Digital Ice House featuring Vista

Fire extinguisher
Originally uploaded by EgnaroorangE.

what the? This is taken from Microsoft's Digital Ice House

Vista + Ice = ?

ha! Fire extinguisher just in case the product catches on fire...because afterall, it can't be for the ice.

Hot Tables

Mark sent me a really great article from the NY Times in regards to Hot Tables?

Are you familiar with the term? Basically, it is a club where members can get resy's into the best-of-the-best restaurants for a fee.

I can see how this can be seriously popular, but can also see how it can be a major downfall.

Do you know of any such business in the T-dot?

Mark your calendar - May 15th

wilco.jpg
Originally uploaded by Picture the Sound.

Following their 2004 'A Ghost is Born' album, Wilco will be releasing 'Sky Blue Sky' this coming spring.

A press release came my way last week about it...and in the body of the email, a very interesting blog worth checking if you are a music geek like me. But for now, more about Wilco.

I am a big fan, but also have to admit that they do a good job keeping fans interested and using social media to the best of its abilities.

- Podcast - if you haven't already, subscribe to their Wilco Podcast on iTunes. If you haven't heard 'The Thanks I Get' which is to be released in May, you can get a preview of Tweedy singing it in an M4A file. Pretty sweet. My feet are still tapping.
- flickr, and more flickr.
- RSS their tour dates and set lists.
- ...you gotta love that their site links to last.fm
- The site has a fair share of links back to its website.

But how can they do a VERY good job?

- Okay, I am being greedy, but I would love a shared blog by all the members of the band.
- Thay have some great concert tshirts and posters - but it would be nice to get their fans involved from different cities - particularily cities where they won't be travelling.

Closing The Gap

I will be the first to admit that I shopped quite a bit at Banana Republic...I did...like 10 years ago. You wouldn't catch me in any of the Gap stores today.

The Globe and Mail published a great article on the decline of the American brand, where it went wrong and how it is losing out to its competitors.

Summary? Not listening to the needs of its customers. Times change, so do styles. Isn't that obvious? Apparently not to the Gap who is losing out to A&F, American Eagle and the like.

What can they do to resurrect themselves from the near-dead? Lots. New designers, new marketing...how about giving up on the hollywood stars sporting their gear and get connected back to where they started...back to '69 when they were one with their community. When they understood their community.

PS. While you are revamping you might want to deal with your image re: slave labour.

Ba-da-ba-ba-ba...

McDonald's...are you listening? watching? You have some marketing on your side for once.

Wisdom

Mandibular Eviction
Originally uploaded by boeke.

Wise:
-My parents and great uncle Flory
-Margaret MacMillan - my old history prof
-The teachers at jivamukti yoga toronto
-Shopper's Drug Mart's Pharma Track - Including my file, my meds with email reminders and ordering refills online.

Not so wise:
-Not double checking your call-to-action on marketing materials, particularily phone numbers (hint: Ontario Ministry of Labour)
-Serving Amrosia Salad (a discovery from last night's geek dinner)
-Mass marketing (or is this laziness?


PS. Jeff - I haven't even taken the pain killers yet ;)

iPhone to come to Canada

Thank you, thank you, thank you...Steve Jobs.

Sorry, sorry, sorry...Telus (well, I am not really sorry since I was thinking of switching it up anyway).

Photo courtesy of Altaide.

Lululemon and Reebok

What happens when there are rumors that a very small home-grown Canadiana brand has been bought out by a large multi-million dollar worldwide corporation?

I don't know. I suspect many things. Some people may be excited if it is a public company...others may be disappointed (meaning me, who likes to buy local schtuff)

Anyway, rumor has it that Reebok bought Lululemon...it is not true...but is the rumor going 'round? how fast? And is it affecting the bottomline?

From the few comments on the blogto post - it looks like some people believe this rumor to be true and believe the over quality of the stuff is going downhill as a result.

We need some PR 911 here.

My BIG fat head

Michelle - Scotia Bank
Originally uploaded by isto-ica.

You know that Chris and Jessie from isto-ica are really good when they can make my ugly, very tired, exhausted, sickly mug look half-decent.

Look out for their community case study at the next casecamp.

Best question of the night

"Are you creating value for your community?" Eli Singer

That basically sums up CaseCamp4. The unconference held in the swanky The Fifth bar.

5 community case studies, 1 hour...lots of great networking (168 on the attendee list).

Alright, back to the case studies. The focus among all 4 was engaging your community. Who are they, what do they care about, how do you inspire them to act and participate?

This is a subject that is easy for some companies, not so easy for others. A topic that brings social media to life. Lets it grow...hopefully, I cover my thoughts on this area since I am a believer in pinko marketing and am really engaged in this area on a daily basis.

