Brand Marketing Trends - The Luxury of Ethics

SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [OCT-GB_V13.0]

In honour of National Breast Cancer Awareness month, the Avon Foundation is launching their first social media marketing campaign to create awareness and support the cause.  -  RICG 

Ford is awarded Ad Age's "Marketer of the Year 2010" award along with runners-up Southwest, Chick-fil-A, PepsiCo, and Domino's.  -  Ad Age 

AT&T partnered with Foursquare to help promote Conan O'Brien's return to late night television. Fans "checked-in" when they spotted the orange Conan blimp as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Tumblr tracked its progress.  -  Inventor Spot 

CLOROX's Green Works brand shares how they're using a Facebook application to collect "green footprints" from students in exchange for a $5,000 grant.  -  Brand Week 

Jack in the Box is donating one nickel for every fan who "likes" Jack on Facebook in their "Be a Rich Fan" campaign.  -  Ad Rants 

PepsiCo shares tips on how to create a successful social media campaign based on their recent "Pepsi Refresh Project."  -  Destination CRM 

Crown Imports is pushing to make Corona Light the "Most Liked Beer on Facebook" by rewarding each fan's "like" with a place for their photo on a 150-foot billboard in Times Square.  -  Drew's Marketing Minute 

SKITTLES submerged a fan in a tank of Skittles as a part of their live Facebook event -- the more fans that "liked" skittles, the deeper the challenger got buried.  -  Marketing Week 

The USDA Forest Service is encouraging young adults to be proactive about preventing wildfires by giving their Smokey Bear character a presence on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and MySpace.  -  PR News Wire 

CME Group shares how their social media strategy has done a remarkable job of spreading the word.  -  Vimeo    

The Increasing Relevance of your Social Brand

We should be looking beyond superficial, static graphics and examining the social brand platform, instead.

Gap's recent failed attempt at a logo redesign is only the latest in what seems to be a monthly cycle these days. Looking back over the past couple of years, we see Tropicana, Pepsi, AOL, and even Apple being raked over the coals for similar missteps, and provoking considerable buzz from the design and brand industry.  Unfortunately, these pundits are almost all talking about the wrong thing, especially in the recent Gap debacle.

Whether the new logo was designed by a well-intentioned but misguided "logo committee," or an out-of-touch branding firm, the ongoing debate indicates, more than anything, the branding and corporate identity industry's myopia.  Simply put, no one really cares about the logo anymore. Today, people are more interested in what a brand can do for them. Great brands are discovering that logos or advertisements are losing relevance, and instead put their efforts into creating social brand platforms that invite participation and create value in authentic and relevant ways. The real reason the Gap logo failed was that it wasn't backed by any of this; the same goes for Tropicana and the rest.

Social brand platforms require a new way of thinking: a cross between advertising, branding and design. In contrast to static logos and corporate identities where the focus is on control and consistency, social brand platforms have five key characteristics: they’re useful, social, living, layered and curated.

Useful


Logos create value for brands, but social brand platforms create value for people. Nike+ helps people run and get healthy. Facebook keeps people in touch with friends and family. Etsy connects cottage industry craftsmen with buyers. Converse has just announced that it's building a recording studio in Brooklyn to help up-and-coming musicians.  Social brand platforms are not experiential marketing gimmicks. They do not exist to promote something else, but rather they are useful in and of themselves. A logo, by contrast, doesn't actually do anything.

Social


Logos are about control and consistency, but social brand platforms focus on defining the context -- there are no standards manuals. They invite people to interact with each other in a variety of ways including one-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many.

Nike+ lets friends challenge friends, individuals compete with the crowd, and universities compete with other universities. Nike defines the context -- letting people track their mileage -- that lets people provide the social interaction.

Living


With rare exceptions (notably MTV and Google), logos are static. But social brand platforms are living experiences that take place over time and increase in value as more people participate. The Apple and Android app stores become more valuable as the crowd contributes to these platforms.

Layered


Not everyone wants to participate on the same level. Social brand platforms thrive by offering multiple levels of involvement. They recognize that not everyone is a creator. Specifically, they provide room for three types of involvement – creation, commenting and consuming.  YouTube is often heralded for its user-generated content, but only .1% of YouTube users are creators. The rest are making comments or simply consuming. All three types of involvement are necessary for a sustainable platform.

Curated


Finally, great social brand platforms provide enhanced functionality that helps aggregate and amplify user-generated content. Without curation, user-generated content is useless. Etsy provides shoppers with a number of ways to discover hand-made products including by color, location, time, and a 10x10 grid of editors’ picks to name a few. Threadless uses a combination of user evaluation and staff recommendation to push the best T-shirt designs to the front.

