happykatie :: katie rocks out the interwebs

Swash me silly - Tide says 'no more laundry day'

So here's an interesting twist on the ordinarily rather boring laundry detergent industry - instead of making laundry day sexy to college students everywhere, Tide is telling them to forgo it all together!  The company has launched a chain of stores called Swash to help encourage the 're-wear' lifestyle:

Swash is offering students dryer sheets, dewrinkling spray, stain-removing pens, odor-removing sprays and lint rollers that can help give their clothes the look and smell of having been washed without the trouble or expense of actual washing. In the process, the brand's helping eliminate the one domestic chore most college students do.

Going one step beyond that, Swash is also holding a Rewear-a-thon encouraging participants to take photos of their re-worn outfits each day they wear them - with daily awards of $50 to lucky crusty jean wearers.

Definitely an interesting campaign, especially when green living is such a hot marketing ploy right now.  So do we call Swashitout the ultimate green wash campaign (har har)?

Words you find on the things you buy

Chocolove
Originally uploaded by cknlomein

Packaging matters to me.  A lot. 

Unique touches and good design sway me greatly in my purchasing choices - I will be far more likely to spend a little more cash if a product is thoughtfully constructed.  Yes, I'm a sucker like that.

Here are 2 swell examples of unexpected packaging that made me sublimely happy this week:

~  A silk black strappy tank top from Talla (a birthday present from my mom :) ) had a nice size-card attached to it by a white silk cord that told me this:

'May you have enough happiness
to make you sweet, enough trials
to make you strong, enough sorrow
to keep you human and enough hope
to make you happy.'

~  A dark, dark Chocolove bar flavored with hot chilies and sweet cherries was housed in a wrapper that brought us the voice of Oscar Wilde, quoting his poem In the Gold Room:  a Harmony - full excerpt after the jump:

Her ivory hands on the ivory keys
Strayed in a fitful fantasy.
Like the silver gleam when the poplar trees
Rustle their pale leaves listlessly,
Or the drifting foam of a restless sea
When the waves show their teeth in the flying breeze...

I like it when my purchases speak to me, thank me, befriend me and joke with me.  That's why I'm also a huge MOO cards fan, Threadless lover and Jones Soda junkie.  Those brands love me; they tell me so regularly and that makes me want to give them part of my paycheck :)  There's a reason they call them Lovemarks!

Meet Heliomag - my favorite corporate Blog

So you've probably noticed that I'm a pretty big Helio fan these days.  My Helio Ocean is great, my customer service experience with them has been fantastic and now I'm hooked on their blog:  Heliomag.

Talk about a company doing that Social Media hat dance right - Heliomag is actually a place that real people like to visit and doesn't try to bore me to death with thinly veiled corporate policy blahblah and other ridiculousness.

Heliomag gives you cool interviews, sweet art exhibit and creative news, tips and tricks for your Helio,  music reviews and oh yes -- a link to the DVORAK zine. dOOd.  In short, their company Blog is a universally interesting place that offers regularly updated unique content, which in turn makes Helio look cool and informed, which in turn makes me - the consumer - feel cool and smart for giving them my money.

I like feeling cool and smart - how about you?

happykatie on Dublin radio - check it out 4/13 9am CST

If you're sitting in front of a computer tomorrow morning at 9am CST, be sure to tune into NewsTalk, Ireland's Talk Radio station.  Radio personality Sean Moncrieff will be interviewing me on Googling your dates and other fun stuff.

Using Google for 'people research' interview with Dublin radio host Sean Moncrieff
Katie Laird
Schipul - The Web Marketing Company
Fri 13-Apr-07 9:00 AM to Fri 13-Apr-07 9:30 AM

You can listen online with the Live WebCast here.

Note to self - Viral video can sometimes make you look like an a**

An interesting example of popular viral video gone bad - TDA Advertising creative director lectured at a Colorado college and was filmed smashing a student's ringing cell phone.  The video received around 3 million views and was covered on many heaving hitting MSM networks and blogs alike.

A year later (via AdRants):

Bummed-out TDA creative director Schoenberg admits the viral was staged, though this fact is eclipsed by the more popular sentiment that he's simply pure evil. "The point was to show my students, and our clients, the power of 'disruptive' communication, and that it's clearly done," he explains. "However, there are now millions of people out there who think I'm a dick. That's a big increase."

What is particular sad/funny about this is that TDA never received a single hit on their site from any of those 3 million viewers.  Just a bunch of bad mouthing and negative karma.

Let's take a quick look at what lessons we can learn from this:

1. Hello?!?  Branding?!? - If you're going to make yourself look 'pure evil' at least get your company name/logo/link somewhere to attract angry lynchmob hits.  Maybe a few of those torch bearing villagers will swoon and be swayed by your client portfolio or something...
   
2. Be smart - Think your viral video premise (and potential reactions/repurcussions) all the way through.  Is this how you want your organization represented for years to come?   The public's collective memory is annoyingly long about these things and reputations take ages to repair.
   
