Surviving Black Friday at Woodbury Commons

See this picture, do you recognize anything? Yes, this is the infamous Woodbury Commons in Central Valley, NY on Black Friday. While this may seem unappealing to some people, the deals that you can find at Woodbury Commons are well worth clawing through these crowds. Done correctly you will have not that painful of an experience and not that empty of a wallet. Take it from us, we've been there before- here are some tips for surviving Black Friday at Woodbury Commons.

1. Mind, Body, Soul

Prepare yourself mentally, physically and emotionally for the craziest day of shopping in your life. Get a good nights sleep for the weeks leading up to BF. Listen to some calm music on your drive to the outlets it will help if you get stuck sitting in traffic. Pack snacks for the trip as well. Bust out the hand weights at the gym for those arm muscles, you're gonna have a lot of bags to carry. That MK leather purse weighs more than you think.

2. Do Your Homework

Don't think you're gonna make it through the crowds without doing your due diligence. This is the most important step out of all the tips we are giving you.  When we say homework, we mean know what sales are going on at what times.  You need to prioritize for items you really want, and items that your ok with missing out on.  Stores used to not release information pertaining to sales days in advance, but with growing competition they've been forced to do so.  (Yay for us!).  It's as easy going to the Woodbury Commons Sales & Events tab, but there are also various apps you can use to help you.  Splurge is a new and great tool that compiles all time sensitive sale information across stores into a convenient little app.

3. Map Out a Game Plan

-Traffic Patterns: look at a map before you leave the house.  There are various ways to get to the outlets, the most common being from the Thruway.  You don't want to get stuck with people trekking up from NYC by the bus load (yes, this happens).  There are apps that can help you navigate through traffic on the big night; our favorite is Waze.

-Map out your Shopping Plan: for this one, you literally need to get a map.  You can print one off their website, and while your digesting your turkey dinner the night before take the time to draw out a plan.  This is another crucial step in the survival process.  Think of BF as your very own Skyfall.  Your very own covert mission; sales are top secret and use alley ways to dodge crowds.  You can look just as good as Daniel Craig in a suit, we have faith in you! (You don't actually have to wear a suit).

4. Gear Up

Going off our last tip, we don't suggest that you wear any uncomfortable clothing.  While its a BF staple to look cute, it's important to dress for the long haul.  Comfort and warmth is key.  Sneakers get the job done, but a cute pair of thick leggings and warm boots will also do the trick.  Keep in mind that you are going out in the middle of the night, so temperatures might not be as warm as your used to.  Frostbite shows no mercy!

5. Gather the Troops (Pick the Right People!!)

Lets face it, you love your Grandma but this is not the time or place for family bonding time.  It's survival of the fittest out there, you need to fight this battle alongside the right troops.  Pick friends that you know are as die-hard as you when it comes to shopping and getting the sale.  You need people that are DTBF...Down to Black Friday! 

6. Get Connected

This final piece of advice builds off Tip #2.  In today's day and age, we've been blessed with up to the mili-second updates as to what our friends and favorite brands are doing.  Use this to your advantage.  On Twitter you can follow the stores you want to target as well as the Woodbury Commons handle.  Look out for various QR codes around the commons, these can link you up to more sales information as well.  The main point of this tip- HAVE YOUR PHONE BE FULLY CHARGED.  This is crucial if you want to stay ahead of the curve.

By following these 6 simple tips Black Friday will be a cinch.  Not only will you be satisfied with your shiny, new, Tory Burch flats, but your wallet will be feeling good as well.  We hope to see you there! 

Happy Shopping!

-Desiree, Simona, & Katy

Frankenweenie

Frankenweenie came out in theaters last Friday to an astonishing gross amount of $11.5 million. It is Tim Burton’s latest film, in production with Disney, where in the movie a boy named Victor loses his dog, named Sparky and uses the power of science to resurrect him. Hence the name, maybe some people can refer back to the popular 1931 film Frankenstein to refresh their memory. 

I discovered this movie while playing my new favorite app on my iPhone, Where’s my water? - Which I love and think is adorable all on its own. I downloaded the free version which entailed 10 levels. But as soon as I was done I noticed another section that was sponsored by the new movie Frankenweenie with another set of 10 levels. I was ecstatic to say the least. Not only did they have an option to view the trailer but it also highlighted some of the characters from the movie itself and even transformed the original Where’s my water?  character “Swampy” to “Frankenducky”. There was two options to either Tweet or Facebook share your score or what level you were on which a hashtag of #wheresmywater as well as #Frankenweenie.

Not only was this movie able to boost potential viewers with integrated marketing concepts such as the usual trailers on TV, promotional billboards, posters etc. but they incorporated aspects of social media such as the app and the social media networks . They even have a website (linked with the Disney website) that incorporated all their outlets for promotion, including a Facebook application of a game dedicated to the film. All in all, I believe their efforts towards making the film into a mobile space has helped innovate and promote the movie better than traditional marketing. Considering most young children today can easily access iPod’s, iPad’s and iPhones better than most adults in today’s day and age. With these app’s, they can bug their parents to see this movie perfect for the Halloween season right around the corner.

