The World of Social Media 2011

Videoinfographs shows all the latest facts & figures about social media: 

What drives immediate and ongoing Word of Mouth?

Word of mouth (woM) affects diffusion and sales, but why are certain products talked about more than others, both right after consumers first experience them and in the months that follow? This article examines psychological drivers of immediate and ongoing WoM. The authors analyze a unique data set of everyday conversations for more than 300 products and conduct both a large field experiment across various cities and a controlled laboratory experiment with real conversations. The results indicate that more interesting products get more immediate WoM but, contrary to intuition, do not receive more ongoing WoM over multiple months or overall. in contrast, products that are cued more by the environment or are more publicly visible receive more WoM both right away and over time. Additional analyses demonstrate which promotional giveaways in WoM marketing campaigns are associated with increased WoM. Overall, the findings shed light on psychological drivers of WoM and provide insight into designing more effective WoM campaigns.

Keywords: word of mouth, buzz marketing, diffusion, product characteristics, social contagion, field experiment


Click here to read:  "What drives immediate and ongoing Word of Mouth?" by Jonah Berger and eric M. Schwartz*

7 Digital Trends You Should Know

Changes in the digital world of marketing keep coming fast and furious. As a marketer, it can be challenging to know which online trends are important and which are nothing but fads. One thing most marketers do know by now is that digital marketing is marketing -- in other words, with your audience having fully migrated online to search for suppliers, products, and services, digital marketing is the most effective way to connect with your prospects and customers.

Here, then, are seven digital trends worth paying attention to.

1. Online events

According to a recent GlobalSpec Marketing Trends Survey, 47% of industrial companies are increasing their spending on online events. Online events, sometimes called virtual events or online trade shows, are a trend made possible by high bandwidth availability and emerging technologies that allow media companies to produce and host highly interactive experiences. Online events targeted to your specific audience offer you an excellent opportunity to showcase your product line, build your brand reputation, provide content to your audience, and connect with prospects and customers. What’s more, you can do it all from the comfort and convenience of your desktop -- as can your audience.

2. Video

Video is experiencing a significant growth spurt. In fact, a high percentage of companies are increasing their spending on video, and it’s easy to see why. In the age of YouTube, videos are cheap to produce, and homemade production quality is not only acceptable, but cool. Also working in video’s favor is the fact that many people like to watch, not read. Looking for some good ideas for video? Try brief interviews with executives, conversations among product managers, product demonstrations, or on-site visits to customers where your products are being used.

3. Social Media

Although many companies have begun implementing social media, make sure you understand the specific reasons and goals for your own social media strategy. For example, the top reasons companies use social media for branding and lead-generation purposes, yet only 3 percent of companies state that social media is one of their top three sources for leads. At this point in the maturation of the social media market, increasing brand awareness and building relationships are the outcomes most effectively achieved. LinkedIn is the most popular social media platform for sectors such as the industrial industry, followed by Facebook and then Twitter.

4. Digital Content

A few years ago, everyone was saying “Content is King.” Well, in many ways, content still is king -- digital content -- as attested to by the huge growth of e-readers, the iPad and other devices for consuming digital content. And it’s not just Web pages. There are videos, Webinars, downloadable PDFs, e-books, interactive tools and more. Your customers and prospects are hungry for content to help them do their jobs and make better purchasing decisions. Your job is to create that content and get it to them in digital format.

5. Internet Banner Advertising

Internet banner advertising has become a strong value proposition for marketers because of the availability of highly targeted advertising networks that can place your ads on specific sites frequented by professionals in your industry. Online advertising networks also offer the convenience of reaching many sites with a single buy, helping you save time and make the most effective use of your budget. Banner ads are highly visual; they offer great branding opportunities and can drive qualified, targeted traffic to your Web site.

6. Testing and Analytics

One major advantage of digital media is that it is easy to test and measure. A/B testing is becoming a popular way to optimize e-mail campaigns, Web pages and other online media. A/B testing basically means you split your list in two and send each list a slightly different version of what you’re testing, changing only one thing at a time and measuring what performs better. In addition, every company should be performing some type of Web site analytics such as measuring traffic, page popularity, and visitor behavior to help make informed decisions about optimizing your site.

