Freedom or Death & Shout Out Out Out Out @ Call The Office – 10/25/11
London, Ontario
Browsing Tag
photography
From a heads up on contest giveaways to exclusive invites, I’ve truly been enjoying all that Twitter has to offer, including the opportunity to connect with people in real life who I would have never met otherwise.
Indigo’s first tweet-up get together in February epitomized the power of Twitter when Cammy (@indigogreenroom) invited 9 of his loyal Twitter followers to an exclusive fun-filled evening at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. The tweet-up brought new meaning to the term ‘reading week’, which had brought me home to Toronto at the time, as it shows how reading is not merely a solitary activity; it brings people together.
Given that the event took place back in February, I won’t go into much detail about the event, except to say that I met some lovely ladies that evening and enjoyed the opportunity to meet Cammy in person! Chef Jason Bartenger served some delicious treats at LUMA, including this tasty desert pictured below:
For more insight into the Indigo tweet-up, you can check out Sara Hamil’s rave review, from which you can learn why Ivey should consider creating a case study about Indigo’s thoughtful marketing strategy.
As much as I love Indigo, someone else scrawled this on an Indigo notebook for the record. On a previous page, you can find other girls named Sarah doodling their name with the pencil. It’s such a common name!
After brainstorming similar events geared towards bloggers and trendsetters while working at Matchstick, I finally was able to attend a fall preview tonight at Indigo’s headquarters downtown at King and Spadina.
Walking into the brightly lit room on the sixth floor, I found a room filled mostly with women, all of whom were booklovers and Indigo rewards members. For the first time, Indigo granted rewards members the opportunity to preview Indigo’s fall lifestyle collection, just hours after opening their doors to magazine editors and TV show producers. Lack of media accreditation aside, everyone seemed pleased to mingle and browse while munching on appetizers from Chef Michael Smith’s recipes.
While librarians discussed the potential looming strike, teachers and students tried to hide their anxiety about going back to school and Indigo employees worked the room to chat up event attendees about Indigo’s reward programs and stunning new products. It wasn’t salesy at all, but ideally they should have introduced guests to each other rather than approaching them individually without helping them to forge new connections. Then again, it’s more difficult to make that happen without the luxury of a private dining room, like there was at the tweet-up.
My friend Cora, an English major, is eager to start reading the book by Phillip Roth she received in her gift bag!
Speaking of giveaways, one of my lucky friends from the Indigo tweet-up took home a new touchscreen Kobo e-reader and other guests will soon delve into The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern, which is a highly anticipated book according to Indigo’s team. Check back soon to see which purchases will be bought with my Indigo gift card!
I must also discuss the strategic layout of the room used for the fall preview event. Entering the room mirrored walking into a foyer at a neighbour or friend’s home, whereas this is usually where you would find a branded step and repeat used for photography. The most sales-forward component was a display of leather Kobo cases, but for a company responding to consumers’ adoption of digital readers, that was to be expected and nothing was lost as a result.
The entire room maintained a good balance that showcased how Indigo’s products can be used to create either a classic, sophisticated look throughout your home or quirky, fun atmosphere, depending on the decorative items you prefer. For example, you can easily add colour to a home office with accessories as small as yellow moustache paper clips!
You likely wouldn’t expect such playful decor in a professional setting, but there’s lots of room to experiment with Indigo’s merchandise. For instance, their eco-friendly message wasn’t limited to the tote bags in which goodies were distributed at the end of the night, as a transparent display case set on a desk held pop tabs. Some collect these to donate to charities, while others use them to accessorize I suppose! Meanwhile, vases of flowers and throw pillows offered a feminine touch, while sleek picture frames and modern clocks had mass appeal.
Leaving the event, I realized I may need to return a lamp I bought for my apartment in London because Indigo clearly has a better selection than I realized!
Thanks again to the Indigo team for another great event. Fortunately there were no wristbands required for entry this time!
Waiting in line to meet Shania Twain at Indigo
On Thursday night, Samsung leveraged the ever-increasing popularity of pop-up stores to host their second pop-up concert in Toronto’s downtown core. Last August, Metric played for a crowd of about ten thousand outside of Union Station and it seems that Samsung is making these concerts annual events, this time expanding nationwide to include dates in Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal too. The bands delivered stellar crowd-pleasing performances, so I’m glad I went to see The Midway State once again and to hear the Juno award winning Arkells play live.
