WCCO Introduces The Wire

I've always loved the Minneapolis new outlet WCCO for taking the cheese out of local news. I mean some stations act like good design costs more or something.

And now they are pulling on my heart strings with this new way to keep up with the news. The Wire. WCCO is now going to feature all their stories on a timeline and users can follow each story as it progresses. So now I'll know exactly when to go save Libby from the Red River.

The timeline is broken into news, buzz, events and comments. And one of the best parts is it integrates tweets from WCCO reporters and viewers. I like that it mixes the more serious news with random Internet goodies. And readers can also do some journalism of their own and submit their own story ideas.

It's always hard to say if these aggregation tools will catch on, but I think this one has a chance. WCCO has a loyal Minneapolis following and it's the same news I would get from the regular site, but organized by story. So now I can read all the dirt about Denny Hecker at one time and then comment about it!

The Wire is still in beta, so we'll see how it progresses. But this is just another great example of how WCCO interacts with their viewers. You should probably go try it out.

Cool city

Thanks to Alicia for sharing this image video about yaybia's great home town of Minneapolis.



Lovely. Now I am homesick (not that I am not homesick the rest of the time, this just didn't help).

They just forgot to mention that those "climate-controlled" skywalks are not only there to shield all the dynamic business people from the burning sun. Now, if you want to attract visitors and investors it's probably NOT a good idea to hush up the very fact that everybody associates with your city in the first place. Winter? Non of our business! Let the Florida people deal with that while we ride our bikes in our evergreen city. Yeah, sure very convincing...

C'mon you urban marketing folks, who do you want to fool? Be proud, but also be self-depreciating and funny and above all, be real.

Minneapolis is in fact a great place. But at times it is also a cold place. Everybody knows that anyways, so just tell potential visitors that they can still do all the exciting stuff they can do in every major city plus all that extra cool stuff they can only ever experience in an extra cool city. That certain chiliness is the very thing that makes Minneapolis and its inhabitants special. And I know from experience how very special they are! Anyone can act cool in a sunny place, but it takes a lot to be hot when your city is cold half of the year.

Also, they forgot to mention yaybia in their video about all things great from Minneapolis. Somebody should definetely shoot a realness remake to set the record straight.

Minneapolis Boutique Shops FTW

Minneapolis boutique shops are getting some rockin' press this week. AdAge talks about the New Creative Order and the local Strib gives a hat tip to Ginger Consulting. Keep it up, guys!

Skittles forgets to register all possible Twitter names, gets spammed on their own site

UPDATE 2: skittles.com now links to the Skittles Facebook page. And, as a plus, the REAL skittles is in there answering questions and responding to posts on the wall by group members. A little more control, and a bit better landing page visual if you ask me.

Well, there is a lot of debate about the new Skittles.com floating around. I'll weigh in my 2-cents: good experiment, I'm impressed that Agency.com was able to sell the idea through, but how much does this target your consumer? And on another note, way to rip off Mondernista! (which came from Minneapolis' own Zeus Jones). Yes, it got you buzz, but will it be short lived? According to Thought Gadget, it is already seeing a fall off. I will say though, it is impressive to get as much buzz as they did, and most brands would kill for that.



On another note, we have heard that a certain amount of control needs to be surrendered when you are doing a social media experiment. However, generally speaking it is a good idea to snatch up all domain names, twitter names, etc that would allow anyone to pose as your brand online. Skittles missed the boat big time on that one, leaving:
http://twitter.com/skittles_com
wide open. Someone is spamming the heck out of skittles.com, re-tweeting every 30 seconds or so:

Ooops.

Overall I'm glad to see a brave client, but I've never been a fan of using someones creative idea, even for a different product.

UPDATE: the same spammer has www.twitter.com/ _skittles_com, and I think we can expect more as the day goes on. Look at this screenshot of the homepage:

Red Bull Get it On Record

I was going to post about Red Bull "Get it on Record" long ago but now I'm kind of glad I waited because this cool video made it's way to my FB inbox this week! Our good friend Claire organized the event here in Minneapolis and from the looks of the video it seems like the competition was a huge success. Check it out.



So why is this great? The brand doesn't dominate. The creative work is the center of the event and guess what, you don't win free Red Bull. Instead, winning teams are given new Apple computers. Good job Red Bull for not just whoring out your product (ex: free Red Bull for a year) and giving your brand champions the tools to continue producing good work.

What of it? Brands can learn a lot from what Red Bull did with this competition. For an entire month these artists, their friends, and the community heard about this competition and the excitement that it generated. Each team was thrilled to have been given a chance to showcase their work in a new way -- and they didn't have to use the brand in the work itself. Red Bull became an opportunity granter, a creative leader, and a community organizer. They win because they allowed their brand to shine through people, not through their product.

Side Note: Two guys that I graduated from high school with were in the competition. Crazy!

Yaybia + AgencySpy = Mpls Ad Scene Rundown

Happy hump day everyone!  As a fellow native Minnesotan, the editor of AgencySpy asked me to do a rundown of the Minneapolis ad scene.  Check it out!  

Social Media + Real Life

I’m fascinated with how social media and real life experiences are mashed together to make up my crazy life.  Sometimes one drives the other, and sometimes they blend in a crazy complex web of connections that you never knew you had. Instead of just geeking out about these stories to my friends, I thought I’d share one with our readers.  And because nothing here can go unnamed, we shall call this a Yaybia Social Media Meets Real Life Bedtime Story!

