Fa La La La La La La Ha Ha: Jib Jab is Spicing Up Our Holidays
We’re all guilty of it, sitting at our desks (be it at work or school), avoiding work for hours on end by mindlessly surfing the Internet. Personally, I usually stick to Tumblr or getting lost in hours of Who’s Line Is It Anyway? on YouTube, but to each their own. For those of us who enjoy watching humourous parodies or making your friends dance around hilariously, the team over at Jib Jab has you covered. A new favourite of Embrace Disruption’s Cory Stewart, Jib Jab has actually been popular since 2004 when they posted a George Bush/John Kerry parody of “This Land” that went interstellar – even being broadcast to the International Space Station.
Since their first video, Jib Jab has posted many a politically driven parody as well as “Years in Review” that are just as snicker-inducing.
Over the years Jib Jab has branched out to include a whole e-Card division, so sending your special someone a card for any occasion is super easy. Plus, you can make them feel famous by putting their face in the card. Maybe you’re friend has a bachelorette party coming up & you want to send out her invites in the style of Chippendale dancers. Who wouldn’t like that?
Dancing Elves, Silly Santas & Partying Penguins
Since it is the holiday season, let’s take a look at what Jib Jab has cooked up to entertain us. First, you can use your personal photos or Facebook photos to cast your favourite people in a music video for some of the most popular holiday songs. Maybe your friends are a bit more… adventurous with their festive cheer. In those special cases Jib Jab lets you star in such classics as “Farting Carol” or “Tree Slaughter.” I bet either will become an instant classic to be enjoyed for generations.
The holiday “Elf Yourself” tradition is also back. Started in 2006 in partnership with Office Max, users are able to cast themselves in 3 different elf-themed songs/videos this year: Snowball Fight, Christmas Tree & Office Party.
And after you’re finished casting everyone from your Facebook you’ll probably have no time for Christmas shopping anymore which is okay because Jib Jab has teamed up with Amazon to offer the option to send Amazon gift cards with any e-Card.
Be A Networking Ninja! 5 Steps To Tackle Holiday Parties
A version of this post originally appears on Views From 590, and is written by Embrace Disruption PR founder, Cory Stewart.
We’re all faced with going to countless engagements and parties over the holiday season – it’s inevitable. These engagements are amazing opportunities to network with new people, and build a larger list of professional contacts. However, let’s face it – not everyone is blessed with networking talent. Sound like you? Well, we’ve taken a moment to compile 5 things that you should keep in mind when heading out to your next holiday party:
1. ASK “GOOD” QUESTIONS
The typical “so what do you do?” won’t ever make you a memorable person to meet. Make sure you think up some interesting and creative conversation starters that will engage the person you’re talking to. Construct those questions as though you’re constructing a tweet: 140 characters or less!
2. LISTEN MORE THAN YOU TALK
Take in what the other person is saying. People innately enjoy talking about themselves – allow them to do it. The more you listen, the more you know about the person – and how you might be able to leverage your newly found connection.
3. DO FOR OTHERS FIRST
When you meet someone new, and get a good idea of what they’re all about- identify how you can help. Keep realistic expectations of your time, but offer a helping hand. What you do now will come back to you tenfold in the future – and you never know where your ‘good deed’ could take you!
4. OFFER YOUR BUSINESS CARD AFTER THE CONVERSATION
Don’t lead with your card – it’s just awkward. Make sure you fully engage your new found friend, and if it makes sense to: hand them your card.
5. SET FOLLOW-UP EXPECTATIONS
After a great conversation, let the other party know when you’re going to get in contact again (ie. “I’ll shoot you an email tomorrow”). If you follow through on your promise, this shows an extremely valuable character trait – accountability.
So, when you head out this season – tuck these 5 tips into your seasonal socks, and let your inner networking rockstar SHINE!
Social Media Makes The Holiday Sale
This INFOGRAPHIC made the rounds last holiday season, so we can only predict that these numbers have made an even more impressive jump over this season. Some of the interesting facts to take away:
- 66% of social users made purchases on Black Friday/Cyber Monday as a direct result of social interaction
- Recommendations of social users are 2 times as likely to lead to a holiday gift purchase
- 52% of users are willing to pay more for a brand they trust
- Brands are only responding to half of the posts they receive (jeesh!)
