To celebrate the launch of their new drink called Southern Comfort Lime, Southern Comfort is launching a new Facebook game called “Beat the Bartender” that invites players to channel their inner bartender. Apparently Facebook’s popularity with teens makes it the perfect place to engage a group early on to eventually turn them into consumers for these alcoholic beverages :-0 

Players begin by first selecting a male or female bartender and then they are tasked with creating a SoCo & Lime shot using their mouse . Meanwhile the bartender who is armed with the new ready-to-go SoCo Lime pours five shots for bar patrons. If you beat her, you win that round and go another round. As the pace picks up, players can deploy “time bonuses” such as girls coming up to order a drink.

 Players essentially keep going till they lose, creating for lots of fun and incentive to score high and compete with friends via a leaderboard. The traditional social features in this game are driven by competition with the highest scoring players winning prizes each week for 10 weeks.

Call us cynical but we’re not convinced. It feels gimmicky and lacks credibility and authenticity – which for a spirirt brand, should be a bit of a worry. As for using facebook to target teens……..

Social Times

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Some notes about, and context for, the latest weekly Trendrr chart, a collaboration between Advertising Age and social-media tracking service Trendrr Pro:

 
• This is the “Year of Location,” everybody in the tech media keeps saying, as geo-focused social-networking services like Foursquare and Gowalla keep growing their user bases and grabbing VC dollars. (Check out my colleague Edmund Lee’s take on Foursquare’s recent $20 million infusion.)

 

• “None of us have 30 million users,” Loopt CEO Sam Altman told USA Today yesterday, in a rather deft understatement (Loopt has 3 million users). “But we’re just at the beginning of breaking into the mainstream.” 

 

• But what counts as mainstream? Will the growth of location-focused services fuel the trend — can your average, middle-American mobile consumer really be convinced of the value of constantly “checking in” to locations? — or will the seamless inclusion of location capabilities into the likes of Facebook and Twitter do more to drive adoption? In mid-June, for instance, Twitter formally announced the launch of Twitter Places. In the thick of World Cup mania, the official Twitter blog noted, “It helps to know where a Tweet is coming from — is that person watching the game on TV or is he actually in the stadium?” 

 

• So, where are most tweets coming from so far? Twitter hasn’t revealed how many users (as a proportion of the total user base) are electing to reveal their locations, but among those that are, well, no surprise: Tweets classified as being “near” New York City are dominating, lately showing twice the volume — roughly a million geo-specified tweets a day — of the next runner up, Los Angeles. Chicago’s in third place, and San Francisco’s in fourth.

 

• Let’s dwell on that for a moment: Urban hipsters (and de facto tech early adopters) want the world to care where they are at any given moment, and marketers are being told that it matters. But consider the average daily life of an average American, which might not involve prideful trips to the new “it” bar or hot party or recently opened boutique. I’m thinking it’s more like: back and forth to work, one weekly trip to Walmart, a couple trips to the Shop-Rite, a stop at Walgreens to pick up a tube of antifungal cream, a back-and-forth to the mall multiplex on Friday night, a back-and-forth to the kids’ soccer practice Saturday morning, etc.

 

• Let’s step back a moment and just admit it: Location is interesting when it’s interesting … but usually it’s not. Sorry, Twitter, but the vast majority of people tweeting about the World Cup weren’t actually in the stadium.

Swipe is a brand-new service that will let anybody start (and become part of) social conversations around purchases. The idea is to let people who love shopping talk about the best deals that they have come across, and tell each other exactly where they have found them.

The site’s most distinctive feature is that such information is not walled in any sense, unlike other social shopping resources that prevent those who are not close friends and acquaintances from seeing the shopping history of others.

By having access to other people’s shopping habits in such an immediate way, then, you will be provided with a true idea of where the best spots to buy anything are. You will not be limited to these stores your friends always shop at, you will actually see what shoppers on the whole are doing. And the site also makes it very easy for people to discuss different stores until a consensus is reached concerning where to buy not only at the best prices, but also where sales teams really care for customers.

Foursquare is a location-based social network—and the current “it” thing for local business promotion. It’s used by retail shops, cafes, hotels, and even libraries. It’s a great way to find your customers, attract new ones and reward those who frequently visit your store. It capitalizes on the fact that many today use their smartphones and mobile digital devices to log into social media networks. And if you want to promote your business, this is exactly where you want to be—at the palm of your market’s hands.

Foursquare encourages customer shout outs.
Each time a customer visits your store, they “check in” and announce to friends where they are. Since you can link your Foursquare account to your Facebook and Twitter profiles, this shout out goes a long way. What’s more is that customers can give tips to their friends and followers.

This is a great strategy to promote your store. Remember, peer recommendation and word of mouth is the name of the game in social media.

Reward loyal customers with perks.
Foursquare makes it easy for you to keep tabs of your most loyal customers. And the one that visits you the most one earns the distinction of being your store’s Mayor. Many businesses take advantage of this by giving away freebies and discounts to frequent visitors and Mayors—they get free drinks, free meals, and other exclusive items and offers.

