You can thank consumer criticism for the breakup. In a dramatic letter published on the Huffington Post website last week, Gap’s president, Marka Hansen, addressed the redesign, citing the natural evolution of brand and store as a key motivator for modifying the logo. But consumers revolted and filled Gap’s Facebook fan page with criticism. But after getting an ear full from consumers all weekend, Gap announced its decision to stick with their original logo early Monday morning. Although the design was created (and assumedly tested) by Laird+Partners, one wonders whether this debacle nods to increased company and consumer social media interactions in the future? Will new concepts and future redesigns be tested first in private and then on public networks?

Social media implantation surveys are a way of reaching potential survey participants while they are interacting with online sites and may have a few minutes to share an opinion. Given the foreknowledge of where to locate potentially millions of survey participants, social media sample collectors have crawled out of the woodwork after building up their databases. As a social media sample collector we recently met with explained, many internet gaming sites require gamers to pay with virtual money or points to play games online. Sample collectors realized this fact and have teamed up with gaming sites to offer virtual dollars for online surveys. The survey is seamlessly implanted into the participant’s page and can be accessed through a quick link. After completing the survey, participants get paid in virtual dollars and continue their gaming experience instantly.

The cost benefit – virtual world means virtual money, meaning costs in the real world are typically lower than in the average quantitative roll-out. The drawback here is simply this – these methods capture mostly general respondent types, meaning “a woman” or “an 18-year-old who uses Facebook”. The depth is lost when trying to reach buyers who may have more complex behavioral or psychographical reasoning for purchasing a product or service. Participants with more than one or two unique qualifications such as “moms who work at Wal-Mart and have two kids” will still have to be recruited intentionally by a skilled sample sourcer.

When it comes to mobile phone surveying, the benefits and pitfalls are split almost equally. The sample is usually gathered from a company database, eradicating the middle-man. This manner of cutting corners is a time saver to surveyors, but is going to be an issue for sample collectors who rely on old-fashioned methods to gather survey participants. Another downside to this type of survey is that, yet it is ideal for quick polls and opinion surveys, more logical or lengthy surveys are just not practical. So far the most advanced method of collecting and analyzing this data is by way of exportation to an Excel file. All in all, these two methods may make for a quick and dirty source of information, but ultimately they still serve as a companion to in-depth surveys that require hand-chosen participants. The last thing we researchers want to do is skimp on data quality even if it means getting results a little bit slower.

Giggles ensued as each woman talked about her “ideal” man. All this before Mustafa and Iain Tait teamed up to do a perfect storm of viral marketing. The 48-hour weekend campaign featured the sultry-voiced, smooth-muscled Mustafa’s filmed responses to a slew of people who posted comments or questions to the Old Spice spokesman online (notable responses are to celebrities Ellen DeGeneres, Rose McGowan, and political correspondent George Stephanopoulous). Clearly, Wieden+Kennedy hit a home run with their extended campaign, pulling off the social media marketing event of the year. The original commercial was nominated for a Grand Prix award and the latest installment of YouTube videos should stick with the internet community for a long time and in many manifestations.

More importantly, Wieden+Kennedy may have found the secret to actually selling body wash to men through catering to the eyes and ears of women. For most dudes, body wash is not an inherently cool thing to purchase nor is it top of mind in the store. Guys are known to lather up with any bar, chunk, or semblance of soap hanging out in the shower, leaving appalled women everywhere to search for, long for, and even lust after a character like the Old Spice man played to perfection by the brawny Mustafa. While AXE commercials use bathroom humor and Playboy-style sex appeal to reach their target demographic, the sleepy Old Spice of your grandfather’s generation has wised up and reached out to the holder of the purse strings, the man, man’s woman. Only time will tell the result of Old Spice’s hot new man’s impact on overall sales, currently Red Zone body wash sales have dipped. But hey, it can take awhile to wake a septuagenarian up.

