The Thicket

Nike to Tap "Netfluencers" in Effort to be Hip...

...That includes hiring a tatoo artist. No joke!

Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that while it’s best known for mega-endorsers like Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan, Nike
 CEO Mark Parker also sees a role for Mr. Cartoon, a Los Angeles tattoo artist
 whose ink-on-flesh flourishes are popular with rappers like Eminem and 50 Cent.

Mr. Cartoon–who Parker calls an “aesthetic influence and a friend”–
has designed six lines of limited-edition shoes for Nike (including the one shown here), ranging in price from
 $70 to $130. They include a version of the company’s classic Air Force One
basketball shoe that nods to what Mr. Cartoon calls the “old icons of the
gangsters”: skulls and roses, dark tenements and “sexy, female
 clowns.”

The drive to recruit under-the-radar influencers (the true Netfluencer) is a key part 
of Nike’s strategy, including the sharing the stealth sneaker culture in an episode of HBO's Entourage, one of my personal favorite shows. Following his own instincts, Parker has moved to
 aggressively link Nike with those who can help maintain the company’s standing
 among what he calls the “influencers of influencers.” Plumbing a global network
of friends, he has fostered Nike collaborations with a New York graffiti artist
named Lenny Futura and industrial designer Marc Newson.

Sun Microsystems Realizes Importance of Your First Day with New Portal

 

That first day at work isn't like the first day of a college class.  In college you just get the syllabus and then make your way to the student union.  Maybe that's why my GPA didn't break any land speed records.  Contrast that with your first day on the job when you're just trying to figure out where the bathrooms are, and with even more difficulty figure out what the culture is like at your new company (and no, I'm not just talking about who to suck up to).  One company that  cares greatly about how well you integrate with its culture is Sun Microsystems. 

From the now famed artifacts that represent historical milestones in the organization to the fairly standard but necessary information about health benefits, Sun wanted to provide a comprehensive and engaging resource  for new employees shortly after they're hired so when their first day is upon them they're already at home.  We worked with Sun to create the new onboarding portal and some of the learning components contained in it.  It was a fun project spanning about six weeks and involving Sun teams from all over the globe.  With everyone we met at Sun and worked on this project there was the genuine desire to help new employees feel like they belonged there, and it showed in the finished product. 

Results of my interview with BrandWeek about Dixie and MommyCast

Spent a few minutes talking with Becky Ebenkamp from BrandWeek on the solid performance of MommyCast sponsored by Dixie, which resulted in this article reporting the renewal of the relationship between what is probably the most popular brand of paper plates and cups with one of the the most popular mom-centered podcasts.

My favorite stats:

• MommyCast listeners were more than twice as likely to recommend Dixie products to their friends and family
• Listeners were 13 times likely to be what we call "Netfluencers" which is well above the 5% of the general population who fit this role. 
• Listeners told 29.1 friends about Dixie on average. 

Design et.al.

We talk so much about 2.0, 3.0, .9 details and often we forget about the value of great visuals/images/photos. Good photography can do amazing things --- check out the new Interpol site's sights -- interpolnyc.com. It might even help sell more music...

also of design interest is the recent challenge (?) by Portfolio.com to IDEO, thehappycorp and Ziba Design to redesign the Bloomberg interface....the designs themselves are interesting with IDEO delivering a clean/realistic look, thehappycorp hooking onto the social marketing trend (and having some fun) and ZIBA doing a bit more ID than a complete UI design.

*[There's a secondary lesson here for design firms about side/fun projects and audience distribution --- yes, it's good to just be included but how much effort do you give when the audience could be the entire design world (www)? In my mind only 1 firm really shined in this challenge and the others seemed to not give it their best effort/attention.]

Open Source CPB?

I had to look twice at this page on Crispin Porter + Bogusky's web site (sorry, their Flash based site won't allow direct link) calling for talent from other agencies or individuals to work with them on "Projects up for grabs" which could be taken a couple of ways.  CPB just plain wants the best talent on any given project OR the demand for this agency is outstripping  capacity beyond their staff and network of known freelancers.  Partnering with third-party shops isn't anything new in the ad agency world, but we should all watch  to see what they do with making it public knowledge they're looking for partners on specific jobs. 

Say It Isn't So.

Yesterday I left the city and drove deep into the ritzy suburbs and while there I stumbled upon a PRStore.
PRStore.com tells us about their niche:
• One stop marketing, advertising and PR solutions
• A huge a la carte menu of marketing products and services
• Casual, walk-in - no appointment necessary - marketing
showrooms

Perhaps I'll hear it's name in a meeting soon, "but the PRStore can do a [guerilla viral new media blogalicious website] for [$]."

Apple Interns. Approve those reviews.

I'm a laggard I know, but I posted my first review on the iTunes store for the show The Riches, starring Eddie Izzard and Minnie Driver.  One can really start to see the power of iTunes for the smaller cable/satellite networks or shows without huge marketing budgets.  I would've never seen this show if it wasn't on iTunes and I wasn't searching for Eddie Izzard stuff.  Other than Nip/Tuck I rarely watch FX, so this was a nice find.  Something else that makes iTunes more viable -- the content is much higher quality than the first run broadcast on FX or SciFi.  BSG and Nip/Tuck look like crap on my 50" HDTV compared to how they look on my MacBook Pro.  Can't wait until my AppleTV arrives.

Getting back to my review posting on iTunes.  Doesn't seem like posting is an immediate thing as "it may be reviewed" before posting.  I'm not surprised by this flow since we have some clients (most clients) that require it.   I'm just wondering how much pizza and Coke the interns at Apple need to man the Review Postings Submission Desk.