Posted: November 12th, 2011 | Author: Erica | Filed under: Social Media Personalities, Sociology of Social Networks | Tags: Ashton Kutcher, marketing, PR disaster, Twitter | Comments Off
Backstory: Ashton Kutcher bumbles into a PR disaster via ill-informed tweet & subsequent perceived overreaction (said something dumb, decided to kinda quit social media for a bit til he recovers).
Why did Ashton temporarily drop out? 3 reasons why a very famous social tech investor would decide to stop expressing himself himself on Twitter:
1. Earnest Ashton feels the weight of his 8.3 million reach on Twitter & sincerely doesn’t want to spread misinformation.
2. Petulant Ashton has had enough self-inflicted humility and wants to stop getting yelled at by people less good looking and rich than he is.
3. Businessman Ashton recognizes that he’s damaging his brand when this kind of thing happens, and doesn’t want to risk getting fired from tv.
Turns out social media is hard. Opportunities to get eaten by crocodiles abound.
I'm just trying to be a good person.
Posted: September 14th, 2011 | Author: Erica | Filed under: Advertising, Branding & Retail, Social Media Marketing, Winnipeg | Tags: creative, design, marketing, meetup, training, Winnipeg events | Comments Off
Cold weather in Winnie means new toques, cute boots, and IRL schmoozing aplenty. Upcoming goodies:
GDC Manitoba‘s Pecha Kucha Night 7, Park Theatre
Thursday, Sept 15, 7:30pm – 11:00pm
TEDxWinnipeg, WAG
also Thursday, Sept 15, 5:00pm [sold out]
Winnipeg Design Festival: NEXT CITY, Gas Station Theatre
Friday, Sept 16, 7:00pm – 10:00pm
Girl Geek Dinners #16, Lo Pub
Monday, Sept 19, 6:00pm – 9:00pm
Advertising Association of Winnipeg‘s Media Planning Course, Red River College
Tuesdays staring Sept 20, day long courses
New Media Manitoba‘s Stop Being Stupid About Intellectual Property, NMM Training Centre
also Tuesday, Sept 20, 7:00pm
GDC Manitoba Presents Design For Business: “Branding Made Simple”, Millenium Library
Wednesday, Sept 21, 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Canadian Marketing Association (Manitoba)‘s Adventures in Marketing / AGM, Fort Garry Hotel
Thursday, Sept 22, 11:15am – 2:00pm
Winnipeg Social Media & Technology Group Meetup, Sant Lucia Pizza
Thursday, Sept 22, 12:00 PM
Arlene Dickinson Book Signing, McNally Robinson Grant Park
Sunday, Sept 25, 12:30 pm
Secret Handshake 18.0, Lo Pub
Thursday, Sept 29, 5:00pm – 10:00pm
Marketing & Technology Manitoba‘s ‘Making Social Media Work for Your Business’, Winnipeg Free Press New Cafe
also Thursday, Sept 29, 5:00pm
Canadian Marketing Association (Manitoba)‘s Digital Day 2011, Fort Garry Hotel
Thursday, Oct 20, 7:00am (jeez) – 5:00pm
I know this one’s in October, but I had to include it! I was asked to speak at it, and though I decided not to, it’ll be an amazing event featuring Amber Mac! You’ll wanna be there!
Posted: September 5th, 2011 | Author: Erica | Filed under: Advertising, Branding & Retail | Tags: marketing, merchandising, overcoming objections, retail, yogurt | Comments Off
Ever try to buy yogurt “quickly”? The dismayingly large selection takes some serious navigation.
As Barry Shwartz demonstrates in ‘The Tyranny of Choice’, studies show that greater choice is actually psychologically difficult for people.
The more alternatives there are, the deeper our sense of loss [at the items we didn't choose] will be and the less satisfaction we will derive from our ultimate decision.
Scientific American Mind; 2004, Vol. 14 Issue 5, p44-49
Those are some serious objections to overcome! How can a retailer offer the product selection people expect, while making the decision process less overwhelming?
