SOCIAL MEDIA

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The latest edition of the Did You Know? Series has just been released and as usual its full of thought provoking statistics. Developed in partnership with the Economist, this year's theme focuses on media convergence.

check the sources here: Wiki Source

FACEBOOK

According to Facebook's statistics there are rumors topping well above 300 million members worldwide and counting. Compare this to the rumors regarding the size of Twiter which is about 30 million or more. If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest in the world after China, India, the United States based on population.

2 billion pieces of content, whether links, posts, photos, or anything else, are now shared each week - doubling shared items of July 2009 (merely two months ago!!)
Earlier this month , Facebook said that 65 million people accessed the site through a mobile device. In July, only 30 million people did - that's a whopping 117 percent increase.

Burger King Whopper Sacrifice

With plenty of tools now created to get brands out on Facebook, the best use so far in advertising has clearly been the stand out performance of Burger King's Whopper Sacrifice Campaign.

What do you love more, your friends or the Whopper?

And people had no trouble answering it. Only four days after launch, tens of thousands of people had been sacrificed. Because of the viral nature of the campaign, the application was spreading like fire. And that's where the problems started.

Sacrifice went against the very nature of Facebook's business plan. Social networks are all about creating connections, not canceling them, and the quickly growing application was sacrificing more friendships than Facebook was comfortable with. While they both tried to accommodate each other's goals, in the end, when faced with the prospect of removing the social/viral component that made sacrifice so much fun. Burger King shose to sacrifice Whopper Sacrifice.

Case in point, the "annoucement of de-friendship" was not part of Facebook policy and went against the very thing Facebook was built for.

The Campaign which boasted ending 234,000 friendships is history now. The PR alone on this project was well worth it being pulled.

TWITTER

Initially inspired by the concept of an "away-message" merged with the freedom and mobility of SMS, Twitter began as an experiment in 2006. When valued as an instant communication network during hsared events like earthquakes, conferences, and festivals emerged, Twitter began to grow - Twitter, Inc. was founded in 2007. Today, Twitter is a privately funded company based in San Francisco, Ca. Boasting about 30 millions members to date.

We are no longer reading about the news, instead we get updates in real time.

One of Twitter's key benefits for brands is that it gives you the chance to communicate casually with customers on their terms, creating friendly relationships along the way - tough for corporations to do in most other mediums. And its instantaneous.......

In advertising its all about keeping up with the Jones' .... however having Twitter feed just cause you heard it was "all the rage these days" serves no purpose.

One of the best use scenarios where a company benefits from setting up a Twitter account is DELL.

Dell Outlet on Twitter

Started back in 2007 by Dell Employee Stephanie Nelson, who experimented Twittering for her company based on hearing about the popularity of this new found technology at SXSW Interactive Festival. By posting offers and responding directly to consumers questions via the Dell Twitter page, Dell Outlet reportedly earned more than $3 million in revenue attributed directly to their Twitter activity in the last 2 years ($1 million of which was from the last 6 months...)
Deal-Hunters are especially attracted to Dell's Twitter presence. Dell Outlet sells refurbished Dell products at great prices, but inventories fluctuate, making it difficult to know when products are available or on sale. Dell uses Twitter as a way to message out coupons, clearance events and new arrival information in real time to those looking for Dell technology at a discounted price.

Exclusive Twitter based offers helped grow their follower base from 11,000 members to over 1.2 million to date.

Interesting Future for Brands:
By the end of 2009 according to Biz Stone, founder of Twitter, Twitter will hopefully add services for businesses that will generate revenue for Twitter as well. Services could include an analytics dashboard to aid tweet monitoring, or verified corporate accounts. Hoping companies such as JetBlue, L'Oreal and Zappos who already effectively use Twitter to communicate with to costumers will now be willing to pay for the service if it offered them greater depth of information on their followers.

Neat way to get around already overused geo targeting and online campaigns offered through Facebook. But will brands now be willing to pay for a service that has proven to pay off for free???

AUGMENTED REALITY

Augmented Reality (AR) is a term for a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with or augmented by a virtual computer generated image - Creating a mixed reality.

