Lindsey thinks traffic on 35W is bad now -- but just wait until November!

Are you one of the lucky ones who get the pleasure of commuting into the Twin Cities from the suburbs every day during the prime hours of rush hour traffic? I know I certainly am!

Minneapolis/St. Paul ranks No. 12 for traffic congestion, according to an annual study by the consulting firm INRIX.  I thought I was a pretty patient person when it comes to traffic, as I have had several years to get used to the drive from my home in Lakeville to various internships and jobs in Minneapolis.

Still, when the MnPASS lane on I-35W opened in September last year, I thought my quality of commute was going to drastically improve. For about $40 a month, I would be cruising along happily in this special new lane. But it didn’t take me long to realize the excitement ended right where the worst part of my commute begins (at the spot where 35W heading toward downtown hits the Crosstown Highway).

The congestion is awful there, and as a spoiled MnPASSer, I could not believe I had to sit in traffic! Construction of a MnPASS lane on that stretch is under way, but who knows when it will be done? Meanwhile, traffic on 35W seems to have gotten a lot worse all of a sudden! The backup used to start at the Crosstown, but it’s now moved further back to the 76th Street bridge.

And for those of us coming from south of the river, the backups that used to begin at County Rd. 42 have now slipped back to County Rd. 46. When I hit these backups, I always wonder if there was an accident. Or maybe there’s a lane closed for construction?

But on most days, neither of those cases proves to be true. So what has caused this sudden extra congestion? Am I the only one who has noticed this? Unless there are accidents every day that are cleared before I get there, I can’t seem to find the cause for this mysterious new backup in traffic. Do you hold the answers that will put my frustrated commuter mind to rest? If so, please comment!

It’s always been my fantasy to have my own brand. I created an identity for myself called popyoudesign a while ago, inspired by the bloom of simple monotone graphics and the vibrant pop culture from all over the world. The idea of combining a striking imagery and graphic symbolism attracted me, and I fantasized of having a pop shop that could allow people to come in and create their own brand with bit and pieces.

While the pop shop still remains on my list, I’ve also created a clothing line to inspire myself in the area of fashion. BOMBAXEBABE APPAREL is inspired by women who are relentlessly desiring for a strong and edgy style for their everyday/night life. Here is a sneak peak of the brand that will be launching in 2011.

Graphic design, pop culture, fashion, skateboard, music and a edgy lifestyle. All these elements will eventually meet together in my pop shop. keep it poppin’

When Coca-Cola’s globetrotting team of “happiness ambassadors” visited the United States, New York City was probably the only place that would do their energy and enthusiasm justice. Tony, Kelly and Antonio — the three who make up the Expedition 206 team — have brought happiness, excitement and creativity to each of the 145 countries they’ve visited since January 1, and the U.S. visit had high expectations. It required a big idea, and Fast Horse and Coke collaborated to come up with an idea six stories big.

What better way to make a splash than by doing something Coke has never done: turning its massive digital billboard in Times Square into an interactive opportunity to put consumers’ faces in the big, bright lights of one of the busiest spots in the world.

Expedition 206 is all about discovering what makes people around the world happy. In Times Square, the three happiness ambassadors were joined by a street team while interviewing passers-by about their sources of happiness. After snapping a photo and hitting “send” on the street team’s iPhone, the consumer’s face would appear on the billboard within a matter of seconds. To complement the on-site interviewing, we also set up a page to collect submissions from Coke’s Facebook page and from the Expedition 206 Twitter account.

With a solid mix of on-site consumer engagement, online outreach, media relations and a wealth of digital content creation (a video crew was on hand, and the happiness ambassadors are content factories!), I think it’s safe to call the U.S. visit a success. After this visit, the team is off to 50 or so more countries and territories before returning to the World of Coke in Atlanta at the end of the year. Imagine the stories they’ll have to tell then!

It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and only one tweet to destroy it. That’s what Washington Post reporter Mike Wise is finding out after an ill-fated social experiment using social media.

Wise thought he was going to pull a clever little ruse. He’d send out a tweet with falsified news – saying he was told Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger would have his NFL suspension reduced from six games to five – and then watch the media and blogosphere run with the report as if it were fact.

Now, we all get to sit back and see if Wise will have his one-month suspension from the Post reduced.

