Brands like Levi's, Amazon, and Diesel are relying on the "F-Factor" and focusing on their fans' social experience of making a purchase or using a product. - ConversationAgent
The Washington Post is launching Trove -- a personalized, social news site that aggregates news according to subjects of interest, important daily headlines, and Facebook likes and dislikes from more than 10,000 sources. - TechCrunch
According to Visibli's study, Audi and American Airlines top the list of most engaging Facebook pages. For every 100,000 fans, Audi is averaging 228 likes per post, while American Airlines averages 128. - ClickZ
Fast Society App - Whether a group conference call or sending a text message to everyone at once. Reach everyone at once by simply texting a single number - or shout out to all with a recorded voice message. This could be a nice campaign add-on - App
The New York Times' R&D Group's 'Project Cascade' - The tool visualizes "how information propagates through the social media space." With it, users can see the lifecycle of a news sharing conversation, the connection between readers and publishers, and the most influential sharers and contributors to a conversation -Video
Renault connects Facebook using RFID - Renault placed specially made Facebook pillars in front of the Renault cars. By holding their event pass in front of these pillars, a connection was made to the users profile and the car was "shared" on their FB wall- Video
Molson Coors Canada brought their Silver Bullet Express icon to life with a three-month campaign that followed the train and its activities on YouTube and Facebook. - Marketing Magazine
NIKE FOOTBALL’S ‘Zuperfly’ campaign site (http://bit.ly/i3tajf) and social integration (by Naked Communications, Sweden) is a fantastic mix of creativity, interactivity and technology. Also well integrated socially via Facebook
Procter & Gamble's Pepto Bismol brand is celebrating Cinco de Mayo with a YouTube app that lets users customize their own smashing piñata video and share it on Facebook and Twitter. - YouTube
By engaging shoppers with videos, photos, and special offers, Victoria's Secret and its Pink brand became two of the most liked retail brands on Facebook in March. - Internet Retailer
Orange's 'Predict-A-Chick' Campaign - Orange was running a cool little campaign called Predict-A-Chick on TheFeed, streaming a live hatchling lab of about 17 numbered chicken eggs that would become a real-time guessing game for “First to Hatch” and even things the “Loudest Tweeter” – Video
Turner Broadcasting System's TruTV has created the first Facebook-only full-length episode as the fans' reward for reaching 500,000 likes on the "Operation Repo" Facebook page. - Ad Age
Reebok is releasing The Promise Keeper -- a new mobile application that keeps track of your scheduled runs and shares with friends on Facebook or Twitter whether or not you've completed them. - HotHardware
Brands like Levi's, Amazon, and Diesel are relying on the "F-Factor" and focusing on their fans' social experience of making a purchase or using a product. - ConversationAgent
On the Merits of the UX Designer - Who doesn't love a good UX design? Video
The Washington Post is launching Trove -- a personalized, social news site that aggregates news according to subjects of interest, important daily headlines, and Facebook likes and dislikes from more than 10,000 sources. - TechCrunch
PepsiCo's Quaker brand is donating two million bowls of oatmeal to help feed Canadians in need after fans created the goal of 25,000 virtual breakfast bowls on Facebook. - Social Media Release
SEA LIFE's 'RAINCAMPAIGN' - Here's a clever aquarium ad (from FRESH GREEN ADS, Holland) that appears on the sidewalk - but only when it rains. Of course, in the Netherlands it rains over 240 days of the year, so not at all a wasted effort - Video
Livestrong 'Break Cancer' Campaign Case Study - Here's an impressive Butler Bros campaign that aligned multiple constituents, garnered more than 10 world records, and over 10 million social impressions. Video
Reporters Without Borders Print Ads That Really Speak to You - Just scan the QR code with your iPhone and place the phone over the leader's mouth in the print ad. The voice turns out to be a journalist discussing media censorship in that particular country - More
For more articles and posts from the last week please visit both @goodbuzz and @disruptbureau. If you have info, articles, case studies or other examples of 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.
