Sunday night, Ian and I were vegging on the couch, watching TV and checking our phones. I was flipping through Facebook and came across a post from Oreo. It was a photo of an Oreo cookie with a rainbow filled center, in honor of Pride weekend, and with it was the caption: Proudly support love!

I showed Ian and mentioned how awesome it was. What I didn’t mention was how amazing it was not only from a standpoint of a brand supporting equality, but that the brand was willing to take such a risk.

As someone who strategizes and plans content for brands’ on Facebook, I can only imagine the time, energy, thoughtfulness, and resources that went into making this happen. It seems simple enough, but this was huge. And the impact of it has been absolutely fascinating to watch. It’s garnered a ton of publicity, buzz and people are sharing it like crazy (as of right now, that photo has generated 217,345 “Likes”, 35,415 comments and nearly 67,000 shares.

I also love that while reading through the comments, those who are now brand advocates and supporting Oreo as a result of this photo far outnumber the posts of boycotts and hatred. As one person shared, “A sea changing moment. An iconic product recognizes our humanity.”

So, Oreo, from a marketer, strategist, and human rights supporter, I applaud you!

The aftermath of a successful finger painting session!

Whew. A lot has been going on. It’s been so busy, I’ve been bad at updating the site, but here’s the lowdown…Last month Sarah started a new and exciting job, and we welcomed Marie as our new nanny. We have grown to absolutely love Marie, which has made this next chapter all the more difficult. After looking into some preschool options for further down the road, an opening came up at Early Learning Foundations (E.L.F.) and we decided to take advantage of it and enroll Teddy. Our thinking was that A) it’d be great to get him into this new routine well before baby #2 arrives B) he’s ready for more socialized and structured routines and C) we’ve heard wonderful things about E.L.F. and didn’t want to pass up on the opening. But of course with this comes more change and transition. As I type, Teddy’s well into his second day, and so far it seems to be going well *knock on wood*. My cousin, Emily’s, son Malcolm also attends E.L.F. and that has helped as Teddy loves seeing his familiar face. I am anticipating that it will get a bit harder as the novelty of the new toys and routine wares off, but maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.

In any case, Teddy is amazing and doing so well. His language continues to crow as a crazy rate and the more he’s talking, the funner it’s getting! The next couple of steps we have coming up are transitioning him into his big-boy bed and then the ever-looming potty training. But we’ll get there. I feel like getting him started in the school was the biggest step/transition, and now that it’s underway, I can already feel a weight lifted.

As for baby #2, things are going well! Being pregnant in the summer is a MUCH different experience than it was the last go around, but so far, so good. This little guy is kicking, squirming and moving around, but all are good signs of healthy development and progress. We can’t wait to meet this little guy and for Teddy to fully embrace his role as big brother!

So that’s a quick Teddy update- so much going on, but it’s all still fun, and you know what? That’s all we can ask for!

I also found it very interesting that she sites Ree Drummond, The Pinoeer Woman herself, as inspiration for this move. Get back to basics. Live off the earth. It sounds pretty divine, no?

Here’s the profile in full:

May 30, 2012

Taking Her Leave

By BEE-SHYUAN CHANG

IT was a little more than a year ago that the New York City socialite Amanda Brooks was appointed fashion director of Barneys New York, to some cluck-clucking in the industry. After all, Ms. Brooks, 38, had little experience in retail, other than acting as a muse and later creative director to the fashion label Tuleh, and was more often photographed in preppy classics than the avant-garde brands for which Barneys had been known under the stewardship of her well-regarded predecessor, Julie Gilhart. As the blog Fashionista put it, “We’ve always thought of Brooks as more of a Bergdorf girl.”

Ms. Brooks’s duties included overseeing private labels and creating trend reports, informed in part by the street style of “it” girls, many of whom were part of her impressive network. “We didn’t need more retail help,” Mark Lee, the store’s chief executive, said of the hire at the time. Indeed, a lot of her job seemed to involve attending fashion shows, where she was a front-row regular, and going to openings and galas.

But in March, Ms. Brooks pulled off yet another surprise. She announced that she was not just quitting the Barneys position, but leaving Manhattan itself and planning a yearlong move with her family to a farm in Oxfordshire, England, that is owned by the family of her husband, the artist Christopher Brooks.

