Hunker Down with the Internets

I say 'hunker down' because the weather's supposed to get ugly here on the prairie this weekend. Anyway, today I found so many treats online that I just had to share.

• A great podcast interview w/Seth Godin. I like that this program calls itself a commentary on 'social media marketing'. I hope that term sticks. I think it fits better than the comparably square moniker 'online media.' Thanks Brand Autopsy for the initial link that pointing me there.
• AdCritic.com has a great site set up that features face2face interviews with contemporary ad creatives like Jeff Goodby, Lee Clow, and Alex Bogusky. Very cool.
• Oh, yeah. And everybody is talking about this post re: the not-so-tidy state of affairs at Kohls. Yikes! Or rather ... Hee-haw! Clean up your act. 'Social media marketing' means if you piss a customer off the world has a pretty fair chance at finding out.
  

Enjoy!

Sprinkles the Wonder Dog

Today I had lunch at Panera. After ringing me up the clerk said, "What can I call out when your order's ready?" What an opportunity! What can you say? How about "Hoochie mamma." Holler out hoochie mamma when my order is up! Or some other bit of nonsense. How fun would that be?

Now I know this was all the accidental result of this guy's phrasing but I've always wondered why they just ask for your name at a lunch counter. Why not ask for something fun like your pet's name? Or your wildest dream? When your soup and sandwich is up they shout out "I wanna be spaceman!" or "Sprinkles the Wonder Dog!" Insane? A little bit. Remarkable? Oh yeah. People wouldn't forget your company's service and the treat it is to do business with you.

A little over a year ago, I wrote about maximizing your touchpoints. In a roundabout way I guess this is just a little reminder to look for all of the pockets in your customer communications where you can sneak in a bit of remarkability. A lot of time it costs nothing and pays off in exceptional brand loyalty.

The Swing Marketing Advertised

If you haven't seen this already, check out this hilarious take from Project Cartoon. Jaded or frighteningly realistic? You be the judge.

This site is also a fun example of letting users under the hood to play around. If you click on the 'Create' link you can modify the 'toon and save it to a unique url that you can give to your friends who in turn will send it to their friends and ... I guess it's also an example of viral marketing. The real kicker? The cartoon's content itself isn't original to the site. It's a pretty prevalent cartoon. What's original here (beyond the funky Simpsons-esque design) is that it's user based and can truly grow like an open source project. The cartoonist is even adding new cells from users to subsequent versions.

Presentation Anticipation

Someone recently pointed out that business schools don't teach courses on how to give a presentation. Well, tomorrow you can get a masterclass. Take a sec and check out Steve Jobs' address to the troops tomorrow at Macworld. Apple will probably have it posted somewhere afterward. And for a bit of fun you can even play bingo along with Steve.

Mike points us to some behind-the-scenes shots of the Macworld expo hall from Wired. Pretty good article too. Arrogant, yes. But you can't beat the simple allure of putting up a curtain. You have to know what's under it.

P.S. Bill went today. Remember last year?

Bulb Addendum

As Tevye would say "On the other hand ..."

Before we go canonizing Wal-Mart, my friend (and frequent supporting player in my blog posts) Larry reminded me that this CF bulb push is a very simple way for Wallyworld to appeal to a market segment that has historically - um, told them where to shove it. People like me, with a bit of a chip on their shoulders about the house that Sam built, are also people who are trying to spread the word about CF bulbs and know that environmentalism desperately needs Wal-Mart's distribution. So take your pick - shrewd business decision (touche, Sam) or concerned business stepping up its social conscience.

Whatever the motivation, the issue just keeps tipping as this bit of news out of Detroit shows us.

CF Bulbs Are Tipping

[Note: This is part of a webwide series of blog posts about compact fluorescent light bulbs. January is the darkest month of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. To fight off the darkness, bloggers everywhere are invited to create a post with their own riff on why CF bulbs are cheaper, better politically, harder to market or just plain cute. I heard about this project from the remarkable Seth Godin.]