NBC is launching ‘NBC Live’ a live social stream of conversation that allows fans to interact with each other and the NBC staff during the airings of prime-time shows. - TV Guide
Magnum 'Pleasure Hunt Across The Internet' - This multi-site Advergame concept's (Lowe Brindfors) been done a few times before (i.e. Lynx Party Across The Internet) but still works – Video
Carlsberg launched their latest global digital campaign (apparently as a tribute to 2008 creative) with a Facebook app that invites users to type in a transmission, upload their photo and even send a message to friends (from the moon) using text-to-voice and face mapping - Site
The Diesel Brand and the Cult of Stupidity - The Diesel brand was born more than 20 years ago and today is present in over 80 countries with 10,000 points of sale. Here's a look at the 'stupid' brand – Overview
Zappos, Ford, Cree, and Hasbro are among the top big brands the Social Media Examiner highlights as implementing innovative social media marketing. - Social Media Examiner
The billboard (near the Holland Tunnel in downtown Manhattan) says "Today I'm feeling (blank)" By downloading the 'magic' (aka GoldRun) for your iPhone - you can see (via AR) your animated emoticon on the billboard. Imagine the possibilities – Video
Forsman & Bodenfors have done it again with this app for Reebok. If you schedule a run using the app - and don't do it - the app busts your balls and tells all your friends what a slackass you are using social media. Come to think of it, that may just work – Video
Clarisonic's Director of Cause Marketing, Lou Yaseen, discusses how they are keeping fans interested and engaged after the success of their Facebook cause marketing campaign. - eMarketer
Aston Martin released their latest mobile App that’s as innovative as the product itself - featuring retina display graphics, multi channel audio recordings, exclusive content, and advanced telemetry technology – Overview
Wrigley brand 5 Gum used Twitter and other digital channels to promote its sponsorship of last weekend's Coachella Music Festival's live stream on YouTube. - SMI
This SAS Airlines Campaign (by CP+B Europe) was taken down by Facebook. It's no 'Whopper Sacrifice' - but still considered a success (with the results to prove it) – Overview
Bazooka Candy shares how The Topps Company gained over 12,600 page likes in ten hours after the release of their new product, "Sweet Tweets," on Facebook. - ClickZ
Mitch Joel's (Six Pixels of Separation) presentation of his 2011 talk on Social Commerce and the Rise of the New Consumer - Video
Electronic Arts is promoting the release of their new game, Battlefield 3, by prompting fans to like their Facebook page and unlock a sneak-preview video. - OSM
Everything you ever wanted to know about Social Media - White Paper - Scribd
The 'Razorfish 5' Report identifies five technologies changing our current landscape - Report
Procter & Gamble is celebrating Pampers' 50th birthday with a new program, "Little Miracle Missions." Fans are encouraged to share their own little miracle stories and photos or make a pledge to the mission on Facebook. - MediaPost
Everything you ever wanted to know about Facebook commerce but were afraid to ask - Report
Reebok shares how customer feedback on blogs and Facebook inspired their new product social strategy. - AdWeek
Heineken 'Tastebuddies' Case Study - a concept created specifically to fit into (and not over-commercialize) the Flow Festival in Helsinki – Overview
BMW’s EVolve App helps users track their daily driving habits and after three trips will start evidencing EV compatibility, create manual trips, plug in mobile app data and use an EV Dashboard – More
As a part of the "Terminal 2 Takeover" campaign, Virgin America is encouraging passengers to check-in at their new San Francisco International terminal via Facebook and Foursquare. - Planegrazy
Toyota is teaming up with Electric Arts to feature their Prius vehicles as virtual gifts in the Facebook social game, "MONOPOLY Millionaires." - MSN Money
Here's a fun little 'brandwashing' project from Swedish design artist Viktor Hertz – More
These clever interactive Bus shelters with digital billboards, pressure sensors, and mock electrocardiogram monitors that are flat-lining (by LG2) certainly get your attention – Overview
Facebook just launched a stand-alone community site where ad agency creative-types (like YOU) can share ideas, insights, and comment on campaigns – Site
Have you ever suspected you have a big melon but weren’t sure how to leverage it for advantage? Volkswagen Passat’s latest website (by Achtung, NL) literally allows you go head-to-head against your LinkedIn contact list using your profiles head size – Website
This Best Buy app (by Crispin Porter + Bogusky) tries to extend a clear product upgrade path (and build loyalty at the same time) – App
The Diesel brand was born more than 20 years ago and is today an innovative international design company, manufacturing jeans and casual clothing as well as accessories. It is present in over 80 countries with 10,000 points of sale and almost 50 company-owned stores.
From the very beginning, Diesel’s design team rejected the slavish trend-following typical of the fashion industry, turned their backs on the style-dictators and consumer forecasters of the fashion establishment and let their own tastes lead them. In short, the company viewed the world as a single, border-less macro-culture. Today Diesel is a global brand with a consolidated annual turnover of 575 billion Lire (US$ 330 millions), 85% of which is generated outside Italy.
From an agency standpoint, we can only imagine that working on a Diesel campaign would be a great deal of fun. The Diesel brand seems to acknowledge the stupidity of brands at large (and life and general) becoming a parody and caricature of itself - a mirror to the absurdity of the human condition.
The essence of all Diesel creative is fun, clever innovation with a touch of mischief - and despite being a global brand Diesel's 'Be Stupid' campaign has provided some breakthrough work in different markets around the world. You may remember Diesel’s ‘Safe For Work Fruity Porn’ (below) or the recent ‘Diesel Island’ campaign.
