Grown Up Thinking

I’m a gigantic geek for the Academy Awards every year. It’s like my Superbowl. I wonder if my parents got worried when I was throwing Oscar parties in my basement at age 5? Well, in all of my years as an avid enthusiast for all things film, I must admit that I never thought twice about the Best Animated Short Film category. Imagine my delight when I noticed 2009 winner Logorama, a short 16-minute feature consisting of a plot built with over 2,000 (!!!) different logos. They’re all there: Ronald McDonald, Mr. Pringle–even the MGM Lion in what is certainly a vivid, eye-popping display created by the French collective H5. I’m a true nerd enthusiast for the strategy, artwork and beauty of logos and branding, as are probably most of us creatives here at Mr Youth. This is like logo porn for a design dweeb rockstar like me. The plot is a bit all over the place; nearly every natural disaster occurs throughout its duration–including an XBox earthquake! But I think it’s a fascinating look out into our branded world. Sure, we’re inundated with literally thousands of logos everyday. But I doubt most consciously think about the emotional connections (good or otherwise) that they have with these brands–or wildly imagine how the filmmakers anthropomorphize these iconic logos that literally weave in and out of every moment of our lives. You can catch a glimpse of the trailer below or shell out a mere $1.99 to purchase the film on iTunes. Kudos to these masterful directors on a well deserved win at the Oscars. And kudos to this year’s Oscars for validating my increasingly overwhelming geekdom.

Logorama by H5 from Grafik Magazine on Vimeo.

From outlandish one-on-one encounters to themed bar nights, ChatRoulette has swept the nation with its unapologetically uncensored take on the classic internet chat. Marketing types around the world held their breath wondering who would be the first brand to tap in to the 500,000+ unique users per day.

And the winner is…. French Connection. The international clothing brand has launched a ChatRoulette competition challenging participants to use the service to seduce a woman in exchange for a $250 voucher. Risky move for an international brand, considering the proliferation of shady stuff going down on the site. But foolish or not, they’ve been getting a lot of coverage for being the first.

Only time will tell if ChatRoulette can become a useful tool in the marketer’s arsenal. Thoughts?

Growing up as a teen in the late ’80s and early ’90s was much simpler on so many levels. I never remember hearing the words economy, terrorism, war or debt. Instead, my thoughts were left to my dreams and curiosity. Since the library was not the place I aspired to be, and the Internet was far from reach, I was left to my imagination about much of what the world had to offer.The catalyst for my dreams growing up as a teen were the icons I looked up to and aspired to be like. Long before celebrity scandals were everyday news I, like many of my peers, were left with the innocent feeling of putting my heroes on impenetrable pedestals. Bobby Brown (see: mug shot), Charles Barkley (ditto), and yes, Brandon from Beverly Hills 90210 were at the top of my list.

No matter whom I looked up to as a teen, every icon had one thing in common … cool. They acted cool, dressed cool, talked cool and walked cool.

Fast forward to 2010, and the headlines are much different as are teens’ perceptions of their icons. The Internet, camera phones, and Perez Hilton have exposed those who might otherwise be teens’ everyday heroes as frauds or creeps, and there is little left to the imagination. The halo of cool has become blurred and faded with yet another flash from a TMZ photographer.

Enter the “age of anti-cool” for the modern teen. With each new celebrity wart exposed, the notion of hero and idol has virtually disappeared only to be awkwardly replaced by the likes of Michael Cera, Shaun White and Glee. Today’s rising teen heroes are largely embraced because of their flaws rather than their airbrushed perfection. We are entering an age that celebrates and promotes imperfection.

Teens are infatuated with Shaun White not only because he is an American teen icon* that is a killer snowboarder but because he is in many ways as relatable as the free-spirited, pimply kid next door. Michael Cera (or Jonah Hill for that matter) is not as easy on the eyes as Jason Priestly once was, but who would you rather spend a night playing Xbox with? Glee celebrates the inner shower singer in all of us that just wants to belt out some “Journey” … and something about that feels so right.

Social media has made the anti-cool acceptable and widespread. No longer does today’s teen need to be a cheerleader or sports jock to fit in. There are meet-ups for Star Wars geeks and tweetups for Circus Freaks and everything in between. Pepsi, long seen as an arbiter of teen pop culture, no longer uses the likes of Britney, MJ, Madonna or Shaq in its ads, but instead a promise for everyday people to make a difference.

