More Social Media Forays

Rebranding an existing Facebook widget / Sony Pictures

Recognizing how difficult it is to get traction in one of the major social media networks by creating a new app or widget, Sony rebranded the hugely popular “Vampire” widget to promote the vampire horror film “30 Days of Night”, partnering with the widget’s developer, Rock You. Banner ads were placed on the rebranded vampire applications which promoted the movie and offered a sweepstakes. The campaign was live for only 3 weeks, and resulted in 59,100 sweepstakes entries. (600 % over the10k objective that defined success the advertiser.) However, the visits totaled 11,642,051 for the bite page, and 17,652,567 for the stats page, part of the interactive experience of the game – both with prominent promotion of the film and sweeps.

Creating a Facebook Group / The North Face

This is a brand that lends itself well to social media networking – and that’s my point. Many advertisers have gotten burned by slapping up a network page (which are now discontinued by the Facebook folks) or making other quick moves to hop on the social media bandwagon. Again, it’s about respecting why people gather at places like Facebook. It’s about connecting, it’s about experiences and it’s about sharing those experiences. Which is why North Face recognized the natural fit, respecting the core values of their consumers who are avid outdoor enthusiasts. Their North Face Facebook group delivers on the brand promise of “inspiring athletes to push their limits” and the members happily share their experiences with one another posting photographs and videos of their outdoor adventures, asking questions and getting advice – like a real community, huh? And there is absolutely no conflict with these members that the group is hosted by a corporation since the affection for the brand is genuine. 3,371 fans doesn’t make for a huge number, but very respectable in this niche category.

User Generated Content meets Branded Entertainment/ Suave and Sprint

Okay, Doritos blew everyone away with their Crash the Bowl promotion, inviting users on Yahoo!Video to create their own commercials with a huge pay-off: the winner, voted on by the community, would be aired during the Superbowl. But that’s Doritos you say, with a target audience ripe for this type of social media marketing. Easy pickings.

Okay, what about Suave, Unilever’s lower-end line of hair and skin-care products. User-generated content? Absolutely.

It started with the insight that mothers were hungry for direct contact with other moms and wanted to have real conversations about real topics that affect their daily lives. It wasn’t about being a perfect mother, it was about what being a mother really was. Suave and Sprint developed “In the MotherHood”, a web-based series of comedic films -- or webisodes -- starring Leah Remini ("The King of Queens") that took consumer interactivity to a new level. Real life stories submitted by moms from across the country were married with professional screenwriters and top-name talent. Mothers were asked to submit their real-life stories of the trials, tribulations and triumphs of motherhood. These are then automatically transformed into a traditional Hollywood script. The online mothers' community then votes for the best entries, which are treated by professional Hollywood scriptwriters and turned into a new episode of 'In the Motherhood'.

Nearly 5.5 MILLION people have watched the content. Over 3000 submissions have been received; over 200,000 read the submissions; about 60-thousand voted on the submissions. The webisodes set MSN Homepage records. The websiodes became mobile appearing on Sprint phones. And clips were seen on the Ellen Degeneres show, garnering great earned media.

Best yet? This is entertainment that is distributed free on a website, and doesn’t cost millions in media buys to broadcast commercials on network TV (yes, there are the production dollars, but as we all know, production dollars are the least of the cost of any ad campaign). Plus you’re communicating with a committed audience, not one who is just as likely to zap their DVR at your commercial.

Establishing social networks and creating content / Proctor & Gamble/ beinggirl

Targeting girls 12 to 18 can be fraught with negative connotations which is why P&G, makers of Always and Tampax decided to stay out of public networks like Facebook and Piczo (a social network aimed at teens). Instead, they decided to establish their own community where they could control things and moderate participation, keeping an eye out for inappropriate behavior. That's expensive. But the creation of beinggirl.com has been so successful it’s been rolled out to 21 different countries and Forrester Research found that beinggirl.com is four times as effective as a similarly priced program using traditional media.

The site is aimed at encouraging young girls to talk about their problems and help each other out. P&G is very transparent on the site. Any person can tell that the site sponsor is Tampax and Always -- which avoids any charges of duping the audience. With a few product sections, one of which is free samples, they’ve struck a good balance. But the majority of the site focuses on content for girls - music, discussion, video...it's all here.

Wikis / Twentieth Century Fox

Engagement is the cornerstone of social media. Wikis are a tremendously effective way of not only connecting with your audience, but actually including them in the creation process and creating community by having them interact with one another -- as well as your brand.

Wikis allow users to contribute to and edit web pages, creating and modifying content, with users feeling a sense of ownership and attachment to the final product. (Many don’t know that Wikipedia, the master of all wikis is founded on this principal. Yes – you can edit and add content to any Wikipedia page, but prepared to be vetted of course.)

Back to Twentieth Centurey Fox. As part of the 2007 marketing campaign for the new release of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver, Fox created a wiki. The wiki site invited users to write the origins of the Silver Surfer, whose origins in comic book history have been a bit murky.

