things I love about the holiday season:

1. hot cocoa + peppermint schnapps = toasty
2. profile pics w/ironic photoshopped santa hats
3. friends coming home from the far, far corners of the earth
4. the yule log burning on the flat screen
5. the christmas story on repeat for a full 48 hours
6. exchanging gifts with family, friends, and the boyfriend
7. a new year with new resolutions (which I have no illusions of keeping)

did I forget anything? OH! a special 2011 event (well, technically it will be 2012): adventures at the rose bowl with little sister.

Can I just say, this commercial is easily in my top 3 ads of all time. Knowing that their demographic is both men & women (who do the shopping for their men), the geniuses at W+K came up with this awesome way to talk to/entertain both. I even stop the DVR during recorded shows to watch this commercial. It’s. That. Good. And it was all filmed in one long shot. Below two of the guys on the Old Spice account talk logistics.

To make money through major labels, you need blockbuster hits. You need to be the next Lady Gaga, Britney Spears or N’Sync (forgive my obviously girly examples). They spend so much money producing, distributing and marketing the physical CD releases that it’s more effective to try to make money from one super mega-hit than many smaller singles that could cumulatively sell the same number as the mega-hit; hence the age-old problem of over-played songs on the radio. Surely there exists more music than the 10 songs played over and over on 105.1. It’s artificial scarcity –> variety exists, but you’re only exposed to a sliver of it. Labels just didn’t want you to know it. But now in the information age, with digital music sales, it’s almost as easy to make as much from the small hits as the one mega-hit. Paired with the low-cost of digital tools, there are millions of people, like Levi Weaver, out there making music for every genre you can think of and those you would never have dreamt of, and making it independent of a major label.

So here is Levi offering a fresh perspective, a new model – basically fundraising. Instead of looking at it as buying a CD (a very impersonal transaction), Levi is asking that you donate money to support him. In return for your donation, you will receive a CD. He offers a glimpse in to his world. Supporters know that the money is going directly into his hands, instead of through a distributor –> record company –> representative –> agent –> musician (or however the equation goes).

Back to how the Internet changed the game, I guess it boils down to accessibility and choice. Now how do record labels harness these to make more $$$? I think the answer has to do with making it easier for the consumer to sift through all the choices.

The second problem I see with newspapers is the heavy reliance on wire services. When I read the Oregonian and the Register Guard on the same day, I see about 80% of the same stories. It’s ridiculous. I don’t see the point of having two different papers when it’s the same stuff over again. So my suggestion is to work on specializing or localizing the news. I realize it is tough to finance foreign reporters, especially now that they are hemorrhaging money, but at least with the local/regional news get original.

My last suggestion for newspapers is to turn reporters into personalities. Foster a personal connection between the reporter and audience. That could be done in a lot of different ways. They could get involved locally through service organizations, schools or churches. It could also be involvement online through blogging or tweeting. Anything that gets a conversation going between the audience and the reporter would be a good place to start. A huge emphasis has been placed on avoiding biases but I think at this point, everyone realizes that reporters aren’t robots – they have opinions, perspectives and some aren’t even that good at hiding them. So why try? Why not use them to really focus your audience and gain a core group of support. If readers can identify with a personality – someone who is visible, relatable and that they trust (whether it is because of their political affiliations or backgrounds) – they are less likely to see newspapers as interchangeable. They will be loyal and more willing to pay for the content.

1. If your ID is stolen on vacation, prepare to be searched, patted and wanded.

2. Always write down where you parked the car at the airport. That ingenious pneumonic you thought of 10 days ago, isn’t as memorable as you thought.

3. When the Chatty Cathie sitting next to you says that she’s from your area, just smile and say, “Oh, I hear that’s a nice neighborhood. I’m from [insert different state].”

4. No plane in the history of flying has ever left JFK on time. Ever.

5. No matter how cute that baby looks before take off, it will inevitably cry most of the flight, preventing you from sleeping.

6. Apparently airlines have prioritized entertainment over nourishment. Even on flights across the country all they give you are pretzels while you sit there with your personal TV with OnDemand satellite, movies and music. Given the choice, I would always choose food.

7. Eye masks are crucial in the event that your travel companion insists on keeping the window up even though you’re flying over the Pacific Ocean and it is five in the morning.

It wasn’t until said professor had us do an assignment where we were supposed to explore the reasons that Twitter could be the “next big thing” and what it would have to overcome to get there. After doing some seriously in depth research considering the topic, I started to see why people have embraced it.

Five ways in which Twitter could change our world:

1. It’s a way that people can connect to friends, neighbors, coworkers, people across the world, celebrities, ect.
2. Minute-by-minute updates useful for trend watching, emergency alerts and sporting events among other things. For example, social media has been more effective in alerting people about emergencies, like the Virginia Tech shooting, than the traditional university alert system. Some universities already have new alert systems incorporating social media.
3. Effective in mobilizing efforts and gathering eyewitness accounts during a disaster such as the attacks on Mumbai. People “tweeted” about what they saw, help lines and contact numbers for those who had friends involved in the attacks, as well as pleas for blood donors at specific hospitals that were low on supplies.
4. It can be used as an effective campaign tool. Whereas campaign emails get lost in inboxes and spam, tweets cut through the noise with a short and to-the-point message.
5. Users can receive the messages anywhere they are through a variety of outlets – text messages, instant messages and RSS news feeds.

Five hurdles to becoming the next big thing:

1. Twitter doesn’t generate revenue and exists on funding alone which limits its long-term viability. It will likely have to adopt an ad supported business model.
2. Some users complain about feeling “too connected.” Many users tweet all day about mundane things like what they are having for lunch or everyday annoyances making it hard to separate valuable content from the noise.
3. They have had a lot of security problems. Hacking the main system has compromised several high profile accounts.
4. Due to the exponential growth over a short time, Twitter has experienced several outages.
5. Rumor mill. Unsubstantiated rumors quickly snowball through tweets that are re-tweeted over and over again.

So after some time, I have conceded my previous stance on the triviality of Twitter and am not afraid to admit that I usually check Twitter before I log onto Facebook… in fact I’m starting to find myself thinking in 140 characters or less. Tweet me @egavette