Social Media Sensationalists

Sensationalism is exaggerating and blowing things out of proportion, and it’s quite possibly the worst social media tactic. Doing these kinds of things in person, that’s one thing. Do them on social media and their effects are tenfold. On social media people are apt to take screen shots and post on other sites. Word spreads. It’s also not likely that those comments, shares and retweets will get deleted either, leaving a lasting record. Fighting fire with fire is also a horrible tactic, because escalating the situation just makes it worse and not better. These are the tactics of sensationalists, i.e. people who don’t understand social media.

Take Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique and Bistro for instance, whose reputation already had enough damage done to it on “Kitchen Nightmares”
http://bit.ly/189TLze
. Their first Facebook post after that finale positioned Amy’s in the role of the victim. What they should have posted instead is something like “We are working on making our business better and appreciate your support through this difficult time. We’d love to hear from you on how we can better serve you and we hope to see you soon.” Otherwise known as the “JC Penney approach.” Changing that first post to something more like mine could have stemmed the tidal wave that was launched in their direction. 

Even if it didn’t, as it didn’t change direction after they posted their victim post, the last thing that needed to happen was for them to start insulting customers in response. Another saying comes to mind and that’s “fanning the fire.” All their response postings did was spread the issue to other areas and to more and more people. So much for containment! They later claimed their accounts had been hacked, which is a poor cover-up and nowhere near an apology. When crisis management tactics are needed, there should already be a plan in place so you’re not responding emotionally
http://bit.ly/16RD7nH
. Handle it gracefully, listen, improve, those are all characteristics that will keep you in good graces and in business.

Then there’s Nutella, where instead of rewarding their biggest brand advocate they launched an attack of sorts
http://bit.ly/Zhd9Yj
. Ferrero, parent company of the Nutella brand, sent a cease and desist letter to the creator of World Nutella Day (held on Feb. 5th in case you were wondering). The creator of this holiday is Sara Rosso, an American blogger living in Italy who launched this day in 2007. Going back to that whole interconnectivity point I made earlier, well that came into play here too. Ferrero sent their cease and desist letter, Sara posted a note online and the comments came rolling in…to Ferrero of course.

The truth is, the comments weren’t off base. Why wouldn’t you reward someone who’s trying to spread your brand further and advocate on its behalf? Awareness of and love of a product come through many channels and Ferrero has hopefully learned this lesson now. But not before calling its initial response a “routine brand defense procedure that was activated as a result of some misuse of the Nutella brand on the fan page.” Quite the opposite, Ferrero, quite the opposite. Eventually the matter was dropped and they expressed their gratitude for fans like this on their Facebook page
http://lat.ms/Z3YqxB
. Too little too late? Only time will tell.

Good social media tactics reward efforts like those of the Nutella fan, invite customer feedback, listen and use it to improve. Oh…and they respond without getting over-emotional and combative. You’ve seen what bad social media tactics can do, what are your social media tactics like? How can you make social media work for you and not against you?

Content is King? Visual is King

Visual appeal, it’s an art form and it makes a big impact. There is no branding without focusing on visual appeal, because visual appeal is a critical part of branding. For example, the colors you pick for buttons and text determine how many clicks you get and ultimately how much engagement you receive (think sign-up or purchase links). Many will say that content is key, but visual content dominates just as much if not more of the content field. All you have to do is look at Pinterest or Instagram to see that we’re a visual culture and visual matters. Don’t believe me or know where to start?

A good place to start is identifying what type of company you are and what you’re trying to project. Understanding that and having a clear vision of current and future direction will help inform your choices here. Take a look at the infographics in this article
http://bit.ly/Z4mx1b
. There is one midway down the page that shows arcs of brands delineated by their common colors. There are even key words that are implicated by each color, and the kinds of words that these colors evoke that you need to consider when you’re identifying what type of company you are and what you’re trying to project.

