It's that time of year again!

Tim Hortons RRROLL UP THE RIM TO WIN

I think I have been playing for 25 years and I have never won a thing, I swear! But this year, on my first roll I won a donut. WOOT.

Now typically this would cause great excitement -- finally a Roll up the Rim to win win. But then I remembered this week's horoscope for Libras as predicted by Georgia Nicols, a most entertaining prognosticator. I specifically remembered this line, which I hoped was an indication of future success due to my business development efforts:
"In some ways, you have that feeling that your chickens are coming home to roost. You see that your past efforts are now bearing fruit." 

Will a free donut be the fruit of my labours for this week?

An update on a Twitter - YouTube Campaign

Last Thursday I referenced an emerging trend utilizing Twitter and YouTube to gain some awareness: Use Twitter and YouTube to get something viral going.

Lets take a look at how a tweet by Molly Lewis to Stephen Fry has driven YouTube views:
Thursday Feb 10th - Video uploaded

Thursday Feb 10th - Sir Fry receives a direct tweet from Molly, he retweets
Thursday Feb 10th - my first viewing  - 304 views

Monday Feb 14 - 60,657 views
Friday Feb 18 - 86,913 views

Hmm, not bad results for a week and a day. I did a search on Twitter and tweets about the video remain current.

Today I did a Google search for "Molly Lewis an open letter to Stephen Fry" and there were 1,470 references specific to that search. A Google search on "an open letter to stephen fry" yielded 19,400 results. Obviously many people like me were blogging about her video.

She has received many positive comments on her song for Stephen Fry. She has a lovely voice. Not sure if there has been any immediate increase in revenue or downloads for her music on her site but she has exposed almost 90,000 people to her music. To take it to the next level, maybe she needs to get Ellen Degeneres and Stephen Fry talking.

An issue with this type of awareness campaign is you have to keep the conversation rolling. They can draw interest quickly but then fizzle out if you don't have a plan in place at the start to keep the momentum going or find a new venue to create momentum. But if you have a specific audience that you want to reach out to, Twitter and YouTube are great viral tools to get the job done. If you plan to use these tools to drive awareness PLEASE build the complete plan first and then roll it out with many of the elements ready to roll so you can create awareness and then sustain it.

Let's keep watching Molly Lewis and see if there is a plan in place.

Grey on Fast Company Top 10

Grey is the only advertising agency to be featured in Fast Company Magazine’s “50 Most Innovative Companies In the World” issue in each of the past two years. Very Cool!

Fast Company 2011 Top 10 Advertising Agencies

# 08 / Grey NY

For surprising, clever, story-driven marketing that penetrates the culture


Fast Company 2010 Top 50 Innovative Companies - #24 Grey Advertising

Hey, Baby, Look Who's the Most Innovative Ad Agency

When Grey New York's new chief creative officer, Tor Myhren, decided to boot his team of 120 creatives from their posh offices into a sea of '70s-brown cubicles, he skipped the pep talk on the cultural virtues of the open office. Instead, the bald newcomer shot a music video spoofing Sinéad O'Connor, crooning his own "Nothing Compares to Two" -- the new floor -- and setting an example of the new DIY spirit being unleashed at the stalled 93-year-old Madison Avenue shop. In the two years since his arrival, Myhren has transformed Grey New York into a multimedia powerhouse that is anything but colorless: In 2009, as ad spending plummeted 11%, the WPP -- owned agency's operating profits were up 44%.

One of Grey's most effective moves was to build up its own production department, allowing it to produce TV and Web spots in-house quickly and cheaply, rather than outsourcing them. That lightness of foot helps explain how Grey won a startling 17 out of 19 new business pitches in 2009, including BMW, DirecTV, Ketel One vodka, and the NFL. The work, best exemplified by Grey's now ubiquitous E-Trade babies, oozes zeitgeisty appeal -- from its thousand-frames-per-second Phantom HD spots for the NFL to the creepy YouTube videos that transformed Penguin's teen novel 13 Reasons into a best seller to the viral "Obammcain" ad for the presidential election. "We have to keep pace with the rest of culture," says Myhren. "If news is coming out in real time, we have to be able to get our marketing out just as fast."

Face to face connections - impact on societies

I listened to two very interesting interviews this week that at the core were about connecting; one demonstrated how face to face connections empower movements and one discussed a current breaking of traditional face to face connections within a community.

The first interview was on 60 minutes profiling Google executive Wael Ghonim who created the Facebook page that began a New Age Revolution. What started as a means to create awareness about police violence became an information channel that changed the face of a nation. He said that the biggest turning point was when the government shut down the internet because that brought people into the streets for their information. While in the streets they bonded together as a unifying force that became a more powerful movement, more energized than individuals sitting behind computer screens. It also forced believers of the cause to face their fear of anarchy, a fear the government had been using against them as a means to control them.

And then on Valentines Day Jian Ghomeshi of CBC Q spoke to Ann Wroe an Obit writer from The Economist who discussed her article about the demise of the British pub. She stated that since 2005 more than 6,000 pubs have closed. She felt that the ban on public smoking played the biggest part of their demise but she sees many traditions slipping due to the new world order of electronics and societal changes due to immigration. Are more Brits staying home to drink their pints, smoking in the comfort of their home while connecting via FaceBook?

Interesting the juxtaposition between these two interviews. One about pulling people out of their homes into a community, within a movement, to gain more information and to connect over a cause. The streets of Cairo became a hub for information and empowerment of a cause. And the other about pulling away from a long standing community and cultural tradition of connecting at the local over a pint. We can only ponder the impact on British society as communities become more insular.   

Happy Valentine's Day - A retailer dream day

Retailers love this season. And as USA Today reported - Valentine's Day is no longer just about the significant other -  "What each consumer will spend on average for co-workers ($32.77) and friends ($27.99) will hit an all-time high, according to the retail group's research. Spending on children and parents will reach $37.92, the highest level in four years."

In my household a variety of retailers benefited, from Scholars Choice for PlayMobile to Bark & Fitz for doggy treats. We love to share the love.

Oh, the wonder of the retail holiday seasons. As I was collecting various confectionery items for the family, I noticed great competition for shelf space. The fight was on between the chocolate hearts vs. the bunnies and eggs. For heavens sakes, Easter is not until the 3rd week of April! Could you not let us enjoy Valentine's Day first and then bring out the bunnies.

We are still on the retail roll that began with Back to School then Thanks Giving -- Halloween -- Christmas -- Valentines -- St. Patrick's Day -- Easter and ends with Canada Day.

Are we done then, after Canada Day? Is that the end for the retail holiday roll? They give us a week or two before Back to School? That would be nice.

I love this digital age - a fun way to encapsulate it

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Use Twitter and YouTube to get something viral going

Interesting Twitter post by Sir Stephen Fry, who I love to follow because he has a wonderful turn of phrase and is always up to something interesting.

A very clever move by a young artist who would benefit from some exposure by Fry's more than 2.2 million followers. Or are they in cahoots? And would it make a difference based on the quality of her voice? Well done I say. We will have to watch the progress of this artist, Molly Lewis. When I first viewed the video based on the tweet by Sir Fry, there were 304 views.