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Archive for August, 2010

15 Minutes of Fame

Friday, August 27, 2010 — 

 

People envy you. People talk about you. People put you down. This is what happens during your 15 minutes of fame, if and when you get it. Is there ever a right way to handle it? Can you be prepared for it in advance? And with today’s “faster than a speeding bullet” news delivery, can you ever react fast enough?  What would you do if you were the JetBlue flight attendant?  Conversely, YouTube is betting our online attention span has gotten longer and recently upped their video maximum to 15 minutes (New York Times Bits Blog).

There are so many intricacies surrounding 15 minutes of fame, even though it sounds like it should be simple. Here’s a list of people I’ve compiled (via memory and a little Twitter help). I think most of these people, who got famous for a variety of reasons, got a bum rap.

Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher – Joe the Plumber
James Frey – A Million Little Pieces book controversy
Ken Jennings – long-running Jeopardy winner
Larry Platt – Pants on the Ground
Spencer and Heidi Pratt – The Hills
Susan Boyle – sang “I Dreamed a Dream” on Britain’s Got Talent
William Hung – sang “She Bangs” on American Idol tryout

Individuals are seldom ready for an onslaught of attention, but most organizations prepare for the good and the bad sides of media for years in advance. And this preparedness shows when businesses or people handle their 15 minutes well. The tricky part is making the time count, with the right balance of storytelling and personality. And my big thought and question is: does that right balance really exist?

Now for the interactive portion (which I think has the potential for some really great debate!):

1. Can you think of a person or organization that had 15 minutes of fame and benefited from it without any backlash?
2. Is your company or organization ready for 15 minutes of fame if it happens?
3. Personally, how would you handle all the fame?

Erica Gordon is currently interning at Clear Verve and works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University.  Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

The Power of BYO

Friday, August 20, 2010 — 

 

When we entertain, the phrase “bring-your-own [insert item here]” or BYO is commonplace to ask guests to bring a dish or beverage to pass.  The BYO concept is great for entertaining and can also carry forth into the commercial world.  Here are a few great examples:

Restaurants: A recent Nations Restaurant News article featured restaurants that have started offering  corkage-free promos. They encourage people to bring their own wine to restaurants and do not charge a corkage fee.  It’s a great idea.  It allows wine connoisseurs to bring the wines they love to meals.  Plus, it allows budget-conscious diners to save some money.

Retail locations: OfficeMax & Menards – both offer special percentage off days where you receive a specific discount if you bring in the paper bag they provide.  An even better and greener alternative – most grocery stores provide you with a discount when you use a reusable tote bag for shopping.

Movie Theaters:  Concessions definitely are a money maker for movie theaters, but something many budget conscious people cut back on.  To keep people coming in, Fandango offers “bring your own popcorn” times.

How can you incorporate a BYO concept into your marketing/promotions?  Here are a few ideas to get you started:

  • Is there an area of your business where you can forgo a product/service but still retain your profit?
  • Get to the bottom of what pains your customers.  If you have a good understanding of this, you can help ease a burden for them – even if it is something small.
  • Are there any social good organizations you can partner with to help them and offer some sort of BYO concept?

Please share ways you’d suggest adding a BYO concept into your business or organization or great examples you have seen.

Susan Schoultz is Client Service Director at Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns.  Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve2.

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Waving Buh-Bye to the Wave: One POV Regarding the End of Google Wave

Monday, August 9, 2010 — 

 

People have options aplenty when connecting with people online. Email, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (yes, it still exists), Skype, blogs, photo galleries, instant message applications and Google Wave, the impetus of this post. People who happen to use all of these tools tend to use each one for something different – besides the overall reason of communication.

In my experience, people like and need to have their worlds divided into multiple categories: work, family and social life. Within each of these divisions, there are more separations: book clubs, sports teams, children’s play dates, longtime friends, new friends, guy friends, girl friends, online acquaintances, mentors etc. The list is endless. But the point of the list is that it shows people are inherently dividing up parts of life. Google Wave was trying to bring everything together and, in my opinion, that might have made people uncomfortable.

As convenient as it might be to have multiple ways of communicating in one place, we already have that idea with computers or handheld smart phones. While it is a great idea for Google to recycle parts of Google Wave as they figure out how to redevelop their ideas, it was time for the official Google Wave to go. People have already personalized ways to pull their different worlds together without meshing them together. And, in most cases I’m guessing it’s without the use or creation of a high tech program. It might just consist of having a system or order of communication amongst the different groups.

Overall, I completely understand what Google Wave was trying to do and I am impressed by what it looked like. I just think that what they developed can work better in separate communities as an intranet of sorts for the time being. Pulling everyone’s online communities together might be a little too much too soon.  Your thoughts?

More on the end of Google Wave:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/08/update-on-google-wave.html

Erica Gordon is currently interning at Clear Verve and works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University.  Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

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