Hasta La Creative!

 Never underestimate the power of a star. Not the ones high in the sky, but the other ones, dimmer, out at night in Hollywood. It’s been long-rumored that company’s with “celebrity spokespeople” are so yesterday, but they still keep on popping up, getting endorsements then smokin’ dope and losing endorsements. I guess we need someone to look up to…Madison Avenue says so. But, stars are important to products, to companys, and even to people. Stars can make us money, or totally ignore us. I asked for Lindsay Lohan to be my friend on Twitter. No reply. (bitch)
Enter Mario Armando Lavandeira, a man with stars in his eyes, as well. He’s someone that we love to hate, or hate to love. He lives a life of relative ease in Los Angeles, hanging out with Hollywood’s famous, or infamous, celebrities. He had a show on VH1 for a while, has been featured in the NYTimes at least twice, and has appeared on the Kathy Griffin Show, Nightline, The View, MTV, and others.

If you hadn’t already guessed, our secretive Mario has an alter-ego that he got on the steets: Perez Hilton. Perez Hilton, the self-proclaimed “Queen of all Media,” just celebrated his birthday on March 30th with some of his fave stars: Christina Aguilera, Lady Gaga, Tara Reid, Salman Rushdie (what is he doing there?), Kim Kardashian, The Jonas Brothers, and of course, Paris Hilton. I know this because I visited his website. I’m not sure why I was there….but as I leisurely scrolled through the gallery of  star-studded birthday snaps, playing “Guess the Star ” with myself (I went 4/82), all hell broke loose. At the bottom of the gallery, glowing as it gloated at me, was the number of unique visitors  received in 9 days: 11,000,000 (EE-Lev-Un-Mil-Yun.) I rubbed my eyes. Squinted. It didn’t change. Chagrined, my first thought was: “The friggin losers visiting this site have NOTHING to do (which I proved…).”  The second thought burned my brain with a tinge of jealous awe: “Perez Hilton is a genius!”

In case you’re “not in the know,” Perezhilton.com is the online version of supermarket tabloids, but way-nastier. Perez berates the stars he seems to idolize, “outs” suspected homosexuals, refers to stars as “bitches” (and worse), and doodles degrading images on top of celebrity photos. Love him, hate him, or despise him, he does deserve some credit: The man has spent four years of his life blogging. For a living. Very successfully. This may be the greatest Social Media victory ever, not to mention that Perez is nearing “phenom stage.”

Just a guy that writes about other people-other  famous people- and is said to make some decent bank doing it… in the high six-figures for his “effort.” Perez won’t say how much he makes (How Rude!), but unconfirmed sources that sued him stated his take-home in 2007 was over $800,000. Not a surprising figure when his advertising revenue is reported to be $45,000 per day! Yep, just a guy and his blog, blogging away, blog, blog, blog. Bloggity-blog-blog, blaga blog blog, all day long, about rich people.  %*$& my life.

Maybe, like me, you think he’s a genius. But, he’s not. He’s a failed actor and former receptionist that was fired from his publicist job at the Star. He started blogging because ”it looked easy.” Okay, I will add lazy to his attributes. On a nicer note, his story does inspire “wannabe writers,” like me; while I am bustin’ ass to get a Google link on my blog, he has the likes of  MTV, Kentucky Fried Chicken, “Twilight,” famous musicians, chic LA boutiques, Walden University, weight loss products, and a host of others gracing his pages. Daily.
Some facts about Perezhilton.com:

• The site’s demographic is mainly female,
• Average age is 26 
• comScore rates the site among the Top 10 Entertainment sites 
• Monthly unique visitors, U.S.: 1.3 million
• Global (he’s global?) unique visitors: 2.4 million

With a thriving blog that’s generating bucks, buzz, and press, what’s next for this astute entrepreneur?

Believe it or not, he’s “hard at work” extending the Perez Hilton brand. It’s rumored that he doesn’t write anymore–it took too much time. Others dish dirt for him now. It has, afterall, been four years of work. This new found freedom from writing gives him time to drop in on morning talk shows and comment on the latest starlet, run amok. Plus, there’s always Empire Perez to fret about. As we went to press this morning, the empire included a YouTube channel dedicated to Perez Hilton, and a line of clothing dedicated to Perez Hilton. Seriously, though, perpetuation is on his mind, because the one lesson he’s learned dissin’ the elite for four years, it’s that fame is fleeting. Today’s darling is tomorrow’s Jenny Craig spokesperson.

