The Banana Republic clothing chain owned by Gap Inc. is back for a second year of promoting a season premiere of “Mad Men,” the AMC series about advertising in the 1960s.
There are several elements of the “Mad About Style” campaign, to publicize the fourth-season premiere of the series on July 25, that were not included last summer in the joint promotion of the third-season premiere.
The new elements include video blogs by Janie Bryant, the costume designer for “Mad Men,” and Simon Kneen, the creative director for Banana Republic; television commercials branded with “Mad Men” and Banana Republic; and shopping events in markets like Detroit and San Francisco that will be co-sponsored by the Comcast cable company.
Other aspects of the campaign include a “Mad About Style” style guide, to be distributed in stores; store windows decorated with “Mad Men” imagery; and a “casting call” contest that offers prizes like a walk-on role in an episode of the series. There were more than two million votes in the casting call contest last summer, according to Banana Republic.
The promotion is scheduled to run from July 21 through Aug. 11 in all of the more than 400 Banana Republic stores in North America. There will also be a presence on the Banana Republic Facebook page and on the AMC Web site. AMC is part of a division of the Cablevision Systems Corporation.The style guide will feature women’s skirts as well as suits and shirts for men.
The last episode of the third season of “Mad Men,” set in December 1963, was about the main characters’ decision to leave the (make-believe) Madison Avenue agency for which they worked, Sterling Cooper, and open a breakaway shop of their own.
In keeping with the usual hush-hush policies about future plot lines at AMC — not to mention the sealed lips of the creator of “Mad Men,” Matthew Weiner — there has been scant reliable speculation about the year in which the first episode of Season 4 will be taking place, much less what may happen to Don Draper and the other characters.
All that seems to be known so far is the title of the episode, “Public Relations.”
View story here: Media Decoder
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Six Pixels of Separation: It Is What It Is And It Does What It Does
Social Media (or any other form of Marketing and Communications) won't save a bad product, brand or service.
This may seem like an obvious statement out of the gates, but it is something that many brand managers don't really wrap their heads around. If you love the TV show Mad Men (and who, in their right mind, doesn't?) the subtext of the early days of advertising (and something that kept happening until very recently) was the ability for a brand to engage with a Madison Avenue type of advertising agency to help them turn a coal into a diamond. The germ of mass media advertising was about creating an allure or desire for products and over-selling them. Making them seem and feel bigger than they really were.
Social Media changed all of that... and more.
While advertising still works on creating this perceived desire, things do change when all voices (the brand, the advertising agency and the consumer) have an equalized platform. Any one individual with a gripe or with something nice to say can get to the top of the search engines or have their online social network share their story (in places like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc...)so brands, products and services have to be able to deliver. In fact, with customer reviews (or peer reviews) individuals can affect a sales outcome right there where the "buy now" button lives.
Ultimately, your brands, products and services have to hold up to this very simple adage: "it is what it is and it does what it does."
It's great if it can do more (but if it could do more, you would probably say so in all of your marketing and communications), but it really doesn't have to. So, when you use words like, "better, brighter, faster, 20% more, 40% off, etc..." you can disguise the true realities of the marketing initiative in the small print. Social Media is forcing companies to do away with that fine print. Seth Godin wrote brilliantly about how brilliant brands are the only way to go in his seminal best-selling business book, Purple Cow. While being remarkable should be every brand's lighthouse, the conversation around what it takes and those who have actually done it eludes the majority of companies. Most companies still do make regular products for regular people (in fact, if everyone was able to create a Purple Cow, how would we know? We would probably need a phrase for something that is more remarkable than a Purple Cow - Purple Panda anyone?). Seth's right, we need to get there, but most brands are falling woefully short of those purple pastures.
The point is to ensure that your product is what it is and that it does what it's supposed to do.
That - in and of itself - is enough to begin some semblance of a conversation and the initial strikes at building a community. Sadly, most brands don't even do that. They'll make claims in their advertising and fight for people to understand "their side" on Twitter. It's sad, because it is only the brands that are the exceptions to this rule that we can point to... and we can't even do that one hundred percent of the time... and there aren't enough great examples (hint: we need more!).
