How Sweet It Is: New Twitter Followers Activate U.K. Agency's Rube Goldberg-Esque Gumball Chute

In the marketing profession, we see a ton of innovative, clever, and creative ideas (after all, that's at we're paid TO DO, right?) every day. Now, admittedly, some are much better than others. Hey, just because we said they're innovative or creative doesn't mean that they're quality, or that they hit the mark! :) In any case, this is one of the more on-target creative concepts we've seen in a while.

As reported in this piece on Adweek's AdFreak blog, U.K. brand communications agency Uniform has created a fun...and rather elaborate and whimsical...gumball machine ― dubbed Sweet Tweet ― which spits out a sphere every time a user follows the company on Twitter. The machine, which is activated when the user clicks "follow," then sends a jumbo gumball down a winding chute complete with twists, turns, drops, jumps, ramps, and even multiple 360-degree loops directly into the agency's studio. In return, Uniform automatically sends out an @reply to the new follower with a link to the following video of the machine in action.

According to Uniform's future director Pete Thomas, "We wanted to create a physical app that connected our studio to our Twitter followers, raising awareness and alerting us all to each new follower." The agency specializes in creating real-world Internet-enabled experiences, so the Rube Goldberg-esque contraption seems to reinforce that positioning and expertise.

Give Sweet Tweet a whirl by checking out the video below of the gumball machine as it goes to work:

A Fountain Of Light...CES Style

Last week, we had the privilege of attending, for the eighth time, the glitz, glamour, and gadget showcase that is the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas...or in industry parlance...simply CES. According to published media reports, this year's show attracted nearly 150,000 attendees and over 3,000 exhibitors from all over the world, including consumer technology behemoths Microsoft, Intel, Sony, Samsung, Sharp, and countless others too numerous to mention.

While there was plenty of action on the show floor, and as there always is on the world-renowned Strip, the highlight of our week was attending an exclusive customer and partner V.I.P. soiree for our client at Hyde, the brand-spankin'-new nightclub inside the Bellagio which just opened on New Year's Eve. Overlooking the iconic Fountains of Bellagio, the 10,000 square-foot indoor/outdoor Hyde marks the first-ever nightlife experience in Las Vegas from sbe and globally-acclaimed designer Philippe Starck. It is a sight to behold, and definitely unlike anything we've ever seen, either in or outside of Vegas. Hyde is not for the timid or those light in the wallet:  private parties start at around $500 per person, and it's all bottle service, with 1.75L of Grey Goose setting you back a cool $1,550.00.

Speaking of the Fountains of Bellagio, our party was on the terrace overlooking the lake and the fountain show, with proximity so close you can feel the spray on your face. Check out this cool video which we took of the show from inside the club:

CMAC Visits With Santa Claus

So last night, we had the privilege of attending the Camarillo Chamber of Commerce annual holiday open house, always a fun and entertaining event with tons of great colleagues, good cheer, and gourmet food and beverage.

And while there, my friend Pat Krull of Broadview Mortgage and I got the chance to pull Santa Claus off to the side, and tell him what we really want for Christmas! Check it out...

Yet Another Example Why Proofreading Is Of Critical Importance: Part III

In a humorous, but astonishing, case of pure coincidence, two high-profile retailers, Old Navy and JCPenney, both committed major faux pas this week with misguided T-shirt offerings...and just in time for back-to-school shopping, the volume of spending for which is predicted to be down this year.

Exhibit A:  Old Navy. As reported in this piece on Ragan.com, the Gap-owned retailer printed sports T-shirts with "Lets go" across the front. Obviously, the phrase is missing an apostrophe, and it should have read, "Let's go," as a contraction for "Let us go." No big deal, right?

Well, in most cases, probably not, except that Old Navy distributed thousands of shirts to college campuses across the country, with each shirt customized according to the colors, logos, and mascots of the individual college. For example, this short to the left is sold at the University of Michigan.

So what message does this send to the students? That correct grammar and punctuation are unimportant? Old Navy earns a fail on this one, particularly since the product had to be approved (and presumably, proofread as well) by multiple layers of management before shipping and hitting store shelves.

Exhibit B:  JCPenney. Our friends at Adweek caught wind yesterday of a social media firestorm created by the retailer when it decided to sell, and then later pull from its shelves, a $9.99 long-sleeved T-shirt that reads, "I'm too pretty to do homework so my brother has to do it for me." The promotional copy accompanying the item on the website only made things worse:  "Who has time for homework when there's a new Justin Bieber album out? She'll love this tee that's just as cute and sassy as she is."

The messages? That girls being intelligent just isn't cool; looks are the most important quality one can possess; and never the twain shall meet. Even though the shirt was intended to be fun and playful, teenagers these days, especially young ladies, are bombarded with inappropriate messages from multiple sources...and that just doesn't cut it with parents and educators.