Wise wanted to shine light on the slippery slope we’re heading down with today’s journalistic standards – where anyone can quote unnamed sources and break a story in 140 characters or less. The problem with that logic is that Wise isn’t just anyone, he’s a respected journalist.  At least he was.

Wise’s Roethlisberger “news” did get picked up by some credible outlets, but they all attributed the report to him and his paper – as in “according to the Washington Post’s Mike Wise…” – making both look terrible when this unfolded as a hoax.

In my opinion, Wise is very lucky to walk away from this with a relatively minor suspension, although I’m guessing the story hasn’t fully played out yet. After this misstep, I don’t know how any readers can trust his stories and I don’t know how his employer can trust his judgment.

However, when I started sifting through all of the photos we’ve received from the various members of the cooperative, I realized we had some pretty cool pics on our hands so I decided to share those instead. (Of course, be sure to visit the SweeTango Facebook page and follow @SweeTango on Twitter to find out where you can find these great apples in your area.)

Please join us in kicking off the start of SweeTango season with a little apple photo art.

SweeTango at Wood Orchard (Door County, Wisc.)

SweeTango waiting to be picked

SweeTango at Pepin Heights Orchard (Lake City, Minn.)

Sorting SweeTango at Stemilt Growers (Wenatchee, Wash.)

SweeTango packing line

SweeTango wedding favor

Editor’s note: This is John Reinan’s weekly marketing column for MinnPost.com.

Public Radio International was built on collaboration. With a staff of 50 in its downtown Minneapolis office, it creates and distributes content to nearly 900 public radio stations nationwide — reaching an audience 50 percent the size of National Public Radio with a budget only 20 percent as large.

It does this by partnering with other news organizations, such as the BBC and stations like WGBH in Boston. PRI programs include “This American Life,” “The World” and “Studio 360.”

So when PRI began thinking of boosting its digital capability, it was only natural that partnership would be key. Toward that end, PRI just selected the first recipient of its “Innovator-in-Residence” fellowship, the Minneapolis digital startup Instant Automatic.

Instant Automatic gets office space at PRI for a three-month stint, the chance to collaborate with PRI staffers and some serious networking opportunities. In return, PRI will get an as-yet-unspecified digital application from Instant Automatic, which specializes in geo-targeted mobile solutions.

“The people who work at PRI are focused on creating audio content and marketing it,” said Julia Yager, PRI’s vice president of brand management and marketing strategy. “We want to find ways to incorporate other knowledge into our thinking.”

It’s a big deal for Instant Automatic, which has four full-time employees and two part-timers. Although the residency is unpaid, the opportunity is tremendous, said company founder Geoffrey LeMond.

“It’s great to be in a media organization right now,” said LeMond, son of cycling great Greg LeMond. “New media is changing the game every day. PRI needs to rethink where it’s going to be in six months. What do they need to do to reposition themselves? How can PRI use its platforms to engage 13 million listeners in a new way and give them a new experience?”

Neither Yager nor LeMond could give details on the expected application, because it’s simply too soon to say. But it will be directed at using location targeting to create opportunities for connection and community.

“We already have an iPhone app that gives people access to our [content] stream, and we have Droid and BlackBerry apps in development,” Yager said. “We want to go beyond content to create a true connection. I think we see a there there, we just don’t see what it is yet.”

It’s tough to create in-house digital expertise from scratch, and expensive to hire it. But in today’s communication world, if you lack digital capacity, you’re missing out on huge chunks of the consumer engagement pie.

PRI appears to have found a creative solution with benefits for both parties. And with a new innovation residency set to be awarded every three months, it won’t be long before PRI has sampled quite a smorgasbord of fresh ideas.

Last Tuesday, David Brauer over at MinnPost got the scoop on a new hire we made as we continue to formalize and invest in our Content Marketing capability. On Friday, USA Today announced a dramatic restructuring they said would “usher in a new way of doing business that aligns sales efforts with the content we produce.”

In other words, USA Today and Fast Horse are now competitors, and I predict one of those brands won’t survive another decade as a result. Here’s why:

Once seen as an innovator, USA Today is in a death spiral as ad revenue has plummeted, and aggressive competitors are cutting into their circulation. Without a major strategic shift, USA Today would ultimately die a slow death as consumers continue to find new and largely digital ways to get the information they want, when and where they want it. Hence the announcement that USA Today plans to lay off about 130 people and shift resources away from its print newspaper and into digital content.  The strategy is sound. But it won’t work, in part because USA Today faces a huge branding problem. 

