Diesel make a real life Facebook theme park
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, Retail, apparel on July 26, 2010
Last year Diesel kicked of the Be Stupid campaign. With this campaign, they creating a hook for creativity in controversial advertisement. Diesel Germany took this opportunity to create a highly remarkable offline event: Facepark.
What would happen if you took all the possible interactions of a highly successful platform such as Facebook into the real world? Continue reading for the video and insights.
Personally, I love the idea of the “Be Stupid” campaign. Its a intelligent move to turn a jeans brand into a philosophy that can be adapted by a large group among the target population. With great copy such as: “Smart sees what there is. Stupid sees what there could be.” and “Smart listens to the head. Stupid listens to the heart.“, Diesel engages their target audience to bond with their emotional side, instead of their rational.
Back to the Facepark campaign. The idea of Facepark is really simple: Take a big cardboard and cut out a piece. Head over to the park and start using the familiar Facebook gestures and interactions with friends and random strangers.
The philosophy of the day was based upon the fact that the park is much more fun then the internet. “Instead of wasting our lives in front of our computers, we chose to waste our lives in the park“, Diesel stated. Digital is smart. Analog is stupid. Be stupid. Check out the video:
Personally I think its a nice move from Diesel. Making remarkable stories has been one of the key factors for great campaings of Diesel over the last few years. Remember the Heidis campaign?
However, telling your audience to screw digital and become a fan of analog while driving the traffic towards the offline event through social (and asking to become a fan of the Facebook page for example) is a nice paradox. I guess digital isn’t so stupid after all.
20 Social media case studies from food & drink brands
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All on July 20, 2010
In no particular order, here are 20 ways in which food & drink brands have benefitted from social media in the past year (more ore less):
- Moving food cart uses twitter to update location – and gains hundreds of fans
- Consumers use social media to bring about return of chocolate brand
- New drink gets it’s name from fans on Facebook
- How the BK Whopper made people become unsociable
- Starbucks social behavior
- Pepsi use social media to do good…and of course market themselves
- Marmite launches Facebook campaign to test new cereal bars
- Dunkin Donuts Tracking Twitter In Effort To Turn Tweets Into Sales
- Heineken, football, video and social media – the best marketing campaign since….?
- Video: Dr Pepper April Fools Chatroulette video hits the web
- How Unilever used social media to launch extra strong Marmite
- Red Bull Launch F1 Community
- Coca Cola’s approach to social media – slideshow
- The tweeting oven – BakerTweet
- The final of Dunkin Donuts’ ‘Next Donut’ created by fans initiative
- Dr. Pepper’s nice new Facebook strategy: Let us handle your status updates, what’s the worst that can happen?
- How a BBQ business becomes viral
- Using Foursquare to Drive Sales at a Restaurant
- New York to get a social media burger chain
- Doubling Sales of Organic Tea Via Social Media
If you have any other social media cases studies (from food and drink brands or otherwise) please get in contact and we’ll put them up on Sociable.net
How Intel Connects With Consumers Using Social Media – Video
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, Tech on July 20, 2010
In this video I interview Michael Brito, a former social media manager at Intel (he is now a VP at Edelman Digital), shares how Intel uses Twitter and video to connect with consumers.
You’ll learn Michael’s unique technique of leveraging his personal and company Twitter accounts.
Adobe’s ‘Real or Fake?’ photo social media campaign
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, Media on July 19, 2010
Adobe, the proud maker of popular software titles such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat and Flash, worked with interactive advertising agency Traction to create a social media engagement initiative.
Adobe wanted to increase awareness of its discounts for college students. It thought hard and long about the best strategy to do so, taking into consideration the characteristics of its target audience while tailoring an effective, customized method to reach them.
The challenge was clear: Increase awareness among college students for the launch of Adobe Student Editions in North America; we wanted students to know that they can purchase Adobe products at a steep discount for students (up to 80% off the full retail price).
Accordingly, Adobe created a game on Facebook challenging users to spot doctored photos. The core of the campaign was asking fans of the Adobe Students page whether they thought a series of images were “Real or Fake?”
The game lasted for 4 weeks, with 5 photos being posted each week. If a photo had been edited with Photoshop, a tutorial showed how that was done. And, at the end of the game, users were presented with information about Adobe Student Editions and there were 3 primary call-to-actions: 1) “Buy Now”, 2) “Play Again” and 3) “Share” the game with others.
