Thank You, Katy

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Anna

This is the blog post I have struggled to write for the past 6 months. I am uncertain why siting here in the Chicago airport, with little more than 3 hours of sleep under my belt, that I am up to the task. Further proof that life is a complicated and unexplainable series of choices and occurrences. Either way, today is the day I introduce you to my sister Katy- or Kat as she like to be called.

Katy spent most of her life with the world against her. Born with weak lungs and immune system (like my mother), my sister was often in the hospital. I remember as kid hanging out in ICU, talking to nurses and hating my sister. Being the teenage brat I was, I felt deeply disappointed whenever the world did not revolve around me.

I remember spending so many of those years feeling sorry for myself. I didn’t get to do the things every other kid did, because I was the girl with the sick family.  Sure we went through periods of healthy times; for several years during high school Katy was a nationally ranked athlete. Years after her athletic period, my sister still reveled in showing off her shot and discus skills.

Those years of pain, loneliness and immense misunderstanding led me to the Internet. On the computer I was a normal kid in a fantasy world where no one was sick and few brushes of the keys made everything better. On the web, everything that was inaccessible to me in the physical world was easily obtained.  By age 12 I was waking up early every day before school so I could update my website. I was spending hours reading anything and everything I could find online. I had a home; I was a child of the inter-webs.

Up until  last year I looked at this time in my life as a negative blemish; something unsightly that had finally scabbed over and healed. Awkwardly dressed, socially awkward, and immensely alone Anna was an embarrassing part of my life carefully hidden away under designer clothes and late-in-life bloomed charisma.

On June 15th, 2011 Katy passed away. It wasn’t expected. I wasn’t prepared. It was too soon. Katy had just gotten her life back together- she was healthy and happy for the first time in years. I will forever question, why? I will always hope she’s gone to somewhere infinitely better than here.

I am not sure what I believe when it comes to god and science, but one thing I am sure of is that I am a better person because of my sister. Through all the years the difficulties we as sisters faced forced me to grow, explore, and mold myself into who I am today. I just wish that I had realized what a dramatic impact her life had on mine sooner. Her illness helped me to find my calling, my place in the world.  I wish I could tell her. Thank you, Katy

Posted in Inspiration | 1 Comment

VirginMoney, I want a bowl of soup and my hour back

Posted on January 10, 2012 by Anna

Tonight I wasted an hour of my life I will never get back. Ever.  While I haven’t take to ripping  a brand to shreds with clever phrasing and witty banter for awhile, this event made me feel it was time for comeback.  You might sitting in front of your 13/15/17in mac screens ( not a mac user? shame.) asking, “what travesty could drive her to bring angry Anna out of retirement?” Let me tell you. It’s starts and ends with hot soup.

A few weeks ago an eager beaver member of my team found a blogger event posted on the Virgin blog. Being the curious boss I am I thought it was a great idea for my team to attend a brand-run blogger event as a outsider. So we all clickity-clacked and submitted ourselves as potential attendees. The website specified it was “special event” that “Richard Branson maybe present” and that attendees would be “specially ” selected.  Was I crazy to assume that this was going to be something pretty cool? I ask you,  if you read this, would you think “time-waster” or “mega-awesome-fun-time”?  For the sake of the this blog post I am going to assume option B.

Last week my team and I received an excited email from the VirginMoney team announcing that we had been selected to attend mega-awesome-fun-time.  The email again stressed secrecy about the event, flaunted Mr Branson’s attendance, and hinted at a special outdoor occurrence. To put the proverbial icing on the mega-awesome-fun-time cake, it was all to be accompanied by some hot soup. I found the mention of hot soup so intriguing that every time I talked about the event at work , on Twitter,  and via Facebook the conversation would always end with HOT SOUP. Always in caps. I do not f*ck around when it comes to soup. Hell my calendar reminder was earmarked “HOT SOUP with RB and the Gang.” Note how HOT SOUP led the pack in that messaging. So it with eager eyes and a soup-hungry heart I headed to the Virgin Money event this evening.

