campaigns
Brands and agencies wish you a Merry Christmas (and so do I:)
Dec 24th
At the end of every year brands and agencies wish us happy holidays. As at the end of last year, the BannerBlog published a list of christmas greetings. Here are some of them:
And my personal favorite:
I hope you enjoyed these : ) And i really hope that all of you have a great Christmas and New Year. I wish all of your dreams come true in 2010!
The Social Media Addicts Association :)
Nov 18th
If you happen to be a social media addict, this is for you. Check out the Social Media Addicts Association (SMAA) website, a funny, but yet artificial community that Sony invented to promote the Sony Vaio Mini W-series. Very well thought and unique, we find a series of videos parodying the compulsive and excessive use of Twitter and Facebook. To cure the addiction these poor little souls have a serious five-year plan!
- Admit you have a problem, dont tweet it!
- Accept to not validate or comment on a status to feel that you exist.
- Understand that poking a stranger is dangerous.
Repeat: “Alchohol and Twitter do not mix well.” : )
Remove one friend a day.
In the same manner, the website also offers its help to cure your addiction by watching video testimonials and confessions by other addicts. And even better, to share your struggle, they even have a web store selling SMAA t-shirts.
If the addict has still not recovered, after having covered all that is needed, then they can continue their addiction using the new Sony Vaio Mini W-series! This is quite an aggressive advertising message, but it worked for Sony. Sony highlights with a great deal of humor the place of social media in our lives and the risk of addiction that can be caused by excessive use. The campaign is nothing too original for a giant technology company such as Sony, but it is creating buzz by mocking the excessive praise social media gets. At the same time, Sony mock the cold seriousness of the social media critics with its Social Media Addicts Association.
10 tips to increase your Twitter followers
Oct 20th
Kevin Rose, a founder of Digg, co-founder of Revision 3 and Pownce, as well as investor in Twitter, has just published his tips to getting more followers on Twitter. With over 1,167,000 followers he is the most followed user of Twitter after Barack Obama.
So here are his tips:
1. Explain your followers what retweeting is and encourage them to retweet your links.
This will promote your username not only in Twitter, but all across social networks. Further, you can follow your retweets using the Retweetist software.
2. Fill out your Bio (adequately).
This will allow people that you do not know to learn a little about you. This field is also published on the “suggested users” Twitter page. A blank or inadequate bio will eventually discourage people from following you.
3. Post links to your Twitter profile EVERYWHERE!
Post links to your Twitter profile on Digg, LinkedIn, Facebook, in your blog, in your email signature and all your other online profiles. You can also use TwitterCounter widget for your blog. It is much like the FeedBurner counter.
4. Tweet about your passions in life and #hashtag them.
The use of #hashtags helps users to find content and thus people with similar interests more easily. If people like your content they will follow you.
5. Bring your Twitter account into the real world.
Push your Twitter profile in your presentations, podcasts, business cards…
6. Take pictures.
Photos are easily shared on Twitter. Those of the US Airways flights that landed in the Hudson were viewed over 350,000 times. Also use iPhone apps such as Tweetie or Twitterific for photos taken on your mobile.
7. Start a contest.
@jasoncalacanis promised to offer a Macbook Air if he became the most followed person on Twitter. He did not succeed in becoming number 1, but this strategy allowed him to gain several thousand of followers.
8. Follow the top Twitter users and watch what they tweet about.
Notice how they address their audience and what kind of content they tweet about. But never copy them!
9. Get involved in #hashtag chats.
On search.twitter.com you will find a list of the hottest current Twitter topics. Join the conversation and use the #hashtags in your tweets.
10. Monitor your results (of course)
The TwitterCounter tool allows you to know how many new followers you acquire every day. Quitter notifies you if someone unfollows you after and after which of your tweets.
You need to realize, though, that increase in number of followers is not a goal in itself. There are many tools, which i really do not approve of, that will generate you thousands of followers quickly, but it is actually better to have 100 followers only that are actually interested in what you tweet, than to have thousands of followers that do not even read your tweets. However, integrated in a larger strategy, the tips recommended by Kevin Rose can be really useful. Please, do not hesitate to comment about your own thoughts and experience on this subject.
Etsy – the 2.0 purchasing experience – a helping hand to craftsmen online
Oct 15th
In the previous post i told you about the idea to make your competitors irrelevant and to not compete! This idea is also know as Blue Ocean marketing strategy. I’ll post about it in details soon, but here is a good example of what i meant by sharing this idea with you.
