♔ SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V28.0]

LEVIS 'Rear View Girls' in Los Angeles - What better way to profile Jeans then to use a hidden ass-cam (by GoPro) to catch people checking your butt out. So busted.

Leadership, opinion and ideas from the brightest minds in our industry (SoDA - Society of Digital Agencies Blog) 

In honor of upcoming Mardi Gras celebrations, Southern Comfort is inviting fans to check in at the French Quarter on Foursquare for a chance to win a trip to next year's Mardi Gras. - The New York Times 

Brian Solis (Keynote speaker at recent Social Media Masters Conference) on connecting brands and consumers today.

Dogfish Head Brewery discusses how they were able to turn the American Red Cross's accidental tweet into a marketing success for both companies. - CNNMoney 

Toronto graffiti documented via Google Street Art View. Imagine the Google Art Project – but just showcasing Graffiti from around the world. In this case the T-dot. Holla 

Tasti D-Lite shares how they are finding their unique target audience online and connecting with them via social media. - SmartBlog 

Shout your love from the top of a mountain. Well not you, but fully qualified Mountain Men yellers (employed by AT&T for this humorous Valentines Day promotion) - View

Texas Instruments' shares how they defragmented social media to drive innovation. - Vimeo 

Heat MWC app from Google - A phenomenal example (by our friends at Jung von Matt Stockholm) of what can be achieved using real-time mobile technologies and geo-locational tagging today - App

eMarketer is analyzing the effectiveness of advertising on social networks and how to improve Facebook ad performance metrics. - eMarketer 

A virtual divining rod for booty - 'Heat Tracker' (by Draftfcb) is a location-based app (powered by Foursquare’s check-in data) that identifies the number of people 'good to go' at nearby locations (thereby assisting in determining where the ‘action’ is at any given moment) - http://www.heattrackerapp.com/ 

Popular Science Augmented Reality (AR) cover (by metaio) even interacts with 3D Google Maps and a YouTube interface -Video

Telemundo is launching a social media hub called Social@Telemundo to better connect with the Hispanic presence online. - NBC Universal 

TED Talks Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change – Video 

Discovery Communications' discusses how their digital team has gained over 25 million Facebook fans by sharing compelling content and encouraging regular engagement. - ClickZ 

For the latest Nike 10k in Buenos Aires, Nike presented an InterTwitter race whereby the runners could challenge their Twitter followers (as well as their on-the-street competitors) - Video

Augmented Reality (AR) as a utility (by metaio) drives relevance and adoption. Metaio demos developments in Augmented Reality (AR) – More 

H&R Block share how they are adapting conversations online to create customer experiences and generate tons of referrals. - Social Media Examiner 

MINI Canada + Burton Snowboards co-branded bliss (by Taxi) -More 

BRANDS AS SOCIAL MOVEMENTS –Part 2 - The Scion ART Case Study 

Social game Zynga is featuring a custom challenge that revolves around speed to promote T-Mobile's campaign for the new 4G Network. - BrandWeek 

TED Talks While news from Iran streams to the world, Clay Shirky shows how Facebook, Twitter and TXTs help citizens in repressive regimes to report on real news, bypassing censors (however briefly). The end of top-down control of news is changing the nature of politics – Video 

American Express is offering five free iTunes songs to their Facebook fans when purchased with an American Express Card. - Facebook 

BRANDS AS SOCIAL MOVEMENTS –Part 1 - The MINI Space Case Study 

♔ 'Brand as Badge' – The Scion Art Case Study

Increasingly consumers are defining themselves by what and whom they associate with. To wit, what your brand represents is an integral part of peoples identity by association.  This brand ‘shorthand’ is a testament to ones beliefs and values. It’s a badge and by definition, is a characteristic mark, device (or token) especially of membership in a society or group.  It's also an imperative element to creating an aspirational identity that’s relevant to the consumer (and coincidentally the key in getting people to want to be associated with your brand.)

This is precisely why many savvy brands are focusing on social good today.  A brand’s 'badge' is largely based on the identity and imagery that consumers freely and naturally associate with it.  It serves as a means of social identity to represent one’s place in the world. Consumers adopt your brand today as a badge because of a shared mission or purpose - something that by proxy makes them both look and feel good about themselves.

As we’ve stated in previous posts, what’s also become clear today is that this ‘connected collective’ build modern brands.  Tribes of like-minded people aligned by something other then (and bigger then) the brand itself.  A unifying, overarching idea or movement facilitated by the brand.  From billionaires to bands and from consumers to brands, people and organisations are reordering their priorities and causing global change across a range of interconnected spaces from honesty and fair employment practices to communal, social and environmental responsibility and simply being nice. The marketing community, from individual advertising figures to new agencies and business structures, is helping drive this ethical movement.

Whether BMW’s ‘Activate the Future’ Initiative (building community around the future of mobility), Pepsi’s Refresh Project (giving away millions each month to fund refreshing ideas that change the world), MINI’s Space initiative  (building community around creative use of space), or other great examples – what’s become clear is that the connected collective is driving an ethical, moral and responsible advertising revolution. Brands are reordering their priorities and causing global change across a range of interconnected spaces - from honesty and fair employment practices to communal, social and environmental responsibility.  Other brand examples include GE's Ecomagination, Tom's Shoes' 'Buy-one, give-one' model, and Benetton's Africa Works microfinance scheme.  Admittedly, some are more altruistic than others but all examples of the brand as incubator, steward and shepherd. 

SCION ART

Scion Art champions and supports independent artistic expression with a permanent gallery in Los Angeles, an annual art tour across the U.S., monthly gallery sponsorships, custom artist created cars, and other activities that reinforce the brands core values and defines it’s constituents.

The Scion Collection Art Tour extends the brand via facilitated events across the U.S. to meet their constituents via art, music, fashion and culture. Artists featured included graffiti artists, mural artists, painters, and sculpture artists. To further amplify Scion added professional action sports athletes to the mix.  Scion stepped up and championed underground culture and this community (coincidentally Scion’s target demographic) was given a badge.  Scion garnered real street-cred by supporting those who had real street cred. Other examples of this are Red Bull’s King of the Ring and their own history in street art.  All messaging and media aligned with the brand’s unique consumer “role” and naturally this movement was supported online via website, Scion.com, Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube, Tumblr, Flickr and MySpace. 

The bottom line is that to succeed today you need to translate your brand attributes into nothing less then a social movement. Find your constituents and given them a badge via inspiration, distruption and value. Find a shared mission or purpose that stem from the essence of an idea that people feel passionate about.  Something shared, credible, valuable and contagious that resonates with your target consumers (and by proxy ensures an emotional link and organic connection with your brand.)  Kudos to Scion - for making ‘less about the moment and more about the movement’.  Extending one powerful unifying, overarching idea (facilitated by the brand) that seeks to aggregate and align like-minded people by extending something other then (and bigger then) the brand itself. Very impressive indeed.

NOTE:  For more articles and posts from the last week please visit us on Twitter@goodbuzz.  If you have info, articles, case studies, or other examples of (TTL) participatory marketing bliss - please feel free to either post via Facebook or send via e-mail and we’ll take care of it for you. ;)  Please identify if you find a dead link (as they were all live at the time of this posting).

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♔ BRANDS AS SOCIAL MOVEMENTS - THE MINI SPACE STORY

Traditional institutions are breaking down around us on a daily basis and therefore it’s natural for us to feel impotent and uncertain in these times - as self-trust is undermined.  With so much change and uncertainty around us today, people are increasingly defining themselves by what and whom they associate with.  That’s not always a bad thing. 

A mental alignment with others who share similar beliefs can offer a sense of community, make us feel connected, open boundaries and bring new energy and newness into our lives.  It can be democratizing.  Psychologically, this sense of community is also one of the major tenants of self-definition, as being part of a group gives meaning, emotional safety, and identification. The influence is also bi-directional and reinforcing.  Fueled by increasingly powerful technology, we are increasingly realizing the power and wisdom of the connected collective.  This is our modern paradigm.

What’s also become clear today is that this ‘connected collective’ build modern brands.  Tribes of like-minded people aligned by something other then (and bigger then) the brand itself.  A unifying, overarching idea or movement facilitated by the brand.  Indeed this is the era of the brand as incubator, steward and shepherd. 

The bottom line is that to succeed today you need to translate your brand attributes into nothing less then a social movement.  An informal grouping of individuals focused on a specific political or social issue, in other words, on carrying out, resisting or undoing a social change.  It’s much, much bigger then your brand. It’s a shared mission or purpose and has to stem from the essence of an idea that people feel passionate about.  Something shared, credible, valuable and contagious that resonates with consumers and by proxy ensures an emotional link and organic connection with your brand. Therefore, you can see it’s far more about what your brand extends the tribe (and how it validates and elevates its members) by association. It’s the most important reason your brand matters to consumers.  To further demonstrate this point, we’d suggest watching Simon Sinek's and Seth Godin’s inspiring TED Talks. 

The MINI Space Story

BMW’s Mini brand clearly understands this. They created MINI Space; an “urban initiative born of a dream to provide the online creative community with an inspiring framework for making "Creative Use of Space," in the original spirit of MINI design.”  The MINI Space mission is to “dedicate ourselves to the motto "Creative Use of Space" and provide a hub for connecting creative people, events and competitions.”  Twitter and Facebook further extend a “hub for connecting.”

Whether New Testament, Torah, or Koran, all major religions are movements built upon a heft of history and stories.  MINI Space is no different, explaining to its tribe that, “way back in 1959, the MINI was designed to make maximum use of minimum space. Not only was it a highly functional, exciting, new kind of car, its compact form also addressed urgent contemporary issues like declining energy resources: the original and ultimate creative use of space. As creative people living in an urban landscape, we are constantly thinking of new ways to explore or re-imagine the spaces around us in more functional, beautiful, and accessible ways."

To MINI, that means creating a forum for meeting people who share a passion for creativity; fostering unique competitions like the MINI Space Product Design Competition in Association with Fatboy; keeping up with events like the annual Life Ball AIDS benefit; getting updates about new creative initiatives and trends worldwide on their blog; and even more. As part of this commitment to creativity and innovation, MINI Space puts a high priority on staying on top of trends, and growing and changing with the times.

Kudos to MINI, as they’ve not created yet another fleeting brand moment. They’ve created a movement. All around the:

One powerful unifying, overarching idea (facilitated by the brand) that seeks to aggregate and align like-minded people by extending something other then (and bigger then) the brand itself.  Very impressive indeed. Check it out the website, Facebook, and Twitter.