I have some exciting news to share — I am about to embark on what I’ve been affectionately referring to as “Julie in DC: Part II”.

This week, I am leaving Amplify Public Affairs and will soon be joining RADIUS, a corporate travel management company (TMC) serving multinational corporations with regional or global travel consolidation needs, as their Online Marketing Manager. I have learned a lot during my time at Amplify but am now looking forward to tackling this new challenge of developing and implementing a complete online marketing strategy for RADIUS.

My last day as Social Media Strategist at Amplify Public Affairs will be Thursday, April 15th and, after a quick break to cruise around the Mexican Riviera with my mother and sisters, I will begin my new role as Online Marketing Manager at RADIUS on Wednesday, April 28th

Additionally, this past weekend, I moved into the apartment of one of my closest friends from college, Mindy. I feel fortunate to be able to share my home with a friend and we have already had a lot of fun decorating and making plans for future hostessing opportunities.

If you’d like to receive my new professional and personal contact information, just send me a quick note. I will be making the appropriate edits online in the coming weeks.

Best,

Julie

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Here are a few pranks I’ve seen so far today that I’ve really enjoyed -

“University President Dan Mote, who will resign his post in the fall, announced yesterday that to leave his final mark, he will push hard to get the school’s mascot changed from the diamondback terrapin to the endangered giant panda.”
Panda to be university’s new mascot | The Diamondback, University of Maryland’s campus newspaper

“The Johns Hopkins University announced today that it is bowing to the inevitable and officially changing its name to “John Hopkins.” ‘We give up,” university President Ronald J. Daniel said. “We’re fighting a losing battle here. And we strongly suspect the extra ‘s’ was a typo in the first place.’”
The “S” is out: We’re “John Hopkins” now | Johns Hopkins University

“Plenta™ (128 fl oz) and Micra™ (2 fl oz) cups arrive in Starbucks stores this Fall. Derived from Italian word for plentiful or small, the Plenta™ delivers coffee lovers record amounts of the world’s finest coffee beverages while the Micra™ delivers a quick and satisfying morsel of goodness.”
Starbucks Listens to Customer Request for More Sizes | Starbucks

“Early last month the mayor of Topeka, Kansas stunned the world by announcing that his city was changing its name to Google. We’ve been wondering ever since how best to honor that moving gesture. Today we are pleased to announce that as of 1AM (Central Daylight Time) April 1st, Google has officially changed our name to Topeka.”
A different kind of company name | Google

I’ll add my finds throughout the day as they unfold.

What are some April Fools’ Jokes you’ve seen today?

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3. How Grey’s Anatomy Has Created A Successful Brand Experience — And Why It Matters

This is a prime example of a Marketing team getting it right. They have created a new portal that extends the Grey’s Anatomy experience and allows fans to become active participants. Marketing students (and veterans), repeat after me: The key to a brand’s success lies in creating memorable, engaging experiences for users. That is what builds community, improves brand loyalty, and cultivates vocal advocates.

Starbucks is the classic example. Some would argue that the products sold are comparable, if not inferior, to those found elsewhere. So why has Starbucks seen such success? It’s because it’s more than the (expensive) cup of coffee you’re getting, it’s the user experience the company has created through its emphasis on local events and overlooked music as well as the overall atmosphere of each store, where you can stay as long as you like.

So, kudos, Grey’s Anatomy Marketing team. It’s (almost) always good to be placed in the same category as Starbucks, even if it’s on a small blog like mine.

PS Grey’s Anatomy is set in the city where Starbucks was created – Seattle. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide.

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But getting there was quite an adventure in itself and reflects my time here: You never know where, when, how, and/or with whom you’ll find yourself in absurd circumstances which later become a great story to tell.

A friend and I had designated the day for some much needed shopping, but she needed to stop by CVS first. We were leaving the store when we were ambushed by people in Tylenol gear and before we knew what was happening, we were sitting in a Tylenol-branded taxi on our way to our destination.

Little did these Tylenol brand ambassadors (as they were called by the taxi driver) know that they had stumbled upon one of DC’s most active marketing bloggers!

“Coming down with a cold? Warm up with a free ride” was written on the side of the taxi and my friend and I each received a booklet and a coupon for the new Warming Liquid.

The booklet reads:

Catch a warm ride home. It’s better than catching a cold.

It’s starting to get chilly out. And you know what that means. Cold season. So how about it, hop in. It’s on us.

A cozy ride. A steamy shower. A warm blanket. When you have a cold, a little warmth can comfort. New TYLENOL(R) Warming Liquids relieve your painful cold symptoms and give you a gentle, warming sensation. So not only do you feel warmer, you feel better. All over.

From what the driver told us, this campaign has been going on in cities all over the East Coast. The taxi can only pick up people from CVS (I assume they are a partner in the campaign) and the Tylenol brand ambassadors have to be the ones to usher the passengers into the car.

