360DigitalInfluence

We’ve been watching social media chatter around the “big game” intensify over the past week – especially if you live in Indianapolis. But since Volkswagen first teased its teaser ad with the barking dogs (and garnered over 11 million views along with way), the ad community has slowly followed suit and rolled out their wares.

Consumers that wanted to gain clout (and Klout) passed it along as quickly as possible. But will two weeks of conversation or two minutes of 1.5 million tweets (like those amassed around Tim Tebow’s heroics this season) sway opinion, increase favorability or drive sales? Or are brands just trying to be “part of the conversation”? The answer to both is yes. continue reading

With the new year upon us and 2011 in the rear view mirror, it’s time to pay attention to where social media will go this year. In December, the Ogilvy Digital Influence New York City team hosted its year end 2011 Social Trends Lab. The team predicted 12 trends we think will shape and influence 2012. Is there a prediction you don’t see on this list? Let us know!

And now without further ado, here is the Ogilvy Digital Influence crowdsourced Top 12 in ‘12 list of predictions in social media trends (in no particular order). continue reading

The Google+ Hangout is one of the most notable differences between Google+ and Facebook. Hangouts offer brands an entirely new communication tool and make brands more accessible than ever before. Finding what works best for brands and their audiences is an important part of designing a Hangout session and a handful of brands have already started experimenting with this feature. With a concrete strategy and direction, Hangouts can be leveraged in a variety of fun, interactive and informative ways.

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While the majority of the social media world was getting excited a few weeks ago about the launch of brand pages on Google+ and the timeline feature rolling out on Facebook, last Thursday that other platform of the “Big Three,” aka Twitter, decided it would not be upstaged by the whales in the social ocean. In what’s being seen as a play to fend off Facebook and Google+, Twitter has given itself some new bells and whistles in a major reboot.

Twitter’s revamp comes at a time when they want to prevent their current user base at 100 million from eroding. The reboot consists of a major user experience overhaul of Twitter.com, updates to their mobile application (Twitter has had an explosive increase of 25% in new registrants in 2011 based solely on mobile usage) and an unveiling of two very large new features to help marketers. These include the debut of brand pages and embeddable tweets.

Some of the key takeaways on this revision are the following: continue reading

A few weeks ago, Molli Sullivan told us about some of the ways consumers are gearing up for a very mobile holiday season. But what about brands? Amidst Black Friday, Cyber Monday and the next few weeks of shopping mania, many companies and organizations are doing their best to tie in cause marketing to their holiday deals. Here is a quick overview of how some brands are utilizing digital and social methods to give back this season.

1.) The Salvation Army Bell Ringers Go Mobile: The Salvation Army has evolved its traditional approach to donations this year. While you’ll still see volunteers in red vests and full of holiday cheer around town, some of them will also be equipped with special cell phones that read credit cards for mobile payments. Rather than going completely digital, Salvation Army simply incorporated a digital component of its traditional plans to cater to a changing consumer who often doesn’t carry cash.

2.) Walgreens Swaps Check-Ins for Flu Shots: Walgreens ran a campaign this season to help those in need stay healthy during the winter. For every Foursquare or Facebook Places check-in at a Walgreens, the drug store donated one flu shot voucher for those individuals who would otherwise be unable to afford a flu shot. Walgreens promised to donate up to 200,000 vouchers – valued at more than $6 million – to the American Diabetes Association, AmeriCares, Feeding America, League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Urban League this season.
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On November 23, 1787 James Madison wrote:
“A pure democracy is a society consisting of a small number of citizens, who assemble and administer the government in person.”

When he wrote those words, social media was nowhere on the horizon, nor was the telephone. At that time, getting messages out in a timely manner was much more challenging than it is today… significantly more challenging. The smaller the society, the easier it was to make sure everyone was informed. Today’s technologies make reaching thousands of people in real time no challenge at all.

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I’ve noticed something lately I can only describe as the Personality Paradox (mostly because I’m a big fan of alliteration).

It’s simple:  When it comes to engaging in social media, bigger brands (alliteration! OK, I’ll stop pointing it out.) tend to have smaller personalities.  This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.

In the case of a big brand there are myriad factors that can cause this Paradox.  First off, having a big personality takes a ton of effort and focus.  Add to that regulatory/compliance issues, organizational challenges, multiple marcom agencies, new management and a million other things, big and small.  Or worse, simply losing sight of the customers who got you there in the first place.

