Monday, November 2, 2009
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Trivial Pursuit Experiment
TRIVIAL PURSUIT, the ultimate authority on trivia, is throwing down the gauntlet and asking women and men to represent their team and take part in the experiment to find out if the age-old question of who's smarter than who can be answered once and for all through trivia. Played out on www.trivialpursuitexperiment.com, simply log on to join in and earn points for your brotherhood or sisterhood by answering as many questions as you want. Each question you answer correctly will earn a point for your team.
Trivial Pursuit Experiment - Who’s Smarter than Who?
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Trivial Pursuit Experiment: Points go to the Men
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Trivial Pursuit Experiment: Points go to the Women
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Saturday, October 31, 2009
Social Media Marketing in Arabia
It seems that Saudi companies are not yet sure about the importance of social media marketing and whether it should play a role in their marketing and branding strategies or not. Internationally, using social media tools (e.g. Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Youtube channels, etc …) is becoming THE trend among other marketing tools and initiatives.
When the buzz about the potential use of social media in creating an added value to their brands, companies were just waiting to see how things will turn around. Justifying the costs of resources they will dedicate to build such a social media presence was the main concern occupying the minds of these companies’ managements. In other words, managers were thinking; what is the return on such investment?
The global marketing scene has moved from this basic step to discuss the specifics of having a successful presence online. The question of ‘should we have social media accounts?’ has been changed to ‘how to relate and engage with our customers using social media accounts?’. So it is not about the presence anymore, it is about the engagement. According to a study by Wetpaint and Altimeter Group, there is a correlation between a company’s social media engagement and its profit (more on this point is here). That means these social media accounts can be used as a channel of communication with customers. To be successful, this channel has to be dealt with as a long term investment and a major activity for marketing and branding teams. The presence should be alive, active, and emotionally engaging to the customers. Small gestures like saying ‘thank you’ to a Twitter customer, or saying ‘we will make sure to fix that’ on a Facebook page could make a difference with customers and boost their loyalty to the company.
Now, I have been looking around Twitter to check out Saudi companies’ presence over there. And it seems that most of them are in the trap of ‘cold social media presence’. The giant, Saudi Aramco has 351 followers only, can you believe that? Check out now the telecom rivals STC and Mobily, !
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Cisco Saudi is the best company in practicing social media marketing in Saudi, they have a blog http://iam.cisco.com.sa and an active twitter account http://twitter.com/ciscosaudi beside a very good Facebook fan page with more than 1000 fans, also they are engaging with other Saudi technology blogs (sponsoring contests in tech-wd.com).
here is an interesting study http://www.emarketer.com/Article.aspx?R=1007335
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
B2B Social Communications| DuPont's Social Media
In 2007, DuPont launched five videos on eight web blogs in a marketing program designed to increase share of voice for DuPont on the Internet and to introduce DuPont science to a younger, wired and online generation. The videos were made specifically for online audiences looking for stories told through video which are different and interesting.
Tapping into over 40 years of video archival footage, each video showcases how science from DuPont helps to protect people and how innovations developed by DuPont enhance people’s lives. The blogs offered a mix of general and targeted interest audiences.
Blogs were selected for this project because they reach a devoted, targeted audience and their audiences tend to talk to others about their interests, encouraging word of mouth.
Completing DuPont’s marketing pilot to the blogosphere, videoblogger Amanda Congdon was the on-screen host for the five videos. Amanda is best known for her work on Rocketboom, a popular news and entertainment videoblog. BlogAds and FM Networks assisted the project in distributing the videos.
The campaign delivered on three key objectives:
(1) increasing awareness for DuPont science,
(2) increasing positive sentiment for DuPont and
(3) creating stories sufficiently compelling to generate word of mouth.
The DuPont Science Stories campaign was one of three national finalists for the Online Media Marketing and Advertising (OMMA) Best Campaign in Social Media Award 2007.