This grocery store handles it by merchandising yogurt like a website. The main menu provides navigation and product features. Further “into” the “site”, colour coded “subpages” direct you to your section.
Posted: September 1st, 2011 | Author: Erica | Filed under: Advertising, Branding & Retail | Tags: marketing, packaging, point of sale, POP, recipe, Rocket, Smirnoff Ice | Comments Off
I have a soft spot for point of sale marketing. I started my design career making big, glamourous printed POP for a streetwear line, and went on to design ePOP (digital signage) that worked with RFID for a multi-million dollar garment manufacturer. You literally picked up an item, and the RFID chip told the signage what commercial to display. Nuts.
Anyways. Smirnoff impressed me with a very simple point of sale branding tweak on their Smirnoff Ice product. Presented in popular infographic style, “Create the New Smirnoff Rocket” presents a simple recipe (1/2 beer, 1/2 Smirnoff Ice) that gets at the heart of two consumer objections to its product:
- It’s too sweet.
- It’s too girly.
The Rocket Recipe combats both these objections deftly. Too sweet? Beer will cut that sugar content down for you. Not manly? But, now it contains beer!
Why do they always have guys in the smirnoff ice and mikes hard lemonade commercials? Like really?? Point of sale packaging doesn’t cost much and it can be darn effective, at least judging by the increased Smirnoff content in Wolseley recycling bins.
Posted: May 20th, 2011 | Author: Erica | Filed under: Advertising, Branding & Retail, Social Media Marketing | Tags: branding, LC, liquor, Manitoba, marketing, Twitter | Comments Off
Smart of the LC to start advertising personal connections and expertise, in light of the upcoming shakeup to Manitoba’s liquor laws.
I think they should have went with @TheLC as their Twitter handle, though. Does anyone call it The Liquor Mart?
Interestingly, interactive plays a role in our new liquor paradigm, with
“enhanced product information and public interaction through an upgrading of the MLCC website”.
—Bruce Owen, Winnipeg Free Press
MLCC, I realize the hilarious location-based drinking games practically program themselves, but if you need any help strategizing drunken public interaction fun, give me a dingle. I’m an expert.
Posted: May 16th, 2011 | Author: Erica | Filed under: Advertising, Branding & Retail | Tags: marketing, signage, usability | 1 Comment »
See this awesome drive-through sign? It does something amazing.
It predicts and circumvents confusion about what to do next. It eases the purchase path.
Usability like this gets people in the groove of buying products (or whatever) from you. It makes it painless, removing the sting of noobishness. It says “hey, you’re doing it right”.
Use every opportunity to instill confidence in the user. They’ll feel cooler, and that’s a brand attribute you want to encourage.
Posted: April 29th, 2011 | Author: Erica | Filed under: Advertising, Branding & Retail, Culture & Cultural Anthropology | Tags: #RoyalWedding, Magnum Ice Cream, marketing, promoted tweets, sexism, Slim Fast, stereotypes | 1 Comment »
As a chick who actually fattened up for my wedding—workouts being the further thing from my mind as I busted my balls 24/7 to create the artwork for the Flash game Lucid Dreaming—I rolled my eyes at Slim Fast trendjacking the #RoyalWedding hashtag by purchasing a promoted tweet.
Not because they were squatting on a popular event. While unsubtley markety, it was also pretty smart marketyness. My irritation stemmed from my loathing of the suggestion brides should—nay, must—slim down for their “big day”.
But if “loathe” was the response, perhaps I wasn’t the target of this ad!
Lol, then, at the next in line for the throne on the #RoyalWedding tag: Magnum Ice Cream.
Marketing message: It ain’t YOU, so let yourself go! The already-married message, picking up the demographic Slim Fast missed. Kinda genius. Kinda sad.
Postscript: And the “scan resolve”, if you will, of Magnum’s ad dollars? Just a visit to their site.
