Re-branding to BORING.

Taking the fun out of the Internet isn't really all that much fun....

Ebay, the auction giant and PayPal pusher, has decided to re-brand their Kijiji classified site to ebayclassifieds.com

and all I can think of is.... barf, how boring!

The success of Google has sometimes been attributed to its funny, goofy and random name. The name "google", as far as I know was made up as something that was fun and people wouldn't know. Of course now it's a verb and a noun and adjective and.... you get the idea, its fun.

Ebay claims that though Canadians love the Kijiji site, it wasn't catching on in the US - and so they decided to dumb it down to Who made it: ebay and what is it for: classifieds.

Here is the GlobeandMail article.

PS the name Kijiji comes from:
The word "kijiji" (pronounced like key-gee-gee) means "village" in Swahili. This name was chosen because it captures the essence of what we are creating - a site where people can connect with others in their local community.

It's no accident: If you look down at your keyboard you'll noticed that the letters k, i and j are located next to each other. So you see, it's all about local for us.

PPS. apparently Google comes from Googol
1 googol = 10100 = 10, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000
It is equal to ten duotrigintillion and a hundredth of a tretrigintillion.

YIKES!! Check out the explanation here.

Teaching Americans through viral and social media networking!

Talk about a promotional piece for Canada!

Tom Brokaw's segment on the Canadian-American relationship made my patriotic heart swell and taught me a few things.

It's also felt a little like a Tourism Canada commercial for Americans. However, for all the flack we give Americans for not knowing anything about their neighbours to the north (think of Rick Mercer's amazing portrayal of "Talk with American") this might've actually helped create a much more constructive way of teaching Americans about Canada - mind you they would have to actually SEE the spot to learn

I think this Tom fellow has a heart-on for Canada, even at the very end he makes an incredibly poignant comment about the economic stability of Canada... that might've stung the American's a little.

In the air of being patriotic, I would suggest that everyone post this youtube link to their facebook and share it around to everyone they know - maybe we can Americans to better understand of Canada through a little viral, social media networking!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYoTJItSPt0

Super Bowl 2010 Ads: WIN and FAIL

Ahhhh the Super Bowl. Where diehard football fans and advertisers meet up for chips, beer and big screen entertainment.

I realized, if you have the right mix of people, there should never be a bathroom break line - the people into the game go at ads and the people in to the ads go at the game. Genius.

I would be going during the ads.... if Canada got the super fun US ads. Thank goodness for the interweb, where I can spend the better part of my Monday morning watching all the US ads that we miss north of the 49th parallel (it also means I can take a "break" whenever I want without fear of missing something). Check out all the ads HERE.

On to the ads. I have posted what is, in my opinion, the BEST and the WORST.

The BEST: Google.

Watching this spot incited such an emotional reaction that I felt like I was at the end of a well written romance. Google hit the nail on the head with a simplistic love story. The spot showed the capabilities of Google, a search engine, while telling an increadible tale of a man moving to Paris, learning the language, falling in love, getting married and having a baby with just their search field. They even captured common spelling mistakes and the ability of Google to still understand what you meant. A story in 30secs, without a face, name or verbal dialogue.

This is the kind of spot I dream of making.

The WORST. Watch the spot and you'll understand. They've spent millions of dollars on an ad that is pointless and tries way too hard to be funny. Crappy ad + wannabe funny = FAIL.

Imagine a world where the hot "spot" is the size of a city

Imagine the whole city as a hot spot. That would be pretty great right? Sitting on a park bench reading the paper online or stuck at Davisville station in the morning streaming online video.

Seems like a pretty good idea but will it happen?

Well, sitting at home watching TBS... I mean PeachTree... I caught one of the many Atlanta area ads but this time, instead of catching one of the irritating college ads to study at home and earn a degree - it's so easy!... this time i caught one for clear.com

Boasting super fast internet access in approximately 9 states, clear offers consumers internet everywhere based on data usage. Clear states "With CLEAR 4G WiMAX, you'll always get crisp, super fast mobile internet, regardless of where you are in the coverage area."

I have to admit, I am not an expert on this kind of technology, but it seems like it is similar to smart phones that access the internet... payment is based on a data plan/usage and the service (4G) is just a little jacked up.

How long until Canadian major markets get this and who is going to do it? Rogers with the largest, fastest network? It'll be interesting to see how this develops....

Here is the ad I saw:

Athletes as brands and selling them.....

Steve Nash the basketball star, Canadian and brand?

A great (but long) article posted on the Canadian marketing website, Marketing Mag.ca explains the evolution of athletes from brand promoters to brands themselves. Not very long ago Michael Jordan was just breaking through creating the Air Jordan brand with Nike.

Now athletes are brands themselves. Steve Nash is one of the most viral of these brands and is successfully leveraging his celebrity, awkward humour and viral videos to really make a breakthrough impact which is doing a great job at creating an image for himself and the products he promotes. Professional salaries are rising and so are the sponsorship stakes... not to mention the egos, yet somehow Mr. Nash is managing to keep it lighthearted.


Check out the full article here

Here are some of the Steve Nash videos. Two are for Vitamin Water and another is just fun:

"Web 2.0 way to get your vitamins" (Shamwow/SlapChop Parody with 50 Cent)


"I've been hired, naturally...." (Parody of the Office)


(Step Brothers Parody)


The Steve Nash brand is fun, entertaining and in good taste. It'll be interesting to see how athletes promote themselves after the success of Mr. Nash and his kinda awkward videos. Check out the article above for a deeper insight and other expamples of athletes promoting their brand.

This little piggie waited in a big long line!

Perhaps the scariest thing this Halloween won't be the darkened alley's, costumes, the amount of candy you'll end up eating or even well crafted Halloween Haunts but another H word..... H1N1. AKA swine flu.

I'm sure companies like Kleenex and especially Purell are going to do extremely well this fall and winter. Purell even has a "Swine Flu" button in it's home page:
http://www.purell.com/index.jhtml

The news is everywhere, panic is setting in and opinions are flying about what to do about the looming epidemic. Parents are refusing Halloween for their kids, business people won't shake hands and line-ups for the flu vaccine are literally around the block as people line up to get stabbed with the needle of "protection".


( The Globe and Mail, 2009)

Governments are also doing what they can to spread a more ubiquitous prevention tactic - proper cleanliness. Communication include techniques include coughing into something (tissue or sleeve) and wash your hands properly (I'm completely disgusted at the amount of people who think running their hands under water is cleaning... try some soap next time).

However, who is getting their message heard and who is being tuned out?

The British have done a much better job (in my opinion) at getting the attention of viewer. Their tactic BIN IT. KILL IT. Memorable and effective. Living in Canada I'm not even sure what their approach has been and had to research it.

The Globe and Mail summarized it the spot as: "featuring a racially diverse array of Canadians behaving cautiously and properly: a mother and daughter washing their hands together, an office worker squirting an alcohol-based sanitizer into his hand, a woman at lunch sneezing into her arm, a man spraying disinfectant on the door handle of his fridge, and a miserable-looking fellow laid out on the couch blowing his nose into a tissue." .... YAWN.

Check out these spots and let me know what you think:

BRITISH (April 2009)


BRITISH (October 2009)
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1847321790?bctid=46291688001

US (August 2009) - Center for Disease Control Contest Winner


CANADA (2008) - only one I could find to share