimJCramer: It is still not too late to get out of the dollar and into commodities

16. @CNN: 36 countries report internet outages for as long as 9 hrs as a global task force is created to identify what happened http://cnn.com

17. @LadyGaga: Just found out I’ve been selected by Richard Branson for Virgin Galactic’s first ride to space

18. @JimGoldman: Google discontinues #NexusOne citing lackluster sales

19. @APlusK: This tweet is sponsored by @Coca_Cola

20. @SergeyBrinn: We have officially ceased Google.cn. We recommend using @Baidu

What other tweets do you expect to see?

Just in time for the holidays, JetBlue has opened a posh boutique in Manhattan’s hip Meatpacking District…but you can’t buy anything there. The store is touting it’s exclusive line of travel products (The Flyer’s Collection) to help you cope with the oh-so arduous task of flying with “the other guys.” The jokester stunt is definitely eye catching. I would totally drop some dough on my personal favorites: the Marshpillow (a pillow made of marshmallow to help you cope with stress, hunger and comfort) and the Yumbro robot (dispensing friendly compliments and Terra Blue Chips. Holla!)

Feel free to pop over and browse the entire collection on 14th Street & 9th Avenue near the Mr Youth offices or check it out online on JetBlue’s Facebook page. Stunt marketing like this is nothing new, of course, but I commend JetBlue for not taking itself too seriously. When brands engage consumers in new and hilarious ways, people certainly take notice. Although my mother can’t buy me anything from this exclusive collection for the holidays, I’ll certainly accept a JetBlue flight (hint, hint).

Foodspotting: way better’n Urban Spoon.

Stella Artois YouTube Channel: Beautiful creative curation from a brand that manages the tricky balance of honoring its roots while still seeming fresh.

Well, let’s face it. The new Stella campaign in its beautiful entirety.

The World’s First Crowdsourced Magazine Cover: would have been even better if it was executed by Good (another crazy obsession of ours).

The Body Image Project: Picking up where Dove left off, and adding a dedicated social media angle. Check our their Twitter handle- great practices in a very short time.

Canon Freeze Tag: how can you NOT love this execution?!?! Besides. It features a great track from the Go Team, a band frequently heard in our cube when we need a boost mid-afternoon.

221B: a splendid use of Facebook Connect to promote the new Sherlock Holmes movie. Dark, compelling, beautifully designed and effective (NOT like Welcome to Fight Club, which we wanted to love but was just totally arbitrary).

Pull a Volkswagen. Create an engaging video from an amazingly simple (yet beautiful and playfully nostalgic) experiential stunt. When combined with a clean microsite & a fun UGC contest, this is the kind of work that gives me the warm fuzzies.

Go to TheFunTheory.com to see how all the parts play (and I DO mean play) together nicely.

Though my own style proclivities veer more closely to the moody (frequently opting for the trifecta of black+booties+tousled hair, like this lovely lady), I found this great interactive-slash-mobile campaign for Ralph Lauren on PSFK today that might have me wearing a rugby shirt faster than you can say “sassy sartorialist.”

The long & short of it: consumers are given the chance to fully customize a Rugby jersey using either a free iPhone application or using a touchscreen window display at the Ralph Lauren store in Greenwich Village. Buy it, share it, post it to Facebook- it’s up to you. Finally, try it on for size by dropping your own photo into the image, and submit it to a public gallery.

Ultimately, it’s a great example of how brands can use mobile to drive to retail in an innovative way while giving fashion-friendly fans the chance to make a statement in fully personalized gear using technology.

We all know how annoying it can be to hear a song in an ad and not be able to find it anywhere. Apparently enough people felt that way about the latest Ritz ad that the brand responded in a very interesting way. Ritz learned through comments on YouTube that consumers were searching for the happy tune featured in the spot, but were unable to find it online.  The brand responded by posting a video stating  that they would turn the 30 second jingle created specifically for the ad into a full-length song if the video achieves 10,000 views on YouTube.  The song will be available on iTunes with all profits going to the artist.

At the time of this blog post, the video had just over 7k views, so it looks like this ditty is destined for a full-length future. Though the whole backsory may be faked by Ritz’s agency and most would argue that 10k views does not a viral video make, this is still a smart way for a brand to use social media as both a messaging and listening tool.  It also goes to show that sometimes the most compelling social media executions are the simplest.  Contrived or not, this one, like the product itself, is like “buttah.”

I’m hard pressed to find anyone who genuinely enjoys a trip to the DMV, being confronted by nosy parental units, or being prodded by a physician (unless we’re talking McDreamy). So, how can companies and causes confront teens with uncomfortable issues outside of these yawn-inducing mediums? Recently, I’ve been dazzled by a few campaigns willing to crank up the kiddies’ Jacuzzi and dive in, sans apologies.

Forget the lame ‘Donate Life’ pamphlet at the DMV. The Trillium Gift of Life Network has launched RecycleMe.org, where you’ll find an attractive, well-intentioned young chap in his birthday suit, urging you to open him up and check him out. Click on any of his glistening organs and he’ll tell you why someone will need them more than you someday.

ThatsNotCool.com is creating awareness about the need for respect and boundaries in the digital space by giving teens the tools to stop bad behavior.  Now, instead of replying to every invasive, incessant text from a pushy partner, teens can send a ‘callout card’ that fires back: “You’re Much More Attractive When You’re Not Textually Harassing Me.”

MTV’s cryptic TV spots featuring celebrities hyping the mysterious “GYT” piqued my curiosity. WTF is GYT? Gay Young Thing? Green Your Technology? This crafty campaign is sure to GKT (Get Kids Talking) about topics DTD (Difficult To Discuss), even if they do it through code, which is (let’s face it) how most teens communicate these days anyway.

The triumph here is these companies’ success in reaching their young and sometimes apathetic audience through a message that is strong yet accessible. By creating an active dialogue with youth via the messaging channels they use most frequently, organizations and causes will be able to hit issues that are usually off the radar for most teens.

Taking cues from both the Champion Hoodie Remix contest and the current trend of food personalization (including granola, chocolate and even tea), Dunkin Donuts launched a contest this week that challenges people across the country to create their own donut for the chance to win $12,000 and to get their tasty treat produced. Just more proof on how customization really is king.

More and more companies these days are leveraging the enormous power of social networking to make a meaningful impact on their consumers, all the while boosting their brands with some positive buzz. I was impressed recently when Tide pitted a slew of companies against one another in a vintage tee selling competition. All tees sold benefitted the Tide Loads of Hope program which helps communities hit by natural disasters. With the help of Twitter and Facebook, over 2,000 tees were sold in just under 4 hours. Merging the power of social networking along with buzz-worthy creativity not only allowed Tide to get a major PR boost but also helped to instill the brand’s image with a very valuable message of hope, optimism and giving back. (Hey, I bought a green one.) In case you wanna plunk a cool 20 bucks down for a good cause, you can grab your own vintage tee here.

Tide Loads of Hope is much more than just t-shirts, of course. Over the past three years, the prominent mobile laundry program has traveled to cities in need and washed over 35,000 loads of laundry for over 20,000 families including victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Southern California Wildfires, the Iowa floods, and most recently for Hurricane Gustav and Hurricane Ike.

Now who’s gonna do MY laundry?

BTW, thanks for the tip, Coolhunting!