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If you weren’t looking for it, you may have missed Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution television premiere a few weeks ago. By now, you’ve probably heard of the show and its reality TV look inside changing public school food in Huntington, West Virginia and beyond.

Jamie has a lot of creative tactics to teach kids about food – from dumping massive quantities of junk food consumed by the kids onto a giant tarp for all to see, to blending up the gristly remains of a chicken then reconstructing it into a fast food-worthy patty. My favorite tactic, so far, are the stickers he gives kids in the cafeteria when they try a new (healthy) food.

I love this!

I love it because it embodies a basic human drive for personal development. Saying “I tried something new” is the same as “I will not be complacent” and “I have goals” and “I care about my future” and “I am becoming something better than I was.” We do the same thing at the voting booths with “I VOTED” stickers to an extent.

If you can provide products or experiences that conspicuously allow your customers to transmit these positive messages about themselves (without alluding to the flaw, like a nicotine patch), then you’ll have a perpetual marketing machine that everyone will want to buy.

P.S. Sign the petition.

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(The following is in response to a survey MENSA e-mailed me, asking why I haven’t joined. I promise I don’t write a blog post like this for every survey I get. As a preface, I qualify for MENSA because of a standardized test I studied my butt off for and not because of an innately high IQ).

The only unifying factor between MENSA members is a score in the top 2 percent on an IQ or other qualifying test, so you can guess what stigma comes with MENSA membership: elitism, social awkwardness, etc. From a marketing standpoint, MENSA poses a unique challenge: how to brand the organization in a way that cultivates respect instead of ridicule and contempt.

I’m not making the whole “ridicule and contempt” thing up. Just Google whether to put MENSA on a résumé and you’ll see what I mean. Fiery people come out of the woodwork. Maybe the only reason I don’t feel the same as the detractors is that my high school calculus teacher was a Mensan. I have a great deal of respect for the man and his genius. He was a great ambassador for the org, from my perspective.

More than anything, MENSA has a problem with messaging. A few examples:

1. The first letter you get after qualifying reads:

“CONGRATULATIONS! … It is with great pleasure that we extend you an offer of membership in the society. Your membership card will be forwarded within ten days of the receipt of your dues payment…”

2. Follow-up e-mail #1 from Admissions Manager:

“I noticed that you qualified but hadn’t joined. If you call and pay your dues ($59) with a credit card, your membership packet will print tonight and mail tomorrow.”

3. Follow-up e-mail #2 from Membership Director:

“In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Mensa in North America, I’ve been reviewing lists of members who’ve qualified but haven’t yet joined. I noticed your name on the list, and while you may not have made the decision to become a member before this, I hope that you’ll accept my personal invitation to join at this time.  You can join online…”

Do you notice a trend? Their focus on membership and dues is front and center in every message. Any mention of purpose or value in their proposition is subverted by the focus on money or membership for qualification’s sake. They certainly may not have intended this, but you can’t argue with what’s written. This approach may have been acceptable a decade ago when networking was less organized and less fluid than it is today, but I don’t feel like MENSA poses much competition to today’s free business/interest networking groups facilitated by social media.

They need to start viewing it as a competition or risk being marginalized in the networking space. Smart people have jobs, are busier than ever, and have plenty of people, events, etc. jostling for their time. MENSA needs to do more and BE more than it currently is. What is it exactly? Check out this very interesting Q & A with Pam Donahoo, executive director of MENSA. A few selections:

How do you keep younger members involved, and interested?
Our Gen-X SIG [Special Interest Group for members in their mid-30s to mid-40s] wanted to plan the convention. These younger folks are planning it for the first time, but I’ve gotten great attendance. There’s really a young spin on things.

With members like yours, do you use a lot of technology at your meetings?
If we’re behind the curve, that’s where it is. It’s mainly because our price-points are low. There’s not as much technology used mainly because of the cost of it. We certainly have our own community. We have fan pages on Facebook. We have a Twitter account. Like everyone else, we’re realizing there are lots of opportunities that are there. We considered using handheld technology for a media event: an ask-the-geniuses session. But it was too expensive.

