Showing posts with label Marketing-social. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marketing-social. Show all posts

19.9.10

Grey Stockholm moves their entire site to Facebook

I hate to make it sound predestined but I can say that I saw it coming! Brands are moving to Facebook (social media platform) and ditching known / familiar WWW .

I always thought a startup / small/ home business can do it but a BANK and a key advertising agency ..that’s a first and I hope many to come.
I think an agency can claim that they are innovative but Grey saw it as inevitable and moved to Facebook following simple philosophy /strategy “We want to be where people already are, and 2.5 million Swedes are on Facebook, so that's why we have moved our site to Facebook”

15.9.10

Too much SM leverage ...Banking services via Facebook


I always said that social networks would be able to host any content or service, and I know some "banks 2.0" (see Prosper and wasabi), but a traditional bank that migrated the answering service, for example, a social network, is a big surprise.  ASB Bank of New Zealand.
In the bank's Facebook page, surfers can speak to employees in real time via a private chat.Still possible to request information about bank loans, savings, and learn how to make currency exchange rates for travel.
The bank guarantees confidentiality of conversations and provides care seven days a week from 8 hours to 21 hours. 
One last thing, for those who in the process of starting a website.. think again??

6.8.10

This Body of Death (Lichaam van de Dood): Is that a dead body over there?

This Body of Death (Lichaam van de Dood): Is that a dead body over there?


To promote the book by Elizabeth George, a thriller called This Body of Death (In Dutch Lichaam van de Dood), we came up with this easy to retweet, easy to email and Facebook-friendly approach. We let the readers experience the first part of Elizabeth George's book 'live': the discovery of a dead body on a cemetery. It started out on Twitter and Facebook with messages like ' Is that a dead body over there? Check the live webcam!' And we let curiosity (and social media) do the rest...http://www.stokenewington-london.co.uk/index.html
Advertising Agency: Houdini, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Creative Directors: Boris Peters, Wilbert Leering
Art Directors: Boris Peters, Jonathan van Loon
Copywriter: Wilbert Leering
Production: Area25
Online programming: Kitty van der Gijp
Published: July 2010

4.8.10

"Did the Old Spice campaign really work?"


Old Spice says it's ecstatic with the results, and most independent analysis appears to back them up. Until now, Old Spice agency Wieden + Kennedy has generally stayed out of the effectiveness debate. But now the shop has released a video case history of the campaign, shown below, explaining how it sought to reach women and men simultaneously. 


It's mostly a sizzle reel of the spots, their many imitations and the campaign's impact in pop culture. W+K marshals an array of data points to buttress the it's-a-success side. The agency's video doesn't provide source citations for the facts, so I guess we'll put them in the "assertions" bucket. With that caveat, here are some of the key stats highlighted by the agency:


• Old Spice accounted for 75 percent of conversations in the category in the first three months of 2010.
• Half the conversations came from women.
• The YouTube/Twitter social media response campaign was "the fastest-growing and most popular interactive campaign in history."
• More people watched its videos in 24 hours than those who watched Obama's presidential victory speech. (Which most of us can agree is kinda sad.)
• Total video views reached 40 million in a week.
• Campaign impressions: 1.4 billion.
• Since the campaign launched, Old Spice Bodywash sales are up 27 percent; in the last three months up. 55 percent; and in the last month up 107 percent.



31.7.10

Why you should not pay me 15% media commission !?!?


[MBU] listen before its too late


  • Media planning & buying rising cost. MBU are media incentive driven not brand objectives.
  • MBU's  recommend expenditure in a medium that would best benefit them by ignoring emerging new media. Stands very true when you see the portion of innovative media or special operation in any media plan.
  • To reduce costs on all fronts, cut the additional layer. Buy media directly and have the balls to commit to 12 months investment and get your AVR (4-8%).
  • Use ATL and focus on initiating a dialogue with your users . Something MBU's don’t believe in, they think hammering MASS audience will get brands somewhere... it does not.
  • Lack of ‘value add’ in planning.. get your own media audit and analysis software’s/ links.
  • To me most important is return on investment on each $ spent and why I don’t get an army of journalists as my brand advocators as long I am paying their salaries with my ads.


