Hasta La Creative!

The executives behind “Mob City,” a series on TNT about Los Angeles mobsters in the 1940s, are taking a new approach to promotion by tweeting the first episode’s script.

YouShouldTotallyMeet, an online/mobile dating app built by four advertising workers from Toronto, is kind of like Tinder meets Linkedin’s endorse feature. Using Facebook networks, someone can get matched up with a date who is verified by mutual friends (or mutual friends of mutual friends). The goal is to take out some of the randomness, guesswork, and at times, flat out BS that spits out of big-name dating site algorithms. Even if the name is a few syllables too long, the idea seems to have some potential in the crowded dating-app ecosystem.

The creators are actively seeking $25,000 of funding on Indiegogo, and in a cool gesture of commitment to the project, one of the cofounders, Anne Ngo, is offering a date to anyone who donates $1,000 or more. There are other incentives, such as dinner vouchers, free premium access to the app when it’s operational, a professional photo shoot, etc., but at least you know the creators like their own product enough to use it themselves. And one person has already claimed a $1,000 contribution. Imagine if all ten $1,000 are filled by the end of the campaign. Plenty of dates for Anne. Are we sure this isn’t just an elaborate plan to fill up her dating card?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

LoveRoom é uma nova plataforma online lançada recentemente com a intenção de ajudar as pessoas a encontrarem um lugar para ficar de graça. A condição: os únicos que podem usar o serviço devem ser considerados “atrativos o bastante” pelos outros membros.

Os que quiserem usar o serviço devem ser considerados “atrativos o bastante” pelos outros membros.

Apesar de curto e grosso, segundo o site, a iniciativa serve para oferecer aos solteiros ao redor do mundo uma forma diferente de encontrar um relacionamento, uma diversão ou até uma amizade. Porém, não há restrições para quem quiser criar um perfil, adicionar fotos e tentar.

Junto ao perfil do usuário, é possível criar um álbum de fotos, adicionar amigos, determinar se está buscando ou oferecendo um lugar, e também responder uma enquente que traduz um pouco de sua personalidade e gostos.

Para quem está preocupado com estranhos entrando em sua casa, a empresa também dá algumas dicas para evitar problemas.

Algumas matérias acabaram questionando se há, de fato, uma demanda para este tipo de serviço. A princípio o site está rodando em beta, por isso ainda não há tantos membros assim. Porém, a plataforma será lançada oficialmente dia 14 de fevereiro de 2014, Valentine’s Day. Até lá acompanharemos a evolução.

LoveRoom é resultado de uma parceria entre OkCupid e Airbnb.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Damjan Pita, the guy responsible for the Hashtag Generator and collaborator on the #StealBanksyNY project, has returned, along with cohorts Leif Abraham and Andronicus Riyono, with a new project called ReTweet.ly.

ReTweet.ly is based on a pretty simple idea; in its creators’ words: “We all want to promote our projects, our latest blog post or just ourselves on social media. ReTweet.ly helps people to help each other to achieve that, by simply retweeting each other’s tweets.” In other words, it’s a retweet exchange program. The more you retweet others, the more likely it is that your tweet will get retweeted. You can decide for yourself which tweets you do and don’t want to retweet and you’re not mandated to follow those you retweet. The big benefit, according to Pita, is “people that retweet you on retweet.ly are most likely people outside of your own follower base and with that brand new exposure you would not get otherwise.” So if you’re feeling like you’re in a bit of a Twitter rut, you may want to give ReTweet.ly a try.

So how does it work? Just go to the ReTweet.ly site, sign in with Twitter, choose a tweet that you would like retweeted and a category that you tweet about the most. Then choose a tweet you like, and get retweeted in exchange. Suggested tweets will pop up with the options “Retweet” or “Not this one.” You can retweet as many of these as you’d like, the idea being that the more you retweet, the more likely you are to be retweeted.

