Think twice

Click on this ad. Twice!

There is more here. And here. And on every other Jung von Matt ad on adsoftheworld.com

Thoughts?

A great way to promote a great agencies? A clever way to stick out in all-ad-environment and make your target audience smile? A good way to attract creatives to one of the most-creative German agencies? Smart media use combined with a witty idea?

Or a great way to offend your potential employees cause you imply cheating when they might just search for inspiration? An embarassing, in-your-face self-adulation to an audience who either already knows how great of an agency you are or who doesn't care? A way to turn admiration into rejection?

Or is it a great idea, but simply placed on the wrong (i.e. boring, not-worth-to-copy-at-all) ads?

This was just too bizarre to ignore....

Meow Mix just announced a new reality show called “Think like a Cat” that recently premiered on the Game Show Network. Immediately it reminded me of Brawny’s “Brawny Academy” reality show crafted by Minneapolis’ own Fallon, which got some good attention in 2006. However, Meow Mix’s (along with Grand Central Marketing which developed the concept) attempt at associating their brand with entertaining whimsy and fun, only plays off as creepy and disorganized. The New York Times’ television review describes the show as a “lame attempt to use game-show trappings to disguise what is nothing more than a lengthy cat food commercial.” And that is actually one of the nicer things said in that article (it is also described as “a significant step toward the collapse of civilized society”). If I were handling the PR, that is one media impression I would not want to claim.

On a slightly better note, Best Week Ever’s Michelle Collins (whom I worship for her pop culture insights) dubbed this show one of her “Reasons to Live” simply because this promo is too hilarious to ignore.



While this is all very amusing, I don’t really see what it’s doing for the brand except drawing ridicule upon a pretty staple name in the cat food industry.

Fallon may have been able to pull off the commercial disguised as a reality show quite well, but does that mean other brands should attempt the same? Sometimes good ideas are best left alone to the ones who crafted them in the first place.

The newest ad placement: Math tests

A California high school is like most public schools, trapped by budget cuts. One math teacher, Tom Farber, took action into his own hands. His printing budget was cut in half, so he reached out to local companies to advertise on math tests and thus foot the bill. Little one-liners grace the first page of each exam and come at a cost of $10 for an ad on a quiz, $20 to be on a chapter test, and $30 for a spot on the semester exam. Parents are even playing a part and sponsoring inspirational quotes posted around the classroom.

Is this exploiting public schools? Or do desperate times call for desperate measures?

All I know is that this makes me think of my dear mother and her middle school library. She spends money out of her own pocket on buying extra Twilight books because she hates turning down someone who finally gets excited about picking up a book. So maybe I'll whip up some ad sponsored bookmarks or an advertised Dewey Decimal System poster.

It's sad that schools are forced to do this, but I'm glad people are inspiring solutions.

Wii Would Like to Play, Indoors, Alone

This new Wii commercial for the game Animal Crossing City Folk with Wii Speak makes me sad, WOW style:



It's the polar opposite of the amazing Dentyne commercials (though I was a little disappointed that such a great commercial was from a gum company). They put out commercials like this and limit you time online to 3 minutes on their site so you can get out there and live:



The Animal Crossing City Folk commercial implies you don't need real friends, just a video game. I do generally applaud Wii for getting people on their feet. The next step: getting them out of the house.

"Let's go watch the fireworks!"

Thoughts?

WhatIsTheNewInternetTrend.com

Anyone else notice the abundance of questions as URLs that are popping up across the interwebs? Off the top of my head, I can think of:

http://www.doineedanumbrella.com
http://www.isobamapresident.com
http://www.issarahpalinpresident.com (etc)
http://www.whatcoloristheempirestatebuilding.com
http://www.isiticedcoffeeweather.com
http://www.istheinternetawesome.com
http://www.isitbeeroclock.com
http://www.isitchristmas.com

And some that aren't exactly questions but still single-function sites where the URL explains it all:

http://www.downforeveryoneorjustme.com/
http://www.thingsididlastnight.com/
http://www.bitchmakemeasandwich.com/

Okay, so the last two are a little ridiculous. But I really like the simplicity of these. The umbrella and ESB sites actually provide a function, and I've visited both of them a handful of times. Our internet is rewarding the simplicity of Google and Twitter while turning away from cluttered AOL and Facebook. Is this new, streamlined experience the future of the web?