9.7.10

Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC)| Experiential marketing

It's clear to me now that to develop true brand experience you have to integrate social media.
The formula for brand 3.0 } =Experiential marketing+ Social media marketing.









The Canadian Tourism Commission (CTC) has launched interactive murals to inspire Americans to book a Canadian vacation. These murals have taken over the streets of New York, Chicago and Los Angeles this summer - pulling content from Twitter to display real-time updates from and about Canada.

The digital storescapes celebrate the CTC's comprehensive social media strategy, and follow its 2009 Marketer of the Year award from Marketing Magazine.

The Canadian Tourism Commission can be found on the following social channels:


17.6.10

Gatorade Mission Control



gatorade_command_center.jpgSpeaking at MediaPost Communications' OMMA Social day-long forum, Bonin Bough, director of digital and social media at PepsiCo whom established a "Mission Control Center" for Gatorade that takes the brand's pulse 24/7. The center, which looks very much like a NASA control room, tracks in real time analytics for campaigns, Web sites, or social channels. Bough says the focus is on creating the largest sports brand in the world and one that goes beyond the liquid product.
"The question is," he said, "how do we create this in terms of real time insights?" The center has six monitors and five people across different functions.
Recent such experiments include a Twitter and TV media strategy for the one-off Pepsuber ad during this year's Super Bowl. "We ran in isolation of paid digital media," he said of the effort. "All we did was Twitter and drove nearly the same amount of traffic [as with paid digital]. Just with Twitter. I believe in doing small experiments and rolling them out in a big way."
He noted that the Trop50 program started as a partnership with BlogHer, which has a combined reach of 15 million unique visitors. The company created The Juice online community around a "More of what you want, less of what you don't" theme.
"We tracked versus traditional to see if we could prove that if we co-create something with a community around health, family, and relationships, we could improve brand awareness, equity and volume. When we looked at digital metrics, it was through the roof."
Bough said PepsiCo is going to start a program this year wherein consumers who scan bar codes on PepsiCo products via smartphones will get content about the brand or corporate goodwill programs.


4.6.10

Harley-Davidson |2010 de l'Euro Festival



Challenge / Promote Harley-Davidson Touring models to a pan-European audience



Emphasise features that enhance comfort and operability


Solution / Equip a Harley with a 360-degree video camera and film a trip through France and Italy



Show off the handling and precision aspects of the bike through an epic ride

Relay content to social networks via banners, Facebook and Twitter


Results / Connected to the niche European motorcycle community


www.harley-davidson.fr/touringtestride

25.5.10

Facebook users in MENA outnumber newspaper copy circulation







A new report from Spot On Public Relations has confirmed that there are more subscribers to social media service Facebook in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) than there are copies of newspapers circulated in the region. The report, ‘Middle East and Africa Facebook Demographics’, shows Facebook has over 15 million users in the region, while the total regional Arabic, English and French newspaper circulation stands at just under 14 million copies.
“Facebook and other social media platforms are now beginning to define how people discover and share information, shape opinion and interact. Facebook doesn’t write the news, but the new figures show that Facebook’s reach now rivals that of the news press,” said Carrington Malin, managing director of Spot On Public Relations. “The growth in Arabic language users has been very strong indeed: some 3.5 million Arabic language users began using Facebook during the past year, since the introduction of Arabic support and we can expect millions more Arabic language users to join the platform.”
Five country markets in MENA now account for some 70% of Facebook users; Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with a gender bias towards male users that flies in the face of international figures – only 37% of Facebook users in the Middle East are female compared with 56% in the USA and 52% in the UK. Despite the strong growth in the number of Arabic language users, the report also shows that some 50% of MENA Facebook users select English as their primary language, with 25% selecting French and just 23% Arabic.
Egypt’s 3.5 million Facebook subscribers help to make North Africa the largest Facebook community in MENA accounting for 7.7 million out of a total of 15 million MENA users. 98% of MENA’s French language users are from North Africa. The GCC states today account for some 5 million Facebook users.
The two key markets of the Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been quick to embrace Facebook – some 33% of the UAE’s population uses Facebook and it also now stands as the country’s second most visited website after google.ae (according to websites ranked by Alexa.com). Interestingly, some 68% of Facebook users in the Emirates are over 25 years old, flying in the face of perceptions that social media is a ‘generation Y’ phenomenon. However, much of Facebook’s growth across the rest of the region has been driven by the under twenty-fives. Over 48% of Facebook subscribers in Saudi Arabia are under 25 years old, with an equal split between English and Arabic users. However, about three times the number of Arabic users have joined Facebook in Saudi over the past year, compared with the number of English language users. 67% of Saudis on Facebook are male.
“For users, Facebook is becoming a richer and larger component of their daily lives, but for advertisers and communications professionals it’s starting to look like an essential part of the MENA marketing mix. In this region, if you’re going to go where your customers are going, then the answer’s clearly online,” said Alexander McNabb, director, Spot On PR. “However, the key challenge here is the nature of interactions over platforms like Facebook and other social media tools are totally different to traditional media – and it’s important to get these interactions right.”