Was the Barneys brass disappointed in the high-profile hire? (Through a spokeswoman, executives there turned down requests to be interviewed on the matter.) Had Ms. Brooks — such a clotheshorse that she wrote a 2009 book on personal style — somehow soured on fashion shows? Or, as some in the news media speculated, was the move in support of her brother- and sister-in-law, Charlie and Rebekah Brooks, charged with perverting the course of justice (the term in British law) in the News of the World phone-hacking case?

None of the above, Ms. Brooks said recently, dining on a sunny Friday at Freemans, downstairs from the apartment she’ll soon be renting out. (A North Fork residence will also be leased, to the artist Rachel Feinstein, a friend.)

“It was because of Ree Drummond’s blog, The Pioneer Woman,” said Ms. Brooks, who has recently returned to a blog, ILoveYourStyle.com, that she started after publishing the 2009 book, which had the same name. Reading a New Yorker profile last year of Ms. Drummond, a mother of four who lives on a cattle ranch outside Pawhuska, Okla., and posts prolifically on subjects like how to make cornmeal pancakes (using catchphrases like “yahoo, yippety”) “got me really fired up,” Ms. Brooks went on. “It’s the idea of having a career on your own terms, anywhere.”

At first glance, Ms. Brooks, a consummate urbanite with coolly styled looks, could not be more diametrically opposed to Ms. Drummond. At lunch, several days after the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s annual Costume Institute benefit (to which she wore a minimalist graphite Calvin Klein ensemble), Ms. Brooks was dressed casually in an open-knit beige sweater, black trousers and black flat sandals. Her blondish brown hair fell in an enviable natural wave, and her figure was willowy.

“I lost a lot of weight working at Barneys,” said Ms. Brooks, nibbling delicately at the turkey sandwich with bacon she’d ordered along with an iced tea, then hastening to add, “It was the 14-hour days and then all the traveling.”

Since she married Mr. Brooks in 2001, in a wedding attended by such diverse personalities as Christian Louboutin and Tama Janowitz, the couple have tried to maintain the integrity of their family life, she said, agreeing to limit work events to two nights per week, a difficult feat in the hyperactive art and fashion scenes. They have two children, Coco (not after Chanel, but an abbreviation of Carmen), 10, who has yet to take any discernible interest in fashion, Ms. Brooks said, and Zach, 8.

She said she was reveling in her days off, scrapping her daily Women’s Wear Daily reading habit — “It’s refreshing to clear your mind,” she said. After lunch, she planned to take Zach to a birthday party.

In Ms. Brooks’s view, domestic harmony and success at work are inextricably intertwined. “That fearlessness, to be able to jump around in my career, came from a certain amount of stability and foundation I’ve always had at home,” she said. “I’m defined by my history, my family. I was never looking for my career to define me.”

Ms. Brooks grew up in Bronxville, N.Y., and Palm Beach, Fla., the younger of two daughters of Stephen Cutter, a real estate broker, and Elizabeth Stewart, an interior designer whom Ms. Brooks remembers wearing Alaïa to teach Sunday school. (Amanda’s older sister, Kimberly Cutter, is a novelist.) She attended public elementary school, then Horace Mann and Deerfield Academy, where she was a New England diving champion. While majoring in photography at Brown, she roomed with Patricia Lansing, a daughter of Carolina Herrera, for two years. She also briefly dated Alexander von Furstenberg, the son of Diane, who soon became what Ms. Brooks called “my fashion fairy godmother.” “It had nothing to do with Alexander,” Ms. von Furstenberg said of the bond between the two women. “But I have always had that special complicity with Amanda because of how we started.”

She added: “When I met her, she was very kind of WASPy and I didn’t even think she was that pretty. But I loved watching her grow. She learns, she absorbs, she’s very entrepreneurial and she’s very nice.”

The two women had lunch a few years ago, and Ms. von Furstenberg agreed to write a foreword to Ms. Brooks’s book. “She told me, ‘It’s time for you to figure out who is Amanda Brooks,’ ” Ms. Brooks said. “ ‘Not Amanda Brooks who works for so-and-so. It’s time to define yourself as a woman.’ ”

Ms. Brooks has never been shy about attracting powerful mentors. Her career started with an internship with Patrick Demarchelier, the fashion photographer, after she approached him at a French restaurant on the Upper East Side. Then there was a stint at the Gagosian Gallery, secured after chatting up Larry Gagosian, its founder, at a shoe store in the same neighborhood.

