The Everywhere Girl

I recently stumbled upon an interesting blog entry about the "Everywhere Girl", which I think illustrates just how small the world is becoming with the internet.
This technology could be put to use by casting directors faced with the dreaded imperative: "Find someone who looks like this..."
For the actor or model, tracking their media reach just got that much simpler (anyone remember clipping services?)
Unfortunately, there are still some flaws to work out. I tried the BYO Search Lab offered on the website and got far less-than-perfect results. Check out some of the matches to my photo at the end of the blog.

Everywhere Girl, The Book

If you’ve ever worried about photos from your past coming back to haunt you, get to know the story of the Everywhere Girl. Over a decade ago she was a young actress posing for a series of stock photos. While she’s no Mona Lisa, in recent years her photos have made their way into royalty-free collections and crept into print and web designs the world over. First chronicled in Paul Hales’ technology blog The Inquirier and later by Idée’s own CEO Leila, the Everywhere Girl now even has her own blog. While fans have been compiling her images with the human eye for years, no method is better suited to this kind of task than image-recognition technology.

We indexed a series of Everywhere Girl photos using PixID our image recognition technology and have been monitoring the appearance of the Everywhere Girl. Here are the interesting results from our book cover monitoring project:

The Let’s Study Series of Christian books

• Peter (Let’s Study) by William W. Harrell
• Corinthians (Let’s Study) by David Jackman
• Galatians (Let’s Study) by Derek Thomas

Read the full article here: http://blog.ideeinc.com/2008/01/22/everywhere-girl-the-book/


My Picture Match
I used this picture in the BYO Search Lab offered on Idee.com's website.

Here are some of the more interesting results:

To be fair, this application, the BYO Image Search Lab, uses a database which supposedly holds over 2.8 million images. Obviously, none of them are of me!

Mag My Pic

Wanna feel like a celebrity, or turn a friend into one? Have fun with this neat little website that gives you a number of different magazine cover options then automatically superimposes them over a picture you upload.
It could also be used as a great visual motivator, to help you see where you want to be!

http://www.magmypic.com/

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com

Subscribe to People Magazine at a 37% discount!

Documentary about early marketing techniques

THE CENTURY OF THE SELF


Two: The Engineering of Consent

The programme explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud's ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses.

Politicians and planners came to believe Freud's underlying premise - that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational desires and fears. They were convinced that it was the unleashing of these instincts that had led to the barbarism of Nazi Germany. To stop it ever happening again they set out to find ways to control this hidden enemy within the human mind.

Sigmund Freud's daughter, Anna, and his nephew, Edward Bernays, provided the centrepiece philosophy. The US government, big business, and the CIA used their ideas to develop techniques to manage and control the minds of the American people. But this was not a cynical exercise in manipulation. Those in power believed that the only way to make democracy work and create a stable society was to repress the savage barbarism that lurked just under the surface of normal American life.

Here is part of this episode.


http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=1641135807078400467

How to Market for Theatre

I recently came across a site where this question was posed by the Business Unit Manager at Siemens Energy and Automation:

Does anyone have advice for Marketing for a non-profit community theatre?

As a volunteer consultant on this service project, my team is looking at the marketing strategies of a small community theatre in a neighborhood of Atlanta. We have a lot of creative ideas, and of course typical MBA-style to drive the strategy. But -- As all my experience is in business marketing - any advice on non-proft or arts marketing would be very welcome! This project is part of the CCT "Community Consulting Team" program.

I think this query illustrates that, just because people have a corporate background, it may still be necessary to educate them on the intricacies of marketing in the not-for-profit world. The response received is worth noting too:

I'm assuming for the purposes of this reply that "non-profit community" translates into "very little, if any, marketing/advertising budget."

I'm also assuming that you know:
1) what "call to action" you're driving (i.e., "buy tickets to our event" or "volunteer your time")
2) who you're trying to reach (i.e., you know the demographic of your customers)

I would do anything I can that's free... including making sure you're sending press releases about your events to local media, to leaving business card drop boxes at places where you can have people drop their card, and giveaway one free set of tix. For the other cards, you've got contact info now for a mailing list or email list. But you might try some cold calling of those cards: "Sorry you didn't win, but we can offer at half off" or something like that.

Also, make sure every one who comes to one of your events has a reason to come back and bring someone with them... these are people who already know about you and your events and are the best source of bringing new customers back with them. Give them some incentive to come back, and some incentive to bring a friend.

If this doesn't help, read anything by Seth Godin (he has free e-books on the web called "Knock Knock") and also try reading "Shameless marketing for brazen hussies."

-Adeena

Links:

• http://cutelittlestore.net

For responses to this question go here: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/marketing-sales/business-development/MAR_BDV/28613-1458915

WMA Seminar - Illustration for Magazines and Marketing

Click on image to enlarge.