7. Online Marketing Budgets

The top eight channels for increased marketing spend in 2011 are all online — from social media and SEO to Internet banner advertising networks, online newsletter sponsorships and more. In addition, according to GlobalSpec’s 2011 Industrial Marketing Trends Survey, companies spend an average of 38 percent of their marketing budget online and 50 percent report that online marketing is a larger percentage of their overall marketing budget this year than last year.  Online marketing should continue to take a bigger slice of the marketing budget in subsequent years, as more marketers experience the ROI associated with online programs and discover they can connect better with customers and prospects online.

article written by Chris Chariton

The Honda Experiment

Posted by Eliza Williams, 23 November 2011, 10:35

Wieden + Kennedy London's latest campaign for Honda, titled The Experiment, is an online game that asks players to create a chain reaction on screen by placing a set of pop-up windows in the correct sequence...

The campaign is reminiscent of the Honda Cog ad from 2003, where a series of car parts were used to create a giant Rube Goldberg-esque chain reaction, to emphasise the complex engineering inside the Honda Accord. Here, the audience become the engineers, and are encouraged to experiment with moving the pop-ups around the screen until the correct chain is achieved. The film below shows how it works:

There are six levels to the game, and when these are completed, players get the opportunity to create their own chains to challenge their friends with. The game is best played using either Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari browsers, and was created in collaboration with B-Reel, the production company behind the Wilderness Downtown site for Arcade Fire, which also had fun with pop-ups.

Play the game at experimentgame.com, or find out more about it on the Honda bloghere. And if you want to find out more about how the campaign was made, simply watch the making-of film below:

Credits:
Agency: Wieden + Kennedy London
Creatives: Lisa Jelliffe, Kirsten Rutherford
Producer: Dominic Tunon
Creative directors: Chris Groom, Sam Heath
Interactive creative directors: Gavin Gordon-Rogers, Andy Cameron
Designer: Chris Welsby
Creative technologist: Mike Tucker
Executive creative directors: Tony Davidson, Kim Papworth
Production company- B-Reel
Music: human

BGH Microwaves: Musical Microwaves

Are you sick and tired of hearing beeps everywhere, giving you orders. Time to wake-up; 2 secs to enter in the subway, time to eat, etc. 
Now with the BGH Microwaves you can get rid of the beeping noise, and listen to your favorite musics during your meals. The BGH produced a limited edition of microwave oven with a USB port, which permits to transfer your favorite musics to the microwave.


If this thing becomes a trend, I foresee a portable mp3 microwave player.

Credits

Agency:

Del Campo Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi

Client:

BGH Microwaves

Executive Creative Director:

Maxi Itzkoff

Executive Creative Director:

Mariano Serkin

Creative Director:

Diego Medvedocky

Creative Director:

Ignacio Ferioli

Creative Team:

Guilherme Souza

Creative Team:

Breno Costa

Agency SISOMO Producer:

Camilo Rojas

Lagerhaus: Blog-Up Stores

Swedish interior design retailer Lagerhaus targeted six leading interior design bloggers to create buzz around the launch of its online store, and increase its number of Facebook fans in a campaign by Prime.

The retailer invited the bloggers to create their own 'pop up' stores, giving them access to a blog store widget to make it easy. The bloggers could customize their shop with their favorite products and embed it on their blog, thereby creating so-called 'Blog-Up Stores'. Bloggers could market the stores however they want, and could invite their readers along to meet them in person at the launch of the online store. As a result of the campaign, the brand's Facebook fans increased by 226%, interactions grew by 360% and the blog stores have become permanent distribution channels for the brand. - (via Creativity)

Credits

Agency:

Prime

Client:

Lagerhaus

Creative/Project Manager:

Maria Larsson

Creative/Art Director:

Ebba Hultengren

Executive Creative Director:

Tom Beckman

YOUNG CREATIVES EUROBEST 2011 - "20 YEARS"

«This year, Eurobest - one of the most important creativity Festival in Europe - will take place in Lisbon (Portugal). And to officially launch the "Young Creatives Integrated Competition", Fuel Lisbon, a Portuguese agency, created a viral featuring the top creative directors in the country as pop stars.

In the spot, they all are singing a very popular Portuguese song, a sad tune that speaks about getting old and that time goes by. The pay-off explains all this sadness: "They can't enter anymore. Good for you".

The spot is all over the web, mostly in Facebook, where it has been shared more than 200 times in just one day.

On top of that, Fuel Digital is launching a Facebook app where you can play with the music, mixing all the creative directors voice and putting they to sing the blues in duets.

Eurobest will be held from 28 -- 30 November 2011, in Lisbon, Portugal.»