After working for Tuleh and Hogan, the leather-goods company, she consulted and then became director of fashion for the agency William Morris Endeavor, working with more mainstream brands, like Revlon and American Express. “Amanda is a complete person,” said her boss there, Mark Dowley, former chief executive of the agency’s marketing division. “Because she’s so pulled together, she’s incredibly disarming, but that can also be very intimidating.”

Ms. Brooks’s friends, though, described her as down to earth. “She’s a jock,” said Amy Astley, the editor of Teen Vogue, who is also married to an artist, the sculptor Christopher Astley, and got to know Ms. Brooks in the North Fork, where she also has a home. “She’s the girl who is swimming in the sound in April. She’s not a prissy fashion girl at all.”

Ms. Feinstein agreed. “Amanda is fearless,” she said. “If she decides to do something, she isn’t worried about what people might think.” She added: “She’s incredibly genuine. It’s hard for people to realize that someone like her is actually how she is. People want to dislike her because they can’t believe she’s had all this.”

At Barneys, though, Ms. Brooks faced challenges for which her charmed life might not have prepared her. She was part of a new management team, led by Mr. Lee and including Daniella Vitale, a veteran of Gucci, and Dennis Freedman, formerly of W magazine, that has tried to carry out a mandate to reinvent the store — an uphill battle.

“These last few years have been the golden age of luxury,” said Howard Davidowitz, a retail consultant. “During this golden age, Barneys has been a train wreck. It’s sort of undeniable. It’s almost in bankruptcy. Why is that?”

His theory: “From a merchandising point of view, they focused themselves out of business. If you have a big store, you have to have a wide range of customers. Otherwise, you won’t do enough business. They were way further out on the fashion curve, and that means much more risk.”

On May 7, after Ms. Brooks’s departure, Barneys announced that Perry Capital had become the new majority owner after a debt-for-equity deal.

Not that this is Ms. Brooks’s concern any longer. Instead, she is facing the challenge of branding herself just as the extended Brooks clan seeks greater privacy. (Through her, Christopher Brooks declined to be interviewed.) Ms. Brooks acknowledged that she was self-conscious posting on Twitter about herself, rather than a brand or a company, and that one of the qualities she most admired about Ms. Drummond’s work was that “she doesn’t exploit her children and husband.” But, “I love Instagram,” she said. “I love just posting a photograph and not saying anything.”

What kind of dispatches will be coming from Oxfordshire, where Ms. Brooks said she had spent most of her time on visits wearing jodhpurs? “It’s about a different perspective of living on a farm,” she said. “I’ll be looking for style, of course, as I do now. It might be the way I arrange a cheese plate, or how I arrange the flowers in a guest room.”

While Ms. Brooks refused to discuss the investigation rocking her extended family, she underscored her own toughness, telling of how four years ago, between fashion stints, she trained five months to push a dog sled 250 miles in Arctic Norway to raise money for charity.

“I’m adventurous,” she said. “I’ve always done well in situations that were unfamiliar to me. I’ve thrived on them.” A little bit of a chameleon? She lit up. “I’m not a little chameleon,” she said, “I’m totally a chameleon.”

Though it’s not yet clear that she can blend in entirely with the common folk. “If Amanda has one Achilles’ heel, it’s maybe not knowing how to play every situation,” Mr. Dowley said. “Not everybody knows what’s the latest thing in Vogue.”

But Ms. Brooks said she’s determined not to disappear. “I’ve just been programmed,” she said. “I’m success-oriented.” Mentioning plans for a second book, which will focus on stories of inspiration and influence over her 20-plus years in the fashion business, she mentioned the science lectures she loves at Rockefeller University, her collection of vintage books and being inspired by the work of the Pulitzer Prize winner Siddhartha Mukherjee.

“I’ve spent my entire career devoted to the vision of others,” she said. “This year away is for introspection. For myself.”

