In a sleepy spring news week with nary a peep of drama from the usual suspects, social media, tech and marketing news has been scarce. Yet we put our digging super powers to work and found 5 things you might have missed!
- The Branded Mini Movie: If you’ve missed the avalanche of short movies pushed out by brands like BMW, Royal Caribbean and Denny’s lately, you might be the only one. Yet Internet short films top our list because of the surprising resurgence and the even more surprising viewer response. A dramatic infomercial film for The Better Sleep Council starring Shannen Doherty scored big YouTube views and ignited the blogs back in January. Branded mini movies may not be new, but 2011 is likely to be known as the year the genre exploded.
- J. Crew Gets Edgy: Okay, not really (and just typing those words made us laugh). I mean, J. Crew thinks vanilla is spicy. Nonetheless, the company stirred up an unwanted controversy when it featured creative director Jenna Lyons and her 5-year-old son after a toenail painting session. People with nothing better to do have erupted and called the ad all sorts of ridiculous things. This non-scandal is as stupid as they come but it makes our list because for the first time since the Clintons left the White House, people are actually buzzing about J. Crew.
- If You Can’t Say Anything Nice… This U.S. Air Force flowchart, courtesy of Social Media Penguin, is a clear reminder of how to respond to negative comments about our products or business online. In short, the military, along with Ghandi and your mom, still believes silence is the strongest action you can take when dealing with haters and their comments.
- The Just Because Blog: We’ve noticed industry-related blogs and company blogs taking a moment during the week to just blow off steam and post something odd, silly or just plain fun. And you know what? We love it! The Just Because blog provides followers a break from the barrage of news and chatter they get in their newsfeeds all day long. Yes, we want people to follow our ultra-serious and important blog… but we also want our readers to stick around and the Just Because blog is a nice way to encourage that.
- Not Every Joke is a Hit: Personally, we had a good laugh when we saw the pictures of a billboard promoting AMC’s zombie series The Walking Dead placed cleverly outside a funeral home. But some folks in the UK were not amused. The billboard has been removed and Clear Channel has apologized.
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