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Now being a social influencer can get you into airport lounges
Wednesday, 15th May 2013 at 4:36pm
American Airlines has rolled out a new perk for social media users, access to their Admirals Club lounges, regardless whether you are flying with them or not.
To gain a one-day pass for the club, you need to have a Klout score of 55. What does this mean? Klout is a tool that measures your usage and engagement on social media, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
The perk includes almost 40 lounges across the world including airports in San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo and London.
With others already signed up to Klout Perks including Sony, Nike, Microsoft, Disney, Audi and Gilt, this is a major push by the social measurement tool.
A clever development, but one can't help thinking that social influencers may see through it, regardless of whether they take advantage of it or not.
The 26 most annoying things about working in an office
Thursday, 9th May 2013 at 9:17am
To almost brighten up your day, Buzzfeed UK has compiled a list of the 26 most annoying things about working in an office.The list spoke to us at The Think Tank so much that we had to share it with you.
Buzzfeed built the list from this BBC article and this thread on Facebook.
Some of our 'favourite' points are:
- People leaving the kitchen in a mess
- Endless Birthday whip-rounds (and when it's your turn)
- Stupid Buzzwords
Take a look at the full list here, and let us know which speaks to you the most.Tagged Funny, office work, Buzzfeed, list, BBC, Facebook, survey
Budweiser lets you make friends with a clink
Wednesday, 1st May 2013 at 4:02pm
It's an age old tradition across the globe. You say "cheers" (or regional equivalent) then 'clink' glasses, an almost universal symbol.
In Brazil, Budweiser is making this act, even more sociable, with their Buddy Cups.
The smart cups detect the contact between them and adds the other person as a friend on Facebook, this is done via a chip in the bottom of the cup and a code which you scan with your smart phone to activate it.
The cups are reportedly going to be used for events and concerts, but it is interesting to see how far afield this technology will be used
Watch a video about the new cup below.
Cheese brand mocks diet adverts
Friday, 19th April 2013 at 11:01am
Most diet food products try and sell themselves as a route to a better life but not this Irish cheese brand.
They decided to break the mould and poke fun at traditional advertising with its ironic 'girls from adland' video. The advert from Kerry Low Low features the standard three types of ad girl: the smug girl, the ditzy girl and the muffin girl. Each has a trait you may recognise from a number of diet food ads.
Clever and humorous whilst also obvious - it even has a catchy song.
Have a look at the video below. Enjoy!
Art that's good enough to eat
Wednesday, 17th April 2013 at 1:14pm
In Australia Kit-Kat decided to commemorate their limited edition white chocolate bar by holding back the last 50 and melting them.
But that isn't the full story, they got illustrator Mike Watt, to use the melted chocolate and crushed biscuits to make some incredible posters, using only a scalpel to remove any unwanted chocolate.
The posters won't last forever as after a while the hard chocolate will crack and break away from the canvas, but before all that happens they have managed to post them all up on their Facebook page.
The designs have been called Kit-Kat White Final Fifty and are a great example of creative art and design.
Take a look at them here.
Expedia announces luggage tag competition
Wednesday, 10th April 2013 at 5:01pm
After they produced a new advertising campaign that created clever words from the IATA codes found on luggage tags, Expedia.co.uk has launched a new competition on its Facebook Page.The competition asks entrants to try and create their own slogans or phrases using over 9,500 available IATA codes, as seen in the campaign which we previously featured, in an effort to win a £2,000 Expedia holiday. Entries are made through an app on their page, where you can also view entries by others. The competition will run for four weeks, with a winner chosen at random.
The original campaign was the idea of copywriter Jon Morgan and art director Mike Watson at Ogilvy & Mather.
It is a clever way to build on what must have been a successful campaign for the company and, in turn, will increase their visibility on Facebook as people need to 'like' their page before being able to enter.
Try out the app for yourself here.Tagged Marketing, social media, advertising, Facebook, Expedia, IATA codes, luggage tags, Ogilvy & Mather, competition
Looking for love? Doughnut company has the answer
Monday, 11th February 2013 at 12:57pm
If you're looking for love on this Valentine's Day then Krispy Kreme may have the answer: they have once again released their Love Roulette game on their Facebook page and website.
