SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V74.0]

Ferrari is promoting their new microsite with photos of their new F12berlinetta model on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ -  Luxury Daily

To rally support for the British Olympic athletes, Cadbury has created a virtual parade on Facebook that lets fans create an avatar to join in on the march -  Digital Buzz Blog

The new Facebook timeline offers new ways to tell brand stories (and a new paradigm to engage a community.) Here's a helpful #infographic to use in the development of updated brand styleguides – Infographic

Aussie beer brand XXXX GOLD has actually bought a 15-acre island on the Southern Great Barrier Reef designed to be a 'getaway for mates'. There's nothing on it yet but the idea is that men get to decide what goes on the island by visiting the island website and (social) voting on what activities the island should offer and what should be built  - Website

The True Value of the Facebook ‘Like’ – Article

Frito-Lay thanked their Facebook fans with coupons for chips after the five-day live event showcasing their flavor development kitchen in Times Square drew over 1.5 million new likes -  Chief Marketer

This certainly isn't a 'first' (see Intel’s ‘Museum of Me’) however Microsoft's 'A year in the Like' app gathers all your Facebook comments and images and posts them into a movie starring YOU – Website

 

McDonald's encouraged fans to show their love for Shamrock Milkshakes and submit photos of themselves doing an Irish jig with hashtag #Shamrocking - Ad Age

Toyota has added a fun virtual game board to their YouTube channel to engage fans in their new "The Game of Life with Prius c" campaign -  Brandchannel

Guess is teaming up with a few of their favorite fashion bloggers to judge a Pinterest contest that requires fans to create boards based on the colors of their new line of denim - FashionablyMarketing.Me

Mercedes-Benz is helping fans find a parking spot by syncing Twitter in their "Park Assist" feature and crowdsourcing the nearest parking -  PSFK

What better way to motivate your morning jog then to make you think you're being chased by a pack of Zombies!? Described as 'an ultra-immersive running game and audio adventure' - the game places you in a Zombie story where you're given various 'missions' to escape from the hordes of undead – App 

The American Red Cross has launched a Digital Operations Center to better respond to disasters and help track public conversations -  Information Week
 

Taco Bell shares how their new augmented reality app allows fans to see live tweets about their new tacos on their packaging.  (Now if they'd just use 40% actual meat in their meat) -  ClickZ

An emerging class of “social discovery” apps—which monitor your location and alert you when you’re in close proximity to people who have similar social media contacts or interests - Article 

How Powerade, Kraft Foods, KLM, and more are using Twitter in new and creative ways to engage fans -  Simply Zesty

Social Media Content Strategy Redux – Article

Dos Equis is running its own version of March Madness (or as we call it – crowdsourcing their next ten ads) with fans competing on Facebook. The challenge is to write a witty line about ‘The Most Interesting Man in The World.’ – Contest

Domino's Pizza (Australia) is creating the world's first Social Pizza. Over 7 days the Domino's Pizza Australia Facebook community will be able to vote for their favourite crust, sauce and toppings, with the most popular selection from each day added to the pizza - the final product will also be featured on the Domino's menu. Fans will even have the chance to name the pizza – Video 

Envisioning the near future of technology - Infographic

Whether you belong to one or ten social networks, you’ll likely appreciate ‘Bliss Control’.  Building on the popularity of Notification Control, developers took the one-stop settings shop idea and expanded it to cover every possible setting on 13 different sites – Website

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)

EMAIL US  | FOLLOW US ON TWITTER  | BECOME A FAN ON FACEBOOK 

SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V73.0]

Fanta is experimenting with Facebook's new brand pages by running a contest for fans to find four cartoon characters hidden in the brand's Timeline history -  AdWeek 

BMI has turned the Pinterest repining function into a lottery style game for fans to participate in and win big flight prizes -  Simply Zesty 

American Express' new Twitter program lets cardholders tweet special offer hashtags in exchange for coupon-less savings at participating stores -  VentureBeat

Intel picked up a lot of press when they hired will.i.am as their "creative director. At the same time, Razorfish developed an “experiential publishing engine” that presents content in real-time so that users could listen, touch, explore and connect with the storyline – Ultrabook Project

Coldwell Banker Real Estate's new campaign is sharing their ideas of the "Value of a Home" with fans on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and their blog -  Facebook

Nike+ is often heralded as the king of branded utility, and combines many of its key characteristics: more than marketing, it is a useful product that brings digital possibilities to the real world to build a global community and embed the brand 24/7 in people's daily lives.  The Nike+ GPS app and Path have partnered up (https://path.com/nike) to give you another great way to share your Nike+ GPS app runs.

