Avoid depression. :)

Our latest list of inane musings from the Brainstorm office white board:

Top 20 Things You Could Do With $700 Billion

1. Buy a house of cards
2. Socialize a bit more
3. Avoid depression. :)
4. Buy a better bowling ball
5. Impress the ladies
6. Look to AIG for alternative answers and assurances
7. Y’ought to be able to buy a yacht for that;
   join the U.S. CEO Flotilla
8. Not solve the financial crisis
9. Buy buckets and barrels of French wine!
10. Fund golden parachutes, Wall Street style
    (10.5: Give everyone in the U.S. $2,300)
11. Purchase the means to produce more, consume less.
12. America
13. 700 trillion pieces of Bazooka Joe (I think)
14. 1.4 trillion McDonald’s Apple Pies
    (of course on sale buy 1 get 1 free)
15. Fund AIG executive retreat
16. Pay off 1/1000 of U.S. debt to China
17. Buy a decent-sized island; launch America 2.0
18. Provide alternative energy sources to entire U.S.
19. (buy) Houses for people to live in
20. Live like a Buffett – Buy Iceland

See the entire board

[image: mab@flickr]

“…a showcase of the best in sustainability,
technology and design.”

Living Wright

WIRED and LivingHomes magazine produced the WIRED Home, what they call “…a showcase of the best in sustainability, technology and design.”

Constructed in-factory and erected in an upscale area of Los Angeles in just two and a half days, the home represents a convergence of aesthetic and eco-awareness.

WIRED’s Smart Home harkens back to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian concepts and organic design principles - with added technological advancements. One hundred years later, as oil prices and conservation become a global focus, we’re sure Wright would approve.

For details on the home here’s a link to the original WIRED article entitled WIRED Home by LivingHomes.

[image: klaxon]

“If this isn’t a true definition of community,
I don’t know what is.”

-Bobbie Davis, Family Friend

The Scenario

Nineteen year old Michael Treinen is in the fight of his life. Suffering a relapse of Acute Myeloid Leukemia, he needs a $500,000 bone marrow transplant, but his $1M lifetime insurance limit has been exhausted.

With only a few days to raise money to cover the costs, the Treinan family turned to email, asking friends and family to donate $20 within three days and forward the email to 20 friends. By day 2, several people at Brainstorm had received the plea from the nearby community; some from up to 4 different sources.

More than Enough

The message quickly spread beyond the immediate community and donations came in from across the country. By day 3 the family had raised $175,000. By 3pm day 4, $355,000. By 7pm that day, over $400,000. And by day 5, the deadline, they had raised over $700,000. Today, a week later, the count is $856,000.

The media’s coverage of the grassroots campaign resulted in a state insurance program approving an expedited high-risk insurance policy that would cover 60 percent of the transplant cost.

More than Money

Social networking delivered something else, too. At last count Michael Treinen’s Caring Bridge blog showed 169,670 visits and 3,677 people had left messages via the guestbook. What better encouragement to lift Michael’s spirits?

More than Email

Success in social networking is inspired, launched and sustained by the trusted connections between people. The Treinen’s email pleas were sent from friend to friend; had they been sent from strangers or generated by faceless scripts, the Michael Treinen story wouldn’t have happened.

Whether you make widgets or offer something more philanthropic, social networking demands transparency and an ongoing investment in others. Then, when the time calls for it, your friends—and even people you don’t know—may respond when called upon.

Anticipate More

Under the circumstances, the Treinens couldn’t have dreamed of, much less considered what to do should they exceed their expectations. It’s being placed in a trust fund to cover Michael’s future medical needs and they’ve said any overage will be donated to charity.

The lesson being, be prepared and model outcomes to scale in proportion to the potential explosive power of online social campaigns.

[ Image: Kazze ]

White Castle’s conversation-inspiring promotion.

Dining on Slyders®
by candlelight

What’s Wrong with this Picture?

This street sign isn’t advertising a 4-star restaurant, it’s a 24-hour White Castle that serves miniature hamburgers called Slyders®. A regional player, they consistently rank among the Top 100 U.S. foodservice companies, serving over 500 million burgers a year.

White Castle is running a serious business, but not too serious.

Love is in the Ambiance

A kitsch castle motif and hamburger joint ambiance doesn’t register as a romantic destination for most couples. Nor does dining on steamy Slyders® in a stainless-steel and plastic-laminate setting on candlelit, linen-draped tables. Which is exactly why White Castle’s charming Valentine’s Day promotion works.

Not your typical White Castle experience: waiters, flowers, candlelight and tablecloths.

Embrace Yourself

From a strategic marketing standpoint, White Castle understands and embraces their market space and brand persona—and are willing to leverage it by poking fun at themselves. This promotion transcends a one-way communication, inviting consumers to interact with the brand—sharing a little levity with others at White Castle’s expense.

Instigating Viral-ability

The promotion’s self-effacing humor became an opportunity for consumer-generated online viral buzz. The Brainstorm employee who took the picture emailed it to 3 people; two within Brainstorm and one in Oregon. Several weeks later she received the image back in an email from a former co-worker, unrelated in any tangible way to the original recipients with the subject ‘Valentine’s Day dinner plans?’ Who knows how far it traveled or how many people saw it?

Share the Love

Socially shared experiences both on and offline begin with transparency, relevance, and often wit. Inspiring people to talk positively about your brand requires involvement and reaching out to engage.

[Restaurant interior photo: Girlieleep]

Virtual Starry Night - Vincent’s Second Life landing point

Virtual Starry Night - Vincent’s Second Life museum is fashioned after Van Gogh’s painting, “Cafe Terrace at Night”

Virtual Van Gogh

The Virtual Starry Night - Vincent’s Second Life museum offers much of what you’d expect in a real life museum—with a touch of Second Life (SL) surrealism.

The museum exhibits 70 virtual works by Vincent Van Gogh with descriptions and historical facts about the Dutch Post-Impressionist. Befittingly, each of the 20 rooms housing the exhibit is set in perpetual twilight and the outer grounds of the museum feature overlook balconies, fountains, and garden terraces abutting a reflective and restful sea.

Unlike real life museums, this SL version includes teleportation, 3-D tours and experiential paintings that visitors can virtually “step into” to peruse selected works.

Worth the Teleport

If you like something you see, reproductions are for sale at the museum store, including virtual floral arrangements. You can even take home a reproduction of Van Gogh’s famed Starry Night for a reasonable L$35 (35 Linden dollars) the equivalent of about 12 US cents.

Appreciating Culture Clash

A confluence of culture, The Virtual Starry Night - Vincent’s Second Life museum is a metaphor for today’s brand marketer—an emergent culture where old and new collide in ever-changing venues of communication.

Visit the museum.

[ via: malburns ]