Here is one of the five videos in the series. You can view all the videos in this series at stories.dupont.com, however, I cannot find any link to this anywhere on the DuPont website. I would like to think that if they hold up a two-year old social media program as a success, they would want to continue to tout that success by providing access to the video. Additionally some of the links no longer work, which is another indication that this campaign has been relegated to the backwater of the DuPont website. If you are presenting a case study of an old program, make sure you check all the links on an old page.
Too many industries still consider members of the retail distribution chain to be their customers. The businesses (especially manufacturers) in these industries put most of their marketing budget and effort selling to those who will sell their products. The end-user is almost an afterthought, even though the end-user is the one who creates the demand that retailers fill through ordering the brand the end-user wants.
It does no good if retailers buy your products, but they gather dust on the shelf because there’s no consumer demand – because you didn’t create any.
It does no good to compete on price point alone, because someone will always undercut you. Rock-bottom pricing isn’t always the basis of a consumer’s buying decision. Even Wal-Mart is positioning its brand as allowing consumers to “live better.” The mega-retailer is promoting the benefit of its low prices, not the feature of the prices themselves.
The end-user is your customer. So build brand equity by creating awareness and a sense of community among consumers. Talk to them on blogs and social media outlets, but don’t “sell.” Get them to talk to each other about your brand. Meet them at shows and events, and – if you can – sponsor shows and events. Make your Web site an engaging destination for consumers to learn more and communicate.
Worry less about competitors stealing your ideas and beating you to market and more about competitors stealing your market share because they’re better at talking to consumers than you are. It doesn’t matter if that’s the way things have always been done. Things are now being done differently.
CASE STUDY PRESENTATIONS
- Case Study: Deloitte Recruits Socially
- Case Study: IBM Emraces Social Media to Connect w/ Businesses
- Case Study: Dupont Goes Social with Viral Webvideo
- Case Study:Social Media Soars Among BtoB Marketers
- Case Study: PB Customer Forums Delivers Service Socialy
- Case Study: HubSpot Customer Generates Leads
- Social Media & the WSJ Digital Network
- Case Study: Intuit Elevates the Covo. w/ Small Bus
- Case Study:Microsoft Ignites & Manages Social Buzz
- Case study presentations may also be accessed through www.slideshare.net/bdionline
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Friday, October 23, 2009
Case Study: My Year Without Sex Social Media Campaign

Problemo: My Year Without Sex was a new Australian film, which was hard to market as it didn’t fit into one specific category. The trailer was not going to be enough to get people to watch it. Working on a small budget we needed to get people to talk about the film.
Strategy: Use word of mouth to help fuel discussion around the movie
Implementation:
Identifying Key Environments
We identified the target market as mothers. Using Google Ad Planner and a number of other tools we looked for the environments where mothers were most vocal online and three environments stood out; Facebook, Mothers Forums and Mother Blogs.
Part 1: Mothers Forums
We went out to a number of the major mothers forums and offered the Moderators of the sites free double passes to see the film. Forums host some of the liveliest discussions online.
Part 2: Blogs
We identified a number of influential female blogs that we thought would enjoy the film. These bloggers were found using the Top 100 Australian Women Bloggers list. From this list we got a number of high profile bloggers to go and see the movie. We also used the NuffNang to outreach to a further 20 bloggers.
Part 3: Facebook
There was an opportunity to get a number of people along to a pre screening for the film in each major cities. We used Facebook Advertising and a Facebook Event to set up an exclusive Facebook Pre Screening for 500 people. We also ran a Facebook Page which had further information about the movie.
Part 4: Youtube - Creating a piece of passable content
We decided to create a piece of content around the film which we believed could have mass appeal online. We created the ‘5 Things that get in the way of Sex’ video. We were able to get this video to the front page of Digg and then Youtube Honour Board with 25,000 views in one week. This ended up being the feature of a blog post inSydney Morning Herald Ask Sam Blog.
Result:
In its opening week MYWS took $177,522 and has currently grossed $1,127,838 in box office sales.
