Digital Hive

Careerbuilders Event Update

Our friends at Ad Freak had their own little blurb about the Careerbuilders.com parade of crazy in New York with a link to a Flickr page with extra photos.  Someone's going to be really pissed upset at their temp agency.  "No really, it's three hours on the street handing out postcards and no one will ever know you did it..."

So Boston and New York City got plastered with "Is your job worse than mine?" postcards.  Anybody else?

You can read our report from September 26th HERE.

The Long Virtual Tail

iTunes, Netflix, eBay, Amazon - we all know the value (and explicit proof) of the Long Tail by now. These online outlets have long been credited with helping feed every consumer's nuanced passions and interests, and successfully making money out of it. MySpace has become a forum for a seemingly endless number of struggling musicians to gain momentum and a loyal following scattered across continents. But I haven't yet heard murmurings about another outlet that may take niche-marketing to a whole new level....

This blog posting about fashion design in Second Life got me thinking: Are MMORPG and their avatar residents the newest form of an ultra-niche market? Think about - it's all VIRTUAL. The possibilities for dressing, feeding, housing and entertaining an online alter-ego are really only limited by the imagination and technology. And when it comes to clothing design, technology has already improved to the point where the finest shadow, texture and detailing can be rendered digitally. An avatar clothing designer can flex his or her creative muscles and gain credibility (and acclaim) as a genuinely talented creative mind. They can even get paid for it! Even American Apparel has capitalized on the opportunity, offering over 4,000 different designs in their Second Life store.  Thoughts, comments? Should we ask Chris Anderson to write us a new chapter?

Careerbuilder.com - Is Your Job Worse Than Mine?

Good morning Boston! This was the sight that greeted me as I approached the office a little after 8:00am. A man dressed as a giant pair of underpants. I'll call him Underpants Man.

Washington Street was not exactly bustling at that hour - both Macy's and Filene's being closed at that early hour, so Underpants Man had me in his sights and was determined to hand me whatever he had going on. I cut him off at the pass announced I would accept his offering in trade for a cameraphone photograph. Underpants Man agreed and aren't you the fortunate ones for it? This was no ordinary Underpants Man, this was an ambassador for careerbuilder.com. This is my kind of drive-to-web promotion. That's not to say his other character friends had the same appeal - the bunny was okay, the chicken was outright scary and the girl in the baby outfit looked just plain miserable - and not "in character" miserable.

I like a good live event promotion, and you can usually hook me with a laugh. So first I get Underpants Man and then I get the the postcard asking "IS YOUR JOB WORSE THAN MINE?" Damn, you got me - I laughed hard.

I'm giving Underpants Man big props because when I ventured outside for lunch 5 hours later he was still working the crowd (now bustling). Although his pitch was slightly different - and I quote "Please take a card so I can go home". Indeed sir, I will take another card - in exchange for another photo.

I note for the record at the 1:00pm hour (at least for Underpants Man) "the gloves were off" - literally. The characters seemed to have a pretty good "give rate" (compared to the guy who hands out the Psychic Tea Room flyers). But did it work? (Well, aside from me, though I'm not looking for a new job!) Did anyone click through to the Job Recommendation Engine? Did you venture to the Monkey Mail banner?

Did anyone witness this behavior in any other cities? I'd love to know the extent of the promo. --Faithfully submitted by a longtime reader, first time Digital Hive poster. Speak to me Internets, speak to me. Comments are open, operators are standing by.

It would be more productive to just admit you've lost

According to a recent AdAge article, the advertising industry is hiring a PR outfit to burnish its sullied reputation. Apparently all of us working in advertising are suffering, what with the demise of the 30 second TV spot as the be all and do all of our clients' marketing toolkits.

I was delighted with the article's candor: "....consumer behavior and technological change call into question the relevance of ad agencies, especially the largest ones, and their best-known commodity, the 30-second TV spot." But I also sense denial - the industry's traditional reaction to the profound changes which have rocked our industry and consumers: "Our industry has had a reputation problem the past few years, though that's been turning a bit with the excitement around new media" (from Julie Thompson, co-chair of 4A's PR committee and communications chief at Leo Burnett).

My question is, why don't we just do better work as an industry, starting with giving customers what they want - instead of push marketing stuff at them that they don't want or need. And,why don't we actively embrace and enthusiastically promote "new media" (instead of begrudgingly admitting it just might be here to stay) which are finally giving consumers the control and engagement they crave from brands?

Instead of bemoaning big media's loss of control over John Q. Consumer, why not give the consumer even more power and enable his/her pursuit of control and content? Why aren't the leaders in the industry trying to actually lead, inspiring marketers as well as fellow agencies to start playing the game differently?

College kids using more internet than TV - is this bad or good?

