1)      Create a Compelling Vision- When you believe in what you’re doing, you can easily cultivate the passion and excitement for your mission. This includes spending time online where it counts and connecting with people who are most interested in your mission and ultimately your brand. On Facebook it only takes a few well connected fans to spread your message- those mavens will expose your brand to their entire audience through their association (or “like”) of your Facebook Page.

2)      Smart Branding- Create a bridge from Facebook to your websites through clear and direct branding. By creating a static Facebook Page your audience will experience many of the same features and branding that can be found on your website before leaving Facebook. This allows them the chance to get to know you  on their terms in the social network before being pulled to your website.

See all four steps in detail at Social Media Examiner.

With most U.S. homes connected to broadband, the viewing of online video has never been easier.  Whether watching a short clip on YouTube or an entire TV program, almost three-quarters (72%) of Internet users view videos online — amounting to 144 million people.  To marketers, this presents a huge – and largely untapped – audience to reach.  And while online advertising fell overall in 2009, ad spend on online videos grew 41%.

-Nielsen Wire

I’ve noticed a particular exciting technique to advertising on Hulu- whether or not it is intentional- that works best to captivate my attention as a consumer. It ingenious and yet so simple: The 15-30 seconds commercial spots. Yes, one commercial that lasts such a short time that I can’t flip to another screen or get up to get a snack. I’ve been so programmed over the last twenty or so years of watching television to avoid commercials by flipping the channel or distracting myself for the 2-5 minute calculated breaks in a program that the ads go unwatched. And now with DVR and TiVo capabilities and online Hulu-like services popping up with increased frequency, advertisers are met with new challenges. The short commercial breaks on Hulu are so short that avoiding them is nearly impossible. And the fact that I can “like” or “dislike” gives me that instant satisfaction of expressing my frustration or surprise to an ad- also giving advertisers a way in which to measure and adapt to consumer likes and dislikes.

The patterns they uncovered were consistent:  video ads run during online full-episode TV programs yield deeper brand impact than corresponding on-air TV ads, with the difference most pronounced among younger viewers age 13-34.

Am I worried about the rumors that Hulu will one day charge their viewers a fee to use the service? Maybe, but for now I’m loving the freedom it gives me to catch up on my favorite programs all at once on my time, to express my likes/dislikes for ads, and to share episodes with my friends through social media. Hulu- you are truly awesome.

Pros:

1. Free
2. Choice of short commercial breaks or one long commercial and an uninterrupted program
3. The chance to “like” or “dislike” an advertisement
4. To watch your favorite programs on your time
5. To watch the most recent episodes of your favorite shows
6. Ability to share content on social media sites
7. Variety of recent popular programs and past popular programs
8. On-demand movies for free

Cons:

1. Rumor that Hulu might starting charging $4.99/month
2. New episodes not always updated as frequently as air date
3. For beginners: Finding your favorite shows can be frustrating

Would you pay per month for access to your favorite past TV episodes online? Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

Makeup brand Sephora made a notable move on Twitter this week with its Sephora Claus. Twitter fans write in their holiday wishes to Sephora and Sephora Claus will grant one beauty wish a day until December 19. Check out their site at www.sephoraclaus.com to see the details and submit your own holiday wish! So far, Sephora has seen a lot of feedback from their social media fans who have sent in their requests via Twitter under the hashtag #SephoraClaus.

Offering customers discounts or coupons on social media networks is nothing new to online retailers. Dell and Starbucks have been big proponents of this marketing method and other retailers are catching on. Staples, Office Max, and Old Navy have recently been leaking deals through their online networks. A move like this leads to a hike in budget conscious followers, but in the long run companies will most likely sustain the new follower base even after the holiday season over, according to Dan de Grandpre of dealnews.com. Keep your Tweetdeck open because we’ll definitely be seeing a lot more online deals throughout the holiday season.

Social media has made a big splash in the marketing pool in the last two years as businesses big and small are jumping into the online chaos in droves. Companies are using social media for a variety of reasons: brand awareness, brand management, recruiting, customer service, and consumer insight to name a few.

According to Business.com’s 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study, the top social media sites that businesses participate in are: Facebook (80%), Twitter (56%), LinkedIn (39%), LinkedIn Companies (38%), and YouTube (35%).