Through an effective marketing campaign that included a #samsungsecret Twitter hashtag, press releases and a full page colour print ad in the Metro, Samsung invited Torontonians to see The Midway State and The Arkells, no tickets required. The concert was held in a parking lot at Blue Jays Way and Wellington Street West. The twentysomethings living in condos across the street, some of whom made Bristol board signs, were delighted to have a great view from their balconies.
Reaching out to local influencers, such as Casie Stewart and Lauren O’Neil, who are active on Twitter, ensured that the event remained at the forefront of their followers’ post-work plans. Twitter further played a role in generating brand awareness because retweeting Samsung Mobile Canada granted people like myself, curious as to what they would giveaway, a snazzy Samsung swag bag. Well, let’s not embellish their water bottles and pen too much, but all the items were branded in blue colours and Samsung logos. The only item that directly relates to their Android phones and tablet that the event was meant to promote, is a screen cleaner, which is certainly a useful freebie. Everyone at the event was friendly however and the distribution of free water bottles on a humid evening was certainly appreciated.
Perhaps the product demonstrators should have received better training, given that the Samsung representative I spoke to lacked knowledge about the Galaxy tablet’s camera functionality. After watching videographers capture the performances using the tablets, I was interested to see how they worked, but was unimpressed by his brief explanation.
Overall, the pop-up event organized by Communique was a hit and it put the event planning agency on this marketing intern’s radar. I’m eager to see what other exciting events pop up unexpectedly in the city this summer.
Upon reading a friend’s witty status update, it seems natural to click the ‘like’ button to notify them that you feel the same way about something or find their comment amusing.
This reaction is logical because it’s classier (and quicker) to click the like button, than to write a comment with an emoticon at the end and pretend to be simultaneously winking and sticking out your tongue. You can see for yourself how ridiculous this looks in real life the next time you’re standing in front of the bathroom mirror (possibly with a digital camera in hand, if that’s something you like to do with your friends before uploading said pictures to Facebook).
With the proliferation of SMS-inspired abbreviations and acronyms, shorthand language is becoming increasingly appealing. So instead of saying “That’s funny” or “I agree”, now all it takes is the click of a button to alert your friend that you share similar interests. As Facebook continues taking over the Internet, our use of technology continues changes as well.
Instead of texting or calling someone to say that you empathize with them, you can simply say you “like” their comment (or link etc.). Friends disagree with each other too, which is precisely why people join groups advocating for Facebook to introduce a ‘dislike’ button. Facebook won’t do this anytime soon though because it would lead to too much negative feedback for their invaluable advertisers. Thanks to the ‘like’ button, people who haven’t seen each other in months can maintain a bond they established months ago, without needing to organize the necessary logistics involved in making plans.
As virtual forms of communication become more popular, fewer people need to co-ordinate which friend’s house to go to, where they’d inevitably spend time deciding what to do together. Smartphone apps designed to locate the nearest coffee shop are only useful for someone who actually meets their friend there (or who goes on their own and rudely carries on a phone conversation while placing an order). Secondly, online communication becomes even more enticing, once Internet users recognize the convenience of video chatting on Skype, while wearing pyjamas during a blizzard. As much as Facebook helps us stay in touch with acquaintances and classmates, it is also cultivating a culture of laziness.
No longer is there the same motivation to sit in a friend’s living room and flip through a photo album of vacation snapshots, as this can all be done online now. Sure, there are cords available to connect computers and cameras to big screen TVs, but are people really inclined to do this during family reunions? With Picasa and other web albums, friends and family can view photos at their own pace, read any captions the photographer (or Web 2.0 savvy curator) includes, and comment as often as they like, regardless of geographical distance.
Clicking the like button is an easy way to be friendly, without the social awkwardness of tapping someone on the shoulder and randomly saying hello, so it’s clear why people like it.
As depicted in The Social Network, the Facebook team brainstorms many nifty tools during their late night sessions and I’m curious to see what they release next.