The game is a bit of fun, matching you with one of your Facebook friends, regardless of gender, preference or relationship status (we were matched with married people and those of the same gender on some attempts), and then it offers you a voucher to get a free doughnut when you buy one of their new Valentine's Day doughnuts.
A clever idea to help promote their new doughnuts and inspire you to buy one for that special person in your life!
Play the game on Facebook here or the website here. Enjoy!
Social marketing without give aways
Friday, 1st February 2013 at 4:15pm
A lot of people feel that the best way to gain exposure on social media for a new product is to spend lots of money advertising it, either directly or through competitions or give-aways. Not so for Nars Cosmetics, they decided to utilise the power of social marketing in a different way - by creating an app.Their Warhol App would would take a snapshot of you via a web cam, or you could upload a pic, and then add an Andy Warhol look to it. This would produce a new cover image and/or profile photo for you to use, although the image does have the Nars Warhol branding included (a very subtle but great way to raise awareness).
The idea was to promote their new Warhol Collection, and it worked, as every time someone updates their cover photo a unique update goes out to their friends, unlike when a profile image is updated.
The app attracted a relatively small number of users on Facebook — 3,143 — but an impressive amount of engagement: Together, those users made more than 5,300 images and spent an average of seven minutes and nine seconds using the app, generating an estimated 823,000 impressions on Facebook.
The app is no longer on their Facebook page, although they were smart enough to provide the app off Facebook as well, which had an even higher number of users and traffic, thanks to tech and beauty blogs talking about it. However the app still requires you to login via Facebook to use it.
Take a look at the video of the app below, and try it out for yourself.
Tagged Social Media, Marketing, Facebook, Apps, engagement
Kit Kat crowd-sourcing a new bar.
Sunday, 20th January 2013 at 8:30am
In a move to determine a new flavour, Kit Kat has turned to social media to find out which flavour "chunky" bar is most popular between mint, coconut, fudge and hazelnut.The campaign is similar to one they ran last year, where consumers were asked to vote for their favourite chunky from a selection, via text message. This time round the company is using Facebook as the voting medium.
To vote, you need to go to the Kit Kat page, where there's an app which is 'like-gated', meaning you must like the page before you can vote, then finally you can choose your favourite of the four flavours.
The Facebook campaign runs alongside a television advert, with the flavours given the persona's of superheroes albeit cumbersome ones.
This is a clever use of social media and crowd-sourcing by the company, one that saw peanut butter chunky being voted winner last time around.Tagged social media, Facebook, marketing, advertising, kit kat, chunky, apps, crowd-sourcing, TV
Feeling under the weather? Use this App to find out who gave you the flu
Thursday, 10th January 2013 at 11:25am
Help Remedies has produced a fun little app for its Facebook Page which allows you to see who from your friends may have given you the flu.
If you haven't fallen ill it can also tell you which friends to "quarantine" to avoid becoming ill.
The app works by analysing your news feed for mentions of certain words as well as looking at the timings people post, find suspects based upon these guidelines and gives you reasons to avoid them. The app then allows you to send these friends messages, letting you know that you are placing them under quarantine.
The US based health-care company have “won” with some amazing marketing and social awareness campaigns, including handing out “Help, I'm Nauseous" packages outside the Republican Headquarters after election day and creating a bone-marrow donor kit to accompany “Help, I’ve cut myself” bandages in their “Help, I want to save a life” packs.
Check out the app here
Stella Artois sings carols at your door
Monday, 3rd December 2012 at 8:02pm
This is a fantastic Facebook app from Stella Artois.
Punch in your address and watch as Alice Eve and her cool band comes to sing carols outside your 'house'.
Have fun and watch out for all the clever bits in the film.
Click here to get carolling.
Bodyform asks if you can handle the truth
Sunday, 21st October 2012 at 8:08am
When Bodyform received a rant on their Facebook page from a disillusioned male visitor they decided that it deserved a response.Yulia Kretova, brand controller for Bodyform said in a statement: "We found Richard's post very amusing and wanted to continue the positive dialogue around periods that this generated. Working with the brand for five years, breaking down the taboo around Bodyform and periods has always been a challenge, and I hope that we have started to address this. Carat has created an original and uniquely personalized response, brilliantly PR-ed by Myriad, allowing Bodyform to quickly engage in consumer conversations in a meaningful way."
