Frankie’s blog post entitled “Glee Gone Wild” caught my interest (mostly cause it was about GLEE), but I think he poised some very valid questions that should be looked at when you consider the Glee GQ magazine cover.
The GQ article focused more on the lives of the actors of the show, not the characters of the show. Thus, a little leniency can be given the actors for this very evident divergence from Glee’s brand image.
The actors of the show are superstars. They live up to this image of partying and “Glee gone wild’ stuff that GQ is illustrating. However, what does this do to Glee?
I think it definitely hurts the brand image of Glee as a whole; like Frankie said, mothers aren’t exactly going to be clamouring to endorse these actors as role models to their kids. Networks should keep a weary eye on how he private life of actors reflect on the image of the network. Take Miley Cyrus. . . she was this wholesome, girl-next-door, role-model to young girls/tweens and the gem of Disney’s crown. That is, until she agreed to do the controversial Vanity Fair photoshoot, where she showed “excessive amounts of skin”. This led to the decision by Disney to put her on a 4 – 6 month hiatus from the limelight.
Oh, the life of an actor can be so hard sometimes. . .
My interest was recently piqued by Anita Chang’s blog post about the new email service being introduced by Facebook.
There’s been great buzz generated by Facebook’s latest move, especially around this notion of the “email killer” in general. With this new feature, no longer will you have to log onto your Facebook account to check social updates and then your respective hotmail/gmail accounts for more work-related things, now its all integrated under one umbrella of FACEBOOK. Consider this; Facebook has over 500 million active users, now take these users and at @facebook.com to their names. They already have a huge potential market at their fingertips.
I don’t see Facebook taking over the email world though. I know of many people who have more than one email addresses to their name (I have three) and use them each for different reasons (i.e. one professional, one for social emails).
A primary use of email is for business purposes. In the minds of most business people today, email is for work and Facebook is for social/private life. The latter has no room in ones office because it is both unproductive and unprofessional. This idea of separation between Facebook and work-life will be a big problem Facebook faces when trying to reach out to email-users who use email for work-related purposes. The unprofessional stigma attached to Facebook may deter many email users from switching to use Facebook as their primary email source.
I think the largest market for a Facebook email are for younger people (those currently in high school) have grown up in this age of social media. They will be more likely to adapt to using Facebook for all interactive purposes (including email sending).
I see this added feature of Facebook email leading to many people staying on Facebook for a much longer period of time/visit as well as increasing their visits/day however, as far as will Facebook be the “email killer”, I highly doubt that.
I don’t know how many people actually read this blog BUT I figured I’d post this here anyways:
Sauder’s JDC Team will be participating in the “Chillin for Charity Event” next Thurs, Nov 25th. Neat!
Basically, anyone who stops by can get the chance to DUNK me into a freezing cold, OUTDOOR DUNK TANK all while smugly enjoying a hot chocolate and home-made cookie (made my the JDC Team!). In addition to the DUNK TANK, I’ll be Lacing-Up for Kids and skating laps at the Thunderbird Arena in order to help raise money. All proceeds from Lace-Up and Chillin’ for Charity will go straight to the UBC Children’s Hospital. (Talk about great cause!)
SO, Nov 25, I’ll be spending my evening from 6-midnight skating laps, being dunked into cold water and skating some more. BBBRRRR!!! (FYI: I don’t know how to skate. This could go badly.)
Anyways, please support my fundraiser and visit my page here:
Even a $5 donation will go a LONG way.
Thanks in advance for your support and donations! Much love!
Noticing a surge in men’s facial hair lately? Relax, this apparent fad of moustaches is only temporary – and, its for a good cause too!
From an idea originating over a few beers in Australia, “Movember” has since grown to be a global campaign thats raised over $50 million dollars for prostate cancer research. Participation in Movember isn’t just limited to men either – woman, or “Mo sisters” play an integral part of this campaign by helping fundraise and supporting men (Mo Bros) in their lives in their moustache-growing efforts.
