1. Karl Lagerfeld Book Wall

    I once stood by Karl Lagerfeld atRizzoli on 57th Street and watched him buy a huge stack of books. Now I know why.

    I once stood by Karl Lagerfeld at Rizzoli on 57th Street and watched him buy a huge stack of books. Now I know why.

    Category: New Ideas Blog Comments Off | August 25, 2011 by THINKTOPIA®

  2. Brand Passion Beats Brand “Liking”

    People look at Facebook “likes” today much the same way we used to look at the McDonald’s highway sign that once declared “Over 20 million sold”. Today, in a similar way, social media numbers appear to be both a popularity contest and approval score.

    But it’s time to do some basic accounting. Dissect the over 20 million people “liking” your site (if you’re as popular as Starbucks), and you might find that less than 10% of them are spending anything more than a few seconds in your backyard.

    While millions seem to be “liking” you, it’s not love. In fact, the vast majority are usually just casual acquaintances, clicking through on their way to a more serious relationship. (Sure, just like the old 20/80 rule: twenty percent of your customers provide the majority of your business. But that’s not the news here.)

    The wonderful news is that the 10 percent who linger on your site are staying for three minutes or more (that’s eons in Internet time). Calculating the numbers from the 20 million mark, that’s approximately 2 million who are hanging out, getting to know you, and starting to really care about your brand.

    Know who these people are? They’re your brand zealots. Your advocates. The people with the buzz muscle to help turn potential zealots on to your brand.

    Your new objective? Think of your brand as a network. Use as many social media tools as budgets allow: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, YouTube, and apps, to develop a brand narrative that moves social citizens to your site.

    Be exciting. Be interesting. Be entertaining. Match crazy YouTube videos with wild postings and events and other ‘traditional’ paid media that move social citizens from their backyard to your backyard: your (paid) site. Find ways to engage and re-engage zealots every time they come to you. (But please, no more coupons.)

    Example. Best Buy Mobile created a mobile app called “Excuse Clock” that sets the time forward if you’re stuck in a boring meeting. (“Oh! Look at the time! Gotta run!”) Perfect for today’s young mobile-savvy audience.

    Starbucks just introduced a gifting app that lets you sit in Manhattan and buy friends in L.A. an iced grande skim latte. Nicely tuned to the trends of random giving and mobile networking

    Nike+ offers up not just gear, but running routes posted by social citizens in their local community, music to run to, and more.

    Help zealots advocate you and your brand values. Smart companies today understand that there is no dividing line between traditional and social media. They are all vehicles for distributing meaningful content that needs to be mashed, focused, and driven by a strategic brand narrative. Importantly, these are opportunities to create, rather than simply react, Mix up new media with traditional media by using digital outdoor boards where people can read tweets and Facebook posts in real time. Conan O’Brien posted real-time tweets on digital outdoor boards with real-time success. Miller Brewing has done the same.  Domino’s new TV spots flash supposed posts in Times Square.

    Once you get your zealots excited and talking, social network theory and the subsequent effects of contagion suggest that they can in turn influence as many as 100 other social citizens.

    Now do the math again. Ten percent of your 20 million “likes” equals 2 million brand zealots. If they influence just 10 potential zealots, suddenly you’re back up to 20 million. But these people aren’t just clicking through. Now they’re your zealots, your brand lovers.

    And we love that.

    Category: New Ideas Blog Comments Off | August 22, 2011 by THINKTOPIA®

  3. Flavoristas beat the heat

    It’s an epic hot summer and new drink flavors are spreading across the wet planet. If you thought that with all the javas, teas, sodas, juices, flavored waters, (did we forget milk?) infused with everything from acai to zinc, that we would be completely saturated, think again.

    Whereas there used to be just two or three root beer brands within recent memory, there is now a proliferation of smaller labels that make bottles of Henry Weinhard’s Root Beer, Boylan, IBC, and Sprecher, seem standard issue. And in the playing field dominated by Coke and Pepsi, today you’ll spot micro-colas like Curiosity Cola and plain old Mexican Coca-Cola (they use cane sugar rather than the less expensive beet sugar). Both are worth a try.

    But what’s putting the wow factor into new drinks this season is the proliferation of new flavors.

    Flavoristas have been busy. Try tasty Strawberry infused lemonade and mint at 92YCafe in Tribeca. Ginger and mint plus special ingredients at Moose & Sadie’s in Minneapolis. Mint, lime, agave and fruit nectars at Bond in Manhattan. Violet (yes, the flower). Lavender, Hibiscus, Dandelion (yes, the weed) and burdock. Also seen and noted have been ginger and pineapple, mango and lime. New drink vendor DRY (shown) offers Juniper Berry, Lemongrass and Lavender sodas. Fresh ginger unfiltered Ginger Ale by Bruce Cost is a bottled stunner.

    (We would be remiss if we did not also mention that ice cream flavoristas have conjured up creamy delights like wildberry lavender, Ugandan vanilla bean, golden ale and apricot, sweet corn with black raspberry, and molasses ice creams.)

    No matter how you plan to chill this season, these new flavors will take you to the next levels of awesomeness.

    Category: New Ideas Blog Comments Off | August 1, 2011 by THINKTOPIA®