Strategy & Brand

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world… it’s the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead

It took me 30 minutes this morning to buy wheat pita bread at the grocery store. Not because the lines were long or the aisles congested, but because every brand of bread I selected from my grocer’s shelf contained High Fructose Corn Syrup. I scoured the bread section looking for any loaf sans this pesky addition. Oatmeal, Wheat, Whole Grain, Rye, White…There wasn’t a single bread brand or style that didn’t contain High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS). There was, however, HFCS-free wheat pita- so I bought it instead…

I’ll survive just fine on organic oatmeal instead of toast, but the question remains: why does the food industry still insist on using an ingredient that customers are consciously, actively trying to avoid for sound, healthy reasons?

It’s obvious the food industry has caught on to our growing concern for dietary health and nutritional value. Take a stroll down your local grocery’s cereal aisle and you’ll see an interesting new phenomena- nutrition labeling on the front of cereal packaging. This ‘front of packaging labeling’ isn’t regulated by the FDA, and it’s being used to make unhealthy cereals appear healthier than they really are- by showcasing only selective nutrition information on the front of the package (you’ll find more info on front of package labeling here, and here). This unregulated nutrition info has been shown to decrease the likelihood that people will read the actual ingredients list or peruse the FDA regulated nutrition facts panel.  Instead of making cereal healthier, they’re making cereal look healthier.  Instead of removing corn syrup from our food, the Corn Refiners Association began  working to make corn syrup look healthier by lobbying to changing the name of High Fructose Corn Syrup to the more natural sounding name: Corn Sugar. The Corn Refiners Association has spent more than 30 million dollars to air a series of new commercials attempting to convince the general public that our bodies can’t tell the difference between real cane sugar and corn syrup- as long as it’s eaten in moderation. Experts, including “Sugar Shock” author Connie Bennett have argued that eating corn syrup in moderation is nearly impossible since it’s the cheapest and therefore most heavily and widely used sweetener on the market (it’s found in 2 out of every 3 items available in your local grocery store). It’s in our cereal, our pasta sauce, our baby formula… Instead of helping us eat healthier, live healthier, the Corn Refiners Association dropped 30million dollars to make corn syrup look healthier than it is. (You’ll find an interview with Connie Bennett discussing the disturbing truth about these 30 million dollar corn syrup ads via AdAge’s youtube)

At BlackDog, we know: The better you are, the better you look. Brands don’t live in vacuums, they impact, influence, and shape the world around us.  Imagine what 30million dollars could do if it wasn’t being wasted on deception and manipulative spin?

We don’t brand bullshit, and we don’t buy bullshit brands (on or off the clock).  We know, whenever we buy anything, we’re buying more than just the tangible items we’re walking out of a store with. Our dollars, whether they’re spend on branded sneakers, a pint of beer, or a donation to a local not-for-profit, are actively contributing to that organization’s continued existence- for better or worse. It’s time for us to switch our brand loyalty to the brands that are positively contributing to the world we want to live in 10, 20, 50 years down the line.

“Conscientious Objectives: Designing for an Ethical Message” by John Cranmer & Yolanda Zappaterra… An inspired look at the correlation between messaging, design, and social ergonomics. Cranmer and Zappaterra brilliantly tackle the design world’s accidental mantra: “if it looks good, it is good.” Written to fill a glaring gap, this book addresses the impact of design on ethical, sustainability-oriented, purpose-driven messaging.

“Guerrilla Advertising: Unconventional Brand Communication” by Gavin Lucas and Michael Dorrian… This book explores a varied array of noteworthy experimental campaigns that chose brand experience and guerrilla engagement over the same-old same-old way advertising had always been done. While a few of the examples depicted are likely to cause a well-deserved cringe, this read is guaranteed to get your creative cogs wheeling.

“Marketing Lessons From The Grateful Dead” By David Meerman Scott and Brian Halligan… An easy reading case study on how the Grateful Dead broke the rules on purpose, for a purpose.

