Grown Up Thinking

Of all the new ads, ideas, articles, videos, and trends we sift through every day, these are the fun nuggets that stuck with us last week:

- The Oxford Dictionary is the most generous in adding Internet jargon to the official English language. Check out the list of last month’s new additions, my favorites being: baby bump, bestie, infographic, meep, newb, social graph, and ZOMG.

- Axe Sprayaway lets you remove what you think stinks on the web. Negative YouTube comment? New pic of your arch nemesis on Facebook? Opinion you don’t agree with and want to lash out against in a non-threatening way? Make yourself feel better with this fun tool.

- This conceptual work for UNICEF, done by students at the Miami Ad School, poses a new way to contribute funds to education by donating your misspelled words. A very creative and inspiring concept.

- The launch of the Tweet Button adds an easier way to embed Twitter into your sites with options to show the number of times the item has been tweeted and preload mentions.

- The Intel® Museum of Me is our favorite rendition of the myriad “social history” tools we’ve seen.  Beautiful and well done.

- Improv Everywhere did a great stunt called “Gotta Share” – it gives the flashmob a facelift and has all the social media rhyming words we could ask for

What’s floating your boat this week?

The Mr Youth Creative team was in good company Friday night. As guests at the One Show Interactive Awards at New York’s Terminal 5, we were both surrounded and inspired by an eclectic and talented crew of colleagues. Each year, the One Club recognizes the agency teams behind the most innovative and buzz-worthy advertising of the last 12 months.

Here’s our personal compilation of the “wow”-worthy winners that made us applaud hardest:
 
Kindling a community of composers…

“Sounds of Hamburg” | Client: Philharmoniker Hamburg
Agency: Jung von Matt, Hamburg
Award: Gold Pencil, Websites and Microsites: Services

Because at the end of the day “it’s just advertising”…

“Pink Ponies” | Client: john st.
Agency: john st. advertising, Toronto
Award: Gold Pencil, Online Films and Video: Self-Promotion – Single

An awareness-builder of a different kind…

“The Girl Store” | Client: Nanhi Kali (K.C. Mahindra Education Trust)
Agency: StrawberryFrog, New York
Award: Bronze Pencil, Websites and Microsites: E-Commerce

Comedic gold for the cause…

“Devin & Glenn” | Client: Overturn Prop 8
Agency: Furlined, Santa Monica
Award: Silver Pencil, Online Films and Video: Public Service/Non-Profit – Single

Crowdsourcing creativity to honor the Man in Black…

“The Johnny Cash Project” | Client: American Recordings/Lost Highway
Agency: @radical.media, New York
Award: Gold Pencil, Websites and Microsites: Social Networks/Community

Some other favorites:

“Fastball” | Client: Google | Agency: BBH, New York

“UNIQLO Lucky Counter” | Client: UNIQLO | Agency: Dentsu, Tokyo

“Pay With A Tweet” | Client: Innovative Thunder | Agency: R/GA, New York

“I Am Not An Artist” | Client: Elisava | Agency: Soon in Tokyo

“Nike+ GPS” | Client: Nike | Agency: R/GA, New York

“The Fun Theory Winner – The Speed Camera Lottery” | Client: VW Sweden | Agency: DDB, Stockholm
 
A hearty high-five to all of this year’s winners. Keep our seats warm.

Twitter.com just got an upgrade! It’s been a while since we’ve seen a new homepage as Twitter has focused much of its redesign efforts on improving user experience; however, this new landing page is very obviously geared towards acquisition of new users. Let’s take a look at what stayed, what’s gone and why Twitter made these changes. (Images below)

WHAT STAYED?

Value Proposition: Twitter kept one if it’s focal points focusing on the value prop to the potential user, but evolved it to be broad reaching when it comes to need-states of potential new users. They’re definitely trying harder to sell Twitter to skeptical consumers.

Search: The search feature is still there, but has been moved down on the page to bring more focus to the value proposition to new users. Searching comes after the value proposition, prompting potential new users to find out what Twitter has to offer for themselves.

Who’s Here: Highlighted accounts have been lowered, but expanded to show more breadth, though it’s no longer “who’s here” since Twitter hosts accounts for more than just people.

Sign Up: Sign up stayed, but evolved. Now Twitter can get new users without asking them to click through to another page and go through the process of creating a handle. This is an obvious indication that the process of finding an available handle has been inhibiting their growth.

