Today’s post is going to be a bit different.  (We can do fun commercials next week).

Yesterday, The Goodness Bakeshop ran an online auction through Twitter.  A bundle of cookies and cinamon rolls (originally 3 dozen cookies and a dozen cinnamon rolls, but that grew) were auctioned off, with the procedes going to the United Way.

The starting bid of $35 for $54 worth of goods shot up to $100, mostly thanks to our talented designer Mike Scott.

So the United Way got a $100 donation, we got goodies, and The Goodness Bakeshop got some more visibility.  Win-win-win, all the way.

The Goodness Bakeshop is a unique local business.  While online, it runs its e-commercse through Etsy, a site that handles e-commerce for all things home-made.  They have a limited delivery area to London, Stratford, St. Marys and area.

The bakeshop itself is simple but clever — using a blog as the main page (which offers various recipes to its readers) and intelligent linking to the actual Etsy shop page.  Thus, it is a business of home-made vegan, animal-friendly baked goods that has a multi-city reach. Its operating costs are low, it’s niche is well defined, and the creativity and energy are there.

The Goodness Bakeshop is beautiful in its simplicity, creativity, and agility.

I hope it inspires you over this Labour Day weekend as much as it has us!

Something a little different this week (but related to last week’s) is another famous icon for Wendy’s:  Dave Thomas — who incidentally worked for Col. Sanders (yes, that KFC Col. Sanders).

Here’s a really great interview back from when Dave was still alive, thanks to YouTube and Engardio:

The interview is full of ironic highlights — such as that Dave encouraged Col. Sanders to do interviews and commercials, thinking he’d never be in front of a camera.  Or the fact that Sanders got up so early yet was so wealthy, and Dave thinking he’d never do the same if he was ever wealthy…  and wound up doing so anyway.

Sanders taught Dave a lot about hard work and the importance of quality — and a little about what not to do as well.  Sanders was old, so he was stuck in his ways and couldn’t delegate whereas Dave was more adaptable.

Long story short — Dave was shaped by an icon and became one himself.

The tie to today’s marketing?  Dave actually used a variation of social media before its time.  Sure, you couldn’t talk back to him and he had a budget far beyond what a YouTuber could dream of, but that was Dave on camera.  He was not an actor, and while it was a marketing decision to use humour (thanks to agency Backer Spielvolgel Bates) basically Dave just had to be himself.  Unlike other advertising — and much like the Col’s — it was by far more real because it was lovable, dorky Dave trying his best with what the agency came up with.  (Or the agency was trying their best with what Dave could do; either way it was great!)

Just a note — if someone reading this decides that they are going to try to do what Dave did, please keep in mind that it has to be true to YOU, and that Dave’s initial attempts of starring in his own commercials were panned until he got some help.

And in closing, a funny Wendy’s commercial.  Less actual Dave in it, but it’s done in a way that matches his personality so it works.  (via IceManNYR)

Why choose Harland “Colonel” Sanders for today’s post?

There’s something a little different about him compared to other fast-food icons… one of which being is that he was a real person.  Other than Dave Thomas — who worked for Mr. Sanders incidentally — not too many chains have an icon who actually was a real person too.

Look at this commercial, courtesy of YouTube and rwells2265:

Don’t think he’s genuine?  Compare it with these out takes (with thanks to ClassicStudioOuttake):

Judging by the rambling, he really does love his chicken, doesn’t he?

He’s the genuine article.  Harland Sanders isn’t acting, he’s just being himself with the assistance of marketing professionals.   They keep him focused, and advise him, but it’s still the real Harland “Colonel” Sanders at its core.  He really does love his chicken, that’s how he normally talks.  He even sued KFC’s parent company for using his image to promote products he never developed.

As Seth Godin would have put it — Sanders was a “linchpin”, and despite the fact he will never know his commercials are shown on YouTube he has a special significance to social media.

Because you shouldn’t attempt a social media campaign unless you are willing to become a Colonel Sanders (or a Dave Thomas, but that’s another post).  I’m not saying put on a white suit, I’m saying you need passion and you have to be genuine, and you need to be willing to do the talking yourself.

And if you happen to be passionate and genuine, but just lack the technical and marketing skills to give your business the boost it needs… why not give us a call?  (519-432-4932)

One thing that media is hilariously or painfully (depending on your point of view) known for is a little trope called “Totally Radical”.  To sum it up, this is when people who aren’t cool anymore try to make cool.  Cool has a short shelf-life and if you don’t have it right now, forget about it.  Once the cool is just past its expiration date, it rots.  Oddly enough, if enough time passes cool then ferments and becomes cool again.  Much like fashion.

There are three flavours of media manufactured cool attempts:

• Failure.  This is hilarious or painful, and the most common case.
  • Post expiration date, this stuff is almost always hilarious.
• Lampshaded.  This is when you known darn well you aren’t cool and go through with it anyway to be funny (or perhaps spiteful).  Uncommon.
  • Less funny after its expiration date.
• Success.  Extremely rare.
  • Just looks dated post expiration date because it blends in with its own time line.

And, thanks to our friends at YouTube and Nintendo, we have a shining example of complete and total failure from the 80’s, whose ‘cool’ expired several years ago, and has now entered the so-bad-it’s-good hilarity zone courtesy of dougfreeze:

Among other things, please note that it is completely believable that the “cool kid” and the “nerdy kid” would be friends, because even in the 80’s people would know the “cool kid” is a poser wanna be just a big a dork fake.  (You see how hard it is NOT to wander into dating yourself?  I’m glad I was never cool — I can’t fall any farther)

What’s the take-away?

