You Are Media

JC Penny's Sex Appeal

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:17:35 -0400

A couple of days ago a commercial hit the internet from JC Penny. The video featured a teen guy and a teen girl both timing themselves getting dressed.

Once the media caught wind of the commercial it was the talk of the blogs all day long. Some said the ad promoted teen sex…others said let go and live a little!

The ad could have been a success story but it turned into a nightmare as JC Penny denied knowing anything about it. Then JC Penny’s agency Saatchi and Saatchi denied releasing it.

This is why brands are scared to death about social media. They are forced to let their hair down and live a little.

I know from having conversations directly on JC Penny’s account that they are anal about everything, so they will certainly not be turning this story into a good one. Brands have a choice to be sexy, and in many cases old brands choose not to. It’s a shame because social media as unconventional as it is can be a ray of light through those boring, gray brand clouds.

JC Penny Viral Video

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:08:32 -0400

JC Penny Viral Video

Photo

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:15:31 -0400

Photo

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:14:00 -0400

What does Jumper have to do with the University of Phoenix?

Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:13:56 -0400

Well…still not quite sure but the campaign compelled us to click. So we clicked on a banner that appeard on Billboard.com. The banner led to a jump page that asks visitors to submit an essay about where they would go if they could go anywhere.

A bit of a stretch for us to like it, but definitely piqued our curiosity enough to click through.

Two examples of the Future of New Media

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 12:21:23 -0400

Two examples of the Future of New Media: This week I watched Tiger Woods win the US Open at 3pm in the afternoon on my computer. Right now I am watching “The Governer’s Economic Summit” streaming live from Barack Obama’s site, via Ustream….

iPhone apps are the new Facebook Apps

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 14:13:35 -0400

iPhone apps are the new Facebook Apps: Developers start your engines. Upon Apple’s 3G iPhone news on Monday, apparently there’s a new gold rush: iPhone applications. So much so that VCs are beginning to salivate over the seemingly tiny…

Customers and Developers should be wary as Apple Offers Less Freedom with 3G iPhone

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 07:07:41 -0400

Customers and Developers should be wary as Apple Offers Less Freedom with 3G iPhone: I really wanted an iPhone 3G. I really did. It’s sexy, it has a large disk drive by phone standards, and it has great software. But after digging into the details of the I’m a bit disappointed with…

The Innovation Everyone Missed in Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback

Fri, 23 May 2008 11:02:18 -0400

The Innovation Everyone Missed in Microsoft’s Live Search Cashback:

Microsoft’s Search Live Cash launched this week. Unfortunately most of the coverage has been pretty negative. That’s because bloggers and reporters kind of don’t get it.

Here’s how Cashback…

TNT Kobe Bryant viral video spoof with Kenny Smith and Charles...

Thu, 22 May 2008 20:16:01 -0400

TNT Kobe Bryant viral video spoof with Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley. NBA Playoffs and Nike

Viral Video: Kobe Bryant Jumps over Aston Martin

Thu, 22 May 2008 19:19:23 -0400

Viral Video: Kobe Bryant Jumps over Aston Martin

Genius Nike Kobe Bryant Viral Video

Thu, 22 May 2008 19:18:36 -0400

In early April a days before the 2008 NBA Playoffs Nike released a video that took the sports world by storm.

It was NBA superstar Kobe Bryant jumping over a speeding Aston Martin car in a parking garage.

Large blogs like Jason Calacanis covered the video it made it to the front page of Digg. The next day the TNT show Inside the NBA showed the video and created their own spoof.

This campaign was particularly well executed by Nike for a few reasons:

The video is 54 seconds.
The video includes an NBA superstar and his teammate letting loose - which lends to authenticity.
They showed the product in the very beginning of the video.
The video was extremely well done leading people to believe it was real.
It was just before the playoffs which lent to controversy of whether Kobe was being irresponsible.

Most companies may not reach this type of success but the elements of tying a product directly to celebreties in short viral videos is a great model to generate buzz about a specific product.

Twitter is to Friendster as __________ is to Myspace

Thu, 22 May 2008 19:05:27 -0400

Twitter is to Friendster as __________ is to Myspace: Thinking about Twitter’s scaling issues, it makes it seem that there is an opportunity for history to repeat itself here. Friendster was a social networking pioneer. Its feature set was also…

What Microsoft can do to beat Google to the (next) Punch

Wed, 21 May 2008 12:18:13 -0400

What Microsoft can do to beat Google to the (next) Punch: It’s understood that Google is light years ahead of Microsoft today in search. Even a Yahoo! acqusition probably will not help materially as far as momentum goes. Google is smarter and they are…

In this post from Nielsen you’ll note that niche Social...

Wed, 21 May 2008 11:04:00 -0400

In this post from Nielsen you’ll note that niche Social Networks are growing at the most brisk rate. LinkedIn (business), Buzznet (music and entertainment), and Imeem (music) are the top growth social networks over the past year.

We see anticipate that niche social networks is the real growth opportunity “general purose” in the social networking space.

Cloud Computing Tips for the Enterprise (or paranoid individuals)

Tue, 20 May 2008 14:14:00 -0400

Cloud Computing Tips for the Enterprise (or paranoid individuals): I am still very much a creature of the desktop revolution. I still feel much more comfortable creating, storing, locally than from the cloud. My obsession with mobile has left me with the…

Opera on Mobile Social Network Growth

Tue, 20 May 2008 12:59:19 -0400

Opera on Mobile Social Network Growth:

Today Opera released mobile browser stats. Some pretty interesting insight into the growing popularity of mobile social networking.

Social networking stands supreme
Almost 40% of traffic worldwide is to social networks. In some countries, such as the United States, South Africa and Indonesia, the social Web accounts for more than 60% of the traffic

Snapshot: United States

More than 63% of U.S. Web traffic on mobile phones is to social networks, tying it with Indonesia for the number one spot.

Top 10 sites in the U.S.

Tips to syndicate your blog

Sun, 18 May 2008 20:26:36 -0400

Tips to syndicate your blog: The blogging world today is all about distribution. The wider the distribution, the easier it is for people to discover. The content part is up to you. That’s how you get people, subscribing to your…

Social Networking Goes Mobile

Fri, 16 May 2008 12:24:30 -0400

Social Networking Goes Mobile:

Over the past couple of weeks there has been a lot of chatter about mobile social networking. My thoughts have always been that the mobile phone is quintessential social network.

Now that mobile…

Mobile Status Report From Admob

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:51:00 -0400

Mobile Handset usage as of April 2008

Handset Distribution
Motorola still on top with about 35% of traffic.
Blackberry #2 with about 12%.
Blackberry has just about 50% of smart phone traffic as well.

Multimedia
33% of handsets support streaming video.
64% of handsets support downloadble video.

Download Report Here