What’s In A Name?

You may be familiar with some of the buzz surrounding a recent article in the NY Times about the GM executives requesting that their employees stop referring to the Chevrolet brand as Chevy.  The executives want “consistency” for the brand.  Consistency? Really?  Hasn’t the Chevy brand been consistent throughout the decades?

Well, the brouhaha quickly caught fire and spread throughout the digital universe.  Here is a cool widget that lets you see what people are talking… er, tweeting about the most – Tweetcloud. Type in anything, and it will show you by size and b oldness, what words are being tweeted the most.   This is what the Tweetcloud looks like for Chevy Name:

Click on one of the words in the cloud, and it will bring you to the list of tweets about that word.  I found a plethora of tweets surrounding the name controversy.  And because twitter (and facebook) have so many followers, within hours, everyone was in the know and voicing their opinions.   Although the memo was internal and for GM employees only to refer to Chevrolet and not Chevy, GM decided to backtrack and allow the nickname to be used.  What a relief, because I saw a commercial over the weekend for Chevrolet, and at the end of the commercial, plastered on the screen was:  www.chevy.com. (and they wanted to stop using Chevy, really?)

In another interesting naming debacle, the 6-year old Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa, FL now has a new name: 1-800-ASK-GARY Amphitheatre.  What? (Just try saying it a couple of times… it doesn’t exactly flow off the tongue)  For those who may not know the company, look it up.  (No free brand promotion from me)  I know that all my friends have commented about this on Facebook and the Tweetcloud pretty much says it all with highly repeated words like “joke” and “worst”.   I thought it really was a joke when I first read it, and I had to think for a moment, “Is it April Fool’s Day?”.

Social media shows its strength when it comes to voicing the opinions of consumers in large, audible numbers.  GM recognized this very quickly and took immediate action.  They could have potentially lost customers had they not taken action.  In the case of the amphitheatre though, the name was for sale to the highest bidder. No matter how strong the opinions are, money still talks loudest, and he who has the most gets the naming right, no matter how silly it may look or sound.

Is There An App For That?

How much does influence does digital media have on our decisions?

I’m in the market for a new phone.  Now really, I don’t need a new phone, but  mine is nearing its 2 year mark, and in the tech world, that is almost ancient.  I’m also considering changing carriers… because I’m getting tired of holding out until my current provider carries the crème de la crème… drum roll please… the iPhone.  What fancy does the iPhone hold for me?  Well, there’s an app for that… lots of them to be exact.  You can do virtually anything with an iPhone.    Compass, book reader, media player, GPS system, gaming device, and much more.  Oh yeah, and you can use it as a phone too!

Ah, but the attention span is short in the digital world.  There is always something new and interesting around the corner.  Take a look at Sprint and their upcoming 4G network with the new HTC Android phone (jeesh, I never even used the 3G network!).  Just look at their website – it makes me dizzy (pun intended) with excitement about the endless applications available.  And it contains a cool GPS feature powered by Google.

But wait… hold the presses… the NFL is dumping Sprint and is switching to Verizon Wireless. What??  Well, this changes things.  I happen to big a pretty big football fan, and often get caught in places where I can’t watch my beloved NE Patriots (and the dreamy Tom Brady), so when I read this about the NFL, well, I started to look at Verizon again.  Hmmm… they offer the Droid phone too… ah, decisions, decisions.

So, what is the driving factor that will help in the decision making?   Leaving price aside as an influencer, I think the driving factor is all about features.   While I love the iPhone features and all the apps, the Droid is not far behind in content, and contains features that the iPhone does not.    Still, the decision process isn’t easy or quick.  Sigh,  I just wish there was an app for that!

Disasters and Digital Media – help or hype?

I took my first look at the streaming video of the oil gushing out of the broken BP Oil well today.   I was sickened.

There looks to be four separate leaks – and they are all spewing thousands of gallons of oil per day. This is day number 36 it is likely that more than 30 million gallons of oil have leaked into the ocean thus far.  How do I know all this?  Because I am tracking it daily online and on Facebook.  The EPA has a site with helpful, albeit some disturbing, information.

I was never this informed, or disgusted and shocked, when the Exxon Valdez tanker ran aground and spilled 11 million gallons of oil into Alaska’s Prince William Sound in March of 1989.  Oh it was in the news on TV and in the papers, but the impact was not nearly as immediate as it is in today’s digitally connected world.

In doing searches on both the Exxon Valdez spill and the BP oil spill, it was amazing to see the plethora of websites, blogs, videos, news reports and links, and comments world-wide versus the rather limited information about the 1989 incident when the world wasn’t wired as it is today.

But with all this information being thrown at us in this digital world, does it help enable us to take action?  In some instances, yes. I do believe many more people have been reached and have responded and helped in this crisis due to the influences of digital media, but I also think that it may be too much information overload and people may become numb to it and tune out before the crisis is or can be resolved.

Another detriment to digital media in a crisis is that the company, in this case BP, needs to spend as much or more effort into PR damage control as they are in trying to stop the leak. (which, if you believe a lot of what you read, doesn’t seem like a lot – in my opinion)

I do hope that for the sake of our little blue planet, that this age of digital media will prove to be more help than hype.

Digital Media 1.0 – What is it and how does it affect us?

Hello everyone! I’m Vaynat (…. Tanya V… get it?)

I am starting this blog to talk about emerging media technologies, what they are and where they came from, and how they affect us in our daily lives. I’m going to look at these new media technologies from both a consumer and a marketer perspective. I hope to help educate you along the way, and I encourage feedback that will help me as well.

To start, what is Digital Media 1.0? Well, all these “new” and “emerging” media technologies aren’t going to stay “new” and “emerging” forever (there are probably new technologies in the work right now that will trump these in the near future), so it makes sense to group these media into an easily identifiable group that differentiates itself from “traditional” media (print ads, newspapers, TV, direct mail) and also alludes to the fact that this media technology is still growing and evolving and that there will be different versions of Digital Media to come. Types of media included in Digital Media 1.0 include Web sites, social networks, blogs, video streaming, banner ads, pop-up and pop-under ads, location based advertising via blue tooth technology, video advertising, in-game advertising, and mobile and on-line adverting. In short, all first and second generation digital based advertising media that engages and interacts with the consumer.

So how has this new media affected my life? When I stop to think about it, it is pretty amazing how far technology has come. I remember when we switched from standard TV and rabbit ears to the “brand new” cable TV – complete with a rather large, cumbersome cable box that had about 10 channels (instead of the 4 channels and the grainy “UHF” stations you could sometimes get if you stood next to the TV, holding the antenna with one hand while doing your best imitation of Stretch Armstrong towards the window hoping to get a clearer picture). Ah, the days. I also recall going off to college with my brand spankin’ new Smith Corona Electric Typewriter! I was so excited – until I found out that one of my roommates had a new-fangled word processor with a dot-matrix printer!

Today we have hundreds of cable channels (and TiVo in case we can’t watch all those channels at once and also HULU in case your TiVo can’t catch it all), and does anyone use typewriters any more? I actually had to write letters to my parents while I was in college – we did not have the internet. Thank goodness, because with the speed of the early internet, my parents probably would have received the mailed letter faster. Now you can share huge files quicker than the blink of an eye.

So with all this technology and new media, why should you care? New technology has had a major impact in every aspect of life in roughly past quarter of a century and certainly affects how we choose to get our information. We can now stay connected with friends all over the world by web cam, and it is cheaper than an old fashioned phone call! With Digital Media 1.0, marketers have new ways to engage and start dialogues with potential customers, while we as consumers have more opportunities to pick and choose which companies’ media we respond to.

I wonder what will be next?