Daniel Secareanu has tagged me with a wonderful meme that definitely suits a Sunday evening. A random artist is created using random creativity, and here’s what band I’d be in and the name of our very first album!

Do you want to play? Here’s how to decide on your band name, your album name and the artwork to be used on the cover. If you like it too much, well, you can actually use it and start writing songs

1. Go to Wikipedia. Use the “random” search option or click here. The name of the first article you find will be your band’s name.
2. Next, go to “Random quotations” or click this link. The last three-four words of the last quote on the page will be your album’s name.
3. Then, go to Flicker and access the photos posted in the last seven days, or click here. The third photo displayed, no matter what it is, will be your album’s cover. As my friend Loredana noticed, you should also check if there’s any copyright or creative commons for that photo and make sure you can a. use it and b. modify it. You should keep going from one photo to the next till you reach you can use. In my case, it took checking out the entire first page, reloading and then checking a few more. Original photo here.
4. Lastly, use your preferred photo editing software or online tool to put everything together.

If you read this and you’re inspired to see what your first album would look and sound like, consider yourself tagged!

If you’re looking for a great PR idea that is both low budget, interesting and efficient, here’s one: the Gift Meme organized by Kdo.ro, an online gift shop that promotes special, unique gifts, and PRwave, the first online PR community and news site in Romania, managed by my friend Loredana Pascal.

The meme is simple: Loredana started by buying gifts for three of her friends, myself included. With the gift, we received a nice envelope describing the campaign and encouraging us to buy a gift for our friends and get a 10% discount for it. We could of course choose to write about the campaign or not, join it or not. From there on, you can consider yourself tagged when you receive the gift. Sounds simple, the budget is not big and it does not imply spending something to get the bloggers to write, it just entails a small discount.

Why exactly does this campaign work? And it does work, all three of the initial bloggers plus others have already joined. Here are a few reasons:

• Most of us love surprises! Although we knew of the campaign, no one knew what he/she was getting, and the Loredana made inspired choices.
• Once you experience something nice, you want to share it with those close to you. So imagine a day in the office, lots of work, and then a call from the front desk saying: “Alina, you’ve got a gift waiting for you over here!” Such a lovely change in your daily routine. I got a very pink Bathing Belle set Good hint I should stop and relax once in a while
• We all give presents to friends, sometimes because it’s a special occasion, other times because we just want to surprise them. So if we can have it ordered with a few clicks, delivered to their home or office and also get a discount for as many presents as we want, why not take the opportunity. The need or desire already exists, Kdo is just building the campaign around it.

The only downturn I can think of is that the Gift Meme is only limited to Romania. But I’m definitelly joining! I was planning on buying some cool gifts in March anyway. I won’t tell who the gifts will go to, simply because I want them to be completely taken by surprise. I don’t think I’ll be around them when they get the prizes, but I do hope they’ll have a smile on their face as big as the one I’ve had when receiving my pink surprise. Loredana, thank you again for such a wonderful choice!