Commercial of the Week Via "AdWeek's Top 10 Commercials of the Week"

This week in commercials were all great. They were bursting with creativity. I couldn't choose my favorite. But to pick one, I'll choose the Pepsi Max "Mirrors" featuring their new spokesmodel, Beyonce:

I absolutely love me some Beyonce, but the reason I picked this once isn't because I thought it was the best. Yes, it was a great commercial. The nostalgia of Beyonce's career was on point. But is this a commercial for Mrs. Carter's upcoming tour, or for Pepsi Max? It doesn't make me want to go buy a Pepsi Max, but it does inspire me to buy tickets for her concert.

Every few years Pepsi has a big name performer as the face of the brand. They shell out millions of dollars for their contract, but for what? They are still number 2, behind Coke. If you ask me, this does more for Beyonce's career then Pepsi's.

Webby Awards Throwbacks via Mashable

The Webby Awards just celebrated its 16th year awarding Internet greats and trailblazers.  Teaming up with Internet Explorer, they dug into the archive of winners and nominees in their Gallery + Archive. Check them out!

http://mashable.com/2013/04/02/webby-awards-gallery-archive/

Pope Francis has Social Media Interns?

With the election of Pope Francis as head of the Catholic church earlier this March, many people, Catholics and non-Catholics wondered if the new Pope would create a Twitter account as previous Pope Benedict had. The answer came March 13th minutes after Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina stepped out as the newly elected Pope.

"HABEMUS PAPAM FRANCISCUM" (meaning, We have Pope Francis, in Latin) read the tweet from the resurrected @Pontifex Twitter account that was disabled shortly after former Pope Benedict announced his retirement. Since then, the twitter account has been consistently updated by Pope Francis's team. 

Soon after Pope Benedict announced his retirement, Villanova undergrads Sean Hudgins and Danielle McMonagle were hired as social media interns. 

Read the original article and interview from Mashable. 

http://mashable.com/2013/03/18/pope-francis-social-media/

The Hashtag

Although the use of a hashtag has been a huge part of the social media marketing world for a few years now, solely to Twitter. The hashtag is a tool to "mark keywords" through the social media site. It creates a category for similar thoughts.

For instance, live tweeting at an event and adding a similar hashtag (i.e., #SXSW2013, or #GrammyRedCarpet2013) creates a community of users who are using that hashtag phrase.

Right now in Washington D.C. the Supreme Court is discussing the issue of same sex marriage. The Twitter-verse is a buzz with opinions and support for each side of the matter. Users adding #DOMA or #SCOTUS have linked themselves to other users tweeting on the same matter. When a hashtag is used, it automatically hyperlinks the word or phrase to the "trending" list, which is where it matches up with other common tweeters.

Businesses use this tool to connect and track their customers. By promoting the usage of a certain hashtag when tweeting about particular product or service, it connects that community to each other and the business.

Many other social media platforms have adopted the hashtag tool to connect its users. Check out this article on Flickr recently adding the hashtag tool to its iOS app. http://mashable.com/2013/03/17/flickr-hashtags/

Commercial of the Week Via "AdWeek's Top 10 Commercials of The Week"

AdWeek picked 10 great ads from this week, per usual. Here is my number on pick from the bunch.

Microsoft has it spot on in my opinion. As a consumer of Microsoft programs, Outlook is a utility in Office that doesn't get much love from the advertising world. Maybe it speaks for itself, in any way it is cool to see what Microsoft has come up with to put Outlook in the top of our mind. 

Microsoft has unveiled so many great products and updates this year. Showing their roots a little bit with an spot solely featuring Outlook's new capabilities is smart. Not to mention that not-so-subtle nod supporting marriage equality, how could I not like this one! 

See AdWeeks full list here.

Charles Barkley on Twitter?! Via AdWeek: Capital One May Get Charles Barkley on Twitter

Former NBA star Charles Barkley has joined Alec Baldwin as Capital One's spokesperson. The NCAA March Madness focused ads featuring Barkley use Twitter as another connection to viewers. Capital One is using #RallyCry to "tweet your team to the top," which appeals to the majority of viewers. What's the problem with this? Capitol One is hopeful to convince Barkley into creating a Twitter account to promote the "#RallyCry" campaign to his followers.

Barkley previously dissed the social media giant in this video:

Read the original article on the possibility of Twitter hater Charles Barkley joining the social media site.

Charles Barkley on Twitter?

Via Social Times: Visual.ly Launches Tool to Turn Your Google Analytics Stats into an Infographic

Visual.ly recently launched a "visual reporting tool" to translate Google Analytics into infographics. Visual.ly is a database that allows users to present visually appealing data. Infographics are typically used to make boring and sometimes confusing information easily understandable.

When translating data into an infographic, it is typically used for presentation purposes. To make data friendly to those non-industry folk.

See the Social Times story here: http://socialtimes.com/visual-ly-launches-tool-to-turn-your-google-analytics-stats-into-an-infographic_b121986

This image is an example of what the Visual.ly tool can do for your data. (from Social Times) 

http://visual.ly/