So, what if Gap didn’t redesign its logo? Instead of pouring countless dollars and hours into redesigning a logo (and dealing with the consequences), what if Gap used its resources to create a social brand platform? Like Converse, Gap is a pop culture icon. It was inspired by the idea of "the generation gap" and Don Fisher's difficulty finding a pair of jeans in the size he needed. The first Gap store, on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco, was going to be called "Pants and Discs" and according to the Gap's "reason for being" dated June 12, 1969, Don envisioned that it “would be loaded with Levi’s pants as well as records and tapes -- all part of an effort to appeal to the 12-to-25-year-old target customer.

Perhaps Gap could take a page from the company whose jeans once filled its shelves. Levi's spent this past summer running a print workshop in San Francisco – the first installment in an ongoing series of platforms called Levi's Workshops. Participants are invited to learn a creative skill, for free, with the best work produced going up on the workshop website. With one grand gesture, Levi's hit every aspect of a good social platform: the workshops teach a useful skill, provide context for socialization, offer an ever-changing and deeply layered experience, and Levi's curates the results for public view, to the benefit of their own brand.

What would Gap's take on a social platform look like? Don Fisher's original idea of serving the "generation gap" is still relevant today, and could serve as a powerful foundation. What if Gap partnered with Kickstarter to help struggling artists and musicians secure the funding they need to jumpstart their projects? Gap could include matching funds. Users could vote favorites up and down. Filters could be added to let people discover projects of interest. Through The Gap Foundation, Gap has generously given more than $100 million to various nonprofit organizations and causes. Using some of that money to create a social brand platform could be mutually beneficial to the brand and the people who love it.

We all agree that the redesigned logo was bad, and that the attempt to recover from that by announcing a crowdsourcing logo contest was arguably worse. Crowdsourcing your logo is not a social brand platform--it's more like asking a date what you should wear for dinner. But what was more discouraging was the amount of attention this debate and other logo fiascoes have received within the industry. Rather than chasing H&M or Zara, Gap has an opportunity to create an authentic social brand platform that no one else can offer. Gap reinvented how we shop for jeans. It's time Gap and other consumer companies think differently about branding.

How’s your brand looking?  Time to get more social? Give us a shout.

FACEBOOK IS THE NEW TV

It's finally time.  There's absolutely no more excuses.  We've officially heard them all now.

With 450 million users globally (and millions more being added each week) Facebook is dominating the web in unparalleled ways. Almost half-a-billion users and 80% of all Americans online, spend at least 6 hours per month on Facebook.  Add to that, Facebook is the most visited site on the web to date in 2010, surpassing even Google in search stats for the first time in history.

There’s not much you can do today on a traditional website that can’t also be done on Facebook.  Where a brand URL was once the place to go for brand communications, consumers of all ages are more and more looking to Facebook as the de facto place to find information about the brands they’re interested in (and follow the ones they like).   Brand relationships have always been a form of self-expression.  Facebook just provides a platform to evidence and amplify this affiliation and loyalty to the world.  For Gen-Y or “Millennial’s” for example, brand preference ranks as high as religion and ethnicity as top personal identifiers online. 

The cat's out of the bag.  Facebook today is the hub of all social and online activities. It’s the new TV and our new background noise — it’s always on.  

Facebook is, for all intents and purposes, Public Relations, Customer Service, Sales, Marketing, CRM, Focus Groups/ Product Testing, Target Advertising, and Data Analytics/ Research departments – all wrapped up into one offering. While we certainly concede there are much “sexier” media vehicles, none deliver the same simple value proposition and return on investment as Facebook.   

It’s really as simple as fishing where the fish are.  

Need some expert help?  Give us a shout.

SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [OCT-GB_V12.0]

Adobe is celebrating the 20th anniversary of Photoshop this year and over one million fans on their Photoshop Facebook page -Adobe Blogs 

Honda is launching a month-long social media effort on Facebook to build buzz around their new "Dream the Impossible" documentary series -Market Watch 

Mercedes-Benz is using Facebook to promote their new online video series, "Profiles," which features real-life Mercedes owners recounting their near-death automotive accidents -MediaPost 

Kraft Foods' shares how the relationships Oreo built on Facebook are now spreading to other social media channels -Vimeo 

Kraft Foods: How Oreo Learned to Fish Where the Fish Are, presented by Beth Reilly from GasPedal on Vimeo.

Orange is hosting a competition on Twitter that introduces Singing Tweetagrams. The best Tweetagrams from their followers will be transformed into special video messages sung by the Rockabellas - Recombu.com 

SAP recently published a case study detailing how they've successfully integrated social platforms into their Community Network -Social Media Today 

Procter & Gamble is rewarding fans with electronic "Green Stamps" for blogging and using social media to spread the word about their environmentally conscious "Future Friendly" program -Ad Age 

General Electric share how they're recruiting YouTube stars to reach new audiences online -Fast Company 

Polartec and The North Face talk about their new social media partnership that encourages a green lifestyle for all -IEWY News 

With over 760,000 followers each, CME Group and the Chicago Board Options Exchange are in the Top 300 most followed Twitter accounts worldwide -Institutional Investor 


Elvis Costello uses Social Media Mix to Promote new Album - Mashable 

THE POWER OF TRANSMEDIA STORYTELLING

Is your favourite TV entertainment character on your computer screen and your phone as well?  Those focused on Transmedia Storytelling won’t be surprised. 

