The Cat video is called “Litter Genie: Me Luvz Mahselfz.”  It features a music video and custom song complete with opening credits made popular by MTV.  The views from this series of videos are in the millions.  No need to look for a hit TV show when your content is a hit itself.

What’s the secret?  First, you can’t be boring.  Second, high production values.  Third, confidence and bravery.  Does it take a brave soul to approve a cat music video about a system for disposing cat poop?  Yes and yes.

Great content takes courage.  And a cat helps as well.

The real issue is that most said they have not integrated their mobile with other marketing efforts including social media, event marketing, direct mail, advertising, public relations and blogs.  To me, the first step to bridging efforts into the mobile world is to make everything simpler and, of course, shorter.  Here’s an email on my mobile device.  Any longer and reading it would become a chore.  Talk about a bad communications environment.

Marines say “Semper fi.”  Marketing marines say, “Simplify.” Always shorter.

It is also changing how people react to business decisions and complications.  The power is in the hands of the people.  And the press is watching.

This story was in my local paper (Cedar Rapids Gazette 3-7-13) but is from New York.  People are “angry after a delay” in the launch of Cool Ranch Doritos tacos.  How do we know? People said so on Facebook.  One fan said he was “VERY disappointed!”  What?  How did one fan become a story?  It is the new media world.  It may seem silly, but don’t underestimate the power of the people.  However, you can still wonder why the press picked up this story and made it local “news.”  That is another blog for another day.

The takeaway is you must monitor your Facebook page to make sure you are prepared for any possible stories starting to pop—you know the press is watching.  Pass the taco sauce.

Since then Harley-Davidson, Intel and ESPN have made distinct audio part of their brands.  Others have tried, however adopting a popular song does not work.  College sports teams have tried, but the minute you hear the same song used at another venue or for another team, the connection is gone.  It is just copying.  The successful branders find original music cuts and use them over and over again to build a unique and strong audio brand.  ESPN has done this successfully.  Not only do they use the familiar  ”Dah-Nuh-Nuh, Dah-Nuh-Nuh, but you can hear it used by kids playing a pickup game of basketball or college bands at games.

It is so powerful, it works as a shirt.   Now that is an incredibly powerful and transcending audio logo when it works without even being heard.

The great thing about audio icons is that they can be used on almost every medium, including print.

Dah-Nuh-Nuh.  Dah-Nuh-Nuh.  Funny how you can hear it in your head.

Some companies and organizations have realized this need and accommodated the need for photo opportunities.  This is a simple way to be shared on social media for free.  So all you need is something people want stand next to for a photograph.  When I was visiting a Lego store, I noticed that people were actually lining up to take photos of giant Lego characters.  Kids, parents and grandparents were all getting into the photo.  And what followed was the typical response, “Can you send me that photo.”

Set up a photo area, light it and watch the flashes.  Just make sure you have your name visible in the shot.  When you are shared on Facebook you will want everyone know that it was your location for the photo.

Disney knows how to bring you back.  Of course, Disney knows that if people get married at Disney they are likely to return for an anniversary.  But if they purchase a walkway stone, they are sure to return to revisit their piece of Disney with their name on it.

It is a simple concept, but it is also a strong reason to continue to make donor identification and donor walls in buildings and on special areas.  Then, be sure to invite the people back.  Disney doesn’t leave it to chance, they invite people back on their anniversaries—forever.  Unless there is a split of course.

Also note, Disney doesn’t use plexiglass.  They use brick and stone.  It’s a solid reminder that you made a real investment.

Airports, and many other venues, are not leaving anything to chance.  I used the display in the Dallas airport and found Cousins Barbecue.   There was a time when these kiosks would have sat dormant.  But now, with touchscreen and swipe technology used in tablets, people seem willing and able to use these new technologies.

Hospitals, malls, airports and event venues can all use this new technology.  You can not only find information, but you can also find simple directions or see a bird’s-eye view of the directions.

It is catching on fast, but as you can see in this photo, it helps to have a kid with you so you are not afraid to touch the screen.

Towels on a bed at Disney

The amazing thing about Disney is that they find ways that are not all that expensive, like how the towels are arranged on the bed or that Mickey leaves a voice message for you on the phone.

If your brand can’t extend past a logo, then there might be something wrong with your brand.  You may need a theme that helps tell your story (like a little green lizard, a small mouse or a green giant).

Themes or characters provide your brand with a personality.  Just like people, magnetic personalities attract people.  Just what you want when branding.

Mickey in the carpet

Mickey ears on wallpaper

Now you can get news everywhere and all the time.  Although when you talk with people today, they sound totally perplexed with the amount of emails, tweets, posts, likes and deluge of data.  Enter the aggregators of our modern times.  These are the websites that sort, filter, contextualize and file for later use.

Newspapers, TV stations and radio stations were the aggregators for local news. Local news budget cuts forced them all to spend too much time on weather, national stories, syndicated coverage and “fluff.”  So you can turn to online sources for faster, more condensed coverage of stories.  Citizen journalists are also starting to enter the arena with specialized coverage of politics, sports or hyper-local events.

The problem is not getting news and information on your own terms, it is dealing with the incredible data dump every minute of every day.  Aggregators of the future will use algorithms to set your specific wants, keywords and issues.  Some do this now, but the results are a bit sketchy.  My Yahoo! and Google news seem to find some strange stories that don’t fit the parameters.  Newsle tracks your Facebook “friends” throughout the Internet, however be careful because the news and corresponding profile picture may not match.  You might end up with a laughing beach vacation photo next to a serious skin cancer story.

New inbox programs allow you to divert non-vital messages into files that you can review at your leisure, or not.  It helps you feel like you are in control—until an important email from a friend or client ends up in the diverted box.

All great news about news, but one problem, an algorithm may understand my wants, but the true understanding, reinforcement, reinsurance of Walter Cronkite will be hard to match with a computer program.  So the next step is developing the aggregator brands.

So I got online and took a look.  Everything (other than price, the Times Square area is expensive) looked great, but I started to read reviews.  I found one where the person was taking his nieces to NYC.  And the room had a bad view and the clerks at the desk were rude.  I won’t put up with that so I booked another hotel.

Westin lost a sale.  I went back to take a screen shot of the review and saw a few interesting tidbits:

1. The post is five years old.  How could I make a decision based on 5-year-old information?
2. The review was from a friend of a Facebook friend so I was inclined to give it a great deal of credibility (that is a cool feature, but I don’t know this friend of friend from Adam).
3. The review was still 4 out of 5 stars, but the negative language used made me think the entire place was filled with poor service.

The review was very close to my experience so I gave it undeserving credibility.  The negative review also outweighed my friend’s personal recommendation even though it should not have had the same validity.  The real problem is that there were not enough sufficiently positive reviews to outweigh this negative review.

We all need to encourage more positive reviews and likes as possible.  Many of us only deal with negative issues.  But dealing with positive experiences is becoming more important.

When people have a positive experience with you, one idea would be to hand them a card asking for a positive review either on special sites that deal with your organization or in social media.  Detailing where to review is critical to making sure you have enough positive reviews to outweigh any less-than-perfect reviews.