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Matching entries from B.L. Ochman's blog
2010 Social Media Week NYC: My Schedule & Recommended Events
Social Media Week NYC kicks off Monday and scores of events - almost all aimed at newbies - are planned. I'm speaking at three events this week - one online and two at the Roger Smith Hotel. Details are below along with several other events that look interesting. Where I'm speaking 1- Social Media Tweet Chat Tuesday, Feb 2 noon-1pm EST on Twitter I'll moderate a conversation on Twitter about the business of social media. These Twitter chats have been moderated by a stellar array of social media luminaries including my friends Scott Monty, Ann Handley, Shel Israel, Charlene Li, Brian Solis, and Toby Bloomberg. My topic will be the fears of clients, how we can help them get past the fears, the lawyers, and the time crunch to participate in social media in a relevant way. 2- How to Use Social Media Effectively in 2010 + Speed Dating Breakfast Wednesday Feb 3 8-10 a.m. Roger Smith Hotel (47 & Lex) I'm on the panel, details here, panelist bios here Registration at 8am, Panel starts at 8:30. Social Media Speed Dating will start around 9:30 or so. 3 SUXORZ: the worst social media campaigns of '09 6:30 - 8:30 PM...
Ricola Cougher: a sick campaign that needs to die is baaaack!
Yes, the entire world is paranoid about Swine Flu. Yes, everyone is ready to lynch people who cough, sneeze or sniffle in public. And yes, The Ricola Cougher, surely one of the Top 10 most ill-conceived marketing campaigns in history, is baaaaaaaack! Since 2005, the cougher has been turning up in public places and coughing. The first person to run up and hand him a cough drop won a prize. He coughed in hair salons, movie theaters, malls, parties and parks. He's lucky he didn't cough on the subway in New York, where people kill people who look at them wrong. This year, for the first time since the Cougher started his or her germy journey, the search only takes place online. I guess they couldn't get an insurance policy on a live cougher during a flu epidemic. The grand prize is $1 million, and there are $1K weekly prizes for six weeks. Netflix started the current trend toward $1M contest prizes. But Netflix contest was interesting, engaging and fun. Unlike the cougher....
The Ricola Cougher, the World's Worst Marketing Campaign, Is Baaaaack
Blecch! The Ricola Cougher, that disgusting slimeball who coughs in crowds and then gives you money if you give him a coughdrop, is baaaack. They have him go to hair salons, movie theaters, malls, parties and parks and cough. I'm not making this up. I could never make up something this lame! The Ricola Mystery Cougher is, without a doubt, the most ill-conceived promotion in the world. It's not fun, funny, interesting, clever, or sanitary. And it seems that it will never end. Stay out of New York you piglet. We have enough to worry about. And lemme give you weirdos a word of advice: people in New Yawk don't like to be looked at, let alone coughed on. A New Yorker with a short fuse -- who, let's say, just lost his Wall St job, or had her house foreclosed -- might kill a freakin jerk who offers him or her a cough drop because they think they'll get a million dollars for the gesture. Kill the cougher already. We'll come to the wake....
The Formula for Successful Viral Campaigns. Not!
By B.L. Ochman This successful viral ad is a classic. People loved the drum playing Cadbury Gorilla because it was unlike anything they'd ever seen. It was creative, fun, more than a little weird, and not a heavy-handed sales message. It's been spoofed, mashed up, and it's won awards. And it's been passed from friend to friend to friend - millions of times. This next video attempt at viral marketing is a failure. It would not be possible to say what Häagen-Dazs might have been thinking when they created this dreadful video to go along with this site. (It also would be impossible to rationalize the construction and content of the flashturbation honeybee education site that takes minutes to load, but that would be another post.) One type of viral will never fit all objectives, and trying to copy a successful viral is a sure recipe for failure. In fact, thousands of hoped-for virals are never noticed by consumers at all. What makes a campaign go viral? First let’s define viral marketing: content passed from one person to another, including images, videos, links, applications, games, stories, emails, documents or virtually any other type of digital content that one person passes...
Ricola Cougher - History's Most Disgusting Marketing Campaign, Is Baaaaack
Yecch! The Ricola Cougher is baaaaaack to continue his/her revolting germ fest. The Ricola Mystery Cougher is, without a doubt, the most ill-conceived promotion in the world. It's not fun, funny, interesting, clever, or sanitary. And it seems that it will never end. Now it's coming to back to New York -- as if we didn't have enough to worry about. Maybe people in fly-over states find the idea of having a stranger cough on them intriguing. This is New York. You never know when someone will be having a very bad day and want to take it out on some jerk who coughed in their direction. Ricola - you need to kill this cougher. Before somebody who's off their meds does it for you. Blecch! Yecch! My advice from last year still stands: Hint to Ricola marketers: have him die of his cough and get this over with already. Then you can hold a wake. That would be more fun. A word to the wise: You cough on me man, I'll sic the Labradoodle on you....
Disgusting Ricola Cougher to Contaminate New York Next Week
The Ricola Mystery Cougher is, without a doubt, the most disgusting, ill-conceived promotion in the world. It's not fun, funny, interesting, clever, or sanitary. But it seems that it will never end. Now it's coming to New York -- as if we didn't have enough to worry about. Well, Mr or Ms. Cougher, if you cough on a New Yorker, someone just might sue you for giving them bird flu. Yick! Blecch! Yecch! Go away!...
Why Won't The Damn Ricola Cougher Die?
Why is the Ricola Cougher contest still around? I've said it before, and I'm saying it again: it's a disgusting idea and it's been going on since November. Enough already. The germ spreader "will be in New York on Friday, January 6th. Catch the cougher in the afternoon considering an earth-friendly haircut in SoHo. Good Luck!" Yick! Coughing at a hair salon. Coughing on the subway on the way to the hair salon. Blecch! New Yorkers are incredibly tolerant of a lot of things. Sometimes I think people on the subway would feign sleep if Christ himself walked through their car. But a New Yorker with a short fuse might kill a freakin weirdo who offers him or her a cough drop after mistaking them for someone who was going to give them a million dollars for that cough drop. Copyranter agrees: - Have you Dillweeds ever riddin’ a subway? A person could blow through a case during one 20 minute trip without moving his/her feet. More importantly, the cough drop giver-outer would also probably be socked/stabbed/spit on 4-5 times. That’s a conservative estimate. - Because... city people don’t like to be looked at, let alone talked to, LET ALONE...
Time for Disgusting Ricola Mystery Cougher to Die!
That disgusting Ricola Mystery Cougher is still running around spreading germs like Typhoid Mary. As flu season escalates, the idea gets more revolting all the time. Today's email clue: The Ricola Mystery Cougher will be in Philadelphia on Thursday, December 8th. Catch the cougher at the 9th Street Italian Market near a House of Cheese between 1:00 and 4:00. Good Luck! "Catch the cougher!" Yik. Can't they just have him get sick and die already? Isn't this campaign ever going to end?...
Ricola Mystery Cougher Contest -- Yecch! Blecch!
Is it just me, or is the Ricola Mystery Cougher contest a gross idea? Who wants to walk up to a stranger who is coughing and hand him or her a cough drop? Especially at the start of flu season, and in the midst of bird flu hysteria, why would anyone want to touch a coughing stranger? The contest is giving away a million dollars to people not squeamish about talking to hacking weirdos. I'll pass....
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