Not including work.  Not including school.  Not including spam.  What do you get emails about?

I get about 50 emails a day from Groupon, Yipit, PLNDR, Borders Rewards, Ralph Lauren, Barneys New York, Heartsy.me (it’s like Groupon for Etsy), and so many more.  It became a morning ritual to delete all these crazy emails.  Then, an after lunch ritual as well.  It’s too much.

The irony is that I already look up the content that I care about.  Even though I rarely buy anything on Gilt, Ruelala, or Hautelook, I check their mobile app weekly.  I’ve bought more via Groupon mobile than on their website, and never have I seen a Groupon email and jumped at the opportunity.  In short, everything I can get via email, I can get via my smartphone.  So please stop sending me discount/OMG, it’s a SALE!/group buying emails.  And for heaven’s sake, please stop auto-subscribing me.

[I just unsubscribed to Yipit and immediately got another email; apparently, there's another level of unsubscribe I needed to go through to never hear from them again.  Sorry, that makes me less likely to buy from you compared to the other 300 "me too!s" out there.]

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Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely instances for email.  Emails from all my accounts, i.e. credit cards, etc. to ensure I’m still running smoothly and haven’t turned my credit into a single digit number… they’re a great thing.  Emails from certain online groups, i.e. community managers or MeetUps or Ivy+, with updates are fine.  Even Hubspot emails (before they started emailing me multiple times a week- thanks, but if I really wanted your content, I’d subscribe to your blog; stop it already) were marginally interesting and informative.

But daily sales emails… please for the love of all that is un-evil, stop sending them and just make an app.  In fact, please make a universal shopping app, so I don’t have to log into the 20 different apps per day in order to check my deals.  Just one place.  Giving me information when I want.  On my phone.  Allows me to purchase.  Does not bother me with silly emails that are for all practical purposes useless.

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Counter-argument: I’m assuming that lots of people aged 35-55, who love sending ‘funny’ images via email, playing Farmville, and posting a thousand status updates a day are the same people who will actually click-through on those emails.  And for the 5% or 7% or 9% click-through rates, the entire email campaign becomes worthwhile.  But consider this, will the other 90+% of your audience become sick of your antics and indifferent to your brand?  Just because the other 90% doesn’t report you as spam or doesn’t do anything but delete your email doesn’t mean the users themselves are not secretly resenting the annoyance of your presence.

I’m going to be honest.  Packers, Steelers, I don’t really keep up with football.

… But for those who are still reading, I do religiously follow the Superbowl for the ads, the sense of community, and sometimes even the half time show (especially when Usher makes an appearance).

As an experiment, here are my initial reactions to the Superbowl ads.  I’ll come back a while later and see if I can do some unaided recall.  Just a few things before I being: 1) I’m approaching this as a consumer and not a marketer-as much as I can separate the two; 2) I’m female, so most of the ads- read PepsiCo- probably were targeted towards me; and 3) I already have attachments to the brands that I love, so some ads reinforce, while others detract no matter how amazing they are.

The Best

Chrysler: http://www.hulu.com/adzone2011#50120523

Volkswagen Passat: http://www.hulu.com/adzone2011#50120562

Doritos: http://www.hulu.com/adzone2011#50120571

Kia: http://www.hulu.com/adzone2011#50120558

Coca-Cola: http://www.hulu.com/adzone2011#50120559

Stella-Artois: http://www.hulu.com/adzone2011#50120553

The Worst

Coca-Cola: http://www.hulu.com/adzone2011#50120554

Movie sequels: Transformers, Fast & Furious, Pirates

The Ehhh…

GoDaddy.co: http://www.hulu.com/adzone2011#50120608

E*Trade: http://www.hulu.com/adzone2011#50120574

Social Gaming: nascent industry with a largely nascent user base.  And finally in early 2010, we’re starting to see some pretty unique games.  Even if it’s similar game mechanics; at least it’s not yet another farm game or mafia rpg.

Believe me, I LOVE playing Tiki Farm and Lil Farm Life.  Even played Farmville for a while. But I’m so glad that we’ve stopped last year’s copy and paste themes.  I mean what’s the big difference among Farm Town, Country Farm, and all the copy cats out there?  Not that much.

This is my Tiki Farm.

Side note: Yes, the farm games that have been able to differentiate themselves certainly should exist.  After all, I don’t really like Farmville.  It’s like a factory, even if it’s arguably the first, and the other copy cats are just the same.  On the contrary, Tiki Farm has such great graphics and is just more chill, and I love my workshops in Lil Farm Life, where I can use the clover to feed the cow to make the milk, put the milk in the cheese maker to make the cheese, and add the cheese with tomatoes and peppers in my pizza workshop to make a pizza.  It’s pretty freakin’ sweet.

