Last night, Jimmy Fallon hosted the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards. Despite consuming lots of online and traditional media each day, the only reason I remembered this was because of Twitter (UberTwitter, to be exact). Normally, I’m not one for award shows of any kind. But after seeing that my entire Twitter feed was Emmy-related, I thought I’d turn it on for a few minutes. And I literally mean a few minutes.
Despite not liking award shows, I still like to be in-the-know about the winners, who wore what and any awkward happenings like the special “moment” that Taylor Swift and Kanye West shared at the 2009 VMAs. So thanks to social media, I was able to check my Twitter feed throughout the night to see who won. Twitter was the only reason I felt ready to discuss the winners this morning, when in fact my television was on for less than five minutes.
En route to work today, someone commented on how glad they were that Modern Family won and I was quick to agree, since I enjoyed reading numerous tweets about their big win last night. (Important note: If you do not watch Modern Family, I’m not sure if we can be friends. It is by far the funniest show on TV and quickly knocked The Office out of my favorite TV show slot. Sorry Michael Scott!)
NBC wisely played up social media by encouraging people to check out the live-stream behind the scenes videos and tweet to the host, who announced some of the presenters via viewer’s tweets. Since I missed pre-event coverage (the one part of award shows that I sometimes watch), Yfrog also came in very handy. They had a page dedicated to photos from the Emmys, so I still got to see some dapper suits and designer dresses, though I never actually saw celebrities stroll down the red carpet.
Social media was a good fit for the show last night, since the host himself is no stranger to it – Jimmy Fallon sometimes uses Twitter during his show to engage audience members and viewers at home.The Hollywood Reporterhas said that the early numbers are too close to call but regardless of the official ratings, I think NBC can call the Emmy Awards a success.
Did you watch last night or follow along through social media? And now that we’ve chatted about social media, can we please discuss the dress on January Jones?
Marty McFly: Nike seems to have filed patent papers for a shoe that will automatically lace itself - citizens of Maine will be relieved to hear this, since it’s illegal to walk down the street with your shoes untied there.
Ping Pong Wine: To try to create some buzz for their in-house package designers, Rethink created a series of table wines to show off their skills. (Sample text from one of the labels: “At Rethink, we believe great package design is like a ping-pong table: it should inspire intense competition and heated dialogue. Not to mention the occasional fist pump and victory dance”). We love the self-promo and wish wine was really labeled and packaged this way.
Boardwalk Empire: Take a look at this ad for HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, a new series taking place during Prohibition in, of all places, Atlantic City. The MTA bus station ad features a glass bottle filled with moonshine — each day closer to the premiere, the liquid in the bottle goes down, smoothly. (via @mattrichardson)
Get Your Sweet On: Not for any other reason than besides showing their sweet side (and, ahem, to drive traffic to the store), Opening Ceremony is offering in-store Candygrams. You can leave a card and lollipop candygram for a special someone and the swoonee can only get it by picking it up from the store - someone can do this for me at their Ace Hotel location.
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Attention, all you movie and TV buffs! Netflix today released an app that puts its instant streaming service on Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch…and it’s free! (Well, almost — you still need to be a Netflix subscriber to access the vast streaming library.)
While the app was already available on the iPad, many Netflix fans are rejoicing over the fact that they can now carry Netflix around in their pockets. Initial reaction to the app’s performance seems positive, although many are recommending you watch over Wi-Fi rather than 3G wireless connections to avoid that pesky buffering nonsense.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m totally psyched about being able to watch old episodes of Boy Meets Worldduring my commute (I heart Topanga).
Reverse Branding:Jersey Shore’s Snooki was always seen toting around a Coach bag on season one - but on the second season and recently while out on the town, she’s been photographed carrying various designers. According to the New York Observer, many designers are sending her free swag - but not their own brands. The fashion houses think the reality TV star(?) disgusts fans and anything she touches won’t sell, so by sending her competitor’s products, their product will do better.
Picture Poll: When trying to take a group picture in front of a landmark, you always face two difficult options: 1) One person has to take the picture and therefore is left out or 2) Ask a stranger to take the picture with the possibility of him running away with your new Canon SLR. Enter fotopol - a camera mount in tourist spots, one freestanding, and one made for balconies, so everyone can be in the pic.
Cloudy With a Chance of Music Video: Upon entering singer/songwriter Lissie’s website, you’ll be prompted to enter your ZIP code. Then, the first thing you’ll see, will be her music video for her song “Cuckoo” and the weather in the video is determined by the weather at your current location. You can also zoom in on any part of the world and the video’s weather will change accordingly.
