Nestle’s “Jesus” Kit-Kat: Viral Magic

Multiple “Jesus” sightings (in inanimate objects) had occurred in rapid succession in the Netherlands with growing coverage in the news.  

To capitalize on this buzz, on the Friday before Easter, Nestle’s agency in Amsterdam (UbachsWisbrun/JWT) seeded fake news content (with pictures) to the country’s largest news websites. 

The story identified that a Dutchman had found the image of none other then Jesus Christ in his Kit-Kat bar.  Kit Kat wanted to play on its 'Have a break, have a Kit Kat' tagline within this context. Have a break in the Netherlands means "give me a break" or "enough is enough". Instead of creating an ad, they created a sighting of Jesus in a Kit Kat. 

A credible fake email was created and sent from a person who had apparently just taken a bite out a Kit Kat and found, to his utter disbelief, an image of Jesus.   Within four days the Jesus Kit-Kat was on more then 100,000 websites around the world.  

Watch the Case Study

Greenpeace stages planned attack on Nestle's Facebook Page

Another brand crisis is making headlines. First Tiger Woods, then Seaworld, and now a favorite snack-food maker, Nestle.


This time, the assault on the brand was an organized effort started by Greenpeace on their website, blog and through Facebook and Twitter. The protest was not centered on one new story in the news but instead stems from a long-standing criticism of Nestle's use of palm oil and the effects on rainforests and the habitat of orangutans. 



Through a concerted effort, protesters began to flood the Nestle Facebook Fan page with negative comments and to send tweets about the company and its practices.

What has helped this story gain traction is the extremely poor response from Nestle itself. When "fans" started using altered Nestle logos as their profile pictures, Nestle posted a reply which added fuel to the fire. "To repeat: we welcome your comments, but please don't post using an altered version of any of our logos as your profile pic--they will be deleted." This led to comments about Big Brother and stifling of dissent. The wording of Nestle's reaction was childish, rude and unprofessional.

More than the actual reason for the protest, Nestle's repsonse is evidently what hurt them most.  A later comment from a protestor said it best: "Hey PR moron. Thanks you are doing a far better job than we could ever achieve in destroying your brand." 

But what is a company to do when faced with such an organized attack via social media?

• Have a clear social media plan in place before jumping into the water. A good plan includes more than how often to send out messages, what those messages will be, and how to measure the public's response. A good, complete plan also involves setting and publishing clear policies for both the corporate representative and consumers in expected behavior (such as the rights to use logos, and a ban of inflammatory or offensive language) and having the right resources in place to deal with social media issues.

• Have a social media staff of experienced managers. Because social media is such a new practice, most companies make the mistake of assigning the work to interns or Gen Y staff fresh out of college. The idea is that people of that age are more in-tune with how social media works. That is a dangerous practice, as shown by the Nestle staffer's response. A manager with several years' experience dealing with marketing and PR issues, crisis management, or branding should always be involved in the company's response to any criticism online.

• Understand that your social media pages are not truly owned by you. Yes, with the capacity to shut off comments or even take down an entire page, you can somewhat control the content. But that will only push your criticizers to another site that is completely out of your control. Just as your brand identity is a combination of how you would like the public to see you and how they really do, your social media persona is also a mixture of what you present and the words of the community.

• Plan for the worst, even if you never have a crisis. Clearly, Nestle and its social media employee was not prepared for the onslaught of negative comments. After the childish responses, the company followed with more than 60 hours of silence before putting a more appropriately worded response on their corporate site. 

• Remember: The first rule of business should be to never insult the public. The second should be to always have a calm response to criticism, even if it is something as simple as "Thank you for your comments. We are looking into X and will release a statement by Y." And the third rule would be to then deliver on that promise. Respond when you say you will and be sure the response addresses the actual complaint and is not just a PR or marketing spin.

If Nestle had listened to consumer complaints years ago, they could have potentially avoided this entire brew-ha-ha (and had true fans leaving positive feedback on their Fan page today.) 

Read Original Article

COMCAST TOWN -Equal parts Second Life and Social Gaming with a dash of product placement.

Comcast Town is Goodby’s fun Sims-style (isometric view) game experience that allows users to choose a neighborhood and build their own space using the capabilities of (Comcasts) “Triple Play” bundle feature (TV, phone, internet).  Subtle.

Comcast Town allows users to express their identity visually using avatars, rather than just through written words. It also leverages social networks like Facebook and makes great use of Facebook Connect integration for a fluid user-experience. 

View Recent Comcast Town TV “Future Hopping” Ad

Visit Comcast Town

by Goodby Silverstein and Partners, working together with Nexus Productions and Unit9.

CASE STUDY: STARBUCKS SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Let's get this straight right away: Return on investment in social media is not measured in how many friends you have on Facebook or how many followers you have on Twitter. It's not calculated in trending topics or YouTube comments. It should, in fact, be held to the same criteria other marketing channels are: Did it move your business?

It's done just that at Starbucks, which is a digital marketer worth watching. No one would have guessed at that turn of events during the chain's dark days of early 2008. Sales and traffic had begun to slip for the first time in its history as a public company. Founder Howard Schultz, returning to handle day-to-day management, even admitted that Starbucks had lost its soul.

As part of Mr. Schultz's multifaceted turnaround plan, the chain launched MyStarbucksIdea.com in July 2008 as a forum for consumers to make suggestions, ask questions and, in some cases, vent their frustrations. The website now has 180,000 registered users. Some 80,000 ideas have been submitted, 50 of which have been implemented in-store.

Chris Bruzzo, Starbucks' VP-brand content and online, said amassing Starbucks' 5.7 million Facebook fans and 775,000 Twitter followers could be tougher for a dental-floss brand. "Maybe we have an unfair advantage because in so many ways Starbucks and the store experience is like the original social network," he said. 

Consumers "come in, hang out and talk to our store partners. They sort of got to know us as a brand in a very social way." But he's quick to point out that Starbucks' advantage could easily have been squandered. "If we had approached it not from 'what you know and love about Starbucks' but as a marketing channel, we would have taken this down a path that would have been very different," he said. "This was not [built as a] marketing channel, but as a consumer relationship-building environment." More important than the number of fans, however, is that the coffee chain is beginning to see sales lifts following social-media promotions.

Results


Starbucks posted its first U.S. same-store sales gain in two years for the last quarter during a time when the company relied on digital and social-media promotions instead of what had become an annual TV blitz. The chain partnered with Pandora to sponsor holiday playlists, staged a Facebook sing-a-long and leveraged its partnership with Project RED to drive traffic to a dedicated microsite -- and its stores, offering a free CD with a $15 purchase.

Mr. Bruzzo said that the company is benefitting from a trend "toward this intersection between digital and physical." "We're seeing the beginning of that," he said. "The experiences you have online can translate to rich offline experiences."

The first time Mr. Bruzzo noticed this intersection was on Starbucks' "Free Pastry Day" last summer, when consumers could visit the company website or its Facebook page and download a voucher for a free pastry. Mr. Bruzzo, who visited multiple stores that day, said he was amazed at the number of people standing in line holding coupons they'd printed out. He said the impetus for free pastries was the volume of faithful online followers asking to be included on new products or other company news.

The secret to Starbucks' social-media success is, at least in part, the fact that it plays it cool. "It's not like we started our Facebook community, got to a million people and started pushing offers at them," he said. "We built up a community of people who enjoy engaging with our photo albums from our trip to Rwanda, who loved to have these shared moments around their favorite drinks." Then, fans started asking the company what was going on, and how they could be included.

'Straight scoop’ An added benefit of Starbucks' social-media progress has been the ability to quickly manage rumors that could have dogged the company for days. Last January, a story spread that Starbucks was donating its profits in Israel to fund the country's army -- even though Starbucks doesn't have any cafés in Israel. These days, Mr. Bruzzo said, when misinformation gets out, it's easier to nip it in the bud.

Internally, it's called the "embassy strategy." Starbucks strives to make MyStarbucksIdea and its Facebook and Twitter pages places that "when you go there you know you're going to get the straight scoop," he said.

After ceding its usual first-to-market status to competitors, Starbucks launched two iPhone apps in September, one for general café purposes, with store locators, details about specific blends and nutrition information, and the other to support its loyalty card. Moving forward, Mr. Bruzzo said the company will be looking for ways that consumers can connect with each other from inside the apps.

In the meantime, Starbucks is testing functionality that allows loyalty-card holders to pay with their phones. Starbucks' agencies are BBDO, PHD and Blast Radius.

Starbucks tweeter in chief

Unlike many marketers, Starbucks doesn't run its Twitter feed out of its PR department. The chain's voice on Twitter is Brad Nelson, 28, a former barista who rose through its IT ranks.  When the company was looking for ideas to re-engage with its core customer in 2008, Mr. Nelson suggested that he begin a Twitter handle for the brand, and it now has 775,000 followers. The brand relies on the 28-year old to translate the Starbucks experience for the online community, search out confused or disgruntled consumers, chat about store offerings and even crack jokes.

Chris Bruzzo, VP-brand, content and online, said that Starbucks was beginning to institute its turnaround plan in early 2008 when Mr. Nelson announced he was ready for something new and wanted to get involved in the chain's online efforts.

"I sent him away and said 'Fine, sure,'" Mr. Bruzzo said. But about two weeks later, Mr. Nelson gave him a presentation about Twitter and the opportunity to communicate directly with consumers as questions arise. Mr. Nelson sweetened his pitch by adding, "It's a lot like being a barista on the internet." Mr. Bruzzo recalls greenlighting the project, and after a period of working with Mr. Nelson, let him loose on Twitter.

Mr. Bruzzo gives credit to Mr. Nelson and his "willingness to take smart risks," but shares some of the kudos for Starbucks. "I guess you have to have a brand like this and an environment that's open to innovation and someone like Brad with the passion and personality."

Now Starbucks is finding more ways to use Mr. Nelson. He took a weeklong cross-country drive last fall with comedienne Erin Foley and an Edelman entourage to help launch Via. The group made stops for a web series along the way, passing out product samples.

Read original article.

BIG-ASS MESSAGE GENERATOR GOES VIRAL

Not that we ever tire of covering the most lavishly integrated campaigns spread across multiple touch points, it's just that sometimes, it's nice to be dealt an unbranded distraction.  It was therefore with disproportionate glee, that we began playing with bigassmessage.com - a glorious waste of time. 

Check out www.bigassmessage.com

By visiting the site, users can input their own 48-character message, which is then made 'big-ass' with its own URL for sharing with friends/victims/loved ones. There are four different display themes to choose from: Basic, Magic (the magic being that the flashing screen will trigger a seizure if you stare at it for too long), Pepsi (in which certain letters are substituted for the brand's infamously revised logo) and Jeopardy (think the typeface used in the iconic gameshow). 

Props to Björn Johansson (formerly of farfar, Stockholm and now at Ogilvy, New York) who created the site. Be sure to head over to the homepage of creative collective Bjernie's Fast Food to check out more of his deviant side projects.  

Read Original Article

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. 

FACEBOOK METRICS MOVING BEYOND INSIGHTS

Facebook has released an ad conversion tracking tool to a limited set of advertisers.  As Facebook describes the service, “Conversion tracking allows you to track activity that happens on your website as a result of someone on Facebook seeing or clicking your Facebook Ad.”

The new service will allow Advertisers the ability to assign a specific value to an action on their own websites and effectively determine the ROI of their Facebook advertising campaigns. This also promises to save a lot of time for advertisers who currently need to dump their data into spreadsheets and cross-reference that data when tracking ad spend ROI (return on investment).  Once the ad conversion tracking tool is fully released to all, Advertisers will be able to track conversions, tag conversion values, and a SKU codes.  Also, rather than providing the type of conversion funnel tracking provided through Google Analytics, Facebook is recommending that, “advertisers use a series of SKU codes for each page on your site”.

Facebook has realized that the more tools they can provide to advertisers, the more likely advertisers will be to spend money on the platform in the future.   And then there was light. ;)

View Conversion Tracking Tutorial (Slideshare)

CHEVROLET TESTS THREE SOCIAL-MEDIA APPLICATIONS AT SXSW

Chevrolet, exclusive automotive sponsor of SXSW music, film and interactive festival for the next three years, will use its freshman presence to get ideas on best practices and emerging technologies in social media. More important to Goodbuzz, Chevrolet is also using the show to test three social-media applications.

The first is a mobile location app from Austin-based Gowalla that tells a cell phone user's contacts where he or she is. When Gowalla users check in at various locations in Austin, they will get text messages with offers from Chevrolet and SXSW, such as a free ride in a new Equinox for those who use Gowalla when they get to the airport.

Chevrolet will also use Quick Response (QR) codes to tout the three vehicles it is featuring at the show. When mobile phone users photograph QR codes on the display vehicles, they will open a microsite detailing vehicle features.  Users who download the Chevrolet iReveal Augmented Reality AR application, available in Beta form, will be able to unlock three-dimensional models of Chevrolet vehicles. The application will provide key specifications of the vehicles, and insert the virtual image of the car over the actual streetscape viewed through the smart phone camera lens.

Finally, Chevrolet will run a team-based road rally called "See the USA in your Chevrolet: A SXSW Road Trip," in which teams will drive to Austin from various places like New York and San Diego while completing missions selected by followers on Twitter, and using social media and user-generated content to record their trips. 

The GM division will have a Chevrolet Volt Recharging Station for digital devices and a fleet of Camaros, Equinoxes, Malibus, and Traverses for conference attendees. Chevrolet will also offer rides to and from downtown, to exclusive events, and restaurants.  “The idea is to contribute to what people are there to do rather than brand all over the place."  All we can say is "Go GM!" ;)

Doritos® Viralocity | User-Generated Content (UGC) Contest

Kudos to BBDO Toronto (as this campaign is near perfect).  Like the site identifies, the "Internet is good for so many things. But let’s face it. It’s the daily joy of ridiculous wedding dance entrances, cuddly kittens, giggling babies, post-dentist dopiness, and the always-popular person falling down, that keeps us logging on again and again."


Doritos® Viralocity however, may make you super famous and super rich at the same time.  Just name the newest unidentified Doritos® flavour. Make a viral video about it. Then, use your Internet savvy to help your video go real viral, real fast. And that, my friends, is what Doritos® Viralocity is all about.    Visit the site.

Targeting the Influencer: The Ripples of Social Media