As if there aren't already enough pointlessly stupid Facebook applications already, Colle McVoy has launched yet another one for its client, Caribou Coffee. It's called Wild It Up (screenshots) and it lets you...yea..."wild up" any photo by adding goofy clip art.
So what's the point of it all? Supposedly, it will get people to try Caribou's eight new Wild Cooler drinks. And it just might work because all people have to do is print their wild'd up image and present it at any Caribou Coffee for a free drink.
Hmm. Sounds like a simple coupon would have been much easier and cheaper. Oh, OK, coupons are terribly boring and everyone just throws them away. So, yea, Facebook app!!!
Getting all power of the human spirit on us, Nike is out with Back Your Block, a $650,000 grant program developed to support local communities and schools and to "unlock the potential of young people through programs that focus on sport."
Social marketing (formerly youth marketing..but, ya know, they jumped on the bus just like everyone else) agency Mr. Youth, created the campaign website, a promotional video, blog outreach and activated an army of 250 Task Force influencers to pimp the effort buzz marketing-style.
more »
- Houses come a-hunting on Twitter. (More proof that in this market, it's do-or-die time.)
- Love can be complicated. (But once you pop...!)
- The revolution will be Tweeted. In Iran, anyway.
- 140-character twibutes to Michael Jackson. Srsly.
- Spike Lee, out loud and in Cannes.
- Seed bombs. That plant seeds!
- When writers go apeshit.
For marketers fascinated with Twitter and its seemingly endless possibilities, for good or bad, as a marketing channel/platform/whatever, a new service called TweetPsych might be worth a look. Created by Dan Zarrella, TweetPsych uses Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count and Regressive Imagery Dictionary to build a psychological profile of a person based on the content of their Tweets.
more »
Biz Stone's Twitter talk this afternoon was met with a full auditorium, people clamoring for places to park cameras and laptops so they could livetweet questions in real time.
Kind of a neat format. Stone addressed questions as they appeared under hashtag #hkcannes, the results of which were projected onto a screen. Two problems with this method:
1) Wifi outside the press room isn't accessible for free, meaning those that livetweeted from inside the room were either paying for use or mobiling it up. Questions were never taken directly from audience members, raising their hands, for example.
2) Questions were still for the most part selected by a Hill & Knowlton rep. I'm pretty sure the Oracle of Delphi had a less formidable filtering system.
Stone talked a bit about Twitter's birth, which I'm sure will become the stuff of online legend, so I don't really need to go into it. (Hey look, here it is.) One point of interest: his partner, Jack Dorsey, conceived the idea out of a fascination with AIM status updates.
more »
On the way to the Mullen new office open house party in Boston, we sampled some radio, a medium we haven't listened too much in years. After listening to Kiss 108 on the ride in and the ride out, a couple things are clear.
Twitter, mentioned no less than three times (in both programming and commercials) in a 30 minute period, is now mainstream. East West Mortgage is asking people to follow them to keep up to date on the latest mortgage rates. An LG phone commercial couldn't gush enough about how one of its phones was "Twitter enabled." Even a car dealer mentioned Twitter to, well, we're not really sure.
more »
To win both the youth and the responsible parent vote, Staples commissioned social marketing firm Mr. Youth to develop "Do Something 101," a cause program that's, at the very least, relevant to the office supply chain's MO.
Campaign elements, from what we can tell, are a Facebook Fan page and a Facebook app. (That's it?!) Participating students are encouraged to build a custom backpack by tagging their friends and then donate money to help the 13 million kids in the States that can't afford school supplies.
Every completed backpack makes participants eligible for a chance to go to New York and meet Ciara, who can teach you the one-two step*, which is as good a reason as any to drum up crayon cash for your less-plush peer.
more »
- Twitter delays scheduled downtime, following the Iranian elections, to give Iranian users a platform for protest/discussion/covert tweet-ups/etc.
- Not one to miss a hot show, Anonymous launches iran.whyweprotest.net, a space for what it calls a "tech-savvy uprising."
- Okay, onto less serious things. CK orgy scandal action.
- "Contextual dating sadness."
- Swill from Lovemarks man.
- AgencySpy ponders the tough stuff.
- Harley Davidson gets all musical.
- Celebs discover, via social media, that they are hated. And then the whole world cried.
- The best Facebook vanity URL, and more on that land-grab in general.
- Yummy and functional absinthe packaging.
- An app to aid conspicuous shopping.
- Film yourself building the Google Chrome icon; get love from the Internet's favourite monopoly.
- Eclectic Method remixes, mashes up and edits before live audience.
- Zombies. Skittles. Advergaming.
In the "why didn't I think of that first category," comes this new ad unit from SocialMedia for JuicyJuice which allows people to tweet from within the banner. If people are logged in, their tweet will scroll up and appear on the banner.
Juicy Juice teamed with SocialMedia to place the ad unit on mommy sites such as BabyCenter and CafeMom. Different questions, "How do you stimulate your child's mind?" or "How important are vitamin-enhanced foods to you?" are asked.
As SocialMedia CEO Seth Goldstein notes, the tweets and corresponding hashtag extend the effectiveness of the banner saying, "The ad unit is paid placement but the additional impressions are effectively earned media."
Oh Twitter, how others continue to find ways to make money off your VC-funded back. Just how long are you going to let others rip you off before you realize you can't run on fume indefinitely?
|
|