Where else do you see opportunity in questions as URLs? Converse was on track with Kissing with Ross, Is Everything Going to Be Okay, etc, but those were purely entertaining instead of functional. Imagine if Starbucks had come up with Is It Iced Coffee Weather or The Weather Channel got behind Do I Need an Umbrella...

Any other one-function sites we're forgetting? Are there any you actually use on a regular basis?

Sprint's Widgets

Please tell me someone else has seen this site. If not, go play now. I learned the wonders of this widget-filled playground from someone at the office.

Learn how much money is being spent online at the moment, how many bicycles are being produced worldwide or how many cases of malaria are spawning (ok that one is gross). Although the last thing I need is another mindless site to occupy my otherwise busy days (yep-there is a different puppy cam on this site) I still love a good find like this one. This however does not make me want to switch Sprint. Cool site never trumps crappy service. Sorry GS&P.

What do you think? While waiting for your comments I'll be busy tracking the number of people getting stuck in elavators.

Fail Monday: Amazon AdWords

Yes I was Googlin' myself, but why is Amazon dynamically bidding on my last name?

SPOTLIGHT: Hunt Adkins

Welcome to Yaybia's newest series- Spotlight on Minneapolis Agencies. The inspiration for this new series is from the lovely Advergirl. The Minneapolis area is home to over 300 ad agencies and consultants, all with a variety of specialties and clients. It's about time we pay due to this city we call home.

To kick off this series we'll start with my very own agency: Hunt Adkins. HA is a small agency located in the heart of downtown Minneapolis. They are ranked number 13 of the top earning agencies in Minneaoplis. Included in their past clients is Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, AdFed, ABC Sports and Northwest Airlines. Their current client list includes Northern Tool + Equipment, Bard's Tale Beer, Griffin International Companies, American Red Cross and recently added to their roster is Nutrisoda. Check out some of their fabulous work on their site. Here are some pics of the crib.

Enter, if you dare.

The conference room: where lots of important executive decisions go down.

Oooooo Awards.

Some Holiday Swag.

The following interview is with co-founder and CEO, Patrick Hunt. Previous to HA, Patrick worked in both account management and account planning at Fallon McElligott. Check it:




As an intern for HA, I've been extremely lucky to work with not only an intelligent but often entertaining bunch of people. Stay tuned for more Agency Spotlights this week!

Cell Phone Evolution Mash-Up!

Happy Friday! We know that your brains are probably dead like ours. And in need of some Friday beer. So we won't make you think. Just check out the cell phone evolutions. If you didn't get a chance to submit yours we'd love to see what you've got in the comments.

This wasn't a contest but we like awards.

Earliest adopter and biggest tech fail goes to MJ! (MJ = Libby's mom)
Zune Award: Jameson
Least prone to breakage: Alicia
The John Kerry flip flop award: Minneapolis Michael
Most generic: Panchomill
Most Asian influence: Johnny Bones

Yaybia Asks Advergirl About Social Media

This is a video response to the two videos that Advergirl posted this week. She asked readers to submit more questions, so here are some of ours. If any of our readers have questions for us, we'd love to hear them!



Better source file can be found here!

Google Themes

I know Yaybia ladies are avid Gmail users, so I'm curious as to what everyone thinks about the new themes. While I have no problems changing the colors of my Gmail, I think some of the graphical themes could be a little much. While I thouroughly enjoy the "candy" theme, I feel it might be a distraction when sending out my resume and cover letter... 

Anyone know who makes up these themes? And can you tell me what they were thinking when creating the "Bus Stop" one?

I Knew That Fail Whale Looked Devious....

Nothing has quite fired me up more than when I checked my Google Reader the other day, only to find that in my “MediaBistro: PRNewser” feed was an article with this offending question “Do We Need PR Anymore Now That We Have Social Media?” If I wasn’t going to sound crazy at work in my little cubicle, I probably would have jumped up and yelled, “UM, YES?????”

I calmed myself a little bit when I realized that the article was sparked from a panel discussion called "Is Social Media Killing PR?" which recently took place at The Horn Group to address the issue of social media and PR’s relationship.

