How Women Use the Web

From Mashable:

More women than men across the world visit social networking sites and spend 30% more time per month using them.

As such, in the “Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet” report, comScore concludes that women are the digital mainstream, a group of savvy Internet explorers who are more engaged than their male counterparts, and are the primary drivers of online and group buying.

comScore analyzed the Internet behaviors of women everywhere and found that while women make up a little less than half of the global online population (46%), their online behaviors drastically distinguish them from male Internet users.

The detailed report, available for download, delves into everything from women’s entertainment predilections (they really like puzzle games) to search behaviors, mobile preferences to video-viewing activities (they watch a lot of YouTube). What follows is a closer examination of their social media and online retail activities.

Women and Social Media

On average, women spend more time online per month, 24.8 hours compared to 22.9 hours for men. But, when it comes to the social web, there’s an even bigger rift between the sexes.

“Nearly 56 percent of adult women say they use the Internet to stay in touch with people, compared to 46 percent of adult men,” according to the report. comScore pinpoints higher activity levels in social categories such as social networking, instant messenger and e-mail.

Those behaviors equate to women spending an average of 16.3% of their online time per month on social networks, a percentage that continues to rise month-to-month. Men spend just 11.7% of their time on the same activities.

Interestingly enough, comScore identifies middle-aged women, 45 plus, as the group most responsible for growth in social networking site usage. Fifteen to 24-year-olds, however, are the heaviest users and have the greatest reach. When it comes to Facebook in particular, the younger crowd use that site more than 350 minutes per month on average. That data seems to line up with an Oxygen Media study showing that more than a third of young women check Facebook first thing in the morning.

In terms of country breakdowns, 9 out of 10 North American women visit social networking sites, making them the group with the highest reach. Latin American and European women are practically equals in this category, with 83.6% and 83.4% social networking participation respectively.

Women and Twitter

comScore found that Twitter’s reach is only marginally higher among women than among men. Women also outpace men in the adoption of Twitter, but only marginally as well.

The slight differences between the sexes doesn’t accurately highlight the actual disparity in how the two sexes use the microblogging platform.

In a U.S. consumer survey conducted in April 2010, comScore asked men and women how they use Twitter. Responses demonstrate that women use Twitter more for finding deals, following celebrities and their own self-defined purposes than to post tweets or read tweets from the people they follow.

Women and Retail

Men and women visit retail sites in practically equal amounts, but women spend 20% more time on those sites. That time equates to more money spent in most retail categories, as women buy more frequently than men do.

Women spend significantly more money on apparel and accessories, with their dollars accounting for 71% of all dollars spent in that category in the U.S. for February. They also spend more on books and music, toys, and even video games and consoles.

comScore concludes that women are also driving growth on group-buying sites. They compromise a majority of the U.S. audiences on both Groupon (62%) and LivingSocial (67%). Women also make up 67% of the visitors to Gilt Groupe’s flash sale site.

What do you find particularly interesting about the findings?

[img credit: TheSeafarer]

Yelp Testing “Daily Deals” Feature

From Mashable:

It seems that Yelp is getting ready to implement a “daily deal” feature across the popular website; they’re beginning to test this feature in certain markets, notably Sacramento.

After a few Yelp users noticed Groupon-like deals popping up on Yelp.com, the company’s community manager confirmed, “We are testing it out for fun to see what kind of response it generates… Also, there will be another Deal coming out on Wednesday so look for it!”

Deals have been showing up for select users on the right side of the home page. They’re limited-time offers, and users who have tried them say, “It acts just like a Groupon.”

Basically, you’re allowed to pay a significantly discounted amount for goods or services at a local retailer.

Groupon offers something quite similar, as does LivingSocial, so this move pits Yelp against those two relatively new companies. And while Groupon is particularly competitive (the startup was recently valued at $1 billion), Yelp has a distinct advantage: its larger and longer-standing base of users.

Yelp company was founded six years ago by two former PayPal employees. Late last year, the company was rumored to be on the receiving end of a $500 million acquisition offer from Google.

Yelp has also managed to score a few wins recently with integrations, new features and partnerships. For example, just last month, Yelp started allowing its users to make restaurant reservations on-site via a clever OpenTable integration. And Yelp — a popular resource for local businesses — has recently added social checkin metrics to its business reports.

Are Yelp’s daily deals something you’d take advantage of as a consumer? If you own a business, would you partner with Yelp to create a daily deal for Yelp users in your area?

What Women Want From the Web

From Social Times:

Women make 85% of all brand purchase decisions, so it’s important for marketers to know what they want online, where they go looking for it and what ads they notice. Rich-media solution provider Unicast announced the results of a national survey and it appears, above all else, this summer American women want to connect.

When provided with a list of Web activity options, 95% of women polled selected at least one of the activities. 76% said they plan to go online to keep in touch with family or friends using one or more of the myriad of communication tools and social media platforms available. Whether looking at world events or happenings a bit closer to home, a large number of those surveyed viewed the Internet as their connection to the latest news.

With so many reporting going online for sharing, it comes as no surprise that 60% report they will be using social networks such as Facebook. Those platforms do lag behind search engines and the survey indicates the social web will be used about the same as the shopping web.

Other report findings include:

• Women age 18-24 are more inclined to use the Internet for a greater number of activities. This age group is also more receptive to online advertising in various formats, particularly in localized information, surveys, social media formats and exclusive downloadable content.
• The most popular ad content is for sales and discount codes – 46% of women notice these, followed by creating/submitting an entry to win a prize – 31%. About one in four women notice an ad with localized information, like area movie listings.
• Women notice ads for items in which they’re already interested – 56% of women planning to look up entertainment options this summer have noticed an entertainment ad in the past month and 46% of women planning to research travel have noticed a travel ad.
• Women with children in the home tend to do more activities online than those without children, including listen to music (62% vs. 42%), watch TV or movies (56% vs. 46%) and look up entertainment options (60% vs. 40%).
• Women that visit blogs notice online advertising far more than overall respondents, but this is a small group with just 13% of women planning to visit a blog this summer.

“As more women integrate digital channels into their daily routine and subsequent spending power shifts online this summer, Unicast has also seen an increase of interest from advertisers to develop richer, engaging and more in-depth content online to drive sales with this demographic,” Bryan Hjelm, VP of Product & Marketing for Unicast. “While entertainment, food & beverage, and health/beauty advertisements continue to build awareness within this group, marketers that focus on targeting and optimizing creative elements within their advertisements to include sales incentives, quizzes, social media and local content will realize higher engagement metrics across female audiences.”

Unicast’s “What Women Want From the Web Report” Summer 2010 was conducted May 27-28 by the polling company™, inc. The online survey queried 1,062 Americans age 18+. The report analyzes the responses of the 516 women queried.