Now soup jokes aside, I was actually quite interested in hearing more about Virgin Money. As a some one who knows a little about financial services, I wanted to see how Virgin plans on revolutionizing banking for the consumer. I checked their website and found it woefully light in actual change points. Now silly little Anna (that’s me) thought that maybe it would be at this event that Mr.Branson would boldly reveal about just how his company planned to take on high street banks. My mental imagery prepared me for a show something like  Mr. Branson wielding a sword, surrounded by the remaining Occupy Londoners , with eye of the tiger blaring in the background as he delivered the VirginMoney battle cry. Yes, I was expecting VirginMoney to cut a bitch, more specifically I expected to walk away knowing just who VirginMoney was. Boy, was I wrong.

I arrived onto time to a small reception area that was barren. The hot soup was there as promised, but eagerly awaiting  brandishing and large feline festivities I did not grab any as I needed to keep my hands free and nimble for catching it all live. Looking to my left I saw Mr. Branson begin an awkward photo shoot. This made me come to the life realization that no one looks cool giving a double thumbs up to the camera. No. One. Soon the hall was flooded by every other attendee and people began taking pictures of people taking pictures of Branson. As a some sort of photographic counter-attack, Branson’s people began taking pictures of people taking pictures of people taking pictures of Branson. It was all very meta.

Soon Branson was on the move, and to my surprise- he was coming my direction! I did one of those awesome movie moves, where you just stand in one place trying not to be awkward, but you are extremely awkward because you’re standing in one place not moving and nobody really does this. It was pretty awesome, until team Branson accidentally bumped into me on their way out. His short-haired PR lady proceeded to give me the British stink eye (like the American stink eye but with a posher accent and socialist tendencies) and barked “excuse me miss” in my face. In case you are wondering, she didn’t really want me to excuse her. She was doing that “I am going to say something nice in the rudest, evilest way possible. I will also smile at the end, maybe even wink just to show you how much  I am messing with your tiny not PR awesome mind” thing. I hate that thing.

Myself and the other sheep were herded out to the main courtyard in-front of the senate building to see the mighty Branson holding not a sheath, but a bottle of champagne. I must note that I would totally have been okay if Brandson decided to announce VirginMoney rap video style. Alas there were no sexy dancers or panthers on chains to be seen anywhere. Closer up I realized the champagne was on a string… I still don’t fully understand why. Maybe Branson is a hands free type of drinker; maybe that’s what you get to do when you are rich. We were told to turn around and look at the building. Then it started.

What is “it” exactly? Well, if you paid attention to the @richardbranson twitter handle you likely saw this tweet showcasing the new VirginMoney advert. Now imagine seeing that 3D on a building. Also imagine people looking really confused because there was no tip off that it had started. It’s like being at a party and your jam playing in the background but not realizing it until the chorus. By the time you get into the groove, it’s too late.They showed it twice in a row as a result.  Yay! Even more time wasted! I admit, it would have been kind of cool if I hadn’t taken off work, hauled myself across town, and been hyped up for a mega-ultra-fun-time with RB- Virgin’s hottest celebrity. I can testify (testify!) that if you were expecting said “mega-ultra-fun-time” you’d be pretty disappointed to see an ad you’d already discovered via twitter played on a building. To passersbys? Yeah, it was probably pretty damn cool. Le sigh.

Soon after the video ended and Mr. Branson was ripped away from the crowd after delivering a barely audible speech. This couldn’t be the end of the event. Where was the battle cry? Where were the exotic animals? Where the explanation of exactly how VirginMonday would be any different then the high street banks? Where was my pamphlet of info? My free pen? Bumper sticker? As I sat there dumbfounded that this was the whole event and that it had been overhyped, I began to stew. Perhaps you, my much loved reader, feels I should have been grateful just to have been invited. I get that. However,  you should  know why this personally pisses me off so much. VirginMoney slams high street banks again and again about shitty practices and over promising. My first taste of their brand is that they do exactly what they accuse other banks of doing- making promises they can’t keep and not keeping the customer at the heart of their actions. I call shenanigans!

