Untukmu Para Pengunjung

Sorry to let out the news to those of you who wanted a surprise, but we can't hold it in any longer... we're having a baby boy! The ultrasound lady did a triple-check and was "100% sure" (which is fairly confident...) We have the names picked out, but they're a secret (everyone needs a bit of suspense in life), so you can guess, but please don't pester John - he might cave under the pressure! :)


We have both started work. We're back at THQ (territorial headquarters) for The Salvation Army. This is starting to be a theme with us... but we're thankful for jobs. John is editing The Salvation Army's websites as well as the main magazine. I'm working on campaigning the international days of prayer for victims of sexual trafficking. We're both actually doing pretty much what we were doing before we left for Zimbabwe. In a way this is comforting. In a way it's like we're in a time warp where I'm wondering if (the 10 years is felt like we spent in) Zim ever happened. But they did.

We had our psychological debrief of our experience in Zimbabwe, and well... they let us leave the building, so that's a good sign! :) Basically the psychologist said that we both need time to seriously de-stress because we've been over-extended in every possible way in terms of stress and "vigilance." He said it's way too early for me to try to integrate our Zimbabwe experience into our Canadian life. I guess that will come later...

3 reasons why the Pimp My Kettle will FAIL.

1. Social Networking around a false hobby
Where the hell is the consumer insight in this one? When have people ever tried to Pimp their kettle. We already have a social networking site, it is called Facebook, why do we want another? People created Nings around social objects/niche passions people have(no one loves pimping kettles)

2. Fake people
Kill me now, this is reminiscent of Skip Harder, why don’t you do a bit of research find someone who actually does do this and use them as your poster boy, Instead of trying to pull the wool over your dumb target markets eyes(I am in this market and find it offensive)

3. Google Pimp My Kettle
Where is your site? Do you think everyone is going to remember and type your site URL straight in. Who the hell launches a site and does not even get the SEO.

Why am I laying into this campaign so hard?
Because it is these sorts of campaigns that wreck the name of Social Media Marketing for the people who actually know what they are doing.

Here is some advice;
Clemenger BBDO get someone in who knows what they are doing, or stick to above the line! It is good to see your creatives are stealing their ideas straight from Youtube too.

This clip was produced a year before the Fanatastic Noodles campaign

Fanatastic Noodles when Clemenger tell you they have had success with the social networking side of things. Have a look at who has joined, all the profiles (there is only 49 at last count) are from Adelaide, is this any coincidence that this campaign came out of Clemenger Adelaide?

Bloggers call out these rubbish campaigns because if we don’t they will just tarnish the reputation of Social Media Marketing.

I am not alone here either;
Matt's(Zakazukhazoo) interpretation of this rubbish
Zac thinks PimpMyKettle is wrecking his future as well

This comment by Tait Ischia was in the comments section but it is so insightful I decided to publish it in the body of the post. Check out the comments section for the great discussions about this campaign.

I think the core issue is that the idea to incorporate social marketing into the media mix seems to have come from a need to reach the target rather than extend the idea. I can't really be bothered going into how terrible the site is; I just don't think it warrants any critical perspective. These things happen all the time - think recent Vegimite campaign.

What I found interesting though, is the giant lift-out I found in this month's Vice magazine. Vice got Ed Woodley from China Heights (and Oxford Art Factory) in Sydney to pimp a kettle for the campaign. It's fucking cool. Which means it could have been done well. It was actually a fairly OK idea. Although it was a 'rip-off', so was the Honda 'Cog' Ad. And everyone loved that. Some call it appropriation and others copying, but whatever people say, execution is the biggest difference between the two. And if the execution is done well, then ripping-off becomes referencing and everyone's happy.

Conclusion: Poorly executed campaign mixed with social media being chosen too late in the process. There are other things as well - just to name a few: A confused selection of media placement eg. poster in Vice, terrible use of irony in street posters, a mainstream look trying to target an underground populace, and not to mention a great list of (hopefully well-payed) artists that the vast majority of the mainstream gen-y audience will not give two shits about.

The big agencies don't really get it. Not to mention most creatives thinking they're cool and hip-to-the-scene but in fact being complete wannabee douche-bags. I have no problem in saying that because I see it all the time. Although I must say the guys at Publicis Mojo are the antithesis of that statement. A little less so after Toby & Serene left for Fallon a year ago. Sad, but as an industry we need more of those people.

I wholeheartedly agree we need more critical perspectives on campaigns like this so that others don't fuck-up social networking for the rest of us who are trying to do it properly.

A atriz Carol Castro, que atualmente interpreta a Sheila em Beleza Pura, novela da Rede Globo, possui uma tatuagem tribal na barriga. Na foto abaixo, podemos perceber a tatuagem em destaque.

Carol Castro foi fotografada por Bob Wolfenson e será presença garantida na edição de agosto da revista masculina Playboy. Além da recente novela, Carol Castro teve outras participações importantes na TV, entre elas: Circo do Faustão, Os Amadores (Marta), O Profeta (Ruth Ribeiro), Bang Bang (Mercedita Bolívar), Senhora do Destino (Angélica), Mulheres Apaixonadas (Gracinha), e no cinema, Perigosa Obsessão (Mariana), Um Show de Verão (Salete Keli), O Caminho das Nuvens (MSereia).

