1. How Adam Yauch and The Beastie Boys Brought Hip Hop to Suburbia | The Good

Adam Yauch, aka MCA, one of the three emcees from seminal hip-hop group the Beastie Boys, died Friday, May 4 of cancer at the age of 47. Part New York City legend, part musical pioneer, Yauch is already dearly missed if Twitter, Facebook, and other social-media sites are any indication.

2. Maurice Sendak, Children’s Author Who Upended Tradition, Dies at 83| The New York Times

The cause was complications from a recent stroke, said Michael di Capua, his longtime editor. Roundly praised, intermittently censored and occasionally eaten, Mr. Sendak’s books were essential ingredients of childhood for the generation born after 1960 or thereabouts, and in turn for their children.

3. Confessions of Social Media Manager | Digiday

Those who handle social media at brands can have it rough. There’s often just one person that’s doing all the work. There’s the constant pressure of gaining likes and the issue of not being able to tie social media efforts back to ROI.

4. The Path from Social Brand to Social Business | Social Media Today

Social Media is pervasive and is becoming the new normal in corporate marketing. Brands who get this right are starting to build their own media networks rich with customer connections numbering in the millions. Right now, Coca-Cola has over 40 million fans on Facebook, but they’re hardly alone. Disney follows just behind with 35 million fans, Starbucks boasts 29 million, and Oreo, Red Bull, and Converse play host to over 25 million fans.

5. Newspaper’s Poor Advice for Readers Blamed on Art Director Fail | Adweek

Friday’s cover of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s Living section suggested that you shit yourself. This unintentional message is the result of a poor graphic effect applied to the headline “Suit Yourself,” or perhaps it’s just a crappy font choice.

A New Hope

Small organized resistance can take down large obstacles.

Much like the Death Star, major brands and companies are large targets that are seemingly indestructible.  Small companies or organizations today stand much better chances of taking on these giants than ever before.  Social media has become the “Force” by which company secrets or misdoing can be exposed and used to take down the large Death Stars.

Empire Strikes Back

You can’t enter a fight and expect to come out unharmed.

Luke never expected to lose his hand to Vader.  The rebellion never though the Empire would chase them all the way to Hoth.  Brands attempting to take on large companies or brands online should not think that they will not be counter attacked or have their name smeared as they try and take down others.   When people (or brands) are attacked, they will “Strike Back”.

Rushing off before you ready can be disastrous.

Luke should have stayed with Yoda, trained harder and then left to save his friends when he was ready.  Brands should not venture off in to social marketing until they are ready.

Return of the Jedi

You can’t bargain with some people.

You don’t bargain with a Hutt.  And likewise some people online cannot be won over, all they want to do is trash you brand.  Venting is a way of relieving stress and doing anonymously online is a great way to do it.  So don’t expect to quell all dissenting voices when you go social, just try and make the positive ones louder.

Don’t discount the older methods.

The rebellion would fail without the Ewoks and their catapults and slings.  Likewise, social campaigns will usually fail if they are not backed up by the old reliable methods of advertising such as through television, print, or banner ads.

Prequel Trilogy

Bad Content will alienate your audience.

Enough said

Shelley is also asking for people to send in pictures of their rooms that are in need of an update.  Lucky winners will have their rooms featured on a future episodes. You can submit you room on her new blog site here.

Welcome to the weekly edition of The Lowdown!  We take a look at what real people think about ads starring real people, what rock bands are doing to atract ad agencies, this year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the new window shopping and Google+ Hangouts.  Enjoy!

1. What Do These Real People Think of Ads Starring Real People? | Adweek

Brands have been rethinking their use of costly celebrity endorsements in light of the soft economy and stars’ overexposure and embarrassing slip-ups. At the same time, we’re seeing companies like Red Lobster and Ford turn to ordinary people to promote their products.

2. Rock Bands’ Hottest Tour Stops: Ad Agencies | Advertising Age

It’s not listed on their official tour T-shirt, but in February rock band O.A.R. played an important venue in Richmond, Va.: the Martin Agency. As free streaming music and video make it tougher than ever for musical artists to earn a living, they are increasingly forging relationships with agencies in hopes of striking a commercial licensing deal.

