Emma Brooks | Digital Media Enthusiast

The holidays can be a very stressful time – especially if you’re traveling. So that’s why I love what the Toronto Pearson Airport is doing right now.

For any traveler traveling domestically from Dec 15-24, you can either request a holiday song from their cheerful carolers or get them to greet your special person arriving at the baggage claims. All you need to do is tweet to @TorontoPearson with their name, flight and date and they’ll do their best to catch them and offer up a little jingle.

I first saw the carolers as they went past me on the moving sidewalk and tweeted out how great that was, tagging @TorontoPearson. Within minutes they had reached out and asked if I wanted one. Before I knew it, three carolers showed up and sang me a fantastic version of “Jingle Bells” with a personalized sign and all!

Thanks so much, Toronto Pearson Airport. You really brightened up my day! (So much so I’m writing this from the plane before take-off!)

Happy holidays everyone!

Just in time for the 12 days of Christmas, Tribal DDB Toronto launched their latest campaign for Canadian Tire, bringing the Christmas Spirit to life thanks to power of online. (Ahhh, the internets. Is there anything it can’t do?)

The Christmas Spirit Tree, which will be on display from now until 26, 2011 at Toronto’s Union Station, is bright and merry, absolutely. Its 3,000 LED lights are powered by messages of positive Christmas spirit on social channels, such as Facebook, Twitter and to the Christmas Spirit Tree website, ChristmasSpiritTree.ca.

The website itself is really nicely done: simple and cheery. And I admit, I like watching the tree light up as people send out happy messages. It’s nice to physically see positivity in this world these days. There should be more of that, ok? Ok.

I will say though, I do find it interesting that in this day and age of PC-ness where everyone tip-toes around the question of what to call the “holiday season”, that Canadian Tire decided to align itself so tightly with Christmas.

But either way, it’s a nice, feel-good campaign. Well done to the teams at Canadian Tire and Tribal DDB. Thank you for sharing joy with this world.

Lately, in my humble lady opinion, tampon makers have been stepping it up a notch.

First, UbyKotex (worst name to remember ever) comes up with their Social Experiment videos which – to me – raised some really valid points:

Why are we so uncomfortable buying tampons?

Why are tampon products so darn confusing?

And now, O.B. comes up to the plate and hits one out of the ballpark with their O.B. Triple Sorry campaign. On the site, http://www.obtampons.ca/apology users are asked to plug in their first name and are then presented with a personalized apology video, sung by a (really very) cute guy. The video incorporates my name surprisingly well (curious as to what was the process for being able to sing my name?) and then caps it off with a free coupon. Sweet. (Both sweet in the sense of, “Aww, what a sweet guy” and “Sweet! Hello, free product!”)

I took some screenshots if you are like a few of my friends who don’t have audio on their work computers (*cough*Maggie*cough):

Here’s the thing: Myself and two other women I chatted with had no idea what O.B. was apologizing for. A quick Google search “Why is OB tampons sorry?” led me to this Consumerist story, which tells me that apparently O.B. hasn’t been on shelves in months here in Canada. Hunh. I hadn’t even noticed – and I buy O.B. (Whoa, TMI. But also relevant so… Oh well.)

This is a great campaign, but also a campaign that highlights a negative component of a brand’s history that my social circle had no idea about. And now we do… because we got the apology letter. Thanks O.B.! (Also – curious as to the % of market that was aware of this issue. Anyone?)

Oh and one last, final thought: Why are men still in tampon commercials? Remember those awful Stayfree ads? Yeah. Can men just get out of those tampon ads? Love and thanks, all the women of the world.

This. Is. Awesome!

A couple weeks ago, I applied to The 2011 Notable Awards, an award that recognizes Young Professionals in Canada who take a “360° approach to: success in business, a well-rounded social life, and, of great importance, giving back to the community via charities, not-for-profits, and NGOs.” I applied because I felt I fulfilled these criteria and fulfilled them well.

I got the email this morning I have indeed made it to the next round in the Media and Communications (including Marketing, Advertising, and Public Relations) category. HURRAY!

The way it works is the top 4 Nominees in each respective categories with the most votes by October 31, 2011 will move onto the final round, where a panel of judges will select one person from each category to receive the 2011 Notable Award.

I’m not the biggest fan of voting contests because it really ends up boiling down to who has the biggest audience or who is the best at nagging their friends. So don’t expect me to bugging you all the time for votes. Just not in me! At least Notable is at least trying to mitigate that with offering the final round as a judging panel only.

However, if you feel I am deserving of such award, I would really appreciate it if you could throw a vote my way. You can vote for me, Emma Brooks, in the category of Media and Communications, here.