In an attempt to keep up with the ever-changing networking sites and tools and its flighty audience that bounces from one new platform to the next, businesses will have to assess whether or not they belong on social media networks and even more importantly what social media networks will work best for them. Whether you’re interested in business to customer (B2C) or business to business (B2B) networking, social media may have the perfect platform for you.

According to a 2009 Reuters study on social media use for business professionals, “webinars and podcasts are top social media resources for business professionals, used by 69% of those who turn to social media channels for business information.

Facebook is the dominant social network on which consumer-focused companies maintain one or more profiles, cited by 83% of respondents versus 45% for Twitter. Business-to-business (B2B) companies, however, maintain a presence on both platforms with 77% maintaining a profile on Facebook and 73% on Twitter.

Current trends to restrict access to social networks like Facebook or Twitter at work need to be re-thought in light of the business value in such activity. Among respondents using social media for business purposes in their day-to-day jobs, 62% visit company or brand profiles on social networking sites and 55% search for business information on these sites.

Consultants and marketing communications professionals are the most active users of social media as a resource for business information, particularly in micro (<10 employees) and small businesses (10-99 employees).

Both companies and employees are scaling a massive learning curve with social media. The average company in this study was planning, developing or running seven different social media initiatives; 65% of respondents staffing those initiatives, and 71% of companies themselves, have less than two years of experience with social media for business. Building brand awareness and brand reputation are two of the top social media success metrics, but nearly two-thirds of companies focused on these metrics have little to no insight into performance via standard or easily accessible reports.”

If you’re trying to decide if it’s right for your business then it is imperative that you do the research necessary to make an informed and effective marketing decision. Your first step should be researching what your competitors are doing with social media, what platforms they use, assessing what platforms are working best/worst for them, and what kind of following they have. Secondly, look at where your target audience is online. Creating a Facebook fan page may seem like a good idea and easy to do, but if your audience doesn’t use Facebook or if they use another network more often, your strategy might be more effective if you considered other networking sites.

You can find out where and what your customers are saying by using free tracking tools. Technorati, Google Blog Search, Twitter Search, and Facebook Search are just a few options that will allow you track relevant business and industry terms on specific social networks. Simply using a search engine like Google or Bing to look up your business’s keywords may provide you with an idea of which social networks to investigate further.

Once you know what your potential or current customers are saying and where they’re saying it in the social media sphere, you’ll have an idea of where you should implement your company’s social media strategy. This research process takes a little time, but it will save you time and money in the long run by knowing if social media is right for your business right now. And if it is, the research you did will show you what social media sites and tools you’ll need to use to make the most out of social media marketing plan.

The “pink ribbon” campaign is popular among many companies and organizations that use the association to support breast cancer awareness and profit on a cause-related marketing campaigns. It isn’t as harsh as it may sound; breast cancer non-profits gain publicity and fundraising by tapping into the for-profit’s client base, while for-profit companies capitalize on the association by projecting a positive and socially responsible public image.

And in this case, it’s well needed. Not only do women make up 40 percent of the audience tuning into the championship game every year, according to Reuters; but the N.F.L. frequently deals with drug and violence controversies (think Michael Vick and Adam “Pacman” Jones). A marketing play like this will not only reach out to the women viewers, but also brighten up a slightly tarnished reputation among N.F.L. players.

What I love about this recent partnership is:

1)      It’s unexpected- Pink on big, muscular men? How unusual is that?

2)      It’s emotional- Most notable in the media covering this story is Carolina Panthers running back DeAngelo Williams. Williams lost three aunts to breast cancer. His mother, Sandra Hill, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004 and is still in remission for the disease. Williams has a very personal reason to support this cause and I’m sure there are similar stories among other players.

3)      It’s simple- It’s a color. The pink ribbon symbol and the color itself are identifiable as breast cancer awareness campaigns since its conception.

A trend that started off in the early 90s when pink ribbons were handed out to participants in New York City’s race for breast cancer survivors by the Susan G. Komen Foundation has, in the last decade, infiltrated our lives and decorated our purchases with pink. The transition from a grassroots project to an international campaign is in part thanks to the joint venture between Self Magazine and cosmetic giant Estee Lauder in 1992. The N.F.L. is the most recent organization to lend its support in the fight against breast cancer and one more reason to love pink.

References

Battista, Judy. “Pink Cleats to Show Support of Breast Cancer Awareness” New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/30/sports/football/30nfl.html September 29, 2009.

