Congrats to Eva for her quote in the September issue of MN Business!

“It isn’t rocket science but the reality is that this isn’t a cornfield in Iowa and if you simply ‘post it’ they won’t come! Geting the information (aka video) to (and viewed by) the desired audience is critical. The key is to mix tried and true and new stratgies to deliver the message.”

That’s right folks……Mercedes-Benz is partnering with Google and Yahoo Maps and offering a “Send to Car” function on their direction services. This service is set to launch on September 5th and will be implemented into the new CL, S, and C models. After the directions have been sent to your vehicle, there is an i-button on the car that downloads the directions and makes them available to the driver.

So what is different about this than a regular GPS system you may ask? Real-Time Traffic updates! People of Minneapolis Rejoice (If you are commuting in the Twin Cities these days…You know what I mean). Now if only I could get a new Mercedes….Hmmmm

I love the Internet — for many reasons — but most of all because it makes me laugh.Three things motivated me to write this “blog;” the Miss Teen USA Pageant, Mozilla Firefox and because I’ve not posted a blog in quite a while.

First Watch this video, if you’ve already seen it, watch it again. I’ve watched it ~ 48 times so far and it gets better every time. this makes me laugh

The Second Reason: Mozilla FireFox “back-to-school” clothing line.

One thing every kid needs when going back-to-school is another reason to be ridiculed.
Mozilla — yep, the Internet browser Mozilla — has a section of its web page dedicated to back-to-school Mozilla Wear. What sparked my curiosity was the link (below on the picture)
“ Turn Heads with back-to-school threads from Mozilla.”

You may be asking yourself how awesome one might become whence putting on a Mozilla T-shirt? I only wish I could have had these T-shirts in high school.

So with the recent trend of Rehab (No not Amy’s hit song) for young Hollywood…..social networking has taken cue (Ok, so this is for all people, but celebrities seem to be more interesting so we will focus on them   12 Steps Space is the self-proclaimed MySpace for people who have been through rehab.  It offers all the same ideas of a basic social networking site along with blogging and chatting support systems, recovery birthday cards, and a photo app that allows you to rate the photos (Are you hearing this LL?  People will be able to tell you how hot you are.)

All joshing aside (I am feeling kind of silly today), this seems like a very technologically advanced version of having a sponsor.  A big brother if you will to help people know that there are other people who have gone through the same things that they have and to help them feel less alone.  Kudos to you 12 Step Space……using social networking to make a difference in people’s lives…..who knew.

The self-proclaimed anti-social networking site, NoSoproject.com,  was launched back in March, but has been gaining buzz recently.  NoSo (standing for No Social Networking) allows for the creation of non-events (called NoSos) at designated coffee shops, bookstores, parks, libraries, and cafes.  These NoSos offer an address, a date, and a time like any event, however, the interesting factor about the events is that attendees are completely anonymous.  NoSo users do not give names or post photos like traditional social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook, the users simply have a number attached to there account and that is the purpose of the site, social anonymity.  The events are designed to emulate real world activities such as studying at a coffee shop and the possible connections you may have to the “strangers” around you.  In the case of these events, the connection is that any of the people in the space at the designated time may also be a NoSo user.

What do you think about this?  Is this a welcome change to the social networking craze?  Or simply an obscure piece of performance art?

Do you like Elvis? I sure do. My favorite Elvis song is, Viva Las Vegas! I bet you’ve heard it: “Bright lights, city gonna set my soul, gonna set my soul on fire!” The other day, when I heard the distinctive opening riff to Viva Las Vegas while watching TV, I felt a nice wave of anticipation. But, to my surprise, the commercial sponsor changed the lyrics. At first it confused me. I wondered, “What happened to ‘Bright lights, city…’?” Next thing I knew, the dudes in the commercial were lustily breaking into a refrain of, “Viva Viagra!”

