Marketing and content trends, tools, and tips that are always one step ahead of leading edge

I participated in and won my first Halloween hat contest today in the office. And I bet you want to see a picture. Well, you’d be underwhelmed because there was nothing sexy about it. It wasn’t particularly slick or expensive either. My recipe:

• a) Create something that’s a spin on “hard hat.”
• b) Sew 37 strips of paper onto the brim of a hat I already owned. On each strip, type a phrase such as “saying good-bye,” “waking up when it’s still dark outside,” “affording a home in San Francisco,” “canceling a gym contract,” “the bottom of bunk beds,” and “the mountain when you’re learning to snowboard.”
• c) Use a really small font so that my audience has to step forward to take a closer look and interact with me until they figure it out.

When it’s time for your next creative effort (or costume contest), remember the following formula: simple idea + clever content + engaging execution = big win. (Note: big budget not required)

Happy Halloween!—Anna Marie F. Panlilio, marketing specialist

If you were smart, you were still in bed at 5 a.m. this morning. That’s where I wish I’d been. Instead I was click, click, clicking away at my laptop in hopes of scoring two nights at a luxury hotel somewhere across the globe for a mere $19.28 per night.

Leading Hotels of the World launched a worldwide promotion to celebrate its 80th anniversary. “At 12 noon GMT (8 a.m. EDT) on October 1, 2008, we will release a limited number of the world’s most-coveted hotel rooms at the unprecedented rate of USD 19.28 per night. For 80 minutes only, registered consumers will be able to secure the celebratory USD 19.28 rate and experience a multitude of our iconic members.”

From 5 a.m. until 6 a.m. PDT (when I surrendered and went back to bed), the only thing I saw on their website was, “Sorry! Due to the overwhelming number of consumers currently trying to access this promotion, your request is being delayed momentarily. Please be patient, don’t get discouraged, and retry in a few seconds by clicking here, or by going back to http://www.lhw.com/1928.”

LHW may understand the finer points of hospitality and luxury, but they do not understand the importance of building server infrastucture to support a worldwide viral promotion. During the next few days, we shall find out if they understand how to control the damage their failed promotion has created.

This is the current message on their site.

How would you handle this failure? Is an apology and promise of a do-over enough? —Anna Marie F. Panlilio, marketing specialist

This morning, shortly after Apple released the iPhone3G, mayhem transpired all over the Web when new customers were unable to activate their phones, and those trying to update their old iPhones stalled during the final step of the process.

Stories of the troubles quickly hit the front pages of major news sites. Bloggers, twitterers, and online community participants complained with vigor, some in a noticeable panic.

Some examples from Twitter:

cianna: So I held off upgrading yesterday to avoid what just happened me: I am looking at a very pretty brick.

cianna: today discovering how dependent I’ve become on iPhone: SMS & web. Feeling unreachable, hunting for wifi w/ MBP. Almost a luddite.

toss_garbage: iPhone 2.0 - An upgrade for disaster

judysalinas: 3g iphone day has turned into the black mac day. Wtf. Go nokia!

nickreed: Why is it that my iPhone was more stable with unsanctioned jailbroken 1.1.4 software, then with official 2.0 software? Nice work Apple.

Earlier this morning, the Associated Press spoke with an AT&T spokesman, who pinpointed Apple’s iTunes servers as the culprit. And what did Apple have to say? As of 4 p.m. this afternoon, nothing. Their corporate website makes no mention of the problems. The latest news in their “Hot News” section is, “Apple has raised the bar with iPhone 3G,” a post from yesterday. Their twitter account (appleinc) was last updated three days ago.

Take a cue from Zappos and JetBlue

Today’s consumers expect more than this, especially from a company like Apple, which has a loyal base of fanatics, many of whom are bloggers and twitterers. Wired’s article, “The See-Through CEO ,” cites numerous examples of corporations that own up to their problems, choosing to be more open with the public.

JetBlue’s corporate communications department monitors and responds to what’s being said about them in the twittersphere (see Jonathan Fields’s blog post, “Is JetBlue using twitter to spy on its customers…or blow their minds? ”).

The CEO of Zappos is also a power twitterer. He has 7,950 followers, actively tweets, and pays close attention to the conversations happening there. How close? Back in May, I tweeted, “@zappos Thank you for the super speedy delivery of my new Asics tiger sneakers. Ordered Sunday of a holiday weekend and received today!” Forty minutes later, he sent me a direct message: “glad you had a great experience!”

You don’t have to ask if I’m going to buy shoes from Zappos again. As for upgrading the firmware on my iPhone v1? I won’t be doing that anytime soon. —Anna Marie Panlilio, marketing specialist