Tag: social media

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advertising blogs Digital media

Kids in the Haul

Haul videos.  Have you heard of this trend?  Young adults, mostly girls, come home from the mall, lay their loot out and film it for upload to Youtube.  Haul videos.  Ever driven by a pickup in the Prairies and seen the deer horns hanging out the back?  Anthropological, kind of, isn’t it?  Don’t gasp.  We  do it in the car on the way home.  Look in the bag at our new runners or new hoodie and admire our purchase.  Run up to our room and put it on, admiring our new, cooler, redefined self in the mirror.  Filming and posting is an extension of our online existence.  This is a great mix of Gen Y’s faves: shopping and tech.

Is there any value here for consumers or is this just voyeuristic or narcissism run rampant?  Turns out that there is value.  The vloggers (read video bloggers) don’t just film high end loot hauls but talk about bargain basement shopping and deals, pointing consumers to sources and offering tips.  Some of the best haulers have inked sponsorships and advertising deals.  With millions of views, and perceived authenticity from the vlogger by  consumers,  manufacturers want in on this game.  (Endorsements and free merchandise must be disclosed.) Some girls are making big bucks. Is this the next big thing?  Really, whether it is or isn’t, it’s a trend that companies are putting some bucks behind as more consumers tune into this alternative channel of product information.

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Digital media

Visualize your LinkedIn

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LinkedIn, the professional connections tool that many of us use to stay in touch with current and former colleagues has added a cool new add on:  InMap.  Showing a cloud of all of your professional contacts, LinkedIn brings itself from a somewhat linear online networking tool up closer to the ranks of Facebook.  And the map is way cool.

InMap shows a colour coded map of your contacts (colours based on how you know them) and also maps your  relationships to them… and to each other.  I think that’s the interesting part.  You know who you know but it’s interesting to who knows each other and how.  Yeah, I know this was there before but it was a little hard to follow. Now, visual and virtual.  Cool.

So, what does this offer consumers of LinkedIn.  More value?  Yes.  Certainly fodder for cocktail party conversations “Hey, I saw on LinkedIn that you know Brad Pitt.  He’s my sister-in-law’s dog walker’s cousin.” Beyond that, however, having a visual perspective on how big and broad and varied your network is, courtesy of LinkedIn, takes the site more into the realm of social networking.  Kind of more Facebook for professionals.  Sounds useful.

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advertising Digital media

Decade’s Best Digital Ad Campaigns

There will be lots of decade-best lists coming out now (depending on when you think the decade ended!)  There has been a lot written about where advertising is, and isn’t, going in the future.  These campaigns will give you something to think about.  I remember when I started using the Subservient Chicken (Burger King’s out there digital ad) to explain how social marketing campaigns could work, to the tune of 380 million people!  Interestingly, the Subservient Chicken, even though is 6 years old, took top spot.

Here are some of the top campaigns.  We’ve talked about many of these:

1. ‘The Hire’ – BMW’s 2001 series of short films directed & starring well known actors and directors.  This was an internet-only campaign designed to increase brand awareness amongst a younger target market

2. Dove Evolution – of course

3. Uniqlo’s Uniglock – Uniqlo, the cool Japanese apparel company that is taking over N. America, created the Uniqlock using pix of young, Japanese women show the time.  Time to call it a success:  Uniqlock.jp, received 68 million views.

4. IKEA’s Dream Kitchens – this gave users the ability to avoid the crazy lineups and explore 3D kitchens.  Missed the $1.99 breakfast though.

5. Livestrong’s Chalkbot – this robot wrote chalk messages, as directed by users, along the 2010 Tour de France route

For your entertainment, I’ve put The Chicken back up.  Click on the picture to get the link.  Just remember, there’s a limit to what he’ll do.

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viral marketing

(RED) or Dead

Had a great discussion yesterday about the launch of product (RED), forcing us to think back to 4 years ago when this brand and business/charitable model were a whole new concept for raising money for a cause.  Look what showed up today:  YouTube Preview Image

In this campaign, to support World AIDS Day on Dec. 1, digitally savvy celebs have stopped posting on Facebook and Tweeting until $1,000,000 is raised.  The campaign, called Digital Death, encourages consumers to buy back these celebs digital lives by texting to Buylife.org.  There was so much traffic that the website went down.

There were many other prongs to the campaign too:  (RED) products are available year round from Nike, GAP, Starbucks and Armani.

Starbucks has an exceptionally cool advent calendar (okay, who doesn’t love those), with a World AIDS Day contribution of $.05 for every view of a new Killers video.  Great.  Innovative.

Frequent use.  Small, regular payments.  All of the things that we talked about that (RED) was trying to do following the initial launch of the campaign:  keep you coming back.  Keep up that Customer Lifetime Value.

Today’s the day:  World AIDS Day.  Get yourself to a Starbucks today.  5 cents from every drink goes to fight AIDS in Africa.

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viral marketing

Elf Yourself: Still funny 5 years later

Elf Yourself http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/ by Officemax is into its 6th year.  378 million people in 50 countries, still get a kick (groan), like me, of seeing themsELVES and their kids dance around in an elf suit.  My girls and I have been spinning and poppin’ and lockin’ for a couple of hours now and I still think it’s funny.  I think it’s awesome marketing on Officemax’s part too.  It’s not a store I frequent but they’ve managed to get some bucks from me because of this.  What started out as a viral marketing campaign has been turned into something that generates direct revenue for Officemax.  You can buy yoursELF a mousepad, video, coffee mug…everything that your Mum would want.  As seems to be de rigeur now, they’ve also added a Facebook game: Elfmas Town. What’s cool about the way Officemax does this is that they keep it fresh every year by adding on a few new extras and then they take it away until next year, kind of like Cadbury Easter Creme Eggs. We’re sick of it by the middle of December but delighted again when we see oursELVES the following year. They’ve also figured out how to generate direct revenue from what started out as a neat branding idea.

Hey, I’m bustin’ a move.  Bet you’re thinking about it now too.

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advertising

Old Macdonald Has a Farm

Macdonald’s, one of the most valuable brands in the world, recently joined with Farmville (owned by Zynga) on Facebook for a round of in-game advertising. Mickey D’s now has his own farm, the MacFarm, and visitors who helped grow tomatoes or mustard seeds were rewarded with a Consumable.

The exposure on Farmville for Macdonald’s is huge. While Macdonald’s serves 26 million customers in the US per day, Farmville has 215 million users per month. This is a good example of an in-game branding partnership. Macdonald’s (and Zynga) correctly recognize the target audience for Farmville and saw that the possible branding and sales benefits brought about by the exposure to Macdonald’s during gameplay could be huge.

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