Now, to be fair, JCPenney immediately responded to an online petition from Change.org requesting the immediate removal of the shirt by pulling the offering from its inventory. The company also individually responded to many negative comments on its Facebook page, although the responses were simply cut and pasted from one person to the next. Finally, JCPenney issued the following statement:

J.C. Penney is committed to being America’s destination for great style and great value for the whole family. We agree that the “Too pretty” t-shirt does not deliver an appropriate message, and we have immediately discontinued its sale. Our merchandise is intended to appeal to a broad customer base, not to offend them. We would like to apologize to our customers and are taking action to ensure that we continue to uphold the integrity of our merchandise that they have come to expect.

While we applaud JCPenney, from a crisis communications perspective, for its quick action to diffuse the controversy, let's face it:  the company shouldn't have been in this position to begin with.

P.S. Check out this story late yesterday from PRNewser on the "stupid shirt" debacle caused by JCPenney.

Dilbert Pokes Fun At PR Firms, Ethical Standards

The world of public relations firms, where I spent the majority of my career, is a very interesting place, and one that is not for the faint of heart. I'll save some war stories for another day, but it's a realm where ethical lines are often crossed, intentionally or unintentionally. Therefore, ethical behavior remains a major focus of the profession even today, and the largest association, PRSA, is aggressively pushing the adoption of its comprehensive ethics charter...and for good reason.

I wouldn't normally make light of ethical issues in the profession I love, but I saw this "Dilbert" strip the other day and had to share...just for fun, and because I thought it was humorous. The fact the subject matter is borrowed from a recent scandal involving a large global PR agency and a major technology brand only makes it more titillating. "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams always has a unique take on certain issues, and PR is certainly no different.

You can also view this directly on the "Dilbert" site here.

The Gift That Keeps On Giving: Anatomy Of The Perfect Corporate Gift

If you've ever had to purchase a meaningful thank-you, service appreciation, or holiday gift for your boss, a co-worker, or a valuable client, then you know exactly how difficult a task it can be!

The wrong gift, even if expensive and carefully chosen, can send the wrong message. For example, a wine basket may be inappropriate if the individual does not imbibe. A collection of cookies or candies could be a poor choice for someone who is diabetic or hypoglycemic. A gift card, even to a retailer or restaurant that you know the person likes, may appear like you didn't put any thought into the gift-giving process. And funny gifts may fall flat if the recipient does not understand or appreciate your humor. In other words, you have to REALLY know the person to whom you are giving the gift in order to make the best possible selection. So what to do?

Our friends at Flowtown, a social media marketing focused on delivering solid return on investment, came up with this humorous image of the perfect corporate gift, which essentially combines every possible option so that you cover all your bases!

It truly is the perfect SUPER gift!

O.K., this is all in good fun, but seriously...if you do have to buy a business gift for an individual of important, please make sure to evaluate his/her likes and dislike, and allow yourself enough time to evaluate a broad range of appropriate options. As the saying goes, "Choose wisely."

Cupid ♥ Social Media: The Latest Valentine's Day Stats

Obviously, today is Valentine's Day, and love it or hate it, this faux-holiday is responsible for billions of dollars in consumer spending annually: everything from traditional and electronic greeting cards and flowers, to candy, jewelry, cute stuffed animals, and countless other red, heart-shaped gifts and accessories. Frankly, it's just too big to be ignored.

And so it goes in the social media space. With the explosion of social media sites worldwide, and with users frequently discussing the status of their relationships (for better or for worse) openly on these forums, the social media realm provides some unique insights into the nature of today's relationships. In addition, it also yields several interesting perspectives on how social media enhances, or detracts from, Valentine's Day plans and gift-giving.

As explained in this story yesterday in Mashable, a recent study of 400 Facebook and MySpace users by Lab 42 offers a solid overview of how Americans perceive their relationships, use social media to describe them, and summarize their Valentine's Day plans. It's all laid out in this intriguing infographic, which may be clicked to reveal a larger view:

The story astutely points out of telling findings. For example, 16% of singles have their current relationship status on Facebook listed as “dating,” “engaged” or “married.” However, no married respondents called themselves “single.” A staggering 88% would rather receive a Valentine's Day gift at home, which we find funny because our two decades of experience in the workplace has been just the opposite. Why? People like to receive their gifts at work to flaunt them in front of their co-workers. And probably the most compelling result is that 41% of the users polled claimed they said "I love you" to their significant other in three months or less. This figure goes up to 63% when factoring in a timeframe of six months or less. Really?

In any case, whatever your status is, have an enjoyable Valentine's Day, and we hope you're spending it with someone special. If for some reason you're not currently in a relationship, then make sure to treat yourself in some way. You deserve it!

