We’ve been discussing what makes a good viral of late. It would seem that (obviously) a key factor is relevancy – make a video of stuff that people are watching right now and you’re more likely to be swept up in a nice little meme.
Consumers are fed up of seeing brands fan sites pop up all over the web, with little or no thought to the value they can offer that community. They’re tired of hanging out in their favourite virtual world only to be interrupted by companies who have nothing to say. Consumers are savvy and are not prepared to be marketed to in the traditional way any longer. Social Media has all the power of an adult but is behaving like a teenager.
Jam are returning to the Social Media World Forum to look at the value that Social Media can offer if only it would grow up.
Come and chat to us on stand 16, or see what Alex and Oli have to say at the conference.
Monday 15th, 2.50: “Social Media is out of control” Alex Miller & Oli Newton
Tuesday 16th, 10.30: “Benchmarking Advertising on Social Networks”
Alex Miller
It does however, do exactly what it sets out to do: explain social media in plain English.
It also makes me think of ice cream which is never a bad thing.
The internet is a magical place. Everyone with access to their local public library is able to create their own space and furnish it with whatever takes their fancy.
Two particular things that seem to take a lot of people’s fancy is cats and style-blogs-featuring-photos-of-real-people-on-the-street-looking-like-they-should-be-in-a-magazine, namely The Sartorialist and it’s many homages.
Some crafty individual has taken the conch and decided that surely the best way to fame and fortune is to combine the two, the result is The Catorialist. Taking it’s design cues (as so many do) from the pared down standard ‘I don’t care much for CSS’ blogger template, the catorialst does for cats what the Sartorialist does for fashion – namely featuring beautiful images with minimal description, and encouraging debate and discussion.
Who would’ve though that landing a job as a social media planner in Jam would entail interviewing popstars for the internet.
Late last year I found myself in the hot seat attempting to conduct an interview with none other than Har Mar Superstar (that’s me on the right BTW).
Another Jammer Huw was manning the camera – trying admirably to keep us in frame whilst sipping on a complementary beer.
It’s surprisingly hard to concentrate on a conversation when the only image you have in your mind is a tubby balding man in his underwear. Even harder to concentrate when he touches your inner thigh.
For the uninitiated, this is what he usually looks like:
With the eagerly awaited Google phone (Nexus one) now officially in the wild, I sit here wondering what could have been and saddened that we are not seeing the new dawn of mobiles but simply another very good handset.
Google, I am guessing , didn’t want to have to do a deal with an operator for this. Just as we saw with the Sat nav market, get involved, get what they want then launch their own product to usurp the competition. The campaign for Google taking over the mobile world started a few years ago.
It was the quest to get free wifi across the US and other major cities. Free wifi means no need for operators. Google voice and the recently acquired Gizmo5 would allow Google to host the whole conversation without needing to rely on the network operator and really threaten the system.
We saw a brief example of what it could be like when Google was able to sponsor free wifi at the majority of US airports over the festive season. As it is, wifi coverage isn’t yet good enough and the affectionately termed ‘dumb pipes’ (the operators) will continue to be involved for the time being as a point of necessity rather than anything else.
Oli Newton is the head of emerging platforms at i-level
Since the beginning of December Google have been doing a huge promotional push surrounding their browser Google Chrome. The campaign leads with the message that Chrome is a faster browser and is utilising various channels such as press, digital and traditional outdoor as well as online across 12 European countries.
The push comes as the EU is to bring in new legislation which may mean that rather than having a default browser already on your PC you will have a choice over what browser you download and use, which means they will need to know more about what a browser has to offer. This is due to come into effect in the next couple of months and after it does Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Chrome will begin vying aggressively for market share.
Traditionally Google have opted for an aggressive DR approach for Google Chrome capitalising on its unique offers such as personalised themes in order to get users to download and use it. The new online campaign has taken a more branded approach utilising high impact placements across Europe’s biggest sites. This is only the beginning as Google is likely to invest more budget in pushing its offering during the first half of 2010. Expect to see much more of Chrome and what it can offer over the forthcoming months.
This is what all the fuss is about:
Simon McCarthy is a senior planner buyer at i-level
QR codes have failed in most places but Japan. The reason being their simply isn’t enough awareness about how to read them to make them a viable platform for advertisers.
In Japan though, that educational piece is driven by the government and the operators, meaning more people know about it and crucially all handsets sold have QR code readers installed (Nokia currently pre-installs in the UK but even then not for all handsets)
A few brave advertisers in the UK have tried to crack it, most notably probably Pepsi by printing a code on 400,000,000 cans with fairly limited success. People simply didn’t know what to do and the explanations offered, whilst helpful weren’t enough to get over the education chasm.
Pepsi added QR codes to 400m cans in UK
There have been a host of other advertisers who have tried, but none to great success. Interestingly, a few companies are using them internally such as Outdoor poster companies to keep track of what ad should be where and when to change them. The reason it works in this case is that they are educating their workforce as to how to use them.
It is a great piece of technology and deserves to succeed, but it also shows the need to make it plug and play, it has to be easy enough that people don’t realise they are using it (think iPlayer).
So it is interesting to see that Google are incorporating it into their offering and encouraging shops and restaurants in the US to use and display them on their window fronts. Embedded in the codes are discounts and coupons, reviews and other information that Google can provide and a map presence under the headline “favourite places on Google”.
Google has currently sent out 100,000 of the branded bar codes across the whole of the US through some 9,000 towns and cities.
Google hasn’t said what its plans are for the uber promotion layout but could this be the shot in the arm to make it mainstream?
Oli Newton is the head of emerging platforms at i-level
Naturally, social media folk tend to focus on how dramatically the digital landscape has been altered by the daily emergence of new social technologies, platforms and modes of interaction.
Touchscreen handsets and operating systems revolutionised the volume and manner in which the UK uses mobile to interact with eachother, brands and the internet (usage grew 28% to 11m people last year alone).
However, this mobile boom requires infrastructure developments beyond the app store or an update in Tweet Deck or Facebook for iPhone.
i-level’s prolific Head of Emerging Platforms Oli Newton discusses in his recent article for U Talk Marketing the need for ad serving technologies to develop and standardise if brands are to reap the benefits of this dramatic increase in use and opportunity.
He also reveals his latent desire for a mobile sponsored Britney reunion in 2020.
Oli’s full article can, (and should) be read here (you could even click that little button that says ‘recommend this article’)