If not for me, vote at least to make Sad Cad less sad:

I have a friend: one that I have referenced here a few times. Mostly because he’s so darn smart. Occasionally, because he’s handsome. But usually because what he has to say is interesting to me. Of course, I’m talking of the Mr. Jon Crowley. (Side note: If you’re not reading his blog, you really should be.)

A few times, he’s made the comment to me that résumés are dead. A bold statement but I think he’s onto something. The last time I really used my résumé was over 2 years ago. I’ve only grudgingly updated it here and there for pitches at work and the like. For someone who takes work as seriously as I do (with a huge dash of excitement, obvi), I find it interesting that a resume – or CV – is not more of a focal point for me. Shouldn’t it exist as a more breathing, living document than anything else?

I suppose we do have sites like LinkedIn, which have essentially made résumés redundant (and recruiters’ jobs a whole lot easier). But you still need your résumé when on the hunt, because, for some reason, LinkedIn hasn’t tapped into the idea that you still need a physical résumé every now and then. (Why not let your members print off a nice hard copy version of their LinkedIn profile – even if for a fee? Seems like a lost opportunity to me.)

Which is why I love this site I stumbled upon this evening, courtesy of a tweet by Miss Casie Stewart. It’s a site called Vizualize.me that uses the LinkedIn API to pull in data from your profile to build an inforgraphic of your work experience, skill set, connection information and more. And you know how crazy people get over infographics!

So here is a little teaser of what my full infographic looks like:

And this is where you can see my full infographic résumé.

So what do you think? Worth the time it takes to set it up or not? Would love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

ONCE UPON A TIME…

For those of you who haven’t been following my tweets in the past few weeks, let me get you up to speed: I have recently joined a club I have termed “The #TinyTowerAddicts.”

It’s not a prestigious club; in fact, anyone can join. But it’s a dangerous club to be a part of. As you can see by its name, Tiny Tower, a newly released iPhone app, is incredibly addictive. Employing just the right mix of fun, strategy and gaming practices, you’re instantly hooked and find yourself staying up late to play. And I’ve seen its addiction spreading like wildfire, through my social networks and beyond.

This is - sadly (but also funnily) - not the only text or tweet of this kind that's been sent to me.

So it came as no surprise that with such incredible growth, NimbleBit – the makers of Tiny Tower – decided to strike while the iron was hot and find a way to monazite their large database of users. Their first stop? Somehow convert their players into fans of their Facebook page. So they decided to do this:

"Like" Their Page

Now, I work a lot with my clients on Facebook strategies. And this screamed, “RED FLAG! RED FLAG!” to me in regards to breaking Facebook’s rules.

IS THIS AGAINST FACEBOOK’S POLICIES?

We’re consistently told over and over from our Facebook reps that a Facebook Page cannot incite liking (or any other “authentic action”) as it’s against Facebook rules and regulations. Which is fair: They’re trying to keep those authentic actions a user may do out of pure self-interest as credible as possible (these actions may include: liking a page, writing on the page’s wall, commenting on a status update, liking a status, inviting their friends to “like” a page, etc.).

Tiny Tower launched their “Like our Page in Exchange for Bux” campaign two days ago and already their Facebook Page has over 152,000 fans. That’s a spicy meatball!

And so I’m trying to figure out if this is against Facebook policies or not, because I’m curious on both a personal and professional level. On one hand, yes, I would very much consider this incenting a user to perform an action on Facebook that Facebook would deem “authentic.”

On the other hand, I don’t believe there’s a way NimbleBit could actually track that a user has clicked “Like” on their Facebook page, as there isn’t currently a way the user’s Tiny Tower game is connected to their Facebook account. So it’s more like a very false condition presented (which might be worse?) as I’m assuming if you click “Visit Page” your game is automatically credited the 3 Bux. [If you are smarter than me in the ways of the internet, folks, please feel free to correct me on this paragraph.] So it’s not an actual requirement the user likes the page to be rewarded.

Or if the initial contact regarding the incenting or the reward of the action takes place off Facebook, does this even count?

I’ve gone through the Facebook Ad Guidelines, their Pages Terms, and their Promotion Guidelines and can’t find nary a word on this supposed incenting a user to “like” a page. So perhaps we’ve been misinformed?

SIDE NOTE TIME:

NimbleBit is hitting it fast and hard. Just today they launched what appears to be their first partnership with Apple in which users are rewarded with checking out Harry Potter content on iTunes in exchange for more Tiny Tower Bux. I believe it when I say us #TinyTowerAddicts will soon be seeing bigger and better partnerships coming our way within our game. Should be interesting.

Harreh Potteh

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

So back to the question at hand: I would love your input on this. Do you think this is against Facebook policies? Or is this well within the realm of allowable promotions? Please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section.