Why? Why? Why?
Why don't brands live up to that one simple adage? Why can't we all (as Marketers) make a commitment that our initiatives, programs and campaigns will be based on creating an appetite for something that can do what it claims and that works? One hundred percent of the time. All of the time. Without any small print. We would have a very different world. One where consumers actually enjoyed (maybe even looked forward to) advertising and one where the notion of brand loyalty would go beyond sending out mass emails to individuals who relinquished some of their privacy to simply save a few bucks.
Wouldn't it be nice? Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image
This may seem like an obvious statement out of the gates, but it is something that many brand managers don't really wrap their heads around. If you love the TV show Mad Men (and who, in their right mind, doesn't?) the subtext of the early days of advertising (and something that kept happening until very recently) was the ability for a brand to engage with a Madison Avenue type of advertising agency to help them turn a coal into a diamond. The germ of mass media advertising was about creating an allure or desire for products and over-selling them. Making them seem and feel bigger than they really were.
Social Media changed all of that... and more.
While advertising still works on creating this perceived desire, things do change when all voices (the brand, the advertising agency and the consumer) have an equalized platform. Any one individual with a gripe or with something nice to say can get to the top of the search engines or have their online social network share their story (in places like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc...)so brands, products and services have to be able to deliver. In fact, with customer reviews (or peer reviews) individuals can affect a sales outcome right there where the "buy now" button lives.
Ultimately, your brands, products and services have to hold up to this very simple adage: "it is what it is and it does what it does."
It's great if it can do more (but if it could do more, you would probably say so in all of your marketing and communications), but it really doesn't have to. So, when you use words like, "better, brighter, faster, 20% more, 40% off, etc..." you can disguise the true realities of the marketing initiative in the small print. Social Media is forcing companies to do away with that fine print. Seth Godin wrote brilliantly about how brilliant brands are the only way to go in his seminal best-selling business book, Purple Cow. While being remarkable should be every brand's lighthouse, the conversation around what it takes and those who have actually done it eludes the majority of companies. Most companies still do make regular products for regular people (in fact, if everyone was able to create a Purple Cow, how would we know? We would probably need a phrase for something that is more remarkable than a Purple Cow - Purple Panda anyone?). Seth's right, we need to get there, but most brands are falling woefully short of those purple pastures.
The point is to ensure that your product is what it is and that it does what it's supposed to do.
That - in and of itself - is enough to begin some semblance of a conversation and the initial strikes at building a community. Sadly, most brands don't even do that. They'll make claims in their advertising and fight for people to understand "their side" on Twitter. It's sad, because it is only the brands that are the exceptions to this rule that we can point to... and we can't even do that one hundred percent of the time... and there aren't enough great examples (hint: we need more!).
Why? Why? Why?
Why don't brands live up to that one simple adage? Why can't we all (as Marketers) make a commitment that our initiatives, programs and campaigns will be based on creating an appetite for something that can do what it claims and that works? One hundred percent of the time. All of the time. Without any small print. We would have a very different world. One where consumers actually enjoyed (maybe even looked forward to) advertising and one where the notion of brand loyalty would go beyond sending out mass emails to individuals who relinquished some of their privacy to simply save a few bucks.
Wouldn't it be nice? Six Pixels of Separation - Marketing and Communications Insights - By Mitch Joel at Twist Image
MediaAsia - CampaignAsia: MasterCard Japan asks youths to create their own definition of 'priceless'...
MasterCard Worldwide in Japan is banking on digital to launch an online and mobile campaign titled ‘PricelessMaker’ for young potential card holders in the country...please continue here:MediaAsia: Campaign Asia
WATBlog.com : 10 Essential Apps For iPad
Now that you have bought your dream gadget, the iPad, you must be busy getting used to it. But have you found out the right apps that would make your iPad experience more fruitful?
If not, here is a compendium of ten of the popular iPad apps for your use:
• Early Edition: This app allows you to organize all your news/RSS feeds in a newspaper style, thereby giving you a wonderful news reading experience.
