Archive for January, 2010
How Coca-Cola is Spreading Happiness
Friday, January 29th, 2010Remember the excitement you felt as a kid when a vending machine accidentally gave you two candy bars instead of one? Well, that’s the wonder and excitement (I mean, who didn’t love getting an extra candy bar as a kid, right?) Coca-Cola is hoping to bring into people’s lives with their new video “Happiness Machine.” And we think it’s working.
Two weeks ago, Coca-Cola released “Happiness Machine” as a sneak preview to fans and followers through their various social media channels. In case you haven’t seen it yet, the video shows how an overactive vending machine installed in a college cafeteria can bring lots of happiness. Everything from Coke bottles to flowers to a six-foot sub sandwich come pouring out of the machine, all to the great surprise of the students. And, of course, it’s all caught on film.
Here are three reasons why we think the video is successful:
It takes something ordinary and makes it extraordinary. It’s not about a flashy re-design, a buzz-worthy celebrity, or some other marketing gimmick. They took the simple act of getting a Coke out a vending machine, and turned it into an extraordinary event.
It shows people sharing. When bottle after bottle after bottle of Coke comes out of the machine, what else is left to do but share with the people around you? Same goes for the pizza and the six-foot sub. The scene was smartly framed by Coke to get the students experiencing the “Happiness Machine” conversing and sharing, and just like the college kids in the video, the viewer can join in on the fun too.
It lets fans spread the happiness. When the kids are sharing the pizza that just came out of the bottom of the vending machine with each other, you can log on and share the video with your friends and family on Facebook, YouTube, or Twitter. It empowers the viewers at home to jump in and participate.
In the past, companies like Coca-Cola would keep their Super Bowl ads under wraps until the “world premiere” on game day. If it was strong enough, the ad might generate buzz for a few days before it becomes just another ad. Today, we’re seeing these same companies open up and encourage their customers to participate in the build-up through various social channels, as opposed to keeping these customers at a distance. Already, the video has been viewed more than 1.2 million times, and in the case of the “Happiness Machine” the momentum shows no signs of stopping. We can’t wait to see what happens when it airs to the football lovin’ public next Sunday.
An SCG History Lesson
Monday, January 25th, 2010
If you subscribe to George Santayana’s thought that those who forget history are doomed to repeat it, then rest assured that if any SCG employees go on to become city planners they won’t be building a city in tidal flats or leaving a 15 foot difference in elevation between sidewalks and streets. No, we didn’t take a field trip to city hall (as evidenced by the fact that we still have our work ethic), but we did take the semi-famous Seattle Underground Tour under our new Pioneer Square home.
While most of us knew about the almost-forgotten Seattle that resides about two stories below our 311 ½ Occidental Ave. S. offices, surprisingly not many in the group had been on the actual tour (Someone must have also given the tour guide a heads-up in regarding our senses of humor, because the tour read more like a standup show than a stuffy tour through history).
We learned about Seattle’s litigious side—a side that was present from the very start— with Henry Yesler suing the city using a loophole in the tax law. Oh yeah, and he got away with it three times while he was . . . wait for it . . . mayor.
We also learned that the second-largest donor to the Seattle Public School system was a madam by the name of Lou Graham, who owned and operated a brothel on the site of what is now the Union Gospel Mission. Back in the day, a large number of Seattle women were involved in the “oldest profession” (although they listed their professions as “seamstress” when asked by authorities) as Seattle was a lively port filled with freshly-rich travelers returning from the Yukon and wide-eyed prospectors about to make the journey north.
Proving just exactly how truly geeky I am, I downloaded a Ghost Radar application for my iPhone as we entered what was supposedly a “haunted” vault. The app costs $0.99, and while I’m fairly sure all I did was give nearly a dollar to some college kid sitting in his mom’s basement, I had to try it out – it’s technology. It basically told me exactly what the guys from Ghost Hunters found out – there’s nothing.
All in all, the tour was great. We learned a bit about the area we work and live in every day and got to spend some time outside the walls of SCG together. If you’re looking for a bit of history and don’t mind doing something that might be a tad bit cliché, definitely check out the Underground Tour for yourself.
Social Media Marketing: Real Analytics, Real Results! Webinar Presented by SCG Principals
Tuesday, January 19th, 2010
Be sure to join tomorrow’s WOMMA webinar, Social Media Marketing: Real Analytics, Real Results! Spring Creek Group Principals Clay McDaniel and Xavier Jiminez will discuss how social media marketing has moved beyond measuring buzz to actually engaging consumers to buy. While social media marketing in 2009 centered on experimental campaigns to build brand engagement, amass fans and followers, and increase brand recognition, Clay and Xav will explain why 2010 will be the year of analytics and conversion measurement in social media marketing.
To read more visit: http://womma.org/events/january-20-webinar-social-media-marketing-real-analytics-real-results/
Register for the event here: http://www.certain.com/system/profile/form/index.cfm?PKformID=0x8643113df7
Supporting the Chase Community Giving Campaign
Friday, January 15th, 2010It’s been rewarding to see Social Media put to good use in the race to get support and resources to Haiti. However, whenever we see a corporation dipping their toe into Social Media to raise funds and awareness for smaller, non-catastrophic causes, we want to make sure they get credit too.
We learned about Chase’s Community Giving contest on Facebook a while back, and were impressed with the effort. However, when a friend of ours from Seattle tech startup Mixpo told us that his sister’s charity, the East Harlem Tutorial Program, had made it to the final 100, well we had to do our part to help. By making it to the finals, they’ve already qualified for $25,000. Now they’re shooting to win the whole thing and take home a prize of $1 Million. That’s some serious money.
