Lady GaGa – Acoustic Poker Face

I thought things like this only happen in movies…

Got this video from a good friend (her sister goes to Fordham)…kid’s a fast thinker…

Ithaca College in The New York Times

Ithaca College makes it into The New York Times, for sustainability of course…

At Upstate Campus, Saving Energy is Part of Dorm Life

At Upstate Campus, Saving Energy Is Part of Dorm Life

Jonathan Cohen for The New York Times

Sheraz Iqbal, a resident assistant at Ithaca College’s Clarke Hall, one of two dormitories on campus given the Energy Star label.

By LISA W. FODERARO

Published: April 16, 2010

ITHACA, N.Y. — The Energy Star label, the federal government’s nod of approval for energy-efficient products, usually calls to mind household appliances like refrigerators and air-conditioners. But at Ithaca College, a campus known for its embrace of all things sustainable, two dormitories proudly wear the Energy Star label, too.

Jonathan Cohen for The New York Times

The Energy Star label, hanging here in Clarke Hall, represents the federal government’s nod of approval for energy efficiency.

The residence halls, Clarke and Hood, feature six-way zoned heating, energy-efficient boilers, digitally controlled heating systems and ample weather-stripping. They also benefit from a brigade of students on campus, known as eco-reps, who cajole and exhort their peers to reduce their carbon footprints. Among their duties is the posting of fliers inside bathroom stalls, called installments. A recent missive urged students to “beware of the phantom load,” energy used by appliances that are turned off but still plugged in.

“Instead of someone talking at you, it’s someone your own age who says, ‘This is a good idea,’ ” said Becky Webster, a junior from Troy and one of a half-dozen eco-reps on campus.

Ithaca is one of only two colleges in New York State with dormitories that have earned the Energy Star label so far; the other is Hamilton College. And administrators here say they have submitted an application for a third dormitory whose energy use has recently met the Energy Star requirements for buildings.

While the Environmental Protection Agency is widely known for its Energy Star program for appliances, the agency has rated commercial buildings — perhaps less visibly — for more than a decade. Dormitories are among 22 building categories eligible for an Energy Star label, along with bank branches, courthouses, hospitals, hotels, petroleum refineries and schools. Dormitories joined the program in 2006; so far, more than 50 residence halls nationwide have won Energy Star approval, out of more than 9,800 buildings and plants.

The ratings system for buildings works differently from appliances. Using 12 months of utility bills, colleges enter information into the E.P.A.’s Web site about a dormitory’s energy consumption. The computer program takes into account factors like building size, computer use local climate and occupancy and then compares the energy use with similar buildings nationwide. A score of 75 or higher, on a scale of 1 to 100, means the dormitory is Energy Star eligible, and the agency system invites the college to apply for the label. A professional engineer must also perform an audit of the building, at the institution’s expense.

The Energy Star label for buildings is intended to raise awareness and prompt colleges to set energy goals.

“Colleges and universities spend almost $2 billion a year on energy,” said Maura Beard, a spokeswoman for the Energy Star program. “A lot of people think the solution lies in the latest gizmo or newest technology. But there are things as simple as, who’s paying attention to the lights being on all night? The idea is extricating this waste.”

Ithaca College’s quest for green dormitories is part of a broader agenda to be environmentally sensitive, one of the hottest social causes on campuses. Set in the Finger Lakes in a college town that likes to call itself “10 square miles surrounded by reality,” the campus has a new platinum certification in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, known as LEED, for a business school building, the highest available, from the United States Green Building Councill, an environmental group. A second new building is expected to earn a platinum rating shortly. The college also has an active composting program, an environmentally themed residence hall and a new organic garden. And administrators are considering a major in sustainability.

The Energy Star labels for dormitories, which come with a plaque, are one way for college administrators to get recognition for investing in improvements that are not necessarily visible. At Ithaca, for instance, the college has spent $1.3 million in the last decade on dormitories and academic buildings to upgrade boilers, insulate attics and create a digitally controlled heating system that allows for automatic thermostat adjustments.

“It lets us make a visual statement that, ‘Hey, we are doing these things,’ ” said Marian M. Brown, special assistant to the provost and vice president for academic affairs at Ithaca, referring to the Energy Star plaques.

One of the keys to the Energy Star label for dormitories is submetering. While every dormitory at Ithaca College is individually metered for electricity, only about 15 percent have submeters for natural gas. The parsing of energy use is crucial because without information from both meters, a dormitory cannot compete for an Energy Star label.

Indeed, Ms. Brown suspects that some of the college’s other dormitories would earn a score of 75 or higher if they were individually metered like Clarke and Hood Halls. But such meters would cost the college about $1,000 each, she said. And in deciding how to allocate limited funds, one question for administrators is whether to spend money on things that yield actual energy savings or, in the case of submeters, provide feedback.