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Michigan-based company Gas Station TV (GSTV) is capitalizing on the time people spend pumping gas by feeding them localized programming and advertising. According to a recent Nielsen report released last month, GSTV is exceeding 26 million monthly Nielsen-verified fueling impressions.
Yesterday, GSTV inked a deal with ESPN for brand integration with ESPN content, and according to Erik Sass of MediaPost, “Advertisers can couple brand integration with calls to action for products sold in gas station convenience stores…GSTV’s partnership with ESPN will now allow it to deliver full-motion video clips as part of its news content covering football, basketball, baseball and auto racing, among other sports.”
Do you feel that GSTV is too “in your face” for consumers, or do they appreciate the distraction from pumping gas?
Huluand YouTube are popular for keeping up with TV shows if you don’t have cable or if you miss an episode of your favorite series and can’t wait for a rerun, but according to The New York Times, there is a rise in the popularity of original shows that live on the web. Actress Illeana Douglas started her own Internet show, Easy to Assemble, in which she plays an Ikea employee and even got the furniture company to sponsor it. The show gets 1.5 million views per month, which is pretty impressive.
Might the soaring popularity of online shows ever replace television? I doubt it; however, original online entertainment could be worth an investment. Douglas is looking for another sponsor for the third season…any takers?
Today, MTV announced the launch of their first-ever Twitter jockey (TJ). The month-long pursuit to find the ultimate Twitter voice and liaison of the network culminated yesterday with the 23-year-old plus-size fashion blogger, Gabi Gregg, coming out on top. Gregg unofficially starts her new gig today and already has been tweeting up a storm via her new Twitter handle, @mtvtj. According to Mashable, Gregg will move to New York and officially start her new position next week, while collecting a cool $100,000 a year to pump out 140-word tweets all day!
Will you follow @mtvtj to get the insider scoop from award shows to the latest news from the network? Check out Gregg’s winning moment in the clip here.
What’s Your Flavor?: University of Tokyo researchers have brought their augmented reality “A” game with the “meta cookie” – they created a plain, tasteless cookie that can flavor-shift thanks to a headset that modifies perception by using image overlays and scents.
Liquid Ink: Seen as one of the coolest inventions of all time, Sharpie will be introducing the Liquid Pencil this fall. The pencil/pen combo will have graphite “ink” that allows young Dickenses to erase at will for a three day period; after that, anything written will be permanent.
Follow Me: Michael Krivicka, @whoisthebaldguy, really wants Jimmy Fallon to follow him on Twitter – the NYC resident posted a videofull of reasons why Fallon should follow him, one being that he tweets about The Naked Cowboy (and who doesn’t want to miss those TwitPics?).
Textile Taxidermy: Take a look at this hunting jacket that can be transformed into a lined coat, a lighter-weight quilted jacket, a fitted city windbreaker, and a ram’s head to mount on your wall. Yup, bet you didn’t see that coming!
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I Am Vampire: Gearing up for the season three premiere of HBO’s True Blood, a website was launched for fans to create vampire personas. Much to their blood-sucking delight, their vampire bios were turned into an ad featured in the birth/death notice section of the NZ Herald.
Vanity Fair Lounge: In attempts to capitalize on their brands, Condé Nast is opening up a restaurant division. For right now, this will only be implemented internationally and they are said to be focusing on the Vogue and GQ brands. There is already a Vogue Cafe in Moscow and Chairman Jonathan Newhouse said it’s been highly successful in enhancing the image of Condé Nast magazines in Russia.
Dot Coms: In the hopes that Speidi will reconcile their differences, eBay user cazual714 (he has 100% positive feedback, btw) is auctioning off HeidiAndSpencer.com for $21 million. And we feel it’s worth a mention that he’s willing to let go of GuidosAndGuidettes.com for $6,000 and 3DSantaClaus.com for $2,500 (and that it actually has one bid). Hurry up, only three days left!
Nothing Is What It Seems: A finalist in Levi’s “Care to Air” Design Challenge is industrial design student, Caleb Hill, who put an interesting spin on the drying rack. He created what looks like a mounted picture – but – it folds off the wall to reveal itself as a drying rack.
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What is the first thing you think of when you hear the brand K-Swiss? For me, it is the traditional all-white sneaker worn by tennis players in the ’80s, but yesterday, K-Swiss took a step in the right direction by turning a brand with an old-fashioned personality into something that appeals to a pop culture audience.
