Jun
8
Cool uses of tech in recent advertising
Filed Under Advertising, Marketing, Mobile, Social Media, Technology | Comments
I wanted to highlight some of the advertising efforts that have gotten attention recently because of their creative use of technology. Video games, bands, major brands, and ad agencies themselves are all coming up with new ways to get attention online while typically leveraging the most popular social networks.
I placed the following examples into 4 categories: Social Media, Mobile, Interactive, and one honorable mention under Augmented Reality. Click on each example to check it out.
Social Media
The Protoype Experience
Prototype is a new game coming out (from Activision) on XBOX 360, PS3, and Windows. Sign in using your Facebook account, wait for it to load, and sit back and enjoy the game preview that’s customized with some of your Facebook data. It’s being described as the coolest use of Facebook Connect so far.
Mixtape
Simply connect using your Twitter account, post the auto-generated message with the #trvsdjam hashtag, and you get to download the new mixtape free of charge. Coldplay also recently released a free live album, but instead of a tweet, they just wanted your email address. What’s important to notice is how quickly good deals (especially free) have begun to spread now. Before it was mainly through forums, email, and instant messages, but now social networks are increasingly becoming the way most people share deals online.
It shouldn’t surprise you that this resulted in tons of links on Twitter and the hashtag #trvsdjam showing up in the trending topics for several hours. This also reminded me of another recent effort when Crank tried to take over your Facebook status. Advertisers have to be careful with this approach. Unless there is enough value in it for the consumer, the backlash against a campaign being considered spam can be brutal with the online crowd.
BooneOakley YouTube Home Page
Although this example is not advertising a product or service, it’s a genius way of an agency being creative with their own online home. Plenty has been said about this already but it’s a must see if you have not come across it yet. This is my new favorite agency website at the moment with a close second being Wexley School for Girls.
Quicksilver’s The Spot
I think they got this idea from the Honda Insight Let It Shine video on Vimeo, but that’s not important. This Quicksilver video got my attention (for long enough) to see that it ends with a skateboard being thrown at the screen. The shattering glass effect then shakes the browser window a few times which I had never seen before. I’ll take a shaking browser window over an auto-maximizing one any day.
Old Navy Supermodelquins
These Old Navy Twitter accounts might have been setup a while ago but I found out about them only after recently attending the Crispin Porter + Bogusky Digital Peepshow here in NY. Instead of just creating a general Old Navy Twitter account to push out deals and news, CP+B decided to take a different approach and created several accounts for the fictional store mannequins that are also featured in the latest TV ads. During the presentation, they mentioned Alex Bogusky does most of the tweeting for these accounts himself which I thought was very interesting 
I’m now following all of them, it’s like a comedic drama that takes place in my Twitter stream.
So lots of creative stuff being done with Twitter and Facebook. I don’t think that will slow down anytime soon since these are the two social networks where people spend the most amount of time right now. The introduction of Facebook Connect and Twitter OAuth has made it possible for digital agencies and brand marketers to create experiences like these instead of just the usual fan page or brand account.
Mobile
Digital iPhone controlled Ads
Although this idea is not something completely new, it’s the first I’ve seen with the iPhone. I don’t think many people will take the time to engage with these ads unless there is something in it for them (coupon, exclusive preview of product, etc). The linked article mentions “digital outdoor” but the ideal location for these types of ads will be indoor shopping malls. CBS has partnered with Westfield Shopping Centers so you should start to see these pop up soon at your local shopping mall.
One example of something similar to this was done as part of a campaign for NikeID in Times Square as Richard Ting, Executive Creative Director at R/GA pointed out to me. It also shouldn’t be long before more events and conferences create these types of setups allow people to play games or interact with live product demos.
Nissan Cube Accessorizer
Nissan created this iPhone app which lets you customize and build your own Nissan Cube. Essentially the same thing you could do online but now on your iPhone. What the app is missing is a way to share your customized Cube with friends or through Facebook once it’s customized. There isn’t even a way to save your car to bring in to a local dealer and order the exact configuration. Unfortunately, no matter how I customized it, I still couldn’t get it to even look somewhat decent. iTunes direct link is here.
Gillette uArt
I wouldn’t consider this a cool app but I wanted to mention it anyway. I downloaded the new Gillette iPhone app uArt because I thought it would be fun to see what I’d look like with different beards. I tried it out and within seconds found the app was a huge disappointment. A decent idea but the execution is terrible.
But I give Gillette credit for the recent How to Shave Your Groin video they put on YouTube that is already approaching close to a million views. Gillette is clearly putting some money toward unconventional marketing methods online and in mobile, but they need to work on the mobile part.
Overall, I had a lot of trouble finding good examples of branded iPhone apps, even with 50,000 in the store now. I do like the fact that more apps are starting to include Facebook/Twitter sharing options. The AP Mobile News app recently added this to their latest release so I can now use Facebook Connect and my Twitter account to share articles in less than 3 seconds.
Interactive
GTI Project
Although this VW site isn’t targeted toward the U.S. market, I still enjoyed this simple game because I am a car enthusiast and I’m always interested in anything VW/Audi related (I currently drive a Honda but have owned a VW & Audi). There is a leaderboard so if you’re competitive, it could suck you in until your time gets better and better.
There are probably a ton of other cool interactive sites that were just released, but this is just one that I recently came across after seeing a link to it on Twitter.
Augmented Reality
USPS Virtual Box Simulator
This was created by AKQA for their client, the United States Postal Service. It’s being described as one of the first practical uses of this technology. The first example using this technology that I came across was GE’s SmartGrid not too long ago which I thought was pretty amazing. I’m looking forward to seeing what else this can be used for like this video I found on YouTube.
Update: I came across a great blog post with 10 more great examples of augmented reality being used in recent campaigns.
Coming Soon
At the Digital Peepshow, Crispin Porter + Bogusky gave attendees a preview of a Facebook app they have been developing for their client Coke Zero. They partnered with the University of Illinois to license face recognition technology to create an app called the Facebook Profiler. The Facebook Profiler will analyze your photos and then find your look-alikes on Facebook (to promote Coke Zero tasting just like regular Coke). Keep an eye out for the app over the next couple of months and expect it to get as much attention as the Whopper Sacrifice app they released not too long ago.
Any other creative campaigns that I missed? Connect with me on Twitter @jsmakr or comment below.
May
3
How Palm is strengthening their mobile brand online
Filed Under Branding, Customer Service, Engagement, Marketing, Mobile, Social Media | Comments
Palm is getting ready to launch what will most likely be their best-selling handheld device ever, the Pre. There have been several attempts from most major handset manufacturers to catch up with the iPhone over the past couple of years but none have really lived up to the hype including the BlackBerry Storm and Google’s G1. Early demos and press of the Pre (which is rumored to launch May/June) have generally been great and there seems to be a lot of people that think it will be a huge success.
What I’d like to summarize as best as I can in this post is what Palm is doing online to engage with potential early adopters and long-time loyal Palm fans (which there are many of). I believe Palm could be considered a Prom King Brand, which advertising consultant Alan Wolk describes as a brand that people don’t mind “conversing” with. I think that alone has simply been the biggest factor in helping Palm successfully grow an online following.
Here are 7 things I noticed they are doing very well:
1. The Official Palm Blog
The blog looks to be managed by Palm’s Director of Online Communications, Jon Zilber and Palm’s PR agency, Edelman. It is updated a couple times a week, just enough to keep people coming back and interested. There are great discussions going on beneath most entries where Palm fans voice their opinions and seek answers to Pre questions (which usually get answered).
In Rohit Bhargava’s latest book, Personality Not Included, he refers to a great example of a Moleskine blog that was started by one passionate Moleskine customer, or what he calls an “accidental spokesperson” (pg. 59). Moleskine didn’t realize it would make sense for them to have a blog until one was started. The blog owner was later hired to officially continue his efforts for the brand. It’s obvious that a blog makes sense for Palm, especially since there are already several “unofficial” blogs out there that are doing very well. This official blog gives them better control over the information and rumors that are released about their own products.
The only thing I would suggest is for Palm to make it easier for visitors to share the content via Digg, Twitter, and Delicious.
2. Facebook Fan Page
The fan page is currently approaching 7,500 fans which is a solid start but still way behind BlackBerry which has 135,000 fans. The newsfeed is regularly updated with links to developing Palm news (even on other sites) and other online media. The Discussion board is very active and is used frequently to have featured Palm employees answer fan questions (where the accompanying blog entry directs you). Comments and Likes are common on most newsfeed items which makes it obvious the fans love the constant updates.
3. @Palm Twitter Profile
The Twitter profile appears to be for many purposes. The profile bio sums it up nicely, “Stay connected with Palm and learn about news, products, tips and tricks, deals and more.” Addressing customer support issues is another way they are using Twitter. What caught my attention was how well they are using their blog, Facebook, and Twitter together to host conversations and spread new content.
When asked about who handles the account, the reply was:
I think that will change after the Pre launches and the account grows along with Twitter.
4. Pre YouTube Channel
No need to go anywhere else, these videos straight from Sprint and Palm offer plenty of in-depth demonstrations of how the Pre will function and improve your mobile life. Apple did something similar for the iPhone but did it directly on Apple.com. Posting the videos on YouTube allows them to spread easily online by allowing people to embed them wherever they want. YouTube videos also tend to rank very high in Google search results.
5. Pre-Launch Pre Buzz
It’s becoming more common to see a brand highlight and try to aggregate all the buzz going on online in one location. Skittles drew a lot of attention to their site recently when they redesigned their homepage to link to Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and Facebook. If you head over to the Pre homepage on Sprint’s website, they are doing something similar but keeping it all on one page. I think this site also aligns nicely with their recent What’s Happening advertising campaign that got a lot of attention.
6. Become a Real Reviewer
The Real Reviewers program is a great way to give back to the online community by creating an opportunity for die hard fans to get their hands on a free Pre for 6 months. This type of transparent focus group can be great if the company really believes they are about to deliver an amazing product. Put it in the hands of some of your brand’s biggest fans and let them do what they do best.
This immediately reminded me of another similar project that was launched recently by Ford called the Fiesta Movement. Ford partnered with Ogilvy to identify 100 “agents” that get their very own Ford Fiesta for 6 months before anyone else in the U.S. These selected agents are already starting to create and share their experiences with the car on Twitter, YouTube, and their blogs. All this new content is being aggregated on the newly created Fiesta Movement website.
Just like Ford carefully chose their agents, Palm is looking for select applicants that are completely wired online (like me!) and heavily rely on their mobile phones for constant connectivity to their social networks. This post called Do Something Small on the Brains on Fire blog reminds marketers that really good things can come from putting a lot of time and effort into working with a small group of loyal customers instead of always trying to reach as many people as possible at once.
7. Notify Me Pre Alerts
SMS/Email alerts are still a great way to reach out to potential customers who are willing to opt-in to your brand and get the first updates about a new product or service. This method of engagement starts online and extends to email, text, or even live phone outreach if it makes sense.
Because Palm is a reputable company that I have known for many years, I trust that they will not use my personal info for any other purpose besides what I signed up for.
Final Thoughts
Palm had a rough couple of years, but with the Pre it certainly looks like they are about to strengthen their position as one of the major players in the smartphone market. Growing their online community and leveraging it to constantly improve upon their products will only help the company overall.
A couple of questions come to mind: How will they react to any negative feedback and press once the Pre is launched and how will they make sure their other products don’t fall off the grid?
Connect with me on Twitter @jsmakr and while you are here, check out 6 ways to provide customer support and feedback online.
Mar
21
Scoble uses Friendfeed to give away $5,500 to people in need
Filed Under Misc, Social Media | Comments
You may have noticed lately the growing number people on social networks who are organizing efforts to raise money for a good cause or to help recently unemployed people find jobs. One recent example was when Robert Scoble decided to give away $4,500 of his own money, which he later increased to $5,500 because of the response. The money was from a video project he did for Cisco (which he says we’ll hear more about soon) and he had no obligation to give it away but that’s what he did.
It started with this message on Friendfeed:
Although this amount of money isn’t enough to significantly change someone life, the post still led to a response of over 1,400 comments. When I saw he was giving it away on Friendfeed, I was interested to get Scoble’s thinking behind this approach so I asked him a few questions:
After you decided to give the money away, was doing it through Friendfeed your first reaction? Why didn’t you just give it to a charity?
I wanted to do something online instead of just giving money to a charity. I think it worked out wonderfully.
Do you think it would have worked if given away through Twitter?
Twitter wouldn’t be usable because I wouldn’t have been able to group replies like this. Also, I like Friendfeed a lot more and it’s more reliable and nicer for conversations.
One of the winners, Margaret, is using the money to help bring an Egyptian girl who suffers from a condition called arthrogryposis multiplex congenita (like her own son) to Philadelphia for the surgeries. The condition affects 1 in 3000 and results in multiple fixed limbs and joint contractures. The $1,750 that she will be getting from Robert Scoble is only a small chunk of the $25,000 needed to cover all the trip’s expenses, but it has certainly gotten her a lot closer. You can find out more and donate money at the Big Life, Big Spirit website or follow @bigspirit on Twitter. I asked her:
Would you have ever thought being a Friendfeed user would have helped you get closer to your fundraising goal?
I have had more luck leveraging Twitter, Facebook and Friendfeed for donations and awareness than my associate has with letter writing. It really was a fluke that I saw the contest. I hadn’t been on FriendFeed in awhile and just logged in. I saw the contest and realized it was ending that day. Any chance I get to promote Dolagy and the AMC community, is worth a shot. I posted the story and honest to god, I was speechless when I saw I won. The kindness of strangers sometimes blows me away. Actually since my son was born, my life has changed so much for the positive. Thanks to FriendFeed, Twitter, etc. I have gotten contacts to help publicize our efforts, look for Luxor-based videographers to capture her living conditions now (no luck yet but still hoping) and dozens of ideas on how to continue our efforts.
I think the social media community is so much tighter and willing to help each other. You would be amazed at the number of emails, tweets and messages I have gotten from people offering to help look over content, call a friend, offer a few dollars. When I started this project back in July I never honestly knew how valuable my online community would become to me. The full story of Jude, Dolagy, Shriners and myself is truly powerful and a strong example how you can be connected to someone you never met.
The other two winners were just as deserving - a student from England who will use the money to help pay for tuition and an art studio that was damaged during a California wildfire.
Her example is solid proof that all charities should now be putting a majority of their fundraising focus on social communities instead of traditional methods. In this example, Friendfeed made it easy to create an open thread that was easy for Scoble to read through and filter later on.
Connect with me on Twitter @jsmakr. Further Reading: Well Wishes $2 You & Neighbors + Neighborhoods.
Mar
17
6 ways to provide customer support and handle feedback online
Filed Under Engagement, Social Media, Web | Comments
Gone are the days when the simple contact form or a lengthy FAQs section enough to provide the level of customer support savvy consumers now expect. And traditional feedback methods like focus groups and phone surveys don’t really make sense for primarily web-based companies.
Thankfully, there are now several online services available that help companies of any size go above and beyond to connect with their customers through social media, create self-help communities, and consult their early adopters for valuable feedback. What’s great about using the web for customer support and feedback is most of the methods mentioned below empower your own customers to help each other. In a recent post from Seth Godin, he states “Self-service customer support outperforms the traditional model because people don’t have to wait in line.” Effective online support will help get rid of those lines, therefore helping decrease operating costs and also increasing the amount of success stories that people will tell their friends about.
Here are just 6 online approaches I have seen companies taking recently, with examples of each in parentheses:
1. UserVoice (Sling Media & Twhirl)
Described as “Customer Feedback 2.0″, UserVoice is essentially an open forum that empowers users to prioritize and vote on product or service improvements they would like to see implemented first. It’s a great way to organize those requests into one location (instead of emails). UserVoice creates a new level of transparency when it comes to developments since any company using the service is now forced to constantly update their users and loyal customers on their progress. The option of embedding a tab onto any site creates a quick way for suggestions to be added to a company’s UserVoice page.
2. Get Satisfaction (Timbuk2 & Zappos)
Similar to UserVoice, Get Satisfaction offers a service that allows for embedding a widget that site visitors can quickly use to submit ideas and feedback. A major benefit of using Get Satisfaction is it creates one central location for questions, suggestions, problems, and testimonials without having to clutter a company’s own site. Employees join in to answer any concerns as soon as possible. Happy customers also love to leave praise on Get Satisfaction so it’s not always bad news when there is new activity.
3. Online Chat (Vimeo)
Online chat is instance and effective when done right but that all depends on the size of the company. Any customer would appreciate not having to deal with any case numbers or a waiting queue. If instant chat is an option, just click on the screen name link, make sure they are online (probably only during normal business hours), then start chatting to get help. Vimeo goes one step further by even putting faces behind the AIM screen names. Ironically, I found that neither Skype or AIM offer instant online help using their own chat clients.
4. Twitter (JetBlue & Comcast)
There is already a ton of discussion on how Twitter is being used by companies such as JetBlue and Comcast for customer service so I won’t get into that. Assuming someone from the company is constantly monitoring Twitter, it can be one of the quickest ways to address concerns online. The most important thing to note here is that negative feedback about a company can spread very quickly, so it’s up to the company to monitor Twitter to turn negative situations into positives.
5. Forums (Apple & Dell)
Forums have been around forever and are still a great, inexpensive way to support a community. The best benefit of an active forum is that your knowledgeable customers will most likely end up resolving other customer issues before your employees even have time to respond. That does not mean you shouldn’t have employees moderating the forums to make sure things are running smoothly.
6. Facebook Fan Page (Virgin America)
There are many ways a facebook page can be used - two of them include addressing customer concerns and soliciting feedback. As a fan page grows, companies should pay closer attention to new discussion board posts and comments left by fans and respond through a private or public messages to any concerns. There are also add-ons like the Reviews app which allows fans to leave reviews of the company on your fan page.
Final Thoughts
Of course many companies use several variations of the above to keep customers happy. There is no right or wrong answer when it comes to evaluating which of these different approaches any one company should take. Do a Google search for ‘online customer service’ and you will find a ton of services promising you to be the best and cheapest solutions. Most of these offerings are complete crap which likely don’t get any love now that there are options like the 6 above.
Am I missing any other methods which you have noticed companies using recently? Why is one way better than another? Connect with me on Twitter @jsmakr.
Mar
4
5 things people like to TwitPic
Filed Under Misc, Social Media | Comments
The image hosting service TwitPic has become one of the most popular 3rd party services for Twitter. Because of its popularity, most of the mobile Twitter apps that are available offer an easy way to upload pictures directly to TwitPic to post along with your text update.
While breaking events and celebrity photos generally get the most views, you can browse through the hundreds of the pictures being uploaded every couple of minutes by typing ‘twitpic’ into Twitter Search. Without any stats, I thought a little about what people are most likely uploading the most to TwitPic and came up with these 5 things (click on them to see the latest Twitter search results or click on image to enlarge).
1. Sunsets
When you get to witness a great sunset, your first reaction is likely to take a picture if you have a camera. For Twitter users, that first reaction is taking a picture, uploading it to TwitPic, then posting it to Twitter. Almost as frequently as sunsets, people are tweeting pictures of rainbows.
2. Dessert
What is it about desserts that makes us want to remember what they looked like before we devour them? Probably because for most of us it’s a rare occasion. Thanks for making everyone else on Twitter jealous but just remember who is going to be feeling better after it’s all gone.
3. Puppies
Puppy pics might be a close tie with cute babies. Either way, Cute Overload should be paying attention.
4. Driving
Probably not the a great idea (especially while holding onto an iced coffee) but people are doing it anyway. Hopefully your next tweet won’t include a TwitPic of your car accident.
5. Drunk Photos
Why only regret drunk dialing or texting one of your friends when now you can reach several people at once through drunk Twittering? I say do whatever you can to share these funny moments with everyone (Twitter can be too serious), just don’t drop your iPhone doing so.
We should also start to see more drunk videos posted through Qik, Seesmic, and 12seconds.tv as more phones come with video recording options. This is only going to continue to get more interesting as Twitter adoption grows and as mobile phones come equipped with higher resolution cameras. I hope TwitPic considers adding a better way to sort and view the best pictures being uploaded.
Any other common or funny trends that you have noticed lately?
Leave a comment below with a link to some other good Twitter search results or TwitPic’s you have come across. Connect with me on Twitter @jsmakr.
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