Cleverly, the contest allows you to vote for 5 charities, which maximizes the impressions voters are providing for Chase across Facebook. Thus, if you follow our lead and support our friends from Mixpo, you still have 4 more votes in which to help the 3 Washington charities. Regardless of who you vote for (did we mention we are voting for EHTP), it’s a good case study for Cause Marketing. Kudos to Chase on this one (though if they all gave their tax-payer paid bonues to the charities as well, they’d get way more positive press…I’m just saying…)
Mashable Article Follow-up: 5 Tips for Creating a Successful Social Media Contest
Wednesday, January 13th, 2010
I am always excited when given the opportunity to contribute to various industry publications. Most recently, I wrote an article which ran on Mashable about how to conduct a social media contest to help drive engagement and deliver value to your brand. In 5 Tips for Creating a Successful Social Media Contest, I touched on the most pertinent strategies and best practices social media marketers should know and consider when developing online contests for their company and/or clients. Like with any topic of this kind, there is a large quantity of information to be covered. However, due to time and word count limitations, we cannot always include as much information and advice as we’d like.
Thankfully, diligent readers have contributed extremely valid comments and questions that bring up excellent points and raise additional issues about running a social contest; particularly around Rules & Regulations and channel guidelines.
It’s always in your best interest, prior to launching a social contest, to establish clearly communicated and readily available Rules & Regulations on behalf of the company that are in accordance with any relevant state and federal laws governing sweepstakes and contests, and to provide clear guidance regarding protection of PII/Personal Information. If you have a micro-site or sub-domain set up where the contest is going to be managed, then dedicate a specific page on-site for this document. If not, and the contest is designed to live entirely within the social media realm, then providing the Rules & Regulations via a dedicated blog post on a managed blog or via an owned and managed third-party domain is preferred over solely posting them to the social media site.
In addition to formulating your own guidelines, be familiar and within the parameters of the specific channel guidelines where you plan to promote the contest. For example, Facebook has developed and continuously revises its Terms of Service and Promotions Guidelines regarding third party sponsored promotions. This is a useful resource that I encourage anyone who is considering using Facebook as a platform for an online contest to read over: http://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php.
If interested in a more in-depth response to these issues, read my answers on the comment thread at Mashable. If there are any other issues or aspects of social media contests you’d like addressed, please feel free to leave any comments or questions below.
For those of you planning to run a social contest, I hope the tips provide some useful guidance. Best of luck!
Social Media Blitz Launches to Help Find Missing Utah Woman
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
Friends and family of a missing Utah woman, Susan Powell launched a three day Social Media Blitz in efforts to find the mother of two who disappeared from her home on Dec. 7. The goal they hope to accomplish is that by utilizing channels such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, millions of people all over the world will help in the search to find Susan. The social media blitz already has more than 33,000 Facebook fans, 1,000 Twitter followers and 6,000 video views on YouTube. To join the media blitz e-mail findsusanpowell@gmail.com.
Or go to the following media blitz links:
Facebook: http://bit.ly/findsusan
Twitter: http://twitter.com/findsusan #findsusan
YouTube: http://youtube.com/susanpowellsearch
Poster/Flyer: http://bit.ly/4ppWVz
Three Things Coca-Cola Got Right in their Social Media Policy
Wednesday, January 6th, 2010
In the culture of American business, you know something has “made it” when the legal team writes a policy around it – such is the case with social media these days. The latest large brand to do so was The Coca-Cola Company, which just released its concisely three-page Online Social Media Principles.
Here are the top three things we think Coca-Cola got right:
Kept It Simple - While the legalese can quickly become overwhelming in similar documents, the Coca-Cola attempt at a social media policy speaks to its audience in terms they know and use. Less chance for confusion means less chance for breach of the policy.
Covered All Their Bases – By saying the following, Coca-Cola put their employees and everyone else connected with the company on notice. In today’s digital age, where your agents are many and direct oversight is sometimes murky, having a policy that extends beyond physical walls and across the globe makes all the difference.
“The Company adheres strongly to its core values in the online social media community, and we expect the same commitment from all Company representatives – including Company associates, and associates of our agencies, vendors and suppliers. Any deviation from these commitments may be subject to disciplinary review or other appropriate action.”
Gave the Power to the People – Coca-Cola knows that the social media landscape is expanding faster than the physical universe. They also know that no matter how much conversation tracking they do, they can’t keep up with the real-time pace of the online world. By empowering all Coca-Cola employees, regardless of their position in the company, to bring pertinent information to the attention of their online representatives, Coca-Cola has effectively created a team of watchful users that will increase their total number of attentive eyeballs on the Social Web.
There’s been an obvious evolution of large brand social media policies over the past couple of years and that’s the way it should be. More importantly, though, is the fact that these policies are being shared as living documents and added to on a living basis as the Web (and all forms of communication) morphs and changes.
Well done, Coca-Cola.
Spring Creek Group Makes MarketingProfs Stuff of 2009 List
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010Now into a new year we are able to reflect on the last, assess what we have learned and pinpoint particular highlights. MarketingProfs has done such in their recent article The Stuff of 2009: The Most-Read, Most Downloaded, Most Watched at MarketingProfs. We’re proud to share that SCG Principal Clay McDaniel’s article, 13 Essential Social Media ‘Listening’ Tools made the list by hitting on interesting and emerging trends in social media. Being one of the Top 10 MarketingProfs Today Newsletter Articles is not a bad way to start the New Year. With the bar now raised a little higher, we’re looking forward to what Clay and team will conjure up in 2010.