Last words:
- NewMindSpace - how about kick the can?
- MommyBlogs - it will be interesting to watch this network come together.
- WWF - loves it! A case in the 'now'!
- ZipCar - need that extra push to try to out.
- photobloggers - looking forward to seeing myself stuff my face

...see you at 5.

Difficult People

"Difficult people are not harmless. The impact of slowing productivity or creating unhappy customers and vendors is immeasurable, unknowable and often a company’s biggest cost, said Ms. Harrison of CareerTrack, paraphrasing W. Edwards Deming, a management consultant." Taken from the NY Times

Difficult Workers:
- I went into the Solutions store looking to buy a soap pump. The shelf it was on said $9.99. When I went to pay, the lady ringed it in as $24.99. When I questioned her, she said that their product turnover is so high that often the products get mixed up. Oh and BTW, she clearly stated that what she was ringing in was 'right' as it is the most expensive dispenser in the store (there was no way she was going to double check the price for me).

Difficult customers:
- On New Year's Eve, Mark and I went to go see Pan's Labrynth. We arrived 15 minutes earlier, but it was already sold out. We rushed and bought tix for Blood Diamond which was already 5 minutes into the commericals.

Packed as hell, I managed to find 2 seats between a lovely couple and a not-so-nice couple. On first try, I asked the lady on the edge if anyone was sitting in the seat. She ignored me. I asked louder...and she got up, but the lady she was with didn't. I thought she had some physical issues, so we walked all the way around, got everyone in the row to stand up to sit in those 2 seats. When I got there, the lady who failed to get up...failed to remove her jacket. Her quite rude comments to me, "ergh, now I have to move my jacket. DON'T touch my jacket. Why couldn't you come earlier? huff-puff-puff..." We left the aisle. blood boiling.

Hm, it would be good to get cust. service people to help customers find seats in these type of situations.

Just plain difficult:
- Retail and call centre workers with lack of product information
- Retail and call centre workers who refuse to look up information they have on hand

Being Late

I found this on Steve Rubel's Delicious Links...and it really is oh-so good.

It is a clock for procrastinators - it runs sometimes up to 15 minutes fast, sometimes not.

I really like this because not only do I tend to procrastinate, particularily on the weekends...

This also goes out to you peeps who are always late...you know who you are ;)

This is also good for meetings (which never seem to end on time), and getting to scheduled events, like meeting a movie time or bball game.

ah mon dieu, if we can only just stick to the time.

Isn't this ironic?

“And He shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!”

- The Cinemateque is playing TPB movie.
- Watching Caesar die...
- Showcasing it best.

...I should mention that all three shows have great marketing vehicles behind them.

Premier Marketing

On my way to my gal Suzy's shack in Ellicottville, we pass by a fantastic wine store called Premier.

This place is huge - warehouse huge. Rows and rows of wine, sectioned by grape, then country. It really is marvelous...but of course, the best part is the deals. We scored some Coppola wine at 1/2 the cost at the LCBO. YUM! Oh, and I should mention that they have vino there you can't get in to T-dot.

To save some dollars, you can become a member (for free). In return, they get to market to you via email and mail (but not to me since I am across the border). You wouldn't think it would be worth the spam...but it actually is.

Why their email marketing works:
- everytime them market to me - they tell me of some serious savings. Typically 10-15% off prices
- they market two very high-end "reserve room" wines with savings of usually more than 25%
- forget about their ratings - they tell you how third parties rate the wines they carry...and on top of that, they are on sale.

It Does Everything...except the running

Mark got one of the Nike + iPod devices for his birthday and some Nike Plus shoes for Christmas.

Although he used the device and shoes prior (and likes it), we used it on Saturday during a trek to Rosedale (about 4km from Y&E) and back (another 4KM)...I think I was more exicted than him to see how this device works...and if it has 'the hook'.

IT's ALL ABOUT ME:
I was quite impressed. Hooking up the iPod for the website to register the data was super easy. The site provides a nice display of your workout(s), easy-to-read and understand comparisons, calories lost, timing etc.

THINKING ABOUT THE SMALL STUFF:
Since the iPod has replaced the CD player, walkman - it is easy to remember to use the running device. The matching gadet goes into the runningshoe and never gets removed - something else that you don't have to worry about forgetting.

COMMUNITY:
You can invite up to 50 people to compete against or complete a goal as a team. This is great for those that participate in running groups, have a running mentor or just like the adrenaline of a competition.

DATABASE MARKETING:
Oops, I forgot to mention that you need to register and log in to nike.com everytime you want to see/register your results...(it is no wonder their presto stores are doing oh so well).

