Gucci is Putting An End to Luxury Brands Being Too Good For Social

By placing a "Pin it" button in their banner ad featured on the NY Mag homepage, Gucci made a statement to other high-end luxury brands that maybe social media is really important after-all and running only passive advertising isn't going to sell expensive handbags.

This is the first time I've seen a standard banner with a "Pin it" call-to-action, so I clicked on the button to see what would happen. A pop-up opened up with three items for me to pin--all of which the model is wearing in the banner. I find it so interesting that additional imagery was hidden behind this banner, when there was no mention of it through copy in the banner.

While I think the "Pin it" button does cheapen the aesthetics of the banner, it does what it needs to do--get people's attention. I don't think this was the best use of the new "Pin it" ad format, but I'll be interested to see how other brands use it and whether people are willing to pin from banners.

Type Pop & GIF CTRL, Two More GIF Sites to Kill Time

TypePop.com
Instantly make pretty GIFs of all the things you think are "supercute"or "so wrong"

gifctrl.com
You just have to try this site to see why it is so awesome

 Thanks to my coworkers Kaity and Richard for sharing these links!

"Imagining The Lowline" Exhibit

Last Saturday, I walked across the Williamsburg Bridge into the Lower East Side to check out the "Imagining the Lowline" exhibit (http://thelowline.org/exhibit) because I wanted to see what this underground public park space would look like. Seeing the success and thoughtful design of the Highline on the west side, I'm pretty excited for another public park cool enough to take my family or friends to visit. The exhibit was in a warehouse on Essex and Broome and included a nice history lesson on the Williamsburg Trolley Terminal beneath Delancey Street where the park is to be built and a cool installation of the sunlight-capture contraption that allows plants to grown underground. That was a terrible explanation, but you can read more about it here.  

 Beautiful day for a walk across the Williamsburg Bridge