SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V45.0]

Neiman Marcus is launching their new Rachel Zoe Collection with a unique interactive Facebook challenge that encourages fans to share their own fashion submissions with friends. - PRWeb   

A virtual Milla Jovovich serves as shoppers' guide through Ermenegildo Zegna's new 3D virtual store - a two-floor digital boutique, where you can browse and actually buy items. The project was notably designed by James Lima (a visual consultant on Avatar) -  Website  

Job searching is going social with Monster's recently launched BeKnown -- an application that lets users set up a professional network on Facebook. - Forbes  

Bing + Jay-Z 'Decode' Case Study of the Microsoft 'Bing' and Jay-Z's 'Decode' launch (by Droga5) that garnered an 11.7% increase (Bing) in one month and over 1.1 billion media impressions - Video  

Discovery look at how their social media team regularly engages over 36 million fans on their 70 Facebook pages. - All Facebook  

BMW 1M - Helipad - MPowered Performance - Part 2 - BMW Canada have released their second video (BMW 1M vs Helipad), which has had over 50,000 views (at time of posting) in a few short days  - Video  

World of ‘Fourcraft’ - The boroughs of New York City become the playing field for a giant game of digital Risk called 'World of Fourcraft'. Fourcraft was conceived during Game Hack Day NYC 2011 and requires players to log in to the game site, swear their allegiance to a specific NY borough, then 'check in' via Foursquare to conquer various neighborhoods’ – Website 

Aunt Jemima brand is engaging fans with Twitter parties, blogger breakfasts, and Facebook goodies -- including coupons, recipes, photos, and behind-the-scenes videos. - Adweek 

Microsoft has created a new way of sharing advertisements using Xbox's voice command feature. Users simply say "Xbox tweet" during an ad and the message is sent to friends via Twitter. - The New York Times   

PEUGOT's "Take the Car" Campaign - Peugot’s website's (by Volt Stockholm) visitors were challenged to click and hold their mouse button on a car they wanted—and the person who held on the longest (some lasted up to 15 hours) got to drive it for a week – Video  

Carnival Cruise Lines used Facebook to run a quiz-based sweepstakes that featured 11 videos with cruise director interacting with fan questions and posts. - ClickZ  

Are your font choices lacking inspiration of late? 'So you need a Typeface' is a project by Julian Hansen that will hopefully assist – Infographic  

Social Media Revolution (V3.0) - Here's something to add to your deck - the latest (V3.0) installment of Socialnomic’s “Social Media Revolution” completely updated with the latest statistics (as of June 2011) – Video  

Beginning with the Dave Matthews Band Caravan, Jeep is touring with a variety of artists this summer and posting live tweets and updates along the way. - PR Newswire  

Farmers Insurance's return to FarmVille gained them a record-breaking 2 million new fans on Facebook in just 24 hours. - Why Farmers Platinum?  

TESCO's (Korean Subway) Virtual Store Promotion - Korean consumers and TESCO grocery stores via a virtual store shelf and subway stations. Users simply scanned the QR code of the product and the products will be delivered to the customer’s door the same day – Video  

American Express customers can now link their cards to their Foursquare account for special offers at participating restaurants and retailers. - Fast Company  

DELTA AIR LINES' share how they are engaging with customers in new ways using social media. - Vimeo   

Diesel's 'DSLTAG' Campaign - A Cannes Future Lions 2011 finalist - this innovative platform lets you promote your favourite band by creating your own Diesel T-shirt with a customizable QR code (linked to a Grooveshark playlist) - Video  

Have you ever wondered how the rest of the world uses Social Media? Infographic  

"The Verbalizer" - Breakfast NY takes Google's Voice Search for a Spin building an open source dev board to inspire people to build their own useful and wacky contraptions to take Google’s Voice Search to another level – Video  

The 'BUMP-A-SMOKE' App by Miami Ad School students leveraged existing technologies (‘Bump’), solved the problem, and garnered some (good and bad) attention in the process - Overview   

NOTE: For more articles and posts from the last week please visit us on Twitter at both @goodbuzz and @disruptbureau.  Also, 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.