Unicast is a provider of online interactive rich media and video advertising technology for publishers, brands and agencies.

How Old Spice Swaggerized Their Brand And Men Everywhere

From Social Times:

Today Old Spice is one of the most popular deodorant and body wash brands for men of all ages, but that wasn’t always the case. On the shelves since 1938, Old Spice had long been associated with the past and elderly gentlemen (I know that the first thing that came to mind whenever I smelled original Old Spice was my grandfather). However, in 2008 all of that changed. Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy kicked off a new campaign, Old Spice Swagger, and completely transformed the face of the Old Spice brand, as well as their customers.

Britton Taylor of Wieden + Kennedy presented a case study of Old Spice’s Swagger campaign earlier this week at Effie Worldwide’s ‘Ideas That Worked’ Webinar. The Webinar focused on three Effie Award winning-campaigns, exploring the goals behind each campaign, the big idea and implementation and, of course, the results. You can watch Effie Worldwide’s great video overview of the campaign here, and read about it below.

The Background

The Old Spice Swagger campaign, which was the 2010 Silver Effie Winner, kicked off in 2008 when Old Spice realized they had to pick up their game if they wanted to compete with new younger men’s products, specifically Axe. When Axe entered the scene they turned the industry on its head—instead of focusing on the effectiveness of their product as an odor blocker, Axe promoted themselves as the product to buy if you want to attract the ladies. Old Spice, who had been standing by their 1-800-PROVE-IT campaign (try it and if you don’t like it, just call 1-800-PROVE-IT and we’ll buy you a stick of yours!), bit the dust.

To make matters worse, Old Spice’s “Glacial Falls” scent was performing horribly. It was the worst performing scent in the Old Spice portfolio and was in danger of being discontinued, losing the company precious shelf space. The company decided that they wanted to rebrand and re-launch “Glacial Falls” to save the scent, and give the brand a boost. They went to Wieden + Kennedy for help.

The Goals

Old Spice wanted to keep the “Glacial Falls” scent, but totally rebrand it. Their target was young guys between the ages of 12 to 34, to compete with Axe. They were aiming to reach an audience of guys who want to smell great, but not to take themselves to seriously. Old Spice had created a niche for itself as a product for older, more serious men and they wanted to move away from that.

The objective of the rebranding campaign was to double the sales of “Glacial Falls”. They surpassed this goal, but we’ll get to that later.

The Big Idea

So how did Old Spice and Wieden + Kennedy transform “Glacial Falls”? They gave it a new, awesome name and a new awesome attitude—Swagger. In the webinar earlier this week, Britton Taylor explained that Old Spice “wanted a name with some cultural currency and attitude. ‘Swagger’ oozes confidence and is something that all guys want to possess.” The name was perfect. In fact, once they came up with the name about 75% of the work was done—the rest of the campaign just flowed naturally from there.

The campaign would be all about how Old Spice gives guys “swagger”—transforming them from nerdy wimps into strong, manly studs. The campaign billed the new scent, Swagger, as “The Scent That Makes a Difference,” and hit the web running.

The Campaign

The Old Spice Swagger campaign featured traditional print and television executions (which also made their way onto YouTube), as well as a hugely successful online campaign at SwaggerizeMe.com. All aspects of the campaign showed off the brand’s new look and attitude and were a huge success.

Print and Television Ads

Old Spice released a series of print and television ads featuring Brian Urlacher of the Chicago Bears, LL Cool J, and NASCAR driver Tony Stewart. The ads showed these huge celebrities as young men. Before they started using Old Spice Swagger they were nerds without confidence. Swagger made them the confident, popular, and awesome men they are today.

SwaggerizeMe.com

The print and television ads were fun, but the real force of Old Spice’s Swagger campaign fell on the campaign website, SwaggerizeMe.com. The site was built in partnership with Google and gave guys the opportunity to Swaggerize their online image. If you used to Google yourself and come up with zero results you could head to SwaggerizeMe.com, upload a photo and provide your name and a series of searchable articles about how awesome you are would be created. Watch the video below to see how SwaggerizeMe.com worked.

The Results

The Old Spice Swagger campaign was a huge success, surpassing its goal of doubling the sales of the former “Glacial Falls” scent by quadrupling sales. SwaggerizeMe.com had more than half a million visits and Swagger became one of Old Spice’s best-selling deodorant and body wash scents overall. Check out the chart below, which illustrates the huge effect the Swagger campaign had on sales.

Since the Swagger campaign, Old Spice has continued to dominate in the arena of online and social media campaigning. Unless you live under a rock, you most likely familiar with the brand’s Man Your Man Could Smell Like and his recent YouTube response campaign, which received more than 90 million views. The brand is an inspiration, and we can’t wait to see what their next campaign will look like.

FarmVille Cash Invades Supermarkets Nationwide

From Mashable:

The social gaming giant FarmVille has teamed up with Green Giant to put Farmville Cash coupon stickers on select produce in 4,000 stores nationwide.

You may now begin to notice a sticker with a redeemable code for “5 free farm cash,” the FarmVille currency that is used to manage virtual goods in the game.

In the six-week pilot for the promotion, more than 100,000 in virtual Farm Cash was redeemed using the stickers, which appeared on 25 different Green Giant produce items. The promotion was launched in Target Fresh Grocery and SuperTarget stores first, but was expanded to stores nationwide as a result of the pilot promotion success.

If you’re a hardcore FarmVille fan and want to stock up up some virtual currency, you can locate participating stores here.

FarmVille, which has 65 million users and 20 million who play daily, has perhaps finally reached the mainstream by getting inside our grocery stores and refrigerators. Recently, we learned that Google is reportedly partnering with FarmVille game-maker Zynga to launch a hub for social online games after investing some $100 to $200 million in the company. And one of Zynga’s newest social games, FrontierVille, recently passed the 20 million user mark.

What do you think of the promotion? Will more of our virtual social lives start to cross over to the mainstream?

Here’s an example of what the stickers look like:

How Coca-Cola Created Its “Happiness Machine”

From Mashable:

Meaghan Edelstein has gained national media attention through her blog, I Kicked Cancer’s Ass, which she started to document her battle with end stage cancer. She is an attorney, the founder of the non-profit organization Spirit Jump, and also writes from her personal blog.

Most big brands don’t share the secrets behind how they create hugely successful web videos. For the first time ever, Coke executives and leaders at Definition 6, the agency responsible for the award-winning “Happiness Machine” video, reveal the secret ingredients that made it such a success.