Social Media Commandment #1: KNOW Your Audience

Happy New Year, one and all!

I thought I'd kick off 2011 with a humorous blog post, and hopefully one that sets the tone for the rest of the year. While busy closing out year-end business today, I happened to come across this hilarious cartoon on Mashable, and I just couldn't resist sharing it here on Marketing Mulligans:

See you later on this year...

Twitter Reaches Another Historic Milestone: 20 Billion Tweets

According to tracking service GigaTweet, and as reported by Mashable, Twitter recently just hit another historic milestone: a whopping 20 billion tweets since the service's launch.

Interestingly enough, Twitter reached the 15-billion tweet mark just two months ago (June 2010), and 10 billion tweets only five months ago (March 2010). These recent benchmarks strongly indicate that activity on the microblogging service is acclerating at unprecedented rates.

It should be noted that GigaTweet’s data is unofficial, but even Twitter acknowledged earlier this year that it is seeing more than 50 million tweets per day, and approximately 1,ooo tweets per second.

Along with this explosive growth, Twitter continues to add thousands of users every day, and the amount of media coverage devoted to the company rivals, and even exceeds, that of many Fortune 100 companies.

Social Media Powerhouses Facebook, Twitter Hit Major Milestones

Lost amidst all the hoopla, online chatter, and unrelenting media coverage this weekend concerning Apple's iPhone 4 press conference (and the resulting fallout) on Friday morning, social media powerhouses Facebook and Twitter both announced impressive milestones which deserved to be highlighted.

As reported in this story by Samuel Axon of Mashable, Facebook is expected to reach the 500 million user mark some time this week, based on the current rate of new user sign-ups. To commemorate the remarkable achievement, the service intends to launch a new campaign, called “Facebook Stories,” which will serve as a visual memorial to all the ways the social network has changed people’s lives around the world.

To put this rapid growth in perspective, Facebook reached the 400 million user mark just five months ago. Furthermore, this time last year (July, 2009), the platform was at 200 million subscribers. Only eight months prior to that, in December of 2008, Facebook had reached 100 million users. For those keeping score at home, this represents a 500% increase in users in only 18 months. Incredible. No wonder MySpace is in trouble. Oh yeah, and one more thing: even though Facebook officially launched in February of 2004, most of its growth has come in the last two years, and it has since become the most popular social site and a cultural phenomenon.

As far as Twitter is concerned, the micro-blogging service announced on Friday that Spain's 1-0 victory over the Netherlands in the championship game of the 2010 FIFA World Cup marked "the largest period of sustained activity for an event in Twitter's history." According to company spokesman Matt Graves, making the announcement on the company's blog, tweets per second reached 3,051 when Spain scored the winning goal, and there was an average of 2,000 tweets during the game's final 15 minutes. During the final match, people from 172 countries tweeted in 27 different languages, and at the moment of the winning goal, people from 81 countries tweeted in 23 different languages. The full story on WebNewser about this can be found by clicking here.

Interestingly enough, Twitter's analytics and relevance teams decided to capture and visually document all of this activity in the following Wordle infographic:

In reviewing the chart (of which you can view an enlarged version by clicking here or on the image itself), Twitter advises individuals to think of these results like sound waves: the louder and more consistent the "sound," the bigger the impact in all directions. In addition, countries' flags represent use of their hashflag. The size of the flag "waves" fluctuate with the frequency and consistency of tweets containing each country's hashflag.

Facebook As Art...Imitating Life

In the Internet age, digital art, particularly those astounding works comprised of much smaller images arranged in mosaic patterns, has become extremely popular among the masses. Largely the rareified air of famous celebrities and political figures, this form of expression has now trickled down to the technology sector. No, I'm not talking about Bill Gates, Larry Ellison, or even Steve Jobs. Now enter the social media platform CEO as an international luminary...and displayed here as a work of art.

Conceived and created by virtual designer Charis Tsevis for Wired Magazine, this unique work of art, featuring Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is composed entirely of Facebook icons:

Two questions: 1) Who knew that Facebook icons were so versatile?; and 2) As impressive as this is, who really has the free time to create this stuff?

Caged Animal? Nope...It's Just A Newspaper Columnist

As detailed in this post by Pandora Young today on FishbowlLA, Orange County Register columnist Frank Mickadeit recently spent three days at the Santa Ana (Calif.) Zoo...as an animal exhibit, of all things.

The genus? Columnist Horribilis, although I'm sure I could have come up a better scientific label that more accurately reflects the sorry states of both journalism and the newspaper industry today. At the very least, it is an interesting, if not humorous and entertaining, social (read: zoological) experiment.

You can read Mickadeit's complete first-day account of the experience, along with photos and video, by clicking here. He details the second part of his zoo stay here.