EDITED TO ADD ON JULY 17, 2011

My source at Facebook has confirmed that the above Facebook “liking” campaign run by Tiny Tower is in direct violation of their promotions policy. So that’s the answer to my question, then. Not that Facebook seems to do anything to those who break the rules – but that’s a whole other blog post.

This seriously has to be one of the best YouTube takeovers I’ve ever seen, from Desperados – a pale lager flavored with tequila.

The reason I love this takeover so much is that it plays on existing mechanisms found in a YouTube video page, yet incorporates them into the story in a fresh and different way to take on new meaning. The takeover also gives you the option to use Facebook connect to incorporate your friends into the story if you want, and then at the end, share this experience with your friends on Facebook.

You can play with the actual takeover here.

Anyone who is a long time reader knows I have talked a lot about net neutrality. It’s a frustrating issue for me, simply because I feel I can talk about it all I want but it doesn’t really change much.

But we’ve hit a point in Canadian history where we actually have the chance to help impact how issues surrounding net neutrality get shaped in the years to come with the upcoming election. If you’re looking for a quick cheat sheet on which parties support what when it comes to the future of digital in Canada, I highly urge you to check out the following link: Digital Future Survey: The Parties Respond from OpenMedia.ca. This is a great guide for anyone needing to get an understanding of where each parties’ interest lie.

And please, do yourself a favour, and vote on May 2.

Well, if you use Facebook ads to do it, apparently the answer is: $17.46.

Yes, this is what I do sometimes when I’m bored: I geek out with advertising. I buy ads to promote my own awesomeness.

I mean, c’mon, that ad was pretty freakin’ spectacular:

This ad does not lie. One. Bit.

Let’s look at some of the “Emma is Awesome” campaign facts:

• I ran this campaign from March 24-31 and spent a total of $17.46.
• I got a CTR of 0.066%. If you compare this to the recent Webtrends whitepaper, “Facebook Advertising Performance Benchmarks & Insights“ - the paper indicates that in 2010, Webtrends saw an average campaign performance CTR of 0.051%. Yay! My ad was compelling! [I mean, cough, of course it was.]
• I spent an average CPC of $0.58 – higher than Webtrends overall 2010 campaign performance CPC of $0.49. #EmmaFail

My thoughts on these results:

• For $17 essentially, I got 45,000 impressions. Now, as we all know, impressions don’t really mean much these days. Impressions mean, essentially, there’s a chance that maybe someone saw your ad. And we all know ad blindness is increasing. But still, I’d pay $17 to promote my blog for a fraction of 45,000 users’ attention! In my personal opinion, this is a good deal for my blog.
• AND! I got 30 clicks. That means 30 Facebook users (assuming 100% unique clickers) visited my blog. So how did this impact my traffic? Well, I pulled a graph of my traffic for the week before, the week during and the week after the campaign ran.

Uhhhh. Pretty much no effect on my traffic. So what does this tell me?

Options:

1. Facebook has sucky users!

2. The ad was misleading.

3. My blog wasn’t very interesting.

It’s my expert opinion that the only true answer is clearly Option #1. Because Option #2 and #3 just simply aren’t valid arguments. My ad was amazing and my blog is pure awesomesauce. That said, there may be some bias in those last two statements.

Even with an attempt to filter for the following interests:

• Live in Toronto
• Between 18-40
• Likes advertising, digital media or Publicis Groupe
• College graduate
• Speaks English

Facebook didn’t drive what I would consider quality traffic. Though if I’m to be honest, the ad didn’t set up user expectations well. Anyone who clicks on an ad like the one above probably isn’t looking for the advertising musings of some 25 year old redhead living in Toronto. You know who is? You! (Congrats on having excellent taste, by the way.)

Anyway, it was a fun little experiment to see if I could drive further traffic to my blog. I can tell you I won’t be using Facebook again to create interest in this here blog. But perhaps in the future I’ll play around and see how I can continue to bring additional interest to my sometimes-updated blog.

So, what about you? How do y’all feel about Facebook Ads? Ever tried them,  for professional or personal reasons? Success or failure stories to share? Would love to hear in the comments! Cheers.

Once we get over the question of, “What does a Digital Strategist do?” the next most asked question is, “How do you get a job as a Digital Strategist?”

So, I present Emma Brooks’ “Top 5 Tips for Getting a Job as a Digital Strategist”:

ONE. LEARN
The first thing I would recommend is to read, read, and yes, read. Try to find out as much as you can about the digital ecosystem (oh, did you like my buzz word there? I made it myself. WINK.), both here in Canada and abroad.

I’m talking general information, just to help you get a good lay of the land. Ask yourself questions like:

How many people are on Facebook?

What are brands doing on Facebook?

How many Canadians are on Twitter?

What’s their favourite reasons for using Twitter?

What’s the next up and coming app? Why?

On average, what’s the penetration of broadband internet in Canada, compared to other countries?