• Netflix: This is a boon for you if you do not have a Netflix account. It allows you to select and watch a movie (in HD quality) in a fraction of seconds. No doubt, it is assumed here that you have a 3G or Wi-fi connection already.
• Flickpad: This photo app allows you to stream the photos that your friends have uploaded on Facebook. Supposed to have gained Flickr’s support, it gives you the liberty to flick through your photos.
• Phototransfer: If you have your iPad and your computer hooked on a same Wi-Fi network, you can easily transfer your photos from the former to the latter, without having to use iTunes or iPhoto.
• Twitterlator: This Twitter app for your iPad gives you a smoother experience, like TweetDeck, while you tweet out to the world.
• Penultimate: This is the ultimate app to help you capture your hand written notes. You can now flaunt your handwriting on your iPad too.
• Things: This Mac only to-do- list creating app has now come for your iPad. You can plan your day judiciously.
• Instapaper: This bookmarking app helps you bookmark a webpage or an article on to the Instapaper’s database ,thereby allowing you to retrieve them as and when you want to read them.
• iBooks: This is Apple’s bookstore, as already seen on the release day, for buying and downloading ebooks of your choice.
• iWork: An office suit for your iPad that will include word processor, spreadsheets etc.
If you have more apps in your knowledge, you can add them up hereunder. Wish you have a wonderful time with your iPad, loaded with one or all of these apps.
WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India
If not, here is a compendium of ten of the popular iPad apps for your use:
• Early Edition: This app allows you to organize all your news/RSS feeds in a newspaper style, thereby giving you a wonderful news reading experience.
• Netflix: This is a boon for you if you do not have a Netflix account. It allows you to select and watch a movie (in HD quality) in a fraction of seconds. No doubt, it is assumed here that you have a 3G or Wi-fi connection already.
• Flickpad: This photo app allows you to stream the photos that your friends have uploaded on Facebook. Supposed to have gained Flickr’s support, it gives you the liberty to flick through your photos.
• Phototransfer: If you have your iPad and your computer hooked on a same Wi-Fi network, you can easily transfer your photos from the former to the latter, without having to use iTunes or iPhoto.
• Twitterlator: This Twitter app for your iPad gives you a smoother experience, like TweetDeck, while you tweet out to the world.
• Penultimate: This is the ultimate app to help you capture your hand written notes. You can now flaunt your handwriting on your iPad too.
• Things: This Mac only to-do- list creating app has now come for your iPad. You can plan your day judiciously.
• Instapaper: This bookmarking app helps you bookmark a webpage or an article on to the Instapaper’s database ,thereby allowing you to retrieve them as and when you want to read them.
• iBooks: This is Apple’s bookstore, as already seen on the release day, for buying and downloading ebooks of your choice.
• iWork: An office suit for your iPad that will include word processor, spreadsheets etc.
If you have more apps in your knowledge, you can add them up hereunder. Wish you have a wonderful time with your iPad, loaded with one or all of these apps.
WATBlog.com - Web, Advertising and Technology Blog in India
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim: More Than Just A Check In Play for foursquare
While I am admittedly not too enamored with geo-location services personally there is little denying the rise in popularity. Foursquare, Gowalla and others are experiencing some of the ‘hockey stick’ growth that was once reserved for Twitter and Facebook.
The problem as of late has been the nagging question of “What else is there to do other than just ‘check in’? Make believe badges and ‘mayorships’ can only go so far with most people. Well, if foursquare can do what is being reported in ReadWriteWeb even I could find myself playing along. The site reports
Looking at life through rose-colored glasses? How about walking through your town and seeing it as the Huffington Post or the Independent Film Channel sees it? IFC announced a new campaign this morning with leading location-based social network Foursquare that will allow you to do just that. The Huffington Post launched a Foursquare layer today as well.
IFC polled its member base for short descriptions of their favorite places in the towns they lived in or visited, then picked the place-descriptions that best suited the IFC’s brand (“Always on, slightly off”) to upload into a Foursquare database. Foursquare users can now opt-into getting those tips pushed to them whenever they check in near one of the annotated locations. It’s a chance to effectively say, “I want to see this town as IFC fans see it.” For marketers, this has got to be incredibly appealing, and for urban explorers it could be one of the best examples yet of effective Augmented Reality.