“I could easily spend $20 million on new windows if I had the money, and we have a number of boilers that need to be replaced,” said Rick Couture, the college’s associate vice president for facilities. “These are all the things that people don’t see and aren’t glamorous, but they’re the guts of the building.”

With Ithaca College’s commitment to instituting practices that do not have a negative impact on the global climate, more investments are needed. Some of the money will come from energy savings that the college has already achieved. Mr. Couture estimated that the college had saved about a half-million dollars annually in the last five years as a result of the building improvements.

While the Energy Star appliance labels have been criticized for their potential for fraud, the rating system for buildings has earned mostly praise. A Congressional report released in late March detailed how auditors posing as fictitious companies managed to get Energy Star approval for a number of phony appliances, including a gasoline-powered alarm clock.

“The building program uses actual utility bill data, so there really isn’t room for abuse,” said Merrilee Harrigan, vice president for education at the Alliance to Save Energy, a nonprofit group in Washington. “It’s a fantastic tool.”

Ms. Harrigan said Energy Star allowed colleges to see how their dormitories stacked up to others nationwide. “Even if you know the energy use of your building, you don’t have any context,” she said. “That’s the great value of the Energy Star program. It gives you an apples-to-apples comparison with other schools in the country, and that’s the piece that is extremely difficult to get any other way.”

Get Mobile

As if we couldn’t get enough of Nike, Nike comes at us again with its Awake mobile marketing campaign.  Mobile marketing is the new brainchild of advertising.  Why make the consumer put in any effort when the advertisements can come straight to you?  Mobile marketing is as straightforward as its name, marketing straight to a mobile device (such as a cell phone).  Essentially it’s marketing in motion.  In November 2009, the Mobile Marketing Association defined mobile marketing as “a set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.”

Nike has tapped into the marketing of the future with its Air Max 360 National campaign, Awake.  The Air Max 360 was launched on January 21, 2006 showing off a new shoe design that utilized “Max Air” throughout the shoes’ midsole.  For those of you who are not proficient in “air talk,” the Nike Air Max shoes use a large air cushioning unit at the heel which is visible from the side of the midsole in most models.  Apparently the types of air don’t just stop there with Tube Air, Total Air, Tuned Air and Zoom Air – but I digress.

Awake features an all-star cast of Nike athletes who show a common passion for athletics through their commitment to training, no matter how early the hour.  While waking up might be a challenge for less-than-early-birds, they know the gym, court or pool is waiting to start their day.  The love for their chosen sports propels them to train to get better (http://newsblaze.com/story/2006011815194700001.mwir/topstory.html).  These all-stars include Maria Sharapova (WTA), Alex Rodriguez (New York Yankees), Justin Gatlin (USA Track & Field), Tom Brady (New England Patriots) and Liu Xiang (Men’s Track and Field Olympic Gold Medalist.  The goal of Awake is to get everyone moving – just get out of bed and play a sport, leading to Nike’s ultimate message of “Just Do It.”

Nike incorporates mobile marketing into Awake by enticing customers to sign up for a wake-up call from a famous athlete, including the ones mentioned above.  This was an eight-week promotion encouraging consumers to visit NikeAir.com where they can register to receive a pre-recorded wake-up call to their cell phones from one of the athletes who appear in the television advertisement.  Registrants can choose the day, time and if they wish to receive a one-time call or multiple calls.

The target audience for the campaign is active people who enjoy sports.  The athletes featured in the television ad are the motivation for people to continue their dedication to athletics and exercise.  The Nike Air Max shoes continue to get lighter and edgier – appealing to a younger demographic of 16 to 24 year olds.  A consumer is able to customize their own Air Maxes, giving the user more control over their purchase.

Since Nike is positioned as a premium brand, selling well-designed and expensive products, it promotes its products through sponsorship agreements with celebrity athletes.  This appeals to the younger demographic because many in this range are athletes on sports teams in high school and college.  They already have the drive to face the challenge on the field but need the motivation to take it one step farther in training.  As Anson Dorance once said, “The vision of a champion is bent over, dripping in sweat, at the point of exhaustion, when no one is watching.”  This vision applies perfectly to the desire that Nike wants to create with this campaign.

The effectiveness of this strategy was better than expected.  Eric Wheeler, Senior Partner with Ogilvy Interactive, and Gene Keenan, VP Mobile Services for Isobar International discussed the success of this campaign at the Mobile Marketing Forum in 2006.  The campaign managers saw single users setting up multiple calls and initially thought they were being used for prank phone calls, but they discovered that coaches and team managers were signing up their entire roster!  The eight-week promotion exceeded its total target participation by 300% by the end of the first week alone (http://www.christine.net/2006/11/top_mobile_mark.html).