What I found surprising was that 1. we were the ones to bring up the Tylenol Warming Liquid, 2. the driver had never tried it and couldn’t give us some positive feedback…

I don’t know if/how this campaign will translate into sales for the company, but it’s certainly an example of how marketeers can think outside the box, raising brand awareness and leveraging viral marketing, all within a cohesive campaign. Overall, this was a unique, memorable experience for me – one that will have me remembering the product and talking to others about what happened.

Nicely done on this one, Tylenol!

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Here are five interesting facts I learned:

• 77% of Americans under the age of 24 use SMS
• Rock the Vote observed higher SMS opt-in rates among Latinos, African-Americans, women, those under 30, and those living on the coasts. (I might have had that written down incorrectly, it might just be East Coast…)
• The Obama for President Committee found high value in texting people on Election Day to inform them of polls that were kept open late, but were unable to find a viable way to message Americans oversees, due to the variety and number of possible systems they would have to test and integrate.
• Rock the Vote and the Obama for President Committee both had multilingual mobile campaign components – RTV had a Spanish mobile site and each was able to answer texts in a variety of languages
• The Rudy Giuliani for President Committee did not include mobile messaging as part of their overall strategy with obstacles including the perception that SMS was not appropriate for the target demographic (older audience) and the cost was too high

In the future we’ll be seeing other entities incorporate mobile campaigns into their marketing strategies through the use of optimized websites, iPhone Apps, and SMS (text messaging). SMS is a key component of a successful mobile campaign because of its guaranteed deliverability, ease and speed of use, and the two-way interaction that it facilitates.

And as these mobile campaigns become more commonplace, we’ll see higher levels of sophistication and integration between different social media avenues – in other words, people will be texted a link to a website, they’ll view the optimized website, which perhaps has a YouTube video embedded, and will then share the video with their friends on FaceBook.

As a marketing professional, it a relief to know there’s a new medium out there which is successful in getting information to the public. But as an individual, this all concerns me.

Of course, there’s a distinction between opt-in marketing campaigns, where you’ve elected to receive the texts, but I’m already experiencing unsolicited advertising coming through with AT&T/Apple sending me promotional texts. (They have my number since they are my mobile service provider.). It’s only a matter of time before all the junk I’m getting in my email comes to my phone and clutters that space as well.

SO – What do you think? Are text messages a way you’d want to get information from your political candidates and other companies? Or is your phone a sacred safe zone where ads don’t belong?

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Openness is an inherent aspect of blogging; you’re putting your opinions, thoughts and knowledge for the world to judge, inspect and interpret… We include links to our twitter accounts, our linkedin profiles, even our pandora radio stations. (Side note: Yay for the power of threes!) Yet, bloggers as a whole seem hesitant to provide their e-mail addresses.

We strive for comments and interaction, so why do we close ourselves off from private correspondence? Is it because of spammers? Are we scared of people getting too close? Or is our e-mail information just simply getting overlooked as we focus on all the other (social media) links we know we must remember to include?

If spammers are the problem, I found this great site: http://aruntx.com/podcast/gogage/hosting.php, which allows you to enter in your gmail address to create an image that spammers can’t “read”.

I challenge anyone who has a blog to make a conscious effort to provide their contact information in an accessible manner. I’ll start:

I hope that if you don’t feel comfortable enough to leave me a comment here, you’ll send me a private note to let me know how I’m doing.

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Before

After

And, it's off

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A few notes on my experience so far:

- Cabs are super expensive here. In Boston, cab fares are determined by the distance traveled (as well as the time spent in the cab), regardless of how many people are in the car. In DC, the meter starts pretty high anyway ($4.00 compared to Boston’s $2.00-ish?), but there’s also a surcharge per additional rider. We took cabs into Georgetown Saturday night and it was $8 just to get in!

- First day on the job I’m told that I’ll be learning how to use WordPress, Drupal, Convio (and Get Active), and Kintera content management systems as well as Google Adwords and Facebook Business Solutions. For a web technology freak like me, there’s nothing better!

- Last night, I had my first “city food shopping” experience. We didn’t bring a cart and so I literally could only buy what I could carry back. Andrea was pretty surprised that the Diet Coke cans made the cut, but hey, they’re a necessity!

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In my capstone marketing strategies course, we spoke a lot about Southwest and its competitive advantages – its unique culture, its ability to differentiate itself and its foresight at having bought oil before prices went up. Well it seems that the oil has been used up and Southwest is finding that it must change those things – raising prices and getting rid of open seating – that made it different from all the other airlines. Is Southwest losing its competitive advantage – and its customers?

Speaking of ridiculous airline changes, I booked a flight with airtran and got charged a $5 “seat fee” each way. What’s up with that?

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