There is nothing like waking up to the smell of change.  And today all of us at Brogan & Partners got a snootful.

We have a new managing partner:  Ellyn Davidson.  She replaces Deidre Bounds who is moving to our sister company, Ignite Social Media, as its COO.  Ellyn started as an intern at Brogan 16 years ago.  She quickly proved indispensable, ambitious and immoderately capable.  She first tackled media and rose to media director, then turned her attention to client service and was soon heading our most important accounts–Michigan Department of Community Health, Travel Michigan, MEDC.  She became an agency partner in 1998 and stockholder in 2004.

In 2007 she faced her biggest opponent–breast cancer–and won, becoming an activist, blogger and fundraiser for a cure.

Her next business issue was to learn social media.  She has spent the past year working with Ignite Social Media on strategy and business development, as well as conducting a social media boot camp and weekly lunch & learns for all B&Pers.

Today she brings all this experience, energy and brainpower to her new post.

Ellyn will team with a brand new CEO–Maria Marcotte.  Maria is our senior partner, second largest shareholder, COO.  She joined the agency as business manager in 1990 and  soon formed a corporate support team to handle all non-advertising stuff.  Money.  Legalities.  Benefits.  Buildings in Detroit and Research Triangle.  Interns.  Technology. And our most important issue: Morale.  She has been part of ensuring that B & P is a place our staff wants to come to every day… that while we have abnormally high productivity, we also make sure every staffer feels loved and valued.  Through regular thank yous, Hero of the Month awards, our annual out-of-town Mystery Trips, free Monday Morning manicures and more.

Somehow Maria also finds time to exercise her creativity.  As cartoonist for B & P’s annual booklet spoofing politics, as an award-winning oil painter, and as a scarily realistic duck carver.

Maria was named COO of the Year by Crain’s Detroit Business and has won national Sloan award for innovations in Human Resources.

More soon about Maria and Ellyn’s new vision for the agency!

What about me–the agency’s former CEO/managing partner?   I remain chair and stockholder of Brogan & Partners (as well as co-owner/COO of Ignite Social Media), work for both businesses part-time, and am on the lam the rest of the time.  This month, for example, I am in Carmel as a temp nanny to my two-year-old granddaughter Brogan.  In March I spent two weeks in Morocco with the SheMachine. I continue to work for boards/orgs who do good deeds.   Next spring I plan to intern in DC for a Michigan Senator or Representative.  See?  Life can be good even when you shake it up and turn over your beloved businesses to others.

This past Monday Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, announced the new iPhone 4, which is said to be the “biggest leap forward” for the iPhone since 2007. After reading this statement I had to take another glance at the date. The iPhone was only released 3 years ago?!

With the release of the IOS4 there are a handful of new features to gawk at. For instance, real time chatting will allow you to no longer meet for client luncheons. You can bring the client with you in your pocket then set them in between your water glass and soup bowl to chat it up.  One catch is that this feature is only available on Wi-Fi, and the presence of good Wi-Fi connection is slim, thus preventing our need to have actual human to human contact. On a positive note the introduction of multitasking now allows one to switch between apps, the internet, and music without any disconnect.

The IOS4 will also have the iAd mobile advertising platform which utilizes the multitasking feature. “The iAd system allows third party developers to include advertising in their apps to earn more money or subsidize free apps.” Apple will sell the advertising and supply the ads from their servers. The advantage to the iAd system is if the user clicks on an iAd banner, a full screen advertisement will appear within the application instead of being redirected to the Safari web browser. Apple will sell and host the ads, giving 60% revenue to the developers. According to Jobs, “People aren’t searching their phones. People are spending time in their apps.” Do you think that with the introduction of iAd there will be in an increase in mobile ad sales?

We always say, there is no better advertising then word-of-mouth, especially when it comes from a celebrity.  And the Lupus Foundation just hit the jackpot.  A phenom right now, Lady Gaga, has recently opened up about a health scare, saying she tested “borderline positive for lupus.”  It now has many of her millions of fans asking “what is lupus?”

Thank goodness.  For a disease that affects over 1.5 million people, the medical research is seriously under-funded, and awareness of the overall disease is extremely low.

Up until 5 years ago, I also had no clue what lupus was either.  Which is odd, being in healthcare marketing, I am engrossed in the medical world everyday.   I only became educated after my dearest friend, my sister, was diagnosed with the disease.  And while my sister has become an advocate for educating people on the disease, she is no Lady Gaga (no offense Nikki)!

Here’s hoping that her lupus scare will raise awareness, and ultimately funds for research so that people with lupus can have a greater chance to live a long and healthy life!

I hope that the foundation is in talks to have her become a spokesperson, even if she doesn’t have the actual disease.  We’ve seen first hand how much a celebrity spokesperson can bring to a cause.  Just look at what Michael J. Fox has done for Parkinson’s awareness.  Prior to him being diagnosed, it was another “secret” disease that only those affected knew about.

What do you think?  Would Lady GaGa make a good spokesperson for the Lupus Foundation?  Or is there a better way to gain awareness that you can think of?