What are some factors affecting consumer trends in digital (UBB, Netflix, Groupon, etc.)?

Dig. Get a sense of what’s happening out there. And continue digging. (You’ll be doing so for the rest of your career…)

TWO. DECIDE FOR YOURSELF

OK. Now you’ve got a good overview of the world we’re living in and the important thinking starts. Start looking at what brands, advertisers and marketers are doing out there in the digital world. Do you like their campaign? Was it smart? Did it drive business objective? (Can you guess what those objectives were?) Why or why not?

Form your own opinions about this. I guarantee you, you will be asked some kind of question about the latest and greatest campaigns out there in an interview. Have several campaigns in your head and your own opinion on them. And don’t worry if you’re hyperventilating at this big scary idea of coming up with insights all your own. Start looking around. What are other advertisers/digital strategists saying about the campaign? Read their thoughts to help start your own forming.

THREE. TALK TO OTHERS

All right! You’ve got a good idea of how digital is moving these days, you’ve even got some great thought starters on that last “viral hit” for Old Spice. Now what? It’s time to hit the streets, my friend. If you don’t have a lot of connections to the industry (like me, coming out of school, native to Nova Scotia, heading to Toronto on my own for the first time), don’t panic. There are two secrets to getting your foot in the door and I’m going to share them with you:

1. Cold calling
2. Hit up your connections

1. Cold calling: Seriously? Yes. Seriously. Yes, it’s the digital age but it’s much, much easier to ignore an email from an overzealous newbie than it is to ignore your phone ringing. Call around and do so until someone answers the phone. And here’s the secret sauce, ask for an informational interview. I will say it again, just to make sure you got it: Ask. The. Person. On. The. Phone. If. You. Can. Come. In. For. An. Informational. Interview.

Got it?

Good. Here’s why, as my friend Jon Perry so eloquently said yesterday on Twitter: “Informational interviews are like taking employers down the candy isle. If they see something they want then they’re probably gonna buy it.”

Look. No one can really say no to an informational interview, provided you ask nicely enough. It’s not like they’re promising you anything, except a little bit of their time. And people in advertising are really nice, generous people (most of them, at least) who remember what it was like starting out. Generally, they are more than happy to sit down for a beer and talk about their experiences. Or a phone call, if distance is an issue.

So, you meet and wow them, and then suddenly, they know they need you on their team. They’re not going to let some other agency snap you up! They will fight for you. This is how you get a job through cold calling.

2. You also need to hit up your connections. “But I have no connections!” you may whine. Shush. You do. Assuming you’re coming out of university with some kind of related degree (marketing? advertising?), your professors are your connections. I did this exact same thing 4 years ago with my Marketing Strategy professor, Dan Shaw.

I went into his office, politely asked if he had any connections in Toronto and he was kind enough to hand me a bunch of names and contact information of people in marketing/advertising. And, because they knew Dan, they graciously granted me some of their time for an (you guessed it!) informational interview.

But, here’s the trick: At the end of the meeting, whether it will result in an actual interview or not, ask them if they feel comfortable passing along some of their contacts. This is how you expand your contact network and it can work wonderfully. Trust.

FOUR. SHOW YOUR PASSION

So you’ve got your informational interviews set up with a number of agencies and people in the community. Remember your stats! Make sure you have your opinions! And one last thing? Don’t forget your passion.

The reason a lot of us get hired – and I think especially at Publicis – is because we show our passion for this amazing, crazy, frustrating, exhilarating industry. There can be some very long hours in this industry and at the end of the day, the only thing that will keep you standing is your passion. So you better show it. People will recognize it, get inspired by it, and want your passion to infect the rest of their agency.

You come off as apathetic (or worse – underwhelmed) and you can bet you will never get a second meeting.

FIVE. START ELSEWHERE

I firmly believe that any Digital Strategist should work first on the creative or accounts side of an agency as their primer role. It can offer a viewpoint you won’t get in all your years as a Strategist and one that I think is incredibly valuable. It helps you understand where the creative or account people are coming from, and the kinds of challenges and frustrations they deal with on a daily (hourly) basis. It can help you develop empathy, which will do wonders when they’re in your office, completely stressed out about a project.

My first 6 months at Publicis, I worked as an Account Executive. Working on the account side offered me the chance to learn skills I continue to use, as well as helped me understand the process of an agency much better. So if you’re not finding much luck getting hired as a Digital Strategist right out of school (and generally I would say most agencies don’t hire Jr. Digital Strategist – someone correct me if I’m wrong), think about whether you can get in with an account or creative position.

So, these are my tips to you, future Rockstar Digital Strategist. How did you find them? Helpful? Confusing? Out of date? Beyond awesome? I would love to hear what you think – and if you have any to add to this list – in the comments.