What’s transmedia storytelling?  In Transmedia storytelling, content becomes invasive and fully permeates the audience's lifestyle.  A transmedia project develops storytelling across multiple forms of media in order to have different "entry points" in the story; entry-points with a unique and independent lifespan but with a definite role in the big narrative scheme. Each distinct element makes distinctive contributions to a fan's understanding of the story world; "entrypoints" through which consumers can become immersed in a story world.

Research has shown that when consumers meet their characters in different media contexts their bonds are strengthened. It’s like bumping into your CEO at an amusement park. The context changes the relationship and strengthens it.

How does Transmedia storytelling differ from just telling a story in different mediums?  Under the traditional model, when a big movie comes out, for example, we are offered the novelization, the adaptation in comics, and the videogame version for our Xboxes. It’s the same story over and over again, so the property is essentially milked until it’s dead. The transmedia approach to this kind of narrative would give us different pieces of the narrative on different media platforms, so that we can see the movie and then explore different aspects of the characters and the world in other media. Taken as a whole, it’s a richer, deeper experience that gives us more of what we really want.

One distinctive element of Transmedia is that it, by definition, has a number of “invitational” components where audience members are welcomed to participate by commenting on the narrative, by playing established or original characters, or even by contributing creatively to the world and the storyline.

The easiest way to create a Transmedia story is by first immersing ourselves in the original vision. We ask ourselves, what are the building blocks of this narrative? What makes the characters and the world unique? What is this story trying to tell the world?  Once we understand this, we can set about creating a guidebook to the narrative. There are often so many people, divisions, creative teams, licensors involved in generating content around these large franchises that we work on, this roadmap/Mythology addresses all of their concerns by teaching them the essence of the characters and stories and making recommendations for how to best weave the story across multiple media platforms.

Today’s web facilitates the meeting between creator, creation and audience, and by its nature (when properly used) the web turns audience members into participants.  When you are invited into an aspirational world and given a voice, a connection is made, memories are formed, and an experience is created that can last forever.

McDonald's FarmVille Promotion - Brands and Social Gaming

Electronic Arts recently (Sept.14th, 2010) revealed results from a study conducted by The Nielsen Company, which shows the degree to which brand advertisements within video games can boost real life sales.  The study, commissioned by EA on behalf of Gatorade, shows that in-game advertising increased household dollars spent on Gatorade by 24%, and offered a return on investment of $3.11.  Gatorade had a variety of product placements within EA games including arena signs, players' water bottles, score updates and other call outs.

With social networks permeating our daily lives, entertainment is being redefined and is going back to its roots.  It’s getting social again.  Social games already alter the way people use Facebook .  Gamers stick around longer, use more of their online time on Facebook, and log in more regularly.  Facebook Connect will only make things even more pervasive.

Case in point - McDonald’s just created a branded farm on Farmville in a special one day event. Essentially, McDonald’s will become a “Neighbour Farm” to every player in the world for a day, this allows players to come and work on the McDonald’s Farmville Farm, helping to grow things like tomatoes and mustard seeds.  Players will be rewarded with all sorts of virtual McCafe items that allow them to grow their own farms twice as fast! Plus, they also get a McDonald’s hot air balloon flyover for their efforts.

The exposure is seriously huge for McDonald’s, who gains almost instant exposure and potential brand interaction to the near seventy (70) million active Farmville players around the world. The only other brand to have partnered with Farmville was Microsoft’s Bing earlier this year.

Advertainment is a relatively new form of advertising medium that blurs conventional distinctions between what constitutes advertising and what constitutes entertainment. Branded content is essentially a fusion of the two into one product intended to be distributed as entertainment content, albeit with a highly branded quality. Advertainment, unlike conventional forms of entertainment content, is generally funded entirely by a brand or corporation rather than, for example, a Movie studio or a group of producers. However, it can be argued that this is just a new name for the same type of marketing that was pioneered by soap manufacturers in the early days of radio and television with the soap opera.  What do you think?

[Screen Shots]

The Evolution of Brand Iconography - Corporate Logo Redesigns

Let’s be honest.  Sometimes we can’t figure out for the life of us how a brand landed on a specific image or font in the first place.  Let alone why, in some cases, they had a great logo that was working for them and decided to change it (Gap)?  But one things for sure, as an old friend from Mississippi used to say, “while beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, I think we can all agree on what ugly is (Gap).”  ;)  

That said, here are thirty examples of corporate logo’s redesigned to become more relevant.  Which ones do you love?  Which do you hate?  Which brands out there are in desperate need of an overhaul?

http://www.goodbuzz.ca