Twitter and The Lana Del Rey Sandwich.

This is Lana Del Rey.

Internet sensation, American singer songwriter born 1986.
(Actually her name is Elizabeth Grant but then who'd ever have bought a Reg Dwight album).


So I got this message on Facebook following my blog, from a lady in Gorey in Wexford. 

That's small town Ireland, hardly LA, and although I say that with affection, what I mean is that it makes it more amazing.

Anyway, here is the Facebook post I got:
  
Hi - have been reading your 'world just changed' piece. It's interesting what you say about Twitter. Steve (my partner) was browsing the other day and saw a tweet about Lana Del Rey and her sister. He replied something along the lines 'wouldn't that make an interesting sandwich'. Over the following 2 weeks, this took on a life of it's own and now the 'Lana Del Rey' sandwich is being rolled out in restaurants in the States and Canada. Food for thought! Literally. Look it up. @TimothyHollywoodKhan or Clafouti Toronto.

So a bloke in Wexford tweeted that a Lana Del Rey would make a great name for a sandwich and what might be in it. Others suggested stuff too.


So I searched it to verify it.  And he did. 

Like I searched here  http://mynameiskhan.ca/tag/lana-del-rey-sandwich/  

and here.....

And everywhere and it is....everywhere.

Yep that's exactly what happened.


A chain of restaurants and Lana Del Rey picked up the idea and have rolled out The Lana Del Rey sandwich in Canada, LA and now, the States.

Steve in little old Wexford tweeted - and The Lana Del Rey sandwich was born in the US of A.

And that my friends, is clear.

Twitter becomes a Sandwich via Facebook to my Blog to you.

That's the power of Twitter.

That's the power of Social Media, Social Revolution.

Do not let them tell you otherwise.

LANA DEL REY SANDWICH

Chili Adobe crusted pork loin
Garlic lemon aioli
panella cheese
crispy onions
Vidal syrup
cilantro
Egg bun

Pinterest Pinteresting

Apart from the fact that this was by Stanley Kubrick in 1948 "Student at Columbia University" it's from the Pinterest.com/streamabout board.


Say anything to you? Like that I'm trying to impress you that I know who Stanley Kubrick is, but it's also beautiful.


The point is that it's not an Ad, it's a "get to know me" pic. In other words Pinterest is a social media platform that's different. 


Started in mid 2011 it now has 12 million users a month (from 'Comscore'). Not bad when we all thought the world didn't need more social media.


It began as housewives pinning ideas for interiors and fabric pics they liked and didn't like.
I know, I have one at home.


Then artists started selling their work.

Look at fashion guru Kate Spade pins. Or as fellow Streamabout fan Sarah calls a "window on her soul" and it's a simple, here's me, here's who I am. It's not her shop.It's her.


Pictures tell a thousand stories about people - what they like and you might relate to that - so you get to know the person you're doing business with. Better than a simple Google search (how 1970's is that?) Much better. Cool and creative ideas foster interaction.


Females account for 68% of users and 85% of activity again according to Comscore and The Beeb posting arts, fashion and recipes. But that'll change because it's addictive. Trust me.


Corporates are starting to get there too now.
Fashion blogger Christine Martinez the 4th most followed pinterest user in the world with nearly 1m followers is posting  on the fashion label 'Calypso' board, live a photoshoot.


Zuckerberg on Tuesday gave his seal of approval to 'Friendsheet' on Facebook, not a copy of pinterest I'm sure but very, emm, how do you say, "similar"? 


Lady Gagas site "Little Monsters" latches onto design elements of pinterest. Of course there's the newly launched sites "Pinspire", "Stylepin"......

So get pinning so people can get to know the real you.
pinterest.com/streamabout.


(Editor - the real you? put up a picture of a donkey then)

Newspapers. Difficult times?

I was talking to John (Jack) McGee yesterday of Irish Marketing Journal (IMJ) fame.

Now apart from the fact that Jack is a great guy, I have an affection for IMJ since it was started by my Dad as the house magazine for AFA Advertising. He called it 'Irish Marketing Journal' because he thought people might trust it and read it better than if it was called 'AFA Advertising news'. But another day.

(However, if you're looking for information on Irish Advertising go to to his adworld.ie)

Anyway, he mentioned that he had been talking to Liam Kavanagh CEO of The Irish Times whom I've met recently, about newspapers and their struggle with online. You've heard about the "immediate" decline of The New York Times I'm sure, for the past two years but no doubt, circulations are falling and directly in parallel, advertising revenues. 