This campaign showed a strong relevancy to the consumer and through the use of mobile marketing welcomed participation.  It was able to connect what could have been just another television campaign into something tangible for the consumers.  Essentially pro-athletes were available to any motivated athlete right at their fingertips!  Many users enjoyed this as can be seen on the chat forum, FatWal!et.com, where users expressed their excitement:  “Wow, a wake up call from Maria! I wonder if she’s in the middle of a serve when she calls?”  The truth is, she just might be.  Now it’s time for you to get out of bed and start limbering up – you have a date with the gym.

The High School equivalent of the Nike Awake commercial:

Embrace Life

A cool new commercial from the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership in its campaigns for road safety – almost 5 million views on YouTube!

Winter Ain’t So Wonderful Anymore

Enjoying Christmas is a thing of the past.  In all honesty, who even sings Christmas carols anymore?  Well, Juliet Weybret does.  According to Tim Arango’s article, “As Rights Clash on YouTube, Some Music Vanishes,” in The New York Times, this high school sophomore and “aspiring rock star” recorded a video of herself playing the piano and singing “Winter Wonderland.”  Her crime you ask?  No, not daring to celebrate this outdated holiday with a musical snack, but posting her ditty on YouTube.

After posting her video on YouTube, she received an e-mail message from the Web site:  her video was being removed “as a result of a third-party notification by the Warner Music Group,” which owns the copyright to the Christmas carol.  YouTube, which is owned by Google, is caught in copyright chaos with Warner Music Group.  The controversy regards the amount of money Warner Music Group should be paid for the use of its copyrighted works (music videos).  Due to this, many amateurs such as Juliet Weybret are getting caught in the copyright crossfire.

They say imitation is the best form of flattery.  However, many videos are disappearing from YouTube as Warner Music Group clamps down because of the lack of copyright clearance.  This does not include just amateurs singing the songs, but any “family home videos that included a portion of a song playing in the background have been removed, as have any number of videos that use music in goofy ways, from montages to mash-ups.”

With the increased usage of the Internet follows new issues with copyright infringement regarding Internet sites that distribute content free and owners of the copyrighted material.  Web sites such as YouTube rely on users that display their own material.  However, in cases such as the one between YouTube and Warner Music Group, Warner Music Group is calling upon copyright infringements because the company is losing money.  According to the previously mentioned New York Times article, Warner Music Group and YouTube failed to agree to terms on a new licensing deal that would have paid Warner Music Group a cut of advertising revenue in exchange for permission to stream the music company’s videos.  Not being able to agree to a new licensing deal led Warner Music Group to begin removing its music videos from YouTube.

One of the main copyright myths is that if the content is on the Internet then it is in the public domain.  This is widely believed in the usage of Web sites such as YouTube, where anyone is able to upload a video.  Anyone can make a music video and post it, but in many cases attribution is not given when the songs already exist.  Companies such as Warner Music Group that own the rights to songs such as “Winter Wonderland” are not generating any revenue for use of the song.  It may sound extreme, but even a video of a fifteen year old girl singing the song can cause controversy because Warner Music Group is not directly (monetarily) benefiting from it.

Licenses allow the buyer to use the product but restrict duplication or distribution.  Failure to enter into a licensing agreement is costing both YouTube and Warner Music Group.  Professionally produced music videos are some of YouTube’s most-watched material.  In a list of the Top Ten Most Watched YouTube videos, a Miley Cyrus official music video (I know, I’m surprised too) makes the number three spot, only to be topped by the “Evolution of Dance” comedy skit by Judson Laipply and infamous “Charlie Bit My Finger.”  It is important for YouTube to keep official music videos on its site in order to increase the flow of advertising income.

The meaning of fair use under copyright law is being debated in the context of the digital age.

The four factors of fair use include:

• Purpose of use (commercial v. non-profit)
• Nature of copyrighted work (factual v. fiction)
• Substantiality of use (portion v. whole)
• Effects on the potential market (neutral v. lost revenue)

The New York Times article stipulates that “many of the offending videos of the user-generated variety like Ms. Weybret’s – as opposed to copies of music videos produced by Warner and its artists – would fall under fair use because they are noncommercial and include original material produced by the user.” The argument to this is while the videos are created for noncommercial purposes, they are being shown on Web sites such as YouTube, which is a “moneymaking enterprise.”

Attribution should be paid to the company and performer who originally produce a musical work.  However, should amateur singers/musicians/performers be punished for singing these popular songs?  After all, in order to make money in the first place the audience needs to like it and make it popular.  Copyright infringement continues to be a heavily debated issue, especially now that the Internet provides a whole new playing field for what can be fairly used.  Failure to see eye to eye in licensing agreements continues to make all parties caught in copyright crossfire lose money.

