Friday's Video Views

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Air Drool

TechCrunch's MG Siegler and Jason Kincaid take viewers through a first tour of the Macbook Air, or as Steve Jobs put it: what resulted when the MacBook and iPad hooked up.




Unlikable Media

Foursquare founder Dennis Crowley inexplicably tweeted this earlier in the week. "Hilarious?"

@dens Watch this hilarious @foursquare and Bedroom Intruders @YouTube parody and retweet!




Excitable Geeks

If you can't fight 'em , join 'em. Mashable draws our attention to a demo this week by a (Dutch or is it German?) Adobe exec of a new tool that converts Adobe Flash to HTML5. Now we all remember why this is significant, right?




I came across Google Demo Slam, the video face-offs Google Demo has created. Here's the latest match-up:

Airborne Zach Miller's Google Voice Search




Logo Bandits




For Bruce Willis: It's the Pits

Ahhh, fame is so fleeting. Just ask Bruce Willis. (Don't you love the chyron ID under his image in the video?) via Funny or Die

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Bruce Willis from Bruce Willis

Big Agency: Social Cred Scorecard

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Big news this week from the land of the big agencies (where this PR pro spent a good chunk of his career). A-list social media pro Stephanie Agresta ankles Omnicom's Porter-Novelli to join IPG's Weber-Shandwick as NY-based EVP for digital strategy reporting to LA-based digital communications prexy Chris Perry.

This is clearly a loss for Porter-Novelli in that Steph is that rare PR professional who's fully engaged in the social graph. In fact, I've been wondering of late whether one's level of social media engagement is an increasingly vital determinant of employability in the digital communications space. I mean if you're not active on Twitter, Foursquare and Facebook (or Plancast, Hashable and Paper.li), how much cred do you really have when advising socially curious clients?

This is not to say that Steph's connectivity to Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and elsewhere is the sole determinant of her talents as a social communications counselor. It just seems that many big agencies of late are gobbling up those with large numbers of followers on Twitter. As digitally astute as he is, how much of a factor was David Armano's social connectivity (31k+ Twitter followers) in Edelman's decision to hire him as 2009 came to an end? Probably less than you'd imagine. (See comments below.)

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to take the recent meme about agency CEO's social habits and compare the degree of social media engagement among the digital leads at the larger WPP, Omnicom and IPG-owned agencies, as well as that independent juggernaut Edelman, which may have presciently started the trend in 2006 when it enticed Steve Rubel away from Cooper-Katz.

I'm sure I missed a few socially engaged senior execs, so please feel free to forward additions, and correct any inaccuracies in the stats below. I know when I revisit this two years from now, the four parameters used below to gauge one's social connectivity will be inadequate.

Hill and Knowlton

Julie Atherton, Worldwide Director, Digital
Twitter: (?)
Facebook: (?)
Foursquare: Check-ins (27), Badges (3) ?
Personal Blog: (?)

Ben Trounson, SVP, Director of Connected Marketing
Twitter: Followers (113), Following (191)
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: ?
Personal Blog: ?

Burson-Marsteller

Jay Leveton, CEO, Proof Digital Media
Twitter: ?
Facebook: ?
Foursquare: ?
Personal Blog: ?

B.L. Ochman, managing director, Proof Digital Media
Twitter: Followers (7689), Following (1032)
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: Check-in (57), Badges (5)
Personal Blog: Yes

Ogilvy

John Bell, managing director, Global 360o Digital
Twitter: Followers (5639), Following (1170)
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: Check-ins (408), Badges (13)
Personal Blog: Yes


Rohit Bhargava, SVO, Strategy & Marketing, 360 Digital Influence
Twitter: Followers (16,728), Following (3241)
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: Check-ins (216), Badges (22)
Personal Blog: Yes

Fleishman Hillard

David Bradfield, Global chair of digital practice
Twitter: Followers (1219), Following (764)
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: Check-ins (575), Badges (17)
Personal Blog: Yes

Ketchum

Jonathan Kopp, Partner and Global Director, Ketchum Digital
Twitter: Followers (579), Following (211)
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: Check-ins (777), Badges (17)
Personal Blog: ?