Title: 20 YEARS
Agency: Fuel Lisboa
Creative Director: Marcelo Lourenço / Pedro Bexiga
Copywriter: Andreia Ribeiro
Art Director: Ricardo Marques
Agency Producer: Pedro Silva
Director: Nuno Portimão
D.O.P.: Vitor Rebelo
Executive Producer: Alexandre Montenegro
Executive Producer: Sandra Sousa
Sound: Luis Motrena
Make Up: Cauê e Susana Correia
Production Company: Show Off
Post Production: Show Off
Sound Production: Indigo
Music: Manuel Faria / José Afonso
Song: "Vinte Anos" (José Cid / Tozé Brito) 

Singer: Sara Sezifredo 

Time to be creative...

Is there a time to be creative, can you control that appearance. Some creativity experts say that you can train your brain in order to better control the time of inspiration. I prefer to not control my inspiration and let it come when she wants, maybe because I spent some time "feeding" her (the soul of creativity) and my brain (the worker) with creative contents.

We can agree or disagree, if you can or not train your body to be creative, or if that training processes benefice your creativity.
As resource, time is important to the creative process. Because of the pressure involved in solving problems with a limit for it. But too much time can be also nocive, it can lead to procrastination.

And what happens when you have a client-agency relationship. Which side as the right opinion about the use of time?


The agencies ask for more time.

But do they really need it. 

Great Ideas Don't Take as Much Time as Many Ad Agencies Claim

The Myth of Time and the Creative Process

By: Scott Montgomery Published: November 16, 2011

There. I said it. CMOs? Ad managers? Perhaps you've suspected this. I can confirm it: Making ideas really doesn't take as long as you're told it does.

It's like I'm burning my Advertising Creative Union card by saying this, right? I mean, creative actually does take time -- and smarts, risk, effort, sleep deprivation, and extended bouts of weeping -- just not as long as some agenciesmake it take.

A few months ago I listened in on a conference call with one of our newly minted account managers as she negotiated campaign timing with a new client. Actually she wasn't really newly-minted. She'd worked for a few years at a creatively decent, but now deceased, agency. And every word she used, every number she referenced, each timeline, was designed to secure more time for campaign delivery.

So, I popped down afterwards to undo several years of very good, traditional account training.

Agencies (like her old one) have built up elaborate time, tracking and billing structures that David Ogilvy would still recognize -- structures designed before Internet speed, and turned into tradition with layers of process that . . . Slow. Things. Way. Down.

At the same time, creative people, even admirably busy ones, almost always put most of their actualwork-work nearer to Deadline Eve than to project initiation. I do it. Think. Get coffee. Think. Get panicky. Freak. Execute. That, too, is tradition.

So, if we all just agree that, today, technology lets us collaborate, create and execute far faster than those 80s-era agency structures can -- the ones where 90% of the creative portion of the effort happens in the last 72, 48, 12 or 4 hours anyway -- well, let's just go ahead and move that hunk of time closer to project's initiation.

Like, all the way closer.

Here in flyover land -- essentially advertising's nowhere -- speed is a requirement. We have to be faster to compete with bigger agencies. But it turns out the positive effects of this reality have piled up for us. So we've made it the rule. Or rather, the basis of our guiding principles, which we use to go about undoing all that excellent account training I mentioned.

Principle 1: The less time it's in our shop, the more profitable the effort. Seems strange to say in an industry with billable hours as a standard. But we've had projects that have celebrated birthdays. Not one of them has been profitable. Bill to a quote, deliver value, execute, delight your client. Repeat.

Principle 2: Speed reduces mootness. If we develop concepts before market conditions render the brief moot, it decreases the chances that the effort will die of irrelevance in six months because a client's competitor moved faster. Yet, some agencies act like clients' competitors never change. They do.

Principle 3: Speed helps your client-side partner be indispensable to her organization.Speed tends to delight her project team; executional alacrity helps that lead person keep (and excel in) her job, be assigned more things to execute, and (hell yes), make more work for us. Yet, culturally, agencies are full of creatives who think the client is the enemy. They're not.

Principle 4: Speed lets you avoid second-guessing a thing to oblivion. Almost all our most interesting projects could have been easily killed by a lot of debate. Creative inventions are always fragile, and proper scrutiny should kill the weakest -- absolutely. But you can always construct an argument that can kill even the most awesome ideas. Speed just reduces that opportunity. And yet, some agency creatives talk about working for months on things that are never produced. Somebody pays for that wasted effort.

Principle 5: Executing the fresh beats the hell out of executing the stale. I personally have the attention span of an Irish Setter. I'm easily bored, and always ready for the next thing -- a lot of creative people are. Execute before our minds wander. Executing ideas in the energy-glow of spontaneity, newness, and invention is, frankly, more fun. You can usually see it in the results. What was I saying? Oh…

Principle 6: Speed lets you collaborate with your client earlier. Speed makes you be decisive. Speed lets you be well on your way before another agency can get the job opened.

