This may sound like an odd question, but you’ll understand after seeing this new campaign from O.B. Tampons.  Admittedly, I am not in their target market, so my opinion matters little if at all.  But I am very interested in knowing how women feel about the delivery of this message.

To be clear, the fact that O.B. Tampons has a “green” angle in their advertising is great.  It’s unique.  It’s beneficial to not only the buyer, but to all of us.  Even a guy like me can appreciate that.  But I think they’ve gone a little overboard here in an effort to go viral.  They forgot that just because you can do or say something, doesn’t mean you should.  And if you’re not sure or if you have any doubt, do it in a small way first to see the reaction.  Well, O.B. either was sure and had no doubt, or they are closing their eyes and hoping for the best as  they’ve gone all out — long form video, Facebook page, links to petitions, etc.  We’ll probably see some print ads too.

This video starts out nicely, with a beautiful ocean shot that has us all going “ahhh”.  Right when you start to feel like it’s heading toward a standard “save the world” pitch, it switches gears — completely.  While I wouldn’t say I was uncomfortable watching this spot, I would say that I was close enough to uncomfortable to be distracted from the point.  The main selling proposition was a minor player, an after thought.  And that’s a shame, because a message like that deserves to be front and center.

Take a look and let us know how you see this.  At this posting, there were only 258 views.  You can also see what they’re doing on Facebook with this at this link.

Meet Michael Dubin, real-life CEO of recently-funded Dollar Shave Club. The premise: for as little as a dollar per month, get your razors shipped to your home. Great idea, right? That alone would likely have been enough to secure funding. But just to be safe, DSC threw in this startup launch video, which is just about the greatest thing ever.

The lesson? Have fun with your product, and if there’s room to ease up and maybe not take it so seriously, then by all means do it.

A lot of companies are trying to make videos that turn viral. More videos have gone viral than I can mention but one of the first and most notable was the flash mob at Liverpool Street Station for T-Mobile. 33 million views and counting; not too bad. Other than producing the video there aren’t really any other costs associated with it. What could go wrong right?

Well, you could cross the line.

A co-worker sent me the following video. The video is of President Barack Obama addressing the nation regarding an apocalypse. Only he wasn’t actually addressing that. Some cutting and transitioning makes it sound like Armageddon is fast approaching. Lucky for you, Vivos, a company that has built underground shelters, will allow you to board for just under $10,000!

The dramatization of the Presidential address was a little too dramatic. While I’m not angry at their attempt for a viral video, I do think it’s a little tacky to fear people into buying your product. Not to mention they posted this video about 2 months after the movie 2012 came out.

I’m not the only one who thought this video was a bad idea. 86% of people who rated the video gave it a thumbs down. The creators of the video disabled the comments section. The only reason people usually do this is because they are receiving a lot of negative feedback. Moral of the story: If you’re trying to make a video that can go viral, think it through.

According to Compete, Pinterest traffic has experienced meteoric growth since we last wrote about it in August. At the end of August, they had 1,241, 295 unique visitors. As of January 2012, they had 11,140,641. And most of this growth is recent, so who knows how big the site will become.

It would be safe to say that, as a business marketer, if you haven’t paid any attention to the site, now would be the time. Here are the basics: The site is a “virtual pinboard” that allows users to “Pin” photos to their “Boards” that are organized by categories the user creates. The photos are directly linked to the sites where they originate, so it is, at its most basic, a photo bookmarking site. Users can then browse other people’s boards, “RePin” things they like, and make comments.

So how can you leverage this site for your business?

The site discourages use for “self-promotion”, but this doesn’t mean brands have been unsuccessful using it. It just means the site needs to be used creatively and interactively—in the same way it is used by consumers. Mashable recently asked Pinterest who they believed to be the top brands using their site. Answers ranged from magazines like Real Simple and Better Homes and Gardens to furniture retailer West Elm to Whole Foods.

But what we were most interested in was how they defined their top brands. Their criteria are included in our top 3 tips below. The other 2 tips are just our recommendations for how you might get started with your business on Pinterest.

1. Pin from various sources rather than one specific site. If you get involved on Pinterest, users will be more likely to follow you and repin if you use the site for its purpose—to pin the things you are passionate about. We recommend focusing on your brand rather than your products only. So if you are a hospital, create boards that deal with healthy lifestyles and pin from sources all over the internet—healthy recipes, motivational quotes for exercise or dieting—this establishes your brand as a health thought leader and as something a user would want to follow.