WHAT’S GONE?

Trending Topics: Bye bye trending topics! Though they’re not eliminated from the platform all together, they’re no longer being used to show what’s going on to potential new users… maybe to make Twitter’s value and content less narrowly focused?

Top Tweets: This looks like another way for Twitter to make the platform seems more adaptable to user needs by eliminating any content that may skew a new users view of what the platform has to offer.

Discover Twitter: The tutorial video is gone. It’s probably safe to assume that anyone going to twitter.com is familiar with what it is, and if they’re not, Twitter wants them to find out for themselves.

WHATS NEW?

The World: Twitter obviously wants to showcase the fact that they connect you to news and updates from around the world. What better way to do that than to put a big map of the world in the background?

The Colors: Twitter has abandoned their classic robin’s egg blue color for a less vibrant shade of grey/blue with white/silver accent colors. Why the color changes? Probably to make Twitter look more sophisticated.

WHY THE NEW LOOK?

For a long time people have been skeptical about using Twitter. They don’t see the value over Facebook and don’t feel like they have enough to say on Twitter that warrants an account. Twitter has attacked that notion head-on by changing its communication to focus on keeping up with updates from friends, experts, celebrities, brands and news outlets while also eliminating any content that would give a new user a myopic view of what Twitter has to offer them.

The old Twitter home page

The new Twitter home page

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

A teen, a Millennial and a Mom walk into a restaurant for dinner. The Mom has a coupon for 10% off that she got for “liking” the bar’s Facebook page, the Millennial checked in on Foursquare to get a free drink, and the teen has nothing and is too busy texting her friends to care.

Teens are a unique audience. They have their own needs and social drivers that are unique to their stage in life. Many marketers assume that, because teens are young, their needs are the same as Millennials and that they will interact with brands in the same way.

New research is showing that teens have their own needs and behaviors that are different from other generations. If you’re a marketer looking to reach teens, it’s vitally important that you always have your finger on the pulse of the teen audience. As technology evolves, teens are finding their own uses for it that are unique to their personal and social needs.

There are some myths about marketing to teens that every marketer can learn from.

Myth #1: All teens want smartphones
While it is true that teens want phones, smartphone adoption has only reached 31% as of 2010. If 90% of teens own a cell phone, why aren’t they buying smartphones? The answer is actually pretty simple: texting. Teens send an average of 3,339 texts per month, and typing that many messages on a touch screen is a lot more difficult than typing on even the most basic phone keyboard. That’s why BlackBerry is one of the most popular phones for teens.

Click here to read the rest of David’s teen marketing myths.

Several brands are creating more participatory content on YouTube these days and the channel as a whole seems to be making a slow but smart play from a passive content channel to a broader interactive digital hub. The new functionality will allow advertisers to engage in deeper and more unique messaging offerings by making the viewer a more active part of the content experience.

One of the first examples to catch my eye and keyboard this summer was the Google chromefastball game on YouTube. More recently two examples came up, one by a relatively unknown brand Tipp-Ex and the other from an old school legend, Trivial Pursuit.

What’s impressive about both of these is the level of viewer interaction with the content. In the Tipp-Ex video “A Hunter Shoots a Bear” there’s a “choose your own ending” format, coupled with an unexpected interactive ad unit. The Mac/PC ads famously started doing this on the NYTimes homepage, but it hasn’t yet reached critical popularity on YouTube.

So what do we call all of this? An interactive content ad? The viewer is clearly duped and then encouraged to fool a friend with a cryptic message through pushing out to their Facebook or Twitter networks. Smart play! The outcome of the content is unexpected and thus encourages continued pass along to drive up viewership.

Another example which takes the channel more into the gameplay realm is the Trivial Pursuit YouTube game. Are these just one-offs, or a small growl into the future of YouTube’s belly of awesomeness? Will developers start building games with YouTube in mind? Certainly all the mashups could gain from allowing users to easily make their own thruough some quick tools integrated within the YouTube channel. What else have you been seeing on YouTube or other channels that makes the content two-way?

Finally! Ever since the emergence of Chatroulette I’ve been eagerly anticipating a viral marketing campaign that takes it to the next level.

For me it has arrived in the form of “The Last Exorcism” where some genius marketer has combined the two best things about Chatroulette: sex appeal and shock value. This viral move comes as a follow-up to the newly created Church of St. Marks website that provides tips and tricks to avoid being possessed by a demon, and in the event that this is unavoidable, also provides guidance to care for the possessed.

