Homeland Security Steps in to Save Us From Social Networking

Lately there has been a lot of discussion about privacy issues on social media sites, including Facebook's recent changes to 'Like' the entire Internet. The brew-ha-ha has blown up to the point that this morning I received this email from the US Department of Homeland Security:



ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! HIGH RISK! BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU SHARE ON FACEBOOK! (Click the icon above to share this message on Facebook).

The irony made me laugh. The message itself was pretty basic: You may feel safe sharing personal information online, it's stupid to think that, don't be stupid.

It seems like common sense, but as social media becomes more and more prominent, it's good to recognize that just like all things on the Internet, social networking is not 100% safe. Bottom line: don't make any personal information public you wouldn't be OK sharing with the next stranger who drives down your street (especially if that driver happens to be the Google Street View truck). Read more!

Happy Tax Day!

April 15 is here! I Hope you have everything filed, stapled, and backed up. If not, don't waste too much time watching this classic "The Simpsons" clip.

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Restaurants Think Millennials Eat Different Than Normal Humans

Look at those crazy Millennials in that picture. When they're not styling their hair or being ironic they are always on their phones sharing their entire life with the world digitally. This is how marketers generically perceive this generation*.

*The exact time frame of the Millennial generation (also known as Generation Y and Echo Boomers) varies depending on who you ask. It is sometime between 1978 & 2000. Some divide that time frame into two different generations: Gen Y = born late 1970s to 1990 , Millennials = born 1990 - 2000. Dividing it makes more sense to me as the behaviors and attitudes of a 32 year old today (born 1978) are a lot different from those of a 10 year old today (born 2000).

Millennials are defined by 2 things:

• They are constantly online, either on the computer or their cell phone
• They share everything about themselves.

That's it. There's nothing else to them. You can sell and justify any business decision based on these two generalized attributes. At least that is the impression that I got this morning when I read a USA Today article about new menu items being rolled out by national restaurant chains including California Pizza Kitchen and Cheesecake Factory. The chains are adding small, cheaper, tapas-style items to their menu that are meant to be shared among friends. Their logic behind this new addition: Millennials like texting and sharing and stuff, they will like sharing food too (and then possibly Tweeting about how awesome it is?).

From the USA Today article:

Casual-dining chains are trying just about anything. They're particularly eager
to attract socially minded Millennials who are just as comfortable sharing a
plate of food as they are sharing social media.

"This is how the next generation is eating," says Bob Hartnett, CEO at Houlihan's, which just rolled out 23 small-plate items.

WHAT?! When did we start eating differently? I'm not saying these new menu items are a bad idea, they're not. I do, in fact, enjoy ordering a bunch of small plates and sharing among friends, but why is this being considered a Millennial only activity? When I'm out at a tapas-style restaurant I don't see only a 20 somethings sharing food, I see people of all ages and backgrounds be it friends, families, or coworkers. It appears to me that this is how EVERYONE is eating.

It is just as illogical to say that Millennials are eating differently, than it is to say Millennials are all over social media, when data has shown that Baby Boomers are the growing demographic in Facebook and Millennials have no use for Twitter. Face it, everyone is online all the time sharing info, and everyone likes to share food when they go out to eat. If you don't realize that when developing a marketing strategy, you're leaving out a large part of your target audience. We have progressed beyond, "kids these days and their crazy technologies." Either we are now all Millennials in some shape or form, or maybe, just maybe, there is more to the Millennial generation than the generic definition placed on them.

Where do you stand? What defines a Millennial to you? What additional attributes would you add?

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2010 Cleveland Concert Season Playlist

Well the snow is melting, the Indians are almost through with spring training, and the Cavs are getting ready for the playoffs. Spring is here, and with it comes a whole slew of bands and musical artists coming to the Cleveland area. My spring/summer concert lineup is filling up fast. There's a lot of good acts touring this year. Here's what I plan on, am considering seeing, or would like to see if I didn't already have plans:

April 4 - Julian Casablancas - House of Blues Cleveland
April 8 - Fanfarlo - Grog Shop
April 11 - Wilco - Carnegie Music Hall, Pittburgh
April 13 - The Hold Steady - Beachland Ballroom
April 13 - Wale/K'naan - House of Blues Cleveland
April 30 - Yeasayer - Grog Shop
May 5 - Frightened Rabbit - Grog Shop
May 11 - Pearl Jam/Band of Horses - The Q
June 9 - Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros - House of Blues Cleveland
June 10 - She & Him - House of Blues Cleveland
July 20 - Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers/Drive-By Truckers - Blossom Music Center
July 26 - Kings of Leon - Blossom Music Center

That's my schedule. What's yours? Are you going to any of these shows too? Am I leaving out a group that I simply MUST SEE live?

I leave you with my Summer Concert playlist featuring all of the artists listed above. You'll find it on the right sidebar under my Twitter feed. Give it a listen, and feel free to create and share your own similar playlist in the comments. I love discovering new music, and we all need something to listen to to make it through the work day. Read more!

'Nurse Jackie' Character Uses Twitter in Real Time; the future of interactive television?

How are you feeling this morning? Everyone nursing a wicked hangover from the wild 'Nurse Jackie' viewing party you went to last night to celebrate its second season premiere on Showtime? No, me either. Did you at least read the tweets from one of the show's characters last night(@DoctorCoop)?

'Nurse Jackie' is Showtime's latest attempt to launch a successor to the aging "comedy" 'Weeds.' It stars 'The Sopranos' Edie Falco as Jackie, a nurse in a NYC emergency room. Like all of the main characters in Showtime's half-hour shows, Jackie is a dysfunctional anti-hero. She's just your regular run of the mill no nonsense nurse, wife, and mother with a pill addiction and fidelity problems. There's also a ZANY cast of supporting characters that fill up the hospital with their own quirks and problems.

