Grown Up Thinking

You can almost hear the sound of rubber balls bouncing around the walls of Mr Youth these days, as the epic battle to reign supreme in all things #Foursquare has swept the agency. Our resident mayor recently explained the craze in an earlier post, but developments over the weekend have added a new dimension to the biggest game on the social media scene today.

I was gleefully surprised to receive an email from Foursquare notifying me that I had been upgraded to “Superuser” status based on my, well, super (over)use of the service. While the lack of a VIP card, limited edition sunglasses and other self-identifying accoutrement is slightly disheartening, I was informed that I have the ability to make  edits to the game’s venue database, like de-duplicating venues and matching venues with twitter accounts. The more I exercise my Superuser status the more abilities I’ll unlock.

Foursquare is really hitting the mark when it comes to tapping into its enthusiastic fanbase to drive and improve the game. By inviting users into the fold and allowing them to affect elements of the service, they’re fostering deeper loyalties and creating layers of exclusivity that encourage would-be-Superusers to increase their usage of the game to reach the great heights of Superuser status. Lucky me. Question is…how do I translate this into a Halloween costume?

Where my other Superuser peeps at? Holler below in the comment section.

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.

A recent video response by Kristina, a 21-year old student on the topic of communities working with brands, seemed to touch on so much of what Mr Youth has found to define the new consumer. While older generations might question the placement of advertising into personal blogs and You Tube channels, Consumer 2.0 struggles to see how this is any different then attempting to bombard them with a brand’s message via traditional channels. Kristina identifies how much more contextual and relevant marketing via peers and communities is. She explains how off putting “shoving commercials down our throats is” and how brands who take the time to think through ways to engage them and “work with them” have a much better grasp of how to positively communicate with their generation. Marketers could learn a lot from this 21-year old.

Perhaps Twitter may become the next frontier in method acting? Actress Barret Swatek is certainly ready to find out as the star of the new online comedy series “My Two Fans.” More and more entertainment choices are beginning to spring up exclusively on the web. (Arguably an early indication of things to come for the future of television? Discuss.) “My Two Fans” follows Swatek’s quirky character, Kate Maxwell, as she rebounds from a nasty breakup with the help of her two biggest fans. An inverted “Three’s Company” of sorts, the show can be consumed in a variety of ways including YouTube, Funny Or Die, or Facebook.

While the series has decent production values, a large marketing budget was decidedly out of the question. Enter Swatek’s personal Twitter page in which she began “tweeting” as her character and following businesses and people that could relate to the show. A large portion of the series is improvisation which allows a fascinating twist on life imitating art imitating life. In a relatively short period of time, the character Kate has amassed an 1,000+ following on Twitter, including key industry players at Sony, Lionsgate, and NBC. Even more interesting is how speaking in the character’s own voice has really fueled the actress’ own comedic writing with a huge dose of creative inspiration. Stanislavski would be like SO proud.

Congratulations “Web 2.0”, you are the English language’s one millionth word!

The Global Language Monitor has just deemed “Web 2.0” number 1,000,000 and says the English language contains more words than any other language on the planet, claiming about 14 words are added to English every day.

For those of you born last week, and a few of you before 1960, the term “Web 2.0” refers to the second, more social generation of the Internet. Then again, if you didn’t know that, you probably wouldn’t be on this site. Or maybe you’re here to learn!

GLM says words must make sense in at least 60 percent of the world to be official. While some language experts challenge the process and criteria for creating words, GLM uses computer models that check 5,000 dictionaries, publications and articles, as well as billions of Web sites, to see how frequently words are used. A word must make 25,000 appearances to be deemed legitimate. GLM says words up for consideration must make sense to different communities of people, not just one core demographic.

The five words leading up to the millionth prove how the English language evolves along with current social trends. This list includes: “Jai Ho!“, “slumdog”, “cloud computing”, “carbon neutral” and “n00b”.

We salute you, “Web 2.0”, and consider this a fitting honor for a phrase that has become definitive of our generation.

A lot of clients ask me how social media can support traditional media. Smart brands understand that a great campaign is an integrated one. Your brand needs to be a ‘social brand,’ not simply a brand with a social media presence, and that presence requires a fluid media approach. 

T-Mobile (a client of ours here in the US)  has recently launched some impressive work  in the UK. Who can forget the impromptu dance performance in the middle of a London Underground station, a video that has received over 11 million views on YouTube? Thankfully, T-Mobile’s latest addition to the Life’s For Sharing campaign is even more impressive.

T-Mobile teased 13,500 people to show up to Trafalgar Square in London for the chance to be in a TVspot. When participants arrived, microphones were passed out to the massive crowd and everyone was directed to join in a surprise sing-a-long to Hey Jude (featuring a special appearance by American pop icon, Pink). The stunt will be featured as a TV spot in T-Mobile’s upcoming campaign and has helped propel the brand to the #4 spot for most subscribed sponsor YouTube channel in the UK.

By hosting a live stunt that created an unforgettable TV ad, T-Mobile effectively built an authentic back story while connecting with consumers. The 13k participants experienced something truly unique, and the online community is buzzing about it. Brands like T-Mobile are gaining a ton of credit in the viral world of YouTube, blogs and social outlets for bringing people together in a memorable way. When you think of how social media can propel your brand,  why not include all other media assets to help create a more organic (and more long-term) conversation? 

When 140 characters seem simply too daunting, turn to Twitter Magnets. Post spontaneous phrases to your own personal Twitter account, or to their own dedicated live feed of micropoetry.

Clever and lovely little interface to spend a few minutes on.

Recently I came across a Vanity Fair article covering Anomaly’s partnership with YouTube sensation Lauren Luke to launch a makeup line soon to be sold at major retail stores. Its excellent to see this type of entrepreneurial output from a talented YouTube star. For those out of the loop, there are many YouTube phenoms with excellent audience bases, many with over 100k+ subscribers to their channels.  These new-aged Video Stars  generate over 5+million video views, some even with 30+ million views and armed with the ability to quickly produce mutiple videos under their belts that satisfy the appetities of their online crowds. This viewership is the type of stuff advertisers beg for. While beauty seems to be a hot button for online tutorials, other brands have found partnership opportunities and endorsement deals around YouTube celebs. Recently iJustine did a video promo on for Sanyo and tagged a contest to promote their video camera. In short, the news on the Lauren Luke make up line is truly in stride with the gospel we hustle; authenticity is key and credible voices are often more powerful than celeb pay to play voices..  While there is still a lot of parody, spoof and nonsensical videos on YouTube there are some budding stars that brands can align with in a low-cost, high-reach, and immensely authentic manner. In the coming weeks we will share some news on an exciting project Mr. Youth has been working on with a viral sensation. Till then you can check out the list of YouTube celebs on Wikipedia.

Few things in the 2.0 era have received so much buzz so quickly as Skittle’s recent social media effort. I logged on to Twitter yesterday to a literal hashstorm of all things Skittles. I realize people get excited about candy, but this was ridiculous. What was going on? Obviously I did what any responsible digital marketing  professional would do–I went to Skittles.com.

Something wasn’t right–why did Skittles.com take me to Twitter’s search page with a little branded overlay on the top left?  Where’s the flashed out, high res animated page loader? Where’s the ambiguously organized homepage with different content engagement opportunities?  All I could see were different users’ tweets about Skittles. I clicked around the overlay, and was taken to….Facebook? This was something entirely new.

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