This may seem anti-creative to some. But I can report that nearly every really unusual, innovative or award-winning idea we've created over the last few years has coalesced within hours of setting our minds to it. The speed can be breathtaking, but the results can be, too.

Why Companies Should Invest in Google+ Brand Pages

As the lines between search engine optimization and social media continue to blur and form one synergistic effort, it is critical that both small and large companies stay up to date with new opportunities for spreading brand awareness and connecting directly with their audiences. When Google makes a move in the social space, it's important to pay attention to, understand, and identify how the offering can and should be leveraged for your business.

With the recent announcement of Google+ brand pages, many people may be saying "My business is already active on Facebook and Twitter, why should I bother with yet another social media channel?" This is a valid question due to the amount of time and resources that are required to effectively manage each social media channel. At the surface, Google+ brand pages may seem like just another Facebook with a fraction of the user base. However, these are a few unique elements that you should consider before writing it off:

Smaller User Base
While it's true that Google+ does have a much smaller user base than Facebook (estimated at 40 million vs. 800 million), it doesn't necessarily mean you should ignore it and focus all of your efforts on Facebook. With fewer users, come less noise and more focus in the space. Facebook is packed full of updates from the recent integration of services like Spotify and The Washington Post, as well as games, "happy birthdays," and pictures of friends and family. Google+, on the other hand, seems to be driven more by content of a professional, informational, and industry-specific manner. Because of this, brands may be able to create a much more direct and personal relationship with their audiences.

Unique Functionality
Google+ offers very unique functionality with its ability to host "Hangouts," or live audio/video chats, between itself and its audience. Hangouts provide an opportunity to directly engage in discussions, receive immediate feedback, and/or provide exclusive content. One example of a brand already using Hangouts is The Black Eyed Peas, where they hosted a session backstage prior to one of their concerts. The Hangout allowed them to connect with their fans, give some inside information on the band, and thank their fans for their support.

Another creative use of Hangouts can be seen with Dell. Michael Dell mentioned the possibility that the company may soon leverage Hangouts as a place for face-to-face customer support and sales rather than requiring customers to call in.

Future Integration With Other Google Offerings
As Google continues its recent effort to unify its products and offerings, Google+ is ripe for deeper integration with services such as Google Places and Maps, Web and Image Search, and YouTube. Google has already begun this process in several ways. One of the most recent is the addition of Google +1s into Image Search.

This could become beneficial to increasing a brand's visibility, socially and via organic/image search, where the brand frequently post images to their Google+ brand page (such as artists or photographers who sell a product or service), and have an audience that is likely to share that content.
Ultimately, whether or not using Google+ brand pages is right for your business depends on your target audience and your level of creativity to use the service to its full potential. In most cases, businesses must fully understand what types of audiences they have, where they are spending their time online, and what types of content they want to consume from each service. Finding the right balance of social interaction and commercial promotion is critical in creating that connection, positively affecting other marketing initiatives such as SEO, and ultimately generating the next sale.

Are you using Google+ for your brand? If so, in what ways are you engaging your audience? And if not, why did you decide against it?

Crispin Sheridan - via Clickz

Bussiness Mouse, doing bussiness old-school style

Welcome to Impulse Investments, I'm Dave Business Mouse!'. Fresh from the makers of Modern Toss comes a new cartoon idiot in the form of a little mouse built for big business. Watch as he blunders his way through deal after deal at rapid pace. Expect hilarious, hurricane velocity, stylish animation from this inspiring but reckless mouse entrepreneur and his portfolio of business associates.

In the first über-sweary episode, Business of Leisure, BM encounters a budding entrepreneur with a keen nose for an idea.

Credits

Written & Directed by: Jon Link, Mick Bunnage
Producer: Jane Harrison
Voices: Julie Burchill, Emma Fryer, Mark Kempner, Lawry Lewin

Character Design & Backgrounds: Jon Link

Additional Artwork: Steve Campion, Charlie Evans

Animation: Le Singe Media

Supervising Animator: Tom Matuszewski

Animators: Robin Brindle, Jack Bonnington, Scott Weston

Editors: Rob Hill, Tom Matuszewski

Dubbing Mixer: Simon Couzens
B
Business Affairs: David Cuff

Hans Brinker Budget Advertising

Hans Brinker Budget Hotel, is a example of a coherent communication: «The Hans Brinker Budget Hotel has been proudly disappointing travellers for forty years. Boasting levels of comfort comparable to a minimum-security prison...». This line of communication of Hans Brinker Budget, a disruptive line, put them as one of the most famous Hostels in Amsterdam, if not the number one. 

