Adventures in Candyland

Since this is my first post, let me start by introducing myself…consider me the “client concierge” at Sweet Talk, handling lots of details for our clients’ projects. 

I’ve been thinking about some of the tools we’re always using for our projects, and of course the first one I thought of was our Pantone book.  We can’t be without it when working on branding, websites, collateral, etc.  But not everyone has a Pantone book, so then I remembered that I thought we should share one of our fave sites with you - Colour Lovers.  This is a great site for a little inspiration, and a good place to find color combos and palettes you’ve never even thought of before!

On the same note, last week was Fashion Week in NYC and WWD directed us to Pantone’s Fashion Color Report Fall 2008.   Sweet Talk is lovin’ the Ochre!

Always fun to play with colors and brighten up the day.

Today I worked with Soul’s Calling at the Los Angeles Gift Show. And here’ s my observation — very few companies think anything or even understand what a brand is and how portraying it with thought is meaningful to buyers, writers and consumers. When you are thoughtful about creating a pleasing poignant environment that aligns with the messages and products you are pushing out - the result is something so strong that people react and respond to it even if they’re not conscious of it. But, it should be very consciously developed by the company. Some brands do, and for me, I am automatically attracted to those brands. But, overwhelmingly and shockingly (though maybe it shouldn’t be), only about 10 percent of the company’s exhibiting made their brand a focus. For the rest, they just throw a bunch of stuff together in a booth. Here’s a shot of the Soul’s Calling booth - it’s an example of how someone puts a lot of effort into creating a booth that spreads her message and makes you feel a certain way when you step across the boundry into the brand’s world. She even had a booth scent….It’s time for every company to be thoughtful and take it up a whole bunch of notches.

So, even though it’s 2008 (where has the time gone?!) I am going to sound very early ’90s right now. Here goes…The Internet is the coolest invention ever!!! I think most people hold that belief in some form, but now we take it for granted as it has become so embedded in almost every society and we’ve already even moved past it in its purest sense. But truly, it allows for such amazing information sharing that sometimes I just get newly excited by its concept. I think we should take a second to remember how hard it was to get information before we had this unbelievable global source available to us 24 hours a day. Of course, some people may believe that this has created a societal decline in a number of ways, mais pas moi.

Anyway - I only bring this up because today, I became overly enthused by three things I bumped into.

1) I have always loved metromint water - so refreshing - been buying it at Whole Foods since the first day I saw it (along with my favority energy drink, Inkos White Tea - so good!). Yes, it’s only spearmint and water and , yes, I could make it on my own or drink it hot (Isreali-style), but of course I often choose the convenience path and pay the price. During the last few years, they have extended their product line with peppermint, orange and lemon, but OMG - I have no idea what to say about this next iteration. If you know me or even read my yelp reviews, you might realize I have a strong predilection for chocolate and mint, together that is — since I was a little girl. To me it’s one of the most refreshing and luscious pairings. Today, I come to find out that MetroMint is launching ChocolateMint water. Yes, chocolate water may sound a little scary, but I’ll be trying it as soon as I can get my hands on it at my mecca, Whole Foods. I mean no sugar, no preservatives, no CALORIES - this is January 3rd - so I will take my dessert calorie-free thank you - at least for this month that is (well, let’s be honest, maybe this week).

2) Okay, along the same vein, if you like food, if you like cooking, if you like pairing flavors, but sometimes you feel like you don’t know what would compliment what, you must check out Foodpairing. Yes, we all know that gruyere is phenomenal in potatoes, but did you know it also can pair with licorice? Not being trained at le Cordon Bleu shouldn’t prevent you from trying unique flavor combinations for friends and family, but it also might be good to have a the pizza menu handy — sometimes experimenting with weird stuff can end up, well, weird, so it’s a good idea to have a back-up plan. In any case, I think this is so cool and I will definitely be a frequent visitor here.

3)Now, this one doesn’t have to do with food (I know, shock), but it does have to do with two of my other obsessions - Japanese minimalism and architecture. Toyo Ito is one of my most favorite architects and Sendai Mediateque is such a unique and breathtaking structure. I can’t wait till the day when I get to experience it in person. Here is my newest fave -Kengo Kuma. Check out the Lotus House…..amazing.

See why I love the Internet.

