Social Media and the World Cup 2010

I've got to say, I'm loving the World Cup. Late nights. Early mornings. The highs like seeing Italy bundled out in the group stages and the lows like seeing Australia skiddled against Germany like a team of under 9's. It's all part of the experience that is the World Cup, a one in four year event. These elements haven't really changed over time though. One thing however that has certainly changed is the way we are communicating it.

Over the years we have seen media evolve in the way it communicates and updates the world about the activity at the World Cup. We started with newspapers, moved on to TV and then of course online. Korea / Japan 2002 in fact was the first time websites were used to promote teams and the event itself. That's an unbelievable thought to me. In 1998 the World Cup didn't have official websites. That's only 12 years ago! Germany 2006 showed some evolution with MySpace and YouTube having recently surfaced and were used by companies with foresight like Adidas, Nike and Coca Cola to build communities. But at that time Twitter was in its early infancy and Facebook was still restricted to university students.

The World Cup acts as a great marker to show us how far and fast we've come in terms of how social media impacting our lives. And Facebbok and especially Twitter are being instrumental in the way we are communicating the event in 2010. On Facebook the Fifa World Cup South Africa 2010 page has over 126,000 'likers' that receives hundreds of comments and likes per post and there are countless spin offs and country pages as well. Media platforms are also using Facebook to extend their presence at the game. ESPN for example have over 497,000 'likers' of their World Cup on ESPN page. Amazing stats. Twitter is also kicking goals. The @fifacom twitter handle has over 80,000 followers and even Fifa boss Sepp Blatter is tweeting every day. He has 31,000 followers. Twitter has been such a thorn in the dressing rooms of many countries that Holland, England and Spain have all banned it's use during the World Cup! Not so in the Brazillian change rooms though with star player Kaka tweeting almost hourly. Not to miss out on the fun Foursquare has also partnered with CNN to release 2 World Cup Badges, 'South Africa Explorer' for those on the ground and 'Super Fan' for those following from viewing parties around the world.

Social Media has come a long way in a short time as we all know. And it's times like these that you can recognize how it has fundamentally changed the way we communicate and find out information. Are you more curious or scared about what's next?! I'm still deciding...

The New Age Marketing department

Spinning balls, trend trackers and social graphs set up in one room as if NASA was trying to find water on Mars. One small step for Gatorade but potentially one massive leap for Marketing.

In a social media first it seems the Pepsi Co. company has set up a control room that tracks online data, listens to and helps marketers participate in online conversations with customers and monitors trends and social media buzz. From this control room insights can then be gained which mould marketing strategies and impacting on product design / brand positioning. Quite revolutionary I must say.

I think this is a great initiative from their marketing department. Social media is so ingrained in our daily (hourly...) activities that a set up like this puts the Gatorade brand on the front foot to adapt to ever changing consumer needs. Of course such a spend could only be justified by big global brands with big global audiences like Gatorade but it is certainly an initiative that could be taken up by more and more companies as more minutes are spent on more social media platforms as time goes on.

Check out Gatorade's introductory video below.

A creative video for a great cause

I was sent this link this morning. It is an entry for the Young Lions YouTube Ad contest and I think it's so good you should see it too. The creator is a young, budding copywriter, Gavin Chimes from Sydney.

The brief:

In 48 hours create an ad for a charity. The charity is WaterAid - an organisation committed to providing clean water and sanitation for impoverished people around the world. And the way the competition works is like this: Quite simply the ad that receives the most views - wins.

I am a big advocate for supporting the new generation of young marketers and advertisers and I think this is a great effort by Gavin. Creativity needs to be recognised, nurtured and encouraged and thus competitions like this need to be supported by us - the marketing community.

Have a look and if you think it's worth it pass it on!

Women rule in social media

A colleague recently passed this (thanks Pinky) interesting article on by Brian Solis which shines an interesting spotlight on who is using social media.

Whilst YouTube and LinkedIn remain neutral in terms of an equal percentage of men and women using the site every month, other sites have a greater concentration of women plugging away every month.

Below is the % of each platform's population that females account for:

Facebook - 57%
Flickr - 55%
MySpace - 64%
Ning - 59%
Twitter - 57%

It is interesting to note that the sites above are all 'social networking sites' rather than professional networking and content viewing / uploading sites. I think it is this point that may shed some light on WHY more women use these sites. And this is where I might start to feel the wrath of the female population. Eh, I'm ready for it... Come and get me ladies!

So why is it that women are on social networks more than men? This is why..

1 - Women generally enjoy gossip more than men and therefore like to read what other people are doing on their week ends and who they are hanging out with.
2 - Women love to share their feelings and stuff. So they are naturally drawn to mediums that allow them to do this.
3 - Women get more jealous than men so naturally they want to see what their competition is up to
4 - As a result of this jealousy women always need to be on the look out for new friends!
5 - And most of all - there is no porn on these sites. Game, Set, Match.

Anyone else have any other thoughts?

Bloggers in the Marketing Mix

I was lucky enough to be asked to write a post for www.marketingmag.com.au.

Check it out..

http://marketingmag.com.au/blogs/view/bloggers-in-the-marketing-mix-2069

H&M Flash Mob

I've written before about what makes a successful flash mob from a marketing perspective and what does not.

And the latest stunt from H&M Kids has definitely ticked the boxes.

Clear signage at the beginning of the clip and a billboard at the clip gives the vid great branding. And whilst a dancing flash mob is nothing new to us I reckon there may be some great cut through with those mothers (who buy their kids clothes)who may not be as savvy to a flash mob as you or I.

Check it (Thanks Mashable)

Yeh Yeh Im iOver-Connected -

Yeh I work in Social media. And yeh that requires a computer and yeh that means I need to keep on top of things that are constantly evolving. So yeh I am connected to an internet source for much of my waking hours.

Yeh friends, I am on my laptop at home in front of the TV watching The Footy Show. And yeh boys, I do check my iPhone every half an hour to see if I have any new emails. And yeh I also use my iPhone for great new applications that help me sleep, get a daily dose of information and waste spare time. Sure I check Facebook often and you're not wrong, I check tweet deck a shitload.

But boys and girls I am not alone as The Courier Mail reported this month.

- the average Australian internet user invests more than two working days on the net every week.

- internet use jumped nine per cent from last year, or an extra 90 minutes each week, and the average Australian internet user now spends 17.6 hours online every week

- Men spent more time online than women, by an average of 3.1 hours, and those aged between 16 and 29 were the biggest internet users at 22 hours per week.

If none of you punks think you have added to this trend then I suggest you better stop reading this on your iPhone and ponder. Yeh Yeh I'm iOver-Connected but I reckon you kids may be heading that way too :)