An article by Eric Karjaluto on his blog IdeasOnIdeas resounded very well with us in the office. In his post he provides some suggestions on how PR people can share information with bloggers without pissing them off. He says right now PR people seem to see email in the same way people used to use fax – blast it to as many writers as possible in the hope that someone might pick it up and write about it.
Every week I receive a handful of emails from PR firms, wanting me to write about something they’re helping promote. I rarely do [...]

On last night’s episode of The Simpsons, Springfield was graced with the appearance of a fake Apple store, known as Mapple.  The iconic cube store appeared in cartoon form complete with MyPods, MyPhones, MyCubes and an appearance by Steve Mobs reminiscent of the 1984 commercial.  Should Apple take offense or is satire is the sincerest form of flattery?

[via Laughing Squid]

The folks at innocent drinks, makers of tasty smoothies, have revamped their site to include a rating and review section. Hoping to foster a more robust brand culture and connection with their audience, innocent is trying out a consumer-centric website. The new feedback area provides simple ratings along with more detailed reviews. A built-in feature promises to randomly select comments to be highlighted on the homepage and further entices visitors by awarding funky prizes each month. The site layout was designed by Soup with a goal of pushing the playful nature of the company into the digital [...]

Creative Cities Summit 2.0 concluded this week in Detroit, Michigan, a three-day conference bringing together creative practitioners from across industries (from city planners to educators) in a discussion about the integration of innovation, social entrepreneurship, sustainability, arts & culture and business and their roles in our urban ecologies. Brand Avenue points us to one of the conference’s most enlightening panels – a talk between Who’s Your City?’s Richard Florida, COMEDIA’S Charles Landry, and The Creative Economy author John Howkins (moderated by Carol Coletta of Smart City Radio). As Brand Avenue retells, Landry brings up the important distinction between how big [...]

The dairy lobby has always been a powerful force in America, but recently they saw their classic ad campaigns overtaken by cartoon characters that children more readily relate to.  These new school cultural icons easily sway children in purchasing choices.  The proliferation of SpongeBob snacks or Spiderman cereals drove Big Milk to form a modern marketing group known as “Milk Media.”  In the venture’s first deal, school milk consumption increased 34% after the implementation of Disney’s Doug into the milk campaign.  While milk has enemies, they certainly have fans in the federal government who wish to promote the milk alternative [...]

The PR industry as we once knew it is dead.  We’ve written about this topic before, but recently we came across some advice on creating the best PR through the social aggregator, FriendFeed.  SocialTNT explains the most efficient way to market yourself or your company in a well organized article.
The important lessons detailed involve staying current on the feed to maximize media research opportunities and taking advantage of the contacts you have.  In a new world that values usefulness over experience, staying current is critical.  Becoming involved is one of the central aims of FriendFeed and you can easily attain [...]

Over the summer ISO50 linked a gallery of 70 business cards that are in a creative league of their own.  The business card is a time tested strategy to market oneself and many of those in the gallery exhibit unique characteristics that fit each business they represent.  These include a divorce lawyer with half a card, an asthma centers written on a balloon, a second hand store with the first contact info scratched out and plethora of simply laid out graphic designer cards.  The photos were all taken from a Flickr pool where people posted the coolest cards they’ve found, [...]

Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions has come up with a series of videos that highlight the changing relationship between marketers and consumers. While it’s staged as a humorous love tryst, it does raise some valid and entertaining points on the ‘death of advertising.’ This advertising campaign begs companies to love the consumer and try their best to listen to them. Not only is it bizarre that the campaign is targeting other advertisers (rather than consumers) but it is also in the format of a full fledged movie, with a trailer and multiple lengthy episodes. However, the message of [...]

Microsoft Digital Advertising Solutions has come up with a series of videos that highlight the changing relationship between marketers and consumers. While it’s staged as a humorous love tryst, it does raise some valid and entertaining points on the ‘death of advertising.’ This advertising campaign begs companies to love the consumer and try their best to listen to them. Not only is it bizarre that the campaign is targeting other advertisers (rather than consumers) but it is also in the format of a full fledged movie, with a trailer and multiple lengthy episodes. However, the message of [...]

Over on Welcome to Optimism, London’s wieden + kennedy blog, there is a great example of when ‘the voice of the brand’ is taken too far. The article documents some of the Malmaison hotel’s quirkier attempts at communicating with their consumers.
Welcome to Optimism writes:
Now, I like Malmaison. They provide quite nice hotel rooms and facilities at a fair price. I would actively choose to stay there and pay with my own money, even. But on a recent stay in Leeds, after a long day, when I got to my room I became irritated by the voice of [...]

After several embarrassing attempts at utilizing blogs, Sony has learned from their mistakes and has created a much more transparent blog to create a dialog about their PS3.
Reuters reports:
Sony’s new effort is no mere toe in the water. Dave Karraker, head of Sony Computer Entertainment’s U.S. PR team, said the company spent 6 months getting the format right and then sent out a company-wide memo encouraging all employees — from hardware engineers to game testers — to post material, which will of course be reviewed to make sure corporate secrets are not exposed.
Karraker: “The main thinking about it is to [...]

Nike sent me this email yesterday:

And apparently it ran in the New York Times last Sunday too.
It seems pretty smart of Nike to take on the whole Don Imus affair and with an intelligent point of view too.

As brands continue to fight for ‘green dollars,’ it’s becoming more and more important for companies who pride themselves on their environmental consciousness to distinguish themselves from competitors. This need to prove their ‘greeness’ has inspired companies such as Stonyfield Farm, Tesco, and Timberland to begin labeling products to reflect their carbon footprints. This is great. But often times, despite all the positive environmental practices a company may take, much of the energy used in production occurs way down at the bottom of the supply chain.
Tim Manners of Reveries writes:
Indeed, “more than half of the energy used [...]

Rohit Bhargava writes an interesting and indepth analysis of the mistakes made by Blackberry when they tried a campaign to get users to share their stories. The first point is such a big issue:
Mistake #1 – Not offering a payoff or incentive for users.
Mistake #2 – Forgetting about photos and video.
Mistake #3 – Only promoting campaign through advertising.
Mistake #4 – Avoiding publishing contributions real time.
Influential Interactive Marketing: Learning from Blackberry’s Social Media Marketing Mistakes

To respond to huge criticism, David Neeleman, CEO of JetBlue, has posted a video on the video sharing site YouTube apologizing for the events that took place during severe weather in the US.