So angry-heartbroken Anna OBrien hung her head and coughed ( I do have a cold after all). Until I remembered the soup. At least, I could get some damn soup. So with a returned spring in my step I skipped back into the building to soupify my life, upgraded my tummy contents, liquify my hunger pains,  and stew away the frustration. With each little step the voice in my head chanted a little louder.. soup. Soup. SOUP. SOOOOUUUP. I was having a Snoopy at suppertime type of moment. There was a sweet corn soup I had been eyeing earlier… it would be mine! Arriving into the snack hall my eyes recoiled and I feel myself fall to the floor ( figuratively); THERE WAS NO MORE SOUP.

Morals of this story:

  1. Make sure your blogger event doesn’t suck before over-hyping it and more importantly before inviting me.
  2. Make sure I actually learn something about your brand at your event otherwise it’s a waste of time and money for the both of us.
  3. If you say you’ll have soup, you damn well better have soup.

 

Posted in Brand Thoughts | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

I am a Macrocephalous Autohagiographer.

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Anna

You should be too!

Macrocephalous Autohagiographers are people who shamelessly self promote in an effort to make their voice heard. The term Macrocephalous Autohagiographer was derived from “Macrocephalous” which means an abnormal largeness of the head and  Autohagiographer which is term for referring to oneself in a congratulatory nature. Look, I’ve constantly heard about how women are underrepsented in the tech industry, so I’ve decided to do something about it. A couple of friends and myself have started a blog to highlight great female tech leaders and explore how they got to where they are, troubles they faced, and advice they can grant.

Along the way we’ll be highlighting amazing female bloggers and hopefully plan to create a mentoring system. It’s going to be amazing!

So if you’re a Macrocephalous Autohagiographer, Join US!

Posted in Random Thoughts | Comments Off on I am a Macrocephalous Autohagiographer.

Please Help Santa.

Posted on July 7, 2011 by Anna

Please help Santa’s Hide-away Hollow win a truck from on July 11th  as part of Toyota’s hundred cars for good campaign. This a charity near and dear to my own heart. Santa’s Hide-a-way Hollow ensures terminally ill kids across the US get a chance to have once last Christmas. My father and his firetruck friends take turns playing “the north pole fire department” and taking sick kids for rides in their trucks. My sisters and friends have played the part of elves. My uncle, who lives in a facility for adults with mental retardation, relies on the Hollow to make sure he sees Santa each year. In addition to helping critically ill kids, Santa also visits children and adults  with physical and mental disabilities who may not get the chance to see him otherwise. This charity has given so much to sick and disabled across the country, but it also has given the people of my small town to meet and build relationships in the service of others. People do as much as they can to help Santa’s Hollow, but even with all the local support sometimes things still remain out of reach. Winning this car would mean a lot to them. Please, if you can, take some time on Sunday and vote. A note from Santa himself below.

Greetings from the North Pole…

It’s not very often that you get a request from Santa Claus. However, Santa’s Hide-A-Way Hollow needs your help. Toyota Motor Company has established “100 Cars for Good.” Through their efforts,they are awarding 1 new car each day to charities for 100 days. Everyday 5 new charities are listed on their facebook page. Santa’s Hide-A-Way Hollow is one of those selected charities.

On July 11th, Santa’s Hide-A-Way becomes eligible to receive a new Toyota pickup truck. Please visit the page below and vote.(You do need a Facebook account in order to vote). Please pass this on to all your friends, co-workers, and family members. A new pickup truck would be extremely useful to Santa. Lights and sirens would be added just like the old truck, which is 11 yrs old and rusting. The truck would be used to protect the children, transport our elves and the children. In the event we have to rush a child back to the hospital, the truck would help _transport the child to safety. Please remember to vote and please help us by passing this e-mail on.

If you don’t know what Santa’s Hideaway is, it is a charity that gives terminally and critically ill children a chance to experience their last Christmas, any time of the year. It is a chance to escape the pain, medication, and sadness, while giving the lasting memory of Santa Claus, his elves, reindeer, and toys. Over the last 30 years we have visited 73,000 children at hospitals, hospice, their own homes, and brought them to Santa’s Hide-A-Way Hollow.

Thank you and Merry Christmas,
Santa Claus

Posted in Random Thoughts | 1 Comment

Are Corporations Killing Creativity?

