And it’s Apple that had the most effect on the logo change! The technology company, not the food. This is a “three screen” logo. This is a logo that looks great on television, but can be your app button on your smart phone and iPad. Television viewers are watching television, playing with their phones and accessing Wi-Fi at the all at same time. All of a sudden Food Network has made the user experience as seamless as they can. Now accessing a recipe viewed on television through an iPad app is as easy as tapping that app logo that looks exactly like what’s on the corner of the television screen. It’s slick, it’s clickable and app-ish. They’ve created a brand connection between screens.

This is a great move by Food Network. They understand that people are on their devices and want to learn more. It’s also something more brands need to be thinking about as they decide to compete not only on television, but also in an online or app presence. Does your brand or logo translate from one screen to the next?

Last week, online poker operator PokerStars settled with the U.S. Department of Justice to obtain control of former industry rival Full Tilt Poker for approximately $731 million. The industry opinion is that this agreement with PokerStars signals the return of online poker in the United States. Unfortunately, it may be too late for the game of poker as the waning interest from the Black Friday fallout has hurt the game’s popularity.

As Jay Caspian Kang spelled out in a recent Grantland piece, “everthing in poker is down these days. It’s not clear if or when online poker will make a full return to the United States, and it’s possible that in the interim, something else might fill poker’s place as America’s card game of choice.”

The future of casino poker is definitely up in the air. When online poker rooms disintegrated 14 months ago, poker legend Doyle Brunson retorted that “now it’s time you step into our poker room” to all online players. That never really happened and now with this new possible option for online poker, those players may never need to step into a poker room again.

We have attached a few articles if you want to read more about the reversal and what it could mean for your casino.

PokerStars Settles
What is the Future of the Online Game?
The Certain and Uncertain Future of Poker

This is Vice President Chris Martin’s new office on the second floor for the next few weeks.

We’ve had to clean out all our storage spaces in order to make room for new people.

The upstairs conference room has turned into an office for our Executive Creative Director, Ralph Yznaga.

And until we get the rest of the building squared away, Stephanie Walsh, who works in business development, will be working in the hall.

Account Manager, Ali Gilmore, luckily got to keep her office, but does have to share it with her intern. She’s nervous we’re going to have to put another person in there.

Jimmy John’s sandwiches and Amy’s Ice Cream were perfect to help celebrate all the big changes happening here at MOSAK.

I got home and this thought of an all-encompassing media sat on my shoulder like an angry Greek god, toga and all. It took a second to get out from all the minute details of social media to look at it from a 50,000-foot view. This all felt familiar and it hit me…Michel Foucault.

Michel Foucault was a French philosopher and social theorist who spent a great amount of his time on critical studies of social institutions. One of his most famous works was a book on the prison system titled Discipline and Punish. One concept of the book is the discussion of the Panopticon. In a Panopticon, a single guard has the ability to watch over many prisoners while the guard is unseen in his tower. Prisoners never know when they are being watched so they must act as if they are being observed. It becomes internal monitoring. An example of this is how sports stadiums are set up. The way seats are tiered is fantastic for the audience to watch the game, but it also allows for guards and security cameras to have full view of the fans. Follow me so far?

So Josh, we get it, you are nerd and enjoy philosophy, but what does this have to do with social media?

Social media has become a glass Panopticon.

While there are those who have designated Twitter as a personal brand developer, there are many people who tweet random musings. As they tweet, corporations and marketing companies are scouring the Twittersphere and pulling information about this person. So, 18-year-old college student Joe says he loves tacos and McDonald’s Big Macs in one tweet and the next tweet he says he can’t stop listening to the new Hoodie Allen single, some marketing exec can say, “well, we now have data that men 18-24 love tacos, Big Macs and Hoodie Allen.” The following week, a new McDonald’s commercial hits the airwaves with Hoodie Allen on it pimping a new Big Mac taco. And Joe goes…”wow…I love all of those things! McDonalds is speaking to me.” Good for McDonalds! They gave Joe what he wanted, before he really knew he wanted that. That’s good marketing. In this instance, the general public can be remotely watched without them knowing or even caring.

However, within this glass Panopticon, the individual has the advantage the prisoner did not have in the original Panopticon. The social media inclined individual can see what the companies and corporations are doing, how they are responding and how they act in the world. The individual has the ability to watch the company and respond with a post, a tweet or a video about that business. Now, let’s say Joe finds out that McDonalds is using the worst possible potatoes for their French fries. These potatoes are grown in a toxic dump and harvested by migrant workers from Eastasia. Joe can blog about it and other individuals can share the information. Corporations have to respect that the eye is on them and they can no longer hide in the tower.

