Fueling the Future of Digital Marketing

I was just about to put up a post about the new Audi Flipbook ad but I was sent this presentation through from a friend and I thought it worth sharing. This is by Nicole Still.

Lazy Sunday Afternoons

In the spirit of lazy Sunday afternoons, I'm taking a break and chillin' out for a couple of hours. Enjoy...

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Hollywood My Little Pony

I StumbleUpon this site yesterday. This is just one of the Hollywood My Little Pony's that they have. Star Wars, Batman and Robin, Edward Scissor Hands and He-Man are just some of the Pony's available. Just bare in mind, they're $330 each!

2009 AMPC Awards

A huge congratulations to everyone in Cybercom who worked on the Bushmills Trek and Powerade 'Never Give Up' campaigns - both of which walked away from last nights APMC Awards in the Shelbourne hotel with wins. Awesome stuff for all the guys involved.

Also a congratulations to the guys in Strategem for wins with Danone's 'Ireland's Happiest Babies' and Captain Morgan's 'Got a Little Captain in You?!'

Social Media Connections 2

Following on from my earlier post on Social Media Connections, I was having a look to see what brands and businesses are really doing out there when it comes to Social Media. Facebook, of course, is scattered with brands, businesses, products and people, some by individuals and some by the companies themselves. Having been involved in several Social Media integrated campaigns on both Facebook and Bebo, I familiar with how this works, and it's clear that for a lot of the activity out there, it is after thoughts more then planned, integrated and result-driven activity.

The truth is that the vast majority of business are still treating Social Media as a buzzterm, as something that needs to be included in digital campaigns because "it's what the kids are doing these days". Anyone with half a braincell can tell that's not the way to approach any digital marketing channel. Digital provides marketing channels unique in their ability to be tracked, optimised and reported on. Generally all metrics are available, and all of them should be used. So what am I getting at?

Basically, very few people get it. When it comes to making social connections between brands and consumers, there are very few good examples to quote. The best example of late is Powerade's Never Give Up. A social connection is a two way communication. If it's one way and is just you blasting marketing messages at people it's definitely not social. Never Give Up as a campaign, created real interaction with the public and this drove overall results.

Surely there are others out there doing similar? Well another interesting example I found was of BMW in China. BMW has launched an exclusive social network for its drivers in China. Not a Facebook Page or Bebo profile, but it's own social network. There new site is designed to engage with China’s 150,000 BMW drivers. This is a worldwide first for the brand in an effort to bolster brand loyalty. According to Brand Republic, BMW chose to build its own site instead of creating pages on existing social networks to avoid privacy and security setbacks, and to have the autonomy to build the network according to the technical needs of them and its users.

But, is this a good idea? It would seem to me that what BMW have done here is to create a new Bebo with BMW branding. Aside from blasting its marketing messages at users, it doesn't serve to connect with those users. I don't deny that there is potential goodwill for a service that is being offered for free but is there any potential to actually connect with these people. I don't think so. So here is an example of a campaign which will never do any more then provide a platform for Interest Generators to connect. Potential brand benefit is ultimately very low.