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 :)

The New Dork

This is a great new video from The Pantless Knights - A great tribute to "The New Dorks" - The Zukerbergs, Larry Pages and Sergy Brins of today's world. The boys who are young enough to still have great grandparents and who have changed the landscape in which we communicate and find information.

Is anyone else getting flashbacks to Revenge of The Nerds!

Happy 6th Birthday Facebook!

According to its info page, yesterday, on 4 Feb , Facebook celebrated its 6th birthday.

In what can only be described as one of the most revolutionary social movements in history Facebook has changed the way people young and old communicate.

On its info page it states that its mission is "to give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected, the stats below." And if the stats below (kindly without knowing it provided by Social Networker Dec 2009 and Nielsen March 2009 - thanks guys) are any indication I have a hunch that Mr Zuckerberg and co might just be on their way. Just..

- Over350,000 monthly users worldwide
- 10 billion minutes spent on the site every day
- 1.4 million photos uploaded to Facebook every second (more than 2.5 billion per month)
- More than 700,000 local business have actve pages on Facebook
- Pages have created more than 5.3 billion fans
- More than 35 million users update their statuses every day
- More than 3.5 billion pieces of content (web links, news, stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums shared each week)
-More than 250 applications have more than one million monthly active users
- In Australia, social networkers spent an average of nearly three hours per month on Facebook, which is up two hours from the previous year (Nielsen Mar 2009)

So happy birthday big boy! You are such a good friend that I don't know what I'd do without you (I actually mean that, it's sad..)!

Pants off Subway Flashmob

Here's the latest installment from New York mob pranksters 'Improv everywhere'.

Just makes me wonder how much brands are missing out on product placement opportunities as well as branded opportunities as I have mentioned before.

Check it out!

Yaris brand Fail

The last 24 hours has been a Titanic disaster for the Toyota brand. Some say any publicity is good publicty but I say getting publically slammed (pun intended) in the media (The Age, Herald Sun, mX etc) cannot do much for one's branding.

In a Mumbrealla thread, Micha McDonald creator of the ad (below) defended the 'short film' saying it was not made for TV but I really don't think this is the point dude.

The fact is that the communication has Toyota branding on it. It has now been seen by over 20,000 people (as of today) on Youtube and hundreds of thousands more on news sites around the country / around the world. That's a lot of people pal. As Toyota is a family brand this is TOTALLY inappropriate. Social media is another platform just like a TV ad, magazines and billboards and there can be no case for going against brand values in any.

When it comes to social media execution, brands like with any other communictions channel have to abide by their branding style guide. This may have been a great execution for a nightclub but as a brand this turmoil is about as good for Toyota as "SRS airbags are to throw your head into."

Unfortunaetly for Micha, I think he would have been the one to be "on his back well before 11" this morning.

Are we living in a social media bubble?

This week we received the sad news that Australia's most well known purely social media strategy agency has shut its doors due to, well lets face it - a lack of business. I must admit I write this with an embarressing image of Carrie Bradshaw sitting on her bed by her laptap after just taking off her new Manolo Blahnicks. As I hear my own voice in my head however there is a very real question being asked for all of us social media believers...

"Are we living in a social media bubble?"

Are we, those in the industry, so consumed by our own tweeting, blogging and Facebooking that we think everyone else is and sees the same value of potential social media campaigns as we do? Yes we can all see the stats of Twitter, Facebook and blogger / wordpress increase by the month but then why can't the people who make the marketing budget decisions see the same value as we do? Are we deranged or just ahead of our time?

Not too disimilar to Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda sitting around a table trying to solve the problems of their world (bar the physical conversation and Cosmopolian), an interesting discussion unravelled up on Mumbrella with some of those involved believing that social media is an in-house function with others taking the position of social media needing to be integrated into a fully serviced agency, which is ultimately what has happened with The Population morphing into their sister agency C4.

