Bird Turd
mashable.com/2010/02/22/bird-turd
A new iPhone App called Bird Turd makes it possible for you to poop on tweets that you don’t like. For $0.99 a turd you can show your disapproval of someone else’s tweet.
I think it’s a clever idea that might make twitter a bit more amusing, especially for the really boring tweets that you get sick of reading. Call me immature, but I think it’s a pretty funny idea. I may not be able to afford $0.99 to drop a turd on every tweet I don’t like, but I am sure there are many people who can.
Future Journalists
mashable.com/2009/12/30/social-media-guide-for-journalists/
This article is about social networking tips for journalists. It offers helpful tips and links for journalists trying to catch their breath in today’s real-time media atmosphere. Tips like, a guide on how to create and store data on social media accounts such as Facebook and Twitter, how to connect your news website to other sites, and how to stay ahead of the game when it comes to journalism.
I really enjoyed this page, I found a lot of the links very interesting. Here are a couple in particular:
http://mashable.com/2009/12/09/future-journalist/
http://mashable.com/2009/09/15/social-news-sites/
Kids in Front of Screens
http://mashable.com/2010/01/20/youth-media-consumption/
This article is about the time kids spend in ‘front of a screen,’ in other words it’s about the amount of media kids are consuming today. Including time talking and texting on the phone kids spend upwards of 9 ½ hours consuming media each day. And with kids multi-tasking and using multiple forms of media at once the average is closer to 11 hours a day. This compared to 5 ½ hours five years ago.
This is an insane amount of media for a kid to be consuming. I wouldn’t be surprised if the number was even higher than 11 hours a day for a lot of kids. Whatever happened to riding a bike?
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Saturday, February 13, 2010
Marketing a Blender: A look at 'Will It Blend?'
www.blendtec.com/willitblend
Will It Blend is a series of videos featuring the founder of Blendtec, Tom Dickson, trying to blend nearly anything that fits into the Blendtec Total Blender. He showcases the extreme power of Blendtec’s home blender by chopping up everything from sports equipment, to toy action figures, to digital devices, to glass and metal jars of food. Yes, he blends the food AND the jar!
It’s really a genius marketing campaign for a blender company. What better way to sell blenders than to prove it can blend anything? This marketing campaign is an entertaining and informative way to promote the blender and the Blendtec Company, which also makes mixers and mills.
Link to Blentec's Product Page
Blendtec’s marketing campaign was obviously a success based solely on the number of viewers that have seen the Will It Blend series, which is 200 million and counting. In an interview on the website socialmediab2b.com George Wright, Blendtec's VP of Marketing, mentions how Tom Dickson, the host of Will It Blend, has become an internet celebrity. He can’t go anywhere without someone recognizing him from the video series.
More importantly it was a success in the sales department. In that same interview Wright also says that the sales of Blendtec’s home equipment have increased by 700 percent, not to mention brand awareness has skyrocketed. So that alone pretty much means it was a success.
Interview on socialmediab2b.com
A COUPLE OF MY FAVORITE EPISODES:
In one episode Tom fills the blender with a handful of action figures, “The Bad Guys,” and one Chuck Norris action figure, or “The Good Guy.” Tom goes on to explain how the two greatest forces of ‘good’ in the world are the Blendtec Total Blender and Chuck Norris. Then he proceeds to stuff the bad guys and the Chuck Norris doll into the blender. Sure enough, the Blendtec tears through the ‘Bad Guys’ and thanks to a little video editing Chuck Norris remains unscathed, proving once and for all that evil is no match for the Total Blender. Tom also makes a couple Chuck Norris jokes including a ‘Walker Texas Ranger’ reference and a ‘Total Gym’ reference. Yes, it’s a little corny, but it certainly drew attention to the product!
