Social platform

Businesses today are starting to understand the value of social media for marketing and are turning their attention to integrating these various platforms into their strategy. Marketing plans that continue to solely focus on traditional methods and do not include social strategies are archaic and ineffective in today's social world. However, with multiple social platforms to choose from, it can be difficult to understand how to manage each account.
When managing multiple social media accounts, it's important to understand that not all platforms were created equal. Each platform (though there are some similarities) functions independently with its own unique qualities. As a result, social media managers must treat each platform as such. Let's take a closer look at the best ways to integrate the most popular social networks that businesses use today.

Facebook

With more than 1 billion active users, it's a no-brainer that businesses should have a Facebook presence, but keep in mind that Facebook is about more than just the number of "likes" a company has. Facebook is a great way to build brand persona and awareness through updates, contests, and sharing videos or pictures. It's a place to showcase a company's culture and vision, so be cognizant of the content posted on a business page. Businesses should also take advantage of the location information users provide in their profiles, allowing for targeted advertising based on city and the option to offer deals through Facebook Places when a users "checks in" to a particular business or location.

Twitter

Twitter began as a way to quickly share "what's happening." Now with more than 170 million active users, the microsite has evolved into a successful marketing tool when used strategically. Twitter is a free way to monitor conversations happening about your brand as they are happening. This allows businesses to extend their customer service efforts, as they can detect problems early and act timely, rectifying brewing situations before they can spill over. Twitter is also a great place to find hot leads, as people constantly tweet about things they need or want. Reach out to those who are at the point of decision making and introduce them to your product or service. And because many users follow their favorite brands and businesses, Twitter is a great platform to share deals and discounts or announce sales and new products.

LinkedIn

Last year, 10 million to 15 million users per quarter joined LinkedIn. Known as the social network for professionals, LinkedIn has plenty of benefits for business. At the basis of a successful business, there are employees that keep the wheels turning and business moving forward. LinkedIn is the preferred platform to recruit top-level employees. Employers can search for candidates based on job requirements, as users publicly offer their resumes and skill sets. LinkedIn Groups is also a great place for a business to grow its network while building rapport through offering advice or helpful content.

Google+

With more than 100 million active users, Google+ is a huge success compared to its predecessor, Google Buzz. One of the biggest benefits of Google+ for businesses is improved results in Google Search, increasing your visibility and helping customers find your business faster. The +1 button also increases the chance of this visibility, as the more +1s a link has, the more attention it gets in search results. Additionally, Google+ Circles create more personal relationships with consumers, even allowing businesses to have live video chat sessions with their audience through Hangouts.

Pinterest

Hailed as the "the fastest growing social site" ever, Pinterest is a great place for businesses to focus some of their social media efforts. Consumers love pictures, especially when they are looking to purchase a product or service. But beyond posting pictures of products to drive sales, Pinterest is also the platform to build your brand and showcase your mission. Dedicate a board to the company culture or lifestyle, and pin content that shows the company's unique personality. Pinterest also drives traffic to your site, so make sure you are detailed in the description and include a link back to your site.

Because social media is an essential part of successful marketing today, marketing, community, and social media managers must be well versed in the social media platforms most used. Effectively using social media begins with proper education of the platform, as each of the ones above has the potential to be a valuable asset, not only in the success of a social media plan, but also in the success of the business overall.

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Ecco: World's longest catwalk

Challenge

Shoe brand Ecco had gone from strength to strength in its homeland of Scandinavia. In Australia however, Ecco had just 3.7% unaided brand awareness. Those that were aware of the brand thought the shoes were comfortable but only 9% saw Ecco footwear as stylish. And that was a challenge area as style always came first for Australian women.  They were choosing to sacrifice comfort for that pair of heels they simply-couldn’t-live-without and resorting to a range of tactics to help take the edge off the pain.  88% of women admitted to lining their shoes with bandages or tape to protect their toes and heels. A small number even admitted to shoving toilet paper in their shoes during a night out. Ecco set out to prove to women that Ecco footwear could solve their shoe-related problems.

The key objectives were to make women see Ecco shoes as both comfortable and stylish – increasing the style perception from 9% to 15%, turn Australian women into Ecco advocates – increasing the volume of online conversations by 50% and positivity by 5%, and finally, drive a 10% YOY increase in sales.

Insight

Australian women had been conditioned by fashion brands to believe that comfort and style cannot coexist. To make it even tougher, experts were inundating women regularly with fashion and beauty claims that did not translate in the real world. This led to the consumer insight: Australian women wanted to believe that style and comfort was possible in a shoe but needed to hear it from ‘women like them’ before they could trust the claim.