Update..got to add one more - this one from Danielle, but I had to include it as belongs in the same Asian modern minimalism/nature category as the above, is beautifully subtle yet exquisite and one of the collaborators is another amazing Japanese architect, Tadao Ando. Check it out…

I’ve been in the PR world for about ten years now, so I’ve learned and I think most people know it can be a tricky industry. For ages, agencies have charged their clients monthly retainers whether or not they pulled publicity that month. And many times, it’s not for lack of trying, often the story just doesn’t resonate with any writers. So there’s always this wierd struggle between clients and agencies. A client pays the agency to get publicity. The agency chooses an account person or team to work to get the publicity. The account person spends time researching, writing, pitching and then nothing happens. But, the client is still expected to pay the monthly retainer. And the agency still has to pay the account person. It’s definitely a dilemma. But, there does seem to be a shift occuring and frankly, I’m not sure what my opinion is on the topic — well, maybe I am.

Today’s WSJ featured a piece called, “Paying for PR — But Only When it Works.” It’s all about this semi-new trend of pay-per-placement PR, particularly in the small business arena. So, instead of hiring a agency or even consultant on retainer, a client would provide a story angle to a pr consultant or an agency who only focuses on pay-per-placement pitching and they would only get paid if the story got covered. In theory, it forces pr people to work extra hard and more strategically to get the placement. But, as much as I understand it, I think the business model is short-sighted (for the business being pitched) and unfortunately, a bit unfair(for the person doing the pitching).

Now, I completely understand and empathize with business owners who put a significant monthly retainer towards public relations and then barely have anything to show for it. There’s no doubt that this kind of agreement has the propensity to leave a bad taste in someone’s mouth as well as give public relations and it’s practioners a bad name (what doesn’t these days). And for agencies, yah, you might have made $60,000, but you’re usually left with a fractured relationship and bad word of mouth.

So, is there a middle ground? I think there is. Here at Sweet Talk, we always begin a business relationship by focusing on the overarching marketing goals of the business by developing a comprehensive marketing strategy plan. And strategy doesn’t exist on PR alone. And PR doesn’t exist on media alone. Today all the marketing rules have changed which is why marketing should start at the 10,000 foot level and then move downward. Many small businesses don’t see this or if they do, they don’t have the time or staff to do it- they might believe one piece of good PR is going to create an deluge of sales. But, readership and viewship is increasingly fragmented these days, so even if you do get one nice piece in your local newspaper you aren’t going to get the flood that being on Oprah would bring you (and yes that is every businesses dream and unfortunately it’s reality for a very lucky few).

The point here is that pay-per-placement agencies don’t really focus on strategy. They just focus on one piece of the pie. So, if as a business and you’ve created a cohesive marketing strategy and you want to farm out the media portion by providing the person with pitches that fit in the overall strategy that’s great! But, if it’s just a one off thing, you’re probably not going to get the response you hope for.

And I’m also not saying the answer is to choose a big agencies with more comprehensive services and overhead.

I think it’s more about finding a company that will work with you and your budget to build something a little more long-lasting, that just like trust, grows over time.

A hug that is - you know Brits with their funny talk. I just saw a piece on Yahoo News about how British adults needs more hugs. I’d add Americans to that lot too. Life is all about hugs when your kid and then suddenly everything gets less about fun and love and much more about stress and the seriousness of life. So hug someone today. It’s easy enough. Hug someone who doesn’t expect it or who needs it. Make sure it’s genuine and you’ll feel a little bit of sadness and stress float away. But, please keep it clean!

Just a little stress reliever for a Tuesday.

Did you know today is Blog Action Day? It’s a cool idea. Basically, a group of bloggers set out to heighten the awareness of one of the most important topics, environmentalism, throughout the blogoshpere and all on the same day. This mass blogging event will be the topic of the day on 15,000 blogs and reach 12 million readers. So - of course I wanted to participate. What is more important than preserving our earth?

So full disclosure, I am kind of a dork (yes, I like Sci-fi) and I love the NEW Battlestar Gallactica. The premise is humans invented robots, the robots rebel, kill many and take over the world, so the humans left have to flee into space to preserve the what’s left of the race. The characters are constantly craving earth’s environment, so they all want to get away on this one ship that replicates the beauty of earth’s outdoors. A reoccuring theme in shows of this nature for sure, but it always reminds me of how many of us take what we have here for granted. So, hopefully all this awareness will turn into action and not peter out because the reality is: this kind of revolution takes time. This month’s issue of Wired focuses quite a bit on this topic of time and trial and error particularly in regards to the future of energy.