“This One Time At Brand Camp” by Tom Fishburne… The collected and cartooned satirical “What Not To Do” wit of Tom Fishburne, inspired by brand builders gone enthusiastically awry.

“The Elements of Content Strategy” by Erin Kissane… The charming, pink-haired, content-loving strategist we’ve come to know as @kissane has captured the nitty gritty how-to’s of content strategy and compiled them into a concise little manual that would make Strunk &White darn-right proud. A brilliant guide for accidental and aspiring content strategists alike.

“100 Best Annual Reports 2010” edited by B. Martin Pedersen… A collection of 100 annual reports that convey the brand, utilize design principles, and create distinction. If boring isn’t for you, this book might be.

For more reads we recommend, check out the Top Shelf  Part I.

Narrativity: [nar-uh-tiv-uh-tee]: 1.) the degree to which your brand spunk, funk, credibility, attitude, and vibe shines through your messaging. 2.) Your voice, your verbiage, your tone.

While preparing for a wine-touring camping trip to Watkins Glen, I began perusing the websites of the nearby Seneca Lake wineries and plotting my prioritized must-see, must-visit list for the alcohol-inspired excursion. I was frustrated to find that, with a mere handful of exceptions, every winery’s website looked and sounded the same, and they all lacked personality, pizzazz, and panache. Armed with an adventurous spirit, I finally gave up pre-planning my wine trail route, and decided to wing the whole experience. I visited several wineries I liked, several I very much didn’t, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d accidentally by chance driven right past my dream winery and missed my one chance at true varietal bliss.

If every brand looks and sounds the same, has same perspective, purpose, product, it doesn’t matter which winery you visit or which brand you choose. The one is as good as the other, and if you’ve had one you’ve had them all. If you’re distinct, worthy of note, and you hide behind  the same humdrum look, feel, sound, and practice as everyone else, no one will ever know you’re worthy of their time or attention. When everyone is just a different shade of beige, popped from the same drone mold, we’re all being robbed of an opportunity for preference and our worlds all have a little less color in them. Boring is thievery by complacency.

Narrativity is one of the ways bold brands with a story to tell differentiate their experience, brighten their color spectrum, and tell their too-good-for-boring tale. Your brand’s story is made up of your brand’s real-life, day to day, actions, decisions, products, events, partnerships, sponsors. It’s who you are, how you work, what you do, and why you do it.  Narrativity is the voice, tone, and verbiage you use to tell that vivid, appealing, authentic story. Narrativity is like a person’s distinct vocabulary and speech pattern. It’s the words and phrases you own, and it’s what makes you sound like you, instead of just like everybody else.

Here are a few examples of vibrant, saucy brands that have high degree of Narrativity:

Urban Daddy: A racy, random, irreverent city guide for liquor drinking, women loving, wannabe jet owning, good humored James Bond types the world over. After reading an article or three from Urban Daddy, you and your grandmother could both pick their work out of a line up blind-folded (if it was being read aloud).

Harley-Davidson: Harley doesn’t sell motorcycles, they sell freedom, self-expression, great escapes, and the open road. Harley’s “grab life by the bars”, “leave well enough behind”, “out to free the world” attitude is captured in and on everything from their advertisements to their annual reports.

Kraken Rum: This edge-of-the-world nautical brand is steeped in legend and only distilled for the fearless, seafaring, adventuring, unshaven at spirit. Once you’ve heard a Kraken ad, you can’t help but read the Kraken bottle and the Kraken story using their narrator’s speech pattern- it’s that alluring and distinctive. Kraken’s tone is so consistently conveyed with such a distinctive verve that their narrator’s voice and their content’s verbiage isn’t ever separate from the story, it’s part of their story.

For a sneak peek at Kraken’s vivid storytelling in action, check out their tale of the man-eating, ship-wreaking, sea-monster The Kraken, via their website.