Global Senior Brand Manager for Coca-Cola, AJ Brustein, Definition 6 Director of Interactive Strategy, Paul McClay and Definition 6 Creative Director Paul Iannacchino take us through the making of Coke’s “Happiness Machine.”

Coming up with a Brilliant Idea

Q: What was Coke’s goal? What was Coke looking for when they decided to create a web video?

Brustein: Coke’s original goal was to beef up its digital activation platform.The plan was to release seven different pieces of content, iPhone and social media applications, wallpaper screen savers and a video that we hoped would go viral. “The Happiness Machine” web video started out as just a piece of digital content, a dose of happiness.

Q: How did your team come up with the “Happiness Machine” concept?

Iannacchino: The process started with a large brainstorming session. Three ideas turned into a pitch that was taken back to Coke and “The Happiness Machine” was selected. Over the course of sixty days we used story boards to refine the piece. We had a strong core idea, but needed to develop the story. Our device was the Coke machine. Location, we needed to be entrenched in Coke’s demographic. Finally we had to ask ourselves, how is the narrative going to play out? How will we get people to approach the machine? How will we make it appear as normal as possible? And, how do we get escalation?

McClay: We came up with the idea over Falafel sandwiches on a sunny deck. It was a fun collaboration. The brainstorming and ideation began with a well-defined framework of constraints and set of objectives provided by Coke. Otherwise we were given free reign. We wanted to provide a message that would resonate with the target audience.

3 Tips for coming up with a Brilliant Idea

• A good story takes time to develop. Take the time to brainstorm your idea and let it develop into something people will relate to and want to share, Iannacchino said.
• Look at videos online to see what’s successful and what isn’t. Most often the most successful web videos have something that provokes a reaction, Brustein said.
• The brainstorming process has to be fun, light hearted and uncontrolled. You never really know when a good idea is going to come up. Often the best ideas end up being the small snippets that came up throughout the process, McClay said.

What to Do with Your Brilliant Idea

Q: After Coke approved the “Happiness Machine,” what was the next step? How did the idea shape into a real experience?

Brustein: Coke’s goal was to create an organic experience. Other than the janitor loading the machine, nothing was scripted. If the video had been scripted, it wouldn’t have had the same effect. The girl mouthing “Oh My God,” students helping each other lift the huge sub, hugging the Coke machine — these true moments are what gave the video life.

Q: How did you create an organic reaction?

Iannacchino: Coke wanted the machine to be magical but didn’t want to reveal the secret behind the magic. To accomplish this we had to show it was a normal Coke machine. The janitor unlocked the machine leaving the door wide open while he loaded bottles of Coke inside. This created a misdirect for the audience, leaving everyone to believe the machine was authentic. Setting up the scene this way helped create an organic reaction which relayed the magic of the brand.

Q: People may think the success of this video was due to Coke giving away free stuff to college students. Do you believe this is true?

Iannacchino: We would argue that it was the element of surprise, not that somebody got animal balloons or two Cokes instead of one. What Coke really gave away was a sense of happiness which created an emotional connection with the brand. Students involved in this video were caught up in their everyday lives, and this little moment touched them. We used free stuff to surprise people but what we gave away was happiness and a smile. The key is engagement, whether you were there or just watching, free stuff was just the catalyst.

McClay: Giving away free stuff wasn’t what resonated with the audience at the end of the day. After doing testing we found it was the students’ expressions of happiness and the way they reacted that people enjoyed. You can film people being given free stuff all day long and it will fall flat on the audience. The way people react is what matters.

3 Tips for Executing your Idea

• Simplicity and starting with a great idea is the key. You have to get it out of your head that if you make it they will watch it, Iannacchino said.
• Brainstorm. Once your team feels strongly about an idea, challenge one another to make it better. You can always improve the idea up until the day you shoot, Iannacchino added.
• Where you have a wide dispersed team it’s important for everyone to be looped in, briefed and approving things through the entire process so there is always forward momentum with positive energy, McClay said.

Putting it all Together

Q: How did you put it all together?

Iannacchino: The first thirty days we ramped up into production. The web video was set to launch January 1, 2010 and we began shooting in early December. We took a working Coke vending machine and re-built it to do the things we wanted it to. There wasn’t a big budget for this project — mostly sweat equity.

Q: How did you pick the location?

Iannacchino: Location was key. We had to find a space that was entrenched in Coke’s demographic. We knew we wanted a college campus but it couldn’t be just any campus. The college we picked had to be Coke affiliated, on board with our idea with heavy foot traffic by students and have a space that would allow for the important element of secrecy.

St. John’s University ended up being the perfect location. We built a secret room in their cafeteria over a weekend so it looked like construction to the students. Because we did it this way no one asked any questions.

Q: What were some of the challenges you faced?

Iannacchino: Going back and tweaking the story, finding the perfect location, and building of the actual “Happiness Machine.” Lots of things didn’t work but that was okay. Imagine a eight by fifteen foot room for two days, with five cameras, planning for the worst and hoping for the best!

SECRET: The sub — we only had one, so there was one shot to get it right. The giant sub ended up being the item that punctuated the story.

2 Tips for Putting it All Together

• Technology and digital space, as well as equipment, are cheap and accessible. Use this to your advantage, Iannacchino said.
• Be invested in your idea. Plan and prepare to execute your video well, Iannacchino added.

Getting It to Go Viral

Q: How much did Coke spend to promote the video?

Brustein: Coke spent zero on promoting “The Happiness Machine.” One status update was posted on Coke’s Facebook Page, one tweet and that was it. Within a day the video was picked up by bloggers and it spread from there. Of course we could have bought views but the experiment succeeded without any promotion.

Q: What was the process to get the video to go viral?

Iannacchino: We uploaded the web video to Coke’s YouTube channel on day one. The video then moved through the advertising trades before it picked up steam with consumers. In the first five days there were seven hundred thousand visits and in the first week one million. It hit the top of the viral video chart that week.

Q: Why do you think “The Happiness Machine” video went viral?

McClay: Something being viral wasn’t the strategy, but instead it was a possible outcome. The strategy was to produce great creative content that resonated and wasn’t a hard hitting commercial. We wanted it to have pass-along value and never intended to seed it with paid dollars. It was all about the exercise of producing creative video for online distribution. We aimed for something the audience would use and enjoy.

Q: How can other brands increase web video distribution?

McClay: Several tactical things need to be accomplished in order to get distribution. Getting bloggers to post about your video, tweets and Facebook mentions are just a few ways. But the big spikes happen when the video hits the homepage of YouTube or Yahoo.

Getting featured comes down to whether your video is creative, which is dependent upon the perception of the decision makers. The number of views is also critical. If you can create pass-along value it will increase your views. People like to share humor. When something makes me laugh, I think my friend will laugh too.