Posted on June 29, 2011 by Anna

Often when people discuss creative careers, one thinks of painters, playwrights, and musicians, but rarely does the image of a business executive, scientist, or laborer pop into your mind. However upon  analysis, we must  admit  that every job has a creative aspect to it. The best presentations are clever and unique. Major scientific discoveries have stemmed from researchers pushing themselves to look at things in new ways. Improved efficiency in the labor is often  a result  of new and inventive use of tools.  Rarely is creativity required, but rather a necessary ingredient to success.

Creativity by definition refers to when a person creates something new (a product, a solution, a work of art etc.) which has some kind of value.  Value of course in entirely subjective and definitely can be see by the vast differences between the world’s prized artists.  However it seems in the world’s more “traditional” careers creativity is more obvious and lucrative. Unlike the painter who’s creativity can takes years and years for mainstream society to recognize ( and is often post mortem), creativity in the corporate environment often has short term benefits. If you come up with a brilliant idea, the business has the funds to act on it, and if it bodes well  you’re likely to walk home with a nice paycheck. The reason for the great return on creative endeavors is simple, it’s simply not a  common or cultured skill outside of artistic communities.

One could say that creativity is dead in modern corporate culture and is hence why smaller more “creative” start-ups are effectively competing with more established brands. Perhaps corporations have forgotten the importance of creativity and the need for it to be a requirement of the job- not a rare  talent. But how can companies make the shift from a creativity free work place, to think tank for new and creative ideas? And how does this shift happen with out abandoning the structure and process that keep these organizations efficient and productive?

Posted in Brand Thoughts, Inspiration, Random Thoughts | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Facebook Fans: What are they really worth?

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Anna

Whenever I attend a conference or event on social media there seems to be a frequent occurrence. Someone in the room gets excited, begins to sweat a little, wipes their forehead, and then begins to babble on about much each additional fan or follower is worth. Apparently : SO MUCH MONEY. You know the deal, this aphinony is followed by a loosley constructed PowerPoint deck that mathematically distills the magical chunk change that each new follower creates. And ooooo eeeee it’s so big! You’d be a fool not to go out and spend 100k on generic- key word here being generic- facebook “friend me” ads.

While I understand a bevy of fans can be a powerful route of corporate communication ( much like an email list), but standard economics tells us there is a point where the return is less than the expense of execution. Furthermore, I struggle to see how one can effectively place a dollar value on a single a fan or follower. It’s not that fans aren’t important, it’s just that social media drive to purchase of a single fan is incredibly hard to measure and to arrive at any number forces analysts to make a series of broad generalizations. These generalizations can cause several major problems:

  1. Generalizations hide important subgroups: The problem with generalizations is that they mask fanatics and laggards. So you attribute X additional revenue dollars to a facebook campaign with Y number of fans. Your fanatic population may make up for 70% of that increased revenue attributed to Facebook- it does not makes sense to evenly distribute the attribution to the overall fan base.
  2. New Fans may not be as valuable as old fans: Those users who first friend a brand page on Facebook or follow a brand Twitter account are often advocates and potentially higher purchasers. The later waves of fans often are driven to fan based on advertising, promotional activities, or etc. While it’s likely some of the new followers may also be fans of a brand, it’s not guaranteed that their purchase rate is the same as old fans. In some cases, the opposite may even be true, that news fans actually generate higher revenue than old.
  3. It’s difficult to attribute all Social Media revenue: Not all revenue earned by Facebook can be back-tracked to the social media site. A user may see a promotion or product on the Facebook page, and go out of the world that is Facebook and hand type the website address to purchase. This user would appear as a standard web purchaser, rather than a social media driven purchaser. Thus, the revenue attributed to the site will always be greater than measured.
  4. Traditional media suffers from the same problems: If you run a TV ad it is difficult to say, this ad alone made me X revenue. There are always external indicators that can drive up revenue and create metric bias.

While ROI metrics will always be an important of an business initiative, I do not yet to see the value of attaching a dollar amount to a single fan. In fact as I write about this I am further resolved in my thinking that companies should look at social media not solely as a revenue driven dollar sign, but as a brand building and cost- saving initiative. I also realize as much as I want it to be, data will never be perfect. Le sigh. Such are the Sunday troubles of one Anna OBrien, social media geek and general statistics addict.

