Shareable, Collectable Content the Next Holy Grail of Advertising

Social-Media-Collage.jpg

This guest contribution is written by Dave McMullen, partner and lead strategist at redpepper integrated agency.

Say the word "advertising" at a cocktail party and most people will immediately engage in a conversation about their favorite television spots. To be a part of this conversation used to be the holy grail of advertising.

Then along came the search engine, and along with it came a new holy grail--the top spot in a list of search results.

While the whole world was clamoring for Google's coveted number one, unsponsored search result listing, Facebook and Twitter began not-so-quietly supplanting Google as the central nervous system of the world wide web. These two social media juggernauts gave rise to an engagement era during which the once lauded "impression" began to fall out of favor as a legitimate measure of a return on marketing investment. And, as a result, yet another era in marketing arose. And we're smack dab in the middle of it at this very moment in time.

Welcome to the sharing era--an era in which a company's brand awareness and advertising messages have fallen, quite literally, into the hands of the market.

more »

by Steve Hall    Jan- 9-12    
Topic: Opinion, Social



How Social Media Influencers Can Help Brands

future_engagement_infinigraph.jpg

In the second outing of our video series, Future of Engagement, host Murray Newlands interviews Chase McMichael of Infinigraph, a social media data intelligence company, about how brands can find out who their primary influencers are and how brands can connect with those influencers to further the brand message.

The notion of content curation and the examination of content to determine behavior and intent as it relates to the brand is discussed as well as how brands can better match advertising to content to increase response rates.

more »

by Steve Hall    Jan- 4-12    
Topic: Social, Video



Axe Thinks Customers Smart Enough to Develop Plot For Comic

axe_anarchy.jpg

If Axe can convince guys its fragrances attract the hottest women on the planet simply by applying it, it must think it's customer base is pretty stupid. Which is why we are confused by the brand's recent launch of Anarchy, a graphic novel that asks fans to help create the story. Why the brand thinks its customer base has the intelligence required to create a plot scenario other than one centered on huge breasted women in tiny bikinis bouncing their way down the beach is beyond us. Oh wait, the comic features huge breasted women. Makes perfect sense to us now.

more »

by Steve Hall    Jan- 3-12    
Topic: Consumer Created, Social



Heineken's Social Media Christmas Tree Delivers Holiday Cheer

heineken_social_christmas_tree.jpg

Heineken is continuing its social media efforts with its Social Media Christmas Tree. Envisioned and created by iris in Singapore the tree, an 11 meter high structure in Clarke Quay consisting of 48 LCD screens, displays messages sent from Heineken's Facebook page. On the page, people select a message, choose friends to tag (so they'll be notified) and choose a design style for the message. The message is then sent to one of the screens on the tree.

Check out the video of the installation below.

more »

by Steve Hall    Dec-21-11    
Topic: Outdoor, Social



Amar'e Stoudemire Joins LeBron James in Sheets Campaign

amare_sheets.jpg

In the continuing saga of Sheets Brand Energy Strips, New York Knicks player Amar'e Stoudemire poses as a Duane Reade store clerk to see if he can pimp some product sales for a day. It's equally as bad as the initial outing from Lebron James but that doesn't really matter. fans will love the work anyway and that's all that matters, right? After all, no one in advertising actually cares about sales do they?

If you think you can do better, the whole thing is a contest. You can upload your commercial to Facebook, see how many likes it gets and see if you make it to the top six, from which James and a panel of judges will choose the winner.

more »

by Steve Hall    Dec-20-11    
Topic: Celebrity, Social, Video



Jim Beam Tattoo'd, More Holiday Wishes

FredNoe.jpg

- Jim Beam's Fred Noe, as part of a Strawberry Frog-created campaign, promised to get a tattoo if the brand's Facebook page gained million fans. The page did and Fred got his tattoo. The Jim Beam logo, of course.

- The evolution of television courtesy of UPC.

- If you can't physically be with your loved ones for Christmas dinner, Wieden + Kennedy's Virtual Holiday Dinner will have you interacting in no time.

- Well here's an interesting holiday card. Lights, inflatable characters and a snow machine in one of Design Kitchen's Conference rooms are all activated by tweeting a message tagged #holicray to @designkitchen.

more »

by Steve Hall    Dec-15-11    
Topic: Agencies, Social, Video



How to Use Lebron James to Further Your Social Media Campaign

lebron_james_sheets.jpg

Leveraging his celebrity and apparent desire to become a creative director, LeBron James, NBA great and founder of Sheets Energy Strips, has launched a Doritos Crash the Super Bowl-style social media campaign which encourages people to make their own Sheets commercial.

Convincing everyone that, well, anyone could do a better job at creating a commercial than himself, James has debuted his own commercial for Sheets. It's bad in a comically bad way. But that's what this contest is all about. Encouraging people to create something much better than LeBron did.

more »

by Steve Hall    Dec-13-11    
Topic: Celebrity, Consumer Created, Social



How Safe Are Your Pants From AT&T's Kent Wesley?

att_pants.jpg

BBDO New York is out with You've Got A Case, a Facebook promotion which features legal wizard Kent Wesley, played by Will Arnett, who promises to build a case for your new AT&T smartphone. Get it? A case? Yea, we thought you'd get it. Check out the promotional videos below and the Facebook page here. Witty.

more »

by Steve Hall    Dec-12-11    
Topic: Social



VW's 'The Force' Tops 2011 Global Social Video Ads Chart

passat_2010_sb_11.jpg

Today, Unruly, in partnership with Mashable, has released its list of the top twenty social video ads of 2011. Topping the list is the famed Volkswagen The Force ad which debuted earlier this year during the Super Bowl. The commercial, created by LA agency Deutsch, is the most shared branded video with 4.71 million social media shares and 46.05 million views since its online release February 2. Other brands appearing in the top 20 include T-Mobile, Kia, Nissan, Nestle, Carlsberg and Pepsi.

Check out the full list below

more »

by Steve Hall    Dec- 9-11    
Topic: Commercials, Social, Video



VML Shares Joy With Toys For Tots Sharing Campaign

vml_share_the_joy.jpg

Some holiday cheer from Kansas City's VML. The agency put together a promotion called What's Worth Sharing that will donate $1 to Toys for Tots each time the promotional video is shared. Give it a watch. And get into the spirit of giving.

by Steve Hall    Dec- 9-11    
Topic: Agencies, Cause, Social