In the last few months there’s been an avalanche of websites in .ro dedicated to women, from portals to online shops and blogs. Too much information! all over the web.

Based on the principles “why the hell not?” and “if you want something done right do it yourself” I brainwashed a fashion victim girlfriend of mine and started our very own little GIRL PROJECT: thatsHOT.ro.

We’re hoping to launch in the next couple of months. It’s gonna be basically a wordpress based website aka blog which… you know what? I’ll tell you later all about it. All I hope is that a busy, cool , webloving girl will love to spend a few minutes a day on thatsHOT’s site or feed .

In the mean time, I would appreciate any comments on the logo draft below. The positive ones you can also address directly to the author (Thank you again crime partner!) and the negative ones just hit me and I’ll filter them a little before forwarding them :P . Pahomi, any evil thoughts please ? :D 

I’ve mentioned Zazazoo before, a Romanian one day-one product shop online dedicated to women. I’ve been keeping an eye on this store and regulary checking their products via RSS.

These days I’ve been looking for a present for a girlfriend of mine and Zazazoo came instantly to mind in search of some cute, special , maybe even ON SALE , little girlie thinghie. Opened my Reader and surprisingly Zazazoo’s feed wasn’t updated since March 8… what the @#!$% ?

Headed to the site. Still no products, but an “invitation” to join their 1 million pieces puzzle… i juuust wanted to buy something. I see the “Zazazoo Shop” button and finally got to the products…

They were UPDATED!!! I subscribed to their RSS feed AGAIN and apparently I’ve been missing out on a lot of stuff since March 8 … daahhh! No “daily dose of shopping for me” as states their slogan. Now what happened? Why didn’t my feed update? can I buy something from the archive?

I don’t know if there was any mention of this on their blog because I don’t want to subscribe to their blog… I just want the products!

Ergo, my question: was this a mistake from their part or is it just me?

These days I’ve been getting caught up in anything BUT what I’m supposed to… I’ve been focusing on personal silly net projects (soon to be revealed) when work should be top priority and hanging on the web instead of the multiple schools I’ve recklessly entered. Something like this:

It’s like I’m trying to get a break in the middle of the class. In this note I wanted to share, in case you didn’t hear of it, the genius webcomic that is xkcd. I’ve been following the comic for quite some time now and finally I’ve selected some of the latest episodes which are top of my list to give you a clue on what xkcd is about : “romance, sarcasm, math and language” [computer language that is].

xkcd is sometimes better than any funny youtube video. more on xkcd here and here. Just take a peek at the following…

Is it ok to say out loud that I don’t understand some of the episodes ? (the above I do! but all of the people who mentioned the comic seem to get them all!)… I get them in my own way

Hotel marketing has always been first and foremost about the services. Then comes the location, the pricing, the history, the PR … there is a cool paradox here:

if the hotel meets my standards (as a client) everything will seem perfectly normal to me and I will probably mention my place of stay only if asked. BUT if the services don’t appeal to me (or plain and simply stink) there is a good chance I will mention the place in every story related to my trip… and obviously not in pretty colors.

Amazingly even luxurious hotels are faced with this paradox because most of their customers are used to the lux and are not easily impressed. But this is another story…

Following this train of thought one of the biggest challanges for a new-born hotel is the differentiation. If you don’t have a history or are forced to reinvent yourself, if the location isn’t that spectacular or your budget is, as all are, limited… what can you do?

Here is an ideea: 61 rooms, all different. The amazing Fox Hotel in the centre of Copenhagen opposed the “home away from home” concept and gave its visitors something to talk about, the hotel became a destination in itself. Just take a look at their website and see how all their marketing efforts are around this line.

I’ll stop any analysis right here. I’ll show you just 8 rooms… they speek for themselves

Read the rest of this entry »

we all know how important music can be in any sort of advertisement. It can generate genuine interest in your add and contribute to the WOM effect .

My clever partner in crime had a cool idea the other day about how you can find a suitable song for your needs (advertising-related or not) and I’m totally spreading the word: Musicovery. It’s a webradio which allows you to select music according to your mood… you can choose the mix between calm to energetic and dark to positive. It has multiple options of which the non-hit option or “Discovery” is perfect for the music-seeker. Of course you can also sort by time period or decade.

I truly believe you can stumble upon original suitable music for any particular need. I’m gonna go now make a little something to post on YouTube. Found the soundtrack so all that’s left is the easy part…

source of pic.

UPDATE:

Conjure One feat. Sinead O’Connor - Tears from the moon .

This song was featured in the Romanian company Romtelecom’s mineral water brand Dorna TV ad. (Thank you Irina)

Irina also showed me in her comment below a genius ad of Lufthansa in which music is trully the key. It’s such a good illustration of my point above I just had to show it to you

I’ll be receiving my cap and gown to wear at my Graduation Ceremony on May 24 !
I’m so nervous and excited… I can’t believe I’m graduating! This post may mark the beginning of the beginning of a new era May not seem much but I’m sure it was or will be for each one of you :P. Look here or here if interested in why we’re wearing this strange outfit at graduation.

… just another one in the dust…

source of pic.