The next thing to consider is your objective, what is your goal? If it’s a deliverable, what is the desired outcome you are trying to effect? The infographic with the series of “Buy” buttons in different colors is a good indicator for matching goal and desired outcome to color choice. Additionally, another infographic detailing an experiment with color choice for a “Get started now” button is also a good resource. Then you need to consider your audience, which is what their next infographic tackles. There are certain colors that attract women and men, just men, or just women. Knowing your audience is not an option, it’s a requirement.

If these don’t convince you that visuals are important, just check out the statistics on Pinterest
http://bit.ly/Z4mEtO
. Pinterest is all about identifying key influencers and tapping into their likes to spread your content. Most of Pinterest activity is user-generated (from repins) as compared to brand-driven (a small percentage pertaining to what you pin to start with). There are also certain times of the day that work better for certain industries to pin at and the fact that Pinterest draws a mostly female audience to consider.

There’s also Instagram, which Facebook purchased and has started to transform to adapt it for its use (to the delight and disgust of others)
http://nyr.kr/18TQLWr
. Instagram seems to be on the right track with one thing if nothing else, and that’s adding in a tagging element where the person posting the image can tag everyone in the photo. There’s also a “Photos of You” the collects photos you’ve been tagged in, much like how Facebook compiles a photo section of you. Everyone likes to see themselves in a photo, relate to what’s in a photo and share what’s in a photo. Whether it’s Pinterest or Instagram, it’s important to develop a strategy for making the most of it with your brand.

So there you have, an argument for why visual is king. It’s a type of content, it’s just as if not more important than verbal content and it deserves the same type of consideration. How does your visual appeal measure up? What is your visual appeal doing for you? Become more visually appealing and see where it takes you.

The Brand Experience

Brand experience. What does it mean when you say you’ve had a positive or negative brand experience? What is a brand experience? Well, I’m here to answer that question. A brand experience is about a brand’s engagement with its fans, simply put. A Jim Joseph article breaks it down into two categories in particular, totality and tonality
http://bit.ly/119d3Dp
. Joseph insists that you need both of these to create a complete experience. Totality and tonality are two halves of a whole, the yin and the yang, in other words both are essential to creating a complete brand experience.

Totality is defined by Joseph as the “completeness and consistency across your various marketing elements.” This means you need to engage with them at various points within the way they live their life.  For example, on social media it’s important to have a presence that spans a few channels and connects all of those channels together. In other words, you’re reaching out to fans every place they are at and linking them to other ways to connect with you as well. Building these interconnections forms a brand relationship and a brand relationship leads to brand loyalty. The more customized the relationship the better, and that’s where tonality comes in. Joseph describes tonality as the “spirit of the experience” or the “emotional connection,” “brand personality or voice.” Totality and tonality individually draw fans into the mix but it’s their combination that keeps the connection strong.

I stumbled across two ways in which brands are putting these concepts to work in new and interesting ways. One of them is Domino’s, who has realized the importance of online ordering and has pioneered a tracker that is now being expanded into a live experience test
http://onforb.es/10efYsz
. When you order online from Domino’s their Domino’s Tracker shows what’s happening in real-time and names the person who’s creating your pizza. It’s a way to connect you to the process from start to finish, and it also offers up transparency, which is a priceless ingredient to a brand relationship. Recently Domino’s decided to take its “Tracker” to the next level and offer a live experience. Hence, a one store test at a Salt Lake City Domino’s through the end of May. The live test uses five cameras to capture the live, uncut making of your pizza in real-time. Building connection to the brand as a whole and not just the end result, this experience connects the dots and is sure to build brand loyalty by doing what no other pizza shop has done before.

Taco Bell is also breaking new ground, inviting it’s Twitter friends to Snapchat, a photo messaging application that allows you to add text and drawings to customize photos you can send directly to your friends
http://tcrn.ch/18or0gF
. Thus far they’ve used it to announce their new Beefy Crunch Burrito. Billy Gallagher’s article shows a picture of the dish at the bottom that was sent by Taco Bell to its Snapchat friends. The picture has a message drawn on it that reads “hi friend” and at the bottom the launch date 5/23/13 is written. It’s kind of a take off on the success of Pinterest in a way, except it’s sharing personal photos and enhancing them, then sending them directly to friends. Socializing the photo sharing process in a new way, this is sure to add personality that bonds fans to the brand through building a relatable identity.