Advertising money chases audience. So you sell less newspapers, you generate less advertising.

I love newspapers. Adore them, so I don't want to see anyone's demise + certainly not theirs.

Now it strikes me that traditional print organisations have been struggling because they simply reproduce or "reprint" their paper online. The problem with that is that it's free (and therefore bastardising offline revenues) and it's a cost without a revenue stream. So you do it because you think you should or in the hope of some banner ads.

Interesting too is that on Facebook, 12 of the 25 favoured newsfeeds had no offline presence ever and the 2nd highest rated news source after The BBC? The Huffington Post.

Interesting as well is that titles such as the very excellent 'Telegraph' are leaving news less prominent (although they've still news at their core) and becoming more of an 'entertainment' paper. News is costly to produce but cheap to view.

So I thought, if it was me, I would not simply re-publish the paper online as it is - because it's not capitalising the online capabilities. I'd use it as a shop.

So let's say, The Irish Independent has a story about the match on Saturday (click her to buy a ticket) or a music review (click her to download) or a new show (buy here) or a book launch (download an e book here) or any news story can be made interactive and generate revenue. Story about The Prime Minister making a statement (click here to download the full text) or Celebrity caught in compromising situation (click her to download the video). As well as generating cash it actually uses the online space far better and serves readers well.

It's doing exactly what the printed version can't.

Now those papers have huge and loyal readers who'll go to them online because they trust them. That's just the hook. The revenue then is in allowing them to go past the flat content and buy.

And the Ads? Make them interactive too and start selling results not space. A Suzuki Ad? Allow readers to click it for a brochure or to book a test drive and then charge Suzuki on that basis (cost-per-test-drive), not on a "here's hoping" flat rate space charge.

Or maybe stream them live? Hmmmm. (That's an Ad, sorry).

Buy a tweet.

Yep Lady Gaga. 20 million followers on twitter.


That's 8 million more than Barrack Obama (one of the Irish O'Bamas).
Or 20 million people who sought her out because they like her.


Dave McWilliams. Irish economist. 53,000 followers. Not that's more than the circulation of Irish national newspaper 'The Examiner' and growing. Good guy too.


If you paid Lady Gaga to tweet something good about your brand or even Dave locally, what would they charge because imagine what it would do? After all, the cost of them sending the Tweet is eh, zero.


If Gaga tweeted "I really like this handbag/drink/hotel" do you think you'd sell off it?
Are you kidding?


And more effectively than any traditional Ad campaign that I can think of.
And cheaper actually.


That's the power of social media. 

Lynx. Goodbye.

You'll have seen this.
The Lynx Effect Epidemic.


Newscaster in an almost Sky News Studio.


"It's an epidemic!" she reports.
Holds her earpiece to her ear (because a band somewhere did that) and yes...wait...breaking news!!


Over to our man on the steps of somewhere important with a French accent.
Actually he's in 'The EU' I kid you not.


"Yes!", he confirms "it's true!"


Now I feel I can comment on this because I worked on Lynx. It's Unilever by the way and it bothers me.


Bothers me?


Junk status.

Do Ad Agencies get Social Media? Nope

Yes indeed, fellow Admen, we're plonkers.

We don't get it, we just pretend we do.

And we hate hearing that.

Watch the video.

And then look who posted it.

Saatchis.

The quintessential Ad men.

They get it.

Why me?

www.streamabout.com

I spent a lifetime as CEO in Ad Agencies.

My Dad did too (Aubrey) and even my Mother (Anne).

Mostly, succesfully but some, well, let's just say, not so........

AFA Advertising, AFAO'Meara and then McConnells which was the largest Agency in Ireland probably from 1916 when it was founded until 2010.

Indeed. 

I am a Fellow of both The Advertising Institute (iapi) and Marketing Institute.

But I was also involved in online. Starting a domestic isp business (club internet) which became a European wide isp and floated in Nasdaq March 2000. The first bubble. I also started ICAN.

But now I'm back in the game with www.streamabout.com which is online live streaming of events - some small, some big. An A to Z business (filming to production) and in part, a Social media business.

We've done Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and even Pinterest but never had a blog. So now we have and I'm going to comment about digital and about advertising.

And I won't hold back.

Promise.