Read all this and more in the festive image below:
5 Factors That Determine Whether Or Not A Journalist Will Cover Your Story
This story is written by Brad Phillips and first ran on PR Daily in January .
Journalists receive dozens of unsolicited phone calls and hundreds of unwanted emails each day.
Their Twitter networks churn out an endless stream of updates, links, and photos.
Their RSS (really simple syndication) feeds offer innumerable stories from their favorite blogs and websites.
With all of that information constantly coming in, it’s not hard for reporters to find potential news stories. But finding news stories they can actually report on? Now that’s the hard part. That’s because every news organization has constraints on which stories their reporters can cover and how they can cover them.
In virtually every newsroom around the world, here are the five factors that drive news decisions: time, speed, space, profit, and bias.
Time
Journalists have never before faced such bruising deadlines. Newspaper reporters who once had to write a story a day now have to continually update that story for their paper’s website.
Their broadcast counterparts now have to produce separate Web-only versions of their radio and television segments throughout the day and promote them via social media.
Plus, many reporters are doing the jobs of two or three people, because it’s likely that their news organizations have laid off several—if not dozens—of their colleagues. If your story requires reporters to do extensive research, they probably won’t cover it at all.
Speed
Competition from faster-moving new media has largely forced traditional media outlets to abandon rigorous fact checking. To keep up, they now rush deadlines and release stories sooner than they’d like, especially when covering breaking news events.
If you can’t explain your story quickly (and easily), it’s more likely that reporters will get at least some aspect of it wrong.
To read the rest of this entry, head over to PRDaily!
Harnessing YouTube Celebrity for Product Launch
It seems that a new gaming console is launched every year – just in time for the holiday season (coincidence? we think not). This year’s door crasher was Nintendo’s Wii U, the next generation of the Wii console. The defining feature of this console is the “Gamepad” control, which takes the place of the Wii Remote – promising to make user experience even more enjoyable for gamers. Since being released on November 18th the Wii U has sold close to one million units.
Bringing Product to its Target Market
YouTube is a haven for pretty much everyone who uses the internet. People are constantly posting a wide variety of videos from hair/makeup tutorials to product reviews/unboxings. So naturally, Nintendo decided to include YouTube in the marketing plan for the new Wii U console. The concept for the campaign is simple: Nintendo gave 50 Wii U’s to 50 well-known YouTubers, tasking them to create a video based on one of the games offered for the console. The videos must then get 10,000 views to be considered to advance to the top 12. The top 12 are flown to L.A. to compete. Four YouTubers will eventually be chosen to attend the Sundance Film Festival where their self made video will be shown. The winners will also be declared Nintendo Brand Ambassadors, providing Nintendo with on-going promotion.
Stealthy Marketing Tactics that Work
This marketing plan is a genius way to get Nintendo’s new product out into the minds of consumers. Who doesn’t spend far too much time on YouTube procrastinating daily? We all have YouTube channels we watch regularly and love to support, so helping them achieve something like screening at Sundance is engaging for both audiences and content creators. Additionally, by harnessing the creativity of 50 different people, Nintendo garners unprecedented creativity in appealing to potential buyers. Who better to communicate with teens, young adults and/or avid gamers than one of their own? It’s almost like a celebrity endorsement – but better because a YouTube celebrity is someone “just like us”. We know they actually used and enjoyed something if they make a video about it. They are a trustworthy source viewers are probably more inclined to listen to. The videos themselves are not presented as advertisements for the Wii U either, which is becomes even more appealing to the casual viewer. Who wants to watch an advertisement on purpose anyway? Here are some screencaps of video entries:
The cut off for views on the 50 entries is Friday, so it will be interesting to see the cumulative views vs. any correlations in sales for the Wii U. Overall, this marketing plan is a win for Nintendo – worldwide exposure for their product on the Internet for the cost of 50 units.
What other internet-based marketing plans have you noticed in 2012?