Porter Novelli

John C. Havens, SVP, Social Media
Twitter: Followers (1958), Following (1143)
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: ?
Personal Blog: Yes

Joel Johnson, SVP, Director of Integrated Planning
Twitter: Followers (233), Following (181)
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: Check-ins (31), Badges (6)
Personal Blog: Yes

Weber Shandwick

Chris Perry, president, Digital Communications
Twitter: Followers (2194), Following (877)
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: Check-ins (63), Badges (6)
Personal Blog: ?

Stephanie Agresta, EVP, managing director, Digital Communications Practice
Twitter: Followers (16232), Following (17548
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: Check-ins (219), Badges (18)
Personal Blog: Yes

Golin Harris

Idil Cakim, SVP, Interactive Media
Twitter: Followers (496), Following (401)
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: ?
Personal Blog: Yes

Michael Slaby, Executive Vice President, Global Practice Chair, Digital
Twitter: Followers (1269), Following (881)
Facebook: ?
Foursquare: Check-ins (490), Badges (12)
Personal Blog: ?

David Armano, SVP, Edelman Digital
Twitter: Followers (31,985), Following (7432)
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: Check-ins (621), Badges (21)
Personal Blog: Yes

Steve Rubel, SVP, Director of Insights
Twitter: Followers (47,512), Following (2525)
Facebook: Yes
Foursquare: Check-ins (164), Badges (12)
Personal Blog: Yes

Friday's Video Views

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iPhone vs. iPad a la Michael Jackson

So where does the Mac Air fit in this video scheme? (via mashable)




iPhone Subway Jam

Who, I ask, had the misguided audacity to diss New York??? Four dudes jammin' on the NYC Subway with their...iPhones (via TechCrunch HT @parislemon) Love this!




Android Anxiety

You all heard about $AAPL's Q3 earnings, and Steve Jobs's choice words about iPhone rival Android. Here's a tweet on it from:

@Jason Calacanis
wow.... this is great. YouTube - Steve Job's Epic 5-Minute Anti-Google Rant




Exit AOL

AOLer makes a dramatic exit from the company. (via @businessinsider)

BonVoyWaj from Jennifer von Elling on Vimeo.

Jet Blue Goofs

My buddy Drew Kerr likes JetBlue's viral video campaign parodies linked here. Here's the first in the series:




Kids' Viral Critique

This is part of a new online video series called "Kids React to Viral Videos." Neat idea (via The Fine Bros ht @allnick) Notable quotable: The U.S. Presidency: "Probably the worst job in the world next to Alaskan crab fishermen."




Chinese Take-Out Container in Space

Here's the outcome of an effort by The Brooklyn Space Program, an organization formed by a group of friends in New York City interested in scientific experiments, engineering, design and education. A video camera sails into the Earth's upper stratosphere.

Homemade Spacecraft from Luke Geissbuhler on Vimeo.

Digital Reading Room

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It has been six months since I last posted a list of must-read books for the digitally minded PR and marketing types among us. Here is the latest compendium of long-form works that hopefully will complement the information bursts that incessantly stream across your desktops, laptops, iPads and smart phones.

I'm certain I missed a few, so please add others in the comments section below.

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
Steven B. Johnson





The Mesh: Why the Future of Business is Sharing
Lisa Gansky

I live in the future & here's how it sʞɹoʍ
Nick Bilton





The Facebook Effect
David Kirkpatrick

Curation Nation
Steve Rosenbaum




The Mirror Test
Jeffrey Hayzlett





Real-Time Marketing and PR
David Meerman Scott

Empowered: Unleash Your Employees, Energize Your Customers, and Transform Your Business
Josh Bernoff & Ted Schadler

resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences

Nancy Duarte

ReWork
Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson



Six Pixels of Separation: Everyone Is Connected. Connect Your Business to Everyone
Mitch Joel

Friday's Video Views

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Ads Worth Spreading

Beet.TV founder Andy Plesser takes time with TED Talks founder Chris Anderson to talk about the lack of creativity in today's online video advertising, and his Ads Worth Spreading contest.