**No Stars Were Hurt During The Research and Writing Of  This Report.**

 Jeff Louis is a Strategic Media Planner & Buyer with over seven years of B2B & B2C experience. His interests are emerging media, schweet  ideas, and redefining the status quo (not necessarily in that order.)  He’s passionate about writing and digs great creative executions based on strategy.  Follow him on twitter @jlo0312, or LinkedIn, www.LinkedIn.com/in/jefflouis

Today, as I was feverishly submitting resumes and simultaneously reading about the economy (multi-tasking for all you would-be employers), I came across ”Ten Winners in the Recession” on Yahoo!, nestled nicely on the Personal Finance page.

Although there weren’t a whole lot of suprises, a few made me scratch my head. Some of the better listees included: Resume Writers & Editors, Condom Manufacturers (we’re poor, but safe!), At Home Coffee Brews, and…(drum roll, please) Career Development Websites! 

That just goes to show you that there is opportunity out there if you know where to look for it.

Surprisingly omitted from the Top Ten list was the single shining light emanating from the advertising sector: Online Ad expenditures. According to the IAB, 2008 saw Internet advertising revenues increase by 10.6 percent overall compared to 2007. Search advertising showed the highest percentage gain, increasing by 19.8 percent over 2007 and accounted for 45 percent of all Internet ad spending. Online display advertising increased by 8 percent while classified ad revenues fell 4 percent. The IAB study, completed with the aid of PricewaterhouseCoopers, can be downloaded here.

YouTube, under public scrutiny lately for removing videos due to copyright infringement, raised $10,000 in a single day using their little-publicized non-proft partnership program. The YouTube Non-Profit Organization allows not-for-profit’s to upload and run compelling videos, harnessing the power of sight, sound, and motion.

If your organization has a compelling story to tell, YouTube can help. Check out their Non Profit Channel page(s). There’s even an overlay “Call to Action” available, leading viewers to your website to make a donation or for more information.

Although there are some legal requirements to meet (your chaity must have IRS 501(c)(3) status, etc), there has been measured success: charity:water was able to raise enough money in a single day to provide 150 people clean drinking water for 20 years (charity:water is a non-profit organization bringing clean and safe drinking water to developing nations).

Searching the web this morning for fun advertising news (using Google), I groggily checked out the advertisers that were vying for the top paid slots as was my usual habit. What I saw nearly made me spit out my coffee, and will be burned into the back of my brain forever: The number one paid slot on my Google search for “advertising” was none other than Yahoo! Sponsored Search?! Disbelieving my own eyes, I refreshed the page. Same result. Now fully awake, I ran the search again. No change. This was no fluke…this was real…Yahoo was paying for search on Google! I thought about all of the people that I should call to alert, but couldn’t think of a single one. So, I sat back and thought about it for a second.

Well, I reasoned, maybe Google pays for search on Yahoo!, as well. So, I decided to check it out, although I secretly scoffed at the thought of Google paying for search. But, I logged in to my Yahoo account anyway and searched for “advertising.” No Google in the results. Slyly, I typed in “Google” and hit search. No paid results for Google, although they occupied the top bazillion pages of Yahoo’s organic results.

And that’s when I noticed the innocent-looking words, right beneath the search bar, near the top of the results: 

“You could go to Google. Or you could stay here and get straight to your answers.”

A plaintive plea from Yahoo!, begging me to stay. So, I went to Google. Obviously, if Yahoo! is begging me to stay, I have no use for them.

A lot of gimmicks have been done by Facebook and its partners but this one has to be acknowledged. When you add the Kraft Application to your Facebook account, you automatically direct Kraft to feed 6 meals to hungry families. The same scenario happens when you successfully refer a friend to add the Kraft application. How is that for great advertising strategy that is bound to gain the nod of most people who look highly on acts of charity eh?

The consumer-goods giant earlier this month hooked up with social marketing company SocialVibe to release a cause-related Facebook application. The twist: Kraft donates six meals to hungry families through the Feeding America charity for each friend users convince to add the application.

It seems like an act of goodwill and something that can really entice any Facebook user to check out. Besides, if you have nothing better to give, why not help families in need? Better yet, entice your friends. Your effort is sure to spread to the others and perhaps we can help feed people who are growing hungry this holiday season. Not a bad cause!

(Source) AdWeek

According to Bud Light’s (from DDB Chicago) newest commercials, one word says it all – Dude. While the spots themselves are hysterical and can pretty much guarantee a laugh out of anyone, it’s the new website that really brings it all together – dudemadness.com. Here you can not only test your “dudeness” by clicking on the poster your prefer, dude, but you can also send coded dude messages to your friends (which will be decoded via text message). And in case anyone out there was wondering, I happen to be 68% Righteous Dude, 17% Game-On Dude and 15% Redneck Dude (where did THAT come from?!?).

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