Branded Entertainment: VIDEO / Ray Bans/ Sunsilk / Levis/ Axe

In 2002, BMW and Mercedes both released branded entertainment in the way of short films, the first released in cinema, and the second released on the Internet. But in the context of social media, branded content has become not just about providing entertainment that stops with the viewing. It’s about sharing. (It's hard to share a cinema mock-trailer.)

It’s about creating and providing compelling content, content that engages, entertains and is relevant to the audience. The benefit? Buzz, viral currency and product placement. If it’s good and adds value to the user (and entertainment is value), it will be talked about, shared, and possibly end up on a lot of talk shows or morning news programs. And there are a lot of ways to do this.

• Sometimes the user doesn’t know at first it’s branded content. Ray Ban hit a home run with their youtube video “Guy catches glasses with face.” It’s been viewed more than 3.5 million times. That’s a lot of product-placement viewing. (You know it was a success because the same agency copied their own creative for another client, Levis, with “Guys back flip into jeans” -- which has been seen almost as many times.)

• Sunsilk created a huge sensation with its net seed “Bride Has Massive Hair Wig Out”. The seemingly homemade video showed a bride-to-be freaking out at her hairstyle and hacking it off hours before her wedding as her bridesmaids try to stop her. Over the course of two weeks, the video was watched millions of times and was featured on the Canadian and U.S. talk-show circuits, including The Today Show and Good Morning America – with speculation building on if it was real or not. The video indeed turned out to be a marketing tactic, intended to get the phrase ‘wig out’ into the marketplace in advance of the ‘real’ ad campaign which would feature the same phrase.

• Levis has a newer branded entertainment video out on youtube, “Super chill monkey does Hollywood.” This time it’s pretty clear the jeans in question are Levis. The principle here is entertain me and I’m happy to watch your product in motion.

• Axe in Argentina took a longer format approach. They’ve created the City Hunters campaign which is a 30-minute animated comic strip aired on Fox. Like the Suave example above (In the Motherhood), the Axe sponsorship is quite clear and the production uses top-notch talent. Drawings are made by Milo Manara, the famous adult comic strip designer, and direction was in the hands of Carlos Beaza, who has directed several episodes of The Simpsons.

Branded Entertainment/ AdverGames / Burger King
Rather than producing videos for distribution on the web, creating games for gaming platforms can reach the right demographic effectively – especially when you consider that the 30-year-old male is as likely a gamer as a teenage boy. Burger King last year released 3 games for X Box and X Box 360 and sold them through their retail outlets for $3.99 each. Within 2 weeks, the games had cumulatively sold more than 2 million copies. Again, a lot of brand impressions – and a lot of trips to Burger King.

In-game advertising

Advertising that is non-invasive to game-play and is contextually relevant to the environment can create a positive connection between the brand and the consumer. That’s the thinking behind in-game advertising which has been with us for several years and will continue. Mobile in-game ads will build on the established practice of ads in games for game consoles, PCs and hand-helds. But simply having ‘ad space for rent’ is now being replaced by creating more interactive and immersive experiences with gamers that are contexturally relevant. Having a Gibson guitar in Guitar Hero adds to the user’s experience – it doesn’t merely shout out buy-a-Gibson. And the market doesn’t stop at brands that cater to a youth audience. Last week, Ikea struck a deal with Electronic Arts for its furniture to be featured in “The Sims”. For about $20, players will be able to buy an Ikea “stuff pack” to bring the Ikea experience into their virtual world.


Advertising in virtual worlds

Second Life is only one of many virtual worlds where advertisers have been setting up camp since 2006. From the more explicit adult-themed Red-Light Centre to other adult places like Entropia Universe and kid-oriented virtual hang-outs Habbo Hotel, Webkinz and Zwinky’s, these worlds capture an enormous audience of users who are turning away from the media that provide traditional advertising. But as with in-game advertising, companies will need to become more engaging when entering this alternate reality hoping to influence its audience. Consider these examples:

• Coca-Cola Coke Studios is a place where teens can mix music in a virtual studio and win "decibel" points by playing their mixes to other members. With these points, they can buy things such as furnishings for their studio. Points are also earned by participating in games and other activities, with the ever-present red and white wave (Coke's logo) adorning objects, wallpaper or surroundings.

• Wells Fargo built Stagecoach Island in Second Life and touts it as the first virtual-reality financial literacy game. The topics covered include budgeting, saving, managing money and were derived from a Wells Fargo signature program called "Hands on Banking." By creating a hip and fun setting, Wells Fargo engages a younger demographic by interacting with their services (Wells Fargo's ATM machine) while associating their brand with banking services.

• The American Cancer Society Even non-profits see the benefits of reaching this audience on their turf. The American Cancer Society recently held a "walk" through a virtual route to raise funds, raising $38,000. The walk involved thousands of participants who walked in a virtual setting. Particularly appealing to a non-profit, the beauty of using this environment is undoubtedly the wide reach at minimal financial burden.

  By the way, according to a recent article, the Second Life audience is mostly comprised of stay-at-home moms and young professionals, not teens as one might think. That explains why there are almost $6 million in user transactions over the course of a month in Second Life. And why banks, non-profits and uber-hip hotel chains like Starwood's W can co-exist.