360DigitalInfluence

Late one night on Twitter last month, a tweet from Jane McGonigal- gaming advocate and researcher extraordinaire-caught my eye. “Only 8 more hours to submit your entry to STAY OVERNIGHT at the New York Public Library & play my new game! http://game.nypl.org” I was intrigued, to say the least. I navigated towards the site and ended up submitting my application to participate in an incredibly unique game and first-of-its-kind event. When I received my acceptance via DM a few weeks later to Find The Future: Write All Night, I was ecstatic.

On Friday May 20^th, 500 nerds, librarians, gamers, history buffs and maybe even a LARPer or two gathered at the New York Public Library to take part in an all night digital scavenger hunt throughout the library’s archives and exhibition halls. This multi-platform, multi-player game designed by McGonigal, served as the launch event for a larger media campaign celebrating the library’s 100 year anniversary.

continue reading

Sin City has long been the ultimate venue for a weekend of “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”. Well it seems as that party might just be over.

The 2011 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas ended Sunday, and in doing so, set several new records. This included the 30,000 international attendees descending on Vegas last week, and the 2,700 technology companies exhibiting – both record numbers according to the organizers, the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA).

However, the trade show also is the first such event to generate such a widespread buzz in social spaces around the world. What made 2011 the year social media hit the tipping point at CES?

continue reading

Every week on Monday our team of digital specialists focused on the healthcare and pharma space share insights about a new topic relating to the industry. It is a focus that we are passionate about within the Digital Influence team and one that we have seen huge growth in over the past several years as more and more pharma brands start to focus or refocus on this area. As much as we love the virtual environment for sharing thoughts and ideas though, it is still no substitute for the power of a face to face discussion.

In the second week of November, we will have one of those chances as a few of our team members (including myself) will be heading to Boston to participate in an event we are VERY excited about. Put on by the folks at eyeforpharma, the eCommunication & Online Marketing Summit will feature presenters from lots of big Pharma brands including Bayer, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Abbott, Genzyme, AstraZeneca and many others. Just as importantly, the event features many people who are thought leaders in the area of applying digital marketing techniques to the world of pharma including my friends Marc Monseau from J&J and Shwen Gwee from Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

My topic will be one that I have been wanting to present for some time but that I have not yet had the opportunity to share at a healthcare-centric audience about “6 Surprising Lessons Pharma Can Learn From Other Industries.” It will be highly applicable, case study focused and hopefully useful for all the attendees of the event. If you work in any healthcare oriented industry - this event is going to be a huge hit and I highly encourage you to try and join us.

To help try and motivate that, I’m pleased to share that the organizing team has provided us with a special registration discount code for friends of Ogilvy and readers of this blog which is good for $500 off of the standard registration price (CODE - “IM”). In addition, they are running a limited time promotion right now where you could also win 10 FREE PASSES to the event for you and your colleagues. Just visit their promotion page for more information on that.  Hope to see you there!

The rise of the internet over the last fifteen years has resulted in remarkable new possibilities for government and citizen engagement. Leaders inside and outside government are using social media tools to realize the principles of participation, collaboration, transparency and efficiency to address the challenges facing our country. This movement, often called Gov 2.0., is explored each year at a two day event I attended called the Gov 2.0 Summit.

Jules Polonetsky, Co-chair and Director of the Future of Privacy Forum, led a session titled “the Future of Privacy” and he shared a particularly interesting point of view on responsible data practices. Throughout the Summit, there was disagreement regarding the use of data; some demanded privacy while others advocated openness and easy distribution. Jules, however, had a more unique perspective: citizens will be more comfortable with their data being shared as long as there is an obvious and relevant purpose that benefits that citizen — what he calls “featurizing data use.”

continue reading

The World Cup, the biggest sporting event in the world, is quickly approaching. Starting June 11^th, 32 teams representing different countries from around the world will compete for the soccer title that has been given every four years since 1930 (with an exception of 1942 and 1946 due to WWII). But 2010 is a particularly special and relevant year. Why, you ask? Because of social media!

Social Media as we know it did not exist during the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Twitter did not launch until July 2006. Facebook didn’t become public until September 2006. YouTube existed but videos looked like this #6 most popular YouTube video of 2006. Now, only 4 years later, Facebook has over 400 million members and more than 50 million tweets are sent each day. These platforms, which were infants during the last World Cup, are now globally available and hugely popular.

continue reading

We are very excited to announce that we are a proud sponsor and participant of an upcoming virtual conference brought to you by our friends at PRWeek next week. With new applications and social media tools emerging every day, staying up to date on the latest trends in social media innovation is critical to our business as PR professionals.

The PRWeek Lab will take place Wednesday, June 2 and Thursday, June 3, 2010 and will provide an online resource for PR professionals on the most recent social media trends, tools, and strategies, thought leadership, and case studies- all without leaving one’s office. The online platform includes live webcast sessions, keynote speakers (such as Jeffrey Hayzlett, CMO of Kodak and Ben Edwards, VP of Digital Strategy and Development, IBM), as well as exhibitor booth environments for follow-up questions, live chats, and material downloads. PRWeek Lab will be a fully interactive experience, with Q&A throughout, as well as polling of all participants on the quality of the content and the future of social media. No other PR event will bring you closer to the action that is driving today’s social media innovation.  Please visit here for additional details.

continue reading

2009, defined by the deep recession, forced consumer brands to do more with much less.  However, this stressful environment drove  marketers to try non-traditional and less expensive channels, fostering the development of some unique engagement programs in social media.  In this series of posts, I’ll revisit a few of the more interesting campaigns from the past year and explain how these programs can guide our 2010 engagement strategies.

continue reading

This past week I had the pleasure of attending a few of the NY400 events in New York City, including the H209 Water Forum. The H209 conference was dedicated to bringing Dutch and American environmental and engineering experts and policy makers together to explore ways to tackle 21st century water-related challenges, and develop solutions for a sustainable future. A mouthful I know – and definitely not the sexiest topic – but I learned some interesting facts on water-management that made me take a second look at the relevancy of the issue and ways to use my DI skills to bring awareness of it online.

continue reading

Please join us at an 8 am - 12 noon “unconference” on Friday, August 21st, in Atlanta - PR Camp Atlanta - organized by Dan Greenfield of Bernaise Source Media.

This event will be a fast-paced interactive learning experience free of panels and Powerpoint.   Learn and exchange ideas about social media relevance to senior executives, new approaches to measurement and effective sharing of knowledge.

We”ll be co-leading a session on measurement.  Here’s the full list of who’s helping guide the sessions:

- James Andrews, Managing Partner, Everywhere
- Melanie Babcock, SVP, Digital Strategy & Services, Manning Selvage & Lee
- Debbie Curtis-Magley, Public Relations Manager, UPS
- Bert Dumars, VP, E-Business & Interactive Marketing, Newell Rubbermaid
- Peter Fasano, Principal/Lead Catalyst, mass+logic
- Carol Flammer, Managing Partner, mRELEVANCE, LLC
- Christopher Jones, Digital Strategist, Ketchum PR
- Irfan Kamal, Vice President, Ogilvy 360 Digital Influence
- Katie Mingo, Senior Marketing Associate, Delta Airlines
- Marilynn Mobley, SVP, Strategic Counsel, Edelman PR
- Shirley Powell, SVP, Corporate Communications, Turner Broadcasting System
- Jenny Schmitt, President and Director of Client Strategy, CloudSpark

Register here.