(Astro) Turf Wars

Here's a clip from the new film "(Astro) Turf Wars: How Corporate America Faked a Grassroots Revolution" in which billionaire David Koch commends the tea party activists who make up his phony-named group "Americans for Prosperity." IMHO, these fake-sounding, opaquely funded groups are the bain of the PR industry, and a stain on American Democracy. (via @guardian)




Got My Foreign TV?

State-owned Russia Today's Peter Lavelle gathers some TV pundits on his Crosswalk program to talk about the trend of foreign investment in English language news broadcasts as a means to garner "soft power."




How People Use Twitter

Twitter designer researcher Mark Trammel set out @ontheroad to learn how people use Twitter. Twitter corp. comms VP Sean Garrett tweeted out the first episode this week. I watched it and am still scratching my head. Maybe its meaning will become clearer in subsequent episodes. (via TechCrunch)




South Jersey

And finally, I'm not a regular fan of "South Park," though after seeing "It's a Jersey Thing," I can see why many people are. Snooki, take that!

It's a Jersey Thing
Tags: SOUTH
PARKRandy Marsh,Eric Cartman,more...

New York's Tech Scene

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Few can dispute the vitality and promise of New York's tech community after attending one of the monthly New York Tech Meet-up events. The energy was palpable among the sold-out audience of 850+ who nabbed a coveted ticket to visit NYU's Skirball Center Tuesday evening to hopefully catch an early glimpse of the next Twitter or FourSquare. They were not disappointed.

I remember the first time I attended a New York Tech Meet-up - both as a presenter and an observer of the city's aspiring digital start-ups. It was April 2009, and I had the good fortune of crossing online paths with Charlie O'Donnell who was interested in the new PR search engine I helped develop. Three days later I found myself on the stage of FIT's Haft Auditorium staring out at an audience of 600 (mostly) young men whose hearts and minds my co-developer and I needed to capture.

Gordon Ramsay

Back then, the event had a more of a Hell's Kitchen feel to it, with the moderator doing his best to emulate Gordon Ramsay. (I exaggerate.) There were a couple of presenters who were literally told to go back to the drawing board. Tough crowd - these New Yorkers. Fortunately, our search app was well received -- maybe because it did what it said it would within the allotted time.

In comparison, this past Tuesday moderator Nate Westheimer handled his duties with aplomb and compassion. When one presenter lost her Internet connect midstream, Nate assuaged the terror she no doubt was feeling with a few reassuring words and an extension of her time on stage. I suppose he also could have reminded her of how Steve Jobs lost his Internet connect during the first public demo of the iPhone4.

Much of the growth of New York's tech community has to do with the commitment the city's universities, and by extension its graduates, have made to exploring and expanding digital's impact on society. Considerable credit also must go the Bloomberg Administration, which had the foresight to support and bolster New York's vibrant tech community all along the way.

Robert Steel, NYC Dep. Mayor for Econ Dev.

At this week's meet-up, Robert Steel, the city's new Deputy Mayor for Economic Development (and the only one in the house wearing a suit and tie), took the podium to kick-off the second year of NYC BigApps2.0 whereby the city will reward $20,000 to "the developers of the most creative, best implemented, and impactful applications for delivering information from the City of New York's NYC.gov Data Mine to interested users."

As for the applications and social media-fueled services presented Tuesday evening, there were several that struck a resonant chord with this PR blogger. The first was Introspectr, a search engine, which "makes it easy to find messages, documents, and links from every part of your online life." Guess what? It does. The engine indexes everything in one's Facebook and Twitter streams, as well as one's Gmail (attachments too) to allow those forgetful users among us to find even the most vague recollections from your digital travels.