Now that you have examples of both, I’m sure you are thinking of all the ways these can be utilized and combined to create a complete experience. If you’re not, you should be. Providing a complete brand experience makes you more than just another product, it humanizes your brand and makes it a trusted friend. When your brand takes on qualities that make it more than an inanimate object it becomes harder to ignore and easier to connect to. This is the ultimate goal of a brand relationship, and it’s the kind of thing that builds brand loyalty for life.

Image is Everything

Image management, managing customers’ impressions of you, is perhaps one of the most important parts of public relations. An image is the foundation for a business, upon which its success or failure is built. In customer-service businesses, based on the image you give off, people will either be flooding through the doors or running for the exit (usually not to return). It takes communication and active management to maintain image and it can be fatal if it’s mismanaged or strays too far from common association. One type of image management is store identity.

Take the fledgling world of big box department stores for example
http://ti.me/ZjATZe
. Once renowned anchor tenants with sturdy reputations, big box department stores now crumble as they scramble to find a foothold in a vastly different marketplace. Their current method of defense? Boutique “store within a store” concepts. At the beginning of April, Best Buy introduced its Samsung Experience Shop. JCPenney has mini shops, sections within its stores that each focus on a specific brand. Target, for a while, had “The Shops at Target,” mini collections from boutiques around the country. When successful, this concept provides an increase in foot traffic and sales, sometimes even outselling the main store. When it goes wrong, stores lose their identity. It’s too soon to tell for Best Buy, but it has affected JCPenney and Target. Loyal JCPenney customers have already started to drop off. Target’s boutique offerings were so obscure, and under-publicized, that the entire concept died a quick, quiet death last month (you were wondering where those went right?). It would be nothing short of ironic if the very concept invented to save the big box store ended up being the final nail in the coffin instead. My thoughts? If you need other stores to sell your store, than you need to better manage your original store image. Stores within a store are simply a band-aid, and a distraction from the main problem.

Another type of image management is customer service, and for this there are two examples. Target recently made a large blunder (pardon my unintentional pun) when its separate ”missy” and “plus-size” teams failed to collaborate on color names for a dress on its website
http://onforb.es/10VWjdb
. The “missy” size colors all said “Dark Heather Gray” while the plus sizes all said “Manatee Gray.” Although the latter is a color name found across a variety of product lines on Target’s site, this is no excuse for what happened. They did manage to save face though, communicating via Twitter with an apology and promptly fixing the problem. Proofreading and better communication in the first place between groups, known as teamwork, could have prevented this from happening in the first place. The second example is McDonald’s, whose slow decline in friendliness and fast service has alienated customers
http://on.wsj.com/ZUVOOe
. Part of the problem is that the McDonald’s franchise is a large one, and there is poor communication of standards to each franchise owner. Failure to maintain standards is the surest way to get customers up in arms, and the barrage of complaints related to these issues is proof. McDonald’s is placing a greater emphasis on service, boosting staffing at peak hours, and launching a “dual point” ordering system nationwide. Will it be enough? Efforts that come earlier stand a better chance at fixing a problem and saving face, and tackling problems as they’re happening is always better than waiting till it’s too late, but the effects remain to be seen.

Collectively, these companies face a weaker image for various reasons. What they all have in common is their poor image management.  Strong store identity and customer service are of utmost importance, never has it been more important to maintain an image than it is in an economy like this one. The important thing to remember, is that image really is everything.

Storytelling Begins with Data

As PR professionals we’re all told that we have to have good storytelling skills. Some people think storytelling occurs only through what you put out there. How much press you generate, how frequently you post on social media, these become the markers by which we determine how well we’re telling the story. Yet, how can we tell the story if we’re not analyzing the story as it’s happening? People are saying things every day, verbally and non-verbally. Together, these form a cohesive story in the form of a data pool. This data pool is telling our story, and it’s up to us to take that data and use it to tell the overarching story.

