09/01/2010 04:19:10 PM 
1. Target demonstrates relevance
The Facebook association shows that the retailer gets where the world is heading and understands the power of the brand.
2. Facebook emerges from the shadows of the virtual world
A brand that's know for its web presence suddenly becomes physical with cards and a presence in a physical world.
3. Facebook gets mass coverage
Although the brand is already huge, this initiative gives the brand thousands of points of physical contact which can take it to a whole new level.
4. Virtual games get instant credibility
Facebook's partners Zynga and others are huge- this access points makes social games more credible.
5. Facebook makes its first big move into e-commerce
The association with Target and the presence in the gift card space is a stepping-stone to a bigger play in the e-commerce space for Facebook, virtual gaming is the obvious start point.
Posted by Ed Cotton
08/31/2010 10:43:32 AM (6)
(6) As children we learn that farmers are good; they grow food, raise animals (we don't get told about the killing stuff) and look after their land. That image is pervasive and has be used and abused to sell all kinds of food products, that have never been close to a farm in their lives.
To qualify what I mean, I am talking about the small time farmer with a few acres, not the corporate agribusiness farmer that's another breed all together. Although, as I suggested earlier, they all want to appear to be like the 20 acre farmer and will use and abuse his image to get there.
Think of Farmer Arthur Hodgett, played by James Cromwell in the movie, Babe.
This mythical farmer is a romantic icon for all of us and it stays with us throughout our lives.
City dwellers throughout the world are fueled by this romantic notion as they frequent the booming farmers markets that are springing up in their neighborhoods. They feel that they are getting access to better quality food that's raised right and a genuine alternative to food as usual provided by grocery stores.
What if this isn't really true?
At a recent trip to a local farmers market in New York, I challenged one of the workers at a stand with a simple question-" How were their vegetables grown?". He was taken aback at the audacity of the question, but when put on the spot revealed that there was some chemical spraying involved, I feel that was something of an understatement.
The point I am making is the these archetypes are really powerful and we should under-estimate them at our peril. The small is good philosophy assumes that everything small. family-run and personable, is somehow better than the alternative. The very humanity of these enterprises makes a direct emotional connection to us, but if we think about it more seriously, there's nothing to prevent these guys being as mercenary and unscrupulous as many perceive giant corporations to be.
Posted by Ed Cotton
08/31/2010 12:14:58 AM
There are sites that encourage people to lend stuff to neighbors; SnapGoods, Neighborgoods, Share Some Sugar
Sites that encourage "swapping"; Swaptree (the site has facilitated some 1.6 million swaps, saving its users an estimated $10.3 million while reducing their collective carbon footprint by 9.3 million tons) and Giftflow.
An organization that finds people land to grow their own food; Landshare.
These are examples of companies trying to capitalize on the movement away from conventional consumption that includes the powerbrands: EBay, Craigslist and something as traditional as yard sales.
Interestingly, there different levels of emotional engagement on offer here that suggest there's something in these alternatives- sharing (doing good), swapping (get something your really want) and obviously the thrill of finding a bargain.
While many believe the power of the "new" is simply too powerful a force to contain, the growth of these alternatives suggest it might faces some challenges.
Posted by Ed Cotton
08/28/2010 12:52:49 AM
Cool communities no longer exist just in physical spaces, they can be found clustered together virtually.
Geography is the way we tend to orient ourselves around most things- we've always thought of traditional media in geographic terms (local cable, local newspapers, radio, OOH, etc) and some people even want to convert digital media to geographic entities.
Peter Warden, the creator of Open Heat Map did a great job in a recent blog post of explaining the rise of Twitter, this phemom that defied the laws of geography and sold itself on the broad appeal of the "Silicon Valley dream", as Peter explains..
"What surprised me most was how little geography mattered for adoption.
Even in today's world of ubiquitous internet access, I expected that
real-life clusters of friends would be the main vectors by which the
service would spread. I don't see the sort of city-specific growth
spurts I'd expect if that were true, instead the network took root
wherever there were people. That has some interesting implications for
anyone starting their own service, it looks like focusing on virtual
communities instead of physical ones can be very effective.
I'd also never thought of Twitter as an aspirational service, but Neha nailed the atmosphere of the early days. There was an air of exclusivity, of access to an interesting group of Valley rockstars, that gave people a reason to check it out. This feels a lot like the way that Facebook started at Ivy League colleges and then opened up progressively to lower-status groups with the promise of mixing with a 'better class' of people. That might explain why companies like Google have such a hard time launching similar services, catering to the masses they can't pretend they're exclusive, but it bodes well for Quora's approach.
