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You gotta love Twitter for it's ability to produce these happy accidental contrasts. The tweets below came one after the other, and I immediately got a sense of summer life in two very different cities.
claudinho I'm happy because its raining today! The first drops in a very long time! about 4 hours ago from im 
johnniemoore that's 2 sunny mornings in a row. relief. about 5 hours ago from web
(Can you figure out which one was sent from London?)
Google has never advertised on TV, and actually don't do any brand marketing at all. David Lawee, the Google VP of marketing figures he has the easiest job in marketing because all of his decisions revolve around answering one simple question: what's best for the user?
(This reminds me of one of the chapters in the Made to Stick book, on the Southwest Airlines philosophy, in which every decision the company makes hinges on whether it will enable the company to remain the cheapest airline in the business. Everything begins with whether decisions ensure that Southwest is “THE low-fare airline.”).
via Business Week:
How does Google think about its brand? The honest answer is that the first thing we think about is our products. First and foremost, we're always thinking about what's best for the user. We have a true north that's always easy to touch back to.
I see this in meeting after meeting. There may be various constituents trying to decide what's the best thing to do, and we say, well, what's the best thing for the user? And the decision gets made pretty quickly. Having that consistency makes it very easy for someone like me who's kind of the brand steward. I'm not policing as much as I might if we didn't have those values.
It's a good interview, touching on a lot of themes that are always kicked around the plannersphere corridors: a lot of little ideas vs. a big advertising idea, surrendering a degree of control to consumers (they let little kids mess with the logo) and the importance of constant iteration in the process of innovation.
A little while back the FDA blocked the sale of the Cocaine energy drink, but now an even more disgusting product and marketing tactic has emerged: Blow.
Blow is a white powder packaged in a clear vial that is meant to be mixed into a beverage. According to the company's website, it contains an astonishing 240 milligrams of caffeine and 2,000 milligrams of Taurine.
Where are these people's heads at?!
(via)
I didn't get a chance earlier in the week to mention the Todd 1500 chart, which has now been picked up by Advertising Age (hip, guys!). Chroma comes in somewhere at around 209 or something (thanks Todd!).
A lot of great blogs are there, but there are also a lot that I love that aren't, so don't take the chart too seriously, go out there and dig for the good stuff ;) I think I actually read more in the Honorable Mentions list than the ones in the top 30 or something, but that's just me.
Following Gordon's lead, I list the other weblogs included in the "Honourable Mentions" list (yay for the underdogs!).
Ernie Schenck Calls This Advertising?
Email Marketing Best Practices
Because The Medium is the Message
Word-of-Mouth Communication Study
Transmission Content + Creative
Creating Revenue and Retention
Sure, a lot of people are second-guessing Second Life these days, but at least the wise Jesuits see opportunity:
"It's not possible to close our eyes to this phenomenon or rush to judge it," Spadaro said. "Instead it needs to be understood ... the best way to understand it is to enter it."
It may be redundant to comment on Second Life at this point after so much has been written, but for what it's worth, here are my two Linden cents:
There is a lot to learn by experimenting in Second Life (or other 3D virtual environments). For instance, it might make the most sense for brands to use the space for small-scale events and actually do something with their presence there. Instead, what many did was just pour a lot of money to build grandiose virtual palaces with no function other than to look cool, and in the end everyone has been left with neglected or vandalized property.
But as much as I believe that there are positive things to learn by messing around in Second Life, it's also true that, as it stands, the experience in there really does suck. It's too clunky, it's too difficult to really get good at stuff, and it doesn't scale well for larger gatherings (50-100 avatars per Sim, or something like that). I've had an avatar for months and I haven't touched it since setting up the account, it was just too boring too be honest.
Who knows, maybe the Jesuits can straighten things out for everyone else?
It's a lofty title, yes, but I do like these helpful diagrams from RGA (via Giles Rhys Jones) showing the progression from communication to "systems of interaction". Social design would, I presume, fit within the experiences section; that is to say, designers don't create experiences, they create 'artifacts to experience, and do so in an increasingly social context.
This is an interesting area for planners/strategist to play, as social design and experience planning bridges the world of technology, digital media and our social (herd) nature (if you're into that sort of thing).
Here's another helpful way to think about it.
I like it, especially because the little Tech Lead guy is thinking about "something totally unique".
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