So that’s where we are…in this glass Panopticon. Some might just call it transparency, but I don’t feel that’s it. I see each side getting too wrapped up in the details of everything that is social media. So while businesses and marketing entities forget the individual can see them…the individual forgets that the business and marketing entities are watching them.

We could definitely drill down and discuss the Panopticon influencing online persona or how the Panopticon is an extension of control. However, first things first, let’s realize we are watching each other and that is the most important part.

Say hello to Maddie, the star of the commercial! She was super sweet and to be honest, showed more patience than I would have been able to muster. The commercial will be finished soon, but here’s a quick peek at Maddie’s trip around Austin.

Maddie got a quick trim at Birds Barbershop.

Then, she jumped aboard the Duck Tour.

Then, she caught a movie at the Alamo Drafthouse the Ritz location, of course!

Maddie wasn’t the first dog to hang out at the Ritz. I saw this photo on the wall and saw the dog sleeping on the sidewalk as they worked on the Grand Opening of the Ritz.

We finished the day’s shoot at Iron Cactus.

So what happens when your social media platforms start to get hammered with comments, video content and reviews that are negative and/or false?  You can’t delete the comments.  You can’t tell people to “stop it.” Now, if the comments are true deep down issues within your brand, then your problems are bigger than social media. Social media is a mirror in that aspect.  If you produce roller skates and the wheels fall off after 5 minutes, Facebook is the least of your problems.  However, sometimes negative comments have nothing to do with your actual product.  The issues may arise from laws or rules put into place by a bigger institute than your own. For example, you might be a boutique whiskey distiller and people are upset they can’t get your spirits in their home state. While people may think the distiller is ignoring their state, the reasoning has nothing to do with the brand and everything to do with state law.  That doesn’t stop the negative comments from creeping in.

So what does your brand do?  We put together a quick checklist to help you out.

Facebook:

1. Determine the validity of the posts.  Are these negative comments true?
2. If these comments are on Facebook and have inappropriate language, delete from the Wall.
3. If the comments are true, speak with the manager in charge of the area in question and determine an appropriate response that is honest and to the point. This will allow them to not only help with post creation, but it gives management real time feedback on their managed area.
4. Post an honest response that tries to answer the question or issue.  The response should also be as airtight as possible to lessen the chance for response or continued conversation.

Twitter:

1. Using search and listening functions within social media monitoring software, you are able to monitor tweets about your brand. Those tweets can be negative or positive.
2. Take some time to respond to those searchable tweets with appropriate responses and make sure to send the important tweets on to the manager for assessment.
3. By reaching out and responding to someone who did not officially tag the brand creates a feeling that the brand is committed to accepting feedback.

YouTube:

1. Watch the content and determine if the content is valid.
2. YouTube allows some videos to be flagged based on graphic sexual activity, nudity, suggestive, but without nudity, shocking or disgusting content, promotes hatred or violence against a protected group or encourages harmful dangerous acts.  If the video has any of these subjects, flag it immediately.
3. YouTube gives you the chance to respond in the comment section of the video.  The post would answer to the issue. Along with the post, a direct message could be sent to the person who posted the video.  The direct message would include email contact for management to further discuss the issue.  The response on the comment feed would need to be as airtight as possible to lessen the chance for response or continued conversation. I would recommend one response and to not get into posting fights with a user who wants to cause problems.  It’s a fight you can never win.

Review Sites:

1. Review sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor need to be monitored multiple times per week.
2. A response needs to be created for every negative and positive response.  A review is there to help guide others.  If the review is great, that helps a business’s cause.  If the review is negative, people can read the negative comment, but can also read the response.  Knowing that the business cares can help overcome some of the power from the negative review.

As social media connects users with each other and the brands they love, it is important for businesses and brands to understand how social media can be a powerful listening tool. It’s important to remember that the negative post or comment is not the big issue.  The bigger issue is when the business does not use that feedback to create a better experience for their clientele. The social media feedback process allows for a business to learn what it’s doing well and learn how it can improve.  That is a powerful ability and one that allows a brand to evolve to best serve their clientele.

As a marketer I can clearly see the value in taking advantage of a day that already has high top of mind awareness. There’s no doubt people will be talking about Leap Day. And the marketing opportunities for the End of the World are limitless. I’m waiting to see how many times I see a message which subtly implies “buy it today, if the world ends tomorrow you don’t have to pay for it.”

My problem is not with advertisers and marketers co-opting these days for our own purposes. It’s in how lazy we’ve become about it. If these days truly are important don’t they deserve special messaging. Not just the same old sales or promotions conveniently tagged with the day or date. Where’s the creativity? There has to be a better way to sell Leap Day than with tired graphics of a customer jumping because they are so happy about the price.

