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February 27, 2008

Our new global digital practice

MS&L has announced the launch of our new global digital practice, jointly led by Jud Branam in North America (here in Ann Arbor) and Michael Pierlovisi in Europe (in Paris). Email Jud or Michael with your digital PR needs.

Posted by Laurie Mayers at 08:54 AM
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February 26, 2008

Brides decide for 2008

By Alicia Dorset

Thanks to my co-worker Nichole Woodcock, I've been fascinated with Brides Decide this morning, a site brought to us by super-big wedding giants the knot, the nest and Wedding Channel.com. And if you're wondering what this site's all about, the title sums it up:

When it comes to electing the 44th president, it's savvy women like us who are going to make history. That's why we created BridesDecide.com, a front-row ticket to the 2008 presidential election. Get informed, take our survey, and check out the candidates' real wedding photos (we couldn't resist!).

Thanks to the site, I now know that Ron Paul was married at age 21 back in 1957 and still wears the same tux size he did back in the late '50s. Would this help me make a decision on who to vote for this fall? Probably not. But for some of my friends whose poor brains are mushed with everything wedding right now... I bet it might.

What is useful for the site are the quick links up top on key issues, such as abortion, education, the war in Iraq and more. Clicking on a topic gives you a quick rundown of who's for it and who's against it. There are also links on where to register to vote and forums on the various wedding web sites that are currently talking politics.

While you might initially laugh at the thought of someone spending time looking through Hilary Clinton's wedding photos, Brides Decide is on to something- they realized their target audience has one BIG non-election topic on their minds this year, and if they want those brides to get out and vote, they need to reach them the best way they can.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 10:10 AM
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February 25, 2008

Techy notes from the Academy Awards

By Alicia Dorset

I couldn't help but notice last night the amount of "techy goodness" sprinkled in during the 80th Academy Awards ceremony. Here's what I caught:

• After a retrospective on some of cinema's greatest hits during the past 80 years, host Jon Stewart is seen watching Lawrence of Arabia on his iPhone. He remarks that this is how movies were always meant to be watched, then flips the iPhone horizontally and says, "Oh, that's better. Widescreen!"
• Coming back from a break, Stewart and 11-year-old Jamia Simone Nash (who performed earlier in the night for Best Original Song, Raise it Up, from August Rush), are found playing Wii tennis on the main stage's projection screen.
• Making a reference to Nicole Kidman's upcoming movie roles, Stewart uses the Internet Movie Database as his source for her "upcoming unnamed project."
• And of course, let's not forget about blogger-turned-screenwriter Diablo Cody taking home the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for Juno.

I'm not the only one noticed some prime tech product placement. Check out ZDNet and Engadget for Oscar tech coverage, too.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 11:53 AM
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February 20, 2008

Review: OurChart

By Kim Huston

The Writers Guild of America strike and Michigan’s lovely winter weather had me craving television that wasn’t of the reality variety. I consulted my trusty friend Netflix, and that’s how I started watching The L Word.

One of the characters, Alice, is mildly obsessed with the connectivity of the lesbian community (think Six Degrees of Separation). She keeps a chart of the various known hook-ups of her friends and the Los Angeles lesbian community. In the second season, Alice pitches a radio show based on the idea. In the fourth season “The Chart.” as it's called. becomes a social networking site that allows women to list people they’ve dated, creating “Constellations” and “Solar Systems” of connectivity. A funny plot point includes a woman named Papi uploading her hookup list, which was so long that it crashes the server of the site.

As it turns out, the creators of the show capitalized on the fictional social networking site to create the very real OurChart. Here’s what the creators have to say about the site:

Pretty much every group of friends has its own ‘chart,’ right? Whether it's written down or not, we all know who's slept with whom, who's part of whose serial monogamy, and who's part of everyone else's serial non-monogamy. It's part of the glue that holds all forms of social networks together.

