A catchy dance video, and a social media near miss

Posted by: on Sep 9, 2010 | No Comments

This is a wonderfully cute new video from Samsung for their Galaxy 580 smartphone, with a tagline that fits perfectly with what I talk about here all the time:

“use your influence”

Watch:

What this commercial (seeded “viral” video, actually) positively SCREAMS for is some kind of action to be taken to help you, the viewer, “use your influence” to share the video, interact with it in some way, connect with the dancers or music, or engage in some fashion with the brand or product.

The concept is cute, and nicely done. Anyone with kids will recognize their own in this little girl as she just lets her imagination spill out all over the dance floor, meaning millions of people could instantly relate to the ad and likely (like me) want to pass it around.

But this is a great campaign concept that, to my mind, is only about 25% done. It could get enormous payoff by extending it across the social media sphere in some manner, inviting viewers in to interact and share it with their friends and networks. A viral video attempt is great, and I suspect this one will get some moderate steam. But take the next step and pull me, the viewer, in deep.

And no, getting me to use this as a social media “near miss” case study doesn’t count. Yes I’m using what influence I have to share it on my blog, but I’m doubting “marketing bloggers” were a target market on the original Samsung campaign brief. I’m talking about doing this at scale.

Creating a retail splash with Facebook courtesy of IKEA

Posted by: on Nov 25, 2009 | No Comments

Credit to the Forsman & Bodenfors agency in Sweden for coming up with this Facebook promotion for a new IKEA store. It’s almost a textbook example of using a social platform (Facebook), viral features and behaviors (photo tagging, link sharing, etc.), and a time-tested retail promotional trick (free product giveaways, “first-come, first-served! Hurry!”).

The only downside of this is I can’t see it having staying power – it’s a fantastic campaign to create a short-lived storm of attention and buzz, with a bit of media coverage after the fact, but once all the products are given away there doesn’t appear to be any hook for people to stay engaged.

But honestly, that’s a small downside, especially given the agency’s mandate was to promote the opening of a new retail store. Short-term buzz is perfect there, and again, this looks like an excellent social media campaign. The video case study below walks you through it.

Update: Mashable just wrote this up as well.

More social media stats than you knew existed

Posted by: on Nov 23, 2009 | No Comments

Fantastic stats and bits of news in this video:

Oddly, the one I find most amazing is that apparently this year Boston College stopped providing email addresses to incoming freshmen. As integral as email is to my generation, as passe as it seems to be to the next.

Found courtesy of Jake McKee/Community Guy.

UPDATE: Just found the source data over on the video producer’s blog. Bookmarked…

Nikon/Your Day: Social media marketing done right

Posted by: on Nov 10, 2009 | No Comments

With all the crap floating around the world of social marketing, some days it’s nice to see a campaign that gets it right. Case in point, Nikon with their “Your Day in 140 Seconds or Less” user-generated video contest.

What Nikon got right:

Tapping into a passionate and creative audience: If you’re going to run contest asking people to create videos, it helps to market it to people who have both the skills and the enthusiasm to bring those videos to life.

A clear and buzzworthy concept: Now where have I heard the number 140 before? Smart move by Nikon creating a link to the Twitter crowd, making the contest that much more novel and worthy of the all-powerful retweet.

Contest entries that can generate buzz forever: The end result of all the entries this contest should generate? A nice library of creative videos that could serve as linkbait and conversation starter indefinitely.

Big splash, PR worthy prize: $100,000 is still real money, no matter what the folks in DC might say. Plus another $25,000 for an audience voted winner (itself, another smart move), and you have the makings of a significant prize worth people talking about

Direct tie in to a major value proposition of the product: The product Nikon is highlighting here – the Nikon D5000 D-SLR – happen to take video, a feature they’ve been pushing. Even smarter however…

They didn’t make using a Nikon mandatory: Any camera is OK, opening up the contest to the widest possible community.

Rules that inspire, not crush, creativity: Make a video, no more than 140 seconds long, about your day. That’s it. It could be an animation, stop motion, your ideal day, your worst day, somebody else’s day, a day that takes a week, black and white, whatever.

Outstanding partners/judges: Instead of just creating a contest and flogging it out there with paid banners and blogger pitches, they lined up three judges who are celebrities in their own, well targeted communities. Rainn Wilson, better known as Dwight from The Office, has the mass market and comic appeal. iJustine made her name in short Web based videos (lifecasting, 300 page iPhone bill, etc.) and is definitely geek-famous. Chase Jarvis brings serious photographer cred. Each brings a ready made, trusting audience to the contest and lends Nikon immense credibility.

They also, of course, have the usual Facebook and Twitter accounts to help spread the word. All in all, a very smart social media marketing effort.

*I’m not in any way affiliated with or compensated by Nikon or any player in this campaign. I just think it’s a great idea.