Role of Social Networks in the 2010 Haiti Elections

Today is the Monday following important elections in our country, and we bet none of our usual readers thought we’d have a post out today, but we do. We respect our word ;-)

We witnessed history yesterday where social networks were citizens’ ink and paper, and where Twitter and Facebook were their printing press. The Haitian people, and the foreigners ever so present in Haiti, tweeted out their thoughts on the elections.

Similarly to the Iran elections last year, Haiti’s elections yesterday were broadcasted over social networks. One of the striking aspects of the #Haiti #Elections is definitely the heavy use of social media. Haitians really relied on it to spread information on protests and to communicate their frustration to many many people worldwide, and at home. So much was recorded via these social networks that anyone is able to understand the development of the event through these networks.

That’s all we’ll say, because you must understand that we won’t give you an opinion on anything that happened because our goal is to always remain unbiased. Our only broadcasted opinions are always related to what we do – marketing and communications.

To stay on top of the scoop on Twitter, check out the timeline for #Haiti #Elections by simply clicking on this link: http://hashtags.org/haiti%20elections

À la prochaine !

RockMelt: What’s so special about it anyway?

We were recently accepted to receive an early invitation to try out RockMelt. In case you hadn’t heard of it, it is a new Internet browser with social integration linking you up to your social networks. RockMelt integrates multiple plug-ins allowing you to be more social while browsing the web 2.0. For example, you can be logged-on to Facebook on the right side panel for as long as you wish, chatting with multiple friends while browsing other websites. The plus is that you don’t have to stop what you are doing to check up on what is going on around the World.

Moving over to the right side panel, RockMelt has your plug-ins – from your Twitter, Facebook and YouTube feeds, to an interesting website feed feature. So basically, if a website has a RSS feed, you can easily add it to the sidebar to get quick updates without being side tracked.

Things we liked:
1. Being connected to Twitter, Facebook, YouTube (etc) while browsing other websites.
2. The overall feel of the browser itself
3. The share button at the top near the navigation bar (sharing content with your friends becomes extremely easy)
4. It is a mixture between FriendFeed and Google Chrome.
5. It is a blazing fast browser
6. Integration. Integration. Oh, and did I say Integration?
7. It has a nice user interface.

Things we didn’t necessarily like:

1. It feels like Google Chrome with a plug-in, but then again isn’t that the point?
2. To get an invitation, you have to log-on via Facebook.
3. Having to log into Facebook every single time you open the browser gets annoying.
4. The Twitter experience isn’t quite there yet.

The folks at RockMelt claim to have re-imagined the browser, and I will definitely give them kudos for that because… they have. If you’ve tried RockMelt and don’t think this to be true, surely you will admit that they have at least paved the way for the new social browsing experience.

Oh yeah, guess what? We have one additional invite left. Anyone who is interested in trying this Internet browser out, leave us a comment below and we’ll hook ya up!

Against All Odds

Hello.

In case you are new to our blog (deep breath): Welcome ;-)
In case you are a regular, welcome back! We missed you too!

This is our 14^th post and we will soon be moving to http://publigestion.biz/blog thanks to the good help of Blogger and our IT team.

But quickly, to better put this post into perspective, let us briefly tell you what we do. PubliGestion’s (PG) core offering is sustainable branding; specializing in message development and placement. A very thorny task if you ask us, especially when in a country like Haiti where Murphy’s Law seems to be the governing rule.

But any who, back to our goats, and to what PG does:

- From brand-inception, to logo and package designing… check
- To creative ideas to ultimately shaping people’s perception and habits…check
- And finally, to doing only to a brand what brings added and sustainable timeless value, something which we know is quite priceless… check

You see to us sustainable brandship is when a local company acts locally while thinking globally. Take for example our Haitian rum, Rhum Barbancourt, our premium lager beer Prestige Beer or our preferred wireless communications provider, Voilà.

- All three exported Haitian brands.
- All three premium products or services.
- All three embodying what the best Haiti has to offer...
“Character and Uniqueness”

The point is that contrary to popular belief, Haiti is not all about the cholera epidemic and the poverty stricken post-quake images of a fallen state. Truth of the matter is, there are serious and successful companies here with serious global interactions including highly specialized people working on top of the line set-ups and perfecting themselves daily - thanks in part to more developed countries’ transfer of people, knowledge and knowhow.

You see, these local companies usually stand out from the crowd and they are the ones that let foreign investors conclude that, hmmm, maybe Haiti is open for business.

As the proud chosen agency to handle these brands… we like to think of them (and advertise them) as The Best Ambassadors of Haiti…so they (and their branding) better behave themselves as such. Globally. So far we must say they have been doing a pretty great job.

Now, isn’t that a good definition (or at least indication) of progress - Against All Odds.

Why is the Prestige Beer Bottle Brown?

Prestige is the only and preferred Haitian beer, and in Haiti, electricity is pretty scarce. As such beer storage is an issue, and so is meat storage – but that’s a whole other story. So, here is an attempt at explaining why the Prestige beer bottles are brown. You ready for this?

But before we reveal any “secrets” let’s take a little beer history tour. A long time ago, a monk decided to put some beer in a bottle, and he realized that after leaving it in there for hours, it was still fresh. Ta-da, there you go… that’s the history of bottled beer.

Once upon a time, the Prestige bottle was green, but since then, the beer bottles have remained brown. Why you may ask? Why is such an elixir, such a nifty crafted beer, stored in what some would call an unpleasant color?

Power (a.k.a kouran) is not always available in our country, and the people at BRANA (Brasserie Nationale d’Haiti) - the Prestige brewers, want their products to always be at their best. Beer must always remain at a steady temperature. So again, why brown bottles? Well, that’s because the color brown helps to keep direct light out of the Prestige bottles, and that maintains the beer brand spanking new while tasting fresh and original.

We guarantee you that Prestige beer does taste fresher, and is more flavorful thanks to its brown bottles than any of its Caribbean counterparts, in say… a green bottle. Since our favorite beer is not directly exposed to sunlight, it does not lose its texture, and especially not its flavor.

Some day, we’ll discuss why the bottles are short and stubby! :)

One Love, y’all.