family fun: recession's resulting laughter

One of the positive results of the recession (as difficult as it is to find positives from that situation) was the return to family-time. Families were shifting their entertain budgets to staycations and board games, keeping them closer to home and bringing them closer together. The return of family-time means a need for more family-entertainment and hence we have emerging family entertainment.

Welcome back to the good ol' days of TV family comedy. We've gone from television portraying a desperate and deranged suburbs to television that entertains us by celebrating the beautiful imperfection of family life. 'Modern Family,' 'Glee' and 'Secret Life of the American Teenager' are there to show us how our wholesome American values live in the modern world.

Makes you wonder... Do families that laugh together, live together more happily? Could stronger family values and ties lead to fewer divorces? During the recession many couples put off getting divorced because of the high associated costs. What's become of those couples? Are they enjoying a laugh on the couch with the kids? Could the time have mended those wounds? As we gracefully exit the recessive stage of the union, will more couples remain united?

poll says...

@heyamberrae just shared this new polling site with me - urtak.com. You create your own polling question, then people can add relating questions (or otherwise I suppose). The eventual results are layers of interesting human insights. Some interesting potential in this one...

Urtak 2185

broadband - causing the downfall of the elitist art world

In a Wired Magazine article, Banksy discusses power in the art world: "There’s a whole new audience out there, and it’s never been easier to sell it, particularly at the lower levels. You don’t have to go to college, drag ’round a portfolio, mail off transparencies to snooty galleries or sleep with someone powerful. All you need now is a few ideas and a broadband connection. This is the first time the essentially bourgeois world of art has belonged to the people. We need to make it count."

location-based drink-thinking

The mobile-tech trend of location-based is moving beyond social media. How could a beverage brand adapt the idea to location-based drinks? One idea, a drink could create it’s own Foursquare check-in that drinkers would check into when drinking. Or maybe a hashtag that a Foursquare user writes into their message when drinking that drink in a particular place. For a reward, they could earn a badge from Foursquare for associating with that drink. The reward for the brand is an association with a particular moment or type of venue. That, along with the fact that when you check into Foursquare it sends all of your users a text, so lots of exposure for the brand coming from trusted sources. 


Wrote this for liquidinspiration.blogspot.com, reposting. 

racing for a cure!!

I'm training to run the NYC Marathon November 7, 2010 with the  Leukemia Lymphoma Society's (LLS) Team In Training. In order to run I have to raise $3,800 for cancer research and programs for cancer patients. Support the cause and this diabetic kid running the marathon by donating through my page!

political slap party

"For Democrats, having a health care bill is not only a 'major policy victory' but also a 'badly needed psychological boost' for a party that was growing increasingly desperate for a major accomplishment with the November election looming, according to [Charlie] Cook [of The Cook Political Report]." - Washington Post


What the leaders of the Democratic party aren't seeing is that the entire party is not sitting around the table with them. I am a member of their party, many people I know and you know are members of that party. But WE don't see this as a win. What has been won? We can't even understand how this bill is going to affect us as every news source says something different and the hidden negatives of the bill are popping up in sources that aren't necessarily trustworthy. This is not about a slapping game between two old stubborn parties who are disconnected from the citizens they are meant to serve. This is about creating justice and fairness in the health system so that we can have healthier citizen.


What makes me even more sick is this:

"Politics Daily reports: "The Democratic National Committee announced it will begin running ads Thursday praising House Democrats who voted for the health care reform bill and calling out Republicans who opposed it. The ads -- 25 on television and 10 on radio -- will run in markets across the country." 


Chest beating? Seriously?

This is going to bite the Democrats in the ass if it doesn't solve the problem. The reality is that solving problems can take time, more time than there is between now and November. The current confusion that citizens have over the bill will only lead to more discontent. Good luck hanging on to Congress in Novemeber guys. 

virtual latte anyone?

Just read this article in fast company about BooYah, a location based service that is now partnered with H&M to offer discounts on clothes for those checked-in. This is very similar to what Foursquare is working at.