But I’m glad there’s a flurry of new apps out:

• The Crazies, which is a tower defense flash game, based on the upcoming movie.
• Wild Ones, which takes adorable animals (“pets) and pit them against other players in a real-time show down.  The Mirv? Freakin’ sweet!
• Treasure Madness, which is a highly addictive game treasure game (current obsession).

Instead of the console video game, it's now the casual game based off the movie.

Wild Ones: shooting in action

I'm almost finished solving my Shark Island on Treasure Madness

If you want to get your ass kicked in Wild Ones.. just let me know.

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UPDATE: I’ve been wanting to write a post like this for a while now, but the trend was still on the same ole, same ole.  1) I’m super happy that I finally get to pen this; 2) it would be really hard to write this post, if I didn’t actually like the games our company makes.  So you know, thanks for not making sucky games.

I’ve been on WordPress.com for a few years now and think it’s high time that I move on to WordPress.org.

Here’s what I want: a super-awesome designer who can program a landing page for janyxu.com that will have buttons to my contact info and profiles, link/tab to about page, etc.  I also need my blog divided into two sections: professional (marketing, social media, case studies) and personal entries.  I can help with a lot of the art and html/CSS coding, but I don’t know enough PHP to make it do what I want.

So… if you or someone you know would be willing to help me, please let me know.  I’m kinda super-broke at the moment, but I will totally pay what I can and we can barter the rest.

Thanks!

Other than the fact that a million Mac fanboys and Steve Jobs fanatics gizzed in their pants today, this isn’t more than a iPhone minus a phone and on steroids.

You can read more here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here…

… are you still here?

My take?

Big freakin’ whoop.  Now stop procrastinating and get my effing 4G.

I went to see Avatar yesterday and posted the following message on Facebook: Avatar: if it weren’t for the visual effects and Uhura from Star Trek, I probably would have walked out.

Okay, that’s not exactly true.  This is what I did like about the movie:

1. The evolution of creatures in the movie:  Maybe horses don’t really need 6 legs, and the weird connecting fibrous tissue thing makes it seem that animals are evolved to be domesticated, which is bullshit.  But I’m sure a lot of people put a lot of thought into the evolution of an entire planet’s species.  From the huge winged birds (so glad that they look like bats and don’t have feathers b/c I’m not sure something of that size would be able to take off if it had huge bones and tons of feathers) to the plants that spring to life when it’s out of danger to capture the maximum amount of sunlight, Pandora (whose box is under the earth this time) does have a sophisticated ecosystem.
2. The Na’vi (OMG are they incredibly hot): They’re larger than humans and are therefore able to fight off the large creatures on the planet.  Long limbs allow for maneuvering among trees and branches.  Cat like eyes allow for seeing in the dark and light.  Cat ears to hear.  They even have wide nose bridges. They’re like really sexy some cat, mostly human aliens.  Maybe the blue acts as a type of sun screen.  It’s all pretty interesting.
3. Of course, the 3D features were just right.  It enhanced the movie without being the movie, although that’s probably a reason that I hated the movie so much.  If the 3D features were more in my face, I wouldn’t have noticed all the plot holes and cliche movie roles.

I mean sure, the female lead was strong, but she was still dependent on Mr. Marine.  They weren’t two independent roles.  Business-wise, they would absolutely send in 10-fold the number of troops and claim the minerals on the planet.  It’s money we’re talking about here.  When has nature and living at peace with the environment ever triumphed over having more things?

Yes, I realize that there is no planet of blue humanoids (that we are aware of), but aside from that, the storyline is wholly un-believable.

Will stop ranting now.

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In other news, I’m actually watching Star Wars.  Just finished Episode IV and am now moving on to episode V.  From the fragments that I’ve seen before, I believe there are ice monsters and cutting open a four-legged creature to sleep in it entrails involved.

Note:  I’ve already seen Episodes I-III… and well, I feel like Darth Vader is deeply misunderstood.  I’m not making excuses for his actions.  He chose the dark side, and that was made pretty clear.  But he’s not born evil.  I mean the films really reveal that no one is (although I don’t think that’s the first message they send through… definition of bad acting, anyone?).  Evil is both within the human right and conditional/environmental.  Darth Vader would have never become who he was had it not been for the politicking of the Senators.  Ironically similar to the situation today… err minus the Darth Vader part.