One of the articles addresses the very prevalent molecule, cellulosic ethanol. This molecule is the answer to all our energy woes and even better, it’s just waiting for a good use in everyone’s lawnmowers! Problem is - it’s hard to break down. So even though there are ways to do it, it can’t be done at the proper scale and speed at this point. Sort of the like the whole corn ethanol deal - fuel can be made from it, but it’s not effective and efficient enought. I’m not going to get into the chemistry of it, but I think the underlying topic here is creative solutions and raising awareness regularly so people will continually clamor for solutions even if there isn’t a real answer for many years. Because in truth, there is no option for the US or the world whether due to the environmental or financial ramifications. Therejust isn’t a choice. And there needs to be mavericks who make it their goal to not let these issues just coast along.

In fact, check out these two guys, Ted Nordhaus and Michael Shellenberger. These two probably might not being having a lot of “coffee talk” with mainstream environmentalist. A result of their controversial manifesto from 2005, “Death of Enviromentalism” and new book titled, “Break Through: From “The Death of Environmentalism” to the Politics of Possibility,” but I bet they do inspire passion and hopefully change. They opine current mainstream ideas proposed aren’t extreme enough to make an actual dent in the reality of greenhouse emmisions and the only way for change to be had is if the solutions are, “pro-growth, pro-technology, and pro-environment.” Seems like common sense right, but apprently these are the non-conformist ideas that will turn the enviromental movement onto its ear so something actually gets accomplished. Well, that and money of course.

Whatever they inspire, at least at least they inspire something! Me, I am going to do something too, not world changing big, but world changing in my life big. I drink coffee at least once a day, so I going to make it a point to to use my own cup because it kills me when I see the 30 cups from the past week piling up in the trash. It’s definitely not going to make the impact Nordhaus and Shellenberger want to make, but we all got to start the change somewhere. What are you doing?

Last week I attended the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Convention. It’s basically wall to wall (and there were so many walls at this place) aviation. In fact, there were 1,152 exhibitors - meaning no lack of men wearing navy suits. Aviation is an odd industry. Though it would make the most sense that this industry would be technology forward and filled with early adopters, in actuality ,it’s the opposite. To illustrate my point, just look at the dated air traffic control industry who still use a 50 year old system of radar and radio beacons. The the lack of female representation is also paltry. At NBAA there are 10 men for every one woman, and many of those women are “booth babes,” strutting the floor in miniscule red numbers. With the way the men reacted to them, I felt like watching a scene straight out of Mad Men(fabulous show BTW). I’ve attended this show before, so none of this was too surprising, but again it represents the antiquated world of aviation. Thankfully, it seems change is in the air.

I know I’ve mentioned Very Light Jets(VLJs) and Eclipse Aviation which are probably the biggest advancement aviation has taken in a long time. In any case, these new mini-jets may very well change the way we all travel in the future. Take a look at Day Jet, a new airline carrier flying Eclipse planes. DayJet is the world’s first per-seat, on-demand jet service, an entirely new approach to short-haul (under 600 mile) regional business travel. And it’s supposed to be semi-affordable probably right now around $600-$700 a flight, but hopefully if it works, closer to the $300-$400 range -even I can afford that! Right now, Day Jet is trying the concept out in Florida - so we shall see how this new niche progresses. Day Jet believes time is at a premium, especially for their target, the business traveller. Time is also at a premium for the wealthy, which is a nice segway into why I attended the show.

Wouldn’t it be nice to fly from NY to Paris in four hours and 14 minutes? Doesn’t seem possible does it? Well, if you have 80 mill and can wait a few years, you’ll be sipping plus de cafe au laits sur l’avenue Montaigne(finally using my French minor). Aerion Corporation has designed a Super Sonic Business Jet which will fly above and just below mach speed to get 10-12 lucky passengers from NY to Asia in nine and a half hours… and in comfort and class to boot! And all made possible by the jet’s unique wing structure. Check out what this sweet machine will look like. It is a quite an interesting company with superlative leadership. Anyway - I was working the booth to handle the media who attended and wanted to speak to executives. Check out this picture I took of the wind tunnel model. Pretty slick hah? Just about seven more years till take-off! Now this would be an advancement in aviation.

We just need a few more clients so Sweet Talk can put the company name on a reservation list! Thankfully, we have a few more years.

This article in Marketing Week struck me as bizarre. Coke is creating a new Sprite that will launch in the UK next year called “Sprite Super Chilled” that includes a mechanism, that when opened forms ice in the drink. And how is the ice created and what is it made of? None of those questions were answered in the article. But even stranger is the fact it’s being developed for urban youth who prefer super cold alcholic drinks, particularly beer. What’s the difference between super cold and cold? Obviously I’m not an urban youth, but pray tell, who is it that likes their beer or their soda warm? What do you guys think? Wierd or cool? I think both.

