If you're looking for information overload, head straight for the World Cup in Brazil. Or, at least, to your Twitter feed.

Here's an animated snapshot of what the Twitter feed for "World Cup" looked like during the Brazil vs. Cameroon game. Yes, that's in real time. And it's only a random sample of 20 seconds. Good luck getting anything meaningful out of it even after several passes (no World Cup pun intended).

In Jetsons' terms, this is definitely "Jane, stop this crazy thing!" territory. Here's one reason why:  hashtags. The very element that makes Twitter tick, hashtags, becomes self-defeating when everyone on earth who has a Twitter acccount and likes soccer (a.k.a. football a.k.a. futebol, etc.) will tag their tweets with #worldcup. Yes, I do this, too. If 71 percent of the tens of millions of tweets during key matches contain the exact same hashtag, of course, overload is absolutely guaranteed.

The solution? Well, I suppose you could actually just watch the game.

If you're trying to get something out of the tweets, then try to find the most meaningful follow you have and stick with that instead of starting with a hashtag.

If you're a marketer trying to leverage the World Cup mania on Twitter, go ahead and add that #worldcup hashtag. In your quest to stick out in the crowd, I wish you more luck than the Cameroon goalie had against Neymar.



Tools of the Trade

The maddeningly fast Twitter feed was captured using Reflector and AirPlay mirroring on iOS 7, then edited in Camtasia, converted to an animated GIF using ZAMZAR free online file conversion.

"Twitter hashtags for worldcup" is embedded from ritetag.com.

In Olympic commentator terms, Philips Norelco "absolutely nailed" this ad for their BeardTrimmer 9100. It's the perfect combination of concept, writing, execution, and editing. (Yes, Virginia, though Jonny's intensely intense character stars in this one, there was some excellent writing going on behind the scenes to frame his performance. Oh, and reality TV is scripted, too. Sorry.)

Maybe Philips Norelco paid Gomes a pretty penny for this ad, but they (correctly) went totally low-budget on the production. Now, I'm not saying that's a low-rent bathroom (whether or not it's Jonny's home turf), but the writer/director gets it right by maintaining all the focus on Jonny, I mean, Jonny's beard, I mean, Jonny's special relationship with his beard that can clearly only be trusted to the Philips Norelco BeardTrimmer 9100. No need for an exotic locale, special effects wizardry, or a cleverly orchestrated sideshow with goofy stuff in the background. It's all "Here's Jonny!" all the way.

Technical Score:  10

The intentional lack of naming and describing technical features works perfectly, too. Product mention? "My new Philips Norelco here..." does the trick. He passes the razor's lazer beam over his eye a couple of times, saying, "That's kind of weird, but awesome." We get it:  this thing is high-tech and the lazer thingy won't blind you. Show, don't tell.

He swivels the head 180 degrees:  "No." Back another turn:  "Yes." Oh, the head swivels. I get that, too. No narrator reading from a technical brief needed.

One more:  "I've got more attachments than you know what to do with over here," and not:  "The new Philips Norelco BeardTrimmer 9100 features..."

But wait, there's more

There's even a fake ending in the middle, when we think Jonny has trimmed just a bit, but left everything intact. Then, with an abrupt "mustache off!", he proceeds to shave off half of it and observes:  "Kind of like a newborn that's not new." It's just Jonny being Jonny.

The ad runs almost two minutes, so I won't spoil the rest. Watch it a few times to fully appreciate why this is a model for ads that match celebrity personalities perfectly with products they would actually use.

Now, will this ad translate internationally? The Red Sox do have a decent following in Japan. And "Red Sox Nation" claims fans in Norway, China, and Aruba. But the whole Red Sox beard phenomenon wasn't about baseball or the U.S. anyway, it was about characters, appearance, and unity, all universal concepts. And everyone understands winning. You don't need to get how much more a grand slam means than a three-run homer than that one additional run. Still, for those who are not familiar with America's passtime at all, here is a short video Explaining Baseball.

This Just In

Here's a side note on how connected and competitive the ad world is today. When I found the video on NESN.com of Gomes placing a Boston Strong t-shirt onto the World Series trophy at the site of the bombings, which ad played as the pre-roll? Correct, a razor ad from Gillette.

About the Blogger:  Eric Moody is President of World Power Marketing. One of the services WPM offers:  instant reviews of ads and all types of marketing materials.

In sales, one of the first things you learn is to "never talk past the close." Make your points, get the "yes," and move on. In ads, it should work the same way. Not so in this otherwise brilliant spot.

The new Chevy Malibu spot's punchline/payoff is as follows: The driver steps on the gas so his new Chevy Malibu "with an available 259-horsepower, turbocharged engine" pushes his co-workers into their seats and shocks them out of their mobile worlds. The guy in the back, oblivious to what the driver has just said, asks the same question:  "So, where should we go for lunch?" Nice. I get it.

But then, instead of pounding home the point by letting the roar of the engine muffle anyone else's responses, we're forced to listen to, "No, don't say 'salad'"... "Salad's delicious and healthy." ... "No, it's not. Hotdogs!"