Now we are getting somewhere. People generally read or watch things that are of interest to them and a similar group of people. That group may have very eclectic tastes which is one of the appeals of being associated with it. Now, you can walking through an area and get the point of view of those eclectic folks. Imagine walking down a street in Greenwich Village and you told that there is a great ‘hole in the wall’ bar or restaurant that you would have never known about but your IFC or whatever minded friends have let you in on it through foursquare. This could be interesting.
Of course, these services could only be opt-in because of the distinct nature of each brands eye view of an area. It’s likely that those tuning into a channel like IFC would have little interest in what the Home & garden crowd wants to ‘find’. That’s the beauty of this kind of service and that is not lost on marketers.
ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick says it very well
I’m ready to follow the local historical society, an environmental justice organization or two, perhaps an art-graffiti-watchers association – the possibilities are nearly endless. Imagine allowing background location tracking and notification for some layers. “To see the world through the lenses of my favorite organizations” would be a nice addition to the reasons why people say they use check-in apps.
Can Facebook implement this kind of feature once location is rolled into its service? It’s a little hard to imagine; this feels like a feature that would best come from a service with location at its core.
Ahh yes. The great potential Facebook differentiator for foursquare. With the looming threat of location based services coming from social media’s 900 pound gorilla, foursquare needs to be seen as something more than just a novelty game for people to get tired of.
Could this be the way of the future for the location-based services of the world? At least it looks like a good start and it could actually be something that brings more people like myself into the fold.
This trend may be worth keeping an eye on for sure...Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
The problem as of late has been the nagging question of “What else is there to do other than just ‘check in’? Make believe badges and ‘mayorships’ can only go so far with most people. Well, if foursquare can do what is being reported in ReadWriteWeb even I could find myself playing along. The site reports
Looking at life through rose-colored glasses? How about walking through your town and seeing it as the Huffington Post or the Independent Film Channel sees it? IFC announced a new campaign this morning with leading location-based social network Foursquare that will allow you to do just that. The Huffington Post launched a Foursquare layer today as well.
IFC polled its member base for short descriptions of their favorite places in the towns they lived in or visited, then picked the place-descriptions that best suited the IFC’s brand (“Always on, slightly off”) to upload into a Foursquare database. Foursquare users can now opt-into getting those tips pushed to them whenever they check in near one of the annotated locations. It’s a chance to effectively say, “I want to see this town as IFC fans see it.” For marketers, this has got to be incredibly appealing, and for urban explorers it could be one of the best examples yet of effective Augmented Reality.
Now we are getting somewhere. People generally read or watch things that are of interest to them and a similar group of people. That group may have very eclectic tastes which is one of the appeals of being associated with it. Now, you can walking through an area and get the point of view of those eclectic folks. Imagine walking down a street in Greenwich Village and you told that there is a great ‘hole in the wall’ bar or restaurant that you would have never known about but your IFC or whatever minded friends have let you in on it through foursquare. This could be interesting.
Of course, these services could only be opt-in because of the distinct nature of each brands eye view of an area. It’s likely that those tuning into a channel like IFC would have little interest in what the Home & garden crowd wants to ‘find’. That’s the beauty of this kind of service and that is not lost on marketers.
ReadWriteWeb’s Marshall Kirkpatrick says it very well
I’m ready to follow the local historical society, an environmental justice organization or two, perhaps an art-graffiti-watchers association – the possibilities are nearly endless. Imagine allowing background location tracking and notification for some layers. “To see the world through the lenses of my favorite organizations” would be a nice addition to the reasons why people say they use check-in apps.
Can Facebook implement this kind of feature once location is rolled into its service? It’s a little hard to imagine; this feels like a feature that would best come from a service with location at its core.
Ahh yes. The great potential Facebook differentiator for foursquare. With the looming threat of location based services coming from social media’s 900 pound gorilla, foursquare needs to be seen as something more than just a novelty game for people to get tired of.