The reality of its rapid adoption all over the country is hard to square with its image as an exclusive Valley club, but maybe that contradiction is the sign of exquisite marketing. Apple gives their users that same sensation of belonging to an elite, even as they sell products in malls across the country. Twitter tapped into people whose dreams were in Silicon Valley, wherever they were in the world."
The future of media planning depends on a deep and rich understanding of target audiences and communities that exist post-geographically and the secret is finding surprising and interesting ways to bring these communities together to participate as richly as they do in the geographic world.
Posted by Ed Cotton
08/27/2010 01:06:39 PM
The answer is a McDonald's restaurant in Sydney, Australia.
We had two winners-Luke and Alex2, who got the change to attend a special Influx event to be held this Winter.
Posted by Ed Cotton
08/26/2010 02:51:07 PM (1)
(1) Up until a few years ago, Google was pretty quiet with its ads, if it did them, they were limited to viral efforts on YouTube. The company appeared to not really believe in them or in the traditional ad world in general. It's creative executions were always amateurish, almost as if it was afraid to be considered a real brand. However, fast-forward to now and they appear to be smitten with the ad world. Lavish praise for a Superbowl spot and some nice work from outside agencies for Google Chrome must have helped.
Yesterday, the brand announced the launch of Google Voice and the product team was all bullish about the opportunity and prospects for its introduction. To add icing to the cake, they also talked about their plan to populate universities and airports with British telephone booths where people can trial Google Voice by making free calls. Great idea.
Could this great work be creating more trouble than its worth?
Should Google by letting its product managers spend money to push their products?
Looked at on a case by case basis, it makes sense that products need budgets to launch, but when you ladder up the effect to a brand level, could the effect on the Google brand to make it appear even more ubiquitous than it already is?
For this in charge at Google, who wanted the brand to raise its profile, they have some difficult questions to answer.
What's missing for me are some real stories that shouldn't be coming out of the product teams, but at a brand level explaining how Google is doing good in the world through the work of its foundation and perhaps celebrating some of the other things its made better thanks to its technology.
Posted by Ed Cotton
08/25/2010 04:36:16 PM
Bill Gross of PIMCO investments was concerned enough about the trends to write this, in a recent newsletter.
"The preceding analysis does not even begin to discuss the aging of this slower-growing population base itself. Japan, Germany, Italy and of course the United States, with its boomers moving toward their 60s, are getting older year after year. Even China with their previous one baby policy faces a similar demographic. And while older people spend a larger percentage of their income – that is, they save less and eventually dissave – the fact is that they spend far fewer dollars per capita than their younger counterparts. No new homes, fewer vacations, less emphasis on conspicuous consumption and no new cars every few years. Healthcare is their primary concern. These aging trends present a one-two negative punch to our New Normal thesis over the next 5–10 years: fewer new consumers in terms of total population, and a growing number of older ones who don’t spend as much money. The combined effect will slow economic growth more than otherwise."
The general slowdown in consumer spending is unlikely to be temporary and unless creative ways can be found to encourage the older boomers to spend in markets beyond healthcare, growth will be a considerable challenge.
Posted by Ed Cotton
08/25/2010 03:24:15 PM
Some observations:
1. Social media communication happens all day from dawn to well beyond dusk
2. Voice communication doesn't happen much past 10pm
3. TV dominates the evening, but there's also a lot of other media consumption peaking at the same time suggesting multitasking and a huge opportunity to integrate commercial messaging
4. Radio and print have bursts- very early AM and evening
Posted by Ed Cotton
08/25/2010 03:00:10 PM
| The Colbert Report | Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
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Posted by Ed Cotton
08/25/2010 02:35:00 PM
"We've done research, and over 90 percent of consumers believe that breakfast is important. We see breakfast growing slightly, but over half of Americans still are not eating breakfast on a regular basis. . . . So, the idea is to really stop consumers with a thought-provoking question: "Does your breakfast make you amazing?" And to get them to think about how crucial eating breakfast is. And also that not all breakfasts are created equal, and Quaker is a great choice for breakfast."
But, it can't be that simple, it needs to be made more powerful and not just purely a linear question?
The creative has to elevate the idea to something culturally relevant and extraordinary and it's going to need more than this to get there.
My guess is that this whole thing isn't quite as simple as it seems and really hinges on the definition of breakfast (highly personal) and understanding what "important" (because it's time to "connect with the family" or important because it "fuels my day"?) really means.
Posted by Ed Cotton