Facebook has become a force to be reckoned with in the Middle East and North Africa and the platform can now claim 15 million users as of May 2010. Whilst Facebook saw strong early growth in 2008/2009 from English and French speaking users across the region, Facebook’s decision to add an Arabic interface in March 2009 has opened up access to a whole new demographic of Internet users and added 3.5 million Arabic users over the past year. Egypt and Saudi Arabia’s Facebook communities have seen the strongest growth among Arabic users during the past year with each adding 1.1 million Arabic language interface users. We soon expect the number of Arabic language Facebook users in Saudi to surpass the number of English users.
However, with the strong expectation that the weight of numbers will move from English language users to Arabic language users in a number of key MENA Facebook markets, today’s reality is that just 23% of users across the region use Facebook’s Arabic interface. So, those seeking to make the most of the Facebook platform are advised to keep up-to-date with its changing demographics.
Here are some of the key Facebook statistics covered in this report:
— There are now 15 million Facebook users in the Middle East & North Africa (this figure excludes Iran, Israel, Pakistan and Turkey).
Top MENA Facebook Communities
— MENA’s top five Facebook country markets, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, account for 70% of all users in the region.
— 50% of MENA Facebook users have selected their primary language for using Facebook as English, with 25% preferring French and just 23% Arabic.
— Only 37% of Facebook users in MENA are female (compared with 56% in the USA and 52% in the UK). Only Bahrain and Lebanon Facebook communities approach gender equality with female users accounting for about 44% of total users.
— The GCC has five million Facebook users, which Saudi Arabia and the UAE representing 45% and 31% of that total respectively.
— North Africa has 7.7 million Facebook users, with Egypt accounting for 3.4 million users (or 44% of all North Africa users). Egypt has the largest Facebook community in MENA.
— Francophone countries Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia together account for 3.7 million French speaking Facebook users, equivalent to nearly 25% of all MENA users.
MENA Facebook Users Under The Age of 25 (By Country)
— Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia and Yemen all have Facebook communities with more than 50% of users below the age of 25 years old.
— The UAE has the oldest Facebook community in MENA with 41% of users being over 30 years old, 28% being 25-29 years old and 31% being under 25 years old.
You can find Spot On PR on Facebook here: http://www.facebook.com/spotonpr

Survey Downloads

 

16.5.10

Social Games


Zynga, creator of FarmVille, recently valued at $4 billion dollars had become a legitimate interactive social channel for the masses.

Why Would Your Brand Consider Partnering With A Social Game?