Domino's UK hosted a short Twitter engagement where fans could tweet with the hashtag #letsdolunch to save on the price of a pizza for lunch -  Twitter Campaigns

Pantone's latest Facebook effort asks ‘WHAT COLOR ARE YOU FEELING TODAY?’ The ‘Moods App’ lets you select a PANTONE Colour that best expresses your mood, then posts it to your profile to share it with friends - App

Transmedia Storytelling and Content Marketing –Article 

The Coca-Cola Company made a big deal of the Argentinean national soccer team's fan messages on Twitter by printing 2,000,000 of them on confetti and launching the "Papertweetos" into the stadium -  PSFK

How to stay safe and ethical in social media -  Vimeo

What is CONTENT MARKETING? - Article 

During their "Goodest Get Together" campaign, KFC threw a party for one lucky fan and flew in 100 of her Facebook friends from around the world -  Media News in Pics

IKEA has launched a "How to Build" YouTube channel dedicated to helping customers assemble their furniture with easy-to-follow videos -  Apartment Therapy

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)

EMAIL US  | FOLLOW US ON TWITTER  | BECOME A FAN ON FACEBOOK 

 

♔ Social Media Case Studies (GB_V.72)

Cheez-It is engaging fans with a new promotion that lets them campaign and vote for their favourite flavor of cheese cracker on YouTube and Facebook -  YouTube

eBay share how they're rebooting their social media program to improve users' social shopping experiences -  Mashable

Rubbermaid share how they implemented and grew privately-branded communities -  Vimeo

Orbitz has launched a Facebook game that encourages fans to share with their friends to improve their chances of winning a once-in-a-lifetime vacation -  All Facebook

Country Living Magazine shares how they're using Pinterest to connect with their readers - Ragan.com
 

TIME Magazine has teamed up with Foursquare to allow check-ins and up-to-the-moment updates at the Democratic and Republican conventions -  Business 2 Community

Krispy Kreme is setting out to tour the nation with their "Cruiser" 1960-vintage Starliner bus to mark their 75th anniversary. Fans can track the bus in real-time on Facebook and Twitter, and they're encouraged to connect with the bus on Foursquare, Pinterest, and Instagram -  Customer Insight Group

Boeing discuss how their content marketing and brand journalism strategies are all about telling a story -- not pitching a product -  WebInkNow

KFC share their social media strategy, from handling negative comments and measuring ROI, to their current promotion on Facebook and Twitter -  PROMO Magazine

ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences used social media applications, Twitter, original content, celebrity videos, and a central social hub to keep viewers engaged before, during, and after the Oscars -  Entrepreneur

The Practitioner's Guide to Creating Content Like a Publisher

H+M is one of the most popular brands on Google+ to date due to their frequent photo postings, relevant fashion news, and "exclusive" fan treatment -  Ragan

Dunkin' Donuts has launched a "Like a Boss" application that lets fans create funny video resumes to share with friends on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn -  Smarter CPG Solutions

Corning, McGraw-Hill, and Intuit were announced as BtoB’s Social Media Marketing Award winners for their exceptional work in viral video, mobile, and corporate blogging, respectively -  BtoB

For the first time, ESPN will be streaming March Madness tournament games on Facebook -  Los Angeles Times

Advocate Health Care is interacting with fans on their new live video chat platform, AdvocateLive. Viewers can submit questions, join the conversation on Facebook, and share related videos -  AdvocateLive

UPS shares how they're using social media for customer service -  Vimeo

Subaru has launched a new website that lets fans generate a personalized video story of their very first car. Fans can tag their Facebook friends in the video and then share it across all social media channels -  Torque News

Zappos, Estee Lauder, and Warby Parker are using social media to get personal with customers and improve their service -  Knowledge@Wharton

Macy's discusses their plans for Facebook's new brand Timeline feature and expanding their social media reach to other platforms -  MediaPost

Harley-Davidson is encouraging fans to use the hashtag #StereotypicalHarley to share who they are and why they like to ride -  AdWeek

One of the clear winners out of the 'Facebook Timeline' gate was Red Bull. Not only has the brand done a great job of seeding milestone content since it’s founding, they also launched an incredibly compelling scavenger hunt that spans the history of the company and integrates brand milestones in a seamless manner with the hunt – FB Page

The Mechanics of Social Change, Invisible Children, and Kony 2012 – Article

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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)

EMAIL US  | FOLLOW US ON TWITTER  | BECOME A FAN ON FACEBOOK 

 

The Mechanics of Social Change, Invisible Children, and Kony 2012

The KONY 2012 video has clocked more than 70 million views in only a few days on YouTube (and millions more since appearing on Vimeo two weeks ago), which is fairly amazing considering it’s about something most people have never heard of and it’s a half-an-hour long. (The average viral video on YouTube is two minutes or less.) This earnest effort to bring Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony to justice and free the thousands of “invisible children” that he has abducted and pressed into soldiering and sex-slavery has clearly captured our attention.

