Coca-Cola Columbia needed to promote their new online radio station, Coke FM. Naturally, they promoted it with a concert. Unnaturally, concert goers had to download songs from Coke FM to get the band closer to them.
Results:
Read more at Digital Buzz Blog
In two unrelated campaigns, Smart Cars proved to be very talkable.
Electric cars inspire feelings of oneness with the world and the environment, but not excitement. BBDO Germany set out to change that with the first ever game of Pong played with cars as the controllers.
Down in Argentina, Smart Cars made headlines through a Twitter campaign. In perhaps the first ever Twitter animation, Smart Cars tweeted over 400 visual animations from their @SmartArg account. The tweets make a short animation when scrolled through quickly.
Try it yourself on @SmartArg
Coca-Cola made a splash a few years ago with their Happiness Vending Machine. They’ve done it again with the Hug Me Vending Machine. Students at the National University of Singapore lined up to get a can of Coke in exchange for a loving hug. Sounds like a good deal to me.
Read more at Food Beast
Apps have exploded over the last few years. Early on, lots of independent apps started as stand-alone companies. Due to their success, B2C brands caught on. And recent research from Antenna Software found that B2B companies are joining in.
And the mobile sites and apps aren’t just for customers.
Key Takeaway: B2B may be a bit behind, but their catching up fast. Think about how your company could solve a problem with apps and mobile sites.
(Insider tip: Don’t create a problem to solve. It won’t work and you’ll just waste time and resources.)
Read more about the study at The Guardian
Asian and European businesses have embraced text marketing much more than their U.S. counterparts. The Direct Marketing Association found that 38% of Britons, 58% of Germans, and 60% of French people prefer text marketing over other channels.
This is a rare occurrence. Both marketers and consumers found an effective and efficient marketing tactic.
For Consumers…
Great marketing doesn’t feel like marketing. Text marketing is almost exclusively opt-in, so it rarely feels like a message you didn’t ask for. Texts are short, relevant and clear by nature to boot!
For Marketers…
Again, the opt-in nature of text marketing helps. Because of the advanced targeting, conversions and response rates are very high. Even if the text itself is informational (think sports and news updates and alerts), the brand has executed a positive interaction with one of their consumers – further building brand affinity and advocacy.
Read more about text marketing on MarketingProfs
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Have you run a conversation inspiring mobile campaign? Submit the case study for a speaking opportunity at WOMM-U, May 7 – 9. Submission deadline: March 9.
Auto marketing so often relies on slick ads with empty, slightly wetted roads being cut through with a spotless ride. While visually stimulating, there is often a deficit between seeing and doing. Auto manufacturers need to get people in their showrooms and behind their wheels. That’s why this campaign stood out.
BMW launched the 1 series in South Africa. To do so, they set up a huge 100 square meter screen that projected a racing game. Passersby could log into the game with their iPad, which then became their steering wheel.
Watch the video and let us know what you think. Our reference, Digital Buzz Blog, gave BMW points for ingenuity, but thought the gameplay was a bit too clunky to live up to BMW’s image.
Read more at Digital Buzz Blog
There’s no shortage of people pontificating about integrating social media into business practices. Steven Van Belleghem of InSites Consulting recently surveyed 400 senior marketing managers from the US and UK. The distribution of social integration played out in a bell curve:
The data revealed three necessities for effective integration:
1. Tangible Investments in education and technology
2. Strategic integration of social media in planning, organizational structure and goal setting
3. Social media strategy fully in line with culture and values of the organization
The report went on to further examine B2B adoption, models for integration success, and ways to measure.
Watch the slidedeck on Steven’s Slideshare page
Many websites are blocked in China, among them are Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo and YouTube. This hasn’t stopped them from social networking.
For instance:
In a country with about one sixth of the world’s population, these sites are becoming huge players in the global social media field. There’s good reason. China is second to Japan in average number of hours spent online.
And all these folks online tend to trust and buy from brands that are engaging on social media.
Key Takeaway: China has a very interesting digital landscape. It’s development will affect global brands. Those who strive to understand China’s unique online market will have a great advantage.
See the full infographic, made by the Gerson Lehrman Group, at 1000heads
Dettol, an antiseptic sold worldwide, wanted to up their share of the growing Chinese market where they were third among competitors. Unfortunately, media inflation is also growing in China, often making ad buys too expensive for positive ROI.
Through interviews with moms, they found that Dettol was mainly used to clean floors despite being useful on all surfaces. They developed a more convenient spray and sent 40,000 sample bottles to 4,000 influential moms with passion for household care. They were so popular, Dettol produced 50,000 more sample bottles.
The Results:
1. In four weeks, 50,000 moms had used the product.
2. Online voting found that 98% of users wanted to bottle to be mass produced.
3. Sales grew 86%.
4. ROI was 15 times greater than TV advertising.
Advocacy WOM won the 2011 Gold WOMMY for Momentum for this case study. If you’re doing great word of mouth marketing to bolster momentum, remember to submit your case study to the 2012 WOMMYs after WOMMA’s School of WOM conference this spring.
Ici et here is a blog for a small organic food and goods shop in Montreal, FAIT ICI. They found 52 local Montrealer foodies to write posts about stories that interplay food and life in Montreal. Their goals were simple: Get great content for owned media, generate earned media attention, and build relationships with local influencers.
Did it work? In short, yes, quite well. Their website was robust with content. That content drove comments, blog posts, tweets, news pieces and a 100% increase to owned media. And their bloggers have continued to engage FAIT ICI in the store and outside.
What did they learn?
Perhaps the most interesting part of the cited post is what they learned from making a group blog.
1. It all starts with goals and metrics.
2. Have an editorial calendar and slot in your authors VERY early in the process.
3. Having a broad rubric instead of forcing authors to write on specific topics was helpful to us.
4. Select your authors carefully.
Read the rest of the lessons learned and successes of the program at Communications Conversations
