It is often difficult to sell a product, so imagine trying to sell a whole city! The city of Vienna however, created a great new project to incorporate into their social media channels to increase knowledge about this wonderful city and provide more reasons to why people should visit. They have created the #myperfectday on Wien Info.
Through a dozen interactive videos, where locals show what the perfect day is in Vienna for them, they are able to include consumer generated content into the promotion of the city. By getting filmed locals show who they are and why they love Vienna. It is an insider view of the city, making the message genuine and more believable than any billboard advertisement saying “come to Vienna”. Each video is linked to one another, at some point we see another participant and the video asks you if you would like to switch to this other person’s day. It is quite interactive, each participant is very different, some enjoy outdoor activities more and others more cultural visits. Coffee shops, art galleries, restaurants, museums, parks and a lot of walking around the city, all are shown through those videos. While they are filmed, the locals take the bus or the metro making their experience look like a normal day as a local or a tourist.

Secret tips of the city and interesting spots like rooftops or a hidden view of Vienna are explained by the local. It is not only very well filmed and interactive but also incredibly useful. Vienna Info’s objective is to make everyone who visits their website or Youtube channel an expert of the city. And truly, if one follows their tips and wonderful places they show, I can assure he or she will have a great time in Vienna.

It is often difficult to sell a product, so imagine trying to sell a whole city! The city of Vienna however, created a great new project to incorporate into their social media channels to increase knowledge about this wonderful city and provide more reasons to why people should visit. They have created the #myperfectday on Wien Info.
Through a dozen interactive videos, where locals show what the perfect day is in Vienna for them, they are able to include consumer generated content into the promotion of the city. By getting filmed locals show who they are and why they love Vienna. It is an insider view of the city, making the message genuine and more believable than any billboard advertisement saying “come to Vienna”. Each video is linked to one another, at some point we see another participant and the video asks you if you would like to switch to this other person’s day. It is quite interactive, each participant is very different, some enjoy outdoor activities more and others more cultural visits. Coffee shops, art galleries, restaurants, museums, parks and a lot of walking around the city, all are shown through those videos. While they are filmed, the locals take the bus or the metro making their experience look like a normal day as a local or a tourist.
Secret tips of the city and interesting spots like rooftops or a hidden view of Vienna are explained by the local. It is not only very well filmed and interactive but also incredibly useful. Vienna Info’s objective is to make everyone who visits their website or Youtube channel an expert of the city. And truly, if one follows their tips and wonderful places they show, I can assure he or she will have a great time in Vienna.

– A panoramic view of the Belvedere museum, offered on ViennaInfo.com –

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As we have seen in class, new social media channels have helped companies increase their online presence by focusing on the “Earned and Owned” marketing, spending less money on billboards and printed advertising. Is it not enough to throw money at a project to make it successful: in order for Earned media to fully work it has to become a true word of mouth around a meaningful and engaging subject. However, as there are thousands and thousands of messages out on Twitter and Facebook being generated everyday it becomes harder for one message to stand out. Thunderclap has created a new way of spreading those messages, as long as they are good and wise words. This is where non-profit businesses can benefit from their service, by getting help from such program to intensify their message.

Thunderclap uses your Facebook and Twitter account to create a strong and loud message by posting it at a specific time at a specific date. People will just have to RSVP on a companies’s “event message” by giving Thunderclap the authorization to create a post on their behalf on a certain date. By sending out all their messages at the same time, the campaign will have the chance to stand out. This is called crowd-speaking, and it allows companies to send their message through their fans and actually see it result into something big, unlike most of the time when it simply gets stuck somewhere no one but your close friends will see. Thunderclap helps brands to align their ideas with a good cause without the fear of failure.

A great example was how UNICEF has created a Thunderclap for the International Day of the Girl which addresses the issue that still today millions of girls don’t have the chance to get education. On October 11 UNICEF promoted girl rights and the importance of continuing this fight for gender equality around the globe. With the use of hashtags people could follow the conversation online. It created a sense of community and brought much more awareness than a simple Facebook ad on the right side of your home screen would have. Today, Thunderclap has been used by the White House and celebrities like Beyonce and Lady Gaga to help their good message have a stronger impact and be heard louder. Forbes has said it is the “future of social empowerment”, we will have to see up to where it can go.

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On the @mynewSUB account, the tweets provide students with the latest news on the construction of the new SUB on the UBC campus. Although incredibly inactive, the account is a good idea as it lets students know what is going on with all the noise, steel smells and blocked streets  we have to handle every day. But unfortunately it is not as popular as it could be. The AMS has started a project which calls on every UBC student to participate in the naming of the new SUB. This campaign started in September and everyone is welcome to either write on the ‘Design Cube’ wall or add #namemysub to their tweets or Facebook post.
The Ubyssey is right, students are the largest donors of the new SUB and it is only fair for all of us paying the extra fee in our tuition to participate in the naming of the building. It is a great way for students to feel more apart of the construction and hopefully feel more involved at UBC. Through the use of this campaign on Twitter, Facebook and on the glass walls of the cube, students leave their opinions and share a few thoughts on what could be the next name for the SUB. It is a great opportunity not only to find an awesome name for the new SUB but also for UBC and the AMS to engage and hear what students want.

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Since it launched in 2009, Kickstarter has been funding the ideas of a large amount of artists, engineers, writers and basically anyone with the soul to provide the world with something new. Any project can be placed on their website as long as it includes enough information for potential buyers (or in this case ‘backers’) to understand what it is.The more people are interested in buying the new product, the more they will fund it and ultimately the project will attain its funding goal in order to sell the product. It is a new way of knowing right away if that innovative ‘thing’ you’ve always wanted to create will actually sell. By getting more ‘backers’ which are basically subscribers an incredible idea has much more chance to be successful. And this works through people. Through a large network of flourishing ideas and inspired individuals, they are able to support a variety of activities all online. If the project is not good, then it doesn’t get funded and nothing happens. The feed-back is very quick, it connects the customers and the creators since the beginning of the project. As if when Apple created a new ipod Nano, it had its fans express what they thought about it. It has almost become a non-fail type of entrepreneurship which in the future could push the boundaries of creativity since there is no more pressure to sell the product, and no scare to be left with a huge inventory on  your hands.

The most successful Kickstarter project is The Pebble: a watch that gives you much more than time. It was funded my more than 85,000 people which resulted in 10 million dollars to create the best smart-watch (well until Samsung’s Galaxy Gear). It is a pure example of how the new connection we have online can bring ideas and people together to market and create new products. It gives a chance for everyone to be a part of the start-up project. A huge community was built for a more creative world, and it’s all online.

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