This morning Facebook launched its very first advertising campaign. It’s targeted at Facebook users in 13 countries: Brazil, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Philippines, Russia, Spain, UK, and the US. The marketing will be translated into 12 different languages.
Just about everyone uses Facebook. After all, they have just hit 1 billion users — and they have gotten that far without any advertising at all. It begs the question: why does Facebook even need an advertising campaign.
I offer three answers. 1) After Facebook’s botched IPO, they are beginning to try attract shareholders again. 2) The spot, as they say themselves, is designed to celebrate hitting the 1 billion user mark. 3) The campaign, at least this first video, is intended to remind us all of why we use Facebook. In my opinion, this is likely the most important answer.
By comparing Facebook to chairs, bridges, airplanes and dance floors and other commonplace things they are attempting to solidify Facebook’s place in our world as yet another thing we, as humans, have built to connect us together — to remind us that we are not alone. That Facebook provides just another vital way for us to share our experiences with our friends and family. It reminds us of something we sometimes forget: that sharing our lives is more than a fun, social thing to do. It’s actually a basic need we have as a species.
In my opinion it’s a beautiful and surprisingly humble start — and while it could have stopped short of comparing itself to the whole universe near the end, overall it is well done.
The 2012 Summer Olympics will be a bit different than in past years. Since the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, the number of people that have access to the internet has increased by over 50%, from 1.5 to 2.3 billion according to the International Telecommunication Union. That’s a third of the global population.
Fittingly, the 2012 games in London have been dubbed the World’s First “Social Games.” Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube will be some of the biggest players in this social media trend, but also be on the lookout for content flooding Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, and Foursquare. With all the hype of the digitally focused games, here are we listed 7 places you can use to keep up with the chatter.
1. The Olympic Athlete’s Hub
This site will let you search for any athlete’s name, team, sport, discipline or event and find where to “follow” or “like” that result and has a news feed that compiles both Twitter and Facebook posts into one stream.
2. SportRightNow
You can find all the best Olympics news from the internet in one place organized by website sources, sports, and teams whether the news is from teams, journalists, media, fans or athletes. Also has the top hashtags being used on Twitter which is a bonus.
3. London 2012 Youtube Account
Not only will it be posting behind the scene footage from the games, exclusive interviews with athletes, and amazing replays, it also has links to the Official Website, Twitter and Facebook account of the 2012 Olympic Games.
4. Sociagility: The London 2012 Social Scoreboard
For the marketing buffs on the internet this site will be tracking the social media performance of the Olympics sponsors. The score is based on some highly complicated algorithms that look at brands popularity, engagement, receptiveness, reach, and trust.
5. London Join In App
This App for Apple and Android will help Olympic enthusiasts follow the travels of the torch and the location of events happening in London. It is made to help people in London, but also anyone who cannot make it to feel as close as possible to the games.
7. NBC Olympics Apps and Website
NBC will have full live screening of every Olympic event online but will also include two different Apps for people to enjoy. The first App is the NBC Olympics App where users will be able to do many of the same things as the London App’s but within a NBC-made App. The second App is the NBC Olympics “Live Extra” App where you can watch live video streams and full replays of every event.
The Olympics are always exciting, but with the recent growth of the internet and social media the competing nations will be closer together than ever before.
As businesses expand and reach larger audiences marketers are beginning to worry they are losing their “small town” feel, becoming corporate giants that leave customers out of the loop.
Wal-Mart is launching local Facebook pages for each of their physical stores, hoping to achieve the community feeling and increase their interaction with Facebook users. Each of Wal-Mart’s social-local pages will be monitored by social media trained employees. These new pages will allow Wal-Mart to get involved in local communities, respond to feedback, post community events, and tailor each Wal-Mart’s Facebook to the needs of the customers in that area.
And although social-local pages require greater coordination, individualization, and attention, other corporations are following in Wal-Mart’s footsteps. Gyms and other retailers have hopped on board the social-local approach.
The advantages to social-local pages are valuable for increasing customer interaction within a localized area, and customers get the opportunity to interact with a big company while knowing the information is relevant and their voice is being heard.
What was one of the first things you did when you woke up this morning? I bet you checked your Facebook. What did you do at lunch today and those five minutes of downtime you got at the office? Yep, Facebook again. That type of engagement to one site is why hospitals (and businesses) strive for a successful Facebook page.
Facebook is a great way to interact with the community about health related information and hospital initiatives. It’s a great way to communicate with patients. The problem is that most Facebookers don’t think to turn to their hospital on Facebook, even though it may be the best source of health related information for them. So how do you get these people to notice you on Facebook?