Jeff Bladt and Bob Filbin of Harvard Review reveal “A Data Scientist’s Real Job: Storytelling”
http://bit.ly/ZsIuYn
. PR practitioners are data scientists and storytellers, but you can’t be a storyteller if you’re not looking at the data. The only thing that holds some people back is the enormous amount of data, and that’s where these two authors make a very good point. In talking about how to utilize data they reveal three key methods to undertake. Their first is to look only at data that affects your organization’s key metrics. Ask questions that relate to your goals and only look at the data that answers those questions. Next, they recommend presenting data so that everyone can grasp the insights. Most people are visual, and visuals are usually the best way to showcase data (just look at the popularity and success of infographics). By using visuals everyone is on the same page, and some even might see new insights. Lastly, it comes full circle as they talk about returning to the data with new questions. Analyzing data further can shape plans and tactics and highlight other areas that need attention. By continuing to mine data for answers to use in telling your story, there’s nothing to lose and everything to gain.

The PRSA New Pros blog adds another dimension to how we look at and tell a story with data, by relating it to something we all know well, the five W’s
http://bit.ly/ZbFHNe
. The “who” is all about understanding and knowing your target audience. What do they care about? What do they have in common? Looking at things like these will make you a more effective storyteller. The “what” focuses on what your audience is saying and what the topics of conversation are. This can also be seen in actions that answer questions like “what types of posts draw the most likes and comments?” for example. The “where” comes down to answering where your audience is spending the most time so that you can focus on that area or areas. Focusing on the key areas where the majority of your audience is will be the most lucrative use of your time. The “when” revolves around when your audience is most active on key platforms and adjusting your interactions to match that. Finally the “why” revolves around asking why each of your observations is taking place. What is driving them? The more you understand, the better.

Looking at the data is one thing, utilizing it is another, and it takes many different shapes and forms. An example is Starbucks, which utilizes its loyalty card data
http://bit.ly/XxZStA
. Basically, in plain speak, Starbucks is looking at the frequency of engagement amongst several purchasing groups and tailoring their business practices to target those who aren’t engaging as frequently. Starbucks has also used data like this to better tailor its in-store offerings. Efforts like this create more of a community, and in doing so, boost your organization, brand or company. Data is what helps propel you forward, and data comes from listening and observing. It’s no wonder that on a list of critical job skills to have I saw “listening” among them. Before you can interpret you have to listen and pay attention. It all culminates in better storytelling, and storytelling begins with data.

Catering to the Outliers

Every brand is after them, those untapped markets that no one else is catering to yet. Known as outliers, they represent groups that have a need no one is currently meeting. Their voices are not being heard, and listening is always the best policy. Securing these outliers as loyal brand followers can pay off in spades, while ignoring them can be your worst nightmare.

Take the recent debate over whether the ADA’s “public accommodations” apply to technology
http://on.wsj.com/10lp9Cb
. As it stands, the ADA requires equal access to “public accommodations,” including restaurants, movie theaters, retail stores, recreational facilities and other physical places spelled out by law. It makes no mention of technology…yet. The current argument is that this was meant to adapt to technology and anything that is a gateway to a public place, including retail websites, falls under its jurisdiction. Americans with disabilities are a group the web has not catered to yet. There are several lawsuits being brought against stores like Target. In fact, a 2008 Target case marked the first time a federal district judge ruled that the law applies to websites when they are a gateway to a physical store. Think of all the money that brands are losing by not making the online experience as accessible as the store experience. What if you could capture that audience by doing something that no one else is doing or going beyond what someone else is doing…all in the name of providing a service directly targeting that group? Would it be worth it? I think so.