Learnings:
Facebook Page
It is really hard for someone to become a fan of a product that they have no knowledge about. We did not see growth in the Page until after the release date which usually does not work with the timings/budgeting of films.
Facebook Advertising
This campaign ran from early April to May this year, this was before the upgrade to the Facebook advertising model. We were only able to manage to get 900 people into the Page for the movie, when we promoted Cedar Boys another Australian film we were able to get 2,000 easily into the Page. So this new upgrade has definitely made a difference.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Social media, brand route to connect with and built trust ... best practice
1. They can’t talk about anything broader than their own products
2. They listen to customers but don’t take any action
3. They aren’t calibrated internally with the technology
4. They’re not framing risk accurately
5. Their internal culture isn’t aligned for social media success
Monday, October 12, 2009
Success on Facebook
We looked at eight major product categories to find the brands that gained the most traction on the site, comparing their Facebook pages to those of competitors to determine which were best and worst at taking full advantage of the platform.
Some big-name players -- Coca-Cola, Best Buy, Starbucks and Microsoft among them -- are performing especially well on the social-media site. Others, however, including Burger King, Walmart, Dell and Geico, might be missing some prime opportunities to interact with their current and potential customers.
Contents:
- Consumer Packaged Goods ... Retail
- Restaurant/Food ... Technology
- Apparel ... Insurance
- Automotive ... Airline
Stats: 3.7 million fans; regular promotions include one that solicits videos for a shot at appearing in a Coke commercial.
Missed Opportunity... Pepsi. The company makes a disappointing showing on Facebook, given that it's a digitally and socially savvy brand. The Refresh Everything page has 250,000 fans, a fraction of rival Coke's. The company mostly uses it as a channel for pumping out updates of marketing activities.
RETAIL: BEST BUY
A recent post asking users what they thought of the company offering a BestBuy.com in Spanish ignited a firestorm of hostile and offensive comments. The company acted quickly by taking the post down.
Stats: 842,000 fans; one of the richest retail pages on Facebook, featuring "shop and share" and "gift ideas" applications.
Missed Opportunity... Walmart. The retailer might be the biggest on the face of the Earth, but you wouldn't know it on Facebook. The company clearly has its work cut out for it in the give and take of social media, but hiding is a dubious strategy. Its page has less than 17,000 fans and no content.
Stats: 4.5 million fans; ice cream and pastry giveaways clearly resonate with consumers; the company's social strategy was enough for Altimeter Group to rank it the No.1 most-connected brand.
Missed Opportunity... Burger King. Not many ad icons nowadays have the appeal of Burger King's mascot, but the brand is curiously absent from the social networking platform. That's too bad because it clearly has cachet among users as evidenced by the avalanche of responses to the short-lived "Whopper sacrifice" campaign last January.
TECHNOLOGY: MICROSOFT
Stats: Over 300,000 fans; used the Bing page to solicit feedback on features the new search engine needs.
Missed Opportunity... Dell. Despite a concerted effort at social media, Dell hasn't cracked the Facebook code. It has about 40,000 fans who get a regular stream of product releases. What's missing is the feedback loop Dell started with its Ideastorm site in 2007.
Stats: 2.1 million fans; posts photos and videos; updates a few times per week.
Missed Opportunity... Nike. As the ultimate passion brand, Nike would figure to be quite popular on Facebook. And it has amassed 382,000 followers. But talk about anti-social. Nike hasn't updated the page since July. Just do it, Nike.
INSURANCE: AFLAC
The company, seeing how far it can go, has taken the duck to Twitter where he's attracted over 3,000 followers.
Stats: 161,000 fans; mixes updates with charity pitches and contests; posts daily.
Missed Opportunity... Geico gecko. If a duck can do it, a lizard can, too. Yet the Geico gecko has never found his footing on Facebook. The page has just 6,800 fans. The lizard's droll tone doesn't carry over to the site. Instead, his updates sound a lot like the voice of a PR pro.
Stats: Over 370,000 fans on the Ford, Mustang and Fusion pages; mix of product and event information with photos and videos.
