CC turns five. Copy that!

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Creative Commons the organization that introduced the world and content creators to the value of double c’s (instead of the stifling “c”) turns five today.

It was started byStanford law professor Lawrence Lessig, Cyberlaw, and intellectual property experts in 2002.

From New York to Bangalore, there are live parties going on.  They’re even serving what’s known as ‘open source water.’ And Free Beer, brewed using an open source recipe. Really!

If you’re interested, see my longer post about the Creative Commons, at ValleyPRBlog.

Let’s drink to this!

Quotes from the week ending 16 Dec, 2007

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“We’re still filling the tank … check back soon.”

Message on the new Christian social networking site LifeInTheFishbowl that will open shortly.

“Chanel No 5”

The perfume that Nicole Kidman says she is promoting. Kidman was paid damages by the Daily Telegraph in London whom she accused of falsely claiming that she preferred White Jasmine and Mint by Joe Malone.

“Most people don’t care about privacy, not at all.”

Seth Godin, on the trade off between relevance and privacy that Ask.com faces with its new ‘eraser’ service.

“Dvorak is a controversial, opinionated and immensely influential technology writer, based in the US but read around the world thanks to the same internet that he dismisses as unsuitable for those living in poverty.

Bill Thompson hitting back at John Dvorak who criticized the hundred-dollar laptop, as a little green computer on the “information super ad-way.”

“The uneasiness is usually due to their perception that — in much the same way you hire a cleaning service and a couple of hours later, presto! you see the results immediately — you hire a PR professional and a week later, presto! you’re in the major headlines.”

ValleyPRBlogger Linda VandreVerde on why PR communicators need to communicate.

“Glaceability”

The concept of adding ‘glanceable nuggets of visual information’ through digital radio, so as to enhance what’s delivered via radio station. BBC Radio is experimenting with it.

“Take heart; Norman Mailer wrote all of his novels by hand.”

Amazon.com‘s executive customer relations person, Autumn Walker, responding to a customer who wrote a letter to Jeff Bezos complaining about not winning a bargain laptop (during the “Amazon Customers Vote” promotion) and being unable to write his epic novel.

Building a list of hits and misses in PR, Marketing, Social Media, Communications

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I am compiling a list of things that went wrong, and the things that greatly improved PR, communications and marketing this year. Locally, nationally, across the pond.

Got any suggestions?

Some directions:

1. Most embarrassing PR moments.

2. Stupid quotes, and also the most eloquent ones.

3. About face. People or organizations who have done a 360.

4. Most hyped event, product, person.

5. The best damn PR promo you have seen in 2007.

6. Great moments for social media.

Submit it as a comment or email me.

Unlike the ‘npov’ policy at Wikipedia, agencies may submit!

Taking design to a different plane – Part 2

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Sometimes great design means using a different lens than the ones we walk around with. I’m not talking of camera work, but biases, hang-ups, and things we are so passionate about (in a good way) that prevent us from seeing things from the audiences perspective.

If you’ve always done direct mail campaigns, at least explore what might have changed in the ‘direct’ world with privacy, loyalty, database management etc. If you’re always doing landscape layouts for ads, look at what an split-page media buy might achieve. If you have a reputation for doing soft-focus, try grainy, or even degraded fonts, or sharp contrasty black and white.

If you’re a slave to the Logo guide… don’t even get me started. If you’re doing billboards with the standard clever headline and head shot, try something like this billboard for Gain detergent.

I got thinking about this after yesterday’s post on Ideo, and seeing the work of a photographer Joe McNally who talks about looking for “a different angle.”

He could have very well been talking about marketing campaigns, looking for fresh ways to communicate.

Check out McNally: The moment it clicks

Taking design to a different plane – Part 1

/ Angelo Fernando / 2 Comments

We think of design and designers are some special gift, or a craft that only few are called to perform. Wrong! I was blown away by listening to Tim Brown of Ideo who expounded on just this subject.

“We’ve lived through 50 or 60 years of design being “owned” by designers. We were this priesthood of people that get educated to be designers. We were the ones ‘allowed” to be creative…And now technology, particularly the web and open API’s and all other kinds of technology is allowing more normal people to participate in the design process.”

Brown went on to say “designers better look out because we’re gonna have to participate in it in a very different way than we’ve been used to.”

So I was impressed at this new participation fostered by he Tech Museum of Innovation which focuses on technology and innovation, has dived into virtual worlds –specifically Second Life, where you could become a virtual curator, and even exhibit your work in-world. It believes in both ‘spontaneous’ design and a more structured, disciplined approach.

The old ‘priesthood’ has to be worried!