1. an oceanographer
2. a chemist
3. a marine engineer
4. and at least one expert on the problem

(yeah, might need at least one of each of these…)

but a group of Dutch architects and engineers has started up a research project to explore the idea of creating a sustainable island nation out of the trash floating in the Pacific.  The project has been heralded “Recycled Island,” and the goal is a livable and scalable habitation the size of Hawaii’s big island.

The early mock-ups bring Venice,  Dubai,  and science fiction to mind, but the project is still very much in the early R&D stages and far from a reality.  People love Dutch design for architecture and urban planning, not to mention their credibility in environmental solutions, so despite the distance from the potential island, this idea has sparked in the Netherlands.  And why not beckon the world’s greatest minds through online publishing and networking? The project has been spreading across magazine websites,  blogs, and press releases this week (I saw it here), and the group networks through Facebook to various other sustainable design groups.

Some virtual ships, machines, and robots and things building Recycled Island in Waterworld, er, the Pacific

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter (and others) can help brands integrate with their users, customers, etc., on a continual basis. It gives them the opportunity to combine websites and related audio/video content to their brands, connecting users to each other as well as to the brands. In return they’ll share your interests with their networks. It sounds logical and obvious, and it is.

Another idea brought up in the article is a push for more online stores on social networks (something that makes a lot of sense to me).  If people know exactly what they want and can get it online, they will. It saves them time and money.

I also believe that a brand (digital or not) must follow the social media scene in order to survive. If you’re not always engaging with your audience online through interesting and compelling stories, the risk will be that your competitor does. The social media geeks seem to get it while many brands don’t. What do you think? Read the full article, here.

My temporary attempt at living with less connectivity is not spontaneous. For several months I’ve been pondering the “slow-media” movement. I first heard about this movement while listening to the radio on a lazy Saturday when a NPR marketplace segment featured a new adopter of the movement, New York journalism professor Jenny Rauch. Over the airwaves Rauch proclaimed she would eliminate digital media from her life by turning the clock back to 1985. So no e-mails, no texting, no DVR. A land-line, television, and a handful of records would inhabit her new digital free life. Sounds like bliss, right? Imagine the freedom of not feeling obliged to reach out and respond to every message, Twitter feed, or friend request. It’s this sense of unbridled abandon I’m seeking while overseas.

But if you are one who likes the taste of digital Kool-Aid connectivity and think this movement is lacking a fan base, it must be noted that the slow movement is gaining some steam in the business world as it stretches past the realm of personal liberation. In fact, it’s latest incarnation exists in the realm of journalism where it’s referred to as the “slow-word” movement. A Forbes article published at the cusp of 2010 suggests that journalism should take a hint and follow suite reaching out to consumers with less frequent installments of quality work. McSweeney’s has pulled together an excellent example of the ideal “slow-word” publication in it’s “San Francisco Panorama“.

As 2010 marches on it will be interesting to see how this new social attitude and movement not only impacts the world of journalism but also the consumer marketplace. Though the year is new, I’ve already heard many personal accounts of “information fatigue”, best described as an inability to locate or analyze accurate information thanks to the barrage of uncredited sources taking up road space on the internet superhighway. The new popularity of social media has also caused some consumers to question how to balance their virtual world responsibilities with real-world activities. Only time will tell how the marketplace and consumers will adapt to the hyper-connectivity of today’s media world. As for me, I’m going to unplug and take things slow for awhile. Signing off (for now).

So you like the music video you are watching on the YouTube window embedded in her webpage? Well, just wait for Apple’s iTunes advertisement to pop up on the video screen and link you to the power of a one-click purchase of the mp3.  You don’t even have to stop watching the video.

Lady Gaga’s viral dominance is fed directly through her website LadyGaga.com. Here Gaga links viewers to her Twitter feed, Facebook page, YouTube channel, and iTunes store. It’s easy to navigate because the various media platforms are combined into one simple user experience. This, in turn, makes it easier for consumers to listen and purchase Gaga merch – from albums to a pair of stylish new earbuds – all while receiving personal updates from the pop queen via her Twitter feed. Here you can truly plug into Gaga’s world 24/7.

