the world according to schmogel.

Over the last few years, the last remaining sacred place for original, agency grown, highly anticipated, super expensive, self-proclaimed talk value, advertising has been compromised. The Super Bowl. Marketers, brands and agencies have turned over the ads– to the people.

We’ve all heard about it, read about it, wrote about it and talked about it. Consumer control. It’s played out in marketing campaigns in different ways:

1. Real people: use a real person with real stories in a campaign.
2. Real causes: align a brand with real causes that impact real lives and therefore showing real people.
3. Real voices: letting consumers influence products and marketing. Focus groups 3.2. Usually plays out in voting, discussions, idea submission.
4. The new celebrity: Align a marketing campaign with a real person and make them your voice. Usually said real person already has a following or credentials that make them interesting
5. Take it (crowd sourcing, idea sourcing, creative contest– whatever you want to call it today): Turn your brand over (enough of it) to real people, tell them what you want and see what they come up with. Because, really, it is just that easy to do our jobs.

The Super Bowl has become a place you can see all of this- there are no secrets (Google may be trying to prove me wrong). You can see the ads before hand, vote on which ad wins, vote on who will be in the ads, leak the ads, create your own ads, and on and on and on.

And gasp, some advertisers run old tv spots that they have been running for a year. In the past that could work. You have a captive audience, one looking forward to ads. You want everyone to see your ad, you throw it up, and even though it’s not new, people see it. And in some cases, it’s new to them.

Does all of this ruin the anticipation of the ads? Or, what 51% of viewers enjoy more than the game (according to USA Today/Nielsen Co. Survey). Did marketers ruin it? On purpose? Or will they look back and kick themselves? Or is the final dinosaur becoming extinct?

When does the Super Bowl become less valuable? If brands don’t hold true to the unspoken, elite club rule– spend money to make the ads new and something to talk about or people will stop watching them- does the marketer when or lose?

A few more years of advertisers testing other outlets and means to get content in front of people (small audiences, more often) and in their hands, the Super Bowl becomes just another football game. Just like the World Series, Stanley Cup, March Madness, Bowl games and any other awards based show. They will be able to demand a slight premium, but not Super Bowl premiums.

Don’t expect the NFL and networks to go quietly. They will create stunts, reasons to watch and may even try to demand only ‘new, never before seen content’ can air during the game (this probably won’t work). Networks need the ads to be good. They need people to be captivated the entire game. They expect the money and put a lot of hope into the lead out program- the first program after the Super Bowl.

Examples of lead out programs: Friends, X-Files, Simpsons, Survivor, Alias, Gery’s Anatomy, House. This year it will be Undercover Boss. Wait, isn’t this a show about real people working hard and the guy who doesn’t ‘get it’(the proverbial man) who has lost perspective on what real people need and want from his office in a big city? Well hell, maybe the networks are in on this too.

I guess we will see tomorrow morning. My guess, the headlines read “Meh. Nothing new- but it was cool how Miller High Life let the little guy into their ads” and/or “The big Super Bowl winner: Pepsi”

Time Magazine has an article about how to build your own bedbug detector/catcher.

I love to celebrate anything MacGyver, except MacGruber- i hate that guy, and this deserves a MacGyver stamp of approval.

Worth checking out, especially if you are going to be staying in a NY hotel anytime soon…

Tonight marked the beginning of the end. It took us a long time to get here. We reached the point of no return. The excitement was all anyone was talking about. Could it live up to the hype? Of course, I am referring to Lost. After watching, I think I liked it. But I won’t really know until I do it again. That got me thinking … what analogy is out there, what obvious analogy is out there, what could it be? Oh yeah, here it is:

The top ten reasons watching LOST Season 6, Episode 1 is like losing your virginity. It’s late and if the folks from lost can go back in time, so can I. And right now, my sense of humor is somewhere in my teens.

On to the list:

1. It hurts before it is enjoyable

2. You trust those who claim to be experts, blindly

3. It leaves you with more questions than answers

4. It’s better with someone else

5. You know it’s probably not a great experience, but it doesn’t stop you trying again

6. They both make you sweaty and nervous

7. At one time one or another it’s all you think about

8. Sometimes the internet can help ease the pain

9. It’s usually the blue-eyed ones that get you in trouble

And the number one reason…

1. You don’t want anyone to walk in or talk unexpectedly. Particularly your mother.

However, the good news is, I hope, once you’ve got it figured out, all is right in the world. And if history has taught us anything, the more you do it, the more fun it gets. Until next week.