The latest example is Diesel’s recent promotion of its footwear in Japan. Diesel wanted to offer consumers a chance to enjoy being stupid, while communicating a 'kick ass' theme to its young, fashion-conscious target audience. So what’s so different about Diesel shoes? You guessed it. They are superior for 'kicking ass’. So how do they evidence this simple insight while generating buzz and peaking interest across social networks?
If Diesel sneakers were made for kicking ass (a cultural faux-pas in Japan) then the most obvious choice was to give shoppers the opportunity to test the brand's claim. A 'Kick Ass Hall' was built at the Nagisa Music Festival where Diesel turned the idea of ‘kicking ass’ into a game. In said game, participants competed to see how far they could kick a willing volunteer (dubbed 'the Asser') down a short track.
The incentive? A pair of Diesel sneakers of course to the contestant who succeeded in kicking the Asser the farthest down the track. We should note that the role of ‘Asser’ came with an attractive remuneration package of ¥50,000 per day and the ‘Asser’ recruitment exercise served to generate even more PR hype before the event.
RESULTS
- The ‘Asser’ recruitment story was ranked the top new story for several days on Mixi news, the largest social network in Japan.
- PR coverage equivalent to more than ¥30,000,000, was generated during the course of the campaign, which included coverage in both online and print.
- More than 3,300 tweets were received during the campaign phase.
- Diesel received more than 4,960 applications from prospective ‘Assers’
- All activities generated buzz and product interest all while reinforcing the brand attributes.
THE BIG PICTURE? Agencies are increasingly incorporating tech talent into the creative process and building tech expertise inside and outside client relationships in order to produce integrated campaigns that effectively use social media, apps, mobile and viral video.
The Desperados YouTube Experience – it’s über Social, viral, interactive and extremely well executed across multiple properties – Site
Morgan Spurlock’s TED Talk - naturally, Spurlock put the naming rights to this TED speech up for bid on eBay—and got a company to pay $7,100 - Video
GM is taking the extra step to start a conversation and interact with fans with a personalized presence at SXSW - Faces of GM
Here’s a great example of branded utility - Belgium's Flair Magazine's Facebook App lets women tag a friend's outfit and ask where she got it – Video Overview
Radio Shack discusses how their Foursquare fans typically spend three-and-a-half times more compared to what their non-Foursquare customers spend - ClickZ
Hyundai Accent's 3D Projection Mapping integrates the car into the installation – Video
Skittles' new "Touch the Rainbow" campaign features a variety of interactive videos on their YouTube channel, including the viral "Touch: Cat" video - brandchannel
Xbox Kinect’s 'Design your own Souvenir' - of YOU! Using openFrameworks and openKinect, in combination with 3 Xbox Kinect’s, this installation delivered a 360 degree point cloud that could then be extruded in real time with a 3D printer – Video Overview
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is engaging with fans directly on Foursquare, Twitter, and YouTube. Recently, they changed their flight schedule to accommodate a fan's tweet request and the result was a world record, in-flight dance party - Social Times
RED BULL's STREET ART VIEW – Using Google Street View to showcase street art (i.e. graffiti) all over the globe. Tag your favorite spot, share it with friends and help build the world's largest art collection – Site
"Best in Class" finalists for Bazaarvoice's 2011 Social Commerce Summit include RUBBERMAID, 3M, DOMINO'S, ESTEE LAUDER COMPANIES, HP, AND MACY'S - Social Commerce Summit
Clients From Hell – An online collection of anonymously contributed client horror stories from designers – Site
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Charleston District, share their uses for social media ranging from project updates to recruiting purposes - SmartBlogs
The GOAB TV Experience - This app transforms your handset (tablet/mobile) into a socially and commercially-enabled TV remote. The app brings the possibility of user interaction within television to life with a look at how social integration may work in the future – Video
State Farm has launched a new social networking page for Latinos on Facebook that features bilingual posts and partnerships with Telemundo.com and Tu Musica - MediaPost
'Seattle's Best' (Starbucks subsidiary) is hosting a live 24-hour show dubbed the "Declare Your Level Show" with famed comedy troupe Second City - Article
Scholz & Volkmer (Berlin) are launching a new campaign for Adidas where they are staging a live “interactive” online competition for 5 days where FB fans will be able to control everything a German player does (who wants to become the 12th man of FC Bayern) – Website
GameStop is launching a Facebook-based store called ShopStore that will allow fans to browse merchandise and make purchases directly from the Facebook application - CNET
Clever Chromaroma turns London's transport infrastructure turned into a dynamic multiplayer gameplay experience – Video Overview
Research in Motion is giving away a BlackBerry PlayBook tablet to the fan with the best haiku submitted on Twitter - Twitter
REI share how they are using location-based check-ins to build relationships and drive sales - Vimeo
Have Case Studies or other examples to share? Join us on Facebook and post or e-mail us and we'd be happy to do so.
