Tarah's Digital Voice

As you might know, I spent two weeks in March down in Austin, TX, immersed in the chaos and glory of SXSW 2011. This was a truly intense, educational and inspiring experience, which allowed me to completely geek out with peers that both shared and challenged my existing views on digital, social, tech and marketing. I met many entrepreneurs & innovators, some of whom have become real friends and business partners. I tried out myriad new apps, behaviors and approaches to various parts of life and business, coming away with some valuable new tools and insights. My own entrepreneurial spirit was re-energized and I have transferred this experience into the work I am doing every day, here at Anthem Worldwide - Digital, bringing the new relationships, knowledge and clarity to clients and our own practice on a regular basis.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on our recap, in the presentation below, which includes several videos shot on the iPad 2 by my colleague, Mark Silva, SVP Emerging Platforms. Some highlights of the presentation are listed below.

Let's continue this conversation - I'd love to hear what trends you think will prosper and what apps/technologies are getting you excited these days.

Hope to see you in Austin next year!

Today's bonehead brand move: On Twitter, Kenneth Cole (@kennethcole) tried to leverage chatter around the trending hashtag #Cairo with a joke and a sales pitch (see original here):

I have to hope that the 99 retweets are criticizing it, but I'm sure there are plenty of jerks laughing along with him. Note that on the @KennethCole Twitter profile, it reads: "Thoughts that end in -KC are from me personally"; that means that Mr. Cole sent this beauty out himself (or someone is getting fired). 

Cole's personal repsonse to the uproar is disingenuous & ridiculous. It would've been better to say nothing. If you really weren't intending to make light, then you wouldn't have tried to tap into a trending topic with a link to your spring collection (see original here):

Never fear, though, a Twitter account has already been created for @KennethColePR with spoof tweets (remeber @BPGlobalPR?) and Matt Binder (@MattBinder) has already kicked off some KC public humiliation with a new hashtag: KCairo

What do you think? Are people blowing this out of proportion, or do you agree that this is exactly how brands should NOT be using social media? Let me know in the comments.