A very amusing response to social media interaction.
Tagged Bodyform, Advertising, Social media, Interaction, response, video, Carat, funny, Facebook, PR
The most Condescending Corporate Facebook page
Wednesday, 5th September 2012 at 5:53pm
Taking a rather humorous and sarcastic look at Company Facebook Pages, the 'Condescending Corporate Page' (called 'Corporate Bollxxxs') features posts that will make you cringe whilst complementing you on your Facebook presence.
Click here to take a look at some very funny posts that may be close to the bone for many marketers out there.
Fancy running over your pretentious friends?
Wednesday, 5th September 2012 at 5:41pm
Ever wanted to get your own back on your pretentious friends on Facebook - well this is the app for you."Mitsubishi Unpretentious" analyses the content from your friends' Facebook pages to see which are your most pretentious friends and then runs them over with a speeding 2013 Outlander Sport.
It does not always get it right but it does most of the time.
Combining marketing with interactive online apps has become a great extension to consumer product launches, getting people to engage with products in a fun and interesting way.
Whether encouraging people to run down people they don't like is questionable but fun anyway.
Click here to get the app.Tagged Mitsubishi, App, interactive, digital, online, marketing, engagement, Facebook, pretentious campaign
Dance through your life with 'Me the Musical'
Sunday, 29th July 2012 at 5:59pm
See your life in dance with this adorable app, Me the Musical, by Intel, that links to your Facebook profile and takes you from birth to the present in your very own musical.
It's great fun and brought a smile to our face on a rainy afternoon.
Get started here - Enjoy.
Misuse of Social Media in the Workplace
Wednesday, 13th June 2012 at 8:44pm
What would you do if an employee (or even a manager) made disparaging remarks on Facebook about your organisation, employees or key contacts?
In conjunction with The Think Tank, one of our legal associates is holding a seminar which looks at the 'Misuse of Social Media in the Workplace.
They comment, 'Almost every organisation will face the "Social Media test" at some point. That is, an employee - possibly thinking that they are talking only to 'friends' by way of Facebook, Twitter etc - will make comments which are highly damaging to its interests or the reputations and rights of key stakeholders.
Whilst there appears to be no binding legal authorities from the higher courts there are a number of Employment Tribunal decisions, and we have carefully pulled together some of the key issues and guidance from Employment Judges.'
The briefing is organised by GT Employment Lawyers on 21st June between 2pm and 4pm at Liverpool Street, London, EC2M and will cover the following topics:
Investigating misuse
How to reconcile human rights issues such as 'freedom of expression' and 'privacy' with those of your organisation.
Handy tips from an IT specialist on how to monitor this kind of problem at work or even stop it altogether.
Delegates will be given a checklist to audit their systems and a specimen policy as well as detailed user-friendly notes and contacts in related fields.
The cost is £35 plus vat per delegate or £55 plus vat for 2 places. Places are limited and allocated in order of payment.
To find out more or book a place (or if you would like the presentation at your organisation on a more private basis) please contact Gordon Turner via his PA Sandra at email address sandra@gtelaw.co.uk
Facebook highlights factors that increase ad performance
Monday, 14th May 2012 at 4:36pm
In an attempt to boost its ad revenue and improve the quality of advertising, Facebook's measurement team is making public its research on the types of ads that work best on its platform.
After talking with marketers, Facebook identified six elements of ad creative that impacted upon recall and purchase consideration including two visual elements of focal point and noticeability and four that looked at messaging and a range of things, from whether it's easy to see the brand to whether the ad is succinct and to the point.
They then asked 109 marketers to rate around 400 ads on each of the six elements. All were from the Facebook premium-engagement format, which appear on the right column of a Facebook page and is restricted by image size and copy length. All of the ads chosen were brand or product ads rather than direct response.
The results for recall highlighted three factors that were particularly important: Images needed to have an obvious focal point, the brand had to be clear and the ad needed to fit with the brand's personality.
Not rocket science but at least an indicator of best practice winning out.
Failing focal-points were fairly common, due to the lack of space for images, however this was increased by brands which opted for small product images on cluttered backgrounds. This got in the way of consumers recalling brands - therefore simplicity is best.
The ads should also be clear about the brand they're promoting, which may sound obvious but many brands were obscured in the ads or missing associated brand colours.
When looking at purchase consideration the main aspect was whether the ad rewarded the viewer. Very important in encouraging interaction.
"Ads that were rewarding tended to be pretty clear - there wasn't an overload of information," said Mr. Bruich, who conducted the study with measurement researcher Adrienne Polich. "But [the] rewarding ads also seemed to connect. The information seemed meaningful."
The importance of offering a reward was the single biggest creative predictor of an ad's success, which apparently surprised the Facebook team.
The full study will be presented in the US next month however those that believe that bright colours or crazy fonts would create noticeability will be sorely disappointed as the survey found that this was not predictive of either recall or purchase consideration.
So it's goodbye to psychedelic Facebook ads and hello to minimalism.
Is this a social media turning point?
Saturday, 18th February 2012 at 4:42am
New research has revealed that brand engagement on social networks is not as positive as first thought.
According to B2B Marketing Magazine, 'Although the uptake remains high, users are demanding more, with two in five participants claiming to be ‘getting bored’ with social media.
The survey of 1275 British social media users found that just under half of respondents would not be positive about a product their ‘friends’ have followed and/or ‘liked’, with 43 per cent saying they are unlikely to talk about a brand on social media sites. In addition, just over half of participants revealed that they ‘do mind’ seeing ads on social networks that are based on their profile activities.
Dan Brilot, media consulting director at YouGov, says, “It appears that while social media can be a key tool in the brand marketer’s armoury, in particular to maximise commitment among those already highly engaged with the brand, it has not quite reached the effectiveness necessary to be considered as a truly mass media marketing tool.”
Mobile Advertising Wars
Saturday, 18th February 2012 at 3:47am
He cites how many brands are still unsure how to tailor their messaging for the small screen, thus available ad slots in apps and on mobile websites are often left unsold.
At the same time City AM reports that Apple has shot past Samsung to “nab top smartphone spot”. Around 427 million smart phones were sold in 2011, up 50% on 2010. Apple sold 35.5 million in the fourth quarter of last year.
One company which seems to have done some smart thinking on this is Domino’s Pizza UK & Ireland and says it has seen a “breathtaking surge” in online sales… yes, you guessed it, after the launch of two new apps last year which let customers chose a pizza via their smartphones or iPads, and which helped drive a 43 per cent rise in orders over the internet.
The FTSE 250 firm has 726 outlets in Britain, Ireland and Germany, and its franchisees created 1,800 jobs the company claims through the opening of new outlets.
So mobile can also mean a neat “pizza profit” (piece of profit) it seems.
BMW uses interactive experience to promote 1 Series
Saturday, 21st January 2012 at 7:59am
The events ran in the evening across major cities with consumers invited to join in an interactive race game that was projected onto buildings and scaffolding in high traffic areas.
Using smart phones, iPhones and iPads gamers logged on to Facebook and competed against each other using their devices. The winners were immediately posted to the Facebook page and a league of the fastest gamers publicised.
There were 810 campaign Facebook posts, so with a Facebook user having an average of 130 friends, it is estimated that more than 105,000 users were exposed to the campaign through Facebook alone.
It looks like great fun was had by all, with consumers engaging with the brand and new technology. See a video of the event below:
Ad Ads Advert Advertising Agency Animation Architects Architecture Art Awards B2B Brand Campaign Construction Design Experiential Fashion Film Funny Innovation Interiors London Marketing Media New York PR Press Press Relations Social Stunt TV Twitter Video Viral creative digital exhibition facebook fun furniture google iPhone innovative installation interactive online photography sculpture social media 2012
Soap Box
- How will the new EU Directive on Internet Privacy affect your web site?
- Dispelling the myths of Social Media
- Increased Return on Investment from Centralised Integrated Marketing
- Putting PR in the Communications Mix
- Making an Impact Face to Face
- Marketing Through Event and Exhibitions in a Recession
- Intelligent Marketing When Times are Tough