BACKGROUND A post by Duncan Riley a few months ago alerted me to NAB leaving commercial unrelated comments on a number of blogs. When questioned their PR agency (Cox and Inhall) defended their position suggesting it is a public space. I thought I would help illustrate what they had just said by going into banks and spamming my blogging message.


For NAB response from spokesperson Felicity Glennie-Holmes check out Jim Stewart video interview.

For the full story over the NAB spamming debacle head too Marketing Magazine indepth post on the issue.

A comment that came up in the MarketingMag Forum by Gerry McCusker caught my attention

‘Julians branch spam stunt adds nothing to the debate but may work as a profile-booster for Colesy as a maverick blog personality’

and here is another quote about the video from his blog

'It’s not very funny, but does say a lot about how one blogger approaches self-promotion.'

I actually respect Gerry cause he has challenged me a number of times (He is not a fan of self promotion through the Top 50 Australian Marketing Blogs either).

You gotta love the complement of ‘Maverick Blog Personality and added nothing’. However I think that Gerry is being a little short sighted in thinking that this is the only benefit.

Trying to explain the blogosphere to people who have never published or commented on a blog is a hard challenge. Being able to give analogies of what it is like is a very important learning tool. If my video has made one company think twice about blog spamming (The Marketing Manager thinks what it would be like if they came to our store and did it) then I think you could not argue that I have added nothing to the debate. At the very least I allowed more people to get involved or engaged in the issue.

However if you were trying to say that I have not added anything constructive to NAB, I have to agree with you.

I am a firm believer in constructive criticism and that is why I have offered Felicity Glennie-Holmes NAB Media Manager a ticket to the upcoming AIMIA Advertising and Marketing through Social Media Event (disclosure: I will be speaking at the Conference). I think that this Panel (Andy Jamieson, Andrew Cordwell and Nick Cummins (my old boss)) will give valuable insight too NAB on how they should get involved in social media in the future.

Nos post anterior, conferimos os tipos de carpas. Agora, podemos conhecer as origens das carpas, ou seja, quais os cruzamentos originaram aos diferentes tipos de carpas. Trata-se da árvore genealógica referente as cores das carpas, uma das teorias sobre a koi, desenvolvida por Seishu Kataoka.

Não existe um registro oficial sobre as mutações das carpas, mas acredita-se ser a carpa vermelha ou Hookazuki, a partir da koi preta. A partir da koi vermelha, originou-se a primeira carpa branca. A Koi Magoi, foi criada a partir do cruzamento de linhagens de koi selvagem, castanha e preta, e azul e preta.

Estão descritas as carpas: Asagi Magoi, Magoi, Tetsu Magoi, Higoi, Narumi Asagi, Doro Magoi, Doi tsugoi, Konji Asagi, Karasugoi, Aka Bekko, Ki Bekko, Taki Asagi, Goshiki, Shusui, Aka Matsuba, Ki Matsuba, Hajiro, Ki Utsuri, Kohaku, Aigoromo, Kinbo, Chagoi, Kogoi, Hageshiro, Shiro Utsuri, Hi Utsuri, Taisho Sanshoku, Shiro Utsuri, Kin Kabuto, Kumonryu, Showa Sanshoku, Ogon, Shiro Utsuri e Matsukawabake.

Obs.: As linhas castanhas, indicam raras aparências ou mutações.

It's our 6th wedding anniversary today. We're still madly in love. Married life is the best (as long as you marry the right person).

We got to hold a 5 day old baby yesterday (Benjamin Hutchinson). It was incredible. Seeing John hold the baby made me want to cry. Babies are such a miracle.

I feel huge!! (I know, I know - I've got to get some photos up...) I've always had a high metabolism and flat stomach (all my lady friends - please don't hate me!) so this is quite an adjustment. We picked up my parents from the airport last night (after having seen them in B.C. two weeks ago) and they both zoned in on my ever-growing belly. I think our baby is enjoying the whole "living in a country with lots of food" thing. I bought 2 pairs of shorts when we moved back to Canada and I can't squeeze into them anymore. I obviously expected to grow, but I didn't expect it to happen so rapidly! All of a sudden our double bed seems small. I feel like I hardly have any space and my loving husband insists I'm taking up most of the bed! Normally I love my big belly. I can't resist touching it and showing it off, because our little baby is in there. But at night it's a bit frustrating (who enjoys sleeping on their side?) and I feel like I've started to waddle. Oh well, huge and happy...

This is in response to Chris Brogan post Why Twitter Wins

Also works for Facebook Status Addicts as well

Your friends drive your social media choices. Don’t believe me? Answer the following two questions.

1. What do you prefer to use Facebook Status or Twitter/Plurk?

2. What platform are most of your friends on?

The answer to the two questions will have the same answer.

I was in a critical meeting the other day with someone who was testing my social media knowledge. He started indirectly questioning me about Twitter and my Twit friends.

I walked away from the meeting feeling a little pissed off. This guy was going to measure my knowledge of social media by my low involvement in a social media channel.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

At the end of the day Social Media comes back to the people who are driving it, which are your friends. In my case all off my offline friends are on Facebook, only a select few of my marketing friends are on Twitter.

I know that a lot of the social media/marketing community is on Twitter and Plurk and I try to make an effort to stay in touch but I find it hard because it is not my number one form of microblogging and information sourcing, I use Facebook Status and my RSS reader for that.

Social Media succeeds by being 80% Social (Friends), 20% Media (Technology Innovation)!

Twitter has not failed it just has not grabbed the critical mass of my friends yet, therefore I don’t use it.