IC embraces of the virality of social media to get their message across. Feature by feature, from the like counter to the new timeline, KONY 2012 shows how Facebook can be used to engineer social change.  What happens if this effort succeeds? Will foreign policy be guided by social media fiat? Suffice to say, even the harshest critics acknowledge the group’s good intentions. And in terms of their use of media, they clearly know what they are doing (or else this current debate would not even exist.)

So what can social media startups, and practitioners of social media of all sorts, learn from KONY 2012? Here are 12 lessons in the order that they appear in the video (with time markers for easy reference):

1. Be Positive -  The first part of the video just shows people connecting with each other, the birth of a baby, the pride of parenthood and the value of friendship. Joseph Kony doesn’t even appear until 8:46.

2. Get Their Attention - Early on [1:38] the voiceover tells you, “The next 27 minutes are an experiment. But in order for it to work, you have to pay attention.” A bit presumptuous, but you’ve been warned.

3. Make It Personal -  At 1:55 we see a child being born in what looks like an American hospital, and by 2:39 we understand the identity of the voiceover and the baby: ”My name is Jason Russell and this is my son, Gavin.”

4. Invoke the Mainstream Media -  KONY 2012 is peppered with references to “old media” for validation. ”This has been going on for years?” Russell says on camera in Uganda. “If that happened one night in America it would be on the cover of Newsweek.” [5:56] There’s and a fake TIME cover of Kony that reads “Worst in the World,” next to a real TIME cover of supporter George Clooney [23:35] and a fabricated New York Times front page that reads “KONY CAPTURED” [22:27].

5. Pull the Heartstrings - Russell uses his son, Gavin, and his young Ugandan friend, Jacob, for raw plays on emotion: Jacob’s is introduced through Gavin’s pointing to picture on wall and saying, “Jacob is our friend in Africa” [3:56]; Jacob is the first thing you see on the Invisible Children’s Facebook timeline [4:00]; Jacob breaks down in wailing sobs when discussing his dispair at living and the murder of his brother [7:14]. It’s manipulative, yes, but boy does it work.

6. Make it Time Sensitive - at 8:40 the screen announces, “Expires December 31, 2012.”  There is no explanation in the video of what that means, or what the benefit would be of the video being vaporized from the internet at the stroke of midnight, but the expiration date is clearly meant to convey a sense of immediacy. The theme song also reinforces the sense of compulsion with the refrain, “I Can’t Stop” [26.52].

7. Make It Simple - In what is perhaps the video’s greatest coup (and also, perhaps, its undoing) we see five-year-old Gavin’s reactions to father’s explanation of who Joseph Kony is and what the war’s about [9:19]. The “bad guy” forces these children to do “bad things” against their will. How does he feel about that? “Sad.”

8. Make It Real (Briefly) - After he explains Kony to his son in a simplified manner, he gives the grownups a bit more detail. “Kony abducts kids just like Gavin,” we are told [10:50]. “For 26 years Kony has been kidnapping children into his rebel group the LRA, turning the girls into sex slave and the boys into child soldiers. He makes them mutilate people’s faces.” We see a rapid fire slideshow of ten horrifically slashed faces. “And he forces them to kill their own parents.” OK, I get the point, really bad guy.

9. Give it Scale - “And this is not a few children. It has been over 30,000 of them.” We zoom out from a closeup of a few Ugandan children to a crowd of thousands. [11:39] Similarly, the point of the video is to get Kony’s name and picture in front of millions of people around the world through hundreds of thousands of posters, stickers and (since it’s election time) lawn signs.