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SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V44.0]

Molson Coors is encouraging fans to join their ‘Molson Canadian Red Leaf Project’ by volunteering at summer events, planting virtual trees (that will later translate into real trees), and sharing their green citizenry on Twitter and Facebook - Red Leaf Project 

Sony and Intel are teaming up to challenge fans in ‘Project Shiphunt’ -- an online game involving Google Earth where players use virtual sonar to search the oceans for sunken treasure - Facebook 

Volkswagen’s ‘Think Blue’ initiative aligns like-minded people – More 

Oakley's "You Vs _" Experience -Campaign pits you against sponsored riders in a clever, collaborative, competitive, interactive POV, socially integrated experience. Bravo Big Balls and rehabstudio, London - very impressive work – Website 

'The Science of Social Timing' - When is the optimal time to post your content? This Infographic on Social Timing' should help - More 

Southwest Airlines discusses how they are connecting with customers by sharing behind-the-scenes and breaking news stories - Social Media Examiner 

’Pay with a Tweet’ - A social payment system - 'The world's first social payment system' - Christian Behrendt and Leif Abraham Pay with a Tweet idea got 13,000+ downloads in the first 24 hours, and the 'Pay With A Tweet' button is now used by brands like Greenpeace and Microsoft – Website 

eBay is launching a social sharing function that allows users to find products and drag them to their Facebook page where friends can vote and offer comments on the selection - DMNews 

MINI MAPS - Google Maps Racing Advergame - Here's a cool Facebook app that lets you customise a virtual MINI and then challenge Facebook friends to time trials via a Google Maps mash-up (by DDB Paris & Unit9) – YouTube or English version also available.

For those not allowed to social network while at the office, Diesel has created a "Be Stupid at Work" application that disguises your Facebook account as an Excel spreadsheet - Adweek

Google has launched "Me on the Web" -- a social networking profile that allows users to manage all of their social network accounts from Google's social networking profiles - ReadWriteWeb

ASOS Fashion Marketplace – “The Global Fashion Democracy” by Profero is the UK’s largest fashion store.  Here’s their new website.

After reaching over 10 million users, Foursquare announced its most popular brands, including Old Navy, Bank of America, 7-Eleven, The Home Depot, and Target - Foursquare 

McDonald's is challenging New York's boroughs and surrounding metro communities to see which neighborhood can participate the most on Foursquare, Twitter, and Facebook during their "Toast Your Town" campaign - ClickZ

Hotels.com's latest campaign (www.tripyourface.com) is like "Elf yourself" on steroids. It's a clever, collaborative, and socially integrated experience that let's you and your friends travel to Vegas to star in a Vanilla Ice video and attend an after-party tickle-fight with Dennis Rodman!? Equally wonky 'trips' are available in NYC and Paris. Hmmmm – Website

GE is using Instagram and Tumblr to give fans a unique inside look at their research labs, manufacturing plants, and archives from the last 130 years - The GE Show

Using Facebook 'Places' to Recycle - Coca-Cola (Israel) added over 10,000 new “recycling bins” to the Facebook Places index, and challenged fans to check-in at any recycling bin and take a photo of themselves to help promote social recycling –YouTube 

USA TODAY shares how they made charity cooler than Justin Bieber with their #AmericaWants Twitter campaign - Vimeo

Snapshot: 60 Seconds on the Internet - Infographic 

If you (like many of our co-workers) are now hacking KINECT and creating all new gesture-based applications to delight and amaze - you're going to like these - http://bit.ly/msaakw and http://bit.ly/iY3T3R.

Intel presents "The Escape" – An immersive, interactive and extremely well executed experience with intelligent use of social (collaboration and integration), QR codes, mobile and more - YouTube 

Try and get a teenager to run anywhere and you’ll quickly realize that more then a Nike+ mobile app is required. Nike Running understands this and is trying to make running more fun, creative, and socially rewarding with their latest (by BoondoggleNL).  http://youtu.be/unJSk7pftZ0 and http://bit.ly/lkeVEO

NOTE: For more articles and posts from the last week please visit us on Twitter at both @goodbuzz and @disruptbureau.  Also, 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.