Everybody knows Ebay. Few are the people, however, who are aware of the existence of a totally different e-commerce platform – Etsy. These two platforms offer consumers two completely different models of online purchasing. While Ebay is known to be the 2.0 leader for years, Etsy is progressively establishing itself as an e-commerce model in total rupture with Ebay’s.
Etsy is all about hand crafted goods. In a world entirely dominated by mass and serially produced goods, Etsy is a helping hand towards craftsmen. Thus this platform can be supported by a community of 300,000 members and 26,000 sellers! Impressive, isn’t it? Web buyers, of course, recognize the richness of function and symbolism superior to that of Ebay.
The reasons for the success of Etsy are found when looking into the platform’s user experience on which it is positioned – selling crafted goods. Also Etsy offers very original search interface, organized by colour, time and connections. There is a huge editorial effort brought by a very doog blog and Editor’s Pick – interviews of craftsmen and artists.
Currently Etsy is the only sales platform that offers such a purchasing experience, thanks to the method that gives a predominant place to a more individualized communication between buyers and sellers. This proximity differs greatly from the secured “fortress: of Ebay and lets buyers and sellers develop a more personal relationship.
Numerous are the distinctions from Ebay and are more than enough to affirm Etsy’s quality and to affirm its true value against Ebay. Etsy’s members have a feeling of belonging to a community, to a different and more authentic econimic system. Lastly, Etsy launched the Handmade Movement video contest where members could express what Etsy means to them.
Microsoft’s unsuccessful attempt with viral video
Sep 29th
As you have probably noticed i fail to regularly update my blog lately. I apologize for this and i hope that soon i will be able to make it up. But this morning i ran across Microsoft’s attempt to promote Windows 7 with viral video and it made totally made me laugh at them. Then i decided that i should not miss to blog about this and spread the world for their absolutely inadequate video…
So let’s share it… Before celebrating the official launch of Windows 7 in New York, Microsoft go for viral marketing… yet again, yet again unsuccessfully. The brand is trying to recruit fans to organize parties at their houses and celebrate the new operating system. Apart from this, Microsoft’s tactics takes on the aspect of selling from home by inciting users to post their videos across social networks.
Check it out:
Microsoft have not commented on the video yet, but did share that the people’s response to it was “amazing”… I am not going to believe this, however, as people’s comments all over the internet are really far from positive and enthusiastic. Maybe it does not sound so bad as you read this, but watch the video – a totally aggressive and arrogant approach towards people!
Hey… and what’s with that Vaio in the video?! I am hating Vaio and Microsoft together, because latest Vaio’s can not work with OS’s different from Vista… Why? Because Microsoft never bothered to develop software drivers supporting Vaio’s hardware for OS’s different from Vista. So… you buy Vaio and are doomed for life with Vista… How shitty is that?
And hey… does this video suggest that future Vaio’s will doom us to only be able to install Windows 7?
Ahem… enough about Vaio, you got the idea…
Leaving emotions beside, as a marketer my conclusion is the following: technology expert does not by all means equate to viral expert!
The Profiler – Enter the Web2.0 Matrix :)
Sep 7th
Here is an interesting campaign that i came across earlier today. It is developed by Famous Brussels for the Belgian Internet and telephone operator Belgacom. The Profiler offers you a superb user experience with a 3d interface that lets you interact with the data of your Facebook, Youtube and Flickr accounts.
With a stunning navigation, The Profiler, offers a never-ending data flow from your profiles, unless you disable some of the profiler tabs.
Without a doubt The Profiler is a remarkable technical achievement, and by communicating so much on social networks Belgacom taps right into the social marketing trend, but yet – not without a risk! Has anybody asked the question what happens to less experienced clients whose Internet use is more 1.0 rather than 2.0?
Yahoo! Know Your Mojo
Aug 28th
I was on a vacation and have not updated the blog in a while, but now i am back and am getting more and more material to post about. So stay tuned, a lot is coming up. And i am also going to reply everybody’s emails later today : )
Few days ago i discovered Yahoo! Know Your Mojo – a site launched by the Yahoo! portal, claiming to know who you are on Twitter.
The twist is very simple, the user has to enter their Twitter username and then in turn is analyzed by being compared to the 16 possible user profiles.
According to online testimonials, however, the site does not do what it promises to, as you sometimes do not get the same mojo if you try it several times with one username.
No matter the effectiveness of the site, it still represents a victory for the hegemony of Twitter and its ability to generate buzz. There is an obvious proof for that: the US Internet leader uses Twitter to promote their new homepage.