Brand Ng

How teenagers view facebook and twitter

This cartoon, drawn by a teenager, is a reminder--for me at least--that while just about every high school kid is on the web today, their choices of platforms sharply define their identities.  

I get the impression that marketers believe that 100% of the 12-17 set are on facebook and twitter. Even if that were true (it's definitely not, especially when it comes to twitter), teens aren't there uniformly.  They may also be trying out different personality styles, using different venues to express themselves differently.

Brands that focus all of their attention on these two platforms could risk missing the edgiest, most creative and nerdiest groups (all of whom are likely to overindex as future tastemakers).  

Moreover, while brands might believe they are on the cutting edge simply by participating on both facebook/twitter, they may actually be relegating themselves to "vanilla" status.

Cartoon credit: [Taylor-Ruth / Hanging Rock Comics]*

* The age of the cartoon will ultimately be significant to the message: the drawing was originally published in July 2011, just after the invite-onlylaunch of Google+ and the $30M myspace fire sale.

Interactive Outdoor Installation: Lunchables

 

This is a nice interactive installation for the Lunchables (Kraft) "healthy" launch, found near Union Square in NYC.  The promotion is meant to highlight a new line of fruit-centric Lunchables.  For kids, the Lunchables brand is clearly meant to be fun.  For adults, I'd think that a significant problem is that parents might feel guilty for buying Lunchables on many fronts - health, environmental, laziness, etc.

In order to solve these three communication challenges (fruit/fun/guilt), Lunchables put a couple of motion- and touch-sensitive screens and a camera in the window of an unused storefront.  

On one screen, you can get your picture taken and can then replace one of your features with a fruit (for instance, replace your smile with a Sunkist-like orange peel - a rip off, to be sure).

On another screen, you can see photos taken from around the country at other similar installations. Lunchables pledges to donate up to a "million pounds of fruit" to Feeding America based on the number of photos collected--surely a feel-good message for parents.  And it's coupled with great, clean photography and quirky (but not loud) design, giving parents a sense that the product is acceptably healthy. As for whether or not the product has truly improved, I'll leave that up to nutrition experts.

Finally, if you're happy with your photo, you can email it to yourself for posting on Facebook or elsewhere.  I think the promotion is largely successful in solving the communications challenges, even if I am fairly skeptical about the product in general and wasn't thrilled with the UI.  

I also quite enjoyed my pineapple head photo.

Click on any image below to enlarge.

An orange smile, taken straight from Sunkist's long running campaign.

A small camera with an interactive screen

1. Pineapple ring eyes was an option. 2. A photo of the email screen. The UI for the entire thing was fairly bad.  Over several days, I saw moms with kids, getting frustrated because they couldn't figure out how to operate the camera.  It took a bit of work myself. 3. The result that was emailed to me.

Is E*Trade submitting user-generated comments about Lindsay Lohan to the court as marketing?

Looking like watery milk to me.

In the ongoing Lindsay Lohan Milk-a-holic lawsuit, E*Trade filed papers with the court, with user generated comments that are as nasty as you might expect.

E*Trade says it is simply trying to prove that LiLo lives in LA and not on Long Island. But user generated comments, such as those calling Lohan "a pot-stirring, lazy, irresponsible, disrespectful little drama queen," say something beyond geography.  

So is E*Trade simply trying to feed the publicity cycle for the Milk-a-Holic story?

I think it really depends on whether or not you think they will win this case.  My hypothesis when I started this post was that it must be for the publicity, because Lohan just doesn't have any leg to stand on--she's not the only Lindsay after all (think Lindsey Vonn or Lindsay Wagner or any of your friends named Lindsay who happen to like milk).

But doing some quick research, I found that Googling the individual term "Lindsay," results in Lohan's Wikipedia page fluctuating between #1 or #2,with a few other Lohan-related pages ranking in the top 10. 

Compare this to a search for LiLo, a term that is clearly more rare and ownable. Lohan doesn't rank in Google's LiLo top 10--they are mostly pointing to the Disney character.

Perhaps I am late in the game to think that E*Trade actually might have something to worry about in this case. Juries are already unpredictable, but I am starting to fear that Lohan might really be LINDSAY.  If E*Trade shares that fear, it probably isn't for publicity, and maybe it's just a tactical, pre-trial move after all.

...And if Lohan really is LINDSAY, then the ONDCP would certainly need to answer for this:

UPDATE SEPT 22, 2010: LINDSAY and E*Trade settle their lawsuit.

Brilliant Movie Ad with Tweet Integration for Ben Stiller's Greenberg

Check out this inventive online display ad for Greenberg the Movie. 

1. Opening panel invites you to tweet directly into the ad (you'd need to click for details)
2. Clicking the ad forces you to watch a preview of the movie.  Apparently, it's about a neurotic guy with wandering thoughts.
3. You get to add your own neurotic thoughts by entering your Twitter username/password and tweeting it. No matter what you write, it will be perfectly aligned with the movie idea.

If that weren't enough, there's a good chance that the content of your tweet--displayed to all of your followers, mind you--is about Greenberg the Movie.

That's great stuff.

Help me decide which logo to use for BrandNg.com

So the contest at LogoTournament is over.  I think the variety was pretty good--with some funny options--even though I'm not sure I found the perfect logo.

In any case, I'm opening it up to the floor: What do you think?

You can view all of the remaining logos at http://logotournament.com/index.php?module=contest_view&id=560.  Refer to the # below each logo, on the left hand side.