3. Don't be a faker - Let's face it - staged videos are a little lame, especially once they're outed.  Give us something authentic and thought provoking.  Want to go with disruptive?  Okay then... at least make it believable.

Leaving a mark on your brand junkies

Some brands are like crack.  When you're not using or buying, you're talking incessantly about it, looking for a dealer or... uhm, blogging about it at 4am.

Companies spend millions of dollars creating powerful emotional connections and experiences with their customers.  This emotional connection is solid gold, as many consumers emote with their wallets.  The economics of emotion is intense.

This is all really fascinating stuff if you're interested in branding and badging a company you love.   Saatchi & Saatchi's Lovemarks has an amazing site dedicated to the exploring the 'Future Beyond Brands' and invites consumers to submit, comment and vote on Lovemark brands in all their feel-goody glory.  They featured one of my Lovemark submissions a couple of weeks ago about Gmail (see graphic above)... which I feel pretty strongly about because I'm geeky like that. 

What brands make you flail with glee, widen your eyes with ecstatic intensity and feel warm fuzzies?  My personal Lovemarks:

• Lomos
• Moleskine
• Nutella
• Google
• Apple
• Vespa
• Mimobots
• Ikea
• Target
• Converse (before Nike bought them...)

HBJ article by happykatie - Lessons businesses can learn from YouTube

So I'm light years behind in posting this, but I had an article in last week's Houston Business Journal entitled 'Online video packs huge punch as part of marketing strategy'.  You can read the article in its entirety on the Schipul Web Marketing site here.

It was a fun write as many organizations are getting really creative in their marketing and training through online video.  I have another article up for print by Association Trends magazine focused strictly on how associations are using video to communicate with their members.  Way interesting stuff.

Social Media Learnin' 101 (Intro) - The cannonball conundrum

Diving Board Feet, originally uploaded by Canadian Veggie.

Remember that feeling standing on top of the highest diving board at the swimming pool for the first time?  Toes hanging off the gritty edge and the pressure of 4 kids behind you in line hanging off slippery metal ladder rungs mentally and verbally willing you to GO!! before they bake in the summer sun?

You've been watching all the other kids cannonball all afternoon and desperately want to take the plunge into that cold blue water.  But when it's your turn, it's so very hard.  You want to make a splash, but fear a belly flop and the ridicule that comes with that (painful) failure.  But now it's time to hold your breath and 1,2,3... JUMP!

New social media adopters go through the same diving board conflict.  To jump or not to jump?  Treading water in the pool is safe after all, but sometimes a jacknife-tripletwist-halfflip diving
combo is just the thing to get you on the swim team.

Keep in touch for upcoming posts on Social Media Learnin' 101 over the next month.   Next time around we'll talk about the Social Media Mindset and learn how to fit our brains around the online conversational paradigm.

You can subscribe to my RSS feed for automatic updates or email me for when I get-around-to-it updates at happykatie at gmail dot com.  Thanks to Canadian Veggie for the Flickr pic!

Taking a byte out of Girl Scout cookies

So it has happened - the Girl Scouts have confirmed their inner geek and have flooded MySpace, YouTube and other social tech sites with delicious promises of cookie nirvana.

While their new mini-site http://girlscoutcookies.org/ and social media efforts are cool - I dig the vintage commercials and say 'about freaking time' on the MySpace profile, but it seems like the Girl Scouts have a long way to go with fully exploring the digital possibilities for their organization's members.

After all, the majority of their membership is at the perfect age to interact online and can probably school technology evangelists within the organization.  Wouldn't it be fun to have a few of the girls (maybe top sellers from last year or girls with special stories) blog about their cookie selling campaigns?  What about a 'Meet your favorite cookie' podcast that interviews the various bakers or del.icio.us link pages with access to social issues related to the Girl Scout's volunteering efforts?

So kudos to the Girl Scouts, but your digital cookie love has a long way to go.  P.S. Please bring back the Iced Berry Pinatas??

Somehow someone still thinks banner ads are a good idea

I'm sure my fellow Web marketers / Internet geeks will share my frustration when speaking to recent college advertising/marketing grads who made it through school thinking that banner ads are even remotely effective.  Although I think that they should know better from their practical Web experience, it is pathetic that schools are so behind and impart this knowledge onto their students.

So that was a semi-tangent, but what really brings this up is Verizon's recent decision to allow banner advertising on their mobile phones.  The idea stinks and is an annoying way to start out the mobile content 2007 year.  The last thing I want when I'm looking at a page online from my [enter mobile device here] is to be pestered by a dumb banner ad that my cell phone company wants me to look at.

Mobile advertising is, no doubt, going to be big.  But hopefully later adopters will be a little more creative and thoughtful.  Opt-in advertising - yay!  Campaigns that benefit me (give me something) and are insanely targeted for all my consuming needs and habits - okay, maybe.

Screen real estate is precious - even more so when it's a teeny cell phone or Crackberry - so any mobile advertising I'm subjected to better be the most gorgeous and beneficial advertising of all times.  Oh yeah, and I am SO not okay with even the most remote idea of pop-ups.  Heads will roll Verizon, heads will roll.