Ever wonder if you’re being boastful online and whether that is okay? With so many self-affirmations accessible in the form of comments, thumbs up or re-tweets, have our egos grown larger than the Internet itself?

To read complete post: http://pepperdigitalblog.com/?p=109

Why the shiny new Plasma at the coffee shop means more than just ads

I stopped by Tully’s coffee this morning to grab my morning “cup of Joe” when the 32” LCD display screen above my barista’s head caught my attention. I was entertained by New York Times headlines, horoscopes, weather updates and ads for local attractions, all brought to me by Ripple TV. The technology itself wasn’t novel or fascinating to me; it was exactly the opposite. I had seen these screens just about everywhere – from the hotel I stayed in last week to the hole in the wall pizza joint I went to for lunch yesterday. One actually projected real-time tweets and “shout outs” for birthdays, anniversaries and local happenings, creating a real social experience. It was such a simple concept – why on earth is it only becoming mainstream now?

For full article: http://pepperdigitalblog.com/?p=123

Being on the inside of the PR industry you hear a lot of buzz about new marketing initiatives – in the press and among brand managers. Last year, it was all about Twitter and this year I feel like everyone is talking about Facebook, again. Brand managers everywhere are looking to join the Facebook caravan. And, every day I see a new article or blog post about Facebook becoming a monster and brands that can’t get enough of the action.  

Today, I came across an article in Wired about how the social media giant Facebook has no regard for privacy in its flight to become the “epicenter” of the Internet. This comes as no surprise to me.  However, what does surprise me is how many brands are relying solely on Facebook to drive brand awareness – to the extent that they are redirecting their corporate domains to their fan page directly – for example, www.vitaminwater.com. The company has experienced great success leveraging social media, but there’s one problem; I’m not sure how their latest move to a Facebook-based website will impact them in the long haul. Time will tell. 

This strategy has sparked a lot of debate and discussion in the industry with regard to its impact on SEO, privacy, legal and now even ownership. A recent blog post by Michael Gray talks about the negative impact of “Putting All Your Eggs in the Facebook Basket.” One of the many really good points he raises that specifically struck me is how brands who do this inherently relinquish the success or failure of their social brand platform to one common denominator – Facebook. 

While nobody can deny the success Facebook brought to marketers as a tool, we certainly don’t think it should be the only method of spreading your messages to brand communities. At the end of the day Facebook is a company that offers a service, and like any other media business they are bound to go through their own set of ups and downs, from a regulatory, operational and growth standpoint. 

We’ve stood witness to some of these over the past several years and even in the present. One of the top issues being discussed today is Facebook’s privacy and how much information is given away to third party sites without explicit permission. This is so much of a concern that tech geeks within companies like Facebook and Google are abandoning ship and shutting down their Facebook pages. This includes Matt Cutts, head of the webspam team at Google who has not technically left, but has deactivated his Facebook account.

The point is Facebook cannot be taken for face value and brands that rely solely on Facebook’s community run a dire risk. Basic logic to managing risk is to diversify. When building a social media platform, it’s best to take a multi-pronged approach with a variety of tools and assets working together – whether that be your website, a blog, Twitter, YouTube or Facebook. Also, developing a plan for overall social engagement online in the form of thought leadership and contributing to conversations that already exist, so you can take your messages out to places where people are already talking about them. All of this will help create a social sphere and active brand presence online that isn’t reliant upon the success or failure of one company. (Original post: http://pepperdigitalblog.com/?p=131)

Obama’s YouTube press conference following the State of the Union address has left members of the press, citizens and those following U.S. politics globally realizing a paradigm has shifted in the way the White House will communicate with the public moving forward. By leveraging YouTube, Facebook and other social media platforms, Obama continues to shorten the gap between the administration and the public. Using social tools, he has built an emotional connection with the public in an unprecedented way.

To read full article: http://pepperdigitalblog.com/?p=172

By Sahana Jayaraman, PepperDigital

As the media landscape changes and ad revenue begins to free up for many large companies, the likes of Pepsi, GM, and Anheuser-Busch are reevaluating their marketing spend, including pouring millions of dollars into a 30 second spot around Super Bowl or spending that same money across the span of a year on a social network. 

According to FOX Business News, who interviewed Laura Martin, director and senior analyst at Needham and Company about Pepsi’s decision to pull out of the Super Bowl ads this year, the “ad recession” is over with 95% of Super Bowl ad spots sold to date. In spite of the most anticipated backing out, Super Bowl has no concerns about the last two spots of the 32 spots available being grabbed before the big day.

Link to full article:

http://pepperdigitalblog.com/?p=176 

Repost from December 29

My last ’12 days of Digital’ post was about a “good” campaign, so today’s post is about a “bad” campaign.

Toyota’s social media campaign was one campaign I’d recommend reading about that that we could all learn from. Without beating them up too much here are some very important PR lessons that can be drawn from unraveling their social media faux pas.

Read full article – http://pepperdigitalblog.com/?p=187

In keeping with the spirit of the 12 Days of Digital, I’d like to highlight a particular retail brand benefiting from a sound social media program rooted in strategy rather than tools.

Best Buy’s Holiday digital marketing campaign, which was also recently featured in the New York Time’s Bits Blog, is worth sharing for its creative strategy and impeccable execution. Although there isn’t anything new or innovative about the platforms Best Buy chose to use for its social media campaign, the underlying theme and tactical approach is. Here is a glance at some of the campaign’s core initiatives and a look at how they were each built to engage enthusiasts in a fun and interesting way.

