All stories published by Clear as Mud on June 30, 2016

Domino’s and Social Media: Turning a Crisis into an Opportunity

As a relative newcomer to studying social media and the way that brands use it to enhance their business, I have generally thought of Domino’s as being one of the savvier brands when it comes to handling social media. I…

Reflection on Bias and Behaviour

Biases, we all have them. Horrid little things they are. There is an inherent tension between the need to discuss and resolve them and the guilt that we feel in acknowledging that they exist. Yet to solve the micro-inequities that plague our behavior we need to talk about…

Social Media Branding Fails

To misquote Shakespeare: some social marketing campaigns are born to fail, some achieve failure, and some have failure thrust upon them. And then there are some that manage all three.

Aziz Ayman in Clear as Mud

Amtrak — Derailed Social Media

Last weekend I went down to New York to visit my parents who were visiting the US and I decided to use the train a.k.a. Amtrak… that was the biggest mistake I made. It was a rainy Thursday afternoon and for some strange reason Boston was gridlocked at 4:30pm. I was rushing…

(No) Coffee Demons

My parents, both Sri Lankan, weren’t overly religous — dad occasionally attended Buddhist Temple and mum was staunchly…

Justin Trudeau

There is this story of Justin Trudeau’s impressive Yoga pose, that has been floating around over the last couple of days. The picture is actually three years old, but got a lot of hype in social media recently.

Nicholas Cage on Business Schools…

I was on a flight from Melbourne to Lausanne, Switzerland, many years ago flicking through the…

I want to buy a Hamburger…

Life at Sloan can be tough. There hardly seems to be time for anything, not even work gets the proper attention it deserves due to overloaded schedules. Well, right before the end of H1 this seems to be particularly true; but then there are these moments of truth, when you decide…

Small Social Steps, Big Impact

As Australia’s largest impact investing firm, Small Giants, is working ‘to create, support, nurture and empower businesses that are shifting us to a more socially equitable and environmentally sustainable world.’

Oversights

American Apparel posted an image on tumblr in 2014 tagged smoke and clouds to celebrate the Fourth of July on its stream; a beautiful picture, quite artistic and in the appropriate colors of red, white and blue. The unfortunate thing was, that who ever responsible selected a picture of the space shuttle…

To Fail or Not to Fail…

What do beer, pancakes and basketball have in common? They have been the subject of epic brand fails during 2015. From Budweiser’s tacit encouragement of date-rape, to IHOP’s backhanded compliment to flat chests to Under Armour’s trivialising of the battle of Iwo Jima, these brand…

Let’s be social

I think there are may positive effects to having social media implemented into companies to drive employee engagement and to build a sense of belonging. Culture and community are important in building and sustaining any enterprise.

April Fool’s: Golden State Warriors Given a “Lyft” With Epic Prank

Last week Lyft sponsored an April Fool’s Day prank pulled off by Golden State Warriors star Andre Iguodala, targeting teammate Festus Ezeli. In an elaborate setup, Ezeli gets into a Lyft vehicle which has a bunch of…

Social Media in the Workplace

There is no emoji that expresses my feelings about social media in the workplace, but thanks to Buzzfeed’s list of “19 Emojis All Thirty-Somethings Need In Their Life” I found it. The “I Am So Overwhelmed By Social Media” Emoji

Aziz Ayman in Clear as Mud

Social for Social’s Sake

A lot of organizations are trying to leverage social media platforms in the workplace to create value for the overall business. Whether its knowledge sharing, recruiting talent or making the company a better place to work, CEO’s believe the likes of Facebook, Twitter and other social…

Taxi Drones

Since Tech Start Ups are all the hype at MIT I was venturing out to find a prank in this space. It is almost impossible to understand whether something is reality or fiction anyway.

Crisis at Lulu

To deal with a crisis quickly is an important part of the job for any enterprise. The communication and responses in such circumstances should be driven by what the brand stands for. Authenticity is key in a world where mistakes are picked up fast and spread through social media.