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March 8th, 2012
Posted by Mimi Wilfong

Easter Egg, noun

  1. An egg given to children at Easter, usually a chocolate egg or a hen’s egg with its shell painted.
  2. A message, graphic, sound effect or other behavior emitted by a program in response to some undocumented set of commands or keystrokes, intended as a joke or to display program credits.

Let’s talk about definition number 2. As it says, an Easter egg can take on one of many forms, but for our purposes today, we’ll talk about Easter eggs in the shape of “cool” things that some websites have been programmed to do, if you know how to ask. Oftentimes, these Easter eggs seem to have no purpose, offer no real value-add to the website and would leave a good, number-crunching businessperson wondering who made the decision to spend the time and money to develop the Easter egg. We’ll explore that thought further, but first, to fully understand Easter eggs, check out some of these (really cool) examples.

Google

Google is commonly known for its holiday doodles and other Easter eggs. For example, in December, when a user typed “let it snow” in the search box, snow flurries would begin to appear on screen. Google also sets up appropriate pranks: Last April Fool’s Day, they “released” Google Motion. Check out the video at https://mail.google.com/mail/help/motion.html.

Try some of these other Google eggs (you may need to turn off instant results in Google Search preferences):

  • Type “askew” in search.

  • Type “Google gravity” in the search box, then click I’m Feeling Lucky (and wiggle your mouse).

  • Type “Where is Chuck Norris” in the search box, then click I’m Feeling Lucky.

  • On the BuzzFeed.com home page, use the Konami code* (arrows: up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A) to see what happens. http://www.buzzfeed.com/

Why?

So why would a brand or a company, with a limited budget, whose goal is to maximize profit, spend the money to make these little Easter eggs? They don’t drive sales. Google isn’t going to sell another ad unit based on its ability to help you find Chuck Norris. No one is going to be able to order a Mini Cooper if the website text is reversed. And the BiebFeed isn’t going to help BuzzFeed gain corporate partners.

It just doesn’t make much sense that they would spend the time, money and effort required to create little amusing distractions…does it?

The key here is that by creating the Easter eggs, by showing a little quirkiness and personality, the brands are connecting with people. When brands connect with people, they foster brand loyalty. Here at Click Here, we talk about brand affiliation in the context of “what club do you join when you become associated with our brand?” When brands connect with people by creating Easter eggs, the people who know about them become part of the “cool” club.

They’re on the inside.

In the know.

Pickin’ up what the brand is puttin’ down.

Those aware of the eggs know a little secret about the brand that not everyone knows, and just knowing that secret strengthens the relationship they have with the brand. Have you ever talked to someone who knows about In-N-Out Burger’s secret menu? Those people are brand evangelists – and they wear their “I know something you don’t know” badge proudly. They became that way because In-N-Out let them in on something that not many people knew about – just like online Easter eggs.

But building brand affiliation and personality is obviously more involved than building secrets. Brand personalities are just like people’s, in that their idiosyncrasy and uniqueness naturally speak to some people more than others. Some personalities make you believe the brand is an authority, is responsible and always makes the right choices. Others you connect with because you appreciate how much like you they are: they make mistakes, they have fun and they’re just real. Brands with these human personalities tend to quickly and easily connect with people. Trendwatching recently released a report about Flawsome brands – how some brands are embracing their quirks and in doing so, generating customer loyalty. Domino’s made the brand more human by pointing out its failings, and then allowed people to make a human “We all have flaws, bro, I’ll give you a second chance. And by the way, let’s be friends” connection.

Be Irrelevant to Maintain Relevancy

So what does this all mean? Consumers are more and more aware that personality and profit can be compatible. And with every business that succeeds while being reasonable, helpful, fun or human, consumers become increasingly more disenchanted by traditional, boring, impersonal brands. So in a sense, brands are doing things that are irrelevant to the business practice (like Easter eggs) to remain relevant in an environment where people are constantly scrutinizing brands, trusting them less and have more options than ever before.

*What’s the Konami code? It’s a cheat code that was originally designed for the Nintendo Entertainment System. If you didn’t know that, pat yourself on the back for being normal.

December 29th, 2011
Posted by Mimi Wilfong

Facebook Timeline. It’s probably the biggest thing to hit social media since the Kardashians (or “last week’s Facebook update”). With all the hype about how great (or horrible) the new Timeline feature was, I was skeptical. Facebook changes things all the time, and I never seem to notice much difference after a few days of use. I didn’t understand how using Facebook as a scrapbook was going to radically change my life. Nonetheless, I finally decided that – given the fact that I’m a “digital strategist” and am supposed to be on the cutting edge of all things cool, new and digital – I should activate my Facebook Timeline. So I did.

