If you like this video, we are sure you’ll enjoy Gregory Ng’s video interview on  an Effective Way to Use Video in the Marketing Plan.

We couldn’t agree more with Wayne’s thoughts on video, which is why moving forward we are going to showcase lots of videos on the GBA blog, starting with this one.

The Green Buzz Agency Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people   If you have insight on Marketing to share with our audience, contact us. Or learn more about Washington DC based GBA and our video production prowess!

We interviewed Wayne last week at the SXSW Interactive Conference in Austin, Texas. Wayne was leading a panel discussion on Blogging and Web Video.

Wayne Sutton is an entrepreneur, strategist, and producer with a passion for video blogging and social media. With nearly 10 years experience in the technology and social media sector, he’s provided counsel to business leaders ranging from founders of small start-ups and representatives of non-profit organizations to CEOs of large andsmall corporations. Follow Wayne on twitter @waynesutton or visit his website.

We’ve all seen the new Pepsi logo, and been struck by it’s resemblance to the Obama campaign logo, but what would you reasonably imagine it took Peter Arnell, the designer, to create it?

A recently released PDF (yes, a boring old PDF) revealed the possible background for the Pepsi logo. In 27 pages, a multitude of justifications are put forth. To some, this is the sophisticated cutting edge of design, to others it’s a load of mumbo jumbo designed to get people talking about Pepsi (like us!).
Here is the full release which is worth a read, but let’s take a look at some of the contents right here.

First is a diagram showing the golden ratio as it applies to the Pepsi logo. It seems to make some sense, but let’s move on.

How about the “Pepsi Energy Field”?:

Or how the new Pepsi logo is impacted by magnetic fields, sun radiation, and wind motion between 2008 and 2010:
And did you know that every can of Pepsi now has it’s own gravity field as well.?
The Pepsi Universe? You bet.

So, you’ve seen the document, or parts of it, but how do you think it was received in the blogosphere and in the design world? Check out a few opinions we found:

1. It’s a hoax and an effective way to create buzz

• Erik Hinton, The Pitt News: “Fake or not, “Breathtaking” is the Sokal Hoax of our times. If the document is vetted as legitimate, a punishing blow is struck to advertising and aesthetics as a rampant waste of money on puffed-up nonsense.”
• Lee of “A Hundred Avatars”: “I still wonder if that design brief was a viral leak…”
• Jessica Hartstein of Culture-Buzz.com: “Is it part of a viral campaign? It looks like we’ll have to wait for the real answer. In the meantime, Pepsi can enjoy its ride on the buzz wave.”

2. Arnell is insane/fleecing Pepsi

• Mediabistro’s AgencySpy: “Pepsi paid more than $10 mil. for the logo design.”
• Peter Arnell himself?: “It’s all bulls––t,” he said. “A logo on a can of soda? Please. My life is bulls––t.”

3. The Design World is corrupt and this is proof

• Reddit commenters: “It really hammers in the stereotype of Advertising in general, and the complete idiocy that goes in to marketing.”
• Stephanie Smirnov on PR MAMA: “It’s fine to be smart and provocative (and yes, sometimes strategic explication requires sophisticated diagramming and fancy-pants words), but a person can go too far.”

What do YOU think? Comment below!

Thanks to Dan Dawley for his expert help with this post!

Learn more about GBA and our video production prowess!

The GBA Blog provides insight for Marketing Decision Makers and other fun people

by Nick Barron

The one question I get asked, when someone learns I use social media for a living, is, “So what’s the next BIG thing?”

I tell them I don’t think it’s another Facebook or Twitter or some other new twist of technology we haven’t yet seen.

Instead, I tell them I believe people are going to start pulling back. They’re going to realize how much social media has consumed their life and how much privacy they’ve sacrificed, and they’re going to start the Social Media Pullback.

As a social media professional, I’m not suppose to say this. I’m suppose to champion the technology that puts food on my table, and it’s sacrilege to publicly suggest the hordes of people flocking to social media (which is what gives social media value to companies and brands) are about to realize they went too far.

But this is what I’m hearing, seeing (hello Facebook Exodus) and feeling. (Besides, isn’t what makes Don Draper such an excellent ad man is that he is the consumer his clients are trying to reach?)

If people increase their privacy settings, begin weeding out Twitter followers and Facebook friends, start limiting how applications interact with them in online communities and even delete accounts, it doesn’t render this social-media-as-a-tool-for-brands thing useless.

It will, however, cause at least two things to happen:

1) The pretend social media professionals will disappear.

2) Brands will have to get smarter about how they interact with social media users.

On the first point, and I don’t mean to call out anyone in particular, but I’ve noticed over the past year that the number of “social media experts” has exploded. I’m all for more people evangelizing the technology I love and believe in, but it’s getting loud and crowded and something is going to have to give.

I can’t imagine being a brand trying to hire a social media professional right now. There is no certification process, no defined way to prove you are what you say you are, except what you put on your Web site and Twitter page.

(And I’m not just talking about individuals. I’ve noted agencies who’ve rushed into the social space without proving they know what they’re doing.)

This will change, though, as people begin pulling back their use of social media because those who really understand the social space, who truly get the space’s foundation, will know how to adjust with this shift in users’ attitudes. These true social media professionals will be right there with the shift, not fearing it and even taking part in it.

On the second thing that will happen, brands that are jumping into social media as a function of one department or another are going to have to change.

As I’ve said before, social media is not a marketing or PR or advertising or customer service tool. It’s all of the above. It’s none of the above.

Brands that continue to insist social media lives within one area will find it harder and harder to derive value from their investment in social media because, as people pull back, they will start by eliminating their interactions with those brands that annoy them in their communities and then those brands that provide the least value.

The only reason users of social media ever embraced brands in their communities is because they thought they would get something out of it. Whether it was to save money, an easy way to resolve an issue or to learn about the inside of their favorite brands, users didn’t opt to interact with brands as a way to show support for the brand, at least not primarily.

As users begin the social media pull back, they’re going to limit and eliminate interactions with brands that don’t interact with users in the true spirit of social media.

Brands expecting users to show support for them in social media and expecting users to care what the brand has to say, without wanting to hear from the users, will find their followers/friends dropping. They will notice that when they speak, fewer and fewer are listening.

The Social Media Pullback is nothing to fear or deny. It’s simply a shift by consumers (users) and the good social media professionals and the strong social brands will benefit from it.

- Nick Barron, Green Buzz Agency Social Media Consultant

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