Cute Community Manager + Robust Social Site = Panasonic Playground

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Panasonic, with help from Crayon, has launched Living in HD. In a promotional video on Facebook, LiHD community manager Kate Dickman highlights the reasons for joining which include "meeting cool, new people [like her], uploading your pictures and videos and getting comments on them."

The site is also a place to ask questions about Panasonic products and learn about new ones. The big sell, though, is Kate's urging viewers to apply to become an LiHD Family which, much like the Nikon blogger outreach program, will give a bunch of Panasonic products to people to try out, share with others and offer feedback.

On Living in HD, there are hundreds of videos from both regular people and Panasonic describing various products, which ones might be best for you and how to get them installed. It's, as the tagline say, "your HD playground."

by Steve Hall    Mar- 2-09    
Topic: Consumer Created, Social, Video



Hardee's Crowdsources Little Thickburger Campaign

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Remember those Little Thickburger commercials from last year? Riffing off that, Hardee's launched an ad generator app so fans could create their own Thickburger comparisons.

The company expected maybe one or two to shine, but it turns out about 16 spots turned out to be broadcast-quality. (Though when you think about it, it's a pretty tough formula to screw up: [Big thing. Little thing.] Extra points for wordplay.) See them here.

"And we didn't even offer them a million dollars. Or anything for that matter," Hardee's added, puffing its chest out for extra effect.

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Workshops to Ease Social Media Migraine

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Twitter got you stressed? Facebook got you exasperated? The social graph got your blood pressure up? Sick of your client/your agency blathering on endlessly asking/telling you about social media? Then you should check out a couple of workshops offered by J.A. Jones Consulting.

The workshops are designed to address two common barriers to entry in social media: understanding how to use the increasing number of tools and understanding social media etiquette to personally connect with audiences online.

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by Steve Hall    Feb-26-09    
Topic: Industry Events, Social



Tweet, Tweet, Tweet. Tweet to End Global Poverty

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Want to help fight global poverty on Twitter? Just tweet the hashtag #apowerfulnoise anytime from March 2nd to March 5th, and NCM Fathom will donate $.10 for up to 50,000 Tweets to CARE, the organization working to end global poverty.

Oh and to promote the documentary, A Powerful Noise.

Sound good? Oh wait, where's George Parker when we need someone to crap on all things Twitter?

by Steve Hall    Feb-25-09    
Topic: Cause, Social



Helpful Blogger + Brand Idiocy = Social Media Disaster

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Oh wait. Didn't we just write that headline? Here we go again. Or is it "there you go again?" I can never remember what that Reagan dude used to say all the time. Anyway, here's the deal.

In a blog post, Jason Roe pointed out a fluke on the Ryanair website that made it possible for someone to book a flight and not be charged for it. He didn't actually book a free flight but he wanted the error to be made know.

How did Ryanair react? As if a Mastercard blowjob ad, pricelessly:

10. Ryanair Staff #1 Says:
February 19th, 2009 at 5:25 pm

jason!
you're an idiot and a liar!! fact is!
you've opened one session then another and requested a page meant for a different session, you are so stupid you dont even know how you did it! you dont get a free flight, there is no dynamic data to render which is prob why you got 0.00. what self respecting developer uses a crappy CMS such as word press anyway AND puts they're mobile ph number online, i suppose even a prank call is better than nothing on a lonely sat evening!!

Sweet, huh? But it gets worse. Upon confirmation the above comment did, in fact, come from a Ryanair employee, Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said:

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by Steve Hall    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Social, Strange, Weblogs, Worst



Ashton Tweets, S/Urge, Libel Revisited and the ow.ly-Twitter Hustle

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- zOMG: grainy shots of Ashton and Demi! This cinches it: following celebrities on Twitter is almost as rad as following them around in real life. (Diggin' how the NYT actually quotes Kutcher's tweets, as if to prove THIS IS ALL REAL.)

- Gmail went down early this morning, and it's like the universe exploded.

- We actually ate this.

- BrightKit, a management/metrics dashboard for multiple Twitter accounts, changed its name to HootSuite and went pro-bono. (That is, it's no longer trying to charge a fee for services.) To compensate, it's selling display ad space above webpages whose links are shortened via ow.ly (HootSuite's version of tinyURL) -- meaning you could, in theory, make money (or build brand awareness...?) by spreading Twittersphere link-love.