My riff on compact fluorescent bulbs? Yeah, I've replaced all of the standard bulbs in my house with energy-saving CF bulbs. Yeah, I did it after I saw An Inconvenient Truth. Yeah, I tried to spread the good word by giving CF bulbs as stocking-stuffers to friends and family this holiday season. I disclose this up front just to be clear: I am the demographic. I would be labeled as a "tree hugger."

But last week something interesting happened. Wal-Mart announced their commitment to selling more compact fluorescent bulbs. The full disclosure here: I am the last person that would pay Wal-Mart any kind of a compliment (I won't go into it - everyone knows why and most dislike them for the same reasons). But with their "Change a Light. Change the World." campaign they are helping to educate the masses (which they certainly have access to) on the big difference these little bulbs can make. Plus you can't argue with the marketing behind that campaign slogan. Sums it up pretty good.

A great part of the Wal-Mart story is that they are so committed to this that they are moving faster than CF bulb manufacturers like GE and Phillips, who aren't ready for a ramp up of this scale (think if your major distributor proposed that users switch from your cash cow to your niche product that lasts several times longer).

For those who don't know, here's the executive summary. Compact Fluorescent Bulbs ...

• Use at least 2/3 less energy than standard incandescent bulbs to provide the same amount of light, and last up to 10 times longer.
• Save $30 or more in energy costs over each bulb’s lifetime
• Generate 70 percent less heat, so they’re safer to operate and can cut energy costs associated with home cooling.
  

For more info, check out the CF Bulb page on the government's Energy Star site.

My first observation is - damnit it just makes sense! In the unlikely event that everything else turns out to be wrong - what do you have to loose by switching?

Second, if the logic above defies you, then go with them because they're cheaper. If serving the greater good doesn't motivate you, how about your inner-miser? You could save $30 per year, per standard bulb replaced. And the things last up to five years! More on the full disclosure front - my inner miser is as vocal as a my inner environmentalist. So the $$$ did help sway me.

Finally, if none of that (PUN ALERT) flips your switch, it should majorly freak you out that Al Gore and Wal-Mart are on the same side of an issue. What are you waiting for? The four horseman of the apocalypse? All kidding aside, I think it's safe to say that this product - which has been around for nearly 30 years - is finally tipping.

The Point? I think it's pretty clear but ... replace a bulb. Just one. Give it a shot. If you like it, go through and replace the rest. If every American home replaced just one standard light bulb with a CF bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 2.5 million homes for a year and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of nearly 800,000 cars.

Did you know ...

... that marketing campaigns can sponsor events? I knew companies could but I got introduced to this concept just now on the Rose Bowl where viewers will be treated to the "Built Ford Tough Postgame Show."

I'm not sure how I feel about this one. I mean, I understand where they were coming from - "We need to embed our messaging into the sponsorship, etc" but it doesn't seem like a good fit. First, "Built Ford Tough Postgame Show" does not flow trippingly off the tongue. Second, a slogan/idea/positioning statement/sentence fragment (!?!) is a confusing descriptor for a postgame show. It's like Home Depot sponsoring it and calling it the "You Can Do It. We Can Help Postgame Show."

On the other hand. They're Ford. They've been dropping huge chunks of change on big sponsorships and advertising for years. I think it's safe to assume that most people know who they are. So why not use this opportunity to communicate something about the brand? Good so far but where the Motor City giant veers off track is in it's messaging.

"Built Ford Tough" is more business as usual and in case anyone has been living under a rock, the landscape in the automotive industry has been changing dramatically - especially for the Big 3. One idea would have been to take one of their new models that they are pinning their '07 hopes on and have that sponsor it. Like the "Ford Edge Postgame Show." Or the "Bold Moves: The Ford Postgame Show." That is their current slogan and actually sounds exciting and is relevant to the event.

Just my thoughts. You got any? Oh ... Happy 2007.