Heidi Klum Follows Through on Her Promise

On the season finale of Project Runway, Heidi Klum promised Michael Kors that she would wear Mondo's bubble dress, and did she ever.  She rocked the floor-length dress at a Los Angeles screening of "Black Swan," during the closing night of the American Film Institute's AFI Fest 2010. The NY Daily News has the details... 

Once a loyal Hulu watcher of Project Runway, I'm so over it.  My love for the show will never be the same since Michael Kors stole what should have been Mondo's win and gave it to that simpering woman who's name I can't even remember.   I just remember her whining.  And simpering.  And Mondo's brilliant designs.

Hello: Why do you think they call them clippers?

Deals.com has just released a study on couponing behavior and  guess who uses coupons the most?

"The study of 8,500 consumers, conducted by MyType, found that the people most likely to use online coupons include six-figure income earners, the highly educated, the highly imaginative, extroverts, and those who value social responsibility and the environment."

This confirms what Harris found in a couponing study published this spring:  Here is the Deals.coms profile of coupon lovers and haters.  You can read the full report here

Profile of a coupon "lover":

• People with household incomes in excess of $100,000 per year are roughly two times more likely to be coupon lovers.
• People who score as extraverted and imaginative on a standard psychological assessment of personality are respectively 47% and 25% more likely than others to favor online coupons.
• Women are 67% more likely than men to be coupon lovers.
• People who consider the environment of utmost importance are 37% more likely to be coupon lovers than those who are less concerned about the environment.
• College-educated people are 78% more likely than the non-college educated to be coupon lovers.
• Parents are 48% more likely than non-parents to be coupon lovers.
• Northeasterners are 66% more likely than West Coasters to be coupon lovers.
• Coupon lovers are 220% more likely than avoiders to highly value tradition, and 96% more likely to highly value self-direction.
• People who identify social responsibility as the most important element of a good work culture stand out as 151% more likely to be coupon lovers than avoiders.
• Devoutly religious people are 31% more likely to be coupon lovers and substantially less likely to be coupon avoiders.
• Libertarians are 47% more likely to be online coupon users.

Profile of a coupon "avoider":

• People who score as insecure or temperamental on a standard psychological assessment of personality are 33% more likely to be avoiders.
• Detached, sophisticated, careless and procrastinating people are also each at least 20% more likely to be coupon abstainers.
• Men are 27% more likely to be coupon abstainers.
• Insecure, low-income men are the quintessential coupon abstainers, being 130% more likely to avoid online coupons. Though they have household incomes of less than $50,000 per year, they are only a fifth as likely as others to be coupon lovers.

How to Calculate the Value of Facebook Fans

Many marketers have assumed that a Facebook fans is of value, but now a company called Syncapse has put a number on it.  Somewhere about $136 give or take the change.  How did they get to this number? To quote the Syncapse report:

• "The Syncapse model utilizes key research Findings
  across all five measured variables, specifically
  (1) Product Spending, (2) Brand Loyalty,
  (3) Propensity to Recommend, (4) Brand Affnity and
  (5) Earned Media Value. Averages and participation
  rates across multiple Facebook programs were
  then assigned based on Syncapse SocialTRAC™
  databases. It is important to note these values are not
  a simple reflection of Facebook marketing efforts and
  engagements. They are complex calculations that
  look to understand differences in audience values
  and declared spend levels."

To read the full report click here


Many thanks to blogger Jeff Bullas for bringing us info about the value of a facebook fan.  You can read his post. 

Shrinklet: The Great Gatsby and the Seven Deadly Sins

NaNoWriMo has taught me a lot. After just two days of writing and 14 days of procrastinating,  I've decided that the novel just isn't my medium...  I'm more of a shrinklet kind of girl.   So, to celebrate all this self knowledge, the Institute for Really Bad Poetry brings you this bitsy bite of literary analysis that's almost in iambic pentameter to show you the wonderful link between F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic The Great Gatsby and Catholic Church's Seven Deadly Sins.  Have at it all you high school essay writers.  And remember to give credit where credit is due (or the internet plagiarism police will catch you).

