El Gaffney

Getting Young Latinos to Vote

An example of how an organization targeted the Hispanic Youth market online.

I’ve been meaning to post this video (below) for a couple of weeks now since Gonzalo Perez of Motivo Insights showed it at an ESPN off-site. It’s been online since May, so I’m already late to this party. But isn’t that the Latino way! (Don’t worry that’s not whitey speaking out of turn; he and another speaker confirmed this was not just a stereotype that day.) Anyway, Voto Latino teamed up with Declare Yourself to get young (18-29) Latinos involved in the voting process (first and foremost, by getting them to register to vote). This, one in a series of videos, is the result:

“La Pasion De La Decision” definitely seems to resonate with the members of this audience, who embrace their hybrid Hispanic-American lives. They no doubt feel a connection to Telenovelas (whether they grew up with them or through their parents/grandparents) but likely think they are just as over the top as their non-Hispanic counterparts/friends. The message doesn’t get lost in the spoof, IMO, and benefits greatly from the story being played by Wilmer Valderrama (of whom, I’m an unashamed supporter) and Rosario Dawson (of whom, I’m certainly not ashamed fan). Also check out episode 3, for a cameo by Craigslists’ Craig Newmark.

Te sigo amando.

Tags: celebs, genY, latinos, videos

The New School vs. The Old School

For those of you not up on the latest hip-hop feud, I recently read on Kanye West’s blog (and was reminded today on Chet’s) about the beef between Ice T and Soulja Boy.

Rather than embed each of the now 4 videos central to this rivalry, I’ll just link to them and describe the history as best I can to get you up to speed.
1st: Ice T disses Soulja Boy on DJ Cisco’s UrbanLegends Mix Tape it gets posted on YouTube by RealTalkNY.net
2nd: Soulja Boy comes back at Ice T through a webcam and posts it on his site iSouljaBoy.net and YouTube
3rd: Ice T responds to Soulja Boy through a video taken in his home by RealTalkNY.net which then gets posted to YouTube
4th: Soulja Boy makes this animated video as a response to Ice T

Whether you agree with T that SB single-handedly killed hip-H-O-P is not important to me. (Rhyming, as always, is!) I’m more interested in how it highlights the digital divide. That is, this conflict seems to really capture the new school vs. the old school mentality not only towards hip-hop but also towards the new digital mindset. This is more than merely the comfort with using Web 2.0 technologies such as YouTube (or as Ice T calls it, “the YouTubes” and such); it is the way that the collaborative nature of the Internet changes our way of thinking and acting.

Sure, Soulja Boy gets in a few jabs on Ice T like calling him older than the Internet (I don’t even want to know what he thinks of John McCain’s age). Sure, he calls out Ice T based on the things he finds out about T from Wikipedia. Sure, he looks straight into his webcam to make the video and does so with friends around. But more importantly, the Web helps him see the world as a place where we can all win. He doesn’t see the hip hop game as a zero sum game. In fact, we probably have a better chance if we collaborate with others. We actually have an even better chance if we involve our audience, our fans. He redefines the competitive set. He believes in the power of coopetition.

As a Gen GuY and GalYs on the edge of X and Y (see sidebar with links), I feel we are in a unique position to empathize with both sides. We have an ability to understand Ice T’s gripes and Soulja Boy’s retort quite naturally. We feel disappointed by Soulja Boy’s lack of respect and lack of command over the English language as well as by Ice T’s lack of appropriate language and lack of constructive feedback (mentorship or solution). Most of all, though, we want to bridge the digital gap through better, more constructive and instructive communication. On- and off-line.

We’re down for whatever. Holla!

Tags: genY, hiphop, web2.0

Don’t Be Ben Jacobs

Came across this undeniably funny-because-it’s-true article in the Onion today thanks to Chet. The article’s title is “Ad Campaigns Appeals to Young, Hip, Influenced-By-Ad-Campaigns Demographic.” An excerpt:

“This is exactly the type of customer we’re looking to reach,” said the campaign’s chief strategist Ben Jacobs, 28. “It’s showing tremendous impact on the cool, media-savvy rebels who distrust authority, prize alternative culture, think outside of the mainstream, and are willing to base their actions entirely on advertising images presented to them on TV. How dope is that?”