A Packed House at NYU for October's NY Tech Meet-Up

I also liked Solvate, an on-demand sourcing solution for companies seeking qualified freelancers. It had kind of an elitist Doostang feel to it, i.e., no slouches need apply, but the site is clean and matching mechanism efficient. For the volunteers among us, the team at CatchaFire created a smart way to put one's skills to work for good causes, and in so doing quantify the value of the work to the organization.

Finally, I have to give props to former Flatiron clients Elliot, Eli and Josh, tri-founders of Amie Street who I first met in the spring of their senior year at Brown. They had an idea for a music e-commerce site (groan), but exclusively for independent artists and with a novel sales model: the community determined the price of the tune, i.e., the song price rose based on popularity.

Last month Amie Street was acquired by Amazon, which shuttered the site, but allowed its founders to apply their considerable energy and talents to Songza, an easy way to create and share with friends your own Internet radio station. Did I hear Elliot say that Songza has 8̶ ̶m̶i̶l̶l̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶ 8.5 million songs in its database?

Google: We Try Harder (than Apple)

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Top Tech Companies by Media Coverage 6/09-6/10

I've been thinking a lot about Google lately. I mean who in our digitally expanded line of work doesn't have Google constantly on the brain?

It's simply hard to escape a company that's a newsmaking machine. Other than Apple, can you name another tech company whose machinations have created as big a digital media footprint as Google has?

Here are some headlines from the last couple of months:

• Google Android O/S takes Smartphone Lead in the U.S.: Android now installed in one of every three smartphones sold at retail. (via NPD)

• Google Developing a Self-Driving Car and it Works (via PC Mag)

• Google Campaign to Build up its Display Ads (via NYTimes)

• Offshore Wind Power Line Wins Praise, and Backing [from Google...] (via NYTimes)

Later this week, we can expect another big Google media pop when the Google channel carries a live feed of its Q3 earnings (Thursday at 4:30pm ET). You mean the self-driving car and offshore wind power financing weren't enough?

So the question I have is whether the sudden output of Google corporate and product news, especially the non-conventional stories, is a result of a concerted effort by Google's PR department to counter or deflect some of the recent less-than-savory pieces on the company, stories that either challenged Google's perceived infallibility or worse, its founding mantra of "do no evil." These included:

• Consumer Watchdog think Google's Schmidt is a Data Perv (via Inside Google)

• Google Pulls Plug on Google Wave (via CNET)

• Google Pulls Plug on Nexus One (via ZDNet)

• Google Pulls Plug on Goog-411 Service (via Startup Meme)

It would be difficult to prove that Google is anything but earnest in its recent efforts to re-cast the company from the world's dominant digital advertising company to a technology company focused on the greater social good.

After all, Google's corporate culture has from the very beginning encouraged its employees (and now the public) to tinker in their spare time. Just look at what's brewing at any given moment in Google Labs.

Still you have to wonder whether the recent chinks in Google's seemingly impenetrable reputational armor spurred a call to PR arms by the company's powers-that-be to ratchet up media coverage for the company's many (cool) new dimensions. Then again, the success of Google's PR peeps is directly related to the quality (ie, newsworthiness) of the material with which it has to work. For a company as ubiquitous and esteemed as Google, the threshold for what's considered newsworthy is lower than most others.

Friday's Video Views

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Solis and Li

Brian Solis chats it up with Altimeter Group founder and Open Leadership author Charlene Li as part of his new "Revolution" video series.




The Phone Jail of Keith Kelly

Marketwatch's media maven Jon Friedman held a tete a tete with NY Post's media columnist (and industry scourge to many) Keith Kelly. The title of this item refers to Kelly's old voice-mail greeting: "You have reached the phone jail of Keith Kelly."