2. Repin from within the site to engage with others. Just like with Facebook or Twitter, you are going to get the most mileage from the site if you use the social media in a social way. Repin theirs, and they may take interest and repin yours.

3. Create at least a few boards and cover a broad range of interests. If you simply go on the site and create a board named after your company, you have wasted your time. Consider all of the things your brand stands for and what categories or words users may be searching. If you are a nonprofit organization, create boards for volunteers in action, inspirational photos, and events you have hosted.

4. Name boards and tag carefully. Don’t just use the main Board names that Pinterest recommends when you sign up. Think of keywords that you target in your other marketing, and name the boards using those same words. Search on Pinterest to see what other boards you will be “competing” with if you name a board a certain way. This will help you find topics you can dominate, as well as other boards you may want to follow and repin from. Tag photos following the same rules.

5. Add the Follow and Pin It Button to your website and blog. Pinterest offers code for a Follow button. This can be used on your website, and wherever else you recommend people follow your social media. You can also add a “Pin It” button on your product pages or on your blog posts, where appropriate. This will allow and encourage Pinterest users to pin your images directly from within your post.

As you can see, it will take some time to learn to use the site properly and to get a feel for what works for your business. But if you can manage to be creative, consider your brand, and put some effort in, it will likely pay off to be an “early adopter.” Don’t have time? Consider Sparking—we can help. If you’re ready, go ahead and get pinning!

What are some of your favorite brands on Pinterest?

We’re sure this has happened to you—you are browsing a retail site and considering making a purchase. For example’s sake, let’s say you are looking for a new hat. You have found one you think you like at Hats R Us, but you want to wait until tomorrow to make your final decision so you leave the site. Then, you move on to check the news on your favorite news site. And behold—a Hats R Us ad shows up on the front page. The same thing happens later in the day when you visit a completely different site to check the weather. Is this a sign that you and the hat are meant to be? Or is this just smart marketing?

And this can even work more specifically. Let’s say in the above example, you were looking for a cowboy hat for that square dance you were planning to attend. You spent a lot of time on Hats R Us in the Western section—and so all the ads that show up are specifically cowboy themed. The Hats R Us truly has your number, and after seeing the ads multiple times, you are more likely to remember and revisit their site when it comes time to make your purchase.

We call this an orchestrated fate for you and the hat. And whether you are a retail vendor, looking to increase appointments or registrations, building an eList, or simply branding, this gentle nudging of people who have visited your site is something we can help you accomplish.

Let’s say you are a hospital, and you have a lot of visitors to the cardiology section of your website. Visitors come, browse for information, but don’t always fill out eList sign up forms, make appointments, or take an action. You don’t have to end your visibility with them when they leave your site. We can help you program your site pages so that if a visitor has been to those pages, when they are browsing other sites your ads recognize that this person has been to your site, and are more likely to display. When it comes time to make an appointment, you are more likely to come to mind—or it’s possible that seeing your ad will push them to revisit and take a next step.

If you want to get into the nitty gritty of how we accomplish this, here are the basics: within your website, we tag pages with a special code. Then we program your ads to recognize that code even after you leave the site. We can tag your entire site, or specific pages within your site to make the ads more targeted (like in the cowboy hat and cardiology examples above).

This benefits you, since your relationship with the consumer doesn’t have to end when they leave your site. And your consumers are happy, since they know you know what they want. And when their cowboy hat arrives, they can be pleased that fate brought them together.

Ever wonder if the YouTube videos and blog articles you stumble upon during the day are old news? ‘Is It Old?‘ can help you find out, and (hopefully) save you from embarrassingly sharing a link that’s past its prime.

All you have to do is copy and paste the link into ‘Is It Old?’ It then uses open API to analyze how many times it has been posted to Twitter and how many days ago it was first shared. Depending on these factors, you’ll get a response on a scale of “Dead” to “You’re the first!”

Although it can help you figure out how long the link has been around, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the link is or isn’t worth your time. It will tell you how many people have shared the link before you, and how long ago it was published. It’s ultimately up to you to decide if it’s still worth sharing.

Do you see yourself using this tool before sending out any content you find online?

We are proud to be a part of Downtown Elgin, especially when the city offers great community events. This year, we are showing our holiday cheer by participating in Downtown Elgin’s Rockin’ in a Window Wonderland.

We had so much fun creating our holiday-licious window that we decided to share the experience. We painted the windows over the course of one week and then condensed it to 2 minutes thanks to the miracle of time-lapse photography. Also, as part of the window contest, you get extra points for “bringing your display to life” during the event. We decided, since social media is our thing, to bring them to life virtually. So we will have a QR code within the window display so passers by at Window Wonderland (Saturday, December 3, 12-5) can enjoy seeing the window art go up from within.