Posted in Advertising, Random Thoughts, Social Measurement Success | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Stop Arguing and Get to Work

Posted on May 24, 2011 by Anna

Let me start off by saying, this post is hard for me to write. I know some people wont be too happy about what I have to say and others might write me off as an idiot. However, I was raised to speak my mind (thanks Dad) and I am going to try and write this as eloquently as possible. We’ve got to stop fighting about terms and titles and get to work.

It seems like over the past 3 years every 3 months I read an article or posting about why you should watch out for social media experts. There was this one from Bloomberg, a few from the Olivier Blanchard ( of the brand builder),  and most recently this one from Peter Shankman. I get it, there are a lot of idiots out there working  under the guise of of social media expert (or ninja, savant, master, ringleader, el toro,  or etc etc)  that have no marketing experience.  Worse yet, companies ( especially small businesses) fall for these people’s ploys repeatedly. It sucks. Guess what’s not going to fix it? Blogging about how much it sucks… again .. and again… and again.

I don’t blame the first few who wrote about it ( or even those who have written more recently). It’s super frustrating when you work yourself to the bone to deliver great work and some idiot is selling shit in a bag for the same price.  It’s also annoying to know that the perception of your work gets devalued every time that idiot opens his mouth. I have had the same angry, yell bad words, bury face in pillow, look at guns online, reconsider life path, and sob moments I assume many of these writers have had.   However, I’ve come to the conclusion that false marketing prophets exist in every channel- not just social media.

There are people who claim to experts at webdesign and make websites with interfaces that are counter intuitive and ugly. There are print advertisers that make inserts that are flat, stale and bland. It’s not a social media problem, it’s a general work  problem. We all can remember the free loader in high school or college who got an excellent grade by using, mooching and conniving ( hopefully you weren’t one of them). At a more macro level, entire political strategies are built around trying to outwit the lackey, but none of it has effectively eliminated the problem. It’s a life problem that’s not going to go away; granted,  it might be reduced as general practitioner knowledge grows.

If we really want prevent people from being bamboozled by idiots hidden in the sparkly shroud of social media know-it-all camouflage, we’ve got to start make spotting good work obvious. It stinks that true practitioners and marketers at heart have to drive the change in perception, but that’s how it always has been.  It’s not blogs or writing alone that will drive change, it’s elbow grease and hard work. It’s more than just creating great work, it’s sharing knowledge, ideas and driving intelligent dialogue.  Eventually the wheat gets separated from the chaff (for the most part), it just takes time and patience.

When I was a kid my father always told me that working hard was more important than talking hard. So I say this will all my heart to all of you who I love and deeply respect for the intelligent marketers you are,  shut up and get back to work- we’ve got a whole lot of idiots to disprove. :)

Posted in Random Thoughts | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Sun Drop- I Love you, but I am confused.

Posted on May 14, 2011 by Anna

I love the Sun Drop commercial that came out a month ago with a passion. They took a relatively small southern soda brand and made it dynamic and accessible for its national launch. In the ad an awkward white girl booty dances her way through various scenarios with a can of delicious Sun Drop soda in her hand. The whole ad is set to Snoop Dog’s “Drop it like it’s hot”.  As a companion to the campaign, viewers are asked  to upload videos of themselves “dropping it like it’s hot” for a chance to be their next star. Clever.

However as awesome as this campaign is, there are some issues. If I search for the Sundrop ad on YouTube, I can only find this version.

It seems the campaign creators didn’t think to upload such a clever ad to youtube. (However they did contact the video uploader as I see the video now has links to the campaign and “fair use” disclaimer which screams corporate legal team.) A little deeper digging shows their video has been uploaded to Vimeo.com through a branded channel. Huh? And the channel also has several how to videos to explain how to use their site. Double huh? Many of the videos have a whopping 1 view!