Full story on ThoughtPick
Interactive Twitter-Based Murals used to promote Canada
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All on July 18, 2010
What could be more real then the voice of the crowd, discovering your country at this very moment? That should have been the exact thoughts of the marketing agency of the Canadian Tourism Commission. To capture the thoughts and expression of foreign country visitors, they used Twitter and placed the tweets on large interactive murals in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago for promotion. check out this video to see the murals in action.
Live case study (3): Using social media ‘To make London A Better Place’
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Local Government on July 7, 2010
Sharmila Subramanian
In the third of a series of guest posts Sharmila Subramanian from Face, the co-creation and planning agency, updates us on the latest ideas being generated from the ‘Co-Create London’ to improve the lives of people in London.
A lot can happen in five months. Five months ago Cocreate London was set up as a way of gathering ideas from Londoners on how to make this fair city a better place. Over the course of that time, we’ve received hundreds of brilliant ideas. We’ve also seen England spectacularly fail in the World Cup yet again. We’ve also pinned all of our naïve British hopes on Andy Murray winning Wimbledon. We’ve also seen a mini-heatwave that has now evoked that typically British reaction: “it’s far too hot – when will it rain?”.
Most importantly, we also have a new government. Moreover, this is a government who are dealing with the fallout from a severe recession, which will have a big impact on the lives of many Londoners for years to come. It’s often easy to think of London as a wealthy city. For all the expensive shops and moneyed people about, there are also many people who get by on not very much at all. With the unemployed figure rising, and big cuts on the horizon, that number could get bigger very quickly.
A criticism often leveled at people in London is that they are selfish, and rarely think about others. However, the number of ideas that focus on helping those who need a helping hand on Cocreate London would challenge that assumption. It is these ideas I want to showcase, as they highlight the more altruistic, and caring nature of the people who live in this great city.
1) Free or subsidised travel for the unemployed so they can find work
A simple idea, but a resonant one, going by the number of people who voted for this. Whilst Boris might have something to say about the cost, it can’t be denied that funded travel would be a boon to those seeking work.
2) Ensure new buildings have a provision for the homeless
It might not be as sexy as immersive flip book tube tunnels, but it’s hard to ignore the plight of the homeless in a city with so much empty housing. Wouldn’t it be great to ensure more new buildings could provide some provision for the homeless within the city?
3) Create short term rent shop spaces for budding entrepreneurs
Business rents in London are high, and this can often be an impediment to people trying to get a business off the ground. Levels of entrepreneurship always rise in a recession, so wouldn’t it be great to help out new businesses by giving them shop spaces they can rent by the week, in order to test their goods on shoppers without making a long term commitment?
This is just a small snapshot of some of the brilliant ideas on Cocreate London that put paid to the myth of the selfish Londoner. This is also only one of the many resonant themes that a process such as crowd sourcing can identify. We look forward to showcasing more of these themes in future posts.
Doubling Sales of Organic Tea Via Social Media
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, Food & Drink on June 29, 2010
After Steaz, a brand of organic teas, got shelf space at 1500 Target stores, it wanted to generate nation-wide awareness and drive sales at Target to show the retailer what a great choice it had made. The only problems were a small marketing budget and the fact that its products were virtually unknown in all the new Target stores nationwide.
The company turned to Chemistry for help and the agency decided to rely upon social media to have an immediate impact at low cost. So it began a campaign that relied on:
- Internet coupons: Many family shoppers use social networks to share “deals.
- Social media marketing: Listening tools such as SocialMention.com and Viralheat, as well as Facebook and Twitter.
- Twitter party: on the subject of how and why to select organic and natural foods when at the grocery store. The event generated 2,830 tweets in a one-hour period.
- Pay Per Click search: That drove roughly 20,000 site visits.
- Facebook Ads
- Blogging:
- Email: To all 68,000 in the company’s opt-in list.
Actual results were 250,000 coupon downloads (with a 20+ percent redemption rate), 6,000 blog and social network mentions, and more than 3,000 new fans/followers. Steaz’s December sales were double its previous best month ever. And Steaz shelves in Target stores nationwide were emptied.
Full article on Social Media at Work
Seph Brown
Mixing up social media, the World Cup and Little Britain: Nationwide case study
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, Financial services on June 23, 2010
Frank PR have created a funny little online campaign for their client Nationwide to get Little Britain’s Andy, star of recent ads (see below) featuring Fabio and the England squad, named an honorary member of the England Squad. Probably not a moment too soon! Anyone who votes gets a chance to win a signed England shirt. It’s simple, aims to be fun and is a bold thing for the official England sponsor to do.
Doing something different
This is a good example of taking ad creative and creating another, incentivised way for target consumers to interact with the concepts involved – reinforcing them in the process.
