Meme of the week: #monsterrevenge

It's only Wednesday but I think we have already have a MOTW winner (and the story will be completely irrelevant by Friday anyway).

OK. Here's the story as far as I can piece it together (with translations for the uninitiated).

Lady Gaga's Little Monsters (fans) had succeeded in making #alejandro (a hashtag reference to one of her songs) a Twitter trending topic. Then Twitter decided to remove this hashtag. Why? Who knows.

Anyway, that sent the Little Monsters into a frenzy so they came up with another tag, #monsterrevenge to replace #alejandro and managed to get that new hashtag to be the #1 trending topic for a while. And, very importantly, trending higher than the hated (by them) Justin Bieber.

Tweets from the storm:

RT @BeccaGaga: night #LITTLEMONSTER s and twitterers ;) #MonsterRevenge won in the end!!

RT @carolmbat: WE RULE TWITTER! #Alejandro and #MonsterRevenge IN THE SAME DAY! YAAAAAY

RT @GagaCity: there's nothing more frightening than an army of pissed-off Lady Gaga fans #monsterrevenge

@MonsterChelsko: Twitter must be in hiding after killing off #Alejandro because they're afraid of our #MonsterRevenge ;D

And the all important one from the very media savvy Lady Gaga herself:

RT @ladygaga: #monsterrevenge too?? You're on fire today! I'm really gonna kick some ass in rehearsal now, got u in my heart through every move + breath

Now that's loyalty marketing for you.

The People's Republic of Brand

Warning: This post is a shameless plug for an Landor Salon Series online event this Thursday. The content is designed to get you interested in this event and sign-up for it. There. I've made my intentions known. Read on, if you dare.

If you were going to put together a list of things to read or watch to generate interest in a panel discussion event on social media, what would you include? Here's some of the things I found while I was putting together a list for a pre-event pizza lunch and learn:

1) Social Media Revolution: Socialnomics09
Is social media a fad or the biggest shift since the Industrial Revolution? This video is a little dated now but it presents a deluge of social media facts and figures that argue for "shift." And the Fatboy Slim music is great. A similar post, more up-to-date but less good on the music and graphics front is here.



2) Social Media is Dead. Long live Common Sense: David Armano
A SlideShare presentation from David Armano that looks at what social media is and isn't and digs into topics like: Community, Engagement and Localization that need to be considered and built into a social business plan.

3) How social media can change history" TED
Clay Shirky is the author of “Here Comes Everybody,” a book that discusses the impact of the Internet on the media, society, everything! In this TED talk, Clay Shirky reprises some of the themes of his book as he talks about how Facebook, Twitter etc are radically changing the way people communicate with each other and what gets talked about.



4) 5 ways Social Media is changing branding forever: Dennis Van Staalduinen
Is push marketing really dead? Is crowd sourced creative changing the game? Is humility sexy? Dennis says: "yes" to all three in this post. Plus he put together a SlideShare presentation with six pictures that "explain" social media. Heard of the Scobleizer starfish? It's in there.

5) Basics of Social Media ROI: Olivier Blanchard
Olivier understands that social media will not be embraced by companies until it proves its worth. And by "worth" he means, that social media programs can be proven to either increase revenue or cuts costs. Non-financial metrics such as visitor traffic, followers etc are all well and good but not enough. You have to speak in financial language if you're going to protect and grow your social media budget.

6) Does Your Company Need a Digital Readiness Checklist? HBR
Are you switched on for digital? Is your company structured and organized to succeed in a world: "Permeated by digital networks and devices, social media, and data analytics." Jeffrey F. Rayport provides a checklist you can use to see how switched on your are. Lotus Notes, blocked sites, information hoarding = Bad. Open platforms, open access, information sharing = Good.

Landor Salon Event details
The People's Republic of Brand
Brand has evolved into a democracy of sorts, where the collective voice can wield as much—and sometimes more—power than corporate communications. Will community be crowned king of the brand domain? Or will it ultimately be revealed as a pretender to the throne? Maybe both sides can strike a balance of power that works to the benefit of all.

Join our expert panel, marketing professionals, and members of the design community for a conversation about this new world order of brand.