Be sure to stick around for the last 30 seconds—it will be worth your time!

Happy holidays from Demi & Cooper Advertising!

I’m a sucker for contests. I absolutely love them and I enter them all the time. Contests are not only a great way to win something cool or gain some extra cash…they are a great way for the company who is running it to advertise themselves or their product. Lets be honest, we all remember the Doritos contest winner from last year’s Super Bowl. Why? Because Doritos did some serious marketing to promote their contest last year, therefore leading to crazy amounts of brand awareness for them all over the internet. I mean, if you see something you like or you have a friend who submitted a commercial and you want to help them get votes, where are you going to post a link? More than likely you will post it on Facebook or tweet it to get exposure from the widest audience all at one time without having to know everyone’s email address.

Some friends of mine recently entered a submission in this year’s Doritos Crash The Superbowl Contest. Within days of posting their video, it is one of the most viewed commercial submissions on the whole site. This proves two things. One is that the use of social media can spread the word rather quickly and two is that Doritos just got oodles of exposure without spending money on media placement. Think about that. Someone just created a commercial for them for free and even if it’s not picked, about 1,400 people have seen it without them even having to do anything. That is excellent marketing! Of course, they are offering the winner 1 million dollars and the chance to work with The Lonely Island, but your prizes don’t have to be so extravagant to get people to participate. Let’s be honest, we all like free stuff.

Our client, Sherman Health, is currently running a contest for Movember. If you don’t know what Movember is, it’s a month long event where men grow mustaches. For Sherman, the mustaches symbolize men’s health and through their Movember Contest, one lucky guy sporting a sweet ’stache will be taking home some Blackhawks tickets. If you haven’t heard about the Movember contest, take a look at the Sherman Health Blog and see what other fabulous prizes we are giving away! Don’t forget to start growing out that mustache .

When building a new website, you want it to be eye catching and helpful to visitors. But something that can get lost while minding your new page’s aesthetics is how the website looks to Google.

A Sitemap, in simple terms, is a list of the pages on your website. Why is it important? We’ll let Google explain:

“Creating and submitting a Sitemap helps make sure that Google knows about all the pages on your site, including URLs that may not be discoverable by Google’s normal crawling process.”

Your page’s Sitemap gives it a clearer navigation and outline, which Google is happy to reward by boosting the search rank of your page. Google’s search algorithm is as secret as the KFC recipe, but here’s the truth: If you take two identical web pages and give one a Sitemap, that page will have a better Google rank than the page without the Sitemap.

If you have dynamic content on your page within a content management system, a Sitemap is absolutely essential.

Learn more about Sitemaps here.

An interesting report was released by Experion Simmons regarding the use of Social Media in the US. The report defined “social media” as: “visiting social or professional networking sites, visiting photo or video sharing sites, visiting online forums or message boards or using social tagging or bookmarking at least once in the last 30 days.” Even with this comprehensive definition of social media, the widespread use of social media found in the study is impressive:

• 91% of online adults (129 million people) access social media per month. Broken down by age:
• 98% of online 18-24 year olds
• 82% of online 55-64 year olds
• 73% of those 65+

Of online adults, 58% visit Facebook monthly, which is significant, although it also shows that all of the above social media use isn’t solely from Facebook. (Although Facebook is clearly the dominant social media site.) The largest age group visiting Facebook once per month is 18-34 year olds at 73%. And those 50+ stands at 41%, up from only 33% in 2010.

Regarding time spent, Facebook users spend 20 minutes and 46 seconds average each time they visit. (I know I’ve been pulled into that time suck—once or twice today already!) Twitter users spend 0:12:41 average, and Google+ spend 0:5:45 average.

The study also found interesting results regarding Hispanic consumers: they are more likely to interact with brands, write reviews, and make recommendations than their non-Hispanic counterparts.

• 30% follow favorite brands, compared to 18% of non-Hispanic users
• 33% use social sharing sites to recommend companies or products, compared to 23% of others.

And finally, if you want an effective marketing campaign, you’ve got to have eblasts. To make your eblasts more powerful, mention Facebook. According to the study, “60% of brands that sent out an email with the word “Facebook” in the subject line averaged a 27% increase in traffic to their website the week following the email deployment.”

The study also covers access to Google+ weekly visits, the growing use of social media to communicate between parents and children on social media, where users visit after social sites, mobile and more. Download the full Experian Social Media Study.