Céad míle fáilte: While the Irish greeting for “100,000 Welcomes” hasn’t translated exactly to  that number of new client relationships in 2010, we have had quite the busy first two quarters at Lipman Hearne establishing new partnerships. We are proud of, and excited by, the collaborations that are underway and would like to take a moment to properly welcome the following nonprofit organizations:

Advocate Health Care
Alverno College
American Medical Association
California State University, Northridge
Channel One
Council for a Strong America
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
George Washington University
National Defense University
Northwest Area Foundation
Pew Center for Statistics
Rhodes College
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Schoolnet
Seton Hall University
Society of Actuaries
University at Buffalo
University of Alabama in Huntsville
University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business
University of Virginia Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy

Like Tweets and most texts, bubbles are short, with a recording limit at one minute.  But Bubbly has added intimacy – users hear a favorite, well-known, or trusted voice instead of just reading a simple message, which, for celebrities, could have been written by an agent.

While the BBC is leading networks in using Bubbly to release breaking news, the Indian film industry is using Bubbly as a tool to build buzz – and brands.

Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor, Bollywood stars who appear together in the film “3 Idiots,” were using Bubbly to promote the film before its release.  Their bubbles soon had hundreds of thousands of followers, and built incredible anticipation over the movie.  The film swept India’s 2010 Star Screen and Filmfare Awards, and has grossed over $86 million – the highest profit in history for any Indian-made film.  It seems the film owes some of its box office success to Bubbly.  And so do its stars.

Bollywood stars aren’t free from Hollywood’s standards of youth and vitality to grab choice roles and maintain careers.  And what better way to appear young than to be among the first to popularize a new social media tool?  In a recent interview, the mid-40s Aamir Khan was asked how he stays young looking enough to play a 20-something college student in “3 Idiots.”  He answered that it’s essential to eat a balanced diet, drink lots of water, and get plenty of rest.  He could have added bubbling to the list.

The list of countries in which BubbleTalk has been launched is limited so far, and there aren’t immediate plans for a U.S. (or U.K.) launch.  So while there aren’t options here now for utilization, there is time to investigate how potential users respond to this new media and the potential impact on communication channels here.  Is enthusiasm for Twitter fading?  Nonprofits struggle with being both media savvy and able to implement new options usefully, could BubbleTalk be the righ solution?  Or is this mode of information dissemination not the right match?  One blogger notes, “ears are for music and for live communication, not for news that I scan more quickly with my eyes.”  Let us know your initial reaction to this emerging tool.

- Liz Arora

Another curiosity is the seemingly broad use of the word “brand” being used to compile the list.  In addition to Valentine’s Day (really!?) there is an eclectic mix of people (Alexander McQueen), products (Apple iPad) and annual events (Super Bowl). Should these topics really be compared to each other from a marketing perspective? Will tracking of such mixed topics really help Twitter’s future monetization? And more importantly will those Justin Bieber followers succeed in taking over the Twitterverse?

Share your thoughts on what trends and behaviors should be tracked on Twitter in the comments section.

The technique was created by a group of students at Hochshule Furtwangen University in Germany, who wanted to “show the whole world that studying does not have to be boring.” They shot a video in which students lip sync to a song, while the camera follows them through campus, resulting in a highly-choreographed musical university tour. This spurred the creation of the “University LipDub Project,” which challenges students of other colleges to produce their own videos and show what their campus has to offer (and to see if their creation is worthy of “going viral”).

What started as a European phenomenon gradually moved over to Canada, where the Université du Québec à Montréal’s “LipDub” video made quite an impression – it became so popular that it was featured on CNN and, to date, has received over 4 million hits on YouTube. Now, U.S. universities have begun to catch on, with Texas State University and Suffolk University being some of the first to embrace the trend.

A prime example that this phenomenon has the chance to transition from a grassroots amusement to a legitimate communications department marketing tool is Johns Hopkins University’s end-of-the-year “LipDub” video. Created to thank their donors for their continued support, it shows how the whole university community can collaborate and lend their voice to promote their community and showcase the spirit behind the brand.

The key to not killing this concept before it leaves the ground is to remain inclusive when it comes to who is primarily representing the university. It is ok for the university staff to have a stake in the video, but don’t lose the student-run feel. As with the popular strategy of featuring student blogs on admissions websites, like MIT does, it is the sense that it is providing an unfiltered, first-hand account of campus life that is the spark behind these videos.

Have other examples of social media trends storming your campus? Share them in the comments section.