CaseCampToronto4

Case Camp 4 - Tdot style.

Ya coming?

Tuesday, January 23rd
The Fifth Club
225 Richmond Street West, 416-979-3000
6:00 - doors open
6:45 - the first case begins

For Your Feet

- If you like to ice skate, or are a lucky person like me who got skates for Christmas...check out the DJ skating nights at Harbourfront. What? disco. Loves it.
- High Heel Confidential.
- Global Footwarming!

PS. This post is for JennyB, my fellow shoe connoisseur.

For the love of a cupcake

I'm Prepared To Do Anything To Get That Cupcake

There is something quite pressing that I must make clear immediately. I am afraid I am going to have to take that cupcake. That cupcake...

Your cutoff line

How much are you willing to spend on:
- a car
- a pair of shoes
- jeans
- a house
- apples

Are you willing to increase the spending if:
- it is a high-end car
- the shoes are made in Italy
- the jeans are of the latest trend
- the house is in a trendy neighbourhood
- the apples are organic

Would you be willing to pay more even if nobody knew you went for the higher end choice? Why are you buying things? Is it need, choice, greed, envy...or just to keep up with the jones'?

Confrontation with customers

Yesterday, a group of my pals and I headed to the local pub for some good ale and grub...onion rings, wings and pints.

We were having a jolly good time until a little, hm...not sure what it was, 'misunderstanding,' was had with the waitress.

You see, we ordered 2 orders of nachos. 1 regular, the other, the bison chili nachos. It was pretty clear, three people at the table heard the order. Apparently the waitress did not. She brought over two regular nachos, 5 minutes later, when we noticed their was no difference in the two, we asked her, "I think we ordered the bison ones?" Her reply, "no you didn't." My reply, "Really, I thought we said one of each?" Her reply, "nope, you didn't." (With a cross and annoyed looked on her face).

So, where does that leave the customer? Annoyed as well. An unlikely return, inevitable.

The City doesn't practice email best practices

I got an email yesterday from someone with the email extension @toronto.ca, marketing the 2007 winterlicious season.

Although I have participated in the past, I am surprised I got this because I have never given the City of Toronto my email address before. At least, I don't think I have. I certainly wouldn't need to in order to participate in the culinary treat.

Beyond that, the email comes to me lacking in email etiquette.

1. There is no way for me to opt-out of future email.
2. It is text heavy...really text heavy
3. Beyond the name before the email extension, I have no clue who this email comes from, what department, etc...
4. Links in the email do not work.
5. An attachment was included with who-knows-what in it. (I did open it and it is a press release - probably sent to me because of blogto)...hm?

Together, Us, We, The People

How we work is changing.

I grew up on Nintendo, Apple desktops, palm pilots, cell phones, chat groups...and in the last few years, IM, VoIP, blogs, wikis, pod/video casts and SL. I am a techie junkie...relatively speaking of course.

It is only recently that I have noticed the impact of collaboration. Using tangler for the pinko group, google groups for the AIMS group I chair, google docs and spreadsheets for HRW and pbwiki for the recipe wiki I started amongst my family and friends...WE are meshing faster, we are more productive...we are more aware of what is going on, whether it be out tight little group or large base.

The power of 'we' is infinite...and I have really only scratched the surface. you?

How are you collaborating these days? With years of blogging and wiki's under our belt - what has worked for you and others? Any best practices come out of your company?

Don't, don't...don't believe the hype

All The King's Men > C- (too much hype)
Lady in the Water > C+ (not as bad as people said it was)
Babel > B- (again, too much hype)
Little Miss Sunshine > B- (advertisements were right)
Fearless (didn't finish)
The Good Shepperd > D+ (not all all-stars are good)
Hebrew Hammer > C (the title says it all)
The Last Kiss > D (as bad as the title sounds)
Blood Diamond > B (movie preview does it no justice)
Pan's Labrynth > A (everything I expected...and more)

Brain Branding

At about an hour to midnight, last night...Mark asked me if I knew what 'Brain Branding' was.

I didn't know. In the 0-6 I was so addicted to "social media" and digital marketing that I had little time for other areas of marketing...besides the obvioius of course. (I will have to add this to my list of try-to's BTW).

In case you don't, here is how NOW describes it:

"...a new field of research that uses brain-imaging techniques to find out how the mind processes certain brands. The idea is to help advertisers better understand the needs of consumers..."

Scary? yes. Early this morning I did a quick search and found this additional information:
- it is also called Neuromarketing
- it is all still very new but still reflect the need and rewards of the purchasing process..."The results showed that strong brands activated a network of cortical areas and areas involved in positive emotional processing and associated with self-identification and rewards."
- Coke and Pepsi and doing something right in this area...is it the $?