Panelists:
Ben Blumenfeld, Facebook
Tara Suan Kirchner, Flickr
Tom Tsao, Yahoo!
Panel moderated by: Russ Meyer, Landor

Event details

Date: Thursday, April 29, 2010

Time: 6:00–7:30 pm PDT
Convert the date/time to your your time zone

Venue: Landor Associates
1001 Front Street
San Francisco

Attendance, in person, is by invite only but all are welcome to watch the online stream

Online Stream RSVP here

Twitter Hash for the event #landorsalon

Hitler meme's downfall. And YouTube's?

YouTube is removing all the parodies it can find of Downfall (Der Untergang), the award winning film by Oliver Hirschbiegel about the last days of Hitler's regime. Hilter's famous rant scene in that movie has become a meme that's spawned hundreds of variations, each featuring fake subtitles on various topics applied to the original clip (e.g. the leaking of the iPhone).

German movie production company Constantin Film says that the clips are an infringement of its copyright and has asked YouTube to remove them. It can find all of these parody clips using Content ID, a new tool supplied by YouTube. This tool lets copyright holders track user uploaded versions of their content and decide whether or not to block them, monetize them with ads or track viewing metrics.

Here's the perfect response to Constantin Films decision, perfect both in its content and the fact that it has been posted to Funny or Die, a source of video material that will benefit from YouTube's current stance. It has strong but appropriate language:

Constantin Films Pulls Hitler - watch more funny videos

Favorite quote: "I bring massive appeal and awareness to a film that had a niche demographic and this is how you repay me?" (And, as one of the YouTube Hitler parody channels pointed out, the meme has generated lots of dvd sales for the original movie as well.)

This is not a good outcome. As online rights advocates are pointing out, these videos are good examples of "fair use," a legal provision that allows copyrighted material to be used for purposes such as satire or parody. Even though YouTube does allow parody creators a chance to appeal content removal, its Content ID tool has significantly shifted the balance of power back to copyright owners. This will reduce the creation and distribution of future fair use memes (until people find other outlets, which is the likely result).

This is not a case where the artists themselves are upset about the manipulation of their content. Director of the movie Oliver Hirschbiegel told the New York magazine back in January: "Someone sends me the links every time there's a new one. Many times the lines are so funny, I laugh out loud, and I’m laughing about the scene that I staged myself! You couldn't get a better compliment as a director. I think it's only fair if now it's taken as part of our history, and used for whatever purposes people like."

He's right. Constantin Film is wrong. And YouTube/Google is in an uncomfortable we-just-make-the-guns-we-don't-control-how-people-use-them position that doesn't fit well with its "Don't be Evil' company pledge.

Six of the Best: The Battles for Earth edition

Photo: Earth by Satoru Kikuchi on Flickr

It was Earth Day on Thursday. Let's celebrate:

1) Top Green Brands Shine On Earth Day: Branding Strategy Insider
It's the 40th anniversary of Earth Day and, year by year, environmental issues have seeped into our consciousness. Brands have responded adding "fuel-efficient," "organic,""energy-efficient," "natural," "green," and "sustainable" to their marketing lexicons but, as Robert Passikoff points out in this post: "Consumers are on to all that. They want brands to walk-the-talk, and "green" has become the cost-of-entry in many categories, making larger and larger contributions to brand engagement and loyalty." Which brands are doing the best? The top-25 Green Brands from this year's Brand Keys Loyalty Engagement Index includes: AMEX, BP, HP and, Microsoft.

2) What does Business Owe the World? HBR
HBR has launched a new debate about the extent to which companies should be held accountable for the "externalities," an economics concept referring to the fact that business activity can lead to negative effects on others. (Pollution is the classic example of an externality.) Chris Meyer & Julia Kirby kicked off the debate by making the case that companies should be held responsible for their externalities. They want companies to take ownership of the impact that they have on the environment and behave more responsibly.

3) Embracing Externalities Is the Road to Hell: Michael Schrage
Next up in the HBR debate was Michael Schrage who jumped in with a fiery critique of the idea of applying the concept of externalities to business. He points out that, once you start going down this externality path, it's difficult to know where to stop. Should successful entrepreneurs be compensating those they put out of business, for example? Schrage thinks that the world would be a poorer, less innovative and more litigious place if we embrace this type of thinking.