Somewhere, creative drifted off into "Shrek" dialogue land. Well done, by the way, but not only is this talking past the close, it's even worse:  It's showing us that the co-workers weren't really impressed or affected by the new Chevy Malibu's power! And wasn't that supposed to be the point? We're selling the horsepower here, people.

Years ago, some obscure marketing research must have suggested that adding some "humor" to the end of an ad would make it approximately 2.74 percent more memorable. Marketers of the world, don't fall for this. Use humor when it is integral to the point you're making in your ad, or at least when it supports the main point. But never throw in humor as some sort of necessary afterthought. It can diminish the results from your ad, and that's not funny.

About the Blogger:  Eric Moody is President of World Power Marketing. One of the services WPM offers:  instant reviews of ads and all types of marketing materials.

Your email signature should make it easy for your contacts to get in touch with you now. In global business, Skype is a great way to connect.

Here's how to create a live Skype link and add it to your email signature, so your email contacts can launch a session with you with one click.

Step 1
Start editing your email signature. If you're not familiar with this, these links will help:

Gmail/Google Apps
iCloud Mail
Mac Mail (Mavericks)
Outlook

For other mail apps, start with the "Preferences" menu and go from there.

Step 2
Add a Skype line to your signature:

Skype: your-skype-address

Mine looks like this:

Skype: eric-moody


Step 3
Select your Skype name and add a link as follows:

skype:your-skype-address

The full HTML code is;

<a href="skype:your-skype-address">your-skype-address</a>

Mine looks like this. Click it now to try:

If you would prefer that people contact you by chatting (instant message) on Skype, instead of a call, then use this format instead:

skype:your-skype-address?chat

That's it!
Of course, you can point out the Skype link more directly with a line like "Want to talk about your business needs right now? Click the Skype link and let's get started." Make sure it fits your company's communications style.

Okay, here's one more chance for you to try this out. Click the link and let's talk!

Silver. Gold. Space Gray. Those are your choices for Apple's new iPhone 5s. Unless you step down to the new 5c, which is "For the colorful" (green, blue, yellow, pink, white). I guess the 5s is "For those who prefer a screaming 64-bit A7 chip, a new flashy thing (whiz-bang iPhone 5s camera w/dual white/amber LED flash, slo-mo, video zoom, etc.), and an M7 motion coprocessor. No, you haven't missed the M1 through M6 evolution of motion coprocessors. It is yet another brilliant new product name that simply implies a seventh-generation gizmo.

Wait. "Space Gray"? Where's my black iPhone that matches my car? My guess:  It's on the cutting room floor of Apple's smart-thinking marketing department.

See, since the 5s is the same shape and size as the 5, it would be much harder to pick the new 5s users out of a crowd...or meeting...if they were still the same old 5 colors. Short skirts are in. Short skirts are out. You get the idea.

So, I get the prosperity implications of silver and gold (champagne gold, so nobody mistakes it for a thin bar of the real stuff). According to cross-cultural gurus, the gold ones in particular will bring good luck - and fingerprint Touch ID technology - to millions in China. So, I will miss my black iPhone, but probably not for long.

At least this particular shade of 5s gray will give me the infinite possibilities of space. Yes, I think that's the one for me. Space Gray, that's what I've needed all along.


About the Blogger:  Eric Moody is President of World Power Marketing. If your company needs to make clever decisions that will help boost your SMB tech business, but you don't have the billion-dollar marketing budget of Apple, click here now!

Anyone who traveled to Hanover for CeBIT by plane was welcomed by this sign on their way to the baggage claim area ... where they could not miss all of the signs promoting Poland and Polish companies at CeBIT. This is great marketing, a clear benefit of being the CeBIT Partner Country this year.

Now, how are YOU going to attract attention for your booth at CeBIT? Here are some tips to get you started. Click here for "10 Ways to Maximize Your CeBIT Marketing." Good luck at the show!

Yes, that math is correct. And it's actually a fairly conservative estimate. CeBIT, the gigantic tech tradeshow that kicks off in Hanover, Germany, this week, will draw at least 300,000 attendees. You would need 571 fully loaded A380s to fit everyone in.

Now, if you're an exhibitor at CeBIT, think of how difficult it would be to attract the attention of everyone on board just one of those planes. Okay, now multiply that by 571. Not so easy, right?

The good news is that your market is not all 300,000. It's the fraction of that number who would actually benefit from your products or services. Still, you should make every effort to attract those people throughout the show. Look for my next blog for tips: "Ten Ways to Maximize Your CeBIT Marketing."

Two weeks to go. Tick, tick, tick. The image to the left is a screenshot from a countdown app on my phone. No, I didn't make it red just to signify panic. That's the CeBIT color, year after year. But for most exhibitors, the CeBIT red does start to make their heart pound about now. CeBIT is huge. CeBIT is larger than life. CeBIT is expensive. But CeBIT does draw a crowd, and every exhibitor, large (HUAWEI owns the onsite branding at the Hanover Fairgrounds during CeBIT) or small (just about everyone else) wants to engage with as much of that crowd as possible.

So, with two weeks to go, if you feel like you're about ready to hit the panic button because you're just not ready for CeBIT yet, relax. In today's digital world, there is still time to update your website with an English translation or fine-tune your messaging to get through to the crowd. Yes, there is time. A whole fourteen days! See you at CeBIT!