Facebook // Creative Campaigns That Will Inspire.

Here are a few great Facebook campaigns we've seen recently and that use a great creative idea at the centre, leveraging the technology and social sharing nature of this platform to generate excitement and engagement. Enjoy!

Kraft Likeapella
Many brands on Facebook will ask their fans to 'Like' them, some will even block you from content or special offers until you finally decide to click that button. Brands are desperate for Likes, and while this may be an effective strategy, it can't help but leave customers feeling as though their hand was just a little bit forced. So when Kraft released this clip they did something revolutionary, in the 6min41 clip they thanked the 4,632 people who had 'liked' their Facebook post. With 19,369 likes for this video it would be fair to say that a little bit of appreciation can go a long way.

  

Heineken Beer Tender

A great viral idea here to conceal your own gift-giving by partaking in the Heineken Beer Tender. Just a little bit of fun and an idea that speaks to the core of social convention and human characteristics. All it needed was a simple illustration, the brilliance is in the idea itself. A very clever execution.

A full article with many more great examples can be found on Simply Zesty here.

Social media // how important is it for your brand?

Awareness towards social media has in general heightened. When social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter first took off many big brands jumped on the bandwagon, attempting to be at the front of this trend by setting up pages.
  
The difficulty here is that few truly understood how to use this media and we did not know yet how consumers were going to engage with it. As these platforms evolve and we gather a database of information on how consumers are using these platforms, their attitudes towards social media and brands and their receptiveness to offers and groups, we are becoming more savvy and relevant to the consumer in our approach.
  
Many brands, however, have not progressed far beyond simply feeling as though their brand needs to be present in this space. But being present quite simply isn't enough.
  
According to an article on Simply Zesty, 83% of social media users have not followed through on a purchase due to poor customer service. An even bigger concern for brands is the way that social media users are more vocal (largely due to the nature and reach of the platform) in their appraisal, but also particularly in their criticism.
  
If brands do not learn to respond in a timely, collaborative and apparently genuine nature they will lose followers, and gain non-fans at a fast rate. It's time to listen and respond; an opportunity to show that you care and build that relationship with your consumers on which your business success may rest.

Trend alert // what's coming up?

In an article on Mashable, Shane Snow highlights eight media trends "on the cusp of being mainstream and others (that) still have a bit to cook before breaking the surface." With the pace of change, a few days on the sidelines can leave you seriously behind the game. What is interesting is to watch these trends develop and to be able to identify the patterns they reveal. By understanding what's going on right now we can more accurately predict what will emerge tomorrow.
  

Eight key trends that we can see developing now are:

1. Targeted, Geo-Mobile Coupons - Foursquare is leading the way with hyper-relevant coupons that catch you when you are in the right place with coupons that are useful to you at the right time
2. Audio Watermarking - offering a new way to connect digital devices, embedded audio we cannot hear will shortly have the ability to communicate with our devices
3. Passive Location-Based Networking - tracking your friends as a trend has picked up quickly, albeit some privacy concerns, with Highlight being the most popular app for this (see grabs below)
4. Motion Tracking and Facial Recognition for Intention Data - technology is developing rapidly and the personalisation and analysis enabled by facial recognition and motion tracking is an appealing concept to many developers
5. Automatic Social Media-Activated Discounts - large brands like Amex are launching Twitter and Foursquare integrations, enabling them to engage with consumers while they're on the go through incentives (see clip below)
6. Brands Building Publications and Entertainment Channels - the focus is shifting from bought to owned media as big brands attempt to engage and retain their consumers in entertainment spaces
7. TV on the Internet - the online experience gives us more control, enables us to choose what we watch, when and how, and allowing this trend to grow in strength as it gains the backing of program publishers
8. Mobile, Immersive Reality - as technology catches up with fantasy, an augmented reality will soon play a role within our everyday reality

  

Highlight features and functions

  

  

Amex sync with Twitter demonstration

  

College study // learning with new media.

  

American Research Center Pew has released an infographic articulating the results of a study into U.S. college students and their interaction with media. 73% of college students say they cannot study without technology, while 38% of students cannot go 10 minutes without checking their smartphone or other device. Is new media simply becoming more embedded in our everyday experiences or are we becoming more dependent at a loss of individualistic thinking and natural learning?

Seven in ten students take notes on keyboard rather than paper, representing a marginalisation of written text and expression. As more of our activities and manifestations of expression move online and away from traditional media, we must also ask ourselves what we have gained, and more importantly, is there anything we have lost?

  

For more information see the infographic pictured below.

Case study // Facebook offer gets huge response.

Facebook offers have been increasing in popularity for businesses this year. As small-to-medium business owners become more tech- and social media-savvy, Facebook functionality also continues to evolve and adapt to these growing needs. Large businesses have also recognised the opportunity to maximise this platform and have been testing various strategies for engagement and ROI response.
  
