We live. And then we die.

Time is of the essence.

The public, understandably, hates waiting for anything. We want our food fast, our deliveries now and the transactions in our lives to be instantaneous. Money comes with many benefits, but perhaps the greatest power money holds is that it can save us time. eBay, the once darling and maverick of the Internet, has now entered the time game.

The brand has just launched the eBay Now app where customers can order anything carried by partners such as Best Buy, Macy’s, REI and Target, and have it delivered within an hour. Yes, 60 minutes. The time it takes you to remember you forgot that digital camera with which you were supposed to film your interview with the star of the documentary you’ve been working on for six years. Time changes everything, and eBay is hoping that time with compel customers to pay for convenience.

Saving customers time is a marketing strategy as old as time, and has worked well for every business endeavor from convenience stores to pizza delivery. Anyone in the public who has been to a funeral knows the importance of time, and so we’re guessing eBay Now will be a popular app with consumers—particularly those consumers experiencing a moment of weakness upon discovering they’ve forgotten something important, something they need now.

Is the eBay Now app enough to catapult the brand back into the online superstardom? We’ll have to wait and see as the public decides. But we all have a friend addicted to eBay, and if addicts like one thing, it’s instant gratification.

A Target shopper recently noticed that the color of a grey plus-size dress was listed on the store’s website as “Manatee Grey” (and the image of a manatee may not be the most flattering one to conjure up when trying to sell clothing). To be fair, manatees are, in fact, grey — so while this incident certainly doesn’t demonstrate marketing genius, it’s not necessarily a major issue. The thing is, said shopper also noticed that same dress in regular sizes was listed as “Dark Heather Grey.” Aaaaand now we’ve got a problem.

Would-be Target customer Susan Clemens voiced her disgust on Twitter:

What the. Plus sized women get “Manatee Grey” while standard sizes are “Dark Heather Grey.” @target #notbuyingit twitter.com/suZen/status/3…

— Susan Clemens (@suZen) April 3, 2013

To Target’s credit, the retailer’s response was swift and appropriate:

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Today we bring you a guest post courtesy of Cara Kleinhaut, founder of award-winning event creative, production and design agency Caravents. In the last few weeks alone, Caravents has organized and promoted events ranging from the Essence Black Women of Hollywood pre-Oscar week luncheon to InStyle‘s annual Golden Globes beauty lounge, the Playboy Superbowl party in New Orleans and a D.C. inauguration event sponsored by Target.

Here Cara presents 5 best practices and two case studies in effective social media event promotion and “activation.”

5 Best Practices for Social Media Activation at Big Events

• Create a short, easy event hashtag. Be fun, relevant and clever when coming up with the hashtag. (Example: #MLKDay2013)
• Showcase @handles and #hashtags prominently throughout the event on all printed materials, signage, screens, etc. This will make it easy for people to talk about your event on social media.

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Last week we posted on Target‘s sleek new TV ad campaign, which seems to aim for that crucial “real housewives” demographic by turning laundry, light bulbs and bake sales into, like, the sexiest things ever.

At the time we wondered whether the ads were hip or misogynistic, but we have another question about today’s “live tweet-to-runway” event: what the hell just happened?

Here’s the deal: Target encouraged fans to log on to the “Everyday Show” page via Twitter and post messages concerning some product sold in the “Everyday” line. Target describes Everyday as “the most intensely sensible grocery and essentials collection of the season”, which could apply to pretty much anything. Someone in the marketing/PR department chose the “best” tweets, which were then read aloud by models as they paraded down the runway carrying the products in question with the requisite techno beats in the background.

Hey, it’s all about audience engagement, right?

Oh also: the lucky souls who had their tweets featured will receive $20 Target gift cards and “legendary tweet status”, which may be a bit of an overstatement. Here’s a sample clip:

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Today we came across a post on the AdRants blog that poses an intriguing question: Was Target‘s most recent “Everyday Collection” ad campaign–which ran during the top-rated Golden Globes broadcast–a hip appeal to modern women or a condescending, retrograde series relying on outdated “gender roles” to remind the ladies of all the things they should do and the things they can’t do?

While we must commend whoever chose the music for these spots, we think it’s a legitimate question. Here’s what we take from the six clips:

Women have trouble climbing ladders (physically and metaphorically) and screwing in light bulbs:

Women have trouble opening things (and must take prenatal multivitamins, lest they get all crazy on us men):

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rbb Public Relations announced that Robert Phillips has joined the agency as chief operating officer. In this role, he will be responsible for managing the Miami public relations firm’s financial operations and strategic growth initiatives. Phillips has more than 20 years of experience in executive management, operations consulting and corporate merger services. Prior to joining rbb, he served as COO and CFO at Sam Schwartz Engineering, a transportation engineering and planning firm headquartered in New York City. (Release)

The Herald Group, LLC announced further expansion of the firm with the addition of John Goodwin as vice president. A veteran of Capitol Hill, leading trade associations and award-winning agencies, Goodwin will provide strategic communications and advocacy counsel to the firm’s growing roster of corporate, industry coalition, association and non-profit clients. Prior to joining The Herald Group, Goodwin served as chief of staff to US Congressman Raúl Labrador (R-ID). He also served as communications director and senior advisor to two members of Congress. (Release)

Richard Rubenstein, president of Rubenstein Public Relations (RPR), announced that Lauren Emmett has joined the firm as a Senior Writer.

