My Adventures At Puma City, Boston

As part of their sponsorship of the Volvo Ocean Race - a nine-month yacht race around the world - Puma created Puma City, a mobile retail and entertainment comprised of 24 shipping containers. It was in Boston (the only US port in the race) for only three weeks. It's gone now, but not before I had a chance to check it out last week!

Designed by LOT-EK, Puma City was one of the coolest spaces I've seen in quite some time! Not only as a great retail outlet (where I managed to pick up a few items) but the top level had a full bar where, at night, became a total lounge with guest DJs spinning an awesome vibe. Totally free to the public (except for the VIP level - where unfortunately dropping a lot of coin on Puma gear did not get one access) the line to get up there was ridiculous!

The sales people were friendly and extremely knowledgeable. Speaking to one of them, I learned that the staff at Puma City were the top sales managers from Puma retail outlets throughout the US. As a reward for being the cream of the crop at Puma, they got to spend three weeks in Boston at the mobile retail space. Talk about a win/win - employees get the inspiration to perform and reward for doing so. Customers (like myself) get friendly staff who were not just sales representatives, but fantastic brand ambassadors.

Hats off (Or, should I say "sneakers off!") to Puma! Just one thing - the only link I could find to get any information on the place was their Facebook page. Of course that's very modern, 2.0 and all, (I mean, Y INTERACT has a Facebook page, too!) but if I were Puma, I would have also created a fully-branded out website for the space. But then again, of course I'd say that - I would love to have built it! Does that make me "old school"???

Click here to view some cool photos I uploaded to the Y INTERACT Facebook page.

Ahmed Yearwood
President
Y INTERACT
http://www.yinteract.com/

(@yinteract on Twitter)

Social Networking 101 Panal Discussion – What I Learned

On April 30th, 2009, Y INTERACT and the Wall Street Journal sponsored an evening panel discussion and reception titled, "Social Networking 101." The event was attended by over 100 media professionals who came to get insights on the 2.0 space from four distinguished panelists: Gary Sheffer, Executive Director of Corporate Communications, GE; Steve Rubel, SVP, Director of Insights, Edelman Digital; Josh Stinchcomb, Executive Director of the Condé Nast Digital Business Group; and Rikin Diwan, Online Business Development, NYPost.com.

It was a great night – extremely informative and the Tweetinis weren't too bad, either! I had a number of key take-aways from the panel group. The one that immediately comes to mind is Steve Rubel's idea of "Digital Embassies" – how marketers need to create and maintain not just their website, but also build communities on the Facebooks, LinkedIn, Twitters, Blogspots, etc, of the web. As the players change, you need to build and maintain new Digital Embassies. As others begin to play out, it may be time to close one and move on.

Gary Sheffer talked about the opportunities that companies have to tell a story, and use that to take control of your brand. To become journalists inside the company. There's a constant, ongoing conversation taking place about your brand, and you have an opportunity to either participate (and help shape) that conversation, or not participate and just let the wave of conversation wash over you. Gary also likened traditional media to a train that makes regular, consistent stops along the way, versus the web and 2.0 channels, which are more like a river – continually flowing, changing, where people are continually tossing stuff into it. Marketers need to stay on top of this rapidly moving information.

My big take-away from Josh Stinchcomb was an answer to the question: "how can marketers make money from all this?" His advice was that marketers need to get more creative about how to monetize their 2.0 strategies. You may not make any direct $$ from posting on Twitter or your LinkedIn group, but revenue may come from building your brand or your name. For example, becoming an authority in a specific area, then generating revenue via speaking engagements, or getting additional business from the greater name brand awareness that you have. (Also, let's not forget that brand value is extremely important, and measurable. How to appropriately attach a $$ value to a brand? That's a whole other conversation!)

Rikin Diwan was right on point when advising to claim your name and claim it NOW. I give this advice to my clients ALL THE TIME – don't sit on the fence because someone else can take your name right from under you! Rikin also recommended that marketers really need to "just do it" so to speak. You don't need to tweet or blog post every day, but you should commit to doing it – even if it's just once or twice a week. You don't need GE-sized budgets to enter the 2.0 space, but if you're going to invite others to follow you, become a fan, or read your blog posts, you'd better give them something or you'll lose them.

To learn more about each of the panelists and where you can find them in 2.0Land, visit Y INTERACT's event micro-site at http://www.yinteract.com/sn101/

Ahmed Yearwood
President
Y INTERACT
http://www.yinteract.com/
(@yinteract on Twitter)