The big picture? Agencies are increasingly incorporating tech talent into the creative process and building tech expertise inside and outside client relationships in order to produce integrated campaigns that effectively use social media, apps, mobile and viral video.
Hasbro, the board game maker, developed an app that turns your social network into one big Facebook-powered game of 'Guess Who?' - Video
Miracle Whip – ‘Haters Gonna Hate’ Campaign embraces peoples polarizing reactions to generate buzz and pique interest taking the unusual route of offering an online forum to consumers who both love and hate the product - Video
Organic brands Stonyfield Farm and Honest Tea are teaming up for a contest that encourages fans to submit videos about why organics are important to them - JustDrinkOrganic.com
Nissan's Accidental Test Drive - Car dealers have to get extremely creative these days to get people to take the all-important test-drive - even if that means accidentally blocking them in – Video
Search for places nearby using Google Maps, monitor your driving efficiency or even update your Facebook and Twitter status. MINI USA demonstrate their advanced integration between physical and digital worlds with ‘Connected’ - making it one with the MINI's hi-res cockpit display – Video
Absolut Vodka's campaign, "The Stoop Life Movement," has been honored with PRWeek's "Consumer Launch Campaign of the Year Award." The campaign featured Brooklyn blogger outreach, fans' personal stoop stories, and local partnerships to drive engagement - PRWeek
Starbucks and MTV are using ‘Instagram’ (a photo sharing mobile application) to offer fans exclusive behind-the-scene views (that can be easily shared across the social space) - 360 Digital Influence
Volkswagen (Australia's) 'Boot Tetris' Campaign took over shopping centers and 71 VW dealerships across Australia engaging more then 17,000 people (and exceeding sales targets by 25%) – Video
Tipp-Ex's video (highly viral and interactive with 16,014,627 views) video plays off of your expectations of YouTube's functionality – Video
EA SPORTS is using a new Facebook app that gives fans an exclusive view of the Augusta National golf course to promote their new video game - Facebook
H&R Block, Comcast, Southwest Airlines, Zappos, and Whole Foods Market were among the top ten companies named in Time Magazine's ‘140 Best Twitter Feeds’ - TIME
The successful PEDIGREE Adoption Drive for Dogs features Facebook Ads and PR activities and has led to the donation of more than 1.2 million bowls of food to shelters across the U.S. Read the Case Study
In the spirit of April Fools, Molson Coors announced the sophomoric ‘tongue koozie’ by partnering with a Canadian lifestyle blogger - Casie Stewart
Major League Baseball has named Mike O'Hara as their official Social Media Ambassador to run the new MLB ‘Fan Cave’ and manage all of the league's social media correspondence - MLB.com
MATTEL goes guerrilla and wows with disruptive creative billboards – More
Winners and runner-ups from BtoB Magazine's second annual Social Media Marketing Awards are open to public voting for the "People's Choice Award." The finalists include EMC, Cisco Systems, Microsoft, Firehouse.com, LexisNexis, and Omni Hotels & Resorts - BtoB Magazine
InterContinental Hotels Group shares how IHG used online communities to jumpstart its global social media programs - Vimeo
Many companies offer discounts and deals on Facebook, but Expedia is giving away $1 million in prizes (including five trips that cost more than $100,000) - More
Getting an extreme “social” makeover, the SKITTLES home page has been converted to a twitter search - targeted to the word #skittles from any twitter post – Website
Ford, CBS, PepsiCo, Best Buy, and Procter & Gamble are all using social media to keep fans interested and engaged in their brand - Fast Company Design
3LiveShop (by B-Reel) allows you and the sales person to see and talk to each other while the sales person demonstrates products and services to you (just like on a video conference – only better.) – Video
TOYOTA Prius turns its hand to real-time record breaking. Over two days - March 30th and 31st, 2011 - Toyota Prius attempted to break 200 World Records - Video
Director Chris Milk's Interview at the Creativity and Technology Conference CaT (London 2010) talks about the evolution of Storytelling using digital tools - Video
DDB° Paris created a billboard for TROPICANA completely powered by oranges. Electricity is generated by attaching 2,500 oranges to wood fitted with zinc and copper spikes - Video
PLAYTEX Sport’s ‘Unstoppable Moves’ (UGC) Campaign (by Social Control) encourages users to upload their best moves, make a video mash-up and view submissions on their YouTube Channel. For this effort they donate $5 to the Women’s Sports Foundation – More
The Customer Service Happiness Manifesto by John O’Nolan – Article
Coca-Cola brand Fanta's Chase 3D Projection Mapping (by Ogilvy) stunt at Dubai Mall definitely gets your attention – Video