ReTweet.ly is one in a series of projects from Do Something Good, which its creators are referring to as an “incubation collective.” Give it a go, and tell us what you think about the service in the comments section.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Hats off to David Zaleski at iMedia Connection for capturing a serious topic in a humorous way.

Zaleski says at the end of his video lashing that there’s no need for social media managers. I wouldn’t go that far, but statistics do point to a downward trend. According to newly released stats from career site Indeed.com, growth in positions with the title “social media manager” slowed to 50% in the past year, a dramatic decline from recent years, when triple and even quadruple digit growth was commonplace.

Ryan Holmes, CEO of HootSuite, believes the decline in social media managers indicates a sea change in the way that social media itself is used within organizations. Once the exclusive domain of digital gurus, Twitter, Facebook, and other tools are gradually becoming everyone’s responsibility.

To my mind, everyone’s responsibility means a shared responsibility. Brands do in fact need agency partners who live and breathe digital media to develop a strategic framework and help guide the discussion online. Brands also need people inside the company to step up and field customer requests when they come in via social, and to help deliver “real news” from inside the company.

Social is about real people and real voices — when a skilled staffer or team of staffers takes on social media marketing responsibilities, the authentic voice that comes through is impossible to fake or replicate and that’s worth a lot.

The post For Modern Brands, Social Media Marketing Is A Shared Responsibility appeared first on AdPulp.

Heads up SFO. A small city of people are flying in for Dreamforce, the annual user conference put on by Salesforce.com in San Francisco this week.

According to reports, some of the Dreamforce badge wearers will be seeking information on how to incorporate social media marketing and social selling into their practice. Others may be looking for a good party to attend. I hear Green Day is performing at a VIP function. How punk rock is that?

According to USA TODAY’s preview piece on the conference, L’Oreal began using new marketing and analysis tools Salesforce rolled out this year.

The software helps automate the process of discovering the interests of existing customers, then deciding which promotions to send to their social media accounts, via text or video ads.

L’Oreal brand managers used it to sign up thousands of hair salon owners in the U.S., who in turn used it to create thousands of Facebook pages that were peppered with social media ads for shampoos and conditioners.

I am a huge fan of discovering the interests of existing customers. That’s the fuel on which marketing runs. But I will admit to getting hung up a bit with the idea that software will effectively automate the process. I’m not saying software does not work in this capacity, or that this particular software as a service is not needed. Rather, I want to question which sales and marketing processes can and should be automated, and which work best when done manually.

I know this much, an email does not equal a phone call and a phone call does not equal a face-to-face meeting. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the matter, and possibly include said thoughts in an upcoming feature article.

The post Social Gets Some Big Time Face Time @Dreamforce 2013 appeared first on AdPulp.

San Francisco-based shop Pereira & O’Dell switch gears from their tearjerking “Stay Together” campaign with their latest spot for Skype, “Rerouted: A Skype Travel Challenge.”

For the spot, Pereira & O’Dell chose a travel blogger, Mike Cory, who they gave the impression was recruited for a travel blog. Instead, on November 12th, they dropped him off at Instanbul without a clue as to where his next destination will be. To get home, he will be given a series of clues that he must piece together along with a Skype audience. His goal is to be home for Thanksgiving in an attempt to fulfill a lame “Turkey to Turkey Day” pun. Mike is powered only by Surface Pro 2, Windows 8.1, Skype, and the help of his audience. Without an engaged audience Mike could, presumably (but come on, not really), end up lost somewhere. It’s an interesting approach that should appeal to geography buffs the world over. Think of it like a real-life “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego,” but without all the stolen cultural artifacts and punily-named villains.

