SOCIAL MEDIA ADOPTION - YOU CAN’T GET A LITTLE BIT PREGNANT

We get the same question over and over again from clients and prospects alike.  "What if we get involved in Social Media and people say bad things about us?"  For those brands or companies not yet engaging with customers using social media tools, this is a worst-case scenario.

Your customers are already talking about you. So why not get involved in the conversation? People are increasingly using social media websites and tools to vent their anger about products or receiving poor service, according to a survey.  Anyone upset enough to go to your Facebook page for example and tell you what they don't like is upset enough to tell their friends and followers in your absence.   Staying off social media doesn't stop the problem; it merely removes the discomfort of having to deal with it. Being on social media at least gives you the chance to respond. Social Media will therefore impact your business and decision making whether you like it or not.

As to how about engaging with your constituents and building credibility – we offer the following.  Always act with integrity and don’t try and be something you’re not. Integrity is about being consistent and living up to the brand promise.  Where companies typically get in trouble is when they pretend to be something they're not.   Also, admit your mistakes - you’re only human like the rest of us, so if you make a mistake, admit it quickly and take any/all steps necessary to correct the situation.  Then move on. 

Still not sold?  Find out more about how Social Media Affects Buying Behavior.

SHARKRUNNERS: The Future of Social Media

Tired of the same user-generated content (UGC) campaigns?  We completely understand, as much of the karaoke that passes for creative these days is repetitive uninspiring.  That’s specifically why we love area/code.   Area/code is based in NYC and develop campaigns that leverage today's environment of pervasive technologies and overlapping media to create new kinds of entertainment.  

Area/Code is one of the few agencies that highlight and integrate the connections between imaginary spaces and the world around them.  Whether urban environments transformed into
spaces for public play, online games that respond to
broadcast TV in real time, simulated characters and virtual worlds
that occupy real-world geography, game events driven by real-world data, or situated media that corresponds to
specific locations and contexts. These connections can take many forms.

Our favorite example du jour is Sharkrunners.  Designed by area/code for Discovery Channel's 20th Anniversary Shark Week, Sharkrunners is a persistent game of oceanic exploration and high stakes shark research.  Players take on the role of marine biologists who seek to learn as much as possible about sharks through advanced observation techniques.  Sharkrunners is a game of oceanic exploration and high stakes shark research. 

Players take on the role of sharkrunners: daring and adventurous marine biologists who seek to learn as much as possible about sharks through advanced observation techniques.

In the game, players control their ships, but the sharks are controlled by real-world white sharks with GPS units attached to their fins. Real-world telemetry data provides the position and movement of actual great white sharks in the game, so every shark that players encounter corresponds to a real shark in the real world.  

It get’s better. Ships in the game also move in real-time, so players receive email and/or SMS alerts during the day when their boat is within range of an encounter. Players login, choose crewmembers and an approach technique, and then collect various data from the nearby sharks. 

Visit SHARKRUNNERS HQ or PLAY NOW. 

TOPPS KICKS OFF 2010 WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF AUGMENTED REALITY FOOTBALL CARDS

PREMIER LEAGUE football's biggest stars have entered the realm of Augmented Reality (AR) in 2010 thanks to a new deal between Topps Europe, the publishers of Premier League sticker albums and trading cards, and AR pioneers Total Immersion.

For the first time, Premier League football collectors' cards include an Augmented Reality (AR)  element, with Wayne Rooney, Theo Walcott and Frank Lampard featured on three special collectors' cards. Football fans can watch each player showcase special moves in AR animation and even challenge them in a free-kick game via the Topps' website.

The Topps Total Football 2009/10 series features more than 450 collectors stickers, including the three 3D Live stickers. To use the interactive animation technology, fans log on to the website and select the player on the sticker. Once the programme has started, users simply place the sticker under their web cam and the player comes to life.

Once activated, each of the AR players can be rotated around and their movements controlled with a single keystroke.

To accompany the 2009/10 Total Football series, Topps have created a special collector album with an augmented reality front cover.

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AUDI's "GREEN POLICE" YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Audi has created a series of social media programs to buttress its third Super Bowl ad. Both the ad and the social media elements will introduce the Green Police, an enforcement team created to “protect and conserve the environment.”  Video's are partial spoof, partial social awareness. 

Fans can also take part in a Green Police Quiz, apparently conceived to help the public understand how to become better global citizens. 

These videos are now live on a dedicated Green Police YouTube channel. 

ADVERTISING 2009: THE DEATH OF THE BIG IDEA

Beware The Bottom-Feeders: When Procurement Turns Thinkers Into Executors 

Article by Alan Schulman, Friday, January 8, 2010

It doesn't take many ‘creatives’ (in “Ad” speak) to argue the short sightedness of allowing clients to drive down, or discount, the value of developing bigger (and longer-term) brand-building ideas.  After all, what are ideas, if not the cultural currency that differentiates one brand from another?   Ultimately, we agency folk are not only "agents" - but we are all fundamentally in the IDEA business.

What's astounding is the value (or lack thereof) that clients seemingly place on the power and cultural currency of BIG Ideas.  Witness 2009.  Having already rolled over the media services operations and account service functions being provided by their agency partners -- asking for everything from money back, to blended hourly rates that can barely afford a $50K FTE -- the question is, do they really think they've won?  What did they win?  Another half of an FTE?   Or a mid-level media supervisor holding down the responsibilities of an account director?  It makes this creative wonder if they know the difference between thinkers and executors?