2 Tips for Getting a Video to Go Viral

• Spreadable video is important; put the same effort into your creative ideation as you would a television commercial and you will produce some amazing content. Don’t think small because the aspect ratio is, Iannacchino said. Push creative boundaries.
• If your strategy is to go viral from the outset, then it’s likely to fail, McClay said.

Conclusion

The key ingredients, as always, are imagination and hard work. Both Coke and Definition 6 put an enormous amount of creativity, time and energy into “The Happiness Machine.” “One thing to take a way is that it wasn’t a fluke,” Iannacchino said. “A lot of work went into it.”

App Lets Brands Add Groupon-Like Deals to Facebook Pages

From Mashable:

Wildfire, makers of promotional tools for brands on Facebook, is releasing a new application that lets marketers and brands turn their Facebook Page or website in to a deal hub.

The new application is called Group Deals, and it is designed to be like a do-it-yourself Groupon add-on to Facebook Pages and company websites via Facebook Connect. Wildfire users can create and define their own deal-a-day style promotions, which will allow interested brand fans to purchase the deals via their PayPal accounts.

During the setup process, application users can set the value of the deal, define the threshold needed to activate it and link it to their e-commerce system through their own pre-defined discount codes. Brands can also set deal terms and conditions and customize the appearance of the check-out page, as well as use their own images to tweak the application’s appearance. The final step is to the publish the deal to a Facebook Page or a company website.

Given that Group Deals are heavily tied to the Facebook platform, users who sign up for deals can publish the activity to their newsfeed or invite their Facebook friends to join them to unlock the promotion in the question. Wildfire is using the PayPal API, which means PayPal will help them to track and manage the entire deal buying process, and automatically notify buyers if and when the deal is activated.

As the group buying trend continues to grow, brands and marketers are sure to be curious about how they can apply the deeply discounted deal model to their own products and services. Wildfire’s Group Deals option lets them do just that within Facebook’s network of nearly 500 million members and on their own sites.

Obviously, there’s huge potential here. We expect creative brand campaigns tied to group discounts, and even think there’s enough here to help brands use social media to significantly impact sales.

Coca-Cola Pulls Facebook Promotion Amid Porn Complaints

From Social Times:

Never underestimate the power of porn. A distraught Glasgow woman has single-handedly forced the giant soft drink maker Coca-Cola to pull a Dr. Pepper Facebook promotion after her 14 year old daughter’s status was altered to include reference to a porn movie. The promotion required Dr. Pepper “hijacking” users’ status updates with embarrassing statements – some more embarrassing than others by the looks of it. The offending statement was first removed, but Coca-Cola announced yesterday that they would end the promotion altogether. Regardless of whether or not the pornographic status update would offend us all, this signals a victory for the solitary voice using social media to rally against a multi-billion dollar corporation online.

It all started on a good old-fashioned forum. A user named MrsRickman posted on the parenting forum Mumsnet that she was shocked at her recent discovery of a pornographic status update on her 14-year-old daughter’s Facebook profile. She dug a little deeper, and found that it was part of Coca-Cola’s Dr. Pepper promotion requiring that users allow Dr. Pepper to hijack their Facebook status for a chance to win $1,000 each week. Her daughter had entered, and her Facebook status changed to include reference to the infamous 2 Girls 1 Cup porn movie, reading: “‘I watched 2 girls one cup and felt hungry afterwards’.”

MrsRickman discovered that her daughter had attempted to find out what the movie was, which was the last straw for this concerned parent. She contacted Coca-Cola, and after being offered tickets to a show and a night in a London hotel (”Fat lot of use to me, we live in Glasgow.”), she got what she was looking for: Coca-Cola pulled the plug.

The Guardian reports that a spokesperson from Coca-Cola made the following statement amid the porn status controversy:

It has been brought to our attention that the Dr Pepper promotion on Facebook posted an offensive status update. We apologise for any offence caused. As soon as we became aware of this, we took immediate action and removed the status update from the application. We have also taken the decision to end the promotion. We will take all steps necessary to ensure this does not happen again.

This illustrates two reigning trends on the increasingly social web: the power of viral marketing (and the pitfalls thereof), and the power of the single voice up against an institution.

Coke wanted to produce a viral campaign that would sweep across Facebook and subversively put Dr. Pepper into the minds of its users. They were successful – possibly more than they imagined. While the quirky hijacked status messages were getting a bit of attention, this recent development will likely begin spreading through the blogs and news outlets like wildfire. They will be associated with pornographic content, and two camps will likely battle over whether the offended mother was simply too conservative and ruined a great campaign, or whether she is a shining example of free speech amplified on the ‘net.

Which brings out the second trend that this story illustrates: one voice’s power online. MrsRickman was just one mother who voiced a complaint against Coke. Years ago, when she wouldn’t have had access to an online public forum, she would have likely had to call Coke’s customer service department only to be shuffled from representative to representative and eventually told that they were sorry but there was nothing they could do. Today, she was able to take the incident public using a forum and social media. This played a large part in Coke’s decision to end the promotion.

Now, some people may argue that MrsRickman was just overly sensitive and that the status message should not have been censored. There is, no doubt, some truth to this, as her daughter did willingly sign up for the promotion – however, a pornographic reference probably should not have been part of Coke’s repertoire. And even if this message does not offend everyone, it is encouraging to see that a single individual online has the power to stand up against a company with a multi-million dollar advertising budget.

The Hybrid Theory Manifesto: The Future of Marketing, Advertising, and Communications Part Three

From Brian Solis:

Part Three of Three

Nicheworks are highly coveted or soon will be as no brand is an island. Attention and interests are focused within social streams and as individuals are empowered to define their online experiences, connecting the dots proves pivotal. If conversations are markets, nicheworks represent the glue that binds disparate conversational ecosystems. And through effective engagement, we make inroads towards community and being the construction of bridges between our brand and each desirable market.

While many creative initiatives find their way into social networks extemporaneously, it is the intentional and manual act of linking content to new and traditional influencers. This, for the moment, is the most genuine and authentic way to demonstrate intent and drive awareness and activity among the very people we’re hoping to reach and galvanize directly within the communities where their attention is focused.

Hybrid Theory Explained

Hybrid Theory is the fusion of creative and communications, combining earned and paid media to enliven ideas, unite communities, amplify stories and spark desired outcomes. It unites marketing, advertising, service, and public relations (note: not PR) with engagement and digital influence. This is about applying influence to rouse response where attention is focused. As such, Hybrid Theory requires a cross-breed of communications professional, one not tainted by the acts of storytelling through press releases or communicating through mass messaging and broadcasting. This new breed of communications professional essentially becomes the influencer they wish to engage through the embodiment of what I call the “5I’s,”an evolution of the 3I’s introduced by Forrester Research in its Future of Agencies Report.