Targeted Audience
As Irfan Kamal pointed out in a 
previous post, what’s intriguing about social gaming is that players are not your stereotypical, male teens in their parents’ basement.  For example, 60% of FarmVille players are women (that’s 48 million female players), and many of them are in the 30-40+ age range.  Whatever your audience, there’s a good chance you can find a game that fits.
High Engagement
Through games, consumers can interact with brands in ways that are informative, rewarding, and fun.  Direct brand engagement can last 20 to 30 minutes - throughout the entire play period - multiple times a week. It’s difficult, if not impossible, for a display ad or social network fan page to offer this level of connection with the consumer.
Unforced Advertising
This depends on the game and campaign, but in-game brand interactions do not have to be invasive.  Games provide the opportunity for brands to explain themselves in a way that’s casual or even helpful to players.
Viral Component
Whether it’s when they first sign up or at various check points, games often ask players to share information with their social network.  Brands can latch on to these viral interactions to increase awareness and drive action.
Micro-payment Success
Social games are usually free to play, but leveling up or progression can take time.  In order for a player to catch up to their friends, players can essentially purchase progress in a variety of forms, spending $1 or $50 dollars at a time.  As consumers open their wallets more often for these micro-payments, they become more comfortable opening up their wallets for games in general - which can only benefit the partnering brands.
Three Ways Your Brand Can Get Started
Lead Generation Through Rewards
A very popular tactic, this type of marketing asks users to engage the brand, such as filling out a survey or registering for membership, in order to receive in-game currency.  Though this seems simple, its results are questioned as consumers may not actually be interested in the product.   Many times advertisers ask consumers to sign up for a free trial, only to see the trial canceled as soon as the game currency is delivered.  I should also point out, if you’ve followed the industry recently, you may have heard about TechCrunch’s articlein which it renamed FarmVille, “Scamville” as brands began tricking players into signing up for paid services without their knowledge, leading to harsh criticism of both the game and brands involved.  If you decide that this quid pro quo lead generation is the route you want to go, I cannot stress enough the importance of transparency.
128672-bing
One way to avoid this sticky situation, is to follow the Microsoft search giant’s lead.  Bing recently placed a rather creative looking display ad which offered players, without ever leaving the game, a chance to earn FarmVille cash for becoming a fan of Bing on Facebook.  The low barrier to entry and minimal commitment paved they way for incredible results.  In one day, Bing’s Facebook fan page increased by 425,000 fans.  Though one might immediately question how committed these fans are to the brand, Microsoft continued engagement through the fan page with posts such as, “Any FarmVille fans out there? Try using Bing to get the most out of your crops and animals,” and linked to helpful search results.  Microsoft reported the first update drew 585 comments in four hours and 20,000 click-throughs.
Sites like GamePoints help consolidate these lead generation offers.  Users log-in to shop at retail partners, redeem coupons, complete online surveys, and engage with brands in a multitude of other ways for virtual currency in more than 1,500 games.  The site has attracted many well-known brands, including Macy’s, Netflix, Disney, Fandango, and iTunes.
Branded In-Game Items/Missions
mafiawars_publicenemiesIf you want to kick things up a notch in terms of creativity, you can insert your brand into an existing game.  Though a common place in console games for decades, sponsored virtual products are now appearing more often in social games, especially with non-profits brands.  Water.org partnered with Zynga and designed a special fish which was purchased by 70,000 FishVille players for their virtual aquariums, raising $13,000 in five days. In addition, site traffic to Water.org increased 10 times during the campaign.
A great for-profit example can be seen in the partnership between the gangster movie Public Enemies and Mafia Wars.  “Public Enemies Week” allowed players to complete special movie-themed missions and unlock “Loot” which included virtual items from the movie.  During the campaign, movie-branded items received 55 million interactions and 7.6 million Facebook Newsfeed posts.  The campaign itself received 25,000 ‘Likes’ and more than 26,000 comments on the Mafia Wars Facebook Fanpage.  There’s a very detailed analysis of this successful campaign from AppsSavvy here.
Build Your Own Game
Now if you have an established fan base and time on your side, building your own game might be something to consider.  When executed correctly, brand engagement is practically limitless as you control all aspects of player interaction.  However, a big drawback can be brand fatigue, as users don’t want to feel like they’re interacting with a commercial.  One of the earliest success stories was Parking Wars, a game built for A&E’s television show of the same name.  A relatively simple concept, players earned virtual money by parking on each others’ streets.  When parking meters ran out of time, players would issue tickets to their friends and this back-and-forth, kept players coming back over and over again. In two months, the game had more than 400,000 players, yielded 250 million page views, and assisted in a successful first season of the show.
The game creation process has been simplified by the emergence of template-based games.  For example,Hive Media’s “Collaborative Content Delivery Platform” allows brands to simply upload videos, images, and text to create a role-playing, location-based, or avatar-based game.  Through this platform, brands are also able to add their own virtual goods and in-game advertising.  Creating your own game offers a vast amount of engagement opportunities and big brands you wouldn’t expect, like the United States Government, are eventesting the waters.

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