Los Angeles in my pocket

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Escape’s dream and dream escape

I met Laura in a street of El Segundo. Laura works in the same building and we share the same kitchen room. She invited me to participate in a meditation classes. There was a “free house” in her club this evening and I joined a small group to discover the activities. It’s a kind of hippie’s club, with a lot of pretty stones on exhibition. I didn’t understand all of the teacher’s expressions but she spoke slowly and was pretty welcoming with me. When she tried to explain to us the meaning of the seven chakras, she began with the first chakra which represents the basic needs of security, home and job. Then I explained to her my situation, I feel comfortable and uncomfortable at the same time. It is strange to be on the other side of the world for a few months without knowing what lies ahead. But I know that sometimes, you have to go away to come back. This present time in California is rich of discoveries. After the meditation, we went to another room. There, we sat down and the teacher told us that other teachers will clean up our “auras”. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling but was confident with them. Two women were turning around me making dance their arms. After the meeting, they told to me that my dominant color was turquoise. The dominant color represents the sensitive area and the most important values. The color turquoise represents the sense of communication, creativity, comprehension and guidance. It also reveal a need of harmony and nature. I was glad to learn about those significations. I like this color and it’s true, I need a lot of nature, almost now. Anyway, Laura invited me to hike in the Santa Monica Mountain Recreation Area the following weekend. I was so happy! The weather was beautiful and the point of view on the Pacific Ocean too. After hiking, we went to the Malibu market and we had a delicious lunch.

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Walking down THE street !

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The most inspired museum

I went to the Getty Museum with Lisa and Bill. The gardens are very beautiful and the view point of Los Angeles and the bay is incredible! The museum’s architecture is modern and spacious. Created by Richard Meier, who was inspired by Le Corbusier, the Getty Museum is a place which inspire luxury and peacefulness. We had lunch on the famous terrace and admired the ocean and Downtown LA for a long time. After our visit, I discovered a wonderful project designed by the Getty: #Gettyinspired. It’s a website, a portfolio of creativity inspired by the Getty and made by the visitors. How does it works? You can tag a Getty-inspired photo on Instagram then see it appeared on the Instagram gallery. You can also share your creativity on the “Share Your Inspiration” page to upload a photo or a story about the Getty. It can be a photo, a painting, a drawing, a poem or etc. Many people found for their own craft or inspiration at the Getty. It’s really interesting! A sculpture might inspire a tattoo artist for example, or an author of comic strips to write his next punch line. Well, I was very enthusiast by this project. I think that French museums should engage their visitors by adapting “Share Your Inspiration”. This way, they could build a community and a free social media content. They could also collect data, target new visitors and make a survey to improve their different services and exhibitions. We can also imagine a partnership with designers who participate at the “Share Your Inspiration” page. Why not imagine creative workshops between visitors and designers selected to encourage the visitors to come back?

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#GettyInspired

See and share photos, videos, and artwork inspired by the Getty.

Share your experience!

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My first day in the Getty Museum, a treasure of Los Angeles.

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Turn plastic waste into new valuable things

Recycle and play !

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Earth Month and Keep America Beautiful Month

DDB created a great and useful campaign for Earth Day. It was certainly the best marketing idea for 2016 edition. Called “Social Brainstorm”, like a wink to the advertising field, DDB wants to demonstrate the power of “we” in the preservation of the planet. The campaign encourages people to submit their best ideas using the event’s official hashtag #EarthDayDDB. Then, a selection of great ideas will be posted on the website in order to generate an idea bank to serve as inspiration for the DDB Network and its partners. If we take time to research, we discover that there’s a lot of people who innovate all around the world. Especially in recycling industry. I found a smart project for “Keep America Beautiful Month”. It’s called Precious Plastic and the web site is really well designed. It was created by Dave Hakkens to let people start their own local plastic workshop. He developed machines to recycle plastic and share all the blueprints open source online. This way, everyone can build their own machine and create new products. Dave hopes to create a wide community of like-minded plastic savers. Personally, I was a paper saver today. Alondra gave me many cardboard boxes full of coupons to recycle using the paper shredder. It reminded me of the song of Gainsbourg, “le poinçonneur des Lilas”. It means the puncher of Lilas station, an old job which is disappeared, hopefully. The turn is: I make holes, small holes, and small holes ever and ever. I’ve in my mind a carnival of confetti’s, I take them up in my bed. And under my earthenware sky, I see no shine that matches. Sometimes I dream, I ramble and I see waves…” Although, the sculpture wave in front of the boss office carries a great message! Dare to dream… and when you do, go big! I can hear the wave now.

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The world of maps

When I was over Amy’s home for Easter, her husband gave me two maps, one of California and one of Los Angeles. I was so glad. Victoria gave me a good idea: to customize my own map to remind myself of all my trips and memories. There are many apps to create a travelogue or interactive maps with pictures. But it’s cool to have a craft map, an original and unique map. Then they talked about the guides and maps of Michelin. Apparently, the French brand is always considered as the best travel maps editor. But Americans also have their own and surprising maps, like Weedmaps. In the website you can find the storefront “Hollyweed”. Very fun and unexpected for a French tourist. Today is the 420 Games, a festival and athletic competition founded by Jim Alpine to “de-stigmatizing” millions of responsible positive cannabis users. It’s legal in the USA for medical purposes.

