Dear Santa,

Here is the letter I sent Santa (i.e. my family email contacts today)....


Dear Santa,

I've been a real good girl this year. I got good grades, I was a good friend, I graduated from college (yeah Santa, it's been a long run but I'm still a believer), I moved to NYC (like you always knew I would since you know my dreams), and now I'm working a big girl job and trying to land an even better one in the meanwhile. I brush my teeth and make my bed. I even save my pennies!

That's where you come in... All I've got is pennies and I'm living one of the coolest parts of my life! I'm already half blind without these contacts and one day I'm gonna be really old and just want proof of how cool my life is now. Yup, you probably guessed it big guy, all I want for Christmas this year is a camera! What's that you say, what happened to my other cameras over the years... they all broke... too much fun was had.

But, I'm a big girl now. I want MORE... videos, zoom, RED (you'll see), and confidence that comes from holding the coolest, most exquisite camera EVER. I know you're really busy and that kids have started asking for techno toys instead of stuffed bears and toy cars. So, to help out the elves I thought I'd give them a picture of what I wanted... save time with brainstorming and all.

You can find it right here you high-tech Christmas man: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1933520_1933522_1933477,00.html

I know you'll think it's expensive... good thing you live in the North Pole with all your lil workers! But, if you run out of time putting all the bells and whistles on this thing, I don't mind finishing the work... just have the print department print out a bunch of green bills (I'm in NYC Santa), and I'll find the rest on a money tree someday.

Thanks for helping me get closer to my dream Santa, I know everyone at home would be happy if I sent them some pictures sometimes.

Don't worry, the cookies at my house will be homemade... no break & bakes here!

Merry Christmas,

Gabrielle

My Top Website List

I was recently browsing Time Magazine 'Lists' and came across one about the 50 Top Sites of 2009. I'm not sure what the rhyme or reason is behind them or if someone just got a really fun assignment, but I found it interesting. I further googled other top lists and realized that if I were to make one, I'd have some necessary additions...

This is how it went:

TIME MAGAZINE's List:

Way to be creative guys... sites like Yelp, Flickr, Amazon, Netflix, Youtube, Twitter and Skype were included. These, to me, are givens. Anyone reading their Time magazine online and not in paper format knows these sites and wasted their precious time reading this flash article to find out things they already knew. We internet users want MORE, we crave the limitlessness of our technilogical world. Some interesting ones were:

• Popurls - a cornicopia of top news from social media and traditional media
• Academic Earth - free lectures from major universities... for lifelong learners, sorry no degree rewarded
• SuperCook - tell it what you have and it will tell you what you CAN have, goodbye chinese takeout
  

And ones I can live without: Delicious, California Coastline, Craiglook (they reorganized Craigslist and said it was basically ghetto... I happen to like the simplicity and peace sign of this digital market) and Get High Now.

Another list I found is a NY Times "Newsroom Navigator." This is actually helpful like it claims and not just fun/interesting... downside: not as interactive and pretty either. However, it lets you scroll or sort by category to get to useful, factual information FAST!

And now the GRAND FINALE! My top sites:

• Tastespotting: a digital potluck!
• Got Gabs: The internet's NUMBER ONE site for SUPER USEFUL information (wait, what?!)
• Weather.com: Yes, the weather man is hardly right but he's generally in the right ball park which makes all the difference when picking out the right outfit.
• Gmail.... who ever doesn't have this link, I want you to google it and invest a minute of your time to catch up with the rest of us.
• iTunes Store: it's online and it provides the means for me to say there is NO excuse for you to not have been watching MadMen
• Krop: portfolio website with creative job opps (check me out)
  

Like I said, Facebook/Twitter/etc are givens in this Al Gore created world.

What's your daily FAVE site?

PR Promo of the Day

Sometimes the best PR is from a citizen journalist, promoting from the heart... creating overflow PR efforts.
My cause today is Big Warm-Up. Give a coat, warm a heart.

The Big Warm Up is a Lands' End sponsored community outreach program that aims to provide coats for the homeless by asking able people to donate a coat at the Lands' End Shop at Sears as winter approaches.

This campaign was kicked off in Boston on November 2nd - where the Lands' End team has paired up with the Massachusetts Coalition for Homeless. It runs for the next 28 days nationally and needs your help! In Boston (Prudential Center), there is an installation with 786 figures representing those in the city without a coat. Imagine the number nationwide and worldwide. It may be easy to walk past someone asking for change, but try and ignore almost 1000 blank faces standing out in the cold.

Visit the interactive flash-site (link above) and you'll find heartbreaking photos but mostly statistics about people who are homeless in many different environments (the street, hospitals, recovery centers, etc.) If you need the facts in order to donate they are all there. Or, if you're going to get a new winter coat anyway, donate your old one and receive 20% off your purchase made at Lands' End Shop at Sears. (It's not JUST a marketing ploy... it will actually do some good.)

• Did you know that 3.5 Americans are homeless and 1/3 of that total is comprised of homeless FAMILIES?
• 1.3 million of our homeless are CHILDREN. (You can't tell me they all didn't try or have a drug problem... imagine if that had been you.)
  
• Today, 1,843 coats have been donated... not enough.
• Only 146 coats have been donated in the state of NY. There are enough people in NYC alone to give up an old coat to someone who will wear it everyday instead of the one day you will wear it to clothe all of NY's homeless.

Can't just give for the sake of giving? You'll get a unique code when you donate that can be traced back to where your coat was donated.

Also, promote the cause to friends by passing on word of mouth info, copying the link to people around the office or becoming a fan on Facebook. See social media IS the new media, and our slow but sure answer to world peace! (I may or may not have just watched Miss Congeniality.)

Fish and Wine?

Do you fall victim to the claim that red wine CANNOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCE be mixed with fish?