Coffee Fool: Coffee Fool comes with a warning: their coffee is so fresh and delicious, everything else will taste bland and stale in comparison. What the warning doesn’t mention is that everything’ll look and sound bland in comparison as well. While other coffee roasters talk in coffee-speak about notes and tones and soils and geographies, these guys have a style all their own…. An example: the description for their only-brewed-on-Fridays flavor, Vanillamykahlua, proclaims it: “Tastes just like it sounds, with a little Hawaiian rumble in the jungle.” And the description for their knock-your-socks off bacon-flavored brew: “If everything tastes better with bacon, then why not coffee too? Our bacon flavor is not just roasted – it’s spit roasted. It’s so aromatic, you’ll be instant friends with your work colleagues and … any neighborhood dogs.”

“Acceptance of prevailing standards often means we have no standards of our own.” Jean Toomer

Will anyone search out your sponsors’ products and services simply because you permitted their logo to grace your stage, your ad space, your playbill?

Sometimes advertising, sponsorship, and strategic partnership slumming happens because the bills have to be paid, sometimes it’s due to time constraints, and sometimes it happens because some decision maker somewhere didn’t know how to say no to a neighbor, cousin, or golf buddy. Most of the time though, it happens because there just aren’t explicit standards in place to guide right-fit selections and guard against poorly chosen partnerships.

One of my favorite stories on sponsorship and brand standards is the glorious, rebellious, and legally questionable tale of The International Times paper and it’s infamous IT Girl. It all started in 1966 with a unique problem…

Jim Haynes was a young theater director, living in London, faced with a complicated problem. The high cost of his production expenses meant that his entire theater could go under if even a single production failed to woo and wow critics and theater-goers. Jim knew his theater would never be free to experiment until it could afford to fail… So, Jim devised a plan that would make failure financially feasible.

One of Jim’s highest production expenses was advertising. Enter, Stage Left, Jim’s solution: The International Times. The International Times newspaper, later known as IT, was created to provide free advertising and event listings for experimental theater and productions sympathetic to the underground movement .

The only issue IT’s founders, Jim Haynes and editor Tom McGrath, agreed upon was their passionate sentiment on censorship.  Censorship, along with funding constraints, was impairing theater’s ability to experiment. Censorship was also preventing the pre-internet underground community from banding together to support the causes, events, and organizations they cared about.

IT’s second issue made a bold statement by featuring the previously unpublished anti-Semitic speeches of Ezra Pound. The radically offensive speeches were accompanied by an editorial proclaiming the paper’s unequivocal support of free speech and creative expression. The editorial explained that, while IT’s staff didn’t agree with Pound’s views, IT would publish art because it existed, not because their editorial staff agreed with it or because it met a restrictive pre-set definition of “good”. In an interview with Tom McGrath, he explained that the Pound speeches were the paper’s first bold, unwavering, unapologetic stand against censorship. Publishing something that they themselves didn’t even agree with was their way of proving their genuine commitment to free speech, and the paper immediately began to take off.

When art and theater events were banned and canceled by officials due to censorship, IT began helping re-organize events and worked to keep attendees updated on event relocation details. When an art exhibit was banned in Lund, Sweden because the nude model in the exhibit’s advertisements depicted pubic hair and a hash pipe, IT used the paper to re-organize the event. Instead of a small one-time event in Lund, IT managed to host the event at galleries across Europe.

While Jim started out selling the paper by hand, outside of small experimental theaters after late night performances, the explosive expansion of IT’s readership began to necessitate an actual distribution strategy. So, Jim and Tom found locally-owned shops who were committed to the underground community: record shops, bookstores, head shops, tattoo parlors…  and then they made a sign: a sign featuring Theda Bara as the IT Girl. The IT Girl sign quickly became a symbol for something far bigger than theater and newspapers. Something that resonated deeply and passionately with the paper’s readership. The IT Girl was a blazing symbol of a business’ staunch support of the newly united underground community.  If you had an IT Girl in your window, you deserved the underground community’s business. Supporting shops that proudly featured the IT Girl became a way for people to actively and consciously contribute to the continued existence of the brands that supported their values.