The event was inspired by the growing number of blogs questioning the necessity of PR in this time of a social media boom. As the Horn Group described the event in an online invitation:

“Jason Calacanis thinks you should fire your PR agency. Robert Scoble thinks you should ignore it. Michael Arrington says PR is "broken." Jeremiah Owyang sees value in it, but has challenged PR people and their critics "to engage in a head on discussion".”

Possibly feeling the same sense of fiery objection that I did, Girls in Tech and The Horn Group got together, gathered a panel, and decided to tackle this issue head on against critics of PR and with advocates of the profession (you can catch a liveblog of the event HERE).

A great point brought up is the fact that social media is a TOOL. Public relations is so much more than that. In public relations, we use every communication tool at our disposal to get a message out to the public. We have strategy, we have tactics, and we have contacts that ordinary people may not have the access to.

There is one way I feel that social media could threaten public relations: if as professionals, we ignore its importance as a tool and do not make the effort to learn how to use it in the right way. Already though, agencies are working to understand the growing medium to its fullest.

Padilla Speer Beardsley, for instance, has created a team of social media experts within the agency called the SMERF team (Social Media Elite Response Force). The team holds frequent meetings to share new social media findings, and to educate those in the agency who wish to learn more about different types of social media. In the crunch of a new client pitch, the team can be called upon to generate ideas and help others understand the medium. In December, the group plans to hold a Social Media Boot Camp, so that all who wish to become proficient with this tool, can. (I get to give a speech about Twitter…. I love my job).

If agencies keep up to date on this medium, then I see no reason why we can not coexist peacefully, despite the grumblings of Jason Calacanis and others. Social media is another tool for strategic communications to use to spread a message. In the end, what really matters is that you have a good message that people are willing to listen to and take seriously. Kara Swisher of the Wall Street Journal’s “All Things D” said it best at the end of the panel discussion:

“What's important is that you're representing a company that genuinely has a good product. You cannot (do) PR (on) a crappy product and it doesn't matter how many press releases you get on a website. All that really matters is that you have a really good product. I don't remember the last time I picked up the phone and went ‘Oh my God, it's a communication tool...’ Focus on the product!”

Ask Me What Happened

I haven't been to Ask.com (or Ask Jeeves as I once knew it) in a looooooooooooong time (I'm gonna say since 2005?), but in the course of my tasks today, I ended up there. What I saw made me want to venture to one of my favorite sites/time wasters on the internet: Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. It shows you what a website looked like on a certain date. Here is a rough timeline for Ask.com that I created from their archives:


Notice the obvious progression towards basically a copy of everyone's favorite Search Engine, whose clean, simple homepage hasn't really changed much at all in the last 10 years:



I kinda miss Jeeves....

Here are some more website evolution favs. Any other websites whose evolution from conception to today that interest you?

In an Absolut World

As I furiously wrote my cases paper last night, I took a step back and realized something. Absolut has done some of the coolest sh*t ever. Not only does their brand tagline "In An Absolut World" invite viewers to create their own idealized visions, it asks them to be submitted and possibly realized. In an Absolut world, everyone is a visionary.

Take Helmut Lang for example. His vision was for everyone to be able to experience art as if they were able to see it in a museum. His digital exhibit "Alles Gleich Shwer" is an interactive gallery of Lang's work.

And Improv Everywhere felt that in an Absolut world, everyone would be welcomed home. View their realized vision here. If I had 20 strangers welcome me home at the airport, I'd be brand loyal to Absolut forever.

Ok one more. Here's the latest visionary by Jim Denevan. In his Absolut world, cities would farm. To make this vision possible, he teamed up with Absolut to host a dinner in NYC that featured food grown in the five boroughs. Check out some press.

In my Absolut world, I'd be able to afford one of these. Please share some of your visions.

The (Online) Tipping Point: Influencers, Who are They?

I've been thinking a lot about influencers lately so this has become another "Erin read good book and wants to learn more by applying it to her life" post.  As I stay up for the better part of the night writing a paper related to this very topic, I'm going to throw out some comments (brain vomit) here as well.  Might as well make it a two for one right!?

