Such Sweet Sorrow in the Digital Age

In plays, audiences view the characters as separate from themselves. In Shakespeare’s plays, the characters are often separated from each other by circumstances, as in Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare also appears distant to current audiences by the separation of time. In a difficult economy, how to attract audiences by a distant drama? The Royal Shakespeare Company bridges the chasm between characters and audience by the tweeting of its characters in its current production of Romeo and Juliet. http://www.suchtweetsorrow.com/

The tweets of Romeo, Juliet and other personages propel them into the space and time of audiences today. The fact that they tweet contemporizes the brands of Shakespeare and the Royal Shakespeare Company. It demonstrates that the RSC knows social media, which should increase ticket sales to younger audiences. Other theater companies could take advantage of social media as an opportunity to use real time to revivify the unreal time of their productions. Imagine the tweets of Ranevskaya and Varya in Chekhov’s The Cherry Orchard. Audiences could learn that drama applies to their lives, no matter the era. They may even read Romeo and Juliet.

Baseball, Italian Style

“Clothes make the man,” said Mark Twain. However, the man makes the clothes in Canali’s recent strong branding campaign with Mariano Rivera, the New York Yankees pitcher. Rivera well supports the brand, since both represent understated elegance --Rivera in his pitching style, and Canali in its clothing style. http://tinyurl.com/2d5utk5

The celebrity and brand benefit from each other’s association. Often, athletes possess a personality which is different from the brand they endorse; the connection appears imposed. In this instance, the elegance of Canali increases the elegance of Rivera and vice versa. Canali’s brand now possesses an added verve. Its brand becomes more contemporary, yet still retains its refinement. Consumers will buy Canali clothing who aspire to have style and excel at their careers, like Mariano Rivera. Baseball and the New York Yankees could also become an interest for them, in order to see the stylish pitcher in action. The match is a win for both Canali and Rivera.

Social Media and Ballet

At a recent excellent performance of Alonzo King LINES Ballet (linesballet.org), music and dance joined together. Often at the ballet, one awaits the hushed, expectant pause before the conductor enters the orchestra pit. After the ballet begins, music serves the choreography, and one perceives it in the background while one focuses on the choreography. At the performance of LINES’ “Wheel in the Middle of the Field,” four singers from the San Francisco Opera Adler Fellows joined the dancers onstage, which eliminated the separation of music and dance.

This calls to mind the past separation of consumers from marketers and brands. Currently consumers would like to interact and converse with brands. The opera singers in this production represent consumers. They are on the same stage as brands in this production. They even interact, where one singer while seated comforts dancers individually. At times a singer stands at the front of the stage, with the dancers in the background. At times the singers dance. Roles are reversed, as consumers would like. They now prefer to interact with brands in conversations in social media, create products through crowdsourcing (e.g. vitaminwater) and their own commercials. How will your brand join the dance?

How Twitter Could Become Profitable

What's in a tweet? A $1 billion valuation of Twitter (Financial Times, September 25, 2009 http://tinyurl.com/yzye8tb), a company which is not yet profitable. The company is not managing itself to become profitable, nor managing its brand to control its image and build its brand. Twitter's business is content management. The company needs to emphasize its knowledge of content management and social media, which could be done through conferences, partnerships and a social media agency. Then it could become profitable.

Due to the novelty of social media, many in the advertising industry are unfamiliar with how to utilize social media for their clients and in advertising campaigns. Thus they seek advice from others in the industry by asking questions and attending conferences. Twitter could utilize its brand to organize paid conferences at which some of its successful users could speak, and teach marketers what they know about social media.

Twitter could streamline its applications and partnerships. The many Twitter applications, with Twitter or tweet in the title, dilute the brand, since the consumer does not know which are authorized by Twitter. The company could partner with one of the popular applications for disseminating content, for example, TweetDeck. Twitter would recognize TweetDeck as its official content management tool. In exchange, it could partner with TweetDeck to receive a percentage of TweetDeck's advertising revenue.

To become profitable, Twitter could start a social media agency business and manage companies' content for marketing, since it already manages content for companies and individuals. This business would build on its current operations by adding a revenue component. It is a natural extension of its business which would also strengthen its brand.

Conferences, partnerships and a social media agency: possibilities for Twitter to make its tweets financially viable.

Are The Shack Ads Effective?

Background
RadioShack launches new commercials in conjunction with their re-branding.

Problem
To learn the effectiveness of the RadioShack commercials

Methodology
Interview consumers on the street who have seen the commercials
Stand near Union Square, San Francisco, a busy shopping area with many pedestrians
Problem: many tourists who had not seen the commercials

Change in Methodology
Target of commercials: cellphone users
Find them: stand outside AT&T cellphone store at a busy intersection, Market & 3rd Streets - success!

Process
Consumers need to have seen the commercials, agree to sign waiver and agree to be filmed
Not easy to satisfy all 3 requirements, but through persistence over the course of 3 days, achieved

Results
Interviews show that consumers understand RadioShack's re-branding and new direction
Interesting finding - negativity about the name change, which should be monitored re: the brand's image
Focus on cellphone customers should not ignore RadioShack's other customers; RadioShack offers many other products besides cellphones