A New High (or Low?) in the Innovation-Disruption Model

• A New High (or Low?) in the Innovation-Disruption Model - Annotated

  Historically, advertising has worked by interrupting consumer activity and then introducing a message to continue to disrupt. The approach captures consumer attention (when it works) and aids in recall later. With social media, marketing has been more inbound than outbound with a move away from the interruption-disruption model, but a new form of out-of-home signage wants to use technology to improve on the old way of doing things. The innovation? Video mirrors from the Mirrus company. The mirrors have been installed in Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium on East Carolina University's campus - one of three universities to test the technology.  The promise is that the mirror is a mirror if someone approaches the mirror - but the potential is clearly there to interrupt activity to show an ad. Is this a high or a low in advertising advances? Leave a comment to share your opinion. 

  tags: ECU smm ECUAdvertising outofhome mirrors Mirrus

  • A mirror hanging in the entryway of the ISP Sports office is more than just a mirror. It’s an animated billboard.

    
    

    The Geico gecko strolls across the top of the reflective panel touting their insurance brand. Then an ad for Pledge cleaning supplies pops up.

  • Were someone to step forward in order to lather and rinse or check their makeup, those ads would disappear offering the person a clear view of themselves and the room — just like a normal mirror.
  • It’s a bit of new technology that East Carolina University Pirate football fans will soon be accustomed to seeing. ISP, which handles the corporate sponsorships and broadcast rights for ECU athletics, partnered with a company called Mirrus this year to try out the new advertising medium, Vice President and General Manager Meghan Heinchon said.
  • The corporate messages run on 15-second loops of video or a still image, displaying four advertisers per minute. Those can be changed by inserting a different memory card — like the type used in digital cameras and other media — into the mirror, Heinchon said.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Practical Ways to Manage Social Anxiety

• Practical Ways to Manage Social Anxiety - Annotated

  Do you get nervous in a crowd? Freeze before making a presentation? Stumble over words in a conversation with someone new? How do you handle it?In this piece from Psychology Today, we learn that social anxiety if simply fear - fear of being around others. Author Srini Pillay says the fear is fear of embarrassment. I'm no psychologist, but I don't buy that. I suffer from anxiety - and if you see me someplace and then suddenly notice I'm gone, you've probably witnessed my common reaction! to run away! From my personal experience, I can tell you for me at least, it isn't fear of embarrassment. In any case, Pillay offers some good tips here.  Consider medication and therapy if your anxiety is severe. Reflect on your identity, the role of others in your life, and the real risks you face in social situations. Accept that fear is okay. And, there's more in the article. My thanks to Holy Kaw on Alltop for the original link. 

  tags: anxiety PsychologyToday students tips

  • The issue with social anxiety, as with most forms of anxiety, is that the anxieties and fears are not just conscious.  “Dealing” with them through avoidance may get rid of the conscious fears but the unconscious fears still wreak havoc on the human brain
  • Beneath the surface, the brain is still “running the circuit” of fear, except that you cannot hear or feel it.

  • So what can you do to deal with this?

    1.  Stop isolating.  Instead, consult with a psychiatrist or your primary care physician to see if medication may help take the edge off.

    2.  If you are opposed to medication, know that there are many therapies out there that can be very effective.  Ask your psychiatrist about CBT and metacognitive therapy as a start.  A longer-term psychodynamic therapy is usually also helpful.

    3.  Once you’ve addressed extreme anxiety with one of the above, reconfigure your self-concept and reflect on the points above.  This will help you direct your attention away from yourself toward other people.

    4.  Do not expect that the fears will go away immediately.  Recognize that many of them are unconscious and will take time to “find”.

    5.  Overcoming your fears is definitely possible and has been achieved by many people.  But this is not an overnight process. Many other ancillary techniques such as meditation and exercise can be helpful.  In my book “Life Unlocked: 7 Revolutionary Lessons To Overcome Fear”, you will learn about how these fears may be keeping you from your own success.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

A Peeve: Talking about Social Media

If you are reading about and working with social media, you've probably seen the many charts, graphs, and images reflecting what people and businesses are using in the social space. Just this morning I read a report which included a graph of the social media tools commonly used by businesses. The list includes Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs, YouTube, social bookmarking sites, Digg or similar sites, Ning, MySpace, and forums.

Can you guess my peeve? It's the scattered and inconsistent references to the media and vehicles that are available to us in social media. Social media are a group of interactive media with web connectivity within communities. Media = plural. Just like broadcast media includes the medium of television and the medium of radio, social media includes the medium of social networks, the medium of blogs, the medium of forums, the medium of media sharing sites and so on. The specific channels within each medium are vehicles. Twitter is a vehicle in the medium of microsharing. Facebook is a vehicle in the medium of social networks.

As social media develops and becomes increasingly integrated in our business practices, it will become valuable to use its component terms appropriately.

App Shopper: Spin The Coke (Entertainment)

App Shopper: Spin The Coke (Entertainment)

I love the way Coke has used the emotion of nostalgia in this mobile app - Spin the Coke. What other apps have used emotion (over utility) as a point of value?

Prepping for Fall - Advertising and Social Media Marketing

I'm gearing up for fall semester. Today's work has focused on preparing a course schedule and identifying assignments for my students. We're going to be doing some really interesting activities and exploring lots of things online and off.

Things are going to be different this fall. For one, I'm using Diigo to post articles and materials for students to consume and discuss out of class. Also, we're going to use a wiki to create our campaign projects for our clients. The clients will be able to see the work as it develops and provide feedback. And, I'm going to do my best to share what we do here so others can benefit and follow along, as they wish.

Do you have suggestions for my students? Please let me know. There are so many valuable resources out there - sometimes the biggest challenge is awareness.

Snuggie Wants YOU to Direct Its Next Commercial [VIDEO]

• Snuggie Wants YOU to Direct Its Next Commercial [VIDEO] - Annotated

  Snuggie is ready for its next ad campaign. Who is the agency? It's you! Create a video about Snuggie and submit it to the Snuggie UGC contest. 

  tags: Snuggie ugc contest video YouTube viral 2010 smm

  • The rules are pretty simple: Allstar Products Group, the maker of Snuggie, is inviting people to enter the Snuggie Choice Film Awards via SnuggieFanClub.com.
  • All you have to do is create your own tribute, parody, song etc. — no longer than three minutes — and submit it to the webpage above. The contest ends on September 1 at midnight, at which point six finalists will be chosen by Snuggie fans. The finalists will be flown to New York in October. Awards () include a $5,000 grand prize and $2,500 for second and third place, Snuggies (natch), and the chance to appear in future commercials.

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.