Missed Opportunity... Toyota has nearly 50,000 fans, yet it hasn't updated its page since June.
AIRLINE: SOUTHWEST
Stats: 80,000 fans; high customer engagement thanks to fun promos.
Missed Opportunity... United Airlines. Not exactly a passion brand, United Airlines could stand to have something more than an empty page with 11,000 intrepid fans.
Friday, September 18, 2009
New Balance:::The 574 Clips Campaign
New Balance, based in Boston, MA, continues its tradition of premium footwear. Designed for both men and women, New Balance footwear features the finest construction and quality. Ranging from all-time classic favorites to reinvented modern silhouettes, each Lifestyle shoe features innovative materials and technologies that keep the New Balance brand as relevant and sought after today as it was 100 years ago. Celebrating heritage, craftsmanship, innovation and imagination, New Balance Lifestyle fuses classic designs from the past with bold ideas from the future.480 Shoes, 480 Experiences
BOSTON (September 15, 2009) -- From the heritage of the 574, New Balance introduces the 574 Clips Collection. This staple New Balance silhouette is crafted into a new innovative style, which continues to inspire the blend of design with function. While the 574 silhouette's heritage will remain, New Balance will debut an innovative campaign to support the launch of the 574 Clips Collection which will mark the first campaign from New Balance Lifestyle's agency of record, Mother New York.
The 574 Clips Collection
574 Clips is a collection constructed from leftover materials salvaged from New Balance's Lawrence, MA factory. Made in the US, the upper of each shoe is first constructed and then assembled in Massachusetts. To show pride in New Balance's continued dedication to domestic manufacturing, "USA"will be stitched on the heel and tongue of every shoe within this collection.
574 Clips stays true to the 574's premium design and comfort technologies, but acquires its name from being constructed of leftover clips of materials from other New Balance "Made in the USA"silhouettes, specifically the 993 and 996. Typically constructed of cow suede, the evolved 574 will feature supple grey pig suede, which comes from the leftover materials of the 993 stitched together with one of four different colored surplus meshes from the construction of the 996.
"Of all the shoes produced by New Balance, we're especially proud of the 574. It's a perfect demonstration of our core values of heritage, craftsmanship, innovation and imagination, as well as our deeply held belief that ‘grey is beautiful,'"says product manager Luis Navarro. This collection will follow the standards that all past 574 collections have embodied: the synergy of beautiful design and function. All content created for the 574 Clips campaign will also be inspired by heritage, craftsmanship, innovation and imagination, New Balance Lifestyle's core values.

The 574 Clips Campaign
The collection name, "574 Clips"has a dual meaning: The first stems from the leftover material clippings used to construct each shoe; the second from the video clips used in the marketing campaign supporting this collection's launch, designed by New Balance Lifestyle's agency of record, Mother New York.
The 574 Clips marketing campaign will target sneaker connoisseurs - one of a growing number of enthusiasts who collect, critique, discuss, analyze, obsess about, display, sell, and sometimes even wear the sneakers they buy. New Balance will be able to provide these tastemakers with a shoe that no one else has with a unique experiential story specific to that shoe.
The 574 Clips Campaign was designed to highlight the individualistic nature of each shoe. The campaign will be centered around a website that will feature 480 short videos, www.574Clips.com. 480 video clips were recorded of each of the shoes' unique experience before reaching the consumer. These videos were shot at locations throughout the US including Los Angeles, New York City and Lawrence, Massachusetts, where the shoes are manufactured.
To compliment the 480 short films, a Polaroid photo has been taken of the shoe's experience and placed in the corresponding shoe box, conveying a trading card collector feel. The back of each Polaroid will indicate the shoe's limited edition number (example: 017/480), size and color. A find tab will list the ten retail locations where the collection can be purchased.
