brandflakesforbreakfast

can your brand inspire baked love?

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:48:00 +0000

This makes us even more stoked that we're stopping at Threadless while on the PlaidNation tour.

The super cool t-shirt company has started a new promotion: Threadcakes. Cakes inspired by favorite Threadless t-shirts. Start baking now, and you could win sweet prizes!

This is a great idea that leverages the love of the brand and t-shirt art, all while producing loads and loads of great content for friends (and bloggers) to share with the world.

(Anything with baked goodness = immediate win in our book.) Thanks, RJ!

"i only bought a ford because of twitter."

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:37:00 +0000

Some people say trying to monetize Twitter is like trying to monetize the telephone (I tend to agree, mostly), but sometimes Twitter allows for stronger relationship and brand building. Seeing this tweet from Chris Lovett says it pretty succinctly.

And before you say "let's get our best intern on this," consider this post from Church of the Customer. Would you let an intern:
* Man your customer service line?
* Be your receptionist?
* Be your spokesperson to the Wall Street Journal?
* Be the main contact for your most talkative customers?
Is your presence on Twitter creating future tweets like the one from Chris Lovett? Could it?

a micro niche audience that's totally hot

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:47:00 +0000

So the people at Vans are doing something a little different. They've opened a Model Lounge at the Delicatessen Restaurant in NYC.

Here's how it works: Access is limited to female fashion models at invited Top 10 Agencies. They get an all-access card. They get to hang with other beautious types between casting calls, shoots and cigarettes. They get a bunch of cool gifts (and Vans gear) that they could totally afford to buy on their own. They see the entire Vans Girls line.

And just maybe, hot models start wearing the Vans Girls product. And then other girls follow suit. And guys like hot girls that wear Vans. And so they buy more Vans product. Hot girls are happy, guys are frustrated and Vans sells product.

Genius? Weird? Proof that hot people live better than you do? All of the above?

coke and pepsi fall in love on twitter

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:36:00 +0000

After years of sitting side by side on grocery store shelves and 7-11 coolers, you kind of wonder how they didn't fall in love before. It took the magic of social media to bring to opposites together, and romance has blossomed.

Here's how it went down:
Coke sends Pepsi a tweet. Pepsi responds. And then the Twitterverse suggests that they end the war and follow each other. And now Coke follows Pepsi. And Pepsi follow Coke.

World peace is certainly next. Twitter: turning hate into love since 2009.

people are tweeting about you

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:00:00 +0000

We've posted before about Convo Monitor and other useful Twitter tools. Steve Rubel points to another one: Backtweets.

When people post urls on Twitter, they're usually shortened and therefore not picked up using normal Twitter search. So how do you know if people are tweeting up your site?

The folks at Backtweets have figured out some secret magic to search through the actual urls of tweets. I found a bunch on BrandFlakes that I didn't know about before.

Genius. And useful.

finally, you'll know where the emergency exits are

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:52:00 +0000

Air New Zealand has a fun new ad campaign featuring painted bodies. They've taken it even a step further and produced their in-flight safety videos using the same theme. Really smart. We're pretty sure that you'll pay attention now.

(What would be fun: get a bunch of sloppier looking people, paint their bodies, and then try to board an Air New Zealand flight.)

what to do with that big jar of pennies

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:42:00 +0000

Maybe you've thought about staying at the Standard Hotel, but now there's a reason to eat there, too. The Standard Grill, inside the Standard Hotel, has a floor made from pennies. Finally, our currency system being put to a good use.

teens love events

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 11:31:00 +0000

A new study by Fuse Marketing and University of Massachusetts Amherst shows that teens see event sponsorship as adding credibility to a brand. Even more interesting - according to this survey, teens still know what "radio" is. Hmmmm.

fool your friends and let them think you still read the paper

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:36:00 +0000

Love blogs but afraid that the old people you hang with will make fun of you?

Not to worry! Now you can get the latest blog posts printed out in old-school paper format. Al Gore is crying somewhere. From @benkunz.

youtube lets you link your videos to anywhere

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:11:00 +0000

Starting today, you can add links to your YouTube videos that link to the outside world. Like away from YouTube. Think call to action.

YouTube hearts marketing. :) This is a good day in the YouTube-iverse.

(Silly teen girls for your enjoyment only. They have nothing to do with this post. But I guess they like to touch their hair.)

nyc: play with our data and make cool tools

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:02:00 +0000

Mayor Bloomberg just announced a new initiative to entice web developers to utilize NYC data and build applications that "create the connectedness that will benefit the city economically, civically and socially" says Mr. Mayor.

It all starts next year (things don't move that fast in the big city) and the apps will launch using the new .NYC domain names.