There was a recent surge of Facebook giveaway promotions in the northwest suburban area of Chicago. Many hospitals were giving away an iPad in order to gain more “Likes”. So our client, Sherman Health, challenged us to gain new fans without the use of an iPad. As much as we love our Apple gear here at Demi & Cooper, we also understood that it wasn’t the most meaningful prize a hospital could giveaway. So we decided to do a giveaway that would benefit the Sherman Health brand.
We chose four prizes that were health related. After all, Sherman Health is more concerned with your health than your score on “Angry Birds”. The prizes were a variety of exercise equipment and included a grand prize of a Wii & Wii Fit.
In addition to the prizes, we also set up interviews with three health experts at Sherman Health. These interviews allowed us to provide “Likers” with videos & blogs that contained useful information about yoga, sports related injuries, exercise, exercise equipment, and physical therapy.
So how did the promotion turn out and was our client happy with the results? In just a few weeks the Sherman Health Facebook page went from about 800 “Likes” to 1,200. Josh McColough, Marketing Communications Manager at Sherman Health shared his thoughts about the promotion:
“We thought we’d get a good response, based on the items we were giving away, which were both fun and healthy. But we never imagined that we’d increase our Facebook fans by 50% in just a few weeks. Our employees were talking about the initiative, too. It was really fun to hear people encouraging other employees to ‘Like’ us”
If you’re interested in a larger Facebook fan base you can contact us here. We don’t just Facebook either, you can see what else we do by checking out our case studies here.
Your sad devotion to that ancient Jedi religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, but now it may give you the clairvoyance to update your Facebook status. Or perhaps you’d like to boot up the old the W.O.P.R. or tap it out on your brand new iPhone 5.
Well now you can! With Status Via (inspired by a redit post) you can choose your method of Facebook status delivery.
But come on, really folks — let’s back up a minute. It’s cute. But how can we really use this to our advantage? Well, why are there those little tags declaring that that post was delivered from your Droid anyway? Advertising, of course. This is could be a clever little opportunity for marketers to allow customers to post status updates directly from their organizations or products.
Status updates from a product you sell or manufacture? How about from patients at your hospital? How can you do this? You’d have to use Facebook’s Status Message API to label updates with whatever source you want. Go forth and have some fun with your next marketing campaign. And may the force be with you.
Every month the geeks of Demi & Cooper Advertising and DC Interactive Group convene for a Technology Meeting. During this meeting team members will share ideas, newsworthy updates, and helpful new technology with the rest of the company. Below are just some a few of the things that came up in the most recent meeting.
Twitter Photo Service
Current tweeters using yfrog and TwitPic can now use the default, Twitter.com to share pictures. Twitter has been rolling out the service slowly, to select groups of users. The service is run by Photobucket, although a Photobucket account is not needed in order to share pics via Twitter.
The interesting take on this particular photo service (compared to the 3rd party applications) is that the photo will show up with the tweet in a user’s stream/timeline. You will no longer need to click on a link to see the picture that was shared. The upload function will be placed directly to the left of the current “Add a Location” function when composing a tweet.
PDF Online
One of our artists was getting a little frustrated with file formats that wouldn’t convert from a PC to her Mac. So she found a nifty little online converter that is free of charge. PDFOnline.com allows you to convert multiple file formats into PDFs and vice-versa. It’s quick, easy, and you don’t need to sign up for an account. You just need to supply an email address where the converted file gets sent.
Facebook Page Tagging
If you’re sick of tagging your friends in pictures, you’ll be happy to know that you can tag Facebook Pages now! So go right ahead and tag Pepsi, Starbucks, and all of your favorite brands.
From a marketing standpoint, this is actually a beneficial feature. Starbucks has been at this for a while. If you head to their Facebook page you’ll notice that a plethora of their pictures are tagged from Fans. This feature allows for a lot of user-generated content and provides your page with more activity. There could be some pitfalls as you may not want certain pictures tagged with your page but as long as you consistently monitor your page you can avoid this.
ShopKick
Last but not least, we have ShopKick. This iPhone/Android app recognizes when you are watching commercials (currently only available on the CW) and instantly gives you special offers or more information for that product. The app also recognizes when you walk into a ShopKick sponsored store and may offer you points redeemable for iTunes, gift cards, Facebook credits, or a variety of other things.
There are also special challenges that you can perform with the app such as scanning groceries in a participating store or trying on an outfit. Doing these challenges awards you with additional points.
The words “Facebook” and “Twitter” have been banned from being used on French television, Social Times reports. The use of the social networking sites’ names on TV leads the Conseil Supérieur de l’Audiovisuel (CSA) to believe that smaller social networking sites and start ups have very little chance of competing with the networking giants. The CSA, which is very similar to the FCC, asks that advertisers be more generic when directing consumers to their sites.