Yeah, it's about as lame as it sounds. Jackie is an annoying character that gives the viewer very little reason to root for her, and despite all the zaniness, the show is rather dull. I watched the entire first season assuming at some point things would get exciting and interesting. They never did. I was going to ignore the show's second season, which kicked off last night, but I had to see how their unique interactive Twitter marketing experiment would play out.

As the New York Times reported, in the episode the comic relief character Doctor Cooper (Peter Facinelli) would tweet about something in the episode, and his message would post to his Twitter account in real time, blurring the lines between fiction and reality. Kind of a cool idea, right? So how did it go down? Learn after the jump.

I'll set the scene for you. INT - HOSPITAL HALLWAY - DAY

About 10 minutes into the episode (so around 10:10 PM EST) Doctor Coop, who mistakenly believes that Jackie has a thing for him, asks Jackie out to a game that he has good tickets for. Jackie brushes Coop. We end the scene with a dejected Doctor Coop walking away and starting to pull out his phone. A few seconds later this message shows up on his Twitter account:

That's it. Nothing very earth shattering, but experiments like this do open the doors for more creative interactive marketing of television programs, and a great way to bring eyeballs (and therefore $$) to a particular show. A report issued by the Nielson Co yesterday found that multi-tasking is on the rise. The number of television viewers who simultaneously surf the Internet increased by 35% in 2009. The networks can use social media as an interactive TV Guide, reminding the viewer that 'How I Met Your Mother' is on now, and they should change the channel from 'House' to watch (and participate in) it. Plus, if you're on Facebook or Twitter and all of your friends are discussing what they're watching, don't you want to watch too and join in the conversation?

Extending the world of a fictional television series beyond the weekly episode and onto the Internet is not necessarily a new device. CBS' "How I Met Your Mother" has successfully used this marketing device by mentioning a website or video on the show, and then actually creating the "fictional" site mentioned, but it takes planning from both the creative forces behind the show and the CBS marketing department to do it effectively.

For example, did you catch the Super Bowl commercial with Neil Patrick Harris's character Barney Stinson holding up a sign in the stands with a phone number to call him? If you did in fact call that number, you would have heard a message from Barney asking you out on a date. On the program the next night, the characters on the show watched the Super Bowl wondering where their friend Barney was, until they saw him on TV, the same way you the viewer saw him. Barney's story in this episode was about how he was going crazy because all of these girls called his phone and now he has too many woman to choose from. If you were a woman who called that number the night before, Barney was talking about YOU!

Why go through all the effort to do this? To create a stronger connection between the viewer (consumer) and the program (brand). It builds brand loyalty. By interacting with these sites or videos, the viewer is essentially entering the fictional world of the program. They are seeing and experiencing the same things the characters are. Watching the show has transitioned from a passive activity to an active one. The fan or viewer feels they have a personal investment in the brand and will hopefully return to it week after week.

With fictional characters using Twitter in real time, the lines blur even further. The viewer is not only entering the world of the show, in their own way they are now experiencing the same things that are happening to these characters as it is happening to them.

This is a great way to market a show, and maybe even work in some paid product placement, but it also opens the door for a lot of creative opportunities.The success of 'Lost' has proven that when viewers are passionate about something they are willing to get online and dive deep into the world, all the while spreading positive word of mouth about the brand.

The networks should start experimenting more. How about a serialized show, a season long 'Twin Peaks'-style mystery, with every character and suspect tweeting their point of view and opinion in real time and throughout the week? The viewer would have to put together clues and cross reference stories to solve the big whodunit. I'd give it a shot, would you.

Or how about an SNL-type live improv sketch comedy show that allows the viewer to tweet suggestions to the cast just like if they were at a live Second City show?

There are a lot of cool marketing possibilities here. That being said, I don't think I'll keep up with 'Nurse Jackie.' It's still too boring. I will continue to follow @DoctorCoop though. If something interesting happens, I'm sure he'll tell me.

What do you think of scripted television shows incorporating real-time Twitter messages from characters? Would you participate or do you find it intrusive? How would you like this used in your favorite show (assuming Jack Bauer can find the time to tweet)?

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Famous Hollywood Scenes Get Simpsonized

Sunday night has turned into an evening clogged with television programming. There's always been something on for the reality nuts ('Amazing Race,' 'Undercover Boss,' 'Celebrity Apprentice,' Whatever is on VH1), but recently there's also been an influx in other quality programming, including HBO's 'The Pacific' and Discovery's 'Life' miniseries, and the new season of one of my favorite shows AMC's 'Breaking Bad,'

With all those viewing choices to pick from I wouldn't blame anyone for not catching last night's episode of 'The Simpsons.' Honestly, you didn't miss much. Like most modern episodes of the series, this episode was an entertaining way to spend 30 min, with a few laughs, but suffering from weak plots that suffer even more thanks to odd story structure. That being said, last night's episode did feature a visit from First Lady Michelle Obama (which was cool until you find out she was actually voiced by actress Angela Bassett), and a sort of fun montage of famous Hollywood kissing scenes getting the Simpsons treatment as Bart receives CPR from his crush (don't ask).

You can check out the montage below. How many of these scenes do you recognize? Can you tell which ones were slightly altered?

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Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! I hope the day brings you lots of good luck. To celebrate eat some corned beef, drink some Guinness, and of course watch this classic St. Patrick's Day web video:




No web video is complete without the dance remix ...


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