In this week's Adhocracy column, "A few simple questions remind us of what's important," The Globe's advertising and marketing reporter, Simon Houpt, writes about a Vancouver YMCA campaign that focuses on "social dislocation." It seems, we've all gathered around our computer screens rather than visiting a park, venturing outside or meeting up with others at the local Y.

The social media campaign and animated spot represent a returned focus to "brand essence" for the iconic 125-year-old YMCA brand.



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A weekly compendium of interesting items from the world of media, marketing and advertising.


MediaWeek, April 4, 2010
Media departments are no place for guessing. With millions—even tens or hundreds of millions—of dollars at stake, clients want hard data showing that their budgets are being well spent. Read the MediaWeek article.


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BY MARK SWARTZ, THE CAREER ACTIVIST®

Promoting yourself as a specialist in your field – be you a media, branding or product management maven – is one of the main uses of Twitter.com.

In Part 1 of this series we looked at the basics of setting yourself up on Twitter: signing up for free, claiming your own Twitter URL, sending out initial Tweets, and injecting your expertise into your maximum of 140 characters per Tweet.

Now we’ll move on to the next stages of Twittering. This includes getting followers to read your precious Tweets, and disseminating these Tweets to other forms of social media, such as Facebook and LinkedIn, so that you quickly broaden your base of readers.




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A weekly compendium of interesting items from the world of media, marketing and advertising.


THE GLOBE AND MAIL, Harvey Schachter, March 29, 2010
In this week's Morning Manager column, Harvey Schachter shares seven questions managers should ask to assess their readiness to rebound from the recession. Read Harvey Schachter's Globe and Mail column.


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BY DIANNE NICE
THE GLOBE AND MAIL

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Booty call
Normally we wouldn't condone posting pictures of your buttocks on Facebook, but maybe just this once. As part of its campaign to raise awareness of cancer screening, the Colorectal Cancer Association of Canada is inviting all exhibitionists to upload pictures of their backsides (or, for the shy, a “stand-in butt”) to getyourbuttseen.ca. Then on March 31, we're asked to form a giant “buttmob” and post our posteriors as our Facebook profile pictures in a show of solidarity against the disease. We are totally behind this idea. We're going to sit on the office photo copier right now. Who's with us?

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In this week's Adhocracy column, "The beauty – and burden – of having choices," The Globe's advertising and marketing reporter, Simon Houpt, writes about the effects of choice on consumerism."

His engaging story is based on an interview with Sheena Iyengar, Columbia Business School professor, who has just published a book entitled The Art of Choosing . Houpt also weaves in Malcolm Gladwell's pop psychology musings.



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A weekly compendium of interesting items from the world of media, marketing and advertising.


THE PROACTIVE REPORT, Sally Falkow, March 17, 2010
This one-page guide to investing in marketing efforts through social media is a definite keeper. Share it with your colleagues. Read Sally Falkow's blog.


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In this week's Adhocracy column, "Going beyond the 'dark green' with a non-nonsense pitch," The Globe's advertising and marketing reporter, Simon Houpt, unveils a new campaign for Bullfrog Power that asks people to "pay more."

The campaign is based on the premise of educating consumers about the hidden costs of conventional energy.



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BY MARK SWARTZ, THE CAREER ACTIVIST®

So you want to make a name for yourself as a respected specialist in your field, but you don’t have time to write detailed articles and get them published by credible sources, nor can you afford time away from the office to speak at all sorts of distant conferences on your area of expertise.

What might you do easily then to widely distribute your knowledge and set yourself up as a guru?

The answer may lie in that latest of social media phenomena, Twitter.com.




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A weekly compendium of interesting items from the world of media, marketing and advertising.


THE GLOBE AND MAIL, March 10, 2010
Over the next 20 years, a great demographic shift could alter Canada's economic, political landscape. Marketers should take note.

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BY DIANNE NICE
THE GLOBE AND MAIL

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The many roles of Barbie.
In her 50 years, Barbie has held down a number of jobs: surfer, rock star, ballerina. As part of her “I Can Be” campaign, Barbie has commissioned an Angus Reid survey that reveals Canadian girls are a pretty ambitious bunch. For instance, more than half of the girls surveyed said they would rather own their own company than be a secretary or a stay-at-home mom. We're curious, then, why Mattel has decided to bring out Barbie dolls in the likeness of Mad Men's Joan, the cheating secretary, and Betty, the alcoholic stay-at-home mom. Martha Stewart seems a more fitting choice: Ex-Con Domestic Diva Barbie?

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In this week's Adhocracy column, "Doritos opens a grab bag of potential," The Globe's advertising and marketing reporter, Simon Houpt, focuses on a current contest launched by Doritos that spurs participant to rack up the most social media points by sending their amateur video into viral orbit.

For ad execs out there who may be wondering if this spells the beginning of the end for agency-produced spots, you need not be too concerned. Houpt analyzes in detail.



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