IT had standards, standards that centered around their purpose, their values, and their brand identity. Standards that helped unite the underground community, facilitated support for locally owned businesses, and helped shift the hierarchy from who had the business to who deserved the business.

Sponsorship and advertising standards have the power to create value and relevance when they’re consciously designed, clearly understood, and unapologetically enforced.

For more on Sponsorship check out BlackDog’s blog: Banners, Logos, and Neon Lights, oh my!
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Resources

http://www.jim-haynes.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_underground

http://www.internationaltimes.it/index.php?year=1966&volume=IT-Volume-1&issue=2&item=IT_1966-10-31_B-IT-Volume-1_Iss-2_001

http://www.internationaltimes.it/index.php?year=1966&volume=IT-Volume-1&issue=2&item=IT_1966-10-31_B-IT-Volume-1_Iss-2_002

http://blackdogstrategy.com/blog/2010/09/09/sponsorship/

Breakaway brand successes occur when brands with something to say begin speaking to audiences outside their close-knit school of thought.

Far too often, brands spend their all their communications efforts on preaching to the choir. Over, and over, and over again.

Remember our Outside Perspective blog? The disruptive technologies that radically move markets forward typically come from outside industries specifically because they have an outside perspective. The music industry didn’t imagine the ipod, airlines didn’t conjure up “go-to-meetings”, and TiVo wasn’t the brain child of the cable company.

When brands with valuable insights, unique perspectives, and innovative solutions only speak to other like-minded industry experts (who live within the same close-knit school of thought) or only speak to a group of devoutly loyal existing converts, their messages and their influence are limited and constricted. Speaking to the overlapping issues and the different audiences that are empowered to impact change and advance your cause moves your brand out of a category and into relevance…

Let’s take University Brands as our example. Through BlackDog’s activist foundation, Serious Play for Serious Girls, we frequently encounter academic researchers who report that their research is their contribution to their field and to the world at large. These researchers often find themselves frustrated that their research fails to reach the layman audiences who are positioned and empowered to affect the issues said research is helping address: social policy, corporate initiatives, education practices, environmental regulations, the list goes on. Unfortunately, researchers often find that professional networking and having to act as their own public relations advocates diverts too much time and energy away from actually conducting their research- which is the part of their work worth talking about in the first place…

One solution to this dilemma would be to provide researchers with networking and pr advocates who could help their work move beyond the peer community of fellow researchers and into the hands of professionals and activists positioned to impact change.  In addition to the outstanding societal benefits, these advocacy positions can help strengthen the university’s brand recognition, improve the brand image, improve the University’s working culture, increase the amount of outside funding available to researchers at the institution, and help the university to maintain ongoing relevance.

Another outstanding solution would be University Publications- trade journals, industry-oriented magazines, and community-centric industry-oriented blogs. Communications Arts isn’t published by Columbia or the Rhode Island School of Design, Vogue isn’t curated by Parsons, and Wired isn’t produced by MIT.  Examples of universities whose publications are actually speaking to their industries and contributing to the broader conversation are rare exceptions rather than the norm: Rotman, Harvard Business Review, The Journal of Pediatric Psychology…

What operational issues are reining your message in and holding your organization back? Here’s a quick self-audit check list to help identify if the broader audiences you’re positioned to speak to:

Here are a few questions to ask yourself:

What relevant issues is your brand positioned to speak to?

Which audiences would benefit from or appreciate the issues you’re positioned to speak to?

If you could speak to anyone, which audiences would you choose to speak to?

Why would these audiences care about your brand? What about you is relevant to them?

Who else is targeting the attention of these audiences? How will this interfere with your ability to reach them?