Consumers can then visit the 574 Clips website and search for the exclusive video created specifically for their shoe. Once the consumer has found their "clipâ€, they can watch the short video featuring their pair. After the video is finished playing, the Polaroid will flip over and the owner has the option to "claim"their shoe by entering a unique 5 digit code and their name. Once clips are claimed, they can still be viewed, but the owner's name will be shown at the end of the short. Enthusiasm of purchasing and finding each shoe on the website will translate into a desire for the owner to share with their friends. If a user elects to share their new pair of 574's unique experience with friends, they are presented with several social media options including: Facebook, MySpace,
Delicious and Tumblr.
"We took the iconic 574 and evolved the world around it,"said Paul Malmstrom and Linus Karlsson, Creative Directors and Partners at Mother New York. "We wanted to find a way to make each shoe extra special. We did this by creating 480 stories for 480 shoes, shooting people and places across the country. We were there for 443/480's entrance into the world. We screamed with 298/480 throughout its first roller coaster. We held 016/480's laces as it raced in an ambulance. We even had to chase a zebra to get 002/480 back."
The 574 Clips Collection shares various technologies with the 2010 re-engineered 574, such as removal of unnecessary foams in the tongue and collar to reduce heat and bulk and added rubber durometers to yield shoe flexibility and a softer feel. It also features a PU insert for ultimate, plush comfort and a microdenier lining taken from the 993 to create a luxurious feel.
The 574 Clips Collection will be available in September 2009, in four rich colorways: grey/blue, grey/green, grey/orange and grey/burgundy. There will be 120 pair per color available, limiting the total production to 480 pairs. 574 Clips will retail at $75.00 at ten top U.S. retailers including Reed Space in NYC, Undefeated in LA, Bodega in Boston and Goods in Seattle, among others.
The 574 Clips Campaign was designed to highlight the individualistic nature of each shoe. The campaign will be centered around a website that will feature 480 short videos. 480 video clips were recorded of each of the shoes’ unique experience before reaching the consumer. These videos were shot at locations throughout the US including Los Angeles, New York City and Lawrence, Massachusetts, where the shoes are manufactured.To compliment the 480 short films, a Polaroid photo has been taken of the shoe’s experience and placed in the corresponding shoe box, conveying a trading card collector feel. The back of each Polaroid will indicate the shoe’s limited edition number (example: 017/480), size, and color.
Consumers can then visit the 574 Clips website and search for the exclusive video created specifically for their shoe. Once the consumer has found their “clip”, they can watch the short video featuring their pair. After the video is finished playing, the Polaroid will flip over and the owner has the option to “claim” their shoe by entering a unique 5 digit code and their name. Once clips are claimed, they can still be viewed, but the owner’s name will be shown at the end of the short.
Enthusiasm of purchasing and finding each shoe on the website will translate into a desire for the owner to share with their friends. If a user elects to share their new pair of 574’s unique experience with friends, they are presented with several social media options including: Facebook, MySpace, Delicious and Tumblr.“We took the iconic 574 and evolved the world around it,” said Paul Malmstrom and Linus Karlsson, Creative Directors and Partners at Mother New York. “We wanted to find a way to make each shoe extra special. We did this by creating 480 stories for 480 shoes, shooting people and places across the country. We were there for 443/480’s entrance into the world. We screamed with 298/480 throughout its first roller coaster. We held 016/480’s laces as it raced in an ambulance. We even had to chase a zebra to get 002/480 back.”
Campaign credits;
Creative Director(s): Linus Karlsson & Paul Malmstrom
Art Director (s): Jed Grossman & Mark Aver
Copywriter (s): Ben Hughes & Jon Lancaric
Creative Technologist: Rey Peralta
Designer: Derrick Lee
Producer (creative): Imogen Bailey
Assistant Producer: Bryan Reisberg
Art Producer: Amita Sehgal
Production Company: Greencard Pictures
Executive Producer (s): Nick Kadner & Emily Wiedemann
Producer: Max Knies
Post Supervisor: Mike Sobo
Interactive Agency: Almighty
Studio Director: Paul Larrow
Senior Flash Developer: Marc Leuchner
Technology Manager: Jeff Wilder
Account Director (interactive): Emily Daniel