-Erin Kelly, Marketing Intern

The point: Voluntary collectivism, such as Wikipedia and tools for sharing, such as Flickr, are powerful signs of cultural change. At at time when Iranian activists are using Twitter applications to get around government censorship, the article appears prescient.

- Lee Reilly, Vice President,Interactive

Lipman Hearne’s work with UDM has spanned nearly a decade and includes enrollment publications, research, consulting, and marketing, as well as interactive services.

- Lee Reilly, Vice President, Interactive

But hold on—that sentence is fairly packed with qualifiers. Retaining donors is always hard. Would we be surprised to learn that the experience of making a gift online—pressing a button and watching dollars fly from our accounts into the recesses of the internet—is one donors might not relish?  Recall that just a few years ago, retailers struggled to project if and when online purchasing would take off; they predicted that consumer confidence would hinge on seeing UPS packages on their doorsteps. And so it did. Many online donors, meanwhile, receive not so much as an electronic acknowledgement, if one blogger’s experience is any indication.

Yes, spam filters are at work, and opt-outs, and so forth. But those hindrances also tell us how depersonalized giving has become, especially for first-time donors, and doubly especially for online donors. If online giving is to reach its potential as a tool, we need to infuse the experience with personality and humanity. We need to make sure donors receive their receipts, and we also need to make sure they feel thanked.

As social media darling Blue State Digital notes, 40 percent of online donors to the Obama campaign were repeat donors. But they were also seeing daily, if not hourly, reports of the cumulative value of their giving, and the immediate translation of donations into campaign events, rousing speeches, and polling bumps. Why, it was almost as if the donations had…impact.

What do others think? Can fundraising become less of a numbers game, and more of a legit human encounter? Can social media— Facebook, cause Twittering— help?

- Colleen O’Grady, Senior Writer

The crux of the lesson: I never experienced Chicago’s  alleged “brand.” I never saw the wide-open lakefront or world-class institutions planted along it. I didn’t get to a blues bar or Second City. I never saw the functioning traffic lights, award-winning architecture, or robust  economic activity you’d expect from “The City that Works.”

Why not?  Because I couldn’t get there. Roads were broken. The L didn’t connect. And the cost of parking was—oh yeah, the car was now undrivable.

Visiting a college website is more like visiting a city than it is like reading a viewbook or watching a fundraising video. With cities and websites, brand is the cumulative user experience. It’s the experience of the user as he or she tries to learn something, find something, or do something. That experience is comprised of many components, including visual impact, messaging and content, functionality, and ease of use.

In an economic downturn, that list can seem daunting. You’re tempted to choose one component—visual impact?—and fix that.

But here’s a radical idea for recessionary times: Whatever you do, fix the navigation, too.

On a nationally-ranked law school site, it’s a challenge for a prospective faculty member to find the curriculum. On one East Coast college site, the best way to find its renowned graduate program is to Google from outside the site. Whatever these brands offer—their navigation just sabotaged it.

Ease of use, particularly navigation, is a powerful catalyst. Although some worry that usability can undermine brand expression, others argue that the two can be congruent, and Accenture’s Web Evaluator tool counts navigation and search as one of the nine criteria for a positive online brand experience. There’s reason for this: a study by the Institute for Research in Management shows that poor navigation on a brand’s website affects the visitor’s perception of the offline brand. In other words, a bad experience trying to find a list of majors and minors on BobsCollege.edu undermines the visitor’s appreciation of Bob’s College in general.

So do what Chicago did (eventually): Fix the roads. You’ll add welcoming and smart to your online brand. You’ll de-stress the visit. And, most important, you’ll make it possible for the visitor to experience your brand as you intended.

- Lee Reilly, Vice President, Interactive

eMarketer - eMarketer lives up to their tagline: “The first place to look.”  It’s the premier resource for trends in consumer behavior online and how businesses react to those trends. When you need to check on emerging market segments and the advertising spend that is being directed toward them, this is the place.

iMedia Connection – This is a good daily read. iMedia serves as a portal to the latest marketing industry headlines as well as a repository where leading digital marketing experts can share their best practices and opinions.

Two sites to “geek out to” and stay on top of technology trends:

CNet – A reliable resource for product news, reviews, and downloads of the latest gadgets and software that will change the way you communicate in the office and at home. The site focuses on technologies that are cutting edge, yet are ready for use now.

Wired – If you need to be several years ahead of the technology trends that makes the consumer world function, then this is the site for you. It fosters conversations about today’s technologies as well as what industry insiders are aspiring to create.

- Minesh Parikh, Associate Media Director