Last Thursday I was walking through Dinkytown on my way to Blarney’s for happy hour with some of my fellow Yaybies and I stopped mid walk/mid sentence/mid life to stare at these two amazing posters in the SaraCura window.

I freaked out at the fact that I could actually buy such awesome Twin Cities artwork.  I posted the Grain Belt picture to Brightkite (which syncs with Twitter and Facebook) with a quote (So we walked across that Grain Belt bridge into a bright new Minneapolis) from Minneapolis natives, The Hold Steady.

Enter, the social media mix.  Our loyal reader Ben commented on my Facebook status with a link that started it all. Said link brought me to the artist’s (Adam Turman ) web page with the very same Grain Belt poster.  I immediately sent the link to Libby through IM and we drooled over the Minneapolis pop art for a good 15 minutes.  I shared some of the images on Google Reader and set my home and office desktops to the Grain Belt painting . (side note: I don’t even really drink Grain Belt, unless it’s free after Twins games , but love local and the style!)

 As I was taking a breather from work and browsing one of my fave design blogs, there was a post about Minneapolis art and specifically featured Adam Turman! Coincidence or fate? I don’t care, as long as it gets me a wall full of his artwork. Then later this afternoon my friend Tyler comments on the note in Reader saying that he works with Adam and will see him tomorrow morning! What! All this from a window shopping photo that I posted?!

Sometimes we have just real life or just social media connections – but sometimes they mix and lead me to discoveries that I would have probably never found otherwise.  It’s times like these when I fully comprehend the power of social media and how it fits into my life.  If you have any social media/real life stories let us know!

And the origin of this post..

(4:39:32 PM) Erin Lamberty: maybe i'll yaybia an online/offline/social story

(4:39:55 PM) Libby Issendorf: only if it's in bedtime story form

(4:54:43 PM) Libby Issendorf: can you just add that to the end of the yaybia bedtime story "ps cheer on libby and erin in speding freeze 08!"
(4:54:53 PM) Libby Issendorf: "but especially libby"
(4:54:57 PM) Libby Issendorf: "cause you love her more <3"
(4:56:29 PM) Erin Lamberty: you're terrible

Next post :: The Libby and Erin Spending Freeze 08!

The UnConvention, Or: Why I'll Be Hibernating During the RNC

It's almost time for the sleepy St. Paul to start buzzing with limos, Blackberrys, and self-important people--the Republican National Convention is just around the corner on Monday! The Twin Cities have been gearing up for these four days for months. Citizens are sprucing up their homes, restaurants are limiting their reservations to RNC events, and even our cab drivers are attempting to be a little more New York.

This new campaign from Campbell Mithun in Minneapolis invites all Minneapolitans to display some hospitality for the GOP-ers--or minimally, some tolerance. I like it. The GOP stereotypes are funny but not offensive, and it's a subtle reminder to be proud of our city and our Minnesota nice during the convention, no matter which side we're on. The only thing missing is some hot dish and an "uff da."




The body copy is really small but it says, "Every party needs a gracious host. Participate at www.TheUnconvention.com." From that website: The Unconvention is "a non-partisan collective of citizens who have come together to create a forum in which to promote the democratic and free exchange of ideas on important issues. It exists as a counterpoint to the highly scripted and predetermined nature of the contemporary presidential nomination process and convention." The Unconvention stresses the art and events that are going on in the Twin Cities during the convention, and emphasizes the alternative media that will be covering these and the RNC events.





At first I saw a great print campaign about Minnesota hospitality and a website for an interesting organization about taking politics into the people's hands, but I couldn't come up with a connection. Now I see it: get involved during Convention week in our own Minneapolis way. That will resonate more with the target than another "WOO NON-PARTISAN REBELLION ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT!!" message.

I don't know about you, but I plan to participate with some beveries in St. Paul until 4 in the morning...

Red Bull Illume Minneapolis

Red Bull Illume has made its way to Minneapolis and the exhibit is set up on the Stone Arch Bridge from July 10th - 20th. The Red Bull Illume Image Quest 2006 is the first-ever international photography competition that celebrates the world of action and adventure sports -- A perfect match for the brand image. I grabbed these pics quick on my run tonight as the production crew was setting up. Red Bull was at the Weisman with the Art of the Can exhibit last year and is back with their latest branded art exhibit.

Art and museums are all the rage with the current Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue exhibit drawing attention to AMC's Mad Men series and Scion's Installation 4 exhibits that toured last year. Exhibits like these provide a unique way for people to be engaged with the brand. We love it, more photos/posts to come as we see the actual exhibit next week! For now, check out the set ups.


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Minnesota Pioneer Press?

Since when did the St. Paul Pioneer Press become the Minnesota Pioneer Press?

Photo taken outside of Brit's Pub.

With the newspaper industry is sitting on the edge of pending doom and potential new business opportunities, our old printing friends have been the topic of many a conversation as of late. Whether newspapers decide to go hyper-local, all digital, or start waving their white flags - big changes are on the way. Libby and I noticed the name change on the Pioneer Press as we were leaving Brit's with the Grinterns. There currently isn't a statewide paper, or is there now? We have our local papers that cover high school sports and grandma's 80th birthday party notices, and we have our USA Today's and NY Times that are read mostly online and nationwide. But there isn't a dominant statewide paper. Maybe the Pioneer Press is on to something. Or maybe they're just trying to look busy at work. Thoughts?

P.S. the Pioneer Press home page, while lucky enough to dominate the www.twincities.com domain, scared the crap out of me with this giant Star Wars ad. SKIP IT.

UPDATE! I was at my mom's house this weekend and spotted a Dakota County Pioneer Press!