Social Shopping is an emerging field and E-Commerce Times has a great post that explains what is is, provides a rundown of different social shopping services, and opportunities for retailer involvement within the field.
With social media transforming the way we work and interact, there becomes less of a distinction between the time we spend on and off the clock, so to say. Steve Bendt provides a great look into the ramifications of wage laws in the United States and the impact they have on retailers who look to use social media to connect with their customers.
Get Elastic is talking about the viral marketing video campaign from Office Max that ties in to their Back to School “Penny” marketing. I really like this campaign. It is a series of fun videos that ties in well with the overall brand position for Officemax for this season. Good job by Officemax, I think.
A racy advert for JC Penney has been making it’s way around the internet over the past few days. The ad, which won a prize at this weekend’s Cannes Lions Awards, features two teens practicing putting their clothes back on quickly before heading down to the basement for a romp. Problem is, it may not be a legitimate JC Penney ad.
Because the spot is so well made, and because someone had to enter it it at Cannes, JC Penney is blaming its ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi. The ad agency, in turn, is pointing the finger at production company, Epoch Films of New York, which is indeed the listed entrant. There is speculation “the video may have been filmed after hours by a producer at Epoch who was working on the Penney ads for Saatchi.”
A commercial like this won’t land with the core demographic of JCP’s shoppers. But on the flip side, teens are too smart for a commercial like this. It fails on both fronts. It pisses off their core and doesn’t the brand’s desirability with teens.
This video is spreading quickly through blogs, social networks, and Twitter. The retailer will need to work quickly to counter it’s message. This is a great opportunity for them to use social media effectively and distance themselves from the video. I’d like to see the retailer working with bloggers to get their message out there. Otherwise, the video is going to continue to spread and fewer eyeballs are going to see their retraction.
Of course, this is a moot point if the retailer, in any way, authorized this advertisement. Then it’s even more of a tangled mess and the only way to resolve it is with honesty and transparency.
It will be interesting to watch how this develops over the next few days and how the retailer responds.
The advert in question is below. As a warning, it does show people dressing and undressing, so it might be slightly NSFW:
They finally imploded the C-8 building in Asbury Park, as I talked about last week. Here is the video I took, via youtube:
I took a ride down, getting down to Asbury Park before six this morning. It was a wild scene to watch unfold - a ton of people came out to watch, including a lot of the NYC news media and a few of the local radio stations. There was an eight block area blocked off, so I was in the grassy park area near Kingsley between Fifth and Sunset. I was able to get as close and they would allow and I had a good view of the implosion.
For those that aren’t familar with Asbury Park, this construction on this building started in the mid to late 80’s. After 12 of the 16 stories of the building were up, the developer went bankrupt and the land had sat in tax/governmental/political limbo until a few years ago. After the area near Cookman Ave and Main Street had undergone redevelopment, development finally began on the oceanfront area. However, this building still stood as a reminder of what the city once was and overshadowed all of the good going on in the area.
The implosion of the building is a very monumental step forward in the redevelopment. The eyesore is gone and I am very interested in how the city is going to unfold after this.
Here is a recent article from the Asbury Park Press talking about the past and future of the building. And here is another quick article on the Asbury Park Press website about today’s events.
And finally, here are photos I’d like to share. The first is a photo I found that I took on March 29, 2002 that shows how the C-8 building used to look. The rest of the photos are from today’s events.
No Turn On Red is a blog talking about the retail industry, social media, branding, and how to connect with your customer. Started in 2006, it is written by Tom Sullivan who is a UI Specialist at Media-Hive.