The strategy was to use real women to change the conversation by giving undeniable proof that style doesn’t have to be sacrificed for comfort.

Solution

The idea was to host a chic catwalk in one of Sydney’s most iconic locations, a catwalk so long that no one would be able to fake comfort. Ecco’s catwalk event had two notable differences from a regular fashion show. The first was that the end of the catwalk couldn’t be seen and the second, that there was not a model pout in sight. Ecco’s real models smiled for the entire 2.812 kilometres as they experienced first-hand the comfort and style of Ecco shoes. Ecco then amplified their smiles to the masses through magazine and online executions plus its audience’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter feeds.  

In the weeks leading up to the catwalk Ecco built excitement by publicly recruiting for an unusual type of model: one with absolutely no experience. Ecco’s model for the day competition allowed real Australian women to vie for a spot on the record-breaking catwalk through their social media assets. The competition winners were accompanied by other, better-known, everyday women - bloggers, stylists and fashion writers. These women were invited to walk and then talk. Each brought attention to Ecco and the world’s longest catwalk editorially.

They let their readers, clients and friends know that comfort and style can coexist - in the form of Ecco shoes.  

Exclusive coverage of the record-setting event was sold into one of Australia’s top-rating morning TV programs. In a 4-minute segment The Morning Show brought the catwalk to a broader group of Australian women, further validating Ecco’s promise of comfort and style. 

Results

Ecco’s 2.812 km catwalk smashed the world record and grabbed media attention.  Ecco secured a 263% return on investment through the coverage alone. 35% women thought Ecco shoes were stylish. The catwalk sparked a 117% increase of online Eco conversations. The most common talking points were the record-breaking catwalk and Ecco’s latest range of shoes. Positivity of the conversations increased by 8% as women shared the good news of a shoe that is both comfortable and stylish. Ecco saw a 16% YOY increase in sales during the campaign period.

BRAND:

Ecco

BRAND OWNER:

Ecco

CATEGORY:

Accessories/Clothing/Footwear

REGION:

Australia

DATE:

July - November 2012

AGENCY:

UM

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Ambient,Experiential,Digital,Events,Online,Out-of-Home,PR,Print,TV

‫مرأة تطرد زوجها من البيت أمام كل التوانسة فالعاصمة‬ Via Tunisie Télécom

Innovative street stunt by Tunisie Télécom 

Samsung| The Golden Egg

Challenge

Samsung was about to launch the Galaxy SII and was looking for a partner that could help it reach out to its primary target group: mobile phone enthusiasts. This group was the earliest adapter of new technology. But that was the whole challenge: finding the correct content partner for generating the hype and sales for the Samsung SII.

Insight

The brand realised that game developer Rovia’s popular game Angry Birds would be the perfect fit to reach the TG. For Samsung, it was the perfect partnership, because Angry Birds enthusiasts were exactly the kind of mobile pioneers for whom it had tailored the new Galaxy SII.

Solution

In one of the deepest partnerships ever signed by Rovia, Samsung created a secret Golden Egg level which could only be unlocked by coming to Samsung’s co-branded site to find clues.

This was the first time that the wildly popular game had ever allowed a partner to reveal a secret new level to the game. It was also the broadest partnership ever agreed by the developer Rovio which helped Samsung to market directly to millions of Angry Birds’ biggest fans. 

It was just the sort of treasure hunt that die-hard fans loved to follow - and then to boast about when they had unlocked the level. The co-branded site was central to reaching players with detailed messages about the Galaxy SII.

Samsung excluded the Samsung logo from the secret Golden Egg level itself for fear of alienating players, but it gently reinforced the brand by using Galaxy SII colours and graphics throughout. 

And in a masterstroke that greatly extended the length of time users spent on the new level, this level came equipped with a special ‘low gravity’ environment as the Angry Birds were going into space. That meant it was challenging and frustratingly addictive even for veteran players, all of whom had to learn new tricks and techniques to progress.

Banner ads inside Angry Birds directed people to the Samsung site where they could find the clues to unlock the secret Golden Egg level. Samsung bought video pre-rolls and interstitial ads in which Angry Birds characters themselves told players where to go looking. Samsung promoted posts to the game’s Facebook and Twitter followers as well.

On the co-branded site, additional offerings were made to users such as competitions to win Angry Birds toys and merchandise.