If it wasn't for Twitter and Social Media as a whole grabbing all the headlines, Augmented Reality would be the most talked about "technology" of 2008/2009.

While the roots of the technology have been around since as early as the 1990's (remember VR Games!!) it's only in the last 12 months has the interactive industry taken to it like moths to a flame. Below you will find some of the world's biggest brands dipping their toe into "Augmented Reality". Some are in it for the PR aspect others trying to find a useful application. Many just to satisfy their need to do something new!

USPS Priority Mail Simulator

To strengthen the US Postal Service's position in online brand equity, as well as stimulate more use of the site and e-commerce sales, they launched the Virtual Box Simulator.

Users print a little eagle off the website, switch on their web cams and launch the Virtual Box Simulator. They then place the eagle in front of the screen until a virtual box appears.

The customer can then hold an item up to their cameras and see whether it fits inside the box, which will move as the item moves. Varying degrees of box transparency can be selected, to see best what the item will look like inside the package; package options include Large Flat-Rate Box, Medium 2 Flat-Rate Box and Small Flat-Rate Box.

Prices are listed on the site, and boxes can be ordered directly from the interface.
Again a few steps to set up, but makes selecting and purchasing on line a breeze.

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Ray Ban Virtual Mirror

Smart way to use Augmented Reality to allow people to shop online.... of course you have to allow, download, and install... sometimes a lot of work for those of us who have only 4. 2 seconds of engagement before we are off onto another site because it took too long....

Uses your camera to place virtual sunglasses on your face so you can see how each style or color looks before you purchase.

try it here

Yelp iPhone App

Yelp has snuck the first Augmented Reality (AR) iPhone App specifically for the US into the iTunes App Store. The undisclosed new feature allows iPhone 3Gs owners to shake their phones three times to turn on a view called " the monocle". This view uses the phone's GPS and compass to display markers for restaurants, bars, and other nearby businesses on top of the camera's view.

Shortly after this Easter Egg find hit the blogs and interwebs, Paris Metro and London Bus AR apps were immediately available allowing users to find subway stops, bus stops, etc.


hello SF, where's yours??? ding ding, lets make one!

BANNERS AS INNOVATIVE MEDIA

Oh the Banner!!!! We Love 'em and we hate 'em.

Below are many examples of where the media placement is just as important as the creative itself. In some cases it's more important. Taking the dreaded banner assignment and making it innovative and game changing makes what was thought as impossible, possible.

Wario Land Shake It - Youtube

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The first place kids look to research a new video game is YouTube, which is loaded with hundreds of videos from all kinds of games. In order to make Wario Land stand out, they created a video that perfectly reflects Wario's love for destroying everything in his path. It starts out like any other game footage montage, but it takes an unexpected turn when Wario's smashing begins to affect the entire YouTube page, eventually reducing it to rubble. For YouTube, this was an interactive first which received over 4 million views in one month and praise all over the gaming blogs.

What i love best is that you can actually throw the elements around on the page once its complete.....

check the full site: http://www.wariolandshakeit.com/launch/index.html

Pringles Banner

Pringles Banner

Brands love clicks....It means your advertising is affective and successful. More clicks, the better the agency looks as well! See Pringles.... Genius way to get people to keep on clicking.

Apple Ipod Game

Pitchfork

ESPN

Yahoo

Honda Insight – Let it Shine / Vimeo

Honda Insight - Let It Shine from Honda on Vimeo.

This time Vimeo got in on the action with a complete custom media buy with an integrated ad for Honda. Love the sunrise part..... Again like the Wario example this shows how working with publishers and planning early can really enhance an online execution.

INNOVATIVE FOR INNOVATIVES SAKE

zappos
watch the map as customers purchase shoes from zappos, see the most popular styles and link directly to store to purchase your own pair.

Ohio as a Piano
just rad. jam on it.

in bflat
all user generated content uploaded to YouTube turned into a user generated composition tool. neat.


Where's Dexter?
full game play through linked youtube clips.... find, click , continue...

Uniqlo
always killing it interactively

Call Out Card
kids site hosted by YouTube about teen harassment