XO: The laptop powered by Wikinomics

/ Angelo Fernando / 1 Comment

Nicholas Negroponte‘s concept of a low cost computer has been pooh poohed by many big corporations that it is a crippled machine, and a $100 machine was unrealistic. But he has proven them wrong.

The little green “XO,” described by as “a flexible, ultra-low-cost, power-efficient, responsive, and durable machine,” developed in collaboration with MIT Media Lab, is a reality. It’s Linux-based, and has programming, a search engibe, chat program, word processing, rudimentary blogging capability, and connect to the Net via a mesh network.

Most interesting is the ‘social sharing’ concept built in to the applications. Children (or their teachers) could “reshape, reinvent, and reapply their software, hardware, and content.” It’s Wikinomics in action! No wonder its critics are scared.

Gifting an XO: I though this idea of getting it into the hands of more children was brilliant. Called the “Give one, get one” program, you could buy a $100 laptop for yourself and they will donate one to a child in a developing country. Hundred bucks for two laptops! No wonder its critics are agitated.

Be careful where you stick your logo

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

Be careful what you sponsor! In your effort to grab valuable real estate, um, eyeballs, in your marketing program, you logo may send the wrong message.

It’s the old way of marketing to find places to stick logos onto fruit, foreheads (even branding bodies!) and anyplace where the audience may be. But will they respect you for it?

McDonald’s has found a medium that is backfiring, as Advertising Age reports. School report cards –at least the jackets of these cards. For the next school year in school year in one Florida school district, they have agreed to print the jackets that feature a coupon for a Happy Meal.

This obviously doesn’t sit well with MickeyD’s healthy eating initiatives, creating a Mom’s panel of advisers, and those Mommy Bloggers (whose journals have ended, abruptly.)

With friends like these…

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

What might Condi Rice say in an IM to Ahmadinejad?

There’s an interesting site, affiliated with the Huff Post, called 32/6 with speculative “news” like this. Rice’s IM name is Condi4peace’ while the Iranian leader is ‘nonukes4U.”  Now if only they could Twitter..

Is there a difference between “uppercase Friends” and “lowercase friends?”

With all the following, poking and spamming going on between so-called friends, it’s becoming an issue as to who one’s real friends are. It takes someone like CC Chapman to put his finger on (and bring his microphone to) something that resonates with a lot of us. Catch his podcast, Managing the Gray for more on this.

Quotes for the week ending 8 Dec, 2007

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

“You’ve got one full inbox and an angry writer.”

John Biggs, at CrunchGear.com, on a post asking PR people to stop lying.

“You wouldn’t worry about Christmas becoming too commercial in Bethlehem – they couldn’t afford it.”

Graffiti artist, Bransky, on his use of his guerrilla technique to promote tourism in Bethlehem, as the city attempts to get more visitors to Bethlehem around Christmas. Bransky’s controversial “art” has included an image of a soldier being frisked by a little girl.

“His message was we should not judge color of skin, but content of character — artistic character.”

Harry Johnson, the head of the MLK Memorial Foundation, rejecting critics angry that a Chinese national was chosen to create the 30-foot sculpture of Dr. Martin Luther King on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

“This is what happens when a startup gets a controlling PR belief system. Steve Jobs can pull that off. Not many companies can.”

Robert Scoble on Facebok’s silence about its Bad Beacon PR

“We missed the right balance.”

Mark Zuckerberg, apologizing for the feature in Facebook that made a user’s purchasing information public without their opting in for the service.

“attention Edelman, please train clients how to listen.”

Jeremiah Owyang, on his advice to Walmart’s PR agency, Edelman, with Walmart’s attempt to get things right this time. Edelman and Walmart were badly burned with a fake blog or flog last year.

Seth and Jeremiah on Social Media

/ Angelo Fernando / Leave a comment

I just attended a webinar on Using Social Media to grow your business. They discussed Meatball Sundae, and PR, and how the millennials ought to make us change the way we communicate with them.

Seth spoke of how people often think of PR in terms of ‘managing your company’ and it’s image, or straightforward ‘publicity.’ It just doesn’t work that way, he said because of the way social media works. Beating up on journalists won’t get you the media you want. Case in point the iPhone launch. Everyone seemed to think of it as a hyped up event, Seth pointed out. But the truth is, Apple’s PR people did not go after the media. They made a product so good that it had a story to tell.

Lesson for PR folks. Don’t be afraid to tell your boss or your marketing department that no, you won’t promote the product unless it has something newsworthy. I guess the lesson for organizations trying to massage the media with PR is this.  Don’t create press releases out of non-stories.

The other speaker that drew me to the event was Jeremiah Owyang, an analyst at Forrester Research.