3. Jimmy Kimmel Beats President Obama with Most Tweeted Joke | Mashable

This year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner was the most social ever, with more than 60,000 tweets being fired off about the event – affectionately referred to as “#nerdprom” by attendees and viewers. Winning the award for most tweeted-about moment: comedian and television host Jimmy Kimmel, whose jabs about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’ weight netted 765 tweets per minute.

4. The New Window Shopping | Bazaar Voice

Instantly-sharable photography lets consumers share not just of their view of the world, but also their view of brands. On Pinterest, for example, users collect images by searching pinboards of both friends and strangers identified as having similar interests, and “re-pinning” images to their own collections for inspiration. Colleen DeCourcy, CEO of Socialistic, describes the activity as “shopping without money.”

5. How to Use Google+ Hangouts For Your Business | The Social Media Examiner

Are you using the Google+ video hangout feature? Are you looking for some creative ideas to use hangouts? Keep reading to discover how your business can connect in a personal way with your customers using this face-to-face video conferencing tool. Hangout Features Google+ has been updating the regular Hangout features.

1. CHCH Apologises to its viewers | CHCH

Lets start with a story that has CHCH making news outside of the Hamilton Area, because of a problem some of our viewers saw Friday morning. At about 9:30 their broadcast signal was overrun briefly by inappropriate video – pornography to be specific.

2. Is the Digital World Killing Creativity? [INFOGRAPHIC] | Mashable

Sure, you can use that smartphone to create an emotionally stirring Instagram of the waffles you had for brunch in mere seconds. But that same device can also serve as a ball and chain for the working world: emails constantly arrive, even during off hours; LinkedIn requests buzz after networking events; and has that important new contact followed you on Twitter yet?

3.  Facebook Shows It’s Subject to the Laws of Advertising | Advertising Age

Facebook is predominantly an advertising business, and its latest filing shows it’s not immune to the advertising business cycle. Like a lot of ad businesses, Facebook sales slowed from the fourth quarter of last year — which includes holiday season-ad spending — and the first quarter of 2012, a period when a lot of marketers pull back spending.

4. Google Lobbying Dollars Explode | Adweek

Google isn’t fooling around when it comes to Washington. The search giant spent $5.03 million in first quarter, a 240 percent increase over the same period last year and an all-time high, according to federal disclosure records filed with the U.S. House of Representatives.

5. Better Together: YouTube and TV ads | Google Insights

Do users engage with online pre-roll ads the same way they do with TV ads? Pre-roll video ads are playing an increasingly important role in online media plans, and many advertisers wonder how these newer formats compare with traditional TV ads.

Being under 25, I know most of my generation has never seen Dr. Strangelove, but the lessons it teaches us about war, politics, and human nature are still relevant today, as well as still being funny despite the fact its almost 50 years old.  The movie also has many lessons that apply to the social media world.

While the whole movie is an absolute masterpiece, the following exchange highlights some important ideas that social media has to deal with.

“I’m not saying we wouldn’t get our hair mussed”

When companies decide to engage in Social Media, your hair is going to get “mussed”, depending on the breaks.  And those breaks are your consumers, both past and present.  They are the ones who control your brand in Social Media and if you have wronged them in the past, then those breaks aren’t going to go your way.

“Sir, you can’t let him in here. He’ll see everything. He’ll see the big board!“

This is the reason many fear going into social in the first place.  They don’t want their consumers knowing everything the company is doing.  If you only offer products or services in certain areas, or have pricing structures that very on a regional basis, then having one national social media strategy is not the right move.  Localise your social media to give unique and personal service on a local level.

“That’s precisely the idea”

If you don’t have regional differences in product/service, then nothing should stop you from transposing your entire digital presence into social media.  Image sharing services, video hosting sits, review sites, directory listing, menu hosting websites, recipe websites, forums, and many other services are out there which you can use to gain wider exposure for your company.  If you have information that a consumer may find useful, then there is probably a social media service with which to gain more exposure.

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Lowdown where we are taking a look a web giants guarantees regarding its online GRPs, how the Blue Jays are turning to social media to better connect with their fans, the Titanic’s 100th anniversary, custom tabs on Facebook and what builds a brands reputation.  Enjoy!