The example of Maxwell Coffee and its popular Seder Haggadah explains why it’s important to focus on underserved groups
http://bit.ly/YJea8z
. As far back as 1923, Maxwell Coffee noticed that there was no brand producing kosher coffee for Passover. They seized the opportunity and beat everyone else to it by being the first to put one on the market. In addition to building their Maxwell Coffee kosher brand as a go-to for Passover, they took it a step further and developed a Haggadah to include with it. A Haggadah recounts the Exodus from Egypt, and is made up of prayers, songs and stories that guide the Passover Seder. Theirs is a piece of branded content where only the cover and illustrations reference Maxwell Coffee, leaving the purpose it was developed for largely unspoiled. Perhaps that’s why it’s the most popular Haggadah today. Maxwell Coffee single-handedly beat out the competition before it even started. It saw a need, no kosher coffee, and it filled it. Furthermore it capitalized on that success in also making its Haggadah a go-to version by including it with its go-to Passover beverage. That was smart marketing.

Basically, it comes down to this. The ADA website example is what happens when you don’t listen or pay attention to outliers, the Maxwell Coffee example is what happens when you do. Figure out where your outliers are and what makes them tick, look at what their needs are and how your brand can serve that need and find common ground to bond them with your brand. It’s a win-win situation, but only if you know what to look for…and only if you see it first.

3 Traits for Viral Content

Our communications world is driven by content. It’s at the heart of all connections and it’s the driving force for new ones. Connections are what build a social network and help it reach more people. When you have the right content, the right connections and the right timing? That’s when content goes viral. Viral content is a force all on its own, and content producers are always in search of that magic formula that will make something go viral. Since it involves having all of the right elements present, and it’s not the same for each group or brand, there is no one right formula…there are many. Yet, smart content producers all have a few things in common.

1) Their content is relevant and timely: Smart content producers pay attention to what’s going on in the world and connect themselves and their group’s purpose to that in whatever way they can. The other day I saw an animal adoption facility on Twitter that had a cat named Pope up for adoption. They used the announcement of the new Pope and connected it to their purpose. That’s one example of how this is done. This concept also involves looking at trending hashtags on Twitter and thinking about events that are coming up. Chances are that if you’re thinking about it coming up soon, others are too (especially if it’s a significant holiday or season). My point is that there are always connections to be made and ways to integrate what you’re about into relevant and timely content. It’s how you make people pay attention and it’s part of what will help your content spread.

2) They know their audience and they have great connections: Knowing your audience is almost as key as producing the right content, and can help your content take off. Do you know who your audience is? Do you know what your audience cares about?  Learning this can help you connect to influential people who have a lot of clout amongst their peers. If they are the trendsetters, or the ones everyone looks to, connecting with them will open your content up to a lot more people. Spreading your content to more people means that your message is getting out there and you are earning new followers. It all comes full circle, and it all starts with knowing your audience and building great connections. Once you do that, it’s about keeping the lines of communication open.

3) They generate conversations: Whether it’s through people retweeting your content, you retweeting theirs in return (on Twitter) or you liking their comment and fueling new ones with your responses (on Facebook), generating conversations is essential. If you can get people talking, and keep people talking, your content will continually be in front of other people’s eyes. Fresh eyes lead to more people joining the conversation, and that’s what you want to see happen. Conversations are the glue that holds it all together, if you’re not running the conversation then other people are running it for you. If other people are running it for you, it’s probably not the conversation you want happening. The best method is to get involved and stay involved. This will fuel conversations that can ultimately see your content going viral.

Putting these methods to work, by applying them to your content, your audience and its conversations are what will help give your content the best chance for going viral. Your content going viral means that your message is getting out there and reaching more people. Your message reaching more people will bring more attention to you and your purpose, and that is the overall goal.

Daily Deals Dilemma

Daily deals roll out like clockwork, and not just because they’re daily. At work I get emails directed at the person who came before me, and some of those are Amazon Daily Deals. Some are appealing, some are not relevant, all of them are extras. That’s because they aren’t deals for things that I need. This is inherently part of the current problem with daily deals, and it extends to more than just Amazon. Just last week Groupon fired its CEO Andrew Mason over fourth quarter earnings that didn’t meet expectations. These kinds of results are not an overnight thing, rather they’re a symptom of a much larger problem that’s produced a steady decline for some time now.