Chicken Little: OMG OMG OMG The Sky is Falling!!!!! Facebook is taking all your personal information and sharing it with the world… Hurry! Hurry! Change your settings.

Non-insane Jane: Really? What are they sharing?

Chicken Little: Everything! My mom’s friend’s brother’s sister’s best friend’s cousin posted a link telling me that EVERYONE in the entire world could get my social security number, my home address, my DNA. Quick! Change your settings, what are you waiting for?!?!?!?!

Non-insane Jane: Are you sure Chicken Little? Are you sure that Facebook, a social network, that you are on to be social, isn’t just making the basic information about you available to * GASP * create more social connections? And are you sure they aren’t still giving you control over the information? And are you sure that that hasn’t been the case for years? And are you sure that this is unique to Facebook? are you sure that you don’t give away this information in other place?

Chicken Little: No! Look Look… see ‘they’ told me so on Facebook:

“Worried about search engines? Your information is safe.
There have been misleading rumors recently about Facebook indexing all your information on Google. This is not true. Facebook created public search listings in 2007 to enable people to search for your name and see a link to your Facebook profile. They will still only see a basic set of information.”

Non-Insane Jane: uh-huh…

Chicken Little: uh… oh, it’s just not clear. I am confused. How will I ever know what people can see?!?!!?!

Non-Insane Jane: I don’t know? Click the Preview my Profile button?

Chicken Little: oh. So, it’s just my basic information? information I already allowed people to see? And I can still set it for individual people?

And Scene.

People, and by people I mean anyone that posted in their status:

Facebook will automatically index all your info on Google, which allows everyone to view it. To change this option, go to Settings —> Privacy Settings —> Search —> then UN-CLICK the box that says ‘Allow indexing’

and those that did it without question, simmer down.

Facebook is a social network. If you don’t like your name being shared and don’t like getting and sharing information – get off the internet. Don’t let me catch you searching your friends and friends of friends pictures, don’t get that coupon from a company you like and don’t, under any circumstance, connect with people from your past or that live far away.

And a huge ‘shame on you’ to the people who want nothing more than for people to see and react to their status updates and wall posts that got sucked in like sheep. You know better. Those of you with blogs you promote, Flickr accounts you link to, Twitter posts your whore out, NetFlix reviews you post, FourSquare updates you post every 20 minutes.

There are larger and more pressing things to warn your friends about around security and safety. Save your ALL CAPS, fear inducing, level red, alerts for something you really know and care about.

Thanks, I feel better. Now go about your day.

I like it when things work the way I want them to. I also like when people tell me I am right, I never get enough of that. After spending a considerable amount of time on Twitter and Facebook I have watched updates, changes, complaints, mistakes and promises come-and-go on both properties.

I have plenty of opinions and suggestions, however, because I am going to refrain from making a Top 10 list during the Month of December in the year 2009 (or attempt to refrain– I really do like lists) I will simply offer one improvement suggestion for each brand and why it makes sense. For free. This is valuable stuff people. And I am sure I am the only one who has thought of these, ever. And, I’ll be right… they will be better if they implement my suggestions.

1. Facebook: Give ‘Fans’ the same love you give ‘Friends’
Allow me to see what mutual friends I have that are fans of a brand.

You might say, “that already exists.” I’d then bet you it doesn’t, you would still swear it does and I would win said bet.

To save you the hassle of going to look, see the screen grabs below.

It confuses me why this doesn’t exist. Just today a report came out that 60,000,000 people connect with Facebook connect, 80,000 websites– last week we all learned that there are over 360,000,000 accounts thanks to the blue announcement box that took over our profiles… brands are clambering to make an impact. Paying a lot of money to define strategies, unique approaches, keeping up with changes across Facebook’s policy and running campaigns on Facebook.

Influencer, ambassador, first in the know, generation one, the popular kid, the expert- whatever you want to call it they are the valuable online users brands want to connect with. Facebook brilliantly allows brands to connect with many, many varying degrees of influencers. Perhaps they just influence one friend, but that friend influences 10… no longer do you need to find the one guy that can influence 100 people. Personalized influencers allow for micro-connections to have large impacts.

If the theory of ‘suggested friends’ is that I just forgot to become friends with this person I should know because all my friends know them… why wouldn’t it hold true that, I am easily influenced by my friends to become a fan of a brand and sometimes I just need to be reminded? In grade school I wore ‘skids’ and ‘I.O.U.’ clothing because someone told me it was cool.