While it isn’t “Winter Wonderland,” check out one of Juliet Weybret’s originals – taken from YouTube:

Mass Customization: NikeiD vs. Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ

“Mass customization is the new frontier in business competition for both manufacturing and service industries.  At its core is a tremendous increase in variety and customization without a corresponding increase in costs.  At its limit, it is the mass production of individually customized goods and services.  At its best, it provides strategic advantage and economic value,” writes B. Joseph Pine and Stan Davis, authors of Mass Customization:  The New Frontier in Business Competition.  Mass customization is defined as the production of personalized or custom-tailored goods or services to meet consumers’ diverse and changing needs at near mass production prices. With the creation of the Internet comes a paradigm for marketing techniques.  The appearance of the Internet created the digital age, opening up e-commerce and paving the way for mass customization.  Instead of promoting a distinct brand, marketers are shifting toward a personal approach in the digital marketplace.

Puma is a major competitor in the athletic shoe market that employs a mass customization strategy within the digital environment.  Puma takes an interesting approach in offering consumers customized athletic shoes through its “Mongolian Shoe BBQ” theme.  This is far-fetched and is not at all relevant to the product.  In its marketing effort to explain the Mongolian Shoe BBQ, Puma compares the Mongolian Army cooking their dinners with a “medley of ingredients” to designing your own RS-100.  This does not have any relevance to athletics, which is what Puma has built its brand recognition on.

Consumers like to identify with a brand, and expect an experience as well as a product.  With the Mongolian Shoe BBQ theme, Puma negatively affects the experience of the athletic brand.  In visiting a website that allows you to create athletic products the consumer should be inspired and motivated to engage in sports, look stylish while doing it and get pumped up about athletics.  This would entail using a sleek, modern look with dynamic colors.  Visiting a website dedicated to food did not inspire me to design a creative customized athletic shoe.  The first page does not even show a running shoe, but instead features a chef in a restaurant.  It feels as if Puma is stretching so far to be different that in reality, it loses its credibility.

Upon leaving the main Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ webpage, the customization process is direct and clear.  You are able to start with a clean slate, and it is easy to understand.  The ability to focus on different parts of the shoe is detailed and organized.  I appreciate tabs to describe the side, top and back parts of the shoe.  This makes it very easy for the consumer to customize each aspect of the shoe to their liking.  Puma also offers a large variety of colors and patterns to choose from in each part.

In visiting the NikeiD website next, it already had a very different feel than the Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ.  The design is sleek with a colorful dynamic, giving it a cutting-edge appeal.  The NikeiD site focuses on customizing the Zoom Kobe V, while Puma offers a menu of three templates.  I tried to customize other types of shoes but the site continually froze, not allowing me to get to the customizing point.  Due to this, I went ahead and customized my own Zoom Kobe V.

NikeiD’s approach did not have a theme, which I appreciated after visiting the Puma Mongolian Show BBQ.  I thought the Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ theme was distracting from the customizing process.  I appreciated the modern feel of the NikeiD site because I immediately got a sense of style and power.  By drawing your attention to the new shoe it attracts consumers to immediately choose the new style to customize.

In analyzing the customer experience on the website, I was frustrated by the continuous “freezing,” which eventually led me to give up on trying to customize any other shoe.  The process of customizing the shoe was also clear and easy to use.  However, there was not a large variety of color and pattern options.  I liked how you are able to just scroll over a section of the shoe and it would become highlighted, showing you exactly what section you want to work on.  The neutral background was effective because the entire focus was on the shoe with no distractions.  I also thought the description of the shoe and customer reviews that were presented up front were effective as well.

While I am not a fan of the Puma Mongolian Shoe BBQ marketing strategy, I do feel that Puma creates a better customer experience in customizing a shoe.  I liked Nike’s overall look of the website, but Puma’s customization process was more detailed, focused and organized.  There were a lot of options, each displayed clearly on the screen.  It was very simple to navigate and focused on your design of the shoe, which is why the customer visits the website in the first place.

Tech Buff

I’m not technology’s biggest fan.  I have the same iPod since entering college, I refuse to upgrade my phone and Twitter is a foreign entity. Due to this, it would make sense that I entered into one of the newest majors available and am now taking a class that only accepts my five-page rants in a blog post.  To be quite honest, technology intimidates me.  It is rapid, with a question mark instead of a period.  I think everyone has been intimidated by a question mark.  A simple curve and dot before something is expected of you.  Something right. Technology is unfinished and ever-changing – and just never seems to reach that something right.  There will always be something better. While that question mark is intimidating, a period would just be sad.  An ending to idea.  I can only put one foot in front of the other – today I started a blog.