And it’s awesome. I may have a different perspective than most, but here’s why I love the new Facebook Timeline.

I joined Facebook when I was a freshman in college. “Back in the day” when you had to have an “.edu” email address to sign up, and before every tween and their grandmother had Facebook accounts. This is a key element of Facebook Timeline. I spent many years uploading pictures, writing “notes,” posting on others’ walls and sharing information. When I activated Timeline, I went back through all that I had done during my college years. I saw where I’d been, who I had spent a lot of time with, what I had said about classes or current events.

Granted, I can see the drawback to this. You probably won’t like Facebook Timeline if you’ve spent a considerable amount of time being a goofball. By that, I mean if you were tagged in a bunch of drunken frat-party pictures and you’re less than proud of them now, you’re probably not going to love the new Timeline. But have no fear! Facebook has thought about that! They let you turn on Timeline for only you to view for a week so that you can go through and delete all of the junk you’re not proud of.

The Timeline might not be so great for you if you’ve gotten married and your spouse was not a part of your life that Facebook timelines. I’m just saying: All of those pictures of you and your ex-girlfriend and the “I love you, sweetlips!” posts on your wall are going to show up. And your new wife is going to see them. She might not be amused. Again, this is an excellent opportunity to use the trial Timeline and remove every post you feel could later incriminate you with your loved ones.

But you know who else will love the Facebook Timeline? Grandparents. Why? Because not only can they see what their children are doing, but they can look at the lives of their grandchildren without having to pester their kids to send them pictures. Look at it this way: They’re already keeping up with birthdays using Facebook – why not use it to remember what kind of birthday cake you made last year or who you invited to the birthday party?

Given the fact that Facebook lets you remove whatever you don’t want on your Timeline, you can, in a way, recreate yourself. Or at the very least, delete the less attractive elements. Here’s an example. Childbirth. It’s an important time in a mother’s life. Some people feel the need to take pictures of the new, exhausted mother, then post them on Facebook.

The new mother, no doubt, will not be happy with these pictures, especially in two years. Pictures of baby = OK. Pictures of Mom, cheeks void of color in a hospital gown = not OK. The mother may opt to take down those photos.

But how awesome would it be for brands like, say, Pampers, if they could target this mother and track the baby’s growth and promote products that fit that life stage? Not only right when the baby is born, but in a few years when they need pull-ups instead of diapers? Or maybe Weight Watchers has a potential customer as Mom tries to get back into pre-baby form.

Because Facebook Timeline can let people know when important events (like childbirth) happen, they also allow brands to use a little deductive reasoning and think about what other important events are going on in the lives of users. Sixteen years after that childbirth picture? Hello, car insurance companies…

One more thing I love about Timeline. The huge picture, what Facebook calls the “Cover Photo.” That’s right, you can highlight a much larger picture on your profile while still having your little passport-style “this is what I really look like” picture (that is commonly used for the token keg stand picture among my friends). This opens up a lot of doors for creativity.

Check out http://mashable.com/2011/12/08/facebook-timeline-ideas/#375873-Pao-Abella for some great examples of how people are expressing themselves with the Cover Photo.

It will be interesting to see if Facebook allows brands to activate a new Timeline page. Many brands on Facebook will be reasonably new, as it’s a great promotional tool for young brands to get some word-of-mouth coverage. It’d be really cool for brands with a lot of rich history. For example, I’d like to see some timelines like this:

Coca-Cola

  • 1992: Clear colas: Failure.
  • 2008: Tested Diet Coke with Bacon…did not go into production.
  • 2011: Fans reject white Coke can, saying it “tastes different.”

Ford

  • 1908: Model T introduced.
  • 1914: Ford introduces a $5/day minimum wage, double the existing wage.
  • 2011: Ford Focus electric unveiled.

Facebook

  • 2004: Facebook launches.
  • 2006: Facebook opened to everyone ages 13 or older with a valid email address.
  • 2009: Facebook users freak out about privacy changes.
  • 2010: Facebook users freak out about change to live news feed.
  • 2011: Facebook users freak out about new Timeline feature.

To close, I’d encourage you to try Facebook Timeline. The longer you’ve been a user and the more you’ve posted, the more interesting your timeline will be. Who knows, maybe Facebook Timeline will serve as a gentle reminder for people to be responsible? Like my grandmother always said, “Don’t do anything if you don’t want it posted on Facebook.”