What would you have to do differently to reach these audiences?

What are the biggest obstacles holding your message back?

What creative solutions could help reduce or completely eliminate these obstacles?

The goal of branded communications is to say something real: to identify what differentiates and distinguishes your brand in a crowded marketplace, to communicate your relevance, and to address the issues that matter to your customers.

The most effective brand messages do more than just catch people’s attention, they help communicate your purpose and illuminate your operations.

The way a brand operates and is experienced has far more influence on the way customers perceive a brand than do marketing, messaging, and visual identities.  Talk is cheap, experience isn’t.

A cultural shift has happened and we’re all becoming increasingly aware of our social and environmental impact. A growing majority of us has begun to recognize that we’re buying more than just the tangible items we walk out of a store with. Our dollars, whether they’re spent on branded sneakers or a donation to a local not-for-profit, are actively contributing to that organization’s continued existence- for better or worse.

The Big Question is: Why should anyone care about your brand’s continued existence? The answer will likely begin with your mission, your vision, your purpose: your Big Idea. Your Big Idea is what helps re-order the hierarchy from who has the business to who deserves the business. Your Big Idea is grounded in your day-to-day operations and it’s part of your brand’s unique perspective.  Your Big Idea is how your brand will thoughtfully contribute to your industry and as a steward of society. It’s the opposite of a business as usual mindset.

This, right here, is where the overlap between operational branding and communications occurs. Branded communications answer the Big Question. Saying something real, something relevant and authentic, means conveying who you really are, what you really do, and why you really matter.

If you have something relevant and authentic to say about what you really do, you have an opportunity to move of out a restrictive category, to broaden the discussion, and to answer the Big Question.

Need a few concrete examples?

Check out Ally bank: their advertisements communicate their Big Idea and illuminate their operations…
Ally Fine Print Commercial>>

Ally New Friends Commercial>>

Check out U by Kotex: Kotex’s U line has created products with significantly improved function and design. Instead of just making a commercial about their product innovations, they created advertisements and packaging that convey the message that Kotex is doing things differently than everyone else. Kotex showed they know what women dislike about every other tampon brand. These commercials left us with the impression that Kotex knows far more than just what women dislike, they know what women actually want…
How Do I Feel About My Period?>>

“Why are Tampon Ads So Obnoxious?” >>

“Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath
Why do some ideas make powerfully indelible impressions and others just don’t seem to stick at all? Chip and Dan Heath have the answer to what makes some ideas “stickier” than most. The official how-to guide on crafting and conveying ideas that capture attention.

“The Designful Company” by Marty Neumeier
A designful writer, editor, marketer, or advertiser  crafts messages that are relevant, alluring, meaningful, transparent, accurate, and that actually matter. The Designful Company addresses the ways that divergent thinking can help writers align a brand’s messaging with its operations to maintain relevance and drive thought-leadership.

“Content Strategy for the Web” by Kristina Halvorson
The ultimate intro guide to creating, organizing, and managing web content that works. Halverson covers everything from auditing your existing content to figuring out your site architecture and long-term content management.

“Brand Digital” by Allen P. Adamson
Loaded with case studies, research, and the hard-earned wisdom of industry experts, BrandDigital offers an insightful perspective on developing brand presence, touch-points, recognition, and engagement through digital mediums. An outstanding follow-up to Adamson’s book “Brand Simple: How the Best Brands Keep it Simple and Succeed.”

“Art Direction + Editorial Design” by Yolanda Zappatera
An in-depth guide to conveying brand identity and connecting with target audiences through editorial design. Covers everything from layout design to color psychology, pull-quotes, and type- with excellent case studies and full illustrations.

“The Subversive Copy Editor” by Carol Fisher Saller
This University of Chicago Press manuscript editor shares her stories and advice to help writers and editors avoid squashing spirits, injuring egos, and create hostile relationships when editing someone else’s content- or trying to convey some else’s Big !dea. Saller’s tips and tricks are also helpful for navigating problem areas when you’re working collaboratively to engineer copy.

