You can read all about it here, It's just like the Facebook Wagner/Xfactor campaign, great examples of the public realising the power now lies with them. It just amazes me how brands just don't get that now aday. It's easier than ever to motivate people to come together, you just need to give them a reason. A blood good one.
I like the Ikea cat commercial from Mother. Personally I think It's a long awaited return to form for them, having got fat and lazy and rested on their laurels for too long.
And then today I got to see this. Okay it's patchy, in part, very funny, but then loses it's way at the end,but hey-ho, let's give credit where credits due.
Anyway I'm really hoping that this is from them as they try and get a Downfall Rant style consumer campaign going. If that is the case then this is probably the best work they've done in years. A really smart approach to consumer generated content. And idea for the Ikea brand
Does anyone know if that is the case, I'd love to know the truth. Although long may it continue
We all know the twitter/habitat screw up by now. But if you don't here's it in a nutshell
Furnishings retailer Habitat has blamed an "overenthusiastic
intern" for its attempt to use the election protests in Iran as a
promotional vehicle.
Yesterday,
Habitat apologised for its promotional messages on Twitter, which also
tried to ride on the back of interest in the launch of the latest Apple
iPhone.
Irrelevant hashtags featured in the messages included '#mousavi', referring to an Iranian presidential candidate, and '#iphone'.
The promotion was designed to sign people up to its database with the chance to win a £1,000 gift card.
According
to a Sky News Habitat's communications team said they had not
authorised the messages, but they have confirmed they were not hacked.
"The
hashtags were uploaded without Habitat's authorisation by an
overenthusiastic intern who did not fully understand the ramifications
of his actions. He is no longer associated with Habitat," a spokesman
said.
Twitter users accused Habitat of spamming and its mistake
was heavily retweeted on the micro blogging service. It was being
touted as a case study example of what marketers should not do on
Twitter.
The offending tweets have since been removed and Habitat promised to "do better for the Twitter community".
Okay, it was a very stupid thing to do by any standards but I don't believe it was the work of "an over enthusiastic intern who did not fully understand the ramifications of his actions", I would have thought the intern is exactly the sort of person who would understand Twitter. So are they pointing the finger at the innocent?
An even if I'm wrong, I still have a problem, if it were a particularly stupid intern, until clients and agencies in this country start to give social media opportunities the respect they deserve then they will continue to make fools of themselves in the future.
I present here, the most popular items sold by online retailer Amazon in the past few weeks. Sales are up 2300%.
Why?
Well apart from the obviously stylish nature of the tee, the great Amazon reviewing public have taken it upon themselves to share their personal opinons. Which range from,
This item has wolves on it which makes it intrinsically sweet and worth
5 stars by itself, but once I tried it on, that's when the magic
happened. After checking to ensure that the shirt would properly cover
my girth, I walked from my trailer to Wal-mart with the shirt on and
was immediately approached by women.
To the less positive,
However, having owned this shirt for three weeks now and having tried
it out in a variety of situations, both formal and informal, I'm
beginning to believe that some of the benefits ---- as described by
other reviewers ---- are exaggerated.
You can read more of the story here on the BBC website. And more of those rave reviews here.
It reminds me of all those great reviews, Jordan and Pete got for their album. Where did it all go wrong for those guys?
Without getting into the politics of it all, I thought the Put People First campaign made an impressive effort at bringing relevance and fun to their site. Obviously they've studied the Obama campaign, twitter feeds, downloadable posters, message boards, links for your site, or blog etc. Some of it works well; the list of radio stations and numbers for people to phone in to on their way traveling down so as to request a shout out and a 'relevant' song (Money, money money - by Abba, that kind of thing). Others not so well, the Obama-izer, where you turn a picture of yourself into the iconic Obama poster, just doesn't really work, more's a pity.
My second nomination for New Product Launch of 2008 is of course, Barack Hussein Obama,
His campaign to the White House could almost be said to be the blue print for today’s communication campaigns and not just in politics.
First, they studied the product, analysed what was authentic about it and then distilled it down into one clear word.
A word that was both a product truth and something that would inspire the consumer.
Change.
He stood for change. That was it, above everything else, the one thing you knew you’d get was change.
They didn’t cloud this with too much detail about policy - that would just defuse the clarity of message. While for those who wanted to know more, it was there to be searched out, but that was your choice.
Instead, they just pushed the truth behind the claim in little nuggets of information.
He was a change from the previous government. He was a change from the usual type of person who became a politician. He looked different. He sounded different. He connected different. And he communicated different.
They embraced new media and online social network. They gave up control for advocacy, trusting his supporters to represent him to their peers in the way they wanted to. Entrusting the brand to them. The result was some extraordinary marketing.