Reuters reported on a Raymond James survey that speaks to some of the problems daily deals companies have been ignoring
http://bit.ly/ZqjbzB
. The survey involved about 115 merchants that used Groupon services during the fall. 39 percent said they weren’t likely to run another Groupon promotion over the next couple of years, and the top reasons cited for why were high commission rate and low rate of repeat customers. 32 percent reported losing money on promotions and about 40% said Groupon was less effective for them than other types of marketing. Instead of making changes that impacted these core concerns, they glossed over them by appealing to merchants with new features and benefits. Ingrid Lunden wrote about one of these, which is Groupon Payments
http://tcrn.ch/Y7jlhr
. This Square/PayPal competitor feature was added to its Merchants app for Android handsets early this year. Although Androids are over 50% of all Smartphones in use, this was not the main problem Groupon needed to fix.

What daily deals sites are now struggling with is finding a new model. USA Today’s Hadley Malcolm points to what some of that might entail
http://usat.ly/Y3dDuU
. Offers that stand out is her first suggestion. Adding to that would be my own suggestion, which is to do that by making deals into longer range deals. How about a discount off of a series of visits or purchases, a coupon that’s good for an unlimited amount of visits in a week, or discounts on vacation experiences? My point being that if it’s encouraging repeat business people are more likely to be repeat customers to get their money’s worth. One of those visits just might turn them into long-term customers too. Her second suggestion is find other ways to make money. My suggestion on how that could be done would be delving into related services. For example, leveraging deals via social media or Constant Contact ™ for their merchant customers. No one vehicle is the surest route to a consumer after all. Her third suggestion is realizing who your customer is and this goes back to my first point. Daily deals are extras, they’re wants not needs. If they could tailor their offerings to people’s needs then they might see more business. This could be through using their own hits and misses to determine what certain people seek out the most. People might not be repeat customers of merchants but they are repeat customers of Groupon and that data could be utilized.

Although this series of events spells the demise of the current model of daily deals, it doesn’t mean they’re going extinct. Or that they have to. Instead, it’s an opportunity to revamp and revitalize their offerings, and their business, into a more profitable model. One that creates the type of results the survey shows are missing. I really hate the phrase ‘think outside of the box’ so I’m going to say that daily deals companies need to expand, strengthen and redefine what they are all about. Being open to this, listening to consumers and customers, and following through with what they learn are the best tools for the road ahead.

Snacking: Reborn and Rebranded

Americans are a culture of snackers. We just can’t resist munching on something to bridge the gaps between meals. A recent study found that Americans consume 2.35 snacks per day on average and in 2012 52% of  all eating occasions among Americans were snacking occasions
http://bit.ly/YPEyv6
. Some despise the word snack, and any form of it, as it usually carries unhealthy connotations. Not surprising when the same study found that 57% of survey respondents claim it’s important or very important that what they snack on is healthy, and yet chips and soda were the two most popular picks for snacks. Smart snacking brands realize this discrepancy, and are utilizing the uptick in snacking to rebrand the definition of snacks and snacking for the modern consumer.

One example is the Girl Scouts, who are now out in full force for their yearly cookie sale. Each year they run a trial cookie of some sort. This year their new cookie is the Mango Creme, a crisp vanilla wafer packed full of nutrients from dehydrated veggies and fruits
http://nydn.us/XQFAYq
. Nutrifusion is the magic ingredient behind this nutrition addition, which consists of nutrients from rehydrated apples, oranges, cranberries, pomegranates, limes, strawberries and shiitake mushrooms, for Vitamin D. It’s a different take on snacking and positions Mango Cremes as a healthier alternative among snack choices. A clever strategy that may sell more cookies, and definitely takes snacking to the level of more than just a snack. 

Another popular company that’s rebranding snacking is Nabisco with Wheat Thins
http://nyti.ms/XzCJBn
. In fact they’ve dropped the word crackers altogether. On the box, the word ‘snacks’ takes the place of the word ‘crackers’ to make it Wheat Thins Snacks, much like baked chips that go by crisps instead. Even on the nutritional panel a serving is referred to as 15 pieces, where the word ‘pieces’ replaces the word ‘crackers’. Wheat Thins are also being marketed as more than just a snack with the introduction of diverse flavors that range from spicy buffalo to zesty salsa. This is similar to the flavor diversity built into Triscuits, a comparable snack, although their serving sizes are still measured in crackers on the nutritional panel. 