Continued here...

Coupons Get Their Own Social Network: Scissors Need Not Apply

From Social Times:

Everyone loves a coupon. And, as a loyal Social Times reader, you know that increasingly your friends are “feeling the love” on your social networks. Myzerr combines the attraction of coupons with the affinity and interaction of communities to offer brands and social groups new ways to build sales and loyalty. The site is currently in beta and with each click, one can hear a voice shouting, “But, wait. There’s More!”

Myzerr is free for all users. Any local or online business can set up a page for their business to promote coupons. Users can then download their coupons, follow their favorite businesses, “cheer” good coupons and “boo” poor offers, as well as share coupons with friends on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networks.

Taking community principles one step further, groups can set up a page for their local community members. For example, a local school parents association can establish a group and use Myzerr to invite businesses to provide deals just for them. Deals can be promoted via e-mail and social networks and Myzerr provides group membership management tools. These rewards can provide incentives for loyalty both to the sponsoring group and participating businesses. Myzerr suggests that these programs can also be used as employee benefits.

The site’s home page does not provide clear direction to a first-time visitor and one can see many placeholders on drill down. However, setting up a group is quick and easy; the group management tools are straightforward.

Setup for a business is equally straightforward, including promotion through existing social network pages. The investment in time is small and, aside from graphics, costs are nil. The site allows setting limits on coupon use and reports to businesses the demographics of those using their coupons. This makes Myzerr a good place for business to explore web couponing.

“Social Networks can connect people with each other when they have a shared interest in specific objects,” said Myzerr founder Slade Sherman. “We are trying to give community groups as many tools as possible to connect with businesses in their area and offer relevant local reward coupons to their group.”

Myzerr describes its site as “open social,” allowing coupons to be shared on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. The site touts an upcoming iPhone app that will allow users to find nearly deals using a map showing coupon icons. Users show the coupon on the iPhone to businesses who can scan the coupon in-store. Widgets and applets for groups and businesses to easily download and promote their coupons are also in the pipeline.

Calvin Klein Jeans Replaces Racy Billboards with QR Codes

From Mashable:

This past weekend, Calvin Klein Jeans replaced three of its billboards — two in downtown New York and one on Sunset Boulevard in LA — not with another racy montage of scantily clad models, but with a bright red QR code under the words “Get It Uncensored.”

Passersby can use their smartphones to snap a picture, which will pull up an exclusive, 40-second commercial featuring models Lara Stone, “A.J.,” Sid Ellisdon, Grayson Vaughan and Eric Anderson. After the spot plays, viewers can then share the code with their Facebook and Twitter networks. The billboard marks the official premiere of Calvin Klein Jeans’s Fall 2010 advertising campaign. Previous campaigns have debuted on more traditional venues, the company explained, such as broadcast and dedicated online sites.

QR codes are increasingly appearing in advertisements as a way to increase engagement with consumers. Although already common in Japan (where they were originally invented), they do not appear in many advertisements — much less take up an entire billboard. Most U.S. citizens still do not own smartphones, and even those that do don’t necessarily know what a QR code is or have the necessary scanning software to read it.

The billboards are clearly a test run for Calvin Klein Jeans, given that they will be up for only a little more than a week. If the videos get enough views, however, we can expect similar billboards in the future — both from Calvin Klein Jeans and from other brands. It’s often difficult to measure engagement with billboards, and QR codes help advertisers better measure their impact.

What do you think of the billboard? Have you ever scanned a QR code in an advertisement?

5 Tips for Managing Your Company’s Brand on the Web

From Mashable:


Brand management in the current era means not just keeping an ever-present eye on the social web, but also engaging in meaningful ways with brand advocates and detractors. Professionals in the field have come to accept social media as crucial to their jobs, but most know that managing a company’s brand on the web is so much more than setting up shop on social sites like Twitter and Facebook.

Here we’ll give you an inside look at the strategies of avant garde industry leaders who’ve spent years figuring out how to move beyond social media hype and implement practical management practices into their daily work routines.

Brad Nelson, Jeremy Thum, Joel Price, Joel Frey and Bowen Payson are all marketers behind big brand names. They’ve done the dirty work. Their lessons and words of wisdom range from finding ways to unify digital assets to knowing your niche, and each tip should be heeded by those looking to follow in their footsteps.

1. Let Someone Else Say It

Starbucks is at the forefront of mastering the social web. The company is one of the most popular brands on Facebook, is adept at social media to drive foot traffic to stores, is a beta tester for Twitter’s Promoted Tweets platform and was the first big brand to offer a nationwide Foursquare special.

Product Manager Brad Nelson is often the genius behind the company’s online and social media initiatives, he’s also the primary person behind the brand’s very popular Twitter account. Much of his day-to-day responsibilities involve online brand management, and as such he’s learned that sometimes the best way to say something on the social web is to, “have someone else say it.”

Nelson advises other brands to take the same course of action. “If you can find a tweet, photo or blog post that says what you’re trying to say then use that instead of writing it yourself. It does a couple of great things. Your readers will see it as an external validator, so they’ll be more likely to respond than they would if it was a billboard on the side of the road. It also makes the original author happy. Everyone wants to see their content get exposure.”

In fact, Nelson says that he tries to “find things to retweet every day.”

Recently the coffee retailer started a Treat Receipt promotion; customers that purchase coffee during the day can return after 2 p.m. for a $2 grande cold beverage. Of course, Twitter is proving to be a great medium to promote the campaign, and Nelson is employing his own strategy by retweeting tweets like this one from @jaredbtaylor: “This whole go to @Starbucks before 2 pm and get a $2 grande drink after 2 thing is pretty sweet.”

2. Unify Digital Properties

Any online or social media brand manager has more than a single audience to worry about. There’s the company website, corporate blog, Twitter account, Facebook Page, YouTube channel, Foursquare presence and so on and so forth. Staying competitive in today’s social media landscape means setting up shop where your fans are.

While the go-where-the-people-are strategy is an effective way to reach more brand fans, it’s also the quickest way to dilute the brand as a whole. That’s why as the Director of Interactive Marketing for the Chicago Bulls, Jeremy Thum says that the company is now focused on unification and tying together each of the disparate online identities.

The Chicago Bulls Interactive Marketing Department has been busy redesigning Bulls.com, launching the made-for-web BullsTV and working on social-media driven live fan chat sessions during this past season’s regular and post season games. The team has so many online initiatives that unification — providing “a consistent fan experience” — has become a must when tackling online brand management.