We all know internet usage is up up up every time they take a measurement - particularly among younger consumers (see this recent Burst media study (reg. req'd) for the latest channel use statistics for college kids).

Some cranky parents and elders might say hey, all that time spent in front of a PC is eliminating your social skills, why aren't you outside playing basketball with all the other lovely young people you know. Go join the Boy Scouts or something to learn how to win friends and influence people.

Organic's Zachary Thacher has a modern take on the upside of IM'ing, gaming and MySpace: "Not to be a media-chauvinist, but the internet creates a space where you can watch a dorky video, contribute to a political campaign, chat with a friends, buy stuff, research a product and check out a buddy’s profile all at the same time. TV doesn’t compare, and it breeds inactivity."

He concludes: "the fact they’re taking away time from the passive medium of TV to interact with a global network can be a good indicator for what these kids will think is important as they mature: being connected, informed, involved."

I concur that internet is good!

Snaps to Three Minds' coverage (Zachary Thacher) and thoughts which got me going.

Search Engine Optimization for - dating?

OK so I guess I've been missing out on a major trend because I'm not single. According to the Wall Street Journal (reg. req'd), success with online dating services now requires the adoption of search engine optimization-like techniques. It's apparently not enough to be hot and available, you've also got to be an online marketing genius - and harness the power of the newly in control consumer, who's reviewing your every dating move and decision.

The WSJ opines: "Members of Engage.com can review people after one date for politeness and honesty. Consumating.com users give one another "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" depending on how clever their profiles are. JDate.com encourages members to talk about their dates on a message board, inviting them to share stories of "best dates, worst dates" as well as "turn-ons, turn-offs".... The result is an emerging caste system, where highly rated daters see a lot of action, and others are deemed undateable."

Sounds kind of rough - particularly for the gentle transaction of falling in love.

But, why shouldn't the customer be in control of buying this "product"?

Spinning out of (network) Control?

Last week in a meeting with Bear Sterns, David Poltrack, CBS Chief Research Officer and President of CBS Vision, reasserted that DVRs are actually a good thing for advertisers. "For the big shows--the most popular shows--it's quite feasible that there'll be more delivery of advertising exposures than they have now--even discounting for all the fast forwarding."  Poltrack claims that the DVR playback of these shows will actually increase current ratings by roughly 4 percent.  He went on to say with the proliferation of DVRs in US households, it will actually translate to higher commercial ratings for networks to sell to advertisers. 

Sounds like a rather rosy scenario for the TV networks.  And if you're shaking your head, I'm with you. 

As a DVR user, when watching shows in "playback" or "time-shifted", I always skip the commercials.  In talking with other DVR users, I know they do the same. 

There's a landmine in my hamburger

The New Zealand Campaign against Landmines (CALM; http://calm.org.nz/) is using executions on condiment packets to point out the dangers landmines represent. To open the packet, you have to rip someone's foot off. And if it's a ketchup packet, well, you get the idea.

According to a posting in AdFreak, “Well it is graphic, it is shocking, but so too is the reality—15,000-20,000 [people] having that sort of thing happening to them as a result of landmines,” says one backer.

A wonderful use of an unusual medium in a contextually relevant way to convey an important message.

More about the campaign here: http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/411749/829601

Thanks to AdFreak for this one: http://adweek.blogs.com/adfreak/
Original posting from Spare Room (http://www.spareroom.co.nz/2006/09/14/saucey-campaign-landmine-awareness/)

Account planning job - account planner wanted!

Digitas Boston needs a customer insight leader in account planning. Are you the one?

Here's why you should be interested:

It's a smart career move. We all know the days of TV-driven push marketing are coming to a close - which is creating a lot of excitement and opportunity for forward thinking account planners and clients. Plus, if you want to have career options in the future, you need to learn interactive now. We do interactive like nobody's business - have you seen noscruf.org? Pontiac.com? And, we are helping our clients to harness the power of the ever more powerful consumer. Download a PDF about our approach - Active Branding.pdf

We have really big, successful clients. GM, AMEX, FedEx, AARP, The Home Depot, P&G, Gillette, AT&T and Intercontinental Hotel Group - just to name a few

Account planning @ DTAS is a great way to be creative. Account planning here is integrated into creative, it's not a separate standalone organization. This is because we believe customer insight (account planning's primary product) is an incredibly important driver of the big creative marketing ideas our clients ask us to create. Close partnership with creative is how we keep coming up with great ideas.

Boston is a smart lifestyle choice. Boston is totally awesome. Yes it's not as big as New York, but that's the point Charlie Brown. It's livable, affordable, walkable. Good luck finding a 1BR apartment for under $1,200 in another US coastal city of this size.

Click on the continuation to see the whole job description and how to toss your hat in the ring.