Link to full article:

http://pepperdigitalblog.com/?p=193

My guest post for Peppercom’s  Pepperdigital blog 

According to an Associated Press article that appeared in USA Today, “Made-to-order magazine lets readers choose.” Time Inc. is pilot testing a customized magazine that combines reader-selected sections from eight publications to create a new magazine compilation called mine. In an effort to mimic the personalized news feeds that has become ever so popular online, this experiment tests the extent to which people appreciate aggregated content by applying the method to Time’s magazines.

The article states, “The five-issue, 10-week experiment also aligns readers with the branding message that its sole advertising partner, Toyota Motor Corp., has for its new Lexus 2010 RX sport-utility vehicle: It’s as customizable as the magazine carrying its ads.”

As of right now, the magazine is of free subscription. The print edition is limited to the first 31,000 respondents, while an online version is available for another 200,000. If you are interested in checking it out or signing up for a free subscription, you may do so at www.timeinc.com/mine. I’ll be looking forward to receiving mine soon. 

You can pick your five favorites from eight different Time Warner/Amex publications listed for your personalized magazine. Titles include, Time, Sports Illustrated, Food & Wine, Real Simple, Money, In Style, Golf, and Travel + Leisure.  Editors will pre-select the stories that make it into each biweekly issue, and readers won’t have the option of switching their “top five” list of publications from one issue to the next.

The entire experience will have Toyota written all over it.  Even when you subscribe, you are asked a few simple and generic questions such as, “Do you crave sushi or pizza?” This sort of survey strategy allows Toyota to direct hyper-targeted messages geared towards a user’s persona. Having come up with the idea for mine, Toyota will be the single and only advertiser nabbing four full-page ads per issue.  Apparently, the cost of this program is comparable to that of one of their standard advertising campaigns. In fact,the company’s VP of marketing suggests that this campaign is more targeted and that the message of “driver inspired” and “customization” will resonate far greater with this medium.

Time Inc.’s president of advertising sales and marketing, Stephanie George, says in the article, “The mine experiment represents the latest effort by traditional media organizations to appeal to readers increasingly accustomed to picking and choosing what they read on the Internet. Online advertising, through growing, hasn’t generated enough revenue to offset declines in print; personalized print products could help fill some of the gap.”

Here is another eye-catching excerpt from the article:

“This summer, MediaNews Group, publisher of The Denver Post, the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News and other newspapers, plans to experiment with its own reader-created publication, likely at its Daily News in Los Angeles. Readers will be allowed to choose specific stories, or those by author, keyword or subject. Details on that venture are expected next month.”

Now, reading all this probably has you questioning a few things. First, will these media ventures succeed? Lately, our lives have been tough enough, with newspapers shutting down and media laying-off staff.  Now what?  How will this impact our world in PR? Will we be forced to compete with the cash flow advertisers are using to sustain these publications? Gasp. 

The good news is that we’ll find out fast.  The promotion of mine kicks off this Friday and both Toyota and Time will be conducting extensive research on consumer reaction.

We’ve been hearing this for awhile now. In fact, if you read our previous post, “Silicon Valley Tech Gurus Claim What’s Hot When It’s Not So Hot,” Elisa Ackerman from The San Jose Mercury News cited non-profit and privately sponsored journalism as a growing trend over the next five years.

I also recall in the book Groundswell that authors Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff claimed, “RSS is the grease that lubricates the groundswell.”  They talk about how RSS feeds or, customizable content such as mine, accelerate mechanisms that drive groundswell and can very quickly signify whether the masses’ are for or against a product, company, etc.  We no longer rely on the institutions to tell us.

At the end of the day, the groundswell will decide, and it’s all just survival of the fittest. What happens if Travel & Leisure magazine doesn’t get “chosen” as much as the others? With initiatives like mine, the process of natural selection will work itself out much faster –with the assessment of publications, content, editors–and even the advertisers.

Tell me what you think.

Guest post by Sahana Jayaraman for Peppercom’s Digital blog, PepperDigital

If you are a girl (or have a girl in your life) that loves chick flicks you might have heard excitement over Confessions of a Shopaholic., Walt Disney Co.’s upcoming comedy about a young woman who is a compulsive shopper. Being one of those girls myself, the trailers for the movie caught my attention. It wasn’t just the upbeat soundtrack, reference to fabulous couture and shopping that captivated me. It was also the constant advertisement of Bluefly.com, the publicly traded company who sponsored Project Runway and has recently been in the news for its plummeting stock prices. The official movie site redirects to Bluefly.com

Last May, when the Sex and the City movie came out, I remember the distinct urge to go shopping after watching it. I wanted to leave the Cineplex and walk the halls of the mall with my gal pal. The trailers for Confessions of a Shopaholic played into those same emotions. At first, I thought, what a brilliant idea for them to bring in an online retail partner, and how smart of Bluefly.com to leverage such a unique partnership especially when retail is hurting so badly.

Then, one afternoon, when I went to Bluefly .com, I realized the “bargains” I was expecting weren’t all that affordable for the average shopper. That’s when I began thinking — gosh, from a PR standpoint, what bad timing.

Here we are, as a society, devastated by a credit crisis and worried about keeping jobs and paying mortgages, while this movie makes merry of a young woman whose shopping habit plunges her into debt and financial woe.

Yesterday, I came across an article in the Los Angeles Times that addressed my question, the gist of the which was:

Although it may seem like the worst possible moment to release a movie — even a comedy — about overspending, Disney marketers and “Shopaholic’s” producer believe that the bleak economic climate could work to the PG-rated film’s advantage.

“The timing for this movie couldn’t be better,” producer Jerry Bruckheimer said. “This is the journey of a young girl who has a problem and she turns her life around. It’s a tale the whole world can learn a lesson from,” added Bruckheimer, who had the project in development for eight years before it was made.

Could this be an advantage? Will they be able to turn this unfortunate circumstance on its head?

To read more click here.