Part of the unification process has been to build BullsConnect — a custom commenting platform with Facebook integration — to create a singular login and commenting experience across their online properties. In the future, they’ll be incentivizing fan activity with a Chicago Bulls points-based loyalty system to draw attention to this unification initiative. Moving forward the team will also work to bring a “Lite” version of BullsTV to their Facebook Page, as well as use it to spruce up their “dormant YouTube channel.”

When it comes to the bigger picture, unification is just one part of the process. Thum says that, “during the last 12 months, we have been focusing on building or re-building our fundamental digital marketing components, unifying them and creating unique opportunities to engage with fans on our web presence.”

3. Leave Your Ego Behind

Social media is very much an ego-driven space. The most successful social media platforms use ego and game mechanics to drive engagement, and both people and brands are often measured in fans and followers. Success is often attributed to retweets, likes, shares and various other influence metrics.

With so much of what happens on these sites fueled by this type of behavior, brands need to be careful when it comes to the employees they trust to represent them online. Social media staffers need to leave their egos behind, says Joel Frey, Travelocity’s senior public relations manager.

Frey is one of the sophisticated minds at Travelocity helping the company engage in social media travel chatter with creative initiatives on Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and Chatroulette. The company’s day-to-day online brand management strategy is fairly straightforward and involves an aggressive use of popular Twitter and social media application, TweetDeck.

Frey and team are quick to chime in and involve customer service reps when anyone voices a problem or concern. But, Frey cautions against team members acting too rash or letting their ego get the best of them. He also warns against taking a sarcastic tone when speaking with customers online. Both tips seem obvious but are fast-forgotten when reacting with “gut instinct” in the real-time world of social media.

Frey’s policy is to, “treat my interactions with customers on social media as I would with any media interview: I get to the point, I tell the truth and I recognize that a customer’s time is valuable and that it’s important to help them get their issue resolved as fast as possible.”

To avoid any hint of attitude in your tone, Frey also recommends having, “someone proofread your work before you post, especially if there’s any risk that the content might be deemed offensive.”

And as an alternative strategy, Frey has no qualms about sending out Roaming Gnome statues. It’s a “once in a while” gesture the company employs to make a random, “I wish I had a Roaming Gnome of my own” Twitterer’s or Facebook user’s day.

4. Know Your Niche

Like Starbucks, Virgin America is one of a select group of brands testing Twitter’s Promoted Tweets advertising platform. Shortly after the platform first launched in March, the company made a bold decision to announce its expansion to Toronto, Canada entirely through Twitter, using Promoted Tweets to help spread the word.

Clearly, Virgin America felt confident enough in their online brand management skills to pinpoint Twitter as the right medium for their big announcement. Online Marketing Manager Bowen Payson attributes this confidence to the company’s ability to understand their online customer base well enough to reach them in the right ways.

Payson advises other companies to keep it simple and find just the right niche. “There is often the temptation to over-complicate, so keeping things fresh and brand-forward is important, but you also have to keep it clear and targeted to the customers you want.”

Payson dates Virgin America’s niche-focused strategy back to their Boston launch in 2009. Instead of going for a large, broad media push, the airline opted to stay small and focused with their media plan.

“We worked with the likes of Gothamist (Bostonist, SFist, and LAist), going.com, Flavorpill, Boston Phoenix, and Curbed to reach an audience of influencers … It was so successful that we applied this same approach for the Fort Lauderdale and Toronto launches while adapting to those unique markets.”

At the end of the day, Payson says the key to success is “understanding how guests respond differently in niche marketing efforts than other broader efforts. So it is not only about smarter targeting and ad placement, but also about brand and demographic alignment.”

5. Don’t Wallow or Gloat

Social media is exploding in the world of sports. Athletes and teams are savvy to social mediums that inspire fan-reaction, and fans are finding that their voices are amplified with the help of Twitter, Facebook and their online friends.

Sports fans are an enthusiastic bunch to say the least, and this enthusiasm tends to swell when a team or player is either doing remarkably well or dreadfully underperforming. No one knows this more than the social media manager for a professional sports team. As the San Diego Chargers’ Manager of Internet Services, Joel Price regularly faces emotional outbursts of both love and hate from Chargers fans.

“In sports, you win, you’re beloved. You lose, you can’t do anything right,” says Price.

Price admits that often times the social media team is tasked with trying to bear the weight of a win or loss and “carry everything on their shoulders,” an overwhelming endeavor to say the least. To counteract that pressure, Price advises others to, “Realize you’re the conduit to the organization or company. Some issues can’t be resolved by you, accept it.”

In his own work, Price finds it “delusional” to use social media as way to try and convince fans of success following a tough loss. Price and team hope to inspire Chargers fans to take the “get ‘em next week” attitude by leading through example.

“Emotions run very high in the sports business and nasty things will be said. You might not be able to change everything that people would like, but by at least paying attention, you’ll gain respect for the brand you manage.”

The same strategy should be applied to moments of greatness according to Price. “When you win those big games don’t gloat. Leave that for the fans.”

The Hybrid Theory Manifesto: The Future of Marketing, Advertising, and Communications Part Two

Part Two of Three

In the book Engage!, I use music as a metaphor for the business approach necessary to execute socialized programs flawlessly. I suggest that today, many organizations approach new media with the style of jazz improvisationalists. They possess an incredible ability to jam independently and also together, but they often drift into wild, wonderful solos that may or may not lead the audience back to the heart and soul of the brand purpose and mission. Instead, I suggest that we assemble a team of virtuosos who can perform the dedicated requirements of their roles to contribute to an organized and powerful performance designed to engage and stimulate its audience.

A conductor who possess social prowess and business savvy is necessary to creating and managing a holistic social media program that extends from the top down, from the center outward, from the bottom up, and also from the outside in.The quest to find the conductor and the members of the orchestra rekindle the debate to who owns social media. But, I argue, that the only the person who masters the majesty of music theory, instrumentation, leadership, artistry, and stagemanship can effectively lead and inspire a band of leaders. Simply said, The person and team qualified to lead social are those qualified to do so.

Again, a hybrid approach is essential. In the very least however, they will possess the ability to understand customer touchpoints, channels of influence, market dynamics, challenges and opportunities that face consumers, and how engagement and the production of social objects trigger measurable reactions that impact the bottom line.

Continued here...

Facebook “Like” Buttons Coming to E-mail Marketing

From Mashable:

E-mail marketing service MailChimp is preparing to release a new version of its application that includes support for integrating Facebook “Like” buttons in e-mail campaigns.

MailChimp v5.2 will be released early next week and include support for the social plugin. Essentially marketers will soon have a simple way to plop Facebook “Like” buttons inside their e-mail messages.

