Slack: The GroupMe For After Graduation

If you are a college student in this current day and age, chances are you have used GroupMe before.  Better yet, it is probably more likely that you are a part of at least two or three active GroupMe conversations at this moment.  Or, you could be like me and have twelve currently active GroupMe conversations.  Everything from clubs, to class projects, to keeping up with a large group of friends are among just some of the reasons college students use GroupMe.  Everyone seems to have a different opinion about GroupMe, but this tweet probably best sums it up:

As frustrating as it is when your phone is buzzing uncontrollably between the hours of 12 a.m. and  8 a.m., it is undeniable how convenient the app makes communication, even with strangers.  For example, my whole apartment complex has a GroupMe with 546 members.  I definitely take advantage of the mute feature with that one, but it is so simple to write in that GroupMe if I ever had a question or maybe just needed to borrow some sugar from a neighbor.  Is that GroupMe conversation really necessary? Probably not.  However, it is an easy way to distribute information about any incidents happening in or around the complex, and I constantly find myself checking it just to be in the know.  While many college students love to pretend like they do not care to be in know, they always do.  I believe this is one of the reasons why GroupMe is so popular among college students in the first place.  

Though, this leads me to the question, what happens after we graduate?  As everyone starts to enter the real world, the importance of making so many various group conversations with different people fades, and communication with your co-workers throughout the day about different projects will start to take over.  The solution for such a switch? It's Slack.  

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Slack, it is curiously similar to GroupMe.  Instead, the focus is just more on having different conversations or "channels" with various people from the same "team." This is opposed to GroupMe, which is more focused on making various group conversations with different people in every group.  Slack also makes it simpler to send documents or pieces of code; whereas, it is more likely to be sharing pictures and videos over GroupMe.  Those being the main differences between the two applications will bode well for millennials starting to enter the workplace.  Slack is familiar, yet professional, which is something recent college grads would love to get on board with.  

Slack interface

Barbie Goes Digital

What do football-loving Dads and little girls have in common? Their love of Barbies of course!
Well, maybe that wasn't the first answer to pop in your head, but after witnessing Mattel's new campaign for Barbie, it is difficult to think of anything else.

During the NFL Playoff game this past weekend, Mattel launched a new digital marketing campaign, Dads Who Play Barbie, with a heart-warming commercial.  The commercial shows a variety of Dads putting aside their love of sports to play Barbie with their young daughters, complete with high-pitched Barbie voices and all.  Directly following the commercial, Barbie released a series of videos on Youtube with more background on each of the father-daughter pairs.

The commercial sparked an incredible response on social media, filled with nostalgia and plenty of "awwww"s to go around.  There was even an article posted to CNET titled "'Dads Who Play Barbie' ad is the real Patriots-Steelers winner."

While this campaign is nothing short of adorable, it really shows how far Mattel has come in
modernizing the Barbie brand to fit into today's society.  It wasn't too long ago when Barbie was being constantly criticized for a lack of racial diversity and sensitivity to different body types.  Parents even began to see Barbie as a negative influence on their children.  However, Mattel finally caught on to this and started adapting.  First came Barbies of different races, and more recently, Barbies of different body shapes and sizes.  They also began to focus more on empowering young girls and showing parents a more positive image by releasing their new "You Can Be Anything" tagline. Though, Mattel did more than just adapt their product and messaging to fit into today's society; Barbie went digital.  Mattel launched the campaign with commercials and new digital and social media efforts in order to directly target these apprehensive parents.  The switch to digital has been more difficult for some companies than others, but mixing adorable little girls playing Barbies with their supportive Dads makes for a campaign bound to be a success. 

Facebook: The New Infomercial

Remember those 20 minute long commercials that came on TV when you were watching for way longer than you should’ve been?  They were mostly advertising little so-called “gadgets” that make life a bit more convenient for approximately $19.99 plus shipping and handling.  While these infomercials still do exist, they are hard to come by.   As I’ve been scrolling through my Facebook news feed lately, I think I may have figured out why. 

Facebook videos have completely taken over Facebook as of late, and I’ve been noticing a recent trend of fairly short videos that show new innovations and “gadgets” to make life more convenient or exciting.  While a lot of these new technologies aren’t in stores yet, they give me great hope for the future.  These videos range from products you’d be likely to see in an infomercial, like a non-slip serving tray, to things I’d never imagine, like a suitcase that doubles as an electric scooter to ride through airports. With the auto-play feature on, it is hard to resist just scrolling past these futuristic videos.  Sometimes, I even find myself doing more research on the product and how to buy it.  In my opinion, it is a great way to get customers engaged on their own without making them feel like they are forced into watching it.  Goodbye infomercials, hello Facebook videos.