I know I can see it for a brief moment on a news feed, or a wall post if they do something they share, but I think it is a missed opportunity. Facebook is a vibrant community that succeeds on interactions. Consumers are more engaged with content, expect to interact with companies and look to express themselves with the assistance of brands.
Connecting your circle of friends with a brand seems like a no brainer. And then, Facebook, you can suggest brands to me, like you do friends. It will give them more credibility– just don’t let brands buy that space, make them earn it.

2. Twitter. Connect conversations. Add a “see the string”

This one is not as easy to implement as the Facebook one, but the folks at twitter are smart. Facebook offers ‘see wall to wall’ – Perhaps Twitter could get rid of that useless ‘retweet’ button and add a ‘respond’ button. That way it would string together multiple tweets and track back to the original. Like an email string. Provide context to the conversations. Maybe it is pretty easy.

Like it or not, conversations happen on Twitter. @s make up a majority of tweets throughout the day. They are used multiple ways. Sometimes they are used to RT something, but a trend right now is to @ someone and just making an open-ended statement with no context. They are more appropriate for text messages, emails, phone calls or even facebook wall posts. On Twitter they are out of context.

If it is a reaction to something someone said, I would like to know what the original post was that you are responding to. For example, “@SomeoneImportant you are sooooo right OMG. That is funny.” Or “@PersonInChicago that was a great tip.”

Wait, what is funny, what was a great tip? I want to know. I try and click on their pages, but lucky me, they tweet a lot and I can’t find anything that is funny or useful. I like to eavesdrop and stalk and share my 2 cents.

It’s like hearing one side of a phone conversation. Not all that interesting. And even worse, if the same person does it over and over, I probably lose interest and tune them out.

In this game of ‘tit-for-tat’ between these two brands, I am surprised they haven’t implemented these features by now.

Anything else?

I love technology and I love TV and I love live sports. Which is why I can’t believe I am about the type this next sentence, really.

I am happy that FIFA is not evolving with technology during the game. And I love that too.

Off the field, use technology to advance away. Better equipment, better training, better players, better fans.

I digress, back to the technology thing. First, it was refusing to use goal-line technology. You know, a microchip in the ball that would signal to the ref if a goal is scored.

Now, and even more pleasing, is the strong stance against instant replays. “It’s a game played by human beings, a game with a human face,” WFA secretary general David Collins said.

“Other sports regularly change the laws of the game to react to the new technology. … We don’t do it and this makes the fascination and the popularity of football.”

I’ve written about what soccer has taught me about life previously. One of the main strengths of soccer is players play and coaches prepare you for a game. There are no timeouts, coaches can’t stop and reset the pace of a game, and shit happens. It comes down to preparation and teamwork. My high school coach gave this advice to his players: “It doesn’t matter if you are one step ahead if you aren’t thinking 3 steps ahead.”

Handballs happen- sometimes intentional and sometimes not. Goalies move before a penalty kick. You take a few extra yards on free kicks and throw-ins. Elbows are thrown, and sometimes hair is pulled. And yes, slide tackles hurt. It is all part of the game. A game that is played for 90 minutes in the sun, rain, wind and snow. All you need are a pair of shin guards and cleats and it’s game time.

My loyalty is with the women’s national team and I am certainly not a fan of the French national team, but the only controversy in the Henry handball over Ireland is that it happened at the end of the game. If you have the time, watch the game second-by-second and report back to me. I will bet you Ireland wasn’t innocent throughout the game. I beat they took a few cheap shots. I’ll bet the ref let the play go on. And more importantly, I will bet they would do a few things differently next time.

Every team has benefited by a missed call.

Don’t get mad at the handball, get mad that the ball made it past your defense with a minute left. Get mad that you didn’t score. Get mad that it came to that. And, for the love of God, don’t beg to be an extra team at World Cup. It is embarrassing. Become stronger players, work harder and score more goals.

Don’t jump on the Ireland bandwagon or applaud Elizabeth Lambert being expelled from her team. I don’t advocate cheating and I don’t advocate playing to hurt the other player – even when some people deserve it. It is not cheating if/when you get away with something that falls outside the rules while on the soccer field. And look, I intentionally made it through this entire post without saying, “if it ain’t broken…” Because it is broken and always has been. Flaws make things beautiful. It is part of the game. The better team will win 8 out of 10 times, the dirty player will get theirs, refs will make mistakes, players will get away with breaking the rules and players will get hurt. And that my friends, is the beauty of soccer.