Innovation never stops and never ceases to amaze. Last Sunday, Danielle and I ventured downtown to the LA Convention Center to experience Wired Nextfest, one of the coolest “tradeshows” I’ve ever attended. As we browsed the booths, we were continously awed by the creativity and cool factor of the products and technologies shaping the future of our world. We were reminded that we’re living during an amazing period of time, where interactivity is the sign of the times as well as the proliferation of communities continually being by reshaped by the technology and inspiration featured at this show. The shape of things to come is about customization, collaboration and innovation tied into entertainment and culture tied into creating a more sustainable and empathetic world.

Honestly, I could write chapters on the innovations we saw Sunday, but instead, I’ll just hightlight a few of of my favorites.

Light Harp
This is the first interactive art you experience upon entering the show. The sound coming from this thing was really beautiful.

Brainball
Are you calm enough to win a game of brain ball. I know I’m not, but it might be a good challenge for me. Brainball is a game where you compete by relaxing your brain and move a little ball across a table into a little circle using your brainwaves. The person who is calmer will get the ball in first. Seriously, who needs mediation when you can just play this game. Everyone was circled around these two players sitting their with their eyes closed while their brain waves were being charted on screen behing them. It was fascinating!

Desktop Factory 3D Printer
This is so cool and so inexpensive when you compare it to the past cost of creating some kind of prototype. The machine looks like a microwave oven and basically layers what sort of looks like sand to create a 3D model of the digital data you feed it and only for $4995.

Jukebots
People DJs may soon be extinct with the introduction of Jukebots, industrial robots who scratch, spin and mix records. They kind of dance as the decise which record they’re going to pick. Ridiculously cool!

LifeStraw
It’s difficult to imagine living somewhere without access to a clean water source. It’s painful to realize children still die from contaminated water — soooo these LifeStraws, which are shockingly inexpensive and simple( $3 )will save many, many lives.

Obviously I could chronicle every experience that seemed significant or fabulous, but I don’t want to bore you. So I’m going end this entry by illustrating the use of technology and art.

Today, text messaging is taking the place of calling, emailing and yes, talking. So I think we can all expect to see many iterations of this technology in the future. Here are two we learned about and took advantage of many times that day. So many times in fact, the guy from Nanikawa who was running the Wind and Swimming Messagesystem was either thinking we were really crazy or really annoying. The other is TXTual Healing, SMS Enabled Interactive Street Performance. Both very cool and the wave of the future. Below are a few samples of what I’m talking about, but please don’t judge me for my camera work, which is absolutely painful and pretty much unbearable - I truly apologize, but I want to illustrate what I’m talking about. Today, we actually bought a really cool handheld video camera by PURE DIGITAL, that we learned about at a PSFK conference. We’ll blog on how that benefits my awful filming ability later.

Both of the below technologies allow you to call a number they provide, enter your message which is immediately rendered into these two artistic forms.

TXTual Healing - Text Message Customizable Graffiti Art

Wind and Swimming MessageSystem - The wind blows your text from screen to screen in front of a beautiful background

Which unique technologies and products do you think will make an impact in the future?

My brain wasn’t really melted by the heat. Yes - I know it’s only September 7th, but I got your attention! The funny thing is some people love Halloween so much, they actually start their seasonal buying binge in MAY. They want the newest stuff, they want it first and they don’t care about the cost. Sort of like women and their bags - well, not the woman writing this unfortunately.

Halloween is a holiday people feel passionate about. Can you blame them? It’s really the only holiday that is truly and only about having fun! Who doesn’t like to dress up to be someone else for a day. That’s why our client, HalloweenMart , is so successful. So, if you are sick of being yourself or maybe, someone else is sick of you, I have the solution! Just go to the site and choose someone different to be. You could be another someone different 365 days a year and then some. Believe me, I’ve spent some time in the company warehouse, and I’ve done a millions costume changes - they never get old. Par example, Elton John, you ain’t got nuthin on Lauren Tarne! If you look around the site, you might even find a few more of these gems (sense the sarcasm).

But, for those who need a little more inspiration, there is HalloweenMart’s new blog, Trick-or-Treat, where people can follow the stories of a bunch of fictional (or are they?) characters whose lives are engulfed by Halloween and all the holiday encompasses. You can even follow the characters as they twitter their way to the big day. So check out Candy, Nick, Jinx and others to get yourself revved up for the season.

Remember , Halloween is only 53 days away. That’s nothing. It takes time to develop the perfect costume. And although I have a plethora of ideas on the ensemble I plan on donning this year, I’m am perfectly willing to take suggestions. And that goes for Danielle and Limor as well. Don’t dissapoint us!