There is definitely a movement amongst snack food companies to redefine what snacking is and what snacks look like for today’s consumers. The goal seems to be to get people to do a double take and reconsider what foods, and types of foods can be healthy snacks. Typically people wouldn’t think of cookies or crackers as healthy snacks. The difference with Mango Cremes and Wheat Thin Snacks is that there’s something additional involved. Whether it’s nutrition, renaming or flavor diversity, it provides justification for its acceptance as a quality snack choice. You could say it’s like placing reduced fat on the label. The reason to eat it and eat more of it becomes more of a responsible decision, rather than an unhealthy one. A smart strategy in a consumer’s world. Now more than ever it’s important to keep pace with the changing climate of opinions to remain relevant. Doing so maintains and strengthens a consumer’s relationship with your product, not doing so places it’s welfare in potential jeopardy. Branding and marketing foods is all about positioning based on added value, and this new version of snacking is full of opportunities. All you have to do is think smart and stay in the game.

Blurring the Line: Content Hybrids

You are flipping through a magazine, and the article you’re reading contains an ad that’s designed to look like it’s part of the article you’re reading. Deceptive? Perhaps. Clever? If you’re an advertiser. By the time your brain realizes it’s an ad you are already engrossed in the page. This is how advertisers design their ads. Is this approach strictly for magazines? Hardly. In fact, it’s a concept that’s becoming increasingly common in other areas. One of them is TV, which now shows ads that resemble your favorite content.

An Ad Age article discusses a few examples,  beginning with Target and Neiman Marcus’ partnership on a series of ads like these in October
http://bit.ly/10eoO4J
. Working with the creators of ABC’s “Revenge” they developed a series of five ads, known as “The Gift of Revenge”, showcasing the limited edition holiday collection from Target and Neiman Marcus. Pepsi is also creating a 30 second spot for the Super Bowl where it’s urging consumers to send in photos of themselves in specific poses
http://bit.ly/10eoO4J
. Chosen photos will be stitched together and made into a 30 second introduction for Beyoncé’s Super Bowl halftime show. Not surprisingly, these spots are not the last of their kind. Target also has its new series of “Everyday Collection” spots featuring its items in a high-fashion context
http://bit.ly/Xr7qb4
. Exploding boxes of cake mix sit on pillars lining either side of a runway supermodel walking with whisk in hand. The line? ”Dominate that PTA bake sale.” Then there’s the supermodel with the high pressure hose spraying at an exploding box of Quaker Instant Oatmeal. The line here being ”Just add water.” These commercials’ takes on fashion makes them a great fit for fashion programming, especially reality fashion programming.  In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see these inserted into Project Runway commercial breaks. Perhaps they already have been.

Most, like Pepsi, don’t call their’s a commercial, they call it content. Others may soon follow suit if they haven’t already. I doubt that people will start referring to this as a “showmercial” but that’s the context it creates, seamlessly blurring the line between programming and commercial. Even apps have a similar effect, as they now interact with every facet of a consumer’s daily life. This is an example of blurring the real world with the virtual, something whose roots go back to the advent of virtual reality video games. Much like the overlaps in a Venn diagram, all of these pairings create content hybrids. It’s not just an editorial, it’s an advertorial. It’s not just a commercial, it’s a showmercial (my own coining phrase). I’m not sure if there’s a phrase to describe the collision of apps interacting with the real world, other than real world apps, but you get the idea. This is a trend that is sticking around for a while for better or for worse. It might dilute or it might bolster the original content but it definitely cuts through the clutter. Much like the brain creates new pathways, it seems advertisers will forever be cutting new pathways to consumers. The only question is when people get to the point where they can identify and tune out this hybrid content, what will they think of next?