In the real world, influencers are built based on experiences, knowledge, and by having the right resources, but online, we all start at the same level.  No one is born into Twitter with 1,000 followers.  No one magically has the skills to create blogs that are all of a sudden linked to from all over the interwebs.  No one is trusted. No one knows you. 

So how do online influencers become, well, influential? For this, influencers are a mix of the types of people referenced in The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell (connectors, mavens, salesmen). Here's what I think matters in becoming an influener, but I'd love to hear your opinions also!

Timeliness: If you are the first one to share a link you are going to have an impact on those that click.  You have now earned a point towards becoming an influential person for that particular subject/event/etc.  Having the ability to find and share has become almost as influential as writing the content itself.


Relevancy: You need to share the right stuff.  I wouldn't come here and write a full post about puppy cam even though I might really want to express how much I love it.  I come here to write about advertising, media, branding, and the interwebs.  I share ideas that are relevant for me and you. 

Friends: Without people to share things with, you're still nothing.  You could have the best ideas in the world and if no one knows, they might as well not exist.  So uh, good thing we have at least 3 loyal readers. (Thanks Ben, John, Dirk, and Sylvie!)

Energy: I could have said stamina, longevity, or experience, but it's more about being excited about what you're doing and having the drive to continue doing that.  If you hit it and quit it you probably shouldn't have even warmed up.  Stick with it, establish yourself, and when you have an idea go for it. 

Passion: If you aren't truly passionate about what you're doing, people will see right through you.  This can mean having strong opinions, battling with other bloggers, or just geeking out about something that you love.  Your passion will be shared with those that you connect with. Or in other words, just <3.


Ok that's it, your turn. Comments. Ready, break!

Call For Entries

In case you missed it, Yaybia would love to see your own cell phone evolutions! Send us links to the pics and we'll post on Friday!

Skip it

If you are having a tough week (cause you hurt your knee real bad, for example) this precious piece is just perfect for you. It's like zen: It will help you to channel your pent-up aggression and focus it on Mr. Keen. At the same time it will make you laugh.



I am not assuming Mr. Keen is condescending enough to read this, but in case he does (solely for research of course): Yes, I am writing that I consider your tirade unconsidered and embarassing. Nobody forces you or anybody else to do anything online. There is a lot of nonsense or things you would probably consider nonsense and even more sex on the internet. But it's out there in the real world, too. I know that this might be a shock for you, but some people actually like that kind of stuff. The internet doesn't create itself, it just reflects. And as you probably know from your own experience, there are a lot of offline-idiots.

Who do you suggest should control (i.e. censor) the web and tell users what they should know and like? Journalists? Government? Corporations? You? I highly doubt that facebook and co killed your always neutral, up-to-date, high-quality neighborhood newspaper. Maybe you wanna live in North Korea: Free from the Internet. Free from that annyoing idea of democracy, where everybody gets to participate in the way they please. And free from free market, where services and products that people actually use and like are the most successful.

Mr. Keen, if you are reading this, please don't be offended and send the forces of moral hell or legal prosecution my way. You know better, you are better, for I am just a dumb, unconsidered blogger. I don't even understand what I am writing here and neither do the readers of this blog (except you, Mr. Know-it-all, of course). Now, if I would say those sentences out loud on the radio it would be a completely different thing. But even in that case, I would advise you to make no attempts to morally convert or legally accuse me. I live outside your lawyers' and your moral's jurisdiction.

Cell Phone Evolution: Erin Edition

2001

2003

2004

2005

2007



2008

Cell Phone Evolution: Libby Edition

2000:

2002:

2004:

2004:

2005:

2006:

2006:

2006:

2007:

Gap expands product lines so you can match your argyle sweatervest to your mode of transportation.

Gap has recently expanded their product line from jeans and argyle sweater vests to include argyle bikes! Now you can match your bike to your outfit (but right now it is only available in blue argyle).




I want to know what you guys think of this. While I am generally a fan of product line expansion, I think that Gap patters and designs fit great on fabric, and I'm not so sure about bikes.

Like Brands Need Another Reason Why to Pay Attention to Social Media

Motrin. I wouldn't imagine an ad campaign for it that has nothing to do with associated health risks or recalls could enrage a community of social networkers, but it has. Look at Twitter posts for Motrin. I searched for it, and 22 new posts were added in less than a minute after I first searched. People are certainly talking, and they are opinionated.