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Special Delivery: Despite a shrinking media budget with a reported $15.9 billion annual loss, the U.S. Postal Service has selected Interpublic Group of Cos’ UM as its media agency. At a time when Americans are more budget conscious than ever—particularly where our government is concerned—the folks at Interpublic Group clearly have their work cut out for them.

The Morris + King Company announced that it has been retained by BUZZMEDIA, which always appears in all CAPS, because that’s how they roll. As agency-of-record, MKC will develop and execute a comprehensive public relations campaign on behalf of BUZZMEDIA that will tap MKC’s diverse strengths in both the technology and business sectors. BUZZMEDIA draws on original editorial content, deep audience engagement, and knowledge of the young adult audience to provide customized, innovative marketing and advertising solutions across its branded properties.

Spin the Agency in Aisle 9: Target (pronounced tar-jey, just so you know) has selected LatinWorks as its U.S. Hispanic account and will serve as the retail brand’s primary strategic partner, though LatinWorks may have to sort through some conflict of interest issues as it also represents TJX Companies’ Marshalls.

Over the years, retailers have begun opening earlier and earlier on Black Friday in order to make the most of the biggest shopping day of the year. This bottom line-driven phenomenon is not-so-lovingly known as “Black Friday creep,” conjuring images of something amorphous and sinister rolling slowly through the night to overtake Thanksgiving — and that’s not too far off, really.

Just ask Casey St. Clair, a Target employee whose recent petition to get the retail giant to stay closed on Thanksgiving night (rather than opening with Black Friday deals at 9:00 pm as scheduled) inspired a veritable revolt among retail employees and customers alike.

Her email via Change.org read, in part:

In the last week, over 230,000 people have signed my petition asking my employer, Target, to change its Black Friday shopping hours to let employees have Thanksgiving dinner with our families.

We have real momentum, and this Monday, I’ll be delivering my petition with over 230,000 signatures to Target Headquarters – click here to join us and add your name.

After I was on TV, my manager offered me Thanksgiving day off. But I declined. This isn’t about just me — it’s about respecting one of the few days retail workers have a year to spend time with loved ones.

While Target is certainly not alone in opening on Thanksgiving (Toys “R” Us, Walmart, Sears and KMart will be the first large retail chains to open with Black Friday sales at 8:00 pm), it has received the brunt of the public’s ire thanks to the petition.

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Active living brand prAna, known for its functional designs and progressive style, has selected Haberman of Minneapolis as its AOR in a competitive review. Haberman will handle public relations, social media and event management for the company as well as long-term marketing planning for prAna’s first Twin Cities location.

The new Minnesota store, slated to open in early November 2012 at 50th and France in Edina, joins five other retail prAna locations in Denver, Boulder, Santa Barbara, Portland and San Francisco.

Gap brand has eschewed established global agencies like stalwart Ogilvy for a host of agencies available on an as-needed basis. The shops including Peterson Milla Hooks and AKQA. PMH, a Minneapolis-based shop, has worked with Target, Kmart and JC Penney. Yet Gap and Ogilvy still maintain a relationship.

Gap spokeswoman Edie Kissko said,”Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide helped us tremendously over the last year in establishing the Gap brand ‘Be Bright’ platform, which we launched with our spring campaign… Ogilvy also created our fall ‘Icon Redefined’ campaign.”

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How does one re-brand an august institution like a classical museum–a “product” that is stuffy by its very nature?

The Smithsonian Institution is an extremely popular destination for anyone visiting in the Washington, D.C. area, but the folks in charge clearly felt like they needed to increase their appeal—which is why they decided to hire Wolff Olins to help create the first ad campaign in the institution’s 166-year history.

The Smithsonian’s 19 individual museums and galleries are some of the best-known and most popular in the country. In fact, we wonder if one can even call oneself a true American without at least one visit to the Air and Space Museum! So what changed? The new move started with two dreaded words: user feedback.

The terms most often used to describe the Smithsonian in a study commissioned by the institution two years ago apparently included “boring” and “intimidating,” so organizers decided to spend a couple million bucks (with the help of Target) on a brand strategy and subsequent ad campaign, now set to appear in America’s largest cities this fall.

The most interesting thing about this project to us is that it wasn’t designed strictly to increase attendance—the numbers for 2012 are already better than last year’s, with total visitors expected to reach 30 million by year’s end. What the Smithsonian wants is, to put it bluntly, an image makeover.

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