- Fake Steve Jobs makes "wah" noises over monetizing blogging.

- Coca-Cola's Urge looks suspiciously like Coca-Cola's Surge. Remember the aftertaste on that stuff?

- Wedding the Sex and the City model to kitschy "Cathy": just one more lovechild the universe didn't need. Especially in the name of Baked Lay's.

- "True statements can be libelous if published maliciously." Wait ... what?!

by Angela Natividad    Feb-24-09    
Topic: Brands, Campaigns, Celebrity, Events, Online, Social



Facebook Begs Users to Stay

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This just gets better and better. No, wait, stupider and stupider. Apparently freaked out over Facebook's change in TOS, the lame explanation of it and the return to the old TOS, droves of people are canceling their Facebook accounts. And it must be droves because why else would Facebook show a message that pleads people going through the deletion process to stay.

The message reads, "Are you deleting because you are concerned about Facebook's Terms of Service? This was a mistake that we have now corrected. You own the information you put on Facebook and you control what happens to it. We are sorry for the confusion."

Please. Make it stop!

And if you really want to understand the issues surrounding this; ownership versus licensing, data usage and other stuff, be sure to watch Alisa Leonard-Hansen explain it all on her I'm Just Saying Show.

by Steve Hall    Feb-19-09    
Topic: Policy, Social



Birth of Twitter, Mac Conversions, Remembering Lee King

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- AdGabber members remember Lee King. Reading about other peoples' experiences with King brings his body of work to life for us. Also, here's a nice memorial from AdWeek.

- How Mac's Genius Bar experience makes loyalists.

- Hey, AmEx, that's not very nice.

- Twitter started out on legal sheets. Look at them, all innocuous and ordinary, like so many ideas-cum-dustbunny-conventions lying dormant under your bed.

- Old Kraft logo, new Kraft logo.

- In case you ever wondered how influential you are on Twitter. What's that saying? Being powerful is like being a lady...

- Food for thought: The top 10 chains -- Neiman Marcus, Saks, Nordstrom, Macy's, Dillard's, J.C. Penney, Kohl's, Sears, Bon-Ton and Belk -- had sales of about $110 billion last year, about one-fourth of Wal-Mart's total.

- Cow pee bevvies. Um ... yay?

- Congratulations on still having a job!"

by Angela Natividad    Feb-19-09    
Topic: Agencies, Brands, Campaigns, Social



Facebook Reverts to Old TOS. Never Owned You, Just Licensed You

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Well the firestorm over Facebook's new terms of service which everyone (including us) read as Facebook owning your ass when, in reality, they were only licensing it is over...for now. The social network, in reaction to the outcry, has reverted to its old TOS for the time being.

A message on the homepage reads, "Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago. Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog. If you want to share your thoughts on what should be in the new terms, check out our group Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities."

Writing on Socialized, Alisa Leonard-Hansen explains how it was never about ownership but about licensing and delves into a few other issues surrounding the use of people's information online. She's written several other informative pieces on the topic here and here.

by Steve Hall    Feb-18-09    
Topic: Policy, Social



TNT's 'Trust Me' Gives AdGabber Some Lesbian Love

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On this week's episode of Trust Me, Adrants' sister site, AdGabber was mentioned in a plot line involving the Sarah Krajicek-Hunter (Monica Potter) character. Apparently, she was labeled a lesbian role model for women in advertising by someone on AdGabber. Of course, she wasn't (on the actual site) and she's not so for the rest of her subplot during the episode, she did all she could to convince everyone otherwise.

While we're very, very, very (did we say very?) pleased to have been mentioned on the show (thank you Hunt and John), we would loved to have worked the plot into the site with a "real" profile. We could have had a lot of fun with it. So, Hunt and John, we're happy to entertain any ideas you might have.

How about a Rothman Greene & Mohr group on the site? Hey, Mad Men did the whole pseudo-character thing on Twitter. Why don't you guys do it with Adgabber?

by Steve Hall    Feb-18-09    
Topic: Announcements, Cable, Social