The Best and Worst Times To Send Emails
Email marketing continues to be one of the most successful ways to target and engage large audiences. The challenge remains, when is the best time to send an email? Well, fret no more – we’re found an INFOGRAPHIC to fill you in on all the must-know deets. However, before we share that INFOGRAPHIC with you, we thought you might want to know some quick stats on the open rates of emails broken down by industry:
A quick rundown on some key points from the INFOGRAPHIC:
- 23.63% of all email opens occur within the 1st hour of delivery
- Within an hour, your email has a 9.52% chance of being opened
- Emails sent in the afternoon have more chance of being noticed, opened and clicked
- Top click hours are between 8-9am, and 3-8pm
- Be mindful of time zone, and when your email will reach it’s recipient
eBay Gets Into The Gifting Spirit With New App
December may bring in the chilly temperatures and snow, but it comes with warm hearts and giving spirit. This holiday season, the eBay Corporation sought out a new way to harness the charity spirit by developing their newly released app eBay Now. In partnership with Toys For Tots, eBay has made it their goal to give as many children as possible a very happy holidays.
Giving is as Easy as a Scan & Tap
To raise awareness, eBay set up a pop-up shop at the intersection of 9th and 14th St in NYC this past week- where the public was invited to visit and browse a small selection of toys available to be donated. At the pop-up, members of the eBay team were on hand supplying free hot chocolate while showing consumers how to easily scan the QR codes associated with each gift. The donor has free reign over the type of toy donation they make to Toys of Tots, being able to pick the gender, age range & price point of the toy to be donated. The toy donations are then shipped out to children in need.
Everyone Can Get in on the Action
Let’s face it: not everyone has an smartphone (or lives in NYC), so in order to reach their goal, eBay has also set up a webpage for users to donate in the same fashion as the app. The webpage also facilitates easy sharing via social networks, assisting eBay in reaching the largest audience possible.
Everyone is familiar with the concept of a toy drive, but the logistics on such a project can be difficult and overwhelming. eBay has taken holiday giving to the next level making it just a little easier for everyone. Any time, any place, people can donate and make a difference. Even better, eBay delivers the toy to where it needs to be in remarkable time, often in an hour or less. Their goal this year is 25,000 toys (with toy matching donations being made by eBay).
What do you think: will mobile help boost consumer awareness and drive charity focused purchase conversions in the future? Sound off in the comments!
Film Friday: PastFuturePresent.me ‘presents’ Kickstarter For Gifts
Crowd sourcing is one of the biggest trends to hit the web since well, social networks. So it’s not a wonder that savvy entrepreneurs Seema Lakhani and Timothy Leung have come up with a solution for those looking to crowd source their gifting.
“PastFuturePresent is a website that allows anyone to set up their own custom registry with any items or experiences they may want. Guests can then contribute towards the items in set increments. The registry host then receives the contribution amount in cash, along with getting to see who contributed to which items.”
Source: PastFuturePresent.me
With the holiday season right around the corner most people turn to the gift giving/receiving side of things as a way to avoid the stressful family gathering and travel arrangements. This creative avoidance then leads to new stress, “What do you get that picky person on your list?” or “How am I going to travel with all these parcels back home?” Thankfully PastFuturePresent has the solution. Best described as a hybrid between a registry & a fundraising drive, PastFuturePresent provides the opportunity for people to sign up (for free) and create a list of items & experiences for their friends and family to contribute to via credit card. Then the gift receiver can log in to see who help fund which items and cash out whenever they want. Be sure to check out their blog!
Whether it’s for a birthday, the holidays, or even a wedding – PastFuturePresent has presented a new and innovative approach to gifting that offers a win-win to it’s users.
Baboo.me: Making Market Research Fun Again
In an age where it seems there are social media sites popping up every few clicks, there is a need to be different and stand out in order to drive traffic. Musicians, bands and brands have chosen Baboo.me as their ally in their fight to be noticed. Lending from the best parts of other popular sites, Baboo melds these aspects together to create a unique interactive experience for users. Much like popular pin board site Pinterest, Baboo is by invite only; a prospective user must provide an email address to the site in order to be granted access. The Baboo advantage is that invitations are sent out in a matter of minutes/hours as opposed to days or weeks.
A Modern Twist on an Ancient Art Form
Once a user garners access to the site they are met with ‘shelves’ of available or soon-to-be-opened Baboos. The designs of these Baboos should look familiar; they are the digital representations of ancient Russian nesting dolls. Each Baboo is full of layers (commonly 3-5) that a user can go through to unlock exclusive content such as mp3s, videos, pictures and more from their favourite singer or movie. Currently the site has 5 Baboos available while there are 16 more waiting to be ‘filled’ if enough people ‘want’ the content.