National Breast Cancer Foundation http://www.nbcf.org.au/

Susan G. Koman for the Cure  http://ww5.komen.org/corporatepartners.aspx

Pink Ribbon International http://www.pinkribbon.org/About/Organization/tabid/200/portalid/0/Default.aspx

Gershberg, Michael. “NFL studies what women fans want” Reuters http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2933923020061129 Nov 29, 2006

with its new outdoor ads. Starbucks challenged their 1.5 million Facebook fans and 183,000 Twitter followers to a game of hide and seek on

Tuesday. Players have to find the new outdoor ads and be the first to upload a picture of the advertisement to Twitter under the hash tag “top3percent”. Starbucks placed the new advertising posters in six major cities.

The scavenger hunt will last from May 18, 2009 to June 30, 2009, according to Starbucks’ Ideas in Action blog. Updates on clues and winners are available on the Starbucks Twitter site. Winners are awarded with a $20 Starbucks Gold Card. The new outdoor ads take subtle jabs at Starbucks’ newest competitor McDonald’s who just entered the coffee business with its McCafé line. This is a relatively small social media campaign put on by Starbucks to complement the larger outdoor ad campaign.

It’s an interesting way to inspire talk about the new outdoor ads and reward loyal Starbucks customers who have gone to the effort to add themselves to the Facebook page or follow the Starbucks Twitter site. So far, it seems that the talk has remained within this group of loyal customers.

Unfortunately,  Starbucks isn’t really reaching anyone new by tapping into their established social media fan base. They didn’t advertise the contest on Twitter, Facebook, or their blog until the day of the contest. A few newspapers and bloggers picked up the story, but had incorrect information in the articles. Mashable claimed that the downfall to this campaign is that Starbucks never mentions what the prize will be for winners, but they do mention it on their Twitter feed. Of course, only Starbuck Twitter followers might know that.

The reason Starbucks started this campaign was because they noticed that people were posting pictures of Starbucks billboard ads or posters on Flickr, Twitter and PhotoBucket. The interest is there for Starbucks customers to participate in a fun game, in which they can win a prize. This would be a great way to give people who don’t drink Starbucks regularly to try out their drinks for free after winning a Gold Card. Starbucks has a chance to gain more followers by making this game available to more than their established followers. It’s just going to take making this more than just a game to get people talking about a new outdoor ad campaign, but maybe involving people in a larger scavenger hunt that inspires interest in the brand itself and the coffee instead of the newest advertising campaign. You want people to buy your coffee, not your ads, right?

References
Bnelson. “The Big Photo Scavenger Hunt”http://blogs.starbucks.com/blogs/customer/archive/2009/05/19/the-top-3.aspx May 19, 2009

http://twitter.com/Starbucks and http://search.twitter.com#top3percent

Davenport, Terry. “Sneak Peek at New Ad Campaign”http://blogs.starbucks.com/blogs/customer/archive/2009/04/30/sneak-peek-at-new-ad-campaign.aspx Apr 30, 2009

Miller, Claire Cain. “New Starbucks Ads Seek to Recruit Online Fans” New York Timeshttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/19/business/media/19starbux.html?_r=2&scp=10&sq=radio&st=cse May 18, 2009

“Starbucks Launches New Online/Offline Social Media Campaign”http://www.businesspundit.com/starbucks-launches-new-onlineoffline-social-media-campaign/ May 19, 2009

Ostrow, Adam. “Starbucks Takes its Social Media Marketing Offline”http://mashable.com/2009/05/19/starbucks-social-media/ May 19, 2009

According to Wired, “over the past year, NIN.com has quietly evolved into a series of interlocking services designed to deliver maximum benefit to the fans at minimal expense to the artist. To build it out, Reznor decided to use off-the-shelf resources — Blogger, Twitter, FeedBurner, Flickr, YouTube — rather than trying to duplicate what other people had already created.”

What are the issues at stake?

 The biggest issue that Reznor faces is his strive for freedom. According to Wired, “Reznor has pioneered a new, fan-centered business model that radically breaks with the practices of the struggling music industry. His embrace of “freemium” pricing, torrent distribution, fan remixes and social media seem to be paying off financially even as they have helped him forge deeper connections with the Nine Inch Nails faithful.” 

Since Reznor’s goal is to connect with fans through tools like social media, an application like Twitter is ideal for maintaining a strong fan base that feels connected to the artist and the music.  

What are the pros and cons of this campaign?            

