To promote their newest product Trident Layers, Trident Gum has integrated fan twitter feedback into their print campaign. This unconventional strategy has successfully merged two very different mediums to effectively carry their message. The full-page color ads with the headline “The People Have Tweeted” displays multiple tweets from users that have used Twitter to share their enthusiasm for Trident’s newest product. Trident found the tweets while using Twitter Search to monitor what people were tweeting about the new product. Recently released it is unknown whether or not this new ad will influence readers more than regular print advertisements but it is an interesting tactic using testimonials from real customers using the popular social networking site.
As brands continue to try to find new ways to connect with customers and shape their product to appeal to them, Pepsi decided to have their customers do all the work with their newest Mountain Dew social media campaign “Dewmocracy 2.0”. Brands like HP and Vitamin Water have already called upon their consumers for branding materials. After all, consumers should know themselves better than anyone. Last year Mt. Dew launched a similar campaign where they allowed consumers to vote for the next Mt. Dew flavor and name, but has taken this branding practice to a whole new level this year. They are now letting their consumers invent and name three new flavors, design the package, AND create commercials. They launched a new website 12seconds.tv where Dew enthusiasts can submit their own commercials and vote for their favorites. Brands have resorted to similar tactics putting brand choices in the hands of the customer but never to this extent. This campaign gives the consumer more control and interaction with their favorite brand. Going beyond simply consulting consumers for ideas they are making them an integral part of creating a new product and marketing it utilizing different social web applications like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. They expect that this will help foster a strong relationship between the brand and the customer because they are now able to have the feeling of owning and being part of the product like never before and brand loyalists are now empowered to be a part of the brand. Only time will tell how effective this new campaign will be but with the brands existing loyal fan base and cross platform social marketing strategy it looks very promising. It will be interesting to see how other brands follow suit utilizing social media to empower their customers to become part of the brand.
Now that social media networks like Facebook have become a commonplace occurrence in our society and literally “everyone and their mother” has a profile, its no wonder that most major brands now utilize it to maintain an online presence and communicate their brand messages. Although there are hundreds of brands using Facebook, only a few have been able to utilize it to its fullest potential. IKEA is one of those brands.
Their campaign to promote the opening of its newest store in Mälmo has been wildly successful. It has been described as brilliant, smart yet simple, genius, and innovative. With a very small budget, Swedish agency Forsman & Bodenfors managed to start a Facebook campaign that was able to grow organically and transcend international boundaries on its own. By creating a basic profile for the store manager of the new store they uploaded images of IKEA showrooms from the new store to his photo albums over the course of two weeks. Those who became “friends” with Gustavsson were encouraged to tag themselves in the photos over products in the showroom images for a chance of winning that particular object. As word spread across Facebook and more people tagged the photo, the showroom images where subsequently shared on all their profiles, links, and newsfeeds with millions of people in Sweden, throughout Europe, and across the planet. Instead of simply placing a banner ad on various websites hoping for a connection, IKEA got people to personally promote IKEA on the biggest social networking platform around. Word of mouth advertising is considered the most effective and sharing on Facebook is the equivalent of word of mouth these days.
The newly redesigned website for Chado Advertising & Design has officially launched. This new site has been redesigned to have a new look similar to this blog, a flash slideshow showcasing recent work, and has additional content added. There are also links to all of Chado’s social media pages, more detailed case studies, team bios, and an added link to XCD, our cross cultural design social network. This new website is easier to navigate and has a new look more consistent with Chado Advertising & Design. Check it out at www.chado-design.com!
As smartphones continue to gain popularity and more companies release branded applications to add value and increase brand awareness it is important that they fully research and understand exactly how the app will affect their brand. Blockbuster, in an attempt to stay competitive as Netflix and Redbox devour their market share, decided a new strategy that involves offering new services and products and releasing an innovative iPhone app could increase brand awareness and relevancy. Unfortunately, they did not realize the implications of their actions. The Wall Street Journal reported that their iPhone application would allow customers to check and see if a rental is in stock before going to the store. This sounds like a great idea; it takes advantage of new technology and adds value for the customer by saving them time. However, it seems that Blockbuster has overlooked the fact that the application ultimately gives their customers a reason to not come to their stores. If someone who still uses Blockbuster to rent movies goes into the store looking for a particular movie and if they discover it is not in stock they will typically pick out a different movie because they are already in the store. This situation is ideal because it gives Blockbuster two rental sales, the current rental and then another when the customer comes back in for the movie they originally wanted to watch. Their new strategy involving the new iPhone app will result in fewer sales because the customer will not step foot in the store until it is convenient and the movie they want to watch is available. Also, depending on availability, customers using this app can get tired of waiting for a particular movie to become available and now be more inclined to switch over to Blockbuster’s more convenient competitors. Hopefully their other strategies can help them weather the storm but I predict the new iPhone app will spell disaster for the struggling rental chain. Blockbuster’s current mobile application strategy is a good example of how brands need to a well thought strategy before adopting new technology.
