Cool Stuff

Dove reaches out to bloggers with chocolate

I have only one problem with the recent blogger outreach marketing campaign put together by Matchstick for Dove, and that is the idea that the boxload of chocolate they sent you is supposed to be shared with your friends and family. This chocolate is really good. My instinct, frankly, is to hoard it all for myself.

Nonetheless, I did go ahead and share it, and the results were pretty unanimous. Most of my friends and family really liked it, from the packaging to the flavor. Dove has always been one of my favorite chocolates, infinitely superior to most of the chocolate available in grocery stores (which is where I usually gave in and bought chocolate, frankly). So when a friend forwarded me a link to a blogger outreach program that promised me FREE chocolate in exchange for being contacted a few times by Dove/Matchstick, I was thrilled. The program, which I was also interested in—there is a whole chapter on how to market successfully in the blogosphere in my book “Buzz Marketing with Blogs for Dummies”—did everything right. There was no requirement to blog about the chocolate, although clearly the folks running the campaign hoped the bloggers who got chocolate would do so. In fact, the information sheet that came with the chocolate urged the participating bloggers to “let your friends know how and why Matchstick has made you a part of this program and what your involvement is.So high marks to the chocolate, and high marks to Matchstick.

The “Dove Pleasure Kit” arrived with about 18 small packets of chocolate, each containing four pieces. I believe the person who interviewed me for the program called these “purse packs” and these were the easiest to give away to friends. There were also four full bars of chocolate, and three packages containing individually wrapped pieces. For good measure, the kit also contained a Dove journal (for your scintillating thoughts on chocolate, perhaps), a “foot pampering” kit, a wine glass, and the whole thing was packed in a tote bag. Just as the sayings on the inside of the individual chocolate pieces are, the whole kit/program was target to a female audience. I had never previously considered exfoliating my feet while drinking wine and eating chocolate, but anything for science, right? You can see photos of the entire kit here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/supersusie/tags/dove/

There were four kinds of chocolate in the kit: Milk, Dark, Dusk, and 71% Cocoa. My favorite, by far, was the new flavor, “Dusk” which is a mix of milk and dark chocolate. The overall flavor is deeper than milk chocolate, less cloying sweet, but without any of the dryness or even bitterness that dark chocolate has. Oddly enough, although I usually prefer dark chocolate to milk chocolate, I liked Dove’s milk chocolate better than the dark. Perhaps just on the edge of being too sweet, it was better “in the mouth” that the dark chocolate, which didn’t melt as nicely and seemed a tad waxy. My least favorite was the 71% Cocoa, though this didn’t surprise me—I haven’t liked much of the cocoa bars I’ve tried, regardless of brand.

So, my thanks to Dove for the chocolate. I highly recommend it!

Knit Yourself a Keyboard Cover

Check out these cool “body technology interfaces” from Sternlab! Well, perhaps “cool” is really the wrong adjective. I’ll go with the catch-all “interesting.” Be sure to scroll down the page for some really funny photos on this site.

If you’ve read Blogging for Dummies, 2nd Edition, you may have noticed that there are too many screen shot examples from knitting blogs to be coincidence. In fact, I love to knit, and one of the ways I tried to make things fun during the writing of this book was to find knitting blogs to use in the book. And there a lot of them out there—the knitting community has embraced blogging as a way of sharing experience, patterns, and tips, not to mention connecting with each other. And now we have these hilarious examples of how knitting and blogging can be united into one passion: knitted keyboard covers are just the start. A little silly, sure, but what a fun idea.

Although my hands do get cold typing all day…

Photo by bekathwia

AdHack says: Love is Never Boring

My good friend James Sherrett has a project he’d like to bring to your attention: AdHack. Building on the ways in which blogs have proven to be popular and powerful, James has create a Web community of designers, photographers and creators who are pushing the advertising envelope.

Anyone can create an ad. Anyone can buy an ad. AdHack acts like an eBay for ad creative, connecting ad buyers and ad creators. Learn more on the public site at http://www.adhack.com

Have a look at the “Chocolate Love” ad created by AdHack member Giant Ant Media. “Chocolate Love” is a short, stop-motion animation, shot on a light box. 367 Frames.
http://adhack2.com/public/detail/2444-1177

Got a great idea for a Valentine’s day ad you think the world should see? It doesn’t all have to be about chocolate! Visit http://www.adhack.com and sign up for access to the alpha site and get creative!

Oh, and happy Valentine’s day!