Grown Up Thinking

“Help me fight this gang in Mafia Wars!”, “Join my wagon in Oregon Trail!”, “I’ve just found a golden egg in my FarmVille!”.

Most people have likely seen one of these updates in their Facebook news feed before, and many of them have participated in one of these popular social games. They’re fun and addicting, and millions of people all over the world just can’t get enough of them. In fact, FarmVille has over 80 million users monthly, and nearly 75% of Facebook’s 400 million users participate in online social gaming.

My question is, why hasn’t Madison Avenue capitalized on this yet? Bing recently made a push into marketing via FarmVille, but we have yet to see a real attempt at infusing marketing into online social gaming.  This raises an important question: How much marketing are you willing to put up with to play these addicting games? Will you spend money for special features, or give up screen space for ads? Will you be open to branded content, or even entirely branded games? If you got an email saying you couldn’t play FarmVille anymore unless you paid for it, what would you do?

Growing up as a teen in the late ’80s and early ’90s was much simpler on so many levels. I never remember hearing the words economy, terrorism, war or debt. Instead, my thoughts were left to my dreams and curiosity. Since the library was not the place I aspired to be, and the Internet was far from reach, I was left to my imagination about much of what the world had to offer.The catalyst for my dreams growing up as a teen were the icons I looked up to and aspired to be like. Long before celebrity scandals were everyday news I, like many of my peers, were left with the innocent feeling of putting my heroes on impenetrable pedestals. Bobby Brown (see: mug shot), Charles Barkley (ditto), and yes, Brandon from Beverly Hills 90210 were at the top of my list.

No matter whom I looked up to as a teen, every icon had one thing in common … cool. They acted cool, dressed cool, talked cool and walked cool.

Fast forward to 2010, and the headlines are much different as are teens’ perceptions of their icons. The Internet, camera phones, and Perez Hilton have exposed those who might otherwise be teens’ everyday heroes as frauds or creeps, and there is little left to the imagination. The halo of cool has become blurred and faded with yet another flash from a TMZ photographer.

Enter the “age of anti-cool” for the modern teen. With each new celebrity wart exposed, the notion of hero and idol has virtually disappeared only to be awkwardly replaced by the likes of Michael Cera, Shaun White and Glee. Today’s rising teen heroes are largely embraced because of their flaws rather than their airbrushed perfection. We are entering an age that celebrates and promotes imperfection.

Teens are infatuated with Shaun White not only because he is an American teen icon* that is a killer snowboarder but because he is in many ways as relatable as the free-spirited, pimply kid next door. Michael Cera (or Jonah Hill for that matter) is not as easy on the eyes as Jason Priestly once was, but who would you rather spend a night playing Xbox with? Glee celebrates the inner shower singer in all of us that just wants to belt out some “Journey” … and something about that feels so right.

Social media has made the anti-cool acceptable and widespread. No longer does today’s teen need to be a cheerleader or sports jock to fit in. There are meet-ups for Star Wars geeks and tweetups for Circus Freaks and everything in between. Pepsi, long seen as an arbiter of teen pop culture, no longer uses the likes of Britney, MJ, Madonna or Shaq in its ads, but instead a promise for everyday people to make a difference.

Is your brand still hiding behind the bright lights and makeup of a paid celebrity shill to tout your wares? Or are you embracing your warts while becoming more authentic and relatable? The jig is up for fooling teen consumers with a paid endorsement by their heroes. Now you must earn their trust by letting it all out and embracing the anti-cool.

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

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 XX Installation: Quote from Partizan director and creator Saam Farahmand-“Music videos are a 2D visual interpretation of a song. We are interested in creating spaces that exist as a 3D physical interpretation of a song or an album, and that is what we have created for the album xx.” A beautiful meld of music, technology and art that creates a “physical music video.” (via Creative Review Blog)

Levis’ DIY Closet: Simple. Smart. Surprising.

One Frame of Fame video: C-Mon & Kipski crowdsource their music video.

As a recent transplant to New York, I haven’t fully embraced New England winters. Luckily, there’s an app that can keep you nice and toasty (and help you avoid a dreaded hat hair situation).

So how does it work? The Pocket Heater app warms your hands through “Patented Technology”—basically, it puts your iPhone’s battery and processor on turbo charge, causing it to overheat and become warm to the touch.

The app is a pretty nifty idea. And while I’m skeptical it may eventually cause my iPhone to self-destruct, it gets extra points for novelty (and for making me use the word ‘nifty’). Perhaps I’ll go rogue and leave my mittens at home tomorrow…

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).

With a single evolutionary change to its search engine, Google has facilitated a major shift in user experience for finding, exploring, and purchasing music online.

The search giant has tapped leading social music platforms Pandora, iMeem, Lala, Rhapsody, and the recent MySpace acquisition, iLike, to provide intelligent music-related search results and legal downloads through the Google Music Search.

Search Google for an artist, album, song, or string of lyrics and you’ll be greeted with full-length previews of the music streamed from Lala.com or MySpace Music.

Google search results for "david bowie"

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5 Things We’re Loving Right Now:

1. GetGlue.com: Personal recommendations + Foursquare-ish gaming for all your bookish, audiophile, movie dork obsessions.

2. Shmotter.com: Like Polyvore, but better. More social functionality.

3. All Together Now stop motion animation: Better’n Bud, but obviously a tip of the hat to a great commercial.

4. Laika: dynamic, interactive type for all ya design geeks (that means you, Mr. Helvetica).

5. Sweatshoppe Video Painting: public art spectacle that simply MUST be used by a brand. For serious.

Glance at this year’s box office Top 5 and there is hardly a well known name, let alone a true movie star. Gone are the days where you shelled out $20MM dollars for a top star and they led you to box office glory. In fact, take a peek at this year’s Top 30 movies and see how many true stars you can name outside of Tom Hanks and perhaps Hugh Jackman. It’s not surprising that star salaries are dropping fast.

So what’s changed? Well, Twitter’s assent to mainstream for one. A movie can be chock filled with superstars but if Twitter is ablaze Friday with negative tweets about the film, a blockbuster can go up in flames in just days. Will Ferrell and Sasha Baron Cohen have seen this first hand this summer.  Likewise, films like The Hangover and District 9, which delight audiences, can quickly swell at the box office despite no notable stars. What does this mean for Hollywood? Make good films and audiences will come. Find ways to engage core fans and spread their enthusiasm through social media and that effect can be multiplied quickly.

Hollywood of course is not the only industry effected by a world that now demands instant feedback and so easily enables people to bypass mass media to disseminate and consume information. Brands face the same challenges. No longer can a big budget commercial and widespread brand awareness convert at the register. The product or service must deliver and conversing with communities most vocal and passionate must be a large piece if not the focal point of any marketing campaign.

As we’ve seen throughout history, mass adoption of new technology changes the rules. The rules are  now changing fast and no star or brand is immune.