“Slide:ology” by Nancy Duarte
A practical guide to creating vibrant visual presentations- from the presentation experience to communicating your brand, color wheels, and font size.

“Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing” by Mignon Fogarty
The ultimate layman’s guide to grammar rules and their exceptions. It’s clear, concise, and has an excellent index.

“If the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.” Tennessee Williams

The hardest part of crafting an authentic brand narrative is excavating who you really are, what you really do, and why you really matter.

It’s easy rattle off a check-list of standard, homogenized, industry phraseology that mimics what everyone else has always said about themselves. But you can’t differentiate yourself with corporate bologna and cookie cutter content. Saying what everyone else already says just makes you sound like everyone else.

If your narrative, the way you’re telling your story, doesn’t flawlessly capture your real-life story, identity, and Big !dea – you haven’t gotten it right yet.

Excavating what really matters is rarely an easy task, and the process is exponentially more daunting, grueling, and gut-wrenching when you’re close to the story. In “Made to Stick,” Chip and Dan Heath help brand stewards understand what journalists have long called “burying the lead.” While explaining the “burying the lead” concept, the Heath brothers quote the hard earned wisdom of newspaper editor and communications professor Ed Cray: “The longer you work on a story, the more you can find yourself losing direction. No detail is too small. You just don’t know what your story is anymore.” [1] Instead of giving in, giving up, and settling for generic content, focus on what really matters: Your Big !dea, your points of differentiation, your unique perspective.

When you’ve gotten it right, your one-of-a-kind narrative will be inseparable from the real life organization. When it’s right, you’ll know it! It’ll feel authentic, ring true, and resonate with your customers, your employees, and your favorite barista at the corner coffee shop.

[1] Ed Cray, Professor of Communications at the University of Southern California. QTD In: Chip Health and Dan Heath. “Making it Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die.” New York: Random House, 2008. P. 32.

“Social Media isn’t a fad, it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.”   Erik Qualman, The Social Media Revolution(1)

Unfortunately, most companies use their Facebook pages as little more than a new medium for their old school marketing tactics. Facebook isn’t a place for interruption marketing, engagement through bribery, or standard issue syndication and news aggregation. Social media revolves around community and conversations. It’s a place for art, expression, and contribution – not advertising.

In a sea of mediocre Facebook pages, here are a few pages that reign supreme, knock our socks off, and are clearly deserving of a little attention:

Outside Magazine Outside’s page vibrantly, creatively, and successfully connects a spirited tribe. Outside uses their Facebook to connect explorers, adventurers, and outdoor enthusiasts who have stories to tell and hard-earned pearls of wisdom to share.
Outside goes way above and beyond just using their Facebook as an aggregate news source for their online content (which is, unfortunately, a widely accepted Facebook strategy). Our favorite thing about Outside’s Facebook is their use of fan photos. This page’s fan photos are not only beautiful, they’re inspiring- they actually leave us craving adventure and a subscription to the magazine. Adding to Outside’s engagement is the fact that the best Facebook fan photo of the month is published in the prestigious glossy pages of Outdoor’s print magazine. We also love that Outside has kept its wall as its landing page!

Outside gets Facebook!

Skittles and Skittles UK
The infinitely wacky creators of “Tube Sock” and the Midas/Skittles Touch have successfully created two different Facebook pages with posts as consistently random and zany as their commercials. Thanks to the UK page’s “Super Mega Rainbow Updater Staff 2010” photo album and their Update Library tab, you can also meet the Skittles employees who wrote said posts. Skittles’ content rocks, but trippy posts about the antiques of the future aren’t really what make Skittles such a success. Skittles gets its audience, gets the brilliance of the random status update, and really gets Facebook.

Skittles gets a ten out of ten for using Facebook to authentically capture and convey their brand.