1. Nielsen, AOL Chase Ad with TV-Like Rating System | Ad Week

Is Nielsen‘s online measurement service ready for prime time? AOL thinks so-and is guaranteeing against Nielsen’s new Online Campaign Ratings. While Nielsen’s gross ratings points are used as currency ­by the entire television industry, its online GRPs are generated in a very different way and then parsed so that they are, in the words of Nielsen’s Steve Hasker, “exactly comparable to TV.”

2. The Toronto Blue Jays are ‘Ready’ | Strategy

The Toronto Blue Jays are back for 2012 with a campaign that moves beyond the “Hustle and Heart” that marked the past two years, says Anthony Partipilo, VP marketing and merchandising, Toronto Blue Jays.

3. If Titanic Had Twitter | The Social Marketing Blog

April 15, 2012 marked 100 years since the R.M.S. Titanic sank in the North Atlantic, taking the lives of over 1,500 souls with her in those icy waters. And over the last year or so, the commercial side of the enterprise has been heating up at an amazing pace.

4. Facebook Custom Tabs Are Not Dead, They’re More Alive Then Ever | Social Mouths

Marketers have been in a period of  adaptation for the last couple of weeks, creating new strategies to improve their communications, adapting to a new marketing approach through more visual content and storytelling, and why not, what to do with Tabs.

5. INFOGRAPHIC: What Builds A Strong Reputation? | Marketing Magazine

As the saying goes, “familiarity breeds contempt.” Yet as the results of this year’s Marketing/Leger Corporate Reputation survey show (see the upcoming May 7 issue of Marketing Magazine), when it comes to companies and their brands, ubiquity leads to respect.

This week in the Lowdown we look at Facebook’s acquistion of Instagram and what it means for mobile ads, Google’s sci-fi fashion statement, the new Masters Champ, the attention span of today’s youth and the science of gathering social media data.  Enjoy!

1. Marketers hope $1B acquisition means better Facebook mobile ad products | Ad Week

At least Facebook knows that it had better tread carefully with Instagram fans. In announcing its $1 billion acquisition today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a point of saying that Facebook was committed to developing Instagram independently. “We believe these are different experiences that complement each other,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Timeline.

2. Google: Here’s What Our Sci-Fi Glasses Look Like | Mashable

We’re more than a quarter of the way through 2012, and as you may have noticed, we have failed to acquire silver jumpsuits or jetpacks. In fact, aside from that headset in your ear, smartphone in your pocket and tablet in your purse, everything is looking quite boringly un-futuristic.

3. Who is Bubba Watson and Why is He Holding a Pink Driver While Wearing a Green Jacket | SBNation

Because I am sports fan, and he is probably my mom’s favourite golfer at the moment, I would like you to meet Bubba Watson. Pink driver, white clothes and all, Bubba is your 2012 Masters Champion. If you don’t know his story yet, get to know the man who drives a General Lee, hits the ball a mile and is trying to raise $1 million for charity.

4. Study: Young Consumers Switch Media 27 Times An Hour | Advertising Age

It’s every advertiser’s worst nightmare: consumers so distracted by a dizzying array of media choices that they no longer notice the commercials supporting them. And its time might be closer than you think.

5.  The Science of Mining Social Media Data | Digiday

Consumers produce incredible amounts of social data every day, and the data can help marketers talk to the people who want to hear from them with the right type of messaging. There’s more to it than just optimizing marketing, i.e., targeting ads. Often the discussion around social data, like all digital data, begins and ends with ad targeting. But that’s only half of the picture, if that. Social data is a powerful source of insight that can craft new marketing strategies or even entirely new products and services.

Last weekend the entire OKD Marketing team spent 3 jam packed days in New York City!  We took a double decker bus tour through Manhattan, visited the John Lennon Memorial, hopped on a ferry to see The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, looked out on the city from the Top of The Rock and ate at some great restaurants.  Countless memories were made throughout the weekend and I asked a few of the people at OKD about their favourite memories from the trip.

Phil King | President

Definitely the “former bar tender’s ashes” on the bar at the Holland Bar around the corner from our hotel.

Len Olynyk | Partner & General Manager

Having been to NYC numerous times, I thought would be great idea to keep everyone together when traveling to events by letting them experience how real New Yorkers commute on the subway.