I can’t stop seeing Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen, whenever I see Obi-Wan or DV.  I guess that’s why they say watching Episodes I-III spoils the original.

Okay, can’t talk (write) now.  Must watch Episode V.  Tata!!

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P.S. Reminder to self: eating delicious Chinese take-out completely reverses any good done by exercising.

It’s utterly ridiculous that I just spent 45:53 minutes on the phone with AT&T to discuss extraneous roaming charges that showed up on my bill.

It took 30 minutes just to get someone on the phone and load his system because it’s been down (I’m talking 12:00AM on Monday morning).  Once I challenged the rep that it’s not possible (AT&T isn’t so stupid) that AT&T’s account system is completely off the grid and they probably staggered the updates across call centers, he said “Oh, let me check on that.”

After another 10 minutes of having completely different account information, I asked and found that the representative had the wrong person’s account information on his screen.

Once we were on the same page, checking the wrong charges, correcting them and crediting my account the $22.20 took a whole of 5 minutes.

Thanks for wasting 40 minutes of my life!

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The reason I’m ranting isn’t because AT&T sucks and should go to hell.  In fact, quite the opposite.  I want AT&T to be successful.  I’ve been with the company for 8 years now, from AT&T to Cingular back to AT&T.  I’ve been with them for 3 years of DSL/phone service.  In general, I’m pretty happy with the service (okay, minus the dozens of dropped calls on my cell and that one stint of my modem not working).

What I do want is for AT&T to have better presence.

• Besides the measly 4 updates on their Twitter, have Twitter accounts for your wireless (even separated by region/types of service/whatever), phone and internet.  Interact with your clients, and when ish like what happened to me tonight, have someone who can talk me down from screaming at my phone- which I try my best not to do because the rep is more helpful when you’re not pissed off.  Or better yet, solve the problem from the back end.
• Publicize those user forums and have community managers, so that customers can help each other.  I don’t exactly know how deals work (some people pay less for more) but… if user forums save even a fraction of a percent of calls to call centers, that’s a huge cost saving.
• Update your servers.  There is NO reason a customer should wait that long for a rep to pull his/her information.  <Insert old marketing cliche that keeping a customer costs a lot less than acquiring a new one.>
• Start “Your World, Your Voice.“  Make it a virtual suggestion box of making AT&T work better for their customers.

I’m sick of friends teasing me about having AT&T.  I want to be proud. Congrats, Verizon & Comcast, for doing a great job.  But I don’t want to make the network switch just yet.

So AT&T, will you try to help me stay?

I’ve been mulling over the concept of personal brand reputation and what’s acceptable behaviour online.  When Facebook first became public right after I graduated college, I was adamantly against the concept.  Facebook was my personal space online, and allowing my professional world in would create tons of conflict and an anal amount of privacy controls.  But I adapted to the situation and made room for my professional life online.

But as transparency and internet archiving continues to proliferate every part of my online life, from blogging to tumbling to Facebook to Twitter to countless accounts I have over the interwebs, when does my personal life stop making room for my professional.  Sure, the whole concept of transparency is to showcase your real personality and network.  Isn’t it still true that we have some self-censorship?

Even the most brutally real person has to realize that we can’t always write what we think.

I wrote a post recently reclaiming janyxu.com for myself.  I taking it out of consideration for professionals who are considering me for a job or looking for marketing advice.  But I realize that I can’t.  I’m not going to rant about how horrible it was working at my last company.  First and foremost, because it’s absolutely not true (in fact, quite the opposite).  But secondly, no matter what disclaimer I may have to reclaim my personal space online, people will still use this blog to judge my “personal brand reputation.”

So is there anywhere we can truly be ourselves?  Or is it like going to a networking cocktail party… we are ourselves but only about 80% us?

My cousin and me

I’ve taken a bit of a hiatus from blogging (in case you haven’t noticed).  I’ve taken a break from life as well.  Since the new year, I parted with SHIFT, which is still an amazing PR Agency; took a long, needed trip to China; popped by New York for a long weekend, more like almost a week; and am working with some cool guys on a new start-up.

Bird's Nest in north Beijing

You can click on my Facebook badge to see my pictures from China and New York.  Those are all taken by my Canon.  The iPhone pictures are buried a couple of pages down in my Tumblr.

New York Public Library, Main Branch

As for the start-up, we’re hoping to launch in the next few months.  I’ll be posting more about it, when we’re further along.  Totally ping me for the private beta.