According to this AdAge article, “Pop-up concerts will be held in small venues around the country beginning at the end of June. They will be announced on Twitter one to two weeks in advance and will be streamed live on the platform through the @Pepsi handle. Twitter users will also be able to influence song choices at the concerts.”

There are a few reasons I’m particularly excited about this, but the main ones are that:

1. It’s pushing the envelope in interactive/community-based entertaining. This is with concerts, but it’s only a matter of time until it becomes TV, radio, and other traditional verticals
2. Similar to their Refresh program, Pepsi is taking this platform (as it did with Facebook) and reshaping its capabilities, thus driving further innovation. Bravo to them for the vision and ability to make it happen

It’s only a matter of time before we see more ideas from other brands take shape based off this new model. I’m curious and eager to see where it takes us.

Here’s the AdAge article in full:

Pepsi, Twitter Ink Yearlong Deal
Global Music Partnership Builds on Soda Brand’s Current Campaign

By: Natalie Zmuda Published: May 30, 2012

Twitter has inked its most extensive partnership to date, this one with Pepsi.

The global partnership, dubbed “Live for Now Music,” coordinates with Pepsi’s current campaign and new global positioning. It will span 52 weeks.

“This is the biggest initiative a marketer has done with Twitter to date,” said Adam Bain, Twitter’s president-global revenue. “It ranks as one of the smartest campaigns we’ve seen on the platform too. … This yearlong program takes full advantage of Twitter.”

The program, which has been in the works since late last year, has three aspects and relies heavily on video, both live streaming and original content. Mr. Bain said the program does not require Twitter to make any updates to its platform.

Pop-up concerts will be held in small venues around the country beginning at the end of June. They will be announced on Twitter one to two weeks in advance and will be streamed live on the platform through the @Pepsi handle. Twitter users will also be able to influence song choices at the concerts. Shiv Singh, global head of digital for PepsiCo Beverages, says the concerts are meant to be “spontaneous.” He declined to comment on artists that will be featured.

The brand also will be working with Twitter to determine trending topics related to music by analyzing the platform’s hundreds of millions of tweets. Those topics will be compiled into a short, weekly video digest, which will be embedded on Pepsi’s Twitter page every Wednesday. Finally, the brand will give away free music downloads via its @Pepsi handle.

Pepsi plans to use Twitter’s ad products — Mr. Singh says they have worked “very well” in the past — to draw attention to “Live for Now Music.”

“This further reinforces Pepsi’s position as being a curator, sponsor, creator, supporter and participant in pop culture and music, specifically,” said Mr. Singh.

Mr. Bain said “Live for Now Music” is the second program to come out of the relatively young brand-strategy group, which is run by Joel Lunenfeld. Mr. Lunenfeld joined Twitter less than a year ago from Atlanta-based digital agency Moxie Interactive, where he was CEO.

The first program to come out of the group was the AmEx Twitter Sync Campaign, launched at this year’s South by Southwest Interactive. Mr. Bain wouldn’t discuss how lucrative these types of partnerships are for the six-year-old platform, saying only, “We’d like to do more deals like this. … Any opportunity to get strategic with a marketer and agency is rare.”

Pepsi isn’t the only one getting strategic with a popular digital platform. Rival Coca-Cola announced a global partnership with Spotify in April. The music-streaming service will be the centerpiece of Coca-Cola’s “Year of Music” campaign in 2013.

Kisses from Teddy after finding out the new baby’s a boy!

We got exciting news on Friday: Teddy is going to be a big brother to a…little brother! Yep! Two boys. Actually, including Ian and the dog, make that four boys. One lady. But, I figure there are worse things in life than being surrounded by a flock of men/boys who love me. And Ian has promised to get me jewelry. Lots and lots of Jewelry!

I definitely thought this new baby was a girl. Mainly because the first 14 weeks were so much harder and different than Teddy’s pregnancy. Even my doctor told me she thought it was a girl. So imagine the surprise when low and behold, another boy. And you know what? I can’t wait!

The image of Teddy, showing his younger brother the ropes, playing and rough-housing with him, cheering for each other on their respective sporting sidelines… those images are pretty amazing and I absolutely can’t wait until they take place.