The whole Little Britain based ad campaign emphasises the fact that Nationwide prides itself on being ‘different’, given that it is pretty much the only major shareholder free bank left in the UK. Andy (and indeed all the little Britain characters) certainly is ‘different’ – as is the decision for a financial institution (a sector not known for taking chance) to use such funny, eccentric characters. The ads and now the supporting Andy for England campaign bring these concepts together.
Playing the Patriotic Card
It can be tough being an England supporter at the best of times, but the team really is a national enterprise and Nationwide clearly wants to make the most of the association. The new ad campaign and supporting social media activity emphasise this through their populist, patriotic approach that celebrates English eccentricity. This could be just the start of a wider campaign, because these characters and the England sponsorship is a large toy box to work from digitally and could attract consumers to other social media channels as and when they develop.
Leveraging social channels
As would be expected these days, Andy for England is well integrated with social media channels, which have been the primary way for punters to hear about the site in an otherwise World Cup saturated media landscape. It has been built with Facebook Connect as a voting and verification mechanism and encourages consumers who vote to Tweet about it. Hopefully it’s not too late for Fabio to hear about this!
The bank that’s leading the way in social media: Wells Fargo case study
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, Financial services on June 22, 2010
Wells Fargo has made a bold strategic marketing move, and is capturing audience and engaging them online, where they enjoy being part of the community.
Online Marketing for Banks
WAY, way back – in the social media world – March 2006, Wells Fargo & Co. launched its first corporate blog.
Today, with hundreds of employees using blogs to brainstorm with each other and interact with customers, they’re LISTENING to their audience, and their blogs are the most-read non-banking pages on their website. And that’s ground-breaking significant, because Wells Fargo is the No. 4 U.S. bank (as measured by assets). Wells Fargo now also has the nation’s largest retail brokerage operations, as well as its largest branch network, with more than 6,600 offices in 39 states and Washington, D.C.
Wells Fargo’s blog site proclaims:
“Every day more and more of you are using social media to connect, communicate and learn, and we’re here with you to help. What else would you like to see? And how can we do more? Let us know.”
Launch of a Virtual World
They’ve even gone much further, boldly launching Stagecoach Island, an online virtual world where you can explore the island and its hidden secrets, connect with friends and make new ones, and at the same time learn smart money management.
Targeting the hard-to-capture Gen X and Gen Y audience, Wells Fargo brilliantly created this free gaming platform to grab the attention of this coveted market and gain their loyalty by offering a fun online attraction marketing tool to engage them and keep them coming back.
How Stagecoach Island Works
After you register on Stagecoach Island, you can create your own in-world character and explore the virtual world. You can chat with other cool islanders and take part in activities.
Learn Money Management
The idea is creative and fun, but also a very important learning experience in managing money. You can earn virtual money by visiting the Learning Lounge — a virtual Wells Fargo ATM — and answering questions about money management. With the introduction of the building functionality, you can now use what you earn to buy land and start building your dream home. Each new member is given 5000 “shells” — just enough to start a mortgage.
Now that the Gen X and Gen Y audience is playing on Stagecoach Island, guess where they’ll do their banking?
The bank has also branched out to Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
Full story on iBrand Masters
New York to get a social media burger chain
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, Food & Drink on June 16, 2010
Restaurants are increasingly using social media as a marketing tool, but a New York City burger chain launching next month is redefining the strategy.
4food, which on July 6 is to open its first of 11 planned locations, will allow customers to use iPads to place orders.
Customers also have the option of naming and branding their creation, and posting it on Facebook or Twitter. When ordering from home, they can create commercials on YouTube.
The branded burgers and commercials are then featured on a 240-square-foot media wall at the restaurant that also streams from Foursquare, a social-networking site where users can check in at restaurants and other locations. Every time someone buys one of the concoctions, the creator receives a 25-cent credit through their account.
The unusual self-marketing isn’t the only defining difference of the restaurant, whose first location is at 40th Street and Madison Avenue.
The burgers have holes in the middle, which can be filled with one of 100 rotating garnishes, from macaroni and cheese to sushi rolls. The hole portions of the burgers are also served on skewers for those seeking a carbohydrate-free dining experience.
Five additional locations in Manhattan have been identified, in addition to one each in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Queens. The chain’s arrival in New York City was first reported last month by Eater, a website that covers the restaurant industry.
The owners are in the process of hiring 60 people. They said about half the applicants at job fairs found out about 4food through social media websites.
Full article on WSJ