I object to this. Not because I think the King would disapprove of his song being used to promote an ED product—I bet he’d be all for it. Not because I got a beef with Viagra. I object because I fear this will teach the wrong lyrics to a whole generation. Is that so bad? I’ll have to weigh having my favorite song ruined against some possible good outcome. For instance, maybe some time when I need a laugh, I’ll be lucky enough to be somewhere there’s a seven-year-old kid who gets the spontaneous urge to belt out “Viva Viagra!” and mortify his mom—or double mortify his dad.

Mainstream news opportunities are shrinking. Last month two relatively quiet announcements highlighted the trend:
1) Scripps announced it would be closing The Cincinnati Post and The Kentucky Post at the end of 2007, narrowing the list of media markets with competitive newspapers.
2) The Chicago Tribune joined the L.A. Times in announcing it will begin running ads on the front page of its newspaper.
Here in the Twin Cities, many media savvy PR people express similar concern about the sales and reorgs of the Star Tribune and Pioneer Press. I’ve read and heard the accounts of veteran reporters taking buy-outs or being assigned to new beats (including some of my favorites). And as they reduce newsroom staff, the natural result is for them to rely more on national wire stories. Not to mention the very real potential that we’ll become a one-newspaper town in the not-too-distant future. The newshole continues to shrink.

Mainstream news stories are nice (and frankly the uninitiated associate them as the defining tool of PR), but they are not the only way a brand and reputation are built. In fact, news stories may be very low on the priority list. Good PR practitioners are taking the process higher and asking the big picture questions, such as “What are the business objectives?” “Who are the key audiences necessary to reach the objectives?” and “What do we know about them and how to reach them?”
Instead of just putting out a news release, PR practitioners have the opportunity to manage reputation at a high level — researching what’s important to key audiences, helping their organization focus their business decisions, and then communicating them using a variety of new tools. For example, I know of one local industry-leading organization that’s doing less media relations and devoting more time and resources to executive visibility within targeted audiences.
That’s the beauty of PR. It’s not limited to a tool or tactic.

Ticketmaster is the primary company for ticket sales to major events such as concerts and large shows.  This is where people initially get there tickets (no they just don’t automatically come from ebay or craigslist).  Ticketmaster has been fighting the ticket reselling process your years.  It has done this by putting caps on how many tickets a single person could purchase and releasing statements to consumers to not by from “ticket brokers” such as Stub Hub and TicketsNow.  However, Ticketmaster has recently added a function on there site that completely copies the Stub Hub model, a social networking site for consumers to simply put there tickets up for sale or look to buy tickets to specific concerts (sold out or not).

Is it possible that Ticketmaster has given up on this fight?  Have they seen the value in allowing for fans to reach fans?  Is this simply a “If you can’t beat them, join them” stance?  What are you thoughts?  What does this mean for the way people purchase tickets?

See it coming: http://lolcats.com/

Learn more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolcat

The month of August is synonymous with Back-To-School which is synonymous with shopping. This is a time old tradition that is followed by the unavoidable back-to-school sales. JCPenney and Sears have been two of the biggest retailers for these sales for as long as I can remember. The funny thing is that as a kid gets older shopping at these two stores becomes less and less cool and sale prices less important. Teenagers long for Abercrombie, PacSun, Hollister, or whatever brand name their friend’s ALL wear (In my preteen years it was JNCOs….O yes JNCOs). Parents, however, do not often long for the higher prices they pay at these stores (How much are those Jeans?! But, MOM!!!).

Well, Social Media to the rescue! JCPenney and Sears have both implemented online social networking programs into their back-to-school marketing plans. JCPenney has created an online reality series called “Flipped” which has 8 webisodes featuring Chip and Peppper (high-end denim designers) doing style makeovers on teens using clothing from JCPenney. Sears has partnered with Meez to launched a virtual closet called e-Me. This features are large variety of the retailer’s Back-To-School items and allows the user to pick pieces, view outfits, and save wanted items. These two retailers are hopping on the social media bandwagon in hopes to appeal to that pivotal preteen/teen market.

What do you think? Are these social media efforts on point? Will kids respond to this favorably or will it be another lost marketing effort? Can traditional retailers gain market share this way or is the power of peer influence too strong? I’d love to hear your thoughts.