See, people still think of USA Today as newspaper you grab at a hotel or airport. It was what you read when you wanted to get a quick scan of current events while traveling, and for many years USA Today cornered that market with their ubiquity. In short, USA Today didn’t have an infomation quality advantage, they had an information occasion advantage. The newspaper didn’t necessarily offer a better news product, it just had the advantage of being available everywhere. Then those pesky little mobile devices like the iPhone and iPad came along, and suddenly the traveler had unlimited information options while on the go. Virtually overnight, USA Today began competing with anyone putting content online, and unfortunately for them, there is no shortage of media companies, marketers and even individuals who are offering better and more relevant stuff. You used to be able to count USA Today’s competitors on one hand. The New York Times. The Wall Street Journal. That was about it for national newspapers. Now their competitors number in the thousands. Many, many thousands. It gets worse.

As USA Today broadens from news into custom content, they will have to convince marketers that they understand their brands and audiences, and that the “McPaper,” as it was nicknamed, can create relevant, quality content that can help sell stuff. That won’t be easy because the competion for content marketing will  increasingly come from agencies. That’s where we come in. More and more brands are acting like their own media companies, and we’re placing some big bets they’ll continue to recognize that shops like ours are the ones with the expertise to help them navigate this new media landscape. Advertising, PR, interactive and marketing agencies have the ability to tell stories and aggregate consumers in some very sophisticated new ways, whether it’s through social media or search marketing, and we have the advantage of being able do so with a deep understanding of how great brands are built. We won’t just create content. We’ll create content that is well intergrated with the rest of the marketing mix.  And it will move the needle. It’s what we’ve always done.

If that’s not enough, USA Today will be competing on our turf with one arm tied behind their back. That’s because they will have to assure those who view them as an objective news organization that they can keep a bright line between their news and business operations. I think the content play will hurt USA Today’s credibility on the news side, further hastening the McPaper’s demise. And given the fierce competition they’ll see on the content marketing side, I also think it’s very unlikely their new venture will ultimately generate the kind of revenue they need to save the brand.

USA Today will be gone within a decade, killed off by the mobile devices they thought would save them. And as agencies continue to move aggressively into content marketing, I’m betting that we’ll also be partly to blame. Stay tuned.

Gorilla Yogis at Open Field

You know what’s the cat’s meow? Design that embraces user-created content. I was reminded of how kick-ass this concept is at yesterday’s AIGA Geek Girls Guide luncheon on how to embrace user-created chaos. What’s exciting about designing for user-created content is that it’s not just about allowing fonts to get bigger on websites or creating friendly content management systems – rather, it’s about preparing an experience that gets you excited (and a little fearful) to see what the user may bring to the table.

What’s so cool about this concept is that it’s not just for graphic design, but the design of all interactions: architecture, product design and even event design. Enter the coolest show in town: Walker Art Center’s Open Field. Open Field is an experimental project that invites the public to help transform Walker Art Center’s backyard into a cultural commons. All events are free and the Walker provides you with supplies from the Open Field Tool Shed. But don’t get too excited – there are a few rules, including no booze, no staying overnight and no commercial promotion or sales. Though they do encourage sharing, bartering and creative non-monetary exchange.

This is such a smart idea (the Walker, of course, is known for this) and it’s pretty much crafted by the users (with some skillfully designed guidelines on the backend).

After Open Field events, participates are asked to document what they’ve done, learned, or discovered on Open Field’s YouTube, Flickr and Facebook pages – spreading the word to their network and friends … without relying on traditional press coverage.

“Our human ability to be creative, to produce new knowledge, to ask good questions, and to imagine innovative solutions is predicated in large part on our ability to transform what already exists. Open Field presents the perfect opportunity to experiment with a different, collective mode of programming that depends on you.”  - walkerart.org/openfield

A few cool activities this season:

The Auction: Bring 3-5 items on a blanket and be ready to determine their value, September 4th

Drawing Club: What’s made at Drawing Club stays at Drawing Club, weekly

Knit-a-long: July 7th

Gorilla Yogis: a migration to yoga beyond studio walls, June

There is no need for a “reservation,” but the deadline to get your activity on the Open Field calendar for the remainder of the season is today!