You can track the ongoing debate (which already includes a rebuttal to Michael Schrage's post) here.

4) Carbon Footprint Calculator: What's My Carbon Footprint? The Nature Conservancy
So, how much damage are you doing to the earth yourself? The Nature Conservancy can tell you with its carbon footprint calculator. I took the test and found out that I'm doing about half the damage of the average American but twice as much as the average citizen of the world. Hey, that's not fair. Some of those people don't even own cars.

5) Danish eco-hotel offers pedalpower free meal: BBC

The BBC reports that The Crowne Plaza Hotel in Copenhagen is offering free meals to guests who produce electricity as they pedal on an exercise bike attached to a generator. You don't get the meal until you've generated 10 watt hours of electricity (about 15 minutes of cycling). The idea is to get people fit and reduce their carbon footprint. (And to get green-credential-building press, I'm sure.) I wonder what 10 watt hours of electricity is actually worth? If I'm reading this post correctly, it's about 0.015 cents. That's not even worth the head of one of those horrid pickled herrings they eat in Denmark.

6) Organic Batter Blaster

Greatest breakfast invention ever or sign of the imminent downfall of our nation? I found this photograph on Twitter from @ianfitzpatrick. His opinion: "Organic aerosol pancake batter spray. Really? Are we this cognitively bankrupt?" On the other hand, the can is recyclable, its new packaging is BPA-free, there's no mess and, apparently, the pancakes don't taste that bad. It's on sale at Whole Foods so it has given its seal of endorsement. Organic and convenient vs. nasty pancake emissions? A new battle starts as the war continues.

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy. More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

Got Broccoli?

Photo: Broccoli by La Grande Farmers' Market (Flickr)

Apparently there's no official Broccoli Day. It's one of the most unloved of vegetables. But yesterday, broccoli had a little moment in the sun after Matt Yglesias asked: "Where are the broccoli ads?" Why aren't producers trying to sell more? His questions triggered lots of comments on the site and a slew of other posts. To summarize the collective wisdom:

1) No branding: The most obvious reason for the lack of marketing is that broccoli is unbranded and, therefore, undifferentiated. So, if one grower was to promote his/her product, everyone would benefit. Whereas, when McDonalds promotes its Big Macs, it's the one that benefits. Once a product is branded, it can be lifted out of commodity status allowing for premium prices and advertising support.

2) Lack of collective action: A number of other agricultural products have solved this not-branded problem by taking collective action. Examples include the California Milk Processor Board's Got Milk? campaign and campaigns for avocados, apples, beef, pork and many more. No-one had a particularly convincing argument for why some agricultural products are successfully organized and others are not. It may be a question of the size of the industry plus the determination of the growers. (Note: There is collective broccoli action in Canada.)

3)Lack of imagination: Another way that potentially commodity products have managed to differentiate themselves is via packaging and product innovation. Pom Wonderful has transformed the pomegranate industry, Diamond Foods has done the same for nuts. Other examples: Packaged salads and let's not forget bottled water.

4) Promotion via/by third parties: Maybe there aren't any broccoli Super Bowl ads but that doesn't mean that there's no marketing/promotion. Everyone knows that broccoli is good for them. We've heard it in the media, our kids are taught it at school, we see broccoli piled high at Farmer's Markets and Whole Foods and it's always on the menu at restaurants. How much of this promotion is organized by the growers and how much is organic I don't know, but the message is getting out.

5)Tastes horrible: What's to like? Several people attributed the lack of marketing to the general awefulness of the product itself--the taste, the texture, the stalks But marketing has the power to change perceptions, even for kids, notorious veggie-haters. A few years ago, The Atkins Foundation sponsored some research which showed that kids preference for broccoli vs. chocolate could be radically changed just by the addition of an Elmo sticker on the broccoli. In a control group, 78% of kids chose a chocolate bar over broccoli (as someone asked, what's up with the 22% who chose broccoli?). But when an Elmo sticker was added, 50% selected the broccoli.

Despite the perceived lack of marketing and some people's dislike of the taste, it appears that U.S. broccoli producers aren't doing that badly. According to the Agricultural Council of America, we are eating 9x more broccoli than we were 20 years ago--4 1/2 lbs a year. That's a whole lot of broccoli! Pass the cheese sauce.

