Archive for the Trivial category
Where Did the Chevy Apprentice Sites Go? Chevrolet Caves!
by Rio Flores on May 8th, 2006
In spite of the claimed positive results, it would appear the Chevy caved into the pressures of all the negative PR they were getting from there Make Your Own Ad Contest. The websites www.chevyapprentice.com and www.tahoeapprentice.com are no longer online and both URLs redirect you to http://www.chevrolet.com/tahoe/. Searching Chevorlet.com for “contest” or “apprentice” yields zero results.
If I were Chevrolet’s director of PR, I would have strongly recommended against it. The move will only serve to embolden their critics.
FireFox Optimization Download: Search & Translate From Your Address Bar
by Rio Flores on May 4th, 2006
If you’re not familiar with Firefox’s keyword search capability, it’s a great way to efficiently search the web without having to scroll through search plug-in in the search bar. Downloading this set of 140+ keywords will allow you to translate and search directly from your address bar. The keywords use simple two letter acronyms for most major search engines. So if you wanted to search digg.com for youtube you could type “di youtube.”
The keyword set also has easy access to translations via Google. If you wanted to translate por que from Spanish to English, you might type “esen por que.” If you wanted to translate a URL from Spanish to English, you could type “esenu www.example.com.”
Download Unavailable at this time.
Before & After video of the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake
by Rio Flores on April 20th, 2006
Marking the Centennial of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, we can take a look at some before and after video of the quake (article here). As describe on Salon.com: “In the first reel, we see an early, bustling San Francisco in the early part of the 20th Century; cars, cable cars and horse-drawn buggies jockey for position as the camera moves East down Market Street. Then we take another trip down Market Street — a faster, more manic one — shortly after the 1906 quake.”
Then & Now - An Awesome Flickr Photo Pool
by Rio Flores on March 23rd, 2006
It’s always so fascinating to see how places change over time. This is an awesome photo pool to very dramatically see that process in action! It’s basically a collection of historical photos matched with photos from current times. Especially history fans, I’m sure this would be worth exploring.
Great Romanian Ad Poking Fun of Bush!
by Rio Flores on March 22nd, 2006
I had to post this great ad from Anima Pro, a Romanian association for lost animals. Originally posted on adverblog, the copy says: “A dog loves you the way you are. Adopt one.”
I just thought this was hilarious!
Win Friends & Influence People Update
by Rio Flores on January 17th, 2006
Five days after launch, traffic to my summary of Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People is starting to trickle down. While a few people charged me with teaching others how to be manipulative, most comments have been overwhelmingly positive.
As a viral marketing experiment…
Unfortunately, Awstats - my tracking platform - wasn’t set up properly and my reported 24,000 visits and 50,000 page views may be entirely inaccurate. Eager to gauge the success of my viral marketing experiment, I ran over to Alexa and was astonished by how well I was able to attract traffic!
At peak, I had a ranking of approximately 18,200! As I was checking out agencies to apply to in NYC, I found my rank, reach and page views for the past few days has surprised that of ad campaigns promoted on their respective homepages. While brief, my peak far exceeded that generated by well-funded, recent promotional work for sierramist.com, novartis.com, lenscrafters.com, Guinness, history.com and Aqua Fina! These are all easily multi-million dollar ad campaigns! I spent a few weeks and $20!
The best comparison I could find – graph below - was from CP+B – currently the hottest agency in the ad world right now. One year ago, they initiated a viral campaign initiative to drive traffic to comeclean.com. While brief, my $20 of funding gave me a peak that slightly surpassed their efforts. Based on almost no information, I would suspect that the creative development alone cost (Fee + out of pocket) a minimum of $200k, but I’d speculate the total effort consumed approximately $3MM+. The blue line represents my peak. Click the image to see a larger, more current graph at www.alexa.com.
I should also add that their measuring success far differently and navigating consumer perception and behavior constraints that wouldn’t apply to my little experiment. Still, both my site and CP+B’s are essentially gimmicks to drive “word-of-mouth” traffic.
The Best Time to get a Hair Cut
by Rio Flores on July 23rd, 2005
Having just gotten my hair cut after it was well past due, I realized that this is the best time to get a haircut. People notice the immediate improvement in appearance, while they will only minimally notice moderately overgrown hair. The short term aesthetic boost is a bonus in an industry (advertising) where appearance is paramount.