Is your brand still hiding behind the bright lights and makeup of a paid celebrity shill to tout your wares? Or are you embracing your warts while becoming more authentic and relatable? The jig is up for fooling teen consumers with a paid endorsement by their heroes. Now you must earn their trust by letting it all out and embracing the anti-cool.

This article appeared as part of MediaPost’s Engage:Teens Publications. To read the original post, click here.

The arrival of March means many things. Winter coats are being tucked away into the backs of closets, flip flops are making their premature debut and the buzz of March Madness starts in offices, apartments and dorm rooms across the nation. This year, Hulu (the commercial-supported website that streams video of TV shows and movies) is partnering with Entertainment Weekly to put its own spin on the traditional basketball tournament by sponsoring a voting-based Best In Show Tournament.

Voting opened on March 1st and the ultimate champion will be crowned on April 5th with the prestigious title, Best in Show. While it’s still too early to predict the mass popularity of the competition, I think Hulu is doing a great job of providing unique interactive ways for its users to stay connected with the site beyond streaming video. One drawback: I do not see a sharing feature anywhere on the site to share the competition and my votes within my social networks.

And for now my predictions: I think Glee and Family Guy will showdown in the semi finals against Lost and 24. Ultimately, I think Lost will take it, appealing to a wider fan base than my beloved Glee.

Anyone care to make a wager?

There are many among us who cherish the days when we get to indulge in a hearty breakfast of pancakes and syrup instead of our usual cup of coffee and too much to do. Well today is our day, because it is officially National Pancake Day according to IHOP, and the folks over at the famed food shop are taking a new approach to promoting it with a Web 2.0 spin!

For starters, IHOP enlisted Miss America 2010 to be the official spokesperson for National Pancake Day to support the nationwide promotion and tie-in with the Children’s Miracle Network. On the official National Pancake Day website consumers can share information via their social networks and sign up to receive celebrity wake up calls reminding them to celebrate with some pancakes. If you’re one of the 74,000+ IHOP Facebook fans you may have noticed that you were automatically sent to the National Pancake Day tab this morning while IHOP employees across the country took to their local IHOP Twitter accounts to spread the news about the promotion and were even triumphant enough to earn IHOP a spot in the coveted “Trending Topics” list on Twitter. Overall I’d give IHOP an “A” for effort, but a “B” overall for their Web 2.0 centered celebration. They’ve got a lot of room to make this a full-blown social media extravaganza, and this is a great step in that direction.

By now everyone is aware of the sensation Doppleganger week generated on Facebook, and a smaller buzz was created when a movement challenged women to change their status to the color of your bra to raise awareness for Breast Cancer. Both appear to have started organically.

Two new groups are getting viral traction on Facebook. The first one:  I’m With Coco, a group started to show support for Conan through the NBC debacle. The group, started up by artist Mike Mitchell,  is closing in on 1 million fans and has inspired a merchandise line featuring  a Shepard Fairey-esque image of Conan that Mitchell created.

The second meme of the month is “Can this Pickle Get More Fans than Nickelback.” It was inspired by the “Can this onion get more fans than Justin Bieber”, which had over 2-million fans before it was pulled down by facebook. This week, the Nickelback hating page reached their goal by netting more than 1,420,000 fans compared to Nickelback’s 1,413,167. The page continues to grow with pure viral pickle power.

Both social media movements have started small, but have resulted in big pay offs. Facebook is a tricky space. Their policies are ever-changing and they reserve the right to pull down pages that violate their terms. YET, if a brand approached this correctly, it could be a huge win. Conan could have put out a rally cry on the network and driven people to join a Facebook fan group, but a consumer did it instead. Who knows if there is some magic pickle man behind this viral effort. I’d put money on it that there isn’t, but you never know these days.

Back in November, a clam chowder joint’s viral stunt reported their sales tripled from a hoax campaign that put their billboard in the depths of the ocean. Damn, I’m getting hungry… gotta change my FB status.

Print is not dead, but it’s certainly evolving. Perhaps offering a glimpse into the future of publishing, Wired Magazine’s latest offering is pretty impressive. Its ambitious iPad app (launching later this summer) wholeheartedly takes advantage of the yet-to-be released device’s multi-touch capabilities. Coming originally from a design background in print, I’ve long loathed the awful user experience of seeing magazines and newspapers being pulverized down to an eyesore browser smoothie. (I’m a proud card-carrying member of the ‘I Hate Arial’ club, by the way.) This new app is not only cool in that users will get to visually experience a publication the way it was meant to be seen, but it’s revolutionary in that you actually get to interact with it. Interactive print. Hmm…no longer an oxymoron? I was most impressed with the 360º rotation options for imagery and the oh-so naturally intuitive hand navigation.