So, US soccer fans… sit back, enjoy that soccer is making it to ESPN, enjoy that people know the names of players, join the debate and keep watching.

“Let it be as it is and let’s leave (soccer) with errors,” Blatter said. “The television companies will have the right to say (the referee) was right or wrong, but still the referee makes the decision — a man, not a machine.” Amen to that.

confession time: i’m erin vogel and i have the sense of humor of a 12-year old boy and the music taste of a 15-year old girl. don’t judge.

based on the above fact about music… i listen to taylor swift, and i did before kanye made it cool to do so. because I also like to look too deeply into everything, i tend to pay attention to the lyrics.

lucky for me, it does not require too many brain cells to figure out the deep meaning behind taylor swift lyrics. so as I listened to her song “you belong to me” i couldn’t help think about an old song that has the same premise.

The old song… was #1 on the charts in 1992. the singer, a former miss america- one Ms Vanessa Williams.

If you can get past the fact that i know this… then the next question is: why do I care? well the same reason you should care; everything old is new again. Like it or not… any ‘new’ idea you have has probably lived in some way, shape or form before. I just happen to be using taylor swift to prove this.

Lyrics from Taylor Swift:
Oh, I remember
You driving to my house
In the middle of the night
I’m the one who makes you laugh
When you know you’re about to cry
And I know your favorite songs
And you tell me about your dreams
Think I know where you belong
Think I know it’s with me

Can’t you see
That I’m the one
Who understands
Been here all along
So why can’t you see?
You belong with me.

Lyrics from Vanessa Williams:
all of the nights you came to me
when some silly girl had set you free
you wondered how you’d make it through
I wondered what was wrong with you
‘cause how could you give your love to someone else
and share your dreams with me
sometimes the very thing you’re looking for
is the one thing you can’t see

Yes, yes… if you go on to listen to the full songs – Ms. Swift does not end up with the guy while Ms. Williams does indeed end ‘standing face to face’ – it doesn’t change that… everything old is new again. and stealing a premise or an idea and making it better isn’t a bad thing. just put a new spin on it and target it to new people.

I am sure there are very few of me out there that 1) know, 2) like 3) remember the lyrics to both of the above songs and 4) draw the comparison. that is probably true with any idea you are mulling over right now. an idea for a client, an idea to get rich, and idea to make something better, or just a fleeting idea. and if you do happen to come across someone who remembers the original, just make sure yours is better. or at minimum, not worse.

now sit back, turn up your speakers and enjoy the story of boy doesn’t know what he has 17 years apart.

Over the last few months two things have happened to me often:

1. I have had a few clients ask what the best practice is for composing tweets
2. I have had clients and/or other agencies submit pre-populated twitter and facebook copy to be integrated into share features on websites.

One thing is for sure… everyone knows and loves the number 140. I don’t. I like things that make sense and solve problems. 140 character tweets often don’t think everything through. Many folks on twitter practice and love the art of retweeting and @ing. They usually fall into one of the following buckets:

1. Brands. They want you to retweet them, often asking to be retweeted
2. Self-promoters. They want to be retweeted. often asking for it.
3. Ass-Kissers/I-know-important-people-ers. The retweeters that like to retweet anything (and i mean anything, even if it is not funny or useful) from a few core people. They like to brag, thank and give off the perception they are BFFs with people they think will give them street cred.
4. Firsts. The people who retweet articles and things overheard first (ironically, second as they are not original- but first to their friends)
5. Mockers/I’m Righters. They like to tweet opinions and then add @_____ to prove their point or call someone/some brand out for something.

So, a new formula exists that solves many of the aboves’ problems…

If your main twitter objective if to be retweeted. Or if you notice that you are the object of someone’s affection and are often rewtweeted… don’t fill the whole 140 characters. Use this formula.

The URL shortener gets longer with custom endings and as they get more popular (bit.ly is running out of 4 character URLs and is, at times, using 6 characters).

subtract even more if you want to live beyond generation 1 retweets. if you want to be part of the “RT @_____ RT @_____” bloated tweets.

With even fewer characters to work with it is important that you get to the point, be interesting and if you are going to toss grammar and punctuation out the window make sure it makes sense- i don’t want to use my ovaltine decoder ring to figure out your deep thoughts. and if you fall into bucket 3, we know who you are. you aren’t fooling anyone.

any other thoughts?