But what does a user have to do to get this exclusive content? Simple really, just answer questions related to the artist and/or your Internet usage habits. These questions may seem simple but really, they provide the artist, their management or marketing team (in the case of brands/movies) important information about their fans to best tailor content for them or connect to them better in the future.
Key to Success Nested Within the Site Design
One of the critical success factors for the Baboo model is user engagement and traffic. The best way to have fair market data is to have a large sample of the market complete the survey. Baboo ensures the brand has that large sample by requiring a user to share the Baboo on their Facebook or Twitter to access the last layer of any Baboo. This serves two purposes, lets other fans out there know that their favourite musician or brand has exclusive content out there waiting for fans to unlock it and, it raises awareness for Baboo itself, hopefully meaning more musicians and brands will use it in the future.
What do you think: would you use Baboo if it meant exclusive content from your favourite brands?
Social Media Brings a New Dimension to “Glee” for Fans
What is a television show to do when they want to stay on the top of everyone’s mind and create buzz? Have their cast/crew and fans take to social media, of course! Although it may have been the Beliebers who were among the first to capitalize on Twitter trends, fans of Glee have jumped on the bandwagon creating trending phrases not only about the show, but about the actors themselves. It seems like a regular occurrence that Glee’s leading lady Lea Michele is tweeting out sweet messages like this one:
These messages show the fans that the cast members do see messages of support and appreciate them. Trending topics are amazing because they bring a certain topic or events to public attention and offer opportunity to find out more about it by clicking on “Why Is This Trending?” or visiting WhatTheTrend.com
Social Media Gives Fans an Inside Look on Set
The Glee fandom is notorious for getting inside looks of the set during the filming of upcoming episodes. It is often said that the best thing to happen to the Glee cast & crew was the invention of phone cameras & Instagram. The biggest addicts of the popular photo-sharing application include: Lea Michele, show creator Ryan Murphy, and Chord Overstreet. Fans eagerly await pictures from the actors whenever they tweet that they are on set.
Twitter & YouTube meant an early Christmas for Glee Fans
Recently, the Glee crew welcomed Hollywood director/choreographer Adam Shankman back into the fold to direct their Christmas episode, “Glee Actually” (due to air December 13th on FOX) and this resulted in a constant flow of pictures for the fans. Sharing these photos from set helps build hype for the episode and entices fans to tune in to see the story behind the snapshot; how is Artie Abrahams, apparently confined to a wheelchair, up walking around? What brings Damian McGinty back to the world of Glee after his arc ended last season? Mr. Shankman has done a pretty good job winding up the fans to get them to tune in. Let’s hope that translates into higher ratings for the show when the episode airs.
Fans are also able to get in on the action when the show decides to shoot on location (instead of their usual soundstage). Filming locations are usually pretty easily accessible and fans in the area usually head over to the location to find the set and get the scoop on upcoming storylines. Scoop that is disseminated almost instantaneously via videos, pictures and blog posts (thank you Mr. Smart phone). This is exactly what happened for the Christmas episode when Glee filmed at Bryant Park’s outdoor skating rink in NYC. For 11 hours: cast, crew and fans gathered to watch as fan favourites Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss) and Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) filmed their duet for the holiday song classic, “White Christmas.” Fans were live tweeting the happenings from their phones, giving everyone on the internet the ‘In’ on what was happening, offering multitudes of photos and videos chronicling every second.
Perhaps show runners and security don’t like that fans are providing spoilers all over the Internet but they don’t seem to try and stop it all that much providing enough information for posts such as this.
And don’t think for a second that the cast & crew are oblivious to what the fans share out. On the red carpet for Trevor Live this past Sunday Adam Shankman referenced a video taken of him dancing on the ice with Chris Colfer. He also talked about how he loves the fans enthusiasm for the show and that he gets to interact with them via social media on a daily basis.
Being a part of the of the fandom myself, I often stop and think about what the show must look like to the casual watcher. The major plot twists and seemingly crazy song performance choices must seem even more unexpected to those who haven’t known they were coming for upwards of a month. Social media has afforded us so many amazing opportunities in the past few years – thanks to twitter, I’ll never miss another beat.
