Archive for category Business
The app that makes travel social
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, Travel on August 16, 2010
In an effort to establish a middle ground between public and personal transportation, recently launched NYC ride-sharing service Weeels is attempting to define that space as “social transit.” The idea is to blend the lower cost and carbon footprint of mass offerings like subways and buses with the door-to-door convenience and speed of taking a livery cab by yourself.
Through a free mobile app, users enter a destination and search for available rides. The service looks for potential matches based on time (windows last up to 20 minutes) and proximity, providing users with a list of options that they can review and select. Weeels then orders a cab to a specified location, providing a walking map, fellow rider’s picture and and cost of the fare. After the ride, users can submit feedback about their experience through the app.
Full story on PSK Conference site
The Social Bicycle System
Posted by Josh Feldberg in Business, Food & Drink, Travel on August 13, 2010
The SoBi Social Bicycle system is a bike sharing service currently in development that will integrate authorization, tracking, and security systems with individual bikes. Because of this, the bikes require no additional infrastructure – resulting in a platform that can be deployed on the city-level at one-third the cost of existing bike-sharing services. SoBi bikes are accessed via text message or mobile app, using a pincode system to lock/unlock the bike and track usage time. Because the hardware incorporates GPS, the mobile application can track data like nearby available bicycles, individual travel habits, fitness metrics, and can calculate the user’s reduced environmental impact.
Prototype bikes are being tested in NYC this fall, and the platform is currently running on the Pepsi Refresh project.
Watch a video explanation below:
Source: PSFK
Social media for Retailers – slideshow
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, How to guides..., Retail on August 12, 2010
John Lewis’ social media strategy pays dividends
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Retail on August 11, 2010
John Lewis is one of Britain’s most iconic stores and last September re-launched its JohnLewis.com/Fashion site to coincide with its autumn fashion lines. The company wanted to come up with a social media plan that would help it become a major player in the UK online fashion market.
London-based communications agency Cohn & Wolfe was brought onboard to help generate awareness for John Lewis’ online offering and help it compete more effectively against established online specialist fashion retailers such asASOS and Net-a-porter. To put it in context, prior to the launch of JohnLewis.com/Fashion, just six per cent of sales of fashion items came via the company’s website.
Cohn & Wolfe’s first challenge was educate the fashion media, online influencers and fashion conscious consumers that it had an attractive online fashion offering. Two key objectives were agreed; to position John Lewis as a major player in the online fashion arena using social media, and to drive traffic to JohnLewis.com/Fashion and increase sales.
Spreading the word
Cohn & Wolfe’s digital team analysed conversations around fashion and identified the key influencers – bloggers, journalists and industry insiders. The team then measured their influence via metrics such as in-bound links, traffic and author background. Cohn & Wolfe also identified a group of ‘mummy bloggers’ who were increasingly influential in providing style advice to an important audience segment; John Lewis’ core customer group of 30-45 year-old women.
The digital team then also determined the digital footprint of key media by measuring their presence on Twitter, blogs, Facebook and Flickr. This gave Cohn & Wolfe multiple entry points and increased opportunities to extend the conversation about John Lewis’ fashion re-launch during the outreach phase, explained Steve Parker, director of digital media at Cohn & Wolfe UK.
Execution
- Cohn & Wolfe created e-vouchers to encourage users to browse the site and purchase items, make style recommendations and share them with their own personal networks
- Influencers were contacted via their preferred medium
- One-to-one interviews were conducted with key influencers and when one in particular – online fashion community Shopstyle.co.uk – began sending significant traffic to JohnLewis.com/Fashion, the team created a unique social media contest specifically for that site.
Bags of coverage
- Cohn & Wolfe estimates that in total the campaign reached more than 1.6 million people and achieved positive coverage from 86 per cent of the digital influencers identified at the outset.
- A 250 per cent increase in positive social media conversations containing the keywords “John Lewis” and “fashion”, exceeding targets.
- The ShopStyle competition resulted in 350 “looks”, the site’s most successful competition to date. 248 tweets and re-tweets were achieved on Twitter, resulting in a potential 132,622 influencers engaged via the microblogging platform.