Having access to awesome NYC data could be a boon for branded apps too!

From @CKSays (the princess of NYC.) Graphic courtesy of iTrans application.

preserving moments in a new way

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:53:00 +0000

News from the Herd points us to This Moment, a new tool geared toward saving and sharing the moments of your life.

All of these things exist separately thanks to countless internet tools, but This Moment has brought the art of photo, media and story telling together in a unique way. Fun concept. It will be interesting to see how this develops.

(Oh, and I have no idea who any of those people are. Just sharing someone else's "moment." ;))

films for your fast paced lifestyle

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:39:00 +0000

You're busy. You don't have time. Those 180 minute long borefests can't hold your attention once the JuJuBes have run out. Not to worry. Now there's a series of films geared to your always on the move lifestyle: Five second films.

From Thought Gadgets.

mmmm. vegetables.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:33:00 +0000

A trip to the grocery store is almost always a fun adventure in packaging design. NOTCOT explores the beauty of produce food boxes.

paintings of places in video games

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:24:00 +0000

Like many fine artists, James Barnett stakes out just the right location for his oil paintings. Only James seeks these locations within video games.

"Just think of me with my blue smock, sun hat, and luxurious beard in front of an easel on a hill in Fallout 3"

Wow. From Waxy.

a tribute told with twitter

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 11:12:00 +0000

Maybe you're tired of all of the Michael Jackson tributes and pretend news...but this one is completely different: A tribute to MJ carried forth with tweets. You'll want to watch it twice. Amazing.

From Robert Scoble

don't touch this. stop listening. close your eyes.

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 12:03:00 +0000

Do you take your senses for granted? Sensori, a new campaign to support International Deafblind Awareness Week attempts to show you just how important all of those senses are.

There's a tweet aggregator that pulls tweets from the twitterverse of people talking about what they're tasting, hearing, smelling, touching and seeing.

And there's Sensehub, an informational site and sensual lens that sits over the web and directs you to content on Youtube, Facebook, and other sites.

Cool probono work done by Matt from RMG, and all of his friends who he could talk into some free work for a good cause. Nice job.

imagine leadership

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:47:00 +0000

Take six minutes this morning and devote them to leadership. This inspiring new video from the folks at XPLANE and Nitin Nohria is nothing short of wonderous.

We'll be meeting the folks at XPLANE when the PlaidNation tour stops in St. Louis on July 24th. If you loved this video, then be sure to watch the tour, and meet some of the people behind this breakthrough visual thinking. (Kicking off in just 23 days!)

get your twitter on

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:38:00 +0000

Turn any word that you want into a cute little Twitteresque logo. (Birdie not included.) From Chris Pirillo

the story of a logo

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:14:00 +0000

Matchstic produced a gorgeous video about their exploration of a new logo for The Tabernacle. What a beautiful look into the process of identity design and an outstanding demonstration of the talent over at Matchstic. Pure awesomeness.

michael jackson broke the internet

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:05:00 +0000

Techcrunch has an interesting story about how the Michael Jackson news spread across the internet, and the impact of mondo traffic, public interest and internet stability.

And here's a great post on how the story broke, and how credibility still has value. Even on the internet, even with Michael Jackson.

remember times of awesomeness or just live vicariously

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:36:00 +0000

Everyone loves a great music festival. If you're too uptight to go to one, or just want to see the experience through other eyes, your day is here. Festival Annual looks to be the most glorious photo annual ever assembled.

What better way to share the festival experience, than with the people that make it happen? Festival Annual is collecting the most awesome gallery of shots from festivals across the globe. The best will make the book. You can get in on the action and submit your own shots, too. Or at least follow them on Twitter. Awesome idea.

From FrankLampen

windows users: another 5 years of crappy email?

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:36:00 +0000

There's a new version of Outlook 2010 coming out, and it seems that a lot of Windows users are worried that they're going to be stuck with a few years of crappy looking, broken email. Rather than giving up and switching to Macs, they're doing something about it.

The Outlook revolutionaries have created Outlook’s broken—Let’s fix it, a site devoted to raising awareness about the problem and attempting to get Microsoft to do something about it. They're asking all Outlook users to join the revolution. It's easy - you only have click on the button that says "have your say now." Thanks, Justus!

make your metrics look impressive for your powerpoint

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:15:00 +0000

Data geeks, you'll love this. A datalicious presentation from Google on how to visualize your Google analytics results as motion charts. From Sean Howard.

the ramones are social media experts

noreply@blogger.com (darryl ohrt) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:56:00 +0000

I believe in punk rock as a life philosphy. Even as a branding strategy. So there's some special love in my heart for this video that declares social media as the new punk rock. Hey. Ho. Let's go.

From Greg Verdino.