If you’d like to become part of the “Rerouted” experience, you follow Mikes progress at @SkypeMoments or Skype him directly at mike.corey8. Check out the official rules at skypererouted.com and help Mike crack the clues via Skype, Facebook, or Twitter with the hashtag  #reroutedclue. Credits after the jump.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

By now (unless you’re completely cut off from all news outlets and/or in a coma) you’ve heard of the crack-smoking shenanigans of Toronto’s disgraceful, conservative mayor, Rob Ford. Ford recently admitted to smoking crack (following an online leak of video evidence), adding that it was ”probably in one of my drunken stupors.” Obviously, people from Toronto are less than thrilled about Ford making their city the butt of a million crack jokes. The fact that Ford not only refuses to resign, but also plans to run for reelection, certainly doesn’t make things any easier.

Marie Richer and Hannah Smit, two Toronto art directors, found it “depressing that a city as great as Toronto has been reduced to an international punchline because of its mayor,” and decided to do something about it. They’ve created a social media campaign called #MoreThanFord, an outlet for disgruntled Toronto-dwellers to express everything they love about their city in an attempt to escape being defined by one especially douchey politician. Richer and Smith describe the campaign as “a way for us all to change the conversation about our city by sharing what we love about it – from small things like a favourite coffee shop, roti place or bike path to bigger things like Pride, TIFF, Nuit Blanche, the Jays, etc.” (Although, given their dismal 2013 performance, you may want to leave the Jays out of it.)

The idea launches today, with the compilation video of Toronto highlights featured above. The campaign’s success is being measured at a microsite, morethanford.com, which pits tweets with the #MoreThanFord hashtag against tweets with the #RobFord hashtag. #MoreThanFord already seems to be catching on, currently leading at 53% as I write this. The #MoreThanFord site invites visitors to tweet what they love about Toronto, or to let #MoreThanFord take over your feed and tweet for you. It also allows visitors to watch the #MoreThanFord video.

I’ve only been to Toronto once, for a short visit, but found it to be a charming city. It’s really sad to see any city’s reputation hijacked by one crazy, crack-smoking, racist, crooked conservative nutcase. So head on over to the #MoreThanFord site, or just tweet something you love about Toronto with the #MoreThanFord hashtag to swing things in favor of the campaign and restore Toronto’s damaged reputation. But if you are looking for some crack, I’m pretty sure Mayor Ford can hook you up. Credits after the jump. continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Lançada essa semana, a nova atualização do Flipboard para iOs e Android vem como uma grande novidade. A empresa passou a oferecer aos usuários e empresas a possibilidade de criar catálogos de lojas completos, com tags de preços que levam diretamente à compra do produto.

Da mesma forma que os usuários podem tirar vantagem do serviço para se manterem atualizados com seus feeds sociais e as principais notícias, a curadoria de qualidade e design intuitivo do app agora trazem a opção de vasculhar por catálogos online.

Uma tentativa de transformar parte da experiência de compra e reconfigurá-la para a era do iPad.

Essa nova mecânica funciona de forma quase automática. Quando um produto é adicionado ao Flipboard, o serviço buscará detectar qual é o seu preço, mostrando a informação bem ao lado da imagem do produto.

Porém, ao ser levado da tag de preço à página de compra do produto, o usuário ainda precisa passar por todo o processo de cadastro e check out. Por enquanto, o Flipboard não oferece nenhuma forma mais automática de pagamento, gravando o cartão de crédito do usuário, por exemplo.

Alguns grandes nomes do varejo já lançaram seus catálogos online, como Levi’s, Banana Republic, Fab e ModCloth. Mas o recurso pode ser aproveitado por qualquer publicação que queira mesclar páginas de artigos tradicionais com venda de produtos (veja mais sobre como construir catálogos no vídeo acima).

Com mais de 90 milhões de usuários, Flipboard ainda não está lucrando em nada nos sistemas de direcionamento e pagamento gerados pelos catálogos. Mas é visível que este é o primeiro passo para trabalhar com experiências e ambientes de compra, lado a lado com seus artigos de alta qualidade e conteúdo social.

Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Nature’s Recipe is giving“collar cameras” to influential pet owners, and resulting photos are posted online.