Results

The discovery of the secret level generated so much internet chatter that it wasn’t just fans who shared tips on social networks, but also technology journalists who reported on the phenomenon. 

Nearly half a million users came to the co-branded site to pick up the clues that would unlock the secret Golden Egg level and almost 15,000 clicked through to the Galaxy SII product page to learn more. 

The game level itself was played 1.6 million times by the time the promotional activity ended. 69% of players said the level made them think of the Galaxy SII. Brand awareness jumped 10% after the campaign period and purchase intent jumped 4%.

BRAND:

Samsung Mobile

BRAND OWNER:

Samsung

CATEGORY:

Telecoms/Mobile

REGION:

Australia

Austria

France

Germany

Indonesia

Italy

Singapore

Spain

Switzerland

United Kingdom

DATE:

July - August 2011

AGENCY:

Starcom

MEDIA CHANNEL:

Branded Content,Experiential,Digital,Mobile,Online,PR,Print,Retail/POS,Sponsorship,TV

RIM: BlackBerry Unveils BB10

Any doubt that the BlackBerry 10 is central to the survival of Research In Motion was likely erased on Wednesday as the company not only unveiled its new operating system and phones, but changed its corporate name to "BlackBerry," too. "We have a fantastic brand, BlackBerry, and we are known as such all over the world, except in North America," CMO Frank Boulben said in a video interview at the launch. "We wanted to take full advantage of that global, iconic brand."
"We have redefined ourselves inside and out," said CEO Thorsten Heins, speaking to launch events held across the globe from New York to Jakarta. "RIM becomes BlackBerry. It is one brand, it is one promise." He declined to specify the company's marketing spend for the corporate rebrand and a global launch of BlackBerry 10 that includes Sunday's Super Bowl ad buy, but characterized it as in the "hundreds of million dollars."







Along with a radically different operating system, the company introduced two new phones — the keyboard-equipped Q10 and the touch-screen Z10 — which employ a gesture-based interface similar to Apple's pioneering iPhone. Yet the new BlackBerry OS offers a host of distinct features.
"Flow," for instance, allows users to move between apps with the mere swipe of a finger, while "Balance" partitions users' work and personal worlds into two distinct environments, keeping data and messages in each from intermingling. 




Both phones sport a sharp 4.2-inch screen display and sports 16 gigabytes of storage, a memory-card slot for expansion and front and back cameras that record in high definition (1080p back, 720p front). Popular BlackBerry Message software enables free phone and video calls while screencasting.
Other features include Story Maker, which automatically grabs photos and turns them into videos with music, and an ability to "learn" and mimic users' writing patterns. Time Shift, its photo software, allows selections to be made from a series of quickly shot images.
BlackBerry 10 will launch with 70,000 apps including Angry Birds, Skype, Yelp, Twitter, Spotify, Foursquare, Dropbox, the New York Times and Amazon Kindle, while noticeably missing are Netflix, Draw Something, Pinterest, Hipstamatic, Instagram and major airline and bank apps. 



Also on offer with the new Z10 and Q10, a vast range of entertainment options, including an integrated solution for music, movies and TV shows, with major content partners including Walt Disney Studios and Sony Pictures, Universal Music and Warner Music Group.

The Z10 will not be available in the U.S. until March, while the United Kingdom will be able to purchase it Thursday, Canada on Feb. 5 and the United Arab Emirates on Feb. 10. Verizon will sell it for $199 on a two-year agreement, with other carriers like AT&T and T-Mobile expected to offer similar deals.
Release dates and a price for the Q10 were not given on Wednesday. Asked about the delay in rolling out the phone in the U.S., 



"I really do believe that the consumer market as a whole is ready for something new," said Kevin Burden, head of mobility at Strategy Analytics, ahead of the BB10 reveal. "I have to believe that there is some level of user fatigue that plays into the longevity of some of these platforms," he added, referring to Google Inc.'s Android and Apple's iOS, which are both more than five years old. "RIM is probably timing it right.

Does Anyone Really Believe Advertising Any More?

Apparently consumers are taking this old saying to heart: "Believe only half of what you see and nothing that you hear." Market research firm Lab42 just released a study that revealed that 76% of its respondents think advertisements contain exaggerated claims, and a mere 3% think ads are "very accurate."
According to Lab42's survey of 500 respondents, while 38% wish for more accuracy in advertising, only 17% would like to see more laws in the United States that regulate advertising. In the U.S., advertising is seen as free speech, but that's not the case in other countries such as the UK, where ads are routinely banned for being misleading or exaggerated.

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