They did this for a new branding campaign for their Tubes line of shoes, using Danny McBride of HBO’s Eastbound & Down (a brainchild of Will Ferrell) as the lead spokesperson. McBride plays his Kenny Powers character in all of the online, TV and print spots, and that is what makes the ads appealing and spreadable to the young male audience that they are targeting with the campaign. With the upcoming second season of Eastbound & Down set to begin in September, the timing is impeccable in terms of advertising for the show and new K-Swiss line of products.
We first caught wind of the campaign after receiving the Funny or Die (another brainchild of the Will Ferrell franchise) weekly e-mail blast yesterday, which included an intro to the campaign from Kenny Powers in full force, vulgarity and all.
The idea of using a popular fictional TV character as the lead spokesperson for a campaign may have drawbacks, but when trying to reach a hyper-targeted audience, sometimes using pop culture and a fictional character can be a great option. In essence, a TV character is coming to life with this campaign, and there isn’t a fan of Eastbound & Down who wouldn’t want to meet Kenny Powers. In fact, the above video already has over 65,000 views on YouTube, which is the most views of any video on the K-Swiss page to date.
For more on the campaign from an advertising perspective, be sure to check out this article from MediaPost’s Tanya Irwin.
Dirty Water: Over the weekend, UNICEF kicked off World Water Week by placing a vending machine in Union Square stocked with “Dirty Water” to raise money and awareness about the unclean water that millions in developing nations drink. They bottled up “hepatitis,” “malaria,” and “typhoid” - to name a few - and tried to sell it on the streets.
3D TV: Samsung recently completed a projection mapping campaign in Amsterdam to promote their new 3D LED TVs. The chosen shapes (a hand, a cracked building) were projected onto a historic building in the city where it appears to have stopped onlookers in their tracks.
Dumpster Pool: The city will be placing dumpster pools on Park Ave between 40th and 41st this summer to cool things down for New Yorkers. The “pools” are coming from last summer’s invitation-only pool parties in Gowanus and will be available to anyone who waits in line for a bracelet.
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…if you check out NBCNewYork.com and answer some trivia questions for their Around Town Contest. According to Luxist, 500 lucky trivia winners will be given a cart location and a secret password to present at the cart, speakeasy-style, in exchange for their free lunch (cool!).
The campaign is to promote NBC New York’s new food site, Feast, which is set to launch this winter. Mmm, can’t wait.
When I logged into Twitter tonight, I was surprised by a little pop-up window telling me about Twitter’s new location-based trending topics feature and asking me to set my location. Right now, the feature is only available in five countries and 15 cities, but apparently Twitter is working on expanding that list.
So now I can see what people in New York City are twittering about, although it mostly just tells you what people are currently watching on television. Which I guess is sort of helpful for someone like me, who doesn’t have a TV? For instance, I know that most New Yorkers right now are watching a rerun of the Jersey Shore reunion on MTV, the Lifetime TV movie The Pregnancy Pact, Diary of a Mad Black Woman on BET, Kristin Kreuk making her TV comeback on Chuck,or someone named James Roday on WWE Raw. Who needs Nielsen when you’ve got Twitter?
However, I think the most interesting thing I learned is that there are a lot of NYC-area high-schoolers on Twitter who are apparently taking the Regents exams tomorrow. Sharpen those No. 2 pencils, kiddies!
Oh, Radian6…how you’ve fallen victim to the ploys of MTV’s latest garbage truck. Now visitors to MTV’s Jersey Shore site have just another way to see how “cool” the Jersey Shore cast is, through Radian6’s Twitter Tracker.
When I just tried to visit the site, it went black…obviously knowledgeable about the fact I would soon mock it. When Joe from PRNewserchecked, there were only 21 recent tweets about Snooki…I wonder if those were the same 21 people planning to attend Turtle Bay’s $1 Beer Wednesday’s with the Jersey Shore cast in NYC last night (yes, it’s shameful that I somehow got on that bar e-mail distribution list).
I hope Radian6 starts a Twitter Tracker for tweets solely about the absurdity of Jersey Shore. Maybe then, the heads of this ridiculous cast will finally explode and us actual NJ natives - who love our beautiful shore (not Seaside) - can have the last laugh.
If you Googled anything today, you might have noticed there’s a familiar blue monster with a sweet tooth chomping on the search bar! In honor of Sesame Street’s upcoming 40th anniversary, Google has dedicated its “Google Doodles” to characters from the show — rumor has it, there will be a different character adorning the Google logo each day until the actual anniversary on Tuesday. Yesterday it was Big Bird, and today it’s Cookie Monster. I hope Bert and Ernie are next — they were always my personal favorites!