The perfect parallel is a rock band.  The unsigned band playing half-filled clubs is going to cherish every fan – no autograph unsigned, no photo request denied, no interview not granted, no Tweet unanswered.  But as that band gains a following and eventually breaks, the demands on their time and attention increase, forcing them to (1) triage inbound requests and (2) start speaking to their fanbase as a whole, rather than as individuals.  Oh, and as their egos inflate, they often quickly forget their most loyal base.

(photo courtesy of Arne Hendriks)
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Here are a few funny, entertaining and inspiring things I collected along the way this past week.  The only common thread is that I’ve seen all these things discussed in numerous places, both online and offline.  What did I miss?

GOOOOAAALLLLLL

If you missed the US Women beat Brazil to advance to the World Cup semi-finals, you missed one of the greatest games I’ve ever seen.  In the final seconds of overtime, Megan Rapinoe landed a ball on the head of Abby Wambach, who finished with authority.  This sent the match into penalty kicks, where the US prevailed (since then, the US has advanced to the finals).  The Internet exploded with excitement, and despite FIFA’s best efforts, it can be found here (the break starts about 5 seconds into where I linked the video).

By the way, this is what you get on YouTube when you search for the official video clip of the goal [insert sad trombone here]:

Kenny Powers - MFCEO Of K-Swiss

Not since Old Spice have I seen a brand receive so much Internet love as K-Swiss did this week.  Eastbound and Down is an HBO show about a has-been professional baseball player called Kenny Powers.  Kenny is pretty much the most despicable character on TV, but in a really funny way.  Anyhow, K-Swiss broke a brilliant campaign this week in which Kenny Powers is named CEO of K-Swiss.  There are a series of great video clips on Funny or Die (NOTE: the language is not for the modest) and a cleaner TV version.  Like it or not, this is a brand doing something big, bold and inescapable.

GIFs GIFs Everywhere

Animated GIFs were all the rage this week, apparently because you can post them to Google+.  GIF Shop seems to be the go-to source for creating them yourself, as I’ve done.  Fascinating, I know.  My apologies for not including a cat, which seems to be pretty standard.

How New Yorkers See The Rest Of The US

Thanks to Ogilvy’s Gavin Becker for this gem.  As a former New Yorker I know there’s a lot of truth to it.  The LA-SF note is my favorite.  Click on it to expand.

We’ve all done it. Some of us often and some only occasionally.

We’ve all been guilty of genericide at some point - or, when a trademark or brand name has become the colloquial or generic description for the product or service, i.e. when someone needs a bandage they ask for a BAND-AID® or they need a tissue but refer to it as a Kleenex®.  Or in the digital age, when people say, “Facebook me!” or “Tweet me!”

Last week the French TV regulatory agency Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA), determined that the French can no longer say the words Facebook or Twitter on television unless they are used in the context of a news story. The result of this is that the audience can no longer be asked to connect or interact via Facebook or Twitter to find out more, post a comment or ask a question.

Another example to consider is that earlier this Spring Twitter requested that one of its most used applications on Blackberry UberTwitter discontinue using the brand name Twitter in their brand name because of trademark infringement and privacy concerns. UberTwitter was quickly renamed to UberSocial and relaunched within days with new positioning that it is a broadened social communication tool.

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I recently attended Facebook’s first studio conference held in New York City in May, 2011. The conference offered an interesting look at Facebook’s culture and how success can be achieved through sharing. Several enthusiastic presenters spoke regarding Facebook’s marketing strategies and the culture for the company.  However, the session that intrigued me the most was “Social by Design” by Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s Vice-President of Global Sales.

Ms. Everson talked about how the capability to share is perhaps the most significant ingredient in making a design successful. She mentioned two particular case studies that resonated with me since I am a gamer and love the World Cup: 1) EA Halo vs. Zynga Farmville and 2) Nike’s 2010 World Cup advertising.

EA Halo is one of the top games for Microsoft’s XBOX and generates millions of dollars in revenue.  In addition, EA spends millions of dollars on creating the best graphics with cutting-edge technology for Halo. On the other hand, Zynga’s Farmville graphics are much simpler. But as Ms. Everson rightly noted, there are far more people playing Farmville than Halo. (Farmville has over 57 million players.)  In fact, Zynga has recently been valued at $8 billion by Bloomberg, which is more than the value of EA. The main reason that Zynga has been able to be so successful is that Farmville was built to share.

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