Don’t get me wrong, I love Vimeo, but for a crowd-sourced campaign and how to videos, it seems the odd choice. There’s no seo benefits ( actually there are subtle losses) and it fails to capture the mass audience well.  The site itself caters to visually beautiful and artistic films and rarely is considered as the starting point for someone to upload the same vlogs and flip cam home movies that clutter YouTube. Vimeo can also havelonger load times ( due to the high resolution content), which could be the difference between someone watching or ignoring an online video. Additionally the search capabilities in Vimeo are weaker, so if someone actually heads to vimeo to search out the video- they may not find it. For example, if I search “sundrop” I get zero brand results; results only appear for the exact profile spelling “sun drop.”

On average 2 billion videos are watched on Youtube a day versus Vimeo’s ~160 million (assuming videos viewed correlates to the number of videos uploaded). The results make sense, ~4 million views on a non-brand owned YouTube channel vs.  47,000 on the Vimeo channel.  Also, I should mention that the contest landing page is pulling and auto-playing the Vimeo commercial. That means potentially everyone who has watched it on Vimeo, watched it from the  landing page.

At the end of the day, the Sun Drop campaign is getting attention. That’s a good thing. However, they don’t have any idea of the details of how the video is spreading. That’s a bad thing. The lesson? If you’re a brand, choose the right video channel to reach your fans.   And even if you’re not going to run a  campaign through YouTube, take the 5 seconds to upload it there as well anyway. It doesn’t cost you anything and you have no excuse not to.

Posted in Brand Thoughts, Interactive Marketing | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Experiential Marketing or Cupcakes Make Everything Better

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Anna

I was having one of those.. “please lord let this day end before I figure out how to kill myself with the tv remote, butter, and my left shoe” kind of day. What I needed was a bit of sunshine, a smidgen of sugar, and price tag that fit within my budget. The heavens must have heard my cries, because just as I was going McGyver on the channel clicker my friend Emily Hanhan shared the best news ever on twitter. The Sprinkles Mobile was making a stop in my neighborhood and life was about to get sweeter.

It’s kind of sad that as soon as they tweeted that they were around the block, I threw on street clothes and literally skipped in glee down my apartment staircase. Upon approaching the chariot of confectionery,  I felt like Rebecca Black, overwhelmed with choice. Fortunately, the most excellent Sprinkles candy striper indulged my “Sophie’s Choice” moment and let me leave with both a strawberry and a peanut butter treat.  I have already devoured the strawberry and am half way through it’s tasty companion. I can attest that they are some of the best cupcakes I have ever eaten.

So other than the cupcakes being amazingly delicious, getting something for free, and avoiding hurting myself with a buttered remote control- why does this even matter? The fact is, with me- Sprinkles got lucky. I’d never had their cupcakes before and prior to this event I probably wouldn’t have cared they were opening a store in the city. However, after this magical experience where my bad  day just happened to be remedied by a ray of sunshine beaming out the windows of a van full of mini cakes, they won themselves a loyal and vocal customer.  All I want is more sprinkles cupcakes.

On further reflection my ah ah moment was this:  if you have a great product, experiential marketing works. If you have great customer service, it works even better. And lastly, if you have free cupcakes, you should mail them to one Anna OBrien (expedited please, no one likes moldy frosting).

Posted in Interactive Marketing | 1 Comment

Seeing with the Brain

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Anna

For the past 4 days I have been obsessed with Symphony of Science’s “Ode to the Brain.” I’ve literally listened to it over and over; I find the video both clever and hauntingly beautiful. Here the internet trend of auto-tuning has been re-purposed to help make education about the brain more accessible. Not only is the knowledge made more consumer friendly,  it’s catchy. I’ve been caught singing “it explodes into enormous collage” out loud several times this weekend. In fact,  I found the scientists’ descriptions of the brain so beautiful,  I’ve sought out additional information on how the brain works.

It makes me hope that as technology evolves, that schools and education don’t get left behind. There are incredible ways to augment the learning experience with innovation. If a YouTube video can lead me to invest more time in learning about the brain, imagine how much intellectual curiosity could be stirred up with a little bit more creativity?

We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well. Seeing with the brain is often called imagination.-Oliver Sacks

Posted in Academia | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment