Need a pick-me-up? In a first-of-its-kind homepage takeover, Ritz Crackerfuls have “Cheesed Up” PerezHilton.com, allowing readers to interact with Perez’s posts in new, odd, cheesy ways.
Think Whitney would look more dignified in glasses? Maybe Lady Gaga should be a Viking? Using the palette beside the posts, readers can drag resizable stickers onto any photo. Like PerezHilton.com, Ritz Crackerfuls is a perfect quick, reenergizing, “cheesy” mid-day pick-me-up.
Even Perez himself, notoriously persnickety, is loving it:
Have you met baby Sophie Lee yet? She’s been making the rounds this week, starring in a heart-warming new spot for Google Chrome that is pulling the heartstrings of the technorati:
…it shows a father using Google products (all accessed through Chrome) to create a scrapbook of his daughter’s early years. Google says it’s based on a true story, although it used actors for the spot. Still, nicely done by Google Creative Lab and Bartle Bogle Hegarty.
With many computer owners not knowing they are even able to download a new browser for their machines, Google is hoping that the sentimental value of its campaign can increase visibility and ultimately downloads.
Google has a winner with it’s current ad for Chrome, as a Dad’s love and pride for his daughter is brilliantly expressed through the thoughtful and personal digital history he creates for her, leveraging Gmail and other Google products from within his Chrome browser.
Holy schnikes is this awesome. If you’re a parent, you will not be able to hold it together. Fine, fine stuff from Google. And that closing line, “the web is what you make of it” is terrific.
But little is being said about all the layers of technology between us and Baby Sophie. Clair Caine Miller of the New York Times reports that this is part of Google’s “the Web is what you make of it” campaign. But in this day of techno-ubiquity, doesn’t this prove that we are what the Web makes of us?
Advertisers continue to start their own Twitter trends with Blogads new “Tweet This” feature, which allows readers to update their Twitter status directly from the ad.
One of the earliest adopters of this new feature is publisher Simon & Schuster, who used tweetable Blogads to promote Bethenny Frankel’s new book, A Place of Yes. When blog readers clicked the “Tweet this” button at the bottom of the ads, they were given this recommended tweet:
The ad generated 292 tweets on top of 6700 clicks. Its success is due to a smart tweet that included a link to the book, the author’s Twitter handle, and the hook, “Get Your Happy On.”
Last month, the SUXORZ panel had some fun with Denny’s at Social Media Week. Denny’s, trying to get into the “Social Media” game, had printed the wrong Twitter address on its menus, sending customers to the page of a random guy in Tawain named Dennys.
It was an honest mistake. After all, Denny’s owns “Dennys” on Facebook and YouTube, and Dennys.com, so why wouldn’t they own the Twitter handle?
This year, Denny’s has turned a corner on the social web, making great strides towards ROXOR status. Their actual twitter account has almost 40x the followers of the guy in Taiwain, and this month has seen the launch of the awesome new web series “Always Open with David Koechner.”
In the videos, SNL alum David Koechner has extremely casual conversations with his comedian friends at a real-life Denny’s in L.A. The first two episodes have featured Sarah Silverman and Jason Bateman, whose production company, DumbDumb, co-created the series with Electus and NY agency Gotham. The spots really emphasize the comfort you feel in America’s Diner, where you can sit with a friend and be completely open — all night.
Distributed via College Humor, as well as Denny’s own social media pages, the spots, which are set to feature Will Arnett, Amy Poehler, and more, are getting lots of admiration from the ad industry.
And is it just me, or do these videos remind anyone else of the diner scenes in Seinfeld? To this day, tourists see that Upper West Side diner and say, “Hey, this is where George and Jerry ate!” Maybe kids will start showing up at this Denny’s in LA saying, “Hey, this is where Sarah Silverman made Dave Koechner uncomfortable! Let’s get some eggs!”
Steve Outing, critiquing animated ads: “As we observed in Eyetrack when we looked at website banner advertising, the typical amount of time that people spend looking at an ad is usually less than a second — when it’s viewed at all. It varies based on ad content, size, and placement, but even the biggest ads only got a second and a half of viewing time in our study.”
Great database of old advertising. Ads are the economy’s diary. And speaking of advertising, Time Out New York now has ads on our New York blogs. This is our first metro-specific order. Expect lots more.