Most importantly for John Lewis, fashion sales grew by 385 per cent and order value by a fifth (21 per cent)
Full story on NewMediaKnowledge
Social media and the travel industry…what works
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, Travel on August 10, 2010
One sector that is really embracing social media is the travel and leisure industry. And it is an industry well suited to social media and online communities – people share an experience or situation and this provides a reason for them to connect and engage with each other (and with a brand). We have seen some great uses commercially from companies like Marriott and InterContinental and Expedia but social media really works well in the travel and leisure industry when it is used in real time. In the latest FreshNetworks Video, Matt Rhodes describes three areas where this works well:
For customer service – Social media is a great customer service tool – not only does it allow you to connect with and engage customers online, but it also means that when you solve one query you do so publicly for all to see and for all to share. This winter I was skiing in the French Alps this winter when snow back in the UK caused a halt to most of the flights leaving Geneva for London. I knew that Easyjet were using Twitter, but rather than tweet them myself to ask if my flight was going I saw that somebody else already asked the question and I could see the response. Saving me from having to ask the question and Easyjet the hassle of having to respond to the same question multiple times.
For real time experience capture – Social media is quick and easy making it the perfect media for allowing people to express the way they are feeling in the moment, which does not always come through if you are writing a review after the experience has finished.
For real time information sharing – Holidays and stays don’t always got to plan and things change: the weather, the times, the traffic etc and so social media is great for being able to transmit information in real time.
Full story on FreshNetworks
Estee Lauder’s World Pink social media campaign
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, FMCG on August 9, 2010
Measuring the ROI of social media may not yet be an easy way to track sales. But when it comes to word of mouth, social is a great way to see who is talking about and sharing information online.
That’s something beauty brand Estee Lauder learned last year when trying to spread awareness about breast cancer during its World Pink campaign.
Estee Lauder spends a lot of time marketing its products to women, but the company has also invested heavily in cancer research. Senior corporate vice president Evelyn Lauder actually helped develop the pink ribbon that has become a staple of breast cancer awareness and founded the Breast Cancer Research Foundation.
Estee Lauder worked with Attention! PR to create its “World Pink” campaign, which set out to spread awareness and facts about breast cancer worldwide.
Rather than invite editors from top women’s magazines, the company enlisted beauty bloggers for their cause.
According to Marisa Thalberg, VP of global digital marketing at Estee Lauder, this was a “milestone of corporate change.”
The party created a lot of good will. Bloggers tweeted about the event and took pictures of themselves in the space. One blogger took a photo of herself behind Mrs. Lauder’s desk.
According to Dina Fierro, executive director of beauty and fashion at Attention! PR:
“This event gave bloggers real access to the Estee Lauder companies. The advocacy we saw from this event laid the groundwork for the outreach we did later in the campaign, by starting to create early education and advocacy.”
The company used Brickfish to create The World PINK Mosaic, “a virtual tapestry of faces.” Survivors, supporters and those “touched” by cancer uploaded profiles.
Estee Lauder has a wide line of products that donate some proceeds to the The Breast Cancer Research Foundation. But the goal of this campaign was not to move product. It was to see how far a message could travel and how often it could be shared.
According to Fierro:
“To supplement the effort, we tapped into the influencers, telling them “We want you to be the first to upload your story.’”
The company created a viral map to see who was sharing and contributing to the campaign, and saw that it had travelled to unexpected places like the Maldives, Camaroon, Nepal, Slovenia and Pakistan.
Full story on econsultancy
Word of Mouth Association (WOM) UK keeps growing…
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business on August 5, 2010
Jai Kotecha
By Jai Kotecha
WOM (Word of Mouth Association) UK has added a couple of letters to become WOMMA UK , the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.
Of course, it’s about a lot more than that: the change formalises the association’s partnership with US association WOMMA, creating a cross-Atlantic alliance to share word of mouth marketing expertise and help develop and raise the profile of the fast-evolving industry. 
How will this happen? In the latest twist on the Œspecial relationship, WOMMA UK members and their US counterparts will get together to share insights, ideas, research and case studies and exchange speakers and experts for events and conferences. But they’re also looking further afield, investigating how WOM works in different cultures and countries by bringing members into a much wider
international network.
Paul M. Rand, WOMMA UK president and president/CEO of the Zócalo Group said: “For many WOMMA members who may not have much international WOM
exposure, this agreement provides them with resources they may not be
able to access or afford on their own.”
Because WOM is changing and developing so quickly, WOMMA UK wants to come together to present a united stance on ethics, best practice and measurements and they want everyone to become involved. The association¹s new website is under construction, but you can check out what they’re up to by following @WOMMAUK.
Feel free to send them a message if you have any question or ideas.
The Word of Mouth Association UK is the independent trade organisation representing word of mouth marketing in the UK. Our remit covers four areas: education, thought leadership, best practice and ethics, and measurement and metrics.