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Mobile Apps To Help You Plan The Perfect Summer Trip

Wanderfly can help planning your trip by recommending destinations based on your interests, price range and dates. They'll provide you with a dream vacation...that you can actually afford. Visit Wanderfly 

TripIt helps you get your trip research and itineraries under control and into one place for easy access. You can even book restaurants, theater tickets or activities from within the site. Visit TripIt 

Weatherspark lets you look up years of past weather data to see what weather is really like during certain times of year. It can help ensure that the highlight of your vacation isn't cable re-runs. Visit Weatherspark 

AirBnB connects people who have space to spare with those looking for a place to stay by letting you rent lodging directly from locals. It's a great way to save money and have a unique travel experience. Visit AirBnB 

The GasBuddy app searches prices at gas stations near your current location. The results are mapped so you can find the closest and cheapest refueling options. Download GasBuddy 

Using a smartphone abroad? Onavo can help you avoid a mammoth phone bill. It cuts down on the downloading required to use your favorite apps with cloud technology. Download Onavo 

WikiMe for iPhone indexes Wikipedia articles about local points of interest, and then uses GPS and geotagging to show you those articles when you're nearby. It's like a pocket tourguide. Download WikiMe 

Vayable lets you hire a local to give you a guided tour of his or her home city, on a subject your guide knows and loves. Tours cover everything from sailing excursions in CA to pizza tours of NYC. Visit Vayable 

Postagram lets you send postcards made from your own photos right from your cell phone. For just $.99 it's a super-easy way to share vacation pictures before you even get home. Download Postagram 

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Volkswagen’s ‘Think Blue’ initiative aligns like-minded people

Increasingly consumers are defining themselves by what and whom they associate with. To wit, what your brand represents is an integral part of peoples identity by association.  This brand ‘shorthand’ is a testament to ones beliefs and values. It’s a badge and by definition, is a characteristic mark, device (or token) especially of membership in a society or group.  It's also an imperative element to creating an aspirational identity that’s relevant to the consumer (and coincidentally the key in getting people to want to be associated with your brand.)

This is precisely why many savvy brands are focusing on social good today.   A great example is Volkswagen’s ‘Think Blue’ initiative. Volkswagen (Singapore) for example launched a multi-phased campaign centered on its ‘Think Blue’ philosophy of environmental conservation. ‘Think Blue’ is a global initiative from Volkswagen focused on encouraging eco-friendly behavior by making it fun.

The 360 degree campaign features a website promoting the first-ever social media driven virtual road trip integrated with Google Street View‘ – that let’s users invite friends along for the ride.  While educating the masses on the ‘Think Blue’ philosophy in a fun and interactive way, the website also brings people together on an online social road trip, a carefully planned journey that ushers the user through various checkpoints with games and interactions along the way.

Using several of Google’s Open API like Maps, direction and Street View together with Facebook and Twitter, users are invited to go on a virtual road trip with their Facebook friends. They are given options to choose a Volkswagen car, plan a route, and pick three Facebook friends to take along with them across the sunny island of Singapore. With this technological mashup, users can document their journey; mark checkpoints with a personalized message and the whole experience is compiled into a downloadable map, complete with a customized license plate and ‘photo’ of the user and his or her road trip buddies.

During their road trip, users will also get to sample a unique HTML5 multi-windowed gaming experience.  Conceived as fuel challenges, these games teach users how to ‘Think Blue’ while entertaining them with simple yet fun game mechanics. Users who ace all the fuel challenges even stand a chance to win a Volkswagen weekend drive.

 After all the action on the virtual road, users can take a backseat and learn more about the Volkswagen technologies that support the green philosophy. To inject more fun, Tribal DDB took to the idea of getting a child’s perspective and the immensely charming ‘Think Blue Tales’ were born - where users will hear a child’s take on Volkswagen cars and technologies. In the days ahead, users can also expect to hear “Think Blue. Tales” on national TV and radio.  To lets users play with the brand, users can sign up for Volkswagen’s Eco-driving Program through the website and learn fuel-efficient driving techniques from Volkswagen-certified driving instructors.

This is extremely powerful because Volkswagen isn’t just paying lip service to the very real concerns of pollution and global warming.  They have made a formal pledge to ‘Think Blue’ as a corporation and every Volkswagen employee has also made the pledge.  To further reinforce the point, the campaign even featured educational posters drawn by hand using recycled materials.  