Warning: The New York Times tweeting rules applies here- your FB strategy needs to be tailored specifically for your brand. The tone that works for Skittles won’t necessarily work for you, so get your own.

Grammar Girl
Mignon Fogarty is a grammar geek turned super hero. Have an urgent question regarding spelling, punctuation, capitalization, or syntax? Under her super alias, Grammar Girl, Mignon uses Facebook to right the grammatical errors that universally confound us. She also lets us know when her new grammar podcasts and books come out or go on sale. She does an excellent job of starting conversations and has successfully created a go-to forum for those of us not yet worthy of the “grammarian” title. If you dig words, or get excited over Oxford commas, Mignon has a page that’ll fan your nerdy flames.

Grammar Girl gets her audience and uses Facebook to make a contribution!

Eye Magazine
Eye Magazine is a uniquely inspired international graphic design review for artists who contribute to visual culture. From coverage of American fashion trends to the deeply philosophical and socially conscious Buenos Aires Cardboard Book Project , Eye uses their Facebook to provoke thought, showcase remarkable design projects, engage the global artistic community in collective graphic initiatives, and inject inspired foreign perspectives into our news feeds. Eye’s posts are short, include outstanding images, and link us to fascinating content. Our favorite things about Eye’s Facebook are that it exposes us to emerging veins of graphic expression, and that it instantly connects such a diverse community of creators and helps facilitate the exchange of inspired creative thought.

Eye could do a better job of engaging conversation, but they do an excellent job of initiating visual impressions.

Additional helpful links –>>

To see which Tweeters are getting Twitter right, check out our blog Twitter: The Medium is the Message.

For a guide on using social media to make a contribution and shift the way you’re communicating, check out our blog Social Media: The Prize Inside.

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1 Qualman, Erik. The Social Media Revolution

Prescient, timeless and oft quipped, Marshall McLuhan’s Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man  and its iconic quote [1] are as relevant today as when it was penned in 1964.  Here are ten examples of McLuhan’s foresight in action:

@YesIamPrecious
The personified tweets of cross-country fundraising cyclist Janeen McCrae’s (@thenoodleator) bike. As the technologically savvy ventriloquist Janeen peddled across the US for LIVESTRONG, she and her bike tweeted their tales, their banter, and their milestones. This high-energy duo kept track of their hard-earned miles, their flat tires, the roadkill they passed, and the all the other tweet-worthy experiences they had along the way. @YesIamPrecious and @TheNoodleator are excellent examples of twitters that are getting it right!  

@RustyRockets
Russell Brand’s tweets make us laugh out loud. Literally. He keeps us updated on his tour dates and details, his care package needs from his mother, and the more colorful elements of his celebrity lifestyle. Russell gets his audience, he really captures his personality, and he doesn’t ever sound like an advertisement- even when he’s blatantly promoting himself.
Our favorite thing about Russell’s tweets: he gets the @. The tweets he’s addressing to specific people are always meant to be read and appreciated by his entire viewership. He might not be talking specifically to us, but we always feel like we’re in on the joke- or at least enough of it to be amused. Your @’s shouldn’t ever exclude followers. If a tweet will only make sense and be interesting to the person you’re replying to, send it as a DM.  

@GOOD
GOOD’s tweets connect people who give a damn to the news and information they care about, the activists they support, and the organizations that are making a difference. GOOD ‘gets’ far more than just twitter, GOOD ‘gets’ community. Our favorite part of GOOD’s twitter, besides all the awesome article links, is the daily GOODasks question. Everyday GOOD asks a question and their followers get to weigh in on the answer by replying to @GOOD and including the hashtag #GOODasks. The following day, they post their favorite responses on their website and tweet us a link to the article. GOOD is actively engaging with its fans and followers instead of just bribing and cajoling their followers to be more engaged with them. Big Difference.   