Hail a London cabbie using Twitter
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, Cars on August 4, 2010
Next time you’re in London and need a cab, you might like to try tweeting @tweetalondoncab for one. Richard Cudlip, Karl James and a small circle of tech-inclined cabbies have spent the last year building up a black cab service on Twitter, and while Cudlip says they don’t handle more jobs than in their street-hailing days, it’s the data the service generates that is the really interesting part.
You can spot a tweetable London cab thanks to the @tweetalondoncab window sticker
There’s now 100 cabbies using tweetalondoncab and nearly 7,000 followers, which means they are nearing a critical mass where the service starts getting really useful with enough cabs to match the number of punters. The drivers are self employed and tweetalondoncab is a voluntary, cooperative project, but the founders want to build it into a business and are looking for funding. They’ve already met Channel 4’s 4ip.
So what’s the real advantage? The account acts as an aggregator for requests, and cabbies can also flag up their location. Interestingly, isn’t too far away from the courier update service idea started Twitter in thefirst place.
“We’re getting more and more bookings, and the quality of bookings is better, with longer trips,” said Cudlip, who says a few minor celebrities use the service because they find a direct message more discreet than flagging down cabs on the street. All the drivers are full licenced black cab drivers with ‘The Knowledge’ – and they now have a tweetalondoncab sticker in the window.
Full story on The Guardian
Dallas restaurant offers free food via social media…and reaches 2million
Posted by Josh Feldberg in Business, Food & Drink on August 1, 2010
Chili’s Grill & Bar claims to be the first national casual dining chain to offer a free item for a check-in via a mobile social network, a tactic designed to drive foot traffic into its restaurants.
At participating locations nationwide for a limited time only, Foursquare subscribers who check in at Chili’s will receive a free order of chips and house-made salsa. Participating locations will be demarcated on Foursquare with a “special offer” flag whenever a guest is within 200 yards of the restaurant.
“Chili’s Grill & Bar wanted to capitalize on the popularity of Foursquare to offer a cutting-edge incentive with our guests,” said Nicole Cochran, director of marketing at Chili’s Grill & Bar, Dallas, TX. “Additionally, our Foursquare offer is a unique way to leverage mobile marketing that is current and relevant.
“We also utilize our bloggers and advocate program to help promote this offer and encourage Foursquare’s 2 million users to take advantage of the deal.”
Chili’s Grill & Bar is the flagship restaurant brand of Dallas-based Brinker International Inc., which specializes in casual dining.
Chili’s has 1,499 locations in 30 countries and two territories.
To unlock Chili’s chips and salsa offer with a coupon for instant redemption, guests check-in on Foursquare at participating Chili’s locations.
Here is a screen grab of the Chili’s offer on Foursquare:
Ms. Cochran said that with more than 2 million users and counting, Foursquare has given Chili’s a simple way to engage its tech-savvy brand fans.
“Additionally, if someone checks-in near a Chili’s location, they will receive the same notification about our offer as those who check-in at the restaurant,” she said. “This is a great way to drive traffic for people who are seeking dining options in the immediate area.”
Full story on Mobile Commerce Daily
Mazda promotes car by putting you being the wheel….on a Facebook game
Posted by Josh Feldberg in All, Business, Cars on July 31, 2010
Mazda’s new Mazda2 is the star of the company’s new Facebook game called DriverVille, a title that has you souping up your car then racing it. It is also, of course, meant to get more people paying attention to the launch of the new Mazda2 model, with an accompanying sweepstakes also running on the Mazda Facebook page.
There’s plenty of built-in advertising, but it doesn’t feel overblown or forced. And it’s actually informative, so it should appeal to casual gamers and those actually hoping to learn a little more about the Mazda2.
The gist is pretty simple — you complete missions to level up, earning Driver Bucks and items along the way that range from a pair of cowboy boots to your very own virtual Mazda2. The Driver Bucks earned can be used to purchase items to accent your Mazda2, your home garage or your DriverVille avatar.
All the activities in the game can be broadcast through your newsfeed to share with friends, and several of the trophies that can be earned in the game center around bringing more people into the game, adding to the viral element.
Once inside the DriverVille universe, you and your friends will be able to move between several locations, including an arcade with interactive games, a movie theater with video clips of Mazda2 advertising, an outlet to use your Driver Bucks to buy items and a Mazda dealership, complete with a brochure rack full of PDFs for all Mazda’s 2011 models
The campaign is being run by the ad agency Doner, which also worked on the Mazda3 launch for Mazda.
Full story on Inside Facebook
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