Morpheus is extraordinarily proud and excited to congratulate our Grand Marnier team on winning a Stevie Award for the “La Vie Grand Marnier” Online Campaign. Morpheus strategists used an integrated approach including Display, Paid Search and Social Media tactics to create an engaging campaign recognized industry-wide for its stylishness and skillful execution.
Congratulations team on receiving this prestigious award!
Donating your locks to charity isn’t the only way to help others via human hair. Last week, a number of Morpheus men participated in #StacheWeek, bravely sporting manicured mustaches to earn money for Smile Train, a charity that fixes cleft lips and palates for children in developing countries. As a reward for the extra time spent grooming, a donation was made on behalf of each participating team member.
The mustaches are off, and the totals are in. Through generous donations from Morpheus team members and some teachers at P.S. 169, a total of $1,352 was raised for Smile Train!
So, was it worth rocking the ’stache for a week? Says Dave, “We were a little skeptical of growing mustaches at first, but we were raising money for an amazing cause. The team embraced their new staches and we had a good time with it….creepy but good.”
More photos from #StacheWeek can be found on the Morpheus Facebook fan page.
This past Saturday, April 24th, the New York Cares organization hosted one of its annual events, Hands On New York Day. Hands On New York Day is a day where volunteers go out into the five boroughs and paint murals, plant trees and flowers, pick up trash and participate in other activities which enliven and beautify the local community. Morpheus Media participated this year, sending out 6 volunteers to the Brooklyn Navy Shipyard in South Williamsburg where Morphites worked side by side with 7 other organizations and companies to paint over 750 feet of jersey barriers. The barriers, which protect bikers and pedestrians from high traffic, now greet community members with pictures of nuts, bolts, navy ships, helmets and other tools, fusing the historic shipyard with the Williamsburg community. Working together, the site was completed in a record 3 hours and passersby who saw the completed project were sure to thank all of the volunteers for their hard work.
It’s a busy month for Morpheus Media co-founder Shenan Reed, who is scheduled to speak at five digital marketing events around the globe. Catch her in New York, San Francisco, and London for a download on all things digital:
April 27: Shenan will be hosting a panel for Colgate’s Parents Network (Private)
May 4: Shenan to speak at Harper’s Bazaar national sales meeting (Private)
May 11: Shenan to host 212 Meet the Marketer: Luxury panel in New York
May 15: Shenan to host a panel at the TIE conference in San Francisco
May 18: Shenan to speak at Luxury Interactive in London
Join her on Twitter: @Shenan
Morpheus Media Mustache Week for Smile Train (Before)
As of last Wednesday, April 14th, the men of Morpheus Media quit using their razors for the line of hair under their noses known as the mustache. It’s not a mass fashion statement, or an embarrassing, public attempt to separate the boys from the men. No, this is all being done for a noble cause. A donation to Smile Train will be made for each team member that keeps the mustache until Friday. Smile Train is a charity that fixes cleft lips and palates for children in developing countries whose parents cannot afford the necessary surgeries.
The rules!: Participants must have stopped shaving completely last Wednesday morning. On Monday morning, the scruffy bunch must shave everything but the mustache areas. Until Friday, the beard and neck areas must be clean shaven.
Additionally, this little project makes for a very fun tongue-twister. Try saying this ten times fast: Mustached Men of Morpheus Media.
Check our Morpheus Media Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook for #StacheWeek updates throughout the week. Donations can be made at the Smile Train website.
For Christmas this year, Morpheus made a donation in lieu of gifts on behalf of friends, clients and employees to Charity: Water.
We just received our first update!
A well is being dug to provide a community in Ethiopia with fresh, clean water. The well will have a plaque that says “Sponsored by Morpheus Media
, USA” and in about 12 – 18 months we will share photographs of the finished well and a link to Google Earth with its actual location. (Pretty nifty!)
Here at Morpheus, we’re happy to think of the people that this well will help, the lives that will be improved and those that may even possibly be saved. Every little bit helps!
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
On Saturday, October 17th, Morphites went to PS 59 school in Brooklyn to spend the day volunteering for New York Cares Day. The site, which was also led by a Morpheus volunteer, is a school that encourages students to participate in their community at-large, either through student government, community service programs or voting on decisions that affect the school community on a regular basis. Together with two other companies, Morpheus volunteers helped beautify the school and encourage active learning. We were very excited to contribute to this event and kept our spirits up despite the weather conditions and intensive labor. However, despite the fun we had, nothing was more satisfying as the look on some students’ faces as they saw the results. We are already looking forward to next year.