I think this campaign is interesting for a number of reasons. It fully embraces the ridiculousness and quirkiness of all things “mo” related. At the end of the month, Gala partes are held to recognize all those who supported Movember where all Mo bros are encouraged to dress up in a costume that best suits the style of their moustache.
I recently came across this Snickers ad that makes reference to movember. I think its brilliant for a number of reasons. It’s carefully worded “grow some nuts” slogan infuses the same innuendo seen in most male-targeted ads (i.e. Axe’s “clean your balls”) and thus reaches out very specifically to a target segment of youngish, (13-25) males. It holds a lot of the same elements that are used in an Axe ad – in addition to its slogan, it preys on the seeming insecurities of some men who are concerned about seeming more “manly” (in this case, the ability to grow a MO).
Secondly, it shows that Snickers is very much in-tune to current trends that are affecting its target segments – in this case, Movember. Its honing in on certain lifestyle aspects of certain men that are within its target market and ensuring that it changes its marketing ads in accordance to its consumers (and thus, adding value).
Though personally not a fan of the moustache, I think how this simple idea has grown so exponentially and across so many different countries is amazing. They’ve started to integrate social media into the campaign, Iphone apps, apparel, posters, jewelry, the list goes on. Its great to see how creative some people have gone with this concept of the moustache.
Under Dov Charney’s watchful eyes, American Apparel has become the epitome of hipster cool, with its slim-fitting, logo-free clothes; a savvy, sexy ad campaign; and a pro-labor philosophy. To really understand this company, one really needs to focus in on Dov himself for American Apparel is nothing more than an extension of his own idiosyncracies and way of continually pushing boundaries to the far left. A deeper look into American Apparel’s practices and strategies really begs the question, how far left is too far left?
AA’s retail workers, who are the representatives and face of the brand, as they are the ones who deal directly with consumers, are known to be hired based on how well their physical appearance fit the “AA Aesthetic”. Charney asks store managers to take photos of all employees and has been known to fire anyone deemed “unstylish” or unfitting to the AA Aesthetic. Is this an example of discrimination or can the case be made that this is just a reality of the fashion industry? Though this has allowed AA to build a consistent brand image for itself, there certainly are contentious principles underlying this practice.
Going away from the AA workplace itself, let’s take a look at another main pillar of the company, which is, their advertisements. In this day and age, it has become a truism of the fashion industry that yes, “sex sells”. Just look at any Abercromie and Fitch ad or Victoria Secret model. American Apparel does buy into this, however they do so in a highly unconventional way that has proved to be a remarkable selling point for their company. What they’ve ultimately done, is portray “Sexy” in a different way. Rather than using heavily made up models and airbrushed, photoshopped pictures, AA strives to portray people as they are. Far before Dove came up with their “real beauty” campaign, AA has been using average looking, everyday people as their models and leaving photos untouched, unphotoshopped, honest and real. Taking it a step further in using trying to portray models as real people, they often ad a quick profile and blurb about the model beside their picture.
Although such a marketing technique has proven to be quite popular and ingenious, there is a more controversial side to it. Many of these ads are racy, suggestive and contain heavy sexual overtones. These sexually charged photos are often taken by Dov himself or with Dov actually in the photographs with the model, in poses that hint that more than just a photoshoot took place. Some of these photos have been so suggestive that the UK put a ban on select American Apparel ads.
Are these photos too racy and suggestive? Or has AA touched on something brilliant with using normal, everyday people as models. Either way, it can not be denied that these low profile, untouched, unconventional and highly suggestive ads have spurred on a revolution in fashion advertising.
In this current age of Internet, what I’ve noticed that’s common among all the big sites/trends that have “stuck” is that they’ve all created their own dialect and unique language. “Tag me” became a big hit when Facebook first came out and has become such a common phrase that it would be unusual if you didn’t know that this was a reference to.
In 2009, the New Oxford American Dictionary’s Word of the Year was “unfriend”, paying tribute to the rise of social media and, well, Facebook.