This social media cocktail has proved an effective elixir for Gaga and her fans, pushing the “Telephone” video into the spotlight before MTV or VH1 got a hold of it.  Now the artist has surpassed the record industry’s antiquated medium of delivery (video request shows or top ten countdowns). Social media cuts the power from the industry giants and puts it directly in the hands of the artists.

It is interesting to see how artists are embracing social media and turning it into venues for social marketing that directly and personally engage the artists with their fans.  Lady Gaga isn’t the only one who is taking advantage of these new platforms, she just happens to have figured out a way to unite them all in a successful global media campaign that not only reaches thousands of people, but allows them to feel a personal connection with her at the same time.

There are over 300 reviews for this product and most of them mock it.  From pictures of 50 car pile ups to reviews such as:

I loved my Laptop Steering Wheel Desk so much I got one for my 90yr old mother. She is an avid crossword puzzle fan and now she can work on them while she is driving back and forth from bingo at the senior center. One cautionary note be careful of those jerks that stop at yellow lights, my poor mother rear ended one and the airbag drove the desk back into her stomach which ruptured her spleen, well after a short down time I’m glad to say she is back on the road and cranking out those NY Times crosswords once again. Thanks Laptop Steering Wheel Desk you have made my mothers life more complete.

While the product looks like it’s  right out of the Onion and may have a life this Christmas as a gag gift, it’s important to remember that conversations outside of a brand’s control are taking place all over the internet. Listening to consumers is becoming increasingly important as they do more and more of the talking themselves and tune out or warp a brand’s marketing messages.

This week two very different organizations’ policies about participant depictions of their events were heavily discussed in the news: The Burning Man Festival and the SEC Conference. For different reasons (one concerned about privacy & control, the other about profit and partners like ESPN), each of these entities are essentially saying that they might actually own your recollections and stories about their events.

Many brands are beginning to wade into the social media space and are wondering how best to adopt social media and interact with consumers in a new way.  I would argue that these two examples illustrate the worst in social media policy. The key is to allow consumers, participants, people to have the conversation they’re going to have anyway:

• If it’s positive for your brand or event, leverage it and try to ride the wave of good will to help promote.
• If the attention is negative, do what you can to learn from the message being spread and correct the problem. Often proactive approaches create enough goodwill to turn the PR problems around.

The great thing about social media is that more and more people are getting the chance to participate and tell their stories. From a research and branding perspective, it opens a whole new insight into consumer behavior and attitudes. Attempting to control the conversation, regardless of the motive, will only backfire.

What’s interesting is that while this is going on, the news breaks that Facebook has purchased Friend Feed, the site designed to share your entire interwebs life with your friends. The interesting thing about Friend Feed is that it’s always seemed much more powerful and nicer looking than Twitter but not as widely adopted. It will be interesting to see how this acquisition unfolds and what it means to both services.

Interestingly enough, Friend Feed users are already complaining about the acquisition, just hours after it has been announced. Here’s hoping that Facebook will bring more users to FriendFeed and not just cannibalize its features into their own site.

Gareth Kay wrote a great op-ed piece for Agency Spy that got me thinking. It’s all about having a conversation instead of a lecture. What’s interesting is that social media seems to be becoming less and less about having a conversation with everyone, more anti-social in a sense. A few sites I’ve come across recently have pointed that way for me:

• HP came out with Gabble recently. As the New York Times puts it, the NotForYouTube. Essentially, it’s a social media site that limits the social. The user controls who sees their video and the scope of the conversation. Instead of seeing how many hits you can get to become the internet star of tomorrow, it lets you have a conversation.
• Another site I’ve learned about (thanks to my wife Shannon) is Yammer. Essentially, instead of using Twitter to have a public discourse about the mundane details of your life, Yammer is about a closed circle of co-workers having a private conversation. 

Subtle inward twists on ideas that are typically used to broadcast and all of the sudden social media is more about using technology to converse than finding a way to self-broadcast. When you look at sites like these in combination with the forthcoming Google Voice, it’s becoming clearer to me that the social media revolution is going to be more of a shift in how we have conversations than a revolution in what we’re saying.