Does Mensa have a broader message or mission?
To the general public, we’re saying, it’s OK to be smart. Today you see movies that depict the smart person as the protagonist instead of the antagonist, the hero instead of the nerd that gets beaten up. We promote intelligence as a valuable asset.

Wow! Since when did a “young spin” mean mid-30′s? And when was basic technology cost-prohibitive? That’s so sad to me.

MENSA really needs to re-brand, re-position, and re-invent itself if it hopes to have a credible, growing, vibrant organization that does more than rest on its own laurels.

I don’t want to be pegged as a sideline critic here. I’d greatly desire to see MENSA succeed. But I want the group’s collective genius to be leveraged for more than just board game development (also just the impression I get). I want to join MENSA when it makes more sense than the other free groups competing for my time that appear to offer more value.

Here are 5 of my many ideas on what they should do:

1. Inclusivity through partnerships. Right now, MENSA feels too exclusive. They should be trying to get as many qualifying people in as possible. They should be partnering with test-administering organizations like GMAT, LSAT, etc. to automatically notify people when their scores qualify them for admission.

2. Open and social web presence. The American MENSA website puts some of the most interesting content like “Meet A Member” or “Member Primer” that could be critical to the “member conversion funnel” behind a members-only login! Why? (The website could also do with a makeover) In social media, while they’ve gotten better with Facebook recently, their Twitter account has been used twice this year. Missed opportunities for engagement.

3. Message and purpose refinement. I mentioned this at the beginning. They need to know what they represent and what they’re trying to achieve before they know what the membership benefits are, and before they can communicate those externally. If they focus on qualification being a core reason for membership, then they’re playing right into the elitist label they’d hopefully like to avoid. I envision MENSA potentially being more like LaunchUp, where the collective knowledge of the crowd is leveraged to benefit a cause, solve a problem, enrich a community, etc.

4. Technology integration. The smartest people aren’t going to MENSA. They’re flocking to TED and Fora.tv communities, rallying around very basic technology that allows them to learn together, collaborate, and make change in the world. Without technology as a facilitator, MENSA, or any other group for that matter, will always be two steps behind the curve. Using basic technology for presentations/discussion at meetings isn’t costly. Ask anyone.

5. Local empowerment & promotion. I’m getting e-mails from the national people that run MENSA, not the local “rubber-meets-the-road” leadership that would really be responsible for providing the bulk of the group’s value. Talking to the person who is technically the local chapter leader here, he confided, “I’m still not sure why I joined, but it wasn’t for the socializing.” Leaders need to get excited about what they’re leading, right? In this case, it’s hard to get excited when (1) the leader doesn’t have any training, guidance on running a meeting, direction on the contents of the meetings or best practices and (2) the leader doesn’t have a list of members/potential members in the area that could be contacted to get the chapter off the ground. That’s the case, from what I understand.

So to conclude what will be my longest blog post to date: get it in gear, MENSA! Be something amazing, then give me a call.

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Lately, I’ve been thinking about billboards — one billboard campaign in particular. Here’s how it went down:

First, Reagan Advertising used a survey company to ask 300 people two questions:

(1) Who is the lieutenant governor of Utah?
(2) What was the first word spoken on the moon?

(5% and 1% respectively answered the question right)

Then they put around a dozen billboards (just like the one shown) saying “Houston: First Word Spoken On The Moon” and left them up for a month in some high traffic locations around the Salt Lake Valley, after which they sampled another 300 people using the same two questions. At that point, 6% of the respondents answered the first question correctly and 37% of the respondents were able to answer the question about “Houston” as depicted in the billboards.

So what?

Was the test:
(a) Brilliant?
(b) Rubbish?
(c) Inconclusive?
(d) Completely self-promotional?
(e) Manipulative?

I’m honestly leaning multiple ways on this one, which is why it’s so fascinating to me. It definitely has me thinking about billboard advertising.