New Twitter Chief

Ad Age's recently anointed editor-in-chief Abbey Klaassen grabs some camera time with Twitter's newly anointed CEO Dick Costolo:




The Secret to Buzzfeed

O'Reilly Media's Max Slocum catches up with Buzzfeed founder (and former HuffPost pioneer) Jonah Peretti on viral marketing and other digital doings.




That NAMBLA Facebook Group

If you weren't on board the U.S.-Russian space mission this week, you no doubt heard about Facebook's big valley presser Wednesday to launch FB Groups. I followed it a bit, and then jumped in first-hand when master list-maker and Gladwellian connector Robert Scoble send me an invite to join his "Tech Leaders and Influencers" Facebook group. Of course, Facebook is now taking some backlash for forgetting the term "opt-in" for Facebook Groups. This lapse in product development/judgement was hilariously highlighted by one Michael Arrington who added Mark Zuckerberg to the NAMBLA group (man-boy love association). Here's the write-up on what subsequently ensued, and the All Facebook promo video for Groups:




I.Am New Twitter

Will-I-Am's hip hop homage to new Twitter, which (finally) arrived this week on this blogger's desktop.




Zuck Raps

As if The Social Network didn't have enough buzz, along comes this rap video (expletives and all) to hammer the message home. HT to Mashable (naturally).




Strangers in Elevators

The folks at TechCrunch posted their idea of "the greatest elevator pitch ever."

Gap's PR Ploy?

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Logo Remake: Before and After

One of the world's most vaunted consumer-facing brands changed its company logo this week. And what happened?

The new look was met with widespread derision from a public that today has the capacity to drive the conversation on such matters.

Buzzfeed rounded up the negative sentiment under the title: "New Gap Logo (Yikes):"

• A New Logo for Gap? More Like a Nap..."

• "New Gap Logo is a Box of Fail"

• "Mind the Gap: New Logo Goes Down Like a Lead Balloon"

Having sat through a fair share of brand identity brainstorms during my days in the Y&R family, and specifically alongside the smart folks at Landor, the process of transforming the look and feel of a brand or devising a new identity altogether has become an art into and of itself.

Maybe the the brand name should have a literal meaning, e.g., UnderArmour. Or perhaps it should be related, but not so literally, e.g., Nike, the winged Goddess of victory, Reebok, from the Afrikaans/Dutch spelling of rhebok, a type of African gazelle (antelope), or Zappos, a derivation of the Spanish word for shoes "zapatos."

Then, of course, there are totally made-up brand names, including today's most valuable: Google, a math term, "googol" which is 1 followed by 100 zeros.

BrandZ Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands 2010

But Gap didn't set out to change its name. It sought instead to change its look. More importantly, it appears that the company, headquartered in tech and social savvy San Francisco, set out to use this opportunity to create a little buzz. Huh? Did the marketing minds at Gap intentionally catalyze a consumer backlash for the sake of a little extra ink and airtime???

Tim Nudd, writing in AdFreak today under the headline "Gap's new logo: a social-media experiment?" ponders: "But maybe it's intentionally shitty?" He draws our attention to the Gap's Facebook wall on which the company posts:

"We've had the same logo for 20+ years, and this is just one of the things we're changing. We know this logo created a lot of buzz and we're thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding! So much so we're asking you to share your designs. We love our version, but we'd like to see other ideas."

Lohan in VF

If this is true, then the initial chink to its reputation may just pay off in the end. Has Gap taken a page from Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba's seminal book "Citizen Marketers" and its recognition of the value in creating "customer evangelists?"

Maybe the growing PR methodology of "no (PR) pain, no (PR) gain" applies? After all (and forgive the analogy), didn't Lindsay Lohan's bad behavior land her a cover spread in Vanity Fair?


Update 3:50pm: Ad Age reports that Gap says the new logo is the real deal.