Other internal initiatives include a ‘Think Blue’ committee made up of staff representatives from the various departments to explore and implement green ideas from employees, as well as e-mail signatures that remind recipients not to print their emails (and reinforce the value positioning of Volkswagen.

Kudos to Volkswagen (and Tribal DDB) - for making ‘less about the moment and more about the movement’.  They’ve successfully extended one powerful unifying, overarching idea (facilitated by the brand) that seeks to aggregate and align like-minded people by extending something other then (and bigger then) the brand itself. Very impressive indeed.

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SOCIAL MEDIA CASE STUDIES [GB_V43.0]

American Express, PepsiCo, and Disney share how they're using location-based services to connect with their fans. - Inc. Technology  

McDonald's discuss how they turned negative chatter on Twitter into a positive, trending experience for all of the restaurants' fans. - Chief Marketer 

During their 2011 Summer Scoop Truck Tour, Ben & Jerry's is delivering ice cream to local fans who tweet a request to stop near their locations. - Ben & Jerry's 

Orange who are becoming known for their creative uses of Twitter, are at it again with their campaign that has a movie voiceover guy reading tweets from fans. - Adweek  

MTV are exploring Tumblr, a platform they hope to use to feature niche content. - AdWeek 

InterContinental Hotels are welcoming and engaging guests directly on Twitter to ensure a pleasant stay. - Communications Passionista 

Boeing has launched a YouTube channel to give fans an inside look at how their products are designed, built, tested, and delivered. - YouTube 

An interesting evolution of social integration (at point-of-purchase), Diesel have introduced QR codes into their retail stores that enable customers to “Like” a product just by scanning a QR code (which then posts to your Facebook wall) – Video

 As a part of their Click For Kids campaign, Northwestern Mutual is donating a total of $200,000 to three nonprofits. Each time a fan likes their Facebook page, they are giving $10 to a nonprofit of the fan's choice. - Facebook 

According to a study by Buddy Media and L2 Think Tank - BMW, Clinique, Audi, and Lexus top the list of luxury brands on Facebook based on how they used the social networking site to grow their business. - Buddy Media Blog 

Paramount is using Twitter's Promoted Trends to drive movie ticket sales for Super 8 by offering sneak-peek viewings and easy access to tickets. - ClickZ 

JAYS.se's 'Behind The Wall' Promotion - To demonstrate the significant difference in binaural sound recordings (on Jays.se headphones) 10 interactive sound installations (by Hyper Island students) were placed around Stockholm providing listeners with a unique brand experience – Video 

Nike's newest campaign is encouraging athletes to submit videos of their team on Facebook. Winners will travel with the Nike team and will be determined by fan support, Nike, and Nike athletes. - EyeballHQ 

CNN incorporated social media into the GOP debate coverage by allowing viewers to comment on the issues via Twitter and Facebook. - SocialTimes 

JCPenney is challenging student designers to submit runway styles for today's modern women on YouTube so others can vote and pick the winning design. - YouTube 

To amplify the STOCKHOLM PRIDE FESTIVAL in a fun, viral way, a FB app (http://bit.ly/kXQ3li) was developed that allows users to (figuratively and metaphorically) "get on the bus" - by uploading their photo and sharing with friends. Kudos to Hyper Island's Mikael Näslund on his first live project at his Saatchi & Saatchi internship - Video

  

Procter & Gamble is giving Facebook Commerce another try and adding "shop" buttons to several of their brands' Facebook pages. - Ad Age 

As the championship series plays out, the NBA shares tips on how their social media team engages fans on Twitter and Facebook. - Fast Company 

Intel's new "Museum of Me" app lets fans create a visual archive of their social life by gathering photos, data, and quotes from their personal Facebook page. - PCWorld 

H&R Block shares how they are focusing their social site efforts on the customer experience - Vimeo 

Part of the chain’s in-store “Summer of Beer” push; T.G.I. Friday’s extended fans a “Buy a Beer” Facebook tab and app that allows users to send their Facebook friends a virtual gift card for a beer at T.G.I. Friday’s.  They’ve seen a 25% lift in page ‘likes’ since running the promotion - Facebook 