“Find us on social networking websites” is more appropriate than the “Follow us on Twitter” or “Find us on Facebook” taglines, according to CSA spokeswoman Christine Kelly. She adds, “If we allow Facebook and Twitter to be cited on air, it’s opening a Pandora’s box…other social networks will complain to us saying, ‘Why not us?’”
France apparently has a soft spot for Friendster, Bebo, and Myspace, which remain unaffected by the ban. This makes me wonder about the last time the words “Check out my Bebo!” were uttered by anyone at all.
While the CSA certainly is correct in pointing out that Facebook and Twitter are at the top of the social networking pyramid, they fail to recognize that many companies use these platforms as a primary means of interaction with customers.
In today’s conventional advertising model, a TV ad refers to the company’s social network, which in turn refers back to the company’s website for purchases to be made. Businesses are intentionally choosing the top two networks because they have the largest target audience. I personally think that the top social networks increase the bonds with customers much more than TV ads will. Consumers in France, upon hearing “Find us on social networks” on TV will still probably check Twitter and Facebook first, as they are so widely established and universally accepted.
The CSA insists that the ruling was not an attempt to regulate the adoption of English words via France’s Toubon laws, either.
Some related data from Nielsen shows that consumers around the world spent 82% more time on social networks in December 2009 than in the previous year. The average time per person in the same study for the month of December 2009 was four hours for France:
So is this decree really about fair competition, or is it a modern example of unnecessary micro-regulation? It will be interesting to see if any petitions from Facebook, Twitter, and/or the people of France will help remove the ban in the near future. While I am not a citizen of France, I find the CSA’s decision to increase regulation on TV advertising to be redundant. More and more individuals choose to remain on the computer rather than watch television as it is, so why is it necessary to create more red tape for the creators of ads for this form of declining media? I’d like to see what Twitter-reliant (read: obsessed) CNN would try to do in that country.
The inclusion of Facebook, Twitter, and other social network names in commercials is not intended to be advertising for these sites. At its extreme, saying “Find us on Facebook” is a challenge directed at potential customers to try and remember the name of the brand the next time you are on a computer. Time will tell whether or not such a ban may upset more people than it benefits. Laissez-faire will have to wait, for now.
Back in July of 2010, Smashing Magazine published a wonderful piece on the best uses of the Facebook Page. Giant corporations were highlighted (such as Starbucks and Red Bull, below), but the little guys who did great work were recognized, too (see Chicago’s Soul City Church and t-shirt company Threadless, above).
One thing I took away (looking at the article from a healthcare perspective) is the importance of volunteerism and the feeling of connection with a community hospital. Who knows if anything will come of it, but if some of our Facebook pages change for the better in the future, you’ll be the first to know.
The ulterior motives of the seemingly harmless social network sharing buttons which now appear on thousands of top websites.
Cookies, and not the edible kind, are now being placed on a user’s computer after visiting websites containing a Facebook Like button or any other social network sharing button, such as the Tweet button. Primary intent of these buttons is meant to allow users to share interests and other favored items with friends through their social network’s news feed. Evidently, this is not the only purpose they serve.
Even if a web page visitor doesn’t actively click on the button, personal information and browsing history can be linked to the user and their personal profile, provided they have logged into their social networking page within the last month.
It is estimated that Facebook buttons now appear on one-third of the top visited websites, with Google buttons following close behind. Google buttons are used similarly to social networking buttons and can be found on approximately one-fourth of these sites. The use of the “Tweet” button for Twitter is also on the rise, currently seen on one-fifth of top pages.
According to creators of the Facebook button, information gained from user activity tracking is used only to create powerful, highly targeted advertising on the site. They claim that personal data is made anonymous and the data cannot be tracked back to specific users. However, the data collected remains in the system for three months, much longer than Google’s two week info-retainment period.
If you are concerned for your social networking confidentiality, Kashmir Hill of Forbes suggests you “log out of these sites after you’re done checking your email, tweeting, poking or what have you.” But most Facebook users may find the privacy risk is preferable to frequent logins.
President Barack Obama is gearing up for the 2012 Election the digital way. His microsite dedicated to his 2012 campaign, barackobama.com, includes a variety of digital marketing tactics.
The site leads with a video which is obviously hosted on YouTube. You can submit your email address to receive e-blasts, get text messages, or get connected via Facebook. You can volunteer, donate, check up on events, purchase Obama 2012 swag, and join groups dedicated to his campaign fundraising. At the time this post was written, Obama had accumulated over 19 million Facebook Fans and 7 million Twitter followers; so we’d say he is doing a pretty good job at being social.
Obama has the right idea when it comes to digital marketing. Something we call “Web Herding” incorporates all of the concepts stated above, and even a little more.
Just about everyone uses Facebook. After all, they have just hit 1 billion users — and they have gotten that far without any advertising at all. It begs the question: why does Facebook even need an advertising campaign.