But if it's simply executors Clients want, it's executors they shall have (witness any Top Five Global Ad Agency).  A few smart CMO’s have finally realized that the strategic and creative business is no place for Six Sigma.  Rather, it's where ideas are born, nurtured, shepherded and communicated until the customer starts talking -- and buying. Sadly however, as long as short-term, top-line revenue growth continues to drive stock prices up, public agencies will be forced to negotiate the value of their people and their ideas down to ensure the tonnage of dollars continues to flow.

As an industry, who among us will be brave enough to stand up and clarify that we are ultimately in the IDEA business -- not just the billings tonnage and stock price business?  In this climate of procurement driving poetry in motion, it looks bleak for ultimate value of great ideas. 

Perhaps we put ourselves here.  Buy/sell technology platforms have crossed the chasm from Silicon Valley, purportedly making media planning and buying more efficient, agencies and digital media networks have become seduced by scale rather than by skill.  The embracing of these platforms of scale under the guise of efficiency ultimately leads to only one place -- the commoditization of media inventory and the devaluation of strategic thinking and ideas.  Happy 2010. 

Article by Alan Schulman, Friday, January 8, 2010

Alan Schulman is Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of U. DIG > The Digital Innovations Group. He is a member of the Creative Versioning Professionals and his creative agency develops new ad units for new and emerging media platforms. 

Contact him here.

MAZDA’S INNOVATIVE USE OF FACEBOOK

Mazda tried their hand at engaging with younger generations through the use of Facebook in a recent concept car design contest.  The Mazda Design Challenge asked Facebook users to help design the 2018 Mazda3, the manufacturer’s best international selling vehicle.

To wrap up the challenge, Franz von Holzhausen, director of Mazda Design and his team, along with contest winner, will create a clay concept car live at the upcoming LA Auto Show.  To enter, contestants submitted a 150-word description of their vision of the 2018 MAZDA3 and an optional sketch drawing. The Mazda Design team then judged each entry, choosing 10 semi-finalists.

Five finalists were chosen by the Facebook community, and each of the five finalists were paired with a Mazda designer to hone their concept, which was then judged and voted on in a second round by fellow Facebook members.

"The Mazda Design Challenge brought in a flood of cool, unique design ideas. The winning design concept is a fresh new way to look at the design of a vehicle," said von Holzhausen. "This competition was a tremendous success, and this entire process was really beneficial to my team and me to understand what design means to our target buyers. Now the hard part comes -- to see if we can actually build a full concept car on the show stand in 10 days and in full view of show goers."

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COCA-COLA’S DIY PORTABLE APPLICATION “COKETAGS” LETS YOU PROMOTE ANYTHING YOU WANT

Coca-Cola has launched CokeTag, a Facebook application that allows anyone to promote themselves and their interests via a convenient DIY portable application.  Coca-Cola describes CokeTag as a “personal, customizable widget for individuals, bands, bloggers, artists, and companies to share links to content they want to promote and drive traffic to anywhere on the Web.”

You can bundle links to on- and off-Facebook content in a convenient package, which is associated with and accessible from your Profile or Fan Pages and shared via Facebook private messages or Wall posts. Sharing viral or interesting links becomes easy via highly targeted personal networks for friends and fans.

You can bundle links to on- and off-Facebook content in a convenient package, which is associated with and accessible from your Profile or Fan Pages and shared via Facebook private messages or Wall posts. Sharing viral or interesting links becomes easy via highly targeted personal networks for friends and fans.

The CokeTag application features a self-service editor that allows you to control both the content and skin. Several levels of expandable menus enable easy navigation to specific content, while a built-in click tracker lets the creator know every time someone looks at their CokeTag and which links they visit.

Current Facebook distribution options includes: 1) Create and post your CokeTag on your personal profile page, 2) Create and post a CokeTag to any Facebook Fan Page you administer, 3) Grab and post any CokeTag that you discover on to your own personal profile, 4) Send a CokeTag as Facebook e-mail attachment, 5) Post a CokeTag as a Facebook Wall post.

Currently in beta form, CokeTag is the result of a partnership between The Coca-Cola Company and Linkstorm, an advertising technology company pioneering a new approach to social networking, online marketing and publishing. Initially built for Facebook, CokeTag will later be available across OpenSocial sites (MySpace, Bebo, etc.) and eventually to all Blogging platforms and everywhere on the Internet.

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ALMOST 1.5 MILLION ITEMS BOUGHT ON EBAY VIA MOBILE THIS HOLIDAY

Holiday shopping went mobile this season, with a surge in buyers using the eBay iPhone application and other eBay mobile properties to find great deals while on the go.  The number of items bought via eBay mobile applications this year was triple last year’s holiday volume. In 2009, eBay buyers and sellers have generated more than half a billion dollars of transactions via mobile - with strong momentum this holiday season.

According to VP of platform business solutions and mobile at eBay, “consumers had the power to seek out the best deals regardless of time or location, to the point that you could even do comparison shopping on your mobile device while you’re in the store at the mall.  The lines between online and offline were permanently blurred in 2009.”

MOBILE COMMERCE UP
Nearly 6 million people have eBay on their iPhone and shoppers are making 750,000 unique visits a day to eBay via mobile applications.  Mobile purchases this season range from designer handbags to a $75,000 1966 Chevrolet Corvette.  According to an IDC report, mobile Internet users will double in number by 2013 to surpass one billion. Here are some mobile eBay trends:

- Nearly six million people are carrying eBay around in their pocket,
- Users from more than 165 countries visited the eBay mobile Web site and iPhone application,
- 1.5 million items were bought on eBay using mobile phones worldwide this holiday,

- In 2009, an item sold every 2 seconds via eBay mobile applications worldwide.

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