The positive aspect of this application will be the freedom and ability to connect to Reznor’s fan base through the use of social media. A huge NIN demographic is the 18-49 year olds who use technology like the iPhone and Twitter to share content and talk to other fans. This application will make the process of finding and sharing NIN content easier and faster.

The negative aspect could be the loss of control over what is being said about the brand, but after reading Reznor’s interview in Wired I don’t think he worries too much about loss of control. On fan sites for artists the chance of negative comments are low.

References 

Rose, Frank. “Nine Inch Nails iPhone App Extends Reznor’s Innovative Run” April 6, 2009 http://blog.wired.com 

Etherington, Darrell. “Nine Inch Nails iPhone App to Resemble Specialized Twitter” April 9, 2009 http://theappleblog.com 

Spence, Nick. “Nine Inch Nails iPhone App Awaits Apple’s OK” April 11, 2009 www.pcworld.com 

Nine Inch Nails

Ironically, the disablement of the popular Facebook application caused even more talk about the BK brand. In the end 82,771 people removed 233,906 friends from their lists in less than a week and Burger King and Crispin Porter and Bogusky made national headlines for their creative campaign.  What are the issues at stake?  Burger King is a low involvement purchase decision, but it’s in a competitive market of fast food chains.

This campaign has allowed Burger King to expand on its unexpected sense of humor in a platform that remains to be unused to its full potential by brands similar to BK. Most fast food chains that have Facebook or Myspace pages devoted to the brand and products are passive in their involvement with fans. They provide information about the products and events to fans, but don’t engage with them beyond the push factor. The Whopper Sacrifice campaign allows fans to participate with the brand in a fun and unique way by dropping their friends and being rewarded with a free hamburger.

Now, did the Whopper Sacrifice participants drop their real friends and/or acquaintances? Or did they just let go of some dead weight on their friends list? The New York Times estimated the average friend was worth 37 cents. 

Pros and cons of the campaign? 

The word of mouth factor in this campaign worked wonders for maintaining the Whopper Sacrifice popularity months after being shut down by Facebook. While the Whopper Sacrifice application was still intact it easily became the newest craze on Facebook. National newspapers are still talking about its success. The off the wall tone of the campaign fit well in Burger King’s overall advertising campaigns on traditional media. Around the same time Crispin Porter and Bogusky launched the Whopper Virgins TV commercials.

Unfortunately, Facebook disabled the application and Whopper Sacrifice is no more, but maybe that was in the plan. By stopping the application, talk ensued over the brand and the unique campaign. The application itself was popular, but the simple act of it being shut down caused even more talk. Burger King will be remember for being one of the first fast food brands to use social media in successful way to sell products and create buzz.  

Recommendation  

Facebook released a statement the following statement regarding the issue of privacy violations:  We encourage creativity from developers and brands using Facebook Platform, but we also must ensure that applications follow users’ expectations of privacy. This application facilitated activity that ran counter to user privacy by notifying people when a user removes a friend. We have reached out to the developer with suggested solutions. In the meantime, we are taking the necessary steps to assure the trust users have established on Facebook is maintained.  

I would be interested in seeing exactly what they suggested to Burger King or Crispin Porter and Bogusky regarding the campaign. I can’t imagine that whatever they suggested would be as interesting or creative as the original idea. Crispin Porter and Bogusky reacted by stopping the application and posting a simple statement on the Whopper Sacrifice Facebook page that states: “Facebook has disabled Whopper Sacrifice after your love for the Whopper sandwich proved stronger than 233, 906 friends. Whopper Sacrifice has been sacrificed.”

My recommendation would hinge on future social media campaigns since BK is unable to continue the Whopper Sacrifice on Facebook. Finding new and creative ways to pull your audience in and create buzz is going to be instrumental to brands that want to interact with consumers rather than simply push information on them. Social media, like Facebook, allows brands to do that within limits. Tip of the hat to Crispin, Porter and Bogusky for engineering such an interesting campaign.  

References

McCarthy, Caroline. “The dark secrets of Whopper Sacrifice” www.news.cnet.com April 3, 2009

Whopper Sacrifice Facebook Page http://apps.facebook.com/sacrifice

Arrington,Michael. “Facebook Blows A Whopper Of An Opportunity” www.techcrunch.com January 14, 2009

Crispin Porter + Bogusky http://cpbgroup.com

Wortham, Jenna. “The Value of a Facebook Friend? About 37 Cents” www.nytimes.com April 12, 2009