#PitchPerfect

A new movie came out last night called Pitch Perfect. In brief it is a musical comedy that follows an all-girls acapella group in college that go through tension and forbidden romance all to win an international acapella contest.  I first found out about the movie through a trailer online. What struck my attention was that at the end of the trailer they promoted their film with a hashtag #PitchPerfect. Not only did the actors/actresses sing famous pop songs during the trailer but many people would quote the sing on twitter and then hashtag #PitchPerfect. The marketers for the film helped create a large buzz for the movie considering Pitch Perfect became a trending topic on twitter. With a growing and premature buzz about the film, Universal Pictures decided to give the audience a sneak peek at the movie by with an early release strategy. A select group of fans were picked to see the movie a week earlier to encourage word-of –mouth about the movie.
Through my research of this movie I stumbled across a video on YouTube that involved a guy by the name of Mike Tompkins, the cast of Pitch Perfect as well as individuals like you or me……well with a better voice then me, let’s just say. A video was created in acapella style like the movie and performed by the various characters to the song “Starships” by Nicki Minaj. This helped the movie gain a core of fans , buzz and potential to be the most talked about movie of the year.

 (TRAILER)

(Starships)

Pranks @ The Emmy's

The 64th annual Primetime Emmy Awards aired a week ago, Sept 24th, and it generated quite a buzz. Although the 54th Grammy Awards held the record as the most talked about awards show with 13 million comments, 1 million tweets is still not too shabby. With a host such as Jimmy Kimmel, I am not surprised. His crazy antics, funny jokes and hilarious skits boosted their ratings as well as their social media feed. 
The most important event that rocked the stage was by Tracy Morgan. At a point in the night the most traffic was generated by a moment that occurred between the two of them. Tracy Morgan staged a fake fainting incident which prompted Kimmel to encourage the audience and viewers nationwide to tweet "OMG, Tracy Morgan just passed out on stage at the Emmys turn ABC on right now". In which they did. This helped generate a lot of buzz through the TwitterLand about what was going on at the Emmy’s. More than likely this prompted those who missed the event to go onto YouTube to catch a glimpse of what they had missed.
Along with that fiasco, there was a lot of talk via the social media outlets about who was winning which award and what people were wearing to the event. Tweets to the actors, along with instagramed pictures of dresses and comments on Facebook about award winning TV shows flooded the internet Sunday night. In this case, marketing seemed to be in the hands of the actors rather than ABC themselves. They helped promote the awards better than ABC probably ever could. So congrat’s to those who won, and good luck next time for those who didn’t!

With the Fall Season

Social media is impacting our lives everyday. You’re on it. You see it. You absorb the information. And BAM! You’ve just been social media-ized.

TV shows on the CW network have begun their marketing campaign with a new sector to channel and promote their shows-social media. They’ve invested their time into new and exciting forms of social media such as the ever-growing Pintrest.

They have set up different Pintrest boards according to their shows. “CW Eye Candy” “The Shirtless Guys of the CW” “Gossip Girl Style” “CW Couples and Love Triangles” are just some of the interesting boards you may pin and keep up to date with on this site. This is a great interactive way to engage the young Americans that usually watch this show. COUGH especially the young girls COUGH . To catch their eyes and attention. All it takes is a simple follow and they’ll be looking at pictures of the hunky guys of Gossip Girl all day.

Their overflow into the twitter world has been expanding as well. Not only can you follow the shows handle specifically, but all the characters as well. For example, Americas Next Top Model has their twitter handle in which you may follow. But along with that you may have some suggested friends such as the judges and contests of the show. Followers may feel a deeper connection in that case because they get to see the personal tweets they send out along with all the promos they usually market.

A new app that I have discovered is that of GetGlue. This app is now available for iPads only but will soon be coming out for iPhones, Androids and the web. This allows you to enjoy a personalized and social guide for TV, movies, and sports. It uses a calendar to see what’s coming up in the future for specific shows. And allows you access for live scores, movies in theaters and streaming picks. Share what your watching with friends, as well as chat with friends who are watching the same show. This is a perfect way to stay interactive with what you have yours eyes “glued” on.

You choose who you wanna see....

I, like most people, love a good laugh. Whether it’s watching a hilarious movie like Bridesmaids or hearing a funny story from a friend, a good laugh can make me forget my troubles from a stressful and tiring day. That is why when I stay in on a Saturday night I usually tune into Saturday Night Live on NBC.  Though they usually take a hiatus for the summer, they will be back on tomorrow night! They launched a campaign this month to see who their audience would like to see host the show as well as who the musical performance should be. This has helped the show engage their audience for their viewing pleasure ultimately since it’s in their hands. Fans hammered the SNL Facebook page back in 2010 with over 500,000 posts suggesting Betty White host, and that following Mother’s  day she did. That is the power an audience may have on a show that’s been running for over 35 years….WOW. So with this new campaign you may tweet with the hashtag #SNLHost or #SNLMusic for who you’d like to see grace the stage.

My personal favorites…. #SNLHost Drake   #SNLMusic Childish Gambino.