Victoria showed me the article on the magazine Eventmarketer. We found another article about artificial intelligence and how companies have experimented robots in their customer service. The robot was created by Lowe’s Innovation Labs. He is able to drives stores, collect data, talk to customers, respond to gestures, search for products and take inventory. It was experimented in Hilton Mclean hotel in Virginia. Hotel guests could ask questions in many languages to the robot concierge working at the desk front. But the journalist mentioned that this very special concierge can’t check in guests... yet.

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Marriott Hotels' Virtual Travel Experience (Behind the Scenes)

Get a close look at the making of Marriott Hotels' virtual travel experience including live-action video, a mix of CGI and 4-D elements to deliver an unprece...

Travel experience by Marriott

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Travel experience in Downtown

I was excited to discover Downtown LA, the old and urban center of Los Angeles, the hub of business Southern California. Most people drive in cars here, big cars, beautiful cars...When I went to Downtown LA, I traveled by train. And I biked along the coast. I’m really fortunate to live in El Segundo, near Manhattan Beach. Victoria considers me as a fancy girl ! Downtown has the typical architecture of American Business Districts, and it’s pleasant to see buildings of the 19th century in this suburban area of Los Angeles. On my first expedition, I met a Chinese Student of San Francisco at the station Mariposa, and we decided to walk around Downtown together. Shopping and going to the Grammy Museum. There was an exhibition about Bob Dylan, photographs by Daniel Kramer. It’s a great museum, not too big, just pleasant to browse history of musical styles. Listening to icons again and again with diverse archives and to play with interactive installations. I felt so happy to hear Otis Redding and to play drums and piano freely ! After our visit in the Grammy Museum, we walk around the district and stopped in a place with many expositions. I was surprised to discover a “barber truck”. Not a food truck, a barber truck ! Funny and surprising. I like more and more the American’s fantasy, especially in experiential marketing and street marketing area. Among the exhibitors, there was “Travel Alberta”, a Destination Management Company. The spot was designed really good, with a spinning wheel to play and to take a chance to win a trip. A Brand ambassador gave me goodies like a folding water bottle. Simple and useful. well, it was a good example about the way to promote a destination with experiential marketing tools. But the best example of experiential marketing in tourism field that I found was the Teleporter of Marriott, the American Hostel Chain. An amazing virtual and immersive travel experience. Unfortunately, I didn’t test the Teleporter. But we posted a link with a video in our Facebook account. Facebook post was posted for Makai’s account, in order to show how hospitality area can use experiential marketing.

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The staff in the wharehouse

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San Diego Zoo 100

Happy birthday to the greatest zoo in the world !

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San Diego party

As I wrote it before, Makai has a new client, Cox communications. Kay requested to me to make research on many websites about the possibility of having a marketing event in San Diego. She selected Grape Day Park, Balboa Park and Quart yard Park. San Diego seems to be a great place to have fun and being surrounded by nature. Last year, Balboa Park celebrated the centennial of the 1915 Panama-California Exposition. A lot of exhibitions, performances of music, dance, theater and parade was organized. The Botanical Building was also restored and the “Garden Party of the Century” should be a great moment! There’s also the San Diego Zoo, a world famous conservation organization that won TripAdvisor Traveler’s Choice award for zoos and aquariums in 2015. The Company celebrate its 100th anniversary this year and created a beautiful interactive website for the occasion. The best place you can visit is certainly the safari park, a large landscape for the animals. And if you have children, download the game “Living Legend” on your tab, it seems educational and the graphic design is really cute. Children have to save endangered animals playing with a challenging puzzler. Quart yard Park seems to be a nice place too. Especially for its musical events, its Craft Beer Garden, its various food trucks and its Dog Park, a urban oasis for pups. Well, San Diego open its golden gates this year and the sun are waiting for you!

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The first lady of food

Previous week I updated the event calendar of General Mills. We are going to support a lot of expositions in April. General Mills celebrate its 150th anniversary this year and created a promotional website to share its story and showcase its brands. Yoplait is one of those brands. This is one of the older American Foods Company, created by the general Washburn in Minnesota. It’s really interesting to discover American history through its industrial history and its brands stories. I like their sense of storytelling, their talent in advertising, in graphic design and in packaging area. Speaking with Lisa on Sunday, during our lunch by her sister, I realized that Betty Crocker, the female icon of General Mills, wasn’t a real woman. It’s a pure invention, a fictional person. On the other hand, her famous portrait was created by a real woman, an illustrator and portrait painter called Neysa McMain, who began her career during World War I. The brother and the sister of Lisa were surprised too. This marketing story about Betty Crocker is pretty unknown. In fact, she was a man, the surname of William Crocker, a retired director who created the personality of Betty Crocker to reply to questions that homemakers sent to General Mills. Betty Crocker made her debut in 1921 and later, she was voted second-most recognizable female in the United States, after U.S first Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

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Betty Crocker, the first lady of food

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Bunny girls

Bernie is a small and cute rabbit, the mascot of Annie’s company, an environmentally friendly brand offering natural foods. Yesterday, we received many products from a recent exposition, like cereals, snacks and pastas. This is Easter before Easter! I tasted the cereals for my breakfast, they’re delicious, mostly with banana pieces. Cereals are an American specialty, like macaroon are a French specialty. But there is no “National Macaroon Day” in France like the “National Cereal Day” in USA. Perhaps should I propose a new celebration for our delicious pastry? I love the Americans’ fantasy. We took a photo with bunny’s ears to promote Annie’s foods in our social media schedule. Unforgettable.