Right now, we’ve tried to communicate to Teddy that the new baby is coming, but it’s still not very clear how much he really understands. I do know that he’s been super cuddly at times, which I love, and hope is him trying to get in some big and little brother bonding time. His younger brother is one lucky little guy to have Teddy showing him the ropes.

There are a number of influencer ranking platforms out there, such as Klout, PeerIndex, TweetReach, etc.. but that’s not what I’m talking about here. We need to start recognizing that there are concentrated pockets within the online space made up of vocal, relevant and influential people that could prove incredibly valuable to sharing information, creating excitement and most important, growing advocacy. For brands, this is huge. The brands that will win in this will be the ones who don’t simply look at a number, but see the bigger picture and recognize the ROI is now ROR, return-on-relationships.

The Altimeter Group released a new study about the role of social influence and one of the things that I found very interesting and agreed with most is how they break down the influencer by reach, resonance and relevance. And through these three pillars are the keys to tapping into the right audiences and influencers. Additionally, it’s not just about someone having a huge following online, but finding those that have a concentrated audience centered around a shared interest or subject.

I think within the next six to 12 months, brands are going to step back, realize their pay-for-play blogger programs aren’t returning on their objectives and will reassess how to reach their core audiences online. And I believe that it will come down to strategic, thoughtful and smart mining of regular folks online that fit in one category or another. Time will tell, but we’re already moving in this direction.

It seems like an arbitrary nut to crack, but we’re getting there and this is going to be a pretty fun and exciting space to see expand. I, for one, am very much looking forward to it. Who doesn’t love an influencer case study?

What do you think? Is influence a matter of a Klout score or more than that? Would love to hear additional thoughts.

Photo from Dabble.co

I first learned about Dabble.co while attending Pecha Kucha a few months ago. A friend and co-worker was presenting and I was there to cheer her on and enjoy everyone else’s tales and showcases. One of the presentations  before Leah came on, was from Jessica. She talked about leaving her corporate life to pursue something else, a company that allowed people to “dabble” in their passions, in easy, quick and affordable ways. She founded Dabble.co and as soon as I learned about it, I was smitten.

Dabble.co absolutely brilliant. It lets people do one of two things (and local businesses can partake too): people can offer to teach courses of unique subject matter (who hasn’t wanted to learn how to make kimchi?) or sign up to take classes for only $20 a person, plus materials when applicable. And businesses can sign up to host classes, which is a great incentive to gain more traffic and awareness. No more eight-week commitments for $300 courses. This allows people to, as the name claims, dabble in various areas and interests. Brilliant.

I haven’t had a chance to sign up for a class, but not a day passes that I’m not perusing their catalog or thinking about what unique things I might be able to offer if I were to teach a class. So for you, curious readers, I recommend giving this site a shot. They launched less than a year ago in Chicago, but are already branching out in other cities. Take a look and don’t be afraid to dabble in Dabble.

Among those presenting are some pretty top-tier hitters, including:

• Seth Godin – Marketing visionary & New York Times bestselling author of 13 books
• Randi Zuckerberg – Former CMO from Facebook
• Gary Vaynerchuk – New York Times bestselling author of Crush it & The Thank You Economy
• Keith Ferrazzi – New York Times bestselling author of Never Eat Alone & Who’s Got Your Back
• Avinash Kaushik – Digital Marketing Evangelist for Google & bestselling author of Web Analytics 2.0
• Mitch Joel – Bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation

It takes place on April 24^th and I have a special discount code for anyone that would like to attend: CHICAGO22

Click here for all the info and I hope to see you there! http://www.theartof.com/marketing-chicago-2012

Disclosure: The Art of Marketing has provided me with a complimentary ticket but all thoughts here are my own.

But how’s this for you: one billion dollars for a photography company made up of 13 employees? That’s what Facebook recently bought Instigram for, which to me, is insane. It’s not only insane, but I fear it’s the beginning of the end.

We’ve been waiting for Web 2.0’s bubble to burst, and with this overly inflated purchase, I think this might be the snowball to set off the avalanche. In my opinion, the dollar amount seems inflated and offsets what realistic expectations and valuations should be, which is when we get into this funky, unstable ground.

As Facebook continues to consume startups within the social space, it will be interesting to keep an eye on what sticks, what sinks and everything in between.