We were first introduced to Alice's chart of hookups in season one, episode one of The L Word. Since then, it's been the connecting thread throughout all of the relationships on the show. Whether or not the characters have slept together, they're all together on Alice's wall. The underlying friendships in the group are the real foundation of all these connections, and that's where OurChart comes in. Until now, there's never been a central meeting place just for us — lesbians, dykes, queer girls, gay women, high femmes, butches, drag kings, bois, transwomen and transmen — however we define ourselves. On OurChart, you can connect yourself via friendships and relationships to the wide world encompassing all these people and more.

You can invite your friends, make new ones, and share your favorite stuff, your innermost thoughts, and your most superficial leanings. That's pretty standard. But on OurChart, your network of connections will also form a visual ‘chart’ a lot like Alice's — only this one is dynamic and interactive. And it's yours.

The site includes blogs, content about The L Word, and allows you to watch episodes from the current season. When you sign up, you have the ability to upload photos, manage your own blog, and allows you to manage friends and “friends plus,” which can include ex-significant others and anybody you may have gotten romantic with. And it’s not just for women; there are men on the site, too. The most interesting part of the site is that you can launch your own chart where you can see how you’re connected to everyone on the chart.

The L Word creators built a truly fun, interactive social networking site that not only promotes their program, but gives groups that might feel left out by traditional social networking a chance to share their voice and meet new friends.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 05:21 PM
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February 19, 2008

Twitter talks a "big game"

By Nichole Woodcock

Each year, millions of dollars are thrown into advertising for the “big game,” otherwise known as the Super Bowl, and the day after everyone seems to have an opinion about their favorites. With a little help from social networking, this year people were talking in real time.

“TwitterBowl” was introduced to the masses this year as a “real-time social experiment” in which viewers at home get to chime in on ads. The tweeting was in hopes to spark interesting conversation and see how popular the online network has become.

The little trial was dubbed a success with more than 2,500 people participating, about 625 messages an hour. I’m sure their comments are a marketer’s dream, no matter how good or bad. Take a look at what people were saying about Dell.

No word if Twitter will be making this an annual event, but it really sparks intrigue into how social networks are adapting to become part of mainstream events. Tweaking this concept for the upcoming elections would make for some interesting fodder.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 11:07 AM
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February 06, 2008

What's the diff?

By Charlie Kondek

My friend and former co-worker Clayton Closson invited me to guest blog a post at the blog he manages for Quicken Loans, What's the Diff? The theme of the Diff blog is the difference between average and excellent. Clayton encouraged me to write about something personal and important, not necessarily having to do with business or PR or anything else. So I wrote a heartfelt post about one of my passions that I'm kinda proud of. I admire What's the Diff for its broadness of topic and diversity of perspectives. Doesn't always have a business goal in mind but, rather, shows the company's interests in plain old humanity. I hope you'll check it out.

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 12:28 PM
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Oh, no, Target, you didn't

By Charlie Kondek

When a blogger wrote to Target complaining about imagery in an ad, Target replied:

“Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets."

The New York Times had the story recently. Target's stance in this instance is a mistake both in media relations and in influencer marketing. That's no surprise, since blogging is sometimes a combination of both journalistic reporting and consumerist word of mouth. In this case, Target is simultaneously making bad press for itself and alienating customers and potential customers.

Speaking of kerfuffles...

I recently used the word "kerfuffle" in a sentence. Spell-check asked me if I meant "kafuffle." I had to admit I usually only use the word verbally and wasn't sure how it was spelled, so I looked it up using various free online dictionaries.

Kerfuffle is a word, according to World Wide Words and Merriam-Webster's (which points out it's original Scottish spelling, "carfuffle"). But sources like Urban Dictionary claim "kafuffle" is a perfectly valid word, too.

Setting aside the interesting and thorny problem of tracking the use and shaping of British expressions, I think it's interesting to note that in this day and age of free, user-driven information sources, incorrect spellings, abbreviations and slang will become just as valid as, or at least compete with, canonical interpretations of words and concepts. Certainly, we've seen this with Wikipedia and the like, and we're also familiar with the pros and cons of this approach.

Wottapalava. Or do I mean "what a palaver?"

Posted by Alicia Dorset at 12:21 PM
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