Tracking Down Twitter's Best Rumor Spreaders - A new approach could help marketers target users with the most influence – More 

Renault brought Facebook liking to life at the AutoRAI motorshow using RFID-equipped smartcards. Whenever a visitor liked the car they were viewing, they swiped their smartcard on the nearby reader and the action was updated on their Facebook page. - TNW 

The ROI of Social Media - Slideshare 

Tiffany & Co. is using Facebook, Twitter, Google Maps and other social tools to lure couples in-love to buy an engagement ring  - More 

'Diesel Cam' Facebook Integration - Interactive installations (by Fullsix) at Diesel Stores in Spain let customers share and show the garments they purchased (and tried on) with their Facebook profile from the store –Video 

Magnotes' by Sharpie - Social Annotations - A 2011 Future Lions finalist, 'Magnotes' by Sharpie (by Miami Ad School) is a social annotations app that allows iPad users to make their own interactive annotations, doodles and sketches while reading their favorite magazine – Video 

Pushing the Ad industry to invest in Passion and Ideas - In the new advertising and marketing economy, it’s a shame to let all that talent and creativity to be directed solely by the client. In this panel, we’ll hear three top agencies discuss how they’re generating their own IP, and with it, new revenue sources – Video 

To co-promote the movie “Super 8”, 7-Eleven is using FourSquare to unlock prizes. Everyone who checks-in is entered to win a trip to space. Every 88th check-in who participates can win a free movie ticket and every 88,888th check-in can win a Zero-G Experience weightless flight to suborbital space – More 

“Establishing and Maintaining Brand Relevance” – A discussion with David Aaker - Author, Professor Emeritus at Berkeley’s Business School, and Vice Chairman of the brand consulting firm Prophet - on the state of brands today - Podcast 

Orange's 'The Feed' Campaign - Feeling your summer plans lack a little gravitas? Just tweet them to #thissummer and a professional voiceover artist will give them that iconic summer blockbuster sound. More fun from Poke London for Orange – Overview 

"The Art of Immersion" - Frank Rose - How the Digital Generation Is Remaking Hollywood, Madison Avenue, and the Way We Tell Stories - More 

Unilever's 'Share Happy' Vending Machine (by Sapient Nitro)- Facial recognition technology determines gender, age, and whether you're smiling. If big enough, users get a free ice cream and share their (AR modified) picture with Facebook – Video 

'Le Club Perrier' Campaign - Perrier has just launched a pretty stunning campaign on YouTube that incorporates the concept of group buying, and turns it into group viewing. Its new YouTube channel features a video of a club scene, accompanied by a thermometer on the right hand side. The more that people watch the video, the more scenes will get unlocked and the hotter the video will become. – YouTube Channel 

Nine Lessons From Successful Brands on Twitter - Twitter is a crucial part of any social communication plan. Here are nine companies that know their stuff, along with lessons you can put to use – Article 

Intranet 3.0 - SharePoint® and the Social Intranet – Article 

The Evolution of Transmedia Storytelling- 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 – Video 

BMW 1M vs Concrete Walls Viral Video - BWM Canada have released this video, which has had over 450,000 views (at time of posting) in a few short days. It became the number one worldwide auto video on YouTube after just 2 days – Video 

Kalles "Egg Timer" Mobile App - This app has already has more than 50,000 downloads and is the third most downloaded in the free app section in the Swedish iTunes AppStore – Video 

“Love is out there, if we’re organized” - It’s not the first of it’s kind (i.e. http://bit.ly/izGEyY) but Zonacitas.com’s ‘Singles Finders’ app (by Ogilvy Argentina) identifies the exact amount of single people at any given bar/ club location at any given time -  Video 

The 'Atavist' and the Future of long form Journalism - Atavist is a term meaning “the reappearance of a characteristic in an organism after several generations of absence”. In this case, we’re talking about journalism longer than typical magazine articles but shorter than books – Video 

NOTE: For more articles and posts from the last week please visit us on Twitter at both @goodbuzz and @disruptbureau.  Also, 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.

Email us  |  Follow us on Twitter  |  Become a fan on Facebook