Ultimately I don't think the Australian market is ready for a stand alone social media agency just yet. We need Australian case studies of successful campaigns before companies in their masses will be completely comfortable with throwing tens of thousands of dollars at a campaign. And unfortunaetly for The Population, at this stage the Australian market hasn't produced enough solid results to qualify the need for a specialist agency.

So are we living in a social media bubble? Perhaps Carrie. But I think the mass take up and continuous use of of web 2.0 via Twitter, Facebook, blogging etc is reason enough to believe the bubble is a legitimate marketing tool. That makes us ahead of our time :)

As I I have discussed in an earlier post it will take time for a social media industry to develop. And for this reason, only time will illustate the need for special social media agencies.

Say Cheese - Flash Mob on Bondi Beach

Almost an extention of my last post, I liked this flash mob a lot better! I don't know why, maybe it was more authentic, had more character, more genuine personality? It just didn't seem to try as hard...

Looks like I might be alone in thinking the Bondi flash mob was a failure though. And when I take my marketing hat off and see that the video as of today has received over 400,000 hits on YouTube, it is clearly a vial success, make no mistake.

But I still can't look past the fact that the Bondi Flip flash mob was clearly created for marketing purposes and yet out of the 400,000 people who viewed the video I reckon the only people who have walked away from it with brand awareness are those of us who read blogs and other marketing press. So whilst it is a great viral success story, it is still in my opinion a terrible failure from a marketing perspective.

But enjoy this...Very funny!

Is the Flip Flash Mob a successful marketing execution?

Now I love a flash mob. From a social perspective they're underground, they're thought provoking and they challenge social norms. And from a marketing perspective they're a communication medium that, if done correctly, can send your message to millions and millions of engaged consumers for a cost that would make a TVC producer cringe.

But if a brand is going to pay for a flash mob execution to be created, surely it is with the intention of brand exposure? You know, the reason why marketers are marketers. ie to get their brand in front of the right audience in order to sell more products. If so (and please correct me if I'm wrong or out of line here) then I don't understand why 'Flip' (which is a handy instrument for mobile videography that I have had first hand experience with) wouldn't capitalise on branding in the viral video below (thanks Mumbrella).

Am I the only one who thinks this is a wasted opportunity? Considering the hope is that this video will generate millions of views like the flash mobs underneath, it doesnt make sense to me that there is no branded pre roll or post roll to the video nor anyone in the crowd subtly demonstrating the use of the flip?



Anyone else agree or disagree?

If you can't get enough of flash mobs like me then see below for some of the most impressive examples I've seen (branded and non branded). Enjoy!

The T-Mobile Dance at Liverpool Station (15 million views) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQ3d3KigPQM

Trident Unwrapped, Beyonce, Piccadilly Circus (2 million views) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLj5zphusLw

Frozen in Grand Central (19 million views) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo

Sound of Music Central Station Antwerp (2 million views) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7EYAUazLI9k

Michael Jackson Tributes (4 million views) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVJVRywgmYM&feature=fvw

Kasabian's use of social media

Case Study: Coles Group & Myer blog marketing campaign - Part 2 of 2

Yesterday I discussed the results of the Coles Group and Myer blog marketing campaign, and today I’d like to share our key learnings. These findings can be broken up into three main areas; engagement, positive associations with the brand and qualitative data.

Engagement – Bloggers really took to this campaign because it was a fun way they could compete with their fellow bloggers. It created a level of interaction where the brand was at the core and bloggers built content around it. Furthermore it created an environment with positive influence for the brand, negating negative sentiment. The key in creating a positive environment for brands is to allow bloggers to tell their brand story from their perspective. It doesn’t have to BE about the brand but the brand to be PART of the conversation.

This is also very different to a traditional competition based campaign Ie a person enters, someone wins, game over... With a blog competition each entry is a broadcast of your brand into the blogosphere as each entry is its own blog post with its own set of readers.

Blog campaigns create positive associations with the brand –As can be seen in the examples in the previous post, bloggers invest time to participate in the Brand’s campaigns. This very positive association with the brand flows into the bloggers’ community of readers.