The comments were so scathing that motrin.com took down their website Sunday night (though some thought it should have been down sooner) and have still not restored it, but you can still view the source of the controversy here:



There have even already been some parodys:



Normally, Johnson & Johnson top Best Brand lists, including Working Mother magazine. They have named Johnson & Johnson one of the “Top 100 Companies for Working Mothers” every year since the list was initiated 21 years ago. This Motrin campaign, however, seemed to strike a sour note with Moms, and they used social media to voice their concerns.

Wearing your baby is not suddenly in fashion, people have been doing it for forever. People are upset that Motrin makes them feel like bad parents. They understand the point Motrin was trying to make, but feel it was made in a tacky way.

Just goes to show you that even the most respected companies can have a blunder every once in a while.

UPDATE: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2008/11/we-feel-your-pa.html

Monetizing Twitter

Be A Magpie is a new ad network for Twitter. Twitterers can sign up with Be A Magpie and earn money based on how many followers they have and how often they tweet. Advertisers can sign up with Be A Magpie and have their message incorporated into relevant Tweets. The default is that about every 5 tweets on your page or so Be A Magpie will insert an ad into the feed from one of their advertisers, though you can adjust the ratio. 

Personally, I am only worth about 0.31 Euros ($0.39) per ad served on my Twitter account. Bummer. To up my worth I need to get more followers and Twitter more.

Be A Magpie is not affiliated with Twitter, but they've monetized them in a way Twitter has yet to do. Now their success depends on a person's desire to allow ads to infiltrate their feeds.

Temporary Brands: Friday [brain]Food

I apologize for my Yaybia hiatus, it’s just been one of those weeks. But there have a been a few thoughts that I’ve been meaning to share. I shall do so with some Friday [brain]Food for Thought.

Last week I attended the Ypulse Mashup East. Met some awesome people and learned more about my generation that I thought possible. Today’s insight comes from Spencer of Virtue Worldwide . During his keynote he brought up an idea that I hadn’t really ever thought of before.

“Do brands have to last forever? Maybe they should only last for a short period of time and make the most of it.”

Pretty bold statement. But pretty awesome. I have two examples that I thought of right away, MTV and Mountain Dew. Other soda companies are known for this as well, but I guess I’m craving some sugar so I’m Doin’ the Dew.

MTV: By thriving on capturing trends, exploiting them to the masses, and then killing them, MTV has developed a business model that exists largely because of their ability to change. While their parent brand keeps the same positioning (being a pop culture trendsetter), their sub brands come and go. TRL is the most relevant today because of its recent cancellation , but many shows have started, saturated, and sayonara’d. This strategy works for MTV because of generational shifts. TRL was cool for kids that had their see through Vtech phones (don’t tell me you didn’t have one) and would call in while drooling over Carson Daly. But the next wave of kids ditched their land lines for their Nokia bricks (again, you know you had one) and quickly began to move towards texting based interaction. Personally, I think MTV should have killed TRL when Carson left, or after that whole Limp Bizkit phase. Skip it.

Mountain Dew: With sub brands ranging from short lived Dew Fuel to blockbuster driven Darth Dew, Mountain Dew is a master of short lived brands . What works for them is that many consumers will at least hit it and quit it (trial purchase) because they know that the sub brand won't be around forever. Others that can't get enough of their MDX will actively pursue brand purchases, and Mountain Dew is also aware of the relationship of these sub brands with the parent brand. They avoid brand dilution by temporarily expanding their product set instead of creating an arsenal of sub brands that has the firing power of dive bar buck hunter.

I think the idea relates really well with what companies can do with sub brands and products -- I'm still unsure of how you could churn brands after a period of time. If you have any ideas I'd love to hear them.

UPDATE -- Can't believe I didn't think of this until now, but our very own Minneapolis agency Space 150 is the best example I can think of for brands that adapt and radically change quite frequently. AND our very own Jacey works there! I've been to a few of the re-branding parties an they're quite fun. Everyone is excited and supports the demand for pushing themselves to be more innovative. What better way to show your clients/community that you're able to transform brands than by using yourself as an example?!