I DON'T.

However, I thought that it was just something grandmas had passed down to grandmas over the years and was founded in nothing more than conspiracy. (Don't go swimming for 30 minutes after you eat... Your face is going to stick like that...etc) I happen to enjoy red wine and I happen to enjoy fish; why should I not be able to combine my joys?!

Well, according to The Wine Lovers Page I scientifically am WRONG and cannot mix my red wine and fish.

Why you ask? Well, they found that IRON levels determine pairing. ScienceDaily concluded: "The findings indicate that iron is the key factor in the fishy aftertaste of wine-seafood pairings, the researchers say, suggesting that low-iron red wines might be a good match with seafood."

Pinot with your salmon, go ahead! But don't you dare mix that Merlot with your cod tonight! Grandma's watching! Turn's out 'all wines naturally contain some iron from the soil - 30 milligrams per liter is typical, according to Emile Peynaud's Knowing and Making Wine'. But some iron levels don't create that fishy taste that people thought pairing all red wines with fish did.

The study was conducted by pairing Asian dried scallops with a variety of wines. (Design flaw? That's not exactly a forgiving flavor to compete with...). The article suggests redoing the experiment with a variety of seafood and fish ranging from delicate and mild to dark and oil.

So moral of this fishy story?
Jury's still out... while there is scientific speculation that iron levels determine pairing possibilities, it's all based in a maybe not so smart experiment. So drink that heavy red wine with your grouper... but if it's fishy, they warned you!

Picture Social Media

Social Media is something that hasn't been decided on yet...

You all know how I feel about that (ABSURD! It's NEW, not OPTIONAL).

Check out this picture that describes selling social media as part of a campaign to companies that are not willing to jump on board:So teach the dino that maybe he wouldn't be a dinosaur heading for extinction if he wasn't so stubborn!

Social Media Finds

I come to the interesting realization lately that some people in the 'progressive' industry of advertising are reluctant to admit that social media is a necessary media. It is not an optional addition to an integrated campaign; it is the most needed component. Social media is not for young, technology obsessed people; it is for the masses.

How many of your parents are on Facebook? Sending you tweets? Texting you? Forwarding Youtube videos around their office?

Exactly.

(Think I'm over-exaggerating? There was an 80 year old woman getting her touch, all-purpose phone fixed at Verizon yesterday while I was there. She was rude and felt entitled, yet she still had a better phone for social media than I do. She made the employees program her facebook notices, emails, aims, and speed dial for her. She couldn't fathom living without these notices on the go. And she's 80!)

And why are people social media obsessed? Because in an ever so fragmented society where individualism trumps social gathering (unless it is for the purpose of the self-interested act of networking), people are still people and cannot escape their internal craving for relationship and interaction. Social media not only connects people to their peers, coworkers and friends/family, but also creates relationships between individuals and the brands they support.

In a recent job interview, I was asked why I was so confident that alcohol companies would benefit by participating in social media. If not for the obvious answer that social media is a new media, not an optional one, then it is because people can choose to be a 'friend' or 'fan' of something without much commitment on Facebook, they can choose to 'follow' someone on Twitter with a single click of the mouse, they can watch a 30 second viral video for free while taking a mental break at work. Social media is commitment free, yet for anyone online (and we all are), the single decision of choosing to click on something you like (say gin if that's your thing), enables that brand to send you messages, updates on your homepages and more. You never have to click on them if you don't want but the repetition of that brand name may creep into your mind to help make a decision when the time comes.

A tweet is the modern jingle - repetitive inclusion of the brand's name into your everyday life. What company wouldn't want to be a part of that?

Older clients see social media as something for their grandchildren. It's not. Twitter and facebook can sell golf balls and whiskey just as well as skateboards and video games.

Some also think it's pointless or a risk. As I've been saying, social media is NEW MEDIA. Newspapers and magazines are dying. They have moved online. We don't need tangible things, we need interaction and experience. AKA Social Media.

Don't believe me? Look at this chart comparing advertising in 1980 to 2009:

And just for fun... check out the new social media workout plan - an affirmation that social media is enough a part of our daily lives to be the basis of our health (directions here):

You may not like it. You may think it's silly or petty. BUT, it's here and it's happening. Embrace it before your brand is left behind with the dinosaurs.

**Also, if you don't understand social media, hire someone that does. You can't ignore it. Actively learn it's benefits. Don't buy money scheming books like Social Media Marketing for DUMMIES. The medium changes DAILY and cannot be taught by a book, but only be experience.**

Consolidate Your Life (Online that Is)

Have you ever wished that you could go to one page when you signed online to see your shameless celeb gossip, the weather, top news (real news, not celebrity), sports scores, funny Youtube videos, real time updates of pop culture in general?

No, I'm not talking about the iGoogle page you think is so awesome or the 'top sites' option available on Safari or your ancient technique of using bookmarks. I'm not talking about Twitter either (although that could be close if you follow all the right people and they tweet in order).

I'm talking about a find that I'm not going to let slide... in fact, it's already my homepage.

Let me introduce you to your new online best friend:

THE DAILY BEAST.

You've heard of it already? Well, thanks a lot for sharing. As for the rest of you who have never fed the beast (you can suggest news stories if you find them first! Now that's street journalism combining with real journalism at it's best), ENJOY!

It's like setting the NYTimes as your homepage except that it comes complete with a 'cheat sheet' so you can 'read this, skip that' and leave home for the day or exit your office in the morning knowing all the top news, juicy gossip and essential pop culture talking points you could hope for in a jiffy. Ready to efficiently be obsessed with the web, click here!

Seriously, all the stories are true yet it's entertaining because it is such a good mix of information. How else would I have found out that they are putting a McDonald's inside of the Louvre? (Tacky much?)