Chanel No. 5’s newest T.V. ad featuring Brad Pitt left me feeling confused and disappointed. I’m definitely not alone on my stance towards the commercial, with millions of others having expressed the same concern through comments on Youtube videos and other social media platforms. Perfume ads don’t necessarily have the best track record, usually being very erotic by nature or not really making much sense at all, however, this advertisement was on a whole other playing field. Overall, I thought the ad didn’t represent the brand or the product in the least bit. Chanel is about timeless beauty, style, class, and femininity, all of which Brad Pitt does not represent. In theory Brad Pitt being chosen as the first male face of Chanel seemed like a perfect match since he is an A-list star, been named “Sexist Man Alive,” and is adored by women all over the world, but his cave man appearance and his bewildered rambling made no sense at all.

I think Chanel’s biggest mistake was choosing a man to represent the brand in the first place. Being a woman’s fragrance, Chanel should have stuck to past formulas of marketing to women, using aspirational female imagery would provide something they could connect to. However, using a male model turns an aspirational image to something of desire, which disconnects the viewer from the message of timeless beauty and sophistication.

Overall I thought the commercial was a total failure and something to be made fun of. Numerous parodies have been posted following its T.V. premier, most notably the parody by SNL. First watch the original commercial, then watch SNL’s version and have a good laugh…Enjoy!

Timing is a key factor in many circumstances and strategies, email marketing being one. I came across a blog post from MarketingSherpa that highlights this point, when is the best time to send an email? Research indicated the top results for the following metrics:

• Open time
• Click-through time
• Recipients top engagement time

Results concluded that 23.63% of all emails are opened within the first hour of delivery. By the second hour this drastically drops to 9.52% and subsequent hours continue with the decreasing trend. The point is to not have the email sitting in the inbox for too long, the longer it sits the less likely it will be opened. Therefore, the best time to send emails is 1 hour before top open times to get maximum attention and results. More specifically, research found that most subscribers are engaged with their email during work hours, usually when they first arrive and right before they head home. Top times are 8-10 am and 3-4 pm, with the lowest results around lunch. The evening is also becoming a prime time to check emails with the average click rate increasing around 8 pm, which may indicate the subscribers are reading through messages with more attention.

Given the last point, more marketers are scheduling messages to be sent out later in the evening between the times of 6-12 pm to avoid  the morning clutter. The key takeaway is that timing is important factor in email marketing and a proper schedule should be implemented. Not only is content important but when people receive it.

Its that time of year again, Christmas is almost here! Companies everywhere have been gearing up for the holiday season and this year Home Depot is doing something a little different. They have adopted a feline mascot named Richard the Cat . This furry friend will be documenting holiday disasters as his owners are simply “how-to” helpless. Richard is not here to save the day, but to put to rest that felines are indeed smarter than humans.

Home Depot’s  PR and marketing team conjured up this idea after doing some social media monitoring and realized that one of the biggest things followed in the social space are cats, which did not take me by surprise…I mean lets face it cats are cute! They wanted their holiday campaign to stand out, especially in the social space, personally it got me interested. I know you must be thinking what is the relationship between cats and Home Depot? Fact of the matter is there is no relation, thats the point! Its supposed to be light-hearted and fun, give you a chuckle or two and keep you engaged. I mean come on, power tools and home renovation aren’t the most interesting things in the world so I think this campaign will get people engaged in the online conversation and create more positive associations with the brand.

After checking out Richard the Cat’s twitter account, people seem to have really taken a liking to him. Interacting with a cat whose online persona is described as quick-witted and sarcastic has got people excited and they have reciprocated this playful attitude. One concern is that the campaign might alienate canine lovers, however, its been noted that online engagement with cats is twice as much as dogs so this shouldn’t be much of an issue. All in all, whether your a cat lover or a dog lover, Richard the cats antics should put a smile on your face and get you in the mood for the holiday season.

The importance of social media tends to be even more evident when natural disasters are happening in the world. This relates to the recent tragedies of hurricane Sandy hitting the east coast. Social platforms play an important role in documenting these events and sharing them with the world. In the past Youtube, Facebook, and Twitter have received acclaim for the part they’ve played in sharing world news, but the newest to enter the mainstream is Instagram.

This platform has become the primary way people are sharing images of hurricane Sandy. In addition, big media players such as CNN and Time Magazine are using Instagram to extract real time images of the hurricane and its effects for broadcasting purposes. Its been reported that 10 pictures are being tagged per second on Instagram, with hundreds of thousands of pictures already posted, this is an incredible figure!

The current visual-social trend has propelled Instagram’s popularity over the last little while, making its named synonymous with popular social platforms.  A huge factor to this is its mobile-only nature, the immediacy and ease of posting while on the go makes it very appealing. Another feature is its capability to easily link to other social networks, which adds to the social experience. All in all, Instagram has a bright future. Although tragic, these global events have opened the door for Instagram and the many possibilities of its future uses.

While researching into Hootsuite and its functions I came across a very useful tool implemented not too long ago called Conversations . Its an internal communications tool that is integrated into the dashboard, which allows team members to share information, ideas, comments, concerns and links via Hootsuite. Its main advantage is speed of reply and not having to leave the Hootsuite dashboard to send emails to team members.

When managing the social presence of a brand and there is a particular area of concern, it is important to get the whole teams input to devise a response strategy or receive feedback. The Conversations function allows this to be executed smoothy and accurately. For instance a team member can pull offensive tweets from the dashboard and start a Conversation. Instead of emailing the quote to a particular member or the entire team, they can simply use Conversations to send the tweet and get a quicker response on how to proceed. Team members can give their input in a conversation style, or take control of the tweet and write the follow up communication themselves if need be. Information and responses stay in an easily accessible and central place. Going back and forth between emails can waste time or important members may be left out.

Now, not only is Hootsuite a great tool to monitor the good and bad of the social platforms employed by a company, but it also makes it easier to share your findings. The increase in efficiency is extremely beneficial and allows more focus to stay on the important things at hand. More time is spent on the dashboard and less time switching between other communication applications, great for Hootsuite, great for you.