A week from today Cloudbrain will be packing our bags and heading north for the Affiliate Summit East 2010 conference.  We are hoping to meet some of our great affiliates and connect with new ones.  If you are going to be there, come find us!  You can learn more about becoming and TidySongs affiliate here.  You should also follow us on Twitter (we are super cool): Daniel, Kelly, Jenn, Kyle.

(That’s a picture of us testing out our new booth in the office…)

Recently, I lot of companies finding their previously lucrative markets threatened have tried to reinvent themselves and their brands by… changing their logo.  The thinking is that if they update their logo to something fresh and new, consumers will view the brand in a totally new light.  This, of course, is foolishness.

If you haven’t already, you should check out @BPGlobalPR on Twitter.  It is satirical account poking fun at BP’s disastrous PR efforts in the wake of the recent oil spill.  The twitter account’s author recently wrote an open letter to the Media explaining is efforts:

Dearest Media,

My name is Leroy Stick and I am the man behind @BPGlobalPR.  First, let me begin by explaining my name.

When I was growing up, there was a dog that lived on my block named Leroy.  Leroy was a big dog with a disdain for leashes and a thirst for blood.  He made a habit of running around our block attacking anything he saw, biting my dad and my dogs basically whenever he had the chance.  He chased me a few times, but I always escaped because I was/am an amazing tree climber…

Read the rest of the letter.

Nike’s best ad ever? I love the globalism perspective: Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Landon Donovan, Ronaldinho, Kobe Bryant, Roger Federer and Homer Simpson. Read more here.

The recent attempted car bombing in Times Square seems to have dealt a setback to the chorus of social media marketers declaring the end of traditional advertising (social! relational! twitter!).

When asked if he had anything to say, Lance Orton, the hero street vendor that first noticed and alerted police to the suspicious car replied: “If you see something, say something”. Which, of course, is the slogan New York has been using in subway posters ever since September 11th. Not only did Lance see the ads, but in the moment of truth, they caused him to act.

Never underestimate the power of a simple message.

At the recent Future of Web Apps conference, investor Fred Wilson gave a talk entitled 10 Golden Principles of Successful Web Apps.  His third point, Software Is Media, compared consumer software applications to media products like magazines, movies and tv shows: they need their own personality, style and attitude:

This is one that I got a lot of questions on. My view is that software is media today. Particularly consumer software, when people use it, they approach your software in the same way they would approach media. When I say media, I’m talking about a magazine, or a newspaper or a TV show. When you think about the New York Times versus the Wall Street Journal, or you think about Vanity Fair versus Vogue, or you think about Fox News versus CNN, each of these media companies have a voice. They have an attitude, and a style, and it’s unique. It’s different.

I think software has to feel that way. Your software has to have a personality. People have to feel like they’re consuming media when they consume your software. If your software is bland, and has no attitude, something as silly as the “Fail Whale” which became a symbol of Twitter’s inability to stay up, also was a personality. People were walking around wearing “Fail Whale” shirts. It’s embarrassing for the people at Twitter, but nevertheless, it spoke to the fact that there was some attitude and media savvy behind the service and it created a voice that people connected to. That is what I mean by voice, and I think it’s terribly important in a web app.

Good advice.

How affective would this spot be without the song? On whatever project, campaign or strategy you are working on, how can you tweak it to connect with people emotionally? Music is one of the best ways to do this.

A great video of a magician explaining the most important thing in a good magic trick, user experience design and marketing – empathy! Watch it just for the magic, it’s a great video!

Google had a super-bowl commercial for the first time.  You know, just in case you had not heard of them.  If you missed any of the others, you can see all the super bowl commercials here.  Oh yea, and congrats to the Saints.

Watch at least the first 30 seconds of this video (on YouTube).  You won’t be disappointed.