Seemed like a great idea, however, after a few drinks, when you finally get 30 people into a subway station, all waiting for you to get their tickets and long lineups at  ticket machines that choose to work when they feel like it, it suddenly becomes a little overwhelming, sort of like trying to herd 30 chickens in one direction!

Then trying to “swipe’ them all through without causing serious injury when they go too fast and the toll bar is not yet open.

But with perseverance, by the third time we ventured into the subway system, everyone went through like clockwork, with all 30 people easily moving through the toll gates, getting on the right train, and all getting off together at the same stop.

Now that was a favourite NYC moment for me!

Ed Rogers | Digital Strategist

A full weekend of events and not a formal meeting on the agenda!

Mary Ditta | Creative Director

When I think about it, my memories are mushy ones… The first night when we were all waiting outside the front of the hotel. Everyone together, taking pictures, laughing, excited about the next couple of days and the newness of it all. Just kind of made me thankful that we were given this opportunity and that we work with a great bunch of people.

Larissa Cardey | Account Co-ordinator

My favourite memory from the trip was the food! In New York City, you can find almost anything you’re craving. How about deli fresh lox and cream cheese on a bagel for lunch, followed by a seven-course Italian dinner? After touring the city, digging into steak frites and key lime pie at a pub ends the day perfectly. There’s also street meat and giant-sized cupcakes…

Nelson Do Seixo | Art Director

Not only was it my first trip with OKD, but my first to the Big Apple. I quickly came to realize that walking the city was the best way to truly experience it.

Our trek through Central Park was an eye opening one and in retrospect, one of my favourite parts of the trip; 843 acres of green space, historical monuments and landmarks. From Strawberry Fields, which pays tribute to the late John Lennon, to the Central Park Zoo which holds over 1,400 animals of more than 130 species, to the 106-acre billion-gallon reservoir and the oldest public monument in North America: The Obelisk.

An interesting lesson learned that I can take away from this experience is that there are rules to walking in the right direction while exploring Central Park! If you choose to ignore the signs, you might land yourself a fine from the Central Park police (and yes they do patrol the park by horse).

I am grateful to have experienced this city in such a way and I am proud to report that my legs have now forgiven me for the nearly 10kms of walking!

Ryan Howard | Web Designer

There were so many moments during this trip that I couldn’t possible pick just one, so here is my top five (in no particular order).

1. The not-so drink free bus tour
2. Adjoining washrooms at Schiller’s Liquor Bar (made for some confusing moments)
3. The not-so realistic chance of winning the $640 million Mega Millions Lottery
4. Tim Horton’s in NY
5. Pizza at 3:30 am

Brent Clifford | Group Account Director

My favourite memory was the impromptu pub crawl that started at “The Palms Restaurant on Greenwich Street” and led us through TriBeCa, Soho and Greenwich Villages. It just goes to prove, it’s the journey that matters, not the destination.

Step One – Know the Industry

Social media is entirely different for every industry, from the social media sites used, to topics of discussion, to the power distribution between company and customer.  These variables and more make social media unique for each industry, and knowing more about the relationship digital communication has with sales will make the task of finding a social media niche easier.

Step Two – Know your audience

You need to get in touch with your audience if you hope to have a successful social media campaign.  This means researching their online habits and ensuring that the social media options you have chosen will help you get in touch with and inform your consumers online.  This process involves finding the sites that they visit, finding out the forums and discussion boards they participate in, as well discovering where the balance of power lies.  Does power lie with the consumers as a whole, or do brands and companies maintain authority over discussions regarding their brand and industry?  The key influencers can be hard to find, but it’s their influence that will mean most in any long term social media campaign.

Step Three – Know Your Competition

If you want your audience to interact with your brand online, then you need to give them something unique and valuable.  This becomes very hard when you realize that all your competitors are trying to do just the same.  This means that you need to create unique social initiatives that give added value for your consumers, and the best way to ensure you are adding value is to make sure that your competitors are not creating something better.

Step Four – Know Yourself

Know what resources you have at your disposal, including both media and human resources.  Know how often you can create new, engaging content, as well as how often you are able to respond to comments which will arise from engaging consumers.

In the end, knowing your limits as a company will enable you to craft social media campaigns which do not outstrip resources, but still achieve goals and further company objectives.