Sources:
1) Where're the Broccoli Ads? Matt Yglesias
2) Advertising Fruits and Vegetables: The Incidental Economist
3) Two posts (1, 2) on Marginal Revolution
4) "IF ELMO EATS BROCCOLI, WILL KIDS EAT IT TOO?” sesameworkshop

Six of the Best: All fun and games? edition

Photo: So funning! by Wm Jas on Flickr

Are you a cool duck and so funning? Let's see:

1) Incoming! Seth Godin
Seth talks here about our addiction to incoming messages, whether they be email, Facebook feeds or tweets. As he says: "When, for some random reason, they ebb and you have a really light few hours--admit it, you check more often." When what started off as a fun habit starts to become a compulsion, eating hours from the day, he suggest that maybe it's time to take charge instead of becoming a willing victim.

2) Tweet Now, Revolt Later: Slate/ Tweeting as play: Murketing
So, are social networking sites fun but potentially habit-forming distractions or do they serve a higher and more useful purpose? A much higher purpose, according to Biz Stone, co-founder of Twitter. He says that Twitter is: "a triumph of humanity... a tool for times of revolution and strife, a service that can break news, bring down tyrants, and salve the wounds of the forsaken." (Perhaps a little OTT?) Whereas Rob Walker, on Murketing, says it's all play, not that there's anything wrong with that.

3) Be There or Be Square: The Rise of Location-based Social Networking: Knowlege@Wharton
Foursquare is undeniably about play. Its points, merit badges and mayorships are designed to engage users and get them to check in and share their locations with others. But, in this case, this somewhat pointless, yet compulsive, exercise has design for future purpose. Once there's critical mass, the potential for location-based marketing is endless. Those playing the game now are laying down the groundwork for what's to come.

4) The Fun Theory: Volkswagen (via Smart Mobs)
How about using fun for good? This VW initiative: "Is dedicated to the thought that something as simple as fun is the easiest way to change people’s behaviour for the better. Be it for yourself, for the environment, or for something entirely different, the only thing that matters is that it’s change for the better." Here is the 2009 Award Winner:



5) CauseWorld
Even gooderer than VW is CauseWorld, one of many organizations figuring out how to use social networking to raise money for good causes. CauseWorld is a mobile application that lets you help the world by checking in at stores and earning "karmas" that can be used to support a cause of your choice. P&G, Citi and Kraft Foods are the sponsors picking up the donation bill.

6) Laughing Your Way To The Bank: HBR
Rosabeth Moss Kanter makes the pitch for fun at work. As she says: "A sense of humor is an under-rated tool for entrepreneurs, innovators, and change agents. And that's no joke." New ideas come from thinking about possibilities: "That seem absurd, even ludicrous, at first." Humor, which is all about: "Playing with ideas, challenging assumptions, and poking fun at tradition" creates the right kind of enviroment for such ideas to emerge.

That's it! Back soon with more stories from the world of brand strategy. More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

Six of the Best: Back from Dubai edition

Back from a week in Dubai and Mumbai, two cities with a "bai" ending but little else in common. I talked about Mumbai before so I'm focusing on Dubai this time around:

1) The cranes are leaving

It used to be said that 1/4 of all the world's cranes were in Dubai. Whether that was ever true, it's certainly a different story today. As this article relates, the number of cranes has dropped 50% from the construction peak in 2007. Dubai's economy was fueled by construction so when the pace of building started to slow down, the economy took a massive dive. Now, as you look at the mile after mile of finished or almost finished skyscrapers, it's difficult to imagine how all of that office and apartment space is ever going to be filled or that the economy will recover any time soon.

2) No-one's here

I took the Metro into Dubai. It's the Arabian peninsula's first urban train network and was planned at a time when it was expected that population and visitor increases (to fill all those skyscrapers) would lead to severe traffic congestion. But, as of now, there's no congestion, most of the Metro stations are not open and the trains are empty. On the way back to the airport, my driver pointed out places along the route where he said that people who came to Dubai to strike it rich had ditched their expensive cars as they abandoned the country when the crisis took hold.

3) Is it Dubai. Is it Chicago?