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Chinese Ugly Betty (on upper left)

Just in the last two months, I feel like I’ve grown years.  My finances are finally somewhere near the normal rate (I actually went to New York for 5 days and bought nothing!).  My food intake is healthier and more punctual. I’ve bonded with my relatives and cousins as an adult. I just feel more settled.  For the first time since I turned 19, I’m ready to face turning 25 later this year.

My 3 week trip to China sparked some of these changes.  China, in its adolescent years, is a completely different experience.  It’s like 1950s US, with thriving suburbs and more private cars, huge consumerism and still a nacent marketing culture to boot.  One of the most popular shows is the Chinese version of Ugly Betty, really cute.  But what’s astounding is that the entire show is sponsored by Dove, with (it’s an ad company) Dove commercials and a Dove logo at the bottom of the screen during the entire show.  And it’s totally accepted.  Would something like this fly in the US?

BTW, having an iPhone has been a huge life saver internationally.  Sure, I had to pay 50 cents per text and $2.29/min phone time, but when in a pinch, it definitely worked.  And it’s how I found out that my older cousin had his first child a week after I returned home.  It’s a girl.  I’m officially an aunt, or as close to one as I can be.   (I’m bugging my cousin for pics now.)

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Setting off 100K fire crackers to blast away the bad luck from yesteryear

It feels really amazing to write again.  I’ve missed it.  Didn’t know how to restart.  And finally decided to start writing.  Hi again!

Three thoughts:

“San Francisco is godless.”

I paraphrase but that’s what my friend told me over dinner last night.  Why?  SF is hugely liberal, progressive and largely accepting and non-religious.

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“Apple evokes a similar response to a religious experience.”

Again, I paraphrase.  It’s from the book Buyology, about marketing, marketing research and buying habits by Martin Lindstrom.

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“As people evolve, the characteristics of ‘God’ change with them.”

You know what I’m about to say.  This is one point from History of God, an exploration of the three major religions- Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

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So does this mean consumerism is the new God?

Okay, okay.  We’re in a recession.  Stores are closing its doors left and right, and brands are scrambling to mark prices down since before Thanksgiving in an effort to sell sell sell during the Holiday Season.

Well, first of all, we’re talking about strong brands, brands like Apple and Coca-Cola, etc.  Sure, they hurt during a recession too, but they’re not likely to go away.  Also, let’s think in the long term.  This economy thing isn’t going to last forever (knock on wood, salt over the shoulder and all that).  What about in the long run?

More and more, I’m seeing that the younger generations are identifying more with brands than religion.  Instead of going to church, we’re waiting for the new release of our favorite labels.  It’s not just about the technology or design; it’s about lifestyle, self expression and social standing.  Why pray to a grand being who’s become bogged down in religious politics and causing strife worldwide?  Brands speak directly to who we are and where we live.  Islam and Christianity segregate but can’t everyone enjoy a Coke?

Maybe that sounds pretty extreme.  We’re probably not going to have Oprahism or Bartism (remember that Simpson’s episode where Bart become a religion?).  No, we can’t use 20th century traits to define the new religious experience.  But we can draw other parallels.

Waiting in line for the new iPhone, the people around me felt a bond.  We were all freezing, all impatient and yet all energized at the prospect of the new shiny box from Steve Jobs.  Getting the 3G iPhone isn’t about utility but about 1) our lifestyle, 2) our social status in getting one first- okay, exclusivity wasn’t based on social standing but still, and 3) the white glow of the Apple store and its products is bordering on seeming heavenly.  The Apple fan boys act more like a religious cult than just any excited fan base.  (You can read more about it in Buyology, but I’m not here to peddle, and these are only loosely based on what I read.)

It seems that we’ve evolved from God is angry, which is why our crops fail and our wives die from childbirth.  To God is merciful and rewards good deeds.  To God is a bureaucrat and if you can’t read, you’re really at least 5 layers from God with the priests and cardinals and so forth.  To God is democratic and everywhere.  To God loves you unless you’re Muslim or gay.  To God like whatever.  To God?  Oh, btw, did you hear about the new Adidas line?

We’ve gone from “godless heathens” to “God” to “Godless.”  Now will brands be the new gods?

If the answer is yes, don’t worry.  All the major designers carter to all price points by sub-branding, Marc Jacobs, Marc by Marc Jacobs… soon Target by Marc Jacobs?

(Not-so-secretly, I’m praying yes because that means I’ll still have a job and career years down the line. )