Sprint, Twitter, Rational Buyers, Google Wave, Gawker, Motorola, Terminator, Gawker, Facebook

Sprint Screensaver

Sprint has an interesting new screensaver and it’s powered by social media pulling in Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, YouTube and Flickr data as well as other real time elements, such as local traffic and bus schedules, the weather and Google matches.

25 Media People You Should Follow on Twitter

Ad Age’s MediaWorks offers a batch of media and marketing people you should follow on Twitter — along with recent, decent tweets to give you an idea what they’re up to.

The Myth of the Rational Buyer: How Too Much Thinking Can Hurt Your Brand |

Lindstrom suggests that too much messaging on a product’s packaging can actually prevent a sale. Logos and words can engage the rational mind, causing people to actually think harder about making a purchase. It’s a counter-intuitive notion, but then think about the effectiveness of the quiet logos on a bottle of POM Wonderful pomegranate juice, or a Method product, or the entire Apple product line up.

Five Reasons to Be Terrified of Google Wave

Participating in a Wave is a little like an email chain, and a little like instant messaging; you can embed documents, Google Web Elements, photos and other multimedia, and the whole bailywick is presented as one stream of conversation. People can jump in or jump out at any time, and they can track back in conversations to see where things got started.

HBO and Gawker tie up for True Blood blog launch

The blog has received a mixed response from critics and viewers, and has been likened to a form of customer publishing, blurring the line between editorial and advertising.

Motorola ambassador David Beckham caught with iPhone

Motorola brand ambassador David Beckham has landed himself in hot water after pictures appeared showing the AC Milan player using an iPhone. The photographs showing Beckham looking around furtively while using the phone follow last month’s ad campaign for Motorola’s £1,400 Aura handset.

Sony Activates TERMINATOR Twitter Game

In anticipation of the worldwide release of the motion picture Terminator Salvation, Twitter users will have the chance to join the human resistance against the machines in Sony Pictures Releasing International’s first-ever game created for the social networking platform,

Gawker’s Blood Copy

Over the next few weeks, you will see posts showing up on io9 that look like crossposts from a Gawker Media blog called Blood Copy. These are not real posts. They are sponsored ads that are part of an alternate reality game (ARG) created by the True Blood marketing team. Gawker reputedly earned a cool half-mill for the deal.

Gawker’s Secret Weapon

“Nielsen research shows that nearly 34% of Gawker readers have their own blogs, a key influencer statistic. Gawker readers, it turns out, have their own audience.” The full Nielsen report on Gawker readers reveals the’re also they’re young, computer-savvy, RSS-reading atheists with good cholesterol…

How Facebook Will Upend Advertising
Advertising is getting a much-needed push toward the future via social networking, analyst Jonathan Yarmis writes. Word-of-mouth advertising is being taken to a new level. He notes, “Credibility now has a channel for mass distribution. It’s called the Web and it particularly thrives in social networks.

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Social Media: Married on MySpace, Online Video

“Married on MySpace”

“What’s most interesting about “Married on MySpace” is the way it integrates brands and products. Arguably “Married” is the first reality series in some time, offline or on, that eases commercial content into its flow in a way that feels both natural for viewers and worthwhile for marketers.”

How People Share Online Video
“A few short years ago, the term “online video” was wishful thinking. Clips could only be slowly downloaded. They had to be viewed in tiny windows on the computer screen. Sound and graphics were primitive. Video was hardly a killer app. But then, in a rush came—sometime between 2005 and 2006—YouTube in the US, Dailymotion in Europe and Tudou in China.”

Women Prefer Apple, Young People Prefer Microsoft?

Does rather beg the question “what about young women then?” That said: we read that:

Top Tech Brands for Women: Apple #1

“Apple ranks as the top technology brand among women in the US, who were asked which tech brand or company they admired most, according to a study from Solutions Research Group (SRG). Apple was followed by Sony, Microsoft, Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP).”

Young people see Microsoft as a better value

“The Laptop Hunters commercial campaign that Microsoft is pushing seems to be working. Young people in the 18-34 demographic see a laptop running Microsoft Windows as a better value for the money than an Apple laptop running OSX. Apple had dominated consumer mindshare in the winter, but has since fallen behind Microsoft.”

Photo Credit

PS I am still fascinated by the The Apple Tablet. “More evidence of the Apple Tablet surfaced today. We first wrote about the device at the end of last year when OEMs in China started hearing about the device. Details are still thin, although probably not because of a lack of leaks. Rather, Apple may still be locking down important specs like screen size.”

Everton 2 – Liverpool 1

Everton 2 – Liverpool 1. Not a score you see too often! Nice idea from Everton football club. They’ve come up with a great piece of marketing for their new club shop at the new £920 million ‘Liverpool One’ shopping centre. It’s name is ‘Everton Two’, making their address: Everton Two, Liverpool One. Very nifty. And this appears on all carrier bags too.

