Author Archives: Nyree Costello

Are you an April Fool?

Posted in Communications, Lifestyle, Lifestyles by

April Fool’s Day.

Ever wonder about the history of this day of fools?

FoolOne version is that back in the day, France once celebrated its New Year at the start of the spring, around late March/early April. But in the 1500s they changed it so that it would begin in January to match the Roman calendar. However, word of this change traveled slowly, so many people in rural areas continued to celebrate the New Year in the spring. These people became known as “April fools”, or so the story goes…

Another version is that the day grew from age-old European spring festivals, in which pranks and camouflaging your identity was common. This one makes more sense to me personally, as April Fool’s Day is about pranks.

Pranks bring people closer together. It’s a fact. (It’s also a fact that most facts are made up on the spot.)

If you work in an office with a lot of computers and people who foolishly trust you, go ahead and take this opportunity to create some memories. A great idea from a former co-worker of mine: take a screen shot of their desktop and have it displayed on the screen. Then watch and laugh as your co-worker can’t click on anything. Ha! Classic. You can modernize this one by using a broken screen wallpaper. Your welcome.

Or you can go the high-tech route and using this same idea, download the broken screen app to make someone think you cracked their beloved iPad or iPhone! Yes, there is actually an app for that! And that’s no joke.

 

 

Picture Perfect Tuesday: Koala Bear Chair

Posted in Communications by

I often talk about how I will see something that inspires me to document it. I guess that’s pretty obvious, because if it didn’t, I wouldn’t.

For today’s Picture Perfect Tuesday I am sharing a Koala Bear Chair. At least that’s what I saw when I came across this chair/stool.

koala bear stool

Fashion Fun Friday: Social Bliss

Posted in Fashion by

Do you belong to any online fashion sites? One site that I personally enjoy is Socialbliss.com. I “opened a store” on this online community of fashionistas almost a year ago initially to promote the galaxy leggings that I started selling through my business SugarLandClothing.com. By “opening a store” I mean that I joined the site and shared a bunch of items that I personally loved and linked where people could buy them.

What I love about this site is that it’s an online shopping site that basically had a baby with Pinterest. You can tag items to appear in your “store” to share with those who follow you…

Recently I learned about their new StyleBox, which for a monthly charge, you get a slew of items that is a combination of hot items featured on fellow member’s store and stuff that PR firms are looking to push – resulting in a combination of what they call “catwalk and street fashion to keep you on-trend, every single month”. The January and February boxes looked outstanding!!! So I decided that I needed to get on this. I was so freaking excited for this! I started the sign up process only to be denied as they do not ship outside of the US.

BUT I have come up with a work-around for my friends who live near a US border! I am getting mine shipped to MyUSaddress.ca in Ogdensburg and will drive there every month until they ship to Canada. Here’s how you can get yours too! http://www.socialbliss.com/campaigns/inbound/NHwzNTU2Ng==

The Oscars: Product Placement

Posted in Communications by

The subject of the selfie is hot, hot, hot again what with Ellen DeGeneres and a group of A-List celebs snapping one at this year’s Oscars.  Posted to Twitter, the group selfie was so popular that within about 16 hours it had been retweeted more than 3.4 million times – almost crashing Twitter.

ellen-degeneres_1

Interestingly, this seemingly spontaneous moment was slightly planned as Samsung was an official sponsor of the Oscars. According to this article in the Wall Street Journal, Samsung spent an estimated $20 million on ads to run during breaks in the broadcast. However, Ellen playing with the Galaxy Note 3 during the award show was an additional paid marketing tactic that you may remember called product placement.

???????????????????????????

Thinking back, the first time I can say there was a noticeable product in a movie would have been E.T. with Reeses Pieces. (Elliott used them to lure ET out of hiding if you’ve forgotten.) Not that I was old enough to realize what it was, but at that time product placement was a relatively new and not a widely used marketing tactic. However, it’s safe to say that this when brand placement marketing really took off. This 1982 Time Magazine article reported that the sales of Reeses Pieces shot up 65% after the movie. Here’s an interesting fact: M&M was actually Steven Spielberg’s first choice for E.T.’s favourite candy, but they declined as they didn’t want their candy to be associated with an alien. #Regret

Today, product placement is so pervasive we hardly even notice it – a Pepsi can here, an iPhone there. We don’t question when these things appear, as these are usually things that we use in our daily lives; so it just seems natural that characters would use them too. Then there are others that we just don’t give a second thought because they are so well written into the script. Can you imagine the movie Cast Away without Wilson?

Well the placement seems to have certainly paid off for Samsung in the buzz factor.  Kontera, a social media tracking company, was quoted in above mentioned the Wall Street Journal article reporting that Samsung was getting about 900 mentions a minute on social media! Only time will tell if this will translate into product sales.

Fashion Fun Friday: Beyond the Rack

Posted in Communications by

Over the years discount shopping stores like Winners, Century 21 and Feline’s Basement have become more mainstream. It’s been almost 20 years (!!!!) since a friend first told me about Winners. At the time it was dirty little secret that she shopped discount. I’m not sure why shopping at discount stores was so frowned upon then but I’m happy that everyone has embraced the concept today. Personally I’ve always loved a good discount. I credit my mom for bringing me to Frenchys when we lived in Nova Scotia.

Today we boast about getting something for a steal. And online discount sites are abundant! One of my favourites is BeyondtheRack.com – a Canadian flash sale discount site. Launched in March 2009, they call themselves a ‘private shopping club’, as you need to be invited by a current member, a marketing partner, or by submitting a request. If you are one of the few people who haven’t been introduced/ invited to this site, then allow me… http://vnlink.co/Ssiz1yY

Beyond the Rack has a great selection of new and “vintage” items; and at around 70% off, it won’t kill your bank account! Each sale, or ‘event’ as they call it, starts at a specific time and runs about 48 hours. Once it’s closed they submit all the orders to the supplier and then it gets shipped to you. Since they don’t have any stock onsite it does take a little while to get it, but it’s worth the wait. Trust me on this.

On a side note, last year I met with their director of marketing when I was looking for a new gig and, while they weren’t hiring, he was gracious enough to meet with me and chat about the company. They have a brilliant business model! They don’t have any of the items physically in stock so they don’t have to pay for storage space; and since they only order based on the quantities that customers buy, they don’t have any real overhead.

If you love shopping AND getting a smoking deal then this is the site for you…Happy Shopping!

Picture Perfect Tuesday: George Street Diner

Posted in Communications by

For this week’s Picture Perfect Tuesday I wanted to share this pic I took at the George Street Diner in Toronto.

I love everything about this place! The retro feel, the food, the coffee, the servers and the overall vibe. This is my morning happy place! Each time I visit my friend in TO, I insist we go here at least once. If I lived in TO, you’d find me here every morning…

20140211-134720.jpg