This photo, taken in the Dubai Marina, reminded me a little bit of Chicago. But generally, Dubai reminded me more of a mix of Las Vegas and Universal Studios. Las Vegas for its anything-is-possible and build-it-and-they-will-come mentality and Universal Studios because most of the buildings right now are just facades, unfinished and unoccupied. As it has transformed from desert to shiny metropolis, Dubai also seems to be having trouble deciding who or what it is. On the one hand it presents itself as an open and friendly tourist destination. On the other, while I was there, the Dubai appeals court upheld a one-month prison sentence for an English couple who had been convicted of kissing in a restaurant.

4) Cooling Down
I have a Northerner's perspective when it comes to the seasons. It's the cold of winter that shuts everything down and forces us all indoors. Not so in places like Dubai where it's the summer heat that closes things down. It had never occurred to me before that, instead of heaters, swimming pools might need cooling systems to keep the water from getting too hot.

5) Hills Bros in the house

This was the last thing I expected to see as I did a quick walk-through of a Waitrose store in one of Dubai's numerous shopping malls--my old brand Hills Bros sitting there on a shelf. New owners Massimo Zanetti must have decided that there was a market in Dubai for this coffee. I noticed tho' that they decided to replace the iconic "Taster" with a more neutral image.

6) Is ten past six the new ten past ten?

At least in this one jeweler's store in Dubai, most of the watches were set to ten past six rather than the traditional ten past ten. Not sure whether this was the whim of the jeweler, a Dubai custom or a new trend. Anyone have the scoop?

That's it! Back soon (when I've caught up) with more stories from the world of brand strategy. More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).

All photos by me

Six of the Best: Love PowerPoint? edition

Photo: Microsoft Live Platform by Niall Kennedy (Flickr)

Think about this. PowerPoint is on about 300 million computers and, every single week, TWO MILLION PowerPoints are presented causing untold damage to the brain cells of the employee masses. No wonder that feelings are running strong:

1) Militant arm of the infoviz movement gets serious about PowerPoint: boingboing

By Mark Goetz

Let's see. That would be 2 million kittens a week. According to this, that would mean the complete elimination of all cats in America inside of a year. But, don't worry cat-lovers, Mr. Tufte could never keep up that rate of killing. He'd have to shoot three kittens a second without a break, week after week. He'd never keep up.

2) PowerPoint Does Rocket Science--and Better Techniques for Technical Report: Edward Tufte
Mark's poster is funnier if you actually know who Edward Tufte is. He's a Professor at Yale, known for his work on informational design and his intense dislike of PowerPoint. It's more than just an aesthetic critique. As you can read in this link, he argues that the use of PowerPoint by NASA engineers contributed to the Columbia shuttle disaster.

3) Mother LA PowerPoint from SXSWi 2010 - Devo, The Internet, and You: Devovision



Meanwhile, Devo has integrated PowerPoint into its whole de-evolving, surrealist, which-way-is-up schtick. Its agency, Mother LA, used it to perfect effect at SXSWi 2010 in a presentation called: "Devo, The Internet, and You" which explains, among other things, why "e-utilization of people networks" is sexy, fast and interesting.

4) Simultaneity vs. seriality: what to do now that we have no attention span: Grant McCracken
Rather than follow the PowerPoint format where a presentation unfolds slide-by-slide, how about have one slide (or poster) that tells the entire story all at once? Grant makes the case for "simultaneity" (the all-at-once approach) arguing that it's: "Good for the big picture and it’s good for scrutinizing the finer points of the argument." Plus it doesn't depend on the audience having an attention span long enough to stay with a presentation all the way to the ....

5) Rethinking PowerPoint: Ron Galloway


Ron Galloway is devoting his latest film project to PowerPoint, exploring where most people go wrong using it and how they could do better. He interviews experts in the field including Dan Roam (featured in this YouTube clip). Dan talks about his talking-and-drawing technique and why lightbulbs over our heads are sexy.

6) Death by PowerPoint: Alexei Kapterev
How about this? The most-viewed business presentation on slideshare is this one by Alexei Kapterev. Seems to perfectly sum up our love-hate relationship with PowerPoint. Do you think we'll still be using it in ten years time?

That's it! Off to Dubai and Mumbai next week so I'll try and come back with some "..ai" stories. More thoughts and comments also available on Twitter (@martinjbishop).