The e-mail “Like” buttons will look and function in exactly the same way that they do on the web. So, when a subscriber clicks the “Like” button in an e-mail, the campaign is then posted to their Facebook profile. Those “Like” behaviors are tracked by MailChimp and made accessible in the campaign social stats section.

While somewhat controversial, “Like” buttons have proved to be incredibly popular, especially for content creators and online publishers. Nearly 65 million users reportedly “Like” things daily, and TypePad users have experienced a 50% increase in referral traffic to their blogs from Facebook.

If the MailChimp “Like” addition works as advertised, we predict the upcoming feature will prove extremely popular with e-mail marketers and have the potential to massively boost user engagement.

Given the very nature of Facebook “Like,” the e-mail recipient that clicks to “Like” something is taking a much more social and long-lasting action than simply clicking on a link. In fact, some might even make a case for replacing the link with the “Like” in e-mail altogether.

Watch the video below for a descriptive walkthrough of the new feature.

The Hybrid Theory Manifesto: The Future of Marketing, Advertising, and Communications Part One

From Brian Solis:

Hybrid Theory |ˈhīˌbrid thee-uh-ree |: The fusion of creative and communications, combining earned and paid media to enliven ideas, unite communities, amplify stories and spark desired outcomes.

Part One of Three…

Marketing, advertising, service, communications, and business dynamics in general is undergoing incredible transformation. The innovation transpiring across the board however, wasn’t ushered out of vision as much as it was pressured through the democratization of content and the equalization of influence. After years of the socialized media changing how individuals find, create, consume, and share information, we are approaching the cusp of following markets to leading them.

Business and its supporting branches of information dissemination, connection, and contact, are no longer practical in the era of interactive media. A new philosophy and methodology is required to effectively shed the perpetual cycle of catching up to consumer behavior. Doing so will position us for prominence and influence to guide experiences, direction, and earn presence through not only traditional media, but also through the opinions, thoughts, and ultimately public validations of our influencers and influential consumers. But it will take more than ideas, creative approaches, or simply “showing up” to the conversation. A new skill set is required to effectively compete for attention, mindshare and ultimately affinity. Hybrid Theory introduces a workforce of cross-breeds , experts who master an array of marketing artistry, social sciences such as psychology and sociology, creative vision, business dynamics, service, and communications. These individuals do not displace the authorities in their respective disciplines, they simply extend their capabilities into new media and corresponding domains and markets.

Social Media Upsets the Balance

In social networks, attention is earned and engagement is a privilege. But instead of innovating or identifying opportunities for meaningful internal and external collaboration and engagement, many organizations and the teams that support them, debate over who owns social media on behalf of the brand. The answer to the question of “who owns social media” is not representative of the opportunity that seemingly eludes most organizations.

In its sixth Communication and Public Relations Generally Accepted Practices (GAP) study produced by the Strategic and Public Relations Center at the USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, it appeared as though a clear winner was crowned in the tug of war for social media governorship. According to the report, more than 25% of companies placed between 81 to 100 percent of budgetary control over social medias compared to only 12.6 percent going to marketing. In addition, one quarter of respondents claimed that PR held strategic control over social media as a whole within their organizations and only 9 percent was bestowed upon marketing. An interesting point of note is that just over 25 percent stated that marketing held zero budgetary control and 22 percent said marketing maintained no strategic control whatsoever.

Jerry Swerling, Director of the Strategic and Public Relations Center explained the results, “[Social media] require a relatively non-commercial approach; they entail dialogue rather than monologue; they often convey objective information rather than product features; and they tend to be free-form in nature, which is just the opposite of the highly controlled world of marketing.”

If you believe the information contained within this study, PR is a clear beneficiary of the strategies and purse strings that drive corporate social media. But to say that it is the industry standard or even the right or only answer, is far from reality. While Public Relations may not operate with commercial motives, it doesn’t operate without its own bias and agenda. It is only one part of the overall marketing mix and it too, is in need of reinvention.

The truth is that while we control the top down aspects of branding, it is the people who define our stature in social media today. Their views are emanated through the impressions, perceptions, and opinions they not only harbor, but also share via word of mouth in the real world and in the networks that connect us socially. The web has a long memory and the words of customers enjoy the same visibility, if not sometimes greater, through the SEO and SMO that we employ in our marketing efforts.

So in the great debate as to social media ownership, for the time being, it appears as though it’s not created, but co-created. As such, our best interests are served in the investment of time and energy in identifying the missing elements that currently prevent our business from embodying a true 360 approach in all we do. Doing so opens the doors to identify and apply specific value and resources to where it’s most critical and to specifically match capabilities with needs.

The socialization of media begets an approach that’s reverse engineered in order to affect the culture of our organization to inspire relevance in our markets and in turn, socialize the outbound efforts that connect products, services, and communications across every impacted branch of our business. In the process, we’ll find that the only thing that changes in terms of ownership of social today is the introduction of shared equality and equity in the engagement of our stakeholders through the evolved mechanics of:

- PR
- Marketing
- Advertising
- HR
- Finance
- Sales
- Service
- Product
- R&D
- Strategic Alliances
- Et al

A hybrid approach is required to ensure that engagement is focused and genuine in order to meet the needs and expectations of today’s social consumer.

The Five P’s of the Marketing Mix

Social networks and the prevailing cultures within each foster interaction and reward active contributors with visibility and connectedness. As individuals in online networks earn prominence, it’s clear that their authority and influence is only expanding. As we’re learning, people and their actions and words, are now critical ingredients in business. Therefore, a 360 approach is only complete through the integration of a fifth “P” to the marketing mix, people.

We’re familiar with the Four P’s of the marketing mix. For those who need or perhaps would enjoy a refresher, the term “marketing mix” stepped into the spotlight when Neil H. Borden published, The Concept of the Marketing Mix in 1964. In the late 1940’s, Borden adopted the term in his teachings inspired by James Culliton who had described the marketing manager as a “mixer of ingredients.” Borden grouped the ingredients of the marketing mix in 13 parts, product planning, pricing, branding, distribution channels, personal selling, advertising, promotions, packaging, display, servicing, physical handling, fact finding and analysis. Years later, E. Jerome McCarthy grouped these ingredients into what we now refer to as e 4 P’s of marketing:

1. Product
2. Price
3. Place
4. Promotion

Source: NetMBA.com

The Four P’s represent the variables controlled by a marketing manager as dictated by the internal and external dynamics of the market ecosystem. Originally, the 4 Ps were designed to create the perception of value in order to drive activity and in a positive and profitable direction.

In the era of social media, the 4 Ps require a new tenant in order to make its rent. Now in 2010, social media upset the balance of top down communication. Whereas organizations thrived on the governed dissemination of information as of a form of control nowadays, many of the intermediaries and individuals they hope to reach are now far more influential than we may realize.