By creating a language around their brands, these social media sites have been able to essentially build a culture around them and thus, give them an unbelievable amount of “sticking” power in today’s generation. These aren’t just fads or trends anymore, they are here to stay and we now grow up and evolve around them. We “like” things for the world to see, we befriend or “unfriend” people, we don’t ‘look things up’ anymore, we simply ‘google it’, we tweet, post, comment, blog, Digg, Stumble upon, and of course, for our everyday life tasks, there is always “an app for that”.
Want your next big idea to be able to stick? Create a language around it.
I just love everything about this ad. Everything from the way it tells a story, how it taps into the way pretty much everyone uses google, and the fact that well, its a google commercial. The way “just google it” has become a natural part of our dialect (just as “Facebook” or “tag me” has) really exemplifies the power of this brand. When Google changed its homepage logo into an interactive “pac man” game, productivity in workplaces fell and this simple game became an instant hit in the Internet world.
In this generation of the information era, what can Google not do is the real question.
As the highly anticipated tv series, Walking Dead premiere date of October 31st comes nearer, producers have been doing a huge marketing push to really get buzz generated.
Its apparent that this buzz they’re trying to create has been quite alive and loud; sales of the Walking Dead comic book, which the tv series is based on, have been on a high this last quarter, with both The Walking Dead Vol.1 and Vol. 12(most recent in the series) making it into the Top 20 graphic Novels sold in September – an impressive feat for a smaller publishing company.
It looks like the industry has been doing absolutely everything it can to really PUSH the Walking Dead out there. Image publishing has just announced its plans to launch “Walking Dead Weekly” – a new series reprinting of the original comics.
A few weeks ago, a new poster for the TV series was released (shown above), sending the Internet a buzzing and the comic book world in a frenzy of anticipation. About a week or so afterwards, a teaser/trailer was released – garnering even MORE buzz (and really, continuing and building upon the buzz that was already generated).
And really, after watching that trailer. How could you NOT be excited about this show? Unlike your average zombie movie (re. 28 days later), the zombie apocolypse has ALREADY HAPPENED. We’re looking at characters now who have to deal with the aftermath of it. Way cool and way original.
Just today, Comixology (the central hubbub for digital comics), launched an Walking Dead comics app for Iphone/Ipad that offers ALL of the individual Walking Dead collections in digital form and will continually be updated as new Walking Dead comics are released. I even came across The Walking Dead Podcast – a podcast/website dedicated to ALL things Walking Dead, including news updates, reviews of not just the tv series but of the comics as well. It should be noted that this podcast/website was set up by two fans of the series – NOT anyone affiliated with the publisher or producer. (Free marketing! It doesn’t get better then that). The Walking Dead Podcast can be accessed here (its brilliant, seriously – has everything you could possibly need to know).
And now the real kicker. . .
On Tuesday (Oct 26), AMC and Fox Channel’s is launched a GLOBAL PR stunt of a “real” zombie invasion. During peak morning commuter hours in major cities around the world including LA, New York, Beijing, Taipei, London, Madrid, Istanbul, Athens, Chicago (just to name a few), zombies were set loose and could be found clamouring among major landmarks. After reading about this, I could only think of one word – brilliant. A PR stunt of such a global scale and of such unconventional means is sure to strike a chord among audiences who otherwise wouldn’t be turned onto this idea of a zombie show based on a comic book.
Essentially what they’re doing with this PR stunt is moving Walking Dead away from this comic-world centred audience and turning it into, well, something hip. It’s like when Kanye interrupted Taylor Swift and everyone wanted to be ‘in the know’ of the situation that went down. Similarly, with zombies popping up all around the world, people are going to peg it as one of the current social events/trends that everyone else is tweeting about and subsequently will feel the urge to be ‘in the know’ of just why the heck zombies are clamouring around Big Ben.
A video of these zombie attacks from around the globe can be seen here:
Overall, looking at the Walking Dead Marketing campaign, I really have to take my hats off to both the publishers and producers. They carefully timed the release of certain material (i.e. trailer, new app, concept art) in a way that they could keep buzz about the tv series alive and continued over a long period of time as really make sure they had material to push out in the last week following the crescendo of the Halloween premiere.