So this post is just a reminder for me and other Gen GuY and GalY planners (or creatives or account peeps) out there not to become Ben. And a reminder for marketers to really get to know their audience on a deeper level even if they’ve picked the demographic wisely.

via Someecards. By the way, this was the featured e-card when I just visited the site. Pure gold.

Tags: advice, genY, onion, planning, someecards

Do Day: A Commercial or Two

I should have saved Sherlock for Do Day, but since I didn’t and I’ve been running around in the rain all day, I’m going to cop out a bit and pass along what I think are pretty strong spots our London office recently did for Honda.

Actually, as I was thinking about commercials that explicitly talk about “doing” (vs. commercials with a strong call to action), I couldn’t help but think about IBM’s recent campaign. So I went to find the latest spot I’ve seen called “Avatar,” which you can see here:

As much as I can’t help but take it personally that this is how most adult businesspeople view young professionals and our Web two dot zero ideas, I do admire that IBM (and agency) seems to really know its target. But as I looked for this video (and found a few that had been removed from YouTube), I also came across an interesting article on CNET showing IBM’s chief executive, Sam Palmisano in Second Life. In fact, it seems he has two avatars.

I read from an article that’s a little more than a year ago, “IBM foresees a sizable business in providing the software, computers, and chips that power 3-D worlds, and in advising clients on how to take advantage of them to market or sell products.” Now, either they are changing strategies (and beliefs). Or the point of the spot was to say that IBM can help you get more out of these virtual world opportunities. If it’s the latter, I have to say that message didn’t quite come through. Oh yeah, and young people explore, try, fail, learn fast, etc. etc. In short, we do!

Tags: action, genY, honda, ibm, wk

For the Love of Earth

I read a scary post a couple of days ago on John Grant’s Greenormal blog. It has (like many others) been on my mind since. Also, like these “others” (not in the Lost sense of the term) I’ve offered to help. So the first thing I figured I’d do was pass on the link above.

As John says in his comments he’s going about doing something by first working to create a concise, clear, and compelling video and then when it’s ready, use it to spread the word. I will, of course, pass that on. In the meantime, I have been be considering another one of his comments as well as a recent article by Seth Godin.

Other SG’s post, “Fear, hope, and love: the three marketing levers”. He talks about these three emotions as the primary reasons (individually) that people take action. JG commented, “…but i do know that from academic studies in memetics (ideas that spread like viruses) bad news always spreads faster than good. In the past I have looked at case studies like the Y2K bug.”

So it seems like Fear is going to be the lever we’re pulling for this message in order to get the word out quickly. This makes sense to me. But I wonder if there’s a way to flip the Love switch soon after. And I wonder if an Obama win in November could impact the decision on which lever becomes most effective (vs. McCain, let’s stick with fear or if Hillary could get Gore in the Cabinet). I wonder if fear made An Inconvenient Truth such a hit. And I wonder if fear was the best way to convince people to make the small changes laid out at the end. It seems the type of action we’re asking people to take would impact the approach (lever).

I couldn’t help but think on my way into work today that a problem of this magnitude would need to tons of optimism and love. I think uniting, organizing, and calling my generation to action (and those younger) requires it. We won’t be shocked or scared into making the major changes this necessitates. We’ll, as Seth said, “aim for love.” If the meetings we had for Live Earth at Planning for Good in New York are any indication, we’re looking for our cause (should have found it by now). I’m really interested to hear the specific feedback from Live Earth about all suggestions as well as to know how other city teams tackled the issue. My feeling is we’re ready to be heroes because we love this planet.

Note: Ed has already offered his (and the group’s) assistance, which is great. Any ideas are appreciated.

Tags: action, earth, genY, pfg