Management Supervisor, Paula Johnson
She’s back!
After 15 years, Paula has re-joined Howard, Merrell & Partners. Now she is a Management Supervisor in the Account Services department. In her new role, Paula guides the strategic branding and communications efforts for a number of clients including Texas Farm Products (they make Precise dog food) and the Component Hardware Group.
A lot has changed in the communications industry since Paula worked here a decade a half ago – technology, methodologies, mediums, etc – and the agency adapted accordingly adding departments, capabilities and professionals with certain skills sets. But some some things at the agency will never change. We still hire great people, do great work, make clients happy, win awards judged by our peers, and stand by our commitment to providing great client service.
At the agency, Paula will leverage her deep understanding of branding and her strategic mindset, to provide her clients with quality service and support. She brings with her some great background working with a variety of industries including: agriculture, animal health, and chemicals. Before re-joining Howard, Merrell & Partners, Paula worked for Rumrill-Hoyt, Saatchi & Saatchi, NDW Communications and Quarry Communications.
We welcome her back.
Merton's PianoChatImprov
For those of you who haven’t already stumbled upon it, Chatroulette.com is a surprising new site that enables users to engage in an anonymous webcam-to-webcam chat. Huge potential as an ad medium and of course, illicit stuff. Here’s how it works: like roulette, it randomly assigns you another person. You then have the option to engage in an online chat while seeing them live or letting the roulette wheel spin and bounce them to the next person.
Now, here’s where it gets interesting: in just a week and a half “Merton the Chatroulette piano chat improv guy” has become an overnight internet sensation (500,000 views in a week and 200,000 youtube subscribers).
www.youtube.com/user/PianoChatImprov
How? By doing something interesting. Creating entertaining, unexpected content. He goes on chatroulette and waits to be connected with someone. Then, he instantly improvises a song about that person with accompanying piano. It would compelling enough on its own but many people are now suggesting that PianoChatImprov is none other than Ben Folds.
Ben Folds denies. However, in a recent concert, he did an ode to Merton on stage. Is it Ben in disguise? Is Merton real? You decide.
Tara's Top Tweets of the Week
I’ve decided to quit sending out multiple emails a day to my colleagues with links to articles concerning web design, development, art, and social media. So, instead of the many emails that clog up my co-workers’ mailboxes, I’m going to start posting an article a week here, on Fried Logic, for everyone to peruse. Where do I find all of the article links that I share? I get most of them through Twitter and a few from Google Buzz, Facebook, LinkedIn Groups, and shared links on Delicious. I post ALL of my links on Twitter, so if you’re looking for more than just the few resource articles below, please check out my Twitter page – http://www.twitter.com/tmaxwell More »
Modern Copywriter
A nice little site for CWs to check out:
http://www.moderncopywriter.com/
See what other keyboard jockeys in the industry are up to. Some pretty cool stuff.
The Share Economy
Brian Solis recently published an article addressing the shift of referral traffic from traditional search to social networks. He notes that more people are sharing and finding resources using various social sources. Again, the trust factor comes in to play as people are more likely to take recommendations (in the form of links, brand mentions, product reviews) from peers than from a paid search or faceless results page. Search optimization cannot be ignored outside of the traditional big-name engines.
A few of my favorite points from the article:
- In the share economy, currency is defined by likes, links, retweets, updates, comments, shares on Facebook, Twitter, Google Buzz, MySpace, et al.
- With the advent of social feeds… consumers can more easily rely on trusted personal relationships to determine what’s worthwhile to read, watch, play and buy online.
- Create paths that define and engender the experience you desire with destinations and calls to action integrated to close the loop.
- By creating a connected social experience, we activate our content and community and empower a new genre of branded information catalysts.
School of Living Arts Red Carpet Lecture Series
MEET THE MAN BEHIND THE WHEEL OF BMW’s ADVERTISING.
Beginning Tuesday evening, March 23 at 6:30pm, the Living Arts College presents David Crawford,Senior VP / Managing Group Creative Director for GSD&M Idea City. He will be visiting the College for two days presenting in the Stars Theatre again Wednesday morning at 10:30am.
Along with Luke Sullivan, he helps manage the creative department while continuing to work directly with clients. They are known for their outstanding creative advertisement campaigns and Crawford is going to share his successful BMW campaign and the work behind the BMW wheel art paintings.
Mr. Crawford has earned national recognition and awards from The One Show, Cannes, The Art Directors Club, and the National Addy’s. His work has been featured in Communication Arts magazine and he was selected as an ADWEEK Creative All-Star. He has served as a judge for the One Show, The Art Directors Club and the Kelly Awards.
Living Arts College students have an automatic invitation.
Others may call the College at 919.488.8504 to reserve an invitation.
HM&P BAGEL-OFF
There is much speculation as to the exact origin of the bagel. One theory is that it was born in Austria in 1683 when a Viennese baker wanted to pay tribute to King Jan III of Poland for saving the Austrian people from Turkish invaders.
Regardless of its ancestry, the bagel quickly caught on and crossed the Atlantic when hundreds of thousands of Eastern European Jews introduced it to New Yorkers in the 1880s.
Sometime in the next 100+ years it made its way down to Raleigh, North Carolina in the form of round insipid bread sold by Bruegger’s and Dunkin’ Donuts. Both versions, a shell of what a real bagel should look and taste like.
One baker in Raleigh, the NY Bagel & Deli on Falls of Neuse and Strickland, was paying homage to the original bagel with their yeasty yet crunchy kettle-boiled version.
The best bagels in the South by far.
The HM&P Bagel-off
This past Friday, I schlepped all around town buying bagels for a blind bagel taste test. Why? Because a few of my co-workers suggested that Bruegger’s makes delicious bagels and couldn’t see why they were any different from those at New York Bagel & Deli. Another co-worker even piped in that Dunkins’ were the best. What? Blasphemy!
And so, to prove my point I conducted an in-office bagel taste test:
Winner: Ny Bagel & Deli.
All in all, a good time had by all.
Twitter Goes Loco for Coco
Conan O’Brien was able to nearly sell out his nationwide “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” in a matter of hours through a few, simple Twitter messages. The O’Brien team relied not on traditional advertising to spread the word, but on the viral nature of tweets to his 600,000-plus followers.
O’Brien gained waves of support online while NBC tried to renegotiate their late night schedule earlier this year. Thousands used Twitter and Facebook to vent their outrage about O’Brien’s proposed move to 12:05 a.m. The trending topic #teamconan thrived and Facebook groups named “I’m with Coco” popped up everywhere.
The comedian’s online fan base showed its ardent loyalty early on and O’Brien was able to capitalize on their enthusiasm and support to buy tickets. It really is an interesting marketing strategy based on brand loyalty that other companies and organizations will definitely be looking into for the future.
Great Illustrator
From time to time in my search for original art, I come across some pretty cool artists.
Here is one of them – Marc Burckhardt.
The Market at Ravenscroft
Today, tomorrow and Saturday is The Market at Ravenscroft. This is a great shopping experience with awesome vendors selling everything from jewelry, art, clothes, food, etc. Click on the link below for details and free admission tickets.