In any case, no one who follows the comic book industry is unaware that the Walking Dead is coming out on Halloween. And now, with this global PR stunt, people who are outside the comic book world bubble are also joining in on this buzz.
Sparkling Vampires? So 2008. Zombies? Very 2010 and Very cool.
Following their very successful launch of their newest menu item, “The Double Down” in the US (over 10 million sold in 4 months), KFC has just released this monster of a sandwich (if it can be called that) in Canada with as much oomph behind their marketing strategy as there is grease in this ultimate manwich.
Consisting of bacon, processed cheese, KFC’s ‘secret sauce’ and two fried chicken patties in place of bread, the Double Down boasts an impressive 540 calories, 30 grams of fat and a whopping 1740 mg of sodium.
Given the standard, stereotype of ahem, Americans, (they are the starting grounds of McDonalds, deep fried Coke, fried Oreos and of course ‘supersize me’), it didn’t come to that great of a surprise at how big of a food phenonomen the Double Down was in America. When I heard talk about this concotion coming to Canada, I thought that there was no way that Canadian’s would go for it. (After all, hasn’t the big social trend been lately to be more healthy, go organic, be vegan, wear Lululemon, etc etc?).
KFC marketers are apparently more savvy than I gave them credit for. Rather than ignore these social trends, they used it to their advantage (in an almost, counter-intuitive way). Rather than try and hide the fact that the DD is absolutely repulsive when you come to think about it, they revelled in the sheer gluttony of it! They set up a Facebook page challenging people to “Take Down the Double Down”. It looks like by acknowledging the fact that the DD more than exceeds an adult’s daily sodium recommended intake, KFC has masterfully created almost an exclusive club; people are clamouring to try the DD and claim the bragging rights that they could handle this manliest of manly grease laden sandwiches. On opening day (Oct. 18) of the DD in Canada, there was a 25 minute wait for it at Toronto’s Eaton Centre. It’s repulsive, greasy, salty, deep fried, has bacon in it and not an ounce of fibre – you know you just wanna go out and try one for yourself.
Whats in the future?
KFC has stated that the DD will be on their menus until November 14, after this date they will assess whether or not it will become a permanent fixture of their menu. Considering part of the success of the DD thus far has been the fact that its a food phenomenon and people want to be able to say ‘yeah, I tried that’, I’m doubtful if this menu item will have a long staying, sticky power to continue to be worth KFC’s while. I can’t imagine people consistently going to KFC for a DD after they’ve gone through its 35 g of fat once in their lifetime already. Who knows though, I’ve already been proven wrong by KFC.
Perhaps ‘Double Down’ will become a new term for a special CPR Technique.
This week, I thought I’d shed light on an industry that is quite near and dear to my heart – the industry of COMIC BOOKS/GRAPHIC NOVELS.
Unlike the fight and uproar that the music industry put up against online music/downloading, the comic book industry is evidently open to being adaptable and riding out the rising trend towards digitization. That is to say, most big name comic book publishers have already launched Ipad applications that allow users to read/download online versions of their comics. Most publishers have already begun the move of selling online versions of their comics, sold mainly through comixology.com ; allowing for quick and easy access to them. IcV2, a trusted news website that keeps up to date on the comic book industry estimated that sales of digital comics for 2010 will be between $6 to $8 million.
The possibilities for the growth of comic books are huge with this move towards digitization. Simply because publishers can now offer their consumers more. If they develop their platforms correctly; publishers have the chance to more easily market to their consumers, sell their comics at a lower cost, further incorporate readers into the comic book industry through its ability to list the top selling comics (much like iTunes shows its top selling songs, increase loyalty by setting up subscription services that automatically download new issues to consumers each week. . .The list goes on. ..
The mere thought of such growth in comic books is getting me excited. Think back to how music was before music downloading was made popular. You owned maybe 5 or 6 CDs at a time. Now, people have iTunes that are full with well over 1000 songs. Now apply this idea to comic books. (Who knows, maybe reading comics won’t even be considered nerdy anymore!!)