What do you think? Does it prove anything about billboard effectiveness or is it just junk statistics?

(photo credit: Nicholas Draney)

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The BYU Family History Library held a free course on social networking for genealogists. I’ve had trouble getting motivated to do family history and this seemed like a great way to merge something I already love (social media) with something I’m trying to love (genealogy). The course advertised using blogs, Facebook and Twitter so I assumed it would be really engaging material.

So much for assumptions.

I was the only one in the room of mostly silver hair who had used Twitter. The instructor spent 20 minutes trying to convince people that Facebook is safe.

I can sympathize. It’s tough trying to bring new media to a historically older demographic like the one found in genealogy. When you’re used to microfiche, I can see how it would be hard to embrace social networks.

While I didn’t get much out of the course, I did start thinking about how I would use social media for genealogy:

Blogs

- Blogging about particular family lines or even specific individuals you’ve been stuck on could open up some doors. The names would get indexed and be searchable in Google, leading others who are doing similar work to find you and offer guidance.

- Use the blog finder on Genealogue.com to find other genealogists working with similar names, regions, etc. Put your heads together.

- Read blogs as a way to fill in your knowledge gaps about particular family history topics, websites, programs, and techniques.  Blogs likely have the most up-to-date information. Save time by subscribing to all of the blogs you like using an RSS reader (I use Google Reader right now).

- Create Google Alerts to inform you when anybody posts something online related to a particular family line you’re interested in. You’ll want to be specific enough to only get alerts for things that would actually be relevant. For example, instead of getting an alert for my surname “Cowley,” I’d set up a more specific alert looking for the words “Cowley family history” or “Cowley Isle of Man” (where my ancestors are originally from). You can have a Google Alert notify you with an RSS feed (which I do) or via e-mail.

Facebook

- Facebook can be a great way to connect with living family and extended family. I find I’m much more tapped into family news because of Facebook. I don’t hear it all second-hand from my parents. While not specifically related to genealogy, this is still very valuable.

- Join groups related to your family name or start your own. There’s a FB group specifically for people with the last name of “Cowley.” I’m probably not related to all of them, but I could easily post on the group wall that I’m looking for people related to my specific line. There are also regional groups like “Manx Surnames” where I could find people doing genealogy in those areas. In genealogy research, it’s not about what you know, but who you know. Finding the right person with the right background, location, etc. is more valuable than 100 books or websites.

- Tap into genealogy-specific Facebook groups where you can learn about the newest trends, new record releases, databases, etc. Apparently the discussion boards on the Genea-Bloggers group page is pretty good. (Genea-bloggers is a derivative of a popular genealogy blog support site at Geneabloggers.com)

Twitter

- Some genealogical record sources have Twitter accounts where they publish newly available records. Following them would be an easy way to stay current.

- Twitter offers a safe way to connect with people you don’t know who might still be able to help, even if they’re not into genealogy. Twitter makes it easy to find someone with your surname who lives in a family history location of interest. You can message that person to see if they or someone they know has information about your family.

Other Genealogy Social Media Websites

Genealogywise.com is a genealogy social network, similar to Facebook, but with family history and genealogy objectives in mind.

RootsWeb is an Ancestry.com project with mailing lists, message boards, search engines, databases, and other resources.

RootsTelevision offers videos and streaming TV that may be helpful to budding genealogists.

Social networking offers genealogists incredible access to places, people, and resources that would otherwise be impossible to visit in person or more laborious to connect with by e-mail. I’ve given a few of my ideas. What about yours? How are you using social media for family history?

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Google SideWiki is a new plug-in feature that gives visitors to your website the opportunity to make comments as bystanders. You have to have SideWiki installed along with Google Toolbar in order to comment and read other comments.