An important point to note with this is that the actual promotion on Chatroulette isn’t what will bring the movie in to the spotlight, but rather the virility of the reaction videos. Considering the largest demographic on the site is 18-24 year olds, Chatroulette seems like a perfect fit for this type of promotion.

All-in-all, I’m glad to see that someone is keeping Chatroulette in the headlines and giving us even more entertaining reactions to enjoy.

Check them out here.

Well, well, well.  NYC is finally moving forward with a $200 million project to bring Wi-Fi to the underworld in the next 2-6 years.  This project has been approved since 2007, but (as with other NYC undertakings) did not have funding until recently.  Transit Wireless and Broadcast Australia get credit for fronting the cash; the question is do we thank them or not?

There are many reasons I am glad I do not have service in the Subway:

1.    Convenient excuse to end a phone conversation
2.    I read more books that way
3.    Time spent disconnected from the world – which they say is good for you
4.    People are irritating when they don’t pay attention to where they are going, and this would expose them to the dangers of texting while walking

There are also times I wish I had service on the Subway:

1.    When I forget which stop I want
2.    When I am late(r than usual) and need to call my blind internet date… er… friends
3.    When someone asks me a question and I don’t know the answer
4.    When I think of something brilliant to Google
5.    when I open Facebook on my phone just to be reminded that I cannot

On the whole, it is an attractive and practical idea that will result in more meaningful, engaging advertising content.  It’s surprising it took this long to come to fruition, really.

Can you imagine being able to meet friends on a specific train car or play live online trivia with the plasma TVs that will definitely be installed by then? Cross your fingers the world doesn’t end in 2012 because I definitely want to be here for this.

What does the future of marketing on subway cars look like to you?

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…

Monday evening I wandered downtown in search of Beauty 2.0, an Internet Week panel discussion about the future of the beauty industry in social media. Not knowing what to expect (except that two members of Rachel Zoe Inc would be in attendance, OMG), what I witnessed was an hour discussion about social media, lip plumper, beauty metaphors and the power of peer to peer (aka Beauty and the Geek.

One of my favorite moments was when Tina Hedges, a L’Oreal/Estee Lauder vet, broke down the importance of humanizing your brand using terms even the most inexperienced beauty-maven could understand. Urging prestige brands to be more transparent and less exclusive she said, “At a cocktail party, I want to talk to the person who is open and warm, not the girl who’s sitting in the corner thinking she’s better than me”.

Adding to that was Karen Robinovitz, my new crazy-haired idol and founder of PurpleLabs.com. “The internet and social media are the most democratic system”, she said, “People are going to talk. Some of it may be negative, but it’s like popping a pimple. It’ll be red for a second, but then it will go away and the good stuff will bubble to the top in the end”. Wowzers, how’s that for a beauty metaphor?

More generally, the conversation took an interesting turn when another panel member lamented about how concerned the marketing industry is with “what’s next”. In the mad rush to discover the next foursquare/twitter/gamechanger, we often overlook what’s happening now, at this very moment. Deep thoughts, beauty panel, deep thoughts. Do you agree?

This article first appeared as part of iMedia Connection’s Social Media: In Focus

More than a fan aggregator

With its recent F8 announcements, Facebook has again one-upped the world as we thought we knew it. Brand marketers need to start looking at Facebook as a much deeper and broader solution than one that purely amasses a fan base. As Facebook rolls out new functionality, brands have the opportunity to act immediately in a variety of ways. In addition, it’s important for brand managers to re-imagine their brands by leveraging social enhancements.

Brands need to be able to take immediate advantage of features such as the “like” functionality, but they also need to be visionary in how they can build their brands for the future and become truly social. While I encourage brands to take part in these new advancements, we also need to make sure that we keep an eye on the Facebook future and build with this future in mind.

So, in the quest to make your brand truly social, uproot your assets and think of new ways to infuse them through Facebook integration and by adding key social layers to the brand experience. Look toward the future and start evaluating the role that Facebook can play at retail, on the ground, and across every channel your brand touches. Not all opportunities will be a fit, but one thing is for sure: If you only look at Facebook as a place to have a fan page, you are missing the greater offering and will likely be sitting on the sidelines when the future arrives.

Get the full article here to take a look at some of Facebook’s new and evolving functionalities, as well as what they mean for your marketing efforts.