Dawn dishsoap and a big opportunity.

As the oil spill in the gulf spreads and nears the coast, BP is becoming bigger and bigger news (with some coverage directly hammering them for their "green" campaign), and as much as they try to make things right, they are going to continue to look like the bad guy. If you ask me, this press around the oil spill presents a huge opportunity for Dawn to capitalize

Currently, Dawn is running these TV spots talking about how their product is used to clean animals from oil spills. it is heart felt, and they are donating up to $500,000, but you have to get online to register your purchase (kind of a lame step if you ask me):



Well hey Dawn, here is your chance (and quite frankly, I hope that you are already planning this). Practice what you preach and get down there to help clean up the spill. Show up with a big truck, in the Tide "Loads of Hope" style, and make sure that every animal gets a big Dawn scrub down.

The stars are aligned: lots of negative press about one company not living up to their brand = opportunity to be a hero and live up to your brand. Plus, cute animals are all the rage right now on the internets.

Ninja Your Way into the Super Bowl

I'm not sure that I can say he's a hometown hero now that I live in New York, but our buddy Mike Rylander (who also made an appearance on Yaybia in 2008) is co-starring Snack Time Samurai, a finalist in the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest!

Now, it's no secret that I love ninjas, but my love for Doritos Nacho Cheesier throwing stars might be greater. Mike & his crew have already snagged $25K for making it into the final six, but if they take top honors (vote here!), Doritos is gonna give them a shit ton of cash.

Interview with Kare11 News!

I sat down with Scott Goldberg to chat about using social media for job searching. Here's the link to the video and text version!

Branded Season Premiere TV Events on Facebook

One new notification: You've been invited to attend Nip/Tuck All-New Episodes on Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 10:00pm - 11:00pm on FX Networks. Umm, yes please! It's been far too long since I've had some McNamara/Troy in my life.  Am I late to the game on this? Or are these branded events as new as they seem to be?

Libby and I (and I'm sure some of you) saw this pop up in our Facebook feeds last week and this morning I noticed some of my friends were "attending" All-new Grey's Anatomy Thursday January 8th at 9/8c on ABC.  As far as I can tell they appear that they were posted by the networks themselves, are branded enough to convey all the info they need to, yet are written in Facebook friendly language.

In case you don't feel like checking the pages out, here are a few quick stats as of Friday morning. 

Nip/Tuck Page

• 72,093 confirmed guests
  
• One posted link
  
• One posted video
  
• 5051 wall posts ("I can't wait...Christian is my hero" and "I've heard that after the upcoming part II of season 5 airs, there will only be one more season left! =( Is that true? Can anyone confirm?") 

Grey's Anatomy Page

• 4,443 confirmed guests (maybe a new post? Or obvsiously not as good as Nip/Tuck! Or maybe non-Facebook audience?)
  
• One posted video
  
• 148 wall posts (I'm going with new post. I'll keep an eye on this event to see how it expands through people sharing and update you all later!)
  

So what of it?

• Users control the fate of the event popularity. I saw that Libby was attending and since we usually have "let's kill a bottle (or two) of wine and watch TV night" at least once a week, I figured I should also attend. I saw both events in the news feed and was curious enough to check it out. 
  
• It's a friendly reminder of when the season premier is.  We're used to checking Facebook for the latest and greatest dirt.  Our attention is focused on looking for info, why not have it be a quick reminder about one of my favorite shows. 
• Even though the events are branded, my friends are the ones passing along the information and sharing the news. ______ is attending _____ show.  Peer advice over experts is favored by Gen Y. 
• It's a great opportunity for fans of the brand/show to talk about how much they love it, even just a short "I love me some Kimber!"

I could go on, but I'd rather hear from you! What do you think of these branded season premier events? 

Totally Scrabble Tuesday Live Blog!

This is the first Yaybia live blog and I hope you are all as excited as we are! I'm here with my fellow Yaybia-ers, Libby, Alicia, Lauren***, and Danielle** are here watching Totally Scrabble Tuesday at my house and eating some delicious Hamburger Helper (yeah, just a TST thing) and WE JUST GOT ON TV! We earned a whopping 28 points for the word "quoth" like in Shakespeare. Pretty sure that's the first time Libby's English major has been put to good use.


**Danielle is new -- feel dumb for not adding her sooner.
***Lauren has "one uber giant digi-cap"

UPDATE! We just got on again! Spelled "void" 16 points with a triple letter score on the V. Woo! And we are going to buy Hamil a birthday beer at Mortimer's after Scrabble tonight.


OH.MY.GOD we just got on again! Three times in one night! (that's what she said?) 11 points for "binds". Yeah, not our best, but we'll take it!

Alright, sorry for the explotions of excitement in this post but if you were watching, you'd understand. Play with us next week Tuesday at 11:00pm on MTN 17!

UPDATE 2!! Yes, we actually went to Mortimer's to buy Hamil a birthday beer. He also kicked my ass in foosball and brought his crew, Ray and Carolyn, who are also involved at MTN. Yaybia!

AAIBYY (13 points)

Cable subscribers in the city of Minneapolis might not be aware of the hidden gem that awaits them on Tuesdays at 11:00pm on MTN 17. Sandwiched between Black Economics and Red Cross Heroes Breakfast is Totally Scrabble Tuesdays, a show that pits the city of Minneapolis against its host, Hamil, in a Triple-Word-Score fight to the death. Viewers battle against each other to be the first on the line (yes, one phone line) to challenge Hamil but can converse and plot their next moves at defeathamil.net (obviously not standing much of a chance with a .net domain). Hamil is relentless with his knack for double- and triple-word scores on words like "quiz" (22 points) and "kex" (14 points). Totally Scrabble Tuesdays, in all its poorly lit, fuzzy quality glory, combines two of our favorite branding techniques: local and true interaction.


As we've mentioned, TST is impossibly low-budget. But I bet Hamil could make a few bucks--and advertisers could gain a few very attentive viewers--if he opened the show up to ultra-local sponsorships. Not cheesy ones, like getting a free coffee if you spell "Caribou" for 14 points, but more along the lines of Doritos' Stephen Colbert partnership. But even if the Minnesota Twins don't have Joe Mauer make a special guest appearance or Stub & Herb's doesn't provide Hamil with free beers-of-the-month, we'll keep tuning in.

Technically, according to the MTN handbook , public access isn't supposed to be ad-supported. But their definition of "advertising" is pretty loose, and mostly just doesn't want to include brands that do not "further the noncommercial message of the program." Let's face it; there's a brand name pretty prominently displayed right in the title of the show...and regular viewers would agree that topics on TST range from Michael Jackson to LOLcats on a regular basis. It wouldn't be impossible to imagine a brand or two sneaking in.

So kick back, grab a piping hot bowl of Hamburger Helper and an ice cold Keystone Light and check it out.