I Shouldn't Be So Shocked, But I Am

Erin: reversecowgirlblog.blogspot.com
ummmm right rail banner ad for american apparel...

me: WAIT IS THAT A NIPPLE

Erin: YES

YES IT IS

me: THAT'S A NIPPLE

Erin: IIIII KNOW

ON A BANNER AD

me: NIPPLE!

Australian Kotex Ads tap into our inner beaver

Animated furry friends still work (I mean those puppy's on the puppy cam could sell me anything!) Here is a great example of a friendly Beaver from our friends down under:



A real thank you from the girls at Yaybia, for keeping our Yaybia's...well, Yaybia's.

JCrew wants you to dress like Michelle Obama [the best google adwords I've seen in a long time]

I would like to give an A+ to whoever is buying Google AdWords for JCrew right now. While reading an email about Obama in Gmail, I found this ad on the side:


When you click the link, you are brought to this page:



Thank you JCrew. With all the buzz around gorgeous Michelle Obama's outfits, I think you hit the nail on the head.

Music Fail

While this is not technically a fail in the classic sense, I shall classify it that way anyway:
Music is not the ONLY way to connect to a younger, cool audience. Just because you have free (or pay) music downloads on your site does not mean that youth will flock to your site in droves, nor does it fit with the personality of your brand. Here is a sample of some recent offenders:

Pizza Hut: Initially, I thought this sounded like a pretty good deal. If you order on pizzahut.com between 11/5 and 12/27 you will get a link to eMusic where you get 75 free music downloads: 25 from a Pizza Hut playlist and 50 from eMusic's giant catalog. However, this includes a 14-day trial to eMusic. This means entering credit card information, and that if you don't to cancel you will be charged thereafter. Fail. Maybe I am being to sensitive to this, I had a long ordeal trying to cancel a "free" magazine subscription (alright ma'am, but before we officially cancel, would you like us to throw in 3 month at half price?) and my roommate tends to forget about these things and loses money on it. And Pizza Hut's justification of using music? They use music in their marketing. Gee, when was the last time you saw a commercial that used music?

Tic Tac: Tic Tac launched a new microsite called Tic Tac Chill where a visitor can download four free "chill" songs. And the first 1,000 visitors get a free sample of Tic Tac Chill Mints. Personally, I'd just rather get the free mints.

Who did it right:

Radiohead: Yes, they are a band so their "brand" is defined by their music, but by allowing users to pay whatever they want, even nothing, for their new album In Rainbows. “Radiohead made more money before In Rainbows was physically released than they made in total on the previous album Hail To the Thief.” It was a unique way to use their music. It got media attention. Also, fans who loved their music would pay more, and people who had never heard of them got to sample them for free becoming potential lifelong fans.

Music may be easy, but it is not the only way. Teens still hang out with friends, go on vacation, and go to the movies. Life offline and unplugged still exists. Sure, there are 5 billion iTunes music downloads per day. And radio listening for young people is back on the rise. It's no secret that people like music, but just because you slap a free download on a mediocre site does not mean you are going to be the next big thing. Like the viral video or the user-generated content contest, it's been done. Find the next big thing rather than jumping on the band wagon.

PiPress Helps Ease the Election Results Waiting Game

All I want to do is curl up in front of CNN right now, but alas, there are Excel charts to be formatted. So I wait instead and comb cnn.com and nytimes.com for some news, any news...just to be greeted by a countdown until the polls close. But I want new information right now!

Enter @MNvotes. I noticed the #mnvotes tag while Tweeting this morning, but I just now realized that MNvotes is also a Twitter username. And it's owned by the Pioneer Press!

This is great. People want to creep out on election news all day long, even if it's just reports of Lakeville lines moving fast and a voter wrongly turned away in Prospect Park. PiPress, I had written you off in your battle with the Strib for the surviving Twin Cities daily, but you just struck back in a big way. Only 125 followers, but I'm guessing you have a lot more stalkers like me seeing you turn up in friends' Tweets or Summize results instead of adding you as a friend. Very nice!

Let's hope that's not an indication of another comeback from a competitor we'd written off...

GET OUT AND VOTE TODAY!

Hello all, it's your friendly PR gal reminding you to get out there and vote! I stood in line for almost 2 hours in not so comfy heels, and it was worth every second.