Also of note: Unlike a traditional web browsing experience where ads are an evil burden, I would argue that print ads are integral to a magazine browsing experience. The placement of products in glossy publications are intricately woven into the entire experience in a very thoughtful and eye-catching way. Wired again steps up their awesomeness by illustrating how those very same print ads can truly come to life on the iPad in visually stunning and useful ways. It’s like the magic and wonder of a children’s popup book. On steroids.

So ‘cheers’ to the next incarnation of the publishing world. This splashy app is only the beginning of many exciting developments (hello, Augmented Reality!) surely to come.

Mr Youth has just received high honors in one of Fast Company’s annual compendiums, making our way onto the list of the Top 10 Most Innovative Advertising & Marketing Companies.

Each year, Fast Company seeks out the smartest businesses across all industries. Mr Youth was praised for taking word-of-mouth marketing to the next level and for our innovative approach to technology, with a shout out to Mr Youth’s crowdsourcing platform, RepNation.

Fast Company puts this list of game-changers together annually, focusing on companies ranging from visionary upstarts to storied stalwarts. This year we make our appearance alongside the likes of Crispin Porter, R/GA, and Goodby Silverstein.

Click here to see why Fast Company doesn’t think of Mr Youth as “just another word-of-mouth marketing agency.”

At some point over the last year many of us have realized that some of what we post on Twitter may not be what we’d like to share with all of our followers. Unfortunately for those in that situation, Twitter does not have privacy settings like Facebook that allow you to choose who can see what information that you share, so what do you do when you realize that your personal life is crossing over into your public life? The answer is simple – make a second account!

The first question you should ask yourself when doing this is, “Why am I using Twitter and what am I trying to accomplish?”. There are many reasons why having multiple accounts makes sense. You can segment your Twitter traffic based on your interests, focus content on different topics and develop larger followings across different fields. I will admit that I ran in to the same problem on Twitter which actually became more of a positive than a negative. Now that I have two Twitter accounts I can share personal content with my close group of friends and network with other professionals. In fact, I recently discovered that 53% of Twitter users have multiple accounts which is why Twitter management software like HootSuite and TweetDeck have become so popular.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Twitter was already developing a new platform to improve some of the organization and privacy issues that are plaguing many users- but until that day comes, I’ll have to keep up with my (not so) secret double life on Twitter. You can call me Bond… James Bond.

Though I missed the Super Bowl entirely, I did manage to catch up on all of the ads after the fact thanks to YouTube’s glossy showcase of Super Bowl commercials: AdBlitz .

I diligently viewed every ad from all four quarters of the game, and have outlined here a list of all the ads that made me LOL. Which, if you caught my previous post, you know that is something of a rarity.

Here’s the rundown of the most LOL-worthy spots of Super Bowl XLIV:

1. Snickers: Game (featuring Betty White)
For whatever reason, I’ll watch pretty much anything that involves Betty White. She’s delightful. But this spot in particular had me howling like Tom Hulce in Amadeus. Delight turns to pure magic when Betty delivers her first and only line.

2. Vizio - Forge (featuring Beyoncé)
This spot is a close second in my book of LOLs. The real clincher for me is the YouTube Celebrity/Meme theme: particularly, David at the Dentist’s inclusion is nothing short of comic genius. I’m a sucker for traditional and new media cross-pollination!

3. Doritos - House Rules
Cute little kid shows us who’s boss. This LOL smacks you right in the face with some LOL-worthy sass.

4. Dodge Charger - Man’s Last Stand
This commercial epic and comic ode to any man who has lived with a significant other or experienced a serious relationship. As a guy who’s lived through both, I had to resist the urge to bust out my air guitar at the climax of this spot.

5. Kia Sorento - Big Game
This commercial harkens back to something many of us wonder as children- do our toys have thoughts/feelings? Oh, maybe that was just me? Anyway, this commercial brings to life some hilarious fantasies from our favorite childhood toys.

That’s a wrap! Hope you enjoyed Super LOL 2010 - feel free to post your own Super LOL list in the comments!