If you’re like me and your browser toolbar is already bloated as it is, and you don’t want Google Toolbar, but want to be able to read the SideWiki comments, what do you do? Why, you just turn the sidewiki comments into an RSS feed. When you subscribe to RSS using Google Reader, just copy the following URL syntax, and customize it to the site you want to follow:

http://www.google.com/sidewiki/feeds/entries/webpage/http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mywebsite.com%2F/full

Most of the SideWiki comments are likely to be spam or immature, but you may find some worth addressing, especially if they’re comments about the actual site, rather than the content.

Additionally, use SideWiki comments for reputation management. You’ll have to use a computer with SideWiki installed to respond to the comments, but it may be worth it. At any rate, you should create Google SideWiki RSS feeds to add to your reputation management strategy for all the sites you own.

Hat Tip to RyanJones

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Everyone knows the feeling of having one of your favorite foods discontinued. It feels like a piece of your soul is gone, never to be returned. For some, it was Crispy M&M’s, Boo Berry, Surge, or Coca-Cola Black Cherry Vanilla. For me, it was cheap frozen gnocchi.

Can one person prevent an entire line of food from being taken off the shelves? Probably not, unless you’re willing to go from store to store buying out all of your favorite food. I don’t have enough money or nearly enough freezer space for that much gnocchi.

The Consumer Contract

As a consumer, I often forget that food isn’t permanent and that I’m not entitled to anything. I love food, and I love stumbling upon lesser-known foods that I can introduce people to. I believe there’s an inherent consumer responsibility that comes with liking food. If I don’t do more than merely buy the food, I inherently accept a portion of the blame when that food is discontinued. Buying is not enough anymore.

Companies in the 20th century need more than just purchasers. They need consumer partners. I can’t get my favorite foods without them and they can’t continue to sell my favorite foods without me. That is the consumer contract. It’s not one-sided as we so frequently forget. And if you like the product enough, what problem do you have with doing more than just eating it?

Realizing I needed to do a little more for my favorites, I hopped on Yoplait.com over the weekend and wrote a short letter thanking them for my favorite 100 calorie miracle yogurt, Strawberry Orange Sunrise. It’s one of those “fringe products” that’s not a staple flavor among yogurts, so if it doesn’t catch on, it could get the axe. Writing Yoplait was my first experience trying to do more as a consumer. It wasn’t a big deal, but as a marketer, I understand the value of unsolicited support. It won’t save the brand by itself, but it’s marketing ammunition that a mere purchase doesn’t offer.

Yoplait Strawberry Orange Sunrise Yogurt

Who knows if my feedback will do anything to preserve Yoplait Strawberry Orange Sunrise yogurt or Barilla No-cook Lasagna Noodles or my other favorite “fringe foods,” but I do believe in showing gratitude where it’s due and you should too.

Images:

Mellie*

Walmart.com

UPDATE

Today I got an e-mail response from Yoplait:

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I hate lists. I’m talking about the list that fits the mold of “92 YouTube videos to get you through an entire work day without accomplishing anything.” A quick glance at my Twitter feed shows three of these monstrosities, including “220 Ways to Get More Traffic to Your Website & Increase Your Business,” “30 pianos around London for impromptu singalongs” and “40 Great Adobe AIR Applications for Designers and Developers.” Lists are the blogger’s quick substitute for creativity. They undermine the whole point of learning and they destroy family vacations. In that order.

There’s no blogging without a degree of hypocrisy and so I’ll openly admit that I wrote a list once and posted it on another blog I write for (the post was a list of blogging tips). I was lazy and needed to pump something out on a time crunch. The list didn’t have any credibility to it. I had never even tried a couple of the things I was suggesting. It was pointless and idiotic. And then the post got a bunch of pageviews – more than a slew of other posts that I considered more substantive. And because of that, I felt pointless and idiotic. I feel a sense of pity and maybe loathing for a generation of web users (myself included) that cannot identify the difference between quality and crap online, choosing to associate/confuse quality with lists, how-tos, and all the templated garbage that people can spit out without an ounce of thought or research.

Do you really read a list as if you’re trying to memorize it or learn from it? Like with most content online, we’ve learned to scroll the text with our eyes. The brain’s doing nothing with the message. The synapses don’t even have to fire, it’s that worthless.