Qualitative data – There was some incredible qualitative data that was generated for this campaign. One of the great things about a blog campaign is its ability to show how people are taking in your messages. We had comments such as:

“I thought $3.47 for two chicken breasts was a bargain. Then, I discovered chicken wings for $2.09 - - - Bewdy, Mate! And . . . I ended up getting more for my money, too.”

AND

“Luckily, Coles had some good specials, including these 98c crackers!! Bargain”

AND

“It was interesting to shop in a different supermarket. The lanes are different but most products sold are the same. Actually, the lanes are wider at Coles.”

In addition to this there were 260 Coles branded photos broadcast into the blogosphere, creating further positive associations. As these broadcasts are user generated brands are building up a certain trust with the brand which is invaluable. I can’t think of any other medium that can do this…?

Case Study: Coles Group & Myer blog marketing campaign - Part 1 of 2

I have come across some posts about the marketing impact of blogs (Check out "Case Study: Dosh Wallets - Blogger Outreach" from Julian Cole and "Woah, A Blogger Mentioned You" by Zac Martin) in the Australian market and thought it was an opportune time to share some of my own learnings on the topic.

For those who don't know, Nuffnang is a marketing blogging agency who match advertisers up with bloggers. Since November 2008 we have built a database of 1100 of Australia's biggest bloggers and work with them to develop engaging campaigns for Australian brands. Pleasantries aside, Nuffnang has recently completed its first round of campaigns so I can now subsequently…drum roll…….ting!... roll out some red carpet and provide some very interesting findings on how we have managed to run a successful blog marketing campaign. This post ended up being too long for a quick read during lunch or short gaze in between Outlook and powerpoint so I have decided to split it over 2 posts.

The brand we worked with for this campaign was Coles Group & Myer.

Objective:

To generate awareness and buzz for the Coles Group & Myer gift card within the blogosphere.

Strategy:

We sent out a $10 Coles Group & Myer gift card to our bloggers and asked them to take up one of two challenges. The winner of each challenge won a $100 gift card;

Challenge 1: Spend your $10 in the most creative way

Challenge 2: Spend your $10 in the most frugal way.

We promoted the competition on our own blog (which our bloggers frequently access to see what competitions we are running / products we have to give away) and via an EDM to our entire blogging network which at that stage in August was 882 (today we have over 1100).

Results:

We were not sure how the Australian blogosphere would react to such a campaign so it really was a toe in the water for us as well as Coles Group and Myer, but the client was pleasantly surprised, as we were. Note that these numbers do not take into account any sponsored posts (advertorials) which would normally be included in a campaign. Therefore for a larger campaign using our biggest bloggers, reach would be significantly higher.

Number of bloggers participated: 25

Total blog views: 44,512

Comments / reactions to these posts: 142

User generated photos: 260

Challenge 1 (most creative post) winner:

http://violetlebeaux.blogspot.com/2009/08/how-to-turn-10-into-about-700-nuffnang.html

Challenge 2 (most frugal post) winner:


http://www.nointrigue.com/blog/2009/08/31/a-three-course-meal-for-two-for-10/

This ends the first post, tomorrow I will discuss our key learnings from this campaign which will help us, and hopefully you, run a more successful blog marketing campaign in the future.

telecommuncations, ill-communications

Dear Virgin broadband, you unhelpful, incompetent, uncaring outsourcing pricks,

I hope this email finds you well.

It was never a question of which broadband I would choose becasue I just love what Virgin stands for. I mean you're such a fun loving brand. It's really brands like yours that just make me want hug the stranger next to me. You love life and you really do live it to the fullest! And thanks for your letter after I signed up, it was so genuine.

Unfortunately due to an experience of late and to my great surprise my views have been somewhat tainted. It is so fucking unfortunate. I will now have to put aside these feelings of admiration and gratefulness (for just being you!) to tell you that whilst your boss is off buying tropical islands and formula 1 race teams, wearing wedding gowns and jumping out of aeroplanes he has unfortunately overlooked the importance of service.