Amongst all of the discussion about the BP oil spill, there has been plenty of speculation about the way it was handled in social media.  With what seems to be a lack of effort and a disregard for their users, BP has remained mum on the topic except for a few PR statements, prompting a backlash in the social media community.

Well that seems to have been the wrong way to handle the situation because now instead of just boycotting the gas stations as a means of protest, you can black out BP across the web. A Firefox plugin has been created to place oil splotches over anything BP related. This includes photos and words such as BP oil, BP gas or BP worldwide.

Do you think social media has gone too far with the Black Oil Firefox plugin or is it our right to determine what we do and do not want to see across the web? Either way, I hope this widely publicized incident will prove as a warning of what not to do when a company makes a mistake.

It seems like all I ever hear anymore is how many people do not like Twitter or understand the concept. Those that actually have an account either use it strictly for business or forget that it’s there all together. So if this is the general buzz surrounding the social media site, why is it U.S. site traffic grew from a few million unique monthly visitors early last year to over 20 million by June?

Below is the projected continued growth of the site.

Do you believe Twitter is being utilized more often? Is it by people documenting their everyday life or business professionals trying to promote themselves? These are hard questions considering the general consensus used to be that Twitter would have lost steam by now.

May 1st is quickly approaching.  For most, it’s just another normal day.  For Michigan residents, it will mean that we can walk into any bar or restaurant and walk out still smelling like the sweet scent of perfume that we put on earlier in the evening.

But, more importantly, it means we will no longer be exposed to secondhand smoke, the third leading cause of preventable death in Michigan.

In order to raise awareness of Michigan’s new indoor smoking ban, we partnered with our long-time client, the Michigan Department of Community Health, to kick off a very cost-effective social marketing PSA campaign.  Check out the spot below.

And join us in saying so-long to smoked cheesecake, smoked side salad, smoked carrot cake…

Ok, I admit it.  I am mad about the new Mad Men collection of dolls by Barbie.  Yearn for a Don Draper to carry around in my purse.  Sadly, madly, will have to wait for JULY to buy.  Much as I fear being left out by this generosity, I am sharing a secret way to be first in line: Go to AMCTV.com and sign up for a notification when they reach the market.  May the best women win!

 As compensation for lack of immediate gratification, I have just ordered the complete three-season set of the MM series.  And just bought a ticket to the Adcraft Club of Detroit’s Mad Men party on June 15th

It feels good to know you are part of something bigger than yourself. Today our spot for the Michigan Turnaround Plan launches. It will help build awareness and action for the 5 step plan created by Business Leaders for Michigan—an amazing group of CEOs and leaders from around the state who are dedicated to creating jobs and turning our state into a Top 10 State again. It’s a tremendous effort and the website makes it easy to read about the plan, contact your legislator and share with friends. A shout out to the rest of the Brogan & Partners team for creating this spot with me and to Universal Images and Ron Rose Productions who helped bring it to life. Tell me what you think. Do you think we can set aside partisan politics and turn Michigan around?

Through the LinkedIn grapevine, I learned about a really interesting opportunity for patients, providers, insurers, and healthcare experts to explore, discuss, and brainstorm what is happening in the healthcare 2.0 realm. HealthCa.mp is described on its own website as an “un-conference” with the mission encouraging open dialogue on how “social media, open source and the best of the Internet, Mobile web and process innovation to work for better health care and health technology.”

As a healthcare marketer, I’m intrigued. So I’ve paid my $25 to attend and see what the rest of the world (or at least Raleigh/Durham) is thinking - and add my own two cents-worth, of course. Anyone out there attended a healthca.mp? If so, please comment and let me know about your experience.

Ever wrote a tweet so funny that you wanted to put it on a billboard for all drivers to see? Ok maybe not, but Conan O’Brien did just that.

As his microsite puts it, “Conan has lost his home and his rightful place on millions of screens across the nation. His audience is also lost. Some are picking up the pieces of their lives, but many can’t. Some are too young to know this isn’t their fault: that they’ve done nothing wrong. So, until this talented, brilliant, voluptuously coiffed man has his show back, we shall offer him our screens.”

This is just the latest example of how non-traditional advertising and social media can join forces for an impressively successful result. The possibilities are endless! Still skeptical?

While researching for a presentation I was to give, I hit a dead end.  Normally, I would ask a coworker or e-mail a friend but, because I was in a rush, I sent out a tweet in order to ask the largest amount of people in the shortest amount of time. The outcome? Several helpful answers including links!

From this point on I have used my twitter accounts (yes, plural) as my personal help desk. If I’m stuck on something, stumped, or just plain feel lazy, I ask my plethora of acquaintances and time after time get great information.

So my question is, is this a helpful tool or just fueling many people’s need to take the easy way out. Would researching topics until you found the right answer yourself make us more knowledgeable than being directed to the only link we need?

The Apple iPad is coming out this Saturday.  But will there be any on the shelf?  They have been pre-ordered since the announcement of their release. I read an article today, written by Ron Callari, giving you 10 tips to think about before you spend your money.

All I have to say is just like anything that comes out that’s brand new…wait!
Wait until it’s worked out all its kinks.  At that point you might be looking at a lower price point.  It is a beauty.  But I can wait.  Can you?