One hotel in Ireland has decided to test this strategy, and in particular Facebook's recently added functionality of 'offers', and the results themselves have been overwhelming.
  

Roe Park Resort managed to drive over $1 million of revenue in only 24 hours. The hotel's offer which featured on Facebook (pictured below) offered consumers a 1 night stay at a low £42.50. Thanks to the viral nature of this sharing platform and its far reach and ability to penetrate through interconnected networks through both shares and connections, close to 30,000 people have decided to redeem this offer.
  

The next question now is whether the hotel actually has the capacity to host these 30,000 people who have now chosen to stay at the hotel before the offer expiry date of December 31, 2012. Certainly there is a guaranteed stream of activity for the hotel, even if this is at a lowered rate, bringing some sense of security and certainty to what has been a fairly insecure financial climate.

  

    
There is an abundance of Case Studies available, highlighting the potential ROI and social engagement of Facebook native promotions and strategies - several of which have been captured in a previous post on this website. There are a great number of possibilities and many advertisers are taking a "test and see" strategy as we continue to accumulate data and gain insights into this platform and the evolving way in which consumers are engaging with this.
  
The formula for success remains the same; know your brand/product, know your audience, understand the nature of your possible platforms/channels and how these are optimised. At the core of all of these should be a single-minded, insightful and powerful creative idea to drive all of these and bring the excitement, affiliation and loyalty to your business that represents both iconic and profitable brands.

User experience // the influence of social media.

According to an article by Kevin O'Connor, president of User Insight, the social media shift has meant that now "the consumer really is king." In the current landscape, social media has been identified by many businesses as both a great threat and opportunity.
  

Successful and innovative companies are able to get over the initial overwhelming of the size and power of this platform, their inability to control the public messages that are communicated around their brand. Brands must work harder on an ongoing, current and personally-relevant strategy if they hope to receive mindshare of these consumers; the 'earned' media of word-of-mouth that they so desperately desire. And with 92% of consumers trusting earned media (NielsenWire, 2012), developing this relationship is crucial to the success of brands. This can require significant work but clever and committed companies can reap the rewards.
  
"Most of the social media interactions (chatter) are triggered by offline experiences, and these experiences give rise to word of mouth which is carried online." (Heather Albrecht, 2011). The conversations we are participating in have not changed, it is simply the context which has been updated, and the reach multiplied exponentially. Brand experience and customer satisfaction is still at the core and we need to listen qualitatively to our customers, how they interact with brands and what's important to them. Facebook offers an ideal platform for building this relationship in a participatory way.
  
I have discussed the current communication model of participation branding in a previous post, tied to this trend in the current media landscape is the growing importance of Social Influence Marketing (SIM). SIM hinges on the power of sharing and is defined by talented digital training professional Heather Albrecht as:
  

"a technique that employs social media and social influencers to achieve an organisation's marketing and business needs."

  
The infographics below show some of the key statistics driving marketers towards these social platforms and their continuing growth as an advertising environment. With 90% of all purchases being subject to social influence and over 150 million people engaging with Facebook on external websites each month (DigitalBuzz, 2011), it's easy to see why. 74% of CMOs believe they'll tie social media efforts to hard ROI this year, are you one of them?

Google vs Facebook // who will win?

An interesting article by Simply Zesty suggests Google is losing touch with its audience and putting off-side the precious social media consumers it hopes to attract. Google+ was Google's attempt at getting social, a recognition of the increasing trend of marketers to invest into social channels such as Facebook and Twitter. The results, however, have been less than impressive and the uptake has been slow. More recently, Google+ has launched a TV awareness campaign for the platform, which is certainly well-constructed, however, a bit disconnected for an online social growth strategy if you ask me.
  
So what's causing Google to get so nervous? Let's start with a fact: if it were a country, Facebook would be the third largest in the world (DigitalBuzz, 2011). Now that's a significant market share and an appealing proposition to any marketer looking to go big, or even to target locally thanks to Facebook's extensive information holdings on all its users. The social network is huge and the focus more recently has shifted to offering better and more prominent advertising deals for marketers, as well as continuing to enrich and deepen the user experience.
  
The Facebook model is a winning one - and with over 800 million monthly active users (Facebook, 2012), consumer interaction does not appear to be slowing down. As brands become smarter and more educated around how to effectively optimise this platform they are more likely to invest in advertising. A serious threat to Google, whose core revenue-stream comes from advertising. It will be interesting to see how this one continues to develop in the battle for prominence and profits.
  
There's only one thing we need to hope for, which is that in this battle of the big boys they don't forget about us, the little guys who really matter. At the end of the day without their loyal consumers these platforms have nothing at all; so what have you got to offer us?
  

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