10. Use Celebrities - IC has identified 20 “culture makers” and 12 “policy makers” to “target” to help get the word out (20 + 12, get it?) [23:16]. The 20 culture makers run the psychographic gamut: Oprah, Mark Zuckerberg, Lady GaGa, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Bill O’Reilly, Bill Gates, Jay-Z, Justin Bieber, Rick Warren, Ellen Degeneres, Ben Affleck, Rihanna, Stephen Colbert, Warren Buffet, Taylor Swift, Ryan Seacrest, Tim Tebow, Rush Limbaugh(!) and Bono. The 12 policy makers cant somewhat to the right: George W. Bush, Condoleezza Rice, John Kerry, Bill Clinton, Harry Reid, John Boehner, Kay Granger, Mitt Romney, Stephen Harper, Ban Ki-Moon, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Patrick Leahy. Although Clooney appears on camera, it is unclear what the rest of these people’s relationship is to IC, though their visual inclusion does imply a certain assumed validation.

11. Create Events - The video wheels out poster artist (and now convicted criminal) Shepard Fairey to say, “Here are these really simple tools. Go out and rock it.” [25:00] This sets up the major focus of this viral video effort, to get people to sign up and receive “action kits” to be used on the night of April 20th for an overnight postering session called “Cover the Night.” [26:36] Widely publicized public vandalism in the name of political change is not the kind of event every social media entity would choose, but it seems to fit the ethos of this group. The fresh faced activists in the video seem to be unconcerned that some of their wheat pasting might be considered vandalism, but so be it.

12. Make It Easy - The video ends with the obligatory call to action: “The better world we want is coming. It’s just waiting for us to stop at nothing. There are three things you can do right now.” [29:25] “1. Sign the pledge to show your support” (that’s easy) “2. Get the bracelet and the action kit” (how?) “3. Sign up for Tri to donate a few dollars a month” (oh, that’s easy too) BUT, when you click on the donate button there’s a message below the donation options that says, “A minimum monthly commitment of $15 is required to receive the Kony 2012 Action Kit with your TRI membership. Due to the overwhelming response to KONY 2012 your kit delivery is not guaranteed before April 20th.” Not quite the same the “few dollars a month” they keep referring to in the video! And if you don’t sign up for the monthly plan you can’t order a kit a la carte. You can, however, download and print kit materials for free (easy!)

What’s most impressive about KONY 2012 is the craft of all the pieces of their campaign: the mechanics, framing, film making, graphic design, the web sites, the Facebook page, Twitter hashtags, you name it.  Will they make Kony “world news”?

They already have. 

Goodbuzz Article Bank – What We’re Reading

1. Four Steps to Building a Strategic Communications Capability
2. Marketing in Revolutionary Times
3. Disruptive Innovation Redux
4. How Top Brands Pull Customers into Orbit
5. Meet Your Pinterest Customer
6. Blinded by Facebook
7. The End of Football as We Know It
8. Why Some Ads Go Viral and Others Don't
9. Why We Use Social Media in Our Personal Lives — But Not for Work
10. Three Lessons for Social TV
11. The New Science of Viral Ads
12. Rules For the Social Era
13. Your Marketing Can Keep Pace with Facebook and Google
14. Five Lessons from World Changers

(FREE) SOCIAL MONITORING TOOLS

-->

As Radian6's social monitoring package starts (according to their website) at $600/month* to cover only 1 topic profile (see http://bit.ly/nLXHFK) and as much as $10,000/month for a ‘Pro’ account (to hear a mouse fart) – you really need to ask yourself whether your brand actually requires that level of engagement.   

Unless you’re a brand with a significant need to 'frame' and direct discussions - someone like Nestle or Monsanto for example (recently voted “2011’s Most Evil Corporation of the Year”) - you'll be happy to know that there are any number of Social Monitoring Tools that will meet your needs.  Note:  Be mindful to choose at least one overarching tool that monitors multiple types of social media.  Here is the beginning of what we hope will be a growing list of (free) monitoring resources, so if you stumble across a new free social monitoring tools (that aren’t trials or limited time offers) please forward to info@goodbuzz.ca.  

Social Mention – As the title implies, SM tracks and measures what is being said about a specific topic in real time across more than 100 social media services. While Social Mention may appear to allow the setting up of alerts, the functionality hasn't been available for nearly a year.  Still a solid real-time social search algorithm that measures sentiment (positive, neutral, negative) as well.  

MonitorThis – Allows you to search for brand mentions in 25 different search engines, however doesn’t appear to support alerts.

WhosTalkin.com - The search and sorting algorithms combine data taken from over 60 of the internet's most popular social media gateways (however also doesn’t appear to support alerts.)  Also, check out IceRocket and Alltop

Facebook Search as a Facebook specific monitoring tool. Openbook may also be useful in turning up mentions of your brand in Facebook status updates. 