Sir Rich, I am glad you are able to afford all these things and live such an amazingly adventurous lifestyle but perhaps you want to look at cutting out these business expenses rather than fucking outsource your customer service to "Cherry" in Banglafuckingdesh. She can't pronounce my surname and has never heard of the suburb I live in. Most importantly Sir Rich, whilst Cherry is such a pretty name, she, like the Virgin brand itself, gives off a great perception of approachability and serviceability, however she can't solve my fucking problem. Ya dig?

Rich, maybe it's time to save some money and sell Virgin Galactic (hundreds of millions of dollars to send businessmen into space?), purchase a call centre in a place called Australia (It's on earth) and get someone to call me on my phone to get my internet sorted. It's not a huge problem and I'm sure that if you really were using my recorded phone calls (any one of the 4 I have made in the last month) for "quality and training purposes" rather than legal reasons, you may actually be able to solve this little situation we have.

Rich, perhaps it's a good idea to take a leaf out of the books of Optus and Telstra in this country who have realised the importance of social media in speaking to their customers. Both have people sifting through Twitter on a HOURLY basis (not to mention blogs, Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, Wikipedia and the like) and addressing any customer queries and complaints. Unfortunately creating a Facebook page in 2007 and then not even acknowledging the scores and scores of complaints on your wall since does nothing for your customer service and even less for your brand.

Thank you for not even reading this.

Yours sincerly

David Krupp

Hats off to Ed Hardy!

Ed Hardy has caught my eye lately due their very effective branding strategy of bad boy / bad girl celebrity outfitting.

The clothing brand, designed by legendary designer Christian Audigier who has bought the rights to the work of iconic tatoosit Don Ed Hardy has been splashing itself all over our TV screens and print media, literally on the backs of some of the most famous celebrity rebels Austalia as to offer.

I first noticed this strategy whilst watching Sam Newman wearing their t-shirts during the Street Talk segment on "The Footy Show" in Melbourne. Newman is one of Melbourne's favourite bad boys and his own brand fits the Ed Hardy brand to a tee (excuse the pun?)with his long list of public misdemeanours. I again noticed the very unsubtle Ed Hardy t-shirt on Australian Idol last night, worn by Suzi Quatro,America's bad girl of rock of the 70s and 80s.

After some further digging I have found many more examples of the great bad boy / bad girl celebrity branding of Ed Hardy with Madonna, Brittney, David Beckham, Lenny Kravitz and Paris Hilton all donning the conspicuous t-shirts.

This is a great example of the power of celebrities as opinion leaders. Their mass media exposure provides brands like Ed Hardy with significant and swift penetration into the marketplace.

MySpace Recharge takes off!

In partnership with ANZ and Visa, MySpace has just released their pre-paid recharge card which is a very promising step forward for the brand.

The reloadable prepaid Visa card allows MySpace users (you have to have a profile to sign up for one) to create an account with up to $1000 (transfered via BPAY) and then use that credit to purchase online and at over 500,000 Visa prepaid merchant locations Australia wide and many more overseas. The smartest element of this innovation is the main reason why MySpace developed it in the first place - To allow users to purchase their phone credit via MySpace. Purcahse loyalty will then be rewarded with giveaways and MySpace exclusive offerings.

So users will now be able to log in to MySpace, chat with their friends via chat, send a message to their friends' inboxes, check out the latest music and then purchase their phone credit all in one session. Very convenient. I like the way MySpace is not just about social networking but focused on providing an experience for their users.

The card is a great initiative for MySpace which is still to launch the much hyped MySpace Music. No doubt the recharge card will also be a great hit when MySpace users are allowed to purchase their concert tickets and merchandise etc.

The recharge initiative is great for the MySpace brand as it is not only providing a good reason to join the site but it also provides more value for being a part of the site and MySpace community. It actually makes Facebook look completely one dimensional if you ask me. In addition to that it provides a potentially very solid extra venue stream for MySpace.

Kudos to Nick Love and the team on this one, long time coming but I'm sure it will be wiorth the wait.