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.

Microsoft has announced that they will be introducing Xbox music to its Xbox consoles, which is comparable to Apple’s Itunes and Amazon’s Cloud Player. They have found that 60% of Xbox users use their consoles for entertainment purposes, such as streaming Netflix, ESPN and other channels, rather than gaming. Music is such an integral component of entertainment, therefore it only makes sense to include such a feature.

Microsoft will provide the choice of obtaining a free ad-supported music streaming service or the premium ad-free version with unlimited streaming for $9.99 a month. Some of the features are quite impressive, with over 30 million songs in its catalog and carries over 70,000 music videos only available to the Xbox console. It also has the cloud storage feature similar to its competitors and a radio function based on your favourite artist, which is similar to the likes of Pandora. Microsoft also expects to take the service to Apple iOS and Google Inc Android devices next year.

With that said, Microsoft has successfully identified that their target market uses their system  overwhelmingly for other functions than its main purpose, which is gaming. The Xbox console has gradually shifted from video gaming, to carry TV functions, and now to music, which will establish Xbox as a central entertainment hub that all households can enjoy. There really is something for everyone to enjoy, which should boost their sales from the 67 million units they have already sold since 2005.

Up until recently, Youtube’s search rankings were based on the number of clicks a video received; the more hits your video got, the higher it ranked. Now, its search algorithms are programmed to rank videos based on “time watched,” which should reward those Youtube superstars that create engaging content and keep you watching to the very end. I personally really like this new change, given that i’m one of those Youtube freaks that can watch video after video for hours on end. This new feature will make searching for interesting and relevant videos that much easier and hopefully will provide a more enjoyable overall experience while on the site. Recent data backs up this notion, as they’ve found people are doing more watching and less clicking, which translates to higher engagement.

To help video creators adjust to the new ranking system, YouTube has added a ‘time watched’ metric to YouTube analytics. Youtuber’s now have the ability to track which of their videos are getting the most attention and be able to make improvements based on the collected data. Not only do viewers benefit, but the video creators as well – sounds like  a win-win situation to me.

Experimenting with wearable technology has recently become a budding trend. I have been completely oblivious to this notion, but after coming across a project called the “Like-A-Hug” vest, i’ve discovered that this has not been the first attempt at integrating technology into something more physical. Ok, so let me explain. The Like-A-Hug vest is a project by Mellisa Chow, which inflates to create the sensation of a hug when someone “likes” something on your Facebook. Ideally, both users on either end would wear this inflatable vest. When a person receives a like their vest inflates simulating a bear hug from their friend. In order to return the hug, all that needs to be done is the recipient must squeeze their vest thereby deflating it, which consequently inflates the vest of the “liker.” I know you must be feeling a little weirded out right now, I know I was upon discovery, but this is just the beginning  of how social media may start to get real personal…literally!

The project was initially conceptualized after thinking about long distance relationships and the limitations of video chat. With that in mind, I can kind of make sense of the direction they’re going in and its almost excites me to think of all the possibilities, but at the same time i’m still left a little unsure.

This project, alongside other initiatives such as the Google Glass Project and Smartphone Watches may be the future of social media and technology in general. After all, people are always looking for new ways to stay connected and to create a more personal experience. As of now, this is still a bit far stretched as something people would actually adopt, but I guess only time will tell.

This is supposed to feel like a hug…

After seeing a commercial on TV for Mcdonalds newest campaign “Our Food. Your Questions.” I was immediately intrigued and wanted to find out more. If your unfamiliar with this, it is a social media campaign which encourages consumers to ask any question and receive a personalized response either through a post or video. This got me excited as I too had scepticism about some of their products and processing methods, and wanted to find out the truth on some of the less than appetizing myths that exist out there. Not to my surprise, all the questions I ever had had already been posted and answered, easing some of the worry I may have had in the past. As I like to indulge in a little Micky D’s every so often, I feel a bit more comfortable knowing whats going into my food and how its made.

What really impressed me were the video responses, which gave viewers a behind the scene look into the factories where their food is processed, photo shoots for advertisements, and provided visual proof against urban myths. Talk can be cheap, so receiving that visual component provided credibility and soundness to their responses.

This interactive platform is as far as I know the first of its kind, which is setting the bar high not only in the fast food industry but for all types of industries. Creating this transparency is what customers expect and have been craving. This campaign allows McDonald’s to connect with their consumers and creates a human like quality which is something people can relate to and interact with. The most important element is the dialogue created between customer and company, bridging the gap, which is something most companies struggle with. Here McDonald’s is a leading example on how to keep customers engaged and at ease.

Before the days of Facebook, Myspace reigned supreme. These days, they have been dubbed the joke of the town within the social media community. But don’t be so quick to mock, Myspace might have the last laugh this time around with its redesign catching the attention of the world wide web.

Myspace has revamped their whole platform, imitating the likes of Tumbler and Pinterest with their highly visual setup. Quite frankly it looks fricking gorgeous.  Some of its standout features include its horizontal scrolling design, easy navigation menu and use of big pictures, making it quite the visual experience.

Their focus still remains on the music aspect allowing users to follow trending artists, create playlists that can be linked to photo albums, identify and communicate with top fans, and artist profiles containing tracks, albums and videos.

Now yes this all seems fine and dandy, but the real question is: is Myspace here to stay or will this be a short-lived attempt at regaining users of this once popular domain? On a more hopeful note, Myspace has chosen to not compete directly with social giants Facebook and Twitter. In fact, Myspace intends on complementing these platforms by giving users the option of signing in through either account, which definitely is smart on their behalf. If their intention was to go head-to-head against Facebook and Twitter, I would say they don’t stand a chance, but in this case I think they should be able to capture a portion of the market. If anything, I think musicians will be attracted to the new Myspace as it contains some unique features, new users will be attracted by its sleek design and users with dormant accounts might reactivate at least in part to the nostalgic factor.

Feast your eyes on the new design…