Make a mini-game out of it.
What’s fun about Foursquare is that you can engage your customers by creating a list of things to do while they’re inside your store. Whether it’s a mini treasure hunt, the top 5 things to order off the menu or a list of quirky things to do during their visit—it’s a fun way for your customers to interact with you. Best of all, if done right, this goes a long way to attracting new customers to your business.

If you’ve tried Foursquare already, share your stories here and let me know how it’s working for you!

Nielsen and Facebook joined forces to develop a study where they examine social media ad effectiveness.  The study surveyed 800,000 Facebook users. Not surprisingly, the results show an increase in ad recall, brand awareness and purchase intent in social ads, especially when users see friends becoming fans of a brand.

The study also reveled that ads with socially conscious messages tend to be more effective than other types of ads. Social ads perform better because they are a more personal, useful, and trusted form of advertising. The positive effects of a social campaign can be felt months after it’s over because the brand’s image is already marked by that social message.

Today, the 35-54 demographic represents more than 30% of the entire Facebook user base. This particular group is part of generation X, a group characterized by an inherently skeptical attitude and that prides itself on its high level of responsibility for all its actions. In other words, they like to feel they’re supporting social causes.Along with generation Xers, generation Yers—ages 18 to 25— are more environmentally conscious than previous generations. More than 75 percent of them reduced water consumption, more than 61 percent reduced energy consumption and nearly 39 percent have already purchased green products.Dream Factory Production’s own experience and research shows what Nielsen and Facebook study also demonstrates, there is greater brand awareness, brand favorability, and purchase intent among groups shown a social ad versus a non-social ad.

After the study, the Facebook team got to work and found innovative ways to apply their findings. In case you haven’t noticed, Facebook ads now show when a friend likes the brand. Why? Because it’s more likely that a person likes or tries a brand if his friends like it. People trust it more because the message is perceived as more transparent—even if the ad was originally placed by the brand being advertised.

What will you get when you have a combination of a Barcode Scanner by ZXing Barcode, Google’s Google Goggles and the Shopping Tab on Google.com.

Google Mobile Shopper

Google Shopper

“Shopper lets you find product information quickly by using your phone’s camera. It can recognize cover art of books, CDs, DVDs, and video games, along with most barcodes. You can also speak the name of the product you’re looking for.” via

Google Shopper Android App is slightly different, its goal could be more a direct hit against Amazon.

Google Shopper Android App will save your history that you can store easy the product and price information. You can favorite items but you also can share your selected items with your friends. Google Shopper helps you to find product information quickly by using your phone’s camera.

View everything you have purchased in the past, you can track your orders and your deliveries, you also can contact the sellers and this from one one web page.

Will Google Shopper revolutionize Online Shopping?

Shop with your Android Phone wherever you are make a picture of a pair of shoes you like and get the address of the next shop where you can buy it.

Manage all Online Stores with one account.

AMSTERDAM, Tuesday June 16th, 2009. Mobile innovation company SPRXmobile launches Layar, worlds first mobile Augmented Reality browser, which displays real time digital information on top of reality (of) in the camera screen of the mobile phone. While looking through the phones camera lens, a user can see houses for sale, popular bars and shops, jobs, healthcare providers and ATMs. The first country to launch Layar is The Netherlands. Launching partners are local market leaders ING (bank), funda (realty website), Hyves (social network), Tempo-team (temp agency) and Zekur.nl (healthcare provider).

How it works
Layar is derived from location based services and works on mobile phones that include a camera, GPS and a compass. Layar is first avaliable for handsets with the Android operating system (the G1 and HTC Magic). It works as follows: Starting up the Layar application automatically activates the camera. The embedded GPS automatically knows the location of the phone and the compass determines in which direction the phone is facing. Each partner provides a set of location coordinates with relevant information which forms a digital layer. By tapping the side of the screen the user easily switches between layers. This makes Layar a new type of browser which combines digital and reality, which offers an augmented view of the world.

Dutch launch
The premier launch is for the Dutch market. Launching content partners are ING (ATMs), Funda (houses for sale), Hyves (social network hot spots) Tempo-team (jobs) and Zekur.nl (healthcare providers). Layar will be launched per country with local content partners in order to guarantee relevent results for the end user. SPRXmobile is planning further roll-outs, together with local partners, in Germany, the UK and the United States this year. SPRXmobile wil continue with regular releases of new layers after each local launch. The Layar application will be available via the Android Market. Other handsets and operating systems are in development with a prime focus on the iPhone 3G S.

SPRXmobile

Layar is developed by SPRXmobile, a mobile innovation company.

Eventually, the physical and the virtual worlds will become one. Many visions on Augmented Reality have already been developed, but we are proud to be able to bring this one step closer to reality, says Raimo van der Klein, co-founder of SPRXmobile.

More information:
http://layar.eu en http://www.sprxmobile.com.