@Arjunbasu
Author Arjun Basu uses twitter to weave vibrant, compelling, creative stories in 140 characters or less. His short tales make us laugh, question, ponder, smile, doubt and rediscover our faith in humanity, and so much more… His tweets are fresh, original, and inspired.
We wouldn’t have found Arjun without his twitter- and now we want to read his book. His tweets help him connect with his audience in a way that a pr firm or his publishing house just couldn’t. Arjun gets twitter.  

@TheEllenShow
Ellen uses her tweets to share her vibrant thoughts, her revelations on the eco impact of plastic bags, and behind the scenes peeks into the making of her show. She gets her audience, and she gets audience participation. Ellen rocks at starting conversations. She encourages feedback, she rallies support for great causes, and she really knows how to plug that hash tag! What impresses us most about Ellen, is how approachable and accessible she makes herself via twitter.  

@Mental_Floss
Mental Floss calls itself the magazine “where knowledge junkies get their fix.” Via their twitter, they share random daily mind-bending factoids that brighten our day and engage our minds. @mental_floss is the caffeine free, minty-fresh, mind-restoring, creativity inspiring alternative to a coffee break. Our favorite part of their twitter is their content, but the reason they made this list is their focus. They picked a targeted focus that would resonate with their “knowledge junkie” audience and they never lost track of that focus.  

@GladstoneHotel
The Gladstone redefines hotel art… and elevator music… and how destination brands use social media. This Toronto-based hotel is an excellent example of a destination brand that embraces community. We love that The Gladstone thinks of itself as an “incubator of culture on the web, in the community and beyond.” They provide more than just a bed for their out of town guests, they’re creating reasons to come to town in the first place. From their art fairs to their special events, the folks at the Gladstone get community, get culture, and know how to use social media to help connect the two.  

@Dictionarycom
If you thought Dictionary.com was just for definitions, you clearly haven’t seen The Hot Word Blog or @Dictionarycom. Dictionary.com’s blog and tweets help tell the stories behind the words we’re all searching for, help encourage our inner lexicographers, help keep the dictionary relevant in our technological googable world, and gives breaking news an exciting rhetorical lilt. This is an outstanding example of a brand that uses twitter as a contribution, as a means of helping maintain brand relevance, as a way to shift the way people perceive of the brand (because dictionary.com has more than just definitions), and to help increase advertising revenue without relying on those awful floating ads (By driving attention to the blog and increasing site traffic, they make more in advertising revenue).  

@BigGayIceCream
This adult-themed ice cream truck sells ice cream to grown ups in grown up neighborhoods. Lawyers in suits and heels probably wouldn’t go chasing an ice cream truck down the street, so these ice cream guys post their truck’s estimated route on their website, use their twitter to give live updates, and use their foursquare to pinpoint the truck’s exact locale. Plus- the twitter design scheme simultaneously captures their brand AND matches their SpreadShirt site (https://biggayicecreamtruck.spreadshirt.com/)! Three cheers for coordination. @BigGayIceCream does lose a few points with us for their tone- it lacks pizzaz, AND, they reply to other tweeters so frequently that we can’t just take a quick peek at their profile to see where they’re at.  

@WheresLloyd
Lloyd’s taco truck roams the streets of Buffalo, New York, bringing delicious hot tacos to hard-working hungry folk. @WheresLloyd is how the citizens of Buffalo know where and when Lloyd’ll be rolling past their offices, construction sites, and dog parks. Their t-shirt page isn’t as fancy as @BigGayIceCream’s, but these guys have their twitter tone down pat! They do an excellent job of conveying their brand through their tweets and a quick peek at their profile tells us exactly where they are and where they’ll be.  

[1] http://individual.utoronto.ca/markfederman/article_mediumisthemessage.htm 

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WhaleFail copyright Yiyinlu www.yiyinglu.com/sc/illustration 

Book cover courtesy Library and Archives Canada http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/innis-mcluhan/030003-2040-e.html