Category: branding

Of Boing Boing, taglines, Facebook and Paris Hilton: a Thursday afternoon cache cleaning

Contextless links:

Our university’s most popular summer camp made the blog big time today with a mention on the world-famous Boing Boing. Goodie for us. Naturally, we blogged about it and linked to a relevant YouTube video.

paris_hilton.jpgThat’s Professor Paris to you, bub. Paris Hilton has been offered a cool million bucks to teach a one-hour “How to Build Your Brand” seminar. She’s also given an exclusive interview to People magazine.

All Facebook, all the time. Jeff Jarvis brings us the unofficial Facebook blog.

Not enough Facebook for ya? Check out Facebook in 40 years.

Tips for writing taglines: from the L.A. Times and Igor, via Snark Hunting.

How to build a social media strategy. Some good pointers, based on real case studies from real companies, with a link to where you can get the full report, or chapter-by-chapter summaries.

Strumpette puts PR in perspective. Now this is a good end-of-day read. All I can say is, I’m glad I don’t work for a toothpaste company today.

Study: teens still dig Jeff Spicoli’s Vans (and they like iPods, too)

fasttimes11.jpgThis is U.S. History, I see the globe right there. – Jeff Spicoli, Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982)

Attention trend-watchers: A new study from Viacom’s The N Channel reports that Vans, maker of the checkerboard-pattern slip-ons made famous by Sean Penn’s character (Jeff Spicoli) in Fast Times at Ridgemont High, is one of the top brands for teens — 25 years after that movie made them famous.

But as Michael Stoner (whose last name is in no way a reference to Spicoli’s antics) points out, Apple’s iPod was the brand deemed “absolutely essential to teens.” The iPod is “not only a favorite” among teens, Stoner writes, but also was seen as “defining their generation.”

vans2.jpgOf the 47 brands tested, the top brands were a mixed bag that includes American Eagle Outfitters, YouTube, Facebook, MTV and the aforementioned Vans. Stoner links to a few others on his blog and also quotes from a Brand Week article about the study.

The study pointed out — and this may come as a shocker — that when it comes to brands, teens are a fickle lot. According to Brand Week:

Regardless of sex, those who expressed the most intense loyalty were often the same people who would quickly leave one brand for another. Nineteen percent will swap brands due to boredom. One in four will switch if a brand becomes too popular.

The fact that Vans are among the top brands a quarter century after Spicoli wore them to tread on dangerous ground in Ridgemont High history class says something about that brand’s staying power.

Mr. Hand would be proud.