Lists are a distraction. The writers are merely banking on the fact that your desire for entertainment will trump your desire to learn. I would take a two-item list with enough substance for me to actually learn something over any half-baked list that proves only that the writer can count past the number 20.

Lists have one redeeming factor. They provided me with the contrast needed to enjoy great vacations today. Let me explain.

Lists turned my childhood family vacations into multi-day exercises in impatience and downright malice. My mom has many virtues, but one paradigm she lived by was the need to “check things off the list.” Our family vacations were always structured that way. Mom knew what “tourists see” in any give place and that became her list. (By the way, don’t ever plan a trip in such a way that your kids  conclude that your tastes and preferences are just a carbon copy of TripAdvisor). Our vacation schedule would become so tightly packed with checklist items that she would forget to factor in meals, delays, and fatigue. That is not a vacation. That is a recipe for disaster.

Today, I love to travel. In my married life, I’ve learned how to vacation enjoyably merely by looking at what my family did and doing it differently. I’ll write more about this later. In essence, my vacations have a higher ratio of “exploration time” (with a lower ratio of checklist items). I owe that to lists.

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Gavin Elliott, Creative Director at Carrot Media, recently put together a great post by asking 30 of his fellow designers one question: Where are you most inspired? He posted the uncut individual responses from the designers and left it as a fascinating stand-alone glimpse into the minds of some very creative individuals. Here’s a table summarizing the designers’ responses (Note that some designers gave more than one response):

Other singular responses: In the backyard, At conferences, After leaving the computer, In book shops, At clothing stores, In the bathroom, At home, While surfing, While looking at work of other designers, On the train.

There’s an obvious correlation between inspiration and isolation. I’m sure a lot of designers would admit to coming up with some very innovative ideas in an atmosphere of collaboration, but it doesn’t come out in the responses. The absence of distraction seems to be a unifying theme here.

What About You?

Think back on some of your most creative ideas. What would your friends or coworkers say your most creative ideas have been? Examine how and where those ideas materialized and you have a general recipe for replicating some of the magic the next time you need it. This may mean changing your behavior, your preparation, and your circumstances to optimize for the occasion.

Inspiration and Application

Like many designers, I’ve had some of my brightest ideas as my mind was near sleep. As many of you have probably seen, telling yourself that you’ll remember your idea in the morning doesn’t work. Even if it did, great ideas that can create passion (even if it’s just your own passion) are a rare commodity and should be guarded against loss. I keep a Sticky Note pad and pen next to my bed, ready to scribble in the darkness.

I get inspiration when I’m faced with a question or a problem. Unprompted inspiration is entertaining (like my idea for a three-edged sword), but inspiration that can answer questions and solve problems is always more valuable.

I get inspiration when expectations are low and when I’m not crunched for time. I don’t always have that liberty. I respond by trying to maximize the amount of time I have to work on a problem, thinking about it before it becomes critical, and even letting others know this is when I’m at my best.

My advice is to learn from creative people whenever you can. You need to set aside time to keep ideas in the pipeline and determine which circumstances and situations help you be at your best, creatively. As more people in the world become more and more creative, you don’t have time to sit around and hope that creativity pays you an unexpected visit.

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Students in Maranjab, Iran congregate to await the launch of Scottergories.com.

The official kickoff of Scottergories.com on July 1, 2009 was met with pleasure by Iranian Internet users, who rejoice whenever a website launches without being censured by the government. The blog’s launch was heralded as “pretty good” by “Majid,” one Iranian who stayed awake long enough to see it happen. The site launch was originally intended to occur at 3 a.m., but was postponed for several hours while the webmaster was busy washing dishes, exercising, and surfing the Internet. A handful of Iranians expressed feeling “put out” after realizing that they could have gotten a full night’s sleep instead of waiting around for the site launch, which finally occurred around 9 a.m., Tehran local time. Nevertheless, the official beginning of Scottergories.com was considered to be a success.

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