I recently learned about how on another location-based service, Gowalla, you can leave virtual items in the ether of a space you've checked into that another user can choose to take. It's all fake little gidgets, say I leave a teddy bear and someone else who checks in can take that and leave a toy train. This makes me think of Second Life and how real currency is converted to digital currency and whole businesses are run across the bizarre platform. Wondering if that's where Gowalla's idea may head next? Could they release items virtually, only in specific venues that people could buy/sell? Granted buying a virtual cup of coffee while standing in a coffee shop may not be as enjoyable as buying the physical version, but I feel like there's something in that. Want to discuss and explores possibilities in this.

google the translator

Was recently chatting with a group of friends about how language is the biggest fence for technology to jump over. Here, Google Goggles has found a way to scan a line of text taken in a photo and translate from German to English. So it appears that the Android is now a mobile translator. Would be great if the Droid could not only translate, but pick out key words in that translation and provide links to related content. Example: in this video, it could link to wikipedia page on herbs or to a page of recipes using similar ingredients.

One day.

tell the tube you've had enough

Starting a movement when the world got their entertainment through the tube was as simple as giving a good speech. But now everything is a moment or is attempting to start a movement. We're all mad as hell and yelling out the window is pointless, no one would be able to hear you over their ipod headphones or ringing cellphones. We're all in our own little movements standing for what we believe in, even if we don't really know what the hell that is. Insanity ensues.

What's especially neat about this clip is if you go to Youtube and look at the comments, it's making people think. It applies ever more today and we still don't know how to respond or take control of the messages we are receiving.

colorful emotions

First post of 2010!

Just found this book called We Feel Fine that explores emotions through blogging. Beautifully done. One of the 10 trends to watch in 2010 according to JWT is new forms and uses of visual data.

merry christmas!!!

We didn't have a tree, so I made one out of construction paper on the wall. Merry Christmas to all!!!!!!

static no more

Love the old adage "art work is never done" and think it is applicable to websites, which are constantly updated. Successful webpages are not static likes posters, they are real-time. They allow motion around and in and out of the site (links) satisfying the basic needs of the reading audience.

However, websites are often not open and malleable for the internal audience. We perfect for the outer audience not taking into account those who form the organization that a site represents.

For example, a school's website acts as a representative of those who attend the school. Take my alma mater, the VCU Brandcenter - the website is like a poster that you can move about. The students have no way of altering it or adding functions that they desire*. So, it is most useful to outside sources. However, a different school, Yale's school of art is changing the way to look at school webpages. Here's what their page says:

Beautiful. Not what you'd expect from an Ivy League. But constantly a way for that community to be actively recreating itself.

The background to one page was hilarious. Either someone intentionally put up this message from photobucket, or their account actually ran out.

This totally makes sense for the animal that an art school is. The creative work its' students exhibit is what makes it intriguing to other perspective students and the general art community.

*Now let's clarify: I understand why this has become protocol. Due to limited capabilities and resources, we know that a website cannot do everything. However, I don't believe that structuring our thinking about the potential of the web around CURRENT limitations is wise. What is currently impossible will be laughably easy in the future if we find that it is necessary for us to put our brain waves on it.

planning comms based on unemployment

Working on an insurance account and a funny/relevant comms planning idea just occurred to me. We plan communications based on what media vehicle they will roll out in or when a consumer along their journey will encounter the communications. But watching the unemployment rates across the country, would a smart comms plan for something like life insurance or a bank include geography based on unemployment rates?

Think about it, your communications in an area like Detroit, which is still reeling and grasping for jobs needs to be very sensitive to their situation. Northern Virginia on the other hand hasn't been hit as hard thanks to the number of government jobs that are held in the area. Communications in that geography for a national bank would be vastly different.

A map showing unemployment rates across the country:

will wave be the new twitter?

Twitter has been overrun by spammer crap. Meaning that users will get fed up and head elsewhere. Another problem that I've been having with Twitter is that I can't converse/reply to Tweets unless I have direct messaging open with someone. I don't want to bug those who follow me with short replies to friends. Lists have helped us find Tweets that are most useful/catered to a particular purpose.

But with Wave I can have conversations with friends and the convos are as private or open as I want them to be. All of my Waves are saved and quickly accessible so the convo can start/stop whenever I feel like adding to it. I can write notes to friends for them to read at a later time (yeah, like an email) and it's all within the same Wave.

I kind of see public Waves as a combo of old aol-style chat rooms and Twitter-lists. They can be catered to a specific interest - I'm in the "planner wave" and anyone in the world can join. But with the use of profiles and the links that people post to their multi-faceted web-presence, it's less creepy than a chat room.

Could Wave some day replace Twitter? Seems unlikely, but then again...

I have a few invites to the Wave, if you'd like one leave me your gmail address.

moving along

I am leaving my role in trendspotting at JWT and heading to TAXI to be a planner there. I am soo excited about this move!! I've enjoyed working at JWT, there are a lot of great people there. Wish me luck!