In the current economic climate, charities and non-profits are adversely affected as strapped budgets and donors cut back on everything from dinners out to charitable giving. Not surprisingly, volunteerism often climbs during this kind of economy as people hope to give back in some way, even if they can’t financially. In the spirit of finding ways to give back, Morpheus Media wanted to find something that we could help with that would make a real impact on people’s lives in the immediate future. With summer vacations and sunshine re-focusing priorities for many people in the summer, blood donations sink to extremely low levels – especially this year with swine flu and the recession as many planned blood drives were canceled. So on September 8th some Morpheus Media employees literally “rolled up their sleeves” to help!
With some support from other offices in the building (much thanks to the 10th floor) and a few publishers – shout out to X+1, Context Web, and Adconian! – we successfully gave 20 pints of blood to the New York Blood Center in their blood donation van parked across from the office. After re-cooperating with some pizza, cookies and juice, all was well. And now that everyone knows whether or not they are eligible (and that those British among us are not), we hope to have an even more successful drive on November 30th! Glad we have an extra excuse to load up on Thanksgiving turkey to keep our iron levels high!
There is an infinite number of Social Networks that people flock to daily. Depending on your fancy, if you live in the U.S., then you might be a regular Facebook user, browse for videos on YouTube, and update your status on Twitter. However, around the world there are people on all different types of Social Networks and if brands restrict themselves to only Facebook and Twitter, they are missing the boat.
The ever-blossoming population of mothers online are engaging and playing on CafeMom and MeetUp.com. Hip young artists and emerging technology kids are often found utilizing Tumblr, iMeem, DeviantART, and searching for their daily videos at VideoSift and Vimeo. There is a Social Network for everyone and anyone. From Disaboom (an online community for people with disabilities) to Mobikade, (a mobile community for people in the U.K.) there are endless possibilities for people to interact with others who share similar interests.
Where do brands fit in to all of these Social Networks? That is where the Social Om ℠ theory comes into play. Om is defined as the whole universe coalesced into a single sound, representing the union of mind, body, and spirit that is at the heart (in this case of a brand). Before jumping into the “chosen” networks, like Facebook and Twitter, brands should consider all networks that might apply to them and their consumer. Being present in all Social Communities that their customers are will improve brand presence and perception control.
Being present on many Social Networks does NOT mean a brand has to contribute to them all. If the brand feels it can communicate best through Facebook, but wants to be present on CafeMom, the CafeMom profile should clearly state that the main community hub is located on Facebook (with a supplied link). A unified presence across all networks should be maintained. This will control the mind, body and spirit of the brand in the eyes of the user in each community. By unifying the brand name, URL, content, tone, and voice across all Social Platforms prior to seeding and maintaining a meaningful level of engagement, the brand’s audience will become accustomed to this presence across the internet.
I love product packaging; I’m actually obsessed with it.
In late February of this year I noticed a change in my favorite orange juice, it looked different, and not in a good way. So I did what any curious package design junkie would do, I Googled it. Low and behold the New York Times and about billion other people noticed this too.
The New York Times article titled “Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers Are Passionate About Packaging” sparked a conversion that spread like fire in the Advertising world as well as in the Foodie world. Package design junkies and consumers alike were taking their complaints to the web and posting their displeasure on blogs and other social media outlets like twitter and Facebook. They felt that the packaging was “ stupid”, “ugly”, “resembles a generic brand” and countless other unfavorable comments.
Normally, like any other large corporation (Tropicana is owned by PepsiCo) they would ignore such complaints, as they do not add up to even the smallest percentage of their consumers, but this time it was different. Neil Campbell, the President of Tropicana North America, said the following in an interview about the new packaging:
“We underestimated the deep emotional bond” they (consumers) had with the original packaging. “Those consumers are very important to us, so we responded.”
“The straw and orange have been there for a long time, but people have not necessarily had a huge connection to them.”
“What we didn’t get was the passion this very loyal small group of consumers have. That wasn’t something that came out in the research.”
After reading this article and peering through some of the numerous blogs I tried to think about what this means to Morpheus Media and its clients. Several important points came to mind.
- Social media will tell you things that standard focus groups and research will not, plus the feedback is boundless and instantaneous
- Consumer feedback or lack there of will help gauge where your brand is on the social scale
- Social media gives brands the opportunities to respond to consumer complaints and strengthen brand loyalty
Tropicana took the comments seriously and started to pull the new design and roll out the old one. Starting March 1st the old packaging was back in stores along with new campaign ads.