Well, for lack of cool, you could always try:

• Fermented cool.  Mimic what was trendy from say, when you were 12.
  • It plays the nostalgia card for anyone your age group and will likely be ‘hilariously old fashioned” or retro to the modern crowd… either way it will be remembered.
  • The Menthos commercials, often mocked, are remembered for their 60-70’s style advertising played straight.
• Lampshading.
  • Try your hardest at capturing what you think ‘modern cool’ is.  Then get your target audience’s reaction.  Record it, throw it on at the end.
  • Doubly useful — either it will let you know exactly how far off the mark you are, or it will be funny in itself and provide a memorable ad.

The final lesson: Much like social media, cool must be genuine.  If you can’t be genuinely cool… just settle for genuine.

Long before he started to do commercials for Nike (which spawned a horrible series of movies afterwards) Bugs Bunny did this number for Tang:

Having touched on the Flintstones hawking cigarettes, obviously there’s nothing new about selling out to pay the bills.  (The Flintstones did spots for everything from grape jelly to beer).  Like the Flintstones, Bugs and Daffy do the spot almost completely in the same character and style as their cartoons– except normally they’re not obsessed with a particular drink.

Unless you’re Homestar Runner (or his creators, the Brothers Chaps), (or Penny Arcade) it’s likely that anyone who wants to make money off their self-publication (AKA online blog/comic/book/music/whatever) will have to sell out sometime.

As plans are good, whether for good fortune or bad…  Have a plan to sell out.

You heard me.

Know in advance who you’d sell out to, how you’d sell out, and for what.  Make sure your audience is aware of this too.  For one thing, it gives you an idea of how you could eventually benefit from your online efforts.  For another, it acts as a ‘profit wish-list’ — you never know who might be watching and willing to help.  Most people understand that online entertainment doesn’t make much in the way of cash as a general rule, and the majority will appreciate the up-front honesty.

One last thought — not all sponsorships have to be for money.  For example, I drink a lot of coffee — my favourite being the stuff I get from Has Beans.  I’d happily do a spot for them in exchange for a bag a week.

… well, ‘cookie’ yes, but that’s not the subject of this post.

If you work in marketing, by now you’ve surely heard all about social media.  Part of this power is word of mouth… but a less talked-about element is COLLABORATION.

Today, communication allows for collaboration between clients, customers, suppliers, & businesses.  As long as they’re not opposed, why shouldn’t two entities work together?  When done poorly it can be a trainwreck, but when done right it is something to behold.

In media, one uncommon element of collaboration is the CROSSOVER.  While unusual enough between things like shows with the same producer/owner (it makes copyright much easier), a particularly rare beast is one between separate publishers.

And thus, today’s video brought to you by General Mills, the Dairy Farmers of Washington, YouTube and MusicLuvr76 for posting it.

In the future, with the cost of media and communications going down, and the difficulty of controlling publications going up, I think we might just see more collaboration.  After all, if you’re going to lose control of your media anyway, you might as well take advantage of the freedom and work with others you might normally never get a chance to (who are in the same boat).

After all, when social media works it’s essentially a collaboration between several parties.  It might be as something as simple as word-of-mouth where a message is repeated or shared, or a little more complex like an Internet meme that mutates into a re-re-re-remixed video.

Not the earliest, but perhaps the most significant in terms of mutation, would be I Can Haz Cheezburger? which originated from a single picture of a cat with a funny caption into a profitable website which is fuelled primarily by its audience submissions.  (There are others like Newgrounds which are older… but not quite safe for work either)

Think about it — a single picture changed into profitable website — that’s the power of collaboration.  While you’re at it, take a look at Change Camp London (Ontario) set for June 19th, looking to tap into the power for the benefit of the city.

Are you ready for this, courtesy of calbff?:

Just for the record, I can eat Jell-O with chopsticks, especially if it’s firm enough to be molded.

While people might be arguing in  YouTube comments about whether or not it’s racist, it’s at the very least a case of ignorance and more than likely used a very unfortunate kind of marketing appeal.

I do recall that in the 1800’s, the Chinese labourers were segregated and were basically prevented in every way possible to become citizens.  The laws weren’t repealed until the 1940’s — and I doubt Jell-O suddenly decided it wanted to target this new market.  (Sadly the only appeal I can think that this commercial might be using would be to whites for ’spoon superiority’)

The point of this post isn’t to make fun of some old mentalities from the 60’s, but to point out a mistake that’s still being done today:  Did Not Do Research and Critical Research Failure.

The reason why research is important is purely for reputation purposes.  People focus on the negative — they’ll remember the ‘ignorant fool’ part and forget everything else.

If you want your message to be taken seriously, always do the research.

Before anyone says “Aw, who’s going to care?”, keep in mind the following:

1. Remember, once it’s published the Internet makes it immortal and global.  Someone’s going to care.
2. Thanks to social media, it’s going to be incredibly easy to call someone on any research failure.  And it can spread.  Fast.

This little number, a banned commercial according to weekendwarrior6969 features what could be considered a modern Aesop:

Of course, for the time it wasn’t much of an Aesop — judging by the fact the nerd has print photos. These days however, it ventures more into this category:

Regardless of what you might have thought of the first commercial, it becomes less funny after the implications are considered.