You're going to want to see how this innovative campaign from Editoras became a viral sensation by using QR codes and Twitter to crowd source the creation of a book that became a bestseller - and blockbuster website traffic builder.
Distill - a kind of compilation magazine of the best from the international style and fashion press - is extending its brand to mobile phone with a new iPhone app.
The iPhone app is brought to you by Swatch in conjunction with the launch of their new Chrono Automatic collection of watches.
It's unclear if this is just a single issue (the app costs $4.99) or a new distribution mode for the magazine. It's also unclear how this brings added value to readers.
But hey, an iPhone app is de riguer these days. Which is probably a phrase this pub's audience understands and appreciates very well.
The London-based agency, which has done Cannes Gold-winning work for the Royal Navy in terms of personalized video, has collaborated with Marvellous to create a new iPhone app designed to recruit marine engineers via an "Engineer Officer Challenge" social media game played across an iPhone app and a Facebook widget.
The details, according to the companies:
1. The Royal Navy Engineer Officer Challenge will put potential recruits through their paces with 5 interactive missions – each based on realistic Royal Navy training tasks. Utilising features including the iPhone’s touch screen interface and accelerometer, some challenges are set aboard HMS Deter, urgently needing repairs.
2. As the Lieutenant in charge, the player makes crucial decisions, as they would as an Engineering Officer - from fixing the engine or preparing for a simulated missile attack, to re-wiring the radar system.
3. After each challenge the player is presented with video footage revealing the impact of their decisions in the task. Once completed their score is submitted to a leaderboard where they can challenge a friend or simply visit the Royal Navy website for more in-depth career information, or join the Royal Navy Facebook group.
4. The Facebook widget replicates the iPhone app in allowing users to get the feel for a virtual “hands –on” engineering experience, as well as enabling people to share among friends and start a discussion.
5. The Royal Navy Engineer Officer Challenge is available on the iPhone and iPod Touch and can be accessed via the iTunes app store. The widget can be downloaded from the Royal Navy Recruitment Facebook page, or the applications section on Facebook.
If Justin Halpert's father said he'd never amount to anything - and we're pretty sure he has - he might want to rethink that statement.
First, Halpert landed a book deal based on the content of his Twitter account, which chronicles the things his father says to him (he's 29 and lives with his parents, after all). Now, word's out he's also got a deal with CBS for a comedy based on the premise, according to today's New York Times. The folks behind "Will & Grace" are on board. We're assuming dad is, too.
Recent missives include:
"Oh please, you practically invented lazy. People should have to call you and ask for the rights to lazy before they use it.
"Son, no one gives a shit about all the things your cell phone does. You didn't invent it, you just bought it. Anybody can do that."
"I hate paying bills... Son, don't say "me too." I didn't say that looking to relate to you. I said it instead of "go away."
Of course, Halpert shouldn't feel too vindicated with these media deals. After all, he has his father to thank for them.
If NBC has its way, Olympic fandom is about to become more participatory than spectator sport.
In the run up to the Winter Olympics, just 100 days away, NBC is build on its considerable success with online initiatives in 2008 to tap the power of social networking technologies this time around.
Offerings will include a new online video player that is more DVR-like, with rewind, highlight clips, the ability to save content and more.
But what's more interesting is how viewers will be able to chat with their Facebook friends from the NBCOlympics.com website, and use the "Tweets and Blogs" section, which will run real-time feeds for select Olympic athletes and NBC analysts - as wel as up-to-the-moment tracking of content being shared on Facebook, Twitter, other social networks and certain blogs.
Will it work for viewers? Will fans cotton to Twitter missives from Apolo Ohno and Shaun White?
CBS's social viewing lounge has gone largely unused. Will the Olympics prove any different? Similar But NBCOlympics.com attracted 50 million users during the 2008 Beijing Games, and socnet initiatives from CNN during Inauguration Day last year were a massive success - so NBC's hoping the torch will be passed to their big event.
Mobile has played a major role in the micro-budget horror flick that could.
How'd Paramount do it?
First, it ran "Paranormal Activity," the movie produced for just $10,000 that spooked up $22 million and the #1 slot on this weekend's box office, only in 10 cities. Then, it launched a campaign to get consumers to "demand" that it become a national release.
Consumers could vote via mobile text message, Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites.
“We were thrilled,” Amy Powell, a Paramount marketing executive, tells the San Diego Business Journal. “We said to the fans, ‘If you demand it, we will bring the movie to you.’ And we did.”
You can bet all the word of mouth sent to Twitter via mobile phones over the weekend helped out a bit, too.
Look for even bigger business this Halloween Weekend - thanks to a campaign so smart, it's scary.
The story of the 'Amp Before You Score' iPhone app - a kind of pickup guide to different types of women, along with a Facebook bragging list for each score - is going to be pulled from the iTunes App store.
First, Pepsi posted the game, which was designed to promote the company's Amp energy drink, and which came with an NC-17 warning. Then it apologized for it.
Now, Pepsi says it's gotten too much criticism, and it's yanking the app.
Interesting piece in today's New York Times about how even tiny stores like food stands are using Twitter to boost sales.
Curtis Kimball of San Francisco has about 5,400 Twitter followers, who he updates daily so they can learn his créme brulée cart's location and menu.
First thought: Wow, that's pretty impressive for a food cart business.
Second thought: Créme brulée cart? Only in San Francisco.
Scott Seaman's Christopher's Wine and Cheese shop in tiny Blowing Rock NC uses Twitter to expand its customer base beyond the town's 1,500 residents. And Chris Mann, the owner of Woodhouse Day Spa in Cincinati twitters about discounts for massages and manicures every Tuesday. His rationale: Every business sends out email blasts, so this is different. And he can use his mobile phone to send the messages when he's in meetings.
What's the appeal for small (micro?) businesses - especially when the same thing can be attained through other channels?
As Anamitra Banerji, who manages commercial products at Twitter, tells the Times, thanks to Twitter, "we're finding the emotional distance between businesses and their customers is shortening quite a bit."
Thus says the new June 2009 State of the Twittersphere (such as it is) from HubSpot (via MarketingVox) - despite a growth rate of 5,000 to 10,000 new accounts per day.
Among the Stats:
• 55% have never sent a single tweet
• 53% have no followers
• 56% do not follow anyone
To be fair, those who do actively use the service are active:
• The average user tweets .97 times per day
• The average user has tweeted 119.34 times total
• The average user has a following-to-follower ratio of .7738
I actually have to wonder how many followers are even real. We already know many people become followers only to never log onto Twitter again. But a number of followers are probably spam - porn sites and what not that sign on so that the Twitterer or his/her followers who check the link get some kind of spam message.
MySpace is more and more anyplace you want to take it.
No sooner had T-Mobile introduced its G1 Android phone, MySpace had gone live on the Google-based system - its third mobile platform after the Sidekick and iPHone.
According to CNet, features include:
* Instant photo uploading from Android to a MySpace profile * Music tour schedules on band profiles * The ability to view and comment on photos, profiles, and bulletins * Search and add new friends features * The ability to send and read messages, and update and view mood and status
One of the more interesting elements: The app is integrated with Shazam, which enables users to identify music and instantly connect to the artist's MySpace page.
It's unclear how Android makes this more interesting than the other two platforms, or if it just represents more reach for the ever-popular social networking site.
Given Android's purported user tracking capabilities, it could help MySpace better target ads to consumers - but that hasn't exactly been a popular notion with social networkers, as Facebook learned last summer.
Will the "Google Phone" make a difference for anyone in the ecosystem?
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