And then there were posters, which were created for the campaign not by the campaign
While to audiences who resisted listened directly to him, they enlisted and empowered those people the resisters would trust, to deliver his message for him.
Nor did they try and clip the wings of his supporters, even when it may not have been exactly what they wanted and instead trusted in the intelligence of the audience.
And they did this because they knew the universal online truth, you must give up control, if you’re to gain greater power.
And so, they fed it. Encouraging people to visit and revisit their homepage for content with regular video update, ringtones and widgets
They facilitated connections through online communities that added a new dimension to what was already out there. Mybarackobama.com, was/is a social network of sorts that allowed people to create blogs around issues, and send in policy recommendations to the man himself.
They assisted in fund-raising activities with ideas and tools. And they encouraged people to fundraise however they wanted to.
They were light of foot. If there was a sudden rise in traffic from certain sites or communities they engaged with them and kept engaging with them with regular updates. By engaging with people wherever they gathered they were able to make maximum impact.
And this is just a fraction of the numerous marketing activities that the campaign spawn.
The result?
He was seen as inclusive leader, embracing everyone into his vision for Change, probably best summed up by slogan, Yes We Can.
And now there is a real belief the world over, that there is a President of the United States of America prepared to listen and lead rather than ignore and dictate.
A welcome change for politics, I’m sure you’ll agree.
Some very smart, very stupid or just plain lazy creatives working on the Chevy account over the water came up with the idea of letting the general public come up with an ad to be played out during the superbowl.
As if it's not tough enough convincing people that being a creative in an ad agency isn't one long lunch and/or coke binge but a very demanding and difficult job that requires considerable skill and talent rarely found in mortal form.
All a bit like Faking It. Can you spot the commercial from someone who until two weeks ago didn't even know ads are in 30sec segments?
So, have we creatives been exposed as charlatans, or can we sleep better tonight safe in the knowledge we have been vindicated? Well you decide.
Following on from my earlier post on Wii and it's build-in viralability, I have been pointed in the direction of this flickr set, by Russell. As, the man says, create something great and the marketing will be done for you.
• It's a conduit, not a bank, so your money will never get stuck (something Paypal seems to do alot)
• It really is one-click shopping.
• It doesn't share your full credit card info with anyone, not even merchants
• If you use it now and you get money off at participating stores
Originally this was called, A snapshot on Camera Usage, but I found myself starting with an apology for the pun, as I really should know better. There is no place in modern society for puns - good, bad or otherwise.
Anyway I found this on flickr. The screen grab doesn't do it justice, as it's just the tip of an iceberg loaded with information on what cameras are being used in their community. I'd be mighty happy if I were Canon.
Personally, I find the whole thing massively impressive for lots of reasons, not least because it's authentic. Consumer-generated (albeit not consumer-authored, but then curating is going to be massively important for brands in the future). And pretty comprehensive - I can visit manufacture's sites and see shots taken with the cameras by flickrites. It also works for Flickr, I love that they've put this together, it makes me feel warmer to them, makes me feel they're passionate about cameras and photography etc.
Next time I'm in the market for a camera, this is going to be part of my purchasing decision. I wonder how long it is before they add a purchase facility?
The first rule of PriceFight is you tell everyone about PriceFight.
Okay, it's in Austin Texas and it's still in beta, but PriceFight is still worth a mention if only for the fact it recognises that price is only part of the purchase process.
It’s a shopping search engine that offers
a metric it calls “Peoples’ Choice” in addition to
displaying which merchants sell an item at the lowest price. Merchants
are rated on the fly based on the number and rating of anonymous
shopper purchases plus other details in a proprietary algorithm.
The company says that “not all prices are equal” and
that merchants also need to be evaluated in regards to customer
service, hidden offers and other less tangible factors. Price Fight CEO
Michael Griffin says the goal is to “pick up on trends like
limited time offers or special rebates that are otherwise hidden on
many price comparison engines.”
After performing a search, shoppers are shown a comparison between
retailers by the two major metrics (lowest price and Peoples’
Choice) and a report card for the store. Report cards show ratings
overall, for delivery speed, customer service and a summary of return,
security, shipping, and tax policies.
The site currently searches over only twelve large merchants and is
focused on consumer electronics, but the company says it aims to expand
its reach quickly. The Peoples’ Choice feature and merchant
ratings have been compiled over the past seven months.
I like the idea here, though it doesn’t seem like it would be
very hard to duplicate. Perhaps the biggest challenge would be to
populate a system meaningfully before you open the doors to the public
so it provides immediate value. Perhaps too the mystery algorithm for
Peoples’ Choice will prove particularly valuable over time. Price
Fight has been well designed and has a good URL. It’s nice to be
able to compare things like shipping and customer service.
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