Here’s an idea. Let’s make the actual message just as compelling as the pseudo-holiday itself. Give people something they are going to remember, talk about, circle on the calendar, post on Facebook and text their loved ones. Give them an idea so great that the day becomes secondary. Make the customer so intrigued that they are forced to ask “when is that happening.” Oh right it’s happening on the newly created Groundhog Election Solstice Twilight Savings Day.

If 2012 really is the End of the World I’d like to see creativity go out on a high note. Not just repackaging Y2K.

My first response was wordy, technical and over the head of the retired oncologist that had asked me the question. Asked again by someone else and the response was a little more concise and manageable. After about 5 more tries, I got the answer down! It took some time to take these complicated discussions of social media, analytics, digital marketing, website creating, engagement, clients and interactivity into one easy-to-swallow pill.

In essence, that easy-to-swallow pill became “all we do is listen and engage with people over the web and social media platforms.” It’s nothing more than providing a platform for people to comment about or share content. And it’s a place for my colleagues to listen to those comments and chat with customers. That’s what social media is all about. Sometimes we get lost in what social media has become. We have tons of shiny tools that make interaction, analytics and engagement easy, but when it all comes down to it, we are here to listen and make conversations happen. We are here to interact with people who like our client’s products or services. While the technologies grow, the basic concept shouldn’t change. We can’t force marketing messages. People are too smart and can smell it a mile away. What we can do is create communities that want to engage with our clients. That’s my resolution for 2012. What’s yours?

It isn’t easy to keep up with every little change that goes on in the social media world. As soon as you get comfortable with one platform, it suddenly changes. I’m looking at you, Facebook. It can also be difficult to know which platform is up-and-coming, which software you should use and which monitoring service to jump on. We try to keep up with it as best as we can at MOSAK.

If you hadn’t heard, there are new changes on the way for YouTube. They’re changing their layout and the layout looks much more “social.” I hate using that descriptive, but it seems to be the way things are going. The “profile look” is becoming more important which each new update. If you want to check out the new look before it goes live, this post has all the info you need.

So what does this mean for anyone who’s interested in the interactive and social media landscape. For those who deal with the social media world, it means you better be flexible and enjoy learning new things. This constant change can be explained by Kurzweil’s Law of Accelerating Returns. The law basically states that the rate of change is increasing exponentially. Everything is evolving faster than the last evolution and here’s even exponential growth in the rate of exponential growth. Sounds scary, but it’s true. Remember the cell phone you had 5 years ago. Now look at the smartphone you have today.

However, and there’s always a however, you need to decide what technology works for you and your business. Not everything may work and you don’t want to waste time spinning your wheels on applications and software that isn’t truly needed.

When Google+ announced brand pages a few weeks ago, we decided to claim pages for all of our clients. We aren’t quite sure how Google+ is going to work out and we definitely don’t know how the brand pages are really going to work with our select group of clients. They seem to be working for major brands like McDonald’s or Android, but our current clients aren’t at that massive size. We felt it was best to get the pages now, just in case Google+ grows to be a viable option. Sometimes it’s better to play it safe, but not spend a lot of time and effort on something that is so uncertain.

So maybe it’s best to try and keep a level head when adopting new technology and social media platforms. Not everyone can keep up with the Joneses and some people don’t even need to. 

While the Cardinals may be the thing that I’m most passionate about, they’re not the only brand that defines me. If you asked (which you probably will….I’m kind of awesome) I would also say I’m an

Pepsi Guy
iPhone Guy
Gillette Guy

These are the brands that I identify with. That in some way, shape or form say something about me. Pepsi is just one example of how I root for the underdog. Put two brands in front of me and, all things being equal, I will always latch on to the one with less market share. I don’t want to conform to the masses. On the flip side I’m an iPhone guy. Yes I am part of the unwashed masses who doesn’t understand how civilization existed before the invention of the iPhone. Droid may be more robust. The Evo may have a larger screen. But I adopted the first iPhone on the day of its release (before it became a worldwide phenomenon) and you’re not separating it from me unless you pry it from my cold dead hands. Or I leave it in a rental car again. Whichever comes first. As far as my razor goes I believe that the relationship between a man and his razor is sacred. Like the relationship between a boy and his dog. Sure they might bite you periodically but you can’t help but love them.

I think these traits are true to some degree or another in all of us. There are brands we use on a daily basis (toothpaste, toilet paper, gas) without giving it a second thought. And then there are the brands that we feel represent us to the world. The ones that make a statement such as “I’m an Individual,” or “I like the finer things in life,” or “I don’t own a mirror and nobody told me how bad this looks.” As marketers a key for us is finding those advocates for our product. The ones who go out of their way to spread the gospel of why your brand is the best. I’d rather leave my product in the hands of one passionate person than five people who can’t tell the different between my product and my competitors.

So while you’re out looking for that next great proponent, I’m going home to order some new razors on my iPhone with the new Cardinals case.