Archive for February, 2009

27
Feb
09

Ten things you can do since you no longer work at the rocky mountain news

By Tracy Weise Leave a Comment
Categories: Ad Agency, Advertising, Journalism, Newspaper, PR and Uncategorized

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The Rocky Mountain News published its last paper today. What a profoundly sad day in Denver. Over the years, we have worked with many reporters and photographers from the News. They were easy going, professional and responsive. We will truly miss working with them.

But in every cloud there is a silver lining. And, personally, I am a person who often needs to be reminded of this when I get down. I appreciate my loved ones taking the time to point out the good things in life when I am brooding about the bad.

So I felt like we should pay it forward today and help our friends from the Rocky see their silver linings. If nothing else, we hope this brings you a smile.

Best of luck to you all. May you find fulfilling and wonderful jobs as you move forward.

Ten Things You Can Do Since You No Longer Work at the Rocky Mountain News.

1.    Have a cold beer. At noon.
2.    Let a PR person buy you the beer.
3.    Ski all week.
4.    Sign a petition – any petition.
5.    Enjoy that your in-box is no longer cluttered with 1,312 bad pitch emails daily.
6.    Take some time to recover from carpal tunnel syndrome
7.    Write a book about the great stories you never covered, but always wanted to.
8.    Read the Post (in public).
9.    Date a (former) co-worker (in public).
10.  Date a PR person.

Check out the Rocky Mountain News‘ fairwell video here.

26
Feb
09

Rocky Mountain News Closes Tomorrow

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Economy, Journalism, Marketing, Newspaper and PR

News out of Denver: The Rocky Mountain News, the 150-year-old newspaper, is closing its doors tomorrow. Clearly a sign of the economy, changes in advertising and the ongoing changes in PR.

Read the news from the paper itself.

25
Feb
09

Free Press Release Distribution Sites

By Beth Hardy 1 Comment
Categories: PR and Press Release
Justin McGill

Justin McGill

I ran across this great list of free press release distribution sites a while back and recently noticed that it’s been getting lots of props from the PR community on LinkedIn. We can thank Internet marketer Justin McGill for the list of approximately 73 free sites. I haven’t used any of them yet, but I have a few clients in mind that could certainly benefit from a no cost distribution service. Thanks, Justin!

24
Feb
09

Twitter Expanding, Improving

By Beth Hardy 2 Comments
Categories: Expanding and Twitter

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The phenomenon that is Twitter has received millions – $35 million that is.

aimgroup.com reported today that the social networking site received the money from four different venture capitalists and it will be used to expand and improve the service. The report goes on to say that Twitter is growing at an exceptional rate and active users have increased by 900 percent in one year.

It’s great to see a still young and growing service like Twitter do so well. We utilize it on almost a daily basis, and I’m sure we haven’t seen nearly all of what it’s capable of. I look forward to its evolution.

More can be read about this growth on the Twitter blog.

23
Feb
09

PHONE ADS RAISE THE BAR

By Tracy Weise Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Best of and Funny

T-Mobile and Boost Mobile have found a way to make their ads stand out in an oversaturated market. We thought we’d kick off the week with their refreshing bits of humor. Enjoy.

20
Feb
09

Ending the Cruel Practice of Ad Agencies

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: Ad Agency, Advertising, Satire and Twitter

A couple weeks ago, an interesting organization started following us on Twitter – People for the Ethical Treatment of Ideas (PETI). They say they are a “nonprofit protest organization committed to ending the cruel and murderous practices of advertising agencies.”

I would post one of their videos here, but they are all a little too vulgar for this blog. So you’ll just have to check them out for yourself.

PETI’s site is obviously satire, and Travis and I got a kick out of it. I especially liked “The PETI Guiding Principle” where they showcase “good” and “equally good” ideas with completely absurd comparisons, such as the “Donut” and “Donut Bracelet”, “Underwear” and “Outerwear”, and “Baby Sling” and “Baby Turban”.

If you’re in advertising, this site should give you a laugh. After all, we wouldn’t be good at our jobs if we couldn’t laugh at ourselves from time to time.

19
Feb
09

The Lottery That Will Save Your Life

By Tracy Weise Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Digital Media, Viral and Web sites

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I don’t know how I stumbled across this Web site but boy am I glad I did. The Institute for Human Continuity has initiated a lottery that “guarantees every citizen of this planet an equal chance of survival in 2012.”

OK, this is actually a promotional site for the upcoming movie, 2012, which plays out an end of the world scenario. For those of you who don’t know, the Mayan calendar either ends or rolls over (no one is sure) in 2012 and many believe the world will follow suit.

Regardless, this site is an amazing promotional piece. Not only do you get to enter the lottery that will “save your life” (read: keep you updated on the movie with some really cool promotional materials), but you also can play out many different scenarios and watch the earth be destroyed. You get to decide how close the comet will come, how hot the sun will get, and how much the planet will crack, and the simulation estimates casualties for you.

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Play the disaster scenarios here.

Now, I know we don’t usually go into movie sites on The Side Note, but this is viral at its best and a fantastic promotion for the movie. There are videos and tons of extra information to keep you engaged and to build the movie into something I hope it can live up to. Enjoy.

.

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18
Feb
09

Disney Places Product In Its Small World

By Tracy Weise Leave a Comment
Categories: Disney and Product Placement

Disney’s most famous attraction, It’s a Small World, has been retrofitted to include Disney characters throughout its different nations.

WalletPop posted an article yesterday and I have to say it shocked me. I went with my family to Disney World last summer and was amazed at how this ride, more than 20 years after I first went on it, was still able to humble me and make me think about the world’s different cultures. For ten minutes, I sat in silence and found myself in a Zen-like state.

Had I seen Pinocchio hanging from string inside one of Italy’s towers, I am sure the spell would have been broken.

Check out WalletPop’s full-length article, which includes a video of the updated ride. As for you, Disney, thanks for filling our small world with more of your product placement. Was the rest of the park just not big enough for you?

18
Feb
09

OpenZine Evolves the Blog

By Tracy Weise Leave a Comment
Categories: Blogs, Digital Media, New Media, Social Media and trends

As social media continues to evolve, OpenZine has found a new way to present the blog. OpenZine creates “a blog that groups your posts with a magazine style cover you design.” This lets you build themes through the use of issues, allowing bloggers the luxury of posting more content less often.

picture-1While I am enthralled by this idea, and loving all the nifty covers, I did find some room for improvement for this forward-thinking site. For instance, I would like to see the content that bloggers create uploaded into a page-flipping book so that I can flip the pages of a virtual magazine or popular underground zine. Not only would this add yet another layer to what OpenZine is trying to accomplish, but it would enhance the experiences of both the producers and the readers.

Regardless, OpenZine has done a great job expanding the blog, and I suspect this is the first step of many. The presentation of blogs will continue to progress along with the ideas of the bloggers. Let’s take it to the next level.

Have any of you used a platform like this?

Tomorrow on The Side Note: Enter a lottery that may save your life

17
Feb
09

Tweet Your Congressmen

By Beth Hardy 1 Comment
Categories: Congress and Twitter

picture-15I know. It sounds a little suggestive, but it’s totally legit. I promise!

According to www.TweetCongress.org:

“We believe transparent government is better government. Twitter enables real conversation between lawmakers and voters, in real time. Find your representatives in Congress, follow them and give them a tweet full!”

I checked out the site and was surprised by how many in Congress both are and aren’t on Twitter. I assumed that most were “old school” and not up on the social media tool, but many proved me wrong. Who knew John McCain knows how to use Twitter?

My senator, Mark Udall, is on Twitter – although he hasn’t Tweeted since November. Is yours?

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