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When
first visiting our Facebook page or website, a lot of
people ask, "Hey...why the Blue hair girl on the
site?". Good question and we would be lying to say
that at first, we just loved the look of her hair but
then it started to resonated in a different light
considering what we're trying to do. This isn't just a
case of creating a story after the fact so let's look at
why we love having her out in front for the Zipper local
news and local gossip app.
First of all, she doesn't have a name and when we were
originally trying to find a face for the new Zipper app,
it was almost immediate when we saw her picture. Sure,
there was the initial guttural response of "How cool is
that picture!" but it went deeper than that. What's
unique and different about the picture. First, of
course is the bright blue hair and we're not jumping on
the Katy Perry bandwagon (although, we gladly take a
seat if offered). It's pretty obvious what the blue
hair signifies. It's different, fresh, and stridently
counter-culture but in a way that's not counter-culture
or over-aggressive. It's equally cool which is tough to
do when you're that far out of the norm. Red hair
probably wouldn't have pulled it and jet black hair has
other connotations. Blue hair signifies a new approach
which exactly what we want to bring to the local news
and local gossip online world with our Zipper smart
phone app. It immediately captures your attention
without putting off even the most conservative of
folks. It feels light and fun at the same time as going
against all available norms. That's the Zipper. That's
the idea of you, the public creating and reading local
news immediately created by others in your area. Now,
you and the thousands of yous in your area are the local
news reporter. That's cool. That's blue. That's
only part of why we loved the picture to represent a
fresh, exciting way of getting your local news.
The
expressions she shows are so specific to the whole gist
of the Zipper as well that it was a perfect fit on top
of our initial love of the look. In one of the
pictures, she has her finger up in front of her mouth as
if to say keep it down. This fit in perfectly with our
local gossip offering. Any times there’s a secret that
a friend doesn’t want you to tell, it’s probably gossip
and by definition, it’s probably local. In the other
pictures, she represents the excitement of learning
something new that matters to you. This is local news
in the new way we want to bring it. Why does some 50
year old editor at the local newspaper get to dictate
what is and what isn’t local news? The answer “Well,
it’s always been that way” isn’t a good one and it’s no
longer true. The general freshness of our blue girl’s
look represents this break from the staid and tired way
of getting, filtering, and capturing local news and
local gossip.
We’re not saying that you should go out dye your hair
blue but we feel that breaking from decades of
antiquated local news gathering and dissemination with
the Zipper smart phone app is the online equivalent.
We’ll have a blue streak after using this new tool.
Everyone’s a reporter now. That’s fresh! |