And they now launched a new social media campaign:


Hans Brinker Budget Hotel Amsterdam asks you to advertise its luxurious, spacious, minimal designed rooms in a YouTube video. Just mention 'Hans Brinker Budget Hotel' and if your video hits a 1,000 views, you'll be rewarded with 10 euros.


Innovating keeping the line...

Credits

Agency: KesselsKramer

Brand Manual - Be Disruptive, By Differentiation , Thinking in the Positioning. All this in a coherent way. 

Meth Project goes digital

The Meth Project announced the launch of a new integrated campaign to reduce methamphetamine use.  Central to the campaign is MethProject.org—an  encyclopedic online source of information about Meth for teens—supported by new television, radio,  print, online, mobile, and social media campaigns. A web-centric social network built around the theme  “Ask MethProject.org,” the campaign challenges teens to consider what they know about Meth, and  equips them with facts, tools, and resources to understand the risks of the drug and to influence their peers.

Designed to spark exploration and engagement, MethProject.org brings to life the breadth of research on  the subject in a way that is highly interactive and accessible to young people. For instance, teens can 

take a normal beating heart to Meth-induced heart attack in the simulation “Heart in Overdrive,” learn 

how Meth rapidly changes a user’s appearance by pairing before and after photos in “Mug Shot Matchup,” dose a healthy brain with Meth to watch its effects, or experiment with the drug’s ingredients to see 

which ones explode or emit toxic gas.  Personal stories from users are told through videos, rich animations, and drawings as teens describe their experiences with Meth in poignant detail.

MethProject.org also serves as a platform for teens to connect and share.  In the “Speak Up” section of 

the site, teens can post their own messages about Meth through artwork, videos, stories, and photos, as 

well as comment on other teen submissions.  “Take Action” provides ways for teens to get involved to 

prevent Meth use or find help, and showcases teen-led community action programs across the country.

Four Studio AKA Directors all took on the creation of Six films for the project by concentrating on personal stories by users. Uncompromising & uncomfortable to watch, each of the films has its own style, reflecting the personal recollections of addicts. In addition to these thought-provoking films, there are a series of stand alone Illustrations to accompany other stories of addiction & Radio audios that will be viewable on the Meth Project website.

Credits

Advertising Agency: Organic, USA
Chief Creative Officer: Conor Brady
Executive Creative Director: Brad Mancuso
Creative Director: Urs Ross
Associate Creative Director: Jola Hyjek
Art Directors: Tyler Warrender, Mark Butorac
Copywriters: Fred Abercrombie, Brian Pike, Lauren Tyrrell
Designer: David Paslay
Motion Design: Lorena Pazimo, Michael Whiteside, Bert Tam
Executive Producers: LauraLe Wunsch, Tom Hillebrand
Account Team: Andy McKinney, Jamie Shiembob
Group Director, Technology: Tom Tully
Technology Director: Dale Gillespie
Rich Media Architect: Jordan Gray, Clayton Gibb
Web Developers: Margaret Beck, Robert Watzke
Design & Animation: Studio AKA
Directors: Steve Small, Kristian Andrews, Grant Orchard
Illustration: Margot Tsakiri-Scanatovits, Eamonn O'Neill, Gemma Mortlock, 
Cristobal Infante, Kristian Andrews
Animation: Margot Tsakiri-Scanatovits, Eamonn O'Neill, Kristian Andrews, 
Phil Warner, Eamonn O'Neill, Grant Orchard, David Prosser, Steve Small
Executive Producer: Sharon Titmarsh
Sound Design: Jeremiah Moore
Mix: Mark Pitchford, M Squared Studios

About the Meth Project

The Meth Project is a national non-profit organization headquartered in Palo Alto, California, aimed at 

significantly reducing Meth use through public service messaging, public policy, and community 

outreach.  Central to its integrated campaign is MethProject.org—a definitive source for information 

about Meth for teens.  The Montana Meth Project, Arizona Meth Project, Idaho Meth Project, Illinois 

Meth Project, Wyoming Meth Project, Colorado Meth Project, Hawaii Meth Project, Georgia Meth 

Project, and other state affiliates implement the Meth Project prevention programs in their respective 

states. The Meth Project is funded by a grant from the Thomas and Stacey Siebel Foundation.