It’s what I always do, preferring the corn over the wheat. But then what?  To me, the State Fair is entirely about feeling good. It’s the state-sponsored feel good event: feel good about our land, our resources, our neighbors and our ingenuity. (Yes, I look past the grease and obesity.)

That’s why the Eco Experience has been a destination point for me since it opened in 2006. The exhibit, sponsored by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, has something new every year designed to inspire us to lead more sustainable lives and improve our quality of life and the environment.  The exhibits look past disasters and warning signs to solutions for renewable energy and ideas we can all take part in.

Last year, one in five state fair visitors stopped at the Eco Experience. That’s up there with the Miracle of Birth Center, the most popular exhibit at the fair.

A visitor explores the base of a wind turbine at last year's Eco Experience

This year, along with leading-edge displays on renewable energy, new fuels and vehicles, and organic farming, the Eco Experience features a Green Street, a mini-version of a walkable neighborhood with community space, rain gardens, and a carport and electric car charging station.

But instead of taking in the Eco Experience as a visitor, I’ll actually be working there this year. I recently took a position with Windustry, and we’re presenting the Wind Energy Center, complete with wind turbines and computer mapping for wind speeds throughout the state.

I’m looking forward to wearing an “Energy on a Stick” T-shirt, working alongside volunteers to talk to people about Minnesota wind as a natural resource to harvest for renewable energy — one that addresses climate change and energy insecurity, and that can be a source of robust economic development for rural communities.

I asked my colleagues who have done this before what to expect. According to them, these are the top questions I can expect. From city dwellers: Can I put a turbine on my house? From rural residents: Can I put a turbine on my land?  From both: What are the job opportunities?

Answers: 1. Don’t try it. 2. You betcha. 3. Many, and it’s a growing field. (If you want to know more, stop by the Wind Energy Center! )

But my co-workers emphasized that many questions are new. The future is now, when it comes to renewable energy technologies. Asking questions is what we all need to do in order to discover the best ideas. 

The Eco Experience is located in the Progress Center building (J-9 on map) at the corner of Cooper Street and Randall Avenue. Stop by and say hello!

At this point, it seems unlikely that Mark Zuckerberg will be supporting “The Social Network” by checking in to see the film at a theater on his new Facebook Places service any time soon. There are reports that he and his cohorts at Facebook are upset and that they “saw the movie a while ago, and they do not like it.”

But how should the 26-year-old and his company really be feeling about a film that Peter Travers of Rolling Stone declared “the movie of the year that also brilliantly defines the decade“?

Their decision so far has been to ignore it, with Zuckerberg claiming the “movie is fiction.” But if the film really turns out to be, as Michael Cieply and Miguel Helft of the NY Times reported, “culturally defining, as it aspires to be, in the way of ‘Wall Street’ or ‘The Big Chill,’ ” (or even, say, “Reality Bites”) then would it be best for Facebook to just embrace it, even if they continue to dispute its authenticity? After all, they’ve already acknowledged in a statement that “it’s a sign of Facebook’s impact that we’re the subject of a movie.”

Let’s say this movie does turn out to be a huge box office hit and amazing piece of social commentary as many expect, especially after Scott Foundas’ review. What the hell, let’s say it gets nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. That brings up several thoughts:

• What does that kind of success do for Facebook, and how should Zuckerberg and Co. be preparing to react?
• Will the current pay-no-attention-to-that strategy be most effective?
• Should they be getting their lawyers ready to go to court?
• Volunteer to attend premieres and accompany director David Fincher and writer Aaron Sorkin in interviews and, perhaps, award shows?
• And, presumably most important to Zuckerberg, over 500 million people are signed up for Facebook now. Will that number be more or less be this time next year?

With the film set to, as reported in the Times, “portray Facebook as founded on a series of betrayals” and depict Zuckerberg in an unflattering manner, it’s possible that the film could force some to re-evaluate how they use the site and not want to participate any longer. Maybe we’ll see another Quit Facebook Day. It’s also possible that even more people will take notice of the site and figure, “what the hell, it’s getting Oscar nominations, I should probably finally sign up.” I figure the latter. But either way, it’s going to be strange to see a film based on a real cultural phenomenon during its ascent – and see what the film does to it.