Now, just a small interesting article to share with you all. Obviously, strategic communications is THE major aspect of campaigning. Speech writers, spokespeople, and campaign strategists are all working toward something that PR professionals do every day. We work to change or reinforce public opinion. It's just a bit (ok a lot) more important in their case to get the public behind a candidate than it is for me to try to get the public to like a can of soup.

That being said, PR Week released a great article today with some insights from highly respected public relations professionals giving their insights on who will win today, and why. It's worth the read.

How the Mighty Have Fallen*

Two years ago, if you had told Starbucks that they would be giving their product away like Taco Bell or McDonald's lattes, they would have laughed in your face. But then the economy went to hell, and this once-premium brand has hit rock bottom.



If you ask me, Starbucks' recent mistakes have been:

• Ridiculous brand extensions. I really don't want Starbucks breakfast beyond muffins and coffee cakes, and the brand can't seem to figure out what it wants to do, either. And I'm not paying $6 for a shrinkwrapped chicken sandwich. The coffee shop atmosphere just isn't conducive to a meal.
• Dunkin' and McDonald's slowly but surely crept into the premium coffee industry. Starbucks got scared when their sales took a dip and tried to compete with price promotions and the aforementioned food. But it doesn't seem as though McD's is really stealing away that many faithful Starbucks drinkers. Are real Starbucks customers really trading down to fast food? Or are there other reasons (brand dilution, a Starbucks atmosphere that has strayed from its roots, and yes, the economy) that have them skipping their morning joe?
  
• MyStarbucksIdea.com. Creating a social network for people to basically complain about the brand and offer ideas that will never ever get implemented was maybe not the smartest idea.

On the other hand, Ben & Jerry's is another premium-priced brand that is giving away product on Election Day. But for them, it works. Just look at the website. B&J never takes itself too seriously and is always pushing fun--it's ice cream! They also have an annual customer appreciation/Free Cone Day complete with long lines, brand ambassadors, and even a dancing cow. Ben & Jerry's built its entire brand on doing good and having a positive outlook, and giving away ice cream fits. Watching the Starbucks ad, though, you see how seriously they take themselves. The targets, the attitudes of the brands, and the motives for the giveaway are all completely different. For Starbucks, it just doesn't work.

This election giveaway is icing on the GOODBYE AND GOOD LUCK! cake for Starbucks. Maybe they just expanded too fast and erroneously thought they could mix luxury prices with a mass audience. Maybe consumers really are remembering that $4 a day not spent on coffee could help buy next week's groceries. In any case, I'll be at work in the morning and at the Bob Dylan show in the evening, so I'll probably miss out on this sad promotion from the former coffee giant.

*Or in the case of our very own Erin Lamberty, the mighty have fallen, torn three ligaments in their knee, bruised and swollen beyond recognition, and been placed in an immobilizer until further notice. That probably describes Starbucks even better.

Out of this world campaign

"Today, we are all Americans" - this September-10-2001-sentence is once again true on this November-04-2008. The American election has been the number one news topic for quite a while, real and fake experts constantly present their views and there are public and private debates all over the place. You probably know what I mean. It's your country, after all.

The election hype is quite unbelievable - and we can't even VOTE! Well, actually we can vote. Just not in this election. We have this fancy democracy thing going on over here, too. Every once in a while there are European elections, for example. Only problem is nobody cares about them. The turnout has been steadily declining and is especially low in the new EU member states.

In an attempt to change that in the next election in June 2009 some geniuses in Brussels Germany came up with a mind-blowing idea. The European Union aimes for nothing less than the stars: A ballot box will be send into outer space to make voters interested in the process and create election excitement from Britain to the Balkans. In May, a Belgium astronaut is set to take the thing on his trip to the ISS. The box will show us Europeans that we can vote everywhere (no, still not in the US today). I supposse the Eurocrats learned from our American friends that every vote can count. Long lines in front of extrateresstial polling places have long been a major problem and many potential voters were err... alienated by that.

It's all part of a 33 Million dollar PR campaign to enhance the European Union's image amongst its citizens. Cause, you know, it's doing all sorts of tangible, effective and generally great stuff with our tax Euros. Next June, we will all be Europeans. Even those Martians out there.