Could this be the way of the future for the location-based services of the world? At least it looks like a good start and it could actually be something that brings more people like myself into the fold.
This trend may be worth keeping an eye on for sure...Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
brandflakesforbreakfast: the country is about to get bigger
Humongo Nation pre-tour video 2010 from Humongo Nation on Vimeo.
We're about to embark on our fourth annual social media road show that we like to call Humongo Nation! We'll be taking a sweet, Humongo Ford Flex from Maine to Miami, and profiling some of the most interesting brands, people and creatives along the way.
Starting July 19, you'll be able to watch the entire tour live. Tweet by tweet, blog post by blog post, with live webcams and daily video wrapups. If you don't have a vacation planned, consider this a business trip that you take from the safety of your cubicle.
This year's Maine to Miami route includes stops in Portland, Boston, NYC, Washington DC, Raleigh, Asheville, Atlanta, Savannah, Daytona Beach and Miami. (Got an interesting place or brand worthy of a visit? Give RJ AT HumongoAgency DOT com a shout.)
We're stoked about our sponsors this year, which include Ford Motor Company, Wingate by Wyndham, Sprint and Green Mountain Coffee!
We're also excited about a couple of new features on this year's tour dashboard:
+ A food blog that will chronicle the deliciousness of life on the road
+ FourSquare integration that tracks our whereabouts on a live Google map
+ A mobile version of Humongo Nation, so that you can stay tuned non-stop, day and night
Become a part of the Humongo Nation!
+ Tweet about it, and include the hashtag #humongonation in your tweet, and it will publish to the tour dashboard
+ Blog about Humongo Nation, and we'll send you a free tour shirt!
Tune your internet devices to team Humongo, starting July 19th! We're going to be visiting some amazing people, sharing their stories, and spreading Humongo love. Keep the roads clear...brandflakesforbreakfast
Business Insider: 10 Things You Need To Know This Morning
Good Morning. News time:
* Microsoft is planning on cutting a few people.
* Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg were seen driving off together at Sun Valley. Maybe they were going to talk about Google Me?
* On Monday, the NYT ran a very negative Microsoft story. Tim O'Reilly was featured prominently in that story. Now he says he was misquoted throughout.
* Mini-Microsoft, the popular unofficial blog for Microsoft employees has weighed in on the KIN disaster.
* Amazon now has a patent on e-readers with LCD and e-ink screens. This could screw Barnes & Noble's Nook.
* Eric Schmidt's partner at TomorrowVentures, which is his personal investment company, has been involved in numerous failed startups and involved in many lawsuits.
* Skyhook wireless gets a nice write up in the WSJ. It provides location services for many smartphones.
* Foursquare introduced a new feature called "layers." You can follow HuffPo or IFC, and as you walk through a town, their recommendations about what to do can be pushed to your phone.
* Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote a post explaining advertising on Facebook. The best part? The comments.
* AppleCare reps are telling people that Apple's software
fix won't address the fundamental issue with the iPhone 4 antenna.
Read more: Business Insider
* Microsoft is planning on cutting a few people.
* Eric Schmidt and Mark Zuckerberg were seen driving off together at Sun Valley. Maybe they were going to talk about Google Me?
* On Monday, the NYT ran a very negative Microsoft story. Tim O'Reilly was featured prominently in that story. Now he says he was misquoted throughout.
* Mini-Microsoft, the popular unofficial blog for Microsoft employees has weighed in on the KIN disaster.
* Amazon now has a patent on e-readers with LCD and e-ink screens. This could screw Barnes & Noble's Nook.
* Eric Schmidt's partner at TomorrowVentures, which is his personal investment company, has been involved in numerous failed startups and involved in many lawsuits.
* Skyhook wireless gets a nice write up in the WSJ. It provides location services for many smartphones.
* Foursquare introduced a new feature called "layers." You can follow HuffPo or IFC, and as you walk through a town, their recommendations about what to do can be pushed to your phone.
* Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg wrote a post explaining advertising on Facebook. The best part? The comments.
* AppleCare reps are telling people that Apple's software
fix won't address the fundamental issue with the iPhone 4 antenna.
Read more: Business Insider
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