If you’ve never failed, you’ve never lived.

If Twitter was 100 People.

Click on the image for the original source.

Back From Hiatus: Makeover soon

Yes, I have been slack lately.  It is because I am reevaluating my blog.  I think I found my true nitch, digital strategy and social media.  

 

Big changes are coming soon…  Be prepared. It is going to be cool…. 

 

-Ryan

Skittles Tastes the Social Media Rainbow

When you enter www.skittles.com you are prompted to enter your date of birth. No, you are not going to see a window full of scantily clad women after submitting your age. Instead, you will see a Twitter Search background broadcasting any tweet with the word “Skittles” in it. The page is constantly updating.

The social media transformation does not stop here. The site also links to other SoMe destinations such as Wikipedia, YouTube, Flickr, and Facebook. The navigation is smooth and natural. Like you have been there before… because you have.

My initial thought was, “WOW. There is actually a brand talking in my language, hanging out where I hang out and interacting with folks like me.” It will be interesting to see how this pans out for the Skittles brand. People are definitely talking. Since I started writing this post, 2816 Skittles tweets were tweeted.

This definitely proves Web 2.0 is here and here to stay. Do you think this will prompt other brands to fully embrace social media to this extreme?

What about control of your brand and brand image? Is Skittles giving up some of it’s control? Is this smart?

Let me know what you think. Let’s start a conversation!

BOOKMARK THIS:: Advertising/Design Goodness

This blog by Frederik Samuel and 8 other contributers showcases the best ads from around the world. The site was developed to “start a conversation, to inspire, to enjoy great work, or to just talk about what your views.”

 

CLICK HERE and check out the site. Start a conversation. Enjoy.

Ryan

BOOKMARK THIS:: The Social Media MBA Blog by Karl Long

Interested in social media? Then you should check out Karl Long’s The Social Media MBA Blog. Long, a social media guru and T-shirt fanatic, provides great content on social media and its future. It is worth the click.

Check it out!

CLICK HERE to visit Long’s Blog.

Follow Long on Twitter- @karllong

-Ryan Drumwright

@Ryan_Drumwright

Read this. It will change your life.

A pottery teacher divided his class into two teams.  Team one was told they would be graded solely on the quantity of pots produced.  The more pots they produced, the better grade they would get.   Team two was told they would be graded purely on the quality of one pot.  They only had to make one pot, but it had to be EXCELLENT in order to get the A.  

Fast forward….Who do you think made the best pots? 

If you said the  “Quantity” team, then you are right.  As the team produced more and more pots, they learned via trial and error and produced awesome pots.

The quality team on the other hand struggled to produce a halfway decent pot.  They worried so much about producing the “perfect” pot, they let fear take over and bar them from success. 

The pottery story is adapted from Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland.   

A classic pottery video (in Spanish):

Elizabeth Gilbert: A different way to think about creative genius

Here is a radical and unorthodox way of thinking about creativity and the creative process.  What do you think?  Do you agree with Elizabeth?  Do we all have an inner genius?  

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

 

–Ryan Drumwright

@Ryan_Drumwright

Event Marketing: It Works

Senior marketing experts agree… event marketing works.

 

According to a recent marketing survey, 53% of marketing execs say event marketing, “is the discipline that best accelerates and deepens relationships with target audiences.”  

 

I wonder how exactly these questions are asked.  It seems like the effectiveness of the method relies on the target audience.  Some methods work better on certain TAs than others.  Nonetheless, it appears that event marketing is a relevant, effective and worth while weapon in your marketing arsenal. 

What do you think?  What is the best way to reach an audience?  

Let’s start a conversation, and share our thoughts!

 

To learn more about the study click HERE.

 

–Ryan Drumwright

@Ryan_Drumwright

Brand Tags: Online Brand Perception Experiment

Wanna see how your brand sits in the minds of internet users? Check out Noah Brier’s, Brand Tags. The interface is simple. Just look at the logo on the screen and type the one word or phrase that first pops into your mind. Click submit, and you will see another logo.  If you want to see a visual representation of the results click HERE and pick the brand you want to explore.  

Noah Brier is the head of planning and strategy at the Barbarian Group, and author of http://www.noahbrier.com .

Advertising Age calls the site “genius.” Seth Godin refers to Brand Tags as, “magical.”

Decide for yourself.   Click on http://www.brandtags.net/ and start tagging!

 

–Ryan Drumwright

Follow Me @Ryan_Drumwright