Gastby's love for Daisy
(A silly little bubble)
Is almost pure and unrequited
But leads to a mess of trouble

In a big misunderstanding
Gatsby gives his life
A Nouveau riche takes the bullet
For a bully who screwed someone's wife -- and his wife who takes the gal's life.
(wrath and lust)



Bully Tom and his wife frothy Daisy
Have never worked or paid
Nothing for them has consequence
And everything's just a game
(greed)

These socialites Gatsby worships
Don't have anything useful to do
They lounge in airy rooms all day
Play golf and party too
(sloth)

Daisy lives far above Gatsby's class
So he constructs the ultimate fake
He creates an illusion around himself
But he's really on the take
(envy)

Gatsby hosts elaborate parties
His dream is a trap that binds him
He's the ultimate dweeb with no real friends
When all he wants is for Daisy to find him
(pride)

To pay for his transformation
Gatsby does business deals for mobsters
He sells illegal liquor
So the rich can have wine with their lobsters
(gluttony)

Gatsby's illusion works too well
And while Tom is off with his mistress
Daisy dallies with Gatsby and makes useless plans
and then comes the real nasty business

When all seven sins are accounted for
Daisy drives Gatsby's car into Tom's mistress
The mistress is dead
The poor spouse loses his head
And comes gunning for Gatsby with vengeance.

Nick, our trusted observer
All alone attends Gatsby's funeral
Daisy and Tom take an long trip
and give consequences the slip
They never take responsibility

So the lesson we learn is as follows
The idle rich have no scruples
So don't be their pupils
and don't screw with other people's spouses.

NaNoWriMo Day 4 of 30

We are at Day 4 of NaNoWriMo (see previous post).  1700 words a day seems daunting but with an army of helpful collaborators we can do it... for 10 people that's only 170 words a day... heck, I write that many words in emails.  If you would like to join the Palo Alto NaNoWriMo project click here for permission.  As soon as I get your request I'll let you in.

No Plot No Problem: A Novel by Dec. 1 in just 1,700 Words a Day

November is taking off with Dia de la Muerte leading the charge and The Festival of the Dead Turkey bringing up the rear. In between the feasts (and before the Christmas rush) we have stumbled upon NaNoWriMo or "National Novel Writing Month: 30 Days of Literary Abandon".

More than 170,000 writers have signed on to produce a novel before December 1, 2010.  Their goal is to write 1,700 words a day.  Their battle cry is "No Plot No Problem".  This pen wielding army of prose-a-tarians have already written more than 2 million words this year alone.

The NaNo organization, kind of like Team in Training, offers full support for this writing marathon, including a Procrastination Station featuring a page called Permission to Suck.

So pen warriors.  Take arms and start typing.  Join the battle and speak your mind in a Mes de la Pluma  if you will.

Public Relations is Dead and Other Thoughts About New Marketing Realities

Mark Twain never exactly said: "Reports of my death are greatly exaggerated"; what he probably did say was something like: "This report of my death was an exaggeration". (How great indeed is the need to tweak another man's prose).

While we are on the topic of deaths, real or exaggerated, and in observation of Dia de los Muertos, let's mourn the classic model for technology sector public relations.  This is the model best and most widely implemented by Regis McKenna Inc. and his many devotees.  If it's not exactly dead, it's on serious life support, just waiting for someone to trip over the cord.

If the RMI PR model is dying the cause is most likely complications related to old age.  Certainly technology has changed around us. As Marshall McLuhan observed so long ago: the medium is the message.  As the medium changes, the message changes, and so does the messenger. In the last 30 years the medium of communications has gone from paper publications to tweets in the blink of an eye. 

The "Mad Me" phenomena encapsulates the changes in our world in the glass jar of the 60s and 70s.  We can watch as the world changes around Don Draper (a fictional character within a fictional character) and feel safer as our world changes around us.  Let's have a martini with lunch today and remember the good old days.