Branded Utility/ Packaging: Knorr Chequers

Communicadores points us to a nice piece of packaging/ branded utility from Knorr in Russia …I have suggested ideas similar to this to clients on a number of occasions (I confess chequers or draughts never occurred to me) and never got it approved. Good for them!

I wonder if there is a cultural reference or insight – or is this just a cool idea?

Crispin, Twitdoc, Chinese Ugly Betty, 3D

Crispin Intern Auction Gets $17,65
From Alex Bogusky (bogusky) on Twitter: “Intern Auction ended. Winning bid was $17,655. Congrats to the winner and the interns. Stand by for more info on the winning client.”

TwitDoc.com – share your documents on Twitter

Twitter isn’t only for sharing links and news – with TwitDoc users can now share documents, from PDFs to Microsoft Office docs. Simply enter your account and choose the document or photo you want to send, attach text and blast the document into Twitterverse.

China’s ‘Ugly Betty’ Is One Long Product Placement

As it goes into its third season as a smash TV hit across the mainland, the Chinese version of “Ugly Betty” is also pioneering new levels of product-placement clutter. The show is set in an advertising agency rather than a fashion magazine, which enables the program to focus on all manner of products and their attributes. Mateo Eaton, who heads the branded-content division of Mindshare North Asia, acknowledged that the dense placements are a bit over the top, but advertisers — and the TV producers they’re paying — aren’t complaining at all.

John Pugh’s 3D Wall Murals

Artist John Pugh creates fantastic trompe l’oeil murals on the sides of buildings that look as if they are exposing a 3D fantasy world inside. Mail Online has a gallery of his work.

Little Chef, Corporate Websites, TwitTv, iPhones v Advertising, Sorry, Tide Thursday

Little Chef gives nod to Blumenthal’s menu
Roadside restaurant chain Little Chef is reportedly planning to roll out Michelin-starred chef Heston Blumenthal‘s trial menu across all of its UK outlets. Little Chef has been trialling a menu at its Popham outlet that contains dishes such as braised ox cheeks and coq au vin, created by Blumenthal, owner of The Fat Duck restaurant. Blumenthal’s attempt to turn the Little Chef around was featured in a Channel 4 documentary that aired earlier this year. The menu has proved popular and plans have been made to introduce the dishes at all 175 Little Chef restaurants. Little Chef was saved from bankruptcy in 2007 after private equity firm RCapital stepped in to save the chain. The chain was founded in 1958 as an 11-seater snack bar in Reading, and has had a series of owners since that time including Granada, private-equity firm Permira and Travelodge.

Is Social Media Making Corporate Websites Irrelevant?

You’re probably already noticing business cards containing Twitter (Twitter reviews) usernames as opposed to domain names, bands promoting their MySpace (MySpace reviews) profile instead of their own website, and even ad campaigns directing people to participate in a social media rather than visit a branded website. The latter is exactly what Vitamin Water is doing through a multi-channel campaign featuring NBA superstars LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.

Twitter, Brillstein develop TV series

What’s Twitter doing? Going after a TV series. The San Francisco-based web phenom has partnered with Reveille and Brillstein Entertainment to develop an unscripted TV skein described as “putting ordinary people on the trail of celebrities in a revolutionary competitive format.”

Are iPhones Good for Advertising?

According to a recent survey, iPhone users are more likely to recall mobile ads than non-iPhone users. US Mobile Phone Users and iPhone Users Who Recall Viewing Mobile Advertising, by Type, Q1 2009 (% of respondents in each group) iPhone users had higher rates of recall from all measured types of mobile ads than nonusers, including mobile display, standard text message (SMS), audio, picture or video messages (MMS) and mobile TV and video ads.

Before Marketers Ask for Trust, Perhaps They Should Apologize

There’s one word consumers haven’t heard much that might serve these companies better than their current dirges: sorry. That thought came to mind as a rash of “We’re sorry” ads broke out recently across the pond in the U.K. an underwear manufacturer apologizing . Marks & Spencer recently ran a national campaign apologizing for for charging bigger-breasted women more for bigger bras. The headline, of course: “We boobed.”

“Tide Thursday”: P&G Expected to Trim Prices, Boost Ad Dollars

When P&G Chairman-CEO A.G. Lafley appears at one this week, some believe the near-term future of packaged-goods marketing — and the long-term future of Procter & Gamble — may hang in the balance. Some are even billing the appearance as “Tide Thursday,” a reference to “Marlboro Friday” in 1993, when Philip Morris, battered by value-brand incursions on its Marlboro brand, cut prices 20% and stepped up consumer marketing in a move that was ultimately copied by many in the consumer-goods industry, reshaping the way many marketers approached pricing and advertising.