Link to Will It Blend?-Chuck Norris
In another notable episode Tom created a dish called “cochicken” by blending half of a rotisserie chicken mixed with a 12oz. can of Coca-Cola (without the can). In the actual episode the chicken included the bones, probably because no one was actually planning on eating it. However, since the episode aired the phrase “cochicken” has actually caught on, and there was a boneless version prepared on NBC’s show Today which was actually eaten by the host Meredith Vieira. This was yet another smart move by Blendtec’s marketers in an effort to get their name widely known. I couldn't find the Video of the Today show, but here is the original version.
Link to Will It Blend?-Cochicken
Will It Blend is a series of videos featuring the founder of Blendtec, Tom Dickson, trying to blend nearly anything that fits into the Blendtec Total Blender. He showcases the extreme power of Blendtec’s home blender by chopping up everything from sports equipment, to toy action figures, to digital devices, to glass and metal jars of food. Yes, he blends the food AND the jar!
It’s really a genius marketing campaign for a blender company. What better way to sell blenders than to prove it can blend anything? This marketing campaign is an entertaining and informative way to promote the blender and the Blendtec Company, which also makes mixers and mills.
Link to Blentec's Product Page
Blendtec’s marketing campaign was obviously a success based solely on the number of viewers that have seen the Will It Blend series, which is 200 million and counting. In an interview on the website socialmediab2b.com George Wright, Blendtec's VP of Marketing, mentions how Tom Dickson, the host of Will It Blend, has become an internet celebrity. He can’t go anywhere without someone recognizing him from the video series.
More importantly it was a success in the sales department. In that same interview Wright also says that the sales of Blendtec’s home equipment have increased by 700 percent, not to mention brand awareness has skyrocketed. So that alone pretty much means it was a success.
Interview on socialmediab2b.com
A COUPLE OF MY FAVORITE EPISODES:
In one episode Tom fills the blender with a handful of action figures, “The Bad Guys,” and one Chuck Norris action figure, or “The Good Guy.” Tom goes on to explain how the two greatest forces of ‘good’ in the world are the Blendtec Total Blender and Chuck Norris. Then he proceeds to stuff the bad guys and the Chuck Norris doll into the blender. Sure enough, the Blendtec tears through the ‘Bad Guys’ and thanks to a little video editing Chuck Norris remains unscathed, proving once and for all that evil is no match for the Total Blender. Tom also makes a couple Chuck Norris jokes including a ‘Walker Texas Ranger’ reference and a ‘Total Gym’ reference. Yes, it’s a little corny, but it certainly drew attention to the product!
Link to Will It Blend?-Chuck Norris
In another notable episode Tom created a dish called “cochicken” by blending half of a rotisserie chicken mixed with a 12oz. can of Coca-Cola (without the can). In the actual episode the chicken included the bones, probably because no one was actually planning on eating it. However, since the episode aired the phrase “cochicken” has actually caught on, and there was a boneless version prepared on NBC’s show Today which was actually eaten by the host Meredith Vieira. This was yet another smart move by Blendtec’s marketers in an effort to get their name widely known. I couldn't find the Video of the Today show, but here is the original version.
Link to Will It Blend?-Cochicken
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
iPad....what's the point?
What is the point of the new iPad? From what I’ve gathered it’s a product made to compete with laptops, but I don’t think it will compete. I don’t think the iPad will replace laptops at all, not even a little bit. To me it seems more like a giant iPhone that is too big and awkward to use on a daily basis. Nearly anything that can be done on the new iPad can be done on your iPhone, which is much more convenient. Actually the iPhone has something the iPad doesn’t, a camera. I’m not sure how you would take a picture with something the size of the iPad anyway but that’s just one of its many downfalls.
The size isn’t the only problem with the new iPad. There is no USB port on the iPad making it difficult to upload from other devices. Also, the iPad doesn't support Flash player, which means users can't connect to sites like Disney, Hulu, or ESPN, as well as many popular online game sites. I just don’t understand how you can make a product that is supposed to compete with the laptop, and not have it be an overall better product. I just can’t imagine that people would spend $500 on a product they don’t really need.
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