As more and more people adopt Smartphone technology it is being utilized as a successful medium for advertising. Sponsored mobile applications and web advertisements delivered through mobile devices have proven to be an effective way for brands to communicate their message to a targeted market by placing the ad literally in the hands of the consumer.
Last week, Greystripe mobile advertising network and Adgregate Markets advertising firm have introduced the newest platform to deliver advertisments through mobile devices; M-Commerce. As part of a full integrated marketing campaign, M-Commerce ads are rich media-enabled banner ads that allow the consumer to purchase the product directly through the ad effectively combining the point of discovery with the point of purchase. This new medium was introduced as part of the multichannel campaign for the DVD release of Quentin Tarantino’s film Inglorious Basterds. According toDM News, This new technology allows customers to use their phones to input credit card information and order the DVD through the e-commerce enabled banner ads. Adgregate Markets is confident this new platform will be a success as more people are expected to make purchases this holiday season via mobile phones but it is still unclear how many people will trust submitting their credit card information to a banner ad. Time will tell how effective this new medium will be but it is a good example of how brands are utilizing new mobile technology to reach the customer like never before. Although it may take a while to catch on with skeptical shoppers I believe calling the consumer to purchase the DVD on the spot through the ad will ultimately be successful. An estimated 53% of purchases made in the stores are impulse buys and this new technology allows for impulse buys virtually anywhere.
Last week Google launched a new application for use on Android mobile devices that allows users to use their camera phone to capture an image of something like a landmark, logo, or work of art and run a Google search off the image to instantly pull up information.It is called Google Goggles and will change the way we find information about the world around us. This type of “augmented reality” application opens up many possibilities, if you are a tourist in a new city you can instantly pull up relevant information or if you are researching different species on a hike you can take a picture of a plant to quickly identify it, or even snap a photo of a product while shopping to find the best price. There are currently similar apps out there that offer similar functionality like PlinkArt that identifies paintings or SnapTell that pulls up book information but Google Goggle is the most advanced, it can even identify people.
This is where the problem lies with the Google Goggle application, it can instantly pull up information on anyone it captures making it a threat to personal privacy. With so many people having an online presence with social networking sites, picture sharing, and video sites they are left open for strangers to quickly learn everything about them without knowing. Because of these privacy concerns, Google has blocked the ability to identify people for now. Google does not have the best track record regarding personal privacy and has been criticized by watchdog groups for their street view technology on Google Maps.
Privacy concerns aside, this technology can open up great mobile marketing possibilities. This emerging technology will no doubt change the way people use their mobile devices and interact with the world around them but the privacy concerns should not be overlooked.
The Superbowl is well known as being the biggest advertising event of the year, with around 95 million viewers it showcases the most expensive television advertisements. Advertisers are willing to pay close to $3 million for 30 seconds of airtime. Super Bowl ads have become almost as iconic as the game itself. In recent years with the recession and more companies cutting back their ad spending, many predicted that this year more companies would not be willing to pay high prices and it would become increasingly difficult for CBS to sell the ad spots. Last year no automakers were able to afford the high price tag of running an ad during the game.
Surprisingly, this year they have had no problem selling the expensive spots. Over 90% of the spots have been reserved and the only ads left are in the fourth quarter and post-game. To put this into perspective, last year NBC was only able to move 85% of their Super Bowl spots at this time. Although ad space has always sold old, these early sales are a good indicator of how demand is rising and more businesses are willing to increase their ad budgets again.
This could have something to do with the increasing use of social media for advertising. Superbowl ads are much more than 30 seconds of airtime, today there are calculated social media strategies behind the ad. According to Advertising Age, last year there were more online views of the ads than viewers watching the game on TV. The spots during the game are still extremely valuable with all the viewers but paired with social media the shelf life of the ad is greatly extended. Last year 90% of the brands had their ads up on YouTube before or shortly after they aired during the game, a quarter of the brands utilized social media to drive additional comments and facilitate conversation, and more that two thirds bout paid-search ads online for their brand. One great example was GoDaddy.com’s spot where viewers were forced to go online to view the ad in its entirety. Similar tactics and social media spending should increase this year as well with the growing popularity of social media and its cost effectiveness. Online video sharing sites are gearing up for the event too placing emphasis on the posted ads to attract more visitors to their sites. As more brands try to find innovative ways to mix traditional and new media for their advertising it will be interesting to see how brands this year integrate their social media with the high profile TV spots to get more for their marketing dollar. I would predict that Twitter will be heavily utilized this year in some form or another with its massive increase in popularity over the last year.
Be sure to check the Chado Blog in the days following the game for more articles, videos, and commentary on the ads and new campaigns unveiled during the Super Bowl.
This video was recently released from the Technology. Entertainment. Design. (TED) Organization features Pranav Minstry, a PhD student in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT’s Media Lab. He explains the potential of “SixthSense technology” that integrates the digital world with the physical world. This technology is a wearable “gestural” interface that augments physical objects around us with digital informaiton and natural hand gestures to ineract with that information.