As content production and dissemination is democratized and influence is equalized accordingly, a new “P” is necessary to ensure the integrity of the existing 4 P’s.

People = The Fifth Element

10 Tips For Advertisers To Go Viral On YouTube

From Social Times:

When it comes to advertising with videos on YouTube most companies are going about it entirely the wrong way. A lot of advertisers are stuck in the 30-secong television ad mentality and don’t know a thing about creating a promotional video that will go viral on the web. YouTube’s Hunter Walk gave a presentation to advertisers at Cannes and emphasized the importance of creating strong YouTube advertisements. He offered up a lot of great tips for advertisers and we’ve compiled them, along with some great viral advertising examples, to help your company create great advertisements for YouTube.

Make Content, Not Commercials

One of the most important things that Walk stressed in his presentation was the idea that advertisers need to stop thinking in the commercial mindset and start thinking about producing compelling content. An informative video that explains the benefits of your product and how it works just won’t cut it anymore. You need to tell a compelling story or show something that is so funny or unique that viewers just can’t help but share your video with their friends.

When coming up with a concept for your promotional video, take a hint from some companies that have run successful campaigns. Let’s take Kia’s new Hamster Commercial for the Kia Soul as an example. This certainly isn’t you average commercial. It’s a music video, featuring Black Sheep’s ‘The Choice is Yours’ and a bunch of giant hamster. Now, this clip is clearly an advertisement for the Kia Soul, but the very fact that it has giant hamsters rapping and riding through the streets in giant toasters, cardboard cars and dryers make it incredibly viral and compelling content.

Note that the company doesn’t skimp on the branding at the end. After all, branding is always important in advertising. However, add just enough information about your product to get your name out there and don’t over-do it or you may bore your viewers.

Evian’s Roller Babies campaign is another great example of creating great content, rather than plain old commercials. When you watch this clip you know that it was made by Evian, but you aren’t thinking about Evian while watching. You’re thinking about the fact that these babies are dancing! Try to be transparent in your videos—you want viewers to be entertained without thinking about the fact that they are watching an advertisement.

Think About Long Term Strategy

When coming up with a concept for your viral video advertisements, think about the long term. One of the best ways to gain recognition is by creating a series of videos with a single concept or character. This way viewers will get to know your campaign and be excited when a new video comes out.

One of the best examples of this is Old Spice’s current campaign. The Old Spice campaign is made up of a combination of television and web advertisements and has gone massively viral on YouTube and beyond. Check out a few of the videos from the campaign below.

Make Your Videos a Conversation

Creating a dialogue with your customers is incredibly important. Pay attention to what consumers are saying about you and your products and respond to them.

A great example of this is EA Games’ Tiger Wood Walk On Water video. The company created the video as a response to a popular video created by a fan showing off the Jesus shot, Tiger Woods walking on water in the Tiger Woods ’08 game. The response video features Tiger Woods actually walking on water and taking a shot. With millions of views, this was a fantastic move by EA. Check out the fan video as well as EA’s clip below.

Inspire Parodies

Parodies are one of YouTube’s most popular staples. Viewers love a good parody. Advertisers can use this to their advantage. As an advertiser, you can create a video that will inspire parodies and as parodies pop up on the web it will drive even more viewers to your original clip. Parody is the best form of YouTube flattery, so try to come up with video ideas that will inspire YouTube users to create parodies of your advertisement.

We’ll use Old Spice as an example again, as they have managed to create one of the most successful YouTube advertising campaigns of all time. Check out a couple of Old Spice parodies below.

Get Interactive

With YouTube you have the opportunity to create exciting interactive videos with annotations. Annotations give you the opportunity to create all sorts of fun videos, including choose your own adventures and more. The best way to get an understanding of how interactive videos work on YouTube is to check out a couple of great examples.

In our first example, which is an advertisement for the ‘Will It Blend?’ Blendtec blender, users can choose items for the host, Corey Vidal, to blend together and drink. You can click to choose items and watch Corey blend together and drink any combination of eggs, peanut butter, jalapeno peppers, potatoes and more.

The following interactive video, from Patrick Boivin, lets you play Street Fighter on YouTube.

Try to think of how you can use your company’s product or service to create an engaging and entertaining interactive video. It could be your company’s ticket to viral YouTube success.

Solicit Help

Keep in mind that you don’t have to create your videos on your own. You can inspire your customers and fans to make videos for you. Create a contest asking people to create videos about why they love your product and award the winner with some sort of prize. This not only gives you the opportunity to choose from a huge number of video clips, created by fans, but also puts loads of content related to your brand on the Web.

Olympus is currently holding a contest for the Olympus PEN camera. They asked fans to explain what they would do with an Olympus PEN camera and $5,000. The top 6, which were voted on by viewers and have already been selected, win the camera and the money and make their Olympus PEN videos. What does Olympus get out of it? Six amazing web videos promoting their product at the low price of $5,000 and a camera each! They also received tons of coverage as entrants posted videos about what they would do with the PEN camera and promoted it among their friends.

Wow Viewers With Creative Visuals

These days there is so much you can do with animation and visual effects that you can put together all sorts of creative visuals. Animation is huge right now, particularly concepts like stop motion. If you can make a video that makes viewers think, “Wow! That must have taken a long time!” or “How did they do that?” or “That looks so cool!” then you are on the right track.

One of my favorite examples of campaigns that just look cool visually is the Amazon Kindle stop motion campaign. This campaign aired on television, but I am including it here because it was uploaded to YouTube as well and has gotten a significant number of views over numerous uploads.

Brand it

As we mentioned earlier, branding is extremely important in your YouTube promotional videos. Viewers should know that your brand is behind the video without having it shoved in their face. Find a comfortable balance between content and brand.

Don’t create a video that isn’t related to your product or service at all. You don’t need to totally hide the fact that you are creating an advertisement. Just be sure to focus on telling a story involving your product, rather than talking only about the features and uses of your product.

Make Lots Of Videos

Don’t think that all it takes to go viral on YouTube is a single video. The companies, like Old Spice, that have created many videos are the companies that see the biggest success rate. When you create a variety of videos not only are consumers more likely to find your video clips, but are also more likely to stay on your channel for longer, watching more of your videos and getting a better idea of your brand and your product.

Experiment

Finally, don’t be afraid to experiment. Try out one concept and, if it doesn’t work, go for something else. Not all of your campaigns and videos are going to be a success. You have to try new things and see what works for you.

Now that you are armed with some helpful tips for creating video advertisements that will go viral on YouTube, start brainstorming, and we wish you a successful campaign!