Rahm on the Rails

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Rahm's Listening Tour in Chi-town 

Some months back, I blogged about the content aggregators that I, as the proprietor of a percolating PR consultancy, strive to follow.

I bring it up again since the subject of today's post was gleaned from one of the PR sites I keep tabs on, even if the site's master curator and incessant Twitterer ignored my offer to meet up with him during a recent trip to New York City. (He's expunged from the next list.)

Gawker today reports on Rahm Emanuel's deployment of play #35 in the PR pro's playbook: "the listening tour." Did Ari Gold's brother, now seeking the highest office in Chicago, borrow this tactic from candidate Obama's former political nemesis?

Mr. Emanuel's first political whistle stop didn't do much to help the trains run on time. In fact, his appearance on a Chicago subway platform appeared to cause more confusion than anything else. And anyway, how can a rush hour subway platform appearance succeed as part of a "listening tour?" Can anyone really listen to frenzied commuters struggling to slip past the invited cameras?

No matter. The image brought back memories of my only formal association with a political campaign other than distributing flyers for Hubert Humphrey or polling homes in Boston for a poli-sci class during Jimmy Carter's run.

Sen. & Mrs. Gary Hart (1984)

In 1984, I took a leave of absence from Hill and Knowlton to play a state-wide role in Colorado Senator Gary Hart's campaign to gain the Democratic presidential nomination. (Mondale ultimately prevailed.) We were gathering at 7:00am in NYC's busiest commuter terminal waiting for Sen Hart's arrival.

It was a pretty buttoned-down affair with stanchions, a mult-box for ENG crews to grab clean audio, and maybe even lights. The candidate finally arrived and did his best to strike up a few conversations. Suddenly, a group of activists began causing a huge commotion -- yelling and drawing attention away from our carefully staged photo-op.

As it turns out, this group actually supported Sen. Hart's candidacy. They were gay activists using Act-Up tactics years before Act-Up came into being. Their rude commandeering of a well-attended presser won't seem strange by today's standards. But back then, we were mortified that the PR decorum we so carefully orchestrated could be so unceremoniously disrupted.

Today I wistfully look back at my brief d'alliance in political PR, and wonder what could have been. In the end, however, I'm glad I chose the path I did. Working for a non-incumbent Democratic candidate was painful, as I'm sure those toiling for Chicago Mayoral aspirant Emanuel are now learning.

Friday's Video Views

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Eisenberg on Zuckerberg

The Social Network's long and much buzzed about ride to the nation's movie theaters ends today (though countless outlets jumped the review embargo. Was there one?) As predicted, critics have gone boffo with Rolling Stone's venerable movie guy Peter Travers handing out four stars and glowing words from which SONY will create a fab quote for an ad: "The Best Movie of the Year." The big debate, as described in my post earlier this week, asked whether the film will tarnish Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's image. Here's the opinion (via GMA) of the actor who played Zuckerberg in the film. (via the DailyBeast)




Making a Case for Innovation

AOL founder Steve Case, who tweeted his congratulations to Tim Armstrong for AOL's "playing offense" this week, talks to WashPost's video unit about innovation (via WashPost)




Going Mobile with Pogue

Mark Ragan chats up mobile with our favorite (and most influential) gadget guy David Pogue:



Advertising's Woes

If you missed it, this week was Advertising Week in New York,. Long time chronicler of the industry (and its output) Barbara Lippert of AdWeek talked with one agency chief Larry Woodard about the issues the industry faces:




Arrington's Disrupt

This week's decidedly richer Michael Arrington tweeted a link to CNNMoney's segment from his TechCrunch Disrupt start-up showcase confab:




Boing Boing on Media

Boing Boing founder David Pescovitz talks to Daisey Whitney about media's transformation and future -- in 2 minutes, no less (via Beet.TV)




Conan Loves Jimmy Kimmel

Finally, the folks at The Jimmy Kimmel Show took a parting shot at NBCU outgoing chief Jeff Zucker (via @TheWrap)