Addict-o-matic lets you instantly create a custom page with the latest buzz on a given topic. The browser-based tool offers a one-stop customized site for seeing results across multiple social media channels.

Guzzle reads hundreds of feeds on social media sites every second to help you keep abreast of stuff you care about.

Buzzoo is a buzz aggregator drawing from multiple sources.

BuzzFeed sports a robust buzz-detection algorithm.

Twendz piggybacks off Twitter Search to offer user sentiment in real time.

Social Seek will tell you who’s making the most noise about your brand.

Mon.itor.us is a free website, server and traffic monitoring service.

Keotag lets you search multiple search engines, create social bookmark links around a topic or see who has used your brand as a tag.

Comment Sniper lets be the first to comment on relevant blog posts about your brand or sector. You set up blogs you want to monitor, and Comment Sniper sends you a desktop notification or text message to your mobile device whenever a new post goes up.

coComment is a Web service and Firefox plug-in that helps you keep track of blog comment threads. Whenever there is an update, such as a new follow-up comment, coComment notifies you instantly. It’s a handy service that saves you the trouble of checking back on blogs that don’t offer a comment notification feature.

Commentful is another Web service that helps you keep track of blog comments.

Omgili (Oh my God I love it) forum search engine lets you find communities, message boards and discussion threads about any topic.

co.mments helps you keep track of conversations.

Boardtracker, Big Boards, and Yuku Find crawl forums, blog posts, images and microblogs. They'll also let you know when a new forum starts specifically to discuss your brand or organization.  

WatchThatPage - Keeps a watchful eye when updates take place to an important Web page — say, your Wikipedia page or key pages on your competitors’ sites. Instruct WatchThatPage to keep tabs on any Web page, and you’ll receive an alert any time a change is made to the page.

Google Alerts - One of the easiest and most popular of free monitoring services, Google Alerts are notifications of (customizable) new results on up to 1000 search terms.  As the name implies, alerts can be set up. 

When you marry this with Google Trends (which compares how frequently searches have been made on up to five topics over time) you can unearth a great deal of insight. Social media monitoring begins with a dashboard.

A good choice to begin your monitoring is Google Reader: Subscribe to the RSS feeds of top blogs in your sector, competitors’ sites, news sites, Twitter searches and more, all in one place. You can even subscribe to searches on sites like Flickr and YouTube, so you’ll get an update on any new image or video that matches your brand or cause.  Finally, Google Realtime Search, lets you search the social Web (chiefly Twitter) and create email alerts for search terms. Also don’t forget Google Advanced Blog Search

As we mentioned, here is the beginning of what we hope will be a growing list of (free) monitoring resources, so if you stumble across a new free social monitoring tools (that aren’t trials or limited time offers) please forward to info@goodbuzz.ca.   

✔ COCA-COLA 2020 - FROM CREATIVE TO CONTENT

Coca-Cola here defines their strategic road map moving forwards.  This a response to the widespread recognition in the industry that "the legacy models are all broken" and "the traditional solutions are all becoming less and less effective."

What's Coke’s ‘Content 2020’ goal?  Double their current sales by creating ideas so contagious they cannot be controlled. The types of content that will be developed?  Serial Storytelling, Multi-faceted Storytelling, Spreadable Storytelling, Immersion and discovery Storytelling, and Engagement Storytelling. (A clearer explanation of these content types is available in the videos).

(Part 1)

How will they achieve this?  Coca-Cola intends on developing a conversation model that extends brand stories.  The brand stories are intended to create ‘liquid’ and ‘linked’ ideas that provoke conversations (which the brand can act and react upon). The company also has identified that they intend on integrating technologists into the core creative teams and further developing direct relationships with Technology companies.  

(Part 2)

What's clear is that people and organizations are reordering their priorities and causing global change across a range of interconnected spaces from honesty and fair employment to communal, social and environmental responsibility. 

Coca-Cola has always been at the forefront of innovation and storytelling. In these video’s Jonathan Mildenhall, VP, Global Advertising Strategy and Creative Excellence explains how Coke will leverage the opportunities in the new media landscape and transform one-way storytelling into dynamic storytelling (hoping to add real value and significance to peoples lives.)  

One (of many) elements we also believe 100% is the need to optimize efforts such that "every contact point with a customer should tell an emotional story".  Kudos to Coca-Cola for establishing a new participatory global brand framework and giving its constituents a voice.   We’re confident this positioning will serve you well.